Multicultural Ministry Matters

Okay, time for a break from heaps intense, serious, scholarly discussions of... er... sex... David Burke, currently minister at Orchard Road Presbyterian Church, Singapore , and soon to be on the faculty of the Presbyterian Theological Centre, Sydney , reviews a heaps cool new app: iGod !

The National Times asked me to write a follow-up article on Barney Zwartz's report on our conference presentation. The good book's guide to great sex . It's a deliberately feisty article, to provoke comment. So please add your comments.

I'm back in Sydney after the Religion in the Public Square Colloquium - but looks like I'm still making waves in Melbourne. Barney Zwartz is the religion editor for Melbourne's newspaper The Age . He was at the conference. He liked our paper so much he's written it up in today's news. Sex: the Bible says go for it . Apparently it's on the front page (I'm reading it online). As I write this post, the Age website tells me 116 people are reading it, and it's the second most popular article of today's newspaper.

I'm in Melbourne, at the Religion in the Public Square colloquium. Just finished our first day. Dr. Scott Rae from Biola University is the keynote speaker. He's speaking on business ethics. One thing that provoked my interest today is: is virtuous self-interest possible? Virtuous self-interest permits Christian business ethics. The purpose of business is profit - that is, self-interest. The point of going into business is to make more return (money!) than expenses. If you don't have a profit motive, you're not in business; you're a charity. The justification for virtuous self-interest goes like this: Self-interest is not the same as greed. Greed is the insatiable desire for more. Self-interest is the desire to improve yourself. You can be greedily self-interested - you can want to improve yourself, in an uncontrolled, unlimited way. If you are greedily self-interested, you will use and abuse people to get what you want, with no care for them. Or, you can...

In our prayer workshop at Mid Year Conference, workshop participants wrote some prayers based on significant Biblical prayers. Here’s a prayer based on Ephesians 3:14-21. This is my final post in this prayer series. Our father in heaven, thank you for gathering us here at MYC to lean about the cross of Christ. Thank you for your sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us, so that we could draw near to you and call you Father. Thank you that we have been saved by your abundant love and mercy. We ask that your Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen our relationship with you, so that we can understand more of your world. And we pray that we would be united in your love for the glory of Christ for ever. Amen.

In our prayer workshop at Mid Year Conference, workshop participants wrote some prayers based on significant Biblical prayers. Here’s a prayer based on Philippians 1:3-11. Dear God, thank you for the partnership we have between Evangelical Christian Union at Wollongong , Evangelical Christian Union Cumberland , Campus Bible Ministries at UWS , UTS Kuring-Gai Christian Students, and Christians in the Media , in and by the cross of Jesus Christ, our saviour and Lord. We ask that we may abound with the grace of God this week, and as we return to our places of witness in the world. Help us, Lord, to bear each other up in prayer as a sign of our partnership in the cross. Amen.

In our prayer workshop at Mid Year Conference, the workshop participants wrote some prayers based on significant Biblical prayers. Here’s a prayer based on Matthew 6:5-15, the Lord’s Prayer. * * * * * * Our father in heaven, we praise your awesome name. we pray that we would honour you at MYC. We thank you that we can come together and encourage one another. We long for your kingdom to come, and pray that we will cling less to the things of this world. You know what is best for us, and we pray that what you want will happen, both in our lives and in the world. We thank you for the gifts you give us, and pray that you will continue to provide for us. We know we are sinful and deserve your wrath. Thank you for our mercy, and we pray that we will show this mercy to others. help us when we are tempted, and protect us from evil. Amen. * * * * * Random shout-out: Jenny Dao sez hi.

This continues my series on the cross of Christ and prayer. The cross of Christ gives us access to God in prayer . Praying cross-shaped prayers means we will pray for others over ourselves , and for the glory of God over our our own comfort . Finally, the cross shows us that in our prayers we need to be thankful, not whinge or demand. Three things will help us do that. First, remember Christ crucified and risen . God’s love for us does not depend on our visible, palpable human circumstances. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). The empty cross motivates us to always thank God, despite our circumstances. Second, we must expect hardship and suffering . If we’re ready for it, we won’t be surprised when it happens, and we’ll be less likely to become bitter and resentful. Suffering comes to us two ways. In a sin-stained world, life is going to be difficult (Gen 3:14-19; Rom 8:19-22). We’re going to get sick; people will...

A quick shout-out: over at Theological Theology , Mark Thompson has some reflections on what Peter Hitchens, brother of celebrated 'new atheist' Christopher Hitchens, has to say about God and power. Basically, Peter Hitchens argues that the concept of God is necessary to ground truth and limit power in such a way as to protect the weak. Very interesting. Back to prayer tomorrow. PS: Dewey Griffin sez hi.

