Three lessons from crisis and decline in the mainline denominations

Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Alabama, draws three lessons from the crisis in TEC and other denominations –

“1. There is an intrinsic connection between spiritual vitality and theological integrity.
2. The continuing saga and approaching collapse of mainline denominations should prompt us to pray.
3. Evangelicals have no room to boast or gloat over the ‘sickness unto death’ in the mainlines.”

– full article at The Gospel Coalition.

A measure of security in an insecure world

“Australians, Field Marshall Thomas Blamey commented about the time of the outbreak of WW2, were like gazelles playing on the edge of a jungle, completely oblivious to the dangers all around. He spoke those words in the shadow of the greatest threat Australia had ever faced.

Things are not that critical as I write but I think we Australians still take for granted something that it has cost generations of Australian Servicemen and Women in peace and war a great deal to protect. That is the security that we are so inclined to take for granted. …”

– Geoff Webb, Principal Chaplain Army, writes about security – both temporal and eternal – at Defence Anglicans.

Pokies: Who cares?

“I remain sickened by the tragedy upon tragedy caused by poker machine gambling. What needs to happen for our political leaders to act in compassion on this matter? State Governments gamble life and lives away through their support of poker machine gambling – often deceptively referred to as ‘gaming’ [Oh, Please!].…”

– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower pleads with political leaders to act.

What Ails the Episcopalians

“During the day, legislators … discussed such weighty topics as whether to develop funeral rites for dogs and cats, and whether to ratify resolutions condemning genetically modified foods. Both were approved by a vote, along with a resolution to ‘dismantle the effects of the doctrine of discovery,’ in effect an apology to Native Americans for exposing them to Christianity. …”

– The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the Episcopal Church and its General Convention.
(Photo: Episcopal News Service.)

Lightning strikes

“Apparently York University was hit by lightning last week. In and of itself, that fact may be of minor meteorological interest; but given that the General Synod of the Church of England was meeting there to discuss the possibility of ordaining female bishops, some have turned it into a matter of major theological interest. …”

– Iain Campbell at Reformation21 writes about the nature of God, the status of the Bible, and the willingness of the church to hear.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, of Church Planting

“It was only about fifteen years ago that Sydney Anglicans recommenced church planting. Since then we can see that church plants can be described in the title of the old spaghetti western as ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

People plant churches for a variety of reasons. Consequently, there are many different kinds of church plants. Some of the reasons are great but some are somewhat less than noble. Unfortunately, the sinful and deceitful heart of man is rarely so simple as to have only one motivation. Here is a list of twelve different reasons for church plants as a reality check on our motivations. …”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral.

Related:

“Late last year I was invited to speak at a conference on the topic Why we need more churches. It seemed a silly question really. Of course we need more churches. …

But for me, it was and is a real issue. People confronted me with this question a number of times after hearing that we were moving to Darwin to plant a new church.”

– Dave McDonald in Canberra: Why we need more churches.

Dean of Dallas reflects on 41 years in the Episcopal Church

As he retires from his position as Dean of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Dallas, Texas, Kevin Martin bemoans the direction in which TEC is heading –

“Things have changed and I think not for the better. For example, as a seminarian I attended the General Convention held in Houston. I remember the hearing held on the proposed new Baptismal Rite. It started with a 20 minute presentation by a leading theologian and seminary professor on the need for changes. This was followed by a 10 minute ‘response’ by another theologian from a different perspective. This theologian began by affirming a number of points made in the initial address, and only then did he respectfully present a differing opinion. This was followed by a panel discussion among a group of outstanding leaders and thinkers. Only then was the discussion open to deputies in the audience who could ask questions.

Compare all this to a discussion at the General Convention in 2000 over the issue of ordination of gay and lesbian persons in same-sex relationships. The initial resolution that would be taken to the floor of convention was read by the Chair of the Committee and then members of the audience were invited to give testimony limited to two minutes. Participants went to a set of microphones labeled either pro or con.

