The early Church was no exception. We sometimes read the Book of Acts through rose-tinted spectacles, imagining a golden age where everyone agreed, the Spirit moved powerfully, and the gospel spread unhindered. The reality was rather different. The Church in Acts was made up of ordinary people, and it knew disagreement, misunderstanding, sin and compromise just as we do. An old hymn puts it honestly enough: the Church has always been “by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.”

One of the great challenges of our age is learning how to disagree well. In Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks argues that we live in a “culture of contempt” – divided into echo chambers that reinforce our own opinions and encourage us to dismiss those who think differently. More troubling still, our contempt is often aimed not at ideas but at people. It is not simply that we think someone is wrong; we conclude they are worthless. Sadly, that same spirit has found its way into the Church.

Acts 15 records a moment when the future of the Christian movement hung in the balance. This was no minor disagreement about worship style or personal preference. Luke tells us that Paul and Barnabas were drawn into “sharp dispute and debate” with those who insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. The question at stake was fundamental: how is a person saved?

The Church’s response is instructive. Rather than letting factions harden, the apostles and elders gathered in Jerusalem to seek the mind of Christ as a body. Their concern was not victory but truth – a distinction as vital, and as easily lost, today as it was then. One mark of spiritual maturity is learning to tell the difference between core theological conviction, where we cannot bend, and personal preference, where wisdom makes room for faithful disagreement.

As the discussion unfolds, something striking happens: the participants keep drawing attention to what God is doing. We read of the joy that spread as news of Gentile conversions reached Jerusalem. Peter reminds the council how God had poured out the Spirit on Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas describe the signs and wonders that accompanied their ministry. Again and again, the question is not “who’s right and who’s wrong?” but “where is God at work?”, recognising that we may all be convicted.

This doesn’t mean experience replaces Scripture. It does mean we should pay attention when God appears to be doing something that challenges our assumptions. Peter’s testimony carries particular weight here, because it had cost him something. He’d needed his own heart changed before he could see what God was doing among Cornelius’s household, and even afterwards he found it hard to navigate what the change meant for the Law’s role – Paul later had to challenge him over exactly this in Galatians 2. Growth in discernment, even for an apostle, wasn’t instant or comfortable.

Sometimes God moves in places we didn’t expect. Sometimes he welcomes people we assumed were far from him. The question is always whether we’re willing to listen.

Yet experience alone isn’t enough. Today, there seems often to be an assumption that “my truth” is the ultimate argument.  After hearing the testimonies of Peter, Paul and Barnabas, James turns to Scripture, showing how what God is doing among the Gentiles is consistent with what he’d already promised through the prophets. Experience and Scripture are held together – the Church listens to what God is doing, then reflects carefully on his Word. That remains a wise pattern for every generation.

From there, the Council moves from reflection to application. James proposes a way forward that preserves the truth of the gospel while protecting unity: salvation comes through grace, not the Law, and that principle cannot be compromised. Yet Gentile believers are also asked to live counter-culturally, to avoid confusing their pagan neighbours, and to act sensitively toward Jewish believers still bound to the food laws. Truth and love are held together. Grace and holiness are not opposed. Gospel freedom bends, where it must, to gospel witness.

This is where discernment gets harder. Sometimes there is genuine freedom, and more than one faithful path forward. Later in Acts, Paul and Barnabas disagree sharply over John Mark and part company – yet God uses both ministries afterwards; Barnabas disappears from the narrative, but arguably we have Mark’s gospel because of his decision.

At the same time, the New Testament is equally clear that some things are non-negotiable – occasions when error must be resisted and separation becomes necessary. The real challenge is knowing which situation we’re facing, and that takes wisdom as much as conviction.

Acts 15 reminds us that Christian leadership is neither rigid nor endlessly accommodating. It is discerning. It listens carefully, remains uncompromisingly anchored in Scripture, pays attention to the Spirit, and pursues unity without sacrificing truth. When the council reaches its conclusion, the result is not resentment but encouragement – the believers rejoice, the Church is strengthened, and the movement continues.

