Category Archives: Spirituality

Experi-sabbathing

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Sometimes you feel God giving you a nudge towards something. Recently I’d felt him saying ‘take another look at the idea of sabbath, so I have been doing that and reflecting on what that means for me.

The world I grew up in saw Sabbath (capital S) as a day for going to church in Sunday best (tie included) no sport, no TV, no purchasing anything, and occasionally a few other random rules that seemed to be intended to make life as ascetic as possible. (I met a girl once who didn’t kiss on the sabbath…even I couldn’t get her to break that one…) Needless to say I have less than fond memories of my early years of sabbath.

I didn’t think about Sabbath again until I became a pastor and someone reminded me that if I ‘worked’ on Sundays then I needed to take a day off during the week – it was what pastors did… So I took Mondays and then Thursdays as a sabbath and while I was a full time church worker that seemed to be ok.

Then life became more complicated. Church planter, teacher, business operator… I returned to Saturday – the day everyone else gets and called it my ‘day off’. It made sense, fitted and I could manage it. I enjoyed it.

The two books I have read recently have been 24/6 by Matthew Sleeth (very readable without being simplistic) and Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn – some excellent insights, but I sense Marva and I see the world and church a little differently…

The reading evoked some questions and reflections:

– Why do we see almost all of the 10 Commandments as essential but not the sabbath one? Fair question?

– In the sermon on the mount Jesus says ‘you have heard it said… but I say to you…’ (think adultery/murder etc)  what does that mean for the sabbath? If he raises the bar on everything else what does that mean for this command?

– God rested on the sabbath and declared it ‘holy’. Rest… is… holy?…

Sleeth advocates a ‘stop day’, one day when we stop being productive, efficient, task focused and simply rest, renew and regroup. Dawn is a little more specific with her 4 part focus of ‘ceasing, resting, embracing, feasting’. I felt like I resonated more with Sleeth in tone, but I liked Dawn’s 4 elements and found the gave me a structure to work with.

I felt inspired to re-think what Sabbath means for me and to experiment with it again. So I decided to remove it from Saturdays and place it on Sunday. Some would argue you can’t do this as a pastor because Sunday is a ‘work day’.

Yes – its true that I am required to be there, whereas others can skip a day if they feel like it. Yes – I often have to teach, lead, interact in ways I may not choose to if I were simply a member of the church, but does that mean I can’t experience Sabbath on that day?

Maybe…

But then again maybe not…

Part of perceiving Sunday as a workday is a Christendom mindset that sees the pastor as the paid professional. I might politely say ‘screw that’. Part of Sunday as workday assumes that I will take on certain behaviors and personas to fit with the role. I might say less politely ‘screw that!’

However what if Sunday is the opportunity to gather with the people I love and whose company I find uplifting? What if Sunday isn’t the day when I ‘have to preach’, but is the day when I get to do what I do well – when I get to be most ‘fully me’? Could it still be a sabbath? Is it more about mindset that behaviour?

I’m going to find out.

Maybe it won’t work. Maybe I will get bogged down. Maybe I will lose focus. Each Sunday I put out the chairs for our church. I haven’t asked someone to create a roster because I see it as important to do some of those menial jobs that no one gives a shit about. It a way of reminding myself that I am just one of the crew. I am not more important because I have a gift in teaching and leadership. I also set out chairs. That matters.

But maybe I will find the chairs a chore, a burden?…

Or maybe it is all about a mindset. Maybe I can choose to approach Sundays as my day to connect with some of the people God has put in my care and who I love. Maybe I can see Sundays as a beautiful day of seeing my most loved friends and ‘family’?

Maybe preaching won’t be draining, but will just be a chance to do what I can do and enjoy it?

That’s the ’embracing’ side Marva Dawn would describe. The other elements she lists are: ‘ceasing’, ‘resting’ and ‘feasting’.

