The Lifeguard
“The day had seemed to start quite well,
The ‘sea of life’ a gentle swell.
When all at once I felt a change,
The world around was growing strange. …”
– Take the time to read “The Lifeguard”, by John Richardson.
On the elimination of the suffering
“Why is it, as soon as we see someone suffering, that we so quickly think of eliminating the sufferer?
Is it that we think that their suffering is so bad that they would be better off dead than to continue as they are?
Or is it that we are fearful that their suffering would only increase if they were to continue to live in a society which is unwilling to change so that their needs will be met? Or are we concerned that we would suffer because of them?…”
– Dr Megan Best asks some challenging questions in this article at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Matthias Media.)
Your church is too small
“I decided to go along to the week-long convention to get a feel for where Hillsong was up to. I went expecting a fairly different experience to my normal church life—and sure enough, it was an astonishing few days.”
– The Briefing Editor Sam Freney shares his reflections from the most recent Hillsong Conference in Sydney. (Image: The Briefing.)
The Stewardship of Words
“Truth, life, and health are found in the right words. Lies, disaster, and death are found in the wrong words. …
Theological education is a deadly serious business. The stakes are so high. A theological seminary that serves faithfully will be a source of health and life for the church, but an unfaithful seminary will set loose a torrent of trouble, untruth, and unhealth upon Christ’s people…”
– In this excerpt from an address at the inauguration of a Seminary President, Albert Mohler speaks of the key task of theological education.
It’s also a good reminder to pray for Moore College, and for Mark Thompson as he becomes Principal later this month. His Installation is on Thursday 6th June.
The Once and Future Scriptures
“Over the past decade or so some really very fine books on the nature and use of Scripture have been produced. My mind immediately runs to Tim Ward’s Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God (Nottingham: IVP, 2009), John Webster’s Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), and Graeme Goldsworthy’s Gospel-centred Hermeneutics (Nottingham: IVP, 2006).
Perhaps surprisingly, these have all been written by Anglicans (and other Anglicans could have been added to the list). Even more surprisingly, none of these have been referenced in the collection of essays recently produced by a group of Brisbane Anglicans entitled The Once and Future Scriptures: Exploring the Role of the Bible in the Contemporary Church (Salem: Polebridge, 2013). In fact, a lot of recent serious scholarship on the doctrine of Scripture and its place in the Christian life and the life of the churches is missing from the book…”
– Dr Mark Thompson’s review of a new book gives an insight into what some Australian Anglicans are being taught about the Bible.
The Man I thought was Dead
“I once saw a man who I thought was dead. It was a little unnerving to see him walk over to a microphone and start singing…
It was so strange that I spent the first few moments trying to remember where I had read the announcement of his death. Then I tried to work out how old he was – because he was an old man when I first heard him sing in the 50’s and this was the 90’s. …”
– Phillip Jensen remembers with gratitude … well, you’ll see.
Why I am still a Christian
“It was a long time ago. I had become dissatisfied with my life’s direction and that of the friends in my social circle. In my early twenties I began to attend a church and thankfully found the minister’s message and the congregation’s welcome deeply encouraging. I began for the first time to read the Bible.
One day I attended a lunch hour service in St Andrew’s Cathedral where the speaker, Dr Howard Guinness spoke on John 6.37. …”
– Bishop Paul Barnett shares some encouraging words of personal testimony.
Don’t allow Prayer to be edged out
“Once upon a time I used to be part of a Bible study group. We’d spend most of our time studying the Bible together. The problem was we often spent so long looking at the Bible and talking together that we rarely allowed much time to pray.
So we changed the name to Prayer and Bible groups. And you know what? Prayer was still frequently edged out by everything else. I wonder if your experience has been much the same…”
– Dave McDonald calls us to actually pray. In practice. As Sydney Anglicans look to elect a new Archbishop in August, and to a united mission campaign in 2014, let’s not neglect to bring these matters before our heavenly Father.
Leadership as Stewardship — Part 1
“Christians are rightly and necessary concerned about leadership, but many Christians seem to aim no higher than secular standards and visions of leadership.
