The Spiritual Growth Myth

I remember a time when I was a youth pastor when (would you believe it?) my wife and I clashed heavily with some parents in the youth. After the initial conflict, grace prevailed and we agreed to talk things over. I’ll never forget one of the dads, probably in his late 40’s, apologising and saying […]

Getting the message through to the subconscious self

I shared recently that there are essentially two ‘yous’. The conscious mind and the subconscious self. Author Paul Scanlon refers to it as the Captain of the ship and the engine room controller (click here to see the message). My view is that we will then spend our life allowing our subconscious self line up […]

Keys to ESCAPING the desert!

We have all gone through desert experiences. Interestingly scripture highlights three different types of desert experiences and each require a different response. Dry and Fruitless: Fruitfulness in your life seems to have disappeared. While all other factors seem good (eg. contentedness to God, relationship with others and inner-life), obvious blessing seems to have dried up. […]

Why do murderers confess?

I find it interesting watching shows where they track down murderers and they lock them in those little rooms with two detectives. As we watch on through grainy video, it always goes like this, “No I didn’t do it, you have the wrong person, I wasn’t even there…” And as I watch these real life […]

Are you a Christian Buddhist?

Are you a Christian Buddhist? Now first up, I am no expert on Buddhism so my knowledge is limited and I am not beating up on their faith. But as a Christian, sometimes we can be surprised how wrong concepts can creep into our faith. One question I like to ask from time to time […]

When is it ok to judge someone?

Jesus in Matthew 7v1 says the famous words, “Judge not or you too will be judged.” In view of this often times we hear the church is judgmental even though Jesus told us not to judge. An interesting thing happens however, just a few verses later in Matthew 7. Jesus goes on to essentially tell […]

Why are people so unkind?

Kamahl famously said, ‘Why are people so unkind?” Why do we fight? Not just countries, not just political parties, but us – you and me! In Philippians 2 Paul answers this question. He draws us to an interesting point, that our fighting is caused by ‘vain conceit’. Vain conceit is from a Greek word which […]

5 signs that you are an older brother.

With the help of Tim Keller and his book “Prodigal God” I have been fascinated with the often neglected important lessons from the older brother in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). I believe most people can possess the tendencies of both the elder and the younger brother. But I think it can be […]

How to choose God things and not just good things

One of the learnings I have had in leadership that shocked me was that leadership isn’t about choosing between good and bad, but between good and better. Mostly the decisions we make aren’t between something awful and sinful and something brilliant and holy. In the church context they are more like: do we use that […]

Give yourself the gift of power this Christmas.

Imagine the irony in being gifted a brand new car for Christmas, let’s say a Holden Commodore. You go to the showroom, sign the forms, and the car is waiting for you with one of those nice big bows they like to put on it. You even get the obligatory Facebook photo telling the world […]