elthambaptist

2007-05-05T21:30:00.000+10:00

So long and thanks for the fish...

This Site is now closed.

For the NEW revhead website, click on the following link:

Beneath Blue Suburban Skies

2 0 0 7

2007-01-07T20:42:00.000+11:00

How do you like this picture one of my photographer friends, Mark took? It's a riot, eh!?
Someone asked the question on the last post about what's going to be happening in 2007 at eltham... Let me put a few thoughts down. I'll be closing this blog off soon. Therevhead'd blog and a new exciting new blog will kick off in a few weeks ... so its not really good bye, just focusing on the other blogs ...
Now to the questions -- In any larger community, like ours, there are people arriving and others moving on. Some of the questions people have asked:

“What happens when a Pastor is called on?” The Church leadership – Our Board of deacons - will work with our Regional Minister from the B.U.V. to find a suitable replacement. There are excellent and established procedures, resources and plenty of experienced ministers that a church could prayerfully approach to serve either in an interim or long-term capacity.
“What will happen to our church?”
The one who is Lord of the church will continue to build, grow and strengthen it. God raises up the right people with the right gifts for the right times. The story of Acts is an exhilarating story of God’s creative Spirit building thriving communities through times that were constantly changing, challenging, and inspiring! We can be sure that God will continue to feed, prune, grow and bring forth good fruit! The church family will continue to worship and serve creatively as god leads them.

"So what will you be doing?"
I’m 70% of the way into a Doctor of Ministries degree through Fuller Theological Seminary (That’s why I’ve been heading off to L.A. each January for a couple of weeks). The topic is about the sort of cultural changes we face in the West and the sort of issues we need to consider in forming missional churches and leaders. I also want to look at what others are doing – if we can do it – I’d like to visit the UK for a couple of weeks to check out what is happening there. Stand by for blog reports on the revhead's site!
“Where will you be living?”
Sometime over the next year we would like to buy our own home - or at least make a start! We would like to be within driving distance of the kids’ school for the next while. It will probably be somewhere between Greensborough, and Doncaster!

2006-12-20T13:39:00.000+11:00

the angels still proclaim
we remain preoccupied.
look around in 2007!

Christmas!

2006-12-13T08:03:00.000+11:00

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukka' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukka!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"

- - - Dave Barry "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"

New book and a blog from Alan Hirsch

2006-11-08T18:48:00.001+11:00

Alan Hirsch, of Forge, has a new book out.

“The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church” (Alan Hirsch)

From the blurb:

Alan Hirsch is convinced that the inherited formulas for growing the Body of Christ do not work anymore. And rather than relying on slightly revised solutions from the past, he sees a vision of the future growth of the church coming about by harnessing the power of the early church, which grew from as few as 25,000 adherents in AD 100 to up to 20 million in AD 310. Such incredible growth is also being experienced today in the church in China and other parts of the world. How do they do it? The Forgotten Ways explores the concept of Apostolic Genius as a way to understand what caused the church to expand at various times in history, interpreting it for use in our own time and place. From the theological underpinnings to the practical application, Hirsch takes the reader through this dynamic mixture of passion, prayer, and incarnational practice to rediscover the dormant potential of the modern church in the West.

Alan's Blog: theforgottenways.

(Found on Steve addison'e Blog)

BOUNDARIES! Starts this week...

2006-10-08T15:29:00.000+10:00

We are beginning a new Sunday morning teaching series on the topic of Personal Boundaries. The way it will work is:

Each Sunday morning for the next eight weeks we will be watching a half hour session
There will be a discussion sheet with a summary of the video content and space for you to jot down thoughts.
There will be some personal ‘homework’ questions to guide you as you prayerfully apply what you are learning.
We encourage people to discuss highlights, questions and prayer in your mid week group each week following the study.

Why are boundaries necessary? Because God is behind the concept of boundaries. According to the Bible, this need is fundamental in the creation of mankind. God created us to be free, and to act responsibly with our freedom. He wanted us to be in control of ourselves, and to have a good existence. He was behind that idea all along. But as we all know, we misused our freedom, and as a result, lost it. With the loss of freedom came the loss of self-control. The results of losing self-control are displayed in a wide variety of miseries. Consider a few of the alternatives to self-control: * Controlling relationships where people try to control each other. * Faith that is practiced out of guilt and drudgery instead of freedom and love. * Being motivated by guilt, anger and fear instead of love. * The inability to gain control of our own behaviour and solve problems in our lives. * The loss of control to addictive processes. These are to name just a few. It is no wonder why the need for boundaries is felt so deeply. In fact, these issues are so dear to the heart of God, He says it was one of the motivators for the sacrifice of Christ Himself: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) Jesus died to set us free: from sin, from the devil, from the world around us. And that is the essence of what boundaries encourage—freedom.
(From The Simple Scoop on Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud; cloudtownsend.com)

Check out the Cloud-Townsend Resources site yourself for more info and some excellent articles

time for another shot of leunig!