We can learn a great deal from the secular world and its studies of leadership and its practices, but the last thing the church needs is warmed over business theories decorated with Christian language …”
– Albert Mohler has posted the first excerpt from his recent book on leadership.
A hole in History the shape of an empty tomb
We missed seeing this earlier – but Ian Palmer, the new Bishop of Bathurst, has written this Easter message in the April edition of 3D, the newspaper of the dioceses of Canberra & Goulburn, Bathurst, and Riverina. (Page 14 in this PDF file.)
It’s also a good reminder to pray for him and for Christian ministry in rural areas —
“Almost 40 years ago, in July 1973, Liz and I were in a bank in London when four armed men burst in.
We found ourselves lying on the floor fearfully eyeing the man standing over us with a shotgun, while his companions smashed their way into the tellers’ area and stole money from behind the desk and the safes.
It was a terrifying experience and although we eventually got out unharmed, all these years later the details remain vivid and the emotions powerful. Read more
We care for the mother and the unborn child
“In my distress at the draconian draft Tasmanian Abortion legislation, I cannot help but come back to basic statements of our wider communities’ commitments to humanity in all its seasons…”
– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower is appalled by proposed changes to Tasmanian legislation which, he says, eliminate “any concept of legal protections for an unborn child, even in situations irrelevant to termination, such as acts of negligence or assault that result in prenatal death”.
He is urging Tasmanian Christians to make submissions by 5:00pm tomorrow (Friday 5 April 2013).
The Spirit of ANZAC
“I think it was at the end or just after the end of the First World War an Army Chaplain expressed his fear that ANZAC Day had the potential to be an alternative religion to Christianity. It seems to me that that he was both right and wrong.…”
– In an article on the Defence Anglicans website, Geoff Webb, Principal Anglican Chaplain to the Army, thinks Christians can find links to the gospel in ANZAC Day.
Have we forgotten about Prayer?
Gary Millar, Principal of Queensland Theological College in Brisbane, makes a painful observation:
“…while it’s true that there has been a significant resurgence of biblical preaching, I’m not sure this trend has been accompanied by a resurgence in praying — and especially not prayer about preaching.
Gradually, we seem to be losing sight of the fact that God uses weak and sinful people, and that he uses them only by grace. …”
– at The Gospel Coalition.
(Gary is co-author of the new book on preaching, Saving Eutychus.)
A New New Testament
“Hal Taussig and a team of eighteen scholars and religious leaders have chosen ten texts… to be published alongside the twenty-seven that comprise the New Testament and called it A New New Testament.
The ‘new’ texts are from the post-New Testament eras and are mostly ‘gnostic’ in character (an exception is the Acts of Paul and Thecla). In fact, these texts are not ‘new’ but go back almost to the era of the apostle and for the most part have been known for many years by historians. …
Hal Taussig and his colleagues say that the ‘canon’ of the New Testament was not really ‘closed’ until relatively modern times and that it is therefore valid to publish other texts with the twenty-seven of the biblical canon within the one book. This asserts that the canon is, in effect, elastic. It is an elastic canon, capable of the addition of new texts.
That was not the view, however, of church leaders in the 2nd and 3rd centuries…”
– Historian and New Testament scholar Bishop Paul Barnett responds to a new publication which is sure to get publicity. Read it before you get all those questions.
Related – some publicity: “A New New Testament” – ABC Radio National.
Abortion Tasmania: Hospital Chaplain’s perspective
Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower writes:
“Hospital Chaplain, Reverend Alan Bulmer, has written to Health Minister for Tasmania, The Hon. Michelle O’Byrne, in response to her draft Abortion Legislation for Tasmania.
As I read his sensitive letter, I was reminded again that the pastoral consequences of the life and death of the unborn are a very real part of a hospital chaplain’s ministry. His letter brings the personal aspect of the death of the unborn to the Minister’s attention and asks for the reconsideration and withdrawal of this draft legislation…”
– Read extracts of the letter at Bishop Harrower’s blog, or the full thing here (PDF).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…