Just had a look at this trailer for a new video coming out of the Centre for Public Christianity which we hope will be shown on the TV over the Easter period. It is a film about the life of Jesus, giving a reasoned defence for believing the story.

It would be a good thing to mention to friends to watch. It is down for April 10 (Good Friday) at 1pm in Sydney. Let's hope they screen it in Melbourne too.

White water

This weekend I took my son to a school Kayaking camp. We had a great time, learning to kayak in the white water up on the Goulburn River near Eildon. It was a great opportunity not only to bond with Matt, but also to hang out with some people outside of church. (I am trying to do this more and more this year).

It was a great experience. I am very sore today, having found muscles I didn't know that I had. I ended my kayaking adventure capsizing in the main rapid in front of 50 cheering kids. The last thing I heard before I entered the white water washing machine was "go Dad"! I survived with only dinted pride and a waterlogged head.

It was so great too, to meet some more parents from the school and work on building relationships. It was a beautiful spot enjoying God's creation.

Diversity

Part of the St Jude's Vision is to work with other churches in the Inner North of Melbourne to seek Spiritual Renewal together. We want to do this because we realise that we won't see "spiritual renewal" simply by doing our own thing, but it will need to be a movement of God among the people of God in this part of the city.

So today I met with a group of church leaders from churches across the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne. We had a few denominations represented and it was a really good occasion. We heard of lots of different things happening in lots of different places. The theme was diversity as people spoke of what they were trying to do. It was very encouraging indeed.

One of the things that everyone seemed to agree on, was that the old Christendom models of ministry are a thing of the past. The future will be to think in new ways, pioneering, missional ways of reaching out to the world, and not simply expecting people to come to us.

We agreed to meet again to talk and pray and hopefully to cooperate together in what God is up to in the inner north.

Anglican Communion

I am heading interstate this week to speak at an EFAC meeting in Brisbane, among other things. I am speaking at EFAC on the state of the Anglican Communion, especially in the light of GAFCON. So this week I have been immersed once again in the international Anglican scene.

Sad developments in North America continue to astound me. The election of a bishop in Northern Michigan is who holds Buddhist ordination and follows both Buddhism and Christianity, being the most recent in a long line of abandonment of the Bible's authority.

It is quite clear to me now that there are distinctly two strands in the Anglican Communion. One which is orthodox, biblical and adheres to the historical bases of our denomination - the bible, creeds, book of common prayer, 39 articles, ordinal. And the other which is syncretistic, post-modern, and wracked by the heresies of the first centuries. We are just going to walk further and further apart.

There seem to also be two ways to deal with this situation. The path of the official denominational leaders is to continue to listen and talk and find our common ground. The other is to state our common ground in doctrine and find out whether we are are one or two.

And all of this raises the interesting question of unity, and where it is found. Are we unified because we are Anglican, or are we unified because of what we believe. I am proud to stand in a tradition of the Anglican church which confesses a particular faith, and to find unity with others who profess that faith as well. Historically in this time, it is well encapsulated in the Jerusalem Declaration to which I gladly give my assent. We live in interesting times.

Vision Leaders

I had a great weekend. Apart from really good services on Sunday, I spent Friday night and Saturday with the St Jude's Vestry on our annual overnight gathering.

We spent Friday evening talking about the things that we thought we could contribute to the Vestry, the things we needed to be confident about our decisions and our different preferences for working as a team. This was great, as there are a few new faces on the Vestry this year. Getting to know what each other brings and how we like to work is really important.

Saturday morning we spent a chunk of time looking at Philippians 2:12-18 and praying for the ministries of St Jude's. We spent an hour on our effectiveness in meetings. We considered some ideas about the role of Vestry from the governance review which is underway. In the afternoon we talked about our Buildings and the growth of the ministry and the need for resources, and made a few decisions about where we should go from here.

It was a quality time, not just because we did good business together, but because we shared our lives with each other. It was so exciting to be with people who love the Lord and our church, and want to see it grow and achieve its mission, and who work so hard to see this happen. We need to keep praying for this group, that they will walk closely with God and seek to serve him faithfully.

If you're at St Jude's and see a member of Vestry, why not try and encourage them?

Video generation

Sydney Diocese has launched a great new service - video news for churches. Have a look here. What a great idea!

Spiritual Searching

I met a guy at a BBQ at the weekend. He was interested in what I really did with my time. Did I spend time listening to people with problems, and running church services? And how come I was at a BBQ on a Sunday anyway?

We began to talk about church a bit, what it was for and why I thought it was important.

He then said - "I guess there is a sense that there is something spiritual in all of us - although most of us (like me) are in denial". At that point the chops caught fire, and there was not much chance to go the next step.

But he illustrated the truth of Romans 1: 19-20 which I had just read the day before.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse;

I wish I'd had the brains to have remembered this at the time. Still, I'm sure God was in the conversation, and the opportunity is not lost forever.

Promoting the Gospel

A few years ago I bought this book by John Dickson. It is a great read about the whole range of ways people in churches can promote the Gospel. We are not all evangelists, but we can all be promoters of the Gospel, through - our answers to questions, our good living, our giving financially and our prayers - among others.

On Tuesday night, I head John speak on this topic. It was a fantastic address, full of encouragement and hope for ordinary Christians in the way they can be involved in promoting the Gospel every day. Speaking from what he described as the 2 most paradigmatic texts on Gospel promotion - Colossians 4:2-6 and 1 Petr 3:14-16.

He made 4 points:

1. Prayer is the most basic gospel promoting activity. All of us can be involved in winning the world for Christ through prayer.

2. All believers are to speak up for the Lord, when asked. This is our duty to have an "answer for the hope within us". (1Peter 3:15)

3. Allegiance to Christ is the greatest motivation to speak of him. That is - the antidote to our coyness about speaking about Christ, is knowing Him, and being sold out for him.

4. We need to live lives that are worth questioning. Do we so live that people ask us about our hope.

I think this is very liberating and helps us think carefully about how we are going to see Spiritual Renewal in our city.

Renew Prayer

Our Church is seeking Spiritual Renewal - lives changed and transformed by Christ. We can work as hard as we like, but this is truly God's work. Whatever we do must be His, and whatever is His we must do.


So I am guessing that the most important church activity we can engage in is prayer. Where we seek God's blessing on us, so that the his saving power might be known. That is why I am convinced at the most important event in the church calendar after Sunday worship is the Prayer meeting.

This is not just rhetoric. I really believe what we read in Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I'm praying for a great bunch of expectant, asking, imagining, pray-ers at the Prayer meeting tonight. I'm praying they will be astounded when God does more than we ask or imagine.

Leaders

Yesterday was the St Jude's Leaders' Summit. Each year we gather the leaders of our small groups, Sunday ministry leaders and those in oversight ministries together for the day. As usual it was a really encouraging day.

This year we were focusing on the Renew Vision. Rob Miller gave a great Bible Study on Psalm 67:1-2

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.

He made the really simple point that asking God to bless us, (verse 1) will naturally take us in the direction of God's saving work in the world (v2), for us to see the nations saved.
We reconnected with the Vision, and spent the afternoon sessions thinking about strategies we could employ both in our leadership and in our ministry areas, to make sure the Vision kept on track, and moving forward.

The thing that stunned me once again, was what a great bunch of people the St Jude's leaders are. Young, energetic, excited about the Gospel, and keen to see our church grow. Thanks be to God.

Hoping to see LOTS of people at the Prayer meeting tomorrow night!