One of my favorite college subjects is one called "Personal Formation". It is 3 years long and works to grow the individual in themselves. It's run as a small group (typically about 8 people) who get together over regular periods during the year to reflect on themselves, life and ministry and how God is forming them. I had my third session this year on Monday and we were introduced to the term, Missionalism. This is the tipping point from being a sucessful leader and drawing yourself into a cult of personality and sucess. And I'm prone for it!

Those that sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. (Ps 126:5) I've always enjoyed that Psalm, it brings an amount of comfort to me when ministering to those in pain because it points me towards the hope that they have in future and that the pain not matter how much it hurts will be redeemed. Twice this weekend I fell into some accidental ministry where this verse resonates deeply within me. The first happened in my lounge room...

Since I'm a small group pastor and this is a ministry blog, I think I should probably do a bit more talking about small groups :) One of the most impacting moments in my early Christian life was when in the middle of a small group study the leader turned to Ben* and said, "are you ready to make that commitment?" and Ben said "Yes". The study was very evangelical and focused on what it means to be a Christian. Ben had been in the group for some months and in his 40+ years, only when to church for weddings and funerals. So what happened?...

I've been trying to make the "Sunday Life" entries as regular as possible, reflecting on ministry experiences from the weekend. My Sunday's are usually quite busy, if I'm not worship leading, I'm praying and talking with people. If I'm not talking or praying with people I'm preparing for something else. I sat down this morning thinking, I've got nothing to say. Sure I went to both services, was blessed by the messages and was challenged to draw closer to God, I had the opportunity to minister to people one on one, pray for healing in their lives and encourage them on. But sometimes it doesn't seem like enough.

It's said that the very best salesmen will sell you something you don't need, don't want and can't afford and afterwards you will thank them for the privilege. That's the kind of thoughts that come to me when I think of the Catholic church in the Middle Ages. It's not that their product (eternal salvation) isn't needed; it's not that you don't really want it, it's the fact that they are trying to sell you something that you can have for free! They were selling ice to Inuit's and everybody was grateful for the privilege. Well, not everyone was happy. The Catholic church had this nice little racquet going

As I mentioned earlier, we are now in the third week of our eight week bible study series on the beatitudes and I don't think things could be going better. There is a lot of conversation being generated by the participants and even new groups coming on board since it kicked off. We now have close to 100% adult participation which I believe is a testimony to how God is working in the lives of our church at the moment. Besides running my own group, I'm attending one of the new groups that were formed for the study (and I believe will continue to progress afterwards). It's been a strange experience for me to not be in the drivers seat but God is certainly working through the new leader (who had a great mentor :) to bring out His agenda for the group. It's this group leaders first time of leading "full time" and I've been encouraging him along the journey but I thought I should share some of the insights I've had with him.

This was a very exciting weekend for me, I had the honour of performing two baptism's. The first was my grandmother who I've mentioned previously. It was a very emotional experience for the both of us, and I will admit I was a little nervous in doing it. I'm not exactly sure why I was nervous, public speaking isn't an issue for me, but I did use an unfortunate word, I announced that we had three "victims" who were being baptized, definitely poor phrasing and a couple of people mentioned it to me afterwards.  

Here's an action shot of Gran going into the drink :)

There were three people being baptized, the second was John, a man who has come into our church through the soup kitchen (well it's really a BBQ) that we run every fortnight in a block of housing commission flats. Although I wasn't doing the baptizing I had an indirect hand in it. My dad was the one to baptize John! I had the pleasure of baptizing my dad a couple of years back and to see him growing in God like this is just amazing!!!

Here is the two of them before it happened. (Dad's on the left :)

Just over a year ago Sally and I made some new friends, Gary and Rhiannon. They started coming to our church and soon after to our bible study. We have been blessed to know them and travel with them in their Spiritual journeys as well as seeing their family begin to grow with a beautiful little boy. I'm usually someone who has a lot of acquaintances but not many close friends, Gary and Rhiannon were fast friends and we love them a lot.

Rhiannon expressed her desire for baptism some time ago and after a little electronic cajoling (I love email) she hopped in to be buried with Christ and identify publicly with his resurrection.

Here's some before and afters.

Join with me in praying for all three of them as they continue their Spiritual journey in Christ.

