So how about the head of ASIO saying that one of our former politicians was a foreign government asset? It was one of those announcements, in an otherwise routine speech that landed like a dead possum onto a picnic table – it had to be disposed of, but even when it’s gone its presence at all still puts you off your meal.
This week I attended the funeral of Joe Mullins. Joe died old and full of years (103 of them). He and his wife Edith (who died in 2009) had six children, and what seems to me like a bajillion grand-children and great grand-children.
1. I’m struck as I read the New Testament just how much of it is concerned with finding unity across distance.
Be it cultural distance (Jewish and non-Jewish Christians); confidence to live as a distinctive Christian minority who, nevertheless, are intelligible to the cultures around them (the so-called “stronger” and “weaker” Christians); and, of course, the mountains of passages about how to handle conflict, disagreement and sin.
A surprising thought rings out through these texts – unity within the body of Christ is deeply precious, it is worth contending for and is more important than being right. This thought is easier or harder to believe based on what’s going on around us.
This week at church we're going to see how important words are. So from time to time I'll use this part of the weekly email to explain why our language at church might be a bit different to other churches around us/we've come from.
There are heaps of different names for small group ministries within different churches. Growth Groups, Connect (Kinect) groups, Bible study groups, Cell groups, Fellowship groups. Why go with Community Groups?
Reconciliation week kicks off this Sunday!
Two weeks ago I watched the film Song Keepers (trailer below). At it's surface, it's a film about an indigenous women's choir taking Lutheran hymns that had been translated into indigenous languages 140 years ago on a tour of Germany.
But below that are deep themes about how the gospel meets culture, about the lows and highs of white and indigenous relations and powerful testimonies to the way grace works in the lives of these women.
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