::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-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

::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

::Rants-Petroleum and Rice I know I work for a great organisation when the things that quietly disturb the quiet recesses of my mind are addressed. What do I mean? Well for a while now, I have been acutely aware of how rising fuel costs have driven up the *global* price of food.

You certainly know that the price of fuel has gone up as most of us drive regularly and need our cars. You may or may not know that the price of food has gone up.

If you live in a poor community, then you are certainly aware that the price of food has increased. Dramatically. There have been food riots in some parts of Africa and Asia, not unlike the beginnings of some B grade science fiction stories, as a result of rising fuel prices.

So this stuff sits in the back of my mind and I wonder what to do, what to say, feeling powerless. And the along comes an email from Sally at Tear...

The world price of rice has doubled in less than a year. Other staple foods have reached record prices. And, of course, the world's poorest people are being hit the hardest.

You can help a community help itself by investing in a rice bank.

http://www.usefulgifts.org/gift.php?type=447

Please promote this new gift

Labels: Economics, Faith, Politics, Spirituality, Tear, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 12:47 PM   0 comments

::Notes from my Tabor class today on prayer and personality These are the notes for the class I taught today at Tabor Melbourne. For those not there, it is an exploration of the catholic (deliberate lower case "c") prayer forms/traditions/ways that recent Catholic theologians have correlated to Myers Briggs profiles. Enjoy!

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

Labels: Prayer, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 4:31 PM   2 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-Catch the Fire Ministries, a response

This is a response that I sent to a mailing list that I am on. The response was to an email forwarded to the list from Pastor Danny Nillah, from Catch the Fire Ministries. Some people found it helpful so I thought I would cross post it here.

I think the first thing that I would like to put into the public arena regarding this email is the history of Catch the Fire Ministries and their leader, Danny Nilliah.

For those of you unfamiliar with the case, he and his organization were at the centre of a protracted legal battle regarding defamation under the vilification laws that this circular email makes reference to.

At the heart of the case were some significantly misinformed opinions that were widely circulated amongst the broader Christian (and secular) community by Danny and his organisation, regarding Islam.

In the current political climate (post 9/11) any public dialog regarding Islam is difficult, to say the least. I found that the misinformed comments made by Danny were (in my opinion) unhelpful at best, and at their worst, hateful, fearful and contributing nothing to a spirit of dialog, reconciliation and healing of the rifts that have occurred certainly over the last 6 odd years since 9/11, rather they exacerbated what certainly in Melbourne is already an awkward and tense relationship between Muslim communities and the broader mainstream culture.

The Australian legal system (which John Howard's government have presided over for the last 11 odd years) found that this was in fact the case and Danny and his colleague were found guilty of inciting hatred and were forced to publicly retract their statements.

This made some small contribution towards easing the incredible feelings of victimization and isolation felt by many within the Muslim community in our nation, some of whom we have a little to do with.

Secondly, continuing to express my personal opinion here, I have felt deeply grieved that the government of our nation, since 9/11, rather than espousing a spirit of courage and peacemaking, seemed to have pursued deliberate actions that heighten the average Australian's feelings of fear and insecurity created by the broader socio political climate.

Beginning with the Tampa incident (where the sovereign government of this nation, rather than stepping in and taking up the plight of the orphan, the widow and the stranger/refugee in keeping with the strong and systematic teachings of the old and new testaments) chose to use the special armed forces to "protect" Australians. The incident was framed in terms of "the other" being a "threat to national security"...

Almost every objective observation of this event acknowledges that the handling of this event, just prior to an election was a deliberate political device to exploit the prejudices of an almost evenly split electorate.

Tampa was followed by 9/11 and then the Children Overboard affair.

Once again, the Howard government exploited fear and prejudice, at a time when the people of Australia were most vulnerable (the Children Overboard incident followed 9/11 by about a month). The Howard Government intentionally lied to the people of Australia, exploiting once again the orphan, widow and stranger/refugee:

"A Senate select committee inquiry later found that the "Children Overboard" claim was untrue and that the government knew this prior to the election. The government attracted criticism that it had misled the public and cynically "exploited voters' fears of a wave of illegal immigrants by demonising asylum-seekers"."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_overboard_affair)

These incidents have been followed by a series of other deliberate intents to mislead the Australian electorate, including but not limited to:

