::Rants-Mike Guglielmucci and Christian Entertainment Some of you may not know who Mike Guglielmucci is. Some of you may. Lisa and I certainly know who his dad is. Lisa and I would often prioritise hearing Danny speak at the various youth conferences and training events we participated in earlier on in our life. He was (and I suspect still is) a wonderful encouragement to keep your feet on the ground, keep honest, keep real, basically an encouragement to be as transparent as possible.

So when a colleague of mine who was a good mate of Danny's son Mike told me whilst holding back tears, that Mike had confessed to faking a terminal illness for two years, a great number of emotions swept over me. Many of those emotions have been documented on various blogs and message boards. Anger, disappointment, a sense of sobriety, cynicism, and ultimatley sadness.

However, there were two feelings/thoughts inside of me that I just need to get out, so sorry to rant all over you here.

The first thought was, how could the son of someone like Danny do something like this? Danny, as far as I could tell, seemed to live a life of transparency. Surely some of this would pass some of that to his kids? I mean, from what I know about Danny, a dad like that would have been pretty wonderful. What happened?

Thinking about "where it all went wrong" led me to the next thought/feeling. When people throw their hands up and go "there goes another fake Christian leader", something inside me gets real angry. Before I describe what it is that makes me angry, I want to say that I do not condone what Mike did for one minute. I am not about to make excuses for his blatantly destructive choices.

However, the thing that makes me angry is this, if there were not masses of consumers, who apply pressure (I will buy your records, download your video clips, pay to hear you speak, add you as my myspace and Facebook friend, etc), there would literally be no space for people like Mike to inhabit. The only reason he can have such a huge impact is because our lust for celebrity heroes creates that space where he and others like him live! At least half of this is our fault!

We love celebrities (Christian ones included) for two reasons. We perceive that they are successful, that they have made it, that they have everything they want, from the economic (ie: I can do anything I want because I have the economic means to achieve it), the social (ie: because I am famous, I know and spend time with all the special people), through to the spiritual (ie: they are in front of thousands of people, therefore God must be with them in everything they do) and then the most critical factor, we can *be* them! We can have what they have!

It is this dream of being the celebrity that drives us. We are in love with the idea of being the one that everyone else is in love with that often lies at the heart of our faith and practice. So many times, I have heard people talk about the "plan that God has for their lives" and in almost every instance, when that "plan" is described to me, it involves a stage, and thousands of people (dare we read adoring fans, spectators, consumers, plebeians, etc?) watching the individual do whatever it is that "God has called them to do".

So to achieve this "dream from God", we participate in the hellish system that creates Christian versions of the secular entertainment industry. We put so much pressure on people in this system to "perform". For goodness sake, we are so fickle, so we create the high pressured environment that requires the consumed celebrities to keep it fresh, current, cool, interesting, entertaining. It is our own broken desires for fame at any cost that creates the environment. Is it any wonder that some will do anything to retain the spotlight? Then we have the audacity to be shocked and surprised when people crack and break under such pressure.

I am not sure how Mike will come to terms with his sin and brokenness. After reading the official statement read out in the most effected churches yesterday, Mike is now talking about a pornography addiction that is the cause of his mass terminal illness hoax. What a Pandora's box that will open. Regardless, Mike and his family and friends (the ones that will remain when things turn sour), have allot of work to do. It will be a long hard road. One of the most difficult aspects will be dealing with the system which has largely turned on him and consumes his brokeness, in the same way it simply consumed his dysfunctionally driven creativity previously.

But the question I want to ask is, will those who consume and devour Christian celebrities repent of their idolatrous behaviour? Will we collectively bring our Christian idols (entertainment paraphernalia and all of our dysfunctional behaviours and desires that it represents) to the bonfire to be burnt? Will we publicly declare our destructive desires to be the centre of everyone's attention and instead embrace a spirituality that dares to serve in obscurity?

If we don't want this to happen again, stop looking! Refuse to be entertained. Choose the wisdom that comes to you over a cup of coffee from a *nobody* to the sound bytes that come to us through the microphone, refuse to be an adoring participant in the pagan celebrity worship game. Choose to listen to, and follow him who did not think that equality with God was something to be grasped, rather he made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, a humble obedient servant who followed his instructions, even knowing they would result in his death.

