Bathurst Diocese Prayer Diary 2024

Here’s a great resource to help you pray for the progress of the gospel in the Diocese of Bathurst.

Download your copy of the Bathurst Diocese Prayer Diary for 2024. (PDF file)

A New Year: Comfort and Joy…!

“With the many and varied changes around us – conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle-East and Africa, China’s aggressive acts, significant political and social divisions in the West, climate-change, gender issues, and the western disdain of Christianity – we might wonder about the future.

In the course of his ministry Jesus spoke of events that would unfold …”

– At The Anglican Connection, John Mason helps put things in perspective.

Death Rehearsal

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. . . . So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:5–6, 12)

“For me, the end of a year is like the end of my life. And 11:59 pm on December 31 is like the moment of my death. …“

– John Piper shares these thoughts for the end of a year.

2024 Summer Prayer Diary

“Our summers are filled with camps, conferences and missions. People across greater Sydney are diving deep into God’s word and taking it out to those who need to hear it.

So we’ve put together a 10-day prayer diary featuring some of the great kingdom initiatives that could use our prayer.”

– A great resource from Tara Sing at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Photo: Sans Souci swimming baths, Summer 1957.

Evangelism in a post-Christian world – Dave Jensen

“How do we see Australia won for Christ? …

Firstly, we need to see and then remind each other that the biggest problem facing the people we know is that they are spiritually lost.

What that means is that no matter how they may present themselves to us, we must treat them with the greatest compassion possible – by telling them the gospel.”

– At the Moore College website, Dave Jensen has some real encouragement for you. A great article to recalibrate our thinking as we come to a new year.

(Emphasis added. Image courtesy Evangelism and New Churches.)

Things I wish I knew about Pastoring a Church when I was young

“I was 28 when I started in full-time ministry as associate pastor in a large Presbyterian church. I was thirty when I was called to pastor a small suburban church on my own.

I made loads of mistakes and learned a lot of things the hard way. I can’t turn back the clock but I can share these lessons. I hope they might help young men who are just starting out.

Most of these thoughts should be read in the category of wisdom or common sense, to be weighed accordingly. …”

– Campbell Markham, the minister of Scots’ Church Fremantle, Western Australia, shares a bunch of helpful reflections – providing food for thought at the end of the  year. It’s at AP, the national journal of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.

Photo: Moore College, 1956.

The Doctrine That Doesn’t Matter Remains Unchanged

“When the first rites of blessing for same-sex couples came out in the Anglican church, they were accompanied by a lot of bluster about how they were not to be equated with marriage rites and that they did not constitute a change in doctrine.

In 2003, the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster in Canada published a form of blessing for same-sex couples. Then-Bishop Ingham made a point to distinguish these blessings from the sacrament of marriage. …”

– At Crisis Magazine, former Episcopalian priest – and now Catholic – James Merrick argues that changing Pastoral Practice might be more significant than changing Doctrine. It’s happened in the Anglican world, and is now happening in the Roman Catholic world.

Photo: Then-Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham, in 2002.

What now for those Evangelicals who fled to Rome?

“Where to now for the young evangelicals who left the Reformed faith for the safety and security of Rome? A Rome whose walls would never be breached, we were led to believe, by the ravages of the post-Christian Sexular Age?

The announcement by the Pope that same sex relationships can be blessed by the church raises a serious question for the trickle leading to a flood of evangelicals (often young men, with growing families who wanted to be more crunchy in their faith) who crossed the Tiber.

And where to now for former Church of England bishop, Michael Nasir-Ali, who left for Rome , for similar reasons? What reasons did he give for leaving? Here he is in his own words …”

– Written a couple of days ago, Steve McAlpine asks some valid questions.

See also:

The Icing on the Cake of Pope Francis: the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions – Leonardo De Chirico.

When did Multiple Services begin?

“When did evangelical churches in America begin holding multiple services?

Throughout the nineteenth century, American churches traditionally held two distinct Sunday services: one in the morning, one in the evening. …

Slowly, however, this began to change. The advent of the automobile, growing urbanization, and the rise of America’s first megachurches all led to the multiple service model becoming the norm.”

– While not directly applicable to Australian churches (or is it?), this article by Caleb Morell at 9Marks gives some interesting history, and is a reminder that some of our practices might not be all that ancient, or always necessarily helpful.

“Don We Now Our Gay Apparel”

“Is the decline in Christianity among Anglican clergy moving pari passu with the decline in Western civilisation? Good question. Indubitably, is the answer. …

Mosques are crowded, churches are emptying. To have any chance of turning the tide, Christianity needs biblically-based priests. Priests like Glenn Davies; Bishop of the breakaway Diocese of the Southern Cross and former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney.”

– In an opinion-piece at Quadrant Online, contributor Peter Smith takes a hard look at what is happening in many parts of the Anglican Church. His article is supplemented by an excerpt from a well-known episode of “Yes, Prime Minister”.

Image from the website of the Anglican Church of Australia.

Course: Talking with Catholics about Jesus

Lionel Windsor draws attention to a very helpful course:

“An opportunity to understand Catholics and have great conversations together about Christ.

A new resource by Certainty4Eternity, distributed by Matthias Media. A course to consider for your church or small group 2024!”

Be better equipped to love your Catholic friends.

Image: Mark Gilbert.

Relationships, Results and Rhythms of Ministry Teams – with Grahame Fuller and Jo Gibbs

This week from The Pastor’s Heart:

“As we head to 2024 most of us are recasting ministry teams for the new year.

But how can we do this without making some of the mistakes that we have made in 2023?

How do we do better with staff teams  and all the various volunteer ministry teams across our church?

And even in the best places – there’s an inertia that we will slip back to functioning as rosters… How do we fix that?

Grahame Fuller is a long term senior leader at EV Church on the Central Coast.  Jo Gibbs is the Effective Teams consultant for Reach Australia.”

– Watch or listen here.

What is the Good News? A Response to Jayne Ozanne’s Reinterpretation

“I was astonished last week to see that Premier Christianity published what to be frank was just a heretical article from Jayne Ozanne…even more so after my own experience of being cancelled by them lest I upset some people (Why was I Cancelled and Repented for by Premier Christianity?)

They seem to have little difficulty in upsetting biblical Christians! I was not going to respond and then I came across a couple of other Christians who were influenced by Ozanne and did not see a major problem with what she said – so I wrote this piece  – which Christian Today have thankfully published. …

‘But what is this Good News? The Church of England, as the Church of Scotland and much of the rapidly declining mainstream denominations in the West, seem greatly confused. I recall a group of Scottish politicians who had asked a group of “representative” clergy to give advice and how confused they were. ‘You seem to believe in two different religions’ was their accurate observation. Indeed the trumpet has been giving an uncertain sound for many years.

Jayne Ozanne, the former evangelical, who once believed the Good News, has now come to agree with this view that there are two different versions of Christianity which are incompatible with one another. She wrote of this in a revealing article earlier this month. …’

– David Robertson responds in his usual helpful way – by drawing us back to the word of God. At The Wee Flea.

A Harmony of the Birth of Jesus: Matthew and Luke

From Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition:

“Here is a simple chronology to show how the events of Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2 fit together and what each of the gospel authors emphasize.

Matthew tells things more through the eyes of Joseph and Luke (who perhaps interviewed Mary) tells the events largely through her eyes.”

– See it here.

Did Pope Francis Really Give Blessing to Same-Sex Couples? The Complicated Disaster of the News Coming Out of the Vatican

In his The Briefing for Tuesday 19th December 2023, Dr Albert Mohler takes a look at the latest statement from the Vatican.

“I think this is an indefensible statement.”

– Listen here.

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