Mothers Union Sydney annual seminar 2025

Mothers Union Sydney has details of their 2025 Annual Seminar coming up on Friday 28th February.

Speakers and topics:
Shining Like Stars – Anna Brotherson
Living in a Secular Age – Steve McAlpine
Equipping Our Children – Al James and Beth Braga

It’s free, but registration is required. Read about it and register here.

William Taylor: ‘Give yourself wholly to the work of the Lord’

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“What is the work of the Lord? What is in vain if the resurrection is not true? What truly lasts and what does gospel work looks like in our daily lives?

The debate over eschatology and one’s view of the new heavens and new earth.   Will there be a Sydney Harbour Bridge in the new creation?

And in the meantime, what should be our priorities?

William Taylor is the rector of St Helen’s Church in London, where he is engaged in ministry to city workers.

He has written the book ‘Revolutionary Work’ to address these issues.”

– Watch or listen here.

A reminder to pray for those in authority

As we think of Australian leaders responding to anti-Semitism, or the new Administration in the USA, it’s good to remember these words from 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – ESV.

Related: Dr Albert Mohler shares his take on the events of the Inauguration early today Australian time. (Link corrected.)

How to Choose a New Church

“The start of the year is often a time when Christians move to new places and so need to find a new church. Is that you? If so, for what it’s worth, here are my tips on how to go about it.

What should you look for in a church? At least three characteristics. …”

– Des Smith, at Trinity Church Lockleys in Adelaide, has some advice you may find helpful. At The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Photo: Christ Church Cathedral, Darwin.

New Year, New Habits?

“We are creatures of habit. Our bodies thrive on routine—we get hungry at roughly the same times, we generally like routines, and we naturally form habits. This is by God’s design. Neuroscience confirms that repetition ingrains behaviours, creating neural pathways that make actions automatic.

While we wait for our eternal home in the new creation, we want to harness our natural habit-forming tendency—for good. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Bronwyn Windsor writes to encourage us to consider what sort of people we should be.

Anglican Aid’s 2025 Prayer Diary

Anglican Aid have published their 2025 Prayer Diary as a PDF file on their website.

If you don’t receive a printed copy at church, this is a great alternative.

And don’t forget that you can also subscribe to Anglican Aid’s feed in the PrayerMate app for the content from the Prayer Diary.

Dyslexia-Friendly Bibles now available in ESV & CSB

This video from Tim Wildsmith (who makes videos about Bible design) highlights the arrival of “Dyslexia-Friendly Bibles”.

These are typeset by 2K/DENMARK, who are well-known for their experience in Bible typesetting.

Here’s a promotional video from Crossway about their ESV Holy Bible: Dyslexia-Friendly Edition, due to be published in March 2025. (It can be pre-ordered from Reformers in Sydney, and, doubtless, other Christian bookshops.)

From Crossway:

“Approximately 17 percent of the global population has dyslexia, yet many do not have the proper resources to easily read God’s Word. The ESV Holy Bible: Dyslexia-Friendly Edition features a specialized typeface and typesetting to help those with dyslexia read the Bible with more clarity and comfort.”

(No, this is not an advertisement. Many people will benefit from these Bibles.)

‘The Woke Will Regroup’ — Albert Mohler interviewed on Dual Citizens

In the latest Dual Citizens podcast from David Ould and Stephen McAlpine –

“Steve and Dave speak with Dr. Albert Mohler to explore the implications of Trump’s re-election on American Christianity. He candidly shares his evolving stance on Trump, the persistence of ‘woke’ ideology, and the role of American evangelicals during a time of societal upheaval. He navigates the complexities of faith in a politically charged era, offering a beacon for Evangelicals in a changing landscape.

Dr. Mohler also engages with Christian nationalism, examining how faith and national identity can coexist without overshadowing the Gospel’s universal message. He invites us to ponder our dual citizenship, emphasising the eternal over the temporal.”

– Watch or listen here.

Growth and Change and Preaching (Part 2)

“Heard raises a valid concern—that a ‘just be faithful’ ministry mindset for preachers and church leaders might excuse some preachers for sermons that are poorly prepared and regularly fail to connect with the lives, hearts and wills of their congregations.

To address this in ministry more broadly, Heard points to the creational norms expressed in wisdom literature which operate outside and inside the church. For example…”

– The Expository Preaching Trust has published Part 2 of David Burge’s reflections from Andrew Heard’s book Growth and Change (Matthias Media, 2024).

See Part 1 here.

