In the last 12 months 35% of Australian Ministers considered quitting

“A little under 200 clergy took part in the survey and, while they work across the country, they were predominantly in NSW, married and male, with an average of 18½ years in ministry. More than 60 per cent of the respondents were senior ministers…

A senior consultant at the Centre for Ministry Development, Peter Mayrick, who gets alongside clergy to support them in their ministry, says that the issues of stress and burnout are ‘very real… and something we have to deal with’. …”

– Story by Judy Adamson at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Two exciting projects from Discipleship Tech

Recently Andy Geers shared updates on two exciting updates from Discipleship Tech, the team behind PrayerMate.

• An update of Redeeming the Time.

• Crowdfunding for The Serpent & The Seed, “a mobile adventure game designed to help people, who would never normally open the Bible, to engage with the big story of salvation and our place within it.”

Good to pray about (and financially support, if you are able)!

Pastor: Help your Congregation navigate Gay Pride Month

From Jonathan Leeman at 9Marks:

“…pastor, consider how you might equip your church members to stand in truth and love during this month. As the neo-paganism of LGBTQ+ increasingly defines our nation’s public religion, more of our members will be taking it on the jaw at school and work. We should prepare them for these occasions if nothing else than by setting the example of speaking publicly ourselves.”

– Read at 9Marks.

Heresy Half Hour: Donatism

The latest podcast from Church Society:

“In this episode, Chris Moore, Lee Gatiss and Mark Smith explain the ancient heresy of Donatism and its contemporary relevance for the church today as so many people are considering how to relate to ungodly authorities.”

Plenty of relevance to the Church of England today.

– Listen here.

The Gender Revolution — by Patricia Weerakoon with Rob Smith and Kamal Weerakoon

Coming soon from Matthias Media:

“How can you show love to someone who feels that their gender identity does not match how God made them—especially amid loud social messaging that says compassion and disagreement are incompatible? How do we keep the conversation grounded in reality? How do we lead others away from the harmful desire to transform their body into something it can never truly be? Why would hearing an explanation of God’s design for our bodies and his guidance for sexual expression be good for them, and how could you possibly begin that conversation?

Transgender ideology has quickly become pervasive in our broader culture, and many Christians prefer to avoid issues of sex and gender altogether. But if we’re not prepared in advance to show care and compassion to people questioning their gender identity or declaring a new one, we are unlikely to do it well when the moment arrives (as it inevitably will).

The Gender Revolution provides the biblical basis for a contemporary Christian response to the complicated feelings and experiences of gender dysphoria. Grounded in the latest scientific findings, this much-needed book is the fruit of decades of thorough research, medical practice and pastoral experience from the authors. It offers clear and compelling reasons for why God’s voice matters, and how it can be used to disciple others in truth.”

– Learn more at Matthias Media. “Available for pre-order; buy now and receive your copy July 2023.”

News and prayer updates from George Whitefield College, May 2023

The May 2023 newsletter for George Whitefield College in Cape Town is now up on their website.

A great reminder to pray for Africa.

As GWC Principal Dr. Mark Dickson reminds us,

“What Africa needs now are preachers, teachers and leaders who can tell the continent accurately about Jesus.”

– Download the PDF file here.

 

Also on the GWC website is a tribute to Bishop Joe Bell, former Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa (now REACH-SA). The tribute was written, we understand, by Dr. Mark Norman at GWC.

Bishop Bell was Presiding Bishop 1989-2000, succeeding Bishop Dudley Foord and preceding Bishop Frank Retief.

There’ll be a Memorial Service for Bishop Bell on Monday 29 May 2023 – streamed live at 19:00AEST.

Mercy ministries: reaching the poor through social action

“I’ve found that, so often, churches don’t seriously consider the working-class communities on their doorstep unless it is in connection with social action.

Too often, our projects involve doing things for or to people, not with them. To engage with people, involve them in church life and our own lives, is harder; but that is to treat people as people. …”

– in her series on ‘Class and the Church’, Kirsten Birkett considers the place of ‘mercy ministries’ and asks what might be missing. At the Church Society blog.

King’s Birthday Conference — Monday 12th June 2023

From Two Ways Ministries:

“In May 2023, King Charles will be crowned and all will say ‘Long Live the King’.

But what does it mean? Do we want it? And why do we say it?

The topic of the King’s Birthday Conference this year will raise many issues in the Bible about kings and rulers, as well as kingdoms and our nation.

The conference will be a great time to hear Phillip and Peter Jensen teach the Bible clearly, meet with old friends and new, have a Q&A session and prayer time – all included in your registration for the in-person event at Moore Theological College, Sydney.

Archie Poulos (Head of Department of Ministry and Director of Centre for Ministry Development at Moore College) will be our chairperson for the event. …”

– See all the details here.

