For over fifteen hundred years, religious orders have been the driving force in the renewal and mission of the Catholic Church. Throughout their history, the orders have sought to maintain high levels of commitment to their cause. That began to change in the 1960’s when the orders sought to enter the modern age following the [...]
Monthly Archives: April 2005
My dad’s story
10 April, 2005 – 8:35 AM
My father’s boyhood hero was his cousin, Jim Spence. Jim grew up in the Australian outback. Just before the outbreak of World War II Jim and a six of his mates lied about their ages and joined the Australian Lighthorse Brigade. Jim was sixteen. War broke out and the boys found themselves fighting in North [...]
Why can’t church be like football?
9 April, 2005 – 10:40 PM
One hundred and eighty boys eagerly awaited their medals. Proud mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas, poised to take that commemorative snap. The annual AusKick awards—sponsored of course by MacDonalds. I was one of those proud dads. I watched as each of the one hundred and eighty players took their turn at being heroes on [...]
Can anything good come out of Ireland?
8 April, 2005 – 8:50 PM
Patrick was just sixteen when his town in Roman Britain was attacked by Irish raiders. They captured him and sold him into slavery in Ireland. The year was somewhere around 405AD. Patrick came from a Christian family. Patrick’s father, Calpurnius, was a deacon. His grandfather had been a priest. In his Confessions he tells us [...]
The power of spiritual power
7 April, 2005 – 6:40 AM
For a number of years I have taught a church planting course for the Salvation Army in Sydney. I enjoy going back each year not only for the interaction with the students but also because of the location. The Collaroy conference centre is located on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the northern beaches [...]
How was it done?
6 April, 2005 – 9:45 PM
Pre-existing relationships are the key to any exponential growth of a movement.
Why plant new churches?
5 April, 2005 – 10:00 PM
I caught up with a denominational field worker recently and he mentioned that he was visiting one of the healthiest churches in his denomination. “Really, are they interested in starting new churches?” “They have no interest at all.” “Then how can that be a healthy church?” The fruit of a healthy apple trees is not [...]
Christianity moves South
4 April, 2005 – 8:14 PM
“As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God ‘moving’ geographically from the Middle East, to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where he is wanted.” Philip Yancey For the last five hundred years the story of Christianity has been bound up [...]
How the West was won
3 April, 2005 – 8:38 AM
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the decline of mainline churches and it causes. Some excellent work has been done by Roger Finke and Rodney Stark two sociologists who dabble in history. Finke and Stark have examined denominational statistics on the US church between 1776 and 1850. They concluded that “the so-called [...]
When the church goes to the dogs
2 April, 2005 – 6:51 PM
The first challenge to my naive dream for the Church began when, as a new believer, I attended my first church members’ meeting. I left disillusioned after a night of heated debate over where the choir should stand during Sunday services. G. K. Chesterton once reflected that, “On five occasions in history the Church has [...]
