church and society Archives - Brian Harris https://brianharrisauthor.com/tag/church-and-society/ Tue, 05 Aug 2025 02:18:32 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/brianharrisauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/cropped-brianharrisauthor-favicon-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 church and society Archives - Brian Harris https://brianharrisauthor.com/tag/church-and-society/ 32 32 93416650 Towards a 21st Century Church (2): Time for the 500 year Rummage Sale? https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-2-time-for-the-500-year-rummage-sale/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-2-time-for-the-500-year-rummage-sale/#comments Wed, 01 May 2019 22:00:30 +0000 https://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=3179 In my earlier blog post “Towards a 21st Century Church”, I discussed four assumptions we should challenge if we are to make a constructive journey towards the future. In this post I explore Phyllis Tickle’s contested but thought provoking thesis that roughly every 500 years a “great emergence” occurs within Christianity during which a new […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-2-time-for-the-500-year-rummage-sale/feed/ 6 3179 Towards a 21st Century Church: Four Assumptions to Challenge https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-four-assumptions-to-challenge/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-four-assumptions-to-challenge/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2019 22:00:17 +0000 https://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=3170 Now that we are almost a fifth of the way through the twenty first century, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the church can no longer act as though it is still the twentieth century. People give various reasons for why significant change is needed – some of the more common contenders being that we […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/towards-a-21st-century-church-four-assumptions-to-challenge/feed/ 11 3170 In Praise of Smaller Churches: 10 Positives… https://brianharrisauthor.com/in-praise-of-smaller-churches/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/in-praise-of-smaller-churches/#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:00:07 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=3010 Almost every church I come into contact with (and over the years, that has been a fair few), wants to be bigger than it presently is. They look a little enviously at churches in the next size category, and imagine that if that were them, most of their problems would be solved. Their pastor (if […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/in-praise-of-smaller-churches/feed/ 10 3010 Quotable: Greg Sheridan, God is Good for You https://brianharrisauthor.com/quotable-greg-sheridan-god-is-good-for-you/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/quotable-greg-sheridan-god-is-good-for-you/#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2018 22:00:16 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=3000 Greg Sheridan’s latest book God is Good for You: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times (2018) is well worth the read. It starts memorably… What will it mean for us, when God is dead? Who, then, can humanity converse with, when we lose our oldest friend? The loss of Christianity, and not only of Christianity but […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/quotable-greg-sheridan-god-is-good-for-you/feed/ 1 3000 Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Work and What it Means to be Human… https://brianharrisauthor.com/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-work-and-what-it-means-to-be-human/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-work-and-what-it-means-to-be-human/#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2017 22:00:45 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=2731 Have you ever asked at what point technology will have so advanced that the input of humans into life’s tasks will rarely be required? And what does that mean for the future of work? And what does it say about what it means to be human? A personal anecdote. My family and I had recently […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-work-and-what-it-means-to-be-human/feed/ 5 2731 Religious Freedom: Freedom for what? https://brianharrisauthor.com/religious-freedom-freedom-for-what/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/religious-freedom-freedom-for-what/#comments Tue, 21 Nov 2017 22:00:20 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=2717 The topic of religious freedom has been getting a fair amount of air time lately – and validly so. The often bitter debate over gay marriage has led to the fear of enforced conformity of opinion, with non-compliance seeing a quick accusation of (and possible prosecution for) hate speech or something similar. Baptists (the denomination […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/religious-freedom-freedom-for-what/feed/ 2 2717 Post Plebiscite Reflections… https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-plebiscite-reflections/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-plebiscite-reflections/#comments Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:00:52 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=2707 Well, the results from the Australian Plebiscite on same sex marriage are in, and are very much as predicted with 61.6% in favour and 38.4% against, the only surprise being the astonishingly high participation rate of close to 80%. Clearly this was not an issue over which most Australians yawned in disinterest, grunting a dismissive “whatever”. I’ve […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-plebiscite-reflections/feed/ 18 2707 Post Post-Christendom… https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-post-christendom/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-post-christendom/#comments Wed, 02 Aug 2017 22:00:09 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=2624 For the last few decades churches in the Western world have noted, usually with a sense of lament, that we live in a post-Christendom world – in other words, in a world where Christianity has lost its privileged status and is no longer assumed to be true, moral or the default religion of society. We […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/post-post-christendom/feed/ 5 2624 Is there a case for a Christian University? https://brianharrisauthor.com/is-there-a-case-for-a-christian-university/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/is-there-a-case-for-a-christian-university/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2015 22:00:42 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=1211 A few groups are working to form an evangelical Christian university in Australia. Is this wise, or is it a case of misguided zeal? Our last post explored the drift from a soft to a hard secularism. In this post I argue that the formation of a Christian university could help to change the missiological […]

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]]> https://brianharrisauthor.com/is-there-a-case-for-a-christian-university/feed/ 6 1211 From Deo Volente to Digital Video: The Flight to Secularism https://brianharrisauthor.com/from-deo-volente-to-digital-video-the-flight-to-secularism/ https://brianharrisauthor.com/from-deo-volente-to-digital-video-the-flight-to-secularism/#respond Thu, 29 Oct 2015 22:00:36 +0000 http://brianharrisauthor.com/?p=1205 To keep the blog going while Rosemary and I are on holiday, I have drawn on some articles I wrote for Perth’s Advocate newspaper. This one originally appeared in 2012, and I have now updated it slightly.  We all sense that the climate in which we practice our faith is changing. This post examines the shift […]

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