Total Church

Well, one more post before the end of the year. I've been reading the book 'Total Church' by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, and I've found it challenging. The key point they make is that gospel and community are the two central features of Church. I think they are basically correct in what they argue for - they have a great Biblical definition of 'gospel centred' and 'community centred'.

Our church's vision statement is pretty much saying exactly the same thing as we are aiming to be a 'loving christ centred community' but I'm not sure we always do a great job of the community side of things. Chester and Timmis have a great quote about how to help your church become community centred. They say:
'If you warm to this vision of Christian community then start where you are. Sell the vision by modelling the vision. Don't become a pain to your existing congregation, telling them everything they are doing is wrong. Become a blessing by offering hospitality, showing practical care, dropping in on people. Create around you a group of Christians who will share their lives and encourage one another in the faith.'

I'm currently looking at our church calendar for 2010 and at this stage modelling and facilitating community is one of the big aims I have for the year.
 

Blogging Year One

Well it's almost the end of the year, and I thought I should sneak in a couple of more blog posts. Looking back over my first year of blogging I probably did more  than I thought I might, although obviously this has seriously fallen away in the last few months. Life has been busy and motivation has been low.

I haven't given up the aim of posting more regularly again next year. I think blogging is certainly a good way to have (slightly?) more disciplined thoughts on a whole range of subjects, and is a more useful way to use free time than watching TV, although not as relaxing for me either.

I look forward to some more useful discussions in the coming months.

Polemical Hymns!

Doing some background reading for my sermon this week on Jonathan Edwards and I came across a new idea (well new for me anyway) - polemical hymns. Here's a classic from Charles Wesley about the Calvinist doctrine of the decrees of God.

Still shall the Hellish doctrine stand?
And Thee for its dire Author claim?
No - let it sink at thy Command
Down to the Pit from whence it came.

I can't understand why no one's done a modern tune for this one. It'd have to be a hit right up there with 'Before the Throne of God Above'....

I should be fair and note that Wesley was not alone. Angus Toplady, of 'Rock of Ages' fame was a strong Calvinist and wrote some equally combative hymns about Arminianism. 

Top five preaching tips

Hope this isn't too serious for a top 5 post. Seems relevant being Sunday and all...
1. Preach the one big idea from a Bible passage
2. Help your congregation connect with the passage in a meaningful way
3. Apply the passage to real situations/temptations/challenges your congregation will face
4. Use the shortest words possible
5. Don't preach for too long - better people leave wanting more than sit there wishing it was over!

Twitter vs facebook updates

From my extremely limited experience of tweeting and facebook updating, I think that the difference is one of quantity versus quality. You can tweet anything any time in any situation. There is not really any sense of etiquette being breached by a large number of mundane posts.

A facebook update however should be more carefully crafted and should have some value for the wider community in terms of wit or wisdom. Etiquette for facebook limits the number of status updates remembering that, in contrast with twitter, people have other things to do on facebook apart from reading your updates.

Top 5 windows mobile programs

Thought I'd join in Ben's top five fun

1. Iphone Today UI
2. Evernote note taker
3. opera mini browser
4. copilot live GPS
5. S2P music player

Antique Theology Flyer

Happy with the flyer - now I just need some content!

Antique Theology

I'm going to try a historical theology sermon series at church next term. Having never done anything like this before, and being something less than an expert historian it's going to be a challenge. Hopefully I'll be able to pull together enough interesting and useful material to give our congregation a sense of the depth of thinking that has gone on over the last 2000 years.

So far I have a title for the series Antique Theology. And I've chosen my topics:

Athanasius and the nature of Jesus Christ
Augustine and the two cities
Anselm and the atonement
Luther and faith
Calvin and the church
Edwards and emotions
Bonhoeffer and discipleship

The first 5 topics really picked themselves. The last two were more difficult. I thought about Wesley or Whitfield instead of Edwards. But I've read more of Edwards than the other two, and I think Whitfield is really more of a practitioner than a theologian, and it would probably be easier to work with the Reformed Edwards than the Arminian Wesley.

As for Bonhoeffer, it was tricky thinking about a modern theologian to deal with. I could have done Barth, but Bonhoeffer is such a great story, and again I think slightly easier to come to terms with some of his stuff than Barth who no one seems to be able to agree on what he was really saying!

Anyway - let me know if you think I've missed anyone important, and if you have any better titles for a church history series.

Priorities for single staff pastors

Old but good post I came accross here from CJ Mahaney from Soveriegn grace ministries. Very wise advice from my experience. Although I'm now looking for the post on how to actually do what I've prioritised.

Recipe - Chicken and Bacon stuff

Well, I've been tagged by Simone to provide a recipe. I think I'll just have to give the one for what we had last night. It's a Simone special, designed for dinner last night, and it was good enough for me to want to have it for lunch today as well.

2 Chicken breasts
a couple of rashers of bacon, chopped
an onion, chopped
some olives
some capers (I think these would be optional)
a large can of tomatoes
a splash of red wine
a teaspoon of crushed garlic

Put all the ingredients in an oven proof dish and bake for a while - probably 45mins - 1 hour (we had to finish it off in the microwave because the chicken wasn't quite cooked).

Serve with Rice

YUM

Calvin on knowing God

We know the most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of his essence, which we ought more to adore than meticulously to search out, but for us to contemplate him in his works whereby he renders himself near to us, and in some manner communicates himself.
Institutes I.v.9

Great point from Calvin on ceremonies

And we ought to note this fact even more diligently: all men have a vague general  veneration of God, but very few really reverence him; and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed.
Institutes I.ii.2

Nehemiah the Godly Isrealite

I'm preaching on Nehemiah at the moment, and I've been thinking about two questions. First, what impact does the 'first person' nature of the book have on the way we understand it. What I mean is, all the events in Nehemiah are mediated to us through the perspective of Nehemiah himself. This is different from other Old Testament Narratives, where you often get the divinely inspired narrator giving us direct access into what God is doing in a particular set of events. However in Nehemiah there is no narrator, and so it is entirely his opinion about what God is doing and what is happening in general.

In my mind, the first person nature of the book (technically bits of the book are known as the Nehemiah Memoirs) draws us in to identify very strongly with Nehemiah. You can't stand back from his decisions and choices and feelings and analyse what God is doing objectively. You really enter into his world. I think this means that you can't avoid but read Nehemiah as a godly role model.

Which leads me onto my second question: What Biblical Theological theme does Nehemiah fit into. I think often, because he is such an effective leader, we tend to place him in the leader/King theme of Biblical theology, and see him as a type of Jesus our King. However in Nehemiah 6 it is made very clear that Nehemiah is NOT a king. He is not from the Davidic line and he is not presented as God's annointed leader. I want to suggest that a better Biblical theological theme in which to place Nehemiah is the faithful Israelite.

Right from the start of the Book Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is the repentant Israelite confessing his sins and praying for the return of the exile, through his wholehearted love for his neighbours (Neh 5), his respect for the temple (Neh 6), and his continual request for God to look favourably on him. Nehemiah seems to present himself, in contrast to the other Jews, as the faithful Israelite living the life of wholehearted obedience that Deuteronomy 30 called for.

As such, Nehemiah is not a type of Jesus our King, but a type of Jesus the true Israelite who is able to do what Nehemiah couldn't do - live on behalf of his people, deal with their sin and send his holy spirit to give them new hearts.

As a faithful Isrealite, Nehemiah is also, again more naturally an example for us. He is not an annointed King. He is not a Prophet. He is not a priest. He is a faithful follower of God seeking to serve him with all his heart and live according to his plans. He perhaps lack the confidence in God's grace that we have through Christ. But He stands as a great role model of someone who was absolutely serious about God's plans.

