Albert Mohler comments on the first US Presidential debate

Dr Albert Mohler comments on today’s US Presidential Debate under four headings –

“A Human and Political Tragedy: President Joe Biden’s Underwhelming Performance in the First Presidential Debate Last Night

‘Aggressive Panic’: Democrats Respond to President Biden’s Debate Performance — The Democrats are in Major (And Complicated) Crisis

Both Candidates Flopped on Abortion: Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump Disappoint on the Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

Credibility in Leadership and Abortion: Americans Face Two Huge Issues in the Aftermath of Last Night’s Presidential Debate.”

– Whatever our interest (or lack thereof) in US politics, the Bible calls on Christians to pray for those in authority –

1 Timothy 2:1-4

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – ESV.

Gospel ministry in winter

Bishop Jay Behan writes in the latest Ministry Matters of the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa NZ –

“Back in late 1996, my wife Jaimee and I moved to London for me to study. We had only been married a few months, so arriving in England was a time of great change in our lives. We had only been there a short time, and autumn was just starting to change to winter, when we found ourselves listening to a radio programme which described something else that was new to me: Seasonal Affective Disorder, with perhaps the most appropriate acronym of all time—SAD!

What was described was a significant change in mood and behaviour brought about by the change of season, particularly the change to winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder apparently caused “winter depression”, marked by low energy and generally feeling down as a lack of sunlight and increased time indoors took effect. I remember listening to the programme and not only completely rejecting this thing called ‘SAD’, but also ridiculing the English for making up things and not being able to cope with the cold and dark.

Needless to say, a few weeks into the English winter and after many days of no sunshine, not only did I believe in SAD; I was convinced it was the root of all the problems people living in the UK experienced!

As I write this, we in Aotearoa have arrived in winter, which seems an appropriate time to consider the way the winter season can affect life and ministry. …”

– Read the full newsletter here.

“ Winter may seem like a time to batten down the hatches, but it’s also a season ripe with evangelistic opportunities. As always this requires thought, intentionality, courage and clear-mindedness. But the best day for gospelling is today. God will give us opportunities we did not have yesterday and may not have tomorrow.”

Ministry families and adopting and foster care

This week on The Pastor’s Heart:

“How do you balance the instability and chaos of external ministry with adding a foster child or adopted child to a ministry family?

What are the implications of taking children in crisis into the ministry home? What motivates ministry families to become foster parents or to adopt? How do older children and the church respond?

Sarah and Mat Yeo serve at Hurstville Grove Anglican Church in Sydney.
Matt Wilcoxen pastors St John’s Darlinghurst in inner Sydney.”

– Watch or listen here.

Update:

See also “Creating a circle of support for foster children” – SydneyAnglicans.net.

The book on truth a government wanted to censor

“When the Rev Dr Lionel Windsor set out to write a book on the importance of objective truth in a post-truth world, he never imagined it would be so controversial that a significant overseas government would want to censor it.

Yet before Truth be Told even hit bookstore shelves, it was proving why it was so necessary. …”

– Recently, SydneyAnglicans.net featured Lionel Windsor’s book Truth Be Told. (It was also in the May-June Southern Cross magazine.)

For a promotion with a difference, you can now see the book’s (mostly true) Photo Tour.

Jesus’ Prayer: (1) Glorify

“Our prayers say a great deal about us. Are your prayers like that of AA Milne’s, Christopher Robin who, in the midst of his child-like bedtime prayers, prayed that God would bless his parents as well as himself?

Or do your prayers reflect the shape of the honest and humble yet bold petitionary prayers of people such as Moses, David and Daniel or the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples?

In John chapter 17 we read Jesus’ prayer on the eve of his arrest. It’s a prayer that tells us a great deal about him and his relationship with God the Father, his concern for his disciples, as well his concern for all his people throughout time.

Over three Wednesdays I’ll be touching on these three themes. …”

– John Mason begins a three-part reflection in his Word on Wednesday series at The Anglican Connection.

Acting like men? – with Phillip Jensen, Craig Hamilton, Adrian Russell and Robin Kinstead

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“What is it to be #likeaman? There are not many places in the New Testament where men are spoken to specifically.

Today we are thinking about being a Christian man.

In the ESV and NASB the translation of 1 Corinthians 16:13 has ‘Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong’. (ESV)

But what does that mean? Dominic Steele put that question to panelists at the recent Men Meeting the challenge conference:

Adrian Russell, senior minister of Northmead Anglican Church.
Craig Hamilton, senior minister at Pitt town.
Robin Kinstead, senior minister of Figtree Anglican.
And Phillip Jensen who heads up Two Ways Ministries.”

