CRUCIS

RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY FROM LEADING CHRISTIAN ACADEMICS
Christian Life
Staying Focused in a World of Distraction
Ping! Ding! You have a new message (or email, social media notification, etc.) interrupting your train of thought.Being able to focus on the most important things has always been a challenge; it just seems to be getting harder these days. The truth is …
Andrew Groza

Articles

Staying Focused in a World of Distraction

Christian Life

Staying Focused in a World of Distraction

Ping! Ding! You have a new message (or email, social media notification, etc.) interrupting your train of thought.Being able to focus on the most important things has always been a challenge; it just seems to be getting harder these days. The truth is …

23rd March 2023

Remembering Dr Gordon Fee (1934 - 2022)

Christian Life

Remembering Dr Gordon Fee (1934 - 2022)

Many Christians from a variety of theological streams are mourning the passing of Gordon Fee, most likely the most famous Pentecostal theologian of the twentieth century. His influence on the thinking of Pentecostals and other believers was immense and…

3rd November 2022

Interview: 'Being Jesus' through Sports Chaplaincy

Christian Life

Interview: 'Being Jesus' through Sports Chaplaincy

Stephen Reid has just successfully completed his DMin thesis on the role of Christian sports chaplains in contemporary Australia. We caught up with Stephen for a chat about his research.Your doctoral thesis was on sports chaplaincy in Australia. What spa…

17th October 2022

Latest
Report on Participation in the World Council Churches 11th General Assembly The World Council of Churches (WCC) invited me to be the spokesperson on behalf of global Pentecostals at a plenary session of their 11th General Assembly. The General Assembly, which met in Karlsruhe Germany from 31 August to 8 September 2022, included …
Recommended Resources from the Panel of 'Headship and the Bible' The recent Masterclass on headship and women provoked many questions and much discussion. Here are some recommended resources to help you explore further some of the issues raised. Top Recommendations from Dr Ally Cawthorn:Podcast: Lisa Harper’s Back Por…
‘Headship and the Bible: Can Women Lead Today?’ Q & A Continued The recent Masterclass on Women and Headship raised many questions. In fact, there were so many questions we unfortunately did not have time to properly address them all in the Q & A. As a result, I have provided a response to those questions here:‘E…
read more articles

Podcasts

Genesis 2:18

Christian Life

Genesis 2:18

In this Podcast Johnny Kumar, associate lecturer in Old Testament, examines Genesis 2:18. Amongst other things he investigates what this verse has to say regarding the nature of the relationship between husband and wife. Does “helper” mean Eve is subordi…

25th May 2015

Ephesians 1:1-2

Christian Life

Ephesians 1:1-2

Enjoy this audio teaching from Dr David Parker

28th October 2014

AC in the News

CHRISTIANITY'S RETURN TO THE NATIONAL HISTORY CURRICULUM
AC in the News

CHRISTIANITY'S RETURN TO THE NATIONAL HISTORY CURRICULUM

A re-draft of the National History Curriculum has seen the restoration of Christian content. Eternity asked Associate Professor David Hastie of Alphacrucis University College why Christianity went missing, what brought it back, and have we arrived at a b…
AC in the News

Training in Communities to Stay in Communities: AC Hoping to Work with Government to Expand New In-…

In November 2018, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, the Minister for Education, announced the Federal Government’s strategy for improving education in Australia’s regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities. This strategy endeavours to increase country students'…
Alphacrucis College launches a new Ground-breaking Teacher Training Program

AC in the News

Alphacrucis College launches a new Ground-breaking Teacher Training Program

Five prestigious Sydney schools have entered into the Teaching School Alliance Sydney, a pilot training program to ensure schools have access to high-quality graduate teachers. The Alliance has been established by St Andrew’s Cathedral School, Blue Mount…
AC Welcomes Back Associate Professor Jacqueline Grey as Dean of Theology

AC in the News

AC Welcomes Back Associate Professor Jacqueline Grey as Dean of Theology

AC Welcomes Back Associate Professor Jacqueline Grey as Dean of Theology Alphacrucis College (AC) is delighted to announce that Associate Professor Jacqueline Grey has returned to AC in a full-time capacity as Dean of Theology.    Jacqui will already b…

Christian Life

Staying Focused in a World of Distraction
Christian Life

Staying Focused in a World of Distraction

Ping! Ding! You have a new message (or email, social media notification, etc.) interrupting your train of thought.Being able to focus on the most important things has always been a challenge; it just seems to be getting harder these days. The truth is …
Christian Life

Remembering Dr Gordon Fee (1934 - 2022)

