notyetfinished

the blog is dead.... long live the blog

2010-03-08T14:28:00.001+11:00

ok so i know announcing this blog as dead is a bit late... its been dead for yrs...

but i do now have a blog i will use and update... so hey check out

http://notyetfinished.wordpress.com/

link love

2008-10-21T16:49:00.001+11:00

Just giving some link love to my new webstore, you can get great prices on a iMac, Macbook and all the apple mac range, so click over and never pay retail again!
https://store.mactofront.com.au

Also have a look at my wifes photography business fartoolittleattention

stay tuned to see if i ever start blogging again.... dunno if i do....

every direction communities

2008-04-10T17:28:00.005+10:00

well the big news has dropped and is public, I have decided to put the missional church ideas that i have been reading and speaking about for the last 3 years into practice! I have the blessing of my church to start a new missional community and to experiement with a new way to be and do church.

I must admit this is a scary thing but i am excited about the potential!

Please feel free to check out the website www.maroubrabaptist.net/directions for more info. I will be blogging there regularly as well and will evaluate the use of this personal blog over the next few months.

this is not, the greatest post in the world, this is just a tribute!

2008-02-20T13:55:00.002+11:00

ok so everybody has either noticed my blogging hasnt realy begun this year, or you are so far gone that im not even on your RSS feed.... oh the shame....

i have not got the creative energy to realy make this blog work just yet.... BUT i have a few little ideas that i am brewing and they might come to pass soon...

so this isnt a goodbye post, it is just a please be patient and wait....

A little sillyness

2008-01-23T22:15:00.000+11:00

Well i supose i should get back to blogging soon.... here is something i whipped up on our summer camp with a few mates....

we gota get out of this place......

2007-12-09T10:50:00.000+11:00

Well the time has come for me and em to head off on a holiday.... we will be driving tomorrow to sunny Queensland and staying at Mooloolaba on the sunshine coast. I will be on blog hiatus till the 23rd Dec.... although its usually that long between posts anyway.....

Merry Christmas all :)

What would I do with $7,000,000 ?

2007-11-19T13:37:00.000+11:00

1. Buy a nice beach front house at Maroubra with plenty of rooms for guests, communal meals etc

2. Buy a great big cafe space in Maroubra and serve some decent coffee

3. Invest $2M and draw a yearly salary so there would be no need for financial support of my ministry.

4. Invest the rest and use the interest to give to world aid and mission.

Ok that what i would do with $7,000,000 let me tell you about www.onehitwonder.org a group seeking to get $1 from just 1% of all internet users, that is $7M! Then they are going to distribute this to the worlds poorest people! Go and make a hit for $1 today! and pass on the message....

Blog Tag: I am tagging these bloggers to answer the question "What would you do with $7M? Lets spread the wonder.

Journeys In Between
planet telex
if I Ever Feel Better
Mike Hardie
Backyard Missionary

The Worm and God's economics

2007-11-02T08:52:00.000+11:00

Not wanting to weigh too heavily into the whole election process but... i would just like to comment on whether as Christians we should vote on what is good for "us" or on what is good for the whole country (especially those who are less fortunate)

I have reposted this artical that can be found at the The Centre for Christian Ethics at Morling College

Gods economics
by John McKinnon

“The topic of economics is exceedingly difficult to talk about in most First World churches, more taboo than politics or even sex. Yet no aspect of our individual lives and corporate lives is more determinative of our welfare. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.”1

Economics is like a game of musical chairs. There are not enough chairs in the world for everyone to have as many as they would like. But rather than play music and race to the nearest chair, we have an auction, and those with the most money can buy their chairs while those without are left standing.

Assuming that Earth’s resources are scarce (not enough to satisfy everyone’s wants, as opposed to everyone’s needs) and that there are competing uses for them, economics is essentially about determining who gets what. The dominant economic system in the world today claims the best way to allocate these scarce resources is through the market – supply and demand. That is, whoever pays the most gets the goods. Hence the situation where the rich world spends more on ocean cruises than it would cost to provide safe water to the one billion people going without.

Can this be right? Is there a Biblical alternative? Is there such a thing as God’s economics? In fact, the Bible has plenty to say on these two fundamental points. As Christians, we need to know the Scriptures, and speak and live prophetically – challenging the dominant but ungodly ruling paradigms of this world.

So, first, is there not enough to go around? Walter Brueggemann reminds us that God created a world that was ordered, abundant, fruitful and very good, good enough to provide for its inhabitants.2 Passages such as Psalm 104 celebrate God’s abundant provision. As Brueggemann says, “the psalm makes clear that we don't need to worry. God is utterly, utterly reliable. The fruitfulness of the world is guaranteed.”

Where did this notion of scarcity come from? Our greediness leads us to always want more and we fear that we will never have enough. In the desert God provided manna for the Israelites to eat. There was enough for everyone. When they followed the myth of scarcity and tried to hoard the manna, it turned sour and rotted. They did not need to continually struggle to get more. God would provide.

Jesus continues the battle against the myth of scarcity. In Matthew 6:24-34 he states that we cannot serve God and money. We cannot spend our lives striving to get more; to “have enough”. And we don’t need to: “Do not worry…” he says. “Look at the birds...” (Matthew 6:25, 26).

Luke precedes his version of the same discourse with the story of the Rich Fool; the hoarder who never has enough, who lives his life according to the myth of scarcity (Luke 12:13-21). God calls the man a fool. Twice in Mark’s gospel we read of Jesus feeding crowds with a few loaves and fish (Mark 6:30-44, Mark 8:1-13), demonstrating through the miraculous multiplication of food, the principle that God has provided enough for all.

Paul understood this as well. When discussing his collection for the believers in Jerusalem he highlights God’s economics: Though Jesus was rich, Paul says, “yet for your sakes he became poor, that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The aim of Paul’s collection was that “the one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” Paul is quoting from Exodus, from the story of the manna. He understood that God has provided enough; we just need to share.

So, according to the Bible, the world’s resources are not scarce, they are enough (in fact, the United Nations agrees3). But how do we determine who gets what? For many, the laws of supply and demand have found divine approval in a privatized Christianity of individualism and personal freedom. However, God calls us to be a community, a people, a society who collectively live out the values of his Kingdom. Do the original people of God, the Israelites, have anything to teach us on this?

Old Testament scholar Christopher J.H. Wright emphasises that while we are not to imitate Israel’s laws, neither are we to ignore them. They act as a model for us, an example of God’s timeless principles of love and justice.4 Therefore the Sabbath rest, debt cancellation and slave emancipation are relevant biblical principles for Christians. The Jubilee restoration of land is relevant to us.

The Old Testament law recognized that full equality was impracticable. There are many reasons why some people become poor and others rich. These include natural causes (drought, floods), accidents and human sinfulness (greed, oppression and laziness). However, God ensured that the subsequent inequalities are neither permanent nor exacerbated over time. The Jubilee was not about charity but about restoring to families the ability to provide for themselves again.

In Deuteronomy 15, Moses writes that the there should be no poor among the Israelites. There is plenty to go around. However, he acknowledges that things will go wrong (“there will always be poor in the land”). In these cases they are to be “openhanded towards your brothers and towards the poor and needy in your land.” Generosity and Jubilee restoration limited inequality and prevented exploitation.

Ownership of land in Israel was never absolute. It was owned by God for the benefit of the people. Its purpose was not profit maximization; but community wellbeing. Similarly, security on loans could not be enforced if people were left without adequate shelter or clothing. In God’s economy, people come first. Assets, whether land or finances, exist to provide livelihoods for all, not to create wealth, indifferent to inequality or suffering.

Modern applications of these principles may require some creative thinking, but the principles of restoring opportunity and sharing resources are at the heart of God’s economics and are as applicable today as in the ancient world. If we abandon the myth of scarcity and start to live in the truth of God’s abundance, then we need not fear generosity and redistribution. God has shown us an economic alternative. Do we have the faith, courage and creativity to live prophetically as God’s people in a corrupt world?
John McKinnon is NSW State Co-ordinator for Tear Australia. This article first appeared in TEAR’s Target magazine, Issue 4, 2007.

References
1. From the introduction to Ched Myers, The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics (Tell the World, 2002).
2. Walter Brueggemann, “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity,” Christian Century, March 24-31, l999.
3. “Reducing poverty and hunger: The critical role of financing for food, agriculture and rural development,” paper prepared to the International Conference on Financing for Development Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002, p. 11.
4. Christopher J.H. Wright, Living as the People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics (Leicester: IVP, 1983).

Mike Frost on Missional Church

2007-10-09T11:49:00.000+10:00

I have just finished watching a talk by Mike Frost given at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship Conference in Houston.

It is a great description of the "Missional Church" its about 50min so grab a cup of tea or a beer and watch it... very good....

Songs for mission

2007-10-04T18:16:00.001+10:00

Here is the lyrics to the song, it is still in development but should be finished soon.

Also see the thread on Matt Stone's blog here

Love Wins

Verse
Let us be patient,
Let us be kind,
Let us not envy,
nor be boastful and proud

To seek not selfishness,
To not anger fast
Not pile up sins
Nor rejoice in evil

Pre Chorus
All else fades away
All else fades away

Chorus
Our preaching will finish
Our singing will stop
We have seen the end
Love Wins!
Love Wins!
Love Wins!
Love Wins!

UPDATE: we did this song on sunday and well i think it kinda rocked.... look out for some sorta demo soon....

vodcasting

2007-09-30T22:23:00.000+10:00

ok so as most readers of my blog know i am not exactly a prolific writer.... but i like to talk.... so hey here is my first vlog entry i will see how it goes i will just post random thoughts.....

light globes and climate change

2007-08-30T12:37:00.000+10:00

i got home from a meeting today to find 2 things. One Em had gone and bought some of those funky energy saving light globes which now are installed (by me of cause). And i also got an email of an article on a Biblical foundation for climate change action. i thought it was worthy of a post here... any comments?

A biblical foundation for climate change action
by John McKinnon

Was it Al Gore’s film? Was it the drought? Whatever the catalyst, climate change is now headline news every day. Is it just a distraction from our true mission, or is it an integral part of our Kingdom mandate?

At least in living memory, Christianity and environmentalism have not been close partners. In 1967, Professor Lynn White wrote an influential article, “The historical roots of our ecological crisis,”[1] which accused Christianity of providing the foundation for environmental exploitation and degradation by viewing creation’s purpose as simply to serve humankind.

