To reach people in every culture in the world, a church must be established in every culture to communicate the gospel and nurture those who become Christians. All methods of evangelism have their place, but God’s primary method of evangelizing a community is by planting a biblically functioning church to reach that area with the gospel.
Welcoming the newcomer
Everyday Ministry
This is the second in our two-part series of articles devoted to the practicalities of welcoming people into our churches. (Read part 1.) It has been adapted from The Usher’s and Greeter’s Information Manual, written by Rick Lewers for use in his church. You might like to use this series as the basis for a workshop for those who are involved in welcoming people to your church.
The ministry of welcoming
Everyday Ministry
Churches that are growing are doing so because of God’s generosity. But that should not stop us from thinking hard and long about what we do in church, how it affects our fellowship and how it appears to outsiders. What sort of attitudes will God want us to have towards the people with whom we gather once a week?
The Busby experience
Pastoral Ministry
St Clement’s Busby was a very small branch church congregation on the edge of a huge new housing development in a predominantly working class area in south-western Sydney. As the freshly appointed curate, I was given the task of pastoring the congregation and equipping it to reach out into the new area.
Charged to plant
Pastoral Ministry
Slogans
Thought
Slogans are dangerous things. But they are also useful things. Great movements and companies and even nations often develop slogans. ‘In God We Trust’ is a slogan. It can be a dangerous slogan when taken one way: “Nothing can stop us with God on our side!”—a statement of pride and self satisfaction.
When is an Evangelical?
Thought
These days everybody wants to be an ‘evangelical’. Maybe it’s because the liberals have never been much good at attracting numbers to their churches. But for whatever reason, everybody wants to tack ‘evangelical’ onto their viewpoint. It has become something of a crime to say that someone is not an evangelical.
Is homosexuality next?
Life, Sola Panel
It was the speed at which it happened. That’s what surprised most people.
For quite some time, when the talk over coffee drifted towards the O-debate, there was always someone who said, in a knowing voice, “And you know what the next thing’ll be?”
The god-buzz
The Spirit within
Thought
The God who is here
Thought
We seek him here,
We seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere,
Is he in Heaven?
Is he in Hell?
That demmed elusive PIMPERNEL
The Dead Sea Scrolls again
Thought
Seems like it’s the Barbara Thiering show again. The information jockeys have decided that Dr Thiering’s theories are ‘news’, and so once again we must argue the toss with our non-Christian and quasi-Christian friends over the merits of her arguments.
The Jenolan Caves Scrolls
Thought
A few friends have asked me to describe (in 25 words or less) what Barbara Thiering is on about with her interpretation of the New Testament and I am only too happy to oblige. It only took me three years to understand the instructions for using the automatic timer on our video cassette recorder so a pesher or two shouldn’t be a big worry (a pesh-over, actually).
Interview: Jesus the Man (ABC radio)
Thought
The Briefing tracked down the interview that David Peterson mentions in his article, ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls again’, in which three Qumran scholars—Barbara Thiering, Geza Vermes and Max Wilcox—speak with ABC Sunday Night Talk host, John Cleary, about Thiering’s new book, Jesus the Man. Geza Vermes is Emeritus Professor in Jewish Studies at Oxford University and is an acknowledged authority on the Dead Sea scrolls, and Max Wilcox is a senior lecturer in history at Macquarie University in Sydney. Many of you will have already heard of Thiering’s pesher technique of interpreting Scripture and her conclusion that Jesus did not die on the cross and that the new Testament actually describes in code his life with the Essene community. Her ‘new’ approach has been writ large in the popular media. But the following turbulent, sprawling academic argument gives us some idea of how the book has been critically received. For those who missed the broadcast, here is a highly condensed version of what was said.
The Spirit-filled man
Thought
It is said that the proper study of mankind is man, but is the proper study of spirituality the spirit? Well, yes and no. How can you study a spirit? Eastern mysticism tells us to start the enquiry inside ourselves, whereas western materialism warns us to abandon the quest. But Luke’s writings show us that we needn’t seek a path to spiritual enlightenment; the proper study of mankind and the spirit-filled man is Jesus.