Hello again. 

It’s Tony’s turn to be sick this week, so you’ll have to put up with just me speaking to you—about the subject of statues and heroes. 

Phillip

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Hi everyone

Great to see some of you at the King’s Birthday Conference this week in Sydney.

In the week leading up to the conference (with Phillip preparing his talk and struggling with a bout of covid), I had a chat with Ken Noakes about the subject of Christian maturity and its essential nature. Ken has written a unique and helpful book on the subject, and I started by asking him the basic question that I think all authors want to be asked.

TP

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Dear friends

A wide-ranging episode this week that starts with an appreciation of the gospel generosity of Tim Keller and moves from there to the blessings of positive disagreement, the problem we have in keeping personal attacks out of our debates, why Donald Robinson and John (Chappo) Chapman were so good at having productive arguments, how we should vote on the Voice referendum, and (just to cap things off) a discussion of the increasingly forgotten concept of providence and what it has to do with God’s guidance. 

All in a bracing 33 minutes of conversation. Click on the player above to listen to the whole thing, or read an edited transcript below. 

Your brother 

Tony

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Dear friends

I seem to be having trouble tracking Phillip down at the moment. As I write this, he’s travelling up to the UNSW Mid-Year Conference (I’ll be heading up there this week as well), so it’s me again in this week’s edition. 

And the subject of this week’s edition comes courtesy of an email from one of our subscribers. Craig from the US writes about two important and related issues he’d like us to address, and as I started to rough out some answers I realised that it was going to take a whole edition just to deal with the first of them. 

Both of Craig’s questions are about theology, but in different ways. The first is about theological understanding (or lack of it) among the members of his church, and I'll be addressing the problem and suggesting some solutions to it in this episode.

We hope you find it encouraging.

Your brother

Tony

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Dear friends

A special guest for this week’s edition—freshly minted Moore College lecturer, Tom Habib.

Tom’s post-graduate study was in John’s Gospel, and in particular the themes of belief and unbelief that are so central to John’s message.

He joins us in this episode for a stimulating conversation about why and how people believe—or don’t believe—in Jesus.

Your brother

Tony

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Dear friends

Just me this week, and therefore a shorter, punchier edition of Two Ways News in which I ponder one of the ongoing problems of the Christian life—other Christians.

I hope you find it encouraging.

Your brother

Tony

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Dear friends

As I write this, we are now looking back on the pomp and circumstance of King Charles’s coronation. 

The media did their usual thing, mixing extraordinary images of pageantry and patriotism with a soundtrack of celebrity gossip, fashion notes and inane commentary. 

However, in this week’s episode (recorded in the days just before coronation), Phillip and I talk about why we have public events like coronations at all, why they are like weddings, and why the content and symbolism of this particular coronation reveals a lot about the Bible’s distinctive view of human government. 

Read on for an edited transcript, or click on play (above) to listen to the whole thing. 

Your brother

Tony

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This week’s episode comes at the end of Tony's trip to the US, during which he and Marty Sweeney spent a couple of weeks travelling around and running workshops about the ministry ideas of The Trellis and the Vine. As they look over the many conversations they had with pastors and congregations, Tony and Marty discuss:

- Which aspects of the T&V approach to ministry still resonated most sharply with pastors and with Christians generally?

- What differences might there exist between how US and Australian churches are struggling to do more ‘vinework’?

- And if they were going to change anything about the book, what would it be?

Resources referred to:

The Course of Your Life

The Thing Is

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With Tony away on holiday, Phillip has brought in his brother Peter Jensen for a special conversation on Easter, their new books The Coming of the Holy Spirit and The Life of Faith: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine, as well as the upcoming King’s Coronation. 

Below are some snippets of the conversation. Listen to the full episode to glean more from the depth of their insights of our world today and to enjoy some good ol’ brotherly banter in between. 

(We’ll be taking a break from Two Ways News next week. God willing, we’ll be back with our next episode in the first week of May.)

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Hello everyone

It’s been great to receive so many feedback and emails from you, and in this episode we thought it would be great to answer some of these questions that you raised. We’ll catch up on a whole bunch of interesting questions about evangelism, about culture, about ministry, and the call to ministry.

We hope you enjoy this discussion.

Your brother

Tony

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