5 Tips For Attending a Baptist Church Without Embarrassing Yours

 From Andrew Jones at Tallskinnykiwi.

This morning we are at Bromley Baptist Church in London. Apart from a visit to the Met Tab, the last time I went to a London Baptist church was in 2004 and I wrote up a few guidelines on not getting embarrassed at a Baptist Church. Here are a few of them.

1. Sit in the back. You have no right to be in the front seat unless you are a penitent sinner, the preacher, a deacon getting ready to serve communion, an underground charismatic who is starting a revolution by waving their arms during worship, or a breast-feeding mother. If you are none of these, and if you dont want to be caught out sitting and standing at all the wrong moments, stay in the back where you will avoid embarrassment.

2. Dress smart-casual, even if you usually dont. If you dress too formal, they will assume you are Catholic or a novice, or someone vying for attention. If you dress too shabbily, you will attract the attention of the volunteer outreach program staff who assume you are homeless. If you wear Eastern fabrics, or wear a Marilyn Manson T-shirt, or have any pagan symbols, you will get special attention from the welcome committee and evangelism department who assume you are having your first church experience. However, you might get special treatment and thats not all bad. So do go casual and you will not feel like a dork. Instead, they will assume you are a church goer just like them. Jeans are OK in most baptist churches. So put your piercings back in. Trust me.

3. Be semi-somber when you pray. Unlike emerging or alternative worship churches, you should be happy when you arrive and somber when you pray. Not Anglican hard-core somber. More like a semi-somber, a soft-somber, with no facial contortion, lest you look too spiritual. And if there is an open prayer time during the service, which there sometimes is, don't go King James or retro-Shakespeare on them (novice giveaway) but stay smart casual (like the clothing) and keep it on the healthy somber tone of voice. But don't go too far on the casual side either . . dont start telling God your latest joke . . and don't go asking Him for His.

4. Sing softly and hang back a beat or two. It looks weird if you dont sing but dont worry - its easy - the words are usually projected on the wall and the music is predictable for the most part. No one will notice that you are not familiar with the songs and mouthing the words in time is a cinch. Also, hang back a beat or two on the songs. There are one or two choruses where everyone sings on the off-beat immediately AFTER the beat which is precisely the embarrassing moment newcomers make themselves known by being the only ones not singing on cue. And if you sing softly, you might even get away with botching up the songs. I know I do.

5. Follow others and do what they do. If someone sings a solo on stage or does something creative, don't be the first to clap and cheer and wolf-whistle - usually, there is no applause at the end, just a small appreciative smile or nod, You will also notice that people are not tipping the preacher or stage-diving during worship or opening a can of beer. Unless it is an emerging Baptist church but thats another story. Again, watch other people from the back and stay 2-3 seconds behind them, and I give you my word, you will never embarrass yourself in a Baptist church.

Waves

Sometimes we get caught in a rip, and we are dragged out to sea. We deal with the hard hitting waves, and we do not know if we can get back to shore. The reason we got stuck in the rip was we didn't look out and check the the area for rips, or out of plain stupidity. We tried to get out of the rip, but we struggled against it rather than waited for the current to subside or travel the corner.

Stuck in the waves of the open sea, everything can feel helpless.

I have had one of those weeks, I have just felt like I'm being crashed over waves and feel hopeless. Momentum has been hard to acheive in my major projects, and in many areas of life. I have been struggling with momentum with writing this blog, and have felt that the posts I have written this week have been half baked.

In these moments I realise I need to seek clarity, which can be hard when you are choking from the waves, but it is needed. Finding up in these moments can be difficult. Pray as I move forward in to the end of this. Pray for clarity.

A Slave to Public Opinion. False Redemption and a Jury of Peers

This is an article by the very talented writer Donald Millar, I hope you enjoy. We will be back with our regularly scheduled programming soon, I don't think it will be as good as this.

Not long ago I was having a conversation with a friend who happened to be a Christian. My friend is a writer, and a very smart man. During the conversation, I noticed he kept explaining why he was right. I wanted to test him a bit, I suppose, so I asked him a hard question, essentially, seeing if he would be vulnerable and admit he was human and made mistakes. My friend looked uncomfortable and answered the question carefully, with just enough self-deprecation to get around looking self-righteous, but very quick to explain why he technically had never struggled with the issue at hand. After about an hour of this, I looked at my friend and told him he sounded like a tortured soul. I was being kind. Honestly, my friend sounded like a slave. And not a slave to God, a slave to public opinion, specifically, Christian public opinion. He had replaced Jesus with a jury of his peers, and he lived his life to make a case for that jury as to why he was a Godly man.


To be fair, my friend is a very moral man. And to be even more fair, I am being judgmental, to some degree, not because I am saying he has a false God, (there is nothing judgmental about making an observation) but because I honestly respect him a little less. He seems spiritually and emotionally unhealthy.
The truth is, there is one judge, and God does not look around to your friends to ask their opinions.

We were designed so our identity would be affirmed in a relationship with God. In other words, my feelings of self worth do not come from within me, they come from an external source. That source was supposed to be God. But in the fall of man, that relationship was severed (it had to be as God could not mix or mingle with anything opposing him, not because He is a jerk, but because He actually defines what is good in the first place) and so after the fall, we continue to look for affirmation from an outside source, and that source is each other.

All you have to do is turn on your television to see this. People sing to get others to clap, they act, play sports, spend millions on plastic surgery and so on and so on. We learn from an early age that people will affirm us if we are funny or smart or submissive or controlling. Our entire personality developed because these dynamics are in play.

That said, in Christian circles, the whole game gets confusing. Christians rightly affirm Godliness, theological accuracy, Biblical literacy, morality and zeal. So the Christian learns from an early age that if he has these characteristics, a jury of his peers will affirm him. And as well they should. But the problem comes when the opinion of the jury replaces the redemption we find in God. I once confronted this same friend about a wrong he had committed, and he became intense and angry. To him, I was threatening his very survival, his ace card (morality and righteousness) in the game. If his redemption would have come from Christ, he could see himself more objectively. But instead, he was a slave to the jury of peers.

This morning I was reading in Matthew, going back over the account of the birth of Christ. I just loved how God did not seem to care what religious people thought of Him, or, for that matter, His own children. The scriptures say Mary became pregnant while engaged, but not married to, Joseph. Now this happened because Mary needed to be a virgin, to fulfill prophecy but also that the birth would be a true miracle and an unquestionable seed from God Himself. That said, though, she was, in todays language, a knocked up unwed woman. Even Joseph wanted out of the whole situation. And he wanted out because he was a righteous man, who bowed to a jury of his peers. It took an angel of the Lord to talk Joseph into going through with the wedding.

So my question to you is, are you a slave to a jury of your peers? Do you always have to explain why you are right? How much do you care what religious people think of you? When somebody else is wrong, do you jump in quickly to tell them so, making yourself feel righteous? My answer to these questions is yes, I do. Doesn’t that stink?

This is all a question of motives, I realize. Nobody is condoning sin, or saying to revolt against religious people. That said, I think we would be a bit more emotionally stable to understand self-righteousness gets us nowhere, and the jury of our peers is neither an accurate or authoritative judge. It really is a waste of your time to defend yourself to anybody but God Himself. And it’s even more of a waste of time to claim any defense other than Christ crucified.

Imagine the time and energy we would save if we actually believed this to be true.

Slicing your thumb makes you think

I was making breakfast this morning and I managed to slice my thumb pretty bad this morning. This comes from the fact that I am a clutz, particularly in the kitchen, and I was still half a sleep. I basically meant that today I was without a thumb. Now whenever I look at my thumb I think that its a pretty ungly part of my anatomy, and that does not do much in the big spare of things. I don't seem to move it much and it seems pretty much a useless big fat blob on my hand compared to the other beautiful skinny fingers on my hand.

But my experience today has taught me other wise, been basically without a thumb I realised that my right hand had been rendered basically useless when it comes to gripping things, because whenever I use my thumb it hurts with pain. I realise that without my thumb, my life is made alot more diffucult.

