::Observations-Gen Xodus - Gen X Has Left the Building... II I recall a class given by my Theology Professor, John Capper (even after I graduate, I call him my professor, I guess he still is in many ways). He described the difference between the philosophical frameworks in Europe (where he studied for a few years) and Australia. It was fascinating to watch my fellow students as he described the philosophical driving force behind their world view, namely "Pragmatism".

The last two Australian Federal elections were fought on the grounds of, and well within the sphere of Pragmatism. "We'll give you cheaper mortgage repayments and slash taxes!" And which Australian can possibly forget being reduced from an individual person to "an economy" for the duration of both elections?

I recall sitting with Lindsay Tanner, federal member for Melbourne while he was still in opposition. We were discussing Australia's aid budget as part of the Voices for Justice Conference. I remember being quietly inspired as Lindsay talked about his colleagues on both sides of the house of representatives, saying that even though challenging Australian citizens to be generous and to share our national wealth with poorer nations was definitely *not* a vote winner, sometimes you just had to show leadership and do what was right. "Who knows? the conversation went on, you just don't know what consequences moral imagination and leadership might be responsible for in the long term? He went on to say, however, that this kind of work was difficult, whilst Australia's political landscape was one defined by Pragmatism.

Australia's world view is largely Pragmatism. "How will this action/activity benefit me/us?" Or may I use the crude term which I am constantly challenged with in Secondary and Tertiary schools and colleges... "Is this going to be on the exam sir?"

What is the consequence? What is the result? In a poor philosophical environment like Australia's, Pragmatism is further reduced to the notion "What's in this for me?"

The world view of Boomers and consequently Gen Y is largely that of Pragmatism. It is the philosophical framework that under girds the dominant world view.

The philosophical framework of Gen X was largely Existentialism, a philosophical framework that begins with the human condition. It was not about outcomes. It was about the living, feeling, acting human totality.

Whereas Boomers/Gen Y seem focused on the who, what, where, when and how of existence, Gen X'ers seemed to penetrate such conversations asking the vexing question "why"? Not in a pragmatic sense, rather in a deeper search for truth. Both as it pertained to the individual and to the greater whole which, as a given, was considered to be entirely inter related.

For all sorts of reasons, Gen X'ers were shown the door, and/or left the building. I fear that what also left the room were the kinds of conversations that could profoundly shape and influence the church in ways that are currently lacking.

I wonder to what degree an idealistic and altruistic voice is missing? I wonder what the church could be if it were to seek to reconcile with this missing generation. I wonder how we are the poorer for it?

(I need to make the obvious point that I am speaking in broad general terms, and am making assumptions about individuals and groups,knowing full well that there are exceptions all over the place. Please keep this in mind before you comment!)

Labels: Church, Culture, Gen X, Gen Y, Missiology, Mission, Philosophy

  Posted by Stephen @ 9:23 AM   5 comments

::Rants-In Frogs we Trust I was listening to the Australian senate last night as I drove home from an evening appointment and hear Kerry Rea, federal member for the seat of Bonner in Queensland talking about Red Frogs Crew with great respect and admiration in her adjournment speech.

Labels: Culture, Missiology, Red Frogs

  Posted by Stephen @ 3:43 PM   0 comments

::Rants-Observation I tend to get quite passionate about a few things. My kids for one. My relationship with Lisa. I take it very seriously, especially now that 13 marriages of people close to me have come to an end over the last 10 years. My work with Tear and Tabor are also things I take seriously, and of course my football (go Victory!).

I have had criticism in the past, about being over the top, emotional, too "full on" and the like. It bugs me. Our culture is one where you are not allowed to take anything seriously. If you get passionate about something, you are immediately categorised as an extremist of some description.

However, there are some things that you are allowed to be passionate about, and it is cool to do so. The issue is to know what it is socially acceptable to be "passionate" about, and to make sure you don't take it too far.

So the other day, I am making my way through the new temple of "i" (Westfield Doncaster) and see the consequences of their new marketing campaign. This and other images with the slogan "A fashion for passion" appear all over the place.


My brain locked up as I transcended each subsequent level of irony.

