Launch invitation

You are invited to the launch of Baptist Life

Venue: Carey Baptist College Chapel
473 Great South Road, Penrose
Date: Thursday 1st October 2009
Time: 2.30pm

Rsvp to Siong Ng. siong.ng@carey.ac.nz or 526 0347 for catering purposes.

E-Books in the Library

First electronic books have finally arrived in the library and can be accessed through the library catalogue.

Studying Christian spirituality [electronic resource] / David B. Perrin.

The Blackwell companion to Christian spirituality [electronic resource] / edited by Arthur Holder.

The divine conspiracy [electronic resource] : rediscovering our hidden life in God / Dallas Willard.

Book review

Satisfy your soul: restoring the heart of Christian spirituality by
Dr. Bruce Demarest

Dr Bruce Demarest is a man of great talents, with great achievements and so rich in life. Also gifted with extra-ordinary insights and ability in the care of the inner man. Bruce is a Christian raised from childhood who has firm grounding in the bible. He was educated at Wheaton College, received seminary training at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and earned doctorate in biblical and historical theology at the University of Manchester, England. Thereafter, developed a passion to live as a follower of Christ, because of this passion he has served as missionary educator and university worker in both Africa and Europe. His primary call is to be a professor at Denver Seminary where he teaches courses in theology, Christian spiritually, and mentoring. Dr Demarest is also an author for some books and many articles on various aspects of Christian theology and Spirituality. The goal of his teaching and writings has been to defend orthodox Christianity against unbiblical challenges and to instruct and edify others in the gospel. Bruce and his wife Elsie and their three children live in Littleton, Colorado.

In Dr Demarest’s own soul, he has wrestled with questions about deeper Christian walk with Christ. And with the mind of a biblical scholar, he has thought through the distinctions between authentic Christian Spirituality with it soul-building practices and the misleading counterfeits. ‘Satisfy your soul’ is a book of information and formation for the deeper walk with Christ. It gives us insights on how to identify ourselves as Christians and our needs for spiritual growth (Ch 1-3), Psalm 42:1-2 Gives us insights on how to develop and nourish our souls as Christians by developing a deeper relationship with God (Ch 4-6), Psalm 63: 1-2. It also gives us insights on why we need spiritual formation and how to maintain that growth for the rest of our journey (Ch 7-9), Psalm 126: 5-6. And on the last chapter Dr Demarest is challenging us to start our journey with Christ as all Christians should do.

Dr Demarest believed that God’s grace was something that you experienced at the moment of salvation and you relied on that grace for a future with God in heaven until he began to experience a deeper formative work of God in his life in the mid-1980s. Since the 1980s a new journey for Dr Demarest started and now he is taking us through his personal experience and his knowledge of how to restore the heart of Christian spirituality. He believed that the path to discovery and transformation is trough balancing our understanding of what brings a soul to conversion with what keeps us on the path of growth in Spirit. Dr Demarest believes that restoring the hearts is by knowing God as Intimates. To know God is to connect with Christ through relationship, intimacy, face to face by dwelling in the presence of God, communion, a deep sense of connectedness with Christ through the Spirit, and an encounter with God in the Words. To know God is to cultivate a love relationship with Him. This relationship is thru feeding the soul with the Words and by exploring the power of contemplation. Dr Demarest mentioned the art of meditating on God’s word by quieting and composing the soul, the formative reading of scripture, and by imagination in meditation. So if we want to be so in love with God, so “new” that we can turn from our deadness and our sins, we must come under the influence of the Spirit of God.

This book gave me new insights for a better understanding of Christian formation. I knew that our souls need growth but I did not know how to develop that growth. I knew about reading the bible and prayers but not in depth as how Dr Demarest described it. With my understanding now, Christian spirituality involves the whole person: knowing, being, and doing. The mind’s understanding of God from the Word must seep down to the heart so that we engage Christ intimately in a transforming relationship of love. The spiritual vision and passion fired by knowledge of the heart then propels us into the world as the hands, feet, and lips of Jesus. In this way we fulfil our calling as knowers of God’s Word, lovers of Jesus, and doers of the Father’s will.

