Continue reading »]]> Interesting thoughts from Broughton Knox on helping families grow in Christ together:

“The congregation should nourish the spiritual life and fellowship of the family.  For example, up to half-a-dozen leaders should be chosen in each congregation whose first ministry should be to minister to families, i.e. to fathers and mothers, to encourage them to ensure that their home is a school of Christ.  Fathers and mothers should spend an hour a day teaching their young children the Christian faith and its consequences for living.  They will never persevere in this unless encouraged to do so by the leaders visiting them in their homes to enquire and exhort them along this line.  It is a task too large for the full-time minister single-handed.  A large part of his time will be devoted to preparation for preaching, for unless his preaching and teaching reaches a proper level of fulness of content, fathers and mothers will never be able to keep on teaching their children day by day, and unless homes have this depth of Christian knowledge and commitment, congregations will remain weak and shallow and evaporating.” (Sent by Jesus, 53-54).

Very interesting – I quite like the idea of families ministering to families within the church.  Seems much more like what the NT church might have looked like, and contra this modern (weird) idea of the minister doing everything!

Continue reading »]]> This is an absolute cracker of a Pilgrim’s Podcast! It might even top last week’s one! Bishop Glenn Davies joined us for a great interview about a whole bunch of things! In fact, we just touched the tip of an iceberg’s worth of discussion – hopefully there’ll be a part two soon.

We discussed Glenn’s theological training and time at Westminster Theological Seminary.  We heard about his training in good Reformed theology under John Frame, and also his appreciation for Cornelius Van Til and Vern Poythress.  We also heard all about exciting opportunities within the Anglican Church in Sydney to grow new churches within the parish system.  And we spent had a cracker of a chat about Infant Baptism (which Glenn prefers to call Covenantal Baptism!) and the Sacraments.

So much good stuff here, and we really enjoyed a great bit of banter with Bishop Glenn.  Hope this Podcast is as much of a blessing to you, as it was to us to be part of!

Update: Here is a link to something Glenn has published on the topic of Covenant and Baptism: download.

Listen:

Continue reading »]]> What a blessing to interview Alfred Olwa this week.  Alfred is the Dean of Divinity and Theology at the Ugandan Christian University.   Alfred is also undertaking his PhD. studies at Moore College, Sydney.  He’s a keen, humble and passionate Christian man who loves the Lord Jesus very much.  He’s also a wonderful friend who I’ve been privileged to get to know over the last two years.  Interestingly, Alfred’s home church was started by a CMS Missionary from Victoria in the 1930′s!

Steve and I have a great time chatting to Alfred about his background and conversion in Uganda, African Christianity, preaching, and tips for preachers.  We also touch on Festo Kivengere, who is known as the “Billy Graham” of Africa!  Very interesting stuff, and we are praying that this conversation is a great blessing to many!

Listen here:

Continue reading »]]> Well, apologies for the delay in getting the Podcast up! Steve and I had to get around those pesky exams, and Justin is a busy guy!  But here it is (it’s our shortest ever Podcast!):

We had a great time.  We got together on the premises of St. Phillip’s York Street, Sydney and had a good old yarn.  Justin is a fantastic guy and a faithful servant of Jesus Christ.  We talked about his upbringing in Perth and Sydney, his ministry in Christ Church NYC, his ministry at St. Phillip’s York Street, and what sorts of exciting things he has planned for the North of the City CBD!

Especially interesting are his insights into younger evangelicals he learnt in Manhattan.  Also, he outlines some of the new ideas to reach people in the city, and of course we have a great time of banter and shnouncements!

Links:

St Phillip’s York Street
Christ Church NYC

Listen:

Continue reading »]]> Well we’ve hit #4 of the Pilgrim’s Podcast! Very grateful for all your listening, and thoughts and props!

This episode was a world first for Steve and me! We had the first ever woman join the Pilgrim’s Podcast (and many more to come!).  Ruth Lee came and shared all about the RICE movement: Revolution, Events, Regenerate, and upcoming conferences!  She’s awesome – and a great pilgrim who loves Jesus! We also heard all about the great work with the EQUIP women’s conferences – in fact, we signed up to get a Pilgrim’s Podcast team down there next year!

We also: had an awesome start to the podcast, launched our SMBC lovespot, gave shnouncements, talked about how to balance our work and play for Jesus, and Ruthy identified with an amazing movie! Get into it!

RICE: www.riceevent.org.au
RICE REGENERATE: www.riceregenerate.org
EQUIP: www.equip.org.au (next event: Saturday 8th May, 2010)

Can I put a serious plug in here for the RICE movement.  Sam Mak, Steve Chong, Ruthy and others are wonderful servants of our Lord and He is blessing this ministry in great ways.  If you haven’t (or your church hasn’t) yet gotten involved, do it! Hit up the site above and get in touch – great things are happening now, and there are great plans for the future too!

