Eternity - October 2015 - Issue 63

Co Jo hn -f Et ound San ern er d ity an eman Ne d E wsp dit ap or, er.

Picture this... a donation equal to two cups of coffee can help cover our monthly costs.

Dear Reader, For five years Eternity Newspaper has been a free service to the Australian church. Each month trucks travel to major cities and isolated towns delivering bundles of Eternity Newspapers to churches all over the nation. Conservatively, we estimate our readership to be more than 200,000 Australian church-goers. It is a huge project and a privilege to be its co-founding editor.

The idea for Eternity came to me at my dining room table in 2009 after leaving the Sydney Morning Herald, where I’d worked for many years. In 2011, to maintain some semblance of work/life balance and to give Eternity the best chance of continuing on to greater things, we joined forces with the Bible Society. My main goal with Eternity has always been to encourage Christians. For years it had bothered me that Christians were so gloomy about the state of Christian faith in Australia.

I was convinced things were brighter than many thought. I was also convinced that if we could just tell the stories of Christians from around Australia then our appreciation of what God was doing amongst us might be greater.

One of my delights now, is that, even though Eternity is a mere 5 years old, readers tell me it feels like a comfortable old shoe, a familiar friend. And we’re glad about that. We want Eternity to be a place where you can be stimulated theologically, read about issues of national significance to the Christian church and hear stories that inspire you in your walk with Jesus Christ.

So, if you’ve caught the vision of Eternity Newspaper then please consider making a donation to help fund its ongoing costs. Eternity does make some money from advertising but this doesn’t come anywhere near meeting all our costs. Each month we need to pay our talented team of writers, take our copy to the printing presses and then deliver the newspaper around Australia. And yet every copy is free.

I pray, that, God willing, we’ll be serving the Australian church for many years to come. But will you help us do that? We’d appreciate it if you could make a donation equal to just two cups of coffee.

Thanks for catching the vision.

John Sandeman Co - founder and Editor, Eternity Newspaper.

Picture this... a donation equal to two cups of coffee can help cover our monthly costs.

Picture this... a donation equal to two cups of coffee can help cover our monthly costs.

at your

FREE church or

bookshop

63

Number 63, OCTOBER 2015 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

You are welcome

• A Bible for every refugee • Living with refugees in our house • Christians trapped in Iraq and Syria

From gay activist to Christian apologist

The ‘Salvos’ turn 150

Simon Smart on pleasure, meaning and God

E

NEWS

2

FAITH IS...

...assurance of things hoped for

...belief without evidence

OCTOBER 2015

...complete trust in someone / thing

...pretending to know things you don’t know 86.8%

70.7%

News page 2-3 In Depth 5-9

22.5% 2.8% 2.2% 1.8%

Books Liftout 27.6%

Bible Society 13

MIGHTY FINE: Obadiah’s favourite reading on the internet lately has been one which runs positive stories about people living with a disability. As a parent of that sort of person, Obadiah is naturally interested. But it has made him think about the Christian websites he reads. So many are concerned with our internal debates, so few about great positive stories. Some think that this is due to the nature of the internet. But Obadiah is starting to wonder if it is more about us Christians, and our lack of balance.

WE KEEP OUR KIDS: Strangely enough there are Christian testimonies, or the stories of obviously Christian families at themighty.com. That might only be US culture, but may be a reflection that Christians have more disabled kids. Pro-life you see.

BIBLE IS TOPS: It’s worth noting that when Eternity stories go online (at biblesociety.org.au) it is testimonies and “pro-Bible” pieces, like a report of an effective Christian answer on Q&A, that get the big hits.

12.5%

15.9%

0.9%

5.3% 1.9%

2.9% 4.1% 0.5%

9.2% 16.0%13.9%

strongly agree

34.1% 15.9%

21.4%

33.4%

12.4% 35.2%

0%

0.6% 1.1% 5.2%

5.5%

9.9% 1.8%

40.6%

6.3%

20.7% 14.8% 20%

somewhat agree somewhat disagree strongly disagree don’t know

39.1%

71.1%

Opinion 15-20

Obadiah Slope

58.7%

54.6%

(Biblical definition)

(Atheist definition)

(Dictionary definition)

(Atheist definition)

Full report: iscast.org/perceptions_of_faith

What Aussies think of “faith” TESS HOLGATE Can you define faith? A new poll released last month suggests that religious and non-religious Australians cannot agree on one single definition.

Earlier this year, the Rationalist Society of Australia and the City Bible Forum teamed up to ask active members of non-religious communities and Christian communities in Australia to agree or disagree with eight different definitions of faith drawn from sources including the Oxford English Dictionary, Hebrews 11,

Quotable

and several definitions proposed

by Professor Peter Boghossian and Professor Tim McGrew in a radio debate from May 2014.

James Garth, the author of the study, says, “The takeaway point from this survey is that unless you actively define what you’re talking about in regards to faith, you can be like ships passing in the night.”

The results show that there is a lot of agreement from both communities on the Oxford English Dictionary definition of faith: “faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”

More surprisingly, the definition of faith from Hebrews 11:1, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” also received a large degree of agreement. “Obviously we expect Christian communities to buy into that, but we also saw the nonreligious communities accept it as well. Maybe they are accepting it for different reasons,” says Garth.

Garth believes that these results have significant implications for Christian apologetics and evangelism.

“One of the first things we need to do is have an open and rational

Wendy Francis Page 15

“Prostitution is a form of violence particularly against women and girls.”

Apply to study at Moore College before November 30 to avoid late fees. But that date is only the beginning of your journey - meeting new friends, being part of a community committed to growing more like Christ, engaging with God’s Word, and experiencing ministry and mission. What will your journey be?

Apply today, and find out. moore.edu.au/apply

discussion with people who think differently to us, about what they think of faith. We need to hear what other people are saying, and then we need to translate our own conception of faith into something they can then understand.

Otherwise we may be using this term in a way where they hear something completely different,” says Garth.

“At the very least, this study is telling us that we need to have an informed discussion with those who think differently [to us], before we even get into the idea of faith being a good thing.”

Simon Smart Page 19

“Without God, the author of life and all existence, the kind of meaning we require as human beings eludes us.”

NEWS

OCTOBER 2015

3

“Warts and all” Christianity KALEY PAYNE A warts-and-all account of how Christianity has influenced the world is now in development from the Centre For Public Christianity (CPX).

Titled For The Love of God: How the church is better and worse than you ever imagined, the documentary is scheduled for completion in 2017 and executive director of CPX, Simon Smart, is aiming high.

From addressing how Christianity has influenced wars and historical violence to highlighting the impact of Christian faith on scientific development and the Western understanding of the individual, human rights, beauty and culture, the documentary will span the course of Christian history.

When history professor David Bebbington from The University of Stirling – widely recognised as an authority on religious history – visited the Centre For Public Christanity earlier this year, he confirmed something Simon and his colleagues had felt for a long time: “The primary question for people today, regarding Christianity, is not ‘Is it true?’ but ‘Is it good?’”

“We’ve moved through a period where many people thought Christianity is something they could safely ignore, to a point where a vocal and influential minority think it’s actually sinister, and something to be actively

CPX began shooting their new documentary last month, starting with an interview with theologian Miroslav Volf on ‘thick and thin’ religion. resisted,” said Simon.

One of the most frequent objections to Christianity is the faith’s violent past. Simon says many people point to the Crusades or the Inquisitions as examples of the terrible suffering Christianity has inflicted on the world.

“And these are, certainly, terrible things,” said Simon. “In fact, the documentary could reveal some awful stories that people may not have even heard before. But there’s a need to untangle what happened in these wars, distinguishing between something that’s purely a result of faith itself and other more complicated factors.”

CPX founder John Dickson will

host the documentary, with Simon and senior research fellow Justine Toh. They’ll travel around the world to bring the documentary to life, from Spanish dungeons to talk about the Inquisitions to Israel to explore the question of Old Testament violence. They’ll also visit early Christian monasteries in Europe, to discover the earliest examples of caring for the poor, and ancient hospices where people ministered to the destitute and dying, and plenty of places in between.

“We want to address the question of the impact of Christianity, not wanting to hide from the very real aspects of

Christian history that are shameful and add weight to the criticism that religion can be a force for evil.

We want to fully acknowledge the failures of Christianity in order to tell the good story.

Because we believe the picture is overwhelmingly positive.”

The documentary will feature interviews with historians and theologians at the top of their fields, including Yale Divinity School professor Miroslav Volf – the documentary’s first interviewee while he was recently in Australia, on religion and violence.

“There’s a beautiful, largely untold, story for people today about the way in which Christianity has shaped many of the good things about our world, that demonstrate that Christianity has done a lot more good than harm,” said Simon.

“We think it’s worth people knowing the full story before writing it off. We want to acknowledge the criticisms that are valid, telling people something of the core of the faith and the vision that Christianity has laid out and the sometimes very inadequate, imperfect expression of that vision.

That’s an important distinction to make.

“Ultimately, we want people to think again before they swallow the popular wisdom about the damage Christianity might have done and to have a more informed understanding of its contributions.

Perhaps it will encourage them to think Christianity might be worth a second look.”

E

In brief GAY CAKES AGAIN: “Should bakers be forced to bake cakes for samesex weddings?” will be tackled by Archbishop Anthony Fisher at the Centre For Independent Studies’ 2015 Acton Lecture. cis.org.au/events JOURNO TEACHES REAL LIFE: Former radio journalist Andrew Laird will be helping Ridley College students link study with everyday work life from 2016. Laird is being seconded from City Bible Forum, Melbourne in the new role.

NIGERIAN VIOLENCE: Muslim/ Christian tension continues as 38 Christians are killed and 5000 are displaced from Christian towns in Plateau State, according to Morning Star News. In recent months 200,000 Christians have been displaced.

EASY BETS: Australian Christian Lobby opposes a Woolworths plan to introduce a ‘frequent gamblers’ rewards card programme. ACL managing director Lyle Shelton said it was morally irresponsible to reward people for accessing highly addictive poker machines.

NEW CAMPUS: Excelsia College, formerly Wesley Institute, has moved into a new campus in Macquarie Park, Sydney. The college teaches drama, teacher education, music and counselling.

TOP VIDEOS: Digital guru Steve Kryger has listed 50 websites to find quality videos to share at church. communicatejesus.com

OCTOBER 2015

E CHRISTIAN SUPER SPONSORED PAGE 4

Investors provide access to safe drinking water Water is something we often take for granted. It is so much a part of our everyday lives that most of us don’t ever consider what life would be like without it. The concept of not having access to clean water is almost unimaginable. Yet, this was a way of life that metro Manila residents faced every day.

Prior to 1997, the capital’s water supply and distribution was in disarray. Illegal connections were rampant. Drinking water was acquired at a steep price and was a privilege that poor families could not afford.

In Manila, communal water sources had always been shared by hundreds of families who had to line up for hours just to get a few pails for the day’s use.

Clean and potable water was a luxury that poor families could not access, resulting in illness and disease. Manila Water Company, a Christian Super investment through Colonial First State, developed the infrastructure required to bring water to these families, so they could go about their lives without worrying about water again.

Manila Water Company is the sole provider of water and wastewater services to more than six million people in metro Manila, comprising a broad range of residential, commercial and industrial customers. They provide services at a reasonable cost, generating a good return for investment while building a

Safe drinking water can be provided at a reasonable cost, generating a good return for superannuation investment while building a healthier future. healthier future. It’s a win-win for investors and communities.

Before Manila Water’s involvement in the water industry in 1997, the East Zone suffered from insufficient infrastructure and environmental deterioration, which was accelerated by rapid population increase. 24-hour water supply was only available to 26% of the area’s population, mainly

due to leakages caused by meter tampering and illegal connections — practices which caused a domino effect of problems including water contamination and water-borne diseases.

When Manila Water came to a region, the community developed.

After one year the roads were made of concrete, there were basketball courts and health

centres. Results were nothing short of dramatic. When new areas received piped water the cases of diarrhoea reduced.

Clean water means better health and less sick days. Families also saved 85-90% on their water expenses. For the Abesar family, waiting for water is now a distant memory. “It’s a big help versus before when we scrimped on

, SUPER THAT S CHANGING THE WORLD

water. Now we can take a bath at night too. Our daily schedule has changed. We can sleep longer because the water is available 24/7. Our house is now clean. It’s easy to do things because we have Manila Water.” said Ever & Josephine Abesar, who lived without piped water for 10 years.

The company expanded the network of water mains with over 5000 kilometres of pipes, and replaced nearly 90% of the old, dishevelled network. Reduction in water losses reduced from 63% in 1997 to 11% in 2014 - an unprecedented feat in the history of the Philippine water sector.

The company also managed to be 100% compliant to the water quality standards of the Department of Health and the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water In the 18 years since these waterways were turned over to the private Sector, Manila Water has doubled its customers from 3.1 million to 6.3 million and increased 24-hour water supply from 26% to 99%, resulting over 1.2 billion litres of clean water reaching customers each day.

Extending its success, Manila Water is currently expanding its operations by establishing water and wastewater service partnerships in Boracay, Clark Freeport Zone (Pampanga), Cebu, and Laguna in the Philippines, as well as international ventures in Vietnam and Myanmar. Learn more at www.manilawater.com

MAKE A DIFFERENCE. JOIN ONLINE IN JUST 5 MINUTES!

www.christiansuper.com.au

WE AVOID INVESTING IN:

WE ACTIVELY INVEST IN:

Embryonic stem cell research Alcohol & tobacco Pornography Gambling Weapons Child Labour Fast food

Community infrastructure Sustainable agriculture Microfinance Renewable energy Clean technology Microinsurance Social impact

Awarded Gold Super Ratings for Super and Pension 2015.

