Turning Biblical Convictions into Practical Expectations
“At the end of 2021, Suellen Milham was feeling unsettled. As the Women’s Ministry Worker at Orange Evangelical Church (OEC), there was a lot of change happening in her ministry space. The Covid years had meant she felt some disconnection with the women; there had been virtually no opportunities over the previous couple of years for large gatherings in the women’s ministry context; the church was just about to transition into their new building; and there were 3 new ministers on the staff team.
One of the tools that Suellen devised to tackle this unease was to hold a number of Women’s Focus Groups – just to see where the women were at, spiritually, and to pull women together after this period of disconnection. …”
– At Equal But Different, Lesley Ramsay shares a story of one church’s journey towards clarity.
From my study to yours’ — Dick Lucas on Luke 14:16-24 — The great supper
At his kitchen table, Dick Lucas has been continuing to record reflections on Bible passages, and all are worth hearing and pondering.
“Dick Lucas was Rector of St Helen’s Church from 1961–1998. He was instrumental in the establishment and growth of St Helen’s Bible teaching ministry. Dick continues to speak at various conferences and church gatherings. He has also been at work recording new material. His ‘From my study to yours’ audio recordings are aimed at helping people study and teach the Bible.”
Recently he turned to Luke 14:16-24.
“This parable is both sobering and unsettling. It strikes a tragic note. A personal invitation to attend a great banquet is sent out to many, but all decline. Their places are taken by ‘unworthy’ substitutes. Here, Dick reflects on the work of the evangelist in the light of this tale.”
– Listen here at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate. 11 minutes.
From Campus Talks to Bookshelf: Reviewing “The Coming of the Holy Spirit”
“I think the highest compliment I can pay Phillip Jensen’s The Coming of the Holy Spirit is to say that I found it pretty much what I was expecting because the author had already convinced me of it at an AFES national conference in 1992.
I can’t remember a lot of talks from my university years, but I can remember that series very clearly…”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Andrew Moody hopes that Phillip Jensen’s book will be widely read.
It’s available from Matthias Media.
Moore College Lectures 2023
Coming up on 14 – 18 August.
Preaching a good and powerful word
“As we start to explore what it means to tremble at God’s word, I want to suggest that our relationship with the Scriptures as God’s word is more complex than most of us are willing to admit.
On the one hand, we know that Scripture is powerful, it is the Word of God. The preacher’s job is to get out of the way so that God’s powerful word can work in the hearts of people. We quote Spurgeon’s famous, ‘Defend the Bible, I’d sooner defend a lion. Just let the truth free and it will defend itself.’ We exhort each other to ‘let the word do the work’ and we share those wonderful stories of people who were converted just by reading Scripture. …”
– The Australian Church Record has published this edited transcript of Paul Grimmond’s address at the Nexus 2023 Conference. He reminds us, “When we talk about God and his word, we speak of a relationship that is utterly unique in our experience.”
Image: Moore College.
Graphical overview of Peter Jensen’s “The Life of Faith”
Peter Jensen’s book The Life of Faith: An Introduction to Christian doctrine was launched at Moore College in March this year.
At his website by faith, not by sight (‘my little repository of diagrams and scribbles about Jesus’), Alan Au at Captivate Presbyterian Church in North Ryde has created a terrific graphical overview of the book.
See it here. And you can get the book from Matthias Media.
The book for concerned and confused parents
“The 1960s had the sexual revolution and the 2020s has brought us the gender revolution. So this is a fitting title for a book with the clear purpose to ‘provide the biblical basis for a contemporary Christian response to the complicated feelings and experiences of gender dysphoria’. …”
– Russell Powell writes about The Gender Revolution at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Heresy! Why Christians must confront false teaching
“Jesus warned his disciples that false doctrine and false teachers would arise within the Church. He spoke of thieves, robbers, strangers, hired hands and wolves (see John 10) and of himself as a good shepherd, protecting the flock. So it ought to come as no surprise when the Church becomes something of a battleground, and all kinds of heresies spring up. This has happened throughout history. …”
– Church Society’s Lee Gatiss writes for Premier Christianity.
1 Timothy 2 and the scholarly debate
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“1 Timothy 2:8-15 might be the most controversial New Testament passage.
There has been an enormous amount of scholarly attention on this section of scripture, especially over the last few decades, and there are practical questions that we can’t ignore in church life.
