Denise Cooper-Clarke looks at the stories of barrenness and hope that are called to mind during Advent and asks what this means as couples struggle with infertility.

Deborah Storie asks some uncomfortable questions about our well-intentioned but sometimes poorly thought-out giving at Christmas.

Robert Banks, author of the new book 'And Man Created God', looks at a persistent critique of God-talk and our need to take it seriously.

People with a disability and their families should get decent support to pursue their life goals as part of their communities.

How should we evangelise when Christianity is “on the way out” of the culture? Ironically our best chance may be to mirror the church’s evangelism methods when it was “on the way in”.

Rachel's Vineyard Retreat Ministries Australia is a confidential healing ministry for the many people, both men and women, who have been touched by an abortion experience. The purpose of Rachel's Vineyard Retreat Ministry is post-abortion reconciliation and healing for the "other victims" of abortion.

How do we speak reasonably about sensitive topics, and specifically ones which can give rise to charges of vilification? In ideal world, speech would be free, and everyone would use their freedom responsibly. But human nature being what it is, speech is never completely free, and human beings often act up in bad ways.

The Emerging Church has not emerged. I hear this statement a lot. Another one I hear is, “Missional churches are not growing.” To begin with, I realise some missional gatherings are just a bunch of recalcitrant kids, including some grownups who haven’t grown up. They are doing the missional thing because it’s ‘cool’ and they got sick of the established church telling them to grow up. But more importantly, what are leaders and denominations looking at or looking for when they measure growth?

I recently attended a well-run debate between Australian atheist and moral philosopher Peter Singer and Oxford mathematician and Christian, John Lennox. I was keen to hear Singer as he has a reputation for being a good philosopher and reasonable person, rising above the popularism, arrogance and simplistic arguments of many of the ‘new atheists’.

I have been thinking a lot about the issue of public policy about asylum seekers and the language in which that debate is being conducted. In the New Testament Christians are enjoined to be careful with the language that they use and that injunction surely applies as much to the language that we use in debate about public policy as it does to the language that we use in personal relationships. The need for honesty, truthfulness and respect are relevant characteristics that follow from this injunction.