It's Christmas and this documentary reminds me of how I get to live such a luxurious life. Watching my wife work so hard (I'm a stay at home dad) and living in one of the lower socio-economic parts of my city it's easy to think that everything I have is purely from my (or my wife's) hard work. The truth is it's not. It's built on the back of slaves. We just can't see them. I'm wondering if, like Moses, it will not be possible to change the system from within. Maybe we to are being called into the wilderness, to disconnect from the luxury of a system built on the back of slavery. Will that be easy? Of course not. We'll be grumbling that it was easier to be a slave in the system than to live in the wilderness. The question of course is where is God calling his people?
Showing posts with label Living out Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Living out Faith. Show all posts
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Confession: I Support Child Slavery And Animal Torture
It was a Friday night - party night... Well, sort of, with two young kids "party night" means a DVD and some chocolate. The DVD arrived in the mail, the kids were in bed so I grabbed my skateboard to go and get the chocolate. And, there I stood at the supermarket in front of a huge range of chocolate. A huge range but only one had the blue and green fair trade logo on it. It belonged to a boring block of milk chocolate which unlike almost everything else was not on special. Only one piece of chocolate I knew did not have child slave labour involved in it's production. I did not buy it. In my justified that it's not fair that there is only one fair trade option and my wife would be disappointed if I bring back the most boring and expensive chocolate option.
Only hours before I was at another supermarket doing the weekly shopping. There I was faced with the option of expensive free range meat or cheaper innocuously unnamed meat. Meat that surely was produced in factory farming conditions. Chickens in battery conditions and pigs in stalls where they can't move.
So here I confess that I support child slavery and animal torture. I confess this because it feels horrible to write this and confessing is compelling to change my behaviour to match what I say I believe.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Why I think Conservative Christians Shouldn't Care About Gay Marriage
When Xns talk about gay marriage and homosexuality they could talk until the cows come home about whether homosexuality is a sin or not. In this post I'd like to address those sisters and brothers who do think it's a sin and have assumed this means that they should be against making gay marriage legal. Below is why i think that even if you think homosexuality is a sin gay marriage shouldn't bother you...
There are two types of sin 1. Sins that affect just the sinner (envy would be an example) 2. Sins that affect the sinner and other (innocent) people around them. (murder and gossip would be examples).
You'll notice that almost all of the sins in group 1 legal and most of the sins in group 2 are illegal. Even something like gossip can morph into slander and public deformation. My contention is if you are going to call homosexuality and gay marriage a sin then you'd have to put in the first group as the only people affected by it are two consenting adults.
I know that some conservative Xns will say that gay marriage will affect the "institution of marriage". I cannot see how it will affect the institution of marriage any more than divorce or taxes spent poorly on an corrupt organizations would affect the "Christian" institution of charity.
So if you're a "gay is not ok" kind of Xn don't worry about gay marriage, there are plenty of other things to write to your local MP about. If you want to make sins illegal maybe just concentrate on those that will affect non consenting people around the sinner. Or, you could curl up with a copy of the King James Bible comforted in the fact that you will not come across the word homosexual (that word doesn't appear in Bible translations until 1958).
There are two types of sin 1. Sins that affect just the sinner (envy would be an example) 2. Sins that affect the sinner and other (innocent) people around them. (murder and gossip would be examples).
You'll notice that almost all of the sins in group 1 legal and most of the sins in group 2 are illegal. Even something like gossip can morph into slander and public deformation. My contention is if you are going to call homosexuality and gay marriage a sin then you'd have to put in the first group as the only people affected by it are two consenting adults.
I know that some conservative Xns will say that gay marriage will affect the "institution of marriage". I cannot see how it will affect the institution of marriage any more than divorce or taxes spent poorly on an corrupt organizations would affect the "Christian" institution of charity.
So if you're a "gay is not ok" kind of Xn don't worry about gay marriage, there are plenty of other things to write to your local MP about. If you want to make sins illegal maybe just concentrate on those that will affect non consenting people around the sinner. Or, you could curl up with a copy of the King James Bible comforted in the fact that you will not come across the word homosexual (that word doesn't appear in Bible translations until 1958).
