🎙️ S3E14 — The Alf Stanway Lecture in Mission 2025
Australian Churches and Intercultural Communities: At Arms-length or Embraced?
Guest Speaker: Dr Enqi Weng & Revd Associate Professor Darrell Jackson 

Episode Description
Are Australian churches part of, set apart from, or a form of resistance to their cultural context? What does multiculturalism mean in Australian churches today, given global polarisation and rising ethno-nationalism? This public lecture engages with these pressing questions as contemporary churches face multiple challenges, including building disciples and communities amidst cultural diversity.

Dr Enqi Weng will draw on her postdoctoral research findings to present key findings on the state of multiculturalism in Australia today to consider some of these opportunities and challenges. These findings are based on two Australian Research Council projects on which she worked as a Research Fellow, that examined social service provision to multicultural communities and how religiously and culturally diverse communities thrive across differences. Rev. Associate Professor Darrell Jackson will offer a missiological response, exploring how churches might reimagine their theological framing of, and pastoral engagement with, increasing cultural diversity.

We aim for this lecture to be dialogical, so that we may collectively propose ways to live well together across differences.

Speaker
Dr Enqi Weng

Dr Enqi Weng is a Teaching Fellow at the School of Communication and Creative Arts, and a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University; and an Honorary Research Associate at Whitley College, University of Divinity. She has 12 years of research experience working on government- and industry-funded projects. Her research interest lies in intercultural relationships and communications, especially how discourses and narratives shape the way we perceive and relate to each other. Born in Singapore and prior to academia, she was a communications practitioner with experience in marketing communications, branding and stakeholder relations. She is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, and was Vice President of the Australian Academic Association for the Study of Religion. More: www.enqiweng.com

Revd Associate Professor Darrell Jackson 

Darrell has been the Principal of Whitley College, University of Divinity, since August 2024. 

Darrell grew up in the Isle of Man, came to faith there in 1972, and was baptised in 1979. He gained a BA at London School of Theology, was ordained as a Baptist pastor in 1989, and graduated with a Th.D. from the University of Birmingham in 2009. A former pastor, denominational leader, and missionary, he has been a full-time missiological educator since 2007, moving to Australia in 2012 to take up a role at Morling College. 

He has served on the Boards of various mission-related organisations including the Lausanne movement, the World Evangelical Alliance, and Missions Interlink. He is currently chair of the Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, and vice-chair of European Christian Mission International. 

His most recent publications include chapters on ‘Theology’ in Edinburgh University Press’s Companions to Global Christianity Series, Christianity in Oceania, and ‘Diaspora and the Redefinition of European Christianity in the Twenty-First Century’ in Entangling Web: The Fractious Story of Christianity in Europe (2024).

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Ridley College x CMS Victoria

The Alf Stanway Lecture in Mission is presented in partnership between Ridley College and CMS Victoria. Recognising long historical links and common gospel vision, Ridley College and CMS Victoria are committed to sharing resources and to working together to see a world that knows Jesus.

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This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

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🎙️ S3E13—  Paul, Papyri, and Prayer: A Conversation with Dr Gillian Asquith

Episode Description
In this episode of the Ridley College Podcast, Dr Gillian Asquith, Academic Dean at Melbourne School of Theology, joins Revd Dr Mike Bird, Deputy Principal, to explore the fascinating intersection of archaeology, ancient letters, and biblical language. Drawing from her recent Leon Morris Lecture and upcoming book Paul’s Letter Openings: An Analysis of High Register Language (Cambridge University Press), Gillian reveals how everyday papyri from Oxyrhynchus shed light on Paul’s pastoral heart and linguistic creativity. From solemn oaths to surprising word choices, this episode uncovers how Paul’s greetings were anything but routine—and why biblical languages still matter today.

Dr Gillian Asquith
Gillian Asquith grew up in England and studied Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. She taught in schools in England and Australia before moving into theological studies. She has tutored at Ridley College, taught at the Presbyterian Theological College and lectured in Early Christianity at the Australian Catholic University (ACU). Gillian is now Academic Dean at Melbourne School of Theology (MST), lecturing in Greek and New Testament. Gillian developed MST’s archaeology study tour program and is at her happiest when hot and dirty with a trowel in her hand. Gillian’s doctoral thesis won the ACU Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in Doctoral Training and will be published later this year by Cambridge University Press.

