Multicultural Ministry Matters

Jesus the Light A Christmas Poem  by Eddie Hughes Long before the birth of Mankind, Outside of endless time and space Our Creator had a master plan, A light of saving grace. In the Beginning was the Word And the Word was with God And the Word was God He was with God in the Beginning. And the Word became flesh And made His dwelling among us. And John said: ‘I am the voice Of the one calling in the wilderness; ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’ And the light would be called Jesus, The anointed one of God. He came to lead men out of darkness, He held salvation in His hand To those who came to know and love Him, He’d be The Son Of Man. With love and knowledge he would teach them Of the Great Kingdom yet to come, The promise of Eternal Life To each and every one. Across great seas He sailed, Through miles of countryside he walked And people came in thousands To listen when He talked.  He performed mirac...

Here's the full text of my sermon from last Sunday.  Feedback, anyone? Isaiah ch 58: Living for God on Monday   What the world needs, in these days of declining morals, is for the people of God to be distinctively Christian .  We need to show people what it means to worship God; to honour him, live his way, and give him the respect he deserves.  And we need to show them how living this way is actually the best: best for ourselves, our families, society, and even the whole world. So how are we going to do that?  How are we going to be distinctively Christian, and show the world how to worship God? Tell you what.  Let’s go into a building where no-one can see us.  And sing songs that no-one else sings.  And hear some wild-haired Sri Lankan immigrant rant for a few minutes.  Then we’ll go have a cup of tea and chat and feel good about ourselves.  Because we’ve worshiped God.  And the world will see how Christian we are. B...

I have previously blogged about my mother, Dr. Patricia Weerakoon: Evangelical Christian, and professional researcher and teacher in human sexual health.   She has written a book on sexuality for teenagers: " Teen Sex By The Book ".  It integrates a lifetime of academic research with the Biblical framework for sexuality.  I highly recommend it as a resource for yourselves and your youth leaders.   Patricia is available to speak at churches & other ministries.  See her website for details.  Some of her talks are on vimeo - here's the one she did at MBM church - search her name for more.   Let's do everything we can to help people live healthy, God-pleasing, productive lives in the midst of an unhealthy, self-destructive, permissive, sex-crazed society.  

Ross Douthat has written a fascinating op-ed piece in the New York Times on the decline of the American Episcopal Church: Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?  He notes, amongst other things, that: [The American] Episcopal [= Anglican] Church ...has spent the last several decades changing ...into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States... In the last decade [2000-2010], average Sunday attendance dropped 23 percent, and not a single Episcopal diocese in the country saw churchgoing increase... Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance.   But, lest conservative churches get a big head, he also notes:  The most successful Christian bodies have often been politically conservative but theologically shallow, preaching a gospel of health and wealth rather than the full New Testament messag...

Here in Australia we're in the throes of debate about same-gender marriage.  One of the issues in the debate is: from the secular side: "what right do Christians have to dictate how other people live?"; and from the Christian side, the exact same question in reverse: "why bother trying to impose Christian values on non-Christians?  They're unforgiven sinners anyway; just let them do what they want." Here's some thoughts on why Christians care about other people's marriages.  Not specific to the same-gender marriage debate, though of course it has implications for it. 1. Biblically speaking, God instituted marriage in Genesis ch 1 & 2.  It's an aspect of being created male & female, for procreation - babies - and ruling the earth.  Jesus validates heterosexual lifelong monogamous marriage in Matthew ch 19 (and parallels).  There is a consistent Biblical metaphor of God and his people being compared to a groom and his bride, eg: Ezekie...

ABC has two interesting articles on community, the first on secular society, the second on the international Anglican church. There's a good article on the ABC's Drum on the Q&A failure-of-a-debate between Richard Dawkins and George Pell. Try not to let Scott Stephens ' pontificative pollysyllability put you off, it's quite a good social comment. Basic point: we're so used to doing whatever we want, just coz we want to, we no longer have any basis for shared community. Questions without answers in a Kingdom of Whatever . Then John Millbank has an excellent article on the future of the international Anglican communion. Note his presuppositions about the nature of the church: "... the Anglican Communion [is] part of the Universal Catholic Church (it has never been officially identified as "Protestant")..." The Anglican denomination has been "struggling against" Puritanism and Calvinism. And this only goes to show there really ar...

Princeton Theological Seminary has partnered with the Internet Archive to create the Theological Commons digital library . It provides free, online access to over 50,000 theology and religion books from the PTS Library. And don't forget the Christian Classics Ethereal Library , with thousands of documents from church history available on-line and downloadable in various formats for free.

Every ethic is connected with an assumed anthropology and worldview. We instinctively act out of a sense of who we are, and our place in the world. Our answers to the questions “ Who am I?” and “ What am I?” are intimately connected to the question of “ How ought I to be in the world?” In other words, theological anthropology can never be entirely descriptive. A description of human nature always both presumes and entails a prescription for human living. [ Marc Cortez, Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed : 2-3, emphasis in original] Christian ethics are theological, evangelical and scriptural. As Christians, we conduct all of life coram Deo : God is the ultimate reality, the foundation and framework of the world we operate in, in whom all things hold together. We think of ourselves as beings created by God, beloved by him, and responsible to him. This God we worship is not distant and unknowable, but is God in Christ. The cosmos is Christ-powered; it does not o...

