-
Targeting Maturity
Sometime ago I came across a very troubling large survey of churchgoers and church leaders that showed 81% of self-identified Christians equated spiritual maturity as “trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible”. This, four out of five(!) stat, is particularly troubling because it comes from people who acknowledge that salvation is not
-
Character of Jesus
It can seem in our Western culture there is an obsession with self-identity, so we can be often prompted to think allot about “Who am I?”. Yet the Christian faith is centrally about the “who” of another, someone other than ourselves: Jesus! So who is he? What defines him? What bible verses would you go
-
Towards Easter …
It’s almost Lent… which starts on Ash Wednesday, Feb 22nd this year. Lent is the season of preparation for Easter and during which, the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, repentance, giving, simple living and self-denial are typically emphasised. The purpose is to prepare ourselves for the horror and jubilation of Easter: Jesus’ death and resurrection.
-
Christmas shows…
The Christmas pageant has already happened, and Christmas it certainly in the shops now! The diary is filling up, and so it seems like once again the season deserves the “silly-season” title. This season in the church has a different name: Advent, which means ‘preparation’. Our experience of advent can be a complex. A season