It is like this with people as well.  They are often servants, helpers who just get on and do things in the background, and do them naturally. They actually really enjoy doing what they do, don't need praise, but will get on and provide the needed support to get things done. When  we lose them from our lives and our communities we realise it is only then we really realise thier worth.

Who is the thumb in your life/ community etc. Recognise and give them thanks for the work they put in and the support they provide. It will make thier day.

conversations with mates

Its interesting how one day of slackness can ruin your flow, can take you down a notch. I blame the fact that I had a crazy weekend, and could not get focus.

I was talkking with and we ended up having a chat about relationships (two of us was were single, one has a girlfreind - so I do not know how educated the conversation could be!) Anyway we were chatting and one of the guys was talking about that fact he has found it hard in his adult hood to develop strong relationships and feels that it is hard to because he is worried he is going to lose them. He holds out the fact that when he gets married this pain may go away.,

I found this hard to listen to. I see relationships in life are essential to our being. I think it is interesting that we often we easily walk with the limp that we have in our life, and we can do it suprisingly well. We do not see that we are living unhealthy lives until the balls are too many and we drop them all.

I recently read the "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. Donald Miller is a bit of a loner, and likes to be alone. He conciously has to choose to live in community, and knows that without community he will become sick from his own selfishness. I know from living in a flat and with others it can be difficult. We can desire our own needs. We think we can live on our own, outside of community. Only to find that we cannot fulfil our potential as humans without it.

I have been thinking alot about community lately. Community is a gift - an ideal that we live up to. It is a cry of many people in our generation to find community. People look for relationship/community through social networking sites, they go to concerts to find comradery with others who have the same taste in music as them (you can find your new best freind for five seconds at that concert). People are craving for identity, longing and a place to call home. We long for it, but find it hard to find in our world.

The promise of the Gospel is that God has called us out of our loneliness, out of our selfishness into a loving community that he has created to bring hope to the world. This community is called the church, the body of Christ.

The Dog Days are Over

I was listening today to Florance and the Machine's "The Dog Days are over." When you first hear the song the experience you get from it is that it is a celebration that something good is around corner. But when  I read the lyrics I found that the song is talking about the inverse of hope, urging the listener to run away from love as it brings hurt and pain.

No matter the meaning of the song I think one of the revolutionary crys of easter is "the dog days' are over. " A joyous cry that the captives are free. That israel is free from exile and God is establishing his kingdom. Gods kingdom is one of peace, joy and freedom. Gods rule will end chaos and establish shalom.

In the story of the Lion the Witch and the wardrobe is a good analogy for this. In the story the white witch is reigning over the kingdom of narnia. Her reign has led to their being  constant winter (without christmas.) Aslan enters in on the stage and the and winter begins to thaw. The power of evil over narnia is ending.

The story of the gospels is similar. With Jesus's ushering in of the kingdom we see Jesus excomunicate demons, heal the lame, give sight to the to the blind, provide food to thousands. All tell us that something was happening. That the end of winter was coming. and the cry is that "The dog days are over."

Fridays

As usual with fridays, I find it pretty hard to put together a coherent sentence. Usually i've been out with mates or I am trying to need out the knots that have developed in my life through the week. Fridays are often a time for the dust to settle from the carnage.

Its been a busy week, and I feel the tiredness settling on me as I write this post, I had a few headaches today and have felt pretty lathargic through the day.

We watched lost today, its the fifth episode of the last season. I'm one of those crazy lost fans, I got past the second series and love the show. I love it for the mystery in the show. Lots of people find it too hard to watch because of the mystery I love it.

I was talking to my mates recently about the fact that I think that mystery is a gift that we can embrace or a gift we decide to ignore. I see it as part of the classic "tension" between pure rationality and pure spiritiuality. Pure spirituality has always lived in mystery, to embrace the spiritual aspect of the world is to embrace mystery (all the religious beleif systems hold on to mystery - with beleifs about the supernatural and the divine), while pure rationality beleives everything can be explained through rational thought, science etc. Max Weber, the classic german sociologist explains rationalisation as the "mastery over mystery."

The tension is shown the story of lost itself, between the Characters Jack Sheppard and John Locke. John Locke comes to the Island as a cripple and is miracourously healed by the Island. Through the story he beleives that he has a fate, and that the Island has an ultimate purpose for him. But he also struggles with doubt in his own abilities and strengths. Jack Sheppard is a surgeon, his goal is to fix people, fix problems, but he can not fix the issues in his own life. He beleives everything is explainable when he comes to the Island.

Through the story we see a constant tension between the John and Jack, with both going there own ways through the story, one to find his purpose, the other to try and define his purpose. In the story though it seems fate may be winning out and free will may not be as much of an option for jack as he first thought.

Lost is a great show as it allows you to ask questions, and go on a journey. One of the great joys with lost now is we are getting answers to the questions - but we are getting more questions and the ride continues. I love mystery, and thats my I enjoy lost.

Lent 9: Sitting at a bar talking about Lent

Nearly every thursday night I hang out with mates, mates mates, aquantances, friends and get to know people over a few beverages and some food. We share jokes, stories of the past week, share general life together. I went up to the bar to ask the bar staff for a sprite, and I got asked for I.D. I was not very happy about this, and went and shared my annoyance at getting asked for I.D for a sprite and some chicken wings.

As the time went on, people around the table learned that I was doing lent, and for lent I had given up alcohol and coffee. People started asking the question, what is lent and what does it mean. I shared that lent is not always about giving up stuff, it may be about taking something on. I also tried to describe how lent is meaningful as it gives people time to reflect on life, how thier tracking. I wanted to describe how Lent can be a very freeing expereince and how it is countercultural.

I understand how foreign the idea of lent seems in our culture. People automatically assume that its difficult, and people wonder why you would make your life more difficult.

The only thing I can relate lent and other spiritual practices to is the practice of keeping your body healthy through exercise. Exercise is painful, if you want to be fit and healthy, you need to give things up (eg. time in your day, maybe unhealthy food) and take up healthy practices (eg. a regular exercise routine, healthier food choices etc.)

Spiritual practices are similar, we give up unhealthy activities (selfishness, unhealthy thoughts, resentment) and take up healthy activities (prayer, focusing on God, generosity, thankfulness.) As we pick up these healthy practices we work towards living a healthier spiritual life.

Lent 8 - Mornings with Mates

Each Wenesday morning, me and a group of a few mates get together for chatter and prayer. We have been doing this for about half a year now and it has been a great experience in the spiritual discipline.

Today we met at rise cafe, I was unusually late for the occassion (I am know for being habitually early to things, which comes from what I beleive is a subconcious fear for being late, but anyways that it a completely different story, which relates to echoes.) Lacey lead us in a time of reflection about where we are at. It was a good time to share our struggles, where we feel we are going in our journey with Mosaic and the state of play of the year.

Two thoughts come from this time: 1. We all need to take time out of our busy weeks to give to God, we are hopeless at silence, for allowing God speak to us. We are battered with noise.

2. What I have discovered in communities of faith, that no matter the number of meetings we hold to figure out what our priorities are for our limited time and resources, it is fruitless without allowing Gods sovereignty reign through prayer. Prayer is the act where humanity realises that we cannot do everything in the world and that its only through Gods grace that we can be agents of change in the world.

I have loved watching how God has worked through prayers over the last year. As we have prayed through the last year, we have seen Mosaic grow and take steps forward. It has been awesome.

I love journeying with Mosaic, its definitely not easy, and it definitely tests me, but the journey brings life.

My Dear Watson

My Dear Watson is a new project from Simon Watson, a musician who plays in the band Jonny and the Dreamboats and my mate Benn Crawford, who is doing promotions and other stuff for the band.

My Dear Watson will be putting out a song a week over the coming months. If you are a fan of good Wellington music, join the mailing list on My Dear Watson's site.

Creativity in Scarcity

We recently had a financial crisis at my flat (aka "Area 51.") Basically we were at a point where we had very little money, and had to cut down our outgoings so that flat and learn some fiscal responsiblity quickly.

I innitiated my own personal policy of doing classic "Pantry cooking". What I found fascinating, is that through the experience, it spurred my creative spirit in cooking. I went and tried out ideas, and thought about how to put flavours together to creative a tasty dish.