Labels: Lifestyle, Mike Guglielmucci, Rants, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 8:46 AM   3 comments

::Resources-Prayer and Mission: The Coming of the Kingdom of God This presentation is from the Tear National Conference (from where I am currently blogging, I love internet access from anywhere! Well, anywhere Optus has coverage anyway) presentation that I made last night.

The workshop was called "Prayer and Mission: The coming of the Kingdom of God. It may not make allot of sense to those who did not participate in the workshop, yet here they are. Click here to download them.

Labels: Discipleship, Faith, Lifestyle, Missiology, Politics, Prayer, Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 7:39 PM   0 comments

::Opportunity-Job going at Tear There is a *great* job going at Tear in Victoria. Check out the details here:

http://www.tear.org.au/getinvolved/staff-vacancies/victoria-young-adults-development-officer

Obviously feel free to pass it around.

Labels: Lifestyle, Tear

  Posted by Stephen @ 5:23 PM   1 comments

::Theology-Some kind of conclusion... Rowan Lewis, the Coordinator of Year in the Son (which is one of the teaching gigs I have), is always encouraging me not just to challenge students with the state of the world, but to also give them a vision of what could be. He loves my work, but is a great foil for my mind and heart, as he challenges me to inspire people with a vision of an alternative.

A few months ago, I posted my version of the Sheep and the Goats that I used in this particular class. It was my attempt at engaging Gen Y with the call to radical discipleship. After some careful thought, I rewrote the second half for the class in response to Rowan's encouragements. This is the first time I have presented it in a public forum. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Jesus turned to the ones on his left and he will say:
"Depart from me you who are accursed. For I was hungry, but you didn't give me anything to eat. So we grew our own food, but we had to sell it into the international trading system, using the money to pay off our debts to your country. We had little left to eat.

"For I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. So we found a water table and drilled a well. But Coca Cola Amatil came to our city and outbid us for access to our own water. They use it to make your Coca Cola. They outbid us with the profits they made from selling you their product.

"I was imprisoned in my own country, so I fled in desperation with nothing except the money that I was able to get in exchange for everything I ever owned. I managed to get to your country, even though the people smugglers told me I was going to England! When I got to your country, you put me into another prison. But you call yours a detention centre?

"I was naked, and you did not clothe me. So we had to find work in order to buy our own clothes. I found work, in a factory. I worked every day from 7am till 9pm with very few breaks, 7 days a week. It was hard work. I rarely got to see my family, life was very hard. This kind of life made me very sad. The factory I worked in made clothes that were sold to you.

"I was sick. I agonized as many of my family, friends and especially the children in my community died from things like diarrhoea and simple infections. I was afraid I too would die in this horrible way. Day after day, month after month, year after year. This happened whilst every now and then, you would give thanks to your God for your health.

"I was homeless and I read in one of your Christian books that if I applied myself and worked hard enough, I could have whatever I could conjure up enough faith for. I have been praying and believing for a home for my family. I cannot wait for God to answer that prayer.

"I was lonely, hoping for someone to visit. Often I saw your aeroplanes flying overhead. I suspect that you were probably on your way to London, or Paris to see things that were very important and special.

"You seemed so blessed with so many things. You must be very holy for God to bless you with so many good things. I am still very hungry and lonely and cold.

Then he will turn to the ones on his right, and he will say:
"Come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.

"For I was hungry, and you decided to prioritise environmental sustainability and the just nature of trade regarding the food you eat. When you made your food producers and manufacturers accountable to the way they treat me and the planet on which I try to grow my own food, you slowly but surely made a difference in my life and the life of my family.

"When I was thirsty, you heard my cry and sacrificially gathered some of God's wealth and resources and gave them to me so that I could build a well in my community. Your simple sacrifice and concern for me and my family made a huge difference in the life and health of our community.

"I was naked and you were outraged. You demanded that the corporations from whom you purchased your own clothing treated me with justice. I was able to form a trade union and campaign for good working conditions. I was able to work and to rest and recreate because of your concern and action. You now have to pay a little bit more for your own clothing, but that does not concern you for now people are more important to you than money.