• Reducing Medicare when promising not to. Most vulnerable are the poor, single mums and the like.
• Promising to reduce education costs, with a particular promise that there will never be a $100,000 university degree. Today there is over16 university degree's costing over $100,000. The most vulnerable are middle to lower income Australian families.
• Introducing a GST after promising not to do so in 1995. Again, the most vulnerable are the middle to lower income families.
• A promise to do away with Aged Care and Pension clawbacks. This promise was broken. The most vulnerable? The aged and the chronically ill.
• Labour reform. The promise was that Work Choices would continue to protect the rights of workers. There is a personal story attached to this one with a member of our community being severely exploited and unable to protect himself because he was threatened with termination of employment. Only our commitment to support him financially until he was able to find alternative employment if he was sacked, gave him the courage to challenge his employer who indeed sacked him. In the process, the young man in question discovered that the employer was using illegal immigrants and paying them well below award conditions.
• The young man struggled to know whether to report the incident as a couple of illegal immigrants would have lost jobs and have been deported with the added insult of probably having to spend time in detention centres whilst the issues were being managed by our judicial system.This is one of many cases with over 100,000 cases still before the new Workplace Authority.
• Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hmmm, I'll leave that one...
• Promising that we did not commit to military action in Iraq before the decision was debated in Parliament. This was found out not to be true.
• Tax payer funded political advertising. Google it, it would be much shorter than if I tried to outline it.
• A few others but I think you are getting the point... Danny defends the Christian credentials of John Howard, who has been shown on numerous occasions to have lied to the public for political advantage, and in some of his lies, demonising and discrediting vulnerable groups.

The political climate in Australia after 11 years of conservative rule have made this place a meaner and scarier place to live. The average Australian now feels less safe, and has a greater sense of prejudice directed towards other non Anglo Saxon people, particularly of Middle Eastern descent. This comes to you from me, a second generation Australian, with the most common middle eastern surname in the world (Said), who is often called aside at Australian airports because I fit a particular profile. Middle aged, traveling alone regularly to Asia and the Middle East (I work for a Christian Aid and Development organisation), slightly tanned skin.

I remember being yelled at in the streets of Melbourne, days after the Cronulla riots, being told to f*** off and go home. Even though I was born here and my parents come from Malta, a Catholic nation and a member of the British Commonwealth until 1965.

The cynical part of me believes that John Howard and his government have taken advantage of the broader socio political context, and since the Tampa incident, have made Australia a far less friendly, meaner, much more paranoid, greedier and less hospitable place to live.

In over a decade of unprecedented economic growth, communities have come under much more strain due to the economic liberalization process that benefits the rich, exploits the poor, forces families to devote more of their time to longer working hours (I believe at this point, we are something like second only to Japan in terms of unpaid overtime) whilst working class and poorer/vulnerable communities suffer greater hardship. The present government seems to continue to appeal to the baser instincts that lurk beneath the surface of our civilised veneer.

If our political engagement proceeds from a platform of fear, a fear driven politic will focus on creating artificial barriers that give us an illusion of control and will ultimately lead to attempts to legislate righteousness. This is the way of the Pharisee. Those who do not fit our moral code are excluded and when our politics are examined, we find that they are devoid of compassion, mercy, grace and justice for all (as opposed to justice for just us).

The homosexual is particularly singled out and demonised, as are the perpetrators of abortion. Our politics become private. Our morals are limited what one can and cannot do with your penis and/or vagina. It is ultimately a narrow, and dehumanising.

The politics of Jesus, in the grand tradition of the Old Testament Prophet, are concerned with not how laws effect me, but how they effect the least and the last. God constantly reminds the people of God in the OT that the reason that they have to care for the orphan, widow and stranger(refugee) is because they were an orphan (in Egypt with no "father" to protect them), a widow (as an idolatrous nation, stripped of their Husband to defend and without protect them from the violence committed against them as judgment for their paganism) and a refugee (wandering in the wilderness as a stateless people prior to inheriting the land).

And on the issue of their judgment as pagans, the paganism that God accuses them of is prostituting their vocation which is to show the world what Yahweh is like. When they use slave labour to build the temple, when they use the wealth that God has blessed them with to create a system of justice that exploits the most vulnerable among them, they are no different to the pagan nations around them. They do not honour God, because they forget that when you treat the least of these as slaves and economic units in a system designed to make the rich richer and happier and the poor continue to lose their dignity as image bearers, not only do they *not* honour God, they dishonour him in the most brutal of ways (inanimate things are of more value than animate things).

On the question of Islam, I find that Danny conducts his affairs in the same vein as conservative politics in Australia. He creates an Islamic "straw man". The church of all institutions on earth should know that radical Islamic terrorism is to Islam, what the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity. We have far more in common with our human brethren who follow the way of Islam than we actually do with the secular materialistic Aussie. Yet Danny chooses to paint them as tools of Satan who will rape, pillage and destroy in the name of Allah.

I cannot reconcile a person who espouses hatred and fear for another grouping based on religious conviction as being consistent with the missionary God who commands us to go to all the peoples of the earth making disciples where we find them. Time (and energy) does not permit me to outline the incredible opportunity for dialog and learning we can engage in with the Muslim community in Australia.