Survey of Childcare/parenting in the Bible

As promised, here are some thoughts on childcare in the Bible. The post has gotten a bit out of hand - it's trying to survey bits of the Bible explicitly touching on parenting. However, having done this survey it's pretty clear to me that most of the significant things the Bible says about parenting are not explicitly about parenting - they're about godliness.

But since I've done this survey - here it is.

The Bible starts with the important command to humans to 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:28), suggesting that parenting is an important part of what we are created to do. In addition the curse in Genesis 3 points to the particularly central role that childbirth plays for women.

As we move on through the pentateuch we don't see a lot about the actual day-to-day childcare arrangements of children. Although one interesting situation is Moses and his mother, where it is clearly seen as a great blessing that his mother can keep nursing him, even though he is adopted by the Princess of Egypt. (Exodus 2:1-10)

It is interesting that there are no direct laws about childcare, and in fact a lot less laws about parenting in general than there are about the importance of children respecting their parents. The one, absolutely vital, command for parents is to instruct their children in the laws and the mighty rescue that God accomplished for them (Deut 6:7,20-25). The other responsibility parents have to their children in the law is to not allow them to intermarry with the surrounding people.

Moving on from the pentateuch, we come to the interesting case of Samuel, who is sent off to the temple as soon as he is weaned (wonder what age that was). This is certainly seen as a positive in the story, and interestingly the sadness in the story is not for Samuel living away from home, but for his mother who has lost her son. The blessing from ELi is that she would have other children to replace the one given to the Lord. In this particular situation Eli of course is seen as a weak parent because of the poor behaviour of his sons. Although no mention of the particular childcare arrangements are made.

Moving on to 2 Kings there is the situation of the Shunamite's son who when he has 'grown' goes out to be with his father and the reapers and then gets sick (sun stroke??) and dies. He can't have been that old, however because he dies sitting on his mothers lap. Don't think it's making any point about childcare but it certainly reminds us that culturally things are very different. Most kids aren't going to wander out and reap with their dads these days! There tends to be this massive divide between home and community.

In the book of Esther, Esther is brought up by Mordecai her cousin, but there is an explanation to the effect that this is becaue her parents have died, assuming that in normal situations they would bring her up.

The book of Proverbs perhaps has the most to say about parenting in the Bible, discipline and wise teaching are counselled as being essential to wise and godly children (6:20 etc). Proverbs also has the interesting picture of the proverbs 31 super woman who seems to be able to care for her household and have a range of business interests all at the same time.

Turning to the New Testament, there is again not a lot of direct teaching about parenting. Jesus' parent clearly have a significant input in his life. But the exact nature of that input is not spelt out.

Jesus himself commends respect for parents, but also indicates that to leave parents or children for his sake is an appropriate thing to do. He may well be talking about adult children in this verse.

Jesus also assumes that parents love and care for their children in his parables - eg the prodigal son (Luke 15) and the equating of God with a father who wants to give good gifts to his son (Luke 11:11-13).

Moving on in the New Testament, the key direct instruction about parenting is in Ephesians 6:4. In many ways this verse picks up the key idea of proverbs - that fathers should not exasperate their children but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

In the pastorals there is rather difficult verse from 1 Timothy 2 about women being saved through childbirth. This may indicate the special place that child rearing has in women working out their salvation - although to be fair I think there is legitimate dispute over the exact meaning of the verse.

The other important verse in the pastorals is Titus 2:3-5 where the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children and to be busy at home. This verse certainly suggests that women had a key role in the home, but doesn't directly address the childcare question.

To conclude this survey, it seems to me that the overwhelming concern of the Bible is that Parents raise their children in the training and instruction of the Lord. This comes through again and again in the law, the wisdom and the New Testament. And I would think this would be the first and most vital question to ask when thinking about childcare arrangements. How will they effect our task in bringing children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

It is assumed in the Bible that parents will love their children, and that mothers have a special role around childbirth and the home. However I don't think from what is said about parenting it can be supported that mothers must be at home all the time with their children, or that it is wrong to have some parts of childcare done by others. The Bible genuinely leaves this as an area of freedom.

There are of course other issues that we will need to be aware of when making decisions about full-time mothering and childcare. These include materialism, careerism, the value of children and opportunites for ministry and service in the community and what is loving for our particular children. But I think that is definitely another post.

Love to hear if I've missed any important passages.

Biblical parenting and 7 day- a-week daycare

Simone has been involved in an interesting blog discussion about the place of daycare in parenting for people who want to follow Jesus. It's obviously an area where it is difficult to make judgements without making someone feel guilty or threatened. However my interest was sparked by a comment that Simone made to the effect that obviously it would be innappropriate for a Christian to put their child in daycare for 7 days a week.

My first thought (which I expressed to Simone), was that this was such an obvious statement that it was hardly worth saying, it was a kind of straw man, OF COURSE 7 days a week daycare was wrong... But a little later it struck me with some force that I personally, from the age of 9 to the age of 16 was in 7 days and nights a week childcare - I was sent to boarding school.

You'll be glad to know that the reason I was sent to boarding school was not uncaring or unchristian parents, in fact quite the opposite, my parents were missionaries in Bangladesh and, along with many other missionary families there, felt that the best way to give us a good education was to send us to a boarding school in India.

I wouldn't say that I found boarding school easy, but neither do I look back with too many regrets. I certainly was never in any doubts about my parents love and care for me. And they remain the most significant influence on me as a person.

Now let me say that I that the 'I turned out ok, so it must have been a good idea' kind of argument is false. Fortunately for all parents, God is gracious and could use unwise decisions for good.

However the whole boarding school experience raises the question of whether our concerns about things like daycare is at times more cultural than Biblical. It seems to me that sometimes our arguments against daycare follow this logic. Daycare is a product of feminism. Feminism is a bad thing. Therefore daycare is a bad thing.

But community care of children has been around for much longer than feminism, and has been an important part of committed Christian parenting. The boarding school I attended was set up by Christians committed enough to serve God in Asia before the second world war to care for their children while they were engaged in mission work. My history is fairly weak beyond that, but I get the impression that going further back full time nannies for example weren't seen as necessarily unbiblical for those who could afford them. And this gets us to the heart of the matter. What does the Bible actually insist on in our parenting and what is a matter of freedom?

I've got some ideas, but they're going to have to wait for another post. In the mean time I'm happy to take any comments (and I won't be offended if you can tell me where the Bible says that Boarding School is of the devil).

Mark Dever Seminar

Spent the morning yesterday at a Mark Dever Seminar. Two of his three talks were expositions of Habbakuk and Haggai, and were extremely edifying. He does a great job of applying the Old Testament in a Christ centred way that leaves you feeling the force of the Old Testament passages themselves. Key application points where about trusting God when you can't understand what he's doing (Habbukuk) and using your money to serve God's temple - Jesus and the church (Haggai).

His third seminar was about healthy churches in general, and (as you would be familiar with if you have read his 9 Marks book), he focussed on Membership, Discipline and Eldership. I don't agree that much stricter membership and discipline are the key shortcomings of our churches. He was coming from a situation where churches tend to have 250 members and only 70 average attendance. At our church the membership is less than the attendance, and I think that is common in many Presbyterian churches around here. I don't think there are stacks of slack members floating around. And on top of that I don't really want to make a second formal distinction in church beyond being a follower of Jesus or not.

Having said that, we do struggle to know exactly how to deal with those who get caught up in scandalous sin. Often they are informally isolated and drop off the radar instead of being given an opportunity to repent and be restored. The other difficulty is how to actually measure repentence, and know when it is appropriate to welcome people back and then what ongoing consequences their sin might have. So it is a tricky issue. Just not, I think, the key health issue in most churches.

Appreciating Calvin

I thought I'd jump on the 'Calvin's 500th Birthday bandwagon' and I've enrolled in an MA (theology) and signed up to do an subject on Calvin this term (at Moore College). It's going to be great to get back into some formal study after 7 years but, like when you haven't excercised for a while, I think it will involve some significant pain.