Some of my friends are fans of the show Project Runway. My favourite part of this show is where the designers have to design something out of a random material. I love watching the creative process (the drama that unfolds on screen) and the creations they come up with.

A couple of weeks ago, me and my mates got to Mosaic to set up the area. Due to being a little bit out of practice, we had forgotten to bring a few peices of furniture. We decided to change it up for the night and use the peices of equipment and create a environment that people enjoyed. Erwin McManus tells the a similar (and better story of how one day they found out they could not use thier building at short notice, and they had a group coming from Saddleback church to check out how Mosaic "did church." A group huddled in a corner talking through ideas. His son wanted to be involved in the think tank. What Erwin found is that Aaron, his son came alive in problem solving, creating, and innovating.

What I find amazing is humanties God given ability to create and create things which are good and pleasurable and in the end give pleasure to humanity but also show Gods character. It seems that humanity comes alive when it is given the chance to create. Creating pleasurable food for my flatmates, for example to me is is an act of service, is hospitable, and for me fun.

The Canvas

I got given a canvas today, it is empty. I have a paint brush, some paint, and my dreams.

Today I was talking to my mate Benn about the need for a new project. You see, as a person, I am easily restless. I get bored pretty easily and need new things to stimulate me and get my focus. Benn is one of the great people to have in your life as he thinks strategically and can show you something that needs to be done. I find it hard often to start things, I have been given the ability to finish (I got given acheiver as one of my strengths, but for some annoying reason I was not given something like activator to help me start things.

He showed me an area where I can start helping the community and prepare some material for. The world is my canvas, I can use my passions and my strengths to paint that canvas anyway I like to help grow my community and expand its horizons.

Defrag for the soul

If you know a little about computers you will know that you are meant to defrag them every couple of months. Defrag is when you allow your computer to put the files all back in order in your hard drive and clean up the mess that you allow to accumulate when you delete, add, remove files. It gets rid of useless files and gaps and essentially makes your hard drive go alot faster.

My room is often a mess, it reflects thae fack that I lead a busy life. In my comings and goings I create piles of stuff that some time I will come back to and have a look at when it seems neccessary. This can often lead to me living a pretty chaotic life, trying to find things in the piles I have created. I actually have a lot of useful things in these piles, I just do not know where they are in the piles. When I clear these piles I find mess and clean it up but I also find things that can be reused in my life. I know in my life I need to slow down and take time out, so that I can clean up the messes. I am not well practiced at this though (I'm dispairing as I look at my room!)

The sabbath to me is a defrag time. A time created for man to slow down, take in the moment, reflect on where he is, the useful tools God has given him, and the mess that he needs to work on his life. God created sabbath as a gift for humanity. Rest is essential, it helps us recover, heal from woulds, and refocus our energies and refocus on the vision going forward.

I often don't take sabbath on sunday, I can not with the busy life I live in my community. But I have to find time to take to rest, refocus, and spend recovering and focusing on the one who created me and is making me whole.

Lent - Reflection No. 4 - the journey is so much easier with fellow journeyers

My mate justin invited me out on a walk today. Its one of wellingtons many public walkways created by the council to give you an greater appreciation for this amazing city (you get to walk along the edge of a golf course in Newtown - a pleasure that would be met with five security guards and dogs in other parts of the world.:

One thing about wellington public walkways, they are not well marked at all. Me and Justin spent a number of times stopping trying to figure out where we were going. We felt that we were lost about 15 times. In many ways I do not think we would of made that trip without each other being there. If it was just me doing the walk, I would of gotten anxious about the fact that we were getting lost and taken the bus home, and Justin would of just got him self lost and no one would of being able to understand his anxious and himself even more lost. We were able to share in the beauty of the moment, and learn valuable lessons of each other on the journey.

One of my favourite stories is the story of the Lord of the Rings - for two reasons. The story of freindship between Frodo and Sam, and the story of comradery of the fellowship. The Fellowship all have a mission, that is to save middle earth from Sauron and destroy the ring. Thier mission gells them together even though they go off and fight the enemy all across middle earth. Their faith that frodo and sam will make it leads them to have hope that they can defeat Sauron.

Then there is Frodo and Sam, Frodo relys on his freind sam to get him through the hard times as he gets weighed down by the burden he carries. Sam literally carries him at the end to help them reach the final goal.

Me and Justin had a great time today, sharing stories, sharing where we are struggling in the journey. I have learned in my time in Mosaic that we need people to give us strengh on the mission we are on. Passion can bring you only part of the way, you need freinds to cheer you on, comrades to be part of the charge. While as individuals we can do great things, as communities of people, we can create movements of change, real change. Passion is fired up when we work with others.

lent is countercultural

Me and my mates went out to dinner tonight at an amazing Italian Restuarant today. What was bad for me was that I missed out on amazing wine and great coffee. As we were sitting there I felt like I was missing out.

It is interesting to limit your choice when there are array of choices. Our whole consumer driven world is driven by the fact that you have choice and freedom to make choices to enhance your happiness. We are driven by the need for instant gratification. By foregoing our choice and being self-discuplined, we are being counter-cultural in this day and age.

Lent reflection no.2 - Preperation

I am flying to Tauranga as I write this reflection. Getting ready to go into two meetings that I have been preparing for about two weeks.

Preperation for me often comes with alot of anxiety, some excitement, and hope that i will achieve the goal that I have sent.

Lent is a time of preperation. The act on the cross (both Jesus' death and ressurection) represent Gods victory over the powers of sin and death.

We see in the scriptures Jesus accted seriously up to the event. In his anxiety he sweated blood asking God the father if there was another way. He prepared his disciples for the event that was to unfold in front of them through the last supper and asking Peter and John to pray with him at gasemene.

This is a season of preparation, take in the experience.

Confessions....

This is my first post of reflections from the season of lent, and appropriately I want to talk about confession.

Confession to me is a form of spiritual detox. We allow bad tanons to build up in our souls. These poisons take hold and become natural. Confession is a time when we realise that these toxins are hurting our system, and we detox from them. This naturally means that the season can be painful, we have to focus on new practices and new ways of living (our 12 steps to healthy living.)

Confession has often been seen as a hard idea and a hard discipline. It can be seen as about guilt and shame. But it is essential for new life, giving up the old and living in the new. Its an important part of continuing to tune up for ourselves.

So I have confessions.

Lord I confess that I often rely on myself, my own energies rather than you.
Lord I confess that I often put myself before others and my own agenda before yours.
Lord I confess that I often let fear get the better of me, holding me back from wholeness.
Lord I confess that I often forget to listen to you and to those you surround me with.
Lord I confess that I often live out of the lie of the primacy of the individual and forget that you have made me to live a live that sacrifices my own desires for the better of others.
Lord I confess I often live in the lie of consumerism.
Lord I confess that I forget the needy, the brokenhearted and the lonely.
Lord I confess that it is only in you that I can be made whole.

hey what if you...

My buddy Justin Blass has set up a little social experiment coinciding with Lent. He is seeing what happens when he drinks a guinness a day. Now normally you would expect that a person who drinks a guinness a day will develop a beer gut. But my mate has trouble assorbing fat (he is slim as!) Anyway you can follow him here.

I'm heading out to Mosaic Community Gathering, leading a time around ash wenesday. Will blog my reflections on the day later.

Lent - the beginning

For people who do not know Lent starts tomorrow. Lent is the 40 days (technically 40 days, including weekend!) leading up to up to the climax of easter. The season of easter is a time for Christians to focus on prayor, confession, giving and self - denial.

Many christians today throughout the many traditions recognise this season by giving up something (such as a particular activity, item of food) or by giving away money to people in need.

As part of this season, I will be doing three main activities.

• I will be giving up coffee, v, and coke for 40 days;
• I will be giving up alcohol; and
• I will be doing blogs reflecting on the days leading up to Easter.

At this moment of time I have a bit of nervousness regarding this whole activity leading up to easter, particularly worried about what the effect of giving up coffee will be for me over the coming weeks.

Look forward to sharing reflections with you.

