Create Conference to help churches communicate
Learn about the Create Conference being held in Sydney on November 15 – to help churches in effectively communicating with our culture.
Website at createconference.org.au
Got an iPhone? Get this.
If you have an iPhone – or an iPod Touch – the people at Desiring God have now formatted John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life for your device. Of greater eternal significance than playing Cro-Mag Rally on the way into work.
You can get Don’t Waste Your Life for iPhone at Desiring God. (Hat tip: Justin Taylor.)
And if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still read the book online.
From the book:
For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face – and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears – “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”
Our aim is one hundred percent
This week’s Synod was focused on our Diocesan Mission.
There is much to praise God for in the work of the last six years. But there is still a long way to go. There is no sign yet that multitudes of Sydneysiders are beating a path to our door. Nobody promised they would.
A mid-point review gives an opportunity to understand where we are up to in the Mission process, and to make any necessary adjustments to our plans. Two issues are coming to the fore: “the population” and the “ten years”. These are critical issues that we keep trying to ignore but lie at the heart of the Mission.
Most people hearing of the Mission have focused on the wrong part of the aims and goals. The critics and the supporters alike have emphasised the ten percent that we are aiming to reach. Not understanding what it is about.
They tend to think that success or failure will be measured by this ten percent. They fail to notice that the aim is actually one hundred percent…
– Read the whole article from Phillip Jensen, published in the Cathedral newsletter.
A New Anglican Province in a Culture of Death
“I freely admit my intention to describe the abortion industry found on this continent as I believe it really is: an enterprise that is as bad as, and perhaps worse than, the Third Reich’s T4 system of extermination.
While I fully appreciate the gravity of the Episcopal Church’s decision to certify Gene Robinson’s election as a bishop in the Church, I am far more disturbed by the fact that for too many years, the majority of us who cut our teeth on Episcopal Church altar rails failed to speak out against a far more insidious evil, the sin of pre-partum homicide…”
– Dr Briane Turley writes at VirtueOnline. (Photo: West Virginia University)
The Cries of the Helpless
On Thursday, Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, pulled no punches in a sermon on Matthew 2:13–23 and the slaughter of the innocents.
His topic? “Joseph of Nazareth Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In”. Hear the 37 minute sermon via this 8.5MB mp3 file. Chilling – but recommended.
(Related: The Abortion Question and the Future.)
The ESV Study Bible – A Review
“The ESV team has done an excellent job of generating excitement for the ESV Study Bible and particularly so among the type of person who tends to read my book reviews. So in this review I will try to cut through the hype and, to the best of my ability, judge this new Bible on its own merits.…”
– Tim Challies offers his review of the just-published ESV Study Bible.
Also, learn about the ESV Study Bible Online – the full text of which will be available to owners of the printed version. The site explains –
“Even if you don’t have a registration code, the ESV Online Study Bible offers you several features:
- Create a personal account
- Search the ESV text
- Write personal notes
- Highlight Scripture
Basically, without a registration code you can do everything except access the ESV Study Bible notes and resources. If you buy a print ESV Study Bible later, you can unlock these notes and resources. One of our goals is to make the ESV Online Study Bible useful to you, even if you don’t yet own a print ESV Study Bible.”
The Abortion Question and the Future
In a recent essay, Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University makes the case that Sen. Obama is “the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States.” Further: “He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress”…
Without doubt, we are faced with many urgent and important issues. Nevertheless, every voter must come to terms with what issues matter most in the electoral decision. This is the case with the sanctity of human life. I can understand the fatigue. …
Yet, there is the reality that we face a choice. This is a limited choice. And we cannot evade responsibility for the question of abortion. Our vote will determine whether millions of unborn babies live or die.
– Al Mohler paints a sobering picture of the choice presenting American voters.
He also provides this link to the Freedom of Choice Act which Senator Obama said he will sign as his first priority. On his radio programme, he interviews Professor Robert P. George of Princeton. The segment starts 11 minutes 25 seconds into the programme.
Witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses
Last Thursday was a bit curious — I actually had a scheduled visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Typically, this had started with the ringing of the doorbell (at an inconvenient moment, but then what moments are convenient for such a visit?) by a young woman with child in tow.…
– John Richardson at The Ugley Vicar has some wise words on sharing the gospel with those who come to our doors.
Looking for help in evangelism?
If you haven’t looked at the Evangelism Ministries website lately, check out their encouraging and practical notes on these topics –
How to pray for evangelism
How to prepare for an evangelistic event
How to prepare for an evangelistic church service
How to do evangelism on a zero budget
A simple feedback card to use at your evangelistic event
– all on the EM website.
How we define ‘Crisis’
“There is a crisis in the land! And what qualifies as a crisis? The fact that increasing numbers of children grow up in America without fathers? The savage exploitation of women and corrupting of men through legalized pornography? The systematic corruption that is our moneyed political system? The fact that a mother’s womb is the place where the great majority of violent deaths take place in our communities?
Of course not. The crisis is a threat to our money.…”
– Rick Phillips seeks some perspective on the global financial crisis – at Reformation 21.
The authority of the Bible – Leon Morris
Australian New Testament scholar Dr Leon Morris on the authority of the Bible –
“It is especially important in the contemporary situation that evangelicals bear their witness to the authority of the Bible. Men have lost their best certainties, and in many cases are groping for an authority they can trust. One result of the work of modernists and extreme liberals has been to undermine men’s faith in the Bible. …”
– from Churchman back in 1961. Relevant then. Even more relevant now. Made available by Church Society (pdf life).
Related: Propositional Revelation, the Only Revelation by Broughton Knox.
The need for clear thinking in this area is illustrated by a story from The Calgary Herald in Canada – “Minister enhances faith through meditation”
Meakin, an Anglican priest, was introduced to Christian meditation by her spiritual director while in seminary. … “There are many factors in how we interpret the spiritual life, but once you set aside the words, we can recognize our unity…” (emphasis added.)
Don’t Desire Wealth
John Piper:
I can smell it. It’s like toast or steak or brownies. It doesn’t just draw our desire, it creates desire. Deep drops in the stock market make many people salivate. They know it will rebound. They are sitting on cash. By year’s end their pile could ride the recovery to riches.
For such people I have a word from God. Read more
Time for lay administration
“When I first attended our diocesan Synod (= denominational ‘parliament’) 10 years ago as a new Anglican Parish Rector (= Senior Pastor), I expected to sit quietly and get a feel for how things worked, reading the business papers and listening to speeches from ‘old hands’ to shape how I’d vote on the various motions and ordinances (= denominational laws).
Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself on my feet, seeking the chance to enter a debate.…”
– Sandy Grant, Rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral Wollongong, writes at the Sola Panel.
Free audio book – Spurgeon’s ‘All of Grace’
This month’s free audiobook from ChristianAudio is a reading of C.H. Spurgeon’s “All of Grace”. Use the code OCT2008 at the checkout.
The mp3 files are around 100MB and run for over three hours – available free until the end of October.
Farewell to Tearfund (UK)?
“My family has supported a little girl through Tearfund for a decade or so and I have flown Tearfund’s flag and donated to it in various ways over the years. No more, however. I redirected our sponsorship from Tearfund to another Christian group which, I am told, will be able to continue to support our child in South America.…”
– Dr Lisa Severine Nolland writes about Tearfund in the UK and the importance of theology – at Anglican Mainstream. (Photo: Tearfund UK.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…