I cannot subscribe to Danny's political point of view. His politics are private, seeking to create divisions that funnily enough, put him on the right side of God and those who do not agree on the wrong side of God. He points out some ritual behavior of the Australian government and claims that this makes them candidates for God's favour and dismisses the alternatives because they do not engage in the same ritualistic behavior (prayer in parliament etc). Yet he completely fails to outline the significant lies told by the present government for political advantage, and their failure to take responsibility and to apologise to the Australian people for.

I find that his perspective will only lead to a Pharisaical hatred that does not honor our God or his kingdom, one characterised by grace (God's undeserved favor towards all), mercy, justice, righteousness, truth ad infinitum.

I would not want you to construe this response as endorsement of the ALP either. Someone asked me the other day, "who will you vote for"?

My response was that I would vote for the party that would give me an undertaking that as a society would do our best to protect and include the least and the last in our communities, economically, socially, politically.

Politics should not be about fearfully looking for the system that will protect us and our aspirations. It is about setting the political agenda, and letting governments know (no matter who they are) that our God, the King of Kings has set them in place and then need to rule with justice, mercy and compassion, caring for those who cannot look after themselves. They must represent the needs of the many, not the desires and selfish ambitions of the few.

I would urge you my brothers and sister, humbly in the Lord, that you would carefully consider, not just Danny's email, but any email coming to you asking them to considering it before voting. We have a grave responsibility as spiritual leaders. I want to urge you to get your communities thinking about Jesus and his Kingdom, and the ways in which our politics might better achieve this end.

More than happy to continue the dialog regarding this *short* reply.

(Those who know me will know that this *is* short!) ;)

Labels: Culture, Politics, Rants, Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:36 PM   7 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-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

::Rants-Social Justice is the new Emergent Social Justice is the new black. Apparently.

Seems as though (in the Australian context anyway) that "cool" for Christians is involvement in social justice. Emergent has worn off a while ago it would seem.

The problem I find with interest in social justice is (as I have blogged before) it's consumed just as quickly as any fad. "Social Justice" becomes another t shirt, wrist band or some other consumer product that gives someone a feeling of involvement.

In the same way that social commentators refer to Gen Y's experience of community as "pseudo community", so too the social action engaged in is "pseudo social justice".

The issue, once again becomes the ability to hold the information or an idea in our head whilst living out contradictory actions, and at some level considering this to be belief.

One of the biggest issues I find is the long term nature of living a life in response to the injustice that grips so many levels of our world. It requires continuous action, every hour of every day. Our purchases, our interactions with people, our interactions in the systems which we inhabit, it is never ending.

In this context, I find Paul's encouragement to "not become weary in doing good" (Gal 6:9). There is recognition that the task of remaking the world is a long term one, requiring several million small acts each week, that may at certain points, really annoy you because you sometimes will feel like giving up and buying into the prevailing culture.

Labels: Culture, Discipleship, Mission, Rants, Social Justice, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:34 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-Computer woes, Easter and Fish and Chips with Jesus I have been having problems with the laptop (which is my main work computer) and therefore have not been able to do much email or blog wise. Ah well. I must admit, life does seem to be a little simpler when you don't have to worry about blogging or getting back to emails.

Lisa, Harry and I got away for a little bit of the Easter weekend and did a night of camping. If Lisa had her way, we would have been gone a few more days, but we were on the tail end of rebuilding the veranda and those of you who know me, know that I don't do manual labour very well!

While we were away, I started reading "The Quest for the Radical Middle", a history of the Vineyard. It certainly is an interesting read. The first thing that struck me was that John Wimber's quest for engage the Spirit was at least partly born out of his interacting with the work of Paul Hiebert and his "excluded middle" theory on Western Rationalisms reduction of supernatural experiences. It threw me because (a) I had just presumed that it was a simplification of 80's Charismatic thinking and most disturbingly (b) I have moved significantly in the last decade or so to the intellectual and aeway from an openness to a life in the Spirit that I have come from historically.

It rattled me in both good and bad ways. I have been challenged by God to understand what it means to be an "empowered evangelical" in 2007 rather than in 1980. The challenge to take the best of evangelicalism and the best of the Pentecostal movement is one that is still stirring me. I would really value your prayers over all of this.

Today was the first day of family devotions. Lisa and I have been waiting for the right time to sit with Harry and start to be more intentional about the story of who Jesus is.

We have been praying with Harry every night since he was born. This stage is cute with Harry consistently wanting to thank God for cows (and the grass that they eat which gives us milk) and sheepy's.