Listen to The Leon Morris Lecture in New Testament Studies 2025: Paul and Papyri

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If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

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Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

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🎙️ S3E12— Unveiling the Song: Kamina Wüst on Love, Desire, and Divine Jealousy

Episode Description
In this compelling episode of the Ridley College Podcast, faculty member Hannah Craven sits down with biblical scholar Kamina Wüst to explore the Song of Songs—one of Scripture’s most enigmatic and provocative books. Drawing from her PhD research and recent teaching at the Ridley Preachers Conference, Kamina unpacks the poetic, theological, and cultural layers of the text, challenging long-held assumptions about Solomon, sexuality, and spiritual fidelity. With insights into Hebrew language, ancient Near Eastern poetry, and the powerful voice of the female protagonist, this episode offers a fresh and faithful reading of a book often misunderstood—and rarely preached.

Dr Kamina Wüst
Kamina is an Old Testament scholar and teacher with a special interest in the Song of Songs and ‘Solomonic’ literature. After writing a college essay on the topic ‘What is the Song of Songs about?’ she couldn't stop thinking about it, so she completed a PhD (at Moore College). An accessible version of her findings has been published as a Matthias Bible Guide (for which she is also the OT series editor) and as a set of Bible studies, both available through Matthias Media.

Outside of academia, she works as a writer and as a business mentor to freelancers in the creative industries. She is married to another writer and they live in Brisbane with their little boy. She can be contacted through www.kaminawust.com

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If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

Connect with Ridley College
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🎙️ S3E11— Translating the Word: A Conversation with Dr Andrew Abernethy

Episode Description
In this episode of the Ridley College Podcast, former principal, Dr Brian Rosner welcomes Dr Andrew Abernethy, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and former Ridley faculty member, for a deep dive into the art and challenge of Bible translation. From revising the Christian Standard Bible to shaping the New Living Translation, Andrew and Brian share behind-the-scenes stories, theological insights, and the challenge of maintaining the delicate balance between faithfulness and readability when translating the Bible. Whether you're a scholar, student, or curious listener, this episode offers a rich and thoughtful look at how Scripture is brought to life in modern language.

Dr Andrew Abernethy, Ph.D.
Dr Abernethy's primary research areas are Isaiah, Psalms, the Latter Prophets, hermeneutics, and biblical theology. He is the President of the Institute for Biblical Research, a member of the New Living Translation translation committee, and a fellow of Every Voice Kingdom Diversity. He has written numerous articles and is also the author of several books: Eating in Isaiah (Brill, 2014), The Book of Isaiah and God’s Kingdom (IVP, 2016), God’s Messiah in the Old Testament (Baker, 2020), Discovering Isaiah (Eerdmans/SPCK, 2021), and Savoring Scripture: A Six-Step Guide to Studying the Bible (IVP Academic, 2022). His book The Prophets in the Baker Handbook on the Old Testament will be published in 2026. Up next for Dr. Abernethy will be an exegetical commentary on the Psalms. Dr. Abernethy is accepting applications for Ph.D. students in the area of Old Testament.

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If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

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🎙️ S3E10— The Leon Morris Lecture in New Testament Studies 2025
Theme: Paul and Papyri

Guest Speaker: Dr Gillian Asquith

Episode Description
Archaeological excavations in Egypt have unearthed thousands of ancient everyday papyrus documents written in the same kind of Greek as the New Testament. This lecture will demonstrate how these “voices from the sand” shed exciting new light on Paul’s letters.

Speaker
Dr Gillian Asquith grew up in England and studied Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. She taught in schools in England and Australia before moving into theological studies. She has tutored at Ridley College, taught at the Presbyterian Theological College and lectured in Early Christianity at the Australian Catholic University (ACU). Gillian is now Academic Dean at Melbourne School of Theology (MST), lecturing in Greek and New Testament. Gillian developed MST’s archaeology study tour program and is at her happiest when hot and dirty with a trowel in her hand. Gillian’s doctoral thesis won the ACU Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in Doctoral Training and will be published later this year by Cambridge University Press.

Study With Ridley
If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

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🎙️ S3E9— The Peter Corney Lecture in Youth Ministry 2025
Theme: Can I Buy Myself Flowers? Speaking grace and truth to girls growing up in a complex and conflicting world.

