Author Archives: The Briefing

Authorities and the preacher’s unbelief

Life

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After two decades of living the Christian life and almost a decade of preaching the Bible regularly, it’s easy to think that I trust God’s word. But this week I’ve been confronted by my unbelief.

What’s your instant reaction to reading this passage?

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Rom 13:1-2)

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Why Johnny can’t preach (Part 2)

Pastoral Ministry

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If you wanted to find our about the ANZAC’s legendary Gallipoli campaign, how would you go about it? Watch Peter Weir’s classic 1981 Gallipoli (“What are you legs? Steel springs”)? Go to the Australian War Memorial? Borrow a book or two from the local library? Read a Wikipedia article? Go to the new ABC 3D interactive site?

In this second discussion of T David Gordon’s Why Johnny Can’t Preach (read part 1), I want to reflect on the first reason Gordon gives as to why Johnny can’t preach—that is, Johnny can’t read (texts).

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The theological importance of criminal profiling, or The case for church history, Part 1

Thought

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It is a great honour and pleasure, being invited to contribute a few guest blog posts to The Sola Panel in advance of my forthcoming visit to Australia. Given the fact that a fool is generally known by his much speaking, I have decided to focus my posts on what I know best—church history, but not in some tedious here-are-a-few-names-and-dates-manner; rather, I want to argue for the importance of church history as a vital discipline for theological education, both in seminary training and in the day-to-day life of the church. Those who do not know history may not be quite as doomed to repeat its mistakes as the famous proverb would imply, but understanding how it can be useful might yet help one or two of us to avoid some embarrassing potholes, or it may just save us from having to reinvent the wheel all over again, fun as such reinvention undoubtedly is (once watching the grass grow and the paint dry has lost its appeal, that is).

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A call to plant more churches

Pastoral Ministry

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It’s time for the start of a new Saturday series, and in light of the recent Church Planting conference, I thought it might be time to stop and reflect on some of the challenges to plant churches that we’ve made in The Briefing over the years. I’m reproducing these in the hope that they will stir our hearts to pray to God to raise up new congregations of his people through the preaching of the gospel all over the world.

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We need more pathetic preaching

Pastoral Ministry

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I’m not sure exactly where Tony is going next with his series on emotions, but his post connected with some other thoughts I’ve been having—specifically, the importance of addressing the whole person when we preach. I’ve come to the conclusion that we need more pathetic preaching.

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The story of the glory of God (Part 1)

Thought

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We may not often think about it, but the glory of God is integral to our salvation. In part 1 of a two-part series, Rob Smith takes a look at this theme and shows why it encapsulates the very heart of God’s character. (Read part 2.)

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The denomination, the pastor and the work of gospel ministry

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Denominations can be a mixed blessing for the pastor: when they work well, they give your ministry wings; when they don’t, they can feel like a straitjacket. In this Pastor’s brief, we look at how you can work with church structures to ensure that gospel ministry prospers.

A wise colleague once told me that regardless of the nature of any particular form of church government, good people will make it work and sinful people will endeavour to corrupt it to their own ends. In other words, while some structures may be better than others, none are ideal, for none can guarantee our freedom to do the work of gospel ministry.

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The torn curtain

Thought

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Joel Edwards takes another look at the Gospel account of the tearing of the temple curtain.

When Jesus breathed his last and died, the curtain of the temple tore in two, thus symbolizing that the way is finally open for all believers to enter God’s presence. By Christ’s sacrifice, the barrier has been removed, and all who rely on that sacrifice have open access to God. Or so I used to think. But a look at the Old Testament understanding of the tabernacle and temple has made me think again. (more…)

Making the most of retirement

Everyday Ministry

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Terry Morgan shares his story about how he decided to put Jesus first in his thinking and decision-making post-retirement.

I retired in 2001. Back then, I had to decide how I would use my time and how I would be involved in the life of my local church, St Paul’s Carlingford. But I didn’t want to rush too quickly into new commitments, so I deliberately chose not to do anything new for six months until I had sorted things out. In hindsight, that period was most difficult. Since then, however, I’ve had a ball! Let me explain.

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The God of infinite power

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It is easy to read about God in the wrong way. Yes (*yawn*), he is big. Certainly (*stretch*), he is powerful. Absolutely (*droop*), he does stuff in our world. These truths are so commonplace, they sound boring to sinful ears. But this extract from D Broughton Knox’s The Everlasting God unfolds the biblical witness to reveal a God whose power is so immense, it’s frightening. And yet his power is the only guarantee of comfort in a broken world. We pray that you might read this slowly and learn again of the God who is there—the God whose infinite power is directed towards you, his friend.

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New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ

Review

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New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ

Thomas R Schreiner

Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2008, 976pp.

 

It seems obvious what we mean when we say “Paul teaches” or “Jesus says”, but what do we mean when we say “the New Testament teaches”? The New Testament is a small library of books by several authors—authors who, it is popularly argued, apparently did not share each other’s manuscripts or they would be more in agreement with one another! While they share a common subject and a common context, is there really a coherence to this group of texts to the point at which we might say “This here is the teaching of the New Testament”? For example, influential Durham scholar James Dunn has argued that the New Testament is more diverse than unified—more a cacophony than a harmony. Many scholars remain persuaded of his case. (more…)

A practical guide to fending off non-Christian men

Interchange

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Thank you for the excellent article in Briefing #368 on fending off non-Christian men. The anonymous author left out one important heading from the 10 she listed: tell him. Unless you tell him the real reason, he will assume all sorts of incorrect ones. (more…)

Reading the Bible with your eyes open

Up front

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You knock on the door of the dingy inner city terrace. You probably did see a whole lot of Harley Davidsons outside on the footpath, but obviously you weren’t thinking. The door opens, and now you see a room full of leather-clad, patch-emblazoned, hairy types of the bike-riding persuasion. You were supposed to invite the happy householder to a gospel thingy at the local church. If you go along with that plan, you suddenly see a different future stretching out before you—and it doesn’t seem to stretch that far. (more…)

A truly reformed pastor

Interchange

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After reading Simon Flinder’s response to Gavin Parkin’s article (‘A truly reformed pastor’, Briefing #365), it occurred to me that Gavin has misunderstood Baxter’s approach to ministry in Kidderminster. Baxter didn’t leave his flock to evangelize; he evangelized his flock. Baxter understood his flock to be the whole town of Kidderminster. This is foundationally different to the way we see church today. Baxter even says he was blessed not to have any dissenters in his town, therefore his ministry responsibilities were clear. (more…)

Women and the Bible

Up front

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We read the Bible as a family each night after dinner. On this particular night, the story is the feeding of the 5000. Well, more specifically, the feeding of the 5000 men. (more…)