Scripture reading

At small group last night we got talking about spiritual disciplines and Gordon (the Pastor) shared about Bible reading and he challenged us to just read until something stands out to us and to then journal what and why

I got out my Bible tonight and spent some time reading (for the first time in weeks) The scripture passage that stood out to me was:

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness....

[Jesus says to...] Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received.

Matthew 10:1,6-8

This stuck out to me because of what God entrusts to us. I see myself as a disciple of Jesus and the challenge here is to do good in the world and announce the Kingdom of God through this.

This photo is out on a friends farm, I love it out there :)

My Word Cloud

I saw this on the merry rose blog and I thought I'd do it for my blog as well

The word cloud website analyses your blog and creates the above images based on the words it finds on your blog.

To create your own go here

The church, Church Services and Questions...

A friend from the states posted a comment up that I thought is worth responding to in a full post...

Ok, I have just read your entire blog just now. I like your ideas, even though I'm not a christian I can see the good in them, however, after reading certain posts I've become opinionated about something...
OK First of all your my friend, and I'm taking the time to comment because I care. This goes back to the post about being lonely. From what I can gather from my research, church is about community (among other things) Now as someone who is as dedicated to his church as you are I am really sad to hear that things are getting lonely for you, I would be asking myself questions, "Is this the right church for me?", "Are other members feeling the same way?" To me Church shouldnt be just about God, but about growing relationships with people who share your faith (inside and outside of church) and if people only feel obligated to do that at church they are missing the point. Then again I could be wrong. I'm going to bed now.

Chris it is great to hear from you and to get your feedback, I appreciate it. I should clarify that when I talk about the church in my posts, I am referring to either

a) A Church Service or

b) The christian community in a certain area. "The Church"

I mix and match the use of the word Church based on what I am talking (ranting?) about.

It's funny you should suggest those two questions that I should be asking, I have been asking these questions and have had interesting answers...

"Is this the right church for me?" - I have asked this one of myself repeatedly and have come to the conclusion that I need to see what other communities are out there, I have started going to a different church in town that seems to have a good group of young adults; I am unsure yet if it is where I want to 'lay roots' but I am open to seeing what they are like.

"Are other members feeling the same way?" - I have been asking other 20-somethings similar questions, I had a very interesting discussion with some friends from out of town, they come from a Christian background and they have been questioning the character of God. Questions like "If heaven is so perfect, why did Satan leave?" or "What about all the suffering in the world, how can a just God allow that?". Personally I believe it is healthy and good to question and re-evaluate what we believe and why we believe. The reaction from the Christian community to them asking these questions has been (in my opinion) shocking. My friends either have been ignored or they have been given the hollow answers rather than actually listening to what is being questioned and giving permission to search for answers. I am quite angry about how they have been treated and it has disillusioned me a little about the church. But I believe that the church still has an important role to play. I came across this quote the other day:

 The church is a she.

She's a mystery, isn't she? Still going after all this time. After the Crusades and the Inquisition and Christian cable television. Still going. And there continue to be people like me who believe she is one of the best ideas ever. In spite of all the ways she has veered off track. In spite of all the people who have actually turned away from God because of what they experienced in church. I am starting to realize why: The church is a double edged sword. When it's good, when it's on, when it's right, its like nothing on earth. A group of people committed to selflessly serving and loving the world around them? Great. But when it's bad, all that potential gets turned the other way. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. Sometimes in the same week. Sometimes in the same day.

Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell pg. 172

So I'm not giving up on the church yet, but Chris you are right Church is also about community and that sense of connection with others who share that belief.

BTW Newt I'm in hungary tell Edwy to get me a Sandwich +1!!! (inside joke)

Good News

I read this tonight and it stuck out to me...

"Imagine an average street in an average city in an average country, if there is such a place. Lets imagine Person X lives in a house on this street. Next door is a Hindu, and on the other side is a Muslim. Across the street is an atheist, next door to them is an agnostic...

Imagine Person X becomes a Christian. Maybe she read something or had friends who inspired her to learn more, or maybe she had an addiction and through a recovery movement she surrendered her life to God. However it came to be, she became a follower of Jesus. Let's say she starts living out Jesus' teachings, actually taking him seriously that she can become a compelling force for good in the world. She is becoming more generous, more compassionate, more forgiving, more loving. Is she becoming a better or worse neighbor? If we are her neighbors, we're thrilled about her new faith. We find ourselves more and more grateful for a neighbor like this. We wish more people would be like this."

