Dec2015
Christmas blows away fog about God
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
You can’t focus on fog. Many have rather foggy ideas about God. For some, God is vaguely tied up with our religious feelings. For others, ‘god’ is an impersonal force that works through all religions to bring peace on earth and goodwill among people. Even the Australian prime minister (at the time of writing) has… Read more
Nov2015
Set free
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
‘I slept in and so didn’t get to do my 20-minute personal devotion this morning. I feel like God is disappointed with me.’ When I was a young Christian in high school and university, I understood that God’s law convicted me of my sin. Then at some point in confirmation class I got it. Jesus… Read more
Aug2015
Dare to be different
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
When we engage with non-Christian family, friends and neighbours, we often run into attitudes that are very different from our own. People may have opinions about issues such as refugees, homosexuality, morality, abortion, euthanasia, evolution, the Bible and racial matters that make us feel uncomfortable. That is not surprising. How do we respond? Often, both… Read more
Jul2015
Pregnant congregations bring life
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
A healthy tree produces fruit. God created it to do just that. Jesus tells the story of a man who owned a fig tree that produced no figs, so he instructed the gardener to cut it down. The gardener replied, ‘Let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure… Read more
Jun2015
Welcoming the stranger
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
For three months we worshipped at a different church each Sunday. Ruth and I had just moved back to Adelaide so I could begin work as the SA/NT Director for Mission. When we arrived for a service I would go and stand by myself in a corner and wait to see what happened. In those… Read more
May2015
Making room for more people
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
We had seventeen members. It was a congregation in my first parish. One lovely older guy had bought the land and built the church, largely with his own hands. He no longer held any official position in the congregation. All decisions were made by quick meetings after the service. One day we made a small… Read more
Apr2015
Gospel glimmers in unlikely places
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
Anzac Day is perhaps the most ‘holy’ day of the year in modern secular Australia. We get up early to remember. We make pilgrimages—some even to the distant shores of Gallipoli. We hear speeches about sacrifice. ‘No-one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13) is ripped out… Read more
Mar2015
Prayer: As individual as you are
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
If we were attending a leaders’ retreat and it was announced that instead of the planned program we were to be silent for the whole weekend, my wife Ruth and I would respond differently. Ruth would say, ‘Great! Let’s get started.’ I, on the other hand, would be driven to prayer: ‘Lord, send me a… Read more
Feb2015
I am making all things new!
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
Back in our New Zealand days, my then vice-president gave my wife Ruth a fridge magnet that says, ‘Living with a Dane builds character’. That just about sums it up—except that it doesn’t just apply to those who, like me, were born in Denmark. All of us can be hard to live and work with…. Read more
Nov2014
We want to grow!
by Rev Dr Steen Olsen
Is your congregation on autopilot? Maybe it is time to pause and reflect on why your congregation does what it does. The fundamentals of what we do don’t change. It is still all about God giving us his love and grace through his Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work through… Read more
