Greensy Grumblings

Quote I came across.....

2006-12-05T10:13:00.000+11:00

I am cleaning out my filing cabinet this morning.
I have come across some great quotes in my 'clippings' section, but I thought I would post this one:

"We understand God's predisposition for the poor, the message is one of Personal transformation and regeneration through redemption and Social Reformation to address those complex issues which contribute to poverty and keep people poor - laws that deny justice, greed of the industrialists, the lust of men, power.

He [Booth] and his Army recognised that poverty was caused not just by personal lifestyle choices, but by the greed of industrialists and sweatshop owners, the lust of men who prey on young girls, rampant disease in overcrowded tenements, the indifference of those with means, and laws that deny justice. And it is powerlessness, hopelessness, malaise, isolation, voicelessness, lack of community, deliberate oppression, that mars the identity of the poor, whether the unemployed of Whitechapel Road in London, or the untouchables of Kanyakumari in India.

The gospel is good news to the poor because it addresses their powerlessness and shines a light on the web of lies that entangles them in a hopeless status quo. There are chains and bars that must be taken away. There are sinister forces that impose barriers. There are vested interests that do not want the poor to become self-sufficient."

Colonel Herb Rader

Human Trafficking Forum Report

2006-11-30T12:25:00.000+11:00

Thought I would post a report of the Human Trafficking Forum that was held last night:

It was a great night, there were over 30 people in attendance.
Major David Brunt lead the forum and we also had the privilege of hearing from Captain Lynda Van Gaalen-Prentice who is the operations manager of Mary Anderson Lodge Family violence service. Lynda has had experience working with women who have been trafficked for the purpose of sexual slavery and so her perspective was a welcome addition to the evening.

Here are some points taken from the evening:

The Salvation Army is active in Australia lobbying against the trade and working with the victims, even if we don't hear about it.
Part of the reason for this is that Agencies that are funded by the government to work with the victims are unable to advertise that they do this work as part of the funding agreement.

600,000 to 800,000 people a year are trafficked around the world.
It is the third largest illegal industry behind Arms and drugs.

Last night 1,000 women and children spent the night in Australia that had been trafficked to this country. This is a conservative government estimate.

"what rape is for others is normal for us" - victim of human trafficking speaking to a US Senate Committee

The solution is not as simple as 'send them back home' because of issues of honour/shame and cultural issues.
Traffickers also have very strong networks in local communities and their can be danger for victims families if they escape.

In Australia if a trafficked woman refuses to testify against her captor then she will be deported.
There is a major problem with the 'Stockholm syndrome' where the victim is so dependant on the captor that they become attached to them.

The Salvation Army cannot take a stand on this issue until it clarifies to its own members what is unacceptable behaviour for Salvationists.
Major Brunt commented that he has been into brothels on legitimate Army business but was unsure as to what the other Salvos were doing there.

Poverty is only one cause amongst many. But it is a major cause.
Traffickers are usually close to the victim. Fathers, Uncles and Mothers.
Many victims initially travel with consent believing they have a job waiting in the country they are going to, only to be forced into prostitution to repay their 'debt'.
Trafficked victims are also found in other exploitative sectors such as sweatshops.
Men and boys are also trafficked.

Trafficked women are forced to view hard core pornographic material and then forced to perform those acts. This is either videoed or photographed and then used to blackmail the woman to remain in servitude.

Check out this weeks Warcry article on OPAL. There is anecdotal evidence that this scheme is actively preventing people from being sold into human trafficking.

"When a man purchase a sex act he is contributing to the global sex trade"

We need to start naming 'clients' as 'monsters' to remove a positive view of the trade.

If corps are interested in having someone come and speak on the issue of Human Trafficking then contact Major David Brunt.

What can we do:
Pray
Tell people about the problem. This helps turn the tide of public opinion. We need to make the trade and use of sexual slavery unacceptable.
Write to newspapers.
Look at the personals section in your local paper. Most of these ads are for illegal brothels. Ring the paper and complain about the adverts.
Write to the Salvation Army leadership encouraging them in the work the territory is doing to combat this evil trade.

Terrorism and Iraq

2006-11-29T10:40:00.000+11:00

For those of you that missed it, James posted a comment on my last post:

"Ive been thinking about these wars etc lately and thinking what the appropriate response should or should have been...
I agree we all need to get along. At the same time we need to realise theres people who just dont want peace... How do we move forward?

Tough questions but they need to be addressed!
Id love to see what you think about this way forward?"

James and I then had a little bit more of a chat about this on Monday night, but it got me to thinking and so I wanted to note down a few thoughts.

Firstly, in the book "The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God" I came across a quote from a prominent terrorism expert who said that "all definitions of terrorism are subjective." It is good to hear an 'expert' make that statement.

Secondly I just want to highlight a few facts about the war in Iraq:

1) None of the countries in the Coalition of the Willing officially declared war on Iraq or the regime of Saddam Hussein.
2) No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq
3) It has been proven that there were no links between Al-Queda and Saddam's regime.
4) Lots of soldiers from the Coalition countries are dying.
5) Over 100 Iraqis are dying a day, or 30,000 a year, as a result of violence.
6) According to a recent survey 7 out of 10 Iraqis want American troops to leave their country.
7) Conditions in Iraq, in the vast majority of tangible measures, are worse now than they were under Saddam. (Just listen to any journalist who actually talks to Iraqi people)
8) Large corporations (mostly American) have made lots of money from reconstruction contracts in Iraq.
9) A dictator and a government representing the interests of a powerful minority were removed from power
10) Iraq is now embroiled in, or best case on the brink of, a civil war.
11) Removing Saddam from power has not stopped terrorist acts from occurring.

So James asked how do we move forward when we need to get along but there are people who just don't want peace?

On September 11 2001 a terrible terrorist attack was carried out on America. Very few people would deny the horror of what happened.
The question remains however, who are the people who just don't want peace?

America responded to the terrorist attack by using their own tactics to instil terror, however they called it 'shock and awe'.
America then went and attacked Iraq, using the cloak of hitting back at 'terrorism' and searching for WMDs.

Now I get to hang out with children a fair bit.
If one of the children hit another child, they would be told off because that isn't a nice thing to do.
If the second child hit the first back, "they hit me first" wouldn't be a justifiable excuse.

Violence begets violence. Terrorism begets terrorism.
As James said some people don't want peace, but fighting back is then giving them what they want.

Forgetting the chorus of dissent that sprung up against plans to invade Iraq, let us just look back with the 20/20 vision that comes from hindsight.
How many of the above 11 facts are positives, either for the people of Iraq or for the coalition of the willing?
No weapons of mass destruction were found.
Big American corporations have made lots of money.
A dictator and his minority government have been removed.

Perhaps the way forward is not to repay violence with violence.
Jesus spoke of turning the other cheek. This was not a passive stance, but rather an attempt to shame the aggressor by remaining defenceless.

Can the teachings of Jesus apply to global politics as much as they apply to personal moral ethics, or isn't he powerful enough?

Technorati Tags: Iraq, terrorism, Saddam, war

U2 concert

2006-11-23T18:27:00.000+11:00

"I saw Bono on the news on Friday night. He is really a great prophet isn't he?" This comment was made to me by a lady at church when I mentioned that I was heading to the U2 concert on Sunday night.
"He sure is" was my reply.

The concert was great, the only blemish was that everyone had told me everything that was going to happen so I knew what to expect.

A couple of things that Bono said:

1) "Lets pray for the places in the world that are troubled by war and terrorism. Let our prayer be this, that we do not become a monster to defeat a monster"

Powerful stuff. I have just started reading a book called "The war on terrorism and the Terror of God" It was written before the attacks of Sept. 11 2001.

The prologue and first chapter are very powerful. If we define terrorism as an action intended to instil fear and achieve a political aim, then what does it say about the 'Shock and Awe' tactics of the 'coalition of the willing'?

2) Bono at one stage wore a Bandana that said "Coexist" The C was formed from the Islamic crescent, the X was formed from the star of David and the T was formed from the Cross. He asked 'why can't the children of Abraham stop fighting and get along?'

Apart from the fact that I thought he was going to launch into 'Father Abraham had many sons', I thought it was a powerful question that should resonate with us. The three Abrahamic religions all believe to their corps in the values of respect, love, understanding and grace. Yet some of the greatest conflicts of today come between proponents of these three religions. A large part of the conflict comes from ignorance of 'the other' and the other part comes from the fact that the proponents of these religions eschew the religion for their own, non-religious, ends.

I heard someone ask yesterday, "why did Bono get to chat to Peter Costello? I can't just ring up and get an hour with him. He's only a rock star."
It is a good point, why can't we all access our 'democratic' leaders? But rather than being a negative that Bono met with Costello, I think to myself here is a Christian who is using his position in society (rock star) to influence society. Rather than being an arrogant rock star who thinks he can change the world, Bono is a humble activist.

He was approached to be the face of the 'drop the debt' Jubilee campaign. Rather than just using his celebrity to front the campaign he actually went away and researched the causes of global poverty. He asked questions of those who understood the problem and in turn asked the hard questions of those who should have understood the problem. He asked the tough questions of the politicians he met. Politicians who were expecting an easy meeting with a rock star instead got tough questions from a campaigner for a more just world.

As an old youth leader of mine used to say,
"I think there's something in there for all of us"

Technorati Tags: activism, puppy, social justice

Blogger's block

2006-11-23T18:07:00.000+11:00

I haven't blogged in a while.
Sorry to all my faithful readers.

There have been a combination of reasons.
Firstly I have been quite busy. Working at the council as well as the salvos has made me a busy boy.
For anyone who lives locally and gets the Leader newspaper check out the two page spread on the Youth Services BBQs happening in the outer areas of Nillumbik council. That is why I have been so busy. I have been organising those barbeques which has been a great challenge.
The idea has been to get out to the rural areas of the shire and connect with young people as they get off their school buses.
We give them a sausage and one of our cool orange NYP wristbands and then chat to them. We let them know about Youth Services and what we do as well as trying to get ideas from them about what they would like to see in their local area.
It has been a great opportunity to get out and meet some new young people that I normally don't get to chat to.

Secondly someone has been trying to use my blog to stir up some trouble.
You lose some interest when someone is trying to sour something you put a bit of effort into.
But I am over worrying about it, at least I am getting a loyal reader.
Now all I have to do is increase the rate at which my loyal readers click on my ads (hint, hint).

Thirdly there has been so much stuff going on in the world lately that I can't pick one thing to blog about and still keep it concise.
I know I have a tendency to ramble, which is fine if I was writing for myself. But because I would like people to read my blog, then I have to get to the point.

Technorati Tags: barbeque, blogging

Human Trafficking and the Salvation Army's response

2006-11-21T10:52:00.000+11:00

A forum is being held on the issue of Human Trafficking

Here are the details:

7 - 9pm Wednesday 29 November
The Bridge Centre
12a Chapel Street, St Kilda

Guest Speaker: Major David Brunt
Zonal Representative to the Salvation Army’s International
Task Force on Human Trafficking

Presented by the Social Justice Wing and the Bridge Programme - MCD
Please RSVP to Celine: (03) 9521 2770

Please promote this event at your corps and to your friends
Click here to download the flyer for the event.
If you would like to come and need a lift let me know and we can organise something.

tags technorati : sexual trafficking salvation army forum

Valedictory Speech

2006-11-16T22:52:00.000+11:00

Here is the speech I made at my Valedictory dinner at Whitley college this evening.
It was a great evening and a fitting end to four years of theological college.
Now I can't wait until I get to wear the robe and receive my degree.

As I reflected back on the 4 years I have spent at Whitley college I tried to think of what I could say to sum up the experience of studying here. I wanted to acknowledge and thank all those who have assisted me in my learning and development over that time, lecturers, tutors, staff and other students.
I tried to find a way to make it witty or funny, tried to weave it into a comparison with my favourite sport or how my learning related to the G20 and make poverty history forums, but nothing seemed to work.

Each time I came back to the question, ‘what can I say?’ And then it hit me.
The question. That most powerful of tools in theological study.

I remember in my first year theological class choosing to respond to a newspaper opinion piece that asked the question ‘was Jesus gay?’ A question that has the power to strike fear into the hearts of many a Christian. That question, perhaps more than any other taught me the importance of looking at the other side of the argument.

My own major area of study, biblical studies throws up its own interesting questions. ‘What was the context?’ ‘What is the author trying to say?’ ‘What does it mean?’ ‘What analysis am i supposed to be using in this exegesis?’ These questions have helped me to marvel at the beauty of the word of God.

I have learnt that a failure to question is a failure to engage. A failure to engage is a failure to learn and to grow. It would have been relatively easy to sit back and absorb information. It would be relatively easy for me to graduate with a Bachelor of Theology able to recite creeds and explain doctrines.

But that would have been to miss the point. The task of theological study is to engage with the questions. The task of Christian discipleship is to engage with the questions and perhaps the greatest question. That great question that Jesus asked Peter, that the Gospel writers asked the disciples of the early church and that we too must grapple with today. “Who do you say that I am?”

Of course in theological study there are other questions.
Arriving at college on the morning of the exam and asking “Why did I choose to study Greek?”
Arriving in the library the week that last essay is due and asking “Why did I leave it so late?”

Studying at Whitley has taught me the power of the question and the importance of hearing other people’s questions. The questions from my African, Latin American, Asian, European and Australian friends. Questions that come from world views and life situations that I had never dreamed of. Questions I never would have contemplated, but for someone else asking them.

“Who do you say that I am?” For me, to answer that question is to open the door on so many more questions. These questions are the ones that my time at Whitley has allowed me to explore with so many other people. Thank you to the wiser heads, those who ask the hard questions and encourage us to engage with them. Thank you to those who have journeyed alongside me in the walk that is theological studies. Thank you to those who work in the library and in the office, without you our college would not function.
Thank you to my wife, for her support and encouragement along the way.

So thank you once again for helping me to discover that the question is the most powerful theological tool of all.

Technorati Tags: discipleship, valedictory

Expectations

2006-11-01T12:33:00.000+11:00

What are you like on Christmas Eve?
Are you a nervous wreck waiting for the light of morning so you can rip open the presents waiting for you?
Do you go to bed early so that you can sleep and get to the morning quicker?
Do you keep getting up, looking to see if the presents are under the tree yet?

I have been doing some thinking about expectations the last couple of days.
It is a good time for me to think about it, because I have 3 different events that I have expectations of.

Firstly, last week I handed in my final assignment for my Bachelor of Theology.
Secondly, I am waiting patiently (or not so...) for a new computer game to arrive in the mail.
Thirdly, I am expectant of Melissa and my' move to Footscray at the end of the year.

I was a bit stressed last week, I had a few things on with work and had to get my assignment finished to hand in.
After a busy night on Tuesday, I handed in my assignment on Wednesday.
I suppose that I wasn't expecting huge fireworks and congratulations, but the event passed with very little significance.
Melissa and I went out for tea on Wednesday evening, but it was with a bunch of other people for a work dinner.
I didn't have high expectations, but I was still left feeling flat after the event had passed.
I suppose my Valedictory dinner (where I get to make a speech) and the Graduation Ceremony will be the 'official' completion moments of my degree.

For anyone who doesn't know, I love Football Manager. Well the 2007 version was due to be released in Australia last Thursday.
Melissa agreed that I could get it once I had handed in my last assignment, as an end of degree treat.
So last thursday I went to the local computer games shops trying to find a copy.
There were none, all the shops said it was due in a couple of weeks.
So I looked on the Internet and an Australian distributor said they could get it to me by this Thursday.
But I decided to look at the U.K. based games companies and found that I could get it delivered earlier and cheaper than if I bought it in Australia.
So I ordered it last thursday and counted off the days till it was to arrive.
It hasn't arrived yet, but it might come today or tomorrow, if it meets their delivery schedule.
I am very expectant, I can't wait.
I know that the game will live up to my expectations, not only because I have played the 2006 version, but also because I have been playing the demo.

The expectations of our move to Footscray are starting to build steam.
The days are ticking away and the weeks are flying by. The closer we get the more we are starting to organise the nuts and bolts of our move.
The more we organise the higher the excitement.
They say that change is as good as a holiday, well this change will be a 6 month backpacking tour of the world.

Expectations are funny things. We all have them. We have them of events, we have them of people.
How realistic are they? Was it realistic for me to expect the office lady at college to do a little dance as I handed in my final assignment. Was she to cry and say how much she would miss seeing me around the place?

Perhaps it is realistic for me to think that my computer game, ordered on Thursday in England, could arrive at my front door on Monday morning thanks to the miracle of modern air travel. It may have been a realistic expectation, but it didn't come to fruitition.

I work with lots of different people. A lot of them know that I belong to the church and so I get to have some interesting conversations.
It is amazing what people expect from God. Some people expect God to be like Santa. Handing out gifts that we get to unwrap and play with.
Some people expect God to jump up and down and do a little dance every time they do something good.
Some people expect God to work to their timetable, looking at their watch and tapping their foot because he hasn't delivered on time.

We don't think too much of a child who can't wait for Christmas morning.
But when an adult makes the same fuss on Christmas eve we worry.
What about your expectations of God?
Should we be worried?

Technorati Tags: ministry, expectations, puppy

Urban Seed got 'Bolted'

2006-10-31T00:16:00.000+11:00

Well, Andrew Bolt has done it again.
That commentator of reactionary right-winged vitriol has spoken out on what he sees as the scourge of left-winged tree huggers.

In his sites, the stop G20 group and Urban Seed (part of Collins St Baptist Church).
In response to their 'Bolting' Marcus Curnow, of Urban Seed has written a letter to Mr Bolt outlining why he as a Christian is involved in the process of the 'stop G20' campaign.

Bolt's article can be found here, but it is basic Bolt drivel. He believes the stop G20 campaign is being run by young lefties who support North Korea and are so simple minded and idealistic that they believe if everyone worked in a communal vegie garden everything would be ok. It is great to see his attempt at discrediting any opposing ideas to his own, he really is a master in that field.

Marcus' article can be found here and is a must read for any Christian considering why you should or shouldn't be involved in social activism.