New Orleans Communita's in Haiti

This is a blog post from Mike Brantley, a freind of mine who has been setting up a community in Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. He and four others are heading off to help Haiti to be part of the releif effort that is occuring. Pray for Mike, his family, his crews family and thier community as they offer support. Pray for Haiti in this time. If you want to know further information about what they are doing in Haiti, check out Mikes blog - www.out-on-a-limb.blogspot.com


Dear Friends and Family,

If you're reading this, you support us here in New Orleans, or pray for us, for are friends, family and those in our lives here. Due to time constraints, we're sending a mass email to all of you. So here goes...

We're deploying four of our team/community here in New Orleans to Haiti in 24 hours.

Why: You've seen the news - 200K dead and climbing. There are 20K/day dying from injuries, infection, etc.
How: We got a call from a sister team/community in Miami. They were approached by people in Haiti and The Dominican Republic to help. Our team there has been able to get in a couple of convoys of fuel to two field hospitals on the verge of running out of fuel for their generators. But the needs are so immense they need more boots on the ground.

BUT it got the attention of the UN and the US Army's 82d Airborne Division. The Army is supplying security and the UN is looking for fuel trucks.

What: We're going to establish a marshaling point, hopefully a warehouse. From there, some people can purchase supplies (Medical, Rx, Food, Water and Fuel). We'll then convoy it and while they are gone, begin marshaling supplies for the next run. The convoy will make the 12 hour trip to Port au Prince, and drop it to a distribution point we're setting up. We expect a couple of us to be in Port-au-Prince running that site.

Expect Chad and Kyle to be in Santiago operating the logistics point and Adam and I in Haiti (for the French speaking and liaising with the US Army). BUT that can change when we hit the ground. We could all four end up in the Haiti distribution point. We'll see!

Tonight, we spent several hours getting poked with the tropic regimen for deployment to a disaster zone... Ouch! Sore! Now it's time to wash, pack and get ready to go.

When: We deploy Friday 22nd, and return a month to six weeks later. For many, this will be huge. For our own families, for our work here in New Orleans and for the kids we coach...

...Look, we don't really "want" to go. We have lives here, families and responsibilities. Yet, the need is compelling and our Miami team is begging us for help. This is what we're about - Christ with flesh here and now. We don't feel like heroes or special. We don't know what to expect. We simply got a phone call. Your friendship and support is so appreciated. Your prayers are coveted.


Love always,
Mike Brantley

Photos from St Arnaud

As promised, I have a few photo's from my time down in Nelson Lakes. As usual, I'm running late on that promise
Dawn at Coldwater hut, if this hut wasn't in a national park it would be prime real estate for an expensive batch.
Sabrina (Left) and Marina (Right) after we crossed the swing bridge.

Another Picture from coldwater hut.



Lake Rotoiti (St Arnaud)


Me looking adventurous before heading off on the tramp.

Haiti - part 3

Haiti destabilised before quake

By Patrick Cockburn

The US-run aid effort for Haiti is beginning to look chillingly similar to the criminally slow and disorganised US government support for New Orleans after it was devastated by hurricane Katrina in 2005. Five years ago President Bush was famously mute and detached when the levees broke in Louisiana. By way of contrast, President Obama was promising Haitians that everything would be done for survivors within hours of the calamity.

The rhetoric from Washington has been very different during these two disasters, but the outcome may be much the same. In both cases very little aid arrived at the time it was most needed and, in the case of Port-au-Prince, when people trapped under collapsed buildings were still alive. When foreign rescue teams with heavy lifting gear does come it will be too late. No wonder enraged Haitians are building roadblocks out of rocks and dead bodies haiti destabilised quake natural disasters earthquakes us run aid effort beginning look chillingly similar criminally slow disorganised government support orleans devastated hurricane katrina five years ago president bush famously natural disasters earthquakes us run aid effort beginning look chillingly similar criminally slow disorganised government support orleans devastated hurricane katrina five years ago president bush natural disasters earthquakes us run aid effort beginning look chillingly similar criminally slow disorganised government support orleans devastated hurricane katrina five years ago president bush famously.

In New Orleans and Port-au-Prince there is the same official terror of looting by local people, so the first outside help to arrive is in the shape of armed troops. The US currently has 3,500 soldiers, 2,200 marines and 300 medical personnel on their way to Haiti. Of course there will be looting because, with shops closed or flattened by the quake, this is the only way for people to get food and water. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. I was in Port-au-Prince in 1994, the last time US troops landed there, when local people systematically tore apart police stations, taking wood, pipes and even ripping nails out of the walls. In the police station I was in there were sudden cries of alarm from those looting the top floor as they discovered that they could not get back down to the ground because the entire wooden staircase had been chopped up and stolen I have always liked Haitians for their courage, endurance, dignity and originality. They often manage to avoid despair in the face of the most crushing disasters or any prospect that their lives will get better. Their culture, notably their painting and music, is among the most interesting and vibrant in the world.
So much of the criticism of President Bush has focused on his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that his equally culpable actions in Haiti never attracted condemnation. But if the country is a failed state today, partly run by the UN, in so far as it is run by anybody, then American actions over the years have a lot to do with it.

Haitians are now paying the price for this feeble and corrupt government structure because there is nobody to co-ordinate the most rudimentary relief and rescue efforts. Its weakness is exacerbated because aid has been funnelled through foreign NGOs. A justification for this is that less of the money is likely to be stolen, but this does not mean that much of it reaches the Haitian poor. A sour Haitian joke says that when a Haitian minister skims 15 per cent of aid money it is called "corruption" and when an NGO or aid agency takes 50 per cent it is called "overheads".

Many of the smaller government aid programmes and NGOs are run by able, energetic and selfless people, but others, often the larger ones, are little more than rackets, highly remunerative for those who run them. In Kabul and Baghdad it is astonishing how little the costly endeavours of American aid agencies have accomplished.

"The wastage of aid is sky high," said a former World Bank director in Afghanistan. "There is real looting going on, mostly by private enterprises. It is a scandal." Foreign consultants in Kabul often receive US$250,000 to US$500,000 a year, in a country where 43 per cent of the population try to live on less than a dollar a day.None of this bodes well for Haitians hoping for relief in the short term or a better life in the long one. The only way this will really happen is if the Haitians have a legitimate state capable of providing for the needs of its people. The US military, the UN bureaucracy or foreign NGOs are never going to do this in Haiti or anywhere else.

There is nothing very new in this. Americans often ask why it is that their occupation of Germany and Japan in 1945 succeeded so well but more than half a century later in Iraq and Afghanistan was so disastrous. The answer is that it was not the US but the efficient German and Japanese state machines which restored their countries. Where that machine was weak, as in Italy, the US occupation relied with disastrous results on corrupt and incompetent local elites, much as they do today in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti.

Disaster in Hai calls for our response part 2

Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world and is ranked no 153 on the Human Development index (the lowest ranking in North/Central America). It is paramount that developed wealthy nations help and it is encouraging to see that countries are supporting the aid effort there. We as individuals can help support the aid effort.

There are a number of agencies who have campaigns for aid to Haiti:

The NZ Red Cross

Tear Fund

World Vision

Disaster in Haiti calls for our response

Poverty the root of Haiti's high quake death toll

RICHARD FLEMING

January 14, 2010 - 5:22PM

Last night the Prime Minster of Haiti estimated the death toll of yesterday's earthquake to be more than 100,000. Reports today suggest the death-toll could soon rival that of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.

It is my firm belief that we could have done more to minimise the magnitude of the loss.

Neither you nor I have the ability to play God and predict a quake or even lessen its power but what we do have is the ability to alter the death toll from such a horrific disaster.

More than 78 per cent of Haitians live in poverty, which is defined by the World Bank as living on $US2 per day, and it is these conditions that are responsible for the saddening predictions from the Haitian Prime Minister.

We often hear enormous death tolls coming from natural disasters in countries such as Haiti, India, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, yet we never call into question why this is the case. When we look deeper we see that:

* Japan and California have had much stronger earthquakes in more densely populated areas than the one that hit Port-a-Prince yesterday, yet the death tolls have been relatively minor.

* Last year's floods in North Queensland rose just as much as the heavy flooding seen in India and Bangladesh in 2007, however, few deaths were recorded in Australia compared with more than 2000 deaths in India and Bangladesh.