It was a bit of a shock to see that the whole of Calvin's Institutes was included as part of the required course reading (might have been wise to check that before signing up) - we got three years to get through it when I was doing a BTh. Anyway, Simone's advice was 'blog your way through it' so stay tuned for possible updates.

Test post

This is a test post just to see if the mail2blog feature works. This would make it easy to do blog posts from my mobile phone.

Chess

Recently discovered the chess game on our new computer. I haven't really played much before, and basically I'm getting thrashed. Even the two times I've had the opposition down to just their king they have somehow managed to get stalemate - Aargh. Still, it is certainly a good mental workout.

ad break

For various reasons we have done a lot of travelling this year, and as part of that have hired cars in Rockhampton, Melbourne, and Auckland.
I've used the www.drivenow.com.au website and found their comparison of all the rental companies very useful in getting a good rate. They asked me to mention them on my blog, so here it is.

ISFJ

I think I have an ISFJ (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) personality type (according to the Myers Briggs test), although the first time I did the questionnaire I came out as ISFP. However the description of the ISFP (a 'composer') definitely doesn't match me, but ISFJ seems pretty close to the mark. I'm not really happy about being an ISFJ, but then apparently ISFJ personality types have a tendency to be overly critical of themselves - so I guess that confirms it. Damn.

Getting things done

I've been getting things done 'Getting Things Done' style this week. I've bought the book (by David Allen) and everything. As always, these things seem revolutionary in the first week you try them, just because they are new. Whether any of the new system remains at the end of a month will be the real test.

I suspect I'm similar to most people who have organisational frustration in their life in that part of the problem is genuinely organisation, but the other part has to do with procrastination and lack of motivation. 'Getting things done' kind of books are normally great with organising tips, but they don't really help with the procrastination/motivation side of things which tend to have much deeper roots in patience, perseverance, boldness and other issues of godliness.

There has, however been one helpful tip on the procrastination front in Getting Things Done: break stuff down into concrete physically doable tasks. So for example writing a bible talk might involve reading the passage, summarizing the passage, working out a big idea, etc etc. This is so helpful because being confronted with a task 'write bible talk' seems like a very big mountain to climb that stretches all the way to Sunday morning and hardly seems worth starting. Being confronted with a task like 'read bible passage' however is something I can sit down and do right now in the next hour, making it much easier to get started. Again, it will be interesting to see if this is still helpful at the end of the month, or whether it has just become annoying - do I really need my Bible talk writing broken into 10 different tasks every week!

Twitter killed the blogging star

another reason the blog has been quiet is that I've signed up to twitter. Not sure if it's a good idea, but I'm kind of interested in the whole social networking thing. I hadn't realised how strongly twitter sells itself as a community builder until I went to their home page. They really offer you a whole new level of intimacy with your friends and family.

I guess it's no surprise that people are looking for deeper relationships - thats nothing new. And I have to admit I found the concept as outlined on their home page quite compelling (check out the video introduction). But I have serious doubts wether a bunch of single sentence status updates will really offer such a great new level of intimacy. If you're into such things and you want to follow me - I'm here.

Injury woes

Well, there has been a lot of silence on this blog recently. But I'll see if I can write a bit more. Alas, my marathon never happened. My ankle got really sore and I wasn't able to run for more than 1.5 hrs (about 15km) for the month leading up to the event and there's no way I was going to make 42km!

It's still pretty sore and I've started going to the physio. I thought I'd made some progress, but I went for a 10km run last thursday and pulled up pretty sore again. THe latest strategy is to do some 30min slow runs and see if I can work up from that. Apparently I also have some pelvic/core strength issues so I'm trying to work on that too.

There is a Brisbane Marathon at the end of August, so If I could make steady progress from here I might almost get ready for that. We shall see.

PCQ State Assembly

Another State Assembly over and done with this week. It was good to catch up with some friends, but overall it was a disappointing time. Nothing dramatic, but in the last few years there has been a sense of excitement regarding new ministry and evangelism. This time round round, however, there was just a lot of wrangling about property and legal matters, and unfortunately some difficult but ministry minded decisions that were made last year were reversed.

Still, I suppose it's a blessing that we're not fighting over the fundamentals of the Gospel, and Mike Raiter's expositions on Judges each lunch time were very encouraging.

It hurts so bad (it really does!)

I've been inspired by Simone to try my hand at lyric writing. What do you think?

It Hurts So Bad
It hurts so bad,
I can't stand the pain.
I'm standing alone
out here in the rain.
This cannot be
the end of the line,
I'm down on my knees
Tell me will you be mine.

Chorus
Take your time
say you'll be mine
After all we've been through
You know I'll be true
Take your time
say you'll be mine
After all we've been through
You know there'll only be me and you

Open the door
Let me into your heart
I know I've done wrong
Now I'm falling apart.
Forget what I said
all my foolish games
And let me come in
I'm calling your name

Chorus x 5

Check out here for my inspiration

The Twighlight Phenomenon

Had to speak at an assembly for the Clayfield College Girls School this morning. And in an attempt to engage with the girls I started with an illustration about Robert Pattinson, the actor from Twilight. Well it certainly got a response. I almost had a riot on my hands everyone got so excited! I couldn't go on for a couple of minutes because a couple of hundred girls were talking at once.

But after they settled down I think they even listened to most of what I had to say about Acts 2 (which as you might have guessed had only a very tangential connection to Twilight....)

Musical Injuries

Mmm - Went for a pretty good 1hr25min run this afternoon. The hip's feeling good. But now I've got a sore foot!

I've got two new albums on my phone which helped to dull the throbbing of my foot during my run this afternoon. The new Garage Hymnal album is generally well produced and an enjoyable listen.

The other album is called Mixing Metaphors by an independent US band called the Dailies. I really enjoy the album as a whole, but there are two songs I particularly like.

"A Soveriegn Nation Sleeps Beside Me" (you can listen to a demo version here). You wouldn't think international diplomacy would make a great metaphor for relating in marriage - but it's really really good. Poignant and thoughtful. The other song I like on the album is "She Goes". It's a fun kind of song and I feel like I can relate to exactly what it's saying.

Marathon in six weeks and I've hit the injury wall

You may have noticed a distinct lack of training posts lately. That's because the news is all bad. A hip injury combined with a very stressful, wet week last week means I've hardly been running at all in the last two and a half weeks. The new shoes have hardly had a workout at all!

Would your ethics be different if you weren't a Christian?

This is a question raised by Richard Dawkins and others in arguments about whether athiests have any good foundation for their ethics. The argument goes that Christian (or other religious people) say they wouldn't rape or murder even if they weren't Chrstians, and therefore their faith has no impact on their ethics. In reality, Christians simply do what everyone does - follow the moral zeitgeist.

The thing about this argument is that in part it relies on an element of surprised shame. If you're suddenly confronted with the question of 'Would you rape and murder if you weren't a Christian?' Of course your immediate response is 'No I wouldn't.' If you're not murderous now, it's hard to imagine becoming so. And no one wants to be thought of as a murderer being held back by a thin veneer of religion.

But as I've thought about this a bit, I'm convinced that my ethics would be different if I wasn't a Christian. It's hard to say exactly how. But knowing myself and also looking at our society, I think I would be more judgmental, less generous and I'm pretty sure I'd have the 'do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone' attitude to sex.

I perhaps wouldn't immediately be rushing out to murder, rape or rob a bank. There are some very strong external motivations against those things. But I think I would lose my key motivation for resisting the root causes of murder, rape and robbery - hatred, lust and greed, and I'm sure they would begin to flourish in my life. And you never know where it would end up.

What do you think? Does faith make a difference to your ethics?

