Guy Mason is famous today

So today a local Anglican Melbourne minister is featured in a local secular mag.  See here and here

I'm grateful for this.  I'm thankful to God for the work he is doing through City on a Hill.  I've learnt lots from the many visits to Ridley classes that Guy has made and I'm friends with some of Guy's good friends.

But the danger for me today, public confession time, is that I want to be Guy Mason.  I want to be a famous minister.  I want success.  I want to go on billboards and get on the front page of magazines.  But surely this can't only be me?  Surely there are others who are happy about the success but who secretly wish it was them?

This is sinful.  This is pride.  Sometimes I tell myself it's because I'm jealous for God's kingdom to be made known.  But that can happen through people like Guy!  It doesn't have to be through you or me (on a big scale).  All of us need to use the gifts and talents God has uniquely given and serve him wholeheartedly and to the best of our abilities.  If you end up 'famous' like Guy, then it will be because God has humbled you.  If you never 'make it'.  You will still be a useful member of the body of Christ.  Serving in whatever capacity he's gifted you in.

I'm glad that from all my encounters with Guy I find him to be humble, quick to give God the glory.  City on a Hill is a growing church making disciples and getting good press for the Kingdom.  I'm glad about this!  But what I know even more is that every non-christian who reads the magazine article today will probably only be bought into a relationship with Jesus or a church if people like you and me, who aren't famous, get alongside them.  Ask them what they thought of the article, invite them to church, speak to them about Jesus.  If you do that today then you are fulfilling your call just as effectively as Guy!

God uses all his people for his glory.  You don't have to be famous.  Just faithful to serving in whatever capacity and through whatever opportunities God place before you.

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Reading the Koran

Sam Green, formerly the head of the University of Tasmania AFES group and now working with AFES on Muslim evangelism is currently reading through the Koran chapter by chapter.

It's a fascinating, insightful and sometimes scary read.

I would strongly recommend following his blog along as he reads the Koran.

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Is church an event?

Over on Tim Chester’s blog he has a great post here about how the way we spend our time and money reflects that we actually think of church as a show or an event rather than a community or a family.

Tim also has a new book on porn due out soon.  Be sure to check it out and get your hands on it as no doubt it will be fantastic!

Do you think you primarily think of church as an event or a family?

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Andy Flannagan

Recently at the NYMC I attended a session run by an Irish worship musician called Andy Flannagan.

I bought his CD the collection and I've been really enjoying his music and his style.

He was a really genuine guy who had a clear passion to see Christians worship God in more real ways than singing songs about how much we love our boyfriend Jesus. He is also big into social justice and had written some songs to reflect the justice of God in worship.

A cool guy.

Check out his website

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Driscoll on 'guys who shave'

I didn't really like this. I actually thought Driscoll at times sounded like the complaining boy he was absolutely destroying on stage. He took about 15mins to make one point.

I'm just not sure belittling is the way forward for a pastor to encourage his flock to grow in Godliness...

Having said that, he got better in the last 5-7mins.

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You Can Change - Tim Chester

I started reading Tim Chester's book, You Can Change: God's transforming power for our sinful behaviour & negative emotions recently.

I'm really looking forward to working through it after reading Chapter 1. Check out these quotes:

"We often excuse our actions by saying, 'I'm only human'. There' nothing 'only' about being human: we're truly human as we reflect God's glory."

"Jesus is the glory of the Father. He makes God known in the world. He is God in human form. He shows us what it means to be the image of God and to reflect God's glory... The earthly life of Jesus reflected the glory of God in the goodness of his actions, the beauty of his attitudes and the purity of his thoughts"

"Jesus is the perfect person, the true image of God, the glory of the Father. And God's agenda for change is for us to become more like Jesus."

"The secret of gospel change is being convinced that Jesus is the good life and the fountain of all joy. Any alternative we might choose would be the let-down."

"The great news is that Jesus is not only my example, but also my Redeemer. 'If anyone is in Chris, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17). When you become a Christian, something amazing happens: there's a new creation!"

"What does it mean for us to be a new creation? It means we're re-created in the image of God. It means we're given new life so we can grow like Christ. And being like Christ means being like God, reflecting God's glory as God's image."

Read this book!

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Douglas Moo on the new NIV

The TNIV is being dumped and a new NIV will come out.

