Anyone else think it a little strange that a jewish man born in the middle east winds up looking like branson??? Or that branson looks like a rather well known character from a couple of thousand years ago???

Labels: jesus followers, lookalikes, Richard Branson

I want to be quite careful about how I say this, especially after reading this from Scott McKnight the living legend, and this from Scottie - a legend because his bowels are so nasty his odour can clear a room of hardened men. It burns the back of the throat and makes the eyes water.

Now, it is a bit frustrating because I would love to have a good story about how I grew up. But I have had a pretty good Christian up-bringing, and have done all the things a good Christian kid should do. The camps, leading worship at church, degree from Bible College, tours with bands etc etc etc. And yet I have had a major (underline freaken MAJOR) re-adjustment about how it looks to follow the person of Jesus, and what it looks like to be living a life for Him which cemented itself about four years ago.

Ask me when I was 17 about the poster (found in a Christian mag with a huge circulation here in NZ, in the Soul Survivor UK festival booklet etc) below and I would have said, "yep that looks right, I hope one day i can have a life of significance like that guy".
Now I think that it is absolute rubbish.... this is NOT significance, and in no way is the destination I believe Jesus had in mind for us as I see it in the Gospels.

Labels: doubt, emerging church, honesty, jesus followers, personal, rant

Saturday Night saw my mate Darryl give yet another brilliant yarn to the folks at Blueprint Church. I'm gonna give you his first point (with some sam harvey embellishments) mainly because the second point was really good but I cant remeber it that well, didnt really take any notes on it. Something about changing the way we view ourselves or something fluffy along those lines.

Anyway after thinking about it, what was so good about the talk was that it wasn't a "lets get sorted so God can maybe use us" talk, it wasn't a "You are going to change the world" talk, it was a couple of practical things that we should be doing if we profess to follow Jesus. Its so refreshing to hear stuff that we should and can easily do.

Point one: We should all be involved in helping the poor on three levels.

• Sponsor a child. All of us should be doing this even though we are distant from the person and they are often just a picture on the fridge.
  
• Connect ourselves (via a trip to a 2/3rds world country) so that these people suffering move from pictures to a reality in our life. That we would know someone who is living in poverty overseas. I know this is a strong view, but my perspective is that every single person who follows Jesus should go as least once in their life to spend time with the poor. I spent three years in South America as my parents served as missionaries and it has so profoundly changed my world-view it cannot be overstated. We spend huge amounts of money on study, cars, rent, christian confrences. We will be more transformed than all of this stuff combined, and we can all afford it if push came to shove.
  
• Connect in NZ to the poor. Darryl mentioned some of the needs here in NZ that we should all be a part of (as he ranted about here)
  

As he was talking I wrote down the words "we actually act least like a Christian in church".

Following Jesus looks like hanging out with the un-popular kid at school. Following Jesus looks like giving our time and money to those that struggle physically, emotionally etc. Following Jesus is looking at creative ways of blessing people with no strings attached (click here for a great yarn along those lines). Following Jesus looks like the struggle in the secret place not to sin. Following Jesus is hurting and being confused by circumstances and situations that are not right in the world. Following Jesus is being angry about injustice, and giving yourself to make a difference even if it feels small. Following Jesus is sharing life with those that are on the fringes and looked down upon in our culture, with those that are hurting (which is why my friend Stu's latest post blows me away).
Following Jesus is plodding along doing normal life in an abnormal way. You can continue the list yourself this definitely isnt the extensive list : )

All of a sudden it seems that our church gathering (while freaken awesome times and really important) is not just what it looks like to be a Christian.

But where does most of our energy go? If "the medium is the message" then what are communicating?
I for one have had a really huge adjustment about what it looks like to follow Jesus in the last 6 years, and yet have grown up in a healthy Christian family, with part of that time overseas living amongst the poor, being to all the camps and events one goes to, studied at Bible College for three years. And with all this Christian input I still had a really imbalanced idea about what it looked like to follow Jesus.

To be continued...

Labels: darryl, emerging church, jesus followers, justice, personal, rant

Firstly thanks for Chez for his post, my apologies for not allowing comments... that was indeed a bit cheeky but I appreciate his honesty. Both Chez and Phil have posts in relation to the one I posted, and you can comment there.

