A deep and abiding passion to see our churches grow is a very dangerous thing. That may seem an odd observation to make, but it is a critical one. If we run with a passion to grow things without at… (more…)
This article is an edited transcript of a talk given by Phil Colgan at the 2014 Nexus conference in Sydney, written up and edited by Sam Freney. Personal references throughout are therefore applicable to Phil, not Sam. In my… (more…)
Tony Payne talks with Phillip Jensen about the history of The Briefing—how it began, what its aims have been, and where we stand now. ~ Tony Payne: Phillip, The Briefing was really your idea. You drew together the resources to… (more…)
I suppose it’s like looking at old baby photos, but over the past month or so I’ve been browsing through some of the classic early articles in The Briefing. I chuckled over some of the ‘Lead Balloons’ we ran in… (more…)
This article is an edited transcript of an address given at the 2014 Nexus conference in Sydney. ~ And when [Paul] had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the… (more…)
“What do you do for work?” is one of the most common questions that we ask when we meet someone new. For most of us, work is right at the heart of how we see ourselves and how we explain… (more…)
Some years ago a pastor, Ray Ewers, instructed me in the finer art of how to walk into church. To most people, this might appear to be a rather basic accomplishment requiring little or no tutelage. Perhaps a family with five toddlers would appreciate some advice, but most of us would never give it a thought. Ray’s instruction was very brief: “Pray about where you sit”. (more…)
“Preaching can be a dangerous business”, Phillip Jensen told a group of trainee preachers at a recent conference. Because the gospel demands a response from people, preaching it faithfully means taking some big risks.
When we first married, my husband kept telling his young single friends that a man was only half a man until he married. Shortly after tying the knot, we left for our duties as the only missionaries on an isolated Aboriginal mission settlement in the Northern Territory. The starry-eyed approach to marriage faded and we became the persons we really were in our relationships. Falling in love was not a sufficient resource to meet the demands of our new life together. Now we were to show that we were ‘one flesh’.
NB The procedures and requirements for Anglican ministers have changed since this article was published. For an update, visit the Anglican Diocese of Sydney website.
“Being brought up in a Christian home is hard on a child.”
I have heard variations on this comment at various times and it has set me thinking. In fact, I have begun to feel somewhat bitter towards my parents, who gave me a thoroughly Christian upbringing.
It was a happy day for Art and Zelda when they attended the special missionary meeting held at their church. It was there that they first felt specially called by God to go into missionary service. From that time on, they began to speak to others, especially those with a burden for missions, about missionary work and where they might be able to serve. Gradually their sense of call became focused on a particular country, and they found their way to a missionary society which could help them obey that call.
In the last Briefing, I suggested that if you built your understanding of Christianity by studying the whole New Testament (except 1 Corinthians 10-11), you would not have any reason to think that Christianity involves a sacramental meal instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, in which the bread and the cup are given symbolic significance. In this article, I want to ask whether the relevant texts in 1 Corinthians really change that understanding. (more…)
What is the optimum size for a congregation? From one point of view, the answer seems obvious: you want more and more people in your church because that means more and more people in the kingdom. But it just might be that those two things don’t necessarily go together.
Sometimes we can live so close to a doctrine that we overlook the immense power of its truth. The cross can become an empty slogan; the resurrection a mere proof-text for Jesus’ divinity; the incarnation something we only think about at Christmas. In this light, an increasing number of theologians are ‘rediscovering’ the trinity as a foundational Christian doctrine
A poverty-stricken student reaches the end of her financial resources and writes home, appealing for money. If we were so rude as to open her letter (or if we were to receive it!), what would we find? What sort of letter would it be? How would she persuade her parents to hand over the cash? What sort of techniques would she employ?
Since its beginnings in a Greenwich Village bar in 1969, the gay liberation movement has snowballed into a social force which is changing the basic values and structures of our society, from the family right through to state institutions. For example, legislation pending in the United States Congress proposes to fully legitimise homosexuality as a sanctioned alternative lifestyle.
Evangelism is the Christian equivalent of paying tax: we dread it, we try to avoid it and we would prefer that everyone except us was obliged to do it. But somehow, despite our fear and resentment, we sense that it is a right and proper thing to do and, just as it warms your heart to see that tax refund smiling at you from the letterbox, it is so good to see someone converted and bubbling over with the new-found joy of new life in Christ.
Reproduced from Evangelicals Now, February 1993. Used with permission.
With its building desperately over-crowded, the Round Church had to rethink from the Bible such issues as the purpose of a building, the meaning of worship, the purpose of meeting—and the nature of the church. This is more than the story of one church; it has lessons and relevance for every church.
It can be a last-minute job. While the chairs are being set up, the songleader frantically rummages through the songbooks in search of that one with the chorus that goes “Da da dumty dum”. But last minute arrangements are thoughtless arrangements. We need to sit back and think about what we sing and why we sing it.
As far as we can tell, music has always had a place in the lives of Christians, particularly in our corporate experience as the people of God. There is a wealth of evidence for this in the Old Testament; it is not so obvious in the New Testament, but passages such as Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 suggest that singing was part of normal Christian activity. Today, music still has a place in most Christian gatherings.