May 12, 2026 | Blog |
A psychologist studying trauma recently said to me that no human relationship is totally safe. Really? So sad.
My mind went to wondering if our God-relationship can be totally safe. I have known some people who as a result of childhood experience of a distant or cruel parent, have great difficulty considering God their Father. Jesus is OK, they say. But that “father” word stands in the way of their relationship.
Calling God Father is especially precious to me because of the incredible spiritual intimacy I have come to experience over the years. Fortunately, I had the gift of a human father I could trust, who I could be confident wanted only the best for me. But not everyone has that experience. Widespread disclosures of child abuse evidence that.
The Good Father
Early in my pastoral ministry I found some survivors of childhood neglect and abuse were helped by thinking of God as the Good Father. This suggestion follows the model of Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd. His hearers understood the value of this, even though they knew there were bad shepherds who neglected their flock, mistreated or abandoned them.
I’ve noticed a recent return to songs mentioning God’s holiness. What does it mean to say God is holy? The church I was part of in my childhood had a banner over the archway at the front that said, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”. I puzzled over that many a Sunday. Holiness didn’t seem to me beautiful. I wasn’t sure I had much of it, and drawing attention to God’s holiness just seemed to distance me.
Certainly, God is not of the same substance as us, nor would we want a God just like us. However we define deity, God must be other, separate, requiring respect. What is God is both father and holy? When we hear through Jesus that we are invited into a relationship with this divine Other, can we dare to trust this relationship?
The Holy Guarantee
What I have come to realise is that God being holy is our guarantee that the heavenly Father is safe. The holiness itself is the guarantee. So invited into intimacy with this Other will not harm us, will not cause us evil. A holy God can do no wrong, cannot be careless with us. God is challenging perhaps, always expecting the best of us, but this Good Father will not hurt nor exploit us.
An Australian song says: Who else invites me to call Him Father? Only a Holy God.
And Brian Holliday of Dayspring recently reminded us of the reassuring words penned by Teresa of Avila:
God is always there, if you feel wounded.
God kneels
over this earth like
a divine medic,
and God’s love thaws
the holy in
us.
Jennifer Turner
May 4, 2026 | Blog |
One time hiking the Cape-to-Cape track down the coast of Western Australia we sat on a cliff overlooking the well-known lefthanders surf break near Gracetown. We watched the black clad riders below get up and test the waves. And I wondered whether the Creator of oceans enjoys the surf as much as we do.
In the long history of the earth, surfing with boards is a new phenomenon. Yet we are told in Genesis that on the seventh day of creation God enjoyed all that was made. Does that include surfing? It’s hard to imagine. But we know the waves and the swell were there long before we humans discovered the thrill and the fear of riding them.
The Creator shares the natural world with us
Sharing the natural world with us is apparently part of the Creator’s plan for the universe. It is a great benefit of the relationship of love and acceptance God offers to us. Yet, just as in that Genesis beginning, we too can take for granted this connection. We try to domesticate it with our puny thoughts and desires. The Creator, however, always remains Other, beyond and above us. Awe is the gift that reminds us of this.
Awe is that mixture of wonder and fear we associate mostly with the physical world writ large. But when we look for it, we also find awe is prompted by the exquisitely small. Perhaps a delicate flower or the minute building blocks of cells revealed by electron microscope or biochemistry investigation. We can be “awed” in various ways and places and relationships.
Julia Baird recommended in her awe-focused TV program a couple of years ago a daily “awe walk”. Go out of the house or the office with eyes open and heart alert to the natural world around. I would add, even better to do it with others. And with thanks to the God who desires to share closeness with us.
Awe’s mix of wonder and fear
Awe is a gift because its mixture of wonder and fear gets the balance right. It can take us out of our self-focused struggles and connect us to others, including to the One who created all these things. Psychological research shows that the benefit of awe itself is enhanced by sharing it with others. I described in Finding Your Voice how healing in the isolation of the worst Covid-19 year our neighbours found it to watch the sunsets over the Indian Ocean at the end of our street.
