Essentials

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Written by: Tim Johnson

Leading the intercessions in church is perhaps the most challenging and responsible ministry in the church service apart from preaching. When leading intercessions, you are displaying your theology and your awareness of what is happening in the world and the church. You also need to frame the prayers with pastoral awareness and sensitivity for the congregation present. It is a weighty task!

And yet done well it is a beautiful ministry that gathers the congregation together in corporate prayer as we lift our requests to our loving Heavenly Father. A friend noted to me during Covid, after watching several online church services, that Anglican Churches stood out for the quality of their intercessory prayers. That too has been my observation.

Given the difficulty and importance of this task we need to train and equip people well to lead us in prayer. Included below is a training session I ran at St John’s Diamond Creek for those who lead intercessions. It was well received at the time and years later people told me they were still referring to the notes I gave them as a basis for writing the intercessions. I hope it is helpful for you too, as you lead intercessions or as you equip others for this ministry.

LEADING PRAYERS IN CHURCH

Praying together as the church is one of God’s wonderful gifts to his people. Leading the prayers in church, also called intercessions or The Prayers of the People is both a privilege and a responsibility. Thank you for your willingness to minister to us all in this way. In leading the intercessions, you are not just praying in public, you are helping to lead others in prayer; these are ‘The Prayers of the People.’ You are enabling the rest of the congregation to share in these prayers as they give voice to the concerns, hopes and joys of the community. The intercessions are only one type of prayer. At other points in the church service there may also be prayers of confession, praise and thanksgiving. You should take this into account as you prepare your prayers. The main purpose of intercessions is to ask that God will act, that he will do what we are praying for.

WHAT SHOULD WE PRAY FOR?

The bible tells us that we should pray for:

Our world - I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-2

The church - And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Colossians 4:3

All God’s People - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:18 With these biblical mandates in mind it is important that we are praying global prayers and not just focussing on our own local needs. Remember the broad scope of the Lord’s Prayer ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Wow! We do want to bring our local concerns to God as well. He cares for what is happening in our church, our local community, and in our lives.

Our Anglican Prayer Book provides a wonderful model in combining both the global and local.

The Holy Communion Service (Third Order) structures the prayers into the following categories:

For the nations

For the Church

For those in need

Thanksgiving for the faithful departed

I have included this outline of prayer as an appendix (pages 172-173) as I think it is a great model to use.

The Morning Prayer Service (Second Order) says

Prayers and thanksgivings may be offered

For the whole created order, especially ...

For the nations and peoples of the earth ...

For those in authority in this land ...

For the Church, its leaders and members ...

For our community, families and friends ...

For those who are in need ...

For particular situations ...

We won’t be able to use all these categories all the time, but they are a good checklist to ensure we are considering praying for the range of topics available. My own observation is that churches have a tendency to narrow their focus to the local and to forget the global.

SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE

Since these are ‘The Prayers of the People’ you want all Christians who are present to be able to say Amen! So please be careful not to ride your own hobbyhorses, not to preach at people, and not to put words into people’s mouths which would make them feel like hypocrites. You want the congregation to be able to say a heartfelt ‘Amen’ to your prayers.

Since these are intercessions, we need to make sure that we are asking God to act. Check that your prayers are not just stating facts or providing information but are actually requests to God for action. Otherwise it may be that you are disguising a sermon as intercessory prayer!

Try to be inclusive in the way that you pray. If you include some people’s anniversaries, birthdays, or even special needs you may well be leaving other people out. We are a large church with around 500 active members (and many more contacts). Leaving time and space for the congregation to name people silently or aloud who are in need is a good way to be inclusive.

Be careful when praying about issues which may be sensitive to members of the congregation. Try to think through how your prayers will be heard by people who have different views and experience. We need to be pastorally sensitive in the way that we pray. If you are using a congregational response as part of the prayers (like Lord in your mercy hear our prayer) make sure that the congregation is briefed on what to say. Even better is asking for the response to be included on the screen.

The best intercessions are simple, brief and modest. They should use language that can be understood by everyone, avoiding anything too trendy or too intellectual. Be careful of using acronyms and Christian jargon. Aim for a length of five minutes for your prayers, including times for silence within. This is only around 400-500 words, so simplicity, brevity and modesty are essential.

