Same words. Different worlds. Reaching Roman Catholics.

On the Pastor’s Heart this week, 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.

Leonardo De Chirico, Director of The Reformanda Initiative in Rome, is currently in Australia. Rachel Ciano serves at SMBC.

A weary pilgrimage

“I remember going to a weekend conference some eighteen months after I was converted, and a girl there asked me if I was a Christian. I answered, ‘Yes’.

‘Tell me’ she said, ‘what I have to do to become a Christian’.

I didn’t have the faintest idea where to begin.

As I write this now, I remember well the mixed emotions that swamped me. First, joy—because more than anything else I wanted to see people converted. Second, shame—because I didn’t know what to say. Third, anger—(with myself) for allowing such a situation to arise. All these emotions muddled together produced the only possible answer: ‘I’ll take you to someone who can tell you’.

So I did that, and she was converted—but not by my words or witness.

That incident left an indelible imprint on my memory, and that day I vowed that such a situation would never happen again. In the future I would know exactly what to say.

So I set out to learn the gospel. Which I did. …”

– from John Chapman in his book Know and Tell the Gospel. Extract published by Matthias Media.

Evangelism in Tough Times?

Here’s the talk Phillip Jensen gave to mark the 10th anniversary of John Chapman’s departure to be with Christ.

His topic: “Evangelism in Tough Times”.

Looking at our context in Australia, he argues –

These are not tough times.
The has been no substantial change, and
The difficulty evangelism faces is seduction and persecution.

It’s a challenging talk and is very much worth your time. Good to share too.

Recorded at Moore College, 22 November 2022.

Christianity: Weird and Wonderful — Rory Shiner on ‘The World Next Door’

Recorded in August 2022, Glen Scrivener from Speak Life in the UK speaks with Rory Shiner about his new book, ‘The World Next Door: A Short Guide to the Christian Faith’, which he co-authored with Peter Orr.

It’s a fascinating interview with very helpful insights into sharing the gospel in our culture.

Watch here. The book is available from Matthias Media.

Our missionary faith – Matthew 28:16-20

Last week, Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson spoke about The Great Commission as the College comes to the end of the academic year.

It’s not only Moore College students who need to be reminded why we’re here.

Watch or listen at the Moore College website. Most encouraging.

How do we get the whole church engaged in evangelism? — with Gavin Perkins

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“How do you grow your church’s evangelistic ecosystem? Is that possible?

83% of Gavin’s church members see personal evangelism as an individual responsibility.

And yet most 60% of them had at maximum of two spiritual conversations with non Christians in the last six months.

Gavin Perkins has been researching what are the blockers to personal evangelism? How might we overcome them?

How could we create a congregational ecosystem where individuals take personal evangelistic initiative? …”

– Watch or listen at The Pastor’s Heart.

The Class of Chappo — A night to mark the 10th anniversary of Chappo’s departure to be with Christ

Tuesday 22 November 2022. 7:30pm

A night to mark the 10th anniversary of Chappo’s departure to be with Christ.

The evening will include:

Philip Jensen on Evangelism in Tough Times
Kanishka Raffel on Evangelism and the Local Church
The launch of The Class of Chappo, edited and contributed to by David Mansfield, along with 27 other contributors.
The launch of About Love, written and published by David Mansfield on the second half of John’s Gospel and a kind of sequel to About Life which David wrote more than 20 years ago.
Baden Stace on his recently launched book, Sydney’s One Special Evangelist: John C. Chapman and the Shaping of Anglican Evangelicalism and Australian Religious Life, 1968-2001.

Details and booking from Moore College.

Illustration from a Department of Evangelism videocassette cover, 1986.

Lord, open the eyes of Hindus to Satya

“Picture this scene: approximately two hundred million men, women, and children; from every religious caste; from every echelon of every society; from most of the countries across the world; all congregating at the confluence of the Ganges river, the Sarasvati river, and the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) river at Prayag (modern day Prayagraj).

This jaw-dropping scene is the largest gathering of any kind on planet earth. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Ben George asks us to pray to the Lord of the harvest. Read the article to see the need, and then see the ‘15 days of prayer for the Hindu world’.

