Tag: Change the church

After Christendom
(October 10, 2012)

I am looking at some of the core convictions of the Anabaptists, not because I am an Anabaptist, but because I think we learn from them. Today: the relationship of the church and the world.

Change – coming ready or not!?
(September 24, 2012)

Christians disagree, and sometimes argue, about many things. Current hot topics include: homosexuality, divorce, hell, evolution and Genesis, the place of women in the church, Biblical inerrancy, war, climate change, and the importance of ‘good works’ like social justice and social welfare. Some christians get very worried about the failure of many of their fellow […]

Interpreting the Bible through Jesus
(September 16, 2012)

I am looking at some of the core convictions of the Anabaptists, not because I am an Anabaptist, but because I think we learn from them. We have seen that they emphasise following Jesus, not just believing in him or worshiping him. What does this mean for how we read the Bible?

Following Jesus
(September 10, 2012)

Jesus is arguably the most influential person who ever lived. But what is his influence? How should we understand him, and how should we respond to him? I think the Anabaptists have something worthwhile to tell us here. (See my previous post on the Anabaptists.)

The way we treat deserters
(August 29, 2012)

“You can tell a lot about a place by the way they treat their own …. The way they treat their own deserters.” David Bridie, ‘The Deserters’ Statistics (see below) show that a significant number of people, active church members and apparently believers, are leaving their churches and in many cases leaving the faith. In […]

The Naked Anabaptist
(August 26, 2012)

The Anabaptist are a often forgotten part of the christian church. We know about the split which separated the eastern Orthodox churches from the Roman church. In the west we are more familiar with the Reformation, where the Protestant churches split from the Roman Catholic church. But there was a third group in the Reformation, […]

Christianity and respectability
(August 9, 2012)

LLM posted an interesting quote from Tim Keller in her blog, Enough Light. Here is a part of it: “in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life. In every […]

Just because you know something doesn't mean you have to say it!
(August 6, 2012)

Mike has questioned the point of my last post (Christians and Chick-fil-a), about when and how christians should speak out in the public arena, and when and how we shouldn’t. So I thought I would clarify in a new post.

Christians and Chick-fil-a
(August 4, 2012)

Chick-fil-a is apparently a chain of about 1600 chicken fast food stores in the US. Being an Aussie, I wouldn’t know. But apparently the chain has been in the news recently because of an allegedly anti-gay stance, mainly, as far as I can tell, seen through large donations to christian anti-gay causes. Recently protests by […]

Westboro, love and hate
(July 23, 2012)

I read a news report today, in the wake of the horrifying cinema shootings in Denver, about statements made by members of the Westboro Baptist church. I don’t live in the US, so I don’t know a lot about this church, but the statements were hateful and insensitive to those mourning the trauma and loss […]