Issue 44 focuses on Whole-Life Worship. We are called to Love the Lord with all we are: (Mark 12:30). This includes worship in church, preaching and personal devotions, but properly embraces the whole of life: work, leisure, family etc.
CONTEXT
How has the classic ‘sacred-secular divide’ undermined whole life worship? Has our preaching application favoured the spiritual to the detriment of the physical? Have churches forgotten whole life worship in their prayers and support of its people 24/7?
APPLICATION
Jonny Reid makes a case for seeing sport as a vehicle for whole life worship, Dr Becky Howie looks at how we love the Lord with our body appropriately with nutrition and sleep key elements; Chris Gillies looks at ensuring we see our working life as part of the discipleship mix.
SUB-THEMES
There’s an interview with singer Rebecca St James on her book, written with husband Cubbie: Lasting Ever: Faith, Music, Family, and Being Found by True Love (David C Cook, 2025.
We catch up with Dr Marvin Oxenham about his books, Character and Virtue in Theological Education (Langham Partnership, 2019) and Character and Virtue in Practice: A workbook for Discipleship and Formation (Langham Partnership 2025)
Alexander Chow outlines how God has been at work through Christians with a Global Majority Heritage who have been coming to and living in Britain for centuries.
CASE STUDIES
Andy Kind looks at how to make leisure a godly pleasure
PREACHING POINTS
In Preaching Across Cultures, Krish Kandiah says: 1.Style matters – but so does substance; 2. See the community as well as the individuals; 3.Be direct as well as sensitive; 4. Teach destiny as well as doctrine; 5. Show hospitality to build bridges; 6.Beware dismissing what you don’t understand; 7. Towards cross–cultural preaching
READING
C Gillies On The Way to Work, Chris Gillies (BRF, 2024)
CR Wiley, The Household and the War for the Cosmos: Recovering a Christian Vision for the Family(Canon PR, 2019)
R Noyland, H Barton, Transforming Worship – Planning and Leading Sunday Services as if Spiritual Formation Mattered(IVP Formation, 2021
JKA Smith, You Are What You Love: The spiritual power of habit (Brazos Press, 2016)
T J Keller, K Leary Alsdorf (Collaborator) Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Plan for the World (Viking, 2012)