Join the industry fund that’s changing the world through ethical investing.

OCTOBER 2015

E

5

IN DEPTH

E

+

David Bennett Gay activist leaves his old life behind – Page 7

Salvos’ 150-year battle Tom Fernee, left, and Samira Amisse enjoy blowing their trumpets and French horns at the Salvation Army’s Barwon Corps HQ in Geelong, Victoria.

ANNE LIM Salvation Army Commissioner James Condon still gets emotional when he remembers the ordeal he endured at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last year.

“I’d have to say that last year was the toughest year of my life,” the head of the church’s Australian Eastern Territory confesses during an interview to mark the Salvation Army’s 150th anniversary.

“Some mornings I would just sit in my prayer chair and I didn’t know how to pray.”

During several gruelling days in the witness box, Commissioner Condon clashed with counsel over why he didn’t report a known paedophile to the police, with his

evidence mocked as “ludicrous” and “ridiculous”.

And in a live stream from

the commission, he cried as he apologised for the abuse children suffered at Salvation Army homes

in the 1960s and ‘70s.

“God was amazing because in my own strength I could

Polishing the brass cupboard Brass instruments left over from the decline in brass-band playing in Salvation Army worship services are finding a new life on the lips of children.

Just Brass is a free programme that uses surplus instruments to give disadvantaged primary school children the training and opportunity to play in a community brass band.

It was launched in Geelong in Victoria in 2010, where about 90

children from various primary schools are bussed to the South Barwon Corps HQ each week to rehearse. The programme has grown and is now offered at various corps across the Southern and Eastern Territories.

“It’s a concept very much about kids in socially challenged areas where they can extend the whole idea of community and learning an instrument,” says spokesman Bruce Redman.

With the trend to include Hillsong-style songs, the brass band is no longer a core ingredient in worship services, although brass elements are often retained.

“In the past you had to be a signed-up member to play in a Salvation Army band; now it’s open to anyone who’s interested.

So it becomes its own ministry in a sense because they are involved in a group where most people are Christians.”

never have got through that. I discovered what it means to be strengthened by the Lord.”

Picking up the pieces after a horror year that damaged the Salvation Army’s image even among its own people, Commissioner Condon enjoyed meeting Salvationists from the four corners of the world at a recent gathering in London to celebrate the 150th year since William and Catherine Booth began their ministry to the poor in London.

One lunch hour during the hearings, Commissioner Condon, was introduced to Mark Stiles, who had been raped and tortured by a Salvation Army major at Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn in 1971, when he was just 12.

Mr Stiles had given evidence of

E

IN DEPTH

6

being dragged out of bed at 3am and being sexually abused. But Mr Stiles said he had been able to forgive his abuser after hearing a voice telling him Jesus was alive.

Commissioner Condon invited Mr Stiles to speak at the National Day of Prayer and Fasting in Canberra in February, where he and other church leaders washed his feet in an act of repentance.

Floyd Tidd, a Canadian who has led the Australian Southern Territory (Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory) for the past two years, has also been meeting survivors of abuse.

He is due to give evidence at Royal Commission hearings in Adelaide this month and says he will not defend what happened.

“My concern is really not the damage it may have done to the brand,” he tells Eternity.

“My greatest concern is what damage has been inflicted and what do we learn from that? And how do we help those who have experienced that which was not helpful to them, which caused them even more damage? How do we work together with them?”

Commissioner Tidd says he has started inviting supporters to hold him to account on the issue.

“Hold us accountable, look me in the eyes and ask me what I am doing to ensure we do everything possible to make sure it never happens to another young life.”

Both commissioners, who report directly to London head office rather than working together, are chasing ways for the Salvation Army to reinvent itself in 21stcentury multicultural society.

While it is growing in Africa

OCTOBER 2015

A Salvos officer offers help and hope to a homeless woman and child. and parts of Asia, the church is declining in Britain and Europe and, in real terms, in Australia.

In the Eastern Territory (NSW, ACT and Queensland), regular church attendance has grown from 10,000 people a decade ago to 10,300 today, but this lags behind population growth.

“Engaging an emerging generation that has a heartbeat and passion for mission and yet takes a step back from hierarchical and institutional approaches – that’s the dance that we have to figure out how to do better,” says Commissioner Tidd.

Young soldiers have abandoned the traditional blue suit, white shirt and blue tie in favour of a branded black T-shirt with a large Red Shield logo on the chest.

Commissioner Condon, who is to retire next May, believes the uniform may act as a barrier to reaching new arrivals in

multicultural Sydney.

“Many new arrivals come from countries where there is no Salvation Army and where a uniform might be feared,” he says.

In Sydney, where many young members have drifted to Hillsong, questions are also being asked about styles of worship.

In Melbourne, more flexible approaches to worship services are being tried including messy church, young adult services, and come-as-you-are church on Saturday night after a meal.

The initiatives are meant to redress criticism that the church’s social programmes have overshadowed its gospel ministry.

“In the late ‘80s, if you did research, the average Aussie would think of us as a charity,” admits Commissioner Condon.

“Increasingly, I think, people do see us as a church – but even people who see us as a church

think it’s not for them because the image is of a church for the downand-outs, whereas by and large the people are middle class.”

Commissioner Condon says longstanding social programmes are being gauged by how mission focused they are. One casualty of this new focus was the Salvo Care Line, which was axed in July.

Commissioner Condon’s touchstone project is Salvos Legal, a free legal service for people, particularly new arrivals, who can’t speak English and can’t afford a lawyer when they get into trouble.

He is proud to have realised a vision first articulated by founder William Booth to help poor people with their legal matters.

“To me that’s exciting because it’s contemporary and it’s relevant.”

Commissioner Tidd says the thriving churches are those that have taken local responsibility for community engagement.

“So in many ways I would think that the future of Salvation Army churches is in this moving out of our buildings again, back into the communities and engaging with the communities. That leads to the expression of you are a church but you are a social group and the two are not divorced.”

Commissioner Tidd’s reviews of services has prompted an increased presence of street teams going out into the city late at night, most prominently in Melbourne but also other major cities.

“That’s the old become new for us in many ways,” he says.

Among the new initiatives, the second-level Doorways programme is helping people who are struggling financially to break the poverty cycle and to find a way out.

Captain’s log A former Salvation Army captain has told Eternity of how the competing forces between the needs of the church and the community led him to leave the army.

“It is a massive fight between the two,” he says. “The church wanted your attention and the community wanted your attention. “We left because we really felt passionate about discipleship and church.

But because of the pull-away and perception of the charity side of things it was hard to run the church.”

The former captain says trying to be a church in a community that sees you as a charity is tough.

“Everyone wants everything from you; they say ‘the Army should help.’ ‘They MUST help,’ and ‘that is what you are there for.’

[They say] ‘You are not allowed to say no’, and ‘we don’t want to have your Christianity.’”

The ex-captain says his concern is that the Army can’t be effective in the welfare field if the church is not healthy.

“We also need to look after the people in our churches and get them healthy or we won’t have the people to go out and do what we do,” he says.

“Local churches are struggling big time. They are shrinking, like most churches in Australia.

I think one of the problems that we have is that people come in to the Salvation Army to do the good work and don’t actually have the foundation of Jesus.”

Grant a Wish and help people thrive!

Set up your own giving tree this Christmas and help bring joy and healing to people or communities facing poverty or hardship.

All you need to do is: 1. Register to receive an ADRA Christmas Pack (includes gift tags & other resources) 2. Promote the Christmas Tree initiative at home, church, school or orgainisation.

Handing out gift tags to those that purchase gifts.

3. Return the donations to ADRA to start having an impact.

adra.org.au 1800 242 372

IN DEPTH

OCTOBER 2015

7

E

The war of the loves - a gay-rights activist leaves his old life behind DAVID BENNETT My journey to faith in Christ was a road studded with valleys and troughs. As a young teenager attending a Christian boys school in a leafy Sydney suburb, I awoke to the fact that I was attracted exclusively to men.

When I came out at the age of 14, I decided to keep my distance from my “fundamentalist” relatives. The late Henri Nouwen says: “I have come to realise that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’”

I resisted this voice and instead internalised anger towards the Christian world in which I was brought up.

I abandoned any positive view of Christianity and, as a spiritually hungry teenager, dabbled and experimented with all sorts of new-age spirituality. One day, ridden with curiosity, I visited a psychic in Newtown. As she read my cards and looked at me, she said I was a child of the light and was destined to be with Jesus. I was furious. When we moved to our house closer to the harbour, I would often look out over our new view wishing I could escape to Oxford Street and the eastern suburbs where culture had the libertine sophistication I craved.

Little did I know I was chasing a ghost that would never fulfil me, a darkness that masqueraded as an angel of light. If it were Rome, I would have worshipped at the altar of Aphrodite or Eros. The predominant message around me was that eros love was the highest of the loves and how dare those pious Christians deprive me of the highest form of transcendence possible. Agape love was a saccharine dream, not the love on the cross.

The war of the loves truly began when I found out that my mother became a Christian at a charismatic church on the Northern Beaches. “You must choose between me or the God that hates me,” I said.

At university, I threw myself into political and creative clubs and joined the Queer Collective and

Labor Left. I would rip down the Christian club’s posters and would stick Queer Collective posters over the top.

It wasn’t until I was 19 that I ended up in a love triangle with a plotline much like a Woody Allen film. My view of things was like Juan Antonio in Vicky Christina Barcelona: “Why not? Life is short. Life is dull. Life is full of pain. And this is a chance for something special.” I came to the end of the romantic ideal of the secular society around me; it isn’t ever worth taking Woody Allen’s romantic advice.

I decided that after dating so many people, I would stay single for a year, and after my best friend’s boyfriend fell in love with me and I reciprocated, I felt dead inside. I felt like David in his situation with Bathsheba – the fatal repercussion being the death of a close friendship. I had become the cliched secular hypocrite. My broken morality and evil heart trumped my “rational” ethics every time.

At Christmas time I had a debate with my Christian uncle. “There is no absolute truth!” I proclaimed over the family Christmas table.

“To say there is no absolute truth is an absolute truth,” my uncle retorted softly. “The truth is a person I know, not a static concept in my head.” My postmodern worldview was disarmed. I stormed out.

Three months later, I found

myself in the Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills, and had spotted a young filmmaker from my uni who was a finalist in Tropfest Short Film Festival. I wanted her for an interview in the student magazine – definitely the best local story we would have all year.

As she revealed her faith to me, I pushed back against her talk about God until she asked me one piercing question. “Have you experienced the love of God?” I didn’t know you could experience God. I didn’t know about the Holy Spirit. She offered me prayer and suddenly I just said yes. As she prayed fervently, I felt an incredible sensation on the top of my head, a soft tingling that intensified.

It felt as if someone was pouring a vial of oil over my head. The powerful sensation ran all over my body and then surged in power.

In retrospect, I believe God was anointing me like Jesus in Isaiah 61 and baptising me in his Holy Spirit. At this stage I started to weep and felt a voice say to me “Do you want me?” three times.

This came as exactly the question I needed to hear at this time – a mutual desire. The third time I said yes. I still didn’t know which god this was. Then, like a breath entering me, I could feel this new life in my soul. I was born again. I heard the Father’s voice ask me: “Will you accept my son Jesus as your Lord and Saviour?” I said yes. God poured out his love in my heart and I was overcome with

arbitrary tears. This time I felt his power like a heat in my body. I had become a Christian.

Three weeks after the pub moment, I was at Tropfest, and my friend’s film came up on the screen. As I watched, I looked up to a particular star and prayed to God, “If you’re real, I need you to show me that you exist … If I’m to give it all up, I need you to show me you exist.” The filmmaker’s short had won the whole competition and I ran down to the red carpet to get an interview with her for the university magazine. She was surrounded by the Australian acting establishment and I called out to her. She turned around and came running over to me with her pineapple trophy in her hand.

“David, this event is for God’s glory … I am just his servant. There are angels all around this place … God has been reminding me to tell you that he exists … you really need to know that he exists!”

I walked out from Tropfest floating. Jesus was real. He had answered my prayer directly after I’d prayed it.

That Sunday I interviewed her and I attended her Sunday church.

As I entered the church I felt this overwhelming sense of God’s presence and I spent the next six months weeping in church services and as the music played, lifting my hands in true worship to God. My whole story was littered with undeniable coincidences and God’s confirmation. I had met the love I had been searching for all through my life.

I remember at the age of 15 sitting in Christchurch Meadow in Oxford with my mother’s colleague who had let me come stay to see England. He was a passionate New Atheist and bought me The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins from Blackwells. As I looked up at the edifice of Christchurch College, I whispered to myself, “I will never study here.” It wasn’t until 10 years later, sitting in exactly the same spot, having been accepted to study theology at the University of Oxford that God reminded me that he had removed my old self and that I was a new creation. His plan had always been good for me, but I didn’t know his heart.

Often when we as Christians focus on morality, we miss the

communication of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We forget that, above and beyond morality, it is really only God’s love through the grace of Jesus Christ that can save us.

When we say to the gay community “you can’t have God, and you can’t have marriage,” do we realise that in their minds they see us as trying to deprive them of the highest or ultimate forms of transcendence in life?

In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis says, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” The only problem is that if you’re a naturalist, there is no other world and the ultimate source of transcendence is romantic love.

