Why do we say things together in church?

“As a teenager, I was deeply impacted by a youth ministry that made a lot of hay out of throwing out traditional, churchy practices. We started a church service on couches and bean bags in the hall where we didn’t do anything like liturgy or set prayers.

I remain deeply grateful for this low-church experience, for I heard the gospel there with a freshness that was God’s gift. But in hindsight, I have mixed feelings about the excitement we felt at doing things differently. For while this stance did grab my attention, it also distanced me from good things…”

– At The Australian Church Record, Andrew Errington shares three ways that saying together “sentences from the Bible, psalms, creeds, and other prayers” can be a real help.

Love, grief and identity

“You learn a lot about what a person meant to you when they’re taken away. Separation magnifies all the intricate and beautiful nuances of what you had, and absence pries open memories that may have lain dormant for years. Songs, sights, smells. The faintest hint evokes a cascade of reminiscence. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Scott Millar has been sharing some very personal reflections on grief and the Christian. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The truth about secularism – with Rory Shiner

“Christianity in Australia is in decline. The narrative is we had a few golden years at the start, where 96% of the population identified as Christian, but that has been on a gradual decline for decades.

But if that’s the case:

– Why does Christianity in Australia go up, not down, after Darwin?

– In Australia, why does it go up after WWII?

– If the Church was so strong in the middle ages, why was church attendance so sketchy then?

This week, Rory Shiner joins us to discuss the ways that modern understanding is wrong about secularism. Rory believes we’ve accepted a narrative that isn’t true, and are making massive pastoral and missional mistakes because of it. …”

– A challenging and encouraging episode of The Pastor’s Heart.

Continually trying to improve your prayer life?

“How is your prayer life going? Many of us feel this part of our faith lives could improve for a variety of reasons, but the Rev Stephen Shead says not all of these reasons are good. …”

– Here’s some encouragement for you, via SydneyAnglicans.net.

A conversation with Dr. Carl Trueman on the modern self and the sexual revolution

“Like all historical phenomena, the sexual revolution didn’t cause itself. It arose out of a set of cultural and social conditions that were already in place. For ideas like gay marriage or transgenderism to be acceptable and plausible in society, a whole host of other ideas must have already been given authority, become plausible, become accepted by that society.

The story in my book looks at how the ideas that made the sexual revolution plausible, even desirable, emerged in the West. …”

– Carl Trueman speaks about the topics covered by his new book (The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self) with Jason Thacker.

Also see these reviews of the book.

“I believe in the Holy Spirit”

“Two years ago, while preaching through Deuteronomy and the instruction given there for Israel’s calendar, I was convicted of the usefulness of having times in our church year, where we remember God’s great saving acts and rejoice before him—celebrating his kindness to us in Christ.

It would give a pattern to our year and make prominent what was core in our confession of Christ, and would help us remember, and not forget, that we are the Lord’s people, saved by His grace to live for Him.

We already celebrated Christmas and Easter. What would we add? It was a no brainer: Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit on the first disciples recorded in Acts 2; an event of fundamental importance to the individual and collective life of Jesus’ followers. …”

– Moore College graduate, and Minister at Bundoora Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, Neil Chambers, writes the next article in the series commissioned by The Gospel Coalition Australia on The Apostles’ Creed.

The Year of the Un

“2020 has been the year of the Un. The unusual, the uncommon, the unparalleled, the unprecedented.

Hope springs eternal and we now enter a new year, 2021, which promises to be the year of the Re. The recovery, the restoration, the renewal, the revival.

According to one of my grandchildren, when asked which Bible book would be best to preach in the year of the Re, she suggested the book of Revelation – a good idea but not what I had in mind. …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook suggests preaching through Acts. He gives four reasons why this would help.

David spoke about preaching through Acts in this Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.

Abortion – The Central Sacrament of the Political Left

“This past Friday, January 22, 2021 marked the forty-eighth anniversary of one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Forty-eight years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the decision known as Roe v. Wade, and abortion on demand was effectively legalized throughout the nation.

Since that time, it is estimated that more than 62,000,000 unborn babies have died from abortions. When Roe turns fifty in 2023, those numbers will be even higher. It is hard to think of numbers on this scale, especially when we are talking about the loss of human life …

the last forty-eight years have also revealed that abortion has become the central sacrament of the political left in the United States. This is evident in a tweet issued by President Joseph Biden on the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe. He stated: ‘As we mark the forty-eighth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, now is the time to rededicate ourselves to the work ahead…’ ”

– Albert Mohler comments. Read it all.