2006-09-20T18:22:00.000+10:00

God help us to live slowly:
To move simply:
To look softly:
To allow emptiness:
To let the heart create for us.
Amen.

Changes for us!

2006-09-10T18:17:00.001+10:00

I'm going to be taking some long service leave next year - and then moving into something different!
Here's the text of what I shared at our 7pm church service Sunday:

Hi guys
I want to share with you about how God has been leading us over the last few months....

A couple of weeks ago there was an article in the Age about religion and under 30s.
Bottom line, less than half of the under 30s believe in any sort of God...
They are getting less spiritual not more spiritual
Of those who call themselves Christian – and that’s a really small percentage - only one in five of those who are Christians relate to the modern day church.

What is sinking home for me is that that the majority of Australian youth and twenties are unreached by the Good News of Jesus. And those of you who do believe - don’t really connect with the local churches of your parents. Increasingly the under 30s are looking elsewhere for faith experiences and community. It is no longer in the conventional churches services; traditional youth programmes, Sunday school programmes; outreach events or even contemporary worship that attract and inspire your generation.

How do I know this? Because the data shows that for the last fifty years we have been losing lost ground in Australia! It is your generation’s GRANDPARENTS that were the last genuine ‘churched’ generation. ONLY ONE IN FIVE, OF THE CHRISTIANS AGED 16-30s RELATES TO THE CHURCH! MORE THAN HALF OF THAT AGE GROUP DON’T BELIEVE IN ANY SORT OF GOD.

That makes me to dream and drool about what new opportunities God is opening up. The sorts of church that are currently serving us well at present, wouldn’t work so well in the years ahead when the teens of today become the twenty and thirty somethings of tomorrow. Also as the kids of multicultural Australia mature, their cultural upbringing will place most of them outside the traditional evangelistic strategies of the church.

I believe we will need to experiment in planting new sorts of church – and also find better ways of discipling your generation so you can become missionaries in what really is non-Christian Australia.

We have felt strongly about this so called ‘emerging’ generation – not just the youth but those into their 30s too. As increasing numbers of them drop out of existing church programmes and experiment with new forms of community – and this is happening across the western world as a whole - we have had a growing concern for them. How will the discipleship happen? The modelling of family-life? How does mission happen for the unchurched under 30s? It will take not just youngies, but older parent-age Christian families to nurture this movement.

I have a growing conviction that we need to be released for this. We would like to work alongside these emerging younger leaders, and to be part of modelling new forms of community. One of the challenges is that it has often tended to be the more inexperienced, sometimes frustrated younger Christians who have gone off to do this sort of thing, rather than those of us with a little more experience and perspective. I really feel that we need to those of us in church ministry with more experience and training to get into this.

My dream is eventually to model the sort of mission community that Generation Y can relate to. I see such a community birthing other similar groups. I see the potential in linking such a group to the training offered by bible colleges or similar agencies.

I’d love to help create an all-age, local community that feels like a close knit family. One that could take in interns and train them for urban mission. Whilst there are plenty of people in the 16-30 age bracket who are thinking these thoughts, there are fewer ancient folk like us with the passion, and the ministry experience to track with them on this journey.

Now I had already been planning to take long service leave next year - about half a year - to finish my study, I’m doing a doctorate – on this very theme. But as we have considered, prayed, talked with colleagues and our leadership here at Eltham, I believe that the Lord is calling us do this sooner rather than later.

What this means is that I will finish up serving at church around the middle of February next year and take roughly half a year of Long Service Leave during which I want finish off my study and research what is happening around Melbourne in this area of emerging church.

Then, the second half of the year I want to begin planning towards such a new type of church plant. I would be discussing with the Baptist Union people and our local Bible Colleges about the best ways to do this.

At this stage I don’t have any details to share about the nuts and bolts of what this would mean for us. Until middle February, nothing really changes at all. The various HUBS and teams will be ploughing on with their planning for 2007. They will have some exciting new stuff to build in – wait and see.

It will be exciting to watch how our Lord continues to direct you guys here. I think Eltham is one of the best examples of really caring church in Melbourne. You have had the courage over the years to plant new churches, send out missionaries to unlikely fields; you have often stepped out in faith to try new things or to experiment with unexpected God given initiatives. My prayer is that this call on our lives would be yet another one of these initiatives. Can you pray for us as we interpret what this means in practical terms?

FOR YOUR DIARY!

2006-09-02T12:31:00.000+10:00

Yes!

2006-08-22T10:48:00.000+10:00

For all you weary ones...

What the...?