Christianity has often viewed the material world as less valuable than the spiritual world. James Watt, US Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan government, expressed a popular belief when he wrote that the earth is “merely a temporary way station on the road to eternal life … The earth was put here by the Lord for His people to subdue and use for profitable purposes on their way to the hereafter.”[2]

The Bible presents a different story. Creation is a demonstration of the glory of God, to be cared for and nurtured. It eagerly awaits its own renewal when Christ returns. Furthermore, to love our neighbours, as Jesus commanded, surely implies that we share the world’s resources with others, both present and future. Environmentalism, therefore, goes to the heart of God’s demand for justice.

Creation

In Genesis 1 we read that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good”. Psalms 8, 19 and 104, among others, speak of God’s glory displayed by the heavens and the earth. God’s dramatic reply to Job, in Job 38-41, demonstrates emphatically how the creation reveals God’s existence, power and character. In Romans 1:20, Paul declares that this “natural revelation” so reflects God’s glory that no-one can remain ignorant of God.

Perhaps the most remarkable element of creation is the man Jesus Christ. In the incarnation, in which God assumes physical form and lives in this world, we have a remarkable validation of creation. Furthermore, the resurrection, first of Christ, and at his return, ours, in transformed physical bodies, is further validation of the physical world. According to Romans 8:20-22, when Jesus returns, all creation will be renewed.

Paul refers to this renewal in his other New Testament letters. Ephesians 1:10 and Colossians 1:20 speak of all things being brought together and reconciled under Christ. God has not abandoned creation to decay or destruction, but through Christ has planned for its renewal. Christ’s resurrection is our assurance of this promise of renewal, what Paul called the “firstfruits”. The entire physical creation is part of God’s plan.

Christians have been called to live out the values of God’s Kingdom in this world, even though its consummation awaits Jesus’ return. This includes our treatment of his creation. In our personal holiness, our relationships, our pursuit of justice, and in our care of creation, we anticipate God’s future rule.

What about Genesis 1:28, which speaks of “subduing” and “ruling” over the Earth? Creation still belongs to God. We are never more than stewards, charged with using God’s resources to His glory and to serve others. Selfish exploitation of the creation was not God’s intention.

So creation is good, reflecting God’s glory, revealing God’s character and power, and is destined for renewal as part of God’s all-encompassing Kingdom. We serve our King and anticipate his future rule by not only caring for his creation but working towards its healing.

Justice

God reveals himself throughout the Bible as a God who “defends the cause of the fatherless and widow.” On the verge of entering the Promised Land, the people were told: “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed ... towards the poor and needy in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11). Sharing the world’s resources to alleviate poverty is no optional extra, but a fundamental outworking of God’s character.

Sadly, the impact of environmental degradation falls most heavily on the poor. Living in the most vulnerable places, farming the least fertile land, occupying the most polluted land, it is the poor who suffer, often forced through their poverty to further degrade the land on which they live.

Since environmental degradation is largely the product of industrial society, the Bible does not explicitly addressed it. However, there are several elements in the Levitical law that highlight God’s intention that his people demonstrate justice by sharing, caring for and preserving natural resources.

The Sabbatical year (Leviticus 25:1-7) allowed the land itself to be rested every 7th year, rather than ruthlessly exploited for short term gain. The Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-55) takes this principle much further. The 50th year redistribution of land demonstrates that property ownership is not absolute; merely a temporary stewardship of what belongs to God. Natural resources must therefore be managed in such a way that they remain available and useful to future “stewards”.

God’s justice demands that the poor and most vulnerable be cared for; that the world’s resources are shared among all people, of this and future generations, and that we act to prevent environmental damage from further oppressing those already suffering under heavy burdens of poverty and marginalization.

Climate change

Climate change is the major environmental issue of our day. It threatens the lives of millions of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. They will suffer lower economic growth, direct impacts on their livelihoods and assets, decreased food and water security, increased incidence of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, and increased risk of disasters.

Those of us in wealthy nations, through our continued consumption of electricity produced by fossil fuels, our polluting transportation, our continued land clearing and meat consumption, are causing this problem. As consumers, proprietors and employees, we are among the beneficiaries.

As God’s people, we are called to live the values of God’s Kingdom here and now. This involves loving our neighbours, demonstrating justice for the poor, and working for the renewal and healing of creation. Human-induced climate change represents degradation of creation and a gross injustice against the world’s poor. Climate change is therefore our responsibility, and tackling it is part of our God given mission.

What has climate change got to do with Christians? Everything! It is our problem and we are called to be part of the solution. We must examine our own lives as well as speaking up on behalf of those most affected, but with the least voice. As Isaiah urged his people, so his words challenge us to action:

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow (Isaiah 1:17).

Mr John McKinnon is the NSW State Co-ordinator for Tear Australia. This article first appeared in TEAR’s Target magazine, August 2007.

References:
1. Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,” Science 155, 1967, pp. 1203-1207.
2. James Watt, “Ours is the Earth,” Saturday Evening Post, January/February 1982, pp. 74-75.

heart of worship liturgy

2007-08-20T13:31:00.000+10:00

Sunday night as a part of a series called "Experience" we did a communion liturgy based on the book of hebrews. I thought i would post it along with a few pics....

Intro Video:

Reading: Hebrews 1:4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

Response (Together): I’m coming back to the heart of worship, for you are greater than the angels, greater than all created beings, Jesus you are great!

Song: How great is our God (Chorus/Bridge) (Chris Tomlin)

Reading: Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—
Let us bring the bread to the table

Action: {The bread is brought forward to the table}

Response (Together): I’m coming back to the heart of worship, for you body was given for us, you shared in a fully human life, you know what we go through

Action: {Lift up the bread and break it then say} “The body of Jesus given for us”

Reading: Hebrews 3:1-4, 4:14-16

Talk: Focusing in on the OT sacrificial system and how Jesus replaces/ fulfills / is greater than The Angels, Moses/Law, the high priest and the sacrificial system.

Reading: Hebrews 9:8-9, 9:12-14

Response (Together): I’m coming back to the heart of worship, for you came to fulfil the promises of old and create a new, direct way for us to worship.

Song: Nothing but the blood (Matt Redman)

Action: {During the song the wine is brought to the table…}

Communion:

Reading: Hebrews 10:1-10

Response (Together): I’m coming back to the heart of worship, for your sacrifice was once for all, we remind ourselves each time we come to your table, but it is finished, our sins are forgiven, thank you Jesus.

Song: The heart of worship (Matt Redman)

Benediction: So may Jesus remain at the heart of your worship, may you know that his death was once and for all, let us boldly approach the throne of grace knowing that it is finished, and he has won!

2007-08-09T00:04:00.000+10:00

ok so i am totally addicted to facebook.... i know the shame......

I must admit i have been rather reluctant to take on the whole "social networking" side of things. Myspace is dog ugly and bebo just seems so usless.... but so far facebook is real cool!

I have already connected with heaps of people who i know right now, as well as others i haven't seen for like forever!

So if my blog is slow then look me up on facebook... let it rule the world as our evil overlord... (no wait google hasn't bought it yet have they?)

Mr Deity, Divine child abuse and Eternal Subordination

2007-07-16T13:41:00.000+10:00

This Sunday we looked at Philippians 2 and as a starter I showed ep2 of Mr. Deity.

Now this tends to lampoon our evangelical understanding of the Cross. It also seems to be close to the whole “divine child abuse” idea when it comes to penal substitution.

I would like to add just one little bit into the mix here….

If the “Trinity” is Co-Equal and not eternally subordinate (as some people tend to think these days) then for Jesus to submit to Death even death on the cross, means that he willing submitted to a plan that was developed by the co-equal trinity!

But if cross was but only the “Fathers will” and not a plan of the co-equal trinity then it does seem to be close to “divine child abuse”

How then do we explain the fact that Jesus submitted to the will of the Father? It is stated time and time again in scripture...

Well I think that Phil 2:6-8 and Kenotic Theory gives us the answer. That he gave up that equality for his earthly ministry and then submitted to death as being the plan that the Co-equal trinity had come up with.

Well that is my half assed attempt at this whole idea, you can also catch my talk from Sunday on the podcast.

Comments? I’m sure there will be…

Notes from Forge

2007-07-04T12:00:00.000+10:00

Here is the first set of notes from Mike Frost's first session last Friday at the Forge intensive. It is only shorthand so it probably doesn’t do it that much justice but here it is anyway.

3 Doctrines that undergird the Spirituality of Mission

Missio Dei
Defined as the Mission of God or more fully, the DNA of God is that of a Sent and Sending God. The Hebrew understanding was that God is involved in the world, that he is not aloof and just watching over but intimately involved.

Paticiparto Christi
That if we take the Missio Dei seriously then we are to participate in what God is doing in this world.

Five skills to participate in what Christ is doing:

Let Jesus be our reference point (don’t let “churchianity” rule).
Foster a radical spirituality of engagement
Be inspired by Prevenient grace.
Follow the Missio Dei into strange places
Inspire those around you to do the same

The Imago Dei
All humans are reflections of the image of God. Even if we are cracked images there are still fingerprints of God in everybody’s life.

Lots to reflect on, I might post up some other notes or reflections later. Any comments please feel free to debate argue or encourage here…

forging ahead

2007-06-29T07:49:00.000+10:00

Today i am off to a Forge conference which should be cool, we have Mike Frost and Mark Sayers from Melb.

Will post some thoughts on the sessions as debrief in the next few days.

If I say you're Lord

2007-06-18T23:53:00.000+10:00

I have been thinking a lot about what it means to say that “Jesus Is Lord” to allow him to be the Ruler, King of our lives both individually and corporately.

The earliest Christians, when they proclaimed “Jesus Is Lord”, were being intentionally counter cultural. In the first century Roman world you were made to say “Caesar is Lord” which meant that you believed Caesar and the Roman Empire was the thing that was going to save the world.

So for those early christians to say “Jesus is Lord” meant that they were also saying “Caesar is NOT Lord”

What is it in our lives that gives us meaning, that gives us purpose? Is it money, career, possessions? For if we truly claim that “Jesus is Lord” then all these things are NOT Lord.

