So I’m not officially back as a regular blogger – I’ve needed a break to reflect on some important upcoming milestones in my life, and I’m not done taking this break yet – but I have some material I put together for another venue that I think will make for decent blogging. At Real Life (the church where I am a pastor), we do an annual “Q&A Sunday,” where some of the pastors and laypeople host a Q&A session with the people in our church. Some questions are planned ahead of time, but about half are based on questions asked from the audience during our time together. We’re doing this in a few weeks, and my boss asked me to offer some thoughts on a few questions that always come up. So I did. And as I did, I thought to myself, “I should blog this stuff.” So here I am, blogging this stuff. The answers are mid-length – brief when compared with all that needs to be said, and long when compared to what we have time to explain on Sunday – so I think they provide a decent introduction into how I approach the issues. Here are the questions (his wording, not mine):

How do we know God exists?
Why does God allow pain and suffering?
If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what about people from other religions?
What is our church’s view on homosexuality?
How can we trust the Bible?

Starting tomorrow (if I have computer access; otherwise starting Wednesday) I will post my reflections on these questions every two or three days. I hope you enjoy thinking about these things, and as always I welcome any and all feedback.
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PS I received some pretty heated comments from someone in Melbourne a few posts ago. I will gladly and I hope graciously respond to them soon!
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