Its about life change...

Not about religion...

Its about freedom...

Not about bondage...

Its about revolution...

Not about tradition...

EDIT: The quote is from Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, Page 166

My flat

I thought I'd post a photo of my flat up :)

I'm really loving this flat, It is good to be out of home again :-)

The How evil are you quiz...

I saw this on The Merry Rose's blog and I had to do it for myself...

Heres is my result...


How evil are you?

The Merry Rose

I came across this blog the other day, I appreciated what was said (even though she is an Aussie hehe)

The Merry Rose

I believe...

I went to the local New Life church on Sunday and the speaker shared a quote from a holocaust survivor:

I believe that the sun shines even though I may not see it...

I believe in love even though I may not experience it...

I believe in God even though he may not be speaking to me...

The new Generation

It is our turn to step up and take responsibility for who the church is going to be for a new generation. It is our turn to redefine and reshape and dream it all up again. It is our turn to rediscover the beautiful, dangerous, compelling idea that a group of people, surrendered to God and to each other, really can change the world.

Rob Bell - Velvet Elvis pg 164

Ok so what would the church look like if we rethought how we do church?

What would change?

What would stay the same?

If the church was stripped back to a blank canvas how would we paint it?

What does blank canvas look like?

What are the essential elements of the church?

Rick Warren (author of Purpose Driven Church) would say there were:

1. Evangelism
   
2. Worship
   
3. Fellowship
   
4. Discipleship
   
5. Ministry

Other authors have varying words they use to articulate what the basic elements are that make up the 'canvas', what gets painted on the canvas is unique to each church community.
An easy trap to fall into is to try and copy another's painting, rather than finding the blank canvas that we can paint a unique masterpiece on.

If it is our responsibility to redefine what the church is going to be in this generation, then this is a very serious task.

What seems to be the painting of the canvas soo hard is that everybodies ideas for how to paint the canvas is different, here are some examples...

Experience vs. Knowledge - I have seen both extremes of this in Timaru, I see people who are only focused on experiencing God and something is wrong with them or the service if they don't get 'slain in the spirit' EVERY week and the other extreme that is people who are so closed off to any kind of move of the holy spirit because they are soo focused on the tradition and unchanging routine. Personally I have come from the tradition side but through encouragement from friends and a lack of fufillment with the tradition I have learnt to open myself up to what the spirit is doing.

Celebration vs. Reverence - After a recent children's service that was held at my church I met with a couple for lunch, we discussed the service and how we found it. This service had been very celebratory, there was a lot of energy and opportunities for the congregation to sing what they thought of God. Personally I found it to be great but the couple I talked to had a different view, they felt that there was no reverence in the service, no coming before God with a sense of awe and respect.

Literal vs. Paraphrase - I know people who take the scriptures literally word for word, if the bible says something then that is exactly what is meant. Whereas others interpret the bible by looking at what the author was trying to say, looking for the message behind the words. Personally I believe that the meaning behind the words is more important than what words are used, but I know I catch myself being very literal at times. This can show through with what translations are seen as the 'preferred' translation. Some people believe that the King James Bible is the only translation that should be read from the pulpit whereas others use paraphrases like the Message bible as the basis for their teaching.

The above are only three examples of things that make each church different, there are many different forms that the church can take, it is looking at what form it could take to make a difference in New Zealand.

Newspaper Report

The local paper had an article titled "On a quest and a prayer", in summary the article is about a wellington reporter that went to a range of different sunday morning services and her observations about those services.
She starts by sharing her view of this "God Stuff" she believes that there is a greater being, a "supreme consciousness". She terms it "[I]...believe in a vast, intelligent and creative conscienceness of which we are all part."
The services she went to were:

• A Catholic Mass
• Wesley Methodist
• The Rock
• Destiny

She had some interesting observations that we need to be aware of if we are to communicate the gospel to people who do come to our door looking for this "supreme being"

The Mass

lost behind words and references I don't understand

"God feels remote, lost behind words and references I don't understand" the reporter felt completly lost during the service, she did not know what todo, the use of Christian Terminology completly lost her.

