Jesus on prayer
St. Helen’s Bishopsgate has published the latest talk from Dick Lucas – Jesus on Prayer:
“Why bother with prayer? And how should it be done?
Jesus’ instruction is concise yet all-encompassing, embracing the eternal purposes of God, the daily needs of his wayward children and the reality of evil. It is an invitation to intimacy between the perfect father and the imperfect, but forgiven, child.”
– Listen here.
Creating a future proofed church – with Stephen McAlpine
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“Stephen McAlpine says the real question is ‘Does the future have a church?’
The statistics are not our friend.
We have been talking on The Pastor’s Heart about dropping church attendance. Stephen McAlpine is writing about the more widespread phenomenon. …
In Australia the proportion of people self identifying as Christians has shrunk to 51% down from 67% just ten years ago.”
– Watch or listen here. Also on YouTube.
Never Again
“Friends in Christ, last Monday evening, together with Bishop Michael Stead and a number of other church leaders, I attended a meeting hosted at the Great Synagogue, but convened by a group of Christians called ‘Never Again is Now’. They are concerned about antisemitism in Australia.
Antisemitism is the expression of hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. It’s a form of racism, one that is particularly abhorrent, when we remember the impact of the Holocaust under Nazism in Germany before and during World War Two. …”
– In a recent Cathedral newsletter (and published on the Cathedral website), Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant explains why will he attend the Never Again rally 3-4pm on Sunday 18th February.
He also provides a link to the Never Again is Now website.
Thursday Forums 2024 — at Moore College
From Two Ways Ministries:
“Thursday Forum is the backbone of what we do – hear Phillip Jensen teach the Bible, ask your questions, discuss the implications in small groups with others in the 18-30 age group and pray together. This year we will be digging deep into the book of Romans – so bring your brains, Bibles, questions, and friends!
Location: Marcus Loane Hall, Moore College, Newtown
Time: Thursdays 7-9pm (BYO dinner to eat together from 6pm) …”
– Details here.
Mother’s Union Sydney Annual Seminar 2024
Mothers Union Sydney’s Annual Seminar for 2024 is coming up on Friday 23rd February at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and on livestream.
It’s a free event. Topics:
Lovebound: the beauty of church – Tim Clemens
Being church: life in the family of God – Dani Treweek
Raising children: the church as your village – Jocelyn Loane.
How TikTok changes everything for social media and churches – with Hannah Thiem and Liz Fong
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“Social media is changing again. In an increasingly digital age, our collective consciousness is captured by infinite scrolling, short-form videos, and internet personalities. A church’s social media presence has gone from an optional nicety to a key lever for engaging newcomers to church. …”
– Food for thought with Hannah Thiem and Liz Fong. And Dominic Steele confesses he deleted his Tik Tok account.
Truth Be Told: Sample chapter and pre-order
From Rachel at Matthias Media:
“The book on truth they tried to censor
It became painfully clear during the production of Truth be Told, Lionel Windsor’s new book encouraging Christians to stand out in the world because of their honesty and integrity, just how much it was needed. …”
– Read a sample chapter and pre-order the book.
Lionel Windsor spoke about his book late last year.
2024 Prayer Cycle for the Diocese of the Northern Territory
The 2024 Prayer Cycle for the Diocese of the Northern Territory has been released and can be downloaded from their website.
A great resource to help us pray for gospel ministry in the north of Australia.
The word evangelism
“Many people respond to the word evangelism like they respond to ‘begin fitness regime’. It is important, does good, and we want it, but getting going has so many hurdles.
Conversion is God’s great work, and He continues to be active in it. Look around church – where every week we are blessed by being surrounded by those He has saved. Every church in our Diocese desires to see people saved. At Moore College, our students voluntarily gather in groups to explore how to reach different pockets of society, and students, faculty, and staff regularly request prayer for people they are evangelising. Yet evangelism still seems so fraught with difficulties.
To think through how we might enhance our evangelistic efforts Phil Wheeler, director of Evangelism & New Churches, Elliot Temple, mission director at Christ Church St. Ives for the last nine years, and I discussed lessons we have learnt on evangelism. …”
– Archie Poulos writes at the Moore College website.
Picture courtesy of The Pastor’s Heart.
Better relationships between senior pastors and female ministry team members – with Clare Deeves
This week on The Pastor’s Heart:
“How can male senior pastors have better relationships with the women on their ministry teams, where everyone shares complementarian convictions?
In those contexts – there are stories around that suggesting that relationships between some senior pastors and the women on the teams have been strained and have sometimes broken down completely.
There’s been massive cost to the individual, the team, the churches and to gospel work.
Clare Deeves has just completed her PhD, studying working relationships between women employed in complementarian ministry teams and the senior pastor who they work with.
Clare serves as an Assistant minister at Kallaroo Anglican Church in Perth. And lectures in church history at Trinity Theological College Perth.”
Church Matters from 9Marks: Vol 4, Evangelism
The latest issue of Church Matters from 9Marks focusses on the question of evangelism –
What is a biblical understanding of evangelism?
Is every Christian expected to evangelise?
Does expository preaching speak to unbelievers as well as believers?
This and much more in the latest edition, available from 9Marks.
The place to start with Catholics
“What can you say when a Catholic in your life talks about same-sex blessings?
‘It’s all OK now dear’. Those were the words of my fiercely Catholic mother when the Pope proclaimed that it was now acceptable for Catholic priests to bless same-sex intimate relationships. …”
– This new article at The Australian Church Record encourages us to love our Roman Catholic friends and family – and has a link to a new resource.
Praying for King Charles
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.
When using the Prayer Book, Anglican Christians used to pray regularly for the Royal family. Maybe we don’t do that much any more. Yet, whatever one’s view of the monarchy, it would be good to pray for King Charles, especially with his cancer diagnosis, that he will know the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in him.
Southern Cross magazine February-March 2024
The latest issue of Southern Cross magazine from the Diocese of Sydney is now available – in printed form at churches – and electronically at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Representing Jesus to our grandkids
“For many people today, there is a lot of life left after retirement. Many years ago, when I began work, the union representative told me that our superannuation scheme for men was based on retirement at 65 and death at 67½! Now, the life expectancy for men is 81 and 85 for women. …”
– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Paul Whiting introduces us to an important book – one especially important for grandparents.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…