Latest Ideas

On good and bad evangelism

  • Sandy Grant
  • 1 June 2015

‘Proselytism’ is on the nose in our allegedly tolerant world, increasingly proscribed or restricted by law or administrative policy. Mostly the word is left undefined, open to great subjectivity. Some think of it merely as seeking to persuade others of the merits of a religion, with a view to

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Guidance on how to be a man

  • Peter Sholl
  • 29 May 2015

Warning: this post contains an obvious conclusion, but read on anyway! I am a 40-something Christian man. I am married, and at the moment I live in Australia (although I usually live in Mexico). I enjoy the cricket, can cook a good steak, and will happily go to the

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From one mum to another: Living in a Miley Cyrus world

  • Di Warren
  • 28 May 2015

“I’m my own person… I go to the beat of my own drum.” -Miley Cyrus If you’re like me, then you feel concerned about the constant unhealthy messages that our daughters get about their bodies. It seems they are under a lot more pressure than we were at their age,

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Down-under round-up: 27 May 2015

  • Sandy Grant
  • 27 May 2015

Issue of the week Neil Foster, Associate Professor of Law at Newcastle University, continues updating us on Schools, Scripture, Banning of Books and Sexual Orthodoxy, examining the merits of the objections stated to the now-marginalized Christian views on sex. He argues that “students are entitled to hear points of view at

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Where to look for God

  • Tony Payne
  • 26 May 2015

Would it be possible to have the cross of Christ plastered all over your church, talked about often, celebrated in festivals, sung about weekly... but still to have a church that was essentially ignorant of the cross and its power? Martin Luther’s vigorous "yes!" to this question was at the

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Book review: Show Them Jesus

  • Tim Zulker
  • 25 May 2015

Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids by Jack Klumpenhower New Growth Press, 2014, 214 pages What it’s about Show Them Jesus is a book about why kids need to be taught the gospel, and how to do that. Here’s an outline of the book: Why

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Cell group day 1: City University Campus, Buenos Aires, Argentina

  • Terry Blowes
  • 23 May 2015

It was our first cell group meeting. There was Victoria, a committed student leader in her second year of university; Paula, a new person in her first year of study; and me, the missionary who had arrived to accompany and train leaders. The other people who were invited didn’t come.

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The reluctant Swedish reader

  • Carl Matthei
  • 23 May 2015

I am a reluctant convert to the Swedish Method for Bible study. I read the Briefing article all of those years ago and decided to try it out in a couple of Bible study groups. It didn’t work! It didn’t seem to make group members think deeply enough about the passage, and it seemed to promote surface-level easy answers.

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Motivated, reproducing, applied Bible reading: The Swedish Method

  • Peter (Pedro) Blowes
  • 23 May 2015

Bible reading with ready ears and an open heart is engaging and fruitful. There’s something fresh about letting God speak for himself, especially when you search the Bible yourself, making the effort to hear.

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What your church needs to know about church

  • Tara Sing
  • 22 May 2015

People love watching and talking about trends. Trends in the stock market, trends in prices, trends in culture, and also trends in churches. And apparently, the trend for churches in 2015 is not a good one. If the predictions are true, it looks like things are going downhill: Your

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