If I had not found agape love of God I could not have given up the lesser good and god of this age, romantic love. As per Augustine of Hippo, the real problem is that the heart is restless until it rests in God. The marriage debate aside, we all need to know the agape love of God. When people ask me whether homosexuality is a sin I point them to a greater sin – refusing to share or receive the love of God. Like that girl in the pub, I am praying for more Christians to step out in this love and refrain from hanging the morality of law over people’s heads. Gay rights activist or not, when agape love wins the war, we find the permission to repent from death and live – the very good news of Jesus Christ. Nothing is more transcendent or ultimate than the God who is agape love and for whom it is worth giving everything David Bennett is a passionate apologist for the Christian faith.

He studied last year at Wycliffe Hall, the University of Oxford and the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. David wants to bring a fresh new voice to the issue of homosexuality and cutting through the current culture war we are seeing. He is committed to living out biblical sexuality and discipleship and wants to present a positive moral vision for what it means to worship God with your whole being, sexuality included.

His other interests include apologetics, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, cooking, community, and he loves living in Oxford.

Y�’re in�ted to

OPEN MORNING 9.30am Saturday 7 November

• Hear about the courses • Tour the campus • Chat with the lecturers • Enjoy brunch 43 Badminton Road, Croydon NSW 2132 02 9747 4780 • Bible-centred • Missions-focussed • Interdenominational

MORE INFO AT: SMBC.COM.AU

/SMBCOLLEGE

E

INDEPTH

8

OCTOBER 2015

Sent to save sinners

“Send us a preacher lest we die in our sins” was the plea sent to London by a group of Methodists in the very early days of white Australia. The Methodists in London answered the plea by sending Samuel Leigh to Sydney 200 years ago this year.

When Samuel Leigh arrived at Port Jackson on August 10, 1815, there was no great reception party, yet within twenty-four hours he was in the presence of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

When Leigh introduced himself as a Wesleyan missionary to Edward Eagar (sent to NSW as a convict for forgery but one of the group that had written to London), he received a less than enthusiastic welcome. Eagar replied, “Indeed!

I am sorry to inform you that it is now doubtful whether the governor will allow you to remain in the country in that capacity.”

Wesley Mission

Keith Garner on Methodism’s Aussie founder Samuel Leigh helped set up the first Bible Society in Australia The next day he presented himself to the governor, and it became clear that Eagar’s fears were not unfounded. The governor informed Leigh, “I regret you have come here as a missionary, and feel sorry, and cannot give you any encouragement in that capacity.”

Governor Macquarie informed Leigh he did not have the appropriate letters of introduction from the British government. At the time, there were all manner of sectarian conflicts erupting in the colony and the governor referred to a recent rebellion, described as being “aggravated by the bitter hostility of both papists and Protestants”. This was probably a reference to the Irish convict rebellion in Castle Hill in 1804.

The governor continued, “I had

rather you had come from any other society than the Methodist.

I profess to be a member of the Church of England and wish all to be of the same profession and therefore cannot encourage any parties.”

Governor Macquarie offered Leigh a position in the government and told him he would become much richer and more comfortable than he would by going about preaching. Leigh turned down the offer, insisting he had come to the colony as a Wesleyan missionary and could act in no other capacity while he remained here.

However, before the interview was over, the governor seemed to have taken to Leigh’s character and instructed the Surveyor General’s office to provide Leigh with free

passage throughout the colony.

The autocratic President of the British Wesleyan Conference, Jabez Bunting, wrote to assure Macquarie that there was no intention to be a difficulty to him.

The governor certainly warmed towards Leigh. In 1816 he was happy to patronise Leigh’s benevolent society and, in January 1819, the foundation stone of a Wesleyan chapel was laid in Macquarie Street on land donated by the governor. He also gave land for a chapel in Parramatta and further plots of land followed.

The governor helped Leigh to launch the first Bible Society in Australia, in March 1817, since Bibles were very scarce – about one family in ten in Sydney possessed one. Leigh’s concern stretched far beyond localised Methodism.

On Leigh’s arrival in Sydney, he asked where his furniture for a house was and received the reply, “The London Committee understood you to apply for furniture for a horse not a house.”

Therefore, he was supplied with a second-hand military saddle, bridle and all other requisites.

Again, this would prove to be providential, for Leigh, like John Wesley before him, was definitely a man on horseback.

The horse, Old Traveller, enabled Leigh to ensure the work grew far beyond Sydney. In ten days he travelled about 150 miles and held 14 preaching services in settlers’ cabins, corn-sheds and storerooms.

In 1986, the local minister at Milton in Staffordshire, UK reflected on Leigh’s life: “Samuel Leigh was one of that mighty army, and the fact that he did not come from Galilee, Tarsus or Rome, but Milton in Staffordshire, should help us to understand that these missionaries were ordinary people such as ourselves, using their gifts in the service of the Lord. They had their roots, their families and their weaknesses. They were not plaster saints, but human beings.”

The Rev. George Lane, President of the Methodist Church of Australasia, in his introduction to Colwell’s seminal history of Methodism in Australia, says of Leigh, “For he was instrumental in saving souls and erecting churches; setting in motion waves of spiritual and moral influences which have never ceased to exert themselves for the honour of God, the welfare of mankind and the prosperity of the people who dwell here.”

Samuel Leigh was six years old when John Wesley died. In the cottage meetings where he entered into a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ, there may have been some who had listened to Wesley himself. Samuel Leigh picked up the baton and we can be certain that he ran his leg of the race with great faithfulness.

O that the world might taste and see / The riches of his grace!

The arms of love that compass me / Would all mankind embrace.

(Charles Wesley)

Bible Society Young Scholars Scholarships include: • $2,000 accommodation support • $450 assistance for resources and conference support • Mentoring and assistance to research a topical issue and produce works of Christian scholarship • Guidance and support to engage in tailored ministry activities For information about eligibility, selection criteria and how to apply, visit www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/scholarships or phone 02 9381 1999.

Apply Now For 2016 Scholarships

The Bible Society Young Scholars program supports young Christian men and women to live at New College or New College Village while studying at The University of New South Wales.

This introductory program to Christian scholarship also provides practical opportunities for participants to engage in Christian ministry in the College community.

IN DEPTH

OCTOBER 2015

9

E

Sharing your home with refugees TESS HOLGATE

Syria: Refugees forced to flee

Refugee advocate Jarrod McKenna Turkey has hosted refugees in his home Dohuk since 2004, and now runs First Kobani Hassaka Home Project with his wife Teresa, a live-in residential community Erbil Mosul Raqqa Aleppo aimed at giving refugees a rental history of their own.

Ninevah UPDATE: Still under Jarrod says, “there are so many Kurdish control but highlights of living with refugees. under threat with 2 Syria I love how much my prayer life has car bombs killing 21 been transformed. Having friends Homs who come to Christ and the cultural UPDATE: Since August, sensitivities of so many different IS has gained control cultures being brought together. of al-Qaryatain.

We are of one spirit, one body, one baptism, and that is incredible.”

Damascus Baghdad Iraq And the delights of living with refugees also extend beyond the Iraqui Army Control Kurdish Government IS Influence or Support individual.

IS Control Ninevah Plain IS Presence or Control “We Aussies are actually pretty Uncertain or recurring attacks bad at doing real community,” says Jarrod. “We’re very isolated and living with people from collectivist cultures, you actually start to realise how much we’ve got to Conflict in the Middle Eastern ground in Syria, providing for the learn about hospitality. It’s a huge nation of Syria has left the country daily needs of displaced Syrians. blessing to learn the generosity of Jordan decimated, and millions have fledArabia The organisation works through these different cultures.”

Saudi to neighbouring countries and the church, delivering food and But while living with refugees beyond seeking safety. There are hygiene packs, winter preparation can be wonderful, it can also be no signs the conflict is letting up. gear, providing emergency just as difficult as living with any On October 17, Open Doors accommodation, trauma other human being. is hosting a Day of Prayer for counselling and the Bible to those “These people are as amazing Syria. It is encouraging individual who want it. and fascinating and problematic churches to plan their own Back in Australia, Hillsong’s and annoying and delightful as the events, and will supply groups Bobbie Houston asks, “could rest of us,” says Jarrod. with resources to help them pray a handful of women with When it comes to navigating specifically. compassion in their hearts, difficult tensions, Jarrod is Open Doors is working on the empathy in their spirit, and prayer adamant that it’s not more complicated than resolving conflict

within a local church congregation, and that many tensions are the product of a clash of cultures.

Jarrod is happy to admit that he’s made his fair share of cultural Iranover the years, including faux pas telling one Afghan friend at an evening event with around 100 people that if everyone took a little less Sulaymaniyah food then there’d be enough to go around.

As Jarrod tells, it, “I didn’t realise just how offensive that was, because in their culture the host would literally fast from eating before ever saying to a guest ‘there isn’t enough’. It took me three weeks to find out he’d been avoiding me because he was so offended, and [he] didn’t know how we could be friends.”

In light of the government’s announcement that we will

Pray for Syria

in their mouth change the world or (at very least) put a dent in the plans of an insane (spiritual) Basrah enemy?

“Well I am naïve enough to believe they can,” she says.

Her point: prayer is powerful.

“It is something we may not fully understand this side of eternity – but if we are obedient, we shall see it unleash its miraculous power.”

You can join the Open Doors Day of Prayer on its Facebook page.

welcome 12,000 Syrian refugees, Jarrod has two basic principles that might help inform how we go about loving them.

First, be quick to listen and slow to speak (and slow to offer used business shirts that are one size too big). “What [refugees] need is for people to actually come alongside and listen in such ways that we can do unto others as we would want them to do unto us if we were seeking safety ourselves. What people need is actually to express their needs. The importance of friendship is critical. We don’t want the church to be in a position where out of good intentions, because we have no cultural sensitivity, we humiliate those who are already in such a vulnerable situation.”

And second, never ask them their story. “No one on a Sunday morning, no pastor or minister, would ask anybody to turn to the person next to you and share the most painful experience of your life, because that’s inappropriate.

That’s horrific. You can’t just demand of people that they [tell you that]. And yet when working with people who are seeking safety, there’s this morbid curiosity where people are like, ‘tell me, why are you a refugee?’”

Jarrod says that having refugees in your home is not for everyone, but if you are consistently interested in loving vulnerable people, you might be ready to prayerfully consider if God could use you to love refugees in this way.

cation.org

E

EDUCATION

10

OCTOBER 2015

Training the first Australians NUNGALINYA COLLEGE Nungalinya in Darwin is where many Aboriginal leaders are trained. Paul Gurruwiwi and Connie Wilfred are two recent graduates.

A family tradition of form and faith Paul came to Nungalinya with his brother Shaun. Both of them enjoy doing traditional Yolgnu craft. Both also enjoy spreading the gospel to young people in their Elcho Island communities.

These things run in the family.

Paul’s father, Gali Yalkarriwuy Gurruwiwi, is a well-known artist whose work is shown at Darwin Museum. One of Gali’s works, the Morning Star pole, is exhibited in the Darwin Museum along with ceremonial poles from other communities. Each of these wooden shafts has attached bark fibre string, beeswax fastener and bright fringing feathers, green, grey, white and bright orange. The feathers at the pole’s crown are the star itself; the pendant string-tied feather bunches represent each of the clans. “Banumbirr” means Morning Star in Yolgnu Matha.

The poles are used ceremonially in Arnhem Land.

Paul now crafts his own Morning Star poles at Galiwin’ku where he lives with his wife Evelyn. The skill comes through Paul’s father, grandfather and great grandfather.

But there is more to Paul than fine craftsmanship. Like his

Learning and growing: Paul Gurruwiwi left) and Connie Wilfred (right). brother Shaun, he is a Christian.

The two brothers travel around and do gospel dancing at Christian fellowships to support their teaching of the Bible. Paul came to know Jesus as a young teenager of 14: “I was going with some of the church leaders to Ramingining and Milingimbi.” Paul’s mother and father were among the leaders.

Paul recalls: “I felt this was the right way to live.”

This may not have happened without the intercession of Kevin Gurruwiwi, late brother of Gamiritj Gurriwiwi. For 20 years, Gamiritj has been a languagesupport assistant at Nungalinya and is Paul’s grandmother.

“As a teenager, Paul had never danced,” says Gamiritj. “Kevin had a group that performed for tourists called the Galiwin’ku Wilderness Dancers. Paul was a very quiet young man. Kevin said to him:

‘I will make you strong to be a leader.’”

For several years (1994-97), Paul and his brothers performed in the dance group in and around Darwin. “From this, we felt really good about our dancing,” says Paul.

“We went back to Galiwin’ku to start our Christian music-anddance. We make our own dance moves and use Christian music brought to us by our brothers who visited us from Fiji.”

Gamiritj recalls the early awakenings in her grandkids about the importance of handing down the tradition of living a good Christian life. “Paul and Shaun listened and they took it in, even at that age. I would like to think we were good role models, and that they will be good leaders.”

Paul likes to come to Nungalinya to improve his literacy, and says: “Yes, I would like to come back.”

I came here to learn about the Lord Connie is keen to develop her Bible-reading skills so that she can share her love of the Bible with family and friends. This is what drives her to keep coming back to Nungalinya.

Connie is from Ngukurr in south-eastern Arnhem Land. She has three daughters, a son and nine grandchildren. Connie has been at college four times. She first came in 2009. She is in the process of completing the Foundation Course to develop reading and writing skills using the Bible, with the aim of going on to Certificate 3 in theology. In Ngukurr, she worships at St Matthews Anglican Church.

She attends Bible studies for adults on Mondays and Wednesdays, and helps with Kids Club on Thursday and Friday afternoons.