As promised last in my talk at blueprint and again in feilding last night, here is the talk by S.M. Lockridge that I quoted. I want to be a black preacher...

This will be a bit strong for some of my mates that read this who don't quite have the same world view as me when it comes to the person of Jesus, but you have put up with me ranting on for so long now I figure you can let this one slide (yet again).
Coming on the heals of my post on homosexuality it feels a bit American fundamentalist for my liking, but as this guy explains something of the character of God I would want to highlight the words "His mercy is everlasting....His love never changes....His word is enough....His grace is sufficient.... His yoke is easy, and his burden is light".
We Christians have a reputation for being very judgemental, what I see in the person of Jesus is extraordinary grace to those who are hurting, and for those that are on the fringes. I for one am still struggling to believe that this grace could be for someone like me... but im getting there slowly. That's my King.
May we one day have a reputation as people of unconditional love and reckless grace.

Labels: jesus followers, theology

Yesterday I brought a little TV to complete my bachelor pad (and to probably make it more difficult to actually "recharge" on my day off as I blogged about here). I caught a bit of the late-night news, a piece on the homosexual community leaving the church "in droves". The video of the piece can be seen here. And while the media are obviously out to stir things up and make a good story, it is still tragic that this is our reputation.
It would be great to sit here all day and really analyse the news clip (the destiny march, the comments of stuart lange who is a person I enormously respect and enjoyed the lectures of at BCNZ etc), but I can only procrastinate from writing a talk for so long... I will save that for a good coffee with those that want to yarn about it. Although I would be interested in Chez's reaction as I believe (I could be wrong) that we hold somewhat different views on this issue.

What really rips my guts out is that we (if we go to a Christian church we are sadly lumped in) have brilliantly managed to alienate, and I would argue, really hurt a community in our society that should know more than anyone that we stand for grace, love, acceptance etc. We have missed out on our churches being hugely enriched by the homosexual community. Somehow we have made this a great big naughty sin, and forgotten about the greed, the judgmentalism, the superior moral attitude's rampant in Christian culture that I suspect from the gospels would have really got Jesus mad. It seems ludicrous that we welcome those that struggle with lust, that are divorced, and get all agitated by this issue.
Im picking Jesus would be saying these days (as these great ideas suggest) "Contrary to popular belief I don't hate anyone who's gay"


The reality is that this is a complex issue, and a very divisive one in our churches at the moment. More than ever we need good voices to help us guide this discussion.

A great resource that I have found very helpful is this transcript of a talk between Tony, and his wife Peggy Campolo. Both hold very different views on the topic, but provide a great dialogue and perspective that I think is so healthy and important for those of us that follow Jesus. And a good read for those who wonder if all Christians are anti-gay. That is certainly not my angle, or that of many of my peers.
Another brilliant resource is this essay (the link downloads the pdf straight away) by my good friend Stu McGregor. In his words its an essay "that takes us through a survey of the Biblical, biological, psychological and philosophical debates. It’s conclusion may be controversial, but I think it was hard earned". One of the more intelligent people I know, I envy Stu and his ability to be so articulate and well thought out - if people want a super deep theological discussion on a blog, I am wrong person. Stu on the other hand is the one.

Comments are closed on this one because I dont want to turn it into a big freaken bun fight. They are closed to remind us that while it is a very important issue that needs to be thought out from a christian view point, we need to keep it in perspective with all that Jesus said (and in this case didnt say). And finally because I really don't want to put hours into replying to comments if the world discovers this and gets all angry.
If you strongly disagree or have something to say, blog about it : )
If you really really don't like what I have written (or really really do) you can email me at sam at soulsurvivor dot co dot nz

Labels: homosexual, jesus followers, rant

Tony Campolo wrote a book called "we have met the enemy and they are partly right". In it he looks at other ideologies and pulls out what followers of Jesus need to learn from these worldviews. I recently stumbled across a letter on an old article written by Keith Green that was written by an American Student breaking off his engagement to his fiancee after converting to communism. I love the tone of the letter, and want to have the same passion for cause and teaching of Jesus that this young guy had for communism. There is a lot we could learn from this dude...

