I said farewell to one of my closest friends today who is off with his wife to live and work in Australia. Not the first time we've lived in different countries for extended periods of time, but it still sad nonetheless. Im going to miss hanging with him, particularly on my days off which have normally coincided. I value his friendship for a whole bunch of reasons, but here are three. 1/ Our friendship has a lot of history. We go back over fourteen years now, and have been the best of buddies most of that time. Life has thrown curve balls at both of us, and we have shared these moments. 2/ Shannon doesn't give a rip about ministry. Doesn't aspire to be in church work, and knows me through and through, so when we hang out there are no hats on, no agendas, its just Sam and Shandog. 3/ Hes a flipin funny dude.

Labels: friends, shandog

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post from Scott McKnight in recent days.

Had a cool time today having a chat to Sean, famous for his blog "The funny thing is". Brilliant yarns, great guy, and a nice hot chocolate from that institution of institutions; McDonald's.
In other news, I discovered some grey hair today after getting a haircut from the someone at my church. I know you don't give a rip, but its big news for me. Has the world ended? Im still working that one out.

And bumped into Karl from Karls Grumpy on my way to have a beer with my mate Andrew Galloway from Not Quite Promethian. Off to home group now with Phill from Virtual Phill and Andy from Think Street.

I like that NZ is a small place.

Labels: blogging, friends

It turns out my last post was one of a couple here in NZ on the subject yesterday. I feel strangely prophetic, and very cutting edge - haha whatever.
Couple of very respected voices speaking to the issue of giving, money and prosperity theology in a far more clear and concise way.
Mr Ritchie
Mr Windsor

Related is this post by my good mate Chez. What frustrates me about this post isnt the disappointment at a porn king helping out a bunch of war vets and saving their RSA. Its that I dont think we have any right to call anyone a "vile son" or a "spawn of Satan". Crikey, I would lump myself in the same boat as Mr Crow when it comes to a desperate need for the grace and mercy of God. Im always a disappointed when people call others names like that. *sigh* Its too easy to do on a blog and I dont think it is a prophetic statement at all. Loving your enemies, blessing those that hurt you, giving to the poor, standing with the marginalised and those on the fringes, serving others without a hidden agenda is a prophetic statement in my books. And its prophetic when it is actions not words.

God help me not waste my time and energy getting too frustrated with theologies practices of others. And help me to become more aware of the practices and understandings in my life that need changing. Help me to be a person who builds your radically inclusive and upside down kingdom so that others may know your insane grace and how sweet it is being in relationship with you.
Amen

Labels: chez, friends, money, x3 church

What an amazing weekend, it was such a privilege to be part of the first ever Fuse event, replacing the CTC weekend after 41 years.

Labels: event, friends, fuse, rant

Im in Nelson for a youth alpha training day tomorrow. Its being a great day hanging some very cool people. Firstly, Michael Treston who is the chief wugga wuugga for the Nelson Anglican Youth scene, and a great guy. Its cool sitting down with different folk who have being cranking out youth work for so long, and we shared some similar observations about youth work and churchy stuff. Very cool yarns. And then a guy called Ken Williams who has absolutely blown me away with the yarn about his Presbyterian church which is celebrating there fiftieth birthday. Now before you start yawning and those religious start manifesting - check this out. To celebrate they have decided to GIVE AWAY fifty thousand dollars to mission and the poor. How cool is that??? SO far they have raised 33 of the 50 grand and are on track to have it tied up by labour weekend. A little pressy church in Blenheim showing the world what is possible... except they arent doing this to show the world... which is why I have to blog about it.
And finally Im staying with Phil and Greta Greenwood who do youth work at St Barnabas church in Nelson and are great fun to hang out with, along with their two gromies who are very wild.

Ive said it once, I will say it a thousand more times. Youth Workers are the best bunch of people to spend time with, and its my incredible privledge to get to spend time with so many of them.

Labels: friends, youth alpha

Its just too good an opportunity to pass up... here is a sweet photo of my good friend - Mr Brook Turner looking very smooth today. Yes that is a man nappy and one legend wedgy.