‘In some instances … feticide is undertaken’

“I wrote in November about the Liberal Bill before the parliament here in Adelaide which seeks to make lawful the killing of a foetus right up to the time, and immediately after, his or her birth. The upper house has already passed it. The lower house will vote on the February 3.

Since I first wrote of the bill, an anonymous someone in the Attorney-General’s Department or Health Department has distributed to MPs a document explaining how the Bill the department has drafted will operate.

This is question and answer #5 in that government publication:

Q: What happens in later term abortions?…”

– Retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Stuart Lindsay writes in Quadrant Online about a vile abortion bill. Important, though distressing, reading.

Also read the earlier article with its challenge to the churches.

(Photo: Stand for Life rally, Sydney, September 2019.)

‘Catholic’ Biden marks Roe v. Wade anniversary with pledge to make abortion available for ‘everyone’ – LifeSiteNews.

Remember our Chains

“Across a wide swath of the world — from North Africa to North Korea, from Central Asia to Central Africa — ‘the persecuted church’ is simply ‘the church.’

These believers — like first-century Christians in a twenty-first-century world — live, serve, and witness in the face of hostility, and remind us of our roots.

And if the opening decades are any indication of things to come, this century promises to exceed the persecution of Christians of the last bloody century.…”

– Tim Keesee, founder of Frontline Missions International, describes the state of the persecuted church today. At Desiring God.

Anglican Connection Online Conference – February 2-3, 2021

The 2021 Anglican Connection Conference in the USA, not surprisingly, will be an online conference.

One advantage of that is that Australians (and others outside the US) will be able to benefit!

“Our culture is like sand, shifting and changing. It says there is no right or wrong; you make your own truth. Fame and popularity have become more important than kindness and virtue. And just like the tide and the waves, our culture will bend us to its will as long as we sit on the shore.

Jesus said: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24).

This year’s conference seeks to challenge and equip God’s people to understand our shifting culture and to point them to God’s Word at this time of complex cultural change.

The Anglican Connection is not only for Anglicans.

It is for all who are keen to harness the riches of the 16th Century Reformation in the Gospel cause today.”

Speakers include John Lennox and Rico Tice.

Update: John Mason writes, Registration at US$25.00 gives you access to the conference in ‘real time’ and at any other time until May 31. But you need to register by January 28.

See the Anglican Connection website for all the details.

While you’re there, check out John Mason’s weekly posts, “Word on Wednesday” weekly Bible reflections.

Many ACL members know John well. He’s ministered in Sydney, Canberra and New York. He’s currently President of the Anglican Connection and Commissary to the Archbishop of Sydney in the USA.

Child Safety and Religious Freedom

“The NSW Government is currently inviting comment on draft legislation entitled the Children’s Guardian Amendment (Child Safe Scheme) Bill 2020.

The legislation has been drawn up in response to the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and as well as governing “secular” agencies caring for children, it will mandate a new scheme for child protection covering “religious bodies” (see cl 8AA definition of “child safe organisation”, para (c)).

The Bill is generally a good idea, but I want to suggest one amendment which will be needed for it to properly protect religious freedom. …”

– Neil Foster writes at Law and Religion Australia.

Albert Mohler’s The Briefing — 21 January 2021

In his The Briefing for 21 January 2021, SBTS President Albert Mohler takes a close look at the image and the reality of the incoming US Administration.

It’s a preview of the huge cultural and moral shifts coming to the US – and certain to influence Australia.

What’s wrong with the world? Is there hope?

“Guilt, weakness, spiritual slavery, prejudice, arrogance, tribalism, conflict, war, victimhood, persecution, pain, suffering, futility, ignorance, lying, deceit, anger, theft, greed, pornography, sexual sin, darkness, fear, drunkenness, substance abuse, domestic abuse, workplace abuse, spiritual powers…

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he says many things about the problems we face in this world. He also gives us wonderful reasons to find life, hope and healing in Jesus Christ. Along the way, he provides practical teachings about how to respond and live together.

Here are some key reflections relating to the topic of what’s wrong with the world according to Ephesians in my series Lift Your Eyes: Reflections on Ephesians.”

– from Lionel Windsor at Moore College.