Being part of a Presbyterian denomination means more than doing some things together with churches in the same region; it also means being connected in a country. The denomination my church is a part of has sister churches in Sydney, Canberra and Queensland. How can we possibly connect in a useful way with churches so …
To many, the idea of denominations seems irrelevant or even a bad idea. Often people speak against the ‘institutional church’ as if the moment that some formal structure is developed, that must be a bad thing. Of course, there have been many times that the ‘institutional church’ has done poor things or has been too …
As discussed in the last blog post (which you can read here), a Presbyterian church is a church governed by elders. That doesn’t seem radical to most Christians. After all, churches of most different brands have elders of some type. It hardly seems distinctive. However, Presbyterian churches do run differently to other brands of churches. …
Churches have all kinds of labels on the door. Some are traditional ones, like Baptist, Anglican or Presbyterian. Many now are simply called ‘community church’ or something like that, which says nothing about what kind of church it is. The church that I serve is called All Nations Presbyterian Church. Some have suggested that we …
There is an old chorus called “Tell me the old, old story” which revels in the wonder of being told about the gospel once more. From the perspective of someone who has been a believer for many years, the song expresses that we love to hear it again and again. I love this song, but …
Morning tea after church is a tradition in most churches, at least morning services. There is something great about the concept, and not just because I love a good cup of coffee. It reflects the reality that the church is not all about the formal service. The church is the people. The informal gathering after …
After hearing a sermon, a common response is to mark it in our heads. We might think that it was enjoyable, or interesting, or faithful to the passage (or not), or useful, or well presented. The temptation is to compare it to the one last week or others we have heard. In a sense, this …
Most Christians are convinced that we live in a world that needs to hear about Jesus. Specifically, most are convinced that those who don’t trust in Jesus at the moment need someone to tell them about Jesus. After all, the Biblical logic is pretty clear: 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; …
I notice the same thing every Christmas: the people who do not trust in Jesus are the ones who get most excited about the decorations, the music, the craft, the food and the whole circus that comes around this time of year. Christmas is big business. People are wearing Christmas-themed T-shirts (which means Santa/elves/tinsel/green and …
In our church, the entire congregation is in the main hall together for the first half of the service. This means that we sing and pray together with older people, young children, and everyone in between all together. There is something wonderfully encouraging about this! And then, when the time for the Bible reading and …