Monday, May 10, 2010
Conservative Theology Or Conservative Liturgy
So which one do you have? If you are honest with yourself it's probably one or the other. This is often what anchors us in the faith. Radical ideas about liturgy (or Xn practices in general) are usually found in more theologically conservative churches and radical ideas about theology are usually found in more liturgically conservative churches. I grew up theologically conservative and liturgically liberal. As I age I'm becoming more theologically liberal, not for the sake of it I think that many of my ideas are just less orthodox than they used to be. Certainly not unusual for someone my age. But, as this happens I'm increasingly looking for patterns of life and liturgy (Xn practices) that I can use to help anchor me. I suspect that somewhere between practice and belief God hangs out. God's a pretty slippery sucker. As I try letting go of some theology in order to get a better hold of God I find myself needing some practice to hang on to. Maybe belief and practice are like the two side rails on a pathway. God is in the middle and if we just hang on to one we'll completely miss God we have to let go but we need the other rail for when we fall off the path again.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Popularity Has Become The Substitute For Community
It's pretty easy to level this kind of criticism at younger people who have hundreds of friends on Facebook but aren't meeting up with the all and playing cricket in the street. The reality is we do not have a community any more. Not in the nostalgic 1950s sense or the "Desperate Housewives" sense where everyone's friends and workmates all live on the same street.
I don't know whether existed but it certainly doesn't now. Most people don't exist in a communities in that sense but a series of networks. A network of social friends, church, work, sport, hobbies and neighbours. Each are different and it's rare that these networks intersect. And it's usually expected that they won't, most people moving into a new suburb will not be expecting to find some new friends in the area, they'll be busy hanging out with the friends they already have.
Popularity has not replaced this idea of community networks have. Every time I see the words "community church" as much as I heartily support the sentiment, I bet there are few people in the local community who feel some kind of affinity with the church.
The church I am at is much the same a great outward focus with the motto "promoting life in our community" I personally find that task overwhelming I wonder if it is was changed to "promoting life in our networks" whether it would seem less daunting.
I don't know whether existed but it certainly doesn't now. Most people don't exist in a communities in that sense but a series of networks. A network of social friends, church, work, sport, hobbies and neighbours. Each are different and it's rare that these networks intersect. And it's usually expected that they won't, most people moving into a new suburb will not be expecting to find some new friends in the area, they'll be busy hanging out with the friends they already have.
Popularity has not replaced this idea of community networks have. Every time I see the words "community church" as much as I heartily support the sentiment, I bet there are few people in the local community who feel some kind of affinity with the church.
The church I am at is much the same a great outward focus with the motto "promoting life in our community" I personally find that task overwhelming I wonder if it is was changed to "promoting life in our networks" whether it would seem less daunting.
Monday, July 20, 2009
I Want To Do
Inspired by Fox Mulder's "I Want To Believe" poster and a recent viewing of the film Ghandi.
Friday, July 17, 2009
I'm Taking The Plunge
Well I've decided to plunge in to Ministry. The first step will be to see if the Uniting Church denomination will have me. I'm still very open to this being a very real possibility. For the last little while I have been doing a Period of Discernment with the Uniting Church, as a part of this I have written out what I believe my call is. I've posted it below so you can have a read if you like and give me any thoughts.
During the Period of Discernment I have had the time not so much to hear God's voice afresh but to get clarity on where I believe God has been calling me for some time.
I didn’t grow up in a Church going family, but at the age of ten inspired by what I heard in school scripture lessons started walking myself to the local Anglican Church and asked for a Bible for Christmas. This is something that only seems unusual only in hindsight. Since initially inciting me away from playing Lego in front of Sunday morning cartoons I feel like God has been calling me towards ministry.
