Looking for Remembrance Day resources?
Defence Anglicans has some resources – including audio files – you could use – for Remembrance Day, 11th November, or perhaps in church on Sunday.
Image: Defence Anglicans.
How an Australian church is changing Christian songwriting
“Over the last few decades, church music has shifted. Congregations sing fewer hymns and more praise songs. We hear fewer organ chords and more guitar riffs. We read lyrics that are less theological and more generic.
The move toward quicker and more casual songwriting means new music hits our Spotify—and CCLI—lists more quickly. But it also means Christians are sometimes singing repetitive choruses, nonsensical lyrics, or wrong theology.
That matters, because we sing those songs so often that we memorize them. We hum them in the car. We play them while we’re making dinner. We lean on them when hard times hit.
About 10 years ago, a church in Australia noticed these problems. They tried a different songwriting process. It was slow and clunky and never should have worked—and yet it did.
Odds are, you’ve sung their good theology in your church, in your car, or in your kitchen.”
– At The Gospel Coalition’s Recorded podcast, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra introduces CityAlight to her audience.
See also the accompanying article.
Related:
Launch 2025 for School Leavers– and ten years of Two Ways Ministries
From Phillip Jensen –
“Join us at Launch 2025!
Launch is the camp for school leavers keen to live for Jesus. It is where you will –
- Meet others who have just finished school
- Listen to great Bible talks from Phillip Jensen and Richard Chin
- Equip yourself for University/TAFE alongside leaders and staff-workers
Our leaders are an awesome group of young women and men just a few years ahead of you! They are keen to help you work out what it means to align your priorities to God’s in this next phase of your life whilst having a fantastic time meeting others doing the same thing. Launch camp truly is the best investment you can make to think through how to live for Jesus!…”
– Download a flyer, and secure your spot.
Three nights away at Stanwell Tops – 3rd-6th February 2025.
It’d be good to advertise it at youth groups and church too, before other, less strategic, things are booked to occupy that time!
“The aim of Launch is to work out together what it means to live for Jesus in the transition to post-school life – years that are likely to be the most formative years of life.”
Related:
Two Ways Ministries is ten years old! – See the TWM website to learn more, give thanks, and do pray.
How personality impacts ministry teams
From The Pastor’s Heart –
“I want to be a big hearted encourager like Barnabas. I want to be a reliable assistant like Timothy. I want to be passionate preacher like Apollos.
When you think about the qualifications for Christian ministry in 1 Timothy 3, the significance of personality is pretty much ignored.
What is the relationship between character and personality? Someone is all about structure and someone else is much more ‘loosy-goosy/flexible’.
When there’s conflict in church or in a ministry teams – it’s often put down to personality difference or sometimes even disorder.
What does the Bible say about all this?
Tim Omrod serves with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) at Griffith University on the Gold Coast and has just finished a study of the co-workers of Paul.”
US election season, politics and the gospel — Ministry Matters from the Church of Confessing Anglicans NZ
“With the US presidential election well underway … and because we here at Ministry Matters know no fear, we dedicate this issue to a few brief reflections on politics and the gospel.
If you’re over politics, sorry – but let me assure you the emphasis here is very much on the gospel! …”
– Editor of Ministry Matters from the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa NZ, Geoff Robson, introduces the latest issue.
Alistair Begg with Biblical Wisdom for Voting (in the US elections)
“Dear Friend,
I haven’t checked, but I will not be surprised to discover that the content of my letter written four years ago on the threshold of the US election was not dissimilar to this letter, particularly in seeking to declare, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns’ (Rev. 19:6). …
It is imperative that we learn to discipline ourselves to view the world through the prism of God’s Word. In deciding how to vote, I have been helped by being reminded of this quote from Gresham Machen’s book The Christian Faith in the Modern World…”
– At Truth for life, Alistair Begg shares some wisdom from God’s word as the US elections arrive (Wednesday morning Australian time).
Related: 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.
AP interview with Tim Chester on ‘Enjoying Jesus’
In the latest podcast from AP, the Australian Presbyterian journal, Mark Powell speaks with Tim Chester about his latest book – Enjoying Jesus.
– Watch here.
Lies, flattery, and Artificial Intelligence
“Part of the value of Large Language Models like ChatGPT is their ability to act as a mirror into the human psyche.
Yesterday, I unintentionally discovered how brilliant ChatGPT is at pragmatic barefaced lying and feelgood flattery—masterfully learned from its human overlords. …”
– Moore College lecturer (and ACL Council member) Dr Lionel Windsor discovered that you just can’t believe everything AI chatbots tell you.
Win the complete set of Donald Robinson’s Works! — ACR
The Australian Church Record is giving away one set of the five volumes of Donald Robinson’s selected works.
Preaching through January
“This year, the quieter period of church life when families are away and thoughts turn to cricket test matches, begins on Sunday 29 December and continues through 5, 12, 19 and 26 January.
A total of 5 Sundays before life returns to normal on 2 February.
Some preachers use these Sundays to give younger preachers an opportunity to preach, others take a series on Psalms at each holiday period, so they continue with the next consecutive Psalm.
Why not make a special event of these Sundays because it is a special time as we turn the page on one year and get ready for 2025. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook has some helpful suggestions for preachers.
Christianity is not Colonial: An Autobiographical Account
“ ‘Christianity is colonial!’ I’m sure we’ve all heard variations on that theme. It’s a useful way to demoralise and demonise Christians in both the minority ‘western’ world and the majority world.
In our current historical moment, the nations in Europe and North America as well as Australia and New Zealand are reckoning with the consequences of 400 years of international influence – of ‘colonising’ the rest of the world. This colonialism, so it is said, was advanced through the following mutually reinforcing attitudes. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Canada, Sydney-based Kamal Weerakoon answers the charge of ‘colonialism’ from personal experience.
Church Society Podcast: Tim Chester on Psalms
“Tim Chester gives an introduction to his new Hodder Commentary on Psalms 42–89. He talks about praying, and singing the Psalms as Christians and how we don’t do it nearly enough. Also other insights into the purpose and shape of these central Psalms and how they point to Christ.”
– Listen here.
David Moore on Ministry teams: Are they worth the pain?
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“How to best structure ministry teams in your church? And how to equip your team leaders for joyful service?
Team leaders do the bulk of their ministry in between events not at events.
How can someone become a more fruitful team leader?
Why all conversations with your team fit into four categories – and how most team leaders get this wrong.
David Moore is the executive pastor of Hunter Bible Church in Newcastle, New South Wales.
He has written a new book, The Team Leader’s Handbook, which will be widely read by churches and ministry teams all around.”
Weddings and Marriage
“I am currently part of a diocesan committee looking into the issues of marriage, divorce and remarriage. …
Flowing out of these meetings, I have been struck by something.
In some ways it’s a relatively minor point, but I wonder if it reveals more than we realise. What dawned on me was the great disparity nowadays between how we prepare for a wedding, and how we prepare for marriage. …”
– Jay Behan, Bishop of the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa NZ, writes in his current e-mail newsletter.
Photo: Jay speaking at the ACL Synod Dinner in 2019.
The Good News in the Original Meaning of “Catholic”
“From within seventy years of Jesus’ death early documents show that his followers were keen to call themselves catholic. According to the Vatican in 2021 1.3 billion people called themselves Roman Catholic.
There is a significant difference between what the work originally meant and what it means today. There is good news in rediscovering its original meaning. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Mark Gilbert reminds us what being “catholic” is all about.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…