Christians Engaging Culture Podcast (Christians Engaging Culture)

Halloween is much more popular in the United States, but it is growing in Australia. We thought it would be helpful to take some time out of our usual programming to think about Halloween from a Christian perspective. Today's episode is from Albert Mohler's podcast The Briefing on 31 October, 2019. He explores the origins of Halloween and the growth of paganism in the modern world. He then helps us think biblically about Halloween and how Christians should respond. You can find more great resources from Albert Mohler at albertmohler.com.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. There was a resource on last week's webpage on the Australian Scene that we thought was so good we should re-publish it in the podcast. Tony Payne is joined by Anglican bishop Michael Stead ‘to discuss why the cause of religious freedom is worth fighting for in our democracy, what the Australian government’s proposed “religious discrimination” legislation is likely to deliver (and not deliver), and what the implications of all this are for Christian individuals and organisations.’ We are grateful to Tony Payne and the Centre for Christian Living for allowing us to re-publish this interview. You can find more excellent resources from CCL at ccl.moore.edu.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In our last podcast we listened in to a discussion between Akos Balogh (CEO of The Gospel Coalition Australia) and Chase Kuhn (Director of the Centre for Christian Living) about their concerns for their sons and how to raise them to treat women well. Balogh wrote a follow-up blog post / letter addressed to his daughter about how to navigate this sexualised society. Today's podcast episode is a discussion of that letter. Balogh and Kuhn discuss this issue as fathers and theologians, focusing on the value of finding our identity in Christ. This podcast provides practical ways in which Christian men can help support their daughters as they grow and develop, and also support and care for their wives and other women. 

Please also check out the following resources:

Akos Balogh’s letter to his daughter here. The original podcast at the Centre for Christian Living website here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week’s podcast brings together a great TEDx talk o the power of storytelling and a podcast episode from the guys at Speak Life on evangelism and storytelling.

Dave Lieber’s original TEDx talk can be found here and is used under TED's Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. 

Speak Life’s original podcast episode can be found here and is used with permission. You can subscribe to their regular podcast or watch it live at fb.com/SpeakLifeUK.

Please check out this week's web page for a number of other resources, including a video of Sam Chan's training on using gospel stories and a great app to use when telling the gospel story to others. 

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this week’s episode, we listen to a conversation between Roy Williams and Gerard O'Brien. Roy is a lecturer at the university of Sydney’s law school, a Christian author and a much-loved member of our St Thomas’ church family. As we’ve been thinking about getting a world that doesn’t get it, Roy took on the task of researching divine judgement. If there’s something our world doesn’t get, it’s hell. How can it be fair? What happens to people from other religions? Is eternal judgment justifiable? We sat down to discuss these issues and more.

If you would like to volunteer to research for Christians Engaging Culture's next topic on parenting in a post-Christian world, please get in touch with Gerard at gerard.obrien@st-thomas.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Albert Mohler discusses a speech on religious liberty by the United States Attorney General. In the second part of our program he comments on the recent Sydney Anglican synod and Bishop Glenn Davies' stand for biblical truth. He calls it 'a model of convictional courage'.

Dr. Albert Mohler is the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States. He runs a daily program called The Briefing that gives cultural analysis from a Christian worldview. You can visit Albert Mohler's website here and subscribe to The Briefing by searching for it in your podcast app. We are thankful for his team granting permission to republish his commentary here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Hopefully restrictions will continue to ease over the coming weeks and we will find ourselves with many more opportunities to share the gospel with people who are truly thinking about the deeper things in life. This week's episode is a repeat of one we did last year with some training from Sam Chan on how to turn a conversation to the gospel. We're thankful to Sam for his permission to use this material. You can find out more about him at his blog, or you can buy his excellent book on evangelism here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

People acting with a social justice focus often separate us into different identity groups. In today’s talk from Dr. Chase Kuhn, we hear a helpful Christian perspective on the topic of race. He explains that we are one humanity, with one heritage, Adam, that God wants all to be saved and that the only way to salvation is through one mediator, Jesus Christ. We are urged to have a primary importance of praying for all.

Dr. Kuhn is a lecturer in Theology and Ethics at Moore Theological College and the director for the Centre for Christian Living. He’s also a beloved member of our St Thomas’ community.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we’re listening to parenting tips from the parents of Martyn Iles. It can be difficult raising kids to live in this rapidly-changing world. It can be hard to answer their questions and to teach them the gospel. But these are some great and faithful tips from Martyn Iles’ parents. This comes from a portion of the Truth of It podcast from almost a year ago. We’re thankful to the Australian Christian Lobby for allowing us to republish this podcast here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This is part two of the address given by John Woodhouse at the launch of our new series called Getting a World That Does Not Get It. John answers the challenging questions he raised in the first part of his talk that we listened to last week. How is it that our culture, in which there is so much that is good (and that we as Christians want to affirm), is often so antagonistic towards God and his word? How has that situation come about? And how do we understand it?

For more resources in this series, please visit the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

You can find a video of both talks and the Q&A session at the St Thomas' Youtube page.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

This is the launch episode of Christians Engaging Culture so you know the kinds of things we have in store. We want to bring you the best resources from around the Internet on the topics we cover. We’re planning an official launch of Christians Engaging Culture at the church Home House Party, so make sure you’re there on 17-19 May.

This week we will be listening to a portion of ‘The Truth of It’ podcast by Martin Isles, who is the director of the Australian Christian Lobby (used with permission of ACL). It’s a great encouragement for us as Christians to stand up for the truth in a world that has forgotten it. If you want to find out more from the Truth of It podcast, just search for it in your podcast app or you can watch on Youtube here. 