Connie came to know Jesus in 2008, when she was 43. “Before

I came to know the Lord, I was a really bad person. I used to play cards for money and spending my money wrongly.”

One day, while Connie was walking home with her husband after playing cards: “I heard my cousin’s sister singing at church.

She was singing, ‘You been running, running’ which means when you run away a long time from the Lord. As we were walking back home, I knew that the Lord was speaking to me, telling me to go back to church.

“Back home, I said to my husband, I’m going back to church.

The next day I went to the church and shared my testimony there.

From that day, I make my promise that I not go back to my old ways.

I just want to keep going with the Lord.”

Since coming to study at Nungalinya, Connie says: “My life is really good here – learning about Jesus. I’m really happy about that.

I’m really happy he brought me into his light. That’s why I want to keep going with my Christian life.”

Connie has an important prayer ministry with sick people and their families and the hospital staff.

When asked what she likes best about studying at Nungalinya, Connie says: “I like to read the Bible. I love Nungalinya because it’s the college where we learn about the Lord. When I go back to Ngukurr, I want to share what I’ve learnt with my Christian brothers and sisters.”

0450 388 298 LDiEducation.org

IMPACT The World

equipping every Christian, everywhere.

TEACH

FROM THE INSIDE OUT

QUALITY ONLINE THEOLOGICAL AND MINISTRY TRAINING TO EQUIP YOU TO SERVE IN YOUR LOCAL CONTEXT

Contact us to find out more open positions avilable in China and the UAE the

timothypartnership

Online Ministry Training

Counselling & Supervision Info Days ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶

PYMBLE: 19 and 31 OCT SHOALHAVEN: 22, 23 and 25 OCT CENTRAL COAST: 31 OCT MELBOURNE: 10 OCT CANBERRA: 8 OCT

See website for details

Courses CHC51712 Diploma of Counselling CHC80208 Grad Dip Relationship Counselling 10348NAT Grad Cert in Professional Supervision (Clinical)(Pastoral)

www.stmarks.edu.au

timothypartnership.com.au

World class theological education, where Bible, mission, and people come together.

OPEN DAY Thursday October 15 9am–2pm / 6–9pm mst.edu.au

03 9881 7800 5 Burwood Highway Wantirna VIC 3152 ABN 58 004 265 016 | CRICOS Provider Code 02650E #201509 128x90mm Eternity MST Ad 201509.indd 1

20/08/2015 2:41 pm

THE BIG PICTURE

OCTOBER 2015

11

A Martian’s argument for God MARK HADLEY

The Martian’s focus is split between Watney’s inspired survival efforts and the worldwide effort to secure his rescue. The geeky science gives way to a theory about what it means to be truly human. The film suggests we are a social species that ultimately values the life of every individual more than the benefits they return: “Every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out.

If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a

The Martian is an amazing science fiction outing for veteran director Ridley Scott that some will take as a hymn to the ingenuity of humanity and a further indication of our small need to look to the heavens for any assistance. After all, if an astronaut can science his way out of certain death then what need is there for God? But look closer at the book behind the film and you will discover more room for a benevolent creator than an atheist will be comfortable with.

The Martian introduces Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney, an engineer attached to the third manned mission to Mars somewhere in humanity’s not-toodistant future. The five-person crew he’s attached to has only been on the surface of the planet a few days when a fierce dust storm scrubs their mission. Watney is swept away by flying debris and his bio-monitor destroyed. His comrades believe his heart has stopped and are forced to launch without him. Only Watney isn’t dead. He wakes up half buried in sand and realises he is alone on a hostile planet. There are no fanciful aliens gunning for him, just the environment. Almost every aspect of Mars spells death to human beings. Armed with only today’s science, Watney will have to find a way to survive for four years before any hope of rescue – assuming he first discovers how to let Earth know he’s still alive.

search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception. And because of that, I had billions of people on my side.”

Though this speaks well of the human race it’s worth pausing to remember that, despite the film’s scientific triumphalism, it’s not, strictly speaking, a viewpoint atheists can embrace. Watney and the world reaching out for him realise that survival isn’t enough. In Genesis 2 we’re allowed to listen in on our creator’s conversation and learn, “It is not good that man should be alone.”

It’s this axiom, and the subsequent struggle to bring Watney home, that makes a two hour exercise in practical science such an inspiring, encouraging tale. Yet it’s hard to deny that a truly atheistic version of The Martian would have left Watney to die alone.

There is no sympathy in a world governed by a purely evolutionary outlook. He is, after all, only one man and the billions spent trying to engineer his safe return could logically

E

ON SCREEN

be spent saving the lives of millions of others. But from the outset The Martian reaches for something scientific rationalism struggles to quantify.

Of course, this reflection of God’s design doesn’t come close to belief, let alone faith. In Weir’s book the hero only ever really jokes about God. Fashioning a match from a crucifix, Watney displays goodhumoured irreverence: “If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me vulnerable to Martian vampires, I’ll have to risk it.”

Yet in a story that celebrates human ingenuity and the power of the human spirit, the number of “lucky breaks” amount to a silent argument there is someone moving behind the scenes.

We may write about how high the human spirit can rise but God’s thinking and his presence are hard to evade. Audiences will sit on the edge of their seats with NASA’s ground crew hoping Watney is restored to humanity because deep down God has decreed that humanity is a family, not a planet of evolved competitors. And The Martian will make space for repeated doses of “luck” because we also recognise that even Watney’s incredible ingenuity will not be sufficient to save his life. In fact, those who long for his safe return unconsciously reflect the value their heavenly father places on every human being: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

LEGEND Mad Max Fury Road star Tom Hardy has traded one crazed iconic role for two more. At cinemas this month, Legend is a superb yet disturbing crime odyssey that has Hardy playing the dual parts of Reg and Ron Kray. These twin brothers were notorious, real-life gangsters in London during the 1960s.

Legend affirms the Krays as brutal and uncontrollable. Yet they’re also charming, cool and obscenely appealing.

With great flair and artistry, writer-director Brian Helgeland presents the Krays going about their cutthroat illegal business.

His Legend taps into what Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino movies have done. They skilfully toy with the undeniable appeal of doing the wrong thing.

Make a list of what the Krays did and almost everyone will condemn their activities. But they can become more palatable when served within a cutting, stylised movie of cocky individuals who play viciously by their own rules.

Somewhere inside us all, we can desire similar things. To do whatever we want, even if we know it’s bad. The Krays are an extreme form of embracing evil, but we still can relate. Alarming, but true. Particularly when humour, ambition, justification or other familiar factors are involved.

Legend is a vicious, searing depiction of the evil that humans can do. We can see the appeal.

What are we going to do next?

college Year 13 is a discipleship gap year like no other.

Spend a year being shaped by God’s word with other school leavers who are passionate about Jesus, on mission together both here and overseas. It’s an unparalleled opportunity to be challenged, to grow and to serve, and to make your gap year count.

Come find out more at our …

SPECIALISED SPECIALISE

youthworkscollege.edu.au

NOV 17

OCT 17

DEC 7

Face-to Face / Intensives / Online

QUALITY, FLEXIBLE THEOLOGICAL AND MINISTRY TRAINING FOR EFFECTIVE CHILDREN’S, YOUTH AND FAMILY MINISTRY

CONTACT US to discuss your options Youthworks College

OR

11 Fifth Avenue, Loftus NSW 2232

Come to our OPEN DAY ON OCT 12 in southern Sydney

PO Box 256, Sutherland NSW 1499

VISIT P. 8093year13.net 3400 F. 9542 3599 E. college@youthworks.net

02 8093 3412 Youthworks College is a member of the College of the Australian College of Theology (ACT) and is a registered Higher Education Provider and as a member of ACT is open to overseas students. (Cricos Code:02650E)

youthworkscollege.edu.au

E

CHARITY FEATURE

12

OCTOBER 2015

The hard road out of Syria and Iraq KALEY PAYNE In a church hall in Erbil, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, makeshift rooms have been created by curtains hanging from the rafters. The hall is one of many shelters for thousands of Iraqi refugees who have fled from places like Mosul and Qaraqosh after Islamic State (IS) took over villages in 2014 and threatened Christians with death if they didn’t leave.

The Barbaree family lived in that church hall when they first fled. Last year they made it to Amman in Jordan, a journey they hoped would be one step closer to finding a new, safe home. They have a young child who will turn two this November. For a year, the Barbarees have lived in Jordan. For more than half his life, their young child has been labelled “displaced”.

Jordan is at least out of Iraq. But it’s still another crowded room.

Jude Simion is the chief operating officer for Barnabas Fund in Australia, an organisation providing practical aid for persecuted Christians. On a trip to the Middle East last month he met the Barbarees and many other Christian families and saw the conditions they were living in.

“These families are sleeping on the floor. And the weather is harsh in the Middle East. It’s

E

Many displaced Christians within Iraq and Syria will never be able to leave. freezing in winter and extremely hot in summer. It’s heartbreaking to see people living here in these conditions,” said Jude.

Jude travelled to Amman in Jordan, Erbil and Dohuk in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, Cyprus and Greece, the places where Syrian and Iraqi Christian refugees are flooding to in the thousands. But Jude says many Christian refugees won’t make it even this far, let alone to Europe.

The Barbarees recently applied for a visa to live in Australia. They were rejected. Yet the Barbarees are one of the lucky families, relatively speaking, according to

Barnabas Fund. They’ve made it out of Iraq. They’ve been registered by the United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) as refugees.

Barnabas Fund is providing them with fortnightly food parcels, which include dry rations, sanitary and medical packages.

Barnabas Fund has started Operation Safe Haven, working with Western governments on relocating and resettling Christian internally displaced people and refugees. Recently, they have had success resettling 157 refugees from Syria in Poland, providing travel arrangements to get them out of Syria and offering a year

of financial assistance to help the refugees find jobs, learn the local language and to establish themselves in their new home.

While they work on funding and the cooperation of governments for Operation Safe Haven, Barnabas Fund is also supporting over 50,000 Christians both within Syria and Iraq and across the Middle East, providing aid packages and safe shelter.

To be considered a “refugee”, an Iraqi must leave their country.

Erbil, though in a Kurdish region, is still within Iraq. So those living in camps or makeshift housing in Erbil, who have fled their homes under pain of death, are not labelled as refugees but rather as “internally displaced people” by the United Nations. They have not crossed an international border. Legally, they remain under the protection of their own government.

The UNHCR calls internally displaced people (IDPs) “among the world’s most vulnerable people”.

Barnabas Fund says the majority of Christians fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq are considered IDPs, not refugees, and will therefore not be resettled in Australia as part of current policies.

Jude says Christians in the internal displacement areas in Syria and Iraq are stuck. While

there’s a small minority who’ve made the journey out of the countries, the dangers for making that journey are amplified by being a Christian. In April this year, reports of Christians being thrown from refugee boats by Muslim migrants as they crossed the Mediterranean made headlines.

“There’s great fear among Christians for their safety in making those journeys,” said Jude.

He says Barnabas Fund is urging the Australian government to consider granting humanitarian visas to the internally displaced from Iraq and Syria as well as those with refugee status.

“The majority of Christians in Iraq and Syria are caught living in makeshift housing for the internally displaced. They can’t go home. And the already treacherous journey to cross international borders is made more difficult by continued threats against their Christian faith.”

Barnabas Fund has started a petition calling on the Australian government to consider granting humanitarian visas for internally displaced people from Iraq and Syria, as well as increase the number of people from vulnerable minorities in the Middle East that are resettled in Australia. Sign the petition at barnabasfund.org/ save-the-christians-petition

Each month Eternity will highlight a charity from a group that is bringing you this special page.

Thinking about mission?

OPERATION SAFE HAVENS Can you help evacuate Christians in danger?

LIGHT IN DARKNESS

Take the 30 day prayer challenge.

SHINES 2015 APPEAL

interserve.org.au/pray/30days

smbc.com.au

Tel: 1300 365 799 barnabasfund.org/osh

Edwin can’t wait for his eye-patch to come off so he can play catch with his friends.

That’s what yOU make happen.

Come on a Short Term Mission with us to Uganda in November 2015

Call 131 226 or visit cbm.org.au Contact Phil Cogger (03) 9899 2044 www.worldshare.org.au

Eternity Oct Edwin Ad 128x90 v2.indd 1

15/09/2015 1:39:24 PM

OCTOBER 2015

13

BIBLE @ WORK

E

12,000 in search of hope “For the refugees ... the church and Christian organisations such as Caritas and the Bible Society are a lifeline in a bleak and sometimes hostile new environment.”

JOHN SANDEMAN AND SUZANNE SCHOKMAN “The father looked tired and we heard that he was just reconciled with his family. He had been abducted.” Looking like a man carrying a heavy load, Mike Bassous of the Lebanon Bible Society is telling Eternity of his visit to a refugee camp in Erbil.

“The family – a wife, three children – thought he was dead because they didn’t get any news from him, and suddenly he appeared three months later. He was captured by ISIS. He wasn’t tortured but he told us that he was hearing other people being tortured. At the end of the road he signed a paper saying that he had become a Muslim. Now, how do you deal with that? He said, ‘In my heart, I’m Christian.’ Some people would say straight away, he did the wrong thing. We’re not here to

judge if he’s done a wrong thing or a right thing. We are here to help him and his family overcome this specific trauma, that this person had to make such a decision just to see his family.”

The 12,000 refugees coming to Australia will come with spiritual needs as well as physical wants.

A Bible, in Arabic and English, for every one of the 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to this country is the aim of an emergency appeal by Bible Society Australia.