In thinking about this I wrote a song…

Lord of the heavens
Far above us, watching over
Lord of the Earth
Come among us Come to save us

You said your kingdom come
On Earth as it is in heaven
You said your kingdom come
So here is my life, my God and King

And if I say you're Lord
Then all else is but naught
And if I say you're Lord
Then everything around me fades away

This is a cross-post with www.maroubrabaptist.net

jamming and pie - the new Bestie Boys

2007-06-06T11:29:00.000+10:00

Back in the days when i DIDN'T like hip hop there was always one band that i could stand... when the old skool beastie boys tracks came on even this white boy had to move...

I remember that some of the tracks off "Ill Communication" got me into hip hop, especially the very cool film clip for Sabotage

Anyway today i find myself listening to the beasties new album with no samples, no crazy rhymes and no turntableism from mix-master-mike!

Thats right peeps the new beasties album is all instrumental and all live instruments! that being said this is a seriously funky jam album! full of tasty beats some wacky organ sounds and sooooo much brown corduroy you would think they had invented the musical equivalent of a worm hole directly connecting them to 1971....

On pitchforkmedia Mike D said "Yeah, it would be a great record to eat pie to."

so grab your pie, sit on a beanbag and devour the tasty sounds of "The Mix-Up"

Track listing
01 B for My Name
02 14th St. Break
03 Suco de Tangerina
04 The Gala Event
05 Electric Worm
06 Freaky Hijiki
07 Off the Grid
08 The Rat Cage
09 The Melee
10 Dramastically Different
11 The Cousin of Death
12 The Kangaroo Rat

church ecosystems

2007-06-05T13:35:00.000+10:00

I have been thinking a lot about church systems and structures the last few weeks, as i read through the forgotten ways. One thing that has struck me is the importance of viewing the way we do church as an organic model, as opposed to a rigid system.

This means that we understand the interconnectedness of relationships, groups, missions and people.

It is funny that we are starting to understand this more and more as the church, but tech company's have been using this organic terminology for years. When Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were recently interviewed at the all things digital conference they both spoke about there products being a part of an "Ecosystem".

My understanding of this term is that if a product that they produce can feed the development of other products it increases the market of their core product. i.e. the iPod drives iPod accessories, Music Sales, Video delivery, Broadband Access... the list goes on. These two smart guys also understand that without the ecosystem then their products will not have as big a market.

If we are to continue to view church as a big amorphous blob of conformity where everybody looks and thinks the same and meets at the same time then we are not an organic church, but a fortress who's walls are not easily bridged by "Not-Yet-Christians". When we move to an organic system the core "product" ie the Gospel of Jesus is able to reach and impact more people in many different ways.

There has been some talk over at signposts about this (where i got my original idea). I am keen to keep exploring this idea of church as an ecosystem.

B-List here I come!

2007-05-29T11:48:00.000+10:00

well not content with sitting at the bottom of the blogpile i have now started my quest to become a B-List blogger... Why you ask.... well i dunno why not!

The first part of my plan for blog domination is that i am "Feature Pastor" at Ra'ah (thanks for the link love Wayne)

So look out Tall Skinny Kiwi and Jesus Creed here comes notyetfinished!

Ok i am sooo deluded .....

music to change the world by

2007-05-23T14:04:00.000+10:00

i have read through both of Mike Frost's books (The shaping of things to come and Exiles) and love a lot of what he has had to say... one point of contention has always been about his views on music, especially against those "Jesus is my boyfriend" type songs....

now i am not keen on songs with bad theology, nor am i keen on over sentimental songs (i am thinking back to one more for Jesus.... if you have done 40days of purpose then you know what i mean...)

but i do like songs of tender devotion, songs that do draw us to the intimate nature of God...

but i have been uncomfortable with some of the themes absent from Church songs today.... I first sung "God of Justice" at a Soul Survivor conference a few years back and i thought to myself "here is something missing... songs about social justice! Songs about Mission!"

After that a few more songs popped into the scene like "Missions Flame" by Matt Redman... but nothing prepared me for the song i heard while browsing over at Mars Hill Bible Church...

Bridges are more beautiful than bombs are
Bridges are more beautiful than bombs
Listening is louder than a lecture
Listening is louder than a shout

But love
Love can change the world
Oh do we still believe that
Love
Love can change the world
Oh do we still believe in
Love love
God is love our God is love and
Love can change the world

An open hand is stronger than a fist is
An open hand is stronger than a fist
Wonder is more valuable than Wall Street
Wonder is more valuable than gold

2005 AARONieq Music (Admin. by Mars Hill Bible Church)

I think this is the sort of song that Frosty has been talking about.... that song that wakes us up to mission, that song that wakes us up to social injustice, that song that is critiquing our host empire, that song that recaptures the fact that God is LOVE not "we fall in love with God"

I like it and will keep it in our setlist for a while.... oh did i mention it is hooky as heck as well... you cant get this song out of ya head!! oh yeh... it also rocks!!

teens have changed the world

2007-05-23T13:08:00.000+10:00

i have been following a really good series of posts over at Out of Ur blog, about how teenagers and "Youth Ministry" have changed the face of the church as we know it.

one of the big elements i see within these articals is that youth ministry has been allowed to innovate, to focus on relationships and is good at getting peoples attention.

as an example of how i have seen this at play in my own life... at one of my previous churches we used to run a youth program before our evening church... it was not to dissimilar to church but we innovated our buts off... we had license to sing different songs, have interactive discussion, do all sorts of cool stuff and we ended every gathering with a shared meal....

there were some of us leaders started to say things after this program like "Ok we have had church now lets goto the after party" (meaning the evening service.... )

now we said this in jest but i truly believed that our pre-church group was being more "church" than the evening service....

now unfortunately due to a number of reasons this didn't end up changing the church completely.... but it did change me... i truly hope that those lessons learned with a bunch of rough teens will shape how i am able to "do" church.... but i hope i will also be able to change and adapt as the next generation is ready to change!

Below are the links to the 3 part artical

How Teenagers changed the church Pt1
How Teenagers changed the church Pt2
How Teenagers changed the church Pt3

love of ear bleeding guitars

2007-05-21T00:49:00.000+10:00

After much procrastination i finally got out to see a good ol indie gig in sydney with Mike and new sydney convert dave. The spectrum on oxford st was the venue and Love of Diagrams the act.

Firstly the venue, this was all class! sticky floors, weird eclectic decor and bathrooms that surely had seen more coke than a vending machine on central station. The PA was loud.... DID I MENTION IT WAS LOUD... yeh i still have ringing ears! the next time i goto this place its ear plugs compulsory!

Support was pretty crazy, a real melbourne love in, a chick called pikelet, who was like a cross between Joanna Newsom and a 1st year arts student, she was using a loop pedel to create weird live loop soundscapes... very cool, very cute... Following her was a band whos name escapes me... a twee bunch of teens that looked like they were straight out of Neapolitan Dynamite! The guy on keyboards looked like a grown version of the asian keyboard kid from School of Rock!

Anyway after that fun Love of Diagrams hit the stage with a blistering ear splitting set, quite dancable and even a bit poppy in places... they defiantly know how to make sound! I think i will check out there tunes in a few days... once the ireperetable sound damage has evened out....

whats that ringing i hear??

digital care

2007-05-16T10:54:00.000+10:00

the last few months we have been doing a weekly roll for church and have worked out this is a great way to know who is with us and who needs follow up and all the "pastoral" stuff. I can totally see the benefit of this but i must admit it feels a little "clinical" a little systematic... all those things that i perhaps am not.

So why is it today i am reviewing and downloading church CRM software?? to track manage family data, attendance etc....

Now it does seem clinical and "mega-church" like.... but i dunno i reckon it might actually be good... i mean why not use the advantages of technology to better care and connect people in church...

just a thought

new podcast

2007-05-11T16:06:00.000+10:00

I have given up on switchpod and moved things for my podcast over to the wonderful sermon cloud. It is now a weekly podcast from the evening church that i am looking after so there will be sermons in the feed from other members of our community, as well as guests.

The podcast will also feture over at the new Maroubra Baptist website.

So click away and subscribe to the new feed.

its raining PM's

2007-05-01T12:18:00.000+10:00

This week the PM "little Johnny" Urged Australians to pray for rain... An interesting artical dropped in my inbox about this from the Centre for Christian Ethics It raised some interesting concerns on what it means for our Government to be calling for drought breaking rain... how does this effect our mission in the world...

I have also been quite concerned at the very "Old Testament" view of a lot of Christians that this drought is somehow a result of "National Sin" im not sure that this is how we should view it...

anyway have a read of this artical (warning long quote)

Prayer for rain and the Prime Minister
by Kristine Morrison

On 20 April The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported the Australian Prime Minister’s call to pray for rain in response to the dire state of the Murray-Darling Basin. This call was endorsed in a media release by Rev Dr Ross Clifford, President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Among other things, Dr Clifford encouraged church leaders around Australia to ensure that time was set aside for prayer each Sunday until the drought was broken, and asked the churches to pray for families severely affected by the drought.

The Herald’s Letters to the Editor section of the 23 April devoted significant space to responses to the Prime Minister’s call to prayer. In contrast to Dr Clifford, respondents were unenthusiastic, derisive and scathing.

Does this diversity of opinions represent a simple divide between secular people, who do not believe that there is a place for prayer in everyday life, and people of faith? Or are there genuine problems with a broadly stated call to prayer from a political leader in a liberal democracy such as Australia?

It is difficult for Christians to voice reservations about a public call to prayer for drought-breaking rain. However, there are some aspects of this call to payer that will trouble praying believers.

Christians are wary of having their prayer life co-opted for the advancement of a particular political agenda. Whilst they may pray and indeed be happy to pray for rain, they may not wish to have their prayer life conscripted for the furtherance of the Prime Minister’s ambition. There are also conditions of prayer and limits to the kinds of things that may be requested in prayer that need to be considered when approaching the Almighty.

Even though Dr Clifford’s statement appears to support the Prime Minister’s call, there are elements in his statement that qualify the endorsement. Dr Clifford reminds us that Christians, particularly those in rural areas, have been praying for rain for many months if not years. Rural communities appreciate – far more acutely than city dwellers – our intimate dependence on the cycles of nature. There is an implicit, if gentle, rebuke for our Prime Minister in the words of our President that is worth noting.

Dr Clifford also suggests that we need to pray for wisdom in the management and restoration of our water resources. It is perhaps this apparent lack of wisdom, revealed by our Prime Minister, that so infuriated the writers to the Herald’s letters page.

