Thoughts and Amusings

WE HAVE MOVED

2007-12-17T19:58:00.000+13:00

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Friday Five - Rejoice Edition

2007-12-14T22:28:00.000+13:00

Those observant ones of you will notice down on the side bar that I am a revgal pals member. RevGalPals is an online community of Women involved in ministry (or support women in ministry) and operate a blog ring. To see some of the others in the community click on next/previous/random etc. Anyway every friday our community runs this thing called the Friday five where our 'leaders' if you will ask us some questions and we answer them. So here goes........

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Can you believe that in two days we'll be halfway through Advent? Gaudete Sunday: pink candle on the advent wreath, rose vestments for those who have them, concerts and pageants in many congregations. Time to rejoice!

Rejoice in the nearness of Christ's coming, yes, but also in the many gifts of the pregnant waiting time when the world (in the northern hemisphere, at least) spins ever deeper into sweet, fertile darkness.

What makes you rejoice about:

1. Waiting?
The thing at the end (after the waiting is over)

2. Darkness?
Oh I sound so christianesque..... the light! And knowing that Jesus is there!

3. Winter?
The smell! My goodness winter smells beautiful. Ice, rain and warm fires. However I must say it is summer over here at the moment so the memories are faint......

4. Advent?
Time to ponder and to focus on different aspect of God and his character!

5. Jesus' coming?
Wow, you know it has only dawned on me this year the eschatological significance that Christmas holds in the Christian calender. Without it there is no way that we could have that hope that we have in his second coming or again be free in the freedom we have in him now due to his first coming (Romans 6-8).

My rejoicing also comes from the fact in the knowledge that I am not yet home and it is still coming, something I have been holding onto in the darkness as of late!

The middle class dilemma

2007-12-12T11:01:00.000+13:00

Inspired by Mark (commenter in the last post) and by this very good Cartoon. from Asbo Jesus

It's interesting when you go to all the big Christian websites such as focus on the family, cross walk, Christianity today the pictures of Christians they present......

Is this really what we aspire to?

Or just what we are a part of?

New Life Shootings

2007-12-11T11:46:00.000+13:00

It is said that when part of the church hurts we all hurt. Oh God might that be so. May we be on our knees for those in the west and the east , in the north and the south where violence jars the image of the peace of the Christ Child.

On Sunday in America the church of New Life and YWAM (in 2 different places and locations) were affected by shootings.

The shooting at New Life Church saw Matthew Murray, a former Homeschool student from a religious family (didn’t attend the church) kill two sisters and injure several others. It is here where God’s grace, mercy, wisdom and all those other words that I want to be start to glimmer despite the horror.

Murray was killed by an armed female security volunteer at the church before police arrived. The security guard was not on duty but felt the Holy Spirit urge her to take her gun that day**.HT boundlessline Despite the shooter wearing a bullet proof vest, the guard's aim killed the shooter and in effect saved hundreds of lives as he did not get that far into the building. There were 7000 people in worship when the shooting erupted. They were safely evacutated downstairs to a basement where they stayed for 4/5 hours as the church ground was cleared of a range of smoke generating devices around the grounds.

It is here where I am in awe of the people of New Life and God’s work in them :

Ashley Gibbs was getting into a car with David Harris when they heard the gunshots — a sound like someone kicking ice from the side of a car, she said.Harris said he saw the gunman, and it looked like he knew how to handle a weapon…… They stayed in the vehicle and prayed for the gunman. "It was obvious that he was in some sort of pain and going through a lot," Gibbs told "Today." "I just prayed God would bring him peace– Fox News

From the press conference – quotes from Pastor of New Life, Brady Boyd.

... our hearts go out to the family of this young man, the attacker, he has a mom and dad somewhere, he has a family, and we want them to know that at New
Life Church we are praying for them. We know that there is a grieving process
for them as well, and we certainly are praying for that family

We had a detailed evacuation plan in place given all kinds of scenarios, and had a large group of people that knew what to do, we had places on our campus that were designated as holding areas, and people were taken there immediately. People were ushered off the campus or taken to safe places. We had security details in each of those locations to keep people safe. That's the reality of our world. I don't think any of us grew up in churches where that was a reality, but today it is. So we prepared in advance for that, and because of that, although we are grieving today because of the loss of two lives, hundreds of lives were saved because of the plan we had in place. We are grateful to God for giving us the wisdom to do that and for protecting us yesterday.

** I am not one in favour of Arms control, however this is not what this post is about. The fact that this is what this woman felt she was urged to do by the HS is what is at call here. One's cultural perceptions (of arms control or any other matter) should not get in the way of allowing God to move or in being able to see God move. It is a sad day when ones cultural perceptions become moral absolutes. You may like to refer to my previous post on this issue....

How to get ahead in Africa

2007-12-09T19:38:00.000+13:00

Last night I was channel flicking after a hard day at work. I landed upon a program on CNN. An eye opening program that again made me cry (I seem to do a lot of that :P)

The documentary is entitled 'How to get Ahead in Africa' a tongue in cheek title. The Program is effectively a hard look at the corruption issue that is behind a lot of the poverty issues seen in Africa. It is inherant from the highest echelons right down to the man in charge of giving out jobs.

There were many things that hit home in this documentary.

1. One of the people that the journalist interviewed, who had worked for a government anti corruption agency said something to the effect of: Bob Geldof has got it wrong he shouldn't be fighting to make poverty history he should be fighting to make corruption history.

2.The fact that just because aid money is being poured into a country, does not mean it is being well spent. Sierra Lione is a prime example from this documentary.

3.If no one is held accountable at the top level then it is very hard for anyone at the bottom levels to be held accountable.

4. Corruption may not be as sexy a cause to fight as poverty but the consequences are just as real.

Here is a Link to a clip from the documentary on youtube, those of you that read Huggies blog and my own will be very interested to know that this particular bit (like much of the documentary) was filmed in Kibera, Kenya, where the Hope Foundations, 100 days 100 dollars money was being raised for.

I also recommend this clip from the documentary which is on the 'made up aid agencys in Kibera' and the fight genuine aid agencys are having to get funding because they won't give in to corruption :

The Girl who was Beautiful Inside

2007-12-05T21:44:00.000+13:00

As some of you know I am a relief teacher (amongst other things). I also run a music school, am a youth leader and a music teacher.

Lately life has been ... how do we say this without offending those who read this..... possibly too late for that... not all 'Happy December's and beautiful rainbows as we jump over the daisies'

However over the last week I had two God encounters where God placed two people into my life who spoke over my life and fed into me a whole lot of incredibly encouraging, sometimes hard but very supportive stuff.

Today I arrived home from another mind numbing day of relieving to find that one of these 'God encounter people', a woman who I had met at Church on Sunday for the first time, had written me a Card and baked me a beautiful cake. I cried. This after she listened to my story on Sunday and didn't judge me but encouraged me to keep challenging and exploring where I am with God. She even told me that she remembered my sermon from a couple of months ago and that she enjoyed it alot. This nearly made me cry as I have been feeling incredibly unappreciated.

Anyway, the card, it says this on the cover: (It is a Edward Monkton if you are wanting to get this for your Girl friend :P)
The Girl who was beautiful inside: Such was the power of the Beauty inside her that Winter turned to Spring in her path and flowers grew in her footsteps.

Beauty

So two take home points

If you have the gift of encouragement never ever think that this is a 'stupid' or not as valuable gift as something more 'out there' like preaching. We need you. Just use this gift wisely (like any spiritual gift) The gift of encouragement is not a free pass to send pointless text messages with smiley faces, flood people with dumb email forwards and hug people all day.
As a follower of Christ you are not called to fix everything. The mere fact that you want to is endearing, however sometimes when you attempt to (fix) this leaves less room for God to work and for him to speak. Sometimes the very fact that you are there just to listen is all the 'fixing' that is needed.

Prayer for november

2007-11-30T20:51:00.001+13:00

Dear God,

You and I haven't been talking much lately.
I have been pissed off with life, with people with the Church.

God I am pissed off that the ideal isn't the reality. God I am sad that my current situation doesn't allow me freedom to be all that I can be.

Thank you for breaking my heart once again and reminding me of the Gospel. Today I cried Lord and they were tears of joy and sadness and frustration all at once.

Thank you for these precious children, and the ones you give me opportunity to work with.

Thank you for my mission field. Thank you for reminding me that my comfort is not the purpose of my existence and that the end of the story is 'well done good and faithful servant' not 'well done home owner and owner of a university degree'

Give me strength because I am finding the breathing and practicalities of this difficult.

Yours Always

Lisa

Joel Osteen

2007-11-28T10:26:00.000+13:00

Anyone who has speant any length of time with me in the last few months knows of my personal despisement of the preaching of Joel Osteen . However in the conversations I have had with many people lately I have been shocked by the number of Christians who don't know who he is but also bt the number of non christians who do.

Which leads me to the fact that as a Christian you really have to know what this guy is preaching. Please watch this clip. It is most enlightening.

If you do not have broadband please see the article over at Internet Monk.

Osteen is in a whole category of his own and you have to see it to believe it

Nostalgia

2007-11-26T17:09:00.000+13:00

His Brilliancy and I had a most enlightening discussion last night. Of the many things we discussed one of them included nostalgia.

I think many worldviews including the Christian world view have a lot to do with nostalgia . For example take the person who has to sit in a particular place in their place of worship at church. There is nothing in the bible that says where people are to sit ( in fact I can’t even remember there being anything about seats) , it’s just a nostalgic traditional thing that they people have done forever and if they changed they would probably feel some pull to go back and sit in that same area the following week.

I think in my worldview I have a lot of room for analysing but I have very little time for nostalgia of the ‘wasn’t-it’-great- when- we- used- to-sit-around-the-campfire- and-sing- hillsong-songs-and-talk-about-the-all-blacks-winning-the-world-cup’ type.

From this discussion with His Brilliancy , I have concluded that the Christian tradition does not have a fine history of dealing with nostalgia, either swinging too far in the above light, or with the case of myself over analysing situations and not knowing how to deal with such cases of nostalgia when they strike .

This raises two points:

1) When does nostalgia turn into self absorption and into escapism of the reality?

2) If we choose to suppress nostalgic moments be they bad or good (or something in between) are we prone to suppressing what God could be teaching us in the present moment?

Idealism meets realism

2007-11-22T18:03:00.000+13:00

The last few weeks have been weeks of the cross road type. To a large extent I have been walking them by myself.

They have been the weeks where one has to make instant decisions that affect and effect not only my life but hundreds of other peoples. (No I don't think of myself that highly it is just the type of work I am in). In doing so I have been under a bucket load of stress and have come to a few conclusions about the current situation I am in.

Sometimes I believe that we don't realise the reality of our situations until they start to break or we sense that the 'world' we live in is not all that we or others make it out to be.

Take for example the 'Christian community' mirage. In the last few weeks I have found much more of a sense of a community in my workplace with my work mates than I have with many of my church friends over the last few months. I put this down to the fact that we have a common goal, we have common challenges (in our work - which is actually a vocation) and that my workmates are some of the most diverse people you will meet who because of this are accepting and willing to listen to people.

Secondly I am in the middle of a push and pull and general congitive dissonance stage with teaching and am probably going to retrain next year to become a Montessori teacher. *Be prepared big statement up coming* When I first went into teaching I think I liked it because of the attention I got, but now as I see what education is and what it can do I realise that the teacher dominated classroom is not the ideal and there is much more to education than the system that I have been bought up in (even though it has taught me much). This has been a point that I have reached over the last year after watching and observing students in a variety of educational settings and while the fact that I probably have to leave here to retrain means leaving a whole lot of things I love I know that if I teach in a Montessori setting or way it will sit better with me.

the ideal world list

2007-11-20T17:29:00.000+13:00

In my ideal world:

1) People would not judge me or categorise me by what I did or my illness but would take the time to talk to me and discover what makes me tick (and would not assume that they knew this because they happened to read my blog).

2) Church small groups would not be made and grouped purely on age. This is a stupid model and results in a whole bunch of people of vastly different spiritual levels being put into one room and being expected to learn material that may or may not be relevant to them. You wouldn’t do it at a school so why subject people to it in a church setting. No wonder people leave.

3) Schools would not have bells that sounded like fire sirens. I mean a bell is a bell.

4) People would get reimbursed for the actual hours they work.

5) People would actually think about the lyrics they were singing in a worship song rather than singing it because it had ‘good music’ secondly people would learn to discern a sermon rather than just ‘listen to it’.

6) Matthew Sinclair would be permanently in the Black Caps.

7) Add your own number 7 as a contribution below (you have all been very quiet lately)

Jesus washing the feet of the ?

2007-11-16T16:14:00.000+13:00

This image 'Servant to all' by Greg Boyd is the topic of some heated discussion over at Think Christian

What's your opinion?

Some are of the opinion that Jesus would not was the feet of those who were not his followers while others tend to be firmly in the camp that he would because of the love for each other principle. Any thoughts?

Guest post: KJV

2007-11-15T16:28:00.000+13:00

Hello, here I am again, and I'm still Tim.

So, one thing that puzzles me sometimes is why some people and churches have a higher opinion of the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) than any other translation. One of my friends here has expressed that opinion, but I mostly came across it when I was looking for a church in Canada. Now, I don't know if more churches in Canada are like that or not; I haven't gone on the same kind of church-hunt anywhere else in the world, but more than one of the churches I went to more than once used the KJV exclusively, as far as I could tell. The Better Bibles Blog currently has a poll about the standard Bible used in people's churches. The KJV is in third place as I'm writing this.

Of course, I've sometimes tried to ask people why they use the KJV, but most of the time I don't feel like I know them well enough, so that it might seem like an impolite challenge. My friend here, though, says things like "the words have so much more meaning". Really? What can that possibly mean? Is the English language as it was spoken in 1611 more efficiently expressive than the English we speak today? If you think so, then try to translate this sentence into less than five syllables of Early Modern English:

I'm reading a blog.

Another of the reasons I've heard is that the KJV is what they grew up with. Now that I can understand. I have no complaint about people who feel more comfortable with what they grew up with. But it's not really an excuse for churches to use the KJV, forcing another generation to grow up with a Bible in a very different dialect from their own. And also, the translation that you're comfortable with isn't necessarily the best one to read all the time. If you're so used to a particular passage that you can repeat the words without thinking about the meaning, then perhaps you should see the way someone else expresses it. (Of course, it's not bad to be familiar with the Bible, but it is bad not to think about it.) For example, whenever I read Galatians 5:22–23 in the New International Version (NIV):

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I find myself switching off, and I have to force myself to think about what those words are actually talking about.

One other reason that I've heard about for favouring the KJV is that it's the only inspired translation in English. I'm sorry; it's not in English. Not in the English that we speak, anyway. I don't deny that the KJV was a very important translation, as were Wycliffe's and Tyndale's previous English translations. But in the end, a Bible translation in your own language is a very valuable thing.

Take this passage for example, from 1 Corinthians 13:13 in the KJV:

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

So dropping a couple of bucks in the Red Cross's annual appeal is more important than faith and hope? Well, the word that ended up being translated as "charity" there was αγαπη, or agape, and according to Strong's Greek Bible Dictionary, it means:

love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast:--(feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love.

So perhaps it's better rendered in Modern English by the word "love" (which can include acts of charity). Funnily enough, that's exactly how it's translated in the NIV, and I'd be interested to know if any Modern English translations at all use a different word there, and why.

Finally, I want to end with something Martin Luther said about half a millennium ago, courtesy of Lingamish:

We do not have to inquire of the literal Latin, how we are to speak German, as these asses do. Rather we must inquire about this of the mother in the home, the children on the street, the common man in the marketplace. We must be guided by their language, the way they speak, and do our translating accordingly. That way they will understand it and recognize that we are speaking German to them.

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Black Caps in South Africa

2007-11-13T15:54:00.001+13:00

Today I discussed with my taxi driver (now I want to emphasise here he is not my taxi driver he is avaliable to the general populus for a fee) about NZ terrible batting effort in South Africa. We both thought that it was actually rather terrible how the majority of our team got injuired, however besides this the top order was dreadful! Absolutely dreadful, and it was only due to the power of the bottom order (the bowlers that we got anything)

Also I would like to say why is it that Matthew Sinclair is not in the team - in is State Championship game for CD he got 243 which is (cough) well more than what the majority of the Blacks Caps got combined in both innings!