– Watch or listen here.

Church Society Podcast: Kirsten Birkett on Class

From Church Society, an Australian looks at Class:

“In this week’s podcast, Lee Gatiss chats to Kirsten Birkett about her new book on class in the evangelical church in England. English evangelical churches are overwhelmingly middle-class – but why is the gospel of Christ not bringing in people from all walks of life? The issue of class is a challenge for all biblically-minded churches.”

– Very English – and yet, which people groups in Australia are not being reached with the gospel? And how can we reach them?

Alistair Begg on 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Fulfil your Ministry

At a Truth for Life conference for pastors last month, Alistair Begg spoke on 2 Timothy 4:1-8, “Fulfil Your Ministry”.

A great encouragement on a Monday morning, especially for pastors.

This link seems to default to an audio recording. If so, click on the toggle switch just above the Player window to Watch.

Preaching Mentoring

“Part of the ministry of the Expository Preaching Trust is to provide preaching mentors.

The Trust has five experienced preachers who offer mentoring on a regular, usually weekly, basis.

The mentor usually listens to the mentee’s Sunday sermon and then they reflect together on the sermon’s engagement with the Bible text and the people. …”

– Read about this extraordinarily gracious offer to preachers from The Expository Preaching Trust.

David Cook speaks with Mark Powell on Preaching, for the AP’s Australian Christian Life Podcast.

Really encouraging.

Can the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans chase the snakes out of the Anglican Communion?

“Yesterday, in a monastery in the Egyptian desert, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) met for their first Assembly, under their new covenantal structures. Their purpose? To reset the Anglican Communion.

In his keynote address, the current Chair of the GSFA, the Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi, set out their plan. …

The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has waited twenty-five years for the Instruments of the Anglican Communion to bring order to the divided church community, but they will wait no longer.”

– Susie Leafe writes at Christian Today.

The Assembly videos can be seen here.

Strategies to increase the retention of the children of members

From The Pastor’s Heart –

“There are three different ways that the adult population of churches can grow:

Adults being saved.
Christians transferring from another congregation within your denomination of switching from another denomination.
Children of members growing up in the church and taking on their parents faith for themselves.

Most evangelical churches – even growing churches – are underperforming in the first and third ways. …”

– At The Pastor’s Heart this week, Dominic Steele speaks with Al James from Sydney Anglican Youthworks.

Make the Main Thing the Main Thing on Sundays

“If everything in a church needs to change, where should a pastor start? I want to offer a convictional testimony for making the Bible the main course on Sunday. Every other change should follow. …”

– At 9Marks, Bret Capranica has encouragement for pastors.

Fact-Checking a popular story of Christian origins

“The latest book by bestselling author and controversial Australian feminist Clementine Ford is I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage (Allen & Unwin, 2023).

She wants this book to not only dissuade people from getting married but also ‘to end marriages’, because of the harm they bring to women.

This article isn’t about her main thesis, but the striking way she begins her case against marriage. The very first step Ford takes is to outline the history of Christianity and so discount the moral authority of the church. …”

– Robert Martin at Northcote Baptist Church in Melbourne does a spot of fact-checking for The Gospel Coalition Australia. This could be helpful if you have friends who are reading the book.

Who will champion marriage? – Marriage Foundation via Anglican Mainstream. The linked story includes some interesting charts.

Singing as Spiritual Formation

“Churches in Australia go to incredible lengths to sing together. Typically, churches do not have the resources to do music as they’d like. What’s more, views differ on the place of music in church life. Yet Sunday after Sunday, the church sings.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of visiting churches throughout Australia to help in music ministry training. Almost all have been struggling to motivate their congregations to sing heartily, and to develop bands that lead the congregation well. Some church music teams are thriving – praise God! Yet mostly, churches are just getting by. I know of churches where faithful music teams are few in number and exhausted. I know of churches with no musicians – they sing along to YouTube videos in their services instead. I have served on staff as Music Pastor at three evangelical churches (2 in Sydney, 1 in Melbourne), each holding slightly different views on the place of singing and seeking to lovingly engage with congregational expectations of singing’s purpose and song choices. Perhaps these are familiar scenarios. Music ministry is complex.

And yet I’ve not encountered a single church that has excluded singing from its gatherings. Singing on Sundays – some way, somehow – seems to be a non-negotiable. …”

– Greg Cooper published this article back in March at EFAC Australia.

Image: gregcoopermusic.com