The First Edition - July 2009

1. Introduction

Welcome to my first blog entry! I have no idea who might be reading this and I’m hoping you might get past the first sentence. I intend to update about once a month but will be more often at times. Hopefully this will be interesting and thought provoking and look forward to any feedback you might have.

I understand that I might say things at times that you might not agree with. That’s ok, I hope you don’t agree with me on some things but overall hope we can have some stimulating conversation and might as the writer of the Proverbs says, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another’ (Proverbs 27:17 NIV)

2. Moore College

I am currently studying at Moore Theological College in Newtown, Sydney, Australia. I am currently in the 3^rd year of the 4 year Bachelor of Divinity course. As someone who has not studied since leaving high school 30 years ago, this has proved to be a major challenge in the change of lifestyle for not just me but my family as well.

Through my monthly blogs I intend to update some of what I have been learning or should I say trying to learn.

I am just starting 2^nd semester on July 20^th.

This semester will see New Testament studies on Luke-Acts, Old Testament looking at Psalms and Job, Ethics will include subjects such as abortion, marriage and sex, IVF and other such subjects, Doctrine and Congregational Ministry.

1^st semester has been good and no exams at the end which was nice seeing every other year had them. This will mean though a heap of exams at the end of the year.

I am currently working on an essay on the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life in 1 Corinthians. Hoping to get a lot of this done before semester starts.

3. Candidates Conference

From the 28^th -30^th June, I went away with all other people at College who intend to work in the Sydney Anglican Diocese. It was a very encouraging time away. We enjoyed some great challenges from God’s word as we talked about what it means to be in full time paid ministry. We looked at 2 Timothy 3-4 and one thing that I found interesting was that from the last National Church Life Survey it was found that in churches where the gospel was preached there was more men but where the gospel was not preached, there was more women. This is something I’d like to look more into as I’ve been doing some reading about what makes a church strong and there does seem to be some strong evidence of preaching at a man’s level will attract both men and women. More to come on this in the future.

One other thing to stick out to me was that we should be very cautious about being liked by everyone. Praise from those around us, especially those who are not believers, probably means that we aren’t declaring the gospel very clearly. The Christian message is offensive, especially in these times.

This time away was also useful in training us to be able to train future leaders. How to identify them and then what is involved in training them to become full time workers for the gospel.

I came away from this weekend with an excitement about getting out of college and working in a parish. 18 months to go and a lot of work in between!!