Having grown up in a mainline Anglican church in Sydney I spent my early 20s away from home studying at Newcastle University and involved with an Evangelical Christian group on campus. It was a time where I developed in my faith and could try my hand at preaching, leading several small groups and other committees. I learnt a lot and first started seriously considering whether I was being called to ministry. One group leader told me "if you don't become a minister we've done something wrong" and another said that “even before any training you’d better than most ministers”. I felt I could not just ignore these comments, laced as they might have been with unhelpful judgments about those already working in ministry. After these two leaders had left the group I started to investigate the possibility of taking up an official leadership role within the group. After a couple of conversations with some of the hierarchy I sensed that I would not be the kind of person they were looking for. I was just not theologically conservative enough. Instead I took up a position as a youth worker with an local Anglican Church.
In my mid 20s I moved to Fremantle and developed good friendships with the local non Christians but struggled to break into any Church community. I did get involved para-church organisations like Scripture Union. I felt like I connected spiritually with my non Christian friends more than the Christian people I was meeting, I wondered if I found it hard to break in to a church community what it would be like for them. On one occasion a non Christian couple said to me “If you ran a church I'd go to it” I felt like I was listening to Balaam’s Donkey. These were people who I thought were at best ambivalent to Christianity and here they were telling me they'd go to a church if I ran it. I felt God was telling me this is what you should be doing.
Having made good friends with a liberal Anglican man, through Scripture Union we formed a School based ministry group called “Exposure”. The group did various presentations to school students. One favorite was titled “Burn your Plastic Jesus” where at one point we would compare things Jesus said to some quotes of both modern musicians and fundamentalist moral crusaders. What to me seemed obvious to others seemed a rare ability to reframe the gospel in a way that students could connect with it often for the first time. On one occasion after doing a church service as the last part of a regional music festival a young non Christian year ten student told us "I wish church was always like that". We knew that his local churches were not like this. Both my friend and I could feel God calling us to return to some kind of church based ministry.
In my late 20s I took up a couple of roles with the Anglican Church first as Youth minister for the Northern Region (working with 6 churches and 2 schools) and then as Children and Youth Ministry Consultant for the Southern Region. My role as youth minister was both challenging and rewarding I enjoyed nothing more that journeying with both children as they wrestled with faith and adults as they wrested with how to make that faith connect with young people in their lives. The role was disbanded after involved parties realised that what they were unofficially promised could be done by one person spread over 8 places working only 3 days a week. As a Children and Youth Ministry Consultant (2 days a week) I continued to work with adults as they wrestled with the question “How can I do ministry in my context”. Working with the Anglican church I gained a deep respect and appreciation for their traditions and liturgies but it was still did not feel that it was me. In fact at the time I was part of small home church made up of mix of people with different levels of faith none of whom attended church.
Concurrently I studied Theology at Murdoch University achieving a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Theology where I achieved a distinction average. My wife particularly noticed how invigorated I was when I was actively wrestling with theology and how much I missed it when I completed my study.
I my 30s I found full time work with Drug and Alcohol agency as their Youth Outreach coordinator. In the role I lead teams of part time staff and volunteers to reach out to marginalised people in a range of contexts. I have long had a passion for social justice and those on the margins and felt lucky to find a job with this as it's focus. As much as I had always had the highest respect for those involved practical social justice, I have never felt completely comfortable in my role and have felt God calling me not so much to be doing but to involved in nurturing the hearts and mind of people so that they would desire to do this kind of work. I had also begun to see the limits of what a professional organistaion can do the possibilities a community of people can offer.
At this time I also started attending the Billabong Uniting Church and found a denomination that believed it was “able to live and endure through the changes of history only because it's Lord comes, addressed, and speaks with people in and though the news of his completed work” and “desired to work together and seek union with other churches”. A denomination where I felt more at home than anywhere I had been before. I had the opportunity to be a mentor, a small group leader, run an alternative evening service and on occasion preach. The last time I got to preach one person told me that "when I listen to you I move on" she felt like she had learnt something concrete and could move onto other challenges and issues in her life. I could sense God again asking me “so why are you doing this only occasionally?” I wrestled with this and spoke to my wife who had always been nervous about the idea of being married to a minister and for the first time she was not only content with the idea but felt that I should pursue it. This is when I started the Period of Discernment.