"We Communists have a high casualty rate. We're the ones who get slandered and ridiculed and fired from our jobs and in every other way made as uncomfortable as possible. A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned. We live in virtual poverty. We turn back to the Party every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We Communists don't have time or the money for many movies or concerts or T-bone steaks or decent homes and new cars. We've been described as fanatics. We are fanatics! Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor - the struggle for World Communism.

"We Communists have a philosophy of life which no amount of money could buy. We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life. We subordinate our petty, personal selves into a great movement of humanity. And if our personal lives seem hard or our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the Party, then we are adequately compensated by the fact that each of us in his small way is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind. The Communist cause is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife and mistress, my bread and meat. I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes on. Therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both guides and drives my life. I evaluate people, books, ideas, and actions according to how they affect the Communist cause and by their attitude toward it. I've already been in jail because of my ideas, and if necessary, I'm ready to go before a firing squad."

I love the passion, the emotion, and the reckless flavour of this letter, and it reminds me of those first times when you knew Jesus was real, where I was blown away by the holiness of this God. I really want (and feel like we are slowly getting back to some degree of "first love" in recent weeks) that totally crazy sense "living like a dead man" with a life totally given to the cause and person of Jesus.
On top of this, I would argue that the early church looks like Communism functioning pretty well, with "no one having need", and the sharing of possessions amongst the community, anyway it looks pretty similar to my un-trained eye (see Acts 2 vs 42 - 47).
Inspiring and challenging stuff

Labels: jesus followers, rant

I WOULD DEARLY LOVE TO GO AND RE-WRITE THIS POST, THE POINT I WAS TRYING TO MAKE IS VERY BADLY COMMUNICATED, AND I DISAGREE WITH WHAT, BUT MAINLY HOW I HAVE WRITTEN IT. BUT TO PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE POST AND THIS BLOG IM GOING TO LEAVE IT AS IT IS... ENJOY ; )


Note: this is an not an attempt to try and raise the maturity of this blog after the comments in the last post. It came out of conversation with a guy today... who lives in Palmerston North. Please pray for him, and for anyone else you know living in Palmy. If you have being there, you know why.

Does anyone else find Communion empty and boring? Does the very word “Communion” conjure up the most religious and dull of memories? Doesn’t it all sound so… Anglican?
Now I (frustratingly sometimes) love the Anglican Church don’t get me wrong, (I am a closet Anglican) but surely this ritual wasn’t meant to be so lifeless?

While I think the words in the Anglican liturgy are incredibly beautiful words, (warning: judgement alert) hearing them said in a monotonous voice from a guy who sounds as spiritually excited as a plate of sausages and bored witless makes contemplating this incredibly act of grace difficult. And then to have the same words repeated every week, year on year until they have had every bit of life beaten out of them seems to be adding insult to injury.
I am well aware that for many the marriage of liturgy and communion really is something that works for them. This is not the case for me, and I would argue that many young people struggle to engage with this expression (and if we are really honest many not so young).
Once every now and then when I haven't being to an Anglican service for a long while (as in right now) and it is a deep experience. Thrashed out every week, and before you know it I am thinking about everything but the cross, it becomes another empty ritual. C.S. Lewis disagrees with me and writes that the familiarity of these words makes it like a well-worn shoe in which one can easily dance. The familiarity of the words for Mr Lewis helped the act of contemplation, didn’t hinder it.

And then there is the Pentecostal churches who are just as bad in my opinion. It seems that whole command to do this to remember what Jesus did is a bit of a pain in the back side, and so they seem to quickly get communion over and done with, and do it every blue moon to tick the box. Throwing the bread and a thimble of juice down the aisle in between songs is as much an act of contemplation as the drive thru, and again seems to have cheapened the whole point of it.

So what’s it to be; the token or the boring?

Now all these conversations are fine if you don’t actually help pastor at a church. Alas, my theory, my rants, my frustration can actually be used to try different things. Unlike many, I cannot enjoy the satisfaction of being pissed off about something and enjoy stewing about it with out ever trying to make a positive alternative. The exploration of different ways of "doing" communion began in my old church in Karori in 2005, and was really emphasised at the beginning of last year as I began helping to lead at a church called Blueprint.