2006-08-22T10:36:00.000+10:00

I found this interesting site that takes the 'mickey' out of us Christians. We do tend to speak in cliches at times... How do others hear what we say? Lark News is good for a laugh.
Here is a sample:

Buddhists target 30-140 window

TIBET — Buddhist evangelistic groups are aggressively targeting the 30-140 window where most of the world's Christians reside, in an unprecedented effort to promote the Buddhist religion. The campaign's title refers to the longitudinal area that includes North and South America, which Buddhists consider a mission field ripe for harvest.
"We are praying over maps, meeting during the week and interceding for the un-enlightened people of the Americas," says one Buddhist priest who subsists on goat cheese and dandelion stems at a temple 14,000 feet up in the Himalayas. His congregation of 150, though poor, is devoted to the 30-140 proselytizing effort, and they pray fervently for the U.S. and other nations every Wednesday evening. Several laypeople, who say they have the gift of intercession, spend hours spinning the prayer wheel and asking various gods to invade the Americas with a Buddhist revival.
The 30-140 campaign, launched last year at a prayer and fasting convention of Buddhist leaders in Tibet, has brought new focus to the religion. They have distributed nearly two million color-coded prayer maps, featuring statistics and guides for each region in the window. For example, the prayer guide for July 2006 focuses on the American South. The prayer guide depicts crowds of what appear to be sad and confused parishioners slumping into church, and the caption reads, "Because of its long Christian history, the American South is swathed in spiritual darkness, but as the influence of the Christian myth wanes in popular culture, more people are opening up to the light of true knowledge. Pray that cultural traditions will fall, and that your prayers to the god Osiris will pave the way for the Buddha's teachings."
"We believe that concerted prayer can change a region's spiritual climate," says one Tantrayana Buddhist priest who organized the effort. He and other "spiritual strategists" have traveled to New York, Chicago and Houston, taken elevators to the observation decks of the highest buildings and spent hours praying down the "dark Judeo-god influences" they say dominate America's spiritual atmosphere.
In another fresh development, several thousand teams of Buddhist laypeople have traveled to the U.S. on short-term missionary trips of 2-3 weeks, sharing their beliefs with Americans they find in yoga classes, world religion courses at community colleges, and at health food stores. The trips have energized Buddhist laity.
"I was outside the Whole Oats food store when the goddess Alfira spoke to my heart and told me to go inside and stand by the flax-seed bars," says a 21-year-old Buddhist layperson who traveled to Tallahassee on a missionary trip last year. "There I met a man who was searching for spiritual answers. I shared my faith with him and he accepted the Buddha. It's awesome to see the gods at work."
Tearful testimonies of this sort have rejuvenated a number of congregations.
"We saw the Buddha do so many great things in people's lives," says one young person during a post-missions-trip rally at the Himalayan temple. "A lot of people got enlightened and we planted a lot of seeds."
A young lady wearing a "Buddha Rocks!" T-shirt takes the stage and amidst tears tells how the trip affected her.
"My faith became so real to me," she says. "I'd always believed in the Buddha, but this trip brought it all home, why I'm here, what my life is about."
As she sobs, the people applaud and shout, "Maonying," the Chinese equivalent of "Amen." Then the Buddhist songleader leads in an impromptu version of "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Buddha," a popular worship chorus.
Buddhist leaders say the 30-140 campaign will continue until their philosophy takes a strong hold in the hearts of people "throughout this strategic prayer-map area." •

What do you make of this?

2006-08-02T21:09:00.000+10:00

beginnings: genesis 1-11

2006-07-04T07:07:00.001+10:00

We are beginning a series of eleven Sundays and mid-week group studies of Genesis 1-11. If you are a part of our community, don't forget to pick up your work-book on Sunday! As you read Genesis, particularly these first eleven chapters, think through the stories from the perspective of each of the characters involved, and ask yourself what was really going on within them. Think about how these stories resonate with those of your life, of your family, your church and wider community and reflect on what God may be showing you through the lives of these men and women. Remember that the characters are human beings. They are neither heroes - although occasionally they may rise to perform a heroic action - nor saints. Indeed, in many ways they are quite ordinary, with the same frustrations, doubts and failures as the rest of us. But this makes the message of the stories more real, for the God who touched their lives can touch our lives as well, and the God who shaped them and worked through them in spite of their failures, can do the same for us. Genesis is honest about human life: deceit and drunkenness, relationship problems and insensitivity; polygamy and family-destroying favouritism - all occur even in God's chosen household! Elsewhere there is a background of lust, hatred, murder and seduction; but also of unexpected goodness, wisdom, and people who have a relationship with God despite not being a part of his covenant nation. There are women whose cry for justice involves allowing men to use their bodies, and men whose fear threatens to tear apart their families. There are hunters, dreamers, shepherdesses, traders, empire-builders, priests, prime ministers and maidservants. There are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. There are angels and animals - and a serpent. And then there is God: Yahweh, El-Shaddai, Elohim; the Most High, the Creator, the Covenant-maker, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the one who guides, tests and wrestles with his people; the one who draws near and whispers words of blessing; and the one who, at times, is far away. Genesis is a book about beginnings, but most of all it is a book about God! I don’t want simply to give answers in these studies; instead, we want to make the text come alive, to raise questions, and to suggest, at times, new ways of looking at aitself. As groups, be thinking about the stories. Reflect on how they might shape your own lives and that of the world around you. Let the stories live within you, illuminating your path as you continue your own pilgrimage through life. I pray that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel; of Hagar, Tamar, of the unnamed daughters of Lot, and of many others, may enrich our lives with his blessing as we seek to serve him better. May people who will never read Genesis for themselves look at our life and softly say to themselves: “So that is what it means to walk with God!”

