Simon Benham’s Blog
Hello, and thanks for making it to my blog. My name is Simon and I am the Senior Pastor here at Kerith Community Church.
This blog is a place for me to share thoughts on pretty much anything which takes my interest. This will often be related to things happening in our church community or life lessons I am in the process of learning. It could also be reflections on current world events, reviews of books I am reading or commentary on how well Newcastle United are doing in the league! You just never know what you're going to get...
I hope you find this blog interesting and insightful. If you have any ideas on topics you'd like me to write about, then please email me and I’ll see what I can do. Also, if you’d like to get these blogs sent straight to your email inbox, you can subscribe using the button below.
Happy reading,
Simon
How full is your bath? An honest talk about mental health
At the beginning of the first lockdown back in 2020, we had the privilege of hosting an online evening with Dr. Kate Middleton who did an online talk about mental health in lockdown. I know that many people found it incredibly helpful and timely.
I am a leader and I am a failure. Looking at making mistakes and asking for forgiveness
What was your biggest ever failure? One of mine came early in my preaching career. I was giving a talk at church and for some reason I was telling a story about Sir Alex Ferguson, who was manager of Manchester United.I was explaining that Sir Alex threw a boot at David Beckham and hit him on the head, and how it left a mark on Beckham’s ‘carefully manicured forehead’.
The ‘fudge’, the football and women elders
Over the last 20 years, Kerith has been on a big journey regarding the role women play as leaders in the life of our church. My observation is that most churches we relate to have been on the same journey as us, but not many have yet taken that final step of affirming women elders. So I thought I’d write a bit on why I think that is, and why I think it’s important we made the decision we did to take that final step of affirming women as elders.
Be More Pope!
Many of you will know that I recently had the privilege of travelling to the Vatican to meet the Pope. Read about my experience, here.
Understanding the times and knowing what to do
We live in bewildering times. Two years of a global pandemic, talk of war in Ukraine, a growing awareness of the climate emergency, rising fuel prices and a crisis of confidence in our elected officials are just some of the issues filling the news cycle on a daily basis.