Author: stephenmcalpine

Okay, that’s click bait right there. But finally, two years after I turned fifty, two years after receiving (and losing) my first poo test, I submitted to the Government’s demands for two samples of my poo, and dutifully mailed it off to their labs. There’s something slightly rebellious about sending poo back to the Government, […]

We live in a world where actions can have consequences we could never have imagined, where guilt and shame are more at hand than ever, and where we have no means whatsoever of redemption.  We do not know who could offer it, who could accept it, and whether it is a desirable quality compared to […]

Imagine a man who was a perpetrator of domestic violence allowing his wife to leave the family home with no threat of stalking, and with a generous pay-out to get her started up again.  His only condition?  Sign an NDA – a non-disclosure, or non-disparagement agreement. “Look,” he says to her, though she can’t even […]

This follow up to the Bully Vol 1 post was going to deal with what we need to do about bullying leaders in the evangelical church.  But a couple of questions, particularly some privately asked by a trusted and wise friend in leadership, means that we need to double down on some of the “Why” […]

The biggest risk to conservative evangelical church movements today is not the hostility of a toxic external culture.  A far bigger risk to the movement, if recent sobering conversations I have had are any indication, is the internal toxic culture.  In short, evangelical church movements have a massive problem with the workplace bully at the […]

2:59:59 That was my goal anyway.  My goal for last Sunday’s Perth Marathon.  The magical, and elusive, sub three. A sub three marathon while I’m still able.  By “able” I mean realistically able at my age. I’m 52 now, and there’s a tipping point, a point of no-return for non-elite runners such as I to […]

  If you own a flower shop and your customer base goes into decline, it’s worth asking what are the pull factors and the push factors putting your business at risk. The pull factors are those things that draw your customers away from your shop to other shops.  These are hard to control. Maybe taste […]

Are Christians sick of being the butt of jokes? That was the premise of an article in The Australian newspaper in light of crass Aussie radio announcer Kyle Sandilands slap down of Christianity and the Virgin Mary on air. Sandilands had said on air that Christians are “as dumb as dog sh@#” for accepting the […]

In his novel The City and The City, English author China Mieville sets a murder mystery in two cities, Beszel and Ul Quoma.  Bezsel is run down and grimy (think Eastern bloc 1970s), while Ul Quoma is all Singapore glitz and glam. Inspector Tyador Borlu is tasked to solve the crime, and as a citizen […]