I will just highlight a couple of the points that he makes:

Our inspiration, Jesus of Nazareth, copped guilt by association for those with whom he ate and was ultimately crucified under the false charge that he would destroy the temple (read: economic system) of his day. It was a false charge because, I believe, Jesus knew that in the end the “temple” would destroy itself (and I would suggest any system of economics that becomes an “–ism” always does!) All he did was predict it. Of great concern to him were the victims it would take with it. He was also concerned with how people could begin to imagine and practice an economics of “enough” for all.

Of course, creative protest and civil disobedience are also tools of nonviolence and essential to healthy democracy. From a Christian perspective, blockades formed part of the strategy of Jesus. Indeed, he wasn’t above a little symbolic property damage and blockading in order to make the point that our “light giving” structures are never divinely permanent. He taught that the real light that is produced by an economic system can’t be measured by satellites in the sky. For the “Son of Man”, the real temples of worship are our bodies. The ultimate source of light is found in people, especially the poor.

Urban Seed has been supportive of those seeking to place debt relief, fair trade, and more and better aid higher on the agenda of the finance ministers at the G20. Yet, while pursuing the Millenium Development Goals will produce many important outcomes for the poor, they will not “Make Poverty History”, especially if tacked uncritically upon the back of this system. Unfortunately the need to keep a broad based, celebrity driven, anti poverty campaign “feel good” and positive for the media means that hard truth’s can be inadvertently glossed over. That we in the global North must also “make the poverty of affluence history” is a much harder message to “sell”.

Far from escapist, I would contend that the witness of this Spirit in action through small, often misunderstood groups of people, from Jesus, to the early church and throughout history, is that love can and will, time and time again, make capitalism impossible and communism unnecessary.

God’s light is spread, but not through organisational establishments or structural systems. It is spread like a disease – through bodies, through touch, through breath. It is spread by people infected with love. At Credo Café, capitalists learn how to do dishes and socialists learn how to fund things and we all learn how to love our enemies. Come and join us sometime as we break bread, confess our arrogance and remind ourselves of Christ’s body broken in the world. We know this as the Economy of God and its lighting up the entire world!
Jesus shared his last meal with a capitalist, a terrorist, and some self-employed representatives of the fishing industry who were obviously dissatisfied enough to down tools (at least for a time). Taking bread, he broke it as a symbol of solidarity with bodies broken by our systems, and of the ultimate power of self sacrificing love. (Talk about anti-competitive behavior!)

Technorati Tags: Urban Seed, communism, consumerism, activism, capitalism

Church camp

2006-10-26T14:41:00.000+10:00

On the weekend we had our church camp.
It was a great chance to get away and just hang out with people from our church community.
We went to a local Scout Camp at the base of Mount Disappointment.
We did all the usually campy things, hiked, played board games and ate lots of great food.

Just 3 reflections that I have on the experience of our church camp:

1) The people who attended were, on the whole, the same people who are most actively involved in the life and ministry of our church. What does that say about church community?

2) Children breath a totally different atmosphere into a community. We had a great time over the nights when there were no kids there but during the days when we had children visiting the camp was just a different place. It was great to see everyone pitch in to help hold the twin babies and keep the toddlers entertained. It was a great illustration of how communities can work together to raise children.

3) Worship of God is so much more fulfilling if we involve the beauty of his creation. To be in an outdoor setting for a weekend was great. Sunday morning we had worship in the open air chapel. Melissa and I led the service and so we encouraged people to reflect on God's creation. With our eyes closed we listened to the sounds and with our eyes open we went and looked at what God had created.

So it was a great church camp, everyone who went, for a day or three, really enjoyed themselves and felt closer to their church community.

Technorati Tags: Outdoors, camp, puppy

Despicable - link to a Rant

2006-10-24T17:14:00.000+10:00

Stephen Said posted some thought provoking questions today.
Click the link to read the whole post:

{neurotribe.net}: ::Rants-despicable:
Trying to do some preparation but I have a sinking feeling in my stomach and I'm occasionally teary when I think about the incident that took place that included the young woman with a learning disability, a homeless man and a taxi driver. (See here and here for respective articles.)

I have been listening to the radio today and hearing all sorts of outrage being expressed. I feel sickened and feel very much for all of the victims involved.

I also hear people baying for the blood of the young men involved. I can help but ask the question though, did these young men, spring fully formed into this world, or did our society and culture shape who they are today?

Are the boys evil? Are the boys parents and families evil? Is our wider society evil? Where does the responsibility lie?

Are you trying to co-opt Jesus for the ALP?

2006-10-17T10:18:00.000+10:00

I found this post holding an excerpt of an interview with Kevin Rudd on Lateline. I heard Rudd speak about this same issue on the Religion report last week. More comments to follow after his words:

TONY JONES: ...You write about Jesus' revulsion at the hypocrisy of the religious and political elites of his time. You seem to be suggesting that if Jesus were alive today, he would feel the same revulsion about Australia?
Kevin Rudd: holy man

KEVIN RUDD: What I am saying is that from a social gospel tradition, or a Christian socialist tradition, what you see in the gospel is a strong emphasis on the impoverished, the poor, the dispossessed, the outcast, the oppressed. What we've sought to do, in that tradition of Christianity and politics, is to say that one of the functions of Christians in politics is to speak on their behalf; to speak for those who do not have a voice. Therefore when you look, for example, at global poverty today, who speaks for them? Who speaks for those who are currently suffering all sorts of human rights oppression around the world? Who speaks for the planet itself, which is currently subject to this enormous challenge called global climate change. That's where the contemporary challenge lies with this tradition of social justice, which you see alive in Bonhoeffer's teachings 60 years ago.

TONY JONES: Are you trying to co-opt Jesus for the ALP?

KEVIN RUDD: No, this a fight back on our part, Tony. For the last decade Mr Howard, Mr Costello, Mr Downer, Mr Abbott, at various occasions, have whacked various Christian leaders for daring to come out and say that they'd disagreed with various social policies, or economic policies, of the Howard Government. When, for example, we had church leaders come out and attack the Government's extreme industrial relations laws, Mr Costello laid into them, saying they had no qualifications to do so because they weren't economists. Mr Downer has done the same when leading churchmen have come out and attacked the Government's policies on the war in Iraq. I've got to say, when I heard Mr Howard say in Parliament the other day that there was no such thing as Catholic social teaching on industrial relations, I nearly choked. There is an entire Papal encyclical on the question of industrial relations explicitly in defence of the rights of trade unions. So what I am doing is simply rolling this back in the other direction and saying, "Enough is enough. There is an entirely different tradition of Christianity and politics," which we would call Christian Social Democracy, which needs to be heard, and that's why I'm speaking out.

Kevin Rudd recently spoke at the Bonhoeffer for today conference here in Melbourne. His speech also appeared as an article in the current Monthly magazine.
Now contrary to what might be popular belief I am not a die hard Labor voter. Having said that, the more I hear Kevin Rudd speak the more I respect the man.

He has been speaking coherently and logically on the need for both a seperation of church and state (secular democracy) and the need for politicians with a Christian conscience to stand up for what they believe in within public debate in Australia.
He has also been calling for people to stop thinking that Christian = Liberal/National Party.

I think that his comments have been a breath of fresh air into the political debate in Australia.

At the last Federal Election the rise of the Family First party led to numerous seats being handed to the Liberal party through preferencing. I have heard numerous Christians comment that they vote for that person because they are a Christian, failing to realise that Christians sit on all sides of the political debate in Australia.

I think that as individual Christians we can become too locked into a specific political party, be it the Labor, Liberal, National, Green, Democrat or Family First party, and see that as the ultimate fulfilment of 'Christian' politics.

We need to take a step back and realise that there are passionate Christians on all side of the debate.

Perhaps God is bigger than one political party?

tags technorati : politics Christian Kevin Rudd Labor Liberal Family First

Called to move on....

2006-10-15T20:40:00.000+10:00

Here is the letter that appeared from Melissa and myself along with our church newsletter today.

Dear corps folk,

In June Melissa and I were approached to consider joining the team at Footscray Salvation Army.
We were asked consider moving into the Salvation Army building (the old Carinya boys home) and living in community with the other team members and help in outreaching to the people of Footscray.
Since returning from our YES team trip to India, Melissa and I had been challenged about our lifestyle and where God was calling us to serve him.
As we prayed and discussed our options with other people we decided that God was calling us to step out in faith and leave the security of Greensborough Corps at the end of the year.
I say step out in faith because neither of us will be taking paid employment with the Footscray Corps as well as the challenge of living in a large house with other people.
We feel that God is calling us to sacrifice what we find comfortable and step out in faith to follow him.

It was not an easy decision for us to make because we have both loved our time here at the church. We are both passionate about the future direction that the corps is looking towards and are disappointed that we will not be here to be actively involved in seeing it come to fruition. We are both grateful for the opportunity the church has given us to minister within it. I especially am grateful to all the corps leaders, both past and present, who supported me in my internship and youth worker roles. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to grow and develop as a leader always under the guidance of people committed to seeing the youth ministry of our church grow. We are both indebted to those in the corps who have supported us both personally and within the youth ministry, without you we would not have been able to achieve what we have.

The church has committed a lot of resources into the youth ministry over the 5 years that I have been involved at the corps. Some of the fruit we have already seen. Some of the fruit our church will never see. I have valued the connections I have made with young people in their schools. Young people who if not for the financial commitment of our church might never have contact with a church. These are the fruits that our church might never see develop, but I assure you they are growing. I know that as the corps continues into the future to commit to ministries reaching outside of itself, like the schools and Mainly Music, the fruit will be abundant.

I ask that as a church you pray for Melissa and myself as we prepare for this new challenge. I ask that you pray for the work of the Salvation Army, not just in Greensborough and Footscray but the world over. You will remain in our thoughts and prayers.

Liam Bantock

Knowing when to quit

2006-10-14T15:13:00.000+10:00

As I have already said on numerous occasions, I am a big Dilbert fan.
The other day Scott Adams, the Creator of Dilbert, talked on his blog about being in over his head and how he came to be a successful cartoonist.
As a follow on from that his latest blog is about knowing when to quit. I think it raises some interesting points not just for businesses but also for the church and for discipleship.

The basic premise is that only 1 in 10 businesses will succeed.
Scott points out that the key to success is having people who love your product rather than just people who like your product. It is easy to have everyone like your product, but that doesn't breed success. In fact, it does the opposite.

Discipleship is something I blog about alot. To me discipleship is costly, and by its very nature is not going to be attractive to everyone. Precisely because it is costly is why I am passionate about it. Precisely because it is costly is why some people aren't passionate about it. They deem it too hard and not worth the effort. How does this fit with the song we sing 'the world for God', will everyone want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus? Or is it too hard for everyone?

What do you think?
How do we define success in discipleship?

Your kingdom come......

2006-10-10T10:00:00.000+10:00

Last night at bible study we looked at the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6. I love looking at what the Lord's prayer actually teaches us about praying, which most people skip over and just say the words. Today I have been catching up on some blogs I didn't get a chance to read over the weekend and there has been a common theme running through them which links into the Lord's prayer. Funny how God works like that isn't it.

Last night as we read Matt 6:10, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" we talked about what that actually means. Jesus was praying that heaven would happen on earth, believing it would become a reality. This prayer doesn't sit well with the idea that God will destroy the Earth and take all his good little Christians to heaven, in fact it doesn't sit with that idea at all. The second point that came up was how can we say these words if we don't believe they will happen and if we aren't actively making them happen.

I came across a blog post talking about what we can learn from the Amish about the power of pacifism. Ben looks at the shooting at the Amish school in the US last week. A young girl who stood up to a gunman and said "shoot me and let everyone else go."

A few years ago I joined with tens of thousands of other Melbournians and marched in the city to say that invading Iraq was not the way to deal with global terrorism or Saddam Hussein. The biggest accusation levelled against those who objected to invading Iraq was "so you support Saddam Hussein." Apart from the fact that I think those protests have been vindicated by the current situation in Iraq and the further discontent bred from the invasion that led to home grown terrorists attacking the London underground, I think we protestors still have to learn from the experience.

It is very easy to protest about the way things are, and I believe it is very necessary, but our protests hold no integrity if we do not have an alternative to put forward.

I came across two different (1 & 2) articles looking at how Andrew Bolt's attack on global warming campaigners are at best misleading and at worst down right wrong. The issue of global warming and the ecological crisis are now widely recognised (even if Andrew Bolt wants to stick his head in the sand) but how effective have we been at putting forward alternatives that people want to take on?

I came across this quote from Martin Luther King, “Today the judgment of God is upon the church for its failure to be true to its mission. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” Richard Munn, the author of the article, suggests some helpful principles for what it should look like for Salvationists especially, but all people to seek justice.

What issues do we as Christians get annoyed about? What issues do we as a Church get passionate about? What issues does our Salvation Army get involved in speaking about?

Are they issues of justice? Sometimes the Salvation Armyspeaks out.

Or are they issues of personal preference? How many Christians and churches get passionate about what style of music they should be playing or what time the Sunday morning meeting should be on?

Do we sound prophetic? Or do we sound pathetic? Prophetic zeal or irrelevant social club?

In the church our 'prophetic utterances' are more often about fortune telling for those in the club, rather than identifying issues of justice that need to be tackled, and providing God's advice on how to deal with them.

A young Amish girl standing up to a gunman saying "shoot me and let everyone else go", this is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Quick links

2006-10-04T11:35:00.001+10:00

Here are some things I have come across in the past few days.

Make Affluence History by Sponsoring a child.

The difference between Heaven and Hell (on earth).

Forgiveness is weird.

Here is a great post about real Christian manhood.

Rethinking church service effectiveness.

tags technorati : Links affluence manhood forgiveness church heaven hell

Quick links

2006-10-04T11:35:00.000+10:00

tags technorati : Links affluence manhood forgiveness church heaven hell

What does the humanity of Jesus teach us about God?

2006-10-03T17:26:00.000+10:00

As Christians we have a book full of stories that we consider to be inspired by God.
I wonder how much you truly let that inspiration challenge you?
I mean it is all good and well to read your bible in the morning and feel like you should actually talk to someone who gets picked on at school. But is it a once off response, if it happens at all?

I have to prepare a tutorial paper for my class tomorrow afternoon. I had to read an article on how the Synopic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) portray Jesus. I found the article to be a good read.
The key question I have decided to focus on in my paper, and here on my blog, is the question of 'what does the humanity of Jesus teach us about God?'

Now we talk alot about Incarnation (if we really understand what that term means), but my question is deeper than the incarnation. I am talking about the humanity of Jesus.

2 incidents highlight where this question comes from.

Firstly, the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is praying. Previously he had told the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem and would be killed by the authorities. Even if this was a supernatural knowledge (it didn't have to be, even a blind man could see that Jesus had been upsetting the powerful people in his ministry), Gethsemane turns the tables. Jesus prays, "if this cup can be taken from me, let it be. But not my will, your will be done." Jesus prays as if his prayer could change the order of the universe. In his humanity he doesn't know what the future holds and so prays that God's will might be done.

The second is Jesus' last moments on the cross. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Is this not the cry of someone who has faced utter hopelessness? Is it the cry of someone who is fed up with God because of where that God has placed him? (this question will upset some, because we think that to question God is wrong, even a 'sin', but isn't that exactly what Jesus is doing?) What comes next is that Jesus dies and Mark's gospel records that the Centurion (of all people) comments "surely this man was [a] Son of God."
Here at the moment of Jesus' death, the most human moment in his life, the Centurion sees his divinity.

So does the humanness of Jesus, who was also God, show us anything about who God is?
I would have to say a hearty 'Yes!'

His question in Gethsemane shows us that Jesus didn't know everything that was to come.
Is this true of the Father and the Spirit as well? If we hold to a belief in free will, then we have to sit with this question.
Does a God who offers free will, but knows what decision you will make, really offer free will?

His question on the Cross, 'why God?' shows us that it is very human to ask this question of God. It is ok to question God and his motives. (Don't believe me, just read the Old Testament.) Does this mean that God questions Godself? I would say yes, because we can see in the Old Testament instances where God shows remorse for some of the things he did (like wiping out whole people groups).

In the moment that Jesus dies, that moment of his most humaness, the Centurion highlights his divinity.
Jesus is God enfleshed, the revelation of who God is. Jesus dies.
Now I am not saying that God too dies because I don't believe that.
But what does Jesus' human death show us about God? And the answer is not that it shows us that he loved us so much that he died for our sins or any other cliche like that.

What does the fact that Jesus' divinity is seen in his most human act tell us about who God is?

Will you let the inspired word of God challenge your thinking today?

tags technorati : incarnation Jesus divinity tutorial bible God

Page design update

2006-10-01T22:22:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note, if you haven't noticed the changes already.

I have added a banner at the top of the page, which links to an anti-human trafficking web site.

I have added some new blog links on the side bar.

I have also added a new set of ads on the sidebar. They are positioned so that hopefully as you read my entries they will catch your eye with something of interest.
If they do interest you, please feel free to click on them.

Please check out all the new links and let me know what you think of it all.

tags technorati : design blog banner links

The snooze button

2006-09-28T21:35:00.000+10:00

If you are like me then you love the snooze button on your alarm clock/phone/radio.
Every morning when my alarm rings, I groggily flail to find the snooze button.
Usually I repeat this process at least twice, meaning half an hour after my initial alarm I am about ready to arise and face the new day.

Well the other day I came across an idea that I think will revolutionise my morning routine.
I would like to call it 'snooze prayer'.
When my alarm goes off, I still groggily reach for the snooze button. However, instead of trying to grab another few precious minutes of snooze time, I 'snooze pray'.

Now 'snooze prayer' is NOT praying in your sleep. 'Snooze prayer' is giving up (self-denial) that snooze time to connect with God, first thing in the morning before anything else.
I mean really, what is the purpose of snoozing after your alarm has gone off? It is not like the 10 minutes of snooze is making up for the 2 hours of sleep you missed by going to bed at 12:30. Ultimately snooze time is about a process of waking up and getting ready for the new day.

