Gospel Unity: Gospel Refresh Message from The Vision 100 Network Chairman

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1 February 2018 VISION100 Gospel Unity: Gospel Refresh Message from The Vision 100 Network Chairman By Mikey Lynch Since the very beginning, some of the core values of The Vision 100 Network have been gospel clarity and gospel partnership. Our website says we are committed to 1. Gospel Clarity: a proper grasp of the fundamentals of the gospel enables a unity with other Christians that surpasses secondary differences. 2. Gospel Partnership: likeminded churches should strive to serve one another in the work of Christ. It was strongly held by our founding leaders, like David Jones and Brian Vaatstra, that we must build our local churches, and our inter-church networks on a clarity on and passion for the saving work of Christ. Our leaders have tried hard to preach Christ and his gospel plainly and passionately. In the early phases of church planting, we have spent a lot of time with the launch team and potential new members, exploring the truths and significance of the cross of Christ. One of the recurring topics for the University Fellowship of Christians Mid Year Conference, that every cohort of students is exposed to, is The Cross of Christ. Two books that were foundational in my own training as a leader were The Cross of Christ by John Stott and The Atonement by Leon Morris. The Vision 100 Network shares this distinctive interest with our evangelical heritage: those Christians who have held to a Protestant understanding of salvation and believe in its central importance for true Christian spirituality, life, ministry and mission. The gospel is the great news of what God the Father has done in his Son for the salvation of the world, as applied to us by God the Holy Spirit. It is about God s glory, Christ s Lordship and the kingdom of heaven but it is in particular about how God is glorified through Christ exercising his Lordship for our salvation: so that sinful people, under the judgment of God can enter the kingdom of heaven. In the gospel we hear about the judgment of God that is coming on a world in rebellion against its creator and about God fulfilling his gracious covenant promise to give new life to a dead humanity. God achieves this through the death of his Son on the cross. He came to earth as a sinless man for this very purpose, to take upon himself the judgment of God, so that all who trust in him might be forgiven of their sins and spared the wrath of God and credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ himself. Because his death perfectly paid the penalty for sin, Christ rose victorious from death as the Lord of the new creation and the judge of the world. The gospel commands all people everywhere to repent and trust in Christ: and is powerfully and certainly effective for all those whom God has chosen in Christ. By faith alone, a person is included in Christ and receives all his benefits. It truly is a great gospel! Now the gospel understood narrowly is not the sumtotal of God s word to us. And agreement on these basics of the gospel does not guarantee agreement on many fundamental Christian beliefs. We can t shortcut discernment when it comes to truth and error: someone may hold to false teachings about the Trinity, or Scripture or godly living. So while the gospel test is not an exhaustive test for Christian unity, it is an effective one. Four quick benefits of emphasising Gospel Unity: 1. Test for theological distortion For example, it is common for those who reject the authority of Scripture to begin to question the biblical teaching about the gospel. The gospel also forces us to have clarity about both grace and justice. 1 The Vision 100 Network exists to gather and resource a network of churches and church leaders who are committed to raising up the next generation of church leaders in order to plant evangelistic, church-planting churches.