Like many emerging churches, Blueprint has being guilty of throwing out the baby with the bathwater in its exploration of what Church looks like these days. And so communion had hit the sack heap until someone piped up from the church and challenged the leadership on the whole deal part way through last year. Brook, my good mate saw the point and re-introduced the event. I can take none of the credit, but love the way that things have turned out and have learnt a lot. Let me explain what has being happening the last 7 months.

In between every series through out the year (or about every 6 weeks) there is a night in which we focus on grace. For a church filled with new Christians, or old munted ones (like me), I struggle to really believe the scandal of grace, and so this is a welcome reminder. Obviously central to grace is the cross, and at the end of the talk, or sometime in the night we spend a decent amount of time either in silence or with background music eating some bread and drinking some juice. I cannot overstate that they are the most powerful nights where there is a very tangible sense of beauty and a very deep sense of contemplation of this incredible act of love. The whole process of listening to someone speak on grace, and then to spend time with some physical elements and to consider that this God loves us that much, to consider the implications of the cross, and the implications of grace on our lives. This has brought such renewed life, passion and gratitude in the act of communion on a personal level, and a desire to see new life breathed into this ancient ritual that is filled with mystery, freedom and beauty.

In no way has blueprint got it nailed and if anything it is a church marked by its obvious and very real imperfections. The truth is that in every church there is the danger that we can very easily slide into ritual and loose meaning of important parts of the fabric that make "Church", but on the other side there are things that we can learn and grow from. And I know that no denomination or church has ever set out to try and make something loose meaning or disengage young people. My argument is that something so special and powerful as communion is worth having some hard yarns about as there is such a depth that we can easily loose when we have not spent time thinking about how we will create an atmosphere of contemplation and reflection.

My apologies for the judgemental tone of the post, I would be very interested in your thoughts and experiences in this matter, and look forward to my Anglican friends roasting me on a spit.

In other news…

A blog well worth checking out is my mates Dave “Bare Theology” (no its not the theology of nudistst…). Dave has some very impressive titles next to his name; dean of men, lecturer at the Bible College of NZ, writer for Soul Purpose magazine... etc etc. Dave was my flatmate for the whole time I lived in Auckland, we completed our degrees at the same time. The difference was that I was content with the mantra "C's get degrees", Dave actually studied... and after I graduated Dave stayed on, has just about finished his masters, and lecturers at the college to this day.

He has shamelessly advertised his blog on my comments twice, and seeing that putting his blog on my link page is not enough, I am going to advertise his site in the hope that this monkey will stop peddling his new blog on my blog... jokes its a good read. Although to be honest my brain cells get a little fried after reading to much of blogs like his, a reflection of my simple mindedness and his intellect. In fact, I would encourage you to find the comment I left on his blog, which was all I could think of at the time. His last post had me cross eyed.

But for those bored of the paddling round the puddle, and know its time to have a “real meal” and tackle some meaty issues, then head over to Dave’s blog. On top of his intellect he is a quality guy, we had some legendary times flatting together.

Labels: emerging church, jesus followers, rant

I really appreciate the honesty of the comments in the last post, great stuff.

The Second big issue I have with the Christian Music scene, particularly here in NZ, is that there is a huge desire to make it in the States. A large number of bands have either moved to the states, or go their to tour to maybe one day crack in the scene. In fact I was part of a band that had being signed to a major US label... though fortunately (it didn't feel like it at the time!) I was dumped from the band, and then later the contract fell through...

The big question I have is why? Why on earth is there such an interest in going to the states? Is it because the states need more christian music? Come on, what a load of bollocks, the place has got more music than it knows what to do with, christian and non-christian...
Is it for mission? That cant be the case, the place is full of churches and bands propagating the Jesus message. The conclusion I therefore come to is that a lot of bands go to the states because there is a HUGE amount of money to be made, as well as the fact that if you make it in the states, you make it in the entire world.
Money, Success, Significance, Power.

