Archives: everyday-ministry

Telling Buddhists about Jesus

Everyday Ministry

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Introduction

The first person to attempt to talk to me about the Lord Jesus was a young American woman who was part of a team of missionaries visiting the university at which I was studying. I was sitting on my own at a table in one of the cafeterias when she came over, sat down and said that she was interested in talking to people about what they believed. I explained to her briefly that I was a Buddhist and what that entailed. Her response? “Well, that’s ridiculous!” Out of pity, I resolved to indulge her for as long as she wanted to hang around. I hoped that it would not be long, and it wasn’t.

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Getting the cart before the horse

Everyday Ministry

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Ever since accountants have ruled the world, we have been getting the cart before the horse. Accountants count money, and because we all like money, we end up forgetting what produced the money, and we chase the money itself. The end result is that we neglect our ‘core business’ (as the management textbooks call it).

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The Gift of Suffering

Everyday Ministry

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All we card-carrying evangelicals know the doctrine—suffering is good for us! We don’t go looking for it, but we know it will happen, and we know that when it does happen God gives us peace and perseverance in the midst of it. We hang in there, read Job a few more times and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel. We also know that the gospel of health and wealth promoted by people such as Benny Hinn and his mob is right off the deep end of delusion. What looked like a healing of back pain was really a warm fuzzy glow which came from turning down the air conditioning in the Sydney Entertainment Centre. (I sat through five hours of the rubbish, so you can trust me here).

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When should I shut up?

Everyday Ministry

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How to run a dialogue meeting

What’s a ‘dialogue meeting’? It’s one of those old jargon terms for a meeting arranged so that a single Christian speaker can discuss (dialogue) the claims of Christ with a group of non-Christians without too many Christians butting in. Perhaps these days we would call it a forum or consultation. In fact, it’s more like a press conference where one person gets to say his or her bit before being fried by the assembled listeners.

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Life Coaches

Everyday Ministry

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It is amazing how public opinion can make a complete about-face. It happened with smoking, where it used to be death-defyingly cool, but is now considered brain-defyingly stupid. It happened with ‘spirituality’, which used to be a word of ridicule among intellectuals, but is now a thing to be admired and sought after (as long as it doesn’t take a too definite shape).

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Homosexuality in church

Everyday Ministry

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Elizabeth Moberly, author of Homosexuality, a New Christian Ethic, has this to say about homosexuality:

The secular media could very easily give the impression that all homosexuals support the gay lifestyle, but this is very far from true. Many thousands of homosexuals are not committed to a gay identity. They want change, and they seek help in making this change. People are entitled to make their own choices for their own lives. But the point is that for many homosexuals change is their choice. No-one can be forced to change. However, when people choose change, that choice deserves to be respected and supported.

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After the Silence: Dealing Christianly with abortion

Everyday Ministry

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I watched a program earlier this year that ‘exposed’ a clinic in Melbourne accused of pushing pro-life counselling on pregnant women. The clinic includes graphic descriptions of the foetus’s experience during abortion as part of its pre-abortion counselling. When accused of shock tactics, the counsellor replied “It’s not shock tactics but it is shocking”.

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Singing is a fellowship hazard

Everyday Ministry

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A significant percentage of the Australian population cannot sing. We can’t carry a tune to save our lives. How many of us are there? Based on the singing voices I hear around me in church, I would guess we account for at least half the population.

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Factotum #11: Models for men’s groups

Everyday Ministry

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Speaker at men’s function: You really must be aiming to lead your family spiritually. Get the Bible out after dinner, and work through a passage with your wife and kids. Make every effort to teach them the things of God.

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Factotum #10: Christian modelling

Everyday Ministry

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One of the graduates of MTS was a male model before training for the ministry. As far as I know, this experience has not contributed greatly to his training. But modelling is an important feature of Christian ministry in the New Testament.

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Factotum #8: Pitfalls for small groups

Everyday Ministry

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Our last ‘Factotum’ examined leadership in small groups. In this edition, we continue to focus on the ministry done in small groups, this time looking at some of the problems that can arise. Most of us have been in small groups at different stages of our lives—youth groups, prayer cells, focus groups, Bible studies. We will also have experienced some of the challenges and difficulties that these groups generate. You might like to use this edition as a way of assessing the small groups that you lead or participate in. Are you avoiding the pitfalls? Or are you stumbling headlong into them?

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