Two Ways News

This is a free post for everyone on the Payneful Truth list. If you’d like to get every edition every week, see below in the ‘PS’. This is the third in a series of four posts that seeks to answer the question: Why is it that some churches raise up plenty of people for full-time gospel work and some not so much? I’ve been suggesting that there are four key factors or drivers, and as we’ve looked at...

This is one of the free posts that goes out every three weeks or so to everyone on the Payneful Truth mailing list (i.e. ‘partners’ and those on the free list). If you’re a ‘freelister’ and wondering what you’ve missed over the last few weeks, we’ve had posts on: * ‘masculinism’ (a follow-up to that post about feminism) * a discussion of the nature and value of gospel outlines, and whether Two way...

Welcome to another a partners-only edition of The Payneful Truth. Today’s ruminations concern little subjects like the nature of the gospel, evangelism and the importance of catechism. Is it worth fixing? The washing machine was flashing ‘F06’, and as my eyes scanned down the list of error messages in the dog-eared manual, I knew in advance what it was going to say. Not something simple like “F03—...

I made a bit of a blunder in last week’s Payneful Truth . Yes, I hear you say, you wrote in very short, simplistic fashion about feminism. You should have known.  But no, that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the line in my spiel about becoming a ‘partner’ where I said: “from Sept 4 onwards, only partners will get The Payneful Truth every week (every third edition or so will go out free to the...

Many thanks to all those who have already signed up as partners to The Payneful Truth ! I’m hugely grateful for the encouragement and the support.  For those who are planning to join, but haven’t gotten around to it yet—you’ve got just a little bit longer to get yourselves organized. This is the second last edition that will be sent out free to everyone . From September 4 onwards, only partners wi...

Today: a final post in this mini-series about church and apostolic ministry; plus my ‘partner’ scheme is now up and running (see details at the end).  A good friend who shall remain nameless (but was in fact Col Marshall) sent me a brief message after one my recent articles about the heavenly church. Knowing my love for golf he wrote:  Having teed up the church ball so nicely I can hardly wait to...

So far we’ve talked about the big why of Christ’s heavenly church, and the local purposes that this generates for us as members of that cosmic gathering (i.e. to ‘build’ that gathering by joining together in apostolic ministry). But what about the actual physical church meetings that many of us are keen to get back to? What have we learned that can guide us in that task? That’s the focus of the th...

In last week’s post, we started to look at the essential why of church, and came to the conclusion that the key purpose of a local congregation lies beyond itself—in the cosmic, heavenly, spiritual congregation that Jesus Christ is building. This is the primary reality of church in the New Testament, and the local, immediate purposes that we pursue in our churches lives stem from this larger, heav...

In recent times, dictionaries have gotten into the habit of giving an award to the ‘word of the year’. It provides some motivation, I suppose, to all those other words to try harder next year, while also allowing the dictionary companies to parade their social consciences. Recent winners have included ‘climate emergency’, ‘toxic’, ‘cancel culture’ and ‘they’ (as a non-gendered singular pronoun). I...

Some things are best done quickly. Being reconciled with someone, for example (Matt 5:23-25); or putting some distance between yourself and idolatry (1 Cor 10:14); or listening (Jas 1:19). But on the whole, hastiness isn’t a very healthy thing in the Bible. The feet of the wicked always seem to be hastening off after their latest wicked plan (Prov 6:18). In fact, hastening off after anything that...

As churches consider what to restart, discontinue or create from scratch post-coronavirus, how pragmatic should we be in our decisions? [Click play to listen, or read on. Up to you!] Uncovering the principles in our pragmatism My mate Phil has a nickname that we love to tease him with. ‘Pragmatic Phil’ we call him. It comes from a (typically ill-informed) Sydney Morning Herald article late last ye...

[Click to listen, or read the text version below … up to you!] George Floyd and the Problem of Goodness Since last week’s ‘worthless cockroach’ post, I’ve been thinking more about goodness and evil, and what a problem they are for our world. The Problem of Evil we know very well. He often pops up and starts making a noise after a particularly catastrophic event: “How can you believe in a so-called...