So with that in mind my sister sent me this wonderful post that she found off the cricket forums

Alright all you youngsters out there. Your heroes in the New Zealand cricket have written a few tips on how to bat like a black cap. These tips were written by numbers 1-5 in the black caps' batting order. (Numbers 7-11 were busy playing cricket)

#1 Never ever move your feet. Unless you have been dismissed - then walk back to the dressing room, put on a disgusted look, and watch the bowlers score runs.

#2 Keep your bat away from your body. This is very important if you want to be caught behind.

#3 Don't bother getting in line with the ball. That's for losers like Ponting, Jason Gillespie and Mark Richardson

#4 Batting for long periods of time, can give the bowlers rest. The bowlers dislike rest, they would rather be out there, bowling on flat pitches to good batsmen. So try and get out in a inept fashion

#5 Throwdowns are great preparation for facing good quality fast bowling.

Priceless....

Letters from leavers

2007-11-12T12:01:00.000+13:00

I was listening to a Rob Bell podcast the other week (one of his sermons from Mars Hill) and towards the end he said something that has had me thinking in terms of my present circumstances.

A man came up to him and asked him what to do because his idea and the community he was working in was in tatters. The man was living in a Christian flat that was meant to be the epitome of Christian brotherhood but things were far from it and the man was at his wits end. Bell’s solution to the man was to get some bread and some drink, place it in the middle of the lounge of the flat and do communion with the flatties, asking forgiveness for all he had done wrong.

Now while this all sounds very esoteric and all very beautiful on one level but I wonder whether it would really have reached the core of the issue. There comes a point where you have forgiven so much (77 x 7 ) and tried to understand the inner workings of certain ‘Christian communitys’ that sometimes you just have to leave before your soul dies. Healthy Christian community is incredibly important and after 5 years of being in my current church I am now moving before the insides of me drop out completely. I don't really think this is something communion can fix.

That’ core of the issue’ thing that I mentioned above is really essential. A lot of Christian communities don’t seem to see why it is that people drop out of their little posse or are blind to the factors for the leaving if they do notice it happening. One site that seeks to remedy this is Letters from Leavers. I have been reading many of the stories there and have been both saddened and refreshed Letters from leavers

I think they can be summed up by this story, the core of which is a call for the Christian church to LISTEN. Imagine what it would be like if we truly did listen rather just hear.

Coral, Christianity and Vote Boxes

2007-11-09T11:41:00.000+13:00

A couple of years ago I sat in a Pacific Island History class at university where I was told by a visiting speaker ‘that just like the rest of the world Christianity’s stranglehold on the pacific was going to soon come to an end’ At the time I nearly choked on the end of my pen and thought that was a horrific idea. However now I am not so sure and I do believe that something has to be done about the ‘Christianity’ that is practised in some Pacific Islands.

Let me introduce you to Tokelau, population 1466, and made up of 3 islands. Most of all I want you to meet Iosua Faamaoni head of the local Congregational Church. The biggest thing happening in Tokelau lately has been the recent vote from independence from New Zealand.

On Atafu (one of the atolls) Iousa Faamaoni has just built a church. This is all well and good, except the people desperately needed a School. On top of that those who disapprove of Faamaoni are forbidden from entering the church, they’re called “the Taleban.” Also the church is firmly locked when followers are not there.

Faamaoni, in 1992 announced that six years earlier he had sexually abused a 12-year-old. He briefly left the atoll, as the girl was to later. After asking forgiveness he was re instated to his position but as much as half of the island (with links to the girl) refuse to forgive Faamaoni for his actions. Interestingly after publicly admitting his guilt no charges have been bought against Faamaoni and even worse the LMS Church of which the Tokelauan Congegational church is a part has done very little in the matter of the sexual abuse or in getting rid of Faamaoni (evidently according to one source it would be too hard to do as he is too well supported)

Faamaoni’s latest quotable quote: The other day just before the vote for independence, “let us above all put our love of God, our love for each other above everything else that we do. May that be our guiding light, our guiding force.”

I pray that someone will truly wake up and answer Faamaoni’s prayer…. For the sake of a woman and a whole people.

For more I highly reccommend this link

XXXchurch.com

2007-11-03T13:49:00.000+13:00

One Christian book that has had a major influence on my life has been the visual addition of 'What's so Amazing about Grace' by Phillip Yancy in that book there is a page where the authors and illustrators have juxtaposed some Christian people picketing with the idea of Grace.

I am constantly in agony at myself and at my Christian brothers when we choose to stand and shout at non Christians rather than roll up our sleeves and be Jesus in a situation.

One organization who I think do this brilliantly (be Jesus in a situation) are xxxchurch.com

XXXchurch is the #1 Christian porn site designed to bring awareness to the porn problem. From the United States, Australia, Asia, and Europe, XXXchurch is a movement of people and ministries putting accountability to those struggling with porn and those calling porn a career."

XXXchurch.com runs a Christian anti-pornography website that aims to help those who struggle with pornography. Its target are those who are consumers (including christians and non christians) and those in pornographic industry.

Perhaps one of the key things they do (which links back to what I have said) is they hand out bibles to people who attend porn shows. (they will be attending one in Auckland next year doing this very thing). This has many 'conservative' Christians riled up, but I will let you think and pray it through for yourself after watching the two different forms of communicating Jesus to those at Porn Events in action.

A Challenge to Women

2007-10-30T17:58:00.001+13:00

John Piper is fantastic. If you haven't heard him speak or read any of his work then you have obviously been caught up in the Rob Bell phenomena or have been under a rock somewhere. Seriously. He has a very sound theology. I went to his library and found this list which is a Challenge to Women ,the list lists 15 things, the vast majority of which (barring number 15......but that is a different discussion, not for below) I whole heartedly support, and have been convicted by and am up for the challenge for. I have highlighted a few that I think are relevant to the demographic who read this blog. If you want to read the rest the link is at the bottom.

That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.
That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing.
That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.
That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching. That meditation on Biblical truth be the source of hope and faith. And that you continue to grow in understanding through all the chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.
That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God would open to you; and the power of faith and holiness would descend upon you; and your spiritual influence would increase at home and at church and in the world
That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God undergirding all these spiritual processes, that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.
That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role, that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magazines or aimless hobbies, any more than men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or aimless diddling in the garage. That you redeem the time for Christ and his Kingdom.
That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to Christ and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.
That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world.
That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: http://www.blogger.com/www.desiringGod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByTopic/44/1746_A_Challenge_to_Women/

Ex hillsong

2007-10-28T16:36:00.000+13:00

My thanks to digger randle for this link (digger was the youth minister off 1 vs 100 who one $98 000 the other night - well it was a few months ago now as we are ages behind here in kiwiland) Anyway, I visited his blog and found this fascinating article from a couple of months ago form The Age in Australia regarding an ex Hillsong Member.

A couple of quotes to whet your appetite -

For five years, Tanya Levin was a Hillsong insider - infatuated with the evangelical church and its leader. Then she left and wrote a book. Now she's trouble, writes David Marr.....

.....So Tanya Levin is a problem. She asks questions. She wants explanations. She challenges the vision of Hillsong's leadership. In short, she's trouble. ....

.....Two years into writing People in Glass Houses, her insider's account of Hillsong, she was shown the door. "There is no debate within Hillsong," she says. "That's fundamentalism. It's not open to free thought and question, not at all....."

".....My impressions in September of 1985 were of a bunch of nice people," Levin writes. They waved their hands and spoke in tongues. Houston preached. "Even today," she confesses, "when I hear Brian Houston's voice I feel better....."

....For Levin, the core lie of Hillsong is the claim that God will repay everything you give. And the longer you have to wait, the greater the return. "How do you actually stand in front of people and say if you give me your money God will give it back to you and actually sleep at night when you're taking old people's money. It's obviously the more desperate people who want to make an investment decision like that. Very vulnerable people...."

....Levin doesn't fit that picture. She doesn't hate. Something in her seems to yearn for those exhilarating years fighting the good fight against the devil in all his disguises right down to the voodoo beat of rock'n'roll. "We were told you can't have it because it's incantation and you're going to raise all these demons." How different things are now. Levin begins to sing some Hillsong Christian trance music: "Doof, doof, doof. Christ is the future. Doof doof doof..."

I highly reccomend you go over and read the article It is a very very good read pop on over .

This months Christianity today also has a good article from a slightly different perspective

Tick-Tock

2007-10-27T13:59:00.000+13:00

Christians for some bizarre reason have a very annoying habit of turning up to events late and/ or handing important things in late. I really don’t know what this is about. I sure don’t know what the biblical principle behind it is. God help me I have tried to understand certain members of my Christian circle who think they have the right to waste an hour of my life while they turn up an hour late to events/ meetings/ gatherings. However I really don’t get it.

Sure I can understand 5 even 10 minutes, things happen, but the ‘I’ll-be-there-when-I-get-there-Jesus-Cruisin’ ‘attitude is not just bizarre it’s a very poor witness. The other night I was out with sister (not Christian) I had arranged dinner with 3 christian friends for 6pm. The first friend arrived at 6.50. My sister was not only annoyed, but also discussed with me that my friends obviously don’t respect me very much, she was quite looking forward to the dinner but spent the whole night worried as we had ordered too much food for people who never arrived.

There is no point in ‘evangelising’ if your whole life doesn’t show it, this means how you interact with other Christians impacts your interaction with non Christians and how you show you value others.

Let go of thy parachute

2007-10-19T20:28:00.000+13:00

Hello blog shadowers (which is most of you) , friends and people who drop by

The Parachute 08 line up has been announced. Many people have commented on the lack of quality of the line up and I tend to agree visit here or here however as I grow in my Christian walk my problem lies at a much deeper issue than just the music. Here are my problems.

1) Israel Houghton is one of the headline artists. Now while I am not going to doubt that he has sold millions of albums and he has won some fantastic awards even in the mainstream my problem lies with the theology in the lyrics he is singing. As we have discussed at this blog before (well, some of us) Israel Houghton is the one who bought us Cover the earth, and also I am a friend of God. Houghton is on the worship team of Joel Osteen at Lakewood Church, Texas. While I am not one to say this makes one guilty of Osteens 'theology' *cough*, by association, I would think that if Houghton is serving in this way (as worship member) at Lakewood church it would mean he sees his theology as being able to line up with the church's.

2) Another one of our main headliners is a band called Jonzetta (yes that’s right they are a headliner). Now I will openly admit right here in front of you the blogging public that I am in no way perfect and sin all the time. I also come from the school that says all sin is equal. However I do find this following piece of footage from Jonzetta strange to say the least (the point in question is about 40 seconds in )

my point being are parachute looking for culturally relevant people? Is this what spacifix and so on were preparing us for? Is culturally relevant really the angle we want to take? Or am I just being a little too precious and should Christians start swearing more (because Jesus probably would have) ?

3) The music line up itself is debatable however if you want to discuss that go over here

Commenting policy

2007-10-16T09:27:00.000+13:00

It is now easier to comment thoughts and amusings visitors. I have taken off the restriction that you must be registered. So you can comment away. I know a few of you were going to comment on the post directly below so you can.

I only ask that you use a name (you can make it up) so we know who you are!

Lisa

Cultural Perceptions

2007-10-15T10:17:00.000+13:00

Think Christian has a fantastic post courtesey UnChristian about how the 16 - 29 culture views Christianity. This is a collection of responses from both Christians and non christians (who made up the lsmaller amount of respondents 40%) interestingly these were their top 6 perceptions of Christians:

1. Anti-Homosexual – this is toward the person not the deed – 96%
2. Judgmental – 87%
3. Hypocritical – 81%
4. Sheltered
5. Politically Motivated
6. Insecure

This survey was done in America. I would say based on my interactions with NZ youth and young adults I would probably go something like this

1. Apathetic
2. All like members of Destiny
3. Hypocritical
4. Sheltered
5. Unawareness of the world

I'm still debating the other one .

Anyway for those of you who like video, Unchristian have even made a very good clip which i do reccommend you watch. Especially if you disagree with me when I say that NZ christians are apathetic - hey you may even want to post a response below!

Suffering

2007-10-11T18:41:00.000+13:00

The idea of suffering as part of the Christian faith is not that popular. In fact as a new Christian when I found out that martyrdom was a 'spiritual gift' that some Christians were 'blessed' to have in one of those 'find your gifting courses' I was incredibly reassured by a line that said that veryt few people in Gods family were 'blessed' with this gift. All joking aside, Modern day Western Christianity often has a hard time fitting suffering into its theology. Due to the incredible uprise of the Prosperity gospel it is seen as necessary for one to have 'health, wealth and success' in order for one to be a successful Christian.

Jesus clearly taught that his followers would endure suffering most obviously his sacrifice but also read through the sermon on the mount, this was part of his call of being an obedient follower of Christ (Matthew 5)

I wonder if Western Christians are a bit like the reciepients of the book of Hebrews.

Some of the things the reciepients of the Hebrews had were a great liking for the Old testament ( a bit like prosperity followers) and also some deep seated conscience issues to follow the 'right way' even though had a very skewed idea on what this was (even though it was well supported with some out of context bible verses) .

They had lost how suffering fitted into Faith and got side tracked into a whole lot of frivalous stuff (some of it with the best of intentions) that they thought would take them closer to God.

This led the author of the book to say this to them and I think they are very good words to ponder:

Hebrews 10
32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

I wonder when was the last time you ever heard a sermon on suffering / read an article on it?

Have we disconnected suffering from our contemporary theology or do we only speak about it on special occasions? If suffering is a daily occasion for the persecuted church, how come we hear very little of it in the western church?

Sunday

2007-10-10T17:38:00.000+13:00

Sunday was a dark day. It is the closest to death I have experienced and I hope it is the nearest I will at the age of 22. I had a 25 minute seizure episode that saw me rushed to A&E in an ambulance from home. It started as a normal absence seizure but turned into a massive tonic clonic (For info on these I strongly suggest you look at the link down the side rather than making assumptions). I came in and out of the seizure, I had pins and needles down one side of my body and was also seeing rainbow pulsing things (again hard to describe to anyone who doesn't have epilepsy). It was a very bizarre seizure, like having your brain having an electrical spazz and your body disconnecting and going at all angles. {I remember repeating to the Paramedics ' I'm cold' about 20 times. The paramedics had trouble getting a line into me and had to take turns before they had success, hence my sore arm (lol) }

In fact it kind of feels like you are separated from your self. Yes very existential. Anyway I was pumped full of medicine at the hospital, however this took a while as they were some what stumped by me and were very overworked, however again may I add they were incredibly nice people. May I now add for a moment of light relief that the medical staff are just as cute as those on Greys but 10x more kind and a billion times more on to it. Then I appeared to be getting better and was wheeled into hallway as recuss was needed. Yes I was in recuss. A nurse came along and pulled out the needles out of me and as I was walking out I fainted, lost consciousness on the A&E floor (yes very dramatic am I) and had to be lifted up by medical staff. Went in and out of consciousness, and when I was in, I sometimes spent the time saying hilariously stupid delusional crap to the medical staff, Hence I spent another 2/3 hours being monitored and tested and prodded as the medical staff were totally at a loss as to what was wrong with me. I had needles, patches, monitors, blood tests galore. And it was horrific. I couldn't sleep and I wanted to, and my poor family was helpless. Things they don't show you on medical programmes :

Hospital beds are incredibly uncomfortable
Anxious family members - there was only one seat in my ER room.
Having to repeat your story 5 times.
The change over of staff at 10pm.
Nurses in crocs - never again will i make any rude remarks about crocs - any man who has medicine and picks me up off the floor can wear any type of shoes he wants!
The boredom
The long long waits for medicine and forms.
Having to be taken to the toilet by medical staff and having in to pee into a bucket
Children screaming at the top of their lungs
Old people speaking in deluded ways .

Anyway Monday too was a dark colour, navy blue, it was like living a nightmare I had very little strength and was very tired and incredibly afraid I was going to end up in hospital again, Even though I had had 10 hours sleep after being let out of hospital at midnight. Tuesday was similar but a bit better as I managed to finish my BCNZ essay. Today I am getting back to normal. However I have a new perspective on life, that only those who have been through something like this can.

