Owen Strachan

John Piper

Mark Dever

Russell Moore

Jonathan Leeman

Timothy Larsen

Michael Haykin

Daniel Bays

Phillip Jensen

Bruce Kent

Mike Gilbert-Smith

Thomas Kid

Matt McCullough

Greg Cochran

What good is a church if it loses its distinctness? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.The growing opposition to the Christian faith in Western culture is heart breaking and worth challenging. That said, God has good purposes for letting the nations-even a so-called Christian nation-oppose his people. And one of them is to sharpen the church's distinctness. He is seeking a bride for his Son, and he means for her to radiate.The nature of our relationships inside a church should be distinct. Our ways of serving our employers and employees should be distinct. Our treatment of spouses and children should be distinct. Our loves and our laughter should be distinct. Our sexuality and family budgets and vacation plans should be distinct. And the more our culture opposes God and his people, the more the distinctness of our churches should shine. Yes, there should be points of commonality. We never stop being human, and our lives and loves should be deeply humane. But we are the new humanity. Our neighbors should find us both familiar and exotic.Notice, then, the further a nation moves away from Christian moral assumptions, the more its churches have occasion to radiate the life-changing power of God. Which means, cultural opposition shouldn't scare us. It sets a backdrop for the display for the glory of God in our lives.Not only that, our evangelistic power is tied to our distinctness. An old friend of mine known as a Christian who works deep in the heart of British politics recently affirmed gay marriage. He doesn't know it today, but a couple decades from now he just might look back and see that he lost all his prophetic power on the day he made that affirmation. He blended in. He became indistinct. His salt was no longer salty. Might as well throw it out.How precious for evangelism's sake are our doctrines of sin and conversion.As cultural opposition grows, in short, church leaders must not be all lament. Or all battle-cry. There might be places for both. But pastors must preach hope, recognizing divine purposefulness in that very opposition. God is behind it. We should not presume to know what God is specifically doing through any moment of opposition, but we can assume that all the purposes for his church are love.The goal of this 9Marks Journal is to help pastors adopt a fuller perspective regarding the growing cultural opposition all around us. How should we think? How should we speak and pray? They might subpoena our sermons or fine our florists. But the game is God's, and he moves about his opponents like pawns.

Seeking the Right Perspective As Opposition Grows

The Vanishing Church? - 9Marks Journal

Paul Williamson

Tim Challies

Os Guinness

Scott Williams

Tim Chester

Sam Allberry

Kelly Kapic

Tony Payne

 Karina Brabham

 Susan Duc

Stephen Gibbins

David Höhne

William Quach

Dani Treweek

How should we deal with our guilt and shame? How should we think about freedom? What is Spirit-inspired Christian living? How does our understanding of hell affect the way we live the Christian life? The Christian gospel transforms every aspect of our lives. If we don’t understand that, we don’t understand Christianity. The Centre for Christian Living, which operates out of Moore Theological College in Sydney, aims to bring biblical ethics to everyday issues—taking the theology and knowledge of God and showing how it shapes and directs every aspect of our daily lives. To that end, we have compiled this annual, which collects some of the material from our activities during 2018: essays from our public events, highlights from our podcast and articles by members of our student team at Moore College. Our hope is that you will find this collection helpful and encouraging as you live out the Christian life.

A thought-provoking collection of some of the material from our 2018 activities.

Centre for Christian Living Annual 2018

The Choice We All Face

2 Ways to Live

Life is disappointing. And disappointment can so easily come to dominate our life-the nagging thought in the back of our minds and the constant 'but' colouring all our pleasures. In this realistic, hope-filled book, John Hindley shows how to deal with disappointment - what disappointment is, what it does, and how to learn to live with the disappointments while also knowing joy. If your life isn't perfect... you need this book!

Becoming the man God wants you to be

Men of God

Phillip Jensen

Books

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