Guest Speaker: Dr Fiona Isaacs

Episode Description
In as much as girls are told they are full of girl power, the experience of being a girl is often one of powerlessness, fraught with conflicting pressures and expectations placed upon them from home, the church, school, and social media. God loves girls far too much to let them be anything less than powerful agents in his plan for the redemption of all things. This lecture will explore the experience of being a young woman in Australia today, the pressing needs facing our girls, and practical ways in which those who want to help girls (in school or church) can assist them to confidently find and own a coherent story, grounded in the gospel, of who they are and are called to be.

Speaker
Fiona is the School Chaplain at Tara Anglican School for Girls in Parramatta. Her Doctor of Ministry thesis explored tensions between the formation of virtue and developing agency in teenage girls in Anglican Schools. In addition, she holds degrees in Theology, Education & Physics. She is the lead writer and editor for the School Ministry newsletter “Hope for the Hopeless” and a lay preacher at St Marks Darling Point, in Sydney.

Study With Ridley
If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

Connect with Ridley College
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🎙️ S3E8— The Charles Perry Lecture in Melbourne Evangelical History 2025
Marvellous Melbourne: A Representative Denominational Society in the Nineteenth-Century Evangelical World

Episode Description
This lecture highlights the distinctive evangelical character of “Marvellous Melbourne” in the nineteenth century. As the richest city in the world at the time, Melbourne’s denominations embodied a vision for church and society, which has had powerful and ongoing impact, and is most clearly represented in the design of the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Speaker
David Bebbington is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and a leading historian of evangelical history, after whom the “Bebbington Quadrilateral” is named. An undergraduate and postgraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge (1968-73), he subsequently became a research fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (1973-76). From 1976 he taught at the University of Stirling, where from 1999 to 2019 he was Professor of History. He now serves as Director of the Evangelical Studies Program at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His publications include Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (1989), The Mind of Gladstone: Religion, Homer and Politics (2004); Patterns in History: A Christian Perspective on Historical Thought (4th edn, 2018), Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People (2nd edn, 2018) and The Evangelical Quadrilateral (2 vols, 2021).

Study With Ridley
If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

Connect with Ridley College
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🎙️ S3E7 — Gender, Sexuality, and the Church - Sam Allberry
 
Episode Description

This episode features Sam Allberry, who preached on Gender, Sexuality, and the Church at Ridley Chapel on 20 May 2025. 
https://samallberry.com/

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If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

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Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

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🎙️ S3E6— Pursuing a PhD for God’s Glory

Episode Description

Pursuing a PhD for God’s Glory is a two part series where Dr. Mike Bird sat down with two recent Ridley PhD graduates – Dr. Joseph Byamukama (Fount Church and Team Leader at Veracity Fount, Kampala, Uganda) and Dr. Amber Dillon (Denver Seminary, Colorado, USA) – to discuss their experiences at Ridley College, their journeys into scholarship, and the life of faith. 

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Amber Dillion, who shares her story of a happy accident that led to her starting her PhD journey and now teaching at Denver Seminary.

If you are considering pursuing a PhD, get in touch! [email protected].

Study With Ridley
If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

Connect with Ridley College
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Enquire to Study: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

🎙️ S3E5— Pursuing a PhD for God’s Glory

Episode Description

Pursuing a PhD for God’s Glory is a two part series where Dr. Mike Bird sat down with two recent Ridley PhD graduates – Dr. Joseph Byamukama (Fount Church and Team Leader at Veracity Fount, Kampala, Uganda) and Dr. Amber Dillon (Denver Seminary, Colorado, USA) – to discuss their experiences at Ridley College, their journeys into scholarship, and the life of faith. 

In this episode, Dr. Joseph shares his aspirations to plant churches in Uganda and to resource the Ugandan church.  

If you are considering pursuing a PhD, get in touch! [email protected].

Study With Ridley
If you are interested in finding out more about studying at Ridley College or have any questions regarding any courses or units, we invite you to contact us via this link: https://www.ridley.edu.au/study/

Ridley Chapel Podcast
Be sure to check out our Ridley Chapel Sermons Podcast through this link: https://ridleychapel.transistor.fm/

Donate
This podcast is made possible through the generous donations of our alumni and supporters. We welcome your partnership with us in our mission of equipping men and women for God’s mission in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. If you’d like to contribute to our work, you can donate by clicking this link if you wish to donate: https://www.ridley.edu.au/donate/

Connect with Ridley College
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