Napier Baptist

I used to (and still do sometimes today) moan on about the church and the people in it to my then mentor Brian Smith. Brian used to listen intently and then say to me "Yep, the church is a crummy place Andrew, full of people like you and me. But you must remember Jesus loves the church and gave himself for it. The church is God's plan A and there's no plan B"

A great quote from G. K. Chesterton: The difference between a schismatic and a saint is that the schismatic loves their criticisms of the church more than they love the church, while the saint loves the church more than their criticisms of it.

I'm still learning what it means to love the church more than my criticisms of it and to love the church more than I love myself. I'm further along this road than I was when a few years ago when I was cynical and bitter but I've still got a long way to go. I'm learning and I'm growing...

The thread over at Paul Windsor's blog on the issue of alcohol is so good I want to plug it again. Go check it out. My own experience is very similar to that of Servant's.

Each day I visit The Hunger Site and click on an icon that helps to give food to the hungry. It's part of my online spirituality. It's only a simple click each day and it contributes towards making a difference in our world. Check it out and I'd be very keen to hear of the other things people do online as part of their online spirituality...

Anyone on the hunt for online devotions for Advent? I've come across a couple that I have found really helpful recently:

D365 - organised by students at Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond and sponsored by the Co-operative Baptist Fellowship

If you're looking for some Advent devotions I've stumbled across a Mennonite college that provides some very good Advent reflections:
Goshen College

At this year's Baptist Assembly 4 people debated the moot "the church has had its day" It's a bit of a loaded issue when the room is full of full time Christian Ministers and workers but all the same it was interesting. A very good article has been published by Paul Allis here. There was a chance to respond on the night. I didn't because I need time to chew things over before I respond to anything. Sunday was our AGM and I preached a sermon that incorporated something of my response to this moot as well as giving signals for our future as being a faithful gospel people. The sermon is below if you want to read it:
I am indebted to this article by Michael Jinkins and also to Ian Stackhouse and his work.

