Archives: everyday-ministry

When wisdom marries folly

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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If there’s ever been a mismatch, it was the union of Nabal and Abigail (1 Samuel 25). You can almost see the announcement: “Stupid, stubborn, surly skinflint marries brainy, brave, benevolent beauty”. It’s as if the characters of Folly and Wisdom stepped out of the pages of Proverbs and got hitched. Those TV advertisements with the clever wife rolling her eyes over her bumbling husband have nothing on this!

What can we learn from their ill-fated union? How can I be Wisdom rather than Folly? And what do I do if I’m Wisdom married to Folly?

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Suffering and decision-making

Everyday Ministry, Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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Is it better to choose a more difficult ministry, or an easy one? Is it more godly to choose suffering over comfort when we make decisions about life and ministry? After all, suffering makes us more like Jesus, and surely that’s good for us, isn’t it? (more…)

Diary of a ministry apprentice (Part 5): August to almost-the-end-of 2008

Everyday Ministry

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Here is the fifth instalment of Guan’s six-part series, covering his time doing ministry training (MTS) at the University of New South Wales in 2008. He is married to M.1 By now, it is the latter half of the year. We last left Guan at the end of Mid-Year Conference (MYC), amazed at how the week has reminded him how many things in life are bigger than us as individuals: the body of Christ, Jesus in his sovereign reign, and the God with a plan for all of his creation. (more…)

Connecting in your street

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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I loved Ben’s 10 in 2 post the other day. But I have to admit I’m more a 2 in 10 guy. I find evangelism hard. My courage fails easily. But one of my biggest problems is just not spending time with those outside the kingdom.

In my neck of the woods, the Connect09 campaign last year at least had the impact of making me think about getting to know the people in my own street.

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Integrating newcomers into the life of your congregation

Everyday Ministry

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Most people would agree that if you don’t identify, connect and care for newcomers they are likely to either never return, or to stay on the fringe and eventually drift away feeling disconnected, unwelcomed and perhaps disillusioned. Everyone would agree that this is not the outcome the community of Christ wants for those that Jesus brings to our doors. (more…)

Jars of clay: Being a Christian parent

Everyday Ministry

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I’m glad this article is in the Jars of Clay series. It feels like an appropriate metaphor, because there are few areas where I feel as weak and inadequate for the role God has given me than when it comes to parenting my two children. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I suspect most Christian parents feel that inadequacy keenly. (That’s probably why over the years most people we have asked to write for The Briefing on parenting have baulked at it.) (more…)

10 in 2

Everyday Ministry

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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.

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‘Missional Lifestyle’: Education

Everyday Ministry

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This is the fifth in Nicole’s series on ‘missional lifestyle’. Read parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

In this series I’ve been working my way slowly through various facets of life (home, education, work, sport, etc.), talking about the opportunities that each presents for being involved in the lives of others for their good and their salvation, and the idolatries that have the potential to destroy us and our witness by luring our hearts away from Christ. In this post, having set out a general framework and taken a brief look at the opportunities and idolatries of the home, I want to turn to the topic of education (our own and our children’s) and the opportunities that it provides for mission.

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What do you think of this?

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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After a self-imposed period of reflective meditation in the wilderness (i.e. too absolutely flat chat to even think about posting), I’m back. But not, alas, to say anything profound. I’m after some advice.

I’ve been working on the text of a ‘Christmas tract’ that we (i.e. Matthias Media) are hoping to publish by early November. It’s something for congregations to use in Christmas evangelism, to hand out at Christmas services, to use in Christmas letter-box drops, and so on. When we’ve done this in the past (and we’ve done it most years recently), we’ve tended to have a fairly strong Christmas theme to the tract: bouncing off a Christmas carol, or focusing on the birth of babies, and so on.

This time, I’m thinking of trying something a little different. And I’m after some feedback. Do you think it works? More particularly, does it work as something to hand out over the Christmas season when the name ‘Jesus’ creeps back into our popular culture however briefly. Any suggestions on how to improve it? So without further ado …

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Teaching Scripture: An alternative to door-to-door evangelism?

Everyday Ministry

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In these Sola Saturday posts, we’ve been looking at past contributions to the old Briefing ‘People in Ministry’ column, which focused on evangelical ministry worked out in practice. Firstly, David McDonald told us about the impetus behind Canberra Christian Youth Convention. Last week, Ken Simpson talks about ministry to doctors. This week, Michael Blake explains how he uses school Scripture to reach parents:
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Unravelling the timing of truth

Everyday Ministry

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This is the sixth post in Peter Bolt’s series on the New Atheists. (Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.)

Once upon a time, way back at the beginning, the Christian movement was charged with novelty. Nowadays, it is charged with antiquity. In both cases, its ‘timing’ apparently shows it is wrong.

The message of Jesus’ resurrection was launched into the Graeco-Roman world, in which the antiquity of classical culture was paraded as a demonstration of its truth and a guarantee of the future of the Empire. The Christian message was criticized for being ‘novel’, and so a troublesome threat for the stability of that world. One of the charges levelled at Jesus before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was that he had misled the Jewish nation by claiming to be a king (Luke 23:2). When Jesus rose from the dead, he was proclaimed far and wide as ‘Lord and Christ’. When this new message about a king other than Caesar came to Thessalonica on its way to Athens, the crowds rioted, saying its preachers had “turned the world upside down” by this novelty (Acts 17:6).

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Evangelizing Muslims

Everyday Ministry

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I was on the train the other day when I heard a man chanting in Arabic. I thought he must be Muslim, so after a few minutes of building up my courage, I went and said hello. Fortunately for me, he was keen to talk. But what was I going to say to him?
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A layperson’s guide to giving up your life

Everyday Ministry

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What does it mean to do ministry but not be in ministry? How can you stay focused on ministry as a goal when it’s not your full-time profession? Karen Beilharz tells her story, and how she came to answer some of these questions.

Have you ever felt like you’re headed in a certain direction and then the door you’re poised to walk through suddenly slams in your face? That’s how I felt at the end of 2004. I had just completed a two-year part-time ministry apprenticeship with the Christian group at the University of Wollongong alongside my husband, Ben. Although the time I had spent working with students and children had been encouraging and eye-opening, it had also been draining and often discouraging. During the apprenticeship, I had led and co-led Bible study groups and training courses, I had organized a women’s retreat, I had discipled girls, I had taught and coordinated Sunday school, and I had given my first evangelistic talk to an audience of 60 women (none of whom became Christian). But as it ended, I realized that working in people ministry was not something I could sustain full-time. (more…)