I was a TNIV fan. We use it in our Youth Ministry. It's very readable! I also like gender inclusive language where appropriate. It's one less potential barrier to a young girl reading the bible.

I came across this interview with Douglas Moo (who's commentaries are awesome) on the subject of the new NIV.

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Matt Chandler

I haven't really read anything he has said, or listened to him preach, but I'm warming to this Texan pastor.

See these quotes from a recent article:

How does this mega-church pastor/global Christian leader keep everything in order? “I don’t have any hobbies,” he says. “I preach the gospel, challenge men to be godly men, and I love my family.”

“I don’t know that Mark Driscoll in Dallas would work all that well. And I don’t know that Matt Chandler in Seattle would work all that well.”

Matt Chandler on Podcasting from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.

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Secret Sins

This is a great sermon by Ed Stetzer. The video and notes are available here.

The take home message is:

The lie: Secret sin in your life and in the church will not hinder the mission of God.

The answer: Live a gospel-centered, repentance-filled life.

"Secret Sin and Spiritual Power" from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

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A great preacher

Mikey posted links to two sermons preached by a guy named Pete Woodcock at a Tassie MTS conference I was at a few years back.

They were really great. Engaging, funny, truth telling, faithful. I remember one of them went for just over an hour and I didn't want him to stop. That's saying something!

If you like them, you can find a heap more of his sermons here

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Sexting

John Harrower (Bishop of Tasmania) blogs about the new phenomenon amongst teenagers... It's called 'sexting' and it is terrible!

It's getting harder and harder to be a teenager, and more and more important for the church to step up and challenge these issues, and promote Godly sexuality.

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Bishop of Tasmania blogs

See it here.

Not so sure about the URL, 'imaginarydiocese.org/bishopjohn', My first thought was that he was Bishop of his own made up land!

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A big weekend at my church

On Sunday morning I was just making the last few photocopies of worksheets for our Youth bible study that runs during our morning 10am service. Our Vicar, Paul Barker (aka Senior Minister) walked into the office to ask me if I could bring the youth back into church after the sermon (we normally stay out for the whole service). So anyway, I'm thinking to myself, why? But I don't have to think long because Paul tells me it is because he is going to announce that he is leaving Holy Trinity Doncaster after just over 13 years of faithful service. He is going to be a missionary as a semi-itinerant theological lecturer in Asia, based in Malaysia. This has been something he's been doing for the last few years whilst also been Vicar here. It is a great gain for Asian theological education, and a great loss for the Melbourne Anglican Church.

Anyway, when he announced it at the 10am service, the mood was stunned, shocked and very sad. Many people were in tears. A testament to Paul's leadership I think. Testament to the fact that under his leadership this church has grown from around 200 people to 500, that over 300 people have been baptised through our Mandarin Ministry alone, and many of them are now back in China spreading the Gospel. He will be leaving our church on November 8. Big news!

So I guess this post is to say that there will probably be a lot of posts now as I reflect on what it is like to be at, and work for a church in transition from one leader to another. What are the difficulties, the joys, the frustrations... Apart from Paul who has been at Holy Trinity for 13 years, the rest of the staff are pretty fresh. Myself and Jono are in our second year here, Wayne is possibly into his 4th year.

It would be great if you could pray for us and the mandarin staff as we work extra hard in this time of transition.

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Interpreting the Bible

Gene Robinson (a gay 'bishop' from the Anglican 'church' in the USA) was apparently asked to pray at President Obama's inauguration... This is apparently what he said:

Shortly after he was asked to deliver a prayer at President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson proudly announced it wouldn't be a Christian one. He had been "horrified" at how "specifically and aggressively Christian" previous inaugural prayers were. Robinson, whose elevation as his church's first gay bishop has been a major factor in bringing the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism, ended up addressing his prayer to the "God of our many understandings." (see article here)

Now I have no idea about the inner workings of Gene Robinson's mind or heart. However, if that statement is a reflection of his heart, then my opinion is he does not know Jesus. But aside from that, it's interesting how when a person wants to justify something, like their feelings of homosexuality, as being ok. And when they have to use bad interpretation methods in order to justify their behaviour (as you have to do to make the bible say being gay is ok). It's interesting how this can then lead to statements which are complete wrong. In fact, perhaps they only way they can justify that their sinful behaviour is ok is by essentially writing off everything that Jesus said, leaving them with nothing but hopelessness.

