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# Stephen McAlpine

A cultural and theological website

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Access All Areas: Exhilarating Proximity in the Christian Bubble](https://stephenmcalpine.com/access-all-areas-exhilarating-proximity-in-the-christian-bubble/) - One of the most telling admissions in Christian communities that have crashed and burned due to influential but unhealthy leadership is just how intoxicating it is to have high level access to that leader. The proximity is exhilarating. Intoxicating. Lots of words with "x's" in them! And that proximity is like crack cocaine. Once you
- [Boo Who?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/boo-who/) - The issue is not whether we boo or not. The issue is who we boo. And just as importantly, who gets to decide who we boo. In light of the booing during the Welcome to Country at several ANZAC Day dawn services across Australia, there has been widespread condemnation of, as well as widespread support
- [James Valentine: A case study in the "no religion" census ticker](https://stephenmcalpine.com/james-valentine-a-case-study-in-the-no-religion-census-ticker/) - In the wake of the Australian census, in which huge swathes of Aussies declared for the first time that they have "no religion", comes a whole bunch of articles that explore how that doesn't mean people are not good just because they are post religious. And it makes for an interesting insight into the mind
- [The IOC is Late Out of the Blocks in its Transgender Ruling](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-ioc-is-late-out-of-the-blocks-in-its-transgender-ruling/) - Last night I watched the livestream of the Berlin Half Marathon, looking out for an Instagram Influencer, Ben Felton of BenIsRunning fame. He was hunting a sub 1:05 for the event, a cool 3:04min per kilometre. He’s been working hard for this one, and I’m glad to say as I watched the clock tick over
- [Bad Shepherds: When The Process is the Punishment](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bad-shepherds-when-the-process-is-the-punishment/) - There's an oft-repeated assertion in the church leadership world that the best safety net to abusive leadership is a rock solid process. And the best way to get a rock solid process is to have a rock solid system, such as a denomination, that is capable of putting a rock solid process in place. Wanna
- [Guy Sebastian's Guilty Prayer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/guy-sebastians-guilty-prayer/) - Australian singer, Guy Sebastian, is rightly famous for winning the first season of Australian Idol back in 2003, and then going on to have a stellar career with ten albums totalling seven million sales and nearly two billion streams on Spotify so far. He is, some two and a bit decades later, still the most successful
- [Canada's Soaring Assisted Suicide Rates](https://stephenmcalpine.com/canadas-soaring-assisted-suicide-rates/) - It's somewhat of an irony that the name of the retired Quebec neurosurgeon eulogising the soaring rates of state-sanction assisted suicide in Canada is Georges L'Esperance. Anyone with a modicum of French knows that "esperance" is the French word for hope. Yet with the projected total number of Canadian deaths attributed to MAID (Medical Assistance
- [Why is Andrew "Not above the law"?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-is-andrew-not-above-the-law/) - When the UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, stated that "No one is above the law", following the arrest of the former prince, Andrew for his links to Jeffrey Epstein, he didn't come up with that concept himself. What an event! The brother of the King being interrogated by police for eleven hours! If anything
- [The Quiet ReTribal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-quiet-retribal/) - You Do You Becomes We Do We Trevin Wax has written an enlightening article over at The Gospel Coalition on the shift away from the solitary version of expressive individualism. In other words, the move to the collective noun of You Do You, namely, We Do We. Wax argues that the isolated self has been
- [Redemption and Transcendence in Dark Days](https://stephenmcalpine.com/redemption-and-transcendence-in-dark-days/) - For all of the ugliness of events in Sydney the past few months, there has been much beauty also. Much that offers us the sublime. Yesterday Jill and I attended the renowned Australian Chamber Orchestra’s performance at the Sydney Opera House’s concert hall. A Christmas present to Jill that was eagerly anticipated by us both.
- [Well My Feeble Frame  He Knows](https://stephenmcalpine.com/well-my-feeble-frame-he-knows/) - I stood up to sing a hymn at church on Sunday with a bit of a wince. I've had surgery on a damaged hamstring, I can't run for ten weeks, and even though I'm back walking, standing for any length of time, or getting up out of a wooden pew after sitting for ten minutes
- [Jelly Roll, Billie Eilish, and Jesus.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jelly-roll-billie-eilish-and-jesus/) - Demons So a complete train wreck of a man who the devil has complete control of, and whose behaviour is making even those around him despair, is suddenly delivered from the oppression that has wrecked his life. He was a dead man walking, and was weaving his life in and out of the most deathly
- [A Snapped Tendon: My Soul Clings to Dust](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-snapped-tendon-my-soul-clings-to-dust/) - My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! Psalm 119:25 I have surgery tomorrow. 4000km from home. I snapped a hamstring tendon on January 1 while running an easy 10kms at warm up pace, ready to think about the ensuing 364 days. Would I run all 364 of them?
- [Australia Is Coming Apart: The Church Can Point a Way Forward.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australia-is-coming-apart-the-church-can-point-a-way-forward/) - This past Sunday at church I watched as an elderly man - a long time member - walked into church and went to the front row. I won't name him, but it would be fair to say that life has not been easy for him. He's had his fair share of struggles. He's generally
- [How My 2025 Reading (Sub)stacked Up](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-my-2025-reading-substacked-up/) - Less Books I probably did less book reading this past year than I have in previous years. That's partly down to how much time and attention has gone into setting up a new life in a new city and still having to do a significant amount of travel for work, even if the air travel
- [Hey Churches: Make Sure You Have Christmas Songs For All Year Round.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-churches-make-sure-you-have-christmas-songs-for-all-year-round/) - Now that we're only a few days away from packing away the tinsel and the tree, (and from signing up to the gym), can I urge us all not to pack away one thing - deep biblically-informed communal singing? On other words, don't pack away theologically rich songs with the Christmas baubles. Here's the thing
- [The Quiet Christmas Revival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-quiet-christmas-revival/) - I wonder how the so-called Quiet Revival will affect Christmas attendances this year across the Western world? There are stats from the UK's TEAR fund that illustrate a jump in desire attend, though let's see how Christmas morning itself bears that out. It seems incredible, even if off a smallish sample base of just over
- [Happy Hannukah](https://stephenmcalpine.com/happy-hannukah/) - I sitting writing this in the quiet of an early morning in Jerusalem at the guest house of Christ Church, the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East. It's been hard to sleep. I opened up my MacBook to write this post, and even as I did my screen cover photograph popped up as a
- [Christmas Carols: God's Reminder That He Has No Plan B](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christmas-carols-gods-reminder-that-he-has-no-plan-b/) - Never waste a good Advent season I say! Never waste the opportunity that this slim time in the church calendar gives us to offer our people - and the watching world - a fully orbed biblical picture of God's plan to save the world through his covenant relationship with his people Israel. God has no
- [Let The Young Man Come To Church With Mixed Motives](https://stephenmcalpine.com/let-the-young-man-come-to-church-with-mixed-motives/) - Has there ever been a cohort more scrutinised for seeking out the message of the gospel and the refuge of the church than The Young Man cohort at this particular point in history? Has there ever been a level of scepticism levelled towards seekers than towards this particular type of seeker - The Young Man?
- [Two Wedding Aisles To Walk Down](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-wedding-aisles-to-walk-down/) - Two Brides: Two Wedding Aisles This is a reminder for young Christian men who have young daughters. One day you may walk your daughter down the aisle. Perhaps you think about that day from time to time. I certainly did, and all the more as Sophie grew up. Perhaps you wonder what it will be
- [The New Lab Rats For Gender Drug Tests](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-new-lab-rats-for-gender-drug-tests/) - When my twin brother was a budding academic in the sciences at Oxford University back in the late 80s/early 90s there were precautionary measures taken for any laboratory that experimented with animals. Universities would have their own breeding stock of animals for the high demand from the sciences, who were making steps to solve some
- [Becoming a Somewhere in an Anywhere World](https://stephenmcalpine.com/becoming-a-somewhere-in-an-anywhere-world/) - Virgin Australia recognises the traditional custodians of the lands on which we fly and work, and we pay respects to Elders past, present, and emerging. I have flown across Australia too many times to care in the past five years. And that acknowledgement, or an iteration of it, has become ingrained in my head.
- [Is A Big Fat Audacious Hairy Revival On Its Way?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-a-big-fat-audacious-hairy-revival-on-its-way/) - Is a big fat audacious hairy revival on its way? Is that raincloud the size of a man's fist about to shower down a typhoon's worth of spiritual rain on a dry and parched land? Is the quiet revival going to get noisy? Is Protestantism in France going to sprout again for the first
- [Schism: Painful, Necessary and Timely](https://stephenmcalpine.com/schism-painful-necessary-and-timely/) - Baptist Schism This past weekend the Baptist Association of NSW/ACT took the painful, necessary and timely decision to remove from affiliation both Avalon Peace Baptist Church and Seaforth Baptist Church - churches on the Northern Beaches of Sydney - because of their commitment to revisionist views and practices around sexuality. A schism IRL in our
- [Conversion Theology](https://stephenmcalpine.com/conversion-theology/) - The problem for orthodox Christianity is that conversion theology - and therefore conversion therapy - is at the centre of its existence. Or to put it another way, when someone is converted to and by the gospel, the natural consequence is that a discipleship and pastoral process then takes place (or at least it should)
- [Quelle Surprise: Le Quiet Revival!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/quelle-surprise-le-quiet-revival/) - Le Quiet Revival It's happening in France too! Amazing eh? The term "Quiet Revival" has reached the Gallic shores of the most stubbornly and proudly secular country in the West. Don't believe me? Then check out this well-researched and nicely put together report into the phenomenon: Turns out there is something happening. God is
- [Help! The wrong type of person is turning up at church!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/help-the-wrong-type-of-person-is-turning-up-at-church/) - The wrong type of people are turning up at our churches. The wrong type of non-Christian people. Not convinced? Let me explain. The quiet revival - in which young men in particular are turning up at churches - is presenting something of a problem for evangelical churches of a certain stripe. And the recent death
- [Students un-coupling from the trans train](https://stephenmcalpine.com/students-un-coupling-from-the-trans-train/) - Intriguing to see the data out the USA in which there is a sharp decline (an almost fifty point drop) in the numbers of college students identifying as trans. The stats show a drop to 3.6% in 2025, compared with 6.8 per cent in 2022, and again in 2023. The Foundation for Individual Rights and
- [What's that giant "t" on your roof?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/whats-that-big-t-on-your-roof/) - So a Canadian pastor got in touch with me a few days ago to say that he'd discovered my blog (always nice), and that he liked what I wrote (even nicer), and that it rang true for the Canadian scene as well (nicest of all!). What "rang true"? Well many things, including the
- [The Battle For Society's Soul: My interview on  the Upside Down People podcast](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-battle-for-societys-soul-my-interview-on-the-upside-down-people-podcast/) - I recently went on the excellent Upside Down People podcast with Caleb Gray, to discuss the fall out (both good and bad) from the Charlie Kirk assassination, its ongoing effects for the church, and how this event is being interpreted across the West. Click the link below to have a listen. https://open.spotify.com/show/7j2qmfOmx8IWDW0bWFuQq9?si=5N1UJJ77TpOEU0aKRaPEpg
- [Our Daughter Is Getting Married Today](https://stephenmcalpine.com/our-daughter-is-getting-married-today/) - I'm sitting here back in Perth, our hometown, on an impossibly mild and sunny day. Our daughter's wedding day. Why am I more excited than nervous? Why do I feel I won't cry but will laugh a lot? Why might that all change the minute I see her before we drive to the church? And
- [I Blame the Parents](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-blame-the-parents/) - No, hear me out. Hear me out. Not the actual parents. Not the actual parents of Tyler the Destroyer. Not even the actual parents of the Oxford Union's president-elect, pictured above. No. I blame the intellectual parents, the systems of education producing, and promoting the likes of this man above, George Abaraonye. Do you know George?
- [Charlie Kirk Is Dead and I am Sad (Sad And Angry)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/charlie-kirk-is-dead-and-i-am-sad-sad-and-angry/) - Charlie Kirk is dead. And I am sad. Sad and angry. I am sitting here on September 11 in Sydney, on a pouring wet spring morning, trying to take it in. Yes, September 11. I remember sitting in our lounge in Perth late that night in 2001 while Jill was feeding our baby daughter watching
- [What if the Tide-of-Faith doesn't come back in?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-if-the-tide-of-faith-doesnt-come-back-in/) - I remember on endless hot summer evenings in Perth, watching the clouds forming out over the wheatbelt, a vast oven-dried sea of grain, spattered by forlorn towns that had been scorched over endless dry spells to a sepia brown. And sometimes, there on the horizon a storm cloud looked like it was brewing. And sometimes
- [Australia Is Coming Apart](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australia-is-coming-apart/) - Australia is coming apart. That's not a scare tactic, it's just an observation. Perhaps nothing shows this more than two recent photos from protest marches, the first from the Palestinian march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the second from the March For Australia. Here's the picture from the Palestinian march with plenty of the
- [Sophie and the Lost Car Keys](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sophie-and-the-lost-car-keys/) - I want to tell you a story about our daughter Sophie and the lost car keys. Two lost car keys actually. Two lost car keys, a faith-drenched six year old girl, and a harried, hurried father riven with casual unbelief (that would be me!). So here goes. Our lovely daughter Sophie is getting married to
- [Maybe not "More Christians" but definitely "More Christian" Christians.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/maybe-not-more-christians-but-definitely-more-christian-christians/) - Are we getting more Christians in the West? Or less? Is there a quiet revival? Or is that just noisy hope? For every set of stats such as the Bible Society UK's Quiet Revival report, there is a pooh-poohing naysayer who says that it's all smoke and mirrors. And it's hard to argue with
- [When The MAID-Men Run The Asylum: The Growing (and Widening) Enthusiasm For Euthanasia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-maid-men-run-the-asylum-the-growing-and-widening-enthusiasm-for-euthanasia/) - The Kindly Face of Death The almost gleeful appropriation of euthanasia for all and sundry in the Western world simply proves that the rejection of the slippery slope arguments by its proponents is a foil. And, as with so many of the post-Christian ethical debates in the West, those championing the spectre of death have
- [Apologetics: How I Answered the Confirmation Bias Question at a Local School](https://stephenmcalpine.com/apologetics-how-i-answered-the-confirmation-bias-question-at-a-local-school/) - The Confirmation Bias Question I had a great couple of days at a school in Sydney recently, sharing the gospel and doing some apologetics with Yr 12 students before the run in to their final exams. It's fair to say that they're under a lot of pressure, and have a lot on their plate, so
- [Coldplay, Legitimate Couples, and The Hypocrisy of The Sexular Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/coldplay-legitimate-couples-and-the-hypocrisy-of-the-sexular-age/) - Once Bitten, Twice Shy Chris Martin knew things had taken a turn for the worse. That's why the next question he asked when the Kiss-Cam went onto a couple was to determine whether they were legitimate. Suddenly these things matter again! Yet who even determines "legitimacy" in our culture today? Chris Martin? This is the
- [Under The Glare of God's Cosmic Kiss-Cam](https://stephenmcalpine.com/thats-some-cold-play-dont-be-caught-under-the-glare-of-gods-cosmic-kiss-cam/) - Caught! So it's all over the internet. Memes are being created. Laughter is being laughed. Tuts are being tutted. You have probably seen the story. A high powered couple who were a work couple and not a married couple have been caught out as an illicit couple during a Coldplay concert in the US. The
- [Of Dingoes and Mushrooms](https://stephenmcalpine.com/of-dingoes-and-mushrooms/) - Local Cases, Global Impact I cannot think of any two murder trials in Australia that have so transfixed us - and indeed created attention around the world - than those of Lindy Chamberlain and Erin Patterson. If I say "Dingo Lady" we all know who I mean. If I say "Mushroom Lady" we all know
- [Justin Welby and Incompatible Thick Communities](https://stephenmcalpine.com/justin-welby-and-incompatible-thick-communities/) - There's been a good mix of dust and flurry around the comments from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, over the matter of same sex marriage, and its perceived good in the public square. Welby was answering questions at the Cambridge Union in the UK, and it was a wide ranging interview lasting
- [On Aesthetics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/on-aesthetics/) - Useless Beauty The low evangelical Reformed tradition of the mid to late 20th century in which I grew up struggled with aesthetics in our meeting spaces. Well, "struggled" would be too strong a word for what was a contemporary blind ignorance borne from historical suspicion. A suspicion that was grounded I suspect in the fear
- [Of Radishes and Fences: My Substack response to Andrew Sullivan's Obergefell lament](https://stephenmcalpine.com/of-radishes-and-fences-my-substack-response-to-andrew-sullivans-obergefell-lament/) - Hey I'd love you to sign up to my long form essays on Substack. A weekly subscription for the price of a coffee per month will enable me to keep writing for free on my blog at stephenmcalpine.com. This week's piece which you can link to here and either subscribe to if you haven't,
- [If Aslan Is Shaking His Mane Again, Why Not Enjoy the Feast?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/if-aslan-is-shaking-his-mane-again-why-not-enjoy-the-feast/) - There's that memorable scene in The Last Battle in which the unbelieving Dwarfs faced with a feast, offered through the generosity of Aslan, refuse the taste of grace spread before them. As they sit before a banquet, all of their implacable, blind unbelief renders the meal tasteless: They began eating and drinking greedily enough,
- [The Death Culture of the UK](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-death-culture-of-the-uk/) - The Death Cultures UK legislators love death. What else to make of a couple of weeks in which, first, abortion was permitted for any reason up to the point of birth ("permitted" simply means that what is already happening will no longer be criminalised). Sex-selection included. That's right. The United Kingdom is perfectly happy to
- [Spells Old and New For a Post-Secular Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/spells-old-and-new-for-a-post-secular-age/) - Tide of Faith Or Spiritual Tsunami? It's pretty clear now that we don't live in a post-Christian age, we live in a post-secular age. The materialist framework that has set so much public policy in the West is faltering, at least when it comes to peoples' actual lived experiences. Especially as supposedly scientific ideas around
- [War, Actual War is Back. Are We Ready?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/war-actual-war-is-back-are-we-ready/) - War: It's Interested in Us Never mind the "culture wars", are we as Christian leaders preparing our people for actual war? Are we as Christians preparing our hearts and lives for what may eventuate? This is no scare tactic. We need to be interested in war because it would seem that once again, real war
- [NT Wright, a pot of tea, and a slice of sugary nuance](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nt-wright-a-pot-of-tea-and-a-slice-of-sugary-nuance/) - In light of some of the criticism coming NT Wright's way in recent weeks over how he talked about the abortion debate, particularly in the US, I want to offer a - hopefully - irenic critique of some of his positions in recent years. My concern is that when it comes to some big
- [UnOriginal Sin: A Church Leadership Lesson From The Biden Debacle](https://stephenmcalpine.com/unoriginal-sin-a-church-leadership-lesson-from-the-biden-debacle/) - No new sin under the sun There's nothing new under the sin. No sin since Adam and Eve's "origin sin" has been new material so to speak. And that's what you will find when you read the bestselling book - Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, It's Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,
- [Death By A Thousand Cuts: Gen Z and That Quiet Revival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-gen-z-and-that-quiet-revival/) - With noted authors and podcasters, Justin Brierley and Glen Scrivener hosting a discussion for UK churches with some great leaders, about the "rebirth" of interest in God, or the quiet revival as the UK Bible Society calls it I thought it would be interesting to get a voice from an everyday British Christian. Amy Ward
- [The Quiet Revival Will Not Be Technologized](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-quiet-revival-will-not-be-technologized/) - (with apologies to Gil Scott-Heron) You will not be able to stay online, brother or sister Or however you so identify You will not get to download, influence or troll You will not be able to chase Youtube rabbit-holes Or Instagram your latest thoughts Because the quiet revival will not be technologized The quiet revival
- [Failing Boys and Wrong Men](https://stephenmcalpine.com/failing-boys-and-wrong-men/) - Boys To Men? The so-called whipping boys for our cultural sins these days are actual boys. We hear and read it all of the time. Boys are failing and men are wrong. So go the headlines. And there is much handwringing by the powers that be as they seek to address this. Yet what if
- [Cultural Pain And God's Megaphone](https://stephenmcalpine.com/cultural-pain-and-gods-megaphone/) - God's Pain Megaphone What we are seeing across the West in the so-called "Quiet Revival", the "Surprising Rebirth", or Tide of Faith" - call it what you will - is a corporate expression of a previously personal phenomenon: The problem of pain. And in this instance - not simply personal pain, but cultural pain. The
- [Three Tips For Closing the Leadership Gap](https://stephenmcalpine.com/three-tips-for-closing-the-leadership-gap/) - The Ministry Leadership Gap In my last blog post I wrote about "Minding the Gap" in one's personal life as a Christian. The gap between public assertions and private actions. The growing distance between what we let people think we are like (or even convince ourselves that we are like, versus what we are actually
- [Mind The Gap!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mind-the-gap-king-saul-and-the-witch-of-endor/) - The Platform Gap Have you seen or heard that warning on a train system, "Mind the Gap"? It's usually written on the platform or announced from the station audio at older train stations where the gap between the train and the platform could swallow your leg. Or a toddler. I've seen it in London and
- [Spiritual Hallucinations](https://stephenmcalpine.com/spiritual-hallucinations/) - In the last days, said Peter on the day of Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit would usher in the time that the prophet Joel envisaged - when our young men would see visions. I wonder what he would say about the spirit of the AI age, and the disturbing prevalence of our
- [Culture Vulture Round Up For May 16th](https://stephenmcalpine.com/culture-vulture-round-up-for-may-16th/) - A lot of good articles and events get under your radar. This week there have been some crackers that I think would be helpful to read. Reel Marriage Book Launch First up, my wife Jill and I attended the book launch of film critic, Russ Matthews' new book, Reel Marriage, at a delightful little cafe
- [Don't Say No For Someone: Let Them Say No Themselves](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-say-no-for-someone-let-them-say-no-themselves/) - Don't Say No For People I remember meeting a newbie - a new Christian - one time. I asked her her story. She was a white, well-educated, woman working in a creative industry, around forty, happily married and two kids. It was a simple, straight pathway story of feeling burdened, meeting a Christian at work,
- [Ruthless In the Right Direction](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ruthless-in-the-right-direction/) - Ruthless In the Wrong Direction #1 The Liberal Party of Australia is currently going through the exact mindset that any other poorly led organisation (including churches and parachurches) goes through when they've allowed a poor leader to destroy the place, or manage it into decline. What is that mindset? It is not ruthless enough. At
- [Deconstruction is sooo 2022!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/deconstruction-is-sooo-2022/) - Noisy Deconstruction Evangelical deconstructionism is soooooo 2022! What was once the noisy talking point of Christianity among many evangelicals now seems to have gone fairly quiet. And it was noisy, wasn it? For a while at least. For a while back there it seemed that this thing was not going to bottom out any time
- [Pass-The-Parcel With Religious Freedom](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pass-the-parcel-with-religious-freedom/) - Pass the Parcel Bomb At the height of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland there was a spate of parcel bombings, in which seemingly innocuous packages were packed with lethal explosives, posted off to known political or military targets, with the express (post) aim to go off in the hands - and up into the faces
- [Nope To The Media's Ideal For A New Pope](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nope-to-the-medias-ideal-for-a-new-pope/) - Before the conga line of secular journalists lines up to pronounce that the Roman Catholic Church needs a new pope in line with the recently departed Francis in order to further modernise the church, let's take a bit of a breather and examine what is behind that call. Let's ask whether any of the highly
- [Consider The Mall: How (Not) To Be Not Secular With James KA Smith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/consider-the-mall-how-not-to-be-not-secular-with-james-ka-smith/) - Several years ago when speaking at an international Christian education forum alongside educators from what was then Calvin College (now Calvin University), I casually remarked to one of the visiting Calvin speakers that it was important that we hold to the biblical sexuality framework as we shape and form young people facing the Sexular Age.
- [A Tale of Three Gardens](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-tale-of-three-gardens/) - Garden Number One If you ever end up at my mum's house, it's usually a hostage situation. You can't leave unless you have had copious amounts of tea or coffee, too much cake, heaps of chocolate and some more cake just in case the last amount was not enough. Oh, and some nostalgia. Mum's always
- [An Uncomfortable Conversation About The ABC's Religion and Ethics Department](https://stephenmcalpine.com/an-uncomfortable-conversation-about-the-abcs-religion-and-ethics-department/) - Religious But Not Ethical? Here in Australia, the ABC Religion and Ethics Department is proving itself very religious - at least when it comes to promoting the religion of The Sexular Age. But in terms of ethics? Not so much. And that means it's time to have an uncomfortable conversation. How else to explain the
- [An English Teacher Unpacks "Adolescence"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/an-english-teacher-unpacks-adolescence/) - We didn’t know what he was going to do.” “Shouldn’t we have done more, though?” “I think it’d be good if we accepted that maybe we should’ve done. I think it’d be OK for us to think that. This is the final conversation that takes place between Eddie and Manda Miller, two fictional characters
- [NSW Anti-Conversion Therapy Laws Come Into Effect This Week. How Will Christians Respond?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nsw-anti-conversion-therapy-laws-come-into-effect-this-week-how-will-christians-respond/) - So how will churches in NSW and Sydney in particular, respond to the new conversion therapy legislation that is now enforceable, one year since it passed through State Parliament? If the recent pro-life demonstrations outside State Parliament are any indication it will probably only be the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics who will make a
- [Ross Douthat's "Believe": An Unsophisticated Book For Your Unsophisticated Friends (And Your Unsophisticated Self)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ross-douthats-believe-an-unsophisticated-book-for-your-unsophisticated-friends-and-your-unsophisticated-self/) - I've just started reading the latest book by New York Times columnist, Ross Dothan, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. And it's off to a pretty good start, and I'll explain why in a minute. Douthat is that increasingly rare beast at the NYT, conservative and Catholic. And also not a culture warrior. He's sane,
- [An Indian TakeAway, a Parking Ticket, and  Romans Chapter 2](https://stephenmcalpine.com/an-indian-takeaway-a-parking-ticket-and-romans-chapter-2/) - An Indian TakeAway So we'd just gotten home from a weekend away for a church where I had been the guest speaker. It was fun, but we were tired. The outdoors events for the free time had been cancelled because finally - and with a bad sense of timing - the Sydney weather had turned.
- [My Latest Substack: Meat and Potatoes Christianity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-latest-substack-meat-and-potatoes-christianity/) - "Spiritual darkness is exceptionally content to lure us with the modern idols that have kept us fat and sated but clogged with spiritual cholesterol. But once we see the need to get fit again, once we see that what modernity is offering cannot bring life, spiritual darkness is more than happy to up its game.
- [Derek, the Jesus Geezers and Gene Hackman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/derek-the-jesus-geezers-and-gene-hackman/) - Derek Derek landed in our church one Sunday afternoon after being recommended by a pastor friend of his. Tall, big build, a former Aussie Rules football player, but now in his late sixties, full head of dark hair, a goatee beard, and a surprisingly light voice. Dressed tidy, neatly groomed and with a smart black
- [Behold The Futureproof Man](https://stephenmcalpine.com/behold-the-futureproof-man/) - A rediscovered Caravaggio painting Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), is valued at over fifty million dollars. When I say rediscovered, the painting was always known to exist, but it was considered to be from a school of Spanish painters who liked to knock off the Caravaggio style rather than by the great one
- [A Round-Up of My Week And Some Things You Can Sign Up To](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-round-up-of-my-week-and-some-things-you-can-sign-up-to/) - Just doing a weekly round-up of some of the stuff I have done this week that isn't on the blog. YouTube Ministry Thoughts I've started a YouTube channel for ministry reflections (still a work in progress, but hey, why don't you subscribe - I'd love to have you join with me in this project). It's
- [Add Lightness and Simplicity: Dumb Church Means Dumbing  Up Not Dumbing Down](https://stephenmcalpine.com/add-lightness-and-simplicity-dumb-church-means-dubing-up-not-dumbing-down/) - Add Lightness And Simplicity An engineering friend of mine who helped plant our church (and is one of its current elders), gave me this engineering maxim one time: "Add Lightness and Simplicity". And of course it's counter-intuitive like all engineering maxims seem to be! You cannot ADD lightness. You can merely take away heavy things
- [For The Young Man Coming To Church For The First Time: Part One - Making It Through the Door](https://stephenmcalpine.com/for-the-young-man-coming-to-church-for-the-first-time-part-one-making-it-through-the-door/) - So You're Here. Finally. So you have finally braved the front door of the church for the first time in your life. And you figure that despite best impressions you still look a little apprehensive. We get it. It would be like one of us from church going into a bookies' shop/TAB for the first
- [For Giles Coren Christianity is The Punch Line.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/for-giles-coren-christianity-is-the-punch-line/) - Alan Coren was a great journalist whose columns were snortingly funny, and whose editorship of the satirical Punch magazine was its high point. I still remember reading his article about the creation account of Genesis written from the perspective of an engineer in which Adam's first comment to God when presented with Eve is
- [Ministry Never Becomes Our Idol - It Only Reveals The Idols We Already Have](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ministry-never-becomes-our-idol-it-only-reveals-the-idols-we-already-have/) - Ministry Is Never An Idol I've been in and around church ministry long enough to have heard it said about someone that "Ministry has become his/her idol." And people tut-tut and shake their heads as they watch ministry leaders behave in ways towards themselves and others that are less than healthy, as if ministry were
- [When Should Christians Abandon the Ark of ARC?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-should-christians-abandon-the-ark-of-arc/) - Theologically orthodox Christians who attended the 2025 Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London recently, have to ask themselves how long before normal services resume. What do I mean by that? Simply this: How long before the political and cultural flood waters recede, and we determine that some of those with whom we are
- [Fairness In Religions In Schools Hates Sectarianism - Except of Course Where It's Really Happening](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fairness-in-religions-in-schools-hates-sectarianism-except-of-course-where-its-really-happening/) - The anti-Scripture-in-schools organisation Fairness In Religions In Schools wasn't much on my radar when I lived in Western Australia. It popped up from time to time when it came to paying out on the state's chaplaincy program. It was fairly screechy about how most of the chaplains came from one Christian organisation. And did its
- [Dumb Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dumb-church/) - Dumb Phones Okay, so it's not the blog post you think it is going to be. But we all know that dumb phones are a thing again. Those phones that, some twenty odd years ago, seemed pretty smart cos we could text with them, (the flip-top Motorola being a particularly sweet little number), but
- [Six Months Into Life Here In Sydney](https://stephenmcalpine.com/six-months-into-life-here-in-sydney/) - Six Months In Sydney Well we have been here six months living in Sydney and that has moved along quickly. Most things in Sydney move along quickly. Apart from the traffic of course. Good thing the public transport system is top class. I know Sydney people grumble about it from time to time, but it's
- [Special Religious Education in Schools Is Tracking With the Vibe Shift.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/special-religious-education-in-schools-is-tracking-with-the-vibe-shift/) - The vibe change that is sweeping the Western world, and sweeping up religious observance with it, would seem to be landing on the shores of government schools in New South Wales. I was in conversation with a young ministry worker at church yesterday and discussing the start of the academic year in the local schools,
- [Join My Substack: The Price of a Coffee Per Month](https://stephenmcalpine.com/join-my-substack-the-price-of-a-coffee-per-month/) - Substack and Coffee I’ve decided to add Substack to my writing portfolio and I’d love you to come along with me on this one.I have appreciated the support I have received for my blogs over the years, and it’s time for me to supplement this with a paid-subscriber Substack. This will enable me to offer
- [Why The Temple Is The Best Place To Hide An Idol](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-the-temple-is-the-best-place-to-hide-an-idol/) - When it came to idolatry in the Old Testament, the people of God were pretty crass. We read in horror of the vision in Ezekiel 8 in which the syncretism of Israel resulted in the figures of Canaanite gods being placed inside God's holy house. As you read the chapter you soon realise that no
- [Tide of Faith or Spiritual Tsunami?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tide-of-faith-or-spiritual-tsunami/) - Tides Versus Tsunamis One of the more chilling photos of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami is of a family of holidaymakers standing in the shallows of the withdrawn sea, as the water come barrelling in again. They're at that point between not knowing what is about to hit them, and the growing horror of what
- [The Vibe Shift: What Does It Mean For The Gospel?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-vibe-shift-what-does-it-mean-for-the-gospel/) - The Ducks Have All Lined Up All of the conservative ducks have lined up in a row. Did you notice? The cultural and political vibe has shifted? Have you felt it? The vibe has turned against the progressive framework that sought to shut down voices it did not like, including orthodox Christian voices who wanted
- [Rust Never Sleeps: And Neither Does the Woke Left](https://stephenmcalpine.com/rust-never-sleeps-and-neither-does-the-woke-left/) - Rust Never Sleeps With one stroke of his pen, Donald Trump confined a decade of gender confusion, social contagion and ideology to the dust bin of history. Or so we are being told. As the author of the brilliant book Irreversible Damage:The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Abigail Shrier has just written, history will
- [Babylon Berlin, Jazz, Church Planting and the New Jerusalem](https://stephenmcalpine.com/babylon-berlin-jazz-church-planting-and-the-new-jerusalem/) - Babylon Berlin There's something about music and Berlin, isn't there? In my view, it was Lou Reed and David Bowie's time in that city that led to some of the best music of the 1970s (I listened to in the 1980s and 1990s as a late teen/early twenties). The live performance by Bowie in Berlin
- [The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend. Trump and THAT Sermon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend-trump-and-that-sermon/) - If we ever needed proof of the veracity of the ancient adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", then the sermon at the Trump inauguration by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde sealed the deal. It's been interesting watching the reaction of Christians, progressives AND evangelicals to the sermon. Trump in his usual petulant manner
- [The Rebel's Guide to Power: Biden, Trump and Mark Driscoll](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-rebels-guide-to-power-biden-trump-and-mark-driscoll/) - My favourite preaching series by Mark Driscoll was his heart-warming Philippians series, The Rebel's Guide to Joy. Almost two decades ago. And it was joyful. And slightly rebellious, in that it pitched Christianity as being worthwhile and worthy in the midst of a culture opposed to it. It was listened to by hundreds of thousands
- [3 Reasons Why Joe Rogan's Interview of Wes Huff Was Memorable](https://stephenmcalpine.com/3-reasons-why-joe-rogans-interview-of-wes-huff-was-memorable/) - The interview on the Joe Rogan show of Canadian Christian apologist and historian, Wes Huff, was a triumph. And I mean that without any sense of hubris. It ticked a lot of boxes. And it did so in a way that has had more cut-through than just about any apologetic moment (in the positive)
- [Weird is back: Get with it Christians!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/weird-is-back-get-with-it-christians/) - Weird is back for Christianity. Let's embrace it. Australia's very own vampire chanteur, Nick Cave, had this to say in an interview with the UK's The Times, just this week, when asked whether he was Christian or not: I don’t call myself Christian. I mean, I act like one, and I probably smell like one
- [Is This The End of Men?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-this-the-end-of-men/) - What's the future for men in the Western world? It seems like everyone's got an answer. Sometimes opposing answers. We've fought over the question "What Is a woman?" in the culture for some time. But what about men? In a provocatively entitled little book, The End of Men? (note the question mark), Simon Smart, the
- [Al Mohler: Christians Ought Not Be Too Sad Or Too Happy Over Election Results.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/al-mohler-christians-ought-not-be-too-sad-or-too-happy-over-election-results/) - Over at the Dual Citizens podcast we had a great time interviewing the redoubtable Al Mohler a few weeks before Christmas. We held it off to get over the Christmas rush. Check it out here:
- [Is The Sea of Faith Coming Back In? Or is it a Spiritual Tsunami?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-the-sea-of-faith-coming-back-in-or-is-it-a-spiritual-tsunami/) - A lot has been said about the sea of faith coming back in. Christianity seems to be getting a second life (resurrections and all that!) in the West. Books and podcasts abound. The term "the sea of faith" comes from the 19th century poet, Matthew Arnold, who in his poem, Dover Beach, made this observation:
- [But The Thing The Man Did Displeased The Google Maps Car](https://stephenmcalpine.com/but-the-thing-the-man-did-displeased-the-google-maps-car/) - In a classic case of "But I woulda gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids", a Spanish man has been arrested for murder, after the Google Maps car drove past him stuffing a body into the boot/trunk of his vehicle. A real Scooby Doo moment. But also a real 2 Samuel
- [Peel Back the Chocolate Santa Wrapping and What Do You Get? The Easter Bunny!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/peel-back-the-chocolate-santa-wrapping-and-what-do-you-get-the-easter-bunny/) - There's been a great set of photos doing the rounds the past few years around Christmas showing up just how cheapskate some chocolate companies are during the festive season. Take a look: There you have it. Sprung! A chocolate Santa just in time for Christmas. But no! Peel back the Santa Claus aluminium foil and
- [A Hot Hitman, a Health Care CEO, and the Ultimate Cancellation](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-hot-hitman-a-health-care-ceo-and-the-ultimate-cancellation/) - Here's a short list of things you need to be (and do) to be praised for shooting someone in cold blood these days. Make sure you are handsome as... Do it for a supposedly liberal cause. Shoot someone we all love to hate. Anything else you might want to put in here. The murder of
- [Our Interview With Rod Dreher](https://stephenmcalpine.com/our-interview-with-rod-dreher/)
- [The English Premier League's Identity Relegation Battle](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-english-premier-leagues-identity-relegation-battle/) - The English Premier League has decided that when it comes to the identity championship, religion is facing a relegation battle. Having already decided that religious motifs were offside in the league, the good people in the diversity and inclusion department of the league determined that all captains of all sides should wear a rainbow armband
- [Is Watching Wicked All That Wicked?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-watching-wicked-all-that-wicked/) - Last week I shared a The Gospel Coalition article by Brett McCracken, about the movie Wicked, and how its theme is counter to the gospel framework. I thought it was a good piece by Brett. But I did get some pushback from some well-thought out Christians, including a friend, Amy, who we did church with
- [Futureproof Forgiveness](https://stephenmcalpine.com/futureproof-forgiveness/) - Whatever the post-Christian future looks like, one thing is for certain, it would look less forgiving. Here we were thinking that if we got rid of the vengeful, judgey, judgey God-thing, we would become a culture of harmony and acceptance. Turns out all we did was outsource the vengeance to ourselves. And that means that
- [Wicked Culture Will Trump Politics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wicked-culture-trumps-politics/) - The End of Woke? Whatever your hopes for an end to the collective cultural brain-fade in society, politics is not going to wind back the clock. It just isn't. Not in the USA. Not in the UK (though political change is a long way off there), and not here in Australia (where political change might
- [The Late Great Hal Lindsey](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-late-great-hal-lindsey/) - Hal Lindsey has died. Ripe old age of 666. Or was it 144? Ripe old age of 95, actually. Hereafter known as the Late Great Hal Lindsey. Hal wrote the book that launched a thousand end times maps, The Late Great Planet Earth, a staple of all dispensational, Rapture loving/Rapture fearing churches. The dispensational
- [A Queer Messiah: Can You Handel It?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-queer-messiah-can-you-handel-it/) - So now we're queering The Messiah. For Christmas. I suppose it's only natural after we queered the Easter Story during the Olympics with the "Is it or isn't it?" Last Supper travesty (hint: it was), then Christmas was only natural. Goodness knows, we've commercialised it and domesticated it to the ''nth" degree. I mean how
- [Trump's Victory: The Rise of The New Media](https://stephenmcalpine.com/trumps-victory-the-rise-of-the-new-media/) - Dual Citizens explores the US election results through the lens of the new media. What possessed Kamala Harris to not go on Joe Rogan's show?
- [The Folly of Nabal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-folly-of-nabal/) - A Weird Story There's a story in 1 Samuel that's kinda weird. It's about a bloke called Nabal, his wife Abigail, and David, the soon-to-be king of Israel. And it's 44 verses long. It takes up all of chapter 25. And that's gotta tell us something. The Old Testament never wastes its words. If a
- ["Really Not A Nice Man": The Archbishop's Lack of Curiosity and Christian Tribalism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/really-not-a-nice-man-the-archbishops-lack-of-curiosity-and-christian-tribalism/) - A Lack of Curiosity The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned because of a "lack of curiosity". That it was a lack of curiosity over a most egregious and sinful set of crimes of a sexual nature over an extended period of time by someone he knew, put paid to his tenure. The Makin report into
- [Yes Trump Lies To You, But the Democrats Make You Lie To Yourself](https://stephenmcalpine.com/yes-trump-lies-to-you-but-the-democrats-make-you-lie-to-yourself/) - He Gave Us Our Freedom Just after the Velvet Revolution that swept the Communists away from power in Czechoslovakia, my friend Jonathan and I headed off to the capital of what is now the Czech Republic, Prague, in the early 1990s. We were excited to visit a city that we both had been enamoured with,
- [The Game Really Is Up For The Mainstream Media (Just Like Last Time)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-game-really-is-up-for-the-mainstream-media-just-like-last-time/) - The Mainstream Gets It Wrong - Again I can't believe it happened eight years ago and now it's happened again. "What?" you ask, "Trump's election?" No, the response to it from the mainstream media. More pointedly, their refusal to read the signs of the times. Their refusal to believe that no one who was going
- [Mum Turns 80 Today](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mum-turns-80-today/) - Mum turns eighty today. How did that happen? I mean, I remember her fiftieth! And now I'm 57 myself. I remember her sixtieth too when my wife Jill organised a surprise party for her. Deeply emotional time. And then her seventieth. Here's the photo from that occasion. I met mum in a nice part of
- [Simpering Onto the Sexular Carpet with the Archbishop of Canterbury](https://stephenmcalpine.com/simpering-onto-the-sexular-carpet-with-the-archbishop-of-canterbury/) - Welcoming and Affirming? Justin Welby's statement last week that those who who hold to a traditional (or shall we say biblical and orthodox) view of marriage have “a full and undoubted place in the Church of England” should be cold comfort for those who have watched recent church history among revisionist denominations. While the words
- [Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Halloween and the Desire for Re-enchantment](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hubble-bubble-toil-and-trouble-halloween-and-the-desire-for-re-enchantment/) - Okay, so most of Halloween seems kinda silly. Never really worried about it, or celebrated it. Skeletons, cauldrons, non-recyclable faux spiderwebs covering the front verges of our self-righteously recycling inner west Sydney suburb. Christians quibble over it. Some don't care. Some are horrified. It's either silly or satanic. Or perhaps both. Or perhaps neither.
- [Fenton's Doing His Best Poops Ever](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fentons-doing-his-best-poops-ever/) - I loved my dog. And when he died earlier this year after fourteen years of faithful doggy service our house lamented for some time. My son, having grown up with the dog, was bereft. He missed a day or two of school and went around the house in that first stage of grief. "I
- [Priests of History: The Interview](https://stephenmcalpine.com/priests-of-history-the-interview/) - Fantastic Dual Citizens interview with Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University. A compelling conversation about her warm, well-researched and timely new book, Priests of History, and the manner in which Christians are to tend and care for history, not simply for their sake but for the sake of those around
- [Priests of History: Dialling Down the Anti-Foundational Hysteria of the Ahistorical](https://stephenmcalpine.com/priests-of-history-dialling-down-the-anti-foundational-hysteria-of-the-ahistorical/) - The clang of the hysteria of those who shriek that we should get on "the right side of history" emanates from the hollowness of their argument. As events are now proving, those with the least understanding of history - or who are even hostile to history - are clueless, rootless and lacking in foundations.
- [How Much Grace? Always More](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-much-grace-always-more/) - We'd been unpacking boxes for a while on Tuesday after a frantic day of delivery on Monday to our new place in Sydney. And of course we'd noticed that we were using Grace Removals. Clearly we had a little chuckle at that. But just when we are exhausted, and just when we realised we were
- [My New Motto: "Go Scared"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-new-motto-go-scared/) - Going Scared My twin brother and I remember the day we left Northern Ireland. We were not quite six years old. We took a boat over to London, and from there a flight to the moon. Well, not the moon exactly, but that's what it felt like going to the other side of the world.
- [Two Sins a Pastor Might Commit](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-sins-a-pastor-might-commit/) - The Sins of Commission It's hard not to go online in any Christian setting these days and not see a litany of sins that pastors commit. In fact there is a whole industry built around these matters, which often expose every sordid detail of sexual sin, or financial sin or other type of relational sin.