I'm currently working feverously to complete my four assignment on biblical ethics. As I'm completing the reference list for my major assignment about the doctrine of Just War (which I'll post soon) I realize that two of my primary sources are Osama Bin Laden and the CIA.

Never did I expect theological training would take me there :)

I've reached way back into the archives, May 2002, almost before the interwebs were born in a cosmic collision between a rouge datacenter and the sun to bring you this article on the book of Romans.

It explores the reasons for Paul writing the letter as well as Paul's gospel. It was the first article I ever wrote so be nice :)

I want to spend a little time talking about a practical problem with all those involved in ministry (although it can be applied to anyone). This is the power of triangulation.

 

It’s important for a pastor to be aware of triangulation because of the impact it can have on their relationship with the congregation, it’s also pretty important that the pastors wife gets to understand it as well because people will certainly try to put her in one.

 

Basically, triangulation is when someone tries to influence the relationship of two other parties be it two people or a person and an object.

 

Triangles are formed when any two parts of the system become uncomfortable with the third.

 

Try this on for size. A wife has an alcoholic husband and after years of worry she decides to do something about it, she tips all his alcohol out! When she does this, she is trying to affect the relationship between the husband and alcohol as seen in this nifty diagram.

 

 

 

Like stop signs and reindeers, red means bad!!!

 

You could change the labels to read something like Pastor, Pastors wife and congregant. Does this sound familiar, a congregant doesn’t like something the pastor has done so they tell the wife in order to make a change.

 

In both of these situations all that’s going to happen is somebody will get hurt.

 

So what do we do with all of this? Learn that you can only change the part of the relationship that you are apart of.

 

In our pretty picture, the wife is not in the relationship between the husband and alcohol but she is in a relationship with the husband. If she wants to affect the alcoholism she needs to strengthen the relationship with her husband. Or she can strengthen her relationship with the alcohol by joining a spouse support group and understanding more about alcoholism.

 

There is a difference between triangulation and mediation. If Y comes to you saying that X owes him money, don’t go to X but offer to go with Y to X. This is empowering Y to confront X. Don’t go to X on Y’s behalf!

 

Remember, if you try to change the other two parts of the triangle you will not only be ineffective, but will end up with the stress of the conflict.

It’s hard to even know were to begin with this post! Thursday night I arrived home, said a quick hello and goodbye to my wife then I was whisked away to a conference centre past Kurrajong, I’m still not exactly sure where! (Not that it was a secret; I’m just bad with directions).

 

You leave your watch, phone and blackberry at the door and just allow yourself to be immersed in an environment that is full to the brim with God’s love.

 

The Walk to Emmaus is a ridged program but I didn’t have a problem with that. By ridged I probably mean structured, it uses a time proven template to lead you deeper into God’s arms and deeper into a knowledge of his grace.

 

One person articulated that on his first walk he soon had the program figured it out, the program is there to break you, and he’s right. Have you ever seen one of those war movies like “Band of Brothers” or “Full Metal Jacket”? The latter particularly shows how the U.S. Marine corps has designed their regimen to crack every single recruit and then rebuild them in their image.

 

Emmaus is sort of like the Marine Corps, only much better and with a lot more food! (I think I have gone off lollies). The talks and times of Spiritual devotion are all designed to break the crusty shell of self hate, sin, pride, false conviction, whatever is in the way of us and God, and allow God to minister directly to our spirit.

 

This breaking is done in an atmosphere far from the Marine Corps, it is done with the lavishing of God’s love on the participants. From the table leaders, the Spiritual and Lay directors to those who faithfully wait on you during your meal times, so when you do find yourself broken before God (as I did) you are not cold and alone but surrounded by examples of His grace.

 

All in all, it was an intensely personal experience that left me confronted, sometimes in a state of shock (in awe of God’s love shown through others) but most of all, closer to God. May I remain broken in his presence.

 

De colores!

If your reading this, pre-post thingy is working properly and I am on the walk to Emmaus.

I'm not quite sure what to expect on the walk except for a lot of teaching and a lot of being loved on. My wife tells me that the people running the walk are there to serve you and minister to you and I guess that's going to be quite a change for me. I'm used to doing the ministering.

So pray for me that I'll be encouraged, renewed and walking stronger with God when I get home.