The Spirit in Indonesia 19 June 11
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- Last Updated: 20 March 2014
- Written by Dale
The Spirit in Indonesia
Last weekend I was in Jakarta and met informally with some Indonesian church leaders. One described the difficulties of finding land and being able to build a centre for meetings and worship. Part of the difficulty was the high cost of land, part the difficulty of finding a location where the local residents would not object to the building. This particular church has been meeting for many years in a series of rented or borrowed buildings, moving from one to another and losing members each time they moved.
Another leader spoke about the peacefulness of the location of a theological college. Although set in the middle of a community of the majority faith, it nevertheless had good relations with its neighbours and continued its very valuable work unharmed so far.
Who needs missionaries? 12 June 11
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- Last Updated: 20 March 2014
- Written by Dale
Who needs missionaries?
In a famous column in The Times in 2008 atheist Matthew Parris wrote “... I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa...”. His article gives a number of examples in which he claims that it is not just Christian aid work, but the living faith of Christians that transforms lives. He concludes his article:
“Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.”
The issue has been debated for a long time.
5. Two brothers: Choosing Good Genesis 4
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- Last Updated: 28 October 2015
- Written by Dale
5. Two brothers: Choosing Good Genesis 4
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 5 June 2011
Bible Readings: Genesis 4.1-16; Psalm 116; 1 John 3.1-18; Matthew 5.21-26
Choosing what is good according to God, why Cain's offering was not accepted and how it relates to our serving of Jesus
4. Voices in the Garden Genesis 3
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- Last Updated: 28 October 2015
- Written by Dale
4. Voices in the Garden Genesis 3
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 29 May 2011
Bible readings: Genesis 3.1-24; Psalm 139.1-12; Revealtion 12.1-17; Luke 4.1-13
Humans becoming the ones who decide good and evil; judgments and promises of blessing and the fulfilment in the death of Christ; and the message for the nations of life instead of death
A church full of mandarins 29 May 11
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- Last Updated: 20 March 2014
- Written by Dale
A church full of mandarins
I have just been eating a couple of mandarins given to us by our local mandarin grower whose wife told me that this particular mandarin tree only produced fruit every two years until recently. Until, that is, her husband, the mandarin grower, got to it with a pruning saw and cut it right back – to almost nothing. Since then it has been fruiting with enthusiasm – as an energetic mandarin tree should.
After meditating on these two mandarins, I wondered whether that would work with churches. But churches are not really like inanimate fruit trees, are they? Although Jesus did think his bunch of disciples was like the branches of a grape vine – that is similar isn’t it?
And he talked about cutting back the vine. Although he said there were two different kinds of cutting. The branches that produced no fruit were removed by his Father and burnt in the fire. The ones that did bear fruit were pruned so they could produce more.
A bit radical don’t you think?
What is marriage? 22 May 11
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- Last Updated: 20 March 2014
- Written by Dale
What is marriage?
“Mawwidge,” said the Very Impressive Clergyman in that great Romance about True Love, The Princess Bride, “Mawwidge, that bwessed state, that dweam wiffin a dweam ...” That is one view, although not one that the Evil Prince agreed with.
What about this: “’marriage’ means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.” Not very romantic, but from the Australian Marriage Act 1961. Although it forms the basis of all legal marriages conducted in Australia in the last 50 years this idea has been under revision for some time.
Eulogies 15 May 11
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- Last Updated: 20 March 2014
- Written by Dale
Eulogies
As I write this I am preparing a eulogy for my father. I don’t like the term eulogy, although it has a good ancestry (Paul uses it in 2 Cor 1, and Ephesians 1 and so does Peter in 1 Peter 1). It sometimes sounds like whitewashing, especially at funerals. Sometimes they are just opportunities to talk about ourselves (I have heard some terrible ones).
But most of us want to say something about a friend or father who has died. Of course there are far too many things that could be said, and many that probably should not be said. Many are anecdotes, memories, recollections, views from different angles. In the same family people have different memories and views – sometimes radically different.
So what to say? And who to say it to?
