'Atheists are fools and agnostics are cowards'

During a recent trip to the UK, Phillip Jensen, Dean of Sydney, was involved in various student evangelistic outreaches.

Prior to speaking on 'Atheists are fools and agnostics are cowards' at Durham University Christian Union, Jonathan Carswell caught up with him in a Durham coffee shop.

Phillip Jensen was brought up in an Australian church-going family. He was converted in the early years of his life, but his mother sadly died shortly after his brother, Peter, was ordained as an Anglican minister. Phillip himself was in his penultimate year at Bible College - it was an especially sad time for him.

Straight down the line

Today, both Jensen brothers have a reputation for being 'straight down the line', which some would argue comes from an Aussie brashness that we've been more accustomed to in the build-up to sporting events, rather than from the pulpit. However, when I put this to Phillip, he argued that he is simply teaching the Bible. Because of the message of the Bible, people become unsettled and therefore 'shoot the messenger'. As Jensen himself says: 'The true issue is that people have a problem with the truth of the Bible that I am seeking to preach.'

To some, Jensen would be classed as a 'fire and brimstone preacher'. Indeed, the news station ABC Sydney recently described him this way. However, Jensen defends this accusation firmly. 'No, not at all. I preach hell, yes, but in doing that, all I am doing is what Jesus did'. In conversation, it was clear that Phillip is seeking to be Christ-like in his ministry. A particular emphasis of this is that he sees it as being crucial to preach the existence of hell. 'Jesus preached many other issues too though, and I seek to proclaim these also. During his ministry on earth Jesus talked of hell 11 times. If Jesus talks about it so must I. However, this is not the only issue Jesus taught and we need to be aware of that and not preach it more than he did.'

Crisis? What crisis?

When it comes to the issue of the Anglican community, Jensen again appears both analytical and firmly established in his views and opinions. Some leaders in the Anglican Church have recently described the current situation within their denomination as a crisis, but Jensen does not agree. While he would admit that the church needs to answer some very big questions being asked, he does not feel it is a crisis. With particular emphasis on the debate regarding the ordination of homosexual clergy, he argued: 'The church is not at crisis point. However, what we are currently showing is our lack of communion, and the pretence of communion that we are showing is obvious'.

I put it to him that those in the Free Church have the right to challenge Bible-believing Anglicans to leave the Anglican church. In his typically forthright manner, Jensen believes they don't. 'Why', he asked with some animation, 'should we leave the church when we are not the ones who are going against the Bible? Surely they should leave, not us?' The more I talked with Jensen, the more it seemed unlikely that Bible-believing Anglicans would ever leave. I was left wondering how long they would continue to associate themselves with liberal Anglicans, and feared this question may never be answered.

Multiplying churches

Despite many frustrations and discouragements within Christian ministry, there are many positives in Jensen's ministry that we must praise God for. In his Sydney diocese, there has been a commitment to an ambitious mission goal. They are working towards having at least 10% of the population from the region attending Bible-based churches within ten years. They have a clear strategy to achieve this goal. This is to multiply Bible-based Christian fellowships, congregations and churches which equip and nurture their members and expand themselves, both in the diocese and the world.

Within this strategy there are four policies:

1. To call upon God for such an outpouring of his Spirit that this people will be assured of his love through his word, seek to please the Saviour in all things, manifest the godly life and be filled with prayerful and sacrificial compassion for the lost in all the world.

2. To enable parish churches to expand numerically, equip and nurture their members, and become the mother-churches of as many fellowships and congregations as possible; and also to take further initiatives to create fellowships by penetrating structures of society beyond the reach of the parish church with the gospel.

3. To multiply the number of well-trained persons (ordained, lay, full time, part time, voluntary) lovingly dedicated to the creation and development of such parishes, congregations and fellowships by proclaiming the gospel.

4. To reform the life of the diocese (including its culture, ordinances, customs, use of resources, and deployment of ministry) to encourage and enable the fulfilment of the fundamental aim.

Phillip is heavily involved in the third of these policies; training and equipping the church in ministry. They are seeking not only to train those who are looking for full-time Christian ministry but as Jensen explained: 'We are seeking to develop the idea of "every member ministry". That is, everyone within our churches spreading the Word to those they meet.'

We must pray for Phillip and the Sydney diocese, as they seek to obey God's command to make disciples of all nations.

'Atheists are fools and agnostics are cowards'

Jonathan Carswell talks to Phillip Jensen

Straight down the line

Crisis? What crisis?

Multiplying churches

Within this strategy there are four policies:

Main Articles

Other articles