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

On 25 August, 2019 Martyn Iles visited St Thomas' 5pm service. After the service we had dinner together as a church community in the church hall and Martyn addressed us on the topic of religious liberty. This week we are listening to the talk he gave and then next week we will be listening to the question & answer session. You can find video of this week's address here.

Martyn Iles is the Director of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Dr Tom Ascol unpacks Micah 6:8 to explain the biblical view of justice and to issue the call to act with an attitude of kindness and mercy towards others, and with an attitude of humility and genuine love for God, to whom we seek to give glory. You will find additional resources that explain biblical justice at cec.st-thomas.org.au. We encourage you to check out Founders Ministries for the use of this podcast and encourage you to check out their website for more great resources.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Jonathan Youssef spent a couple of years at St Thomas’ as our Evening Church minister. He’s now serving in his home church back in Atlanta. Jonathan has started a podcast of his own called Candid and recently he sat down with Stan Carder to talk about how to minister to others during difficult times. For over 40 years, Stan has walked through fierce personal trials and has, in turn, walked countless others through difficult times. From a small rural church in the Midwest to a megachurch in California, Stan has faithfully ministered God's love and Truth to those who are suffering. We trust this will help you to care for your family, friends and neighbours who may be going through a time of suffering. We’re very thankful to Jonathan for allowing us to republish his podcast here and you can find a link to his podcast feed here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Recently I (Gerard) gave a short talk on Psalm 46 and Luke 13 about the comfort for Christians in a time of crisis, but also the call that Jesus gives for repentance. It was originally given to the youth group of St Thomas’ (called 'Lights') on the 20th of March - it was a time when lockdowns had just started. We weren’t able to do youth group together, but the schools were still open. It's still very relevant today. We hope you find it helpful.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we continue looking at religious liberty and education. In this podcast we hear from Neil Foster. Neil Foster is uniquely placed to speak to the topic of religious liberty. He has trained in law and is an Associate Professor in the law school at the University of Newcastle. He has also studied at Moore Theological College in Sydney. He writes a blog called Law and Religion in Australia. This podcast is a lecture that Associate Professor Foster gave at the Anglican Education Commission’s Governor’s Symposium in late 2018. In it he discusses the impact of the Ruddock Report on religious schools. The Ruddock report had not yet been released, but enough had been leaked for Associate Professor Foster to comment helpfully, and his commentary is still relevant in light of the recently-released draft religious freedom bill. We are thankful to the Anglican Education Commission for giving us permission to republish this article. You can find out more about them at www.edcomm.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week’s podcast is actually a last-minute insertion. We were planning on looking at some case studies in religious liberty to do with evangelism (we'll do this next week), but the draft religious freedom bill was released by the government a bit over a week ago. Once again, Martyn Iles has produced some excellent commentary on it and so we are republishing his podcast on it, which also includes further comments on the abortion debate in New South Wales. We are grateful to the Australian Christian Lobby for allowing us to re-publish this podcast. You can find our more about the ACL at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this podcast J. Warner Wallace explains how the definitions of truth and tolerance have changed in the postmodern era. Christians are seen as intolerant and unloving because we uphold that truth is absolute in a world that sees truth as relative. He explains that truth by its very nature is absolute. Truth is exclusive and objective and determines what is right and wrong.

We are thankful for Wallace’s permission to republish this podcast here and you can find his website and more helpful resources at Cold Case Christianity.

Please also make sure you check out the CEC website for more helpful resources, discussion questions and suggestions on how to turn conversations to the gospel.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this week’s podcast, we are listening to a lecture on euthanasia by Calum Miller in 2019 for RZIM. Miller explores the topic of euthanasia and looks at how Christians should respond. 

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Phillip Jensen traces how Australia went from a majority nominally-Christian nation in the 1950s to the non-religious nation it is today. He covers ground from Billy Graham, the advent of TV and the moon landing all the way to the modern world. And he looks at how the liberals, the Pentecostals and the evangelicals responded. If you want to learn from Australian history and understand the culture we’re in, this is an excellent episode for you. Special thanks to Dominic Steele at The Pastors Heart for giving us permission to republish this episode. Make sure you subscribe to the Pastors Heart here. 

Share your ideas for CEC

We have opened up a new part of our website for you to contribute your ideas. If you have an idea for a future CEC module or if you want to drop us a note of encouragement or constructive criticism or anything else, we'd love to hear from you. Just head to the 'Your Ideas' page of the CEC website here. And if you have skills in researching or project management and would like to contribute to CEC in 2020, there's an option on the same feedback form to let us know.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

On 25 August, 2019 Martyn Iles visited St Thomas' 5pm service. After the service we had dinner together as a church community in the church hall and Martyn addressed us on the topic of religious liberty. This week we are listening to the question & answer session (you can find the questions asked further below). You can find video of this Q&A session here.

Martyn Iles is the Director of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Questions from the podcast

1. What are the current RF laws and limits in Australia and how do they differ to other countries?

2. How do we balance recognizing that unbelievers aren’t expected to obey God’s law with lobbying for Christian laws for example marriage equality and abortion debates?

3. What does it mean that you don’t believe in human rights law?

4. How does the high court decision in Comcare versus Banerji, where Banerji was fired by APS for tweets affect your approach to religious freedom and the Folau case?

5. Are Muslims and Muslim businesses targeted at the moment in the same way as you have outlined for homophobic beliefs? If not, why do you think that is so?

6. You’re having a conversation at the footy about religious liberty issue. How do you turn the conversation towards Jesus?

