Down-under round-up: 10 February 2016

Issue of the week

The issue down-under has been the offer by some churches of ‘sanctuary’ to help asylum seekers avoid being sent back to offshore immigration detention centres. I share the desire of all Christians to treat asylum seekers with compassion, but am not entirely satisfied that anything I’ve seen written this week on this topic (including my own Facebook musings) grapples sufficiently with the policy and political complexities. I was glad however to attend a great seminar on how to welcome Syrian refugees run at our church by the Anglicare refugee and asylum seeker outreach workers.

Making disciples of Jesus

Ian Paul explains why—and how—a pastor could say, “I’m not busy”.

Somewhat related, Thom Rainer, in his customary gentle way (i.e. he recognizes it won’t work for all) suggests five reasons you should do most of your sermon preparation on Monday.

 I cannot currently do most of it on Monday. But over the last decade, it certainly has worked well to get 60-90 good minutes on my next passage in on Monday morning. Often you can get a pretty good idea of the main thrust(s) of that part of God’s word in the first sitting, awaiting correction by further intensive study and reflection. But it means the thought-world of the scriptural text is going around in my mind and colliding with the world I serve in, right from the start, as I move through the week.

By the way, reading these sorts of articles will also help church members understand their pastors, and indirectly to find applications to their own self-management and preparation to interact with God’s word and the people around them.

Don’t make the mistake of rushing out with this clever illustration like it’s the latest sure-fire winner in Muslim evangelism… However, it is very good on understanding holiness and sin: ‘Pork, chicken and witnessing to your Muslim neighbor’.

I learned some good stuff in this from Justin Taylor (and in the comments): ‘Is C.S. Lewis’s “liar, Lord or lunatic” argument unsound?’. Taylor reflects on the purpose and premises of the argument, shows it’s not original to Lewis, and notes that Lewis did address the fourth ‘legend’ option.

Erik Raymond, true to his social media moniker of ‘Ordinary Pastor’, makes some great practical suggestions for doing day-to-day tasks with evangelistic intent in his article ‘Are you out of evangelism shape?’

And following an article on labels two weeks back, Matthew Hosier made me think as he returns to the older, now less fashionable figure of Carl Henry to reflect on this contested question: ‘What is evangelicalism?’

Image of the week

Yesterday I visited a congregation member recovering in hospital from a hip replacement. He’s had bouts of homelessness and mental illness over the years. Rod has a simple love of the Lord Jesus. Yesterday he encouraged me by saying how much he loved the ‘old people’s’ hymn, Trust and obey: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey” (Rod’s getting older himself!).

I was also dropping off some shirts and socks which David had purchased for Rod. Rod said there is no one he trusts more than David. I can testify that David has been such a patient and loving friend.

David does all this with his autism.

So I better get to the image. Rod also told me that David’s wife shared Psalm 113 with him, and it was one of his favourites. Verse 7 is what stood out to me. It says it all really: God lifting the lowly and using them to bless others.