At this year’s Baptist Assembly we spent the bulk of the time dreaming and imagining how the church might be more effective at the mission task. I remember Tom Cadman, who used to be the Minister at Napier Baptist in the 60s, telling me that if you scratch the back of any Baptist you find a revivalist. It doesn’t matter whether you are left or centre or right of centre, whether you vote blue, red or green, if you scratch the back of any Baptist you find a revivalist. Their ideas of what constitutes revival might be different, but the impulse is the same. During one night of the Assembly they held a debate between 4 people who debated the moot “The church has had its day”. Before we start dreaming of revival the church has to face a reality check. One of the speakers outlined the lay of the land from a sociological perspective and it was frightening. The church in NZ has been in serious decline across all denominations for the past 30 years. In 1960 about 20% of the population attended church weekly and 40% monthly. In 2000 about 10% attend weekly and 20% monthly. 20% of society is over 60 years old in NZ but in the church 41% of the people are over 60. The church is older than the rest of society. At the other end of the scale, 20% of the population are between 20 and 29 years of age but only 8% of those in church are from within this age group. In 1960 40% of the primary school role were on Sunday School roles. In 1985 the figure was 11%. Things would be even worse if it weren’t for some of the large immigrant churches . We Baptists fare a little better – we have grown from being the smallest of the significant denominations to now having the largest attendance of all Protestant churches along with the Anglicans. Our gender and average age breakdown tracks very closely with that of the New Zealand population. However, in the Baptist denomination between 1990-2005 we baptised 18,600 people. 18,600 new converts in 15 years is fantastic. You’d think with this number of converts our churches would be swelling. But the reality is that as wide as our front door is just as wide is our back door. If we added the 18,600 people we baptised to the already existing 23600 members we should get 42,200. But in fact our membership is 22,900 – there is 19,300 people missing. What happened to the other 19,300 people? Where did they go? Last year the Baptist church grew 0.2%, the year before we declined 2%. Last year 32% of our churches didn’t get their baptismal pools wet. Adult attendance in Baptist churches over the last 5 years has increased by 153 people. Despite all our programmes, efforts and resources throughout the 244 Baptist churches in NZ we have increased by 153 people. During this time we’ve poured millions of dollars into growing our churches but on average Baptist churches have increased their attendance by just over ½ an adult in 5 years
This is the lay of the land as the sociologists tell us. As George Carey said when he was the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘some parts of the Western Church are bleeding to death’. The church is dying and as Stu pointed out, we can’t simply respond God won’t let it happen because it has happened in some parts of the world. North Africa and Turkey used to be centres of power for the Christian church but the church lost its presence there and has never regained a foothold. This year in Napier 3 churches I know of have closed their doors with another one on the market and its future uncertain. I know 2 of ministers of these churches and they’re very good people and very good ministers of the gospel. People I admire. So we can’t simply point the finger at them and say “it’s their fault.” This is the lay of the land – the church is facing decline and in some areas even death.
All of this has a significant effect on churches, the people in them and especially on leadership. The church is dying who’s going to do CPR on it? The church is dying how can we save it?! We become incredibly anxious about how do we get more people to come to church? Anxiety becomes the defining mood of the day. We try programme after programme, technique after technique to try and save the church. A fear of dying grips us and anxiety becomes the driver for the church. As one person said recently the only thing that seems to be growing in mainline churches today is the stream of books talking about its decline. Books telling us that the church is a terminal patient. Some of them tell us they have all the answers and they’ll share them with us – if you buy their programme! In this environment of fear and anxiety church leaders grasp on to the next great fad that sweeps through the church promising instant success. We have to make the gospel relevant or the church will die! Being relevant is everything. In time, anxiety gives way to guilt as the things we try don’t seem to work. We’re not doing enough or we’re not doing the right things or we’re not praying right. We need better music, better preaching, more experiences – that’ll save the church. More smoke and bigger mirrors - whatever it takes to get more people in and save the church.
So what are we to make of all of this? Should we all just pack up and go home? Well before you all get in your cars, flag the AGM and eat your lunch at home I want to take the chance to respond. For what it’s worth this is my 2 cents to add to the debate about whether the church has had its day. In my response I want to outline my convictions and hopefully it will give some indications for the future for us as a church.
At Baptist Assembly I heard a lot of talk about the sociology of the church but I didn’t hear a lot of theology about the church. A lot of statistics but not a lot of scripture. Church was seen in terms of being a collection of individuals who have faith. A type of religious club you choose to join or not. Is the church simply just another volunteer organisation or is ti something different? Yes the church is a statistical and sociological reality, but first and foremost it’s a theological reality. You can’t speak about the church as purely a sociological reality unless you’re willing to cut God out. What needs to grip us is today is not simply stats or sociology but deep theological convictions. Deep theological convictions about who we are and whose we are. Otherwise, we become like corks bobbing up and down in an ocean of statistics carried away by the current of the next fad that sweeps through the church promising to be the panacea of all the church’s ills. I want scripture to tell us the future of the church rather than the next set of statistics.
In the face of numerical decline I want to ask since when has the truth of the gospel been determined by the reception it receives? We get so caught up in worrying about success that we forget that Jesus didn’t call us to survive – he called us to follow him. Jesus never guaranteed us success – he only ever guaranteed us a cross like his. We’re not called to be relevant to the world so that the gospel might be popular. We’re called to first be relevant to Jesus and his gospel. Too often we feel we have to create some awesome experiences for people in church. Capture people’s emotions. But the gospel isn’t interested in changing people’s emotions – it’s interested in changing their wills. The gospel changes who you serve, not simply your emotions. Now of course the gospel does effect our emotions – it brings us to our knees, it brings us to tears of repentance as well as tears of great joy but ultimately Jesus is not trying to change people’s emotions – he’s trying to change the Lord they serve. Nor is God wanting to simply create a new set of religious experiences. God’s trying to create a whole new humanity that reflects his glory. You see it must be deep biblical and theological convictions that must grip us if we’re not to be carried away by the next current that sweeps through the church.
Then there’s this idea that we can measure the church as a voluntary organisation that you choose to be a part of. Whilst this is helpful with analysing church trends, this view is manifestly unbiblical. You do not choose to be part of the church. Before we chose anything we were chosen in Christ for his glory. We who are in the church did not choose one another – we were chosen in Christ to be a people for God’s glory. A community of different sinners made one in Jesus Christ. As one person famously put it ‘God’s idea of church is a party with people you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night’. The NT only ever uses organic images for the church. The church is described in scripture as being a family. You don’t choose your relatives – you inherit them. Mothers, fathers, annoying brothers or sisters, crazy aunts, embarrassing uncles and scary cousins. Or we are the branches growing out from the vine. We don’t choose which branches we will hang next to and nor can we choose to be branches – we’re formed into branches by the vine – it’s an organic metaphor. Or scripture talks of the body of Christ. Members of a body don’t join the body, they’re formed in the womb: fingers and toes, eyes and ears, heart and lung. You don’t choose to be an eye – eyes are formed by God. The church isn’t some club you join – it’s a new community that’s being made by God for his glory. You can’t speak about the church in terms that are foreign to it’s very nature. I’ve heard conferences where Pastors talk about the people in their church in terms of giving units to help you work out how much should be in the offering bag. You need to work out the average income of your area, times that by the number of giving units you have and 10% of that is what you should expect in your church coffers each week. Now this is helpful at some level but the trouble is that we don’t have giving units in our church – we only have people. We have Graeme and Angie; we have Willis; we have Len and Emma; we have Nicki; we have Laughton but we don’t have any giving units – we have people. As important as sociology and statistics are – and they are important – they’re never the final story unless you want to cut God out of the picture.
Ephesians tells us that God has a redemption plan for the whole cosmos. Before Christ came there was this great mystery as to how God was going to bring about his promised redemption for the world. But Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:8: With all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. The great mystery of God’s redemption plan has been revealed: through Jesus Christ God is going to gather up everything in heaven and on earth and bring it to its perfection in him. This is God’s magnificent plan for the world – it will be brought to its perfect completion which is Jesus. It’s this theological and scriptural vision that must guide our thinking on the church – not statistics. The cry of how are we going to save the church is completely wrong headed. The church doesn’t need a saviour, it’s already got one. The church has got a saviour that’s far greater than any quick fix programme or attempt by us to make the gospel more culturally savvy. The church doesn’t need a saviour, it’s already got one and his name is Jesus Christ the Lord of the church
Paul goes on to tell us in Ephesians that the church is central to God’s plan. Ephesians 3:8 says Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
I have often been asked ‘what’s your vision for the church?’ And I know that what many people have in mind is a vision statement and mission statement and a cute phrase that we can put on our church letterhead. But my response to that question has been guided by something Ian Stackhouse, an English Baptist Pastor said: “I don’t have a vision for the church, I have a vision to be a church” with all the tension and mess that’s involved with being a community of sinners redeemed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The vision for the church that matters is not my vision but God’s vision. I wouldn’t get out of bed for my vision for the church – but I would for God’s vision for the church. God’s vision for the church that Paul explains to us here in Ephesians is that it is God’s new community of Gospel People that reflects God’s nature and God’s glory not just to the world but to the entire cosmos. This is God's vision for the church and we are called to be faithful to it. The glory of the church is not how big it is or successful it is or how good the singing is or how good the preacher is, the glory of the church is that it’s God’s new community that displays to the world what it will be like when everything is summed up in Christ. As we live our lives as God’s faithful Gospel People – loving, forgiving, healing, praying, providing hospitality and care, evangelising… - we show the world the glory of God and his wonderful redemption plan. I believe the great mission task for the church today is to hold its nerve and trust in the power of the gospel to bring about growth and transformation in God’s ways rather than trusting in the power of our programmes, our personalities, our talents, our techniques or the latest fad to sweep through the church promising instant results. Now please hear me right – faithfulness is no excuse for poor leadership, dull worship, bad preaching or a lack of seriousness in mission. These are signs of a lack of faithfulness. My point is that even in the face of these statistics our call is still to trust in the power of Jesus and his gospel rather than the power of our own programmes, techniques or cultural sophistication.
Someone I read recently said that the greatest issues the church in the West faces today is superficiality. That we’ve replaced the boundless riches of Christ with a thin shallow replica. I’ve had my own journey through this but I’ve never been able to express it succinctly. This year we’ve been investing in good resources to give to our home groups and while I was at Assembly I bought a couple more resources. One of them is a DVD from Marva Dawn a wonderful pastor and theologian from the States and it’s on worship and technology and sex and sexuality. On one of her sessions Marva touches on the superficiality that the church can have. The example she gives was American churches after 9/11. Marva said that there are many huge churches in America that focus on what she calls the happy clappy gospel (I’m sure it’s not just limited to the States!). The people inside them sing happy songs, they hear happy sermons and generally they’re the shiniest, happiest people on earth. But 9/11 was one of the most defining events in American history and it broke the hearts of the American people. It was an important time for these churches to be able provide meaning and care for an entire nation. They should have been a beacon of meaning and hope for the nation. But instead of people flocking to these churches for meaning and care they avoided them. The filed into some of the older more traditional churches and avoided the happy clappy churches. Why did they avoid them? Because these churches didn’t know how to lament. They didn’t know how to express anger or grief or pain in their corporate worshipping life. They were so focussed on keeping the positivity meter off the scale to get more people in the door that they didn’t know how to help people express lament, anger or pain before God without feeling like they’re being bad.
The church is not called to try and save itself and when we try to we often miss the glory and power of the gospel. We are called to trust in the power of Jesus and his gospel and remain faithful to him. I want to finish by reading to you what Paul says about the church in 1 Corinthians 4: Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. This is the call to the church – to be stewards of God’s mysteries. Could there be a greater calling than to be stewards of the mysteries of God Almighty? And as Paul tells us our hope is that we are found trustworthy.
Whoever says that we must save the church is dead wrong. The church already has a saviour and of all the people who know how to bring life out of death – it’s Jesus. As G. K. Chesterton famously said: “Christianity has died many times and risen again – for it has a God who knows the way out of the grave”. The church doesn’t need a saviour because it’s already got one – Jesus Christ. And as stewards of the mysteries of God somehow we must learn again to entrust the church to him.

