‘Red light’ ministry conversations – the who, when and how?
From The Pastor’s Heart –
“How to have the hard conversation with someone who is enthusiastic about why they shouldn’t go into professional Christian ministry?
How do you make the decision to raise a ‘Red light’ or an ‘Orange light’?”
– Paul Grimmond and Rowan Kemp discuss with Dominic Steele questions of discernment and wisdom.
Southern Cross magazine, February 2022
Anglican Media Sydney has just released Southern Cross magazine for February 2022.
Printed copies will be available in parishes from this weekend, but you can download a PDF version now at magazine.sydneyanglicans.net.
Performance & Conflict Management and Servant Leadership – with Vikki Napier
This week on The Pastor’s Heart:
“We address the big HR questions faced by senior pastors in leading our ministry teams?
How can we do performance management best among our varied team members?
What is the difference between conflict and bullying and abuse?
Is it possible for a senior minister to be too conflict averse and not give needed ‘tough love’? Conversely where do senior ministers get this wrong?
What difference does it make if one is an ‘office holder’ vs a ‘fair work employee’?
What does Jesus’ teaching on servant leadership mean for staff management?
Vikki Napier is the Sydney Anglican Human Resources Parish Partner. She advises senior pastors and parish councils on how to manage clergy and other ministry staff.”
World Watch List for 2022
Open Doors has released their list of the countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.
Gary Millar’s “Read This First”
“As our culture continues to become less ‘Christian’, more and more people are becoming less and less familiar with the Bible – in some cases, they have never actually seen a Bible, let alone read it. I’m convinced that we can do a better job at helping people to get started.
Personally, I’ve often wanted to be able to hand something to people which helps them to get into the Bible, rather than just giving them a gospel (or a whole Bible) and expecting them to make sense of it. This is a very simple ‘primer’ to help people do just that. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Jacob York asks Gary Millar about his new book, Read This First.
Anglican Aid — Tonga: Volcano Emergency Response
From Anglican Aid:
“Anglican Aid and the Anglican Relief and Development Fund Australia have partnered with the Evangelical Wesleyan Church in Tonga to distribute urgently needed relief to the people impacted by the recent volcanic eruption.
We are also working with Missions New Zealand to provide supplies to four Anglican Churches in the capital, Nuku’alofa, to distribute among their local communities.”
Resources for churches to publicise the appeal. Top image: JMA.
Three Simple Ways to Flatten your Neighbour
“As our society becomes increasingly post-Christian, it’s no surprise to see the vanishing of a Christian view of humanity—an understanding that allows for complexity, even expects it.
Instead, we give in to the impulse to divide everyone into categories of ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ and then treat them accordingly.
The result? Fewer and fewer people, even in the church (and we ought to know better!), who are able to distinguish what’s good and bad in the same person, or truth and falsehood in particular causes. …”
– Wise observations from Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.
Expository Preaching Trust launches 2022 Programme
“2022 is the 11th year of the Trust’s ministry. Our ministry takes three forms …
1. Preaching Workshops …
2. Mentoring …
3. Preaching Clubs … ”
– Read all about it at the website of the Expository Preaching trust.
Anglican Aid’s Prayer Diary 2022
The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid Prayer Diary for 2022 is now available on their website.
Related:
Love, serve, train – how one man is giving back – SydneyAnglicans.net
John Anderson with William Lane Craig
Before Christmas John Anderson spoke with philosopher, theologian and apologist Dr. William Lane Craig for his “John Anderson Direct” series –
“John and William discuss the historical plausibility of the resurrection of Christ, contemporary physics and faith, the existence of evil, and the Jewish Renaissance.”
Watch here. (The video on YouTube has links to sections of the conversation.)
The Story behind Amazing Grace
Marylynn Rouse from The John Newton Project was interviewed on Premier Christian Radio’s Sunday Night Live for 16 January 2022.
Most encouraging.
The pastor, the church and social media
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“What’s best practice for churches and Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok?
How does a pastor’s non Christian and Christian audience impact the way we use social media.
To what extent do potential church members decide to join/not join your church, based on your social media posts?
How can we shift internal church disagreements off social media, rather than airing disputes before unbelievers?”
Launch 2022 – spurring on our school-leavers – Reconfigured due to COVID
Phillip Jensen writes:
“Starting uni and continuing to live for Christ throughout uni is not a given for many young men and women. Launch is a great opportunity to help school leavers be cemented into the Christian network and gospel activities on their campus.
Launch 2022 is only two weeks away so could you pass on an invitation to your school-leavers and their parents?
With Covid continuing to impact people’s movements we’ve recreated Launch. It is no longer residential in Katoomba which increases covid safety, reduces cost and makes it even more accessible!”
See phillipjensen.com/events/launch for details and registration.
Aim to be Unremarkable
“Our culture operates according to the myth of the great person model of leadership. An extraordinarily gifted person is the solution to most problems. What every struggling organization needs is a great leader who, by virtue of extraordinary qualities, will be able to turn that organization around.
When imported into the church, we long for great leaders. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Canada, Darryl Dash reminds us what we really need in our churches.
$3, $5, $10 – books on special from Matthias Media
Matthias Media has a bunch of books on special at the moment.
“Sale ends Monday 31 January, unless a book sells out before then.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…