||Pastoral Passage|| Church life in New Zealand – like that of tourism and hospitality – has been disrupted and constricted these past two years, and it seems now that the times of lockdowns and gathering restrictions have come to an end. The Lord’s response to the despondent Jews at their return from exile also speaks today to church communities who are rebuilding.
Category Archive: Current Events
||Pastoral Passage|| In light of the current coronavirus pandemic and the use of vaccines to ward off its serious ill effects, I would like to share two incidents – deaths – from the life of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards’ faith was in the same God and gospel we have today. The same confident hope is offered and there are the same expectations for selfless, humble, purposed living.
Some thoughts on a letter Martin Luther wrote to a friend during a health crisis.
The following is a list outlining 27 out of the 114 amendments that were rejected from the End Of Life Choice Bill. These are the kind of things advocates for a ‘No’ vote suggest would make the ‘End of Life Choice’ Bill a safer euthanasia law and should have been included in the law.
Christians have a distinctive view of the world and a particular, Christ-centered spirituality. It is in light of this that we would like to reconsider the appeal of euthanasia. We have identified five reasons – five fears – why people, Christians included, might wish for assisted dying, and shown how the hope we have in Christ confronts these fears. All of them are understandable, and forgivable, yet none of them are so dark that this hope cannot sustain his people through them.
When we vote in the October 17 New Zealand General election, we will also be asked to vote for or against the End of Life Choice Bill. Here are five reasons why New Zealanders should consider voting ‘No’.
||Short Article|| Compelling motivations exist for Christians not to promote conspiracy theories. Even the ones that they are certain are true.
Donald Trump’s photograph outside a forcefully-cleared church entrance while holding up a Bible has brought new shame on Christianity.
This Sunday will be the first time our church has gathered together since March 15. That’s eleven Sundays ago. The time has come when we may reopen the doors of our churches and sit again on each other’s couches, and return to face-to-face fellowship.
New Zealand appears to have dodged a bullet and gotten off lightly in this pandemic, yet many Christians are berating the government because we cannot gather as churches under Lockdown Level 2. But there is a high cost which I doubt we are counting.
Chris Northcott 