Many of the biblical psalms give us words for enjoying and sharing this gift of awe: “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” (Ps 65) And their context brings together what prayer also offers – both awe and intimacy in our God-relationship: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Ps 8)
We dare not presume on this relationship our Father God offers us. Nor on what we can offer to each other as we work together. All we can do is say thank you and enter wholeheartedly into these great sharing opportunities.
Jennifer Turner
May 2, 2026 | Blog |
Someone has said: Sitting at a piano does not create a masterpiece, but you had better be sitting at one when the creative impetus arrives!
After dedicating twelve months to writing my latest book, I’ve been reflecting on the creative process. This time I am not just sharing my story of finding my voice. The words and concepts are more theological. I’ve been reflecting on God’s love and what Scripture tells us about it. So I feel I have had to struggle with the big ideas and how to express them in everyday language. They didn’t just flow.
I always want to find words that connect with people who didn’t grow up with the King James English Bible as I did. People who never have time to think deeply about the things on an ordinary day. And who always feel less than perfect in the presence of a high holy God. Or whose experience of their own father stands in the way of feeling safe with the one Jesus called Father.
When I was younger, I could write non-stop for a three-hour exam about something I knew or had studied. And I still don’t have trouble with a flow of words when I speak. But in this book I passionately long for readers to find the incredible intimacy available with our Good Father. But the words haven’t come readily.
I found some funny quirks when I got to the proof-reading stage. Several times I had quoted a verse of Scripture and given it an NIV or other recent translation reference. But I had actually been using the ancient expressions of the1604 King James version I had learnt in my youth. I’m grateful now for that memorising in the past, because today it is not as easy to remember the lyrics of songs, let alone poetry or Bible verses.
Enjoying The Work
But the big question behind a writing project is always: How does the creative impulse come? Can I do anything to prompt it? Is it up to me anyway when I know this is what I am called to do in this season of my life?
For most of us creativity isn’t automatic. Certainly, writing is work; it is just hard yakka! It requires routines and disciplines. At least, it does for me. Though I have a general outline of where I want a book to go, each chapter takes at least a month to build its content and be satisfied with a first draft. Then it is revising, moving parts around, always being disappointed that it is not like CS Lewis’ or Tim Keller’s writing and searching, searching, searching for better words until it is, not perfect, but enough.
I have been reading and listening to other writers describe their writing practice. A thousand spontaneous words before breakfast in the first light of dawn, one says of their method. Others hide away in a café to get the project underway. (I can’t do that, I like watching people too much to be productive in a cafe.) Some go to a retreat setting and write continuously for a month or a week or a weekend. But I like the home feel of my study and library, and the routines with my husband of a morning swim and an afternoon walk along the coast.
Last year I tried at first spending the mornings writing, and giving the other half of the day to mentoring and teaching prep. But I found my mind wandering in the mornings into what I was anticipating in the afternoon. It worked better when I devoted the afternoons to writing on days I had them free. Then it was sheer luxury to be able to turn to the book with no more commitments that day.
Where Does Creativity Come From?
And the creativity? Well, it does come when you sit down at the computer (or desk or piano), though from where is a marvel. It is not just stored knowledge or an algorithm. It is human capability; a person made in the image of the Creator God to be creative. Hurrah for humans! In this age of AI, cherishing our humanity is doubly important, whether we acknowledge the divine impetus or not.
Sometimes, creative ideas or solutions come for me through prayer, on a walk, in the shower or sitting at the desk. Sometimes, being in relationship with a loving and knowing God, I know it is the Holy Spirit gifting inspiration within the ordinary human journey. Dallas Willard calls our body the “power pack” of the spirit. Perhaps that could also be “Spirit” with a capital S. Certainly, it is a partnership between body and spirit/Spirit. And not just for a writer, but in every area of life.
The Genesis origin story tells us that after the acts of creation, God rested and enjoyed all that was made. As a lesser creative, I am enjoying that my book – about being at home with a Good Father in an incredible growing intimacy – is at the publishers. And I have learned a lot more about the creative process under the loving hand of God.
