I love you man

Terrific review of this film by Mark. Very practical -

Guys, why not try this for an 'evangelistic event' – invite a guy you want to see come to Christ to shoot hoops, work on the car or see a film like I love you man. Pray lots before, during and after, but listen, let them lead the conversation, and leave your bag of theological tricks in the car. Hollywood and I seem to agree on this much: men want to connect and will do so with anyone who doesn't ask them to abandon themselves in the process. I have found that once they perceive the reliability of the relationship you offer, the conversation invariably turns itself to what it is that makes you offer.

Creating Community Groups

As I've mentioned before, this year at church we are trying to make our small group network more vital and integral to the spiritual lives of our members. We now call our groups "Community Groups", with the idea being that they really are a place where you experience genuine community and spiritual growth. There's been an interesting change in the preaching to promote this. During the application section of the sermon, Dominic almost always now says, "Here's what this will look like in your Community Group..." It hadn't occurred to me before that most sermon applications are pitched at the individual. Interesting shift...

Too much information, too little wisdom

Thought provoking piece by Justin

The Devil declares war on Luther

We Lucifer, lord of eternal darkness and ruler of all the kingdoms of the world, declare to you, Martin Luther, our wrath and displeasure. We have learned from our legates, Cardinals Campeggio and Lang, the damage you have done in that you have revived the Bible which at our behest has been little used for the last four hundred years. You have persuaded monks and nuns to leave the cloisters in which formerly they served as well, and you are yourself an apostate from our service. Therefore we will persecute you with burning, drowning, and beheading. This is a formal declaration of war, and you will receive no other notice. Sealed with our hellish seal in the City of Damnation on the last day of September, 1524.

From a German tract

More on the Internet Filter

This debate hasn't gone away. Jeremy brings the latest.

Rules of Engagement

MK has rules of engagement for his boys when they play fight -

No shooting innocent bystanders, girls (unless they really want to play) or your mother.
You have to use force to do good, protect the weak.
No disproportionate use of force on a younger sibling.
No fighting inside.
No blood. No sticks. No hitting about the face and head.
You can cry out 'Stop, I don't like it' which finishes the attack.

I've done something similar with my 3 boys, who all like to fight a bit. The basic rules are no kicking, and no punching to the head. Everyone understands that groin strikes are not on either. Otherwise they can go for it. Yeah, it often ends in tears, but so long as there's no blood and no broken bones, no harm done. And they love all the physical contact.

Deconversion

Well, this is disturbing, but pretty fascinating. On a blog called the "Friendly Atheist", a man confides that he has deconverted a Christian friend, but the ex-Christian is now miserable. The atheists on the blog offer advice to help the subject survive deconversion. Sounds like the bloke has come out of fundamentalist church. Perhaps he hasn't been exposed to a sincere Christian faith that is not in that mould... Would be a shame if he thought his choices were fundamentalism or atheism. (ht: Nathan)

PS - If any of you decide to comment over there, please be super-gracious. Don't give them further ammo...

Letter from Luther to his son, aged 4

To my beloved son Hans Luther in Wittenberg: grace and peace in Christ.

My beloved Son:

I am pleased to learn that you are doing well in your studies and that you are praying diligently. Continue to do so, my son, and when I return home I shall bring you a present from the fair.

I know of a pretty, gay, and beautiful garden where there are many children wearing golden robes. They pick up fine apples, pears, cherries, and plums under the trees, and they sing, jump, and are happy all the time. They also have nice ponies with golden reins and silver saddles.

I asked the owner of the garden who the children were. He replied: "These are the children who love to pray, learn their lessons, and be good." Then I said: "Dear sir, I also have a son. His name is Hans Luther. May he too enter the garden, eat of the fine apples and pears, ride on these pretty pones, and play with the other children?" The man answered: "If he likes to pray and study and is good, he may enter the garden, and also Lippus and Jost. And when they are all together there, they shall get whistles, drums, lutes and other musical instruments, and they shall dance and shoot with little crossbows."

And he showed me a lovely lawn in the garden, all ready for dancing, and many gold whistles and drums and fine silver crossbows were hanging there. But it was still so early in the morning that the children had not yet eaten, and so I could not wait for the dancing. I said to the man: "Dear sir, I must hurry away and write about all this to my dear little son Hans and tell him to pray, study, and be good in order that he may get into this garden. He has an Aunt Lena, and he must bring her along." "By all means," said the man, "go and write him accordingly."

