By Not Known Christian mission takes a wide variety of forms today. Just think about these present examples from within ORPC: Paul Johnson using his computer skills in the full-time, life-long work of supporting Bible translation. A member using some of her present school holidays to serve in a Christian orphanage in inland China. Another…

By Not Known Why am I here? That question has shaped our Sunday sermons and small group Bible studies over the last 7 weeks. It is a question about life’s purposes. ‘Why’ depends on ‘Who’ The ‘Why’ question depends on the ‘Who’ question. The Bible gives a clear answer to the 'Who' question. We are…

By Not Known What is the hardest mission field? A missionary in tropical Vanuatu reports having electricity for only a few hours a day, water running low and there being no money for the basic supplies. A missionary in China tells of Christian workers been arrested and disappearing, without information or judicial review. Missionaries in…

By Not Known There are people who perform lowly deeds around our hawker centres. They remove and wash dishes, disposed of garbage and wipe tables. They are rarely noticed or thanked and are almost never in the limelight. In New Testament times, these people would be called ‘deacons‘ or ‘servants‘. What is a servant? A…

By Not Known Today we continue our ‘Created for God’s Purposes’ series of sermons and studies with a practical focus on being God’s person. To be God’s person is to bear God’s likeness or image and so to fulfil our identity at Creation (Gen 1:26-27). To be God’s person is what we were made for.…

By Not Known A recent article declared that the virtual church is the way of the future. This ‘church‘ has no building and does not meet together. Instead, it is a cyber- community where members log on from home to download a service of their choice and then make their offering by electronic fund transfer.…

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…