What better way to wake up and get ready for the new day than 'snooze prayer'?

So tomorrow morning when your alarm goes off, what are you going to do?
I know what my aim is.
Leave a comment and let us all know how you got on.

Oh and just for laughs, I came across this on someone's blog and I couldn't help but post it:

Reconfiguring faith in the face of Gen Y

2006-09-27T18:05:00.000+10:00

Don't we all just love generational theories. You know Gen X, the Baby Boomers and all that fun stuff.
I remember going to a large international Christian convention in the USA and being told that we were to be the Daniel generation, standing up to all that was going on around us.
Looking back 10 years later, I wonder just how many of the 3,500 young people at that event are now living lives of Danielic preportions.
When I look at the church I wonder what is it that we are offering?

I came across a blog post a couple of days ago and as good blogging theory suggests, I have been mulling it over for a while before posting on it. Since then, I have come across another couple of blog posts that relate to the whole area of young people, faith and Generational theory and so I am going to try and critique 3 different posts against each other.

The first is entitled How faith reconfigures in Young Adulthood. As the name suggests Fernando looks at faith in young adults.
The second is entitled Generation Y Workers. It raises some issues for bosses who have to work with Gen Yers.
The third is entitled Why your youth no longer care about Evangelism. This post by Mark Sayers, looks at Gen Y and its relation to 'Christian Consumerism' a favourite topic of mine.

Before we jump in, let us just define our terms.
Baby Boomers was the Generation born roughly between 1946 and 1964.
Generation X was born roughly between 1961 and 1981.
Generation Y was born roughly between 1977 and 2003.

Fernando begins with the well known idea amongst those who work with young people in a Christian setting. Most people make faith decisions before they turn 18. However 6 out of 10 young people who are active in the church as teenagers won't be there as twentysomethings.

Fernando makes the point that part of this could be because "Youth ministry tends to be highly relational. As people move out of it they find fewer relational links within the church and more pressure to maintain the links they need within workplaces, family and third places (clubs, social sites, etc)."

He points to this post where the author suggests the reason is actually that the church doesn't intellectually challenge young people and they leave out of shear boredom. He goes on to say that not only does he agree with this, but that Youth ministry is so involved and often experiential that when people move out of it into 'grown ups Church' they miss those aspects.

But then Fernando gets down to the meat of his argument.
He thinks that the key is that in Youth Ministry we are told to be countercutural.
When the young person develops into adult hood, they realise that being 'countercultural' is hard and think that to 'buy into the dominant culture' (ie buy a car, or a house, or get a job) is to sell out from being countercultural.

He then points out that 'countercultural' is the new dominant culture, with advertising buying into the whole idea of 'rebelling.'

The two results he sees are:

we see that the 'countercultural' life we are taught to live in Youth Ministry isn't all that countercultural and so we are suspicious about being 'sold' faith.

we continue to live 'counterculturally' acquiring all the trappings of 'rebellion' (the mac, the cool jeans, the environmental outlook on life) and therefore don't need the church and the faith to be 'countercultural'.

Mark Sayers sees the problem of faith in young adults as an entirely deeper problem.

"Generation Y is highly unlikely to see a life following Jesus as a viable option."

Why? Because they live in the now and don't want to wait for growth from discipleship.
Because they live within a consumeristic worldview and "it’s easy to attract a crowd of Gen Y’s to an event; it’s another thing to have them live transformed lives."
Because they are envious of the lifestyles of the people around them and see pleasure as the only way to happiness.
Because what is the need for God when we have the economy promising the 'good life' and society promising everything I want.

The Catalyst blog highlights 4 points about Gen Y workers, that I think very much relates to how they view and work within the church.

Their heroes are the guys who got rich fast, or appeared to.

They will shift jobs 20 times in their life time. It isn't a negative, it is just about gaining new experience and knowledge.

They expect to dictate how and where they work

They expect an open work place where they can have their views heard

Does that sound like the church today?
Does it sound like what the church should look like?
I think there are some positives there, especially the last one. But there is also that 'me' culture and the consumerism coming out again.

So are you depressed yet?

What an opportunity this provides for us to engage anew with what it is to be the church in the 21st Century.

The questions raised are great questions and they are questions that I have been grappling with, and I know others who have been grappling with, for a number of years.

How do we encourage spiritual depth in a generation that strives for the experience of the moment?
How do we 'sell' discipleship, with its journey, struggles and hardship, to a consumeristic generation that seeks instant gratification?

How do we be the Daniel generation that I was told that we were going to be?

Favourite 'How to ...' posts from the Group Writing Project

2006-09-26T22:15:00.000+10:00

Well, I have just had a great long, long weekend.
Hence why I haven't got around to reflecting back over the Group Writing Project run by Darren over at Pro Blogger.

343 submissions later and we have ourselves a Group Writing Project.
I must admit that I didn't read all 343 submissions, check out my 'How to...' to find out why.

So here is a list (in no particular order) of submissions that I found useful and/or funny.

A great post on How to survive depression from someone who is there.

How to Define Success is a must read, especially for people feeling bombared by other people's expectations.

How to make a good decision, always an important skill.

How to 'buy' happiness raises some good questions and also points out that those who have money are along way ahead when it comes to literally surviving the day.

How to accept mistakes and don't blame others is a lesson we all need to learn.

How to live with teenagers is a laugh.

How to let go and move on is yet another lesson that we need to learn.

How to find a cure for diseases with your computer is an important read if you don't want to die of a preventable disease.

How to participate in the blogging community is a great reminder of what it is to be involved in the blogosphere.

How to overcome fear. Fear is a natural part of life, so is overcoming it.

Click here to see all the submissions in the Group Writing Project.

How to keep your relationship healthy with your wife is another great read.

And last, but not least,
How to be a parent and still have fun.

There we go, just a handful of the 343 submissions in the project.

Dilbert's view on giving to the poor

2006-09-20T22:54:00.000+10:00

I love Dilbert. I also love his/Scott Adam's blog.

Today's post is about how religion shapes our giving to the poor.

Check it out.

Some great comments people have left on his post:

Rick Miller said:
"In reality the guy buying his second iPod just doesn't want to admit to himself that he doesn't care about those distant strangers except when he's in church "being christian". He might even drop an extra dollar in the offering plate to help them, as long as he doesn't have to think about them after he leaves the church."

Charlie said:
"The poor are a gift from God, realized by anyone who has sacrificed to make a difference in their lives. If you choose not to accept the gift that's okay too, but you are actually the one who is missing out.
It's reverse logic, same as a leap of faith. You twist yourself up within your little connundrum and focus on the wrong thing. As good ole Saint Francis said, "It is in giving that we receive." If you don't believe it, just try it. So, number seven would be:
7. I lack enough faith to believe what He said: that in helping others I am really helping myself. But I'm working on it..."

How to make the most of your time online

2006-09-20T18:38:00.000+10:00

70% of the blog posts that I read loose my attention after the first paragraph.
I spend a fair amount of time on the internet on any given day.
Sometimes I am bored looking for something to do, but this is not a usual occurence.
Usually I don't have enough time to look at everything that I want to look at online.

Do you have the same problem that I do?
Too much stuff, not enough time.
If you don't have this problem, perhaps this post might help you understand those of us who do.
If you do have this problem, then read on to find out how you can make the most of your time online.

Darren over at Problogger is running another Group Writing Project and this post is my contribution. (Thanks to Darren for providing ways for us to 'push the envelope' in our blogging.)

1. Understand how much time you have to spend online.
If you don't have a specific end time then you will end up following link after link and end up not getting done what you came online to achieve. If you know that you only have 15 minutes left to find that killer recipe for tonights dinner then you are going to be much more time effective.

2. Prioritise what you want online
Decide what is most important for your internet use, both for a single session and in general.
Some people place Instant Messaging (i.e. MSN) as their most important online activity in general.
However, if you are online tonight researching The Mongolian Horse Fiddle then chatting to your friends will distract you from that purpose. BTW, how many people actually followed that link and proved their need to follow this 'How to..'?

3. Make proper use of Search Engines
Many people think that all they need to do is enter some words into Google and it will spew out what they want.
It isn't that simple. If you are looking for something try entering it into Google. Before following any of the links, read the excerpt from the webpage. Does it sound like what you are looking for?
Before clicking on five of the links and deciding that Google sucks because none of them relate to what you are looking for, try refining your search.
Try adding another couple of words to narrow your search.
If you are looking for an object (i.e. a car) try adding a model, colour or brand.

4. Get an RSS reader
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Imagine if you didn't have to check every single website and blog you like just to see if they had updated. Well before you get visions of being so smart, lots of people have thought it before and someone came up with RSS. RSS is where updates of webpages and blogs are sent to you as headlines rather than you having to go looking for them.
Check out Bloglines or Net News Wire if you have a Mac.

5. You don't have to read every blog post
I love blogs. I subscribe to a heap of them. With RSS I am told whenever they are updated. It is not uncommon for me to get up in the morning and find over 150 headlines have been updated overnight. I could never hope to read them all.
The three things I do to determine whether I am going to read a blog post.
a) Look at who the author is. (I have must reads, Dilbert being one.)
b) Look at the title. This is where the vast majority of readers are won or lost. Crappy title = low readership.
c) Read the first paragraph. If someone doesn't know how to grab a reader in the first paragraph, chances are they don't know how to keep a reader for the rest of their post.

6. Most importantly, you don't have to do it all now!
We live in an age of instant gratification. If you want something now, you get it now.
The Internet is one of the worst feeders of this gratification.
When I am on the internet I come across alot of things I want to read, but I know I don't have the time to read it there and then. So what I do is open the page and then minimize it into my dock (sorry to all you boring Windoze users), allowing me to come back to it at a later stage when I have more time.

I hope that you have persevered past my first paragraph.
I hope that this post has been helpful for you, either to help you with your time management, or to help you understand how best to blog for people with time management issues.
Thanks again to Darren at Problogger for another Group Writing Project.
It has been a fun challenge for me to write.

Please leave some ideas and tips for how you make the most of your time online (and don't foget a quick visit to our sponsors, I promise it won't take too long!)

Links to check out

2006-09-20T17:50:00.000+10:00

General Coutts Quote
Came across this blog post just then and thought it was an interesting point.

How to write a great blog post
Here is a short article on how to write a great blog post. Some basic points that can be easily forgotten.

Salvation Army Music
Say Tunes is a new website for Salvos to share their original music with each other.

Spiritual Gifts
This blog post raises a great question about Spiritual Gifts.

Education
The same blogger as above has a great post about how we should see Education. He is talking about College (Uni) education, because he is a College professor, but I think the same is true for all levels of education.

How to overcome fear
As the title suggests, so this post delivers.

Hope some of these are interesting/helpful.

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

2006-09-13T22:17:00.000+10:00

Last night I had the opportunity to talk to an older Christian friend of mine. We were talking about some of the ideas I had about lifestyle choices and what it meant to live out our Christian values today. I was talking as a young person, full of enthusaism and thinking that what I was sharing with this older Christian was so far out of the box, so hip, modern and so alternative that he wouldn’t know what had hit him. His response was “well as a Christian heading towards retirement I guess that is what my wife and I have done. We moved away from where we had lived for most of our life and where we had brought up our children. We decided that we had everything that we needed and so we decided to make a change. We knew that we didn’t need to devote all our time to working so we could buy more stuff. Yes it means sometimes we go without, but it also means we have more time to do what God wants us to do.”

Here was a gentleman, who really isn’t that far off retirement, who was saying something that had just seconds before come out of my mouth. When it came out of my mouth, it sounded like the visions of youthful enthusiasm. When it came out of his mouth, it sounded like the realisation of a man who had the experience to know what he was talking about.

The Salvation Army has always recognised the potential of the young people within its ranks. The challenge today is harnessing that potential and mobilising our young people into responsible leadership.

Young people need to be mobilised in leadership, but they also need to be mentored and have leadership actively modelled to them by older more experienced leaders.

The problem with young people is that we tend to think we know best. We are very good at pointing out what others are doing wrong (just ask any school student about their principal). But put us in charge and we can easily look like a fish out of water. I know from my own experience that it is easy to have ideas about what we want to see happen, but trying to put them into action is another thing all together.

The positives of engaging young people in leadership are self evident. They are passionate, energetic and have some great ideas. Most importantly of all however is that the young leaders of today will be the older leaders of tomorrow and if they aren’t developed then we are in trouble.

As my chat with my friend showed, alot of the time old people do ‘get it’, if we actually take the time to talk to them.

As I have already said, I think that the challenge for the Salvation Army is in providing leadership for our young leaders. Older heads are needed to provide encouragement and critique for the younger leaders. Older heads are needed to provide the framework within which young leaders can thrive. Older heads are needed to assist young leaders in getting on with it.

The wisdom and experience that comes from those who have been there before is invaluable in the development of those who are yet to go there.

The danger for the Salvation Army is that those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

2006-09-07T18:02:00.000+10:00

Today I had the opportunity to talk to a retired officer who I respect very much.
I asked him what part of discipleship he was most passionate about.
He said to me, "denying ourself to follow Christ. No matter where we go, we can't get past Matthew 16:24"

I am in the middle of looking at what I see as the three biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army.
The second challenge I see is the challenge of relevancy.

In the Western world today, we live in a world of consumerism.
If I want a car, I shop around to find the car that best suits my needs.
If I want take away for tea, I stop and think 'what do I feel like eating tonight?' and then I go and get it.

The problem is, when we talk of the church being 'relevant', more often than not we are talking about the relevancy of consumerism.
What packaging are we going to put on this thing we call church to make it appealing to the person 'shopping' for a church, be they Christian or non Christian?

This is why we talk of 'relevant' meaning the music we play and the songs we sing.
These things are, at best, the wrapping on the outside of our product.

Willow Creek, one of the largest churches in America, began its growth by going out into the community that surrounded its property and asking them what they needed in their community. They then set about building a church building that had all the things the community identified as needs, a community hall, a swimming pool, etc.

This is one of the first steps towards being relevant. Finding out what people want/need.
But, we need to move past a consumerist model of relevancy for the church.

As I spoke to this retired officer today, I was pondering not only our conversation, but this blog entry.
His comment that discipleship is about denying your self made perfect sense for the issue of the church being relevant.

We think the church will be relevant if we give people what they want.
Jesus called his disciples (and by extension the church) to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

Perhaps the relevancy that the Salvation Army is searching for, is this radical call to discipleship.
To be relevant is in fact to be different.
So different in fact that we offer an alternative way of living. An alternative lifestyle. An alternative worldview.

It is only when we approach the question of 'how can the church be relevant?' from the radical position of the cross that we can find a truely Biblical understanding of what it is to be the church.

Jesus is God's example of what it is to be relevant.
Jesus incarnated God.
The Word became flesh and pitched his tent amongst all our tents.

In the early days of the Salvation Army we had what became known as "Hallelujah Lasses". These were young, unmarried women who went and lived in rough situations. There were the two teenage lasses who went to the mining fields of Western Australia. Rather than asking 'how can the church be relevant?', these two lasses took 'the church' to the roughest community imaginable. One of them died within the first few months of being there.

What would the Salvation Army look like if we honestly asked the question "what does it mean to be relevant?" from the perspective of Matthew 16:24?

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

2006-09-06T10:20:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I started a look at what I see as the 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army into the future.
Today, I want to focus on the first challenge, maintaining our own theology and organisational distinctives.

We all know the story of the ugly duckling.
There was a little duckling who was unlike all the other ducklings in his family.
He had big feet and he couldn't quack.
All the other ducklings made fun of him.
All the bigger ducks were so disappointed that he wasn't like the rest of the ducklings.
As he grew he just become more and more different to the other ducklings.
Then one day some swans came to the lake and the duckling realised that he wasn't a duckling.
He was a cygnet, a baby swan.

I want to contend that the Salvation Army is like that ugly duckling.
When our movement is put alongside other churches, we don't fit in.
We are the ugly duckling compared to the other ducklings, we can't quack and we have big feet.
The other ducklings look at us and make fun of us.
They laugh at how we look (our uniform), they laugh at our quack (our two pronged mission strategy, wholistic mission) and they laugh at our big feet (our organisational structure).

In Australia our response is to try even harder to be like the other ducklings. We apologise for who we are and we try to become something we are not.

I heard a Salvation Army officer say that the distinctives of the Salvation Army only make sense when we are engaged in mission to the marginalised.

Our theology was shaped pragmatically. The two questions William Booth asked of anyone wanting to do something new in the Salvation Army was "is it Biblical and does it work?"
When we remove the Salvation Army from ministry to the poor and marginalised, it is no wonder that our young people no longer understand Salvation Army theology, instead chasing after the theology of other denominations.
When one works with the poor, one sees God in the poor.

When I went to India last year I came to a greater understanding of the Salvation Army as an international movement.
Other than the Catholic church, we are the only Christian movement that can rally its members on a world wide basis.
The upcoming prayer weekend for victims of Sexual Slavery is a case in point. The General has directed Salvationists from all over the world to come together and pray for an issue of Global impact.
A global problem requires a global response.
The Salvation Army is able to respond to this issue primarily because of its organisational structure.

Now this doesn't mean that there aren't problems with the structure of the Army, but that comes under tomorrows challenge.

The Salvation Army's theology and its organisational structure are key challenges in the future of the Salvation Army.
They are key challenges because to get them wrong is to be the ugly duckling.

When I sit and read Booth's "In Darkest England" I realise how it all falls together.
Booth set forth what became known as the Cab Horse charter. (Remembering it was written in a time before cars)

If someone sees a cab horse fallen over in the street, their first reaction is not to ask "how did it come to fall over in the street?" We don't stop and ask whether the horse has come to fall over due to exhaustion due to overwork. We don't stop to ask if the horse has fallen over because it is lazy and decided it couldn't walk any more. We don't stop and ask whether the horse is deserving of our assistance.
No, we immediately go and assist the horse to its feet. We find an apple or some sugar and feed the horse.
Booth then asked, why is the same not so with the people we see in destitution around us?