Therefore, dear Hans, continue to learn your lessons and pray, and tell Lippus and Jost to pray too, so that all of you may get into the garden together.

Herewith I commit you to the dear Lord's keeping. Greet Aunt Lena, and give her a kiss from me.

Your loving father,
Martin Luther

Calvin & The Holy Spirit

This conference will be worth checking out

Boys and violent play

Missed this post from Nicole last week. Some good thoughts. Boys like playing rough, it's the way they are built...

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Was thinking about this verse this morning. Sometimes it gets lost beneath the weight of it's more famous predecessors. But it's a beautiful verse to think about when you might be doing things tough. Firstly, we are God's workmanship, made by God, crafted by God, drawn and painted by God. Not an accident. Not random. Deliberately made. Something made by Rembrandt is valuable. Something made by God is infinitely more so.

Then you can see we are created "in Christ Jesus to do good works", which God has prepared for us. We are not just marking time on earth, waiting for glory. Some Christians seem to think that, but it is a deadening idea. God has work for each of us to do, good work, important work, right here and right now. Each of us is important in His economy. Each of us has a reason to get up every day. Each of us has a purpose. It is nice to know...

Union with Christ

Just got around to listening to MJ's excellent interview with Con, regarding the doctrine of "Union with Christ". Interesting discussion regarding it's relationship with imputation. Con suggests (rightly, imo) that we may have overcooked the concept of imputation in the hunt for ammo in the New Perspective wars. He suggests it is better understood in the context of Christological union, rather than as an abstract doctrine. He's pretty certain he has Calvin and Luther on his side. Very good stuff... Imputation has become such a shibolleth though, this is a pretty difficult conversation to have...

Guitar Chords for Hymns

75,000 hits

Feminist pioneer’s rethink

There is a lot of soul searching going on about gender roles at the moment. It's good to see. I don't think every woman should be home baking muffins, but the choice to do that should be validated and respected.

Successful and Innovative City Church Models

Very interesting post from Justin

Next 2009 Audio Online

Audio from the Sovereign Grace conference is now online. Some top speakers there

Single Women - Redux

My post on Single Women continues to receive comments - an average of 1 or 2 per week. Some interesting stuff just written, go check it out.

Lunch with Peter Bolt

Just had lunch with Peter Bolt, and we had a great discussion of all things historical. He is very interested in looking at my Johnson book for his new publishing series. The book is still a while away! But please pray for God's blessing upon it...

Loving the Lost

We had a great time at community group tonight, thinking about evangelism. Some good ideas came up, many very much in the Total Church model of evangelising as a community rather than as an individual. I suspect this concept will become increasingly influential in our churches.

Dominic came up with some useful categories for the lost in his sermon on Sunday -

Anonymous Lost - the great mass of unsaved people who we don't know, eg. our local suburb
Semi-anonymous Lost - the lost we have a partial relationship with. eg. the coach of your childs soccer team, a temp at work
Known Lost - the lost whom we have a relationship with. Work mates, family, neighbours

Each category requires a different strategy. It's a helpful way of looking at things. Would be good to come up with a better name than "Semi-anonymous Lost" though - any thoughts?

Rudd's Daily Prayer

He starts the day with a reading from My Utmost for His Highest. I'm sorry, but I think that is a highly over-rated devotional. It needs more Word and less Oswald. And it's a bit dull too. Anyone want to defend it?

South-West Chinese Christian Church

In the last fortnight they've seen 4 people come to Christ. Praise God!

Attributive justice

A challenging post from Michael. And he mentions my man...

Healing service

Really good post from Ali

Game theory and Evangelism

Interesting...

Music options for small churches

Here

Steve Morrison Band

Anyone else heading down to the Basement on Thursday night to see the Steve Morrison band? I saw them the last time they played there, and they were excellent. Well worth $20...

busy busy busy

Had a very busy weekend, and a busy week ahead. Good to have things on, haven't had a lot of time to blog though. And my usual terrible housework has slipped to an even lower level.

Band of Bloggers

Met up with a whole bunch of SA bloggers tonight at the Nags Head. Everyone had a great time over beer and pizza, good people, good chatting. Will do it again soon...

Imagine a church that loved the lost

A good sermon here

Anglican Churches in the Northern Region

A very interesting post by MichaelK

Who We Are

A list of "must-reads" that define the Australian experience

Blogging...

Dominic told me today that he plans to get serious about blogging, and he's going to clean up his site a bit. I'll post a link when the new site kicks off. A lot of important conversations are happening in blog land now...it's good to have good people taking part in the conversation...

