Why the Catholic Church is anti-Catholic

It’s like a company where the boss says to his employees, “There is a ‘no smoking indoors’ policy at this workplace”, and then the shift manager tells the employees, “What the boss really means is that you can’t smoke indoors while he’s around”…

– At GoThereFor.com, Mark Gilbert highlights the division at the heart of Roman Catholic teaching.

Societas 2018 now out — available in print and online

The Moore College annual student magazine is out now! The theme of Societas this year is ‘Resilience in Christian ministry – discovering your hidden reserves’. You will find articles on resilience and endurance in ministry, student stories and profiles as well as Christian reading recommendations from the College faculty. …”

– Details from Moore College.

Pastoral Burnout: Its Causes & Cures — 9Marks Journal

The latest issue of 9Marks Journal turns to the question of pastoral burnout.

“Every job has its occupational hazards. Loggers lose fingers. Businessmen go bankrupt. Wrestlers grow cauliflower ears.

What about pastors? Pastors experience burnout. Burnout isn’t so much about physical depletion, though that may be a variable. It’s about spiritual depletion. You spend all day ministering to people. But now you don’t possess the emotional and spiritual resources to continue ministering. You’re like a gas station with no gasoline left. Or a candle whose wick has burned down low. …”

– Read or download it from 9Marks.

Praying for George Whitefield College

This introductory video to George Whitefield College is a good reminder to pray for that strategic college.

Not familiar with GWC? Learn about their history:

“David Broughton Knox came to South Africa – from Sydney, Australia – in 1989 to establish George Whitefield College and be its first principal.

Arising from his conviction that Christian ministers are primarily teachers of the Word of God, he laid the foundations of a college that would have as the focal point of its study program the ‘whole counsel of God’. …”

The Mark Drama returning to Moore College

The Mark Drama – a fast-paced reenactment of Mark’s Gospel – is returning toMoore College on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd August.

“A production of the Moore College community, the Mark Drama turns Mark’s biographical account of Jesus into a 90-minute, theatre-in-the-round stage production. Fully immersed in the action, here you can decide for yourself – is Jesus just another guy with imaginative ideas about God, or is he truly the King of the universe?”

– Details from Moore College.

Oxygen 2018 talks available

The main talks from this year’s Oxygen 2018 conference have been made available by KCC.

Check them out here.

Have a Fun Event – Like on National Ice Cream Day!

“Getting visitors does not guarantee that your church will grow. However, I guarantee that your church won’t grow without getting visitors.

I agree with those who argue that the ‘Attractional’ model of church growth is no longer the best model in our largely post-Christiandom culture, and that we must take on a more ‘Missional’ model where we go out into our surrounding communities to connect with non-believers.

Once you connect with them, you still, eventually, have to invite them to something. You still must bring them into the church where, in community, they will be transformed to be like Christ. So inviting people to church remains an essential component to church growth.

Yet, even with all the preaching, teaching, poking, prodding, and even sometimes guilting that church people receive about inviting others to church, most of the time they don’t.…”

– Here’s some encouragement from Canon Mark Eldredge of the American Anglican Council.

Can we learn from ancient prayer books?

“Why would a 21st century evangelical be interested in liturgy?, asked Mark Earngey as he began his talk at Wycliffe Hall (on 11 June).

An extrovert Australian, Mark is definitely not a nerdy academic, fascinated by church history for its own sake. His time in Oxford working on a DPhil and a book (both just completed) hasn’t affected his accent, his regular use of words like ‘mate’ and ‘ripper’, or his commitment to see the church reflect Christ better.

Born into a Sydney Anglican churchgoing family, as a young man Mark rebelled against the Christian faith, returned to the Lord through a Pentecostal fellowship, and then found his way back to Anglicanism. Liturgy for him used to be associated with older generations, and an inauthentic expression of faith with repetition of words by rote replacing heart worship.

Like many evangelicals he believed that liturgy creates a barrier to mission, an extra layer of weirdness for newcomers. But on reflection he realised that every church develops a worship pattern or liturgy, even if it’s not written down. What matters is preparation, engagement, and worship in the Spirit, irrespective of the form of words…”

– Anglican Mainstream’s Andrew Symes outlines a recent talk given in Oxford by Mark Earngey.

See also:

(Ripper picture of Mark Earngey and Dominic Steele from the GAFCON livestream.)

Two GAFCON summary videos you could show this Sunday

Earlier, we posted a link to “GAFCON 2018 in 90 seconds” from SydneyAnglicans.net, which you might like to download and show in church.

Thanks to GAFCON and Dominic Steele, above is another, which runs for 3:27.

You can also see the assembly on the Temple steps in this video.

Freedom for Faith Conference 2018 audio available

Thanks to the team at Freedom for Faith, you can now hear the audio from their recent conference, Freedom18, on the limits of religious freedom.

Speakers and topics were:

Dr. Alex Deagon: A Christian Framework for Religious Diversity in Political Discourse.

Senator the Hon. Jacinta Collins: Building Constructive Partnerships in Politics.

Dr. Joel Harrison: What is Religious Liberty For?

Hon. John Anderson AO: How Do We Now Understand Freedom?

Prof. Patrick Parkinson AM: The Limits on the Freedom of Religious Organisations to Select Staff Consistent with Their Ethos.

Emeritus Prof. Rosalind Croucher AM: The Role of the Australian Human Rights Commission as the National Human Rights Body in Promoting and Protecting Rights.

Hear the talks at Freedom for Faith.

And be encouraged to pray.

GAFCON 2018 in 90 seconds

From SydneyAnglicans.net: A slideshow designed for churches to show during services as a way of informing people about GAFCON 2018. Download here.

Where can I find the Jerusalem Declaration?

Have you been hearing about The Jerusalem Declaration from the first GAFCON gathering in 2008?

You can read it – as well as the GAFCON 2008 Final Statement and the Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality – in our Reference Documents and Press Releases section of the website.

See also: The Kuala Lumpur Statement, 1997.

Single Minded Conference

Read about the Single Minded Conference coming up in September with Sam Allbery.

It’s ‘a conference about singleness … but for everyone”.

Anglican Unscripted – Interview with Archbishop Peter Jensen, June 2018

Anglican TV’s Kevin Kallsen interviewed GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen about GAFCON 2018 and the future of the GAFCON movement.

Embedded above – or watch here. Most encouraging.

Holding on to the gospel is an antidote to today’s spiritual disaster

“Here’s an imaginary scenario – the story of a local church over a hundred-year period.

At the start of this time, the church is made up of real born-again Christians, people who have genuinely believed God’s saving good news, his gospel of eternal salvation from sin and death through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the evidence that they are real born-again Christians is that they are godly people. They’re not perfect but they are leading God-pleasing lives which marks them out from the non-Christian world around them.

But as this generation grows old and dies off, a new generation takes over the church…”

– Julian Mann, Vicar of Oughtibridge in South Yorkshire, tells a familiar story  – and shares the antidote to spiritual diasater.

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