They point out that in the past decade of prosperity the government has not seriously addressed water management issues. John Howard is accused of failing to listen to scientific advice about water management and being without an alternative water management plan. His plea for prayer is reckoned by one correspondent to be reasonable only in comparison to being asked to slaughter a chicken.

Though secularists, these writers have proved alert to some of the dilemmas facing those who pray. Is it reasonable to pray to avoid the consequences of something that those who pray may have contributed to? Our squandering of water and our failure to be active in prompting our government to take water management practices seriously does compromise our approach to God.

One writer to the Herald, clearly not a secularist, made a compelling link between the need for repentance and effective prayer. He advocated a day of repentance where the nation could acknowledge both God as the giver of rain and our dependence on the generosity of God to provide for all our needs to accompany our requests for rain. Many of us have prayed to escape the consequences of our actions. However, we can only do this when we express contrition and repentance for such actions. This important and significant aspect of prayer was omitted in our Prime Minister’s call to prayer.

The knowledge of the cyclic nature of rain patterns presents another difficulty for those who pray for rain. We know that higher rainfall in one part of Australia (or the world) usually means less rain in some other part of the continent (or the world). Is it right for us to pray for more natural abundance in our part of the world when other places, already suffering resource depletion, may receive less rain as a result?

Writers to the Herald were also annoyed by our Prime Minister’s apparent lack of cultural sensitivity. Which God was he suggesting that we pray to? Yahweh? The Christian God? Allah? Christians may assume that Mr Howard was referring to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but that may not be clear to all members of our community.

If Mr Howard was only calling Christians to prayer, he was ignoring the religious convictions of many in our community. But if he was making a universalist call to prayer, he ran the risk of insulting Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims alike by flattening the diverse meanings of prayer to a one-note refrain. As a missionary people, aware of cultural sensitivities and the challenges of religious pluralism, Australian Baptists might have hoped that our national leader could provide spiritual direction without alienating significant sections of our community.

Public prayer is not a concept that can be conscripted for political gain. Nor, as Mr Howard has perhaps discovered, is it a motherhood issue that will unite everyone in a surge of good feeling. As Florence Allshorn observed, “the primary object of prayer is to know God better; we and our needs should come second.”

It is too much to expect our political leaders to encapsulate such a profound appreciation of prayer in public statements, but we can wish that they might avoid reducing public calls to prayer to a glib sound bite.

Kristine Morrison is a midwife at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and a member of the Social Issues Committee of the Baptist Churches of NSW and ACT.

state of religion

2007-04-25T22:37:00.000+10:00

watching the Anzac day coverage today had me thinking, i know it has been said before but it seems that the "Anzac Spirit" has become the new state religion, the guiding metanarative for secular Australia....

This new religion of the "Anzac Spirit" is really a syncretism of Christianity and a kind of ancestral worship. Today i heard much about how these young men, who by all accounts were slaughtered by the bad planning of British authorities, forged the ideals that have shaped us as a nation.... but in what way is that true? These men wernt politicians, or activists or idealists... they were doing the job of a soldier....

i know this is politically incorrect way of thinking but as i said this has become the new "State religion" so how should we as Christians respond to this? do we just roll with it? is it bad? is it an opportunity to contextualize the Gospel?

to tell you the truth i am not sure? I can see the emptiness of a world view that is purely a nationalistic view of wars past.... but also how does it effect the way that we move headlong into the new millennium... the war that was to end all wars has not.... we continue to fight and kill, both through conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan etc... and through unjust foreign polices effecting millions in the third world. Do we need to challenge the view that war will "fix" the worlds problems?

a good article to look at over at signposts

any comments?

2007-04-23T18:48:00.000+10:00

I have been busy working on our churches new website and it has just gone live! so check it out

frustration

2007-04-17T12:46:00.000+10:00

its amazing how quickly you can become frustrated in "pastoral" ministry.... as my first experiment in what it means to be a "pastor" (whatever that means) i am finding that there is always more to be frustrated with than to be excited about....

there are many beacons of hope on the horizon but they seem so distant, so far, so unreachable.... still i will press on....

an interesting set of statistics posed on signposts gives a bleak picture of this whole crazy job....

· 80% of pastors say they have insufficient time with spouse and that ministry has a negative effect on their family.
· 40% report a serious conflict with a parishioner once a month.
· 33% say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
· 75% report they’ve had significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
· 58% of pastors indicate that their spouse needs to work either part time or full time to supplement the family income.
· 56% of pastors’ wives say they have no close friends.
· Pastors who work fewer than 50 hrs/week are 35% more likely to be terminated.
· 40% of pastors considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months.

its sad but true ..... hey another Metalica reference....

its friday but sunday is coming

2007-04-06T19:07:00.000+10:00

today we remembered the death of Jesus with a much more "liturgical" gathing than you would find in most baptist churches.... i thought i would post the series of reading and responses... after each reading we said together "Its friday but sunday is coming"

Reading: Isaiah 53:6-7
Response: Kids Song - Son of God
Reading: Isaiah 52:13-14
Response: How deep the Fathers love for us
Reading: Luke 23:26-43
Response: Thief - Third Day
Reading: John 19:28-30
Response: Silence followed by three bell tolls
Reading: 1Cor 11:23-26
Response: Communion
Reading: Mark 15:42-46
Response: Video - Its friday but sunday is coming

EC Cliche

2007-03-15T17:25:00.000+11:00

I was sorting my desk out and thought to myself.... i am an EC cliché!!

the chips are down

2007-03-06T13:20:00.000+11:00

well it looks like i have taken the call to meet those who don't yet know Jesus seriously and i have joined the Australian Poker League playing weekly at the pagewood hotel.

it has been interesting already getting to know the game and some of the people... please pray as i seek to be Jesus to these people...

Oh BTW this week i lost going All in on a K-10 hand i hit on the King then got beaten with trip A's

fire... hehe.... fire...

2007-02-24T11:23:00.000+11:00

I just had to post this pic emma took on friday night at Youth.... one of our girls did some fire twirling.... check it out!

kingdom politics

2007-02-21T12:41:00.000+11:00

This is a cross post from the Vintage Church blog

i was reading this morning Acts 1 and was struck by something the disciples said to Jesus just before he was taken up to heaven. “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” now after all these guys had seen and done you would think that they would have got it! Jesus wasn’t coming to start a new political kingdom, to establish mosaic law and to govern society!

As the state and federal elections grow closer this little incident in Acts 1 begs us to ask this question. Are we still looking for a political Messiah?

Although we have been blessed not to have our faith wrapped up so closely with our politics, as we see in the US, there is still a battle for the hearts and minds of the “believers” vote.

So as we head into this election time let us not think any political party will “establish God’s kingdom” but let us acknowledge that it is though us, though the church being Jesus’ hands and feet here on earth, that we see the Kingdom of God!

vintage church

2007-02-19T22:34:00.000+11:00

i know the posts have been few and far between.... so just to let you all know i am currently working on a little side project... well more of a main project as its a part of my job.

I am experimenting with the concept of a blogged sermon series at church, it will involve me posting podcasts of the sermons as well as addition thoughts from the series.

I will cross post any interesting articals or thoughts, but also if your a non-maroubra notyetfinished reader then feel free to get involved with the talks and discussion on the series blog.

we can be such dills

2007-02-07T13:46:00.000+11:00

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. Matt:23:23

last night me and em were reading this passage where Jesus is ripping into the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, most of the time we focus on the message that it's what inside that counts... and this is true the passage is saying that the outward appearance is not as important as the inward condition.... but I reckon this can actually turn around and bite us on the bum! ... I will explain....

I was also listening to a podcast featuring NT Wright about Gnosticism (gnosticism is basically the belief that the inward "spirit" is good and the world and our body's are bad) and i couldn't help but think we could take these passages in a gnostic sense....

Its ok if the kids in Africa die of preventable diseases, because my soul is saved...

Its ok if the world is being destroyed so i can buy petrol for $1 a liter, because my soul is saved...

Its ok if the homeless in my city are not cared for, because my soul is saved...

Jesus in V23 says that the Pharisees give a 10% of there spices but neglect justice, mercy and faithfulness. Perhaps we need to realise that if our inward life is right then our external action will be changed.... this is opposite to the gnostic thought...

I am not getting on the soap box to say i am good at this... in fact as this message sunk in deeper as i realised how little my inward conviction effects my outward actions...

what do you think?

some kind of monster

2007-01-22T23:04:00.000+11:00

last night i got the chance to finally see the Metallica doco "some kind of monster", now like every kid who grew up in the 90's i had a tape copy of the black album that got a pretty good work over on the walkman, (thats what kids did before napster larz!) it also inspired the love of riffs played way too loud in music rooms at lunch time.

I must admit though that the doco was both hilarious and enlightening, here are the gods of metal in therapy! but the funny thing was that after seeing the "real" metallica i sorta got to like these guys as ordanay people with a pretty wacky job.

... but what would the die hard metal fan think? one who saw James, Kurt and Larz as the uber metal band! I reckon they might be in a bit of disarray, but i think that the "realness" probably won over a whole new generation of fans...

So here is the deal, even in the ego driven world of metal we see a longing to see our stars as real people but in the church are we willing to be that honest?

we seem to get bombarded with a slick home grown "all together" type pastor who wants you to reach the level of perfection that he himself has already obtained....

but is this the best model? can any leader actually live up to this? and does the next generation WANT leaders like this?

i know for myself that leadership can be "some kind of monster" when people look to you for answers or direction i know i quite often think "i don't have it together enough to answer that..."

as this next generation emerges into leadership of the church i really hope that we can be real about the "monster" of leadership.

i pray that as i seek to lead a bunch of people following Jesus that it can be a community that accepts the weakness both in leadership and in each other....

when it comes to church i like the old saying "we are just beggars telling other beggars where to get the bread"

summer passions

2007-01-05T15:46:00.000+11:00

on sunday we will be starting a new series in our evening congregation called "summer passions" and no its NOT about sex.... well not all of it....

it is about our passions what drives us, i am giving a whole bunch of people the chance to share about something they are passionate about, i am keen to hear from people about what drives them.

as i was reflecting on this i began to ask myself, what is it that drives me? what is my passion? well this proved harder than i thought, i could think of many things i am passionate about... many different philosophy's and practice's but i still don't feel i am at the core of what drives me.

humanists will tell us our two driving forces are food and sex (see it was going to be in there somewhere) but as a Christian what should drive us?

the easy answer is God/Jesus/The Bible.... but thats not really it.... perhaps for me at the heart of it what drives me is a sense that things can be different.... that where i am right now isn't the end....

when i look at most of the decisions i have made in my life it is "discontent with the now" that seems to drive me. Call me a dreamer, an iconoclast, an agent of change or an exile i think this is the thing that drives me.

