Many of us are aware, and deeply concerned, about the lack of young people in our churches. While there are no doubt churches who buck the trend, in general, the UK church is ageing. In 1980, 46% of Sunday church attenders in England were aged under 30. By 2000, that figure had dropped to 35%, and...

It is not difficult to find metaphor in the burning of Notre Dame.

There have been fires in Paris for months now as every weekend the Gilets Jaunes protest the failings of the state. France, the proud republic, totters on the edge of financial and political chaos, presided over by a peacock...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic at the moment. Many of us are already interacting with AI every day, even if we are not really aware of it. AI is used in Sat Navs, social media feeds, digital assistants (such as Siri and Alexa), and online booking and payment systems, to give just a few...

I got back from a trip to the US today and as I waited to be allowed off the plane scrolled through the BBC news feed. Just behind the arrest of Julian Assange and the latest Brexit developments was the story of rugby star Israel Folau. Folau, one of Australia’s best players, is facing the...

It’s hard to deny that there has been a huge shift in secular morality over the past half a century or so. You don't have to think for long to come up with some examples.

Just over 50 years ago, abortion was legalised in England, Wales and Scotland and now around 200,000 abortions are...

Yesterday Mrs Hosier & I celebrated being married for 25 years. April 2nd 1994 was a typically British Easter Saturday, in which we seemed to have all the seasons thrown into one: bright sun, snow flurries, rain and wind all put in an appearance. And the clichés are true – these 25...

It is often difficult to pin down the value of art. Most people would recognise that art, whether in the form of music, painting, writing, performance or something in between, is valuable. However, defining what that value is becomes tricky.

One answer that can be offered is that art is valuable...

Statistics can be really useful. For those of us who like to wrestle with cultural issues, they can be a great way of getting a gauge for what’s going on around us. But as well as being useful, statistics can also be dangerous; they are easy to misunderstand and easy to misapply. So here are...

The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried” – that is history. “He loved me and gave Himself for me” – that is doctrine. Such was the...

When I get to the end of preaching through a book of the Bible I find it helpful to go back and write a summary version of what it is all about. This Sunday I'm planning on finishing a series on Acts. I haven't managed to get my summary to 1,000 words (as I have previously with Romans, but here it...

We have been remarkably silent about Brexit on Think – probably a welcome omission for most of you.

It is certainly the case that the government, civil service and parliament have all made an almighty horlicks of Brexit. None of these institutions of the state have come out well from the...

In the extraordinarily fast-moving story of the normalisation of transgenderism it has been noteworthy how intelligent, influential and powerful people have been too cowed to question the developing narrative.

The reasons for this are multi-layered and complex but largely seem to be rooted in the...

I love sleep! Apparently, today is World Sleep Day, so it seems an appropriate opportunity to celebrate the gift of sleep.

The World Sleep Society, organisers of World Sleep Day, describe the day as ‘a celebration of sleep’ – which has inevitably led to tweets about  sleepingan...

‘Transhumanists of the world unite – we have immortality to gain and only biology to lose.’ These are the words of Nikola Danaylov in his Transhumanist Manifesto, but they reflect the hope of many. As developments in robotics and AI continue apace, there is ever increasing hope...

For as long as I can remember I have had constant back pain. The different medical investigations I have undergone and therapies I have tried – from chiropractors (useless) to osteopaths (marginally less useless) to physiotherapists (helpful) – have not cured me. It has just been one of...

Disturbing, threatening – and watching it again now, somewhat comic – the Firestarter video represents a seminal cultural moment.

As previously described, I was never into the dance scene, but it was a significant stream in the cultural waters in which I swam. What dance music...

Why is there so much beauty in the world? I mean, it can almost seem gratuitous at times. Sure, there is a lot of ugliness too, generally caused by the careless or malicious actions of man; but there is so much that is so staggeringly beautiful. It can take your breath away.

The beauty of so many...

If you've read more than a couple of New Testament commentaries, you'll probably have come across the claim that Paul (or whoever) is involved in "midrash." You may have been puzzled when you did; you may have stroked your chin significantly as if something immensely meaningful had been said. But...

Last week saw the publication of results from the 2018 National Faith and Sexuality Survey, a project run by the Ozanne Foundation.

The survey was designed to examine ‘the role religious belief has on people’s understanding and acceptance of their sexual orientation in the UK’, as...

Why are we so eager to be seen? What is it that drives Instagram, I’m a Celebrity, game shows, humiliating acts of self-disclosure that trade shame for fame, and the compulsion to do almost anything to get on television? Atheism, says Umberto Eco in his Chronicles of a Liquid Society....

When is a piercing adornment, when disfigurement? What about a tattoo? What about body modification? How about if someone has body dysmorphia – should they be able to have the part of the body that disturbs them removed?

Both Andrew & I have meandered into the world of tattoos before (here...

What does the work of the Holy Spirit look like in our lives? It could be a little bit like this:

The @RamsNFL have a spotter for their head coach and it's our favorite thing right now. pic.twitter.com/fbHsYQqQHp

January 22, 2019

Thanks to Hannah Anderson for...

I have a theory about evangelism. Many Christians—and this includes me—have a habit of saying that things would be cringeworthy or embarrassing to our unbelieving friends, when what we really mean is that they would be cringeworthy or embarrassing to us. This can be benign, and lead to...

Over the past few weeks I have been arguing for the goodness of the freedom of the gender binary, the idea that our identity as a man or a woman is given to us by God and is therefore not something which we have to create through performance. This is good because it gives us the freedom to be how...

Here's a beautiful illustration of the Romans 5:20 principle that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." It comes from Glenn Packiam's forthcoming book Blessed, Broken, Given: How Your Story Becomes Sacred in the Hands of Jesus, which I've just had the privilege of endorsing.

We were...