Jennifer Turner
Dec 22, 2021 | Blog |
I was given Helen Garner’s book about male privilege, The First Stone: Some questions about sex and power, as a Mother’s Day present. Sweet irony! So I took it to Melbourne that July. Somehow it seemed very appropriate to read this story about exploitation right there in the shadow of Ormond College.
I found Garner’s story of her personal pilgrimage through the minefield of 1990s male-female relations profoundly moving and pondered long and hard over its effect on me. It is not so much that I am in Garner’s age group and see the world in her colours. The characterisation of her book as older feminists versus younger feminists is overdrawn. In any case, I do not have her history as an active feminist of the 60s and 70s nor can I identify with her point of view on many issues. Rather, what moved me was that an Australian had the courage to say in a local context that life is not so simple and that the subtleties of relations between the genders cannot easily be drawn in straight lines or pink and blue. Our sexual identity is at the core of our being and affects everything we do. And just as the rigidity of Victorian-era rules ossified human relationships, so the new rules that define gender warfare do not do justice to the possibilities nor the intricacies of human relationships.
There is value in having rules, of course. The incest taboo, like a railing on a high balcony, makes wonderful sibling and intergenerational relationships possible. And wisdom about full intimacy being only for marriage enhances that relationship as well as setting limits on all others. But rules define boundary conditions. They do not of themselves generate creative interactions.
It is not easy to overcome the gulf between two people in any friendship. The partnership of lovers holds both extra promise and extra tension. In the imagery of Genesis 2 and 3, the intimacy pictured as ‘naked and not ashamed’ degenerates into mutual hiding and blaming when ultimate personal autonomy is sought. Demographics such as the number of people who live alone or the average length of marriage partnerships, highlight clearly that we live in an age of individualism. When having only yourself to please has become a habit, it is even harder to bridge the gap to another person and their funny ways. As one of my friends once observed, we think it the height of generous child-rearing to give each child his or her own bedroom. However, when they marry, we expect them not only to share a room but a bed! How I wish we Christians with our good news about reconciliation were the ones blazing the path to celebrate both the intricacy and the potential of restored relationships.
In recent years when dinner party guests who have come to our table courtesy of my husband’s profession have asked what I used to do for a living, the mention of the church immediately produces a discussion of women’s rights, rigid rules, and a condemnation of ecclesiastical institutions. It gives me great pain to see the disrespect our society has for the church and how our lack of internal reconciliation has brought shame to Christ’s body, however much we may make the distinction between a fallible human institution and the organism of which Christ is the head. Leon Morris, way back in 1976, pointed out that subjugation of women in the church is likely to be the very thing which today brings the word of God into disrepute. (A Woman’s Place, p 27)
But women’s leadership is a red herring, however much its withholding from women is a matter of warm debate and cause of much pain. The real issue is the ongoing relationships between men and women, how we work them out in today’s world, and the implications for abuse of power. Under a biblical mandate, we want to affirm the differences between men and women without saying that all women fall into certain roles or personality categories, and all men into other, mutually exclusive ones. Variety, complementarity, and the need for cooperation across roles and personalities are part of the great richness that God has given us – part of what it means for us to live together in the image of a Trinitarian, relationship God.
But it is not sufficient to affirm that there are gender differences and ‘Vive la Difference!’ I experienced firsthand black-white turmoil in the US in the 60s and 70s when the same argument was used for ‘separate but equal’ segregated housing and schools. However much ethnic or colour diversity was extolled and the uniformity of a total integration policy eschewed, it was naive then in that debate and it is today in the gender and power one, to say that being different makes no difference to how you are regarded or treated. When power is unevenly distributed there cannot be equality between two separate groups. One group is systematically, if unwittingly, excluded from the seats of economic and institutional influence. Only members of the more powerful class will deny it. The less powerful, having experienced the disability of their class, know otherwise. They see both the structural and the subconscious barriers.
