I am going to sit on a plane for four hours tomorrow and devour Mark Sayers’ new book: A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders. I will do so not more than 36 hours after the Australian Federal election result that led to a change […]
Category: Church
Hey Christians, We’re All Prop Joe Now
The best TV show ever (no correspondence will be entered into), was The Wire, a five series multi-faceted diamond first uncovered in 2004. It began the era of the golden age of television, and indeed it set the standard for what was to follow (The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc, etc). The Wire is set in […]
Hey Christians: When it comes to engaging non-Christians, don’t be like Aaron
This is Aaron. Aaron Patrick. Christians, when it comes to engaging someone who is not a Christian, don’t be like Aaron. In fact, be the opposite of Aaron. Aaron Patrick is a senior correspondent for the Australian Financial Review – a major national newspaper in Australia (equivalent of the UK’s The Financial Times). He specialises […]
The curse of being “Decent But Dull”
The biggest curse in leadership – whether that’s private, civil or in church, is to be decent, but dull. That’s the only conclusion we can reach when we read comments such as this in The Times, critiquing the UK Labour Opposition’s parliamentary leader, Sir Keir Starmer: Voters may be turning away from the Tories but […]
Why We’re All Manhattan Now
Tim Keller – a personal favourite of mine over the years – has recently tweeted a response to a First Things article by James R. Wood entitled: How I Evolved on Tim Keller. In his article Wood makes this assertion, that while Keller’s winsome apologetic approach worked in a kinder, gentler time, things have moved […]
John and Amy’s Kitchen Table (and what it says about worship)
It was one of those serendipitous moments. There, advertised on the Facebook page of a friend from my old days at Fremantle Assemblies of God church in the mid 1980s, was the kitchen table and chair set we had been looking for. My friend was married to another friend from my even older days at […]
Pastors Respond to my “Don’t Ask a Pastor About Evangelism” Post
My recent post, on why one should not necessarily ask a pastor why evangelism for most people is hard, elicited some spirited responses. Tucked between that initial post and this one, was one of the reasons that orthodox Christians are concerned about evangelism: Shane Warne’s death ushered him into an eternity without God, and a […]
Why is Evangelism Hard? If you Want the Real Answer, Don’t Ask a Pastor
Every so often on good evangelical websites that I read I come across an article that asks the question (before answering it in three points), as to why we find evangelism so hard. The answers are usually along the lines of; We don’t see the danger We don’t see the value We don’t see the […]
The Abusive Pastor: The shift from being godly to being god-like
Amongst the many articles written about Mars Hill, most destined to become digital land-fill, this one piece on the Mere Orthodoxy website stand out for its exceptional theological depth and pastoral insight. Jared Michelson has done an excellent job at getting to the issues behind the issues behind the issues behind the…. (you get what […]
Greedy for Gain
There’s something ugly, something character revealing, about the politician who squeezes absolutely every inch out of their entitlements. Those who make sure that every dollar of those things that they can technically claim is used up, and who spend the time to do so. Every few years there are outcries about some entitlement scandal in […]
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