Paul has an interesting debate going on over at his blog. I think his point about being salt is very important and I respect his position but ultimately I disagree. I do drink alcohol. Having come out of a very boozy background and gone cold turkey when I first became a Christian, I now do drink alcohol - in much smaller quantities than before though! In fact I can only handle 1 beer or 1 glass of wine now, any more than that and I'm exhausted the next day. My liver is paying the price for my history! I haven't got the time or energy to get involved in a debate around it right now but Paul has some very good points to make and I'd encourage you to keep an eye on the comments Paul and the people make on his post.

I used to love listening to Martin Devlin when he ran a morning show on Radio Sport. On of the soundbytes that he used to play was a snippet from Shrek when Pinnochio would say 'I'm not a puppet, I'm a real boy!' Next week I am away at our national Baptist Assembly down in Nelson. This year I'm becoming a registered Baptist pastor. I don't think much will change but I'm graduating from being a pretend pastor to being a 'real' pastor - no more playing around! I get given a towel with John 13 embroidered on it. It's a nice idea, to remind us that we're to be servants of Jesus Christ and his church. I've also been asked to respond on behalf of the ministers who are becoming registered. It's a nice chance to acknowledge our many different journeys - some of us trained at Carey together as pastoral leadership students, others at other great colleges like BCNZ and others have trained "on the job". We all have many different roles in the church - some senior pastors (I don't like that title!), some associates (don't like that one either), some youth pastors (or that one), some chaplains and various other pastoral roles. I'll try and acknowledge this and also the many churches, mentors, friends and collegues who have helped and grown us along the way. From all this diversity, the thing that links us together is that the gospel of Jesus has melted our hearts and we've sense he's called us to this frightening thing called ministry in his name!

Ali wasn't quite sure what was meant by pastors as parables of Christ, so I'll try my best to give an overview of David Hansen's ideas:

Hansen draws from Eberhard Jungel who suggests that Jesus is a parable of God. A parable, says Hansen and Jungel, is an extended metaphor. It's meant to create a comparison between a known thing and an unknown thing for the sake of illuminating the unknown thing and bringing something new, unforseen and surprising to the hearer. The incarnate Jesus is a parable of God (illuminates God to us). "In the totality of his life, he bore the image of God perfectly." Having established this idea of parable, Hansen goes on to say "Jesus is the Parable of God and delivers God to us in the process. Isn't it possible that pastors, to the extent that they follow Jesus, are parables of Jesus Christ and so deliver him to those they encounter?... Sometimes God comes to people when I preach, or pray, or even when I'm just visiting with them. Being a parable of Jesus shows me how it is possibly true when he says: "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me" (Mt 10:40). Hansen goe son to say "As a parable of Jesus Christ I deliver something to the parishioner that I am not, and in the process I deliver the parishioner into the hands of God.
I come to their home as I am. I am a known quantity to them. Because of my position as pastor, the family I visit knows from the start that something about God is happening. I listen to them tell their story, trying to keep my own Godforsaken agenda ego-agenda out of the way. ("Why don't you come to church more often? I want a bigger church, and you're part of my plan.") After a while I pray for the family.
You wouldn't think that listening to people would be such a big deal. But listening to us is what God does. The fact that I listen to a family the way Jesus does makes a comparison happen inside them. A subconscious process tells them: Jesus listens to me; this is what Jesus is like. They sense they have been with Jesus all along.
Am I so desperate for identity that I've resorted to calling myself Jesus? No. I'm just a hook with some feathers and threads on it (Hansen earlier used fly fishing as a metaphor for ministry). I observe that when I encounter people along the way, they don't experience me so much as they experience God. How do I account for this? I am a parable of Jesus... [If] Jesus is communicated through us because of the likeness we share with him in our everyday life, if the essence of delivering Christ is living like him in our whole life, matching our narrative with his life's narrative, then our everyday life counts.
Every Christian's life is meant to be a parable of Jesus... An adequate definition of pastoral ministry emphasizes following Jesus as the act of ministry."

I have been asked to give a lecture/seminar to some students training for ministry. The irony is that I'll probably be the youngest and least experienced in the room! Anyway, my topic is "Ministry Traps to Avoid." No doubt my perspective from 18 months of ministry will be totally different from someone who's had many years of experience.

One of the things that has surprised me most since I've been in ministry is how few collegues I've found who will sit down and study the scriptures with me - even debate or argue about the scriptures with me. Many of my ministry collegues are happy to talk about techniques or projects but we rarely open our bibles to grapple with it and we rarely pray together. Coming from a Bible College environment where this was the everyday stuff of life it's been a bit of a shock. I remember a lecture series I heard Derek Tidball give on Baptist Leadership that looked at Biblical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. In his reflections on contemporary perspectives he said how concerned he was that when he meets up with the young pastors he taught he asks them what they're reading and their reading list is based entirely on how-to manuals and contemporary culture books rather than any serious commentaries or theological works. For me, this is a very important ministry trap to avoid. The pull to place relevance and statistical credibility at the forefront of ministry (numbers do have their place though. Let's face it, if the church you pastor empties out and closes does 'it's not about numbers' really cut it?). I constantly hear the demand for the church to be relevant from many quarters (CEO style as well as emerging church). The question for me is, to whom are we first called to be relevant, God or society? It must be God. I hear it said that we need to take church to the world and I totally agree with the need to incarnate the gospel but I'm cautious of letting society define what church is. One person told me of how they have a group of people meet at a cafe to do the Alpha marriage course and that this was church for those people who went. This is a great idea and is working well but this isn't church! Again the question is who defines what is church, society or the Bible? The Bible has some clear ideas on what constitutes church and that must be our starting point rather than letting society define church in the name of relevance.

I like what Ian Stackhouse (author of The Gospel Driven Church) says when he's asked what his vision is for the church: "I don;t have a vision for the church. I have a vision to be a church."

