Chris Gnanakan

As the year ends, people seems to be talking about “change for the better”. However, one can get mighty fed up with the way things still are, or how some systems continue to work. At times we get so frustrated with people and ourselves. Then as Christians, we painfully realize the corruption and sins in the Church often are worse than any crisis in society. If Christianity claims to have the solution for the world’s problem who else, and importantly, how in the world are we going to deal with and solve our own problems within? When are we going to live and work together as Christians? We then can become bewildered as to why God doesn’t do something about all this, right? (more…)

A ‘ritual of remembrance’ at the heart of Old Testament worship (the Passover) asked an important question: ‘What is this service all about?’ (Ex.12:26) In the New, the Holy Communion service raises a similar question for which the answer is at least threefold: (more…)

Working beside some of my Christian professional friends particularly from WIPRO, an IT company, I’ve gathered a few quotations on ‘innovation’ that have inspired me and are worth sharing with you. For instance, Einstein was convinced: ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’! It was Bernard Shaw who submitted: ‘Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.’

Theo Levitt had some remarkable things to say about innovation, like: ‘Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things’ and again: ‘Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress’. Lewit also noted that: ‘The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious’. Here are a few (more…)

You have two sides . . .
One out in  the field and the other one in,
Each man in  the side that is in, goes out to bat
And when he is out, he comes in  then
The next man goes in  until he is out

When they are all out, the side that is out comes in
Now the side that has been in  goes out
And tries to get these coming in  out
Sometimes you get men in  and still not out

But when both sides have been in  and out,
Including the not outs, that’s the end of the game!
… Howzat ?!!

I’ve been thinking what it would mean, positively, to ‘be’ church – that welcoming or open-door expression of Jesus’ kingdom in contemporary society. I was reminded of a poetic verse I learnt as a child:

‘One door and only one and yet the sides are two,
Inside and outside, on which side are you?’

Mark, in his account of Jesus’ life, presents him as God’s Kingdom-bearer in fulfillment of prophecy (Isa.35:6). Yet ‘the big issue’ was whether so-called ‘God’s people’ would be ready for the kind of kingdom on offer. (more…)