In this short clip, Alan Hirsch discusses the difference between the church as communitas, not community. A communitas is a church steeped and driven by mission, not ministry. As a result, it isn’t afraid to take risks as it moves towards the future with an honest sense of adventure and creativity; qualities that often don’t […]

Delightful, beautiful and full of hope. One day, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and renew the world as it should be.

What is the goal of the gospel? Fame? Prestige? Large churches? Converts? Heaven? Happy marriages? Large homes? Cottages? Actually, none of the above. In this short video, Skye Jethani explains what the actual goal of the gospel is. You may be surprised with his answer. Maybe not.

Last year while teaching a course called ‘Social Justice in the Gospels’ to a group of Christian street workers, a recurring question kept coming to the surface throughout every one of my lectures. The students wanted to articulate what makes their work, at one of Toronto’s largest inner city ministries, any different than their secular […]

The Problem of Pain Pain – We are all equally subject to it. It is vitally important, therefore, to establish a view of pain, suffering and evil that does justice to God’s character, the witness of scripture and our experience of it. I once heard someone make this comment in relation to our attempts to […]

Power, Control and God’s Creation – Models for Understanding Evil I start by asking, what kind of world did God choose to create? While a number of models have been proposed in response to this question, many of which deserve attention, I’ll briefly outline two of the most popular viewpoints, those that exist on opposite […]

I just finished reading Matthew’s account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, specifically the last three chapters. One thing that stood out during this particular reading was the variety and content of the insults directed towards Jesus when he hung on the cross in 27:37-44.  “Those who passed by hurled insults at him” (v. 39), […]

When it comes to the miraculous, and specifically healing, there are two common questions that people have in relation to Jesus Christ: Is he able? Is he willing? Perhaps the first would be an easier one to respond to, especially when we encounter the plethora of healing accounts in the the Gospel records. Story after […]