Recently we remembered Reformation Day: the day when Martin Luther sparked the protestant reformation by nailing his objections to the corruptions within the Roman Catholic Church to the church door in Wittenberg. Okay, it may not have been very recently, but time slips by rather quickly, and I am sure that you can still what you did on Halloween. Remembering Reformation Day, together with some questions which I have been hearing, got me thinking about the issue of grace. The issue of grace lies at the very heart of the reformation: that God's will (apart from anything that we do) is enough for our sins to be forgiven. This is possible because the punishment which was due to us for all our wrongs (past, present and future) have already been paid for by Jesus on the cross. Read more …

South Africa has, as far as I am aware, the most unique national anthem in the world. What makes it so unique, is the fact that it is in fact two different songs appended to each other. The first is Nkosi Sikele' iAfrika, which was the party song of the African National Congress (ANC): once a group designated a terrorist group by the Apartheid government, and currently the ruling party in South Africa. The second is The Call of South Africa (Die Stem van Suid-Afrika), which was the previous national anthem of South Africa. These are sung in five different languages (of the eleven official languages which South Africa has): Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. Read more …

Thinking about singleness in the Christian context has never been clear-cut. Jesus and the apostle Paul defied the cultural norms of the day by saying that it is good for a person not to marry (e.g. 1 Corinthians 7:32–33). While it is also still good to marry (1 Corinthians 7:38), Christianity brought a new consideration into the picture: that of ministry (that is, the proclamation of the gospel). A person who is not married has less to worry about than someone who is (1 Corinthians 7:35). Of course a person who is married can still evangelise or be in another ministry (not to mention that having a family itself is a ministry), but a single person has more free time which can be devoted to ministry. However, in Western culture there is a seemingly unquestioned expectation that people—especially within the church—should marry. This can create some tension or even friction, to which I as someone who is single can testify. In this article I want to lay bare some of my thoughts around singleness and I hope that it could lead to some good discussion around a topic which is not (in my experience) spoken about much in the church. Read more …

As another calendar year draws to a close, it is a good time to reflect on the year past, and one that lies ahead. Read more …

I suppose that there are a couple of ways in which Christianity can be scary for an open-minded non-Christian. One is to go to a church and to watch people around you start making weird noises with quivering lips, and fall to the floor and bark like a dog. One probably has a good reason to be scared in such a situation. But that is not the kind of scary that I want to talk about in this post. The type of scary Christianity which I want to reflect on, is one which is a bit paradoxical. On the one hand, it seems almost incomprehensible to the faithful Christian. On the other hand, and perhaps without realising it, it is very familiar. Read more …

Today my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. It was done without pomp1: just going out for family lunch while visiting relatives on the west coast. While I was driving out there yesterday, I thought about the implications and significance of this anniversary. My parents have had a rough time for most of those 40 years and are (in different ways) not where you would expect a couple to be after such a time.

• 1. Unlike another wedding ceremony which took place yesterday, but congratulations to them.

Last week the following was retweeted and came across my Twitter stream: A Christian without a church family is an orphan. Sadly, I can attest that this assertion is true. Read more …