Australian Marriage Forum takes out full page ad
The Australian Marriage Forum today (10th August 2015) took out a full page advertisement in The Australian newspaper, on the eve of a move to change marriage legislation in Federal Parliament.
“The Ad was funded entirely by online donations at the AMF website. No corporations, no churches, just concerned Australians donating online.”
See the A3 advertisment (3.6MB PDF file), and the associated media release.
Vaughan Roberts interviewed at Moore
Vaughan Roberts was interviewed and answered questions during Moore College’s Mission and Ministry Hour last week.
Vaughan shares how he came to faith in Christ, about his influences, ministry at St. Ebbes’, challenges of working in the Church of England, and surviving in ministry.
Encouraging and well worth watching, especially for people in full time ministry, and those supporting them.
Also on the college website, see the progress of Moore’s building project via some time-lapse videos. (What’s being built? Details here.)
Creation and new creation
“In this second part of his consideration of Psalm 104, Dan Wu looks at the difference between the world’s sinfulness, the joy of the psalm and how we should respond.”
– from the Moore College website. (Part 1 here.)
Annual Moore College Lectures 2015
Professor Kevin J. Vanhoozer is delivering this year’s Annual Moore College Lectures, starting 7th August. Free and open to the public. Details here.
If you can’t get there in person, the first lecture will be streamed live.
Christians called to respond to Planned Parenthood
“We have come to a singularly important moment in the battle against abortion (which is to say, the battle for life). The stunning undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress have taken us right to the heart of the abortion industry. …
Yesterday’s video, the fifth, is the most horrendous yet… It is absolutely sickening, absolutely shocking, absolutely unflinching, absolutely real. It exposes the industry, shining a billion-watt light into its darkest recesses. What was meant to remain hidden has now been made plain.
Once you see this, you cannot unsee it. Once you know what happens in Planned Parenthood and a host of other clinics, you cannot unknow it. That’s true even for those of us who live on the other side of an international border. What happens in America doubtless happens in Canada, England, and everywhere else.”
– Tim Challies has 4 ways Christians (particularly in the US) can respond, including links to helpful material, as does Justin Taylor.
Planting Churches in Japan
The Ligonier Ministries website has an encouraging interview with Dr. Dan Iverson, country leader in Japan with Mission to the World. (The team includes CMS’ Karen Darda and several other Australians.) Good background for prayer.
Church Leaders’ views on Marriage
Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook, along with Roman Catholic spokesman Brian Lucas, were interviewed today by Neil Johnson on Vision Christian Radio’s 20Twenty programme.
The topic: the proposed changes to Australian marriage laws.
The 47 minute segment can be downloaded here as a 19MB mp3 file.
Vaughan Roberts at Moore College chapel
Vaughan Roberts spoke on Acts 16 (Paul and Silas at Philippi) at Moore College Chapel this morning.
Listen here. (43MB mp3 file.) Super encouraging.
(You can hear other recent chapel sermons here.)
Knowing God in dementia
Here’s an encouraging video from Mary Andrews College.
Mark Wormell, who lectures at the college on Ministry with Seniors, speaks about ‘Knowing God in dementia’.
Speaking of domestic abuse
“I want to talk about four traps that await us when we try to understand and respond to domestic abuse.
They are: a tendency towards totalizing; seeing abuse as a gender issue; misapplication of the Bible; and avoiding the Bible’s teaching about men and women…”
– on the newly revamped Equal But Different website, Dr. Claire Smith writes to help Christians respond rightly to domestic abuse.
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert — free audiobook August 2015
The Christian Audio free download for August 2015 is The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.
It’s read by the author, and the zipped mp3 version is 207MB in size.
A Clear or Cloudy Gospel? – A review of ‘The Suburban Captivity of the Church’
“An interesting juxtaposition of events happened to me last week. I found myself reading Tim Foster’s The Suburban Captivity of the Church at the same time as eagerly following the consultation conference of the Australian chapter of The Gospel Coalition.
Tim Foster is the Vice Principal of Ridley Theological College in Melbourne and the book has been shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of the year award. The Gospel Coalition Australia is a local iteration of The Gospel Coalition originating in the US. Two voices labouring to see Australia won for Christ. Yet, given the difference in descriptions of the gospel were so significant, I felt it prudent to review Foster’s recent book.
The major purpose of Foster’s Suburban Captivity is ‘… to develop a theology of gospel and culture, and then illustrate how contextualisation works.’ (p. 5). …
It’s not a pedestrian read. Foster strongly denounces conceptions of the Gospel that centre upon the sacrifice at Calvary, and calls for a reconceptualisation of the Gospel around God’s wider purposes. We are told in no uncertain terms that this is the only way to break the shackles of our suburban captivity…”
– An important review by Mark Earngey, an ACL member currently studying Reformation theology and history at the University of Oxford.
Tim Foster has posted this response.
The dangerous calling of Christian missions
“America’s evangelical Christians are facing a critical time of testing in the 21st century. Among the most important of the tests we now face is the future of missions and our faithfulness to the Great Commission. At a time of unprecedented opportunity, will our zeal for world missions slacken?
Just as doors of opportunity are opening around the world, the church seems to be losing its voice. A virtual re-paganization of Western culture is occurring around us at a velocity unprecedented in human history. At the same time, we are also witnessing the rise of militant Islam…”
– Albert Mohler reminds his readers that the dangerous nature of Christian missions is just as the Lord Jesus predicted.
Societas 2015 launched
Just in time for Moore College Sunday (being observed in many churches this weekend), the 2015 edition of the Moore College students’ magazine, Societas, has been released.
It’s available online – to view or download using ISSUU – or to download as an 11.2MB PDF file from the college website.
Creation and the Christian
“One of the most sustained reflections on the nature of created life is Psalm 104. In this article I’d like to offer some thoughts drawn from this psalm on what it means for us to be made by God. These are not the only things that can be said about our created nature but they are very helpful in our approach to life in this world…”
– Moore College lecturer on Old Testament and Biblical Languages, Dan Wu, turns to Psalm 104 at the College’s Think Tank. Take the time to be encouraged by it.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…