December 3rd, 2011
The Australian Labor Party, which forms the present Australian Government, is having its national conference, where policy ideas are discussed and decided. This year, one of the “hot” topics for discussion is gay marriage. (Technically, I think the proposal is a change to the Marriage Act, which currently specifies marriage is between a man and […]
November 30th, 2011
A recent survey in Australia identified common barriers that made it more difficult for people to believe in Jesus or attend church. I think it is important that we christians consider these barriers, and do what we can to remove them. I have addressed one, Church abuse, and now I want to look at exclusivity.
November 25th, 2011
Leadership is an important matter for christians. A fundamental aspect of being a christian is meeting with other believers in churches and other groupings. How these groups are led – that is, make decisions, form attitudes, gain knowledge and encourage each other – will have an enormous impact on our success in carrying out the […]
November 22nd, 2011
In Barriers to belief I reported that the biggest barrier to non-believers was the many much-publicised cases of sexual abuse within the church. How should christians respond to this?
November 21st, 2011
A short time ago, I posted on poverty and the growing world population (Christians and world poverty), and about the challenge of deciding how to respond (How much to save the world’s poor?). Let’s start with something small which most of us can do this week, or this year.
November 16th, 2011
Unlike America, christianity has never been very strong in Australia. Something like 70% believe in a god, and about 50% identify with a religion (40% christian, 10% other), but only around 10% attend church regularly. Most Aussies are not very interested in church. (This is perhaps understandable, with many good options available on Sundays: sport, […]
November 10th, 2011
I’m currently reading Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard, and I found this quote: “Prayer is God’s arrangement for a safe power sharing with us in his intention to bless the world through us.” I like this, because it touches on a number of important things.
November 6th, 2011
It was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney today. I went for a drive in the country and visited the Berry markets. (For those unfamiliar, these aren’t fruit markets. Berry is a former dairy farming town 2 hours south of Sydney, which has reinvented itself as an art and craft town. Once a month, they […]
November 5th, 2011
Last post I raised concerns about world poverty in the light of the world’s population reaching 7 billion people. But how big is the need, and how much would it take to bring some relief for those who most desperately need it?
October 30th, 2011
Those of us who are christians in the western world are currently facing one of the biggest ethical challenges we have ever faced. Consider the following population graph – the world’s 7 billionth person is about to be born.
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.