- [Psalm 131: The Christian Blogger's Prayer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/psalm-131-the-christian-bloggers-prayer/) - Life in the Christian blogosphere can be frantic. It's often a reactive place (guilty your Honour), and if you are going to blog over a series of years or even decades (shout-out to the venerable Tim Challies in Canada, and my fellow West Australian Andrew Hamilton), it is easy to let the churn of life
- [The 'Arcissistic EcoSystem Part 1](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-arcissistic-ecosystem-part-1/) - Arcissist NOT Narcissist I received a lot of feedback concerning my recent post on the difference between what I now term"'arcissists" and "narcissists". There were a few minor quibbles over why we have such a therapeutic culture, and a concern that the term "narcissist" is overused (hint: it is!). But the term "arcissist? Well it
- [Running Red Lights](https://stephenmcalpine.com/running-red-lights/) - Running Red Lights I'm teaching my 16 year old son to drive. When you teach your child to drive you become aware of what is going around you on the road. Hyper-aware. And one of the things you become hyper-aware of is the number of people who run red lights. Not even remotely amber
- [The Greek gods of Kaos: A Christ-Haunted Netflix Show](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-greek-gods-of-kaos-a-christ-haunted-netflix-show/) - Kaos Rules There's a great episode in The Simpsons (remember them?) that deals with the butterfly effect. A Time Machine that Homer accidentally builds when fixing his father's toaster throws up all sorts of alternate worlds after Homer slightly tinkers with the past. Those new worlds include, most chillingly, one in which Ned Flanders, his
- ["Those pews may not stay vacant for ever." Indeed!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/those-pews-may-not-stay-vacant-for-ever-indeed/) - Those Empty Pews What a telling observation to round off a telling article by John Harris in The Guardian: Those pews, in other words, may not stay vacant for ever. Who would'a thunk? Harris writes a piece in which, as a self-declared "devout agnostic" is full of the "Is that all there is?" dreaded
- [He Might Not be an Narcissist, He Just Might be an "Arcissist"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/he-might-not-be-an-narcissist-he-just-might-be-an-arcissist/) - A Neologism My wife and I had a good laugh yesterday morning discussing someone in church leadership whose behaviour was less than godly and who had had a history of insecure behaviour that resulted in broken relationships and people leaving the organisation he headed. Now as a clinical psychologist, my wife is cautious with the
- [Let's Put Our Heads Together And Start a New Country Up (or Not)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/lets-put-our-heads-together-and-start-a-new-country-up-or-not/) - Let's put our heads together and start a new country upOur father's father's father tried, erased the parts he didn't like The River Runs Red So begins one of the most political, and brilliant of songs - Cuyahoga - by one of the most influential bands of the 80s and 90s, REM. It's
- [Keith Green, Bill Hybels, and the Loss of Steeples and Bells](https://stephenmcalpine.com/keith-green-bill-hybels-and-the-loss-of-steeples-and-bells/) - Keith Green I used to love Keith Green's music and singing when I was a younger Christian. Not to say I don't still retain some warm memories of his songs. But in my early twenties I found him to be the one singer who spoke to me. And he was already dead by the time
- [The United States of Abortion](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-united-states-of-abortion/) - I thought long and hard about writing this post. Why? Simply because I rarely write about the issue of abortion per se, and have preferred to keep my conversations around the topic to euphemisms about "human flourishing" and "anthropological ethics". But, in light of my observation that the Democrats convention was almost gleeful about abortion,
- [The Carl Trueman Interview: The Crisis of Confidence in Church In Our Secular Culture](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-carl-trueman-interview-the-crisis-of-confidence-in-church-in-our-secular-culture/) - Dual Citizens has just hosted the prolific and professorial Carl Trueman. And what an interview it was. Full of vim, vigour and vision for the church in the cultural moment. We ranged over various topics around creeds, confessions and culture. How is language theological? How is our culture emptying language of meaning? How will
- [Where Next For Religious Freedom For Schools When Progressive Oil and Orthodox Water Won't Mix?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/where-next-for-religious-freedom-for-schools-when-progressive-oil-and-orthodox-water-wont-mix/) - Progressive Oil and Religious Water The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is discovering that secular progressive oil, and religious orthodox water do not mix. And in and admission that he has can''t mine these two substances, he has quietly shelved the hotly contested religious freedom legislation reforms in Australia. And to be honest, I sympathise with
- [The Mental Health Tsunami Has Arrived on Our Shores: How Should Christians Respond?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-mental-health-tsunami-has-arrived-on-our-shores-how-should-christians-respond/) - The Mental Health Crisis On the surface it seems astounding: Australian young people are among the worst affected by the mental health crisis that is reverberating around the globe since the COVID pandemic hit. On the surface, astounding, but beneath the surface I get it. As reported in The Australian newspaper, The Lancet Psychiatry journal
- [Dual Citizens And the Olympics: Battling it Out For Gold](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dual-citizens-and-the-olympics-battling-it-out-for-gold/) - Well the Olympics are over. And Dual Citizens podcast (me and David Ould) had plenty to say about the Paris Olympic Games. There was plenty of glory and plenty of controversy. Plenty to discuss too, about how moments like these help us as we share the gospel with people. Why not check out the video
- [Richard Dawkins is Sad. He's Had His Facebook Account Deleted And He Wants to Know XY](https://stephenmcalpine.com/richard-dawkins-is-sad-hes-had-his-facebook-account-deleted-and-he-wants-to-know-xy/) - Richard Dawkins is Sad Richard Dawkins is sad. Sad and angry and frustrated. And rightly so, I would imagine. His past few years have been - as one would expect as a person ages - quite enfeebled. And he's especially enfeebled in the public square. Of course there was that terrible conversion to Christianity of
- [Trad Wife or Trans Wife: Choose Your Weird](https://stephenmcalpine.com/trad-wife-or-trans-wife-choose-your-weird/) - Word of The Day: Weird "Weird" is the word of the day. Or this US election cycle at least. Democrat Veep nominee Tim Walz, the progressive Minnesota governor, has labelled the Republican White House hopefuls - Trump and Vance- exactly that. Weird. Here's a taste of where he's at, according to The Times: Walz’s newest
- [No Lasting City: Life Is About to Change for the McAlpines](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-lasting-city-life-is-about-to-change-for-the-mcalpines/) - Life Is About to Change The last year has been a fairly tumultuous one for me. A lot has changed. And today another step for me - and our family - that marks the end of a season and the start of another. Having lost a job in August last year - a job I'd
- [Hey Christian - Be Vexed By The Olympics Opening Ceremony. Be Very Vexed.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-be-vexed-by-the-olympics-opening-ceremony-be-very-vexed/) - Be Vexed. Be Very Vexed. I just assume now that any public performance across the Western world that is staged by super smart, progressive creative designers will contain some element of blasphemy. And it should vex us. Some aspect that will say "up yours" to the Christian gospel or some underpinning Christian understanding of how
- [Why Don't Christian Leaders Call Out Untrustworthy Leadership? The Same Reasons Non-Christian Leaders Don't.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-dont-christian-leaders-call-out-untrustworthy-leadership-the-same-reasons-non-christian-leaders-dont/) - Untrustworthy Leaders We've been around long enough now to know that bad leadership is everywhere. Untrustworthy leadership. The church, it seems, is often - sadly - just as culpable as the world. In fact more culpable. Equipped with the very tools to deal with toxicity, bullying, private ungodliness masked with public piety, we pull our
- [GroupThink: How Christian Leadership Can Avoid the Biden Problem](https://stephenmcalpine.com/groupthink-how-christian-leadership-can-avoid-the-biden-problem/) - Poor Leadership The Biden debacle in which no one on the inside of his campaign is capable of telling him the game is up, is eerily similar to how toxic Christian leadership plays out. In fact so much of it is the same that you would swear that those involved were reading the same
- [Image, It Seems, Is Everything. Even For Christians These Days.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/image-it-seems-is-everything-even-for-christians-these-days/) - So the defining image of the Western political cycle is now set to be this: I'm sitting here in an airport listening in to the conversations thirteen thousand miles away from the scene, and it's pretty much the only conversation. And this image defines it. And then what Trump said next: "Fight, fight, fight!" I've
- [Incredible Babies, Embryos in Limbo, and the Idol of Choice](https://stephenmcalpine.com/incredible-babies-embryos-in-limbo-and-the-idol-of-choice/) - Super-babies Who wouldn't want an incredible baby? Who wouldn't want an incredible toddler? An incredible teen? An incredible adult? A suberbaby? Superbabies are on their way. In a sense it was always going to end up back where we thought we had drawn a line - a eugenics campaign to ensure that only the fittest,
- [Leaning In To Difference: Zoomers and the Future of the Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/leaning-in-to-difference-zoomers-and-the-future-of-the-church/) - Leaning In Not Leaning Back When my son was learning to ride a skateboard we would go down the skate park for what seemed like endless hours, and he would stand at the top of the ramp and try to drop in. Because once you can drop in as a skater, you're away. Everything else
- [Exciting News: Flying Solo and a New Website](https://stephenmcalpine.com/exciting-news-flying-solo-and-a-new-website/) - Some Big Changes Well it's been a while in the making, but I've got some exciting news. My new website is launched today as I lean into the solo speaking, consultancy and writing role that I have been building this past year. I have created a not-for-profit consultancy, with legal and governance structure that will
- [Trump: Derangement Or Delusion: Why Can't It Be Both?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/trump-derangement-or-delusion-why-cant-it-be-both/) - Remember the hard taco/soft taco advertisement? Remember the little girl who solved it by asking "Why can't it be both?" Well here we are again: Are we suffering in the West with Trump Derangement Syndrome or Trump Delusion Syndrome? Why can't it be both? Have a listen to my latest podcast with David Ould on
- [The Death of Fear](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-death-of-fear/) - Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Heb 2:14-15) The Thought of Death I’ve spent a
- [Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be: Why A New Housing Estate Won't Bring Back Community](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nostalgia-isnt-what-it-used-to-be-why-a-new-housing-estate-wont-bring-back-community/) - Bring Back Community I saw this sign on the back of a New Zealand bus a couple of weeks ago and was struck by both the brilliant marketing, as well as the desire for a sense of community that we now simply assume has been lost. It's a call for something that no longer exists,
- [We Are Not Amused: No, King Charles' Portrait Does Not Contain A Hidden Portrait The Devil](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-are-not-amused-no-king-charles-portrait-does-not-contain-a-hidden-portrait-the-devil/) - It's been a painting that has launched a thousand memes. And some of them are very funny. The painting in question is the new official portrait of King Charles III. I think it's fantastic. A real departure from the stuffed shirt paintings of the past. The Queen (his wife!) thinks it is absolutely "him". And
- [A New Podcast? Called Dual Citizens? Get Onto It People!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-new-podcast-called-dual-citizens-get-onto-it-people/) - Hey if you're keen, I'm doing a new podcast called Dual Citizens with David Ould, an Anglican rector from Sydney. Dual Citizens is as it sounds, a conversation about contemporary issues that straddles the tension of living in this kingdom, but belonging to another one. Check out our latest episode of Dual Citizens here, and
- [There's a Religious Earthquake Coming. Can You Feel It?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/theres-a-religious-earthquake-coming-can-you-feel-it/) - There's a religious earthquake coming. You can tell. The first rumblings were a few years ago. Despite the obvious decline in the number of people ticking a religion on the census data, something is shifting. I'm living in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the moment, and the Anglican cathedral in the centre of town is still
- [Russell Brand is Getting Baptised This Sunday.Yes, Really!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/russell-brand-is-getting-baptised-this-sunday-yes-really/) - A short list of things that this time in 2023 I did not think I would be saying in 2024: Arsenal are self-destructing right at the end of the Premiership season again. I am living in New Zealand for an extended period of time. Russell Brand is getting baptised. No, it's absolutely true. Arsenal lost
- [This week we leave Providence Church after ten years ministry](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-week-we-leave-providence-church-after-ten-years-ministry/) - This week - this past Sunday in fact - we left our beloved Providence Church network after a decade of life and ministry in a church setting that morphed from three households and thirty six people, to three churches (one starting in a month) with five congregations and some 500 people. And it's painful to
- [Is Your Hope Cross-Fingered Or Cross-Shaped?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-your-hope-cross-fingered-or-cross-shaped/) - Is your hope cross-fingered or cross-shaped? Because right now, after the latest atrocities in Brussels, it matters. Right now in hundreds of newspapers, blogs, Instagram accounts and Twitter feeds across the world there is a lot of cross-fingered hope going on. And I'm sorry, but it's simply not enough. You see it in the slogans
- [A New Round of Puritanism? I Wish!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-new-round-of-puritanism-i-wish/) - Apparently we've entered a new round of Puritanism in our culture, or what's being referred to as neo-Puritanism. And truth be told, I wish we had! Now before you sign me up as a neo-Puritan about to launch a neo-Mayflower in search of a neo-Promised Land, let me explain. When people think of the Puritans their
- [Daniel 1: Exile Identity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/daniel-1-exile-identity/) - There's a great sketch on Aussie comedy show, Legally Brown by Nazeem Hussein. Have a watch and have a laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2X-qQ-uMW8 Funny eh? And like all good comedy it's able to get away with saying things with humour that are often hot button topics too hot to touch. Now that Nazeem has take the heat
- [Marriage: The Half Time Report](https://stephenmcalpine.com/marriage-the-half-time-report/) - Half Time It is our 28th wedding anniversary today. I am 56 years of age. Single for 28 years. Married to Jill for 28 years. April 20th 1996. The tipping point into longer being married than not. And that's tomorrow. For me. Not for Jill, she is a few years younger than I. But for
- [The Futureproof Leader](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-futureproof-leader/) - The Need For Futureproof Leaders In my new book Futureproof: How to Live for Jesus in a Culture That Keeps on Changing, I outline the manner in which the seismic shifts in the West are putting pressure on the church as well as the wider culture. And I point out how the church is equipped
- [The Blurred Vision of Richard B Hays](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-blurred-vision-of-richard-b-hays/) - The Book Is Not Out Yet, But... Okay, so it's jumping the gun, but because everyone else is doing so, let me get out of the blocks early too. From what it sounds like the venerable Richard B Hays, author of the equally venerable The Moral Vision of The New Testament, has rolled over on
- [The Sexular Age Never Sleeps: Here Are Its Four Stages So Far](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-happens-when-half-your-opponents-outfield-team-in-a-womens-soccer-match-are-men/) - Like rust, The Sexular Age, never sleeps. Inching forward with cancerous intent, it has only one intention: To so completely hollow out the vision of humanity that is drawn from the biblical framework, that no one would believe such a framework possible. The Sexular Age creeps forward, inch by inch, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. But
- [The Sexular Age Won't Stop Until  Christian Schools Aren't Actually Christian.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-sexular-age-wont-stop-until-christian-schools-arent-actually-christian/) - The Sexular Age won't stop until Christian schools aren't actually Christian. Surely that much is clear now given the zero sum game of our opponents in the furious debate around the Religious Discrimination Act in Canberra at the moment. News today that the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is considering doing a deal with the
- [When Being A Few Years Behind The Rest of the World Becomes Dangerous](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-being-a-few-years-behind-the-rest-of-the-world-becomes-dangerous/) - Moving between Australia and the UK several times in my youth (the 1980s) showed me one thing: Australia was always a couple of years behind the UK and Europe. By that I mean, it was behind in terms of fashion, music, styles, direction. If it were 1983 in the UK, it still felt like 1980
- [The "Do's" of the "Do's and Don'ts" for X-Gen Leaders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-dos-of-the-dos-and-donts-for-x-gen-leaders/) - Okay, so last week I wrote about the "don'ts" for X-Gen leaders as we suddenly, and surprisingly perhaps, find ourselves in places where were are influential at a leadership level. As I noted, for many of us in the Kurt Cobain cohort, we thought that we had been passed by. But as I also noted,
- [Hey Gen-X! Now That We Have Our Hands on the Ministry Wheel, Here Are Some Do's and Don'ts.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-gen-x-now-that-we-have-our-hands-on-the-ministry-wheel-here-are-some-dos-and-donts/) - King Charles and Gen X A good friend was commenting over lunch with me the other day that suddenly it seems that the generation that is constantly being passed by when it comes to leadership, the Gen-Xers, is suddenly coming into its own. His generation. My generation. He likened it to the late blooming of
- [When Cultural Tailwinds Become Cultural Headwinds](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-cultural-tailwinds-become-cultural-headwinds/) - TailsWinds I Win/Headwinds I Lose I remember a four times out-and-back marathon I ran a few years ago. Tailwind on the out, and increasingly strong headwind on the back. Every time I neared the turn to head back I felt the surge of dread and adrenalin knowing how hard it was going to get. I
- [The Superbowl Ad Didn't Get Jesus' Superpower](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-superbowl-ad-didnt-get-jesus-superpower/) - Advertising Jesus' Superpower There has been a lot of ink spilled over the He Gets Us Superbowl ad. Here's some more! For all of the to-ing and fro-ing, the biggest mystery to me is why a multi million dollar advertising campaign didn't play to the product's strengths. Now I'm not in the outraged "It did
- [When Your Race Is Cut Short](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-your-race-is-cut-short/) - A Race Cut Short Like so many recreational runners around the world - not to mention the elites - I felt numb this morning reading of the death of marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum. I still can't believe it. We all went onto social media, and read the reports and shared our grief. The
- [Michael J Tinker Talks Effective And Creative Kids' Music Ministry](https://stephenmcalpine.com/michael-j-tinker-and-stephen-mcalpine/) - If you're on the look-out for good music for children at church, or looking for an outreach ministry performer, it can be a vexed process. On one hand you don't want boring. It's hard enough keeping children's attention span these days without turgid, unsingable or twee music. On the other hand, exciting doesn't always mean
- [Collision: Alistair is Dug in While Doug Begs to Differ](https://stephenmcalpine.com/collision-alistair-is-dug-in-while-doug-begs-to-differ/) - Doug and Alistair Much ink has been spilled over Alistair Begg's pastoral advice to a grandmother who asked if it would be okay to attend her grandson's wedding to his trans partner. Given a number of caveats (none of them affirming of the position and all of them in the knowledge that the grandson is
- [We Need More Repellently Attractional Churches](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-need-more-repellently-attractional-churches/) - Is the Attractional Church Model Really Dead? There's been something of a conversation about the impending demise of the "attractional church" model in evangelicalism, sparked by the impending visit of Carey Nieuwhof to Australia's shores. As reported by Perth's very own Backyard Missionary (and good friend of this blog - and this blogger - )
- [Okay Thought Leaders: It's Time to Stop Bagging Out the "Average Church Member"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/okay-thought-leaders-its-time-to-stop-bagging-out-the-average-church-member/) - "Average Church Memes" 2024 would be a good time for "thought leaders" to stop bagging out everyday Christians (if that is even a term). You know what I meme, er mean? Already this year I've seen a bunch of quotes on socials from para-church experts or independent church consultants that say things like: Most churches
- [Should We Give the Aussie Lamb Ads The Pork Chop?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/should-we-give-the-aussie-lamb-ads-the-pork-chop/) - Lamb Ads Will Get the Pork Chop I'm not a betting man, but I reckon some time soon The Australian Lamb ads will get the pork chop. It's had its day. It's going off like a bucket of prawns in the sun mate! (Insert Aussie witticism here). The famous Aussie lamb ads are becoming cringy
- [Is Russell Finally Branding Himself A Christian?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-russell-finally-branding-himself-a-christian/) - Branded! If you haven't seen the Youtube video of enfant terrible/comedian/possible sexual predator (choose your poison) Russell Brand declaring that he's getting seriously interested in Christianity - nay, seriously interested in Christ himself - then stop everything and watch it now (I've helpfully provided it for you): Well that's kinda putting it out there, particularly
- [The Pride Round](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-pride-round/) - Pick Your Pride Last night my son and I attended the Pride Round. Which Pride Round? Well pick any sport these days. Pick every sport! Pride Rounds in 2024 are like belly-buttons - everybody's got one. But as it happened, I booked tickets to Australia's National Basketball League to watch the Perth Wildcats playing a
- [New Year, Old You: Do Liturgical Calendars Help?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/new-year-old-you-do-liturgical-calendars-help/) - You have to laugh at it right? But for so many people, and I don't just mean Christians, this is the reality of the decision to lean into a new year and be a "new you". We all start the year off with a new liturgical goal: A fresh sheet of paper. So often the
- [The Christmas Syndrome: When Everyday Is Christmas No Day Will  Be](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-christmas-syndrome-when-everyday-is-christmas-no-day-will-be/) - When Every Day is Christmas The best Pixar movie is The Incredibles (I'm not taking an online poll). And the best line from The Incredibles is: When everyone is super, no one will be. When the evil Syndrome utters that line, in light of his attempt to demythologise "the Supers" - whom he despises -
- [Dolly's Torn Arm](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dollys-torn-arm/) - A story of Christmas past My mother remembers her early Christmases as a child in Dublin, and the deep abiding joy they brought her. A joy, that has to be said, did not come naturally, given the circumstances in her life. Conceived out of wedlock in a strict Belfast home, mum’s mum and dad married
- [What Now For Those Evangelicals Who Fled to Rome?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-now-for-those-evangelicals-who-fled-to-rome/) - From Rome To Where? Where to now for the young evangelicals who left the Reformed faith for the safety and security of Rome? A Rome whose walls would never be breached, we were led to believe, by the ravages of the post-Christian Sexular Age? The announcement by the Pope that same sex relationships can be
- [Where Is The Source of Your Joy This Christmas?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/where-is-the-source-of-your-joy-this-christmas/) - From the World Or To The World? As 25 December nears, it’s hard to know where to find beauty and meaning, let alone any joy. Best in these circumstances, I often think, to look to the universe – the stars and the moon – for comfort. These words come from one of the most grindingly
- [Steve's Top Ten Blog Post List: 2023 (10 through 6)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/steves-top-ten-blog-post-list-2023-10-through-6/) - But First A Light Interlude Ok it's time for lists. If Spotify can do it so can I. Incidentally, my Spotify "most listened to musical act for 2023" was Byron Bay born, but Berlin based five piece outfit - Parcels. I was a 0.01% listener, which says that when I got down a rabbit hole
- [Does God Owe Us Something Better?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/does-god-owe-us-something-better/) - Something Better? I was lamenting on the phone with a friend yesterday about the loss of both of our jobs this year. The frustration was real, especially for him as he's subsequently missed out on a couple of roles that would have suited him well. And here we are coming up to Christmas and he
- [Actually ladies, the Roman Empire never crosses my mind ... except when it does](https://stephenmcalpine.com/actually-ladies-the-roman-empire-never-crosses-my-mind-except-when-it-does/) - That Pesky Roman Empire So apparently men are prone to casting an admiring glance towards the Roman Empire every day or so. That's what I have been reading lately. And the whole concept has launched more memes than the Trojans - or indeed the Romans - launched ships. Yes, it's a huge discovery, that, apparently,
- [Don't Think About Pink Elephants: When Gay Conservatives Go Rogue on Orthodox Christianity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-think-about-pink-elephants-when-gay-conservatives-go-rogue-on-orthodox-christianity/) - Pink Elephants You know the funny little trick: "Quick! Don't think about pink elephants!" And suddenly, a herd of pachyderm of a particular colour palette are all that you can think about. Try as you might you cannot block them out, loud and incessant as they are with all of their florid trumpeting and vaguely
- [Douglas Wilson Isn't Being Manly, He's Being Teenagerly](https://stephenmcalpine.com/douglas-wilson-isnt-being-manly-hes-being-teenagerly/) - Slamming Doors My son is a teenager, but he's never slammed his bedroom door. Not once. He's not that kind of kid. No teenagerly displays of petulance. My daughter on the other hand... Well she was a feisty teenager, for sure. In our old house, our old wooden house, with large solid jarrah doors, she
- [Instagram Islam, Queers For Palestine and TikTok Hijabs](https://stephenmcalpine.com/instagram-islam-queers-for-palestine-and-tiktok-hijabs/) - Islam: It's Trending Maybe the historians picking over the ashes of Western Civilisation will call it "Rapid Onset Religious Dysphoria". Or at least that's what I'm calling the sudden social media trend among ostensibly progressive, post-religious, sexually fluid activists to come over all Islamic all of a sudden. That's right parents: Put aside your fears
- [Weak Leadership isn't Just Weak, it's Dangerous](https://stephenmcalpine.com/weak-leadership-isnt-just-weak-its-dangerous/) - Weak Leadership Time and time again we see bad leadership decisions made by weak leaders. And the church - and parachurch organisations attached to the church -, are sadly some of the worst offenders. And the worst repeat offenders. Not simply the same leaders in the same places making the same mistakes. But other leaders
- [Ayaan Hirsi Ali says she's now a Christian (but only if that's okay with the rest of us)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/aayan-hirsi-ali-says-shes-now-a-christian-but-only-if-thats-okay-with-the-rest-of-us/) - The Right Kinda Christian? Several years ago I was having dinner with my wife's long-term university friends who had all studied psychology with her back in the day. Great bunch. They'd all met in their late teens in their first couple of weeks on campus, and here they were in their forties still meeting up,
- [Polarised: Gunning Down Activists and Tearing Down Posters](https://stephenmcalpine.com/polarised-gunning-down-activists-and-tearing-down-posters/) - This is a still picture from a video of a 77 year old former law professor gunning down two environmental activists who had blocked a road in Panama as a protest. A video is also available on Twitter. I won't link that. Note the spent casing as it jumps from the gun. This is the
- [Actually Max, the post-Christian West IS Babylon: It just depends what you mean by it.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/actually-max-the-post-christian-west-is-babylon-it-just-depends-what-you-mean-by-it/) - I wasn't able to attend the 2023 Freedom For Faith conference recently. I did attend the 2022 version where I was one of the keynote speakers, whereupon I promptly got COVID (my first awful round) on the trip back. I was also scurrilously misquoted by The Financial Review, whose reporter made me out to be
- [When Death Starts to Take Our Friends](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-death-starts-to-take-our-friends/) - Death In Our Fifties So you reach an age when your friends all start to die. News that Friends star, Matthew Perry, died suddenly on Sunday after an apparent heart attack in his hot tub, met with the usual outpouring of grief. And rightly so. He was a gifted man, a tortured man, an honest
- [Euthanasia Enthusiasm: Coming to a State Near You](https://stephenmcalpine.com/euthanasia-enthusiasm-coming-to-a-state-near-you/) - Palliative Care Receives a Death Sentence The NSW Labor Government has shown us what the future of aged care and looking after the terminally ill is going to be like. It's going to be non-existent. In the future, indeed in the present, it is increasingly the case that you will be obligated to die as
- [DeLorean Philosophy Is Back](https://stephenmcalpine.com/delorean-philosophy-is-back/) - Hi folks My podcast DeLorean Philosophy is back for a second season. It kicks off with a bang, an overview of the referendum here in Australia around The Voice. Check it out here:
- [Are Churches Growing Or Are Christians Just Shifting?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/are-churches-growing-or-are-christians-just-shifting/) - This is a guest post by a friend of mine, Dr. Steven McCready, who is the Senior Minister of Riverview Church here in Perth. I'm writing this to my brothers and sisters, the pastors of the churches in Perth. I am a guest in this great city, and I consider it an honour to co-labour
- [A Sexular Stage](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-sexular-stage/) - A Sexular Stage The stage is now set for a very public divide in evangelicalism around the best pastoral approach to those church participants who are advocates of the Sexular Age, or who find themselves struggling with sexual sins that the wider culture celebrates. And once again it's been done from a big stage. A
- [Hey Aussie Church: Watch out for the COSTCO Narcissists](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-aussie-church-watch-out-for-the-costco-narcissists/) - COSTCO You all know COSTCO, right? Perhaps some of you have even shopped there (let me know in a DM if you're too ashamed to admit it in public). Here's the thing about COSTCO though - the really great thing: It doesn't pretend to be more than it is. It's cheap and cheerful and it's
- [Hey Leaders: Let's Do Hard (Christian)Things](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-leaders-lets-do-hard-christianthings/) - Do Hard Things I love the new book by high performance coach Steve Magness, Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness. I've followed Steve's career as a high performance coach since he was the whistle-blower at the Nike Oregon Project, in which marathon legend Alberto Salazar sailed
- [Five Lessons That Big Ange Can Teach Christian Leaders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/six-lessons-that-big-ange-can-teach-christian-leaders/) - My Big Ange Dilemma I am a Gunners supporter. An Arsenal Football Club tragic. From way back. 1980. Living in Australia watching late night replays as a band of white English blokes hoof the ball forward for a nil-all draw on a muddy pitch in the shadows of the standing-only chilly Highbury terraces. Now? It's
- [Hey Christians: Let's All Give Two Cheers For Nominalism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christians-lets-all-give-two-cheers-for-nominalism/) - Nominalism Schnominalism Nominal Christianity has become the whipping boy for many a consultant/speaker on the Christian circuit these days. In fact it's become a whole cottage industry. To my shame, I have veered dangerously close to it myself in presentations. Especially when I say things like "It's only when Christianity is believed and practiced by
- [The Day I Lost My Marbles](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-day-i-lost-my-marbles/) - Let me tell you about the day I lost my marbles. It was back in Grade Three at Palmyra Primary School and there was a marble craze running. Every recess and lunch time, the playground was filled with the clink of glass on glass and the battle cries of the victors and vanquished as we
- [The Matildas: It's All About Football, Sex and Transcendence.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-matildas-its-all-about-football-sex-and-transcendence/) - And He Scores! I remember the best goal I ever scored in a football match. Okay, in a soccer match for you minority football codes in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. That goal! It had a sense of, a sense of transcendence. My best goal ever. A desperately fast back-and-forth cup final match, when
- [Victoria's Anti-Conversion Legislation Promotional Is A Soothing Bed-Time Story](https://stephenmcalpine.com/victorias-anti-conversion-legislation-promotional-is-a-soothing-bed-time-story/) - The Victorian Government has just published its media information pack on conversion therapy. And I've gotta say, the YouTube video its has produced takes the biscuit. And it's taken a leaf out of casting central, by employing Mr Bed Time Story Guy to provide the voice over. As I was watching it I wanted to
- [I'm Reading "The Case For Christian Nationalism", So That You Don't Have To (Pt 1)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/im-reading-the-case-for-christian-nationalism-so-that-you-dont-have-to-part-1/) - We'll get to Stephen Wolfe's The Case For Christian Nationalism in a moment, but first... It's an angry political world. And Christians are not immune. Angry Politics I am not immune. You are not immune. It's angry politics at twenty paces - even among Christians. I'm a conservative so I get angry from the Right.
- [Hey Virginia: Christian Male Friendship OutWhams Wham!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-virginia-christian-male-friendship-outwhams-wham/) - The Horror of Wham! I spent my mid-teens avoiding Wham! It was tough, but somebody had to do it. Somebody had to take a hit for the team. Somebody had to show the West Australian teenage population of the early 1980s that Ska-- the sound of back-blocks London -, followed by several years of Gothic
- [Why Do We Affirm What We Affirm?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-we-affirm-what-we-affirm/) - My previous blog post on an affirming church kicked up a lot of dust. But the dust will settle. And as it settles, here's what clear in its wake: There is zero unity on this issue in so-called evangelical churches and there never will be. And the reason is as I have said - we
- [Hope In a Changing Culture](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-as-our-hope/) - Jesus As Our Hope In my forthcoming book "Futureproof: How To Live For Jesus In a Culture That's Constantly Changing", I deal with the anxieties of our age and how the good news of Jesus leans into those anxieties and provides better answers than what is on offer in our society. In this extended interview
- [Make Sure You Don't Join a Sexular Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/make-sure-you-dont-join-a-sexular-church/) - The Sexular Age just keeps rolling on. Rolling on like waves on a beach. Tsunami waves. Crashing into a church near you. Let me explain. On a recent interstate trip at a conference I spoke at recently, I was chatting with a woman who attended a church in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Now, the
- [Cancelling Hillsong Music: The New Purity Culture](https://stephenmcalpine.com/cancel-hillsong-music/) - The news from several sources, including this article at Christianity Today, that there is a push for Christians to cancel Hillsong music on the basis of the moral trainwrecks that have occurred there in recent years is a worry. It's a bad idea. The admirable Julie Roys, who I count as one of the good
- [Scooby Doo, Oxfam and The Sexular Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/scooby-doo-oxfam-and-the-sexular-age/) - Let's call this The Scooby Doo moment. You know the show that started in the 70s? Crazy kids in a van called The Mystery Machine, with a dog called Scooby Doo (Arf-Arf!)? Always turning up at haunted houses or the like, exposing the evil criminals hiding behind scary ghoul masks, or dressed up as werewolves.
- [The Revolution Eats Its Own #329 Phillip Schofield](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-revolution-eats-its-own-329-phillip-schofield/) - “Do you want me to die? Because that's where I am." The slow-motion car crash, and subsequent public flogging of one-time breakfast TV darling, Phillip Schofield, is unbearable to watch. Though as in all slow-motion car crashes, many people can't turn away. "Cultural swivel-headery" we might call it. Or perhaps plain old Schadenfreude. But
- [Tim Keller's Last Word on Forgiveness](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tim-kellers-last-word-on-forgiveness/) - Perhaps it's fitting that Tim Keller’s last book was Forgive: How Should I and How Can I?. In an era in which secular thinkers such as historian Tom Holland, and cultural commentator, Douglas Murray, worry about the loss of Christian virtues once taken for granted, this book seems a fitting final rejoinder to where we
- [The Reason for Tim](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-reason-for-tim/) - Why did God give us Tim Keller? News of his death overnight has opened up a veritable floodgate of love, grief and joy, gratitude and reflection. And all of that across the evangelical spectrum. Not a day goes by on social media in which evangelicals do not pile into each other, the theologies of the
- [Believe it or Not: One Day Drag Queen Story Hour Will Be a Drag](https://stephenmcalpine.com/believe-it-or-not-one-day-drag-queen-story-hour-will-be-a-drag/) - Believe it or not, there will come a time when it will be a drag to be dragged by mum and dad - or mum and mum - or dad and dad, or dad and dad and mum, or (you get the picture) to the local library and watch a camp man in sparkly, erotic
- [Take Courage: You're Not a Sole Survivor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/take-courage-youre-not-a-sole-survivor/) - The news coming out of the UK evangelical movement associated with the Anglican Church, Soul Survivor, is depressing. Depressing because it's bad. And depressing because it's all too familiar. Not that everything about the youth-focussed ministry led by Mike Pilavachi was depressing. Or familiar. Sure we'd heard about the massaging of young interns that occurred
- [The Forced Government Takeover Of a Catholic Hospital - And a Subtraction Story](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-forced-government-takeover-by-a-catholic-hospital-and-a-subtraction-story/) - The ABC in Australia is today reporting the forced takeover of a Catholic hospital by the Australian Capital Territory's government in Canberra. The Catholic Hospital, with the rather cute religious order name of "The Little Company of Mary" was acquired without the consent of the local Catholic Archbishop. The ABC reports the Archbishop's vicar-general, Richard
- [Living in None-Land: How the Rest of the West Can Help American Christians in Their Decline](https://stephenmcalpine.com/living-in-none-land-how-the-rest-of-the-west-can-help-american-christians-in-their-decline/) - Post-religious America is somewhat like the angry teenager who, in seeking to self-identify in what seems like a suffocating household, becomes self-aware. Do you get what I mean? Self-aware of how transgressive they are. Self-aware of what the house rules are. Self-awareness is akin to an enlightening of the soul. The teen, bless his little
- [Welcome to Wrexham: Welcome to Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/welcome-to-wrexham-welcome-to-church/) - I mentioned in my previous blog post that a friend (a Melbourne pastor who also works with City To City Australia with me), managed to get to a match involving the famed Wrexham FC from the Disney + series. Here's a great guest post reflection from Pete Greenwood on how we can do church "Wrexham
- [Ryan, Rob, Wrexham, and Pastoral Ministry](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ryan-rob-wrexham-and-pastoral-ministry/) - If you haven't already heard the football fairy-tale story of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchasing a struggling Welsh football club and bringing it back into the professional English Football League, then are you really alive? Catch up for goodness sake! And you can catch up. On Disney+. Reynolds and McElhenney pitched the
- [Young People: Deranged But Cute](https://stephenmcalpine.com/young-people-deranged-but-cute/) - I'm not saying that. Nick Cave is. When asked by fans on his RedHandFiles blog about why the heck the old Nick Cave is attending the upcoming coronation of King Charles III, the implicit idea behind the question was "You''ve changed as you've gotten older. You used to be rock and roll!" The young Nick
- [Hey Christian Schools Leader: You're About to Be Outed.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-schools-leader-youre-about-to-be-outed/) - In a whole new level of irony, leaders of Christian Schools are going to be outed over the stance on the sexuality and identity issues that so many for so long have tried to fudge. In a classic case of role reversal, the headmaster of a renowned independent school in Sydney is being called out
- [Hey Remember: There are Christian Schools and there are "Christian" Schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-remember-there-are-christian-schools-and-there-are-christian-schools/) - In the current furore in Australia around who can be the student captain of a Christian school, it's important to remember that there are Christian schools and there are "Christian" schools. You know what I mean by that? Simply this: There are schools that are committed to staffing and teaching according to a biblical/gospel framework
- [Marriage Anarchy In the UK: Nothing Rotten About Johnny](https://stephenmcalpine.com/marriage-anarchy-in-the-uk-nothing-rotten-about-johnny/) - Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols were the enfants terribles of the repressed mid to late 1970s Britain. They were rude and sweary on national television, they sang (?) songs about anarchy, and rendered an ironic version of God Save the Queen that was clearly a poke at the historic institution of the monarchy. To
- [Mr Beales](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mr-beales/) - Mr Beales was my form teacher in my one and only year at John Curtin Senior High School in the port town of Fremantle, here in Western Australia, back in 1980. Freo - as we call it - was not the hip, urban, and expensive place it is today, and the school was a mixed
- [Abusive Leaders or the Sexular Culture? What's Worse for the Church?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/abusive-leaders-or-the-sexular-culture-whats-worse-for-the-church/) - So what's the biggest damage being done to the church? Is it from the "out there" Sexular Age, or the internal abuse that we see played out in so many sad ways. External or internal? What's more likely to burn us down if we're not careful? Well, as the taco shell girl says when faced
- [Twitriol](https://stephenmcalpine.com/twitriol/) - In a recent Substack article, famed New York psychologist and academic, Jonathan Haidt, showed conclusive evidence that the rapid rise in anxiety among Gen Z is directly linked to the widescale uptake of social media platforms in 2012. Faced with growing assertions that the levels of anxiety among younger generations was down to "bad politics"
- [Kate Forbes Is Done (or Why an Orthodox Christian Can Never Lead a Western Political Party Again)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/kate-forbes-is-done-or-why-an-orthodox-christian-can-never-lead-a-western-political-party-again/) - Kate Forbes stands little chance of becoming the First Minister of Scotland. And this is due to her publicly stated religious beliefs. You can't blame her for being honest. It's kinda refreshing to watch that level of dishonesty from my vantage point in Australia, where already there are so many up in arms around the
- [With No Martyn Iles The ACL Risks Becoming The Australian Christendom Lobby](https://stephenmcalpine.com/with-no-martyn-iles-the-acl-risks-becoming-the-australian-christendom-lobby/) - I like Martyn Iles, the now-former MD of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). I would consider him an ally in the gospel, and increasingly a good acquaintance/friend. Martyn's services have now been terminated, and it has, apparently, much to do with the direction he was taking the organisation in. If anyone has any secret sauce
- [What Do We Take Pride In During Pride Month?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-do-we-take-pride-in-during-pride-month/) - I was speaking to a Chinese ministry worker in Sydney last week who told me that when a pastor is released from prison in mainland China, his church community does the exact opposite of what would be expected, especially in an honour/shame culture such as China. Instead of skulking out by a side door to
- [Will You Be Our Valentine?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/will-you-be-our-valentine/) - It was never going to stop at redefining marriage. I think we all knew that. For a while there every second article in every second mainstream media news outlet's lifestyle or relationships section was about gay marriage. But with Valentine's Day coming up, things have moved on. And moved on apace. Now every second article
- [The West Was Post-Christian: Until It Wasn't.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-west-was-post-christian-until-it-wasnt/) - I jumped into a taxi last week to get to the airport. It was super early, still dark and no chance of a lift from any member of the family (it was 4:30am after all). It's just a twelve to fifteen minute drive to the airport from my house. It's nice and handy for the
- [The Australian Law Reform Commission Has Christian Schools in its Sights.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-australian-law-reform-commission-has-christian-schools-in-its-sights/) - If anyone was under any illusions that there would be a "live and let live" attitude from the purveyors of the Sexular Age, then the recommendations of The Australian Law Reform Commission, in terms of how Christian schools should be able to staff themselves, will dispel such illusions. It's quite a depressing first-up read. Make
- [ChatGPT: What No A-I hath seen...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/chatgpt-what-no-a-i-hath-seen/) - The UK TV series HUMANS (the A" is upside down) from a few years ago was a cracking insight into the world of AI, in a near future UK setting. Humanoids are synthetics or "synths" as they are known, and they have been created that are remarkably real, and they do the bulk of the
- [Jesus, Evangelism and Our Mindarie Marina Holiday](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-evangelism-and-our-mindarie-marina-holiday/) - We had a staycation this year for our summer holiday. In recent years we've meandered south of Perth a couple of hundred kilometres to the more temperate part of the state, and done the beaches, restaurants and wineries in a milder summer than Perth will receive. This year though, fed up with two years of
- [Our Dads Are All Dying. So What Are We Learning From It?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/our-dads-are-all-dying-so-what-are-we-learning-from-it/) - It's six years ago today since I conducted my father's funeral. A bittersweet experience to be sure. Dunno where that time went. But here's the thing, I'm at that age where the dads of so many of my friends are dying. offhand I can think of five recently, In fact I am starting to count
- [Was The Pope a Catholic?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/was-the-pope-a-catholic/) - With the death of Pope Benedict XVI the Roman Catholic Church lost one of its great intellectuals. Not merely of recent years, but across the centuries. He truly was an amazing man with an amazing mind. His understanding of the cultural pressures those of faith face today was equally great. He saw the enervating nature
- [You've Completely Caught Up For Now](https://stephenmcalpine.com/youve-completely-caught-up-for-now/) - So I was scrolling Facebook when I got this message: Wow! You mean like, completely caught up? Well, for now at least. But hang on a minute, it's telling us that 'Something went wrong". You've completely caught up for now, because something went wrong. In other words, we need to keep you chasing something. If
- [Christian Foster Parents, Gay Children and Six Thousand Dollars Worth of Hurt Feelings](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-foster-parents-gay-children-and-six-thousand-dollars-worth-of-hurt-feelings/) - Nearly three years ago, right before the pandemic locked down my home state and there were more important things to worry about, I wrote about the case of a Western Australian couple who had been rejected as short term foster carers by a government funded adoption agency. You can read that article here. The case
- [Andrew Thorburn Vindicated (and before Jesus returns too!)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/andrew-thorburn-vindicated-and-before-jesus-returns-too/) - If there's one thing we know as Christians is that we won't always get vindicated in this age. The slurs and opprobrium may well stick this side of the Parousia, and we know that there have been millions of Christians who have suffered greatly for the sake of the gospel, including the loss of their
- [Christian Word of the Year: Winsome](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-word-of-the-year-winsome/) - So here's me choosing my Christian Word Of The Year. Drum roll please, "The Christian word of the year is WINSOME!" Taa-dah! That's right, winsome! It's everywhere you look at the moment. So please step forward "winsome" and take a bow. You've been over-used, over-realised, under-appreciated, over-stated, undered and overed, and whatever else can happen
- [When Voluntary Assisted Dying Becomes Coercive Assisted Dying](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-voluntary-assisted-dying-becomes-coercive-assisted-dying/) - The voluntary assisted dying (VAD) push in Australia is set to win the aesthetics of the ethical war, as it inevitably does elsewhere. And the latest stoush with the Catholic Church over comments by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who warned that the last rites may be withheld from those who undertake VAD has ramped up
- [The Manual: Being A Good Man Isn't Automatic](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-manual-being-a-good-man-isnt-automatic/) - Australian author and church leader Al Stewart has done us a great service with his book The Manual: Getting Masculinity Right. The subtitle says it all. A lot's been wrong with masculinity. Or perhaps a lot has been said to be wrong about masculinity. Or perhaps it's both. Al's book cuts through the toxic masculinity
- [Will There Be a Faith Left For the New King to Defend?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/will-there-be-a-faith-left-for-the-new-king-to-defend/) - In my latest DeLorean Philosophy podcast I explore the ramifications (or some of them at least) of the dramatic drop in adherence to Christianity in England and Wales. Just as with the latest Australian census data, the equivalent in the UK shows a big decline in adherence, (the low-bar default position), while there's been a
- [Just Breathe, Just Breathe, Just Breathe](https://stephenmcalpine.com/just-breathe-just-breathe-just-breathe/) - The Nick Cave concert that Jill and I went to last night was a spiritual experience. And I use that term advisedly. I also use it in light of the fact that the review of the concert by our local newspaper also made the same connection. Have a look at the header above. The term
- [Sexual Strangling: It's The New Vanilla](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sexual-strangling-its-the-new-vanilla/) - It was this line that got me. In a shocking article in The Sydney Morning Herald today, sexual safety educator, Maree Crabbe made this statement: “Young people speak about ‘choking’, external pressure to the throat, being so incredibly mainstream that its almost vanilla now, that it’s considered to be a normal part of a sexual
- [Australians All Let Us Rejoice, For We are Safe and Free](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australians-all-let-us-rejoice-for-we-are-safe-and-free/) - In one of the greater insights into the national Australian psyche, famed expat cultural commentator, Clive James, made this statement about his fellow Aussies: “The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts, but that so many of them are descended from prison officers.” In other words, as much
- [Serving The Thirsty: The Old Church of the Golden Nectar](https://stephenmcalpine.com/serving-the-thirsty-the-old-church-of-the-golden-nectar/) - We went to our newly renovated local pub/hotel last night after work for a meal and a drink, and to check out what is a stunning renovation of an almost 100 year old building. It's the Bassendean Hotel, about ten minutes walk from our house. It used to be fairly downtrodden and tired, but after
- [Crisis Climate: DeLorean Philosophy Latest Podcast](https://stephenmcalpine.com/crisis-climate-delorean-philosophy-latest-podcast/) - Hey if you want to have a listen to my latest podcast, here's the link on Apple podcasts
- [Video Discipleship In a Digital Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/video-discipleship-in-a-digital-age/) - Tim Keller once posited a question along these lines: Why is it that so many young church-going people lose their faith within a term or so of going to college? They attend church growing up, youth group, parachurch camps etc. They do the whole Christian young person thing. But one semester into university, they come
- [The Cheap Thrill of Heterodoxy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-cheap-thrill-of-heterodoxy/) - One of the key features in the church is that you get to see the battle between orthodoxy and heterodoxy (the move away from orthodoxy) played out in real time. In every generation. Sure there are always different issues coming to the fore, depending often on what the cultural pressure is doing. Heterodox views always
- [Andrew Thorburn is Lawyering Up: I Think That's the Right Move](https://stephenmcalpine.com/andrew-thorburn-is-lawyering-up-i-think-thats-the-right-move/) - Essendon's CEO-for-a-day Andrew Thorburn has engaged with lawyers and is reserving the right to sue the Essendon Football Club. Perhaps you're wondering why the bloke who wrote "Being the Bad Guys" thinks we should be pushing back. Aren't we supposed to be like Jesus? Isn't our stance towards the hardening secular world not to assert
- [Strange Rites, Stranger Things and Even Stranger Bedfellows](https://stephenmcalpine.com/strange-rites-stranger-things-and-even-stranger-bedfellows/) - If you haven't read Tara Isabella Burton's book Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, you must. It's an exceptional socio-cultural exploration of the shift in the West away from institutional religion to what she terms (and it's a self-explanatory great term), intuitional religion. Yes that's right. Just as with my term "A Sexular
- [Some Short Thoughts about Kurt Cobain, Nick Cave and a Ministry Fail](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-short-thoughts-about-kurt-cobain-nick-cave-and-a-ministry-fail/) - Let me tell you about a pastoral ministry fail of mine. A small one, nothing major, but, in hindsight, a fail nonetheless. It has to do with Kurt Cobain. Or at least it has to do with his death. I remember the day that Kurt Cobain died. Many of my generation do. My generation is
- [DeLorean Philosophy Latest Ep: Faith Under Fire](https://stephenmcalpine.com/delorean-philosophy-latest-ep-faith-under-fire/) - The latest episode has just dropped. You can find it here. We're exploring the increasing level of suspicion and hostility towards orthodox Christian views on sexuality and gender. Send it to a friend.