This continues my series on the cross of Christ and prayer. I previously posted on how the cross of Christ gives us access to God in prayer , and how the cross shapes our prayers in praying for other over ourselves . It’s not necessarily wrong to pray about worldly concerns. Paul says not to be anxious about anything, but to pray about everything (Php 4:6) – including “ordinary” things like illness, exams, and work hassles. We pray to the sovereign Lord of the universe (Is 40:12-31), who feeds the birds and clothes the grass, who knows what we need (Matt 6:25-34); who created, owns and controls all the resources of the world (Ps 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8); and who governs everything for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28-30). But, we must be careful not to be self-obsessed and self-pitying in these prayers. Jesus went to the cross in obedience to the Father, at great personal cost (Is 52:13-53:12; Matt 26:36-46 & parallels [Gethsemane]; Php 2:5-11). He didn’t receive his reward in...

This continues my series on the cross of Christ and prayer. I previously posted on how the cross of Christ gives us access to God in prayer . Now I’ll post some reflections on what it means for the cross of Christ to shape our prayers. There’s nothing wrong in praying for ourselves. Jesus did, in Gethsemane. The believers prayed together for boldness to resist persecution (Acts 4:24-30). Paul commands us not to be anxious about anything, but to pray about everything (Php 4:6). However, we mustn’t only pray for ourselves. Jesus prayed for others (Luke 22:31-32). In fact, his whole incarnate life in this world was for others. He was a living sacrifice (Mark 10:45; Php 2:5-11). And now, as our risen high priest, he still prays for us (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:24-25). The NT is full of examples of people praying for others (Acts 12:5; Php 1:3-5; etc), and requests for mutual prayer (Col 4:2-4; Heb 13:18-19; etc). So, one aspect of letting the cross shape our prayers is simply praying for others. It...

This begins my series on the cross of Christ and prayer. Prayer is more than asking God for things; it’s praising God, for who he is and what he’s done for us. God, the universal creator & ruler of the universe, deserves to be thanked and praised (Ps 24:1-6; Ps 100; 148; 149; 150; Rev 4:8-11). Sin is, in part, refusing to honour and praise God in this way. This shows itself in two ways. Self-reliance makes us prayer-less; we depend on ourselves and praise ourselves for our achievements, instead of God (Gen 11:4; Dan 4:30; Rev 18). Or, in our desire for a safe, tameable, controllable god, we create idols, and pray to them instead of the one, true, powerful, creator God (Rom 1:18-23). Rejecting God means he rejects us. If we ignore God, he will ignore us. Most people assume God will look after them because he’s a ‘loving’ God – by which they mean he’s an amoral source of goodies, who’ll give them whatever they want, whenever they want it. That’s not God – that’s Santa Claus. If we li...

I’m just back from the Mid Year Conference (MYC) of University of Western Sydney (UWS) Campus Bible Ministries (CBM) (acronym city…). As part of the conference, I led a workshop on the cross of Christ and prayer. I underestimated how popular the workshop would be so I ran out of handouts with prayer resources (*embarrassed*). I promised people I would post it – so here it is, below. I’ll post my notes over the next few days. Feedback is welcome. As part of the workshop, participants wrote prayers based on significant Biblical prayers. Some of them were really good – they really captured the spirit of the prayer, and contextualised it to our week together. I’ll post them too. Books & articles on prayer: Baddeley, Jennie, ‘What Prayer Means: a Rediscovery of Biblical Prayer’, online at AFES WebSalt, http://www.afes.org.au/_magazine/ Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 3 chapter 20: ‘Of Prayer — a Perpetual Exercise of Faith; the Daily Benefits Derived From It’ -...

This completes my posts on a biblical theology of worship. While in this created order, this renewed worship, while genuine, is partial (Gal 5:17; Eph 6:10-20; 1 Pet 5:8-9). Perfected worship occurs in glory. In the new creation, our resurrected bodies will transcend the limitations imposed upon them, both the inherent limitations of this age, and the additional frustrations of sin (1 Cor 15:35-49). Only then will we be able to worship God as we know we should, and as we long to (Rev 22:3-4).

This continues my series on a biblical theology of worship. Note: long post follows. Christians are people formed by Christ’s act of worship. We are people of his cross and resurrection. The first thing we need to do is accept his act of worship on our behalf. Christ’s cross mocks our pathetic efforts at worship; his resurrection shatters our complacent assumption that our acts of worship make us worthy of God’s acceptance. We must put aside our own efforts and accept Christ’s work on our behalf (Acts 13:38-39; Gal 2:15-16; Php 3:4b-7). “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your cross I cling.” But we can happily discard our own acts of worship, because that same cross and resurrection that judges them also forgive us and give us relationship with God. As noted above, to worship Christ is to worship the one true God. To not worship Christ is to not worship God (John 8:24, 28, 58). Christians are therefore true worshippers. The act of putting our trust in Jesus – what we call ‘conversi...