Just like an Iphone

I've previously blogged on some of the programs I like to mess about with on my phone. My latest favourite is Ifonz, a program which changes the boring old fashioned Windows Mobile interface (left screenshot) into a trendy, finger friendly, iphone-like interface.

The front screen (middle screen shot) has the clock and icons for eight key functions which include phone, sms, calender, Bible, internet and music player.You can then use horizontal finger swipes to scroll through to other pages of programs that you use.

You can choose whatever programs you want the buttons to link to, and there are lots of cool sets of button graphics you can download from the web as well. You can also change the backgound picture/colour of the screen and all that kind of thing.

The program is still under development, but I've found the latest version runs really well on my phone, and it is definitely the most useful peice of software I have at the moment. And the great thing is you can get it for free here

Rugby League Sex Scandal and the Moral Zeitgeist

Philip Jensen has written a helpful article highlighting the hypocrisy in the way many people have reacted to the NRL sex scandal - not that the players weren't wrong in the way they treated the poor woman - but the condemnation hasn't recognised the wider problem in our society.

I think this incident also highlights a real flaw in the approach to morals suggested by Richard Dawkins in the God Delusion. I was working on this for an evangelistic sermon last week, and Dawkins suggests that there is no need for God in morals because we can simply follow the Moral Zeitgeist - the moral consensus of our age.

The problem with the moral zeitgeist is that it struggles to offer any critique of the actions of the footballers. The moral zeitgeist when it comes to sex is that what is done by consenting adults in their own bedrooms is a private matter, not to be judged by others. And yet here is an event which meets those criteria and yet which has left many people feeling very uncomfortable.

Dawkins would probably argue that the moral zeitgeist is determined by 'civilized', 'enlightened', 'progressive' society (and rugby league players would probably be excluded from this group.....). He frequently appeals to civilized people and progressive societies without definition, in a most un-postmodern way. He seems oblivious to the critique that because he defines what is enlightened and progressive, he is actually setting himself up as the final arbiter of what is right and wrong.

Dawkins also claims that the Bible simply dishes out commands in a deontological way, with no principles to help people work out right and wrong for themselves in new situations. This, like many of Dawkins claims about the Bible is simply wrong. Love, the nature and purpose of creation, and the example of Jesus are examples of the key guiding principles in Biblical ethics.

The Bible's insistence that sex is for a man and a woman in the context of marriage is a refreshingly clear ethic in the face of the confused attempts to sort out what was wrong with the Rugby League Players' actions and attitudes, and is certainly much firmer ground than the moral zeitgeist which is the cause of the problem not the solution.

The Holy Spirit and...

Some final thoughts on the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts. I found a helpful observation in the little book 'Engaging with the Holy Spirit' by Graham Cole, which originally comes from Broughton Knox. In Luke-Acts, the expression filled with the Holy Spirit is almost always followed by or follows the conjunction 'and'. For example In Acts 4:32 the believers are filled with the Holy Spirit AND continue to speak the word of God with boldness. Similarly the 7 men chosen to help the apostles in Acts 6 are to be full of the Holy Spirit AND wisdom, and one of these men, Stephen, is full of faith AND the Holy Spirit.

The 'Holy Spirit and' filling in Luke-Acts is not something we influence. As Graham Cole puts it "...there is no hint that to be so filled was an intentionally co-operative activity involving the persons concerned and the Spirit of God. Instead these intances of fullness - both Old Testament and New - appear to have been the sovereign work of the Spirit"

I also think the fact that the Holy Spirit is often linked with some other quality also points to the reality that you don't see the Spirit himself as much as the effects of his work. So to be filled with the 'Holy Spirit and wisdom' is to be full of Holy Spirit inspired wisdom, and to be filled with the 'Holy Spirit and speak the word of God Boldly' is to speak the word of God with Holy Spirit inspired boldness. This fits with the prayers that the believers pray in Acts which are not for the Spirit explicitly but for boldness and perseverance.

Filled with the Spirit Language is only found in Luke-Acts in the New Testament with the exception of the command to be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians which seems to be a more congregational experience than in Acts.

In practice then, I think we shouldn't just be searching and praying for the Spirit. We should be praying for and working towards the qualities that will help us serve Jesus and his mission, and as we do that God may graciously fill us with the Spirit and the ability to serve him.

Door Knocking

On Saturday we did some door-knocking for the first time since I've been at Clayfield. Our aim was to invite people to 'Open Church' services which we are holding next Sunday, and the three pairs who participated received a very good response.

Everyone knew of the church (we did two streets right next to the church building), with some having visited or attended in the past. Some people of course were not at all interested - although no one was rude. Most people were happy to be invited, although not indicating they would attend. And 4 or 5 people were very interested and indicated that they might well come along.

It remains to be seen whether anyone actually turns up on Sunday. But it certainly gives us something to thank God for and pray for. It has also convinced me that doorknocking has an ongoing place in our churches mission efforts.

I should mention the helpful advice I found in some old posts at Craig's blog and at Sydney Anglicans Website.

New Shoes

Simone and I enjoyed spending some time together today. Among other things we went shoe shopping. It's only six months since I got my last pair, but when you are training for a marathon you wear down shoes remarkably fast. You can see the difference between my new shoe on the left and my old one on the right.

Happy with that

Just ran 20.18km in 1:31.

Training update

My marathon training has been a bit like my blogposting recently - not very regular. I have continued to struggle with some soreness in my right hamstring as well as with a very busy couple of weeks. This week however has been better and I've got through some solid runs without any soreness.

I've also discovered that you're supposed to replace your running shoes every 500-800km. Problem is, training for a marathon it's only taken me about 6 months to do 1000km. So looks like I'm going to have to shell out for a new pair. And I thought running was going to be cheap!!!

More on Filled with the Spirit

Continuing to follow the 'full of the Spirit' language as I'm working through Acts in our current sermon series. In Acts 6, the apostles make 'being full of the Spirit and wisdom' a requirement for the 7 men who are to sort out the problems with the feeding of the Hebraic widows and Greek widows. Then Stephen, one of the 7, is specifically mentioned as being 'full of the Holy Spirit and faith.'

Given that the Spirit has already been so closely associated with the bold proclamation of Jesus in Acts (Acts 1:8, 2:1ff, 4:8,31) it's no surprise that Stephen goes on to give a huge sermon to the Sanhedrin before being martyred, and Philip (another one of the 7) also has a significant evangelistic ministry.

I am wondering however, given that the 7 men were chosen to free up the apostles for their own ministry of word and prayer, if the apostles were anticipating this kind of proclamation ministry from them, or if it was just a bye-product of the Spirit's focus on mission in these early days - to be full of the Spirit inevitably meant to boldly proclaim the Gospel.

Either way, it raises the question of how to use the 'full of the Spirit' language today. We are just looking to elect new elders in our church, and I have to admit I haven't used full of the Spirit language to describe the kind of men we are looking for. This is ok in one sense, because Paul doesn't use this language in 1Timothy or Titus either. But to speak of being 'full of the Spirit' is a helpful way of highlighting that we are not just looking for human qualities in church leaders. We are looking for evidence of God being at work.

Time to see how this is going to play out in my talk for Sunday....

Small Things...

amuse small minds. And I'm incredibly amused by our new laptop. For those who are interested it is a Dell Studio 15 (a low range one). Definitely an improvement on our old acer which was the absolute bottom of the range when we bought it a few years ago, and now spontaneously loses power (in the middle of the church powerpoints a few weeks ago).

The big question is whether it will make me blog more.

Filled with the Spirit again

An interesting question has been raised out of my sermon preparation on Acts 3-4 this week. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? I understood that the filling of the Spirit first occured at Pentecost, and following on from that is the new privilege, in the last days, of all followers of Jesus.

However in Acts 4, just a few days after Pentecost, both Peter and the other believers are again filled with the Spirit. Peter is filled with the Spirit to enable him to speak boldly to the Sanhedrin about the power of the name of Jesus. Then all the believers are filled with the Spirit, with an accompanied shaking of their house, and they are all enabled to speak boldly about Jesus.

