Peace and non-violence
(December 17, 2012)Completing my examination of things we can all learn from the Anabaptists, with the core conviction on peace and non-violence.
Tag: Change the church
Spirituality, justice and money
(December 12, 2012)Another core Anabaptist conviction to challenge us all.
Are we known for grace or judgment?
(December 5, 2012)Jesus told a very striking story. You probably know it. A man owed a large amount of money but couldn’t pay, so he asked his banker for extra time to make the repayment. And he was given time. But then he called in a small debt he was owed, and refused the poor man’s entreaties […]
I'm a published author!
(November 29, 2012)Or, to be more accurate, I soon will be. It is a phenomenon reported by pollster George Barna, observed by many of us and experienced by some – feeling dissatisfied with church. Not just complaining that something isn’t perfectly the way we like it, or disliking the people, but feeling deeply alienated from the church […]
How many christian denominations worldwide?
(November 23, 2012)Many people read this post and then misquote it. They actually ignore the data. Many people quote the statistic that there are more than 30,000 christian denominations. It turns out this is mistaken. There are about 40,000 christian church organisations, three quarters of them independent churches, not denominations, in Africa. The number of denominations is […]
'Church' in the New Testament
(November 20, 2012)We are all familiar with several contemporary meanings of the word “church” – a building, a Sunday event, a group of people or a denomination. But what did it mean in the New Testament? The Greek word “ekklesia” is often translated “church”, but what did it mean?
Obama, ethics and the Christian Right
(November 7, 2012)So Obama has won, more convincingly than many expected. Many christians will be worried by this, yet there seems to be a number of christians taking a different line.
Learning from Ethiopian kids and their tablets
(November 2, 2012)One Laptop Per Child is a US-based charity which is seeking to create affordable educational devices for use in the developing world. Due to the difficulty in providing and funding teachers in some locations, it has tried the innovative, perhaps crazy, idea of leaving laptop or tablet computers with kids without any instructions. Outcomes have […]
Community & discipleship
(October 27, 2012)Another emphasis and core conviction of the Anabaptists that I believe we can all learn from ….
Forecast: mud and fog ahead
(October 17, 2012)I’ve been a Bob Dylan fan since 1963, when he was often described as a “protest singer”. But after only a few albums of “protest music”, he turned his back on it all, and wrote a song with the refrain: “Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Sometimes I […]