2025 Summer Reading Guide

From SydneyAnglicans.net –

“Sunshine, salty air and waves crashing – we’re diving into summer! Here’s a list of books we’ve reviewed over the past year you could read on those lazy days by the water (or hot afternoons hiding inside with air conditioning!). …”

– See the reading guide here.

Reflections on Preaching at a funeral

“In 2024 I attended some evangelical Christian funeral services; an unevangelical Christian funeral service; a Greek Orthodox funeral service; a secular funeral service.

There is no doubt that the blessings of our faith are most obvious at our funeral services.

In a previous blog I have written about planning for one’s own funeral, but now I want to address the subject of the funeral sermon. …”

– Here’s some help and encouragement from David Cook at The Expository Preaching Trust.

(Photo: Funeral procession in Queen Street, Chippendale, late 19th Century.)

The Lost Coin

“In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman who has lost a coin and sweeps her entire house looking for it. It’s clearly not a large coin. It’s clearly not laying in the middle of the floor. It’s probably a smaller coin – somewhere in a corner.

Reflecting on that lost coin, I am left wondering about the lost souls in the world today. Particularly those whom none of us are trying to reach. …”

– 9Marks has republished this article by Mark Dever which encourages us to think about how we might reach those in minority language groups.

Related:

A very useful resource – the 5Fish app – from Global Recordings Network.

After 150 years of Christian compassion Leprosy is nearly defeated

“In November, people from nearly thirty countries gathered in New Delhi for the 150th anniversary of The Leprosy Mission. they thanked God for amazing progress in treating the disease and committed to strive for a world without leprosy by 2035. A world without leprosy is within sight. With improved preventative medication, diagnostic tests, and even vaccines, the tools and knowledge needed to end leprosy are in our grasp.

‘It was a marvellous time of celebrating the progress we’ve made, but also longing to finish the job,’ said Greg Clarke, the CEO of The Leprosy Mission Australia (TLMA).…”

– This article by Anne Lim at The Gospel Coalition Australia is a great encouragement. It’s also a reminder of the key work of Australian doctors such as Grace Warren.

Photo: Dr Grace Warren meeting Diana, Princess of Wales, Anandaban Hospital, Nepal, 1993. From Leprosy Mission Australia.

The new Federal privacy tort and religious freedom

Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia alerts churches to a possible legal complication:

“In the closing Parliamentary days of 2024, the Australian Federal Parliament created a new statutory privacy tort action, which may have a significant impact on churches and other religious groups. In the context of a possible disciplinary action against someone who has behaved contrary to the principles of a religious group to which they belong, it may be necessary to inform other members of the group about the person’s behaviour. In doing so the group will be in danger of breaching a right of privacy set up by the new law. The tort action (which will probably come into operation on 11 June 2025) seems to cut across important rights of religious freedom, and the exemptions under the law do not take this into account.

In this post I aim to outline some aspects of the operation of the new law, and recommend that before it commences Parliament provide specific recognition of religious freedom as an exemption to the availability of the action. …”

– Read his full post here.

Image: Associate Professor Neil Foster speaking at a Diocese of Sydney Safe Ministry conference.

A Primer on Roman Catholic Apologetics Targeting Evangelicals

“In the late 19th century, liberal theology predicted the end of apologetics as the child of an entrenched, defensive, and doctrinaire faith. It was wrong. Apologetics is alive and well, especially on the web, where initiatives aimed at comparing different interpretations of the gospel (e.g. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical) flourish.

It can be said that YouTube has become the encyclopedia where one can find apologetic comparisons and confrontations of all kinds. The field that is emerging as a growing reality is that of Roman Catholic apologetics, especially targeting evangelicals. This seems to be primarily a North American phenomenon where religious discourse has always been characterized by religious pluralism, strong passions associated with religion, and multiple changes of religious affiliation in people’s lives.

Traditionally, American evangelicals have been proactive in evangelizing Catholics with a specific intentionality. The result is that so many American evangelicals were born Catholic and became evangelicals later in life, thanks to Billy Graham’s campaigns and the many parachurch initiatives dedicated to evangelism in universities, for example.

This is no longer the case. …”

– At Vatican Files, Leonardo De Chirico alerts evangelical Christians of something relatively new.

Related:

Same words. Different worlds. Reaching Roman Catholics. – On the Pastor’s Heart, Dominic Steele speaks with Leonardo De Chirico and Rachel Ciano on understanding our Roman Catholic friends and sharing the saving news of Jesus with them.

Image: Leonardo De Chirico spoke at the NSW & ACT CMS Summer School in January 2023.

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