Around the year 1748 Czar Nicolai of Russia built a fortress on the island of Suomen Linna in the Baltic Sea. It was built to mark and guard his new territory, the country we now call Finland, which he had gained from Sweden. In the middle of that sea-fortress is a Lutheran Church, and one … Continue reading War Zone 2019
It’s Christmas. Of course, we don’t have to be reminded of that, the evidence for the season is all around us, at least in terms of parties, holidays, presents, open-all-hours shopping, family gatherings etc. For many, even the majority, those are the things Christmas is about. But is it? For those of us who still … Continue reading All I Need for Christmas is a Telescope – The Right Way Round
This Christmas Time the World is Dark. Dark powers rend society’s fabric, destroying what binds, like termites in the base, so the centre does not hold. Leaching Gospel glue, Darkness descending, cloying minds. Ignorance of the Divine schema allows decay and degradation rules. Stealing children’s childhood and adults’ minds. ‘Grown ups’ in school, lecture hall … Continue reading The Encouraging Light
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’. Luke 2:14 (NIV) This is one of the most well known, loved and quoted verses in the Bible, especially at this time of year. However, it is often misquoted (particularly by the media) by leaving out the … Continue reading A Different Kind of Peace
For some years I worked overseas as an engineer in a very different cultural environment to the one I was brought up in and trained in. There were a few of us expatriates but most of my colleagues were locals and as time went by, I started to notice an interesting difference between the two … Continue reading Releasing Technocrats to Missionaries Be!
It’s coming up that time of year again. But what time exactly? There are many ways people will answer this question (even if subconsciously) – ‘Holiday-mas, Party-mas, Goodtime-mas, Excess-mas, Family-mas, Spend-mas’ and of course the less preferred (but very real for some) ‘Stress-mas’. Which one (or ones) do we relate most to? These are increasingly … Continue reading It’s the (Insert preference here) Season
From time to time I have written about some of what I call the 'Straws' blowing in the winds that are rapidly changing Australian culture. Such ‘Straws’ are indicators of the increasing de-Christianisation of society, paralleled by a rising rejection of, and hostility to, the Church and Christians in general in every aspect of public … Continue reading More ‘Straws Blowing In The Wind’- Or Is It A Gale?
This post is substantially the same as an article I wrote several years ago but I think has even more relevance now. Especially so as we draw near to Christmas when there will be a lot of ‘lights’ festooning houses, buildings, streetscapes and Christmas trees. However, increasingly, rather than symbolizing the Light of Christ “which … Continue reading ‘The Forgetting of Light’
I have always admired the Missionaries of previous centuries, for example those who took Christianity to the native tribes of Africa in the 19th Century, particularly the Scottish missionary David Livingstone. A major aspect of the challenge faced by Livingstone and others was the need to penetrate a threatening landscape, often jungles full of threats … Continue reading Without More Missionaries We Will Lose
‘Unbounded Church’ is an idea-the idea that the Australian church, if it is to resurrect its mission, needs to be ‘unbound’. That is, it needs to be set free from its current rigid, cumbersome and change-averse ‘Christendom’ influenced forms, structures and mission strategies in order to be – ‘A church as we haven’t known … Continue reading Unbounded Church Gathering 2018