"It's Not Business It's The Gospel" by Mark Priddy

2006-06-25T14:28:00.001+10:00

This article comes from Mark Priddy, on the Allelon site What do you think?
Wednesday June 14, 2006

“If you don’t like the way you were born — try being born again!” This announcement, prominently displayed recently on a church marquee in my neighborhood, reflects perfectly the spirit of religious life in North America today. It advertises to all who pass by the church what sounds like very good news: “If you don’t like who you are now, God has a ‘new you’ ready to try on! Details available inside!”

This is exactly the kind of message that modern men and women like to hear. What could be better news than to hear that the God who called the universe into existence wants nothing more than to make us over into what we most want to be? How could this message not be compelling? As a result of years of cultural conditioning, recent generations in North America have come to see themselves almost exclusively as consumers whose sole purpose in life is to satisfy their individual needs…Not only does this message by itself leave much to be desired, it is also symptomatic of a widespread problem within the church today, which is to confuse the gospel with an infomercial, and the community of God’s people with "vendors of spiritual goods and services.”

I love this quote from the book StormFront. It reminds me of a similar situation I went through in the mid-90’s.

I was invited to sit on a panel to explore a new program called; “New Strategies For City-Wide Evangelism.” I still remember the question that was posed to me as if it were yesterday. “Mark, if you could figure out how to put the gospel into a vitamin bottle, package it, market it, and get it into the hands of men and women in the city, our churches would be filled to capacity.” In other words, I was asked to help implement a marketing strategy that would successfully saturate the entire region with the gospel and turn “customers into consumers” and the church into a “vendor of goods and services.”

My years of business and my experience in marketing and producing products seemed to be precisely what was needed to launch a new and innovative marketing program. Had I found my call?

Let’s face it. Though the fundamental idea of marketing has been around for over fifty years, the message itself is ageless. Surely, if Fortune 500 companies see fit to spend money on marketing campaigns in order to achieve brand recognition and successfully turn customers into consumers, couldn’t the religious sector do the same? Customers are the focal point of all businesses, religious or secular, aren’t they? It doesn’t take a savvy executive to know that in order for organization to exist, one must do marketing and do it extraordinarily well to flourish.

THE PLAN: If we could present the gospel in a reduced message, a catch phrase, several bullet points, something less than two to three words, and market it on billboards, benches, bumper stickers, radio and TV ads, then we could reach thousands of religious customers. If each campaign carried a simple message, or perhaps better stated, a “catchy slogan,” if we worked together and invested enough money to cover the largest market and deliver the maximum amount of “impressions,” then we could implement a successful marketing strategy to reach our targeted customer.

That’s right impressions! In marketing, one of the most important laws is to capture the mind of the customer— the prospect. Get the message out there as much as you can. It needs to be in front of them at all times—when they’re eating, driving, or taking a siesta on the local bench—make it quick, easy to read, short, sweet, and catchy. This approach is vital to the success of any marketing program. If all goes well, then theoretically it will bring people into the store and successfully convert them from “customer to consumer.”

So, following that line of thinking, it only makes sense to market the gospel, right? And what other product is free? What other product can forgive sins, take care of our needs and secure a place in heaven?

NOW, ON TO THE HARD PART: Any well-versed executive who has lived in the trenches and the world of marketing products knows all too well that once we have successfully embedded the idea into the customers’ minds, then we must continue to satisfy their needs. Without satisfied customers, you lose business to your competitors. We wouldn’t want that, WOULD WE? Without the ability to satisfy customers, you fail to attract new customers. The logic is simple, yet powerful. There are only two possible sources of business revenue: selling to new customers, or selling to repeat customers. And since repeat customers are generally easier and more profitable to work with, you generally want to maximize customer satisfaction and insure a high rate of retention. Thus, to succeed, a business needs to attract new customers, then make sure they are sufficiently satisfied to come back again and again.

It is no wonder why businesses devote so much time, attention, and money to activities designed to attract and retain customers. To attract them, they design their products, develop new sales programs, and seek faster and more convenient ways to distribute the products to customers. We have to keep everyone happy, DON’T WE?

So what was the slogan? What powerful catch phrase was presented to a group of “so-called prominent” men and women that would convert “customers to consumers?” It was simply this:

“Got Jesus”

Original right? But, hey, why reinvent the wheel? “Got Milk” had become a household slogan, sales had sky-rocketed, and the campaign was publicized as one of the most successful marketing programs in years.

The whole point of the campaign revolved around a marketing plan that promised to meet people’s needs, improve their private lives, enhance their self esteem, give them a sense of purpose, improve their emotional state as individuals and assure eternal life at a minimal cost to the customer.

