Seth Godens - "The Dip"

I went into town for the day yesterday and caught up with a couple of mates and had my haircut (you should see how different it looks.) I caught up with Benn Crawford at Supreme Coffee to get some Ethiopian Yergechaffe Coffee and we had a long talk about our favourite subjects of sociology, marketing, human potential and life. He recommended that I go off and read “The Dip” by Seth Goden. Benn would say that Goden is a mentor of his, I can see why, Goden can get his points across in clear and concise ways, and like any good marketer he can sell you his idea.

The Dip
The Dip is a book about assessing when is the right time to quit. Goden argues in his book that one of the major aspects of the human psyche is to quit when we begin to feel a sense of pain. When we pick up an instrument and start playing for the first time, the baby steps are real easy and we find that we receive affirmation for the little work we put in, we hear that we are a natural, then it goes into a dip, where we put in lots and lots of energy with little or no return. Those are successful are those who can go through the dip then see the rewards at the other end.

One key idea that came out of this book is that we should strive to be the best in our own sphere of influence and where we are working. Striving to be the best rather than being average is the key to success and gaining worth in ourselves and the world around us.

Goden looks at three different curves, one being to the dip and another being the cul de sac curve. The Cul de sac is a curve where you are putting in energy and constantly receiving the same results. This is the case in which you work in a dead end job, the energy you put in gets you know where, you are being offered no ways forward and there is no chance of further success. At this point you should quit. Goden argues that even when it seems you have been in a successful roles, at times you should quit because the development that you can get from moving on into another sphere of influence is greater.

Value Systems
Godens work contains a lot of truth for how we should move into success. One issue I would see with a few ways Godens ideas work is the value systems that we are driven off. I do think it is important to quit at times, I’ve done this in my own life, particularly quiting from jobs which were bringing me no where so I could focus on the bigger picture, those that would allow me to achieve in my sphere of influence. But if we go out of a “whats best for me” strategy of quitting, our quitting can be ultimately destructive to individuals and friends around us. This particularly can occur when we put our economic or personal security above others. I have a view that how we view success needs to be put in light of what is best for the whole and how we can better society and humanity. There will be positive benefits that come from this for the person, actually there will be a deep sense of worth and value from this as well. By playing to our strengths and learning when to not quit we can benefit society a lot more. We are allowed to quit things that don’t bring substantial benefit to the whole.

Intention, Church and Life

The ideas contained in “The Dip” flow into one of my favourite principles of life; “The Principle of Intentionality”. The principle of intentionality is that we should live in view of fulfilling our values and letting our strengths as individuals shine. For me the central values that drive me have to be to love the lord with all my heart mind and strength and to love those around me, these are my central values – the driving value the comes off this is that I intentionally live in a way that makes the world a better place, then comes off these are my strengths/personality.

At the moment I’m personally going through a period of self-discovery, rediscovering and discovering the skills, talents, personality that God has given me so I can best play to my strengths in the environments that I serve and work in. I am trying new things and not trying to box myself in, but also wanting to become aware of who I am as a person.

The Cul De Sac and Individuals

I want to come back to the Cul De Sac again and talk about it. I believe like Seth that when you realise you are in a Cul De Sac you need to quit and quit fast. I have come to a conclusion recently in my own journey that the worst place to be is just existing. This is not what God intended. Existing is a place where you just do things because that’s what you have always done, with no value, with no reason. You just do it because you feel you have to, even though there are no benefits at all from doing it. I have seen this with friends in jobs which they should know are dead end and they should have quit a long time ago. They have so much more potential that working in the dead end job, but they stay there for security and safety. I did this for a long period in one organisation, staying there and not risking going out on a limb. What I have learned is when you trust your strengths you can risk a lot more that you thought. There is a truth, we have to come to know ourselves, become self aware of our own values and our own strengths, otherwise we are going to be shaped by the culture around us – for good or for ill.

I know I am being humanistic here, but I do not think this goes against the heart of God, God wants to see us be courageous in who we are and our sphere of influence for the benefit of the whole of humanity, God wants us to be wholly aware of who we are (that is, who he created us to be), and he wants us to be whole. By allowing ourselves to use our strengths and becoming what God intended us to be, we honour God and give him room to make us whole.

The Church and the Cul De Sac
The dip also is about the success of organisations. Organisations themselves can get to dead ends in what they are doing. I believe this is one of the issues at the heart of the decline of the church in the west. Though I think its worse than this, some churches are in decline because they have lost their value system, or they are watering down their value system and are being led into syncretism, but many Churches are focusing their energy and talents in the wrong way, into a model of church which leads to few results for lots of capital and energy.

Where Mosaic and the Missional Church is
Mosaic Wellington is probably lying somewhere in the Dip and not in the upward point, we are still small and having to put in a lot of energy to find out our talents and form and value systems and what we are about. The good thing is we have some organisational savy, we are definitely playing to our strengths (particularly in the area of good food) and the desire to be hospitable and living it out is rubbing off on our guests. These are early steps in the journey. Mike Brantley mentioned on his blog that it takes an average of five years to journey with someone for them to come to know God, so our dip may be five to seven years before we see the size of mosaic grow exponentially and then multiply (probably 10 years, though I could be wrong on this point as well.) We have to quit the things that are not working (for example, we had to quit the loft as we were putting to much energy into it at the time), we have to be intentional on the things we put our energy into and realise what may actually limit our potential to grow and reach those around us (so for us this means that we don’t see having a church building is an ultimate aim, there are benefits to having a building, but a building constrains you and the mission then becomes about upkeep on the building rather than the mission of God in this world.

We are a young part of a larger movement; we can see Mosaic LA which is past the dip (for it the dip was when Erwin took the church on Bradey. Even though the church on Bradey was a successful large Church, it was at the end of its growth and had lost its “edge.” It had got itself near to a Cul de Sac situation. Erwin came in and had to change the mindset of the church members – meaning that they lost a huge number of once committed people and he had to build the ethos of Mosaic from the ground up. This period was painful for the Church, but has meant that Mosaic is much larger than what it was in the past, having a global reach into the world and reaching many lost people within the city of LA. Seeing Mosaic past the dip gives us hope of what we can be, if we play of our strengths and keep to our ethos. I love Wellington and want it to be an even greater place to live, where dreams are lived and fulfilled lives. Where people know they belong and know they have worth. I want people to come to know Jesus because he can bring wholeness to our once broken selves and lives. I want my life to be a source of faith love and hope to those around me.

Awakening

Last week Mosaic held its national conference up in the Mount. I'm still chewing on what I've learned from this expereince. I think the one thing that hit me through this experience if the need foster self-leadership. Also I feel like I totally resonate with the heart of Capital Mosaic, its in my DNA and its setting me on fire for the next point in the Mission.

Erwin is a great communicator, an astounding communicator, it amazes me that he basically talked for six or seven hours to us without any written notes whatsoever and he could explain himself thoughtfully and articulately in the the spoken form. It also astounds me the conviction he has, his love for humanity and his love for awakening the human spirit to its potential found in the loving arms of our creator is immense. The call to awaken so that we can enact change in the world in an awesome call, one that my spirit is enthralled with.

This trip was a good point for me stop and reflect on myself, spiritually, emotionally and physically. I am in between jobs, I start a new permanent role at a government department next monday. This new position is awesome because I get to explore my passions for cross-cultural relationships, justice, history and politics. It means that I can develop myself as a communicator of ideas and I can develop strong relationships with others around me. Hopefully I will live up to the challenges and learn to be truly alive in the situations I face and the tasks I am involved in. I really beleive that this position is meant for me that and it can bring about positive change in communities I work in. This time away has given me a strong conviction that at my work I need to be intentional, I live with the responsibility that I may be the only source of faith love and hope that people will see. I embody Christ in this environment and because of this I have to be both committed to the work I do but committed to getting to know those who I work with personally, to learn what their hopes and fears are, and by doing so, showing them that Jesus wants to heal thier pain and wants them to live for something bigger than themselves.

This week is important for me as I rest and relax, but I'm also using the time intentionally, I have a few tasks that I'm at the moment involved in.

I am exploring and writing up my spiritual story. I have not written my story in a while, I am trying to get out the emotion and the pain of the early part of my story. I am intentionally trying to write it for people who are not on a christian spiritual journey at present. This is hard and painful, I would ask that you would pray for me as I do this.

I'm doing work on what it means to be a missional pastor in this day and age, what this means both using the gift of pastoring inside the church, but also in organisations as well. This is a joint project with my freind justin.

I am looking at a couple of shared projects to do with my passions and with the pain I've gone through in my journey as I beleive that these are places that I need to go so I can bring others healing.