He didnt seemed to mind, in fact the photo above would suggest enjoyment. And as we sail off into the distance I tried not to make brooks appearance affect my concentration...

Labels: Blueprint, Brook Turner, friends

I'm sitting around with some of my old karori youth group crew at the moment and we have being talking about what we have given up for lent. Allana mentions that she has given up 15 minutes of sleep every morning to spend time with God. I remark that she will be a very spiritual person at the end of lent (and secretly feel convicted). Brad then says; Shesh, that is one very high mountain to fall from. (brad has given up the very spiritual act of wearing shoes)

Hehe, classic call. I love my slightly cynical but wondefully honest k town crew.
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Labels: friends

Stu McGregor, one the the most respected writers and commentators in my circle of friends during "Agony Aunt", a weekly tough questions session with his youth group. Seeing Stu put on the Agony Aunt hat and have to answer some very curly questions was highly enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. And the questions? Is Masturbation wrong? Is dating a non-christian bad? And; who is more holy, NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? I had to get up after that and speak. Thanks Stu

And though this is a murky photo, it was a beautiful moment on Tuesday night as myself, dave and his wife mili sat outside on the deck surrounded by native forest and clear skies, cranked a pink floyd dvd on the big screen and soaked up the mellow vibes.

Lots of great conversations happening, off today to spend time with Rich Johnson and the guys from FreeSet. Im learning heaps from spending time with such amazing people, we are blessed here in NZ to have such a huge number of highly underated very approachable guru's.

Time to battle some traffic

Labels: auckland, dave wells, friends, rich johnson, stu mcgregor, travel

Like many of us I suspect, I am prone to a bit of discouragement from time to time. The needs of the world around us, the hurt that friends are experiencing, the "constructive criticism" from mates that doesn't feel very constructive, the hurt in my own life starts to build up sometimes to silly levels. I was reminded again today that there are more people in slavery than at any other time in history... I dont know about you, but it feels like there is just so much to do, and that the efforts of those giving themselves to trying to make a difference are drowned in the apathy and selfishness of the world in which we live, not to mention the battle with my own selfish living, my self centerdness etc etc.

And yet we are called to be faithful, in some ways to plod along trying to do our bit. And in truth we see these little glimpses of God's Kingdom here on earth, with little initiatives around the place, and the right conversations beginning to happen. And so here are a few encouraging places that I found positive in the last week...

Debs, one of my hero's (who I have yet to have a decent yarn with, but is someone I respect off the charts) with this great initiative from some of the blueprint ladies. I would encourage you to give to this as generously as you can.

Stu with a great post that deeply moved me, and I think nails it completely. In particular the statement hit home;

My mate Will has just starting teaching barrista skills to unemployed kids, which is taking off. I am hugely proud of him.

Im stoked about the work of Amnesty International, the foodbanks in many churches including my own, the work of youth workers, social workers, people everywhere who make decisions every week to do something for those hurting, on the fringes, who spend time and money trying to make a difference even when it costs, even when it hurts.

Here are some pics and a letter that were in the local media that were of huge encouragement to me from the Soul Survivor festival. You gotta read the letter! This afternoon of serving the local community was organised by Rebbecca of SSNZ and the local fielding churches.



Some great photos from the festival can be found here if you were not there.

And another article about the event can be found here...

Be great to see these sorts of stories of people trying to make a diffrence amplified, so that more and more people give themselves to serving others... if you have any more yarns that are lurking around then I would love to know.

Labels: friends, justice, personal

First up, congrats to my mate Dan on his new baby boy; Bede. This photo is of the new arrival with my gorgeous god-daughter Hannah.


Secondly, some love thrown Gareth's way, after a very nice post he wrote. To beat his wife in the first of the series of "people he likes" may well have earned him some time in the dog kennel, but means a lot! If I may return the kiss to the nether regions; Gareth is a real legend of a guy who has chosen to work in the offices of the church, which means he can run his business there, but also that he gets called on for all sorts of IT support, and subtly (or not so as the case may be) influences the flavour of all that happens in the office and church. If only we had more business people thinking about doing the same thing, the support and resource that people could offer be simply being around would be incredible. And I love the new series. In a country that loves tearing people down (and my gosh have I being on the receiving end of that in my 25 years) it is awesome to see this new series of posts on his blog build people up.