As I reflect on my life I feel that God has slowly developed in me a range of skills and passions uniquely suited to being a minister of the word. I I feel that God has had a direct hand in guiding the kind of work and experience that I have had over my life. I have spent much of my life either working part time or unemployed and despite my best efforts to secure work in other fields, doors have continued to open in fields of ministry. I feel I might be betraying God's efforts if I were not to pursue this possibility of becoming a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church.
---
During the Period of Discernment I have had the time not so much to hear God's voice afresh but to get clarity on where I believe God has been calling me for some time.
I didn’t grow up in a Church going family, but at the age of ten inspired by what I heard in school scripture lessons started walking myself to the local Anglican Church and asked for a Bible for Christmas. This is something that only seems unusual only in hindsight. Since initially inciting me away from playing Lego in front of Sunday morning cartoons I feel like God has been calling me towards ministry.
Having grown up in a mainline Anglican church in Sydney I spent my early 20s away from home studying at Newcastle University and involved with an Evangelical Christian group on campus. It was a time where I developed in my faith and could try my hand at preaching, leading several small groups and other committees. I learnt a lot and first started seriously considering whether I was being called to ministry. One group leader told me "if you don't become a minister we've done something wrong" and another said that “even before any training you’d better than most ministers”. I felt I could not just ignore these comments, laced as they might have been with unhelpful judgments about those already working in ministry. After these two leaders had left the group I started to investigate the possibility of taking up an official leadership role within the group. After a couple of conversations with some of the hierarchy I sensed that I would not be the kind of person they were looking for. I was just not theologically conservative enough. Instead I took up a position as a youth worker with an local Anglican Church.
In my mid 20s I moved to Fremantle and developed good friendships with the local non Christians but struggled to break into any Church community. I did get involved para-church organisations like Scripture Union. I felt like I connected spiritually with my non Christian friends more than the Christian people I was meeting, I wondered if I found it hard to break in to a church community what it would be like for them. On one occasion a non Christian couple said to me “If you ran a church I'd go to it” I felt like I was listening to Balaam’s Donkey. These were people who I thought were at best ambivalent to Christianity and here they were telling me they'd go to a church if I ran it. I felt God was telling me this is what you should be doing.
Having made good friends with a liberal Anglican man, through Scripture Union we formed a School based ministry group called “Exposure”. The group did various presentations to school students. One favorite was titled “Burn your Plastic Jesus” where at one point we would compare things Jesus said to some quotes of both modern musicians and fundamentalist moral crusaders. What to me seemed obvious to others seemed a rare ability to reframe the gospel in a way that students could connect with it often for the first time. On one occasion after doing a church service as the last part of a regional music festival a young non Christian year ten student told us "I wish church was always like that". We knew that his local churches were not like this. Both my friend and I could feel God calling us to return to some kind of church based ministry.
In my late 20s I took up a couple of roles with the Anglican Church first as Youth minister for the Northern Region (working with 6 churches and 2 schools) and then as Children and Youth Ministry Consultant for the Southern Region. My role as youth minister was both challenging and rewarding I enjoyed nothing more that journeying with both children as they wrestled with faith and adults as they wrested with how to make that faith connect with young people in their lives. The role was disbanded after involved parties realised that what they were unofficially promised could be done by one person spread over 8 places working only 3 days a week. As a Children and Youth Ministry Consultant (2 days a week) I continued to work with adults as they wrestled with the question “How can I do ministry in my context”. Working with the Anglican church I gained a deep respect and appreciation for their traditions and liturgies but it was still did not feel that it was me. In fact at the time I was part of small home church made up of mix of people with different levels of faith none of whom attended church.
Concurrently I studied Theology at Murdoch University achieving a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Theology where I achieved a distinction average. My wife particularly noticed how invigorated I was when I was actively wrestling with theology and how much I missed it when I completed my study.
