How can we make our Christmas Services better?

With just a few days to Christmas, and while some of us are well planned, some of us are still scrambling around putting things together.

Whether it’s Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, or a kids gathering, carols or Gingerbread and Wreathmaking...

What are the pitfalls we can fall into?  How do we avoid them?

Cultural changes and increasing push back against churches are impacting youth ministries. It is getting  much harder for Christian Teenagers to be Christian among their secular peers. 

Teenagers don’t just walk in the door of a church. 

What are latest youth ministry trends and opportunities? How can we do youth ministry on the front foot?

Poverty is fundamentally relational says David WIlliams 

What might a theology of caring for the poor look like? 

The bible’s terms for the poor (widow, orphan and alien) are all relational terms which describe someone who has lost relationships and as a result have lost connection with the land. 

The Church of England has abandoned the teaching of Jesus with prayers for same sex blessings potentially to start before Christmas. 

‘Tragic’ says Gafcon.

‘Disastrous’ says the Global South. 

‘Deeply Troubled’ says the Church of England Evangelical Council

‘First order difference requires first order differentiation’ says Vaughan Roberts 

‘It is hard not to dissolve into a flood of tears’ says the Mark Thompson the principal of Sydney’s Moore College. 

‘The Archbishop of Canterbury should resign’ - says the Church Society’s Lee Gatiss. 

Years and years of putting your feet up is the lifestyle of the sluggard.

To be a sluggard is a so called ‘deadly sin.’

The concept we now know as retirement is a 19th century invention and not a Christian concept.

Former Missionary, Bible College lecturer and principal Mike Raiter says the idea that we should stop work at 65 and enjoy 20 or 30 years of rest is not biblical.

t’s going to be an especially bumpy six months for religious freedom issues in New South Wales..

Legalised Euthansia will be rolled out in just a few weeks. But what about faith based aged care institutions, where organizations and staff are conscientious objectors to euthanasia? 

Then there’s the Law Reform Commission inquiry into religious schooling and whether the religious exemptions to anti discrimination law should be removed. 

And the debate over conversion therapy will come to a head in the parliament. 

A few weeks ago on The Pastor’s Heart we talked with Zac Veron and Raj Gupta about issues confronting Sydney Anglicans.

The National Church Life Survey shows a drop in newcomers from 9% in 2011 to 5.4% in 2021 - a more than ten year trend of fewer people joining church. Plus there’s been a 7.5% drop in attendance between 2015 and 2019.

But it’s not just the Sydney Anglicans that need a wake up call. It’s most of us in Australian Evangelicalism.

We traverse the historical landscape of identity, starting from Descartes' cogito ergo sum or "I think, therefore I am," to the current age where identity has become a commodity. 

Chris Watkin, the award-winning author of the Biblical Critical Theory, helps us understand possessive individualism, starting with John Locke, expressive individualism, and how both terms help us grapple with modern identity formation.

Our focus today is on the massive legacy of some of the greatest women of church history.  We discuss how different the Jesus’ mother Mary (as portrayed in the New Testament) is to Mary as she’s popularly thought of.  We focus on the account of one of the early martyrs, 22 year old mother Perpetua, who was fed to the lions.  

We look at England’s nine day queen Lady Jane Grey and her mentoring by the Swiss Protestant reformer Heinrich Bullinger.  Then there’s the extraordinary story of Salvation Army co-founder Catherine Booth’s campaign to have the age of consent raised in England from 12 to the eventual age of 16.  And Gladys Alward’s 350 kilometer trek across the mountains of China with 100 orphan children.

Whether we are the senior pastor, theological college lecturer, missionary, student worker, Christian publisher, or denominational leader - we all work within an evangelical ecosystem. And it’s possible for us to make it harder or easier for our ministry peers to play their part in glorifying God. 

The future of the Anglican Church in Sydney.  

We engage in a ‘Stockdale Paradox’ discussion, confronting the brutal facts about attendance, finances and National Church Life Survey data about mission, newcomers and maturity. 

Plus we review the recent Sydney Anglican Synod debate where leader after leader poured out their heart.

Reframing the social justice discussion - Ed Loane, Tim Swan and Berthier Lainirina

Social Justice is a fiercely contested concept among Christians. Often discussions about caring for the poor have not been grounded in a biblical vision for gospel ministry.. 

Evangelicals have been criticized for appearing to be weak on social justice. 

The charge is that we have been so focused on gospel ministry that the poor and disadvantaged have been neglected. How does caring for the poor fit with the mission of Jesus church? 

We send out missionaries.  But sometimes it doesn’t work out.  There’s a forced return home.  Dashed hopes.  And all sorts of understanding and support - from the mission agency, supporter churches, pastor friends and others.

How should Christians respond to customs, traditions, and stories that have associations with false religions, demonic powers, and evil?

Could a church building be covered in cobwebs and used as an invitation to come inside?

Would you run a Halloween event for the kids of your church so they don’t feel like they are missing out? Or would you run something as an outreach to connect to the neighborhood? 

Is it about the occult and to be avoided at all costs and denounced or is it kids in funny outfits and junk food?

Join us in conversation with Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi, as they unravel the complexities of Modern India and the Hindu perspective, and helpful ways to engage them with the gospel. Particularly as immigrants from the Indian subcontinent to Australia increase. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi explore how the foundations of modern India have been profoundly shaped by the Bible and the Protestant Missionary Movement.

We put lots of emphasis and training into becoming better teachers.  But how can we improve the clarity, comprehension, conviction and confidence in public reading?

Simon Camilleri is a member of Melbourne’s Bundoora Presbyterian Church.

There have been massive social changes as the western world has shifted from a Christian world view to a post Christian world view. In his new book ‘Being Christian after Christendom’, the senior pastor of Dapto Anglican Church David Rietveld analyzes the changes that churches, pastors and parents face in this transition.

Six weeks ago on The Pastor’s Heart David gave his explanation of the problem. David is back today to paint a positive way forward for evangelism and parenting amongst the post Christian world view.