» 2007 » April

Newsweek magazine’s Great Debate between Rick Warrren and atheist Sam Harris: The God Debate.

I would have liked Rick to steer the debate back to the person and work of Jesus more strongly. Although this may be an edited version.

After reading Alister McGrath’s Twilight of Atheism, I’m not sure that God believes in atheists any more.

ApologeticsAtheismRick [...]

The latest Australian church planting story from the next1000 blog: A church planting family.

Here is the full list of stories.

Church Plantingnext1000

Here’s a gem from Jacques Ellul via Alan Hirsch.

No doubt some will reply that God is not a God of disorder, incoherence, or arbitrariness, but a God of order. Of course he is.

Unfortunately the whole of the Old Testament shows us that God’s order is not that which we conceive and desire. God’s order is [...]

PresentationZen’s take on the uses and abuses of Powerpoint: Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?

But what’s the alternative? Try a stick in sand. . .

CommunicationPowerpointPresenting

Anthony van Dyck. The Descent of the Holy Spirit c. 1618-20

The older and wiser I get the more I lose interest in the mere technique of ministry. The more I thirst for the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit.

It seems God has had me on a long journey of learning to trust him in weakness. [...]

Small church, mega church, program church, organic church—what form of church is most effective. Wrong question says David Watson. You don’t conquer a swamp with tanks. You adapt your strategy to the context.
When I first went to India almost 20 years ago, a very wise worker said to me, “You can’t change Indian culture; you [...]

Every Easter Orthodox churches around the world read this sermon by John Chrysostom (349-407), the early church’s famed preacher and archbishop of Constantinople at the great Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia).
Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them [...]

The deepest meaning of the cross is not that God’s wrath was poured out on a perfect or innocent man, a scapegoat for human sin, but that God turned His wrath upon Himself in the person of His Son.

Donald Bloesch

CrossQuotesSpiritual Formation

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The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched. ... It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and [...]

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One in ten people in the UK attends church every week and one in seven goes monthly, according to new research.

The Tearfund research project puts the UK among Europe’s four least observant countries. 53% of Britons identified themselves as “Christian” compared with almost three quarters in the 2001 Census.

The good news?

The research identified nearly that [...]