Five years back if you had asked me what I thought of the idea of branding the church I’d have scoffed. Branding to me was little more than marketing spin, something to be strenuously avoided by anyone interested in authentic community. Having been through a rebranding process at Baptist...
Australian Churches – Losing More People Than We’re Gaining
The Church in Australia appears to be in decline. Yet between 2001 and 2011, the number of people identifying with a Christian church grew from 12.8 to 13.1 million. I belong to the Baptist denomination. In the 2001 census 309,205 people identified as Baptist, but in the 2011 census this had grown...
Which Churches Are Putting Bums on Seats?
Look at the census data and you’ll believe the Catholic, Anglican, Uniting and Presbyterian churches are the largest in Australia. Lots of people identify with these churches. Look at popular thinking and you might believe that the Pentecostal juggernaut is sweeping all before it. But when it...
The Greatest Easter Sermon Ever
It’s Friday. Jesus is arrested in the garden where He was praying. But Sunday’s coming. It’s Friday. The disciples are hiding and Peter’s denying that he knows the Lord. But Sunday’s coming. It’s Friday. Jesus is standing before the high priest of Israel, silent as a lamb before the slaughter. But...
Why Do We Call it Good Friday?
It has always struck me as strange that we refer to the day of Jesus’ death as Good Friday. Shouldn’t it be “Bad Friday” or “Evil Friday”, or some similar term? Was this not a day when evil was at its worst, unleashing its hatred and fury on One who had done nothing but love extravagantly? It’s on...
Palm Sunday. Does An Ancient Prophet Riding a Donkey Have Anything To Say To My World?
Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the day we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, greeted by crowds waving palm fronds and acclaim him the descendent of David, come to reclaim his throne. I write while sitting in an airplane, 35,000 feet above the ground, hurtling through the air...
Jesus Paid the Penalty for My Sin. Is that Really Good News?
For most of my life I have understood the good news to be that on the cross Jesus paid the penalty for my sins. Like the rest of humanity, I was a sinner and deserved to be punished with eternal torment in hell. But to save me Jesus, who was not a sinner and didn’t deserve to die, took my place. On...
An Arc in the Sand. Reflecting on Easter Traditions #1
If there is a universal symbol of Christianity today it is undoubtedly the cross. But in the first three hundred years of the church it was the fish. The fish symbol was particularly significant during outbreaks of persecution. Because it had been used by pagans it aroused little suspicion...
Ethics Without Borders
When I was in Cambodia recently I heard about a place called Diamond Island. Filled with luxury apartments and houses, it is a world away from the poverty that marks the country. My first inclination is to ask “how can the residents of Diamond Island live like that when there are so many poor...
Why I’ve Signed Up to Micah Challenge’s Finish the Race Campaign
It’s official. There are now more overweight people in the world than undernourished. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. I am one of them. Ok, I prefer to think of it as pleasantly plump, but however I describe it...