Suffer The Little Children: Crossway

Joshua Maule

Rather than being sent from Australia to Malaysia, 13 children seeking asylum would have the chance to be cared for by one of Australia's largest churches, Crossway Baptist in Melbourne.

Senior Pastor Dale Stephenson decided to throw out the welcome mat for the children from an "inner conviction" that it's not right to send unaccompanied minors to Malaysia.

Singing for a Reunion

Micah Chua

If you know anything about Levi McGrath, you would know his music is driven by a social agenda to inform and inspire listeners about the injustices that plague many countries in Africa. In particular his concern has been for children abducted as child soldiers.

Climate Change Warms up: the sceptic’s point of view

The SCEPTIC
David Palmer is unconvinced by the Climate Change science, and acuses the Gillard Government of magical thinking.

“Evangelism without discipling is fruitless and dangerous” John Stott remembered

Wendy Toulmin, the Executive Officer of the Langham Partnership Australia gave a tribute to at the Sydney memorial service for Dr John Stott. The service was held in St Andrew's Cathedral.

East Africa May Need Years Of Assistance

Joshua Maule

The number of people in East Africa facing starvation and in need of immediate medical help numbers several million. According to the UNHCR, 12.4 million people require "urgent humanitarian assistance" in regions including Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The US estimates 29 000 children have already died as a result of famine in the Horn of Africa.

The UN has set a global fund-raising target of $1.4 billion to respond to the crisis. Forty four percent has been raised so far. And Emergency Program Manager with World Vision Australia Tristan Clements says, "It sounds low, but it's not that unusual for this kind of slow moving disaster ... It's just not the sort of thing that gets people's attention in the way that a big earthquake or tsunami does." However Clements says recent media coverage is helping bring in donations.

Services fit for a ‘Prince’

John Stott will be remembered on Friday in a service of thanksgiving at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney.

The towering figure of worldwide evangelicalism has been remembered on blogs and news sources in all corners of the world since his death last week. Tributes in the remembrance book on his memorial website number several hundred. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has called him a "Prince" among God's people.

Sydneysiders and others in Australia will take time out to pay tribute to the man whose ministry and writings influenced so many.

Broadway actor presents “theatre for the mind and spirit” in Australia

1 August 2011 - After successful shows in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, Broadway actor Bruce Kuhn  presents “The Gospel of Luke” tonight in Launceston, then moves on to Hobart,   Sydney and Brisbane.

The Bible Society has brought Bruce Kuhn to Australia as part of its 400^th Anniversary celebration of the King James Bible. 

Taking the Gospel of Luke as his script, Bruce presents a dynamic and fast-paced solo performance.

Remembering John Stott: Stuart Barton Babbage and others comment in Eternity

Stuart Barton Babbage

Sir Arnold Stott, the eminent Harley Street consultant, hoped that his gifted son, who was Head Prefect at Rugby School, and who was later to graduate with a double first at Cambridge University, would be a diplomat.  It was an understandable hope, for John had all the obvious gifts: high intelligence, integrity, humility, charisma, and self discipline. But, as a consequence of his conversion at school, his destiny was to be an ambassador not for Caesar but for Christ.
John Stott was pre-eminently an evangelist to students around the world and in commentaries he wrote as a gifted expositor of the word of God. It is instructive to compare Billy Graham’s autobiography with Timothy Dudley Smith’s massive biography of John Stott. Billy Graham’s autobiography is graphic and revealing; by contrast John Stott’s biography is reticent and discreet.  We learn much about John Stott’s bird watching, nothing about his role as Chaplain to the Queen and the names of individuals, high and low, whom he met and ministered to.

Concerns over Bibles containing ‘Allah’

Dr Greg Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of Bible Society Australia

Recently, there have been some enquiries made to the Bible Society about the terms used for “God” in our Bibles. It seems a rumour has arisen that the Bible Society is replacing the word “God” with the word “Allah” in some publications. This is not the case. Let me explain.
 In Arabic, the word “allah” simply means “god” (in fact, it is derived from words for God such as “elohim” in the Hebrew Old Testament).
Before Islam existed as a religion, Arab Christians would pray to “allah” because that was their word for “God”.  So, in Arabic language versions of the Bible, it is not surprising or controversial to find the word “allah” used. It has always been that way.

Paying tribute to John Stott

Karen Mudge

All over the world today, those who have been touched by the teaching, writing and ministry of John Stott, remember and pay tribute to him. The former Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London was one of the most significant Christian leaders of the 20th century, and passed away on 27 July 2011 aged 90.

Norway’s killer not a christian

Norway's mass killer, Anders Behring Breivik, was attracted to "cultural conservative Christianity" but did not have "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God".

Council of Churches says drop the Ethics classes. Anglicans say wait a while.

The NSW Council of Churches has called for the NSW Government to repeal the laws that set up ethics classes in state schools. The Classes run in the same time slot as Scripture.

“The classes were introduced, trialed, supposedly reviewed, permanently introduced and then legislated for, all in the dying days of a government bent on appeasing a minority of inner city voters in a desperate attempt to get re-elected”, said the Richard Quadrio, President of the NSW Council of Churches.

Filling The Oxygen Tank

Joshua Maule

It is a big moment for KCC (Katoomba Christian Convention) as they organise their first conference away from the usual leafy surrounds of the Blue Mountains. Having locked in two international speakers - John Piper and John Lennox - as well as one of Sydney's largest venues, staff are working to get systems in place for Oxygen in late August. Designed as a gathering for those in church service, registrations for Oxygen are "well on their way" to reaching 2500. Organisers are banking on an influx of "last minute" Sydney registrations.

Chinese Evangelism group reaches out to the wider Australian community

Karen Mudge and Pearl Cheung

A key Chinese evangelistic group is targeting the broader Australian community for the first time with a series of events and a movie. Media Evangelism Australia (TMEA) is an offshoot of a large ministry in Hong Kong, where in 1987 a group of young Christians seeing multi-media businesses would proliferate in their society saw the chance to use advanced technologies to share the message of our Lord Jesus Christ. They have been in Australia since 2000.

Christians urge delay on R18+ games

As the State ministers meet to decide on whether Australia should loosen the standards for computer games by introducing a R18+ category, the ACT Attorney-General has threatened to go it alone.

The Australian Christian Lobby has urged classification ministers meeting in Adelaide tomorrow to delay a decision on allowing more violent and sexually explicit games onto the Australian market until after the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has completed its inquiry into the classification system.

The current system bans games that are too explicit or violent for an MA rating.