Archives: everyday-ministry
An interview with Andrew Barry
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
How did you come to Christ?
I grew up in a Christian family. Thanks be to God for giving me such a great Mum and Dad! Although I went to church throughout my childhood, I don’t think the penny dropped until I was in Year 10. I just moved to St Matthias (the original home of The Briefing), and three things happened:
- I heard an amazing sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes by Ken Simpson, and I understood for the first time that I couldn’t hold onto everything else, but I could hold onto Christ.
- I was discipled by Martin Pakula (whom I hold in the highest regard) and a brilliant group of youth leaders. They pushed us so hard. I went out with them sharing Two Ways to Live on a university campus when I was in Year 12. They put flesh and blood on to what it was to live for Christ.
- When I joined St Matthias, I met Christians my age who actually wanted to talk about God and who actually wanted to pray. I liked them so much, I ended up marrying one of them!
Reflections on reading the Bible with my kids
Everyday Ministry
For the first 15 years of my life, I thought of the Bible as bizarre, and I thought of Jesus as existing in the same realm as the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. God did amazing work in my life to show me how true the Bible is, but my old self lingers on. I find it particularly hard to make sense of the cultural foreignness of the Old Testament.
I have been reading through Genesis with my nine-year-old daughter for the past couple of months, and it’s been a lesson in humility. I come to Genesis with all of the questions of my old life: did the flood really happen? Did Abraham and Isaac really pass their wives off as their sisters, or did people just get the story confused and tell it twice? (I would have been a good liberal.) So it fascinates me the kinds of questions Anna chooses to ask.
A cure for gospel tongue-tie
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Tongue-tied adj. unable to speak. Synonyms: aghast, amazed, astounded, at a loss for words, bashful, choked up, dazed, dumbfounded, dumbstruck, garbled, inarticulate, mum, mute, shocked, shy, silent, speechless, stammering, uncommunicative, voiceless, obstructed.
I know people who talk about the gospel in a relaxed, friendly, winsome way. I’m not one of them.
An interview with Peter Sholl
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Pete, how did you come to Christ?
I grew up in country New South Wales in a Christian household. As a family, we’d head off to church and Sunday school every Sunday without fail. I knew Jesus personally, and I trusted that he knew what was best for my life.
When I was 17, I moved to Sydney to study engineering at the University of New South Wales, living in New College. The first night I was there, an upper year student (who is now the rector of All Saint’s Petersham in Sydney) stood up and announced that a group was going to church and that anyone was welcome to come. This was a significant moment for me as my family wasn’t with me any more; I could do what I liked!
I went to church, and over the next four years as a student, was fed a hearty diet of Bible at church and in small groups. These were very important years for me; they gave me a great grounding for Christian growth as I moved into my 20s and beyond.
“But God …”
Everyday Ministry
My husband Dave and I have three young children (6, 4 and 2), and one of the things we like to do with them at Easter is learn a memory verse together. This year, we chose to do Romans 5:8. (more…)
Christian modelling (Factotum #10)
Everyday Ministry
This week’s blast from the past raises the issue of what models we look to as Christians. Enjoy.
Who are our models?
Who should Christians be looking to as models or examples of the Christian way of life? The following section provides a Bible search on the subject of modelling and imitation. You might like to work through it in a study group.
Culturally engaged?
Everyday Ministry
In my post a little while ago about Driscoll’s New Calvinism, I noted that I had some more things to say about the current catchphrase ‘cultural engagement’. Given that the spur to write about cultural engagement came from Driscoll’s post, it might be reasonable to assume that my beef is with him. So I guess I want to say at the start that my comments about this aren’t directed particularly at Driscoll at all; it was just that he happened to use a phrase that, I admit, I find a little unhelpful. It’s a line that everyone everywhere seems to be using. And apparently it’s good if you do it and bad if you don’t, but what I want to know is what on earth does it mean? (more…)
“What do you say when…?” Bus stop graffiti
Everyday Ministry
Is Jesus all about life?
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Over at Sydney Anglicans, Dominic Steele has kicked off a discussion about the Jesus, All About Life (JAAL) campaign—in particular, focusing on the follow-up material that is sent to enquirers who see the JAAL ads on TV. (more…)
How to freak out your church treasurer
Everyday Ministry
Here’s something simple and biblical.
- Buy something necessary, but not cheap, on behalf of your church—for example, all the meat for the men’s evangelistic barbecue evening, or a large amount of food for a soup kitchen.
Bizarre redemption
Everyday Ministry
For those not up with the Australian swimming scene (i.e. about 99.9% of the world’s population), the name Nick D’Arcy is probably meaningless. But he’s a big name in the local papers. Why? Well, about a year ago now, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, D’Arcy was out partying with friends when he king hit one of his teammates, and left him with fractures to his jaw, eye socket, hard palate, cheek bone and nose. The police charged him, and he pleaded guilty. He was ruled out of the Olympic team, and has spent the last 12 months in the wilderness, so to speak. This week, at the Australian swimming trials, he broke his own national record for the 200m butterfly, and booked a place in the Australian team for the Rome world championships. The only hitch is that the judge will sentence him as he’s been convicted of grievous bodily harm. (more…)
Is it easy to love our neighbours?
Everyday Ministry
We’ve been reading the Sermon on the Mount around the dinner table over the last week or so, and it’s made for great discussion and interesting questions. (“Dad, why would someone want my tooth?”) A couple of nights ago, we were talking about the issues Jesus raises concerning loving your neighbours and praying for those who persecute you. The discussion went something like this:
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Stranger evangelism
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I believe in stranger evangelism.
Over the course of 2009, my own denomination in this part of the world is mounting a concerted campaign to make meaningful, relational connections with everyone in our area, and thus help them to come into a relationship with God through his word. For me personally, this has involved (often tough) deliberate decisions to do less internal church-based activities so that I can slow down and hang around chatting with parents at our local school, talking to the neighbours in our street, and considering how we can connect meaningfully with the huge numbers of ‘unreached’ people who live within a few kilometres of our church building. It’s been a joy for us to start to get to know people in our area—to have barbeques with neighbouring families, to share with them the joys and challenges of life and parenthood, and so on. I trust and pray that, when we eventually give them a copy of Luke’s gospel and offer to talk about it with them, this evangelistic effort will be understood as a natural outflow of the friendships we’ve developed. (more…)
Cold Turkish evangelism
Everyday Ministry
The phrase ‘walk-up evangelism’ stirs up, in most Christians, feelings of dread. But, as Ben Pfahlert points out, at the heart of all evangelism lies extremely good news. (more…)