7. Why does God give governing authority to corrupt people?

8. “Wear it Purple Day” at schools is coming up. What’s your advice where everyone at schools and workplaces are expected to participate?

9. Phillip Ruddock’s Religious Freedoms report found no real examples of religious disadvantage because of religious beliefs. Did he miss all the cases that you have shared?

10. People have said they are disappointed that ACL has donated to Israel Folau’s legal defense when he has enough funds of his own. Can you explain?

11. Thinking about laws and policies why is it ok to impose Christian values on non-Christians?

12. What political strategies has ACL put into place to reinstate Christian values back into policies and governments at federal and state level?

13. How would you respond to a wedding invitation from a lesbian friend?

14. Considering Australia’s political landscape, who has inspired you most and why?

In this week's Christians Engaging Culture podcast, Sam Chan challenges you to put time into writing your testimony. He provides a structure and gives an example of how to share it. Sam has given permission to use this material, but you can find out more about him at his blog, or you can buy his excellent book on evangelism here.

Please check out this week's web page for a number of other resources, including an article and video about listening well.  

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week is a special episode between our evangelism module and our freedom of religion module featuring Rebecca McLaughlin. Our senior minister Simon Manchester wrote a bulletin letter last week that heartily commends her recent book Confronting Christianity. Simon also recommended that the CEC podcast play a lecture Rebecca gave. It was a lecture she delievered at the 2019 National Conference of the Gospel Coalition in Indianapolis and it was called ‘4 Things Christians Must Reclaim’. Rebecca has very kindly given us permission to republish the lecture here.

Upcoming event: Martyn Iles (Director of the Australia Christian Lobby) will be joining us for dinner and an open forum on Freedom of Religion (our next module in CEC) on Sunday 25 August, 6:15-8:30pm in the St Thomas' Memorial Hall. More information can be found here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

John Piper is founder of desiringgod.org, chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary and has served as a pastor for over 30 years of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. In these two talks Piper explains what God’s holiness is and how the glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness. In the second talk Piper explores how we can experience God’s through reading and meditating on the Scriptures.

Please also make sure you check out the CEC website for more helpful resources, discussion questions and suggestions on how to turn conversations to the gospel.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we focus on strategies to engage in gospel conversations. We look at some of the skills involved and the underlying mindset that will support you. We continue with the training seminar Sam Chan gave at Church by the Bridge explaining how to turn a conversation to the gospel. Sam has given permission to use this material, but you can find out more about him at his blog, or you can buy his excellent book on evangelism here.

Please check out this week's web page for a number of other resources, including an article and video about listening well.  

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

For the past few weeks we have been thinking about the topic of Evangelism. This is because we aren’t engaging in cultural conversations simply for the sake of an argument. Our ultimate goal is to point people to Jesus.

This week we are thinking through how to give answers to objections people have. The podcast has two parts. The first part is from a ministry called Speak Life in the United Kingdom. You can find them on the web at speaklife.org.uk, you can subscribe to their podcast by searching for them on your podcast app or you can listen to their live cast each week at facebook.com/speaklifeuk. We can highly recommend their material. The second part is from a lecture given by Michael Ramsden on answering objections. It's just a small snippet of the lecture, so we can recommend you check out the full videos starting here. For more resources handpicked on answering objections, please check out this week's web page.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

We brought together a group of St Thomas' church members to discuss the joys and challenges of sharing the gospel. If you would like to watch the video of this conversation, you can find it here.

Please check out this week's web page for a number of other resources, including a great video and article about overcoming fear in evangelism, a couple of quick gospel overviews and some discussion questions for individual or group use. 

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week is a special episode between our evangelism module and our freedom of religion module featuring David Robertson. David recently moved from Scotland where he was the minister at St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee. He has come to Australia to work at City Bible Forum as director of an initiative called Third Space that seeks to create opportunities to share the gospel with unbelieving friends in a space between the office and the church building. We are very blessed at St Thomas’ to have David and his lovely wife Annabelle join us as members. David produces a brilliant podcast called ‘Quantum’ that analyses news and current affairs from a Christian worldview. And because he’s now moved to Australia, I daresay it will include a lot more Australian news moving into the future. David has kindly let us republish his podcast here so you can get a taste of it. I’ve chosen the episode he released when he landed in Australia a couple of weeks ago. So have a listen and then go and subscribe to his podcast by searching for ‘Quantum - The Wee Flea Podcast’ in your podcast app.

Upcoming event: Martyn Iles (Director of the Australia Christian Lobby) will be joining us for dinner and an open forum on Freedom of Religion (our next module in CEC) on Sunday 25 August, 6:15-8:30pm in the St Thomas' Memorial Hall. More information can be found here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Life is all about maximising pleasure and minimising pain. It sounds like the worldview of a modern Australian, but it’s as old as Ancient Greece. In today’s podcast we listen in to the Speak Life podcast and how pervasive this philosophy is on our culture and a refreshing biblical response. We’re thankful to the team at Speak Life for allowing us to republish this podcast. You can find more of their material if you go to facebook.com/speaklifeuk. 

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Earlier this year the Christian ministry Samaritan's Purse was condemned by officials of New York City and encouraged to leave after they had been helping with the COVID response. Why? Because they held a Christian view of marriage. It is a parable of our times: Christians are excluded in the name of inclusion, they are not tolerated in the name of tolerance. Today's CEC episode is courtesy of Albert Mohler's podcast The Briefing, where on his 12 May episode, he provided a very helpful analysis of this confused world. It is a helpful precursor to our upcoming series on 'Getting a World That Does Not Get It'. We are grateful to Albert Mohler and his team at The Briefing for allowing us to republish this episode here.

