Abuse in Christian Marriage – with Darby Strickland

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“How might we better (as pastors) better come alongside victims of domestic abuse?

Abuse in Christian marriage is easy to miss—and even easier to minimise.

How can pastors recognise what is happening behind closed doors and help our churches become places of refuge for the oppressed?

Counsellor and author Darby Strickland joins us to discuss domestic abuse, the entitlement that drives it, and the patterns of control that can be hidden beneath an appearance of Christian respectability.

Darby Strickland is a counsellor and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF), and author of Is It Abuse? A Biblical Guide to Identifying Domestic Abuse and Helping Victims.

We explore how to listen carefully and ask better questions.

We consider how Christ’s sacrificial love shapes our care for those living with oppression and fear.”

– Watch or listen – and find links to useful resources.

Reformation Day 2026 event

Mark Gilbert, Certainty4Eternity and Evangelism and New Churches are running what promises to be a super helpful event.

A morning helping Protestant Christians to speak with people from a Roman Catholic background about Jesus with understanding, clarity, confidence, and wisdom.

Saturday 31st October 2026, 9:15am  12:45pm at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

See the promo video below – and reserve your spot.

 

We Need More Churches

Murray Campbell in Melbourne writes,

“An all-too familiar sight caught my attention this morning as I scanned the papers: yet another church building had been sold. Restaurant Aptos in Stirling, South Australia, with a $495 17-course degustation menu, recently opened in the historic building. It is being touted as one of the most audacious fine dining ventures in recent times. For every story that makes the news, many more churches are closing their doors and lay dormant for years before an entrepreneur snatches up their property. Just in the small part of Melbourne where I live, several churches have shut in the last decade. Reasons for closure vary: a dying congregation in an ageing community, a dead church void of the gospel, or the harsh reality of economics.

We need more churches. More evangelical churches, to be precise: churches built on the apostolic testimony, preaching Christ crucified, and living out the faith in love and godliness. …”

– From his Substack, republished at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Building conflict capable ministry teams – with Tim Dyer

From The Pastor’s Heart this week –

“Why do some church teams emerge from disagreement stronger, while others fracture, divide or quietly drift apart?

We expect opposition to the gospel and theological disagreement. What we’re often far less prepared for is tension within our own ministry teams. When ordinary disagreements become personal, motives are questioned and relationships begin to rupture.

Tim Dyer has spent years helping churches and ministry leaders navigate conflict. He says church teams can be simultaneously conflict-prone/averse and process-poor, which can lead to a “high fire danger rating”.

So how do we build ministry teams that are genuinely conflict-capable? And how do we stop a disagreement becoming a relational rupture?”

– Watch or listen here.

The Victory

Phillip Jensen writes:

“Last week, we started our series in the Resurrection Chapter, 1 Corinthians 15. Naturally, we started at the beginning, but today, we are jumping to the end. For the Resurrection is the end to which the world is heading, and we don’t want to wait until after the doubter’s arguments before hearing the great proclamation of the victory of the risen Lord Jesus.

Don’t forget to mention this podcast to your friends—it is provided free of charge by the generosity of others.”

– Hear Philip and Peter discuss!

ACR’s Synod 2026 Journal

Sydney Synod begins today and, as always, all involved would be very glad of your prayers.

If you missed it, The Australian Church Record’s Synod 2026 Journal is available for download.

Good reading from our friends at the ACR, whether you are a Sydney Synod member or not!

Plan a Sermon Series — on Luke

From Moore College:

“Prepare a sermon series! Join us for a day of expert teaching and planning on the book of Luke.

Dr Peter Orr is a lecturer at Moore Theological College and is currently finishing a commentary on the book of Luke. Peter will work closely with individuals and staff teams to help them prepare a future sermon series.

Peter will spend the morning exploring the theology and overall message of Luke as well as considering the issues that arise from the books. The afternoon will provide time, space and resources for collaborative work preparing your sermon series, with College Library resources being made available. Each day will finish with an opportunity to share your sermon series with other participants and ask our lecturers any follow-up questions.”

– 6th October 2026. Details here. :-)

Southern Cross magazine for September — October 2026

The latest issue of the Diocese of Sydney’s Southern Cross magazine is now out for September – October 2026.

You can get a copy at your local church – or you can download / read it online.

Plenty of interesting and encouraging articles, including –
• The Big Church Song Survey
• Year 13 in Fiji
• Laughter
• Psalm 93

There’s also a story about Alice Cooper and the new book Evangelism in the Local Church by Paul Brennan and Dave Jensen. See it on page 7.

The Tron Church has this interview with the authors. There, Dave Jensen argues that you don’t need a celebrity to promote the gospel. (Of course, every celebrity needs the gospel!)

And The Wandering Bookseller currently has the book on special.

Photos: SydneyAnglicans.net.

Watch out, scammers about

Good to be aware of –

“Sydney Anglican Services has renewed warnings about a sophisticated email scam targeting church communities, with fraudsters impersonating church leaders to gain access to parish directories and contact members.