Why do the believers need to be filled with the Spirit again if they are already filled? and should we be expecting additional filling of the Holy Spirit for special events in our lives?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Bloggers blank and other things

No posts recently. Been away, had a computer problem (the mysterious kind where the computer refused to start for three days until I took it to the repair shop when it started immediately and showed no errors on any tests, but still cost me $90), and had my first bloggers blank - nothing to write about! But hopefully some more posts will appear in the next little while.

map my run

Found this cool new website for mapping training runs. And you can post them on your blog! Here is the one I did this morning.

RICE

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. They are the 4 golden rules for sports injuries. I spent a couple of hours with my leg up, sitting on an ice pack last night and it seems to have done the trick with my hamstring. Did a good run of 28.88km in 2hr36min tonight, and could only just feel the hammy. Don't think it'll cope with any fast running for a little while, but a comfortable steady jog was fine - which is a relief.

Hamstring Trouble

Hoping I haven't encountered my first serious injury problem in my marathon preparation. My back has been a bit sore this week (bad posture at a computer I think), and when I went running yesterday I started to feel a twinge in my right hamstring. This afternoon I tried to do a speed session and the twinge came back even stronger and I had to stop. It's on ice now and I'm hoping a long easy run tomorrow afternoon will be easier on it. Otherwise I'll have to take some time off training which would be very disappointing.

An Easter re-think on re-thinks

Every year there is the predictable call from some quarter to re-think the belief in a literal resurrection and start accepting that it's really just a metaphor. This years effort comes from social commentator Phil Dye on the abc website. He argues that if the church gave up it's insistence on accepting miracles there are many lapsed believers out there who would readily return to the fold.

It's hard to know where to start with an article so full of silly statements. For example is he really condescending enough to argue that South Americans and Africans are accepting Christianity at a great rate because they are all oppressed and uneducated?

And do we have to go through the whole santa-easter bunny-resurrection comparison again. Perhaps he can't tell the difference, but ironically my seven year old son, with his supposedly irrational Christian upbringing, has been disgusted this week because all the teachers and other kids at school have talked about is the easter bunny who doesn't even exist. We have never run a campaign against santa or the easter bunny at our place, J just has a keen sense of the ridiculous and he sniffed them out as fakes years ago - long before anyone else his age. But he, along with millions of other people around the world, easily sees the difference with Jesus and his well documented resurrection. And J feels that Jesus should be the focus of Easter.

The really gaping holes in Dye's argument however, are the suggestions that firstly a metaphorical reading of the resurrection hasn't been tried before, and secondly that if only Christian leaders accepted the metaphorical approach it would solve the problems of church decline.

Even a small amount of church history would tell Dye that his de-supernaturalised Christianity is so last century. It's been extensively championed by church leaders in Europe, in the US, and even here in Australia. And it has successfully killed off all the churches where it has been adopted. It might be true that some people find it hard to believe in a literal resurrection. But no-one is interested in believing in a metaphor.

The truth is, the resurrection story is stubbornly and undeniably literal. It may be false. But it simply is not a metaphor, and any attempt to read it metaphorically will be seen for the hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty that it is. If there are thousands of people out there wanting to believe in a metaphor - that's fine, But they're going to have to come up with their own. This re-think needs a serious re-think.

Hallelujah - a better thought on Christian words and Popular Songs

I'm not sure that my last post on the Christianized version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' really added clarity to the debate- although I enjoyed the discussion. I had another thought today about the re-wording of the song and Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 2:

¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Seems to me that putting half-baked words about Jesus to a super-popular tune is the opposite of Paul's practice of avoiding fancy rhetoric and focusing on the cross. Paul wanted the content of his message to dominate his form. But with the use of such an iconic tune, the form will almost inevitably (and perhaps purposefully) overwhelm any gospel content the words might bring. This is especially the case with the words in question, which are less than profound.

Coincidentally I was reminded of the power of this particular tune when the secretary at a friends firm gave an stunning a cappella rendition of it while I was there for a prayer meeting today. Apparently this is part of the service you now receive when you do business with this firm - service with a song!

New Congregational Database

Last week I indulged the computer nerd within and put together a new database for our congregation. Up until now we didn't have a proper database - just various lists of people in word documents. Now we have a proper database in openoffice 'base' which includes photos. I have also designed a report that will print out the data in exactly the right form for a church directory. This was quite a bit of work, but it means next years directory will be a breeze, and I will also be able to access the information easily in any form I want. No doubt there are all kinds of fancy church database programs out there. But if you want a free one I'm happy to share...

Something brain-stretching

Fascinating paper by Ross McKenzie professor of Physics at UQ, linked to from his blog here. I have to admit some of it is a bit over my head, but I think his basic point is that Scientists are recognising that there is value in studying objects for their own sake, and not just reducing them to the parts they are made up of - this is the idea of 'emergence' (nothing to do with emerging church!!!).

He argues that an understanding of emergence can encourage theologians to take the approach of Karl Barth and study God for his own sake and not feel the need to justify everything with respect to other academic disciplines such as history, sociology and science.

Great to have someone doing such careful thinking about Science and Theology.

Christians and Culture

Just been having a discussion with Simone about this little offering from a 'worship' leader in the US. It's a cringy take off of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah. And it raises the question, is it a sin to lack cultural sophistication?

I'm not sure that it is. I don't think there is anything less Godly about the football compared to the opera or watching 'funniest home videos' compared to reading Tim Winton. And we need to make sure that we don't give the impression that converting to Christ is converting to high or low culture. It's converting to a new view of Christ's supremacy in whatever culture you're engaged.

A great example of a church trying to reach a 'high culture' group is the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. I believe they have members of the New York Philharmonic orchestra playing in their church services, and the sermons engage with all kinds of elite thinkers. By contrast the Mars Hill Crowd are reaching the tattoo artists and torn jeans demographic, and it's popular culture all the way. Both cultures need the Gospel and Christians can grow to maturity without changing to the other culture.

The one area I do want Christians to grow in sophistication is their theological reflection. It's important to challenge people to stretch themselves with reading and/or discussing more significant intellectual issues than they otherwise might. A by-product of this might also be a growing appreciation of more intellectually challenging culture. But it really isn't a problem if it doesn't.

So I think in the end the Hallelujah take off was unwise - it was always going to lead to a lot of annoyed Loenard Cohen fans! But it was only a real issue of Godliness in so far as the words misrepresented the Gospel by either straight out inacuracy or over-simplicity.

Go on then all you cultural snobs - shoot me down....

Running Diary

Ran 62 km in total last week. On Saturday I did 29 km in 2hr35min. I have to admit that somewhere after the 2 hour mark I did ask myself for the first time 'why the heck do you want to run a Marathon....' But I was pleased to add 35 mins to my longest run over the last two weeks. And according to my training diary I now have 4 weeks to consolidate at 2hr40mins before I have to move up to 3 hrs.

On a different running subject, I checked out the winning time for last years Gold Coast Marathon. About 2hrs 14 mins. That means approximately 1km every 3.5mins. My mind just boggles at people running that fast for that long. Even my 3km time trail wasn't that fast!!!

Missiological or personal preference: Why do contemporary church?

Is Contemporary really more Missional when it comes to church, or at least is the primary motivator in changing to a contemporary style of church missiological? That is the question raised by Michael Jensen at The Blogging Parson, who has another provocative suggestion :

The reason we eschewed formality in church services was because that was what WE on the inside wanted (or some of us, anyway) - the missiological reason was in fact only a justification for it.

