Down-under round-up: 16 September 2015

Issue of the week

The issue of the week in Australia is yet another change of prime minister, through party room politics rather than the ballot box. Murray Campbell wishes we were better than that, but realizes we actually get the politicians who reflect our own desires, and he sets us longing for the greater government not of this world to come.

Making disciples of Jesus

Dave McDonald shares one of his very practical ministry suggestions in ‘The five P's of mentoring small group leaders’.

Even when there is no formal structure in a church for mentoring such leaders, two or three motivated leaders could peer-mentor each other using these five areas: passage, personal, pastoral, practical, prayer.

I’ve found Scotty Smith’s TGC blog of a prayer for each day to be a great source of ideas to adapt for leadership in public prayer on particular topics (use the search bar to the right). And some days, it’s just right at a personal level, like this a day or two back… ‘A prayer for reaffirming God is in control of all things all the time’.

Powerful first person testimony from Gianna Jessen, who survived a late-term saline abortion, to the US Congress: ‘If abortion is about women’s rights, then what were mine?’

‘The land of the lost weekend’: Phillip Jensen has written about this topic powerfully about a number of times. And so an article like this from a couple of years back is relevant again with the current discussion in Australia of penalty rates and public holidays.

As we think about walls going up in Europe or North America in response to migrant flows, Tim Challies reflected on the fall of the greatest wall. Not China’s, nor Hadrian's, nor Berlin’s: Mark 15:37-38, Hebrews 10:19-22!

Image of the week

With a hat tip to Dominic Steele for drawing it to our attention, the image of the week is not a still, but a video about BP Man and his sidekick BP Boy. They’re two dads from a local church in Sydney, and the video movingly details how their regular kids’ spot at church played a part in dealing with the tragic death of one of the men’s wives earlier this year. It’s well worth 6-7 minutes of your time. I am sure you’ll want to pray about one or two things when you’ve finished.