Down-under round-up: 15 July 2015

Issue of the week

Last week was NAIDOC (originally ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’) week, and this fascinating article by elder Christian statesman, John Harris, of the Bible Society, tells us about some of Australia’s first Aboriginal evangelists, including one whose image features on Australia’s $50 note. 

Making disciples of Jesus

Kevin Halloran helpfully summarizes Joe Thorn on the pitfalls and positives of pastoring small churches:

• three dangerous mentalities for small churches
• two things smaller churches do (but shouldn’t)
• three principles for ministry in a small church
• four things that even small churches can excel in.

The summary may whet your appetite for Thorn’s original articles.

Personally, I thought this title was something of a pity: ‘8 signs you are a discipleship bully’, since it applied the term too widely. However, re-title it as ‘8 signs your dogmatism or dominant personality could undermine your disciple-making’, and this is an excellent cautionary checklist:

1. You are easily annoyed by the person you are discipling.
2. You are unable or unwilling to learn from the person you are discipling.
3. You are unwilling to admit when you have been wrong.
4. You do most of the talking and little listening.
5. You become personally offended when a disciple does not follow your counsel.
6. You will often push your preferences just as much if not more than biblical principles.
7. You refuse to make any helpful provisions for your disciple.
8. You fear that the disciple might become more godly and spiritually competent than you are.

May God preserve us from these temptations!

My ministry colleague, Ben Pakula, reflected on discernment and music and deception, intentional or otherwise, in ‘Revelation 13, Machine Head, and Hillsong’. When I challenged Ben about whether he had more than a one-off visit to base his thoughts on, he explained he’d listened to a number of their sermons and conference talks on YouTube as well. 

Although it focuses on the US situation, ‘Justice Kennedy and the lonely promethean man of liberalism’ is an important essay on the insecure and contradictory weakness of modern, self-defining liberalism.

And it shows that our friend, Dominic Steele, was on to something when he chose the word ‘autonomy’ to explain the essence of sin in his Introducing God course!

Image of the week

When I saw this image, I started to think of Scripture that connected ‘live’ and ‘Christ’… Sometimes Paul talks literally about ‘walking’ to refer to how we live.

• Rom 6:4 – “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
• Gal 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
• Eph 5:2 – “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
• Phil 1:21 – “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
• Col 2:6-7 – “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”