These last two weeks are about becoming more aware to the life that God has called me to. Being more aware and about awakening the passions that God has given me.

Enfleshing the Gospels

On Sunday we had another Mosaic book club where we are going through The Forgotten Ways. This is the second time I have been through the book. This time fleshing out the ideas of the book is a lot less esoteric. I see that the Mosaic Community has the potential to challenge and change Wellington. We are desiring to learn and put in the hard. This is actually the book that led me into thinking about joining Mosaic when I read it. I was reading it and I was going through the desire for Movement. That was my theme word at the time, and I needed to move forward and to flesh out what God had layed on my heart at that time.

So I’ve digressed, why have I called this blog enfleshing the gospel. We went through a discussion on the chapter the “missional-incarnational impulse.” If anyone knows me you will realise that I believe contextualisation is a highly important concept to me. Many times I have summed this up in the idea of “relevance.” That as Christians we need to be relevant to the culture that we live in, we have to speak the language and follow embed into the culture. The problem with the concept of “relevance” is its limitation – which I struggle with. If we are to be relevant, we can quickly fall to the woes of syncretism, becoming watered down and P.C, losing our impulse and our message. Rather than being relevant, we are to enflesh to gospel.

Enfleshment is a different idea. The heart of this is enfleshing the key message of the Gospels. Enfleshment means that we live out a life that shows the key values and moral framework. For this to happen though we must know what our key values are, otherwise if we don’t, they will sure shaped by the world around us (trust me I know this all too well.) So, one of the key things for Mosaic to do is to find out what its key values are and what its DNA is. Luckily, as being part of a bigger movement we have been helped up big time. As a community, we are to be a community of faith, known by love and we are to be a voice of home in the world. These core values go to the heart of what we intend to be. A community of Christ followers transforming the world around us by living out the Jesus story in the way we act and lives. To do this we need to know our saviour, we need to know the gospels. Not intellectually knowing Jesus, but intimately knowing Jesus. Constantly being transformed by Jesus we are continually sent into the world. As one missional movement tells us, we are living out Acts 29 today.

We have to remember our DNA. The heart of the Christian DNA is the story of Jesus and the gospels. If we forget this, we will lose our heart.

So what does enfleshment mean for us as Christians. We it means that we are to be incarnational. Living out Christ in the World. As Christians we believe that God became human and lived amongst us. He came in on our turf and lived amonst us to bring salvation and to radically identify with us. Hirsh says in his book “The Incarnation not only qualifies God’s acts in the worlds, but must also qualify ours If God’s central way of reaching the world was to incarnate himself in Jesus, the our way of reaching the world should likewise be incarnational. To act incrationally therefore will mean in part that our mission to those outside the faith we will need to exercise affinity with those we are attempting to reach. At the very least it will mean moving into common geography/space and so set up an abiding presence amongth the group. But the basic motive of incarnational ministry is also revelatory – that they may come to know God through Jesus. (authors emphasis).




There are four Ps that some up incarnational lifestyle; they are Presence, proximity, powerlessness and proclamation.

Presence: Presence meanings to out a normal human life and living a profoundly disturbingly normal way. But engaging in mission through normality. As the Vineyard forefather John Wimber says, we are to be “Naturally Supernatural.” We are to be in relationship, relationship is the key means to transfer the message of the gospel and engage in mission. Our lives embody and enflesh the message and we naturally tell a story to the people around us of redemption, hope and restoration. We tell people through the way we live that they have worth and that God loves them and wants to spend time with them.

Proximity: As Christians we are to mix with every level of society. Jesus engaged with every level of society and found disciples at every level of society. As people we are not only present, but we are genuinely available. We need to from genuine relationships, be part of the activities that others are involved in, have lunch with people, engage in intentional relationship.

Powerlessness: This means that we are not imperialistic. We take on a shape of humility in the world. We have to be willing to form relationships with people who are completely antagonistic to what we hold on to and be willing to truly love through it all, as Jesus did. I think as I continue to read the gospels I really realise just how far Jesus would go to love his enemies and also to try to rescue even those who did not accept his message. It is totally revolutionary. Jesus humbly came as a servant to all, to seek and save the lost.

Proclamation: We can never forget the message of the gospel and realise that is what we have been put here for. We are called to share the gospel in real ways. We are called to live out the gospel minute by minute, day by day.

We are figuring out what this means for our community, actually we will always be re-evaluating this and finding out what it means to live out the gospel in our context.

Discipleship, the Mission of the Church

According to CS Lewis, the Churches purpose is to draw people to Christ and make them like Christ. He said that church exists for no other purpose. “If the Church is not doing this, then all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, even the Bible are a waste of time.”

I believe the heart of what CS Lewis is saying is that the mission of the church is to make disciples for Jesus.

This is what Jesus commanded us to do in the Gospels in the great commission (not the great omission!) And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Mat 28:18-20)

We were discussing this at our Mosaic, Forgotten Ways Book club. Our aim is to see Mosaic become a true disciple-making machine in Wellington. Yet we need to ask the question for ourselves, what does this mean?

Questions that have arisen with this.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

How do we become a disciple making movement?

How do we measure the success of a disciple making movement? Do numbers matter?

I have some thoughts on this, but would like some discussion. Please add your views/opinions.

Theological Liberalism as a symptom of Institutional Decline

This is another qoute from Alan Hirsh's forgotten ways which hit me when I first read the book.

Theological Liberalism is an indicator of institutional decline not only because it tries to minimise the necessary tension between gospel and culture by eliminating the culturally offending bits, but because it is basically a parasitical ideology. I don’t mean this to be offensive to my liberal brothers and sisters; I wish to merely point out that theological liberalism rarely creates new forms of church or extends Christianity in any significant way, but rather exists and “feeds of” what the more orthodox missional movements started. Theological Liberalism always comes later in the history of a movement, and it is normally associated with its decline. It is therefore a highly institutional manifestation of Christendom. As such it is deadly to apostolic forms of missional movement. But most established denominations, including the move evangelical ones, are also built squarely on Christendom assumptions of church and therefore, like all institutions, are facing significant threat and need to be led to the edge of chaos. It is there, by living in the tensions that it brings, they will find more authentic and missional ways of being Gods people. So leaders turn the heat up, but manage it.

Confused

I was pleased to find that AJ Chesswass had put a link to my blog on his blog. I was confused to find that he had put my blog under Anglican Blogs. I'm confused because I have spent very little time in Anglican churches myself so I don't know how I can be considered Anglican. So AJ Chesswass or anyone else, can you help me understand how I can be considered Anglican. Feel free to enlighten me on the topic of how I am anglican, or any other topic you feel interested in.

Primal Branding

Book review of book by Patrick Hanlon called Primal Branding: Create Zealots for your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future. Reviewed by David Mays.

Hanlon has been a senior executive at some of the world’s most creative advertising agencies. Hanlon says that a brand is a community of believers held together by seven assets that create a belief system. A concept book, it is long on description including many illustrative examples and stories.

“What is the magic glue that sticks together consumers and Google, Mini Cooper, and Oprah and not others?” (4) “The result of this quest led to a much larger question of how ideologies—belief systems—come to exist.” There are ‘seven definable assets that construct meaning behind the brand…seven brand messages that must be delivered to create preferential brand appeal.” (6)
“Primal branding is about delivering the primal code.” “Those seven assets are: ‘the creation story”; “the creed”; “the icons”; “the rituals”’ “the pagans”’ “the sacred words”’ and “the leader.” Together, these pieces of primal code construct a belief system. Brands are belief systems.” (6)

“Once you look at a brand as a belief system, it automatically gains all the advantages that enterprise strives for: trust, vibrancy, relevance, a sense of values, community, leadership, vision, empathy, commitment, and more. With the seven pieces of primal code in place you have created a belief system and products and services that people can believe in.” (7)
“Believing is belonging. When you are able to create brands that people believe in, you also create groups of people who feel that they belong.” “…we all want to belong to something larger than ourselves. That community can surround a product or service, a personality, a social or political cause, or a civic community.” (7)

“What we call primal branding is the ability to make people feel better about your brand than another.” (7)

The Creation Story. “Where you come from is as important for people to know as what you believe and what your advantages are.” “It is crucial for everyone to have an understanding of who you are and where you come from. It is the foundation of trust.” (11-12) “Creation stories usually embody the who and the why. Who the founder of any nation or organization was and why they started is important for people to know.” (13-14) “The creation story often involves a mythic quest.” (16) “The creation story is the crucial first step in providing answers to why people should care about you, or your product or service.” (19)

The Creed. “All ideologies begin with a set of core principles.” (20) “Defining, understanding, and communicating your mission are critical to the success of your brand….” “These are all simple, concise statements that embody hugely bold ideas. The creed is the singular notion that you want people to believe.” (21)

The Icons. “Icons are quick concentrations of meaning that cause your brand identityIdentity-Issues and brand values to spontaneously resonate. The Nike swoosh.” “The smell of Cinnabons,” …sensory imprints that instantly summon the brand essence.” “The simplest and often easiest icon to recognize is the company logo.” (26) But there are many other kinds of icons.

