Church Website Providers — Comparison of pricing and features

Over at Communicate Jesus, Steven Kryger has published an up-to-date comparison of providers of church website providers.

Also see his earlier post: 15 things the best church websites do.

 

Protect your church in one simple step

“There is a sad progression that begins with the people growing weary and ashamed of truth.

No longer able or willing to endure sound teaching, they get rid of the truth-tellers and accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Inevitably, they soon turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

All of this is laid out in chapter four of 2 Timothy.…”

– Tim Challies reposts an article he wrote several years ago.

Book Launch: Down, Not Out by Chris Cipollone

Reformers Bookshop in Stanmore invites you to a book launch:

“Local Anglican minister Chris Cipollone has written a new book called Down Not Out about depression, anxiety and the difference Jesus makes.”

Down Not Out will be launched at Reformers Bookshop at 140 Albany Road, Stanmore, from 2:00pm on Saturday 5th May.

Chris serves on the ministry team at St. Matthew’s West Pymble. At the launch he will speak about the book, there’ll be a Q&A and Reformers Bookshop will supply the coffee.

Learn about the book launch here.

Watch a short video, and order the book.

Friends: Your secret weapon in avoiding burnout

“More and more, Christians are burning out.

Depending on the circles you run in, this phenomenon can start to feel almost as self-evident as our most basic beliefs about God. Some of our brothers and sisters who are serving the most are feeling like they have the least left to give. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Lauren Mahaffey shares some encouragement.

The worthwhileness of written prayers

“God in his kindness has recorded for us prayers in his word the Bible, e.g. Dan 9:4-19; 2 Sam 7:18-29; Job 42:1-6; Ps 86; and Mt 6:9-13.

These prayers teach and remind us of many things, including the worthwhileness of written prayers. …”

–  Back in 2016, this article by Jane Tooher was published in Moore College’s Think Tank series.

Thanks to Church Society’s Ros Clarke for the reminder (Written Prayers Redux).

Review of The Passion Translation of the Psalms

“My colleague Andrew Shead has written a review of The Passion Translation of the Psalms (“Poetry on Fire”) for The Gospel Coalition’s journal Themelios. Andrew is the head of Old Testament and Hebrew here at Moore Theological College, and is a member of the NIV Committee on Bible Translation. Here’s the abstract of his review article:

Brian Simmons has made a new translation of the Psalms (and now the whole New Testament) which aims to ‘re-introduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader.’ He achieves this by abandoning all interest in textual accuracy, playing fast and loose with the original languages, and inserting so much new material into the text that it is at least 50% longer than the original. The result is a strongly sectarian translation that no longer counts as Scripture; by masquerading as a Bible it threatens to bind entire churches in thrall to a false god. …”

– Moore College’s Lionel Windsor draws attention to an important review.

And you can read the whole of the newly-released Themelios 43.1 here.

Our Religious Freedom campaign — from Barnabas Fund

Take the time to explore Barnabas Fund’s Our Religious Freedom website.

It includes resources such as the Turn the Tide booklet (PDF), which gives a good summary of the issues and helpfully documents some of the key developments threatening religious freedom in Australia.

As well, you can sign the Petition to the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives –

“We the undersigned call upon the Australian government to ensure full, permanent and adequate protections of religious freedoms:

the freedom to worship; to read Scriptures in public; to interpret Scriptures without government interference; to choose or change one’s faith; to preach and try to convince others; to establish places of worship; and the freedom from being required to affirm particular beliefs to study, stand for election, hold particular jobs (except where there is a genuine occupational requirement such as chaplaincy posts), or give parental care to a child.”

You can also download the printed petition sheet.

Lessons from the Worst Sermon I Ever Heard

“I spent this past summer on sabbatical, so I had an opportunity to listen to a lot of preaching in a bunch of different churches. All of the churches I attended – and all of the men who pastor them – are faithful to Christ. As far as I can tell, they love God and love his gospel, and are anxious to see people come to Christ in faith. All of the sermons I heard contained true, convicting, and useful things for listeners to know, believe, and act on.