"I was sick with preventable diseases, and this filled you with remorse. You decided that you would give some of your monthly income regularly to programs that helped to improve the quality of my life, and that of my family and friends. In your monthly budget, you made sure that you remembered me always, for the remainder of your life.

"I was homeless, and you knew that this was wrong. You opened your home to me, sharing a room, meals, tears, time, frustrations, patience and love with me. It was uncomfortable for you; however you gave much and learned much about yourself, about God, and about our common humanity.

"I was lonely. But so were you, trapped in a world where you needed to be constantly entertained and stimulated. As you broke free from your materialistic prison, we found each other. We talked, and listened to one another, we spent time getting to know each other, and ourselves. In your act of reaching out, you became more human than you realised possible.

And the ones on his right said to the King:
"Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or lonely and in prison?

And the King answered:
"Whatsoever you did to the least of these, you did it to me."

Labels: Culture, Gen Y, Lifestyle, Missiology, Rants, Social Justice, Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:55 AM   10 comments

::Activism-Secret Society I have spoken to some of you about the secret society. We are starting to form for next year. If you are interested, email me asap so I can include you in on the formation process.

Labels: Discipleship, Lifestyle, Spirituality, Tear

  Posted by Stephen @ 3:21 PM   0 comments

::Resources-Internet Fund Raising This is a great idea by a mate of mine in Tasmania (and a few of his friends) to get as many individual $1 donations as possible. I think the calculation is something like: if they can get 10% of the worlds internet users to give $1AU, they can raise over $7.9 million dollars.

And of course, I like the fact that Tear is one of the handful of beneficiaries too!

Spread the word, AND MAKE SURE YOU GIVE YOUR $1 DONATION!

PS - THe url is www.onehitwonder.org...

Labels: Discipleship, Environment, Events, Lifestyle, Social Justice, Spirituality, Tasmania

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:23 AM   1 comments

::Resource-Fair Trade info in Australia I often get asked about where people can get information regarding Fair Trade and how to be involved in a meaningful way. Yvonne James (Tear Tasmania) has compiled this list. Thanks Yvonne!

Fair Trade in Australia

Contacts of organisations:
Fair Trade Association of Australia & New Zealand (FTAANZ) http://www.fairtrade.com.au/

FTAANZ is the coordinating group for individuals and organisations in the fair trade movement in Australia. They also coordinate Fair Trade Fortnight each year. Website includes plenty of info, links and programs such as “Fairtrade communities” of which there are now 277 in Aust & NZ. FTAANZ can also supply posters & brochures to help you promote Fairtrade products.

aust@fairtrade.com.au (03) 9662 2919. The Australian FTAANZ office is in Melbourne.

The website also includes a searchable database of where to buy Fairtrade products: http://www.fairtrade.com.au/locator

World Fair Trade Day 2008
Saturday 10th May

Fairtrade Labelling Orgnisations International (FLO) http://www.fairtrade.net/
“FLO is an umbrella organization that unites 20 Labelling Initiatives in 21 countries and Producer Networks representing Fairtrade Certified Producer Organizations in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.” FLO develops & reviews the Fairtrade standards that producers & traders must meet to gain Fairtrade certification of products. FLO also supports Fairtrade producer groups. FLO international is based in Germany.

People for Fair Trade http://www.fairtrade.asn.au/
People for Fair Trade (PFFT) are a voluntary network of people in Australia who are committed to fair trade with producers of goods, through the support of education and alternative trade.

PFFT are suppliers of Fairtrade tea & coffee and give priority to products where value adding (processing & packaging) is done by local companies in the country of origin.

