I go a bit off-piste in the talk – and if you listen to it you will discover why I am still earnestly writing my sermons out in full first. Wealth. Money. Always an interesting topic. Actually, I find the whole topic of money – what it is, how it works, what it means – […]
Every age has its key dilemma, its key anxiety. For us in the post-modern west the key anxiety is the crisis of meaning. What is life really all about? Does it actually mean anything at all? All our traditional ways of finding meaning in life are disintegrating. Given that, I think we will find that, […]
Here is a link to the readings. One of my personal heroes of the faith is the great reformer Martin Luther. His stand against the abuses of the medieval church – from nailing the famous 99 theses on the door the Wittenberg church to his courage at the Diet of Worms, summed up in the […]
This is a sermon I preached a couple of weeks ago about Mary and Martha. You can listen to it here (and marvel at how slowly I’m managing to speak) Or you can read it below. Luke 10:32-48 Sermon at Wesley Church Melbourne 16/7/2016 Life can feel very mysterious sometimes. Random, and often terrible, events fill […]
I recently listened to Rob Bell’s podcast, the Robcast, and was struck by the story he told about his a very unsuccessful book tour which he made. The context was that he had recently written his very controversial book Love Wins – see here and here for a few sample reviews. In his previous book tours […]
One of the controversies I often find myself embroiled in is my use of business style language when I talk about church. This is especially true when I use words like “entrepreneur.” So, I wonder: can a church be entrepreneurial? What, in other words, does Donald Trump have to do with Jerusalem? The resonances of […]
I’m generally pretty topic-focused in this blog, a bit shy to share details about what I’m up to and so on. I’m not sure why – I always like to read that sort of thing in blogs I follow – it helps me to feel a bit more connected. Plus I haven’t quite gotten it […]
I was recently blown away by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. From the huge, decadent party in the opening scenes during which Jep Gambarella, writer and aging roué, is revealed grinning mischieviously at the camera, king of the high life, through the crisis caused by the discovery that the only woman he ever […]
I’ve been struck this week by reading Chris Lowney’s book Heroic Leadership, which is all about the style of leadership pioneered by Ignatius of Loyola, and, at least to some extent, mirrored by the Jesuits in the following 450 years. One of the points he frequently makes is that Ignatius saw his business, and that of […]
Generally I’m not huge fan of New Years resolutions. Things which seem like a great idea in a late-night-champagne induced fit of enthusiasm often vanish in the cold light of day, and it just seems like setting myself up to fail. However. Having said that, I have made a resolution to start this blog again. […]
Alister Pate