Faithful listening

Posted on July 30, 2024 
Filed under Encouragement, Resources Comments Off on Faithful listening

“What to do if we find the preaching we’re fed Sunday by Sunday is biblical, yet quite standard, and maybe a bit dull? … When we hear nothing really new to us, except the old, old story of Jesus and his cross?

Are we so well fed, that these become meals we feel we can skip as we feel like it?

Here’s an old hymn (#49, Olney Hymns) by John Newton, of ‘Amazing Grace’ fame. He often wrote a new hymn each week, while ministering in the parish of Olney!

But these days I doubt anyone is singing this one! …”

– In the St. Andrew’s Cathedral Newsletter, Dean of Sydney Sandy Grant draws attention to a little-known hymn by John Newton. (Sadly, we don’t hear many new Christian songs like this one!)

The hymn may be found on page 386 of the PDF version of Olney Hymns published by Christian Classics Ethereal Library. (Click on Download, then select PDF.)

This painting of John Newton by John Russell hangs in the CMS building in Oxford. Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission.

Songs for the Summer – Psalm 1

Posted on July 30, 2024 
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At The Anglican Connection (and writing for a North American readership), John Mason shares two reflections on Psalm 1 for his Word on Wednesday –

Part 1: Happiness, Part 2: The Path to Life.

Hey Christian – Be Vexed by the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Be very Vexed.

Posted on July 29, 2024 
Filed under Culture wars, Opinion Comments Off on Hey Christian – Be Vexed by the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Be very Vexed.

“I just assume now that any public performance across the Western world that is staged by super smart, progressive creative designers will contain some element of blasphemy. And it should vex us. …”

– Stephen McAlpine has some thoughts about the Olympics opening ceremony.

Significant Commissioning Service at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate

Posted on July 28, 2024 
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On Wednesday 24th July 2024, a Commissioning Service took place at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London.

It was made necessary by the actions of the Church of England’s House of Bishops and the General Synod in pushing ahead to bless same-sex unions.

The next day, William Taylor, Rector of St. Helen’s, recorded this explanation of the event. In part, he said,

“This act of commissioning has been made necessary due to the tragic failure of the majority of bishops in the House of Bishops of the Church of England.

Our archbishops and most bishops have failed doctrinally.

They have failed to uphold faithful biblical doctrine, to guard the gospel of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus and to show loyalty and love for Jesus and his people by teaching the scriptures faithfully.”

The full video includes supporting statements from many evangelical Church of England leaders.

Related:

The Ephesian Fund.

Alternative Spiritual Oversight – CEEC.

On Reading and Studying as a Pastor

Posted on July 28, 2024 
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“Protestant pastors don’t read or study very much these days, and most churches don’t encourage them to do so. There are fewer pastor-readers than ever before (and surfing the web, dabbling in this oddity and that, doesn’t count!).

Church members and even officers sometimes have a hard time appreciating how much time a good message from God’s word takes to develop, and furthermore don’t see the importance of the pastor studying for anything other than preaching and devotions. There is a strong dose of anti-intellectualism in our circles and it doesn’t encourage a man to do the hard work of developing the mind and expanding his knowledge.

But precisely because our people are bathed in trivial information in this day and age, they need a shepherd with real knowledge, much discernment, and a nose for truth.…

Furthermore, Paul gives Timothy a sterling example of studiousness from his own practice and priorities.”

– Ligon Duncan at Reformed Theological Seminary encourages pastors to sound learning. At 9Marks.

Drag Queens Parody the Last Supper During Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Posted on July 27, 2024 
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“Drag queens parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s rendition of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday evening, creating international outrage. …”

– Story from National Review.

Elite sports chaplain Ashley Null: ‘The gospel is the antidote to performance-based identity’

Posted on July 27, 2024 
Filed under People, Theology Comments Off on Elite sports chaplain Ashley Null: ‘The gospel is the antidote to performance-based identity’

“We’re not two minutes into our interview before Rev Canon Dr Ashley Null starts weeping gently.

It is not what I was expecting.

The danger with the relentless researching of your subject in preparation for an interview is that you’re bound to make some assumptions. My first was that Null, a Yale and Cambridge alumnus who is a leading expert on Thomas Cranmer and the theology of the English Reformation, might be intimidatingly intellectual and inaccessible to us mere mortals.

My second was that this might make for a difficult interview with an overly fastidious subject.

