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What a friend we have…

The way that we use technology shows that friendship matters to us. Social networking is about keeping in touch with friends and making new friends. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, MSN Instant Messenger, SMS – all of these are about friendship, sometimes the friendship is superficial, but in the very least our use of these technologies shows that connecting with others and friendship matters.

What a friend we have...

Families were once the bed rock of our society. Our families would always be there. But for many people there is greater stability in our friendship group than there is in our family. Some studies have shown that teenagers today will prioritise their friends over their boyfriend or girlfriend. Boyfriend/girlfriend relationships bust up. But out friends are constant.

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Connect09 – Youth Events

Connect 09 is getting jiggy with it! Connect 09 is about helping churches to connect with their communities, and people to connect with Jesus. Exciting stuff. It’s a good opportunity for youth ministries to think through how they can connect with teenagers in their area. Here are some ideas: bring a friend youth night; band night; combined churches event; pancake breakfast in schools; hot chip lunches in schools; skatepark evangelism; LAN party; youth camps; interactive website; facebook/myspace; study camp; free homework club; 3-on-3 basketball comp; soccer clinic. Any more ideas?

dave_miers_speaking

Have you got a connect09 youth event* coming up? Looking for a speaker? I might be able to help. I can either speak at your event or suggest someone else who may be suitable. Check out my speaking page for some sample talks and availability etc. Contact me if you want to hook up.

Don’t know Jesus? Go read the 2nd half of one of his biographies.

*doesn’t have to be exclusively “youth” or “connect09” – any suitable event

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Independent Church Planting in Australia

Steve Chong, Guy Mason, Mikey Lynch, Andrew Heard and Al Stewart are currently in Seattle at the Acts 29 Bootcamp/World Church Planting Summit. Here’s some exciting news from Mikey’s blog to follow up from the church planting conference last month:

Independent Church Planting in Australia

Room 338, Hotel Nexus, Seattle. It’s 12:20am Tuesday morning here. We’ve settled on something. Something that may, possibly, under God’s sovereign hand, define the next few decades of evangelical Christianity in Australia.

We will lead an independent, Australian church planting network, with warm friendship and support from Acts 29. We are building to a launch in Melbourne and Sydney in late November 2009. We’re agreed to move ahead with it and Acts 29 are keen to give their support to us.

It’s big and scary stuff. Next time we meet back in Australia, we’ve asked Al Stewart to lead a devotion with us on the topic of right, godly fear. (From here)

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Carson on The Atonement

Don Carson has written a great chapter on the love of God and the intent of the cross. I’ve blogged on this before, but have had a number of conversations recently about this topic. So here’s the whole extract. If you’re not a Christian, go watch this video.

Carson on Atonement

The Love of God and the Intent of the Atonement

by D. A. Carson

Here I wish to see if the approaches we have been following with respect to the love of God may shed some light on another area connected with the sovereignty of God – the purpose of the Atonement.

The label “limited atonement” is singularly unfortunate for two reasons. First, it is a defensive, restrictive expression: here is atonement, and then someone wants to limit it. The notion of limiting something as glorious as the Atonement is intrinsically offensive. Second, even when inspected more coolly, “limited atonement” is objectively misleading. Every view of the Atonement “limits” it in some way, save for the view of the unqualified universalist. For example, the Arminian limits the Atonement by regarding it as merely potential for everyone; the Calvinist regards the Atonement as definite and effective (i.e., those for whom Christ died will certainly be saved), but limits this effectiveness to the elect; the Amyraldian limits the Atonement in much the same way as they Arminian, even though the undergirding structures are different.

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