Wesley Methodist

there's pretty much a pew for each person

"Theres a place for you at Wesley Wellington announces the information booklet I'm handed. Sadly, it's more than true. With less than 30 in the congregation, there's pretty much a pew for each person."
This is a scary reality for a lot of churches out there, what once was a congregation of 200+ is now reduced to 30 people most of these are retired.

The Rock

The sense of community and belonging is huge. Here they all are, linked by faith and rhythm

The reporter seemed very impressed with this church "The sense of community and belonging is huge. Here they all are, linked by faith and rhythm" The only criticism she makes arecomments about the similarity of the music to "the catchy love songs playing on every commercial radio station in New Zealand"
From what I can work out The Rock is a part of the New Life churches in NZ, possibly an offshoot? Im not sure.

Destiny

Ten percent of your income...Before tax

The reporter was suprised by how open and welcoming Destiny was, she had expected "black shirted evangelicals looking alarmingly militant" What concerned her was the offering and how the congregation was asked twice to give "Ten percent of your income...Before tax"

Gives u some things to think about...

Flatting

I'm moving out of home (finally) this week, it is going to be good to have freedom and be living unattached to my parents :)

A drawback of this is that I will not have broadband access at the flat so my blogs might be a bit more sporadic than they usually are...

Friend vs Servant...

I've been thinking about how we regard this thing we call a "Relationship" with God

I was reading in Velvet Elvis about how the bible never says anything about a relationship with God and that it is something that has been brought in to try and express something that is unexpressable.

I wonder if a different way to express this could be to go back to the picture of a servant.

When I think of a servant I think of a person who willingly serves their master- this is different to a slave who has no choice, a slave is purchased and is property, yet a servant is willing, a servant acts for the masters good and seeks to please his/her master.

A trustworthy servant is given freedom and independance to make decisions on behalf of the master to benefit the masters cause

I seem to remember a parable that talks about how different servants were given differing responsibility based on their ability and trustworthyness. A trustworthy servant is given freedom and independance to make decisions on behalf of the master to benefit the masters cause. I wonder if this is what God seeks for us, he is happy for us to make decisions while in his service that will further his cause.

This is a different view to the "relationship" with Jesus way of viewing things, I know of soo many people (including myself) who are looking for a mystical magical relationship with Jesus, there is almost a expectation that you will always 'feel' in Gods presence and that it will be super. The difference when you start viewing things through the eyes of a servant is that there will be times when you spend time with the master (e.g. times of prayer, worship, bible reading) but there will also be times when you are not in the masters presence (i.e. when you are not spending time activly talking/listening to God) but you are still working to further his cause. I wonder if we get caught up on the being with the master and when we are not "with him" we feel like we are a bad servant.

What do you think? Am I off track?

No mates...no thanks UPDATE

Its been an interesting few weeks since I posted 'No mates... No thanks'. I have tried to get out more rather than stay at home and feel sorry for myself. I have been going to the New Life Young Adults group that I talked about and I am enjoying it. It is not easy at times meeting new people but I am positive about it.
I have been going to different Church services aswell, I was at the local Elim on saturday night and I really enjoyed the worship, there was a real sense of energy and life in the church that inspired me. I found the speaker was challenging aswell but he did try to hype up the crowd a bit :(
On the sunday I went to the New Life evening service where a friend was worship leading for the first time. She did well. This was different but I enjoyed it.
I have also been getting into my music again, turning up Planetshakers or United Live and spending time just focusing on God and celebrating him.

Brad if you read this I appreciate your comments and trying to catch up with me, I am sorry that it hasnt happened yet, I just have been crazy with life :) but I do appreciate the comments you have placed and that you care for me.

I also should acknowledge that I steal a lot of images for this blog from DeviantArt.com, I find this site to be an amazing repository of art of all different styles. I recommend that you have a look for yourself. Generally with the images I use if you click them and look at their name in the address bar you will see the name of the piece of art and who the artist is. You can search for this on DeviantArt.com.

I went to a service today...

I went to a service today...

There was a couple of hymns...

The bible reading was from Ecclesiastes...

A person got up and spoke...

.

.

.

and then the casket was taken out of the room by the pall-bearers...