Sunday 19 July - New CEC Series - 'Getting a World That Does Not Get It' with John Woodhouse

This Sunday the 19th of July, John Woodhouse will be launching a new series called ‘Getting a World That Does Not Get It’. It will take place straight after the 5pm service at St Thomas'. Members of the 8am and 10am congregations are more than welcome to join us from 6:15pm (or join us online, as the 5pm livestream will continue into the event after the church service). So please make sure this Sunday is in your diary and get ready for a very helpful series coming up from the Christians Engaging Culture team. You can check out the CEC website for more details.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we are considering the topic of evangelism and how it relates to religious liberty. We are listening to two segments from Martyn Iles' podcast The Truth of It that have to do with the case of Israel Folau. Iles looks at the difference between speech and discrimination and the strategies being used against Folau to pressure him into silence. We are grateful to the Australian Christian Lobby for allowing us to re-publish this podcast. You can find our more about the ACL at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this podcast John Piper describes himself as racist in the early years of his life and shares how God challenged and transformed his heart and mind. He describes the transformation that comes from recognising that we are God’s image bearers, that we are one race, of one bloodline, descended from Adam. He sees it as fundamentally a gospel issue that allows us to triumph over sin that militates against the advance of racial harmony and the enjoyment of racial diversity. We thank John Piper for this podcast and desiringgod.org for permission to republish it.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we listen to the guys from the Speaklife Podcast about how Christians have responded to pandemics in the past. We are thankful for their permission to republish it here. You can find out more about them at fb.com/speaklifeuk. 

Gerard also comments on a helpful secular podcast called The Happiness Lab and attempts to 'baptise' some of their advice.

For a flyer to take to neighbours offering to help while they're in isolation / quarantine, click here.

Another great resource to check out during this crisis is David Robertson's daily video with Stephen McAlpine called The Panic Room (don't worry - they don't panic too much!)

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week’s podcast is an interview with N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop and leading New Testament scholar. It focuses on one of the most awe-inspiring, yet elusive and misunderstood, concepts in the Bible: the nature of life after death.

This is our final podcast in this series and is on the nature of Heaven. This is the ultimate goal for all Christians, so we should all think about it a lot more! The speaker, Randy Alcorn, is an American author whose book Heaven, has sold over 1 million copies. You can find more information about Randy Alcorn at his ministry website, www.epm.org, which stands for Eternal Perspective Ministries.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this week’s episode, we listen to Albert Mohler from his daily news review The Briefing from 19 October, 2018. He looks at policies relating to the euthanasia of children which were being seriously considered by a Canadian pediatric hospital.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Dr Jo Vitale from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries explores the human search for meaning. This is a new section in our series on 'Getting a World That Does Not Get It'. We've heard introductory material from John Woodhouse and we had a few weeks on the topic of 'Truth and Tolerance'. In the next few weeks we will be thinking about Meaning, both from a Christian and non-Christian perspective.

We are thankful for RZIM's permission to republish this podcast episode. You can find the original video here, and you can find their website with many more helpful resources at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

Please also make sure you check out the CEC website for more helpful resources, discussion questions and suggestions on how to turn conversations to the gospel.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this Podcast Chase Kuhn from the Centre for Christian Living interviews two Christian medical specialists in a wide ranging review of the ethical, historical, social and practical issues associated with assisted reproductive technology. In particular they bring a strong biblical focus to these issues. You can find a transcript of the talk and the event handout with the slides that Megan Best refers to here.

The original podcast at the Centre for Christian Living website here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

The Black Lives Matter movement has come to very high prominence in recent weeks due to the terrible murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. This week we are hearing from Martyn Iles’ commentary on the movement from his podcast called The Truth of It. If you haven’t subscribed to The Truth of It yet, we strongly recommend you do. We are thankful to Martyn for allowing us to republish it here.

Event - Cafe Online with David Robertson

St Thomas’ has started a new initiative called Cafe Online. Each Monday night David Robertson is hosting a guest in the Memorial Hall to work through a part of his book called Magnificient Obsession. This past Monday night (15/6/20) he had Sarah Irving-Stonebraker talking about the historicity of the gospel accounts of Jesus. It was a great night with a wonderful cafe vibe. You can invite a friend to be part of the live audience in the Memorial Hall, or you can tune in with them online. You can find the web page to invite a friend and the interview with Sarah Irving-Stonebraker here.

Pray and Give - Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship

One great way you can support Aboriginal Australians is by growing disciples. That's what the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship is on about. You can find their webpage here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week are looking at religious liberty and education. In this podcast we listen to an interview with a Canadian father named Steven Tourloukis. When his children were four and six years old, he requested that their school  notify him when they were teaching them about sensitive topics such as homosexuality, abortion and gender identity. The school refused and Tourloukis took them to court. The court ruled that, although the school’s decision violated the Canadian Charter of Rights, ‘the violation was “reasonable” given the competing Charter “values” of “inclusivity, equality and multiculturalism,” and public school boards’ statutory obligations to support equity and create an inclusive school environment.’ This case is now seven years old and this interview is from 2012. But Canada is probably around a decade ahead of Australia in this drift away from Christianity and cases like these could start emerging in Australia. We think this interview shows a very reasonable response from a religious father to a difficult situation and we can learn from him. We are thankful to Radio Teopoli for allowing us to republish this interview.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this second of two podcasts on facing infertility, Chase Kuhn from the Centre for Christian Living interviews two Christian medical specialists in a wide ranging review of the ethical, historical, social and practical issues associated with assisted reproductive technology. In particular they bring a strong biblical focus to these issues. You can find a transcript of the talk and the event handout with the slides that Megan Best refers to here.