The Rituals. “Our daily lives are filled with … key ritualistic behaviors.” Driving to work in the morning. Logging onto the Internet or searching Google. “Rituals are touch points with your brand and ideology that might be made more pleasant, more engaging, enhanced, simplified, less frustrating, or more fun.” (54)

“When large corporations merge…they bring with them a collision of competing rituals.” “The truth is that the spirit of both companies is built, in part, around those seemingly unimportant rituals.” (55)

Rituals are the meaningful repeated points of contact between you and your guest, customer, client, or target market.” “These interactions with the customer can be flat experiences, or they can serve as enriching touch points that excite consumers and intensify the brand experience.” (68) “The real power is understanding how rituals can be tweaked and made more interesting, more evolved, or otherwise better suited to their purposes.” (56)

The Pagans, or Nonbelievers. “Part of saying who you are and what you stand for is also declaring who you are not and what you don’t stand for.” (70) 7Up declared itself the ‘uncola.’ “Defining your pagans is important in defining who you are. This can be difficult when marketers do not want to exclude potential customers and mass markets.” (71)

The Sacred Words. “All belief systems come with a set of specialized words that must be learned before people can belong.” “If you are a computer user you understand what it means to ‘log on,’ what a ‘virus’ is, and what it means to ‘crash.’ (72) “Words tell who we are.” “Therefore, sacred words are not simply professional jargon but … also bind people together as a group and are often crucial to working together effectively.” (73)

Any teenage text messaging knows ttyl 2g 2wk lyl. “If you know the language, you belong.” (75) “Many sacred words are invented constructions. iPod. Iced grande skinny decaf latte.” (76) “Belief systems come with their own invented lexicon that has precious meaning for those who believe.” (77)

The Leader. “All successful belief systems have a person who is the catalyst, the risk taker, the visionary, the iconoclastDriven-to-the-Brink May-07 who set out against all odds…to re-create the world according to their own sense of self, community, and opportunity.” (78) “Enterprise without a leader is like a headless elephant. It may eventually get somewhere, but only by destroying everything in its path along the way.” (78)

Primal Belonging.“All belief systems have people who believe, advocates who feel that the brand offers a place where they can belong.” “First, consumers invest themselves in your brand by purchasing products or services because they believe in them. Second, they are willing to help convince others to belong…. Finally, advocates believe so strongly in the brand that they fiercely defend it against rivals.” (87)

“Properly managed, the primal construct can help you create a belief system that results in a group of evangelists committed to advocating for you through thick and thin.”

“Often, the most overlooked group is the people inside your own organization. If you can’t get your employees to believe, how can they possibly convince others…to believe?” (88)
“Building a sense of community is what belonging is all about.” (94)

Primal Perfect. [I’m not sure what these titles mean. dlm]To order at Starbucks you have to learn the sacred language. The ritual of affordable luxury is intensified. Pepsi topes the list of Coke pagans. The IBM creed was the slogan, “Think!” The Amazon creation story was about Jeff Bezos writing up the business plan in the back seat while his wife drove across the country. Fast Company magazine developed a relationship with its readers. The icons were the magazine issues and the monthly ritual was picking it up on the newsstand. The humble brown vehicles tell customers UPS represents their customers and not themselves. The icons, rituals, and creed of the Marine Corps run very deep.

“The primal code is all part of a narrative; it is storytelling. When pieces of the story are missing, the story becomes less interesting, people become less interested. …they feel dissatisfied and turn away.” (153)

The Primal Personality.Television and movie stars are brands. “If Oprah has a creed, it is about self-determination and personal growth.” “…doing what my heart says all the time.” (195)
Primal Reengineering.“Primal branding is an organizing principle to help products, services, personalities, and civic communities achieve popular appeal.” (209) “The sever pieces of primal code are a map—or checklist—that can help guide your efforts to create a brand that people can believe in.” (210)

“Many firms still haven’t figured out their company creed, or a statement that declares what they are all about.” (211)

“Brands are active engagements that continually reboot themselves to keep the consumer wondering what’s going to happen next.” (211)

“The first step in primal branding is to determine where your brand exists in the minds of customers.” (215)

“The origin story is the beginning of the brand narrative, the start of the mission.” “When companies merge…the origin story needs to be rebooted around the new corporate vision.” (217)

“The creed should answer the question, Why do we belong in people’s lives? … Why should people care?” “What, after all, does your company believe in?” (218) “The creed is a principle; it is what the company is about.” It is a ‘promise to a customer.” “The responsibility is to make sure that in every way you are meeting the expectation of the consumer.” (220)

“The expression of what your product or service is about becomes concentrated and instantly communicated in your icons.” “Icons can be as simple as your company logo or as discreet as senses like taste or smell. Icons can be the product itself.” “How does your brand make an impression?” (220)

“…rituals are actions that involve how the product is used, how the service is engaged, where and how the consumer goes to shop, and how the product is maintained, returned, renewed, downloaded, or updated.” “…think through how people become involved with your brand.” (223)

The pagans are most often your competition. “Who are you not? What are you trying to avoid? Who are you up against?” (225)

“What are the words that define your company or yourself? What words resonate internally or with consumers? What words help define who you are or what you want to become?” (226)
“Finally, you must find leaders. The natural place to look within large organizations is to the founder, chief executive officer, or president.” (227)

“Creating a corporate work culture that people can believe in is critical for employee enthusiasm, work performance, and efficiency. It also motivates vendors, suppliers, lenders, and others who come into contact with the organization. Establishing and promoting a working culture is critical when companies merge together.” (229)

When employees don’t understand the values of the company they bring their own. “The result is a confused sense of mission, blurred motivations, loss of leadership, disgruntled employees, and apathy.” (230)

“Using primal branding, leaders can create and sustain a company and mission that people believe in.” “The essence of this belonging resonates in a refreshed sense of commitment, trust, empathy, vision, mission, and values within the organization.” “Building corporate cultures is one of the most vital tasks facing organizations today.” (213)

“Brands are ideologies with their own universe of truths, iconography, history, heroes, and demons.” (233) “The more pieces of code communicated to your public, the stronger your cause, organization, product, service, or community.” “Creating a world of believers means creating a group of people who feel they belong to your ideals and want to convince others of your cause.” (235)

“Think of the things that means something to you. They all come from someplace (‘creation story’). They stand for something (‘creed’). They are symbolized by a sign, a sound, a smell (‘icon’). You do certain specified things regarding them (‘rituals’). Certain words evoke that experience (‘sacred words’). You contrast that experience against other experiences (‘pagans’). They have an individual, whether real or fictional, who is behind the whole thing (‘leader’). It’s all about creating a sense of meaning.” (237)

“Primal branding contains a web of relationships and inferences that bang at the drum of our emotional mind-set.” (239)

HT: Alan Hirsh

The Monkey in the Room - Part 3 - Consumer Christianity vs Discipleship

I don’t believe the consumerist model of church is good for discipleship. Safety, security and convenience impede our ability to grow and discover Jesus’s purpose.

Lets look at fish and biology. Have you ever had pet fish before, you put them in a bowl, feed them, clean there water and keep them safe, but they never grow as big as wild fish. They may be safe but they are really really fragile, if you tap the glass or cause them any stress at all they will die. There wild cousins face much more dangerous environments but they are stronger for it.

The issue for the church is that by creating a cushy safe environment for saints it makes it much harder for them to be effective witnesses to those around them and creates an issue for them in how to grow and become more like Jesus.

Erwin Mcmanus in his pod cast “The Gauntlet”, from his series “Living the Original Life” argues that the journey of discipleship is not easy but extremely difficult. He cites the verses in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian where it says:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
(1Co 9:24-27)

The verses clearly state that discipleship isn’t an easy ride, it involves hard training and discipline. I play indoor netball. I know that if because I don’t practice I struggle to improve. But if I was to practice every day and put time in it I would be a much better player than I am at present. To become good at something you need to practice and put passion into it. To be a marathon runner you need to go the distance and train your body for endurance. This is extremely difficult and painful, but has to be done. So too with the Christian faith, if we want to be people who reach out there is going to be pain and hard work. It means learning and practicing the gifts and fruits. If we are not hospitable, the only way we are going to learn how to be hospitable and learn the value is through practice, even when it hurts.

