Neither cosmopolitanism nor Anzac Day can provide Australia with a cohesive identity or set of values. We need to anchor our discussion of values in institutions (including the church) that have proven their objective worth, and identify the virtues needed to keep those institutions healthy.

Singing marries the evocative nature of poetry with the easy access to our emotions of music. We can experience God through secular songs that reveal an unexpected touch of the Spirit – the sneakiness of the sovereign God.

The #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear campaign has revealed things said to Christian women, ranging from the well-meaning-but-misguided through to the blatantly misogynistic. But we can change the culture by changing our language.

Our rapidly developing ability to vividly depict new worlds and space frontiers opens up tremendous prospects for dialogue about existential dilemmas - and an apologetic that embraces both aesthetics and reason, beauty and logic.

The US prison population dwarfs that of other nations. How do we explain this phenomenon in the most Christian country in the world? Where the Left fails in the ministry of justice, the Pharisaical Right scapegoats the weak.

Faced with pressures for conformity and compromise, faith-based organisations delivering government-funded welfare services need to uphold their distinctive mission, identity and practices and, if need be, refuse government funding.

The Scripture becomes real when we open our lives to the world around us, stepping out of our comfort zone and engaging with a diverse range of people, especially those at the margins.

We cannot be for a particular political party or person and try to follow Jesus at the same time. When we live out the courage of our conviction that Jesus is Lord, we will find ourselves sometimes leaning to the political left and sometimes to the right.

The church has much more to offer than just commentary on sexual ethics, offering a wide range of teachings on many public issues. In this regard, revolutionary practices speak louder than the resolutionary words of synods.

Modern-day slavery is alive and well, but often hidden and easy to ignore. We have the opportunity and responsibility to pray and act through organisations such as International Justice Mission.