“I want to start a conversation within our community about the environment and about the climate emergency. We need to start thinking seriously about how we face the challenges that lie ahead and how we understand our role in protecting the environment.”

“I myself am compelled by evidence for cooperation in evolution since it can help us to infer a relational God as the source of a creative evolutionary process. Perhaps what we know about God can help us to see his fingerprints in the natural world elucidated by science.”

“History, scripture and astronomy help us to gain a new and better understanding of the story of Christ’s birth, including the date of his birth, the journey of the magi, that famous star, Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem, the fabled inn, the message of the angels, the nearby shepherds, the swaddling cloths, and even the manger in which the saviour was laid.”

“Jacob is the proof that character gaps can be bridged. The triumph of radical change is open to a disciple. That a disciple, today, wherever they may find themselves, and whatever circumstances surround them, can grab on and Hold Fast to God, and triumphantly just relinquish a life to God, choosing to Wait Continually on Him.”

This second chapter is about the birth and development of the Church and shows the result of the Christ’s resurrection, with the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early Christians as the church becomes established, despite the severe persecution it suffered.

“Hope can be found in the most unlikely places and one of the most amazing things about scripture is that the hope of what Jesus would one day do is constantly foreshadowed.”

“I’m asking you to re-examine your thoughts and feelings about the Jewish community. I’m asking you to be cautious of discussing Jews without defining exactly who you mean. I’m asking you to use respectful and appropriate language but my main plea is that you respond to Jews, and anyone else who is suffering, with compassion.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” - Matthew 23:23-24

This is the truth of our Floating World: its sometimes beautiful structures, finely balanced — until they aren’t. How convincing they seem— how permanent— until, inevitably, they break up at the slightest movement of the deeper reality they ride upon.

Jesus loved the unlovely. He saw the love where we see neediness, he recognised the inner anguish and need for forgiveness where we see an embarrassing lack of protocol and poor behaviour.

Mistaking your participation in a church for your spiritual identity can impede your walk toward Jesus. He wants the best for us, and the best from us. Our church should enable that relationship.

We are at a critical juncture in our history with much opportunity but also much danger. As a community, we can easily find our fellowship reduced to, or possibly exposed as a loosely affiliated, fractured group of believers if we don’t prayerfully manage this post-pandemic transition period in our history.

One of the challenges that I've observed and many have observed as well in our community, is the question: “has our Sunday morning worship become too structured, too rigid, too formal, and is no longer serving the needs of our community?”

Judah is a person that grows up in a family that has messy, awkward problems. He has issues with anger, with jealousy. He struggles with his emotions. He lies and deceives those around him. He runs away from his problems. He's afraid. He gives into his lusts and desires. And so if you look at him in that way, he actually becomes a very relatable person.

This second chapter is about the birth and development of the Church and shows the result of the Christ’s resurrection, with the Holy Spirit being poured out on the early Christians as the church becomes established, despite the severe persecution it suffered.

“The essence of God is not one of fear. God is love! This is the God who wants us to call him Father. Love is perfected in us so we may have confidence in the day of judgement. So if we walk in love, this two-way relationship casts out fear.”

"For me, it could well end in a kinder and more empathetic form of Christianity – less judgemental, gentler, more forgiving, more loving and caring. All the things that pervade the whole of the gospel message brought by Jesus.”

“We are going to see that the force of sin is so powerful that lawmaking is ineffectual before it. If all we have are rules and laws, we are doomed. Salvation will require more than a religion based on rules.”

“I think this is one of the main reasons why it feels so natural for praise and worship to flow through music. When we need to express the inexpressible, to elevate with beauty, and to release what can no longer be contained, we often turn to music.”

“We are going to see that the force of sin is so powerful that lawmaking is ineffectual before it. If all we have are rules and laws, we are doomed. Salvation will require more than a religion based on rules.”