The truth is that a lot of christian people support christian labels here in NZ, but a lot of this money is used to fund these very expensive expeditions to the states. When I look at the needs worldwide and here in NZ I feel sick that this money is being invested into sending bands to a country that doesn't need the music, with questionable motives, and I would suggest that there is very little return in terms of the world being a better place because of this investment. I struggle to see how this lines up with values of Jesus as I see them in scripture.

Now I have no problem going overseas to tour your music. But if you want to go overseas to spread the love of music, your love for Jesus, then why not go to Africa or South America and encourage the Christians there, or influence and be influenced by the local music scene? Or why not go to Europe, a highly secular area in desperate need of artists who love Jesus and live by his teachings.

My last question; why is there so little talk about this whole christian music scene. We seemed to have become so used to having a whole industry that has a "christian" attached to it, yet seems to have the same motives and methods as any other label or industry, just dressed up with different language. Aren't we called to live a radically different lifestyle, with radically different business practices, with a very different set of values, and a completely upside down view of success? I love the story of Keith Green giving away his records when he was alive and touring... it infuriated his record company, but is this not the kind of wild behaviour that I think Jesus was trying to encourage?
How come we are so comfortable with this whole scene, shouldn't it make us uncomfortable? Or am I reading it completely wrong?



I am truly sorry if this comes across as a real judgemental angry position. That's not how I'm trying to come across, just genuinely confused after playing in christian bands for the last four years, and seeing the incredible power and influence this scene has on many young people (as well as the very corruptable power that it brings... story there for a later time) - and trying to reconcile it with how Jesus lived and what he taught. I would really appreciate your comments and feedback because this whole thing has being brewing for a while now...

Another (way more positive rant) to round of this discussion is on its way in a day or two... and then we can go and have Christmas, I can chill out a bit and stop being so angsty, and we can begin the new year being a wee bit more happy!!!!

Labels: jesus followers, music, rant

One if my really good mates, a guy called Matt Holleman, has refused to play at Soul Survivor as an artist for the acoustic concerts happening in the cafe at night. Not just him though, all the guys signed to his record label.
And so I rang and thanked him.

Its a bit of a hobby horse of mine at the moment, but I am very confused as to why there is a Christian Music industry. It doesn't make sense to me. Why on earth would you use these great gifts and skills to form a little holy huddle and entertain ourselves? How are we being "salt and light" with our separate sub culture? How are we "in the world but not of it" as Jesus called us to be, when we are not even "in" the world? Why do we have to have "christian bands"? Why cant we just have "bands"?

Sure it is dressed up with all sorts of language that try and make it some spiritual venture. And I have being a part of the whole scene for years, playing in a number of high profile Christian bands at parachute, I have seen the dark underbelly of the beast.
The more I think about it, the more I am totally confused. I would argue that Christians who enjoy creating and performing music are meant to be in the pubs, not the church. Which is why I am stoked that Matt said no to my christian event.
My church has gone the opposite route. Most of the performers at the venue are not christian, and most of the artists at the church are regulars in the Wellington music scene. Awesome stuff.

In saying all of this, I absolutely love worship music. I crank it loud in the car, enjoy getting together with mates and singing my heart out... and so I kind of disagree with myself in some of my practice by differentiating between church worship songs, and other music. This is a whole other yarn...

But I would strongly argue that we have defined "singing in church" as spiritual, and slamming out some bogan tunes at the pub with the band as non-spiritual. When I look back on some of our gigs in one of my old bands, I am most proud of the mates that we made while playing the local Wellington pubs, not coz I felt good about it, but because they are legend people that totally enriched my life.

I have spent years chewing over some of this stuff, done some very crazy tours, and so will probably blog on music and being a christian, as well as looking at the place of music in church and in culture from time to time.

On music news, check out Matty P's yarns on opening for Elton John.

In other news, its only a couple of weeks till the first NZ Soul Survivor festival. Its going to be a stunner. You can register online here.

Apologies for lack of posts, busy boy at the moment...