The gift of Bibles will be sensitively integrated into Christian welfare agencies’ work providing food, accommodation and support to the 12,000 new Australians.

Our sister Bible societies in Europe, facing hundreds of thousands of refugees this year, have shown us how welcome the gift of a Bible can be.

They are lucky to have made it so far north but 4800 refugees live in

squalor at the Traiskirchen refugee centre near Vienna, The Times (London) reports.

“For the refugees, both Christian and Muslim, the church and Christian organisations such as Caritas and the Bible Society, are a lifeline in a bleak and sometimes hostile new environment.”

The Bible Society in Austria has distributed Bibles and material help in the camp.

The Times quotes Jutta Henner, director of the Bible Society, as saying that the refugees find biblical narratives very comforting.

“There are stories of people who have been in the same situation as asylum seekers: far from home, facing an uncertain future, not being welcome, being persecuted and afraid. When they read these stories they can have hope and cry out to God.” A shanty town called The Jungle outside the northern French town

of Calais houses Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees seeking to cross to Britain. When viewers of the BBC TV show Songs of Praise tuned in on a recent Sunday, they got a surprise.

The show – usually a representation of a safe suburban Christianity – came from St Michaels, the makeshift church made of tarpaulins and sticks built by refugees in the centre of The Jungle. The church is a clear signal that refugees, even during their journey, reach out for spiritual support. Other recent visitors included a team from the British and Foreign Bible Society. They brought Bibles in Amharic, Farsi, Tigrinya, English and Arabic.

In Hungary, the Bible Society is preparing aid packages to be distributed at Hungary’s main train stations with the help of volunteers, and which will contain hygiene items such as shower gel

and toothpaste, along with water and fruit juice.

Back on the ground in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, Mike Bassous, weary with caring for the spiritual and physical needs of a tide of refugees, asks for prayer for the refugees: “Let’s pray for the Iraqi Christian families first – they have the potential to be reaching out to the other refugee families because they’ve shared the same story.

“And because they’re people of hope they are able to help the majority of the other refugees who do not have that same source of hope. So let’s pray that they will rediscover that hope and they will continue to be witnesses for Christ in those very difficult circumstances.”

+ To help make God’s promise of hope available to refugees coming to Australia, please donate at biblesociety.org.au/syria2015

OCTOBER 2015

E MORLING COLLEGE SPONSORED PAGE 14

Celebrating 100 Years of Morling College SHEREE BRUGEL Next year Morling College turns 100! And we can’t think of a better way of celebrating our centenary than to have you come and study with us in 2016.

Morling College provides quality, biblically grounded education and training, with the aim of equipping the whole believer to take the whole gospel to the whole world.

We believe a sound evangelical knowledge of God, through biblical, theological and historical study, is essential for sharing and living out the gospel of Jesus Christ. Morling College courses prepare students for pastoral ministry, evangelism and global mission, chaplaincy, counselling, youth and children’s ministry, postgraduate theological studies, and teacher education. Studying the Bible is at the heart of all of our courses.

In Celebrating 100 Years of Morling we’re not only looking back at our rich history, we’ll also be focusing on the future with new building projects and the launch of a suite of new programs in 2016. Along with our already established, state-of-the-art courses, it bring us great joy to announce that Morling College is offering 6 newly developed awards which are tailored to equip you for ministry and suit your flexible study needs. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the Morling community and we’d love to have you sign-up for one of our new courses:*

Some of our Morling Faculty: Karina Kreminski, David Starling, Edwina Murphy and Michael Frost.

• Plunge: Our gap-year program for 18-23 year olds will also have a 12-month Diploma option added.

The current Certificate 4 Plunge stream will still be available. The new Diploma of Christian Studies Plunge stream is now available with FEE-HELP. • Diploma of Christian Studies: This course is also available separate to the Plunge program and introduces students at a

foundational level to the sources and content of the Christian story and message, and provides training to equip students to serve in the world, including professional and vocational life.

• Associate Degree in Ministry: This course will integrate studies in the Bible and Christian tradition with practical experience and include supervised practice based learning.

• Master of Ministry: This course is for those who want more flexibility than the Master of Divinity. It is available both to new students commencing in 2016 and to students currently enrolled in another ACT graduate-level award (MDiv, GradDipDiv, GradDipCS, etc.) who want to transfer across.

• Master of Missional Leadership: If you are a leader of a church, para-church organisation, or

other institution who desires to reorient the organisation around a missional framework, then this course is for you. It is a postgraduate award, open to people with a prior degree in any field.

• Church Planting Certificate: SENT is a brand new year-long learning experience that can be completed internally, or as part of another award. If you or anyone in your congregation is interested in church planting (regardless of academic background), SENT provides cutting-edge training.

Morling College is more than just a tertiary college. It is a community of men and women, students and staff, from diverse backgrounds, cultures and churches, dedicated to knowing God and being equipped to serve.

Studying at Morling College provides a balance between academic study, practical training and spiritual formation, knowing that such integration transforms people.

For more information go to our website www.morlingcollege.com or come along to our Open Night on Thursday October 22nd from 6:45pm. Open Night is a great experience for anyone interested in studying with Morling College.

You can attend a lecture, tour the campus, meet students and faculty, and ask your questions in a relaxed environment. We can’t wait to see you there. * Subject to approval by the Australian College of Theology

WANT TO STUDY THE BIBLE? STUDY AT MORLING COLLEGE

Flexible Study Options

Various Study Levels

Many Payment Options

See our Campus Developments

Join in on our FREE BBQ!!

Range of Courses

T +61 2 9878 0201 F +61 2 9878 2175 E enquiries@morling.edu.au 122 Herring Rd, Macquarie Park NSW 2113

EQUIPPING THE WHOLE BELIEVER TO TAKE THE WHOLE GOSPEL TO THE WHOLE WORLD

OCTOBER 2015

E

15

OPINION

E

+

Greg Clarke on glocalisation Simon Smart on how pleasure fits with Christianity

Stop selling women Wendy Francis on giving evidence to the NSW inquiry into brothels Suppose a terminally ill woman wanted to do something nice for her husband. So she hires a prostitute for his pleasure.

Do you think the terminally ill woman should be put in jail for this? That was the hypothetical (I believe) question posed to me this week by Independent MP, Mr Alex Greenwich, at the NSW Inquiry into Brothels where I was a witness. No, Mr Greenwich, I don’t want a terminally ill woman put in jail because she bought a woman for her husband for a sexual encounter. But I believe the more pertinent question should be, is it right to be able to buy a

woman for a man’s use? Having sex is not a human right. The perceived needs of one subset, in this case a terminally ill woman paying for her husband to have sex, should not trump the rights of another subset, and by that I refer to the human right of all women to equality and not to be a commodity to be bought and sold for another’s pleasure.

The NSW government’s aim from the inquiry includes examining possible reforms that address social, health and planning challenges that are associated with legal and illegal brothels. NSW’s Deputy Police Commissioner, Nick Kaldas, gave evidence at the inquiry.

His concern is that the lack of regulation is allowing criminal

activity in the industry. “Where standards are not enforced in this industry, the cost to human beings could be horrendous,” he said. He told the inquiry there had been a recent increase in the reporting of sexual servitude in brothels, alleging “large scale networks using Asian students as sex slaves”.

NSW councils also registered concern in regard to workplace

My tough journey out of prostitution GENEVIÈVE GILBERT-QUACH I was a shy young girl. I loved drawing and everything creative. I was gregarious and a book lover.

I didn’t choose prostitution: it was chosen for me by a mixture of the 1990’s Western culture, sexpositive feminism and a longing to be loved by my biological papa who abandoned my siblings, my mother and me. Poverty chose for me. Anger chose for me. Sexual addiction chose for me.

My secret transition to prostitution was a relatively easy one: if I can have one-night stands and “friends with benefits”, why not be paid for it?

I was going to make all the men

pay for the child support money my father never provided.

Over the course of my hidden life in prostitution I had recurrent flashbacks of the impact of my father’s behaviour on me.

Recalling his attitude in the times my mother was willing to discuss the way he behaved towards us after he left, she mentioned how he had, in a drunken rage, threatened to kill us all. Many times.

I lied to many friends; basically to everyone. Adult entertainment “workers” know how to bluff happiness. Remember why you lied last time? Most people do.

In prostitution, it is compulsory to the trade. As daily sexual harassment, we do not report

being conned or violated as it is part of “the job”. Rape and violence really are occupational hazards. I also had to put up with foul-smelling clients, nervous, dangerous men on hard drugs, men who drugged me without my consent.

Big shot millionaires who own famous Australian businesses ordered me around like a submissive dog in training. I had to fake orgasms, fake love, be the girlfriend experience those lost souls were longing for.

I got many sexually transmitted diseases, including herpes, which I caught in 2005 and is incurable.

Men were blind to my pain and continued page 16

injuries, violence, sexual servitude, organised crime, sex trafficking, and public health and safety.

Prostitution is a form of violence particularly against women and girls. Prostitution is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. As a society we should reject the notion that women are a commodity to be bought and sold. Men’s demand for sex and willingness to pay for it means prostitution exists and flourishes, and yet prostitution is inherently harmful as shown by multiple studies which reveal between 60 and 75% of prostitutes have been raped, between 70 and 95% physically assaulted, and 68% meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder in the same range as combat veterans. 85–95% of the women in the study by American clinical psychologist, researcher and feminist, Dr Melissa Farley, said that they wanted to escape prostitution.

Some maintain that prostitution is a choice and therefore a person’s right. Let’s examine this “choice”.

The majority of the world’s prostitutes are women. Gender inequality is the single most powerful determinant of being sold for sex. Nobody can choose what sex they are born with. continued page 16

E

OPINION

16

from page 15 Disproportionately, women around the world in prostitution are members of socially disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups. You don’t choose to be born into a disadvantaged racial group or lower caste. The majority of prostituted women worldwide are there because of poverty.

Prostituted women tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and from families with high rates of interpersonal difficulties. They are more likely to have suffered physical abuse, to have left home and school early, have lower qualifications and fewer work opportunities. Being born into poverty is not a choice.

It is common for a prostitute to have been sexually or physically abused prior to entering prostitution. A Stockholm University report says between 55 and 90% of prostituted women have been subjected to sexual abuse as children. An Adelaide study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies of young people aged 12 to 23 living on the streets indicated that 80% of young women and 27% of young men, involved in sex work, had a history of child abuse. 75% of sex workers in Sydney’s Kings Cross reported some form of child sexual abuse. A research project with 30 Melbourne young people working in the sex industry discovered that 16 of them had been in the state care system, while 13 had left home because of physical or sexual abuse or neglect. No one chooses to be abused as a child.

Can we continue to turn a blind eye to the vast majority of those caught up in prostitution who are

not there by choice, but because they had no other choice?

The US State Department in the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report states that Australia is a destination country for girls and women subjected to sex trafficking, predominantly from South East Asia. This exploitation, and the involvement of organised crime, is found in NSW. Sex trafficking would not exist without the demand for commercial sex. This is a violation against human rights in every sense.

The Australian Christian Lobby and other groups such as Coalition Against Trafficked Women Australia and Collective Shout support the Swedish approach to prostitution legislation which has also been adopted by many progressive countries including Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Canada. It is also being considered in France, Israel, Ireland, Scotland and Lithuania.

This approach recognises prostitution as undermining women’s equality and a form of violence against women.

The Swedish approach directly addresses demand for prostitution by criminalising sex buyers and third parties who profit from prostitution, while simultaneously supporting victims and survivors.

Prostitution is harmful to women. It is overwhelmingly purchased by men, from women, and is founded on inherent inequality between the sexes. This inquiry is an opportunity for NSW to lead the way with important, progressive reform.

Wendy Francis, QLD State Director, Australian Christian Lobby

My tough journey out of prostitution from page 15 I was blind to their emptiness. I wanted out so much. I had initially thought I’d do this only until my student debt was paid off. But two years into prostitution, I read a Bill Hybels book given to me by a university friend.

“How can an educated woman be a Christian?” I asked myself.

You may be a radical atheist like I was, or perhaps you might be angry at the church. But not all churches are “the” church. And faith is not “the church”; it is about a person’s personal relationship with God. But then, a day comes when the joy of knowing Jesus cannot be held inside your heart anymore.

This is the day when you feel no shame in sharing the goodness of having accepted his heavenly father as your saviour.

This is the day when Jesus becomes the answer to your pain, and when you truly want others to also feel this incredible relief it brings to know him, to know that he carries all our sins onto his hands, onto the cross, where he died, just for us.

Through secular organisations’ support, and intense, regular prayer and counselling, I found a mainstream job in 2009 and was healed from the oppression I was a victim of. I never looked back.

2010 was the year I became prostitution-free. My healing continues as I support others in their marathon effort to transition out. With time, pain fades away.

Jesus was and is a warrior for social justice. With him there is no more fear, no more anxiety, no more need for revenge, no more

OCTOBER 2015

Geneviève Gilbert-Quach from Pink Cross Foundation Australia hatred, no more shame in our hearts. Just love. Through God we learn to love others and ourselves, sacrifice some of ourselves, forgive, see the light and express anger in healthy ways. This is me. This was and this is still my prostitution rehab.

I now volunteer for Pink Cross Foundation Australia and I speak to numerous former or current prostituted people and addicts as well as those who call themselves “sex workers”.

It looks glamorous at the start but the ongoing use of our bodies without consideration for our mind and soul is extremely destructive for a person’s life. I don’t want any woman in this lifestyle going without knowing

there is support, and real options, available instead of selling sex because they are coerced or for survival.

