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.

We may be theologically astute, but how well do we understand the people we're trying to reach?

If anyone ever needed an excuse not to be a generous financial supporter of their church, the front page of last month's Southern Cross may have inadvertently provided that. Most unfortunate were, firstly, the way the story did not do justice to our relative wealth, and secondly, the title – especially when the opposite is true. We can afford church!

The gospel has always informed Christians in the way they interact with society.