2007-10-05T16:25:00.000+13:00

'Today is a time for us to reclaim our Berean heritage and learn how to question in ways that are closely aligned with the way Scripture would have us act and think. '
Chris "Doc" Leland

Syncretisim,
Nomism,

Words full of meaning.

In essence. Ways to describe how as Christians we make faith into something way more complicated than it should be by adding a list of rules that Christians have to do to become more christian (nomistic) or by simply not looking at the scripture well enough and letting a whole lot of other trash seep in (syncretisim).

I have been thinking how much Paul fought tooth and nail against these things in the early church and how to a certain extent due to the fact that we don't question stuff we have made what should be a beautiful faith into something that is complicated, pathetic, weak or even worse a consumeristic identity.

Jenga

2007-10-04T23:05:00.000+13:00

Lets take a break. (I sure have been - that is why the essay on the Christology of Hebrews is only at 800 words) Sister and I have just played a brilliant game of Jenga as procrastination from my writing on the Superiotiy of Christ in Hebrews. We built the tower the highest we ever got it. Let us show you our excitement... and the inevitable consequence. Okay... For those of you that were looking for a deep meaningful post I am sure you can find some reference to towers of Babel or something. Let us remember to live life and and live it with those around us. Life includes memories as well as essays.

Itunes or should that be lack of

2007-10-03T15:45:00.000+13:00

Attention ITunes NZ and those of you who evidently want me to buy my Christian music legally (which I do)

Whats up with the fact that there is jack all new albums? Frankly the stuff you have up at the moment is crap! I do not want the greatest hits of someone I have never heard of (who is Sandy Patti?), nor do I want the music of someone who is only world famous in America. Get me some of this stuff:

Robbie Seay Band (latest album you do have but you haven't advertised it)
Mainstay (latest album you do have but you haven't advertised it)
Casting Crowns latest (actually thats kinda an average album, i'll pass on that)
Jeremy Riddle
Chris Rice

And you even have the latest Parachute Band album up. What the heck is that about! We don't even have them, and they are a NZ band!

Look dearest record companies and Itunes, I don't burn music and I don't illegally download it but frankly this is beyond a joke.

Ramblings

2007-10-02T17:02:00.000+13:00

Its raining outside. We had thunder earlier.

I am attempting to write an essay on 'What is the teaching of Hebrews on the person and work of Christ? How does the author use this teaching to meet the needs of his readers? '

I am not doing so well.

354 words. I have somehow managed to throw out one of my draft pages, so I am quite annoyed as it had all my references on it.

Have also got to get around to applying for Jobs for next year. There are some good looking ones in Christchurch so am all for that (part from the fact that I know no one there, but right now I am feeling incredibly introverted, and a lot of my good friends are moving anyway, so that could suit me quite well)

We had a visiting group in at church a couple of weeks ago at the night service (when i was having a night off) and the speaker said that Jesus wasn't our friend. This has left a few of our youth in a state of uproar, and I had one conversation with one young woman who was so distraught at what visiting preacher had said that she thought she was going to loose her faith. *sigh*. What to do? I then had to spend rest of night reassuring her that God was not just friend but had many other aspects to his character that she could draw on and should draw.

Did i mention i got an $800 dollar tax bill in mail today?

Me Karakia taatou

2007-09-28T13:23:00.001+12:00

This week I am busy organising Sunday nights service,

Which at last weeks sunday night orginisational team meeting, I suggested should be prayer stations. Good idea sherlock except I have little experience of prayer stations and have speant the last week furiously trying to pull together something.

However the Lord has blessed me with many many wise friends and his Holy Spirit so this weeks sunday night service theme is going to be on the Lord's Prayer (an idea I got from Rachel). The Lord's Pprayer has layers of meaning when you look at the themes of eschatology , the inaugurated kingdom and the juxtaposition of the 'out and over God' and the 'down and in God' which makes it an amazing prayer.

I have been reading alot on the Lord's prayer as of late (6 months or so). One such reading has been this really amazing reading from the Bible Society of New Zealand on the Maori Version of the Lord's Prayer which is a real eye opener, in terms of the meanings behind words. Maori, (a lot like Greek) has a top layer of meaning and then another layer behind it which means there is a real richness to what you can out of a text. I really encourage you to click over and have a look.

Anyway off to go right my essay and prepare Sunday night!

Biblical Literacy and the search for the true Velvet Elvis

2007-09-25T23:38:00.000+12:00

I have recently been very fortunate to acquire a copy of Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuarts copy of How to Read the Bible for all its worth. An excellent book that I have been reading over and over (and I think is probably worth a lot more than the Velvet Elvis phenomena currently sweeping the Evangelical 20something church). Anyway, a really interesting quote that I want to bring to the discussion board

' a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers This is why exegesis must always come first ...This rule does not always help one find out what a text means, but it does help to set limits as to what it cannot mean.' (3rd ed, p.74, 2003)

1) After reading this I really was made to reconsider how much of the teaching and study I have done has been culturally appropriated to 21st century westerndom that frankly shared little to do with the biblical context or the author of the text would have had no idea about and

2) Whether as Christians 1) is a product of post modernism and deconstruction or is it just a product of the fact that we don't know how to read the text as a whole, by which I mean we read the bible in snippets rather than reading books as books and letters as letters.

Are you ready to die for your faith?

2007-09-25T09:41:00.000+12:00

Yesterday in the mail my monthly mag from VOM arrived detailing the Happenings? Events? Life? of Christians in Perscuted countries around the world. This months feature was on Laos and includes some absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching stories that bring one into the true reality of Gods grace.

However before we comfort ourselves in the fact that we are not the ones in the persecuted countires and click over to some other well meaning form of escapism can I encourage you to watch this video its a life changer, Its hard hitting and I make absolutely no apologies for it. The reality is that while dieing for ones faith as a Christian isn't a day to day reality in western countries. Regardless of where one is or who one is in Christ , one should have faith in what and who one believes and be able to stand up for it if the time comes.

God give me strength if I am ever in a situation like this

Cover the earth

2007-09-24T15:15:00.000+12:00

As I have said before lyrics to worship songs need to be theologically sound. As this is unfortunately where many people get their theology from, as it is a known fact that even in evanglical circles Christians don't tend to do a heck of a lot of Bible reading. In knowing this fact, the song below just scares me with how theologically inept it is, despite the fact that the music to it is really good (which is one reason I think it is gaining popularity in church circles) .

In recent times there has started to be a trend for people to be positively critical of the sermons they hear , however this hasn't been carried along to music as much which is deeply concerning. Anyway now for the song in question, with my remarks in brackets.

Cover the earth

Let me be an instrument
To exalt and to extend
Jesus’ name globally (sounds okay so far, in fact I'm all for the first 3 lines)
As the waters cover the sea (whats this line about and how exactly does it relate??)
Open the heavens O Lord
And pour out Your Spirit

Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with the sound of heaven (any ideas what the sound of heaven is)
Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with the sound of heaven
Cover the earth

Let me speak what You say (which would be? .........)
Let the sound prepare the way (right, the sound)
Kingdom come globally
As the waters cover the sea (yes the waters, we can't forget the waters)
Open the heavens O Lord
Pour out Your Spirit

Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with Your glory
Cover the earth with the sound of heaven
All of the earth is Yours
All of the nations adore You (this is news to me, and the persecuted church)
Cover the earth with the sound of heaven (here comes the sound again, ...)
Cover the earth

Open up the heavenlies (what the heck are the heavenlies when they are at home)
Let a new sound be released (were we sick of the old sound and is sound different to the sound we were talking about before?)
As the waters cover the sea (can't forget the waters)
Cover the earth

Paul, Christianity and Brian Tamaki

2007-09-21T17:28:00.000+12:00

A combination of factors have had me thinking about Christianity and leadership lately.

For one the recent debacle over the Christian Party or the lack of one and a rather interesting sermon that I listened to on Sunday that I disagreed with! However a conversation I had with a very good friend made me think that maybe the issue of where we go wrong as Christians and leadership actually goes back to the fact that many Christians are just down right (hold your breath here) idiotic.

This particular friend told me that at his church the previous youth pastor had a policy that youth leaders were not allowed to be in leadership unless they were from a Christian home. Yes folks you heard right. Evidently they ‘made the best leaders’ Goodness help us if the apostle Paul had wanted to be a leader at his church. I really have no idea what exegesis of what Biblical passage this particular belief is held on. It obviously wasn’t anything from Galatians anyway.

Anyway I think Paul is actually a good example of a leader for Christians in a secular environment in anytype of ministry or mission (hence all of us) to emanate.

* Paul constantly reflected back to Jesus and that true wisdom came from here (1 Corinthians 1-4)
*Paul took risks for the sake of the gospel
* Paul persevered through incredible trials
* Paul invested in future leaders and in christian communities
* Paul was not afraid to pull people up (Galatians, 2 Thess, Colossians) or conversely answer criticism in a loving way (2 Corinthians)
* Paul invested in those who others thought could not be leaders (Gentiles, those with mixed heritage, women) and conversely understood the liberating principle that regardless of our cultural standing or past we are all one in Christ Jesus.
* Where Paul was under attack or made a mistake he went back and sort to rectify it (Corinthians)
* Paul was knowledgeable about the cultures he was in ( cf Speech at Athenian Areopagus Acts 17 to Acts 28 where he is speaking to Jews)
* Paul was willing to invest time into his charges – note the amount of time he spent with his churches – 3 years in Ephesus on one of his Journeys.
* Paul was not a user of people (skills /talents) but was genuinely interested in the person and people, see the extended greetings in the letters and his heart felt pleas .
* Paul was open about his feelings, this was not seen as a sign of weakness but was genuinely appreciated in the Christian communities in which he worked (see Corinthians)

Who are you fighting

2007-09-17T22:29:00.000+12:00

Words can not express the day I have had today.

If we are doing it right, we find that we fight against not against earthly stuff but against spiritual stuff much bigger than ourselves.

Today I , Lisa, who weighs a mere 53 Kgs, taught the ICT rotation. 3 different classes, max 10 students at the intermediate.

Set 1:

D arrives late, along with some others , has tagged his top, up his arms, class becomes unsettled. E and F do some work but find youtube to be a great source of entertainment (bone thugs ) . D starts mouthing off. I can't get anything out of him, he sees no point in school, no point in being there and the threat of any consequence doesn't seem to matter. Principal enters. Tells me to let D do whatever for the rest of the lesson as D may whack me. This obviously makes controlling rest of the class an issue however what can you do when you have a child like this?

Set 2

All going well, class settled, (i have a better idea of how the lesson is meant to work and am thankful for this) however this group features some tough kids too. Turn back for second and two boys have each other in a neck hold. Tables pushed, chairs knocked over. They are much bigger than me. The librarian runs for the nearest male teacher. By this time the other boys are trying to pry them apart and I am using everything the Holy Spirit can give me to pull the smallest one (who is about my size, but way more muscular) off. Male teacher drags bigger boy off.

Set 3

Have 4 of the perhaps most ARGH kids in the school. However I believe all kids are entitled to a clean slate and we are going well. All until Goren (known for this behaviour) looses it. Swears, looses cool. Tom, sensing an opportunity, as usual, calls Goren a faggot. Goren goes for him. I grab Goren, but not before Goren has gone for another child and the class is now in uproar. (Librarian lady has again run for help but we can't find anyone this time and these kids are much bigger than the last lot) Unfortunately more names are thrown around and Goren is totally gone now, his eyes are glassed over, and is unresponsive, he sees a kid walking past in the corridor and for no apparent reason, runs to the other side of the room, opens a door and, lashes out at him and we now have another child involved. By this time back up has arrived, after what seems like eternity (by this time I have sent what seems like every child I can think of for help) Goren later threatens to kill himself with staple gun.

In all of this I am super thankful for the Christian teacher who in the midst of set 3 grabbed me because i was visibly shaking took me to the staff room and prayed over me and then prayed over the situation for the anger to subside in these kids. What an amazing woman of God. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Can I just ask that wherever you are that you please please pray for these kids (and ones like them in your own community) and their teachers, I am not a unique case (and neither are they) , it wasn't just 'because i was a reliever' before you throw me that line ( and its not, just because they are bad kids) . The issue lies much much deeper.

Crystal

2007-09-09T11:38:00.000+12:00

It has been said that there is no I in team, but I am a firm believer that there is an I in community.

Unfortunately for me I have become disjointed from the community of God. In speaking to a really good friend of mine the other day, I explained it as the feeling of being valued more for ones skills than for ones spirit. I have used blogs and facebook as a means to an end, and have neglected going to God with my concerns. In the last couple of weeks when things have got really bad I have run back to God and have felt a true connection and renewing in my spirit that I have not had for a very long time.

Closely aligned to this is the acknowledgement that my ideal of community is not what the reality is, while the perfect reality will never happen until heaven , I still hold tightly to the belief that Christians are called to value and Love (agape) each other regardless of how long they have been in the family of God and to live in community.

As the ideal has been slipping away I have found myself slipping back into some old habits that I don't like, and if one is meant to be becoming more like Jesus one has to ask whether the current life one is living is really helping one grow into a more Christ like faith.

In short blog reader I am off to go back to my Christian Roots, to find the truth of what God says about me, what he is asking me to do and to find anew what my place is in Christian community. Call it a deconstruction reconstruction (how very post modern :) )

Blog and Facebook Transmission will resume in around a month (maybe longer), who knows It's a God thing.

Husband/Wife co pastors

2007-09-07T14:16:00.000+12:00

I was going to do a post on women in leadership:

but I think it would be rather circular being the fact the same things are hashed over and over, however Thabiti - whose blog you should all read regularly! ( but who I disagree with - on this argument ) has bought up an interesting conversation, which is in full swing over at:

http://purechurch.blogspot.com/2007/08/husband-wife-co-pastors.html

I tend to think the commenters have missed the point. I think the problem is not women in leadership but the prosperity gospel.

Sovereign Grace Music

2007-09-06T15:59:00.000+12:00

I am currently listening to the new album from Sovereign Grace Music, in fact I have just ordered 2 copies direct from the mighty US of A.

The thing I love about Sovereign Grace Music, unlike say Hillsong, is that it is absolutely chocka full of theological truth about God, (read there is a lack of Jesus is my boyfriend lyrics)

The latest album In a little while by Mark and Steve Altrogge is absolutely marvellous

Go now! You can even listen to all the tracks in their entireity - if you click up on the right hand corner on 'sovereign grace radio' when your page loads. I reccommend 'At the cross' and 'Whatever my God Ordains'

Awesome, And you can download the sheet music for free.

A couple of lyric samples:

At the cross
At the cross we see Your mercy
Pouring forth in streams of blood
At the cross we see compassion
Flowing like a crimson flood
At the cross we see our Savior
And the beauty of His love, at the cross

How great, how glorious
Why should we ever wonder
If we’re hidden from Your eyes
You bought us with Your own blood
We can trust in Christ
And we will mount up like eagles
Held by Your mighty grace
Keeping our eyes on Jesus
The author of our faith

Guest post: Prejudice

2007-09-05T13:20:00.000+12:00

Hi, I'm Tim. I'm one of Lisa's friends, and she's kindly asked me to write a guest post, so here it is.

As you'll see in the title, I'm going to talk about prejudice. Believe it or not, I decided to do this before the thing on Close Up last night about the KKK. Ask Lisa; she'll tell you. The thing is, those disgusting opinions they showed us aren't the only dangerous way prejudice can manifest itself. They may be the most obvious, and perhaps the most destructive way, but not the only way.

Tamer but equally unfounded prejudices can be found in a lot of gender stereotypes. For example, a lot of people think that women are more talkative than men. There is absolutely no scientific evidence for this, but that doesn't stop people from making money by publishing books that maintain this stereotype.

But I'm going to go even further and say that even well-founded prejudices can be dangerous. For example, it's reasonable to expect that it's easier to play netball well if you're taller. However, if you then apply this to a particular case, by ignoring a short friend when you're choosing a social netball team, you could be missing out on a very skilful netball player, and hurting their feelings at the same time.