God has clearly spoken to me to carry my cross like Jesus has. The stigma that prostitution carries makes this cross very, very heavy. I do need help to carry it. I want to be a voice for those who don’t have one, and to serve them the way Jesus served others.

My vision to help others also stems from radical feminism, where we oppose the sexualisation of women’s bodies and raise public awareness about rape and violence against women.

Don’t ostracise me, don’t label me, don’t censor me. Please, don’t shoot the messenger.

Full time ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE PRIMARY TEACHER

We are looking for a committed, flexible and caring Early Childhood or Primary teacher to team teach within a bi-literacy and bi-cultural program in a multi-age classroom in North East Arnhem Land.

This is an opportunity to be an integral part of remote Indigenous parents achieving their vision for their children towards ‟independent lives of dignity on our ancestral estates”.

Mӓpuru Christian School has the capacity to employ a teaching couple to work within our small school.

To apply, download the application form from the NT Christian Schools website.

Submit your application along with a written response to the selection criteria and required documentation to:

Human Resources NT Christian Schools PO Box 228 KARAMA NT 0813

Phone 08 8920 4355 email human.resources@ntcsa.nt.edu.au Position commences 14th January 2016 Applications close 2nd November 2015

OPINION

OCTOBER 2015

17

E

A word worth keeping Michael Jensen on a powerful word I was recently part of a panel on ABC’s The Moral Compass. It was a full and frank, no-holds-barred discussion of the place of “Special Religious Education” in schools.

One of the panelists used the word “evangelical” as a term which was clearly meant to ring alarm bells with his audience. The delivery of Scripture classes was by “fundamentalist, ee-vangelical” groups. Self-evidently, we were supposed to be frightened that this indicated a fringe sect, only loosely in touch with sanity and certainly not with reality.

For a second, it crossed my mind to pause, and say: “I identify as an evangelical Christian: as one who shares in the great tradition of Wesley, Whitefield, Simeon and Wilberforce. They were nation builders and compassionate individuals and pursued an intellectually robust and spiritually earnest faith wholeheartedly. I have no shame in trailing in their wake, or in the wake of Stott, Packer, Spurgeon and many, many others. I find it offensive that you use that term to belittle and demean others. Imagine using the word ‘Catholic’ or ‘Muslim’ in that way.” And then I didn’t say that, because as a Christian I don’t think I should play the “politics of offence” game.

But it did make me reflect on the word “evangelical” and its usefulness in the contemporary world. Does it communicate anything useful to say you are an evangelical anymore? Does the widespread and woeful ignorance of this terminology mean that there’s no point trying?

A little history is needed to address the question properly.

Words have histories, and names that applied to groups especially so. The word “evangelical” was used at two moments in history to describe two movements

within the Christian church. It’s a word that is built from the Greek word for “gospel” or “good news”, euangelion.

In the 16th century, “evangelical” was the term used to describe the churches that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church over the authority of Scripture and the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone.

These reformers, known later as “Protestants”, more usually called themselves “the evangelicals”, and described their churches as “evangelical”. Even today, the German Protestant churches are called Evangelische.

But the word was also associated with a descendent group of this first group of evangelicals, the “evangelical movement” of the 18th century. This movement was particularly strong in the Englishspeaking world, and featured the great preachers John Wesley and George Whitefield. What characterised this movement?

Following the historian David Bebbington’s account of the evangelical movement, we can say that it was (and is) conversionist, biblicist, crucicentric and activist.

It was “conversionist” in that the evangelicals held that in order to be saved, a person needed to be born again – to repent, and believe the gospel. Evangelicals did not assume that a person was saved by outward adherence to religious forms or moral codes. It had to be inwardly authentic. And so they preached “you must be born again.” They held enormous revival meetings, and experienced extraordinary revivals. They preached outside of the church walls, in the meadows and in the streets. And the evangelicals became great missionaries and the supporters of missions, throughout

the expanding world.

It was “biblicist”. That is, evangelicals in the 18th century stood for the authority of Scripture over every other in matters of faith.

The Bible was the living and active word of God, not human reason or church tradition. Evangelicals thus became interdenominational, because while they were happy to work in different denominations, they did not hold institutional allegiance as being at the heart of Christian faith.

It was “crucicentric” – which means that for evangelicals the cross of Christ has a central place in the gospel. Without the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, there is no evangel. There is no gospel to preach without the death of Jesus for sin. It is fascinating how this comes out in evangelical hymns, such as William Cowper’s somewhat disturbing “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”.

Lastly, you’d have to agree that evangelicalism was and is an “activist” faith. This is a vague term, perhaps, but evangelicals haven’t seen themselves as removed from the world by their faith but rather plunged into it, often in its most difficult and complicated arenas. Evangelicals have been nation builders, sponsors of education and prison reform, advocates for social and political change, and standing for the rights of others. Evangelicals were prominent in the women’s movement. The evangelical movement spawned many of the social welfare groups that still serve us today. One thinks of World Vision, Tear Fund, the Salvation Army, Barnado’s, and many, many more.

What’s happened since then?

Evangelicals were perhaps at their most powerful in Britain in the

19th century, but lost a great deal of their influence by about 1900.

They were often ridiculed – and sometimes fairly – as moralistic, which was somewhat of a betrayal of their own message. This happened in Australia where evangelicals campaigned against alcohol and gambling and other vices, and mostly lost.

This is where the social activism of the evangelical movement butted up against its conversionism. It’s a tension that goes a long way to describing where the evangelical movement is today.

In the US, the evangelicals decided to become politically active in the 1970s, and to especially throw their lot in with the Republican Party.

The election of Ronald Reagan, though not an evangelical himself (or even particularly religious) was seen as a triumph for evangelical political activism. But by aligning with a certain sort of right-wing politics, evangelicals forfeited much of their good name, and their passion for conversion seemed to dissipate. They were active not as servants of their communities, but as lobbyists seeking to control a space – however right they were about the issues.

Three other things have happened within the evangelical movement that have made the word harder to own. The first was the rise of what we know as fundamentalism. It’s a complex story, but the bottom line is that a very strong anti-intellectual stream became dominant in a large segment of evangelicalism.

This was very much at odds with the evangelicalism represented by John Stott and others in the UK, where the life of the mind was respected and cultivated.

The second was the rise of Pentecostalism, which

has emerged as one of the most numerous and vigorous forms of Christianity globally.

Pentecostalism is the child of the evangelical movement, but there is great disagreement as to whether it is truly evangelical or something else again. The emphasis put on personal experience rather than Scripture and the eclipse of the cross in some forms of Pentecostalism has made other evangelicals wary of associating too closely. It has certainly confused the brand, much as Pentecostalism has retained the missionary edge of the evangelicalism that gave it birth.

The third was the infiltration of liberal theology in the evangelical ranks. Liberalism is not and cannot be truly evangelical, since it appeals to human reason and experience over and often against Scripture, and it denies the centrality of the atonement.

But many liberals wanted to call themselves “evangelical”, because they liked the vigorous personal faith that it represented and the missionary spirit. So the word evangelical has become so impossibly broad that it verges on meaningless. It needs careful clarification when it is used in any context. If I say I am an evangelical, I almost immediately have to qualify it by saying “but I read books, and I don’t always vote conservative.”

The growing ignorance of our culture is disturbing to say the least. People are simply ignorant, and often wilfully – especially academics and journalists, who should know more about one of the most influential religious movements of the past 250 years.

But I am not giving up on it just yet. The word “evangelical” is a great word, because it says that you are a gospel Christian first and foremost, and not a church Christian, or a cultural Christian.

It is worth telling the story of the evangelical movement because it is one of the great stories of our age, and it has so much that testifies to the power of Jesus Christ in it. It is worth standing in this heritage because it is intellectually rich and yet powerfully convicted of gospel truths. It offers a spirituality that is profound, and it compels people to do extraordinary things to help others.

Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican church in Sydney and the author of several books.

Canada and Alaska Tour 21 day holiday

departs 26 May 2016 Includes • 7 night Inside Passage Cruise • Rocky Mountaineer Train • Return airfares

More tours!

opolitan cinating wildlife, cosmks!

Pristine wilderness, fas cities and breathtaking mountain pea

Steps of Paul Cruise – April 2016 North West Australia – May 2016 WA Wildflowers – September 2016

New Zealand – September 2016 Antarctica – January 2017...

Register your interest now!

Call now 13OO 635 358 www.christianfellowshiptours.com

E

OPINION

18

Tim Costello on taking small steps In his long campaign to abolish chattel slavery, William Wilberforce believed it was not just slave traders and slave owners who bore responsibility for the evil, but the whole British nation whose law let it flourish. And hence the duty fell to all to take action to overcome this blight.

Today slavery takes many forms, on a continuum with other forms of exploitation, all an affront to human rights and human dignity.

All involve force, coercion or deception. Bonded labour can mean debt and slavery are passed on through generations. Migrant labourers, working long hours in unsafe conditions, can be deprived of documents and may lack the means ever to return home.

In every case these near-slavery conditions deny people economic opportunity and personal freedom.

But they also negate the essential, universal dignity which Christians regard as inherent in all who have been created in God’s image.

The worst forms of exploitation, like child labour, forced labour and human trafficking, are found

in almost all countries, though it is in poorer, developing countries that the greatest numbers of people are vulnerable. Tragically, natural disaster, conflict and war also create spaces where exploitation can flourish.

While such abuses often involve criminal conduct we should not imagine the problem can be resolved though better laws or law enforcement alone The underlying economic, social and cultural systems foster exploitation in the first place.

Wherever people are caught in extreme poverty, systemic discrimination and human insecurity, they are at risk.

Even with all a modern economy’s resources, it still sounds ridiculously optimistic, naive even, to talk of ending exploitation. Yet Wilberforce and his tiny band of evangelical campaigners were not deterred by the criticism and jeers which first met their endeavours.

We live in a joined-up, globalised world. Just as 18th-century slavery reached into every British home in the form of sugar gained from shackled labour, so today it reaches us – the clothes and products we buy and some of our favourite foods and drinks.

All of us can take positive steps – as advocates for the oppressed, but also as informed consumers, conscious and conscientious investors, and as ethical tourists.

Let’s not wait for the next publicised tragedy like last year’s Bangladesh factory fires. Let’s all take what small steps we can to bring the end of exploitation that little bit closer.

www.biblesociety.org.au

A national newspaper for Australian Christians, Eternity is sent free to any church upon request.

Eternity is published by Bible Society Australia (ACN 148 058 306).

Edited by John Sandeman. e: eternity@biblesociety.org.au w: www.biblesociety.org.au po: GPO Box 9874 In your Capital City For general enquiries: (02) 9888 6588 Advertising sales: Wild Hive Studios p: 0432 88 44 65 e: advertising@biblesociety.org.au a: 5 Byfield St, Macquarie Park NSW 2113.

Print post number PP 381712/0248.

Printed by Fairfax print sites across Australia.

OCTOBER 2015

I think we need a new method

Letters That we may be one Michael Jensen’s thoughtful and magnanimous discussion of Christian unity (Eternity, August) was most welcome. Christian sacred tradition is like a mighty river filled with the voices of our predecessors over two millennia – and there are many different perspectives from which they speak. The profound prayer of Jesus (John 17:21) – “that they may be one, as we are one” – speaks of the oneness of eternity with, or within, God. The parable of the good shepherd intimates that no living being is to be deprived of this “final return”. By contrast, dogma and creeds are contingent – a means to an end, not the end in itself. Christianity is a way of love and not membership in a harshly exclusive “salvation club”.

Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, VIC

Be prepared When I look at Christianity in the West I see the ten virgins asleep. They are busy dreaming about all sorts of nice programs to help people but are not aware that persecution is just around the corner. Some persecuted churches have complained that the Western churches did not prepare them for persecution and that the church formats are completely unsuitable for persecution as well. We have to have a good look at these things before our time for persecution arrives. The first thing that the enemy will go for are the leaders

and the meeting places, so that believers will be on their own.

Believers have to be mature and knowledgeable, so the churches better give the believers a good background in the basic beliefs, rather than spending so much time teaching on good works, which a real Christian would do even without instruction.

Harry Kloppenburg, Thornlie, WA

Hope in QLD It was with great sadness that I heard of the Victorian government’s decision to relegate SRI to out-of-school times, in reality making it very difficult for the programme to continue. As an RI teacher in Queensland we still have the opportunity to teach RI and it is still well supported by the majority of principals and teachers, many of whom recognise the benefits of having children taught Christian values regardless of their faith beliefs. Most schools have attendance rates of over 80%, which demonstrates parent support too. Two years ago a Queensland

AFFORDABLE

Mindfulness Thank you kindly for the article “Keeping it all in the mind” in your September 2015 issue, written by Michael Jensen. I found the article both stimulating and helpful.

Mostly I appreciated Michael’s honesty and humility: these are attributes that all articles require as a foundation.

Ralph Gilbert, Largs North, SA

The following charities need your support

STUDENT ACCOMODATION IN SYDNEY

FLO HARRIS LODGE

A caring community with a family atmosphere

• Handy to Sydney Uni, UTS, UNSW, ACU, NOTRE DAME and City Colleges • Close to trains, buses and shops • Games, fitness room & music practice area • Single or shared rooms & all meals provided • Internet available to all rooms • Supportive friendly environment • Christian ethos and onsite youth workers For further information contact: p 0423 039 723 e info@floharrislodge.org.au a 40 Hunter St Lewisham NSW 2049

WE GET THROUGH.

www.prisonfellowship.org.au aus.office@prisonfellowship.org.au

www.floharrislodge.org.au Flo Harris lodge is a ministry of Petersham Baptist

SYDNEY ACCOMMODATION

Holiday accommodation Beachside holiday units for let, Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Qld from $300/wk.

