You’ve reached the end of a fantastic study. The group has been engaged, asking good questions; you feel like you’re seeing a group of people keen to apply the word of God to their lives. You reach the application questions. And nothing. No one comes up with anything.
Are you leading a service this Christmas, or know someone who is? These eight tips will help you do a great job.
This week Sandy Grant shares good reads on religious freedom in Australia, why God is not a narcissist, the New Perspective, James, and his favourite recent GoThereFor articles.
How do we disagree with each other? If you’ve been around any church for more than 12 months you’ll know that there are many disagreements. Sometimes these are fairly small and trivial. In every church I’ve ever been in there’s been an argument about the colour or type of the furnishings. And the carpet is a small issue compared with some of the wider ones that impact on life, like who Jesus is, how God saves, and other major doctrinal truths.
Tony Payne will take two years of study leave from Matthias Media.
For some people, grace is a scarier concept to embrace than the idea of hell and God’s wrath. When we invite people to surrender to God’s grace, to trust his love and depend upon his provision, we may be asking them to do something that life has proven to be perilous and foolish.
If we don’t convey the enthusiasm, joy and peace that we claim to have from the Spirit, people have no reason to believe us, and we become the worst kind of salespeople.
I am currently preaching through the book of Acts. It is my second time preaching through this book, and I love it! I just recently finished preaching through Acts 11:19-30: the formation of the church in Antioch. This account is one that has always intrigued me.
Sometimes, although we mean to help, we cause harm. Have you thought through how the timing of your church's programs affect people?
This is the first book I'm aware of since Vatican II that looks at Roman Catholicism as a system (rather than just a set of isolated beliefs) and then critiques that system. The advantage of this is that it helps us Protestants understand how all the different bits of Catholicism fit together, and as a result be wiser in the way we speak about it.