The Snail in the Bottle and the Good Samaritan
Neil Foster writes –
“As mentioned recently, I was invited to address a group of Christian lawyers and law students on a key tort case, the famous ‘snail in the bottle’ case of Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562, and its connections to the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan. The paper I presented can be downloaded here…
One further comment: in the second half of the paper I address the question that Jesus was asked before telling the story of the Good Samaritan: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life’? I was interested to see that the President of the United States seemed to be addressing this question recently in terms of a hope for heaven. For those interested in the answer to the question, I recommend not only my paper, but also this excellent recent comment by my friend Murray Campbell: ‘Will Donald Trump be welcomed into heaven?’ (22 Aug 2025). Spoiler alert: President Trump may have the wrong approach! But Jesus can provide the answer.”
– Download the paper and follow the links mentioned at Law and Religion Australia.
Australian Christian Book of the Year 2025
Sparklit’s Australian Christian Book of the Year for 2025 has been announced –
“Made in Our Image by Stephen Driscoll has won the Australian Christian Book of the Year for 2025.
The book provides a biblical perspective on artificial intelligence while avoiding both tech worship and doomsday thinking.
Judges said it was a realistic and fearless assessment of the ways AI could change the world. …”
– Story from Hannah Felsbourg at The Melbourne Anglican – with news on shortlisted books including those by Andrew Judd, Michael Jensen and Rob Smith.
Related:
Dominic Steele spoke with Stephen Driscoll twice on The Pastor’s Heart last year –
The traumatic implications of artificial intelligence – 21 May 2024.
What morality to teach to artificial intelligence? – 04 June 2024.
Themelios 50.2
The Gospel Coalition has published the latest issue of Themelios – Volume 50, number 2.
The Happiness Project
Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant writes,
“Friends in Christ, this week The Australian newspaper began a series of articles entitled ‘The Happiness Project’. The lead author, Stephen Lunn, began this way:
What’s the secret to unlocking your happiness? How do you achieve a satisfying life? Especially when the odds might seem stacked against you. It’s more complex than you might think. We take a deep dive into the latest research on how to build resilience and find life’s joy. …
The Happiness Project plans to explore these issues, and is looking at the keys to happiness can be “unlocked”.
It’s a significant issue, since although Australians rate 11th out of 148 nations on the World Happiness Index, levels are markedly lower for Aussies under 30.”
– Read to all, from the Cathedral newsletter, 21 August 2025.
How to improve our preaching – with David Cook and Robin Sydserff
From The Pastor’s Heart –
“Today our focus on The Pastor’s Heart is on how to preach for transformation for real changes in people’s lives.
Two men with a lifetime’s passion for preaching — Robin Sydserff, Director of the Proclamation Trust and David Cook, former Principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College and a long-time preaching mentor – now with the Expository Preaching Trust.
We start by looking at how Christian leaders the UK and Australia influenced preaching patterns overseas.
We look at preaching that has led to record enrolments at Bible Colleges, the purpose of preaching, the life and relationships of the preacher, training preachers and what patience is needed in preaching growth.”
Related –
Talks from the Bathurst Diocesan Camp 2025
Dr. Mark Earngey spoke at the Bathurst Diocesan Camp earlier this month. His theme – “Why Church?”
Bishop Mark Calder has now posted the videos for your encouragement and edification.
Perseverance and Endurance in Ministry
Phillip Jensen speaks about Perseverance and Endurance in Ministry.
Audio recording – 38 minutes.
Beyond the Crisis: Global Perspectives on a training culture for the next generation
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“A training culture for the next generation: Healthy Churches producing new ministers for the next generation.
Across the world, the number of candidates putting themselves forward for gospel ministry is in decline. Many churches are feeling the pinch – struggling to find leaders and often looking elsewhere to fill ministry gaps.
Yet healthy churches don’t just maintain ministry; they reproduce it. They raise up and send out the next generation of gospel workers.
This week in Sydney, a group of evangelical movement leaders from across the globe have gathered to sharpen one another in this task: creating a culture of training that will multiply gospel workers for the decades ahead.
The shift they are calling for is from passively plotting decline to actively asking, What are we going to do?—and then taking decisive steps toward it.
We’re joined this afternoon by three of those symposium participants.
From the UK, Robin Sydserff of the Proclamation Trust.
From Santiago, Chile, Matt Pope – pastor and trainer of pastors in five Latin American countries, formerly of St Ebbe’s in Oxford.
And from Cleveland, Ohio, Marty Sweeney – pastor for training at Old North Church and long-time champion of multiplying ministry apprentices.”