I've recently come across David Hansen who's an author on pastoral ministry. I'm currently reading his book The Art of Pastoring: Ministry without All the Answers. Here's a relevant (there's that word again!) snippet:"When I began ministry, I had lots of books prescribing pastoral ministry - the so-called how-to books. I had books on how to preach, how to administrate a church, how to do pastoral counselling and how to lead small groups. They didn't help me. The authors assumed too much. They assumed that I knew what my goal was. They assumed that I knew what I was and who I was. They assumed that I knew why I was supposed to be doing the things they were teaching me about. But I didn't know what I was, or who I was, or why I was supposed to be doing the things I was supposed to be doing. And I didn't know how any of the things I was supposed to be doing fit into a coherent understanding of my call from God to be a pastor.
So I stopped reading how-to books. Instead I read theology, biblical studies and church history. I alternated between the disciplines. These books from the classical disciplines of theology didn't teach me how to do pastoral ministry, but they helped me immensly in my regular duties. I discovered that spending a day reading thirty pages of Karl Barth's Dogamitcs helped me more in my pastoral work than a hundred pages of how-to literature... These narratives pointed me to the fact that pastoral ministry is a life, not a technology. How-to books treat pastoral ministry like a technology. That's fine on one level - pastoral ministry does require certain skills, and I need all the advice I can get. But my life as a pastor is far more than the sum of the tasks I carry out... The thesis of this book is that people meet Jesus in our lives because when we follow Jesus, we are parables of Jesus Christ to the people we meet."

Baby got book (a Christian take off of Baby got Back) is hilarious!! You've got to go and have a look at it.

Sean the Baptist's favourite line is "Hey ladies, hey ladies, do you want to save people from Hades?" Mine is "cause it's worn and it's torn and I know that girl's reborn".

I hope his view of women is a little broader than the song (which I think is tongue in cheek).

There's nothing quite like a reality check. Like when babies cry in the middle of the night you become very aware that you're not the patient person you think you are and especially not the patient person you want everyone else to think you are. You're suddenly aware that within you lurks some very real darkness. You're capable of much more evil than you realised - like harming an innocent little baby! Amy is a very good baby and we love her deeply. But I'm aware of how weak I am when it comes to patience. It only takes a small amount of grizzling from Amy before I'm totally frazzled and have to leave the room for both our sakes. I am weak, God make your strength perfect in my weakness.

Another reality check that will be with me for a while comes from Paul Windsor and his trip to Africa with his son Martin (who's a great guy). Please, whatever you do GO AND READ PAUL'S POST!! Here's a snippet:
"What can you say about first-hand stories of the HIV/AIDS pandemic? Many of the pastors at the conferences were having an AIDS-funeral each week. Imagine the pastoral care before and after that event and the enormous load on those pastors! Life expectancy for men in Zambia has dropped from 62 to 47 since AIDS hit the scene. I hardly saw a grey hair!"

It is sobering. We are weak, God make your strength perfect in our weakness.

Amy is doing well: eating like a horse, sleeping like a log, pooing like... (perhaps someone with Delhi belly!)

Won't be posting for the next little while - too busy enjoying Amy and family.

A GIRL!! God is good. Amy Fleur Picard welcome to the world. Margaret gave birth to a girl yesterday at 5.30pm she weighs 7lb 6oz. Both are doing well. Dad and Olivia are so proud of Mum and Amy. There's big goofy grins all over the place!! The photo is from a cellphone so its not the greatest quality but from my totally neutral position I think she's the cutest little poppet in the world!!

Conrad Gempf's book Jesus Asked is now able to be accessed online for free here. I'm reading his Mealtime Habits of the Messiah. In his book he notes how we Westerners often enjoy pointing to the Pharisees as examples of people who Jesus didn’t like because they took the requirements of the Old Testament law too seriously. “We cherish the passages where Jesus tells them to loosen up. Why? Not because we are in the same situation as the Pharisees, so we need to hear what Jesus told them. We love it because “Lighten up” is already our motto.” Gempf points out that there is much that Jesus taught that is not easy or comforting. It’s difficult and offensive. We shouldn’t focus on the passages of the Bible that contain answers that resonate with us. “For instance, too many rich people name and claim promises like “God will provide”. Instead, maybe we should make little religious knick-knack vases wth dried flowers in them and “Woe to the rich” embossed in gold letters. Yes, Jesus loves us dearly, but we’re told he disciplines those he loves. Where are the t-shirts with the motto “Jesus had stern words for people like me”?”

It made me think what is a motto for a tee shirt that captures something of the radicalness of the gospel?

This week our sermon text is Exodus 6:1-13. I'm especially struck by the description of the Israelites having a broken spirit. I think when it comes to describing our feelings, the word broken is an incredibly powerful descriptor. Brokenness not in the cool sense of "not having it all together" but brokenness in the raw sense of busted and ruined. There's only a couple of times in my life I can remember being broken or having my spirit broken and they're so personal that I won't share them on an internet blog in case someone didn't treat them with respect. What happens when the cause of your brokenness is God? In last week's passage we saw that Moses felt that God had failed him. His brokenness leaked out all over the place. "O Lord, why have you mistreated this people?" Moses blamed Pharaoh's mistreatment of the Israelites squarely on God not Pharaoh. God promised to deliver them but he hasn't come through on his promises. God had failed them. "Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people." I'm struck this week by the words "Moses told this (God's message of redemption) to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery." Broken is a powerful descriptor.

Conrad Gempf, NT lecturer at London School of Theology, wrote a book called Jesus Asked. Through some sweet relationship with Zondervan the book is going to be available to listen to via podcast. Go here to read more. It's not available yet but seems like it will be very soon. I haven't read this book but I really like the stuff I've read from Conrad Gempf (some of you might know him from the Christian Life & series.

I've had to turn on word verification for posts - I've been spammed. Sorry for the hassle.

I've heard many people comment that a lot of churches today only seem to be interested in 3 B's: Bricks, bums and bucks - bricks for flash buildings, bums on seats and bucks in the bank. On the weekend we agreed as a church that we would build a deck to flow out of an already existing hall that we use as it would enhance what God is doing in terms of our hospitaility to the community and to our own church community. I do worry that I might have fallen into the trap of the 3 B's but I'm (genuinely) confident I can justify this decision (can't we always justify our decisions?!).

My wife is due in the next 2-3 weeks to give birth to our 2nd baby - it's very exciting. If I had one wish it would be that she would hurry up. The reason why is that the passage below is where we are up to in our sermon series on Exodus and frankly I'd rather be on paternity leave and give this one to someone else!

On the way, at the place of where they spent the night, the LORD met him and tried to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his feet with it, and said, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" So he let him alone. It was then she said, "A bridegroom of blood by circumcision."

I thought I had carefully crafted this sermon series so that I would be off on paternity leave when this passage raised its ugly head. Come on Margaret, hurry up!! If ever there was a verse that I wished scribes through the centuries had edited out it would be this one!

The worship seminar went well on the weekend. As usual I totally overprepared. I'm haunted by the words of a trusted friend who suggested to me recently that I'm a perfectionist. He meant not in a good way but rather in a way that trusts in myself and my abilities rather than God and God's strength!

