Michael Bennett’s book is brilliant. I loved it. Let me tell you why. (more…)
Archives: ben-pfahlert
Good Friday and good-ianity
Everyday Ministry
This Easter you and I will come into contact with equinox Christians. That is, Christians who attend church twice a year: Chrissie and Easter.
It’s hard to communicate to these people the mind-blowing great exchange that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, isn’t it?
Sausage factory or Kapooka?
Pastoral Ministry
On Thursday 2 September, Mikey Lynch emailed me, and three other mates, to point us to a blog. He said, “I thought you’d be interested in getting a feel for the kind of conversations [people] are having about secular work vs gospel work”. This thread was a reflection on the Katoomba Convention Centre Conference called Engage.
The five of us sent a series of emails to each other pondering the strengths and weaknesses of our own leadership and of the church at large. I thought I’d share with you the email I wrote. In the email I sort of just went ‘splat’. I guess it is a distillation of three and a half years of conversations with hundreds of people around Australia about full-time gospel work vs bi-vocational, MTS’s highlights and lowlights, the impact of Mark Driscoll’s 2008 visit, Gen Y’s view of church leadership … plus other stuff. Throw your two bobs worth in after you’ve read it.
Exciting times for ministry recruiting
Pastoral Ministry
The ministry recruitment landscape in Sydney, NSW and the ACT is changing.
It is very exciting. In 2010 MTS changed it’s Sydney conference calendar. Instead of running a residential SPUR Conference (formerly called Club 5 or Challenge) on the October long weekend we decided to replace it with a non-residential conference in May.
“Why?” you ask. Well, there were several reasons.
10 in 2
Everyday Ministry
In January 2010 I set myself a goal that has transformed my diary, my thinking, my reading and the way my home operates.
In January 2010 I pledged to work at the goal, prayerfully and dependently, of bringing ten people into the Kingdom of God by 31 December 2011.
Australia’s first Acts 29 boot camp: An Aussie review
Pastoral Ministry
I’m sitting on a plane at Brisbane airport. I’ve just spent two days at the first Australian Acts 29 Church Planters boot camp. I went because I was tired of hearing about Acts 29 (and Mars Hill Church and Mars Hill Global) second-hand. I wanted to meet the people leading the movement face-to-face and hear ‘from the horse’s mouth’. Let me share with you what I thought, and let me tell you about the who, what, when, where and how of the conference.
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Driscoll on church leadership: six things I loved about it.
Pastoral Ministry
I just read A Book You’ll Actually Read On Church Leadership by Mark Driscoll. Here are six things I loved about it:
The benefits of Earth Hour
Life
On Saturday night, our family participated in Earth Hour. My eight-year-old daughter was very keen to do so. These are some of the thoughts I had during Earth Hour:
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The mathematical formula for happiness
Life
Why is it that some people seem so much happier than others? Why is it that different people, with seemingly identical lives, can have such diverse levels of happiness? (more…)
Pre-dawn-destination
Life
I woke up a bit earlier than usual the other day. Why? I don’t know. But sitting there at the kitchen bench was Isabella, my 8-year-old daughter. Despite the darkness, the fatigue and the time (5:30 a.m.), we had the most wonderful conversation. (more…)
Cold Turkish evangelism
Everyday Ministry
The phrase ‘walk-up evangelism’ stirs up, in most Christians, feelings of dread. But, as Ben Pfahlert points out, at the heart of all evangelism lies extremely good news. (more…)
101 gospel jobs
One of my key roles as MTS Director is to encourage people to think about their life path and consider becoming a ‘fisher of people’ (Mark 1:17). Over the course of the last two years, I have come to realize that your average Christian has a very limited understanding of the different gospel ministry jobs that exist. So I did some ‘market research’ between January and June 2008. In any Christian gathering (where it was appropriate), I asked men and women this question: “I want you to picture in your mind’s eye a gospel worker—someone who is dedicated to prayerfully passing on the message of Christ to people. Picture this gospel worker/minister in your head. Have you got a person in mind? [People answer “Yes.”] Okay, tell me who they are.”
Where’s your ministry ‘AT’?
Up front
Christians and soldiers have a lot in common, or at least they should (2 Tim 2:3-4). Firstly, they both know that submission equals survival. The wise infantryman always awaits the order to advance—especially when the machine gunner next to him is laying down cover fire. Secondly, both Christians and soldiers know that suffering is par for the course (2 Tim 3:12). Members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), on exercises in the outback, don’t get up in the morning, stretch and declare, “Man, I really miss my flannel pyjamas”. (more…)
Driscoll had 18. Kemp had four
Mark Driscoll recently came to Australia and shared 18 observations under the heading ‘Obstacles to evangelism in Australia today’. I was at that conference, and just before Driscoll stood up to speak, I had a brief and very encouraging conversation with Rowan Kemp (Sydney University Evangelical Union Staff member) about the recent ‘RE: JESUS’ mission held on campus. He shared with me four observations about helping evangelism in Australia today.
Mark Driscoll rolls grenade down aisle
Mark Driscoll recently addressed 600+ Christian leaders at St Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral (1 September, 2008) about ‘18 obstacles to effective evangelism in Australia’. Below is a summary of the address taken from Gordon’s blog (after me cleaning up the text a little):