The issue with the consumerist mode of church is that many times it is based around comfort and meeting fixed needs. To get people through the door it makes the church experience easy, feeding easy sermons and easy worship experiences. As I was told by one Christian leader a number of years – this produces McDonalds Christians. Christians who feed on quick easy convenient food which makes you happy at the time but makes you fat, rather than training, eating well and working hard at endurance exercises.

I want to end personally, I am struggling personally to figure out in my life what is that is enslaving me and what is good. Is it ok to buy that next CD, or is it wrong. How am I using my time, resources and energy. Am I using my time to serve Gods purposes and to love people, or do I use my energy and time for serving my own personal needs. I want to live my life for a bigger purpose. I don’t want to be enslaved to stuff or desire for stuff, because I have been freed by the grace of God. I want to give myself to that purpose and live that out in my every action.

The Monkey in the Room - Part 2 - The Condition of the Attractional Mode of church

Jane is a Christian, she goes to a large church on a Sunday morning. This isn’t the first church she has gone to, actually she used to go to the large church down the street. She found that the worship was too loud at the other church, plus the sermons were not speaking to her needs. So she decided she needed to move on to another church.

When she walks into church she gets a friendly greeting from the ushers, she walks past the door of the church, there she sees a whole lot of CDs from her churches world famous worship band and books from her esteemed Pastor about how to gain everything you wish by saying a one simple prayer. She goes in and sits next to her friends. They talk about the most recent conference they have been on. “Oh man it really changed my life. I have never felt this good about my relationship with God!” Didn’t you love that worship band they had there, man I have to get that album, it just moved me so much closer to God.” They stand and sing some songs, such as “I am found in the arms of the one that I love.” The preacher comes up and speaks for half an hour, seeming to be more focused on preaching the benefits and grace he has received from his cellphone than speaking about the love and grace of Jesus Christ. They go home after the sermon, feeling happy that they feel good about what has been preached and that they can implement the three easy steps the life and happiness that were preached.

Now I have to say that not all this is bad stuff, in and of itself. Music is a good way to worship God, I use it myself. I also believe that we do need to give people a friendly greeting and reach out to new people. But I do have some issues with the attractional model of church. Let’s look at one issue that I’ve brought up here. The conference and the conference Christian:

I have to be frank here; I have been one of the conference Christians in my past. Also I have to state that there is nothing with conferences, but they are only a means to an end, and not an end in themselves. But what I’ve found, especially with the more Pentecostal and charismatic conferences is people go to them to get their spiritual buzz and spiritual high then go back to life where nothing changes. People go for there to here their favourite worship band or favourite speaker. Its dressed up many a times in the fact that “God will be there” but God is there in our ordinary day lives. Going back to this it seems God is only in the exciting fun times of life, the mountain top experiences, yet God is present in the valleys as well. I got very frustrated about this over the years. Why was it that we thought that God was present only when he shouted, when it says in the Bible that he wasn’t in the wind, the fire or in the earthquake but was present in a still whisper. I remember the last consumer conference I went to, I was already questioning a lot of what the evangelical church was looking like and I went to this conference and found a lot of what was going on to just seem like window dressing, it seemed fake to me rather than real and true. I was rather disoriented by the experience. Especially since I had been to the same event over a number of years and had thought I had found something there. I know people do experience God there and don’t get me wrong I think he was present there. But why do we need to go to conferences to get a religious experience? I believe conferences are still important but as I said they are a means rather than an end in themselves. I don’t want to be legalistic in this, I want to go back to this conference and go to others in the future. I’m just cautious in how I approach them.

The sad thing, this is a reality in the consumer world, the marketer sells something which is close to reality but really is a plastic alternative. We sell experiences that seem to be truly spiritual but really are not the real package.

Hirsh states

In the modern and post-modern situation, the church is forced into the role of being little more than a vendor of religious goods and services. And the end-users of the church’s services (namely, us) easily slip into the role of discerning individualistic consumers, devouring the religious goods and services offered by the latest and best vendor. Worship, rather than being entertaining through creatively engaging the hearts and minds of the hearers, now becomes mere entertainment that aims at giving the participants transcendent emotional highs, much like the role of the “feelies” in Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, where people go the movies merely to get a buzz.

Church growth exponents used the ideas of big buisiness to try and grow churches. They used business marketing to offer better and bigger “products” to get people into their church. The reality is they commodified the experience, and made church ‘services’ into a shopping mall for Christians to come and get fat at. The reality is that these services are greatly passive, with at least 80% of the church sitting passively receiving their felt needs. These churches focus on slick presentation skills and even gimmicks to get people to come to their church.

The aim of these churches is for people to have convenience, security and safety, feeding our felt needs.

A particular form that we know of consumerism present within the Christian church is the prosperity doctrine. The belief that if you are a Christian you will be healthy and happy and wealthy, because somewhere in the bible it teaches that (this is at the extreme end of the scale). In some churches it is scary how successful this style of preaching has been, it one megachurch in america, when the pastor changed from teaching the gospel to teaching a more properity based doctrine the church has grown to 3 times its original number and is one of the largest churches in the States. The problem with the prosperity doctrine is that it is very very very destructive. It has destroyed numerous churches as greed takes hold in these church and corrupts church leadership. I really really do not believe that it is a biblical idea. It has been created to make people feel comfortable but is not anywhere close to what God intended.

I believe that for Christians to be truly the images of Christ light to the world, we have to denounce the message of consumerism in the way we live out the gospel (I may hit on this in a later post. I do not believe that we can marry consumerist culture with the gospel, they are opposing ideas and ways of living. Consumerism is too strong a spiritual force to marry too, it corrupts and damages the message of the gospel.

The Monkey in the Room - Part 1

The Monkey in the Middle of the Room

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For thoughI am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
(Col 2:4-8)

In my post “The Dangers of Syncretism” I highlighted the dangers of blending ideologies and religions with Christianity, and the fact that many times the Christian Church has not taken seriously the confession “Jesus is Lord.” Lisa has responded with further clarification on her blog on how to define syncretism and has argued that it has a presence throughout historical Christendom. Lisa comments, "Syncretism as it is understood in the modern Christian theological scene is ‘the incorporation of non-christian elements’ into Christendom. Every Christian culture in every epoch has done it. The western church does it, the eastern Church do it, they do it in Africa and Asia, they probably do it at your church."

I believe that syncretism is a major issue that as Christians we have to tackle. As Christians our allegiance is not to the ideas/idols/philosophies of the day. The danger is that if we do not ally ourselves with Jesus and let him reign present in our lives – submitting ourselves to his rule, we allow ourselves be shaped by the culture and we lose our force..

Hirsh in his work argues that the greatest challenge to the Christian message today is Consumerism. Consumerism has risen as a powerful reality as the power of the free market in our lives has gained a greater grip over our culture in the western world. Big corporations and there marketing brands have found that they can coerce buyers through co-oping religious and theological material to brand themselves. For example, Levis in New Zealand a couple of years ago used the image of a women going into the sea in her undies and coming out “born again” in her levis jeans. Marketers are using the idea that if you have the latest gadgets you will be part of a community and be accepted and loved because of the gadgets you own (Mac Zealots are now even being labelled by many “the cult of Mac”) Gaining more stuff and remaking your life and house has become linked to “improving your life.” Designer experiences to get emotional and spiritual and emotional highs are so common within our society that it isn’t funny. Reality TV shows, home do up shows, theme parks, even our overseas holidays all feed this need within the western condition for something more.

Hirsh states

Under this excessive influence of the market, experiences, indeed life itself tends to become commodified. In such an economy, people are viewed as mere consumptive units. The suburbs all orbit around the central consumerist temple called The Shopping Mall. Teenagers walk aimless up and down these soulless corridors as if looking for an answer that somehow evades them in the windows. Their parents saunter through the same malls indulging in a dose of “reality therapy.” Disneyland, cruise vacations, extreme sports, drugs, and the like are consumable experiences.

I believe there is a desire for “something more” but we fall short, we are searching in the wrong places. The spiritual highs we get when we buy things doesn’t last and leaves us empty inside, we search for fulfilment yet end up lost in a sea of voices.

The desire in a consumer society is convenience, safety, and security. We want heaven conveniently packaged to reach our felt needs and wants and desires. Yet what looks so good really is what enslaves us and makes us fall short of the original purpose that God made us to live. By following these desires and these feelings we become enslaved – you can see it at present – people go in debt to own a house they cannot afford, people buy gadget upon gadget, cd upon cd, to keep up with the Jones’ so that they can be accepted. But it doesn’t work.