Perhaps that’s the greatest lesson of all. The gospel advances most effectively when God’s people learn to handle disagreement with grace and truth, because we cannot proclaim good news if we cease to embody it. Jesus himself was described as “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). If the Church is to remain a healthy movement, rather than a divided institution or a decaying monument, we must learn to be the same.

]]> https://ceec.info/king-pmm-defeated-by-house-of-bishops-in-knife-edge-vote/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:41:32 +0000 https://ceec.info/?p=5208 Read more

I recently had the opportunity to attend Oak Hill College’s annual School of theology event. This year the title was: Class and Ministry in the UK Today. It is a one-day event, although for me it was three days, and it showed how evangelicals, while often cast as those who don’t do privilege, class and poverty too well, actually do – and are looking to God to do it better!

It formed one day of an “Impact Week” for the students, to enable them, as future leaders in churches, to start to build an understanding of the wider social, and therefore ecclesial, landscape they will minister into. You can’t escape politics or culture – you can either do them well or poorly, or just ignore it, but they will never go away.

Day One was with current Oak Hill students doing teaching and open Q&A with the other speakers. Day Two was the conference proper, and Day Three hosting some students in my South East London parish.

Monday was the practical and theory day, and we had John Funnel from Noddfa in Wales, initially self-supporting with only a few faithful pensioners in his church, to now over 300, and a ministry that works with local agencies to support thousands across the community. His is truly a church that has made its place in the area invaluable and that has been recognised. And John has done it without any compromise on how he preaches, teaches and ministers. Personally, the big point of interest was that John was working with a near homogenous group of people from the Welsh Valleys, whereas I minister in an area that now has 38 different first languages in the local school, meaning 38 different people groups on my patch, many of whom dislike others. Hyper-diversity doesn’t begin to touch it, but our approaches had both areas of direct similarity with complete difference – both saw the core human need of the “full-fat Gospel”, that life-changing encounter with Christ, as non-negotiable, while in terms of simply culture, how you shape ministry to Welsh men from the Valleys is not the same as Zimbabwean women in South East London. This was the source of many questions from the students.

Gary Jenkins, Dean of Estates for Southwark Diocese looked at how class is more a culture than an economic category, even though the two clearly overlap, and finally, Natalie Williams (Jubilee Plus) spoke about coastal poverty, but her main focus was on how she, as a unmarried working class woman, did not fit so many of the leadership models that evangelicals often work with, yet she was now a CEO. There is a need to look beyond externals to the gifts and callings God places deeper within people.

Tuesday was the conference proper, and Matthew Sleeman (Oak Hill Vice Principal) opened with an excellent overview of what class is and isn’t and how it has been shaped by history and political and philosophical movements, and become described using ever more subdivided categories. Previously class was predicted on landownership, but the Industrial Revolution changed paradigm, which then got further shaped by political ideas in the Victorian period. Both the world wars reshaped the landscape (poverty creates political problems, so let’s avoid that happening again), and various recessions, crashes and de-industrialisation in the last few decades further complicates the picture to include those who would be “generationally non-working working class”

The second session led by London City Mission was based around three short vignettes (acted out Archers like – middle-class Radio 4 reference point!) that showed how (unintentionally) assumptions can be made about people and situations, and how then the gold can be missed – e.g. talking about your mortgage or skiing holiday in a sermon as if it was a common lived experience for all in the congregation, when the single parent is simply wondering how to get to the end of the week.

The afternoon had seminars on hyper-diversity, class on urban estates, class in coastal towns, and class in post-industrial communities  followed by the final session by Kirsten Birkett with her quiet yet powerfully spoken scholarship on full view. However, one comment she made remained with me: “We are primarily children of God rather than demographic categories.”, and by always bringing it back to the Gospel she rooted and rounded off the day wonderfully.

On Wednesday some students came to see what we do on Thamesmead, considering everything from badly thought through architecture and local infrastructure, via using local gifting to the fullest, ending with a session with the local Church Army Evangelist with the very people we had been thinking about for the past two days.

Privilege, class and poverty are tricky but unavoidable issues for the church today, and Oak Hill provided an excellent way in for those called to truly engage our society.

Revd Jonathan Macy leads a church in Thamesmead, London and is author of Sowing Seeds with Songs of Joy: Growing God’s Garden In Forgotten Places, which was published in 2025.

