au

John Yates

Press Service International

The Rev. Dr John Yates is an Anglican minister in Perth and has 5 children and 7 grandchildren. He spends time in praying, mentoring and writing.John Yates’s previous articles may be viewed athttp://www.pressserviceinternational.org/john-yates.html

  • The Start of Humility

    Famous entertainers, pumping sports stars, audacious politicians and the love of honour are characteristic our time. Amongst us, many pastors suffer from this sort of spiritual disease, “when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are not wise” (2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12).

  • Painful Praise

    I was dialoguing with a pastor friend the other day about how his wife is doing; he replied that she is rather down and directionless. Knowing this lady had serious traumas from her childhood I then went on to enquire about something that took him by surprise; “Does she sing along with the congregation when she goes to church on Sundays?”

  • Opinion

    I was in a church meeting recently and in the Q & A time after the sermon someone versed a very strong set of opinions. But they were merely opinions because they were grounded solely in their own experience without reference to any of the classic sources of spiritual authority i.e. scripture, tradition, reason. Opinions are ever-present.

  • Heart disease

    Originally called, “Back to the Bible”, I decided to abandon that as a title for this article because it is too tame for the dire spiritual situation of today.

  • Ganged up on

    As early as 1882 the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared that as far as Western European civilisation was concerned, “God is dead.”

  • A friend of bingers

    Despite some reduction in the use of alcohol amongst teenagers, binge drinking rates remain stubbornly high in Australia. The desire to drink to be drunk is a mentality I personally understand.

  • Unfulfilled

    I have met many devout Christians who firmly believe they have received a personal promise from God but it has never come to pass.

  • Identify

    We live in an age of “identity politics”, when issues of race (Indigenous), gender (feminism), sexual orientation (gay), gender (trans) and so on are always in the news.

  • Sci-Fi, Jesus and the crisis amongst men

    I have been a sci-fi fan for longer than I can remember and well recall watching the original Star Trek series on TV with mum and dad.

  • Unruly

    With language like “loathing”, “victory”, “the fight”, “war”, “campaign” etc. peppering my Inbox, usually about same-sex marriage, but sometimes about euthanasia, climate change and refugee rights, it’s clear much of the Church is gripped by fearful anger.