Two Ways News

Oh, how the worm has turned.  I remember a time—let’s call it 1985—when certain young music leaders (perhaps like me) could get a little frustrated with the tastes and sentiments of an older musical generation.  Couldn’t they see that the rah-rah, British Empire vibe of ‘At the name of Jesus’ belonged to another time? Or that the ponderous, stately hymns of our heritage, with their neatly resolvin...

I’ve been wanting to write a significant piece about politics and the Christian citizen for some time, but I very much doubt that this week’s Payneful Truth  will be it.  It will be a step or two down that road, but it’s unlikely I’ll get all the way to the destination in this short piece. All the same, I hope that it edges your own thinking along the path a little.  We find ourselves at this poin...

Last week’s post on the ‘sin of opinion’ prompted a thoughtful email from Michael Payne (no relation), asking a good and obvious question. Granted that social media opinionating is often a folly, is there a wise alternative? Michael put it like this: Surely we are called to seek Justice and Mercy, while walking humbly with our God, and that may lead to expressing opinions to influence those we rel...

Have you ever been part of a social media thread like this?  Anyone seen the latest Star Wars?  Nah. But I hear it stinks.   That’s what they’re saying.   I’ve seen the trailer. Terrible. Whole series jumped the shark long ago.   Haha yes. Three words. Jar. Jar. Binks.   Haven’t and won’t. It will be even more cringeworthy than the last.  Whose genius idea was it to give the movie to the director...

A few weeks ago, from out of a post-viral haze, I posted some thoughts about the mysterious nature of Christian ministry—that is, the counter-intuitive way that God in his wisdom deliberately uses weak and stupid people, preaching an apparently weak and stupid message, in order to save people in such a way that the credit is all his (to channel Paul’s vibe in 1 Cor 1-2).  And I asked you to help m...

In the tradition of what we had to do in school when I was growing up, here’s my composition exercise on the first day back from holidays.  (Plus some bonus thoughts on preaching at the end from Phil Wheeler and David Jackman.)  Holidays are hardly the time for deep thought. A bit of quiet musing perhaps, as the miles drift by down the highway, with a favourites compilation playing on the car ster...

As foreshadowed in last week’s edition, I want to come back to a question that has been niggling away at me over the past few months, and that a number of you have asked about.  The question goes like this:  * let us agree that there is only one gospel (not many gospels);  * and let us also agree that each person we tell the gospel to will have different questions, and come to the gospel with diff...

Time to pause from the regular rhythm of Payneful episodes, and discuss some of the many excellent questions and comments that you keep sending in. About the gospel The various Two ways to live  related posts about the nature of the gospel (and our preaching of it) have prompted numerous insightful comments and questions.  John, for example, posed this fascinating one:  With regard to preaching th...

I’ve been chatting with the trainees at CBS about preaching recently, and have come up with a slightly different way to describe the preaching task. See what you think … I have a newish definition of preaching to run past you.  Or at least, a newish angle from which to view what we’re trying to do when we preach. (And by ‘preach’ I mean what we normally mean in our circles—the public exposition of...

This is the second in a little three-part series thinking about different aspects of our church meetings—now that many of us are back and almost approaching normal church again.  This is also one of the free public editions of The Payneful Truth that comes out every three weeks or so—which means that if you’re on the free list, you will have missed the first post in the series (last week) on leadi...

After nearly a year of somewhat dissatisfying, best-we-could-do substitutes, we’re getting back to the real churchiness of church, at least in my part of the world—by which I mean the actual gathering of God’s people around his saving word. It’s marvellous.  All the same, whenever you return to something familiar after a break, you do see it with new eyes. It’s an excellent opportunity to pause an...

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard or used the word ‘restriction’ so many times in a calendar year.  What are the latest restrictions?  When are restrictions going to be eased?  How are we going to do X at the moment, given the restrictions?  These have been our constant questions.  (In fact, as I write this, I believe the premier of Western Australia has just imposed Apocalypse Level 10 Restrictions in...