Anyway, down to business; how do we have recharging, refreshing days off?

The thing that munts you up in ministry is that you actually do very little physical work, you spend your days engaging with people in which you want to give your full attention, there is the stress of sermons to write, youth programs to nail down, more pastoral coffees with kids just getting munted in their lives (so many you have to say no to some of them which kills you), staff meetings, camps to plan, brochures to write, parents to communicate to, emails to countless people in networks to keep the wheels turning, newsletters, reports, worship planning and practises, a meeting for nearly every event that happens, strategy retreats and days, youth leadership training and on top of this, most actual youth ministry happens in the evenings after these long days. Its very easy wind up just cranking it a little too much. Add to this the necessity to be spiritually developing, and trying to connect with Jesus in a meaningful way as often as you can. And then that the ol enemy isn't entirely happy with your little efforts to build the kingdom and you have quite the recipe for some weirdness.

My experience is that I would come home just exhausted, my brain fried from a day of intensity, and all I would want to do is jump in my cave, turn on the TV, and zone out before jumping into bed. But the problem is that because you have done jack tweety all day physically, your body is not tired even though your brain is full of stuff, and so you normally lie in bed wanting to sleep but not being able to because you have all this stuff running around in your head and wake up nailed...
So when it came to days off, the temptation would be to catch up on some emails and write some talks, or to blob and watch some dvds, again just a lame way to try and recharge before another week, and even then I had to fight a sense of guilt for not doing too much (especially as my pay check came from people that donated to the church).

A revelation came early last year when I worked as a builders labourer for about four months. From full time ministry to the building site full of rough chippies and sub-contractors and conversations about cars and rugby and killing animals....
I would wake up, work my lil guts out for 8.5 hours, come home physically shattered, eat a big feed and then crash out exhausted, sleeping like a baby. It was the most refreshing four months I could hope for and it scared my how much my lifestyle before that was really pretty unhealthy. Doesn't sound like a sabbatical, but it certainly felt like one.

And so as I continue a slightly different line of full time ministry type stuff (what a dumb way to express it, aren't we all?) I'm trying to make the most of my days off to recharge and refresh rather than just blob. And I am trying to stay physically healthy on my days charging around the place. I'm trying to soak up life and stop to reflect, to not feel guilty about doing little that is productive.
What does this look like? Well it used to be a long walk on the beach, but its now morphed into a run as often as I can (which will be hilarious for anyone reading this who actually knows me... that will not compute at all!). Of course, the ultimate chill out refresh activity is going for a surf, and as we are now living at the beach the wave count has seriously increased. We have biffed out the TV, and it is all very old school with lots of reading books (very CS Lewis of me, I know), and im trying to not feel guilty about the day off even though I now live off support not my church salary. I was fascinated to read Stu's post on his retreat day a while back... again some interesting thoughts, and with the amount of church workers wigging out at "burning out" it is probably a good conversation to crank out.
The truth is that I still suck at unwinding, and that its taken me this long to begin to get a handle on this. It certainly wasn't something taught at bible college!

Labels: friends, personal

Ok, firstly I am sending subliminal jealous vibes to my boys from Karori who are on their way to the big day out... tool, muse, jet, the violent vemes, the killers, freaken jealous (not the band, thats my feeling after writing that list of glory).
I have being thinking a wee bit about the karori lads and lasses, and how cool it has being to hang out with them over the last four years. There has being a very cool transition from "sam the youth pastor" and the boys he gets paid to hang out with, to a bunch of mates that totally rock my world, and I consider as great friends. We've being on a holiday a couple of times last year, and these larikens totally enrich my world.