I still sometimes hear men ask, “What is the problem?” saying: we affirm women as made in the image of God, we acknowledge complementarity, we enjoy their company. But sometimes even among friends it must be, to use Roberta Hestenes’ words ‘my brother, my enemy’ – women speaking out until the more powerful understand, however distantly, what it means to be systematically disempowered, to have male preferences and practices taken as normative and to be devalued in arenas of life where it should not be relevant whether a person is male or female. One benefit of white Anglo Saxon males being denied jobs or scholarships by affirmative action maybe some understanding of what it feels like to be excluded from something in which you should rightfully be able to participate, even as you qualify on all grounds except gender or class.
Garner’s book and the discussion it produced should have been signs that in 1995 that we were moving into more mature wrestling with the implications of gender relations. But however much the balance of opportunities and rights between parents has changed in recent years, the fact remains that a family with children has three jobs — his, hers and the care of the children. Unless outside help is used, something has to give in those early years. The responsibility to wrestle with these problems is not just hers, but theirs.
Power relations is a useful way of analysing problems and explaining the pain as well as the dilemmas in society, but merely to adjust the power balance is not an adequate Christian response. We are called to serve like Jesus. Lines drawn in the sand and invective across barricades belong, if at all, to an early stage of any revolution. It should be a sign of growing maturity, not just of the commentators but of the struggle itself, that the subtleties of this issue are being faced in secular society. In the Kingdom of God, we must acknowledge these subtleties as well but go further, much further, in living Kingdom values.
The challenge to Christians is to demonstrate that the reconciliation with God carries over into our everyday gender relationships. The early church had to discover the implications of the cross for breaking down the ethnic divide. In later centuries Christians led the way in abolishing slavery. Today the issue is men and women. This will take work on both sides. Gamer herself drew attention in extreme form in her later lecture to one issue that requires mutual consideration. Who is responsible for the harassment of a scantily clad woman in a bar at 2 am in the morning? Is she? Is he? Women are precluded from church circles for fear they will tempt males. Jesus said, [men] if your eye offends you pluck it out. And [women] you are not to offend another or, as Paul calls it, ‘put a stumbling block’. Both responsible!
But the deepest issue is fear – fear of each other, fear of the very difference, fear of even naming the issue, fear of losing whatever power we have by birth or from the struggle we have endured. In letting love cast out fear, our model must be Jesus whose relationships with women demonstrated love, acceptance, appreciation of abilities as well as personhood, and a willingness to disregard convention when it stood in the way of healthy friendships and ministry. As individuals, we need Spirit-given wisdom to love creatively like this. So does Jesus’ church.
It would be nice to conclude with a set of solutions. Human relations are not that simple. The first step is for us to affirm both difference and rapprochement, serving love and real pain, and to speak of these things without fear of being painted into a comer. God empowers when we acknowledge our need for divine change, when we make it the subject of our prayer. We must find ways to model gender reconciliation. We need all the support we can get as we struggle with these issues in everyday life. And we cannot leave it to others to lead the way when we are the ones with the good news of reconciling grace.
Adapter from an article first published in Zadok Perspectives 51, Summer 1996, 10-11.
Aug 11, 2021 | Blog |
Trevor and Liz Sykes tell their story of working together in marriage and in the church (in four parts).
Sometimes a woman is accepted in her church because she is “the woman we know”. This is the story of how Liz came to be accepted as a pastor alongside her husband after many years serving in their church.
Part Four – Liz on working together in ministry
When we began our life together, I was already experienced in church life and leadership so marrying someone who had different expectations could have been difficult, but as with all things, we figured that if God had drawn us together, it would work out.
In the six months before going to theological college in Qld, we lived in NSW near the navy base where Trevor was stationed and enjoyed setting up home and learning to trust one another with our hearts and lives. This proved to be a good decision as the first half of our college time was spent living with other couples and their children. This could have been disastrous had we not worked out our own family values and ways of working together beforehand.
Since I had several years of leadership in my local church before marriage, I thought it wise to let Trevor grow in his life with God and Bible knowledge while I stayed home to support him. Three of our four sons were born in this period. Even though I had always thought of going to Bible college at some stage, marriage changed my perspective and being a full-time wife and mother gave me a great sense of purpose. The program at the college was rigorous and meant I was often on my own from early morning until after the boys had gone to bed. On Trevor’s return at night, there were times he would stay up even later doing assignments but I was able to be a support and encouragement in what was a hectic schedule. We learnt together as I rehearsed him in preparation for exams, and we had the satisfaction of seeing him matriculate in four subjects, including in logic and Hebrew as well as in his college subjects.
