Riding the young adult revival

From The Pastor’s heart –

“Something is happening. In England the data shows a quiet revival. In France a new evangelical church is opening every ten days. But what about here in Australia?

Among young adults we’re hearing stories of renewed interest in Jesus, fresh conversions and surprising openness. Is this a cultural phenomenon or is it something deeper?  And how do we ride the wave?

We talk about ground level experiences, the big picture, the influence of politics, and the five percent conversion growth goal for Sydney Anglican churches.

We’re joined by three frontline evangelists:

• Dave Jensen from Sydney Anglican Evangelism and New Churches
• Sam Mahdavi from Wollongong Baptist Church
• Pre Shunmugam from MBM Rooty Hill in multicultural Western Sydney.”

– Watch here.

Very helpful discussion, including opinions on how much the church should link into politics and current events, such as the murder of Charlie Kirk. Take the time to listen.

Related:

Alive. Not an Event. A Rescue Mission.

Reflecting Christ’s Love

“Here at Moore, we want to be as helpful as we can in preparing students who are married to love their spouses well and to invest in their marriages—for the good of their families and for the good of the church. This love needs to be nurtured and informed.

While this is true for every marriage, there are some additional pressures, expectations and joys that come to married couples in Christian ministry. …”

– Simon and Margie Gillham share how important it is to support married couples among the student body at Moore College.

The World Awash with Sin and Judgement

From Phillip Jensen:

“After the genealogy of Genesis 5, we have finally left Adam and Eve. But then as we merge into chapter 6, we find Adam’s baleful influence dominating the landscape.

This week’s episode of Two Ways News does not seek to answer the many questions people ask about the flood, but to pay attention to the central message of sin and judgement.

Your temptation may now be to skip this episode, but that is because of sin and judgement! So as the old hymn has it, ‘yield not to temptation’.”

– Hear Phillip and Peter Jensen at Two Ways News.

Aged Care, VAD, Religious Freedom and s 109

“Should a religious aged care provider be able to operate in accordance with its religious convictions?

This issue is being debated in NSW at the moment in the context of the law allowing “voluntary assisted dying”.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 (NSW) allows persons with a terminal illness to choose death, which can be self-administered or administered by a health professional. Many health professionals have religious convictions which mean that they find the procedures for persons to choose death morally unacceptable. They do not wish to be involved in the process.

Under the legislation there is a right for individual health professionals to conscientiously object to the procedures, and to decline to be involved: see sections 9, 21 and 32. Faith-based hospitals may also decline to be involved in VAD procedures. However, at the moment faith-based aged care facilities are obliged to allow medical practitioners onto their premises to administer VAD. …”

– Associate Professor Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Related:

Contact your MP – via Freedom for Faith.

Antisemitic slurs must be rejected

Here is a media release from the Diocese of Sydney:

Antisemitic slurs must be rejected

The rally staged outside the New South Wales Parliament on Saturday has rightly drawn condemnation from across the community – particularly as it occurred on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 pogrom against Germany’s Jewish community.

The black-uniformed protestors, carrying banners with the slogan ‘Abolish the Jewish Lobby,’ were clearly intent on spreading fear and antisemitism.

Authorities must investigate whether Saturday’s neo-Nazi rally in Sydney breached laws against inciting racial hatred.

Christians are defenders of free speech. We prize the freedom to declare ‘the praises of Him who called (us) out of darkness into his wonderful light’.

This includes defending the freedom of others to disagree with us, and even to mock the truth we proclaim.

But speech that incites hatred is illegal in New South Wales.

Antisemitism has traded in lies, hate and violence for centuries. When it appears in modern day Australia it must be named, resisted and rejected.

Antisemitism—whether from the far left or far right—has no place in Australian society.

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel
10 November 2025.

– from SydneyAnglicans.net.

The “eye-opener” of disability

“When you see provisions for people with disability at your church, do you ever put yourself in the shoes of the person who will use them?

Or do you just assume that the hearing loop has a practical set-up for visitors, the news sheets and overheads can be read by everyone, and no-stairs access into the church means that those with physical impairments can get around easily? …”

– Very helpful article by Judy Adamson at SydneyAnglicans.net – with practical suggestions.

How to Present Your Sermon Really Well

“Like every skill worth doing, good preaching requires sustained study, effort, practice, self-evaluation, and a determination to improve and master the skill.

Good delivery must come not as a replacement for, but as the culmination of the certain basic convictions about preaching:

That preaching is central to Christian worship, growth, and evangelism;

That preaching must be Christ-focussed;

That the preacher must be a godly Christian growing in Christ;

That the sermon must expository and carefully prepared. …”

– Agree or disagree with details, Campbell Markham writes to encourage and help preachers do what is vitally important. At AP.

Related:

The Preacher Responding To Criticism – Bob Thomas writes at The Expository Preaching Trust…

“Criticism of our preaching falls into three categories: ‘mindless’ criticism and therefore not worth worrying about except to try graciously to correct; negative criticism but worth swallowing our pride, taking notice of and responding to; and positive criticism, so thankfully received as it spurs us on to greater endeavour.”

Why we can’t have the Prayers of Love and Faith after all

“The Church of England has finally published the theological papers and legal advice that the House of Bishops saw before its October meeting.

At that meeting, the bishops gave in to the inevitable and concluded that they weren’t going to be able to go any further without going through the proper legal processes. Just what was in the papers that led to this about-face?

The papers consist of three theological papers produced by the Faith and Order Commission (FAOC) and one legal paper produced by the Church of England’s Legal Office. …”

– At the Church Society website, Michael Hayden shares what has been learned from the information released by the House of Bishops.

