Hehehe…
Sorry Dan 🙂
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Monthly Archives: February 2006
Fishing
I bought two little fishing rods last Friday to use with local kids in my boat. Of course as soon as I got some from work Ellie and Sam wanted to try them out. So we headed down to Quinns beach at 6.00pm in a howling south westerly and ‘fished’ for 15 mins before running up the beach freezing and windblown.
Fun!
This is Andrew Duncan
Tomorrow I meet up with my mate Andrew Duncan, as well as a few other fellas for breakfast and shallow conversation.
Last time we met we spoke about the whole idea of ‘googling yourself’, and Andrew mentioned that he didn’t rate a mention on google.
So… this is my attempt at putting ANDREW DUNCAN on the map!
Its not the best photo in the world but then you know what they say about the camera not lying…
For those who don’t know him, Duncs is the pastoral team leader at East Fremantle Baptist Church, came to West Oz originally from Canberra and is also the Baptist Churches Evangelism Consultant.
He’s a good bloke and we catch up for breakfast once a month to discuss what we are learning and to chew the fat on life in general. He has allowed me to preach at his church a few times, but not recenlty. He must be boring them ok on his own.
Andrew Duncan is an avid sailor, a pretty useful theologian and a useless carpenter (his own words!) He likes the Left Bank in Freo and is one of the more innovative thinkers around here in the whole realm of church and mission.
So there you go Duncs! If you are stilll a blip on the info-highway radar then it sure isn’t my fault!
See you tomorrow mate.
(Actually – I’m pretty sure the reason you don’t rate a mention on google is because you have a name like ‘Andrew Duncan’. There must be as many AD’s as there are AH’s in the world! Welcome to the minor league of google pages!)
Magic Fridge
New Seatbelt Design
Moving Beyond the Personality Cult
Its so easy to do.
When you display a charismatic personality and a half decent communication gift you can ‘wow’ people, pull a crowd and before you know it have people ‘following you’ and cheering for you almost irrespective of who you are.
I was reminded of this over the last week as I spent some time with a survivor of my time in youth ministry at my old church. She was one from a non-Christian home, who came to Christ and is still going. She is rare. Most kids without Christian family give it away when the scene changes,the pastor moves on or they hit a hard patch. She hasn’t and has certainly earnt my respect on those grounds alone.
That youth ministry did rely too heavily on my own presence to give it energy. It was good while I had passion for the youth scene, but when my passion waned everything began to come unstuck. I couldn’t inspire people like I used to, because I didn’t have the same fire. And it was around here that I began to realise how much others depended on me to be the passionate one – the inspirer of others. The source…
I reckon its a danger for church planters also – to build a church focused on us download moulin rouge dvd download snow angels online living dying dvdrip – to be the centre of it all – the lynch pin – the ‘man’. Its a quick way to pull a crowd, which only tells you how dumb people are sometimes – how easily they are swayed by an up front presence – how much they long for someone (anyone?) to look like they are followable.
The challenge is not to dismiss the power of personality, but to use it with integrity – to lead people rather than drive them and love them rather than smile at them as you ‘work the room’ on a crowded Sunday.
I remember a retreat we had as an Upstream Team over 2 1/2 years ago. It will go down in history as a fairly unmemorable weekend. It wasn’t terrible – just kinda average – ho hum. I remember as it came to an end there was a distinct lack of passion in the room. I began to switch into ‘vision talk’ mode, but then just as quickly jumped back from there.
Its not that a vision is bad – or even that a ‘vision talk’ is bad in its place. But what I sensed then was a critical moment, when people could either look to me for energy and inspiration or could look to Jesus. Somehow I had the presence of mind not to wind up a ‘ra ra’ kind of talk, but I didn’t know why. It was only as I drove home that it dawned on me what I had (not) done. I won’t claim that I pointed people to Jesus. I didn’t. All I did was not point them to me.
Even so, we were able to reflect on this later, and it became a learning moment then, a realisation that we are not going to be a team dependent on Hamo for inspiration, but rather a bunch of people who try to look to Jesus for that.
Now that’s easier said than done, and I do believe that God does gift some of us as motivators and inspirers of others, but the huge challenge is to do that without then becoming ‘the centre’ in place of the one who really is and ought to be the centre.
Small challenge hey?!
Not Tonight
Its been a big ‘people’ week.
