MTS Tasmania

What would it take?

2010-07-15T19:26:00.007+10:00

I've heard it said that a good question to ask someone who's been investigating Christianity for a while is whether, if all of their questions were answered, they'd put their trust in Christ.

I reckon it's a great diagnostic question. Aside from raising evidence-based questions, it challenges people to consider how open minded they really are, and can help to identify issues that could be standing between them and acceptance.

Last week I heard a preacher say he posed this question before launching into question time at an evangelistic event. Nice.

Now I'm wondering whether the idea could be the subject of an evangelistic event/series: What would it take... for you to believe? (Perhaps this has been done, like the time my ex-flatmate invented immunisation, in which case humour me!)

The talk/s could be promoted by posing this question to skeptics, and might somehow incorporate common themes from their answers. Perhaps the event could include a testimony or two from Christians answering this question in retrospect.

As for which Bible figures you'd look at, there are loads of possibilities...

Starting out

2010-04-23T07:59:00.002+10:00

Fiona's tips for someone started out on an apprenticeship can be found here.

The Tasmanian Women's Bible Conference 2010

2010-04-20T12:20:00.002+10:00

The day has come and gone but what an awesome day it was!
Some responses:

Very challenging!
Excellent!
Thought provoking and stimulating
I loved having electives not necessarily 'women' orientated but whole of life
I have been challenged to live for God and to put Him first in everything I do
Have met other Christian women, enjoyed the 'rest' there is in fellowship.

Plans are well underway for next year's conference - Saturday 26th March with Bible talks by Claire Smith from the book of Jude. We will be looking at the theme: Contend for the Faith.

Vision/mission statements

2010-03-02T09:04:00.002+11:00

Here are some vision/ mission statements I have come across and I really like

St Michael's Surry Hills: Christian Hope for every resident of Surry Hills
St Georges, Battery Point: Rich in History, Alive in Christ
Oomph Coffee: The best reason to drink coffee
Nick Bultman: To plant a church in Glenorchy which plants other churches in the Northern Suburbs (of Hobart)

Crossroads' is:
TO know God, To know Ourselves, To know our Surrounds...and To Love Others

What are some good one's you've come across?

MTS 'shop-front'

2010-03-01T13:24:00.003+11:00

It's called the 'shop-front' and its for people who are interested in doing an apprenticeship or recruiting apprentices.

This year Jake Bevan (Crossroads, Hobart) is running the shop-front day.

Here's what you can get from it

Theological teaching
Chance for 'networking'
Smelly cheese from Bruny Island
Ben Pfahlert, national director, loves hanging with the 'earthy' tasmanians will be in attendance.

Sounds great to me

Starts @ 9:30am on March 31, Ross Bakery, Midlands Tasmania

How to build a God

2010-02-25T09:31:00.001+11:00

HT: Ray Ortlund

New ministry apprentices for Tassie

2010-02-02T08:09:00.001+11:00

A current list on the Vision 100 website

In fact, there's possibly another two apprentices coming on board soon...

(Have you subscribed to the Vision 100 Newsfeed?)

What do you do when...

2010-02-01T19:53:00.003+11:00

... you finally have that gospel conversation and, a little later, think of all the things you wish you'd said?

A month in

2010-01-25T14:37:00.000+11:00

Here I am, almost a month into ministry. What a strange beast, college prepared me theologically but just like teaching it's the reality on the ground that is the real proving ground. January has been a month full of practical things like planning an after school program, cleaning a blocked toilet or booking an electrician. Then mixed in, often side by side, has been prayer and trying have meaningful strategic yet non-confrontational conversations with a variety of people. One of my colleagues says the year always begins in rush of planning and prep before a regular pattern people and preaching settles in. Then in the midst of it all I'm having to sort out the Lord's Supper and speaking in tongues!

Looking out the window

2010-01-21T08:47:00.003+11:00

Peter Jensen has a good explanation of general revelation.

'When the gospel is preached it is appropriate to point to the ways in which, when accepted, it makes sense of our experience of the world. Experience intimates, the gospel enlightens; the gospel interprets, experience confirms.'

He's saying general revelation provides a context for the gospel to make sense. And the other way around: general revelation confirms the truth of the gospel once it has been preached.

You can know things about God by looking out the window, but it's not foundational.

Bay Chrisitan Church website online

2010-01-10T07:54:00.001+11:00

And it's looking very pretty indeed!

Church hunting...

2009-12-24T17:23:00.005+11:00

My husband and I recently moved to Sydney. So far we've visited three churches. All were recommended by close friends, and all have been positive experiences.

The sermons were all solid, engaging, challenging gospel talks (happiness!), so that didn't help in narrowing the field.

At each one members of the congregation struck up a conversation with us both before and after the service (except the one we arrived late to), and at one we were invited to lunch.

I can't believe how much a personal chat with a member of the congregation influences my overall impression of a church. Perhaps me more than my husband, but we both agree it makes a massive difference. It's hard to picture yourself committing to a church if you haven't at least chatted to one person one-on-one.

It my be hard to strike up conversation with a newcomer, but it is harder to strike up conversation if you're new (particularly when people are in clusters). "Hello there, we're new here" crossed my mind, followed by "So, is this your church?". In the end I didn't follow through with either!

Fortunately, braver people approached us. Mostly it was someone involved in paid ministry (and possibly "on duty"?!), but not always. Fortunately not everyone was fooled into thinking that because there were two of us, and we were mumbling to each other, we didn't want to talk to them.

The invitation to lunch was awesome. Even though the couple who invited us had other plans that day, and we had other plans the following week, they invited us to come the week after. It sounds messy and they could easily have just said "We'd love to have you round, um, sometime" or "Shame we can't have you round today, ah well, another time" but no, they were serious about it; they committed and followed through - that alone was almost enough for me to cry "sold!".

Twice we have been urged to join a church by the pastor and/or preacher, which may sound pushy, but the way it was done just made us feel wanted.

Although we could easily visit a bunch more churches before committing to one, we figure the decision between the two that are closest to where we're living will be tough enough. The sooner we commit the sooner we can get stuck into serving.

The faith of Australians

2009-12-21T07:14:00.002+11:00

Recently AC Neilson (and The Centre for Public Christianity) conducted a survey into the faith of Australians. Check out Andrew Katay's summary and reflections.

Strategic essay writing

2009-12-18T11:00:00.004+11:00

I've got less emotional energy than I do time, so I have to keep the work I do within healthy limits. This year at Bible college I decided to sacrifice secondary sources for primary (ie the Bible). So when writing an essay I've spent a lot of time seeing what the Bible says and thinking it through. In second semester I took this a step further and actually wrote whole 3000 word first drafts without looking at what other Christian thinkers have written. While there's certainly something to be said for this approach, I've been feeling uncomfortable about it because by the time I come to later drafts I've lost the energy to interact with secondary sources. This means that I could get to the end of college without being particularly familiar with where the well-known theologians are at.

Fortunately Dan suggested a different approach. He said I should trust that I've got good Bible knowledge by now and so my first step should be to think about how to answer the question from the knowledge I already have. I should write a short 1000 word first draft (most essays are 2500 or 3000 words) from what I've thought through. Then I'll have enough emotional energy left to really interact with the views of the major theologians. So that's the plan for my third and final year of college. Studying's a tricky thing.

11th Hour

2009-12-04T16:34:00.002+11:00

Last night I helped out at an evangelistic event in a cafe in Launceston called Eleventh Hour. It's the initiative of half a dozen or so members from the Launceston CRC (2 of them are MTS apprentices at LCRC and 1 is a trainer). The venue was excellent and a night was casual and informal. Being in a working cafe with live acoustic guitar and wait staff was a big plus.

It's helped that the committee have got a grant from Vision 100 as well. Good work V100.

4 or 5 non-believers were there (fantastic work to those who invited them along btw) and each of them were sitting at a table with the people who invited them so the numbers were small - but not so small as to make us all feel uncomfortable.

Well done guys. I'm a fan.

