Lectures on Thomas Moore - 4 Sept 2008

Peter Bolt, lecturer at Moore Theological College will be delivering two free half hour lectures at the college (1 King St, Newtown) on Thursday 4th September at 7.30pm. They will be exploratory of Thomas Moore's life, and illustrative of his christianity.

THOMAS MOORE AND THE RUM REBELLION
200 years ago Australia had its only military insurrection. Thomas Moore was amongst those who signed the order for William Bligh¹s arrest. Bligh, in turn, placed him on the list of persons prohibited to leave the colony.
What does the founder of a theological college have to do with an armed Overthrow of the Government?

THOMAS MOORE THE PHILANTHROPIST:
THE MAN WHO GAVE AWAY $1.67 BILLION
Thomas Moore is on BRW's All Time 200 Rich List. We continue to benefit from Moore's generosity, but how much did he actually have, and where did his money come from?

Prayer Points – Maiko Watanabe

Japan – 28 August 08


Dear Friends,

Hello from hot and humid summer in Hyogo, Japan. I am being part of three different conference and camps in this summer. East Asia Regional Conference 2008, EARC08, which is an international student’s conference in East Asia, was held in Tokyo for a week in August. Students and staff workers of student ministry from fifteen different countries attended this conference. Bible talks were faithfully and powerfully spoken by Gideon Yung Wai-Yip from the book of Nehemiah. We also enjoyed fellowship in a small group and fun going sightseeing etc. Furthermore, our communication language was in English during the conference. Each session was interpreted, so the attendants could understand what speakers said. However, many Japanese KGK students faced difficulty in communication with brothers and sisters from other countries. It was good opportunity for each of us to expand our knowledge and thoughts for East Asia and to experience in communicating under limited condition.



Praise God with me:

* that the word of God faithfully preached at EARC08 and for God’s wonderful work in East Asia.
* that CSK camp, high school students’ camp, had a lot of blessing for four days and that one of the campers came to decision to repent and to be baptized during the camp.



Prayer points:

* for student ministry work in East Asia, especially for those under persecution and those in pioneer work
* for those who came to CSK camp this summer, that they would remember what they learnt from the word and grow in the love and grace of God.
* for my time to visit churches, supporters and friends in Australia
* I am visiting Australia 3/September – 7/October.


Thank you for your prayer support,

Love in Christ,

Maiko Watanabe

The Don at TBT

Internationally renowned author, speaker and theologian Don Carson will be at TBT this Sunday (31-Aug-08). Church commences at 6:30, and it should be a great night to be reminded of the truth of the gospel, to be encouraged, and to be edified in Christ.

Don will be speaking from James 1:12-25, so read up & prepare.

This is combined FIX and TBT production.

Women's Evangelistic Prayer Meeting - Thursday 28th August

Are you a woman who works in the city?

Do you have friends, family members and colleagues who don’t yet know Jesus?

Would you like to join with other like-minded women from TBT to pray that these people would come to know Jesus? To pray that our conversations would be seasoned with salt and our words wise? To pray for opportunities to speak of the hope that we have?

Then join Mandy at Café Rush from 8am-9am on Thursday 28th August [and the last Thursday of every month thereafter (25th Sept, 30th October, 27th November)] to pray. You can even grab a coffee and some breakfast at the same time.

Café Rush: 263 Clarence St, Sydney (just a few minutes from the Cathedral, between Druitt and Market Sts)

Burn Your Plastic Jesus - where to meet

On Wednesday night we've got 2 meeting spots:

* 6pm for dinner at Sussex Centre Food Court (Level 2); enter via Sussex or Dixon Streets.

* 6.50pm at McDonalds at the Entertainment Centre.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

From the Dean: Colin

I do not know who named him Colin, but personalising him only increased the pathos of the baby whale in Pittwater. Separated from its mother the calf could not be persuaded to go into the open sea, nor could humans provide for it inside Pittwater. Each day brought starvation closer.

Words are such important tools in moving our opinions and affections. The name Colin moves us from calling the whale "it" to "him". Similarly calling it a "baby" instead of a "calf", affects our response to the tragedy.

The sight was sad, even forlorn. To see the poor confused creature nuzzling into boats was pathetic. Our inability to help the poor animal was frustrating. There were so many different ideas on what to do but no one in any authority able to help.

Then came the question of killing it - or should I say "him" or "the whale". We did not talk of killing Colin. That would be murder. Killing sounds barbaric even immoral but murder is by definition wrong. For murder involves wrongful killing. There was even talk of it being wrong because killing whales in Australian waters is illegal. As if legality determines morality rather than morality determining legality.

