Allowah Presbyterian Children’s Hospital needs help to keep the doors open

Posted on April 9, 2022 
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Back in November 2021 we reported that Presbyterian Social Services in NSW are seeking help in gaining vital funding for the Allowah Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in Dundas, “the only hospital dedicated to the health of children with disabilities in NSW”.

Now CEO Liz McClean writes,

“As you know, Allowah has had a rough couple of years financially due to COVID-19.

We have been working on obtaining government funding for the past 12 months, however it’s now looking like that won’t be an option, at least in the short term.

Unfortunately, that means that we will come to the end of our internal resources before we are able to get services and admissions back to a sustainable level.”

As a result, Allowah has started an appeal, and perhaps you can help them keep the doors open.

Evangelism and New Churches Conference

Posted on April 8, 2022 
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Here’s an encouraging conference to help train and equip you for effective gospel conversations.

Saturday 4th June 2022 at St. Anne’s Anglican Church, Ryde.

Details from Evangelism and New Churches.

How the Person Became a Self

Posted on April 7, 2022 
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“In 2020, while the world was on lockdown due to COVID-19, Carl Trueman published one of the most important books of the last several decades.

In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Trueman built on the insights of contemporary thinkers such as Philip Rieff and Alasdair MacIntyre to show how modern thinkers … gave expression to a worldview … that made possible and plausible the arguments of the late-modern theorists who shaped the postmodern sexual revolution …

It is a penetrating analysis of recent intellectual history that shows why people are willing to believe ideas today that our grandparents would have rejected out of hand—without need of argument, evidence, or proof—just two generations ago.

The only problem? The book is over 400 pages long. … I knew that many of Carl’s potential readers would not have the time or appetite to wade through so many of his finer, nuanced discussions. So I emailed Carl, praising the book as essential reading. But I also suggested that he consider writing a shorter, more accessible version of the basic argument for non-specialists. Carl has now produced that volume with Strange New World, and it sparkles on every page. …”

– If the length of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self put you off, Strange New World might be just what you need. Ryan T. Anderson writes at First Things.

The book is available widely – here are some booksellers.

GAFCON Australasia Conference 2022 set for August

Posted on April 7, 2022 
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The GAFCON Australasia 2022 Conference is planned for 15-18 August.

See the website for details and booking.

How to apologise — The Pastor’s Heart

Posted on April 6, 2022 
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On the Pastor’s Heart:

“Actor Will Smith has apologised for his actions at the Oscars and former Hillsong Global Pastor Brian Houston has apologised to his church.

It makes one think then – what makes a good apology, and how can we apologise well?

Bruce Burgess from Peacewise speaks to us today on the seven things that make up a good apology.”

– Watch or listen here.

The latest “TOP CENTRE” from the Northern Territory

Posted on April 4, 2022 
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The Diocese of the Northern Territory has published the first Top Centre magazine for 2021.

It includes news of several new faces in the diocese.

Bishop Greg Anderson explains why they produce Top Centre:

“This is the fourth edition of Top Centre with Anne Lim as our editor. It seems a good time to say something about Top Centre and its place in the Diocese of the NT, to draw attention to why we commit time, energy and money to producing it, and what value it has. …

Having a diocesan magazine reminds me of the importance of stories. Our Christian faith is based on a story – real, not made-up – comprising events that unfold the work of God in rescuing the world he made and loves, and that reaches its high point in the arrival, death and resurrection of Jesus. At the heart of the work of the diocese is sharing about this rescuing work that the Bible’s narrative recounts.”

– Read it all on page 3 of this edition.

The latest Armidale “Link”

Posted on April 3, 2022 
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Admittedly we’re a bit late in posting this link to The Link, the magazine of the Diocese of Armidale.

The March 2022 issue is now up on their website.

Fuel for your prayers.

The enduring peace of Easter

Posted on April 2, 2022 
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“As we prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter this year, we are conscious in a fresh and striking way of the need of the world for the forgiveness, judgement and healing that lie at the heart of the Cross of Christ. …”

– Archbishop Kanishka Raffel writes in the April edition of Southern Cross magazine.

It’s available here – so download and share a copy – or pick up the printed version from your church before Easter.

Tom Habib to join Moore College Faculty

Posted on April 1, 2022 
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“The Governing Board of the College has approved the Principal’s nomination of the Rev. Thomas Habib as a full-time member of the Moore College Faculty from the end of this year.

Tom is completing his PhD research and expects to submit his thesis on moral characterisation in the Gospel of John in August. …”

– The latest from Moore College.

North West Network March 2022

Posted on March 31, 2022 
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The latest issue of North West Network, the newsletter of the Diocese of Northwest Australia, is now available.

Download your copy and use it as fuel for your prayers for the churches and people of the North West.

Does ‘Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin’ Still Work?

Posted on March 30, 2022 
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“There is a clear connection between the sexual revolution and the growing antipathy evident in our culture toward freedom of religion.