Many Christians from a variety of theological streams are mourning the passing of Gordon Fee, most likely the most famous Pentecostal theologian of the twentieth century. His influence on the thinking of Pentecostals and other believers was immense and…
Interview: 'Being Jesus' through Sports Chaplaincy

Christian Life

Interview: 'Being Jesus' through Sports Chaplaincy

Stephen Reid has just successfully completed his DMin thesis on the role of Christian sports chaplains in contemporary Australia. We caught up with Stephen for a chat about his research.Your doctoral thesis was on sports chaplaincy in Australia. What spa…
Report on Participation in the World Council Churches 11th General Assembly

Christian Life

Report on Participation in the World Council Churches 11th General Assembly

The World Council of Churches (WCC) invited me to be the spokesperson on behalf of global Pentecostals at a plenary session of their 11th General Assembly. The General Assembly, which met in Karlsruhe Germany from 31 August to 8 September 2022, included …
Recommended Resources from the Panel of 'Headship and the Bible'

Christian Life

Recommended Resources from the Panel of 'Headship and the Bible'

The recent Masterclass on headship and women provoked many questions and much discussion. Here are some recommended resources to help you explore further some of the issues raised. Top Recommendations from Dr Ally Cawthorn:Podcast: Lisa Harper’s Back Por…

Christian Life

‘Headship and the Bible: Can Women Lead Today?’ Q & A Continued

The recent Masterclass on Women and Headship raised many questions. In fact, there were so many questions we unfortunately did not have time to properly address them all in the Q & A. As a result, I have provided a response to those questions here:‘E…

Christian Life

What the Census Tells Us About the Pentecostals in Australia

The 1970s saw huge growth in the Pentecostal denominations in Australia, as was happening in many places around the globe. Between 1976 and 1981, the Australian Census recorded Pentecostal growth in Australia at 88 per cent. It is likely that the true …

Christian Life

John 17:21: Ecumenical Dialogues in June-July 2022

The prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-26 is for the unity of believers, founded on a common faith in Him, as we proclaim the message of Jesus to the world. Jesus’ prayer is that His followers may be unified in a way that somehow reflects the oneness of the F…

Creative Arts

The Four Song Categories in Worship
Creative Arts

The Four Song Categories in Worship

As human beings, God gave us the ability to categorize.  Right from Genesis 1, God makes animals “according to their kind”, or in other words, He makes creatures in particular categories.  Categorizing things is a way we make sense of a complex world.  I…
Creative Arts

Worship Snapshot - April 2018 (Australia)

IntroductionYou probably know what songs your church is singing.  You probably know how that’s changed over the last year or few years.  You may have seen the ‘top songs’ lists from Christian Copyright Licensing…
Exploring Theological Themes in the Music of Singer-Songwriters

Creative Arts

Exploring Theological Themes in the Music of Singer-Songwriters

Introduction Music is an important aspect of human culture, art, and well-being. Music pervades almost all arenas of society, from national anthems to religious spirituality; and at the same time, almost all of human life is the subject matter of musi…
What On Earth Are We Singing? A Series On The Contemporary Congregational Song – Part 7

Creative Arts

What On Earth Are We Singing? A Series On The Contemporary Congregational Song – Part 7

Introduction In my previous Crucis article, “The ‘Praise and Worship’ Problem”, I proposed the need for a new way of categorising the songs we sing corporately (and individually) as believers.  The damaging binary of ‘Praise and Worship’ needs to be r…
Made for Worship

Creative Arts

Made for Worship

The theme for our AC Chapel Services this year has been “Made for this”.  Providing a suitably broad scope, Chapel speakers have adapted it to their own expertise and revelation.  Having pastored a church for the last two years, I have addressed numer…

Creative Arts

The ‘Praise and Worship’ Problem

Introduction I’m not one of those people who gets hung up on every little detail in life. The serviettes (or napkins for you US folk) don’t need to be perfectly folded, the toothpaste doesn’t need to be squeezed from the bottom (even though that is my…

Creative Arts

Ambivalent fame: Insights from the most sung composers of contemporary congregational songs

Introduction I imagine that most people reading this have an opinion about songwriters of contemporary congregational songs. With the world of modern media, many feel a significant connection to those who appear on their screens or on the influential …

Creative Arts

What makes our worship “Pentecostal”?

