Phillip Jensen's favourite mistakes
March 20, 2012
I try to read The Briefing each month (now that it's free online).
In all honesty it drives me round the bend. It's Australian, which is
bad enough, but it's also pragmatism gone mad.The usual things come up
every few months: 'Worship is all of life, not what we do in church',
'How can we do church better?', 'Get better meetings', 'Why small groups
are the key thing to the whole of life', 'Whatever you do don't keep
the Lord's Day, you Pharisee' (it's the equivalent of Ref21's bringing
up of celebrity culture!). For all my mocking of The Briefing, it is
insightful and makes me think. There's a freshness to the way they
write. One thing that I do miss not getting the print copy are the
incessant adverts by Matthias Media for their own products. Rarely has
someone preached to the converted like Matthias Media. It is remarkable
how seemingly every single one of their books has won the much coveted
'Australian Christian book of the Year'
Phillip Jensen started it back in the 80s and though at
times I could throttle him you have to love him. The Briefing have done
an interview with him on his mistakes. It is a fascinating
read. You won't agree with all of it but it's remarkably humble and as
usual forthright. Anything by Jensen is worth reading.