Sowing Seeds with Songs of Joy: Growing God’s Garden In Forgotten Places

As Christians, many of us aren’t sure what to think about Pride month. On the one hand, we want to love people well, stand up for human rights and stand against bad treatment of people made in the image of God. But on the other hand, we believe that God has given us good guidelines for sexuality and gender that contrast sharply with so much of what is celebrated in our culture. With both these sides in mind, many of us are left unsure what to think and how to respond.

Living Out has put together some of resources that you might be helpful if Pride month raises those sorts of questions for you. Find out more.

The initiative coincides with the July meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England, where members are expected to debate a significant Private Member’s Motion on marriage and sexual ethics. 

PRAYjuly will begin with two national online prayer meetings on 1 and 2 July, which are open to all.

On Sunday 12 July, CEEC is asking churches to pray in church services using the resources on its dedicated webpage.

Every day in July CEEC will publish a Bible verse and a prayer pointer on its social media channels and website, encouraging and helping Christians to pray for the Church of England and its mission to the nation.

Revd John Dunnett, National Director of the CEEC, said the month of prayer was intended to encourage Christians to pray that God would renew the Church of England in its faith and witness. 

“We want to pray and give thanks for the continued opportunities for the evangelisation of our nation that we see every day. We want to encourage evangelicals across the country to join together in praying for the Church of England’s faithfulness and its witness to the gospel. We want to pray for many more people to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

It has been confirmed by the Business Committee that the July General Synod will debate the PMM proposed by Professor Helen King, which seeks to affirm the compatibility of intimate same sex relationships with Christian discipleship.

The controversial motion (in full below) is cleverly worded and designed to secure support for a revision of the Church of England’s sexual ethics, without explicitly asking for a change to Church of England doctrine.

Professor Helen King (Oxford) to move:

‘That this Synod affirm that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.’

Private Members’ Motions function similarly to those in Parliament: once sufficient support is gathered, the Business Committee may schedule them for debate. While PMMs do not change doctrine or law, they can signal the theological and political ‘view’ of the Synod.

The last time General Synod expressed a view on marriage and sexual ethics in this way was in 1987. In that year, the ‘Higton Motion’ was passed by General Synod, which affirmed the Church’s traditional teaching on sexual ethics and marriage.

Revd John Dunnett, National Director, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said: “This motion matters. While it might be viewed by some as committing General Synod to ‘nothing in particular’, this motion shows that the revisionists will find new and different ways to continually push their agenda – away from Scripture, away from our Church’s doctrine and towards liberal change – even when the House of Bishops is not doing so. And were the motion to find support it could be seen as paving the way for further change.

“The big question is how the bishops and indeed the new Archbishop will respond. Will the Archbishop see it as an opportunity to allow Synod to express its mind, or would she prefer the process to be steered by the House of Bishops, and therefore encourage her colleagues to vote against the motion?”

Around the Communion, Dunnett cautions, the overwhelming response would be one of both sadness and despair.

“News of this motion will evoke a sad and negative response from across the Communion”, Dunnett concluded. “The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans and GAFCON would undoubtedly be concerned by the motion, and its passing would increase the impaired nature of relationships between the majority Anglican Communion and the Church of England.”

The Evangelical Group on General Synod (EGGS) will be working to defeat the motion in as an effective way as possible.

The February 2026 General Synod motion has committed the House of Bishops to forming a group which will carry forward the LLF trajectory – an initiative which could be of even greater threat to the apostolic understanding of marriage and sexual ethics upon which the Church of England has always been built.

]]> https://ceec.info/dont-let-your-voice-go-unheard/ Thu, 14 May 2026 14:49:15 +0000 https://ceec.info/?p=4938 Read more

All here at Living Out are praying for our brother and co-founder Sam Allberry following the release of a statement by his church, Immanuel Nashville.

We don’t know what has happened beyond this statement, but it references both Sam’s inappropriate actions and his repentance, humility and co-operation. We will be reaching out to Sam to better understand how we can support him, what has happened, and the implications. In the meantime, we believe his many past contributions to this site retain their value, and they will not be taken down.

