by Peter Corney
The recent tragic events in Haiti (13/1/10) raise this question acutely for us once again, but the question is always with us because we all experience suffering in some form or other in our lives and the lives of those we love.
There are no simple or glib answers to this question, but [...]

By Peter Corney
Summary: Artists, writers, film makers and playwrights in the 20th C often reflected in their work a sense of alienation, of being alone in a hostile and dystopian world. There was a feeling of bleakness about the present and frequently an apocalyptic vision of the future like Orwell’s “1984”. Other examples are Colin [...]

By Peter Corney
When English Christians in the late 18th and early 19th C. began the process of sensitizing their nation’s conscience to it’s involvement in the Trans Atlantic slave trade they chose a very significant campaign logo. The logo was a picture of an African slave in chains, his hands raised in pleading, surrounded with [...]

An exercise for a church staff retreat or training day.
 If you lead a church with a staff team the following could be a very useful basis for a staff retreat or training day.
 One of the problems that can develop when staff are appointed to develop particular areas of ministry like youth or children’s ministry is [...]

Chapter Eight:  Leaders and Teams
By Peter Corney
(This is a free chapter from the new book A Passion for Leadership, Insights from Arrow Australia Leadership Team, edited by Peter Corney and Evonne Paddison. Coauthors include: Karl Faase, Stephen Hale, Evonne Paddison, Ian Harper, Sandy Jones, Graham Johnston and Stephen Abbott. It is published here under the [...]

by Peter Corney
(This article originally appeared in Essentials: The Journal of EFAC* it has recently been revised 11/09)
We are living in a time of enormous and rapid change at every level of our lives. Hugh Mackay in his book Re-inventing Australia describes it as the Age of Redefinition. The church is not immune to this [...]

by Peter Corney
In today’s image saturated culture the most well known and iconic images are those created by advertising agencies; Maca’s golden arches, Nike’s swoosh, Apple’s apple!
But in the second half of the 19th C one of the most well known images in the English speaking world was a picture of Christ painted by William [...]

By Peter Corney
Not long ago I attended a service at which a senior Melbourne Anglican Church leader spoke. I was encouraged by his obvious enthusiasm for mission and his concern to contextualize our churches in the local culture. But the bit that made me nervous was his comments on congregational size. He put forward the idea [...]

By Peter Corney

A current challenge being faced all around the Australian Church is in bringing this generation of young adults to mature Christian discipleship.
There are a number of contemporary cultural factors that seem to be contributing to this:

The experience of family dysfunction and breakdown. With such a high proportion of marriages ending [...]

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 [...]