This year i want to give this passion over to God and allow him to shape and direct it

what is your passion?

happy new year

2007-01-01T13:40:00.000+11:00

well another new year is upon us! and things are shaping up pretty well!
after a rocking cocktail party last night i am looking forward to a year full of new things to see myself and our church community stretched and grown... Happy 2007 everybody!

happy snapping

2006-12-29T23:49:00.000+11:00

We are new parents again..... this time to a brand new Canon EOS 400D dSLR! so lots of opportunities to snap great pics of stuff we are doing at church... stuff from where we live... and whatever else passes by our lenses...

em is really pumped as photography is her "thing" she now has the creative outlet...

but my promise is that my blog wont turn into Heartichoke's blog...

the mall blog

2006-12-21T19:47:00.000+11:00

well continuing with my tradition of blogging in interesting locations... i am currently in the middle of the last minute consumerfest that is the local westfeild mall the thursday before Christmas... (i am on a husband saving business called everywhere internet)

all arround me money is changing hands people are over spending and not much more... not i know to have a rant about the consumerism of Christmas is soooo like "95" but well it hasnt changed much...

although i did enjoy this piece i read today which calls into question if Christmas has realy EVER been a Christian holiday...

comments?

am i a baptist?

2006-11-18T14:57:00.000+11:00

well right now i find myself at the 3rd baptist church in a row on my journey with Christ... so does that mean THIS is my fate?

bloggerversary

2006-11-10T13:24:00.000+11:00

well i cant believe it but tuesday was actually my bloggerversary one year since i started my random posts...

so here are what i think are my top 5 posts...

1. please leave me behind - I managed to bag out both sydney anglican evangelism methods and hyper dispensationalist premelinial theology.

2. why the church can be like your gym - the post made my blog look like a muscle man loving site

3. doom review - a disappointing movie because of no exploding barrels

4. train blogging - anybody who has frequented the sydney train system will know exactly what i am talking about

ok well thats my top 4.... i am looking forward to a more prolific year..... well perhaps....

podcast update

2006-11-03T14:38:00.000+11:00

ok i have just uploaded a sermon i gave last sunday morning. it is part of a series we are doing on Ephesians.. you can download it here or subscribe to the podcast.

The Bible passage is Ephesians 4:25-32

won't sombody please think of the children

2006-10-31T22:10:00.000+11:00

this silly catch cry by our favourate pastors wife was rolling around in my mind today as i was relayed a story about a friend who was going to a new "emerging church" plant but has just left because it was felt that the children weren't being well catered for.

Now i don't have any "news" there is no bun in the oven but i was thinking about this because as we seek to contextualize church for the next generation it is easy to forget the spiritual needs and formation of the kids... the "established" church still has the edge over the small emerging movements because they have a long tradition of sunday school and youth ministries...

i can see in my church right now a whole generation that are getting married and having babies, that still identify with the sunday night congregation and im sure will find it difficult in the next few years dragging kids out at 7-8pm sunday nights....

the usual thinking is to transfer to the morning congregation but what if the culture is different? if the fit isn't right?

i don't know if i have answers but only questions on how an emerging flavor of church (that primarily is targeted at the single 20's) can embrace change and grow up without selling out...

any thoughts?

ignite

2006-10-24T16:45:00.000+10:00

please stop sending me all those emails to tell me to update my blog!! ok well ummm actualy i havnt recived any.... so is anybody out there? *cricket chirp*

well i have been a bit slow becouse i have been bogged under with work leading up to the relaunch of youth ministry here at Maroubra Baps, but finaly it is here....

ignite youth is our new name, replaceing the rather strange "bouth" name.... and i have cobbled together a website for info and a blog.... now i will not be abandoning this blog... in no way the blog on the ignite website will be for extra info and "random thoughts" by me and others on my youth team... i may also cross post ideas that are worthwhile...

so have a look, give me some feedback, and rock on......

black stump

2006-09-29T16:16:00.000+10:00

whoooo it is stump time! i am off to blackstump this weekend for my once a year overdose of christian music... i was singing Amy Grant in kmart today.... sombody kill me now....

podcast update

2006-09-27T14:06:00.000+10:00

just letting people know that the 2nd and 3rd parts to the Last the Lost and the Least series were no good on the tape recording so i cant podcast them :(

i think next time i will do a straight to HD recording.....

the valley

2006-09-16T10:28:00.000+10:00

thursday me and em boarded a virgin blue jet and scooted up to brisvegas for em's brothers 21st. this is the first time i have been up to brissy since i was like 14... and i don’t really remember any of it then.

flying in i was like... hey that’s a cute little city, after flying out of the megatropolis that is sydney.

we had a hotel booked in the notorious Fortitude Valley, and well... i like it...

The valley is arguably the cutural centre of brisbane and possible australia when it comes to JJJ worthy aussie rock and we stumbled in on the valley fiesta festival too so lots happening...

anyway i am currently typeing this from a top littel cafe with free wifi! yeh baby! ....

wait a min i think i have just fulfilled every E.C cliche in the book, a white middle class australian drinking a late in the cities bohemian district while blogging using a Mac with free wifi.... yep i have done it, the royal flush!

anyway stay cool... cause you know i am...

first podcast

2006-09-12T15:14:00.000+10:00

well its time for my first ever podcast! this is the sligtly edited talk from last sunday night... enjoy
The Last The Lost and the Least - Part 1
Subscribe to the notyetfinished podcasts here to have the talks downloaded directly to iTunes

the last, the lost and the least

2006-09-10T21:33:00.000+10:00

tonight i had the pleasure of sharing at church... my first sermon at maroubra baptist.... it went pretty good and i linked my blog on the handout, so if your reading this from church, welcome to notyetfinished....

i have included the sermon for download (will try to put the audio on some time)

the video reflection is available here on youtube

and the links to reaserch those looking out for the last in this world...

www.makepovertyhistory.com.au
www.shareanopportunity.org
www.amnesty.org.au
www.oxfam.org.au
www.fta.org.au
www.worldvision.com.au

so please comment add your ideas, voice your doubts, and think about how we can look out and help the last in this world.

a new look

2006-09-05T12:21:00.000+10:00

i know that 2 posts a day is wild for me! but here goes... i have just convered over to the new blogger beta, it has some cool fetures like tags and list management and lots of other things... unfortunatly the templates are still a bit sucky but ill work with this one for a while...

anyway keep checking back as lots of new stuff to come over the next few weeks.

peace

please leave me behind

2006-09-05T10:33:00.000+10:00

ok now this is disturbing! if we didn’t have to contend with our christian bookshops being stocked full of the dogey theology of the left behind books, and as if it wasn’t enough to have Kirk Cameron in a Left Behind movie! It is now time for the Left Behind video game!

this is nothing short than 20 backward steps for Christianity! not only is the theology messed up but apparently in the game you have 2 choices on what to do with the "non-Christians" for 2 points you can try to convert them and for -1 point you can just ... blow their head of..

now i believe the next "tool" we can expect from the left behind franchise will be a rebranded "2 ways to live". It will be called "One way to live, one way for me to bust a cap in your ass!"

mornings

2006-08-22T07:58:00.000+10:00

well its strange but i have discovered mornings.... im not going to claim i am a morning person but the last couple of days i have been up at 7 to see Em off (and to make her a steaming hot travel mug of coffee) and that leaves a good 2hrs before i have to be at work (which is 50m away) so i have this long blissfull period to get ready, eat a proper breakfast and do my quiet time... im not saying i like mornings... but they aint that bad

its official

2006-08-21T13:38:00.000+10:00

well it is official! i had my last day at my full time job on friday and tomorrow start working officially with Maroubra Baptist! it is both exciting and scary that this is all happening....

one thing that has been clear though as i get to know people at church is that there is a real heart to want to reach the lost... it is great to be in a community that is seeking to bring the message of Jesus to the Last the Lost and the Least....

well this should mean that my blogging will step up in frequency as i will have a bit more time, also i have decided to put out my blog on my business card... so if your reading this because your somehow connected to MB then Welcome!

For my regular readers... i hope this wont change too much... i will perhaps have to watch what i say a bit... but this is still the forum for my to dump random and unfinished ideas and hey if Dan Kimball can do it then so can i !

peace

BOUTH TV

2006-08-14T08:24:00.000+10:00

Ok at the risk of this blog becomming a Vlog here is another BOUTH TV installment feturing my loverly wife.... Kath and Kim styles... (yes funny australian accents contained within for my north american readership)

BOUTH TV

2006-08-07T09:21:00.000+10:00

Another BOUTH TV installment, probably wont mean much if you dont know the people but i thought i would pop it up anyway.

we are here!

2006-08-06T12:49:00.000+10:00

after a massive storm and getting soaked we finaly moved into the new place and out of our boxes! Lots more to update on soon!

move day

2006-08-01T11:50:00.000+10:00

quick update we will be moving into Maroubra on friday so right now our life is in boxes. will have more time soon to do some updates

cya :)

BOUTH TV

2006-07-24T17:08:00.000+10:00

ok before a serious post on bubble church here is a little video treat for you, we are doing little promo videos each week at church for our youth program BOUTH ....

bubble church part 1

2006-07-18T20:24:00.000+10:00

well here is some food for thought and some ideas i want to put out for people to think about, as you know i have just taken a job with a baptist church, as it is now its pretty standard sort of church with 2 services youth group small groups and kids ministry... i have been thinking about how a church which is more "contemporary" can move to being more "missional" without dismantling things and thus creating pain for all involved (mainly the leaders trying to hold things together)

anyway when thinking through some things i started to see bubbles.... yes bubbles we have all seen them, sometimes one big one floating through the air, sometimes small and frothy like the head of a beer, anyway i would like to share my bubble theory of church.

A few things about bubbles, they join and share there "stuff" they grow shrink and pop....

So i want to talk about some different ways churches are or can be like bubbles...

