So much in life and ministry has changed with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.  A preacher of long ago reminded us that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)   This preacher identified many of our currents realities.   For too many this is a time to die and a time to weep.  There is a time for togetherness and there is a time to remain apart. For all...

The walls in Berlin came a tumbling down in 1989.   Twenty-seven years earlier a barbed wire and concrete wall was built to seperate East and West Berlin.   But that all changed 9 November 1989. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall, all the while crying out: "Open the gates!" Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself.  Then cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after...

You might have heard it said, where there's life there is hope.  This deep truth has been said beside many a sick bed, many a tragedy.   As humans we are always hoping as the great English poet Alexander Pope put it:  "Hope springs eternal in the human breast."  We live in anticipation of better things into the future.  This is what we constantly look forward to.   If there was any time when hope is...

The idea of resilience is as simple as the metaphor of a rubber band.   Rubber bands, like people, come in different sizes and are subjected to different challenges. They also have different thickness and abilities to stretch–shorter or longer.  With normal use, a typical band will not break.  If you stretch a rubber band to its maximum, it usually springs back.   But it can easily be stretched beyond its limits.  When a rubber band is exposed...

There is a huge need for preachers of the Word!   Every week I am reminded of that need as I serve the churches here in Australia.   Currently we have 13 vacant positions in our churches.   These are ministry positions that need to be filled by preachers.  In a decade this number will double if nothing is done to meet this need.   So what do we need to do?   How do we raise preachers?  Immediately we might...