Our Broken World: A Week in my Australia
Occasionally I invite some of our readers to write up their thoughts and experiences. Mal W Good describes himself as a pastor, intercultural worker and working class theologian. His experiences of working with Fourth World peoples are sobering and important to think about. In this post he talks about a week in my Australia – a very different week to the ones most of us enjoy. I am grateful to him for recording his experiences. If you would like to get in touch with Mal you can email him using the format malgood at gmail dot com (written like that lest you are hacking computer!) Here...
Read MoreWhen Church is Beautiful…
I don’t know if you have ever left a church service thinking, “Wow – that was beautiful – really beautiful.” Given the bad press the church often gets, I can imagine some of the cynical comments that could be forming, but why not put them on hold, and listen to the experience I’ve had the last two Sundays – when I’ve left the same smallish church both weeks thinking, “that was beautiful – really beautiful.” A quick disclaimer. I was the preacher both weeks. “Ha, ha, you say – you don’t think that might have...
Read MoreIs church working for you?
He is a very committed Christian but recently said to me, “This church thing, it’s just not working for me. The kids are bored, I’m bored, a lot of what happens is silly, and I experience God a lot more when I’m out in nature than when I’m forced to sit still and listen to endless jabber from the front – all in that rather drab building.” My instinct was to tell him why he was wrong, and to think of a way to help him reframe things. But even as the shape of a few rebuttal sentences formed in my head, I remembered this wasn’t the first time I...
Read MoreProlonging the Incarnation of Christ…
It was a comment in a Nomad podcast on the thought of Ivan Illich that I’ve been thinking about ever since: “The Christian vocation is to prolong the incarnation of Christ.” Ponder the sentiment. Those speaking readily acknowledged that a cheap and easy pushback is possible. “How audacious to think we can somehow prolong the incarnation of Jesus – as though our paltry efforts will come even close to resembling his. Rather we should point to the incarnation of Christ as the source of inspiration for our lesser virtues and endeavours. And the incarnation of Jesus...
Read MoreWhen our GPS Flounders: Genesis 12:2-3 as a Correcting Lens
A few months ago I was on my way to speak at a meeting on the other side of Perth (north of the river for those who are locals) and because it was unfamiliar territory, I trusted my phone GPS to guide me. Usually this works beautifully, but for some obscure reason (probably the endless roadworks in Perth), this time it didn’t. My estimated arrival time suddenly changed from 18:46 (giving a nice buffer for my 19:15 start) to 20:47 and instead of a journey of 47 km, I was apparently now due to arrive after covering 134km. I was less than impressed, and managed to pull over and work out a...
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