Ministry

Relating to some sort of ministry.

Arguing Abortion: Pick your Battlefield

Pregnant woman with scan picture
Read time: 6 minutes

Being a contentious topic, talking about abortion can be difficult. There are two general sides: "pro-life" and "pro-choice". These two often approach the topic from fundamentally different perspectives. This can make it difficult to have a meaningful and persuasive discussion. Instead, emotions get charged which can make the discussion even more difficult.

In this article I intend to describe one way in which to keep the discussion focussed and, hopefully, fruitful. Read more …

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Apologists who are Unkind

Read time: 13 minutes

The Christian is (or, rather, should be) a completely strange and alien being in the world. They must banish the impulses in which the world indulges. Perhaps one of the starkest things which we can do is, as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded, to "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). This does not always happen, but nevertheless, this is the command which has been given us.

So what does this love look like? How does this dictate how we should treat other people? What place is there for anger and being snide, if any? Read more …

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Christians' Copyrights

Copyleft
Read time: 8 minutes

The world grows increasingly complex. There are issues which the church did not have to may much attention up until a few decades ago, but is now part of our everyday lives. In this article I am going to discuss Christians and copyright.

This article is not about piracy; it is about how Christians handle the copyrights which they own on the works which they create to spread the gospel, whether sermons or booklets or videos. Read more …

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The End of the Richwood Informal Settlement: Part 4, The Community Today

Former Richwood informal settlement resident sitting in contemplation
Read time: 12 minutes

In the previous article of my series on the Richwood informal settlement, I explained what appeared (and still does) to me to be a dishonest and amoral move by the local government to displace and gain control of the land of Richwood. In this article, I am going to explain how the City has been treating these people post-move and what their situation is today. Read more …

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The End of the Richwood Informal Settlement: Part 3, Nothing Illegal

Aftermath from the Richwood Evacuations
Read time: 8 minutes

Previously I wrote about the eviction of the residents of the Richwood informal settlement, although "evacuation" might be a more technically correct word. In this article I shall explain, as far as I understand it, why and how the evacuations happened. Read more …

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The End of the Richwood Informal Settlement: Part 2, The Move

Remnants of Richwood shacks
Read time: 6 minutes

I previously wrote about how I became involved with our church's outreach ministry to the Richwood informal settlement. But what happened to it? Why am I writing under the title, "The End of Richwood"? In this article I explain what happened. Read more …

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The End of the Richwood Informal Settlement: Part 1, Introduction

Children enjoying bread and soup on a sunny winters day
Read time: 7 minutes

The Richwood informal settlement is no more. The hair suspending Damocle's sword has snapped and brought it down on a small impoverished community, cutting off the people from their land like a scythe through the tall spring grasses.

I realised when searching through my archives that I have never before written about Richwood here before, even though I had wanted to do so. While my friends and family know about it well, some readers here may not be aware of what I have been doing at Richwood. In this article I am therefore going to be giving a background to this story. Read more …

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What Divides Us

Dispute of the three wise men.
Read time: 15 minutes

I recently had a couple of debates and discussions with brothers and sisters in Christ about various matters of the Christian faith. These matters divide many Christians and churches. But they are not matters which make or break Christianity (unlike, say, the differences between orthodox Christianity and Mormonism1). At least, they are not supposed to be, as the article Eight Issues That Do NOT Make or Break Christianity2 contested. I agree with this article, but some people have grave reservations about some of these points. This is effectively saying "if you don't believe in x, you cannot be a Christian". In this article I want to address a couple of concerns raised around the aforementioned article. Read more …

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Sincere Unbelieving Christians?

Read time: 5 minutes

This weekend I listened to an episode entitled "What is faith?" from the Say Hello to my Little Friend podcast which is presented by doctor Glenn Peoples and which I have gotten into over the last few months. The episode deals with definitions and requirements for faith, and I thought that it was very good. I also thought that some of the things which it touched upon could be related to my previous post on open-minded non-Christians who can find the idea of embracing Christianity a bit daunting. Read more …

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Scary Christianity

Read time: 3 minutes

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 …

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