Speak in a voice that can be easily heard and understood.

Speak loudly and slowly so that you can be heard and understood through the microphone. Since prayer is a very personal activity, we may tend to use a quiet prayer voice or include idiosyncrasies (like ‘breathiness’ for example) from our own private devotions which make it difficult for people when we lead public prayer.

End your prayers well. We can only come to God through Jesus Christ our great high priest, and his atoning sacrifice on the cross. So it is good to conclude our prayers ‘through Jesus Christ’ or leading into the Lord’s Prayer with ‘Accept our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray…’

THANK YOU

Thank you for your ministry to us in leading the intercessions. I know that you take this ministry very seriously and dedicate many hours in preparing what you will lead us to pray together. That is a wonderful gift to us done in the sight of our Heavenly Father: God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them (Hebrews 6:10).

APPENDIX (FROM A PRAYER BOOK FOR AUSTRALIA PP.172-173)

THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ has promised that you will hear us when we ask in faith: receive the prayers we offer.

For the nations

We give thanks for... We pray for...

Guide with your wisdom and power the leaders of the nations, so that everyone may live in peace and mutual trust, sharing with justice the resources of the earth. Give the people of this land a spirit of unselfishness, compassion, and fairness in public and private life.

Father, hear our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer.

For the Church

We give thanks for... We pray for...

Send out the light and truth of your gospel and bring people everywhere to know and love you. Enable those who minister among us to commend your truth by their example and teaching. May we gladly receive and obey your word.

Father, hear our prayer

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer.

For those in need

We give thanks for... We pray for...

We commend to your fatherly care, merciful God, all who are in sorrow, sickness, discouragement or any other trouble. Give them patience and a firm trust in your goodness. Help those who care for them, and bring us all into the joy of your salvation.

Father, hear our prayer

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

or

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer.

Thanksgiving for the faithful departed

We give thanks for the life and work of...

We praise you for all your servants whose lives have honoured Christ. Encourage us by their example, so that we may run with perseverance the race that lies before us, and share with them the fullness of joy in your kingdom.

The prayers conclude with

Hear us, Father,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

or

Accept our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord, who

taught us to pray, Our Father in heaven…

Rev Dr Tim Johnson is Dean of the Anglican Institute, Ridely College.

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Written by: Mark Simon

An interview with Sally Sims, author of Together Through the Storm: A Practical Guide to Christian Care (Matthias Media), and the Care Ministry Coordinator at Christ Church, St Ives.

MARK: WHAT WAS YOUR BACKGROUND THAT SHAPED YOUR OWN JOURNEY TO BEING A CARE MINISTRY COORDINATOR AND TRAINING OTHERS IN THIS AREA?

I grew up in a Christian family in the UK and had a sister 10 years older than me who was profoundly disabled. This has significantly shaped who I am. I have a natural sensitivity to the needs of others and after finishing school, God guided me into nursing, where I worked in a range of roles before completing a master’s degree and later lecturing in Nursing at Kings College London. After my husband Tim and I moved to Sydney, I lectured in nursing at what was then the Catholic College in North Sydney, where I set up a Post Graduate Diploma in Palliative Care.

I became a Christian in my late 20s following the birth of our first child and God’s word convicted me that I needed to be ready to share the love of Jesus in word and deed. I was a stay-at-home Mum but God in his kindness has built on my nursing background, and nothing has been wasted!

I wasn’t particularly looking to be involved in care at church in a more formal way, but God had other plans! After doing a 40 hour Clinical Pastoral Education course in 2007 I found myself reaching out to others in need more intentionally.

In 2009 our then Senior Minister was looking for someone to help set up a care ministry. I was part of that initiative and have served in care ministry since then. I joined the staff at Christ Church St Ives (as an honorary staff member) as Care Coordinator in 2017. I wrote Together Through the Storm in 2016, and it is now in its second edition (2023).

During this time, I have done studies in theology at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and pastoral care courses and other relevant courses (including DV alert, and suicide prevention training with Lifeline).

I’m deeply thankful to God for the joy and privilege of partnering in the gospel in this way.