Labels: jesus followers, music

Steve Taylor, the resident NZ emerging church ninja has opened a container load of worms (but worms that need freedom, that need a life of fresh air and nice soil, worms who have being locked up for too long) by asking people to post the toughest God questions they have being asked, or have rattling around upstairs. Its going to be a great blog to track for the next little while as Steve asks people to join in him in attempting to answer some of the curly ones.

I like this discussion, because in reality there is a lot of mystery in life and in faith. There is a lot that we dont, and probably wont understand about God and His ways, about life, about death.And we have to learn to live with that. The Eastern Church and the two thirds world are happy to live with mystery, it is part of their world. Not so in the West, and that is something we need to learn to sit with.
So its nice to see a place like Steve's blog where people can voice the doubt, cynicism, questions, queries that they carry. Its not going to change much, but it is going to bring a bit of freedom to have those questions out there. And it will hopefully model that it's ok to have that stuff, in fact the Bible asks us to "work out our faith with fear and trembling". We need to wrestle with the big questions, but that doesnt mean we are going to find the answers to everything. And I would far rather have some doubt and questions and voice them wisely, than play happy christian games wearing a plastic smile and pretending that everything is peachy and im just fine. Why are some christians so afraid of honesty?


Returned from Gissy this morning, the place rocks, the people rock and the training day went really well. Speaking at The Rock church tonight, writing this blog instead of working on talk. Me and procrastination are best buddies.

Labels: doubt, honesty, jesus followers, travel

I am (insert expletive here) sick and tired of people (in church out of church, wherever) thinking the God we follow is some kind of distant, boring, kill joy with a big beard. You want an idea about the type of God I am following and giving my life for... read on.

(Written by Mark Strom, the principle of BCNZ)

This God

This God could put on eyebrows and kneecaps, tear ducts and saliva glands.
This God could be born under the tyrants Augustus and Herod.
This God could accept the smells of shepherds, and the extravagancies of political emissaries.
This God could start life a vulnerable hunted child born into scandal.
This God could grow up under foreign domination and among terrorists and outcasts.
This God could sit in the street playing marbles.
This God could wear with pride the calloused splintered hands of an honest workman building the houses and fixing the furniture of half-castes, outcasts and bigots.

This God could ask his cousin to baptise him along with the rest of the crowd.
This God could make the best vintage Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon even when the guests were too drunk to know the difference.
This God could befriend a bloke in a tree with small man syndrome.
This God could enjoy a prostitute washing his feet, giving her his full and undivided attention, and ignoring the eye-rolling of lawyers and theologians.
This God could spend a whole night making a whip to crack over the backs of con artists who rip-off the poor.

This God could wrap the greatest truths in the simplest stories, and put a sting in the tail of every yarn.
This God could let himself hang on a tree, nails tearing at his sinews, blood, faeces and urine running down his legs.
This God could invite women to be the first to know that he was back.
This God could delay his own glorious homecoming long enough for a bite of breakfast on the beach and a yarn with an old friend to let him know there were no hard feelings and to pass on his mantle.
This God could take his own story and give it the most surprising ending.

This God, this God, is worth knowing.
This God could reach into the crevices of my soul to bring to life the longings I smother so pathetically and recklessly with shame and excuses.
This God could raise me up to life with him.
This God could give me every blessing he could give himself.
This God could draw me out of my petty self-interest without a hint of a ‘tut-tut’, a frown, or a patronising smile.
This God could be more infuriating and fascinating and gobsmacking than any god I could ever make up.

This God could love my obsessiveness and overlook my forgetfulness.
This God could laugh and cry with me, and come play with me.
This God could make me his glory.
This God could love me.
This God could trust me.
This God could never be safe, but always be good.
This God, this God, is worth knowing.
This God I want to know.
This God I know in the face and Spirit of Jesus.

Labels: jesus followers, rant, theology

Well the mo is coming along nicely. I must admit that the idea of doing movember, and the reality of doing movember are very different. The idea seemed like fun, a good laugh, a journey with a bunch of mates. But the reality of standing in front of a bunch of young people and talking about Jesus, the meetings with youth pastors, as well as general interactions with strangers with this freaken slug across my lip is a whole different ball game. Thankfully I was in Masterton in the weekend, and the slug probably opened more doors than closed them. But is it worth it?
I think the answer is yes, certainly when I think about what this beast will look like at the end of the month.