Even applied in what seems like a more positive way, the same well-founded prejudice can still be dangerous. For example, if you meet a new friend who happens to be quite tall, you might say to them "With legs that long, you must be good at netball; do you want to join our team?". Now, this person might be really clumsy with a ball. Depending on the particular person, your comment might actually make them feel worse about their netball ability, thinking I must be incredibly clumsy if I'm this tall and still useless at netball.

And that's not to mention the fact that you could be mistaken about the correlation in the first place. I really know very little about netball, so my example could be complete nonsense.

I suppose what I'm saying is that even perfectly valid statistical correlations (e.g., of the form people of type X are on average better at job Y) can be dangerous if they're applied in specific cases.

But even stating that the correlation exists can be dangerous, too, if you aren't careful to say how far the correlation goes. For example, I have a vague memory of hearing something like "boys learn better by doing; girls learn better by looking and listening". I have no reason to doubt that on average this is true. (I have no reason to believe it, either.) The point is that people hearing that might be inclined to say that boys and girls should be taught in separate classrooms—the boys doing lots of experiments, and building lots of things, while the girls concentrate on reading and listening to the teacher talk. This would be a mistake. I was once a boy, and I have always learnt best from books. I almost never looked forward to the practical experiments in chemistry and physics at high school.

It would be better to say something like "60% of boys learn best by doing, but 80% of girls learn best by looking or listening". (I just made those numbers up.) Then the scope of the statement would be clear. If you want to split a class by the way they learn best, then split the class by the way they learn best, not by gender.

And one more thing. This is based on a true story. If a girl has messy handwriting, and her teacher exclaims "You write like a boy!", then any boys who hear this will be inclined to think Well, if my handwriting can't get any better than this, and my teacher doesn't expect it to anyway, then why should I try?. The mere statement of a prejudice can act to reinforce or even create the alleged correlation. Not good.

So just be careful next time you want to say something like "Women are bad drivers" or "Asians are more intelligent".

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Community

2007-09-03T16:42:00.001+12:00

I had an interesting weekend away with a group of youth leaders from my church at a farm. Interesting, is the word I use when I can't be bothered explaining the mix of emotions, experiences and all that it encompassed. A brief summary:

Marshmallow toasting
Fantastic food
Interpretive dance
Settlers of Catan
Charades (I had to act out Albertine by Brooke Fraser - can I just say that is a flippin' hard one to do)
Me doing masses of study for BCNZ paper
A nasty spiritual attack that left me in masses of pain for most of sunday morning
Listening to Life Fm - we were very excited about this! (don't get that in wellington)
A lot of discussion.
Finding out the true lyrics to a 'Fray' song ..... turns out I have been singing something that wasn't there....... in my defence I wasn't the only one!
Oooh and yes ...I got the leaders to Bongo themselves :P (highly entertaining)

Anyway one of the things we discussed was community. In fact the debate got quite heated at times. There was argument that Christian's rely far to much on online community and use it too much (which I disagree on) and there was argument that we needed to become more like the Acts 2 church.

So my questions for you are (you can pick one or both)

What would you define community as?
Do christians rely on online community too much?

The gospel and?

2007-08-31T12:13:00.000+12:00

This week in class (and when I say in class i mean via online class) we have been discussing the book of Galatians and whether the book was written to a legalist or nomist situation.

This post is not on that. (I hear a sigh of belief from many people who were afraid they were going to have to find out what nomist meant :P )

However it has made me ponder this:

Is the gospel we live a gospel with additives. Thus, we say you accept Jesus by faith, but then after becoming a Christian there are certain things one is expected to do to 'stay' Christian, or to be accepted as a christian, or to become 'more christian'. By this I mean, what cultural expectations do we implicitly or explicitly put on ourselves and other believers. For example:

* A true christian reads their bible every day?
* A true christian must go to church every week?
* A true christian doesn't drink
* A true christian must only...........

Have you or do you experience any of these additivies? Where did they come from? Do you think they are cultural add ons? Or are they necessary to make a healthy church community?

Blind man

2007-08-29T15:13:00.000+12:00

Made by, Martin Fazeli,

The clip speaks for itself really...

but I have been pondering this clip in conjunction with the lyrics of one of Tim Hughes' latest songs..

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

Acting humbly
Loving mercy
We must go, we must go
To the broken
And the hurting
We must go, we must go

Left Behind

2007-08-27T13:22:00.000+12:00

For all of the 'Left Behind' book and movie fans out their........ and for all of those who just don't get people who are so 'caught up' ( if you pardon the pun) in rapture stuff.

Kudos to think christian

Warning - you will either love this clip or hate it.

Foodbank Drive

2007-08-26T14:52:00.001+12:00

Have just got back from collecting food for the local food bank drive and then doing the primary sort for our suburb before the food got sent off to the 'main sort' for the city.

This week our city food bank had to close as there was no food left.

It was interesting to see what type of things people contributed:

*A half opened block of cheese
*Some old sauer kraut
*Many tins of goods that were past their best before date (or worse they were rusty with no label)
*Or people had gone out of their way to explain how to use particular items attaching labels with recipes.
Fresh veges and fruit
Healthy foods
Soaps
Baby goods
Thousands of tins of baked beans and spaghetti
Loads of dried noodles and Pasta

You could really see the people who had put a lot of thought into it and the people that really just wanted to clean out their cupboards of their old goods that were past their best before dates. Is this a metaphor for how we treat those in need in our community?

Interestingly, on my route at least, those in the more 'rich' streets seemed to conribute less than those in the low to middle socio economic streets.

100 Days 100 Dollars

2007-08-23T14:39:00.000+12:00

Frank Ritchie aka Servant (link down the side) has got me thinking. He is currently doing 14 days just eating rice. Find out more on his blog. Anyway after all my ranting and raving about poverty and kingdom living and blah blah, I have found something. Not just something but 100 Days 100 Dollars. 100 Days 100 Dollars is a NZ campaign which challenges everyday NZers to roll up there sleeves and do something about poverty in Kiberia i.e. raise $100 in 100 days. I have joined.

- Kiberia has the population of Auckland residents, live in an area the size of the CBD of Auckland

- It is is a slum occupying 630 acres on the edge of Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa.

- With over a million people living in a space ¾ the size of New York's Central Park it is one of the most crowded places on earth, the largest slum in Africa, and one of the largest on earth.

- There are more than 100,000 orphaned children living in Kibera, the majority orphaned by AIDS.

- Parts of Kibera average only 1 square metre of floor space per person in a ramshackle house connected by mud filled alleys that are often only half a metre wide.

- There is no running water, garbage disposal, or utilities including electricity available for residents.

- To obtain water, residents pay up to ten times the going rate to fill buckets from a tap and carry it back through the slums to their home.

- There is only 1 toilet for every 500 people in the slum. Most people defecate in plastic bags and throw them into public places or onto roofs.

- Kibera is criss-crossed by open sewers and drains awash with human excrement from both inside and outside the slum as well as waste-water and garbage.

- Residents are often forced to pay exorbitant rents for tin shacks which are owned by landlords from outside of the slums.

- There are only 3 public schools in Kibera and children are trapped in an ever increasing cycle of poverty and lack of education.

- With open drains, sewers and pools of polluted water providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes, malaria is a significant year-round problem.

Wish to join me?

Accountability

2007-08-20T20:22:00.000+12:00

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. - James

I admire the church in Acts for many reasons. Despite its faults I really like the community that the early church had. True community meant living together, performing the odd miracle, communal living (by some) and a real commitment to face matters of conflict head on. In doing so the early church really had a great desire to keep each other accountable to truely following the gospel (see Acts 15/Galatians 2 for more)

Many modern church communities have lost much of these basic accountability principles. In our desire to be 'accepting and loving' (which I am all for) we tend to ignore many unbiblical behaviours of our brothers and sisters and don't keep each other accountable. We smile , or we cringe, rather than lovingly confront. We laugh at someones actions that are hurtful or we cry on the inside, but we do little to confront the issue at hand.

I recently heard someone say that they wouldn't confront a Christian brother or sister unless a situation was 'really bad'. I have to ask: Does that mean you will ignore the 10 repeated things that lead up to the situation before it gets really bad (and conversely the 10 or more people they could be affecting by their actions)? If we are meant to be becoming more like Jesus every day, how is waiting for someone to get worse helping them do that?

Do we truely wish to keep each other accountable in the pursuit of holiness?

Do we truely know what is going on in those in our christian community?

Some points to ponder from post secret:

Blessed are the meek

2007-08-16T14:55:00.000+12:00

Today I had to venture out, on the upside I have my voice back so I am able to talk again.

However sitting alone in a cafe at Queensgate (telling myself I was taking a break from life)
God again was teaching me stuff.

As I sat down, two women arrived. One of the woman had Cerebral palsy or something similar and had her carer with her. Evidently they are regular patrons of the cafe and the cafe staff made them most welcome , right down to knowing what drink they both wanted and how it had to be served (with a straw) and in a certain type of cup, so the carer could serve it easily to the other woman. While I was eating my meal, the carer sat at the table next to me and served the other woman her meal all the while drinking her own drink second. The two also conversed, while I couldn't understand a single word the woman with Cerbal Palsy was saying her carer could, and would listen carefully and answer. What did I learn from this? A lot! self sacrifice, grace and putting yourself out there.

After this I tottled on off to the bus stop and decided that instead of being one of those boring people who doesn't converse with anyone I would say 'Hello' to the woman sitting at the bus stop. I had talked to her on a bus once before . She said hello back and we struck up a fantastic conversation. Turns out all her family have gone up north to the coronation of the Maori King in Ngaruawahia. I was oblivious to this happening in NZ this weekend (having been so caught up in my own little world as of late). There you go.

the sore throat saga continued

2007-08-14T08:27:00.001+12:00

I have strep throat. Delightful.

That cost me $95 at the emergency doctor to find out - but at least she took me seriously unlike my normal doctor who tells me that I go to the doctor because I am 'fussy'

Then I left my cell phone at home so I couldn't catch a taxi ( i can't drive) so I ended up walking to the taxi stand by the hospital in the freezing morning cold.

On top of that I now have to wait for the pharmacy to open before I can go get my penicillin, which will cost more money. This will also mean catching a bus there and catching a bus back.

In all of this I am thankful that I live in a country where medical care is on tap.... despite the fact that I am in bucket loads of pain right now.......

I could really do with some prayer as I have a job interview this afternoon at 1.3o.
My throat is killing me and I am not that nice to be around so I would love some holy Spirit input.

Peace !

Lisa

Soundz, sounds and Jpod Saga part 2

2007-08-13T21:58:00.001+12:00

What are you listening to? In the last few months I have been extensively listening to TobyMacs alatest album Portable Sounds. I was talking to someone the other day about how we have to really think about what we listen to this person was dearly believed that if they just threw away all of their 'non christian' CDs then the world would be a better place. I disagree. Not all Christan Music is good. Merely slapping the label Christian worship doesnt make it fantastic. In fact a great deal of it , including (hold your breath here people) some by Hillsong and even Chris Tomlin, is at least mindless chatter featuring mindless phrases or at worse just plain theologically wrong.

However I have been pondering in great detail the lyrics of this mighty fine song which in the last week in particular has really resonated with me.

Come as you are
Come just like you be
It's the bumps and curves of our history
But no block in the road that we can't traverse
And no wounds from the past that can't be nursed

All hate gonna to dissipate from our fate
No check, together we got a checkmate
All hate gonna dissipate and fade away
To make room for a brand new day we got

We got one world 'til its time to fly
So it's one love 'til we say goodbye
We got one world its enough to share
'Til we're called home and we're caught up in the air we got

One world
I'll look out for you, you look out for me
One world
Together we can be perfect harmony
One world
I'll look out for you, you look out for me
One world
And I'm a dedicate this song to everyone of God's children

One world oughta be more than enough
And if its not, is God looking in pure disgust?
Wondering what the dilly with the silly I see?
When I made each of these in the image of me
Everyday is a chance for a new stance
Like every song is the beginning of a new dance
And everyone of us was made to reflect the light
And glorify the most high so bright we got

You can come as you are
Love is yours
Love is ours
I am a witness
To sweet forgiveness
You will shine like a star
Burning bright where you are in our one world

'Come as you are' - Jesus doesn't call you to come as who you might be , who you were, or who hope to be. He asks you to come as you are but acknowledging what makes you and shapes you. This particularly resonated with me last night at a very moving baptism service. '

'When I made each of these in the image of me' - My God! I get so mad when I see myself and others discrimating against others because of some silly insecurity. In a larger sense my heart this week has been particularly torn and my spirit pressed to continute the Isaiah 60 call to serve his children , regardless of their earthly faults and difficultness because they are indeed made in the image of God.

The line above stands out most probably because of the line I have put in italics 'I am a witness, To sweet forgiveness.' Enough Said.

Prayer needed

2007-08-12T11:25:00.000+12:00

Update and more thoughtful blog posts coming soon - i promise. However you guys haven't been posting comments and there has been a heck a lot of you been passing through here......

Anyway what I could really do with is some prayer:

1) I have a job interview on Tuesday for a school that I am really really entustiastic about it would be a permanent position working with Year 5s starting term 4.

2) Unfortunately I am getting yet another cold/virus thing. As those of you that know me well know. When I get sick i get really sick so I could do with the mighty hand of God to get rid of this or to at least weaken this virus so that I can give my all on Tuesday.

Thank you all

P.S If you haven't checed out the Rev Gal Pals link on the right you don't know what you are missing out on. :)

Life Experience - Child Abuse

2007-08-07T21:11:00.001+12:00

I recently had a conversation with a friend about life experiences and how she thought she had not been 'exposed' to much.

Over the last few days I have been considering where is it that this exposure line is reached and one has a good grasp of the world but still has a reasonably positive outlook on life. The problem is many Christians i meet have either been ultra insulated and have very little knowledge of the outside world or I meet non christians whose knowledge of the world is so intimate and explicit that a bit of me dies inside as I hear their stories that are so lacking in hope, love, or a fill of implicit or explicit pain.

Some guide posts to help you understand my thoughts. (All names changed)

Bill, age 12, whose biggest hope is either to be in the army (because you get to kill people and sounds like fun - Miss), to leave school at age 14, to get a gun liscene, or to join the gang that his dad belongs to.
Jim - aged 12 who speant some of literacy today hiding under the teachers desk - with me trying to get him out - as he didn't want to go to reading recovery. Jim's clothes are in tatters, he arrives late to school he got very little sleep, mum often keeps him home from school and sends brother to school. Jim spends most of his day at school throwing paper darts or gazing into space.
Andrew - i love this kid a lot ( i mean i love the others but this kid has pizzaz) , understated, trying to make it in a class full of loud kids. Gets excited about being noticed. Does his work in an understated way. Probably working 2-3 behind his age level. Beautiful beautiful spirit.
Ford , aged 12- Biggest aspiration - to be in a gang like those in NY. Work achieved today in class , a maths warm up game (this was a mighty big achievement) Likes to ask questions. Likes to recieve answers. Needs aroha. Needs firm boundaries - these seem to be lacking.
Fred and Ted. Joined at the hip. Fred arrived in class today and told me about a group of college kids he followed home yesterday who were singing a song about rolling joints. Fred thought this was amusing, it appears this was the highlight of his day yesterday. Ted is intelligent but manipulative will tell you that black is white. Unstimulated in an enviornment where behaviour management is the aim of the game.
Mary - removed currently in CYFS care (family issues at home)
the three musketters - loves = rugby, girls, xbox, hates = anything where they have to read.

Yes you can stop for 3 minutes tomorrow and ponder about child abuse all you want , but I ask you what are you doing to get into these schools. This school is in desperate need of SPORTS coaches. These kids desperately need role models. Teachers can not be everything. Moan all you like about the education system and the government. Jesus though did not sit there and moan - he did something. We don't need your words, we need you. These children don't need silence they need action. You can run as many groovy internal church programs as you want but these children won't be there - they are here - are you?

Things I have learnt over the last week

2007-08-06T14:02:00.000+12:00

A topic for a picture book for children aged 10-12 that is perfectly suitable is 'strip clubs' other possible topics include 'destroying all my class mates'
Just because you have grown past something doesn't mean someone else has. In fact this could come back and bite you in the ass.
Fair trade chocolate rocks
The meaning of the saying 'Matthew 10:34-37 ' see http://jewsforjesus.org/answers/jesus/family
Just because someone labels you someway does not mean you have to adhere to the label. Sometimes if a person is unaware of the label they are less likely to perform/do the things of the label.
If you are a christian and you have a disagreement/problem/issue with someone deal with it in a healthy way. Discuss it and come to a healthy outcome.
Mark 4:10-12 - When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, " 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'
What true friends are. Thank you Rose, you are amazing.