[Click on the play button above to listen, or read on … up to you.] Dear Worthless Cockroach I hope you don’t mind me following up our conversation with an open letter like this, but I’m sure you’re not the only one who feels like you do. Let me see if I’m capturing your question. I think what you’re saying is this: * I know I’m a sinner through and through; that’s true because the Bible says so,...

One of the central claims of The Trellis and the Vine was that Christian ministry is founded not only on preaching and teaching, but also on training. In fact, the chapter in which that argument was advanced most forcefully has always been the most controversial part of the book (Ch 8: ‘Why Sunday Sermons are necessary but not sufficient’). Col Marshall and I have often been asked about what we me...

In last week’s edition, we discussed the advantages of thinking about Christian disciples as ‘apprentices’—that is, as the kind of learners who devote themselves to learn a new knowledge-based practice from their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this week’s edition, we’re going to bring the idea of ‘apprenticeship’ to bear on the question of how to read and apply the Bible to our lives . And (eve...

I received a number of requests after last week’s post on the ‘Yeah-But defence’ to say more about the little hobbyhorse I mentioned in the PS—regarding how we think and talk about church and worship. I’ve already written quite a bit about these issues over the years (see some references below in the PS), and am not super-keen to trawl through that material again here (much to the relief of some,...

When someone challenges me to change the way I think or act, they can expect to meet a well-organized resistance. They will have to punch through a layer of conceit that doesn’t want to admit that I may have just possibly been slightly, but very understandably, mistaken in this one instance. Then they will have to overcome a quivering blob of inertia that is designed to keep things just as they ar...

After living in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians an awful lot over the last three years, I have realized two things—first, I’ve been living in Corinth for most of my life; and second, with God’s help, I hope to live a Corinthian life till I die. I’ve lived so long in Sydney now I can hardly remember what a shock it was to arrive here as an uncomplicated country boy in my late teens. Brash, b...

It’s an ad that Aussies of my generation grew up with. Jack Thompson, in his ruggedly good-looking larrikin phase, says to the barman, “Claytons thanks, Brian”. A dumbfounded onlooker responds, “On the wagon, Jack?” “Nah” drawls Jack. “When I don’t feel like alcohol, I have Claytons.” (Voice-over): “Claytons: the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”. And so an expression entered Australi...

In this week’s edition, I want to answer an insightful question that Dave Pitt posed after reading my piece about small groups and one-another edifying speech .  Hi Tony, Thanks for this great article. It provides some really helpful language around the difference between the preached word and the one-anothering the NT speaks of. You’re focussing on the way the word grows Christians. I’m wondering...

Perhaps predictably, last week’s post about ‘ministry in the year of covid19’ generated quite a bit of interest. This week’s edition is a follow-up about the power and possibilities of ‘one-another ministry’ in these difficult times, with one practical suggestion to think about next. In my part of the world, the churchly response to covid19 has been swift, responsible and admirable. Many Sunday ga...

One of my hopes for The Payneful Truth is that it will be an opportunity for the very thing I discussed in last week’s edition : for us to speak the truth in love with one another, for mutual instruction and encouragement. So far so good! Thanks for the many emails and comments that have done just this. And in the coming weeks, I’ll be touching on some of the specific questions you’ve asked, inclu...

(Welcome to the second edition of The Payneful Truth . Feel free to forward this email to your friends or use the ‘share’ button at the end to spread the word.) It’s early March (as I write this) and all across this burning, flooded, toilet-paper deprived land, churches are launching their small Bible groups for the year—or ‘missional disciple-making gospel community growth teams’ as I am suggesti...

(Welcome to this first edition of The Payneful Truth . For the audio version click on the play button above, or for the text version, just read on … ) Naming anything is difficult. Babies, sporting teams, cars.  Especially cars it seems. Some genius from marketing must have argued for the Kia Pro_cee’d, and the Subaru Brat, and (my very favourite) the Nissan Cedric. My irreverent son came up with...