The Christian Church has been profoundly affected by three events in history:
- The collapse of the Roman Empire.
- The rise of the merchant class in the middle ages which powered Luther's Reformation to put the Bible in the hands of the lay people and challenge the Papal Bulla of 1547 which assigned enterprise to the Kings
of Portugal and Spain.
- The rise of the information/technical age in the 1980s which prompted the lay people to challenge denominational authority and is moving the people of the Christian Church away from giving permission for
ministry to happen and towards doing hands-on ministry.
Each of these events sparked efforts to carry the Gospel to new people. Our present age, which I believe is the "Second Reformation", offers us new opportunities to reach both those who have and do not
have a Christian memory. Ours is a time of faith and searching. But it has not generally been a time for involvement with organized Christianity. The congregations which do not accept the new realities and seize the new
opportunities will die.
Theologically. I would describe myself as a Hobbesian liberal. I do not subscribe to the radical German theology - based in the political upheaval of the 1930s and the no longer
fashionable theories of existentialism and psychoanalysis - which was developed by Paul Tillich and others, and still has a following throughout much of Protestant Christianity. I believe that Christianity should be
presented in a way that is culturally understandable. I do not believe that Christianity should be an offset of the surrounding culture
My theological perspective is mainly based on British theologians
Donald Coggan (a former Archbishop of Canterbury) and Austin Farrer (Oxford University). As well, I have gained important insights from the American theologians William Willimon, Ralph Adams Cram and William Easum
because they have made profound discoveries about the modern church and the world around it. Similarly, I have gained much from Canadian theologians Don Posterki, Tom Bandy and Harold Percy. I believe that organized
Christianity has something to say to the world of the post industrial, information age of globalism. Unfortunately, much of what the church says is no longer credible because it comes from an industrial age
understanding of the world. I seek to offer a credible and understandable Christian view of the world and how to be a Christian is a secular age - a situation which Isabel Rogers - former moderator of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) - describes as one in which mainline congregations are, "no longer the primary shapers of values in society."
I was called to ministry to make Jesus Christ a living reality for those
who wish to know him and to lead congregations into the next stage of being the church.