Imagine a church that loves the lost

Had a good talk on evangelism this morning, will post a link when the video goes up

Book update

Made some good progress on the book the last couple of days. Lots of research, and a bit of writing. I'm up to about 4000 words, and Johnson has just graduated from Cambridge been ordained. The writing is a bit rough. The facts are all there, but it lacks sparkle. Not too concerned about that at the moment, but some serious polishing needed at some stage...

Persecuted? Then find your funny bone

Excellent piece by Jeremy.

What did a Cambridge BA look like in the 18th century?

After a fair bit of research, I've tracked down a reading list. My academic readers might find it interesting...

University Ministry

Mikey is doing University ministry. I think it's an excellent move. Reading through the early history of evangelicalism, I'm struck by how strategic the universities were for the propagation of the movement. And our own recent history shows the massive influence the right man can have at a university. Pray, pray, pray that God will generously bless Mikey in this work.

Thoughts on Divorce #1

A friend recently told me that the various bits and pieces I've written and podcast about divorce the last few years have been quite helpful in some of her ministry areas. I haven't written much on the subject for a while, so I thought I'd start an occasional series on the subject. Won't be systematic, just bits and pieces as they come to me.

Here's one scenario that I encounter quite often. A professing Christian will have left their marriage, or will be thinking about it, and it turns out that there is a deep friendship with a single member of the opposite sex. When challenged, they say that this person is just providing "spiritual support". I've heard that phrase pretty often in these scenarios. It's code for, "I'm going to be sleeping with this person in about 3 months".

In all honesty, these situations are never innocent. At the start they *seem* innocent probably to the parties involved. It is a genuine friendship, they are just having coffee and a heart to heart. But it never stays that way for long, not if there is some sexual chemistry there. Soon it will slide into a romantic relationship. The #1 reason that separated people don't reconcile is because of the presence of a third party. If you could eliminate that, I reckon 80% of marriages could eventually be repaired.

This is not to say that there should be no support or counseling given by members of the opposite sex. I'm not saying that. That can happen, but it has to be in an appropriate and safe context, that is all.

Rev. Richard Johnson

Garage Hymnal

My review of their latest album. It's great! Check out the launch tomorrow night...

Still home sick

Luckily I have disks 1&2 of The Ultimate Fighter season 7 to keep me company. Will also do some more research for Johnson. Currently trying to get my head around 18th century Cambridge, and Magdalene College.

UFoC 2010

In 2010 the University Fellowship of Christians will enter into a new phase. Mikey Lynch will come on board as the new campus director. It is our prayer to revise and refresh the entire ministry to make it most effective in its mission.

It is our goal to raise $100 000 by the end of 2009 to enable the ministry to develop and expand in line with its mission.

More here

Masks of God

Luther on Vocation

Home sick today

Bad cold. Went through a box of tissues at work yesterday, probably shouldn't have gone in. Today will be spent doing a bit of "Johnson" reading and writing I reckon. I'm up to the 2nd chapter, which is about his time at Cambridge and his first couple of ministry postings. I will probably also grab the latest UFC from the DVD shop, and spend a happy couple of hours munching on snacks and watching that...

The Honda Insight

"It's terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy."

"Change you can believe in"

I expect to see a few more stories like this

Wolfram|Alpha

This site may be destined for greatness. It's a repository of computable information. Go over and play. Type in your birthday, for example.

Henry Fosters Death

http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn987758

Mark Thompson Blog

Mark Thompson has rebooted his blog. Looks nice too. Lots of Sydney Anglican internet busyness going on recently. Is good...

Raising the Evangelistic Temperature

Andrew Katay has some ideas. And he's written a course...

Commentary on Galatians

Con is thinking of writing a commentary on Galatians

Wesley, charms and church planting

An attractive and persuasive argument for...

What does God think of your job?

My latest column for SA

William Cowper

Peter Bolt has just released his new biography on William Cowper. I can't wait to read it...

India votes for the market economy

More here

May 20th Blog Meet up postponed

More info here

My lunchtime talk went well

ta 4 prayers...

South Africa and the Bible

Very challenging column from MJ

Writing...

Yeah, my blogs been a little neglected the last few days. I've had lots of other writing to do... Been doing a bit of work on my book, been writing a couple of pieces for Sydney Anglicans, also writing my talk for St Phillips tomorrow... Somethings had to give! But it's been good, I feel blessed to have an outlet for my creative energy in this area...