The "All in one Bubble Church" this is the simple model of church, one worship gathering and that’s about it, it is small and not that outward focused, the only way into the bubble is through the wall, the boundaries and programs are simple, one gathering, one group...
When an all in one bubble church grows it develops a need to see smaller community happen within the "big group" we see the formation of small groups, youth groups, children’s ministry all these things servicing the needs of those within the bubble. this model provides the community needed but fails to remove the barrier of the wall, there is still a big shift in culture to move "inside" the bubble. Most modern churches are like this, God will quite often still provide growth but we see a very homogenous culture as the people coming in "fit" the bubble.

next post i will share a way to move beyond the single bubble into a missional model of church.

life is a beach

2006-07-14T15:23:00.000+10:00

well its time for an announcement... my secret plans are finally revealed...

I have accepted a new job with Maroubra Baptist Church. This will start in about 6 weeks where i will be the new Youth Pastor (although i dont relay like that title...)

Check out my new hood!

so stay tuned for more details that i will post as they come to hand.

As experienced by dave being on church staff and blogging can be a perilous activity, but more on my future plans (dont worry loyal legions of fans i will not abandon ye!)

catch you on da flipside
(what the heck does that mean?)

Hillerious?

2006-07-05T09:40:00.000+10:00

for the first time in 8 years i haven’t made the pilgrimage to the australian alps for the Young Life winter camp, but this gave me the chance to check out sydney’s wonderful hillsong conference, 20 years strong.

ok so i admit i had alteria motives for going along last night, delirious? were playing and i am a huge fan.

So the night started with finding our seats right up up uppp in the rafters on the Acer Arena, we were sitting behind the stage... i was a little pissed... but then we got moved to one section that was better, then another that was even better (reminding us of our last hillsong seating fiasco)

Anyway.... the night started with a really quite good video and then the band cut in with 2 rather lackluster songs, it was hard to really get into it and jump around fearing you may slip and fall 20 stories to you death...

After that was the obligatory giving talk where i believe the guys point was about being high yield and low maintenance, i have know idea what he meant but at least it was too baffling to be terrible...

finally they unleashed delirious? on stage, and it was worth sitting through the rest, these guys just love to rock out and worship all in the same breath! They played a good mix in there 9 song set, mainly from the Mission Bell album but with the old skool History Maker thrown in for good measure.

so after a great time with delirious? we then had to sit through some guy called Rick Goodwin, now as he walked out on stage i was like "Quick call ray martin, i have found the guy who stole his hair" but apart from the plastic fantastic look of the guy he spoke about being Salt. Now i have heard most of what he said before, in fact i don’t think any of his ideas or points were that original but he also seemed to contradict himself a few times when it comes to the application. I find it hard when you hear these mega church guys say something and you say "i agree with that" but then there application of the point is sooo off the mark!! for example...

Rick said, as many others have noted, that salt brings out the flavor in food, it exists to enhance other things not bring attention to itself. Now i agree and my application of that would be that we need to bring salt to our culture, to redeem those things in our culture through Jesus, but somehow Rick made it that we need to create our own culture the is counter culture to the world around us.... not does that not seem like a big bowl of salt? i don’t want to eat a bowl of salt...

anyway thats my rant, more rants soon im sure.... oh by the way check out this vid by the chaser on hill$song

peace

im standing on the rock, and my name is on the roll....

2006-07-03T09:29:00.000+10:00

Once again I do apologise for the recent lack of activity on the blog front, I am currently working on some stuff that has taken up a lot of my thought and time, but cannot be revealed just yet…. Soon my loyal legion of fans…. (a cricket chirps in the background…)

Anyway I currently have a rock in my pocket, ummmm… no seriously, on Sunday night we heard a great message on the armour of God, specifically about the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.

We were encouraged to chose a memory verse and write it on a rock to meditate on for the week, and I chose John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

I love this verse because it is both an encouragement and a big fat slap around the head, It encourages us because we know the it is Jesus who is working through us…. But it slaps us around the head and says but remember it is Jesus working through you NOT you working for Jesus

When it all comes down to the rock I wrote my memory verse could be used by God to declare his praise, but the wonderful privilege is that he choses us, choses us to be his hands and his feet. What an encouragement and what a reality check.

thin on the ground....

2006-06-22T09:16:00.000+10:00

ok so i know the posting has been a bit.. thin on the ground... but well... perhaps i have had nothing to say, well no thats not true i am just a lazy bum...

anyway a few andy updates, yes i am still going to the gym (not the biggest loser ... yet) and i am still working at my less than exciting job.

Em and I are currently talking about next year as we both want to study and working out how that might look, there are a few options in the pipline but we will wait and see.

Grandmaster flash is growing and is turning into a big ass cat...

so something a little more exciting soon.

peace

why church can be like your gym

2006-05-22T13:07:00.000+10:00

ok so this is not my new body shot, i still have a sizable gut, but i have started working out at our local gym. The cool thing is that not many people look like this guy.... in fact who does?? talk about a condom stuffed with walnuts!

Anyway......

I have noticed some parallels between the modern gym and the modern church and here they are in no particular order.

1.The motivation to go to church/gym : I got off my ass to the gym because well i know that i need to lose some weight and i wont be able to do it "alone" some sort of vain self improvement i guess... So why do most people join a gym? usually they want something for themselves a better body, more fitness or perhaps it is motivated by fear, one guy i met in the change rooms said "my girlfriend said i better get down here because im 50 and i wont be around much longer if i don’t do something"
To often the modern church offers the "self help" gospel the "you can live a better life" message where we go to church because we want to get "better" have less sin, perhaps become a buff and ripped "super christian"

2.the professionals V the rest: Ok i have only been at the gym for a little bit but i don’t think its the guy on the bike next to you that designs your fitness program in fact usually its only the staff that give you any advice or encouragement, they teach you how to use the machines and get you started... but of cause because the staff to user ratio is so high you don’t even see them that much.
So to in the modern church if we are all driven by the "self help" reason for being at church we tend not to have anything more than a surface relationship with other people, sure the people in positions, the senior pastor, the small group leaders all try there best but once again the staff to user ratio is up there (unless your at a small pentecostal church where everybody tends to be a pastor?? i just don’t get it)

3.when you give up: now im sure that if i stoped coming to the gym i might be lucky if i got a call wanting to know where i was. in fact because my direct debit comes out each month im sure it doesn’t matter if i am there or not.
So to in the modern church when we get large or just to focused on the unimportant things we lose track of who "isnt" there we are constantly trying to bring in new "members" but the backdoor stays wide open and we sit back and wonder why we haven’t grown.

now i dont know if churches need to stop being like gyms or if gyms need to be more like churches, either way we need to capture a greater sense of community arround what we call church. It is not a business and i am not a consumer....

king of the hill goes to the MEGA church!

2006-05-19T13:51:00.000+10:00

footloose and the emerging church

2006-05-06T09:50:00.000+10:00

last night I had the privilege of leading some worship for a young life leaders gathering here in Sydney, it was a great time.. I also got to catch up with some friends from Sydney that have decided to come check out Breathe, as I spoke to them about some of their reasons for leaving their last church the all to common story came through.

“We feel like we are different because we want to be “missional” we feel “different”

I thought back to my feelings in the “institutional” church and I have felt the same.. I have always felt… well I felt like Kevin Bacon in Footlose. (stay with me this is going somewhere)

it just happened that footloose was on TV late last night so I decided to watch it, and it is a good parable of emergence. (not that I think emerging church is all dancing and screwing the pastors daughter) but here we see a town controlled by a church structure that is forcing the “kids” into its mould and the “kids” rebel and run their own dance…

now surly the motivation for emergence is different but the feeling is the same, when you feel the structure your in needs a shake up and you feel like everybody is against that change, now sure that change might be a bit scary, it might seem to be immoral (perhaps having church where lots of non-ers feel safe to attend, but that teen angst that we have all felt has grown up, it is turning into a movement, the dance party is coming.

as more and more people move away from traditional church structures we start to realise that we are not “different” but many like minded people are willing to journey with us. I spoke to another friend just recently who has just started being a part of a missional emerging church and he was like “I can never go back”

Kevin bacon was able to dance his way to change in a small town suffocated by religion I pray that those with a healthy dissatisfaction with the way things are will also “move” into action and seek change or band together with other like minded people.

emergent’s unite!

augie march

2006-05-01T09:55:00.000+10:00

well saturday night was gig night for me and em and we rocked up to the newly renovated newtown RSL now known as @newtown. the venue was awesome a great fit out and of cause cheep club prices for drinks....

the support act for the night was dan kelly and the alpha males, and in true sydney style the room gave a "sitting ovation"...

Dan and the band did a great little set though with rambling alt. country sensibility highlights included the JJJ hit "C##k S@##ing Mother F#@#ing" such sweet harmonies to such dirty words.

But of cause most people were there to see Augie March, This being the second of 3 sold out sydney gigs meant the crowd was half die hard fans and the other half "oh yeh that new band with the One crowded Hour, song"

Augie hit the stage and in true fashion Glen the lead signer/Diva of the band wasn’t happy with his guitar tuning, the foldback or the front of house mix. They were able beat out blistering versions of some of there new songs. One Crowded hour was like 3rd on the set list and i am supprised that half the crowd didnt go home after that.. but then came the time that wins over most people, the soft acoustic numbers where Glens Jeff Buckly'ish voice stops people in their tracks.

Despite more Diva tantrums and fold back problems the set was awesome although all too short.

will Augie now be the darlings of australian music? well they did do rove.... i don’t know, but i still pine for the days of 2 hr sets and too much drinking of red wine...

google your own name

2006-04-20T08:46:00.000+10:00

this was the command of an artical i was reading so of cause i did it... i would just like to share some of the cool things that i do....

i seem to be the lead singer and guitarist for a Band called Destroy Cowboy

i play soccer for the Alfreton Town Football Club see num 81

i am the events coordinator for the student union of reading university

wow looks like i realy get arround ;)

random thoughts

2006-04-14T00:52:00.000+10:00

I now have a sweet little blogger dashboard widget. so i might post some little random thoughts every now and then...

I will be away over easter on the Young Life retreat! whooo hooo.... it will be fun

cya (perhaps on the flipside dave?)

the canberra gravy train

2006-04-07T21:27:00.000+10:00

ok so despite my usual joy in paying out those well paid under worked public servants, this post is about something even more essential to the "culture" of canberra.

For those that dont know there is usually nothing in canberra open past 8pm and thus the lat night snack after church.. or a gig is hard to find... in fact you have only a few choices, all of them are able to be towed away on the back of a 84 commodore with a towball... that’s right the infamous canberra food carts. Let me do the review of these fine establishments.