The original podcast at the Centre for Christian Living website here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Thaddeus Williams is the author of Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice. Williams explains the difference between the secular view of justice, especially from a cultural Marxist ideology, and the biblical view of justice. The CEC website includes an article by Williams that identifies twelve perspectives on social justice and shows how biblical justice is more humanising, God-glorifying and just.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In the coming weeks CEC will explore the topic of religious liberty. As Christians, we want the freedom to live quiet and peaceful lives and to make the gospel known. Unfortunately, as our culture moves away from the Bible, the Christian worldview is increasingly rejected as discriminatory and hateful. This has recently come to a head in the case of Israel Folau, in legislation forcing doctors to refer for abortions, as well as in a number of other cases. How should Christians respond to these issues? Should we contend for religious liberty? What should we say when our non-Christian neighbours ask us about these things?

We think a helpful definition of religious liberty is given by Andrew Walker in his thesis on the topic: ‘Religious liberty is defined as the principle wherein every individual should be free to live out his or her understanding of the conscience’s duty that is owed to God in all areas of life without liability to government penalty or social harassment.’ There are qualifications we could make to this definition (as we will see in this week’s module), but it is a good start.

This week we look at the biblical basis for religious liberty. Our authority is the Bible and so we do not want to believe in religious liberty unless it is biblical. Our podcast is a lecture given by Gerard O’Brien (assistant minister at St Thomas’ North Sydney). Also included in this week are an essay on religious liberty through church history from one of our congregation members, articles from Akos Balogh and Douglas Wilson on how religious liberty cannot be value-neutral and a lecture by Martyn Iles on the role of government and why Christians should enter politics. You can find these articles and more at our website.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Today we listen to two segments that each explore the reasons people seek to end their lives as they suffer immense pain. In our first segment John Wyatt, a medical doctor, reflects on two very difficult cases of people who suffered terribly and sought euthanasia. He then provides a compassionate and biblical understanding of why people seek to end their life and how Christians can best respond.

In our second segment, bioethicist Margaret Sommerville and Simon Smart from the Centre for Public Christianity explore the reasons people seek euthanasia. For some, euthanasia is a control mechanism for the fear of death. They also explore how the sanitised way we discuss euthanasia and the normalisation of euthanasia can have a significant impact on the values of our society and our respect for life.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

John Woodhouse presented this paper at the launch of this series for Christians Engaging Culture. In this podcast John outlines the challenges we face as Christians as we live in a postmodern culture. He identifies that most of us will feel uncomfortable about some biblical truths and will struggle to explain them to our own satisfaction, let alone the satisfaction of others who do not share our faith.  He also gives us insights into our responses and challenges us to take a hard look at what the Bible actually says.

For more resources in this new series, please visit the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

You can find a video of both talks and the Q&A session at the St Thomas' Youtube page.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

For the past few weeks we have been thinking about the topic of Evangelism. This is because we aren’t engaging in cultural conversations simply for the sake of an argument. Our ultimate goal is to point people to Jesus.

This week we are stepping back and taking a look at our cultural landscape. From relativism to secularism to cultural Marxism, there are certainly a lot of isms flying around. Of course the gospel is relevant to people whether we understand each ism or not. But it can help us understand where our neighbours are coming from if we try and get a handle on them, and then that can help us to connect the gospel to where they’re at. There are plenty of great resources on our website to help you learn more, so please do visit it here.

In this week’s podcast we are listening to an address that was given by Dr Michael Bird, lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne. He expertly analyses how we got to the point we’re at in Australia, he helps us think about where we’re likely to head, and he provides strategise for how we can navigate this cultural landscape as Christians. This lecture was originally given at the Australian Christian Lobby Embolden Conference in 2017 and we thank them for their kind permission in letting us republish it here. You can find videos from the full conference here and the ACL website here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we hear from one of our own parishioners, Mark Allaby, and one of our previous assistant ministers, Jonathan Youssef. Mark shares how, while serving on the board for a secular business, his involvement with a Christian organisation turned into a scandal that landed him on front page news.

You can find more resources from Jonathan Youssef's podcast, Candid, here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Next Sunday, the 22nd of March 2020, we are privileged to have David Robertson preaching on the topic of ‘What is your hope?’ David Robertson is a Christian author, prolific blogger, podcaster and director of Third Space at City Bible Forum. He and his wife Annabel are also beloved members of St Thomas’. We’ve set the 22nd of March apart as a special week to invite family and friends who don’t yet know Jesus to church. Of course, we always welcome people who don’t yet trust in Jesus, but this week is especially for them to hear the good news. Gerard O'Brien sat down with David and had a conversation about how to invite people to church. We hope you find it helpful.

St Thomas' Invitation Week - 22 March, 2020

8am - in St Thomas' Church

10am - in St Thomas' Church - Facebook event here (invite your friends!)

5pm - 'Pop-Up Church' in Civic Park - Facebook event here (invite your friends!)

We have also created a web page on the CEC website to help train you for inviting people to invitation weeks. You can check it out here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week is a special episode between our evangelism module and our religious liberty module. Given recent developments around abortion in NSW, we are listening to Martyn Iles’ comments about the subject from his podcast called The Truth of It. Martyn Iles is the director of the Australian Christian Lobby and has kindly given permission to re-publish his podcast.

Recommended resources:

You can take action and express opposition to the change in law before 5pm, Tuesday 13 August at https://www.acl.org.au/take_action_on_abortion.