The Essential Jesus Audio Book

This is a good resource - free! Check it out

Richard Johnson

Here is the only known picture of him

Proverb

"A fool shows his annoyance at once,
       but a prudent man overlooks an insult."

Reaching out to the unemployed

Justin has some good thoughts

Hmmm...

Someone just spammed by blog posting email... Not good...

Book

Finished chapter 1 of my book. It's pretty rough still. It's about 2600 words long, and covers from Johnson's birth up until the time he leaves for Cambridge.

Oz29

A woman at the Melbourne conference blogs her impressions (3 posts). Quote -

Al discussed the problems with denominations in Australia.  Just about every available statistic shows Australian Christianity in decline.  Even the highly activistic Sydney Anglican Diocese is just holding steady, despite large-scale missional aims and strategies.  Still, denominations aren't simply to be abandoned.  In many ways, they are central to Australian Christianity, and they're more integral to local churches than somewhere like America.  They contain real ministry networks and real resources.  However, these networks can often serve to support failure and stifle success, and the resources may be hard to access.  Al fears that Australian denominations train ministers to become maintenance men and civil servants — they may be good theologians, but they end up getting stuck on a denominational treadmill that doesn't lead far.  Without abandoning denominations, we need to shake them up and work effectively within them.

InstantAction.com

Great quick action games

Word Count

Sola Panel have added a word count to their articles. Very nice. Also like the "MORE >>" link. Site is much more user-friendly for it...

Mikey's mission-oriented work schedule review

Mikey set himself some goals five months ago. He frankly reviews his progress here. He's obviously a bit bummed out by a few things, perhaps some older heads can offer some counsel...

New Transport Plan for Sydney

This looks interesting

"Virgins wanted. $20,000 each"

Our Bishop connects with some film-makers

Chivalry

Rach writes a timely piece on this ancient virtue

Praise God for Baptisms

A friend tells me that 7 people were baptised at her (Anglican) church last week, all new believers. Praise God! We also had a baptism at church last week, of a guy who became a Christian in the last year or so.

Fighting for the gospel

Been reading a lot of church history recently, especially the last few hundred years. One thing that strikes me is how cyclical it all is with regards to fidelity to the gospel. The church will hit a "high point" (such as the 18th century revival) and you think, "this is wonderful, if only it could last for hundreds of years!" But then, within a few years sometimes, it's all been washed away, and a new generation has to start the struggle for the gospel once again.

Why is this? Why doesn't God just keep things ticking along in a straight line? Well, I can't claim to know His reasons. But I wonder if there is maybe something special about the struggle itself, about the fight to remain faithful when everything about you is falling into effective unbelief. Certainly all our great Christian heroes are those who have struggled (and prevailed) against great opposition...

Sydney Diocese - The Brutal Facts

Andrew summarises the "brutal facts" of our diocese -

1. We have stopped growing; we are not reaching more people in our cities for Christ.
2. 60-70% of the churches of the Diocese are either plateaued or declining.
3. Much of the growth we have experienced is through existing congregations joining dead or dying churches. It boosts the numbers, but is a bit of a fudge. 
4. The most common/effective church turnaround strategy we seem to employ is to get a new minister.
   

I think there is a lot of truth to this, unfortunately. Anyone want to challenge any of them?

Bits and Pieces

Home from work, waiting for the boys and the girl to arrive for dinner. J had his athletics carnival on today - he is going to zone for 100m, 200m, 400m, long jump and cross-country. Yeah, I'm a proud dad.

Lotsa good links have just popped up in my reader. Check these out -

League Hypocrisy - a really brilliant piece from Phillip Jensen

Con Campbell on Union with Christ - Con is currently working on a book on this subject. I've chatted to him about it, and I reckon it will be special. It's a neglected doctrine.

Australian church planters network get together - Murray reports. Al Stewart has shown a lot of leadership and guts in getting involved with this. The "Seattle 5" may well become part of Australian Christian history...

Reformed Charismatics? - A video piece from Phillip Jensen. I haven't watched this yet. As you might have guessed, I love all the RC guys - Piper, Driscoll, Mahaney, and the Sovereign Grace stuff. Glad to see Phillip talking so frankly about this new movement, and I'll be intrigued to see what he says.

Quotes from John Duncan

These are terrific

"Every sin will be adequately punished; blessed be God, not every sinner"

OCA Prayer Points

Overseas Council Australia

Praise God for the time that Philip and Stuart were able to spend in Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka visiting colleges that OCA support. Please pray for travelling mercies as they return home to their families.