The Faith of Satan — Know your enemy
From Phillip Jensen:
“Two words commonly misunderstood today are ‘faith’ and ‘Satan’. In this week’s episode, Peter and I pursue our understanding of faith and Satan’s contribution in undermining it.
Once again, can we encourage you to mention the weekly podcast to friends, colleagues, and neighbours? I hope you will enjoy this episode.”
Enrolments in Bible Colleges
Some historical perspective and a challenge from David Cook:
“Moore College and SMBC experienced record enrolments in 1960, 1969 and 1980.
I was part of the student enrolment in SMBC in 1969, we had 35 men enrolled in our year compared to 7 men in the year before.
What had happened?
Billy Graham had conducted campaigns in Sydney in 1959, 1968 and 1979.
There is a direct relationship between lively, faithful, engaging Bible preaching and people both being saved and people offering themselves to train for ministry.
Here in Sydney in my own denomination, J. Graham Miller’s ministry at Hurstville Presbyterian was the catalyst God used to call numbers of men into training in the late 1970s, Phillip Jensen at Uni of NSW was similarly used of God.
Men and women would be changed by such preaching and would be so challenged that they gave serious prayerful consideration as to make such ministry their life’s vocation. …”
– Do read it all – at The Expository Preaching Trust.
And see the end of his article for some fine aids for preachers.
See also:
Daily Bread’s Journey Through.
On Graham Miller’s Method for “Personal Daily Bible Study”.
Image: David as a guest preacher at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.
Confident Prayer
“What do you think of prayer? Do you pray regularly? And if you do, do you pray with confidence? Can God, whom we call ‘Father’, be trusted to hear our prayers and answer them?
In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
On either side of these words Jesus answers two questions we might have about prayer: Does God always listen to us? Does he always have our very best interests at heart? His answer is found in two metaphors that sit on either side of his words in verses 9 and 10. …”
– John Mason shares encouragement for prayer at The Anglican Connection.
PDJ on the ‘Quiet Time’
“Friends in Christ, the most helpful article I ever read on personal Bible reading and prayer was written by Phillip Jensen.
This was more than 30 years ago when he was a university chaplain – long before he became Dean of this Cathedral. At that stage I had never even heard of him. But his article helped me so much I kept it all these years. Today I share an extract with you…”
– Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant shares an encouraging extract – in the Cathedral newsletter.
The Power and Purpose of Apocalyptic Preaching
From The Gospel Coalition’s Carson Center, an audio recording of a lecture by Don Carson –
“In this lecture, Don Carson discusses the unique nature of apocalyptic literature, emphasizing its distinct historical context and symbolic language. Carson argues that apocalyptic texts like Revelation can be engaging and evangelistically effective. He discusses the importance of understanding these texts within their original setting and literary genre to grasp their full theological significance. …”
Listen – or read the transcript.
Unblocking the pipeline: Identifying and addressing obstacles to ministry recruitment
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“In the past month, two of the most respected evangelical training institutions in the world have closed or announced closure of their campuses.
In July, Spurgeon’s College in London—a pillar of Baptist theological education for nearly 170 years—closed, citing financial strain and a dramatic decline in student numbers.
A few weeks earlier, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Chicago —long regarded as a flagship seminary of North American evangelicalism— said they would shut down its Illinois campus and relocate to Canada, merging with Trinity Western University in British Columbia.
TEDS student numbers have dropped from 750 to 400 fulltime equivalents.
These are not isolated incidents. Across the UK, Australia, and globally, churches are asking:
Where will the next generation of gospel workers come from?
Orlando Saer—lead pastor of Christ Church Southampton, Chair of the Reach UK South church planting network, and Chair of 9:38, a UK ministry seeking to raise up gospel workers, has helped lead the Yarnton Consultation, the most comprehensive look yet at the state of ministry recruitment in the UK.”
Trajectory 2025
From Two Ways Ministries –
“Relationships
God is personal, so life is relational.
Relationships bring about our greatest joys and our deepest sorrows. The Bible teaches that the heart of the law is to love God and love our neighbours.
The usual trajectory of our lives is that we are born in families, grow in friendships, then die alone. So how does God’s wisdom change our relationships; or what is the trajectory of our relationships?
This might be your very first time at a Trajectory weekend, or you may have been for the last 8 years – either way this weekend will be of great benefit to you as you listen to challenging Bible teaching pushing you to keep re-calibrating your Trajectory to God’s.
A weekend for 18-30 year-olds, unpacking the Bible, building our skills and building our networks – all for the Glory of God.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…