What is the value in spiritual disciplines such as daily prayer, Bible reading, fasting, meditation, voluntary poverty? Should Christians make an effort to be involved in these? When Melbourne’s Archbishop preached at Ridley chapel recently, he suggested that spiritual disciplines are a good replacement for suffering, which we in the […]
The sub-headings are from Rock of Ages, a classic hymn and one of my favourites. Not the labour of my hands Every leader is guilty of shameful thoughts, disgusting habits, perverse ambitions and foul behaviour. But what do you do when people are looking up to you as an example? […]
I wonder if you, like me, have heard other Christians talk about how theology is ‘academic’. There’s an implication there that theology is not relevant to every day life. But reading Death By Love, a recent offering from Mark Driscoll along with Gerry Breshears, there can be no doubt that the […]
The Ministry Training Strategy takes a number of different names around Australia. Whether you call it MAP (Adelaide), MTS (Sydney), a traineeship (Canberra) or Equip (Melbourne); whether it’s part-time or full-time; self-funded or not; straight out of uni or after some work experience, it’s ‘on the job’ training for ministry.
I’ve heard it said that Adelaide people are ‘polite’ before. But let me put it out there – Melbourne people are forthright. I could say ‘rude’, but that’s a little too strong. Of course it’s only a generalisation, a trend I’ve noticed since being in Melbourne (just as Adelaideans’ reputation […]
Our minister, Mark, runs a group on Monday nights for his interns and others interested in full time ministry. Last Monday, we spent some time looking at some leadership theory and in particular, the work of a secular writer, A. Mant. One part of the readings considered the key disqualifiers […]
We had dinner with my family on Monday night and, amongst the vast array of silliness mixed with theological discussion with a dash of personal reflection, one of my sisters was telling us about the fantastic speaker she heard at the recent Out of the Valley conference. Louie Giglio is […]
Meet Jesus at uni 