What's the Christian response to technological disasters such as the tragic sinking of the Italian cruise liner over the weekend?

The first thing is to pray—to pray for those unaccounted for, to pray for the families of those who've died, to pray for those who have to wrestle with their part in the tragedy. At these moments, it's wonderful to know there is a God who can bring good out of the worst situations (Genesis 50 v 20).

But the comparisons in the media all weekend between the Costa Concordia and the Titanic—not least the chaos and fighting for the limited places on the lifeboats—points us to another right reaction; one which takes us back long before Leonardo and Kate stood on the prow to the warbling strains of Celine Dion.

Titanic was built at the height of the optimism about man's future, following a century of technological progress, and the civilising of the world. It's "unsinkability" was hailed as part of the optimistic triumph of technology and science to solve the world's problems. It's sinking, and the start of the first world war less than two years later heralded the end of that optimism, and a bleaker view of humanity's chances for the future.

The response of Christians to the sinking at the time dwelled upon these themes. Pulpits thundered with sermons recalling the Tower of Babel, and how God had crushed the hubris of men to reach for the skies. The same message was rehearsed in the haunting classic Blues Song by Blind WIllie Johnson that proclaimed: "God moves on the waters".

It is a message we need to hear again and again. The response of pundits to the Costa Concordia tragedy has been to ask: "How could this possibly happen to a ship equipped with all the modern safety features we can think of". The inevitable response of the enquiries into the sinking will be to recommend further technological developments that will "prevent the same thing happening again".

Who knows. The incredible God-given ingenuity of man may one day give us a world of ships and planes and cars and trains that are completely safe. But our eternal destiny will be completely unsafe if we continue thinking that "we did it". For our God "has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (Luke 1 v 51-52).

Off the back of the success of singing shows like The Choir, the BBC has announced a major new project for this Easter, called The People's Passion. It's a brand new choral work that can be performed by people across the country at Easter. Schools, existing choirs and those still to be formed in communities or at work can be part of this nationwide premiere - “a moment of national harmony”. It's part of a co-ordinated effort at the BBC to combine drama and music in the week before Easter which will draw people into the Passion story.

This is an opportunity that we would be silly to miss out on. For any church with a few singers and some competent musicians, this represents an open door to make some inroads into your local community. Think big, advertise locally, link up with anyone who likes to sing, and create a gospel opportunity out of it, where the singing is complemented by a Gospel word about the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Because his passion was always to reach out to, and to seek and save the lost.

Interesting quote on love from Madonna at the premiere of her new film “W.E”, a biopic of Edward VIII’s lover and then wife, Wallis Simpson:

“This movie shows that there is no such thing as perfect love, that all love requires compromise or sacrifice”.

“This IS love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4 v 10).

In other words—there is such a thing as perfect love. It requires infinite sacrifice, and insists on no compromise. It saw the Son of God come into the world and die on a tree, refusing to compromise and come down from the cross, ignoring those who told him not to bother, insisting on staying there as a sacrifice, our sacrifice, sacrificing all he had and was in order to give us all he has and is.

The cross shows us that there IS such a thing as perfect love.

The question: what project are you working on now for release later in 2012, that you’re particularly excited about?

The answers:

Tim Thornborough, Editorial Director:
I've loved working with Tim Chester and Steve Timmis (and a few friends) on the titles in the Gospel Centred series. They are punchy, pithy and powerful resources that stimulate radical thinking and real change in the way people live their Christian lives.

That's why I'm extra excited at the new title we are working with Steve Timmis on Gospel Centred Leadership. Steve’s learned about leadership the hard way, and often at great personal cost to himself and his family. But out of it has grown a refreshing view of leadership that avoids the traps of the management-inspired "how to" books that seem to fill the bookshelves, and gets back to Gospel basics, and applies to all leaders, from Sunday school teachers to archbishops… I'm learning a huge amount in editing it.

