Syria: Archbishop Welby’s speech in the House of Lords
“We have heard already about Lebanon and about Iran, particularly the effect that an intervention would cause on the new Government in Iran as they are humiliated by such an intervention.
However, there is a further point. I talked to a very senior Christian leader in the region yesterday and he said that intervention from abroad will declare open season on the Christian communities. They have already been devastated. There were 2 million Christians in Iraq 12 years ago; there are fewer than 500,000 today.”
– Read it here.
Assessing Christian election guides
Sandy Grant takes a look at four different Christian election guides –
“Thoughtful Christians could benefit from interacting with each one of these election guides, even the ones where they find a considerable amount to disagree with.” – Read it at The Briefing.
Preaching Christ in an age of Religious Pluralism
Church Society has published online the audio of Gerald Bray’s talk at the 2005 Church Society Conference.
The topic: Preaching Christ in an age of Religious Pluralism (Acts 17 v16).
It’s a 38MB / 80 minute mp3 file (direct link).
Notes on Jeremiah by Graeme Goldsworthy
To promote the soon-to-be-released Gospel Transformation Bible, Crossway have made available a free download of the book of Jeremiah, with an introduction and study notes by Graeme Goldsworthy.
– Download it here. (h/t Gary Ware. Photo: The Bible Society.)
What the Hijabi Witnessed (and what she didn’t)
“I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab. Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently. …”
– Carl Trueman has some excellent points about what the girl next to him saw and heard. (Photo: King’s College.)
Related: Common Prayer. Better Gatherings.
How to be Polemical — without being a downright Nasty Person
“The chief advances of the Christian faith are due to those moments when leaders and laypeople saturated with Scripture rose up in defiance of the unbiblical trends of their time and place. We have the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Reformation confessions and catechisms because, by God’s grace, men and women had the courage of their convictions and dared to be polemical.”
– Terrific article by Michael Horton in Modern Reformation magazine.
Modern Bioethics and its challenge to Christian thought
“Modern Bioethics and its challenge to Christian thought” is the topic for the next Centre for Christian Living open night at Moore College. Dr Andrew Ford is speaking, 7:30pm Wednesday 28th August, $8.
Resource for Australian Voters
The Australian Christian Lobby has released its comparison of policies of the major parties for the upcoming Federal Election. (Since some have asked: The Australian Christian Lobby and the Anglican Church League are quite separate – we just happen to have the same initials.)
Do you feel Called by God? — review
“Michael Bennett’s book is brilliant. I loved it. Let me tell you why. Ever since I became a Christian at age 19 (1989), I have been baffled and confused by the way Christians speak about decision-making. I was always hearing people say stuff like “I feel God is calling me to do X, Y and Z”. They seemed to put an awful lot of emphasis on two words: feel and call. …”
– Ben Pfahlert is very glad to see this new book by Michael Bennett (who also brought us Christianity Explained).
Richard Baxter
Tim Challies has continued his thumbnail sketch of key Puritans with this on Richard Baxter, author of The Reformed Pastor.
Paul: A Pastor’s Heart — review
“Paul – A Pastor’s Heart is succinct and easy to read; Barnett explains Paul’s meaning and motives clearly and helpfully. … It takes a powerful piece of Scripture and makes it accessible and applicable to today’s church.”
– A review of Bishop Paul Barnett’s new book on 2 Corinthians – from Eternity Newspaper.
The Best Place for Theological Training
“Last week was Moore College Sunday. For over one hundred years our college has trained ministers of the gospel to serve in Sydney, Australia and overseas. It is a great college in which Christ is honoured by his word being faithfully taught. It lies at the very heart of our evangelical diocese.
There is no alternative to formal, academic, theological training for those who would be paid to teach God’s word…”
– Phillip Jensen writes his weekly column ‘From the Dean’. Good to read and pass on to others.
Launching the ‘Jesus brings’ campaign
The ‘Jesus Brings’ campaign (foreshadowed here) has now been unveiled by the Department of Evangelism and New Churches in Sydney.
It is hoped that ‘Jesus Brings’ will be a season of focussed and united mission in 2014 across Sydney and the Illawarra.
Watch Archbishop Glenn Davies explain why ‘Jesus Brings’ is such a great idea.
See the resource website here – and be sure to download a copy of the “Vision for Mission” document (PDF file).
Bishop Nazir-Ali on the situation in Egypt
“There is considerable anguish and hand-wringing amongst the armchair orientalists and strategists over the situation in Egypt. Those who thought that the “Arab Spring” was a harbinger of secular, Western-style democracy can now see it is nothing of the kind…”
– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes in The (UK) Telegraph.
Why Expository Preaching Matters
“If preaching is central to Christian worship, what kind of preaching are we talking about? The sheer weightlessness of much contemporary preaching is a severe indictment of our superficial Christianity. When the pulpit ministry lacks substance, the church is severed from the word of God, and its health and faithfulness are immediately diminished.”
– Albert Mohler continues to write about the key place of expository preaching. Encouraging and challenging.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…