We returned to WA for Trevor to take up ministry in a church plant from my local church, a place where I had taught Sunday school and played the organ. His being a full-time worker plus a pastor made for a busy life and I also contributed by preparing the weekly newsletter and playing the piano. We were young and energetic and thought nothing of having boarders while raising three young children.
Within the first year of ministry at this church, there was a church crisis and Trevor resigned. This was a huge shock and not something we had envisaged, and we soon learnt about church politics and that not all church people are kind or truthful. However, it was a time for us to pull together and rely on God for what this would mean for us in the future.
Before long, a good friend told Trevor to ‘get back on the horse’ and continue in ministry. He mentioned that the church he attended needed someone to stand in for their minister who was unwell. Trevor still had to work full-time and I continued with my music and took on Sunday school teaching again. This appointment lasted several months.
At this time we were invited to represent Christian Mission to the Communist World (now Voice of the Martyrs) and I busied myself arranging itineraries for Trevor to travel the state showing films and speaking of the persecuted church. Again, I stayed home with the family but was always involved with handling the finances for the home and ministry and working in the local church. Trevor also had times away with Aerial Missions flying to isolated towns to preach and share with missionaries in those places. So I continued to be at home, being a prayer and emotional support for my husband.
Eventually, this church called Trevor to be the pastor and we were there for over 35 years, experiencing all the highs and lows of church life and seeing hundreds of people come and go as they were introduced to God and a new way of living. I continued with music, Sunday school teaching, preparing the newsletter and leading Bible studies during the day while the kids were at school.
As the boys got older it became possible for me to be more involved and eventually our accountant advised us to share our salary because I was doing 50% of the work. So I was voted in as ‘associate pastor’, a role strongly needed as the church was involved with counselling many troubled people from difficult backgrounds.
Our church was traditionally ‘conservative’ and there was no thought of my being able to preach or teach Bible studies to groups of women and men together. But over time, with gentle instruction and demonstration of our ‘togetherness’ in ministry, people recognised that we both were gifted in teaching and more opportunities came for me to lead those study groups and eventually to preach. This was pure delight as I had always responded to a Bible passage by thinking through how I would preach it. I loved expository preaching.
There was some opposition to my being involved to this extent, but we continued to love those who had different ways of interpreting the Bible and saw many change their mind over the years (sometimes without realising it). We were always careful to not ‘tread on the conscience’ of those who had different views but relished the time God gave us to work together and be respected as both being senior pastors.
Interestingly, even though the church endorsed our ministry, there was never a 100% vote for us to both be named ‘senior pastor’ as some were more comfortable with having one person at the top and the other being an associate. So, towards the end of our time in that fellowship, we chose to be voted in as ‘elders’ with no person in the senior pastor role. Everyone was happy with that, and we continued in that way until retirement.
Liz Sykes calls herself a much-loved child of God; disciple of Jesus, wife, mother, grandma, mentor, Bible teacher, musician, and retiree (76) who loves being away in the bush with her best friend, husband Trevor.
Aug 6, 2021 | Blog |
Liz and Trevor Sykes tell their story of working together in marriage and in the church (in four parts).
Part Three – Trevor’s journey into shared Christian ministry.
After 3 years at Kenmore Christian College, we were found ourselves struggling financially and in consideration of Liz’s mother’s fragile health, we decided to suspend theological studies for the time being and return to WA to re-evaluate our journey from there. I was given an opportunity to be pastorally involved in a small Perth suburban church as a full-time worker Pastor.
After 9 months in that ministry, we experienced irreconcilable differences within the leadership and I felt pressured to resign. I continued my workday employment at Wesley College in South Perth. After a time of wrestling together with where to go from there, I took a clerical position in Belmont which necessitated our looking for a rental property nearby. Before long I was promoted to be the executive position of manager of the costing department of a local hardware supplier.
