The Christmas Countdown: from Speak Life
Speak Life in the UK has released this year’s Christmas video – The Christmas Countdown.
It’s something you could share with a friend, and then encourage them to consider the 321 course –
“321 comprises of 8 interactive video sessions designed to be completed at your leisure. Each session is around 20 min long and can be played, paused and accelerated to suit.
Presenter Glen Scrivener leads each session and offers the opportunity to think, question and test different worldviews.”
See also the Speak Life Christmas Video Rewind where Glen Scrivener and Nate Morgan Locke take a look at Speak Life’s previous Christmas videos.
Truth Be Told — Lionel Windsor on God’s Story Podcast
With current world events, there’s a great need for truth, and plenty of propaganda to mislead.
Moore College lecturer (and ACL Council member) Lionel Windsor speaks with the God’s Story Podcast about his forthcoming book Truth Be Told: Living Truthfully in a Post-Truth World.
“How do we live truthfully in a post truth world? Why are we in a post truth world and what is a post truth world anyway?”
Among other things, Lionel explains why the printing of his book has been delayed. It illustrates the theme of the book!
– Listen here. 30 minutes.
The Bible’s answer to poverty – with David WIlliams
A thought-provoking episode of The Pastor’s Heart:
“Poverty is fundamentally relational says David WIlliams.
What might a theology of caring for the poor look like?
The Bible’s terms for the poor (widow, orphan and alien) are all relational terms which describe someone who has lost relationships and as a result have lost connection with the land.
David and his wife Rachel started serving as missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya in 1999. David now serves as Principal of the Australian Church Missionary Society Training College St Andrew’s Hall, where Australian missionaries are trained for six months, before heading out to the field.
David has just given a provocative paper at the Anglican Aid conference at Sydney’s Moore Theological College and has agreed to come in and discuss it.
The issue for David is not just academic, with his first significant engagement with poverty, starting when working in the slums of Nairobi 20-plus years ago.”
Related:
Iron Sharpens Iron: An Anthology of Wise Quotations
“Sentences have the power to stay with us. They can come to mind, even years later. As I’ve prepared various talks and lectures in the last few months, I’ve been struck by this, reminding me of the power and beauty of words to deliver truth, to help us feel the truth. In God’s kindness, we can learn from the wise words of Christian brothers and sisters.
Here are some of the one-liners and longer quotations that I’ve benefitted from recently and would like to pass on to you—‘[a]s iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another’ (Prov 27:17). …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Jane Tooher shares some wise and encouraging quotations.
New NSW “Religious Vilification” law
From Associate Professor Neil Foster at Law and Religion Australia:
“An amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, making certain types of speech connected with religion unlawful, commenced operation on 11 November 2023.
The amendment, made by the Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Religious Vilification) Act 2023 (No 15 of 2023) (‘the ADA’), is a form of ‘religious vilification’ law which has not previously been in force in NSW. It is not as bad as some forms of such laws in terms of its effect on religious freedom, but it is worth being aware of its potential operation. It will be important, for example, for those preaching and teaching the Bible (or other religious texts) to understand what the law does, and perhaps more importantly, does not, prohibit. …”
The Priscilla & Aquila Annual Conference 2024 – Following Christ as men and women
From Moore College:
“Our 2024 P&A annual conference theme is ‘Following Christ as men and women’. Moore faculty member Andrew Leslie will unpack this topic in our morning plenary sessions. Understandably, much of our interest in the Bible’s teaching about men and women is centred on what it means in practice. In the morning plenary sessions, Moore College faculty member Andrew Leslie wants to take a step back from these practical concerns and reflect on the wisdom of this teaching. He’ll begin by exploring how the depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden echoes the pattern of creation itself set out in Genesis 1. Reflecting on this pattern will shed much light on the nature of God and the complementary vocation he has given us as his image bearers. In his second talk, Andrew will take us to the New Testament where the same pattern underlays its description of Christ’s relationship to his people and the life of the church itself.
Our afternoon electives will further unpack the theme of ‘Following Christ as men and women’, with Clare Deeves sharing her PhD research about things to consider when men and women work together on a ministry team. Moore’s dean of Women Susan An and Senior Pastor of The Bridge Church Paul Dale will look at when we disagree with each other about complementarianism while being on the same staff team. Other electives include gender considerations in South Asian ministry; fatherhood; teaching the woman at the well in John 4; and if there are reasons for making different theological decisions than the Apostles.”
– See the details and book via the College website.
Resources to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
From SydneyAnglicans.net:
“Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has commended the work of Anglicare as the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls on November 25. …”
Image: Anglicare resources website.