Nathan McQueen, the Head of IT for Sydney Anglican Services (SAS), says fake emails are sent by a scammer impersonating a member of the church leadership team. …”

– From Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Image from The Melbourne Anglican, when similar scams were being tried in Melbourne three years ago.

9/11 Twenty-Five Years On

John Mason reiterates and expands his reflections on the horrible events of 11 September 2001 –

“Twenty-five years ago Judith and I were living three short blocks south of the Twin Towers in Downtown Manhattan. I had received an invitation from Timothy Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church New York City, to set up a gospel-focused Anglican Church to complement the ministry of Redeemer Church in the city.

On Tuesday morning, September 11, we had awakened to see from our apartment clear blue skies and the sparkling waters of New York Harbor. But it was not to last. …”

– Many ACL members know John well. He’s ministered in Sydney, Canberra and New York. He founded the Anglican Connection in the USA and also served as Commissary to the Archbishop of Sydney in the USA.

Read his reflections at Anglican Connection.

Or listen to them here:

 

Related:

The Day the World Stood Still – Phillip Jensen spoke at St. Andrew’s Cathedral on the tenth anniversary, 11 September 2011.

Seeing God at Ground Zero: an Aussie’s testimony from 9/11 – Anthony Philips, published by The Australian Church Record, 10 September 2019.

How Scammers are Targeting Christian Authors

Tim Challies has something to be aware of –

“Authors are being targeted today. I expect this targeting includes all authors, but I can attest that it certainly includes Christian authors. As far as I can tell, these are not particularly dangerous scams, but they are annoying nonetheless and potentially costly.

Here’s how they work. …”

– Read it all (with some examples of scam e-mails) at challies.com.

Twice as Vulnerable: What Every Pastor Needs to Know

From The Pastor’s Heart this week –

“Consent, Bodies and Belonging: Ministering to Young People with Disability.

In every church’s orbit are young people with intellectual disability, whether in the pews, in youth group, or in a family that stopped coming because it got too hard.

The Australian Disability Royal Commission found people with disability are twice as likely to face abuse and exploitation.

Are our churches actually safe, welcoming places?

Accessibility Ministry Advisor at Sydney Anglican Youthworks Bec Baines speaks about consent, capacity, bodies and belonging, and how to disciple young people with intellectual disability.

Links:

• Bec is the author of a new resource for teens and young adults with intellectual disability called Made to Be Me and You.

• Living Hope Anglican Accessibility Guide.”

– Watch or listen here.

The Gospel Foundation — The hope of worms?

From Phillip Jensen:

“This week we start a 4-week series on one of the pivotal chapters in the Bible: 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an afterthought of the gospel. It is not a tidying up of the events of Jesus’ death at Calvary. The resurrection is the gospel; it is foundational to the Christian understanding of Jesus’ mission and the world’s future.

In this episode of Two Ways News we look at the first 11 verses which are on the truth of the gospel. As we recall the message that was preached, in the coming weeks we will see the significance of doubting the resurrection as well as the marvellous implications of our confidence in Christ’s resurrection.”

– Here Phillip and Peter discuss – at Two Ways News.

Learning from History

David Cook shares some important lessons from our not-so-distant history –

“In 1961 my father, at the age of 46, became a follower of Jesus Christ.

Within a week my mother stood at his side, having been converted at an evangelistic business dinner.

My father led us back to the local Presbyterian church at which his grandfather had been a foundation elder. My dad was soon to become an elder at that church and was in the vanguard of promoting involvement in the forthcoming Billy Graham meetings in Sydney in 1968.

However, such was the state of the church, enduring a long history of liberalism, involvement in the Graham meetings was opposed and any advertising of the event was resisted.

The minister at the time was an immigrant whose English was not good, and though orthodox, was not influential and was overshadowed by other more liberal leaders in the church.

I heard many preachers at that time whose theological commitment was liberal and was greatly helped to recognise it for the poison it was and to resist it, by our local youth leader.

Here is what I remember about it …”

– Read it all at The Expository Preaching Trust.

Illustration: J I Packer, Billy Graham, Marcus Loane, Graham Miller (below), Broughton Know, John Chapman (below), T C Hammond.

‘No Tyndale, No Shakespeare’: How the Bible made Modern English

“The book that the famed British Library once called the most significant in the English language was nearly destroyed before it was even printed. That book was William Tyndale’s 1526 English New Testament, whose 500th anniversary is being commemorated this year.

Not only was the book banned and burned when it was smuggled into England from Germany, where Tyndale was living a fugitive life, but before that, when the first printing had reached Matthew 22, the print shop in Cologne was raided by Catholic sympathizers. Tyndale barely escaped with his unpublished manuscript in hand.

Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament from the original Greek became the foundation of all English Bible translation until the middle of the 20th century …”

– At The Gospel Coalition, Leland Ryken reminds us of the monumental legacy of William Tyndale.

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