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The following video is horrific. It shows footage of Christians being persecuted in India. If in doubt, don’t watch it, simply remember and pray for brothers and sisters around the world who are killed for their faith in Jesus. Hear the impact it had on Francis Chan:
Watch a longer (and much more horrific) version of this video
Learn more about supporting the persecuted church:
Will Graham, evangelist and grandson of Billy Graham, is currently in Australia preaching the good news of Jesus. There are a whole bunch of events being run in North West NSW (Gunnedah, Moree & Tamworth) run by REALITY. I will be the MC of a youth event run in Tamworth Town Hall on Friday 28th May, 630-10pm. Should be fun!
Bands: Chasing Bailey, Compliments of Gus and Jonnday.
Testimony: Steve Davies. Speaker: Will Graham.
In the area? Come along! In the region? Make sure you check out one of the events. Live a billion miles away? Pray that many become Christian. Not yet a Christian? Check out this sweet vid that Will and his posse have knocked together.
While on the subject of catechisms, Moore College has just launched its own student contributed and run theological magazine, The Catechist. It’s worth checking out.
Shout out to Stephen McGuiness for pulling everything together. Good job.
I’ve been getting jiggy with the Heidelberg Catechism. It’s a list of 129 questions and answers about God that came into circulation in the Reformed church in 1563. It’s a mediation on 3 main things: The Lord’s Prayer; The Ten Commandments; and the Apostles’ Creed. It is gold. Vintage Doctrine. Kevin DeYoung has just released a book that I’m half way through, The Good News We Almost Forgot. It’s great. Bite-sized chapters. Good for those with short attention spans.
Here’s the first 2 q+a’s in the Catechism:
The other 127 q+a’s then follow this guilt/grace/gratitude structure. Read them all here.
I recently joined the young punks from MBM Youth in Rooty Hill for The Launch camp. What a great camp! I really enjoyed hanging out with the gangsters from this fantastic youth group. Matt Sparks and his team of leaders are doing a brilliant job as they seek to ‘transform youth through Jesus to the glory of God’.
Here are the MP3s. The aim of this series from Luke’s Gospel was that young punks would be ‘radically changed by the good news of Jesus’. Praise God – there were a few on camp who either became Christian or recommitted their lives to following Jesus.
(right-click to download)
Got questions about Jesus, religion and stuff? You might finds some answers here.
God has continually shown his kindness through the ministry of KYCK. For over 15 years, KCC has run a youth conference keen to challenge teenagers to take the Bible and following Jesus seriously. I’ve posted and tweeted quite a few times over the past 3 weekends about KYCK 2010. This year the convention was attended by 5700 young people. Each Saturday night I gave a talk inviting young punks to follow Jesus.
Over the 3 weekends, over 300 have either become Christian or recommitted themselves to following Jesus! That’s very cool. God is very kind. It’s been super-encouraging to hear stories from many of those changed by Jesus. It’s such a joy to join in the chorus singing praise to God for new life. If you’re a pray-er, pray these new Christians would keep clinging to Jesus. Praise God for his kindness.
Interested in finding out more about Jesus?
Jesus Saves | Jesus Rules | Sweet Short Vid | Q+A | Take it Fervr
Lots of my posts lately have been written with younger punks in mind (ie Youth Ministry and KYCK posts). If you’re an older smarter punk, I haven’t forgotten you! This one goes out to you. Themelios is An International Journal for Pastors and Students of Theological and Religious Studies. If you kinda fit into either of those categories, check it out.
The latest issue – Volume 35 Issue 1 April 2010 – has just been released. It’s hectic in length – 196 pages. But jam-packed with solid content. My tip for reading? Read the feature articles – that’s manageable. The 1000 book reviews aren’t manageable – so scan them and work out any that grab your attention. I enjoy Don Carson’s editorials and have particularly liked reading Carl Trueman during the past year.
Moore College is also represented. Mark Thompson and Paul Williamson are on the Editorial Board. Paul Barnett and Con Campbell both have book reviews this issue.
4 ways to read it: Online | iPaper | PDF | Osmosis
(h/t Andy Naselli)