The theology and organisational structure of the Salvation Army only make sense when we are engaged in the lives of the poor and marginalised. The theology and organisational structure of the Salvation Army only make sense when applied in a local context, but realised on a global scale. The International Salvation Army is required to operate so that our local Salvation Army can operate.

What do you think?

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

2006-09-05T10:50:00.000+10:00

I know everyone has a ping at this topic every now and then, but this morning as I was walking along I was pondering what I see as the three biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army in 2006.

Today I will just outline the three challenges and then over the next few days we will unpack each of them a little bit more.

1) Maintaining our own theology and organisational distinctives.
I talk to a lot of Salvos and the more I talk to, the more I realise that we don't understand what our theology is anymore.
Alot of the debates that take place in the Salvation Army would not be needed if we truely understood the theology of our movement. This doesn't mean there wouldn't be debates, they just would be different debates.
The idea of maintaining our organisational distinctives is a complex task. What is the core DNA of the Salvation Army?
Obviously there are things that as an International organisation we need to keep uniform (just travel overseas to see the need for and strength of shared identity), but also as an internation organisation we need to allow for adaptability of our distinctiveness to suit the context. I would contend that perhaps that is our core DNA.

2) Being relevant.
This relates to the organisational distinctives. In the Salvation Army the idea of being relevant has been reduce to one of two things. Firstly, worship styles. Secondly, corps versus social centres. Both of these debates are distractions from the work of Salvation that the Army is called to do in our world. For an Australian context, the only place outside of the church where I go and sing songs is the Football (round ball variety). And the singing, chanting football supporters are in the minority of the fans of that sport. What songs we sing is not an issue that is going to stop or start people coming into our churches (maybe the 'coming in' bit is part of the problem). Again, corps versus social centres, the debate is being played out by those inside our organisation, instead of spending the time and energy on engage with the people who we are supposed to be doing our best to 'reach'.

3) Harnessing responsible leadership from our young people.
The Salvation Army has always recognised and encouraged the potentional of the young people with in its ranks.
The challenge for the Salvation Army today is to encourage the young people to be leaders, but also give them guidance and frameworks within which to lead.
Young people have great passion, vision and enthusiasm. But young people are also arrogant, short sited and narrow minded.
We need young people in leadership positions, but we also need wise old heads sharing their experience as well.
Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Stay tuned for a more in depth look at each of these three challenges.

Values: 'Little minds, big lessons'

2006-09-03T21:53:00.000+10:00

Today's Age ran an article titled 'Little minds, big lessons.'

The preamble to the articles says:
"Prime Minister John Howard has accused state schools of being 'valueless' but, as John Elder discovered, students throughout Victoria are charting a path through life's moral and religious minefields."

The article then looks at a number of different schools and how they are teaching 'values' to their students.
Now as many of you know, I have an interest in schools.
My job takes me to three different high schools, all with different characters and cultures.
As many of you also know, I have an interest in values and especially the way they are 'taught' to young people.

Tonight in our discipleship group we had an interesting discussion as to how we view the bible and the point came up that we learn best from stories. This point also came up in the article, "instead of being told the moral of the story ... the students have to work it out for themselves." The best learning is done when a person 'works it out' for themselves, usually by observation and experience.

It got me to thinking about how young people learn the 'values' of our country that John Howard is so keen to instill into them.

I heard about a young person who yelled abuse into the face of another young person's mother recently.
All I could comment was 'what had happened in that young man's life that had led him to think that that was acceptable behaviour.'

While I agree with the idea of 'values' being taught in a communal environment (schools, churches and community groups), I think we are fighting an up hill battle until the values of our adult society are changed.
How are kids and young people supposed to value diversity and engage with people who are different to them, when all they hear at home is how 'all muslims are terrorists' or 'all aboriginals are bums'?
How are kids meant to learn about saving and sound financial management when all they see at home is mum or dad coming home with the latest gadget, or worrying over the credit card bill because they have bought so much on impulse?

And what are our young people supposed to think about Australian values when they see the very things we are supposed to value, freedom of speech and the presumption of innocence, being denied to Australian citizens by the Government?
The Jack Thomas affair just highlights the hypocricy and short sightedness of a nation that speaks one thing and then acts in complete opposition to the rhetoric it espouses.

Purchasing, otherwise known as Shopping

2006-08-31T18:15:00.000+10:00

When Melissa and I were in India (1 year ago next week), the first difference we noticed in their speech was the word 'purchasing'.
They were explaining our itinerary for the day to us and they said "there will be some time for purchasing in the afternoon." We didn't know what the heck they were talking about.
Come the afternoon, as we were wandering through the shops of downtown Trivandrum, it occured to us that 'purchasing' was what we would call 'shopping'.

Well this last week has been an epic week for me in a purchasing sense.
For my birthday next week, it was decided that I could purchase a new hiking pack as my old one is over 10 years old and has been to 9 different countries. Now although that sounds pretty impressive, the pack itself was a fairly cheap pack that was never particularly comfortable.

So with the permission of the purchasing officer, I set off to explore the world of hiking packs.
I have a fairly good knowledge of hiking packs, they have always interested me and I have long dreamed of buying a new one.
After much internet research, last Sunday I drove around to 5 camping shops, to peruse their wares.

I came home a bit disenfranchised.

What I wanted was a cheap, good quality pack, that had all the features that I wanted.
What I found was that it was impossible to put those three things together in one package.

Cheap packs are made from cheap materials and have cheap uncomfortable harnesses.
Good quality packs are expensive.

So I had to make a decision.
I ultimately chose to adjust my requirements, to get a more basic pack.
But I chose to go with quality over cheapness.
I decided that in this instance, it was better to spend more money on a product that would last for another 10 years rather than a cheap alternative that wouldn't.
I also decided to buy Australian (and Melbourne) made, One Planet
being the only Australian made hiking packs.

When I am shopping or purchasing, my buying decision is shaped by the cost/quality debate. That is first and foremost in my mind.
The question is, what reference points do we have when we are purchasing?

What informs your purchasing?

The Rise of Neo-Fundamentalism

2006-08-29T10:58:00.000+10:00

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post in a little while.

I found a very interesting discussion going on Scot McKnight's 'Jesus Creed' blog.

It is about the rise of what he terms, Neo-Fundamentalism within the church.

His first article looks at the rise of Neo-Fundamentalism and what he sees as the eventual results of it for the church and for the individuals involved.

His second article looks at what he sees as the driving forces of Neo-Fundamentalism.

Here is what he sees, check out his blog for the full breakdown:

Here’s my thesis: the core driving force of Neo-Fundamentalism (like the old) is a remnant mentality. That is, it believes the following:

1. That it alone remains true to the fullness of the gospel and the

orthodox faith.

2. That the Church worldwide is hanging on a precipice and will

soon, if it doesn’t wake up, fall from the faith.

3. That the solution to this nearly-apocalyptic church situation is to

tighten up theological stands and clarify what is most central

and most important for the Church today.

4. That the major problems are theological drift, church laxity, and

evangelical compromise with either modernity and/or

postmodernity.

5. That it is “Neo” because it arises within Evangelicalism today and

will either break from it or seek its widespread reform — and

therefore its particular characteristics are determined by

contemporary Evangelicalism. E.g., it isn’t really concerned

about dancing and movies and “mixed bathing.”

Technorati Tags: discipleship, Neo-Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, puppy

Miracles, part 2

2006-08-24T16:43:00.000+10:00

So much for my busy posting schedule.

For my class yesterday I was reading chapter 5 of Thomas Rausch's book, Who is Jesus? and came across a quote that I thought was a helpful addition to my previous post on the topic of Miracles.

Chapter 5 explores "The Preaching and Ministry of Jesus." It looks at the three strands of Jesus' teaching, his sayings, his parables, and the image of the kingdom of God.

He begins by looking at the sayings of Jesus.

Many New Testament scholars would postulate that not all of the sayings attributed to Jesus were actually unique to Jesus. Some would have been popular proverbs at the time that either Jesus himself used, or were later attributed to Jesus.

Bultmann (a famous biblical scholar) would list 15 statements that he would conclude are pretty reliable as to the characteristic of Jesus' preaching.

Mark 3:24-26, Mark 3:27, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:62, Mark 10:23b, Mark 10:25, Luke 9:60a, Matt 7:13, Mark 10:31, Mark 7:15, Mark 10:15, Luke 14:11, Luke 16:15.

The themes picked up in these 15 statements are: the centrality of the kingdom of God, a final reversal of status, struggle or conflict, the danger of wealth and the call for a radical change of heart. (p79)

Some of these are themes we have been exploring in our Bible study group, a final reversal, struggle or conflict, the danger of wealth and the call for a radical change of heart.

We haven't really talk directly about the centrality of the kingdom of God.

Rausch's exploration of the Kingdom of God, and the role of Miracles within it, is quite helpful.

Rausch says Jesus' "healings show that with the arrival of the reign of God the power of evil over human beings was being broken; God's salvific power was becoming effective in the bodies and spirits of the people to whom he ministered." (p 86)

Tied to this is Jesus' proclamation of the forgiveness of people's sins (btw, that was before he died on the cross, for all you keeping score at home.) By which Rauch states that Jesus was saying, "The blessings of salvation were available now for those who trusted in him and the kingdom he proclaimed." (p 87)

Rausch then moves on to make a couple of cautionary points on understanding Jesus' miracles and this is where I found his chapter relevant to our previous discussion.

He suggests we need to avoid two extremes when interpreting Jesus' miracles.

"One would be the 'supernaturalist' or precritical approach that sees miracles as displays of divine power suspending or contravening the laws of nature ... There are two problems with this approach. First, in defining miracles as divine interventions from 'outside', it assumes a God who does not honor the causality of the created order. Such a God would be arbitrary and could equally be held accountable for natural disasters ... Secondly, a divine intervention that overpowered the causality of the created order would compel belief. This would violate the principle that God never violates our human freedom, for in such cases, belief would not be a free response to grace." (p 92)

The other extreme is seeing "Jesus' miracles from the perspective of their original biblical meaning." (p 92) The gospels do not use the Greek word for miraculous to explain Jesus' miracles, the Synoptics use 'acts of power' and John calls them 'signs'. So "in a prescientific age, the unexpected is always seen as an act of God." (p 92) He sees this viewpoint as reductive and unhelpful.

He finds Kasper's suggestion helpful, "moving to a higher viewpoint, which raises the question of meaning, not of particular events but of reality as a whole." (p 93)

He rejects the view of a puppet God as well as the view of God as the architect who leaves creation alone.

"Instead he proposes the biblical view, a living God in history 'who in constantly original ways offers his love to human beings in and through the events of the world.'"

I think his final sentences in this discussion are perhaps the most helpful.

"In recognising a God who acts in and through creation, it also safeguards the role of human freedom, since a miracle can only be recognised in faith and never forces it. Others may not recognise the miracle at all."(p 93)

Sorry for the long repost of his article, but do you think his discussion is helpful?

I did.

Technorati Tags: Healing, discipleship, Spiritual Gifts, ministry, Miracle

Old Media v New Media

2006-08-21T16:09:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I was catching up on some West Wing Episodes.

One in particular got me thinking.

C.J. (the press secretary) came across a story where the law had changed to allow media corporations to control a larger percentage of the media market. She was concerned, but no-one else seemed to be.

It is actually a very pertinent topic for Australians at the moment.

The Federal Communications minister, Senator Helen Coonan, wants to deregulate the Australian media market.

Basically what this means is that the same company could own a television station, a newspaper and a radio station all in the same market, i.e.. Melbourne.

I am always interested in talking to people about what is happening in the world. I think that I can categorise the people I talk to into four broad categories:

1) Those who don't follow any news and don't know what is going on.

2) Those who see one news item and then think they are an expert and have an expert opinion.

3) Those who explore the news but can still only articulate the view/argument that they agree with.

4) Those who are able to articulate more than one point of view and therefore have come to a decision based on 'all' the facts.

There are very few people who fit into the fourth category and I would definitely not claim to fit there all the time.

The problem with deregulation is that biased media outlets (FOX anyone?) would be influencing the decision of the first 3 groups of people.

The 'New media' in the title is the rise of new ways of getting news and information out to people.

The rise of the internet and especially blogging is the greatest example of 'New media'.

Check out The Onion, considered one of the best 'New Media' sites.

While New Media has many advantages over the 'Old Media' of print and television media, it also has challenges.

Anyone can post material on a blog and it isn't always accurate.

I talk to so many people who spout views that are so obviously based on one sided coverage of an event.

There are so many issues where this is self evident, not least the History Wars currently such an interesting topic for our Prime Minister.

I have been attempting lately to widen the sources I use to get information. I use RSS to get news sent to me, rather than having to go looking for it. The only problem is that I when I check my computer in the morning, I have accumulated 100 news stories overnight.

Many great Christians over the past 300 years have been attributed with the saying, "Hold your Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other".

Now more than ever, we need people who are prepared to understand the complexities of issues and speak prophetically.

The other story running concurrently in the episode was around the issue of Free Trade and how Josh had to struggle with how it would create millions of new jobs for the nation in the future, but the 2 people who were sitting in his office and 17,000 like them were going to lose there jobs today.

At the start of the episode Josh is trying to tell the president that when he talks about the Free Trade agreement on TV he needs to make it as simple as "Free Trade creates higher paying jobs"

It is a classic moment at the end when the President, with his Nobel Prize for Economics turns to Josh and says "The issue isn't as simple as a throw away line."

Technorati Tags: Ad, deregulation, discipleship, Media, Newspaper, corporation, puppy

A picture says a thousand words

2006-08-18T17:23:00.000+10:00

Check out this picture.

Sometimes a thousand words just aren't enough.
Sometimes no words will ever do.

Miracles v Science

2006-08-17T23:25:00.000+10:00

I have just finished watching last night's episode of House.

The episode (for all those who didn't watch it, or don't have the same schedule as Channel 10 in Melbourne) was about a 15 year old 'faith healer'.

The Christian boy healed people, but found himself in Hospital with a mystery condition.

So House tries to 'outsmart' God, by proving that the boy has an illness to be fixed by medicine, not God.

Along the way the boy 'heals' a dying cancer patient (who just happens to be sleeping with her doctor, House's best friend).

In the end, House proves that the boy 'hears from God' because of benign tumours in his brain and he 'healed' he girl because he infected her with herpes.

It got me to thinking about the relationship between miracles and science.

I have two friends (well actually I have more than that, but) who were both cured of cancer.

One was miraculously healed, and told me that the cancer ultimately oozed out of his chest onto his bed.

The other was healed after a long journey of painful therapy, yet he still attributes his healing as a miracle of God.

It got me thinking about how we understand miracles and God at work in the world.

Some, like House, are quick to discount a God at work in the world because science can explain it all.

Some, like the boy and his father in the beginning, are quick to discount science because it conflicts with their understanding of God.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: discipleship, Healing, ministry, Miracle, House

5 reasons to have a List on your blog

2006-08-17T14:43:00.000+10:00

Darren over at Problogger is running a Group writing project.

So here is my entry:

5 reasons to have a List on your blog:

5) You get to enter cool group writing projects and have people visit your blog.

4) People love to read lists on blogs, just researching the group writing project lead me to read 15 blogs that I wouldn't have otherwise read.

3) More traffic to my site means people will click on my ads, therefore making me a little bit more money. Hint, Hint.

2) You get to relive great moments in your life or have a laugh at your current life situation.

1) You get to sound like an expert on your favourite topic, at least for the time it takes people to read your list.

Technorati Tags: Ad, List, puppy, Writing, Traffic

Spiritual Gifts

2006-08-14T16:21:00.000+10:00

Over the weekend we had a Spiritual Gifting weekend.

It was a great weekend, a time for people to explore how God has gifted them and think about how they fit into the ministry of our church.

Over the weekend an issue come to my mind, and has been bugging me ever since.

Why is it that we Christians always try and create a two-tiered system for following Jesus.

Example:

Why are the following 'Spiritual Gifts':

Giving, Service, Evangelist, Hospitality, Faith, Voluntary Poverty and Intercession?

To create people who are 'gifted' in these areas absolves those not 'gifted' in these areas from practicing these things.

"It is ok, I am not gifted with Service, so it is ok to leave everyone else to wash the dishes after tea, while I sit around and talk."

"It is ok, I am not gifted as an Evangelist, so I don't have to share the Gospel with those around me"

"It is ok, I am not gifted with Voluntary Poverty, so Jesus isn't calling me to sell everything I have, give it to the poor and follow him."

Didn't Jesus tells us that to follow after him is to serve those around us, while he was washing the disciples' feet?

Aren't we as Christians called to share what God has done in our lives (assuming he really has done something in our life) with those around us?

Didn't Jesus call the rich young man to sell everything to follow him, then turn around to the disciples (who had already given up their material possessions to follow him) and tell them how hard it was for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven?

Didn't Jesus talk about Hell twice in all four gospels, but talk about money hundreds of times?

How hard is it to be comfortable following Jesus?

I'm ok with Jesus because I have given my life to him.

I'm ok with Jesus because I tithe 10 percent of my income.

I'm ok with Jesus because I work in full time ministry.

I'm ok with Jesus because I help in the Sunday School.

I'm ok with Jesus because I am serving as a missionary overseas.

How do we know when enough is enough?

How do we know when we are truly following?

How do we know when we are giving 'all of ourselves'?

On Sunday morning we sang of surrendering all to Jesus.

I wonder how many people were interpreting the word 'all' in the same way that I was.

My prayer then, as it is now, is that I will always continue to be challenged as I sing those words, never feeling that 'I'm ok because ...'

Technorati Tags: discipleship, ministry, Service, Spiritual Gifts

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 4

2006-08-11T14:47:00.000+10:00

The last 3 posts have been focussing on sharing some Internet resources with you my loyal readers.

Whitley College's monthly Rev Up, was last month on the theme "Internet: Mission and Ministry"
Seeing as I went along and got inspired, I thought I might share some of the inspiration with the rest of you.

Darren Rowse, the leader of the Rev Up, spoke of the three elements of Christian discipleship.
The three strands are all required if our discipleship is to be genuine.

