Martin Saunders

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  'I'm not afraid of controversy': Exclusive interview with The Shack director Stuart Hazeldine

  Despite the apparently un-cinematic concept, and the warnings from more conservative Christians to avoid anything Shack-shaped, British director Stuart Hazeldine's movie version has been a box office triumph. At time of writing, it's closing in on an impressive $100 million worldwide gross.

• A pastor claims he has God's phone number. Can he help us think differently about prayer?

  As if Christians didn't already have enough of a reputation for being somewhere on the spectrum between mad and weird, we've now seen the emergence of a pastor who says he had God's personal phone number, and regularly calls him on his cell.

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  Who should play TV's 'New Pope'?

  Jude Law was cast as he Young Pope. With a casting search underway to play the central role in a new drama, The New Pope, Christian Today thought it would be helpful to present the producers with a few options. Here's our entirely speculative list of actors who'd each bring something very different to the role of Pope

• The 84 thoughts you have during a contemporary worship service

  Do you stand up or sit down, and if so when? Martin Saunders lists some of the things that go through our heads during contemporary evangelical worship

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  Christian TV and the teaching that comes straight from Hell

  The prosperity gospel and the Bible: There are quite a few warnings in the Bible about false teachers and prophets. According to Jesus, Paul and others, there will certainly be men and women who come like the proverbial wolves in woolly clothing, and disrupt the church with twisted versions of Christian truth.

• Alien: Covenant rejects evolution and asks, how did we get here?

  The first few moments of the latest chapter in the Alien film series could almost be a promotional video for a Christian apologetics conference.

• Rick Joyner thinks new mega-prophets will soon predict sports scores. Is it possible?

  This month, pastor and prophetic teacher Rick Joyner suggested that the world is about to see a new wave of mega-prophets, able to see directly into the near future and correctly predict it.

• Seven major Christian movies in Hollywood development (unconfirmed)

  Thanks to the unprecedented success of The Shack, which has already grossed over $80m, studios and production companies all over town are now scrambling to unearth the next script that will drive Christians to the box office.

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  The major character flaw we all urgently need to address

  When I was 19 years old, I did the socially unthinkable. I changed my favourite football team. I'm aware that twenty years on, many football fans will read this information and immediately judge me.

• John Piper's message about hell to six-year-olds is dangerous – and perhaps even abusive

  John Piper suggests that talking with an anxious six year-old about hell is a 'golden opportunity'. A wonderful chance to reach into those fears and anxieties to point to the great darkness behind them, and then to illustrate the contrast with God's offer of eternal life with him.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review: an atheist's God from beyond the stars

  In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the villain is a million-year-old deity who created himself and the world around him. Martin Saunders gives it four stars ****

• What happened when someone chained a cross to Gay Street?

  It started with a mysterious act of apparent malice, but it turned into an expression of grace.