The service I went to was for the friends Gran that I reference in my previous post, the scary thing about this is that this sounds very similar to a lot of church services that are held every Sunday.

I wonder if for average Joe New Zealander the only experience they have of Hymns, Bible readings and Speakers is at funerals. I don't know about you but my experience is that a funeral is a sad occasion that I try to avoid and I never look forward to.

Is that the image that people have of Church? We invite people to church and we do the same things that are done at a funeral?

Funny ay?

I acknowledge that part of what Jesus went through was death, but there was also a weird thing that happened after three days... Something about him raising from the dead and him hanging out with his followers (called apostles) when they were having a meal, for the apsotles it must have changed from a funeral to a party!

Just gets ya thinking about how we 'do' church...

Death

Death - its one of those things that we know will visit everyone we know eventually (including ourselves) but we ignore that it can happen untill one day BANG! you get a phone call, a text, or read in the obituaries in the paper that someome you know has been visited by death. One of my friends Gran passed away a couple of days ago and the thing that is confusing is how do you let the grieving people know you care and are there to support them?

I mean what do you say? I find saying that I would pray for them seems so hollow yet I know that as a person who claims to follow this "essence", this "force" that we call God prayer would seem to be pretty important.

Have you ever wondered how you handle people who have lost someone?

What do you say?

What is appropiate to say/do?

When is it appropiate to go to the funeral?

When do we prioritise work over the funeral?

I have felt particually guilty regarding this last question, this same friend had her father pass away about a month ago and I didn't goto the funeral, I chose a training day at work over it. I know now that this was a bad decision and it showed no respect for her or her family. This afternoon I am planning to goto the Grans funeral, but I am feeling nervious about how appropiate it is. Do I go? I would love to just have someone tell me yes I should go, or no I shouldn't.

Well I have decided that I will go regardless of how appropiate it may or may not be, but I still feel uneasy about it.

!!!!!!!!!

OMG!

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Theres even a trailer!!!

Cool Scripture

1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. 4 And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. 5 And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Committees

I saw this quote on the wall in one of my Polytech classrooms and I thought it was quite appropiate...

A commitee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled
- Sir Barnett Cocks

So true...lol

Bible = Instruction Manual?

I am reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell at the moment, this is the same guy who made the Nooma DVD's I have talked about in a previous post. I am finding this book to be real challenging, he asks the same questions that I have never publiclly aired. Questions about how we take the bible literaly word for word, yet the 'translations' we read are exactly that, they are a group of scholars interpetation of the origional texts.

At one point Rob talks about the differing views of the bible and the attitudes we have towards it, I love how he sums up one of the attitudes out there...

And while I'm at it, lets make a group decision to drop once and for all the Bible-as-owner's-manual metaphor. It's terrible. It really is.

When was the last time you read the owner's manual for your toaster? Do you find it remotely inspiring or meaningful?

You only refer to it when something's wrong with your toaster. You use it to fix the problem, and then you put it away.

I find that this has a lot to say regarding how we treat the Bible.
The question I ask is how do I treat the Bible myself? Is it an instruction manual pulled out when there is trouble and then left in storage gathering dust until another problem comes up?

Something to ponder...

Flame

We had a childrens service this morning, it was an interesting experience for me. Generally I know when the holy spirit is calling out loudly to me because my legs start shaking, my gut starts filling with butterflies and I know I have a choice. I can choose to stay where I am or I can choose to respond. Usually I sense the holy spirit working quietly almost secretly in the background but occasionally he shouts. This morning was a morning where he was shouting to me.
I am unsure what was being done in me this morning but I know that a response was needed, I stepped forward, got on my knees and asked God for his fire, his passion, his zeal.

The question that came to my mind after the service was "Where to from here?" How is this experience going to effect how I live this thing called life? How is this going to be reflected in my wanderings?

I do not have an answer to this, yet for some reason this does not disturb me, it fills me with hope, hope about the things I am involved with, hope for seeing him working in people lives, hope that he has the best for me.

Theres a scripture that talks about this, I can't remember where it is, somewhere in the letters of Paul I think, talking about the "hope we have in him" (Jesus), look it up I think it is kinda related to what I am sharing out lol...

Well this is another step on the journey :-)