I was wrong on both counts. …”

– At Premier Christianity, Emma Fowle speaks with Ashley Null. Take the time to read. (Link with thanks to Anglican Mainstream.)

Related:

Chaplaincy on Track – SydneyAnglicans.net.

Photo courtesy Gafcon.

Meet Jesus: A Mid-Year Progress Update

Posted on July 27, 2024 
Filed under Encouragement, Evangelism Comments Off on Meet Jesus: A Mid-Year Progress Update

 

“After a pastor prayed for his friends, one of them rang him up the next day and said: ‘I’m not really sure why I am ringing you, but I thought I would touch base’. The pastor replied: ‘I know why you are ringing me. It is because I prayed for you’. And he shared the gospel with his friend over the phone!

A student in Sydney used sausages at her frisbee team’s BBQ to draw the pictures from Two Ways to Live … and explain Jesus to her friends. …”

– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Richard Chin shares some encouragement from the AFES-initiated “Meet Jesus” mission.

Photo: Richard Chin speaking at Moore College earlier this year.

Eric Liddell: The Olympic Champion who ran God’s Race in the Internment Camp

Posted on July 26, 2024 
Filed under Good News, History, People Comments Off on Eric Liddell: The Olympic Champion who ran God’s Race in the Internment Camp

“With the approaching of the 33rd Summer Olympics in Paris on July 26, many people especially Christians are remembering Eric Liddell (1902-1945).

Powerfully depicted in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire as the “Flying Scotsman”, Liddell demonstrated to the world a strong Christian conviction. Appreciated or criticised, he refused to run any race on any Sunday, even at the cost of gold medals. However, his missionary work in war-torn China from 1925 to 1945 is less known, and even less known is his Christ-like living in the Japanese concentration camp in China. …”

– At AP, Sonia Liang reminds us of the often-overlooked story of Eric Liddell.

Photo: Eric Liddell at the British Empire vs. USA (Relays) meeting held at Stamford Bridge, London on Saturday 19 July 1924. Public domain, via Wikipedia.

Southern Cross August – September 2024

Posted on July 26, 2024 
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The August – September 2024 edition of Southern Cross magazine is now available on the Sydney Diocese website.

Download your copy – or pick up one at church when printed copies are available.

What is the ecclesiological problem with a third province?

Posted on July 25, 2024 
Filed under Church of England, Culture wars Comments Off on What is the ecclesiological problem with a third province?

“In a letter of 2 July this year to the signatories of a letter from the Alliance group within the Church of England to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the Bishop of Oxford wrote as follows:

‘The mind of the majority House of Bishops now seems to me to be settling on questions of pastoral reassurance after many months of uncertainty. There is a now a reluctant acceptance of the need for some regional provision of episcopal ministry to recognise divergent views on marriage and same sex relationships, supported by a House of Bishops statement, Code of Practice and Reviewer. However, the House is also clear that going beyond these arrangements to diverse jurisdictions, a third province and a church within a church undercuts the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology and represents a red line we cannot cross.’

The references in the final sentence of this quotation to ‘diverse jurisdictions,’ ‘a third province’ and ‘a church within a church’  are all different ways of referring to the same idea, the idea put forward by the Alliance and the Church of England Evangelical Council  (CEEC) that in the event that the House of Bishops and the General Synod continue down the path of permitting the blessing of same-sex sexual relationships and allowing those in same-sex sexual relationships to serve as ordained Church of England ministers, a third province of the Church of England should be created to provide a secure and permanent home for those who cannot in good conscience accept these developments.

The Bishop of Oxford rejects this idea on the grounds that it ‘undercuts the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology’ and therefore ‘represents a red line we cannot cross.’  What he does not explain in his letter, and what he has not explained elsewhere, is why the proposal for a third province goes against ‘the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology.’

It is very difficult to see why he thinks is the case. …”

– Martin Davie rules out possible arguments against ‘a third province’ in the Church of England.

Photo: Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft.

Why stay (at least for now)?

Posted on July 24, 2024 
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Anglican Futures is publishing a series of essays by various contributors on whether they should leave, or stay, in the Church of England:

“The debate over whether to remain in or leave the European Union divided families and our nation and still does not seem to be finally settled.

The discussions over what members of the Church of England should do, given the clear trajectory of the Prayers of Living in Love and Faith, is no less fraught. Already people on both sides of the debate have voiced their dissatisfaction and left.

