When 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...
Read MoreWill Kindness Win the World? Insights from the Early Church…
Recently I had the priviledge of opening the “Insight” conference for Grace Christian School in Bunbury. This is a slight rework of some of the main points I made on the day… By pretty much anyone’s calculations, 2017 was a tough year for the church – or certainly that is true for the church in Australia. There was the release of the findings of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It makes sobering reading – no, more than sobering – it is heartbreaking, heart wrenching stuff. Perhaps the most damning comment comes in Vol 16.3 on page 265:...
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