I my 30s I found full time work with Drug and Alcohol agency as their Youth Outreach coordinator. In the role I lead teams of part time staff and volunteers to reach out to marginalised people in a range of contexts. I have long had a passion for social justice and those on the margins and felt lucky to find a job with this as it's focus. As much as I had always had the highest respect for those involved practical social justice, I have never felt completely comfortable in my role and have felt God calling me not so much to be doing but to involved in nurturing the hearts and mind of people so that they would desire to do this kind of work. I had also begun to see the limits of what a professional organistaion can do the possibilities a community of people can offer.
At this time I also started attending the Billabong Uniting Church and found a denomination that believed it was “able to live and endure through the changes of history only because it's Lord comes, addressed, and speaks with people in and though the news of his completed work” and “desired to work together and seek union with other churches”. A denomination where I felt more at home than anywhere I had been before. I had the opportunity to be a mentor, a small group leader, run an alternative evening service and on occasion preach. The last time I got to preach one person told me that "when I listen to you I move on" she felt like she had learnt something concrete and could move onto other challenges and issues in her life. I could sense God again asking me “so why are you doing this only occasionally?” I wrestled with this and spoke to my wife who had always been nervous about the idea of being married to a minister and for the first time she was not only content with the idea but felt that I should pursue it. This is when I started the Period of Discernment.
As I reflect on my life I feel that God has slowly developed in me a range of skills and passions uniquely suited to being a minister of the word. I I feel that God has had a direct hand in guiding the kind of work and experience that I have had over my life. I have spent much of my life either working part time or unemployed and despite my best efforts to secure work in other fields, doors have continued to open in fields of ministry. I feel I might be betraying God's efforts if I were not to pursue this possibility of becoming a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church.
Monday, April 06, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 7 - Preconception vs. Reflection
We all have preconceived ideas of what children and youth ministry should look like. For many people it’s lots and lots of nice kids having lots and lots of nice fun.
Really the make up of children and youth in our church should reflect the community around us. If we live in a community with a lot of retirees and say 10% of young people. For a parish of 80, 8 young people would be great, and half of that would be a great start.
If we live in a community with lots of rough kids, we will have lots of rough kids in a church group too.
So could you be involved in children’s or youth ministry?
I think you need 4 things.
Ask yourself could you...
- Be part of a group that has a 1:4 ratio Leaders to young people
- Commit to a relationship where you care for and listen too Young People
- Consider the children and youth program as a part of church
- Journey with young person as both of you develop your faith
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 6 - Isolation vs. Incorporation
When its comes to children and youth a good question to ask is who are you doing this for? If you are doing it so YOU can have more young people in YOUR church, that is not a good motivation because you are doing for yourself. If you’re doing it because you have something to share with a young person or someway you wish to serve young people then you’re in with a chance.
It is important for us not to view children and youth as a separate thing to the rest of the church, a group that perhaps will eventually join real church on Sunday Morning.
When children go to Sunday school or a after school kids club group they are going to church. They are meeting with other Xns and growing in faith.
It is important for us not to view children and youth as a separate thing to the rest of the church, a group that perhaps will eventually join real church on Sunday Morning.
When children go to Sunday school or a after school kids club group they are going to church. They are meeting with other Xns and growing in faith.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 5 - Success vs. Faithfulness
There are many different ways which we gauge the success of any ministry. That might be numbers or how much fun people are having or it might be how many youth leaders come from the group or how many are acting on social justice or how many are reading Bible.
After three years Jesus certainly hadn’t achieved these things. The best hope was on Peter the only one who hadn’t run away scared when Jesus was arrested and he was denying that he even knew Jesus.
God calls us not to be successful but to be faithful.
To be faithful in loving others as God has loved us and faithful in sharing with them the love that God has for them.
God calls us to be Faithful not successful.
For me the best measure of a Youth Group is to ask “are you sharing your life and the gospel with them?” (1 Thess 2:8) or to put it another way “are you loving them the way God has loved you and sharing God’s love for them?”
After three years Jesus certainly hadn’t achieved these things. The best hope was on Peter the only one who hadn’t run away scared when Jesus was arrested and he was denying that he even knew Jesus.
God calls us not to be successful but to be faithful.
