thanks for the prompt, wordpress

This website has an about page but it’s still worth stopping and letting my readers, and particularly the many new readers that have come here over the past few months, know a little more about me.

My name is David and I’m an ordained Anglican minister, currently privileged to serve as the Senior Associate Minister at St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Parramatta in Sydney, Australia. I’m married to the lovely Jacqui who is from Singapore. We met in London and have (so far) lived on 3 continents together. God has blessed us with 3 great kids.

But none of that is the most important defining feature of who I am. Above all you should know that I am a Christian, which means I think that Jesus of Nazareth is exactly who the Bible claims He is – the God-man and the King of the Universe who came to dwell with us 2,000 years ago to not only fully reveal God to us but also to bring us back into right relationship with Him.

Crazy talk? Well it might be, but then loads of very very clever people are actually loopy. You’re of age, you go find out for yourself or ask me some more about it.

So that’s who I am, but why am I here?

Some people write because it helps them process. I’m not really one of those people. I find that I do most of my processing just fine inside my head. I write because I want to make a contribution to other people’s thoughts. The reality is that many people blog because they think they have something to add. That could be either arrogance or reality. Or (probably in my case) a mixture of the 2.

So what is it that I think I have to add? Each person has their own interests and their own contexts. For me it’s a combination of the following (all of which are linked together in an intricate (or perhaps just annoyingly sticky) spider’s web of thought).

1. First and foremost I love thinking more about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. For me (and many many other evangelicals) that means looking at what the Bible has to say and telling other people about it. In fact, when it comes down to it, that’s also my job description as an Anglican minister, at least that’s how the Prayer Book puts it.
   

   And now again we exhort you, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have in remembrance, into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called: that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord’s family; to seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.

2. I take a keen interest in Anglican matters. The Anglican church is currently heavily split over exactly those issues I’ve set out above. There are many who take the call to teach the Bible seriously, there are others who don’t, and then there are those who say they do but everything in their ministry confirms the exact opposite. I’ve been writing with Stand Firm for over 10 years and while on that team seen every sort of shenanigan and great encouragement in Anglican affairs. I’ve also written increasingly on what’s going on here in the Anglican Church of Australia and it’s slowly becoming clear that davidould.net is a little bit of a go-to blog on Australian Anglican stuff, at least the stuff that interests me; if I write on certain stuff then I can see a rapid hit from every diocesan office in the country 😉
3. I’m interested in apologetics, the defence of the Christian faith. This got sparked by the rise of the “New Atheists” over the last 5 years. Good questions deserve good answers and none of us should be afraid to grapple with the hard stuff. The truth will always out and truth is always worth pursuing. I’m more than convinced that ultimate truth is found in the person of Jesus but I love thinking through what that means and explaining it to others.
4. Questions of human sexuality cut across all of the above. Like it or not the Bible speaks clearly about sex and actually tells us that sex and the gospel are not 2 separate things. The former helps us to understand the latter. Some of the Anglican Communion’s biggest fights are over this issue. But then that’s not surprising. We often get told as Christians that we’re obsessed about sex but the reality is that we live in a world obsessed with it and we’re just responding to the things that we see around us.
5. In the past 18 months I’ve done a little media work, much of which is me talking about the stuff above. The most recent example is the SBS show “Living with the Enemy”. I think Christians have often done a bad job in this field and we’ve got a long way to go in getting it right. I’m just happy to have a little go myself. You can read more of my thoughts about it here.
6. I like posting about silly stuff. Some things just catch my interest and attention and I want to share them with others.

So that’s a little more about who I am and why I write here. Happy to answer any further questions in the comments.