The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week. Check back in every Friday to see the latest wrap up of religious news that made us think and reflect. Coming out as a son of a preacher man The Guardian features an opinion piece by a young gay man who is the son of an Anglican vicar exploring his experiences ...

Zimbabwean-born Johnson Makoti often gets phone calls out of the blue from people who have heard about the new prayer and deliverance ministry at the Atherton Uniting Church. Dianne Jensen reports. After only a year in the job, Rev Johnson Makoti’s hands-on approach to spreading the word of God has created a stir in the North Queensland town of Atherton and ...

Blatantly biblical or subtly current—Easter themes of sacrificial love, redemption and resurrection are being told and retold in modern cinema. Ashley Thompson explores. Undertones, analogies and parables—not all Biblical retellings of the Easter story are as obvious as The Passion of the Christ (2004) or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). In fact, if evangelism is the goal, ...

Telling others about the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection is a vital part of mission and discipleship, but it can be difficult—even intimidating. Rohan Salmond looks at how to overcome some of the challenges to evangelism. When Jesus was betrayed and crucified, the movement which had built up around him was shattered and immediately went underground. The eleven ...

This edition marks 30 years of Journey magazine. Mardi Lumsden explores the past, present and future of church communications. Leafing through newsprint is a fast-disappearing luxury. The dusty 30-year-old pages of the Journey archives are filled with stories of the church at work in the world, calling out injustice and celebrating global, national and local milestones. This is a record ...

Lead and share I’ve been fortunate to have grown up in schools and churches that have taken deliberate steps to cultivate and mentor young leaders. It’s been a great help to me over the years. On page four the moderator talks about leadership in a non-hierarchical Uniting Church context. Far from absolving us of the need for strong leaders, it ...

A renewed passion for planting new communities of faith is taking root in the Uniting Church Queensland Synod. Rohan Salmond explores. There was something different about the 31st Queensland Synod in Session. While synods are usually fairly sedate—sometimes even ponderous—on 14 and 15 October 2014 members of Synod raced from room to room talking excitedly in groups about the future ...

International student pastor Noah Kim talks to Dianne Jensen about his call to ministry in the Uniting Church. Noah Kim knows first-hand that the call to God’s service can take you far from home and well outside your comfort zone. The South Korean-born Christian received the nudge from his pastor to attend Bible college in Australia eight years ago—and has ...

University chaplain and evangelism trainer Rev Dr Ian Robinson reminds us that evangelism is about demonstrating a real faith in a real God in the real world. Jesus was loved by the people for the way he evangelised. In faith-sharing, we offer seven beautiful gifts to another person. Time The single most precious gift we can give is the time ...

For about a year, when I was a young bloke, a mate and I used to go to King George Square once a week on a Tuesday, walk up to people having their lunch break, and ask them, “If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?”  This was seen in my circles at the time to be ...