Im just about to launch into four days of camp, im leading worship twice a day, have two seminars and a main meeting, so its going to be a rather busy time. In fact its way more busy than soul survivor was for me, which is a reflection of the ninjas we had there. I have a bunch of photos from people that were there - they will be on the soul survivor website shortly. But here are a couple to whet your appetite, and make you book yourself in for next year... Will try and upload some from the afternoon serving events, some of the bands and other gaps later...

Labels: friends, soul survivor

Its very nice to be up in Omaha beach north of Auckland with a bunch of mates to take a week to chill before the U2 concert at the end of the week. It feels like its being a long while since stopping.
Its being a mans man trip so far. A quick visit to buy some bait at the local fish and hunting store saw us walk out with a couple of air rifles and a machete as an impulse buy. Very rock and roll. Spot the numbers of weapons and murderous tools in the photo below. Very cool. Actually the whole trip has a very nice white trash feel with every guy sporting a slug of a mo, lots of fishing, guns, aviator sunglasses, and a lot of meat on the BBQ. All we are missing is the moonshine.
Im amped about U2, its seems surreal that it is going to happen. Im sure it will be one of those gigs that will go down in history, I would argue its worth selling your firstborn, or a non-essential limb. Thankfully all that was required was for me and my mate Sam Bartos (who caught a nice little snapper today) to camp out all night late last year, and here we are.
And yes we are behaving with our new air rifles (that shoot pellets at 850 feet per second). Kinda...

Labels: friends, U2

The Soul Survivor Website is now fully updated and looking damm fine... Chris Darnell, one of the key guys for NZ spent countless hours doing the whole thing in his spare time. What a legend.
It has being incredible to see how many people have given there time and finance to support the Soul Survivor movement as it begins here in NZ. Aside from the HUGE hours that the core team have put in, there have being so many incredibly generous moments.
Alpha NZ have supported me financially two days a week, given me an office. People have anyomously given money at just the right time so we could print our posters and registration forms. There is a couple that give me 40 a week to help with my petrol costs. Nikki Smith who works for a production outfit in wellington spent hours upon hours after work making our introduction dvd for nothing but a hug! Last weekend a young guy who wants to remain anonymous said that he was going to be recieving a nice pay out from a drug trial that he is on. This human lab rat wants to use that money to underwrite a particular part of our festival in January. Just yesterday I was at an awesome church on the Kapiti Coast. They barely have a young person at the church, but are so keen to support finacially and through prayer the Soul Survivor movement, they are so excited!!
It certainly hasn't being roses for everyone involved in launching this thing, its being freaken tough most of the time. But these acts of generosity have completely blown me away, there are some beautiful people out there, and the world is a better place because of them.

Labels: friends, generosity, soul survivor

I love my mates. After sending an email out to inform the crew that the best blog since paul wrote to the Ephesians was off the ground, I received a bunch of emails that just kept me cracking up all afternoon. For those that don't know these guys, they are not being mean, just giving me some well deserved grief!! I love it. A sampling of the comments:

Elliot: You're a blog (Nice, tight, and to the point)
Chris: Man you are soo all about the fame harvey. (Only good mates could give you crap like this!)
Jonny: I feel its missing something. A photo of yourself in a black suit, colored lights behind, and a colored shirt with the collar out should do it. (Mmmm, must organise a photo shoot)
Becs: Ha! I just tried to go see your blog and the computer wouldn't let me because it is, and I quote, "a high porn public site" classic! (Ok... dont quite know what becs typed in, but I thought things have being fairly clean so far...)
Marko: I added you to my blog reader so I can see all your pithy (and inane) thoughts! (Again, just charming!!!)
Dave: Deep as a puddle.....Deep. (Ohhhhh... he got me)

As well as a bunch of others, and some nice comments on the first post...

So this post is to say "I love you" to all those that have given me some grief. And no, Im not going to sink to your level. I am a bigger man than that. But I do want to remind everyone that I have being working out, my muscles are getting a lot bigger, and so when I see you next, I will not be afraid to open a can of whoopass... you have being warned...

And for all those that thought about giving me some jib, but refrained, feel free to post here to get it out of your system. I can take it. I dont cry myself to sleep... i dont.... seriously...

Labels: friends