There’s no way I can condense what I’m about to write, so please do bear with me.  It’ll be worth it.

When you’re considering the debate over evolution and creation, there is a rather large problem for the evolutionists; how did life originate? How did molecules organize themselves into the first self-replicating organism?

People try to imagine what life might have looked like back then. But it’s important to bear in mind that they’re just imagining; the simplest life-forms we know of that are capable of autonomous survival are not exactly simple, and we have no reason to think that they ever were simple. In fact, the simplest life-forms still require about 1000 different proteins to survive, these being single-celled organisms (like e. coli).

With this in mind, read the following excerpt. It’s written by Dr John Baumgardner, giving us some straight-forward calculations on the probability of life arising by chance. It’s certainly worth the effort to get your head around what Baumgardner is saying:

“Let us first establish a reasonable upper limit on the number of molecules that could ever have been formed anywhere in the universe during its entire history. Taking 1080 [the number 1 followed by 80 zeros] as a generous estimate for the total number of atoms in the cosmos, 1012 [the number 1 followed by 12 zeros] for a generous upper bound for the average number of interatomic interactions per second per atom, and 1018 seconds (roughly 30 billion years) as an upper bound for the age of the universe, we get 10110 as a very generous upper limit on the total number of interatomic interactions which could have ever occurred during the long cosmic history the evolutionist imagines. Now if we make the extremely generous assumption that each interatomic interaction always produces a unique molecule, then we conclude that no more than 10110 unique molecules could have ever existed in the universe during its entire history.

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Wow…what a GREAT service we had on Sunday evening launching our new, exciting series: Mark’s Gospel – What if God was one of us?

Great preach, great worship, real sense of God in our midst.

Last Sunday (for those not in the know) we changed our service time from 4pm to 5.30pm to provide more time for people (especially those involved in serving/ministry teams) to rest and relax and enjoy fellowship with each other before the afternoon service, launching a 12 month series (interspersed with Christmas, Easter, etc.) on Mark’s Gospel.

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Crowds are fickle, but oh how we love a crowd.

There is an obsession in the world today with getting popular approval, mass support, and adoration.  I sometimes wonder just how much this desire has infiltrated the church.  Some pastors (not all) want big churches because big churches mean big popularity.  Some church members want their church to be big because that means we look credible and impressive in the eyes of the world.  It’s nice to tell your friends or colleagues how many hundreds or thousands of people are at your church.

I’m not against big churches or the very deliberate effort to grow churches.  On the contrary, I believe that is the very definite plan of God.  I’m convinced the Bible predicts a very, very impressive picture with regard to the future of the Church.  As one preacher put it, “Jesus is coming back for a massive bride…” (an unfortunate turn of phrase, I’ll admit.)

However, despite this very definite trajectory that the Church of Jesus Christ is set on – unstoppable growth – it is nevertheless equally true that the crowds we call churches may be deceptively big.  Not everybody in a church is necessarily in the Church.

What do I mean?  It’s obvious when you think about it that size does not equate to success in any direct sense.  If it did, then the Catholic Church is clearly doing quite well… Jesus isn’t interested in gathering crowds if the individuals in that crowd can get the wrong idea that they’re part of Jesus’ Church, when in fact they’re not.  There may be a feeling of safety in numbers that actually stops people getting saved.

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On Sunday I mentioned the wonderful book Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison.  In that book Powlison helps us to uncover the idolatrous motivations of our hearts – the hidden reasons that lurk behind your every action. I was considering typing up all 35 of the questions (as I only gave 7 of them in the sermon). I wasn’t really sure about copyright and all that, but thankfully, there are plenty of people on the internet who seem to have done the job already.

I thoroughly recommend you work through these 35 questions, and journal your answers. I have found this process very helpful. It doesn’t provide a quick-fix solution, but at least it sheds light on those dark corners of your heart that rarely get attention. This, in turn, helps you to repent and change.

So, to see the questions, check out this blog post by Scott Thomas.

Here are a few nuggets I’ve found helpful in my recent readings and studies on leadership and change management.

“There is nothing more difficult to to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” (Machiavelli, The Prince)

“In building a great institution, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, our research showed that it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel. Pushing with great effort – days, weeks and months of work, with almost imperceptible progress – you finally get the flywheel to inch forward. But you don’t stop. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you eventually get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You don’t stop. You keep pushing, in an intelligent and consistent direction, and the flywheel moves a bit faster. You keep pushing, and you get two turns…then four…then eight…the flywheel builds momentum…a hundred…moving faster with each turn…a thousand…ten thousand…a hundred thousand. Then, at some point – breakthrough! Each turn builds upon previous work, compounding your investment effort. The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum. This is how you build greatness.” (Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors)

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