When I was twelve years old, my mother encouraged me to learn to play the piano. As it was something of a family tradition, I agreed to start taking weekly piano lessons with our church’s pianist. I soon realised that piano playing wasn’t going to come naturally to me and that my thirty-minute practice sessions after school each afternoon were the longest thirty minutes in my day.

Somehow after a year of learning to play the piano, I convinced my mother that I was not going to be able to fulfill her dream that another generation in her family would be a proficient piano player. I was like a round …

We live in unprecedented times where we face an ever-increasing number of challenges that no human leader or political party can resolve. We live in times where our leaders’ “too hard baskets” are forever filling up and their promises are not being matched by their performances.

But we are also living in times of great opportunity for the people of God who like David’s men of Issachar were able to understand the times and know what to do.
(I Chronicles 12:32)
Could it be that we are living in the days where the heightened intensity of world events might suggest that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is …

When I first started attending church, it wasn’t unusual to see a sign out the front of a church with the name of the church, and “the minister” and details of how to connect with the church. I gradually assumed from this that the “minister” was responsible for much of the running of the church with the assistance of a team of helpers and a number of spectators who regularly attended the church services.

I now know differently, with thanks to Pastor Ray Stedman who wrote a book entitled, Body Life, and then came to visit my city to share God’s design for the church, the body of Jesus Christ.…