MARK: WHAT ARE THE KEY INPUTS TO HELP BUILD A CARING CHURCH?

A caring church is built through prayer, transformed hearts, and an intentional culture of care that is proactive rather than reactive. While care is often thought of horizontally (person to person), its foundation must be vertical—an active relationship with God and his Word that makes genuine care possible. This commitment flows from leadership: the Senior Minister and leaders must actively support a care ministry, model Christlike love, and equip others to do the same, ensuring not only faithful preaching but also that people are known, counted, and cared for.

Clear vision is also essential. Care must align with the church’s mission of forming wholehearted disciples— people who delight in God, are grounded in Scripture, serve gladly, grow in faith, and love one another. This means encouraging gospel-shaped transformation through preaching, Bible study, and speaking truth into each other’s lives, while integrating care with other ministry areas so it strengthens the church’s overall work.

A caring church must also be a safe place for hurting people, where it is normal to acknowledge struggle and difficult issues like mental illness, divorce, and domestic violence are addressed with sensitivity from the front, and where people are given opportunities to share their stories. Alongside this culture, strong structures help care flourish: welcoming pathways for newcomers, attentive follow-up, and growth groups as the primary context where members take responsibility for one another. These are supported by trained leaders, a care coordinator, and teams who can respond to crises, support people with chronic illness, activate practical support like meals, transport or a Christmas hamper, engage in one-to-one Bible reading and prayer, as well as connect people to professional help when needed.

Finally, care must be visible and accessible. It should feature clearly on the church website, with links to readily available resources, and a referral list of recommended Christian counsellors available for when professional help is needed.

MARK: WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN PROVIDING CARE IN THE CHURCH?

‘The all, the some and the few’ should be involved in church-based Christian care (this three-level framework was originally conceptualised by Pastoral Care UK).

The All: Christian care is for everyone. We all have a role to play in caring for one another. A caring church supports individuals in the context of community. If one member suffers then as 1 Corinthians 12:26 reminds us, we all share the suffering because we are the body of Christ together.

Christian care involves knowing others, being known, walking with others during the ups and downs of life, and being willing not only to give care but to receive care. We need to be intentional about building a culture of care and equipping the saints in care.

The Some: Care Teams. In some situations, an extra layer of care needs to be mobilised. For example, where there is chronic illness, a crisis situation, or where there are issues of high sensitivity (e.g. adultery, sudden bereavement, suicide). Care teams step up when the needs are beyond the resources, training and experience of the growth group. Care team members provide care that supplements rather than replaces the care given by a growth group, family and friends.

The Few: Christian care coordinator and Care Team leaders who serve in collaboration with growth group leaders and ministry staff. This team helps to triage needs and coordinate care. They ensure appropriate support is provided during a crisis, where chronic conditions are involved, where referrals to professional services are appropriate and in seasonal initiatives, such as leading a Blue Christmas service (a quiet reflective service of consolation and thanksgiving for those who find Christmas challenging).

MARK: WHAT TRAINING SHOULD THOSE (VARIOUS) PEOPLE GET IN CARE MINISTRIES?

Training should be adapted to the church context, the people involved, and their level of responsibility. There are three areas in which training is particularly focused: foundations, skills and specific situations.

Foundations include:

• The biblical basis of care, theology of suffering relationship between sin and sickness, gospel hope.
• Biblical ethics - what the Bible has to say about disability, euthanasia and end of life care, etc.
• Understanding our role in providing pastoral care, knowing our limits and how and where to refer. How to care for people in a small and large church.
• Family Systems and predictable patterns in relationships (triangles, over-functioning, underfunctioning; issues of responsibility and agency).
• Safe ministry, boundaries, and self-care: confidentiality; self-reflection and theological reflection on the pastoral encounter; pastoral supervision/consultation (the educational philosopher John Dewey noted that we don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience).

