SMBC Blog

Our prayer is that you’ll be encouraged and challenged in your knowledge and love of God by these articles. We also hope you get a taste of SMBC’s teaching, research and publishing. At the end of each article, we suggest a ‘next step’ that might help to take you deeper into the Bible and further into Christian thought.

26 December 2024

The (Devil of a) smell is in the detail

Cath Fisher

Image - The (Devil of a) smell is in the detail

I arrived at my destination. My car had suitcases full of books and I had enough food (and chocolate) to last me five days. My family had gifted me time away to do focussed work on the next chapter of my PhD. Friends had loaned me their holiday home and my dog was with me to ensure I took adequate breaks. I was ready to write! I opened the door to the house and was struck by an unusual smell...

30 November 2024

A not so happily ever after

Alex Prentice

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Everyone loves a happy ending. The good guy (or gal) wins. The hard work pays off. The mission is a success. Sure, it can feel cathartic when a fictional story ends with tragedy or a cliffhanger – think of Shakespeare or Titanic – but in real life, we all want to experience that happy ending...

23 October 2024

Becoming all things to all people: How far is too far?

Derek Brotherson

Image - Becoming all things to all people: How far is too far?

In 2010, my wife and I moved our family to a Muslim-majority context to serve as cross-cultural missionaries. We had just graduated from SMBC, and one of many highlights of our time studying at college was learning about the profound importance of contextualisation in Christian ministry...

23 September 2024

The sweet smell of success

Matt Vander Heiden

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Several years ago now, I was talking to a newly enrolled student at the Bible College I was working at in Portugal, when I asked him a question I often asked new students, “What do you hope to do once you’ve finished studying here?” He answered quickly, saying “I’d like to have a successful ministry back in my home town.” This was not the sort of answer I usually got to that question...

20 August 2024

Of gods, kings and kids’ church leaders

Janson Condren

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What image immediately pops into your head when you read “strong leader”? I picture someone who’s out front in the battle lines, poised with confidence, muscles bulging, and yelling with passion, “charge”! I once attended a large church in Chicago where the lead pastor captured the essence of this persona all too well. I was struck by how often people would talk about the lead pastor...

30 June 2024

Our churches’ untapped experts

Tim Silberman

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My friend James* is constantly speaking to non-Christians about Jesus. He invites them to his house, tells them the gospel, and has seen many young men come to faith. It seems like every time he messages me, he has seen another person become a Christian. But I don’t know many people like James. In fact, as I visit churches in Australia, most people I meet say how hard it is to reach out to their neighbours...

30 May 2024

2 Corinthians always makes it onto my list

Karl Deenick

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A few times over lunches or dinners at SMBC someone has asked a question like: “If you were trapped on a desert island and could only have 3 books of the Bible with you, which three would it be?” The aim of the question, of course, is not to encourage people to devalue certain parts of the Bible! Rather it’s a fun way of reflecting on those books of the Bible that we have found especially helpful...

24 April 2024

John Wesley: Dignity in simplicity

Ian Maddock

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“Given the choice, I’d much rather be a philosophical sluggard, or a wanderer in the academic groves.” That’s how John Wesley, one of the founding fathers of evangelicalism, described himself! Wesley’s natural habitats were the libraries and the lecture halls of Oxford, not the English coal mining towns of Bristol and Newcastle where he spent so much of his life ministering to the marginalised...

24 March 2024

Work: A chasing after the wind?

Anna Brotherson

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There’s a story about a young fisherman sitting on a beach on a sunny day, looking out over the rolling waves, listening to the sound of the gulls, and letting the warm sand slip through his fingers. A businessman comes up to him and says, “Why are you being so lazy?  Go out and catch more fish!”...

28 February 2024

Is there more to thankfulness?

Alan Thompson

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When I was studying at a seminary in Chicago, I got to know an overseas student who I seemed to cross paths with regularly while walking across campus to and from classes. As we passed by or stopped to chat, I’d ask him how he was doing. And his answer was always the same every day...

31 January 2024

Don’t sip the Bible. Binge it.

Mark Stephens

Image - Don’t sip the Bible. Binge it.

The shuffle button. We’re all familiar with the shuffle button. When you open up Spotify, or whichever music app takes your fancy, there’s nearly always the option to randomise the playlist. Musicians will hate you for it. So much so that in 2021 Adele successfully petitioned Spotify to get the button removed from albums...

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