Toilet Tales

Richard at Beyond Relevance has a very interesting post on perspectives and toilet seats.

It’s aimed at church leaders but relevant to so many areas of life.



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Real Church

Tony Campolo is not your average preacher. Take a look at this video and you’ll understand what I mean.

I spotted this on Brian Eberly’s blog.

Sounds like real church to me.



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Shhh! You can’t say that.

shutmouth.jpgI stumbled upon a very interesting blog post recently. It was at Anne Jackson’s blog, FlowerDust.net.

The post, Keeping Your Mouth Shut, simply asked people to share some of the things that they don’t feel they can say in church or to other Christians.

At last check there’s around 180 responses from people with everything from plain old whinging to some revealing comments about the fear of being vulnerable.

I think it’s essential reading for anyone in church leadership. I don’t care how wonderful you think your church is, there will always be people who feel they just don’t measure up and they feel powerless to express their doubts. Anyone who thinks that no one in their pews is thinking some of these things is kidding themselves.

Surely the church should be a place where we can be open and honest in sharing the highs and lows of our journey.

There are humorous comments like this:

That comb-over really does need to go. Someone might lose an eye on a windy day!

And this:

That sometimes when there is a dramatic pause in my message, and I look like I’m waiting on God to give me something really powerful to say, I’m not. In reality I’m just wondering if I zipped up my zipper before I went up on stage.

To heartfelt messages like this:

I currently feel NO connection to God when I pray or read the Bible.

And this:

When I say “I’ll pray for you.” I don’t usually mean it. I have been a Christian for 27 years and I still don’t understand the point of praying.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we took a closer look at the things we don’t say in church and discussed some of the reasons we’re not as open as we should be.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Are there things you feel you can’t say in church or to other Christians?



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Evil in the Church

bad_apple.jpgThere are bad apples in any kind of work or social organisation and most of the time we understand that while those bad apples can tend to cast a shadow over others, they are not indicative of the wider group.

Paedophiles, bullies, thieves, fraudsters and others like them can be found at all levels of society but should we be able to expect a higher standard of conduct from those within the church? Many of us know that people of faith often struggle with the same issues that those outside the church are facing but surely of God is real, faith in him should make a difference.

Many people claim that they can’t accept God or faith because they see so much evil within churches. Does their claim hold water?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Last week we looked at the problem of evil within the church and whether people are right to avoid a church that seems to preach one thing then do another.

We looked at the record of the Christian church and found that overall the story is certainly not all about people failing to live up to their beliefs but one of many great triumphs. However, the point remains that there are people who have done some terrible things in the name of God or while claiming to follow him. What can we do about it?

Listen to what Ross has to say by clicking the play button on the Audio Player at the bottom of this post.



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