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I recently heard a sermon on Luke 13 and the parable of the diminutive-but-soon-to-be-huge mustard seed. One of the upshots of Jesus telling us that the Kingdom of God is steadily growing is that we need to get a right understanding about what is really important and cultivate a ‘healthy disrespect for the rich and powerful’.

I assume that an unhealthy disrespect for the rich and powerful might be some sort of shallow critical attitude that licences feelings of prejudice and moral superiority. A healthy disrespect, meanwhile, recognises that although some people have the privilege of great wealth and power, it is not an enviable privilege. The mustard seed teaches that, eventually, having material riches and power will count for nothing if they are not invested in the growth of the Kingdom of God.

There is a mission field that I’ve always struggled to know how to reach with the gospel. It’s made up of what I call ‘choral atheists’.

These are people who belong to church choirs or choral societies, they sing Christ-centred works like Bach’s Matthew Passion or Handel’s Messiah, and yet they don’t believe a word of what they sing. To be honest, I find that choral atheists are more hardened to the gospel than anyone else I meet. Just as hardened are the non-believers who like to listen to this music, which, though I don’t like the definition, I’ll refer to as sacred music.

Towards a theology of sustainability

‘Sustainability’ is a concept in search of a home. Many have an idea of what it means, but scratch beneath the surface and the ideas are diverse at best, contradictory at worst.

Today sustainability has become a great rallying cry, adopted by politicians, economists, multinational corporations, scientists, environmentalists, town planners and faith leaders . . . but they use it to mean what they want it to mean.

Ali writes well, her opening is striking as she describes her mother’s and grandmother’s upbringing in nomadic clans in Somalia. Life is harsh and honour-based, Islam a mere veneer on ancient animistic culture.

EN: What is IFES? Could you explain something of its nature, history and objectives?

LB: IFES is a network of evangelical student ministries in 150 countries. In 1947 leaders of ten national student ministries met in Harvard with a vision to see a witness to Christ among students in every country. The largest movement is in Nigeria where close to 40,000 students meet in small group Bible studies.

Adrian Reynolds

Date posted: 1 Sep 2007

After months of anticipation, Cheltenham Bible Festival (CBF) finally arrived (August 9-11 2007) and, judging by this year’s success, will be around for quite a few years to come. The festival promised much — refreshed for life was the strap line — and it did exactly what it said on the tin.

Those who attended were extremely positive about the three days on the edge of the Cotswold hills — one word heard a lot by the jazz stage, kids’ clubs, main venue, exhibition halls, splash pools, creativity tent and circus area was ‘great.’