Acts

2007-07-31T20:10:00.000+12:00

I have recently started my New Testament B paper at BCNZ paper by CDL (centre for distance learning) I am really enjoying it so far.

New Test B looks at Acts through to Revelation but focuses mostly on Acts. I am really excited about this as I have never really read through the book of Acts before, except for the odd bit of chapter 2 that gets quoted at Pentecost and other odd times to make some point about the Holy Spirits power. However in reading Acts one learns that the Holy Spirit is a lot more than a once in a life time experience (not that I had been assuming otherwise) anyway….. I have been learning a heap over the last couple of weeks.

A couple of revelations and thinking points:

· In the Gospels Jesus told the disciples to go out…. the disciples were okay with this as long as it was only to people within there comfort zone…i.e. Jews. Peter made a mighty huge call in eating with people and preaching the gospel to those outside this cultural and religious group i.e. Gentiles. Because he did this he could never be leader of the Jerusalem church because he was not ‘conservative ‘ enough……. Who are we putting labels on? Are we willing to do something crazy for God if he calls us to do this , even if it looks crazy to others at our church?
· Secondly I was really convicted by a note in my notes from my lesson on Acts 1-6 on chapter 6 where it said regarding Acts 6:1-7 . ‘that we need to be very wary of the insecurity and need for power of those who want to do it all themselves’ . This has been a great learning and reflection point for me over the past couple of weeks not just in my churchy stuff but in my other work stuff too.
· Thirdly – as fantastic and utopian as collective ownership may seem in the form of Marxism this is not a form of social justice to cure the worlds ills. The common purse as shown in Acts 2 and Acts 4 is an example of a community that volunteered to do so out of a common belief. This again comes back to the beatitudes that say blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God (see my earlier post on this – type in Chris Marshall)

Teaching update

2007-07-31T19:10:00.000+12:00

As some of you know I am back at the school I regularly relieve at – my low decile intermediate (for my American readers I am what you guys know as a supply teacher currently with 6.7th grade students in a low socio economic area) anyway my current class are one of the hardest at the school and normally run amok for relievers so the fact that we have learnt some things this week is an achievement, even though it is not as much as I would have liked. I am having to be very tough, and it is reminding me a lot about God and justice. lol. I am there for 6 days and am back for 3 days next week in the same class.

A couple of the ‘naughtier’ kids have been removed for me for the 6 days that I am there, (and probably will be removed next week when I come back for another 3 days) but that still leaves me with a very tough class of students who have very high needs. I have one child with full time teacher aide support.

As I continue to teach at this school on a regular basis I find my self liking the challenge more and more. You constantly have to be on your toes and constantly have to be keeping kids engaged in material, more so than other schools otherwise you loose them.

In the past previous one reliever had the class break out into all out punch ups (east side vs west side gangs, which is very prevalent). Due to the grace of God we have not had this yet. I put this down to the fact that when you engage kids and don’t go in with an attitude that the kids are ‘bad’ and going to cause trouble it is less likely to flare up. Also a general awareness of the culture of the kids tends to help. Also the school has an awesome team feel so have been really highly supported and valued by the other teachers. Unfortunately we have had a few flare ups though but they have been minor in comparison to all out class fights. .

I am also teaching the top maths stream (the whole syndicate is streamed and I have the best kids in the syndicate) which is really awesome! I have just started a fractions unit with them and am really enjoying doing real teaching as opposed to normal relief work. Tomorrow I get to teach Spanish – for the school wide rotation! (I don’t know anything about Spanish, but that’s okay because the kids are only on there 3rd lesson)

I think one of the reasons I like it so much here is because it reminds me that I have to rely on God a lot especially his grace and the Holy Spirit. I have to humble myself and am constantly reminded that the last will be first.

Things I should be doing

2007-07-28T22:08:00.000+12:00

I should be writing my sermon right now but instead i am blogging.

Bad bad child.

Its on Deborah.

Let me just say that Deborah is very hard to write a sermon on........ well it is the particular spin i have to put on it for this topic........

*sigh*

back to work

PS Had my 1st day of 6 relieving at the intermediate i regularly relieve at. They were little rotters but we will get there......... Grace, peace and LOVE !

Bus Musings

2007-07-26T18:15:00.001+12:00

I am a Public Transport junkie. I am proud to say that. As much grief as I get from many a person, including many a Christian brother and sister I am proud to say I enjoy it.

My public transport journeys often see me taking buses with the type of people I imagine Jesus would hang out with right now if he were here. (Then I remind myself - I am Jesus to these people)

Take yesterday for example. Our suburban bus pulls into a supermarket bus stop. We pick up Mum, Aunty, Grandma (who looked like she was all of 40 years old) and 3 kids. The two eldest boys were twins and were aged about 3. The youngest was about 18 months. Man did they smell. They smelt like they hadn't had a shower in days, and by the looks of them they hadn't. The kids were literally thrown into the bus by the adults. But man were they beautiful. This is not the type of family folks that is likely to go to your mainly music club, or your MOPS programme etc etc. Anyway. Twin A speant most of the journey staring at me (all other family members were ignoring this particular child, they were too busy eating or talking about something). Twin A had been squashed in between the gap in the seats* and was trying to stand but kept getting thrown around as we went around corners (*the place where one seat goes forward and one goes backward the bit where people are meant to put their shopping bags). Twin B speant the majority of the journey climbing over the seats and getting told off by mum before reaching out to me, deciding that he rather liked the looks of my ticket.

If you haven't taken public transport lately (and i am not talking about a crappy commuter train) you need too. Mix with people. Get out of your comfort zone.

It will give you real perspective on life and where everyday people are at and believe me contrary to popular belief everyday people are not talking about interest rates, 'Amazing Grace' or what is happening at your (or possibliy any) church.

You don't need to sit and read your Bible (or recite it out loud , so people know you are a Christian) You don't need to turn up your Ipod loud so people can hear your Jesus tunes.
How about just LISTENING and being with people, it will give you perspective - plus you may even help the environment.

Tana, Trev and my Pay Cheque

2007-07-24T14:40:00.000+12:00

Now I thought to myself how can I cover some really important issues in 45 seconds?
Well I can't really but the mighty Gibson group can! So here is Rugby, Education and Politics, Government spending and humour for you in 45 seconds below.

Kudos to FaceLift (TV1 10PM MONDAYS)

Mental Illness

2007-07-22T22:53:00.000+12:00

In the last while due to a variety of circumstances I have had the opportunity to reflect a lot on mental illness. In NZ we currently have a campaign that is striving to bring mental illness into the light and to detach the stigma many people have associated with it 'like minds , like mine' or something similar. Anyway.

I have had opportunity to be introduced to John (not real name) who has severe mental illness (psychotic episodes/voices) . I was working with John, who is high school aged, before his illness became severe. John's mum is at her wits end about what to do with John and is feeling overwhelmed. John is currently very ill and is currently trying to find appropriate treatement.

It made me think again about how do we deal with Mental illness in the church? What experiences do you have? Pastoral or otherwise? Are we any better or worse than non christians? If you have first hand esperience with mental illness , what is your experience?

What's up

2007-07-22T22:44:00.000+12:00

I have had a very eventful weekend

1) Went to 2 hour church meeting on Friday night about Church Building and whether our church should move, could move and what the shape of a church should be. This was actually very educational but sadly I was one of only 2 people under 25 there and as such was told i was representing 'the youth' which I was not - I was representing myself.

2) Pushed an empty trolley around the carpark of Queensgate carpark 2nd story for 200metres at 8:30pm - just because I could. Then got back into car (needed stress relief after church meeting)

3) Went to work Saturday morning. Being the Boss is ever so, well fought with difficulties when one is 22 years old. Sometimes one just wants to give up all the responsibility and be - well just 22.

4) I went to my sisters pre- ball on Saturday night. I myself never went to a ball at college. It was lovely to see her all dressed up and to see her friends who i had gone to college with all grown up and looking stunning.

5) Queued in a very long queue at KFC. Laughed and joked with people in the queue. Fantastic fun.

6) Did church all of sunday including another church meeting, worship team (PM), helping with running cafe (PM) ,

Stop the traffik

2007-07-19T18:52:00.000+12:00

Sam and Lily get out of the busy traffic and escape into the quiet of a cafe and reflect on the latest movie - it made them good to feel a Christian. Wasn't it good to know that slavery was all over?

'Good movie that Amazing Grace? ay Lily?'

'Yeah great Movie?'

'Wasn't William Wilberforce wonderful,'

'Isn't it great all that slavery stuff is done with now? '

'Yeah less work for us to do Sam, i mean that guy was certainly persistant, it was so annoying that those others wouldn't help him , I mean how could you not see the injustice in people being held against their will ......'

sips coffee ( where are the coffee beans from?)

'beats me..... it makes me so so angry ...Lily!!'

They pull up a video off Youtube recommended by a friend off their latest whizz gadget phone (totally essential item)

'I don't get it! Sam what the frickin heck is the video on about that was a little whack!'
------------------
Yes well , it is really!

At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking.
600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.
An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year.
The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery.
Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime
People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc: Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans sold from street or institutions.

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/ - be the difference. What Wilberforce started we have to continue. Its always more than 'just a movie'

Charlene

2007-07-17T09:56:00.000+12:00

There were two stories that made me cry last night in front of the TV news last night both had a common theme. The church. Please do no comment on the SECOND case in specific details as it is currently before the courts (i.e. matters of guilt etc) any such comments will be deleted. However you are actively encouraged to comment on wider issues such as the church or .......

1) The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating back as far as the 1940s in the largest compensation deal of its kind, the plaintiffs' lawyers said. Just hours before trials were meant to start. 'There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims ... I cannot," Cardinal Mahony said........ "I apologize to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused. It should not have happened and should not ever happen again."

DNA testing identified semen from George Evans Gwaze in the underwear of his 10-year-old niece who was found unconscious at his home and later died in hospital, Christchurch District Court was told today. The Crown has charged 54-year-old Gwaze with the murder and sexual violation of Charlene Makaza, and is calling evidence from 58 witnesses at the depositions hearing which began today.

The hearing is expected to finish tomorrow, with only seven witnesses being called to give evidence in person. The rest of the evidence is being handed to Judge John Bisphan in written form.

Crown prosecutor Kerryn Beaton said Charlene had been the niece and adopted daughter of Gwaze and his wife and lived with them at their home in Hollyford Avenue, in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.

On January 5, Charlene and her sisters went to a church service and returned home about 10.30pm, and she went to bed. When her adopted mother's alarm went off at 5.45am next day, she could hear Charlene's unusual breathing and found her in bed unconscious and very unwell.
The girl had soiled herself and the mother stripped off the bottom clothing, wrapped her in a towel, and the family took her to the after hours surgery.

She was rushed from there to Christchurch Hospital by ambulance where intensive efforts were made to resuscitate her.While in the intensive care unit, medical staff found she had serious injuries consistent with sexual assault.Charlene had a hypoxic brain injury and multiple organ failure and died about 18 hours after she was found.

"The sudden onset of hypoxia was the result of asphyxia, the obstruction of the airway to the point of unconsciousness, but there was no evidence of manual strangulation," she said.
"The genital injuries were severe, but would not in themselves have caused her death."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4129766a11.html

Poor in spirit

2007-07-16T15:24:00.000+12:00

My Christianity Today Mag arrived from the mighty US of A on Saturday. and features a page of 'Reflections' this months 'Reflections' are on 'Poor in Spirit' (think Matthew 5:3)

Here are just two:

The Kingdom of God can only be recieved by empty hands. Jesus warns against a) worldly self -suffciency: you trust yourself and your own resources and don't need God b) religious self -suffiency: you trust your religious attitude and moral life and don't need Jesus

- Micheal H Crosby, Spirtuality of the Beatitudes: Matthew's Vision for the Church in an Unjust World

It is a theological mistake to seek suffering for its own sake. Nor does this beatitude mean that to live a pious life is to embrace the ultimate form of delayed gratification - suffering now in the hope that God will provide the reward once one is dead. The words of the Beatitudes are in the present tense: "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven

- Daniel P Sulmasy, A Balm for Gilead: Meditations on Spirtuality and the Healing Arts

couldn't of said it better myself

POST 100: Why going on a 2 week mission trip just ain’t good

2007-07-13T15:06:00.000+12:00

A lot of Middle Class Churches like to send people on short term missions. While these often has the best of intentions, I am of the belief that the vast majority of these do far more harm than good. Harm? I hear you say

Yes .

Local Christians in the ‘mission country’
• We effectively say – ‘I have a much better knowledge of your culture/language and conditions and thought that by coming in for 2 weeks and often by spending just 1 day in one particular space I could further Kingdom Work’
• Those that we go to help often go out of their way to accommodate us, therefore putting themselves out and often leaving themselves in a worse financial position when we leave.

Local non Christians: Missioners have not enough time to bond or form lasting relationships often language and culture issues. The most unreached are often not talked to ‘as this would be too risky ‘ oxymoronic being the fact that this is who Jesus would I think go to first ……. *cough*

Those on the mission:
• My biggest gripe is the money. Individuals often spend (here in New Zealand and I assume for my US readers it is similar) $ 2000 – 4000 for a 2 week trip. While this is all well and good, most of those $$$$ are for the individuals costs (airfare , accommodation) and little gets to the actual MINISTRIES etc over there that they are going to support. What I am saying is after the mission group is gone is there another $2000 from each individual (and the church that is sending them) to help the ministries they have supported? Or is all that we bring home pretty photos and good memories?
• Second big gripe: Many many churches seem to push the idea that ‘mission’ is purely overseas – last time I checked Jesus started with those around him before he sent people out. If those who we send internationally do not have a grasp on this basic fact then I really doubt whether a ‘mission trip’ is ‘furthering the kingdom’ as it is claimed

Now in saying all of this there are some short term mission groups that I do make exceptions for i.e. where people are going to a place where they have been asked to go by a local community because a local community does not have those resources OR where the community has NO Christians.

I am a firm believer in native missionaries and the work of Gospel for Asia before you get all agro at me ( which I doubt very much , you lurkers you :P )

NOOMA - Bullhorn Critique

2007-07-11T15:48:00.000+12:00

Now I must admit that my Christian theology is a mish mash of a variety of perspectives and is very post-emrgent sympathetic. In saying that I am not a Rob Bell devotee i.e. I do not own all his DVDs , nor have I even read his books (shock horror). I have though watched a fair whack of his NOOMA stuff and discussed his Velvet Elvis ideas with many of my friends.

The following two clips are on evangelism

Bell contends that all street evangelism (with bullhorns and placards and such) does not share Jesus' love or the Christian message adequately as it seperates loving God and loving others.

This guy here though has a different point of view:

What is your point of view? Can we have both? Or is Rob Bell right? Or the last guy right?

IBible - just the thing for today's Hip generation

2007-07-09T10:44:00.000+12:00

At last a Bible that fits my every need :P

NOTE: (look very carefully at the list of languages) It has Maori!

What's on top

2007-07-08T22:02:00.001+12:00

This list while personal to me, will give you a (small) insight into what it is like being in leadership. This time of year is especially hard for one reason or another - check out Naked Pastor. So yes this is my own personal rant, but I ask you to consider what it is like for those of you in your leadership team? How can you help them?

In my weakness he is strongest

1) I am an introvert , people take it out of me. If I am taking space its for your benefit.

2) Being in leadership is tough - its made even tougher when you feel like people couldn't care less whether you turned up or not. Or if you did turn up your only value is in what you do - not in who you are. Do you not know who I am? I mean behind all this? Do you know what makes me cry? Do you know what makes me laugh?

3) Praise God for his eternal sacrifice and his gift of the Holy Spirit and Angels! Thank you for the Holy Spirit (comforter) that rescued me tonight from the dark abyss that surronded me.