2 VISION100 February Test for divisiveness It is possible, that someone who agrees with our teaching about the gospel, but demonstrates great passion to talk about some other aspect of Christian theology or life, is in a fact a divisive person. Having clarity on the importance of the gospel should by implication give us clarity on those things which are of secondary importance. 3. Aligns theology and mission The gospel, properly understood, implies mission. Our God is the saving God and these days are the last days where salvation should be preached to the ends of the earth. Moreover, since the gospel is a message of free salvation to sinners, no one is beyond the reach of Christ. 4. Encourages a certain ethics and character When the Holy Spirit applies the truths of the cross of Christ to our hearts it should make us ashamed of our sins, and humbled before God and before our neighbour: a saved sinner cannot boast. And at the same time, it should make us joyful and zealous for God and for holiness. We are so deeply thankful to our gracious Father, and so repulsed by the sin we were saved from. Such humility, grace, joy, thankfulness and purity are marks of a truly gospel person. I hope that reflecting again on the gospel has been as refreshing for you reading this as it has been for me writing this. And I encourage you to consider where you might inject a refresh on the gospel into your teaching in the coming year: perhaps a series on different Cross Words Redemption, Justification, Covenant? Perhaps giving away some copies of The Cross of Christ or reading it with a group you are involved in? Connecting with Our Communities By Katie Cane How can we connect with the communities around us? How might we share the gospel with the communities around us? These are very real and very challenging issues for many (maybe most?) of our churches. These are certainly some of our prime concerns at Good News Christian Church (GNCC), where we passionately believe that, 'The good news of Jesus is good news for everyone'. So how do we get 'everyone' to even hear the good news of the gospel? How do we begin to make the connections with people that make it possible to do so? One of the ways that we at GNCC have addressed this is by starting a 'Mainly Music' program. In a nut shell, Mainly Music is a music-based playgroup with a big emphasis on connecting with the families that attend. Mainly Music has helped us to make great connections with our community, which is leading to ample opportunities to share the gospel. (Whether or not we have seized those opportunities is another issue!), and our biggest challenge but that s another article!) We chose 'Mainly Music' for two reasons. Firstly, it is a program with a good reputation throughout Australia, which means that a lot of the promoting work has already been done for us. Secondly, it is an off the shelf program, which includes guidance and materials to help you through the vast amounts of preparation and team-gathering required to even get an outreach ministry started! Also, being provided with the music, the structure, the support, and a very strong encouragement in sharing the gospel, was a massive help to us. We have been running Mainly Music for 2 years now. In the first year we had a fairly small attendance, with my little gospel spiels during the Easter and Christmas sessions being heard by only one or two non-believing/un-churched families. In the last few months, though, we have seen a 'boom' in attendance, to the point that we now have a waiting list! Approximately half of the families coming along now are non-believers. We are praising God that each of these families comes into our church building weekby-week, and we re acutely aware that we have a wonderful opportunity to be able to show them God's love and tell them of His grace. Each music session at Mainly Music includes one or two 'God songs' that introduce God in some small way, which means that the families encounter truths about God to mull over just by being in the session. But it s not just about the formal sessions : each week we welcome these families into our community, aiming to show them the love of God, and patiently striving to share meaningful conversations, along with support and care for them 'just as they are'. At Easter and Christmas we are able to outline the gospel with great clarity. We also give gifts including a gospel tract and at Christmas a story of Jesus for the children. We are thankful for these special events providing the extra opportunities to go a bit 'harder' with the gospel! 2