Snapshot of FOCUS

2009-12-04T13:25:00.003+11:00

The Fellowship of Overseas Christian Univeristy Students was 'IBM' from 2006-2008 and was 'iChurch' from 2003-2005.

Luke has been working hard, fulltime over the last two years. Here's the photo from their last meeting for 2009.

Tim Chester reviews Col Marshall's new book

2009-12-04T08:11:00.001+11:00

Here.

And interesting comment:

I'm not really sure if its message is that radical or new. Indeed the book has a tendency towards structural and programmatic solutions to help shift churches towards more 'vine work'.

New MTS apprentice at Launie CRC

2009-12-01T12:23:00.001+11:00

Simon Petrusma has just started a part-time MTS apprenticeship at LCRC.

Access All Areas mentoring

2009-11-30T13:56:00.003+11:00

I've been thinking again about the timeliness of MTS apprenticeships. I think that reality TV shows like Australian Idol and Masterchef are something of a non-religious MTS apprenticeship. And in Eternity magazine the other day I read about Des Nixon, a builder who goes beyond his expected role, training his employees to be excellent builders, supervisors and later to run their own businesses, all in accordance with his company's values of "honesty, integrity, fun and commitment to relationships". I have to say that I'm fast becoming a mentoring fan-girl.

Tasmanian Christians have a lot to give their mainland brothers and sisters

2009-11-25T14:09:00.004+11:00

Having now had a bit to do with 4 mainland Bible/Theological Colleges I really think Tasmanians have a lot to offer them. And I think it's because we don't have to toe a party line. Unless we are intending to stay and work in the system which supports the college at which we're studying, we can play a bit looser. That's refreshing for them because Sydney and Melbourne Evangelicals take themselves a bit too seriously sometimes.

The great thing about swanning in, studying, and then swanning out again is that we can be completely ourselves and not worry too much about being politically correct.

But. I have had a few comments from non Tasmanian students at MTC and SMBC that Tasmanians can appear a bit up themselves and insular. We sometimes take ourselves too seriously as well at times. "In Tassie we do this ..." "In Tassie we wouldn't do that...." And because some of us are so determined to leave college and get back to Tassie, the impression is given that we aren't that interested in others. There can be a bit of a tendency not to mix too well with the locals when we're away from home.

So I guess there is a balance we need to keep between, on the one hand, being out and proud Tasmanians who have something to offer the others, and, on the other, fellow travellers a long way from our true home who value relationships over tribalism.

Vision 100 Video Briefing: Recruiting for Ministry

2009-11-25T10:11:00.001+11:00

Video Briefing 2: Recruiting People for Ministry from Vision100 on Vimeo.

Five days to go to register for In the Chute

2009-11-24T12:13:00.001+11:00

Are you one of those people who tends to leave everything to the last minute? Know someone keen to church plant who is a little like that? Then this reminder is for you.

Registrations for our first In The Chute conference close in five days. That's right, the doors close on Sunday November 29. So don't miss your chance to:

Hear key Christian leaders (Al Stewart, Jim Wallace) and church planters (Andrew Heard, Paul Dale) talk on the nuts and bolts of ministry in Australia
Meet up with other Christians determined to plant new congregations
Be assessed as a church planter by The Geneva Push

Getting there couldn't be simpler. Just click here to register for In The Chute online.

MTS National Graduation

2009-11-23T19:55:00.001+11:00

The other day was the MTS National Graduation. A stack of graduating apprentices from around the country attended a graduation event in Sydney. Those who were finishing MTS apprenticeships that year but couldn't attend the ceremony had their names read out also.

Each graduate received a baton with 2Timothy 2:2, 2009 engraved on them to reinforce that ministry training is their lifetime calling. Awesome idea, huh?

Current Tassies going to In the Chute

2009-11-23T13:50:00.001+11:00

Geneva's first national conference.

Ross Nicholson, Rob Stanley, Nickand Bron Bultman, Alan Reader and me.

Why don't you join us? It'll be rockin.

Scripture in Schools 2010

2009-11-23T11:00:00.000+11:00

Paul Chew currently heads up a team that goes into Albuera Street Primary for half an hour once a week during the school term. They've had a good run and will be continuing the program into 2010. Paul and I will also be starting on another day something very simimlar but at Princess Street Primary. If your interested in cutting your teeth on some schools ministry at either school, feel free to contact either Paul or myself.

Get amongst it

2009-11-15T16:20:00.004+11:00

Mikey did a post on his blog about getting involved in a ministry outside your local church. It's such good advice and it's such an important thing to take an active role/concern in ministry beyond your patch. So I was thinking about how I could be involved and I was wondering, what opportunities are there in Hobart for participating in these kinds of ministry? Here are some of the ones I know about, I'd love it if you could add more in the comments.

School scripture classes (I think Paul Chew is looking to get this happening more widely)
Occasional preaching gigs
MTS Challenge Committee
AFES Area Committee
Tear?
FOCUS?

Original languages

2009-11-13T19:39:00.001+11:00

Click here for Fiona's wisdom about learning Ancient Greek and Hebrew.

Shiftwork

2009-11-13T19:00:00.003+11:00

People in church leadership have a tendency to assume that if someone fails to show up to church each Sunday their faith's a little flaky. My tendency is not to worry so much about their faith (sadly), but to feel they're being disloyal. But for shiftworkers - and all sorts of other people - attendance is unlikely to be a measure of either faith or loyalty. So we need to be careful to find out where people are really at. We need to seek their input and invite them to things like the MTS Challenge conference. And we need to be creative and kind in helping them get the fellowship and teaching they so often miss.

H/T Lisa

I like ministry with people

2009-11-09T10:24:00.001+11:00

A mildly provocative ramble about who I'm best suited to do ministry with:

It's difficult to say now because my circumstances might change once I'm up to my arm-pits in ministry but I prefer ministry with people. Never really the coolest kid at school I always found being a high school teacher mildly amusing because here I was on the other side of the blackboard seeing it all play out. I find it very difficult to be trendy, and so doing 'yooth' ministry is very daunting for me. I actually really enjoy the challenges of working with old people, they have interesting stories, sometimes really surprise me and can be very encouraging. Children are fine because they don't know yet that your not cool, or they are easy to trick into believing that your trendier then you really are. I don't mind ministry to intelligent or successful people or hard on their luck people, because generally they don't mind my questioning, slightly geeky and intense manner. However trendy people of any type or age, I find alot more draining. It still might work, and some of my friends, readers of this very blog I'd regard as cool and gracious! (Keep it up, the Kingdom needs you! You can fill the gap where I can't.) It's taken me a while to realise God's allowed my life to play out in a certain way which makes me suitable to work with particular groups of people. Sometimes I may need to memorize stuff about AFL or Eminem to cross cultural boundaries but being myself, as long as I'm bearing spiritual fruit, is important. I'm looking forward to ministry!

h/t Al Bain here.

Glenorchy, the stats

2009-11-05T16:33:00.005+11:00

As part of my Geneva Church Planter Assessment I had to give a bit of an overview of the demographics of the area we're hoping to reach. Here's some of the info I scored from the ABS data on Hobart Suburbs, 2006. What does your suburb look like? How does it compare with your church?

Ethnicity
Out of 10 060 people living in Glenorchy:
· 8228 (82%) were born in Australia
· 854 (8%) didn’t specify
· 316 (3%) in the United Kingdom
· 297 (3%) in other European countries
· 127 (1%) in Asia
· 90 (<1%) in Africa and the Middle East
· 65 (<1%) in New Zealand
· 39 (<1%) in South and Central America
· 25 (<1%) in North America

Employment and income
People living in Glenorchy have a range of occupations, the most common being tradesmen, labourers, machinery operaters, drivers and administrative workers. These professions make up 57% of the workforce.

7.7% of the workforce in Glenorchy are unemployed. At the Northern extreme of the Northern Suburbs, Bridgewater and Gagebrook have an unemployment rate of 14.2% and 25.4% respectively.

