Darwin Cathedral Evening Service turns One
A new issue of Top Centre (23.2) from the Diocese of the Northern Territory is now out and available for download.
Lots of encouragement and plenty to pray about – including a report on the first anniversary of the new evening service at Christ Church Cathedral in Darwin (pictured).
“Christ Church Cathedral celebrated the first anniversary of its 5.30pm evening service on June 4 with about 50 people in the congregation including a newborn baby.
This compared with a mere ten people at its first service a year ago.
Reflecting on the growth of this church plant, founding leader Ben Staunton said as much as he was encouraged by the growth in numbers, what was more remarkable was the community that had been built, with members regularly meeting socially and helping each other in their daily lives. …”
Download your copy from this page.
Conversations: With Dr. Andrew Browning, Author & Christian Missionary Doctor
John Anderson’s latest Conversation is with Dr. Andrew Browning, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has devoted his life to improving maternal health in Africa, with a particular focus on fistula surgery.
Very much worth your time. Good to share too.
Related:
Africa: Maternal Healthcare – Fistula Hospitals – AnglicanAid
“Anglican Aid is partnering with Dr. Andrew Browning and the Barbara May Foundation (BMF) to help African women to have a safe childbirth.
Well known Sydney Anglican Dr. Browning worked for many years with Dr. Catherine Hamlin in Ethiopia and continues to develop her vision for fistula prevention and cure in the name of Christ. This vision continues through an expanding network of Christian maternity hospitals funded by the Barbara May Foundation together with Anglican Aid. …
BMF is a Christian foundation motivated by the love and compassion that God the Father has for the world and endeavours to serve as Christ serves. Please join Anglican Aid as together we strive to eradicate unsafe births in Africa.”
Be encouraged – God is at work!
“I recently preached at a church from Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son and the lost brother – a great chapter of the Bible for you to read and reread.
It’s one of the great joys of my role with Evangelism and New Churches (ENC) that I get to speak at many churches in this way.
I invited people to come back home to God, made possible through Jesus; to be found by our loving God, who has not given up on searching for them no matter how far away from him they may feel. …”
– John Lavender has this wonderful encouragement for you at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Mission & parenting in a post Christian world – with David Rietveld
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“There have been massive social changes as the western world has shifted from a Christian world view to a post Christian world view. In his new book ‘Being Christian after Christendom’, the senior pastor of Dapto Anglican Church David Rietveld analyzes the changes that churches, pastors and parents face in this transition.
Six weeks ago on The Pastor’s Heart David gave his explanation of the problem.
David is back today to paint a positive way forward for evangelism and parenting amongst the post Christian world view.”
How intermediate and experienced preachers can improve their preaching
“How do you make sure you continue to improve as a preacher?
You’ve learned the basics about big ideas and supporting ideas and introductions and applications and full notes versus bullet points and eye contact and hand gestures and preaching pyramids and illustrations and why it is better or worse to preach longer than twenty-five minutes. You are able to consistently research, compose and deliver a solid sermon every week without having a meltdown.
But how do you keep improving? …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Mikey Lynch has a simple suggestion.
See also:
Expository Preaching Trust Preaching Workshop.
Bishop of Bathurst’s Newsletter — August 2023
The Bishop of Bathurst’s Newsletter — Winter edition, August 2023 — has been published by Bishop Mark Calder.
Be sure to download your copy to help you pray for the ministry of the gospel of the Lord Jesus in Central and Western NSW. (There is also information on how to support the work financially, if you are able.)
From the newsletter –
“Pray for all our stipendiary clergy
– that they would be refreshed, sustained and encouraged in their work – Andy Martin, Andrew Thornhill, Bec Choi, Ben Connelly, Ben Mackay, Brett Watterson, Carl Palmer, David Blackmore, James Boardman, James Daymond, James Hodson, Jonny Lush, Jono Williams, Phil Howes, Bob Cameron, Roger Phelps, Sally Phelps, Steven Klouth, Tim Smith and Wally Cox. Pray also for our many other clergy who serve and help so wonderfully!
Pray too for our stipendiary lay ministers: Lizzie Watterson, Levi Kowalczyk and Jo Watts + Glenn and Wendy Murray.
Parishes without clergy – Dubbo, Cudgegong Valley, Kelso, Narromine, Gilgandra, Coolah-Dunedoo, Condobolin, Trundle, Coonamble, Warren, Bourke-Brewarrina, Cumnock and Warren. Please pray that the Lord would raise up 13 godly, able and passionate people to serve in ALL of these parishes, to his great glory! And please thank the Lord for all who serve these parishes in the meantime – both lay and ordained.”
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.
Speaking with Two Voices
“In John Bunyan’s classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, there is a character Mr Facing Both Ways who lives in the village of Fair Speech. Bunyan is exposing one of the temptations in life which is to speak out of both sides of our mouth in the hope that everybody will appreciate us.
Yet there is a very real sense in which the Christian message does come with two voices; there is indeed a double-sidedness to the Christian life. …”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General, Peter Barnes, writes to encourage believers to sing two notes at once.
August – September 2023 Southern Cross out now
The August – September 2023 issue of Southern Cross magazine from the Diocese of Sydney is now out.
Printed copies will be available in parishes shortly, and you can read it on the web right now.
In his column this month, Archbishop Kanishka Raffel reflects on Our True Spiritual Condition –
“Recently I was walking through the city and, as I crossed Martin Place, I noticed the usual queue of men and women lining up to receive their evening meal, while others set up plastic folding tables and baskets of plastic cutlery and paper serviettes ready for that night’s food distribution.