At the same time, I was invited to do a short-term, stand in ministry, at Belmont Mission Church because the Pastor was experiencing ill health. That opportunity allowed me to continue to exercise my pastoral gifting and calling. Around that time, I was also approached by Christian Mission to the Communist World to be the WA representative. I took up that position after resigning from my executive staff role in the office.
This was where our shared ministry opportunities began to flourish. Liz was an excellent organiser, arranging my itinerary for Mission presentations in suburban and country churches. This sometimes involved me being away for weeks at a time. I also took on mission trips with Aerial Missions to outback regions of WA, again being absent for extended periods which really put pressure on Liz in managing our young family.
For some considerable time, this was how it was – Liz managing all that was required in running the home and family solo. So our mutuality in family life and ministry opportunities grew out of necessity and practicality, rather than theologically. After a couple of years, I felt that I should be more engaged with the family and as I was a teaching elder in our home church, Belmont Mission, I offered to take up a full-time pastoral role. This was accepted and so began our 35 plus years at that church which was re-named Belmont Christian Fellowship (BCF).
Belmont at that time was a very low socio-economic area and we were mainly reaching people who came from that location. It often meant we were dealing with drug-affected individuals and families, people with mental illnesses and other social ills. We were challenged by people being demon-oppressed, and sometimes even demon-possessed, which demanded a full arsenal of spiritual weaponry. While Liz didn’t have an official role in the church, we shared everything, because it seemed the most natural thing to do under the circumstances.
In the Navy I had been living in a male-dominated world, sometimes sharing small spaces with multiple men so when I married, Liz was my closest companion and confidante. That wasn’t about to be changed for us in the ministry setting. Also, I soon recognised the depth of her own spirituality and spiritual giftedness, which included pastoral care and biblical exposition. Our church at that time was very conservative theologically which required us to accept that what worked for us at home was not readily accepted in our church community or leadership group.
Our church was also part of a fellowship of churches that adhered to a very conservative theological position, so while Liz and I modelled mutuality we did not feel comfortable pushing it on people in our congregation or leadership. Besides, we had not yet explored a Biblical legitimacy for what we were experiencing. That came later when we came across the organisation, Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE). We read whatever we could get hold of on the subject but it was not until many years later, perhaps in the last 10 years of our ministry at Belmont, that I began to confidently but gently articulate what we so passionately believed.
This bold step was not without some personal cost because some of my ministry colleagues, both within our church and the fellowship of churches to which we belonged, began to distance themselves from us. While difficult, we respected that these brethren were opposing something that appeared to them to be a violation of their conscientiously held position. We continue to respect that to this day, as many feel strongly that they are protecting the biblical mandate for the definitive roles of men and women.
In 2002 we sold our family home and moved to Warnbro on the south coast. This enabled us to take a round-the-world trip including attending a conference of CBE in Miami, Florida. We came away from that conference invigorated and committed to the ongoing work of this mutuality mission. Years later we attended another conference, this time in St. Louis, and were seconded to manage their newly formed blogsite, the ‘Scroll’. We facilitated that worldwide audience until it progressed into Facebook and Twitter some years after.
In the latter years of our ministry time at Belmont we were able to gently persuade our people that Biblical Equality was an authentic biblical position and that it was also a more desirable and God honouring choice. That led to changing Church Constitution to read that ministry was spiritual-gift based, and not gender-based. By this time Liz and other gifted women, were finally able to share in pulpit ministry and lead mixed-gender Bible studies. We also appointed three female Elders to manage the ongoing ministry of the church beyond our retirement.
In our retirement, we continue to be available for encouragement and counselling for previous members of Belmont Christian Fellowship and other contacts in WA and beyond.
Trevor Sykes had 35 years ministry together with Liz at the Belmont Christian Fellowship, leading significant change towards mutuality in ministry. They also represented Christians for Biblical Equality in WA during the later part of those 35 years. In retirement Trevor enjoys swimming and snorkelling in summer and bushwalking in winter.
Read the conclusion to Liz’s and Trevor’s story in Liz’s final The Together Project blog coming soon.