Contact Ray: 0427 990 161 rayandjean@hotmail.com

Budget accommodation in student housing in Glebe near the city centre. Book a room or whole house (sleeps 8). Available between 28 November 2015 and 31 January 2016. E: office@terraces.com.au; P: 02 9692 8798. W: www.terraces.com.au Vine Church is seeking a Mission & Membership Pastor to help us connect with and care for each other, and be urgently sharing the gospel with those in our city.

For more info go to: vinechurch.com.au/jobs

ETERNITY NEWSPAPER Print Co-ordination and Distribution by

www.biblesociety.org.au

Christian Religious Instruction Network [CRI] was founded seeking to network, resource and support RI Coordinators/Area Coordinators across Queensland.

This has enabled regions to share training, ideas and information leading to better-equipped regions.

If you are interested in being connected to other teams in Qld and having access to free resources please email me at fionacran@ westnet.com.au. It’s becoming a tougher place to be a Christian but let’s use the opportunities we have while we still have them and work together to support one another.

Fiona Cran, Qld

1800 88 MAIL sales@intellimail.com.au

REFORMATION TOUR –June 2016.

Walk in the steps of Calvin and Luther in Switzerland and Germany.

Visit the significant places and learn how our Protestant Faith was formed.

13 day tour Geneva-Berlin ($5150) 3 day Prague Extension ($850) Optional 8 day Classical Danube River Cruise (from $4050)Flights extra.

Prices subject to exchange rates.

Rev Dr John Lucas Mob: +61448132262 Email: john@walkingfree.com.au Web: www.pilgrimtours.com/groups/ walkingfreereformation.htm for itinerary

ASLAN FINANCE a divison of Cronulla Sutherland Mortgage Options.

Home Loans Investment loans Commercial and Industrial Finance HomeBusiness Loans Finance, Traditional and otherwise Investment loans Specialist finance for those with a credit Commercial hiccup and Industrial Finance Business Finance, Traditional and otherwise Financ Personal loans Specialist finance forFinance those with a credit hiccup Motor vehicle Personal Planloans and Equipment Finance MotorFinancial vehicle Planning Finance and buying Associates service andcar Insurance Plan and Equipment Finance FinanTel: 95265544 . Mob: 0407 432 910

Email: Graeme@asslansolutions.com.au 24 Kungar Road CARINGBAH SOUTH 2229 ABN 50 007 982 167

OPINION

OCTOBER 2015

19

E

Meaning + Pleasure = Joy Simon Smart on how God makes all of life better

kaboompics

Author Jeanette Winterson, famous for novels like Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, and The Passion, wrote a devastating memoir in 2012, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? In beautiful, funny and elegant prose she recounts a traumatic childhood of awful abuse at the hands of her depressive adoptive mother and well-meaning but ineffectual father. She also describes her life in the church, an environment that neatly matched the bleakness of the northern English town in which she was raised.

No believer could read this aspect of her story without wincing at her description of “the cruelty of dogma, the miserable rigidity of no drink, no fags, no sex, (or if you were married, as little sex as possible), no going to the pictures (an exception was made for Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments), no reading anything except for devotional literature, no fancy clothes … no dancing … no pop music, no card games, no pubs – even for orange juice.” You get the picture.

I couldn’t help thinking of Jeanette Winterson while listening to Miroslav Volf’s recent public lecture, “Pleasure, Meaning and the Death of God.” Hosted by Centre for Public Christianity and Gospel Conversations and delivered at Shore School in North Sydney before a Friday night crowd of 450 people, Volf gave an account of Christian life and thought that could not have been more different to what Winterson and, sadly, plenty of others have experienced.

A celebrated theologian from Yale, Volf is keenly interested in the contribution of Christian faith to the common good. This has led

What gives you pleasure matters to God and finds its deepest meaning in connection to him. him, along with plenty of notable thinkers through the ages, to ponder a vision for “the good life”, the “life worth living” – a topic he feels is given nowhere near enough attention today – and to articulate the Christian version of such a thing. This is the project he has set himself and believes it offers something that is not only robust theologically but immensely positive and life affirming.

If, in navigating our way through life, we choose between meaning and pleasure, imagining them to be unrelated, Volf says, we always make the wrong choice. We are creatures who crave meaning and purpose but if we believe this can only come at the expense of pleasure, as some religious types appear to think, we become burdened with an oppressive, joyless existence, the weight of which is frequently too much to bear. Think Jeanette Winterson’s

life stories life answers

childhood church.

Equally dangerous, though, is the pervasive thread of Western consumerist culture that imagines the good life is to be found in trivial comforts and insubstantial entertainment – backyard renovation TV shows, shopping malls and, as we move into summer, crafting a beach-ready body. Cut free from transcendence, human values and meaning are thought to be nothing more than what we decide for ourselves. Here we are left with, “the crushing burden of an unbearably light existence,” according to Volf.

Does religion, and specifically Christianity, offer a solution? Volf believes it does. Without God, the author of life and all existence, the kind of meaning we require as human beings eludes us. We end up projecting our search for meaning onto finite things – success, money, career, family, sex

– and end up unfulfilled.

But here’s the thing. Rather than having to give up ordinary pleasure in order to embrace the meaning we all crave, Volf argues that attachment to God actually amplifies and deepens enjoyment of ordinary things. Or at least it should. This is something that Christians have sometimes forgotten. The early chapters of Genesis are striking in their affirmation of the physicality of creation. Taste, sound, smell and texture clearly matter to God. What’s more, God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ really puts an exclamation mark on to the goodness of the material realities we inhabit. And the final biblical vision of a renewed creation only offers further evidence of God being interested in “stuff ” rather than merely celestial glories.

Volf offers a fascinating and attractive idea to illustrate what he

means. Imagine a physical object that is of value to you – let’s say a guitar you love to play. And then imagine that item was given to you as a gift from someone you love. Whatever value you place on the guitar is immensely greater because of your relationship to the giver. Physical things are relational and take on meaning and significance due to the social relations connected to them. They carry the presence of another.

If you can come to think of the world as a “gift” from God then all the things to which you relate, says Volf, are also a way in which God relates to you. Each good and beautiful thing that you experience is part of a relationship marked by love. Each of these things is thus more than itself and because of that is a source of profound and layered joy. Music, literature, art, food, wine or model aeroplane making, if that’s what gives you pleasure, matter to God and find their deepest meaning in connection to him.

In her memoir Jeanette Winterson is surprisingly generous and positive about the dour Christianity of her youth. She acknowledges that it provided a community of “mutual help and imaginative possibility,” and “a deeper, more thoughtful life than would have been possible without the church.” But it’s clear that large parts of the human experience were either feared or dismissed.

Her “salvation” eventually came, not in the form of a life-giving and sustainable faith but through great works of literature into which she joyfully escaped. It’s a great shame that those things could not have been considered mutually reinforcing.

Because, if Christian faith is true, it allows for the possibility of uniting meaning and ordinary pleasures, leading to joy, or what Miroslav Volf likes to call the flourishing life. It’s an attractive vision, that’s perhaps as surprising as it is deeply needed today, both for those encumbered with the crushing burden of duty, and others beset with the diminishing trivialities of modern pleasures bereft of substantial or lasting meaning.

Simon Smart is Director of the Centre for Public Christianity.

For more print, video and audio material on the intersection of Christianity with contemporary life, go to publicchristianity.org

ON AIR

620+ stations nationwide

ONLINE

listen live, podcasts + more

...for every Australian

MOBILE

Apply Now for 2016

www.vision.org.au

chc.edu.au

Search ‘Vision radio’ in your app store

MARKETING ACCOUNTING MANAGEMENT COUNSELLING YOUTH WORK CHAPLAINCY MINISTRIES MISSIONS LEADERSHIP TEACHING ... AND MORE

E

OPINION

20

OCTOBER 2015

Flick / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Now is the time to think global, act local Greg Clarke on ‘Glocalisation’ It is five years this month since the various Bible Societies in Australia amalgamated into one national organisation, Bible Society Australia. I have had the joy and privilege of seeing the various bodies become one, like a prolonged wedding and honeymoon. It hasn’t always been a conflict-free zone (which marriage is?), but overall the many parties and people involved have moved into the slipstream of change and the benefits have been enormous.

I am often asked by people from other organisations how the amalgamation was possible.

My answer is that it was all in process before I came along and I just inherited the miracle. But reflecting on it, I think the answer

is that those involved started to think glocally.

“Glocalisation” is one of those ugly words that just happens to encapsulate an idea really well.

“Think global, act local” is the more attractive expression. But the idea is the same: we now have the capacity to gain a global vision of issues, but we still need to make a difference in our own backyards.

Lifting your eyes to the global picture is essential for many Christian enterprises today. The barriers that kept us apart from each other have dropped quickly and dramatically. Communication is easy around the world, in multiple formats. Trade has brought foreign cultures into home cultures, where they are more often than not accepted, modified and enjoyed. This is all the more the case when you believe in a creed in which there is no racial, cultural or traditional justification for staying apart.

Christians involved in poverty relief, publishing, social enterprise, disability ministries and the like must think globally. So many of the resources they require to do their work are produced overseas, and so much development and

innovation takes place between international partners. Think of Bible production, for example. The printed Bibles you are reading most likely come from China, America, Korea or Germany. They are not developed or produced in Australia.

If you want a Bible in your hands, you have to be willing to participate in the massive global endeavour that is Bible publishing. But this global awareness is only valuable if you also act locally. You have to have a plan from the outset to make a difference where you are.

You need to care for your neighbour, and this principle of proximity is a healthy one (otherwise we could go mad thinking of how we will never meet the vast global needs of which we are now aware; leave God to worry about that). You need to use that Bible in your suburban home study groups, in the local pulpit, in the high school around the corner. You have to think locally about what it is you are trying to achieve with the help of your global resources.

But if you also think glocally, you will realise that you may have some resources to support the local needs of others. Since resources are so unevenly distributed around

the world, it will almost certainly be the case that we Australians will need to provide the (global) resources for the (local) ministries of others. That is our lot.

We are seeing this dynamic expressed in the recent responses around the world to the refugee crisis stimulated by war in Syria.

There is worldwide awareness of the crisis, reported through myriad channels. Some news is “official”, sanctioned by major media organisations and carefully curated. Other news is immediate, raw, and hard to put in context, delivered through new media such as Facebook, Twitter and Periscope. But there is no denying the common Australian awareness of the crisis; we could barely avoid it if we tried. We are all beneficiaries of the globalisation of information resources.

But we are encouraged to act locally. We have to work with the Australian government and charity sectors to find ways of housing and caring for these refugees.

Thankfully, this seems to be coming together. People are even offering to take refugee families into their own homes. That’s “live with thy neighbour”.

But we also need to give to other organisations who are working around the world, especially in the neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Some of us will need to go and work with them, on the ground. That’s the glocal mindset at work.

It has been wonderful to see the progress Bible Society Australia has been able to make over five years, as part of the broadest mission movement on the planet: nearly 150 Societies all serving the Scripture needs of the waiting world. It’s a movement built on thinking glocally. But the truly wonderful achievements are all local ones: remote indigenous people groups reading the Bible for the first time in their own language; gatherings of Pakistani women taking literacy classes in order to read the New Testament (and read their pay slips and shopping lists); raising funds for Scriptures for the Syrian refugees soon to be arriving in Australia.

Nothing really important happens globally. The global must serve the local. And we will need to think glocally to achieve it.

Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat 1.371 billion people have a newly-completed Bible translation.

Your church can help to End Exploitation Go to worldvision.com.au/end-exploitation to register today and receive your free church resource kit: • video sermon by Tim Costello • lesson plans for children’s and youth ministry • ‘‘Your church’s guide to Ethical Purchasing’’ workbook • ‘‘Five steps’’ booklets for each church member and much more. *or another date that suits your church

© 2015 World Vision Australia. Ref # 7937

Sunday 22 November *

Books

Your special liftout supplied with Eternity OCTOBER 2015

He will... unplug the ears of the deaf (Isaiah 35:5) Graeme Clark

The man who invented the bionic ear.

by Dr Mark Worthing

$29.99

9781760113155

Review by Dr Belinda Garth In this inspiring biography, Mark Worthing takes us on a journey through the life and achievements of committed Christian and scientific pioneer, Professor Graeme Clark. Setting the scene of humility and warmth, the book starts with Mark recounting his visit to the Clarks’ home. We get a sense of home.

Of normality. Of the ordinary amid the extraordinary. A modest mudbrick home, surrounded by natural scrub. An old pottery kiln in the backyard. Biscuits and sandwiches. And choosing outfits for a trip to Canberra to meet Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. Extraordinary indeed.

This biography takes us through Graeme’s childhood in Camden, New South Wales, where his interest in “fixing ears” was highly influenced by the experience of his father’s hearing loss. We learn about boarding school,

meeting his wife, Margaret, and then marriage, overseas study, resettling in Australia, and starting a family. We get a sense of Graeme the man, and his love for his family and enjoyment spent playing with his young children. The book includes photo memories of Graeme’s childhood, young adulthood, family life and momentous occasions of his professional career.

We also get a thorough sense of Graeme Clark, Australia’s youngest professor of medicine, who faced setbacks and plenty of opposition from academics and scientists in the field. We gain insight into his genuine and holistic care for patients. And his integrity as he refused to rush his science.