* The intensity of the droughts in Australia in the past decade has been just as strong as those experienced in Ethiopia two decades ago, but one failed food crop in 1984 led to about 1 million Ethiopians starving to death.

With poverty, comes vulnerability. And nothing exposes the vulnerabilities of people living in poverty more than natural disasters. A Haitian has greater vulnerability in an earthquake as he cannot afford quality housing; a Bangladeshi is vulnerable to flooding due to her family living and farming on flood affected land; and an Ethiopian has no food security to protect his family against a failed crop.

For the Haitian, Bangladeshi, Ethiopian and the other 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty we need to do something. We cannot just come to the aid of countries such as these when a disaster hits.

The solution is not to put a Band-Aid on the symptoms exposed by the disaster, but to fix the root problem – and in Haiti's case it is to alleviate the nation's poverty.

If you're going to take action and lend support to those devastated in the aftermath, please ensure that your money is providing the right kind of support. It is imperative that the needs of the people are met as quickly and effectively as possible and the best way to do this is to place your donations with organisations already working in Haiti, or with community-based organisations that already have teams and infrastructure in place. (See the Global Poverty Project website for effective agencies to donate to).

Please consider one of the following ongoing actions that will allow you to impact the root problem of extreme poverty:

* Join the campaign to see Australia keep its global commitment to provide enough ongoing aid to developing countries.

* Email Australia's aid agency (AusAID) and ask them about the impacts of the aid that they deliver to the poorest and most vulnerable.

* Tell our Trade Minister, Simon Crean, that you want to see a successful end to current trade negotiations, which will benefit not only developing nations, but also Australia.

* Change your consumption habits, buy Fairtrade products that ensure that farmers get a fair price for their product and their families become less vulnerable.

* Learn more about extreme poverty, its causes, effects and solutions.

* And, most importantly, talk about extreme poverty, its issues and what you and your friends can do.

Richard Fleming is Australian general manager of the Global Poverty Project to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action to end extreme poverty.

Fun Times in S.A

St Arnaurd that is. Spent four days down in Nelson Lakes National Park with a couple of mates from my work. The aim of the trip was to do the Traverse-Sabine track (an 80 k track), but due to some issues we didn't get as far as we hoped.

We headed on the first day to John Tait hut, and ended up camping on the flat after one of the swing bridges. It was three guys to a small to person tent. The rain then decided to bucket down on us that evening, so we decided to head back to one of the huts (lakehead hut) to repack and reorganise ourselves. Peter, one of our party decided it was a good idea to go for a dip and ended up getting his pack soaked through. So we decided to dry off at Lakehead hut for the afternoon so we could dry off.

We met up with a number of interesting people. A brilliant young man from the Chezch Republic who was quiet but very nice. Michael, a bird watcher from the states, Melina (from Belgium) and Sabrina (from Germany.) We ended up spending time getting to know this motley crew of fellow travellers. Playing Uno, Scum and other cardgames with them. It was a good time for getting to know some interesting people.

We then headed off the next morning for the Bushline hut with my two mates, and Melina and Sabrina. The plan of attack was to cross the river. This managed to be an adventurous experience for the Crew, and needless to say, peters sleeping bag got wet through again.

We then decided to stop at the Coldwater hut and dry our clothes, our packs, and ourselves. Me, my mate Greg, Melina and Sabrina headed off to the swingbridge. This was a fun time of talking about our respective lifes, discussing our passions and where we were heading in our lives.

We arrived back at the coldwater hut. Where we had dinner and met up with two teachers, these teachers were a real crack up and were taking the Micky out of each other the entire time. We played more cards and hung out with Melina and Sabrina.

The next morning we headed back out to St Arnaud for a good feed and our trip back to nelson. We farewelled the girls - who went up to bushline hut for New Years eve.

If this last year has taught me anything - it is to try new things. I have not done much tramping and want to do more, get fitter and continue to grow my self awareness and reliance.

Photos to come on monday....

Church Online in Real Life

Enyoy

For Everyone Who Has Ever Missed A Deadline...

The Ladder Project - shaping the future

This monday, the ladder project will be holding our final speakers series event.

We will be workshopping two proposals with Paul Vink, a researcher and implementer of development projects. We are hoping that we can crystalise some of the ideas that we have been working on for the last few months and have a real passionate and creative time together.

If you have a passion for changing humanity and a passion for the world around you and want to be inspired about how to change the world, please join us at 8pm at Ramsey House, 8 Kelburn Parade.

Lets get the creative juices flowing, and lets make a difference in this world.

Be the change...

The Ladder Project - Rubber Hits the Road

We met Shirwin from the Phillipines on friday night, and he told some of his story about living in the slums of the Manilla region.

As many of you will know, the Manilla region was hit by a number of Tropical cyclones in the last few weeks. Read some of Shirwins story below.

Sherwin enjoyed his time with the group.

Just to let you know some updates with his situation, that night on Friday as we were heading home he received news that Labas Bakod (the slum he lives in) was set for demolition the next day (Saturday) and people will not be allowed back. He was shell shocked, he so wasn't himself that night and the next morning. He contacted his friend in the council to confirm the news. So 4 days on since the news, the situation at present is that the friend has managed to prevent demolition by force, people in LB will be relocated to an area 2.5hrs away (Laguna) from Metro Manila (which is not ideal for Sherwin and his sibilings who are still studying).

People have till Tuesday (13th) to register to obtain a spot in Laguna, where housing will be a skeleton structure and I suppose people will have to find material to complete it.

Registering in time would mean that people will be allowed to take down their house (or rather what's left of it) where they can use the existing materials to complete the skeleton structure at the relocation. Those who do not register will have their houses demolished for them. Sherwin has told his family to register for a spot in Laguna, but will explore alternatives to continue living in Marikina (for the sake of work and siblings who are at school).

Sherwin's much better now (since receiving the news on Friday night). Last night he was laughing and joking while having dinner with his hosts and myself. Very much himself (well, at least it's the Sherwin I know). God has been encouraging him lots especially yesterday. We hold on to the promise that God works for the good of those who love Him.

Just keep praying for Sherwin as he needs wisdom and strength.

We continue to search for hope, to be the hope, to be the change in the world that people need.

Where am I at?

As another week winds to a close, what a ride, what an adventure, questions providing no answers, answers providing more questions. Learning to live, figuring out how to become, venturing forward in the hope of new horizons, wondering what is around the corner, and enjoying the adventure.

Capital Mosaic

Capital Mosaic is making an important step this week. We are moving into a new venue, New Crossways. Mosaic is now around 30 adults strong and continues to grow its relationships with those around us. This week have been a struggle for a number in the community, and as we go through our personal struggles, we realise that this step is essential to the growth of Mosaic, character wise, faith wise, numerically wise. We continue to play to our strengths and grow.

The Ladder Project

The ladder project is a joy to be part of, it provides many challenges. We have found our stride and are working on fueling the fires for the next steps. This is a real venture into the unknown. We have come with fresh eyes, learned alot and grown in passion. Our group of journeyers has doubled in size and we are figuring out that many can bring new strengths.

Its great to be journeying on a road where you can make signicant change. I think thats a life worth living. A life that Jesus wants us all to find. Do not beleive its easy, but it is good.

Love = Acceptance but can I accept Love?

Love, what is it, so intangible, unexplainable, unknown.

Love is to be known truly, and to be accepted when you are known for your deepest darkest secrets, your highs and your lows, your dreams and your nightmares. Love accepts you and provides true equal opportunity.

Love will sacrifice its time, resources, its all so, you will come to know it truly.

Love transforms a dry parched land, broken and eroded by the passing harsh seasons into a beautful abundant garden with the lushest fruits every know.

If to be love it to be known fully, to be accepted in the knowedge that it knows you, do I have the courage to allow this love to engulf me to transform me into something new, and to journey in the reality of this idea. That I am chosen, no matter what I have done.

Only when we accept love, can we truly know true love, but during this journey, we can pass on the idea of true unbreakable love to those around us who need to know the power of love. As we do this we journey into accepting true love.

