Pastor John (Page 5)

At the recent end-of-year Awards Night of our local Christian-Parent Controlled School it was a delight to celebrate the completion of another school year and to rejoice with the students as their gifts and labours were acknowledged. For a fleeting moment I questioned the giving of awards. Some students were bedecked with three or even four awards. Other students had to be satisfied with the book that all students were given to mark their transition to the next class in…

It’s that season of the year when the Christian church is again making its Christmas preparations by focusing on the coming of Jesus. Last Sunday in church we were reminded that for us today it’s not only about the first coming of Jesus; we are looking today for His second coming. Often during the season of Advent I have found myself thinking, “Yes, but we’ve been looking for that second coming of Jesus for almost 2000 years now.” That’s a…

In a matter of one week I heard three very similar stories. The first was when a friend of one of my siblings died after a long battle with cancer.  I heard that the lady’s husband had left her soon after she was diagnosed with the cancer and had begun the lengthy process of chemotherapy.  He wasn’t able to handle that and threw away some thirty years of marriage to escape this painful and difficult family situation. I was still…

If you’re not familiar with an urban myth let me enlighten you. Urban myths are really just a modern form of folklore. They are stories that do the rounds and those telling them usually (but not always) believe them to be true. Sometimes the stories have an element of shock or revulsion that is generally taken as quite believable. These stories tend to do the rounds for a while, often recede from prominence, only to take on a new lease…

Years ago when we were in the middle of the “worship wars” I was talking to someone about the trend towards entertainment. I expressed concerns about a congregation becoming just an audience watching a performance on the stage. This person replied, “That’s wrong! The congregation should never be an audience. It’s really the other way around: God is an audience of one, and we’re putting on some worship for Him.” In the context of our discussion that made sense. Last…

Once, when I referred to someone as an expert, a work colleague commented that an expert is a “drip under pressure”. The Oxford Dictionary’s definition of an expert is “someone who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”. I’m often amazed how many people are experts when it comes to religion… or more particularly experts on Christianity. Let me give you some examples. The man was my age and a member of a church that has a…

There are many folk who believe in God and who even believe that Jesus died for their sins but who are not into church going. Their problem is not with God, their problem is church. There is a new brand of person in our society today who do not believe in God and don’t accept that Jesus died for them but who are into church going. Their problem is not with church, their problem is God. I became aware of…

The last day of this month, 31st October was the day in 1517 when the Reformer, Martin Luther, challenged the church to deal with the abuses and perversions that had crept into the church over many centuries. In three years’ time there are plans afoot already for a 500th anniversary celebration. Of course today that date is better known in our society as Halloween. When people of my generation were growing up we were vaguely aware that Halloween was something…

Bettina Arndt is not a person from whom I would have expected to hear that children are better off living with both parents. Maybe it’s my preconceived ideas. Arndt became “famous” (or should that read “notorious”?) for her editorship of Forum, a sex education magazine in the 1970s. Arndt trained as a clinical psychologist specialising in sexual therapy. As I recall she was quite a controversial figure who didn’t have too much credibility among conservative Christians. But time does move…

It is fifty years ago this year that in Victoria I made a special trip from Dandenong to Geelong. The reason for the trip was that the Geelong Reformed Church was presenting to the other Reformed Churches in Victoria a new program for children and young people. A minister and his wife (George and Harriet Van Groningen), who had come to us from the Christian Reformed Churches of North America, had introduced the Geelong congregation to the American Cadet and…