Church Revitalisation

“The Presbyterian Church in Australia has a new minister – yours truly! I have signed the formula and have officially become the minister of Scots Kirk in Hamilton, Newcastle. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and wrote a letter reflecting on the journey that has taken us to this place – Letter from Australia 122 – A Return to my Radical Roots.

Some people felt that the basic principles for church revitalisation I listed in that letter might be worth sharing in a wider context so I have added to them a little and hope that they will indeed prove helpful.

I have no great plans. I have dreams and visions – for without that I would perish. But I also have this certainty that God’s word will not return to him empty and will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. I do have some basic principles/aims/ideas which are as follows …”

– At AP, David Robertson – not Minister at Scots Kirk, Newcastle – shares his thoughts on church revitalisation. Doubtless, many Anglican churches would benefit from at least some of his suggestions.

A Cloud of Witnesses: Australian Anglicans in Tanzania – Rev Dr Colin Reed

“The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us with the account of the great cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament – people who lived by faith looking forward to Jesus. The Moore College Archives encourage us with some of the witness of people of more modern times who have stepped out in faith looking to Jesus as they went to serve God in Tanzania. How do they encourage and challenge us today? What shaped their faith? What shaped their passions? What were their aims in mission? How do they ‘strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees’?”

Colin Reed spoke at a Moore College Library Lecture earlier this month. His fascinating lecture will be of great interest to anyone wanting to know more of the history of CMS in East Africa, and many people he mentions will likely be familiar to our readers.

Rev Dr Colin Reed grew up in Africa and (along with his wife Wendy) served with CMS as a missionary in Tanzania, on staff of the NSW & ACT Branch, and as Principal of St Andrew’s Hall.

Over many years, Colin has studied and written on the history of the Church in East Africa.

Watch here.

And on YouTube, there are timestamped links to topics mentioned in the lecture.

Lausanne – with Mark Thompson and Chris Edwards

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“5,000 believers gathered from more than 200 nations last month in South Korea.

It is 50 years since Billy Graham and John Stott first launched the Lausanne movement in Switzerland.

Anglican Bishop of North Sydney Chris Edwards has described the congress as like an all you can eat buffet – ‘where some parts tasted amazing / fantastic and I kept wanting more and yet other parts even a mouthful made me feel nauseous’.

Principal of Sydney’s Moore Theological College Mark Thompson says there were some great highlights including a presentation by Vaughan Roberts on sexuality but also areas of concern.”

– Watch or listen here.

The photo of Billy Graham and Jack Dain mentioned in the conversation can be seen here on the Lausanne website.

Read the original Lausanne Covenant here.

Update:

The challenges of mid-life – a spiritual buffet for a 50-year-old – Bishop Chris Edwards at SydneyAnglicans.net.

The Good News in the Original Meaning of “Catholic”

“From within seventy years of Jesus’ death early documents show that his followers were keen to call themselves catholic. According to the Vatican in 2021 1.3 billion people called themselves Roman Catholic.

There is a significant difference between what the work originally meant and what it means today. There is good news in rediscovering its original meaning. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Mark Gilbert reminds us what being “catholic” is all about.

Masterful exploration of New Testament context

“For several decades, Dr Paul Barnett delivered lectures on the background to the New Testament to first-year students at Moore College. Generations of future ministers have thereby been exposed to his masterful examination of the geopolitical context in which the New Testament came into being.

Now, with the publication of his latest book, The Trials of Jesus: Evidence, Conclusions, and Aftermath, the fruit of his study of the sociopolitical background to the trials and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus is available for all. …”

– Bishop Glenn Davies reviews Paul Barnett’s latest book – at SydneyAnglicans.net. Anything Paul Barnett publishes is worth reading.

Recovering our larger story helps know ourselves and our place in God’s world

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Historical literacy is a critical tool for Christians, deepening faith and enhancing evangelism and discipleship.

Sarah Irving Stonebreaker says we’ve forgotten how to engage well with the past, we don’t know why the past might be relevant to us today, and we have missed out on being part of a larger story. …”

– Watch or listen here.

Archbishop to Decide as Perth Synod Weakens Faithfulness in Service

“The Synod of the Diocese of Perth met this last weekend amid ever-growing concern about the direction that the Diocese is heading under the leadership of Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy.