But by the end of the summer, I’d come to the conclusion that there’s something very wrong with lots of evangelical preaching. …”

– At 9Marks, Mike McKinley gives us a sobering analysis – with helpful suggestions for doing better.

Related: Good news about preaching – Peter Jensen.

Keeping the Evangel in Evangelism

“In our culture, people who think themselves autonomous will claim the right to define all meaning for themselves. Any truth claim they reject or resist is simply ruled out of bounds by society at large. We will make our own world of meaning and dare anyone to violate our autonomy.

This is why evangelism is often perceived as insensitive or even threatening in our culture. Evangelism demands that we press the authority of Scripture and the claims of Christ on sinners as we invite them to the free gift of salvation provided through Christ’s atoning work…”

– Albert Mohler writes with a timely reminder of what evangelism is all about.

David Robertson speaks with Dominic Steele at The Pastor’s Heart

Dominic Steele spoke with David Robertson on the latest The Pastor’s Heart podcast.

Fascinating and encouraging. Watch it here.

High Court upholds rejection of inter-state vilification orders

“In a Federation like Australia, different jurisdictions (States and Territories) may have different rules on what amounts to ‘discrimination’ or ‘vilification’, and how those things interact with religious freedom. One of the pressing issues here in recent years has been whether there will be a ‘race to the bottom’ in freedom of speech on religious issues, with one jurisdiction in particular, Tasmania, raising deep concerns with a very broad prohibition on causing ‘offence’ related to matters such as sexual orientation.

Today the High Court of Australia, on appeal from NSW, has affirmed the decision of the NSW Court of Appeal that State and Territory ‘tribunals’ (non-judicial panels usually used in discrimination issues) have no jurisdiction to impose penalties on residents of other Australian jurisdictions under their own local laws. …”

– At Law and Religion Australia, Assoc. Professor Neil Foster looks at today’s decision.

Rejection by C of E has driven LGBT people to suicide, says Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool

“A senior Church of England bishop has said some LGBT people have been driven to harm or even to kill themselves as a result of ‘pain and rejection’ caused by the church.

Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, also likened the struggle to persuade the Church of England to be truly welcoming and inclusive to LGBT people to the fight against slavery.

Speaking at the launch of the Ozanne Foundation …”

– Story from The Guardian.

A very helpful book in thinking about all this is Rosaria Butterfield’s 2015 book Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ. (Also as an AudioBook.)

Reviewed at The Gospel Coalition:

“When it comes to same-sex anything, the church can appear awkward and clumsy. As the pressure mounts, we Christians fumble around with our Bibles, unsure of how to connect the truths in God’s Word to cultural discourse or personal struggles.

The church would be hard pressed to find someone better than Butterfield to help us make sense of our uncertainty. Once a tenured English professor, she approaches the issue of sexuality with notable scholastic rigor; her theology is profound. Once a committed lesbian, she empathizes with those in the grips of same-sex attraction; her compassion abounds. In her new book Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ [20 quotes], we benefit from both.”

See also:

Analysis of Bishop of Liverpool’s Speech at Ozanne Media Launch – Julian Mann.

Same sex marriage implications for Christian health professionals

Neil Foster, at Law and Religion Australia, writes:

“I am presenting a paper on this topic this evening to a group of Christian health professionals in Newcastle. The paper may be downloaded here: Same Sex Marriage and Christian Health Professionals. [PDF file.]”

Preaching the Word, rarer than we think?

There is nothing confusing or surprising about Paul’s dying exhortation to his younger partner in ministry, Timothy : ‘Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction’, 2 Timothy 4:2.

It is not confusing, Timothy is to see that his ministry revolves around the public, open proclamation of the Word, the Word which God breathed out, 2 Timothy 3:16.

