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Extra-biblical material can be helpful – if you read it wrong
It always seems that Christians are 20 years behind… a new music style comes out, like rock and roll, and “the church” deplores it before eventually incorporating it. Everything from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People all the way through… Continue reading
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Repost: Abstract and Concrete Ideas in Church
We came across this idea a few years ago… that most churches (ours included) were generally pretty good at communicating two sorts of things… Abstract Theology, and Concrete Details about Church. (Abstract means concepts and ideas, whereas Concrete means times,… Continue reading
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Do you pray “from” unknowns or “through” unknowns?
It seems a common shared prayer that God would deliver us from troubles, from risks, from the unknown. It goes something like, “Lord, keep us safe as we travel. Lord, keep us from sickness. Etc.” These are great things to… Continue reading
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When choosing your battles becomes laziness
The conventional wisdom is to “choose your battles” and it makes lots of sense. It’s a good application of 1Peter 4:8 “love covers a multitude of sins”. But choosing your battles can easily become and excuse for never entering into… Continue reading
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Out of the box church marketing
“Out of the box” can mean being creative in weird ways, but it can also mean doing things in a stock standard way. It’s worth churches thinking through how they market themselves by looking at how other “similar” industries go… Continue reading
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Have you exhausted your discipline muscle?
Making decisions takes effort. Making hard decisions takes more effort. Making decisions to be godly in the face of temptation takes enormous effort (and spiritual power!). A good word for this is discipline. And I reckon we’re all built with… Continue reading
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The Christian Life: Repent & Rejoice, Rejoice & Repent
These are the two consistents we expect to see in one another as we open God’s word. Christians are always repenting, always changing, always transforming, always growing. There is a right concern we should have when we meet a Christian… Continue reading
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And the most viewed MinistryPrinciplesAndPragmatics posts for 2014 are…
Yes, this is one of those “top-posts-of-2014” lists… 1. Things you can’t really understand until you’ve been in full-time ministry… 2. My response to “Why shouldn’t women preach to men?” 3. Common things people say as they’re falling away… Interestingly, these are the most… Continue reading
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Do you think of justification as an insurance policy?
An insurance policy and justification both have a pretty similar outcome. Both start with me being in the wrong and both end with me in a returned-state; perfected. The debt is paid off, the car/holiness is restored as though it… Continue reading
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Predicting the future of… parenthood; bearers without basis
I can’t help but wonder if the future of parenthood is looking grim. Should parents be able to choose their child’s school? Should they be able to choose whether their child gets Ethics Education or Religious Education, or neither? Should… Continue reading
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How the “grace of God” teaches us
Paul writes is Titus chapter 2, For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this… Continue reading
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What are churches’ legal obligations for child check-in?
This comes with a MASSIVE disclaimer… this is NOT legal advice. Here’s what I’ve worked out so far… Education and Care Services National Regulations (Regulation 158.1) require that education and care service providers “must ensure that a record of attendance is kept for… Continue reading
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Why the manger?
Did it really matter that Christ was born in a shed and laid in a feeding trough? It’s not like being born in Bethlehem; that was to fulfil God’s promise in Micah 5:2. And it’s not like being a son… Continue reading
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On the Incarnation (5) : What was Jesus?
(This is a short series of short posts on the incarnation as we lead up to Christmas) In the last few posts, we’ve reminded ourselves WHO Jesus is… He is the eternal Son, who existed in eternity (without form) with the… Continue reading
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Why sing secular Christmas songs at your church carols night?
We’ve just had our Carols night and it was great! The team putting together the song list did a great job of mixing traditional carols, new Christmas songs… and they even included some “fun” Christmas songs… like Jingle Bell Rock,… Continue reading
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On the Incarnation (4) : The union of God and humanity
(This is a short series of short posts on the incarnation as we lead up to Christmas) There are two aspects of the incarnation; one is to focus on how creation received the eternal Son; humanity received a new member, a… Continue reading
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On the Incarnation (3) : Permanent and yet God remains unchanging
(This is a short series of short posts on the incarnation as we lead up to Christmas) Since the Eternal Son did not just pretend to be human but became flesh himself, he did it fully and completely for us. This… Continue reading
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On the Incarnation (2) : Did the eternal Son need to become human?
(This is a short series of short posts on the incarnation as we lead up to Christmas) So, if Jesus is the perfect expression of God the Father – why did he need to become human? Couldn’t he have remained not-incarnate? Couldn’t he… Continue reading
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On the Incarnation (1) : What does “word made flesh” mean?
(This is a short series of short posts on the incarnation as we lead up to Christmas) What do we mean when we say that Jesus is God’s Word in the flesh? It’s primarily from John 1… 1 In the beginning… Continue reading
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Keep doing it, stop doing it, get better at it. Choose 1
It’s a helpful filter as you’re looking at the different aspects of your life. Some things are going well, and you need to keep doing it, but you don’t need to improve it. Just keep doing it. Some things are… Continue reading
MINISTRY PRINCIPLES & PRAGMATICS 