Allahabad Bible College, India

Praise God for the wonderful academic year which concluded recently with the Graduation Service last month. It is pleasing to report that there were 99 students who graduated, four of which are supported by OCA. Please pray for all the graduates who have gone into different parts of India to minister in various churches and other ministries. Please pray that they will implement what they have learnt during their time at the college and that people will be reached and lives will be changed by the Gospel.

Phnom Penh Bible College, Cambodia

Please pray for the interim leadership team at the college as they work through some difficulties at the college. Differences in opinion over curriculum issues, and the direction of the college, has led to challenges in relationships. Everyone involved is still committed to the college and OCA is closely monitoring the situation, (and may formally offer organisational consulting support) over the coming months.

South Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies, India

Please pray for the college as it is currently hosting a interdenominational Missions Conference and 250 delegates from various agencies have registered. Please pray that this conference will be well received and beneficial to all involved. Please pray also for the students who are on holiday until early next month that they will be refreshed before commencing their studies for a new academic year. Please pray for the Staff and Faculty who are also taking time out for rest and refreshment. Several faculty members have been invited to conferences, seminars etc throughout India.

The college is expecting to have around 58 new students who will arrive early next month. Please pray for them as they travel to the college and then begin to settle in to life at SAIACS.

Here I Stand

Currently reading this famous biography of Luther. It is highly readable, really enjoying it. Lots of cool little medieval illustrations scattered throughout as well, very nice. Perhaps JohnH can tell me what Lutherans consider to be the authoritative bio of Luther..?

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush

A 19th century book about the church in Scotland. Has been recommended to me...

SydneyAnglicans.net - Find a job

Click here

Saw Star Trek

Terrific movie. Check it out.

Star Trek

Going to see Star Trek 2nite with some mates. I've only heard good things about it, looking forward to it...

pray 4 me

Looks like I'll be proclaiming the gospel to about 100 school girls next week. I'm not a public speaker, but God delights in using broken tools sometimes. Prayers, ta.

League, Sex, Holy Spirit

Justin wrote about the issue a few days ago.

Jeremy made a pretty telling point in the meta -

On a more deeper level the episode shows the black hole our society has fallen into by building its sexual ethic around the concept of consent. There are circumstances where the power dynamic is so uneven that consent is not possible.

A league rep responds...

"We already have so many rules: we can't drink on these days, we can't go to these places, now we can't have group sex. About the only thing we can do these days is go to club functions, and just hang around other players. That's just isolating us more from the rest of the world, and it could lead to even more violent acts."

No, this is not made up

Matthew Johns has been sacked

Society still seems pretty intolerant of shameless immorality in our public figures

Preaching Judgment

Gordo thinks we need more of it. Are we soft-selling the gospel with talk of relationship and community? Gordo suggests our opening door-knock line be, "Hello, are you aware you are under the judgment of God." Anyone ever tried that?

Gittins on the Budget

...the most puzzling, back-to-front budget I can remember. This is the budget that brings home the confusion...

Usually, budgets are pretty simple affairs, coming in two types. In times of inflationary boom they haul on the brakes, cutting spending and raising taxes; in times of recession they step on the gas, increasing spending and cutting taxes.

But Rudd has never been a man to do one thing at a time, so this budget tries to move in both directions simultaneously.

More here

Singles and Tax

Something else struck me last night. Singles really get a pretty raw financial deal in this country. They get none of the generous family taxation rebates that those with children get, and get no benefit from baby bonus, maternity leave, the back to school bonus and child tax bonus. Their costs of living are also proportionally higher than those of a couple. And in last night's budget, they were slugged with a tax hike in the form of an increased medicare levy and a reduced private health insurance rebate. There must be a real feeling that they are paying for other people's children. This rubs salt into the wound, given that many do not wish to be single and desperately wish they had children. I wonder if they will be the new "forgotten people" in an upcoming election?

Reforming Rector Accountability

Interesting piece from Michael. He continues to rush in where angels fear to tread -

There are churches being led by the wrong men. Unless there is a serious matter like immorality it is difficult to remove them. If their faults are obvious enough it actually makes it hard for them to go somewhere else. What other parish will take them?

Sometimes parishioners are just left to vote with their feet or their wallets. Or wait for the eventual retirement of the minister.