The happendedness of the Christ Event

All the world religions have been developed through history in a continuing tradition of rational argument. No religion exists apart from such a historical tradition. And all religions appeal to the authority of great teachers in the past. Nevertheless the distiction is real. The truths which Buddhism teaches would (as Buddhists understand them) be true whether or not Gautama had discovered and promulgated them. But the whole of Christian teaching would fall to the ground if it were the case that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were not events in real history but stories told to illustrate truths which are a valid apart from these happening....

... The issue is this: Is this relationship with God seperate from your involvement in the ongoing life of the world, your family, your neighbourhood, your nation in the family of nations. Or is your relationship with God necessary bound up with your acceptance of the part God assigns for you in his purpose for his world? If the latter is the case, then your relationship with God cannot be seperated from those acts in which God has revealed and effected his purpose for for the world. Your devotion to God will be expressed in and through your involvement with history as you are now part of it. You will understand your own life as part of a story which is not a story made up by you, not just the story of your decisions and actions, but the story which is being enacted under God's creative and providential control in the events of contemporary history.

Lesslie Newbigan - The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society

Loving Like Jesus Loved

I know this feels kind of cliche, but this is where I am at at the moment, hopefully the thoughts may lead to action...

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

Unrelenting love

I could sense very deeply that God wanted a relationship with Laura. Ultimately, I beleive that God wants a relationship with every human being, but with Laura I could feel Gods urgency. Laura, however wanted little to do with it. She never brought up the idea of God, so I didn't either. - Donald Millar - Blue Like Jazz.

I read these words today with a strong sense of conviction. Lying on the ground, soaking in the sun, these words went off like a bomb in my soul. It shocked me to my very core again. God is unrelentently seeking relationship with us. God is seeking to know you, to dance in the dance of life with you once again.

You and I are broken, we seek to live good lives, but our fear, of lack of conviction holds. We seek to be great, but when we look back at the successes they often feel hollow. But, there is a greater plan.

God has been recklessly seeking out humanity. He came into human history 2000 years ago, as a man, Jesus Christ. Lived amongst us, us broken eikons, eating, living, serving, joking, caring, being with Humainity. He showed what it means to be truly human, to be truly love through and through. He would do anything to show that what we thought was living the good life was really not the good life but was just a bad imitation, a scribble compared to the great movie in vivid colours that we were meant to live in. He showed that we are to love and serve everyone, no matter thier convictions, no matter thier past actions. He showed that God loves everyone, no matter thier convictions, no matter thier action and wants to know them know matter what the cost.

Jesus showed that God loves all, and is passionately wanting to know you by going through severe beating, being spat on, becoming the most despised, and slowing aspixiating on a Cross so that you may come to know him and live a life of joy, grace, peace, wholeness.

God loves you, what are you going to do about it? God loves you, what am I going to do about it?

Posts with the Most

My good mate Benn has a great post on how to live a life in search of God given dreams and aspirations that you should read and my mate Justin has a great poem posted on his blog. Both these guys are much better writers and thinkers then me.

The Journey up the Ladder

I recently heard my mate Justin speak about the process of learning, and how it is as important as the destination of our journey. He talked about how we often we fail to go after something because of our lack of character and our inability to man up.

We also forget the joy of the journey, and to fail to stop in the moment and take in what we are to learn from this occassion.

At the moment, me and a group of other four mates are on a journey of discovery. We have a lofty goal. We want to find the best wheel at tackling poverty. The last few months have been a journey first of all is problem definition. We have had to define poverty, and at the moment we are defining just where we should help and what we should do. We have gone up some of the rungs and can see a larger horizon, the climb is still far, but it is teaching us a lot.

Then there is our speaker series, where we have had to figure out the best ways to promote and get people along to the events we are holding. We have made mistakes on the way, the most memorable was that we did not organise a sign up sheet so we could communicate with those who wanted to be connected with us.

The journey is long, but as we go along, we are learning more about each other, growing in community and in passion for what we are doing. I can not wait to see what we do, whatever it is.

Twitter

I have finally given in and set up a twitter. This is because I naturally say what I think in short sharp bursts and I have lost the ability to write in long boring prose.

Anyway my twitter is http://twitter.com/Nathanael_Baker and the R.S.S feed is http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/70362211.rss. I have put a feed up on the blog so you can follow my wise and unwise thoughts online.

Lauryn Hill on The Gospel and her Journey

One of the little gems in my music collection is the Lauryn Hill MTV Unpluged. The album is basically the story of her struggle with fame and the music industry and her discovery of herself and God.

Listen to this interlude...

District 9 Preview

I went to the preview screening of district 9 tonight. This is Peter Jackson's latest production, done alongside rookie director Neill Bloomkamp. This film is the brainchild of Neill Bloomkamp, who was given the chance to direct the film alongside Jackson after thier joint Halo film project failed to receive major backing.

The premise of the film is that a alien spaceship entered the earths athmosphere 28 years ago at Johanasberg. These aliens have become refugees in a slum called district 9 and most if not all humans see these refugees as unwelcome guests.

The film is set both as documentary and home video and is very intense. This is created through the use of handy cam and fast camera changes.

Stand out role goes to the actor Shartlo Copley, who had never acted in a major role.

This film is likely to become a major cult classic in the next few years but may not gain the same major popular appeal as other films by Jackson. The film also highlights Jacksons courage and ability to back other budding directors and fund projects which are high risk.

Coincidentally, Peter Jackson made an appearance at the beginning of the film to thank those who had come and seen the premier. Awesome to see him take the time to come and thank the fans and supporters of his work!

The next rung on the ladder

The Ladder Project has its next speaker series event on Monday 17 August, at Ramsey House, 8 Kelburn Parade. Cara Bentley is speaking at this event. Shew is a Development researcher. Her topic is "Below the surface: History of Povery in Southeast Asia."

If you want any more information contact ladderproject@gmail.com or go to the ladder project.

The Violinist

One day in the dingy New York underground. A lone busker, dressed in jeans and talked walked and set up his gear. He placed down his old shabby violin case and took out his precious possession to start and play.

He began playing, in anticipation of the passers by. Playing for the passion of playing, playing for someone who may appreciate. People walked by. After the 15 minues he had collected a few small coins a the moments notice of a couple of people. In the next 15 minutes, a parent with her unassuming child walked through. The child listened and was caught up, they wanted to stop. The parent, stressed by the fact she was running late and had a board meeting pulled the kid by her hands, tearing the kid from the magnetic hold of the music.

Other uassuming kids tried to stop their parents from filling their daily working grind. They wanted to listen to what impacted their imaginations, that made them dance, rather than pound the pave way with their busy overworked parents.

At the end of the 45, the man had collected 35 dollars and 7 steers from individuals.

This man was Joshua Bell, an award winning violinist, who playing one of his most celebrated pieces.

How often do we miss the beautiful because we are focused on the mundane?

How often do we miss focusing on what is beautiful because we fail to stop and listen?

H.T: Rob Bell

Ben Thirkell White - speaker series

Join Us 8PM Monday, 20 JULY @ the Ramsey House (located at 8 Kelburn Parade) to hear the first speaker, Ben Thirkell-White as he helps us enter into the conversation of poverty and development. Ben Thirkell-White is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria. His research is about development finance, with a particular focus on the politics of World Bank and IMF policy. He has written one book about the IMF and Southeast Asia and is just completing another about the international politics of poverty policy. He’s done a little volunteer work on development projects in Southern Africa and has been teaching development for over ten years.

For more information, check out The Ladder Project

The Ladder Project - Speaker Series

The Ladder Project Speaker series is all go - these are being help at Ramsey House, 8 Kelburn Parade Wellington at 8 pm (except for Andew McGregor, which will start at 7.30 that night.)

The Dates and Speakers are:

Monday, July 20
Ben Thirkell-White; Academic Staff, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Humanities and Social Sciences (yeah don't know if we need all that)
Speaking on poverty & development.

Monday, August 17
Carla Bently; Community Trust worker, development reseracher.
Speaking on the history of poverty in Southeast Asia.

Monday, September 21
Andrew McGregor; Senior Lecturer, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences; just published book on Development in Asia
Speaking on the cultural stories in Southeast Asia.

