Author Archives: The Briefing

Hebrews 12:22-24

Bible 101

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“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Where do you go to church? For me, I go to an Anglican church in North Epping, Sydney, Australia. Easy, right? I suppose a better question is this: where are you when you’re at church? These verses from Hebrews 12 show us why that’s a question that’s worth asking, and what’s going on when we gather as God’s people. (more…)

What joy in hell?

Thought

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There is no joy in hell.

Its very existence reassures us of ultimate justice. Where else can the victims of the Holocaust find justice? But justice is little comfort when we consider hell’s horror. (more…)

Exodus 19:4-6

Bible 101

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One of the best watch-the-penny-drop moments I’ve ever had reading the Bible with people has been with these few verses from Exodus, as they realized for the first time that ‘grace’ isn’t a New Testament concept.

Three months after escaping slavery in Egypt, Israel came to the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses went up to speak with God on behalf of the people, where he heard a deliberate summary of the events of the preceding chapters (v. 4): God acted against Egypt to release the Israelites from slavery, he brought them out smoothly and powerfully, and he did it to bring them to himself. (more…)

New Atheism: There’s probably no lasting impact

Thought

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I think the New Atheists are overrated. I find myself under-whelmed at their bus campaigns, their books, the way that journalists throw softball questions in response to their every problematic pronouncement, and their whole position. I have been scratching my head for years trying to work out where all the interest in them comes from, let alone why they are treated as some kind of serious attack on religion in general and the Christian faith in particular. (more…)

Teaching preaching

Everyday Ministry

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I wish I could say that the idea to begin a ‘teaching preaching’ course at our church was part of a deliberate and well-planned strategy to equip people for ministry. The truth is I stumbled across the idea out of desperation as I tried to cope with ministry demands, but I want to share it with you because it is the most significant ministry training I have ever done in a local church context.1 (more…)

Why be afraid of fear?

Thought

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The day of the guest service has arrived: the culmination of weeks of planning, prayers, and many nervous “Hey, our church is holding a guest service this Sunday, and I was wondering…” type of conversations. To your joy and terror, a number of your friends said yes. (more…)

As good as it gets

Life

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“This is as good as it gets” the man assured me. I was initially shocked, but then deeply saddened by his statement. It was an astonishing statement—but there was no doubting the sincerity with which he was speaking. (more…)

Building new engines

Pastoral Ministry

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In his recent Briefing article ‘What is church for?’, Phillip Jensen suggested that we are “somewhere between everywhere and nowhere as to the importance of church”.1 The same could be said about church planting. (more…)

Keep the faith

Life

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When the evangelist Graham Daniels wrote a little book about the gospel for non-Christians, he insightfully called it My Mate’s Gone Mad. For a new Christian, making changes to their life that their friends find mystifying, the book’s title makes it easy to give away. That’s what everyone’s thinking. You’re mad to start going to church. You’re mad to stop living like everyone else. And above all, you’re mad to believe all that made-up stuff about Jesus. (more…)

The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion

Review

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It’s hard to think of anyone better equipped than Tim Challies to write a book about the impact of technology on the Christian life. He’s a husband, father, and pastor; a web designer by trade; and a popular evangelical blogger (at challies.com). Living a life interrupted by the ‘beep’, in the glow of the latest iDevice, he began to suspect his technologies owned him as much as he owned them. The Next Story is the fruit of his reflections. Its goal is to enable us to live in the “sweet spot” where practice, theory and theology overlap, helping us to use technology in a way that’s thoughtful and biblically informed. (more…)

What is distinctive about the ministries of women?

Pastoral Ministry

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As I said in The Briefing #398, these are some of my reflections on what God has taught me about the ministries of women. Following on from the importance of women in ministry considering themselves to be Bible teachers and of cultivating joy in evangelism, in this article I want to talk about the central place of training, the necessity of teamwork, and the mixed emotions of sending. All of these elements are necessary not only for any woman in ministry to be committed to, but also for any man wanting to encourage women in ministry. (more…)

The future of complementarianism (4): things people do and don’t fear

Thought

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This debate between complementarians that the Piper incident has helped highlight has reinforced my growing impression that there are significant differences between the egalitarian and complementarian “sides” in how they approach ‘in house’ differences. Some reflections on this is my fifth and final observation and will take up the whole of these last two posts. (more…)

The future of complementarianism (3): tradition and clarity

Thought

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The third observation is that those of us who disagree with what (at least seems to be) Piper’s approach of linking what men and women should be doing to claims that men more naturally do some things well and women more naturally do other things well need to realize that if that is Piper’s view then that is arguably also the basic way in which pre-feminist Christians for 2000 years explained the logic behind the relevant Biblical commands. (more…)

The future of complementarianism (2): the search for the One True Complementarianism

Thought

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The second observation is that the debate over the place of gender in public ministry and the husband/wife relationship is more complex than it can appear on the surface. As I suggested in my previous series, underneath the term ‘egalitarian’ there are a huge number of mutually contradictory positions held for a wide range of mutually contradictory reasons. Underneath the term ‘complementarian’ appears to be a smaller number of positions but which seem to be increasingly concerned to differentiate themselves from each other and which are about as quick to shoot each other for being unbiblical as they are for apparently being egalitarianism. (more…)