Recently on my South Korean holiday, I was staying at my in-laws place in the small country town where they live, and my wife and I were rummaging through her collection of Christian books. Most of the ones she seemed to really appreciate (and swore by as being helpful in her own journey with God) [...]
Archive for the ‘Church’ Category
A Different Christianity
Posted in Church on 13 January, 2012 (Friday) | Leave a Comment »
Emotions conference bereft of deeper stuff
Posted in Church, Feelings/Affect on 2 October, 2011 (Sunday) | Leave a Comment »
A fortnight ago, there was a conference at Moore College on the issue of emotions. However, as one writer has noted in a commentary on the day, there was much more that could have been said on the issue. I agree with everything that she said, particularly the conclusion: Simply trying to think differently about … mal-adaptive [...]
Spew your grief out to God
Posted in Church, Grief, Lamentation and Woe on 17 September, 2011 (Saturday) | 2 Comments »
When my mother died, a friend took me to Psalm 77 and eventually I discovered Ps. 88. They were passages that validated my own grief, and gave me prayer templates that I could spew forth my grief to God. In the book ‘He Began With Moses’, a 20 page chapter is devoted to the topic [...]
Moore College conference on feelings- Day 2
Posted in Church, Healing and Restoration, Inspiriation, Preaching (Homiletics), Quotes, Spurgeon, Suffering on 15 September, 2011 (Thursday) | Leave a Comment »
The affections of Christ exist because of the existence of His afflictions This is one of the constant refrains throughout the ‘True Feelings’ conference yesterday and today at Moore College. The second today was brilliant; in many ways I enjoyed it more than the first. The line-up included a talk on using emotions in pastoral [...]
Moore College conference on feelings- Day 1
Posted in Church, Inspiriation, Quotes, Spurgeon on 14 September, 2011 (Wednesday) | 2 Comments »
Today at Moore Theological College, I attended the first day of the conference on emotions and feelings. The itinerary involved a sermon on Philippians 1:1-11 (focused on v. 8 and the affection of Paul, as preached by Richard Gibson); cultural overview of emotions by Andrew Cameron; Affections of Christ by Gibson; the Puritans and Affections [...]
John Piper in Australia
Posted in Church on 6 September, 2011 (Tuesday) | Leave a Comment »
When Piper came to Australia, he made a couple of videos while he was here: – You’ve Never Felt More Alive – Reflections From Aus Enjoy
Ecclesiastical statistics
Posted in Church on 4 September, 2011 (Sunday) | 1 Comment »
It’s a mouthful to say and makes a terrific tongue-twister, but a summary of a temptation nonetheless for many in Sydney Anglican, and any Christian circles. This is exemplified in an article on church growth by author Tony Payne, named ‘Why Aren’t We Growing?’ which is seeking to answer a concern about a perceived lack of [...]
Looking for “innovative” churches
Posted in Church on 20 August, 2011 (Saturday) | Leave a Comment »
Now that the Australian nation has completed its census, now Australian churches are being called onto complete the National Church Life Survey. Sadly, the director of this survey has told the media that she will be looking at the results of the survey to see which churches are “innovative”. What, I beg to understand, is [...]
Piper vs. Carson on Bible vs. History
Posted in Church on 18 August, 2011 (Thursday) | Leave a Comment »
A disagreement of sorts has cropped up between one of modern Christendom’s best preachers, John Piper, and Don Carson over whether the Scriptures are only required to be understood to interpret them, or weather a person needs extra historical and theological understanding to understand Scripture. I agree very much Michael Jensen here that Piper is [...]
Rob Bell and heresy of non-hell
Posted in Church, Hell and Judgement on 16 August, 2011 (Tuesday) | Leave a Comment »
American pastor Rob Bell has found himself caught in a dangerous theological position of denying that hell exists and that one day all people will be ‘one over’ to God’s love (see below). The man who interviewed him, Martin Bashir, is a Christian and knows his theology. This is actually the same Martin Bashir who [...]
