Job at York Street: Office Manager

Job going at York Street: Office Manager.

And the deadline to apply has been moved to Friday July 10.

Read it HERE.

YORK STREET ANGLICAN:
St Philip’s is located in the heart of the City of Sydney. We believe the Gospel of Jesus is central to God’s plans for the Universe, and that this Gospel must therefore be joyfully proclaimed from this central space. St Philip’s has a 200 year history, and we are now prayerfully formulating a vision and a mission that seeks to speak to and with the city for the next 200 years.

THE ROLE:
St Philip’s seek an experienced and competent Office Manager to assist the new Rector, Justin Moffatt, in running an efficient and effective administration to facilitate the life and work of the church. We seek a manager who can ensure that the business of the church complements and even enhances the vision of the church. The successful applicant will be a part of a small team reporting directly to the Rector. You will be working on a full-time permanent basis Monday to Friday 9am to 5 pm. However, you will need to be flexible to start earlier or finish later, if needed.

Read more HERE.

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What Men Want in a Wife (Herald Interview)

I was interviewed by Lisa Pryor from the Sydney Morning Herald a few weeks back on what I was looking for in a wife. The print version came out on in the Sun Herald Life Magazine this last Sunday. There were two other guys she spoke to. The three interviews are placed up by way of comparison.

I asked for some advice from a few media types beforehand. It's a lifestyle piece, so it was always going to be positive. And I tried to keep it that way. We spoke for about 90 minutes, and she wrote about 500 words. All good. The print version had a picture of me in St Philip's.

What Men Want in a Wife (This is the online version. You have to scroll to get my bit)

Any thoughts?

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Your appointment is to smoke your pipe (not)

THIS is worth reading. I cut and paste from my friend Craig:

One minister wrote to John Newton (author of Amazing Grace), expressing doubt about Richard Johnson's mission to join convicts to settle Botany Bay (Sydney) -

How is Mr. Johnson's Botany Bay scheme likely to end? I have seen a copy of his feelings on the occasion, and seemed to feel them all myself. It filled me with a thousand thanks that the Lord did not call me to that cross. If Johnson goes, I pray the Lord to go with him, and fit his mind for everything that lies before him.

Newton’s reply:

I shall not advise him to consult with you upon this point. Your appointment is to smoke your pipe quietly at home, to preach, and to lecture to your pupils; you are not cut out for a missionary.

I, too, must have my tea, my regular hours, and twenty little things which I can have when my post is fixed. I should shrink at the thought of living upon seals and train oil.

Oh! if Johnson is the man whom the Lord appoints to the honour of being the first to carry the glad tidings into the Southern Hemisphere, he will be a great and honoured man indeed.

H/T to Craig.

I stare at a picture of Richard Johson in my Office at York Street.

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Jensen on Calvin in The Australian

Michael Jensen, (whom I meant to jog with this morning, and *totally* slept through *two* alarms) wrote a piece today on Calvin that was published in The Australian. Take a read HERE. 

It is a worthy read, and I'm proud that he has this voice in the Op-Ed pages of the secular newspapers. More of it, I say.

Have I got an Amen?

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Blacklisted Words

Nathan, who went to Townsville, blacklists the following words on his Blog, because their overuse has robbed their meaning:

• Literally
  
• Identify
  
• Utilise
  
• Showcase
  
• Sustainable

Agree or disagree?

Care to add?

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Top Ten Tips for a Rookie Blogger

I just received this email from a great friend of mine:

Hope you're well. Just wondering if you can do us a favour: as someone who [blogs (compliment deleted)], can you give me Top Ten list of blogging principles for writing good posts? We're thinking of starting one but I need help! :-)

Can you:

• Offer one tip (or more).
• Link to pages who have similar lists (Didn't Abraham Piper do such a list?)

So, I'll start in the comment section.

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Pic on Flickr by candyjaxx.

