Tag Archives: ministry

Diary of a ministry apprentice (Part 5): August to almost-the-end-of 2008

Everyday Ministry

|

Here is the fifth instalment of Guan’s six-part series, covering his time doing ministry training (MTS) at the University of New South Wales in 2008. He is married to M.1 By now, it is the latter half of the year. We last left Guan at the end of Mid-Year Conference (MYC), amazed at how the week has reminded him how many things in life are bigger than us as individuals: the body of Christ, Jesus in his sovereign reign, and the God with a plan for all of his creation. (more…)

A layperson’s guide to giving up your life

Everyday Ministry

|

What does it mean to do ministry but not be in ministry? How can you stay focused on ministry as a goal when it’s not your full-time profession? Karen Beilharz tells her story, and how she came to answer some of these questions.

Have you ever felt like you’re headed in a certain direction and then the door you’re poised to walk through suddenly slams in your face? That’s how I felt at the end of 2004. I had just completed a two-year part-time ministry apprenticeship with the Christian group at the University of Wollongong alongside my husband, Ben. Although the time I had spent working with students and children had been encouraging and eye-opening, it had also been draining and often discouraging. During the apprenticeship, I had led and co-led Bible study groups and training courses, I had organized a women’s retreat, I had discipled girls, I had taught and coordinated Sunday school, and I had given my first evangelistic talk to an audience of 60 women (none of whom became Christian). But as it ended, I realized that working in people ministry was not something I could sustain full-time. (more…)

Diary of a ministry apprentice (Part 4): June-July 2008

Pastoral Ministry

|

This is the fourth instalment of a six-part series by Guan, who is the kind of person who is difficult to describe in one sentence. He is married to the singular M1 and, by this episode, has done ministry training (MTS) at the University of New South Wales for about six months. In the previous instalment, he and the other apprentices, in the midst of coping with the stress of starting out in ministry, learned that Paul ‘Grimmo’ Grimmond, the university pastor, is leaving. In addition, it’s almost time for Mid-Year Conference (MYC), the big student camp in the middle of the year. But first, holidays. (more…)

Keep the Sabbath

Life

|

At the risk of being too general, most Christians agree it’s good and wise to keep the intention of the Sabbath by taking a day off every week and resting.1 We don’t do this because we’re under the law of the Sabbath, for Jesus has fulfilled that law for us. We don’t have to have it on a certain day of the week, and it’s not done to win God’s favour. Instead, we observe these Sabbath-type days because we trust the God who loves us in Christ and who rules all things; taking a day off once a week is “an expression of this commitment”.2 (more…)

Some reflections on team leadership

Pastoral Ministry

|

There has already been so much published on team leadership that, upon being asked to write this, my immediate response was, “Not another one!” I’m not even sure that ‘team leadership’ is the right category to use, for it leads us into business pragmatism rather than the Bible’s relational categories. (more…)

The joy of infertility

Life

|

In the midst of the grief and pain of infertility, Karen Galvin found joy and opportunities to grow in godliness.

In Briefing #262, Phil Wheeler wrote some pastoral reflections on infertility, entitling his article ‘A silent grief’. But I believe that infertility ought not to be so. In my experience, sharing the process of infertility with my Christian brothers and sisters has been, on the whole, a positive experience. However, infertility is a process—a process of coming to grips with the physical, emotional and spiritual issues that arise from this problem. The issues can’t be dealt with overnight, and often, when one issue is dealt with, another one arises.

(more…)

Diary of a ministry apprentice (Part 3): March to May-ish 2008

Pastoral Ministry

|

Here is the third part of this six-part series written by Guan who, in his spare time, likes to think about things. He is married to the remarkable M,1 and by this instalment, has been doing ministry training (MTS) at the University of New South Wales (hereafter referred to as the ‘Uni’) for about four months. So far, he’s mostly learned that starting out in ministry and meeting people is exciting and inspiring when you begin to notice the way the gospel carves through people’s lives. This far in, the work starts to get easier. (more…)

The book and the vine

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

|

One of the more fascinating books I read last year had the ironic title The Book is Dead. Long Live the Book. It was a book seeking to persuade me that books are history. (more…)

Can’t read? Won’t read!

Resource Talk

|

 

There are some great resources around for reaching people with the gospel—books on apologetics like If you could ask God one Question and Naked God—books that explain the gospel clearly, like A Fresh Start and Christianity Explained—and, of course, there are Bibles and Gospels that we can hand to people to check it out for themselves. (more…)

Woman to woman: Further resources

|

The following are notes meant to accompany Jean Williams’s article on women and discipleship in Briefing #378.

  • Three books written to help women understand and apply Titus 2:3-5 are Carolyn Mahaney’s Feminine Appeal (Crossway, Wheaton, 2004), Susan Hunt’s Spiritual Mothering (Crossway, Wheaton, 1992) and Martha Peace’s Becoming a Titus 2 Woman (Focus, Fearn, 1997). These books have their flaws, but they contain much helpful advice about Titus 2 ministry and the practical implications of biblical womanhood.

(more…)

Diary of a ministry apprentice (Part 2): March 2008

Everyday Ministry

|

Guan’s story so far in four sentences: Guan likes self-deprecation, but isn’t very good at it. He is ever so slightly obsessive about his iTunes collection, he is married to M,1 and at the time of writing (2008), he has just started ministry training (MTS) at the University of New South Wales (hereafter known as ‘the Uni’). So far, the year has begun with a whirlwind staff conference and recruiting students at the human flood that is the Uni’s Orientation Week (see Briefing #375). Now things begin to settle into a rhythm, but life is not without its challenges. (more…)