When Christians feel under pressure from our secularising world, the temptation can be to retreat, to whinge, or even to lash out. In this two-part seminar, John Dickson will explore aspects of the Australian context that both challenge classical Christianity and provide opportunities for compelling witness. A key theme of the sessions will be the New Testament’s exhortation to stand up for the truth amidst ridicule, rejection, and loss, and to do so with a cheerful confidence that is happy to ‘lose well’, knowing that losses are often wins in disguise.

This is a training day specifically designed for those in ministry: both clergy and other ministry workers in whatever context they serve. 

Program

10:30am - Registration and morning tea

11:00am - The Mixed Australian Context – are we ‘Post-Christian’ yet?

12:45pm - Lunch

1.30pm - The Mixed Christian Mission—does the gospel win or lose?

3.00pm - Close

Speaker: John Dickson

John’s story is eclectic. Starting out as a professional singer-songwriter, he now works as an author, speaker, historian, pastor, and media presenter. He was the Founding Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (2007-17). He has published 15 books, two of which became television documentaries, with a third, For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than you Ever Imagined, released in Australian cinemas in June 2018. He teaches a course on the Historical Jesus at the University of Sydney, Australia, and researches the origins of Christianity in the Roman empire. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney, and during 2017-19 he is a Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford. In all that he does, whether in the media or the church, creative or academic, he strives to be a public advocate for the Christian faith in doubting times. Having lost his father in a plane crash at 9, John is sympathetic to the sorrows and questions of our world, and values his wife and three children above all other gifts of this life.