Just letting our Matthias Media and Briefing customers know that our Sydney office has a fairly severe power blackout that looks like it will mean the office is closed all day (Friday). It also means we can’t answer the phones. Nor reply to emails. If you have an urgent order or query, please call our warehouse on (02) 9663 3265 or try us on Monday when it will all hopefully be resolved. (more…)
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Marching for Allah (6): speaking into a Muslim world-view
Judgement in the words of Jeremiah
Thought
It is a hardy adventurer who decides to brave the book of Jeremiah. Yet we need to hear what Jeremiah has to tell us because a gospel emptied of the wrath of God is a gospel emptied of truth and power. (more…)
Editorial: Singing, church, judgement, and fear
Singing, church, judgement, and fear: that’s what this coming issue of The Briefing is all about.
Recently I spent a week at the Hillsong Conference in Sydney. There were many wonderful things about the week, along with a number of troubling issues. I’m still trying to process everything that went on there, and I’ll say more about it in due course. (more…)
Is this Christianity?
Thought, Sola Panel
Call me a spoilsport, a curmudgeon, or perhaps just confused, but I’ve always felt uneasy about the theology contained in this quote:
(more…)
→ God’s mercies are new every morning
Link
I have a rule in my Bible study: during group prayer, before anyone can pray for local concerns (Fred’s mother, Jill’s uni exams, etc.) they need to either give thanks for something or pray for something beyond our group.
Mark Altrogge has food for thought on that list of things to give thanks for:
God’s mercies are all around us. But do we notice them?
A good exercise is to write down God’s mercies.
Some folks write down something they’re thankful for every day. Before you start asking God for things, consider thanking him. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
→ New and old humility
Link
Mark Thompson on humility vs. ‘humility’:
Humility like Christ’s means a genuine willingness to serve no matter the cost because of the value placed on others. No opportunity for service is too demeaning. Such humility, if ever you should come across it, is immensely attractive to Christians (do you have someone in mind right now?) and even to the outsider. It commends the gospel in a way that self-regard, no matter how carefully disguised and nuanced, simply cannot. Yet sometimes what at first glance might seem to be humility turns out to be something different altogether.
The power of the word
Resource Talk
Do you believe in the power of the word? These guys do.
I wish we’d taken his name and number, or asked him to write up his story. (more…)
→ Building a better small group
Link
Joanne Jung takes some advice on small groups from the Puritans:
Here are a few questions the Puritans found useful in conference, redesigned for our contemporary understanding:
- What does God want you to know about him? About yourself?
- For what is the soul thankful?
- What are the words or actions that demonstrate your soul’s love for Christ?
- What is your soul afraid of God knowing?
- What stands now between God and your soul?
Consider asking these types of questions and, more importantly, answering them with attentiveness to your own heart and the hearts of others. In good company and conference the goodness of God and the struggles of life meet in loving acceptance, godly direction, and transforming community.
Can The Trellis and the Vine be a Trellis?
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
In April I had the privilege of serving alongside Marty Sweeney at the Matthias Media booth at the ‘Together for the Gospel’ conference in Louisville, KY. In addition to improving my geographical knowledge (who knew you could sleep in Indiana and walk each morning to Kentucky?) and enjoying good fare (thank you Troll Pub!), the time at T4G gave me helpful and encouraging insight into the impact of Matthias Media and its resources. It will probably come as no surprise to this blog’s readers that the resource mentioned most frequently by those who stopped by our booth was The Trellis and the Vine. In fact many of the conversations I shared went something like this: (more…)
Editorial: Inside baseball
Moneyball is exactly the sort of movie I thought I would hate. I loved it.
Released last year, it’s a movie in which Brad Pitt plays the manager of a fairly average baseball team trying to put together a successful season on a tight budget. (more…)
The 4 Ps of being a shepherd (Mark Dever)
Pastoral Ministry, Trellis & Vine Talk
In this talk from a Matthias Media conference in 2009, Mark Dever talks about what it means to be a ‘shepherd’ of God’s people, and what a shepherd does. (more…)
→ In the nicest possible way
Link
In this Churchman editorial about recently-resigned Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Gerald Bray displays the peculiar genius the British have for politely and respectfully pouring a bucket on someone. (The link downloads a pdf.)
→ John Chapman interviewed
Link
Don’t miss this video interview (86 minutes) with gifted veteran Australian evangelist and Matthias Media author, John Chapman, conducted by the National Director of AFES, Richard Chin.
Quite likely the last interview of such length with our much loved, humorous, Bible-loving, Christ-centred teacher of preaching and evangelism.
Younger generations of ministers in Sydney and Australian evangelicalism should hear this for personal edification but also to understand something of our heritage.
→ That Awkward Moment When We Speak the Gospel
Link
Ken Currie:
For the time being, it seems the greatest threat to gospel-telling in such a society is not that we will be hauled before the city council, beaten, and have our property taken away. What we are really dealing with is some awkwardness.
Awkwardness is perhaps the biggest threat to evangelism for far too many of us.