Ethical chocolate update
16 May 2012 2 Comments
in Serving Tags: behaviour, Change the world, Chocolate, christianity, ethics, mission, Protest, western society
I have previously reported on the ethical dilemmas posed by eating chocolate, due to the trafficking and exploitation of children in growing cocoa in West Africa (see My pleasure, their misery? and Easter eggs and slavery), and on the responses to my letters to chocolate manufacturers (see Fair Trade chocolate – report 1).
I have received some more replies, and have researched some more information, all of which is very revealing.
Does God prefer belief or obedience?
06 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in Culture Tags: apologetics, Atheism, behaviour, christians, ethics, God, mission
“God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians” said the article and the photo, and it caught my attention as it caught many others’ (as it was aimed at doing).
Is it true?
Is your church heading in the right direction?
09 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Change the church, christianity, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples, mission
Churches have been going through a remarkable revolution this past 50 years. Denominational barriers are much lower and less important. The Holy Spirit is more welcome. Christians are much more open to new ideas. But there is much more to come (I believe)!
One of the very positive influences on world christianity is the ‘simple church’ movement, and Felicity Dale (a sometime commenter on this blog) and her website Simply Church blog is one face of this movement. I subscribe to her blog and gain a lot of insight from it. And one brief recent post summed a lot of things up for me.
Arguing the resurrection
06 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, Bible, christianity, Jesus, mission, New Testament
The resurrection of Jesus is obviously one of the central teachings of christianity, and is also under attack from sceptics. Disciples need to know why they believe it in the first place, how to defend their belief, and even perhaps how to use the resurrection as a challenge to non-believers.
Photo: malpansj2008 on Picasa)
Why did Jesus come to earth?
25 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Jesus Tags: Bible interpretation, christianity, doctrine, Good news, Jesus, mission, New Testament
Whatever christians disagree on, we all pretty much agree that Jesus’ life on earth was pivotal in world history. But what was the purpose of his life? On that, you’ll get some different answers.
Christians and Twitter
18 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Behaviour Tags: behaviour, christians, mission, western society
I’ve never used Twitter. I’m not really interested, and I doubt anyone would want to read my tweets anyway. But many christians use it, especially well-known ones – writers, leaders, entertainers and bloggers.
But I’m beginning to wonder whether a lot of this christian tweeting is counter-productive.
Barriers to belief: church abuse
22 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in Apologetics, Behaviour Tags: apologetics, behaviour, christianity, churches, ethics, mission
In Barriers to belief I reported that the biggest barrier to non-believers was the many much-publicised cases of sexual abuse within the church. How should christians respond to this?
Barriers to belief
16 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, churches, God, Jesus, mission
Unlike America, christianity has never been very strong in Australia. Something like 70% believe in a god, and about 50% identify with a religion (40% christian, 10% other), but only around 10% attend church regularly. Most Aussies are not very interested in church. (This is perhaps understandable, with many good options available on Sundays: sport, the beach, barbecues, picnics or just relaxing, or even mowing the lawn.)
But an interesting new survey has studied the barriers to belief.
A beautiful day?
06 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Serving Tags: Change the world, christianity, ethics, Islam, mission, world
It was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney today. I went for a drive in the country and visited the Berry markets. (For those unfamiliar, these aren’t fruit markets. Berry is a former dairy farming town 2 hours south of Sydney, which has reinvented itself as an art and craft town. Once a month, they hold markets where you can buy fresh vegetables, plants, arts and crafts, food and miscellanea.) We brought back some herbs to grow.
How much to save the world’s poor?
05 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Serving Tags: behaviour, Change the world, christianity, ethics, mission, western society, world
Last post I raised concerns about world poverty in the light of the world’s population reaching 7 billion people. But how big is the need, and how much would it take to bring some relief for those who most desperately need it?
Christians and world poverty
30 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Serving Tags: behaviour, Change the world, christianity, christians, ethics, mission, western society, world
Those of us who are christians in the western world are currently facing one of the biggest ethical challenges we have ever faced. Consider the following population graph – the world’s 7 billionth person is about to be born.
Dawkins vs Craig
23 Oct 2011 7 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, behaviour, christians, mission, reason
I have blogged before on the atheist vs christian wars, most recently in Atheist vs christian internet wars. The latest instalment is the verbal slanging match between US christian philosopher William Lane Craig and UK atheist biologist Richard Dawkins.
I think there are some things we can learn from this unedifying exchange.
Healing miracles and unbelievers
17 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, Good news, Healing, mission
Christians pray for healing, and most of us can report times when we have seen God answer those prayers (as well, sadly, times when healing hasn’t been given). These experiences of God’s grace can leave a deep impression on our faith and life.
But can they be useful in showing the truth of Jesus to unbelievers?
Sunday services vs discipleship
08 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, making disciples, mission
If you thought I was exaggerating in yesterday’s post when I criticised church plants and said “a maintenance church may resist change that will further the mission”, you should read this story of a successful pastor who tried to ‘go missional’, in Stories from the Revolution.
Plant a mission, not a church
07 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Jesus, making disciples, mission
Jesus left us a big task (Matthew 28:19-20):
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The church in most western countries is not doing all that well on this task these days. I have argued that we are approaching things the wrong way, and that our present way of doing church is probably providing comfort more than obeying Jesus’ command. And I have suggested some ways the church might change to do better.
In this post I want to look at some better ways.
The church and God’s plan
04 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Good news, making disciples, mission
I have discussed the decline in church attendance in western countries, asked why go to church? and looked at why sermons are a poor way of making disciples. So can we rescue the church from ineffectiveness and irrelevance? What might improve things?
Christians in society
28 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Behaviour Tags: behaviour, christianity, mission, religion, western society
A recent survey of American religion reveals some interesting facts
Robert Putnam (Harvard) and David Campbell (Notre Dame) undertook extensive research of religious attitudes in the US, and late last year published the results of their research in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen an outline of their findings and an interview with David Campbell.
Prayer and mission
21 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Behaviour Tags: christianity, christians, mission, prayer
Felicity Dale at Simply Church has posted some interesting accounts in Does prayer make a difference? Two groups of christians prayed for non-believers, with very striking results:
- A church in the US identified 160 homes, and prayed for 80 of them for 90 days. Then they approached all homes with the offer to visit and pray for them. Only one in the “not prayed for” group accepted the offer, but 69 out of 80 homes that were prayed for responded positively.
- Christians in India picked two villages and prayed for one. When they visited both villages they were thrown out of the village they didn’t pray for but made many converts in the village they did pray for.
I have a few difficulties about praying for one group and not another, though I guess they can at least rectify this following the experiment. And I certainly don’t think we can use these examples to “prove” that prayer works. (In fact, as you can see at Intercessory prayer and healing properly scientific studies of prayer show only moderately positive results.)
But I think we can see these accounts as a great encouragement to pray. We all believe in prayer and know we should pray more, but as TS Eliot said:
“Between the idea, and the reality ….. falls the shadow.”
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