Median individual income is $19 032, median family income is $47 789.

Age
24% of the population are over 60, 39% are aged between 30-59, 37% are aged 0-29. The median age is 40.

Non school education
418 people (4%) have a bachelors degree, graduate diploma or postgrad degree, 327 have diplomas, 1516 have certificates, 1266 are inadequately described or not stated.

Families
There are 926 couples with children, there are 651 single parent families.

Housing
1485 dwellings are being rented. 1434 are fully owned. 1125 are being purchased. Median monthly loan repayments are $867, median weekly rental payment is $135.

Religious affiliation
There are 2545 Catholics (25%), 3191 Anglicans (32%) and 1225 other Christians (12%), 24 Buddhists, 38 Hindus, 39 Muslims, 3 Jews, 48 belonging to other religions, 1583 with no religion, 1364 didn’t state their religious affiliation.

Romans and Pioneering Church Planting

2009-11-03T11:03:00.003+11:00

I've just done an essay on how Paul's travel plans in Romans 15:23-33 fit into the purpose and argument of the letter.

I ended up arguing that Romans is not a "single-purpose" letter. He wrote to the Roman Christians for lots of reasons.

But one of those reasons was to ask the Romans to cough up some coin for his Church Planting work in Spain. The verb προπεμφθῆναι (a bit of a tongue twister that one!) which the NIV translates "have you assist me" in 15:24 literally means "to send on one’s way with funds and supplies." And at 15:28 Paul says, “I will leave for Spain by way of you” so he clearly intends to be "sent" by the Romans to Spain.

Paul felt he'd finished his evangelizing of the northeastern section of the Mediterranean (15:23, see also 15:19b). It wasn't that all of the eastern regions had been evangelized. Rather, Paul's work as a pioneering church planter was complete in that churches had been planted in the region. Now he was keen to commence a mission to the unevangelized Spain, the oldest Roman province after Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica (15:24, 28). And he needed a support base from which to push out, just as he and Barnabas had done with the Church at Syrian Antioch when they pushed into South Galatia and Cyprus. It seems clear from 15:24 that he did not intend to stay in Rome for long (i.e. “I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain..").

Why did he put so much detail in the letter? Because he hadn't been to Rome before and very few Roman Christian knew him. Of those that had heard about him, some may have been opposed to him (3:8) But he unfolds the gospel in the letter because he wants his "sponsors" to know that he is thoroughly orthodox in his teaching and that they can trust him with their money as he pushes out from Rome into Spain with the gospel.

Did he make it to Spain? Who knows.

Keep it to yourself! Love and the Gospel.

2009-11-03T10:02:00.002+11:00

James Olthuis has a pithy way to describe the dual focus of everyone's worldview:

'... a vision "of" life and the world is simultaneously a vision "for" life and the world'.*

It got me thinking about the old adage, 'I'm happy for you to believe whatever you like, just keep it to yourself'. Can't religion just be a private affair?

I appreciate that people don't want to be rudely Bible-bashed, but I think Olthuis's way of thinking about a Christian world-view might help us unravel that old objection. 'Cause believing the gospel isn't just about believing a handful of obscure doctrines disconnected from the way I live my whole life.

Olthuis goes on to say:

'What we believe to be most true for ourselves, we must also implicitly believe to be worth the commitment of others.'

If you're convinced that something (say, the gospel) is actually good and true, then if you keep it to yourself... well, what does that say about your concern for their good?

Several reflections:

I think it's thoroughly normal and right to feel saddened and hurt when people tell us to keep quiet about Jesus. Whether they realise it or not, we're actually trying to express love toward them. We're concerned for their good.
Do we think of the message of Jesus as a vision for life? Or just as some truths about (or, of) life? As we read the Bible do we expect to learn how to live God's way, really? Or just to learn some more obscurities?
Do we see evangelism as somehow disconnected from all the rest of life or is it integrated into it as one of many expressions of love?

* Olthuis, James H. 'On Worldviews' Christian Scholar's Review. 14/2 1985, 153-164

MTS Tasmania celebrates 'Reformation Day'!

2009-10-31T16:29:00.000+11:00

Check your local church for details.

The Timothy Partnership Launch

2009-10-28T14:56:00.002+11:00

Is theological education only for people who are going to run / plant churches?

A while ago I mentioned the Distance Diploma that Youthworks and Presbyterian Youth are jointly trying to get off the ground.

Well, the launch is coming up. And their website is online, too.

The way they're selling it is:

Online Ministry Training: Study for a Diploma of Theology by distance
Stay in your current location
Continue in your current work
Keep doing your current ministries

and from the prospectus (available from the website):

The Timothy Partnership is a collaborative venture where Youthworks College and Presbyterian Youth come together to provide access to the full Australian College of Theology Diploma of Theology program to distance students.

To be honest I'm a bit stunned that these guys have managed to get this thing going. Not because I don't think they're competent (I know they are!). But because this just seems such an awesome and unselfish initiative for helping Christians in regional areas. I think Tassie stands to profit from it.

Would you consider doing it? Can you think of anyone who might?

On Rest and Family

2009-10-27T16:18:00.000+11:00

I was at Moore Women at few weeks ago and it was 'returning women's night' when those who've been out in ministry for a year come back. Many women shared good advice and experience. A couple of comments particularly stuck in my head and I thought I'd post them here:

Have the conversation about work, family and ministry. Make sure you discuss things like family time and rest days because if it's bad now, it's only going to get worse once he's 'working for God'!

If your husband doesn't take a day off he's essentially saying you can't have one either - especially if you have little children.

I think this stuff definitely applies to those doing or thinking of doing MTS.

Core Convictions

2009-10-26T22:39:00.001+11:00

I'm filling out part of an application form for The Geneva Push church planter assessment at the moment. There are heaps of questions and the theological section especially made me appreciate what an excellent education I've had at Moore. It was great having to summarise things I've written essays on in the space of a paragraph.

Anyway, here's one of the questions and my answer. What values would you have chosen?

"In regard to the values that will shape every aspect of the life of your church, please list 6 core convictions concerning which you (as lead planter) will never give in, nor even bend on, as you plant your church and reference at least 3 scriptures to back up each one."

The centrality of the word. A softened stance on scripture leads to a weakened grasp of the gospel. I want my church to be one that is careful to listen to God's word in order to obey it and to share the riches of the gospel with others. (2 Tim 2:8, 3:14-17, 1 Cor 15:1-11, Col 3:16)

Dependence on and devotion to God demonstrated by prayer. God is a Father who loves to give gifts to his children. He has both the power and inclination to answer prayer. Since everything we have comes from him, we bring to him all our praises and thanks, fears, hurts and requests. (Phil 4:6, Matt 6:5-13, 7:7-11, Acts 4:23-31)

An appreciation of the extent and impact of the fall, original sin and sin. The gospel cannot be proclaimed unless sin is also declared. The Christian life cannot be lived without repenting from sin or without an understanding and fear of the stain of sin. Sin must be taught, not for the purpose of making people feel guilty but for the purpose of showing God's grace. (Rom 1:18-32, 3:9-20, 5:12-21, Gen 3, Eph 2:1-10, Col 3)

Faith that lives, learns and seeks to serve. Faith without deeds is dead. Our aim is to practice what we preach in obedience to Jesus and with the humility of servants. We want to look for and take opportunities to do good wherever we can. (James 1:27, 2:14ff, Eph 2:8-10, Acts 2:42-47)

An emphasis on God's grace. Jesus came to call sinners and, following him, that is what our church must do. No one is too bad to be saved. No one is too bad for us to reach out to. (Luke 19:1-10, Mark 2:17, Rom 3:21-30)

A generous and sacrificial attitude towards starting new churches and supporting church planters both at home and further afield. From the start we want to be setting aside a certain percentage of our money to supporting church planting. In particular we want to see new churches started in the Northern Suburbs of Hobart and will seek from the beginning to train people and send them for that purpose. (Phil 4:10-19, Acts 1:8 (indirectly), 1 Cor 12:12-26)

Farewell, Thank you...but see you soon

2009-10-26T08:55:00.003+11:00

Someone has given more than you can ever pay back ...It's hard say thank you...how to begin

But we should begin because we have God. Where our thanks are small and token, God will cover our short fall; he will pay back according to the riches of his kingdom.