A couple of days ago I got asked whether polygamy is immoral. Here's some biblical ruminations on the topic. God created Adam and Even (Gen. 2), not Adam and Eve and Rachel and Charlotte and... In the OT, polygamy always caused problems. Abraham's son through Hagar was not the child of the promise; Isaac, his son through Sarah his wife, was (Gen 17:15-22). Jacob wound up marrying Leah and Rachel because of Laban's deceit, but he loved Rachel more than Leah, and that caused tension and competition between the women (Gen ch 29-30). Song of Songs portrays exclusive love. "My lover is mine and I am his" (SoS 2:16; 6:3). Jesus validates one-man one-woman in Matt 19:5-6 & Mark 10:7-8, where he quotes the "one flesh" reference in Genesis 2:24. Paul requires monogamy from church leaders: 1 Tim 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6. This cannot be reserved for church leaders alone because they are supposed to be examples to the rest of the people: 1 Tim 3:15. One way...

My new assistant minister, Damien Choi, will be graduating from the Presbyterian Theological Centre this week.

My church - the Presbyterian church in the suburb of St Mary's , near Penrith, in Sydney's outer west (I always have to give that long explanation because if I say "St Mary's Presbyterian Church" people think St Mary is the church's patron saint... which isn't very Protestant...) - has a new website , including my Sunday bible talks .

John Davies, old testament scholar and founding principal of the Sydney Presbyterian Theological Centre, is retiring at the end of this year. PTC is looking for an OT lecturer. For more info, see the PTC news or download the job description . Applications close 13 April 2012. Applications to the PTC Principal, Rev. Dr. Ian Smith, ismith@ptcsydney.org.

A Facebook friend just asked me: "Just quickly, what is speech act theory in a nutshell?" My response: Words do things. To speak is to act. We don't want people to simply listen to us, but to be impacted by what we say and respond in some way. Eg: you asked me a question - you want your words to act upon me in such a way that I respond by providing you with information concerning speech-act theory. Which I have now done. I take it you don't want me to respond to your question by writing a thesis on speech-act theory, rolling it into a scroll, squeezing it into a nutshell, and handing it to you... The intended impact of a particular unit of discourse depends on its context. Eg: Fred says to George: "the door is open." Does Fred mean: It's cold - could you shut the door, please; Take the opportunity while you have the chance; Get out! Something else...? It depends on context - what Fred & George's relationship is like; where they are; w...

Recently, Evangelical theologians have been applying Speech-Act theory to various elements of theology. They include: Timothy Ward, Word and Supplement and Words of Life ; Kevin Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning In This Text and The Drama of Doctrine ; Nicholas Wolterstorff, Divine Discourse ; Richard Briggs, Words In Action ; Michael Horton, Covenant and Eschatology . Anyone know any other significant ones that I've missed...? Here's my summary of the theological use of speech-act theory: The Bible, as God's word, is not "dead" - it's not passive, just sitting there waiting for us to breathe life into it through our hermeneutical manoeuvres; On the contrary, it is "alive", because it is God's active speech to us. In the Bible, God proposes the means of relating to him - viz, Christ, the Gospel. The Bible is God's word and Jesus is God's word. The Bible is living and active because the risen Jesus is living and active as the divine ...

Over at Big Think , Peter Lawler has an i nteresting secular article on the recent trend to re-define marriage in terms of radically individual voluntarism - that is, defining marriage as a "contract" by an individual, to whom "society" must grant the freedom to marry whoever they want (= voluntarism), and if they don't get that freedom, they're being "oppressed". Big Think: The Deconstruction Of Marriage?

Seeing as it's Valentine's day, I got to thinking - is there any connection between God’s love and human romantic love? Some Old Testament passages describe The LORD’s attitude to his people in emotional terms. He delights in his people and considers Israel, even in exile, precious and honoured, the very apple of his eye (Deut. 30:9; 32:10; Is. 43:4; 62:5; Zech. 2:8). Yahweh ‘desired’ [ hashaph ] Israel (Deut. 7:7; 10:15), akin to how Shechem desired [ hashaph ] Dinah (Gen. 34:8), or an Israelite may desire [ hashaph ] a war-captive woman (Deut. 21:11). The New Testament also portrays God as desiring his people, and this desire motivating him to redemptive action. Christ felt compassion [ splagzomai ] for needy people, and this compassion motivated him to acts which eradicated the effects of sin – healing the sick (Matt. 14:14; Mk. 1:41), feeding the hungry (Matt. 15:32 = Mark 6:34; Mark 8:2), giving sight to the blind (Matt. 20:34), raising the dead (Lk. 7:13). The virtuou...

Here's some thoughts on Subcontinental ministry I put together for a ministry working group. Feedback appreciated. *** All humans are created by God, responsible to God, sinful before God, redeemable in Christ, and, depending on their status in Christ, heading for ultimate glory or judgement. The gospel is the same for all people everywhere. Subcontinental churches potentially become expressions of Subcontinental Christian culture rather than the gospel. I see no difference between this and Australian, Western ecclesial traditionalism – “we like it this way ‘coz it’s always been this way and it makes us feel comfortable.” The difference is that ethnic churches are tolerated, even celebrated, by both the broader church and the world, when they say this. The broader church encourages ethnically enculturated churches because of the HUP and a (rightful) interest in communicating the gospel clearly. The world tolerates ethnic churches because of multiculturalism. In contrast, ...