I saw a seminary dean given only two minutes to speak to the Church’s theology of marriage. This was followed by a two minute personal sharing by a woman who was married to a transvestite on how accepting their local parish had been. I sat watching as a once thoughtful and intelligent community that valued substantive engagement with issues reduced itself to a community of passionate partisanship who reduced discussion to a superficial series of slogans and clichés.”

– Read it all at his blog. (h/t Anglicans United.)

Decline and Fall

“Practical Ethics, a webpage based at the University of Oxford, has an interesting post on research that suggests a society’s crime rate will be higher where there is widespread rejection of the notion of hell. …”

– Carl Trueman writes at Reformation21.

What Joy in Hell?

“Whatever we do or do not know about the details of hell, it is clear from Jesus’ teaching that it is so terrible and terrifying that we should do all in our power to avoid it. …”

– In his weekly column, Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen turns to a topic many gloss over.

The Wisdom of the Cross (1)

“Hardly a weekend goes by without a conference being held somewhere in Sydney at which Christians can gather together to hear the wisdom of the great and the good on various subjects – everything from how to be a leader, entrepreneur, evangelist, preacher, parent or spouse right through to the finer aspects of tasting a beer, dissecting a side of beef or cooking your way to the kingdom of God!

Sydney culture in general is extremely pragmatic as we all as individuals get about the business of constructing the good life for ourselves and/or for our families …

It is in this context that the Scriptures have some sobering questions about wisdom for us to consider and the first one to consider comes from Paul’s first letter to Corinth: Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? (1 Cor.1:20)…”

– Dr David Höhne at Moore College writes on the Faculty blog.

Heavenly tours?

“Travelling to heaven and back is where it’s at today. Don Piper spent ninety minutes there and sold four million copies of his account. Colton Burpo doesn’t know how long he was there, but his travel diary has surpassed 6 million copies sold …  There have been others as well, and together they have established afterlife travel journals as a whole new genre in Christian publishing…”

– Tim Challies has serious misgivings about popular books you’ll find at some Christian bookshops.

Archbishop Peter Jensen in the Sydney Morning Herald on same-sex marriage

The Sydney Morning Herald has published this opinion-piece by Archbishop Peter Jensen –

“We are in the midst of a sustained and brilliantly orchestrated campaign to radically alter the marriage laws of this country to allow same-sex marriage.

Three slogans carry the message: ‘marriage equality’, ‘marriage won’t change’, ‘it’s inevitable’. Of course, the difficulty with slogans is that they are not arguments and, so, are hard to refute, except by slogans in return…”

– Read it all here, ‘Stylish same-sex campaign glosses over real issues’. Worth reading and passing on.

‘Is David Cameron about to force the Queen to break her Coronation Oath?’

Well-known UK blogger ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ looks at some implications of the British government’s proposals –

“The newspapers today are full of reports of the likely consequences to the Church of England of the Government’s plans to redefine the institution of marriage to include same-sex unions, contra the official teaching of Church, as established by Act of Parliament. The Report has been hyped, selectively quoted, misquoted and misrepresented by much of the media, so His Grace urges you to READ IT for yourself…”

– Read it all here. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)

The brave new world of the media

At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell comments on the media stories of the week:

“I’m fairly cynical about the media, having worked in it for 30 years, but even I was taken aback.”

– See why here. (Photo: Zac Veron.)

The modern marriage ideology

“Marriage has always been ‘discriminatory’. Not everyone can have it: children, siblings, those already married, those with no-one offering to marry them, and so on. But three ‘marriage equality’ bills now before our Federal Parliament seek to leverage a good thing, equality, in a new direction.

I find it sad to write about this matter just as you might find it hard to read about it, for this dispute has become personal. I am acutely aware of those I know with same-sex partners. I don’t want to lose their friendship. On other days, I get angry at how disagreeing with same-sex marriage is portrayed as discrimination, homophobia and hate…”

– Dr Andrew Cameron writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

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