State Contacts
Western Australia: Robert Roberts email: robert@fairgotrading.com.au or phone 08 9228 2610

Contacts for Fair Trade Fortnight 2008
Qld - Shannon Sheedy enquiries@thedharmadoor.com.au
NSW - Joanna Jouinn joannajouin@bigair.com.au
Vic - Victoria Schladetsch victoria_sch@msn.com
SA - Karen Wahlstrom shop50@oxfamshop.org.au
WA - Bob Roberts robert@fairgotrading.com.au

Labels: Discipleship, Environment, Lifestyle, Social Justice, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:16 AM   0 comments

::Politics-A free seminar Click on the link below to get details on a free seminar being held by a collection of Melbourne based Christian groups looking at the current political debate that breaks out of the "Australia is simply an economy" paradigm. Tear are involved in this too!
BeyondHipPocket-v3.pdf

Labels: Election 07, Lifestyle, Politics, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 11:03 AM   0 comments

::Rants-Gift Catalogue goes Green Very excited that after some incredibly hard work, the Geeks at Tear have updated the Catalogue with new *Green* gifts!

You can check out the catalogue here http://www.usefulgifts.org/ ...

Get your Christmas Shopping in early!

Labels: Lifestyle, Rants, Tear

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:47 AM   0 comments

::Rants-Bible Rewrite The Sheep and the Goats doesn't get a whole lot of airplay. Maybe a bit more now but very little when I first came to faith. A significant contributor to my formation was a rewrite of the Sheep and the Goats that looked something like this:

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger, thankyou.

I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel in the cellar and prayed for my release.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.

I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.

I was homeless and you preached to me of a spiritual shelter of the love of God.

I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.

You seemed so holy, so close to God, but I am still very hungry and lonely and cold.

It impacted me to such a degree that I thought that I had to do something to give it the same gravity to the young adults that I spend time with, that the original had upon me. Here is my humble version...

For I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. So we found a water table and drilled a well. But Coca Cola Amatil came to our city and outbid us for access to our own water. They use it to make your Coca Cola. They outbid us with the profits they made from selling you their product.

I was imprisoned in my own country, so I fled in desperation with nothing except the money that I was able to get in exchange for everything I ever owned. I managed to get to your country, even though the people smugglers told me I was going to England! When I got to your country, you put me into another prison. Except you call yours a detention centre?

I was naked, and you did not clothe me. So we had to find work in order to buy our own clothes. I found work, in a factory. I worked every day from 7am till 9pm with very few breaks, 7 days a week. It was hard work. I rarely got to see my family, life was very hard. This kind of life made me very sad. The factory I worked in made clothes that were sold to you.

I was sick. I agonized as many of my family, friends and especially the children in my community die from things like diarrhoea and simple infections. I was afraid I would die in this horrible way too. Day after day, month after month, year after year. This happened whilst every now and then, you would give thanks to your God for your health.

I was homeless and I read in one of your Christian books that if I applied myself and worked hard enough, I could have whatever I could conjure up enough faith for. I have been praying and believing for a home for my family. I cannot wait for God to answer that prayer.

I was lonely, hoping for someone to visit. Often I saw your aeroplanes flying overhead. I suspect that you were probably on your way to London, or Paris to see things that were very important and special.

You seemed so blessed with so many things. You must be very holy for God to bless you with so many good things. I am still very hungry and lonely and cold.

I would be interested in your thoughts...

Labels: Culture, Discipleship, Lifestyle, Rants, Social Justice, Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 4:35 PM   16 comments

::Rants-A great idea! I love my students! Here is what one of them sent me in terms of trying to do something small to make a difference:

Hey everyone, I just found out that If Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved. In response, Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with lower energy consumption so spread the word and convert to blackle.

http://www.blackle.com/

Labels: Environment, Lifestyle, Spirituality, Technology

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:44 PM   1 comments

::Event-Ciaron O'Reilly My mate John asked me to let you guys know about this guy...

“Ciaron O’Reilly is a devout Brisbane-born Christian pacifist. In a life dedicated to protest, he’s been jailed for disarming warplanes, dismantling uranium mining machinery and performing exorcisms of warships. To some he’s an inspiration, to others a criminal.”

(Andrew Denton: Enough Rope June 2006)

Please join us on the 25th of August for a special evening with activist Ciaron O'Reilly. We will be serving a vegetarian dinner, providing some entertainment, and then Ciaron will give a talk about Christian anarchy, and activism, sharing some of his stories of 20 plus years of fighting for peace and justice. This will be a challenging night, hopefully giving us an imagination for a world transformed, and a sense of how to get there.