Carl Laferton, Senior Editor:
Promises Kept is a nine-session race through the Bible story coming out in the Good Book Guide range in June. In each session, as well as focusing on a promise of God arising from a period of Old Testament history, we fast-forward to Jesus and to see how He fulfilled that promise. I’m hoping it’ll give small groups a handle on the story of the Bible—which is, after all, our story too; and excite Christians about their amazing, promise-keeping God and about living for His amazing, promise-fulfilling Son.

Alison Mitchell, Children’s Editor:
Christianity Explored Universal (May 2012) is designed to present the gospel message in clear, simple English. A series of Bible studies discovering the life of Jesus through Mark's Gospel, I’m excited about the course because it’s ideal for non-booky people or people with English as a second language, who might find other courses too wordy or complex.

Martin Cole, Youth Editor:
I am always most excited about the next issue of Engage. The issue I'm working on right now (due to come out in the summer) is ambitiously tackling Ezekiel at length, really encouraging readers to get stuck into a difficult but powerful book. There's also diverse and fascinating articles on church, self-harm and eating disorders and the meaning of life. Having said that, I'm now getting excited about writing stuff on Job and Proverbs for the following issue!

Anne Woodcock, Staff Editor:
Close Encounters—our next four-week, evangelistic DVD and Bible-study course (following Tales of the Unexpected), about Jesus and people who he met and helped—is coming out in the spring, and I'm really excited about it because it builds up into a brilliant portrait of the only One who can rescue us from sin, Satan, sickness and death. Plus, it's designed to help all sorts of people, not just well-educated, churchy ones who already know quite a lot of Bible.

Elizabeth Parsons, Translations Co-ordinator:
The Portuguese version of Christianity Explored, which will be the first translation based on the new and brilliant third edition of the course. It’s really exciting to see the course being used in so many different nations and countries, and a privilege to be involved in getting it to so many

There is a fault line that runs right through the middle of Nigeria from East to West.

This is not a geological feature that causes earthquakes, but something that is just as, if not more, deadly. To the North of this wavy line, that runs through the city of Jos, the population is largely Muslim, less well educated, poorer, and less healthy. To the south, it is largely "Christian", better educated, wealthier and more developed.

At the fault-line between the two regions is a place of tension, because of the widely differing ethnic, religious and political differences. There is regular low-level conflict and sporadic outbursts of extreme violence, with gun-men opening fire in churches, and mob violence in the streets. But both sides commit atrocities. Already 2012 has seen several of these attacks, including the killing of three people in a church service in Gombe.

But there is a difference between the two groups that much reporting obscures. There are moderates on both sides. Christian and Muslim leaders who are working for peaceful co-existence. But there are also radicals.

Charismatic Muslim cleric, Mohammed Yusuf, formed Boko Haram in Maiduguri in 2002. He set up a religious complex, which included a mosque and an Islamic school. Boko Haram despises Western education and wants Islamic law imposed. Many poor Muslim families from across Nigeria, as well as neighbouring countries, enrolled their children at the school. But Boko Haram was not only interested in education. Its political goal was to create an Islamic state, and the school became a recruiting ground for jihadis to fight the state. This group is behind some of the recent bomb and gun attacks on Christians, including the murders of dozens of Christians in churches on Christmas day last year. Expect to see more of this in 2012.

Those who retaliate from the other side may be radical politically or culturally. They are certainly not radical as Christians. If they were, they would search the scriptures and find no justification for responding to violence with violence. They would find commands to turn the other cheek, to not seek vengeance. They would commit themselves to God who judges justly, to suffer persecution for Christ's sake, and know that they are truly blessed through it.

Do pray for those wanting to maintain a Christian witness in largely Muslim areas. Pray that they would be truly, radically Christian in a way that brings shame on anyone who wants to use violence. Pray for the country's leaders, including President Goodluck Jonathan, as they work to establish order, and to supress the violent. And pray for those, both Muslim and Christian, who are working towards peace.

