Killing a Church

“Murchison argues that Old Money helped define, and unravel, the Episcopal Church. Growth and dynamism require entrepreneurship and risk. But who wants that when you have endowments and beautiful buildings? Provocateurs like Pike and Spong could push far, but there was far too little push back. Why risk the conflict?

Meanwhile, comfortable Episcopal elites, ever with a sense of noblesse oblige, embraced the Civil Rights Movement, denouncing segregation in 1955 as ‘contrary to the mind of Christ.’ Ten Episcopal bishops joined Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. The Episcopal Church then and now has few black members. But commendable civil rights activism sated a thirst for social change among Episcopalians that led directly into the feminist movement, including the 1970s ordination of women, and ultimately homosexual causes in the 1980s to the present. No longer mostly confined to saving souls, church elites saw themselves as liberating American society from ‘privilege.’…”

– in The American Spectator, Mark Tooley reviews Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity by William Murchison. (The book was published in 2009.)

Carl Trueman interviewed at Oak Hill

Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary was a Visiting Lecturer at Oak Hill College in London earlier this year.

Principal Mike Ovey asked him about the doctrines of Scripture and of Justification in three videos just posted on the Oak Hill website.

Part 1: The doctrine of Scripture.
Part 2: The doctrine of Justification.
Part 3: Holiness and the New Perspective on Paul.

Total running time of about 24 minutes. Worth watching.

New Moore College video: Meet some of our Students

This 3 minute 30 second video from Moore College could be used to promote the college in your church. (The 29MB file is downloadable if you are registered with Vimeo.)

Tim Keller free Audiobook

ChristianAudio’s free audiobook download for August 2010 is Tim Keller’s 1997 book Ministries of Mercy – the call of the Jericho road.

Details from ChristianAudio.

Five top Missions books

Kevin DeYoung writes:

“As you may recall, Greg Gilbert and I are working on a book tentatively titled What is the Mission of the Church? Hence, over the past several months we’ve been reading dozens of missiological tomes. There are tons of missions resources, and we barely scratched the surface with our reading. But from what I’ve read, here are my Fav Five books on the theology of mission…”

– Many of our readers will be familiar with the number one book – and probably the number two book – in Kevin’s list.

Do Christians need a Christian prime minister?

“Recently disendorsed NSW Liberal candidate, David Barker, expressed concern that Julia Gillard was ‘anti-God’ and that a non-Liberal vote would be a vote for Muslims, thus reintroducing religion, kicking and screaming in protest, to the campaign agenda.

Associated with the NSW Christian right, Mr Barker’s comments raise the question of whether Christians in Australia expect a Christian prime minister…”

– Greg Clarke, Director of the Centre for Public Christianity, had this thoughtful opinion-piece published on the ABC’s ‘The Drum Unleashed’ yesterday.

Don Carson on ‘The God Who is There’

This looks to be very helpful. Andy Naselli writes,

“On February 20-21 and 27-28, 2009, Don Carson presented a 14-part seminar entitled ‘The God Who Is There’ at Bethlehem Baptist Church’s North Campus in Minneapolis. This series will serve the church well because it simultaneously evangelises non-Christians and edifies Christians by explaining the Bible’s storyline in a non-reductionistic way.

The series is geared toward ‘seekers’ and articulates Christianity in a way that causes hearers either to reject or embrace the gospel. It’s one thing to know the Bible’s storyline, but it’s another to know one’s role in God’s ongoing story of redemption. ‘The God Who Is There’ engages people at the worldview-level.

And now MP3s (full) and video (10-minute previews) are available for Carson’s 14-part series…”

– All the links are here. (h/t Justin Taylor.)

Culture and Theology seminar on Homosexuality

Matt Chandler at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, recently addressed a topic he had previously stayed away from. In a 2 hour Culture and Theology seminar on Homosexuality, Matt provides a great deal of food for thought. Well worth your time.

Dated ‘5.21.10’ on the Studies & Seminars page, here’s a direct link to the 35MB mp3 file.

Moving Forward?

“After the strident, disdainful renunciation of the Communion’s official teaching concerning sexuality, as expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10, and in direct opposition to and repudiation of the request of the Instruments of Communion, the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury in his 2010 Pentecost Letter has been as devastating as a feather duster and as effective as an ashtray on a motorbike…”

– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Related: ‘Dialogue’ trumps Scripture — again?

‘The good book’s guide to great sex’

“Sex is God’s gift to humanity and healthy sexual behaviour should be the church’s gift to the world. As reported in The Age this week, we are neurologically wired to desire sex, to fall in love with the person we desire sex with, and for that love to develop into a deep personal attachment. Our bodies are wired to operate best with one sexual partner for life.

The Christian church has a positive duty to help all people form healthy sexual self-identities, which lead to healthy sexual behaviour, particularly in a world where highly sexualised images are commonplace…”

–  Kamal Weerakoon (St. Marys Presbyterian Church) writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s a follow up to Monday’s article by Barney Zwartz in The Age.

Richard Baxter’s account of the Restoration

“Not only was Baxter a major player, he was, like Pepys, also a meticulous and disciplined administrator and writer. He records many details from events he experienced first-hand, and his account includes a wealth of valuable documentation.”

– Lee Gatiss wrote this interesting article for Churchman in 2008. It’s just been published online by Church Society. (PDF file.)

Standing Committee of which Communion?

“…The listing by geography shows that none of the major African provinces of the Communion, with more than 60% of its total members, is even represented on the Committee. It follows that the current make-up of the Committee is designed to effectuate the will of a minority within the Communion…”

– A S Haley, the Anglican Curmudgeon, looks at the makeup of “the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion” and that of the Anglican Consultative Council. (Photo taken at the November 2008 JSC meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)

Listening pastors

“It seems to me that pastors tend to be poor listeners for a few reasons: they are usually assertive people and have trouble slowing down, have honestly heard many of the same things multiple times (counseling situations, theological questions, etc.) thus they feel like they ‘know’ where the conversation is headed, they are multi-taskers who tend to think they can listen and think about other things at the same time, and they are used to talking/preaching with others listening to them!”

– Jason Helopoulos has a few helpful suggestions on listening as a pastor.
At Kevin DeYoung’s blog.

‘We are Anglicans’

“The Pope, or more properly the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome will visit England and Scotland from 17th to 19th September of this year. In recent years political figures and many in the media have fawned all over the Pope. More recently however, there has been growing attacks on Rome by secular humanists and the homosexual lobbyists, together with the media, which is dominated by both. Whilst we do not wish to be sucked into the ungodly agenda of these groups nevertheless it is important to say that this visit is also unwelcome for other reasons.

What does it mean to be Anglican? Though it is not normally where people look for an answer part of the nature of Anglicanism is set out in the Coronation Oath Act of 1688. This Act applies still in England and Wales and its well known wording was used at the Coronation of the present Queen…”

– David Phillips, Church Society General Secretary, writes in the latest issue of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)

Christ-centred Communion – Further thoughts (full series)

Barry Newman has been adding to his series on ‘Christ-centred Communion’ and has now completed his ‘further thoughts’.

Even if you don’t agree with it all, you’ll find it stimulating and edifying.

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