By Peter Corney
The church is a voluntary society, a ‘community of volunteers’, if you like.  Without volunteers almost everything we do would grind to a halt.  All those rosters and committees and leadership of groups and ministries would cease.  Most parachurch organisations live or die on the strength of their volunteer base.
But we live in [...]

Presented by Peter Corney for the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia — 2004.
This lecture was designed for Christian university students to introduce them to the concept of world views and to help them enter into dialogue with fellow students on Christianity. It discusses the development of western world views and the influence of [...]

Presented by Peter Corney for the Institute for Contemporary Christian Leadership.
This video presentation describes the dynamics of change, particularly in  a conservative organisation like the local church and how to manage it constructively. It could be used as a basis for discussion about change with a local church lay council or for discussion and training [...]

Recorded 7 September, 2008 at Shac Community.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
(You may also download MP3 as a podcast)
This sermon’s theme is the meaning and significance of the Lord’s Supper. The question it seeks to answer is “Why do we need to gather corporately and regularly to remember Christ’s death for us? Why can we [...]

Recorded 22 June, 2008 at Shac Community.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
(You may also download MP3 as a podcast)
This sermon speaks about the universal longings we all experience for love and justice, beauty and purity, forgiveness and redemption  and  how God is speaking to us in them, how God is calling us home to Himself.

Recorded 22 February, 2009.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
(You may also download MP3 as a podcast)
This sermon is a challenge to the local congregation to be a more welcoming community. It discusses practical ways in which this can be done and calls us to be like the welcoming father in Jesus’  parable, arms wide [...]

By Peter Corney
There has been a profound change in the way many western people understand themselves in relation to God, spirituality and religious concepts. In short God and the self have blurred into one. The forces that have brought about this change are complex but here are three key factors in the process.
First, out of [...]

By Peter Corney
Our Father in heaven holy is your name. (Mathew 6:9)
A passion for the preaching of the Cross, a desire for a holy life and the pursuit of social justice has a common source. The spring from which these three are refreshed and renewed in the church is an acute awareness of the holiness [...]

By Peter Corney
Irvin D.Yalom writes fascinating stories based on his experience as a psychotherapist. His work in group psychotherapy is highly regarded in the US and Australia by professionals in the field. In one of his books Loves Executioner he describes his approach as ‘Existential Psychotherapy.’ His basic assumption is that we all experience what [...]

By Peter Corney
(The title for this address was inspired by Reno Elms book “In the Ruins of the Church” (1)
In the book of Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2, when Nehemiah, who is in exile, learns of the ruined state of Jerusalem he is deeply distressed and calls out: “Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates [...]