Dealing with Death Death. It is scary. It is confronting. It is difficult to process and difficult to think about. But in Jesus, we can approach death with an unbreakable hope. We don't speak about death often in our culture, but it is always near at hand. News stories are full of death. Funeral homes are in almost every suburb. Death is often an emotional part of a good movie. And sometimes we suddenly find ourselves face-to-face with death in our own personal lives. Ben Shaw was an Australian pastor, speaker, teacher, and author, who battled with cancer for several years. He was living in London until recently, when he and his family returned to Australia after being told by the doctors that his cancer could no longer be

Discipled by Your Phone? Michanne and I went for a walk together recently and the conversation we had really stuck with me. She shared about a talk she heard that argued persuasively that we are addicted to our phones without knowing it. Companies pour millions of dollars to keep us addicted to our phones and to social media. Essentially, what they’re competing for is our attention. Many people call this the ‘attention economy’. Our attention is a scarce resource that they want to tap into, so they spend a lot of time and money to gain it and persuade us to buy into whatever they’re selling. I know a pastor who often says we are being ‘discipled’ by our phones… which is a bit of a scary picture! Now,

Let the Little Ones Come to Me I once heard a friend say, “Whoever wrote the song Easy Like a Sunday Morning never tried to get their family of small children up and out the door to church on time!” There’s breakfast to organise, showers to have, clothes to iron, odd socks to find, nappy bags to pack… it’s a big task! And there’s nothing easy about it. But, here at BPCC we believe it’s so worth it! Jesus himself said, “Let the little children come to me…” (Matthew 19:14), and we are passionate about seeing every person, whatever age they are, growing in their relationship with Jesus. The church is, after all, a place for all ages. And that’s why on a Sunday we offer age-specific ministries for

Three Rules of Engagement at Church Rebecca McLaughlin has written one of the best and most helpful books I’ve read in recent years: ‘Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion’. She expertly and insightfully handles some of the thorniest objections to the Christian faith. I highly recommend it to you. But it’s something else Rebecca has shared that has stuck in my memory. In an article titled ‘Make Sunday Mornings Uncomfortable’, she shared three rules of engagement at church. These are three rules that guide the way she and her husband approach the Sunday gathering. They are deeply thoughtful and immensely practical. I share them with you in the hope that we might all capture the heart of these ‘rules’ and begin to put them into

Who’s Afraid of the ‘H’ Word? What do you think about when you hear the word ‘holiness’? It isn’t a word that we use often, and for some it comes with strong negative connotations. It might bring to mind strict rules, unreachable purity, stern conduct, and bland obedience. But holiness is a common theme in the Bible, and it is never described as a bad thing! In fact, holiness is described as something great, which leads to true happiness. Holiness in the Bible is a key part of a Christian life, and is something to strive for. Holiness describes absolute moral purity—to be holy is to be completely good, to not only do what is right, but to never do wrong. God, of course, is the perfect embodiment of

The countdown is on! You might be wondering ‘what countdown?’ In roughly 60 days, athletes from all over the world will come together for the much-anticipated, perhaps controversial, and slightly postponed (thanks COVID) Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. And while there are many discussions going around regarding the wisdom of holding the event in light of the pandemic, let’s focus for a moment on the athletes who’ll be there to compete. I can only imagine the extensive preparation that must go into training and being ready to compete at an international level.  The degree of self-discipline athletes must have leading up to an event, is just amazing. And how can you not admire their determination and focus? Everything they do is with the end goal in mind – winning. With