The last two posts have focussed on Internet based resources to assist with our:
Inner Journey (personal spirituality)
and
Outer Journey (engaging our discipleship with the world around us).

Today I want to share a couple of resources for the third sphere,
the Together Journey.

This morning I was talking to a friend of mine about community. This friend lives in a house with a bunch of other Christians and is committed to engaging with the community that he lives in.
We had this conversation after I had the opportunity to go with him to visit some of the most marganilised people in his community. People with Mental Health issues, housing issues, money issues.
People who, after we get over the outward appearance are no different to anyone else.

He said to me, (I will use quotation marks to show it is his voice, but it will not be verbatim what he said) "I struggle with the idea of community on the internet. We only get to see the good side of people. We don't have to deal with their annoying habits, or their bad smells. We don't have to work out our issues with them."

As I was on the train coming home from visiting my friend, I was reflecting on what he said.
I was reflecting on whether the same could be said of the 'community' we offer in our churches.

I know even within just the youth I work with, we stuggle to build real Christian community.
Youth Group night, we have the boys on one side, and then a couple of groups of girls around the room.

Same as on Sunday morning, when I am happy to talk to some people at church, but I will sometimes also try to avoid others who I don't want to talk to.

So with that reflection in mind, I share these websites that might help in some way your own Outer Journey.

Gush is Youth Alive's internet forum for discussing all sorts of issues.

Ship of Fools is a great site, a must see. I have heard it is one of the most loved and the most hated Christian websites. It is a light hearted look at the Church, the Ship of Fools.

This is theReJesus forums.

As usual any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 3

2006-08-09T20:01:00.000+10:00

Sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday afternoon.
I have been too busy enjoying my week off.

As I shared earlier, we looked at three aspects of Christian life:
Inner Journey
Outer Journey
Together Journey.

Today I am going to share some Outer Journey sites.

The Outer Journey is focussed on those things we have heaps of names for in the Christian world.
Mission, Evangelism, Sharing the Gospel.

Some people are scared about this part of the Christian life, thinking all sorts of things.
While I don't want to get into a huge discussion about our Outer Journey at this time,
I just want to share one thought.

Our Outer Journey should not be so much about what we DO as it should be about who WE ARE.

Digitracts is, as the name suggests, a site with a bunch of digital tracts that you can send to people. Please use with caution.

Story Spot is a place where people tell their story.

Kids Ranch has games and encouragement for 'Kids of All ages"

Jesus.com.au endeavours to build discussion between followers of Jesus and followers of other religions. Looks good, but I haven't had a really good explore yet.

The Goal. Just had to post something about football.

Micah Challenge. The outer journey isn't just about telling people the good news, it is also about showing it to them.

Echo deep is a blog worth looking at.

The Mission Equip Blog is a place where "Missionaries" are able to post their stories and prayer requests.

Once again, check out these sites and let me know which ones you find useful.
Also are there any other sites you have come across that you think people should check out.

Look out for part 4 tomorrow.

Raunchy music linked to teen sex

2006-08-08T10:05:00.000+10:00

Check out this article that highlights the link between the music teenagers listen to and their sexual activity.

Hopefull part three is coming later today.

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 2

2006-08-07T16:05:00.000+10:00

In part two of this series I want to share some more sites with you.

We talked about the three important facets of Christian life.
Inner Journey
Outer Journey
Together Journey

Today I will look at the Inner Journey.
The Inner Journey is about our individual spiritual walk.
It is important as disciples to spend time in prayer, reflection, meditiation and reading.

The following sites are all useful resources to assist with the Inner Journey.

For a while I was using the Sacred Space devotionals each day.
They are a simple reflection to use each day, with thoughts, prayers and a scripture reading.

Sacred Gateway is a nice site that uses moving images and words to lead you through a daily prayer. It has good visual appeal.

ReJesus has some very helpful resources, particularly theirPrayer Labyrinth.
Their Daily Prayer is also great. It doesn't just lead you in prayer it also gives you a practical exercise for what you have been thinking about.

If your really interested theSermon index is just what the name suggests.

And lastly in the Inner Journey is the ever practical Bible Gateway which is a great resource for all Christians. Check it out.

Well I hope some of these sites are helpful.
Check them out, comment on what you like or didn't like.
Comment if you have any other sites you use to assist your inner journey.

Part 3 to come tomorrow.

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 1

2006-08-04T13:48:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday I went to a Rev Up at Whitley College.
The Rev Up is for people in ministry to catch up with the latest trends in ministry, take time out to meet with other people in ministry and get some refreshing, amongst a bunch of other things.

Wednesday's Rev Up was a discussion on Internet: Mission and Ministry lead by Darren Rowse

Over a couple of posts I am going to share some of the inspiration and thoughts I received as well as some of the resources that Darren suggested.

I was really inspired in my blogging. Those who read my previous post will know I have been thinking about this recently.
Watch this space as in the future I am thinking about starting some new blogs, to spread out my thoughts and explore some different areas.

But now to the first set of resources,
Thinking about Online Ministry:
(Please note that Darren compiled a list of resources for the Rev Up, I have just selected a few of them to highlight here)

This article appears on the godbit blog and is a great reminder about the language, be it Christian or techno jargon, that we use with people.

I just like the domain name, ifjesushadawebsite.net

This Article is about Christian Blogging.

This article is all about creating a Church website.

Stay tuned for another few posts about the Rev Up and some resources from it.

Advertising

2006-08-03T22:48:00.000+10:00

I have added some advertising to the site.
If you click on the ads, I make like 7 cents.

Clicking on the ads makes me money. Please do it. I might be able to buy myself a postage stamp by the end of the week.

If you see an ad for anything inappropriate please let me know.

Voting for Jesus

2006-08-03T17:40:00.000+10:00

I read on Frank's blog that he was reading the Quarterly Essay "Voting for Jesus" by Amanda Lohrey.
I had bought the essay, but not yet read it.
His post encouraged me to pick it up and so far I have finished the first chapter.

Lohrey begins by talking to three teenage girls who attend Hillsong's Youth program. Their responses to her questions are what I would consider to be fairly average for young people from that denominational background.

At the end of the chapter she speaks to Philip Almond, professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Queensland. He describes "the three arms of religious belief as reason, the Word and religious feeling." (p10)

This got me to thinking about myself, the young people I know and the wider youth church community.
Evangelical churches, of which the Salvation Army is one, would place primacy on the Word as the main arm of religious belief.
Pentecostal churches (of which Hillsong is one) would usually claim the Word as the important arm of religious belief, however in practice (and sometimes stated) religious feeling is held most important.

Musical worship is a classic example of this. The aim of a good worship leader is to create an atmosphere that will produce the desired feeling in the congregation.
Another gripe I have (not just with Pentecostal churches) is the lack of Biblical preaching (see my previous posts on this).

Finally I wonder, how much does Reason have to do with the religious belief of young people in Australia today?

In our Bible study, we have been encouraging the young people to read the Bible (Word) and use Reason to understand what it means.
I think I have been most encouraged by the young person who has found this process the most challenging because I can see this person using their Reason.
The struggle to match Reason and what the Bible says is a constant struggle for disciples who are serious about both.

The reliance on religious feeling amongst young people today is the main reason that they 'loose their faith' as they mature.
A faith built soley on religious feeling is going to be lost when the feeling is lost.

A faith that encorporates Reason, the Word and religious feeling will Reason that 'loosing the feeling' is part of the faith journey. It will turn to the Word and see that we can be encouraged that others too 'lost the feeling' but perservered (Job and David just to name two).

What do you think?

Are we (the Salvation Army) the church of the poor?

2006-08-03T12:03:00.000+10:00

Posted on the Rubicon:

Article Link

Raises some really good questions.

Fear had many faces today

2006-07-27T16:10:00.000+10:00

http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives//005318.html

It is easy to have opinions about things,
sometimes we just need to see the results.

Praise Music

2006-07-26T23:14:00.000+10:00

"Does not our preaching contain too much of our own opinions and convictions, and too little of Jesus Christ?"

2006-07-26T22:43:00.000+10:00

The above is a quote from Bonhoeffer.
I am going to try and get through 'The Cost of Discipleship', this will be my third attempt but I think I have the commitment this time.

Today I had someone comment that they check my blog. I was taken aback, because it wasn't someone who I would ever have thought would check my blog. It also made me consider why it is I took up blogging in the first place.

I started my final subject in my Bachelor of Theology degree today. Sitting and listening to the lecturers discuss their life experiences that have led them to teach this subject as well as watching the movie 'Jesus of Montreal' got me to thinking.

I need to think.
I need my brain to be stimulated.
I need a question, a challenge for my brain to churn over.

Today I realised that when I don't think, when I don't have that question burning in my brain, that is when I stagnate.
That is when I loose sight of God.

It occurred to me today that in 14 or so weeks time I will have completed my degree and the questions won't come so easily.

It occurred to me today that my blogging has lost its purpose.
I began blogging as a way for me to outlet my mental stimulation.
An outlet where my thinking would not just be internal rumblings, but would be concise thoughts published somewhere.
Not saying they were to be answers, far from it, just a space where I was forced to put my thoughts down.
To grapple with the complexities of the questions.

Just as assignments are outlets for the learning and pondering that has occurred in a semester,
so my blog was to be the outlet for my musing and questioning.

Today, the biggest question I heard was "how do we preach it?"

I hope that question will guide my future blogging.
The questions, the challenges, the learning, the pondering, the complexity.
How will I preach it? How will I blog it?

Is it possible to boil down the complexities of life and faith into simple statements for all to read on a blog?
Is it the 'right' thing to do?

Melissa's blog post yesterday quoted the book she is reading at the moment which says that the drop out rate of our young people from church can't be blamed on the fact we make Christianity too hard. It is because we make it too easy.

Another quote from Bonhoeffer:

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

Random thoughts

2006-07-19T10:28:00.000+10:00

Just been doing a bit of thinking the last couple of days.

1) went out for supper last night after football training. Been thinking alot how football teams, or any kind of club, is alot like the church.
People get together for a purpose and then we all have exactly the same challenges.
Things like the same people seem to do all the work while others just arrive in time to receive with as little work as possible.
I might expand on this thought in the near future.

2) Relationships.
It is funny to see how people interact in relationships. Especially 'exclusive' relationships. Or especially when people want to be in 'exclusive' relationships. It makes people do things they normally wouldn't think to do.

Why is it that people would think it is ok to be 'on the lookout' for a better option when they are going out with someone? As was said on Boston Legal (great show!) on Monday, a relationship doesn't have to be physical for it to be an affair.

I know a number of people who have been in this situation, on both sides, and continue to get caught up in their emotions. Logic gets thrown out the window.

It is interesting to watch people who have a crush on someone, but won't admit it, either to the person or themselves.
I get to see that all the time.

But anyway, I better go and help with Mainly Music.

P.S. if you think this post is about you. It isn't. Many have trod the path that you might be treading. I could reel off a list of names, but I won't.
Every situation is different, that is why we have ethics, for the grey areas.
it is just interesting that there are also always commonalities.

Repentance

2006-07-13T10:16:00.000+10:00

Just a quick thought this morning.

How can someone repent if they don't realise they have done something wrong?

The Bible says that if we confess our sins, God will forgive us.
But to confess our sins we have to realise we have done something wrong.

If we don't realise our failings, how can we ever hope to grow and mature?
How can we seek forgiveness from other people, or from God, if we don't feel we have done anything to wrong them?

PYJAMA PARTY FOR PEACE

2006-07-11T13:37:00.000+10:00

5PM Saturday August 5th
to 7.30 Sunday August 6th

Northcote Uniting Church
251 High St Northcote

Wurunjeri welcome and smoking ceremony,
artists, music, food, fine art,
poets meditation and films
Raising Funds for East Timorese Refugees and orphans

$10 donation entry for 24 hours
(kids.. gold coin)
More info www.chalice.org.au Phone 94822884

Guest Artists include Wurunjeri elder Joy Murphy,
author Arnold Zable, Paola Almeida and Sol Timorese Band, Circus Mistique,
singer songwriter Mick Thomas, Dursan Acar, Kavisha Mazella and La Voce
dellla Luna, Italian Womens Choir, Sudenese
singer Ajak Kwai, actor Majid Shoker, Tzigas, Eva Popov, The Sanctuary
Ensemble,
Blind Man Driving, Robin Rowland and the Midnight Poets, Melbourne
Playback
Theatre,
Anthea Sidiropolous with dawn chants, Andy Green morning Chi Gung,
Bruce Watson's politics and song, Shaking the Tree choir, blues singer
Dan
Dinnen,
Timorese Singers, Jane Belfrage and Harry Williamson, filmmaker Nicci Ma,
Zamponistas,
bedtime stories with Susan Pepper and others.......
Come along, join in the peace vigil and stay awake!
Byo bedding or comfy cushions to rest up in the hall

Funerals and Ministers

2006-07-07T13:07:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was Melissa's Grandma's funeral.
She had passed away in her sleep on tuesday morning and so family and friends had come together to celebrate her life and say goodbye.

I always find funerals interesting occasions, not least because they can provide a window into people's belief/understanding/hope of life after death. They also provide a window into how we view life.

Yesterday the minister challenged those present to reflect on what they saw as the meaning of life, to reflect on the place of God and to be challenged by him.

Ross, the minister, preached at Melissa and my wedding. I really respect him as a minister, both in his upfront platform ministry and his one on one interactions. He is able to identify his audience and speak right to where they are. He is loved by the older members of the congregation as well as the younger. He is able to speak with enough words to get his message across, without babbling. He is able to be sensitive, unoffensive and non-confrontational when he speaks, whilst also packing a challenge that is unmissable.

I never cease to be amazed by the preaching 'craft' (if you like) of Ross and sometimes wish that God's will had aligned a little differently so that I could have more chance to learn from him.

I suppose, as I write this, it shows me once again the importance of finding Christian leaders who we respect and look up to. Find leaders who we are willing to follow and who we want to learn from.

Leaders who will say "Follow me, as I follow Christ" 1 Corinthians 11:1

Indigenous Australians missing out....

2006-07-04T09:55:00.000+10:00

Just came across this news item

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1677940.htm

Happy NAIDOC Week

2006-07-03T16:09:00.000+10:00

NAIDOC week is upon us again, how quickly time flies.

NAIDOC week stands for National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Commemoration.
Yes I know it says 'day' but it was expanded to cover the whole week.

A couple of sites for you to check out:
www.naidoc.org.au
www.ncca.org.au/natsiec/miph (make indigenous poverty history website)

As we come again to this important day on the Christian calendar (the founder of NAIDOC week was an ordained Churches of Christ minister from Melbourne), I am reminded yet again of how little I know about Indigenous Australians.

I can name a handful of Aboriginal nations (including my local one).
I can point out some famous Aboriginals.
I can tell you a couple of things about Aboriginal culture.

But on the whole, I could tell you more about the Japanese, Germans, Americans and Indians than I could tell you about the Indigenous people of my own country.

What does that say about how we as a country have treated our indigenous people.
And that isn't even talking about living conditions, health and education outcomes, government policy or the little problems of native title, reconciliation and the fact that my forefathers took their forefathers land.

So my challenge for this NAIDOC week, and I put this to all those people who read my blog (all 2 of you, HI MUM!), is to find out at least 5 new things about our indigenous brothers and sisters this week.

What would Jesus do?

Resolutions

2006-06-22T10:44:00.002+10:00

Firstly, next week I am hoping to do some matenaince on my blog.
I want to add some new links to other people's blogs.
If you would like me to add a link to your blog (blogs only please) then shoot me an email, or post a comment.
Conversely if you don't want me to adda link to your blog, do the same thing, except write different words.
I am also now averaging seven visits a day. However these aren't unique visitors, so if the person who has my page set as their homepage wants to let me know who you are that would be great.

Anyhow, those of you that read Melissa's blog will know that she is reading "surrender all" by Ashley Barker at the moment. She is reading it because I started reading it, and two chapters into it I told her to go to the library and borrow it.

Ashley Barker is the founder of UNOH (www.unoh.org), or Urban Neighbours of Hope. UNOH began in Springvale and is now also in Noble Park and Klong Toey, a slum in Bangkok. They are a protestant mission order. I won't go too much into what they do, but you really should check out both their website and Ash Barker's book. When I buy it I will lend it to anyone who wants to read it, just ask.

Ross Langmead, head of Mission Studies at Whitley College (my Theological college), writes this in his foreword to the book. "This book is a resounding call to Christian discipleship. Ashley Barker shows compellingly that we don't have to add "radical" to discipleship because Jesus' call is deeply radical. "

Now as you read that you probably think, like I usually do, 'yeah I know discipleship is radical, I am being so radical in my discipleship.'
Well, read the book. Ash shares about his journey of discipleship, where God called him and his family to surreder all (hence the title) in their pursuit of Jesus. Their journey of discipleship has led them to live in Klong Toey slum in Bangkok. Yep that is right, their journey of discipleship didn't lead them to the cushy eastern suburbs of Melbourne, a nice house, nice car and a well paid Youth pastors position at a respectable middle class church. It very easily could have. Instead it lead them to the poorest slum in Bangkok, living in a tiny room that regularly floods. Anji (Ash's wife) volunteers in an AIDs hospice, massaging dying AIDs patients to relieve some of the pain they feel.

Reading this book has reminded me of some of the resolutions I have made in my discipleship journey.
It has challenged me, because I am very good at making resolutions.

I suck at following through on them.

Now I am not saying that I shouldn't have made those resolutions. In fact if I hadn't have made some of those resolutions then my life would be totally different.

But how well have I followed through on all those resolutions I made. Resolutions I made when convicted by God. Resolutions made when encourage by God. Resolutions made when challenged by God. Resolutions made when dared by God (can I really say that? Sure feels like God dares me to do things).

My resolution to live a life of (radical) discipleship.
My resolution to live a life committed to fighting poverty and injustice in all their forms.
My resolution to live a life of simplicity, based on need and not wants.
My resolution to live a life of intentionally building community, whatever the cost.
My resolution to live a life of personal holiness and spiritual discipline.
My resolution to surrender all.