So how does consumerism infect the Christian community why do I think it is such a large issue
I will hit this on a number ways.
1. It is one of the major conditions of the attractional mode of church.
2. It impedes discipleship
3. Because it impedes discipleship it impedes our ability to be truly missional.
4. Because it is so enslaving we have to identify it and tackle it head on and do spiritual surgery in our own life.
As I write this I feel convicted of this myself, I struggle with the tensions in this world and struggle with my desire to buy and acquire more stuff to fulfil my felt needs. I am living in this tension and still figuring my way through it, struggling and wrestling to break the chains and lies that come from the messages of the culture around me.

The Presidents by Jonathan Coulton

All of you doing first yeah politics or social studies at the moment - watch this video - you may find out some information that could be used in a pop quiz. Or you might be wanting to know a little more about these fascinating figures. Have fun!

The Dangers of Syncretism

The Dangers of Syncretism

A Recurrent theme in Christianity has been the competition between peoples allegiance to the worldview of the day and the Lordship of Christ. When Christianity compromises with the worldview of the time it can be catastrophic and deadly. The real message of Christianity gets subverted. We can see this throughout history, Christendom led to the Crusades, where violence and conquest was used in an effort to convert the heathen, the Nazis were supported by the catholic church and were allowed to continue there racist and genocidal policies because the Lutheran Church remained attached to the pews, the South African policy of apartheid was supported by a predominantly white Christian Africans population. The South African Dutch reformed church propagated a Racist theology where God was racist against Blacks and coloureds. This is what happens when we forget to remember Jesus and proclaim his lordship.

The destructiveness of this syncretism is summed up by Lee Camp.

In fact, the Rwandan genocide highlights a recurrent failure of much historic Christianity. The proclamation of the ‘gospel; has often failed to emphasize a fundamental element of the teaching of Jesus, and indeed, of orthodox Christian doctrine: “Jesus is Lord” is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in the question of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often often sought to ally itself comfortably to other authorities, be they political, economic, cultural, or ethnic. Could it be that “Jesus is Lord” has become one of the most widespread Christian lies? Have Christians claimed the lordship of Jesus, but systematically set aside the call to obedience to this Lord? At least in Rwanda, with “Christian Hutus” slaughtering “Christian Tutsis (and vice versa), “Christian” apparently served as a brand name – a “spirituality” or a religion” – but not a commitment to a common Lord.

Easter Week - a Week of Anticipation, Participation and Salvation

What a week. I have thoroughly enjoy the journey through this week of my life. It has had heaps of drama, crazy deadlines, foot washing and a lot of good food and conversation.

The week has been really busy, I have had a deadline at work that has been giving me and others stress. We made the deadline, with time to spare so that was great. On Tuesday night me and a number of my friends from Mosaic and associates hold our weekly Lost Night. The lost episode was great, much better than the Juliet episode a week before. I won’t give any information out about it because it hasn’t screened yet in New Zealand. We had the best steak ever. It was medium rare and was pretty mean. Thanks to the skill of the cook, Justin Blass.

On Wednesday night I went along to MCG, our time of spiritual formation. We had communion and did foot washing. I found this really moving and enjoyed the whole time.

The weekend has been pretty full on yet great as well. Easter is so deep and meaningful. It is central to Christianity because it sums up the Christian message, Jesus came to earth to be crucified on a cross. Our God became human, became poor, like the poorest of criminals and died on a cross, only to be risen on the third day. The resurrection to me is central, I believe it is only through the resurrection that we in fact have hope. As we find out from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
1 Cor 15:12-17

Without the resurrection Jesus’ action on the cross is in vain.

Last night was brilliant. I was stressing out a lot about especially as I had to cook. I’m only an apprentice when it comes to cooking but I think I did a pretty good job with the meal I prepared. Note that Justin and Lacey make a mean lasagne! For the evening we went through from empty tomb through the Jesus’ meeting with the disciples. This was deeply meaningful. I enjoy the whole symbolism and spirituality of the evening. The toast to full life was probably the most awesome period as I had a glass of spicy, full bodied red wine in hand. This really summed up the kind of life that I have, and want to have as I follow God.

I also had a Brilliant conversation with a girl at dinner. We told our story of what God has brought us through and what God has being teaching us. I found it a real privilege to hear her story and I believe it was a very meaningful experience for both of us. I’m looking forward to having her part of the journey that Mosaic is going through and seeing how God develops her. Its exciting because I can see all the energy she has, the passions she has for Justice, the passion she has for learning and the passion she has to know more. I really pray that she would develop a real deep passion and love for Christ and that Mosaic provides the community she wants. I’m looking forward to seeing how her gifts change the community and how she grows because of Mosaic.

This is the thing I love about Mosaic, being able to share our stories in a non-obliging way. We really want to hear what people are going through, how God is leading them. Sharing one another’s stories and learning from these conversations about who God is and celebrating that.

Rhythm
The last period of my life has been a real challenge. I really feel like I have been going through another period of detox. This time a period of detoxing from myself. I don’t think this has totally ended. But I think I may actually starting to get it, get what community life means. I’m starting to also change my view of church and mission. Its becoming more natural than it has been in the past. I tell you though, it is intense. I don’t think in any other period of my life have I given so much in time and energy to a vision, to something. The ideas consume me, I actually know I am going to move forward further, I want to critically evaluate what I do with my money, time and energy in light of the mission of God. It means I live naturally, I need a healthy balance, but this rhythm is different than the culture I live in. I’m learning it means I give myself my time and energy to people. I live a life of service for everyone that comes across my path. This is completely countercultural, rather than living for myself, fulfilling my comforts and needs I want to give up myself for this.

This is hard, my flesh continues to resist these changes, I’ve complained bitterly about this, both to myself and people I know. But its weird, we need resistant. I call it resistant training. Like a marathon runner, we need to put in the effort, push ourselves to the limit to grow. We push against the resistant to grow, to learn to be more Christ-like. It is not easy, its real hard, but its worth the sweat, the blood and the tears.

I feel so privileged to be on this journey, I need to learn so much. I need to learn what its means truly to serve. I need to learn what it really means to be humble. I need to learn what it means really to be honest about my faults. I need to learn so much. What an adventure.

A New Kind of Question.

Mak has a series of questions that we should be asking as christians, they are:

"how are you touching lives outside your faith community?”
“how are you doing as a community in showing people the tangible love of Jesus?”“
how often have you seen Jesus this week in the poor, marginalized, confused, hurting, sick, dying…?”
“is your community being hospitable, generous and kind to those in the community who do not attend your church?”
“how have you invested in your neighborhood recently?”

Are there any other questions we should be asking? How are you doing with your answers to these questions?

HT: Kingdom Grace

Jesus in the Strip-club

“Generally, I don’t think Christians would like Jesus if he showed up today as he did 2000 years ago. In fact, I think we’d call him a heretic and plot to kill him, too.”
Brian McClaren, Generous Orthodoxy

“To the hustlers, killers, murderers and drug dealers, even the strippers…” – Kanye West, Jesus Walks

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
- 1 Corinthian 9:20-23

This blog entry is dedicated to my two new friends – Justin and Lacey, they are missionaries here to New Zealand who I have the privilege to spend a load of time with. We had a discussion about three weeks ago, this discussion has spurred this blog entry, which should have been written two weeks ago if I had not gotten as side tracked as I did with other more important things.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately, how do we live as lights in the world. How do we live as lights in a reality that is dirty and messy? How do we be salt and light and reach out.

More importantly as missionaries to our culture, how far is too far? How far do we go to scream that we love people who are hurting and in pain?

I know in the past I tried to live in a way where it was better to segregate yourself from the world, stay in a nice safe church building, and you will keep safe. But is this what we were truly called to?

If we look to the ultimate example Jesus, we find some interesting results. Jesus, is wholly holy, yet he came and live amongst us, sinful people, so he could ultimately show the love of God to us. He didn’t spend his time with the all-together sorted people, the holier than thou. No he spent his time with the broken, the lost.

Lets see some examples:
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people." And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Mark 14:1-9

This is a crazy story, when you actually read between the lines of the story. Jesus is a Jewish Rabbi, sitting in the house of a well to do Pharisees. In runs in this half naked girl with an alabaster jar, she starts pouring perfume on his feet, sobbing, she washes his feet. The men in the room would be wondering what the heck is going on. This girl is washing their rabbis feet – this is itself is uncomfortable – but they also know who the girl is, not one of the good girls, but a prostitute. They can’t understand why Jesus allows her to do this – why no call for repentance, why no disgust, just a sincere look of compassion on his face.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink."
Luke 5:27-33

Jesus sets the example, he spends those we consider in the not worthy, reaches out to the lost and shows love and compassion to those around him. He wasn’t scared of being “polluted” by them. He just brought healing, he ate with them. The interesting thing is that Levi followed – he brought all those who were considered unworthy to dinner with Jesus. Levi knew that he had discovered someone special and wanted to allow others share in this wonderful thing he discovered. He wasn’t scared to invite those who wouldn’t be considered worthy – he had nothing to lose in fact (he was a tax collector himself – considered the lowest of the low himself!)