Monday, October 19
Paul Vink; Developer, Investor.
Sspeaking on his practices and workshop for us to work on our project.

More to come...

The Ladder Part 2- Follow our Journey

Me and a group of co-conspirators have a project that we would like you to join - its called the Ladder. We are aiming to attack poverty in Southeast Asia (Defined as India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Mayanmar/Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia). After working with poor and abandoned kids in an orphanage outside Addis Ababa for three months, Demelza Woolston came back to New Zealand exhausted but inspired. Her stories, told via blog and Mosaic Community shared meals combined with Mosaic’s own ethics pushed us to start a process of discovery and response in the area of poverty, orphaning, and people trafficking.

Our aim is that our group can find the best solution to poverty. We are inspired by movements such as Toms Shoes and the Clapham Sect.

Join us as we journey. We will be holding a speakers series in the next semester at Victoria University.

Take up the challenge: Be the Change in this world

The Ladder

The Ladder is a project of a group of Wellington friends who were inspired by a fellow sojourner who went to ethiopia to serve orphan kids for three months. The stories could not be ignored, we have been spurred into a need for action, because we hear the cries of humanity. You can follow our journey of discovery, action and formation at the Ladder.

The story we find ourselves

The story of humanity is fraught, we live in a world where hopelessness seems to overpower light, where pain seems to overpower joy. We understand that a story has been playing out for generations, but we see hope, a light over the horizon. We want to be part of bringing hope, bringing life to our world.

Follow the journey...

Response to Mark Sayers

I posted Mark Sayers blog yesterday on the Missional movement and where we are at with the whole emerging missional church.

My Journey to the emerging missional church movement

I have personally been on the journey into the missional church since 2005. I went through a period of time looking at the way I was living and realising that it was not what I thought it was. I realised I was basically a hyprocrite putting up visades and living a double life. I realised that during this time I wasn't following the basic creeds of Christ, but living in a system that was focused on keeping myself safe and happy without needing to change and grow.

During this time I basically dismantled what I knew about God, the Church, and living the christian life. This was done at the same time as doing study of Jesus and Paul at university.

The first person I was introduced within the emerging missional church was the controversial figure of Mr Brian McClaren - reading through his book generous orthodoxy - this book introduced me to ideas that were seen as dangerous in communities that saw black and white as the ideal.

I spent a lot of the next year thinking about what it meant to be a christian, trying to figure it out on my own accord - and with some help from others. I became quite disconnected from what I communities I once found safety and found a home (this wasn't the fault of the communities - but a result of me stepping back and questioning much of what I had once thought was the only way to do things.)

During this time I was introduced to Neo-calvinist Mark Driscoll. I have always had a love-hate relationship with Driscoll. I respect his stand and that he wont budge but disagree with him on a number of issues. I respect Mark Driscoll because he puts his money (and his churches money) where his mouth is and is developing churches. I don't think his model is the only way to do church - but see that the Acts 29 movement is going to have a big impact on the Church. I

I have also spent a lot of time being influence by the Neo-Monastics - I love the Neo-Monastics - again they sincerely put thier money where thier mouth is and are doing a lot of good around the world. One thing I find though with Neo-Monastics is that they are highly idealistic - because they are prophetic in nature they can be quite hard to deal with if you are a middle class christian. They often get ridden of as not understanding the complexities of life and are seen as needing to grow up and get a real job.

But I think Neo-Monastics have real guts. Living in community as they do is hard going and challenging. I have good freinds within monastic communities and think they are a healthy aspect of the church. Plus I was quite close to wanting to get involved in Urban vision for a while.

I was introduced to the Neo-Missiologists by a freind of mine Mike Brantley in the states. The whole story of my journey has been about distilling the Christian faith back to the essentials - that is that we are to be spurred into mission by love, living by faith and being a force of hope in a broken and desperate world. This has shaped my view that structure doesn't matter - all that matters is the message of the Gospel - and that is simple - God is missional - he loves and wants to restore relationship with his creation. He showed his love by sending his son to earth, to show a new way of living, a whole way of living, then his son went against evil, was sent to death on a roman cross, the rose again in victory over sin and death. Through because of this we can live healed lives.

Neo-Missiologists way is simple - boiling it down to bear essentials - its about living in proximaty with broken people, being a presence of hope and love like Jesus was and proclaiming that love by our words and deeds. I would probrably say that I'm closest to this school of thought.

I have a lot of time for the blenders - these guys are attually pretty amazing. They have alot of patience with a whole lot of people who have differing opinions. Erwin McManus has an awesome ability to view future trends and develop healthy community, and this has been shown by Mosaic LA. Dan Kimball is a traditional evangelical but has such a heart for reaching the lost in ways that people can understand - and is able to communicate these ways.

How is the emerging missional church shaping up in New Zealand

The emerging missional church is still small and only taking shape in New Zealand and because of this isn't as fractured as in the states. My main concern is to see the Church as an agent of hope in New Zealand, showing people that God cares for them.

The state of the emerging mission church movement... oh movements!

This is a cool post from Mark Sayers - If I get time I will comment on it.

I just finished reading Alistair McGrath’s fantastic history of protestantism Christianity’s Dangerous Idea. It’s interesting how when the Reformation began, Protestantism united itself against what it saw as its binary opposite, Catholicism, but as time passed, Protestantism began to split into various movements and factions (eg Calvinist, Anabaptist, Anglican, Congregationalist etc), overtime these groups began to define themselves against each other rather than against the perceived enemy of the time, Rome.

The history of protestantism is a classic example of movement dynamics. Dissatisfaction creates a ground swell of support against a perceived problem, injustice or enemy. This ground swell coalesces into a movement; at first the movement’s energy and internal dialogue is centered around defining itself against the common enemy. But then as time passes the internal dialogue of the movement begins to shift away from ‘defining against’ to ‘defining itself’. Then the conversation changes and people inside the solidfying movement begin to discover that although they are united in their distaste of their ‘enemy’ there is much that they disagree with each other over. Then tensions and differences arise, fractures are followed by factions, and the new movement breaks up. (For another historical example of this check out the French revolution.)

The emerging missional church seems to be following a very similar path, having seemingly fractured into multiple movements. In the early days it could define itself against the perceived enemy ‘the mainstream church”.The problem was that whilst everyone agreed that something new and different must be birthed that is in contrast to the ‘mainstream church’, many had differeing definitions of what ‘mainstream church’ was. For some it was large mega churches who had seemed to have capitulated to consumer culture, for others it was irrelevant, overly traditional mainline churches, for others it was churches that were too theologically conservative, but others were rebelling against what they saw as a mainstream church that was made impotent by liberal theology. Some saw the task as being centered around creating a contextually appropriate church for post-modern people in contrast to the ‘mainstream church’ which was perceived as being too closely wedded to ‘modernity’.

Many in the United States saw the enemy as the conservative Evangelical ‘religious right’, whereas some in the UK saw themselves creating something fresh and culturally relevant in contrast to the perceived irrelevance of many Anglican parishes. For some the problem with mainstream church was it’s politics, for others it was a lack of genuine mission. So as time went on and as conversations went deeper, many in the emerging missional movement found that they were more divided than they realised. For a while a sense of tribalism and common cultural interests seemed to hold these divisions at bay. But then things started to get weirder as something unexpected happened. Not all, but many institutions, leaders, and churches that had been labelled ‘mainstream church’ by the new movement began to listen to, converse with and imitate the emerging missional movement.

Justice went from being a sidelined issue to one of the hottest causes in many mainstream churches. Books like Blue like Jazz , the Shack and The Irresistible Revolution, which most likely if had been released ten or even five years earlier, would have only been read by a small amount of readers within the emerging missional movement, began to sell by the container ship load, and most of the readers were from ‘outside’ the movement. The line between mainstream church and the emerging missional church had become very blurred.

Inevitably the movement began to fracture and I believe now has broken up into a number of mini movements. Here is my rudimentary attempt to name and describe some of them.

