If you had told me 10 years ago when I was on the Board of Emu Music that in 2011 we’d be putting on a TWIST music conference for pastors and inviting the ‘Director of Worship Development’ from a major charismatic US church to be the keynote speaker… well I’d have been a little surprised, to say the least. (more…)
Archives: tony-payne
The truth that dare not speak its name (3)
Life, Sola Panel
Why do we find it hard to say out loud that same-gender sex is wrong and perverse, even if we know it to be true?
The obvious answer is that no-one wants to be a pariah, for that is what voicing such a view will quickly make us in our culture. A narrow-minded, homophobic, bigotted pariah—because hardly anyone believes any more that gay sex is wrong and perverse. Quite the reverse. The mainstream view is that gay sex is just sex like any other sex, and should be accepted, validated and even celebrated.
But do they really believe that? (more…)
The truth that dare not speak its name (2)
Life, Sola Panel
If same-gender sex is not the natural consequence of an innate homosexual essence or identity (as I suggested last time), then why do people do it? What leads them to this sort of behaviour?
The shocking answer of Romans 1 is that God does. (more…)
The truth that dare not speak its name (1)
Life, Sola Panel
We were reading the second half of Romans 1 in Bible study the other night, and I asked the group what they thought would happen around the water cooler at work if they actually expressed out loud what Romans 1 says about gay sex.
There was an awkward silence. (more…)
Trellis & Vine Talk 2 – who is your sheep?
Audio
This is the second episode of Trellis & Vine Talk, in which Tony and Col discuss discipleship gurus, what (or who) exactly is a lay pastor, a shepherds heart, and ministry of the word. Listen to it here, or download the file to catch up on it later (MP3).
The daily exhort
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
My kids can’t remember a time before the internet and mobile phones, and they find it hard to imagine how such a world existed. But I got thinking the other day—can we imagine a time before Bibles? That is, a time before the widespread availability of cheap, accessible Bible translations in the common language of our culture? A time when literacy was not as universal as it is in most modern Western societies? (more…)
Trellis & Vine Talk 1 – not about small groups
Audio
Welcome to the new Briefing
September 1 has come at last, and we’re thrilled to be launching our new Briefing site. We hope you enjoy having a browse around. Here’s a quick guide to some of the main new features:
(more…)
Why aren’t we growing?
Pastoral Ministry
Tim Sims, a businessman and corporate strategist, has applied his analytical skills to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, and asked why churches have been growing no better than the population as a whole. Tony Payne outlines and engages with his research. (more…)
Disproving God
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I’ve been thinking about the problem of evil. Not so much the very pressing and existential problem of my own evil, but the classic three-part gotcha argument that every half-baked neo-atheist trots out these days with a smug smile. It usually goes like this:
(more…)
Romans 3:21-26
Bible 101, Sola Panel
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
In his Bible, Martin Luther famously called this passage “the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible”—and with good reason. The opening words of verse 21 signal the turning point, not only of Paul’s letter but of the human race. (more…)
Making the most of his time
Resource Talk, Sola Panel
Do you ever wonder what you’ll be like at 80?
I sometimes have a vision of myself as a kindly old chap with white hair that people think of as that Nice Old Mr Payne. What a gent! (more…)
David Helm on One to One Bible reading
Video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9U_V8Y3ag[/youtube]
One more sip of the coffee
Life, Sola Panel
Sandy Grant is a man of integrity.
Back in the early days of Sola Panel, I wrote a post about the fad of Christians supporting the fair trade coffee movement, in which I basically suggested that while the sentiment of wanting to help poor third-world coffee growers was noble, trying to do it by a centralized price-fixing mechanism would probably do more harm than good.
Disproving God
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I’ve been thinking about the problem of evil. Not so much the very pressing and existential problem of my own evil, but the classic three-part gotcha argument that every half-baked neo-atheist trots out these days with a smug smile. It usually goes like this:
An all-powerful God could eliminate all evil and suffering.
An all-good, all-loving God would want to eliminate all evil and suffering.
Given that evil and suffering are everywhere in our world, the all-powerful, all-good, all-loving God does not exist.