So what does this mean for you? What does this mean for me?

I am only slowly figuring this out. What it has meant is that I’m more involved that ever in the lives of people that come across my path. I don’t want to see people as projects; I see them as friends, to love and care for and reach out to. I will listen intently to their hopes and fears, eating with them, spend time playing sport with them, going to the movies with them. I want to be in there for the long haul, journeying with them through life and hopefully in the process I will ultimately help lead them to find wholeness and new life.

It also means going out of my comfort zone. It means pushing further and going into places I once found dangerous to tread so that I can show Jesus’ love.

Me and my friends were talking about what this would mean. We were talking about the gay community on Victoria campus and the feeling that they wanted to get involved in their and just be friends, and help out and serve the community. Of course one of the hardest questions is “How far is too far” and there will be conscience calls to make, but what a way to shine out and show Gods love. Showing that people who are in gay and lesbian lifestyles are loved by God and are worthy of his compassion. Showing that Jesus loves each and everyone of us, no matter what we have done.

It is very similar to what a group of Christians in America have started to do. Their ministry is xxxChurch – the Worlds biggest Christian Porn Site. They reach out to those involved in the porn industry in America and more widely. It has also tackled the issue of pornography within the Church. People such as Mike Foster have spent time ministering with people in the porn industry, just sharing time with them. They even got one of the porn directors to direct a video about how destructive porn can be. These guys have gone in and started being salt and light in a place where few Christians would dare to travel.

So what does this mean? Where is God calling you? Are there foreign dangerous lands that we are avoiding or missing here where we are?

I don’t think God has called me to minister in the strip club, but if he does, I want to be willing to go and be light there. I want to be where God wants me to be. Bringing redemption wherever he leads me.

Posts of Note # 4

I've put a number of new links up on my blog over the last couple of weeks to blogs of members of Mosaic.

Get Busy Living is the blog of Benn Crawford

The walking stick and Learning to Love are the blogs of my New American friends Justin Blass and Lacey Speck. They are missionaries here with student life. It is great to have them as part of Mosaic. I am sure having a whole lot of fun spending time talking with them and sharing life with them in our little (yet growing) community.

Kingdom grace has an interesting post on intimacy with God and what that means. How do we see our relationship with God. Is the electric fence experience important? What does it mean to walk with God? What she has to say is very encouraging though.

My friend Lisa has another thoughtful post - this time on multiculturalism and the church. Many people know that I love worship and how it is personal and cultural. That we can express our personal story to Christ and it doesn't need to be restricted. Its awesome. I look forward to seeing people worship God in a whole series of ways in heaven, in song, in dance, in caring for one another, by eating together, by sharing stories with one another, by being co-creators with God. I love all these different expressions that show our gratitude to God but also the way in which when we do these we come closer to understanding what humanity was truly intended to being about.

Update
Steve Taylor of Emergent Kiwi has done a blog on the theology contained in the Hillsong song "for all you have done", he has been very kind to Hillsong who for all the theological issues contained in their songs (particularly the ones leaning towards "Jesus is my boyfriend songs and bad prosperity gospel) have actually written a song which is pretty sound theologically. Well done Hillsong, and well done Steve Taylor for being gracious and humble.

You can see further reaction to a Steves blog on Bill Kinnnon's blog who gives his critical response.

Preach it Mother, Sister, Brother...

I have just finished reading Rick McKinley's book This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God . It was an awesome book to reach especially in conjuction with studying the Sermon on the Mount at Mosaic.

Anyway one chapter hit me pretty hard as I was reading it on the Bus as I went to work this week, it was chapter 11. There were a couple of qoutes about allowing our lives be lights - a constant theme in my life at the moment... sounds like God is trying to teach me something, anyway read these. The first is from Mother Theresa.

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. ... ... What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.

The next one is from Rick McKinley. This hit me real hard.

The fact is our lives do preach. But what do they preach? Do they preach to the world that God mourns with those who mourn and is risen "with healing in his wings"? Or do they announce that God is apathetic?

I have a real sense that I am an ambassador for God in this world. That we are to spread a message of love and hope in this world. A message that God wants to be reconciled with his Children. Forget the worlds, show it in actions. Actions speak loudly to how we really think, what is really important to us. God showed who he truly was by Jesus' ultimate sacrifice. How are we living to show what the Gospel means. Not acting it, but truly being a voice of faith love and hope to a broken world.

Santuary Vineyard Ekklessia - An Apostolic DNA

This is from Sanctuary Vineyards website. I really thought this summed up some of my thoughts on how church should be.

Typically churches grow by addition. They add new members at a % rate of their volume. The problem with this is that the rate of growth of people outstrips the rate of grow of churches. Simply adding cannot overcome the growth of multiplication. The church must also grow exponentially and this means it must be radically different. It needs to be organic not institutional. It needs to be Jesus centred not doctrine centred. It needs to be adaptable not bound by location or resources. It needs to be fully reproducible by any other Christian not only by the “ordained”.

Each of the lights in that vision is the same but each one lights a different part of the world. So by they adapt to their environment without losing that which defines them as lights.

It’s also important to note that the lights are networked. They connect with each other and collectively the light they shine is more than any could produce alone.

So too it is with Ekklesia. They share a common DNA, a common vision. But they are adapted to their environment, to the people in them and around them. And they are connected, networked. Innovation in one flows out to the rest. Wisdom and learning in another spreads through the system being adapted and applied to suit the local circumstances. And when the need arises they can mobilise and come together to meet common challenges and opportunities.

Sanctuary Vineyard is not about planting a Sunday service. It is not about a building. It is not about organised programs to attract people to a building. Harvey Kietel says in the Steinlarger Pure ad: “What you say no to defines you.” Sanctuary Vineyard says no to institutionalism, no to external control (1), no to inorganic hierarchy, no to doctrinal correctness, no to imposed leadership.

But we are also defined by what we say yes to. Sanctuary Vineyard says yes to organic structure and adapting to the environment, yes to living lives centred under Jesus’ Lordship, yes to the authority of gifting and scripture, yes to sharing the gospel through deed and word, yes to mercy, yes to compassion and yes to grace.

The vision we have is the planting and nurturing of Ekklesia. Each Ekklesia will be formed with a common, covenanted set of core practices. Each leader commits to living and teaching these practices. To be a member (2) of the Ekklesia each person commits to working out these practices in their lives. All are welcome in the Ekklesia, but to truly belong each person must become a part of it by covenanting to live according to the common practices of the Ekklesia. The common practices for the DNA of Sanctuary Vineyard Church. They are the ties that bind, the vision that propels, the hope that sustains, the faith that grows.

The expression of the DNA of the Ekklesia will vary and adapt according to the needs of individual Ekklesia and the individuals in the Ekklesia. The Ekklesia will form the primary expression of Church (3) for all members. Each Ekklesia is the expression of Christ’s body in its culture and geography.

The DNA of the Ekklesia can be expressed the following way:

Expanding in Christ

Knowing Christ

Kingdom living

Loving others as we have been loved

Engaging with scripture

Sent to the world

Intentional lives of worship and prayer.

Accepting all

The Light in the Dark

Work
This week has been a really busy week for me and one that I struggled with at the start. I had alot of energy taken out of me by basically not having a weekend the weekend prior as I was preparing for an interview. By wenesday I was stuffed and had a very bad migrane that basically left me feeling lathargic for the whole day. The good news is that I heard that I was getting my contract at the Ministry extended so that was a great sign. I have started work on one important project that is going to take up alot of my time for the next couple of weeks up to Easter and I received real good feedback from my team mates and my manager that I report to. So all in all I felt happy with how work is going on.

Mosaic
Mosaic was awesome of wenesday evening, one of the most defining moments that I've had with Mosaic so far. It was really important for me what we did on wenesday night and it will leave a lasting impression on me. We finished off going through the Sermon on the Mount. This section is one of the most demanding parts of the bible, challenging us to become agents in the Kingdom and offering a set of values that are truly countercultural.