The matter which davidould.net has received most correspondence about is the proposed changes to Faithfulness in Service to effectively weaken moral requirements for church workers.

We’ll come to that in a moment but, perhaps to set the scene of what is happening in Perth, here is a fascinating set of answers to questions. All documentation for this article comes from photos provided by attendees at the synod since the Diocese of Perth no longer publishes any of their synod documentation online (including the Presidential Address). …”

– Do read the latest at davidould.net.

Photo: Diocese of Perth.

The Calculus of Christianity — breakfast seminar Oct 30

“For those who are in or can make it to Newcastle, I am speaking at a breakfast seminar on Wednesday Oct 30 (7:30-8:30 am) in the Newcastle CBD (Nuspace, the Uni city campus) x703. The topic is ‘The Calculus of Christianity’! Here is what it is about:

Both professionally and personally, we are constantly making calculations around risk. What would happen if we were to extend those calculations to the claims of Jesus Christ? Join us at our next Newcastle City Legal as Torts Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Neil Foster uses Wyong Shire Council v Shirt to do just that.

What would a “reasonable person” (for local purposes, the user of the Newcastle Light Rail!) make of the claims of Jesus, and how should they respond?

All welcome, but would be especially good to see local lawyers and anyone else interested in the law!”

– Assoc. Prof. Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Sounds intriguing. See this link to register.

A Day of Infamy for Israel and the Civilised World

In his The Briefing broadcast for Monday 7th October 2024, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Dr. Albert Mohler comments on what the year since the attacks on Israel has revealed.

– Listen here.

A Moderate Argument for Paper Bulletins

“For many, the idea of paper bulletins in church is archaic. …. Yet the mediums we choose can shape our worship in subtle ways.

Here are six reasons paper bulletins, while far from essential, are useful in corporate worship.

It’s been well-documented that reading something on a page rather than a screen encourages clarity of thought and greater comprehension. When we hold a book (or bulletin) in our hands, it engages more of the senses and helps us remember what we read or sing. …”

– At 9Marks, Mike McGregor suggests some advantages in taking a step back to printed church bulletins and orders of service.

Church Society’s St Antholin Lecture 2024 set for 7th November

“This year’s St Antholin Lecture on Puritan Divinity will be delivered live on the Church Society Facebook page by Dr Rachel Ciano, who is the Dean of Academic Development at Mary Andrews College and lecturer in Christianity in History at Sydney Missionary and Bible College in Australia.

Recently, she was a 2023 Anglican Deaconess Ministries Senior Fellow. She speaks locally and internationally on the intersection between history, theology, and everyday life. Her research and publications are wide-ranging and particularly focus on the sixteenth-century Reformation period.

The subject of this year’s lecture is ‘Evangelicals before Evangelicalism: The use of evangelical in the early English Reformation.’ This is a fascinating topic on how the much-disputed word evangelical first came to be used by enemies of the Reformation, and Dr Ciano will explore what it meant and implied during this formative period in our history. Can you guess who was the first English person to describe people as evangelical? …”

– Details at Church Society.

Who am I? The search for identity

At Moore College on Wednesday, 23 October 2024:

“Our culture is obsessed with identity: we’re often told, ‘You do you’ and encouraged to live according to our ‘true and authentic self’, expressing publicly how we feel about ourselves internally.

However, the very concept of personal identity is inherently slippery. It encompasses things like ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, belief, educational background, profession and personality, but it’s not fixed: it can change through time, circumstance and even self-invention.

How should Christians regard identity? …”

– All the details are here.

Books of the Reformation: a Sydney Rare Book Week event

“Printing played a pivotal role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The development of the printing press enabled the mass production of written materials, which made it possible to disseminate ideas and religious texts rapidly and widely throughout Europe. The easy access to printed materials allowed people to share theological ideas, which sparked a transformative era in European history.

Take a closer look at early editions of key Reformation texts in Moore Theological College Library with Moore College’s Principal Rev Dr Mark Thompson and Head of Church History Rev Dr Mark Earngey.

Due to its interactive nature, this event will not be livestreamed.”

– from Moore College.