This is what the new church will look like after the extensions. I think it looks awesome... The upstairs glass offices kind of remind me of Bill Buchanan's office in 24. Sometimes I feel like the employees work the same kind of hours too!
Hi everyone!
We're back from two weeks of complete relaxation and as you can see, Sam has been a little more on the ball with his re-entry into blogging than me.
Things have been quite hectic on my end at the moment. For those who don't know, I have left my magazine and the world of manufacturing for a 12 month cadetship at Reed and Fairfax. This means that I'll spend some of the year training at Fairfax and the rest circulating around different publications in my company. The titles I will be working on (four in total) range from travel to finance, medicine and media/marketing news. I'm quite excited by the new experiences and opportunities this will open up for the future.
Unfortunately, it will mean a lack of blogging until I'm back at the office, or until we're connected at our new flat in Summer Hill. The past few weeks have been hectic. I'm currently two weeks behind (most of the other Fairfax and Reed cadets started while I was on my honeymoon), so I'm living and breathing shorthand at the moment! However, we've had some great speakers, including Jack Marx and Peter FitzSimons and I've learnt so much about writing/journalism which I didn't cover in my degree.
Life is busy! But I will write something substantial soon...promise!
I linked yesterday to a post on what biblical (a loose term) material we are consuming as Christians. Justin wants to know if his thoughts in that post are true or fair. (If you didn't read his post - now's the time - click here)
The short answer is yes, but I especially wanted to pick up on the idea that iTunes has changed the diet of Christian material we consume.
There is no doubt that many Christians on the internet (at least) listen to more preaching from the likes of Driscoll (I do) and Bell (I do not), than Stott or Packer or Carson. In some ways I think this is good, because it opens up new horizons in preaching methods and shows us different contexts in which ministry is done, but why the change?
Here are some of the reasons why i think this is the case:
1. We want to be able to listen right now. I don't really plan to listen to recorded sermons - I just decide on the spot when I've got a free hour. This morning as I was doing the washing up before work I decided to put one on. When this happens, I'm much more likely to drop by Mars Hill's site and choose something I can hear right now, rather than go to KCC's site, download a form, print it out, fill it in, send it in the post (seriously - do they think we're really going to this?) as well as pay! Not likely.
2. Many decent bible teaching churches haven't yet discovered the wonders of the Net. As far as Sydney goes there are not a great number of churches that are posting their sermons on-line, and even less that offer podcasting. (We do!) If we can't get it on line then we won't listen. Sure it is a bit of work to get this happening in a local church, but even if only the local congregation listen - at least it is a much better way to catch up on a missed week than ordering the CD or tape (what's that?!?)
3. There are not enough good Christian book retailers. For non-inner west Sydney-siders, Moore Books is too far away. Koorong, despite being a great place to meet your wife (yes - that was where we met) seriously sucks in providing decent reading material - yet they are the only stores of their type in the north/west. It is much easier to log on and download some junk off the net or read a blog than go to a good store an hours drive away.
4. Many evangelicals who do use the net spend more of their time arguing about Bell, or the emerging Church, or some other "Christian political" (if that's the term?) topic and other movements than actually writing anything that is edifying or designed to point us back to some solid, bible based meat. If all you're talking about on your blog is the rubbish that you came across and how bad it is, then of course your readers are going to go find it and listen to it for themselves.
I'm sure there are other reasons. Thoughts?
On our honeymoon, Soph and I spent an hour or so each day Reading through 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation' together. It is the kind of book that you can read a number of times and still come away with something that challenges you deeply on each re-read (I think this was my 5th time through).
Something that I have been reminded of this time is the way that Paul links his prayers for people to his understanding of what is most important - the glory of God.
His prayer in Philippians 1 shows this clearly. Paul prays for growth for his readers, but the growth is not an end in itself.
In Philippians 1:9 Paul prays for a growth in love for his readers that is clearly tied to knowledge: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.
It is not (as Carson would put it) a merely mawkish or purely sentimental growth in love, rather Paul prays for a growing love that is rooted more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, a love based on knowledge of the things of God, not just some nice feeling. It's also important to note that Paul is not saying that being able to intellectually assent to a body of doctrine will inevitably lead to a growth in love! Instead as we grasp more and more of the wonder of the gospel, and increasingly marvel at the character and goodness of God, as the great truths of God are revealed to us by the Spirit, our lives will be shaped by those truths and our love will begin to abound more and more in this knowledge and depth of insight. In short, as we get to know God, we will learn to love.
Paul knows that a growth in this kind of love will lead to a growth in godliness: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ."
The end that Paul has in mind in this prayer is not only a growth in love alone. In Paul's mind, he prays for a growth in love so that his readers will become pure and blameless. Paul sees the link between growing in love based on knowledge and actions. He knows that the Christian who has this love based on knowledge will grow in Godliness too.
But even a growth in godliness, based upon a love grounded in knowledge is not the heart of Paul's prayer. The ultimate end of all this is a desire to see the God glorified.
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."
Paul desires a growth in love, a growth in knowledge, and a growth in righteousness because he knows that growth in these things in the life of the Christian are the things that bring glory and praise to God.
To my sadness, this is very different from the way that I pray for others. I want to pray more that my Lord will be glorified and praised in the lives of my brothers and sisters. I want to pray more about the things of God than passing concerns. I want to pray more like Paul.
After a good 3 month break from the blog world, Soph and I are back! We got married a fortnight ago, and have now both returned to work. As such you'll probably see a few more posts from now on!
Thought i'd put up a few photos of our incredibly great looking bridal party to get this blog going again!(Click on the images to make them bigger)
Opinions are raging over this. We just spoke to the guy who designed it in our staff meeting this morning. It's created over 200 comments on the herald blogs.What do you think?