FINAL: 7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#6: Be Brief)

See all 7 Discoveries HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE
3. MAKE YOUR POINTS ACTUAL POINTS
4. WE NEED TO OPEN DOORS, NOT CLOSE THEM

5. AVOID 'SOCIETY THINKS X'...
6. WE NEED THE POETS

7. LEARN TO BE BRIEF.

Learn brevity *before* you embark on 40+ minute sermon.

I say this with some regrets. I used to preach for 40+ minutes, and would complain that I didn't have enough time to really explore the issues of the text. I am seriously OK about preaching for 40 minutes, as long as there is 40 minutes of things worth saying. The way to know if there is 40 minutes of sermon is to first preach it in 20 minutes. Or less.

At my church, God has arranged it so that at 8:30AM I *have* to be speak for less than 20 minutes (or the musicians for 10AM don't get to practice). A mercy on all. It is the 8.30AM sermon that forces the 10AM sermon to be a better one.

Try making your sermon 20 minutes. Make it a valuable 20 minutes. (Or less!) Then and only then add things that make it longer, if you think it necessary. You can make it an hour if you like, but only if you can first do it for a shorter time.

Learn from Abraham Lincoln.

(Or have a read of someone called xposeoffseason on the PROS and CONS of Brevity.)

Got some sundry thoughts about what I think I need to learn next. We'll see how we go...

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Pic on Flickr by andertho.

7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#6: The Poets)

See all 7 Discoveries HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE
3. MAKE YOUR POINTS ACTUAL POINTS
4. WE NEED TO OPEN DOORS, NOT CLOSE THEM

5. AVOID 'SOCIETY THINKS X'...

6. WE NEED THE POETS

The Bible is not just facts, and it's not just history. It's not all argument, and it's not all logic. It's not a manifesto, and it's certainly not a tract. It is full of wisdom, poetry and songs. If we desire to be true to the Bible, then we need to re-find the poets, the wisdom writers, and the prophets.

It is one thing to say: 'Be faithful to your wife'. But it is another to muse with the writer of Proverbs: 'Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.'

So we need a few things: We need wonder, not just exegesis. We need awe of God, not just exposition. We need insight, not just information. We need wisdom, not just your points. We need to wrestle with the Psalmists, and not just proclaim their certainty. We don't just need to 'think Christianly', we need to feel it too. We need Orthokardia.

Buechner on the Prophets:

At the level of words, what do they say, these prophet-preachers? They say this and they say that. They say things that are relevant, lacerating, profound, beautiful, spine-chilling, and more besides. They put words to both the wonder and the horror of the world, and the words can be looked up in the dictionary or the biblical commentary and can be interpreted, passed on, understood, but because these words are poetry, are image and symbol as well as meaning, are sound and rhythm, maybe above all are passion, they set echoes going the way a choir in a great cathedral does, only it is we who become the cathedral and in us that the words echo.

We need the poets.

(For the record, I think I have a long way to go on all these points. Who is not weak...?)

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8th Sydney Rector now Blogging

There appears to be a new Craig's Blog.

This a new Craig too. Craig Schafer from St Mark's Pennant Hills. He is the 8th Sydney Rector to Blog. The list is:

1. Shane Rogerson -Minister at Cook's River Anglican
2. Michael Kellahan -Minister Roseville East Anglican
3. Dominic Steele -Annandale Anglican
4. Chris Braga - Summer Hill Anglican
5. Roger Bray - Macquarie Anglican Churches
6. Andrew Katay - Christ Church Inner West Anglican Community
7. Yours Truly - York Street Anglican
8. Craig Schafer -- St Mark's Pennant Hills.
   

Go over and say Hi to Craig. Make a comment.

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Sydney Bloggers Rollcall

Good times today. Present where:

The RodeoClown
Craig's Blog
Daily Vowell Movements
Luke's Inner Workings
Michael Canaris
And me.

Nice.

Next one is July 20.

Mark it.

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To My American Friends...

To these two peeps and to my American friends:

The love is strong. The love is still strong. I will be writing with an update on our lives very soon. In the meantime, God has been kind to us: we had already purchased a return ticket from early this year. (It was cheaper than a one way ticket, can you believe it?)

