EFAC Australia
Welcome to the EFAC Website
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- Written by: EFAC Aust
Welcome to the EFAC Australia Website!
We are hoping this website will be used to connect members around Australia and keep everyone up to date with what's happening in their state. We have branches in each state plus the ACT and NT, so by clicking on your branch under the tab above, you can find out what is happening in your state. The site will be updated with news and events.
If you have any suggestions for the site please forward them to
How to not be anxious, in an anxious age?
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
How to not be anxious, in an anxious age?
STEPHEN HALE
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
We’re all familiar with St Paul’s wonderful words in Philippians 4. Yet we all know the challenge of them becoming a reality for us. There is so much to be anxious about. In fact, the statistics on the rise of mental health challenges in a place like Australia are striking. As I understand it these are consistent with the numbers in other western nations.
The Australian Bureau Statistics reports that in 2024 • 1 in 5 adults will experience mental health problems throughout a year
- 1 in 4 adolescents have a mental health illness
- 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys suffer from an anxiety or disorder
- 1 in 7 primary school kids have a mental health illness
Book Review: The Meaning of Singleness
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- Written by: Denise Nicholls
The Meaning of Singleness
Danielle Treweek
Ivp Academic 2023
Reviewed by Denise Nicholls
This is a great book! A must read for ministers of the gospel whether engaged, married, single or single again. I say this because so many ministers (myself included) have often longed for and prayed for young families to come to their churches as THIS will see a renewal of our Churches. Further we can either neglect or pay lip service to the Church as THE family of God, when we concentrate our efforts upon the nuclear family as the mainstay and structure of our Churches. Danielle Treweek’s 2024 Australian Book of the Year is a sober reminder of the place of the important and often neglected place of the single Christian disciple in the life of the Church.
Through thorough research on the various positions of single believers since the inception of the Christian Church, to the Patristics, the middle and late medieval church to the present day, Treweek provides us with a very readable book in ten chapters and four parts, navigating the Context, Diagnosis, Theological ‘retrieval’ and finally her own thoughts on the Meaning of Singleness for the evangelical church today.
Strengthened by the Gospel
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- Written by: Rev Canon Dr Brian Rosner
This essay was originally given as a farewell lecture at Ridley College commemorating Brian Rosner’s time as principal of the college.
Today, as I bid farewell to my time as principal of Ridley College, I want to tackle the purpose of Paul's Epistle to the Romans and the hope that is found in the strength of the Gospel.
Let's start with the purpose of Romans. There's been a long-standing debate among scholars about why Paul wrote this letter. Initially, during the Reformation, Romans was read as “a compendium of Christian theology,”[i] often citing Philip Melanchthon. He described it as a compendium of doctrines such as total depravity, justification, sanctification, election, and so on. This view has been supplanted by the conviction that Romans, like all Pauline letters, arose in response to concrete historical circumstances. It is an occasional epistle, just like 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, etc.
On Solid Ground – training church leaders in the developing world
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- Written by: Tim Swan
This past Easter, over 16,000 people gathered across 142 churches in Toliara, Madagascar. However, three-quarters of those churches didn't have a trained pastor to preach. The Scriptures remind us how important it is to ensure the gospel is passed on truthfully. Hebrews 2 begins, “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
This is a real danger in some developing countries, where the gospel is growing most rapidly.
Rev Berthier Lainirina, Principal of St Patrick’s Theological College in Madagascar, shared the incredible story of church growth in his home country when he visited Australia last September. He exclaimed, “Over 2000 new believers were baptised in one week!"
His country is one of the poorest in the world, with political instability and limited access to education and medical care. When a terrible drought hit the southern region in 2020-21, many families starved to death. "The government couldn’t do anything. As a church, we said, ‘we need to do something!’" said Berthier.
Read more: On Solid Ground – training church leaders in the developing world
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