His conclusion: “Those of us opposed to the whole project have been saying for years now that they can’t do what they’re attempting to do, and they certainly can’t do it in the way they’ve been attempting to do it. These papers only confirm what we’ve been saying all along.”

Prayer for the Persecuted Church

From Gafcon:

“This Sunday marks the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Across the world, faithful Anglicans and other believers face hardship and danger for the name of Jesus. Yet they remain steadfast, trusting that the Lord is their refuge and strength, and that nothing can silence His gospel.

As the global Gafcon fellowship, we stand with them in love and prayer. We thank God for their courage as they continue to guard God’s gospel in the face of pressure and persecution. Their witness reminds us that the Word of God is not chained, and that His Church endures by His power alone.

Pray that the Lord will uphold His persecuted people with faith, endurance, and peace. May their steadfast hope inspire us all to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations, whatever the cost.”

Image: Last year’s World Watch List from Open Doors.

How God works in our hearts

“God works in many ways to bring His people to Himself.

Sometimes He works over a long period of time, such as with those people who grow up in a Christian home, where ‘Christ is the Head of the house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener at every conversation’. They’ve been dedicated to God as covenant children and day by day, year by year, they grow into Christ.

Sometimes God brings people to Himself with a sudden flash of enlightenment, as with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

Sometimes God brings people to Himself by bringing them to their senses in the far country, as with the Prodigal Son who went through a troubled and strugglesome journey.

Often He brings them to Himself after ongoing prayer for them by His people.

But all these ways have much in common, as Paul sets before us in Ephesians 3.14-20. …”

– Bob Thomas shares this encouragement at AP, the Presbyterian journal.

An honourable approach to dishonourable laws

“Australian Christians face increasing challenges in balancing our obligations to civil authority and God’s word. The question of when to obey God rather than government has become one of the most significant issues confronting the modern church. What the government does is one thing; how the church responds is another.

We must tread carefully, courageously, and biblically, remembering that it is in the Christian DNA to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Taking up the cross must at least include a willingness to suffer under the hand of an unjust government, laws, or abuses of those laws, as we seek the salvation and good of others and live for God’s glory. If Jesus was willing to die, we must at least be willing to go to jail. …”

– The Australian Church Record highlights this article by Andrew Barry, first published in their 2025 Synod Journal.

Image: Menai Anglican Church.

Since God so loved us – Sandy Grant and Rob Elder

“St Andrew’s Cathedral has always played a significant role in Sydney caring for the needs of the surrounding community. During and after World War II (1940-1947), approximately 3.5 million meals were given to active and returning soldiers in temporary Nissen huts erected on Cathedral grounds – the combined efforts of approximately 900 volunteers working for the Church of England National Emergency Fund (CENEF).

Over the last couple of decades, like many other church communities, the Cathedral has offered free English classes to serve the needs of overseas migrants and visitors. Bible reading is included as part of the approach – very appropriately, since the Bible and its message is so influential on our language, laws and culture.

Most recently, we have been especially delighted with the impact of Reverend Rob Elder on our ministry. Rob, a Moore College graduate, was appointed Community Chaplain at the start of 2024, and his position is funded by the Myfanwy Peters Estate for the relief of the needy in CBD of Sydney. …”

– Learn about and pray for this important ministry. Via the Moore College website.

Melbourne Diocese plans 30 new churches, 30 revitalisations by 2030

From The Melbourne Anglican:

“The Melbourne diocese has a vision to plant 30 new churches and revitalise 30 existing ones by 2030 as growth corridors expand without an Anglican presence to serve them.

The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne Church Planting vision and strategy was officially launched at a Melbourne Anglican Foundation fundraising event on Thursday, 23 October. …”

– Hannah Felsbourg reports.

Image: Archbishop-Elect Ric Thorpe at The Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication in the United Kingdom. Although this Melbourne plan predates the new Archbishop’s arrival, it aligns closely with what he has been working to do in London.

(Archbishop Thorpe will be installed at St Paul’s Cathedral on Advent Sunday 30 November 2025.)

Anglican Heroes: J. C. Ryle — Church Society podcast

From Church Society:

“Andrew Atherstone talks to Ros Clarke about the life, ministry and legacy of J. C. Ryle, the first Bishop of Liverpool.”

– Listen here.

Related:

His Sermons Roused a Sleeping Church – article by John Piper.

Evangelical Religion — Bishop J.C. Ryle.

Why were our Reformers burned? — Bishop J.C. Ryle (republished by Church Society in 2017).

Church music in a culture obsessed with self expression – with Alanna Glover

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“What does healthy, joyful, word-shaped congregational singing look like in a culture obsessed with self-expression?

We are shaped more than we realise by the culture around us. And today one of the most powerful cultural forces pressing on our churches is expressive individualism — the idea that the authentic self must be expressed and affirmed.

But what happens when this cultural air we breathe seeps into our church music? When sincerity becomes more important than truth, when the band is excellent yet the congregation is silent, and when singing shifts from ‘we proclaim Christ together’ to ‘I express what I feel’?

If we do not address this, we risk disengaged congregations, weakened church identity and a missed opportunity for deep spiritual formation that comes as we sing God’s word to one another.

Alanna Glover — longtime church music leader, former member of Garage Hymnal, ten years with Emu Music, songwriter, trainer and theologian — has just completed significant research on expressive individualism and congregational singing in evangelical churches.”

– Watch here. (Emphasis added.)

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