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.

Griffith Thomas on Original Sin

Church Society has posted the latest extract from W H Griffith Thomas’ classic work, Principles of Theology. This is the first section of his piece on Article IX of the Thirty Nine Articles.

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.)

The Wisdom of the Cross (2)

“In part one of this series I considered Paul’s question to the church in Corinth concerning wisdom, Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? (1 Cor.1:20). There I concluded that Christian wisdom is neither a matter of gaining kudos amidst worldly fashions nor the desire we have for God to do something spectacular to make us feel like we are on the winning side. Instead, we seek a world-view that rests on God’s actions for us in the cross of the Lord Jesus.

Next, I’d like to add Job’s question to the mix: In Ch.28:12 Job asks, Where shall wisdom be found?…”

– Dr David Höhne continues his series at the Moore College Faculty blog.

Defining Marriage webcast

On Tuesday night, the Australian Marriage Forum’s Defining Marriage webcast was seen in hundreds of churches across the country. The video from the evening has now been posted on their website and at Vimeo.

(John Anderson’s comments starting at 67 minutes 30 seconds are well worth watching.)

Welcoming Defence families

Defence members and their families probably move houses more than most and can face real challenges. Defence Anglicans have some ideas on how to welcome defence families to your church.

(The article complements the feature in the July 2012 issue of Southern Cross newspaper.)

The Atonement — Visual Theology

Tim Challies has published another chart in his ‘Visual Theology’ infographic series, this one to help explain what is meant by the Penal Substitutionary Atonement. See it here.

Audio file: The Thirty Nine Articles

A few years back, Lee Gatiss at The Theologian took the time to record a reading of The Thirty Nine Articles. It’s very helpful to hear them read.

You can find the audio here as a 9.5MB / 28 minute mp3 file.

(Or you can read the Articles here.)

 

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.

Thinking Christianly about singing and music

Rob Smith, Sydney singer / songwriter (among other things) has recorded a number of videos to help us think Christianly about singing and music and their place in what we do in church. Helpful and encouraging.

Each segment is 2 to 4 minutes in length.

1. Introduction
2. Christian music
3. The importance of singing
4. Singing and praise
5. Honouring God in song
6. Singing and the Holy Spirit
7. Singing and emotion
8. Singing and prayer
9. Singing and proclamation

Also, check out Rob’s invitation to the concert coming up on Saturday 21st July at St. Barnabas’ Broadway (tickets).

John Stott — classic messages from Ephesians

In 1975 and 1976, John Stott, the Rector of All Soul’s Langham Place, expounded Paul’s letter to the Ephesians at major Christian gatherings in the UK, US, Mexico, Canada, India, Nepal – and at the CMS Summer School at Katoomba. One result of his labours was his volume in The Bible Speaks Today series, “God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians”.

CMS has made available the audio recordings from five talks given at Katoomba on their Facebook page. Grab them while you can.

(And that’s also a good reminder to support the CMS Annual Appeal.)

Chappo unplugged

Richard Chin, National Director of AFES, recently interviewed much loved evangelist John Chapman. As Sandy Grant says at The Briefing, “Younger generations of ministers in Sydney and Australian evangelicalism should hear this for personal edification but also to understand something of our heritage.”

You will be greatly encouraged and helped by investing 86 minutes of your time in watching Chappo. Classic. And give thanks for our dear brother.

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.

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