A few weeks ago, we started reading some of the great stories from the bible to him before he goes to sleep. However, what we want to try and do each Sunday is to keep a family journal, where we write and draw what has been happening over the last week, then Lisa or I read a story from the bible, then we draw some of that too in the journal. Once that is done, we pray together. Todays story was Jesus feeding the five thousand. As we find ourselves doing an immediate improv reading, I turned the loaves and the fishes into fish and chips (which is what we had just eaten for lunch).

It was beautiful to hear a child say the name of Jesus, as he tries to draw him in red.

Labels: Blogging, Children, Church, Rants, Spirituality, Technology

  Posted by Stephen @ 2:05 PM   3 comments

::Spirituality-Lent Hurts I am two weeks into lent and it's a hurting.

The way we practice Lent is in the week leading up to Lent, we encourage people to ask God what it is that he wants us to give up. For me, for the last 7 years, I have felt God ask me to give up cynicism.

This year, I kind of felt that God was asking me to give up something that was hiding behind my cynicism. I chose cynicism again, knowing that there was something a little deeper this time around, and as is the case with many of us who practice Lent in this way, things were revealed this week to me in a very Pearl Harbour kind of fashion.

There were four (count 'em! Four!) incidents where I have discovered that in my bluntness and directness, I have hurt people with my approach. Some quite deeply, and some superficially.

As an educator, your intention is *never* to do harm. Your hope is that a good space for learning would be created and that everyone grows.

To find out that I have actually been the obstacle, and further still, to have caused someone pain is deeply disturbing to me.

Don't get me wrong, I know that in the course of life, when you take a stand on some things, it will cause some people pain, and a pain that leads to growth. That is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is in conversation/presentation, when you have the option to use the cynical comment that you might think is witty, that choice leads to creating unnecessary pain in the life of those who have entrusted their learning journey to you, and you in fact cause destructive pain in the lives of people whose lives have become part of your own.

That knowledge hurts me deeply. Not the deathly kind of debilitating pain. Rather the pain that comes when you realise that without having any kind of intention to harm, you have in actual fact done that.

So I am struggling with that thought today.

Lisa has been wonderful in helping me think through this. She is a 7 on the enneagram and therefor my path to redemption. I have asked her to look at the presentations that I need to make in the next few weeks so that she could help me see how a 7 would convey the same sentiments. She has agreed to do this, so I will be fascinated to see how this will change my approach.

Also, tossing and turning last night, and trying to hear God's way for me, my mind has settled on a thought that I will contemplate for the rest of Lent.

It is based in a fable by Aesop. It is the story of the North Wind and the Sun. In an effort to win a competition that the North Wind initiated, to get a man walking on the earth to remove his coat, the wind blustered and blew. This only succeeded in getting the man to pull his coat more tightly to himself.

In response to the North Winds challenge, the Sun shone warmly. The man feeling the warmth of the Sun, removes his coat of his own volition.

Last night, as I wrestled with these thoughts, I felt God encourage me to:

• Be the Sun, loving warmly.

So that's my Lentern contemplation.

At least at this point!

Labels: Discipleship, Lent, Spirituality

  Posted by Stephen @ 7:53 AM   5 comments

::Rants-Where's Seddy? Been away for a three day retreat. As part of my work with ACOM, I facilitate what they call a Formation Group. Formation is actually a subject that students have to take for the three years (full time) that they study, or three times over the course of part time study.

It is a fantastic idea where students essentially are thrown together with a group of strangers who are at similar places, and then they intentionally and deliberately share their lives together. The first part of the process is to gather together for three days and everyone in the group (each group has an average of 4 to 5 people) tells their story.

I have had the privilege for the last four days, of spending some time with who I now consider to be four of the most remarkable people I have ever met. The honesty, the tragedy, beauty, wonder and grace has left me quite punch drunk.

It will make me look at people I meet for the next few weeks anyway, quite differently.

Everyone has a story. Imagine what our world would look like were we all to make time to treat each other humanly, hear each others stories and being invited, as we invite others, into each others stories?

Labels: Discipleship, Rants, Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 10:02 AM   3 comments

::Theology-Spirituality Am about to start a new year teaching spiritual formation and spiritual theology. One of the restrictions is that of time. So I was asked if I could compress the classic disciplines together and teach two in each class. So I have combined them thus.

Disciplines of Abstinence
Solitude & Silence
Fasting & Frugality
Chastity
Secrecy & Sacrifice

Disciplines of Engagement
Study & Celebration
Worship & Service
Prayer & Submission
Fellowship & Confession

What do you think? There is a logic in my mind but before I share it, I would be keen to hear your thoughts and possible combinations.

Labels: Spirituality, Theology

  Posted by Stephen @ 3:46 PM   8 comments