Centre for Christian Living podcast

Life is filled with many things that we appreciate: health and children are among some of the most treasured things we enjoy. We all appreciate health, as sickness, disease and disorders can affect what we consider a "normal" life. There is also a desire in most of us to raise children. But as good as health and children are, are they ends to be pursued at any means? Much in our modern health practice has evolved to accommodate these good ends. We have better care for pregnant women and unborn babies than ever before. But we also have many practices that remain unquestioned. In this episode of the CCL podcast, we consider ethical issues related to pre-pregnancy and pregnancy screening. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-082/

Have you ever wondered if you’re doing enough? It’s hard to escape this question. Do you ever feel like you haven’t exercised enough, read enough, given enough, spent enough time with people, or spent enough time alone? Thinking about these things is exhausting. It’s no wonder that many find life a worry. In the information age, there is always so much more than we can consume. And because we’re more connected than ever, we constantly compare ourselves to others. But what if limits aren’t bad? What if we’ve been pushing ourselves towards unachievable goals? What if we’ve misunderstood God’s design for us as finite creatures? In this episode of the podcast, we consider the goodness of our limits as human beings. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-081/

Church discipline is a much-neglected topic in the modern church. However, the Scriptures suggest it is needed for the good of the church and because Christians are called to love people caught in sin. How do we apply the biblical principles of church discipline to the modern church? What can we do at earlier points to ensure that more drastic church discipline is not required? Furthermore, how does our understanding of the danger of abusing power imbalances change the process of discipline? In this episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast, we hear audio from a June event run by our partner centre, the Priscilla & Aquila Centre. Phil Colgan, rector of St George North Anglican Church, and Kara Hartley, Archdeacon for Women’s Ministry in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, discuss the difference between Big “D” discipline and small “d” discipline, and the implications that has for church life. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-080/

There are some very significant problems with the ways our culture thinks about our human bodies. For some, our bodies are everything, and therefore our physical appearance is what we work hardest on. But for others, our bodies have nothing to do with our true selves. Our true self, we’re told, is who we feel we are. So our bodies may actually be a block to us expressing our real identity. As Christians, how are we to think about our bodies? Having a body is not a mistake. But we won’t honour the Lord with and in our bodies properly until we understand his purposes for us. In this episode of the CCL podcast with Sam Allberry, we’re considering the significance of embodiment as God’s people. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-079/

Our recent live event looked at Jesus’ teaching on lust in the Sermon on the Mount. We were challenged in that event to consider once more the lives of holiness befitting Christian disciples. This includes abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage, but we also looked at the problems of pornography and living lives in the midst of a sexualised culture. In this episode of the podcast, we’re following up on that live event with an extended Q&A session with our guest presenters, Dr Marshall Ballantine-Jones and Dr Dani Treweek. We work through many of the outstanding questions from our live audience in the hopes of getting even more clarity about what it means to live for faithfully under the Lordship of Jesus. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-078/

Jesus raises alarm when he warns us that adultery isn’t limited to sexual intercourse outside of marriage, but actually begins earlier in the lustful glance of the eye and mental fantasies. Adultery isn’t just physical; it can be done in the heart. So great is the threat of a wandering eye or a straying hand that Jesus suggests losing a part of the body instead of facing the fire of hell. Kingdom righteousness demands more than physical abstinence from sex outside of marriage, but not less. In view of such teaching, what kind of sexual conduct is becoming of a disciple of Jesus? In this episode of the podcast, we bring you the audio from our May 2022 live event on lust with Dr Marshall Ballantine-Jones and Dr Dani Treweek. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-077/

In many places around the world, it’s easy for Christians to take peace for granted. But for much of history and even in many current contexts, Christians live with the real fear and threat of violence. One of God’s great provisions in this world is the establishment of nations and national powers. These powers are intended to provide defence for their people, as well as just rule. But Christians can often question whether national defence should be a priority and whether defence is simply a means of justifying violence. Shouldn’t we simply advocate for peace? In this episode of the CCL podcast, together with Akos Balogh, Manager of External Engagement at Moore College, we think more about the place defending nations—especially considering the Russian attack on the Ukraine, and the rise of Chinese power and its expanding influence in the world. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-076/

Violence is not only a physical activity, it's also something that lurks in our hearts. The Lord Jesus cautions us that refraining from physical violence is only half of the equation. We are also liable for our thoughts towards one another. Kingdom righteousness demands that Christians pursue reconciliation with one another, rather than harbouring a grudge. This is urgent work! At our first live event in March 2022, CCL Director Chase Kuhn and Archdeacon for Women Kara Hartley consider how the command to not murder exposes the anger in our hearts. For a full transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-075/

A little bit about the Centre for Christian Living podcast. Find out more at https://ccl.moore.edu.au/podcasts/

In this episode of the CCL podcast, we get to know another one of the students on our CCL team—a young man named Jordan Cunningham who, as you’ll learn, has come from quite a long way to study at Moore College. Jordan’s story is quite different to Brooke Hazelgrove’s, who we met in an earlier episode, though there are similarities in some of the steps they both took on their path to theological education and ministry. Jordan was not raised in a Christian home, he did not attend a Christian school, and when he answered God’s call to ministry, it was because he first answered God’s call to faith. It is our hope and prayer that as you hear Jordan’s story, you’ll come away encouraged and eager to pray for and support not just him and his future in ministry, but also the college as it carries out its vision of seeing God glorified by men and women living for and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost. For a full transcript and show notes, visit https://ccl.moore.edu.au/resources/podcast-episode-074/