GAFCON Jerusalem 2018 Videos

“A number of videos from GAFCON 2018 in Jerusalem are now available to view!

They have been organised in the following order:

Full day livestreams from each of the five days (Monday 18th June 2018 – Friday 22nd June 2018).
Bible Exposition and Plenary Teaching Sessions
Interviews
Miscellaneous videos including the reading of the Final Statement ‘Letter to the Churches’, a number of highlights videos summarising the conference and more.
The conference programme so you can see what happened on each day.”

– Many thanks to the GAFCON Communications team for making these available.

(Photos: GAFCON Media.)

The night John Newton ‘attended an eclipse of the moon’

On Tuesday 30th July, 1776, John Newton observed a lunar eclipse.

The experience prompted a diary entry and a hymn!

“The moon in silver glory shone,
And not a cloud in sight,
When suddenly a shade begun
To intercept her light.

How fast across her orb it spread,
How fast her light withdrew!
A circle tinged with languid red,
Was all appeared in view. …”

– Read it all at the John Newton Project. (Linked from their home page.)

If you would like to see tomorrow morning’s total lunar eclipse (Saturday 28th July 2018) – from Sydney, look to the west before sunrise.

Partial Eclipse Begins at 4:25 am AEST
Total Eclipse Begins at 5:30 am (That’s when the Moon moves fully into the Earth’s shadow)
Maximum Eclipse at 6:21 am (That’s the deepest part of the eclipse.)
Moon sets at 6:55 am – which is the same as sunrise.
Twilight will wash out any subtle colours before sunrise.

Watch, and be encouraged by John Newton’s example to draw some meditations from the experience.

(Photo: 15 April 2014 lunar eclipse over Parkes, courtesy John Sarkissian.)

How to preach to the occasion

“How do you preach at a wedding? How do you give a funeral message? How do you prepare a graduation or ordination address?

Over the last few years I’ve had opportunities to speak at these special occasions. Here are some focus areas I’ve found that help get me in the right zone, rather than accidentally preparing another Sunday sermon. …”

– At GoThereFor.com, David Martin shares some helpful thoughts.

The worst sermon on the Internet?

Tim Challies has been exploring “great sermons that have made a widespread impact and stuck around for the long haul”.

In this final entry in his series, he turns to a sermon which is not so great.

Heroes at drinking wine (aka intoxicated masculinity)

“Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” (Isa 5:22-23)

The battle-lines have been dug in the conflict about Christians and alcohol, with entrenched positions generating pamphlets, sermons and even denominations.

But those trenches are now largely empty. Most of the fighting has already taken place; and the fortifications are largely abandoned with only a small cadre of hold-outs remaining, fighting for abstinence. And while I am not one of those who argues practically for this position, I do see their wisdom. The cost of new generations moving on from this discussion, is that unexamined worldliness seems to be winning. In interest of deeper healing, let’s reopen the wound…”

– Andrew Barry looks for true heroism and valour – at the Australian Church Record.

Living on prayer

“Having just returned from Jerusalem, attending the third Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), I was again reminded of the history of the old city, where God’s glory was made manifest in the presence of the incarnate Jesus…”

– Archbishop Glenn Davies shares these words of encouragement at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Why the Catholic Church is anti-Catholic

It’s like a company where the boss says to his employees, “There is a ‘no smoking indoors’ policy at this workplace”, and then the shift manager tells the employees, “What the boss really means is that you can’t smoke indoors while he’s around”…

– At GoThereFor.com, Mark Gilbert highlights the division at the heart of Roman Catholic teaching.

Societas 2018 now out — available in print and online

The Moore College annual student magazine is out now! The theme of Societas this year is ‘Resilience in Christian ministry – discovering your hidden reserves’. You will find articles on resilience and endurance in ministry, student stories and profiles as well as Christian reading recommendations from the College faculty. …”

– Details from Moore College.

Pastoral Burnout: Its Causes & Cures — 9Marks Journal

The latest issue of 9Marks Journal turns to the question of pastoral burnout.

“Every job has its occupational hazards. Loggers lose fingers. Businessmen go bankrupt. Wrestlers grow cauliflower ears.

What about pastors? Pastors experience burnout. Burnout isn’t so much about physical depletion, though that may be a variable. It’s about spiritual depletion. You spend all day ministering to people. But now you don’t possess the emotional and spiritual resources to continue ministering. You’re like a gas station with no gasoline left. Or a candle whose wick has burned down low. …”

– Read or download it from 9Marks.

Praying for George Whitefield College

This introductory video to George Whitefield College is a good reminder to pray for that strategic college.

Not familiar with GWC? Learn about their history:

“David Broughton Knox came to South Africa – from Sydney, Australia – in 1989 to establish George Whitefield College and be its first principal.

Arising from his conviction that Christian ministers are primarily teachers of the Word of God, he laid the foundations of a college that would have as the focal point of its study program the ‘whole counsel of God’. …”

The Mark Drama returning to Moore College

The Mark Drama – a fast-paced reenactment of Mark’s Gospel – is returning toMoore College on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd August.

“A production of the Moore College community, the Mark Drama turns Mark’s biographical account of Jesus into a 90-minute, theatre-in-the-round stage production. Fully immersed in the action, here you can decide for yourself – is Jesus just another guy with imaginative ideas about God, or is he truly the King of the universe?”

– Details from Moore College.

Oxygen 2018 talks available

The main talks from this year’s Oxygen 2018 conference have been made available by KCC.

Check them out here.

Have a Fun Event – Like on National Ice Cream Day!

“Getting visitors does not guarantee that your church will grow. However, I guarantee that your church won’t grow without getting visitors.

I agree with those who argue that the ‘Attractional’ model of church growth is no longer the best model in our largely post-Christiandom culture, and that we must take on a more ‘Missional’ model where we go out into our surrounding communities to connect with non-believers.

Once you connect with them, you still, eventually, have to invite them to something. You still must bring them into the church where, in community, they will be transformed to be like Christ. So inviting people to church remains an essential component to church growth.

Yet, even with all the preaching, teaching, poking, prodding, and even sometimes guilting that church people receive about inviting others to church, most of the time they don’t.…”

– Here’s some encouragement from Canon Mark Eldredge of the American Anglican Council.

Can we learn from ancient prayer books?

“Why would a 21st century evangelical be interested in liturgy?, asked Mark Earngey as he began his talk at Wycliffe Hall (on 11 June).

An extrovert Australian, Mark is definitely not a nerdy academic, fascinated by church history for its own sake. His time in Oxford working on a DPhil and a book (both just completed) hasn’t affected his accent, his regular use of words like ‘mate’ and ‘ripper’, or his commitment to see the church reflect Christ better.

Born into a Sydney Anglican churchgoing family, as a young man Mark rebelled against the Christian faith, returned to the Lord through a Pentecostal fellowship, and then found his way back to Anglicanism. Liturgy for him used to be associated with older generations, and an inauthentic expression of faith with repetition of words by rote replacing heart worship.

Like many evangelicals he believed that liturgy creates a barrier to mission, an extra layer of weirdness for newcomers. But on reflection he realised that every church develops a worship pattern or liturgy, even if it’s not written down. What matters is preparation, engagement, and worship in the Spirit, irrespective of the form of words…”

– Anglican Mainstream’s Andrew Symes outlines a recent talk given in Oxford by Mark Earngey.