Down-under round-up: 3 February 2016

Issue of the week

The formal start to the US presidential election process was this week, with the Iowa caucuses. I’m interested from Australia, not so much because of the personalities, but because of how significant the leadership of the US is for our planet, and also for the evangelical world.

Last night in a seminar on leading public prayers, I discussed how we might pray appropriately regarding political issues in other countries, and we used the US presidential race as an example to work through.

Likewise, it can be useful thinking through what you are looking for in your own national political leadership, independent of our personalities and issues. Another nation’s election period can offer a chance for that reflection. I’d be interested to hear what Aussies and other non-Americans think of the arguments in the following three articles:

• Joe Carter’s ‘When Christians should be single-issue voters’ (with a useful second paragraph on the use and limits of litmus tests)
• Kevin DeYoung’s ‘Prayer and a plea’ for a president
• An open letter to Iowa evangelicals from Iowan ‘mega church’ pastor, Jeff Dodge, in the Des Moines Register, concerned that politics and its candidates not hijack the Bible.

Making disciples of Jesus

Derek Thomas at Ligonier on ‘The necessity of expository preaching’.

Note that it’s ‘necessity’, not ‘need’ in the headline. By using the term ‘necessity’ he’s making a theological argument, not a pragmatic one. However, if you note the links at the end of his short article, you’ll see another on the advantages of consecutive expository preaching. This explains why we also need it in practical terms!

Growth group/Bible studies are all kicking off for the year in Australian churches, so here are a couple of useful articles:

• For members and potential members of new or continuing groups: ‘Missing last year’s Bible study’ by Jennie Baddeley
• For group leaders: ‘Pastoral care: Small groups’, the second in a series on pastoral care by Dave McDonald (author of Hope Beyond Cure).

Image of the week

Check out another recent Adam Ford cartoon on money, if you dare, and ask yourself: why doesn’t anyone ask me this question? (Thanks Mike Paget of Barneys, Broadway, for the question about the question.)

For something safer, but mercifully, wonderfully true, another daily quote meme from Challies:

“If you want to see what judgment looks like, go to the cross. If you want to see what love looks like, go to the cross.”—DA Carson