Last night Xrds said 'Farewell, Thank you...but see you soon' to Mike and Nikki. They have been at our church since day one and grew into the roll of pastor. Now they step down to head up the University Fellowship of Christians.

Thanks guys for all the work you've done over the years. And farewell.

But...see you soon. Xrds will be watching, praying and supporting Mike and Nikki as they take up this new post. We are with them in Spirit. Not only that, the Lynch family will be going to church at 'North House', part of our new house church network.

Farewell, thanks and se you soon

Why Read the Gospels?

2009-10-22T20:33:00.005+11:00

Read a Gospel recently?

I was reading over some lecture notes (by Peter Bolt) on Narrative Dynamics this arvo. The lecture charted the paradigm shift in studying the Gospels since the late 70s: a shift from milking them for history, to studying them as literature.

These days we're trained to ask not only what the Gospels say, but how they say it.

Two quick observations:

First, the warning. It's not like we can pit history against literary analysis. Rather, we approach the Gospels as ‘narratives of theologically significant historical events’. Take careful note of what the author is doing and how he's doing it; that's how he wants you to experience the [hi]story's unfolding.
Second, when you're reading, say, commentaries on a Gospel, it pays to ask when they were published. The shifting sands of time have new lessons to expose to us. How so? New Testament scholars are only really beginning to grapple with, and publish on, discourse analysis. It's early days, and the questions our generation bring to the Bible are different from those of our parent's.

Clear, succinct thinking - the Haiku

2009-10-22T11:33:00.003+11:00

One way to crystallize our thoughts is to write them as a Haiku. You know - 3 line poems, 5, 7, 5 syllables per line. You could get your Bible study to do it. If the church bible studies and the preacher are in sync, you could share some haiku's each week during the church gathering. Maybe even have the preacher use one in his sermon. Or have the preacher reduce the big idea of the sermon to a haiku and print it on the bulletin.

Here are some general one's to get you started. Obviously they are a bit abstract. But they are only summaries of big ideas.

We do not know love

For love came and we killed him

Just as God had planned

Darkness leads to death

Light became darkness for us

Trust the light and live

Can you write one?

Evangel

2009-10-21T22:31:00.002+11:00

is the best group blog that I've come across. It's brand new. Just hatched. Check it out. Justin Taylor, one of the bloggers, has dubbed it "the best group blog in Evangelicalism" (even if you don't mind saying so yourself Mr Taylor).

A couple of things:

1. I really like the whole group blog concept. I like reading them. And I like being part of this one (albeit a bit of a silent partner at the moment). I haven't met all of you. But I will. And even though it's unlikely that we'll become known as the "best group blog in Evangelicalism", I think we could be a really good one. I think we can contribute to Evangelical Christianity's narrative in a healthy way.

But ...

2. We (I) need to keep churning out the posts. We all read and think and create. We all have interesting things to say. So lets hear them. And lets comment. Disagree, seek clarification, encourage, joke. It'd be nice to see some movement round here. Because in spite of Mikey's gentle reminders, sometimes this place looks a bit like a ghost blog. But without that round grass looking thing blowing down the main street (what is that thing called?).

Here's the thing. I don't want to post something here every couple of days and find I'm the only one doing it. That would be embarrassing for everyone.

So. How about it?

Children's ministry and Scripture in schools

2009-10-20T19:37:00.002+11:00

These three resources have been recommended to me by different reliable people. The common theme was a focus on Scripture and fun stuff to do. However cost fluctuates vastly between them from the expensive SU resources to the very cheap Praise factory stuff.

Living in community for the gospel

2009-10-19T16:57:00.000+11:00

A video produced by Trinity Grace, New York:

Trinity Grace: Stories_THE CHELSEA COMMUNITY from Trinity Grace Church on Vimeo.

New church plant in Huonville

2009-10-19T13:32:00.001+11:00

Report published in Vision 100 news feed.

for your preaching calendar

2009-10-11T15:37:00.003+11:00

As part of your church preaching calendar run a series (once per year) aimed at brand new Christians. You could do 5/6 weeks in:-

1 Thessalonians
2 Timothy
Paul and Peter
battles Christians face
bible overview

Gear up for it the same way you'd do an evangelistic series. Get everyone pumped for it. Tell people to invite their friends. I bet you'd find the mature Christians absolutely love it.

Collision preview

2009-10-06T13:52:00.000+11:00

Collision is a documentary about a series of debates between atheist-intellectual Christopher Hitchens and an American pastor, Doug Wilson. In related news, Michael Jensen wrote this opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald about Hitchens' recent visit to Sydney.

2009-10-06T13:42:00.001+11:00

[edit - post deleted, wrong blog! sorry]

Too many Christian friends

2009-10-02T08:17:00.005+10:00

Christian schools are strange beasts. At a recent Bible talk I gave the grade 11/12 students a few pointers on how to respond to someone questioning the existence of God. After the talk I asked them to get into groups and pray for their non-Christian friends. I joined one of the groups and after I prayed for one of my friends I waited for the others to continue. And waited. And... quickly realised that most of these guys have no non-Christian friends. After a chat I found that the only people they interact with are from home, church or school. In the end it was a great exercise because some were challenged to start making new friends and look beyond their little worlds.

Symbolic action

2009-09-30T18:03:00.003+10:00

Mikey taught me that part of leadership is symbolic action. Sometimes you need to take/make opportunities to do things simply to demonstrate that you, the leader, really value them. David Cook, the principle of SMBC, does this by going to the gym and chatting to people. He begins Wednesday morning chapel by telling us what's on the minds of people out there in the Real World. It's brilliant to see this being lived out by the man at the top. And a great example of valuing the body too.

Thinking About Twitter

2009-09-29T11:46:00.003+10:00

The other day Nick said to me, "using Twitter makes me feel old." I came up with a few theories about why that might be, but then I read this interesting article which makes several great points about the whole Twitter phenomenon:

Twitter decreases cultural latency (ie, Twitter is a faster communication technology which has the effect of speeding up everything, including it's own hype)
Twitter has been over-hyped before we've even worked out properly what to do with it.
New technologies, Twitter included, change how we use everything else too.

So what's my point? What's making Nick feel old is that often Twitter gets used like it's an amalgamation of two old technologies: broadcasting and SMS. And it's good for that, but it could be so much more. Faris Yakob, the author of that article says,

"An addition to the communication ecosystem does not simply increase the number of options – it changes the system itself."

Twitter, or whatever comes after it, has already started to change the system. For starters, it's sped everything up and it's changing our expectations about the speed and the nature of communication. Put simply, it has huge potential and it, and technologies like it, will have great effects.

You may just be at the point of saying 'what is this Twitter thing anyway?' or you might be wondering what you should say on Twitter. If you're interested, have a read of that article. Because it challenges us think much more broadly about this new technology. The starting point is not 'what do I tweet about?' but rather 'how can we best serve people?'

Vision 100 Video Briefing

2009-09-27T13:29:00.001+10:00

Now published on Vision 100 website.

Video Briefing 1 ~ Mikey Lynch from Vision100 on Vimeo.

Keen to hear what you think, and suggestions for future briefings.

Do Atheists like writing letters much, much more than believers?

2009-09-24T18:41:00.002+10:00

In the Review section of the September 19-20 Weekend Australian, the magazine's editor observes that the subject of religion has been attracting a lot of attention. A review of Karen Armstrong's 'The Case for God' and some comments in a separate article about Dawkin's 'The God Delusion' provoked many a letter to the editor.

"This is obviously an area of inquiry readers feel passionate about, although we weren't able to provide much in the way of balanced debate. Overwhelmingly, those writing said they were atheists. Whether this fairly represents the orientation of Review readers or whether atheists like writing letters much, much more than believers do is hard to say," the editor writes.

