In the early church, most gatherings were in houses. Church buildings didn’t become common until after the conversion of Constantine in the 300s. This means that when Paul wrote to churches in Ephesians, for example, this probably meant the collection of churches in the city of Ephesus that met in a variety of homes. We …
The food shortage in Australia right now is bizarre. People are hoarding food and emptying shelves from the supermarket. In a rich and blessed country, many people are looking for food. Christians know that we need more than physical food to sustain us. We need the bread of life, the Word of God. This was …
The world is in the midst of a coronavirus panic. Many aspects of life we usually take for granted are being changed or removed. It is all that anyone is talking about. How do we respond to such a crisis? In this brief blog post, I want to mention two unhelpful responses to the crisis …
Our church is running an evangelistic event this Saturday night. This means that there will be people from our church praying for and inviting friends to come along. That can be a daunting prospect! All kinds of thoughts go through our minds before we have that kind of conversation. Maybe they will laugh at me. …
Have you ever come to prayer or Bible reading or going to church and thought it was all too hard? That you knew it was a good thing to do, and you knew you should do it, but it felt just like a chore? Like doing the dishes or washing your clothes? Essential, but not …
Most churches run Bible study groups which usually start this time of year. There will be announcements in many churches urging people to read the Bible with others in groups weekly or fortnightly. If you usually take part, you’ll go along. If you have heard those announcements and ignored them, thinking you are too busy …
It is Christmas. Again. There are some that love tradition, doing the same things in the same ways every year. Even if you don’t love this kind of thing, you cannot avoid it. The supermarkets are full of the same music, the decorations are dusted off and put up, and various meals are organised for …
Sometimes you might hear someone say something like this: “I hope the sermon today is interesting; I hope the preacher uses funny illustrations and makes the Bible interesting”; or “I love that particular Christian blogger; they make the Bible relevant to me”; or “I think non-Christians won’t be interested in the Bible; let’s reduce the …
I have recently returned from the General Assembly of the World Reformed Fellowship. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet with like-minded people from around the world, to encourage one another, and to consider carefully the challenges we face in the modern world. The theme of the GA …
This past week I have had the privilege of attending the World Reformed Fellowship General Assembly in Jakarta, alongside an elder from one of our sister churches. The World Reformed Fellowship (the WRF) is an organisation that aims to connect people from the Reformed tradition together from different churches, denominations and organisations worldwide. The hope …