By Not Known Recent years have seen what many call the ‘Worship Wars‘. Churches have been divided over issues related to worship styles, especially with regard to music (lyrics and instrumentation), prayer styles, degrees of informality and such like. New churches have been formed in which the defining feature, power of attraction, is just in…

By Not Known Life without purpose Around us we see people who live life without purpose. They have no centre to give inner and outer poise and are easily unbalanced. Many of these live for the experience of the moment – with no sense of past or future. It is not surprising that many of…

By Not Known Today we have a happy link between Easter Sunday and our Communion service. First, we look backwards: Like the Jewish Passover from which it is derived, the Christian Communion looks backwards (1 Cor 11:24-26). We look back to the saving deeds of Jesus on the Cross. As we look back to the…

By Not Known At the start of Easter week we are conscious of Jesus’ death. The Cross that hung over him since birth is now a looming shadow that will soon blot out all light in the darkness of that Friday afternoon. A classic interpretation of Jesus’ death is found in Rom. 3:21-26. It can…

By Not Known Easter is soon here and it is timely to think about the Passion of Jesus. The Passion has central place in each of the four Gospels. This is so much so that someone describes them as ‘Passion stories with introductions’. For example, nine of the 21 chapters in John are concerned with…

By Not Known In today’s world, a wealthy person is someone who can choose what to eat, what to wear, where to live, and who has savings. That makes just about all of us wealthy. We live in a wealthy country and the Christian population tends to come from the better-educated and better-paid section of…

By Not Known A new membership class starts this week. Some will join us by adult Baptism, as a public declaration that they want to trust, follow and serve Jesus. Others will join Confirmation, as a public declaration that the faith of their parents, in which they were baptised as infants, is also their faith.…

By Not Known Missions is the work of communicating the message about Jesus and challenging people to believe in him. The reason for missions is simple: God plans to save a vast number of people from every branch of humanity and uses his church to tell about Jesus and gather those people (Rev. 7:9- 10;…

By Not Known What is a Christian? A Christian is someone who trusts, follows and serves Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus was ‘God in the flesh‘. He is the Son who left heaven’s throne to come to earth to live amongst us, to die and to be raised. His death enables us to become…

By Not Known Sometimes we look at our lives and wonder. Perhaps we see a state of chaos, as we are pulled in multiple directions by conflicting forces. Or Worse – sometimes it seems that an evil god has seized power. At times like these we wonder who is in control. It must have seemed…