I was surprised by this, and disappointed. I suspect the reason is that in these particular cases, the atheists tended to be outraged while the Christians were not. It occurred to me that it can be just as valuable to write a positive letter as it can be to write a defensive letter. I'm normally more motivated to action by indignation... but I'm resolving to change.

The Cost of Bible College

2009-09-23T09:36:00.003+10:00

We didn't think about the financial cost of Bible College before we came. Sure, we did a rough estimate of how much we needed to save so we could move up here and have enough for books and stuff and still have enough to move back! But in hindsight it wasn't a very good estimate. So we were pretty much hoping God had a good grip on the seat of our pants when we took that flying leap.

Now, as we're about to finish and move back to Tasmania, I've got a better idea of the real financial cost of 3 years of Bible College interstate. And as I add it up, I'm blown away (again!) by how good God has been to us and how generously we've been provided for. Here's a rough breakdown:

3 years tuition fees (plus one year for wife) $52,000
Moving costs both ways (incl. flights) $3,500
Books and software $3,000
Laptop computer (pretty much essential) $2,000
Trips home (for two, every 6 mths) $2,000
Conservative est. of extra spent on rent in Sydney ($50 p/w) $7,800

That comes to a grand total of $70,300. That is an incredibly huge amount of money. And you know, even counting the fact that Fee Help means we don't have to pay the bulk of it upfront, that's still a huge amount of money!

I don't want this post to be heard as a 'wow look at us, what a sacrifice we've made'. Because the truth is, we didn't come up here with anything like that amount. We've been living in greater plenty for these three years in Sydney than the rest of the time we've been married and it's all been God's gracious provision. Though we did made an effort to be financially responsible, God has graciously provided what we couldn't. Through the generosity of friends, family and strangers, through the practical help of our brothers and sisters in Christ and even manna like 'furniture from heaven' on the side of the road, we've had everything we've needed and more.

I debated whether to post this. But in the end I thought it might be helpful for people to gain a realistic picture of the financial cost. Most of all, I really wanted to testify to God's goodness in providing for us this whole time. And finally, I also want to say that it has definitely been worth it.

Doing Bible college as ministry

2009-09-21T19:26:00.002+10:00

This is a handy hint for those MTS apprentices who go on to Bible college . . . Treat Bible college as you did your ministry. Work hard and make the most of the opportunity, but don't get dazzled by all the requirements and assessments. There is more to life than these - just as there is more to life than the upcoming ministry event you're organising.

Find the size of your plate and fill it. Lead a balanced life. If this means only working 9 to 5, so be it. If it means only doing enough work to get a Pass or wagging the occasional day, so be it. Everyone is made differently and studies differently and can handle different things. Don't forget what you learned in your apprenticeship and start blindly following the system. If you continue that way once you've finished with college, you'll burn out and die.

Translations as Complements to Life

2009-09-21T08:04:00.002+10:00

Recently, I've been reading Robert Alter's translation of the Psalms with my family. It's quite unlike the Psalms in, say, our NIVs or ESVs, for example. It reads more like… well, poetry or song.

Ps 1:1 'Happy the man who has not walked in the wicked's counsel,
nor in the way of offenders has stood,
nor in the session of scoffers has sat.'

Alter uses uncommon words, verbless sentences, peculiar word-order, and more. Often it's because he's sticking very close to the Hebrew in terms of word order and idiom; but the guy clearly just loves poetry, too. The result is a very fresh sound; I find myself pausing at odd points to mull-over the imagery and meaning, an effect that English verse has on me more often than narrative prose.

Here's the crunch: Who would benefit from reading it?

'Those arty types', perhaps we might say, and leave the matter there. But, consider this answer for a second:

'Parents'

In my experience, young parents feel they get less time 'for themselves' than they need, including a dearth of opportunities to enjoy and express their more artistic gifts and interests.

So here's my challenge: start reading Alter's translation in your family service or your young mum's Bible study?

...and recommend it to 'those arty types', too ;)

Cold contact evangelism for a lifetime

2009-09-20T13:22:00.001+10:00

Luke said to me the other day:

If I want to make sure that I do things like hand out fliers for my whole life, then I want to make them bearable. So I won't do it on my own; I won't do it in filthy, depressing weather; I'll only do it in short stints; I'll try to make it fun.

I think there's some good wisdom there.

How many readers out there, who are in full-time ministry, still do cold-contact evangelism or fliering on a regular or semi-regular basis? What keeps you going?

Disappointed with start of Jesus All About Life in Sydney

2009-09-18T08:26:00.001+10:00

Steve gives a thoughtful, thorough, negative critique of phase 1.

I agree with him.

Noel Pearson on leadership

2009-09-17T10:34:00.005+10:00

Here's some wisdom from the Director of the Cape York Institute:

We are prisoners of our metaphors: by thinking of realism and idealism as opposite ends of a two-dimensional plane, we see leaders inclining to one side or the other. The naive and indignant yaw towards ideals and get nowhere, but their souls remain pure. The cold-eyed and impatient pride themselves on their lack of romance and emotional foolishness: pragmatism and a remorseless Kissingeresque grasp of power make winning and survival the main prize every time . . . .
I prefer a pyramid metaphor of leadership, with one side being realism and the other idealism, and the quality of leadership dependent on how closely the two sides are brought together . . . .
The highest ideals on Earth are realised when leaders strive to secure them through close attention to reality. Lofty idealism without pragmatism is worthless. What is pragmatism without ideals? At best it is management, but not leadership. It takes insight, skill and creativity, careful calculation as well as bold judgment, prudence as
well as risk, perseverance as well as preparedness to alter course, belief as well as humility, and great competence as well as the abilitity to make good from mistakes to bring ideals closer to reality. One must be hard-headed in order never to let go of ideals.

N Pearson, Up From the Mission (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2009), 251-52.

Ben Pfahlert at Newscastle men's convention

2009-09-14T06:38:00.001+10:00

Listen here.

Women's ministry

2009-09-08T10:02:00.003+10:00

I have been thinking a lot about the issue of Women’s ministry and how hard it is and Fiona and Emma’s comments back in July. (see MTS link 25th July )

Obviously I may be a little biased (I am employed by Kingborough Reformed Churches working in Women’s ministry) and I agree that women need to think really carefully about going into ministry (just as it is for men) but at the recent Challenge Conference I was really encouraged in my role as well thinking more broadly about women in ministry.

In our forum on women’s ministry we saw how important it is for women to be teaching women sound doctrine. Paul instructs Titus to ensure that women with spiritual experience were to be equipped to ‘teach what is good’ (Titus 2:3-5) That ‘good’ being sound doctrine.

Women are different to men. At times it can be as simple as that. We relate differently to each other.
When thinking pastorally about women there are just some issues that the male minister just should not be dealing with.
What better teachers to teach younger women in marriage than older women in marriage?

This does not make women’s ministry more important than any other ministry in the church, it is not a separate ‘cause’, in fact it is the opposite – in true womanly style it is a helpmate! At Kingston our aim as a team is to:
‘To work within our local churches to further assist it’s training by supporting women in their spiritual growth & encouraging them in prayer and bible study to prepare them for works of service’.

Having said that I completely hear Emma and Fiona’s points about how hard and emotionally draining being part of the ministry can be – here are three things that I have come up with that make women’s ministry almost impossible:

When women put an idea out there, they are putting themselves out there, so when the idea is rejected, women can take it as a personal rejection.

When women are not asked to do something (for very good reasons least they be that we are not worthy for the task) we also take that as a rejection. It’s not true but that’s how we feel.

