Tell us a little about yourself I was born in Sydney, and moved to Adelaide with my family when I was young. I have grown up on a property in the Adelaide Hills, where I have always enjoyed exploring and going for walks. I am a very creative person; I love all things art, colour, and photography. Sport has also been a big part of my life. I’ve played for tennis, soccer, basketball, netball and rowing teams. I have just completed my first year at Uni, studying a Bachelor of Design. I hope to pursue a career in travel photography, or work with a travel magazine. Family is very important to me; I have three siblings and very supportive parents. What's your favourite bible passage & why? Philipp
Faith can be arduous. There, I said it. For anyone who has been a follower of Jesus for more than three hours, you will know that statement to be utterly true. If you don’t agree with me, I would strongly suggest you take a step back and consider the possibility that you’re not doing it right. As for me, I’m often not doing it right. I fail at faith and I fail at life. Yet this is exactly why God has called me to the ministry he has; a ministry in stand-up comedy. Yes, you read that right. I have been literally called to perhaps one of the most dubious positions a Christian could hold; being consistently funny, clean (whatever that means) and to present the gospel without compromise. All thi
Tell us a little about yourself My name is Katrina and I coordinate the Visual Arts faculty in an Anglican school. I am proud to call myself a teacher, but I really do so much more than what the title suggests. Rather, I see myself as a preparer of young lives. When young people are encouraged and empowered, they have an incredible capacity to see the world for all its potential. If we can show our young people how to think according to Godly principles rather than worldly ones and instil in them the skills needed to communicate their ideas effectively, we can change the world. What is your favourite bible passage and why? My favourite bible verse was given to me by a student many years ago.
Who do you think of when you think of a treasure hunter? Perhaps someone in 1700’s dress with a tricorne, three cornered hat, coat and waistcoat holding a faded map where x marks the spot? Or maybe it’s a neatly dressed lady waiting in the queue at BBC’s antiques roadshow convinced that the ancient hat pin she has brought is just ugly enough that it might be worth something. Or perhaps it’s the bleak picture of a modern day treasure hunter glued to their seat pushing the button on the slots machine hoping for three treasure chests in a row. The adventurer, the hoarder and the gambler – they are all treasure hunters. Jesus demands that his disciples pursue a different kind of treasure in Matt
Tell us a little about you I grew up in a Christian home and I am very thankful for this heritage. I migrated to Australia with my family at age 6. I am now married to an Aussie, work as a General Practitioner and my husband and I are involved in serving particularly among international people at our church. What's your favourite bible passage & why? Romans 8:28-30 - “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
So what does this understanding – that gender inequality is directly rooted in sin – offer to couples who are seeking to live out egalitarian ideals? It tells us that Gender gender inequality is not just a practical problem, but a spiritual problem one. So here are three spiritual resources, tools the bible gives us for addressing sin in all parts of our lives, that we ought to pay more attention to when working for gender equality: 1. Transformation, not conformation (Romans 12:2) Gender inequality persists in part because it serves our worship of power, authority, money, success, work, and reputation. If we (and especially men) live by for these things, there is no doubt that there is mu
One of the most crippling and intractable of human beliefs is that human flourishing is a zero-sum game. We believe that another person’s flourishing somehow leaves less for us. That their success limits us. That their gain must equal our loss. Not so. Rather, Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are a body. And in a body, when one part is strengthened, the whole is strengthened. As members of one body, one person’s gain is everyone’s gain. So much of what limits us when it comes to gender roles and scripts is fear. Fear of what we’ll lose. Fear of what we’ll have to give up. Fear of losing whatever power we think we have. But if we’re wrong about the ‘zero sum game’, then e
In Genesis 3, after the man and woman disobey God by eating fruit from the forbidden tree, their equal partnership in carrying out their role as God’s image bearers was broken. The power struggle that results, and the rule of men over women (Gen 3:16) is a disordering of God’s good creation. This is descriptive, not prescriptive, and it is life under judgement, not life redeemed. This tells us two important things. First, it tells us that this side of the new heavens and the new earth, fractured relationships between genders will always exist. We should not be surprised that gender inequality exists throughout history and in all cultures. We should not be surprised that gender inequality
Egalitarian Marriage and Parenting. Making it Work Part 1: Egalitarian Australia’s intriguing little
The introduction to Annabel Crabb’s excellent (and funny!) book The Wife Drought provides a depressingly clear picture of the gender inequality that doggedly persists in Australian society. ‘Of Australian couple families with kids under the age of fifteen, 60 percent have a dad who works full-time, and a mum who works either part-time or not at all. How many families have a mum who works full-time, and a dad who is at home or works part-time? Three percent.[1]’ She concludes: ‘This is free-and-easy, egalitarian Australia’s intriguing little secret; our attachment to the male-breadwinner model is deep and robust.’[2] Childless couples fare better of course – though there is much evidence that
Despite a pretty average story line, there is a lot to love about Disney’s new film Moana. It has a really beautiful and detailed portrayal of a culture not often seen in film, stunning animations of water, a story about a young woman which doesn’t involve romance, great songs by Jaimee from Flight of the Conchords and Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights) and some interesting observations about life in the world and how people relate to the spiritual. What I found particularly fascinating was the story line which revolved around a creation, fall and redemption arc. This provided the basis of Moana’s quest and I think it says something deeper about humanity’s quest to understand our
Tell us a little about yourself I am a writer, journalist and communications professional, wife and mother. Not necessarily in that order. Until two years ago, I had what I call a ‘religious disinterest’ – I’d been to a church of England school in the UK, yet no Christian discipleship in my home life, and what the bloke in the black dress with the white collar said from the front of the school chapel held little relevance to my life. For years afterwards I stayed firmly in the pools of new-age spirituality and ‘thought creates’, with some yogic non-attachment thrown in for good measure. Just like the society we inhabit, it told me I could be, do, dream, achieve anything into existence so lon
A little about me… Spiritually, I am a sinner who was graciously saved at the age of 20. I am a constant relapsing sinner who lives solely on the undeserving basis of being the beneficiary of God’s unconditional love, patience and grace. I have been primarily called to be a minister to my family and spiritual family. I am a wife and mother of two little girls. I am a part of a young church plant in St Kilda, Melbourne. Vocationally, I practice as a personal injuries lawyer and love seeing God’s justice enacted here on earth. Together with my husband, we also operate a tuition business to serve the students in Melbourne’s west. Our hope is to raise a generation of students who seek to contri
Tell us a little about yourself I have been a pastor for more than 35 years and with my husband Rick, co-led a church in Southern Highlands, NSW, and then a church in Chelmsford, Essex, UK where we moved in 1996. Over the 18 years we were there, I focused on raising and mentoring leaders and we planted or adopted and redeveloped 18 churches mainly based in UK but also France and USA, as well as having planted in Australia. In the UK I founded Liberti, a Christian magazine for women of faith with attitude, desiring to see women who are called by God to do fantastic things have a magazine that would help them develop their godly ambitions, rather than encourage them to stay home and do the hou
