Some reflections

It has been refreshing to read Introverts in the Church. People are a bundle of things, including temperament, which like the rest of the world has been damaged by Original Sin. It's been almost a year since the SOUL Church debacle and in the meantime I've done a fair bit of thinking about who I am, my weaknesses, my strengths and how my temperament shapes my philosophy of ministry.
The three big weaknesses I've focused on are confidence, clarity and self-awareness. (Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit I believe I'm growing in each of these.) My three big areas of strength I've decided to prioritise are; imagination, integrity and determination. (Amy has encouraged me to embrace and enjoy them.) Then there are some inter-personal tools I've sharpened up on, such as not taking criticism personally. (Some counselling helped here.) What's been important about reading Introverts in the Church is untangling my temperament from the expectations of others in ministry. As an introvert I thrive on reflecting about ideas, need solitude to recharge my energy and can sometimes draw a blank or get stressed in situations requiring fast-paced verbal interactions. Some of the things that got me in trouble at SOUL, such as asking questions or making sure people didn't fall through the gaps of pastoral care I'll keep doing enthusiastically.
However looking back at the last nine years since beginning the path to become a church leader I've realised that I need to be both a little more positive about those around me, while also a little suspicious (in a healthy Suspicion and Faith sort of way!) and less naive. Introverts in the Church encourages introverts to create a "rule of life" where you pace yourself to be both productive while avoiding  burnout. Most recently it's been very useful to be around Mikey (my AFES campus director) who, although he has a slightly different philosophy of ministry, has encouraged me in several significant areas of productivity. For example, using multiple discrete projects with accompanying deadlines instead of filling the week with busy-work to appear godly or please people. Or in the area of communication: building prosaic bridges from my ideas to the audience or congregation. I'm looking forward to applying these insights and seeing what the future holds.

[Evangeline and I on Pilgrim Hill during a work-day earlier this year. Photo by Jordan de Hoog.] 

A new ministry role

I finished at Soul Church late last year under strange circumstances. Then last week I started work at the University Fellowship of Christians (the local AFES franchise). I'm the events overseer, which means mainly co-ordinating various events and training students. The Presbyterian Church of Tasmania would like me to continue some special Presbyterian cross-over subjects and have kindly contributed a little towards my financial support. Church-wise we'll probably settle at Mount Stuart, St Johns or Crossroads. People's reactions to these moves have been positive although I'm aware that I need to settle down for several years. Personally I've had to give up cherished idols and recognise the beauty of God's bigger picture. AFES work is very intensive but I'm part of a good team and am excited by the  projects I'm doing.

• This is my personal profile on the AFES website.
• If you'd like to support me through prayer follow this link.
• If you'd like to support me financially go here. (I'm at 80% of my total.)

Thank-you kind readers. [Photo taken by Chris Haines at Anvers chocolate factory on the way back from Tasmanian Christian Convention.]

Romans 14 My reflections

So I preached at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, the mother-church of SOUL Presbyterian Church, on the way to the airport this morning (I'm in Sydney for Presbyterian Study, #BkofRevelation if you're on Twitter) because Campbell had fallen sick and I'd already preached on Romans 14.

I'm still working on becoming a better preacher so several people were taking notes, hopefully they'll pass the feedback on and I'll write a companion post to see if I'm facing reality! I'm going by the rule of thumb that if several people mention the same thing its a problem. So based on people's body language and my reflections these are the negatives (opportunities) positives (small mercies):

Negatives:

1. My official big idea: "don't let the expression of your freedom in Christ damage Christ's work in others (or yourself)" didn't click neatly with my explanation of the two groups of Christians in Romans 14
2. My gestures sometimes serve the purpose of "um" or "arh", I reckon for some they are very distracting
3. Bring my own Bible instead of using a pew Bible
4. A re-heated sermon still needs working over, I had to rework bits designed for SOUL on the fly and it showed
5. A need to bring people along with me: here is one idea, and here is another and this is how they add up to the big idea (I feel this is important) 
6. I didn't make any clear links to the Romans series which this sermon was meant to be a part of
7. I rushed the context a little (I had done this well at SOUL) I could tell people needed more time
8. In retrospect I should of shown how the work of the Holy Spirit shapes both groups
9. Something went wrong with my opening setup, and I'm not sure what, it was partially successful in making people think about how they express their faith with one another
10. I didn't do much to show people how I moved from the text to big idea

Positives:

1. People seemed to get the unofficial big idea that "there are cautious Christians and bold Christians in the church and there are strengths and dangers about both groups." 
2. My Self-depreciating personal example about smoking seemed to work well
3. Some gestures worked, I remembered where both groups were (I reckon I could do more with carefully controlled gestures) 
4. Eye contact was excellent
5. Following Churchill's advice I finished strongly
6. I brought people back to the work of Jesus at the end

Style:

• I could tell that at SOUL people thought I was allowing too much freedom and there a few at Cornerstone who thought I was devaluing freedom (based particularly on the facial expression of an Artist in the congregation). 
• I wonder if I should have worked the application a bit harder or if that would have been too controversial? (I know Mikey would've but David wouldn't have.) 

From my bible reading plan this morning, it seemed appropriate

2 Kings 12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. ² Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. ³ The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁴ Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple.⁵ Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”

⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. ⁷ Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.” ⁸ The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

⁹ Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord and put it into bags. ¹¹ When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the Lord—the carpenters and builders, ¹² the masons and stonecutters.They purchased timber and blocks of dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the Lord, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple.

