Articles, thoughts, essays, and content from Brian as well as students – our budding theologians.
On not making great things small…
I recently listened to a podcast in which Fuller Seminary President Mark Labberton lamented that religions (including Christianity) have a habit of making great things small. He said he initially heard the sentiment from his father – who at best was on the fringes of faith. He hadn’t really understood his father’s point until his own God encounter when he was about 18 years. His mother, who attended church periodically, realised that her son had experienced something meaningful, and so invited a pastor to come and see him....
read moreDoing what Love Requires: Exodus 1, Murder, Myths and Morality…
Photo by Alex Green on Pexels.com I recently preached at the wonderful Westcity Church of Christ, taking part in their sermon series on Disruptive Stories. My disruptive story was from Exodus 1:15-22, a story of enormous courage and surprising ethical complexity, which we usually gloss over too quickly. Several people asked for a copy of my notes, so I thought I would make them more widely available and post them on the blog. Hope you find yourself drawn into this extraordinary story…. Have you ever had to make an impossible decision?...
read moreA Cohort of Courage…
Photo by Eric Sanman on Pexels.com Have you spared a thought for students who studied their pivotal year 11 and 12 in the shadow of COVID – with disrupted classes, lockdowns and great uncertainty? What would you say to a year 12 graduating class? Last week I spoke at the Carey Baptist College graduation ceremony for 130 year 12 students. This is what I said, and because several people asked for a copy, I am posting it here… Congratulations on being the graduating class of 2021. You have the special honour of being the cohort whose...
read more4 Fields of Listening: To God, to Others and to Self
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com Most of us prefer to be listened to than to listen. However, as is often noted, God made us with two ears and one mouth, perhaps indicating that we should listen twice as much as we talk. Are there ways to listen that are more rewarding and which might tempt us to lean in to what others are saying, rather than impatiently waiting for our turn to dominate the conversation? C. Otto Scharmer (of “Theory U” fame) suggests that there are four fields of listening, and in this post I’d like to very loosely...
read moreIt says what! Making sense of impossibly difficult Bible passages…
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com In my recent post On Being a Progressive Conservative, I mentioned that I had drawn the short straw on our preaching team and had to speak on some impossibly difficult Bible passages from Deut 19-26. Several of you asked what I landed up saying, and so I thought I would post the notes from the message. Actually it went surprisingly well, and many people said they found it helpful. Most commonly cited was the insight that when we read scripture we should pay more attention to the concern behind a...
read moreSigns of a healthy relationship
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com I’ve been asked the question often enough, “How can we be sure our love will last? How can we know if our relationship is more than infatuation?” Many decades ago I was helped to explore the question by Anthony Kosnik’s (ed) work Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought. It provoked more than a little debate when it was first published in 1977, which explains why the reviewers on Amazon who give it four or five stars, are countered by those who give it a scathing one star. As I...
read moreOn being a progressive conservative (or a conservative progressive)…
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com Is the world so simple that we can quickly attach a valid label to everyone? We often act as though it is – or certainly we do in the world of theology, where we try to separate between those who are theologically conservative and those who are progressive – although we might use slightly different language, and suggest someone is a liberal or a fundamentalist or an evangelical or whatever. Single descriptors (conservative or progressive) usually make the error of assuming a world without nuance, a...
read moreOriginal Goodness: Taking our First Creation Seriously
I often listen to the theology podcasts from Yale Divinity School. Their by line asks a question: “What is a life worthy of our humanity?” I love it. It reminds us that although we might talk about original sin, God’s first word after the creation of humans was that they were very good, and indeed, that they were made in God’s own image. To bear the image of the Creator is a lofty status and provides a hint at how much is involved in leading a life worthy of our humanity, a life blessed by original goodness. The reason why we strongly object...
read moreA bit of an update…
Many of the people who read this blog do so because our paths have crossed – and this is a good way to keep in touch. So let me update you on some of the things that have been happening in my life. If it is old news for you, sorry, but others are reading it for the first time. At the end of 2020 Vose Seminary merged with Morling College to form one of the largest theological colleges in the Southern Hemisphere. This was a very sensible move, as both Vose and Morling are Baptist Theological Colleges and the merger has enabled the two colleges...
read moreArguing for the sake of heaven: Why we need curious conversations…
I wonder if you, like me, are finding the polarising conversations taking place in the public square shrill, tiresome and destructive. We have lost the art of disagreeing with one another politely or constructively, and have forgotten than ad hominem attacks (attacks directed against a person rather than the position they hold) have traditionally been seen to weaken an argument, not strengthen it. It genuinely is a pity, because there are so many important discussions that need to take place, and take place well. No matter how angrily we...
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