At the moment, I’m preparing to teach a course on Pentecostal distinctives as they relate to church worship. When my Malaysian host requested this topic, I was a little reluctant. After all, I live in Sydney, where cessationists and Pentecostals have …

Education

How first-year uni students could help solve the teacher shortage crisis
Education

How first-year uni students could help solve the teacher shortage crisis

A new proposal has arisen to solve the teacher shortage crisis – embedding trainee teachers in classrooms six months into their training. The first image that came to many on hearing this suggestion was shivering, utterly unprepared 19-year-olds crying h…
Education

Theology is a successful, highly industry engaged field of study

Here is a riddle guaranteed to baffle great minds in our universities, panels of experts advising the government on industry-university engagement, and challenge even the most knowledgeable of our higher education pundits.Clue one: I am perhaps the most…
Do I really care?

Education

Do I really care?

I do not often rail at the TV – although in the interests of transparency, my wife might suggest there was a tad more during lockdown… But even out of that context, I have been known to argue with what I am hearing in front of me.The most common incide…
Teaching history and civics in Australian schools: What has the National Curriculum Review rectified, and what has it neglected?

Education

Teaching history and civics in Australian schools: What has the National Curriculum Review rectifie…

This article first appeared on ABC on May 24 2021 https://ab.co/3c0dMhvChildren’s classrooms might seem like innocent enough places, but make no mistake: when it comes to cultural expectations, schools are bombs just waiting to go off. And I don’t mean t…
We have some yawning gaps in balancing the history we teach

Education

We have some yawning gaps in balancing the history we teach

The following article first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on Nov 8 2021 https://bit.ly/2YwfwvQThere has been much throwing about of brains in the review of the Australian national history curriculum. The federal Minister of Education, Alan Tudge,…

Education

Six Classroom Tips for Integrating Christian Faith with other Subjects

Christian schools are the way most Australians will engage with the gospel in the coming decades, closely followed by Christian social services, with Christian congregations well behind.  So the quality of Christian witness in word and deed in these sett…

Education

Book Reviews as a Spiritual Discipline

Writing book reviews is neither particularly fashionable in academia nor rewarded by the current bureaucratic arbiters of research performance.  Yet I believe it is still worthwhile. These days we are rewarded much more for speaking and writing than for…

Education

Less About Christianity: What's Proposed for the National Curriculum

The following article is an interview between Eternity News and Dr David Hastie posted on 7 May 2021.Last week, the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) released their proposed changes to the National Curriculum. There was an immediate o…

Faith, Work and Economics

Entrepreneurship & PaySquad
Faith, Work and Economics

Entrepreneurship & PaySquad

Describe your startup in a nutshell: What problem does it solve, why is it unique and what is the market potential?PaySquad helps groups of consumers buy together at checkout.Checkouts are stuck in single player mode - multiplayer payments are almost nev…
Faith, Work and Economics

A Conversation about Faith–Work Integration

A theologian, a worker and a pastor sat down for a chat… sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it really happened. In preparation for a conference, I sat down with a serial entrepreneur and a church planter to talk about faith–work integration. Here i…
The Posture of Biblical Justice

Faith, Work and Economics

The Posture of Biblical Justice

2020: The year the world stopped. In our global pause, issues of injustice have come to the forefront. As the tide has gone out on our busyness, what remains on the shore is the heartache of natural disasters, domestic violence, mental health, racism, hu…
How Will We Wean Ourselves off Coronavirus Job Subsidies?

Faith, Work and Economics

How Will We Wean Ourselves off Coronavirus Job Subsidies?

The coronavirus will be with higher education for a long time and we need to work out how to wean ourselves off the job subsidies that are in place in many countries.  They were devised hurriedly to deal with an emergency, and gave employers and workers …
Religion and theology degrees are a good community investment

Faith, Work and Economics

Religion and theology degrees are a good community investment

With all the discussion of Dan Tehan’s changes to prices and government subsidies for different types of degrees, especially humanities degrees, solid evidence has rarely been deployed about the economic returns to individuals, the government budget, and…

Faith, Work and Economics

Fixing America’s College Debt Crisis

America has a problem with student debt – both the huge amount owing and the fact that much of it was accumulated studying in programs that had little chance of generating future income to repay the debt.  It is a problem of perverse incentives for stude…

Faith, Work and Economics

Sharing the Economic Burden of Coronavirus Containment

As we have watched the medical horror of COVID-19 evolve, the shadow of large, long term and unequally distributed economic impacts hangs over us. The restrictions mean many people will lose livelihoods, face bankruptcy, and similar catastrophes, while o…

Faith, Work and Economics

Who Will Win the 2019 Economics Nobel Prize?

