Nuakh

Nuakh The blog and resources of T. M. Suffield. Exploring the Bible; thinking about the world; discerning

How does the table for the bread of the presence point us to Jesus and to the church's worship?
16/01/2025

How does the table for the bread of the presence point us to Jesus and to the church's worship?

Jesus in the Tabernacle II The tabernacle instructions continue with a table made of the ubiqutuous Acacia, of tabernacle wood. This is again overlaid with gold with a moulding around the edge (Exo…

Edwin Friedman's 'A Failure of Nerve' is a strange book, but here are 7 lessons for Christian Leadership I took from it.
13/01/2025

Edwin Friedman's 'A Failure of Nerve' is a strange book, but here are 7 lessons for Christian Leadership I took from it.

In my review of the year, I mentioned Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve. It’s a strange book, about the science of leadership. The book is terribly written and probably needs a modern explainer w…

What was the Ark of the Covenant? Why does it matter for Christians? How do we read it in light of Christ?
09/01/2025

What was the Ark of the Covenant? Why does it matter for Christians? How do we read it in light of Christ?

Over the next eight weeks I’m going to explore the tabernacle in Exodus and the way we find Christ represented in it. The conviction that this is appropriate comes first, because Jesus is described…

It's Epiphany. Here's my review of my reading and writing in 2024.
06/01/2025

It's Epiphany. Here's my review of my reading and writing in 2024.

It’s Epiphany today, Christmas is over, the new year doesn’t start today but it’s as good a day as any for reflecting on the last twelve months. It’s become my tradition to celebrate the anniversar…

Creation tells us a story if we have ears to hear it. Autumn's anger at Winter is over, Spring is far away, and yet in t...
23/12/2024

Creation tells us a story if we have ears to hear it. Autumn's anger at Winter is over, Spring is far away, and yet in the midst of the darkness, life is born.

Autumn’s final blast of anger against Winter’s unthinking hate is over, every leaf that cannot cling to life has lit the match to self-immolate in protest. We have enjoyed the beauty of that uncons…

Our Christmas tables are a chance for us to demonstrate what we say we believe. If the church is the household of faith,...
19/12/2024

Our Christmas tables are a chance for us to demonstrate what we say we believe. If the church is the household of faith, are they around your table?

This is a time full of feasting. Everywhere you go it seems you’re offered a plate of mince pies or piece of stollen, perhaps with a glass of mulled wine. You can’t escape it—biscuits and coffee at…

Jesus is Advent's Axe, the judge of the world.
16/12/2024

Jesus is Advent's Axe, the judge of the world.

I wonder if you’ve ever cut down a tree? I’ve done a few small ones over the years, and it’s a hard job. We’ve mostly gone the root of chopping off all the branches with a big pair of loppers or a …

Advent is for facing up to the silence of God.
12/12/2024

Advent is for facing up to the silence of God.

Advent is a time for silence. Or, to put it a little better, Advent is a time for facing up to the silence of God. We don’t like to admit it. This is the time of year for declaring the Emmanuel—tha…

The Christian life is one of waiting, walking in the Between.
09/12/2024

The Christian life is one of waiting, walking in the Between.

I’m experienced at waiting. I know how to wait with God for things that feel like they’ve been promised and haven’t come. Well, I say I know how to, and what I really mean is that I know what it fe…

I've reached the end of my writing about the discipleship crisis, six months of musing around the questions. This post w...
05/12/2024

I've reached the end of my writing about the discipleship crisis, six months of musing around the questions. This post wraps it all up and summarises my argument.

I’ve spent six months now blogging about what I’ve dubbed the discipleship crisis: our collective Christian mind is poorly formed and our lives don’t look that different from everyone else around u…

We live in the midst of frenetic activity. We need Advent.
02/12/2024

We live in the midst of frenetic activity. We need Advent.

We live in an attention economy. Increasingly this is causing an attention crisis. We are divided against ourselves by the many claims on our eyes and ears. A house divided cannot stand. Modern lif…

Don't rest on your sermon as the time to teach the church, consider other teaching events too.
28/11/2024

Don't rest on your sermon as the time to teach the church, consider other teaching events too.

Stretching Minds V We’ve been talking about how to stretch minds in this series of posts, and I’ve suggested fours approaches that aren’t about scheduling events. However we can schedule things tha…

What is a Pastor supposed to do with themselves?
25/11/2024

What is a Pastor supposed to do with themselves?

I recently read Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls. It’s a wonderful book and should be widely read by Pastors and Elders in all kinds of churches. The book is trying to plumb the wisdom of the C…

To stretch our minds we'll need to ensure we create contexts to both read and hear the Bible together.
21/11/2024

To stretch our minds we'll need to ensure we create contexts to both read and hear the Bible together.

Stretching Minds IV If we want to stretch our minds, we need to hear the Bible. This is the form it was designed to be interacted with. There’s nothing wrong with reading—it’s very good—but it can …

Sometimes "Is it Fitting?" is a more illuminating question than "Is it Allowed?"
18/11/2024

Sometimes "Is it Fitting?" is a more illuminating question than "Is it Allowed?"

In evangelical theological thinking we tend to use the category of whether or not something is ‘allowed’ a lot. Our disposition is that if it is not disallowed, then it’s allowed, and we can pragma…

If we want to develop the 'Christian mind' we can run programmes that might help, but we also need to go where people al...
14/11/2024

If we want to develop the 'Christian mind' we can run programmes that might help, but we also need to go where people already are.

Stretching Minds III If we want to see a renewal of our collective Christian mind to alleviate our discipleship crisis, we will have to think beyond Sundays. I’ve got a number of suggestions to mak…

Does your church subscribe to a confession? If not, it will still help us to write down some of our doctrine.
11/11/2024

Does your church subscribe to a confession? If not, it will still help us to write down some of our doctrine.

In my church world we can be a little allergic to writing things down. In my understanding this initially came from a reaction against a sort of formalism that was being clearly rejected. The neces…

If we want to grow a 'Christian mind' we will need to see all of our church communication as a venue for teaching.
07/11/2024

If we want to grow a 'Christian mind' we will need to see all of our church communication as a venue for teaching.

Stretching Minds II How can we disciple the minds of our churches? Consider everything a teaching opportunity. What are you already doing, how are you already communicating? Those things already te…

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