Shadow to Reality: Worship from the Tabernacle to the Heavenly Throne Room

The author of Hebrews tells us that “the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves”.[1] A principal theme that can be traced through the Bible is the loss and recovery of God’s presence, beginning with unbroken fellowship in the Garden of Eden, through to the […]

Worship: The Centre of Existence

It’s been a while since I last posted. Life has just gotten really busy. But I recently had to do some assignments for Metro Worship Academy. I haven’t written assignments in years! My friend Kelwin says that they should call them “adventures”, rather than “assignments”. We will see… In an interview with the Canberra Times[1], […]

A Taste of Heavenly Worship

In Revelations 7, John had a glimpse of what worship would be like in heaven: After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and […]

Taking our Place at the Love Feast: Good Friday Reflections

Today is Good Friday. On this day, Christians around the world celebrate one of the greatest events that changed the course of history: the death of Jesus on the cross. My wife and I usually like to go to a well-programed, evocative, sensory church service on Good Friday. If we can, we try to fit […]

New Song: Open Up Our Eyes

Dave Wong, one of the worship leaders at Faith Community Church, recently introduced this song to me. One of the things I’ve found in recent times is that a lot of songs coming out of the modern worship movement is becoming more and more difficult to sing. The melodies are more unwieldy and the lyrics […]

Book Review: Future Worship by Lamar Boschman

One of the assignments I have to complete as part of the Metro Worship Academy is a book review. Students were given a select list of texts on worship to read and review. I chose Lamar Boschman’s Future Worship because it is one of the key texts which have shaped my own views on worship […]

From the Archives: Next Generational Leadership

It’s actually been a while since my last blog post. In the last couple of months, I have had many ministry opportunities come my way which have kept me pretty busy (hence the radio silence), including taking up a bigger role in my home church. This evening, I was working on an assignment as part […]

Adventures in East Timor – Part 6

It’s Sunday, the 6th of January – Day 4 of our mission trip – and it was the Sabbath! I was looking forward to this day because Amos, a youth leader on our team, was going to deliver the Sunday message. I’m always up for hearing fresh preachers. Sometimes we are used to the same […]

Adventures in East Timor – Part 5

5 January 2013 – Day 3 of our mission trip – proved to be one our busiest. It was also a pivotal day because it was when we started to really bond with the youth. We were picked up early from Tibar to head to Agung’s house for devotion. But first thing’s first – breakfast! […]

Now That’s Radical Church

This week, we had dinner with some pastor friends of ours and we caught a glimpse of how the disciples must have felt on the Emmaus Road as Jesus was talking and they had felt their “hearts burning within” them (Lk 24:32). I think that’s the sense you get when a vision that has captured […]