I remember walking out of that room thinking; how can we reduce the gospel of the kingdom to a slogan? That was the beginning of my journey.

Here are some thoughts for you to reflect upon.

* The problem arises when the church, the people of God, proclaim something less than the full gospel. Such reductionisms stand in obvious tension with an incarnational approach to mission, which is committed to biblical integrity and faithfulness.

* As long as we continue to view the church as a place, then we will continue to compete for members. ("God's Love is Visible. Come Inside and See!”) We will get sucked into the marketing trap of trying to invite the world to church. Religious economies are no different then commercial economies, meaning that they consist of a market made up of a set of current and potential customers and a set of firms seeking to serve that market.

• Unless we are careful, a privatized religion built upon "meeting needs” simply becomes another way of saying, “satisfy the customer." God does care about our needs, but we must ask ourselves: is this the full Gospel Jesus came proclaiming?

Mark serves as the CEO/President of Allelon. He is currently pursuing his
Master of Divinity at Regent College, British Columbia. Mark and Jeanette
have six children and live in Eagle, Idaho where they both co-lead The Landing Fellowship, a holistic missional community of faith and The Landing Community Center-a neighborhood community center whose mission is to come along side of families and individuals, regardless of ethnicity, religious, or economic diversity, so as to enrich and strengthen the lives of each person in our community for the sake of others.

2006-06-19T16:50:00.000+10:00

Money! Money! Money!

Money - We talked about stewardship at church last Sunday morning, and I said I'd post my notes...

I've gone and posted it on my personal blog - therevheads journey- sorry, click on this if you are interested!

Northumbia Community

2006-06-11T16:50:00.000+10:00

I'm interested in what it means to become a community that lives differently in the world.

The Northumbria Community has some helpful things to say, I think. Why not check out their site?

Here is a summary of the Rule of the Northumbria Community - A Way for Living:

"... This is the Rule we embrace. This is the Rule we will keep: we say YES to AVAILABILITY; we say YES to VULNERABILITY.

We are called to be AVAILABLE to God and to others:

Firstly to be available to God in the cell of our own heart when we can be turned towards Him, and seek His face;
then to be available to others in a call to exercise hospitality, recognising that in welcoming others we honour and welcome the Christ Himself;
then to be available to others through participation in His care and concern for them, by praying and interceding for their situations in the power of the Holy Spirit;
then to be available for participation in mission of various kinds according to the calling and initiatives of the Spirit.

We are called to intentional, deliberate VULNERABILITY:

We embrace the vulnerability of being teachable expressed in:
a discipline of prayer;
in exposure to Scripture;
a willingness to be accountable to others in ordering our ways and our heart in order to effect change.

We embrace the responsibility of taking the heretical imperative:
by speaking out when necessary or asking awkward questions that will often upset the status quo; by making relationships the priority, and not reputation.

We embrace the challenge to live as church without walls, living openly amongst unbelievers and other believers in a way that the life of God in ours can be seen, challenged or questioned. This will involve us building friendships outside our Christian ghettos or club-mentality, not with ulterior evangelistic motives, but because we genuinely care...."

What do you think?

Please, no more doing church for 'them'!

2006-06-02T08:44:00.000+10:00

This is a post taken from TheBolgBlog, Ryan Bolger's site. I thought it was an interesting reflection on the place of Sunday worship and outreach. What do you think?

Check out also...

Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs, Ryan K. Bolger

Writes Ryan:

I just received a question from an associate that asked how to start a service to attract people from outside the church. I encouraged her to give up on this idea.

But what is wrong with starting a relevant church for seekers?
Relevant churches are rarely even closely relevant. Most Christians don't even like them. They might be better than Mom and Dad's morning service, but they usually are quite irrelevant to the outsider. The church person cannot 'guess' what the seeker wants, undoubtedly getting it wrong. What Christians need to do is create meaningful worship through bringing their very own lives to God. Worship must reflect the culture of the community that is currently part of the church, not replicate current worship CDs, nor 1980s soft rock, nor 18th century hymns. Instead of mimicking other church cultures, the community collectively brings their own idiosyncratic ways of life to God, whatever they may be. Indeed, the church may have the stray outsider finding themselves in the worship service and joining the community. But if the focus is on them, simply to be relevant, their worship will satisfy neither the church members nor the outsider.

Other reasons?
A focus on the church service as connecting point perpetuates the idea that following Jesus is about going to church. The community's life takes the form of American congregational religion rather than the fluid practices of the gospel, and this emphasis presents quite a barrier to the 'seeker' outside, as they need to be converted to the values of American religious congregationalism before they can come to faith. Thus, virtually all of those who are attracted to the relevant service were raised in church or are currently going to another church -- they are not the never-churched. In contrast, a missional congregation connects with those outside the faith by, well, connecting with those outside of the community in their world. Connecting happens not in a 'come to us' CHURCH service, but through 'go and dwell' church SERVICE, i.e. service in the community -- living alternative lives.