The Doghouse - Sadly no longer with us this was the best of the bunch, it had an item called "The Drovers Dog" this burger was 2 beef patties, 2 steaks, double bacon, a kransky sausage and a slice of cheese between each slab of meat! It was so big it wiped out some of the biggest eaters i have known... even i had problems getting through it...

Checkers - located near the belconnen community centre this was a fav after a movie or Young Life.. the house specialty was a double bacon and egg burger.

The G Spot. ok have you finished giggling yet... this had the most creative menu with the bastard, the bloody bastard (both burgers with or without different toppings) and the great "cone" of chips.

the one thing that linked each of these places together was one ingredient, one thing that no matter where you went was the same.... the Gravy...

Whenever you ordered chips and gravy a thick drenching of salty goodness smothered the chips so that the only way to eat it was with the plastic fork provided. I always wondered... "how did that gravy come to be? what strange process produced this artery clogging goodness"

I now know, for on a trip to find gravy at the local supermarket emma picked up the cheapest most bogan looking gravy and i sware from MUCH experience that this is it... the holy grail... the canberra gravy train...

so now the secret revealed with "Sooo! Gravy"

the negatives of positive

2006-04-06T15:58:00.000+10:00

Over at aropaxnation, dave shared a great little post about negativity in christian circles, this prompted a reply that got too big and turned into a post…. So here are my 3 approaches to the question of questioning, be it theology or practice….

1. The happy clappy cult of positivity- sung "where never is heard a discouraging word.... and something about deer and antelopes" where critique is always bad. I remember hearing a former H##%$*%G pastor saying from the pulpit. "you can write me a complaint but it will get filled in the round bin next to my desk.

2. The oh so PoMo cult of negativity – Where we like to cut down just for the fun of it (and it can be fun), but this can defiantly get you down after a while and not allow anybody to say boo without somebody coming up and saying “Well actually in the Greek boo had many different meanings and well yours is wrong sooo…. DIE IN HELL HERETIC”

3. The culture of community – This I believe is the middle ground, in any functioning community there is encouragement, good debate and a willingness to have all members of the community involved… when we have this culture we can sit around discussing the theology of the talk we have just heard and feel open enough to either agree or disagree. Criticism becouse a tool to improve when it is done in a loving community.

I know that these are caricatures but I believe I have experienced both the extremes and the middle ground, and I know the middle ground gives much freedom.

Lets strive for the middle ground or as I like to term it… The Radical Middle!

I'm so postmodern....

2006-03-21T20:47:00.000+11:00

In the words of the Bedroom Philospher

"I'm so post-modern I've got a tattoo of my pin number in hieroglyphics on my neighbour's guide dog"

I have been reading "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church" by that stalwart of reformed thinking, Don Carson.

So far has been an interesting read, for although it tends to pan most of the emerging church conversation, he does make a few good points about the often over used and cliché term "Postmodernism"

He is quick to point out firstly that most of the emergent writings are usually “Modern BADDD, post-modern GOOOOD”, this is a good point as we seem to want to draw the good out of many traditions except late 20th Century Modernism so there is a call for balance.

The other thing is that he highlights the use of post-modernity has now become a Christian "Buzz Word" which is able to sell more books and get more people to conferences... this i do see from the distance over here in Australia. He also talks about how we use the term post-modern for the rapid rate of change in society (even if it isn’t really "post-modern" change) so what the hell is post-modernity anyway!!

All this reminds me of a few conversations i have had in a group of friends some who would make Calvin seem a little catholic and others who have tended to the trendy starbucks PoMo lifestyle. One thing has been common and that is that we don’t really want to be modern or post-modern... we want to be followers of Jesus....

I think when it boils down to it our world is now so diverse in they ways people think from country to country and generation to generation that we must seek to continually contextualise the gospel to those we seek to reach.

so am i post-modern? it would be way too UnPoMo to admit either way ;)

coffee anyone?

2006-03-07T19:03:00.000+11:00

well last sunday was a great time! i had the chance to hang out with dave which is always good... and we had the first official evening service called "Breathe" at bayside community church. it was so cool in Gloria Jeans and all...

to counterpoint this experience we decided to visit hillsong in the morning, now without going on a big "hill$ong" rant which is soooo cliché i just wanted to show one thing that seems the same but shows the contrast between the "Mega Church" and the emerging style church...

At Hillsong they bring Gloria Jeans into church

At Breathe we brought church into Gloria Jeans...

there is a big difference between these 2 attitudes .... please comment on your thoughts...

peace

i am back

2006-03-04T19:23:00.000+11:00

well i am BACK after a long hiatus of no activity the notyetfinished blog is back in action! Today the man from optus made me verry happy by installing a coaxial cable that pumps 10MBit of internet goodness directly into my Study/Studio....

So back to that promise of daily blogging... it will be happening again... i cant promise that any of it will be good, but i will try to keep it "real"

keep blogging

train blogging volume 2

2006-02-09T18:26:00.000+11:00

well I suppose I should let people know that I am not actually dead… I have just been so busy and netless at home (a problem soon to be rectified!). so once again I am relegated to typing my thoughts on the train…

I suppose I want to give props to those who do the 9-5 thing every day of their lives. I have realised that I have never actually worked 9-5. Don’t get me wrong I am not some slacker who has never worked, I have just never worked normal hours… can I say that after a month the monotony is really getting to me…. When each day blurs into the next…

I have always thought that those who are involved with church and don’t “serve” in some way are “slackers” but if you have a wife and a family (no there is no news!!) then there isn’t much time left in your week when your trying to forge a living in this good ol’ consumer driven society we live in…

[rant about consumerism edited so you don’t get bored and so I can save for a plasma TV]

a glimmer of hope…

as I think about how I am to live and serve as a christian a glimmer of hope is sparkling on my horizon. The church me and em have been visiting the last few weeks is starting a new evening service and I think this is the real deal! A church in Australia trying to emerge from the evangelical side of things…. I attended a meeting about this service and it was like walking into a Dan Kimbal Blog entry ;)

sooooo hope, yes hope……

the worst tshirt in the world

2006-01-21T22:04:00.000+11:00

ok once again a lazy post.... i remember the one cheesy christian tshirt i had it was "Jam for the Lamb" wow sooo bad.... but here is a post from Dan Kimball who saw and even worse one... interesting discussion about evangelism follows...

www.dankimball.com

questions to ask as a christian...

- Who are non-Christians that right now you pray for by name on a regular basis?

- Who are non-Christians that you have been building friendships with and hanging out with socially? When is the last time you went to dinner, or a movie with a non-Christian?

- Do you even think about those outside the faith, or just your friends who are already Christians?

- How will others know that the guy on the plane is not a normal Christian, if we are spending our time all consumed with Christian-things and Christian community rather than also building relationships with those outside the faith?

grandmaster flash

2006-01-19T21:15:00.000+11:00

ok here is a pic of the newest porteous... Grandmaster Flash!

oh crap i have just turned my blog into a "look at my cat" website....

train bloging

2006-01-18T08:51:00.000+11:00

well it seems until I get the net at home I am going to be reduced to quickly typing out my thoughts on the train then upload it at a later date.

it's funny the things you see on the train as you speed along with a thousand other people sleepy eyed about to face another day of work. a few observations I have made a week into the new job.

1. the ubiquitous iPod: it seams that cityrail are issuing these along with a weekly ticket because every second person is listening to their own personal soundtrack via those trendy white connections. Its funny I was thinking how for me quite often the music I am listening to defines the way I see life and the world.. imagine how many “alternative realities” are coexisting on my morning train…

2. the art of filling a train: its amazing how the convention of filling seats on the train is so well known but “unpublished”. on sydney trains there are 2 rows, one of 2 seaters and one of 3 seaters, the 2 and 3 seaters both fill up along the window first then when all the windows are taken commuters move onto the aisle seats on the 3 seaters, then when they are all full the middle of the 3 seaters and the aisles of the 2 seaters fill up. one thing I have noticed is that if you sit in the window of the 2 seaters and set up the laptop and look really busy your seat stays free until all other options are taken. thus why train blogging is good

i'll post some more observations at a later date…

from a christian in training (pun intended)

work work work work work

2006-01-16T16:23:00.000+11:00

well i have totaly screwed any chance of keeping my reselution but oh well.... i have been pretty busy starting a new job and i dont yet have net at home... so thats my excuse...

couple of things to keep people updated. We have a great church experience yesterday as we visited Bayside Community Church and well... it was pretty good. A growing young church great preaching :)

so we will see how things go (it is also only 5 min from home)

will try to grab some time at lunch this week to put on small updates

cya :)

broken already....

2006-01-09T15:37:00.000+11:00

ok so my first thing for the new year was to blog every day... busted....

but i feel i have a good excuse, we have spent the last few days relocating to good ol sydney town. we have moved into a great 3 bedroom house and we have a cat!!

now as for the cats name... unfortunatly Sir Mix-A-Lot missed out but we went with "Grandmaster Flash" or flash for short..

I will post up some pics soon... till then

peace

big butts and pets

2006-01-04T16:39:00.000+11:00

before you get married there are many things that need to be discussed, you need to know that down the track there aren't huge major things you disagree about. Obviously for me, a christian, emma's commitment to Christ was important, we needed to talk about many other things as well..

one of them that is most important is.... pets..

we were both keen to have a pet or two and we agreed that from now all our pets would be named after 90's rappers. This list is endless ... Ice Cube, Snoop doggy dog (great name for a cat)... etc. etc.

anyway when we get to sydney we are both keen on a kitten and i am keen on naming it Sir Mix A Lot! yeh baby its the ultimate 90's track "I like big Butts"

anyway after checking the wikipedia for Sir Mix A Lot info i came across the website www.sirmixalot.com your one stop shop, for the mix a lot!

and there it was i couldn't believe my eyes! A free email address @sirmixalot.com

i can now also* be reached at:

notyetfinished@sirmixalot.com

*i will probably forget about this in like 2 weeks, so dont like change my email in your address book....

out done

2006-01-03T20:05:00.000+11:00

now in my quest to blog everyday in 2006 i will try to keep it original....

but today dave managed to write an article that topped me! the only thoughts i had today were summed up in my comment...

so take a trip over to aropaxnation and join the comments, i would like to see where this rabbit hole takes us.

a gem from the past

2006-01-02T21:35:00.000+11:00

i was sitting through our church's christmas eve service, i was a bit out of it, not really "into it". But one thing popped out at me.