And we recently found a dirt cheap Air New Zealand one-way ticket for late November.

The upshot is that our family will, God willing, be having a vacation in the United States for a chunk of November. We will be with Dr Laurel's family in Atlanta (or maybe Louisiana) for Thanksgiving. But in New York City for a time too. That's the plan.

PS Your Summer is looking very good. I am about to enter my second winter in 6 months. God did not intend this...

:)

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Are there only Eight Sydney Rectors who Blog?

There appears to be a new Craig's Blog. This a new Craig too. Craig Schafer from St Mark's Pennant Hills. He is our 8th Sydney Rector to Blog. So, we now have 8 Rectors:

1. Shane Rogerson -Minister at St Peter's Church, Cooks River
2. Michael Kellahan -Minister Roseville East Anglican
3. Dominic Steele -Annandale Anglican
4. Chris Braga - Summer Hill Anglican
5. Roger Bray - Macquarie Anglican Churches
6. Andrew Katay - Christ Church Inner West Anglican Community
7. Yours Truly - York Street Anglican
8. Craig Schafer -- St Mark's Pennant Hills.
   

Go over and say Hi to Craig. Make a comment.

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Sydney Bloggers CBD Lunch: Tomorrow

The Rodeoclown and I and a few others will be having lunch in Wynyard Park on Wednesday, June 10, at 1pm.

We meet below the statue of John Dunmore Lang, near Margaret St. Email me if you want my mobile number in case you get yourself lost. Also -- if it rains, come to 3 York St, on the corner of Jamison. Big Sandstone Building. Can't miss it.

Care to join us?

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Pic on Flickr by Tangelo's BlurPrints.

7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#5: Avoid 'Society thinks X')

See all 7 Discoveries HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE
3. MAKE YOUR POINTS ACTUAL POINTS
4. WE NEED TO OPEN DOORS, NOT CLOSE THEM

5. AVOID 'SOCIETY THINKS X'...

Avoid it, unless you can humbly and legitimately show that you have an insight that we haven't yet seen or discovered.

If one makes a huge statement like 'Society thinks X', or 'Post moderns believe Y', or The World say Z', my immediate questions as a listener are: Is that really true? And how do you know? And how has this preacher become an expert in culture and society?

There are, of course, ways to moderate cultural assessments that don't have hubris embedded in them. Show your 'working out'. Saying 'It seems to me that...' is very helpful. Or trying reading someone else's quote about society and interact with that. There are many ways to critique and pull apart culture in ways that we will believe you. That's better than pronouncements.

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C.H. Spurgeon on the City

Alongside the George MacDonald quote, comes this one from C.H. Spurgeon:

The city is full of care, and he who has to go there from day to day finds it to be a place of great wear and tear. It is full of noise, and stir, and bustle, and sore travail; many are its temptations, losses, and worries. But to go there with the divine blessing takes off the edge of its difficulty; to remain there with that blessing is to find pleasure in its duties, and strength equal to its demands.

That one is for a good mate, Dan.

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Pop Culture meets Geography

Dr Laurel and I are watching reruns, as you can tell from this comment from The Little Man, while on a car trip:

So, mummy/mommy, are we driving near the West Wing Distributor right now?

Come some Australian tell my American readership what The Little Man was referring to?

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7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#4: Open Doors)

See all 7 Discoveries HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE
3. MAKE YOUR POINTS ACTUAL POINTS
4. WE NEED TO OPEN DOORS, NOT CLOSE THEM

When a preacher attempts to fully answers the question (if that is possible), or wraps up the issue neatly, he sits down with a sense of completion. But the Christian life is yet to be completed. Our job is not to close doors, but to open them. It is possible to defend certain truths and doctrines so that we are left in no doubt of their truth, but with no next steps.

For example, don't close the door to the Resurrection, by 'proving it'. Open that door. Show us why the Resurrection cracks open every part of our lives. Swing open the door so that I am left with new and righteous things to think and feel and do after hearing you preach.

