Tag Archives: Featured full-text
Ministry and pornography: some practical help
Everyday Ministry
As Tony Payne mentioned in his ‘Couldn’t Help Noticing’ column, the Australia Institute has published a report—Youth and Pornography in Australia—the first survey of Australian teenagers’ exposure to pornography on the internet. It shows that 84 per cent of boys and 60 per cent of girls aged 16 and 17 have stumbled onto sex sites on the internet. In addition, 38 per cent of boys and 2 per cent of girls say they have sought out sex sites. For boys, 73 per cent report that they have watched X-rated videos, with 20 per cent accessing these monthly. 11 per cent of girls have watched an X-rated video.
The servant’s paradox: Part III
Life
Here’s one more paradox for those living to serve Christ and to grow his kingdom. It’s one which has been taxing my mind, because it goes to the heart of what Christians believe. We live in the time that gets called ‘the now and not yet’—the period of history after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, but before the revelation of his lordship to the entire universe. It’s an in-between time, so we have the blessings and securities of the eternal age, and yet we don’t see them all, experience them all, know them entirely or enjoy them fully.
The servant’s paradox: Part I
Life
A paradox is where two things seem to be opposite, but you know they are both true. It’s a tension, a contradiction, an antimony (according to my thesaurus), a mystery. It’s the fact that too many cooks spoil the broth, but at the same time, many hands make light work. It’s the truth that he who hesitates is lost, but only a fool wouldn’t look before he leaps.
Godly grief
Life
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Cor 7:10)
Two kings
Opening and closing the door on grief
Life
‘He descended into hell’
Thought
One thing that has puzzled me ever since I went to church as a teenager was the line I used to say in the Apostle’s Creed: “He descended into hell”. When I said this, my mind was filled with all sorts of fantastic images of Jesus plummeting through the earth on Easter Saturday to a place where the devil lived and where the fire burned continually. I didn’t really know what it meant, but I was happy to say it, because, after all, it was in the creed that the apostles had written, right?
Whatever happened to sacrifice?
Life
Not within cloistered walls,
Not in the peaceful glade,
Not in the sheltered home
‘Neath the trees’ spreading shade.
But on the mountain side,
Wind swept;
Crossing the desert bare,
Sun scorched;
Braving the torrent stream.
Flooded;
Out on the battlefield,
Bloody;
Unsheathed His sword.
Here I find my Lord.
Ten tips for frustrated servants
Life
One of the most common experiences in the life of Christian service is not love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, or any other fruit of the Spirit; it’s frustration. Sometimes this arises from ungodliness in the servant; sometimes it is a genuine response to a situation that makes you feel like crying out, “God, what are you doing here?”
Another church on Mayfair
Pastoral Ministry
Name: Richard Coekin
Family: Married to Siân; four children, Charlotte (9), Rupert (7), Rhian (5), Johnny (3).
Ministry background: Trained at Moore College, Sydney, and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford; four years at St Mary’s, Manchester; appointed pastor of Dundonald Church, Wimbledon, in 1995, and has served as that church’s first full-time minister since it was planted in 1990.
Why I hate pornography
Life
I hate pornography!
I hate it for all the sorts of reasons that you might have guessed. I hate the exploitation of women and the cheapening of sexuality. I hate the cheap label it places on love. I hate it because I love women—I have a mum and a sister; I have dear female friends and sisters in Christ; and if I can one day convince someone to marry an old sinner like me (25, single, good-looking, likes walking and romantic dinners), I will have a wife.
The blessing of infertility
Life
I’m surprised that in this world of political correctness, the word ‘infertility’ still exists. I would have thought by now that my wife and I would have been classed among the ‘reproductively challenged’, or some other ghastly term. ‘Infertility’ is certainly a word we have both come to know and accept over the last three years—more as an embarrassing out-of-town relative than as a dearly loved member of the family.
Do you believe in hell?
Thought
The Hard Ask: Blaming evil on society
Everyday Ministry
My friends think that people are fundamentally good and that society is to blame for evil. What can I say to them?
The First Duty of Fatherhood
Life
Australian feminist Eva Cox says any mother who isn’t back in the workforce after her child turns one is a bludger. Why this growing attack on motherhood? Andrew Lansdown thinks that the changing role of the father has something to do with it.