A happy new year to all our customers from everyone at The Good Book Company.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14)

Servant… Son… Slave… What does it look like to minister like Jesus?

That’s the question we’ll be looking at during January’s Bible-Centred Youthwork Conference. It’s four days of refreshment, challenge and support for children’s and youth workers:

• Inspiring Bible teaching from Pete Woodcock – experienced youthwork trainer and church minister
• Know & Tell groups – to hone our Bible-handling skills together
• Wide range of practical seminars
• Small group fellowships – for prayer and discussion
• One-to-one sessions with experienced Christian workers

There are still some spaces left on this, our tenth conference – and we’d love to serve as many youth and children’s workers as possible. The dates are Monday 23rd – Thursday 26th January 2012, at High Leigh conference centre in Hertfordshire. You can find full details, a downloadable brochure and book here. Or contact Alison Mitchell on 0333 123 0880 or alison@thegoodbook.co.uk. Catch the early-bird rate by booking before January 12th.

And to whet your appetite, you can download all of the talks and seminars from last year’s conference for free.

Great radio interview on the BBC website where Jason Robinson, one of England's greatest-ever rugby players in both league and union, talks about how finding Christ saved him from himself, and from the emptiness that worldly success had brought him.

His story is fairly well-known among those of us who love both Christ and sport, but what is always striking is the way he came to faith through his team-mate, Vaiga Tuigamala, who was a living embodiment of 1 Peter 2 v 12: "Live such good lives among the pagans that … they may see your good deeds and glorify God".

His autobiography, Finding my Feet, has been around for a few years, but is a great read—you can get it second-hand here

The scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland are expected to announce today that they’ve found the “God particle”, the Higgs-Boson. I’m not a scientist, and would love someone to explain it all to me in very short words, but I think it’s a particle which, if it exists, proves the “Theory of Everything” and explains what happened right the start of the formation of the universe.

That’s why it’s called the “God particle”.

But there was a fantastic moment on Radio Five Live this morning when a scientist from Manchester University (whose name I missed) said that if the God particle does exist, it’s very exciting because (and I paraphrase) “then we can start finding out even more, and looking for more particles like this one”.

So it’s not really the “God particle” then, is it?! The thing about God is that, if you find Him, you have your first cause, your primary reason, your explanation of everything that is, was and will be. You don’t find God and then need to keep looking for answers.

So if this particle exists, and if once scientists have found it they’ll get on with looking for other, even more exciting, things, because actually the Higgs-Boson was never the ultimate answer, shouldn’t it be renamed: the Idol Particle?

On a more serious note (and again, my understanding is from a couple of newspapers articles and Five Live Breakfast, so do please correct me!), this particle will explain what happened in the nano-seconds after the universe began. Which really is very exciting.

But not exactly on a par with finding God. Assuming the Big Bang is how it all started, God is the One who stands behind the Big Bang. He’s the One whose word was heard nano-seconds before the Big Bang. He’s the One who created the Higgs-Boson.

The God/Idol Particle may tell us more about how creation happened. It will, if we have the humility to do so, enable us to worship the great God of everything more. But nothing that exists within creation can ever explain away, or be offered as a replacement to, the God who stands outside creation. There’s a reason Genesis 1 v 1 starts “IN the beginning”, not “Very, very shortly after the beginning”!

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has weighed in this week on the causes to, and solutions for, this summer’s riots.

It’s fashionable to criticize him every time he pops his head over the parapet, and the Daily Telegraph and other media to the right-of-centre have enjoyed doing so.

There is actually a lot of thought, and a fair amount of wisdom, in what he said. If he were a politician, head of a think tank, a local councillor, or a youth worker, his article in the Guardian would be a thought-provoking, useful contribution.

But he isn’t any of those people. He’s the day-to-day head of the Church of England. And so it matters that in his article, he did not mention God the Father, God the Son, or God the Spirit, or even the Bible or the church.