Skills:

• Listening, sympathy vs empathy, conversation skills and asking good questions, appropriate confidentiality.
• Prayer, opening the Bible and how we can sensitively guide people towards God during a difficult period.
• Visitation: hospital, aged care, home visit (how to care for people in pastoral emergencies e.g. suicide, sudden death).
• Setting up a Take them a meal schedule and safe food handling. Specific situations (providing care for those facing):
• Mental ill health including suicidal ideation;
• Loss and grief;
• Palliative care and care of the dying;
• Ministry to seniors and caring for those with dementia;
• Domestic violence;
• Marital breakdown – what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage, practical peacemaking;
• Addiction; and
• Pornography use.

MARK: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A LEADER OF A SMALL CHURCH WHO FEELS OVERWHELMED BY ALL THIS?

If you want to have a growing church, the pastor needs to equip teams. The pastor has to have a team mentality – aiming to develop a few people who can grow in care ministry. This helps prevent burnout. Educating church members about care as ‘one-anothering’ means that pastoral care doesn’t all rest with the pastor. One another care is thoroughly biblical and is a healthy expression of the pastor-teacher leading by equipping the saints for ministry.

MARK: WHY DID YOU DEVELOP THE CARE MINISTRY COURSE AT CHRIST CHURCH?

A group of friends and I were all involved in care ministry roles, and we saw the need for such a training course several years ago. While our initial plans didn’t come to fruition, the idea had taken root, and I put the idea to our then Maturity Minister at Christ Church St Ives, James Macbeth. He was keen to write some Bible talks and be a sounding board for the course content, much of which was adapted from training talks I’d given. When COVID hit we had time to work on it and filmed it between COVID lockdowns.

There are seven modules comprised of a short conversational video, worksheets, a Bible talk and further resources.

a) What is Christian care?

b) Church as a Caring Community

c) How can I listen more effectively?

d) How do I respond with empathy and bring prayer and gospel hope?

e) How do I care for someone experiencing loss and grief?

f) How can I care for others safely and serve without sinking?

The course is freely available to anyone inside and outside of Christ Church and can be accessed via our church website https://www.christchurch.com.au/training/careministry- course.

Our goal was to develop a course which always kept Jesus at the centre, and to present Christian care as necessarily pointing people to Jesus, and helping them grow as disciples. We didn’t want to merely provide a form of social work. This makes the course quite distinct from other training for carers like Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). CPE is a pre-requisite for many vocational pastoral ministers, but it doesn’t strongly emphasise the gospel and biblical teaching.

MARK: HOW IS THE CARE MINISTRY COURSE BEING USED BEYOND CHRIST CHURCH IN WAYS THAT SURPRISE OR ENCOURAGE YOU?

God in his kindness has taken the course far and wide, from Queensland to Tasmania and I have had the privilege of chatting with people from at least 12 different churches who are seeking to set up a care ministry. Just last week I had an email from a care minister from a church in Canberra who is using the course to train 10 individuals at a church who are members of a new care team. To God be the glory.

MARK: THANK YOU FOR SHARING WITH OUR READERS THESE PRACTICAL INSIGHTS AND SUGGESTIONS. TO FINISH, CAN YOU RECOMMEND

ANY BOOKS FOR PEOPLE WANTING TO GROW IN CHRISTIAN CARE?

Nancy Guthrie (2016) What Grieving People Wish You Knew About What Really Helps (and What Really Hurts), Crossway.

Timothy Keller (2015) Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Penguin Books

Jill McGilvray (2017), God’s Love in Action, Acorn Press

Scott Mehl (2020) Loving Messy People: The Messy Art of Helping One Another Become More Like Jesus, Shepherd Press.

John Patton (2005) Pastoral Care the Essential Guide, Abingdon Press.

Phil Ryken (2012) Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Crossway.

David Switzer (2000) Pastoral Care Emergencies, Fortress Press.

Paul David Tripp (2002) Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, P&R Publishing.

Ed Welch (2015) Side by Side - Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love, Crossway.

Ed Welch (2018), Caring for One Another, Crossway.

Sally Sims is the author of Together Through the Storm: A Practical Guide to Christian Care (Matthias Media), and the Care Ministry Coordinator at Christ Church, St Ives

Interviewer: Rev. Dr. Mark Simon is Senior Minister, St Alfred’s Blackburn North.