4) To people who came up to me tonight and started making random conversation about one thing or another : MEH! I've had a really crappy week, and I am glad you cared so much to stop and see what had been going on in my life before you bursted into conversation about something that mattered little at that particular moment - what I needed was someone to stop and talk to me - just like I do for you

5) Virtual Hugs to Nicola and Brad for your love , kindness and patience over the last week. Nicola I pray you have a great week at Xtend despite the rest of the stuff that is going on and Brad I pray that you have a get a new Hillsong CD.... no seriously Brad I pray that you will know the fullness of your significance in God's plan. Aroha - Lisa

Why 20somethings are leaving...... the Church

2007-07-07T17:24:00.000+12:00

My denomination recently published an article on why 20somethings are leaving the church in its monthly magazine. While I was happy they were addressing the topic , I really don't think it covered the issue. So here blog reader is your forum to discuss intelligently an issue that has a great impact on all of us.

MY OWN IDEAS

* Leaders insist on entertaining kids rather than providing them with substance. This leads to the 'camp high' or 'Jesus high' phenomena. This leads teens when reaching 20something to go to pentecostal churches which offer more 'Jesus high' type experiences OR they see the holes in a faith that is as empty and weak (having being taught little of the fundamentals of Christianity, like say suffering) - and leave. We must teach faith for the valleys and everydayness of life, a faith that is dynamic, powerful and practical.

* We don't model the real Jesus.

We have seen it all. From dead, compromising churches to hyped-up phoney churches, telling us that if we just do this or that, the next level will come. And of course, the biggest doctrine of our generation, if you just give more money, all your problems will be solved, or worse, He will heal you, fix your marriage, flood you with lots of money, etc. From: Mary Jean an Out of Church Christian (-USA):
From 'The Out of Church Christian's Book'

* Leaders go for 'big bang' experiences (think easter camp/ summer camp) SEE THIS BLOG POST and use these to 'feed' our teens, neglecting to teach them how to feed themselves using a Bible, Prayer, Solitude and songs of worship.

* We don't discuss big issues. Leaving things such as our doubts about God, challenges, money, politics, sex, Porn, in an untouched box for the world to handle. So when a teen/young adult does have a problem/question/issue etc in this area their only answer is from a non Christian worldview.

*We provide little intellectual stimulus and when one reaches university or the big wide world we have taught our teens little about their own or other world views. Although at this point I would like to offer a mighty big kudos to Trueu.org for the fantastic work they do in this area for all university students and Soulpurpose for the work they do in NZ they do with NZ teens and young people. You're my heros :)

* The cult of Leader - This one is a pet peeve - 'If only xxxx was here he was such a good pastor' , ' when xxxxx was here we used to do (heard 5 years after a pastor left - said like it was only yesterday)' It has been researched that many teens drop out of the church because of the cult of the leader. So much emphasis is put on the leader rather than God (and the fellowship of the saints) that people think that when that person moves that they can't possibly continue in their faith. We need to work as a team and point people to God. The Pastor is human (shock horror!) and is not infalliable, neither is a youth leader or worship leader. Youth need to be made aware of the concepts of the body of Christ and their value in it.

Why do you think 20somethings are leaving the church?

Lisa has a myspace

2007-07-06T17:15:00.000+12:00

Lisa has a my space site - i've put a few restrictions on it so my dear little darlings who I relieve for can't find me. So its not up for public viewing : ( Anyway peoples if you belong to the myspace Whanau I am now live and kicking at

Lisa's Myspace

ADD ME!

Beat Boxing Flute - Sesame St

2007-07-06T16:12:00.000+12:00

Its been a bit heavy here for a while so I thought I would let you know where my 'happy place' has been.

Beat boxing Sesame Street - no less

Righteous Anger

2007-07-06T12:19:00.000+12:00

Anger.

I am angry. Very Angry.

Today is day 4 of my war with Payserve. The Ministry of Educations Pay wing.
Dearest Pay serve have not paid my staff. I handed in my staff pay sheets in mid june. My staff are only paid once a TERM and as you can guess , they like me ,are pretty angry that once again payserve has LOST our pay sheets.

Oh dearest blog reader, to you this means very little but this is someones income (mine and 11 of my staff) and this is INJUSTICE. Just to let you in on some details I am paid (LSFL) for 25 hours a term (work about 50) and my staff work 2-3.5 a week teaching primary and intermediate aged students music. They are only paid once a term . I.E. once every 4 months.

My staff are AMAZING. They teach between 13-35 kids on Saturday Mornings. in Group lessons, linking to the NZ curriculum, they do planning, they do reflections, they to photocopying they write special sheets for kids, the call parents to check how kids and families - AND THEY ARE ONLY PAID FOR THEIR WORK ON SATURDAY MORNING! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Our music school (run by the MOE) is attached to a host school (think local college/primary school) i.e. we don't run seperately.

This following saga is not the first time this type of saga has happened.

THE SAGA

Pre cursosr : I handed in our pay sheet mid june so our staff would be paid on this wednesday. Good old Payserve has cut off dates that are like 2 weeks in advance. Payserve pay all teachers in NZ employed by the state e.g. primary teachers, secondary teachers, school caretakers, relief teachers and my staff,

DAY 1 TUESDAY (WHEN PAY SHEETS ARE MEANT TO ARRIVE): Contacted our MOE liasion - she wasn't that helpful. Contacted our host school - they didn't call back. Contacted Payserve - they told me they would call back - they didn't but could I send a copy of the forms and they would manually pay my staff so they wouldn't have to wait until the 19th of July (next pay cycle)

DAY 2: Faxed a copy of forms (3x just to be sure - you never can tell with payserve) , I rung them to check and evidently they didn't recieve the first 2 copies (must have a dumb as fax machine) Couldn't get hold of the person I needed to speak to (a head honcho - thats right baby Lisa goes right to the top ) who had the longest lunch break ever known to man.

DAY 3 : Played phone tag with payserve, who passed me from one person to another. Finally my head honcho man's secretary said that they couldn’t pay us as the forms I had sent to them didn’t have signatures at the bottom,(duh people they were a copy) so I had to go back to Host school and start all over again (i.e. get signatures and sign off) i.e. send the originals back in. Which is freaking hard to do being the fact is, it's school freaking holidays

DAY 4:(TODAY) : Contacted Deputy Principal @ my Host school (who are not very impressed with Payserve, evidently they tend to loose things a lot). PRAISE GOD HE WAS THERE! The host school have a copy of the forms but can’t access them as they are locked in a cabinet somewhere that only the office lady can access. (she is away) Unfortunately we need this copy as it has the signatures and some other supplemntary forms.

---------------------------------------------------
** Ours is not an isolated case many teachers around NZ are not being paid properly. **
** My own personal relief pay from Payserve this week was also messed up and I won't get paid properly until the 18th July (read: Lisa is broke because Payserve lost ANOTHER sheet)

The S word ... and I didn't cringe

2007-07-04T14:55:00.000+12:00

The prize for most interesting blog post I have read this week goes to Solo Feminity (link down the side of the page) and this link described by the blog author Carolyn McCulley as an
'interview with Kelly McMillen, the bride of Rob McMillen and new mother of Dorothy Rose...The goal of these interviews is to help us think both biblically and realistically about marriage and what life is like when the honeymoon is over and the real living begins'

Yes the article even includes submission .... (I didn't cringe when I read it this time) this is either a sign that I am growing up in my Christianity or have become immune to conservative christian christianize, although I hope it is the former.

Interestingly titled: Killing An Attitude of Entitlement

It's long but very very interesting article - a couple of quotes to get you going.

. What was the biggest surprise to you after marriage? I think I may have believed that submission, as biblically defined, would be easier than it actually is. I had such a desire to be married, to serve a godly husband, and to learn how to be a godly, submissive wife. So I guess perhaps I thought this strong desire would make me better at it. (Ha ha!) I never anticipated how many times we would disagree on small things, mostly matters of preference, and how I was not at all entitled to have my own way on these things just because they were small, or just because they fell under the category of home management, or for any other reason

4. How do you think single woman should pursue/prepare for marriage?
....
(6) Look for ways to encourage the men in your circle to lead. Don’t try to be the ‘leader’ in group situations where there are men present, even if those men might not be the strongest leaders you know. If you really feel like you have unique gifting appropriate for the situation, perhaps ask them what you can do to help, rather than just ‘taking charge’. It will help you to practice a peaceful and gentle spirit in preparation for what it looks like to submit in marriage, and it will encourage growth in their leadership.

What is one thing about men you learned after marriage? I think I have learned, and am learning, that biblical leadership is just as hard for them as biblical submission is for us. (Just look at Genesis 3 - it’s because of the fall, in both cases!) I think I was tempted in the beginning to think that men have it easier than women because as leaders, they have the final say on decisions. But they bear a lot of responsibility in this regard. They are one day going to be held accountable before God for how they led their wife and family. Not to mention the fact that their leadership should be primarily characterized by sacrificial love. So, it isn’t enough for them to just be good decision-makers. God knows their hearts and sees when they are leading sacrificially versus when they are leading from self-interest....

GO READ........ OFF YOU GO

An Open Letter on Unity by Lisa and Rich Mullins

2007-07-03T11:30:00.000+12:00

Dear Earth,

It appears you haven't learnt much in the last few thousand years on unity have you? You still look for points of difference rather than things you have in common. You like to say how you are better while not acknowledging how you are so similar to those that you claim to be different from.

To America: July 4, Yes celebrate: ' America the Beautiful' but other countries are just as beautiful - why? because I created them! Your ignorance and arrogance is ugly. Your inability to see that other peoples are just as fallen, beautiful, talented, as you is far sighted.

To those obssessed over denomination: I came to unite, not to set up seperate clubs. There is no Catholic section, Methodist section, Baptist section etc in heaven. You are one in Christ. Agree on the fundamentals then get over the secondaries - I have. You will find I covered this already if you consult the Bible. ' No Gentile , No Jew' In fact I would like it if you got over this and got on with Kingdom work.

To those obsessed with gender: Luke was a fantastic evangelist. If you read his gospel carefully you will see that the way he includes women is how I wish to see them included. Without fuss, into my master plan! Kingdom work again - why do you continue to want to thwart this with endless arguments that split my church?

To those obsessed with homosexuality: Yes I demand high standards and yes homosexual behaviour is wrong, but when was the last time you welcomed a homosexual person into your community? When was the last time you acted with love towards the homosexual community? All I hear is a constant barrage of criticism! When I was on earth I was a radical. I went where no one else went. I mixed and mingled and walked where no one else would. If I was walking here now I would be in the midst of your red light districts and gay bars. Where are you? Why do you shout and point from the comfort of your warm home? Where is the love? Matthew 22.

To those not obsessed with the Kingdom of God: WHY?

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken ' - Rich Mullins

Living with Epilepsy

2007-07-01T21:39:00.000+12:00

I have speant most of today in bed.

I am sick yet again with some type of virus/bacterial thing i think, headache , sore stomach, sore throat, (i'll go to the doctor tomorrow) and have been having terrible seizures all day. I haven't had a day like this in ages. I blacked out. I nodded constantly. I swayed. Things were blurry. Plus my seizures were long ...... very long..... Fantastic.

Contrary to popular belief there is more than one type of epilepsy:

*Absence seizures
*Atypical absence seizures
*Myoclonic seizures
*Atonic seizures
*Tonic seizures
*Clonic seizures
*Tonic-clonic seizures

Partial Seizures
*Simple partial seizures
*Complex partial seizures
*Secondarily generalized seizures

My type (absence seizures) are actually very common (although normally more prevalant in children) they are not very fun at all and they are not DAY DREAMS!

Find out more by going here :

Absence seizure epilepsy

The Top Biblical Ways to Acquire a Wife

2007-06-29T21:25:00.000+12:00

Since there are so many ways that one is to 'biblically find a husband' i thought i would put this list out there for you.

The Top Biblical Ways to Acquire a Wife

Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours. (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock. -- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)

Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. -- Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)

Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. -- Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)

Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib. -- Adam (Genesis 2:19-24) [Adam is the only man that ever went to sleep single, and woke up married.]

Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a woman. -- Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)

Cut off 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife. -- David (I Samuel 18:27)

Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative of course.) -- Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)

Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest. -- Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)

When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a ...woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me." -- Samson (Judges 14:1-3)

Kill any husband and take HIS wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though). -- David (2 Samuel 11)

Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea, it's the law). -- Onan and Boaz (Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)

Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity. -- Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)

A wife?... NOT!!! -- Paul (1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

http://www.skywriting.net/inspirational/humor/the_top_biblical_ways_to_acquire_a_wife.html

Lower Hutt Baptist Website

2007-06-29T11:26:00.000+12:00

Our Church Website has just gone live.... go check it out.... off you go... especially because most of you wellington people don't know where the heck lower hutt is ...... off you go (especially check out the youth pages)

Lower Hutt Baptist

Relief Teaching an update

2007-06-27T16:45:00.000+12:00

Praise be to God!

How easy it is to say that when you are in a church with 200 other people who are saying it with you. How much harder it is to say when you are in a classroom full of needy children, screaming and pulling at you and wearing you down. I am so thankful that God is steadfast and his grace is never ending!!!!! Today was the day from Hell. In the teaching profession there is a stat that evidently

75% of kids will do what you ask
15% will swing either way
and
5% are generally off task.

the class I had today went like this

70
20
10

Despite this the kids evidently loved me and were busy telling the duty teacher how much they were enjoying me, even though I kept telling them off! They are one of the hardest classes in the school (and the Deputy Principal told me it was very brave of me to have said yes to taking them) and I was throwing so many of them out (but evidently that is usual for their normal teacher too). Evidently the idea of following instructions was not something the vast majority of them wanted to do. They talked and they talked, they screamed at each other, they had snot running out of their noses, they had hair in their eyes. One of them had a really pussy eye. They are created in God's image.

They were a very very needy class. I had one child whose writing was totally illegible but was so incredibly proud of her work, she took 30 minutes to write 2 lines. They kept punching and poking each other. During silent reading they talked all the way through their reading time and I think it likely that only about 1/3 of the class read anything. We had a good time though - we laughed a lot, we learnt stuff and we did a really cool wordfind.

Again I say that teachers who work in low decile schools are amazing. They are some of the most dedicated self sacrificing people you will ever come across. I truely admire people who do this full time. We work with children who come to school having had chips and chocolate for breakfast whose parents don't take them to Kip McGrath for remedial maths when they get slightly behind. In low decile schools we work with kids from war torn countries - with some kids who have never experienced school before, work with kids with severe behavioural needs , provide stability. We teach kids basic social graces (how to say please, how to say sorry) as well as normal teaching stuff that teachers do - say the curriculum and dealing with bullying.

Still you will see us outside on the playground throwing hoops or reading a book at lunch time with the kids. You would expect us to be taking solace in the staff room? Nah! It's about a deep sense of Aroha (love) that no amount of money from the MOE can buy me for

Where is God on Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday ? Friday and Saturday? He is in exactly the same place that he was on Sunday. Its just me that's moving. In my case I need him even more than I do on Sunday

Amir Mohebbi and why you should care

2007-06-25T12:10:00.000+12:00

"Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere”: Martin Luther King, Jr. : 1929-1968

Isaiah 61

I 1-7 The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness"
planted by God to display his glory.
They'll rebuild the old ruins,
raise a new city out of the wreckage.
They'll start over on the ruined cities,
take the rubble left behind and make it new.
You'll hire outsiders to herd your flocks
and foreigners to work your fields,
But you'll have the title "Priests of God,"
honored as ministers of our God.
You'll feast on the bounty of nations,
you'll bask in their glory.
Because you got a double dose of trouble
and more than your share of contempt,
Your inheritance in the land will be doubled
and your joy go on forever.

I think if you have long enough to surf the net. You have plenty of time to do something about the following. Again Jesus is looking for followers not talkers. He is looking for doers not talkers. So write a letter/email to David Cunliffe Minister of Immigration dcunliffe@ministers.govt.nz or if you are a committed pray-er pray about it. Where are all the Christians? Is this just not as sexy as Ahmed Zaoui???

'Amir Mohebbi, is the longest serving remand prisoner in the history of New Zealand. He has been detained in Mt Eden for close to four years now. Amir has a New Zealand wife, Maryam, and three kiwi children and his only crime is that he refuses to put his and his family's life in danger by signing documents agreeing to be deported to Iran.