- [Disturbing New Development: Christians Seen Attending Church Wearing Casual Clothes](https://stephenmcalpine.com/disturbing-new-development-christians-seen-attending-church-wearing-casual-clothes/) - In a disturbing new development in the religious bigotry scandal in Australia, evangelical Christians have taken to wearing casual clothes in order to "fit in." While there have been reports in the past of this fundamentalist cohort wearing stylish clothes, though usually about four months after the general populace has moved on to another fashion
- [The Dust Will Settle - Before the Next Round](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-dust-will-settle-before-the-next-round/) - Am I using a boxing analogy? Yes, but I've been saying it's Babylon all along, and not Athens. If anyone thinks that is not the case, then Kochie's interview of City on a Hill's Guy Mason on the Sunrise show yesterday morning - and I use the term "interview" advisedly -, didn''t sound much like
- [Eight Short Lessons From the Essendon CEO Saga](https://stephenmcalpine.com/eight-short-lessons-from-the-essendon-ceo-saga/) - It's been a breathless 24 hours. Essendon CEO, Andrew Thorburn was barely in the job a day and then he resigned. And lots of media and social media flurry around it all. I've obviously had a bit to say on it, but while the virtual ink is still a bit damp on my previous posts,
- [Well They Got Their Man: And It Only Took One Day](https://stephenmcalpine.com/well-they-got-their-man-and-it-only-took-one-day/) - Sometimes I just get weary of Christians who say that if we were only winsome enough in the public square then we could be up front Christians and take our place in meaningful corporate roles with no pushback. As if we never are winsome. And as if winsome is even a strategy that will stave
- [Good News: Incoming Essendon CEO Won't Pressure Players' Partners to Have Abortions.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/good-news-incoming-essendon-ceo-wont-pressure-players-partners-to-have-abortions/) - Well you can say what you like about the new Essendon CEO, Andrew Thorburn and his bigoted hate-filled ideas around sexuality (The ever irenic Premier of Victoria's, Dan Andrews', descriptors not mine), but rest assured he won't be pressuring the club's indigenous players to get their partners to have abortion for the good of the
- [Okay, So it's a Secular Age, But Jesus is Still Working](https://stephenmcalpine.com/okay-so-its-a-secular-age-but-jesus-is-still-working/) - I had the sweet opportunity to have a long chat with a "baby Christian" the other week at a church gathering. Standing outside on the lawn in the warm sun, live music in the background, a long conga line waiting in the food queue beside me, I was introduced to a woman in her thirties
- [My New Podcast in John Dickson's Undeceptions Stable](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-new-podcast-in-john-dicksons-undeceptions-stable/) - Hi folks (and apologies for those who received an earlier (broken) link. I am pleased to say that the Undeceptions podcast stable has seen fit to ask me to produce a series of 14 podcasts called Delorean Philosophy. The idea behind the series is, as with Back to the Future, take a glimpse as to
- [The Edge](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-edge/) - It's all about having "the edge" isn't it? In elite sport it's all about having the edge over your opponents. Elite sport is determined not even by the one-percenters, but by the tenth-of-a-one-percenters. Non-elites don't understand "the edge". We line up on a local running race with all sorts of types and body shapes and
- [One Last Magnificent Porous Day](https://stephenmcalpine.com/one-last-magnificent-porous-day/) - For one brief day the world was porous again. For one brief day we recognised that the invisible world still leaks into the visible. For one brief day - perhaps one final day - transcendence was admitted into the public square in the modern Western world, and we all stood and acknowledged it. For one
- [Where I Write From](https://stephenmcalpine.com/where-i-write-from/) - I was 55 yesterday. For a change I did not feel slightly depressed or super reflective on my birthday. I think that since my brush with serious illness at 42 years of age I have watched and metered every year out carefully. Birthdays are houses of parties, and I am often aware of the house
- [Wrestling with Soccer on Sunday Or Death in Afghanistan? You Decide!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wrestling-with-soccer-on-sunday-or-death-in-afghanistan-you-decide/) - There is a great gulf between the Christianity that wrestles with whether to worship at the cost of imprisonment and death, and the Christianity that wrestles with whether the kids should play soccer on Sunday morning.John Piper One of the recurring problems that Facebook throws up is "whataboutism". You know what I mean by that
- [The day the Queen Met the King](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-day-the-queen-met-the-king/) - Today, the Queen met the King. Today, the Queen, who had so often heard the term "Your Majesty" spoken to her, would have spoken them to someone else. The one true King. I am away from home travelling interstate and I woke to some messages from friends in the UK that simply said "Big news
- [Hey Christian, Don't "Quiet Quit" your Faith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-dont-quiet-quit-your-faith/) - Hey Christian, are you in danger of quiet quitting your faith? You know what quiet quitting is, don't you? Quiet quitting is a response to the "bring your whole self to work" mantra. Employees are saying "Enough is enough!, I'm going to do as much work as I need to to get by in the
- [Desiring Beard](https://stephenmcalpine.com/desiring-beard/) - Desiring God's recent blog post by Greg Morse about beards and their theological significance - nay, their desirability to demonstrate God-given manliness - seems like a pretty close shave towards patriarchy if you ask me. It's time for some bald facts. I am not sure why Desiring God had to become Desiring Beard. It feels
- [Tate Modern](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tate-modern/) - Despite the temptation to label the misogynistic, abusive and downright dangerous attitudes towards women held by Andrew Tate as "Neanderthal", his views are quite modern. Very modern actually. Perhaps you've never heard of Tate. Well google him. He's a US/Brit celebrity who was once kicked off Britain's Big Brother when a video of him beating
- [Christian Employees: They Either Love Jesus Or They're Obsessed with Sex. Right?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-employees-they-either-love-jesus-or-theyre-obsessed-with-sex-right/) - Here's what really ticks off Christians seeking to live faithful lives in workplaces that are aggressively pushing the Sexular Age onto their employees. They get tired of people whose lives inhabit the sheltered workshop of fulltime pastoral ministry telling them that if they'd only spend more time being like Jesus in terms of compassion, justice,
- [Mark McGowan: The Costco version of Dan Andrews](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mark-mcgowan-the-costco-version-of-dan-andrews/) - I've always considered Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan to be the Costco version of his hyper progressive Victorian counterpart Daniel Andrews. Mr McCosto. That's what I'm gonna call him. A bit cheaper, a bit more populist. But hey, it is Perth after all! Riding a wave of separatist sentiment during the COVID wave meant that
- [Happy Birthday George Jetson: Hope You Weren't Expecting a Nine Hour Working Week](https://stephenmcalpine.com/happy-birthday-george-jetson-hope-you-werent-expecting-a-nine-hour-working-week/) - Happy birthday George Jetson! According to disputed records, George was destined to be born in 2022, and some say - with little evidence - that the date was 31st July. If that is the case then he's now a full week and bit old, and giving his mother sleepless nights with his disturbed circadian rhythm.
- [The Grace Race](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-grace-race/) - I love this photograph. Ollie Hoare of Australia has just taken down a world class field in the 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500m, breaking his PB and the longstanding Commonwealth Games record in doing so. The first Aussie to take the title since the great Herb Elliott more than sixty years ago. I'm a big Ollie
- [The Manly 7 and Carl Barron's Ex-Girlfriend](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-manly-7-and-carl-barrons-ex-girlfriend/) - Aussie comedian Carl Barron has a funny set in which he laments the fact that he sent his old girlfriend crazy. In fact, as he goes on to say, she started hallucinating because of him. And he's got the evidence to prove it. As he recounts it, she came home one day and said "Carl
- [Manly in Babylon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/manly-in-babylon/) - It is a false dichotomy to declare that the seven Manly players who are refusing to wear the Pride jersey this week for their National Rugby League match (thereby scrubbing them from playing), are being hypocritical because they have had no problems wearing betting and alcohol logos on the same jersey. Yet I have seen
- [Shock, Horror, as ex-PM Tells Christians Not to Trust in Their Governments](https://stephenmcalpine.com/shock-horror-as-ex-pm-tells-christians-not-to-trust-in-their-governments/) - I guess when you've cut God out of the equation as most of the mainstream media has these days, then it's newsworthy when the ex Prime Minister tells Christians not to put their trust in governments. But oh the shock and surprise in the media that what ex-PM Scott Morrison told Margaret Court's Victory Life
- [My 1000th Blog Post: Has the Universe Outgrown God?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-1000th-blog-post-has-the-universe-outgrown-god/) - I'm on holidays. Enjoying them too. But okay, it needed something big to celebrate my 1000th blog post, so here's a link to my recentThird Space post on the James Webb telescope. 1000 blog posts. There have been some stars, but some real black holes there too. But I kinda like it this one! Here's
- [Not Inhuman Yet](https://stephenmcalpine.com/not-inhuman-yet/) - This is the photo that, ironically, proved that there was still a yuck factor among even the most ardent pro-choice advocates. That somehow, despite the one-way street of post-Christian Western ideologies, we haven't jettisoned everything. Culturally we're not completely inhuman. Not yet at least. One day until full term (and with another child in tow
- [Australian Christianity is Officially in Decline (and I, for one, am relieved)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australian-christianity-is-officially-in-decline-and-i-for-one-am-relieved/) - The 2021 census stats are out, and it's official (again): Australian Christianity is in freefall decline. As The Australian newspaper reports: The number of Australians who aren’t religious has almost doubled over the decade, with almost 40 per cent indicating in the latest census that they have no religious belief. The Australian Bureau of Statistics
- [Clearing the High Bar of Fairness in Women's Sport](https://stephenmcalpine.com/clearing-the-high-bar-of-fairness-in-womens-sport/) - One of my favourite Youtubers is former multiple US 800m champion, two times Olympian and World Championships silver medallist, Nick Symmonds, also known as "The Bison" for his muscular frame and galloping kick at the end of a race. Symmonds has carved out a great second career after elite athletics, with a hugely informative and
- [Don't Miss Out On Majesty](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-miss-out-on-majesty/) - Of all the great stories told over the past few weeks during the 70th Jubilee celebrations of the Queen, the most memorable, and funniest, is told by the head of her security detail. He recounts that one time when the Queen was in her 80s, he and she were picnicking in the countryside near Balmoral,
- [Tasteless Graceless Gervais](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tasteless-graceless-gervais/) - I watched the Ricky Gervais Netflix special SuperNature the other week on the plane home from Sydney. Flights to Sydney from Perth are four hours of work. Flights home from Sydney to Perth are five hours (yes five, thank you ornery jet stream), in which brain mush means I watch downloaded series of something, cos
- [Painting the Town Teal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/painting-the-town-teal/) - 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
- [Why John Dickson's Undeceptions Trans Gender Podcast Episode is 73% Good](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-john-dicksons-undeceptions-trans-gender-podcast-episode-is-73-good/) - John Dickson's Undeceptions podcast is undoubtedly the best Christian podcast in Australia in terms of content, production values, and breadth. It also has that elusive ingredient; the ability to take crunchy, high fibre material and break it down into manageable, masticable morsels. I must confess I have come to listening to it later in the
- [Hey Christians, We're All Prop Joe Now](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christians-were-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](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christians-when-it-comes-to-engaging-non-christians-dont-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"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/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](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-were-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
- [Forget House Prices, Elections are About Who Gets to Defines Reality](https://stephenmcalpine.com/forget-house-prices-elections-are-about-who-gets-to-defines-reality/) - A week or so back I read an article in the national media that was almost incredulous that the issue of trans athletes should be considered a topic worthy of our federal election. Both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader had been quizzed as to their views on transwomen taking part in female-only sport.
- [John and Amy's Kitchen Table (and what it says about worship)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/john-and-amys-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
- [Planting Flowers in Wartime](https://stephenmcalpine.com/planting-flowers-in-wartime/) - People are planting flowers in Kyiv. Spring is coming. In the midst of all the chaos, horror and death that the Russian invasion has inflicted on Kyiv, there is something beautiful about people planting flowers in wartorn Kyiv. As The Times reports, in the light of the Russian withdrawal from the city, the city's mayor,
- [The Virus is Spreading](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-virus-is-spreading/) - Well it seems that there is one virus that the former Chief Health Minister, Brendan Murphy, has been unable to keep out of Australia, and that's the (generally) Western virus in which seemingly intelligent people at the top of the political, legal and cultural foodchain are unable to define what a woman is. Because one
- [The Slap](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-slap/) - Today a man humiliated another man and his wife in front of a crowd of people. The humiliated man was me. Jill and I were rushing our way from the Gold Lounge at Sydney Airport to our connecting flight from Perth to the Gold Coast. We'd heard the boarding call and bolted down the last
- [Belfast: It's Just a Northern Industrial Town](https://stephenmcalpine.com/belfast-its-just-a-northern-industrial-town/) - Billy Bragg has a fantastic song "A Northern Industrial Town". It's a fine tune with fine words describing any number of large towns/small cities in the UK that had their roots in the Industrial Revolution, when stuff was made, and people turned up in those cities to make that stuff, and perhaps make something of
- [Sorry folks: It's Not About Tone](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sorry-folks-its-not-about-tone/) - While we're all still patting ourselves on the back, raising our eyebrows with a shocked "Sheesh! that at least our tone is not like that" craaazy Citipointe Christian College in Queensland, it's worth pointing out that the issue is not about tone. Not in the long run at least. Sure, we were all shocked or
- [Sex Toy Story](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sex-toy-story/) - We all grow out of our toys don't we? And then we move on to sex. At least that's how the story goes. Or at least that's how the Disney story goes. Or at least that's how the Disney story used to go, all things being equal. But things are not equal. Not in this
- [The blood-soaked sock and trainer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-blood-soaked-sock-and-trainer/) - It was the blood-soaked sock and trainer that did it for me. Perhaps it's because my own son is close to the now-dead boy's age, but the video of a man weeping over the body of his 16 year old son, and stroking his head, in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol devastated me. I
- [Pastors Respond to my "Don't Ask a Pastor About Evangelism" Post](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pastors-respond-to-my-dont-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
- [Shane](https://stephenmcalpine.com/shane/) - Shane Warne was a human headline to the end. An end that came quickly and shockingly on the same day another cricketing superstar died. No disrespect to Rod Marsh, but while old Iron Gloves was famous for being a cricketer, Shane Warne was famous for being, well for being Shane Warne. Or Shane. To an
- [Why is Evangelism Hard? If you Want the Real Answer, Don't Ask a Pastor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-is-evangelism-hard-if-you-want-the-real-answer-d-ont-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 dangerWe don't see the valueWe don't see the joy. This
- [Will the Trans Issue Sink Christian Schooling?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/will-the-trans-issue-sink-christian-schooling/) - There are so many moving parts with the recent issues around the transgender issue in schools it is hard to know where to start, but one thing is certain, it's the most complex matter that faith-based schools have had to face. And the way the narrative is going at the moment, this could be the
- [Is Citipointe the Tipping Point Event?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-citipoint-the-tipping-point-event/) - Events dear boy, events When British Prime Minister Harold McMillan was asked what the biggest challenge was to the role of a leader, that was his reply. Events. In other words, you can plan all you like, go full steam ahead with your vision for whatever it is you are leading, but events - actual
- [The Abusive Pastor: The shift from being godly to being god-like](https://stephenmcalpine.com/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](https://stephenmcalpine.com/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
- [Five Years](https://stephenmcalpine.com/five-years/) - It is five years ago today since my father died. I remember the day well. It was the day we moved house. We woke early with the hot January sun streaming through the large sash windows of our old cottage, the light dancing across the walls, and onto the bedhead. I had gotten home late,
- [The Post-Christmas Saviours of NOOM and e-Harmony are Upon Us](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-post-christmas-saviours-of-noom-and-e-harmony-are-upon-us/) - It's the week after Christmas and the post-Christmas saviours are appearing on the TV. Yes, this grey-zone week, when most of us (in mid-summer Australia anyway) can't figure out what day it is, is the week of the post-Christmas saviour. It's that time in the secular liturgical calendar 'twixt December 27th and January 1st, the
- [Sorry Luke, most Christians DO believe in Christ's miracles](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sorry-luke-most-christians-do-believe-in-christs-miracles/) - So used are Christians to hearing that they have to know how their neighbours think or what the worldview of their friends is in order to engage them with the gospel, that it's easy to forget how little non-Christians understand about what Christians believe. Or how little they even bother trying. It's easy to forget
- [Mission, Ministry and Maliciousness in the Metaverse](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mission-ministry-and-maliciousness-in-the-metaverse/) - So there you are minding your own business in the Metaverse, when someone comes alongside you and abuses you for spending too much money on that virtual pair of Nikes you purchased with your Christmas money. It gets so heated that you don't know where to turn. The rant gets more hostile, almost tempting you
- [Sam Chan tells us why truth AND relevance go together in preaching](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sam-chan-tells-us-why-truth-and-relevance-go-together-in-preaching/) - Sam Chan is a colleague of mine at City Bible Forum. He could be a stand up comic, cos he's super funny. He's a great evangelist and trainer, and seems to write a book a year.
- [We Are All Cyborgs Now](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-are-all-cyborgs-now/) - I recently interviewed Tasmanian pastor, and business consultant, Daniel Sih about his award winning book, Spacemakers: How to Unplug, Unwind and think clearly in the Digital Age. Today he guest-posts about an issue we have all been grappling with, how we are shaped by technology... It was just another church service. An elderly man stood
- [Hey Christians, when it comes to Advent joy this Christmas, Coles has us on toast.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christians-when-it-comes-to-advent-joy-this-christmas-coles-has-us-on-toast/) - Have you see the Christmas 2021 media campaign from Coles grocery chain? It's beautiful and emotional and joyous. It's a religious experience which even taps into the whole liturgical idea of Advent, and all without even mentioning Jesus. Pretty smart huh? Truly wonderful. And truly reflective of the generally non-religious - in the traditional sense
- [Making Space:Rediscovering Rest in the unrelenting Digital Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/making-spacerediscovering-rest-in-the-unrelenting-digital-age/) - How do we make space, to rest and be still, in this constantly "on" age? Is it even possible any longer? Are we so attached to our technology that we have lost the ability to tune out and turn off? And if it is impossible, what are the implications for us relationally and spiritually? I
- [Two Cheers for the Religious Freedom Bill](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-cheers-for-the-religious-freedom-bill/) - Well, depending on whether you read the Sydney Morning Herald (or The Age), or The Australian (I read both), you will wake up today believing the proposed Religious Freedom Bill is either a front to hate on gay people, or a liberating document that protects kids in faith-based schools who are gay, and won't allow
- ["Mock or Shock": How secularists attack the Religious Freedoms Bill](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mock-or-shock-how-secularists-attacks-the-religious-freedoms-bill/) - Well it's that time of the election cycle again when the religious freedoms Bill is being put together. Gosh! Have three years really gone that quickly? And equally "Gosh!", why do we find ourselves in the same place again, nervously looking at how this will all pan out in Federal Parliament? At the last Federal
- [The Ultimate Wedding Fail](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-ultimate-wedding-fail/) - We've all heard stories of wedding fails: smashed cakes, ministers not turning up; grooms not turning up. Perhaps this is one of the worst. Twitter and Jimmy Fallon certainly thought so: When you think it's all about you, then it's easy to make it all about you. In John's Gospel, John the Baptist decides very
- [When Dr Google is Reinforced by Pastor Google](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-dr-google-is-reinforced-by-pastor-google/) - When it comes to mainlining conspiracy theories around COVID, I fear that many Christians who have fallen victim to such theories, have doubled down on them more strongly than secularists because they've been given a theological reason to be suspicious, as well as a societal one. Simply put, the online secular material available to us
- [30,000km of ministry marathon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/30000km-of-ministry-marathon/) - Tomorrow morning I will get up in the cool of an early Perth Spring morning, throw on shorts, a singlet, a pair of Sauconys, and a Garmin and I will run. And by the time I have run for five minutes I will have clocked my 30,000th kilometre of running on Strava. I am sitting
- [Christian schools are staring down the barrel of the religion of sex](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-schools-are-staring-down-the-barrel-of-the-religion-of-sex/) - In the Sexular Age, sexual identity trumps everything. All other identities must be subsumed under sexual identity and to stand up against this now results in censure and legal implications. This much is clear from the Eternity newspaper article in which the department of the Attorney General of Victoria was questioned over what rights those
- [Why are so many young childless men getting the snip? Because hope has been cut off.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-are-so-many-young-childless-men-getting-the-snip-because-hope-has-been-cut-off/) - When I first saw the article in The Weekend Australian that young men are rushing up to get the big "V", my initial thoughts were "Good, it's about time the casual Aussie young bloke who thinks COVID will bypass him, goes and gets vaxed." But imagine my surprise when I realised that it was not
- [The Sexular Age has finally caught up with Australian Christian Schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-sexular-age-has-finally-caught-up-with-australian-christian-schools/) - It was always a matter of time. Only ever a matter of time. No amount of smiles and public speeches by Australian politicians coming up to elections, or giving the end of year graduation address affirming the right of faith based education systems to insist on their staff holding to sexual standards that their faith
- [Thanks: From the Bald Guy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/thanks-from-the-bald-guy/) - It was a real honour to have Being the Bad Guys awarded Australian Christian Book of the Year last night at the Sparklit Awards. The standard of writing in Australian Christian books is high at the moment, and I think part of that is down to our "distance" from the bigger evangelical platforms. It feels
- [Truth on Fire: A Hymnbook for your Heart](https://stephenmcalpine.com/truth-on-fire-a-hymnbook-for-your-heart/) - The eponymous debut album by the 1970s/80's new wave band, The Cars, was jokingly referred to as "their greatest hits album". First outing: every song a banger. The first book by Adam Ramsey takes its cue from that album because every chapter in his just released Truth on Fire: Gazing at God Until Your Heart
- [Senior Aussie Journalist Casts a Reporter's Eye Over The New Testament: Likes What He Reads](https://stephenmcalpine.com/senior-aussie-journalist-casts-a-reporters-eye-over-the-new-testament-likes-what-he-reads/) - Australian senior journalist Greg Sheridan has written a compelling book about why Christianity is both true and necessary in our modern world. There are plenty of books written by those in the "Christian Industry" that make a splash in the theological pond, but barely a ripple in the wider world. In other words, Christian bookshops
- [The Harm Gap](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-harm-gap/) - I recently wrote for Solas in the UK, around the issue of "harm" or "dangerous" being the language now employed to describe the Christian framework on sexual ethics, rather than simply "wrong" or "misguided". It can be quite the challenge for Christians in the workplace who wish to remain faithful to Jesus and to share
- [Men are from Mars (Hill):Reflections on Ep 4](https://stephenmcalpine.com/men-are-from-mars-hillreflections-on-ep-4/) - I just can't think of two more opposite ways for a man to treat women than the difference between porn and baptism. More to the point men watching porn, and men baptising their ten year old daughters. If you are anything like me, then you would have teared up a bit at the end of
- [Thoughts on Ep3 of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill](https://stephenmcalpine.com/thoughts-on-ep3-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/) - Episode 3 of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast was a cracker. An absolute belter. Especially in light of the recent Julie Roys podcasts about Driscoll's new gig in Arizona which is in implosion mode for all of the same - but seemingly heightened - reasons. And that's the thing isn't it? After
- [Who killed Mars Hill? Perhaps Jesus did, and a good thing too.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/who-killed-mars-hill-perhaps-jesus-did-and-a-good-thing-too/) - I have enjoyed the first two episodes of the podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, presented by the excellent Mike Cosper. Enjoyed it in the same way that so many of us enjoyed the secular Serial podcast, which was also about a killer. Think of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill as
- [Australia: The Complacent Country](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australia-the-complacent-country/) - A dozen or so years ago I worked for an NFP organisation in the education sector that was helping young people at risk of school drop-out to re-engage with education and training. It was conference after conference; training seminar after training seminar. I remember one of these conferences well. Not because it was particularly insightful,
- [No Christian, COVID vaccinations are NOT the mark of the Beast(and Henry Kissinger is not the anti-Christ either)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-christian-covid-vaccinations-are-not-the-mark-of-the-beastand-henry-kissinger-is-not-the-anti-christ-either/) - Can we just stop it Christians? Can we just stop it? COVID vaccinations are NOT the mark of the Beast. Nor for that matter was your credit card back in the 1970s. Or the ID card that you had to have in the 1980s. Not even your PIN - even if it has three sixes
- [Letter from a Senior Wolf to a Junior Wolf: Part One - Weaponise the Word Gospel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/letter-from-a-senior-wolf-to-a-junior-wolf-part-one-weaponise-the-word-gospel/) - My Dear Lupine I read with interest your recent attempts at luring to their spiritual deaths the human collective (they call it a “church”, but that seems too noble a word for such an unimpressive bunch), you have been assigned. And I must say on the surface it seemed impressive. Suspect theology – heresy as
- [When the gospel rainfall stops the cultural dam dries up](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-gospel-rainfall-stops-the-cultural-dam-dries-up/) - My home town of Perth, Western Australia is a dry place. A very dry place, and it's gotten drier. When my family first moved to sunny Perth in the 1970s, the long term rainfall average for our city was approximately 850mm per year. Now that sounds okay, and indeed it is more rainfall than London
- [Church Planter: Which core team member do you need to know best before you plant?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-planter-which-core-team-member-do-you-need-to-know-best-before-you-plant/) - The answer of course, is you. You need to know you the best before you even think about planting a church. If you don't, you're heading for a fall. I was asked that question this very morning about what a planter needs to know about the core team, and my answer was simply that. Unless
- [Absolutely Ripped or Absolutely Gutting?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/absolutely-ripped-or-absolutely-gutting/) - Is the headline intended to be ironic? This is the accompanying photo: I mean, this is Elliot, formerly Ellen Page, and according to the celebratory article, he's absolutely ripped. Sure is. I mean we can see where the surgeon's knife absolutely ripped off Page's breasts, for the sake of, for the sake of, what, exactly?
- [Many unchurched people are actually envious of church. Here's why.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/many-unchurched-people-are-actually-envious-of-church-heres-why/) - Hint: It's not because of the worship music. With all the hand-wringing going on about how bad the church is (and that's just from Christians), it's time to remind ourselves that so much of what church is, is so good that people envy it. Yes that's right, "envy". Here we are in a cottage industry
- [Let's not trade an over-realised eschatology for an under-realised one](https://stephenmcalpine.com/lets-not-trade-an-over-realised-eschatology-for-an-under-realised-one/) - This is a guest blog post from a young Pentecostal pastor in Perth, Joel Seneque, who I have gotten to know these past few years. He's smart, articulate, well-read theologically, a church planter who wants to see people come to know Jesus, and on top of that he's a runner! My last post critiqued the
- [Health Wealth and Heterosexuality: Why orthodox Christianity will pay a price for the wrongs of the Prosperity Gospel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/health-wealth-and-heterosexuality-why-orthodox-christianity-will-pay-a-price-for-the-wrongs-of-the-prosperity-gospel/) - I've just received yet another article and podcast link from a friend who holds a biblically orthodox view of sexuality. And as I read and listen, I'm beginning to realise that orthodox evangelicals are going to pay the price for the bad theology of some forms of Pentecostalism, particularly its failure to grasp the significance
- [We need to grow old together](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-need-to-grow-old-together/) - "Bill and Melinda Gates are getting divorced." It was the headline you announce after you look at your phone to your still-in-bed spouse early in the morning as various house members are getting up and about and out the door. In the kinda way I said "Kobe Bryant died!" or "Prince Philip died!". No one
- [Being the Bad Nine Year Olds](https://stephenmcalpine.com/being-the-bad-nine-year-olds/) - So I'm hosting a seminar for a bunch of pastors overseas who have been reading my book Being the Bad Guys. Sales seem to be going well. There have been a lot of positive reviews, and more importantly, many, many comments from people contacting me to say that I have been able to articulate what
- [Richard Dawkins blindsided by The Sexual Spaghetti Monster](https://stephenmcalpine.com/richard-dawkins-blindsided-by-the-sexual-spaghetti-monster/) - How intriguing. Richard Dawkins has just had his Humanist of the Year title withdrawn by the American Humanist Society, because of, well, because of his humanist zeal. Dawkins was so focussed on not getting taken out by the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its zealous worshippers that he was blindsided by the most unbelieving of the
- [Today is our 25th](https://stephenmcalpine.com/today-is-our-25th/) - Today is our 25th wedding anniversary. I've gotten up early (as I always do) to write this. Jill seems to sleep her deepest at 6am. I pulled the blankets over her gently breathing body, covering her foot up, (one always seems to find itself astray and lie cold bereft in the mornings at the edge
- [Christian Leader: Are You a Painting Or a Window?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-leader-are-you-a-painting-or-a-window/) - Paul is not a painting we look at and wish we could be like; rather he is a window to the awesome rescuing grace of the Redeemer. Leader pride produces personality cults, while leader humility stimulates worship of God. I love that quote about the Apostle Paul from Paul Tripp's excellent book: Lead: 12 Gospel
- [Shock news: Judas Walks Away From Faith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/shock-news-judas-walks-away-from-faith/) - In shock news, Judas Iscariot, one of the insiders of the nascent Jesus movement has walked away from the faith.The other disciples, who were those closest to him, didn't pick it at the time, but noted afterwards that there were signs Judas was concerned about the direction Jesus was taking. Sounds kinda silly writing it,
- [Martyn Iles: A good racer, not just a Strava king.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/martyn-iles-a-good-racer-not-just-a-strava-king/) - I'm a Strava junkie. I check it every day. You know Strava yeah? If you're a runner, cyclist or triathlete, it's the go-to app/website to upload your training. Strava is the social network for athletes. I put up my runs everyday on Strava. My hard training. My intervals. My long slow runs. My heart rate
- [Jesus washed his disciples' feet: the disciples of abusers wash their cars](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-washed-his-disciples-feet-the-disciples-of-abusers-wash-their-cars/) - One thing that struck me reading the 31:8 safeguarding review of now-disgraced Anglican leader, Jonathan Fletcher, was the observation that Fletcher had his interns or ministry apprentices wash his car or mow his lawn. Why did it strike me? Because that was my observation of another leader who has been caught up in an abuse
- [Nonna and Poppa Christians for an Immigrant Age](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nonna-and-poppa-christians-for-an-immigrant-age/) - I am attending a 21st birthday party tonight. I don't get to so many of those these days. Usually fiftieths, funerals, and weddings of those younger than me who know me through church. It's the 21st birthday of my god-daughter's younger brother. The third child of four in an Italian family. The whole extended family
- [Off the road and into the ditch with James KA Smith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/off-the-road-and-into-the-ditch-with-james-ka-smith/) - In this brave new world of post-Christian sexual ethics, even among Christians, I am not sure what counts as a disordered love any longer. Well, maybe I am, but more of that later. Calvin University Professor, James KA Smith, whose work interpreting Augustine's moral and spiritual frameworks for post-moderns has rightly been hailed as groundbreaking,
- [Raise Up a Pile of Stones](https://stephenmcalpine.com/raise-up-a-pile-of-stones/) - As far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our sins from us.Psalm 103:12 That's the message of the Bible at least. The message of our modern culture that spent about three decades telling us that God could not possibly be a God of judgement?: As far as the east
- [Newsflash: Churches Sexual Diversity Training Day Speech revealed!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/newsflash-churches-sexual-diversity-training-day-speech-revealed/) - The following transcript was recently handed to stephenmcalpine.com by an eponymously named source. Stephenmcalpine.com does not vouch for the veracity of the transcript, but was, nevertheless, impressed with the wisdom, insight and sheer daring-do of the eponymously named source. The leaking of this revealing document s comes just one day after this report in The
- [Mark's Zucker Punch: It's Strictly Business](https://stephenmcalpine.com/marks-zucker-punch-its-strictly-business/) - My twin brother put it well yesterday in light of Facebook's decision to remove all Australian news content (including my blog?) from its feed. Zuckerberg isn't immoral - he's amoral. Which isn't perhaps as much a moral declaration about Zuckerberg as much as it is an observation about him. Ok, I know the brilliant The
- [Carl, Ravi and the God of 1Samuel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/carl-ravi-and-the-god-of-1samuel/) - I read the RZIM public announcement about Ravi Zacharias today, followed by a Vanity Fair expose of the fallout from Carl Lentz at Hillsong New York. Sad and sobering. Sad for those victims of Ravi and for those who were swept up in Carl's very expensive designer train. Sad too that there is often so
- [Clerical bullying and spiritual abuse: Are they the same thing?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/clerical-bullying-and-spiritual-abuse-are-they-the-same-thing/) - This weekend it is one year exactly since The Christianity Today article was published that brought about the end of the public ministry of Steve Timmis, former CEO of Acts29 and founder of The Crowded House network of churches in the UK. I played no small part in that article's creation, although Timmis had been
- [The State of Victoria is hunting down the bad guys. Is it coming for you?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-state-of-victoria-is-hunting-down-the-bad-guys-are-they-coming-for-you/) - If I'd written in my new book Being the Bad Guys that education materials would soon be sent to churches by a government in Australia to tell them how they are permitted to talk about sexuality matters to avoid prosecution, I would have been laughed at. Yet that is what the Victorian Government has just
- [When your Ethos makes you the bad guy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-your-ethos-makes-you-the-bad-guy/) - My book is out. I am not. My book Being the Bad Guys was released yesterday, Feb 1st, while ironically everyone in Perth where I live was placed into lockdown due to a huge outbreak of COVID (one person). We have a treadmill so I can still run, but we get an hour outside, so
- [You are right Rev Macrae, bad theology does kill](https://stephenmcalpine.com/you-are-right-rev-macrae-bad-theology-does-kill/) - And now they're all lining up to hand back their gongs. It's a veritable gong conga line. And now the church is getting in on the act too. Or at least one part of the church here in Australia. A senior cleric in the Uniting Church has handed back his Order of Australia in protest
- [Margaret's Kangaroo Court](https://stephenmcalpine.com/margarets-kangaroo-court/) - Another year another Margaret Court story. The furore around the tennis great receiving a national award for community services (via her church Victory Life in Perth running a large food distribution program) on Australia Day, will ensure that anyone nominated from now one will have the sexual gloryometer run over them first, just to make
- [Breaking Bad:What Christians can do about their public image](https://stephenmcalpine.com/breaking-badwhat-christians-can-do-about-their-public-image/) - Eternity News' Ben McEachen interviewed me about my new book Being the Bad Guys: How to Live For Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn't You can read it at the link below. FWIW I think Ben gets the tone I am trying to get across. It seems important in a time in which
- [A conversation with TGC Australia about my book](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-conversation-with-tgc-australia-about-my-book/) - TGC Australia's Andrew Moody interviewed me about my forthcoming book "Being the Bad Guys" recently. It all happened before the US shenanigans of last week, but it's interesting how in our discussion we speak about how the church needs to move forward in these times. If you're interested in a copy you can go to
- [Hey Franklin, that finger is pointing right back at ya!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-franklin-that-finger-is-pointing-right-back-at-ya/) - A couple of Christmases ago I was accosted at the end of the service by a local pastor whose church was not holding a Christmas service. Not physically accosted, just verbally, so let's not blow this thing up. But it got a bit too grinchy for my Christmas Day, and I veer towards the grinchy
- [(Guest blog post): The poor who give versus the rich who sell](https://stephenmcalpine.com/guest-blog-post-the-poor-who-give-versus-the-rich-who-sell/) - How come my friends in Glasgow were poor but they gave me their stuff, but my friends in Perth are rich and they sell me their stuff? A few months into our new life in Perth in 2012 our 10 year old made that astute observation. Now, almost 9 years into our life in Perth
- [Why get an Awomen to do an Amen's job?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-get-an-awomen-to-do-an-amens-job/) - Just when we thought we had reached peak stupid with the manner in which many right-leaning Christians in the US were viewing the Messiah, er, I mean the President, we find out that there is indeed another summit beyond the lofty clouds of a Democrat in the White House. Rep Emanuel Cleaver, an ordained minister
- [Five Reasons to Buy My Book](https://stephenmcalpine.com/five-reasons-to-buy-my-book/) - Okay, so last week I gave five reasons not to buy my book and the reverse psychology seems to have worked (evil genius that I am). So today I am going to pitch you five reasons why you should buy my book. If you don't already know, it comes out Feb 1st and I am
- [Five Reasons Not to Buy My Book](https://stephenmcalpine.com/five-reasons-not-to-buy-my-book/) - So my book Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn't officially comes out in a month - Feb 1st. And I can't wait. Hey, maybe you can't wait either. Not that you have to. From what I hear, anyone who pre-ordered it a month ago from
- [2020: The Year of Evangelical Exposures](https://stephenmcalpine.com/2020-the-year-of-evangelical-exposures/) - It's been the year of evangelical exposures. I have grown weary of opening social media or an online journal and reading of yet another trainwreck in "Big Eva". I finished this year as I began it, as a guest on the podcast of the admirable Julie Roys, a US Christian independent journalist who has been
- [2020: The Year of Grinchianity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/2020-the-year-of-grinchianity/) - While I think there have been some fantastic Christian responses to what is going on in the world throughout 2020, it's certainly been the year of what I call "Grinchianity". Grinchianity - a peculiar form of Christianity which is suspicious of everything (think COVID19, tracking apps, masks, anyone not voting a certain way), seems to
- [The Black Toenail Award and Christmas re-gifting](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-black-toenail-award-and-christmas-re-gifting/) - Every year my run club hands out a perpetual trophy called The Black Toenail Award. It’s for the club's best performer during the racing season, and throughout 2020 that trophy has sat proudly on my bookcase. Why black toenail you ask? Because as every runner knows, the constant pounding of your toes into the front
- [Some other stuff I've been doing this week](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-other-stuff-ive-been-doing-this-week/) - Life's been busy. Our church has been searching for a new senior pastor so that process has taken up a lot of my time. I'm also in the throes of writing PR articles for the promotion of my book, Being The Bad Guys, which you can pre-order here if you are in Australia, here in
- [Ellen Turns A New Page](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ellen-turns-a-new-page/) - Ellen Page, the brilliant young star of Juno, The X-Men franchise, and lately the Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy, is now Elliot Page, having announced that she is trans. I say "she" advisedly, as Page has now offered the preferred pronouns of "they/he" to the world to use. Elliot Page has presented to the world,
- [You Do You: Pleasure (Bible Shots Video)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/you-do-you-pleasure-bible-shots-video/) - I've been speaking for City Bible Forum's Bible Shots in Sydney. Well I've been Zooming in as we can't leave the state of Western Australia at the moment to go to NSW without being pinged with a two week quarantine on the way back. The series is called You Do You, and each week I
- [Weekly Roundup](https://stephenmcalpine.com/weekly-roundup/) - Here's some stuff from me in my role at Third Space, as well as some other articles worth having a read of, including a superb essay by former SAS soldier, Federal Politician, and a friend of mine, Andrew Hastie. First up, David Robertson and me with another The Kitchen Table, discussing the idea of whether
- [Victorian Conversion Therapy Legislation: destined for the baddest guys of all - us!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/victorian-conversation-therapy-legislation-destined-for-the-baddest-guys-of-all-us/) - From tomorrow in the state of Victoria in Australia, all that you will have to do to become badder guys than you are today is to stay exactly where you are. Don't shift in your thinking around biblical sexual ethics. Don't move. Just stay orthodox and let the Victorian Government Legislation do the shifting for
- [Being the Bad Guys: book preorder now available](https://stephenmcalpine.com/being-the-bad-guys-book-preorder-now-available/) - My book, "Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn't" can be pre-ordered now. Here's a short video giving the intel on what it's about: Preorders in the US here Preorders in the UK here Preorders in Australia here
- [Guerrilla Cultural Warfare](https://stephenmcalpine.com/guerrilla-cultural-warfare/) - The Culture War threatening to tear the West apart has become guerrilla warfare. Once confined to demarcated battlefields such as university settings and political houses, in which all of the combatants were recognised soldiers, it is now being fought street fighting door to door, house to house. And increasingly dining table to dining table, family
- [Is abuse more prevalent in the church today than in the past?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-abuse-more-prevalent-in-the-church-today-than-in-the-past/) - Despite being one of the most shaping events of the past few decades, no one in the Twin Towers thought to film the terrible events on their mobile/cell phones. No cell phone footage was made, or found in the tangled wreckage, showing the tragedy unfold. There's plenty of external footage of planes flying into buildings.
