faith and stuff aims to stimulate thinking about the Christian understanding of God, the big questions in life and what it means to be 'church' in today's world.

faith and stuff is for people who find something strangely compelling about Christianity, or in the person of Jesus, but who find many traditional presentations less than persuasive.  Perhaps because they've been put off by the style of the message, or the style of the messenger.  Perhaps because the answers offered to their questions don't seem to stack up.  Perhaps those answers have left too much unanswered, or have defaulted rather too quickly to "you've just got to have faith."  Maybe you're someone who thinks "shouldn't there be a bit better answer than that?" 

faith and stuff is also for people who have found 'church' less than satisfying, for whatever reason.  Perhaps you used to be a churchgoer, maybe even a very active one, but you've been disillusioned or had a bad experience.  Maybe you count yourself as a Christian, but have stopped being part of a church, because you don't see the point.  Perhaps you wonder whether Jesus ever intended to found the church and, if so, whether what we do and call 'church' today bears any resemblance to what he had in mind.  You may be in a church right now - bodily, at least, but emotionally and spiritually distant from the merry-go-round of church activity.

Perhaps, too, you are interested to find out more about what the sacred writings of Christianity (which we know as the Bible) have to say about your questions and issues.  To discover if there is more to the biblical perspective on the human story than what you've heard to date.  How much, for example, of what's presented as 'the Christian understanding' is 'timeless biblical truth' and how much is just cultural?

faith and stuff is not anti-church.  There are many wonderful churches, led by great people, doing an outstanding job of caring for people, building real community, and explaining and practicing the Christian faith in ways that make sense.  Here, though, we also want to engage with people who haven't necessarily found church to be that way.

We also want to connect with people who fear that the church's current approaches are so failing to relate to contemporary culture that unless God sends a 'revival' that takes secular society back to the world of the 1950s, 'church' as currently practiced will become increasingly irrelevant.

faith and stuff is a safe space to listen to different perspectives, where it's OK to ask questions, to express your doubts and to join in the conversation.

* Clark Pinnock, Most Moved Mover (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), p.xi.