What to think of the NOOMA videos
Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos feature excellent production and are wildly popular – but what do they actually teach?
At 9 Marks, Greg Gilbert has written a three part review. If your youth group is using NOOMA, the review is essential reading.
“Once you get past the razzle-dazzle of the videos’ style and really listen to what Bell is saying, you start to wonder if maybe they’re not so good after all. Watch the videos with a discerning eye, and certain questions start nagging you: What’s the cross for again? Why did Jesus die? How do you become a Christian? Hold on—did he just say that everyone has the Spirit of God living in them already? Jesus has faith in me? I am the gospel?”
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Nooma video covers image: 9Marks.)
Nigeria: Bishops’ Retreat communiqué
“Following the Primate’s report on the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the House of Bishops, while expressing support for this effort to build bridges, stressed that in any effort to bring restoration to the Communion there can be no compromise on the need for genuine repentance by those who have walked away from the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’.
We are, however, delighted by the continuing fruit of GAFCON, the developing Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans around the world, the work of the GAFCON Primates Council and the emerging Anglican Church in North America.”
– from the 2009 Annual Retreat of the Bishops of the Church of Nigeria.
The Aussie saving lost souls on Wall Street
He’s been described by an admiring New Yorker as “God’s go-to man on Wall Street”, an energetic Australian churchman ministering to the fallen financial gurus once considered masters of the universe.
That, the Reverend John Mason says modestly, is an exaggeration…
– John Huxley writes about the ministry of John Mason – in The Sydney Morning Herald.
See also the Christ Church website – Christ Church is affiliated with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
Related: Making your life count for eternity. (Photo: Sydney Morning Herald.)
Church loses to Diocese of Central New York
“Dear Good Shepherd,
As you may or may not have heard, the judge has ruled and we have lost our building and all of our assets. …
This little white church on the corner of Livingston and Conklin has been a part of all our lives and the lives of those in our neighborhood for many years. Some of us have spent our whole lives here. This is painful news.”
– Matt Kennedy and the Vestry and Wardens of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, break the news to their congregation. (h/t Stand Firm.)
(Screenshot from WBNG News, NY – see this earlier report.)
Rick Warren offers support for ACNA
Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren has entered the conflict within The Episcopal Church over title to church property, offering his full support to the breakaway congregation of St. James in Newport Beach, Calif., and the third province movement known as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). …
“We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans,” he wrote, and offered the “campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who needs a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.”
– Report from The Living Church.
Blogging the Institutes
Graduates of Moore College will long remember that reading through John Calvin’s Institutes was a requirement of their course. Asked about the reason for the requirement, former Principal Broughton Knox wryly quipped that it was so students would finish at least one book while at College!
Last month, the team at Reformation21 began ‘blogging through the Institutes’ to challenge others to read this key Christian document. It’s a big challenge!
Ligon Duncan writes – “Why should you read through Calvin’s Institutes with the lads here at ref21 as we blog through this work every weekday of 2009? Ten reasons:
1. Because it the most important book written in the last 500 years.
2. Because it is foundational for every Reformed systematic theology ever since.
3. Because Calvin was the best exegete in the history of Christianity…”
Follow Reformation21’s Blogging the Institutes here.
Vancouver-area parishes’ case to be heard on May 25
Press release from the Anglican Network in Canada: 7 January 2009
The trial involving four Vancouver-area Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) churches and the Anglican Church of Canada’s (ACoC) Diocese of New Westminster will begin on May 25 in British Columbia Supreme Court. Three weeks have been set aside to hear the case.
The four parishes – St. Matthew’s (Abbotsford), St Matthias and St Luke’s (Vancouver), St John’s Shaughnessy (Vancouver) and Church of the Good Shepherd (Vancouver) – had asked the courts in early September 2008 to clarify their trustees’ responsibilities in light of hostile action taken by the ACoC diocese. Read more
Preach or Perish: a Review
ACL President Dr Mark Thompson reviews Preach or Perish, edited by Don Howard –
There is a quite vigorous and exciting debate about preaching taking place in Sydney at the moment. All the participants are convinced of the importance of preaching. They know how critical effective preaching is to the life and growth of Christian congregations. Yet there seems to be a widespread sense of a need to lift the standard of preaching across our city in order to honour our Lord and edify his people.