Moore College Open Week 15-19 May 2023

Moore College’s Open Week begins on Monday 15th May.

Details and registration from the College.

A theological and missional review of the Coronation – with Mark Earngey, Brett Murphy and Sandy Grant

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“After Queen Elizabeth’s funeral last year, Saturday’s coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla was probably the biggest reaching church service of our lifetimes.

We analyze the service theologically and missionally and compare it with the coronation service of Charles’ Mother Queen Elizabeth II.

Is it in any way better theologically and where is it worse?

– Watch or listen here.

See also:

The true significance of King Charles’ Coronation – Murray Campbell, who writes not only about the Coronation, but about Psalm 2, Nick Cave – and GAFCON.

Key issues in scholarship on 1 Timothy 2:8–15

“In the last few decades, there’s been an enormous amount of scholarship on the meaning and significance of 1 Timothy 2:8–15. The sheer range of interpretations can be bewildering, leading us to throw our arms in the air and declare that it’s all too hard, so we should all just do what is right in our own eyes.

This video is designed to help us to regain some clarity and perspective on the passage by giving a broad overview of the main issues. …”

– Lionel Windsor presented this seminar at the recent Priscilla & Aquila Centre conference at Moore College.

See also:

Claire Smith presented an elective on The household of God in 1 Timothy the next day at the inaugural P&A Research Conference, which is for women.

A brief guide to the Coronation Service

“The Coronation Service for each monarch is put together using set elements, some of which are legally required, and others that can modified or updated over time. The structure of the service draws on the Old Testament, and has developed over many centuries of use in England, and later the UK. The last significant overhaul, especially of the oaths, came for the coronation of William III and Mary II in 1689 …

At the coronation, he does not become king. Rather he is acknowledged as King, not by the state, but by the Church and in the eyes of God. The promises he makes are not that he will rule, but how he will rule. The service is a reminder throughout that he is only King by the will of God and with the consent of the people. He is not our ultimate authority, and he himself is subject to another king, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. …

It is notable that in the Proper Preface, Charles will be referred to as ‘the Defender of thy Faith’, not as he once hoped, ‘Defender of Faiths’.”

– At Church Society’s website, Ros Clarke provides some helpful background to the Coronation coming up this weekend.

See also the Liturgy to be used in the Coronation Service.

Image: Royal.uk.

Bible Time with Pre-schoolers

“I’m so thankful that my daughter is taught at pre-school by wonderfully experienced Christian teachers… so when a list of recommended Bible resources from one of those gifted and thoughtful teachers finds its way into your child’s book bag, it is something to be treasured!

I come back to this list every time I want to add to our library. Clearly, it’s far from exhaustive (there are so many good things out there) and seasoned pre-school teachers and parents will no doubt be familiar with a lot of these books, but I thought I’d share this treasured list here anyway, with a few of my own favourites added in along the way. …“

– Here’s some encouragement and practical help from Kirsten McKinlay at The Australian Church Record.

How the Original Languages can benefit the African Church

“It’s very important in our promotion of the original languages not to make people think that they cannot trust their translated versions. However, I have personally experienced the joy and value of reading the Bible in the original languages. This is something I wish for many more to experience for themselves. …”

– You don’t need to be a isiXhosa speaker ministering in Africa to appreciate reading the Greek and Hebrew texts.

Ikho Poswayo serves at George Whitefield College in Capetown.

60 Days of Prayer for the Church

Church Society in the UK has been promoting “Sixty Days of Prayer for the Church“.

“Church Society is calling us to 60 days of prayer for the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion. The Church of England is teetering on the precipice of grave doctrinal error and pastoral disaster. The potential implications will be felt across the Anglican Communion, with many provinces having already made it clear that they cannot continue in fellowship with the Church of England. The situation is extremely serious, and what we most need is to call on the Lord.

For several years, at Church Society, we have made weekday posts throughout Lent on a number of theological, biblical and pastoral themes.

This year, however, it seemed appropriate to use this time to call the church to prayer. The collects of the Anglican church are intended to gather up the thoughts of the people into short, clear prayers, and so we will be using these as the basis for our prayers.

Each day we will be posting a selected collect along with some thoughts about its significance for the contemporary church, and we hope that these will prompt your own prayers.

The sixty days begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd, and finish at the end of the GAFCON meeting in Kigali, on April 21st.

Please join us for this important season of prayer.”

It’s not too late to join in prayer. You can see each of the daily posts at the Church Society website.

Today’s post: Withstand the world, the flesh and the devil, by Sandy Grant, is a reflection on the collect for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity –

“Almighty God,
grant your people grace
to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.”

and Stephen Tong wrote this post on the collect for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.

← Previous Page — Next Page →