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 ...

The members of the last Synod in Session asked the church to prioritise ministry with children, youth and families. While my journey of faith was marked by a conscious decision to commit my life to Christ in my early 20s, the experience of Christian community as a child and a youth was profound and life changing. I look back on ...

The Uniting Church is not widely known for being pentecostal or charismatic, but that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit isn’t part of our theological DNA, writes Rev Dr Wendi Sargeant. As young theological students, we loved it when a minister retired and donated books to the Trinity students to scour for relevant knowledge for the next assignment and to add ...

A couple of weeks ago, one Friday night, the youth group from St Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church in Brisbane hit the streets. They introduced themselves to people and told them that the cathedral was open for prayer; that they were welcome to go in, pray about something that was on their mind or troubling them, and light a candle as ...

Whenever two or three people gather to eat and drink together as part of worship, café church is happening. Dianne Jensen talks to three Queensland congregations exploring fresh forms of this ancient model of being church. It’s family friendly, low key, and a lot harder to slip into the back row unnoticed. Café church is a contemporary reimagining of a ...

The October edition of Journey magazine is now available to download. The heart of community When I was in Sunday School, it was drilled into me that church is not a building, it is a community. Church can happen anywhere, “wherever two or three are gathered in my name”. It is a body and a family which grows and changes, reflecting Christ’s love ...

The ministry of lay preacher lies at the heart of the Uniting Church’s vision of a Christian community which celebrates the gifts of every member. Dianne Jensen reports. Caroline Holmes from Fitzroy North Rockhampton Uniting Church has clocked up 53 years of lay preaching, and she is busier than ever. She is one of an army of lay preachers who ...

Last month, 15 leaders of North Queensland Presbytery’s annual kids’ campout embarked on the mission to create a counter-cultural camp community. Ashley Thompson reports. Children from congregations as far and wide as Ingham, Charters Towers, Townsville and Burdekin gathered for the North Queensland Presbytery annual kids’ campout in August. Organised by volunteers from local congregations, 15 adults gave up their ...

SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains spoilers for the Disney Pixar animation Inside Out. Disney Pixar’s latest animation feature Inside Out offers purpose to all personified emotions, addressing the guilt and shame of Sadness. Ashley Thompson writes. Critically acclaimed for offering a “strikingly intricate and satisfying conceptualisation of a pre-teen’s psyche”, Director Pete Docter’s candy-coloured visual bonanza Inside Out explores ...

Google suggestions don’t lie. So if popular opinion is calling out Christian movies and music as the “enemy of quality”, “intellectually vacant” and “disconnected from reality” what value does it hold in a world already full of hopeless content? Ashley Thompson explores. Christians in media are stuck between a rock and a hard place—damned if they do, damned if they ...