The more I read and the more I talk to people who I respect, the more I see that we can't do this stuff alone.
We can't do this stuff in the presence of people who are not committed to doing the same things.

I am also reading the history of the Australian SAS (Special Air Service).
A small group of highly trained, highly dedicated soldiers who are trained to engage in specific tasks that the general army is unprepared to do.
And they are damn good at it.

One reason they can do it is because they don't do it alone.
They work as a unit. Committed to each other and the task at hand. Prepared to train, work and die with and for the man beside them.

I think that level of commitment, of myself and those around me, would help me to follow through on some of the resolutions I have made.

Back Again

2006-06-18T20:25:00.000+10:00

Well for those who haven't noticed, Melissa and I have been off on holidays this past week.

I will post in the very near future, and might even try to get a photo or two up here.

Keep commenting, to let me know you are still alive.

2006-05-17T11:58:00.000+10:00

The Red Sheild Appeal is next weekend.

If anyone in the Greensborough Area would like to help out, shoot me an email.

I am organising collecting at Intersections (traffic lights) for those over 16 and also door knocking.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Bible Study part 2

2006-05-10T09:37:00.000+10:00

a-lonely-girl:
if you would like to know more about our bible study then just send me an email.
You can find my address in my profile.

Inter Church Gambling Task Force

2006-05-08T14:20:00.000+10:00

I got a memo in my pidgeon hole this morning.
It cames from our Divisonal Commander (big boss),
I will quote a bit of it for you:

"This year is an important one for gambling in Victoria due to the imminent state government review of many aspects of the gambling industry, including the renewal of pokie machine licenses beyond 2012. One of the practical issues is the proximity of Automatic Teller Machines to gaming venues."

" ...help in a campaign by the Taskforce in trying to get ATMs out of pokie venues. By comparison EFTPOS poses less risk to people with gambling problems due to the interaction with venue staff to access EFTPOS"

So the Inter Church Gambling Taskforce is currently trying to lobby government to remove ATMs from pokie venues.
What a great idea.
Perhaps it is time for a letter writing campaign.

Did you know that by far the highest rate of problem gambling is experienced by those under 25 years old.
it is estimated that more than a quarter of all problem gamblers are aged under 25.
The rate of problem gambling among young people (18-25) is estimated at between 3.5% to 8%, compared to the general population's rate of 2.15%

With the government set to review gambling legislation this year, now is the time to act.

Bible Studies

2006-05-02T13:23:00.000+10:00

Well, I have been busy since the Liquid conference.
Been playing a few games of football, but am still yet to make a start. Hopefully this saturday.

After Easter Camp we have started a new bible study topic.
We had to change nights of Bible study, so more people could come and also switched the group to meeting at our house.
It has been good to meet at our house so far, it is a bit more informal and relaxed. Everyone is enjoying our TV chairs (you would have to see them to know what I am talking about).

So we are looking at the book of Exodus.
It is great how it has worked out, starting Exodus after Easter Camp.
We are looking at how God saved the Hebrews, which of course parallels with the Easter Story.

It was great last week, we discussed Moses and the burning bush.
A few people found out some things about Moses that they had never realised.
James loved the fact that he was a real bloke, and that he wanted to get involved with the Hebrews even before God told him to. (Killing the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew slave)

This week we looked at Chapter 6.
It was great to hear the young people share about the struggles they have sharing the gospel and their faith with their friends.
I think our bible study last night was a good encouragment for us all.
We were able to look at how Moses had this message of good news (gospel) for the Hebrew slaves, but they weren't able to hear it.
So we talked through what that meant for our own lives.
We also talked through the aspect of suffering and how God doesn't necessarily intervene at the moment we want him to.
Some talked of the need for God to test our resolve, others shared about how it is a process of God intervening, but realising that he intervenes, even if we think he isn't acting fast enough.

I love our Bible study.
I find the young people's stories so encouraging. They share about what it is like to be a disciple in their school and with their friends. it encourages me to see that the things we discuss are relevant to them and how helpful they find it.
To talk about something one week, then come back the next week and hear how they have tried to put that into practice in their life is both an encouragement and a challenge for me.

I don't know who gets more out of our bible study times, the leaders or the young people.
It is a great opportunity to get together and learn from each other.

Liquid

2006-04-20T22:33:00.000+10:00

Well today was the first day of Liquid.
I survived Easter Camp, for those who were wondering.

The first day of liquid was a chance to get out and experience some different missional settings.

The first excursion of the day was to the Preston Mosque.
Yep, that's right, the first stop on our tour of Christian missional settings was a Mosque.
And just so you know, there were no young men chanting the koran being brainwashed into being suicide bombers.
There was no oppression of the women.

We were shown around the mosque, including the wash room where Muslims wash before praying.
It was interesting to hear how their prayer times are synced with the sunlight, and therefore the seasons.
They are very connected to the Earth and the seasons, not like us urbanised Christians.
He also spoke of how the different 'denominations' of Muslims would all join together to pray at the mosque.
No matter where you are in the world the Muslim prayer liturgy is the same, no matter what 'denomination' you are.
The act of praying to Mecca is also a unifying principle behind Islam.

Perhaps we Christians have alot to learn from our Muslim brothers, before we go generalising them all as anti-Christian extremists.

We also visited Northern Community Churches of Christ's Connect congregation. This is a congregation that meets around a 3 course meal for $3. It was a great meal and great fellowship. I sat with a couple of guys that live in the area and we had a great chat about all sorts of things. They were very real and not like most people you would meet in your average church service.

In the afternoon we travelled to Springvale to visit UNOH, or Urban Neighbours of Hope. www.unoh.org
That was another great experience. Everyone who I have ever talked to who is into the emerging church or missional communities always talks about how UNOH has shaped their thinking, so it was great to see it first hand.

So alot of things happened.

Then tonight I had football training.
In the rain.
as a great friend of mine would say:
"I think there's something in that for all of us"

Long time no blog....

2006-04-03T14:29:00.000+10:00

well I have been busy, so sorry to all my adoring readers (hi Mum!!).

Anyway.
I am helping to organise the Liquid conference (I have mentioned it before) but it is now 3 weeks away!

Check out
http://advoc8.tear.org.au/?page_id=23 for info and registrations. I suggest you come along, because I am organising the speakers and there are so many great ones that I am sad I am not going to be able to hear them all.

On Saturday I played my first competitive game of Football in my Senior career. I came on as a substitute with about 20 minutes left to go. Eltham North were 2-0 down at half time. When I came on it was 2-2. My first touch of the football was from a free kick. I found myself free at the far post and headed it across the face of the goal, only for my team mate to knee the ball onto the cross bar from a metre out. Everyone told me it was a very Crouch like header (Peter Crouch is Liverpool's 6'8" striker). I also wore the number 6, which I hope to make my own this season. John Arne Riise is Liverpool's red headed left sided player and he wears 6. Now all I have to do is learn to kick 40 foot left footed drives.

Melissa and I went to a youth service last night. It got us both thinking. Melissa was so moved she went up to her old minister after the service and told him how greatful she was that he allowed her and the other young people the freedom to have a youth service where they could do that. She also quizzed him on his thoughts of having people preach a theology that you might not agree with (the service is ecumenical). It is something I think of regularly too. I am sure Melissa will blog about her experiences, so check out her blog for more of her thoughts.

But my thinking.
I love preaching. I love to preach and I love to hear a good preacher.
I struggle with the art of preaching. I struggle with its relevance for our Australian culture.
We are not a culture of orators, we are not a culture that sits and listens to people speaking.
In fact the art of public speaking is in such disarray in this country.
But what place does the preacher have in a relevant church today?
Preaching, even great preaching, doesn't bring about growth in congregations. It is no longer an effective tool for teaching and exhorting.
So what place does it hold?
Is it no longer relevant?
If it isn't relevant, then why would God still gift some of his people with the gifting of preaching (because they are out there)?

The young person who preached last night was preaching only his second ever sermon.
Now I have been there, I know what it is to learn the art of preaching by the only means possible, practice.
Looking back on some of my early sermons I shudder at what I said and how I said it.

This blog isn't about his sermon or how he preached it. He had some technical things to work on (put the lapel mic further down your shirt so we can't hear you breath) and his theological outlook will broaden with time (I hope and pray).

The sermon I heard last night was symptomatic of the state of sermons in the Australian (and I would guess the whole Western) chuch today. This preacher was preaching a sermon as obviously he had heard many times before. How can one person be blamed for the influence that has been pushed onto them by the broader Christian culture.

We started off without a bible reading.
Now I admit that I am an exegetical preacher, that is how I work and that is how I am wired. I also admit that that isn't the only type of sermon to preach.
However, even a topical sermon has to be based on a Bible passage, then moving outwards and drawing in other scripture references to work your topic and make your (or God's?) point.

But this sermon was preached with him making points and then backing them up with Bible references, one or two verses from somewhere within the New Testament (funny it was only the New Testament).
As far as a school or uni assignment, or any piece of persuasive writing goes this is the correct way to present your argument. But that is the point. How am I to distinguish God's voice from his voice? How am I to discern that what he is saying is divine, if he is just pulling points from selected, out of context, verses all across the New Testament.

This is symptomatic of the wider discussions of the church. We can't have a good theological discussion, because people select a single verse and use it for their own purposes (women keeping quiet in church anyone?).

He quoted from Hebrews, Acts, Paul's writings, the Pastoral Epistles and the Gospels as if they were all written by the same person and saying exactly the same thing. And all of it being said straight to me as a person sitting in that pew on that night.

Why do we as congregations accept this from our pulpits?
Why do we as congregations not demand more from our preachers?

Is it because we weren't really listening?
Is it because we really don't care?
Is it because we wouldn't know a good sermon or a good theological treatise even if it hit us right between the eyes?

My second problem with preaching today, which was displayed in this sermon last night.
A sermon which was on the topic of 'Standing up for God' turned into a sermon imploring me to be 'saved' for eternal life. At least he defined what his idea of being 'saved' was, which can be missing in so many evangelical sermons these days.
Why is it that when I walk into a church, quite regularly I am implored to give my soul to God and be saved to go to Heaven?

What about Holiness?
What am I supposed to do about this life?
Am I just meant to twiddle my thumbs till Jesus comes back for me, or I die?
Am I just here to 'save' other people so more people get to party with me in heaven (so they don't end up living forever in that other place)?

gee, I have had a huge rant.
Sorry.
I really was supposed to be doing some work.
But I would love to hear other's thoughts on this issue.
I would love to start a dialogue on the role of preaching, good preaching, in the church today.
Is it relevant at all, or are we too far past it?

2006-03-12T16:57:00.000+11:00

I have been fiddling around with iweb this afternoon.

iweb is an application that comes with all new real computers.

I have created the first page of Melissa and my webpage empire. (insert evil laugh here)

check it out at http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~obrien/

2006-03-10T13:14:00.000+11:00

I am currently fiddling around with Garage Band (a great Apple application) trying to record a podcast. Perhaps tomorrow Melissa and I will sit down and have a bit of a discussion and see what we come up with.

I will keep you posted.

I have spent the morning writing a job application, for a 5 hour a week job with the council.

2006-03-03T13:51:00.000+11:00

Well, I'm back at Uni.
Had a big week, just working hard.
A bit disappointed, we were supposed to be playing a practice match tomorrow, but there has been a mix up and we are now not doing anything.

Oh well.

Widget Blogging

2006-02-24T15:14:00.000+11:00

I have just installed a widget (www.apple.com/osx/dashboard/) that means I can blog from my dashboard.
how cool is that.

New Beginnings

2006-02-23T22:50:00.000+11:00

Well the past couple of days have been days of new beginnings.

I was up at 2:15am this morning to watch Australia play its first game in the Asian Football Confederation.
For those that haven't been following the news, Australia switched on the first of January 2006 from the Oceania Confederation to the Asian Confederation.
This morning's game was the first senior mens game since the switch.

Australia beat Bahrain 3-1.
It was a good game to watch.

Yesterday was a new beginning because Melissa and I bought a new computer.
We bought a 14" ibook.
It is a great computer, we are loving it.

Anyway, I am heading off to play my new computer.
Will post again soon.
Liam

"Poverty is no shame for those who have not. Poverty is a shame to those who have"

2006-02-19T20:44:00.000+11:00

“Poverty is no shame to those who have not. Poverty is a shame to those who have” This comment is true both in light of Biblical teaching and in the light of poverty in our world today. This essay will seek to explore how poverty is a shame to those who have, both from biblical teaching and from the present causes of poverty. It is not enough to diagnose the causes of poverty as being shameful for those who have. The continuing state of poverty in our world today is perhaps a greater shame, because today we are better informed and perhaps better able to deal with poverty than at any time in the past. The lack of widespread positive action is perhaps the greatest shame for those who have. This essay will look at the Biblical teaching on poverty and explore the Biblical understanding of justice. This essay will also explore the causes of poverty in our world today, showing that they are no different to the Biblical picture. Finally this essay will conclude by showing how these causes all show that poverty is no shame to the poor, it is a shame to those who have.

“Poverty is perhaps the greatest threat to faith in a just and loving God.” How does poverty fit with the idea of a loving God? This is an issue that the Biblical writers grappled with. God does not miraculously intervene in the situation of the Biblical poor. Does this mean that God does not care for the poor? In Deuteronomy 10:18 we are told that God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the alien. But verse 19 shows us how God plans to intervene in the situation of the poor, ‘you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.’ In the Biblical narrative we are presented with a God who cares for the poor, he doesn’t wish to leave them to be poor. But rather than miraculous intervention, God expects his people to intervene in the situation of the poor.

The Biblical narrative is full of God directing his people to care for the poor. In the Torah, God speaks through the statutes of the Israelite people, directing them to look out for and care for the poor in their community. Leviticus 25: 35 they are told ‘if one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.” In Deuteronomy 15:7–8 they are told not to be tight fisted to the poor, but ‘rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.’ In the Psalms God’s people are told that, ‘the wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.’ (Psalm 37:21) God speaks through the prophets, telling the Israelites to remember the poor amongst them and not to take advantage of them.

Justice is a key theme in the Biblical narrative. As Steve Bradbury writes, “Biblical justice is a restorative function – affirmative action on behalf of the powerless to restore their proper (meaning God-ordained) position in human society.” The picture of justice that is presented in the Scriptures is a restoration of what has been lost. The poor are without, so justice is to restore to them. As Stephen Mott and Ronald Sider state, “frequently, God commands those with resources to treat their poor fellow Israelites with the same liberality that God showed them at the Exodus, in the wilderness, and in giving them their own land” God continually encourages his people to look after the poor, to practice justice and restore them. As Mott so eloquently states, “in Scripture, the people of God are commanded to execute justice because God, after whom they in grace and love pattern their lives, executes justice. Since God has a special regard for the weak and helpless, a corresponding quality is to be found in the lives of God’s people.”

One facet of the Biblical narrative is that the poor lack and it is the responsibility of God’s people to act justly and give to those who do not have. This is the medicinal response to poverty, the restoration to those who do not have. But the Scriptures also speak of the causes of poverty. Proverbs 13:23 says that ‘a poor man’s field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away.’ Psalm 10 speaks of the wicked man who thrives on injustice, robbing the poor and boasting of his evil deeds. Psalm 94 calls for God to avenge the poor and give the wicked what they deserve. They crush God’s people, they slay the widow and the alien, all because they say that the Lord does not see what they are doing. It is not only the Hebrew Bible that sheds light on the oppression of the poor. James 5 warns the rich of the misery that is to come to them. It warns them that the cries of those they have mistreated have reached the ears of God. These passages show the shame that is upon those who have, because not only have they failed to help those who are poor, they have actively mistreated people and oppressed them so that they have become poor. The Biblical narrative reinforces that poverty is not shameful for those who do not have. The shame falls upon those who actively work to gain for themselves at the expense of others, especially by mistreating them.

The causes of poverty that the Biblical narrative presents are no different to the causes of poverty today. Poverty can be seen as a break down of community. As Mott writes, “Community membership means the ability to share fully within one’s capacity and potential in each essential aspect of community.” Poverty is not just a material state, it is the inability of members to add to the life of the community. In the twenty first century we live within a global community and so the definition of poverty must be extended to those who are not able to fully share within the global community. The causes of poverty have not changed from Biblical times. Some people become poor through environmental factors, drought, disease and death, others become poor through their own doing, laziness, lack of preparation for hardship and others become poor because of oppression by other people.

Those whose poverty is no fault of their own cannot be put into a position of shame. It is not shameful to lack when what you had has been taken from you. For those who would wish to lay blame on those who are poor through their own doing, which needs to be qualified by saying that it is the vast minority, they must first look to themselves. The Biblical narrative points out that it is the responsibility of those who have to share with those who do not have. It does not say that we must ask them why they are poor, just that we should help them. The Scripture does not allow for a debate on the ‘deserving poor’, whatever that may mean.

How do we, as those who have, respond to the issue of poverty? Bono puts this question in a way that is so succinct, yet so uncomfortable that I will quote it in full:

fifteen thousand Africans dying each and every day of preventable, treatable diseases … for lack of drugs that we take for granted. This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea many of us hold on to very tightly: the idea of equality. What is happening in African mocks our pieties, doubts our concern, and questions our commitment to that whole concept. Because if we’re honest, there’s no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else … Deep down, if we really accept that their lives – African lives – are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It’s an uncomfortable truth.

Bono’s question cuts right to our core. As he says it is an uncomfortable truth. In the face of such overwhelming poverty how do those who have respond? The lack of adequate response shows the shame of poverty. The shame of poverty does not lie with the African dying of a preventable disease. The shame of poverty lies with the person who has the means to prevent that disease, but does nothing to prevent it. Or perhaps even worse, acknowledges the problem and only gives a token response to prevention. That is where the shame of poverty lies. Bono continues to ask the hard questions by stating, “We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies- but will we be that generation? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy and indifference murmuring softly in our ears?”