Anyway, enough self-flagellation! No blood was spilt on the carpet over the weekend. This is no mean feat when you have a room full of people who are very talented and passionate musicians and you are trying to ask questions about the content of some of their favourite songs! We all had a great time exploring what is worship and what are we trying to do on a Sunday morning? We had some very robust discussions at times where we let our differences grow us (I hope). I suggested that Sunday worship is less about creating a certain "experience" for people and more about spiritual formation of the people of God. Less about "getting something out of it" and more about growing a gospel people. Rather than making experience primary and trying to create some emotions we need to be faithful to the gospel (content) and allow that to produce it's own experiences. This will sometimes mean profound thankfulness and joy but other times lament or confession or wrestling with God. If we make experience (especially creating that warm fuzzy feeling) primary we run the risk of abusing the gospel for our own ends (i.e. creating an experience). We need to trust in the power of the gospel to grow a gospel people and allow this to create it's own experiences. My conclusion was that Sunday morning worship is about nurturing and growing a gospel people. Therefore, the content matters to make sure we are growing a gospel people and not just any sort of people.

A couple of fantastic and haunting quotes I really like in my research which both come from a journal article by Kevin Vanhoozer called "Worship at the Well" in the Trinity Journal 23 (2002):
"We worship what we know. If our knowledge is not deep, our worship won't be either."
"Our worship [and prayer] is the index to how well we have understood our faith."
And finally a quote from N.T. Wright (via Vanhoozer's article):
"If your idea of God...[and] salvation offered in Christ, is vague or remote, your idea of worship will be fuzzy and ill-informed."

"Let's face it. Christianity is a spectacular means to an end. We have a power structure that is open and accessible to people who have not earned or been granted much power from our culture. In local churches, there is money to be made, power to be had and opportunities to be seized. A man or woman who may not be successful in the business world can be chairman of the deacons, head of the parish committee or a member of the board of directors. For some, Christianity is only the means to an end, and whenever that happens, things turn ugly."

Real Live Preacher has written an outstanding article on an issues that every church faces and every Christian faces - the use and abuse of POWER! You can get to it via his website (which I'd recommend so that you can read the comments) or directly from this link.

At our church we have travelled through the gospel of Luke and are now looking at the book of Exodus. Prominent in both is the journey motif (Luke 9:52ff and the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land). I read this today that captures beautifully something of the significance of journeying.

Wow! I don't know who reads this blog (whether it's only 1 or 2 people or what). Today I had a comment left by Sean Dietrich who I've never heard of before. He's a Christian musician - songwriter who's been influenced by Keith Green and he seems like a really humble guy who loves Jesus. I'd encourage you to read his bio and listen to his music (free to download) - if his bio doesn't bring tears to your eyes then you've got a fridge for a heart!

I wouldn't use it to define who I am, but it could be worse! But wasn't Barth quoted as saying I'm not a Barthian?! You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Emergent/Postmodern 57% Reformed Evangelical 57% Modern Liberal 32% Fundamentalist 29% Roman Catholic 25% Charismatic/Pentecostal 18% Classical Liberal 7% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Go have a crack and see what you come up with.

Hat tip to Alister

I have been away over the last week in Auckland for a Ministry Development Course. I'm still up here until Saturday doing some study in preparation for the worship seminar. At MDC we spent time talking about ministry and especially about where our focus is at in our ministries (John 15 - are we focussed on abiding in Christ or solely getting fruit?). In this light we were given this outstanding quote "are we so busy reaching the 'churched' that we're unchurching the churched?" Well worth pondering when it comes to the depth of the gospel in our churches.

Paul has posted some reflections from his DMin (demon??) research on contemporary Christian music. It is very interesting.

Andehe made the comment that so often our faith is one of being flipped upside down, changing and then integrating new dimensions. When I think of my own faith I'm very aware of how flighty it can be - the process of deconstructing and reconstructing can be very hard. However, I hope that this process is found my desire (through the Spirit) to be rooted in Christ - the truly faithful human who takes my flighty, rocky faith and presents it perfect before the Father. I was given this quote last week from a friend (I think it's from James Torrance): "Prayer and worship are not primarily hard tasks that God sets us; they are gifts that through his Son and in his Spirit he shares with us." I think ultimately this is also true of faith - it is God's gift to us that comes by the Spirit through his Son. Faith is about particiapting in the gift that God shares with us - life in Christ. In the Spirit our flighty, rocky faith is lifted up and presented as holy before the Father through the perfect eternal human faithfulness of Jesus Christ our mediator. Faith then isn't all about 'my faith' but the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

Why are fire engines red?
A fire Engine has four wheels and eight people on it.
Four and eight are twelve.
Twelve inches are a foot.
A foot is a ruler.
Queen Elizabeth is a ruler.
The "Queen Elizabeth" is the largest ship
to sail the seven seas.
The seas have fish.
The fish have fins.
The Finns fought the Russians.
The Russains are red.
Fire engines are always rushin' around.
And that's why fire engines are red!

This seems to be the sort of logic that allows Dan Brown to make some of the connections he makes in the Da Vinci Code. As Conrad Gempf, New Testament lecturer at London School of Theology, said when asked to comment on The Da Vinci Code 'asking a New Testament lecturer to comment on The Da Vinci Code is like asking a Marine Biologist to comment on Finding Nemo!' However, the flimsiness of Dan Brown's research doesn't seem to stop its popularity and when the church points these things out it only adds fuel to the fire - 'of course you'd say that, you're in on this conspiracy!' Steve Hollinghurst asks what would happen if Dan Brown were to admit that The Da Vinci Code was a joke? Would convinced readers simply drop the book's theories? Or might they wonder what Brown was trying to hide or which organisation forced him to say that? How does the church engage with The Da Vinci Code? We need to be careful that we don't use a sledgehammer to tap in a carpet tack! I think rather than point out the flaws in The Da Vinci Code we need to understand the fertile soil that allows The Da Vinci Code to grow. Why is The Da Vinci Code so popular? Our culture today loves secret knowledge and scandals. It does not like authorities or authority figures e.g. Police, politicians, lawyers or churches. In a world of truthiness it all comes down to opinions and my opinion is the only one I can trust! People today trust their own feelings over against the views of authority figures. We mistrust all claims to truth as a will to power and search for 'the real truth' behind the supposed truth and it leads to all sorts of conspiracy theories and thristings for secret knowledge. The church shouldn't laugh too hard at Why Fire Engines are Red - this sort of thinking isn't limited to The Da Vinci Code. Many interpretations of the Bible resemble this sort of logic (or lack of), especially The Book of Revelation! Perhaps the popularity of Left Behind and The Bible Codes is linked to the popularity of The Da Vinci Code - access to secret knowledge and how no one else has seen this before. It's exciting and entertaining but often the logic is the same as Why Fire Engines are Red. But when people challenge it it only reinforces the scandal that the mainstream church is trying to suppress information or is purposely leading people down the wrong path! The Da Vinci Code has met fertile soil indeed!

