Church Leadership
Abrahamic and Apostolic: John Stott in his Centenary Year
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- Written by: Chris Wright
Chris Wright is the Global Ambassador & Ministry Director, Langham Partnership International
'I am a great believer,' John Stott would often say, 'in the importance of BBC. Not the British Broadcasting Company, nor Bethlehem Bible College, nor even Beautiful British Columbia. But Balanced Biblical Christianity.' In my own assessment of John's life and ministry I suggest a biblical balance of Old and New Testaments by saying that the scale and scope of John Stott's significance within the global church has been both Abrahamic and apostolic.
ABRAHAMIC
John Stott was Abrahamic in two ways, of which the first is the most obvious.
Read more: Abrahamic and Apostolic: John Stott in his Centenary Year
Bible Study: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
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- Written by: Natalie Rosner
What’s Camping got to do with Eternity?
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Natalie Rosner
I wasn’t aware until recently that John Stott gave Bible Studies on 2 Corinthians in 1965 at the Anglican Church Missionary Society Summer Schools in several states in Australia. So, it’s with some trepidation that I share the framework and reasoning behind a recent sermon I preached on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.
This is a passage with an inbuilt metaphor: our current bodies as an earthly tent, and our future bodies with Jesus in the new creation as ‘a building from God, an eternal house in heaven’ (2 Cor 5:1). Because this metaphor is so effective in helping to both understand the passage and apply the passage to our own context, it shaped the structure and theme of my sermon. The sermon was titled ‘What’s camping got to do with eternity?’ and had three sections as outlined below.
Women, Leadership and Evangelism
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- Written by: Robyn Claydon
Robyn Claydon
A personal account of the growing recognition by John Stott and the Lausanne Movement of the gifting and acceptance of women in all aspects of Christian leadership in the task of world evangelisation
When it was decided to hold a second International Lausanne Congress in 1989 in Manila, a 10-person Planning Committee was set up to work on every aspect of the Conference. Each person represented a different part of the world and I was invited to join the Congress Committee representing Australasia. Nine men and I worked closely for five years in what was a challenging, exhilarating and spiritually enriching experience. John Stott, who had been the Chief Architect of the Lausanne Covenant that came out of Lausanne 74, was asked to be the Chief Architect of what was to become the Manila Manifesto.
A good investment: raising up new clergy
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- Written by: Marc Dale
Plenty of Anglican parishes are in need of ministers. Getting ordained may seem ordinary compared to church planting or mission work, but in an environment of denominational decline, will we raise up the clergy we need just to sustain ministry in existing parishes? Marc Dale has been busy rising to the challenge, and he shares his experience with us here.
Marc is Rector of St Alban’s Highgate, WA and Chair of EFAC WA.
What does the future look like where you are, in terms of people offering themselves to be prepared for Anglican ordination? In my home diocese, there are a growing number of parishes who could be open to evangelical ministry, but we are very short of ordained evangelicals.
In various dioceses around the country there are great opportunities for fresh gospel ministry in parishes, but will there be the people to meet those needs?
My Growth Group
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- Written by: Josie Murray
Bible Study Groups, Gospel Groups, Growth Groups, Life Groups, Cell Groups—call them what you will, they have proved to be a powerful part of what it means to belong to a church for many people, for many years. Here are three personal accounts of what it has meant to belong to small groups based around Bible discussion and prayer.
JOSIE MURRAY, WA
Crossing the country on my own to embark on new and challenging work in a place where I knew next to no-one and had never been, I was sure I wanted to be a part of a growth group. I had no idea then how established I would become in this group, or just how important this growth group would be to me. That was 6 years ago. I joined up to a mixed night-time group that met weekly, and I relished the familiarity of faces and format that welcomed me. I noticed that these were the people that were becoming my ‘family’ here: people not chosen by me, but given to me, to know more closely, for me to love and care for, and who loved and cared for me.
The emphasis in the group, it seemed to me, was a love for God’s Word, honouring Jesus as Lord, and a commitment to each other. This would be a place to grow.