The Most Neglected Element of Church?

From Tim Challies –

“There are some elements of public worship that receive a great deal of attention. These elements are taught, practiced, rehearsed, and perfected until they are as good as they can be. In most churches, this includes the music, of course, and often the preaching. … But either way, some elements receive the lion’s share of attention.

What elements often do not receive nearly as much attention? What elements are often not taught, practiced, rehearsed, and perfected until they are as good as they can be? …”

– Read it all here.

Related:

Wonderful help for reading the Bible in public.

King’s Birthday Conference 2026 — early bird prices ending soon

The King’s Birthday Conference 2026 is coming up on Monday 8th June at Moore College.

We’ve been reminded that the standard rates below will apply until the end of this week:

Regular $25, Concession $10

and that they increase from Monday 25th May.

“Is prophecy dead? Where have all the prophets gone?

Amos said he was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, and yet he was one of God’s prophets in Israel. Do we have prophets and prophecy today? Should we all prophesy or is it the task of some of us?

The issues around prophecy are many and varied; this King’s Birthday Conference will look particularly at a Biblical view of prophecy today.”

See the website for full details and registration.

Marriages in Mission

From Phillip Jensen –

“A mission church has many basic Christian morality issues to resolve.

The old culture, not built on the gospel, will have practices inconsistent with the gospel. But as with most cultures, these practices are assumed rather than thought out. The gospel revolutionises all cultures, and Paul the Apostle is dealing with the marriage cultures of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 7.

This episode of Two Ways News is a difficult unravelling of Paul’s advice on several complex issues.”

– Listen to Peter and Phillip Jensen discuss – at Two Ways News.

Faithfulness When Freedoms Diminish

“How should Christians live wisely and remain faithful to Christ in a society where religious freedom is on the wane? This is the question driving Patrick Parkinson’s new book, Unshaken Allegiance: Living wisely as Christians with diminishing religious freedoms.

Parkinson writes not as a theologian or a pastor but as a Christian legal academic, and as someone who has experienced intense religious restriction first-hand through his time in communist Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s.…”

– At TGC Australia, Marty Robinson reviews Patrick Parkinson’s new book.

Expository Preaching Trust expands

“The work of the Expository Preaching Trust is expanding.

As well as Preaching clubs, workshops and conferences, we now have 50 preachers being mentored by 16 experienced preachers.

The Trust began in 2012 and we are now in need of extra help.

From 1 July Michael Leong will join us for one day per week to be the Trust’s Operations Associate. …

Michael holds the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology from Moore.

As well as mentoring and speaking at the Trust’s conferences, Michael will oversee the promotion of our website and events and coordinate the implementation of the calendar. …”

– Read more at the Expository Preaching Trust.

Should evangelicals sing Hillsong, Bethel and Elevation songs in evangelical churches? — with Mal York

This week from The Pastor’s Heart –

“Church music is one of the most formative and contested parts of local church life.

People join churches because of music. People leave churches because of music. But music is not a filler between the sermon and the prayers. The songs we sing put theology into people’s mouths and memories.

So how should we choose the songs we sing in church?

Mal York, the dean of students at Sydney’s Moore Theological College, joins us to talk about principles and pragmatics in choosing songs for church.

We discuss theological depth, singability, musical excellence, doctrinal drift, performance culture and what to do with songs from movements like Hillsong, Bethel and Elevation.”

– Watch or listen here.

A quote from Mal York to consider  –

“Hillsong, whether we like it or not …  see their songs as advertising for them. So, they see that whenever you sing a Hillsong song in your church, you are advertising their ministry. Now, some churches might be happy to advertise their ministry, but for me, I found it hard to sing those songs.” (At 13’20”.)

Sex in Marriage

From Phillip Jensen –

“When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he had to deal with many issues, some of which were raised by the Corinthians themselves. Several of the issues related to the subject of sexual morality.

Chapters 5 and 6 of 1 Corinthians conclude with the importance of serving God with our bodies, and chapter 7 opens with the issue of how to serve God with your body in the face of sexual immoralities. The answer is not in celibacy, but a right understanding of sex in marriage.

Peter and I are going to take several weeks to discuss the many issues raised in 1 Corinthians 7. This week, it’s sex in marriage, verses 1-6.”

– Listen at Two Ways News.

Being a Christian is not the same as being Religious

Tim Thorburn writes at The Gospel Coalition Australia –

“One of the interesting facts from early church history is that Christians were accused of being atheists.

They didn’t do the religious things that were expected by their contemporaries in the Roman world. That might be a surprise to many in the secular West, where Christians usually look obviously more religious than their secular neighbours. After all, Christians have faith, they pray, they attend worship services. Many go further by wearing crosses, carrying Bibles, fasting, and orientating their lives around priests, festivals, saints and pilgrimages.

As many of us witness an uptick in interest in religion, including Christianity, especially among young men, I wonder what these new inquirers are attracted to. Is it Jesus and his saving work? Or is it religion, with the trappings of symbols and rituals?

Exploring why the early Christians were accused of being atheists could be a helpful exercise for us in this moment. …”

– Read it all here.

Themelios Volume 51 Issue 1

The latest issue of Themelios – Volume 51 Issue 1 – was published last month.