Budget Reaction

One of the more interesting budgets last night. For all the tough talk, there were not a lot of really nasty decisions in there. Raising the pension age was a surprise, but I suspect it will continue to increase in the future. Hitting high income earners more for medical insurance was another little nasty. But now is not the time to be slashing spending all over the place, so the real "nasty" was the deficit - $58 billion. This will not naturally return to surplus. Really hard work will have to be done in the next term to repair the budget. That means deep and nasty cuts by whoever wins the 2010 election. Paul Kelly puts it well -

But Labor has fired nearly all its ammunition. Its big front-end stimulus packages mean spending must be severely constrained down the track when recovery starts. If Labor is re-elected, the second term will become the horror years. On these figures, there is almost zero capacity for new 2010 election-year promises.

Singing in Community Groups

We were reading Colosians 3 in Community Group last night, which talks about building each other up with "psalms, hymns, spiritual songs". We've decided to do some singing together each week from now on. Looking forward to that.

This morning I read Psalm 59, which talks about God being a fortress. One of my favourite hymns is Luther's "A Mighty Fortress", and I'm keen to teach it to our group one week. Here is the first verse -

A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amidst the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and pow'r are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his e - qual.

I put together some really easy chords for this song here. It's a shame it's not sung more often today.

How David beats Goliath

Fascinating article on how underdogs win

A Hard Truth for Pastors

The hard truth is that most of your good work in a parish will be forgotten within a couple of years of your departure. From my observation, the enduring legacies you will leave are the people you see converted, and the people you send into ministry.

Subsidising Failure

Recessions once could be relied on to shake out and renew failed management in a form of creative destruction so that we could all prosper in the next boom. This is no longer the case.

Through hundreds of years the legal system has evolved to facilitate critical renewal of management. This process of putting the debt holders in charge when equity holders fail to properly monitor management has a name. We call it bankruptcy.

Because this word has ugly connotations - executives lose their jobs as well as their bonuses - Obama and Rudd have attempted to abolish it...

General Motors will be paid $6.2billion by Australian taxpayers to produce more failing cars. Schemes to encourage entrepreneurial Australians to start innovative businesses are abolished to fund what amounts to a public charity located in Detroit, which is shortly likely to belong to the US Government.

More here

New eServices

SA offers some new services via email

What does it mean to love Jesus?

A very good question, honestly asked

The Thinking Theologian

A Hillsong watchblog. (ht: haysey)

Diocesan Organisations

Andrew Katay discusses the future of these, in light of the GFC. Includes an interesting link showing how the endowment money is currently spent...

Driscollmania dooms quality press

Thought-provoking piece from Jeremy. It's a blessing that the GFC is forcing us to look into such things...

Blood of the Wicked

The psalms continue to challenge me with some of the harsher ideas. Take this from Psalm 58 -

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
   he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

What do we do with a verse like that? How do you apply it to today? Are we talking about the end-times judgment only, and we extend grace and peace to all people in the meantime?

Hillsong Brisbane

Garden City Church in Brisbane have joined the Hillsong denomination. (And it is a denomination now)

Broken Promises

The coming budget promises to be pretty painful. The deficit is predicted to be a whopping $60 billion. About 15 years ago, people were worried because  total government debt was around that mark. The government says it will have to break some promises because of the recession. Fair enough too. Governments make a stack of commitments going into an election, but things need to be flexible enough to account for changing conditions. Still, the previous government was hammered continually over the idea of "core" and "non-core" promises. I wonder how the present government will be treat on this issue?

Posts

Haven't been doing too many lengthy posts recently. Most of my writing energy at the moment has been split between doing the weekly reviews for SA, and working on my Johnson book. I'm currently trying to summarise 40 years of evangelical history in about 4 paragraphs. Coming together ok. I like doing that sort of thing, synthesis is, perhaps, one of my gifts...

Antique Shops

Been visiting a lot of antique shops lately. The girl likes antique shops, and we are going to visit a few today. The antiques don't do much for me, but what I've discovered is that many of the shops also have a second-hand book section out back. So I'll happily trawl through that while she looks at the pretty things out front. win-win.

To all the mum's out there...

Happy Mother's Day! You ladies are doing an outstanding work, be encouraged.

A Taste for Life

Is this out now? Could be a last-minute Mother's Day gift...

The English Evangelicals

I'm at a point in my little book where I have to give a brief sketch of the early evangelical movement in England. Been doing some research on that whole area, and it's fascinating. This old book has been helpful. One thing that strikes me is how similar these 18th century men were to us. They had a similar understanding of the gospel, and a similar understanding of how it should be proclaimed, a similar commitment to evangelism, to discipleship and to sending people into ministry. It's been a great getting to know these guys.