One of the things I tried last Sunday in regard to ‘ceasing’ was to have no tech contact with the world. I left my phone plugged in and didn’t access email or facebook. I find that when a retic customer calls on the weekend my brain automatically kicks back into gear. My adrenalin levels rise and I lose my sense of rest. And I find myself annoyed that someone would call on Saturday… or Sunday… I find myself annoyed that I then answer that call…

Putting the phone down was hard.

I am one of the most ‘connected’ people I know, so I felt some serious withdrawals! I left my phone in Danelle’s bag during the morning, just in case our guest speaker at church needed to call me. But then I brought it home and plugged it back in. As I did I saw 3 missed calls and two text messages – all work related. I wanted to ignore them so I did… But at 4.30 curiosity got the better of me and I looked at my messages and listened to my voicemails. Nothing that couldn’t have waited…

But I couldn’t wait… What’s with that?

I avoided emails, but felt the loss and being off Facebook felt kinda weird too. Probably a good discipline then I am imagining…

I am thinking that if I can take myself out of the loop on Sundays with phone, email and Facebook then I will ‘cease’ things that cause me to work, or that cause my brain to rush.

Last Sunday we spent the afternoon in Yanchep national park with friends from church. What I observed was that I was better able to relax and be present because I wasn’t able to head home and check emails and phone calls and do something productive. I was able to be with people and not mentally be elsewhere, something I can do at times. That was good.

And it felt good to simply ignore calls and texts. There is very little that can’t wait a day… Next week I will turn the phone off for the day. It just means that if anyone wants to call me they will need to go thru Danelle…

The ‘feasting’ aspect of Dawn’s paradigm was a little less complete for me – but then I haven’t finished that chapter yet either… I sense she is saying that we ought to enjoy some friends, food and pleasures on our sabbath. So I will explore that a bit too.

Being conscious of the ‘sabbath’ I found myself looking for moments when I was rested and when I was anxious. Church was fine. No trouble there. However stopping in at Coles on the way home to get some food for lunch… that was disgusting. Busy busy busy… people everywhere… rushing… I felt it. I won’t do that again. What a contrast.

Sitting with friends in a national park, with nowhere to be. Now that was good! That was beautiful. I always have ‘somewhere to be’ in my head, so it was wonderful just to kick back and enjoy the people God has brought into my life. To give thanks, to enjoy.

The rest of the day was fairly normal and felt fairly ordinary too.

Was it a better sabbath than Saturday?

I dunno yet, but I am enjoying the learning curve.

 

 

 

 

Contentment and Spiritual Guidance

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two-roads-diverged1I don’t think I have ever been in a place in life where I have been as content as I am at the moment.

It’s beautiful. I love it. But it’s also made me think.

Today I was looking back at the last 20 years of work and ministry and life. It led me to wonder how much of what I have done has been driven by a ‘human’ discontentment as distinct from what would be called ‘holy discontent’.

I have been ‘happy’ and ‘fulfilled’ for many of those years. My life has been rich with great experiences and relationships, but content is rarely a word I would have used because I am aware that I was constantly searching and questing for the next ‘thing’ – a challenge, an idea, a new opportunity to pursue or whatever. I would enjoy what I was doing, but be constantly wondering what was ‘out there’ that I could get my teeth into next. More specifically ‘achievement’ mattered a lot to me so I found myself constantly on the move, ‘climbing the next mountain’.

It led me to pondering how much of what I have labelled ‘God’s call’ was my own inner need for something new and exciting to fuel a strangely discontent life? I think our motives and hearts are always mixed to some degree, but I do wonder if I interpreted as ‘God’ what were really my own desires and needs for a new challenge.

That thought came to me today as I was praying, because right now in a place of contentment I think I would have a much better chance of hearing the voice of God calling me to disrupt my life and pursue a risky venture of some kind. Right now I don’t find myself living with my nose to the wind trying to sniff out the next possibility. So I have a sense that if a new opportunity presented itself, along with a strong sense of God’s leading I’d have to really pay attention – because I’m not seeking it – and (dare I say it) not wanting it.

