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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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? 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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