Wolverine

Saw Wolverine last night. It was a fun movie, though perhaps a bit darker than I expected. Lots of stabbing going on - I guess that's what you get when the hero has giant metal claws growing out of his hand.

The Dean on Vimeo

Dozens of video clips and sermons featuring Phillip Jensen are now on Vimeo. (ht: rd)

Creating Community

Our church is trying to make a few cultural shifts this year. One of the things we are trying to do is create genuine community in our church and especially in our small groups. These are now known as "Community Groups". A bit clunky, but it communicates what we are trying to say. I think labeling is very important, especially if you are trying to effect cultural change. There has been a bit more emphasis on table fellowship, which is a great way to build relationships. The church has also started to push some ministries through community groups, which creates a sense of coherence and solidarity. Early days, but I think we are starting to see a bit of a cultural change. We'll see where it ends up.

Unemployment drops

Unemployment has dropped from 5.7% to 5.4%. Unexpected good news.

The Hunt for Gollum

A 40-minute fan film based on Lord of the Rings

Coast Men's Convention

Al Stewart is speaking. Check it out

Ensemble Conference

Been enjoying listening to a few conferences online recently. The Americans do this thing where they get 5 or 6 speakers in a kind of ensemble conference. Terrific stuff. I wonder if we could do something similar locally, we have some excellent preachers after all. Imagine a day long conference somewhere with 6 of our very best preachers doing an hour each. I wonder if it would be popular?

Accountability

Andrew wants increased accountability of church leadership.

Gospel-Driven: Good News People in a Bad News World

Some talks by Mike Horton. He is always worth listening to.

The Proclaimer

Church By The Bridge launched a community newsletter last year. Here it is

Wrath - Lamb of God

My latest review for SA

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Haydn and Ji Hyun, expecting their second child.

Jane Austen Evangelism

A big hit

Amazing Submission

Check out this inverted triangle choke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpr9lPqcMDM

Influencing Styles

How do we influence someone? What is the best approach? This is a brief overview of the subject.

Johnson warns the Colony

"But I must express my fear, that those of you, who are thus convinced of sin, and converted to God, and reformed from your evil courses, are comparatively very few. It is too evident, that the far greater part of you discover no concern for religion. The Great God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, death, judgment, eternity, heaven and hell,--these are subjects which seldom, if at all, engage your attention; and therefore you spend days, weeks, months and years, in a profane and careless manner, though you are repeatedly informed and reminded in the most plain, faithful, and alarming language I can use, that the wages of sin, without repentance, is death,[Rom. vi. 23.] the curse of God, and the eternal ruin and damnation of your souls!"

Steve Timmis and Acts 29

A big announcement - Steve Timmis of Total Church fame is the new director of Acts 29 Western Europe.

A little tired

"Don't stay up late reading old books online!" said the girl before she left last night. The advice fell on deaf ears I'm afraid. I've been looking into Johnson's time at Hull Grammar School under the remarkable Joseph Milner. Milner was a brilliant man who turned the struggling school around. He became a minor local celebrity. Then he embraced evangelicalism and became something of a pariah in Hull, where the movement was looked upon with disdain. But Milner sent a whole stream of young evangelicals from his school onto University and into the ministry, including Johson and also Samuel Marsden.

I stayed up until 2am researching this stuff and writing it up. I'm only up to about 1500 words, and I'm still in the middle of Johnson's time in Hull Grammar. The writing is rough, but the shape feels about right. I think this first chapter will be purely about his childhood. The second chapter will focus on his time at Cambridge, and the couple of years he spent as a curate.

SydneyAnglicans.net

Some good content has gone up today. Karin talks about industrial relations, Jodie discusses sexting, and MJ looks at gender conditioning.

I love my Tivo

I bought a Tivo a month or 2 ago. It is awesome! There is actually a lot of good stuff on free-to-air TV, it just isn't on at convenient times. We haven't rented a DVD for home since getting the Tivo, so it will pay for itself in about, um, 18 months. Anyway, I reckon it's great.

Conversation bore

I fear I'm becoming a bit of a conversation bore. I'm so immersed in the world of Richard Johnson at the moment that he often dominates my casual conversation. If someone says, "What have you been doing/reading/thinking about lately?" watch out. Things excite me that probably seem ridiculous to other people. Like, I found a whole heap of transcripts from cases Johnson sat on as a civil magistrate. Or just today I discovered the names of all the other undergrads who were at Magdalene College with him. And so on. Anyway, I'm loving it...you'll have to put up with me for a while...