His children are Monica (7), Milad (5) and Merila (3). Littlest Merila has never known a father who is not in jail. These kids just can't understand and neither can we.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe wants to deport Amir and deprive these kiwi children of their father.

All these Iranians fear for their lives if they are deported to Iran - some for political and others for religious reasons. At least one is a Christian convert who rightly fears for his life in Iran. Groups such as Amnesty International agree that people in this situation should be given temporary visas until it is safe for them to return to Iran. Labour refuses to consider this.

Others in this group are in fear of their lives for political reasons relating to their opposition to the Islamic policies of the Iranian government.

These are real people with real New Zealand lives.

Ali Reza Pahan's employer Bruce, strongly supports Ali's desire to remain in New Zealand. "He is a good man and a very good worker".

Fardien Nouriyan has a wife Leila and step-daugher Sahel (15). He has been in New Zealand for 9 years, married for 8 years and in prison for 16 months now. Cunliffe wants to deport Fardien.

Thomas Yadegary was in a similar situation but was released on bail three months ago after a public campaign. However the government is appealing against his release to the Appeal Court.'

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0706/S00271.htm

Sermon Feedback

2007-06-25T10:39:00.000+12:00

I spoke yesterday at church. I wasn’t all that nervous, had an overwhelmingly sense of peace which I think comes from the fact that when you know that you are in the right place for your gifting God lets you know. This doesn’t mean that you won’t get any nervousness it just means that you feel at peace on the flip side when you are in the wrong place for your gifting you know it, God knows it and everyone else around you knows it. I think as a body of Christ we have to start to make sure that we acknowledge this. I was telling someone yesterday for example that I am particularly ungifted in intercessary prayer and get really nervous when I am asked to prevail in this area, however if someone asks me to use my GIFTS in other areas where I AM gifted I know I will be fine because that is where I will flourish.

So the sermon its self was part of our 'Potent Parables' series and was on Matthew 25: 31-46 aka the 'Sheep and Goats' Parable. I focused on us doing simple things that hold eternal significance for God and Reaching out to those around us in our immediate realm of influence. God is looking for doers not talkers. The three points were:

1. The sheep (ones who had followed what Jesus said) provided others with simple acts of kindness.
2. The sheep used what they had to be a blessing.
3. Both groups were surprised by how significant their actions were.

Anyway the sermon was absolutely amazing. Amazing because afterwards we did something different to what we normally do at our church and we had an ‘open floor’ where the senior pastor got people to feedback on what the sermon meant to them. There was some really weighty stuff I bought up (i.e. how we behave outside of church is way more important than how we behave in church) that people were pondering on and really seemed to want to discuss which is great. After church a whole lot of people came up to me and wanted to discuss stuff too that I had talked about and particularly the practical implications of reaching out in our immediate situations to those around us.. so was pretty ka pai!

Theologian survey results

2007-06-23T00:01:00.001+12:00

Eerily scary ... For those of you who wonder whether I have thought about my theological views in any more depth than on this survey you may want to look on my earlier posts.

You scored as Jürgen Moltmann, The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about.

Jürgen Moltmann

93%

Anselm

87%

Jonathan Edwards

73%

John Calvin

67%

Martin Luther

53%

Friedrich Schleiermacher

47%

Karl Barth

47%

Augustine

40%

Charles Finney

40%

Paul Tillich

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

I'm speaking at Church on Sunday

2007-06-22T09:20:00.000+12:00

Yes darn those Baptists for letting Women into Leadership ;P

I am speaking at church on Sunday morning (yes they are letting me loose on the big people) , so if you are in the locale ( I don't even know if that is a word meh) I would love to have you come along....think of this as a late birthday party (its only 6 days late) and a blog reader get together ..... there will even be coffee afterwards - not that I drink the stuff. Text me if you need directions. - no Nicola I am sure you know the way so no directions for you!

This could be rather funny - funny you say - yes. You see there a group of us young adults who are commonly often mistaken for visitors by many of the congregation (sad really being the fact I have been going to morning service for 2 years and am also a youth leader!) so me going up and speaking will either

1) Shock many people or
2) bemuse many - why do we let visitors speak!!!
3) Mean that I can no longer get away with hiding behind being a visitor

I am excited but also nervous however I am totally as always trusting the Holy Spirit to do wonders where I fall incredibly short!!

Why we are more like 'them' than we claim to be

2007-06-21T11:40:00.000+12:00

Christians in cyber space - PART 2 - ITS ALL ABOUT ME JESUS - THE GOSPEL OF ME

I haven't posted since Monday.

In that time we have had 26 hits to this blog. Not a huge amount as a few of you seem to be overly enthusiastic and like to visit more than once, but still a significant amount for a blog of this size. In that time we have also had 1 comment. A ratio of 1:26

Interestingly I think this is a metaphor for Christians in cyberspace and really in life especially in the Church

We have become very consumeristic. We go to peoples blogs/other Christian websites , surf them , poke around in some ones thoughts and lives and don't reply - or if we do we more often than not don't come up with a reasoned well thought out reply, but more often than not throw out some flippant comment, praising ourselves before returning in half an hour to see if someone has replied to OUR reply so that we can be gratified - because really its all about us really isn't it??

Most probably we won't visit sites where we are forced to think or confront ourselves because we want escapism. We want to go somewhere where we can just be well, you know, silly or anonymous, and where no one really cares about the whole Jesus thing don't we? I mean that whole thing about Loving God with ' heart, soul and mind' only applies off line doesn't it? That whole thing about contributing to community like Jesus talked about doesn't really apply to online either, does it? I mean this is all about ME! I don't really have to care about the person at the other end of the blog/website do I ? I don't have to pray or contribute or thank people for websites that provide me with valuable resources to my Christian walk like Soul purpose, Got questions or Christianity today? Whatever!!!! This is about ME people - ROCK ON! I mean its only cyberspace!

Hold up!

This is a lot like many Christians and their relationship with the church. They hop from one Church to another Church and complain about everything under the sun while making zero contribution at all to a church community and the people in it. Or if they are part of a Church these will often be the people who will go up to the leadership and will say things like ‘ I think you should do this….’ And will provide absolutely no offer of assistance in how to do that thing that would evidently further the Kingdom of GOD.
These people might occasionally - just like in cyber space - participate in some type of social event (similar to commenting on a 'light blog post' like 'what’s your favourite colour' ) but rarely will you see these people putting in the hard yards like serving or really engaging with the material in some capacity, no they are content just to suck the s/Service dry and then carry on in their merry way until they find something better that serves their 'needs' (wants/fantasies/ mummy why doesn't Jesus give me a sports car and fast internet access) .

It's only me venting isn't it?

2007-06-18T14:03:00.001+12:00

Here starts my series on Christians in cyber space: This comes from an interview off a very good website that I found. Link at the bottom.

PART 1 - Words, Words, Words and Theology

What signs of potential doctrinal drift and danger do you need to keep an eye out for in ministerial students?

I am increasingly convinced that pride is the root of problems among students. I was convicted recently by a minister friend quoting to me 1 Tim. 1:5-7 (ESV):
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

My friend made two observations about this passage. First, the drift into dubious theological discussion is here described as moral in origin: these characters have swerved from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith; that is why their theology is so dreadful. Second, their desire is not to teach but to be teachers. There is an important difference here: their focus is on their own status, not on the words they proclaim. At most, the latter are merely instrumental to getting them status and boosting their careers. Thus, what concerns me most is that students may simply desire to be teachers. If that is their motivation, then they have already abandoned a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, and their theology, no matter how orthodox, is just a means to an end and no sound thing....

Orthodoxy is always doomed to seem uncreative and pedestrian in the wider arena; if the aim is to be a teacher, to be the big shot, then it is more likely that orthodoxy will be less appealing in the long run – though there are those for whom orthodoxy too is simply a means to being a celebrity. If a prideful desire to be a teacher, to be a somebody, is the fundamental problem, then one other aspect which is increasingly problematic is the whole phenomenon of the internet. Now anyone can put their views out for public consumption, without the usual processes of accountability, peer review, careful editing timely reflection etc. which is the norm in the scholarly world and has also been the tradition in the more theologically responsible parts of the Christian publishing industry. The internet has few quality controls and feeds narcissism...

Of course, all young theologians and aspiring church leaders say stupid and unpleasant things.... I shudder for those who have not yet grasped this basic fact and who say some frightful things on the internet which will come back to haunt them the very first time a church googles their name as part of doing routine background checks on a potential ministerial candidate. ...Paul’s words to Timothy seem prophetic in times such as ours. Students should cultivate pure hearts, good consciences, and a sincere faith. That way they will safeguard their theology from becoming idle speculation.

For the full interview with Carl Trueman CLICK HERE (it's in 3 parts)

Things I have learnt from Islam

2007-06-17T16:44:00.000+12:00

I am a great believer that Christians do not have a monopoly on the truth. God created everyone in his image and as such there are elements of truth in all aspects of life and in other cultures/ and religions. This doesn't mean though that I believe that it is true that one can be a mish mash of any old belief they like and still get a free pass into heaven, it just means I am not arrogant to believe that Christians have a perfectly clear view on every aspect of God, worship, his holiness and his creation (etc) just because they are are merely followers of Jesus.

In the words of Dr Mirsolav Volf renowned Theologian from Yale ' I’m happy to benefit from sociology, anthropology, psychology. ... you have a vibrant religious world, and academics sometimes aren’t aware of how potent 2 billion Christians , 1 billion Muslims and all the religious folks are. If you just analyse religion , you’re doing good work, but socially you’re inconsequential. You’re not shaping the world.’[1]

for the record I believe that Allah and God are two different beings before you all start ranting ... not that I expect you will as you are all a very quiet bunch you all seem to lurk - feel free to prove me wrong

Things Islam has taught/reminded me about Jesus and Christianity :my big thanks to Emma M for bouncing some ideas off on this one:

1. God has many names . In Islam Allah is known by 99 names. In Christianity we forget the fullness of God's names and the meaning behind them . Commonly we might throw around Jesus or Messiah but when was the last time you could recite and meditate on a long list of names about God?

2. Of those 99 names not one of them is Father. I know that God is my heavenly Father! This is something that i always want to remember

3.The Trinity (The father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit) is an incredibly important part of our faith especially the Holy Spirit, who gives our faith a living and breathing dimension. Through the Trinity we know that God is not far away but is always inside us as well as being the creator of the universe.

4. Prayer is important and should be implict in all we do - not just once a day. Dressing modestly is not a crime and is an honour to the one we worship.

5. The importance of community (take for example the numerous examples of community seen at Ramadan)Anyone else have something else that they can share ..........[1] Oppenheimer, ‘Embracing Theology’

Do you love me?

2007-06-15T15:52:00.000+12:00

I have come to a few realisations over the last few days.

Firstly the great stinging sensation that is the gospels. LUKE 15 is one of these Gospels. If you read it and let it actually touch you it is a great kick about God's love for the lost.
The problem with much of our Western Christianity is that we have become so ME focused (give me this , make me feel good, Jesus what can you do for ME, Jesus bless me ) that we forget the fullness of the Gospel. Sure Jesus did stuff for you and me but if I do not show the love to the world or put conditions on when I show love to the world I am not living in obedience to what God asks of me.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart , soul and mind AND love your neighbour .........

2007-06-14T19:12:00.000+12:00

I am going to a job interview ....... not because I want to , out of some sort of in built obligation.... I don't really want the job ....

Third Day is Out on Itunes

2007-06-13T12:54:00.001+12:00

In the words of a very bad Chris Tomlin Song ' We're gonna party' (I dedicate that to you brad :P ) Third Day have just released a whole stack of their CDs on NZ itunes. About time I say... previously all we had were two grotty songs.

In other news ....... I should be studying for my BCNZ exams. Scriptures that I have to remember

Mark 4:11-12
Matthew 20
Luke 15
Matthew 13
Luke 18

Thats just for my parable examples. .... Now am off to study either the gospels or the KOG I am still deciding which.

If you could pray that I would eat something I would be very grateful. As many of you know my epilepsy medications make me not want to eat and feel very grotty. While lots of you seem to think this would be the ideal weight loss product (and it has been I have lost 15kg) I am just wanting to eat! It is currently 1pm and all I have had today is a chocolate milk. I mean I really want to eat but the thing is I can't get the food into me.

Have a fantastic blessed day.....

Press here for procrastination

2007-06-12T19:42:00.000+12:00

To please the majority of you who come here just to pass the time of day I have added some new links down the side.

(go click on the link from the sidebar yourself - I'm not going to do everything for you)

Megan's I am always challenged by Christian's who use their blogs to honour God and on the flip side really wonder about Christian's who spend the majority of their time fluffing around about nothing in particular, but that is another post ......... Megan is really a Woman after God's own heart. She is flippin awesome. Check this blog out.

(Deep as a Puddle - meh just because ( combo of deep and humour ) Sam is involved in some type of Leadership at Blueprint Church in wellington, by all accounts the Blueprint crew all seem to have some pretty onto it blogs......

Mark's and for this one I will give you the link because I don't have it on the list yet .... http://liacoa.blog.com/

Internet Monk - if you want an intelligent challenging Christian view on things - don't go here unless you want to be challenged. If this doesn't sound like you you may want to skip down to .........

Rove - if you just want to laugh - totally not christian - but hey, sometimes you just have to escape the Christian Ghetto - in fact its a crime not too.

M is for Miss R

2007-06-11T16:22:00.001+12:00

RAMBLINGS:
** Someone once said the greatest problem with the church today is Apathy.
I tend to agree.

***Help us all - we don't need another stupid N.A.G. for our schools there are enough of them already. Help us! I mean really now you expect me to be the health police too? as well as being a child's counsellor, mother, social worker, and teacher? Really? I mean really? By all accounts make N.A.G'S about literacy and numeracy (and music, now there is an idea ....) but Gee Labour let parents do the parenting!!!

***I have just speant the day in a decile 1 school. On friday I was at a decile 10 school. WOAH, what a culture change. And in all of it I thought this - these kids are made in the image of Jesus and are full of expectations and a passion for learning. Why do we forget and loose those things? Gee kids are beautiful! (Plus they generally seem to get my sense of humour much better than adults)

*** Please pray for me , I am in the middle of making a pretty big life decision. I would prefer you didn't text me/email me about it unless you are already in the know as it is complex. I am quite exhausted about it. I just need some prayer and support. My brain is fried.

(Decile 1 schools are schools that draw kids from the lowest socio economic environment strata. Decile 10 = highest socio economic background, the lower the decile the more government funding due to the higher needs of the students for example schools with a decile of 1-3 tend to have more students who need help with things like english as a second language, extra reading/language support, behavioural support, special needs, extra resources )

In summary

2007-06-09T19:18:00.000+12:00

*sigh* This is where I am today. Dear God, to surrender to your will for this God Chick is flippin hard, but it is what you call me to do and when I do you , the Holy Spirit, are able to do your full work!

Rush of Fools - Fame Lyrics

v.1
I have tried to follow, I have tried to lead
I have failed at everything
I have been the culprit to my selfish needs, made everything but You my King

I couldn't be any less worthy
To spend one day much less forever with You

*Chorus 1*
I lift my hands just as I am, I'm letting go of false control
I lift my voice, I have no choice
My life is Yours, use me for Your fame, Your fame

v.2
I have not seen heaven, I haven't seen Your face
But I've seen Your Spirit move
And Jesus it's amazing the evidence of grace standing all around this room

I'm merely a product of mercy
The target and victim of Your perfect love

*Chorus 2*
I lift my hands just as I am, I'm letting go of false control
I lift my voice, I have no choice
My life is Yours, use me for Your fame, spreading like a flame

bridge:
Let every breath proclaim glory to Your name
You can't be contained and I'll never be the same

Baby Got Book

2007-06-08T19:56:00.000+12:00

This is hilarious ........ you have to watch it .......... yes you do ....... and listen to the lyrics .....

My Beliefs

2007-06-07T12:04:00.000+12:00

A while back many of us did one of those cutesy little ‘what type of Christian ‘ are you surveys. Nice. Easy. Didn’t involve much thought. However when the rubber hits the road and you are asked what you really believe you can’t really say ‘I’m 75% Post-modern’. The problem with a lot of Evangelical Christians is that if you asked them (including me up until a few weeks ago) to define my beliefs, all I would have been able to say to you was about this – Jesus, God, Grace and Love (although some evangelicals could tell you where they stood on smacking).

