A scary, prayer-rie verse

Up front

|

For the last few months, I’ve been catching up weekly with my friend Alex. We meet to pray and read the Bible together, and, like a plague of two Egyptian locusts, to raid the contents of my fridge or the local takeaway (depending where we meet) for something resembling lunch. (more…)

The last refuge of irony

Up front, Sola Panel

|

They say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Or is it satire?

Whichever it is, I know it’s not irony. Irony has a much better reputation. It’s the Honda Accord Euro of wit: classy, effective, understated. Things ‘drip’ with irony, like honey from the comb, or blood from a wound. But the strangest and most delicious aspect of irony is that it is usually invisible to the very person speaking the words. When Caiaphas says that it would be better that one man should die for the people, rather than the whole nation perish, he does not realize the bittersweet truth he is uttering, although we readers do. (more…)

Nowism

Up front, Sola Panel

|

There is an insidious and dangerous teaching that I’ve noticed creeping into my church, threatening my Christian hope, and stifling my evangelistic effectiveness. Up to this point, it hasn’t had a catchy title.1 But I want to correct that. I’m going to call this teaching ‘nowism’, from the English word ‘now’, meaning ‘the present age’. (more…)

Virtues we dislike: mortification

Up front, Sola Panel

|

The story of the Bible can be summarized in two words: death and resurrection. Ultimately, the story of the Bible is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the core of the story we call the ‘gospel’. But this basic story also finds its expression in many different and complementary ways throughout the Scriptures. To take just a few examples:
(more…)

Anglican family

|

You can’t split a marshmallow. You can melt it—you can even cut it—but marshmallows are too malleable to be split. Something has to be brittle to split. (more…)

Moving beyond the shock absorber: The place of youth ministry—past, present and future

|

Introduction

Western societies like Australia are living through times of rapid change. Revolutions in technology create new ways of living that in turn create new ways of thinking. Young people grow up in environments very different from their parents, and so often develop different values. This makes the passing on of biblical values from one generation to the next difficult. The technologies that shape our lives give us amazing freedom of choice, and relative independence. But this is creating a growing, transient, consumer-driven individualism in our societies.

(more…)

Reaching Muslims for Christ

|

With so many Muslims living right here in our own backyards, how can we reach them with the saving gospel of Christ? Stewart Binns offers are few ideas.

There are many situations in which you can encounter Muslims: they could be work colleagues, neighbours, strangers in the supermarket or diners at your local restaurant. The more strict Muslim women are easy to spot because of their head coverings; detecting the men may require a little more skill. It is easy when the men are with their wives, when they’re visiting a particular area (e.g. halal food shops) or when their language gives them away. (more…)

Self-immolation in ministry

| | 4 comments

Gordon’s stirring and encouraging piece on Spurgeon finished with a typically Chengian twist of the knife: do we work hard enough these days in ministry? Has the pendulum swung too far towards stress-relief and self-maintenance? Do we worry too much about ‘overdoing it’, and thus fail to take up opportunities that come to hand?

(more…)

Okay kids, in how many persons does God exist?

| | 7 comments

One of the reasons I so much like Colin Buchanan’s kid’s music is that he clearly agrees with me that no-one is ever too young to grasp the doctrine of the Trinity. My oldest daughter, now nine, is a bit past Colin these days, but my five-year-old and seven-year-old love listening to him. So the other day when our eldest was sick at home, I had the other two in the car and put on Colin’s Follow the Saviour. Track 15 says:

(more…)