3 The real challenge we're experiencing comes as we try to broaden and deepen those relationships beyond the Thursday morning Mainly Music times. At GNCC we put on a Christmas play that is great event to invite our community to, and we are planning on a gingerbread house evening before Christmas also, which we're hoping will enable another connection for mums (and maybe family and friends of theirs?) with our church community and the gospel. Next year our church will run a marriage course (and perhaps also a parenting forum), which would be an easy thing to invite folks from Mainly Music to. Beyond that, being a friend outside of the 10-11:30am time slot on Thursdays is something that we're working on, and is also something that the Mainly Music organisation places great emphasis on. And then there's just the simple (but why isn't it easy?) 'would you like to come to church' question. If you'd like to hear more about Mainly Music, or have ideas of how to do even better at helping new families integrate into our church community, drop me a line at katie.cane@gmail.com. VISION100 February 2018 Katie Cane is married to Bernard, has a lot of fun homeschooling their 4 children aged 11,9,7, almost 5. To fuel that she loves eating well, running, swimming, and spending as much time as possible at the beach whenever the warm weather hits. City Bible Forum One Year On By Wilbur Longbottom Sprinkled throughout Hobart in nearly every workplace, there are Christians living out their lives in a secular environment. For some Christians that can mean opportunities to promote the gospel and share their faith; but more commonly that can mean a disconnect between their work life and their church/home life. In light of the recent Same Sex Marriage debate, it is often a challenge for Christians to disclose, describe and defend their beliefs. City Bible Forum is a mission organisation that shares Jesus in the city by engaging & equipping Christian workers. The organisation is 25 years old and over that time has been spreading to other capital cities with the same method. Evangelistic Prayer Teams Each fortnight across Australia, hundreds of Christians from all major denominations have been meeting in cafes, meeting rooms & church buildings to pray for their colleagues and their workplace. These groups are called Evangelistic Prayer Teams (EPTs). Christian workers commit to regularly pray together and encourage each other in evangelism. Groups usually consist of people from within one industry, and sometimes groups are even formed within a single large company. These take place before or during work hours. This helps create an environment where peers can discuss evangelism and Christian witness within a shared context. In April this year City Bible Forum Hobart challenged Hobartians to meet with other Christians and pray for their colleagues and workplaces. The goal was to create a network of 30 members by the end of Already by the end of October Hobart had seen more than 25 people sign up to join an EPT, with 5 groups meeting each fortnight. These groups are mainly industry specific; they include an IT professionals group, an accountants group, a graphic design group, and a TasWater group. Across Australia Christian workers have seen the effect of evangelistic prayer and many have had the opportunity to bring their colleagues to evangelistic events or to read the bible together. Many workers who partner with City Bible Forum report feeling more confident integrating their faith with their work. Nationwide, CBF currently has more than 500 partners attending Evangelistic Prayer Teams, and currently has over 150 Christian workers reading the bible with Christian colleagues. The goal of CBF is to see 1000 workers across the nation investigating the claims of Christianity. Sam Chan s September Teaching Events In September of 2017 Sam Chan took up the 3

4 VISION100 February 2018 challenge to do three training events across Hobart. This included speaking to the Hobart Christian Doctors Network at Wellspring, speaking to Hobart City workers at an event at Alphacrusis and a breakfast with ministry leaders at the Wellspring loft. Sam Chan is an evangelist, theologian, medical doctor and explores ways to share our faith without being awkward. Don Carson describes Sam this way, "If you've ever heard him in person, you'll know Sam Chan is a preacher's preacher. He's vibrant, dynamic, funny, moving, and - when it comes to the text of scripture - deeply insightful." were looking for a way to reach their colleagues for Jesus in a way that strengthened their relationships and communities. Here are some of the responses we got: My first thought was 'Why didn t I bring fifty people to this? It wasn t rocket science, most of it wasn t even new but the way it was packaged and presented was brilliant, funny and actionable. Would have to be the best presentation on how to evangelise I ve ever heard. His talks all centred around how to bring evangelism back into the story of relationship and community. Sam reminded me that evangelism is also about making friends and respecting your colleagues. It doesn t have to be weird; it doesn t have to feel awkward. Sam spoke in front of 129 people across 3 days and the feedback was an affirmation that city workers To join a prayer team or to hear about future events, hobart@citybibleforum.org. Wilbur works part time as Hobart City Director for City Bible Forum and part time as Missions Coordinator for Crossroads Presbyterian Church. He lives in Kingston with his wife, Shiloh. 4

