Someone asked me tonight why Phil and I hadn’t commented on the riots and violence at Cronulla. The main reason for me is that I can’t really comment sensibly on the situation; I have never been to Cronulla beaches, I have never lived in the Shire, and the most I have had to do […]

Further to our previous post, Careforce now has a brochure (pdf) on their site about the “win a car” promotion. The picture on the brochure is of a second hand Ford Laser, but it is not entirely clear that the car pictured is the one that is being used as a “door prize”. […]

Here we go again…

“HILLSONG Church is generating money by recycling public funds aimed at disadvantaged people back into its own coffers through tithes, a NSW MP has alleged.
Labor MP Ian West has written to a NSW ombudsman asking him to investigate the claims that Hillsong is giving electricity vouchers to financially strapped people, then drawing […]

One of the threads on another post has turned into a discussion of tithing and giving to the church. I thought I would elevate that discussion to its own thread. As a personal reflection, one of our spiritual disciplines is managing our money (which includes the idea of financially supporting the church). […]

All I seem to be able to read about on blogs this last week is the story of how people have or have not managed to buy U2 tickets. The first show sold out in two hours. TWO HOURS!!! How are there that many people who care enough about this band to […]

The following is a story by Anthony De Mello and is quoted by Ashley Barker in “Collective Witness – a theology and praxis for a missionary order”:
Once there lived a man who discovered how to make fire. He was a good man and did not keep the discovery to himself. He went around from village to […]

Amusing article today about the fact that a number of US megachurches will be closed on Christmas Day, citing the difficulty in getting volunteers to staff services and fears of low attendances:
Willow Creek Community Church, in Illinois, one of the six largest US churches, with a weekend attendance of nearly 22,000, is among those closing […]

Ned asks in a comment to this thread:
Geoff
You were at Hillsong as it was developing its present leadership structure and philosophies.
What would be 5 areas of current Leadership you would address if you spoke at a conference to Pastors of Large churches?
Okay, answers in the comments below. For the sake of the discussion, please […]

We had some people visiting our tangent congregation last night. They had been doing the rounds of several churches – one of which was careforce church.
I was surprised to hear that careforce is offering an incentive for people to attend church by allocating you a number if you are new and you will be put […]

It appears that after washing around on the blogosphere for a couple of days, including a mention by frequent commenter Lance (I would link the thread, but can’t figure out what post it was on), the advertiser has caught on to the email to Family First supporters worrying that homosexual behaviour would be “normalised” as […]