I’m guessing many people do know the difference between a life led by the spirit and a life led by inner discontentment, but I do think it can be easy to confuddle God’s leading and my frustrations, because I find he often gets frustrated by the same things I do… (funny that…)

Its not to say I have been barking up the wrong tree for 20 years. Such is the grace of God that he is able to work thru all of our self centred meanderings and both bring glory to himself and enjoyment to us.

But there is a difference between enjoyment and contentment. Enjoyment often runs shallow while contentment springs from something deeper. Some days I find myself lamenting my lack of ambition and my loss of drive to achieve, but then other days I find myself giving thanks that I can live with a sense of peace I haven’t known much of before.

Oddly enough I don’t think I am ‘achieving’ much less than previously… I am just less focused on it all.

The God Who Doesn’t Write Us Out of History

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This week I am taking some time to reflect on the book of Jonah as we look at the minor prophets as part of our teaching at QBC. Jonah is one of those books where the story is so well known that it can be hard to hit it afresh. The Sunday school Jonah looms so large that it can be difficult to see anyone else.

But as I’ve been reading it again this week and pondering it I’ve had some fresh thoughts and insights, probably nothing revolutionary, yet enough to take me away from the well worn sermon paths and into some slightly different territory.

Probably the most significant thing that stood out to me was that God chose this clown to use in the first place. There isn’t much about Jonah that is inspirational. In fact there is plenty of ‘how not to’s’ in his story. He strikes me as someone who if you met them face to face that you’d find it easy to dislike.

Grumpy, obstinate, self focussed… with a few moments of redemptive goodness, but broadly speaking hardly someone you’d want as a mate.

I was comparing Jonah to Lonnie Frisbee as I was preparing my talk this morning – another flawed prophet who had quite an amazing ministry. As I read again about Frisbee it was clear that the churches and denominations that he was so catalytic in helping get off the ground had disowned him and written him out of their histories. He was not a fit person to have as a founder…

What strikes me about God is that he chose to leave the Jonah story in the history of Israel. He didn’t see Jonah’s failings and grumbling as a reason to erase him. He just left the story in the canon of scripture for us to read.

Why?

Maybe because that’s what God’s like. He will take a risk on us knowing that we will screw up, knowing that we will let him down, but he does it anyway.

The story doesn’t even end with Jonah in a place of enlightenment or repentance. It just finishes with him pissed off at God for his grace and kindness…

But its there – because that’s how it is sometimes.

The God who takes a risk on a bloke like Jonah just might take a punt on me too, because my failures will never overshadow is love and his grace – in fact if anything they just might highlight it.

 

What God Put in Your Heart

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One of the things I am really enjoying about the experience of leading a church community at the moment is the opportunity to learn and experiment myself.

Today was our ‘prayer and planning’ day, where we set aside time to listen to God, listen to each other and hear where God may be taking us in the coming year. We have been doing it for a couple of years now and each time has been a little different. I think that’s good because it hasn’t become a formulaic process with predetermined outcomes.

I am very conscious of who we invite to these days. For us its an ‘opt in’ day where anyone who sees this church as their local expression of faith is welcome to come and participate. It isn’t for leaders, ‘members’ or those who have been around for a certain length of time. By making it purely ‘opt in’ you end up with those who really want to be there – and who are keen to be part of the process. I’m sure some would have liked to be there today, but couldn’t, but for the most part, these days reflect who the key players are in the life of a church.

One of the things I find perplexing about church planning days is the sense of need to arrive at concrete outcomes that we can action for the next year. Personally I don’t think we have to do this, but I am concious that some feel the day hasn’t been time well spent if we haven’t decided on ‘new stuff to do’. By the same token I am very much for concrete outcomes if they are stuff that God is leading us towards (atlhough I think that in the absence of genuinely hearing God we tend to invent stuff so that we can justufy our existence). Easy to do with our evangelical heritage.

