Articles
We love to share articles from a variety of authors around the world that will help us to grow in our faith by challenging us, encouraging us, and stimulating our thinking.
Make the Most of Sunday Mornings
I wanted to share an article with you this week from Desiring God ministries on how to make the most of Sunday mornings (or afternoons, for that matter!). The author has nothing radical to share that you may not have already considered before, but it’s a good reminder of how we can maximise this strategic opportunity as we gather together. In short, “Come Hungry, Leave Full” and “Come Early, Stay Late.” I hope you find it helpful! Read more…
Failure Happens Slowly before it Happens Suddenly
“We’re no longer surprised when we see a catastrophic moral failure. Quite often, we ask ourselves, “How did this happen?” We begin to look at the circumstances that led to the failure and try to figure things out. Most of the time, the failure has been in the works for decades. Seeds began to grow much earlier that have finally grown big enough for everyone to see. Moral failure is rarely an event. It’s more of a slow process that…
Why a Good God Commanded the Israelites to Destroy the Canaanites
“When I was an atheist, I loved causing Christians to doubt God. It was fun for me. One of my favorite tactics was to get them to question God’s goodness. I thought that if I could cause them to doubt God’s goodness, I could eventually get them to doubt God’s existence. To drive a wedge between God and goodness, I’d point to God’s command to the Israelites to “utterly destroy” every person living in the Canaanite cities God was giving…
10 Ideas for Better Conversations
“Most of us would like to learn how to have better conversations with those around us. We would like the awkward conversations to be less awkward. We would like the great ones to be more frequent. For people who know Jesus Christ, we want these great conversations even more because our words are the primary means of coming together, and we are destined for an eternity of fine conversations. The problem is that if asked, most of us would have…
Our Greatest Tool for Reaching the West Again
“We need to keep sharing the gospel, but we also need to point to the evidence of its truthfulness. How can we prove it? In one sense, it’s impossible to satisfy a person’s questions or doubts about the truthfulness of the gospel message (at least until they experience it). But we can point to one thing in particular as proof: our fellowship with one another. And this just might be our greatest tool for reaching the West again.” Read more…
Thanks to Sam’s Spares
A big thank you to Sam’s Spares, who recently provided us with a number of items of recycled IT equipment for our audio-visual team and members of our ministry team. “Sam’s Spares is a 100% Volunteer run Not for Profit Organisation that saves unwanted IT E-waste from landfill. It is run by Samuel Thomas, a young man with a passion for community, environment and electronics. Sam and his volunteer team repair and refurbish computers, laptops, mobile phones, gaming systems and…
Taking A Hard Look
“There are lots of places in the Bible I would remove if I could. Whether it’s a rule I don’t want to follow or a judgment that just seems too harsh for modern sensibilities, my fallen flesh would love to apply a bottle of white out to many verses. There’s one place, though, that’s nothing like that. It’s convicting without doing either of those things. Right in the middle of one of my favourite passages in the Bible sit a…
Spiritual Seasons
“I grew up in Christchurch where the four seasons are quite distinct. In spring there is new growth everywhere, with cherry blossoms, daffodils and azaleas providing a riot of colour. My childhood memories, possibly now romanticised, are of such springs being followed by long, warm, sunny summers. Then the weather would begin to cool, leading to rich autumn colours and mountains of fallen leaves. Finally, winter would set in, with frosts and rain and evenings in front of the open…
Getting Organized For the Glory of God
Here’s a practical article I read this week about how we need to have a purposeful plan to accomplish the responsibilities God gives us – whether financial giving, evangelism, discipleship, or whatever you can think of. The particular responsibility the author uses as an example is our giving, although the author points out that it can (and should) be applied to all the responsibilities God gives us. I thought it was worth sharing as a reminder of the commitment we…
Be the Church Member You Want Your Church to Have
“Complaining is easy. It doesn’t take much effort to lean into that fleshly disposition of negativity. An unfortunate reality is that this often creeps into the church. Something, or often someone, doesn’t live up to our standard and we are quick to grumble and find fault. The sermon is too long or too short. The music is too loud or too soft. More nefariously though, there is a tendency to level the criticism at brothers and sisters within the church.”…
A Freak of Nature and Nurture
I read a short article riffing on the theme of bonsai trees this week by Tim Challies this week that I thought you might enjoy. Tim points out that “bonsai trees are otherwise-normal trees that are deliberately kept small. They are obsessively pruned to stunt them and keep them from growing tall or wide… Though they have such potential, their gardener applies constant and deliberate action to keep them from ever reaching it. What a strange thing that a gardener…
Try to Be More Awkward
I read an article published just yesterday called “Try to Be More Awkward”! The writer descries her church as sometimes being awkward, and it’s one of her favourite things about it! In a nutshell, they embrace the awkwardness you experience when you introduce yourself to someone you think is new to church, only to find they’ve been there for a while and you’ve just forgotten their face or name! It’s a great article because it captures something so true! Sometimes…