That was the year that was

I am a little unsure about the likelihood of any blogging for the next week or so; so I am thinking to make this my final contribution for 2008. Do I hear the sound of muffled cheers bounding through cyber space??

So, let’s make this a year in review type missive. Some things change and some things seem to remain the same. This time last year I was knee deep in property type things and this year I am just as knee deep but the consistency of that which I am wading through seems thicker and darker. This too shall pass!?

Some highlights of the year? Without doubt for me, a major one was our Easter Sunday / Holy Communion celebration. Six of our young people spent several weeks with Kath and I looking at the why, what and how of Holy Communion and then together shared in the Easter Day celebration. It was a very significant time for them and also for us as a church community. Yes, we are offering the same opportunity in 2009 and we appear to have good interest already.

Several new people have joined us during the year and it has been exciting and encouraging to see them contributing to the life of our faith community. Many people this year have put their hand up to be more involved in our many and varied ministries and this has made a huge difference to our effectiveness and given other leaders wonderful support.

Most of our key events went through some changes and in all cases it seems that those adjustments worked out well. Going back as far as Christmas Eve last year, to ANZAC Day, the Women’s Conference and Melbourne Cup all had their challenges and all came through strongly.

Our experiment with the Aberdoon House Coffee shop ended in the first half of the year much to the relief of my wife! The exercise was worthwhile but showed up the difficulty of running anything in this area on a volunteer basis.

The end of 2008 and throughout 2009 seems to have been a year of shaking. Significant people – some foundation members – have left us during the year and I have felt this loss very deeply. However, I remain convinced that we are called to establish a new congregation in this region that is culturally and contextually relevant to the people that we serve. Having this vision endorsed by the support of our leadership team and indeed by the great encouragement of so many of you has carried me through one of the most difficult times of my ministry.

Any living community will go through constant change and we are very much alive and very much in transit!

Of course a major highlight for me this year has been my ordination in October. When I began the journey somewhat reluctantly back in May 2007, I could not have imagined what a great trip it would be. During the journey I was lead to reflect very deeply on what and why I believed the things that I was committed to. Key relationships deepened during this time and my faith was greatly strengthened. The wonderful bonus for me was the Ordination service itself where I felt the awesome support of my local congregation along with people who have journeyed with me for a long time. It was a day that I will never forget and all of you were an important part of it. Thank you.

On the personal front Veronica and John have had a very significant year. We chalked up two significant zeros, had a marvellous Asian adventure and a couple of months back were presented with our fifth grand child! No wonder we are a little tired at the end of it all!?

Blessings for Christmas - John

Oran Park theology

T’was 15 days before Christmas and all through the North West, not a soul was stirring, because they were all at the shops! Well .. something like that.

Last Saturday I enjoyed a bloke’s day out at Oran Park with the resident Rev Heads of our congregation. It was good to simply enjoy spending several hours doing not much and having my ear drums punctured at the same time!

I work on the strange theory that we are all created in the image of God and therefore all of us – yes, even those of you who don’t believe in this guff - and everything that we do is spiritual in nature. Yes, even watching cars go round a track can say something to me about faith and God.

You know, I can cope with this car racing thing when they start off. It’s easy enough really; the one in front is winning. But then they have pit stops and the one in front is not actually winning at all. As a matter of fact the guy at the back could be in front! This inevitably leads to Pastor John turning to Andrew M and plaintively asking – at a moment when traffic is at such a low ebb that you can hear yourself speak – ‘So who’s in front?’ Life is a little like that. Sometimes the person who appears to be in front isn’t doing nearly as well as we might think.

For those of you who might get intimidated by the front runners, I invite you to relax; a pit stop might not be far off. Just keep on circulating long enough and pure attrition will get you near the lead. A funny thing is that when you do get to the front it is not that much fun after all. It is quite lonely out in front and before you know it, everyone is trying to knock you off!

Speaking of noise! Did I mention that it was noisy at Oran Park last week? It gets very noisy at this time of the year doesn’t it? I only have to sneeze at our place nowadays and a stupid furry reindeer starts singing – at least I think it is singing – ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’. It is only that the dear (excuse the pun) thing is owned by she who must be obeyed that it hasn’t landed on Mile End Road by now.

So much noise and if we are not careful we will miss the miracle. It must have been noisy for those shepherds long ago with choirs of angels dropping in on them. Maybe it needed something like that to get their attention? The sheep were probably baaing away and maybe the shepherds were yelling at each other over the noise of sheep and a crackling camp fire? So much noise. That is why the season of Advent is so important to me. These four Sundays leading up to Christmas become an important discipline to focus the various weekly themes of hope, peace, joy and love. For me it is a way of filtering out the intruding noise.

