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.

The purpose of Luther’s Two Kingdoms Theory was not to push church and state further apart, but to limit encroachment by the one on the territory of the other.

Is religion irrational and secularism neutral? The claim of new secularists that they alone enjoy the benefit of an objective, unmediated view of reality is unfounded.

Is the church really embracing diversity? We should seek to include the voice of people from other cultural backgrounds and of the poor in all that we do.

We should change the Australian flag and the date for Australia Day - for the good of the country, as an act of reconciliation and as a matter of justice.

Rarely does the New Year bring change, much as we might wish it. As the author of Ecclesiastes puts it, things just cycle, turn and return. Only Christ’s coming gives meaning to time.