The cost of the evening is $0.00 but we will take an offering to pay for Ciaron's flight and to help fund his future court battles :) If you have any more questions feel free to ask, or if you might like to have Ciaron speak at your group while he's here please email me at johnj at forge.org.au

Labels: Events, Forge, Lifestyle, Melbourne, Social Justice, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 1:24 PM   1 comments

::Rants-Theologising for the Emerging Church I have used this section of Amos in a number of presentations for all sorts of age groups. It is taken from Eugene Peterson's "The Message" paraphrase of the bible.

"I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Amos 5:21-24

As you can imagine, it generates strong feelings and great debates.

I am often struck by paraphrases like Peterson's.

Recently, I had to address an "Emerging Church" gathering. (I use quotation marks because I find it is not that helpful a phrase and consequently I do not use it anymore).

I thought, "how could I structure the passage so it would be as striking and prophetic to this crowd, as Peterson's is to his?" So here was my rendition of the same phrase.

"I can't stand your cool cafe gatherings. I'm fed up with your networks and conversations.

I want nothing to do with your social justice programs, your global trade rhetoric and fair trade purchases. I'm sick of your candles, your art installations, your alt.worship services and deep spirituality spin. I've had all I can take of your clever narrative theology. When was the last time you obeyed me?

Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Amos 5:21-24

What do you think?

Labels: Emerging Church, Lifestyle, Mission, Rants, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 11:43 AM   7 comments

::Chuch-Why we make it hard for people to come... I have had quite a few discussions (dare I say arguments?) with people recently regarding the way we go about doing missio Dei. I was having an email conversation with someone about this (don't worry, it was quite civil) and I wrote this to respond to some of their questions. I thought it would make a good blog entry...

We use some strange terminology, like initiation, I know. One of the main reasons we do this is because a few of us do a bit of public speaking and preaching outside of our community. Consequently it is easy to attract Christian people who want to check things out. If we are not careful, it would be pretty easy to get a crowd of Christians who want to come and consume what we are trying to do. Before we know it, we will be running services for Christians coming from other churches. After a while, they will probably move on, and then we find ourselves with something that we shaped for Christians moving through.

We wanted to put priority on engaging with unchurched people in our local communities. We hope that Christians who want to connect with us, realise that the gathering is not a place of excitement and entertainment, rather it is a place of intentional formation that is contrary to the culture in which we find ourselves.

Over the years, inspired by the old monasticism, we are trying to develop what is being described globally as new monasticism. A set of simple practices that help us to continue to be oriented towards the least, the lost and the last. These practices hopefully not only challenge and change our behavior, but also our beliefs and understanding.

We have had uninitiated people come into community gatherings in the past, and the conversation moves very quickly to "what I need" or "what I am looking for in a church". So we find that right from the outset, we have discussions about better sermons, more teaching, better worship etc.

We decided early on that this is not what we were called to do. So initiation is about trying to orient people to a missional life style before they begin to participate in the gatherings. Once people get oriented, and start to experience their world in terms of being called by God to create something of his Kingdom here on this earth, well, let's just say that when they participate in a gathering *after* initiation, the conversations are very different.

Labels: Church, Culture, Discipleship, Lifestyle, Mission, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:14 PM   0 comments

::Rants-NepalDEEP This will be a cracker! I was a part of designing the Tear Short Term program and this trip to Nepal is part of the overall program. I can guarantee that involvement in NepalDEEP will be hazardous to your faith!

Wish I was leading it!

Keep an eye on this link for more details as they become available...

Labels: Culture, Discipleship, Lifestyle, Rants, Tear

  Posted by Stephen @ 4:24 PM   1 comments

::Discipleship-Technology Recycling On the left, my old MP3 player in a box. On the right, my new MP3 player. Why is my old one in a box? My tech savy inlaws organised a new MP3 player for Christmas. It is a 2GB LG model. The old 256MB model is being recycled. I have organised it to go to friends of mine who will make good use of it, including the dozen Richard Rohr MP3's on the device already.

I am keen to ensure that my ecological footprint is reduced at every opportunity, including my technology footprint.

Labels: Discipleship, Lifestyle

  Posted by Stephen @ 9:37 PM   0 comments