As someone who has spent the last 6 years working at a church revitalisation, I am convinced that our shift to a contemporary less formal style, is not just a matter of my personal preference but is one of the things that has helped make our church more attractive to outsiders. It's not the only thing. But it is essential, and here are 5 reasons :

1. A contemporary style indicates to people that you are on about something different from what they expect. It gives people a surprise when the service isn't the formal jargon they remember from their childhood and opens a door for the real gospel message. I had just such a positive expression from a newcomer at church yesterday who said he had grown up in our area and had thought our church was very traditional and full of old people, and that he was very pleasantly surprised that we had something for his young family.

2. It's easier to express relational warmth in a less formal service - and MOST newcomers are attracted by relational warmth. I know people might want to argue about this - but name me one other setting where relational warmth is expressed through formal interaction in our culture. It's the difference between a family gathering and a sitting of Parlaiment. And I know which one most people will find attractive.

3. Contemporary services are easier to understand. The traditional presbyterian liturgy is so full of long technical theological words and sentences with more than 5 clauses it's completely indicipherable. I know anglican liturgy is slightly better. But it's still tough to understand. Most concepts can be put into normal language that makes it much easier for people to engage with the truth, especially those who are unfamiliar with the Gospel. Hymns also fall into this category - plenty of great content, but they are hard work. There are some helpful phrases and concepts in traditional liturgy, but they need to be reworked into simpler more contemporary prayers. You can check out one of my efforts in this earlier post.

4. Most unchurched people like contemporary style music. We have boarders from a local denominational school visit our church a couple of times a year. And consistenly the feedback is that all the girls want to come to our church (as opposed to the other local church they visit) because they like the contemporary music. We consistently have positive comments from visitors about the music. I admit that I do also get positive comments from visitors about our organ (which is an extremely prominent feature of our church building), but I think these are because of the novelty factor, not because they want to come and sing hymns every week.

5. Strange clothes for clergy are not understood. When we were younger my sister invited a friend to our (traditional) church. And this friend left some notes of the service in our car. I will always remember her comment about the minister - 'then the man in the batman suit got up to speak'. You want people to think you're batman. Go for the robes. You want people to think you've got something relevant to say for the 21st century. Wear something normal. My understanding is that traditional presbyterian robes were originally the ordinary clothes of any university graduate anyway. So wearing them today seems completely at odds with the reason they were adopted.

To finish this post I just need to make a couple of concluding comments. First, these arguments are based on a well prepared, well lead contemporary service. Lack of preparation and skill have an especially negative impact on less formal services because more depends on the leader/participants. The second important thing to say is that while missiological concerns are important for church, they are not the central concern. Perhaps I need another post on why contemporary less formal church is better for the building up of believers as they meet to praise Christ and encourage one another.

Christian ethics and public policy

I really appreciated Philip Jensen's contribution to the abortion debate which appeared recently in the smh. He doesn't shy away from calling it a matter of life and death, and the taking of human life. But he also does what is often missing in these kinds of debates. He confronts the question of why abortion should remain in the criminal code in a democratic society where many people think abortion is morally fine.

This is absolutely vital, because the reality is in a democracy it's not enough to argue for public policy on the basis that 'X is wrong because God says so'. This might be the ultimate truth of the matter. But in arguments about public policy you'll just end up in a stalemate with people who say 'I don't believe in God and I think X is right'. Instead you have to try and argue from widely agreed truths. You have to consider general social outcomes from your position, and you have to consider how those who disagree with you might be accomodated or dealt with. Philip Jensen's article does all of these things and is therefore a very constructive Christian argument.

Who am I voting for

I'd love to tell you - but unfortunately since I think it's not a gospel issue at this time I'm going to keep it to myself. It would be a shame if anyone wrote off the Gospel because a minister voted this way or that.

The choice is between the guy with a son in our son's class at school or the guy who sent me a christmas card.....In State politics it's sometimes hard to find really serious issues to vote about.

Training is working

This morning's run 26km. 2hrs10mins. And I was able to stand up comfortably to take a wedding service this afternoon. Another 1:30mins of running and I've done my marathon.

Connect, Engage, Love, Tell

Seems you can't have a blog post about church planting without a quote from someone, so here's a nice one from Al Stewart about the core message from the Acts 29 church planting conference:

...the message from over here is ‘get out there, connect with unbelievers, engage with them, love them and tell them about Jesus. Just do it!’

That's the kind of thinking we need more of in every church context - although I can see how this attitude is forced to the front in church plants, where more established churches can get slack.

Two questions I have though, about some of the other comments Al made:

1. Can we really replicate the Assemblies of God church planting success in the 70's and 80's? They would have been coming off a very low base of existing churches, whereas established denominations often have a whole bunch of existing churches full of christian people who still need to be acknowledged. Mobilising them as evangelists is often tough, but bypassing them has problems too. I guess denominations are going to have to make some important decisions if they want to be in on this church planting thing in a big way.
   
2. Are the skills needed in church planting that different from the skills needed in other ministry? I see evangelism, teaching and personal ministry being central for both.
   

Another quote from Instruments in the Redeemers Hands

I'm still slowly working my way through the book on personal ministry 'Instruments in the Redeemers Hands' by Paul David Tripp and I'm finding it thought provoking and I'm already finding a positive impact on my personal ministry. Here is another quote:

'The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification centre where flawed people place their trust in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he has designed. The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God's wonderful mess-the place where he radically transforms hearts and lives.'

Ok, so I'm not so keen on his dismissal of the theological classroom. Good theology is life changing, and in fact that is a key point he makes early in the book. Our problems and our sin will not be seriously addressed by proof-texts, only by a deep understanding of the key themes of the Bible.

But having just studied James 5 tonight in Bible Study, I think his description of church, or should that be Christian fellowship is really helpful. James, in the midst of a situation of much conflict, encourages confession to one another, prayer for one another and helping to restore one another from sin.

I'm increasingly convinced that bringing a bunch of flawed people together is inevitably going to be messy. The joy of Christian fellowship is that we have a common saviour to grasp on to and God's spirit to help us muddle through painful and difficult situations.

My challenges are firstly not to ignore conflict and problems in the vain hope they'll go away, and secondly not to see mess simply as a distraction from real ministry, but a real opportunity for love and growth in Godliness.

Gambling on Good Friday

Heard Tim Costello (head of World Vision) on the radio this afternoon attacking the decision to allow TAB's to open on Good Friday in New South Wales and Victoria. His argument was that it is important for our society to have some 'sacred space', and that this move is blatant greed on the part of the gaming corporations.

Clearly Costello is 100% correct about the greed of the gaming corporations. Apparently they have suggested they are just supporting multiculturalism and respecting those who aren't Christian - rubbish. From that point of view I feel a lot of support for his call for TAB's to be closed on Good Friday - the last thing we need is more gambling in our society, with all its terrible side effects. And there is something symbolic about allowing TABs to open on a day they were previously shut.

But I'm not comfortable with the 'sacred space' argument. Good Friday is after all just a tradition that has developed over the years and to elevate it to the level of a 'sacred space' suggests that it is a religious observance required by God, rather than a traditional opportunity to remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

A better argument, to go along with the social arguments, might be that Good Friday celebrates the ultimate act of selflessness - Jesus giving his life for our sins - and it's a great shame to introduce a socially damaging, fundamentally selfish, greedy activity on a day set aside to remember this amazing event.

Anyone got any other approaches to this issue, is it worth Christians addressing or is it just a distraction?

Time trial

Ran a 3km time trial this morning. Had to get up before Simone went to the gym, so it was pretty early - lots of time to write blog posts after I got back:0 My time was 11:50, which leaves my lots of room for improvement. Hopefully with my new speed focused training program it'll come down. Next Time Trial is scheduled for 14th April.