The 10 most pressing issues for evangelical theology today

Typically insightful post from MJ.

Engage 09

Matt Chandler is speaking at Engage 09. He is a terrific speaker, will be worth checking out.

Mars Hill Church is Coming to Albuquerque

Mars Hill announces it's first out-of-state campus

Flu and Discipleship

Tony asks an intriguing question. His proposal is a classic one, yet I never really hear of it being put into practice. I wonder why not?

The Gospel and Idolatry

Excellent, excellent talk from Tim Keller

What would Paul think of Mars Hill Global?

Geoff is pretty sure of the answer

Rethinking Southern Cross

The financial crisis is forcing radical change upon Southern Cross. I suspect that all diocesan organisations will be affected to a similar degree. It will be a painful year.

Introducing God

We have an Introducing God course starting this week at church. Praise God that 8 non-Christians are attending. This is where it's really at...

Baby Pain

Justin speaks about the pain of infertility

Sydney Bloggers Meet-up

Justin proposes Wednesday May 20th at Glebe.

Multi-Site Churches

9Marks Journal is doing a timely special on multi-site churches

Sydney Bloggers

A grand meet-up is being mooted

How to grow your church

I remember a comment Andrew Katay made at Synod last year. Synod was discussing planting churches. Andrew got up and said, "We seem to have the planting business sorted out. What we don't know how to do is grow the churches once they are planted." I was interested at the time to hear what else he had to say on the subject. Now, thanks to blogdom, I can. Here is his recent post describing a field tested, proven effective strategy for churches to become growing churches. It's part of a larger series on changes he'd like to make to the diocese.

And perhaps some of his suggestions will get a hearing. The coming fiscal crisis in the diocese (which is bigger than most of you realise) is going to prompt a very hard re-think about a range of ministry approaches.

Vaughan...

...what's your blogs RSS feed?

Stop Doing Church

Another helpful piece from Archie. His columns show a lot of real insight, I look forward to them every week.

OCA Prayer Points

Overseas Council Australia

Please pray for Philip Twyman, Chairman of the Board, and Stuart Brooking, Executive Director as they attend the Overseas Council Conference in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar as OCA's representatives. Philip and Stuart will also visit Phnom Penh Bible College in Cambodia and Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Myanmar as part of the Conference.

Christian Leaders Training College, Papua New Guinea

Please pray for the Principal, Ezekiel Ivivi and the team of leaders who are responsible for making decision to keep the college functioning smoothly during a time of financial hardship. Please pray for protection over them, their marriages and their families, that they will lead with godliness and integrity.

Jordan Evangelical Theological College, Jordan

Please pray that the college will fill vacant staff and faculty positions with qualified spiritual men and women who will support the vision of J.E.T.S. Please pray for the selection process and for those who will be responsible for recommending those who will be suitable to join the college. 

Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Myanmar

Last week, Peter Thein, a faculty member that OCA supports through our Faculty Development programme, conducted a seminar with Buddhists in Hlawgar, Yangon. Praise God that 30 of the attendees came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Please pray for these new brothers and sisters in Christ that they will grow in Him daily and be a witness to other Buddhists they come into contact with.

Namibia Evangelical Theological College, Namibia

This year the college has 9 students enrolled in the first year "Certificate of Christian Ministry" programme, 12 students in the second/third year "Diploma of Theology" programme and 4 students in the fourth year "Bachelor of Theology". Praise God for the wonderful atmosphere among staff and students and that most of the students are academically capable and spiritually mature.

Please pray that these students will become effective and humble church leaders in the future.

The Screwtape Letters

MarkH pays tribute to this classic

The Damage Bill

John Woodhouse published a piece a few days back talking about the enormous challenges facing Moore College in the immediate future, many of them financial. It is not just the college that is struggling. The diocese gets a significant chunk of money each year from investment income. Like everyone else in the world, the value of our investments has declined dramatically recently. There is going to be *much* less money to throw around.

Standing Committee are going to have some tough decisions to make. Ministries will have to be scaled back. Some will have to close. I suspect there is going to be a lot of debate at Synod this year, with people asking why their favourite programs have been cut.

Deliver me from my enemies

Been reading the Psalms. Interesting how often the psalmist (especially David) is asking God to save him from his enemies, or to smite his enemies, or trouble those who are giving him trouble. Should we still pray such things? Or did David have an inferior ethic that has given way to the command to love our enemies?