Faith. Rebuilt
Preaching is one of the mainstays of Protestant christianity (though not so important in Catholic and Orthodox churches). Bible colleges teach how to do it, websites tell us how important it is, and those considered good preachers can become celebrities. Yet the words “sermon” and “preaching” have negative connotations to many people, jokes about sermons […]
This community-based social enterprise has something to teach christians. There are many Wild Rumpus organisations in the world, but this post is about Wild Rumpus in Wollongong, Australia.
Why young christians drop out, and what we might do to help them keep believing.
“All the people we used to know They’re an illusion to me now Some are mathematicians Some are carpenters’ wives Don’t know how it all got started I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives But me, I’m still on the road” Bob Dylan: Tangled up in blue I’ve been attending our very middle […]
Do you ever lose hope, perhaps just for a moment? There are plenty of things we may feel hopeless about – ourselves or our circumstances, the world, politics. One of the things I often lose hope about is the church – it just seems to be drifting, a long way from the teachings of Jesus, […]
North Haven on the NSW mid-north coast, from the top of Big Brother mountain. The reason for showing this photo will become apparent in the post. Photo (c) John Naylor and Google. Christians hold three different views on who gains acceptance with God. I have looked at what the Bible says in detail at Can […]
What part do social justice and community welfare play in the church’s mission? Are they something different to the gospel, and not as important, or are they part of the gospel? There are several very different views on this.
It seems to be a paradoxical fact that there are so many more people around in big cities, and yet people are lonelier. The crowds tend to isolate us rather than force us together. Smaller communities generally have a greater sense of, well, community. Yet some people are trying new ways to break this down.
Difficult issues series On the first Counting Crows album, Adam Duritz sang about Maria, who said she was “close to understanding Jesus”. But I can’t help feeling that modern western christianity has covered Jesus in layers of theology and convenience, and is close to misunderstanding Jesus. If you think that’s harsh, please read on.
In the west we generally live in post-christian societies. Although the majority of people in many countries may list their religion as “christian”, weekly church attendance is down around 5-15% in many countries, and somewhere around 30% in the US. It seems that in many cases, churches haven’t really adjusted to the end of Christendom […]