A focus on the service as connecting point perpetuates the sacred/secular split of modernity. When the bulk of the community's energy goes to maintaining a church service, it implies that the church service is more holy, more important, more worthy of our time than the everyday practice of our spirituality.

A focus on the service as connecting point perpetuates the clergy/laity split -- there are those who 'do' ministry for everyone else. Instead, the role of the leaders is to facilitate the worship expression of the community as a whole.

A focus on the service as connecting point perpetuates the producer/consumer form of spirituality -- those on paid or volunteer staff produce spiritual products for passive spectators to consume. Instead, the church must create a context for the community production of worship -- we consume as we produce...

What are the alternatives to connecting through the church service?
To clarify, those who desire to connect with the outsider are in synch with the God of the Universe. Truly, mission lies at the very heart of God. However, those of us raised in the evangelical tradition have been socialized into thinking that this connection needs to happen through a church service.

Instead we need to take another look at worship and mission and entertain allow for other possibilities, such as:

The worship service is no longer an evangelistic service for outsiders but a space to practice heaven for a period of time, facilitating the offering of the community life to God in worship. If a guest of the community finds God in the service, all the better, but this is not the focus.

Mission happens in the 'world' in the world formerly known as secular, on their 'turf' -- not ours. As servants, the Christian connects with the seeker through service in their world.

Uluru

2006-05-23T21:36:00.001+10:00

God made a beautiful world, eh?

Heaven?

2006-05-23T21:36:00.000+10:00

I wonder, what's your image of heaven?

Leunig Time!

2006-05-15T19:20:00.000+10:00

It is finished!

2006-05-11T21:51:00.000+10:00

It is finished

Finished?

Is it?

I don't think so,
Not until the funny little woman on the Friday bus
Means more to me than I do to myself
Not until I read aright the message in your pain filled eyes
That I must take the ones you loved and left behind
To live with me as my responsibility
Not until I freely place my stock of cherished certainties
Like sad surrended weapons at your injured feet
Not until the public and the private faces of my troubled Christianity
Can meet, and know they recognized each other when they met
Not until I know the names of more than half the people in my street
Finished?
No, I don't think so. Not yet.

By Adrian Plass

(This comes from here)

Lectio Divina

2006-05-07T16:27:00.000+10:00

Lectio (pronounced "lek-see-o") divina means "sacred reading." It is a way of praying with the Bible in which one reads (lectio), meditates (meditatio), prays (oratio), and contemplates (contemplatio). Divine reading is not for the sake of information but for insight. St. John of the Cross's paraphrase of a verse from Luke's gospel (Luke 11:9) provides us with an outline of the four steps of Lectio:

Seek in READING,
And you will find in MEDITATION;
Knock in PRAYER,
And it will be opened to you in CONTEMPLATION.

Lectio
• Choose a text of the scriptures
• Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent.
• Pay attention to posture and breathing.
• You may use a written prayer or phrase focus.
• Read the text slowly, gently – savor the text.
• Whisper the words or read aloud to involve the body.
• Read the words silently.
• Read the text with different emphasis or inflections.
• Listen to the text and the "still, small voice"
• Begin to reflect upon that word or phrase – beginning of meditatio.

Meditatio
• Reflect (ponder, ruminate) upon the text – word or phrase.
• Ask three questions of the passage:
- Text – meaning and cultural background - writer
- Context – implication for community’s life and practice - reader
- Subtext – find your/our spiritual journey mirrored in the – receiver
• You may want to spread this over a number of readings / days
• Allow this inner reflection to lead you into dialogue with God.

Oratio
• Speak to God. Give to God what you have found in your heart.
• Pray questions. Wait for answers.

Contemplatio
• Rest in God's embrace in quiet contemplation.
• Centering prayer / Silent listening

Contemplative Prayer
• Spiraling movement of prayer within a single period of Lectio Divina
- from discursive reflection on the word (head)
- to affective response (heart)
- to resting in contemplation (will)

Sorry!

2006-05-02T22:55:00.000+10:00

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him, and
as he sits, the waitress comes over and asks for their order. The man
says, "I'll have a hamburger, fries and a coke," and turns to the
ostrich.

"What's yours?"

"I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order. "That will be
$6.40 please," and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out exact
change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "I'll
have a hamburger, fries and a coke," and the ostrich says, "I'll have
the same." Once again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with
exact change.

This becomes a routine until late one evening, the two enter again. "The
usual?" asks the waitress.

"No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and
salad," says the man. "Same for me," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress comes with the order and says, "That
will be $12.62." Once again the man pulls exact change out of his pocket
and places it on the table.

The waitress can't hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir.
How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your
pocket every time?"

"Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and I
found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a Genie appeared and offered me two
wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, just
put my hand in my pocket, and the right amount of money would always be
there."

"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a
million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want
for as long as you live!"

"That's right! Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact
money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "One other thing, sir, what's with the ostrich?"

The man sighs, pauses, and answers, "My second wish was for a tall bird
with long legs who agrees with everything I say. "

What do you think?