We founded Living Out to be a place where real-life stories, including stories of sin, repentance, humility and co-operation, could be openly shared for the good of all who struggle with their faith and sexuality. We get that news like this is unsettling. If it is impacting you, please reach out to people you trust, and know that we are praying for you too.

Living Out exists because of people like Sam, and for people like Sam. We continue to appreciate all that he has contributed to Living Out. Please join us in praying for Sam and everyone involved – and all of us impacted by this news. Thank you.

The full post can also be viewed on the Living Out website.

What is immediately striking is the warmth of the welcome, the joy of the worship and the clear commitment to the authority of scripture. There is also a tangible graciousness in the way conversations are held and issues explored. At the same time G26 raises questions which need to be addressed if GAFCON is to offer any substantive support for those contending within the Church of England.

Some of the contributors have been outstanding: a video from Rick Warren challenged us to work missionally towards the 2,000th birthday of the church, an address by Michael Oh (CEO Lausanne Movement) reminded us that the bible is not ‘clay in our hands’ but the ‘bedrock under our feet’ and we were offered an insight into how the Lord is building His church in countries where Islam is the dominant faith.

The big news of this gathering is the launch of the Global Anglican Communion (GAC) and a new leadership structure: the Global Anglican Council. This Council replaces the former Primates Council, and now includes clergy and lay members. It also has a new governance ‘model’, in that the chair of the new Council (Archbishop of Rwanda) will exercise leadership without being primes inter pares.

The message from the stage was that GAC is neither a departure from the Communion nor a schism – rather a ‘reordering’ of the Communion from within. In practice, this will be most obvious in a commitment to withdraw from participation in the instruments of Communion (the Lambeth Conference, The Anglican Consultative  Council, the Communion Primates and recognition of Canterbury as primes inter pares).

Viewing all of this from the perspective of the Church of England raises various questions.

First, what is not clear is how, and if, the launch of GAC will have a direct impact or relevance for those of us contending within the Church of England (we do however remain grateful for the ongoing commitment of GAFCON to support those contending within the C of E as well as those who have felt compelled to leave).

Second, I noted that the stage was dominated (perhaps even exclusively?) by men. This of course might reflect various cultural sensitivities, but if GAC is to be truly global then this needs to be addressed.

Finally, it continues to remain unclear how GAFCON and GSFA might relate going forwards. It is to be hoped that the launch of GAC will not exacerbate differences between them.

Above all – and despite the questions that the launch of GAC might raise – it is a joy to see so many Anglican bishops meeting with an agenda for gospel mission, biblical authority and the honour of the Lord Jesus.

John Dunnett – Observer at G26

The Abuja Affirmation can be read here

The news comes less than a month after Bishop Andrew announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. On sharing his bleak prognosis with the wider diocese, he reassured them that he was “cheerfully persisting towards a good death”, and that his “faith in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, had only grown stronger”.

Bishop Julian Henderson, President, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said:

“CEEC is deeply saddened by the news of Bishop Andrew Watson’s death.

“We give thanks for the life and ministry of our dear brother, Bishop Andrew, whose faithful service to the life of the Church of England, and to those he ministered to and shepherded, will leave a lasting mark. His leadership was marked by humility, wisdom, and a wholehearted commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We pray for Beverly, their children, their friends and the whole diocese as they grieve his loss. We pray that the grace of God may prove sufficient for this time of grief and transition.”

Bishop Andrew was born in 1961 and grew up in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire. Andrew read law at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, returning in 1984 where he took a second degree in Theology whilst training for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall. He was ordained in the Diocese of Worcester in 1987 and served his curacy in Redditch. He subsequently moved to the Diocese of London, serving first in Notting Hill and then as vicar of St Stephen’s Twickenham.

In 2008, Andrew was appointed as Suffragan Bishop of Aston in the Diocese of Birmingham before his translation to Diocesan Bishop of Guildford in 2014.

In recent years, he has been a member of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).

Bishop Andrew is survived by his wife Beverly, four children and three grandchildren, as well as his mother and three siblings.

You can read the announcement on the Diocese of Guildford website and you can sign an online condolence book here.