I wonder, what if God said ‘I don’t want you to do anything new’? What if God said ‘all good – just keep rolling’? I think we tend to find that scenario a little hard to imagine. I certainly have in the past. But maybe he does that some days.

As I was reflecting on the process we would use for today I felt it would be valuable to :

– reflect on our history – to tell the story of where we have been – where we have come from to be here today (a very biblical process actually) and in doing so observe the fingerprints of God over our community. I always find this valuable and we enjoy sharing the story together.

– give thanks for what we have – because acknowledging how good things are, helps us kick off with gratitude and an awareness of God’s goodness to us. There was plenty to be grateful for and that is healthy.

– listen for what God has put in our hearts. I am convinced that our future flows out of our passions more than out of cold, formal planning. We reflected on the story of Nehemiah and how he felt compelled to do ‘what God had put in his heart.‘ I don’t want to try and put stuff in people’s hearts and I don’t want to simply push people into stuff that isn’t in their hearts, but I have a strong sense that if we listen to what God has already put in our hearts then we will likely find the next steps come easily. We split into smaller groups to answer the question:  “Where do I feel energy and where do I feel the stirring of God in me for the greater good of the church and his kingdom?” In other words what is firing in YOU?

– listen to one another and listen to God – from this smaller group discussion we came back together to hear what God is stirring in us. For some it was easy to articulate, while for others it was a little less obvious and that is fine. As we talked we heard what God was firing up in people, we heard what was important… And from there we took time to listen to God to see what he may have been saying.

– break for coffee – I don’t think you can ever underestimate the value of the ‘break’ in these kinds of gatherings. People can only focus for so long, but in the break what has been discussed often percolates and brews ready for the next interaction.

– distill – we came back to distill what we were hearing and interestingly it was less about  things to ‘action’ and more about the priority of keeping Jesus central in all we do. I guess you say that’s stupidly obvious… and it is. Except that I sensed what God was saying to us was that we are to find contentment and purpose in simply this and we are to hold this as our top priority. I reckon that’s a little piece of gold.

– consider practical actions – as we agreed not to actually choose any specific actions a discussion began around how we are gathering in smaller communities and what flowed was an awareness that we need to create some different spaces for people to connect and experience church. Before the day had ended one family had said ‘we want to do this – this is what God has put in our heart’. Another person wanted to gather our worship crew to help them focus and reflect on how we worship together – yet another practical outcome that flowed from what was in a person’s heart rather than from cold strategic planning. I am sure more will flow as people listen to what God has put in their hearts and as they respond to him. And that’s how I’d like it to be…

The day finished with lunch and then flowed on into coffee for a few of us as sat by the beach and enjoyed the beauty of being the church together.

It was another day to give thanks for the community we are part of and to observe again that if we pay attention to Jesus and listen for his voice, then he can do a pretty good job of leading his church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Matters

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I updated my facebook status this morning along these lines:

“In Australia there are so many reasons not to go to church… in summer its too hot, in winter its too cold and wet, in autumn and spring its too beautiful a day to spend inside… and then there’s today where its just too butt ugly out there to want to go anywhere… looking forward to being with the crew on this squally Perth morning.”

Its a very ugly day here in Perth, blowing  a gale, hailing and raining. (The first day of the abalone season and as I write a search is underway just 400m from home for an Asian guy who went in the water this morning and didn’t come out.  Last I saw they were sending scuba divers in so its not looking pretty. Tragic to lose life over a shellfish.)

But back to church…

As I sat with the QBC crew today I had one of those profound moments of realisation that what we do by turning up every week matters. It really matters. Not in an attendance register / taking the roll kind of way, but in a committed to one another kind of way, in a lifestyle forming kind of way, in a countercultural choosing kind of way.

