B&A Church – More Tea, Vicar?

James and Wayne take a deep dive into the differences between volunteering and serving. Where the words come from and how they are used within our culture. But which is the right word to use in church?One is optional, has connotations of guilt and is task focused, the other is grace shaped, about putting other people first and expressing your love for Jesus, it is worship.

Stories have always been a powerful way that humans have learned, remembered and been changed. James and Wayne delve into how culture tells stories, the reformation and how we can use stories for the kingdom

Spoiler alert... never!This week, Wayne and James sit down to discuss the recent happenings from the football world, looking at Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold who's leaving of the club sparked an intense wave of emotions among fans. Join Wayne and James as they unpack topics like relational loyalty, expectations of people and covenant vs contract.

MTV is back after a short break to discuss why migration is a problem for everyone.

Every so often, James and Wayne take on a live MTV session, where they answer questions from the congregation in real-time. This time, the questions focused heavily on global politics, tariffs, and self-interested leaders. Wayne and James dive into these topics, exploring them through the lenses of culture, theology, and life.

In the news this week we read about a group of scientists in Antarctica who have fallen out and are stuck together waiting for a rescue. James and Wayne unpack what that story tell us about human nature and what lessons are there for us back in the 'normal' world.

James and Wayne are back from a short break and talk about what it means to follow the greatest commandment in a world where people are encouraged to have 'main character energy'.

The King took Sir Keir Starmer to see his beautiful new town in Cornwall this week. Afterwards Sir Keir said he wants to build another 120 towns like it. Why do we long for beauty in our communities, what does good design reveal about humanity and the Creator and does excellence matter in things we do?

James and Wayne discuss the disagreement between JD Vance and Rory Stewart about who and how Christians should love others. What does it tell us about our culture and how we disagree? How should we think about loving others as Christians?

A member of the church family sent a load of questions that his friends had asked him about Christianity and faith so James and Wayne have go at answering them.

James and Wayne are back to discuss the debate around gender.

Wayne and James sit down for our first ever MTV? live, that we recorded earlier in December! They had different topics / questions raised on the morning from members of B&A of which they chose one and spoke on it in their MTV? style of looking at culture, theology and life.

This week James and Wayne talk about the Premier League footballer, Marc Guehi, who wrote 'Jesus loves you' on his pride armband and what this tells us about inclusion, difference and good conversation.

Boris Johnson said some thing this week and he blamed the church for them. We talk about why he might have done that, what he missed out on and how we think about the why behind issues in a post Christian culture.

A story about 132 hamsters getting loose on a plane got the guys thinking about small things and why they really matter in life and in faith.

James and Wayne discuss what the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the fact that Gary Lineker is ending his time as the presenter of Match of the Day tell us about our culture? What do we look for in certain public positions and why? How does this link to the good news of Jesus for us and for our culture?

Can we change what we think as Christians?

Who is president of the United States is a big deal, not just for Americans but for everyone. James and Wayne talk about how we should think about the election from a UK perspective, what difference Christian faith makes and how then we should pray for the new president.

Wayne and James discuss recent decisions around the availability of life-extending drugs and how our reactions to those decisions expose what we think about life.

Why your friends might think differently to you.

It's been a while but the vicars are back! This week, we'll be engaging in a thoughtful discussion about the situation in the Middle East. Together, we'll explore how as Christians we should think about it and talk with our friends about what is happening.

This week Wayne has a chat with a member of B&A, Esther, about the ongoing conflict in Gaza and how as followers of Jesus we can think, talk and pray about the situation. We're also joined by Esther's daughter Sehna! If you're interested in reading/ finding out more about the conflict here are some helpful links and articles recommended by Esther: Palestinian Voices: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1iMyYrqcUz/?igsh=MWh0aDR1dGRsZ3h1dg== (TW: this video contains some shocking scenes from the war) https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1HUKzrIgcx/?igsh=MWM2OGVtcnVid3ZyNg== Statements and Prayer points from Christians on the ground: https://embraceme.org/our-prayers/israel-palestine-urgent-prayer-for-peace https://levantministries.org/holy-land-war/ https://embraceme.org/blog/munther-isaac-interview-gaza-occupation-christian-zionism Christian Perspectives on the Middle East crisis: https://michaelpahl.com/2014/08/25/christians-and-israel-part-two/ https://brianzahnd.com/2015/03/christian-perspective-israeli-palestinian-conflict/ https://youtu.be/ksOyjnIN1aA?si=kr4BPPt84cdbHzMX  (18m:25 to 20m:24)

After watching the first episode of Mr Bates vs. the Post Office, James and Wayne talk about how to be a prophet when you find yourself in the middle of an organisation or a culture where there is injustice and dysfunction. They do also define what they mean by prophet!

