Parenting in God’s family
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“What is Christian parenting? How do we do family Bible time well?
How can we prioritise church, even when it’s hard? Navigating social media with teens?
And how to parent teens who are doubting, drifting or deserting?
Parenting is joyous, magical, tiresome, boring, stressful and complicated.
Harriet Connor is editor of ‘Parenting in God’s family: Biblical wisdom for everyday issues.’. Kat Ashton Israel is a contributing author.”
Writing an Article
“Here is some advice from an editor who does not quite fit E.B. White’s double-sided definition: ‘An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.’
What follows is just some thoughts about escaping the desire to write terribly.
Your aim is to write an article for your monthly parish paper, or for AP, or for your local newspaper, or even for your own website. The length might be about 1000 words. How do you go about it? J. I. Packer called himself ‘an accidental author’. He was never taught how to do it. He was asked to do it, and he kept doing it. …”
A Cloud of Witnesses: Australian Anglicans in Tanzania
Coming up at Moore College:
“The Letter to the Hebrews encourages us with the account of the great cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament – people who lived by faith looking forward to Jesus.
The Moore College Archives encourage us with some of the witness of people of more modern times who have stepped out in faith looking to Jesus as they went to serve God in Tanzania. How do they encourage and challenge us today? What shaped their faith? What shaped their passions? What were their aims in mission? How do they ‘strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees’?
Speaker – Rev Dr Colin Reed, former CMS missionary.
Colin Reed grew up in Africa. He has served with CMS as a missionary in Tanzania (along with his wife Wendy), on staff of the NSW & ACT Branch, and as Principal of St Andrew’s Hall. Over many years, Colin has studied and written on the history of the Church in East Africa. …”
– Details and registration (free!) at the College website.
Preaching illustrations to win Muslims — with Samuel Green
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How to preach to build confidence so members want to invite Islamic friends and workmates to church and better educate our Christians for conversations with Muslim friends.
What topics might we address? How to best engage with the authority and authorship of the Bible vs the Qur’an, plus Jesus and Muhammed, the Trinity, Incarnation, Sin and human nature, Judgement and Salvation.
Sam Green works for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students and is the author of ‘Where to start with Islam.’”
What not to say at the beginning (or end) of a church gathering
“The fact is, many leaders do not attach great significance to the opening and closing elements of their services and, therefore, do not adequately prepare themselves for what they will say …
The result is words or phrases that may be empty, distracting, or just plain silly. …”
– Some wise (and encouraging) words from Tim Challies.
Leading up as a ministry team member — The Pastor’s Heart
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How do you work in a team excellently with those above you in ministry?
How do you as a team member take responsibility for the success of your church?
What can ministry team members do well to help the whole team function better?
What mistakes do team members make? And what about confidentiality on team?
Michael Davies is associate pastor of Lighthouse Church in Gorokan, NSW.
Megan Stevens serves at Vine Church in Surry Hills in Sydney.
Peter Blanch is a ministry consultant with Reach Australia.”
One Reason Preaching Matters — David Jackman
“To many people, preaching seems strangely out of place in the modern world. Why would anyone choose to go to a church building, week by week, to hear a preacher (often the same person) deliver a monologue for twenty or thirty minutes (sometimes even longer) about an ancient book with characters who lived, at best, two thousand years ago? This doesn’t happen in any other context. Educational methods are increasingly interactive. Learning by discovery is the watchword. Preaching seems to be just another example of the church being out of touch, out of date, and out of steam.
Of course, it’s not difficult to find examples of preaching that are sadly boring or irrelevant. Nor is it hard to hear arguments put forward to claim that preaching has had its day: we live in a visual learning culture, listeners have sound-bite levels of concentration, study groups or one-to-one mentoring is more effective, moderns are opposed to domination of a congregation from an elevated pulpit, and so on. But the remedy for the disappointing level of much contemporary preaching is not less preaching, nor its removal from the church’s agenda, but better preaching. And that is because something happens through preaching that cannot occur in any other communication context. …”
– Crossway has published this helpful excerpt from a new book by David Jackman, former Director of The Proclamation Trust.
Image from an encouraging interview with Word Partners on expository preaching.
