Weakness is good for you – with Matt Fuller
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“Senior Minister of Christ Church Mayfair, in the centre of London, Matt Fuller describes standing up in front of his church, saying he couldn’t cope and being told by his elders that he needed to take time off.”
On The Prosperity Gospel — 9Marks
From the latest 9Marks Pastors Talk –
“The prosperity gospel is wicked. It leads people on a path toward destruction. It lures people into a false sense of security. At the same time, the temptation to believe a version of this prosperity gospel lies in all of our hearts and minds.
We need to be equipped to call out this false gospel both in our lives and in the lives of our friends and family.
That’s why Sean DeMars and Mike McKinley wrote Health, Wealth, and the Real Gospel. They’re burdened to expose the errors of the prosperity gospel while upholding the beautiful purity of the real gospel.”
The religion of self-worship
“Steve Chalke of the Oasis Trust, and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, have with others written this in a letter to the Prime Minister:
To be Trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole: precious, honoured, and loved, by yourself, by others and by God.
In one sentence this brings into the open what a good deal of the LGBT+ movement has become: it is now a sacred quest, an agenda no longer driven science, common sense, or simple compassion; but by a transcendental vision, a desire for mystical fulfilment and a metaphysical belief in unseen realities. This is, more than anything else, a religion.
But it is not Christian religion. …”
– Matthew Roberts at The Critic looks at the worldview behind a recent letter that’s been making news in the UK.
Photo: Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
See also:
‘To Be Trans is to Enter a Sacred Journey of Becoming Whole’: A Former Archbishop of Canterbury and the Liberal Enthusiasm for Transgender Ideology – Albert Mohler’s Briefing for Thursday 14 April 2022. See Part 3:
“This is a public statement made by someone who had held major public responsibility in an historic Christian Church, and he basically here is offering a theology that is directly contrary to scripture and he is doing so believing that the message that he is bringing will lead to human happiness, wholeness, and flourishing.”
and
Why the Christian argument for a ban on transgender conversion therapy fails. – Anglican theologian Martin Davie.
“I very much regret having to disagree with Archbishop Rowan Williams. He is someone whom I deeply respect and from whose writings I have learned an enormous amount. However, as part of my responsibility as a theologian, I feel that I need to say publicly that I disagree with the Christian argument for a ban on transgender conversion therapy put forward by Archbishop Williams and thirteen other Christian writers in their recent open letter to the Prime Minister. What they say in the letter is deeply misleading and they completely fail to make a convincing Christian case for such a ban. …”
The Truth of Jesus: John Anderson speaks with Phillip Jensen
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson has interviewed many interesting people over the last few years.
With Easter upon us, he speaks with Phillip Jensen, Bible Teacher and Evangelist.
Fascinating interview. Encouraging to watch and great to share.
It’s available at johnanderson.net.au – and also on YouTube where a timeline of topics discussed is posted underneath the video.
“Easter in a minute” – from the Bishop of Bathurst
Bishop of Bathurst Mark Calder has released this one-minute Easter message for 2022.
Also, Bishop Calder has posted several Easter service and sermon videos. If you’re unable to get to church this Easter, you’ll find them a great encouragement.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel’s Easter Message 2022
Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel has released this Easter Message for 2022.
Watch and share widely.
It’s ideal to download and play in church, or to post on church websites!
Thanks to Russell Powell at Anglican Media Sydney for the video and the transcript.
Image: Anglican Media Sydney.
Holy Week Message from Archbishop Foley Beach
“We do not pray to a God who is aloof. We pray to a God who knows what it is to suffer pain, who through the suffering of the Cross made the way of life and peace and has not abandoned us to our suffering. …”
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, and Chairman of GAFCON, Dr. Foley Beach has released his Easter message – Read it all here.
The Challenge of Feminism
Equal but Different has republished two articles by Dr Claire Smith on “The Challenge of Feminism” –
Part 1 – Should We Call Ourselves Feminists?
Part 2 – God’s Better Solutions.
Centre for Christian Living — Commanding the heart: Lust
Coming up on Wednesday 4th May, Marshall Ballantine-Jones and Dani Treweek are speaking at the next Centre for Christian Living event at Moore College.
Attend in person or watch online.
How the Person Became a Self
“In 2020, while the world was on lockdown due to COVID-19, Carl Trueman published one of the most important books of the last several decades.
In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Trueman built on the insights of contemporary thinkers such as Philip Rieff and Alasdair MacIntyre to show how modern thinkers … gave expression to a worldview … that made possible and plausible the arguments of the late-modern theorists who shaped the postmodern sexual revolution …
It is a penetrating analysis of recent intellectual history that shows why people are willing to believe ideas today that our grandparents would have rejected out of hand—without need of argument, evidence, or proof—just two generations ago.
