by Dr Malcolm Falloon | 6 Jun , 2026 | Articles
Few phrases are used more often today than “culture wars”. Depending on who is speaking, the term may refer to debates about gender identity, freedom of speech, religious liberty, family life, sexuality, education, or national identity. Christians are often told that these issues are distractions and that we should focus on more practical concerns such as the economy, housing, or healthcare.
Yet many of the issues described as “culture wars” concern fundamental questions about what it means to be human. They touch the nature of marriage and family, the raising of children, freedom of conscience, and the relationship between the individual, society, and the state. These are not trivial matters. At the same time, Christians should be careful not to become captive to the culture wars themselves.
A healthy society depends upon more than governments and markets. It is sustained by families, churches, schools, charities, businesses, and countless voluntary associations that help shape character, responsibility, and social trust. Christians have good reasons to care when these institutions are weakened or marginalised. Public debates about culture often reflect deeper questions about the kind of society we are becoming.
However, there is another danger. In recent years some commentators, influencers, and political movements have adopted Christian language and symbols as markers of cultural identity rather than expressions of living faith. Christianity can become a badge of tribal belonging, a way of signalling opposition to progressive ideas, or a tool in wider political struggles. Christians should resist that temptation.
The Church does not exist to provide religious branding for political movements, whether on the left or the right. Our calling is to bear witness to Jesus Christ, in submission to Scripture and with a settled commitment to biblical faithfulness. While Christians will often participate in public debates and may hold strong convictions on moral or political matters, our primary identity is found in Christ himself.
The challenge, therefore, is neither withdrawal nor obsession. Christians cannot ignore questions that affect human flourishing and the common good. But neither should we allow outrage, social media algorithms, or ideological loyalties to shape us more deeply than Scripture, prayer, worship, and Christian fellowship. Faithful engagement begins with the authority of God’s word, not with the talking points of any cultural or political tribe.
The Gospel calls us to speak truthfully, act courageously, and love our neighbours. We should engage the issues of our day thoughtfully and faithfully, but always remembering that our ultimate task is not to win a culture war. It is to bear witness to the Lordship of Christ in the midst of it.
by Dr Stuart Lange | 24 May , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles, Christianity in New Zealand, The Church
On the day of Pentecost, we see the magnificent outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, and on all subsequent believers in Jesus. And we see God birthing his worldwide Church.
The background to Pentecost, of course, was the suffering and death of Jesus, and his triumphant Resurrection. Immediately before the Risen Jesus ascended to the Father, he announced that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The timing was significant. Pentecost was the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Weeks, the festival in which Jews celebrated the start of the harvest. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, God was that day beginning a massive spiritual harvest, that in due course would spread throughout the whole world, to “the ends of the earth”.
God heralded this day with miraculous signs: the sound of a roaring mighty wind that filled the building (a symbol of the Spirit and the breath of life), with tongues of fire (a symbol of God’s purifying and powerful presence ), and the Apostles miraculously speaking intelligibly in foreign languages (a symbol of the coming proclamation of salvation in Christ to all nations).
To the Jerusalem crowd, Peter courageously reproached his countrymen for rejecting Jesus, proclaimed Jesus’ resurrection, and called them to repentance and faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit powerfully moved, and 3,000 people repented and believed.
And so, the Church was born. In the power of the Spirit, God’s message of salvation in Jesus has subsequently been fruitfully preached to every corner of the globe, and billions of people have received new spiritual life in Christ.
Who receives the Holy Spirit? All who trust in Jesus. It is through the Holy Spirit that we first repent and come to believe, and receive new life from above, and are then empowered to live for Christ.
In so many ways, the Holy Spirit is at work in believers: in assuring us we belong to God (Rom. 8:16), in giving us God’s love (Rom. 5:5), in helping us pray (Rom. 8:26), in giving us understanding (John 14:26, 16:13), in changing us inwardly more like Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18), in helping us put to death what is wrong in us (Rom. 8:13), in growing in us the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), in giving us gifts for service (Rom. 12:4-8, 1 Cor. 12-14), and in empowering us to evangelise and disciple people of all nations (Acts 1:8, Matt. 28:19-20).
In this season of Pentecost, there is so much for which we can give thanks and praise to God. May all who believe in Jesus be eager to live “in the Spirit”, and may the Holy Spirit move in power across our nation and world.
by Ben Mai | 8 May , 2026 | Articles, Christianity in New Zealand, The Church
Church planting begins with a simple but often overlooked truth: at some point, the church you are part of was planted. Someone carried the vision. Someone chose a can-do attitude. There was a plan, and almost certainly sacrifice. And there you are. Proof that it was worth it!