This continues my series on a biblical theology of worship. Jesus is the only person who ever truly worshiped God. He obeyed God and resisted the devil (Matt 4:1-11 & parallels); was zealous to restore true worship in the temple (John 2:13-17); and was obedient to death, even death on a cross (Matt 26:36-46 & parallels [Gethsemane]; Php 2:5-11; Heb 5:7-10). God therefore honoured him with the glorious vindication he deserves – the resurrection to eternal life (Is 52:13-53:12; Acts 17:30-31; Php 2:5-11; Heb 2:5-9). The amazing part of all this is – Jesus didn’t do any of this for himself, but for us – for the false worshipper, the idolaters, the people who ignore the one true God and chase after false gods that cannot save. The highest point of Jesus’ worship was giving himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world (Is 52:13-53:12; Mark 10:45; Rom 3:21-26; Heb 10:8-10; 1 John 4:10). The greatest enactment of wholehearted, whole-person love of God and neighbour is the cross of...

This continues my series on a biblical theology of worship. God called Abraham to worship him (Gen 17:1-10; 22). God rescued Israel from Egypt so that they would worship him (Ex 3:12; 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3). God gave his people his law so that they would worship him with their whole being (Ex 20:1-17; Deut 6:4-6; Deut 10:12-17), which included caring for the weak (Deut 10:18-22). The promised land was supposed to be a place of pure worship (Deut 4:13-14, 39-40; 11:8-25; etc). In so doing, they were supposed to encourage the surrounding nations to worship their God – the LORD (Deut 4:5-8) – which is really quite good and healthy, because the LORD is the one true God who deserves everyone’s worship. But Israel failed to worship the LORD. Instead, they worshiped idols and abused each other (Is 2:6-9, 20-22; Jer 7:1-11; Ezek 8; etc). That made God so angry that he eventually kicked them out of his land (2 Kings 17:7-23; 23:26-27; Jer 3:1-10; Ezek 36:17-23; etc).

This continues my series on a biblical theology of worship. Our problem is: we refuse to worship God, in Christ, as he deserves. This happens in one of two ways. We could simply ignore God and praise ourselves (Gen 11:4; Dan 4:30; Rev 18). This is what happens in modern Western culture: human learning & technology take God’s place. The second way we withhold proper worship from God is through creating idols – false, safe, tameable gods – and worshiping them instead of the one, true, powerful, creator God (Ex 32:1-14; 2 Kings 17:7-23; 23:26-27; Is 44:4-20; Rom 1:18-23). This is what happens in more ‘traditional’, non-Western cultures.

We interrupt the worship of God (!) for some prayer requests... This coming week (5-9 July), I'm going to be at Mid Year Conference with Campus Bible Ministry (CBM), the AFES affiliate at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). This year the theme is the Cross of Christ. I'll be leading one seminar on Monday afternoon, and workshops on Tues & Wed afternoons. Apart from that I'll be hanging out with the students & seeing how they're going & generally trying to make myself useful. Please pray for us, that we'll all learn lots, grow in our understanding of & love for the crucified Christ, and plan well for the second half of the year. While that's on, the Presbyterian Church is having it's NSW State Assembly . It's the major annual ministry & business meeting for the state church. Seeing as I'm not yet ordained, I don't have to turn up. But please pray for this meeting, that all the decisions - administrative, pastoral and ev...

This begins my series on a biblical theology of worship. God, as the universal creator and ruler of everything, deserves to be worshiped. He made everything; he sustains everything; everything should be for him – he should be the highest goal, the greatest purpose of everything in the universe. Everything in the universe should find its true meaning in wholehearted devotion to the Triune God. That’s the kind of worship that Christ, the incarnate Son of God, deserves. Jesus is himself God. So, he deserves that same wholehearted, universal devotion that God does. Ex 20:1-6; Deut 6:4-6; 10:12-22; Ps 104:24-35; 145; 148; Dan 7:13-14; Acts 10:36 (note the context); Col 1:15-20; Rev 4:9-11; 5:8-14.

Well, given that I juggled the hot potato of sex in my last few posts, I thought I might as well have a go at another touchy subject: worship! I'll first have a go at a biblical theology of worship. Then, some ruminations on how it actually works out in practice.