Twelve months ago, Karen Hallard says she was ‘living life on the dark side'. A mother of two, in a de facto relationship with the father of her two sons, she had been involved in a shooting incident and was going through severe depression. “I couldn't find myself as a person, and I felt like I wanted to die,” she says. “I just couldn't go on.” But Karen's life – and that of her family – has been turned around by God, through the unique ‘Zoo Ministry' at Glenquarie Anglican Church in Sydney's south-western suburbs.

Newcomers to Sydney can’t help but notice a number of things: the beautiful harbour, the terrible traffic, the sandy beaches, and the pollution that is among it all But something else visitors tend to comment on is Sydney’s obsession with real estate.

PHILLIP HEATH says Christian educators have the chance to speak to a generation that is finally listening

It's not unusual for films to require their audience to suspend disbelief. Hollywood has asked us to consider Meg Ryan as a surgeon, Arnold Schwarzenegger a scientific genius and Ben Affleck as an intelligent life form. Perhaps even more common than having to suspend disbelief is the requisite deferring of morality. All sorts of immoral activity is engaged in on the silver screen and we are asked to justify or excuse it based on all sorts of spurious logic.

In a society that says the Bible is irrelevant to today's questions, Sydney Missionary and Bible College Press has produced a work that reassures Christians that the exact opposite is the case.

Before the end of the first chapter, I had already categorised Character Witness as a ‘Yes, but…' book. That is, a book that says some good things, but that still generates a certain sense of unease. However, by the end I was far more positive.

One of the biggest selling books of the year in the US is an openly Christian title that encourages readers to serve God and become like Christ. Now The Purpose Driven Life is helping churches in Sydney to grow.

In the first of a four-part series exploring the policies of the diocesan Mission, our starting point is to ensure that we hear the word of God and live it out.