I really enjoyed the focus time. We went through the section on salt and light and learned that salt was used in the time as a preservative, I'm still struggling to apply this idea, so if anyone has any Idea please help me out. But salt is also a healer, it is rubbed into wounds to bring purification and healing. Salt like this is painful - but healing to the brokenness we feel. We then sprinkled salt over a map of Wellington to symbolise our commitment to be salt to Wellington City. We then turned off the lights and sat around a candle. We were asked to take in the scene. It was dark and disorientating, and there was no focus for us. Then we lighted the candle, this gave us focus, it gave us direction and gave clarity, we could see obstacles in the room. Phil talked about a time when he entered a rural house in pitch dark, he had to crawl accross the floor and to try and find his room becuase he was too scared to turn on the light. This is how we can be, with no light we can't find where we are going and find it hard to move forward, it is only with light that we find clarity. Can you remember from watching the Lord of the Rings how important Gandalfs staff was to bring clarity and direction - the light was the lead in the journey. We need light to direct us in the right way. Light also shows up where we are broken, where we need fixing. If we let God shine his light in we can allow him to start the healing process in our broken lives so that we can be restored.

The Game of my Life
Ok maybe not really, but I've made the move to make some healthier lifestyle choices. I've started playing indoor Netball on friday. I played centre and survived the whole game so that was awesome. I enjoyed the fact that I kept up with the person I was marking for the whole game and caused mistakes for the player and I nearly made a two pointer from outside the circle. I got good comments back at the end of the game. We may have lost but we stayed pretty competitive throughout the game against a very experienced team.

This week has been great. I have been learning alot, and gained a bit more confidence that I am in the right place, that God is blessing the decisions I am making but also know I have a more challenges to face when it comes to my priorities and my life.

My Kingdom is not of this World

WThis is a post by N.T Wright from Newsweek at the Washington Post. In what is election year both in New Zealand and America, it is good to remember that Jesus offers a counter-cultural view of power. Read and see.

He Would Challenge Power, Not Run for It
This is of course an impossible question, like 'If the sun were to rise in the west, would it be green or blue?' In other words, by agreeing to the terms of the question you make it impossible to give an answer based on anything other than highly distorted speculation.

Jesus didn't run for anything. He acted as if he were a different kind of ruler altogether, with a 'kingdom' that didn't originate from the present world (otherwise, he said, his servants would fight to rescue him) but instead was meant FOR this present world, to transform and heal it. The present way we do politics and government is, alas, part of the problem, and he would have challenged it (its huge cost, its pretense of participation which is shamelessly manipulated by the media, its cult of personality, its ignoring, all too often, of the actual needs of the poor, etc. etc.) just as he challenged the power structures of his day.

The real question is, what sort of a cross would today's system be intent on using to kill him?

The week so far

The last few days have been draining. I don't know why but it has. So lets see whats being happening this week.
- I prepared for a job interview on Sunday
- I went to our Mosaic BBQ on Sunday night, where I discovered why drinking a beer then a red wine is not a good thing to do!
- I had an interview for a job on Monday
- Worked on a mammoth task at work on Monday and Tuesday.
- I spent yesterday night and today preparing my CV and cover letter - I am mildly exhausted from this all.
- Today I went to lunch with an old friend of mine from America. It was great to catch up with her as we have not seen each other for about two years. Its amazing how much changes in life in such a short period. I've started working (or kind of), I've finished my degree, I've moved into a different paradigm of how to live out my faith, I've been over to Siberia twice. When I think about it this period of time has been a pretty big period of growth - I think it is going to continue to be.
Hope all is well with all you avid readers. I am kind of tired - the last few days have been taxing.

Mark Driscoll Parody of Persecuted American Christians

I found this on Syms blog. Mark Driscolls humour makes for great social commentary!

And all that Jazz...

As you readers would know my life has become very very busy. You are probably wondering what I’m up to and why I havn’t written anything substantial in what seems to be a long time. This is a summary of what’s been happening.

Work
At present I’m working on a contract in town in a government department. This is my first substantial job. I’m really enjoying the experience and the team that I’m working in. I have a whole lot to learn about how things work within government but I’m looking forward to the future challenges I face in this field and endeavour. I am also currently working every second weekend as a library assistant. This should be an interesting role in which I can meet a range of people so this should be fun.

Mosaic
Mosaic is one of my major focuses of my energies this year. Mosaic is a community of believers that is exploring what it means to do church in non-institutional ways. We explore Christian spirituality and what it means to be a follower of Christ in the 21st century. We face an exciting and challenging year, and already seeing growth and excitement in what is happening. If you want to check us out you can go here

Life in General – Priorities
The last few weeks have made me ask numbers of questions about the way I live out my life – Its weird – Two things have really marked this period of time. 1. I now earn a lot more money than I have previously. 2. I have a lot less time than I had previously to do things with. This is different than my university life where I both had little spare time, and also little spare money (particularly in my honours year). Now I am trying to use the resources that God has given my wisely – I have identified the limitations – My physical health, my time and my money, now I need to identify the best way to get optimal performance (I know this sounds instrumental but it really isn’t). I have identified that I want to live intentionally in a way that makes the world a better place (this has become my goal for my life – linked intrinsically with Jesus’s commands to Love the Lord with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbour)

At present I’m struggling with this all. I’m starting to get into a rhythm and I’m starting to get my focus straight and placing my energy into those things that I see as the highest priorities. I really need prayed about this though. I want to invest my money and time in things that honour God. I want to be wise about this. Its hard sometimes to know if I’m getting it right.

I don’t want to just live for me, for status, for pleasure, for money. I want to live for something bigger than that. I want to live to see the gospel spread. I want to live to see justice established, I want to live to see Gods Kingdom come on earth as it is heaven. These are the pangs of my heart. I want to see this established through the skills, personality and character that God has given to me for his glory. I am a canvas that God is drawing his beautiful picture on, ripped, muddy, and broken I may be, but the loving creator God is performing his repair work, creating a beautiful piece.

Narnia Qoutes - CS Lewis

I enjoyed these qoutes - they kind of explain some of my understandings of Jesus. Read and take in, they are good.

“‘They say that Aslan is on the move’
And now a very curious thing happened.
None of the children know who Aslan was more than any of you do; but the moment Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different… … At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delight strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”

I'm not going to explain this, its too hard for me at the moment!

"'Ooh!' Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel nervous meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake,' said Mrs Beaver; 'if theres anyone who can appear before Aslan without thier knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.'
'Then he isn’t safe?' said Lucy.
'Safe?' Said Mr Beaver; 'don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said any about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.'” (My Emphasis)

I've thought about this qoute often, it has made a deep impression on me about my lord and saviour. As I've read the story of The Lion the Which and the Wardrobe this qoute has stayed in my mind constantly. The story shows these kids who form a relationship with the King of the whole world, Aslan. It is interesting, they know he will protect them, but they know that if he wanted to that at a single swipe they could be gone. But they cherish his freindship, his wisdom and guidance. He shows his love and care for them by sacrificing himself for the life of Edmund on the stone table (remind you of anything?) Remember this week that Jesus isn't safe, his message is not that of a meek mild man but of radical loving world-shattering saviour. His way isn't safe or easy, its challenging and dangerous. Follow him though because his way is good.

Christs Reworking of Israels Story - from NT Wright

This quote is from NT Wright's Simply Christian. Over the past few years I have come to the belief that we have to remember the context of Jesus’ message and teaching. He was ministering to a Palestinian Jewish culture. One shaped by its past and looking forward to the establishment of the Messiahs reign. In Jesus we find the proclamation of the kingdom of God. This reworks the story of Israel and the role of Israels Messiah. Jesus calls Israel back to the heart of God – the redemption of the whole world.

“[Jesus] believed that the ancient [Jewish] prophecies were being fulfilled. He believed that Israel’s God was doing a new thing, renewing and reconstituting Israel in a radical way… … It wasn’t a matter of the God of Israel simply fighting off the wicked pagans and vindicating his own people. It wasn't about God judging not only the pagans but also Israel; about God fulfilling his promises, but doing so in a way that nobody had expected or anticipated. God was issuing a fresh challenge to Israel, echoing back to his promises to Abraham: Israel is indeed the light of the world, but its present policies have been putting that light under the bucket. It’s time for drastic action. Instead of the usual military revolt, it was time to show the pagans what the true God was really like, not by fighting and violence but by loving ones enemies, turning the other cheek, going the second mile. That is the challenge which Jesus issues in his series of teachings that we call the “sermon on the mount.””

I will come back to this quote at a later time, for a while think on it, give your opinions and thoughts; I will try to comment when I have time.

Writers Block - Part 2 - The Frustration

Hello again my patient readers. As you all know, I have been suffering from a very bad case of writers block over the last couple of weeks. This has been very very frustrating for me. I have all these ideas stuck in my little head. The good news is that I'm over the writers block. The bad news is that I have no time to write at the moment as I've been busy with work and life. I will try to get a post written this weekend - if - if I have time. I have a few quotes that have got me thinking over the last week or two that I'm going to hopefully get posted. Anyways, see you later. Hopefully by then I will have some substantial ideas written up!

