Forget New-Evangelicalism, become a Pentecostal

The two great, successful religions - I'm sorry to brand it in such market-driven terms - of the 20th century were Islam, which grew pretty astronomically from about 300 million to around about a billion. The other one which is arguably even more successful was Pentecostalism, which went from nobody in 1900 to close to 500 to 600 million by the end of the century.

Taken from an interview on Lateline.

I heard once that the pentecostal movement in South America is the largest social movement in the history of humankind.* What I've also noticed in my time in Redfern is that those on the poorer end of the spectrum tend to be attracted to a pentecostal-style service over our often rigid Anglican ones.

In my opinion more biblically minded persons need to leave evangelical institutions and join a pentecostal church and become people of influence there.

*Ahh blogs, where all unsubstantiated claims roam free

Urban Servant

Sarah found this really cool blog today about a Mother who has 10 children: 3 of her own and 7 adopted.

The blog is called Urban Servant and is written by a women named Dorothy. This is her blurb thing:

I am a 40 year old, homeschooling mom to 10 wonderful kids. I currently have the amazing opportunity to live in the inner-city experiencing what it means to be part of the urban life scape. I advocate for the elderly, the poor and the illiterate as they wade through our confusing American lives. And I LOVE working with the local police precinct as we search out new ways to build healthy community and reduce crime. Doing all of this in Jesus name - with no strings attached for those we serve, but He's the reason we live the way we do.

Sometimes Sarah and I think it's all a bit too much with 2 kids. We need to read more stuff like this. I'd like to think one day we'll have adopted or fostered children together. Check it out and be inspired.

Edit: I should add she has a husband

Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead

This was the theme song for Nick and I during our exams.



But if you wanna catch another great Tom Waits song, check out this one. Watch it too if you wanna learn how to preach better



They're both from the live album and video "Big Time". If you can find the video, I'll pay big bucks for it.

Luther quotes are brilliant

Great for remembering in exams, just cos they're so outrageous.

"Since God once spoke through an ass, why should He not come in our day and speak through a man of faith and even contradict the Pope?"

More of this gold and the exam will be a walk in the park. I have to say that because of this he makes for far more interesting than Calvin

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've had nothing to say for a while, and have been uber busy with kids, youth and study.

Making the switch to Wordpress

I'm in the process of it, anyway.

For two reasons:

1) formatting posts is horrendous. Blogger isn't user friendly at all, and I run into all kinds of trouble every time I try and quote or do a bit of editing. Immensely annoying

2) There are about 50 people with a blog that looks exactly the same as mine.

This is how it looks so far. It's very much in the early stages. In fact the only thing I've added is the photo of the buildings across the street from my house.

Stay tuned!

Be honest

When you're reading a book on theology and you come across an indented quote of scripture, do you more often than not skip over the passage or skim read it with the intention of getting to the "better bits" faster? I noticed myself doing it a lot today, especially if it is quoting a Psalm. I also do it when I come across an indented hymn, poem or famous prayer.

Is it just me?

I'm hoping it is and it isn't...

An Evangelical for Gay marriage

Not me, this time. I've linked to this article before (and I think I had the same post title), but after a discussion I had today with some friends they wanted me to link it again so they could have a read.

It's a good article, and she argues that the political strategy of the US Christian right in the 70's and 80's had worked against what we actually want to be achieving, primarily the freedom of religion in society under the banner of civil liberties. If we don't do this, she argues, when we lose the debate over gay marriage and abortion Christians will end up being forced by governments to acquiesce into their way of thinking and marry homosexuals. She argues that we need to sit at the table with Gay lobbyists and say "You can have gay marriage, but you need to respect our right to exclude it from our churches".

I don't agree with her final conclusions, and when she deals with the biblical texts does not address that we live in a democracy. The New Testament writers were not dealing with this, and so our application of these verses might need a little more thinking through rather than simply remaining passive and prayerful citizens.

But nevertheless, it's well worth the read and I think we need to recognise we can't campaign politically with "The Bible says" anymore. We need to focus on what is in the best interests of all of society. The question now becomes, I think, whether or not a government instituting gay marriage is in the best interests of all of society. If it isn't, then we need to work out how to convince society of this, leaving Leviticus out of it.

Anyway, check it out for yourself. She raises some really good points.

Feminist rethinks her attitude to women and children

Research done in America as part of the college's Families, Children and Child Care study of 1200 children claims to show that the more time young children spend in care in their early years, the more aggressive and disobedient they will be by the time they reach primary school.

A feminist changes her tune on women in the workplace.

h/t Craig

The Big Picture

I haven't blogged in a few days, so I thought I would do the proverbial "I've got nothing to write so I'll link" post.

Pictures can speak louder than words, and a confronting or beautiful image can draw you to a story much faster than a catchy headline. This blog, The Big Picture, is the news in pictures. Check it out, subscribe and enjoy. It'll take 6.4 seconds out of your day.

Pulpiteering with Integrity

Imagine you are doing a sermon that calls for you to be devoted to pray or evangelise, but you neither are devoted to prayer or evangelising. You are committed to the truth of these things, but the reality is that when it comes to doing these things, you are not much different to an unbeliever. It seems to me that you can do one of three things;

1) Preach it and acknowledge that you are a hypocrite, unfaithful in this area

2) Don't preach it until you are faithfully doing it yourself

3) Preach it as though it was just God preaching to the hearers, and you are just another hearer

To me number 3) is not a good option.

Any thoughts?

Starting to get nervous...

I'm preaching this Sunday and I haven't really started writing my sermon yet. Normally I've begun writing 2 weeks in advance, but things have been a bit hectic lately. I figure it's good practice for parish ministry, as it is likely I will only have a couple of days each week to write my sermon anyway.

I nearly got in a fight with a 12 year old last night - Part 2

So it happened again, but was a lot worse tonight. I really don't know what to do.

The same boy turned up to youth, to ask if he could come tonight. When I explained to him that couldn't, for the obvious reasons of course, he got really angry and began pushing me. Pushing me hard, my back's a little sore. After I wasn't retaliating he started spitting in my face. Boy that's fun, I can tell ya (sad thing is it's happened before from other kids). Spitting in my face, and pushing me, and I just gotta stand there and take it.

What do I do? Seriously, I've got no idea. Next Monday he's probably gonna rock up to Oz tag, and if he does it again (or worse) I have no idea how to handle the situation other than make sure I don't touch him. I do have a few ideas, just not really sure if they'll work.

The other thing that I can't work out in this situation, is how do I show him the grace and love of Jesus but at the same time communicate that what he is doing is just not on.

Meh. Please pray for this kid. I love these guys, and I love this area, and if it was God's plan for me to stay here and tell these kids about Jesus for the rest of my life I'd be rejoicing. But I'm really at a loss and it's quite hard. Youth group was terrible tonight, so bad that we've called it off for next week. We didn't even get to reading our Bibles.

I'm glad Jesus loves these kids. Even though it's been a bit hard lately I know they know that and I know they know it from hearing it from the Bible over the past couple of years. God's word will achieve what it wants, and maybe 30 years down the track while sitting in prison it'll click for them. Hopefully sooner.