Australian Christian Book of the Year 2025
Sparklit’s Australian Christian Book of the Year for 2025 has been announced –
“Made in Our Image by Stephen Driscoll has won the Australian Christian Book of the Year for 2025.
The book provides a biblical perspective on artificial intelligence while avoiding both tech worship and doomsday thinking.
Judges said it was a realistic and fearless assessment of the ways AI could change the world. …”
– Story from Hannah Felsbourg at The Melbourne Anglican – with news on shortlisted books including those by Andrew Judd, Michael Jensen and Rob Smith.
Related:
Dominic Steele spoke with Stephen Driscoll twice on The Pastor’s Heart last year –
The traumatic implications of artificial intelligence – 21 May 2024.
What morality to teach to artificial intelligence? – 04 June 2024.
Themelios 50.2
The Gospel Coalition has published the latest issue of Themelios – Volume 50, number 2.
The Happiness Project
Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant writes,
“Friends in Christ, this week The Australian newspaper began a series of articles entitled ‘The Happiness Project’. The lead author, Stephen Lunn, began this way:
What’s the secret to unlocking your happiness? How do you achieve a satisfying life? Especially when the odds might seem stacked against you. It’s more complex than you might think. We take a deep dive into the latest research on how to build resilience and find life’s joy. …
The Happiness Project plans to explore these issues, and is looking at the keys to happiness can be “unlocked”.
It’s a significant issue, since although Australians rate 11th out of 148 nations on the World Happiness Index, levels are markedly lower for Aussies under 30.”
– Read to all, from the Cathedral newsletter, 21 August 2025.
Wales: Will they learn?
Commentary from Anglican Futures –
“ ‘Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn.’ So, says Charles Dicken’s character, Daniel Doyce.
The Church in Wales has been beset by problems for many years.
In 2008, the Bishop of St David’s stepped down after leaving his wife amid speculation about ‘a scandalous’ relationship with a married member of his staff.
In 2021, after the Rt Revd Richard Pain resigned, an Independent Review into the Diocese of Monmouth found, ‘a culture of entitlement’ and that several witnesses commented on,‘[T]he prevalence of swearing and an excessive intake of alcohol among bishops and senior clergy.’
In 2022 …”
– Read it all at Anglican Futures.
Archival image from The Church in Wales website.
How to improve our preaching – with David Cook and Robin Sydserff
From The Pastor’s Heart –
“Today our focus on The Pastor’s Heart is on how to preach for transformation for real changes in people’s lives.
Two men with a lifetime’s passion for preaching — Robin Sydserff, Director of the Proclamation Trust and David Cook, former Principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College and a long-time preaching mentor – now with the Expository Preaching Trust.
We start by looking at how Christian leaders the UK and Australia influenced preaching patterns overseas.
We look at preaching that has led to record enrolments at Bible Colleges, the purpose of preaching, the life and relationships of the preacher, training preachers and what patience is needed in preaching growth.”
Related –
Opening Our Eyes to Evil — Seeing the bad in the good
From Phillip Jensen –
“Two Ways News is freely available and supported by generosity. We hope you freely enjoy this and every episode, and that you will recommend it to others. If in your generosity you wish to support this ministry, the details of how to do this are at the end of this transcript.
This particular episode is opening our eyes to what Adam and Eve saw when their eyes were opened through eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Talks from the Bathurst Diocesan Camp 2025
Dr. Mark Earngey spoke at the Bathurst Diocesan Camp earlier this month. His theme – “Why Church?”
Bishop Mark Calder has now posted the videos for your encouragement and edification.
Perseverance and Endurance in Ministry
Phillip Jensen speaks about Perseverance and Endurance in Ministry.
Audio recording – 38 minutes.
The Great Commission became his Ambition
“While his name has faded from our collective memory, Adoniram Judson Jr. (1788–1850) was one of the most famous men of his century.
In the eyes of the world, Judson seemed destined for greatness. He excelled at nearly everything he did, advancing in Latin, rhetoric, and mathematics so quickly that he entered the College of Rhode Island (later Brown University) at the age of sixteen. During his senior year of college, Judson launched his own school while still managing to graduate as valedictorian.
He revered the great men of history, but his ‘burning ambition’ (as he put it) was to surpass them. One day, Judson believed, his name would shine.
He was right. But when it did, it wasn’t his story he told. …“
– At Desiring God, Ryan Griffith reminds us of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma.