At its best, the Church gathers the body of Christ, worships God together, forms people as disciples of Jesus, and reaches out to its community, sharing the Good News in both word and deed. That’s the kind of Church our nation needs more of.
So imagine this: what would New Zealand look like if there was a thriving, outreach-focused church within easy reach of everyone?
It’s a compelling vision. But it stands alongside a sobering reality. Right now, almost 600,000 people, around 10% of our population, don’t have a church in their local area. That includes fast-growing communities like Flagstaff in Hamilton, Whenuapai in Auckland, parts of Rolleston in Canterbury, Grenada North in Wellington, Pāpāmoa East in Tauranga. These are not empty neighbourhoods, They are full of people, but without an accessible Christian community nearby.
This is part of why we must plant churches.
Church planting remains one of the most effective ways to reach people not yet connected to faith. New churches can be particularly effective at engaging new generations, new residents, and those outside existing church networks. They tend to be outward-focused, flexible, and mission-driven from the beginning. They create new front doors into faith.
But we don’t just need new churches. We need renewed ones too. Replanting offers a pathway for existing churches to rediscover purpose and reconnect with their communities. It honours the past while stepping boldly into the future, bringing fresh leadership, vision, and mission to places where a Christian presence already exists but needs revitalisation.
Together, planting and replanting create momentum.
In New Zealand, that momentum is being nurtured. Several denominations, dioceses and networks are outworking their planting visions. CATCH Network, Multiply and other organisations are equipping potential planters with best-practice assessment tools, resources, ideas and coaching.
For nearly three years I’ve been part of a nationwide church planting learning community. This community has brought together a broad range of senior leaders & planters: from the North and South Islands; from large and small cities. Groups from Pentecostal churches, independent churches, and from Wesleyan, Open Brethren, Presbyterian, and Anglican churches.
Rather than planting in isolation, this approach brings leaders together to learn, share, and grow. It fosters a culture of encouragement, accountability, and practical support.
A key insight from this learning community is that healthy church planting is not accidental – it’s intentional. In simple terms, planting requires four elements: authority (permission to plant), a planter (or team), a date (a clear launch point), and a location (a place to gather).
Another emphasis is sustainability and multiplication. The goal is not just to start churches, but to start churches that can eventually plant others. This kind of thinking shifts the mindset from addition to multiplication — from maintaining to sending. This was the mindset of the early Church!
And crucially, it reinforces the need for a blended ecology of churches.
New Zealand is diverse, and so the Church must be too. We need resource churches that can train and release leaders, campus locations that extend into growing suburbs, and autonomous churches shaped by local context. We need missional churches embedded in their neighbourhoods, micro-churches meeting in homes, churches on marae reflecting Māori identity and tikanga, and churches on or near university campuses engaging the next generation.
No single model will reach everyone — but together, a range of initiatives can reach everyone. The twelves groups participating in our first two-year cohort of our learning community have planted or replanted thirty-two churches across that time.
The opportunity before us — helping grow the Church in this country — is significant. A church planting movement is not built on a few standout leaders, but on many ordinary people saying Yes: yes to going, to sending, to supporting, and to praying.
The truth is, someone once did that for your church.
Twelve months ago, someone planted a church that a mother and her family joined. We heard her story this week…
My church has been an answer to prayer. Our family is here because God made it so. I’ve been a Christian all my life, but when my kids were young, we stopped going to church for about eight years. It wasn’t that we’d lost our faith, but life became overwhelming, and church felt like too much. Over time, my faith became sidelined. I still believed, but it had stagnated, inseparable from guilt and inadequacy.
But, even when I felt far from God, He wasn’t far from me. God was paving the way for my church long before it started. Particular people and events had crossed my path that God was using to draw my heart back to him.
Yet, I thought coming back to church was impossible. Sunday mornings were our only family morning and how would my older kids even respond to church? It was all too hard.
I remember praying: God —can you make it possible for us to go back to church? And He did.
My sister in law sent me a video about a new church starting up just around the corner. But we quickly dismissed it: what difference would it make? It was still going to be a massive undertaking to get my family in those doors and I wasn’t up for the challenge.
But this church was different. We could do 5pm. And the kids already knew and loved the school playground where the church meets! Long story short, God took my list of reasons why not, and turned them into reasons why we couldn’t say no. And it was effortless. The boys loved kids’ church. This was my answer to prayer.