My facebook status alludes to the fact that its a choice that is easy not to make in our culture, because there are many reasons to choose things other than being together. And to be honest at times I have found the framing of this choice a bit difficult to swallow. When framed legalistically / dutifully I begin to zone out and lose interest, but when we speak in terms of forming our corporate identity and of practicing disciplines that form us into Christlikeness then I am all ears.

I’m not overly worried whether its Sunday, Monday or Thursday evening that we gather, but rather that we choose to do it and that we enter it in our mental diaries as a non-negotiable. That’s a harder line than I have taken in the past, but in the last few years I’ve increasingly seen ‘turning up’ as the first step in becoming a community. If we can’t ‘turn up’ then we are seriously screwed before we even leave first base.

We live in an era where regular church attendance (a crappy term I know…)  is probably considered to be 1 week in 3, or if you’re really committed, then fortnightly. As a result we have lost some of the positive energy that goes with being a church community. Fragmentation in wider society is reflected in church culture where we no longer have the same bonds.

I also see the weekly discipline (because it is just that some weeks) as something that informs and forms my children. They see us practice things that matter to us and in their heads they will inevitably conclude that commitment to a Christian community as a non-negotiable in our week is a priority. While there are no guarantees with kids, my hunch is that if they don’t see that in us then I imagine it will be less likely to form in them.

There have been plenty of mornings I have woken up and not felt at all like joining the crew at church. I have felt more like sleeping late, hitting the beach and simply doing ‘what I want’. Its not that I can’t do any of those things at other times, but sometimes I just don’t like the sense of commitment that goes with… well… ‘commitment’…

I wonder how we would go as the church if were able to have both a strong commitment to mission and a strong commitment to Christian community? I see one as shaping and sparking the other and vice versa. We can pick up the ‘mission ball’ at the expense of the ‘community’ ball, but when we begin to choose either/or I think we slowly amble into a world of our own preferences.

Some stuff is hard and we just need to do it.

That said, every morning when I woke up and thought ‘church… blech…’ and chosen to be there I have found myself encouraged and reminded that this is stuff that matters.

I’ve started running again and its the same feeling. Sometimes you just can’t be bothered. Its cold, wet and much nicer in front of the telly, but no one becomes the person they hope to be making the easy choices all the time.

(I just noticed that this post links back to a post I made earlier this year here, where David Fitch gave some excellent insights.)

 

Wiping Bums and Following Jesus

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Daz Gardiner

I’ve been wondering lately how you can know when a Christian leader, speaker, minister (whatever) is moving from being a servant to a celebrity.

When do you start to cross that line and when are you so immersed in your own image development and promotion that you forget who you actually are?

I think its’ a bit like ‘ugly’ – you can’t quite define it, but you know it when you see it. Its something that makes you go ‘ech… really?… oh dear…’ And in the midst of your cringe you wonder if you should say anything or if you are just the party pooper who ‘doesn’t get it’. Because celebrity Christians are rarely questioned (face to face) and actually don’t like being challenged. It spikes the conscience.

There are a few tell tale signs of celebritism that always set off my finely honed ‘wanker alarm’. There’s the nasty stuff like only flying business class or only staying in 5 star accommodation. If that’s your thing then I won’t ever be calling you.

Then there’s the slightly less obvious ‘speakers rooms’ at conferences where the important people get to hang together away from the plebs, a practice often justified by some curious logic. There’s reserved front row seats… the chunky ‘love offerings’ (technically not tax deductible as they are gifts), a bizarre form of hero worship that only feeds the beast, and then more recently there has been the awful and embarrassing self promotion on social media. Facebook hasn’t helped the cause by creating ‘fan’ pages, but seriously I think I’d reject those things on principle.

Yes, this could all be sour grapes because I’ve never been successful or famous enough to ever be in celebrity mode, but I have been in positions where there has been the opportunity to enter into some of that stuff. My gag reflex on Christian celebritism is pretty strong so I tend to sniff it and call it fairly quickly. But I’ve also been privileged to know some people who regularly speak to crowds of thousands, but haven’t been seduced.