Church planting vs church revitalisation

While I'm in the church planting zone, another related subject I'm interested in is church revitalisation. In our area there are plenty of very small congregations of 30-50 that have declined over the years due to poor leadership and traditionalism. These congregations require a renewed focus on the Gospel, and leadership to help them become evangelistically effective in the 21st Century This is essentially the kind of ministry we've been involved in at Scots Presbyterian church over the last six years. And it's the kind of ministry that is in high demand in our denomination. We have friends already involved in this kind of ministry in a neighbouring parish, and two other neighbouring parishes which have recently become vacant (ie their ministers have moved on) are also in desperate need of revitalising.

It's my observation that growth through revitalisation is a fair bit slower than growth through new church planting. Your energy and focus is divided between change management and evangelism and inevitably there is more compromise. And yet at the same time there is a real joy, both for ministers and congregations, in seeing plants that have wilted springing back in fresh growth.

The question is, of course, whether church revitalisation bows too much to the needs of existing congregations who often find change difficult, and whether it would be more effective for the gospel to shut down existing congregations sell the valuable (but sometimes impractical) property, and start from scratch. What do you think?

On the church planting bandwagon

With so much blogging on church planting at the moment I thought I'd give my two cents worth. Some people are feeling frustrated by the focus on church planting (yes in case you're wondering, Simone and I do talk as well as blog!) but I have to say I'm excited about the serious discussion of church planting that's been happening, and in particular the plans for an Australian church planting network (details here).

For a start I'm involved with the Home Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland. We're responsible for providing some leadership and resources for church planting in the denomination, and we need all the help we can get. The opportunities for church planting in Queensland are huge, but as with many older denominations we're not exactly well connected with the 21st century or flexible (the name 'Home Missions Committee' says it all!). To link in with a wider church planting network could give us some extra clarity and confidence when it comes to making the hard decisions about the changes that will be needed for widespread effective church planting to take place.

The second reason I'm excited about the idea of a church planting network, and discussion about church planting more generally, is that hopefully it will put evangelism on the agenda for all ministries. And I think this is vital. The reality is that the majority of churches are not going to be church plants, at least for some time to come, and after a few years even church plants become established churches anyway (our church was planted - in 1896!). So if we're serious about reaching Australia for Christ we're going to have to work long and hard at helping our established churches become more evangelistic and church planting is kind of like Formula 1 racing - a breeding ground for innovations which find their way back to the average cars most of us drive. The exciting, intense context of new church plants are going to throw up lots of new, effective strategies for gospel growth in all churches.

I think it would be naive to think that a church planting network is a silver bullet that will suddenly solve all our problems in effective church planting. But I am hopeful it will be an important peice in the jigsaw that will assist in stacks of new churches being planted (especially around Queensland) and promoting a new enthusiasm and creativity in evangelism in more established churches. I'd certainly like to be a part of that!

New training plan

I've started using the official Gold Coast Marathon Training Diary. This plan involves more 'speed' training (for example doing six 2min runs as fast as you can with a 1min break in between), but probably less distance overall than I've been doing. It will be interesting to see how it compares.

Last Thursday I did the 6 by 2min repetitions and it felt easier at the time, but I've suffered from a bit more delayed onset muscle soreness (got that fancy title from a running website - it just means I felt stiff the next day or two).

I missed my long run on Saturday because we were at our church weekend away but I did a 50min run then and again this morning. I need to try and squeeze in a 3km Time trial tomorrow - it will be interesting to see what time I can do.

A nice birthday

A very nice day for my birthday which included

• a good run
  
• a special breakfast
• a phone call from Mum and Dad
• a new T-shirts
• two new books to help with my next series of Bible Talks - 'Acts for Everyone' by NT Wright and 'Teaching Acts' by David Cook. They both look good, although the second is so applied that I'll need to do a lot of my own preparation or I'll end up preaching David Cook's series not my own.
• curry for dinner
• lots of birthday greetings on facebook - thanks everyone.
  
• I'm about to go out and have a birthday beer with a couple of guys from church and look an 'Introducing God' dvd to help one of them get a firmer foundation for his faith.
  

Nerdy post

Ok, I know this is a bit nerdy, but I like playing round with my phone (which for those that care is a dopod d810 running windows mobile 6).

My top 3 applications at the moment are:
point ui home2- The normal windows mobile interface is quite ugly, and has extremely small buttons so you can't just use your fingers on the screen. Point ui is a finger friendly interface (more in the iphone style) to help you manage your data, diary, messages and applications. It's free, and I've found it easy to use. There is also a good community who are writing applets to help extend the features.








gps cycle computer - another free program, this one logs your cycling or running using the phone's gps. The writer has been busy over the last month or two and has been adding all kinds of extra features, including live mapping, where your phone will upload your details to a website and people can follow your progress online.










Olivetree Bible Reader. This one costs, but I think it's a good investment. The English Bible reader is pretty standard with plenty of versions available - I got the esv because it was cheap. The thing I really like though, is the 'Gramcord lite' version of the Greek New Testament you can get. It's great for reading a bit of Greek on the go, or for checking a translation issue when you don't have a Greek NT and/or lexicon handy. I suppose it could make you lazy, but for me even lazy Greek is better than the alternative - no greek!




I've got a few other applications I'm keen on as well - but they can wait for another post.

That's better

12km run in just under an hour this afternoon. Managed to slot it in between rain showers. Felt pretty good the whole way. No idea why it was so much easier than Saturday.

An encouraging morning at church

A good crowd. Some of my favourite songs (yes, I know I choose all of them, but I particularly like 'Let Your Kingdom Come' from the Sovereign Grace people). Pete Kutuzov our student minister did well challenging us from James 4 about our pride and evil desires which cause conflict with God and others. And it was one of the best morning teas I have seen in terms of fringe people being looked after and included. Thankyou Lord.

As 'non-toxic' as it can be

Another article on porn in the Sydney morning Herald today. It explores the damage pornography does in relationships, both in terms of the way it makes women feel betrayed and unloved and also, interestingly, the way it makes men feel guilty and out of control. I don't think I've seen this second aspect discussed much in the media before.

As expected however, the author could not bring themselves to label pornography wrong, and having spent the majority of the article spelling out the problems it causes there is a bizarre final section called 'the good side of porn'. This section gives the opportunity to put down 'fundamentalist christians' who, unlike 'the experts,' think that porn is wrong in all situations.

This final section also had a classic quote from one of the so called experts who advised that if couples are going to use porn in their relationship it should be "as respectful and 'non-toxic' as it can be". I think that says it all about the reality of porn. It's always disrespectful and toxic in some way.

And I would have thought this expert sets the bar way to low as to what anyone would want to have in their relationship. Surely any wise counselor would be advising couples to avoid anything with even a hint of disrespect and toxicity. That's certainly what Jesus would want - But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Ephesians 5:3.

Slow and Painful

My long run was hard work this morning. 21.5km at 10.7km/h. Slower and shorter than last Saturday, but for some reason much more painful. My legs and feet are still feeling quite sore. It's funny how the body works, because my training was much lighter this week. After a fairly slow run on Wednesday and no run on Thursday (I was slack), I thought I'd be raring to go. Hopefully next week will be better.

Hot and slow

On Monday I went for a very hot run at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Took me about 50mins and I think it was about 10km. Fortunately it ended at my parents place and they have a pool!

This morning my legs were feeling pretty tired so I went for a slow run. Did about 9km in 50mins

No longer moderate!

Last night I finished my year as Moderator of Presbytery. For those non-Presbyterians, that's like the chair of the local synod/committee which oversees the work of churches in our part of Brisbane. All members take turns as the moderator.

I have to say I didn't really enjoy the year. The whole system is quite formal and archaic and I don't think I really had the energy or the skill to make a big change.

What is exciting in our Presbytery is that a couple of churches are in the process of looking for new ministers. That always means the chance for them to reassess what they are doing and perhaps call someone with a view to revitalising their ministry. I'm praying that over the next year there will be some exciting things happening for the Gospel.