Perhaps I’m perverse, but I really quite enjoy the first week back at work after holidays.  I don’t have super high expectations of myself. I know it will take a while to get the brain working, and to remember what it is that I am being paid to do.  And it’s one of those times of year when you have the excuse (in fact, the obligation) to pause and think about what you should be doing. To strategiz...

Here’s the third and final little piece in our summer holiday series of spiritual golf lessons.  Picture the scene.  I’ve smashed a soaring 230m drive down the middle. I’ve laced a piercing 3-iron that comes to rest just a few feet from the green. And there I stand, having taken two shots to be just short of the green on a par 5.  I look significantly at my playing partners, and they give an appre...

This is the second in a little series of holiday reflections about golf and the Christian life. Feel free to share them with your friends. When Fijian golfer Vijay Singh stepped onto the first tee for the final round of the 1998 USPGA, he was setting out on the most important 18 holes of his life. He was tied for the lead with Steve Stricker. They were both trying to win their first Major.  Earlie...

For some light-hearted but encouraging holiday reading, here is the first in a series of three short lessons from the most frustrating, challenging and beautiful game of all.  I wrote these little pieces a few decades ago as scripts for TV spots. They were filmed at the Coast Golf Club by Anglican media and broadcast on Channel 7, probably at 5am. Whether any tape still exists I don’t know.  I’ve...

A final festive Payneful reflection at the end of a disconcerting year. (See below for what to expect over the Christmas holidays.) Just when we thought we were mooching towards a passably standard Christmas, we find ourselves once more (in my part of the world) in a state of covid anxiety. Will we be allowed to gather for Christmas services? Will Christmas lunch go ahead? Will we ever see our rel...

That revision of the Two ways to live outline that I’ve mentioned once or twice?  Well it’s nearly done. The final commas are being debated. Some new designs are being workshopped. I’ve even seen mock-ups of some very fetching t-shirts and caps (remember when we used to call that ‘witness wear’?). The feedback we’ve received about the proposed changes has been really useful and encouraging, and so...

A couple of posts ago , I talked about whether church should be thought of more as a family (or community) or as a society (or enterprise). I ended up arguing that both were important, and needed to be held together. And this got me thinking. Have you ever pondered just how many different aspects of Christian teaching are exactly like this—consisting of two truths that need to be held together at...

Thanks for the very thoughtful emails and responses to last week’s post about whether church is more like a family/community or more like a society/enterprise. If you haven’t already, you should go and read Callan Pritchard’s reflections in the comments. Very insightful. (And if you didn’t get last week’s post because you’re not a ‘Payneful partner’ and you only get these free posts every three we...

Last time, our discussion about training and pastors led us towards a related and very important question: Is the church like a family that is focused on the spiritual welfare and growth of each individual member? Or is the church more like an army or a mission society with a vision and purpose that lies beyond itself in reaching the lost? In the language of classical sociology, is the church prim...

(Click the player to listen to the podcast version of this post, or read on …) Here’s the third (and final for the time being) of a little ‘Back to School’ series on what I’m learning by being back in campus ministry. In the first two posts, I talked about the centrality of the Word and the power of patient culture building . The kind of pastor that's hard to find It’s amazing how many different k...

[Listen to the audio version, or read on … Up to you!] In this week’s Payneful Truth, a slight divergence from my normal practice, which is to avoid writing about anything newsworthy or topical. Some recent sad accusations against a prominent Christian leader caught my eye this past week, and prompted the following reflections. Conspicuous sins It’s happened again. A much-loved, high-profile evang...

Something different this week—the first in what I hope will be an occasional series of ‘book talks’ on The Payneful Truth. The idea is pretty simple: I ring up a good friend and ask them what book they’ve enjoyed recently and would like to talk about; I then read the book too, and we have a conversation. I hope every book and conversation is as stimulating and enjoyable as this first one, a chat w...

For those who haven’t caught up with this, I started a new role in January this year at Campus Bible Study, working as a ministry trainer about 40% of my time, with the rest of my week spent writing things like The Payneful Truth and new ministry resources. The student ministry at CBS was where nearly everything started for me, back in the 1980s. It’s where I learned what it meant to be an evangel...