Focussed on Christ
“The holiest Christians are not those most concerned about holiness as such, but whose minds and hearts and goals and purposes and love and hope are most fully focussed on our Lord Jesus Christ.”
– J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit.
With thanks to Of First Importance.
9Marks eJournal on Church Discipline
“Western culture doesn’t seem to understand tough love. Love today means unconditional acceptance. If you love me with conditions, you don’t love me. You’re judgmental and intolerant.
God knows better. He knows we’re finite and fallen. Therefore, his love challenges us at the very points of our finitude and fallenness for our good, and that’s not comfortable.
Church discipline is just such an uncomfortable act of tough love, which is why 9Marks would like to spend two issues of the eJournal considering this important topic…”
– Jonathan Leeman introduces the current 9Marks eJournal – on the seldom-addressed topic of church discipline. Worth reading – it’s available as a 420kb PDF file.
Leadership on the front foot — 20% off
As a follow up to last week’s mention of the 2009 Australian Christian Book of the Year Awards, we thought you might be interested to know that Youthworks is selling Zac Veron’s ‘Leadership on the front foot’ for 20% off.
(You can download a sample chapter from their website.) Photo: Zac Veron, Bishop Paul Barnett and Don Howard receive their awards.
The Work of the Minister of the Gospel
“You have been called as minister in this congregation and you have been ordained in pursuance of that call. There are many functions which devolve upon you in that particular capacity, but I want to draw your attention particularly to two of these functions because I believe they are the two main functions which devolve upon the minister of the Gospel. …”
– Food for sober reflection from a 1960 ordination charge given by John Murray – with thanks to Martin Downes at Against Heresies.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
There are a number of bands seeking to make hymns known to a contemporary audience. Page CXVI, apparently in Boulder, Colorado, is one – check out their website and hear (or buy) their album – at pagecxvi.com
“Inspiring People”: Connect09 initiative
Connect09 Executive Director Andrew Nixon writes:
I want to tell you about some important events planned for September and October, as part of the strategy to reach the Central Business districts of our cities. These events will be unlike any we have ever staged.
1. They are designed to attract outsiders, even those who don’t know a Christian – hence we will advertise extensively in the CBD.
2. They will feature high profile Christians in prominent positions, who will tell their life stories, including their testimony, during panel discussions.
3. These discussions will be integrated with an offer to explore the Christian faith through the “Life of Jesus” course using “The Essential Jesus”.
Events will be held over five weeks, either before, during or after work in the CBD, North Sydney and Parramatta, starting Tuesday 15 September.
The”Inspiring People” website is now live.
41 Questions to ask a potential Church
Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman has posted questions he asked of the elders at his new church prior to him being called.
There are a lot of sensible questions there.
Do we have free will?
Andy Naselli writes:
“This summer my church… hosted a “Difficult Issues Series” on Wednesday nights, and on June 10 I addressed this topic: “Do We Have a Free Will?”
MP3 (1 hour and 45 minutes including Q&A)
Handout (7-page PDF), Condensed Essay (4-page PDF).”
– thoughtful resources from Andy Naselli’s theology blog. (Andy serves as research assistant to Don Carson at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.) h/t Justin Taylor.
Mark Dever interviews Phillip Jensen
While in Sydney, Mark Dever conducted an interview for 9Marks with Phillip Jensen. Both Phillip and Mark speak about bringing change in a church.
Video of the interview, which runs for 16 minutes, is posted at phillipjensen.com.
Ryle on Sin
“Men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin.
Without a thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.”
– Bishop J.C. Ryle, Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle, p. 114, 115. (Thanks to Erik Kowalker at J.C. Ryle Quotes.)
Getting church right
The Liturgical Panel of Sydney Diocese has been working on new resources to help those involved in planning and leading contemporary-style worship gatherings.
While it’s a work-in-progress, their helpful website is now up and running, and features a ‘Service Builder’. It’s at bettergatherings.com. Thanks to all involved!
Related: Bishop Robert Forsyth’s column at SydneyAnglicans.net. and Thinking about what we do in church (i).
Chappo and the Hallway challenge
Much loved evangelist John Chapman has recorded a two minute video to encourage you to pray for your unsaved friends, and to use the resources available for Connect09.
The video is available at SydneyAnglicans.net and would be ideal to play in church.
As always, Chappo reminds us what it is really all about:
“People who are apart from Christ are lost. Their plight is desperate. They need to be forgiven. And they need to find Jesus as a Friend – as a Saviour. They need to know that he’s died so their sins can be forgiven.”
Tip: You can download the video files from SydneyAnglicans.net, but if you have problems playing them (we did), the 76MB mpeg4 file can be downloaded from Vimeo. You’ll need to register with Vimeo if you haven’t already, and then on this page, the download option is on the very bottom right (“Download Quicktime version”).
Our thanks to the team at Anglican Media Sydney for making these videos available.
Understanding the Pentateuch
In 2005, James Robson, Tutor in Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew at Oak Hill College in London, gave a series of evening lectures on the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.
The course ran for 8 weeks, with two lectures each week. They are available as mp3 files courtesy of Oak Hill and would be suitable to listen to on your iPod on the way to work. Each one is about 50 minutes long.
Pray the Bible
Ligon Duncan and Dan Arnold, in conjunction with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, have produced an online prayer resource based on Matthew Henry’s book A Method for Prayer.
Ligon Duncan writes that in the book, “Henry lays down an outline of a plan for prayer (Adoration, Confession, Petition, Thanksgiving, Intercession, and Conclusion) and supplies the contents of prayer from the Scriptures themselves.”
The website follows this same pattern. It’s available at matthewhenry.org. (h/t Tim Challies.)
John Newton: Ministry on My Mind
“Over a period of 8 months, following a conversation with friends, John Newton found himself increasingly drawn to the work of the ministry. So for the six weeks which led up to his 33rd birthday (when he resolved he would make a decision) he wrote down some ‘miscellaneous thoughts’ on the subject, which have come to be published in this 25 page booklet. …”
– Paul McFarland reviews previously unpublished writings from John Newton’s private journal as he contemplated calling into pastoral ministry.
As well, former MP Jonathan Aitken commends the booklet in this video on YouTube.
‘Ministry on My Mind’ is available from The John Newton Project in the UK.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…