A few years back when we were in full swing with Forge in Perth I invited Darryl Gardiner from New Zealand to come and join us. Daz isn’t well known in WA, but he is a brilliant, hard hitting communicator who regularly speaks to big crowds around the world. He happily spoke to a very small crew, engaged with them before and after and showed himself to be the real deal. He even returned all of his speaking fee because we were doing it tough financially at the time in Forge.

However the real test for Daz came early on Saturday morning when our son Sam – aged 3 at the time – made it to the toilet, got his business done, but couldn’t finish the job. We always laughed when Sam was on the toilet because we would hear this little voice screaming out, ‘Muuuuuuummmm…. can you come and wipe my bottom?!’ (I was always glad that my name was not ‘mum’) That Saturday morning he must have yelled and screamed for a bit, but mum never came. With the doors closed we obviously couldn’t hear him – but Daz did…

So what do you do when you’re the international guest speaker sleeping in the room next to the toilet while the 3 year old is stuck? I’m guessing if you’re full of your own importance you ignore the kid and complain about it later (to someone else), but if you’re in servant mode then you do what Darryl did.

You wipe the kid’s bum.

He told us about it later amidst some laughter. Ok so we didn’t do it on purpose (promise Daz) but in that action Daz made a huge statement. The Jesus we claim to follow wasn’t too full of himself to do the menial task of washing someone’s feet and Daz wasn’t too self important to perform one of life’s less pleasant tasks either.

While we are wiping bums we are unikely to be too concerned about whether we are flying business class or staying in the Hyatt…

 

 

Two Reasons to Go to Church

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David Fitch is back blogging. I always enjoy his perspective on the church and mission and this piece nailed a similar thought I have been processing lately.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why people either come to church or don’t come. It is a beautiful spring day in Perth and church numbers were a little down today. Some sick, some busy, some probably just doing something else… the beach… a picnic… whatever…

Like David writes in this post, I am not a fan of ‘going to church’, but I am absolutely convinced we need to be deeply knitted into a regular (probably weekly) corporate expression of faith – otherwise we simply aren’t ‘getting’ one very significant aspect of discipleship.

Those who know me well enough would know I am not just referring to attending a church service, but if you aren’t going to do that as a baseline activity, then the question I would raise (to anyone claiming to be a Jesus follower) is just who are you connecting with at a significant level and who is sharing the road with you?

There is no solitary discipleship and if we choose to move that way then we are kidding ourselves. Ultimately it is going to see us come unstuck.

David offers two reasons to go to church:

a) to get something

b) to submit to something

The first is possibly the primary reason many people go – to ‘meet their needs’ – and that is not all bad, but it does revolve around the self and can easily end up in the consumer approach to faith. We end up as those who evaluate and ask ‘what did I get out of today?’ We do have needs, but this one so easily veers into selfishness. Not a good reason to do so.

The second really struck a chord, as what David is essentially arguing for is ‘going to church’ as a spiritual discipline – something we do even when we don’t feel like it because we know that the outcome is going to be valuable at some point and because others will benefit rather than just me.

Its a mature approach to church – while the first is an immature one.

I think we can easily poo poo people who attend church religiously – no pun intended (and maybe some do need a bit of poking) – but perhaps they are also establishing a discipline and a rhythm that will both serve them and others well.

The act of ‘going to church’ is not the end in itself. You can do that and still be a spiritual infant. But when ‘going to church’ is done consciously to submit to a needed discipline and to bless others then our own health can only flourish

We live in a country where regular church attendance has been in steep decline for a long time – and I would suggest that the rigour of discipleship has paralleled that decline. It used to be that those who were ‘committed’ would go to church at least once on a Sunday – but more likely twice if it were possible. (The big negative to this was that life then revolved around ‘church’ and we lost contact with the world.)

We then went to regular weekly attendance, but more recently we see people attending fortnightly or maybe 1 in 3 and still seeing themselves as committed to the community.