The reasons for people remaining are equally diverse and in some ways divisive. …”

– In reading this and the other contributions, do uphold in prayer our brothers and sisters in England who seek the Lord’s wisdom for the best way forward.

Image: Church of England website.

Review of Packer’s ‘Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age’

Posted on July 24, 2024 
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“I was eating pizza the other night with two young men, one a Christian, the other a seeker. We talked about what it means to be a Christian and some of the challenges of the Christian life.

The first surprise was that they/we couldn’t get through two family-sized pizzas. The youth of today!

The second was that they thought that becoming a Christian in 2024 was a way of rebelling.

One told how his boss, a Gen X Roman Catholic, explained that young men shouldn’t be going to church but should instead be finding a girlfriend to sleep with and getting drunk. The young man found this boringly orthodox, ignoble, and distasteful. He felt certain that there must be a better way to live.

I’m having conversations like these more and more these days. Are we seeing early signs of a spiritual awakening among young people? I wonder whether the Lord is beginning a new work among these younger generations.

What I know for certain is that the Church must be ready to receive young seekers. That means that our churches must be refuges of radical, self-sacrificial love. Parched and thirsting for meaning and community in today’s desert of online isolation and spiritual desolation, nothing will attract young people more than an actual flesh-and-blood loving Christian community. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This kind of strange Christ-like love can arise only from an intimate relational knowledge of Jesus himself.

This is where a book like Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age comes in.

J. I. Packer (1926–2020) was a British theologian, author of the now-classic Knowing God (1973), who for most of his working life was a professor of theology at Regent College in Vancouver. He stands alongside John Stott, F.F. Bruce, Michael Green, Dick Lucas, Martyn-Lloyd Jones and other superb conservative-evangelical British preachers and theologians of the twentieth century.

The book is in fact a lightly edited transcription of five lectures that Packer first delivered at Kuyper College in Grand Rapids in 1978, and then at Moore College in Sydney. …”

–At AP, Campbell Markham reviews J I Packer’s Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age. (Bold added.)

And you can also see or hear Packer’s five lectures at the Moore College Annual Lectures in 1978 – in glorious grey and white, thanks to the Donald Robinson Library at Moore College.

His series title was “We Preach Christ Crucified”. Very much worth watching.

At about an hour each, why not consider watching these with your Bible Study?

Lecture 1 –  We’ve a Story to Tell.
Lecture 2 – The man Christ Jesus.
Lecture 3 – He emptied himself: the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Lecture 4 – The wonderful exchange.
Lecture 5 – No other name: the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

Related:

The Moore College Annual Lectures 2024 with Tom Schreiner.

A way back from disillusionment and disappointment in ministry — The Pastor’s Heart

Posted on July 23, 2024 
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From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Disillusionment is one of the great threats to the Christian life and to Christian ministry

A wise man said the worst thing in ministry was not a pastor who quits, but a pastor who doesn’t quit, but who keeps going when they’ve given up.

Sydney Missionary and Bible College Karl Deenick shares his own experience of hitting a major wall after seven years of pastoral work.

We unpack how ministry challenges can lead to a sense of disillusionment, especially among millennials, plus a way back.”

– Many will resonate with this one. Watch or listen here.

Related:

Gathered Together by Karl Deenick. (Matthias Media.)

Peter Adam’s talks at the 2001 Proclamation Trust Senior Ministers Conference:

The Making of a Man of God – 1.
The Making of a Man of God – 2.
The Making of a Man of God – 3.

A culture of winning souls for Christ

Posted on July 22, 2024 
Filed under Encouragement, Evangelism Comments Off on A culture of winning souls for Christ

“In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 the apostle Paul famously gives insight into one way Jesus’ love drove him to create deeply meaningful, personal connections to bring people the gospel:

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

Key to Paul’s strategy is using culture – understanding and adapting himself to others’ life patterns – to win souls for Christ. Moreover, this is not for Paul alone. He also calls on the Corinthians to “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). All Christians are to become all things to all people, so that by all possible means we might save some.

Understanding culture is vital for Christians. However, it can also seem daunting – reserved for quirky, safari-suited academics studying strange tribal rituals in a remote place! I want to give a simple, accessible description of culture I’ve found very helpful in putting 1 Cor 9:22 into concrete, real-life practice. …”

– Here’s some encouragement from The Rev. Dr. Dan Wu at Moore College. (via SydneyAnglicans.net.)

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