And the impact of my church continues. God is still tugging at my heart, and I have a joy in God that I’ve never experienced before. When I first arrived, I saw that joy in so many of the people here. It’s in their eyes, it’s in their welcome, it’s in the worship and the sermons, it’s in their lives. Faith at my church isn’t a result of “shoulds” and “ought to”s” like I had felt in the past: this is real, genuine faith, filled with love, not fear…I’m thankful that this church surrounds my family with so much love.’
by Dr Malcolm Falloon | 10 Apr , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles, Christianity in New Zealand
Why does Easter continue to matter—even after the weekend itself has passed?
Christians return to it year after year not simply because it marks a moment in history, but because its meaning continues to shape our lives. Easter speaks of something both deeply personal and universally needed: forgiveness—and the freedom it brings.
If God is truly at the heart of the cosmos, then love—and specifically forgiving love—is not peripheral to reality, but central to it. For at the centre of the universe is not a cold singularity, but the living God whose nature is love. And at the cross of Christ, that love is revealed most clearly: a love that does not ignore sin, but bears it; a love that does not turn away, but makes a way back.
Jesus’ words point us to the result: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). But free from what?
First, forgiveness brings freedom to know God. Human instinct, when faced with guilt, is to hide—to minimise, deny, or justify. Yet the cross opens a different path. Because sin is dealt with, we are no longer driven to conceal ourselves. We are free to come honestly before God, not as those under judgement, but as those welcomed and restored. Forgiveness opens the door; freedom is the life we discover as we walk through it.
Second, forgiveness brings freedom from resentment toward others. Unforgiveness has a way of imprisoning us. We replay wrongs, keep score, and allow past hurts to shape our present. Yet the forgiveness we receive from God enables us to release others into his hands. This is not about excusing wrongdoing, but about refusing to let it define us. In forgiving, we are set free.
Third, forgiveness brings freedom for the future. Many carry not only guilt, but shame—the sense of being defined by what has been done, whether by us or to us. The message of the cross speaks directly to this. In Christ, we are not trapped by the past or bound by the voices that diminish us. We are free to become who God has made us to be.
Perhaps this is why Easter continues to matter. Forgiveness remains the most powerful force we know in human relationships. It restores what is broken, releases what is bound, and opens the possibility of new life.
And Christians believe this: that what we glimpse in human forgiveness has its source in God himself. At the cross, forgiveness is not simply taught—it is accomplished. And through it, a deeper freedom is given than we could ever create for ourselves.
by Dr Stuart Lange | 30 Mar , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles
Easter is an excellent time to prayerfully read again the powerful New Testament narratives(1) of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, to share them with others, and for preachers to preach them.
In these pivotal divine and human events, we see some core aspects of Christian faith, and the heart of the Good News: how God has offered humanity grace, forgiveness, life, transformation, and hope, and the future new heaven and earth.
JESUS’ SUFFERING AND DEATH
Precisely who was it who went to the Cross
Jesus of Nazareth was not just a uniquely good and compassionate person, a superb spiritual and moral teacher, and someone astonishingly full of the power of God. Jesus was and is the only Son of the living God, God-with-us, the divine Word made flesh. And it was He who hung upon the Cross.
Did Jesus deserve the horrible death he went through?
Not in any way. The Jewish religious authorities condemned him to death for acknowledging that he was the Son of God; but since Jesus was speaking the truth, his condemnation was wrong. Pilate the Roman procurator quickly realised Jesus was innocent, but gave way to mob pressure and sent Jesus off to a brutal, agonising public execution. Totally undeserved.
The guilty party
It wasn’t Jesus. It wasn’t just the Jewish and Roman authorities. The guilty party was all humanity: us wayward, rebellious, self-serving sinful human beings, alienated from God, and deserving God’s judgement. ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’, and ‘all have fallen short of the glory of God’ (Rom. 3:9, 23).
God was lovingly atoning for sinful humanity
The Cross demonstrates God’s immense love and grace toward humanity, and God’s profound longing to reconcile us to himself. In love the Father sent his Son, and in love the Son laid down his life. God in Christ paid the penalty which we ourselves deserve, so that – by faith in Him – we might be forgiven and restored to God. ’This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (1 John 4:10). ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6).