On a whole different tangent, I have been reading a biography on a guy called Charles Simeon who died in 1836 and was an Anglican minister back in the day. He was a bit of a legend because he would preach Jesus, and people got so agitated by his sermons that they would often get interrupted by some of the more powerful church members. But people flocked to hear him speak. The guy is a flippin legend for a whole bunch of reasons and I don't want to write a long post on why... you might as well just read a book on him. But one particular moment did stick its head out as one worth reflecting on.

"Simeon invariably rose every morning, though it was winter season, at four o'clock... he devoted himself the first four hours of the day to private prayer and the devotional study of the Scriptures."

Straight away my mind started getting warmed up thinking ..."damm those morning people, they have it so easy. If I wasn't so nasty in the morning I would be that spiritual as well".

Then I read "The early rising did not come easily to him; it was a habit resolutely fought for and acquired. Finding himself too fond of his bed, he had resolved to pay a fine for every offence, giving a half crown to his servant". The hilarious thing is that Charles soon starts justifying why his servant needs the money, and so has to up the anti. He would fine himself a guinea (money not an animal) and throw it into the river if he slept in. Which was a lot of money for a guy living by faith. A hardcore guy.

What a challenge, and I wonder if the young leaders of today's church (point finger at me and some friends) are getting way to soft, way to comfortable, and way to dependent on what we think we know of God, rather than spending time in scripture and praying with God, learning his thoughts, being filled with God's Holy Spirit before each day.
I finished Phillip Yancey's book; "Prayer", and again that was filled with challenge and conviction for me. I am very much reminded of Jesus' seemingly impossible challenges to "be holy like I am holy" etc. And once again I am faced with the tension in my life of what is, and what should be, and deep inside I desperately want the "what should be".

Labels: jesus followers, movemeber, prayer

Latest article I have written for Soul Purpose ezine is here. Hopefully it speaks for itself, but im becoming increasingly aware of this rumbling in my heart for something far more "Jesus centered" than "christian culture centered" in my life, and in my communities. In conversations with many people it seems that I am not alone in feeling this growing anger, tension, frustration about what is... and what could and should be. What excites me is that this holy frustration is bubbling over into action, into life choices, into churches and communities looking outward rather than inward. Every week I encounter someone who is living out some very practical initiatives to help those on the fringes in our world.

This is why I love spending time with Darryl, because for all his shallowness and anger, he is hurting and burning for the poor, he loathes injustice. This is why I am listening to Tony Campolo every freakin day at the moment, because he is angry and frustrated about the Church's response to the needs of the poor, and he is frustrated at his governments social and fiscal policies. This is why I love the work of Urban Vision and UNOH. This is why I think Soul Survivor rocks and I hope will provoke a lot of discussion and action about the call for followers of Jesus to be active in pursuing justice, and looking to the needs of the poor both locally and around the world.


Guys like Darryl, Campolo, Ash Barker light fires. These people are modern day prophets reminding us that for the most part, we have forgotten the poor. These people spark the conversations and draw attention to the uncomfortable way that Jesus related to people, to the way that Jesus spoke, acted, the things that made Jesus angry, and passionate , the places and people where Jesus put his time.

The reality is that I cannot stand before God and plead ignorance to the cause of the poor, thanks in part to the guys I have mentioned. And I am acutely aware that my theory craps all over my practice. I am yet again very uncomfortable with what it means to truly follow Jesus...

Here endeth rant

Labels: jesus followers, justice, personal, rant, soul purpose

And so it begins. Day one of MOvemeber, and it is set to be a stunner with a huge contingent up for it. You may notice that there is a bit of a shadow on my face already. Well that is because I forgot to shave last night before the big month, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that this will be the perfect foundation from which to launch the molestache. I am even thinking about going for the handle bars, but will wait for a good weeks worth of growth before I decide on that one.