Neo-Anabaptists: Some have called this movement the new monastics, which is quite a helpful term, but I think that a more accurate description would be Neo-Anabaptists, as this group is shaped by the ethos of the Anabaptist movement. This movement tends to be pacifist, favours incarnational living amongst the urban poor, and has a strong distrust of power, sees contemporary Western Culture and Society as being controlled by “Empire” and thus favours an approach of prophetic action by small grassroots Christian communities.I would also place in this group the growing Christian-Anarchist movement in Australia and New Zealand. This group tends also to be strongly influenced by the Catholic Worker Movement started by Dorothy Day. A key leader in this movement would be Shane Claibourne. Key books The Irresistible Revolution. The New Conspirators by Tom Sine.

Neo- Calvinists: This group puts an emerging spin on classic Calvinism. This group views reformed theology as way out of the morally relevatist mess created by postmodernity. Whereas aditional Reformed theology viewed gifts of the spirit with suspicion, the new calvinism tends to have a charismatic edge. The neo-Calvinists also in contrast to early Calvinism, place a high emphasis on mission, and thus have begun a number of church planting efforts. Key Leaders in this movement, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller.

Neo-Missiologists: This group are in many ways the heirs to the church growth movement created by Donald McGavern, a returned missionary who advocated a missional approach to the West. However whereas church growth was influenced by the mechanistic leadership, marketing and organising techniques of the corporate world, the new missiologists borrow instead from the organic models found in nature. Building on the work of Christian Schwarz this group favours small simple highly reproducible forms of church. This group is also highly influenced by the missiology of Leslie Newbiggin and Paul Hiebert and favours an incarnational mode of church, that is not ‘attractional’ but rather missional. This group also borrows some of its eccleisiology from House Church theorists and practitioners such as Robert Banks and Wolfgang Simson. Thus many label this movement ‘missional’. Key leaders Neil Cole and Wolfgang Simpson and Frank Viola. Key books the Forgotten Ways, Pagan Christianity and The Organic Church.

Neo-Clapham’s: A strange name yes but I think a descriptive one as this group tends to be influenced by the ideas of William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect. Whilst this movement is technically not concerend with ‘church’, one cannot underestimate its effect upon the contemporary church, and the lives of christian young adults. Whilst just as passionate about justice as the Neo-Anabaptists, the Neo-Clapham’s tend to take a very different approach. Whereas the Neo-Anabaptists tend to favour an approach which is local, grassroots and suspicious of larger institutions, the Neo-Clapham’s take an approach that is global, large scale and campaign driven.In contrast to the Neo-Anabaptist’s, this group are less suspicious of power and thus work closely or within corporations, governments, the Entertainment industry, NGO’s and denominations. Much of the energy of the Neo-Clapham’s can be found in various movements such as Make Poverty History, Fair Trade, Human Trafficking, Blood Chocolate, and so on. Key Leaders Jim Wallis, Tim Costello, Bono, Steve Chalke, David Batstone.

Digital Pentecostals: This movement is a recent development within Pentecostalism in the West, specifically developing out of Australia. While Pentecostalism classically was defined by outward expressions of response to the Holy Spirit, the digital pentecostals create experiential spaces through cutting edge media and technologies in which participants can respond to the Holy Spirit. This group attempt to reach out to postmodern culture by creating large church worship experiences which are highly experiential and tech savvy thus being attractive to postmodern tech savvy, experiential Gen Y’s. Many Digital Pentecostals has eschewed the ‘prosperity theology’ of their parents and instead are highly influenced by or part of the Neo-Clapham movement. In many ways this the second generation of Gen Y kids who have come of age being influenced by Hillsong. Key Leaders Joel Houston, Judah Smith. This group would not have ever seen itself as part of the emerging missional journey at any stage, but never the less is an interesting response to post-Christian culture.

Neo-Liberals: Many who began in the Emerging Church have taken the journey further and embraced a kind of 2oth century liberalism with an emerging spin. In an attempt to reject what was seen as the cultural captivity of evangelicalism, many have questioned a number of key components of evangelical life and theology and found themselves swimming in for want of a better term ’soft liberalism’. Whereas traditional liberalism was born out of an attempt to create a theology that fit with modern sensibilities, the Ne-liberals find themselves creating a new theology in response to the post-modern context. Interestingly this group seems to be finding more and more in common with mainline liberal Churches in the United States than they do with Evangelicals. Critics would place some of the voices within the ‘Emergent” camp here.

Blenders: This group would have placed themselves in the emerging church camp five years ago, but in response to the move away from evangelical theology by many of their former travellers (the Neo-Liberals) they have re-affirmed their commitment to evangelical theology. This group also seems to be questioning some of the assumptions of the Neo-Missiologists and are attempting to blend a missional approach, whilst still affirming some elements of the attractional mode of church, hence the term blenders.Key leaders Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball.

Obviously there is much cross-pollination between these groups. As well as many problems with my analysis. I am sure that there are more that I could come up with, maybe you can think of some too.

Comfort and Selfishnes

Recently I had a mate come to stay for a week and a half in my room. He's a great guy who's just joined Urban Vision* for the year. I thought it would be cool to offer some hospitality to a mate of mine. What I found surprising to me was my reaction to him being here.

I had feelings of protection for "my space", "my stuff" etc. I wanted to control the environment and make it work out for me the most. There was alot of selfishness running through me as I tried to maintain the order in my life that I had created.

As I thought about this, I realised again how important our space is in New Zealand culture, this is because New Zealand is pretty unpopulated space (created through our isolation on the southern corner of the Pacific Ocean.) I have my own space in a flat, which is frankly really really large, and I do not use all of it at all. But I feel I have a right to the space because I have had a busy day at work to get out of.

I realised how much we care about space and take it for granted, and how protective New Zealanders are of thier space. I live in a room that would fit 5 or 6 families in a slum in india, and I find it hard to share it with one other person. I have realised how important it is to be hospitable, and need to learn how to be truly hospitable to people in my life.

*Urban Vision are a missional order to the urban poor in Wellington.

Google Meme

Since I am bored, but not tired enough to go to sleep, I thought I would fill in this google meme.

Google your full first name and the word “needs” like this - “Nathanael needs” - and then post the first 10 things that Google finds.

Nathanael needs a Wikipedia Page

Nathanael needs to meet a westie

Nathanael needs a disciple

Nathanael needs a novelist

Nathanael needs a web user interaction designer

Nathanael needs a flicker photostream

Nathanael needs a revolutionary army

Nathanael needs a university lecturer

Nathanael needs a diary on his life

Nathanael needs a wasteland of contradictions

I tag Joshua, Sym, Andrew Watson, Justin Blass and Benn Crawford.

Tired, blistered days

I fulfilled one of my goals for the year, to complete a half Marathon. I completed it in 2 hours and 15 Minutes. My friend Lynda knew that I wanted to do a half marathon and hunted out one. We ran from Frank Kitts park to Shelly Bay and back to Kirbirnie park.

I have to say that it was a beautiful day, and I got focused on taking in the beauty of the Wellington more than I did focus on taking in a reasonable amount of air.

One of my aims this year is to work on my physical fitness. At the end of last year I noticed that I was becoming more seditary, yet still eathing alot of food. I was having nightmares every time I walked past someone who was overweight in town and worrying about the fact that I could turn out to be a fat thirty year old who would be working himself to an early grave. I wanted more energy and to be physically stronger and healthier. I started going to the gym and working out and have seen the results both in my physical health, but also in helping me to become more focused in the things that I do.

I managed to get myself huge blisters on the bottom of my feet and impressed the nurse who said she had seen very few blisters like the ones I have! I am walking around the flat feeling stiff and in pain, but also feeling proud that I managed to do the run.

Today was terrifying for me, I took a risk to see if I could sustain a run for 21 Km's and I did it. I want to do better than this next time, get fitter and faster. I see this as important to how I live.

XXX Church "Sin City Saviors"

I've talked about XXXchurch before. This group is truly being missional in the context of Los Vegas, Nevada. These guys are hard-hitting, yet loving. They have a vision of setting up a church on the strip, which can be supported at www.xxxchurch.org.

These people and many others are taking risks, going into the areas which are dark, dangerous and scary and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. They come into promiximaty and proclaim Jesus to those who may have never know the gospel