JESUS’ RESURRECTION
We can be very confident in the truth of Jesus’ resurrection
Why? Because of multiple attestation by many sources and witnesses, the undenied reality of the empty tomb, the appearance of the empty graveclothes, the reports of many eye-witness encounters with the risen Jesus, the phenomenal spiritual boldness and effectiveness of the early church, the extraordinary global spread of the Gospel, and our own ongoing experience of the Risen Lord.
The Resurrection of Jesus confirms who Jesus truly is
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead totally vindicated Jesus, and was God’s powerful, definitive declaration that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and Saviour of the world (e.g. Romans 1:4), and that all Jesus said is true.
The Resurrection confirms what Jesus achieved for us on the Cross
(e.g. Romans 4:25; 1 Cor.15:3,14, 20)
The Resurrection means that Jesus lives and reigns for ever, and we can live in fellowship with Him
(e.g. Matt. 28:20, 1 Cor.1:9, Gal. 2:20, Phil.3:10, John 14:19-20, 1 John 1:3)
The Resurrection means that believers in Jesus are raised to new spiritual life
(e.g. Ephesians 2:5-6)
The Resurrection means that believers in Jesus will also experience resurrection
(e.g. 1 Cor.15:20, 52; 2 Cor.4:14; Phil. 3:20-21)
The Resurrection signalled the defeat of various foes
Jesus’ resurrection was a defeat for sin, the powers of hell, and death, and signalled their complete defeat and destruction when Christ returns (1 Cor. 15: 24-28)
The Resurrection of Jesus gives us a living hope for the future
(e.g. 1 Pet. 1:3)
___
(1) Matt. 26-28, Mark 14-16, Luke 22- 50, John 18-21.
by Dr Stuart Lange | 5 Mar , 2026 | About Christianity, Articles, Christianity and Social & Moral Issues
Resisting the normalisation of killing
The ultimate source of every human life is God. Every human being is loved by God, and precious in his sight
In the sixth commandment, God tells us not to kill. In the New Zealand Parliament, however, a majority of MPs in the last Parliament decided it was okay to destroy an unborn baby (if the mother asks for that) and okay to kill terminally ill people (if the ill person asks for that).
Those women seeking abortion may feel they have no option, or may be under great pressure, or may be in a state of significant distress.
In the case of voluntary euthanasia, at least the person concerned requests an early death. In the case of abortion, the unborn baby does not give consent. No unborn baby ever asks to be “terminated”, or to miss out on living their life, with love and joy. No unborn baby ever asks to be clinically destroyed in the womb.
Abortion law “reform” in 2019 has led to a 37% increase the number of New Zealand abortions: in 2024 there were 17,785 abortions (about 50 every day).
Under the current legislation, if babies survive abortion (as about one per week does), they are denied medical care, and just put aside and left to die.
Many medical personnel and hospices who on conscience or other grounds do not want to have anything to with abortion or euthanasia find themselves under increasing pressure within the health sector.
Should we just accept all this, and move on? Should we adapt our beliefs, values and consciences to align with majority views, and the new legislative status quo? Should we decide that at this time nothing can be done, and just keep our values to ourselves?
Or should we continue to hold (and give peaceful, respectful, compassionate witness) to our biblical convictions that life is the sacred gift of God? Should we work and pray for such outcomes as much better (and less pro-abortion) education for young people about choices and options, less bias in government funding, strong support for mothers who choose against having an abortion, mandatory life-saving medical care for those babies which survive abortions, and robust rights of conscience for those medical staff and hospices who do not want to have any part in abortion or euthanasia?
Later this year we should vote for candidates who genuinely respect both the sanctity of human life and medical practitioners’ freedom of conscience, and who will seek possible ways to improve the current situation. Also, after the election, we must resist the inevitable attempts of some to liberalise the scope of the current euthanasia law.
Meanwhile, some readers in or around Auckland may want to join the National March for Life this Saturday, beginning at 1.00 p.m. at the bottom of Queen Street.
Also, praying about the war in the Middle East
Likewise, war is about killing, and war very often results in much loss of life, destruction, suffering and sadness, and sometimes evil behaviour occurs. In our sinful world, all governments are called by God to protect their people, restrain evil, and promote justice and righteousness, and wars can at times be difficult to avoid.
How might Christians pray about this particular conflict?
Here’s some suggestions…
- Pray for that the conflict will end in a genuine and lasting peace
- Pray for all those caught up in the conflict, especially children and civilians
- Pray for the small Christian minority in Iran, and in all Middle East countries
- Pray for a possible change of government in Iran, and freedom from tyranny
- Pray that at this time people in all these countries may turn to Christ
- Pray that the Lord’s will be done
