Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a dude. I’m currently working on an essay on his theological ethics, probably my favourite essay of the year. Here’s a quote on ‘Cheap Grace’: Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace… Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap jacks’ [...]
Scripture Union are again running Young Christians Day Conference, it’s coming very soon!! YCDC 2010 is on Saturday 4th September, 2pm-830pm at St Paul’s Chatswood (map). This year we’ll be looking at 1 Peter 4. If you’re in high school (or just out of high school) get your butt there! It should be a sweet sweet time. [...]
A couple of guys from College are kicking off a new conference next weekend looking at the lives of some Puritan dudes. Each year they’ll feature two Puritans, this year it is John Owen and Richard Baxter. Check out the website for info & to register. Time & Date: 9:00am – 1:00pm on August 28th [...]
If you haven’t heard of Humble Orthodoxy, now is your chance. I’ve posted on it a bunch of times, you can read those posts. Or even better you can download Josh Harris‘ chapter on ‘Humble Orthodoxy’ from his new book Dug Deep Down. Basically, Humble Orthodoxy is all about believing and living the truth of [...]
Protecting your marriage matters. Normally, Row and I read the bible together at night. But one of the things we’ve done in the last few of years is – for a period of time – replaced our nightly bible reading with a different book that will help us to protect our marriage. It’s been a [...]
Getting young people to pray is a good thing, yeah? Dave Buster and Ed Sowden are two young punks who are keen to get other young punks praying. Sounds good. They’ve just begun a ministry called THE TIMOTHY STRATEGY. Worth checking out. Go read more about it on fervr: tts.fervr.net. Join the group, pray, and [...]
Less than two weeks until the two big RICE Youth Events for 2010! Youth Leaders and Young Punks – get your butts along!! RICE Fever 14 August includes: Garage Hymnal; Chasing Light; Jake Nauta; Road to Canaan; Krosswerdz; and Sam Chan speaking. RICE Rally 21 August includes: New Empire; and Steve Chong speaking. Promo vid: [...]
Youthworks have just launched a monthly newsletter, Growing Faith. This is essential reading for all Christian parents and I think it’s useful for those involved in ministry, youth ministry and children’s ministry. The first issue looks great, including the blue jeans and white t-shirt uniform worn in the header pic below! Go sign up for [...]
07.31You Hold Me Now
I heard this song a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been humming it ever since! It’s a beautiful picture of a loving God that has promised there is a day coming when crap will be gone. Those who belong to Jesus can look forward to an eternity without weeping, hurt, pain, suffering, darkness, sickness. [...]
It’s easy to be embarrassed about being a follower of Jesus. Maybe your parents put up one of those Jesus. All about life banners outside your house, and now you don’t want your friends to see it? Or maybe you have a Christian group at school and you’re a little bit embarrassed so don’t turn [...]
Lots of Romans coming up. Sweeeeeet. Here’s what an old school monk said about it: “This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorise it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as [...]
I’ve enjoyed spending lots of time in Daniel during the past couple of months: I wrote 6 blogs posts; gave a 5 talk series on 2 camps; wrote an exam answer on Political Philosophy from Daniel 4 and 5; suffered an academic injury writing an essay on History and Providence in Daniel; and been encouraged [...]
This Friday I’m speaking at UNASHAMED. It’s a Youth Event for the Combined Anglican Churches of North West Sydney. Good idea! Friday 30th July 730pm at Rouse Hill Anglican Church. One of the best Christian bands in Sydney, GARAGE HYMNAL, will be playing some tunes. Looks like it’s going to be a sweeeeeeeeeet event. Bring [...]
The word ‘gospel’ simply means ‘good news’. Of all the gospels in the world, there is no gospel that is more momentous or more important than the gospel of Jesus. My life was changed when I came to understand this gospel. But what is ‘the gospel’? Greg Gilbert from 9 Marks ministries has recently written [...]
Cherrybrook Anglican and Dural Anglican are doing great work in their respective youth ministries. Last weekend I was able to join them both on their annual combined youth camp. This is a brilliant idea!! Rather than having 2 camps of 25 young punks each, they join forces to have a camp for 50 young punks. [...]
Moore College has introduced a new preaching subject this year. We meet for an hour a week with 2 faculty and a group of 5-10 students. Each week someone gives a sermon, and the rest of us offer feedback. I’m only in one group, so can’t speak for all the other ones, but it’s been a [...]
I’m not sure what MMM stands for, maybe it had something to do with Mission, Mountains and maybe Magpies? Not sure. Doesn’t matter. Camp MMM is run by Church Missionary Society (CMS). While it got down to zero degrees celsius in Katoomba during camp, it really was a smoking hot camp! Lots of the camps I [...]
Check out Hebrews 13:3 – “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” (NIV) Christians have a responsibility to know what is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world. Our brothers and sisters who are part of the Afghan Christian Community [...]
Cornerstone Youth probably have the most media rich youth group website in Sydney! It’s hot. I joined them for their super-encouraging Praise Night. They filmed the whole night, and have now made available all the content on their website! The talk I gave was from Philippians 3:1-10 on The Joy of Knowing Christ. I was [...]
At the end of June/start of July, I enjoyed a week with some keen young leaders from South East Queensland. Youthsurge help to run the Launch Camps aimed at developing young leaders. The topic was Never Be Destroyed (read the blog series here) from Daniel 1-7. Along the way, we learnt some great things from [...]