  Trying to pick Nobel Prize winners almost always ends in disappointment, and as an economist I have to be especially reticent about predictions based on our record of forecasting the economy.  We have citations, which tend not to be a very helpful gui…

Leadership

Can Honour Go Wrong?
Leadership

Can Honour Go Wrong?

Leadership attracts the honour of others. If I was to be completely transparent with you, it kind of feels nice. Honour recognises the value someone else possesses and esteems that person rightly.[1] It is human nature to enjoy it when someone sees somet…
Leadership

Chaotic times call for countercultural leadership

If there was one word to describe how society feels right now, how would you respond? I would probably answer with tense.It came home to me recently (literally) when a pamphlet arrived in my letterbox. This pamphlet was from a politician that belonged …
Boldly leading where Google Maps has not been before

Leadership

Boldly leading where Google Maps has not been before

I’m sure you have felt it. I know I have. The world has changed. We have entered territory that is uncharted and where very few of us alive today have been before. Not even Google Maps can help us here (coincidently, how did we ever survive before the …
Stress and Servanthood: Perhaps leading yourself first, may mean serving yourself last

Leadership

Stress and Servanthood: Perhaps leading yourself first, may mean serving yourself last

Leading others has always involved stress – it simply comes with the territory. The global and local uncertainty that COVID-19 brought, however, added a layer of complexity, and magnified its presence in the life of every leader. Whilst stress is not new…
Preparing Students for Global Workplaces

Leadership

Preparing Students for Global Workplaces

Employers in various industries, from business to pastoral ministry, value intercultural communication skills in their employees because of the increasing cultural diversity in most urban cities. While universities across the world have excelled in prepa…

Leadership

TRANSFORMING LEADERSHIP

“Church leadership is inherently TRANSFORMATIONAL: pastors have to inspire vision, move hearts and enlist enthusiastic participation as the volunteers realise what they’re doing is making a difference in the lives of others. ”The importance of motivating…

Leadership

The Leadership Gap : An Educational Issue for Australian NFPs and Schools

The not-for-profit sector is hugely important for Australians’ quality of life.  A significant proportion of employment services, social services, disability services, and education are handled by our not-for-profit organisations. The overwhelming majori…

Leadership

“But that’s not what I meant!” – The Elusive Gap between Perceptions and Intentions in Communication

Have you ever been in a conversation that went something like this? Other Person: I can’t believe you said that! It really hurt my feelings. You: I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Other Person (agitated): How could you not know that would hurt me…

Wellbeing

Rest for Weary Souls
Wellbeing

Rest for Weary Souls

As lockdown drags on in Australia’s major cities many of us are feeling increasingly fatigued. Not just fatigued at the lockdown but fatigued physically and emotionally as well. A recent publication by the Australian Psychological Society has described “…
Wellbeing

It’s Time to do Away with ‘Guilty’ Pleasures

In my role as a clinical psychologist and provider of professional and pastoral supervision, I am regularly confronted with states of distress. The presentation looks nearly always the same. Heightened levels of anxiety, sorrow or psychological pain, and…
Gratitude in the Storm

Wellbeing

Gratitude in the Storm

Gratitude is a powerful thing, there is now an abundance of scientific evidence that the simple practice of writing down 3 to 5 things that you are grateful for each day for 21 days, will rewire your brain to think more positively and increase your happi…
Overcoming Disappointment

Wellbeing

Overcoming Disappointment

With life, inevitably comes disappointment. Large or small, they all cause pain. The dream job does not eventuate, a relationship falls apart, an exam is failed, a shock medical diagnosis is received, expected goals are not achieved … the list for all of…
Let’s Talk about Gender, Race, and Offenses

Wellbeing

Let’s Talk about Gender, Race, and Offenses

Identity has become a contentious issue across the globe. Public debates on race, gender, faith, and other ‘identity’ variables have heightened our awareness not only of our own identity but also our orientation toward others who are ‘different.’ What la…

Wellbeing

Social scripts re-written in a social distancing world

The 5:30AM alarm rouses me from my sleep. I acquiesce to its demands. Completing my ablutions and dressing with haste, I join my husband in our drive to the station where we park the car and join the throng of early commuters to catch our train. I sett…

Wellbeing

You Were Made for Relationship

When asked to consider what is most important in your life, most people would say it is the relationships they have that mean the most.  When asked what is most stressful in your life, many would say relationships! Relationships are the source of the …

Wellbeing

Why is Memory Important?

Introduction Memory is important because without it we have no identity. There is a South Korean movie called A Moment to Remember in which the main female lead played by the very beautiful Son Ye-jin falls in love and marries a man, played by Jung Woo…
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