Letting the Bible be what it is, not what we would like it to be
June 9th, 2018
Believing the Bible is what it appears to be rather than what we may want it to be solves a lot of problems.
How a deep and growing divide is killing Protestant christianity – or maybe renewing it!
May 30th, 2018
Right from the earliest days, there have always been disagreements within the christian community. Some are resolved, but some lead to major splits, new denominations or new doctrinal positions. I have the feeling that a major, and probably irreversible, divergence is brewing in the western Protestant church, between those we may label “evangelical” and those […]
Doctrine that divides
May 8th, 2018
Did Jesus mean it to come to this? Doctrine. For some people it is a delicious word, their bread and butter. For others it is a word they wish to avoid because they think it is responsible for many an unnecessary argument. I think I’ve changed position on it during my life. So I think […]
Who's the boss? Leadership in the christian church
April 25th, 2018
Did Jesus mean it to come to this? You can read a lot about leadership, whether in companies and in the church. You can attend conferences, read books, check out websites about leadership. You can find lists of the essential characteristics of good leadership. But what does Jesus say about leadership? How does it fit […]
Mission vs maintenance
April 6th, 2018
Did Jesus mean it to come to this? How much does modern western christianity come from Jesus, and how much comes from somewhere else? A few weeks back I introduced the theme of Did Jesus mean it to come to this?, in which I want to examine the modern western church, and muse on how […]
Grasstree Gathering: surely it's time for recognition, unity and respect?
March 22nd, 2018
Grasstree Gathering Australia’s indigenous peoples form a small minority (2.8%) in the country they once had to themselves, and have suffered significantly since white colonisation (which can reasonably be seen as an invasion). About three quarters identify as christian. They tend to be a spiritual people, but it can be difficult for them to meet […]
Did Jesus mean it to come to this?
March 14th, 2018
More than two billion people in the world today identify as followers of Jesus. This includes a fair percentage of inhabitants of the USA, currently the world’s most powerful nation, its most influential via film, TV, social media and popular music, and home of some of the world’s richest people. My country, Australia, still has […]
Jesus the social and religious radical – 5 lessons from a dishonourable encounter
February 25th, 2018
The facts about Jesus are clearly stated in the gospels, and they don’t change, but people have so many different understandings of him. The Catholic Jesus or Orthodox Jesus is not the same as the evangelical Protestant Jesus, or the Jesus of liberal Protestant theologians. I think there is probably some truth in all portraits, […]
Patriarchy, headship and equality
February 12th, 2018
It hasn’t always been comfortable being a man during these #metoo days. Men we might have thought could be trusted have been accused, and often admitted to, all manner of unacceptable, sexually predatory and abusive behaviour, mostly against women. For me, it became most pointed when this last weekend I read a long article in […]
Six things we might learn if we understood the mission of Jesus
February 5th, 2018
A couple of weeks back I reviewed Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, a book I have found revelatory about Jesus. I have gained many helpful insights from it. Today, some new understandings about one of my favourite gospel accounts – Jesus in the synagogue at the start of his ministry, when he made […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.