‘Doctors' rights to object to abortion should be protected’ by Joanna Howe and Suzanne Le Mire (Sydney Morning Herald article).

‘Lawyers commenting on NSW Abortion Law changes’ by the Wilberforce Foundation.

180 movie - this is an excellent 30-minute movie that will help you turn conversations about abortion to the gospel.

Babies are Murdered Here - a documentary advocating for the abolition of abortion (please note that unlike the U.S.A. where this was filmed, our freedom of speech has sadly been curtailed from speaking against abortion within 150 metres of an abortion clinic in NSW, although there is an exception outside NSW Parliament House).

Abortion Procedures Website - these videos are confronting, but they are animated so that it's not as bad as the real thing. It is important to know the truth about abortion.

Upcoming event: Martyn Iles (Director of the Australia Christian Lobby) will be joining us for dinner and an open forum on Religious Liberty (our next module in CEC) on Sunday 25 August, 6:15-8:30pm in the St Thomas' Memorial Hall. Please bring a suggested $5 donation to cover the costs of a light dinner. To find out more and to RSVP, please visit our Coming Events page.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Our culture is very confused when it comes to relationships between the sexes. The headlines are all too frequent about sexual abuse and domestic violence. In today’s episode, we listen to an interview Chase Kuhn did with Akos Balogh for his Centre for Christian Living podcast. It’s such a helpful interview on how men can relate to women in godly ways and raise their sons to do the same. We’re thankful to Chase and the CCL for granting permission to republish the interview here and we hope you find it helpful.

Please also check out the following resources:

Akos Balogh’s original letter to his son here.
The original podcast at the Centre for Christian Living website here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week’s podcast is a conversation that John Anderson had with author and free-speech defender, Greg Lukianoff. They cover a lot of topics, from the changing practices of parents, to the restrictions of free speech on university campuses, to wokeness in modern culture.

You can find more resources from John Anderson at johnanderson.net.au.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we look at the history of religious liberty in Australia and the structure of religious liberty as a whole. In our podcast we will listen to an interview between Gerard O'Brien and Roy Williams. Roy has decades of experience in the legal profession and now lectures in law at the University of Sydney. He is a member of our 5pm congregation at St Thomas' and has kindly lent his expertise to this project. If you go to our website at cec.st-thomas.org.au, you will find an excellent essay by Roy on religious liberty in Australia. You will also find other helpful resources from the Centre for Christian Living and Freedom for Faith. You can find these articles and more at our website.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week’s podcast is an interview with N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop and leading New Testament scholar. It focuses on one of the most awe-inspiring, yet elusive and misunderstood, concepts in the Bible: the nature of life after death. 

We note that N.T. Wright has some controversial views, especially with regards to justification. There was an important debate between him and John Piper through a number of publications back in the 2000s. We want to be clear that our endorsement of this interview is not an endorsement of all of N.T. Wright’s theology, and his teaching on justification in particular is not consistent with the teaching of St Thomas’. 

We are thankful for Calvin University for providing permission to republish their interview here. This audio is from a few years ago when it was known as Calvin College. The name has since changed to Calvin University.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week's episode is on the power of language. Language can change how we think and how language can change a civilisation. It’s a fascinating study from the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. We’re thankful for the Ezra Institute’s permission to republish this podcast and encourage you to check out many more helpful resources from them at ezrainstitute.ca. 

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Simon Manchester joins us to discuss how to talk helpfully about religious liberty and take opportunities to get to the gospel. 

If you visit our website you can find more resources on religious liberty in conversation, including a blog post by Akos Balogh on how to get from Israel Folau to the gospel. You can find a video of this interview here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we are listening to a talk on how the God of love is the God of judgment that Michael Ramsden gave at the Christ's Commission Fellowship Conference in the Philippines. Ramsden is at his engaging best here, grappling with the apparent tension between the idea of a God of love and a God of eternal judgment. He argues convincingly that the two ideas are reconcilable. 

If you would like to volunteer to research for Christians Engaging Culture's next topic on parenting in a post-Christian world, please get in touch with Gerard at gerard.obrien@st-thomas.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week we continue with the introduction to our topic Getting a World That Does Not Get it. Over the last two weeks we have explored why our Christian faith is held in derision by some. This week we look at the philosophies of modernism and postmodernism which have dominated our secular culture in the recent past. We are listening in to a conversation between Professor Stephen Hicks and John Anderson. Professor Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher who teaches at Rockford University in Illinois. He provides insights into why western democracies are experiencing increasing social conflict. 

We want to commend John Anderson’s extensive series called Conversations with John Anderson to you. If you go to his webpage you will find many more great interviews there - johnanderson.net.au

Please also make sure you check out the CEC website for  helpful resources to understand out culture, including how cultural Marxism is a serious and growing threat to the church and practical advice for how Christians can discuss these issues.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

We’re so excited that David Robertson has come on board one day a week at St Thomas’ to help us with evangelism during the time of Covid. David has started a podcast with his Third Space colleague Stephen McAlpine called Life in Wartime. They are helping us think about this pandemic through Christian lenses. I definitely recommend you subscribe to it. To give you a taste, today we’re listening to the first episode they made for it back on the 3rd of April where, among other things, they reflect on what C.S. Lewis said to his nation in a time of crisis with World War 2, and how it might apply to us today. We’re thankful to David for giving us permission to republish it here. You can find the Life in Wartime podcast here and the Third Space website here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This week lays the foundation for confident personal evangelism. We recognise that evangelism is challenging in our post-Christian culture. And so in our podcast we are going to hear from a training seminar Sam Chan gave at Church by the Bridge explaining why things are difficult and providing some excellent approaches to address these challenges. Sam has given permission to use this material, but you can find out more about him at his blog, or you can buy his excellent book on evangelism here. 