To be faithful in loving others as God has loved us and faithful in sharing with them the love that God has for them.
God calls us to be Faithful not successful.
For me the best measure of a Youth Group is to ask “are you sharing your life and the gospel with them?” (1 Thess 2:8) or to put it another way “are you loving them the way God has loved you and sharing God’s love for them?”
Friday, March 27, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 4 - Entertainment vs. Faith Development
Imagine your child goes off to Piano lessons he say he loves it. A year later you ask him to play something. He plays a really simple / bad rendition of “twinkle twinkle little star”, a rendition as if he had about 2 weeks worth of lessons not a years worth. You go along watch the kids lessons and discover that they spend the first 55 minutes playing games and the last 5 minutes playing piano. You confront the teacher, and she says “This is how we get the kids in! They wouldn’t come otherwise!”
What would you say?
This is often how we approach children and youth ministry. Entertainment usually has more of an instant appeal than faith development and we often get stuck with a trickle down idea. Where we get the kids in with entertainment and then sneak in a bit of the gospel.
What usually happens is young people interested in being serious leave, socially adept young people leave & hang out with their friends and find entertainment else where. If you're lucky, you’re left with socially inept young people coming just for games fun and food and that’s it.
As nice as it may seem to have 40 young people running around a church hall it will be far more fruitful in the long term to have a group of just four doing faith development.
The reality is Churches are not great entertainers nor should we try to be. Of course this doesn’t mean that it can’t be enjoyable just not entertaining for the sake of being entertaining.
What would you say?
This is often how we approach children and youth ministry. Entertainment usually has more of an instant appeal than faith development and we often get stuck with a trickle down idea. Where we get the kids in with entertainment and then sneak in a bit of the gospel.
What usually happens is young people interested in being serious leave, socially adept young people leave & hang out with their friends and find entertainment else where. If you're lucky, you’re left with socially inept young people coming just for games fun and food and that’s it.
As nice as it may seem to have 40 young people running around a church hall it will be far more fruitful in the long term to have a group of just four doing faith development.
The reality is Churches are not great entertainers nor should we try to be. Of course this doesn’t mean that it can’t be enjoyable just not entertaining for the sake of being entertaining.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 3 - Program vs. Relationship
So if relationships are the key to ministry why would we even bother running a program. Why don’t we hang out with young people like we do all our other friends?
Well simply because that doesn’t happen naturally for most of us. The reason we have programs is so that we can have a place where we can develop relationships a place where we can share ourselves and the gospel with Young people.
It is important to remember that relationships change and grow as they develop therefore the programs we run will need to grow and change as well.
No matter how well a program has been running if the people that program was designed to serve now have different needs then that program will need to change.
it is really important never to run a program at the expense of relationships, no matter how great that program once was.
Well simply because that doesn’t happen naturally for most of us. The reason we have programs is so that we can have a place where we can develop relationships a place where we can share ourselves and the gospel with Young people.
It is important to remember that relationships change and grow as they develop therefore the programs we run will need to grow and change as well.
No matter how well a program has been running if the people that program was designed to serve now have different needs then that program will need to change.
it is really important never to run a program at the expense of relationships, no matter how great that program once was.
Monday, March 23, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 2 - Age vs. Relationship
It is no secret that in typical mainline church there is a large percentage of people over 50 and a very small percentage of those between 20 and 30.
It is true that people in the 20-30 age group can make great children and youth leaders, they might even have an inkling about the clothes and music young people listen too.
Although we might think the 20-30s are cool and in touch with young people ask any 22 year old children and youth leader and they will wish that they had the wisdom and maturity of someone over 50.
In my experience once you’re more than 5 years older than a young person it is impossible to convince them that you’re cool in any way what so ever. And, even if they do think you are cool there is no way they are going to say Chris is cool Chris goes to church therefore church is cool.
Ministry happens through relationship. The best children and youth leaders are without exception those who have a genuine interest in and care for those whom they are ministering to.
