There is a great deal of suspicion of emotional manipulation. Sometimes I think that suspicion is justified. A friend told me a story about a church where the keyboard was hooked up to an electric shock machine, and just at the right moment the keyboard player would hit the button and people in the front … Read more…
Here’s a big claim: I think that almost all the most serious problems we run into when it comes to church gatherings have to do with a confusion between saving worship and saved worship. Jesus’ saving worship Saving worship is the worship that saves us. You may have experienced in your own life how easily … Read more…
Guest author Nick Utber of Open Box Technology is convinced the latest technology will create Robo-Pastors. The 21st Century has well and truly arrived, and with it comes technology only previously seen in science fiction. We still have not seen artificial intelligence of the ilk of The Jetsons and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but surely these are not … Read more…
Here’s a leadership lesson that I took way to long to learn. Say ‘no’, early. Like you, I’m a conflict avoider. I say, ‘like you’ because everyone avoids conflict (except sociopaths). It’s just a natural phenomenon. The undulation of rivers is a testament to the way conflict avoidance is baked into reality. However, the problem … Read more…
John Wesley famously declared that ‘The last part of a man to be converted is his wallet.’ This makes sense to me both personally and pastorally. I know the struggle to give, because I know the hope that money holds. As a minister, it is easy to rationalise that my great financial sacrifices have already … Read more…
On Sunday night I had the great pleasure of taking part in a panel on ABC radio’s Sunday Nights, with Noel Debien in the moderator’s chair. I was invited on to explain my (admittedly perhaps a bit too complex) thoughts as presented in my last blog post (“I hope the marriage equality bill achieves its … Read more…
I believe in the Biblical vision of marriage as the voluntary union of one man and one woman for life. And yet I think there are good Biblical reasons for Christians to applaud Bill Shorten’s motives in proposing amendments to the Marriage Act. And if passed, I hope it does achieve its goals.* This may … Read more…
Guest author Nick Utber of Open Box Technology on why programmers care about websites, and why churches should too. You may have heard the adage, ‘Programmers are tools that convert pizza and coffee into code’. This oft repeated phrase captures the imagination with its humour and apparent truth. It also captures the sentiment of … Read more…
Recently, I’ve been preparing some training for younger leaders on pastoral care, evangelism, and mentoring, and in doing so, I’ve come across some difficulties. There is an inherent artificiality to the way we do training and teaching on these topics, which is unfortunate given their personal and relational nature. It feels weird to write training … Read more…
In this final post I want to detail some of the core features that our brief required, and how we addressed each. This will hopefully be useful to other churches, as many of our functionality requirements will be common to most church websites. Security As the site deals with personal information (including processing credit cards) … Read more…