Please check out this week's web page for a number of other resources, including a video from Tim Keller discussing how to share the gospel in culturally-diverse cities and a quick evangelism coaching guide you could discuss with a friend or in your Discipleship Group.  

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel. The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode. 

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here. 

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we are looking at religious liberty in the workplace. We are listening to two resources from the Australian Christian Lobby. The first is an interview between Martyn Iles and John Steenhof, who is the Director of the Human Rights Law Alliance. And the second is a section of Martyn Iles’ podcast called The Truth of It. Folau’s case is demonstrative of what can happen to other people of faith in Australia who fall foul of codes of conduct that exist in many professional contracts. Steenhof and Iles show why Folau’s is an important test case and provide an argument for why Folau (and other Australian workers) should be free to share their faith without fear of recrimination from their employers. You may have noticed we’ve used a lot from Martyn Iles recently and that is because he has been speaking so helpfully on religious liberty in Australia in the past year or so. We are thankful to the Australian Christian Lobby for giving us permission to republish this podcast. You can find out more about them at acl.org.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Dr Voddie Baucham is a black American pastor who has experienced the hatred of racism. He unpacks Ephesians 2:10-22 to show how Christ’s death and resurrection broke down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew from Gentile so that we have become one new man in Christ. We are fellow citizens in the kingdom. Likewise, everyone needs the gospel for salvation, and we should be impartial in sharing the good news. 

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

This podcast from Martyn Iles, CEO of Australian Christian Lobby, exposes components of The Good Society School Curriculum which provides a view on sexuality, gender and identity from an anti-Christian worldview. Some of the material has been sourced from the Safe Schools Coalition.  This is important listening especially for parents of school aged children. 

You can find Martyn Iles' podcast The Truth of It here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

In this podcast Chase Kuhn from the Centre for Christian Living interviews Carl Trueman, theologian, eccliastical historian and author about his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. This podcast provides excellent insights for Christians into the current cultural settings and shows how the Christian Church can provide a solution to those who are feeling overwhelmed and disillusioned. It helps us understand the world around us and how we can respond as Christians with the gospel. You may also wish to read a review of the book which can be found here.

The original podcast at the Centre for Christian Living website here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

The guys at the Speak Life Podcast have put together a great episode on what an amazing outreach opportunity Christmas is, and they have some great tips on how to invite friends to church and share good videos and books with them if they’re interested. We’re thankful for their permission to republish this episode from only a few days ago. You can find Speak Life on the web at speaklife.org.uk, you can subscribe to their podcast by searching for them on your podcast app or you can listen to their live cast each week at facebook.com/speaklifeuk.

St Thomas' Christmas Services

The Community Party
4:00pm–6:00pm on Sunday 22 December

Christmas Carols
6:00pm on Sunday 22 December

Christmas Eve Church Service
5:00pm & 11:00pm on Tuesday 24 December

Christmas Day Church Service
8:00am and 10:00am on Wednesday 25 December

Find all the details at st-thomas.org.au/event/christmas-community-party/

Share your ideas for CEC

We have opened up a new part of our website for you to contribute your ideas. If you have an idea for a future CEC module or if you want to drop us a note of encouragement or constructive criticism or anything else, we'd love to hear from you. Just head to the 'Your Ideas' page of the CEC website here. And if you have skills in researching or project management and would like to contribute to CEC in 2020, there's an option on the same feedback form to let us know.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

For the past few weeks we have been thinking about the topic of Evangelism. This is because we aren’t engaging in cultural conversations simply for the sake of an argument. Our ultimate goal is to point people to Jesus.

This week is a special episode to follow on from our module on evangelism. John Mason held some evangelism training for Christians Engaging Culture at St Thomas’. We wanted to share it with a wider audience and so we will be listening to the second half of the training today. You can find video of these sessions here.

John Mason led churches in Australia before planting Christ Church Anglican Church in New York City. He is the Chairman of the Anglican Connection in the USA. He regularly visits American churches to train them in evangelism. He has also written a commentary on the gospel of Luke that you can purchase here. When he's home in Sydney, he and his wife Judy are members of St Thomas'. It was a real privilege to have him train us in evangelism and we hope you find it helpful.

Upcoming event: Martyn Iles (Director of the Australia Christian Lobby) will be joining us for dinner and an open forum on Freedom of Religion (our next module in CECN) on Sunday 25 August, 6:30-8pm in the St Thomas' Memorial Hall. More information can be found here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Rob Smith joined Dominic Steele The Pastor’s Heart podcast to talk about the recent controversy around Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and her essay about transgenderism. Rob Smith is completing a Ph. D. on transgenderism and provided some really helpful comments from a Christian worldview that will help you engage in conversations with people in your life. We are grateful to Dominic and The Pastor's Heart team for allowing us to republish this episode here. You can find the original episode and subscribe to The Pastor's Heart here.

Sunday 19 July - New CEC Series - 'Getting a World That Does Not Get It' with John Woodhouse

On the 19th of July, John Woodhouse will be launching a new series called ‘Getting a World That Does Not Get It’. It will take place straight after the 5pm service at St Thomas'. Members of the 8am and 10am congregations are more than welcome to join us from 6:15pm (or join us online, as the 5pm livestream will continue into the event after the church service). So please make sure the 19th of July is in your diary and get ready for a very helpful series coming up from the Christians Engaging Culture team. You can check out the CEC website for more details.