I would be happy to recommend this book to everyone who wants to follow Christ. We can only fulfil God’s purpose for us is by restoring the heart of Christian spirituality. I strongly believed that this is the tool that we need for his work. Knowing God and letting him be known in our lives is the way to breach the gospel.

“May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23

By Lopeline Tonga

Library week competition

Called Reference Corner

God who Provides

Some brainy will direct me upstairs

Footsteps size 14 up and down

Will be annoying for some

I rather stick

to Provider's Corner

By Hala Mahani

Library week competition

"Shhhh ... Don't tell Siong, Liz or Damir about the postgradslibrary in the library"

"It's quiet now but when the pride of postgrads returns then who knows ...."

By Peter Benzie

Library week competition

Library 2009 Photo Shots

By Geoff Dixon

Library week competition photos

By Frances Leung

Library week competition (photos)

Upsidedown library!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it all goes back such a long time ago!

Oops library housekeeping is not getting done Damir where are you?????

The "I" of our library

All lined up but know where to go

Photos & words by Mrs Hollis

Library week competition (book review)

Callum G. Brown, The Death of Christian Britain, London: Routledge, 2001.

Here is a startling analysis of how the western church lost its cultural relevance! Essentially Brown’s thesis is that from 1800 the church in Britain took on a feminine oriented disposition. Historically women had been seen as a corrupting influence on the spirituality of men, but it became then the vices of men, such as drinking, that needed reform. Women in contrast actually achieved social recognition, indeed status from piety. Two examples serve to illustrate his point – firstly the linkage between Christian women and the politically influential temperance movement in the decades either side of the beginning of the last century. A second is the changing depiction of angels which had always been men but in this period became feminine.

Finally the social upheavals of the 1960’s broke the connect between feminism and piety causing women to leave the church, thereby also losing the men who were there on account of their women. As Brown cleverly puts it, ‘the keys to understanding secularisation in Britain are the simultaneous de-pietisation of femininity and the de-feminisation of piety from the 1960’s.’

Reading the book one thought might be that he over states his case. However further reflection suggests Brown really has no choice but to talk in anecdotal generalisations & trends but in this he makes a very strong point. If he’s right … however this is an historical analysis not a missiology - then it has profound implications for the future direction of the church.

By Robert Markley

Albert Y. Hsu, The Suburban Christian. Finding spiritual vitality in the land of plenty. Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2006.

King Canute famously tried to stop the tide coming in. This light but very thoughtful book accepts the tide of cultural change and takes a refreshing look at today’s predominant western lifestyle. Rather than bemoaning consumerism, individualism, isolation et al and deploring insensitivity to the plight of the urban poor; Hsu accepts the fact that more than half of America now live in suburbs and he probes the issues he and they face. There is the cost of living, the time pressures and the forced daily commute. This is a land of plenty but it is also a land of stress and difficult life choices. So how does one live as a Christian in such a world? It should be great relief to most of us that there is a middle path – while there are certainly faults and flaws in our culture, Christians can live counter culturally within the culture and still make a difference. Hsu has a lot of good starter suggestions on where suburban Christians are already on track and where we need to make changes.

It is a thought provoking read and one particularly relevant to New Zealand Baptists with our predominantly white middle class suburban congregations. In no way does the book suggest we shouldn’t focus on the poor, but just maybe God is also at work right where we live already…and the biggest mission field is closer to home than we think.

By Robert Markley

Free coffee

Come to the Dining Room to celebrate Library Week
and get a free coffee!

Monday, August the 10th
10.30-11.30am

Book launch

"Theosis in the theology of Thomas Torrance"
/ Myk Habets

Date: Thursday 13 August
Time: 10.00am
Venue: Carey Baptist College - Dining room


You are invited

Archive tour

Unbelievable but true !

Ever wonder what is beyond the glass door? Come for a tour of the NZ Baptist Archive at Carey library.

Discover the hidden treasure within ...
Gloves provided. Unmissable!!

Monday 10 August 11 am - 11 : 30 am
Wednesday 12 August (in Mandarin) 12 pm - 12 : 30 pm