Why is this important you may ask………. Well yesterday I had a discussion where my beliefs were confronted about Calvinism vs. Arminisiam and also about whether the Canon of Revelation is closed. Yes.

That my blog readers is why it helps to know what you believe, more than just saying something cutesy like ‘I believe Jesus loves me’ which while true is not very helpful when one is confronted about how people work out their salvation.

So I am taking off the awesome Challies (for 1 and 2) who defined what it is to be ‘Reformed’ as to what my beliefs are, in fact at times I am quoting him. (My thanks also to wikipedia for articulating bits of what it is to be Baptist 3 and 4 )

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF LISA’S BELIEFS

1. To confess the consensus of the five first centuries of the church:
o Classic theism: One omnipotent, benevolent God, distinct from creation.
o Nicene and Chalcedonian Trinitarianism: one God in three eternally existent persons, equal in power and glory.
o Christ, the God-Man, the one mediator between God & the human race, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, & coming again.
o Humanity created in the image of God, yet tragically fallen & profoundly in need of restoration to God through Christ.
o The Visible Church: the community of the redeemed, indwelt by the Holy Spirit; the mystical body of Christ on earth.
o The one, holy, catholic (NOT Catholic - if you are confused email me) , and apostolic church.
o The Sacraments: visible signs and seals of the grace of God, ministering Christ's love to us in our deep need.
o The Christian life: characterized by the prime theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.

2) Solar power – I mean sola power .
Now up until a couple of days ago the only one of these that I knew as a ‘sola’ was scriptua. But it turns out the others are all things that I believe in but have ‘sola’ names, that sum them up concisely.
o The authority of Scripture: sola scriptura (Scripture alone)
o the basis of salvation: Sola Gratia (Grace alone)
o the means of salvation: Sola Fide (Faith alone)
o the merit of salvation: Solus Christus (Christ alone)

3) What it means to be a BAPTIST as opposed to being something else. You know how when you are in a culture you eat up what is around you sometimes subconsciously. Well here it is clearly defined. In a nice little acrostic – who said wikipedia wasn’t worthwhile?
• Biblical authority (Mat 24:35; 1Pet 1:23; 2Tim 3:16-17)
• Autonomy of the local church (Mat 18:15-17; 1Cor 6:1-3)
• Priesthood of all believers (1Pet 2:5-9; 1Tim 5)
• Two ordinances (believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper) (Acts 2:41-47; 1Cor 11:23-32)
• Individual soul liberty - the right of my brothers and sisters in Christ to have different opinions than me! (Rom 14:5-12)
• Separation of Church and State (Mat 22:15-22)
• Two offices of the church (pastor and deacon) (1Tim 3:1-13; Tit 1-2)

4) The four freedoms
Soul freedom: the soul is competent before God, and capable of making decisions in matters of faith without coercion or compulsion by any larger religious or civil body
Church freedom: freedom of the local church from outside interference
Bible freedom: the individual is free to interpret the Bible for themselves using the best tools available
Religious freedom: free to choose their religion, another religion, or no religion;

Reflections on Rotorua

2007-06-06T08:14:00.000+12:00

Baptist Youth Ministries Leaders Conference:

Now it appears to me that I could tell you how fantastic Duffy Robbins was and how he was really enlightening on youth issues (which he was) , I could tell you that Mike Dodge was hiliarious and very informative about different pathways to worship God - which he was. I could tell you about how Murray Brown was always highly intelligent and gave a fantastic exposition in the Kingdom of God and youth ministry.... but instead a brief run down of my weekend.

*ISSUES DISCUSSED: The body of christ (how we are one and how if we disagree on some stuff we have to learn to co-exist but at the same time know how to to be accountable to each other), Boys, (it was even suggested by one person who I should be going out with - hold the phone!) Spiritual Gifts and whether or not Tongues is a a normal gift or something you just 'get', direction in life and on the road, stupid comments, speeding.

*THINGS THOUGHT ABOUT:
-Radical Discipleship (thanks to a fantstic seminar from some people up north)
-Why is it that we are known as Conservative christians and Jesus was known as a radical? - Does conservative christian mean white picket fence, national party voting, 2.5 children and teaching sunday school??????
- Why do christians get married so young? I mean really - this made the camp much less worthwhile :P
- Why do I always get sick at camps?
- Why did I forget to bring a bible to camp? This made my BCNZ study very hard
- Are our churches really living out what they are called to do? or are we too individually focused? There were some fantastic stories of community and 'the body' in action.
- Why are Christians aiming at contentment rather than aiming at what the Holy Spirit and God wants them to do....

* HILIARIOUS CROWD BREAKERS- 'Sick' that involved youth pastors holding berrocas in their mouths with water
- Stuart MacCann singing a verse of Opera and 3 regional youth advisors and Duffy Robbins having to sing it back

* I CAN'T BELIEVE
- I watched rugby at Leaders convention (well just the first 15 minutes)

* OVERALL RATING
7/10

Comments on the things thought about would be appreciated - its hard pondering by oneself

Graduation Photo

2007-06-04T21:37:00.000+12:00

Rose, Rach and Me

Long awaited graduation photo is here, From Left to Right is me , Rose and Rachel

And another photo too

Update

2007-06-01T00:02:00.000+12:00

Hey all,

A different type of post today, a personal one to let you all know where I am at. This of course will be interesting for those of you who don’t know me or those of you who haven’t emailed me in ages (it appears many of you have changed your emails, so if you have pass me your new ones peoples so I can talk to you personally – my email address is in my blogger profile , no forwards please)

1. I am off to a youth leaders conference today in Rotorua this will obviously be fought with a mixture of bliss and difficulty for me so your prayers would be appreciated.

2. I have been semi offered a job at a conservative Christian protestant school, I am very excitied about this for many reasons including it will give me the opportunity to see a different Christian theology in action. The schools theology is radically different from mine, however I am of the opinion that we can co-exist as our fundamentals are in the same place . Please pray for me over the next week…. I really need your help here , the job interview and selection process is totally different from a state school
* Have to attend the school for a day
* Have a meeting with the current class teacher and principal
* If I get past the first two rounds have to have a meeting with the school trust board (seven men) - yes seven men.
So I really need all the prayer cover I can get so that my thoughts are clear and that I don't go in with a defensive position but instead go in with a Christ like spirit but still one that is full of truth to my beliefs.

3. Took the week off work to clear my head and study has been good.

4. Last Sunday night Church was freaking fantastic (I agree with you Nicola, good blog by the way) I really enjoyed speaking and feel that I got across the message that God wanted me to deliver, which was on Coherence – making our words match our actions (Goats and Sheep parable from matthew) The whole service has a real anointing and for once it felt like we had worked as a team, so I am thrilled! Unity is an amazing thing, please pray for your church leadership!

5. To the guy I like who doesn’t know it: Obviously you are clueless, but due to previous bad relationship experiences I am not going to initiate anything at all. Conservative Christians tell me I shouldn’t anyway, but hey I think as a post modern emergent I should get past this really... all I am asking for is a decent face to face conversation.... Is that too much for a girl to ask..... Can christian guys really not pick up signals ...

Doing something

2007-05-31T10:55:00.000+12:00

Inspired by Jesus, Fiona and Huggies , and the sermon I gave on Sunday about 'coherence',

I am getting off my butt and doing something : (shock horror) while it is not much, it is more than what I was doing. To sign a petition about dafur go here:
http://ga6.org/campaign/savedarfurcoalition

If you do you get a stunning little generic email back from the white house ... yes the White house (now there's something stunning :P )

SaveDarfur.org has a post called "Background" that's worth checking out...
DOWNLOAD: Policy Talking Points (Updated 3/30/07)Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people…

Christian Disagreement

2007-05-30T09:00:00.000+12:00

NOTE ; NA STANDS FOR NEW ATTITUDE a conference for college students in the US currently being held at the moment. To comment on this article direct to the author (Motte Brown) click here of course I would like it too if you commented here :)

Na: Mark Dever on Christian Disagreement
by Motte Brown on May 27, 2007 at 5:44 PM
Mark Dever began his talk this morning with, "Oh how the devil must hate this conference. He must be displeased with this message of discernment, which teaches us how to repudiate him."

I first heard Mark preach exactly 10 days after praying with Senate Chaplin Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie that the Lord would reveal himself to me. And though I don't know exactly when salvation occurred, I know that hearing Pastor Dever for the first time was like eating the most delicious meal I had ever had; like eating the food that C.S. Lewis describes in the land of Narnia. It was satisfying in a way I had never experienced.

It's been 11 years since then. It was great to hear him again.

Mark warned that this talk would be "dense" and "long." It was, thankfully. He gave a very practical, hour and a half message on what Christians should agree upon, what we may disagree about, and how to do it well. Here's a brief summary.

First, in order to determine what Christian should agree upon, you need to evaluate the circumstance. In other words, all Christians do not have to agree on all matters, all the time. For example, a husband and wife need to be on a higher level of agreement than friends or acquaintances; and Christians who go the same church need to be in agreement on a higher level than say, writers and readers of the Boundless Line blog.

With that established, Mark said there are three things on which every Christian must agree: God, The Bible, and The Gospel. He said simply that 1) we must believe in the one true God; the triune God; that He was not made; that He functions as our sovereign Creator and our Judge; and that He is the one we are called to believe in; 2) we must believe that the Bible is inerrant; that God has revealed himself in the Bible, that that's how we know what God is like; and 3) we must believe that Jesus Christ became incarnate and that we are justified before God only through him.

As for doctrine on which sincere believers may disagree, Mark gives four test cases: the millennium, prayers for the dead, complimentarian vs. egalitarian, and evangelism. Not that these things don't matter, they're just non-essential. He rhetorically asks, "Can you have an Evangelical who believes in having women in church leadership? Of course you can. Is it a good idea? No." (Lisa Comment - HELLO - REALLY - so now we think we have authority to label the good christians and the bad christians do we?)

Finally, Mark says that when we must disagree, let's make sure it's evident that we care more about each other than winning the argument. He says that it should always be done with love, respect and sometimes by heeding Romans 14:22, "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves."

I spoke with Mark afterward and thanked him for message. He said, "I hope it was helpful." It was.

Eating the beatitudes

2007-05-29T22:53:00.000+12:00

The long awaited more substantial blog post is here.

In the last two days I have been catching up on my study ( which seems to be the story of my life, as I have been rather busy and sick lately) the topic I have been studying is the ethics of Jesus, focusing on the beatitudes. This is a very substantial and weighty topic that included some really interesting readings by a Man called Stein who outlined the different theological standpoints that people have taken (and still take, often without thinking through why they believe it) about the Beatitudes and of course 2 readings by Marshall who has a way of making me choke on my cornflakes.

‘ They are so familiar that we have become deaf to the scandalous radicalism and costly challenge embedded in them …. No sooner is “ Blessed are the poor … intoned than eyes become glassy or moist, the heart is strangely warmed , and no one notices that Jesus the revolutionary is heaving a verbal grenade into our homiletic garden’

While this topic is too huge to share about in one blog post , as much as I want to just a few things I learnt :

*The beatitudes were meant for Christian Community (they were addressed to the disciples as a group not to one person)

*They describe the blessedness (happiness) of those who have FULLY embraced the Kingdom of God (which is perhaps why people in the persecuted church are a heck of a lot more happy than we are)

*The Sermon was public, political and social – so should our actions be. Noticeably Jesus calls for action not nice thoughts.

*The one where it says ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ can be translated to mean ‘ Happy are the utterly sincere’ because these people are not trying to hide anything or to appear as anything other than they are – when I first started going to Lower Hutt Baptist we had a Youth Pastor who called this taking off the mask.

*This one is from Chris Marshall and if you let it soak in is incredibly powerful ‘

The primary way the poor and oppressed will find the blessedness of participation in God’s kingdom is in and through the community of God’s kingdom, amongst other recipients of Gods saving grace who are committed to embodying the values of the beatitudes in their COMMON life and working for the agenda of the kingdom.’

So my challenge is this, read the beatitudes and let them be a grenade in your life – in the words of Marshall again – Jesus was a radical , most of us are moderates

As needful (?!) as conversations on the state of the church are or whether we should let women speak, or whether we should have Gay Ministers , or whether the worship music is too loud, too fast or too slow The beatitudes are not an optional extra that we can get around too once we finish all these other conversations and our church activities. They are the essence of being a Christ follower.

As I am still learning about this topic and will continue to all my life has anyone got anything else to add? I am soaking up like a sponge ........

Prayer

2007-05-26T20:36:00.000+12:00

God give me the grace to live in a non christian house,
the fortitude to perservere when persecution seems as common as breathing
and the ability to love and be loved despite my imperfection

At the end of oneself and the start of Christ

2007-05-24T21:03:00.000+12:00

At the moment I am busy thinking about what I should be writing this weeks sermon on........ it is going to be on evangelism I think ... although pretty much I have a free choice on what I want to do which is good. I need to listen to God more.

I have been hanging out alot at http://www.sermonspice.com which is a fantastic site that you should have a look at even if you never speak..... fantastic video's to get you thinking.

Haven't been having such a great week, its amazing how Satan can work his ways.

I have been amazed once again at the power of Christ and those Christians who regardless of their position in the world make themselves avaliable to talk to and are so understanding. I mean who really cares in the end whether I am your boss , or whether someone is my university tutor or whether someone is my by boss, the reality is if we see a need as a brother or sister in christ we should do something and blow what society thinks about 'how it might look'.

Opinions Please

2007-05-21T21:18:00.000+12:00

By any accounts getting any opinion out of the 11 readers per day who read this blog , is like trying to get peace in the middle east, but i mean really, what do we think of this .................. I don't really have an opinion as of yet so here is your forum ..... especially you oh mystery reader from Christchurch College of Education.......

DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS

What do you think about Christian singles living with members of the opposite sex? I have two friends (a man and a woman) who work for a college campus ministry organization, and live in a house together.

All told, there are four young men and the woman living in this house. My male friend has a girlfriend, but the rest of the young men and the woman are all single. I say that unmarried men and women should not live together, whether they are dating, cohabitating or just roommates. I seem to be the only one in my Bible study with this opinion.

Since my friends are merely roommates, and not romantically involved, everyone else seems to think their living arrangement is acceptable. I say it's not, since it is not a good witness and goes against what we all profess about couples not living together before marriage.

What are your thoughts?

REPLY

You are dead on. It is a very poor witness for Christian singles of the opposite sex — in ministry no less! — to be living in the same house together. They are damaging their credibility as Christians and especially leaders in ministry.

What if a single young guy and girl who attend their campus ministry meetings want to move in together "just as roommates"? What will their counsel be? "Well, the two of you shouldn't do that, because it looks bad, but if you can find about 3 or 4 other guys or girls it's OK." Huh?

Christians who believe it's OK to have opposite-sex roommates or housemates (we'll leave cohabiting for another time) have made two very significant mistakes in their thinking.

One, they have agreed with the feminists, who for 40 years have tried to get us to believe that, outside a few plumbing issues, men and women are essentially the same, that there is nothing uniquely masculine about men, nor feminine about women. We can be great buddies, fight alongside each other in combat, share public restrooms, and live together! This flies in the face of scripture. Men and women aren't the same. To throw a girl in the mix of a bunch of guys living together, and think it's essentially the same as throwing another guy in there, is a victory for the feminists. "Oh, we won't be tempted sexually, we're just friends!" And all the feminists said, "Amen!" (Of course the feminists wouldn't care so much about temptation — casual hook ups are like shaking hands).

Two, as Christians these young people have a responsibility to live in such a way that it benefits and builds up others. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 says, "'All things are lawful,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful,' but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." In a college setting, where the hook-up culture is doing everything it can to tear down healthy relationships between guys and girls, Christians should be making every effort to live as counter-cultural to that as possible. Opposite-sex roommates send a weak message to a world that desperately needs a salt-saturated standard.

I hope you'll keep urging them to change their living arrangements, for their sake, for the sake of those who are watching them, and for the Lord's sake, who commands us to "do all to the glory of God."