Ok, So I haven’t blogged for a bit. That’s unusual for me. I’m a blog a day kinda guy and that has fallen by the wayside the last month. I haven’t blogged for a bit is like me not going for a run for a bit. It doesn’t happen. Except at the moment it is […]
We’ve all gone down some rabbit holes during lockdown. My particular rabbit hole has been music reaction videos. That’s right. I’ve spent way too much time locked up at home watching funky young hip hop and rap dudes reacting to classic rock and pop songs that were delivered way before they were. And being astounded […]
What happens to love in a time of war? Do we become more compassionate and loving towards others or less so? What about this COVID-19 pandemic? What has it revealed about the way we love, what we love, and if, as David Brooks asserts in the New York Times, “pandemics kill compassion too”? Here’s the […]
Here’s a selection of the latest material on the Third Space website. First up, a new podcast hosted on the Eternity Podcast site, called Life in Wartime, featuring me with my colleague from Third Space, David Robertson. In this introductory episode we explore the similarities (and differences0 between our time in COVID-19 and the start […]
It seems sadly ironic that the national review announced today into the history of abuse by leadership within The Crowded House church network contains ten points. Why so? Because The Crowded House itself has historically had a list of ten values that it claimed shaped its life and ministry. The list of ten – a […]
Should churches, as not-for-profits, access the Australian Government’s JobKeeper scheme in order to keep staff if their giving decreases during the COVIC-19 shutdown and beyond? That’s a question that I have heard doing the rounds. Is it the right thing to do? Is it the wrong thing to do? What is at stake if we […]
I have devoted this guest post to a friend of mine, Talia. I have not read anything as moving, as heartbreaking, or as soul-enriching this year. This is her account of how her fourth child with her husband Dave, has deepened her understanding of God, even – and especially in the midst of deep pain. […]
So do we just get on with life after Easter in these COVID-19 times? Check out the latest from The Panic Room as we discuss the question, is it just another Manic Monday?
Just imagine if one man said he was both able and willing to suffer and die from COVID-19 in place of all the sufferers in the world, releasing the planet from the fear of this terrible scourge? How liberating would that be? Wouldn’t we just burst out of our doors laughing and crying with […]
Indian author Arundhati Roy is well meaning, but naive in her hopes about what the world could be like when we emerge from our coronavirus lockdowns. I mean, I love her sentiments, but it’s her last observation that makes me sigh “here we go again.” Have a look at what the Booker prize winning author […]
In any other year it would have been the biggest news story of the day, the week and the month. But it isn’t. Not in these early months of 2020. Yes, it’s there on the front page of the online papers. But it’s buried under an avalanche of stories about coronavirus and death. Cardinal George […]
We’re at the stage in which everyone is wondering what things will look like on the other side. That’s not to say we are out of the woods yet, but we might be past the halfway point. As my wife Jill pointed out this morning, there will be a series of curves that will need […]
Our latest episode at the start of Easter Week
Today’s The Panic Room:
Running and Death (and all the bits in between)
It’s Groundhog Day. Again. Check out my latest at ThirdSpace.org.au You can find my latest blog (as well as the latest video by David Robertson and me from The Panic Room here)
I am not a public huggy guy. Too angular. Too needly. Too fidgety. People have made fun of me for my huglessness. Laughed at me. And laughed with me. But I’m ok with that. Oh I hug a few people at church – male and female – but those are usually very long term relationships […]
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. If you’re screeching at your TV screen and demanding a total lockdown because the government knows nothing, or if you’re planning a trip to the beach with your twenty or so besties, you’re actually part of the same problem. It’s a problem with authority. […]
Normal death is not in lockdown. Normal death is not following government directives. Normal death is not watching for the latest updates from the Prime Minister Normal death did not stockpile humans like toilet paper. Normal death was confident there would be plenty of humans left over for after the virus had done its job. […]
Starting live tomorrow, Steve McAlpine (that’s me) and David Robertson (that’s him), doing a live stream video (me in Perth, him in Sydney 4000km away). It’s called The Panic Room – eight to ten minutes of pure panic, with resources, ideas, and encouragements in these panicky times. Here’s the first one. Check it out every […]
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some […]
