Reconciliation is a hot topic. It always has been and it always will be. In the first century AD, Paul wrote about reconciling Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:11-22). In the 20th-century, the nation of South Africa created the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ to deal with the atrocities of apartheid. The Australian Government is only now ‘reconciling’ with the indigenous population.
Category Archives: Sola-Panel
An interview with Tony Payne
Physical resurrection
At Easter, like many Christian pastors, I had the privilege of preaching the resurrection. I stated that Christianity was pointless without the true, historical, physical, bodily resurrection of Christ (download the mp3 of the sermon). Basing these comments on 1 Corinthians 15, I pointed out that Paul took great care to outline the early conviction that Christ had died, was buried, rose again and appeared to many witnesses—many of whom were still then alive for cross-examination 20-25 years later.
Can Western Christians even think ethically any more?
To escape from drowning, you have to swim in what you are swallowing. Churches in the West are drowning in Western values, drinking deeply without being able to swim in the muck they are drinking, let alone being able to escape.
Comment moderation and other housekeeping
Sharp-eyed Sola Panel readers will have noticed that the evil spam monster has, just once or twice, crept through our defences and left us inadvertently advertising the latest—well, less sharp eyed readers don’t need to know. We’ve also had a rash of posts (from just a couple of people) that we had to delete, according to our ‘be godly’ and ‘stay on topic’ guidelines.
Why we must be seeker sensitive
The phrase ‘seeker sensitive’ has dropped out of fashion recently. For those who haven’t heard the phrase, the idea of a ‘seeker sensitive service’ is a church gathering that focusses on the desires and needs of ‘spiritual seekers’—non-Christians with a thirst for knowing more about God. It aims to do everything possible to make it easy for them to come to church and enjoy the experience so that they come back and learn about God. Yet the Willow Creek Association, for example, once a champion of the ‘seeker sensitive’ model of church, has recently had a major rethink of some of its key values. In their book Reveal: Where Are You? by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson, they speak frankly about the failures of an approach that was too heavily oriented towards growth in numbers rather than growth in maturity.
Is it possible for Western individualists to even think ethically any more?
If generalizations are permitted, western individualists, ethically speaking, are ethical egoists. That is, their morality is simply self-serving. They behave to help themselves. That is a version of what the Bible calls ‘sin’.
Underworld resurrected
One of the job hazards associated with working as an editor is that you sometimes have to read things faster than you would like to in order to make a quick and dirty assessment of it. Peter Bolt’s Living with the Underworld (Matthias Media, Sydney, 2007) suffered this treatment recently when, as a matter of conscience, I flicked through it at a great rate of knots to determine whether or not I could recommend it to people who asked about it.
Is it possible for Western liberal journalists to even think ethically any more?
As the new Australian Federal Government, freshly painted in Labor colours, busily abolished a whole range of laws and practices deemed discriminatory to homosexuals, the issue of gay marriage was never on the table. High quality ethical argument may be rare amongst western journalists, but two of the worst responses I heard made me shake my head.
Sola Scriptura
The same thing or the new thing
I once was sitting with the inestimable David Jackman in an airport, which is where we often seem to meet, and asked him what the big challenges were looking ahead for The Proclamation Trust. He paused a moment and then said in his characteristically gentle and mellifluous tone, “You know, I think it’s to keep on doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the past 15 years”.
Glad I’m a Calvinist!
I got the date wrong for the inaugural planning meet for this new Matthias Media blog.
It was my own silly fault. Tony had booked two successive Wednesdays in our diaries until all participants could confirm which of these dates was preferred (the latter, as it turned out). I forgot to remove the spare date one week earlier. Then when I got his reminder to see you ‘next Wednesday’, it was the old chestnut of whether next Wednesday means this Wednesday, or the one in the following week. I saw the date for this Wednesday and hopped in the car seven days early!
A Luddite revolution?
It occurred to me recently that we may need a Luddite revolution in our attitude towards ministry.
Now, if you know who the Luddites were, you’ve probably already picked up an irony in the fact that I’m blogging about the need to become Christian Luddites. The Luddites were basically a group of tradies in 19th-century England. They saw the threat posed by the spread of industrial technology, and protested against it—even sabotaging local wool and cotton mills.
Conflict resolution
Matthew 18:15-20 is such a helpful passage when you feel someone has sinned against you. It encourages you to talk to them in private to point out the sin or offence. (Maturity now makes me realize that when you do this, there’s the possibility of hearing another side to the story, which makes you reconsider too.) Then, if there’s no repentance, you involve a couple of elder-type Christians. Only in the face of continued defiance would it finally become a public matter for discipline in the church.
Do you believe in the power of prayer?
During the past 25 years, numerous medical studies have been conducted to try to measure whether prayer has any beneficial effects on patient recovery. The experiments usually involve two randomly assigned groups of patients, and a group of ‘pray-ers’. The ‘pray-ers’ are asked to pray for the recovery of one group of patients, but not for the other. Neither staff nor patients are told whether they are being prayed for, so that any effects are attributed to the power of prayer, rather than the power of suggestion.