Living in Hurricanes territory is hard work for a Blues supporter. I have been trying to keep my mouth shut but I can't help it. A few weeks ago I predicted that the 'Canes had as much chance of winning the Super 14 as the Blues. Well, this has turned to custard and the 'Canes are in the final with the Crusaders this Saturday. It hurts to say it but:

GO THE CRUSADERS!!! PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAAASSSEEEE!!

I mentioned a quote from Friedrich Buechner a couple of weeks ago in a sermon (something like): 'questions and doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.'

I have two recent questions (as well as many others...) that are causing ants in my pants:
1). This one comes from Guy Sayles and his blog at First Day. We often focus on the question of "Do you believe in Jesus?" This is an important question and rests at the heart of the Christian faith. But sometimes we, wrongly, stop at that question, as if saying yes settles all matters of faith and discipleship. There is a second and also very important question to ponder after asking "Do you believe in Jesus?" and it is: "Do you believe what Jesus believed?" Go check out Guy Sayles thoughts on this one here. It's a very important question for followers of Jesus.

2). The second question follows the readings I've been doing for our forthcoming retreat for our worship team. There is a lot of focus on the need for worship to be authentic today. It's been something that I've focussed a lot on. Today I read an article that gave me a kick in the pants. The article is by Graham Redding who is the Minister at St John's in the City, a Presbyterian church in Wellington. In the article he asks "What is authentic worship? Authentic to whom?" Is it most important to be authentic to the people gathered to worship (in which case, who decides if the bar of authenticity has been reached?) or to the Triune God of grace revealed in Jesus Christ? Who is worship directed towards, the people gathered for worship or the Triune God of grace?

I've found out over the last few weeks that some of the people I went to Bible College with have entered blogdom. I'm not on-to-it enough to figure out how to create a links thingy at the side of the blog, so the best I can do is give them a plug.
Alister is a good guy and a smart chappie (not sure what he's up to in terms of job etc now). He's now blogging at Kiwi and an Emu
Sean Du Toit (N. T. Wright's biggest fan!). I see Sean's giving a lecture on the Da Vinci Code at Stellenbosch University. He blogs at Primal Subversion.
Melissa Powell is a pastor at Cession Community. She is a very clever woman, and I would imagine, an outstanding pastor! She's blogging at Pensees (as in Blaise Pascal).

We four did a lot of papers together at Uni and it's interesting to see what they're up to now.

There's something special about scoring a treasure you never expected like the lost and found passages of Luke 15. Well, this week I reckon I've found a treasure. This week I bought my first ever Christian music CD. Call me whatever you want but I find most Christian music CDs just too syrupy for me. I can't connect with the stuff they're singing about. Anyway, this week I went into our local Christian bookstore (something I don't often do for the same reason as the Christian CD issue - the books are a bit too syrupy for me) and bought a new Bible because mine had literally fallen apart and disintergrated (always a good look for a pasta!). While I was there I browsed through the CDs and the lady recommended a couple of bands to listen to after I told her of my dilemma with much Christian music. I listened to the ones she recommended to me through the store headphones and they didn't really ring my bells. When I put them back on the shelf I saw a CD by a band called The Normals. I thought "that's me, I'm pretty normal" I put the CD on the store CD player and just loved the music. Very U2 and Radioheadish. Not only were the tunes great but the lyrics were fantastic - they sung stuff that I connected with. Here's some of their lyrics:
Have you ever been scared? Everybody's been scared. I've been scared. God, I've been scared.
Have you ever felt pain? Everbody's felt pain. I've felt pain. God, I've felt pain.
Chorus
But I'm the King of the world today. I've got this whole dirty place wrapped around my finger and I think I'm finally on my way home.
Have you ever had doubt? Everybody's had doubt. I've had doubt. God, I've had doubt
But it will get better and it doesn't matter because I feel loved. Oh God, I feel loved.
Chorus
I'm the King of the world today. I've got this whole dirty place wrapped around my finger and I think I'm finally onmy way home.
This is where grace becomes my mother 'cause I can be one man today and tomorrow another...

Or another song called 'Innocence':
Innocence, you were taken so slowly. It hit us suddenly and now I can't leave my room 'cause the lights of the city are just hiding from the dark.
Innocence, we never got to say goodbye but the glory of redemption is the wisdom that we find has taken it's place...

Or 'Brittle Bone':
Down here the well has been poisened. Now everything's dying. Some sell forgiveness on Gospel TV shows and I wonder why anyone's buying? 'Cause the truth is a hard sell for it burns out the lies

Great stuff. I went to the band's website The Normals and found that they too didn't like too much modern Christian music. They found that record companies demanded that they have a high JPM (Jesus Per Minute) and sing about happy, sugary stuff instead of gritty life stuff so that they'd get good sales on the Christian consumer market. Another group called The Frantics tried to write some gritty lyrics. Annoyed at these issues in the Christian music industry they wrote these lyrics:
Everyone's already been bought and sold. Got to get ahead. To fill their luxurious homes. Where all their lies resound again and again”
At one point in the Nashville session, one of the label executives stopped the session, recalled Shandrow (the band leader). The executive said something wasn't clicking. He had Shandrow spend some time with a studio employee to make the song more Christian.
The Frantics then recorded it again. The executive, said Shandrow, exclaimed, "That's the God I serve! Yes!"
And Shandrow's thought on it: "That's the God they want to sell."

Go here to read the full story.

A couple of years ago Laurie Guy published a book called Worlds in Collision:The Gay Debate in New Zealand, 1960-1986 (with a lovely pink cover) which looked at the response of the NZ churches to the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. The book is a fascinating read and a wonderful contribution to NZ church history, the history of homosexual law reform in NZ and NZ social history during these turbulent years. I think the title of the book is a pearler and so I've used it for this blog post even though this post is nothing to do with homosexuality.

This week I've been reading from a book called The Prodigal Project and one particular story struck me as a perfect example of 'worlds in collision'. The world of church worship world in collision with the society its trying to reach. Mike Riddell, one of the authors of the book, wrote this story:
"A young girl lived with her family next door to a Baptist church. Her parents were not churchgoers, but they made use of the Sunday School to get their daughter out of the house on a Sunday morning. Each week she would attend Sunday School, and then stay on for the church service which followed. Family life was not pleasant, and she enjoyed the welcome relief of a different group of people who seemed much 'nicer'.
The church was charismatic, and on one particular Sunday, there was the usual long bracket of choruses at the beginning of the service. A very worshipful atmosphere developed as the congregation continued to sing songs over and over. Eventually, after a particularly moving chorus, a silence fell over the assembled people. It was one of those times in which worshippers are caught up in the presence of God, and hold their breath in expectation of some prophecy or exhortation from the Lord.
This time, however, the silence gave way not to any encouraging word, but to the sound of screaming from next door. There was the unmistakable noise of a woman being beaten; a succession of wailing and weeping interspersed with the thud of fist on flesh. The young girl, together with the rest of the congregation, listened in horror. She recognized the voice of her mother crying in anguish, and knew once more her father was erupting in violent anger. She waited in anticipation, to see what would happen.
The worship leader was tense. He had planned carefully the sequence of songs to lead to this very point, where people might 'break through' into the presence of God. And now instead, the whole atmosphere was being destroyed by this unwelcome intrusion of the outside world. He did the only thing he could think of; he led out in another song of praise. The congregation welcomed the opportunity to move on and drown out the ghastly sounds assaulting their ears. As they sang, the worship quickly shut out the noise from next door. The incident stayed with the young girl for the rest of her life, though she did not understand until much later why it made her so angry."