Women understand women, I think this at times stops some action – “what will so and so think if we do it this way”

These (and I’m sure there are more) are the exact reasons why women’s ministry and teaching sound doctrine is vital. We need to hear God’s word in as many ways as we can, in the most helpful ways so that these issues can fade away in existence to the deeper issues – who we are in Christ and His promises that form our basis for daily living and the building of His Kingdom.
fade away in existence to the deeper issues – who we are in Christ and His
Next year at Challenge Conference, I hope to have more than the ‘one’ women’s ministry forum – there is so much need – how to set-up a women’s ministry would be good to look at, being the minister’s wife is an important issue, as well as thinking about Emma’s point, being the worker and your husband not in ministry. (That is our situation – but can be dealt with another time!)

This is what I think – whose with me?

Church Geography

2009-09-04T09:00:00.008+10:00

I've updated a map of churches in the greater Hobart area I posted a few months ago. It's nearing completion, although its a very protestant map with no Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches. It's interesting that the "flannelette curtain" remains a barrier of sorts, I also wonder what happens south of Margate. Maybe the population base is too small for large or even medium sized churches.

View Churches in the greater Hobart area in a larger map here.

FYI

2009-09-03T09:11:00.002+10:00

Every Thursday afternoon the ministry apprentices in Hobart/Kingston come together for training and encouragement. Mike Lynch normally runs time. However, he's asked me to do it today so I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of what we're going to do:

First we'll spend a bit of time talking about how our week has been and praying for each other. This is usually a good chance to realise we often share the same victories and defeats and there is good partnership in this.
Next we are going to read and interesting article on the subject of Baptism. The article begins with a strong call for all evangelicals to realise that any decision we make about baptism is theological, not exegetical. Beware of claiming too much from a single passage. Then the article makes an interesting move by examining the idea of a household and the continuity of the idea from Old to New.

This is not to raise a big discussion about baptism, it's more just FYI so you know what these apprentices get up to on a Thursday afternoon.

A book about Justification and the New Perspective on Paul

2009-08-31T20:47:00.005+10:00

Gospel of Free Acceptance in Christ by Cornelius Venema

You might have heard about the New Perspective on Paul and wondered what exactly the Old Perspective on Paul was! You might also have wondered what exactly the debate about Justification is about. Venema who is favorable to the Old Perspective on Paul answers both of these questions clearly. It's refreshing to find complexity presented sensibly. I also found the Gospel of Free Acceptance clearer and more to the point then both of Piper and Wright's latest books on Justification. In nutshell, Venema says we need to continue to distinguish between the way God declares us to be right with him and the way he transforms us. (The doctrines of Justification and Sanctification respectively.) Justification, is vindicated but not completed at Judgement Day. Saunders (the guy who brought the New Perspective into the limelight) had some interesting things to say about First-Century Judaism but a theory about faith equalling boundary markers isn't enough to change soteriology. (The doctrine of our salvation.) Paul is talking about "whether works lets God know we are saved" as opposed to James who is saying "works let others know we are saved." Finally we shouldn't lose site of Adam's failure and Christ's obedience.

Feedback

2009-08-25T14:30:00.003+10:00

When receiving feedback you need to work out what (if any) feedback concerns your character, and what concerns your skill. Unfortunately feedback about skills can make you feel like you've done something wrong, failed (in some abhorrent way) or are inadequate (in your very being). It could be that you have done nothing wrong, that you have in fact been faithful and that God is pleased with your efforts. It could just be that you're not that good at whatever the thing is.

Ministry Challenge, naivety and humility

2009-08-24T10:58:00.001+10:00

Al has posted a touching reflection on how naive we can be when we first get fired up for full time ministry and how our zeal and self awareness changes as we live and suffer.

making decisions together

2009-08-20T09:32:00.002+10:00

When people at Crossroads make big life decisions I really want them to make those decisions in and with the church. People are thinking about getting married, heading to the mainland for work, changing ministry, and this is happening all the time. I want them to make these decisions in the church and not on their own. This is because we are bound together in relationships and what one person does affects the others. This is also a way of drawing on the strength and wisdom of the many.

What makes this different from cult behavior is there there is no one person/team who must be consulted. And there is no one right answer which must always be followed. We do this together, listening and bringing the Word to bear on the situation.

Distance grows in the local church as people make big life moves without each other

The pendulum swing away from one to one ministry

2009-08-18T11:21:00.001+10:00

Tony and Col think that there has been a drift lately:

The pendulum seems to swing in these matters. As we write this, in most of the churches we know and visit, the problem is that there is not nearly enough one-to-one personal work happening. Structured activities and large group events have taken over, and the pastoral team spend their time organizing and managing, rather than chasing and discipling and training people. They themselves spend very little time working with and training individuals, and those individuals in turn spend very little time meeting with and training other individuals. The focus has shifted away from individuals and their growth as disciples, to activities and events and their growth in numbers.

Cocooned leaders . . .

2009-08-18T10:34:00.003+10:00

Give a position of responsibility to someone and you never know what you might find. I say that because I've realised that for me personally, I can be shy and unconfident until I'm given a formal leadership position, at which point I step up and take charge. I imagine it takes a lot of wisdom and intuition to pick a potential leader.

Shorter studies in growing churches?

2009-08-17T10:48:00.001+10:00

Here's a fascinating post from the Hunter Church blog. This comment, in particular, caught my attention:

As church grows, studies will usually become shorter and simpler, to allow for other important activities and also cater for people with lower literacy skills.

The stupid, imaginary divide

2009-08-14T11:36:00.005+10:00

Let me rephrase Galatians 3:28 - "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, southern or northern Tasmanian for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

I'm sorry to say that I have actually felt 'rascist' against people from northern Tasmania. I have actually felt disappointed and awkward when I've met people from Tasmania and found out they're from Launceston or wherever. I have actually felt some hostility against them - I think it's because my subconscious tells me they're not 'my people' and are somehow a threat to 'my people'.

This should not be and I'm sorry for when I have felt like this. I (and you?) need to counter this trend. We need to put effort in to providing good training and services for people in the north, and we need to value their input as much as we would Hobart people's.

Big Challenge Conference this year

2009-08-13T13:56:00.001+10:00

On Friday for the training day - we have 24 adults and 14 children.

On Saturday we have 90 adults and 30 children (who will eat, there are babies I didn't count).

On Sunday we have 85 adults and the same amount of children.

Reliable but cheap places to buy theological books online

2009-08-12T17:38:00.004+10:00

It's taken me awhile to build up a good (cheap and reliable) list of sites to purchase theological books from, and it's only at the end of my degree have I finally settled on these four:

Are our expectations too low?

2009-08-12T08:57:00.001+10:00

I was at a presentation last night by an educator specialising in the education of boys.

He thinks that one of the main impediments to boys learning in school is the low expectation that their parents have of what they should know and of how much work they should do.

He might be on to something. I'm still thinking about it.

But can we legitimately apply the same criticism to our church leaders? Do they expect too little of their members? Is that why they are good at keeping members but not so good at growing them?

Scanning the roll

2009-08-12T08:14:00.001+10:00

Many church staff meetings include a time when you scan the roll:

Who's new?
Who hasn't been around in a while?
Who should we build a ministry around?
Who needs special attention of some kind?

This is right, because ministry is about people, not just events. It is very important to assess ministry on the basis of individuals.

But it is also dangerous, for such discussions can spill over into gossip. Another danger is that we can infantilise people, reducing their personal responsibility and increasing the expectation that the staff will fix all their problems.

How do we scan the roll in a good way?

New template?

2009-08-07T09:32:00.002+10:00

I think this template is a little bit too Advil.

I reckon we need something a bit more bushwalking and Cradle Mountain Lodge. Anyone feel inspired to help out with a more Tassie template?

Understanding T.U.L.I.P.

2009-08-07T08:43:00.004+10:00

Given that this year is the 500 year anniversary of Calvin, I thought it'd be good to highlight something of his legacy on the MTS blog.

If your interested this sermon series, (scroll down half a page) by Jono Smith from Holy Trinity Doncaster explains Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irrestiable Grace and the Perseverance of the Saints, the five distinctive features of Calvinism.

Lose to gain

2009-07-28T08:52:00.003+10:00

No local church can afford to go without the encouragement and nourishment that will come to it by sending away its best people.