The only problem? The book is over 400 pages long. … I knew that many of Carl’s potential readers would not have the time or appetite to wade through so many of his finer, nuanced discussions. So I emailed Carl, praising the book as essential reading. But I also suggested that he consider writing a shorter, more accessible version of the basic argument for non-specialists. Carl has now produced that volume with Strange New World, and it sparkles on every page. …”
– If the length of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self put you off, Strange New World might be just what you need. Ryan T. Anderson writes at First Things.
The book is available widely – here are some booksellers.
How to apologise — The Pastor’s Heart
On the Pastor’s Heart:
“Actor Will Smith has apologised for his actions at the Oscars and former Hillsong Global Pastor Brian Houston has apologised to his church.
It makes one think then – what makes a good apology, and how can we apologise well?
Bruce Burgess from Peacewise speaks to us today on the seven things that make up a good apology.”
Gary Millar on Brian Houston — Keith Condie on The Pastor’s Marriage
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“The Chair of the Australian Gospel Coalition Gary Millar says the fall of Brian Houston brings significant lessons for anyone in any level of Christian leadership that power and authority are very dangerous.
Co-Director/Founder of the Mental Health & Pastoral Care Institute at Mary Andrews College, Keith Condie, says there’s a series of steps that pastors need to take to safeguard actions and protect marriages.”
Scripture Alone — David Cook
Even if you haven’t, David Cook has seen the preaching and the damage done –
“Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!”
He writes at The Expository Preaching Trust:
Attending Bible College in the 1960s involved a two-year course, each year having three terms.
This meant that six areas of Systematic Theology were covered, the first being the foundational Doctrine of Revelation—what we believe about the Bible.
Entering Moore College in 1973 meant attending the transformational lectures of DB Knox as he led us through TC Hammond’s, ‘In Understanding Be Men’, the first chapter of which is entitled, ‘Final Authority in Matters of Faith’.
All other doctrines flow from a right understanding of what we believe the Bible is, its source, its nature and its purpose.
Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!
The available Presbyterian Theological Schools, with a non-commitment to the inspiration of Scripture, its supremacy, authority and sufficiency, had produced a generation of preachers with nothing to say, apart from vague, theistic, positive psychology.
When Paul urges Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 to understand the times, avoid the alternatives and preach the word, all these imperatives are based on a firm conviction about Scripture’s divine source (2 Timothy 3:16).
Abandon the foundation of what God tells us about Scripture and the pulpit, and all true pastoral ministry will be lost!
Fifty years on and we need this reminder because fewer of us have experienced those empty, powerless days.
Scripture’s inspiration means that its authority is supreme, over church and culture.
Scripture’s inspiration means that it is sufficient, we need not, and should not look for any other special word from God, that extra word is at best a hunch.
Scripture is God’s word, not yours or mine, therefore we have no right to add to it or subtract from it.
Scripture is the instrument God uses to bring the lost to life and to bring the believer to maturity (Isaiah 55:11; Acts 12:24; 19:20; 20:32; 1Cor 1:18;1:21; 15:2; Eph 1:13; 2Timothy 3:15-16).
As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we share his conviction as to the authority and centrality of Scripture (Mark 12:10; John 10:35).
Thus all Christian leaders must be awake to what our recent history has taught us, and actively resist any influence to water down the central and supreme authority of Holy Scripture.
As our old friend John Chapman used to say, ‘The authority is in the text, brother. Preach the text’.
‘It is at the very root of the Evangelical position that the supremacy of Holy Scripture be held in its fullest sense… no words can too strongly express the importance of securing, beyond doubt, the unsuperseded authority of the Sacred Scriptures in all religious discussions whether of doctrine or practice’. (TC Hammond, ‘In Understanding be Men’, p.39).
– First published at The Expository Preaching Trust.
How to navigate a messy pastoral transition
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“For 15 years Hugh Isaacs has been at the centre of messy pastoral transitions, as an ‘emergency responder’ to churches going through a transition crisis. Today, he he joins us to give us insight into the process.
After initially helping members deal with their grief, there are five key steps Isaacs tells that need to be worked through for the best outcome. However, Isaacs warns of the land mines that come off at any moment though this process. …”
An unwanted gift
“Have you ever received a gift that you did not want? A number of years ago I asked my father to buy me a cast-iron griddle pan, but he decided to give it to my wife Pearl instead. I was delighted. She was less than impressed. Not every gift is something we want.
I received a gift I didn’t want recently. Despite abundant caution and double vaccination I received a bad case of COVID-19. And it really was bad. I cannot remember feeling so ill in my life. Even a month later I’m still in the process of recovery. Yet, despite all that, and amid recognition of all the pain and loss it has caused so many, I still consider it a gift. …”
– Bishop of Western Sydney Gary Koo shares what he has learned through COVID – at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Image: Bishop Gary Koo / Anglican Media Sydney.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…