Lionel Windsor is a New Testament lecturer at Sydney’s Moore Theological College. Lionel teaches the pastoral epistles to third year students. So is abreast of the scholarly debate.
Lionel gave a super helpful seminar a few months ago at the Priscilla and Aquila Conference held by Moore College. We have linked to that seminar and Lionel’s notes here.
What are the elephants in the room – Culturally, Philosophically, in Scholarship.
What are the issues of interpretation? How do we approach the passage?
What issues surround 1 Timothy?
What is the significance of ‘quietness’?, ‘let her learn’?, ‘to teach’?
What is the connection between teaching and authority?”
Two very differs approaches to ‘Babylon’
Here are two unrelated stories – but both about Christians responding to ‘Babylon” –each response will generate a range of reactions.
John MacArthur’s “The Essential Church” film documents Grace Church’s stand against satanic tyranny – Not the Bee.
Anglican leader welcomes Pope’s vigil for Christian unity – The Catholic Leader.
What’s really going on? – Revelation 1
Moore College Principal Mark Thompson, preaching in the College chapel on Friday, began a series on the Book of Revelation.
He starts in chapter 1, asking, “What are you afraid of?”. He points out that the Book of Revelation is not a code book, but a revelation given to bring blessing to those who will listen.
– Watch here.
“The Surprising Genius of Jesus” — Peter Williams
Tyndale House Principal Peter Williams gives three lectures at the Southern Baptist Seminary.
The title for his talks, “The Surprising Genius of Jesus“, is drawn from his forthcoming book.
Fascinating and enlightening. Well worth setting aside the time to watch and listen.
How we got the Bible: The story of Scripture
“Countless lives have been changed by the preaching of the word of God. Since human beings tend to look at the outside and not at the inside, we often attribute the power of this transformative teaching to the preacher. We all know on reflection, though, that the real power does not rest in humans but in God’s word itself.
Reading Scripture is the most immediate exposure to the word of God. In practice, this means picking up a physical book and opening it to a specific page, or opening up an app on our phones and scrolling to a specific location. In either case, we trust that the word has not been corrupted and that the message of the Bible we hold in our hands was not changed or lost altogether. We believe that we are reading the actual words that God spoke.
In what follows, we will think about what has gone before that moment when we open Scripture and read it. What happened to the Bible between the earliest times and the twenty-first century? How did God bring his word to us? The reverse of this question—how he brought us to his word—is part of our individual testimony. But the way in which God brought about the Bible is the story of his providence in history, played out over thousands of years. And by understanding what God had done over the ages, we will see that it is reasonable and justified to trust that the Bible in our hands is a translation of the trustworthy words of Scripture. We could talk about ten reasons why to trust the Bible. But it may be more effective if we understand the larger narrative of the history of the Bible. …”
– Dirk Jongkind, Vice Principal at Tyndale House in Cambridge, takes a long look at the story of how the Bible came to us. Very helpful and worth sharing.
Image: A 3rd Century fragment from Egypt, of Revelation chapter 1, in the Chester Beatty collection, Dublin. Photo with thanks to Kevin Murray.
You can’t be yourself by yourself
“Men and women cannot be fully themselves without one another.
Don’t get me wrong; I love my alone time. I am “me” when I’m by myself. But Genesis 1:27 complicates my idea of myself by saying that God created humankind in his image, as male and female. Somehow, by myself I’m not enough. It takes both men and women to fully express the divine image.
This turns out to be a hugely important truth not just for my self-understanding, but for our relating as men and women in the church (note: this is not an article about marriage!) The foundational text comes in Genesis 2…”
– Here’s a very helpful an thought-provoking article by Dr Andrew Shead at Moore College.
At SydneyAnglicans.net and also in the June-July 2023 edition of Southern Cross magazine.
The Gender Revolution – with Patricia & Kamal Weerakoon and Rob Smith
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“What is meant by each of the terms biological sex, gendered behaviours or expressions, sexual orientation and gendered identity? How do the various terms relate?
We talk to former director of Sydney University’s Graduate Program in Sexual Heath, Dr Patricia Weerakoon, Rob Smith, who is head of doctrine at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and Rev Kamal Weerakoon, who has done masters studies in this area.
Rob, Patricia and Kamal are encouraging us to treat with love and compassion those with gender dysphoria or gender incongruence. …”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…