That’s important because I am not a people person. I like download lady in the water free people, but I also need good chunks of ‘time out’ to recover and restore my energy. I’m what I describe as an ‘outgoing introvert’, ie. I can do real well in social situations and get on fine with all sorts of different folks, but after a while I need to withdraw to recharge. If I don’t, I start to get grumpy, nasty and sometimes a little ugly.
Today Sam turned 3 and we have had people here from 10.00-6.00pm. After the .acom retreat and a big day yesterday my people meter was reading ‘overload’.
I realised I was getting grumpy yesterday when I was walking up the circular walkway to catch the train at Leederville. A young guy was coming down the ramp on his skateboard and got mad at a mum wheeling a pram who was in front of him and made him stop skating. She didn’t see him, but I did and he made me angry. Without thinking I snapped at him ‘Its a bloody walkway!’
Oops… I don’t normally snarl at complete strangers, even if they deserve it.
Later in the shops three young guys were messing around on the escalators and nearly knocked an elderly couple over. My mental tape was snarling wildly again, but I managed to stay quiet. Then they jumped across and bumped into me. As they bumped into me, I pushed one of them off a little harder than I needed to. He knew it. I knew it. I think he also realised I was not up for any smartarse remark from an 18 year old. I think I also knew I was in need of some time away from people.
So Saturday morning comes around and 40 people come to Sam’s birthday… yeh… that’d work!
Sam loved his birthday. Danelle did a magnificent job. I survived. Tonight I was supposed to be going to an ’80’s party’ with some of the local Brighton folks. I’m obviously not there.
Resting…
Recovering…
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to go out in public and not pick any fights…
How Does it Work?
Yesterday I met with ‘L’ a regular reader here and a fellow traveller on the road of rethinking mission and church.
I asked L how she was going and her reply was interesting. Recently her mum who suffers from Alzhiemers, had broken her leg, so there was a lot of time being spent visiting her and caring for her. L also has a very sick son, who has required a lot of care over the last 12 months.
L’s question was ‘are we people who live for God and his kingdom and fit our life (with all its complexities of sick family members etc) in around that, or does God and his kingdom fit in around the life we have to live?’
Its a good question I reckon.
Is God’s calling on us the primary focus of our lives, or does his calling on us fall subject to whatever is happening in the life of our family and those close to us?
As ihave reflected on it my guess is that its never a simple response but something of a messy convoluted ‘both/and’. We are always called to be dedicated to our families, but at the same time we may have a very strong sense of calling from God that guides our lives. I don’t think I’d like to come down hard on one side or another. I have seen family sacrificed on the altar of ministry but equally I have seen family deified and God’s calling minimised.
All Friends Here… aren’t we?…
Today I got back from the .acom Personal Spiritual Formation retreat, 3 days of hanging out with some great people and listening to stories of how lives have been formed and shaped and sometimes broken. It was a great experience and I’m looking forward to spending the year with the crew who are in my group.
Pic here download last house on the left the divx download mask the divx
As well as Middo, I’ll be spending time with ex blogger ‘Roo’, one of my old youth group ‘kids’ JK, aboriginal pastor and leader HH and youth pastor RI. Its a real mixed bunch and looks like shaping up to be a fun group as well as a pretty honest group.
One rather traumatic moment was discovering that Scott, Alan and I all wear exactly the same underwear… So when all three of us decided to dry our jocks on the railing outside our chalet it became a raffle as to who owned what. In the end I took red, Al took blue and Scott took green. I sure hope that rash I’ve got isn’t contagious. Such is life when you go away with a bunch of blokes. My basketball trips to the Philippines in my 20’s saw me come back with many a strange piece of someone else’s underwear.
The 3 days basically consisted of story telling (everyone has 45 mins to an hour to tell their life story) and swimming and eating. It wasn’t a hard three days at all. I managed to get a surf in at The Spot, and last night we watched Tuesday’s with Morrie, a movie version of the book.
Anyway, its back to real life now!
Spam
I have just changed my preferences re commenting so only those who are approved can get thru my comment filter, supposedly…
I was getting tired of deleting all the porn, viagra etc sites.
If your comment doesn’t appear immediately then it is because you have commented for the first time and I need to say ‘yes’ to you 🙂
Or its because you are a spammer and need to get a life.