Bono’s questions come in the forward to Jeffery Sachs’ book “The end of poverty” where Sachs, an economist, shows that poverty can be ended by 2025. He says that our generation has the ability to eradicate poverty. Our generation is able to, in our lifetime, live out the image presented in the Biblical narrative. He states that, “the wealth of the rich world, the power of today’s vast storehouses of knowledge, and the declining fraction of the world that needs help to escape from poverty all make the end of poverty a realistic possibility by the year 2025.” The shame of poverty comes if those who have refuse to make this possibility a reality.

So far this essay has focused on the material issues of poverty. Whilst it has looked at the Biblical narrative, it has looked at the material issues raised therein. This however is an incomplete view of poverty. As Bryant Myers points out perhaps the greatest blind spot in relation to poverty in the West today is,

the belief … that the spiritual and physical domains of life are separate and unrelated … The result is a tragic pair of reductions. First, poverty is reduced to a merely material condition having to do with the absence of things like money, water, food, housing and the lack of just social systems, also materially defined and understood. Second, development is reduce correspondingly to a material series of responses designed to overcome these needs.

Perhaps the lack of a spiritual understanding of poverty is a reason for a lack of adequate response to poverty in the Western world. For Christians the spiritual dimension goes further. God’s preference towards the poor is displayed in the Biblical narrative, he cares for those who are oppressed and who lack. Tim Chester believes that because of this, this is where we find God. He states, “God gives us an opportunity to know him more through the poor. We lose out when we do not read the word of God with the poor of the world. We must see the poor not as objects of charity, but as people from whom we can learn.”

Poverty is no shame for those who do not have. This essay has shown that poverty is not shameful for the poor. God cares for the poor, he intercedes on their behalf and he has instituted means of caring for them. There can be no shame for those who do not have, because God does not wish for anyone to be poor. God has shown the way to eradicate poverty. God’s justice is that those who become poor will be looked after by those who have, it is their responsibility to share what they have. The shame of poverty is when those who have refuse to share with those who do not have. It is shameful not to share and it is even more shameful to take advantage of and oppress people. The Biblical narrative also highlights and speaks strongly against the oppression of people. The shame of poverty does not lie with those who lack, rather it lies with those who have.

Bibliography

Bono, “Foreword”. The End of Poverty, London: Penguin. 2005

Bradbury, Steve. Micah Mandate Lecture. Whitley College, November 2005

Bradbury, Steve. The Message of Micah then and now. Unpublished paper. 2005

Chester, Tim. “Justice, Mercy & Humility: Integral Mission and the Poor” Cumbria: Paternoster Press, 2002

Mallone, Adrian. Essay Topic, Micah Mandate timetable handout,
Whitley College, 2005

Mott, Stephen. Biblical Ethics and Social Change.

Mott, Stephen & Ronald Sider, “Economic Justice: A Biblical paradigm.” Transformation 17.2 (Apr – Jun 2000)

Myers, Bryant. Walking with the Poor, New York: Orbis. 1999

Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty, London: Penguin. 2005

Wow over a week...

2006-02-14T18:40:00.000+11:00

Well, it has been over a week since my last post.
Sorry.
Just checking to see if people will still check my blog.

Anyway, went for a lovely walk around Westerfolds Park this afternoon with Melissa. It was great to be out in the sunshine.

But then all of a sudden, something occured to me.

I thought about the structure of the Salvation Army, and I have found a problem.

If you think about our structure at a Divisional (or territorial for that matter) level, what does it say about us as an organisation/movement.

We have a Divisional Commander, divisional womens ministrys co-ordinator, divisional youth and childrens secretaries, divisional secretaries, corps program deparments, mission development departments.

You know what is missing. A men's ministry secretary/department!

To my viewing, this means one of two things.

1) Men are overlooked and under catered for in our movement.

2) The movement views Men's ministries as the primary ministry of our movement, and the secondary ministries need there own secretaries (Women and Youth & Children)

I am leaning towards the second one. But what about you, how does it resonate with your experience?
(By the way, I could pull out alot more evidence to support my argument)

Thoughts?

Bono's sermon

2006-02-06T14:10:00.000+11:00

Bono spoke the following words at the National Prayer Breakfast in the USA.
The Prayer Breakfast is attended by Members of the US government and President Bush. It is usually a time for nice speeches about the place of God in personal lives and the like.
This year Bono spoke a prophetic message.

I have been pondering this blog post all weekend, but after reading this I will post that idea later in the week.

Here is Bono's address.

If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.

Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind.

Mr. President, are you sure about this?

It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish.

I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.

I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment...

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.

'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?

I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...

'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'

It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...

When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).

What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.

But then my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.

Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.

Love was on the move.

Mercy was on the move.

God was on the move.

Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!

Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!

Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!

Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.

It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted.

I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.

Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.

Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.

But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.

Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad.

Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God."

And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks."

"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That's why I say there's the law of the land�. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won't, at least. Will yours?

[ pause]

I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.

This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.

'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.

'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).

Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.

That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it�. I have a family, please look after them�. I have this crazy idea...

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.

Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.

Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.

And that is what he's calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is 1%?

1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.

1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.

These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world.

Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.

But I can tell you this:

To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.

There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa.

History, like God, is watching what we do.

Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

The Discipline of Simplicity

2006-02-01T12:37:00.000+11:00

I am proud of myself.
It is only a small thing, but it is a thing none the less.

My work computer is running slow.
I realised that it was because it only has 128MB of RAM.
So I decided to do something about it.

I rang up the IT department and told them I needed some new RAM.
They said, what is the sticker number on your computer.
I told her and she said, "ah that computer is 4 years old, it is probably time for a new one"

I am so proud of my response.
Maybe so, but all I want is some more RAM.

I said it wasn't big.

The submerged tenth

2006-01-30T15:41:00.000+11:00

For those of you who haven't heard (and who actually care), the Salvation Army has elected its next General. The General is the International leader of the Salvation Army. Our next General will be Shaw Clifton, he takes over on the 1st of April (ironic perhaps??) He is currently the Territorial Commander for the United Kingdom Territory.
He has written a number of Salvo books, most famous is probably "Who are these Salvationists?" which is basically a Salvo Ecclessiology (who we are as a 'church', or our theology of church).

Last night Melissa and I went over to Moreland for the Divisional Meeting. In the meeting was a farewell to Debbie Messenger, who has been the DYS (person who looks after all the young people in our Division) for the past 2 years.

During the meeting I picked up on the phrase "the submerged tenth", which is a phrase of William Booth (the founder of the Salvos).
Cast your mind back to 1890s England.
An explorer had just returned from Africa and published a book called "In Darkest Africa", where he journalled his experience of travelling through the African jungle and all the horrors and backwardness (as he saw it) of the African savages.

William Booth, ever into Pop culture, decided to seize upon the interest from this book and used a play on it as the title for the book that he and others had been working on.
Hence the book "In Darkest England".

"In Darkest England ... and a way out" was Booth's manifesto of how through the Salvation Army, England could be pulled from the mire it found itself in at the end of the 19th century.

But I digress.

In the book, Booth coined the term "the submerged tenth" to refer to the ten percent of English society that lived at the bottom of the socio-economic pile. They were the forgotten people. Today we would call them societies most marginalised.

So hearing just those three words caused me to reflect upon my own ministry here.
I am called to serve in the Salvation Army, it is something I am passionate about. I believe the Salvation Army is called to work with the 'submerged tenth' as Booth called them.

However I also realise I live and work in a leafy fairly middle class suburb.
I don't live or work in Dandenong, West Heildelberg or Footscray, where perhaps the economically marginalised are easier to see.

So hearing that phrase has got me to think once again about who am I focussed at.
I am confident that I am aiming to reach out to marginalised young people in my community. I wish to connect with socially isolated young people, who are definitely the 'submerged tenth' of our school system.

This year I will need to further evaluate the effectiveness of this ministry.
How can I best serve the 'submerged tenth' of this community?
How can I have open eyes and an open heart to find them and to care for them?
How can I encourage and equip others to also seek out the 'submerged tenth' that are around them?

Well, answering those questions and working towards fulfilling those answers will be more than enough to keep me busy for the next twelve months won't they.

Back into it

2006-01-25T09:57:00.000+11:00

Well, I am back after beach mission.
We had a great time on the beach, chatting to people and living life.
It was a great opportunity to hang out with a bunch of people who are committed to God and to the people around them.
We had some great chats, both amongst ourselves and with those around us. (sweatshops in Bangladesh anyone?)

The challenge now comes in converting the lifestyle of beach mission, living in community and sharing life with those around you, into my 'rest of the year' lifestyle.
The challenge is to live my life intentionally.

I am really enjoying the book "Spiritual Disciplines", it is a great challenge, but also a helpful resource. It gives examples of how to practice each of the disciplines, which is quite helpful for people who have never tried these things before. I didn't get it finished at beach mission (it is not something you can rush through) but I am keeping at it.

On Monday I went to my first pre-season training for my new football career. The team seems really nice, and they encouraged me lots, even though I was pretty ordinary. It is back to the park to practice my ball skills for the rest of the week before our next training run on monday.

Our mixed netball also starts next monday, so I am going to be very tired by the end of monday night.

Hopefully all my blog readers haven't dropped off over January.
Please come back, I don't want to have to beg.

Time for an update

2006-01-03T12:03:00.000+11:00

Hi all,

gee Christmas eve was the last time I posted.
Sorry. Been a bit slack.

First things first.
Victory drew with Perth.
We should have won. Pity about that. At least it was an entertaining game.

Now Archie Thompson is probably going to be heading to Holland to ply his trade with PSV Eindhoven.
Hopefully he only goes for a loan stint.

I am currently preparing for Beach mission.
I will be on beach mission for 2 weeks starting on Saturday, so sorry there won't be any updates on the blog. Unless I finally work out the email settings on my phone.
I think you have to have a three email account to email with three.

One last thing.
Kerry Packer passed on.
For anyone who doesn't know Kerry Packer was one of Australia's richest people and he owned PBL, the company that owns channel 9.

I am annoyed to see in the news that the Prime Minister has come out and said that he is going to get a state funeral (or memorial) early this year.
So what, Kerry Packer gets a state funeral because he has lots of money?
Gee that irritates me.
What about a state funeral for the St. John's volunteer who died helping in the Bushfire affected area in NSW yesterday (or the day before)?
Not happy John.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T23:47:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas all.

I have just been helping Naomi put links on her blog.
She has a great blog, well worth the read.
Check it out at charlottetown.blogspot.com

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas.

Will blog more next week.

Jesus was a young man of Middle Eastern appearance

2005-12-21T11:00:00.000+11:00

Heard the above quote on the radio this morning.
Good isn't it.

Also heard that Jesus went to Cronulla on the sunday of the 'race riots' and got beaten up.
A young man of middle eastern descent whose name happens to be Arabic for Jesus.

Funny how we have stereotypes of people and then something happens to blow them away. Or hopefully something happens.

It is true of the "anti-Muslim" sentiment visible both within and without the church in Australia these days. In Australia it seems that anyone from the Middle East is deemed to be a Muslim, if not a muslim extremist.

Let us pause and consider this in reverse.
For alot of people in the Middle East, they view every American, Briton or Australian as being Christian.
They view Western society as being a 'Christian' society out to convert the world to Christianity.

As a Christian that view worries me. What worries me most is the view that Western liberal democracy and capatilism are viewed as being one and the same as Christianity.

Now when a bunch of year 12 students turn out in Lorne, or on the Gold Coast in Novemeber each year, why does the media not report it as "Christian teenagers on drunken binge"? Oh wait a minute, because they are not all Christians.

So why do we have the stereotype that all people of Middle Eastern descent are Muslims, if not extremists?

That is not to say that a large proportion of Middle Eastern people are not Muslim.
But it can be like Greek or Italian people who are Orthodox or Catholic Christians. It doesn't mean they attend church every week, or that they even represent the views of their religion.

Let us work to break down stereotypes.

Working

2005-12-20T15:47:00.000+11:00

I have spent the past two days packing boxes.
It has been hard work, but I hope it pays off.

I spent all of yesterday trying to avoid finding out the result of the Club World Championship Final (Liverpool v Sao Paulo) only to hear the result at the Victory practice match last night.

Liverpool lost. Victory won.

I don't have too much to say, so I am not going to write any more.
Perhaps tomorrow.

Look what I found

2005-12-14T14:04:00.000+11:00

Tired ....

2005-12-14T12:24:00.000+11:00

I am so tired.

Went out Christmas carolling at 7am this morning.
Now that is early for me.

I am tired now.

The memorial service went well, thanks for asking.

I am sitting in my office, as usual.
For the last ten minutes I have been pressing that button on the top right corner of my blog, the one that says "next blog"
That button sends you to a random blog.

You know what I have found out in my 10 minutes of research.
I either need to stop blogging, or blog in another language.
Most of the blogs I came across in English were pure drivel.
The other ones were in Spanish or Malaysian or Japanese and they looked really interesting.

Oh the despair.
But wait, I have been getting a few people visiting my blog.
If you have a blog why not tell me (and everyone else here) why we should read it.
If I have a link to your blog on the left side of the page, that means I already read your blog, so you probably don't have to blow your own trumpet.

If your a first time visitor, why not take the time to tell me what you think would make this blog worth reading.

If you don't have a blog, why not put it on record as to why you don't have one.
Think there silly? Think there boring? Think they are a waste of space?

I do read some people's blogs, but they are all people I know.
I have not yet found a random blog that engages me.
Have you?

OK, time to clock out.
Sleep is good

Funeral

2005-12-13T10:22:00.000+11:00

I've been asked to do something new.
I've been asked to do a memorial service for someone I have never met.
Someone who wasn't particularly religious.
Someone who ended their own life.

Baptism of fire?

So the rest of my day today will be spent preparing for that.

I don't have too much more to say.
What can one say?

Your thoughts and prayers for the family would be greatly appreciated.
Your thoughts and prayers for me would be greatly appreciated as well.

Racism rears its ugly head

2005-12-12T11:20:00.000+11:00

Cronulla.
"us and them"
politics of fear

I am so digusted.
This morning I went to a primary school for their assembly, they sang the national anthem and I reflected on the words of this most patriotic of Australian songs.

Perhaps the problem is that most people have forgotten the second verse which says
"For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share, with courage let us all combine, to advance Australia fair."

Racism and an us and them mentality should have no place in our country.

When are the media and certain politicians going to take responsibility for the inherently racist statements they have been spreading over the last 5 years and beyond.

Blame the Muslims (alot of Lebanese, the people targetted in Cronulla, are Christians).
Blame the immigrants.
Blame a social group.

When are we going to blame 'white' Australia?
When are we going to blame the Australia that divides rather than accepts.

Multiculturalism is inherently flawed.
It says I will practice my culture and you will practice yours and we will be happy together.
It is divisive rather than unifying.

I am not saying that people shouldn't be able to live out their own cultural identity, far from it.
However multiculturalism, which divides people based on culture is not healthy and the stupidity in Cronulla is the fruit of that.

Signs like "Free Sausages (No Tabouli)" highlight this flaw.
Sausage = Australian, Tabouli = Lebanese

This is never going to stop until we bridge the divide between cultures and social groups in our country and our world.
When was the last time you sat down for a meal with someone of a different ethnic group to yourself?
When was the last time you went to a cultural event put on by a 'migrant' culture? (remembering we have all migrated here)

Time for me to make up a sign for the front of my house.
"Racists not welcome"

To Christmas, or not to Christmas

2005-12-08T13:00:00.000+11:00

Let me start out by saying that I don't like Christmas. (Yes for all those reading this first line, this is going to be an anti-Christmas rant. But I hope it might be a new take on an old theme.)

I don't go for the whole present thing. Having said that, this morning was the last morning for our preschool music program. I got given presents by a couple of the children (but I am pretty sure their parent's organised the presents). Now to me, those presents were about showing appreciation to us who work each week to put on an activity for these families. It felt pretty good to be given presents by these families. It made me feel good and appreciated.

But on Christmas morning as people around this country (and quite a few other countries around the world) rip open presents and are over joyed with the arrival of a new Playstation Portable, Barbie doll or Tonka Truck there will also be those who roll there eyes as they receive another set of jocks and socks, another spice rack or another tie.

How many of us will admit to buying a Christmas present for someone just because they bought one for us? How many of us will admit to going and buying a cheap token of a present for someone knowing that they will probably never use it? How many of us will admit to returning to the shop Christmas presents that have been given to us? How many of us will admit to rewrapping Christmas presents and giving them to someone else? (Not I!)

Yes I think Christmas is a time of rampant consumerism. There I said it. Happy now?
It is just another time of the year when we are made to feel that we have to buy more, consume more (don't get me started on Christmas dinners) and use more.

This year I have been pumping TEAR's (www.tear.org.au) "The World's most useful gift catalogue" where you can purchase presents for your friends. The catalogue includes such treasures as a goat, a toilet, primary school education and clean drinking water for a community. That is right, you buy these things as a present for your friends. But instead of your friend getting a goat, TEAR is nice enough to send it to someone who actually needs a goat to survive.

Then there is all the other trappings of Christmas, the decorations, the silly shirts (I am wearing one at the moment, because I was told I had to for the preschool kids) and all the rest of it.

The problem for me is that I get so anti-Christmas that I end up not enjoying the real significance of the event.
I find the glitz and glamour, the flashy lights and all the consumerism distracts me from the simple message of Christmas.

It is not just that we celebrate that God become a human being. We also celebrate how he became a human being.

Rather than coming to earth as a king, with flashy lights, newspaper interviews and silk sheets.
Jesus came to earth in a stable, the son of very common people.

Does our celebration of Christmas, even besides the consumerism I am so against, really reflect the baby lying in a manger, the feeding trough of smelly animals?

I am praying that this year I can just look at the little baby in the manger and not get distracted by the flashy lights of the Christmas tree.

Human Trafficking

2005-12-07T14:25:00.000+11:00

Here is an issue that should mean alot more to us than it does.