On the one hand, dry and disengaged literary studies are boring the socks off some congregations. It feels as if pages are being read from a commentary with little concern about how this part of the Bible addresses life as a follower of Christ in the twenty-first century. On the other hand, the life-giving word of God can be so easily swamped by the repartee of the Christian entertainer. The skill of the preacher becomes the focus of attention rather than the power, love and holiness of the God whose word he dares to speak.
Every preacher I know wants to preach better and there is no end to the list of people who want to tell us how. Yet few combine a commitment to handling the Bible responsibly with a concern to communicate effectively as consistently as the contributors to this new book edited by Donald Howard. Donald is known as a trainer of preachers, a pastor concerned that God’s people are built up in faith by the effective application of the word of God to the lives of real people. He is just as disturbed by trite story telling and moralising and as by undigested and poorly communicated profundity. And he is a long-standing member of the ACL!
This collection of brief essays by preachers who have given their lives to helping men and women come to faith — and more, to grow in maturity in faith — through hearing and responding to the word of God, is full of wisdom and help for preachers of all ages. It demonstrates yet again that it is not only the latest internet gurus who know what makes good preaching and what hinders it. Theology and practice come together in an extraordinary way which will challenge old preachers and set good patterns for young ones.
With contributions from the editor, John Chapman, Peter Jensen, Marcus Loane, Donald Robinson, Kel Richards, Dudley Foord, David Cook, and many others, readers are treated to insights into preaching from preachers who have honoured Christ and served his people, not just in a short burst of popularity, but consistently over many years.
If you want to improve your preaching or improve your appreciation of preaching and all that it involves, you’ll benefit from reading this book. It is worth learning the lesson that good principles are lasting principles. I warmly commend it.
Mark D Thompson.
(“Preach or perish – Reaching the hearts and minds of the world today”, edited by Donald Howard, is available from MooreBooks for $25.)
Tribute to Derek Kidner
In early December, Bishop John B Taylor spoke at a service of celebration for the life of Derek Kidner, who had fallen asleep in Christ a week or so earlier. He gave thanks for his scholarship and ministry – and for “his priceless legacy of book after book on the Bible”.
Oak Hill College has made the text of Bishop Taylor’s tribute available on their website.
(Photo of Derek Kidner: Oak Hill College.)
UK: Draft legislation to consecrate Women Bishops
“Earlier this week the first draft was published of legislation to permit women to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England. The draft will be considered by the General Synod in February and it must either be rejected or passed a Revision Committee, the latter being by far the most likely outcome.
… the legislation is not making provision for alternative oversight, but just a form of delegated oversight. Opponents have consistently said that delegated oversight is inadequate.”
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society at Church Society’s EVnews.
Abp of Canterbury’s New Year Message
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year message is now available at the Anglican Communion News Service.
(Photo: Lambeth Conference media.)
FiF Aust responds to Bishop Kay Goldsworthy
Forward in Faith Australia has released this statement:
“The Council of Forward in Faith Australia Inc takes great exception to Bishop Kay Goldsworthy’s statement reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that those who oppose the ordination of women ‘will never accept that God is calling women to leadership in the church’.
This denigrates the great women in the past as well as the present who are leaders in the Church. …”
– Full statement available at the FIF website. (Photo: Diocese of Perth.)
ESV Bible Reading plans
If there’s one thing most of us need to work on in 2009, it’s reading the Bible more regularly and systematically.
The people at ESV.org have assembled a helpful range of Bible Reading plans and made them available in a range of formats.
Want to be reminded each day of the passages to read? Want to receive it by e-mail? Read it on your iPhone? Even the Book of Common Prayer’s lectionary (in ESV) is available.
See ESV.org for details. (Hat tip to Justin Taylor, who has links to even more plans.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…