Listen here:

Continue reading »]]> Ok, I seriously want to know your thoughts on this one.  I’m on a team with some other people to think about how to get Moore College in touch with today’s generation.  Ie, how to position the college via the web.  I know there’s more to it, but this is one thing that’s being thought about.  

Here’s the current website: http://moore.edu.au/and here’s 5 of my thoughts.  I’m going no-holds-barred, so I want your raw thoughts too.

1) The website looks awful.  Design-wise it’s outdated and looks completely piecemeal.
2) The video excerpts lack production.  Compare this with http://www.wts.edu/resources/media.html and http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/sermons.  We need to step it up.
3) No course material is offered online.  Compare this to http://www.rts.edu/ who offer excellent reformed courses online via iTunes http://www.covenantseminary.edu/ 
4) We have recorded (audio/visual) lectures and sermons just doing nothing.  Just like http://www.wts.edu/ who opened up over 50 years of lectures (John Murray, Van Til, Gaffin, Bahsen, Clowney, Beale), we should too! 
5) The enrolment info is extensive and easy to get.  This is my positive point.  If you want to come, it’s pretty easy to work out what to do.

But what else needs to be done to get in touch with the current generation? iTunes, FB, Podcasts, Twitter? …. Google Wave? People I speak to are more and more just learning from listening – and that’s not a bad thing in itself – but how can we get there?

Continue reading »]]> We’re up to #3 of the Pilgrim’s Podcast! Thanks for listening!

This is a fantastic episode: we talk to Christian Anderson about the Newtown Mission Drop-in center, Social Action in the local community, and how to get involved! Also discussed is love for SMBC, Andrew Errington‘s booklaunch, and how to win prizes on the Podcast! Yes, that’s right people – we’re going professional.  We have prizes.

As, usual – there’s some serious laughs, shout-outs, good banter and just a good pilgrimage! Get into it!

To enter the competition to win our first prizes:
1) Listen to this podcast and find out how to enter
2) Head to this page and email Steve and I!

Want to get involved with Newtown Mission Drop-In Centre? Email Christian Anderson: christian_anderson <at> yahoo <dot> com

We want your thoughts! If you want to hear a particular person interviewed, want certain topics discussed, or even want to get on the show – let us know!!

Listen here:

Continue reading »]]> Well folks, here’s episode #2 of the Pilgrim’s Podcast.

Basically, it’s what you’ve been waiting for: Steve and I interview the world famous Sam Russell about Coffee roasting and tasting, Church planting and ministry things!

As always, there’s rambling, laughs, good times and of course: shout-outs! If you want a shout-out on the Pilgrim’s Podcast, just reply and we’ll drop you a shout-out next week!

** Add the Pilgrim’s Podcast to your iTunes too: Click here.

Continue reading »]]> Well folks, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for.  Well some of you.  For the rest (majority?!) who haven’t – check it out! 

Steve Gardner and myself have started a weekly podcast where we talk to people about life, church, ministry and the joys of living the Christian life!

Every 2nd week we’ll be interviewing someone from college, and every alternate 2nd week we’ll reach out into the community to chat to Christian artists, psychologists, ministers, students and others to above-mentioned end.

This introductory episode of the Pilgrim’s covers: What this Podcast is? Who we are? The ministries we’re involved in, and a whole lot of rambling!  Prizes and Announcements at the end!

Also, check out Steve Gardner’s blog – going live tomorrow!

And stay tuned for next week’s thrilling installment with Sam Rusty Russell!

Continue reading »]]> I had the privilege tonight of visiting a Kairos closing ceremony is Parklea Correctional Facility. Karios is a inter-denominational ministry which seeks to share the love of Christ with prison inmates, their families and those who work with them.   

“I was in prison but you visited me.” Matthew 25:36

The weekend-long kairos ministry took place in Parklea’s Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre, with 20 men between the ages of 20 and 40. And the work of God amongst them was incredible.

Many shared stories of having no faith, but coming to a newfound love for God. Others shared of how they had seen forgiveness in Christ, and now could forgive others. One fella shared that he couldn’t trust people, but these Christians could be trusted: they were the first people he met who wanted to give, and didn’t want in return. And one fella who was a Christian when he entered the prison shared how this ministry helped him turn his eyes to Christ whilst in prison. He’s now going to start a bible-study with his inmates!

Tonight reminded me of four things mainly:

1. How all people yearn to be loved and treated with dignity.
2. How powerful the witness to Christ is.
3. That here by the grace of God go I.
4. That I’m so thankful to God in how He’s used my parents in this ministry over many years.