FACTS FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
It is estimated that over 2 million people are trafficked every year
1.2 million children are affected by trafficking – ¼ of a million in Asia/Pacific region
Human Trafficking is a lucrative worldwide business of over £6 billion per year
Over 50,000 Filipino children have been forced into prostitution
In Thailand: 60,000 children sold into prostitution.
In the former Soviet Union: an estimated 10,000 women were forced into prostitution in Israel.
In North America: Asian women are sold to brothels for $16,000 each.
In the UK: trafficked women are forced to see around 30 – 40 clients per day.

Check out www.salvationarmy.org.uk/internationaldevelopment for more info.

Australia is actually one of the largest receivers of sexual slaves in the world.
It is happening in our city, what are we going to do about it??

Quote

2005-12-06T16:44:00.000+11:00

This quote comes from "Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine":

We should judge the growth of our spiritual life not by the depth and intensity of our spiritual experiences so much as by the quality of our obedience. (pg 90)

Comments???

A long line and a whole lot of patience .....

2005-12-05T13:06:00.000+11:00

Well, here I am.
It is 9:45 and I have been standing in this line for an hour.
The line snakes out the door and down the car park. In
the hour I have been standing here almost as many people
have come and joined the line behind me as there are in
front of me.

Now I am contemplating whether I should have followed the
advice given to me.
"I would get there at 5 o'clock"
If I had have gotten here then I would have been one of
the first in the line. But it would have been 5am, and I
would have had to wait 4 hours, atleast I would have bought
a book.

So as I stand and wait I ponder if the prize will be worth
the wait. Will my patience be rewarded?

Yesterday I had a very rewarding experience. 'The Long Walk'
Michael Long, an Indigenous Aussie Rules Football player,
earlier this year walked from Melbourne to Canberra to ask
John Howard a question. He went to ask Johnny "Where is
the love?" Where is the love when Indigenous Australians
live on average 17 years less than non-Indigenous Australians?
Where is the love when Indigenous Australians have an infant
mortality rate 3 times that of non-Indigenous Australians?
Where is the love when Indigenous Australians constitute
2 per cent of the population yet 20 per cent of the prison
population?

Yesterday I joined with Michael Long, Cathy Freeman and
thousands of Australians to show that there is love here.

Patience. The Aboriginal people don't need patience, they
need Justice.

I however need patience. The rumours are already heading
down the line. "There are none left" "all the cheap ones
are gone." Yet the line remains. There is still hope.
Hope that this will indeed be 'even better than the real
thing'

11 o'clock. The line is getting agitated. Not too far for
me to go now. I look at the little kids standing with their
parents, I admire their patience.

11:12 - they have sold out. But wait, there could be more
in 10 minutes. More hope. More tension, how will it end?

Well, at 12:15 they have come out and informed us that our
wait has been in vain. No more today.

Well.
I guess I will just have to be patient, wait till they come
out with more and then line up again.

Outreach ....

2005-12-02T09:12:00.000+11:00

Tonight Melissa and I went to a meeting with the Youth Services
people from council.
We both volunteer with the Council Youth Service's Youth
Outreach Program.

Once a month Melissa and/or I travel around the area with
the council youth workers. We chat to young people, asking
them questions about themselves and their community. We
then share information with them about what is happening
around their community.

I enjoy getting out on Outreach with the council. It is
an opportunity for me to get out amongst young people in
the community. I get to meet young people in a different
context. I also get to meet young people without the baggage
of being a 'Christian' Youth worker.
I think that is a great reason for me to be involved. It
is possible to interact with young people without the stigma
of being a Christian and all the stereotypes that are associated
with that.

So what about you?
I and others who read my blog (Hi Mum!!!!) would love to
hear about how you engage with people in your community.
How do you get out there without being a "Christian on
outreach"? Do you get out there in any capacity other than
as a Christian?

P.S. My mum isn't around this week, she is chasing Possums
around Gelantipy with the field naturalists.
Although she is due back today. Lets see how long it takes
her to respond to my attempt to make her famous. :)

Spiritual Discipline?

2005-11-30T12:47:00.000+11:00

I just posted a geek alert, it will appear below this post, so don't forget to check that out.

Anyway, on with this post.

I suck at being disciplined.
I have already made my new years resolution for the 2006. I just bought on Amazon "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster.
I know Gareth (from Footscray Salvos) loves this book and recommends it to everyone.
I am going to take it to Beach Mission and work hard on building discipline into my spiritual life.

This also comes to the core of who we are as Salvationists.
If we are soldiers in an Army, then discipline is a key tenet of being a soldier.
If we are in a spiritual army, then spiritual disciplines are a key.
How good are we at spiritual discipline as a movement?

I came across something interesting on the net yesterday.
It is 6 resolutions made by William Booth at the age of 20.
Here they are:

1. That I will rise every morning sufficiently early to wash, dress, and have a few minutes, not less than 5, in private prayer.

2. That I will, as much as possible, avoid all that babbling and idle talk in which I have lately so sinfully indulged.

3. That I will endeavor in my conduct and deportment before the world and my fellow servants especially to conduct myself as a humble, meek and zealous follower of Christ, and by serious conversation and warning endeavour to lead them to think of their immortal souls.

4. That I will read no less than four chapters in God's Word every day.

5. That I will strive to live closer to God, and to seek after holiness of heart and leave providential events with God.

6. That I will read over this every day or at least twice a week.

"God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self-denial and to yeild myself a prisoner of love to the redeemer of the world.

I feel my own weakness, and without God's help I shall not keep these resolutions. The Lord have mercy upon my guilty soul."

Geek Alert!

2005-11-30T12:45:00.000+11:00

I was just tinkering around with the settings for my blog.

I found that it has an automatic .xml feed.
I can also set up an rss feed.

If you understand what I just said then keep reading.
If you want me to let you know what the .xml feed link is then just email me.
If you would like me to set up my blog with an RSS feed then email me, or post a comment and I will do that.

Also if you are still reading, did you know Avantgo now supports RSS feeds?
check it out at www.avantgo.com

Just a quick note

2005-11-29T11:48:00.000+11:00

Hi all,

just a quick link to a web site someone sent to me.

www.unsite.org

it is a salvo resource site. looks good so far.
Ok,
will add more soon.

Salvation

2005-11-22T16:37:00.000+11:00

We have started a mission training program for some of our young people.
We have been looking at the doctrines of the Salvation Army, reading through the Gospel of Mark and trying to work out what it all means in relation to this thing called mission.

Well tonight we are looking at the doctrines relating to Salvation.
What the heck is this thing we call Salvation.
How do we define it? How do we describe it? How do we even know what it means?

Our movement is called the Salvation Army, is that supposed to mean we know what this thing Salvation actually is??

William Booth talked about temporal salvation as well as eternal salvation. Temporal salvation was the idea that we could be saved in this world, we could have a temporal salvation. Drunks could find salvation from alcohol, gamblers could find salvation from the pokies.

how real is temporal salvation in the western world today??

Worldview

2005-11-16T13:20:00.000+11:00

Had an interesting discussion yesterday..

Who do we compare ourselves to?

In our society we are bombarded with images of those who
are wealthy. Our TV gives us images of nice things and
we think "I don't have that, I want it"

How different would our lifestyle be if we compared ourselves
with those below us? If our TVs showed us images of India,
Africa and Asia?

Why do we define the world as rich and poor, developed and
underdeveloped (or politely developing)?

Why not poor and non-poor?
Why not those that don't have and those who hoard?

Heard a story of a Bible Study where someone said,
"Have you ever noticed how Jesus always seems to be spending
time with and talking to the poor? Do we do that?"

Good questions to ask ourselves.

Micah Mandate

2005-11-15T15:10:00.000+11:00

For the next two weeks I will be doing an intensive subject
at Whitley. It is entitled the Micah Mandate and is looking
at a Christian response to Global Poverty.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is an issue close to
my heart.
I will share some different thoughts and reflections over
the course of the next two weeks, but just wanted to share
two quotes with you to get your thoughts:

"Poverty is perhaps the greatest threat to faith in a just
and loving God."

and

"Anyone who knows that God will one day wipe away all tears
will not accept with resignation the tears of those who
suffer and are oppressed now. Anyone who knows that one
day there will be no more disease can and must actively
anticipate the conquest of disease in individuals and society
now. And anyone who believes that the enemy of God and
humans will be vanquished will already oppose him now in
his machinations in family and society. For all of this
has to do with salvation."
- David Bosch, Transforming Mission, p 400

Here we go again

2005-11-08T18:05:00.000+11:00

Last night I was writing in my journal. It had been 2 months
since my last entry (I had been using a different journal
for my trip to India).

It was a really great experience to reflect back upon the
last 2 months of my life.
So much has happened, a trip to India, new initiatives at
work, some of the same old issues at work, connecting in
new ways with the community that I live in.

It has been a while since I last blogged too. I have 3
assignments to get finished by next monday. But hopefully
I can get back into the routine of blogging.

Yesterday I got a new keyboard for my Palm (which I am using
at the moment) so now I can blog on the go and upload it
at a later stage.

I promise to blog more often, however I will enter an agreement
with you, those few brave souls who actually look at my
blog. I will blog if you comment. At the bottom of each
post there it says what time this blog was added, next to
that it has '0 comments'.
Please click on the comments link and add a comment. I
hope to dialogue, not so much talk one way. So please talk
to me, not just listen.

Lets see how we both go.
We need to hold each other accountable.

Wow, 3 weeks .....

2005-05-10T09:36:00.000+10:00

Gee, time flies when you are busy. Or perhaps it flies when you aren't that busy either.

I got into the habit of updating my blog on a thursday arvo, when I was doing the church newsletter. I now no longer do the church newsletter, so I have lost my thursday arvo routine.

Sorry for all those who check regularly (who am I kidding?), I am not dead or otherwise incapacitated.

Last wednesday I went to see my first live football game since Aus v Turkey last year. It was a practice match with Melbourne Victory playing Bulleen Zebras (a Vic Premier League side). It was good, and very exciting to see the A-league coming together.

Then of course I tried very hard to tune in to listen to the Victory v Adelaide United game on saturday night. I was disappointed (for more than 1 reason) because I could pick it up beautifully in the car, but none of the radios inside would pick it up.
I could only get a clear signal using Melissa's mobile and the bead head as an oversized antenna.
She was trying to sleep, so I would just run in and check the scores.

I am a bit disappointed with what I am hearing from some of the 'fans' of the Victory on one of their forums. The FFA is doing so much to try and clean up the game of football and rid it of the crowd violence that has marred it in the past. Basically crowd violence in Australia has been based on ethnic rivalries, the teams are ethnically based and so the supporters clash with people of another ethnic background.

The A-League has created new clubs, to move away from ethnic affiliations and allow for broad based support.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that playful jibes at the opposition players and supporters is part of the soccer experience. Chanting "You'll never get a job" to the tune of 'you'll never walk alone' to the Adelaide fans on Saturday night is an example of this.
The reports back from Adelaide say that the supporters got on relatively well, even getting together for a drink after the game.

What disappoints me is the post of some people on the forum who are still promoting violence against opposition supporters when they come to Melbourne.
Probably alot of this is stupid posting by 15 year olds who are trying to convice themselves they are brave, but the under current is saddening.

The FFA is trying to market a product that has had a pretty bad image portrayed of it by the mainstream media. What they don't need is idiots spoiling it.

True fans want the game to succeed in a hostile market. They want the game to break the dominance of other football codes and claim an equal footing.

This will never be acheived while there is an attitude of violence amongst the so called 'fans'

Post Modernity, Emerging Church and the Salvation Army

2005-04-21T13:47:00.001+10:00

This morning I was directed to an article in the current issue of 'the Officer' magazine (a Salvation Army worldwide publication) that was written by my old minster.

It was entitled 'Great Aunt Sally?' and asked the question "is the Salvation Army just like our Great Aunt Sally? She is wonderful, whe would do anything for anyone - but she's a bit outdated and unusual."
He then moves to unpack whether the Army has kept up with Post Modernism and the culture and world that operates outside of its buildings. His challenge is to mission and to reconnect with the founding principals of the Salvation Army -incarnational mission, messianic spirituality and entrepreneurial leadership - but to reengage with them and rediscover them for our post modern world. Change or be irrelevant is the thrust of his article. A common theme in the church today.

This morning on my way to work I read through the Articles of War. The Articles of War is the document that a Salvation Army soldier signs to commit to becoming a soldier. Whilst not wanting to enter into my opinion on soldiership, I will say that I was challenged as I read through my Articles of War.

The first half of the document is the Doctrines of the Salvation Army. A pretty standard thing to have on a church document. Nothing peculiar about signing a document to say you agree with the beliefs of a movement or church (depending on your definition of our organisation).

What for me is challenging about the Articles of War is that at the bottom of the doctrines it has in bold

Therefore

and continues with what these doctrines look like when practically outlived by the Salvationist soldier:

I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit's work .......
I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life.
I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life .....
I will maintain Christian ideals in all my relationships ......
I will uphold the sanctity of marriage and of family life.
I will be a faithful steward of my time and gifts, my money and my possessions, my body, my mind and my spirit, knowing that I am accountable to God.
I will abstain from ...... and all else that could enslave the body or spirit.
I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up the Salvation Army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and disadvantaged.
I will be actively involved, as I am able, in the life, work, worship and witness of the corps ..... (& tithe as much as possible)
I will be true to the principles and practices of the Salvation Army .......

My first question with regard to all the discussion on the relevance of church and the best way of doing things is a bit like this:
are we putting the cart before the horse?

We need to get the church to live up to the things it believes.
The Salvation Army needs to hold its soldiers to the things they have signed to.

Incarnational mission is precisely about living out the things we say we believe.
Messianic spirituality is about acting how Jesus acts.
Entrepreneurial leadership springs from passion, which comes from living out a life of passionate Christian discipleship.

Living it is 90% of the battle for relevance that our churches face.

Post Modernity, Emerging Church and the Salvation Army

2005-04-21T13:47:00.000+10:00

Long time no post....

2005-04-14T11:23:00.000+10:00

I tried to post last week, but when I clicked 'publish' it died.
When I went back I had lost my post.
So I retyped it and clicked publish and again it didn't work.
I ran out of time to try for a third time.
Sorry.

Last week I was trying to say how I got a new Palm, which is good.
I was looking for bible translations to put on it. The problem is that because of copyright you have to pay for all the major translations (NIV, NRSV, message).

The question is how does one copyright the 'word of God'?
I have the same issue with people who say something like "please use my God inspired song to worship God, but if you don't pay me my royalties then I will sue you"

There are a number of inherent questions in there isn't there.

I got up at 6:30 this morning to watch Liverpool play Juventus.
The game was a draw, but Liverpool won the tie 2-1 and so is through to the Semi Finals of the Champions League, the first time since 1985.

I am very excited, needless to say.

Anyway, I better go back to laminating. Great fun. I just looked at the clock and was shocked that was 11:30. I have been at this for about 1 1/2 hours, but it seemed like 30 minutes.

Weekend

2005-04-02T16:07:00.000+10:00

So after a hectic Easter weekend,
here I am enjoying a quiet weekend.

We have come to Traralgon for Cathlyn's (melissa's sister) 21st.

I have spent the past 26 hours reading books pretty much non-stop (except for sleeping). It is great.

I went to the library on thursday to find some books.
The first one I read (and finished in around 24 hours) was about the how the Israeli Air Force bombed Iraqs first nuclear reactor to prevent them from building an atomic bomb.
It was in 1981. I knew that it had happened so when I saw a book detailing it I thought I would pick it up and read. It was very interesting. Of course the guy highlighted how all the present neo-cons, Wolfawitz and the like, all loved the idea of bombing Iraq 10 years before the Americans did it for the first time.

I am now reading a book on the Cuban missile crisis. It is written by a sailor who was on an American destroyer during the crisis. He interviewed people on both sides of the naval blockade. It is very detailed and relies heavily on personal stories of the officers involved. It documents how close we came to a nuclear war during the crisis.

The USSR allowed their battlefield commanders the responsibility to use tatical nuclear weapons without authorisation from Moscow if the situation called for it.

It sounds like very deep reading for a quiet weekend doesn't it?
oh well. I enjoy it.

Greensy Grumblings

Quote I came across.....

Human Trafficking Forum Report

Terrorism and Iraq

U2 concert

Blogger's block

Human Trafficking and the Salvation Army's response

Valedictory Speech

Expectations

Urban Seed got 'Bolted'

Church camp

Despicable - link to a Rant

Are you trying to co-opt Jesus for the ALP?

Called to move on....

Knowing when to quit

Your kingdom come......

More links from a busy blogger

Quick links

Quick links

What does the humanity of Jesus teach us about God?

Page design update

The snooze button

Reconfiguring faith in the face of Gen Y

So are you depressed yet?

Favourite 'How to ...' posts from the Group Writing Project

Dilbert's view on giving to the poor

How to make the most of your time online

Links to check out

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

The 3 biggest challenges facing the Salvation Army

Values: 'Little minds, big lessons'

Purchasing, otherwise known as Shopping

The Rise of Neo-Fundamentalism

Miracles, part 2

Old Media v New Media

A picture says a thousand words

Miracles v Science

5 reasons to have a List on your blog

Spiritual Gifts

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 4

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 3

Raunchy music linked to teen sex

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 2

Internet: Mission and Ministry part 1

Advertising

Voting for Jesus

Are we (the Salvation Army) the church of the poor?

Fear had many faces today

Praise Music

"Does not our preaching contain too much of our own opinions and convictions, and too little of Jesus Christ?"

Random thoughts

Repentance

PYJAMA PARTY FOR PEACE

Funerals and Ministers

Indigenous Australians missing out....

Happy NAIDOC Week

Resolutions

Back Again

Bible Study part 2

Inter Church Gambling Task Force

Bible Studies

Liquid

Long time no blog....

Widget Blogging

New Beginnings

"Poverty is no shame for those who have not. Poverty is a shame to those who have"

Wow over a week...

Bono's sermon

The Discipline of Simplicity

The submerged tenth

Back into it

Time for an update

Merry Christmas

Jesus was a young man of Middle Eastern appearance

Working

Look what I found

Tired ....

Funeral