General
Editorial Winter 2024
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
The Future Of The Parish
This edition of Essentials is focussed on this pressing question. In it we explore a range of dimensions to this big question. As we all know things aren’t all that great in many, many, parishes. Given the Anglican Church is structured around the parish what might the future look like. I have previously written in Essentials about the forthcoming Great Collapse in the Autumn 2023 Edition.
There are lots of great articles here and all is not gloom and doom. Alongside of the many struggling churches there are lots of great stories of renewal and change in lots of different contexts. In this edition we feature a Diocesan perspective as well as a look at a range of models of what’s happening on the ground.
We recently held the National Evangelical Anglican Conference in Sydney. It was a wonderful Conference, and we were greatly blessed by the ministry of Rev Charlie Skrine from All Soul’s Langham Place as our international guest speaker. We hope to feature some of the talks in future editions.
STEPHEN HALE, LOCATION, EDITOR
National Evangelical Anglican Conference 2024
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
National Evangelical Anglican Conference 2024
I’m writing to actively encourage you to come to the EFAC Australia Conference in late April this year in Sydney. We’ve billed it as Recharge, Refresh, Renew. We hope those who come will go home feeling inspired as well as refreshed in ministry. It’s been a tough few years for all who lead and many people are in need of encouragement and inspiration. Evangelicalism within the Anglican Church of Australia is continuing to extend and grow and there is much to be excited about, in the midst of the many challenges.
Our Bible Study leader is Rev Charlie Skrine, Rector of All Souls Langham Place. Charlie is a fine preacher and will bring the perspective of someone leading in a challenging context in the midst of the current turmoil in the Church of England. Archbishop Kanishka Raffel as President of EFAC will open the conference by sharing with us the challenges they are facing in his own Diocese.
You’ll discover what is distinctive about Gospel Leadership with Rev Adam Lowe; Jeri Sparks Jones will encourage you with Gospel Optimism for Young Adults; and you’ll learn about Wellness and Mental Health in our community and how we can respond from Valerie Ling. You will also be able to connect and learn from other people in your areas of ministry. There will be streams for everyone from rectors to youth workers, to key lay leaders and more.
If you want to be refreshed, recharged and renewed you can join us in Sydney on April 30th to May 2nd.
Stephen Hale
Chair EFAC Australia
Audio and video recordings from the conference can be found on the Events/National Conferences tab
Editorial Autumn 2024
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- Written by: Mark Simon
“Sing to the Lord” is the repeated refrain of the Psalms, and one which shapes our corporate worship week by week. Christians delight to sing. Great congregational singing is a key ingredient for healthy, growing churches. Christian songs also shape our personal journeys of maturing in faith, obedience and service. Music ministry is thus a vital aspect of our gathered and dispersed church life, equipping and helping us as Jesus’ disciples to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. In this edition of Essentials we focus on music ministry in our churches.
We hear from Greg Cooper on the manifold ways that singing contributes to spiritual formation. Alanna Glover and Philip Percival urge us to engage heart and mind as we sing, and not to pit emotions against truth, but respond to the gospel with our whole being. We have two practical ministry articles which dig into the nuts and bolts of music ministry. Angela Chandler analyses some trends and expectations in church music before elaborating on practical ways to engage and include a wider, more diverse, pool of people in congregational worship. Alanna Glover addresses the needs of smaller churches, where forming and sustaining a music team can be a constant struggle. She outlines principles for a church’s music ministry that will equip it for long-term growth. You’ll also find links to several resources Emu Music have developed to serve the local church’s music ministries: conferences, training, and a new searchable, curated ‘Hymnbook’ of contemporary and classic songs.
Continuing the focus on praising God through song, I present a Bible Study on Ephesians 1:3-14, exploring this joyous hymn of praise for the ways it informs and models the praise of God in corporate song. Rhys Bezzant brings us a review of A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship – a book that analyses the currents that flowed into the praise and worship music that dominates our churches today.
Stephen Hale offers his own plea for greater variety in the subject matter of congregational songs. You’ll also find Stephen’s invitation to come to the EFAC Australia Conference in April – it will be a wonderful time to ‘Recharge, Refresh, Renew.’
I trust that as you read you are encouraged to sing with renewed joy and thanks for God’s grace to us in all its forms.
MARK SIMON, EDITOR
Editorial Summer 2023
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- Written by: Gavin Perkins
Training and equipping Christian ministers, workers, and the church is the endeavour of the whole of the church working together. From ministers to expound scriptures and pastorally care for their congregations, mentors to come alongside and together with sisters and brothers in all stages of life, and those extra-congregational and para- church groups and organisations who support the building up of local churches and mission.
However, in this ecosystem the work of theological colleges is often shrouded in mystery, either seen as some hallowed ivory tower or a strange realm far removed from the realities of the local church. Indeed, at times there has been significant distrust of theological colleges for these very reasons.
Yet the work of theological colleges is important on two fronts, and neither are of the chalk and talk variety. First, the work of theological education helps our churches to see the breadth of God’s mission for His world, across the scope of human history and through the various means He engages through the church. Second, as a third space outside of the local church it draws together members of local churches to gather around a shared goal of understanding God better. Both of these —amongst many more—aim to keep us from myopia and also from the challenges of hubris.
This edition of Essentials aims to peel back the curtain somewhat, to reveal the great scope of theological education around our world.
Unfortunately—and ironically—the length of this issue is slightly shorter than normal, owing to an eleventh hour withdrawal of one article, due to a very sad situation in a theological college which only reinforces the distrust of these institutions.
Nevertheless, those articles that remain serve to lift our eyes to the scope of God’s work in theological education.
Rev Dr Christopher Porter, Melbourne Editor
Editorial Spring 2023
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- Written by: Gavin Perkins
The theme of this edition of Essentials is evangelism.
The consensus in our context, as observed by Julie-anne Laird, is that when it comes to evangelism things are not going well. It is into that space that we seek to provide some encouragement, inspiration, and hopefully several ways forward.
There are many tasks and projects with which we can keep ourselves busy that are far easier than evangelism, and in the contested space of the post-Christendom West it is an ever-present temptation to focus on those easier things. However, to do so would be to lose sight of the glorious commission given us by Christ.
In this edition Peter Jensen’s article on GAFCON does far more than rehearse the story of a movement, it is a call and a challenge to all evangelical Anglicans to keep gospel mission at the heart of what we do.
Editorial - Winter 2023
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- Written by: Stephen Hale
For evangelicals preaching is at the heart of our ministry. We’re either recipients of preaching (good and not so good) or we’re preachers who strive to do it week in and week out. We all know good preaching when we experience it, and we can all point to moments in our lives when the preaching touched our hearts and changed our lives. Preaching is at the heart of our weekly gatherings.
In this edition of EFAC Essentials we are focussed on preaching. Two of our most esteemed and experienced preachers give us a sense of where we are up to in terms of preaching (Raiter and Adam). Tracy Lauersen offers a great insight into how she prepares to preach. Tim Johnson outlines how to plan the annual preaching program. Paul Barker has an interesting insight into the Bishop as preacher. Lynda Johnson paints a brilliant picture of the love hate relationship with preaching that we preachers can have. We love doing it but find the preparation and writing a weekly challenge.
As a bonus we have included the address of Bishop Keith Sinclair to the recent GAFCON conference in Kigali.
I hope you find these articles inspiring and challenging.