John MacArthur to the Governor of California on the slaughter of the innocents

“Sir,

Almighty God says in His Word, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34). Scripture also teaches that it is the chief duty of any civic leader to reward those who do well and to punish evildoers (Romans 13:1–7). You have not only failed in that responsibility; you routinely turn it on its head, rewarding evildoers and punishing the righteous.

The Word of God pronounces judgment on those who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)…”

– John MacArthur, Pastor of Grace Community Church in California, has released an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom who has been promoting his state as a destination for those wanting abortions – and quoting the Bible in support. (Click the image to read the text on the billboard.)

The letter is a clear and blunt call to repentance. PDF version.

Can California Become Even More Pro-Abortion? Governor Newsom Signs 13 New Bills to Increase Access to Abortion – Albert Mohler’s The Briefing, 28 September 2022.

Sydney’s One Special Evangelist John Chapman — The Pastor’s Heart

Prior to the launch of Baden Stace’s book, “Sydney’s One Special Evangelist: John C. Chapman and the Shaping of Anglican Evangelicalism and Australian Religious Life 1968-2001”, Dominic Steele speaks with Baden about Chappo.

“Baden’s new work showcases the impact of John Chapman, but also gives a window into issues facing evangelicals in Sydney in the later part of the twentieth century, controversies about preaching, the place of evangelism in church life, social justice, and what role each of us plays in the evangelistic process.”

Most encouraging and informative. A ‘must watch’ episode.

Invitation to the book launch on 14 September 2022.

Order the book.

Chappo: “Do you really believe the gospel can convert your friends?”

‘Learn the Gospel’ book and videos

A new study book and videos from Matthias Media:

“Whether building a house or building a life, solid, square and true foundations are vital.

If you’re just starting out in the Christian life – or considering it – you want to get those foundations in place from the start. Even if you’ve been a Christian for a while, it’s important to occasionally check your foundations – they might have shifted or been attacked by white ants, or perhaps they weren’t laid quite as straight as you originally thought.

In this Learn Together book, we’ll thoroughly inspect our gospel foundations and make our understanding of that gospel sound and biblical.

Through reading, studying the Bible, watching some video input and discussing what we’re learning together, we’ll go deep into the gospel of Jesus Christ – understanding each of its parts, how they fit together, and what implications the gospel has for our lives.

This is Two Ways to Live grown into a study book for small groups and classes. Each of the six points are fleshed out with Bible study, discussion and video and text input.”

– The book is available from Matthias Media.

Plus you can watch or download the accompanying videos here.

The Sermon that Exposed Australia

“It was an orthodox Christian sermon speaking about anxiety, trusting the Lord and God being with us in troubled times. As such you would not expect the Sydney Morning Herald to pay much attention to it. Except in this instance, who delivered the sermon, and where it was delivered, made it worthy of headline news. …

The sermon from the former PM, or rather the reaction to it from the current PM, shows just how far down the rabbit role of irrationality Australian civic culture has already gone.”

– At AP (The Australian Presbyterian), David Robertson looks at the reaction to Scott Morrison’s sermon, and sees the need for a good old-fashioned Apology.

Also:

Hear for yourself what Scott Morrison says. The most ‘controversial’ section begins around 26 minutes.

Sharpening our evangelistic preaching — with Ross Ciano

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“How do we proclaim Him clearly as we should? What mistakes do we make? How can we improve? How do you best approach different kinds of evangelistic talks? How can you be creative about presenting sin?”

– Ross Ciano from Marrickville Anglican is Dominic Steele’s guest this week.

Evangelism through making Christianity Strange

“Is secularism all bad? Does it always have to mean an increasing hostility to Christianity and resistance to the gospel?

Maybe not. One possibility is that it might be (at least partly) a blessing in disguise. As Perth minister Rory Shiner put it a few years back:

People are so post-Christian that the gospel is fresh and interesting. They know so little that there’s less prejudice. And if they have an impression of Christians at all, it’s so outrageously negative that all you have to do is offer them a cup of tea and not punch them in the face, and you seem like Mother Theresa.

In The World Next Door: A Short Guide to the Christian faith, Shiner and Peter Orr (NT lecturer at Moore College) have turned this theory into a book; a book that celebrates the weirdness of Christianity; a book that aims to intrigue and surprise non-Christians as much as explain, challenge and persuade.”

– At The Australian Church Record, Andrew Moody introduces The World Next Door by Rory Shiner and Peter Orr.

The book is published by Matthias Media.