Extended Interview with TGCA’s National Director Dave McDonald

I see my role to be more of a conductor than a performer. I’m keen to connect God’s people in working together for the sake of the gospel and the glory of God.

Editor • Dave McDonald

The Anatomy of Spiritual Depth

CS Tang

Tim Keller on Justification, Pragmatism, Suffering and Serving

Ross Bowerman

Never Too Old, Rod Bayley and the Call to Plant Churches

Jonathan Holt • Rod Bayley

Reflections on Tim Keller from Australia

Rory Shiner

John MacNeil: The Australian Presbyterian Evangelistic Giant You’ve Never Heard of

Mikey Lynch

There’s so much of the short history of Australian Christianity yet to be told—especially in a way is accessible to the average Christian. One exciting part of this history is the enormous amount of ‘home mission’ evangelistic work in the nineteenth century, as churches scrambled to catch up with the exploding European population spreading out across the continent and concentrating in a few cities that transformed from tiny settlements to bustling towns to modern cities of hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of decades. One of the giants of this period was surely John MacNeil (1854–1896). Zeal...

John MacNeil: The Australian Presbyterian Evangelistic Giant You’ve Never Heard of

Mikey Lynch

Church Planter: Which Core Team-Member Do You Need to Know Best before You Plant?

Stephen McAlpine

The answer of course, is you. You need to know you the best before you even think about planting a church. If you don’t, you’re heading for a fall. Unless you know who YOU are, you could be headed for disaster. I was asked that question this very morning about what a planter needs to know about the core team, and my answer was simply that. Unless you know who YOU are before you go through the tough, beautiful, difficult, precious process of planting a church, then you could be headed for disaster. Yet, as activists and optimists, so many...

Church Planter: Which Core Team-Member Do You Need to Know Best before You Plant?

Stephen McAlpine

God’s Grace and Fifty-Four Years of Church Planting

Editor

Paul Harrington and CS Tang have both been planting churches (in Adelaide and Sydney, respectively) since 1994. We spoke to them together and asked them to tell us what they had learned from that combined half-century of ministry. TGCA: Could you begin by giving us a brief overview of your ministry history and the current state of your network? PH: I joined the team at Holy Trinity Adelaide in 1988 and became the senior minister in ’93. It was a church in the middle of the CBD and was largely full so we had to decide whether to build or plant...

God’s Grace and Fifty-Four Years of Church Planting

Editor

Why You Shouldn’t Join My Church

Peter Ko

“Can you give me a few reasons why I shouldn’t join your church?” If I had one question that I wished every well-meaning Christian who wanted to join my church or church plant would ask, it would be that one. Surprised? Let me explain. I’ve done two church plants and have seen my fair share of gains and losses from transfers both into and out of the churches I’ve led. In the suburban Sydney context in which I minister, transfer growth is just a part of church life. Sometimes it’s for good reasons. Other times, for not very good reasons....