Exegeting ourselves and our communities

Ruth Baker writes in The Australian Church Record –

“In my first article in this series, I showed that here in the West, our local communities are mission fields. Here, we’ll look at how we can examine ourselves and our suburbs to better connect with people as part of our long-term mission.…”

– Read it all here.

The West as a mission field

“I’m reading a book on the stock market crash of 1929 (because yes, I’m a special kind of nerd). I’m fascinated by the mindset of the investors that led the world into such economic devastation, and the collective mentality of the millions of people who willingly followed them.

And when I read this line, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning:

So long as faith in tomorrow was maintained, debts could be rolled over endlessly into the future.

This is an apt description of our mindset in the West today when it comes to spiritual reality. …”

– The Australian Church Record has published the first of two articles by Ruth Baker who writes to remind us that our local communities are mission fields.

Recording of the 2026 ACL Synod Dinner

Toby Neal spoke at the Anglican Church League’s Synod Dinner on Monday 14th September 2026.

He spoke on the topic From Plant to Parish – The Joys and the Pains.

ALIVE rally at Penrith 19 September

Dave Jensen has been speaking at ALIVE rallies across greater Sydney.

The last one is coming up at the Western Sydney Convention Centre in Penrith on Saturday 19th September. Could you take friends?

From the website:

“ALIVE is a movement led by Evangelism & New Churches (ENC) and fuelled by local churches across Australia.”

Here’s the promo video:

The Mark Drama – coming up at Moore College

Coming up at Moore College on Friday 25 September 2026 –

“A production of the Moore College community, the Mark Drama turns Mark’s biographical account of Jesus into a 90-minute, theatre-in-the-round performance.

Fully immersed in the action, here you can decide for yourself – is Jesus just another guy with imaginative ideas about God, or is he truly the King of the universe?”

– Details and booking here.

Aussie Anglicans endorse worldwide million church plant plan

John Sandeman reports from General Synod in Melbourne –

“Archbishop Ric Thorpe of Melbourne used his first-ever speech at General Synod (the Anglican Church’s national parliament) to endorse an ambitious goal of a million church plants by 2036 that was presented at the Anglican Consultative Council last month.

His speech contained inspiring stories of evangelism and church planting in places that may have surprised his hearers.

The General Synod signed on to Vision36. …”

– John has the full text of Archbishop Thorpe’s speech.

And John has another report from General Synod –

Anglicans to Albanese: Get rid of gambling ads and inducements

“The Anglican General Synod (the Church Parliament) has passed a strongly worded motion, without any opposing vote, urging the Federal government to go all the way and implement all the reforms that Peta Murphy, the late member for Dunkley, campaigned for.

Here is how mover of the motion, Dean Sandy Grant of Sydney, responded to the recent federal parliamentary inquiry: ‘The [Sydney] Synod has – on multiple occasions – expressed unanimous support for the full implementation of the 31 recommendations of the “Murphy Inquiry”, I am confident my views represent fairly the views of the vast majority of Sydney Anglicans in over 250 parishes in and around Sydney.’ Grant can now update this with the news that the national church, at the general synod has taken the same stand …”

Photo of Archbishop Thorpe from a Diocese of Melbourne video.

Darrell Bock on Engaging Aussie (or any) Culture

A special from The Pastor’s Heart –

“In this special ‘pop up’ episode of The Pastor’s Heart we talk with New Testament Professor Darrell Bock about how best might Christians might engage culturally to reach Australians for Jesus.

Plus his love of Sydney,  Sydney Swans Australian football team and why he would move here if he didn’t have grandchildren. Bock is known for getting up at 2am in Dallas to watch the Swans play live on TV.  He will see three Swans games during his current visit to Australia.

Darrell Bock is executive director of Cultural Engagement at The Hendricks Center and Senior Research Professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.”

– Very helpful. Watch here.

Are evangelicals losing confidence in low-church evangelicalism?

This week at The Pastor’s Heart –

“What’s going on? Is this a reaction against thin, seeker-friendly evangelicalism? Spiritual nostalgia?

Across the Western church, some younger Christians seem to be searching for deeper roots: tradition, transcendence, beauty, liturgy, sacraments and a stronger sense of connection with the historic church.

Some evangelicals have become Roman Catholic or even Orthodox. Even a church formerly affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) in the UK has become Orthodox.

Orlando Saer, senior pastor of Christ Church Southampton, describes himself as something of a “spiritual mongrel”, shaped by Roman Catholic, high Anglican, low Anglican, independent Baptist and FIEC influences.

On sabbatical in Australia, Orlando has been thinking deeply about why Christians are longing for rootedness, transcendence and tradition, and how evangelical leaders should respond.”

– Watch at The Pastor’s Heart.

A Biblical guide to giving your Testimony

“When the apostle Paul tells his own story, he doesn’t focus on how bad he was before Christ. He emphasises Jesus.