Monday 6 July - Cafe Online with David Robertson and Rob Smith

St Thomas’ has started a new initiative called Cafe Online. Each Monday night David Robertson is hosting a guest in the Memorial Hall to work through a part of his book called Magnificient Obsession. This Monday night (6/7/20) he will be joined by Rob Smith to discuss the cross of Christ. You can find the web page to invite a friend and past interviews here.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

For the past while we have been doing a series called 'Getting a World that Doesn’t Get It'. Today, as part of this series, we are addressing the topic of abortion. We hear from Clayton Kraby from Reasonable Theology. He looks at common arguments for and against abortion and then outlines some ways Christians can do something about it. We’re thankful for his permission to re-publish his podcast here and you can find more information about Reasonable Theology at reasonabletheology.org. 

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel. Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe. 

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians know that God is holy. Everything he does is good, just, moral and righteous. But how do we explain the apparent racism, sexism and genocide that we find in the Bible? Can we really trust God’s character? And if we cannot explain it, how do we handle the objections of our non-Christian friends, especially when it comes to social justice issues? Jo Vitale tackles this question head on and finds a loving, moral, holy God that we can trust implicitly.

Jo Vitale works for RZIM. You can find excellent resources on their website www.rzim.org.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

John Wyatt is Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics, Ethics & Perinatology at University College London. His wife Celia has worked with many women who are considering abortion or have had an abortion. In today’s podcast we hear from John on the humanity of the unborn child, focusing particularly on Psalm 139. Then Celia talks about her personal experience of bringing a woman to the forgiveness found in Jesus after grieving her abortion. She explains the forgiveness Jesus brings through the story of the woman caught in adultery. 

You might be aware of the fact that John 7:53-8:11 is a significant textual variant and that the story probably wasn’t original to the gospel of John. There is a great article on this here.  We wouldn’t want to hang any doctrines on this passage, but we think Celia makes many true points that could be made from other parts of Scripture.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Anderson and Murray explore how the new social justice movement, called Critical Theory, cultural Marxism or postmodern social justice is threatening the underpinnings of western democracies and their Judeo-Christian foundations. If you wish to understand more about this ideology we recommend you read the article Social Justice. You can also explore the New Discourses website for excellent resources. You will find them on at cec.st-thomas.org.au. We are thankful to John Anderson and his team for granting us permission to re-publish this interview here. To listen to more excellent interviews from John Anderson, go to johnanderson.net.au.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

For the past few weeks we have been thinking about the topic of Evangelism. This is because we aren’t engaging in cultural conversations simply for the sake of an argument. Our ultimate goal is to point people to Jesus.

This week is a special episode to follow on from our module on evangelism. John Mason held some evangelism training for Christians Engaging Culture at St Thomas’. It was well attended and well received. We wanted to share it with a wider audience and so we will be listening to the first half of the training today. You can find video of these sessions here.

John Mason led churches in Australia before planting Christ Church Anglican Church in New York City. He is the Chairman of the Anglican Connection in the USA. He regularly visits American churches to train them in evangelism. He has also written a commentary on the gospel of Luke that you can purchase here. When he's home in Sydney, he and his wife Judy are members of St Thomas'. It was a real privilege to have him train us in evangelism and we hope you find it helpful.

Upcoming event: Martyn Iles (Director of the Australia Christian Lobby) will be joining us for dinner and an open forum on Freedom of Religion (our next module in CECN) on Sunday 25 August, 6:30-8pm in the St Thomas' Memorial Hall. More information can be found here.

Christians Engaging Culture (CEC) exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Christians Engaging Culture is currently in a module on religious liberty. This week we continue to look at evangelism and how it relates to religious liberty. We are listening to a lecture titled 'The Intolerance of Tolerance' by Greg Koukl from a ministry called Stand to Reason in the United States. In this lecture, he shows how the post-modern view turns tolerance on its head. He discusses a common tactic used against Christians of calling them names and exposes the contradictions in this way thinking. Koukl is concerned about the impact of the new tolerance on our culture and how it prevents reasonable, fair tolerant discussions about the things that really matter (including evangelism). He calls us to resist name-calling and to address the issues, consider the facts, weigh the evidence and reflect on the reasons. We are thankful for Greg Koukl’s ministry called Stand to Reason for allowing us to republish this lecture and we encourage you to check out their website at str.org.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the members of St Thomas’ to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

The aim of this podcast is to start conversations around our church community, so please encourage everyone at church to subscribe (and show them how to!) and when you see people, ask them what they thought of this week's episode.

You can find the Christians Engaging Culture website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Soon after we released our last episode on parenting tips, Martyn Iles did a follow-up of advice from his parents, this time on parenting teenagers. So we thought it would be helpful to share that with you now. If you want to watch more of Martyn Iles’ excellent episodes of The Truth of It, you can find the YouTube channel here.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

Check out our website here.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.

Fairley looks at the values of truth and love through a Christian lens. He sees them both as inherent in God’s character. He explains that when one of these virtues are emphasized at the expense of the other, they result in contradictory ideas and different positions on issues such as race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, refugees and parenting.

The original videos contain helpful visuals and you may prefer to view them. You will find them on the CEC website . You can find Fairley's website The Fuel Project here.

Please also make sure you check out the CEC website for more helpful resources, discussion questions and suggestions on how to turn conversations to the gospel.

Christians Engaging Culture exists to equip the Christians to give faithful answers in everyday cultural conversations and to turn those conversations to the gospel.

Please tell others about this podcast and show them how to subscribe.

If you are not a member of St Thomas', we invite you to look at the 'About Us' page of our website here.