It matters that one of the comments beneath his article online says this: “Once again Dr Williams has been very brave, considering his position, and he has also not offered faith or religion as a solution to the problem. Top marks!”

It matters that when he could have said that…

• the root cause of the theft and arson and mugging was sin, a rejection of loving God and neighbour;
• that what matters more than facing a custodial sentence now is facing the God of justice in the future;
• that none of us can feel smug or better than the rioters, since we are all, often in more mannered ways, guilty of deciding we know better than God, and guilty of seeking to put ourselves at the centre of the universe;
• that the Lord Jesus subjected Himself to a hate mob and had His dignity and clothes stolen from Him so that He could die in our place and bear the punishment we all deserve;
• that until His love melts our hearts and His word reigns in our lives, we won’t be able to live in a way that brings peace to us and to those around us

…he didn’t.

Interestingly, even some secular writers seem to pine for the “good old days”, when churchmen believed in and talked about the God of the Bible. Here’s a revealing thought, from someone who appears to be an atheist, that “the fear of God was a very useful thing … the idea that, one day, you would pay”.

That idea is a very real thing, too. Which is what Rowan might have mentioned.

Fascinating piece on the BBC website about the origins of "What would Jesus do?" as a global symbol.

The intriguing question started as part of the title of a novel in the 1896 by an American Congregational minister from Kansas, Charles Sheldon. He published a story called In His Steps: What would Jesus do? in which a town is revolutionised when Christians "pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly for an entire year, not to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus do?'".

Owing partly to a strange quirk - the publisher failed to register copyright for the work - the book became one of the 50 best-selling books of all time as other publishers produced cheap knock-off copies.

Fast forward a hundred years, and we have a fine example of history repeating itself. A youth leader at a church in Michigan read the book in 1989, and discussed it with her group. She was thinking of having some T-shirts printed, with the slogan on, but picked up on the new idea of wristbands - shortened the question to WWJD, and had 300 made for herself and her group. The idea snowballed, and was picked up by commercial companies who made their own and started marketing a range of products with the question on it nationally and internationally. By the time Janie Tinklenberg tried to register the trademark it was too late.

The question has now become so familiar in the culture that it has achieved iconic status - having inspired a thousand rewrites for use in politics, protests, advertising, and cheap shots by stand up comedians.

Certainly, for Christians, the phrase has a powerful encouragement, but is also filled with potential dangers. Christians are those who have responded to Jesus' call, to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow Christ (Mark 8 v 34). So when we ask the WWJD? question of ourselves in the general sense, it can deliver positive encouragements. It should remind me to speak the truth, even when it is unwelcome. It should encourage me to be humble and servant hearted, even when I am exhausted, or the recipient of my kindness is unlovely or unworthy by the world's standards. It should encourage me to pray and trust God, rather than my own resources. These were all things that Jesus most definitely was and did - and importantly, these were the things he commanded his followers to do.

But of course there are many things that Jesus did that we are not called to emulate him in. We don't expect to walk on the water, or multiply loaves, for example. And his first disciples spoke plainly and openly about Christ, whereas the Lord Jesus did much of his public teaching in parables - actually designed to hide the message of the kingdom in some ways (see Mark 4 v 10-12). And there are many questions we face in the modern world, where it is not actually that clear what Jesus would do - because we have no clear word from him on the subject.

So the danger for those who have a less clear grasp of the Bible and the gospel message is that it becomes an opportunity for hitching a "home-made Jesus" to their own interests. We focus only on the parts where Jesus seems to back up our cause, whether that is equality, the fight against poverty, the challenging of a corrupt system, or just being kind to animals and children. The result is that Jesus is used to baptise our particular cause. The result: we become the master, and he the servant, not the other way round. The responses to the BBC article provide a snapshot of this tendency.

WWJD? Is a great question to ask. So long as we recognise its limits. And so long as we search the scriptures carefully to make sure we really know what Jesus would have us do, rather than just doing what suits us in the name of a made-up Jesus.