I have being thinking about the spirituality of movemeber... and before you jump to the conclusion there has being too much wacky backy floating around the water supply in kapiti, hear me out. My theory is that most of the time I am wwaaayyyy too serious, and rightly so in most cases with a lot of the crap in the world, not to mention the church as we know it to get bugged about (and to blog about!). But at the end of the day, life is to short to be serious all the time, and I don't want to be part of any church movement that cant have a good long laugh at itself.
And so opportunities like movember are a God given gift where someone like me (and about half of NZ) can grow a bit of stupid hair, look like an idiot, and join a bunch of mates who are equally foolish to do this little adventure. My mo has produced a bit of joy in my heart, and hopefully my mates as well as complete strangers will get a good laugh out of it. And if there is anything we need in the world today, its a bit more joy.

What I love about Soul Survivor is the stated value that we "take God very seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously". As you can imagine this has meant that Soul Survivor has got in a bit of trouble from time to time when shanadigans get out of hand. But I would far rather be part of a group that gets in trouble from time to time because the fun went a wee bit too far (mmm, or in my history... way too far but that is a story for another time)... than part of a boring, rule driven group that is lame and dull and is no flipping fun to hang around. So if you are at the festival in January, come prepared...

Game on folks

Labels: jesus followers, movemeber

I am disturbed.

I met a God who comforts the disturbed. I was disturbed and He comforted me. He whispered to my spirit, whispered sweet somethings in my ear. He loved me. I became comfortable. It felt nice. It felt warm, cozy even.

And then I met a God who disturbs the comfortable. I was comfortable and He disturbed me. Disturbed me to the very core of my being. Not for a moment or an hour....but a deep and sustained uncomfortable disturbance. He disturbed my soul. He reached in and started playing around with things. Re-ordering things. Lighting fires. Maybe even taking up residence.

That wee poemy type thing is by Rebecca Gilling, and pretty much nails how I'm feeling at the moment. Ive being in that space where God has made me very aware and uncomfortable about some of the crud in my life... and it is one of those very cool but painful processes of growing and in some small way dying to self and becoming more alive and more whole in the process. But part of me likes my baggage, and wants to hold onto it... And I dont like this vulnerable weird feeling of being in the middle of some rather deep shifts in my life, and I certainly dont like being aware of my pride, my arrogance, the "self" that is all of a sudden so clear for me to see.

In the midst of all of this, I have being reflecting on the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Now when I look at that list I almost want to laugh, because I feel like I really dont have much fruit, to be honest Im a bit of a scrawny tree that maybe has a one of two mangy, half eaten, worm filled apples. Yum.
But it feels like God has begun a wee bit of pruning so that maybe in time I can be a bit more fruitful in character...


My understanding about some of these words, especially peace, gentelness and kindness are really feminite, boring, introvert, a bit "ned flanders". And so I have being reflecting on what they really mean, and asking some questions around these particular fruits.

What does it look like for a kiwi bloke to have that sort of fruit in their life, when I am a natural extravert, have a deep frustration and agitation by a lot of Christian culture, and desire to reclaim something of the "edge" that I believe is part and parcel of being a follower of Jesus? What did it look like in the way that Jesus reflected this stuff? Darryl asked a further question of me today; How much of our understanding of these words is reflected through our cultural understanding, our worldview, and is not what Paul was really trying to communicate in that particular context, or what God is calling us to be? How much of it is? And what do they look like for a wild, edgy, fire in their eyes, follower of Jesus to be displaying this fruit?

At the end of the day this isnt actually keeping me awake at night, because I figure if I keep on charging around with Jesus, and allowing him to continue to lead me into uncomfortable places then I'm hopefully going to wind up a bit more like the guy; fruity and all...

Labels: jesus followers, personal

My latest article for the Soul Purpose E-zine can be found here. The article came out of frustration at how few young people seem to be making life choices that reflect a belief or trust in Jesus. Frustration because I believe so much more kingdom building work could be going on in NZ and around the world, and frustration because young people are missing out on the wonderfully terrifying adventure of recklessly following Jesus. I am sick of people just talking about following Jesus radically, I want to see decisions that reflect that sort of radical edge. Flag what parents think, flag what culture dictates is normal. Lets live for Jesus, gambling on Him coming through for us, or we're screwed. :) Doesn't sound that safe though

Labels: article, jesus followers, soul purpose