1. You are allowed to be passionate about fashion.
2. You can be passionate about something that is superficial, fickle and fleeting.
3. Your passion is indicated by the amount of money you spend on fashion.
4. And most importantly, DON'T LOOK LIKE YOU ARE PASSIONATE. Let the clothes speak for you. As a matter of fact, don't give any indication of emotion at all, otherwise you blow your carefully constructed cool passion.

On a serious note, I felt sadness. It is essentially anxiety, not passion. In the great consumer competition, where people vie to create the best identities, expend emotional energy to belong and achieve the elusive happiness the Shopping Centre promises. People are manipulated into thinking the feelings they have are actually passion, as opposed to the very necessary anxiety that is evoked in order to stampede the cattle towards the purchase.

But not a passion for the inanimate. Idolatry makes us less human, as we value inanimate objects over living things. True workship is to value the animate over the inanimate. In this kind of radical worship, passion is necessary. It awakenes us from the dull lifelessless that is a life that revolves around "me". True worship will bring us to life. In order to become more human, and more alive, passion is necessary.

Labels: Consumerism, Culture, Discipleship, Economics, Gen Y, Missiology

  Posted by Stephen @ 12:56 PM   3 comments

::Quotes-Frederick Buechner on Vocation I was reading some work written by one of my students the other day and was incredibly embarrassed to discover that they had attributed the following quote to me:

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the worlds deep hunger meet.” - Frederick Buechner on Vocation

The context was trying to define the difference between having a job/career path versus discovering your vocation.

I hope this rectifies the error!

Labels: Lifestyle, Missiology, Quotes, Scrap Book, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 1:49 PM   1 comments

::Rants-Reflections on the UNOH Conference

Labels: Discipleship, Justice, Missiology, Pneumatology, Spirituality, UNOH

  Posted by Stephen @ 8:17 PM   0 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

::Resources-Structural and Institutional Sin Firstly sorry to those who have tried to access this flash presentation. I have had no problems in the past converting Powerpoint files to flash, yet this one seemed to break my converter! Sheesh.

Anyway, I have exported this file as a pdf. Due to my work agreement with Tear, I have had to make the file available as a locked presentation. So you can't edit or reproduce it, but hopefully you will understand and be sympathetic.

This presentation is from a class at Tabor College Melbourne on Saturday the 10th of May this year. It is on the subject of Structural and Institutional Sin. Get it by clicking here...

Labels: Missiology, Mission, Notes, Resources, Tabor Melbourne, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 7:29 PM   0 comments

::Rants-Free Stuff Got a lovely package from Soul Survivor Melbourne the other day. It was a CD of all of the sessions at Soul Survivor 2008. Four of the sessions were mine where I discussed what I call the missio Dei Compass. It is a tool that we use in our church to figure out how to live a life that is faithful to the kingdom message of Jesus. In order to do that, we need to unpack the kingdom message of Jesus. That is what these talks are about.

I have made the sessions freely downloadable from our church web site ( http://mdei.wordpress.com ) so feel free to head over there and download them. The link to the specific article is here ... http://mdei.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/mp3s-of-the-missio-compass/

Labels: Church, missio Dei, Missiology, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:57 PM   0 comments

::Resources-Structural and Institutional Sin These are the notes for the class I taught last Saturday morning at Tabor Melbourne. For those not there, it is an exploration of the notion of institutional and structural sin/evil.

It was a great class. The thing that made it great was the passion and quality of questions and conversations with the participants. Thanks so much for letting me be part of your learning journey guys!

(Note: You have to click on the white box above to advance the presentation one page at a time.)

Labels: Missiology, Mission, Notes, Resources, Tabor Melbourne, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 1:04 PM   0 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

::Rants-FINISHED! Sorry it has taken SOOOOOOOOO long but those of you who have been patiently been waiting for me to figure out how to convert Powerpoint files to Flash, here it is!

The Spirituality of Gen Y Presentation

This is a shrunken down version (file size wise) of a presentation I made to a gathering of Victorian church leaders a few months ago regarding the Spirituality of Gen Y in response to the report recently tabled and presented.

Enjoy!

Labels: Church, Culture, Gen Y, Missiology, Rants, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 11:29 AM   0 comments