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Written by: Mark Simon

EQUIPPING FOR MINISTRY

What makes for a healthy church? Paul’s answer in Ephesians 4:11-16 is that maturity comes when the whole body is built up, with every believer playing their part, because leaders have equipped the saints for the work of ministry. Well-equipped believers will no longer be tossed about by false teaching, but will be unified in faith and truth spoken in love. This foundational equipping work yields fruit in stronger disciples, more eager and effective outreach, and a ready supply of emerging leaders. Yet many leaders (whether lay or ordained) experience a gap between our good intentions to equip the saints for the work of ministry and the space and energy actually given to that equipping.

This edition of Essentials aims to help us bridge that gap by featuring a range of resources and encouragements for us to equip the saints for various forms of ministry. There is an interview with Sally Sims, author of Together Through the Storm on strengthening care ministries in local churches. Rowena McNicol, from the Bridge Church in Sydney shares her own experiences of cultivating a deeper prayer life through establishing a prayer room and small prayer groups. Tim Johnson shares a framework he has used to train those who will lead public prayers in church. Julie-anne Laird reveals a number of blockages and ways to break through them when training people for evangelism. Also on the theme of evangelism, Wayne Schuller reviews the new Christianity Explored course, and I review the 5 Thresholds evangelism framework from Intervarsity.

Turning to leadership development, we hear from Sam Oldland, who gives us four factors that Gen Z Christians need to take the step into vocational ministry. Our Bible Study for this edition comes from Russell Smidt who explores the relational shape of ministry as seen in 2 Timothy 1. Equipping young and emerging leaders is a proven engine-room for growth and youth engagement.

This edition is rounded out with book reviews of a new Leviticus commentary, a biography of indigenous Christian pioneers James and Angelina Nobel, and N.T. Wright’s book on creation’s renewal. I trust these articles will equip you to equip the saints in your context, to the glory of God.

MARK SIMON

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Written by: Mark Simon

The 5 Thresholds Framework of Evangelism Training
library.intervarsity.org/library/coaching-five-thresholds
Reviewed by Mark Simon

Evangelical churches regularly run program evangelism courses like Alpha, Christianity Explored or Taste and See. And so we should! Ministers regularly preach evangelistic sermons. And so we should. And we often train our members in evangelistic methods like sharing one’s own testimony or explaining the gospel with a model like Two Ways to Live. But in some churches this evangelism ecosystem doesn’t seem to be yielding many commitments of non-Christians to faith. Is it that our invitations to courses are not landing? Is it that people don’t want to hear our testimony? Is it that our gospel explanations are not connecting? What’s going on with the diminishing returns our program and personal evangelism strategies seem to be yielding?

One possibility is that we are misjudging the spiritual readiness of invitees to attend an evangelistic course, hear about our faith or believe the gospel as we present it to them. We may be offering an invitation to people who aren’t ready yet to hear it because we lack the relational capital with them necessary for them to respond positively.

This is where 5 Thresholds comes in. The 5 Thresholds is a ministry framework that describes the five steps that non-Christians commonly go through on their journey toward faith. The framework is based on research conducted by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp with 2000 individuals who had come to faith in Jesus from a prior position of scepticism. 5 Thresholds helps plot the necessary stages (or thresholds) a postmodern person typically moves through prior to repentance and following Christ. (Everts and Schaupp’s book I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus gave rise to the 5 Thresholds training model).

The training material is freely available on Intervarsity’s web pages: https://library.intervarsity.org/library/coaching-five-thresholds

There is an e-learning course (with video and text content), a training powerpoint, and an evangelistic Bible study resource structured around the 5 thresholds. Our church brought in a trainer from a local schools ministry with experience in using the model to train our growth group leaders. Those leaders are now training the members of their growth groups with the videos (https://library.intervarsity.org/library/five-thresholds) and powerpoint. Individuals can just use the e-learning course by signing up for a free Intervarsity Ministry Playbook account.

The training course aims to help us identify where people are in their spiritual journey, so that we can offer them a personally-appropriate step that will help them to move toward Jesus.

Threshold 1 is the move from skepticism into a relationship of trust with a Christian friend. Threshold 2 is from disinterest to curiosity about our faith. Threshold 3 is becoming open to personal change. Threshold 4 is from openness to change to actually seeking after Jesus. Threshold 5 is the wonderful moment when someone puts their trust in Jesus for the first time.

