Category: New Zealand
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Theological Controversies Influencing US and NZ Churches [1]
It’s very plain and has been for many years that churches in New Zealand are theologically influenced by viewpoints that originate from the USA. Whilst these ideas may be mainstream with the overall culture of society in America, they begin to look rather odd when imported into another country where cultural values are very different.…
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Anti-vaxxers Polarise NZ Christian Community
We all have heard the arguments against the Coronavirus response worldwide, including vaccines. Much of the opposition to this is coming from within churches, from particular groups of Christians, almost all of whom follow obscure and rather extreme theological viewpoints, generally ones which, like many of the anti-arguments, have been bulk-imported from the USA. Unfortunately…
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Ecclesiastical Polity: Diversity In Structure & Governance [1] – Intro
Today we want to write the introduction to a new series about church governance and structure. This is a controversial area of discussion within the wider Church as it essentially governs the relationships between leadership and laity, which has important parallels in wider society in what is generally known as the political realm. Church governance…
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Can The Church Or The Government Build A Better Society?
This could be a political question, a theological question, or both. Because it is not just a straightforward political issue, but has ramifications for theology, it qualifies to appear on this blog. The issue at stake is for differing views for Christians about how much of the personal impacts of their faith can be expressed…
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What is the purported appeal of the NZ New Conservatives political party?
The New Conservative Party is not really new. They are an existing party that was formerly led by Colin Craig (jokingly called CCCP by some) that receives a considerable amount of support from right wing Christian groups in NZ. The (New) Conservatives claim that they are not a Christian based party, but anyone who moves…
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Controversy Over Academic Titles of Ministry Heads
A couple of years ago we were informed that questions had been asked about a qualification of Ph.D. which was being claimed by a prominent leader of a major Pentecostal denomination based in Australia. A few weeks ago we also discovered the leader of an international resources ministry based in Wellington claims to hold a…
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Christians and Politics: Engaging A Wider Community [3]
So far we’ve taken an indepth look at the key theologies that influence the evangelical church to mostly support the right wing of politics. We’ve highlighted that there is a division between the white evangelical and black evangelical communities in the US. This division is probably seen between different segments of the Christian church worldwide…
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Christians and Politics: Engaging A Wider Community [2]
Continuing our discussion from Part 1 about some of the key issues, that part addressed some of the matters arising from Dominionist theology. Another theology which has long been justified by evangelicals in support of conservative political outlooks is, of course, Dispensationalism. It is quite different from yet similar in certain respects to Dominionism; both…
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Discipleship and Discipline
As Christians we are sometimes known as “disciples of Christ”. We of course get that word from its use in the Bible, where in the four Gospels it referred to Jesus’ core team of 12. Dictionary.com lists “disciple” with four definitions, the first three of which are related to Bible or church, and only the…