I'm still doing some reading for the forthcoming worship seminar for our church. I've just read an article by David Dockery on Southern Baptist worship and his cry for renewal in Southern Baptist worship. Whilst the Southern Baptists have their own definate characteristics I still found it very interesting. Dockery says this about worship: 'Worship is the foundational activity of the Christian church. It defines the life-giving functions of the people of the new convenant and the new age. Worship is a joyful experience for the believing community and is as necessary for spiritual life as air and food for physical well-being...Worship [in the New Testament community] was a vertical movement, that is, the praise of humanity to God. But there was also a horizontal movement because wprship is celebrated with others. Therefore worship was a community act, and the relationships between the members of the worshipping community were of the highest importance.' With the New Testament itself, Dockery identifies 3 groups from which the early church developed. The first group, identified as Jewish Christians, was characterised by a continutiy with temple worship (Acts 2:46; 3:11-26). The second group he refers to as Hellenistic Christians. The worship of this group is characterised by the renunciation of Jewish ritualism (Acts 6:1-7:50). Jewish rituals were reinterpreted as having been fulfilled in Christ (Heb. 7-10). The thrid and largest group by the end of the first century was comprised of gentile Christians. Gentile Christian worship was exhorted to be orderly (1 Cor. 14:40; 1 Tim. 3:15) since it had developed out of pagan origins. Worship became Christocentric and content orientated (1 Cor. 14:6-26) as preaching and the Lord's Supper characterised its major aspects. Also, worship became more organised and structured as the community developed.

There's some interesting things to consider here as the NT church changed and shaped its worship within different contexts.

The Princeton Theological Review has released its latest issue (Spring 2006) and it is dedicated to the work of the late Stanley Grenz (an outstanding Baptist theologian). One of the essays in it, 'Straddling the Tasman', is written by Brian Harris - one of my old lecturers and now Principal of the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia. In his essay Brian looks at how Grenz's theology can speak clearly and thoughtfully into the Australiasian context. It is well worth reading. I was particularly struck by Brian's comments on how differently the Chrismatic Renewal impacted the church in New Zealand to how it impacted the church in Australia.

This has a definate beauty to it. Hat tip to Maggi Dawn.

I have been doing some preparation for a forthcoming worship team retreat. It'll be a time when we try to expand our understandings of worship together. I came across this piece of advice that the pastor of Fivehead Baptist Church in England (I know, Fivehead is a bizzare name for a church - sounds like some sort of evil beast coming out of the sea in a Sci-fi movie!!) gives to their worship leaders: "Do not pray that God enables us to put ‘all the troubles and hardships of the week to one side’, thus leaving us free to worship Him. To do so is to drive a wedge between our worshipping life and our real life. Our Sunday worship is not an escape from our real life, it is an expression of it, and an opportunity to transform it."

I've also come across this quote from Gerald Manly Hopkins, Poems and Prose quite a bit recently:
"It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, white-washing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in His grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should. So then, my brethren, live."

Following the last post, I read a blog post by Frank Rees today that stirred my heart. One was about a Pastor who inspired a generation of leaders within his local church by being willing to sit down with them at his home after a Sunday night sermon, light his pipe and deeply explore God and Christian faith together so that God might deeply explore them. Frank says that no topics were banned and anything could be explored from predestination to masturbation. The other figure was an Old Testament lecturer who inspired a generation of pastors, lecturers and denominational leaders. Go and read it for yourself.

Last week I was asked, as a recent graduate of Carey Baptist College, by Charles Hewlett (Director of Ministry Training at Carey), to write a brief article (250ish words) on how Carey prepared me for pulpit ministry at Napier Baptist. It was for a College publication called The PLer (that gives information about Pastoral Leadership training at Carey) to go out to NZ Baptist Pastors. I was honoured to be asked, and a little daunted, but found I really enjoyed reflecting on the question. Below is my brief entry:

Someone once told me that preachers can tend to fall into two categories: those who have something to say but don’t know how to say it and those who know how to say it but have nothing to say. I can assure this person that Carey College tries very hard to produce preachers that have something to say and know how to say it. Whilst Carey, importantly, places high emphasis on learning the art of preaching, it prepared me in a much deeper way for pulpit ministry. Carey prepared me through Biblical studies, Systematic Theology, Church History and Pastoral studies. In Biblical studies I was not given a bag full of sermons to use in ministry but rather key tools that helped me to deeply exegete the Word so that the Word could deeply exegete me. In Systematic Theology I did not learn all the important answers about God and the Christian faith but rather I learnt how to ask important questions of God and the Christian faith and that through this God could ask important questions of me. In Church History I learnt how God has shaped and transformed the community of Jesus Christ through time so that I might better sense how God is shaping and transforming the community of Jesus Christ today. In Pastoral studies I learnt that preaching is always spoken into the lives of fragile, messy people, just like me, who God intensely loves. Finally, at College we learnt about preaching through the staff modelling excellent preaching to us at Chapel services that we wanted to emulate. Carey prepared me for pulpit ministry through holistic training within the context of the community of disciples that is Carey Baptist College. I thank God for Carey College.

A deeply exegeting and exegeted; deeply questioning and questioned; deeply transforming and transformed; deeply shaping and shaped; deeply vulnerable and honest community that is aware of its humaness as well as God's transforming power and is glued together by the grace and truth of God – a volatile combination and wouldn’t it be awesome to be a part of??!!

This year at Napier Baptist we're attempting to journey a little more through the whole Easter story rather than Easter Sunday being just another Sunday where we sing with more gusto. We are adding in a Last Supper/Passover meal on Maundy Thursday (6pm) and a Tenebrae service on Good Friday (8pm). This year we want to try and journey through the upper room, through the darkness of Good Friday, the abandonment of Christ on the cross and then into good news that God raised Jesus from the dead and vindicated him and his ways and not our ways. Through this journey I want to invite you to recognise yourself within the drama of the Easter story, to see yourself within the Easter story.

