Like most people, Christian or not, my wife and I have been deeply impacted by the tragedy that is unfolding in Haiti. Not many years ago a tragedy of a different sort happened on the doorstep of my nation. The boxing day tsunami brought untold suffering to so many with it's most redeeming feature being that we all might fulfill the words of Jesus Scripture:

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

I have read some sickening replies to this tragedy, replies from contemptable men who have the nerve to prefix their name with Reverend, replies to contemptable men whose vision is so tunneled that every word they speak is like venom, men who if they stopped for a single second to consider their words and thoughts and motivations would shrivel up in horror at the people they have become.

To those voices and for all of our edification I commend this article; may we never forget the human toll nor that where there is grieving, there is also our God who grieves with us.

“I don’t know if all things happen for a reason,” Arends said on Friday. “I do know that when things happen, God is there. I know that God is on top of a high hill in Haiti, weeping in pain. I know that God is on an airplane with a widow, weeping in pain. I know that God is in Duluth with a couple parents, weeping in pain, and yet promising to hold and keep and give whatever they need.”

Are Christians wrong in their thinking about heaven? Is it all clouds, singing and endless reminiscing? Bishop N.T. Wright doesn't seem to think so and I have to strongly agree. The general Christian perception of heaven seems to be shaped by culture and not Scripture.

Wright quotes a children's book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What's Heaven, which describes it as "a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk... If you're good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]... When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him." That, says Wright is a good example of "what not to say." The Biblical truth, he continues, "is very, very different."

I've just published another article / deep thought which takes a look at missional communities in history and tries to draw out of their experience something that we can take forward for today's missional/emerging church.

Comparion of Missional movements in history attempts to deconstruct the Piest movement of early Protestantism as well as the monastic movement from it's 3rd century roots and compares their distinctive characteristics, features, strengths and weaknesses in their historical contexts. By looking at how each was caused, shaped and affected we can learn more about missional living and leadership today.

I hope you learn something from reading it because I did writing it. There is truly nothing new under the sun as far as "doing church" goes and we have a lot to learn about community and involvement in the lives of others from these movements in the past.

Just War, just isn't! On the surface, the doctrine of a Just War is a seminal work of ethical reasoning constructed to reduce the incidences of unrestrained aggression and war. War for instance that so horrifically scars the history books of the twentieth century. It was constructed with a noble aim to reduce from flood to trickle the cruelty visited upon our fellow man by narrowing the limits of acceptable aggression and response.

This article seeks to deconstruct the Just War doctrine and rebuke it in the light of Jesus' teachings on war. In it I reference the current "War on Terror", Iraq and try to make us think critically about what our actions say to the rest of the world.

It's also the fulfillment of this post

I've reached way back into the archives, May 2002, almost before the interwebs were born in a cosmic collision between a rouge datacenter and the sun to bring you this article on the book of Romans.

It explores the reasons for Paul writing the letter as well as Paul's gospel. It was the first article I ever wrote so be nice :)

This article is part of a case study I performed on a well known Christian welfare organization in Australia. The first part of
the case study was to build a picture of how and why God responds to suffering in the world today then
to perform a critical evaluation of that organization based on that study. I've extracted all of the theological
response parts that I can and it is a facinating insight into how God works in our world today.

What is God's response to suffering?

 

In the beginning, we read, God created the heavens and the earth. These places are described as worlds without form, function or present reality, places to be developed and defined.
The Pentateuch, or Torah, is God’s story of how this was accomplished, and how it was all completed according to his will.

In this article I discuss the statement: “The holiness of God is demonstrated in the Pentateuch clearly in both the ethical and cultic demands of the law” It's not a dry and crusty question but something of relevence for our faith today because God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Happy reading!

The topic of being a servant leader seems to be strictly a Christian concept these days. Sure, there are some management books that still advocate it in the workplace but I cant remember the last good one I read.   

This is an article I wrote last year to teach small group leaders about the concept. Basically it's a short essay on how Moses was an effective leader who learnt how to be a servant of his people by first becoming a servant of God. Afterwards there are a series of reflection questions to help draw out the concepts into your own life.

I hope you get a lot out of The leadership qualities of Moses.

The Nicene Creed was formulated over 1700 years ago and remains today as a witness to the faith of the early church. It stands the test of time as a creed still affirmed today as a set of core beliefs of the Christian church.

The early Church father didn't just sit around and say, "Let's write a creed", they were formulating a response to the various heresies of the time, most notably Gnosticism.

In this article What are the Christiological elements within the Nicene Creed? I explore this and much more.

I've just uploaded a second article, this one is very different from the first and takes a look at the history of the Christian faith and the impact that the Emperor Constantine had one it.

In it I ask the question, did Constantine help or hinder the mission of the church?

Before I did research on this I only had a vauge notion of who Constantine was or that the "Holy" Roman Empire emerged from his meddlings. I think it shows that mixing religion and politics can only really lead to institutionalization of faith which is a pill that I have a hard time swallowing.

Well, I hope you learn something, I sure did.

I've been wanting to publish some of my assignments for a long time. Not that they are the greatest theological articles ever written (they are not bad either, distinction average), but because there are a lot of students out there examining the same issues but not sharing their conclusions.

So I've just put online an article called Becoming a Christian Leader, which I guess what this site is all about. It's my major assignment from a subject called "Becoming a Missional Leader". It examines the character of a leader from a Christian perspective and why it is critical to focus on character development.

How you enjoy it or get something out of it.