Preparation and pastoral ministry

Great quote from the book 'Instruments in the redeemers Hands' by Paul Tripp.

'If you were asked to teach a Sunday school lesson, preach a sermon, or lead a Bible study, you would immediately ask yourself, "Do I have the time I need to prepare?" Yet often we respond to [the pastoral concerns of] our neighbor, golfing buddy, or church volunteer with little preparation, reflection, or prayer. Why do we spend hours preparing to teach while we offer important personal direction without a second thought?'

I'd have to say I'm guilty as charged! For some reason I assume personal ministry will just come naturally on the spot - and I feel discouraged when it doesn't.

I know some people do just have great people skills and personal insight and can do this stuff off the cuff. But I think my preparation for pastoring should be more like my preparation for preaching.

Anyone got any good tips for preparing for pastoral conversations?

A great way to start the week

Last night as we were leaving church, our student minister asked me when I would like to see the first draft of his Bible talk for next Sunday. That was a nice surprise because I'd forgotten that I'd asked him to preach this week!

It will give me a chance to start some serious thinking about our next series in Acts, and also to do some organising for our church weekend away.

The Lord's Supper in the 21st Century

Something I've struggled with for a while is that the Lord's Supper often doesn't fit easily into a more contemporary informal church service. Everything else is done in normal understandable language and with an eye to helping outsiders fit in. But then the Lord's Supper suddenly reverts to a very formal style that uses sentences with way too many clauses (this is particularly a problem with Presbyterian liturgy), white table cloths and funny little cups. It's hard not to seem ritualistic and either be boring, or reinforce those unhelpful misconceptions that it's a bit of magic mumbo jumbo instead of rejoicing in the death of Christ and feeding on him in our hearts by faith.

Sorry it's a bit long - but here's some liturgy I wrote for our Lord's supper today (with a bit of help from the book of common prayer). We still need to work out what to do with the white table cloths. But I thought this worked pretty well yesterday. Any thoughts or comments appreciated.

The death of Jesus is the KEY MOMENT in the history of the world. And today we have this special opportunity to focus on the cross. And to reflect on it's significance for. The Lord's supper is different from the things we normally do at church. Most of what we do at church involves just speaking and singing or listening. But with the Lords Supper we get to ACT OUT our faith in Jesus death in a very tangible way as we eat the bread and drink the grape juice.

We celebrate the Lords Supper because Jesus himself gave it to us as a way of remembering him. In Mark chapter 14 when Jesus is sharing the passover meal with his disciples just before he dies on the cross we read
22While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."
²³Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.
²⁴"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. ²⁵"I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

The bread represents Jesus body, which he sacrificed for us. The wine represents his blood being poured out to wash away our sin and to mark a new covenant...a new kind of relationship with God where we could be forgiven and be his friends. And eating the bread and drinking the wine is a symbolic way of saying 'Yes, I need your sacrifice Jesus. I need to be washed clean of sin. I need you to open the way for a new relationship with God.' Eating and drinking this meal is a symbolic way of expressing your faith in Jesus.

And so I want to invite you today to join in this supper with humility and gratitude. I want to invite you to be HUMBLE in admitting that you are'nt worthy to be God's friend. And I want to invite you to be GRATEFUL that Jesus' death means unworthy people can be God's friends.

Sometimes people can get a bit confused about the Lord's supper. And they think they haven't been good enough to take part. As they look back over the last week they realise their tongues been out of control. Or they know they've done things God wouldn't like. And they feel guilty. If you're in this situation, PLEASE PARTICIPATE in the Lords Supper. The Lords supper is not about coming to God in your Sunday Best. It's not a best and fairest awards ceremony for people who think they've behaved particularly well recently. The Lord's supper is about admitting your need. And trusting Jesus' death to forgive you and wash away your guilt.

And that means there's just one sort of person who SHOULD NOT take part in the Lord's Supper. Anyone who thinks they don't personally need Jesus death should not take part in the Lord's supper. If you don't think you're unworthy of a relationship with God. If you don't feel you need Jesus sacrifice to wash you clean and give you a new friendship with God. Don't eat the bread and drink the wine. It would just be a hollow Religious Ritual. If you don't think that you personally need Jesus' death, the honest thing to do is to let the plate go past and come and have a chat to me afterwards. And I'd love to have a chat about why the Bible says WE DO Need Jesus to die for us. Because it's the absolutely central massage God wants us to understand.

And so to prepare to eat the Lords supper together we're going admit our sin and look to Jesus by saying a prayer of confession together. The prayer will be up on the screen and you can all join me in praying.

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of you Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name.

Amen.

Having confessed our sin, let's now express our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus by eating the bread and the grape juice together. We'll begin by passing around the bread, and if you'd like to wait until everyone has been served we'll eat it together

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for You. Let's eat this remembering that Christ died for us, and let's feed on him in our hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.

We'll now pass out the grape juice. And again we'll drink together after everyone has been served.

The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for You. We drink this remembering that Jesus's Blood was shed for us. Let's be thankful.

I trust that sharing in this meal has said to you in a very clear way that God loves you, that he has done everything needed to forgive your sins. And that you can fully rely on him. Let me lead us in prayer.

Almighty and everliving God, We thank you with all our hearts for feeding us with the spiritual food of the precious Body and Blood of Jesus; Thankyou for the reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Thankyou for the chance to express our faith in him. And thankyou for the reassurance of your love and kindness towards us.
We pray that as we make our way into a new week that you'll help us to continue to be confident in the death of Jesus, and that we'll be able to do the all the good works which you have prepared for us to walk in;
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

Possibly my best run yet

Felt great going for my run this morning and I think it's the longest fastest training run I've done. Unfortunately there are two reasons I don't know for sure.

I have this great little gps speedometer on my phone (it's a free program from here), but the phone sometimes struggles to run it properly at the same time as I'm listening to music on my bluetooth headphones. According to my speedometer the first half of my run was 15 km at 15 km/h. This would be an unbelievably fantastic run for me, and because I've cycled the route before I'm pretty sure it was only 13km at the most - maybe only 12.5. Still anything above 12km in an hour is a really good run for me so I'm pleased.

The other thing which muddies the waters (no pun intended), when it comes to this run is that I had to take a toilet break on the way back. Always a problem when you forget to go before a big run!

So I think altogether I probably ran 25-26km in about 2hrs 10min, including toilet break And I've pulled up pretty well. Knees are a bit sore - but not getting worse, and it's slightly sore under my left foot but that's come and gone before.

I'll probably try and take it easy on my next run on Monday. Apparently one of the big problems in Marathon training is 'overtraining' where you push it to hard and injure yourself, but first time round it's hard to tell what is good solid training and what is over training.

The other thing I'll try and do at some stage is post some of my running routes. My Gps program can plot them on google maps, which I don't find particularly useful, but I do find fun.

Well, here goes

If you don't blog it's debatable whether you really exist at all - If Descartes was around today perhaps the famous saying would have been I blog therefore I am. So I thought I'd see if I could get in on the act and justify my existence.

As the title of the blog suggests, I'm not overly confident in either the quality or the longevity of this particular exercise, but hey, thats a lot like life in general so it doesn't mean it won't be worthwhile. The title is also a nod to the excellent work of my dear wife at another something. If you're looking for artistic skill and reliable frequent updates you should definitely look in her direction!

As to what you can expect on this blog - that's going to be a process of discovery for all of us. But at the moment I'm hoping to read a bit more this year and use this is a forum to reflect on my reading (currently The Rise of Evangelicalism by Mark A Noll and Instruments in the Redeemers Hands by Paul Tripp). I also plan to keep a diary of my training for the Gold Coast Marathon later in the year and no doubt other things will come to mind.

According to experienced bloggers I know, the key to a sustainable blog is to write your posts quickly and get them out there as soon as possible. So with that philosophy in mind, here endeth the first post