In late 2003, when we were talking to Gordon Cheng about coming to work at Matthias Media, I remember asking him casually about how many of our resources he had used in his many years of ministry up to that point.
A truly reformed pastor
Up front
The word ‘pastor’ comes from the word ‘shepherd’. Someone is considered a good ‘pastor’ if they are skilled and compassionate in dealing with the issues facing Christian believers. That is, the job of the pastor is primarily to care for Christians. (more…)
Sunday school gone postal
Pastoral Ministry
I’m the children’s worker at St Mark’s Anglican Church in Oakhurst, in Sydney’s western suburbs. I don’t see my role as a job; I see it as a wonderful God-given opportunity to support the other people in our children’s ministry team and to share the gospel with people in my parish. (more…)
Review: “Preach the Word: Essays on expository preaching”
Review
Preach the Word: Essays on expository preaching: In honor of R Kent Hughes
Edited by Leland Ryken and Todd Wilson
Crossway, Wheaton, 2007, 304pp.
Review: “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” by Mark Dever
Review
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
Mark Dever
Crossway, Wheaton, 2007, 128pp.
There is much to commend about The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. It is warm, engaging and theologically accurate, and it left me encouraged to speak to friends about Jesus. However, it also left me with questions about the best way to mobilize us for this task. (more…)
A biblical theology of response
Up front, Sola Panel
I listened to a fascinating sermon recently on Jonah chapter 2. The preacher taught us about God and his awesome sovereignty, and about Jesus and how the patterns and promises of Jonah looked forward to him. But he also preached about Jonah himself. He talked about what it meant to be chastised by the Lord—to be brought low. He talked about Jonah’s experience of God’s judgement and discipline, and what we might learn from that as we experience God’s chastisement ourselves. (more…)
Job and prayer
Up front
What is the book of Job about? What do Job’s friends get wrong? What does Job do right? Job’s friends seem to be giving him some very good answers, and Job responds with some very strange ones. Do we go back and analyze everywhere Job gets it right and everywhere Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu make theological mistakes? Let me suggest the answer to that is ‘No’. (more…)
Professor
Word Watch
Are you a professor of Christianity?
Today we tend to use the word ‘professor’ to mean “a teacher of the highest rank in a university department” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). Mind you, Americans often apply the title to any teacher at college level, and, in Aussie English, ‘professor’ can be used jokingly of anyone who either has, or pretends to have, a lot of knowledge. So today the word ‘professor’ is linked to this notion of having a great deal of knowledge. (more…)
The obedience of faith
Thought
What does faith in Christ mean? What do people ‘do’ when they believe in Christ? Do they ‘do’ anything? If they ‘do’ something, how do we avoid faith becoming a ‘work’ smuggled in through the Protestant back door? Presumably if we have ‘done’ something (when we believe in Christ), we may justifiably be a little proud of what we have done and think that our belief is some kind of achievement or virtue. So how do we accurately describe the nature of faith in such a way that we exclude human pride? (more…)
Guilt-edged pages?
Up front
While ploughing my way through The Shack recently (and it was a matter of ploughing!), a thought occurred to me about the dynamic at work in our culture and in our sinful hearts—the dynamic that generates books like this one and makes them such big sellers. (more…)
Christian ministry and normal Christians
Up front, Sola Panel
I count it one of the privileges of my life to have grown up in a time and a place when so many people have accepted the challenge to go into full-time Christian ministry. Historically, it has been quite extraordinary: since the mid-1980s, here in Sydney several thousand gifted young men and women have abandoned jobs, careers and lucrative futures in order to give their lives to gospel work—as student workers, pastors, evangelists, youth workers, missionaries, and more besides. MTS-style apprenticeship training is now a standard feature in many churches. Moore College and SMBC are bursting at the seams. (more…)
The reluctant evangelist – Interview with Mark Dever
Pastoral Ministry
WordWatch: Professor
Word Watch
Today we tend to use the word ‘professor’ to mean “a teacher of the highest rank in a university department” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). Mind you, Americans often apply the title to any teacher at college level, and, in Aussie English, ‘professor’ can be used jokingly of anyone who either has, or pretends to have, a lot of knowledge. So today the word ‘professor’ is linked to this notion of having a great deal of knowledge. (more…)
Atheism must advertise (Part 1)
The British Humanist Association is running a bus campaign. I had heard about it a month or so back, and was bemused; I thought the slogan they were running was a bit daft, but only a bit. But recently I saw a bus in Oxford with the advert upon it.
Surely goodness and mercy
How are you feeling about the year that’s just begun? Are you optimistic and ready for its demands? Or are you anxious and stressed, worried that you won’t be able to cope with the months ahead?