The things that help at each threshold are distinct – from spending time together in the early stages, using appropriate questions, showing vulnerability and building towards steps like offering to pray for a concern our friend may have.

I found this framework had a great deal of explanatory power for why my own efforts to raise faith issues with neighbours and contacts didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. I was assuming they were further along in the journey than they actually were. I believe the thresholds will help us do better friendship evangelism. They demystify the relational steps that some Christians intuitively take, but which are not self-evident to others. The course is also well-grounded in the gospels, with pertinent parables and encounters with Jesus used to illustrate the principles. I am looking forward to the members in our church feeling empowered by this framework to be better spiritual friends to those around them, and so help many to take a next step towards Jesus.

Rev. Dr. Mark Simon is Senior Minister, St Alfred’s Blackburn North.

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Written by: Wayne Schuller

Christianity Explored 2026
New Edition
Reviewed by Wayne Schuller

The long-awaited revised edition of Christianity Explored was launched in the UK last Easter. The video material has been completely re-recorded, with Rico Tice joined by two other presenters: Emma Scrivener and Efrem Buckle. I invited my Bible study group of about a dozen people to form the core group of our course. We printed up the advertising postcards and regularly promoted over 6 weeks including over the Easter weekend. We also gave away copies of Mark’s gospel over Easter as a part of our promotion. I find that when you put out a sign up sheet in the church entrance many weeks in advance, everyone reads it and excitement builds as people add their names. I ran one training night with my Bible study members, then we began the course in the second week of the school term. In hindsight I was underprepared and we were not ready for the large number of people that signed up, but we prayed and adapted to our God doing more than we ask or imagine.

Those familiar with the old edition of CE will recognise some familiar themes throughout the course. It remains a model of expository evangelism, working through Mark’s Gospel and drawing out the triple themes of identity (“Who is Jesus?”), mission (“What did Jesus come to do?”), and discipleship (“What does Jesus call us to do?”).

However, the structure and questions of the course have been modified in a way that is more accessible and welcoming for the unchurched. The final session, “Life With Jesus,” is an inspiring wrap-up featuring a diverse range of video testimonies from Christians. The beauty and glory of Jesus abounds in this course!

The video content includes delightful animations presenting a parable or section of Mark, as well as engaging discussions on Mark’s Gospel between the presenters. The Christianity Explored website has made the course content and participant’s handbook available as PDFs, which we printed each week. This will be easier once published handbooks are available in Australia. There is also a dedicated Windows and Mac app for streaming the videos, or they can be played directly from the leader’s portal on the Christianity Explored website. Each week contains two separate videos, allowing for two distinct discussions.

One new innovation is the Christianity Explored smartphone app. This allows participants to read through Mark’s Gospel during the week, rewatch the course videos, and access extra content. The notifications in the app are carefully paced and genuinely helpful, and many of our participants used the app during the week.

We have just completed the course at Berwick Anglican Church, with 40 to 50 people involved across five groups. We had lively discussions, and two people prayed the salvation prayer at the end of the course, while many others prayed it as a recommitment of their dependence on Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Visitors found the discussion questions engaging and interesting.

Last year our parish had already run the three week Hope Explored course, which was a great way to build confidence for the longer seven week Christianity Explored. For committed believers, the course doubles as excellent evangelism training, modelling the simple but powerful practice of reading Mark’s Gospel with another person. I also found it a valuable training ground for newer believers learning how to do inductive Bible study. Running this course was a highlight for our parish in 2026. Highly recommended!

Rev Wayne Schuller is Associate Minister, Berwick Anglican Church and former Director of Hope 25.

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Written by: Mike Phillips

God’s Homecoming
Tom Wright
SPCK Publishing 2026
Reviewed By Michael Phillips

Is Christian faith about our souls going to heaven when we die? No, says Tom Wright in God’s Homecoming, a sustained presentation of the Biblical narrative for thoughtful readers keen to deepen their theological understanding of the Scriptures. Wright’s thesis is that the Christian hope is not a platonic, disembodied existence with God in heaven, but God’s personal homecoming to the earth in new creation. The emphasis on resurrection and new creation will be well known to those familiar with Wright’s earlier work, especially Surprised by Hope. By challenging what he presents as the dominant paradigm of western Christianity, he sets out to offer fresh answers to important questions. While his fundamental thesis seems robust, it’s not clear that his fresh answers to controversial issues are as satisfactory as might be hoped.