Image adapted from one in The Life of Adoniram Judson, Volume 3, 1883, by Edward Judson.
Beyond the Crisis: Global Perspectives on a training culture for the next generation
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“A training culture for the next generation: Healthy Churches producing new ministers for the next generation.
Across the world, the number of candidates putting themselves forward for gospel ministry is in decline. Many churches are feeling the pinch – struggling to find leaders and often looking elsewhere to fill ministry gaps.
Yet healthy churches don’t just maintain ministry; they reproduce it. They raise up and send out the next generation of gospel workers.
This week in Sydney, a group of evangelical movement leaders from across the globe have gathered to sharpen one another in this task: creating a culture of training that will multiply gospel workers for the decades ahead.
The shift they are calling for is from passively plotting decline to actively asking, What are we going to do?—and then taking decisive steps toward it.
We’re joined this afternoon by three of those symposium participants.
From the UK, Robin Sydserff of the Proclamation Trust.
From Santiago, Chile, Matt Pope – pastor and trainer of pastors in five Latin American countries, formerly of St Ebbe’s in Oxford.
And from Cleveland, Ohio, Marty Sweeney – pastor for training at Old North Church and long-time champion of multiplying ministry apprentices.”
The Faith of Satan — Know your enemy
From Phillip Jensen:
“Two words commonly misunderstood today are ‘faith’ and ‘Satan’. In this week’s episode, Peter and I pursue our understanding of faith and Satan’s contribution in undermining it.
Once again, can we encourage you to mention the weekly podcast to friends, colleagues, and neighbours? I hope you will enjoy this episode.”
The Case for Pew Bibles
These days, how many of our churches use pew Bibles?
This article at Mere Orthodoxy makes a good argument for doing so –
“Is something lost when we depend on digital media for our Scripture consumption? Is projecting the Scripture passage onto the screen adequate for whole-person and whole-church discipleship and mission, or can a case be made that pew Bibles are an essential part of making God’s Word accessible for all?
…
Pew Bibles empower the people in the hearing and heeding of God’s Word since they place the revelation of God in their hands with no impediment and with the endorsement to see for themselves. As the pastor speaks the Word of God, the people may follow along; they are both physically and metaphorically on the same page.
The presence of pew Bibles is certainly not the only way to accomplish this, but a church that actively and intentionally places the Word of God before the people signals the leadership’s subservience to the Word.”
– Read it all here. (Link via challies.com.)
Enrolments in Bible Colleges
Some historical perspective and a challenge from David Cook:
“Moore College and SMBC experienced record enrolments in 1960, 1969 and 1980.
I was part of the student enrolment in SMBC in 1969, we had 35 men enrolled in our year compared to 7 men in the year before.
What had happened?
Billy Graham had conducted campaigns in Sydney in 1959, 1968 and 1979.
There is a direct relationship between lively, faithful, engaging Bible preaching and people both being saved and people offering themselves to train for ministry.
Here in Sydney in my own denomination, J. Graham Miller’s ministry at Hurstville Presbyterian was the catalyst God used to call numbers of men into training in the late 1970s, Phillip Jensen at Uni of NSW was similarly used of God.
Men and women would be changed by such preaching and would be so challenged that they gave serious prayerful consideration as to make such ministry their life’s vocation. …”
– Do read it all – at The Expository Preaching Trust.
And see the end of his article for some fine aids for preachers.
See also:
Daily Bread’s Journey Through.
On Graham Miller’s Method for “Personal Daily Bible Study”.
Image: David as a guest preacher at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.
Confident Prayer
“What do you think of prayer? Do you pray regularly? And if you do, do you pray with confidence? Can God, whom we call ‘Father’, be trusted to hear our prayers and answer them?
In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
On either side of these words Jesus answers two questions we might have about prayer: Does God always listen to us? Does he always have our very best interests at heart? His answer is found in two metaphors that sit on either side of his words in verses 9 and 10. …”
– John Mason shares encouragement for prayer at The Anglican Connection.
PDJ on the ‘Quiet Time’
“Friends in Christ, the most helpful article I ever read on personal Bible reading and prayer was written by Phillip Jensen.
This was more than 30 years ago when he was a university chaplain – long before he became Dean of this Cathedral. At that stage I had never even heard of him. But his article helped me so much I kept it all these years. Today I share an extract with you…”
– Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant shares an encouraging extract – in the Cathedral newsletter.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…