¹³ The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; ¹⁴ it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the temple. ¹⁵ They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. ¹⁶ The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷ About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem.¹⁸ But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of theLord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ As for the other events of the reign of Joash, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ²⁰ His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. ²¹ The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Israel 2011 - Part One

In the next couple of blog posts I wanted to share a few photos from my recent journey to Israel. Many of them were taken by my travelling companion Devan Foster. (Thanks Devan!) I enjoyed almost every aspect of the trip. What's fascinating about Israel is the blend of ancient ruin, geography, modern politics and everyday life. For example on the side of the Herodian there was a bus stop and toilet block above a small Army base which was next to a Palestinian village, this is all within a stone's throw of the tomb of the King who tried to kill Jesus as a baby! Biblically I realised just how useful historical context and cultural tradition can be but also how little remains, how little has been discovered so far and much must have been destroyed. I loved the careful conjecture of Archaeology, using a few scraps and just a few clues to create a plausible reconstruction. Probably what was most moving was the continuity between the ancient Jewish Kingdom the modern Israeli state. For example as we stood on top of Masada hearing about the Jewish zealots fighting the Romans two Israeli fighter planes swooped overhead. 

Westminister Confession: Assurance

I sometimes feel that I haven't done enough or that I haven't stopped sinning enough to be saved. I know that I am no longer condemned (Rom 8:1) but I also don't want to live carelessly (Rom 6:1-2). Assurance is a feeling of confidence that you are indeed saved; We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Heb 6:19-20). It's also personal feeling because the Holy Spirit testifies to God from inside you, giving you inward evidence of God's saving activity (Eph 1:13-14).

In a chapter about Assurance the Westminster Confession has two very encouraging paragraphs:

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken, lessened and interrupted in different ways, such as by -

• neglecting to preserve it

• falling into some special sin that wounds the conscience and grieves the Spirit

• some sudden and violent temptation

• God withdrawing the light of his face, and allowing even those that fear him to live in darkness and to have no light.

Yet they are never completely deprived of -

• that life of God, and life of faith

• that love of Christ and the christian family

• that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty

out of which, by the working of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be reived. By this, in the meantime, they are kept from complete despair.

The WC also gives a warning about nominalism (James 1:23-34 & 2:18-19), for which there is no assurance. (A classic example of nominalism is in the closing montage at the end of the first Godfather movie.) But then the WC says:

Yet those people who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him sincerely, aiming to live in all good conscience in his sight, may be certainly assured in this life, that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in hoping for the glory of God, (this hope will never disappoint them).

My daughter Evangeline

A post-apocalyptic baby, or she will be if she survives peak-oil. Interesting to think that if she lives to be an old lady she'll see in 2100 and be less than fifty years away from the bicentenary of World War Two.  Amy and me are in a big discussion at the moment about baptism. Can I also say there is an intensity to being a father that has caught me by surprise, makes me think of my parents differently.

"Daughter, your faith has healed you..."

This is an oil painting of my wife, Amy. She has many terrific qualities but suffers from a chronic and incurable disease. It's chronic, but low intensity, it hurts but it's not acute all the time. It started about three years ago, coincidentally the length of my Master of Divinity at Ridley College. Although we've been blessed remarkably by the medical system at Mercy Hospital for Women, its been a constant difficult theme in our lives for the last three years. For the last two and a half years we bounced around between specialists until recently when Amy had some exploratory surgery at Mercy Hospital and received a diagnosis. The symptoms are annoying and sometimes debilitating but manageable and this experience has given Amy insight into other people's suffering and its also taught us to be thankful to God for things we may not have otherwise noticed.

I wanted to post about this because I wanted to process publicly some of the theological issues associated with Amy's long running physical illness. (Amy and I aren't bothered by where the brokenness of our bodies comes from, we instead want to think about how to go on.) Many of the Biblical stories of physical illness end in healing: Naaman, the gentile Army general who suffers from leprosy is eventually healed by Elisha (2 Kings 5). In biblical times the word “leprosy” probably included a broad sweep of aliments. Jesus heals a number of people suffering from leprosy (Matthew 8:3, Mark 1:42 & Luke 5:12). Then there are several general references to Jesus healing “the sick”. (E.g. Matthew 4:24, Mark 6:13, Luke 4:40 & John 6:2) But probably one of the most striking healing stories, is the one of the woman who touches Jesus when he walks through the crowd (Mark 5:25-34). Amy and I pray often for her healing, maybe the Lord will grant a miracle and if Amy is healed we need to be immediately thankful and be confident in identifying it as a miracle!

However Amy may not be healed, how do we go on? On the other side of eternity God promises real physical healing: “on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22:2) Jesus, the first of us all to be resurrected, shows his disciples the healed scars on his body and eats food with them. (John 20-21) So we have a promise, and so we know that this pain is only for a time. Paul had an unspecified thorn in the flesh, which he asked to be taken away but it wasn't (2 Cor 12:7-10). So Paul writes this: “But [the Lord] said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Whatever it was, it wasn't bad enough to totally incapacitate Paul, so in some senses it sounds like Amy's pain, in the background, hurting. But then God's grace is highlighted in the midst of Amy's weakness, it's hard, but for the sake of Christ, we honour God as we go on serving Him.