Tag Archives: faith

It can be one of the big chapters in a young person’s life—the transition from high school to tertiary education—but what happens to a young person’s faith as they encounter social and academic freedoms like never before? Raymont Residential College Principal Richard Niessl explores how to ensure high school is not the end of the road for a young person’s ...

It was recently my privilege to facilitate a number of electives at the Uniting Church Synod-wide youth camp, Easter Madness. My electives were titled, “Big Questions” which created space for groups of adolescents to ask and explore questions relating to life and faith. I was deeply impressed by the depth of questions asked, the maturity of ensuing interaction and the ...

What’s happening around the world with the Christian faith? Where are there places where the church is having a crack at being a sign and foretaste of the reign of God? I was at a workshop in Sydney last week sponsored by The Bible Society. A missiologist there told us he was telling his children that he was going to ...

They are an integral part of popular culture and a multi-billion dollar industry but video games have largely shied away from religion: from the earlier years of Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man to the current crop of Call of Duty, Pokemon and Grand Theft Auto, Christianity has rarely featured in a substantial or meaningful way. Things might be ...

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany and the rest, as they say, is history. Luther’s call for debate on the faith would lead to the Reformation which shook the very core of European thinking on religion, politics and culture. To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation Dr Janice ...

Although some might see an irreconcilable tension between science and religion, the quest for knowledge and meaning lies at the heart of both. While our understanding of the universe and humanity is constantly evolving as scientific breakthroughs occur, where does religious faith sit in our thinking? Nick Mattiske explores the big questions of science and faith in two books on ...

The 2016 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) data results have been released to the public but what do the numbers say about the state of the Uniting Church in Queensland and, more broadly, about Christianity in Australia? Queensland Synod Director of Mission Scott Guyatt investigates. Results from the 2016 National Church Life Survey are filtering through after more than 240 000 ...

If you look around your congregation you might notice a lack of young faces lining the pews but is regular church attendance really necessary for a child’s faith and what can we do to make it a more welcoming atmosphere? Rev Linda Hanson offers her thoughts. Yes, but … regular church attendance for children, as it is for people of ...

Radical love but what next? Thank you Rev Dr Peter Hobson for your challenge for us to join the mustard-seed conspiracy in response to violence and terror in our world (July 2017 edition). This is indeed a radical (at the root) response. In the safety and privacy of our homes and local churches, it is not hard to picture praying ...

Juggling work, family and community commitments can wear down even the most energetic of people so when do we schedule time to take a breather and let creative ideas around church flourish? Scott Guyatt contemplates what could be achieved if every church had a think-tank. Life in congregations can be incredibly busy, particularly for those with multiple leadership roles who ...