William Loader has a brilliant reflection this based on Lk. 23:34 and our need to see ourselves within the story of Easter:
"The war crimes tribunal was assembled. Caiaphas and his cohorts, Pilate and his, were marched in. There were other charges against Pilate. For this session all stood accused of conspiracy to murder an innocent man, Jesus from Nazareth. The judge read the charges. Immediately from the gallery a voice cried out, ‘But he said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." The judge responded: ‘Forgiveness is only possible when people realise what they have done. Until then their guilt remains and failing to appreciate the dimensions of their act they cannot forgive themselves and cannot receive forgiveness from others.’ ‘Crucify them! Crucify them!’ others shouted. The judge replied: ‘Why answer violence with violence? Why mourn love with hate?’ ‘Let us beat them, whip them, punish them,’ cried others. ‘Punishment,’ replied the judge, ‘is an admission of failure, a strategy of despair.’ ‘What, then, are we to do with these who killed the Christ?’ the crowd retorted. The judge stood to his feet, looking left and right, then turning to the accused, he said: ‘Your sentence is to hear the story again and again every year, until you recognise your part in the drama, see yourselves in the scene.’"

The Easter story calls us to recognise our part in the drama, to see ourselves in the scene. We hope that through this year's Easter journey we might have a deeper appreciation of Christ's sacrifice and what is truly good news to all people. That the darkness and terror of Good Friday (the gravitiy of sin and Christ's crucifixion) is organically linked to what makes Easter Sunday and the resurrection such Good News.

Hope to see ya there...

I've just been trying to sort out some new resources for our church community. A while ago I was looking at issues around equipping people for the workplace and 'faith at work'. I stumbled across a website called Christian Life and. It has some great resources that come from London School of Theology (previously London Bible College) - an outstanding Bible College. I found that they not only have a resource for Christian Life and Wrok but also Christian Life and... : Global Mission; Today's World; Children. I think these are fantastic resources. Many of today's resources aren't exactly transformative. Many are too simplistic and get you to do things like fill in the missing word in a simple sentence (e.g. Jesus is ... (you write in the word 'Lord')). The Christian Life and series promotes a nice combination of knowing, being, doing and feeling for the sake of transformation. For example, in the Christian Life and Children series, you speak about your own thoughts and feelings about children and their faith; you interview a child; you watch children's TV programmes and browse and children's toy catalogue (try to understand the world of children); you are introduced to developmental models for children and their faith (stages of faith) and then you have to do a SWOT exercise (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) on your church and their attitude to children and then consider what might be some of the practical implications for your church. I think that this will be more transformative (in terms of discipleship and church life) than simply filling in the missing word.

Have a look at the website and let me know what you think...

For anyone who's interested in all things 'emerging church', Paul Windsor's written a very thought provoking article. We all tend to view Christ through our favourite lenses (e.g. preachers think Jesus was all about preaching) and I think some of the emerging church tends to see Jesus through 'postmodern' lenses rather than 'postmodernism' through the lens of Jesus.

Paul's point that history's more of an 'adding lanes to a highway' than an eclipse model could be made even stronger. I don't think postmodern thought is anything terribly new. It has strong historical antecedents in Romanticism, Pietism and the Renaissance. There's an outstanding article by Martin Sutherland (a historical theologian) called "Pine Trees and Paradigms: Rethinking Mission in the West" in a collection of essays for Brian Smith that critiques much of the simplistic talk about 'paradigm shifts' in culture. If you're interested in getting a copy then please let me know - I'll do my best.

Sheesh! Rob Kilpatrick and the team at Tranzsend won't let us off the hook easily will they? Last week the theme of Self-Denial was they (the poor) are found wanting. This week the theme is we are found wanting. The Tranzsend handout says:
Millions of people in the world are exploited for their labour. Slavery still exists. Bonded labour and sweatshops entrap millions including children. We can change that. By setting up business enterprises that teach skills to the unskilled, pay fair and just wages, pass the profits back into the communities, and encourage self reliance, we are effecting change for generations. No longer do these people have to sell themselves into a hostile labour market or worse. If we do business for the right reason, from the right world view then we are doing mission. If we fail to ensure justice exists then in God's sight, we are found wanting.

This week's message is that God holds us accountable for the poverty of others. That God will judge us not just for the bad we have done but also the good we have failed to do (e.g. turn a blind eye to exploitation and child labour). How do you feel about this? On the one hand I feel worried whilst on the other I feel a bit beaten up by some of these things. How does this make you feel?

This week we begin our annual Tranzsend Self-Denial appeal. This year the theme is "found wanting". This week's message is based around the theme they (the poor) are found wanting support. I did quite a few history papers in my theology degree. What struck me most in reading about the church's history is how often we separate personal morality from systemic morality. For example, we're quite happy to shout and yell about what goes on in the bedroom (sexual ethics) and homosexuality but we're often silent on issues of war, poverty, famine and justice. It's interesting to notice how much air time the Civil Unions Bill got in the Baptist (our deniminational newspaper) compared to how much air time the issues in Zimbabwe (or AIDS or Fair Trade or atrocities in Sudan or poverty in Africa or even the G8 summit) got. There were pages and pages of debate on the Civil Unions and our silence screamed on these other issues. When we turn to look at Jesus we find that he said a little bit about sex and nothing explicitly about homosexuality! And this was in a culture where homosexuality was rife and would make our society today look very Victorian! On the other hand, Jesus' favourite topic was the Kingdom of God and he spoke most about poverty and money. Now, I don't want to open up the can of worms that surrounds homosexuality but I do want us to consider the fact that often what's important to us wasn't important to Jesus and what was important to Jesus sometimes isn't important to us. Perhaps this Lenten season part of us realigning ourselves with God's purposes means realigning what's important to us with what's important to Jesus. Any thoughts? And especially any thoughts on how we might support the poor and needy - those who are found wanting.

This week's sermon text is Lk. 10:38-42 - the story of Mary and Martha. We have to be a bit careful about how we make sense of this passage. It seems to me that Martha gets a rough deal. She slaves away for Jesus in the kitchen, preparing a, no doubt, fantastic meal that would've taken hours to prepare and Jesus seems to tell her it's not good enough. Does Jesus want us to let the dishes pile up so we can all sit starry eyed at his feet? If I was Martha, I think I'd be banging the pots together and making as much noise as I could in the kitchen to give Mary the hint to get up off her backside and come and give me a hand in the kitchen as well!! Fred Craddock says "if we condemn Martha too harshly she may abandon serving altogether. If we commend Mary too profusely she may sit there forever!"

What strikes me as important is asking what is Martha's point of reference. When Martha speaks she reveals where her interests lie: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me." Martha is anxious to get Jesus to help her achieve her goals. Martha tells Jesus what she wants him to say whereas Mary sits at Jesus' feet listening to what he does have to say. It's interesting to compare Martha's request with Jesus' request of God in Gethsemane. "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done". But is this still condemning Martha too harshly?