Some people spoke of killing the whale as wrong. "Other alternatives should be attempted." "While there is life there is hope." So ran the arguments as the week came to an end.

But when all other alternatives ran out, the best experts in the field (a rare and strange field to be an expert in - "how to deal with deserted whale calves") declared that there was no hope. Then came the dreadful word - the whale would have to be "euthanased".

We have just had two weeks of the Olympics where the noun medal has turned into a verb ( e.g. "More British than Australian athletes medalled.") English has this wonderful capacity to keep expanding its vocabulary in this way. So turning the noun "euthanasia" into a verb "to euthanase" is a natural if unpleasant linguistic evolution

This linguistic evolution is driven by the powerful political forces behind the move to legalise so called "mercy killing" of humans. To normalise (to use a similar evolutionary verb) the word euthanase is a very important part of the argument. We have to develop language that makes killing acceptable.

We have done this with abortion. We no longer allow abortion to be called murder. It is not even killing. We remove any stigma of having an abortion by talking of terminating and termination. Termination is a neutral sounding medical procedure rather than a moral choice to end the life of the embryonic or foetal child.

Let us be clear in our language about what we are doing. It enables clarity of thought when making moral choices. This is especially needed with heart rending and difficult choices - such as killing the young whale.

To kill is to cause the death of some other living creature. It is never something that we should do without respect for that life. So we are never to drink the blood of the animal we kill (Genesis 9:5). Nor are we to kill in a cruel and unnecessarily painful fashion. Killing is to protect ourselves and to live. All eating involves killing something.

Murder is more than killing, it is wrongful killing. But not all wrongful killing is murder. For murder is the wrongful killing of another human being. Not all killing of another human is wrong, though the burden of proof lies with those who want to start war. Killing a whale may be the wrong thing to do but it is never murder.

To confuse whale killing or any animal killing with murder is to make a very serious error of categories. It is the confusion of the moral order of humans and other animals. Humans alone are created in God's image and protected by God's edict "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" (Genesis 9:6).

Humans have responsibility for the animals but animals do not have responsibility for us. You can blame a human for cruelty but you cannot blame an animal for cruelty. They do not kill out of cruelty - that is part of human sinfulness - they act out of their natural instincts when they kill.

Euthanasia can mean "a painless death". In this sense palliative care can be a form of euthanasia. But today the word is used to mean "painless killing" or "killing motivated by the desire to end pain". We have been doing this to animals for a long time - but the pressure is to do the same to humans.

Again the issue is the category confusion between animals and humans. To those who do not believe in God humans are not made in the image of God. Christian belief appears irrelevant to them and they would argue should be irrelevant to society.

To such people we can appeal to the intuitive notion that humans are different morally and personally to animals. This is why we have to beware of the attempt to humanise animals (e.g. calling the baby whale Colin). Or we could appeal to the intuition that questions who should/could take responsibility for another human life.

If these intuitive arguments fail then we can point to the inevitable negative outcomes of legalising the killing of humans under this guise. It pressures old people to give up on life. It makes them fearful of seeking medical attention. Those who stand to inherit will be morally compromised by the decisions they make. The list of arguments is extensive. These cannot purport to be moral arguments but then the people we are arguing with have already renounced Christian morality.

It is very sad to kill a whale calf. But no police force is out looking for the mother to charge her with wilfully abandoning Colin - her baby.

Phillip Jensen. August, 2008.

City Bible Forum

City Bible Forum has an exciting night planned tonight. All of our groups that meet in Upper Chapter House will be beginning an In Christ series, that will dovetail with the sermon series at church. We are also growing our number so we will be reshuffling the groups tonight.

See you there: 6:30 for dinner, 7pm for Bible Study.

Women's Evangelistic Prayer Meeting - Thursday 28th August

Are you a woman who works in the city?

Do you have friends, family members and colleagues who don’t yet know Jesus?

Would you like to join with other like-minded women from TBT to pray that these people would come to know Jesus? To pray that our conversations would be seasoned with salt and our words wise? To pray for opportunities to speak of the hope that we have?

Then join Mandy at Café Rush from 8am-9am on Thursday 28th August [and the last Thursday of every month thereafter (25th Sept, 30th October, 27th November)] to pray. You can even grab a coffee and some breakfast at the same time.

Café Rush: 263 Clarence St, Sydney (just a few minutes from the Cathedral, between Druitt and Market Sts)

News from Maiko in Japan

August, 2008

Dear Friends,
It has been quite a while since I wrote last newsletter. Sorry for taking a long time to write this. So, I would like to share with you some of the things from ministry in Japan for past months.