Thoroughness and attention to detail contributed greatly to his success. This biography provides a comprehensive insight into what it took for Graeme and his team to

develop the bionic ear; achieving his ultimate aim of enabling the profoundly deaf to hear.

This is a candid account of Graeme’s life and achievements, and does not shy away from his moments of failure. Such experiences did not deter him.

He pressed on. And he ultimately achieved what others had tried and failed, and what many others told him was not possible.

A memorable part of this book for me was reading about a moment of profound serendipity that occurred while Graeme was relaxing on the beach with his family. This moment involved a turban shell (the structure of which remarkably resembled the human inner ear) and a blade of grass. It led to a timely breakthrough which had, up until that point, puzzled his research team. Some of our best ideas come to us at the most unexpected and

unplanned times!

This book also speaks of Graeme’s deep and steadfast relationship with God; a source of great strength throughout his life.

We learn about Graeme’s humility in seeking God in prayer and quiet reflection before performing surgery. On faith and science, Mark writes: “… While many in the community are under the impression that science and personal faith in God are at odds with one another, Graeme saw encouragement in the sciences for his faith. In fact, he felt that recent advances in scientific knowledge actually made faith easier, or at least helped to give it intellectual credibility …

The more he saw … the wonder of human hearing and the human brain, the wonder of nature in all its grandeur, the more he sensed the presence of a loving God.” (p. 141-142).

If you enjoy reading about real people behind titles and accolades, you will enjoy reading this biography. It provides detailed insight into the life of a pioneering scientist, at the same time allowing the reader to identify with Graeme as a person – a son, a brother, a husband, a father. A man of great faith and humility, who actively seeks God and lives his faith.

Belinda Garth is a Research Fellow at Southern General Practice Training in Gippsland, Victoria, is a member of ISCAST (Christians in Science), has been a lecturer at La Trobe University and has worked on research projects with The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne, Monash University, and Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science (Los Angeles). Belinda is a wife and mother of three.

A

B

C

A. Hardcover B. Personal (Choc/Caramel) C. Leather (Indexed) D. Leather (Burgundy) E. Leather (Black)

D 9780310438335 9780310438632 9780310438397 9780310438342 9780310438359

E $59.95 $89.95 $119.95 $107.95 $107.95

F

H

G F. Large Print (Hardcover) G. Personal (Hardcover) H. Large Print (Duo Tone) I. Duo Tone (Choc / Orchid) J. Personal (Green / Blue)

Taking Australia by storm!

I J 9780310438281 9780310438311 9780310438298 9780310438373 9780310438649

$89.95 $49.95 $119.95 $107.95 $89.95

The newly released NIV Zondervan Study Bible comes in a variety of sizes, covers and type sizes and there’s one suitable for any occasion.

OCTOBER 2015

B2

All new releases for October - Bibles - Kids’ Bibles Praying the Bible

The Tugutil

by Donald Whitney

by John & Betty Sharpe

9781433547843 $17.99

9780646939599 $17.99

Paperback

Paperback

Review by Guan Un

There are some Christian books that are wide-ranging, trying to cover a variety of uses and users, linking ideas over a spectrum of theological thinking and bringing them to bear in a pastoral and practical way onto what it is to live as a Christian in the world today.

And there are some, like Praying the Bible, that have a single idea, a single purpose.

To call this a one-idea book is not an attack: it’s short and sharp as an icepick. I read it in about an hour. And I highly recommend it because, if you’re anything like me, you don’t know enough about the spiritual disciplines.

Spiritual disciplines occupy a bit of an odd place in our current Christian context, I think. Perhaps we suspect that teaching people “what to do” smells too much of the trappings of works-based salvation, as if saying this discipline might be good for you may be impinging on salvation by grace.

In this, we are out of step with the vast majority of historical Christianity, and that is one of the reasons for Donald Whitney writing this book.

Whitney is a professor of biblical spirituality at a seminary in Kentucky, and his writing here is clear and on point.

He begins with the problem: “Since prayer is talking with God, why don’t people pray more? Why don’t the people of God enjoy prayer more?” Often, he argues, we “tend to say the same old things about the same old things” – prayer becomes rote, and a bit lifeless.

This is not a matter of being a second-rate Christian (or, for that matter, intellect or education), but of method: his answer is in praying the Bible, as the title suggests. Beginning with the book of Psalms, and using the Psalms as a jumping-off point with which to converse with God. This method he admits is, on the one hand, not revolutionary in its newness, but on the other hand, has been a spiritual revolution for some precisely because it is simple and effective.

As a whole, the book is easy to read, not just because of its length, but Whitney is a writer with real empathy for his audience, and a sly sense of playfulness about his own teaching. It’s refreshing to have a Christian writer who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

But more importantly, what he writes is practical, and easily practice-able – there’s one moment in the book that he undercuts himself by urging you to put down the book and actually do what he’s instructed you to do.

Along the way, he addresses potential objections, practical considerations, and the theological whys and wherefores of what he is teaching. But ultimately all of this is directed towards the simple, noble purpose of having his readers praying to the God who speaks with the assistance of the Word that he has spoken.

It’s a difficult book to review – I’m aware I am running a line between making it sound so simple that you don’t need to read the book, or making it sound so dramatic that you think I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. As Whitney himself says: “Many who are reading this book have endured the guilt of an incurably wandering mind and feelings of boredom in prayer for decades, and here comes a writer asking you to believe that here is a simple, permanent, biblical solution to a problem that’s plagued you for most of your life. Would I really ask you to believe that?”

If you think that could be true – and it is – then I recommend this book as a way in to bringing some clarity into your prayer life.

On an island in Eastern Indonesia, lived a semi-nomadic group of hunters and gatherers with a fearsome reputation that made many unwilling to even step foot into their territory. In 1982, a small group of outsiders took that very step. In this gripping and honest account, John and Betty describe their experience as they, along with their co-workers, moved into the jungles of Indonesia to live among the Tugutil people. Working tirelessly, amidst many challenges and impossible circumstances, John and Betty strived to learn the people’s language and culture, and understand their way of life, all for the sake of being able to communicate clearly the lifesaving message they had come to bring. The Tugutil provides a firsthand account of how God worked in the hearts of an entire people group, totally transforming them from the inside out.

“This book is an amazing testimony of both the power of the gospel and how God used John and Betty Sharpe for his glory among the Tugutil people.

“There is one extraordinary story after another that keeps you riveted to each page. You come away wishing you were there and inspired to share Christ.

“It’s packed with gospel wisdom on how to do cross-cultural ministry. I found myself falling in love with the Tugutil people whom I’m so looking forward to meeting in the age to come. This is a must read!” - Ray Galea

Then Sings My Soul

by Philip Percival 9781922206732 $16.95 Paperback

In Then Sings My Soul, Philip Percival takes us to the Bible to rediscover what it is that God has revealed about singing for his people, and encourages us to recapture the fullness of his design. He also provides plenty of practical advice about leading music in your church.

Whether you are a pastor, a musician or just someone who takes music seriously, this book will equip you to reignite a passion for singing together in response to God’s amazing redemption of his people.

The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist

My Final Word

by Andy Bannister

9780310520641 $29.99

9780857216106 $17.99

by Charles Colson

Paperback

Paperback

Oddly, for such an entertaining riposte of fashionable atheist arguments, the book is remarkably free of smugness and self-congratulation. I could – and will – give this book to my sceptical friends.” — Dr John Dickson, Founding Director of the Centre for Public Christianity, and Honorary Fellow of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University

One of the most respected and influential Christian leaders of the last several decades, Chuck Colson engaged millions through his books, public speaking, and radio broadcasts.

In My Final Word, longtime Colson coauthor Anne Morse has selected and arranged pieces Colson wrote mostly during the last decade of his life, spotlighting what he saw as key topics of ongoing importance for Christian cultural engagement.

OCTOBER 2015

- Apologetics - Biographies - Devotionals - All new!

The Biggest Story

True Worshipers

by Bob Kauflin

by Kevin DeYoung

$21.99

9781433542305 $24.99

9781433542442 Paperback

Paperback

Featuring chapters that are short enough to be read in one sitting, this illustrated Bible storybook imaginatively retells the biblical narrative in one continuous story, helping kids connect the dots from Genesis to Revelation.

NIV Gift & Award Kids’ Bible $9.95ea Lux Leather Pink Slate 9780310725572 9780310725565

NIV Faithgirlz!

Bible 9780310750079

Review by Dave Parker

“If eternal worship is where we are headed, what does it mean for us now?”

Following Bob Kauflin’s previous book Worship Matters on church music comes an entire book devoted not to music, but worship and what this looks like for the Christian.

True Worshipers tackles the often singular association of worship with music. Chapter one is quick to acknowledge worship through song, but highlights it is not an exclusive connection, rather introducing worship through our entire life and in all things. Early in the book Kauflin shares his own testimony of how God revealed himself, and reflects that we all have a story requiring a life of worship to our loving creator.

The worship of God is important and the book references many verses and passages that helpfully pull it all together. Chapters cover God’s gift in Christ, our response of worship, exaltation, gathering as God’s people (particularly as a local congregation), our encounter with God, and anticipation of God’s goodness. This latter chapter draws the imagery and assurances from Revelation, providing glimpses into eternal life with God, and how then our worship will be complete and perfect.

True Worshipers is an excellent book looking at what it means to worship God with our entire being. It is a great read for all Christians as we work through our day-to-day worship of God.

$29.99 This special binding of the NIV Faithgirlz! Bible offers a trendy and unique magnetic closure.

Packed with exciting features that help tween girls better understand themselves and Scripture, the NIV Faithgirlz! Bible teaches girls that the Bible is real, relevant, and, best of all, that the story of God and his people is also their story. With intext features written by tween expert Nancy Rue, the NIV Faithgirlz! Bible uses the bestselling New International Version (NIV).

NIV Bible for Teen Girls Hardback 9780310749691 $29.99 DuoTone Pink 9780310749783 $39.99 DuoTone Blue 9780310749882 $39.99 The NIV Bible for Teen Girls, designed specifically for girls ages 13 to 18, is for real teenage girls with real lives. Packed with daily readings, highlighted promises of God, challenging insights, smart advice, and open discussion about the realities of life, this Bible is designed to help teen girls grow in faith, hope and love.

SPECIALS ON KIDS’ BIBLES

7 Women: And 7 Men: And the the Secret of Secret of Their Their Greatness Greatness

by Eric Metaxas

by Eric Metaxas

9780718037291 Paperback

9780718030957 Paperback

Each of the world-changing figures who stride across these pages – Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Maria Skobtsova, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks – is an exemplary model of true womanhood. Teenaged Joan of Arc followed God’s call and liberated her country, dying a heroic martyr’s death.

Susanna Wesley had 19 children and gave the world its most significant evangelist and its greatest hymn-writer, her sons John and Charles. Corrie ten Boom, arrested for hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazis, survived the horrors of a concentration camp to astonish the world by forgiving her tormentors.

And Rosa Parks’ deep sense of justice and unshakeable dignity and faith helped launch the 20th century’s greatest social movement.

Each of the seven biographies represents the life of a man who experienced the struggles and challenges to be strong in the face of forces and circumstances that would have destroyed the resolve of lesser men. Each of the seven men profiled – George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, John Paul II, and Charles Colson – call the reader to a more elevated walk and lifestyle, one that embodies the gospel in the world around us.

both books only

$19.99 each

B3

OCTOBER 2015

B4

Spring into OCTOBER with some great specials!

Journaling Bible Bonded Leather

$24.95

$24.95

Genesis 9781875861835

$19.95

Exodus 9781921460999

$19.95

Ezra & Nehemiah 9781925041187

Proverbs 9781921460753

9781433691560 HCSB 9781433691584 NKJV

$19.95

The Journaling Bible is designed to enhance personal Bible study as well as preparation for teaching and preaching. The Bible contains the full text of the Bible in a single-column setting. Abundant space is provided on each page to make observations, record insights, raise questions, and suggest to yourself additional exploration of the text. The Bible includes a 40-page concordance, eight four-colour maps, a one-year Bible reading plan, presentation page, and an introduction to the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Numbers 9781920935443

$24.95

Isaiah 9781921460432

$59.99

Zechariah The Lord Returns

$24.95

by Michael Stead 9781925041644 Paperback The Reading the Bible Today Series commentaries edited by Paul Barnett offer scholarly commentary in plain readable language from some of Australia’s leading theologians.

The most recent addition to the series is Zechariah by Michael Stead, exploring a book of the Bible containing some of the most powerful prophecies about Jesus.

$24.95

$24.95

Mark 9781875861323

$19.95

Luke 9781921460975

$19.95

Galatians 9781921460913

2 Timothy 9781922000903

$24.95

John 9781920935764

$19.95

Revelation 9781875861415

2016 Fruit of the Spirit Kids’ Calendar

2016 Peace and Joy in the Psalms Adult Calendar

9780647519356

9780647519363

both only $2.95 each

Order online at specials.biblesociety.org.au mail to Locked Bag 7003 Minto NSW 2566 call 1300 139 179

For mail order, please include the item numbers and titles of products requested, as well as your contact and payment details. Also add postage costs to your total order (Orders $0-$30 Postage $6.95; Orders $31-$60 Postage $7.95; Orders $61-$250 Postage $9.95).

This book promotion is valid until October 31st, 2015 or while stocks last. All items in this catalogue are included in good faith from our suppliers. Any delays in supplier delivery may result in product being delayed or unavailable.

While we endeavour to use correct illustrations in this catalogue, final product delivered may have changed design without our notice. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars and include GST.