Free to download, this is a special issue in honour of D.A. Carson.

There are many contributions, including those by Gary Millar, Graham Cole, Peter Orr, Brian Rosner and David Peterson.

It’s available from The Gospel Coalition – here’s a direct link to the PDF version.

Targeted and Engaged Evangelism to the Eastern Orthodox

Archie Poulos reviews and commends Certainty for Life: An invitation to those in Eastern Orthodoxy by John Diacos –

“I have spent most of my ministry seeking to evangelise Greek Orthodox, and in that pursuit John and I have sometimes laboured together and sometimes in parallel with each other. I have great delight in commending this book.”

– Read about it at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Is a mother different from a father?

“Australia has celebrated Mother’s Day and Father’s Day annually since the 1930s. Some might think that these days are a bit of a relic from the past, when traditional gender roles were more accepted and family structures were much less diverse. Couldn’t we now just have a Parents’ Day instead?

I don’t hold particularly strong opinions on whether observing these days is ultimately positive or negative for us as a society. But I do think that having separate days for mothers and fathers offers an opportunity to celebrate something that is increasingly absent from our community: the recognition that a parent is not just a generic, substitutable role. A parent is either a mother or a father. …”

– Just in time for Mother’s Day, The Australian Church Record has published this excerpt from Jocelyn Loane’s book on Motherhood.

King’s Birthday Conference 2026 set for Monday 8th June

From Two Ways Ministries –

“As in previous years, KBC 2026 will be held on the public holiday Monday, 8 June, from 1:30 -5:00pm at Moore Theological College..”

– Registration is now open.

“Our registration rate will increase on May 25 (10 working days prior to conference) so please register early to ensure a seat in the Marcus Loane Hall; we expect to fill it to capacity, and will have late registrations seated in an overflow room.

For those living outside Sydney who cannot get to Newtown, the Conference will be live-streamed …”

More from Phillip Jensen –

“The topic this year is Prophecy Today. It is a very important topic, which is under such controversy today.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Biblical Christianity is a prophetic religion – built on God’s revealed word. Therefore, nothing is such a threat to our faith as the lies Satan puts into the mouths of false prophets. Discerning prophets and prophecy is a very important activity.

Jesus warns us to beware of false prophets (Matthew 7:15), while Paul warns us not to despise prophecies (1 Thessalonians 5:20). How do we know the truth and what will indicate the falsehood of prophets and prophecies?

We are commanded to ‘earnestly desire to prophesy’ for prophecy builds, encourages, and consoles the church.

But how are we all to prophesy without causing confusion, and when are we to remain silent?

WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?

At one end of the spectrum, the Charismatic Movement is keen to promote prophecy and prophets who speak in ways that contradict and undermine Biblical revelation.

At the other end of the spectrum, Liberal Christians are promoting as prophets people who preach the ‘correct’ political messages of social justice, and use the references to women prophesying to set aside any distinction between men and women.

And in the middle of the spectrum are confused Bible believers, unsure of what the Bible does teach about prophecy.

The King’s Birthday Conference is always a great time to catch up with old friends, a great place to make new friends, and an important place to bring friends to hear God’s word.”

New thinking on addressing the collapse in ministry recruitment and training?

From Dominic Steele at The Pastor’s Heart –

“In the UK there are serious signs of a narrowing pipeline into ministry recruitment and training. Fewer people are coming forward through some of the traditional routes. Traineeships are under pressure. Residential theological education is changing.

And churches are asking: Where will the next generation of pastors, evangelists, church planters and ministry leaders come from?

In Australia, it is not the same story, but there is a similar question. Geoff Folland has argued that the old model of the young, full-time, residential theological student is no longer the dominant reality. Colleges face rising compliance costs, changing student profiles and tighter finances. And, churches, apprenticeships, parachurch organisations and mission agencies are now doing more of the early work of formation.

So is this a Bible college problem? A local church problem? A recruitment problem? A funding problem? Or an ecosystem problem?

Orlando Saer is Senior Pastor of Christ Church Southampton, Chair of Trustees of 9:38 and part of the team behind the Yarnton Gospel Workers Trust launched last week — a new UK initiative seeking to remove blockages and multiply gospel workers for the harvest.”

– Watch or listen here.

The Temple of the Holy Spirit — Our embodied future

From Phillip Jensen –

“The commandments of 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 are obvious: flee sexual immorality and glorify God in your body.

However, Paul does not simply give commandments; he gives the rationale behind them. The rationale has to do with the meaning of the body in his thinking in terms of our creation, our resurrection, and our marital union with Christ.

This densely argued paragraph provides for us a Christian understanding of ourselves as well as our motivation to live Christianly.”

– Listen at Two Ways News.

Context, Context, Context — Applying biblical thinking

From Phillip Jensen –

“Hard passages of the Bible are great passages. The reason that they are hard is because we are not thinking biblically. Wrestling with these hard passages gives us the opportunity to change our thinking in order to be aligned with biblical thinking.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 is notoriously difficult, and over the next two weeks, Peter and I are going to try to unravel some of its complexities.

We start today by looking at the context.”

– Hear Peter and Philip discuss at Two Ways News.

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