A review of Kevin Giles, The Trinity and Subordinationism, IVP, Downers Grove, 2002.
The long debate among evangelicals about women’s ministry has brought many issues floating to the surface. It has challenged us to think about our view of Scripture and how it speaks to us today. It has prompted us to re-examine ordination itself and the traditional structures of ministry. And most recently, it has put the doctrine of the Trinity back on the agenda.
1 Myself included.
2 Kevin Giles, The Trinity and Subordinationism, IVP, Downers Grove, 2002, p. 81.
3 See http://www.ajmd.com.au/trinity/. This excellent site pays careful reading, for Moody has acute biblical and theological insights into how Giles’s arguments work.
Worship is sometimes described as the missing jewel in the evangelical crown. It has become perhaps the major focus of a majority of Christian churches in the second half of this century. But once again, our focus reveals our sinfulness. By placing our own activities in church under special focus, we have grabbed the wrong end of the worship stick. In our concern for relevant ‘worship’ we have reversed the Bible’s concerns. For in the New Testament, worship is not so much something we do, but it is first of all and mainly something Jesus Christ does for us!
20 years ago in the class room, Broughton Knox predicted that it would be our generation of ministers that would have to deal with the problem of total pastoral breakdown. That is, we would have to work out what is to be done when the congregation no longer has confidence in its minister and his ministry and, from the congregation’s point of view, the situation is irremediable.
Every year Christian denominations see a slow, but sad, trickle of ministers leave their ranks by premature resignation. They leave for a variety of reasons, but often because of marriage break-up, serious moral lapses (usually sexual), and severe disagreement over denominational (but not necessarily gospel) distinctives like baptism and the like. It is a waste, in both human and Christian terms. It is a waste, not only of three of four years intensive training at tertiary level, and ten years or so of practical ministry, but it also means starting again near the bottom of life, around age forty, with incredible heartache and pain amongst family, friends and congregation, and mud on the public face of the gospel.
NB The procedures and requirements for Anglican ministers have changed since this article was published. For an update, visit the Anglican Diocese of Sydney website.
Sometimes we can live so close to a doctrine that we overlook the immense power of its truth. The cross can become an empty slogan; the resurrection a mere proof-text for Jesus’ divinity; the incarnation something we only think about at Christmas. In this light, an increasing number of theologians are ‘rediscovering’ the trinity as a foundational Christian doctrine
In his rediscovery of a God-centred gospel, Martin Luther very much a man for the 20th Century. Robert Doyle explains why.
“Communicate or die.” That’s the grim truth many churches are grappling with as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission in modern Australia. In a series of three articles, Robert Doyle asks: Does our ‘package’ clearly communicate our message?