A Gafcon Collect for those taking their Bible College exams
“Our gracious Lord God, we know that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus.
We pray for theological students in the southern hemisphere as they sit their final exams and complete their academic year. We pray that you will give them calm nerves and a quiet confidence in your sovereign goodness. Bless them with keen understanding and retentive memories.
We pray that you will help them to keep their eyes fixed on the ultimate end of these exams and their study: that they may grow in the knowledge of you and be equipped to faithfully teach and proclaim the gospel of your Son Jesus so that your kingdom may be extended, and your name glorified. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
– Grateful to GAFCON for the reminder to pray.
Plans and prayers
“‘Just take things one day at a time’. It’s a helpful piece of advice, but inevitably our focus does shift beyond the next 24 hours to those things further ahead on the horizon – the next week, the next month, the next year, and beyond. Of course, it’s impossible for us to have absolute certainty about what lies in the future. …
But how do we actually go about making plans under God? What does it look like in practice? Thankfully the apostle Paul helps us out. …”
– Rusdyan Cocks shares encouragement at The Australian Church Record.
Investment in Preaching
“With the Reserve Bank struggling to contain inflation and households facing cost of living pressure and retirees looking for return on capital, it is a good time to think about investment and preaching preparation.
There are two vital areas of investment which will yield healthy returns. …”
– Encouragement from David Cook at The Expository Preaching Trust.
Rethinking retirement to avoid the sin of the sluggard — with Mike Raiter
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“The concept we now know as retirement is a 19th century invention and not a Christian concept.
Former Missionary, Bible College lecturer and principal Mike Raiter says the idea that we should stop work at 65 and enjoy 20 or 30 years of rest is not biblical.
How should we think about the stage of life that starts at 65. What are the ministry opportunities available? What are the sins and temptations that the over 65’s are prone to? And how can younger pastors speak to those who are older?”
Gospel-Led Regeneration: Questions
“In his post, ‘Unherd’, on September 24, 2023, Peter Franklin comments on a new book, The Great Dechurching, by Jim Davis and Michael Graham (August, 2023). They observe that in recent years some 40 million Americans have stopped attending church.
Now it’s easy to say this is not surprising – perhaps because of the shocking abuses perpetrated in various churches, and also the trickle-down impact of the secular liberalism of influential universities, denying the existence of the divine.
However, it seems the reasons are not that simple. …”
– At The Anglican Connection, John Mason has some suggestions you might use to help family and friends consider what’s really important – with the promise of more next week.
Church Planting — One step at a time — 9Marks Journal
9Marks has released their latest online journal Church Matters – this one is about church planting.
Editor Jonathan Leeman writes:
“Several themes emerge throughout this volume. Let me mention two.
First, church plants and planters are sometimes treated as something other than churches and pastors. They’re not. Plants are churches, planters are pastors. Say it twice if it will help you remember.
The reason to emphasize this is, the whole world of church planting literature, programs, assessment tools, and workshops over the last few decades too often takes its cues from the business world rather than the Bible. Yet we want your church to think about those would-be planters like you would a would-be pastor—according to the qualifications and competencies highlighted by the apostles. …”
– Read or download via this link.
Southern Cross magazine November – December 2023
The latest issue of the Diocese of Sydney’s Southern Cross magazine for November – December 2023 is online. Download it here.
Printed copies will also be available in churches.
John Newton’s 1767 Diary
“Some authors wait a long time to see their work reach publication. In Newton’s case, the wait for this one has been 256 years!
Rhys Bezzant, Dean of the Anglican Institute at Ridley College, comments: ‘1767 was a remarkable year in the life of John Newton, not least because he travelled extensively and subsequently moved into a new rectory. In his Diary of this year we learn about his aching soul, his busy schedule, his pastoral heart, and his prodigious correspondence. Here we meet no detached preacher elevated above his congregation, but someone who wrestled with the meaning of a text and engaged honestly with his parishioners concerning his own future in Olney…’
In 1767 John Newton kept a small pocket diary of the sort we might buy today, with one page for recording the week’s events and the opposite page for keeping a record of accounts. You would be excused for thinking that the transcript would be brief, but somehow this has morphed into an illustrated 72-page A4 edition, augmented with illustrations and illuminating footnotes, published by The John Newton Project. …”
– Marylynn Rouse at the John Newton Project in the UK has been working to open windows into the life and thinking of someone who has had a huge influence worldwide.
Read about it at AP, the national journal of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
The Diary for 1767 is available from johnnewton.org/shop.
See also:
Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls? – John Newton’s prayer for ‘poor benighted souls’ on the other side of the world.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…