||Pastoral Passage|| God does not want churches who are preoccupied with themselves, nor does he want Christianity reduced to religiously-motivated social work.
||Article|| The MCU’s 2021 Eternals film presents two conflicting visions of human purpose. Does humanity exist for itself, or for something bigger? Eternals echoes and affirms a popular cultural response to this question.
||Pastoral Passage|| The answers to this question find many parallels when it is asked regarding church gatherings
||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.
||Pastoral Passage|| It is fine to pray for help, thank God or ask his forgiveness. But texts like Colossians 4:12 add something more – prayer in light of God’s promises and purposes, asking him to hasten these things.
||Extended Book Summary|| An intellectual history of the sexual revolution that still embroils western societies. It helps to answer questions such as, “Why do we celebrate the tearing down of traditional moral codes?” and “Why has sex education for ever-younger children become so important for social progressives?” and “how is it that the idea of ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ has come to make sense so suddenly to so many and ordinary people?”
||Pastoral Passage|| How has God defined the relationship between himself and humanity?
||Book Summary|| I am not fan of Brian Tamaki. As an educated Reformed Evangelical it is unsurprising that I would be at odds with a fundamentalist Pentecostal, as many others are for many different reasons. But I think a man with such a high profile and public loathing deserves the dignity of being understood. Having read Peter Lineham’s “Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-Made Apostle”, I came away disagreeing no less with Tamaki’s teaching and practice than I did before, but with significantly more respect for the man. For that reason, I commend the book to fans and critics of Brian Tamaki alike. It need not change your own final assessment, but it allows you to think more intelligently about him.
Christians in high places can do a lot of good for God’s kingdom, but they can also do a lot of damage. There is a risk that Christians in places of power end up becoming a liability to the gospel.
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Chris Northcott 