I had a chance to spend a time for deputation in Australia for 6 weeks from the end of August last year. It was blessing and good time to visit supporters and churches by sharing how God had been working in his people in Japan and how he used both KGK and church ministries to build the body of Christ. It was also my first visit to Australia since I had left there in January 2006. It was good time of catching up with my friends and of looking back my time there. I remembered how God trained and shaped me to be more like Jesus during the time both at churches in Sydney and at SMBC and in a relationship with Christian friends.

KGK, student ministry
The first half of academic year is over now. We had more contacts with first year students in the passed semester than this time of the previous years. Many of those are keen to learn the word of God. We learnt from Ephesians at weekly night prayer meeting during the semester. It is the theme of this year relating to the verse from Eph4:13 that “Both you and me are growing children of God”. It was good opportunity for them to learn how they read the word and how they could apply it to their own lives. Many ofthem did not have an opportunity of Bible study in a group before, which is common outside of KGK. It has been my challenge at the Bible study how I could encourage them to think through and to share their thoughts in a group. And, I have been learning a lot from them.

Kick off Camp
KGK ‘Kick off Camp’, commencement camp for students was held in Osaka for two days in June. Praise and give thanks to God that his word faithfully preached by Grahame Smith, CMS-A missionary, and other KGK staff worker and that many new students came to the camp. It was blessing time for students to see other Christians in their age and to have fellowship with, since not many churches here have so many young people in their age.

New campus group started to meet at Kobe city University of Foreign studies this year. Students meet weekly during Wednesday lunch time for the Bible study and prayer. We had been praying for this campus group to start meeting again and God answered to our prayers. Megumi and Masaru who came to our welcoming event in early of the semester are the first year Christian students and leaders of this group.
They are so excited to start a Christian group and to hear God’s answer to prayers. If you could remember them in your prayer, it would be great.

Mukonoso Megumi church ministry
Bible study group
Bible study opportunities started at both weekly night prayer meeting and women’s weekly day meeting. This is new learning style and good change in our church. We are learning from the Gospel of Luke now, which I found that it is good to expand our understanding of God by thinking on our own and by listening to what God teaches to other people.

‘Team M’
We started a meeting for university students called ‘Team M’ in April. M for ‘Team M’ stands for “MURASAKI” which means purple colour in Japanese and which reminds us about Jesus on the cross. The name of this group came from that we are a group of people in Jesus. It was another answer to our prayer to start a group for university students. Four to five students plus myself meet once a month for singing songs, Bible study and prayer. It has been such a blessing to have young people in our church and to nurture them.

Yuki is one of the students in ‘Team M’ who decided to follow Jesus as her personal Savior and who was baptized in the end of June. She brought up in a non-Christian family but started coming to Sunday school of our church through the contact of her Christian friend 10years ago. She has changed in her thinking and in many ways since she decided. Her Christian friends and people in church came to joy that God had answered to prayers and that he had brought her to God’s family. Please pray for her faith to grow and her witness to non-Christian parents.

Praise and prayer points
*Praise God with me for ‘Team M’ and his love and care for the students.
*Pray for Yuki, her faith to grow in the knowledge of God and her witness to non-Christian parents.
*Pray for KGK new campus group at Kobe city University of Foreign studies.
*that guidance and wisdom of God will be given as I nurture young people.
*My partnership with CMS-Australia will finish in the end of February 2009. Please pray for my future path.

Maiko,
August 2008

Connect09

Click for some good ideas.

From The Dean (10 Aug)

What is an “evangelical”? There is a series of similar words that are commonly confused such as “evangelical”, “evangelism”, “evangelistic”, “evangelise”, “evangelist” and “evangelicalism”. These words carry so much meaning to the initiated but are quite confusing to others.

They all start with “evangel” for they are all about the gospel. “Evangel” is the anglicised version of the Greek word for gospel. These different English words are just different grammatical forms of the word gospel.

Evangelise is a verb. It means to preach the gospel.
He evangelised (preached the gospel to) the crowd.
Evangelist is a noun. It refers to the person who preaches the gospel.
I pray that my grandson will become a great evangelist (preacher of the gospel).
Evangelism is a noun. It refers to the activity of preaching the gospel.
Her evangelism (preaching the gospel) was mainly through letters.
Evangelistic is an adjective. It describes an activity as gospel preaching.
The Billy Graham crusades were essentially evangelistic (gospel preaching).
Evangelicalism is a noun. It refers to the gospel preaching movement that spread from the 18th century to today. Its early leaders were men like George Whitfield and John Wesley.
There are many organizations that have Evangelicalism (the gospel preaching movement) as their origin.