The first third of the book outlines the biblical narrative to build the case that God’s promises are focused on him coming to renew the whole creation and dwell with his people, not on disembodied souls escaping to be with him. Wright’s biblical-theological reading, treating the whole Bible as one narrative, is a strength of the book. He shows how promises in the Old Testament about the land of Israel and the city of Zion are not forgotten or ‘spiritualised’, but underpin the hope that Jesus offers in the gospel, and that the early Christians proclaimed.

Overall, this is a convincing argument. Old Testament promises are not translated to heaven in the new covenant, but are caught up and included in Jesus’ promise to renew all things. One frustration throughout the book is Wright’s reliance on his own translation of the New Testament. It left me wondering how idiosyncratic his interpretation and translation were, compared to more widely-accepted translations.

The dominant passages in Wright’s paradigm are Isaiah 40-55 (especially chapter 40), Romans 8, and the promise that the Lord (or his glory, or knowledge of his glory) will fill the earth (eg. Habakuk 2:14, Psalm 72:19). In this light, he views the presence and then absence of God’s glory in the tabernacle and temple as vital context for the coming of the Messiah. He thus emphasises a present-and-future, double fulfilment of God’s promise to come home to his people. It is a double fulfilment in that it is fulfilled both in the incarnation of the Son, ‘tabernacling’ amongst us (John 1:14) and by the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the presence of God coming to dwell in his people individually and corporately, the new temple. It is present-and-future, because Wright sees a fulfilment now, through Son and Spirit, and an ultimate fulfilment in the return of the Lord Jesus. This approach illuminates the incarnation and Pentecost in their biblical context, but somewhat diminishes the attention paid to the cross.

Wright fundamentally presents the cross as the victory of the homecoming Son over the powers and principalities. Undoubtedly this is a New Testament theme, but leaves too much unsaid about the nature of the atonement and substitution.

In the middle chapters of the book, Wright seeks to explain how western theology turned from offering the hope of a restored creation when the Lord returns, to a platonic hope of our souls getting to heaven after we die, and the beatific vision. He traces the influences of platonic thought in the early church fathers and medieval period. He identifies his position against Roman Catholics, on one hand, and 16th century reformers, on the other.

He favours the reformers in the matter of salvation by grace and his rejection of purgatory. However, he primarily wants to say that by focussing on justification by faith, they were not challenging the platonic assumptions of the medieval church deeply enough – a critique he would level at many contemporary evangelicals!

Finally, Wright turns to the ethical and practical implications of this re-orienting of theology around God’s homecoming. He examines topics that have caused significant controversy, including worship, evangelism, the sacraments and the intermediate state. I found this section less persuasive than the earlier part of the book. In parts, it provided a more robust theological foundation for some areas of practice, without significantly challenging practice - for example, on prayer. At other times his conclusions seemed at odds with his theological positions. For example, after insisting that the departed have ‘no purgatory to worry about’, he then deemed it appropriate to pray for them, for ‘their continuing life of refreshment’ (p297). This seems pastorally confusing, given his desire to challenge the popular understanding of souls being purified for heaven. That said, Wright’s core conviction about the intermediate state is that those who are united with the Spirit of God in their life remain united with him after their death. This is both convincing and pastorally powerful. He shifts language from ‘souls’ being with God, to our ‘spirit’ being united with the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our preservation and sanctification as we await the resurrection of our bodies in the new creation. This is a wonderful hope to encourage ourselves and our churches! Thoughtful readers keen to grow in their understanding of the overall narrative of the Bible will be encouraged by this book, though some of the practical applications warrant further consideration.

Rev Michael Phillips currently serves as Vicar of Ormond Anglican Church, Melbourne. He ministered previously as Campus Minister at St Jude’s, Parkville after completing theological study at Ridley College, Melbourne.