For the record, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Eph 4:4-6) and, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." (John 3:36). It's pretty clear and simple, one God and one way to get to know Him.

I really hope these people meet the Lord Jesus and repent. I hope they use their positions to call others to do likewise. Rather than leading many astray. These words come to mind...

Luke 17:1-3
¹Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

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Rob Bell interview

I've talked about him before on this blog, but in this article/interview Rob Bell explains some more of his positions.

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Jesus is our Christus Exemplar

I'm giving a talk tomorrow (Thursday) night on how Jesus' life and death on the cross are an example for us. This is the third talk in a series called the "Crystal Cross". The first week looked at how Jesus is our Substitution, the second at how Jesus is our Victory. It's fair to say I found the first weeks good reinforcement of stuff I'd thought about before. This third topic however (maybe given to me to preach through divine providence) is proving to be opening up a whole new part of the cross I am now realising I haven't thought about enough. This idea that Jesus is our example has been used in the past to deny that Jesus is our Saviour. But I think to neglect it actually sells short our understanding of who Jesus is and the life He calls us to live...

Anyway, part of my preparation has been reading Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears book Death by Love. This is proving to be a very excellent book (I will review it in the coming month). In the book, one of the things Driscoll argues is that Jesus was fully God but that he lived a perfect Spirit-filled/Spirit-led human life. This is why he is our great example. Because he lived a Spirit-filled life, which is the same sort of life we are called to live. I honestly have never thought of Jesus as being Spirit-filled before. I think unintentionally I've tended to see the Holy Spirit and Jesus as different parts of the God-head with different jobs and that that Jesus didn't need the Holy Spirit because he was Jesus, and we do need the Holy Spirit because we are not Jesus. But actually Jesus and the Holy-Spirit worked together in Jesus' life on earth just as the Holy Spirit works with us.

Some quotes:

A Spirit-filled perspective of Jesus allows us to remain Jesus-centred in our thinking, Spirit-led in our practice and humble in our hardships. This is made possible when we realise that because being Spirit-filled means being like Jesus, such things as poverty, sickness, and hardship are not incompatible with living a Spirit-filled life. Indeed, the most perfectly Spirit-filled person who has ever lived, Jesus Christ, worked a simple job, lived a simple life, and died a painful death as a flat-broke, homeless man by the power of the Holy Spirit and in so doing perfectly and fully glorified God the Father and tasted pure joy.

Jesus lived as a perfectly Spirit-filled human being to show us how to live. When Jesus was tempted by the Devil, he didn't respond as God. In fact, that was the very thing the Devil tempted him to do but he refused. Jesus countered the Devil's temptations just as we do: he quoted well-interpreted Scripture and commanded the Devil to get away from him. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus can sympathise with our weaknesses because he was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15)

I need to find the time to seriously check the bible out on this, but I'm going to have to work something out in the next 24hrs ready for my talk and study. I don't want to get up confused and therefore confuse everyone. I need to work out things clearly in my head. Perhaps some questions will need to be postponed until a later date. Questions like these:

• Did Jesus need the Holy Spirit in order to live a sinless life as a man?
• What is our status before God if we are living by the power of the Holy Spirit?
• Do churches create unhelpful expectations of failure by preaching all about how we are sinners in need of a saviour and not enough about how we are saved and given power by the Holy Spirit to live like Jesus, the perfect Spirit filled man?
  

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Mark Driscoll on Nightline in the USA

An interesting video...

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Who Would Jesus Smack Down? Driscoll gets some good press in the NY Times

One of my Ridley Lecturers sent me a link to this article today. You should read it!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all those of you who read this blog!

John Piper gives a nice little talk about the difference between Santa's message at Christmas and the message Jesus brings us!

Thank God for that! :)

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Why Driscoll loves Piper

I really appreciate John Piper and his teaching. I'm pretty sure I could listen to him preach for a good 3 or 4hrs without tuning out!

Anyhow, Mark Driscoll tells us why he loves John Piper. Which is probably a better insight into the man than I will ever have because he has met him and I am unlikely to ever meet him. Although if you can meet people in heaven, I'll try and track him down and say thanks!

There are 4 reasons given in the above post and here, Driscoll gives a 5th reason.

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