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
Sing Lustily and with a Good Courage!
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- Written by: Angela Chandler
Sing Lustily and with a Good Courage! [i]
Growing your church through a welcoming music ministry
Most of my life has been spent in small to medium sized churches with limited resources and one main congregation catering for all ages. Although I have trained as a professional musician, one of my special areas of interest has been encouraging people to participate in communal music-making with whatever experience or skill they have. I have delighted in gathering together a community choir for carol services, hand drumming sessions at our after-school kids club, and nurturing the skills of young musicians in our church.
I am grateful for the reflections of some of the participants on their teenage experience in these activities over the years, which are included in this discussion.
Singing as Spiritual Formation
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- Written by: Greg Cooper
Churches in Australia go to incredible lengths to sing together. Typically, churches do not have the resources to do music as they’d like. What’s more, views differ on the place of music in church life. Yet Sunday after Sunday, the church sings.
Over the last 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of visiting churches throughout Australia to help in music ministry training. Almost all have been struggling to motivate their congregations to sing heartily, and to develop bands that lead the congregation well. Some church music teams are thriving – praise God! Yet mostly, churches are just getting by. I know of churches where faithful music teams are few in number and exhausted. I know of churches with no musicians – they sing along to YouTube videos in their services instead. I have served on staff as Music Pastor at three evangelical churches (2 in Sydney, 1 in Melbourne), each holding slightly different views on the place of singing and seeking to lovingly engage with congregational expectations of singing’s purpose and song choices. Perhaps these are familiar scenarios. Music ministry is complex.
Training in Evangelism Today
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- Written by: Gavin Perkins
How do we best train people in personal evangelism today?
In a recent survey of our church it emerged that the vast majority saw personal evangelism as their individual responsibility (83%). It seems that very few had bought the line that evangelism was only for the specialists or the especially gifted. The average parishioner knew it was at least partly their job. Yet, in the same survey it also emerged that at least half that number had virtually no spiritual conversations with non-Christians in the previous year. Not unexpectedly such a situation leads to an ongoing and constant low-level sense of failure and frustration: “I want to share Christ, I know I ought to share Christ, and yet I rarely do it”. In the same survey most (84%) felt comfortable to clearly explain the gospel, and whether we agree with this assessment matters little in regards to a conclusion that a sense of inability to share the gospel does not represent a primary barrier to speaking.
The Challenge of, and the Challenge to, GAFCON
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- Written by: Peter Jensen
In speaking of the challenge of GAFCON, I ought to indicate, of course, that I myself was present when the idea of GAFCON was born in December 2007 and helped organise the first Jerusalem Conference in June the next year. Following that I became the General Secretary of GAFCON, a position I held until 2018. Thus, I am no uncommitted bystander, although I am no longer present at the key policy-making decisions. However, I can speak with some knowledge about the history and significance of the movement, and I want to discuss something of the challenge that GAFCON represents in the Anglican Communion and a particular challenge that GAFCON faces.
Among bishops and the keen observers of the Anglican Communion, the phrase ‘Lambeth 1.10’ refers to something so well known that it needs little introduction or explanation. It is, of course, a reference to the famous (or, for some, infamous) Resolution of the Lambeth Conference in 1998 on the subject of human sexuality and especially homosexuality. The Resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority of those present and voting, namely 526 to 70.
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