- [The push to define conversion therapy as everything and anything](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-push-to-define-conversion-therapy-as-everything-and-anything/) - If pastors and other Christian ministry workers were left in any doubt as to whether any orthodox teaching on sexuality is being targeted by bans on conversion therapy in Australia, they could look no further than this recent article from the ABC. As the force of the article shows, the target of governments like Dan
- [Biden our time for a saviour](https://stephenmcalpine.com/biden-our-time-for-a-saviour/) - I put this comment up on Facebook this week and it seemed to resonate: With Biden set to win his declaration that there will be no red or blue states, just a United States is noble and irenic. But misplaced nonetheless. The divisions in the US (around the West for that matter) are deeper than
- [The time that Basil Zempilas thought the game was over.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-time-that-basil-zempilas-thought-the-game-was-over/) - Well by the time you are being threatened with sexual violence, your home has been graffitied, and your wife has been forced to shut down her Instagram account, you may begin to wonder whether life in the public square is for you. Well that's just what has happened to the newly minted Perth Lord Mayor,
- [Totalled Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/totalled-church/) - Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy With apologies to the great Russian writer, this statement at the start of his masterpiece Anna Karenina gets it exactly the wrong way around. There is in fact a depressing sameness about unhappy families and the fall-out that results from this
- [a shout-out to the meddling kids: the Age of the Unmasking](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-shout-out-to-the-meddling-kid-the-age-of-the-unmasking/) - It feels like the end of a Scooby Doo episode. An unmasking of sorts. Later this afternoon, Perth Australia time, a report will be released by the remaining elders of The Crowded House network in Sheffield UK. The report, commissioned by those elders, and carried out by the national safeguarding review organisation in the UK,
- ["No Sauce Please, We're Expositors"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-sauce-please-were-expositors/) - My favourite theological college lecturer tells of the time he was doing his PhD at Durham University when he was asked to preach on Romans at his local church. Slightly rushed, slightly distracted he said "Yes". So on the Sunday he dutifully got up to preach. He scanned the crowd and there sitting waiting to
- [Curry Preaches Love, but gives Love curry](https://stephenmcalpine.com/curry-preaches-love-but-gives-love-curry/) - US Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry might have sparkled with Markle in a sermon about love, but he's just given curry to William Love, the bishop who refused to allow his diocese to preside over same sex marriages. William Love has resigned as bishop rather than take his Albany diocese through a long and protracted legal
- [Noah (without the naughty bits)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/noah-without-the-naughty-bits/) - Is this the official version? A good friend of mine who I run with regularly, recently PM-ed me that question in relation to this picture: Turns out her daughter is fascinated with her Noah story book. Turns out a lot of other kids are too, (along with books about dinosaurs). There are heaps of great
- [So my first book has gone to print](https://stephenmcalpine.com/so-my-first-book-has-gone-to-print/) - Last night my editor from The Good Book Company contacted me to say that the book I have been writing has gone to the printers. Whoop whoop! And it's ready to pre-order if you want to do that. The title? Being the Bad Guys: How to Live For Jesus in a World that Says You
- [Gay marriage, gambling, and good deeds in the age of disappointment](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gay-marriage-gambling-and-good-deeds-in-the-age-of-disappointment/) - The decision by Lotterywest to reject a grant application to assist the community outreach food program at tennis legend Margaret Court's church on the basis of its public stance on same sex marriage, is not really all that surprising. Although Court herself is disappointed. Why is it not surprsing? Because it's a sign of the
- [COVID exposed, but didn't cause, the mental health tsunami](https://stephenmcalpine.com/covid-exposed-but-didnt-cause-the-mental-health-tsunami/) - The mental health tsunami that we are experiencing in this COVID-era world in Australia was not so much caused by the virus, as revealed by it. Just as a tsunami runs for hundreds of kilometres in deep water without drawing too much attention to itself, before piling up in a huge wave as it reaches
- [The only thing worse than an immoral alley cat President? An evangelical one!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-only-thing-worse-than-an-immoral-alley-cat-president-an-evangelical-one/) - When the comments section in The Times of London about the latest craziness (Trump having COVID) contains this thread ... ... you know we're in for interesting times. An evangelical Christian is worse than an amoral, "do whatever it takes" President. "Not a good look"! Hmm. And that's in The Times, which generally weeds out
- [It's official: Elite sport is willing to crack a few eggs (and your daughter's head) for the sake of diversity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-official-elite-sport-is-willing-to-crack-a-few-eggs-and-your-daughters-head-for-the-sake-of-diversity/) - "Participation in sport is a human right" With that, quite frankly ludicrous, quote the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, welcomed the announcement by nine elite sports bodies in Australia, to the inclusion of trans athletes in their elite team should they meet the standard. (Oh and should their testosterone levels be low enough at
- [Goliath versus Goliath](https://stephenmcalpine.com/goliath-versus-goliath/) - The debate proved without a shadow of a doubt that Trump versus Biden was Goliath versus Goliath. Not that both men proved to be a giant for their side, or indeed a champion of anything. The debate was abysmal. It was Goliath versus Goliath because both men employ the tactics of the Philistines at war.
- [What if the church wasted the COVID crisis by not prepping for a more hostile shutdown?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-if-the-church-wasted-the-covid-crisis-by-not-prepping-for-a-more-hostile-shutdown/) - Here's a thought: What if the church wasted the COVID crisis? And I'm not simply talking about church preference. Nor am I talking about don't simply talk about what the better model for evangelism, mission and pastoral care might be. I'm talking about whether we wasted an opportunity to prepare ourselves for a far more
- [Marathon#6: A Chasing After the Wind](https://stephenmcalpine.com/marathon6-a-chasing-after-the-wind/) - I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, all of them are misty, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14) Windy. It was going to be windy. The forecast ten days out from Marathon#6, with me in the form of my life going into it, and it was going to be
- [Red Rope Christianity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/red-rope-christianity/) - Flying. Remember that? I flew a lot in 2019 for my job, mostly interstate within Australia (which admittedly is a big place), but also some international flights. And on Virgin flights my seat of choice was 8C. A Goldilocks seat. Not too far forward. Not too far back.Just right. And an aisle seat so that
- [What do progressive governments have in common with anti-vaxxers?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-do-progressive-governments-have-in-common-with-anti-vaxxers/) - When it comes to trusting science to guide decisions around sexuality, progressively minded governments around Australia have a lot in common with anti-vaxxers. Form your narrative first, decide where you want this thing to land, and then search for the "science" to back up your clearly unsustainable position. In other words, ignore the science and
- [Aussie missionary to UK, Josh Williamson, was free but unwise.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/aussie-missionary-to-uk-josh-williamson-was-free-but-unwise/) - The Brisbane-born pastor who is facing calls for his deportation from the UK back to Australia, over his public comments praising the cancellation of the Cornwall Pride event on a public Facebook page event has acted unwisely. If Josh Williamson is deported - which seems an unlikely scenario - then he should give some time
- [I heard a rumour: segregation is back](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-heard-a-rumour-segregation-is-back/) - There's an incredible, and moving, scene in the second series of Netflix's wayward superheroes comic book adaption, The Umbrella Academy. One of the superpower family of the academy, Allison Hargreeves, who is lauded in 2019 as a successful Hollywood black actor, is transported from New York to early 1960's Dallas. She walks into a cafe.
- [Waxing lyrical about Cobra Kai: a reality kick to the face for X-Gens](https://stephenmcalpine.com/waxing-lyrical-about-cobra-kai-a-reality-kick-to-the-face-for-x-gens/) - Where are they now? X-Gens once trawled their old yearbooks wondering what their class mates were up to, and asking themselves, "Did I ever look that young?" Now of course, X-Gens just cut to the chase and stalk their old classmates on Facebook, ramping up the creepy and dialling down the mystery. Fatter, older, balder.
- [A funny thing happened to Adele on the way to the Notting Hill Carnival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-funny-thing-happened-to-adele-on-the-way-to-the-notting-hill-carnival/) - So Adele decided to put her hair in Bantu knots, and wear a Jamaican flag bikini for the annual Notting Hill Carnival in London. And sent Twitter into meltdown. Not because she's skinny now. Not because she's put on weight now. No, those things are so pre-COVID-19 outrages over Adele. This time it was for
- [Some stuff about sour dough and COVID vaccines, the death of religion, and the state of education](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-stuff-about-sour-dough-and-covid-vaccines-the-death-of-religion-and-the-state-of-education/) - I''ve been a little busy recently with other work stuff, so not as much blog posting with material specifically for stephenmcalpine.com. But I do have some stuff from my Third Space musings, and will be posting in the future around the trend away from city living (a series that I started last week about the
- [Netflix: Too Cute by Half](https://stephenmcalpine.com/netflix-too-cute-by-half/) - Remember the good old days when the likes of Target and Walmart were being hounded by both sides of the political spectrum for sexualising young girls with their ranges of hot pants and crop tops? For one side it was the industrial capitalist machine at work, pulling out all stops at making a buck. For
- [The suburb is dead: Long live the suburb](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-suburb-is-dead-long-live-the-suburb/) - Reports of the suburb's death are greatly exaggerated. The suburbs of the western nations have long been the whipping boys of many a book, many a play or movie, many a church planting conference. And many a city dweller. The suburbs are where you went to die, if not physically, then certainly spiritually, as Dave
- [When it comes to conversion therapy legislation, the devil in the detail](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-it-comes-to-conversion-therapy-legislation-the-devil-in-the-detail/) - As reported in Eternity News, conversion therapy bills have either been passed by Australian state and territory governments, or are being brought before parliament. And as usual, the devil is in the detail. And as usual, it's the grey areas that are ill-defined where things will go pear-shaped. They always do. And indeed that increasingly
- [What religion, according to Nick Cave, is the "unhappiest  in the world"?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-religion-according-to-nick-cave-is-the-unhappiest-in-the-world/) - No one does unhappy like Nick Cave. Nick Cave was born to do unhappy. The Australian musician has built a career exploring the dark and deadly things of life, and has had his fair share of misery, not least of all the tragic death of one of his twin teenage sons a few years ago
- [The note I found of the boy pointing the gun at his head](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-note-i-found-of-the-boy-pointing-the-gun-at-his-head/) - I was cleaning up around the front doors of the school building we use for church on Sunday (yes, our state is open, our church gathering is back on, and COVID-19 seems to be locked out by our hard border). It was a typical windy winter day, so there was a pile of swirling leaves
- [The Shoes Won't Do It!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-shoes-wont-do-it/) - On the weekend I ticked off one of the running goals I've had for a few years, to run a half marathon at a sub 4 minutes per kilometre pace. And I did it at our state's premier half marathon event, the Perth Half Marathon, run by the always excellent Western Australian Marathon Club. It
- [Grief...yet not as those who have no hope](https://stephenmcalpine.com/grief-yet-not-as-those-who-have-no-hope/) - Grief. It's all around us at the moment. Often with a mask on, so that you can't see the downturned face. There are great griefs and small griefs and griefs that for many would be great, but for some noble souls seems bearable. Then there are the trashy faux griefs (and ain't there a load
- [The shepherd was outfoxed by Fox](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-shepherd-was-outfoxed-by-fox/) - The shepherd was outfoxed by Fox. John MacArthur ended up on Tucker Carlson Tonight to explain the most important reason for the church he leads, Grace Community Church, refusing to stay closed during the COVID-19 lockdown in his home state of California. So Tucker Carlson begins with a bit of a crack at the local
- [John MacArthur: A petulant teen slamming doors in his parents' house](https://stephenmcalpine.com/john-macarthur-a-petulant-teen-slamming-doors-in-his-parents-house/) - US pastor John MacArthur is behaving like the moody teenager whose parents "know nothing" and should get out of his way and "don't tell me what to do." You know the type. The same moody teenager who is more than happy to take mum's and dad's money, drive their car and eat the meals pushed
- [A few wrong 'uns from Stuart MacGill (response #2 to the Sydney Senior Minister Shortage)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-few-wrong-uns-from-stuart-macgill-response-2-to-the-sydney-senior-minister-shortage/) - The second innings of the Sydney Anglican Senior Minister drought began on The Pastor's Heart last week with two Sydney rectors. And they pretty much played a straight bat. After all, if you're facing a first innings deficit (I thought in my response to Phillip Jensen's first outing, I put on a handy lead), you
- ["He was utterly devoid of careerism"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/he-was-utterly-devoid-of-careerism/) - He was utterly devoid of careerism. Would that that be said of me when I die. These words were actually said of JI Packer, who has just passed away, and gone to be with the Lord. And they're convicting and challenging words. You can read them here in Christianity Today. Utterly devoid of careerism. They're
- [The Sydney Anglican ministers' drought: Why Shane Warne can't tell us how to fix it](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-sydney-anglican-ministers-drought-why-shane-warne-cant-tell-us-how-to-fix-it/) - If you asked the legendary cricketer that is Shane Warne how he used to leg spin the Australian cricket team to victory he would kinda shrug his shoulders and say something like this: Dunno. Eat a can of beans first I suppose. Have a quick smoke behind the change rooms. Send a cheeky text to
- [de Young Ones: Not the Answer to the Culture Wars](https://stephenmcalpine.com/de-young-ones-not-the-answer-to-the-culture-wars/) - The thing about The Young Ones, the cult British comedy from the 1980s, is that it aged badly. Nearly forty years on from the squalor of Thatcher, the program doesn't fly. I used to guffaw at the antics of Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike. But it would raise barely a chuckle today. The Young Ones
- [Life In Wartime podcast; extremism at The Kitchen Table, and responses to the culture wars](https://stephenmcalpine.com/life-in-wartime-podcast-extremism-at-the-kitchen-table-and-responses-to-the-culture-wars/) - What weapons are we using in the wartime we are experiencing? Are we falling into the same trap as the rest of the culture in thinking that if we just get a grip on the levers of power we can shape things the way we want them? Check out the latest Life In Wartime podcast
- [The Rip van Winkle Church of 2030](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-rip-van-winkle-church-of-2030/) - We all know the legend of Rip van Winkle, the man who fell asleep for decades only to wake up and discover his wife dead, his family gone, and time having passed him by. You can imagine his consternation. "But I just sat under this tree for a nap!" Well church, I hope you are
- [An Apology to Todd Pruitt](https://stephenmcalpine.com/an-apology-to-todd-pruitt/) - In the wake of Aimee Byrd's cancellation from the Mortification of Spin podcast by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, I wrote two blog posts around the matter. Todd Pruitt, one of the other presenters of the podcast, subsequently contacted me and we emailed each other, as he said (publicly) that I had slandered him on
- [Politics In Wartime Podcast (and other stuff)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/politics-in-wartime-podcast-and-other-stuff/) - We came up with the title for our podcast Life in Wartime off the back of the statement by our Prime Minister that the pandemic was a war. Little did we know that that war just handed on the baton to another aspect of the culture wars. It's war, war, war, everywhere we look. And with
- [Guy Sebastian: Australia's Falling Idol](https://stephenmcalpine.com/guy-sebastian-australias-falling-idol/) - Okay, it's a clickbait headline. But Guy Sebastian is cooked. Cancelled. This Australian Idol is set to topple along with any number of statues. He's as cooked as Colonial Beer and The Wiggles. His crime? Thanking the Prime Minister Scott Morrison for including him in the round table discussion with representatives from the Australian arts
- [Unbiblical Manhood](https://stephenmcalpine.com/unbiblical-manhood/) - I checked out Aimee Byrd's Twitter account yesterday to see how she was faring in the wake of the furore around her removal from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals podcast (among other things), the no-longer-aptly-named Mortification of Spin. I was appalled. The gutter level of comments from men (and some women) towards her on a
- [Life in Wartime Podcast (and other Third Space media this week)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/life-in-wartime-podcast-and-other-third-space-media-this-week/) - Have a listen to The latest Life in Wartime podcast from me and David Robertson, here. And our latest The Kitchen Table discussion on why/if/when society descends into Lord of the Flies is here.
- [Revivification of Spin](https://stephenmcalpine.com/revivification-of-spin/) - Big word "revivification". Big word, easy to understand. It means revive. Bring something back from the dead. And that's exactly what the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals podcast Mortification of Spin has done, it has revived the very thing it always proudly announced it was killing: Spin. Spin. Ah spin, the beloved refuge of politicians and
- [Zooman Beings](https://stephenmcalpine.com/zooman-beings/) - The end is in sight for Zooman Beings. I can almost see the smile on your 3D face. Almost. My eyes are too strained by virtue of the several hundred Zoom calls I've been on in recent months, that even with my glasses I might struggle to see your face. But being a Zooman Being
- [Notflix](https://stephenmcalpine.com/notflix/) - So the book burning begins. Streaming service Netflix has started to remove movies. Time to rename it Notflix. Stranger things have happened. Though perhaps Stranger Things has crossed some imaginary line that will see it pulled soon enough. And I don't know how they'll go with that adult cartoon wonder, Bojack Horseman which pretty much
- [Hey Christian: Just because other people (including Christians) have flouted social distancing laws, it doesn't mean you should too.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-just-because-other-people-including-christians-have-flouted-social-distancing-laws-it-doesnt-mean-you-should-too/) - Well the inevitable result of the refusal by state governments and law enforcement agencies to enforce social distancing laws at the BLM protests has arrived, with the news that many businesses are going to openly defy the law, given others have gotten away with it without censure. Read what The Australian newspaper reports about the
- [COVID-19 gave the church a blessing in disguise: let's not waste it.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/covid-19-gave-the-church-a-blessing-in-disguise-lets-not-waste-it/) - The bold prediction by atheist gadfly and newspaper columnist, Peter Fitzsimmons that COVID-19 would deal a blow to religion because older people - who were more at risk - were more religious, has been gloriously exposed as wishful thinking. If truth be told, despite the suffering (or perhaps because of it?) the church has received
- [Beware the "Back to the Future" church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bewared-the-back-to-the-future-church/) - Beware of any religious types who roll up in a DeLorean promising time travel to either a nostalgic past or a pristine future (James KA Smith) One of the biggest traps earnest Christians fall into in their search for authentic expressions of church, is to follow the siren call of those who offer an expression
- [Ok. So I haven't blogged for a bit ...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ok-so-i-havent-blogged-for-a-bit/) - 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
- [I Can't Believe I've Never Heard This Song Before!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-cant-believe-ive-never-heard-this-song-before/) - 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
- [Life in Wartime Podcast Ep 2: Love in Wartime](https://stephenmcalpine.com/life-in-wartime-podcast-ep-2-love-in-wartime/) - 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
- [The new Life in Wartime podcast (and other Third Space stuff I have done this week)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-new-life-in-wartime-podcast-and-other-third-space-stuff-i-have-done-this-week/) - 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
- [External review of The Crowded House network to commence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/external-review-of-the-crowded-house-network-to-commence/) - 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
- [Why churches should/should not access the Government's JobKeeper scheme](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-churches-should-should-not-access-the-governments-jobkeeper-scheme/) - 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
- [How Talia's disabled daughter taught her about the love of God](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-talias-disabled-daughter-taught-her-about-the-love-of-god/) - 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.
- [Just Another Manic Monday?  The Panic Room Ep 14](https://stephenmcalpine.com/just-another-manic-monday-the-panic-room-ep-14/) - 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? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_oHY4uJqsY
- [Just Imagine](https://stephenmcalpine.com/just-imagine/) - 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
- [Will the post-virus world really be all that new?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/will-the-post-virus-world-really-be-all-that-new/) - 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
- [Justice in the time of coronavirus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/justice-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/) - 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
- [Four cultural things I want COVID-19 to kill off](https://stephenmcalpine.com/four-cultural-things-i-want-covid-19-to-kill-off/) - 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
- [The Panic Room Ep 9: Breaking News - Easter Bunny Self-Isolating](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-ep-9-breaking-news-easter-bunny-self-isolating/) - Our latest episode at the start of Easter Week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGh1q0fmefY&t=2s
- [The Panic Room Ep 8: The Death of Death](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-ep-8-the-death-of-death/) - Today's The Panic Room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw1HUlu2efU
- [The Panic Room Ep 7: Running and Death](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-ep-7-running-and-death/) - Running and Death (and all the bits in between) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1nU3-tmeEE&t=3s
- [It's Groundhog Day.  Again.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-groundhog-day-again/) - 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) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cPcJxLr0HM
- [There's Gonna Be a Lot of Hugging When Church Gets Back Together Again, That's For Sure](https://stephenmcalpine.com/theres-gonna-be-a-lot-of-hugging-when-church-gets-back-together-again-thats-for-sure/) - 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
- [The Panic Room Episode 5](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-episode-5/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-4iGsDtPoo&t=2s
- [Panic Room Episode 4](https://stephenmcalpine.com/panic-room-episode-4/) - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iHIhDkUF0Ik
- [Demanding a total lockdown? Planning a trip to the beach? Just two sides of the same coin really.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/demanding-a-total-lockdown-planning-a-trip-to-the-beach-just-two-sides-of-the-same-coin-really/) - 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.
- [The Panic Room (Ep 3):  Sign of the Times, Toilet Roll, Cream Cheese and Steve's beard compared to Gandalf's](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-ep-3-sign-of-the-times-toilet-roll-cream-cheese-and-steves-beard-compared-to-gandalfs/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gBmhW_jx7c
- [Episode 2 of The Panic Room](https://stephenmcalpine.com/episode-2-of-the-panic-room/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONlmLHuYwlc&fbclid=IwAR2vZHqNUp7D79J7bT2ScihfKfRkgEy3Rye2cWzzB4uy1EBUzNwPa27Fjxw
- [Normal death is not in lockdown](https://stephenmcalpine.com/normal-death-is-not-in-lockdown/) - 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.
- [The Panic Room: Ten minutes of pure panic every weekday in these times of crisis](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-panic-room-ten-minutes-of-pure-panic-every-weekday-in-these-times-of-crisis/) - 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR8wbuv-cDI&feature=youtu.be Check it out
- [The new normal will look just like the old normal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-new-normal-will-look-just-like-the-old-normal/) - 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
- [The tomb is far emptier than the shelves will ever be](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-tomb-is-far-emptier-than-the-shelves-will-ever-be/) - It's coming up to Easter. Bet you didn't think Lent 2020 was going to take that much away from you did you? I was hoping people would be giving up oats, baked beans, minced meat and pasta. Apparently not. A few weeks ago we were toying around on social media talking about all of the
- [Today's Virgin Lounge wifi Password: feelgoodflying](https://stephenmcalpine.com/todays-virgin-lounge-wifi-password-feelgoodflying/) - Today's wifi password in the Virgin lounge I am sitting in has just been handed around. Here it is: feelgoodflying Wonder if they're just being cheeky. Because obviously very few people do. Feel good flying, I mean. I assume I will get a couple of seats to myself. More than a couple. A chance to
- [How Might this Coronavirus Help Churches Be On Their Guard?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-might-this-coronavirus-help-churches-be-on-their-guard/) - “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the
- [A Very Civil Virus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-very-civil-virus/) - What we're experiencing, so far, with coronavirus, is a very civil virus. It's like the difference between a civil war and very civil war. Check out my latest blog on Third Space here to see what I mean.
- [I Dreamed a Post-Apocalyptic Dream](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-dreamed-a-post-apocalyptic-dream/) - Just had my first post-apocalyptic dream/nightmare last night. It was a doozy. Well, not my first. To be more specific, my first post-apocalyptic dream since the great toilet-roll-run/coronavirus on again/off again pandemic of 2020. My dream was, of course, well informed by the run on almost all things sanitary in the past few weeks in
- [The Great Toilet Paper Run of 2020](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-great-toilet-paper-run-of-2020/) - It will become known as The Great Toilet Paper Run of 2020. And we'll laugh about it next week. Unless it becomes The Great Coronavirus Plague of 2020. And the history books will record it for years to come. Wanna toss a coin on it? It's amazing how skittish people are in the modern Western
- [It Pays To Hold Your Nerve in the Transgender Debate](https://stephenmcalpine.com/it-pays-to-hold-your-nerve-in-the-transgender-debate/) - It pays to hold your nerve. Always. With the latest news out of the UK that a young woman is calling out the National Health Service's gender clinic for not challenging her strongly enough when she was 16, and wanting to transition to male, it feels like the ground is shifting back to sanity. And
- [Hey ANZ: Forget Love Speech, here's a guide to Love Action](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-anz-forget-love-speech-heres-a-guide-to-love-action/) - As a general rule of thumb, the bigger and nastier the organisation, the better the PR machine. The biggest and nastiest (think Nazi Germany or Communist China) have PR machines that kick over into propaganda juggernauts. Why hello ANZ Bank! Along with the other big banks in Australia the ANZ has a PR machine to
- [Kindness](https://stephenmcalpine.com/kindness/) - When heaven comes crashing onto earth and the age-to-come begins in all its fulness there's one of its qualities that I'm gagging for at the moment: kindness. Oh I know there's talk about how it will be one great big worship service on that last day that begins the new days. And I know from
- [Shock, Horror, Christians Might Get Crucified by The Govt's Religious Bill!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/shock-horror-christians-might-get-crucified-by-the-govts-religious-bill/) - Hey watch out Christians! You know that Bill that was supposed to protect you from discrimination? Well here's the latest: It's actually going to enable people to discriminate against you! Don't believe me? Then what about this?: Scary huh! But also - once again - fake news. Fake news worthy of The Donald! All it
- [My Former Life as a Radical](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-former-life-as-a-radical/) - Assuming that intentions translate directly into results, radicals tend to be unscrupulous optimists in that they operate on the premise that well-intentioned radical change, however destructive, can only lead to improvement. That quote caught my eye from a Quillette article by a former political radical, who outlined the mindset that is required to belong to
- [Friday Round Up: Good Societies, Bad Societies, Zombies and Viruses](https://stephenmcalpine.com/friday-round-up-good-societies-bad-societies-zombies-and-viruses/) - In my role at Third Space I write and speak on pretty much the same sorts of things I write and speak about here on stephenmcalpine.com Here are links to a couple of the latest. In the first I explore why the idea of societal collapse due to a virus (think zombies or coronavirus) has
- [Christians: Do your beliefs make you unsafe to be foster parents?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christians-do-your-beliefs-make-you-unsafe-to-be-foster-parents/) - So what would you say as a traditional Christian couple when (not if) the foster care agency asks your response to a foster child announcing they identified as LGBTQI? Leaving aside the vexing question of what age any child could make such a declaration meaningfully, this exact issue has led to a Western Australian couple
- [Sorry Sydney Morning Herald, I'm not champing at the bit to be a bigot](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sorry-sydney-morning-herald-im-not-champing-at-the-bit-to-be-a-bigot/) - Do you know what the conservative religious people of Australia are waiting for? They are waiting for the government's religious discrimination bill to pass Parliament so that they can rush down to their local child care centre and shout at single mums that God is going to judge them for their kids not having a
- [Upon The Death of a Celebrity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/upon-the-death-of-a-celebrity/) - I woke up this morning to the news that Kobe Bryant had died. I told my daughter. "Oh my goodness!" exclaimed my indie-music loving, non sports-watching/playing 18 year old, "Did he really? How?", before rushing off to tell her brother. My 12 year old skating, non-basketball playing son came in, still in pyjamas, but sleep
- [Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life Exposes Our Showy Selfie Culture](https://stephenmcalpine.com/terrence-malicks-a-hidden-life-exposes-our-showy-selfie-culture/) - If you're a Terrence Malick fan, then you've got to see his latest film, A Hidden Life. It's terrific. If you are not a Malick fan, become one by going to see it. Mind you, at 2 hours 45 minutes its either empty your bladder or bring your catheter. I got to see it at
- [The End of (Secular) Babies](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-end-of-secular-babies/) - Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court. (Psalm 127) Well maybe not
- [Jesus takes the worry out of worship](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-takes-the-worry-out-of-worship/) - I've taken the opportunity during our extended, and gloriously sunny, beachside holiday to plough through the Pentateuch. Genesis was a riveting read, as was most of Exodus. Then we get a bit bogged down. Lots and lots of worship ordinands. And don't let me catch you boiling a young goat in its mother's milk. The
- [This leftie is right about church: No bones about it.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-leftie-is-right-about-church-no-bones-about-it/) - In a fascinating article in The Canberra Times, climate activist, Michael Bones, writes about how progressives need to take a leaf about how to change society from, of all places - the church - and conservative church at that. You can read the full article here. In the wake of the terrible Australian bushfires and the
- [From Eternity 2000 to Immediacy 2020](https://stephenmcalpine.com/from-eternity-2000-to-immediacy-2020/) - Twenty years ago we caught our collective breath as a nation when we saw this beautiful image appear for the climax of the New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney Harbour. It was a wonderful moment, a celebration of something central to Sydney for so long. The humble story of Arthur Stace, transformed by Jesus, and
- [Church: The Home Away From Home](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-the-home-away-from-home/) - I got up on Christmas morning to let the dog out for his obligatory wee and to my surprise, the front doormat was gone. Not just any front doormat. A thick, woven, imported masterpiece of a doormat that offsets our house just nicely. It's the right height to step straight into the house. It's the
- [Remember the good old days when it was Christians who wanted Harry Potter banned?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/remember-the-good-old-days-when-it-was-christians-who-wanted-harry-potter-banned/) - There was a time, in the not too distant past, when JK Rowling's Harry Potter series was banned from the libraries and book sales of many a Christian school. Remember those good ol' days? "Too scary to read," they said. "Too much into the occult for kids," we were told. "Too full of witches and
- [Hey Christian: Don't Be Tempted to Cancel Your Netflix Account](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-dont-be-tempted-to-cancel-your-netflix-account/) - Hey Christian, don't be tempted to cancel your Netflix account because the streaming service is airing the blasphemous comedy The First Temptation of Christ. Yep it makes a mockery of the sacred, comes at Christmas time, and presents Jesus as gay. And yep, there's a huge move afoot to get it cancelled, with petitions all over
- [How Boris Johnson Wedged the Left](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-boris-johnston-wedged-the-left/) - One of the most insightful comments coming out of the UK election blowout was from politics professor at the University of Kent, Matthew Goodwin: What we have seen in this election campaign is a Conservative Party that has been willing to lean left on economics and right on culture, ... [Boris Johnson] is someone who
- [We passed a euthanasia bill and passed up on grace](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-passed-a-euthanasia-bill-and-passed-up-on-grace/) - The government in my home state of Western Australia has just passed some of the most far-reaching euthanasia laws in the nation, and they are proud. Gleeful even. There was pushback, notably from one local MP who I know, Nick Goiran, who managed to get changes made in the weeks leading up to the passing
- [Religion Without God: Bible Without Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/religion-without-god-bible-without-jesus/) - I've been dividing my writing time these past few months between my blog, a book I am writing for The Good Book Company in the UK, and the new Third Space website. Third Space's website is a space for people to explore the Christian faith, not necessarily from a position of having faith in Christ
- [Kath Sees Our Christian Community, And She Wants Some](https://stephenmcalpine.com/kath-sees-our-christian-community-and-she-wants-some/) - I got home from church last night and my neighbour diagonally opposite, Kath, was out in her garden. It was a mild evening, sun not fully set, so I wandered over for a chat. Kath's a great neighbour. Her house is one of the old non-gentrified ones in the area, with a great cottage garden
- [Sick](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sick/) - I remember it well. Ten years ago this week I was sick. Not just sick, but sick sick. The phone rang as we were sitting down to eat dinner, much as I didn't feel like eating. It was the doctor. Can I come along to the office? Now? With my wife? I guess I can.
- [Actually I AM religious, (Because I love the Lord)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/actually-i-am-religious-because-i-love-the-lord/) - And there's no doubt about it I really, really wanna shout it now Singing, I'm not religious anymore, whoa yea And there's no doubt about it I really, really wanna shout it now Singin, I'm not religious I just love the Lord So sang Scott Wesley Brown back in 1977, in his song, I'm Not
- [A Load of Papal Bull in the China Shop](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-load-of-papal-bull-in-the-china-shop/) - Australian apologists for the Chinese regime should hang their heads in shame, with further proof that China is crushing religious freedom with glee and breathtaking arrogance. Just this week it has been revealed that churches throughout China have been forced to remove religious iconography, which are then replaced by, er, religious iconography, namely the current
- [Don We Now Our Gay Apparel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/don-we-now-our-gay-apparel/) - It's the little moments that make the Christmas season so special This is the latest Christmas advert for Bonds. The picture isn't showing you what the little things actually are, but I assure you it's the Bonds undies that are probably one size too small for both these muscular chaps. Cue outrage. And I kinda
- [You're not one of those Evangelicals are you?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/youre-not-one-of-those-evangelicals-are-you/) - "You're not one of those evangelicals are you?" I'd just settled into the plane for the five hour flight back home across this great brown land called Australia, and I was tired. The Friday night flight from Sydney to Perth is invariably late taking off (a thunderstorm this time? Nice move, didn't see that one!),
- [Breaking News: Chick-fil-A to open Sundays](https://stephenmcalpine.com/breaking-news-chick-fil-a-to-open-sundays/) - Chick-fil-A, the famed chicken fast food franchise, has just announced that it will now open Sundays. CEO Dan T Cathy declared this past week that the shifts in consumer expectations have resulted in a careful decision by the company to open seven days per week, starting from January 2020. In a press release today, Cathy
- [How Good Is the Good Place?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-good-is-the-good-place/) - I have appreciated the Netflix series, The Good Place (the earlier seasons are better). Here at Third Space, my colleague David Robertson and I discuss the show, it's views of heaven and hell, why God is strangely absent, and what it says about right and wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=F-Xh3beSdIA&feature=emb_logo Have a watch of The Good Place,
- [Hey Christian: It's not ok to say "Ok Boomer"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-its-not-ok-to-say-ok-boomer/) - Speaking as a cynical, grumpy ex-Gothic X-Generation boy who all the other generations despise, let me say this: If you're a Christian, it's not ok to say "Ok Boomer" That's a dismissive and arrogant thing to say. And Boomers? It's not ok to razz out on Millennials, as snowflakes or whatever. For what it's worth
- [Christians: When it comes to Old Testament pronouncements, don't "Do an Izzy"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christians-when-it-comes-to-old-testament-pronouncements-dont-do-an-izzy/) - "Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands." Haggai 1:10-11 Have you ever "done an Izzy?" Have
- [Me and my twin, and other media stuff this week](https://stephenmcalpine.com/me-and-my-twin-and-other-media-stuff-this-week/) - My twin brother and I were recently interviewed by The Centre for Public Christianity He's an atheist. I am not! He is an academic. I am a pastor. I believe Jesus rose from the dead. He doesn't. I loved this Life and Faith podcast interview because it gave us a chance to talk through some things
- [A Missionary in Mozambique With Advice For Missionaries in Australia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-missionary-in-mozambique-with-advice-for-missionaries-in-australia/) - One of the of the most common question we get asked when we visit people in Australia is this: “what can your work in Mozambique teach the local Australian church about sharing the Good News with people in Australia”? Our answer is pretty simple: “Learn the language and culture of people outside of your church
- [Work: A means of identity production AND stress production: Part 1](https://stephenmcalpine.com/work-a-means-of-identity-production-and-stress-production-part-1/) - Something is going to have to give. At the very time that work has been elevated to a means of not just material production, but identity production, it's also become the second biggest means of stress production after family conflict. So we read in The Guardian, the searing truth about work making us feel more
- [Welcome To our Third Space Website](https://stephenmcalpine.com/welcome-to-our-third-space-website/) - If you want to check out what I have been doing since stepping down as senior pastor at the start of the year, you can check out the new Third Space website. Third Space exists to create room for dialogue between Christians and non-Christians; to consult with churches as to where that room/third-space might be (bearing
- [Watch This (Third) Space](https://stephenmcalpine.com/watch-this-third-space-2/) - Now The West Wing is not a series I ever got in to, but my colleague at my new venture, Third Space, David Robertson has seen all of the series seven times (that's biblical proportions), and even has the tee-shirt. It's an old series now, but gee it's got some staying power. Perhaps as politics
- [Four Signs You Should Be Handing On the Baton of Senior Pastor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/four-signs-you-should-be-handing-on-the-baton-of-senior-pastor/) - It's about a year since we made the announcement that I would be stepping down from the role of senior pastor of our church, and handing that role to our then-associate pastor. I would be continuing in a two day role at the church, primarily as a preaching/teaching pastor. In light of that past
- [Australians Are Looking To Politics For Their Identity and Not Religion: And That's Not Necessarily a Good Thing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australians-are-looking-to-politics-for-their-identity-and-not-religion-and-thats-not-necessarily-a-good-thing/) - A report in the ABC today that more Australians are likely to identify themselves by politics than by any other identity marker - including and especially religion - is no real cause for celebration. Annabel Crabb's article points out that while most Australians, 71 per cent, think that "occasionally" or "most often" religious discrimination occurs in
- [A  Response to the ACT Chief Minister's Facebook Post Announcing A Ban on Conversion Therapy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-response-to-the-act-chief-ministers-facebook-post-announcing-a-ban-on-conversion-therapy/) - Dear Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory Greetings. May I first commend you on your impressive title. The general rule is the more tinpot the dictatorship, the more impressive the title. And yours is right up there. However I foremost want to write to congratulate you on your Facebook page announcement that says your
- [It's Not the A-Listers That Discredit Christianity, It's the Sneaky Little D-Listers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-not-the-a-listers-that-discredit-christianity-its-the-sneaky-little-d-listers/) - A-list celebrities who publicly announce that they have become Christians can be blamed for a lot of things. A lot of bad music, a lot of bad movies, a lot of bad fashion and a lot of bad relationships. One thing they can't be blamed for however, is the demise of Christianity. One thing they
- [Say it Jimmy, Say it! Jesus is King!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/say-it-jimmy-say-it-jesus-is-king/) - So there they were doing it the right way now. Those Christian crossover artists had learned how to do it in a hostile culture. At least if they wanted their career to survive. Carefully navigating the parking spaces of the entertainment industry. Backing in slowly between the lines. Making sure they didn't roll over any
- [Better Than Access to the Gold Lounge](https://stephenmcalpine.com/better-than-access-to-the-gold-lounge/) - I now have access to the coveted Gold Lounge. I'm sitting here in the Gold Lounge at the Auckland airport, heading home from a conference, and it's all hors d'oeuvres, funky drinks, comfy chairs, free everything, and peacefully quiet. Far from the madding aiport crowd. Gold Lounge access. Finally! I checked in on my iPhone
- [The Egg Sellers, Islam, and the Word of God](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-egg-sellers-islam-and-the-word-of-god/) - I've just finished speaking at a church planting Conference in Auckland. And it's been a great chance to get to see what God is doing in those islands to the south of Australia. As I was encouraging them in the work of the gospel in New Zealand, my friend in Mozambique sent me this encouraging
- [The Homosexual Tension In the Church Cannot Hold](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-homosexual-tension-in-the-church-cannot-hold/) - I was attending my brother's wedding a couple of years back, and we were just sitting down at our table, doing some recon about who was sitting near us, undertaking the obligatory introductions to people you're going to have to sit with for five hours, and getting a first glass of red wine, before loosening
- [Pascal's Poo Test Wager](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pascals-poo-test-wager/) - 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,
- [The Madness of the Unforgiving Crowds](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-madness-of-the-unforgiving-crowds/) - 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
- [Bully Vol 3](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bully-vol-3/) - 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
- [Bully Vol 2](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bully-vol-2/) - 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"
- [Bully Vol 1](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bully-vol-1/) - 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
- [Three Hours and Nine Seconds](https://stephenmcalpine.com/three-hours-and-nine-seconds/) - 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
- [Is Our Problem The Pull Factor of the World, or the Push Factor of the Church?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-our-problem-the-pull-factor-of-the-world-or-the-push-factor-of-the-church/) - 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 Other Christians Sick of Being the Butt of Jokes?  Cos I'm Not!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/are-other-christians-sick-of-being-the-butt-of-jokes-cos-im-not/) - 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
- [The City and The City: Living In Formational And Worshiping Distance](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-city-and-the-city-living-in-formational-and-worshiping-distance/) - 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
- [InPsych Magazine:  Telescoping the Future of Gender](https://stephenmcalpine.com/inpsych-magazine-telescoping-the-future-of-gender/) - I have to admit I enjoy reading the Australian Psychological Society's monthly journal InPsych. Don't get me wrong. I don't enjoy it for the dazzling insights into the human condition that I see within its pages. I enjoy it because it's prophetic: InPsych's commitment to a radical post-Christian perspective on what it means to be
- [26 Years and One Day Later](https://stephenmcalpine.com/35473-2/) - Today I am fifty two years and two days old. Today it is twenty six years and one day since Jill and I went on our first date. That was one day after my twenty six birthday, Thursday September 16th 1993. I've put a wedding photo up on this blog cos I couldn't find a
- [Hey ABC: Church dads have been "woke" for years](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-abc-church-dads-have-been-woke-for-years/) - So Aussie dads are getting "woke". Well, according to an article on the ABC website, they are. By "woke" the ABC means dads who are finally, finally taking their useless Daddy Pig-ness off to market to be slaughtered. And they're coming back all cleaned up, ready to push prams, take parental leave and do
- [Depressed](https://stephenmcalpine.com/depressed/) - I was just finishing a sermon when it all came crashing down. Not my sermon. Me. I came crashing down. I remember the moment exactly. Sunday morning, Parkerville Baptist Church, 2005. It was the morning of the church open day. It was a hive of activity. A buzz. Marquees, tents, food, drinks, performances. And me,
- [The BBC:  100 Genders, 92 League Teams](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-bbc-100-genders-92-league-teams/) - Back in the days before the internet existed, I would get up Sunday morning primed for the dulcet tones of the BBC World Service's James Alexander Gordon reading out the English Football results. Did Arsenal win? Arsenal were in the old first division, so I'd know early as that got read out first. It was
- [Songs Stick and Songs Speak: Discipling Kids With Gospel Singing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/songs-stick-and-songs-speak-discipling-kids-with-gospel-singing/) - Michael Tinker is a friend of mine from Sheffield in the UK. He is a singer/songwriter who specialises in creating content and productions for discipling children. (He's a great folk musician too). Michael possesses a range of musical styles and personas in his children's performances and appears at schools and church groups across the UK.
- [Fishing and Living in Babylon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fishing-and-living-in-babylon/) - I've just started working with an Australian evangelistic organisation in a new venture called Third Space, aimed at both being a third space for non-Christians to ask questions about the gospel, and helping churches find those third spaces for themselves. We believe that while the Western setting has never been more hostile towards the gospel,
- [Is Your Church Frantic or Focussed?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-your-church-frantic-or-focussed/) - Focussed attention is our greatest resource Is your church frantic or focussed? That's a question worth asking. That line above was dropped by the excellent American Rabbi David Wolpe, in a recent podcast with Jewish atheist, Eric Weinstein. We live in a world that is the opposite of focussed attention. Our world is frantic distraction.
