Living Out — for Church Leaders

The people behind the new Living Out website have a message for church leaders. See the 2:35 video here.

GAFCON Chairman’s Advent Letter

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council has released this Advent Letter.

He begins by giving thanks for the meeting in Nairobi, before turning to what’s next –

“We have to come down from the mountain to face the challenges ahead.

And so we have. The Church of England has just released what is known as the Pilling Report, the conclusions of a Working Group commissioned by the House of Bishops to report and make recommendations on issues of human sexuality.

I am sorry to say that it is very flawed. If this report is accepted I have no doubt that the Church of England, the Mother Church of the Communion, will have made a fateful decision. It will have chosen the same path as The Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada with all the heartbreak and division that will bring. ”

– Read the full letter here.

Outsourcing Life

“‘Outsourcing’ is an ‘in’ word. It used to be only a business word but now is spreading into life itself. Today people are outsourcing their life.

For some time the business world has used the term to talk of buying goods and services from outside suppliers. Rather than using in-house employees to undertake all the tasks of the business, the company will turn to external suppliers and ’outsource’ the work. …”

– Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, writes about the most amazing ‘outsourcing’ of all.

Advent songs

Advent In this season of Advent, here are two albums you may enjoy:

Emu Music’s Advent album. released this time last year –

“The songs on this album are each in their own way a celebration of the reality, purpose and implications of the incarnation. It is our hope and prayer that as you sing these songs together, they will bring glory to our great King Jesus and blessing to his people.”

Christ-honouring (with great words and music) as always from Emu.

And Page CXVI in the US have just released their latest album “Advent to Christmas”.

You can hear samples of each before you buy.

Themelios 38.3 available now

The latest issue of Themelios (November 2013) has just been published.

Well worth checking out.

Australian Church Record December 2013

The latest issue of The Australian Church Record is now online.

This issue kicks off by interviewing Bishop-elect of North Sydney, Chris Edwards, “The Bishop from Belgium”.

Download it here.

Reform’s ReNew Conference 2013 audio files

Reform’s “ReNew conference met Nov 26th to 27th, 2013. The conference was predominantly for church leaders and for women in paid positions of ministry in the Church of England. The purpose of the conference was to establish the basis on which Anglican evangelicals can work together and to begin to chart a way ahead.”

– Audio files of the talks are currently being added to the Reform website. The audio is a little over-compressed, but is quite audible and the talks are well worth hearing.

So far they have the talks by –

Hugh Palmer – Proclaiming the gospel – the urgency of the hour
– 1 Corinthians 15:1-11,
Alasdair Paine – Defending and contending for the gospel – Romans 16:17-20,
and Vaughan Roberts – JC Ryle – an Anglican Evangelical role model.

Forget the Channel

“The 21st century saw incredible communication breakthroughs with a soaring use of social media. Social media has given us ways of communicating that is unparalleled in digital history. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, microblogging have all become household terms.

Amongst infinite possibilities, social media has opened up tremendous opportunities for Christians to speak in the world. …”

– The latest from The Australian Church Record.

The important message of Christmas

“On 3 January 2014, as a member of the SCG, I will get up at 5 am, queue up at the members gate at 6 am and then run from the gate, in what is called the “Paddington gift” to secure my seat for the day, in the Members’ Stand.

I will try to reserve the seat next to me for a friend. He will get up at about 9:30 am, wander into the ground at 10:30 for the start of play, secure in the fact that I have reserved a seat for him. I pay the member’s subscription, I get up at 5 am, queue at 6 am, race at 7 am, I do all the work, he wanders in and enjoys the fruit of my labours.”

– David Cook, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes about The important message of Christmas on the PCA website. (h/t Gary Ware.)

Andrew Sach on The New Perspective

In the latest Preaching Matters from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, Andrew Sach introduces ‘the New Perspective on Paul’, and talks about why he would cover such material in a sermon on Galatians.

Grafton appointment exposes massive differences in the Anglican Church in Australia

“I wrote last week about the appointment of Rev Dr Sarah Macneil as the new Bishop of Grafton diocese in NSW, Australia. Not only is she due to be Australia’s first female diocesan, but far more troubling she is on the record as holding what many consider to be heterodox views on human sexuality and the atonement. …”

– At his blog, David Ould continues to explore the implications of the election of a new Bishop of the Diocese of Grafton. (Related posts.)

Living Out

“We’re a group of Christians who experience same-sex attraction, and we want to share our stories, answer your questions, and recommend resources about Christianity and same-sex attraction.”

– David Ould draws attention to what he describes as “a wonderful website full of stories of Christians who seek to live godly lives while being honest about their experience of same-sex attraction”.

At Ref21, Paul Levy writes, “This looks to be a great resource for the church and is worthy of our prayers and support, do visit the site and pass it on.”

See it at Living Out.

Extinction in a generation?

“Have a read of this report from the Daily Telegraph: ‘Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, warns Christianity “a generation away from extinction” in Britain. Clergy are now gripped by a “feeling of defeat”, congregations are worn down by “heaviness” while the public simply greets both with “rolled eyes and a yawn of boredom”, he said.’

Lord Carey goes on to say how in particular ‘we’ have let down young people and that we must deploy ministers to get children and youth back into church.

There’s much here to admire. Lord Carey may no longer be Archbishop of Canterbury, but it still takes courage for such an establishment figure to point out just how bad things are. But he’s quite right: Christianity is a generation away from extinction in the United Kingdom. This is something both very old and very new. Let me explain. …”

– Oak Hill College Principal Mike Ovey writes.