Perhaps the first time this caught the news headlines was in early 2015 when the Indiana state legislature proposed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was in part designed to protect the rights of business owners with religious objections to LGBTQ+ lifestyles with regard to hiring policies. The proposal met with swift and widespread condemnation …”

– In this article adapted from his new book, Carl Trueman asks a very relevant question.

Archbishop Ben Kwashi addresses Gafcon GBE meeting

Posted on March 29, 2022 
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“On the evening of 22nd March, the General Secretary of Gafcon spoke via Zoom, to an audience consisting mostly of members of the Gafcon Great Britain and Europe branch, with others looking in from Africa and North America.

Interviewed by Bishop Andy Lines of the Anglican Network in Europe, Archbishop Ben began by recounting his journey of growing up in a Christian home, then making a firm commitment to following Christ at the age of 20. …”

– From GAFCON GB & Europe. Watch the video here.

Gary Millar on Brian Houston — Keith Condie on The Pastor’s Marriage

Posted on March 28, 2022 
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From The Pastor’s Heart:

“The Chair of the Australian Gospel Coalition Gary Millar says the fall of Brian Houston brings significant lessons for anyone in any level of Christian leadership that power and authority are very dangerous.

Co-Director/Founder of the Mental Health & Pastoral Care Institute at Mary Andrews College, Keith Condie, says there’s a series of steps that pastors need to take to safeguard actions and protect marriages.”

Watch or listen here.

Scripture Alone — David Cook

Posted on March 27, 2022 
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Even if you haven’t, David Cook has seen the preaching and the damage done –

“Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!”

He writes at The Expository Preaching Trust:

Attending Bible College in the 1960s involved a two-year course, each year having three terms.

This meant that six areas of Systematic Theology were covered, the first being the foundational Doctrine of Revelation—what we believe about the Bible.

Entering Moore College in 1973 meant attending the transformational lectures of DB Knox as he led us through TC Hammond’s, ‘In Understanding Be Men’, the first chapter of which is entitled, ‘Final Authority in Matters of Faith’.

All other doctrines flow from a right understanding of what we believe the Bible is, its source, its nature and its purpose.

Coming from a Presbyterian background I had personally experienced the destructive effect of modernism or liberalism; preaching was hesitant, indefinite, and unclear. There certainly was no sense of authority. All one could say, after hearing a sermon, was that the minister believed in some sort of divine being!

The available Presbyterian Theological Schools, with a non-commitment to the inspiration of Scripture, its supremacy, authority and sufficiency, had produced a generation of preachers with nothing to say, apart from vague, theistic, positive psychology.

When Paul urges Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 to understand the times, avoid the alternatives and preach the word, all these imperatives are based on a firm conviction about Scripture’s divine source (2 Timothy 3:16).

Abandon the foundation of what God tells us about Scripture and the pulpit, and all true pastoral ministry will be lost!

Fifty years on and we need this reminder because fewer of us have experienced those empty, powerless days.

Scripture’s inspiration means that its authority is supreme, over church and culture.

Scripture’s inspiration means that it is sufficient, we need not, and should not look for any other special word from God, that extra word is at best a hunch.

Scripture is God’s word, not yours or mine, therefore we have no right to add to it or subtract from it.

Scripture is the instrument God uses to bring the lost to life and to bring the believer to maturity (Isaiah 55:11; Acts 12:24; 19:20; 20:32; 1Cor 1:18;1:21; 15:2; Eph 1:13;  2Timothy 3:15-16).

As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we share his conviction as to the authority and centrality of Scripture (Mark 12:10; John 10:35).

Thus all Christian leaders must be awake to what our recent history has taught us, and actively resist any influence to water down the central and supreme authority of Holy Scripture.

As our old friend John Chapman used to say, ‘The authority is in the text, brother. Preach the text’.

‘It is at the very root of the Evangelical position that the supremacy of Holy Scripture be held in its fullest sense… no words can too strongly express the importance of securing, beyond doubt, the unsuperseded authority of the Sacred Scriptures in all religious discussions whether of doctrine or practice’. (TC Hammond, ‘In Understanding be Men’, p.39).

– First published at The Expository Preaching Trust.

Gafcon Ireland Conference 2022

Posted on March 27, 2022 
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Gafcon Ireland’s Conference – What is the Gospel? – was held on Saturday 26 March 2022 at St. Anne’s Cathedral Belfast.

Archbishops Ben Kwashi and Foley Beach spoke, along with the Revd. Dr. Nick Tucker.

You can see the full event here.

If you know someone who wants to understand what has been happening in the Anglican Communion, and why GAFCON is needed, this address by Archbishop Foley Beach is a very clear and helpful introduction. It’s also wonderfully encouraging to see that the Lord has not been left without a witness.

He turns to the Letter to Jude to help us understand the pagan theology which is infiltrating the Anglican Communion.

“For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” – Jude 4.

Archbishop Foley Beach is introduced and answers questions about himself and ACNA here.

His “must see” address begins here. (Note: If GAFCON Ireland later edits the video, these times might not be accurate.)

Related: these items from our Resources section:

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