Manly Ambition

On Saturday I attended the Canberra Men's Christian Convention and heard David McDonald (from Crossroads in Canberra) and Paul Dale (from Chruch by the Bridge in Kirribilli) talk on the topic of ambition.

Before going into the conference I thought they would say something like "Have ambition in God and not anything else". David said this in the first session, but he gave it theological backing and dug into the greek word φιλοτιμέομαι which is translated in some English versions as "ambition". He also compared the ambition of the start of Genesis 11 with the start of Genesis 12 and he also made Matthew 1:17 really stand out.

Paul Dale in session 2 and 3 looked into the church and how there is a growing trend for men to say away from church as they see it as been "chickafide". Paul looked into what the church is, how its leaders are to lead and how the church is to disicpline people who call themselves Christians (and not judge people who don't call themselves Christian), all this was based off 1 Corinthians 3-5 (and other places). In essence he talked about how men should be ambitious for God's church.

In session 4 David dived back into the word ambition and we looked at two key areas of being a man, namley sex and work. He also addressed the cynical me from session 1 who assumed what the speakers were going to say. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul tells the believers to continue in what they have heard and to listen to it more and more. We do not really want a new message, as anything from the Gospel message is not good news, and does not have the power to save anyonen from their sin.

One of the best things about the conferenc is that they are going to post the 4 talks for free on their website
soon.