Really?…

I hope we never veer back into the legalism that saw people judged for not being in the building each time the doors were open, but perhaps we need a course correction that sees people choosing to do what is now considered unusual and making their weekly gathering a top priority rather than something they will get to if there is nothing in the way.

Whether you meet in a school, a dedicated building, a home, a cafe or on a beach if we see our weekly gathering as a spiritual discipline and as an act of service to others then we will start to point the ship in the right direction.

So You Want Your Kids to Follow Jesus?…

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So you want your kids to follow Jesus as they grow up and become adults?…

Who doesn’t?…

Yet it seems the most common epidemic in the church is that of young people jettisoning their commitment to Christ in the teen years. I’m sure there are many varied reasons for this but one reason must surely be that they have never really come to grips with submitting to authority.

I was on Facebook this morning when I saw a post by John Sweetman on a sermon he was going to be giving on raising kids. One of his points was this:

One of my points is to represent God’s authority by setting strict boundaries when kids are young (Heb 12:7-11). I know this is not always popular, but if children don’t somewhere learn to submit to authority then they will struggle to submit to Jesus as Lord

There are no guarantees when parenting. But I am right with him on this one. It’s one thing to give your kid freedom to express and learn but I think that idea of teaching kids submission to authority is vital to preparing them for following Christ. (And I couldn’t care less if that sounds politically incorrect, ‘old school’ or whatever!)

I saw Scot McKnight this week summarized the gospel in 3 words as ‘Jesus is Lord’. Stanley Hauwervas was a little more feisty (as is his nature) in stating ‘Jesus is Lord. Everything else is bullshit.’ However you see it if we want our kids to get the gospel – that Jesus is Lord – and will claim authority over our lives then we do them no favours by not preparing them for that reality.

Of course there are those weird parents who will treat their kids with brutality rather than authority but I think you know I’m not talking about that nonsense. As adult disciples we are always grappling with Jesus’ call on our lives and his authority over us. When you have a pre-wired sense of submission you can recognize this as sin and call it for what it is, but in the absence of this understanding the notion of someone calling me to submit can seem foreign and abusive. ‘Why would I want to do that?…’

So I reckon John nailed it there. Parents – if you want your kids to follow Jesus as they mature then teach them while they are young that there is genuine authority to be submitted to and respected. There is also authority that deserves confronting and challenging and hopefully as our kids mature they will be able to discern who to listen to and who to question.

As for Jesus – he has already made the call…

He was asking for people’s thought on how we prepare our kids for lives of mature adult discipleship and if I were to add my own (Danelle’s and my take) we would say that when kids see their parents genuinely living the life of faith, choosing the ‘narrow path’ and living lives of genuine discipleship (not just going to church) then they are presented with a vision of how the life of the kingdom can be. They might reject it – but at least they would be saying ‘no’ to the real deal.

Trade Offs

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One of the beauties of being only paid part time to lead a church is that you are forced to deal with many of the same pressures other people have in their lives. When there isn’t a full week to give to ministry then you need to find a way to prioritise the essentials and come to grips with stuff you just can’t do.

I have been pondering what we will teach about in the second half of the year and I thought it would be interesting to work through Genesis from the beginning. Then I began to consider the challenge that would present in terms of research and preparation and realised I just don’t have the time to do it justice. Any time you open Genesis you open a can of worms, and while I’d enjoy the journey I simply know I’d be winging it with the content. So maybe it will be a safer option…

A shame because I think it would be valuable to grapple with the Genesis content in an intelligent way and to have some good debate around the different ideas that are out there.

Its not often I find myself wishing I had more time to work in a church, but there it was this morning…

When Prophets Get Weary

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Its hard for our prophets.

They don’t come in packs. They come as ‘singles’. Criticism is inevitable and they get tired.

Its tough to stay the course. Its easier to shut up and blend in, but prophets aren’t made to fade to grey. If you’re a prophet then do your thing.

We need you!