ministry insights - recently on the blog

The Countdown to Discovery Camp

From the Frontline (story from our minstry to the unemployed)

Special Needs (a place to belong)

K'Splat Term 4

Calling future leaders - come and do small group with me (re: a new way of training small group leaders)

The Prodigal Parishioner (a story of practical kindness)

The realtionship between evangelism and social action (part 1)

Luther on faith and works

luther on faith and works

Martin Luther’s dismissal of the Letter of James as the ‘right strawy epistle’ (written in the preface to his 1522 edition of the New Testament) is well known.

Less well known is his complete agreement with the actual argument of James, that faith without works is dead. He wrote this in his preface to Romans:

(Read the rest over on the St Pauls staff blog...)

who has a disability?

I was reading around this morning and discovered the new 'Social Issues Executive' website. Terrible name, great website.

I was particularly heartened to see the lastest Briefing paper, entitled 'Who has a Disability?' Having had direct and intimate contact with a person with a 'disability' and knowing the issues that face someone like that entering into 'mainstream' society, I was glad to see some thinking on the issue and some resources being provided for churches to think through their approach to welcoming and including these people.

There are more people with 'disabilities' in our community than most people realise. According to the 2003 census, 1 in 5 people in Australia have a disability. Knowing some families of children with disablities, their experience is a hard one, where they have to constantly fight as advocates for information and access. Of all places, the church should be a place where they should not have to fight as hard, if at all.

I highly commend this paper written by Andrew Cameron, and the links that he provides to resources for churches to think through their approach.

Q & A from James 1

Some good questions were asked via the sms during the sermon last Sunday at 7pm:

When going through trials do you think having wisdom means you will understand God’s master plan?- If you’re not seeing the big picture is that an indication of lack of wisdom?

Referring to James 1:6; I often find myself doubting and asking questions of my faith- How am I to help this? And is it natural to doubt as a growing Christian?

I see wisdom as an individual pursuit, but how can we encourage the foolish among us to seek wisdom, especially when they seem to think they are already mature & even more so when they are also in positions of authority?

Just how does a person ‘do joy’ when they are faced with redundancy or serious medical news?

For my attempt to answer these, check out the St Pauls Staff Blog here.

who knew?

world renowned scholar serves up a feast

I had the thrill of hosting Paul Barnett at St Pauls for a breakfast on the book of James.

Read about it here

how mature christians can keep growing

One of the best ways to keep growing in your walk with Jesus (apart from regular time in the Word) is to be in conversations with others who are walking the same walk. Chatting to others after church, sharing your lives in small groups are vital.

Another method of conversation is reading Christian books. Over the past 2 years, we’ve been running the ‘Digging Deeper Bookclub’ at St Pauls and Glenhaven. Its a chance for a whole bunch of us to grab and read the same book at the same time, and have a conversation about it. One of the side benefits is that we can get books at cheaper than retail prices, and we bring them to you!

The book for term 4 this year is John Ortberg’s, Faith and Doubt. I have chosen it because it ties into some of the themes we will be touching on during the James sermon series, and because Ortberg is a faithful bible teacher & outstanding communicator.

Anyone can join the bookclub, simply by buying a book and giving us your details. We try to run several opportunities per term for people to get together to chat about the book, and we let you know once the term is underway.

Faith and Doubt will be available from this Sunday from the College of Ministry counter at the foyer of St Pauls, for $15.00 (RRP $20). See you there!