David Penman, quoted by John Piper in his excellent book of devotions, A Godward Life.

Year 13

2009-07-25T17:40:00.002+10:00

Bernie wrote recently about Outdoor Ministry Apprenticeships. These are part of Youthworks Year 13, which sounds like a well-thought out option for people just out of college who are either casting about for what to do, or for whom fulltime ministry is a live option. Though there's also a lot to be said for having some experience of the secular workforce before you get immersed in ministry . . .

Women - think carefully about doing a ministry apprenticeship

2009-07-25T07:43:00.001+10:00

So says Fi. What do you think?

First two Grand Plans evangelism grants

2009-07-24T14:23:00.001+10:00

Are about to be handed out. Both in the north of the state. No grand evangelistic ideas in the South?

Six great books for five complex but important topics:

2009-07-23T17:20:00.002+10:00

I've found each of the following books helpful for the following topics because they make difficult topics very accessible and in the process rely on heavily on Scripture. Each of them is reasonably short, not to expensive and theologically sensible.

The Trinity: Father Son and Holy Spirit by Bruce Ware and The Trinity by Roger Olson and Christopher Hall
Eschatology: Christ and the Future by Cornelis Venema
Salvation: The Cross and Salvation by Bruce Demarest
Election: Election and Free Will by Robert Peterson
Practical Theology: Death by Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Women's Winter Festival 09

2009-07-12T14:49:00.005+10:00

For the past few years, Crossroads and Cornerstone have been running an annual "Women's Winter Festival" over three Saturday evenings in winter (one a month). The formula is a winner: jazz and mulled wine (well, juice...) when you arrive, round tables to sit at, a friendly MC to walk you through the evening, a testimony, a Bible talk and discussion over soup with each table offering a different topic (eg. forgiveness, the value of human beings, how to teach children about God, apologetics).

These evenings are an opportunity to hear Christians speak honestly about their struggles, their hope and their joy - there are no false pretenses. Last night's testimony was so sad and so beautiful it brought most of us to tears. During the soup and discussion time I am always amazed and excited by the number of guests who ask questions about God and who want to hear how the Christians on the table came to know Christ. I come away emotionally exhausted but convinced that God has been working through our conversations and in people's hearts and minds.

One of this year's guests (not a Christian) made the following comment after attending: "I really enjoyed the evening. Interesting discussion among passionate, deep thinking, articulate people - makes one realise how superficial one is most of the time. Thanks for inviting me."

If you're a woman and live in Hobart, come along to 2 Edward St, Glebe at 5pm on August 8.

Lads, I'm sure there's a blokey pizza and beer version just waiting to be born!

Ministry Challenge 2009

2009-07-12T09:16:00.001+10:00

Plans for Ministry Challenge 2009 are coming into place.

You should come:

If you have never thought seriously about missionary work and your role in Christ's kingdom.
If you are fired up for Christ and want to know how to channel that energy.
If you are a pastor, missionary, women's worker or trainer and want to brush shoulders with your peers and influence the next generation.
If you are a 'visionary layperson' who can get the big picture clear and so be more motivated to serve Christ's mission in your workplace, in your local church, with your gifts.

MTS National Director, Ben Pfahlert writes: "I wish I could be there because the Tassie Challenge Conference is one of the best in the nation. Earthy, grungy, unashamedly Taswegian, missional etc etc." And we are always working to make the conference contextualised. Here's some little tweaks for 2009:

Local preacher, David Jones sharing the platform with Greg Lee.
David Jolly will be roasting coffee on site to come up with the 'Challenge Tasmania' blend.
David Lynch will be doing a pig spit roast for one of our meals together.

Jonathan Edwards

2009-07-05T23:53:00.002+10:00

Jonathan Edwards: a life by George Marsden

There are myopic biographies, fawning biographies that polish the reputation of their subject, murky mud raking biographies that are determined to bring out every innuendo and salacious detail and then there are large, interesting biographies that respectfully place their subject in context. Jonathan Edwards: a life, by George Marsden is the latter. Marsden, a Presbyterian and a scholar, is sympathetic to Edwards but attuned to controversy (Eg Edward's personality and slavery) while also being scrupulously detailed in his research. This biography recounts the story of Edwards' life, pausing at appropriate junctions to place his ideas or one of his major works into it's theological or sociological context. Not only is Edwards an important historical figure but he also has particular relevance for those involved with or interested in Christian ministry in Tasmania. Edwards despite being a rural pastor, preached widely in his local area and was connected to other like minded Christians around the world. Most importantly Edwards had a genuine concern for awakening or spiritual renewal, being part of, during his ministry, the New England Awakenings of 1730s' through to the 1740's. Edwards was, as some have said, the last Puritan and the first Evangelical. Puritan, in his core theological assumptions, but Evangelical in his concern for genuine piety and renewal. Then, as now, Edwards battled nominalism, secularism and conflict within Christianity between rival theologies. Colonial, pre-revolutionary New England reminds me in some ways of Tasmania. Strong connections to the "mainland" (Edwards saw himself as a British national.) yet also a strong sense of an independent identity (New England was established as a Puritan utopia.). The Christian scene was relatively small, yet Edwards had international connections with people such as Isaac Watts and Whitefield.

I'll blog later about the important aspects of Edwards' theology and how it has shaped my own thinking.

The encouragement of dying revivals

2009-07-04T10:35:00.001+10:00

Craig has posted about the logic of why revivals die down and the encouragement we can draw from this. I've also been bothered by this in the past and I find Craig's observation a very helpful one.

Women's Ministry Links

2009-07-02T19:52:00.002+10:00

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is interviewing Donna Otto in a series titled Authentic Mentoring.

Topics so far:

Why Women Need Each Other

and

Joy vs. Burnout

Ten lessons about recruiting part II

2009-06-27T08:09:00.001+10:00

6. Apprenticeships have become institutional: This is good, because the apprenticeship path is a great path into ministry. But not people are going through uni whose parents did apprenticeships, which can make it seem unattractive. The purpose of apprenticeship has also seemed to shift from 'preparing for Bible College' to 'seeing if you want to go to College at all'. The apprenticeship pathway can run the risk of reinforcing the lay/clergy divide. It can lessen dependence on lay ministry. We must keep the apprenticeships fresh and sharp and purposeful.
(at this point, David Macdonald acknowledged that it might be helpful to rotate which ministries in the church are given to apprentices. If they always do the same jobs, the church will become 'addicted to MTS').
7. Most conversations occur in talking about evangelism: This is a big part of the solution to freeing us up from institutionalism. We want to go into Christian ministry because we see the vision and need for world evangelisation.
8. The current generation needs to be recruited: And we need to find ways to connect with them. To connect with them and their interest in what is edgy and flexible.
9. The top 15 recruiters today were trained by great recruiters.

10. Apprenticeships might be a passing movement: Perhaps we need to be on the lookout for where best to put our energy in the future, rather than being fully committed to the model.

Ten lessons about recruiting part I

2009-06-27T08:04:00.001+10:00

At the recent MTS National Recruiters Convention, Paddy Benny gave a superb session on recruiting for ministry. It was a real highlight:

We are persuading people to serve Jesus: this should create a 'gospel geneoristy' that is happy to train up and give away our best people. Talk down your ministry team, talk up serving Jesus.
Recruiting requires great wisdom: Some things to remain the same - the greatest temptations are still things like family, money and career. But other things are shifting. Having a strong theology of self-image is increasingly important. People aren't really being helped to answer the question 'Who Am I?' at secondary school, so they are asking it during their twenties. They want to make their mark and do it quickly, but need to be reminded that their decisions have consequences. Our throwaway lines change people's lives.
Recruiting is intentional: It comes down to how much time you set aside in your diary. You need to do it regularly, not just once a year ot Challenge/Spur.
Recruiting is for life: Once you stop recruiting for ministry, it's very hard to start up again. Don't get over it - it's not something to delegate to the assistant minister, or to only do when you were an assistant minister. When you are young you feel the urgency of the mission. As you get older you feel the impossible bigness of the mission. Don't lose the urgency.
It is a process not just a single ask: Not just one season, but recognise that the process of decision making can take about five years. Always have a group of prospects you are working with.