But the most important and yet complicated word is “Evangelical”.

“Evangelical” is both a noun and an adjective. Some people use it in negative way, they use it to indicate “over-zealous salesmanship of beliefs”. These beliefs may or may not have anything to do with the gospel.

However Christians use the word “evangelical” quite differently. We use it as a noun to refer to somebody who believes the gospel and bases his/her life on it. And we use it as an adjective to describe an activity, organisation or person that accepts and promotes the gospel.

In one sense it does not matter how words are defined. They come into fashion and are altered by usage. Yet these words have particular meaning within Christianity. We use them to pinpoint particular views, movements and people. The key word here is “evangelical”.

The popularity of the word “evangelical” to describe the eighteenth century movement has given rise to its specific meaning.

It was a Protestant movement. So it accepted the great reformation truths such as the authority of the Bible, the finished work of Christ in his sacrificial death for sin and justification by faith alone.

But the evangelicals had particular emphasis upon regeneration and conversion - upon being born again and repenting. So it was a movement that called upon Protestants to wake up and repent. It called upon the Protestants to respond personally to the gospel.

In one sense any and everybody who believes the gospel is an evangelical. It is like the words Catholic Orthodox or Charismatic. Anybody who is Christian at all would want to say that they are all these. Catholic refers to the universality and wholeness of Christianity. To be orthodox is to be faithful to the teaching of Christ. To be charismatic is to accept and use the gifts given by God. All Christians of any or every brand would claim to be evangelical, catholic, orthodox and charismatic.

But yet these are the terms used to distinguish us from each other. The Anglo-Catholics (commonly called the High Church) were a nineteenth century movement. They tried to take the Anglican Church out of Protestantism and back to pre-Reformation days and practices. They emphasised the priesthood, rituals and a Roman Catholic understanding of the sacraments. This was their evangel - their gospel - but it was in opposition to the Evangelicals.

Similarly in the twentieth century the “Charismatic movement” came with a new emphasis. Their concern was the ongoing experience of the Spirit in the life of the believer expressed especially in extraordinary and miraculous experiences. This was in opposition to evangelicals whose emphasis on the ongoing work of the Spirit was in regeneration and the sanctification of the believer.

The first Christian ministry in Sydney was that of an evangelical. The chaplain of the first fleet, the Rev Richard Johnson, was an evangelical. The great evangelical leaders: William Wilberforce and John Newton (of anti-slavery and Amazing Grace fame) selected him for the post. He was followed by a strong succession of evangelical ministers - not the least the great Samuel Marsden.

Sydney Diocese has always retained this evangelical emphasis. We are heirs of the Protestant Reformation, seen in our Anglican prayer book and 39 articles of belief. We are heirs of the Evangelical Movement - preaching personal conversion through the regenerating work of the Spirit. We believe and preach this way, using the gifts (charismatic) of God to build the universal (catholic) church with the correct (orthodox) gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ contained in the Scriptures.

The centrality of the saving work of Jesus in the Gospel that we preach means that our identification is as Evangelicals rather than as Catholic, Orthodox or Charismatic.

Because the word “evangelical” is a theological and gospel term, it is much more important than “Anglican”. Anglican can refer to your theology - especially amongst Anglican Evangelicals who accept the 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer. But in general usage Anglican means “connected to the Church of England”. It is has become an institutional, organisational, cultural and even ethnic term without any particular gospel.

Thus it is important to be an Evangelical first and foremost and an Anglican secondly. Evangelicals have more in common with each other, irrespective of their denomination, than they have with Anglicans who believe a different gospel and way of salvation.

TBT: 10Aug

This week at TBT we are looking at the idea that now we are in Christ, we are to be involved in preaching the Gospel.

We're also meeting, interviewing and praying for the Sholl's, who are just about to head to Mexico to play their part in preaching the Gospel to the nations.

In preparation, please read Psalm 96, and 2 Cor 5:16-6:10.

Simply Christianity

Our next course of Simply Christianity begins tonight, in Upper Chapter House (right next to the the Cathedral). This is a compressed 4 week course. All welcome to attend, $7 for course notes.

Inquiries to 8915 1976, or email us.

City Bible Study resumes tonight

After a 5 week hiatus, CBS resumes tonight in Upper Chapter House. Dinner from 6:30, study from 7pm. See you there.

Tonight at TBT (3 Aug)

Dinner is on tonight. Dont eat beforehand.

Installment 3 in our in Christ series. Read John 15:1-17, and Psalm 80.