- [The Good Place Ain't So Great](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-good-place-aint-so-great/) - I'm a late adopter of TV series. I'm the bloke who dismisses it with a shrug, only to binge watch it later and talk about it as if he were an expert on all things that show. So when I say I loved the Netflix series The Good Place, I really did love it. It's original, well-acted, and it
- [Fatherless Day](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fatherless-day/) - It's the third Father's Day since my own father died. Long enough to forget that fact as I laced on my shoes and went on a cool morning long run. Short enough to feel a pang of remembrance as I ran past a young family walking to a Father's Day breakfast at a cafe. It
- [This Is the Legislation You Get When the Common Ground Is No Longer Common](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-is-the-legislation-you-get-when-the-common-ground-is-no-longer-common/) - The response to the Australian Government's just announced Religious Discrimination Act legislation is proof, if further proof were needed, that there is no longer a shared vision of the good in our country. The common good is no longer common. The common ground is shrinking - and fast. This is the legislation you get in
- [Apostasy: It's Never Been Easier](https://stephenmcalpine.com/apostasy-its-never-been-easier/) - What has made apostasy such an attractive option these days? It's like a social contagion. Or a social media contagion at least. Christians wringing their hands about where it all went wrong as yet another celebrity Christian leader (a descriptor I have been unable to source in the original Greek) hits the dirt in a
- [Demas Versus St Paul On Instagram](https://stephenmcalpine.com/demas-versus-st-paul-on-instagram/)
- [Hey Church: A Fallow Year Ain't A Bad Idea](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-church-a-fallow-year-aint-a-bad-idea/) - ' Does your church need a fallow year? Sounds like apostasy in the ears of many church leaders, but the conversations I've been having with pastors, other paid leaders and lay people indicates that the idea of a fallow year might not be a bad thing for your church. You know what I mean by
- [Iris and Oscar](https://stephenmcalpine.com/iris-and-oscar/) - Iris came into our house and our family via Mum. All the waifs and strays did. That's how we used to meet them. That's how they became friends to the point you can't remember a time not knowing them. Mum would say "This is so-and-so, and so-and-so", and that would be it. And if so-and-so
- [The Right Coloured Ashtrays for Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-right-coloured-ashtrays-for-church/) - You know God's doing something special when you're choosing the colour of the ashtrays for the church not the colour of the carpet. Yet here's Don Warner of Byford Baptist Church, an ordinary congregation of 140 ordinary people in an ordinary suburb in Perth's ordinary semi-rural fringe, painting coffee tins for the local people, who
- [Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Movements: A Roadmap for Leaders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/book-review-the-rise-and-fall-of-movements-a-roadmap-for-leaders/) - I first met Steve Addison a decade or so ago when a couple of friends and I were in the early stages of church planting. What struck us most was Steve's humility and his wise, generous advice to a bunch of rookies starting out. It was a breath of fresh air. Ten years later, Steve's
- [Which Tim Costello Will We Get This Week?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/which-tim-costello-will-we-get-this-week/) - Which Tim Costello will we get this week? It's become a bit of a guessing game to wile away the hours. Will it be School Principal Tim Costello, scolding naughty Christians "who need to "suck it up"? Or will it be avuncular Tim Costello, putting a hand on our collective Christian shoulders and going "There,
- [Let's Never Outlive Our Love For Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/lets-never-outlive-our-love-for-jesus/) - Oh, make me thine forever! And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never Outlive my love for thee. Have you ever thought about the possibility of outliving your love for Jesus? Growing old, but having left Jesus behind in middle age? What would that be like? I was out running this afternoon, a
- [Josh Harris' New Creation Story](https://stephenmcalpine.com/josh-harris-new-creation-story/) - The problem with this photograph, of course, is that it does not look like deconstruction. It does not look like falling away. It does not look like apostasy. It looks like a new Adam about to launch onto a new world. It looks like salvation. And that of course is what it is intended to look
- [Watch This Third Space](https://stephenmcalpine.com/watch-this-third-space/) - Earlier this year I began a new part time venture with City Bible Forum, called Third Space, alongside David Robertson, a pastor, author and broadcaster from Dundee in Scotland who blogs at theweeflea.com. I am staying on two days a week with our church, Providence Church in Perth. David has moved to Sydney with his
- [NASA, Woodstock and The Search For Identity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nasa-woodstock-and-the-search-for-identity/) - The two images below were taken a month apart: The launch of Apollo 11 in mid July 1969 on its way to the moon with three astronauts. And this photo taken mid August 1969: Woodstock, August 1969. It's hard to think of two events so close in time, and location, yet more distant in terms
- [I Kissed Rating Goodbye](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-kissed-rating-goodbye/) - The shooting star that was the Young, Restless Reformed crowd shone brightly as it burned. Brightly and all the quicker for it. And now with the likes of Mark Driscoll seemingly dumping all over Reformed Theology from his land of exile, and Josh Harris dumping his marriage, it certainly feels like what began with a
- [Why Secular Church Started So Well, but Finished So Poorly (and Quickly)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-secular-church-started-so-well-but-finished-so-poorly-and-quickly/) - We've all heard over the past few years of the move among Nones to start something like church, with all the bells and whistles, talks and coffee, singing and platforms. Something like church but with one small variable - no Jesus. They began to meet in buildings across all the funky cities in the world
- [What a Relief: Israel's Not Kosher After All!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-a-relief-israels-not-kosher-after-all/) - Phew!! Many an evangelical just let out a huge sigh of relief following yesterday's definitive exposé of just how right-of-centre Israel Folau's church group is. Izzy's just been outed as totally non-kosher in the orthodox Christian world, so we can all get on with ignoring him. Many evangelicals have, no doubt, been praising Jesus (and the
- [Back in Black](https://stephenmcalpine.com/back-in-black/) - Vinyl is back. Back in black. My daughter's friends bought her a record player last year for her 17th birthday. Why? Because in case you hadn't heard, vinyl is back. Those big black discs of polyvinyl chloride with one long continuous groove are selling like, er, hit records. Vinyl is back. In a way that
- [Why CPX's Tim Costello is Dead Right (and Dead Wrong)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-cpxs-tim-costello-is-dead-right-and-dead-wrong/) - Tim Costello is dead right. We're not being persecuted like Christians around the world and we need to suck it up. I've said that for a while now. We're not getting the level of sheer violence and terror that Christians experience around the globe on a daily basis. But Tim Costello is dead wrong
- [Life Expectancy Down: Death Expectancy Remains Steady](https://stephenmcalpine.com/life-expectancy-down-death-expectancy-remains-steady/) - Turns out we're not going to live as long as we thought we would. Life expectancy in Australia is on the way down. Death expectancy on the other hand... The promise - nay the assertion - a few decades ago that we would soon all live happily and healthily to one hundred, is probably not
- [If Only There were Someone Other than Izzy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/if-only-there-were-someone-other-than-izzy/) - If only If only If only If only there were someone other than Izzy. Someone not like Izzy who was getting hounded out of his future employment for making a statement about his religious convictions. If only there were some no-name who wasn't followed in Instagram by thousands, and who wasn't on social media all
- [The Restoration of Most Things](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-restoration-of-most-things/) - The Church tried to conform itself to the world at a moment when the world was becoming uglier. That sentence alone makes the conversation in Catholic journal First Things, between French author and atheist enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq, and Catholic conservative journalist Geoffrey Lejeune, worth the read. It sums up the failed strategy of a
- [Hey Ministers and Theologians: When It Comes to the Secular Workplace, You Just Don't Get It](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-ministers-and-theologians-when-it-comes-to-the-secular-workplace-you-just-dont-get-it/) - The Israel Folau storm has exposed many things, and this is one of them: many ministry workers have little idea of the pressures people face in the modern workplace. They just don't get it. Not that it stops them making big statements about it. If you're a Christian ministry worker and you've had a lot to
- [Touch](https://stephenmcalpine.com/touch/) - I was doing a recovery run the other day, just cruising along the river the morning after a hard effort long run the day before. Stunning Perth winter's afternoon, not a breeze, not a cloud, nice and cool. Recovery runs are not the time to check your Garmin for pace, in fact you'd be better
- [Some Blogs I've Written In My New Role at City Bible Forum](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-blogs-ive-written-in-my-new-role-at-city-bible-forum/) - Just a few posts I've written for City Bible Forum recently. I've just started working three days per week for City Bible Forum in a new venture called Third Space (so watch this "third" space!). I've got the impressive title National Communicator, which just means "keep doing what you're doing"! I will continue to work
- [Hey Teacher Leave Them Kids Alone!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-teacher-leave-them-kids-alone/) - So here's a video from a Scottish public school of a student in a dispute with his teacher which results in him being put out of class for thirty minutes. Oh here we go again, students being rowdy and misbehaving! What's his crime? Have a watch: https://twitter.com/lporiginalg/status/1139572227307794432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1139572227307794432%7Ctwgr%5E363937393b636f6e74726f6c&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaldronpool.com%2Fwatch-student-kicked-out-of-class-for-suggesting-there-are-only-two-genders-told-unacceptable-opinions-cant-be-voiced-in-school-even-if-they-are-scientifically-true%2F Go you good thing Murray! And you challenge
- [Sincerity: If You Can Fake That You've Got ... Authenticity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sincerity-if-you-can-fake-that-youve-got-authenticity/) - It was George Burns who is attributed with the razor sharp aphorism: "Sincerity, if you can fake that, you've got it made." And working backwards, the key to what makes you in this late modern age is the fake version of sincerity - authenticity. If you can fake that you've definitely got it made, and you're probably
- [Christian Schools Dodged a Bullet, But What Next?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-schools-dodged-a-bullet-but-what-next/) - It felt like we dodged a bullet. The unexpected electoral result of a few weeks back cleared my calendar. As a board member of a Christian school I was assuming an ALP government wold come to power, a party which had vowed to cut all religious exemptions for Christian schools. And that would mean a
- [Moses Was a Murderer (and other things the Bible doesn't say)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/moses-was-a-murderer-and-other-things-the-bible-doesnt-say/) - So Moses was a murderer, right? He failed to do what God wanted him to do and did things his own way. But eventually he got back on track and God used him despite his failures. Just like God can use you, despite your failures. That theme has launched a thousand sermons, and a thousand
- [The Progressive Zombie Agenda](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-progressive-zombie-agenda/) - The thing about zombies is that you can never turn your back on them. Ever. You've watched enough zombie series by now on livestream TV to know this. There's never a point where the zombies go: "Well you've bumped off enough of us, and we've not even put a scratch on you, how about we
- [Politics, The Secular, and the New Jerusalem](https://stephenmcalpine.com/politics-the-secular-and-the-new-jerusalem/) - The secular always pitches itself, as Charles Taylor reminds us, as a subtraction story; a narrative about what life looks like when all of the detritus of religious myth and legend is stripped away. Once the transcendent is banished to its rightful place in the museum of ideas (or the prison house of failed and
- [This is the 21st Century: Justify Nothing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-is-the-21st-century-justify-nothing/) - This is the 21st century. You don't need to justify yourself to anyone for anything. The new Mercedes B-Class advertising campaign caught my eye - and my ear - in the cinema the other day. So much so that I grabbed my phone and made a note of the slogan above. The 21st century. Justify
- [For Secular Progressives The Conversation Is Just A Monologue](https://stephenmcalpine.com/for-secular-progressives-the-conversation-is-just-a-monologue/) - You'd think that with ALP politicians now falling over themselves to show how in tune they actually are with religious communities that this would be a time for the progressives to start listening to people they don't understand. Yet progressive online journals such as The Conversation, are still getting it completely wrong, to the point
- [He Paid The Debt They Would Have Had to Pay](https://stephenmcalpine.com/he-paid-the-debt-they-would-have-had-to-pay/) - This is a great story. Billionaire tech investor, Robert F Smith, took the opportunity as commencement speaker at Moorehouse College in the US, to calmly wipe the student debt of every student he was addressing. All 400 students. All $58 million of their debt. Just like that. As a black leader in the US, addressing
- [Shortenfreude](https://stephenmcalpine.com/shortenfreude/) - It's interesting, and slightly disturbing, watching the glee towards the vanquished following the election, and its shock result, last night. Schadenfreude - the German word to describe glee at others misfortune - abounds at moments such as this. For Bill Shorten it's the end of a political career. For Scott Morrison it's the making of one.
- [Would You Accept More Gospel Hostility If It Also Meant More Gospel Openness?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/would-you-accept-more-gospel-hostility-if-it-also-meant-more-gospel-openness/) - I was speaking to a well regarded UK apologist, pastor and author by Skype from Scotland the other day and he said this: It's never been more hostile to the gospel, but never more open either. What he meant was that while there is a concerted push against the Christian frame among the political, cultural
- [A Helluva'n Election Campaign](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-helluvan-election-campaign/) - It's almost bizarre that one of the levers being pulled in the last week of the Federal election campaign is whether the Australian Prime Minister can unequivocally state that gay people are or are not going to hell. Yet that's the squirmy question that the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten presented, unprompted, in a media stop
- [Faith-Based Schools To Fall Off the Precipice](https://stephenmcalpine.com/faith-based-schools-to-fall-off-the-precipice/) - I made a comment to a non-Christian friend who sends their child to a faith-based school that employs practicing Christian teachers, that their decision to vote YES in the same sex plebiscite might mean they would soon be looking somewhere else to school their child. They seemed surprised. I didn't say it with any particular
- [Don't Let Sexular Culture Leave Women as Also-Rans](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-let-sexular-culture-leave-women-as-also-rans/) - Sooner or later reality catches up with the intellectual schizophrenia of gender identity politics and beats it to the line. And sometimes, as in the case of a dispute over prize money for a recent running race at Queensland University of Technology, actually beats it to the line. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, the
- [The Compassionless Future Has Arrived](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-compassionless-future-has-arrived/) - Forget the furore over the "Easter worshippers versus Christian" Tweets by the former US President Barak Obama, and the former (soon to be again?) Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, about the Sri Lankan bombings. It's the lack of any social media comment by the up and coming star of the Democrats in the US that is
- [Theology, A Dentist and an ex-Mormon Prime Minister](https://stephenmcalpine.com/theology-a-dentist-and-an-ex-mormon-prime-minister/) - There's something a little bit thrilling, a thrill mixed with sadness nonetheless, at the huge level of ignorance about the basics of Christianity among the average Westerner at the moment. And it's a level of ignorance that is only set to increase as the church participation rate continues to decline. While it does not augur
- [When The Silence Is As Deafening As the Explosions](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-silence-is-as-deafening-as-the-explosions/) - It's a terrible way for it to happen, but with the awful scenes in Colombo overnight, Christian persecution just got its moment in the sun for 2019. And the manner in which it is being reported for what it is - a terrorist attack aimed predominantly, though not exclusively, at Christians -, makes it pretty
- [Mockery](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mockery/) - I was struck today reading the Luke account of Jesus' trial and death. A key feature of that dreadful day was mockery. Yes there was torture, betrayal and crucifixion. And they are terrible, terrible things. And in that context mockery may seem a minor thing. But not to the Gospel writer: The men who were
- [A French Evangelical's Thoughts on Notre Dame](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-french-evangelicals-thoughts-on-notre-dame/) - On a small number of occasions my very good French friend, Daniel Szabo, - who is that rare breed; an evangelical Christian in France, - has written a blog post for me. I asked him to write this one after he told me yesterday that, although he lived in Paris many years, he almost never
- [All This Useless Beauty](https://stephenmcalpine.com/all-this-useless-beauty/) - Paris, and the world, lost something more than a wonderful piece of ecclesiastical history and architecture overnight. It lost yet another link with a transcendent past, that was once so usefully beautiful. French writer Guy de Maupassant, and decidedly 20th century singer-poet Elvis Costello, label, both have written works called Useless Beauty, or as in Costello's case,
- [Sexular Colonialism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sexular-colonialism/) - If my male, pale and stale heart could be warmed, it would be so by the growing realisation that the baton of colonialism, long the historic burden of the conservative, Christianised West, can now been handed to the woke Left in our culture. The evidence is coming in in spades. The progressive narrative has created,
- [Who Would You Be Embarrassed To Be Seen Having Coffee With?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/who-would-you-be-embarrassed-to-be-seen-having-coffee-with/) - There was a picture of Israel Folau and his wife having coffee on the streets of Sydney yesterday with a group of people. But don't worry. Those people were representatives of the Australian Rugby Union having a stern word with him, so no one was actually putting their cultural credibility on the line by being
- [Lying Community Outraged By Folau's Latest Tweet](https://stephenmcalpine.com/lying-community-outraged-by-folaus-latest-tweet/) - There was outrage amongst members of Australia's lying community this morning after rugby star Israel Folau's latest social media gaffe on Instagram. Speaking under a pseudonym, spokesman for support group, Lying Is A Right, Chuck Norris, said that enough was enough and that Folau had to be called to account. "It's getting out of hand,"
- [Transgender Activism's Spotlight Moment](https://stephenmcalpine.com/transgender-activisms-spotlight-moment/) - Well, this could well be transgender activism's "Spotlight" moment. You may remember Spotlight, that fantastic Hollywood movie named after the journalistic investigation team at the Boston Globe newspaper. Through methodical research, the Spotlight team at the Globe uncovered the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in the United States in the early 2000s, pushing
- [Trendcendence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/trendcendence/) - Trendcendence: [trend-sen-duh ns] Noun: The quality or state of trending that ushers in a sense of transcendence. Okay, so I made that word up - it's a neo-logism - but bear with me. We live, publicly at least, in an avowedly secular world. Living in a material world and we are material girls, boys, or a
- [Interview on Human Potential Podcast](https://stephenmcalpine.com/interview-on-human-potential-podcast/) - I was interviewed for a secular podcast, Human Potential, but a great bloke from Sydney, Oliver Freer. I was in Sydney for a day or so a few weeks back so we caught up and he asked a bunch of great questions, including about what it means to be a man well into the second
- [Secularism's (Misplaced) Confidence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/secularisms-misplaced-confidence/) - I wrote last week, in light of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, that the decision by the government to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer as part of its memorial was a display of secularism's hegemony, rather than a kow-towing to Islam. And I wrote that in light of a lot of huffing and
- [What Are We to Make of the Muslim Call to Prayer Going Out Over the New Zealand Airwaves?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-are-we-to-make-of-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-going-out-over-the-new-zealand-airwaves/) - There has been much discussion about the decision by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinta Arden, to arrange for the Muslim call to prayer to go out over the airwaves of national radio today, followed by two minutes silence. And all this in light of the atrocities in Christchurch last week. On the surface it
- [Banning The Lord's Prayer in Parliament: Round 23](https://stephenmcalpine.com/banning-the-lords-prayer-in-parliament-round-23/) - So we've got another round of banning the Lord's Prayer or reacting to banning the Lord's Prayer in a Parliament somewhere in Australia. You can read about it here on the ABC site. What's that? The 23rd attempt in five years? I kinda feel comforted by this sort of thing. Mainly because of its regularity.
- [Slivers of Gospel Light in a Dark Week](https://stephenmcalpine.com/slivers-of-gospel-light-in-a-dark-week/) - In the midst of dark times such as these, the slivers of light that the gospel of Jesus bears on peoples' lives is always heartening. And I've found in writing this blog these past years it's the stories of grace in the midst of darkness that people respond to the most. Hence I was overwhelmed by
- [No people, this is NOT what you get for mixing Islam with the West.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-people-this-is-not-what-you-get-for-mixing-islam-with-the-west/) - In the wake of the terrible events in the Christchurch mosques just today, could Christians of a certain persuasion stop writing things on Facebook along the lines of "This is what you get for mixing Islam in the West."? Yep, I saw that within a few minutes of the announcement of the shooting, but strangely
- [Ground Zero: Orthodoxy and Evangelism in a Post-Pell World](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ground-zero-orthodoxy-and-evangelism-in-a-post-pell-world/) - There is September 10th 2001. There is September 12th 2001. And an awful lot changed in the middle. Things could not, and patently have not, gone back to the way they were before those Twin Towers came tumbling down. So too here in Australia there is the day before the lifting of the suppression order
- [OJ Simpson's Gloves Versus Cardinal Pell's Robes](https://stephenmcalpine.com/oj-simpsons-glove-and-cardinal-pells-robes/) - Remember the glove? Remember the glove that didn't fit? If you're old enough to remember the OJ Simpson trial, the so called trial of the century in the US back in 1994, you'll remember the glove that didn't fit. OJ - the Juice - the famous footballer, was on trial for the murder of his
- [A Long Time Between Haircuts](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-long-time-between-haircuts/) - The last time I went for a haircut was back in 1994. A quarter of a century ago. I remember it well, even if at the time I didn't know it would be the final one for 25 years. Italian Catholic bloke in his late fifties called Tony in Wesley Arcade Perth. Slicked back balding
- [Making Bricks For Evangelical Pharaohs](https://stephenmcalpine.com/making-bricks-for-evangelical-pharaohs/) - I worry that an awful lot of modern day ministry is about making bricks for evangelical pharaohs. Whether those pharaohs are actual people, or whether they are systems and philosophies of ministry that have been put in place, doesn't matter all that much; making bricks is the paradigm of much modern ministry. And it's leaving
- [Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and Only You Had Ever Heard of Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/imagine-waking-up-tomorrow-and-only-you-had-ever-heard-of-jesus/) - Imagine waking up and only you had heard of The Beatles. That's the conceit behind the latest movie from director Danny "SlumDog Millionaire" Boyle and screenwriter Richard "Love Actually" Curtis, Yesterday. Yesterday is shaping up to be the feel-good movie of the coming northern summer, in which a talented, but spectacularly unsuccessful musician, Jack Malik, wakes
- [Matisha's Throne of Grace](https://stephenmcalpine.com/matishas-throne-of-grace/) - When Matisha moved into the retirement apartment next to my Mum last year, things got ugly. Very ugly. Very quickly. Matisha took an instant dislike to Mum. Only my Mum. All the other residents she was fine with. Chatted with them. Spent time with them But there was something about Mum that she took an
- [What Johan Cruyff Could Teach Pastors (And Everyone Else) About Identity and Purpose](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-johan-cruyff-could-teach-pastors-and-everyone-else-about-identity-and-purpose/) - Dutchman Johan Cruyff was perhaps the greatest footballer/soccer player ever. Brazil's Pele might pip him in some polls; George Best was a brief shining superstar. But as the leader of the Ajax FC and Dutch teams' "total football" approach in the 1970s, plus a glittering playing and coaching career with the famous FC Barcelona, Cruyff,
- [Six Thoughts After Six Years of a Public Church Plant](https://stephenmcalpine.com/six-thoughts-after-six-years-of-a-public-church-plant/) - Six years ago today, after several months of meeting as two household groups, our church, Providence Church Midland, decided to do a public gathering every fortnight, and household on the other weekend. We rented an old building in Midland, the old Midland bank: About thirty or so of us turned up (no visitors despite a
- [The Golfless Millennials](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-golfless-millennials/) - Golf is having its God moment. Or, to put it another way, its Blockbuster Video moment. And it's happening with the same generation of people that the church has been struggling to engage with in the West - the Millennials. 22-37 year olds have lost interest in the game. Golf courses, which are expensive to
- [Different Mega-Church: Same Old Scandal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-the-exposure-of-mega-church-scandals-follows-a-particular-pattern/) - Although I have heard of evangelical mega-pastor James MacDonald, I am not familiar with any of his books. Or his sermons. Or his broadcast messages on Christian radio. And I didn't know his church, Harvest Bible Chapel, had 13 thousand members and numerous affiliate churches. I didn't know MacDonald's church was in Chicago, however there
- [A Real Live Slippery Slope in Action for All to See](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-real-live-slippery-slope-in-action-for-all-to-see/) - If any little good could come out of our Western culture's embedding of first the practice of, then the celebration of, abortion it's this: The issue a cast iron example of a slippery slope in action. We do not have to postulate, or construct flow charts, to determine whether radical social changes have huge unintended
- [Yesterday New York Signed Off On Toxic Humanity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/yesterday-new-york-signed-off-on-toxic-humanity/) - Forget toxic masculinity. Don't even mention toxic femininity. Yesterday's move by the New York legislature to enshrine abortion up to full term in New York State is a prime example of one thing: toxic humanity. But more than that. The true toxicity is not in the signing of the legislation, but in the unadulterated celebrating
- [WeCroak.com is no Joke.com](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wecroak-com-is-no-joke-com/) - There's an App for every occasion, and now there's one for your final occasion. WeCroak.com offers an app that reminds you - often - that you are going to die. It's based on a Bhutanese folk saying that to truly be happy we must contemplate our mortality five times per day. With its funky frog logo
- [Gillette Shaves But Only Jesus Saves](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gillette-shaves-but-only-jesus-saves/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0 The new Gillette ad We Believe is causing quite the stir around the world (well, around the rich Western world where men can afford razors with multiple blades). And it's divided people just as sharply as a well honed cut-throat razor would. The company is unapologetic for hitching its wagon onto the #Metoo movement, and
- [Haggai: Just The Prophet For These Hard Secular Times](https://stephenmcalpine.com/haggai-just-the-prophet-for-these-hard-secular-times/) - In hard secular times we imagine that the people of God will nobly knuckle down and stand firm in the face of the Sexular Culture, the post-Christian social experiments that continue to defy physio-logic, and progressive officialdom's push to purge the public square of any Christian voice that does not play the "renaming" game. In
- [Marie Kondo: Bringing Salvation Order  out of Sinful Chaos](https://stephenmcalpine.com/marie-kondo-bringing-salvation-order-out-of-sinful-chaos/) - I don’t ever see it going back to what it was like before. Before you came into our lives. You've got to hand it to Netflix. Putting on Marie Kondo's Tidying Up straight after Christmas and the New Year was a masterstroke in scheduling. By now, in a frenzy of new year's resolve and
- [Responding to Jared C Wilson's "Why Christian Movies Are So Terrible"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/responding-to-jared-c-wilsons-why-christian-movies-are-so-terrible/) - Jared C Wilson gets five out of five stars for his review of the state of Christian movies: Why Christian Movies Are So Terrible. He nails it, especially the first point, that Christian movies are made, not by artists, but by propagandists. Wilson states: Christian movies are more akin to propaganda than art, because they
- [Some reasons why Millennials should get into traditional liturgy (and some reasons why they shouldn't)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-reasons-why-millennials-should-get-into-traditional-liturgy-and-some-reasons-why-they-shouldnt/) - Contemporary is out. Liturgy is the new black. A recent article in The Times confirms what I've been hearing anecdotally, and been witnessing among our own congregation: many Millennials returning to church are often not headed towards the large pentecostal churches, or the "pentecostal-lite", or even the "evangelical-lite", but towards liturgy. Now the article above is
- [I Have Almost 3 Months Off Work.  What Should I Do?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-have-almost-3-months-off-work-what-should-i-do/) - What would you do with up to three months off work? Does that sound like a dream? Well, I have almost three months off, combining annual leave, some long service leave, and a slow taper back into two roles in March. And it sounds like a dream. Sounds like it. I just don't want it
- [The Respectful Relationships Program Could Start by Respecting Parents.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-respectful-relationships-program-could-start-by-respecting-parents/) - It would seem that the only relationship that isn't respected by those rolling out the Trojan horse program Respectful Relationships into our schools, is the relationship between parents and their own children. Once Christmas ends, the first billboards from Officeworks are up, reminding parents that it's back to school in only four weeks time! Four
- [Two Worlds Run Into Each Other On New Year's Day](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-world-run-into-each-other-on-new-years-day/) - Two world's ran into each other on New Year's Day near where I live. It was a hot morning down at the river where I was heading to do the New Year's Day 5km Woodbridge parkrun event. There were about 160 other people milling around warming up. I'd gotten up early, for a warm up
- [Churches: Plunge Your People Into God's Better Story](https://stephenmcalpine.com/churches-plunge-your-people-into-gods-better-story/) - Tomorrow, the second last day of the year, and the last Sunday, eight of the young people in our church will be baptised. Eight young people ranging in age from six through to 23 will be plunged into a better story; the story of God's work in the world. Eight young people will gather around
- [Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Tweets](https://stephenmcalpine.com/out-of-the-abundance-of-the-heart-the-mouth-tweets/) - But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. (Jesus in Matthew 12) Well it's finally been admitted. Billionaire tech inventor Elon Musk, has come out and said that whatever you say about someone on Twitter doesn't count cos you said
- [Why in 2019 The Tide For Evangelism Might Just Turn](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-in-2019-the-tide-for-evangelism-might-just-turn/) - There's every chance that 2019 might just be a great year for evangelism in Australia. Every chance a wave is coming in. Every chance indeed. There are some telling signs. I was listening last week to the always excellent This Cultural Moment podcast, and Mark Sayers was observing that while it seems that the tide has
- [Middle Aged (Spider)Men in Lycra](https://stephenmcalpine.com/middle-aged-spidermen-in-lycra/) - Saw the new Spiderman movie last night. Loved it. What a way to freshen up what was threatening to become a stale franchise. Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse sloughs off the tired old exoskeleton and wriggles free to create new webs of intrigue. Its use of animation, mashed up with some real life footage, and a montage
- [My Top Five Articles Read (or Ignored) By You This Year](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-top-five-articles-read-or-ignored-by-you-this-year/) - Well, it's that time of year. The winding up time of the year for lists etc. Strava kilometres runs, books read (or claimed to have been read), calories burned, Facebook activities liked, angry emojis given in lieu of actual passive aggressive comments, stuff like that. So here are the top five articles read on stephenmcalpine.com
- [Naughty Darebin City Council Won't Be Getting Coal For Christmas](https://stephenmcalpine.com/naughty-darebin-city-council-wont-be-getting-coal-for-christmas/) - The late political cartoonist Bill Leak observed that his job was becoming more difficult each year because the parodies he once drew were becoming realities. When cultural and political life is a joke, where do you go from there? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the parody of life that has become actual life: the
- [Hey Christian Teachers - The ALP Says You've Only Got a Year Left (Maybe A little More) to Discriminate - So What Are You Waiting For?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-teachers-the-alp-says-youve-only-got-a-year-left-maybe-a-little-more-to-discriminate-so-what-are-you-waiting-for/) - Hey teacher in Christian school, if you want to continue your long and well documented tradition of discriminating against gay students in your school (deriding them, expelling them, pointing them out in the classroom, the sort of thing they've been doing up to this point with impunity), then you'd better get a wriggle on. For
- [When Mike and Spike See Jesus.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-mike-and-spike-see-jesus/) - It's a hard truth, but it's been the painful things in ministry that have shaped me most. I wish it were not that way, but it is. I wish the conferences and books and teaching series had been the biggest teachers. They're all great things, and I appreciate them. But I suspect many are nodding
- [Religious Freedom And Sexular Culture: A Tale of Two Gospels](https://stephenmcalpine.com/religious-freedom-and-sexular-culture-a-tale-of-two-gospels/) - The reason that we are at such an impasse in Australia over religious freedom/ discrimination is simple: It's a tale of two gospels. Competing views about good news. And as such, with so much at stake, there can be no backdown and no middle ground. Not that I would not like there to be middle
- [Christian Leader: Surround Yourself With "No Men"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-leader-surround-yourself-with-no-men/) - This is Ollie. Ollie is one of my "No Men". Ollie has been one of my longest term friends. A man of Christian character over a long period of time. I took this photo of him in 1999 overlooking the Dorset coastline near Ollie's family's holiday cottage. Ollie and his wife, Phil, had just gotten
- [The Religious Freedom Arm Wrestle](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-religious-freedom-arm-wrestle/) - It's time to get real. The debate around religious freedom in Australia is an arm wrestle and we're at an impasse. Each side is straining at the other, and refusing to budge. And the reason each side is refusing to budge is that there is so much at stake. Paul Kelly nailed it
- [The Religious Are Invisible Voters To Greens Leader, Richard di Natale](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-religious-are-invisible-voters-to-greens-leader-richard-di-natale/) - A friend sat watching the Australian Senate debating the contentious anti-discrimination bill before our Parliament today. It's been the most rushed piece of legislation that is completely at odds with the gravity of the consequences of its enactment. The furphy around the legislation as it pertained to schools, was that it was presented as a
- [Fr Rod Bower and His False Sign of The Times](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fr-rod-bower-and-his-false-sign-of-the-times/) - There's always a soothing (false) prophet announcing "Peace, peace" when there is no peace. It was true in Jeremiah's time. It is true in the church today. So in light of the fact that next week the Federal Government, wedged as it is by the Opposition, and vainly fighting for its survival, is about to
- [You Can't Tell A Better Story if You're Not a Better Story Teller (even if you've got a better story)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/you-cant-tell-a-better-story-if-youre-not-a-better-story-teller-even-if-youve-got-a-better-story/) - I've been moved, and encouraged, by the response I have received from many of you about my last blog post about my mum's incredible grace shown towards my dad. And people have shared their own stories of grace in the midst of trial too. I've written blog posts that have been read more widely, but never -
- [The Day Jesus Said "I've Got This"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-day-jesus-said-ive-got-this/) - I can, by nature, be a graceless man. I slip all too easily into either a snakes-and-ladders works-based righteousness; up when I'm doing well, down when I'm not. Or, worse, I fail to extend grace to other people. My bent towards being a chippy so-and-so, coupled with, - how shall we put it -, an
- [Eight Thoughts On My Last Week as Senior Pastor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/eight-thoughts-on-my-last-week-as-senior-pastor/) - Yesterday was my last official day as Senior Pastor at our church, Providence Church Midland. After six years as Midland pastor and two previous years working with Providence's city congregation, we made the change at our general meeting last night. Jill and I planted in our lounge room six years ago. Now after a year
- [I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/im-the-bad-guy-how-did-that-happen/) - The incredulity on the face of recently divorced, recently fired William Foster's face when he utters those words in the classic movie Falling Down, sums up what many Christians feel in the current cultural moment. After turning rogue and becoming vigilante for a day, railing against injustices perceived and real, Foster comes to the end
- [When The Tasmanian Toddlers Get into   the Knife Drawer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-tasmanian-toddlers-get-into-the-knife-drawer/) - The Tasmanian Toddlers, also known as the politicians that state's lower house of parliament, have gotten into the knife drawer. And it won't be pretty. Now there's something cute about toddlers sitting on the kitchen floor rummaging through the Tupperware cupboard. Something cute. Something safe. Something innocent. Those little bundles of joy are in no
- [White Magazine Goes Into the Red](https://stephenmcalpine.com/white-magazine-goes-into-the-red/) - Well that didn't take long. Back at the end of August, I wrote about how wedding magazine White was facing a blackban over its quiet stance on same sex weddings, namely that it didn't promote them. Owners Luke and Carla Burrell are Christians who, while not making a noise about it, were holding to their conscience
- [Nationalism Is The Worst Thing Ever. Along With Globalism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/nationalism-is-the-worst-thing-ever-along-with-globalism/) - Nationalism is pretty much the whipping boy of international progressive politics these days. And not without some reason. It is after all, 100 years this past Sunday, since the guns fell silent, ending the slaughter of the Great War that decimated the cream of Europe's youth. French President, Emmanuel Macron, summed up the chastened
- [The Precipice One Year On](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-precipice-one-year-on/) - This is the headline in The Conversation online journal today: Much to be done eh? One assumes that there are wedding plans to be pencilled in, flowers to buy, cakes to order (from reputable sources of course), venues to hire and suits and gowns to be tailored. After all as the article by la Trobe
- [Sorry Modern Secularists, The Global Future is Large Religious Families.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sorry-modern-secularists-the-global-future-is-large-religious-families/) - The utopian ideal of the modern secular state is a world that looks Scandinavian. Cool, slightly detached, rational, autonomous units, small families, low carbon footprint (apart from all that IKEA packaging), and, most of all, post-religious. But demography is not the friend of those with such utopian ideals. A report in The Times of London
- ["The Establishment Is Appalled": How The Gay Community Moved So Quickly From Margin to Centre](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-establishment-is-appalled-how-the-gay-community-moved-so-quickly-from-margin-to-centre/) - "The Establishment is appalled" With those words in his most recent article in The Guardian, Australian public intellectual and journalist, David Marr, revealed just how the marginalised gay community moved so quickly to the cultural centre. His statement is in reference to the storm surrounding the letter written by 34 principals of Sydney Anglican
- [...and also much cattle?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/and-also-much-cattle/) - And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Jonah 4) The book of Jonah, that great text about racism and evangelism, ends in a curious way. After it's all done and
- [Analogue Christianity in A Digital Public Square](https://stephenmcalpine.com/analogue-christianity-in-a-digital-public-square/) - The recent response from 34 Anglican School principals in Sydney concerning the religious freedom debate in Australia demonstrates once again that when it comes to commenting in the public square, Christianity operates in analogue. And the public square is digital. When I first read the letter, which outlined a clear, irenic and concise concern about
- [Imran Khan: From The Lion of Lahore to the Pussycat of Punjab](https://stephenmcalpine.com/imran-khan-from-the-lion-of-lahore-to-the-pussycat-of-punjab/) - Growing up in Australia in the 1980s it was hard to avoid the amazing talents of Imran Khan, the great Pakistani cricketer known as the Lion of Lahore. He was a leader, a cricket god, and a sex god too according to the papers. And according to the French girl I went to uni with,
- [I'm Not a Team Player, But...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/im-not-a-team-player-but/) - I'm not a team player. But last weekend I was part of a sports team that came third - yes, that's right, third, a podium finish -, in the Open category of the legendary Blackwood Marathon in the rolling green countryside of West Australia's south-west. The Blackwood Marathon turned forty in 2018. The event is
- [What a Pro-Life Church Looks Like](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-a-pro-life-church-looks-like/) - Right now one of our beloved church couples is winging their way to Taiwan to finally take home their adopted five year old boy; a little one has spent five long years in an orphanage. They would have adopted in Australia, except the adoption laws are way too restrictive and there are no unwanted babies
- [Church: Some Assembly Required](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-some-assembly-required/) - There's no getting away from it. When it comes to church, some assembly is required. I love that little IKEA visual. It all makes it look so easy! Experience has taught many a person otherwise. But the challenging bit of church is doing the actually church bit; assembling together. Some assembly is required. In fact
- [What Having Only One Service Is Doing For Our Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-having-only-one-service-is-doing-for-our-church/) - We only have one church service for our church. We don't replicate. We don't run two services and expect the same people to come to both (morning and evening like in the past). We don't do homogenous unit principle church. We do one service. Now, hear me carefully. When it comes to how to do
- [Let's Rip The Band-Aid Off Quickly](https://stephenmcalpine.com/lets-rip-the-band-aid-off-quickly/) - Are you a "rip it off slowly", or rip it off quickly person when it comes to the dreaded Band-Aid? Whatever happens it's going to be "ouchy", right? So which "ouchy" do we want? Quick or slow? A friend asked me last night if I was feeling pleased that many of the things I've been
- [Sorry Mr Shorten, It's Not the Role of the State to Shape our Children's Values](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sorry-mr-shorten-its-not-the-role-of-the-state-to-shape-our-childrens-values/) - I said here last year that the changes to the Marriage Act would not usher in a slippery slope, but were in fact signs of a precipice. That, in less than 12 months since the plebiscite, this has proven to be the case should be no surprise. And the evidence is mounting. So when did it
- [It's a Religious Thing, You Wouldn't Understand](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-a-religious-thing-you-wouldnt-understand/) - Noel Pearson's comments this weekend about the nature of religion remind me of being in a foreign country and struggling to find my way back to the hotel. There you are in Thailand on a week away. You were sure your accommodation was down that side street, but then again it could be the one
- [Hey Fairfax and ABC: Why Tell the Truth When An Untruth Will Do?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-fairfax-and-abc-why-tell-the-truth-when-an-untruth-will-do/) - It's been a shameful week for those in the left leaning media in Australia this week. For weeks progressive media outlets have been cat-calling the Morrison Government over its failure to release the Ruddock Review on Religious Freedom. "What are you trying to hide?" was the constant cry from the likes of the ABC and
- [When Your Hope Has Been Felled](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-your-hope-has-been-felled/) - There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Our suburb is leafy. And the council intends to keep it that way. We had to flip the design of our house when we built it last year because a scrappy tree that would have had
- [Derryn Hinch: The Human Headline who just predicted the future](https://stephenmcalpine.com/derryn-hinch-the-human-headline-who-just-predicted-the-future/) - Derryn Hinch - the self proclaimed human headline (it's his Twitter handle) - is a boofhead. Always has been. Always will be. A TV shock jock with too much to say, and who says things he has been court-ordered not to say. A bloke who has several contempt of court matters to his name, as
- [Sails For Sale](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sails-for-sale/) - Is nothing secular anymore? It's toe-curling watching the manner in which our most famous building, The Sydney Opera House, has been pimped out to the racing industry these past few days. It feels like something has been hollowed out of us as a nation, and that's saying something given the cultural turmoil of the past
- [Cheese Sandwiches, Picture Framing and Work](https://stephenmcalpine.com/cheese-sandwiches-picture-framing-and-work/) - For decades my dad would get up in the morning, make a cheese sandwich - the regular boring cheese, not the classy stuff - get in his car, and drive off to work in some form of semi-skilled low paying manufacturing job in a factory on an industrial estate somewhere. Every day the same type
- [Exile, Evangelism and Ebed-Melech](https://stephenmcalpine.com/exile-evangelism-and-ebed-melech/) - While much of the talk is of bunkering down in the face of a coming cultural exile for the traditional church, we might just be in for a surprising gospel harvest at the same time. Not a harvest instead of exile. Nor in spite of. But because of. Amidst the scandals of rotten in churches
- [The Human Mind is Prepared For Tribalism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-human-mind-is-prepared-for-tribalism/) - The human mind is prepared for tribalism I wish I'd come up with that line, but I didn't. It's academic and moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt's line in his new book (co-written with Greg Lukianoff): The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions And Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure. What's Haidt
- [Footy Grand Finals, Sex and Religion](https://stephenmcalpine.com/footy-grand-finals-sex-and-religion/) - This is what you live for, there is nothing better. This is my religion. The Eagles are my life. Those freshly minted words were uttered by West Coast Eagles supporter, Adam Logan, as he soaked up the thrill of the Eagles defeating Collingwood in one of the all-time great Australian Football League Grand Finals yesterday.
