Multicultural Ministry Matters

One of the books I purchased with my $1,000 Geneva bursary was the huge volume by Greg Beale and Don Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker, 2007). A comprehensive commentary on every quotation, allusion, and echo of the Old Testament that appears in Matthew through Revelation. 1152 pages. How do people write that much?!? Amazing! I was gleefully looking forward to plumbing the depths of its scholarship. Then a couple of days ago, I heard Professor Carson himself, speaking at Moore College. He made a passing reference to this volume. What's his assessment of his own work? "It's far too long. It'd make a great doorstop". Oh dear. And an expensive one, too... I'm sure he's underestimating the quality of his own work. Still, takes the wind out of my sails a bit. Anyone used this volume yet? Is it any good? Should I keep it, or exchange it for something else...?

Some of my ministry colleagues and I were discussing preaching. One of them said he'd been listening to a conference address by famed church planter Mark Driscoll. See http://www.acts29network.org/sermon/preaching-the-mission--chicago-2008 . Among other things, Driscoll, when preaching, asks an "apologetic question" and a "missional question". The apologetic question is "why do we resist this truth?". It tries to anticipate the objections of sinful minds and hearts. The missional question is "why does this matter?", and connects the content of the sermon to a missional purpose for our lives, families,church, and ultimately God's glory. I really like these two questions. If the apologetic question is basically "why don't we naturally want to do this?", the answer is "because the world, the flesh & the devil war against the Spirit". It's a way to identify the personal, cultural/environmental and supernatural ...

Over the last four years, while I was in full-time Theological College, I only preached at church occasionally. The talks were inevitably one-off: I'd fit in with someone else's schedule of talks, or do a one-off gap filler... or something like that. So I'd have to do all the work in putting the Bible passage in the context of its book... and think on how it builds on the previous sections of the book... and sets the foundation for the next section... and the unique message of this passage in light of that context-setting... and all that sort of thing. That was always exhausting. I was terrified by the thought of having to do that week after week, for Sunday after Sunday. I couldn't understand how people manage it. I was really impressed with them. This month (March 08), I've been preaching through the last chapters of Matthew, from the garden of Gethsemane, through the cross, to the resurrection and great commission. Unlike when I did one-off talks, I've only h...

Calvinism strongly affirms that God chooses us before we choose him. The only reason we decide to follow Christ, to trust him for our forgiveness, is that God works in us to humble us, give us a sense of our sin, and make Christ attractive to us. This is the famous Calvinist doctrine of Predestination. Calvinism therefore destroys freedom. Predestination inevitably leads to a depressing, destructive, life-denying fatalism. God decides who’s going to be saved and who’s not; it’s all his choice in the end. So what’s the point of doing evangelism, or any other human activity at all? We’re just toys in the hands of the cosmic vivisectionist (pardon the mixed metaphor...). Right? Not according to P. T. Forsyth. ----- What was it that made the tremendous strength of Calvinism? What makes some form of Calvinism indispensable and immortal? It was this: that it cared more to secure the freedom of God than of man. That is what it found in the Cross. That is why it has been the greatest contribut...

This is so good as to be almost embarrassing. I've just been awarded a $1,000 bursary to buy books from the Presbyterian College bookstore. Well, it's not just the Presy bookstore - it's actually run by a group of people from the Reformed church, so it's full of high Calvinist theology - the Puritans, Iain Murray, Banner of Truth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jim Packer, Michael Horton... all that sort of thing. Check out their website: http://www.reformers.com.au/ . They see their mission as propagating good ol' fashioned Reformed theology. As part of that, they give students in their first of study at the Presy college a $1,000 bursary to buy books from them. Generous Reformed people propagating Reformed theology...! These are the sorts of books that made me decide to be Presbyterian in the first place. Now I can stock up on some more! Right - let's go shopping...

Last night (Wed 12 March 08) was my graduation from Moore Theological College. 104 people were graduating, 45 of us with the Bachelor of Divinity degree. It felt funny to be with my Moore College buddies again, but in such a formal environment. I'm used to just hanging out with them, seeing them in t-shirts & jeans - not those huge bulky heavy hot academic gowns. My parents were there; I also had guests from church & Subcontinental Bible Ministry. Everyone congratulated me, told me how proud they were of my achievements... my host family, George & Lyn, gave me a bunch of roses (!), SBM gave me a card. It was a great celebration, I felt very honoured. I hope this doesn't sound overly pious... but I never thought of my studies as academic achievement. The real value for me was always the increased clarity into what the bible actually says - so I can explain it to other people more accurately, and worship God more thoroughly myself. So getting the actual degree is almo...

This is insane. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia ("BHS") is the state-of-the-art Hebrew old testament for students. Not only does it have the Hebrew from the best old manuscripts; it's got notes that give additional information - about variances in old manuscripts, unusual words, occurrences of words... etc. These additional notes are called the "apparatus". Usually a second-hand BHS would be at least $100. I just got one for free. From the Bible society. As a gift to first-year Hebrew students. Should I tell them it's my third attempt...?

Yesterday (Sunday 9 Mar) I officially became the part-time assistant minister of St David’s Presbyterian Church, Strathfield. I’ve been performing this role since 3 Feb; but the way Pressy polity works, an assistant minister needs to be officially appointed at a congregational meeting. Which happened yesterday. It was our annual congregational meeting – where we hear reports on how ministry’s going, discuss the budget for the coming year… etc. When it came to discussing my appointment, I was asked to leave the room. No problem. So I left. I thought the appointment would be merely a procedural thing. I feel very welcomed and accepted by the congregation. So I waited outside the church building. And waited… and waited… and waited. I started to get worried. What’s going on in there? Was there some problem with my appointment? Were there some people who didn’t want me? Had I upset people and not noticed? Was there a problem with the budget – not enough $$$ for me? After about half an hour,...

A friend of mine emailed me a question about the Trinity. Here's my response. What do you think? ------------------ Hi The classic way of trying to talk about the fact that God is simultaneously three and one is by talking about three "persons" with one "essence". The three "persons" of the Trinity are the Father, Son and Spirit. They are not to be confused with each other: the Father is the Father, not the Son or Spirit; the Son is not the Father or Spirit; the Spirit is not the Father or Son. Each of the persons is fully God. Therefore they should be worshipped. When the disciples worshipped the risen Jesus, they did right thing (Matthew 28:17). However, they are not three gods but one God. This is because the members of the Trinity define each other. While each is fully God, they do not exist independently, but depend upon each other. Throughout church history, this has been called “perichoresis”. The word is not Biblical (so you don’t have to use i...