The other congregation this St Patrick’s Day

Tomorrow morning, there’ll be plenty of Christian saints meeting in churches across New Zealand to celebrate that Jesus died and rose. Yet there’ll probably be more people meeting in pubs across New Zealand to celebrate “St. Patrick’s Day” with much drunken revelry. If you get the opportunity to start a conversation, here are two four …

Worshipping a crucified man?

Christians are often openly mocked for ascribing honour and worth to Jesus Christ. To skeptics and enemies of Christianity, it seems an absurd idea to worship a Jewish carpenter whose greatest accomplishment (humanly speaking) was to incite a riot and get himself executed. Yet John Stott points out that this derision is not new: “…Whether …

Rock of Ages (Ruth Buchanan version)

A couple of reasons why I appreciate this arrangement: It’s very singable. Cheryl and I first heard this at YLC conference, and picked it up reasonably quickly. It matches the words better. In my opinion, Thomas Hasting’s original “Toplady” tune  and Richard Redhead’s  Petra  variation both  sound a bit too bright and chirpy, compared with the …