- [We Are Scared, But We Have Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/we-are-scared-but-we-have-jesus/) - In the midst of all the frustration or anger that the current religious freedom debates in Australia engender, spare a thought for Chinese Christians. In a revealing article in The Guardian today China's myriad unofficial churches are coming under direction pressure, indeed persecution, from Beijing. And all at a time when The Roman Catholic Church is
- [2018: The Eye of The Storm](https://stephenmcalpine.com/2018-the-eye-of-the-storm/) - 2018 feels like the eye of the storm in Australia. The oft-rampant fury of 2017's ethical debates around sexuality have dissipated somewhat, and we're in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens. 12 months ago (has the year really gone that quickly?) we were in the middle of the plebiscite on same sex marriage
- [Australian Christians: It's Not Too Late To Ask Franklin Graham Not To Come.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australian-christians-its-not-too-late-to-ask-franklin-graham-not-to-come/) - It's not too late for those organising the Franklin Graham tour of Australia next year to get on the blower and tell the man not to come. For the problem is not that too few people will turn up, but too many. And quite possibly for all the wrong reasons. We're being told it's about
- [Humanists Are Declining: And They Haven't a Prayer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/humanists-are-declining-and-they-havent-a-prayer/) - While we're all wringing our hands over the demographic decline in many denominations, spare a thought for Humanism Australia. When it comes to decline, the humanists are outstripping the churches, only unfortunately for them, quite literally, they haven't a prayer. A friend posted this excerpt of a report from late last year on their website: ...membership
- [Gen Z and Religion: "It's All Good"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gen-z-and-religion-its-all-good/) - Just when you seem to have sorted it out, that pesky secular frame seems to dip and trough all over the place. According to a report in The Conversation online news journal, Gen Z - today's teen - has a less hostile, more ambivalent approach to religion than perhaps the Dawkins apostles would have wished
- [A Dance of Two Halves](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-dance-of-two-halves/) - Twenty five years ago today, one day after my 26th birthday, Jill and I went out on our first date. A quarter of a century. My life has been a game - or a dance - of two halves, so to speak. Here's a picture of Jill on about date number five, a month or
- [Northernness Points Us In the Right Direction](https://stephenmcalpine.com/northernness-points-us-in-the-right-direction/) - When, in my early twenties I went hiking in Northern Ireland's Mourne Mountains; pea-green valleys, rock-strewn peaks, swirls of snow, and ancient stone walls, it was easy to imagine a deep vert dragon rising suddenly through the mists in front of me. And easier still to long for one to do so. Dan Conway's latest
- [What Else Do You Have On In The Week?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-else-do-you-have-on-in-the-week/) - What else do you have on in the week? That is the #1 question newcomers ask when wondering if they should stop off at your church. Sometimes they're asking: How can I be involved? Often they're asking: How can I belong? Community groups, Bible study groups, growth groups, small groups, youth groups, men's groups, women's groups
- [Why Millennials ARE Coming to Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-millennials-are-coming-to-church/) - There have been plenty of articles about why Millennials - those twenty somethings - are not coming to church. Plenty of time and attention towards what would bring them back. Well, in our church at the moment plenty of Millennials ARE coming. It's been noted by the older crowd that they're starting to get outnumbered
- [The Anger and the Agony](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-anger-and-the-agony/) - Until six months ago we lived in what has been described as "a hard scrabble part of the town". It's not exactly the projects of Baltimore depicted in The Wire, but to have one drug house opposite you for 10 years is unfortunate. To move house and live opposite another drug house reeks of carelessness,
- [Did Scott Morrison Actually Claim To Be "On God's Side"?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/did-scott-morrison-actually-claim-to-be-on-gods-side/) - Did our Prime Minister really say that he was on God's side? And if he did is that not a dangerous thing? This article in The Guardian seems to indicate it: Geoff Thompson, who lectures in the University of Divinity makes this comment: Beyond their morality and beyond the discussions about separating church and
- [That's "Professor" Slaphead to You Sunshine!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/thats-professor-slaphead-to-you-sunshine/) - Going prematurely bald leaves one open to all sorts of insults. Especially on the sports field. My twin brother and I both duly followed the long and honourable line of men on both sides of our family by losing our hair in our early twenties. While playing soccer, a sport renowned for on-field put-downs birthed
- [True or False: Most churches simply focus on sexual sins?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/true-or-false-most-churches-simply-focus-on-sexual-sins/) - There's an accusation doing the rounds that Christian churches that speak about sex, are not only ignoring other sins by doing so, but are doing so in order to ignore other sins. They're speaking about sex in order to give other sins a hall pass. So sins such as slander, gossip, greed etc are being allowed
- [When Everything is Gay Conversion Therapy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-everything-is-gay-conversion-therapy/) - When everything is something, nothing is. Hence the trouble with the statement put out by SOCEsurvivors, (Sexual Orientation Change Efforts survivors) concerning the fairly widely discredited practice of gay conversion therapy, is that its definition of what that actually is, becomes too broad to legislate against. And legislators get nervous at that point. Specifics are
- [Resisting the Irresistible](https://stephenmcalpine.com/resisting-the-irresistible/) - There's going to come a time when the younger generation of Christians who are sick of being marketed to say "Enough is enough!" But not before we get one more book that promises to uncover the secret to the Christian faith that has been lost in the mists of time. A secret that will change
- [Greg's Book Is Good For You](https://stephenmcalpine.com/34412-2/) - My wife Jill and I went on our first date 25 years ago next week. Half of my life time ago. It seems impossible to conceive of life without her. What would I do if I lost her either through stupidity or tragedy? To whom would I turn in times of trouble and joy? Who
- [White Magazine Facing Black ban](https://stephenmcalpine.com/white-magazine-facing-blackban/) - It's interesting how the requirements of the Sexular Culture shift and bend. Once there were reprisals for what you did say. For what you did do. Opprobrium for saying words that would be hurtful to a specifically identified sexual minority. Now there are increasingly going to be reprisals for what you don't say. For what
- [Church Plants: Rehab For Worn Out Christians](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-plants-rehab-for-worn-out-christians/) - The primary role for a church plant in Australia, indeed around the West, is Christian rehab. I know, I know. It doesn't look as sexy as saying we're going to plant a church to "evangelise this neighbourhood/suburb/city/nation", but my experience shows me that rehabilitation is the primary result of church planting, not evangelisation. This is not to
- [Exiles" Called to Choose Life Through Death](https://stephenmcalpine.com/exiles-called-to-choose-life-through-death/) - The modern mind cannot contemplate that the path to life may be via death. The modern Christian mind also has trouble contemplating this reality. This is despite the template of the cross of Christ, and his observation that those who seek to keep their lives will lose it, and vice versa. Yet, as I come
- [Do We Really Want Our Christian Prime Minister Making Christian Decisions?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/do-we-really-want-our-christian-prime-minister-making-christian-decisions/) - So now that Scott Morrison is safely ensconced in The Lodge, Christians on Facebook and Twitter are calling for our new Pentecostal Prime Minister to act Christianly, especially in the public square in regards to asylum seekers. But is that what they really want him to do? To act as a Christian Prime Minister? I suspect
- [What To Expect From a Pentecostal PM](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-to-expect-from-a-pentecostal-pm/) - So Scott Morrison is Prime Minister. For the time being at least. What can we expect from a Prime Minister who is already being labelled as our "first Pentecostal Prime Minister"? More to the point; what can we expect to be told about a so-called Pentecostal Prime Minister from a mainstream media that is the
- [Leave the Politicians To Their Empire of Dirt: At Least Just For Today](https://stephenmcalpine.com/leave-the-politicians-to-their-empire-of-dirt-at-least-just-for-today/) - Not everything is political, despite the insistence of people who feel that the personal is always political. There's the philosophical domain, the theological domain, the psychological domain. Those should be kept the hell separate from politics. Timely words on Jordan Peterson's podcast today, especially here in the Amusement Arcade of Australia. The manic off-key organ
- [Onward Christian (Happy, Friendly) Soldiers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/onward-christian-happy-friendly-soldiers/) - The days are long gone since the average church goer sang "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war", and that's probably a good thing. But after reading Greg Sheridan's new book: God is Good for You: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times, I warm to the idea of being a warrior. A happy, friendly warrior
- [So Trinity Western University Blinked After All](https://stephenmcalpine.com/so-trinity-western-university-blinked-after-all/) - Well that didn't take long. Not long at all. In fact it took a depressingly short period of time. Blink and you'd miss it. Trinity Western University blinked after all. Faced with the dilemma of its law students no longer being recognised as accredited by their professional organisations, Trinity Western University, Canada's largest private-funded Christian
- [What Might A Post-Christian Landscape Look Like?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-might-a-post-christian-landscape-look-like/) - What might the landscape look like if the church in the West disappeared? What would change? Would we even notice the difference? Could such a thing even happen anyway? In his commentary on 1 and 2 Kings, Peter Leithart, notes that in 2Kings 17, when the northern tribes of Israel are finally expelled from the
- [Christian: Will You Negative Split Your Life?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-will-you-negative-split-your-life/) - The most positive thing a Christian can do is negative split their life. Sound counterintuitive? Sound wrong? If you know anything about running, you'll know that a negative split is a great thing; indeed it's what you are looking for in a race. A negative split is when you do better, run faster, in the
- [Up Willow Creek Without a Pastor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/up-willow-creek-without-a-pastor/) - The impending fall of the Willow Creek empire - for fall it surely will - is the watershed for the mega-church management model of church. And the rot has not come from without. Just like Israel in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, the rot has come from within. All that those without have
- [What's A Little Leaven in The Staff Room?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/whats-a-little-leaven-in-the-staff-room/) - The continuing saga of how funding will go for faith schools in our country in light of the Ruddock Inquiry into Religious Freedom. The biggest threat to faith school funding is not from without - what the government might do. The biggest threat to funding could well be from within - what schools are already
- [Church Planting: An Overnight Ten Year Success Story.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-planting-an-overnight-ten-year-success-story/) - We're often told wryly that it takes ten years to become an overnight success. It's the case with many suddenly popular bands, such as new Orleans Band, the Revivalists, who had a big hit in 2017 with Wish I Knew You, a mere ten years after launching themselves into the music scene. It was a
- [With Friends Like Amnesty...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/with-friends-like-amnesty/) - The news that Amnesty International is pushing for the Ruddock Inquiry into Religious Freedom to end all funding for faith based organisations that hold to traditional, religious sexual ethics in their employment requirements is sad, but not surprising. And it reveals, yet again, that groups such as Amnesty don't get religion. Don't get it at
- [Preacher: Are Your Sermons Bananas For Jesus?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/preacher-are-your-sermons-bananas-for-jesus/) - Keith Green often said that a Christian is a person who is "bananas for Jesus". So as someone who often feels more like a quince for Jesus, or at times is experienced by others as a "prickly pear" for Jesus, I enjoyed a recent article by Jared Wilson on The Gospel Coalition site about why
- [Why Is the Mainstream Media Ignoring The Slaughter of Nigeria's Christians?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-is-the-mainstream-media-ignoring-the-slaughter-of-nigerias-christians/) - That's the question I've been wondering the past few weeks, and I've seen many pictures on Christian websites - way too many - of rows of bodies waiting to be buried. And just today Sydney Anglican rector, and MSM go-to for all things evangelical, Michael Jensen, posed the same question on Facebook: We are told
- [Don't Turn The Good News Into Good Therapy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-turn-the-good-news-into-good-therapy/) - Rejections of the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement these days by previously orthodox people come around as regularly as flu viruses in the winter. And they're just as toxic and catching. Scott Higgins' latest post is a case in point. You can read it here. It's got a nice click-baity title in keeping with the
- [Christian Institutions: Build Your Boats For Foul Weather](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-institutions-build-your-boats-for-foul-weather/) - The noise leaking today from the Ruddock Inquiry into Religious Freedoms in Australia would indicate that Christian organisations that hold to an orthodox sexual ethic in theology and practice should be building their boats for foul weather ahead. That's a general rule: always build a boat for foul weather. Hope for fair, but build for
- [Happy Tenth Facebook Anniversary Stephen](https://stephenmcalpine.com/happy-tenth-facebook-anniversary-stephen/) - As a child I'd often wondered how God would collate everything we've ever done and present it to us in a neat package on the last day. And then Facebook came along. But seriously. I received the "balloony" thing today, accompanied by a photo of me, congratulating me on my ten well spent years idling
- [Pastors, Empower Your Congregation: #GarethSouthgateWould](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pastors-empower-your-congregation-garethsouthgatewould/) - England football manager Gareth Southgate is the flavour of the month across social media (flavour of the minute surely!). Lampooned at Euro 96 when his missed penalty saw England bow out against Germany in the semi-finals, he was lauded two nights ago when his new-look England team held their nerve, won a penalty shoot out
- [Assorted Pictures of Angels Rejoicing Today In Heaven as One Sinner Repents](https://stephenmcalpine.com/assorted-pictures-of-angels-rejoicing-today-in-heaven-as-one-sinner-repents/) - And the point just before the repentance and then just after:
- [It's Our Prayer: Let's Take it Back From Parliament.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-our-prayer-lets-take-it-back-from-parliament/) - I am 100 per cent with The Greens in wanting the Lord's Prayer abolished from Federal Parliament at the start of each sitting day. For 100 per cent different reasons of course. The Lord's Prayer is too precious and too provocative for Parliament. It's our prayer, not theirs and we must insist that we take
- [Desire Will Have Its (Steve) Way](https://stephenmcalpine.com/desire-will-have-its-steve-way/) - British ultra-marathon star, Steve Way, is one of my favourite runners. Here he is coming third in this year's Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. And it's not just his story that I like. Though that's pretty good. A 116kg, 20 smokes a day, pie-eating IT worker who was fed up with being unfit, he hit
- [When Ground Floor Projects Are Pushed One Floor Up](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-ground-floor-projects-are-pushed-one-floor-up/) - The reason there has been so much heat in our ethical debates of late is that our secular, sexular culture has moved all of its non-transcendent ground floor projects one floor up to the second floor, a floor given over to transcendence. Let me explain. Our culture has rejected the idea of an external transcendence
- [Religious Exemption:  I Give It a Year - Or Ten.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/religious-exemption-i-give-it-a-year-or-ten/) - Christian educational institutions need to get a wriggle on. Schools and other educational institutions that receive government funding have less time than they think to come up with alternate ways to educate students from an orthodox Christian framework and within a specifically orthodox ethical setting. This has been highlighted by the move by Western Australian
- [Incredibles 2: Just Not Credible Enough](https://stephenmcalpine.com/incredibles-2-just-not-credible-enough/) - The trouble with the highly anticipated Incredibles 2 movie is that it is just not credible enough. Fourteen years after our hearts were stolen by the all too recognisable Parr family, a group of superheroes condemned to living par or even below par American lives, all the while knowing they were destined for something better,
- [Let Them Bake Cake, But Not Practise Law](https://stephenmcalpine.com/let-them-bake-cake-but-not-practise-law/) - It's doubtful whether Marie Antoinette ever said "Let them eat cake", but her Francophone counterparts in Canada have truly declared "They cannot practice law." This week, while religious freedom advocates are all eating cake to celebrate the Supreme Court in the USA deciding for Masterpiece Cake shop baker, Jack Phillips, the real future for freedom
- [When The Bodies Start Washing Up On The Shore](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-bodies-start-washing-up-on-the-shore/) - It's been my contention that the bodies of the Sexual Revolution tsunami will eventually start to wash up on the shore. It's also been my contention that the church has to be prepared for that time; to put behind it its sin of falling under the spell of that cultural narrative, admitting it has been
- [Jack Dorsey: Twitter Chicken](https://stephenmcalpine.com/34205-2/) - So when I read this headline today: I was thinking satirical Christian site Babylonbee. Sure sounds like that sort of thing. Sadly not. You couldn't make this stuff up. You don't have to make this stuff up. Cos truth is stranger, more cringingly and disturbingly so, than fiction. Or satire. This is from BusinessInsider Australia; an
- [When Western Universities Start to Stink](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-western-universities-start-to-stink/) - Why would anyone looking for a solid education in the humanities bother signing up to a western university these days? The hostile rejection/mealy-mouthed surrender by the Australian National University of the Ramsey Foundation's sponsorship of a centre on Western civilisation is case in point. It was all "hurrumph, hurrumph" and talk about academic freedom, but
- [A Half-Baked Wedding Cake](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-half-baked-wedding-cake/) - It's hard to know sometimes if the cake is fully baked just by looking at it. Sometimes it needs to be skewered to see if it's done or merely half baked. A baked cake is delicious. A half baked one? Not so much The decision by the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in favour of baker Jack
- [Natural Born Leaders Vs Supernatural Born Servants](https://stephenmcalpine.com/natural-born-leaders-vs-supernatural-born-servants/) - Today is the first of a number of posts on church leadership this week. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. (3 John 9) What the church needs more of in these straitened times in the West is not natural born leaders,
- [Are Christians Persecuted in Australia? It's Complex.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/are-christians-persecuted-in-australia-its-complex/) - Christians are on a hiding to nothing if they play the persecution card in the upcoming discussion on religious freedom in Australia. There is zero traction in that approach or, as is more likely, there is negative traction in that approach. Let's be clear. In our current clime it will simply make things worse. Any such claim
- [Mummy Will Be Worried About Me](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mummy-will-be-worried-about-me/) - I want to write this because, in light of the abortion vote in Ireland, everyone wants their say. To write their narrative. To decide what it tells everyone about the direction of the culture. To cheer with the women (and men) in the crowds as the result is announced, or to be appalled that anyone
- [Ireland, Abortion and the iWorld](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ireland-abortion-and-the-iworld/) - The resounding vote in favour of legalising abortion in Ireland is as much a final rejection of the traditional world in which Ireland has been steeped, as it is a triumph of the individualistic world into which Ireland wishes to step. In his book "Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship Beyond an Age of Individualism", Dale
- [A Sneaking Suspicion About The Frog and The Fish](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-sneaking-suspicion-about-the-frog-and-the-fish/) - Every generation or so someone writes a go-to book for mid-teen Christians and young adults interested in Christianity that captures the tone and mood of the times. 20 or so years back that book was John Dickson's A Sneaking Suspicion. Those of us involved in Christian youth ministry in Australia bought it in bulk and
- [Show Dogs Go? No, Dog. No!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/show-dogs-go-no-dog-no/) - Dogs always make favourite children's stories. Go, Dog. Go! was a favourite of mine as a child. The wonder of the dogs driving cars to wherever they were supposed to be driving them. The dogs of all shapes and sizes. The hats dogs do not like. Astonishing artwork. Vivid, sparse language that aids childhood speech
- [A Tale Of Two Royal Weddings](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-tale-of-two-royal-weddings/) - To miss one Royal wedding may be regarded as misfortune. To miss two looks like carelessness. (with apologies to Oscar Wilde) I missed the wedding of Charles and Di back in 1981. Not that I was invited of course, but as a fourteen year old lad living in sectarian Northern Ireland, refusing to watch that
- [Christians: Let's Be Repellently Attractive](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christians-lets-be-repellently-attractive/) - Christian in the public square need to be more repellently attractive. Why do I say that? I've had some pushback on my last blog post concerning the Age of Apologetics or Persuasion being over. I stated that we have entered the Age of Proclamation. Cue pushback from public theologians. Here's what I don't mean by
- [Six Things Christians Can Learn From The Rajneeshees](https://stephenmcalpine.com/six-things-christians-can-learn-from-the-rajneeshees/) - There's a Simpsons episode in which Lisa conducts a science experiment in a petri dish. Somehow she spawns a civilisation that rises, flourishes and declines right before her eyes. Watching Wild Wild Country, the Netflix documentary about the Rajneeshees/Orange People is like watching that petri dish. We see the rise, flourishing, decay and decline of a
- [Wild Wild Orange Country](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wild-wild-orange-country/) - I've just started watching Wild Wild Country on Netflix; a documentary on the Rajneesh Movement, more commonly called the Orange People, led by Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who died in 1990. And I'm riveted. My interest in the series was piqued primarily because the Orange People - so called because they primarily wore orange
- [ANZAC Day and Transcendence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/anzac-day-and-transcendence/) - Just some thoughts I wrote for The Gospel Coalition Australia on ANZAC Day and the need for something transcendent. https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/anzac-day-popular-secular-age/
- [Paying Attention Is On the Nose](https://stephenmcalpine.com/paying-attention-is-on-the-nose/) - Anyone spot the problem in this picture? Got it yet? Yep, after hundreds of flights, and an equal number of safety instruction demonstrations before the flight takes off, you know that you are supposed to put the oxygen mask around your mouth and nose. You did know that right? These passengers on the unfortunate Southwestern Airlines flight this past
- [Rubbish Thy Neighbour](https://stephenmcalpine.com/rubbish-thy-neighbour/) - Transparent waste recycle bins. So we can see what you/others are throwing away. Coming to a suburb near you. An inner-city or coastal suburb near you if you live in Perth, or actually coming to you if you live in one of those suburbs. There's a good idea in there somewhere, probably down near the bottom under
- [Izzy Theologically Correct Enough For You All Now?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/izzy-theologically-correct-enough-for-you-all-now/) - In the aftermath of the media storm that engulfed his comments about homosexuality on Instagram, rugby union star Israel Folau has had a long, and personal article published in online player's journal Player's Voice Folau's great crime in the eyes of the Sexular Culture was to answer a question about homosexual activity in the negative.
- [Willow Creep](https://stephenmcalpine.com/willow-creep/) - The resignation of Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago this past week follows the dispiriting pattern of mea culpas we have seen in the secular world, when issues of impropriety are exposed. Something creeps in to the church, a bracket creep in which the church edges its way towards the crisis management
- [The State of Israel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-state-of-israel/) - So Israel Folau has not been sanctioned by the Australian Rugby Union for his tweet about those unrepentantly practicing homosexual behaviour ending up in hell. It's been a merry dance for all concerned. And Folau has managed - just - to stay ahead of the pack. Following a meeting with the ARU it was stressed
- [Be Moved Like Never Before](https://stephenmcalpine.com/be-moved-like-never-before/) - I've noticed the Mazda ads in the bus shelters the past few days. "Be moved like never before" they cajole, offering me a level of transcendence usually reserved for love or religion. The TV ad has been around since mid-2017 and features a series of dancers, floating around the new Mazda CX-3. Visually stunning. And
- [QANTAS: A Threat to Workers and Worshippers Alike?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/qantas-a-threat-to-workers-and-worshippers-alike/) - It's not often that the progressive and conservative side of life could raise voice in unison against an institution, but QANTAS is certainly giving them the opportunity. After years of big business being the bete noir of the Left for the manner in which it treats its workers; outsourcing, downsizing, sending jobs (and profits) overseas,
- [The Sex Pistols, The Bible and China](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-sex-pistols-the-bible-and-china/) - What do the Sex Pistols and the Bible have in common? They've both been subjected to government bans. In 1977 The Sex Pistols released their version of God Save The Queen, in ironic and chaotic celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the British sovereign. The BBC decided to ban it. The song went to #1.
- [Jordan Peterson and the Courage of the Counter-intuitive](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jordan-peterson-and-the-courage-of-the-counter-intuitive/) - The courage to be counter-intuitive is rare, but necessary. And increasingly rare, and therefore increasingly necessary in this brittle, brutal media-saturated world. This struck me listening to Jordan Peterson (him again!) on Richard Fidler's excellent ABC Conversations program, a podcast that has three million subscribers. Three million subscribers. Think about that. Three million subscribers listening
- [When Facebook Falls Out of Like With Your Blog](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-facebook-falls-out-of-like-with-your-blog/) - Sorry Facebook, it's not me baby, it's you. Lots of people have fallen out of like with Facebook over the years, but when it's the other way around, it stings a little. So, Facebook, I'm starting to fall out of like with you - fast falling out of like with you actually - because you've
- [Fake News Or Good News?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/fake-news-or-good-news/) - Fake news is not a new thing. Consider this: Abraham Lincoln was a woman! That John Wilkes Booth sure took things to extremes. Or what about Tupac? Quite why that bad boy would settle for NZ when Sydney is just across the water is beyond me. But it proves fake news is not a new thing.
- [Constantinople Had No Arenas: We're Rebuilding Them.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/constantinople-had-no-arenas-were-rebuilding-them/) - Constantinople, unlike the ancient Roman pagan cities, had no arena. It's something Peter Leithart points out to those who blithely say "Oh it's the end of Christendom, and thats a good thing. All that expectation that everyone was Christian, blah, blah, blah". That's a cheap and cheerful and less than academic response to Christendom. However
- [Click Like If You'd Help Jesus With His Cross](https://stephenmcalpine.com/click-like-if-youd-help-jesus-with-his-cross/) - And Jesus said, "If anyone would be my follower, he must click "like" and follow me. It's that time of the year again. The time of the year when Facebook memes about Easter start popping up. I was particularly taken with the meme with rather kitsch 1950s Norman Rockwell feel to it, of Jesus struggling
- [Spitting in God's Face](https://stephenmcalpine.com/spitting-in-gods-face/) - Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?” Of all of the passages describing what the religious leaders and their crowd did to Jesus before his crucifixion, it's the verses above that get to me the most. The description
- [The Australian Cricket Team is Dead To Me](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-australian-cricket-team-is-dead-to-me/) - The Australian cricket team is dead to me. Shouty, potty mouthed Dave Warner and his antics looks tame at the moment. In these crazy topsy turvy times, when who's to know what's right and wrong, tampering with the cricket ball to give your out-played team an advantage is black and white wrong. Whoever put opener
- [I Wish We'd All Been Ready](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-wish-wed-all-been-ready/) - I loved Larry Norman. The Jesus Movement godfather was the spirt and soul of the Boomer-led shift away from political conservatism and religious fundamentalism that were features of the US church back in the 60s. And he was a huge music figure even outside the world of Christian music. There's a great photo of him
- [On Feeling Ripped Off](https://stephenmcalpine.com/on-feeling-ripped-off/) - It's hard to believe this painting, or more precisely, fragment of a large altarpiece, is more than 400 years old: It just looks so modern. El Greco's The Opening of the Fifth Seal (from Revelation 6) was painted for a church in Toledo, Spain in 1608, and now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Jordan Peterson: Neither Messiah Nor Monster](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jordan-peterson-neither-messiah-nor-monster/) - If you want a personification of trending, Ed Sheeran is old school. Jordan Peterson is hot at the moment. And isn't he causing a stir? He's either the Messiah or the Monster, depending on which side of the political and cultural fence you sit on. And depending on which side of the Christian political and
- [On Not Seeking The Welfare of the City](https://stephenmcalpine.com/on-not-seeking-the-welfare-of-the-city/) - The goal of the church is not to help the modern city to flourish. Well, not insofar as the modern city views flourishing. The goal of the church is not to seek the welfare of the modern city. At least not insofar as the modern city understands its welfare. That sounds anathema to ears marinaded
- [Why Jewish Kids Don't Have Peanut Allergies](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-jewish-kids-dont-have-peanut-allergies/) - Jewish children rarely have peanut allergies. Come to think of it, very few people in my primary school had peanut allergies either. There we were in the playground, hair to our collars, flared corduroys, white hi-tops, dreaming of the days when the internet would be invented, and stoically eating peanut butter sandwiches at lunchtime. Every
- [Would You Support My Writing in 2018?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/would-you-support-my-writing-in-2018/) - Would you be willing to financially support my writing ministry in 2018? I'm now in the sixth year of blogging at stephenmcalpine.com and in that time the readership has grown exponentially. My blog has been an effective platform for engagement with Christians - and others - about the nature of the times we live in,
- [Four Things Preachers Can Learn from Jordan Peterson (and One Thing We Can Teach Him)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/three-things-preachers-can-learn-from-jordan-peterson-and-one-thing-we-can-teach-him/) - Jordan Peterson is like the planking craze of 2011; just two months ago no one had heard of him, now he's an international meme. Planking (remember that?), was the crazy act of lying down in an equally crazy place (some people just call that "sleeping it off"). It looked a little something like this: It
- [Modern Parenting And the Winter Olympics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/modern-parenting-and-the-winter-olympics/) - I didn't watch the Winter Olympics. Love the summer games, but the winter games leave me, ahem, cold. But I gotta say there's something about that crazy event curling that even gets me watching. You know the sport? I'm not sure why it's a thing, but somehow you can represent your country at it. I
- [A Beautiful Apocalyptic Mardis Gras](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-beautiful-apocalyptic-mardis-gras/) - The latest ABC promotion for the Mardis Gras event in Sydney this weekend is indeed a thing of beauty. And that's a promotion on the ABC ME site, not the adult site. ME is for young adults, though the ABC would have to admit that most of the kids in this promotional video are still
- [And Now Krauss is "Aus"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/and-now-krauss-is-aus/) - And so the cancellations continue. As reported in The Australian this morning, celebrated physicist and celebrity atheist, Professor Lawrence Krauss is now on the list of those whose careers are about to go into free fall over sexual harassment allegations. His inbox emails - or those of his agent - are now of the "thanks,
- [When the New Normal is Abnormal](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-new-normal-is-abnormal/) - We need to call the new normal for what it is - abnormal. The late, lamented political cartoonist, Bill Leak, said shortly before his death that it was becoming harder to produce cutting edge material because what was once considered satirical and outrageous when he first began his craft is now the new normal. And
- [The Day Billy Graham Met the King](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-day-billy-graham-met-the-king/) - Billy Graham met the Queen many a time in his life. But now in his death he has finally met the King. I loved the easy manner in which his relationship with the Queen is portrayed in that wonderful Netflix series The Crown. It is warm and intimate. Graham was granted an honorary knighthood by
- [Gospel Coalition Australia Article](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gospel-coalition-australia-article/) - An article I wrote on the challenges for public evangelism on The Gospel Coalition Australia website here. You can read it here. It's in response to Tom Habib's earlier article here. Tom will be replying to my piece in due time as we start a conversation that will lead, we trust, to a good synthesis.
- [The Times They Are a'Progressin'](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-times-they-are-aprogressin/) - Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly is surely right in The Australian newspaper today when he says that the current freedoms of religion are set to be lost for the sake of the progressive cause. And in saying this all Kelly has had to do is point to the past fifty years of progressivism in the West. What
- [A Tale of Two Joyces](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-tale-of-two-joyces/) - There is no doubt that in Australia in 2018 being Alan Joyce is a lot better than being Barnaby Joyce. Alan Joyce (AJ) was the primary public face behind the Yes campaign for the Same Sex Marriage plebiscite throughout 2017. Indeed QANTAS became a carrier, as it were, for more than just passengers. It was
- [Hashtag Incredibles 2](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hashtag-incredibles-2/) - If you've waited 14 years to see the sequel to the incredible The Incredibles, then it looks like you're not going to be disappointed. Rather than having a bunch of late teens/early twenties running the show a decade and a half later, with Bob Parr (Mr Incredible) and his wife Helen (Elastigirl) biding their time waiting for
- [And So Round Two Begins](https://stephenmcalpine.com/and-so-round-two-begins/) - It didn't take long, but at least my predictions about where the Yes campaign would continue to go after the success of the same sex marriage campaign are more accurate than any of the Test match cricket predictions I made all summer. Having said all along that the vote would not settle the sexual identity
- [Religious Freedom Review Submission](https://stephenmcalpine.com/religious-freedom-review-submission/) - To The Expert Panel I tender this submission as a husband and father, who is both involved in church work, and who sits as a non-executive director of a Christian schools association. February 14th, Valentine's Day, is an appropriate day for the cut off date for submissions to this Religious Freedom Review in Australia because
- [Barnaby's Choice](https://stephenmcalpine.com/barnabys-choice/) - In refusing to out Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, for leaving his wife and family after 24 years and fathering a child with his lover, the Australian mainstream media has banded together to hold its nerve on the holy grail of consent. Both Barnaby and his young staff member chose to enter this relationship. So
- [Why We're All a Little Bit Hugh Jackman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-were-all-a-little-bit-hugh-jackman/) - Who doesn't love Hugh Jackman? I mean come on! All Aussie good bloke, Broadway star. Handsome, debonaire in that larrikin way. Family man. Wolverine. Wolverine, people! And there's something of Hugh Jackman about all of us. No, not that lupine thing with the hand blades, but something internal nonetheless. A fascinating interview with HJ in
- [So Does Google Not Like Jesus?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/so-does-google-not-like-jesus/) - Why did Google Home not have any answers when asked "Who was Jesus?" An article in The Australian today reported: The Google Home Personal assistant has faced a religious backlash in the US, for knowing nothing about God when asked, but being the full bottle on Satan and The Devil. Mind you that kinda makes
- [Sexual App-iness](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sexual-app-iness/) - There's an app for that. An app for sexual consent. I kid you not. It's called, not all that creatively, We Consent. It doesn't really matter who the "we" is, just as long as the consent is there. That is, after all, the primary marker of the new sexular culture. Sexual activity today is parametered
- [Don't Get Disqualified From Life's Ultra Marathon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-get-disqualified-from-lifes-ultra-marathon/) - Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize? The Australia Day Ultra marathon just south of here in Perth made the national newspaper headlines this week, but for all the wrong reasons. Running never makes
- [What to Say When Someone Says "So You're Saying"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-to-say-when-someone-says-so-youre-saying/) - Unless you've been hiding under a rock you'll no doubt have either seen the video of Cathy Newman's disastrous interview with Canadian psychologist and intellectual, Jordan Peterson, or have heard about it. The video has gone viral and justly so. It has launched a thousand memes. For some it feels like a turning point in
- [Getting a Plug from Rod B/O Dreher](https://stephenmcalpine.com/getting-a-plug-from-rod-b-o-dreher/) - Getting a plug from Rod Dreher. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/gay-marriage-religious-liberty-precipice-thinkers/
- [Books I Read or Dipped In to Over Summer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/books-i-read-or-dipped-in-to-over-summer/) - I dip into books over summer. Some I read right through. Others get skimmed. Others I start and look to finish later. Many I sat and read while sitting in the shade of a tall eucalyptus tree while my son practiced dropping in at the skatepark, the red tailed black cockatoos screeching overhead. Here are
- [Restless Politics Takes No Sabbath](https://stephenmcalpine.com/restless-politics-takes-no-sabbath/) - In the ancient world that the Israelites inhabited, work was your saviour. If you worked you ate. So when God commands Israel to rest on the Sabbath, to do no work, he is making a daring statement: "Your salvation shall be found in me and not in your labours." That is, after all, how Israel's
- [The Ministry For Lonely Walks](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-ministry-for-lonely-walks/) - At first it sounds like a sketch from those 70's icons of British comedy, Monty Python. The Ministry of Loneliness. Surely you mean the Ministry of Silly Walks? And surely you jest? Nope, the Ministry of Loneliness. It's been set up by the Conservatives in the UK, even though it sounds more like an earnest Labour initiative.
- [When Cyrille Regis Met Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-cyrille-regis-met-jesus/) - Every week in our early teens my twin brother and I would buy our weekly copy of Shoot magazine, a homage to all things English football. And within an hour the latest poster with the biggest star would be sticky-taped onto our bedroom wall. There was nary an inch of paint to be seen eventually.
- [Vaclav Havel's  Benedict Option](https://stephenmcalpine.com/vaclav-havels-benedict-option/) - One of my heroes is Vaclav Havel, the now deceased former President of the Czech Republic, who was a chain smoking, adulterous atheist writer and one time dissident before the collapse of communism and his rise to leader of his country. In these cloying, suffocating, enchained times of complete and utter freedom in the West,
- [The Lamb That Takes Away the Sins of Australia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-lamb-that-takes-away-the-sins-of-australia/) - Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Can lamb bring us together? Can lamb chop out our differences? That's the rather cheeky claim of the latest lamb ad in Australia. Australian lamb ads are becoming a tradition in themselves. Almost as traditional as Australia Day. And Australia Day is
- [An Interview With US Vice President Rob Bell](https://stephenmcalpine.com/an-interview-with-us-vice-president-rob-bell/) - Following the stunning 2020 Presidential election win by Oprah Winfrey, stephenmcalpine.com spent some time with her running mate, one time evangelical pastor and now US Vice President Rob Bell, to see what makes him tick. Here is the transcript of that interview. SM: Hello Mr Vice President, thanks for taking the time. RB: Not
- [If I Were Going to Wear Black...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/if-i-were-going-to-wear-black/) - If I were going to wear black on January 8th let's not make it it for the sake of the Golden Globes. If I were going to wear black on January 8th let's not do so for self-posturing hypocrites. If I were going to wear black on January 8th it would not be to
- [Church 2.0](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-2-0/) - Brian McLaren's book about the need for an ecclesiology to fit post-modern times, The Church On the Other Side was written twenty years ago this year. 1998. It may as well have been 1788. For the kaleidoscopic "postmodern" world he says we were headed for, one towards which the church should position itself with a much more open
- [Peak Stupid Has Been Reached: And it's Only January 5](https://stephenmcalpine.com/peak-stupid-has-been-reached-and-its-only-january-5/) - Federal MP Tim Wilson just labelled this article by Catherine Walsh in the Sydney Morning Herald, "peak stupid" on Twitter. And it's not hard to see why. There's a reason I cancelled my Fairfax subscription. There's a reason they keep whining and emailing me to see if, for half price, I would sign up again. Frankly
- [The Church Is Always Political. Always.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-church-is-always-political-always/) - The church is always political. Always. The state is always religious. Always. In a fitting finale to his Cultural Liturgies series, James Smith points out in Awaiting The King what seems obvious once he's said it, namely that: "citizens are not just thinkers or believers, but lovers." The political institutions we live within are not simply
- [A Year On and Still No Gravestone](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-year-on-and-still-no-gravestone/) - My father will be dead a year ago tomorrow and we still have no gravestone. A simple wooden cross - an "X"? - marks the spot where he, or his body at least, now lies. But nothing else. The now settled soil is overhung by large gum trees, and surrounded by equally settled soil, a
- [Finding Liturgy in the Vintage Store](https://stephenmcalpine.com/finding-liturgy-in-the-vintage-store/) - The interest in traditional liturgy that has arisen among Millennial evangelicals can be a double-edged sword. Why? Because it can, if we are not careful, compound the very problem it is attempting to resolve. What's that problem? The church expression that is all style over substance that many Millennials (among others) are rejecting in spades.
- [What I Learned from Blogging in 2017](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-i-learned-from-blogging-in-2017/) - In the age of the image, of Instagram, of Pinterest, words still count. In the age of Twitter, there's still value in a word count about 20. Of course I'm going to say that, because I have a blog. Blogs may be the dinosaurs of the tech savvy age, but let's face it, dinosaurs lasted
- [Forgiving Ourselves At Christmas: It's All We've Got Left.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/forgiving-ourselves-at-christmas-its-all-weve-got-left/) - So I read an article today that said the perfect Christmas gift for ourselves this year is to forgive ourselves. And why not, if that's all we've got left? Forgiveness. Not to others. But to ourselves. Wrap it up nice and put it under the tree. For ourselves. It feels a bit cheeky, right? Surely
- [Church: Plan for a "Plan B" Future](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-plan-for-a-plan-b-future/) - Christians in Australia need to plan for a Plan B future. That's surely the takeaway point from the last few months. And it's interesting how the discussion about the place of religion in the public square has moved so quickly. That's why, love it or loathe it, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in
- [The Biggest Change for the Church in 2018?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-biggest-change-for-the-church-in-2018/) - What might be the biggest change that the church experiences in 2018? Religious freedom laws changing is certainly high on the list in the Western world. For others that idea would be luxury. Especially in places around the world where getting killed for one's faith, not merely insulted or sidelined, is a real possibility. The
- [The Slippery Slope Was A Precipice After All](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-slippery-slope-was-a-precipice-after-all/) - For all the talk of slippery slope arguments, when it came to it the same sex marriage decision in Australia was not a slippery slope. It was a precipice after all. And in such times we need precipitous thinkers. We need leaders in our church who are not content to wait for the cultural changes
- [Is it Really the Christian Way?  Yes, Actually, it is.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-it-really-the-christian-way-yes-actually-it-is/) - Is it really the Christian way? That's the question asked, no doubt, honestly and with great depth of meaning by a young gay relief teacher, Craig Campbell on the ABC last night. Mr Campbell is no longer on the relief list of a Perth faith based school after he revealed he was in a gay
- [Amazon Joy Versus Advent Joy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/amazon-joy-versus-advent-joy/) - Will your joy this Christmas be Amazon Joy or Advent Joy? Amazon opened in Australia today (finally!), so let me explain the difference between the two. Amazon Joy is joy from the world, while Advent Joy is joy to the world. Amazon Joy assumes that the world is a closed system. Nothing breaks in. We're hermetically sealed off from
- [Joy To the World, Milo Has Come](https://stephenmcalpine.com/joy-to-the-world-milo-has-come/) - Joy to the world Milo has come Let Perth receive her queen Let every heart prepare him room And social media sing And social media sing And.... Ok we get it. Milo Yiannopoulos - the enfant terrible of conservative politics, the scourge of the Left and all things politically correct, has arrived in Australia. He's
- [A Good Time Not To be Saudi Arabia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-good-time-not-to-be-saudi-arabia/) - There are times it's good not to be Saudi Arabia, right? I mean there are lots of times it's good not to be Saudi Arabia, especially all of the time if you're a woman, a Christian, or gay. And right now is a good time too. A good time not to be Saudi Arabia. Just
- [While You Were Sleeping](https://stephenmcalpine.com/while-you-were-sleeping/) - While you were sleeping or watching Netflix last night, the Australian Government sold religious freedoms in this country down the river. But don't worry, it didn't cost much, because this Turnbull Government comes cheap. After all of the promises made that nothing would be changed once gay people were allowed to marry, - that we
- [Bible Verse Of The Year](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bible-verse-of-the-year/) - So it's that time of year to do favourite lists. I'll be rolling a few out in the coming weeks, including books, albums, movies. But first, and most important: Bible Verse Of The Year, or BVOTY for short. Drum roll please: The Lord kills and brings to life; There you go. That's it. This little gem of
- [Hey Nebuchadnezzar, the Zombies are Coming!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-nebuchadnezzar-the-zombies-are-coming/) - The question for politics today is how to build Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar has been dragged through the streets and hung at the gates. That's a great observation made by the authors of How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World. Leaving aside the incorrect use of the
- [Mum's New Knees](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mums-new-knees/) - Next week Mum gets new knees. She is going to hospital to finally do something about the bone on bone agony she has been suffering these past few years. Agony that drugs and physiotherapy can now only chase, but never catch. Mum is finding it hard to catch things too. The bus. The train. The
- [Forget the Bakers and Florists, It's About Schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/forget-the-bakers-and-florists-its-about-schools/) - Apologies to those Christians who are bakers or florists (or photographers) and who are worried about their freedom of conscience when it comes to gay weddings in Australia. I do feel your pain, but the real issue, the real target, has always been the mediating institutions such as schools. And sure enough, all the talk
- [And So It Continues](https://stephenmcalpine.com/33623-2/) - The plebiscite body isn't even cold in the ground, but the issue of whether religious schools are allowed to determine their employment policy based on gospel sexual ethic is already being courted in Western Australia. It's a case of "Next!", cos the revolution never sleeps. Today in The West Australian newspaper (both print and online
- [The Disgraceful Treatment of Andrew Hastie](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-disgraceful-treatment-of-andrew-hastie/) - The treatment of Canning MP Andrew Hastie, who signalled months ago that he would abstain from voting in Parliament if the same sex marriage vote got up in the plebiscite, is appalling. As The Australian newspaper reported today, Hastie's office has been inundated with hateful responses; phone calls, obscene messages on his Facebook page etc.
- [Evangelicals, Plankton And Bikini Bottom](https://stephenmcalpine.com/evangelicals-plankton-and-bikini-bottom/) - There's a great opening scene in a Spongebob Squarepants episode in which a roaring monster is creating havoc on the the seabed of Bikini Bottom. Various aquatic life is screaming, scuttling or swimming away in terror, as this huge, one-eyed villain stalks their land. He laughs his evil laugh. He beats his evil chest. He
- [Observed by Grief](https://stephenmcalpine.com/observed-by-grief-2/) - I have been reading CS Lewis’s little tome, A Grief Observed, and it is simultaneously wounding and healing. Like his great contemporary George Orwell, Lewis’ brevity is his strength. I read some to my daughter last night. We marvelled. The plethora of periods. So many brave full stops! A man writing with confidence and elan even
- [The Yes, the No and the Maybe](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-yes-the-no-and-the-maybe/) - Well what an interesting day in the news yesterday was, in no particular order. How many of the following did you pick? The plebiscite vote to change the definition of marriage with a roughly 60/40 split. Mugabe getting his comeuppance in Zimbabwe. The Socceroos going through to the World Cup in normal time with more
- [The Hard Work Begins Today](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-hard-work-begins-today/) - As Australian wake up today, it will be a day in which same sex marriage will - if the polls are right - be all but a parliamentary ratification away in our nation. And it's now that the hard work begins The sky won't fall in. But it won't be full of rainbows either. People
- [Canola Fields, Church and Selfies](https://stephenmcalpine.com/canola-fields-church-and-selfies/) - My youngest brother John hosted my fiftieth birthday at his farm about an hour's drive from the city back in September. His farm is near a little town called York, one of Western Australia's oldest settlements replete with limestone buildings, old mills and a lot of farms. John has recently bought one such farm as
- [Does Your Church Have a Spiritual Spacey?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/does-your-church-have-a-spiritual-spacey/) - Does your church have a Spiritual Spacey? Yes, that's right, not "a spiritual "space", but a "Spiritual Spacey". A Spiritual Spacey is the type of leader or influencer who, in the manner of the now shamed actual Spacey in the area of sexual abuse, is spiritually abusive over an extended period of time. And they
- [Ten Church Planting Points from Ten Years of Church Planting](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ten-church-planting-points-from-ten-years-of-church-planting/) - Ten years ago yesterday my heavily pregnant wife, our young daughter and I stepped back into the heat of Perth from a year away living in the UK, a year in which we were looking at church planting models with a plan to church plant back home. I was a mere slip of a lad,
- [Won't Somebody Think Of the Children!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wont-somebody-think-of-the-children/) - "Won't somebody pleeeease think of the children!" So wailed Mrs Lovejoy, wife of the stoic Rev Lovejoy in a classic Simpsons episode in which reason was overtaken by emotion. Let's face it, late modern culture reaches conclusions by emotions not by reasoning. We're seeing that being played out in real time every day now. That
- [Spotlight II: Not Coming to a Screen Near You](https://stephenmcalpine.com/spotlight-ii-not-coming-to-a-screen-near-you/) - Hollywood loves a good sequel. Especially when that sequel guarantees a lot of money. There's nothing a Hollywood mogul loves more than getting his hands on a lot of money. Actually, as we're finding out, or as we're finally being told as if we didn't already know, that's not true. Money' is second on the
- [Church History and Captain Obvious](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-history-and-captain-obvious/) - When it comes to how we want our biblical and church history sometimes we fall victim to Captain Obvious. So we kinda want this view of the crossing of The Red Sea: We kinda want this view of Luther dramatically nailing his 95 theses to the door, his freshly tonsured head glistening in the golden
- [The Age of Consent in the Age of Exposure](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-age-of-consent-in-the-age-of-exposure/) - And another one bites the dust. Kevin Spacey's latest admission that he did indeed, in a drunken state, push himself sexually on to a 14 year old boy many years ago, is the end of his career. Just as Harvey Weinstein's recent exposure for, er, exposure and more, is the end of his career. No
- [Ageing, Rested And Reformed](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ageing-rested-and-reformed/) - In the 500th year of The Reformation it's worth exploring a much younger iteration of that movement, an iteration that flew high for a time, but that has, in recent years quietly folded its wings; namely the Young, Restless and Reformed movement. In the year I turn fifty, a mere ten per cent of the
- [12 Million Postal Votes and Counting](https://stephenmcalpine.com/12-million-postal-votes-and-counting/) - The huge postal return for the Same Sex Marriage survey puts paid to the lie that the Australian public didn't really want this to happen, and were just as happy to let the government sort it out. According to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, some 75 per cent, or almost 12
- [Showbiz Sin versus Churchbiz Sin](https://stephenmcalpine.com/showbiz-sin-versus-churchbiz-sin/) - The Age of Look-The-Other-Way has been replaced by The Age of the Exposé, and it is catching out the previously hidden sins of public people. This is as true for Churchbiz sin as it is for Showbiz sin. And it's proof that Churchbiz has often protected and promoted its celebrities as much as Showbiz does.