In light of the horrendous ways that death has visited our city recently, with fatal stabbings of teenage boys and the killing of three young children, James and Wayne discuss Christian beliefs about death and how to have difficult conversations.

In the light of the recent horrific fatal stabbings of two teenagers in Bristol, Wayne and James examine the city where we live and question how well we might know the place we live.

James and Wayne take you through what Bringing Bristol to Jesus, the new vision for 2024, means for the B&A church family.

Wayne and James kick off this podcasting year with the launch of "Bringing Bristol to Jesus", a B&A refresh of where it's going and where it wants to be, as a growing force in the city we love.

Following Wayne Massey's recent Mission to Uganda as part of SOMA UK, James and Wayne discuss what Wayne saw and experienced and reflect on the difference between a post Christian culture and one that is Christian or even pre Christian. How can we apply what we see God doing elsewhere to Bristol and the UK in 2023? Uganda Mission in numbers; 10 days, average temperature 28 degrees centigrade, approx. 3,000 evangelists from the local church, Uganda, across Africa and Europe. 200 parishes. 80 open air crusades. 370,000 heard the good news of Jesus. 7,800 people gave their lives to Jesus.

James in conversation with Ed Shaw, Pastor of Emmanuel City Centre Church, Bristol, about the recent voting by the Church of England to welcome the blessing of same sex marriages in dedicated church services. The amendment to the motion scraped through by one vote; the amended motion passed by 227 votes to 203.

This week James is joined by Matt Southcombe from St Nick's, Bristol, to talk about how we live well as disciples in a world of non-stop media.

On Monday night, thousands of football fans stayed behind to cheer their team after a 4-1 defeat. Why? This week Wendy and James talk about 'vision and values' and how they can make for flourishing or perishing.

Following Matthew Perry's death, James and Wendy talk about light and darkness, addiction and hope in Jesus. What affects who we are becoming as we journey through life and how to alter that trajectory.

What happens when you lose confidence and trust in others? Can you get it back? How can you begin to rebuild it?

Following the shocking news from Israel and Gaza, James and Wayne talk about the conflict, the history of tension in the region and what it tells us about the human heart and our need for a home.

James and Wayne discuss football, referee controversies and what sort of cultures create fear, shame and the need to hid failures.

It seems shots are being fired in the next general election. All political parties are trying out new policies and ideas in order to win your vote next year. But is this how we should build a better world? How does our culture do it? How should Christians do it?

In their new series of More Tea, Vicar, B&A Church's Wayne Massey and James Stevenson welcome listeners back following their summer break.  This week the news has been filled with human suffering on a mass scale; the death toll from floods in Derna stands at nearly 4000 and Morocco's earthquake has so far claimed 3000 lives. How can we understand who God is and what He is like in a world where things go wrong? Suffering is topical but it is a personal issue too because it can be a barrier to understanding who God is. What can we make of disasters like those in Libya and Morocco and how do we reconcile this with God.

James and Wayne talk about a recent cricket controversy and why this is really about our hearts and not just what happened on a cricket pitch.

What do the England Cricket Board and Russian politics have in common? This week James and Wayne discuss systems and what makes them choose impunity or scapegoating and how Christians can respond to the wrongs of the systems we find ourselves in.

James has visited Sudan and describes it as a country that had a deep impact on him. He was shocked to learn from Sudanese friends in the UK that Darfur is back in the news, as reminders of what some called the 21st century's first genocide circulate. More Tea, Vicar? this week considers a Christian perspective on the concept of impunity, defined as “exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action” as the Janjaweed step up their campaign of terror against vulnerable and displaced peoples. Outside of Jesus we are always creating division, we are always building walls; Hadrian's Wall, the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China. The reason why dividing walls appear is because we don't feel safe in other people's presence. But with Jesus, it is safe to have no dividing wall. With impunity, we hide what makes us unsafe - Jesus wants us to bring it into the light so we can live alongside each other for our greater calling.

