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…)
Readers from Melbourne will probably guess this was written a couple of days ago, at the end of a heat wave. But today seemed a good time to post it: it’s Australia Day. For all who feel at home where they live – and for those who don’t.
flickr: Hasitha Tudugalle
It’s been breathlessly hot for days. At night, it’s hard to sleep: we have to choose whether to close the window and swelter in the stuffy room, or open it to invite in the occasional puff of air and the mosquitoes.
Things don’t always go to plan. You try to do your Christmas shopping in October, but somehow you’re still looking for gifts on the 23rd of December. You mean to ask that couple from church around for dinner, but the weeks go by and the invitation slips your mind every Sunday. This is the year you’re going to exercise more and eat better… how did another kilogram sneak on to the scales? (more…)
flickr: danielmoyle
I’m no great fan of New Year’s resolutions: quite the reverse.1 For a perfectionist like me, resolutions often come unstuck, resulting in legalism, guilt and (once I fail to live up to them) a spectacular throwing-off of the reins. Change becomes about meeting my standards rather than responding to the God who forgives and transforms me.
In the September issue of The Briefing, Moussa Ghazal wrote about making conversation with Muslims. He spoke of two alternative approaches: befriending Muslims and patiently sharing the gospel, and the polemics of ‘expose-the-errors-of-Islam’. He suggested the former method is something any Christian can do, and the latter is probably best left to experts who have extensive knowledge of Islam (and Christianity!). Samuel Green is one such expert, and although he’s no stranger to warm, personal, gospel conversations, here he takes on the task of responding to ‘A Common Word’, an attempt by Muslims to engage in interfaith dialogue with Christians over what they claim is shared ground: love of God, and love of one’s neighbour.
A pastor friend has some book money in his budget and wants to stock up on books he can freely pass out to people he is discipling or those who come through his office. He asks me about my choices. (more…)
As a counterpoint to the previous article on divorce, the following is an interview with Andrew Cornes about Jesus’ teaching on divorce and remarriage, and the pastoral realities of applying it in practice. Andrew has long held to the view that marriage is an indissoluble union, and that divorce apart from the grounds of adultery (and remarriage under any circumstances) is sinful. He wrote extensively about the biblical and theological reasons for this in his 1993 book Divorce and Remarriage: Biblical Principles and Pastoral Practice. Tim chats with Andrew about his reading of Jesus’ teaching on the matter, his reflections on the implications that teaching has for the church, and the reactions of people over the years.
Tim Thornborough: Andrew, tell us a little about your life and ministry. (more…)
Late last year a conference was put on with the title Exploring Effective Ministry Under God. There were a number of presentations about church membership, training, mobilisation, and lots more from a range of contributors, spearheaded by Tim Sims (who conducted the research on Sydney Anglican churches published recently in The Briefing). (more…)
2012. A new year. Resolutions, decisions, choices to be made. What if…?
Over on Kevin DeYoung’s blog, guest blogger Jason Helopoulos asks this intriguing question: (more…)
Even the most conservative evangelicals hold differing views about divorce. It’s a sensitive issue we don’t often talk about. These articles are an attempt to remedy that, putting forward two views on divorce common amongst evangelicals. We hope they start some discussion.
There should be more divorced people in our churches, and there should be many more divorced people at a church like mine. St Barnabas is an inner city church, and the inner city is often a refuge for people who have left broken lives in suburbia. (more…)
It was late high school when someone changed my perception of reality.
I can’t remember who it was, but they were a leader on a holiday conference. I was part of a group of students who were spending several days working through a passage in Hebrews, nutting out the context, the flow of the passage, what the main point was, how to express that to someone else, and so on. This guy helped me to read the Bible carefully, and to see the picture painted in Hebrews 12: I am part of that congregation of believers gathered not at Mount Sinai in fear and trembling, but in joy and glory around the throne of Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem. (more…)
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Here’s a question as old as Christianity: if God has freely and completely forgiven me through the death and resurrection of Jesus—if it is all by grace and not by works—then what possible incentive is there for me to lead a new life of godliness? Why not just keep sinning, since God’s grace and forgiveness will cover it in the end? (more…)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
How aware of your sin are you? I find it’s often easy to minimize or brush under the carpet. Especially if it’s something others don’t know about, it can be easy to hide that aspect of my life, to pretend it doesn’t exist. But over time I start fooling myself, too, and I start to think that that part of my life isn’t so significant. (more…)
Thanks to the CASE team (CASE = Centre for Apologetic Scholarship & Education) at New College, I’ve enjoyed receiving their quarterly journal for the past few years. Each one has a theme, and they’ve had some real winners in the last two years, including on: (more…)
As the year draws to a close, a big thanks to our many readers, subscribers, and commenters. It’s been a year of changes at The Briefing, and we’re hugely grateful for all the encouragement and interaction and support we’ve received. Keep it coming in 2012! (more…)
This is the original, longer version of the edited article that appeared in print.
There are three common mistakes when dealing with the legacy of previous generations, whether it is in the area of theology or any other endeavour. The first is uncritical acceptance, where all that was said or done by the great ones who have gone before us is treated as so true and perfect that none of it can be questioned. Some confessional theology can be like that. I remember listening to a series of addresses on baptism in which the constant refrain was “the Reformed faith teaches…” Now I’m happy to identify myself as standing within the Reformed tradition of theology, but after about the fifth address (there were twelve!) you couldn’t help but wonder whether this system was so set in stone that it would be impossible to question it on the basis of the Bible. I had the impression that to do so would be considered a betrayal of Calvin, or Turretin, or Hodge or Warfield and what they have bequeathed to us. And yet each one of those men would have rushed to protest that their own teaching needed to be tested by the one true standard of doctrine, the teaching of the Scriptures. Now if you think that is just typical of the conservative edge of the Reformed tradition, I’ve heard people do similar things with the theology of Karl Barth. Barth’s theology sometimes seems to be made of Teflon—no criticism is allowed to stick. But Barth himself famously spoke of how the angels laughed at those who spend more time thinking about what Barth said than about what God has said. That’s the first mistake to make when considering the legacy of the great ones who have gone before us. (more…)