- [The Beauty of Normal Boring Liturgy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-beauty-of-normal-boring-liturgy/) - A visitor to our church came up to me at the end of the meeting last Sunday and said to me, "That was great, where I go to church we don't normally do that." "Normally do what?" I asked, casting my mind over what element of the church service was out of left field or
- [Don't Cast Your Church Policy Pearls Before Cultural Swine.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-cast-your-church-policy-pearls-before-cultural-swine/) - In what is a classic case of Captain Obvious, United States crowd sourcing organisation Church Clarity is pushing churches to reveal where they stand on certain "policies" in order to be transparent and helpful to certain groups in the community. Oh and it just so happens that their first issue of policy pertains to whether churches
- [Teflon Slogans Versus Velcro Stories](https://stephenmcalpine.com/teflon-slogans-versus-velcro-stories/) - Mercedes latest ad campaign Grow Up is an astonishing piece of story telling. It's sticky, grippy and gripping in an emotional sense. It's what I call a Velcro Story and it clings like a burr. It's a full blown relationship story that has anger, sorrow, betrayal, frustration. Oh, and a Mercedes. It's a game changer. It's
- [One Million Dollars?  No Baby!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/one-million-dollars-no-baby/) - The Anglican Diocese of Sydney certainly has gold in its coffers, but it's got a tin ear when it comes to how the decision to donate one million dollars to the No campaign will go down. The announcement that the diocese had taken that step was accompanied by prescient comments by the Archbishop of Sydney,
- [The Pointlessness of Vegas is Its Point](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-pointlessness-of-vegas-is-its-point/) - David Aaronovitch's article in The Times today dares to say what others dare not say about the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, namely that the point of his action is the pointlessness of it. Aaronovitch observes that Paddock is more terrifying to us than Bin Laden. Forget your conspiracy theories, which are coming thick and fast.
- [All Watersheds Have Two Slippery Slopes](https://stephenmcalpine.com/all-watersheds-have-two-slippery-slopes/) - We're living in a watershed moment. At least that's clear now. It's clear now that both sides of the argument in the same sex marriage campaign are presenting slippery slope scenarios. And all watersheds have slippery slopes. That's the point of a watershed. In its technical meaning a watershed is the high point in a
- [What Happened in Vegas...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-happened-in-vegas/) - What happened in Vegas is horrible. But then again, what happens in Vegas has often been horrible. Behind the glitz and the glamour, there is a seedy, evil underbelly in Sin City. An underbelly exposed so ruthlessly and shockingly by Martin Scorsese in the 1995 classic Casino. One of the final scenes of that movie
- [A 21 Minute Read](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-21-minute-read/) - Yes, it seems to be a contentious article. I haven't read it yet. But the real headline for me, the words that indicate what life is like in our western context is on the bottom line after the date: "21 min read". Not 20. Not 22. But 21. Assuming I read at the same pace
- [Hugh Hefner's "Exceptional and Impactful" Life](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hugh-hefners-exceptional-and-impactful-life/) - Hugh Hefner's "exceptional and impactful" life represented by a black dot, on a piece of paper representing the life of a no-name sub-Saharan Christian woman who died this morning in childbirth: Thank you. That is all.
- [Distracted Soldiers, Deceitful Athletes and Diligent Farmers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/distracted-soldiers-deceitful-athletes-and-diligent-farmers/) - I am ploughing slowly through 2 Timothy at the moment, chewing over the morsels of ministry instructions that the imprisoned Paul gives his young protege Timothy. At fifty I can no longer view myself in the Timothy camp, in terms of age at least, but I am certainly in need of hearing the advice, and
- [Summer is Coming And We're Not Fire-Ready.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/summer-is-coming-and-were-not-fire-ready/) - There's a point in a bushfire where it's too late to leave. Too dangerous to get out of your house, find the car in the smoke, heat and haze, and reach the road. Too late to drive along the road safely without careering into another panicked driver blinded by the inferno. There's a point in
- [Liturgy for the Non-Liturgical Christian](https://stephenmcalpine.com/liturgy-for-the-non-liturgical-christian/) - We like to think that there are liturgical churches and nonliturgical churches out there. But actually what we have is a distinction between churches that are self-conscious about their liturgy and churches which like to pretend they don't have one. So writes Doug Wilson in Mother Kirk: Essays on Church Life. And he's right.
- [West Aussies: Leading the Way in Ditching the Church Wedding](https://stephenmcalpine.com/west-aussies-leading-the-way-in-ditching-the-church-wedding/) - Well Western Australia may have a tanking economy due in no small part to the bust in the energy resources sector, but we're leading the way when it comes to non-religion, especially when it comes to marriage. According to the latest stats, West Aussies are ditching priests and pastors at a rate of knots when
- [Christian: What's Our Suffer Score?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-whats-our-suffer-score/) - In the changing cultural times Christians have to be careful not to give themselves too high a suffer score. For to do so both belittles the suffering of Christians in ages past and, all too sadly, of many of God's people around the world today not gifted with the chance to live in the West.
- [No Cruise Control at Fifty In The Christian Life](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-cruise-control-at-fifty-in-the-christian-life/) - I turned fifty today and it's been great. Fine. Love it. Prefer fifty to forty. Kids are older and walking with Jesus. Wife is just as lovely a companion as the day we first went out (24 years ago tomorrow incidentally). Life more stable. Financially ok. What's left of hair, totally grey. But no pot
- [Israel in Babylon: A Parable of the Game Played in Heaven](https://stephenmcalpine.com/israel-in-babylon-a-parable-of-the-game-played-in-heaven/) - The Australian Rugby Union built a statue of pure gold that glistened, rainbow like, in the sun. And the head of the ARU placed it in the centre of a green plain in the middle of Sydney that measured 120 metres by 70 metres. And the head of the ARU instructed that when the Australian
- [Progressive Christian: Where Art Thou?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/progressive-christian-where-art-thou/) - Progressive Christian in Australia, where art thou? Where is your voice among the growing voices that the same sex marriage matter is inextricably tied to matters of freedom of conscience and religious freedoms? It's not there. I can't hear it. Progressive Christians have gone strangely silent, missing in action, in the same sex marriage debate
- [Luck, Liturgy and Lee Trevino](https://stephenmcalpine.com/luck-liturgy-and-lee-trevino/) - Lee Trevino was one of the great all time golfers, a six times major winner, and as quick of tongue as he was soft of hand with the clubs. He famously replied, after being asked what he would do if he were out on the course during a lightning storm, "I'd pull out a 1-iron,
- [When Your Doctor Diagnoses You as Racist](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-your-doctor-diagnoses-you-as-racist/) - The news today that some two thousand doctors have signed a petition backed by the Australian Medical Association that those who oppose same sex marriage are acting like racists is a portent of the future. You can read the full article here. In fact the future has arrived a lot quicker than we might have
- [The Exilic Church Defies, Declares, Dies and Is Delivered](https://stephenmcalpine.com/30234-2/) - The Book of Daniel has been a huge source of comfort and inspiration for me over the past few years, and increasingly so as I think about what it might mean for the church in the West to go into a more exilic time. Now much has been said about whether we are in exile
- [The Day The Age Newspaper Agreed With Tony Abbott](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-day-the-age-newspaper-agreed-with-tony-abbott/) - It's rare for the left leaning Fairfax Media in Australia to agree with former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, on anything, but finally they do. And it's refreshingly honest. For while the former PM has been pilloried for his "alarmist" stance in promoting the "No" campaign in the same sex marriage debate, a proponent of same
- [Is the Church Merely a Parasite?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-the-church-merely-a-parasite/) - We all know the list of descriptions used of the church in Scripture; body, temple, Israel of God, etc. Let me add a new one to that list, though not found in Scripture: "Parasite". Sound attractive? Thought not. And especially in the Anything But Christianity culture in which we read chalkboards such as this:
- [What True Diversity Looks Like](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-true-diversity-looks-like/) - The level of diversity among my church congregation on how to approach the same sex marriage postal vote is well beyond that of the progressive elite and their much vaunted diversity agenda. Let me be clear: When it comes to permission to differ on how to approach this vexing topic, our church knocks rainbow coloured
- [Prosperity Now!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/prosperity-now/) - I've had a rethink on prosperity. The gospel of prosperity A major rethink. It must be cos I'm approaching fifty. Midlife crisis passed me by, so three quarters it is. I need the bling. I need the car. I need ten seconds in the ring with Conor McGregor this weekend (the 2 million, minus the
- [Iceland's Future: Clear, Bright and Cold](https://stephenmcalpine.com/icelands-future-clear-bright-and-cold/) - At last a good news story that has the potential to bring the endlessly warring hard Left and the hard Right together. Iceland has virtually eliminated Down Syndrome through its program of foetal screening and abortion. In one fell swoop the eugenics program that once guaranteed the rise of the glorious Ubermenchen of the hard
- [This is Not About the Postal Vote](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-is-not-about-the-postal-vote/) - A lot's going to be said about that postal vote before it's all done and dusted. This is not about that postal vote. This is about what the landscape may look like afterwards as far as religious expression in the public square is concerned down the line. I have a lot of respect for rising
- [Christian Women in Church Who Work](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-women-in-church-who-work/) - I am a pastor. A male pastor. A male pastor of a small "r" reformed, evangelical church plant that many would consider conservative. I also have a wife who has a higher level of education than I, and who runs her own clinical psychology practice. There has never been a point in our lives where
- [500 Years On: Let's End the Sale of Self Indulgences](https://stephenmcalpine.com/500-years-on-lets-end-the-sale-of-self-indulgences/) - The Protestant Church could do worse this 500th Reformation year than ending the habit that has gripped so much of the church at the pointy end of the 20th and start of the 21st centuries, namely the promulgation of self-indulgence. Just as the Reformation was birthed by Martin Luther's revulsion at the sale of indulgences
- [Rubik's Cube, Muscle Memory and The Christian Life](https://stephenmcalpine.com/rubiks-cube-muscle-memory-and-the-christian-life/) - My nine year old son asked me the inevitable "Did they have "BLANK" back in your day?" question recently, holding up a Rubik's Cube for my perusal. He has asked me the same about coloured television too, which is more insulting as the cube is nowhere near as ubiquitous as TV. What's with kids
- [Dawkins' Berkeley Delusion](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dawkins-berkeley-delusion/) - There's something slightly cute and just a little pitiful about Richard Dawkins' response to his recent "deplatforming" at a Berkeley book talk recently. Something that reminds me of a cosseted lapdog when refused a Battenberg Treat at the tea table. Just to catch you up, everyone's favourite atheist was "deplatformed" ( a neologism you better
- [Actually They Don't Just Hate the Church, They Hate Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/actually-they-dont-just-hate-the-church-they-hate-jesus/) - At least we're cutting to the chase now in our culture. At least we're cutting through all the cant about how the problem we have is that people hate the church but deep down really love Jesus. At least we're not going to spend acres of time and millions of dollars devising strategies around the
- [My Identity Crisis](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-identity-crisis/) - Two weeks ago I had an identity crisis. It lasted for a week and it all happened while we were on holidays in Sydney. For the entire week I found myself passing people in the street, being served in shops, eating meals in restaurants and sitting on the train, all the time wondering if everyone
- [Why Following Arsenal is like Being a Christian](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-following-arsenal-is-like-being-a-christian/) - Last Saturday night was one of the year's highlights for me. It just so happened that our Sydney holiday coincided with a once in a forty years (take note of that biblical time period) visit to these shores by English Premier Leagues giants Arsenal FC. And we got tickets. At the last minute. Now I
- [New Building New Blog](https://stephenmcalpine.com/new-building-new-blog/) - So in honour of our move to a new building for church this week I have given my blog a facelift. It was either it or I, though at six weeks away from turning fifty what amount of money could change my craggy features? It's got that modern Mondrian look about it, don't you think?
- [Christian Restivism Part 2: The Practice In the Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-restivism-part-2-the-practice-in-the-church/) - The Practice In the Church In an article in The Weekend Australian headlined The Nation goes Godless, Australian demographer Bernard Salt, who is sympathetic towards Christianity, observed that the census figures showing a drop in the number of Christians in Australia does not mean that there are less Christians in Australia. Not at all. It just
- [Christian Restivism Explored: Part 1](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-restivism-explored-part-1/) - A recent post I wrote, Christian Restivism, got some blowback from those who wondered if my call for us to be less activist and more "restivist" was an excuse to be lazy Christians and avoid the hard grind of ministry in this life. So, for example, this from one commenter: Stephen, you’ve died and gone
- [Mourning Has Broken](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mourning-has-broken/) - It's six months today since we moved house. It's also six months today since my father died. It would have been his 75th birthday last Sunday, so Facebook, in its cheery manner of wanting us all to get along, threw up a photo from his 74th birthday telling us all to be happy. And we
- [Don't Sex Up the Christian Stats in Australia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-sex-up-the-christian-stats-in-australia/) - A tweet by John Dickson this week that the real number of Christians in Australia is somewhere between the fifteen percent of recorded church attendees and the 51 per cent who ticked "Christian" on the recent census reminds me of the "sexing up" furore that hit the UK Blair Government back in 2003. Back then
- [51 per cent of us are Christian?  Yeah, right!](https://stephenmcalpine.com/51-per-cent-of-us-are-christian-yeah-right/) - There's as much chance that 51 per cent of Australians are Christian as there are that fifty per cent of our young people are gender fluid when it comes to their sexuality. The latest research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics from that census (you know, the one we were all in self-loathing anguish about last year
- [Everyone Smiles at Ten K](https://stephenmcalpine.com/everyone-smiles-at-ten-k/) - I ran my first marathon this past weekend. Maybe even my last marathon. It's not that I ran terribly or that I hated it, (3:18, thanks for asking), it's just that the whole marathon thing doesn't do it for me. Never has. Give me a frisky 5, a tasty 10, or even a trying 21.1,
- [Why It Might Need to Get Worse In Order to Gets Better](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-it-might-need-to-get-worse-in-order-to-gets-better/) - Things must be getting strange when even veteran atheist (he's been shifted from the new category) Richard Dawkins now advocating a return to religious instruction classes in British schools. Perhaps it's just a turn in the evolutionary cog, but Dawkins is now, publicly, advocating comparative religious classes in schools in the UK, and note that
- [Pentecost Sunday and Terror](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pentecost-sunday-and-terror/) - We wake up on Pentecost Sunday to yet another round of terror. For most secular Westerners it's just the second day of the weekend, or the second day of a three day weekend if you are lucky enough to live in Western Australia today. But for the Church it's a reminder, and an invitation for
- [Driscoll and The Bogeyman Narrative](https://stephenmcalpine.com/driscoll-and-the-bogeyman-narrative/) - After reading The Gospel Coalition article - Seattle Reboot: Life After Mars Hill about the Driscoll/Mars Hill fall-out I was struck by two things. First the total absence of the Bogeyman, Driscoll himself. He looms over the article by his vast absence not his vast presence. The general tenor is "We've moved on so let's not
- [Kidults: the Culture and the Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/kidults-the-culture-and-the-church/) - Heard this this morning on the Australian national broadcaster's "yoof" station, Triple J: "So this week we're looking at what it means to be in your twenties and have a baby. You're not a girl anymore, you're not a woman. You're not a teenager, but you're certainly not an adult." Not an adult in your
- [A Crucial and Brilliant Read](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-crucial-and-brilliant-read/) - This blog post by a friend, Michael O'Neill, from Vose Seminary here in Perth is just brilliant. It deals with the tension of Christians in a turning culture, and it does so with wisdom, grace and insight. It's observations of and implications for Christian community are fantastic. Read it here:
- [Choose Your Apocalypse Now](https://stephenmcalpine.com/choose-your-apocalypse-now/) - The option we face in the West is no longer between an ugly terror-driven medieval hell or a technicolor, liberal utopia: Between a Biff Tannen version of Back to the Future's Hill Valley in which everything is awful, and the Marty McFly version in which everything ends well. That choice is no longer on the
- [Unity Around What Exactly?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/unity-around-what-exactly/) - The call for unity in the West against the incessant and fatally intrusive scourge of terrorism is a couple of decades too late. We have lost unity and we won't be getting it back. There is no unity left in the West to call us to gather around. "Unity around unity" is as much as
- [Margaret Court Vs Sensible Evangelicals](https://stephenmcalpine.com/margaret-court-vs-sensible-evangelicals/) - Aptly named Aussie tennis legend Margaret Court's outspoken public comments today against same sex marriage may have her opponents on the other side of the net seething. But it's her doubles partner that I most concerned with - her fellow Christians who don't necessarily want to be seen on the same side of the court
- [The Block](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-block/) - This is a piece called The Block that I submitted for this year's Nature Conservancy Biennial Landscape Essay Writing Competition, replete with $5000 prize. I was on the final five shortlist for this award in 2011. Didn't get shortlisted this year. So putting it up here. We will move from the hills to the block
- [The Growth Barrier Of Having It Too Easy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-real-growth-barrier-that-matters/) - Last week I sat at a dining table at a church planting conference and was reliably informed as to what the growth barriers to my model of ministry were. I was a little bemused. Granted I had just conducted a workshop on our evangelism strategies in an increasingly hostile cultural setting, so I was up
- [Millennial Evangelicals and Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/millennial-evangelicals-and-church/) - It's a thing of wonder to watch the dismay among ageing Boomers as they realise, belatedly, that their Millennial progeny have next to no interest in taking on their mantle. And I say that as the bloke in the middle - the self-effacing ironic X-Gen guy. And that lack of interest in maintaining the Boomer legacy is
- [Would You Be Willing To Pie For Jesus?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/would-you-be-willing-to-pie-for-jesus/) - Australian media outlets are reporting the visually stirring image of a Christian bloke shoving a lemon meringue pie in the face of the QANTAS CEO, Alan Joyce, whilst he was speaking at a leadership event right here in Perth (don't let people tell ya nothing exciting ever happens here in little old Perth). Here's the
- [Tolerating Acceptance Or Accepting Tolerance?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tolerating-acceptance-or-accepting-tolerance/) - No wonder middle Australia is keeping its head down. Once we were described as a tolerant bunch, but now we find out that the idea of simply tolerating someone or something is actually abhorrent. How could we have gotten that so wrong? In a clear demonstration that the battle for language has now disappeared down
- [Part 3: Lessons from a Lazy Pastor](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-3-lessons-from-a-lazy-pastor/) - Maybe I'm just a lazy pastor, but there have been opposite reactions to my two posts so far on the way the pace and complexity of modern Western culture is affecting church, not least of all the issue of less regular attendance. The reactions have ranged from "Phew!" to "But aren't we in danger of being lazy?"
- [Belling The Cat: Your Responses To "The Real Reasons Your People Aren't Turning Up To Church Every Week"](https://stephenmcalpine.com/belling-the-cat-your-responses-to-the-real-reasons-your-people-arent-turning-up-to-church-every-week/) - If the number of hits is any indication, then my last blog post struck a chord. And it's not just the number of hits, it's on FB, privately to me, and on the comments section of the blog. People said things as simple as "Phew!" They thanked me for articulating what they felt. They felt
- [The Real Reasons Your People Aren't Turning Up To Church Every Week](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-real-reasons-your-people-arent-turning-up-to-church-every-week/) - As a church pastor I suppose I should say "amen" when I read yet another article about the hit and miss attendance of church goers in this generation compared to what was the case up until the 1970s. I should say "amen", but I'm cautious. Writing in The Gospel Coalition's Australian site, Queensland Baptist Pastor
- [Tim and Felix and What They Say About Sex](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tim-and-felix-and-what-they-say-about-sex/) - If you're not from the UK, you may or may not have heard of Tim Farron. He's an evangelical Christian who also happens to be the leader of England's third biggest political party, the Liberal Democrats, who were, up until the last general election, the minority partner in the UK Government. This is Tim here:
- [Christian Restivism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-restivism/) - Everyone wants to be a Christian Activist these days. No one wants to be a Christian Restivist. Get what I mean? With the demise of terms such as "holiness" and "godliness" in our secular frame, activism has become the new way to be virtuous, and, just as importantly in this social media, self-promoting age, to
- [When the agnostics are telling us to go to church, something's up](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-the-agnostics-are-telling-us-to-go-to-church-somethings-up/) - When the agnostics are telling us to go to church, something's up. When the secular writers are starting to express concern at how the loss of any coherent narrative is fracturing our culture, then we know the post-Christian thing is starting to bite. It's been interesting this Easter watching secular and public writers start to
- [Storks Deliver Babies: Vultures Steal Them](https://stephenmcalpine.com/storks-deliver-babies-vultures-steal-them/) - Breaking News: 15 year old girl and 14 year old boyfriend kidnap their own baby! Seven News reports: Jenifer Morrison, 15, and her fiancé Jayden Lavender, welcomed little Aria into the world four days ago. The teenage parents are struggling to understand why they’ve been separated from their newborn daughter. "I don't know what I've
- [The Gospel According to EnChroma](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-gospel-according-to-enchroma/) - Okay, so I just spent a good half hour watching Youtube clips of people who are colour blind seeing colours as they really are for the first time after putting on a pair of EnChroma glasses. There's a half hour I'll never get back again. But to be honest I don't want to. It was
- [Which Came First: Running or the Love of it?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/which-came-first-running-or-the-love-of-it/) - The first road race done by someone in my house was not by me, but by Jill. The 2010 HBF Run For A Reason. Jill's reason was to celebrate the fact that I had recovered from major surgery a few months before. The local newspaper did an article on her reason for running, they came
- [Christian: We Don't Need No Prayer Room](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-we-dont-need-no-prayer-room/) - The decision by the Royal Adelaide Hospital to build a prayer room for Muslims, but no dedicated chapel for Christians, merely a multi-faith room instead, has drawn predictable ire from the likes of Australian Conservatives leader Senator Cory Bernardi. The Australian newspaper today reported Bernardi saying he is "sick and tired" of the constant accommodation
- [Egypt's Copts Don't Have Any (Benedict) Options](https://stephenmcalpine.com/egypts-copts-dont-have-any-benedict-options/) - I've certainly enjoyed The Benedict Option, but the brutal clarity of the Egyptian Coptic church bombings on Palm Sunday drives home the reality that Christianity in many parts of the world has run out of options. The faith is in a process of being "cleansed" from many countries in the Middle East. Away with such
- [Magnums, Marriage and Golden Gay Times](https://stephenmcalpine.com/magnums-marriage-and-golden-gay-times/) - Magnum ice creams have stolen the hop on the magnificently named Golden Gay Time ice cream by depicting a lesbian wedding in their latest Spanish advertising campaign. If ever an ice cream were well placed for the future it was the GGT for sure. But Magnum has ridden the slip stream then taken the lead.
- [Stop Press: Couple Move In Together After Marriage](https://stephenmcalpine.com/stop-press-couple-move-in-together-after-marriage/) - In breaking news a Western Australian newly wed couple have been found to have only moved in together on their wedding day. In a further shock it was breathlessly reported that they only spent their first night together on their wedding night! The West Australian Newspaper reports that: A choir sang Latin hymns and the pair
- [Church Life: Keep It Two Chevrons Apart](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-life-keep-it-two-chevrons-apart/) - As a pastor I make it my aim to encourage people to live life, and especially church life, in a "keep apart two chevrons" manner. Let me explain. If you've ever driven a UK motorway you'll see the sign as you hammer along at the usual twenty or thirty (miles) over the speed limit. Chevrons are
- [The Benedict Sex Option](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-benedict-sex-option/) - I've nearly finished Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option, and the second to last and last chapters deal with what he calls the two most powerful forces shaping and driving modern life: sex and technology. No doubt some will think the whole book is simply a frightened response to the sexual revolution, but Dreher takes a far
- [The Australian Option: Indifference](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-australian-option-indifference/) - With Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option on everyone's reading list (including mine) I think it's worth pointing out that the USA could benefit from hearing a little about the Australian secular experience of the past fifty years or so. When my mate Damo and I first planted Providence Church in the strongly working class area
- [Sprinkler Church or Drip Line Church?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sprinkler-church-or-drip-line-church/) - You know the difference between a sprinkler watering system and a drip line system? Sprinklers spread out water from a central source (a hose pipe attached to a tap) indiscriminately. The reach of the water is limited by a number of factors; the water pressure, the hose size, the type of sprinkler. It spreads out
- [Keller, Kuyper and Ernest Hemingway](https://stephenmcalpine.com/keller-kuyper-and-ernest-hemingway/) - Ernest Hemingway once entered an Ernest Hemingway Look-a-like competition. He came second. Tim Keller just entered an Abraham Kuyper Look-a-like competition and was disqualified. For looking too alike. Princeton has just withdrawn its awarding to Keller of the Kuyper Prize, presented every year in recognition of a person's commitment to Reformed Theology and witness, in
- [The Pastor As Navigator](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-pastor-as-navigator/) - The pastoral role has been described in rich and varied metaphors from the Bible, but a function that I am increasingly drawn to is fromGreek mythology*; that of the navigator sailing people between the monsters Scylla and Charybdis guarding the Straits of Messina. *(it's since been pointed out to me that the semantic field of
- [Jumping The Dead Shark](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jumping-the-dead-shark/) - Two of the great works of art on death don't simply posit the inevitability of death, but go deeper. The sheer mental magnitude of considering one's own demise is summed up brilliantly in Damien Hirst's memorable shark suspended in formaldehyde; The Physical Impossibility of Death in The Mind of Someone Living. To observe what happens
- [Christianity In the Public Square: BC and PC](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christianity-in-the-public-square-bc-and-pc/) - For too long now Christian apologetics and public Christianity has been living in a BC word - Before Coopers. From henceforth Australian Christianity has to come to terms with the fact it is a PC world - a Post Coopers one. And the overriding lesson to learn from the debacle of the last week
- [The Hair of the Dog that Bit The Bible Society](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-the-bible-society/) - So you open your eyes and groan as the sunlight streams through the gaps in the blinds. You try to pull the rug back over you as you slump on the couch. It's no use. Your throat feels like sandpaper, your head like someone is banging pots and pans inside it. You struggle to make
- [It Was Always Going to End in Beers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/it-was-always-going-to-end-in-beers/) - Well it was always going to end in beers. And tears. The Bible Society's recent teaming up with the Coopers beer company to promote 200 years of the Bible Society in Australia was always destined for a hangover. That hangover has come, and just as all hangovers are, in hindsight, the inevitable result of an
- [Benedict: Not An Option But A Necessity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/benedict-not-an-option-but-a-necessity/) - Rod Dreher's much anticipated new book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy For Christians In A Post-Christian Nation, is officially to be published next week on March 17 and I am lining up. I did not receive my pre-order copy to review in the mail. I put this down to two things: the tight publishing schedule, and
- [Reaching Everyday People With Everyday Leaders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/reaching-everyday-people-with-everyday-leaders/) - Oh a fireman is a person in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood, in your neighbourhood! Oh a fireman is a person in your neighbourhood, a person that you meet each day. Remember that little ditty from Sesame Street in which everyday jobs were held by people who lived around you, and how your streets were
- [The Blind Prosecutor and The Elephant](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-blind-prosecutor-and-the-elephant/) - The recent conviction in the UK of a number of street preachers who were accused of inciting violence through the message they preached has raised some interesting questions. As Christian Concern reports: The men were found guilty under Section 31 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, for using "threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour
- [When Jon Strutted His Stuff](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-jon-strutted-his-stuff/) - The first time I met Jonathan Strutt I realised that he matched his name. Or so it seemed to me. There was a definite strut to him from what I could see. There I was, January 1988, a callow journalism graduate, freshly minted, starting a new job at a new Christian radio station, still grappling with heaps
- [Some Batons Are Worth Dropping](https://stephenmcalpine.com/some-batons-are-worth-dropping/) - We've all sat watching those relay races in which one team, striving hard to stay in medal contention, just overcooks it a little. The third to fourth runner can't catch up as her colleague sets off, conscious not to run out of the hand over zone. The resulting baton change often ends in disaster. The runners either
- [Saul and that Pesky Amalekite Genocide](https://stephenmcalpine.com/saul-and-that-pesky-amalekite-genocide/) - Every now and then you draw the short straw for preaching. Or perhaps the long bow. But anyway this Sunday I have 1Samuel 13-15, the story of the downfall of Saul for his twin acts of disobedience. Hey, see what I did there? I assumed that you would read those three chapters in 1Samuel and
- [Revisiting the Visitors' Book](https://stephenmcalpine.com/revisiting-the-visitors-book/) - A long time family friend sent me a photo of a page of her grandmother's visitors book. Or should I say, one of her grandmother's visitors' books. I well remember her grandparents when I was young. They lived near the church we attended and always had people over. Always. And when you were leaving you had to
- [Jesus is Coming! Quick, Look Busy.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-is-coming-quick-look-busy/) - It's happening again. It's that time of the year. I can feel it. I can see it. I can read it on the Facebook updates, hear it in the voices of people, sense it in the tone of church updates and announcements, read it in the interminable requests from good Christian organisations for us to
- [Sshhh: It's Our Little Secret](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sshhh-its-our-little-secret/) - Another day another familiar tale of familiar spiritual abuse in an evangelical church. This time in which multiple families and their children are forced to leave. And they're cast out with the warning "Don't say anything to anyone within the church." Sigh... I've heard that "Keep it secret for the sake of.." line from spiritual
- [Christian: Do You Tick All Three of the Imago Dei Boxes?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-do-you-tick-all-three-of-the-imago-dei-boxes/) - Christian, do you tick all three of the Imago Dei boxes? Let me explain. For a while back there Imago Dei was hot. Now it's not. Once Imago Dei was as hot as rose gold tap fittings. Now? Rose gold is going out and terracotta is in. Imago Dei similarly has gone off the boil. At one stage
- [Bernardi Christianiti](https://stephenmcalpine.com/bernardi-christianiti/) - Trump-lite is upon us in Australia. The threatened schism between establishment political conservatism and the new anti-establishment version has erupted with the move by Senator Cory Bernardi to set up a new conservative party. Or a conservative party, as his backers see it, given how betrayed they feel by the Liberal Party. What intrigues me is less
- [Steamroller Grief](https://stephenmcalpine.com/steamroller-grief/) - There's that scene in Austin Powers - hilarious scene - in which the bad guy is about to be run over by a steamroller and the look on his face is one of terror. Well, when I say "about to" I mean he has 31 seconds to get out of the way. Powers' steamroller
- [Christian Snowflakery](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-snowflakery/) - I've just about finished Tony Reinke's book on John Newton's pastoral letters, Newton On The Christian Life: To Live is Christ and here's what I have concluded: compared with his theological robustness in the face of trials, we're in danger of being a culture of Christian snowflakes. You get what I mean by "snowflake?" The word has
- [Where Are All The Skinny Jeans Pastors?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/where-are-all-the-skinny-jeans-pastors/) - A US report indicates only one in seven senior pastors is under the age of 40. It's a Barna Research piece so it's got some cred. You can read the Christianity Today report here. The research lists nine reasons for the collapse in the younger pastor demographic, which also shows the average age for
- [Guest Blogger Ben Good Writes About True Truth](https://stephenmcalpine.com/guest-blogger-ben-good-writes-about-true-truth/) - A good friend, Ben Good, works in Mozambique bringing the good news about Jesus to people who need to hear it. It's all good really. He and his wife Sam and their three children have just headed back to Mozambique after a period at home in Perth. Ben has guest-posted for me a few times.
- [January 26th: Australia's July 12th](https://stephenmcalpine.com/january-26th-australias-july-12th/) - I grew up in Northern Ireland. As a Protestant. As a majority citizen in a contested country. A divided country. And the day that was most divided, and indeed dividing, was July 12th. Or "the twalf" as many a Norn Iron "Pradesdan" called it. July 12th celebrates the defeat of Catholic King James II by
- [Blog Post Sparks Outrage](https://stephenmcalpine.com/blog-post-sparks-outrage/) - I've been playing a game. Counting how many times the term "sparks outrage" is employed by increasingly lazy subeditors to describe the shocked reaction of certain sections of the community to whatever they don't like. The spike in the use of the term since the election of Donald Trump has been interesting. There's obviously a
- [Post-Truth: When Your WMD is Stolen and Used Against You](https://stephenmcalpine.com/post-truth-when-your-wmd-is-stolen-and-used-against-you/) - We all know those Hollywood blockbusters in which the bad guys (them) have somehow gotten their filthy mitts on a weapon of mass destruction, once the property of the good guys (us). Result? For 98 minutes all hell breaks loose in order to ensure that all hell does not break loose. There is a clear
- [When You're Not On the Same Page, But In The Same Book](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-youre-not-on-the-same-page-but-in-the-same-book/) - I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord...whose names are in the book of life. (Phil 4) The turn of politics in the West clearly shows that that Christians who aren't on the same page politically better recognise they're in the same book. If they don't then there's a shameful schism coming
- [And Now Some Words From A Leader Who Never Over-Promises and Under-Delivers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/and-now-some-words-from-a-leader-who-never-over-promises-and-under-delivers/) - I am with you always, even to the end of the age I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. No one who has left home or
- [But First Let Me... FILL IN THE BLANK](https://stephenmcalpine.com/but-first-let-me-fill-in-the-blank/) - I buried my father last week. When I say buried I mean I watched him die — slowly - over the past three years. I visited when I wasn’t too busy, cared for, fretted over his decline, watched his last day (missed his last breath), identified his body, then finally, painfully, but preciously, conducted his funeral. To
- [Is God Your Refuge, or Merely Your Refuge Provider?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-god-your-refuge-or-merely-your-refuge-provider/) - There's a huge difference between God being your refuge and God merely providing you with one. Let me explain. I will be conducting my father's funeral next Tuesday. There are the usual complications of organisation, some family things to sort out, some family things that will never sort out. I'm preaching on Psalm 46, arrowing in on verse
- [Two Empty Houses](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-empty-houses/) - Today was a day of two empty houses. Today we left our beloved home of 17 years, packed it up in one fell swoop and were gone. Just like that. Today, also, my beloved father died. 74 years of age, wracked with Lewy Body Dementia these past four years. Gone too. Just like that. I
- [A tip for Conservatives in 2017: Tell a Story For Goodness Sake](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-tip-for-conservatives-in-2017-tell-a-story-for-goodness-sake/) - 2016 has proven yet again that when it comes to wooing and winning the hearts of the public with a good story, conservatives are completely outclassed by progressives. And Christian conservatives? Don't get me started! You would think that with the best narrative in the world at their fingertips, full of highs, lows, dramas, intrigue,
- [Dignity In the Midst of Death](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dignity-in-the-midst-of-death/) - Tomorrow I am going to drive in to my father's aged care facility and discuss palliative care options with the staff. I knew this day would come, perhaps thought it would come more quickly, but it has finally arrived as 2016 itself ends. I fully expected Dad to be dead by the middle of the
- [A Dangerous Year to be a Celebrity. Or is it?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-dangerous-year-to-be-a-celebrity-or-is-it/) - Bowie, Prince, Ali, Cohen, Michael, and now Fisher - it's been a deathly year for icons of pop culture, and we've still go three days to go. Who'd be a celebrity these days, or at least who'd do it without getting danger money? The number of celebrities shuffling off - or falling off - in
- [A Jack of All Trades Who Serves Jesus the Master](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-jack-of-all-trades-who-serves-jesus-the-master/) - It's not just the last week of living in our house after 17 years, it's also the last week of working with the bloke who helped plant Providence Church Midland with me. He's a young man who has been crucial to the whole venture. In fact without him I am pretty sure we would not
- [You (Only Holier)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/you-only-holier/) - Well I've got my summer reading list on the boil for January (I have the whole month off!), and it contains two running books. The first is Phil Knight's Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike. Really looking forward to this one, given Nike is my favourite shoe this year. That may change next year
- [Christian Unity Explodes Outside ACL Headquarters](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-unity-explodes-outside-acl-headquarters/) - I have prayed so often for a Damascus Road experience for the post-evangelical cohort in the church in Australia, but never did I expect a conversion so quickly. Today, after the Australian Christian Lobby's headquarters in Canberra was severely damaged in a vehicle explosion, planned and carried out deliberately by the driver of the vehicle, the same
- [This Year's Christmas Photo](https://stephenmcalpine.com/this-years-christmas-photo/) - This would have to be one of the most confronting photos of the year. It also epitomises the reason for Christmas. Sure there have been dozens - thousands - of bloodied survivors and non-survivors photographed around the world. Victims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Photographers who happened to
- [Culture Vulture Awards 2016](https://stephenmcalpine.com/culture-vulture-awards-2016/) - As anyone who reads this blog will know I love a bit of culture, being the cultural sophisticate that I am'n'all. And of course I love a good culture vulture; the person or institute that is slightly ahead of the curve, able to not only pick the zeitgeist, but to explain why such a geist
- [Beware: Large Sibling is Watching You](https://stephenmcalpine.com/beware-large-sibling-is-watching-you/) - Remember the days when "Zie Hir" was the way Germans said "See here!" in English-language war movies? Well those words are still being used in a war, but this time it's a conflagration that will run far longer than anything Europe threw up in 1939. It's the battle of language and meaning, that's been hotting up
- [When Babylon Withdraws To Lick Its Wounds](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-babylon-withdraws-to-lick-its-wounds/) - What do we do when Babylon withdraws to lick its wounds? For that is indeed what we are experiencing - a temporary halt of the post-Christian/anti-Christian framework within the Western setting, as populist politics in 2016 sweeps the progressive agenda aside. This recent backlash has been met with a certain glee among Christians who believed, often
- [God's Renovation Project](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gods-renovation-project/) - This is our house when we bought it in 1999: This is it when we sold it 16 years later: And the changes inside the house are just as drastic. I could say, ok Millennials, I know you love funky old cottages done up to the nines, but that's not how it starts. So put
- [The Hypocrisy of Those Lamenting Post-Truth](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-hypocrisy-of-those-lamenting-post-truth/) - The progressives lamenting the era of "post-truth" in the light of Trump's victory have simply been hoist on their petard. And it's both hypocritical to see their rage, and astounding to realise that they do not grasp the irony of what has happened. Simply put, their own weapon is now being used against them. After
- [Jesus, a Broken Car Window and a Girl from Oman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-a-broken-car-window-and-a-girl-from-oman/) - We've been driving around for a week in our Hyundai i30 with the driver's window wound down. Not because of the weather. Not because of the chance to tan one arm. Not because we can yell at people more efficiently as they drive so badly as they do here in Perth. No. We've been driving
- [Joy: Not The Greatest Gift of All](https://stephenmcalpine.com/joy-not-the-greatest-gift-of-all/) - Ok, I have a confession to make. I drink Nespresso pod coffee. Don't judge me too harshly all you hipster cold filter dudes and dudettes. Anyway, Nespresso sent me its latest promotional material for Christmas, and here it is, or at least here is a picture of the envelope: Joy is the greatest gift of
- [Is Your Tolerance a Clayton's Tolerance Or Is It The Real Thing?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/is-your-tolerance-a-claytons-tolerance-or-is-it-the-real-thing/) - Remember Claytons? Remember the drink you have when you're not having a drink? The non-alcoholic beer? Thought not. It was a Dud. Not even a Duff. It was big in the late 70s, early 80s, before it ran out of fizz. If you're of a certain vintage in Oz you would well remember calling something
- [Mocking the Toilet Habits of the Progressive gods](https://stephenmcalpine.com/mocking-the-toilet-habits-of-the-progressive-gods/) - ...27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed
- [Politicians: Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/politicians-dont-bite-the-hand-that-feeds/) - Andrew Hastie is the Federal Member of Parliament for the Western Australian seat of Canning. He's a former Troop Commander of the SAS, and studied History and Philosophy at the University of New South Wales. He's also a practising Christian and, in my humble view, someone who could potentially be Australia's Prime Minister one day.
- [My Greek Is Ok, But My Preaching is Rubbish](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-greek-is-ok-but-my-preaching-is-rubbish/) - I thought I would put the equation around the other way and see if how satisfactory it sounds. And it sounds dreadful, does it not? Why am I doing that? To be cheeky obviously. But my last post touched a nerve. It's certainly run its course on Facebook, that's for sure. The nerve it touched indicated
- [My Greek Is Rubbish But I Preach OK](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-greek-is-rubbish-but-i-preach-ok/) - You must have a detailed working knowledge of New Testament Greek if you want to be a preacher. That was the hard word from a fellow Aussie, Con Campbell, speaking at the Evangelical Theological Society's annual meeting in the USA this past week. Con teaches at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois. He also trained to
- [Actually, Not All Conservative Churches Grow (And Many Don't Deserve To)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/actually-not-all-conservative-churches-grow-and-many-dont-deserve-to/) - A recent blog post doing the rounds shows that conservative churches grow at a faster rate than liberal churches. No surprises there. After all who bothers getting out of bed to go and hear stuff that the whole world is committed to anyway. Liberal theology has hollowed out the mainline denominations, and it's no wonder. But not
- [Unity: Because We Get To, Not Because We Have To](https://stephenmcalpine.com/unity-because-we-get-to-not-because-we-have-to/) - The newfound desire by many liberally minded to understand "the other" in the USA since the Trump election is noble, but it's not enough and it certainly would not have been on the agenda if Hillary had won. The dividing lines would still be drawn. It did indeed warm my heart to read this article
- [Glass Ceiling Or A Roof Over Your Head?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/glass-ceiling-or-a-roof-over-your-head/) - Hillary Clinton lost the US election because she was talking about glass ceilings to people who were simply worried about keeping a roof over their heads. That's the take home message from the stunning Trump upset. And as the dust settles (even as its kicked up again by angry protestors in major cities) the thinking
- [The Walking Dead Poets' Society](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-walking-dead-poets-society/) - This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order (Titus 1:5) The movie, Dead Poets' Society (DPS), came at a time in my life when I was just finished an Arts degree and was dealing with my parents' divorce. Coming as I was from a background of
- [Evangelism, Apologetics And Avoiding the Echo Chamber](https://stephenmcalpine.com/evangelism-apologetics-and-avoiding-the-echo-chamber/) - When it comes to avoiding life in an echo chamber Christians who are keen to share the gospel with their friends, or at least have an apologetic framework to defend their faith, are streets ahead of the general populace when it comes to understanding people not like them. It's true. And the opposite is also
- [Wayne Grudem I Hope You're Happy Now.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/wayne-grudem-i-hope-youre-happy-now/) - I hope Wayne Grudem is happy. I hope Eric Metaxas is happy. They should be. They got what they want. For now. But in the long term? I am not so sure. Trump's win will lull politicised evangelicals in the US, and by extension, here in Australia into a false sense of security. By that
- [From Where You'd Rather Be: Bundy Bears, Social Imaginaries and the Benedict Option](https://stephenmcalpine.com/from-where-youd-rather-be-bundy-bears-social-imaginaries-and-the-benedict-option/) - Now I'm not much of a rum drinker. Not much of a drinker at all in fact. But I love the Aussie Bundaberg Rum TV ad from twenty years ago, (and it looks twenty years ago in a "what were they thinking?" kinda way), in which a bunch of Polar Bears (Bundaberg's trademark logo) are partying hard in a
- [What If There Had Been No Door In the Wall?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/what-if-there-had-been-no-door-in-the-wall/) - The ending of the Truman Show has always surprised, thrilled, and satisfied me. Even after all these years, and all that critical analysis. But I often ask the question, What if there had been no door in the wall? For me that seems the most obvious question to ask of the movie, quite apart
- [Airbnb: Virtue Signalling at its Very Worst](https://stephenmcalpine.com/airbnb-virtue-signalling-at-its-very-worst/) - We’re going on an Airbnb holiday this summer. A funky place in a funky town. For two weeks of rest and relaxation. All the mod cons. Just how we like it. At least I hope we are. For today we received an email from Airbnb, as many of you no doubt did, that states that
- [Hollowed Out](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hollowed-out/) - Maybe we're reading too much spooky stuff into why Halloween has taken off in Australia. Maybe we're reading too much cultural appropriation into why Australia has taken on a USA and UK festival/memorial. Maybe the sharp uptake of Halloween-esque celebrations (and let's admit it's a ghostly shadow of its US and UK counterparts) is simply
- [Unimpressive?  Good. God Just Might Use You.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/unimpressive-good-god-just-might-use-you/) - Imagine you were on the search committee for a new pastor for your church. The last pastor had been, well, let's just say he'd been less than what you'd expected. His CV had all the right credentials. He was a reputed gatherer of people. He was the sort of bloke that got things done. He'd
- [10 Reasons Why We Love Lists of 10 Reasons](https://stephenmcalpine.com/10-reasons-why-we-love-lists-of-10-reasons/) - Okay, so that's pretty meta for a title. But why is it that Christians (and almost everybody else) love lists of ten? I write many blog posts, but often the ones that get taken up by other blogs and get the most hits are the "10 reasons" blog posts. And it seems our American friends
- [The Australia We Want Is The Australia We Have](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-australia-we-want-is-the-australia-we-have/) - Well it's official. We Western Australians are not generous. In fact not only not generous, we are mean spirited when it comes to giving money. We like to think of ourselves as generous, as fair-go-people. The fact is we're not. Statistics released today in the "The Australia We Want" report show that West Aussies
- [Ashers to Ashers for Liberty of Conscience and Religious Freedom.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ashers-to-ashers-for-liberty-of-conscience-and-religious-freedom/) - Belfast bakery, Ashers, has lost its appeal against a court judgement that found they had acted unlawfully in refusing to prepare a cake for a customer with a decoration that promoted gay marriage. In doing so, the UK has kissed freedom of conscience and freedom of religion goodbye. Now before we wander down the "would you bake
- [Deathstyle: The New Lifestyle](https://stephenmcalpine.com/deathstyle-the-new-lifestyle/) - There have been two terrible tragedies involving the murders of young children in Australia this past week. The tragedies have been divided by the span of this wide continent. one here in WA, the other in Sydney. Last night two young children were stabbed to death here in Perth's northern suburbs, allegedly by their father.