I once ran a youth group that had a small handful of leaders it included Joan who was a very daggy 50 something who was always intently interested in what the kids were doing and how they were going and, Alesha a girl who was in her late teens and so cool that it was hard to believe she was a Xn. However, she was always keener to catch up and talk to the other leaders a couple who were her good friends.
Pretty early on in the life of the group they both had to leave. Who do you think the kids always ask about?
In fact 6 months later they were still asking about Joan even though she had been with the group for a few months
It is true that people in the 20-30 age group can make great children and youth leaders, they might even have an inkling about the clothes and music young people listen too.
Although we might think the 20-30s are cool and in touch with young people ask any 22 year old children and youth leader and they will wish that they had the wisdom and maturity of someone over 50.
In my experience once you’re more than 5 years older than a young person it is impossible to convince them that you’re cool in any way what so ever. And, even if they do think you are cool there is no way they are going to say Chris is cool Chris goes to church therefore church is cool.
Ministry happens through relationship. The best children and youth leaders are without exception those who have a genuine interest in and care for those whom they are ministering to.
I once ran a youth group that had a small handful of leaders it included Joan who was a very daggy 50 something who was always intently interested in what the kids were doing and how they were going and, Alesha a girl who was in her late teens and so cool that it was hard to believe she was a Xn. However, she was always keener to catch up and talk to the other leaders a couple who were her good friends.
Pretty early on in the life of the group they both had to leave. Who do you think the kids always ask about?
In fact 6 months later they were still asking about Joan even though she had been with the group for a few months
Sunday, March 22, 2009
My Beautiful Wife
Last night I got to go to a great wedding. At the reception one of the women at our table spilt some dessert on her dress. Embarrassed and ashamed she felt stupid for what she had done. My wife not only reassured her that it didn't matter that she had stained her dress but put her finger on her own dessert and stained her own dress. The woman laughed and exclaimed "I love you!" ,she was no longer worried. My wife is beautiful.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - 1 - Numbers vs. Ratio
One of the greatest downfalls of any Children or Youth Ministry is a fixation on numbers. Get any 2 youth ministers together and the first thing that they usually ask is “how many at your youth group”?
We usually end up at meetings about children and youth Ministry because we feel we don’t have enough young people and we are desperate to get more.
The ministries we admire are the ones with lots of kids, we want to know how they do it and hope we can repeat it in our own church.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:8 Paul says “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
The essence of youth ministry is relationship.
Jesus worked fulltime for three years and ended up with just 12 followers one of whom had him killed and a handful of women.
Any children and youth leader who had worked full time for three years with this would probably be seen as doing a pretty poor job.
So why did what Jesus do work? Because he had a relationship with those remaining disciples and they followed in his footsteps. He shared his life and the gospel with them and then they did this with others.
I would swap 100 young people at a church social group for just four young people who were interested in developing their faith and after 5 years (the length of high-school) were keen to do the same thing with other young people. It sounds pretty small but if those 4 young people after five years met with another 4 people for 5 years etc... after 50 years there would be 1,048,576 people in the church.
All with just a ratio of 1:4
So if you have 2 leaders then you'd have just 8 people in the group.
We usually end up at meetings about children and youth Ministry because we feel we don’t have enough young people and we are desperate to get more.
The ministries we admire are the ones with lots of kids, we want to know how they do it and hope we can repeat it in our own church.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:8 Paul says “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
The essence of youth ministry is relationship.
Jesus worked fulltime for three years and ended up with just 12 followers one of whom had him killed and a handful of women.
Any children and youth leader who had worked full time for three years with this would probably be seen as doing a pretty poor job.
So why did what Jesus do work? Because he had a relationship with those remaining disciples and they followed in his footsteps. He shared his life and the gospel with them and then they did this with others.
I would swap 100 young people at a church social group for just four young people who were interested in developing their faith and after 5 years (the length of high-school) were keen to do the same thing with other young people. It sounds pretty small but if those 4 young people after five years met with another 4 people for 5 years etc... after 50 years there would be 1,048,576 people in the church.
