Being salty in a secular world: An interview with Os Guinness
When Os Guinness was in Sydney recently, Steve Tong spoke with him for The Australian Church Record.
Os spoke about the need to connect evangelism and apologetics, and the responsibility of Christians to engage with our world by holding out the light of the gospel.
Read it at The Australian Church Record.
Simon Manchester on Getting the Message Across
Late last year, Nancy Guthrie spoke with Simon Manchester about how to engage listeners.
Mark Jones ‘meet the author’ at Reformers Bookshop
Mark Jones, author of several books, including the well regarded Christian’s Pocket Guide to Jesus Christ: An Introduction to Christology, is visiting Reformer’s Bookshop in Stanmore next week (Thursday 16th August) for a ‘Meet the Author’ event.
In other news from Reformers, they have recently introduced four Pastors Packs which may be of interest to our readers.
Reformers also has some copies of Reformation Worship, edited by Jonathan Gibson and Mark Earngey, at their reduced price. (Use this link. Click through to the checkout to get the 30% discount, while available.)
‘Church in Hard Places 2018’ videos now available
Andrew Beddoe has shared this news from the recent Church in Hard Places 2018 workshops:
“If you missed the Church in Hard Places 2018 workshops this year you might be interested to view the sessions …
These videos will not only help those ministering in socially deprived areas but those seeking to bring the hope of Jesus to any community that does not know Him.”
Have we lost evangelism? with Phil Colgan and Craig Schafer
“A good friend tells you when you have something stuck between your teeth just before the photograph is taken.
Scotland’s David Andrew Robertson was a guest on The Pastor’s Heart a few months ago and is a good friend.
In an interview with Australian Church Record, having spent three months in Sydney, he’s had some significant things to say about the Sydney Anglican Church and asks have we gone off the boil on seeking the lost saved? …”
– Take the time to watch Phil Colgan and Craig Schafer discuss the state of evangelism with Dominic Steele at The Pastor’s Heart.
And a response from David Robertson:
“This is a fascinating discussion about evangelism in Sydney – in response to this interview I gave to the Sydney Anglican magazine. This is from an excellent podcast called The Pastors Heart. hosted by Dominic Steele. I found it very encouraging to hear pastors and church leaders take seriously this issue.
I contrast these Sydney Anglican brothers with what I hear from Anglicans here (Rico Tice resigning from the Archbishops commission on evangelism, Kelvin Holdsworth complaining about the roads being closed for a cycle race in Glasgow, the Leeds diocese facing bankruptcy, or the endless attempts to impose LGBT ideology upon the church), and I am heartened by what I hear. (at a personal level it was good to have people take one seriously and not just shrug their shoulders or shake their heads!).
Those of us who are not Sydney Anglicans (or even Australians!) could learn a great deal from this conversation – I loved the line ‘You can’t convert the public square, you can only see people converted’. …”
How I talk to people about the Trinity
“It was the first evangelistic course that I had ever run. I had just finished my presentation on the authority of Jesus in Mark 1-2 and opened up for question time. The first question, right off the bat, was…
‘So, what’s the deal with the Trinity?’
Since then I have found that of all the questions I get asked, this is the most common one. …”
– Maybe you’ve had similar experiences to Tom Habib, who writes at The Australian Church Record.
Six Benefits of Studying Church History
“Many of us may struggle with the feeling that the church is already too old-fashioned. If so, why should we study church history? Shouldn’t we stop looking backward to the 16th century and start living in the 21st century?
Contrary to our concerns, the church has always realized that a forward-looking church is also a backward looking church. Likewise, well-balanced, progressive Christians will be students of church history. …”
– Meet the Puritans wants to encourage you to study church history.
Alight for the Lord
“With an eye to spreading the blessings God has given, CityAlight – the music ministry of St Paul’s, Castle Hill – has created a series of videos about their most popular songs.
The idea behind this is twofold, explains CityAlight’s music director Tiarne Kleyn. …”
– Encouragement from SydneyAnglicans.net.
Specials at Matthias Media
Matthias Media has some specials on offer, up until Thursday 2 August, 2018.
Worth checking out. Details here.
Australian Church Record — Winter 2018 — now online
The Winter 2018 issue of The Australian Church Record (number 1919) is now available on their website.
It’s a must-read. Be sure to download your copy – and let others know.
From this issue:
“The work that only Christians can do should have first priority for most of us.”
– Dean of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel.
GAFCON Jerusalem 2018 Videos
“A number of videos from GAFCON 2018 in Jerusalem are now available to view!
They have been organised in the following order:
- Full day livestreams from each of the five days (Monday 18th June 2018 – Friday 22nd June 2018).
- Bible Exposition and Plenary Teaching Sessions
- Interviews
- Miscellaneous videos including the reading of the Final Statement ‘Letter to the Churches’, a number of highlights videos summarising the conference and more.
- The conference programme so you can see what happened on each day.”
– Many thanks to the GAFCON Communications team for making these available.
(Photos: GAFCON Media.)
The night John Newton ‘attended an eclipse of the moon’
On Tuesday 30th July, 1776, John Newton observed a lunar eclipse.
The experience prompted a diary entry and a hymn!
“The moon in silver glory shone,
And not a cloud in sight,
When suddenly a shade begun
To intercept her light.How fast across her orb it spread,
How fast her light withdrew!
A circle tinged with languid red,
Was all appeared in view. …”
– Read it all at the John Newton Project. (Linked from their home page.)
If you would like to see tomorrow morning’s total lunar eclipse (Saturday 28th July 2018) – from Sydney, look to the west before sunrise.
Partial Eclipse Begins at 4:25 am AEST
Total Eclipse Begins at 5:30 am (That’s when the Moon moves fully into the Earth’s shadow)
Maximum Eclipse at 6:21 am (That’s the deepest part of the eclipse.)
Moon sets at 6:55 am – which is the same as sunrise.
Twilight will wash out any subtle colours before sunrise.
Watch, and be encouraged by John Newton’s example to draw some meditations from the experience.
(Photo: 15 April 2014 lunar eclipse over Parkes, courtesy John Sarkissian.)
How to preach to the occasion
“How do you preach at a wedding? How do you give a funeral message? How do you prepare a graduation or ordination address?
Over the last few years I’ve had opportunities to speak at these special occasions. Here are some focus areas I’ve found that help get me in the right zone, rather than accidentally preparing another Sunday sermon. …”
– At GoThereFor.com, David Martin shares some helpful thoughts.
The worst sermon on the Internet?
Tim Challies has been exploring “great sermons that have made a widespread impact and stuck around for the long haul”.
In this final entry in his series, he turns to a sermon which is not so great.
Heroes at drinking wine (aka intoxicated masculinity)
“Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” (Isa 5:22-23)
The battle-lines have been dug in the conflict about Christians and alcohol, with entrenched positions generating pamphlets, sermons and even denominations.
But those trenches are now largely empty. Most of the fighting has already taken place; and the fortifications are largely abandoned with only a small cadre of hold-outs remaining, fighting for abstinence. And while I am not one of those who argues practically for this position, I do see their wisdom. The cost of new generations moving on from this discussion, is that unexamined worldliness seems to be winning. In interest of deeper healing, let’s reopen the wound…”
– Andrew Barry looks for true heroism and valour – at the Australian Church Record.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…