From the very conception of the Australian Church Record on July 1st, 1880 (then known as ‘The Church of England Record’) the original founders of the ACR aimed to help the church of God “hold the Christian faith with a firm and unwavering confidence”.[1]Since that time the ACR has produced over 2300 issues of its journal, with each issue seeking to do just that – to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
In 2016 the ACR decided to enter into the online space via its very own blog. One could ask why the ACR wanted to add to an already very crowded online space! However, the answer to that question is simple. For one, to have more people speaking of Christ and the salvation he brings to the lost can’t be a bad thing. In an online space that is crowded with the empty deceits and delusions of Satan, what a delight it is to read those articles about the forgiveness we find in Jesus. Yet, the primary answer is that the raison d’être of the ACR is the same as it was in 1880. We want the church of God to hold to the faith with an unwavering confidence, and we believed that such a cause would be furthered by providing regular online content.
Thus, since November 2016 the ACR Online has been hard at work providing regular, short, and sharp articles from an array of writers on an array of topics. It has been an encouragement to see these picked up, shared, and commented on via social media. Of greater encouragement is to hear of how people have been spurred on in the faith by our writers, or informed in such a way that helps them live lives that further glorify our great God. We’ve even seen some of our pieces generate ongoing discussion and help determine the theme of a conference![2]
However, here is how you can help. We want our readers to be a part of our raison d’être. We know that people are reading our articles (the stats tell us that!), but how great it would be to have even more brothers and sisters spurred on to hold with unwavering confidence to the Christian faith. Thus, we are asking our readers to do two things. Firstly, if you haven’t already, make sure you like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/australianchurchrecord/and subscribe to our website https://www.australianchurchrecord.net/. And secondly, we believe that our writers have good things to say, and so we want our readers to ‘share the love’ by sharing and forwarding the articles that they find helpful. The online space is a funny space that is fast moving, but the more people share and forward content, the greater help that content can be to others.
Who knows what means we’ll be using in the future to communicate the gospel of our Lord Jesus. But one thing we know for sure is that those who belong to Christ will continue to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And as long as the ACR is around, we too can do no other.
This article was originally published in the ACR’s Journal for Winter 2019
[1] ‘Our Object and Our Purpose’, The Church of England Record, Vol. I No. 1, Thursday July 1st 1880
[2] The Pastor’s Heart episode with Phil Colgan and Craig Schafer followed the ACR’s interview with David Robertson. Nexus 2019’s topic on evangelism was partly due to the discussions on evangelism in Sydney following the Robertson interview.