All with just a ratio of 1:4
So if you have 2 leaders then you'd have just 8 people in the group.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
7 Things for a Better Children and Youth Ministry - Outline
Nearly 5 years ago now I worked as a Children and Youth ministry Consultant for a Mainline church (think generally lots of older people not so many younger people). The job involved hanging out with a church for about 5 weeks and rethink how they can do children and youth ministry in their context. My friend Derek and I worked pretty hard on the process so rather than let our hard work sit on my hard drive I thought I’d post what we did here.
The process looked something like this…
1. Visioning day 1 (large group of concerned people) – Looking at what it means to do Children and Youth Ministry and to generate collect ideas about children and youth ministry.
2. Drafting mission statement (C&Y team) – then presented at church, this statemnent was related to the church vision statement and was really a way of distilling what the church was on about and wanting to do. Usefull when others might say "we need to get the sunday school back to where it was 10 years ago" we could say no what we want to do is (insert mission statement).
3. Visioning day 2 (large group of concerned people) – look at common ideas/themes, finalise a mission statement, explore possible programs or review current programs, and their ability to meet the new mission statement.
4. Draft Action plan – presented to church with mission statement for comment.
5. Finalise action plan (C&Y team)
6. Discuss training and resources to carry out action plan.
Easy huh?
Well one of the keys to get people thinking differently about Children and Youth Ministry was to look at 7 myths of Children and Youth Ministry. They were titled…
Well one of the keys to get people thinking differently about Children and Youth Ministry was to look at 7 myths of Children and Youth Ministry. They were titled…
1. Numbers vs. Ratio
2. Age vs. Relationship
3. Program vs. Relationship
4. Entertainment vs. Faith Development
5. Success vs. Faithfulness
6. Isolation vs. Incorporation
7. Preconception vs. Reflection
I'll go through each of these myths over the next month or so.
I'll go through each of these myths over the next month or so.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Living as a Practical Atheist
I'm wondering if I'm living life as a practical atheist and whether that's not such a bad thing. My world view is Xn of sorts (given there are a variety of Xn world views) but I wonder if I live like an atheist. The other day I briefly saw a woman crying in her car, as she drove off I prayed for her but I felt like I wanted offer her much more.
It got me thinking that in many ways I’m a practical atheist. I don’t believe that God will intervene deux ex machina style to every prayer that I shoot off and miraculously solve all the problems. It is our job to that, us as people transformed by God.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Corporate Sin, Initial Thoughts
Do you remember the teacher who used to hold back the entire class for detention because they weren’t able to find the culprit. The idea was that the threat of doing this might cause at least one class member to oust the culprit. Of course it never worked. Everyone sat in the classroom angry at the teacher rather than being angry at the culprit (often someone they didn’t even like).
Why does this happen? I’ve been thinking about the idea of corporate sin and wondering if the same thinking and action is behind classroom corporate detention is behind corporate sin.
Here’s a typical scenario. Many people know that some clothing is made in sweat shops, most of us are appalled by it and most of us (myself included) do very little about it. We don’t so much talk about our own inaction or the inaction of other individuals but prefer to blame “the system” or the government or some other teacher like authority. I realize the analogy isn’t completely parallel but I do think there is something to be learnt, perhaps. I’m just not sure what.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Street Wisdom
Information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom. We live in an age of information but we are not necessarily in age of wisdom. A lot of people I have met who live on the streets have a lot of wisdom yet not as much access to information as me. I think I can learn a lot from them. I'd like to take an information fast for a while, so I have time to process information I have into knowledge and then the time to live that knowledge into wisdom.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Making "Make Affluence History"
With the arrival of a new child blogging has become a bit slow. None the less I have continued to have a life outside of blogging and changing nappies at 2am. I've recently been inspired by the idea of Make Affluence History as a necessary shadow of the Make Poverty History campaign. I decided to make some Make Affluence History clothing. Sticking with spirit of the Making Affluence History the jumper is an old work jumper that is no longer used and some old brown tracksuit material and some old thread.
Front Before
Back Before
Front After
Back AfterLuke 18:22, for those of you who have never learnt it as a memory verse says...
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
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