Theology or Evangelism?

“James Denney, the late 19th, and early 20th-century Scottish theologian is quoted as saying, ‘The church is healthiest when its evangelists are its theologians and its theologians are its evangelists’.

In my lifetime I have known two evangelists who were effective evangelists because they were able theologians. One was John Chapman …”

– Encouragement from David Cook.

Shepherding: The Work and Character of a Pastor

9Marks Journal editor Jonathan Leeman writes,

“We’ve been publishing the 9Marks Journal for over a decade, yet we’ve never done one focused on the pastor – his work and character. So let’s call this Journal irresponsibly overdue. While editing it, I found myself, first, convicted; second, encouraged; and third, well supplied with tweet after tweet of wisdom. I’m confident you’ll enjoy and benefit from it.

The pastor has to wear lots of hats in the course of his work: program-director, administrator, counselor, evangelist, and, at the top of the list, preacher and teacher. Yet in all of this, he is a shepherd. He watches over sheep, principally by concerning himself with their understanding of God’s Word and how it applies to their life together and with outsiders.”

– Get the latest issue here.

Psalms for preachers — resources from Dick Lucas

St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London has published several short talks by Dick Lucas.

They are designed to help preachers in thinking through the Psalms. (It seems there are more to come in this series.)

As always, very helpful.

CMS Summer School planned to go ahead 2–8 January 2021

From CMS NSW / ACT –

“26 June 2020 

We are pleased to announce that we are going ahead with planning a full conference for CMS Summer School 2021.

We are looking forward to being able to engage with adults, children and youth at Summer School, and are carefully planning how to do this safely and effectively amidst possible COVID-19 restrictions.

More information will become available in July. For now, please save the date and get excited for a great week of engaging with God’s mission!”

David Cook launches Expository Preaching Trust website

David Burge, Chairman of the Expository Preaching Trust, commends their new website:

“For over 40 years, God has used the ministry of David Cook to strengthen the faith of His people through expository preaching, and to train thousands of other preachers to do the same.

This site, and the Expository Preaching Trust behind it, seeks to make David’s ministry and resources more accessible.”

– See the new website here, and pray that it will be an encouragement to faithful expository preaching (and listening).

Where are all the senior ministers?

“Currently there are around 30 vacant parishes in the Sydney Diocese.

Generally vacancies last longer now, because there are fewer people putting their hands up for rector roles. That is seen across the Diocese. As Bishop of the Georges River, I certainly have had parishes that have taken more than two years to fill. …”

– Bishop raises some important matters for prayer – at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Evangelism: Why and How? — Rico Tice

In the midst of the pandemic, we can lose sight of what’s really important.

Here are some strong challenges and encouragements from Rico Tice.

Watch the video here.

See also:

A conversation with Rico Tice — Evangelism in Lockdown.

and

the video to which he refers, COVID-19 Spiritual Health Check.

How could you use it?

You are enough, and other lies we like to swallow

“I don’t know about you, but the recent months of school at home exposed some pretty ugly cracks in the façade I’d created for myself of being a good mother. It’s much easier, it turns out, to parent your children when they aren’t in the same physical space as you every minute of every hour of every day. Somewhere in my head I’d always thought I’d manage pretty well as a home-school parent. Turns out… not so much. …”

– Jocelyn Loane writes at The Australian Church Record.

The Alpha Course: ’emotionally powerful but theologically confused’

In the latest episode of The Pastor’s Heart, Dominic Steele and Tony Payne discuss the latest version of The Alpha Course.

A Despairing Sigh, or a Sigh of Relief?

“If you are person who would like some stark honesty about life, Ecclesiastes is the book for you.

If you look around our world and are confronted by its confusing nature and you find yourself almost accidentally responding with a despairing sigh, then Ecclesiastes is the book for you. It is a disturbing read and deliberately so.

Its sigh is the sigh captured in the words, ‘meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless.’ This book is an analysis of life designed to help a person consider life, lived under the sun, without God.…”

– Here’s the latest helpful article from Bishop Rick Lewers in Armidale.

Glory of Christ – Part 1

“In the first of these reflections, we might begin by considering the way in which Christ is the only representation of God’s glory to his people.

When Jesus speaks of ‘my glory’ in John 17:24, that can be thought of either in terms of the essential glory of his divine nature, or in terms of the peculiar glory which the Father has ‘given’ him through his willingness to redeem sinners in human flesh. In other words, alongside his glory as the eternal God, there is a unique glory that accompanies his Messianic vocation to conquer sin and death. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Moore College’s Andrew Leslie begins a series to help open our eyes to the glory of Christ.

All Things to All People? The Gospel is the Issue

“I think most of us with any sense of awareness can recognize that we are living in one of those great transitional moments in human history. But there is one thing that must not change: the Christian task of bearing faithful witness to the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some would disagree and argue that the Christian witness, to be faithful, must change anything and everything to fit the culture as it changes over time and across locations. They might quote the apostle Paul: ‘I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some’ (1 Cor 9:22).

I propose, however, that far from a mandate to accommodate all things, Paul’s words here are a manifesto for ministry that puts the gospel above all things. …”

– Encouraging words in dark times, from Albert Mohler.

Lennox

“The name Lennox means ‘From the field of elm trees’. It is Gaelic in origin and both the name of a character in Macbeth and the name given to my newly born grandchild.

He will not simply be a character in a play, he will be a life lived across a moment of time, a time that the more pessimistic of grandparents may consider concerning.

Who would think that a child born into an educated and materialistic western society would arrive at a time of such civil unrest, where historical divides and the anarchist heart of humanity remains and the atheistic humanist’s dream lies dead?…”

– Bishop of Armidale Rick Lewers writes this article for his local paper.

Numbers

Glen Scrivener at SpeakLife has released a powerful and provocative video.

Watch here.

Check-ins, singing, 4 square metres and the way out of COVID-19


“The Australian Prime Minister says in stage three of the Post Covid-19 reopening, groups will be able to meet with no upper limit on numbers from July, but there will be a blanket rule of 4 square meters per person.

However, all visitors to buildings will be required to checkin and provide contact details.”

– The latest episode of The Pastor’s Heart tackles these questions in the latest episode.

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