2006-04-26T18:35:00.000+10:00

In The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis, a committed Anglican, writing as the ‘senior devil’ Screwtape, says:

“the parochial organisation should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy desires. The congregational principles, on the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction.”

[The Screwtape Letters, Macmillan revised edition 1982, Letter XVI, p.73]

parochial = a local, geographic parish
congregation = here means a church of similar types of people
enemy = means God, the demon's enemy

HEALTHY COMMUNITY

2006-04-23T17:50:00.000+10:00

This is last Sunday's 'handout. What do you think?

We have the privilege of living in interesting times! The western modern world our parents have assumed as solid and unchanging, is changing into the post-modern global village – and no one yet knows how it will work out.

One thing is certain: coinciding with this, is the end of the era of ‘Western Christendom’. The west is no longer Christian – it is secular and pluralist. A biblically shaped worldview no longer influences and moderates society has it has done. On top of this the church institutions themselves are in deep crisis. The local church in Australia is in decline – the proportion of Aussies and their families who understand and live their faith is extremely low. We Baptists are losing the children, youth and young adults – and have been for 20 years.

The good news is that it is at times like these that God can ‘do a new thing.” This is the time when we Christians just might risk change – because we have little to lose! And that is actually encouraging news! There are a number of wonderful foundational matters we need to be chewing on together with God, whilst studying His word and talking with our fellow church communities. Let me list those here pertinent to ministry relating to spiritual formation and families:

WORLDVIEW:
We need a Christian World View that encourages church members to discover how to live authentic Christian lives 24/7. All Christians are actually on mission. We are called to be radicals who challenge the status quo and model Kingdom alternatives. We are called to be Kingdom Community – wrestling with what the scriptures say to our world. Without this basis, Christian work will remain futile. We have done too little work on prayerfully thinking through the very foundations of why we believe what we do. The church too often is the institution that provides religious good and services for people of faith – rather than a radical, ‘underground’ mission team.

BIBLICAL COMMUNITY:
People in Australia are crying out for biblical community and family – even within the church. Instead churches have tended to create and maintain energy-intense institutions that can burn out our best people and dispense programmes. Undoubtedly many of these activities and programmes are highly commendable in leading people to faith. Our larger and more successful churches may be effective at growing numerically and producing programmes that are very helpful of themselves - but I believe they do so at the sacrifice of integrated community. I sometimes wonder if the Christian church, as no other organization separates out age and interests, and segments people into homogeneous groups. As a 'successful' youth pastor I helped segregate church families. We have so much to learn from anthropology – from the models of intergenerational tribal society, which socialise their children so differently from the models we employ. We need a fresh doctrine of community. We have thought to some extent about ‘outreach’ but not ‘family’. We need to re-explore scriptural and village models of community and create a new wineskin relevant for urban life. I suspect this means replacing the assumption of mono-generational and homogeneous groups with a heterogeneous model. To this point, there are few models of community that are: sustainable; able to form in a suburban context; intergenerational; and evangelistically viable. This is the pioneering paradigm shift of the decade.

FAMILY:
We need a theology of family. This is a major paradigm shift. What does it mean to empower parents to ‘train’ or ‘form’ or’ disciple’ their offspring? What is involved in being an authentic Christian man or woman; husband or wife? The scriptures speak at length to its readers about these roles and relationships, but we have avoided confronting them for our time. The result is that couples embarking on marriage are often ill equipped for the task. Faith-formation ministry needs to be driven by the ‘elders’ and ‘parents’ of the community not just the enthusiastic young adults. All healthy communities place the responsibility for spiritual and social formation on their mature adults. We tend to either hand over formation to young adults exclusively – or use the pre-boomers generation to dampen down enthusiasm. Formation needs to happen alongside adults in the community who are working through life issues. It is deep relationships with significant adults and households that is essential, far more than the ‘programmes’. Traditional age specific youth/children’s -workers are not that helpful to this process. What is needed is staff with the age and experience to bring integration to the community as a whole in this area. They need to be able to instigate the paradigm shift. That is not at all to say there is no scope for youth or children’s events or that young adults should not take responsibility for these – but the paradigm needs changing in our minds.

EVANGELISM:
Evangelism needs to shift to a ‘family to family’ focus rather than the individualistic focus we now have. Far better for households to be equipped to care for neighbouring households that may be struggling, than establishing specialised ministries to individuals in those households who are at risk. Neighbourhood communities that can care for the homeless and those at risk, and do so with competence and authority I think, will need to replace specialist agencies mindset we now have. Imagine a cooperative micro-church of Christian households serving their neighbours and friends and their children!