Timothy was a Pastor at Ephesus and he would have been very familiar with Paul’s pioneering work there. When Paul rehearses his method in planting the church to the elders of the Ephesian church, he speaks of preaching, teaching, declaring, testifying and proclaiming, all Word proclaiming words.

The explanation and declaration of God’s revealed Word was at the heart of first century apostolic ministry and must be at the heart of twenty first century apostolic ministry.

This is not confusing, a pastor today exercises his pastoral role by preaching the Scriptures, by correcting, rebuking and encouraging the flock with this Word.

Cut the modern day Pastor and he must bleed Bible!

Neither is this surprising, because Paul has already reminded Timothy that it was this breathed out Word of God which, ‘gave him wisdom for salvation’ and is ‘useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness’, 2 Timothy 3:15-16. The Bible is God’s word, it’s origin is God Himself, not to preach it therefore and preach our own ideas is perverse.

The faithful preacher must set about the task of explaining and applying a passage of Scripture, be it a verse, a paragraph, a chapter or a whole book, it will always be the Biblical text which is the focus of the preacher’s attention. This is unfortunately, rarer than we think!

Instead we may have preaching which takes the idea of the text and preaches the idea in isolation from the text. We may have sermons which are addressed to all sorts of contemporary issues, which tell much more about the issue than what God says in the Bible. We may have sermons about a theme which follows the theme through the Bible in a doctrinal way, ‘flipping preaching’, which does not settle down in one passage and explain and apply that passage to hearers.

One Pastor said recently, does this mean I have to expound a passage every week? No, but realise that the week you don’t expound a passage is the week the sheep will go home hungry.

Does this mean we never preach on topics? No, it does not mean that, it means that we will never take a topic and not expound a section of Scripture in relation to that topic.

Let me give an example. Recently in the light of that very emotional confession of Australia’s cricket captain Steve Smith, I might have preached a sermon on the topic of, Why the world is in such a mess.

I would preach on the dynamics of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve receiving God’s word, but the contrary voice of the Serpent tells the lie and the lie is believed. The reason the world is the way it is, is because a lie has been believed.

I would cross reference just once, to Jesus’ description of the Devil as a liar and murderer, John 8:44, to show that the contrary voice is always the voice of the Serpent. I would warn the church to always be aware of two voices, one which speaks truth the other the lie, don’t follow the lie! Steve Smith listened to the lie that, the end justifies the means, don’t you listen to the lie, which always causes us to doubt that the Word of the loving God, cannot be trusted.

I have thus preached on a contemporary topic of why the world is the way it is, I have done it from Genesis 3, probably in a series on these early chapters. The Devil speaks the crafty lie; our parents believe the lie; God judges the serpent, the woman, the man and the earth. Therefore trust the Word of God, rightly understood and don’t believe the Devil’s lies.

John Chapman would often say in critiquing a sermon, ‘the authority is in the text brother, preach the text!’

Do you make the text of Scripture the object of your explanation and application, thus feeding your sheep?

David Robertson is quoted as saying, ‘A preacher who does not preach the Bible is like a comedian who is not funny, you wonder, what is the point’.

– David Cook.

Four ways Christians should share their faith that are actually effective

“This is a great time to be a Christian. Not an easy time – but an exciting one.

I know it doesn’t look that way. Spend a few minutes on your social media feed, and you’ll see just how lost and broken we are right now. Ours is a world full of contradiction and confusion. And it’s not a great place to be a Christian: We’re now seen by most of the world as intolerant and irrelevant. Yet, while the end of Christendom may surprise and scare many us, that’s not true of God. …

And in a time so confusing, so transient, so difficult, God is calling us to be bold and strong – to have courage. He will accomplish His purposes. He will carry out His mission. And He is inviting us to join Him in making disciples of Jesus Christ among all tribes, tongues and nations despite the social climate.”

– Read another encouraging article on gospelling – this one from Matt Chandler.

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