Down-under round-up: 13 May 2015

Issue of the week

Book banning is always a worry! It’s so easily used to censor reasonable freedom of speech (which is why Christians should be slow to call for it).

The web was set alight in Australia when the NSW Department of Education banned three books from use in SRE,¹ including two on the authorised Anglican curriculum (published by Matthias Media, and you can get a special deal on them).

Youthworks, the publisher of the Anglican SRE curriculum, released a statement. Newcastle University’s Associate Professor of Law, Neil Foster, gave some background on the situation and reflected on the legalities.

TGC Australia interviewed John Dickson, well-known author of one of the banned books.

This issue has consumed my time this week. Thankfully I was also preparing four talks on 2 Timothy for our annual church conference. 2 Timothy 2:8-10 has been a great comfort. God’s word is not chained!

Making disciples of Jesus

Mark Jones at Reformation 21 wrote strongly about the death of prayer meetings.

However, it’s hard for a pastor to share an article like this without it sounding like a complaint at the congregation he serves. So please note that the article in the first instance addresses and challenges pastors!

Some of my Facebook friends made a few practical suggestions too:

1. Many people are apprehensive about praying out loud; perhaps supply a sheet with a variety of written prayers for various situations. Remind people that praying aloud is not compulsory.


2. Try to find a time that suits many people, not just yourself. (We offer a choice of two prayer meeting timeslots, morning and night, on the same day of the month.)


3. Start and finish on time.


4. Remember that people are praying in other groups: Bible studies, evangelistic prayer teams, around the family table, one-to-one, and so on.

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Still on prayer, I shouted “yes, yes, yes” when I read 13 Tips for Leading the Congregation in Prayer by Kevin DeYoung. To his encouragement to pray Scripture, I’d add to make sure you adapt the verses so you refer to God in the second person, not the third, since prayer is talking to God, not about him!

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Paul Barker began a series: Blessed to be Rich? A Biblical Theology of Blessing. It interests me because Barker wants to push beyond simple exegetical or sociological criticisms of prosperity theology, or staying safely in the New Testament. Instead he proposes to take a biblical theological approach to ‘blessing’ that gives full weight to the Old Testament by not jumping too quickly to the gospel.

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Evangelicals interested in our witness in the public sphere must read Rod Dreher, an Orthodox Christian. Here he writes—prophetically perhaps, certainly perceptively—on the failure of winsomeness in the culture war over same-sex ‘marriage’.

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The Work of the Lord and Why “Other” Work Matters Too: Aussie in Chicago, Con Campbell concludes a good little mini-series on 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Image of the Week

Sometimes satire is the best critique. For example, see Adam4d’s cartoon Some martyrs and some Joel Osteen tweets.

I’d love to know what articles or sources people are finding most helpful. Let me know via Facebook or a tweet to @SandmanGrant!

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1. Special Religious Education (a.k.a. ‘Scripture class’) is available in NSW public primary and high schools, subject to parental choice, provided by whatever recognised denominations and religions wish to offer it.