The Sydney City Council says there are about 300 people sleeping on the streets of the CBD each night, with close to that number in city-based crisis accommodation. Across NSW, the number of people without adequate housing is more than 30,000. I am deeply grateful for the work of Anglicare and a number of city and suburban churches that provide assistance to people experiencing homelessness, or who are at risk of homelessness in their local area.
As I continued on my walk, I soon passed another queue. This time it was a queue of people waiting to enter the Louis Vuitton store on George Street. It made for a jarring contrast, though the two queues were barely 500 metres apart. …”
Read it all on pages 13 and 14.
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.
John Chapman on What’s really important
John Chapman wrote this article for ACL News in 2001. While set in that particular moment in time, and directed initially to ACL members, these words speak to us all today —
“There never was a time when gospelling was more important. Freedom of speech and freedom to assemble, unknown in many countries of the world, we take for granted. Do not assume that this will last. It is a great privilege and carries with it a great responsibility.”
With the Gospel, there is never time to relax.
I have just returned from the funeral of a friend who was also a clergyman. He is, in every way, Mr. Valiant-for-Truth. He preached with clarity and passion about the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He urged people to ‘turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the coming wrath’.
He could be trusted to do this whenever you heard him. However, he also worked hard for the defence of that gospel. He was determined that he would take whatever steps were necessary to see that the gospel was available when another generation came along.
As I thought about his life and witness, I thought about the ACL. Its members are dedicated to see that, to the best of their ability, the gospel will be known and passed on to generations yet to come.
Much of the League’s work could be described as ‘behind the scenes’ work. They help us by finding committed Christians, who know and understand the gospel, to serve on the many councils and committees which comprise the working groups in our Diocesan life.
Have you ever noticed, as you have read the messages which the Glorified Christ gives to the Seven Churches in the Revelation, that by the close of the Apostolic Age many of them have lost or forgotten the gospel message? Some are on the brink of extinction. Some are warned by the Risen Christ that if they do not repent they will be abandoned by Him! It is an easy thing to ‘let the gospel slip through our fingers’.
We are in a period of change. Peter Jensen has become our Archbishop. The ACL has a new President, Zac Veron. This is a time to recommit ourselves to the preaching and preservation of the gospel.
From a denominational point of view we may be happy and have a feeling that ‘all is well’. However it is to the world around us that we need to look.
We need, as never before, to be trying with every means at our disposal to get the gospel out to our city and country. At a time when God has brought the nations to us, our opportunities seem limitless.
There never was a time when gospelling was more important. Freedom of speech and freedom to assemble, unknown in many countries of the world, we take for granted. Do not assume that this will last. It is a great privilege and carries with it a great responsibility.
Nothing matters more than that a person should come to know Christ!
– John C Chapman.
Published in ACL News, October–November 2001.
John Chapman, 1930-2012, was one of Australia’s best-known and loved evangelists.
He was also a long-serving member of the ACL’s Council.
Top photo courtesy of Matthias Media.
How God has used GAFCON over the last 10 years
“I’m travelling in Tanzania at the moment and am aware that many in Australia will have heard of the happenings at GAFCON in Kigali, but may not be fully aware of what led to this point and just how significant this is for our fellowship with Anglicans around the world. So let me share some of the testimony I gave to the conference about why GAFCON matters.
It was not a complete history and so I apologise for any incorrect or missing elements. But I spoke as a person who had the great privilege of attending GAFCON 2008 in Jerusalem when I was a rector in a Western Australian parish in the Diocese of Perth – a diocese self-described at that time as a liberal and progressive diocese…”
– Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel shares something of the history of GAFCON. Great cause for thanksgiving to Almighty God.
Photo: The Western Australian contingent at GAFCON 2008 in Jerusalem, with Kanishka Raffel at right. With thanks to Russell Powell.
This is the Word of the Lord
“Thanks be to God.
With great joy in his heart, a friend of mine recently shared with me about how his son became a Christian.
The teenager had been reading through the story of Achan’s sin (Josh. 7:1-26) at youth group and upon reflection on the nature of sin, had come to trust in Jesus for salvation. I was wonderfully surprised! Wonderfully, for the boy had made the most important decision of his life by believing in Christ. Surprised, because – somewhat to my shame – my initial impulse was to be surprised that the account of Achan’s sin could have been the instrument of his salvation. I think, upon reflection, that I had forgotten something significant about God’s Word: that it is good, all of it. But perhaps it is possible to forget the other good aspects of the Holy Scriptures too?…”
– At The Australian Church Record, Mark Earngey writes with great encouragement to treasure the Word of the Lord.
Your preaching is primarily for believers
“In certain circles, seeking to get unbelievers into church is seen as the highest possible goal. There is nothing better, according to some, when unbelievers come into the church and under the sound of the gospel. That, they aver, is what we ought to be about. At the risk of being deemed a contrarian, I just don’t think that is true.
What goes on inside the church is necessarily for the upbuilding of believers. The church is, after all, a gathering of believers. The world is not the church. What happens in the church is not primarily for the world. It is for believers.
This matters when it comes to our preaching.…”
– Here’s a short and encouraging article for preachers from Stephen Kneale in Oldham, Greater Manchester. (Link via Tim Challies.)
Preachers should be great storytellers
“Stories are captivating, inspiring, and memorable. Perhaps some of our greatest childhood memories are having stories read to us, and the privilege of parents, and grandparents to read stories to our children, to curl up with them, and do funny voices, and laugh along with them at the silly ones.
The Bible, is, in effect, a story.
Jesus told stories, he was the master story teller, bar none. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, Jim Mobbs has encouragement for preachers.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…