Freedom to preach, pray & counsel under attack in NSW
Posted on August 19, 2023
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The Australian Christian Lobby’s Wendy Francis warns of the NSW government’s reported intention to introduce ‘conversion therapy laws’.
– Watch here.
See also:
Report from The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 August 2023.
In another move, this one by the federal government:
Why bureaucrats can’t be left to censor free speech under Labor’s ACMA bill proposal – David Coleman, Opposition communications spokesman. The Australian. (Subscription.)
– New ACMA powers to combat misinformation and disinformation – Australian government. Submissions on the proposal close on 20 August 2023.
Moore College Open Week 21-25 August
Posted on August 19, 2023
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Moore College is holding an Open Week 21-25 August.
Pakistan church attacks: The Anglican Communion calls for justice and prayers
Posted on August 18, 2023
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“In the wake of the violent attacks on churches and Christians in Pakistan, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Anthony Poggo, has called for justice to be served. …”
– News from the Anglican Communion News Service.
The Alphabet Bible
Posted on August 18, 2023
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“When I was at uni, we read an article about memory. It argued that pen and paper, computers and smart phones have erased our reliance on memory. …”
– At The Australian Church Record, Jeanette Chin has a simple way to help memorise Scripture – it’s ‘the alphabet Bible’.
All About Jesus: Tim Keller’s Memorial Service
Posted on August 18, 2023
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“‘You may have noticed this isn’t the usual sort of memorial service,’ Kathy Keller told about 2,000 guests gathered today to remember Tim Keller. She meant there were few tributes and no videos or photos of her husband.
‘That’s because Tim wrote it himself, just the way he liked to do funerals for other people,’ she said. ‘You mention the dead person, certainly, but then you talk about the God that person is now facing.’
That’s exactly what happened in Keller’s final service. …”
– The Gospel Coalition has this report on the memorial service for Tim Keller.
‘Intolerable corruption’: Anglicans warn euthanasia may force exit from aged care
Posted on August 17, 2023
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“The Anglican Church has advised its aged care homes to discourage residents from using voluntary assisted dying when NSW’s laws take effect this year, and has warned the practice could become so morally corrupting for church-run facilities that it may have to exit the industry. …
‘The Board of Anglicare Sydney decided … VAD will not be available at its residential aged care homes, and the organisation and staff will not actively participate in the provision of any VAD services,’ said the report to the Synod, an Anglican parliament…”
– Story by Jordan Baker in WA Today.
Image from a video by St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.
The challenges, struggles and opportunities of small church leadership
Posted on August 17, 2023
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On The Pastor’s Heart this week:
“What are the issues that senior pastors of smaller churches face – personally and to do with church culture, mission and identity.
What are the joys and tensions? What is ministry success?
What are the common pastoral frustrations?
How is long term ministry fruitfulness helped or hindered by our ecclesiology?
The reality is that most churches are small churches …”
Dominic Steele chats with Stephen Anderson. He also provide a link to Stephen’s Encouragement for the Small Church website.
Victoria’s Anti-Conversion Legislation promotional is a soothing Bed-Time Story
Posted on August 16, 2023
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“The Victorian Government has just published its media information pack on conversion therapy. And I’ve gotta say, the YouTube video its has produced takes the biscuit. And it’s taken a leaf out of casting central, by employing Mr Bed Time Story Guy to provide the voice over. As I was watching it I wanted to curl up in my jimmy–jams with a hot cocoa.…”
– Stephen McAlpine gives his take on the Victorian Government’s PR campaign.
Image: YouTube.
Why everyone started talking about Expositional Preaching
Posted on August 16, 2023
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In this article at The Gospel Coalition, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra looks at what happens when you discover expository (‘expostional’ in the US) preaching, and what led to the founding of the Charles Simeon Trust –
“[Walter] Carter was having the same eye-opening experience that [Dave] Helm had 25 years earlier when British pastor Dick Lucas first demonstrated expositional preaching to him.
‘It felt like a light bulb going on,’ Helm remembers. ‘It felt like you were closer to having command of what God was actually trying to say.’
Helm couldn’t get enough, and in 2001, he and some others started the Charles Simeon Trust (CST) to teach Lucas’s principles to others. Light bulbs have been going on ever since. …”
Many Australians have had similar experiences, thanking God for the ministries of Dick Lucas and John Stott and others.
See, for example these related posts. – in particular, Sydney Church History by David Cook and Reflecting on Fifty Years of Expository Preaching in Australia (1965–2015) by Peter Adam.
Photo: Dick Lucas at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in 2014.
The Christian Gospel – a new resource
Posted on August 16, 2023
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On the latest Two Ways News podcast, Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen chat about Tony’s new book The Christian Gospel. They also speak about the difference between the gospel and the Gospels.
– Listen here.
Read about (and order) the book from Matthias Media.
In their conversation, Phillip Jensen makes a great point:
“…one of the signs of a true fisherman is that they are optimistic and come prepared – they take something with them to carry the fish home in. Any fisherman who goes without some bag or net or bucket to carry home the fish is not a real fisherman.
And so to enter into conversations with people without something that you’re going to put in their hands afterwards is like being a pessimistic fisherman.”
Image of Tony and Phillip: The Pastor’s Heart.
Talks from the Bathurst Diocesan Camp 2023
Posted on August 15, 2023
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The Bathurst Diocesan Camp was held at Burrendong Dam over the weekend.
Ian Powell from St. Matthew’s Wanniassa in Canberra spoke on the Book of Jonah. Very challenging and helpful talks.
Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3, Talk 4.
The Key
Posted on August 15, 2023
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“In my opinion, this is the KEY.
In 1976, having spent 3 years of formative theological training at Moore College, I moved to my first parish, Wee Waa, in the north west of NSW.
I was to be the church’s second minister, the first was a faithful man, an excellent communicator. …
My sermons were very different to the previous minister, I preached for longer, I had been trained to always expound, and, I wasn’t the communicator he had been.
It was not going well, I knew that the congregation were switching off…”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook shares The Key.
God is Over All
Posted on August 15, 2023
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Another encouraging and edifying song from City Alight and Colin Buchanan. “God is Over All”.
China boosts religious repression, arresting clergymen, removing crosses
Posted on August 14, 2023
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“China has intensified its crackdown on the activities of religious groups in recent weeks, from pastoral outreach to religious services.
As part of this, crosses have been removed, members of the clergy arrested or held in administrative detention solely for practising their faith, and places of worship have been forced to support the campaign of ‘sinicisation’ in accordance with the ideology of President Xi Jinping. …”
– Report via Anglican.ink.
Image: Autograph book entry for September 2nd 1938 is a reminder that “China [still] needs our prayers!”
Darwin Cathedral Evening Service turns One
Posted on August 14, 2023
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A new issue of Top Centre (23.2) from the Diocese of the Northern Territory is now out and available for download.
Lots of encouragement and plenty to pray about – including a report on the first anniversary of the new evening service at Christ Church Cathedral in Darwin (pictured).
“Christ Church Cathedral celebrated the first anniversary of its 5.30pm evening service on June 4 with about 50 people in the congregation including a newborn baby.
This compared with a mere ten people at its first service a year ago.
Reflecting on the growth of this church plant, founding leader Ben Staunton said as much as he was encouraged by the growth in numbers, what was more remarkable was the community that had been built, with members regularly meeting socially and helping each other in their daily lives. …”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…