Show us that God has for more for us than we dare ask or imagine.

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Pic on Flickr by Criggchef.

7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#3: Make Points)

See them all HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE
3. MAKE YOUR POINTS ACTUAL POINTS

i.e. not catch phrases or random words

This one I picked up from Richard Coekin from London. Richard saw one of my outlines 7 years ago and lambasted it. It was a lashing I needed. I had a good question. That part was OK. But my answer wasn't an answer. It was a series of random points. Like this:

• The Case for Love.
• Jesus and Love.
• Being Transformed.

What?

Make your points sentences. Short ones. Memorable ones. But actual ones. If you can't say what your points are in the seconds before you preach - in actual helpful sentences - then how will your hearers know what they are? We won't remember it if you haven't said it.

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Pic on Flickr by convexstyle.

7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#2: Ask One Question)

Read them all HERE.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK
2. ASK ONE QUESTION, OR EXPLORE ONE ISSUE

After starting with potentiality and possibility, I now usually ask one question, or explore one issue. Mostly the former. And I try not to sow it up in neat packages: I work towards an answer, or I take steps forward in exploration. In the end, I know that we all have further to go: more of the Scriptures to read, more of our God to love. And the one question we raise has to be both the burning question of the text, and at the same time the burning issue for the hearer.

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Pic on Flickr by Sean Dreilinger.

7 Preaching Discoveries in 7 Years (#1: Be Positive)

Someone emailed me recently to comment on a sermon I preached 7 years ago. I shuddered to think! Not that everything was bad 7 years ago, but of course, one learns so much over that time. I'm not setting myself up as an expert, and I've got a long way to go, but I am going to write 7 things I've discovered about preaching over 7 years, with some suggestions. You can read this alongside an MO for Preaching. Keen for your thoughts.

1. POSITIVE IS THE NEW BLACK

My tongue is firmly in my cheek as I write that, as if being negative where ever trendy. But there is truth here.

My Modus Operandi used to be: Start by telling us what we currently 'think', why it's wrong and why the Bible is right. The trouble with this is that it could be an exercise in power. And it gets tiring for the hearer too. Better, I think, to start by asking what God has for us that is good and right and reconciling, even if sometimes difficult to for our sinful hearts to hear. That is, what faith can be cultivated in dark times? What hope will we be lifted up here this morning? What love is possible? What ways can I be resourced to live the Christian life? What things do we do to banish error and take every thought captive to Christ?!

I certainly do preach negatively, but I now make it part of the body of the sermon, rather than its focus. Unless it is obvious that something strong needs to be preached. I'm thinking of Galatians here. But the default position must be to construct, rather than deconstruct.

Positive is the new black.

Discuss.

#2 to come.

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Pic on Flickr by my way home.

Sydney Bloggers CBD Lunch: June 10 Wynyard Park

The Rodeoclown and I will be having lunch in Wynyard Park on Wednesday, June 10, at 1pm.

Care to join us?

Does that Statue still exist? We could meet near it.

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Pic on Flickr by State Records NSW.

200 Words...

Must start up my 200 Words on the DnA of a Healthy Church.

I got side-tracked by the Sacraments and by an International move.

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Serving Jesus in the middle of a City

George MacDonald
"What Christ Said"

I said, "Let me walk in the fields,
He said, "Nay, walk in the town;
I said, "There are no flowers there,
He said, "No flowers, but a crown."

I said, "But the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din.
But He wept as He sent me back;
There is more," He said, "there is sin."

I said, "But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun.
He answered, "Yet hearts are sick,
And souls in the dark undone."

I said, "I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say.
He answered me, "Choose tonight
If I am to miss you, or they."

I pleaded for time to be given;
He said, "Is it hard to decide
It will not seem hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your guide."

I cast one look at the field,
Then set my face to the town;
He said, "My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?"

Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He,
And I walk in a light divine
The path I had feared to see!

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