Saturday, April 17, 2010

Can Anything Good Come Out Of Australia?

Many of you are aware of my recent series on the Hillsong church/enterprise and how their consumeristic gospel of self-esteem, success, and sensuality, is becoming an ever-increasing blight on the Australian landscape. It is both lamentable, and typical, that God honoring churches with Scripture honoring pastors are becoming down under dinaosaurs. With that in mind, it was to my immense delight that i discovered the recently published The Trellis And The Vine.

Those who know me know that I am a huge fan of Mark Dever's work "Nine marks Of A Healthy Church" and how it is a refreshingly biblical substitute for the plethora of "Purpose Driven" propoganda. I consider Dever's book to be the benchmark as a framework for biblical churches. So when Dever described "The Trellis And The Vine" as "the best book I've read on church ministry" and staff at "Grace Community Church" (where John Macarthur pastors) described it as a must read, I went down to their book shop and bought it straight off the shelf.

The "Trellis And The Vine" is authored by the Australian pair of Colin Marshall, and Tony Payne and is a wonderful biblical framework for churches to evaluate and ammend (perhaps I should say radically overhaul) the way they function and operate. I hope and pray that this book gains traction down under where there is desperate need for Gospel driven churches.

Here are some high profile endorsements:

What Col and Tony have described here is exactly what I've been trying to do in my own life and in our congregation for years. According to this book, Christians are to be disciple-making disciples and pastors are to be trainers. Superb! This book sets out a crucial shift that is needed in the mindset of many pastors. The authors have carefully listened to the Bible. And they've worked on this book. The result is a book that is well-written and well- illustrated, but even more, a book that is full of biblical wisdom and practical advice. This is the best book I've read on the nature of church ministry.
Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC, USA


This is a simple, beautiful book that I plan to have every pastor and elder at The Village Church read. It quietly and calmly beckons us back to biblical, hands-on shepherding and is a book desperately needed among large churches in the West.
Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas, USA


God makes ministers in the midst of his church. It is in the context of the faithful local church that ministers are best taught, shaped and equipped. The Trellis and the Vine is a superb guide to preparing pastors and ministers for Christ's church. It comes from a ministry so deeply committed to the recovery of biblical truth and the cause of the gospel. The wisdom in this little book is invaluable. My advice: Keep a good stack on hand at all times, and put this book to good use.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, USA


Yes!! Something good can come out of Australia! Fair Dinkum.

3 comments:

Heath The Blogless said...

To answer your original question, we try to keep all the good stuff ourselves and get rid of the bad, That doesn't included you Cam you are the exception to the rule.
I am hoping Hillsong will go and never come back.

Matthias said...

Cameron stone the crows mate. Yes other good things :

Dr Leon morris-great evangelical anglican theologian still quoted in Reformed theology in the USA especially on things eschatological
John Ridley-Anglican evangelist, a ANZAC ,won a military cross for saving men in no mans land in World war one,machine gunned in the jaw healed miraculously. In a sermon in Sydney in the 1930s'said "I wish i could write eternity on the hearts of the men and women of sydney'. Arthur Stace heard this and went out at night writing ETERNITY in copperplate using chalk for enarly 25 years and this made many think.
Last one-Rev john Flynn founded the Royal flying Doctor Service-"wings over the outback" to help in the medical care of those in the Never never
and RUGBY LEAGUE of course

Matthias said...

Oh and Cameron this coming Sunday 25th April remember it is ANZAC DAY for Aussies and New Zealanders.The 95th Anniversary in fact of the Gallipoli Landings and also of the Armenian Holocaust -in the war to end all wars!( What did Jeremiah say "The heart is deceitfully wicked')LEST WE FORGET