- [Sounds Like Christianity But..](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sounds-like-christianity-but/) - Remember the good old days of going into the Christian bookshop, making a bee-line for the music section and going through the cassettes? Never mind remembering the good old days, remember cassettes! Anyway you'd flick through the albums and there would be stickers on the back of them that said things like this: "Sounds like
- [No Such Thing As Cannibal Sheep](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-such-thing-as-cannibal-sheep/) - My twin brother and I used to work every Saturday on a relative's farm in Northern Ireland when we were in our early teens. The best bit of the job was opening up the stone walled pig houses, descending into the abyss and "mucking out" the stalls; sweeping the, er, stuff, down into a corner
- [Uncreative Minority Report (A Reading)](https://stephenmcalpine.com/uncreative-minority-report-a-reading/) - Christians speak often about what it may mean to be marginalised in the new world of hard secularism. To be a "creative minority". Yet my own initial experiences of church were more "uncreative" minorities, rather than creative ones. My family's faith was birthed in Northern Irish fundamentalist minority, made its way to conservative non-conformity minority
- [You Can't Out-Hipster The Offence of the Gospel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/you-cant-out-hipster-the-offence-of-the-gospel/) - What would you get if you crossed Ira Glass with Tim Keller? A terrific new faith and culture podcast by Harbor Media called The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. It's got that Serial stickiness, with a sharp narrative spine that leaves you wanting more. You can find it here. One iTunes reviewer sums it up
- [The Evangelical Brand is Trashed. Time For A Rebranding.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-evangelical-brand-is-trashed-time-for-a-rebranding/) - The "Evangelical" brand is well on the way to being trashed in the US. Time to think of a new word to describe ourselves I reckon, not just in the US, but across the West. If it's true financially that "when America sneezes, the world catches cold.", the same appears to be true of American
- [Church Pastor: Keep Jesus at the Forefront Without Being Weird](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-pastor-keep-jesus-at-the-forefront-without-being-weird/) - Ok so I get some flak on Facebook about various things, and being a spiky Northern Irishman I can understand that. But this past week our church was paid the ultimate compliment by someone who was answering some questions about what kind of church we were. The person in question has been coming to our
- [It's Bigger than SSM](https://stephenmcalpine.com/16142-2/) - I'd turn Catholic for RR (Rusty) Reno, the editor of First Things magazine, I really would. In his latest book, Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, he pinpoints what is really at stake in the elite liberal culture's agenda when pushing social change. And it's a timely book for today, as our country faces the churn
- [He Might Be a B@%#d, but He's Our B@%#d](https://stephenmcalpine.com/he-might-be-a-bd-but-hes-our-bd/) - Anastasi0 Somoza Garcia was a Nicaraguan political despot who was by all accounts a charmless individual. Educated in the US, he returned to his country, overthrew the President, and ensconced himself as dictator, ruling with an iron fist for more than four decades. The US Secretary of State once remarked to President FD Roosevelt, "Somoza's a bastard", to
- [Does Your Christian Public Ethic Pass the Coin Toss Test?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/does-your-christian-public-ethic-pass-the-coin-toss-test/) - The true test of whether you are truly operating in a gospel ethical framework in the public square, or merely hitching your Christian wagon to either the progressive Left or the conservative Right, is the coin toss test. Let me explain by using two polarised, and polarising, examples; refugees and abortion. So you look on
- [Pete's Dragon: Magic, Fire and Tears](https://stephenmcalpine.com/petes-dragon-magic-fire-and-tears/) - There's magic in the cinema if you know where to look for it. But just lately I've been losing the faith. Last time all four of the family went to the movies we suffered through the virtue signalling, glitz and glamour, all smoke and mirrors, of every progressive upper school English teacher's next assignment topic, the animation Zootopia.
- [Part 10: Ten Tips From Ten Years](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-10-ten-tips-from-ten-years/) - Well, this is the last in the series, a series that started off with some musings about my missional church exploration over the past decade, but which took on a life of its own somehow. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone who commented on it either publicly, privately or face to face. Apart from
- [Part 9: Mashional Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-9-mashional-church/) - The embryonic ideal of the missional church fifteen or so years ago has lead to what I would call the mashional church; a mash up between radical and traditional models. In that time, as one would expect, some expressions of church have flourished, others have withered. The last six years we have been working in the
- [Part 8: Skinny Lazarus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-8-skinny-lazarus-2/) - I woke up that early February evening after major surgery flat on my back in the recovery ward. Drugged out. Deep pain. Unable to move. I tilted my head as far forward as I could to look at my bare, shaved stomach. The small incision I had naively anticipated before surgery was in fact a
- [The Sheer Delight of Resurrection Work](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-sheer-delight-of-resurrection-work/) - Well Johnny Rotten got a lot wrong down the years, but he got a lot right too (not least of all his outing of Jimmy Saville as a sex abuser long before the BBC got around to admitting it). Here's something else he got (a bit) right: Yes, that's just man's fantasy. In part Mr Rotten/Lydon
- [Part 7: Zombie Nation](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-7-zombie-nation/) - Even by early November Perth's scrubby landscape was brown. Jill and I looked at each other as the plane bumped and rocked over the wind-blown Darling Escarpment that separates the city sprawl from the bushland and townships of the eastern hills, and just said that one word: "Brown!" Here and there shocks of green in
- [Part 6: Welcome Disillusionment](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-6-welcome-disillusionment/) - We left Sheffield behind us that weekend and spent an amazing two weeks in the Dordoyne region of France. The holiday did a couple of things. It gave us space to think about what had just happened, to talk about it, and try to make sense of it. Not that we did anything other than
- [Part 5: The Tipping Point](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-5-the-tipping-point/) - I'm an Anglophile and spring 2007 in Sheffield was the perfect English cliche. Yellow daffodils in vacant lots. Flush cherry-tree blossom against the metered granite of Sophie's Gradgrind school. Impossibly green fields with lambs the colour of milk. An English spring is that seasonal tipping point when the clocks go back, the sun lingers and everyone's out
- [Where to next for Christian Schools?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/where-to-next-for-christian-schools/) - The Andrews Government in Victoria has kindly given us an insight into the future for para-church organisations and Christians schools in Australia in terms of their ability to remain distinctly Christian. And they're doing it in a classic pincer move. As Australia's most aggressive progressive political leader (and progressives lead from the front, dragging people
- [Sainthood Ain't Good](https://stephenmcalpine.com/sainthood-aint-good/) - It's hard to believe it, but the Catholic journal First Things is almost enough to persuade this hard-nosed Protestant from Belfast to convert to Roman Catholicism. Well, in my public theology at least, not my personal theology . Now let me say first up, it's not that hard to convert from Northern Irish Protestantism, in
- [Part 4: Here Come the Americans](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-4-here-come-the-americans/) - The Americans started coming en masse to Great Britain during the War and have been coming ever since. And what, with their great teeth, flashy ways, and demands for Waldorf salads, they've been annoying the Brits ever since. Between Christmas 2007 and March 2008, Jill and I settled into a routine of household church with Jill
- [A "How Much More" Father](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-how-much-more-father/) - It's Fathers' Day and I am full of the flu and have lost my voice. No sermon from me tonight, and possibly no flight to a conference in Sydney tomorrow. My balance suffers from flights at the best of times, and this is the worst of times! I am sick enough not to risk visiting
- [Church Planter: Is Your Church a Merry-go-Round or a Swing Set?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/church-planter-is-your-church-a-merry-go-round-or-a-swing-set/) - When it comes to the hows and whys of evangelism a new church plant has the chance to be more like a swing than a merry-go-round. Evangelism in established churches in the West has traditionally been like a merry-go-round. The church get a program up, then spends time gaining some interest and picking up some
- [Part 3: The Honeymoon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/part-3-the-honeymoon/) - I will be 49 soon. The countdown to the big 5-0 begins. Not complaining. I love this stage of my life. But it's a good time to reflect on the past ten years. It was easily the most momentous decade in our (my wife Jill's and my) lives. Especially in ministry terms, and especially in how
- [My Missional Journey Ten Years On: Pt 2](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-missional-journey-ten-years-on-pt-2/) - I will be 49 soon. The countdown to the big 5-0 begins. Not complaining. I love this stage of my life. But it's a good time to reflect on the past ten years. It was easily the most momentous decade in our (my wife Jill's and my) lives. Especially in ministry terms, and especially in how
- [SSM: Without A Pleb In Sight](https://stephenmcalpine.com/ssm-without-a-pleb-in-sight/) - The on again/off again plebiscite on SSM seems off again, today at least. It's been reported in The Australian today that the ALP will not support it on the basis that "it will fail and set back the cause". The Australian quotes ALP leader, Bill Shorten: I’m worried Malcolm Turnbull will just stuff it up.He
- [My Missional Journey Ten Years On: Pt 1](https://stephenmcalpine.com/my-missional-journey-ten-years-on-pt-1/) - I will be 49 soon. The countdown to the big 5-0 begins. Not complaining. I love this stage of my life. But it's a good time to reflect on the past ten years. It was easily the most momentous decade in our (my wife Jill's and my) lives. Especially in ministry terms, and especially in how
- [The Outflow of Good Deeds: Fresh Water to a Brackish World](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-outflow-of-good-deeds-fresh-water-to-a-brackish-world/) - The outflow of the mighty Amazon River is so great that you can skim fresh water off the Atlantic Ocean for a couple of hundred miles offshore from the river mouth. Amazing eh? Salt water turned fresh. Sounds like another river you may have read about in the prophetic book of Ezekiel. The prophet is led
- [Good Deeds: By The Church For the Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/good-deeds-by-the-church-for-the-church/) - The latest piece on the exile conversation published in Eternity newspaper by Morling College New Testament lecturer, David Starling raises some good points, not least of all the truth that we have been here before as God's people. No surprises there. And it's got a great irenic tone, especially important in the current climate in which many
- [Happy St Bartholomew's Day Massacre Day Everybody](https://stephenmcalpine.com/happy-st-bartholomews-day-massacre-day-everybody/) - Is this not brilliant? It is Daniel in the Lion's Den, painted in 1872 by British artist, Briton Riviere. Not the most British name is it? Riviere was descended from the French Huguenots, the Protestants slaughtered by the French regime, a massacre that started on this very evening, 23rd August, way back in 1572 and
- [The God of the Olympians](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-god-of-the-olympians/) - Two things my wife Jill and I noticed whilst watching the men's marathon at the Olympics last night. Firstly, how fast it actually is. Fit young blokes on the other side of the barrier were attempting to keep pace for a while with the elites. Kipchoge was gliding along - black silk in
- [Have a Banana](https://stephenmcalpine.com/have-a-banana/) - Oranges may not be the only fruit, but these days bananas are not merely a fruit. Sure they're the most popular fruit we eat. But bananas, sometimes real and sometimes of the inflatable variety, have in the hands of racist soccer supporters in Europe, been a cheap and available weapon of racial vilification. When a
- [Soft Distance In A Hardening World](https://stephenmcalpine.com/soft-distance-in-a-hardening-world/) - Back in the day - 1977 to be exact - Star Wars was a cultural phenomenon. Right there at the cusp of global marketing, several of its foresighted stars waived their pay packet for a percentage of any film merchandise and spin-offs. Good move I reckon. Perhaps Miroslav Volf should have signed up for some of that when
- [True Freedom of Speech](https://stephenmcalpine.com/true-freedom-of-speech/) - Freedom of speech is a burning topic in Western democracies. Christian groups are rightly worried that the freedom to publicly dissent on a variety of topics, notably in the realm of public ethics, is in danger of being curtailed. For the Christian, however, the freedom to speak is a subset of - or a benefit of
- [It was blog post worthy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/it-was-blog-post-worthy/) - There once was a young man from Memphis Who logged on to fill in the census When the server went down He said with a frown This senseless non-census incenses
- [Hollywood, Aliens and Persecuted Christians](https://stephenmcalpine.com/11390-2/) - When it comes to Hollywood and aliens, it's virtually impossible for Westerners to believe (or Westerners in Hollywood at least) that fierce creatures from outer space might target a city for their initial airstrikes other than Washington or London (the excellent racial commentary sic-fi District 9 being the honourable exception - and a special mention to
- [I Don't Follow Football But I Have Football Values](https://stephenmcalpine.com/i-dont-follow-football-but-i-have-football-values/) - I don't like football - the AFL type. Don't follow it. Don't watch it. Don't bet on it. Don't talk about it on Monday morning in the office (which would basically be a one way conversation).Fit men in tight shorts? If I want to see that I can go to the gym. Which I don't
- [Christian Certainty: The Only Sin Left](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-certainty-the-only-sin-left/) - Christianity is all too often a day late and a dollar short on many things. And when it comes to the matter of conviction, once again evangelical writers and influencers are short-changing us. Just as the secular culture is jettisoning uncertainty at a rate of knots, many in the Church are espousing its virtues, whilst pointing
- [The Grude, The Bad and the Ugly](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-grude-the-bad-and-the-ugly/) - Comparing how we do religion and politics in Australia to how they are done in the US is like comparing soccer's "A" League here in Oz with the English Premier League. Sooner or later, despite your enthusiasm for the local game, despite your talking up the talent, you need to admit the enormous gulf between the two. It
- [Being On The Bad Side of History](https://stephenmcalpine.com/being-on-the-bad-side-of-history/) - Christian parents in today's cultural mess no longer simply have to convince their maturing children that they are not wrong, but that they are not bad. Up until now parents who loved Jesus would bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They nudged and bumped them in the right directions, putting
- [Pastor: Does Your Church Have Any White Space?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pastor-does-your-church-have-any-white-space/) - Your church may have plenty of parking space (unlike mine). It may be big enough to see from space (once again, unlike mine). But does it have any white space? Tell you what I mean. We live in a culture in which we increasingly no longer have white space. Every nook and cranny of our social,
- [Christianity: A Prison Cell or a Hotel Room?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christianity-a-prison-cell-or-a-hotel-room/) - CS Lewis makes the point that our expectations govern our responses. He memorably states: “If you’re shown a hotel room you’ve been told is the Honeymoon Suite, your expectations will be high. If there’s no plush carpet, spa and champagne, you’ll be disappointed. On the other hand, if you’ve been told before the door opens
- [Kel, The Surfboard and Nailing Three Pointers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/kel-the-surfboard-and-nailing-three-pointers/) - So I've been taking my eight year old son Declan down to the local council outdoors basketball court. You know the type of court; seen better days, splintering backboard, maddeningly unresponsive hoop, all played out on faded green concrete. If the court has seen better days, so has my game. But my son thinks I
- [Should Preachers Prep Sermons with David Marr in Mind?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/should-preachers-prep-sermons-with-david-marr-in-mind/) - Should preachers be preparing their sermons with David Marr in mind? Should preachers write their talks imagining that even if a well educated, handsomely remunerated, liberal gay journalist is not sitting in their congregation ready to pounce, one day he might be? Following a recent scurrilous campaign in which evangelical churches using public school amenities in New
- [Christian As Migrants In A New World](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-as-migrants-in-a-new-world/) - Whenever I write about the future shape of the church in the Western context, and the need to create distinct, but open-bounded communities along the lines of the Benedict Option, I am accused of advocating Christian quietism or cultural withdrawal. In other words a new form of fundamentalism. Surely there is a marked difference between
- [Hey Dr Dobson, It's Time to Focus on Jesus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-dr-dobson-its-time-to-focus-on-jesus/) - I have been critical in the past over celebrity evangelical figures who have blinked first and allowed the sexual ethics of progressivism to blind them to the reality of the biblical framework on sexuality and Christ's gospel call to purity. The desire for cultural and social power, and a seat at the table in the
- [Three Kings, Seven Prime Ministers and One God](https://stephenmcalpine.com/three-kings-seven-prime-ministers-and-one-god/) - Kinda sounds like the start of a bar joke doesn't it? Three kings, seven Prime Ministers and one God. But I digress. Here we are on the even of election day and I can't recall an election like it. But remember this: whichever Prime Minister Australia wakes up to on Sunday morning, whatever the seismic shifts
- [Heads I Win/Tails You Lose](https://stephenmcalpine.com/heads-i-wintails-you-lose/) - If you're making a considered decision about who you vote for this Saturday, and the matter of whether we have a plebiscite on same sex marriage is a concern for you, then I suggest that you put that concern aside. For nothing is going to stop gay marriage becoming a reality in Australia eventually, regardless
- [Cakeophobia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/cakeophobia/) - Cake is leaving the building. The icing is on the wall. Cake culture in UK work places is being accused of fuelling an obesity epidemic and resulting in the rotten teeth that the English take such desperate pride in. The Age reports today: Professor Nigel Hunt, dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the
- [The Two Plus Two Equals Four Plebiscite](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-two-plus-two-equals-four-plebiscite/) - Language is theological. And since it is theological it is moral. Language is the gift of a speaking God who created us as speaking beings in order to speak with him and with each other. One of the beautiful aspects of the Genesis account of creation is that what God says becomes. In other words God
- [Christian: Now is The Winter (Solstice) of our Discontent](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-now-is-the-winter-solstice-of-our-discontent/) - If you quote Shakespeare make sure you quote him correctly. Probably goes for anyone you quote, but Shakespeare is given a good shaking when it comes to misquotes. And not simply misquotes, but misunderstanding the quotes you quote correctly. The classic of course, is from Richard III, when Richard, fresh from victory states that "Now
- [Christians Long For His Appearing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christians-long-for-his-appearing/) - Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2Timothy4:8) I was recently derided on social media for holding a "neo-fundy" position on the return of
- [How Did Jesus Respond To Tragic Events?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/how-did-jesus-respond-to-tragic-events/) - Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. (Luke 13:1) Unexpected tragic events. They're certainly not new. No, not new, but definitely more documented these days. Technology is certainly fulfilling its hyped promise of bringing us closer together. Be careful what you
- [A Tsunami in Orlando](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-tsunami-in-orlando/) - The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people stopped a decades old military conflict in its tracks. When that deep, dark, evil wave rolled over the disputed Indonesian providence of Aceh it extinguished a fiery conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian Government. Faced with a tragedy of that scale, the will to fight
- [Christ's Parousia is Our Salvation Not Christian Politics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christs-parousia-is-our-salvation-not-christian-politics/) - Hey I went into Christian bookshop, Koorong, this morning (just for academic research purposes of course), and guess what? Hidden on the shelves behind The Women's Devotional Study Bible, The Men's Devotional Study Bible, The Spirit-filled Life Application Bible, and The Prosperity Gospel Bible (is that even a thing?) was the 21st Century Western Christians' Guide
- [June 2016 Steve's Blog Writes to June 2015 Steve's Blog](https://stephenmcalpine.com/june-2016-steves-blog-writes-to-june-2015-steves-blog/) - Dear June 2015 Steve's Blog Hi, it's June 2016 Steve's Blog here. How you doing? Feeling a little chuffed with yourself? Feeling a little, like, you know well read? Feeling a little viral? That's ok, just don't let that virus go to your head. I know, I know, some important people picked up on something you
- [A Letter From June Steve to January Steve](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-letter-from-june-steve-to-january-steve/) - Dear January Steve Hi, it's June Steve here. How are you doing January Steve? Feeling bright? Feeling perky? Feeling summery? How was that family holiday in Singapore? Just the tonic, right? And what about that Test Match! Straight outta the top drawer eh! And your running was looking so good on Strava! 80-90km weeks and
- [Don't Let Your Church be a Hanoi Jane](https://stephenmcalpine.com/dont-let-your-church-be-a-hanoi-jane/) - Once again The Australian newspaper's Foreign Editor, Greg Sheridan has hit the nail on the head, in an insightful article today, entitled Christian churches drifting too far from the marketplace of ideas. His opening lines are a cracker: Australia’s Christian churches are in crisis, on the brink of complete strategic irrelevance. It’s not clear they
- [Schadenfreude: Not Part of the Fruit of the Spirit](https://stephenmcalpine.com/schadenfreude-not-part-of-the-fruit-of-the-spirit/) - Schadenfreude, what a great word. It rolls off the tongue It means "harm-joy" in German. And it's the opposite of true joy. Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit, but "harm-joy" most definitely is not. It's more a rotten apple, a creeping noxious weed whose tendrils snake their way into the Christian garden, surfacing at opportune
- [Pleading For Mercy In the Culture Wars](https://stephenmcalpine.com/pleading-for-mercy-in-the-culture-wars/) - I remember the disturbing news report of the Taliban being overthrown in a region in Afghanistan that they had only recently taken themselves. After unloading on the general populace all of the fear and terror associated with the Taliban badge, they suddenly found themselves on the receiving end, as Afghani forces, combined with local militia tribesmen,
- [Safe Schools And Dangerous Flags](https://stephenmcalpine.com/safe-schools-and-dangerous-flags/) - Well it wasn't what Roz Ward said about sex that got her ostracised in the end, was it? It wasn't her perspective on that most degenerative of sexual positions - heteronormative thinking - that got her sidelined. It wasn't even her attempts to engineer the classroom so that 11 year olds are forced to write
- [Vengeance, God and The Federal Election](https://stephenmcalpine.com/vengeance-god-and-the-federal-election/) - Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. (2Timothy 4:14) The idea of a vengeful God seems like the vestige of a brutal religious past - a past that our secular culture is intent on burying. When Bart Simpson (in full God mode), goads the
- [Not Daring to Join Church vs Not Bothering To Join Church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/not-daring-to-join-church-vs-not-bothering/) - Hey church pastors/planters, would you rather that no one dared join your church in 2016, or that no one bothered to join your church in 2016? Now, I concede that many of us would prefer people to join our church community for the right reasons; conversions, starving sheep, seeing opportunities to serve etc, but what
- [Muslims Not Green When It Comes to Liberties](https://stephenmcalpine.com/muslims-not-green-when-it-comes-to-liberties/) - Well, in light of my recent blog post on The Greens and their desire to squeeze out space in Australia for alternate ethical communities it seems that the Muslim community gets what many Christians who pushed back on me don't get, or at least don't want to say they get in public. My stated concern was
- [Elijah Wood vs Hollywood](https://stephenmcalpine.com/elijah-wood-vs-hollywood/) - That most Hobbitty of actors, Elijah Wood, may never be invited to party in Hollywood again. But then again, he may never care to. And I'll bet he's glad his mum stopped him going to those parties when he was young, because some of the child actors who did have paid a huge price. Wood
- [When Community Is Not Quite Enough](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-community-is-not-quite-enough/) - Today's guest blogger Ben Good is a friend of mine who, along with his wife Sam and three young children, are living in southern Africa doing long term mission work. As a foreigner he has a great window into that community's culture, but when he comes home on furlough, he can see things about Australia, about
- [Christian Turkeys Voting For Christmas](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-turkeys-voting-for-christmas/) - A Christian in Australia voting for The Greens at the moment is a bit like the proverbial turkeys voting for Christmas (or Festivus or whatever we can call it these days). I say this in light of a report in The Australian newspaper today that with the federal election running tight, The Greens have pushed the
- [Love The City: Don't Seek to Be Loved By It](https://stephenmcalpine.com/love-the-city-dont-seek-to-be-loved-by-it/) - It's increasingly popular to quote Jeremiah 29 about seeking the welfare of our city. In these secular times to seek the welfare of the city is viewed as a strong apologetic for the Christian faith, a way of showing the city that the Christian community has the city's best interests at heart. Yet this comes with
- [It's Been One of Those Weeks...](https://stephenmcalpine.com/its-been-one-of-those-weeks/) - It's been one of those weeks. You know the type; two funerals of friends to speak at; three talks at a conference to speak at; a half-day evangelism presentation to host at; an interstate conference next week to attend (but not to speak at, thankfully). Oh, and school lunches, school runs, find some time for
- [Another Man From Church Died On The Weekend](https://stephenmcalpine.com/another-man-from-church-died-on-the-weekend/) - Two of the men we love at our church died on the weekend. The second was Dr Noel Vose, a man of great vision, godliness and passion. His death was news in churches across the world. A man who found YOU more interesting than he found himself. But another of our brothers died too, not
- [Vale Noel Vose: A Man of God and God's People](https://stephenmcalpine.com/vale-noel-vose-a-man-of-god-and-gods-people/) - Dr Godfrey Noel Vose has died. The former President of the Baptist World Alliance, founding principal of the Western Australian Baptist Theological College (now named Vose Seminary), church pastor, gifted orator and Bible teacher, died after a short illness following a fall in his home in the Eastern hills of Perth. He was 93. That's
- [Hey Christian: Roll Over, Play Dead,  Get a Biscuit](https://stephenmcalpine.com/hey-christian-roll-over-play-dead-get-a-biscuit/) - Once again the elite secular culture snapped its fingers and offered the Christians a biscuit. Once again the Christians rolled over like obedient little puppies and played dead. Well if not quite dead, then not alive, not vibrant, not worth turning the television over for, never mind throwing away everything and signing up your life
- [Restaurant Theology: Written On the Walls](https://stephenmcalpine.com/restaurant-theology-written-on-the-walls/) - The first thing we noticed when we sat down were the self-help pop psychology slogans festooning the walls. Jill and I decided to drive up the coast to pick up the kids after our anniversary weekend away and stop for a last breakfast at a boat harbour cafe called, ominously, the Over Bored Cafe. (Brought that on
- [Traditional Marriage Takes the Cake](https://stephenmcalpine.com/traditional-marriage-takes-the-cake/) - It's our twentieth wedding anniversary. Today. 20th April 1996-20th April 2016. And counting. That means this top tier of our wedding cake (stored annoyingly in our fridge for 20 years) is probably a little worse for wear, on the outside at least. A metaphor for our own less taut selves 2o years on. Less taut,
- [Male, White and Privileged? Use it Well.](https://stephenmcalpine.com/male-white-and-privileged-use-it-well/) - There's a loud and shrill call from many quarters, particular the Humanities Dept of just about every university in the Western world, that if you are middle class, male, white and privileged, it's time to shut up and let other voices be heard. It's not a particularly new perspective, as it was around when I
- [Just In Case You Are More Familiar with Acts 29 than You Are With Acts 28](https://stephenmcalpine.com/just-in-case-you-are-more-familiar-with-acts-29-than-you-are-with-acts-28/) - And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them
- [Two Articles For TGC and TGC-Oz](https://stephenmcalpine.com/two-articles-for-tgc-and-tgc-oz/) - A book review by me of Mark Sayers' Disappearing Church on the TGC site https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/book-reviews-disappearing-church A response by me to an article by Peter Ko on evangelism on the Australian TGC site http://australia.thegospelcoalition.org/article/is-evangelism-easy
- [Zootopia: The Beautiful Secular Landscape](https://stephenmcalpine.com/zootopia-the-beautiful-secular-landscape/) - If you ever had any lingering doubts that the cineplex was the new church, the movie the new sermon, and the popcorn and coke the new communion elements, then go watch Disney's latest offering, Zootopia, and dispel those doubts once and for all. Having gone as a family tonight to watch the movie, I walked
- [Public Conformity: Nothing Less](https://stephenmcalpine.com/public-conformity-nothing-less/) - 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so,our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.[d] 18 But if not, be
- [Christians: Not Always the Best Brain Surgeons](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christians-not-always-the-best-brain-surgeons/) - Christians don't always make the best brain surgeons. Given the choice of the surgeon with the steady faith, but the unsteady hand, or the hedonistic playboy surgeon with dead man's hands, it's, ahem, a no brainer. Christians don't always make the best brain surgeons. Or the best lawyers, the best politicians or the best anything really.
- [Jesus and the International Woman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-and-the-international-woman/) - This Sunday I am preaching on Mark 14, the lead up chapter to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. And I'll tell you what, a bigger bunch of cowards, murderers, brutes, deniers and betrayers you could not find in history. The chapter is replete with men who commit shameful acts or refuse to commit noble
- [Joyfully Getting Over Ourselves](https://stephenmcalpine.com/joyfully-getting-over-ourselves/) - Well one thing is for certain as I look around me in the Western world. Christians haven't yet resisted to the point of shedding their blood. Lots of ink perhaps. Even a few tears of impotent rage. But blood? We're a long way from that. Yet the way some are behaving in the current cultural
- [17 Square Feet of Battle-Scarred Turf](https://stephenmcalpine.com/17-square-feet-of-battle-scarred-turf/) - There's a funny, sobering scene in the final Rowan Atkinson Blackadder series, Blackadder goes Forth, set during World War One. Stephen Fry's General Melchett is discussing with resident nincompoop Lieutenant George (a fresh faced Hugh Laurie) the advances made by the British troops in the mud of France. The sacrifices have been huge, with many
- [Christian Exile: You Are Entitled to Nothing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/christian-exile-you-are-entitled-to-nothing/) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNaEEj7gCqM They say a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day. And a broken US President (albeit a fictional one) gets it right twice in ten seconds, even if for unworthy motives. Go on, watch it, I dare you. Listen to Frank Underwood's sombre words: "Let me be clear. You are entitled
- [Free Speech and God's Unchained Melody](https://stephenmcalpine.com/free-speech-and-gods-unchained-melody/) - 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in
- [The Thirty Year Old Virgin](https://stephenmcalpine.com/the-thirty-year-old-virgin/) - No, it's not the second instalment of the franchise which began in 2005 with the release of The Forty Year Old Virgin. Come to think of it, perhaps there's something there. By number four in the franchise (the year 2030 perhaps?) we might have the hilarious The Ten Year Old Virgin, especially if the disgraceful public sexualisation of
- [Our "No" Must have a Greater Yes](https://stephenmcalpine.com/our-no-must-have-a-greater-yes/) - It's no coincidence. Three people who I have either read, heard speak, or spoken to recently about same sex issues and the church, have all said the same thing: if the evangelical church is offering a thicker, richer expression of community to rival what is on offer "out there" as some sort of enticement, it's doing a
- [Rigid Orthodoxy, Army Intelligence, and Other Tautologies](https://stephenmcalpine.com/rigid-orthodoxy-army-intelligence-and-other-tautologies/) - Recently a person whose opinion I respect lamented my commitment to what she termed "rigid orthodoxy", the use of the word "rigid" being both a pejorative (who wants to be considered inflexible these days?); and a tautology, because calling orthodoxy "rigid" is like saying "one hundred per cent out of one hundred". Of course orthodoxy (right
- [Exiles: The New Jerusalem Trumps The Old](https://stephenmcalpine.com/exiles-the-new-jerusalemtrumps-the-old/) - When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. (Daniel 6:10) The danger many evangelicals
- [Safe Schools No Match For Safe Churches](https://stephenmcalpine.com/safe-schools-no-match-for-safe-churches/) - It would be ludicrous to imagine the Commonwealth Government handing out taxpayers' monies to fund Creationism in the national school curriculum, would it not? There would be an outcry from secularists, and rightly so. Hebrews 11:3 says it is "by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen
- [No Sanctuary from the Secular State](https://stephenmcalpine.com/no-sanctuary-from-the-secular-state/) - The statement today by Australian Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, that churches are not above the law, reveals two things. The first thing it reveals is obvious: The secular state won't allow religious sensibilities to get in the way of its goals. In case you missed it today, the High Court of Australia decided that the Government's
- [Gospel Vision or American Dream?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/gospel-vision-or-american-dream/) - Well some might consider it a bit rich for someone blogging at stephenmcalpine.com to question someone whose website is markdriscoll.org, but that's what the word chutzpah was invented for, so here goes... The recent news that Mark Driscoll is starting a church in Phoenix really does have a rising from the ashes flavour to it. And
- [When Someone Leaves your Church Plant](https://stephenmcalpine.com/when-someone-leaves-your-church-plant/) - Another worthwhile read for planters from Simon Elliott of The Big Table church plant in South Perth.
- [A Land of Sinless Wonders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/a-land-of-sinless-wonders/) - In the new Promised Land of post-religion offered to us by the secular liberal elites, we were promised a vision of the good life without sin, without condemnation; a life in the land in which all were free to be as they are, or who they wish to be, free from ridicule, scorn or stern corrections.
- [Holy Guacamole:Planting Churches is Like Planting Avocados](https://stephenmcalpine.com/holy-guacamoleplanting-churches-is-like-planting-avocados/) - Over the past decade in Perth more than a few souls have gone out on the gospel limb to plant churches. Some plants have closed down. Some have flourished. Some have struggled. Very few have planted out again. But some have. Simon Elliott, his wife Fi, and a core group of The Big Table, in
- [Australia Day: Beyond Jingoism or Self-Loathing](https://stephenmcalpine.com/australia-day-beyond-jingoism-or-self-loathing/) - So it's Australia Day. Who came up with that creative name, an engineer? Better, I suppose than Guam Day or Laos Day. But nowhere near as colourful as Seychelles Day (somehow gathering sea-shells by the sea-shore seems like something one would do on the national day of the Seychelles). Two defining, and I fear increasing, features of
- [Jesus, Food and Sex](https://stephenmcalpine.com/jesus-food-and-sex/) - In the incessant push by the culture to justify most (not all, yet) types of sexual behaviour in society, one of the primary methods employed has been to show the poverty of thought behind the orthodox Christian view of sex. One common method (if the recurring Facebook memes, blogs and articles in liberal journals are any
- [Why God Is Not a Transcendent Build-a-Bear](https://stephenmcalpine.com/why-god-is-not-a-transcendent-build-a-bear/) - Ever been to one of those Build-a-Bear parties with your children? Ever bought one of those bears online? You should check them out. They're a great idea for children to have a crack at making their own personalised teddy bear. And a great money-spinner for the company as long as their are children to be

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- [occult](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/occult/)
- [Living In Wonder](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/living-in-wonder/)
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- [tsunami](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/tsunami/)
- [sea of faith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/sea-of-faith/)
- [Al Mohler](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/al-mohler/)
- [Simon smart](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/simon-smart/)
- [CPX](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/cpx/)
- [centre for public christianity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/centre-for-public-christianity/)
- [the end of men?](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-end-of-men/)
- [gender](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/gender/)
- [woke right](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/woke-right/)
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- [Peter Thiel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/peter-thiel/)
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- [ducks](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ducks/)
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- [spiritual tsunami](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/spiritual-tsunami/)
- [tide of faith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/tide-of-faith/)
- [Justin brierley](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/justin-brierley/)
- [ross douthat](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ross-douthat/)
- [evangelism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/evangelism/)
- [ezekiel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ezekiel/)
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- [ministry leadership](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ministry-leadership/)
- [Paul Tripp](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/paul-tripp/)
- [substack](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/substack/)
- [David foster wallace](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/david-foster-wallace/)
- [fairness in religion in schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/fairness-in-religion-in-schools/)
- [special religious education](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/special-religious-education/)
- [sydney](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/sydney/)
- [dumb phone](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/dumb-phone/)
- [dumb church](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/dumb-church/)
- [Fairness In Religions In Schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/fairness-in-religions-in-schools/)
- [SRE](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/sre/)
- [Sectarianism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/sectarianism/)
- [Scripture in schools](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/scripture-in-schools/)
- [Alliance For Responsible Citizenship](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/alliance-for-responsible-citizenship/)
- [idols](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/idols/)
- [abuse](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/abuse/)
- [giles coren](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/giles-coren/)
- [lent](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/lent/)
- [atheism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/atheism/)
- [Jordan peterson](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/jordan-peterson/)
- [inventory](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/inventory/)
- [lightness and simplicity](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/lightness-and-simplicity/)
- [karl deenick](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/karl-deenick/)
- [Stephen mcalpine](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/stephen-mcalpine/)
- [ecce homo](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ecce-homo/)
- [caravaggio](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/caravaggio/)
- [behold the man](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/behold-the-man/)
- [Jesus Christ](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/jesus-christ/)
- [Pilate](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/pilate/)
- [Easter](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/easter/)
- [gene hackman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/gene-hackman/)
- [loneliness](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/loneliness/)
- [James Wood](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/james-wood/)
- [Romans 2](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/romans-2/)
- [Parking Ticket](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/parking-ticket/)
- [believe](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/believe/)
- [adolescence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/adolescence/)
- [Netflix](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/netflix/)
- [incels](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/incels/)
- [conversion therapy](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/conversion-therapy/)
- [abc](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/abc/)
- [puberty blockers](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/puberty-blockers/)
- [garden of gethsemane](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/garden-of-gethsemane/)
- [adam](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/adam/)
- [John calvin](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/john-calvin/)
- [genesis](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/genesis/)
- [the cross](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-cross/)
- [Calvin university](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/calvin-university/)
- [James ka smith](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/james-ka-smith/)
- [cultural liturgies](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/cultural-liturgies/)
- [pope francis](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/pope-francis/)
- [new pope](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/new-pope/)
- [dreyfus](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/dreyfus/)
- [election](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/election/)
- [christian education](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/christian-education/)
- [pass the parcel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/pass-the-parcel/)
- [quiet revival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/quiet-revival/)
- [deconstruction](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/deconstruction/)
- [hebrews 6](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/hebrews-6/)
- [revival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/revival/)
- [evangelical](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/evangelical/)
- [church leadership](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/church-leadership/)
- [australian liberal party](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/australian-liberal-party/)
- [mccrindle report](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/mccrindle-report/)
- [church attendance](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/church-attendance/)
- [conversion](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/conversion/)
- [first things](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/first-things/)
- [russ matthews](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/russ-matthews/)
- [reel marriage](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/reel-marriage/)
- [AI](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ai/)
- [hallucinations](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/hallucinations/)
- [saul](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/saul/)
- [no more gaps](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/no-more-gaps/)
- [josh buice](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/josh-buice/)
- [leadership gap](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/leadership-gap/)
- [pain](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/pain/)
- [cs lewis](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/cs-lewis/)
- [surprising rebirth](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/surprising-rebirth/)
- [boys](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/boys/)
- [men](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/men/)
- [the quiet revival](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-quiet-revival/)
- [genz](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/genz/)
- [gen z](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/gen-z/)
- [glen scrivener](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/glen-scrivener/)
- [Joe biden](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/joe-biden/)
- [church leaders](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/church-leaders/)
- [narcissist](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/narcissist/)
- [white house](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/white-house/)
- [NT Wright](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/nt-wright/)
- [Resurrection](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/resurrection/)
- [abortion](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/abortion/)
- [war](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/war/)
- [china](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/china/)
- [Matthew 24](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/matthew-24/)
- [spells](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/spells/)
- [New York times](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/new-york-times/)
- [nhs](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/nhs/)
- [assisted suicide](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/assisted-suicide/)
- [partial birth](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/partial-birth/)
- [UK Parliament](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/uk-parliament/)
- [obergefell](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/obergefell/)
- [Andrew sullivan](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/andrew-sullivan/)
- [same sex marriage](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/same-sex-marriage/)
- [radicalization](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/radicalization/)
- [architecture](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/architecture/)
- [aesthetics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/aesthetics/)
- [karen swallow prior](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/karen-swallow-prior/)
- [utzon](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/utzon/)
- [protestantism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/protestantism/)
- [iconoclasm](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/iconoclasm/)
- [welby](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/welby/)
- [same sex relationships](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/same-sex-relationships/)
- [beef welllington](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/beef-welllington/)
- [Erin patterson](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/erin-patterson/)
- [lindy chamberlain](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/lindy-chamberlain/)
- [dingoes](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/dingoes/)
- [mushrooms](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/mushrooms/)
- [coldplay](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/coldplay/)
- [kiss cam](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/kiss-cam/)
- [adultery](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/adultery/)
- [Luke 7](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/luke-7/)
- [Luke 8](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/luke-8/)
- [CEO](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ceo/)
- [concert](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/concert/)
- [apologetics](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/apologetics/)
- [confirmation bias](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/confirmation-bias/)
- [MAID](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/maid/)
- [euthanasia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/euthanasia/)
- [Andrew Denton](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/andrew-denton/)
- [Canada](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/canada/)
- [tom holland](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/tom-holland/)
- [Bible Society](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/bible-society/)
- [flags](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/flags/)
- [march for australia](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/march-for-australia/)
- [brierley](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/brierley/)
- [wes huff](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/wes-huff/)
- [Joe rogan](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/joe-rogan/)
- [elijah](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/elijah/)
- [Charlie Kirk](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/charlie-kirk/)
- [death](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/death/)
- [Oxford Union](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/oxford-union/)
- [wedding](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/wedding/)
- [daughter](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/daughter/)
- [upside down people](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/upside-down-people/)
- [cross](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/cross/)
- [unconscious incompetence](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/unconscious-incompetence/)
- [unherd](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/unherd/)
- [Jacinta allen](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/jacinta-allen/)
- [trans](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/trans/)
- [france](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/france/)
- [Houellebecq](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/houellebecq/)
- [the new birth](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-new-birth/)
- [conversion theology](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/conversion-theology/)
- [Kanishka raffel](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/kanishka-raffel/)
- [schism](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/schism/)
- [NSW baptists](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/nsw-baptists/)
- [affirming churches](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/affirming-churches/)
- [christian union](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/christian-union/)
- [Ayaan hirsi ali](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/ayaan-hirsi-ali/)
- [Christian unions](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/christian-unions/)
- [University of Illinois](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/university-of-illinois/)
- [Cornerstone Church Iowa](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/cornerstone-church-iowa/)
- [father of bride](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/father-of-bride/)
- [bride of christ](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/bride-of-christ/)
- [young men](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/young-men/)
- [Jerusalem](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/jerusalem/)
- [Bondi](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/bondi/)
- [TEAR fund](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/tear-fund/)
- [dru johnson](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/dru-johnson/)
- [greg sheridan](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/greg-sheridan/)
- [Stephen driscoll](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/stephen-driscoll/)
- [Nijay Gupta](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/nijay-gupta/)
- [bondi beach](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/bondi-beach/)
- [running](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/running/)
- [psalm 119](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/psalm-119/)
- [my soul clings to the dust](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/my-soul-clings-to-the-dust/)
- [strava](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/strava/)
- [Jelly Roll](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/jelly-roll/)
- [Grammys Billie Eilish](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/grammys-billie-eilish/)
- [hymns](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/hymns/)
- [praise him](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/praise-him/)
- [trevin wax](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/trevin-wax/)
- [the gospel coalition](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-gospel-coalition/)
- [Assisted dying](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/assisted-dying/)
- [guy sebastian](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/guy-sebastian/)
- [australian idol](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/australian-idol/)
- [prayer](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/prayer/)
- [bad shepherd](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/bad-shepherd/)
- [toxic leadership](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/toxic-leadership/)
- [sport](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/sport/)
- [anzac](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/anzac/)
- [boo](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/boo/)
- [welcome to country](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/welcome-to-country/)
- [desecration](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/desecration/)
- [carl trueman](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/carl-trueman/)
- [Evan barker](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/evan-barker/)
- [the bubble](https://stephenmcalpine.com/tag/the-bubble/)