Writers Block

This post is to tell you that I’m still here and still thinking. I think many times we fall into the lie that “I blog therefore I am”. In reality this is not the case. I’m suffering from a bad case of writers block. This has basically stopped me from putting any thoughts on paper for the last week. This is driven by the fact that my life has just gotten a whole lot busier and because of this I have not made blogging one of the priorities of my life. Also I have been thinking about my blogging, where should I go next, why do I blog? What do I want to achieve by blogging? These philosophical questions have been haunting me for a couple of months. Is it worth it?

I love to write, it gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to put my thoughts on paper, and will continue for the time being. I want to know how to do this. To the benefit of those who read my blog, without feeling pressure to produce or mass produce what I write. I want to be authentic, honest and questioning in how I write. Opening the way for healthy discussion that will impact peoples lives.

I have a couple of pieces that I’m thinking through about producing

- Some comments on the book of Acts – I’m reading through this book at the moment. This narrative is having a major impact on me as I can see a lot of what is going on in this narrative seems to reflect the story I am finding myself presently in with mosaic and how we are moving forward.

- The Story of the mustard seed – this came out of a word that I/we had at our last mosaic meeting – It has been impacting me in the last week as I move forward. It has been both a challenge on my heart and a source of encouragement.

- Thoughts inspired by reality tv shows – particularly “So you think you can dance” – I know I am a heathen in need of saving – I still flirt with watching “reality” TV shows – but what can you do when they are the only thing they show on TV?

I am going to go to bed now. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be totally over this bad case of writers block and I will get some good quality writing done for my real job.

Posts of Note # 3

I have been busy this week as I have started a new job (yeah at last!) so I have had less time to write blogs and surf the net (though contrary to popular opinion I do more than that all day when I am not working!).

My Brother has a long postive and humour post on his time at Parachute 2008. It gives a in-depth look at the in and outs. On another note my brother has joined the dark side again (he has XP on his Mac!)

Anyway you can find this information on his blog. I'm going to see if I can write anything of further consequence this evening, hopefully on Acts, as I've had some indepth thoughts that developed out of a awesome meeting of Mosaic people on Monday night.

Chuck Norris is too Much Even for the Power of Google

Type "Finding Chuck Norris"

Press "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Then run, really really fast!

H.T Jake Belder

Stop Look and Listen

Many a times I forget to listen. I'm a ENFP and I'm naturally excitable and can get extremely focused on dreams, cuases and ideas. I attempt to convince people that the ideas I have are the most important and most valuable for them. Some are just personally very, very important to me (Like the best way to have a coffee - its a heresy to do certain things to your coffee and I will tell them about it in no uncertain terms - i'm also a coffee snob - no star bucks for me!) but there are other ideas that I think I have some good thoughts on or things that we should be doing that I will tell you about becuase I'm excited about them. I'm naturally an advocate and will advocate strongly for my passions. But the issue with this is I can forget to listen, listen to the other voices that are crying out to be heard and to be listened to.

I had a good lesson in this over the last few days. Me and my younger brother Ben went up to the Wairapa for a guys day at the maslins farm. Most of those who went are probrably about five or six years my younger. I found the conversations fascinating to listen to from a vantage point. Some of the conclusions that they were coming out with sounded fairly similar to what I came out with at thier age. Others represented conclusions I had just come to now.

I just love the idealism though with teenagers. The willingness to give ideas and challenge the past preconceptions. Some of thier thoughts made me cringe and I just had to say something. Like when one of the guys said "The morning church focuses too much on mission." It was one of those moments (due to my passion for mission!) that I had to respond. But most of the time I listened.

It was great, we had some awesome conversations in the car on the way back. One on the dangers of prosperity doctrine, the bahai religion (which was short and sweet) and one conversation of buddhism. I enjoy the willingness they had to talk about different beleif systems while refering to christianity as the story beleive is the one true story of redemption, love, grace, our human condition and who God really is.

Conversation is really important to me. I need it. It gives me great stimulous. Over the last couple of years I have had some really really good conversations about spirituality and I hope to have many more over the years. I really enjoy hearing the desires of peoples hearts. I love being able to wrestle with people, share my life with them. I enjoy humbly being a prescence of Jesus in these enviroments sharing my life with people.

Listening is important too. I walked down into town yesterday. I stopped at the top of the hill and looked out upon the beautiful city that I live in. I had another moment of realisation that God has put me here for a reason, that this is when God wants me and that I've been called to be in a conversation with this city.

The importance of listening is that only then can we learn what makes the places we live beat, what is causing pain in the place we live, what causes pain to the people who live thier. We need to listen to both the dreams of those around us and the pains of those around us. Only then do we have to right to humbly respond.

I dislike the way many have come to beleive there is a culture war going on within society between "family values" or "Christian values" and secular society. Many times they have come to beleive there is no hope for society (denying the awesome power of Jesus to change the hearts of people) and closing themselves off from the lost. At worst they decide that to show that they are right, they bomb abortion clinics or treat homosexuals as unhuman through slurs and isolation. Rather than being agents of love and grace and being Jesus and bringing the message of love and forgiveness to the lost. Dialoging and sharing life as Jesus would do.

But I also find it disheartening to see the truth become less and less relevant. People who turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, work, money etc for fulfillment only to find there is no wholeness in these ventures, they find that all thier quests end in the words of the writer of ecclessiates that they are "meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

As you know I beleive that Jesus offers a new way to be human. He offers wholeness for us broken vessels. Jesus came to earth and lived among us to show love, to show a new way to live, and went to die on a cross as an ultimate act of love becoming forsaken so we could be forgiven and so we could have hope in the resurrection of the dead and receive eternal life.

Becuase of this I beleive we need to be constantly in conversation with the lost, the hungry, the lonely, the poor, and the weak. Sharing Jesus with everyone in the way we live.

So we should remember to stop look and listen to those around us.

Graces Accidental Conversation

I read this on Kingdom Grace yesterday. Its amazing what occurs when we stop and listen to those voices that are there to talk to us.

I had to go to the dentist yesterday for a regular cleaning and exam. Good news, no cavities and my blood pressure is 100/60. Most of the time was spent with the hygienist. The dentist is usually in and out in less than 5 minutes. They say nice things to me like, “You’ve got great teeth for your age.”

The patient before me was a Lutheran pastor. When I sat down, the hygienist told me that he was trying to convert her. I asked her, “From what?” and she said, “From the Catholic church.”
She went on to explain that she and her husband are both “cradle Catholics” but they have been unhappy with the new priest in town, so they haven’t been going to church and want to start going somewhere more regularly. I asked, “So you’re trying to decide if you want to be a good Lutheran or a bad Catholic?”

At this point, her hands were in my mouth. She laughed and said, “Oh well, I’m probably going to hell either way.”

Thus began an interesting one-sided conversation with only nods and “awwww”s from me. “This priest is so conservative. The last time we were there, he said that if you use birth control, you might as well not bother coming to church.”

“I am used to tuning out the priest, but my husband is pretty upset.”

“We might visit the Lutheran church, but they have closed communion. Really I shouldn’t be taking communion anyway since I haven’t been to confession.”

She went on to explain how she does confession. She said she takes an outline of the ten commandments and lists her sins in the appropriate category and makes subcategories so she doesn’t miss any. She said one priest laughed when he saw her outline.

“All of the Catholics taking communion can’t be going to confession. If they were, the confession hours would be a lot longer than they are.”

“I guess the Lutherans just shoot their confessions straight up to God.”

“Our daughter has been learning bible stories at her preschool. But I am afraid we are dropping the ball at home. Since we are “cradle Catholics” we don’t know anything about our religion. We haven’t ever paid attention.”

“The other day, one of my patients told me he has a new Bible, and it is written in plain, everyday language. Can you believe that?! I thought they were all like the one I have, full of thee’s and thou’s. I called him at home and asked him about it and ordered one for myself on Amazon.”

“I haven’t decided yet what to give up for lent.”

“Time for fluoride. Okay, bite down gently on this and hold your mouth closed.”

It was ironic to me to run into this great spiritual conversation and literally not get to say a word. In less than a half hour she hit on the topics of church, liturgy, scripture, baptism, communion, sin, and eternity, all with a serious curiosity about what role God plays in a person’s life. It was fascinating listening. I am not sure what I would have said, given the chance, but in this case, I had no choice except to be a good listener.

I think its really important to listen, and be willing to humbly posture in a spirit of love. Only then will we truly learn, grow and develop. Only then can we get to the heart of where people are really at.