We did this carol which had the Gloria chorus in it "Gloria in excelsis deo" (not the great Van Morrison song G.L.O.R.I.A!!)

anyway the line stuck in my head i didnt quite know what it ment, (not being fluent in latin) so i turned to the source of all knowlage, the wiki!

anyway this little gem known as the "Great Doxology" really today is still a fantastic bit of praise to our glorious Lord! I might now work the chorus into a worship set.....

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise You,
we bless You,
We adore You,
We glorify You,
We give thanks to You for
your great glory,
Lord God, Heavenly King,
God Almighty Father.
Lord Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
You Who take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
You Who take away the sins of the world,
hear our prayer.
You Who sit at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For You alone are holy,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
With the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

happy new year

2006-01-01T11:16:00.000+11:00

well another year has passed and the new year lays ahead of us like an innocent full of possibilities! As 12 came around last night, me and a few friends sat around watching the sydney fireworks on TV (lets face it the canberra ones weren't worth a look)...

Anyway the theme for the nye celebrations was the Heart.. standing for "love & compassion" in a year when we saw australia dig deep for the tsunami victims....

now i don't want to get all down on this idea as i think it is great! but the fact is that we spent another couple of mil$$ on patting ourselves on the back when we haven't made a dent in the needs of this world...

and the worse thing is the clearest voice on compassion in the world is not coming from the church but from secular institutions like sydney city council???

so for me 2 ny resolutions

1. To blog every day (well at least try to)
2. To try and work out how to wake the church to the lost world around us and seek positive change!

i am sure it wont take me long to screw both of them up but its worth a try

peace! and happy new year!

you know you live in canberra when....

2005-12-30T16:45:00.000+11:00

all your friends stop blogging and disappear between dec 10 and jan 2nd!

well i am no different although we now officially have a place to live in sydney! YAY a full on 3 bedroom house with polished wood floor boards freshly painted... tis nice and ill post piccies when we are in.. the move date is the 6th jan.

so oh yeh... i am now a married man see below for proof!

click here for more photos

i will be a little slow on the blog till i move to sydney but im telling you 2006 will be a big blogging year! keep commenting and giving me heaps!

oh yeh and if you read this and DON'T have a blog... get one! join the conversation

when it rains it pours

2005-12-08T16:37:00.000+11:00

well blogosphere it is only 2 more sleeps till the big day.... am i excited or what! i will lose my singledom on saturday!

today i have been in sydney and had 4 job interviews! and in a major coincidence (or providence) in the waiting room of the nursing home i was being interviewed in was one of my old scout leaders (yes i was in scouts... stay tuned for my post on "i was a part of a Jungle Book cult") and anyway he practicaly offered me a job...

so this is a crazy little time when it seams everything is happening at once..... but all good!

peace

more decisions

2005-12-06T09:30:00.000+11:00

well i have applied for i think over 200 job adds in the last 2 weeks (must be some record) most of which i am in no way qualified for... but i still have a few interviews which is great!

i am a little worried that i will jump to soon into a new job, but at the same time it might be God's timeing to set something up quickly so the move to sydney is made easy..

its hard to know so hey bloggers, can ya pray for me...

peace

Also this is realy funny

broken link

2005-12-05T13:06:00.000+11:00

dont you just hate it when you click on a link and you get that 404 error....

Try this link

dead man walking

2005-12-02T09:23:00.000+11:00

well first i have to apologise for not blogging daily (sarah ahhhm) but this is all still new to me .... last night i spoke at my last young life club in canberra and it was awesome to have one final opportunity to share with the kids. I shared the story of the crucifixion from the point of view of the theif. so i thought id share that today

i was thinking about the fate of australian Van Nguyen who but only a few short hours ago was hung by the singaporean government. despite the best efforts of the australian government and lawyers he fate was sealed... there was a certainty that this was the end.

this go me thinking about another man who faced the inevitability of the death sentence we don’t know a whole lot about this man We don’t know what he did exactly but we know he made some messed up decisions that led him to put to death in an awful way through crucifixion. He was a criminal, a guy who deserved this punishment by the laws of the day

he was led out to this place outside of the city and stripped naked 3 nails were driven into his body and he was raised up in front of a screaming crowd. I can imagine he would have been thinking “If Only I hadn’t done …. If only I had kept on the straight and narrow”

he looked across to the other two people crucified next to him he recognized one as another criminal he had been locked up with just as deserving of this punishment… then his eyes caught the eyes of the other man, eyes he had seen before, his mind flashed back to when he had seen this man before… It was Jesus… the Messiah… so many thoughts came rushing through his head… what has he done wrong? How did he get in this position?

then the other criminal yelled at this man Jesus saying “Aren’t you the King? Why don’t you save yourself… and us while your at it!”

the man was tempted to agree with the other criminal but he thought it over and said “This man has done nothing wrong! And WE deserve to be here after what we have done” then he turned to Jesus and said “remember me when you come into your kingdom”

now Jesus said the words that his heart longed to hear, he said “Today you will be with me in paradise!” (See Luke 23:32-43 )

now this man is one of the few people that we know directly is in Heaven because Jesus promised him directly… and what did he do to deserve heaven? He didn’t go to church.. he didn’t pray 10 times a day.. he wasn’t born into nice middle class white family.

no he simply admitted that he had stuffed things up and put his trust in Jesus!

as christians we tend to lay the extra bits on thick and fast after this point, saying stuff like...

to be a real christian we must go to the right type of church... or read the right translation of the Bible... or make sure we dont let women preach (unless its sunday school or youth) <-- ok i am being naughty now... but the simple fact is that Jesus accepted this man on less than what we tend to push on those we find coming to faith.... i await the onslaught of comments ;)

scars of fire

2005-11-29T11:55:00.000+11:00

i was in sydney this weekend for a few last minute wedding things and it was interesting to once again be in a city that is so big and eclectic... i mean it was a shock, after so long in good old planed canberra, to see roadside advertising, service stations on the side of main roads and front fences!

i am both looking forward and dreading the move, i feel like the city might be big enough to engulf me but at the same time i see glimmers of hope for our very own "sin city"

i remember one time back in sydney a few years ago i was walking through an area that was decimated by one of the many fires that have swept through the bushland. as i walked through tall trees black with the scars of the inferno, i saw on the upper limbs, little green buds that were shooting out from the branches bursting out to produce the much needed life that the tree needed...

As i walked my mp3 CD walkman (the feeble excuse for not getting an iPod) loaded up this song by enter the worship circle and i had it one of those God invading moments where things connect and you just know the Lord is speaking.

You have redeemed my soul
From the pit of emptiness
You have redeemed my soul
From death

I was a hungry child
A dried up river
I was a burned out forest
And no one could do anything for me

But you put food in my body
Water in my dry bed
And to my blackened branches you brought the
springtime rain of new life
And nothing is impossible for you

a change is as good as a holiday

2005-11-25T10:51:00.001+11:00

well because i realise that i have the same blog template as half the world (including meg) i have hacked my current template to customise it...

sort of like putting a big spoiler and plastic "mag" covers on an excel and punching a few holes in the exhaust...

stay tuned for more crazy colours and images as my blog template enters a state of flux....

the merch table is open

2005-11-23T12:48:00.000+11:00

as i am now in the process of the move back to sydney, i was thinking about some good times i have had in sydney...

i remember back in the day when koorong opened up its big MEGA store, in what used to be the old west ryde pub, me and a few friends would go and look at all the tacky christian merch that was on offer... from WWJD bands and dogtags to a perfume called "Essence of Jeruselm" (seriously i am NOT kidding)

now that we are well and truly in the digital age its good to see the marketers of tacky christian merch have met my fav consumer goods item the iPod...

now i dont know but... you think we might be missing the point?

oh and by the way Young Life t-shirts are NOT tacky merch.... they are cool ok...

to PoMo for "church"

2005-11-22T12:53:00.000+11:00

in response to daves comment on my being to PoMo to even use the word church... i thought i would gauge what term people think i should use....

the big move

2005-11-21T08:53:00.000+11:00

ok here it is... the big decision....

due to some family health issues, me and Emma will be packing our bags and heading to Sydney in the new year...

This decision has been really hard and not easy but i believe it is both the right decision and God is defiantly confirming this for us...

please if you know me and em please pray for a few unresolved things...

1. we have nowhere to live after the 21st Dec (we would like to stay in canberra up till the 22nd of Jan but unless we find short term accommodation it wont be happening)

2. i've got no idea what i am going to be doing job wise (i am busy applying for jobs i am in no way qualified for... but you never know)

3. we are not sure where we are going to hang with other christians and would love to find somewhere in sydney that is both "cutting edge" and supportive

so now you all know my secret reason for starting a blog... i will miss canberra people greatly... but i will make a commitment to blog every day (well most days) so that i can stay in touch and continue to share this journey towards Christ together....

peace

decisions

2005-11-17T11:45:00.000+11:00

it is always hard to make decisions when you are trying to discern "Gods will" i mean i don’t often get that audible voice experience... nor do i believe if i make the "wrong decision" that this is going to somehow make God say "Oh great now what am i going to do..."

some thoughts...

1. have i thought about God in the decision ?
2. have i thought about others?
3. do i trust that God will love me no matter which decision i make?

the third seems simple, but i find it hard... i mean in work in school in every area of life people tend to judge us by our "decisions" but God loves us based on HIS decision... to send Jesus...

anyway stay tuned for my "decisions"

center left? or left behind?

2005-11-15T10:53:00.000+11:00

not wanting to get toooo political but found this little quiz interesting

Click for Quiz

looks like i am a centre left type person...

what are you?

2005-11-14T14:55:00.000+11:00

why is it that so much of the christian life seems to only pay lip service? i mean when we talk about evangelism or worship or service or social justice it seems like we only "talk"

Jesus was a man of action not just talk

Luke 7:11-17

i reread this today thinking "did Jesus do this then sit there explaining that he was a great prophet Gods Son sent to earth etc.....? "

nope he simply has compassion on this poor woman, who has lost her husband and now her son... then through his actions people start praising God!!!

how many times do we do a "compassionate act" because it might lead us to an opportunity to get the REAL message in.... what if the compassion IS the real message?

just a thought....