That instinct runs counter to much of what passes for testimony-giving today, where the drama of a former life tends to take centre stage and the gospel itself gets relegated to a supporting role. The personal story matters, but it is the garnish, not the main course.

The focus of any testimony ought to be the person and work of Jesus: who he is and what he came to do. …”

– Very helpful reminder from Jordan Thyer at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Cruising

From David Cook at The Expository Preaching Trust –

“Maxine (my wife) and I have just taken a cruise from NZ to Australia.

We met up with our son and his family, who live in LA, as they were attending a family wedding in Rotorua and we caught a ship back to Sydney from Auckland.

Our ship, the Norwegian Spirit, was cyclone affected so that we had to be rerouted to avoid the worst of the seas.

However we did face 4 days in the Tasman sea and though my forebears were seamen I did not inherit their sea legs.

Being on a cruise ship in the middle of rough seas is a bit like hell; there is no escape; there is nowhere to go that is not rocking and rolling.

Our ship stopped in Melbourne on a Sunday so we caught a tram from the wharf into the city. …”

– David shares, among other things, the tragedy of what he didn’t find at a key location in Melbourne.

Photo: Billboard outside St Paul’s Cathedral in October 2024.

From corrective to culture setting with Richard Coekin

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“The Reach Australia movement has matured into something broader: from a corrective voice into one of the most significant culture-shaping forces in Australian evangelicalism.

Reach Australia has often been heard as a corrective: a push for clearer pathways, better systems, output thinking and more intentional leadership in local churches.

Richard Coekin says that, as an outsider, last week’s conference felt less like the corrective it may have seemed in the past and more like a mature, holistic vision for church leadership: with preaching, spiritual transformation, gospel culture, prayerful dependence and pastoral warmth much more clearly front and centre, while still committed to principled pragmatism and organising churches to reach the lost.

Richard Coekin, former senior pastor of Dundonald Church in London and now leader of Reach UK, reflects on his fortnight at both the Reach UK conference in London and the Reach Australia conference, attended by 1450 leaders on the NSW Central Coast.

We discuss the maturing of Reach Australia and what UK evangelical churches might learn from Australia at this moment.”

– Watch or listen here.

A senior pastor’s tears — and a gospel culture to reach a nation

A ‘Friday special’ from The Pastor’s Heart –

“Richard Leadbeater is the senior pastor of the influential Dundonald Church in London. He came to Australia for the Reach Australia Conference — 1450 pastors and leaders from across Australia, the UK, the US, South Africa and New Zealand — and left deeply moved.

Richard says he found himself in tears four times during the week.

In a The Pastor’s Heart Friday special, Dominic Steele presses into Richard’s pastor’s heart, exploring each of those moments.

We also talk about the joy and privileges of ministry — and why Richard is concerned that we can talk so much about how hard ministry is that we forget to commend the deep joy of being spent in the service of Christ.”

– Watch here.

Targeted and Engaged Evangelism to the Eastern Orthodox

Archie Poulos reviews and commends Certainty for Life: An invitation to those in Eastern Orthodoxy by John Diacos –

“I have spent most of my ministry seeking to evangelise Greek Orthodox, and in that pursuit John and I have sometimes laboured together and sometimes in parallel with each other. I have great delight in commending this book.”

– Read about it at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Prayers answered at first ALIVE rally

“Our hope for Wollongong was that we would put on an evangelistic rally where hundreds would come, and in that group would be hundreds of Christian young adults bringing non-Christian friends, family and workmates,” says Dave Jensen, the assistant director of Evangelism and New Churches. …

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Tara Sing reports on the first ALIVE rally, with more events to come.

321: Seeing Life Clearly

From The Gospel Coalition Australia –

“Glen Scrivener’s How to See Life in 321 is a unique contribution to the plethora of evangelistic books available.

In this book, Christian doctrines such as trinity, sin, salvation, and union are given their initial conceptual meaning through simple stories and explanations.

The book and corresponding online course are divided into four sections : ‘Jesus: Our Guide’, ‘God’s Three-ness’, ‘The World’s Two-ness’, ‘Your One-ness’.

Each section comprises two chapters; the first begins with an illustrative story, and the second provides a deeper look at the illustrated idea with personal application.

There is a brief and helpful frequently asked questions section at the back of the book which gives general answers for those who are asking whether Christianity is true. The FAQ answer on divine hiddenness is an important contribution given people no longer assume the existence of God as compared to by people attending a Billy Graham crusade sixty years ago …”

– Jospeh Hewitt enthusiastically reviews Glen Scrivener’s How to See Life in 321.

“If your church is looking a resource to give non-Christians who do not want to read a gospel just yet, How to See Life is probably the pick of the bunch.”

Image: Speak Life’s 321 course.

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