G’day, I have taken this week off to begin writing a new book about what it actually means to live in one-but-not-the-same community. I have learned from my last couple of books that they take a lot longer to write and involve the help of many more people than you might imagine. So I have a question… Can you give me a hand over the coming weeks? I will post bits and pieces and I would love your feedback. I expect that what I post will change a fair bit before it makes it into the book. The working title for the book is ONE: but not the same Below…

Are you on the path to whole life? I am so grateful that Jesus wants to give us life. That’s the heart of what Jesus says when he says in John 10:10, “I’ve come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” Don’t you love that? Jesus has come, that you may have life, and have it to the full. It is possible to call yourself a Christian and not be stepping into that whole life that Jesus calls you to. Jesus Himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of…

Have you ever thought that you were acting against your own beliefs? You weren’t As Dallas Willard says: “We always live up to our beliefs, or down to them as the case may be. Nothing else is possible. It’s the nature of belief. It’s the nature of belief.” This is not a new idea. Jesus himself pointed out that your behaviour comes from your heart (the core of who you are or your beliefs): Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good…

Our goal as a church is that every week each of our people are taking a next step in their relationship with God, a next step in their relationship with others, and a next step in taking responsibility for themselves. We want to be a church of next steps. I called this article “Let’s get real” because if we really want to be a church like that, we actually have to be real. We don’t want to be a church where we play religious games or put on a religious act. Our Western world has tended towards a consumer model of church, which is church that is defined by the…

Lately I have come across the idea that the bible doesn’t clearly say that sex before marriage is wrong. It’s amazing how many different people seem to have come across the same argument to do with the King James Bible and the translation of the word fornication. When I saw this TikTok video pop up on my feed I realised that I have not publicly addressed this question and that I probably need to. To start with I will respond to the specifics things that @revbrandanrobertson says in the video and then will point you to a few verses that, from my study, give a fairly clear framework. Brendan starts…