Relationships define reality for us. Everything is interrelated. The interconnectivity of all things, physical and spiritual, are held together by relationships. So much so, that I believe in and started to develop a relational hermeneutic of Scripture that can better help us understand the purposes of God in the world today.
I love the way Peterson’s Message Bible renders the question and response: Joshua asks, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?” and the response was, “Neither. I’m commander of GOD’s army. I’ve just arrived.” I launched my 2023 World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission Leader’s Missions Forecast from this passage. For my January 2024 post, I’ll repeat the introduction of that essay in the hope that it encourages you to take the time to read the rest.
In a country that has seen a sharp rise in people identifying as non-religious over the past years, a recent survey found people responding with a surprising openness to going to church this Christmas, if they are invited.
Brian Houston is making plans for 2024 to be his comeback year after a tumultuous season that saw him resign from the leadership of the church he founded, Hillsong, and stand trial and eventually be acquitted of accusations that he covered up his late father's abuse.
That suffering can be redemptive sounds utterly perverse in the ears of our mainstream contemporaries. Our secular reality (and too much theology) is so thoroughly drenched in (false) Epicurean hope that it is unfathomable to think that anything bad can ultimately be good, steeped as Epicureanism is in the pursuit of pleasure. We must not fall into the trap that God intends evil so that good might result. That is perverse.
This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is: “Hē o te kotahi, hē o te katoa.” (“The mistake belongs to the collective.”). I’ve said before, I started life in Canons Creek, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand—a notorious neighbourhood in the 1970s, noted for its gang violence and poverty-related issues.
United Methodist Church’s (UMC) General Conference held in Charlotte, N.C. USA, from April 23 - May 3, 2024, has left behind ripples and discordant voices from Africa about the Church’s position on same sex marriage and the ordination of gay persons into the church’s pastoral ministry.