Why We Cancel People - Lessons from This Morning.. When ITV announced on May 20, that Phillip Schofield would be leaving flagship daytime show, This Morning, after more than 20 years, it lifted the lid on a supposedly “toxic” culture and sparked the spectacle of a chain of celebrities “cancelling” the former presenter and the story exploding daily with revelations. But why as a culture, as people, do we need to distance ourselves from those who have fallen from grace? What does this reveal about ourselves and our society? This week in More Tea, Vicar? we pick up on our podcast about Mike Pilavachi and how the story has unfolded, we look at biblical origins of the concept of a scapegoat and how Jesus is our true and better scapegoat because he died for us and ascended into heaven, in order that sin be dealt with once and for all.

Wayne and James talk about music, creativity and artificial intelligence. Musician Sting, animal rights philosopher Peter Singer and the bible have different things to say about humanity's place in the world. In Genesis, God creates man in his own image and humanity is made last; what does this tell us about God's purpose for humanity?  Is there something distinct about humans as compared to the rest of the created order? We discuss how a common grace and truth that resides in all of us, Christians and non-Christians, speaks to who God is.

This week we felt it was the right thing to share our vision for our new building at 279 Gloucester Road with you, and talk about where we are headed as a church family. With our new building, we now have 24,000 square feet of faith ! We plan to share it with our community, with the Gloucester Road and with our whole city, Bristol. The next era of B&A is one church, one parish, one building….and we feel God's purpose for us is to fill this building with faith. We want faith to rise up and grow - ultimately we want the whole city to be filled with faith - and our building is the first step on this journey.

This week our discussion is around the news that Canon Mike Pilavachi, founder of Christian youth festival Soul Survivor, has stepped down from his role as Associate Pastor of Soul Survivor Church, St.Albans, as safe-guarding concerns against him are investigated. We look at individuals, at systems, at King David's Old Testament transgressions and how God would like us to respond and how we as a church family can learn to build greater health into our organisations to help prevent future leaders from failing.

Why Do We Do More Tea, Vicar? This week we are definitely not talking about ducks in the font, currently causing a storm on Anglican Twitter. What we are talking about is why we do this podcast; how, through More Tea, Vicar, we hope to bring a Christian understanding to contemporary issues in culture, and apply this to life as we are living it.

This week we take our discussion right into the heart of the Bristol communities where we live and work. As a church we're about to move buildings and we wanted to share the extraordinary story of how we came to our new home through God's grace. To find out more details about the move visit babristol.org/279.

This week we discussed Matt Hancock's leaked WhatsApp messages and why in culture and in life this happens again and again - our pasts always seem to catch up with us. We asked the question how does post-Christian culture handle the past and how do we, as followers of Jesus, see it differently?

In the final part of our series on human sexuality we look at the story of the woman at the well in John's gospel and ask the questions do we need sexual intimacy for a full life? And what is the life that Jesus offers and is He enough?

This week we're talking about inclusion and welcome, two words that come up again and again in debates and discussion around the church and human sexuality. Both are expected of the church by culture and society but can we actually offer both and do they mean the same thing?

This week we're talking about Identity. One of the questions that often comes up when we talk about sexuality is that if your identity is that you're same-sex attracted, are you inherently sinful in a way that someone who is heterosexual isn't? We discuss the turn inward since the enlightenment, the history of desire, what sin actually is and where we find our true identity. The book that Wayne mentions at the beginning is called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman.

This is the fourth episode in our series seeking to understand the issues and controversy surrounding human sexuality and same-sex marriage going on in Church and culture at the moment. This week we read an article in the Guardian arguing that those who are pro same-sex marriage think that God's love and grace is for everyone and that those who are against same-sex marriage believe that God's love is restricted. We wanted to unpick this idea and explore what living in God's love and grace looks like. Here's the Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/03/church-of-england-excluding-lgbt-people-equal-marriage