SPIRITUAL FORMATION:
Conversion - of our young particularly - needs to be set in the context of an’ initiation’ pathway’ rather than the instant ‘pray the p rayer’ approach. We need to re-examine ideas like confirmation; Bar Mitzvah; First or Communion. We are modelling behaviour and teaching practises, not just conveying ‘information’. In other words, it ought not be too easy to become a member of the community. There is a ‘price’ to pay, in terms of accepting the beliefs and obligations of belonging. That is not to exclude people from attending and being cared for by the church community, but rather to make adult membership of the community a cherished aspiration. We need to be training our parents and micro-church leadership and ‘elders’ of the church – mentoring, discipleship, ministry of prayer, healing, accountability and so on should be happening in community rather than being conducted by ‘centralised pastors’.

PARENTS:
There is an urgent need to do spiritual formation for us the children of the ~1960 -1975 era. There are too many of us folk who have been socialised into the church through the traditional children’s and youth groups of that era – who are now in the ~30-50 age bracket, who have never really been discipled into mature faith practises. Our generation often don’t know their bible, we have developed poor spiritual practises, many have never experienced mentorship, often we have not been helped to deal with ‘our baggage’.. Many are the latchkey and first generation genXers whose own families were emotionally fragile. We have now become the church adults and parents who’s own incomplete journey hinders their effective formation of their children. Often we search for institutional churches and experiences that will help us keep ourselves and our children churched. Unless this is dealt with: often though intentional prayer, counselling and behavioural changes and, our generation will not transmit the Godliness to transform the next generation. Much of our youth and children’s work will go to waste, because programmes can never compete with the values that are caught in the home and community.

I believe if we are to be faithful as missionaries into secular Australia we need urgently to reframe our priorities:
- Spiritual formation: intentional accountable discipleship towards consistent Godly living
- Community: New wineskins that encourage Kingdom models for community
- Family: Empowering of families to in turn model and form their children.

I believe if we can do this, then outreach will develop naturally, because we will be hearing God, equipped and also modelling an attractive Gospel lifestyle to our city.

Preaching Blog

2006-04-20T20:55:00.000+10:00

Chris Erdman and Alan Roxburgh(One of my professors) are co-authors of the Odyessy blog. All sorts of topics related to being church in the '00s.

Chris has an intersting section on preaching

LET THE STORIES CRAWL OUT ALL BY THEMSELVES Chris Erdman writes: When you preach you must never tame the text. There’s been too much of that. These sacred texts that bear the Word of God are anything but tame. The Bible, and the Character whose story it tells in such wide and wild variety of ways, just can’t be tamed or flattened or simplified or reduced or distilled into some bland tonic or a handful of nifty words that the listener, eager pen in hand, can stuff into blanks on some silly sermon note-taking sheet. No, when you preach you must respect this text more than that, and give it and its author full room to do their own work. If you want to know how to handle this text, I’ll steer you toward John Steinbeck over the mass of contemporary preachers. Steinbeck knows how to handle the kind of stories, rants, poems, prayers, commands, and whatever else makes up the pages of the Bible. Steinbeck knows nature and the human condition into which you and I would like to preach the gospel. Here’s Steinbeck with a pretty accurate description of the preacher’s art— “Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream . . . . How can the poem and the stink and the grating noise—the quality of light, the tone, the habit and the dream—be set down alive? When you collect marine animals there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto the knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book—to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves.” I’m hard-pressed to imagine a better way of handling the Bible . . . and opening its pages among those whose lives are as full of as much stink and noise, light, tone, and habit as those whose lives the Bible wants us to capture whole. Work too hard at getting them out and off the page and you’ll do them damage or injustice. Better to open the page and let the stories crawl out all by themselves. That’s when your preaching will be its best, and you’ll find yourself working at your task with more wonder and a lot less chore.

TransMission >>>TransMission>>>TransMission

2006-04-18T22:55:00.000+10:00

we live in what is called the ‘post-christian’ era. our western world is not christian – nor even ‘almost christian!’

the western churches, such as ours, can no longer assume that if we book an occasional evangelistic speaker, or distribute pamphlets in letterboxes, or run a lively service in the park, that we are genuinely engaging people.

actually, most people don’t have enough background to understand the lingo we use. many are struggling with all sorts of bad church experiences or unhelpful impressions that they will mishear what we say. many are powerless trapped by injustice, broken families, poverty, mental or emotional anguish, addictions, anger loneliness, meaninglessness etc.

many of us christians are virtually disengaged from the non church people around us. there is little relationship , little opportunity to demonstrate god’s love in practical relevant ways.

we need to rediscover what it means to be missionaries in a foreign culture: living with people, learning their languages, living our faith into their world, discovering how the gospel connects to their culture – and so uncovering god’s strategies.

this is what is meant by being ‘missional churches’ - not just churches that ‘do’ mission activities.

i want us to ‘re-imagine’ our outreach hub as our urban mission hub to help our church become this.

I'm getting a bunch of folk together with Aaron (soldier)to lay out the idea , discuss and pray about the idea.

How do you reckon we could live as 'missionaries' in 2006? Stay posted!

Place to discuss church stuff...

2006-04-18T22:53:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone. i wondered if it would be useful to have a space where we can talk about themes, issues, life at our church community... Let's see what happens!