AI as God, Deepfakes, and The Resurrection — John Anderson speaks with John Lennox
From JohnAnderson.net.au:
John Anderson “… speaks with Oxford Professor John Lennox about the intriguing connections between science, religion, and modern cultural shifts.
Lennox reflects on how figures like Jordan Peterson have opened the door for renewed dialogue between Christianity and science. He argues that historical scientific pioneers were driven by their faith in a divine lawgiver, a perspective that has regained traction in modern intellectual discussions.
The conversation also touches on the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence and society’s growing struggle with truth in the age of deepfakes. \
Lennox emphasises the unique hope Christianity offers through the resurrection of Jesus, contrasting it with secular movements like transhumanism, which promises immortality but fails to address deeper human questions.”
– The video on YouTube has timestamps for ease of navigation.
The death of Jesus — Matthew 27:1-66
St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London has published a new audio reflection by Dick Lucas – on The Death of Jesus – from Matthew 27:1-66. It was recorded in March this year.
In discussing the passage, Dick seeks to prepare Christians for what happens when the gospel is proclaimed, and shares a sobering story of his first days at St. Helen’s in 1961. (Dick served as Rector from 1961 to 1998.)
We can give great thanksgiving to the Lord for Dick. Born in 1925, Dick attained the age of 99 on Tuesday (September 10). St. Helen’s posted this Happy Birthday message on their Facebook page.
St. Helen’s has more than 1700 talks by Dick available on their website.
Knowing Jesus when it hurts
“Imagine that God gave you a vision of heaven. One moment you sit praying, the next God’s Spirit has lifted you into the heavenlies. You gaze around at the heavenly reality. You see the glories of the Father and the wonders of the seraphim and angels.
Perhaps you catch a taste of what it means to be without sin, to live unencumbered by the desires of the flesh. In ways that you will never find words to express you feel something of the glory of life in the presence of the living God. And then, just as quickly as it began, it’s over.
I wonder, if you had such a vision, who would you tell about it? I wonder, how quickly would you tell them? Would you post it online, phone a friend, talk to your pastor? …”
– Very helpful article from Paul Grimmond at SydneyAnglicans.net.
The purpose of the Lord will stand — Australian Church Record Journal for Synod 2024
The Australian Church Record has published a special edition of their Journal to coincide with the meeting of Sydney Synod starting this weekend.
Whether or not you are a member of Synod, this is well worth downloading, reading and sharing.
Highlights include interviews with Robert Tong and Laurie Scandrett, but much else to see too.
Where was the Serious Exchange of Ideas? The American People Need More Than What Happened Last Night in the ‘24 Presidential ‘Debate’
Albert Mohler shares his thoughts on “The Debate”.
– Listen here if you’re interested.
Coercive control in Christian families and the impact on children – with Jenni Woodhouse
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How do we help children in Christian families escape and recover from the devastating effects of domestic abuse?
Pastoral consultant Jenni Woodhouse says there is a hidden epidemic of coercive control where a parent with narcissism or borderline personality disorder makes life impossible for their both their spouse and children.
We also explore the impact of domestic abuse on children of all ages, from teenagers to toddlers.
What responsibility does the church have? What should a church leader do?
How can we as church leaders detect and address these issues in the congregation?
Jenni Woodhouse is a pastoral care consultant with the Church Missionary Society.”
Fearing God the Father
“ ‘I am a child of God, God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother [or sister] too.’
This is my favourite sentence in J. I. Packer’s Knowing God. Packer persuasively argues that being adopted as a child of God is the highest blessing that God gives us, higher even than justification. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Richard Chin shares the third in a series on fearing God, “Fearing God the Father”.
( Part 1: Fearing God Our Creator. Part 2: Fearing God Our Judge.)
Paul’s prayer for the persecuted
“Christians need the spiritual and moral strength for which the Apostle Paul prayed in the Prayer Book Epistle reading for today, whatever the political conditions of the nations in which they find themselves.
Paul, a prisoner for proclaiming Christian truth, was writing to the Christians in 1st Century Ephesus …”
– At The Conservative Woman, Julian Mann reminds us that we need to be praying for the persecuted church too.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…