5 Relevance of Reformation Theology By Victor Shaw It s been said that the task of theology for every generation is to speak God s truth in our day and age. As such theology has a missiological edge. We want to communicate the unchanging truths of the Gospel to our culture in a way that cuts through. Reading how our ancestors in the faith wrestled to present the truth in their time and place can be a bit like my coming back to Australia as a missionary kid: some things are familiar, others are strange. But doing so takes us out of the constant newsfeed of our selfie society so we can take a step back and notice some of the deeper currents that shape our culture. In listening to our brothers and sisters from an earlier world, we hope to see our own time more clearly. And more than that, to see how the Gospel speaks to us today. So what might Luther and Calvin and the other reformers of the 16th century show us today? On his blog a friend imagined what he might make as the theme of a conference on the Reformation. He chose grace and I have to agree with him. Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam was the maxim which characterised the medieval European church. God will not deny grace to anyone who does what lies within them. Put another way, God helps those who help themselves. The theology of the reformation was a recovery of the theology of grace - that God justifies the ungodly. Grace is not a substance that we can imbibe through the sacraments, nor is it something we cooperate with in order to obtain God s favour. Grace is God s undeserved gift by which he accepts us through the death of Christ. How this understanding of grace played out in all sorts of ways in reformation theology speaks to some of the questions we face in our late modern globalised culture. What follows are several areas which I hope suggest paths to explore. For the reformers, grace impacted every aspect of life. No longer was there a two speed economy of the Christian life - priests and peasants, the sacred and the secular. The whole of life could be lived to the glory of God. Household chores are more to be valued than all the works of monks or nuns, as Luther put it. As children of late modernity, we re told that there is a divide between the sacred and secular: the former is private and the latter is public. That divide runs between faith and reason and, refracted to another plane, between the mind and the body. These divides fracture our culture, our communities, and our personalities. The reformers show us how we can and must hold these things together. A theology of grace, of course, offers a profound commentary on the human condition. Grace crucifies all forms of pride because it says we have nothing to bring to God but our sin. In contrast to a culture which says climb every mountain, you can be anything you want to be, grace is realistic about our limited capacities, not to mention our destructive urges. But grace is also gloriously hopeful because it says no one is beyond the pale. Luther s understanding of the Christian as simul iustus et peccator, both justified and a sinner, and Calvin s doctrine of the Spirit, demonstrate the pastoral power of grace showing us how we can go about the day to day business of following Christ. As a pastor, I ve found the reformers teaching on grace key to my ministry. It s all too easy in preaching to unconsciously use fear and guilt to motivate people to change. These can produce results, but in the long run they don t produce what God calls us to: love of himself and love of our neighbour. Only being grasped by the undeserved love of God shown in the cross can draw out our hearts to love him in return. Luther wrote, How very kindly and lovingly does the Lord allure all hearts to himself, and in this way he stirs them to believe in him. Historian Ashley Null says this allure of grace characterised Thomas Cranmer and the other English reformers understanding of the gospel and the process of both justification and sanctification. This renewed understanding of grace the reformers brought is what the church needs today. Grace produces humility and confidence. Grace softens our hearts as pastors. Grace sharpens our vision as evangelists. Grace broadens our horizon as theologians. The message of grace is the only hope for our hurting and divided world. Reformation theology will only be relevant for us today as we grasp God s grace in Christ and become agents of grace for the building of his church and the glory of his name. VISION100 February 2018 Victor grew up as a missionary kid in PNG. He studied at Sydney University and Moore Theological College and since 2013 has been a minister at St George s Anglican Church in Battery Point. He is married to Claire and they have 3 young children. 5