Specialist Training

2009-06-26T17:25:00.006+10:00

Just recently, I stumbled across a couple of very cool training opportunities. They're both set up to train and serve people in quite particular niches.

Outdoor Ministry Apprenticeships - for people who are nuts about the outdoors and nuts for telling people about Jesus. It's an Anglican Youthworks MTS Apprenticeship thing. Youthworks have some amazing opportunities to minister to young people. Check it out.
PY Distance Diploma - This is so fresh it hasn't even started yet. Presbyterian Youth (PY) here in NSW has decided to partner with Youthworks to write a diploma-level course (fit for Fee-HELP and Austudy) in theology, which school Scripture teachers could undertake over three years to tool-up for the ministry they're already doing. In fact, if they then want to go on to do a Degree level course at Bible College, it'll count for the first year. They need $500k to make it possible.

Can you think of anyone who these specialist training courses might help?

Ancient Pathways

2009-06-24T12:31:00.002+10:00

I am about to begin a series in Genesis 12-50. I have called the series Ancient Pathways (which I acknowledge is a bit naff). Drawing on Gal 3 I noticed we are part of the same covenant as Abraham because his seed is Jesus, and we are united to him. There is a strong connection between us and these ancient stories, yet they are ancient and feel that way. So my series goes like this

Trusting God...when you have nothing to show for it (Gen 15)
Trusting God ...when there seems to be a better way (Gen 26)
Trusting God...where ever you are (Gen 28)
Trusting God ...when you can't see how the pieces fit (part 1: Gen 37-45) (Part 2: Gen 46-50)

So many flavours!

2009-06-19T22:08:00.004+10:00

I was listening to an old John Piper talk the other day and he was saying there are as many ways to evangelise as there are ways to obey God. Wow!

Piper reckons Church leaders shouldn't spend all their energy trying to get the whole church to "do" evangelism in any one way. Yes they should be encouraging people to evangelise, but as for the method, it's about helping people to find ways which could work (or are already working) for them rather than signing them up for whatever's going at the time.

In this sense it's not about whether you "have" the gift of evangelism, it's about finding ways to use the gifts (and relationships and situations) God has given you (and put you in) to evangelise. I like this.

Fresh from the MTS Cricket Team Conference

2009-06-15T19:43:00.003+10:00

Thursday-Friday last week was the inaugural MTS Cricket Team Conference. A bunch of great trainers from around the country came together to share their wisdom and experience, and to hear the latest from MTS HQ. Here are a couple of highlights.

Col Marshall shared his concern that Ministry Apprenticeships have (in many cases) become very institutionalised. Too often we plug our apprentices into existing church roles, rather than training evangelists, missionaries. What if we radically stripped back our apprenticeships? What if we set our apprentices this task: seek to win ten people with the gospel of Christ, and disciple them in the faith. It's a pretty different course than that traveled by most apprentices. But it's a brave and exciting plan, I reckon.
Paddy Benn shared 10 Lessons he's learnt from the last 10 Years, about recruiting apprentices. He encouraged us to think of training apprentices as a task requiring generosity, since, generally, apprentices don't end-up working in the place where they were trained. Let's not train people to simply work for us, but to work for Jesus, wherever he takes them.

Non-Christians think...

2009-06-09T08:22:00.001+10:00

Lots of different things. Avoid silly generalisations about non-Christian culture in your preaching.

So writes Justin, as part of a series on less he's learned about preaching.

School scripture blog

2009-05-31T10:14:00.004+10:00

Nick Gross came up with the idea of a School Scripture blog so curious/concerned parents can see what we're teaching their kids during Tuesday lunch times. At this stage I'm not sure whether any have bothered... But you can! here

Forgive us our sins?

2009-05-24T20:20:00.002+10:00

One of the old guys at our church bailed me up about something concerning my public prayers when I lead the service. He took objection to my asking God for forgiveness for our sins. He said that we don't need to ask for forgiveness because we are already forgiven in Christ. Rather, we should confess our sins and repent. At first I though it was just semantics, but he was concerned about it because he came from a very legalistic church where you had to go through the church to receive forgiveness (or something like that). He felt that to ask God for forgiveness meant that we were somewhat "in and out of grace" depending on whether or not we had asked for forgiveness that week.

I searched the New Testament a bit and apart from the Lord's prayer, I could not find anywhere that tells the Christian to seek God's forgiveness. Rather, forgiveness is a past event: "... just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32b), although 1 John 1:9 has forgiveness as a future thing dependent on confession.

Is the old guy right?

Useful Theological sites

2009-05-23T17:34:00.002+10:00

It's often hard to pinpoint a particular theological resource, here are a few sites I've been using lately.

Theopedia: A wiki dedicated to theology, of variable quality but often you'll find sermons or talks attached to particular topics that when you listen to them help clarify what ever it is your thinking about. (Open source wiki.)
The Theological Network: Not only is the layout easy on the eyes but I've found I can trust the theological tone. (This site is run by UCCF, a Christian University group in the UK.)
The Theologian: A similar site to the one above that doesn't look as trendy but also contains some great articles. (It's run by a reliable bunch of people including Gerald Bray.)
The Discerning Reader: I love book reviews and there are lots here. (Tim Challies is the editor.)
Theological Studies: Despite having a very old school layout this site turns up a large number of full text articles and a fair number of to book titles. (Unfortunately I don't anything about who runs the site.)

(It's also worth noting that Challies has blogged about a lot of topics so a search of his blog is often useful for turning up a synopsis of the topic your researching.)

A Bible reading movement

2009-05-23T10:07:00.001+10:00

At the end of our two-day session with Col Marshall, he explained to us the bottom line for MTS:

Basically, MTS is a Bible reading movement... Before we have churches that plant churches, we have to have disciples who make disciples.

write a letter

2009-05-21T10:46:00.003+10:00

I just recently received a letter sent through snail mail.
In God's infinite wisdom it was the timely means of massive encouragement to me at a time when, on reflection, i needed it. It was also a time consuming gesture full of honesty and personal touches - this brother had taken some time out on my account.

I haven't written a letter of this sort for a long time. I will now though. I think its a great change-up in our electronic age to show you care! I guess for anyone who usually block emails stuff there might be an opportunity to try this change-up. It's not practical... but that's the point!

Colossians, Doug Moo and the TNIV

2009-05-18T11:07:00.004+10:00

I recently bought the Pillar NT Commentary on Colossians and Philemon. It's written by Douglas Moo. Apart from having a hilarious surname, Moo is a first rate Bible guide. The very first commentary I bought was by him on James in the Tyndale series. His has also written what D A Carson considers to be "the best English-language commentary on Romans."

It's interesting that, apart from his own translation, the base translation Moo's used in this commentary is the TNIV. I've been using that version for about 3 years now for reading devotionally and in Bible Studies.

It's good to change the line and length of the deliveries that God's word sends our way. Using the same translation all the time can, regrettably, become a bit familiar. I used the ESV for about 5 years before the TNIV. I thought, when I got the TNIV, that it would mainly be good for using with those with no Christian convictions. It uses non gender-specific language. But maybe it's being taken seriously in some parts of the academy now as well.

Has anyone checked it out? What do you think of it?

What's Lost in 20 Seconds

2009-05-15T20:42:00.006+10:00

At a local café, recently, I was waiting in line to pay for coffee. When it came my turn to pay, and the waitress was giving me my change, she went to the trouble of looking me in the eye to say thankyou, rather than looking to the next person to usher them forward. Warm and personal. In that moment, and with that look, she communicated that she cared about me, and not just my function - paying her wages!

I figure in life and ministry there are plenty of people that won't get more than 20 seconds of our time. That's ok; that's life. But how we treat them in those 20 seconds is the difference... Warm and personal; or curt and detached?