6 VISION100 February 2018 My Experience as a Part-Time Ministry Apprentice By Doug Ruthenberg I first met Graham Sayer (pastor at One Way Christian Church, Margate) on a summer hiking trip to the top of Mt Ossa in 2009 little did I know that a few years later I would be doing a part time ministry training apprenticeship with him! After ten years living in the suburbs of Brisbane and working at the same school, my family and I had the door opened for us to have a gap year in Tasmania. Despite the initial reluctance to uproot our lives and move half way across the country, I have really enjoyed living in Tasmania and working with Graham as my mentor. As part of the apprenticeship, I have been privileged to meet one on one with Graham each week to study the bible together, pray and grow in godliness. Initially, we decided upon suitable goals in which to grow in the three key training areas of conviction, character and competence in ministry. My main areas of involvement within the local church have been leading Sunday services, preaching my first sermon, being a leader at the youth group and attending a gospel community group. I have also had the privilege of attending a preaching workshop, throughout the year, at Kingston Reformed Church. I have also had the opportunity to go to a number of MTS training days, a preaching workshop in Melbourne and the Challenge conference in Hobart. These have challenged me, strengthened my faith and encouraged me to think more deeply about my life as a Christian and servant of God. A particular highlight for me was a 9pm elective at the Challenge Conference by Dan Shepheard about discovering the Big Idea of a bible passage. The information presented, along with lots of guidance from Graham, has been particularly beneficial for me as a newbie sermon writer. I have often found it hard to stay focussed without getting lost on the many side paths that you can explore, so this input has been invaluable. I have also worked part-time in my profession as a teacher, as well as taken some long service leave from my job in Queensland. I have really enjoyed having the opportunity to teach in a different setting and gain some other skills along the way. I have found it has worked well for me to have the familiarity of my normal profession whilst doing MTS and yet still provide an income for my family. As part of youth group (YOW Youth at One Way), I have particularly enjoyed looking at different worldviews and how they affect how you live. Based on a book by Nancy Pearcey called Total Truth, I have learnt to use the different categories of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Glory in order to analyse how different worldviews answer the basic questions of life such as: Where have I come from? What is wrong with the world? What am I doing here? and Where am I going? This is a great way to equip youth to think about life and how to think about views and religions other than Christianity. It s amazing how Christianity is the only way that teaches that God has done it all for us through the death of his son, Jesus Christ, on the cross and that we can t earn salvation ourselves. While at times I have found it challenging to juggle the demands of part time work, ministry and family life (including a new born baby!) and the steady stream of visitors we have had this year, I truly have enjoyed it! It has been a great opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, be involved more deeply in the local church and be strengthened and encouraged in my walk with God. My family and I have really enjoyed our gap year and the opportunity to do MTS in a flexible part time capacity has been a real blessing. If you are reading this and are considering an MTS apprenticeship, then I highly encourage you to give it a go! Doug is married to Kim and they have four children (Caleb, Zeke, Micah and Evie). Doug has been a high school Mathematics teacher for the past 14 years in Queensland and enjoys playing sport, board games and eating sugar-laden desserts. 6

7 Upcoming Events MTS Training Day April 5, 10:00am - 3:00pm Ross Bakery Stables Vision 100 IT Training Night April 18, 7:30pm - 9:30pm Riverbank Christian Church, Launceston Vision 100 IT Training Night June 27, 7:30pm - 9:30pm Wellspring Anglican Church, Sandy Bay Challenge Conference August 17, 1:30pm - August 18, 9:30pm The Old Woolstore, 1 Macquarie Street Hobart VISION100 February 2018 CMS World Mission Conference May 4, 7:00pm - May 5, 4:30pm Wellspring Anglican Church, Sandy Bay Multiply18: Urgent May 14, 3:00pm - May 16, 2:30pm Scotts Church, Melbourne MTS Training Day September 20, 10:00am - 3:00pm Ross Bakery Stables Tasmanian Church Planting Conference 2018 October 31, 4:00pm - 9:00pm Christian Reformed Church, Kingston Become a Vision 100 Supporter We are currently working to build up a long-term, local support base of members in our extended network, asking them to prayerfully consider joining together with regular support. We would like to ask you to consider pledging to become a regular supporter (you can do so at vision100.org/pledge), so that the work of this important, wide-spread ministry to Tasmania can continue to raise up leaders and plant churches. We would love to hear from you! If you would like to reply to or comment on any of the articles in this newsletter, you can do so by ing info@vision100.org. 7

8 World Mission Conference 2018 be stimulated and engaged by outstanding Bible and missiology 8 info@vision100.org PO Box 5006, University of Tasmania LPO Sandy Bay, TAS 7005