Did you know that a visit to V8 land is a journey into a world of red and blue? Not just red and blue but also a land of so many names. We have Holden and Ford of course; but even more names like tyre people, oil people, sponsor type people of all sorts and of course drivers names; Skaife, Winchup, Lowndes, Ingall, Tander and even the names of past gods such as Brock are worshipped in this amphitheatre of noise and speed. Even Jesus Christ gets a mention from time to time!?

Speed! I didn’t mention speed. How can you reflect on the races without considering speed? Man, these guys – they are usually blokes – absolutely fly!! They go past so quick that apart from a number or a name, you have no idea who is in that car. I saw Jamie Winchup win the first race on Saturday. At least I am told that I saw him win the race. It could have been my grand mother!? Now, that would have been a good trick.

Is Christmas turning into a noisy blur for you? This time of year is all about kids and family and we have to get everything just right.

Actually it isn’t about either of those things. It is about God. About a God who refuses to be alone and in the midst of so much confusion, noise and speed, he comes to us as a helpless baby. I reckon that is worth the effort of at least checking it out.

Cheers – John

Christ is King

As we approach the first Sunday of Advent on November 30 we must first negotiate this coming Sunday November 23rd, which by tradition is celebrated as Christ the King. We can easily assume that this is just another ancient tradition of the church; but in fact it was only initiated in 1925 – pretty ancient for some – by Pope Pius XI who recognised a need to focus on Christ the king of all creation. So it is celebrated on the last Sunday of the Church calendar just before Advent.

When I first came to faith in my mid 30’s I was greatly influenced by a man who I had first come across more than twenty years earlier. This man was Billy Graham. Billy is still around having just clocked up his 90th birthday and despite poor health continues to influence evangelical thinking across the world.

Through this influence I began a life long study of Billy and in those early days of faith even dreamed that one day I might be like Billy and be known far and wide as a great evangelist for Australia! We all know that some of our biggest dreams don’t often see the light of day and I have come to accept that fame is now unlikely to come my way.

I get worried by people who ‘know that they know’ what the future holds for them. They are King or Queen of their life and everything will be as they bequeath it to be. Well, good luck with that. So many times I have wanted God to write his will for me up on the wall so that I had a sense of control over this whole thing and so many times I have felt a still small voice whisper, ‘John, who do you think you are? You already know God’s will for your life – all of your life. Simply follow Jesus all of your days.’ Christ is king.

Christ is King and I am not in a position to argue the point and what’s more he doesn’t owe me an explanation! When I began this journey I was in an excellent job, well paid and well treated and then God called! Christ the King began to nudge me around. From the comfort of an assured career and the support of a great church I found myself on the north coast of New South Wales looking after a small congregation and with a brief to teach people about evangelism. I was afraid to tell people that I didn’t actually know that much about evangelism until I realised that compared to many I was in the Rhodes Scholar category!

God was good to us and over a number of years we saw some very exciting times, but we also struggled through some very hard times. During our Sawtell period we saw two of our children’s marriages break up while our third one went off to a year in the USA. We lost four very dearly loved family members over those eleven and a half years along with a great deal of local pain within our local congregation. Christ is King.

When it was clear that out time was running out at Sawtell I began to listen for God’s will for the next step. We had come through a hard but blessed gig and surely now was a time for something a little more comfortable. I was offered a position at a large congregation in Queensland but all was silent from God. A congregation on the south coast chased for months but I felt no sense of call. After all Christ is King.

About seven years ago I was approached to establish a new congregation in North West Sydney. Now that was funny! I had no experience in church planting and the whole thing looked way too big for JT. However, over several months I was reminded again that Christ is King and like it or not his nudging was pushing me in this direction.

So, in September 2002 we loaded up again and headed south to another unknown ministry. I would like to say that over the past six years it has become a little easier but it hasn’t really. Yet Christ is King and he has provided some stunning people to share the journey with.

It is nice to know who is in charge yet disconcerting when you realise that it isn’t you!

Cheers - John

Is anyone thirsty?

At our Church Council meeting last night the basis of our opening devotions was Psalm 46. Verses 4 to 7 go like this:

‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.’

In practical terms the city of God referred to is probably Jerusalem and the river a reference to the underground waters believed to have run beneath the city. However, there is a spiritual dimension to the Psalm that rarely fails to inspire and encourage me. Last Sunday I spoke of Jesus’ promise; ‘Out of the believers heart shall flow rivers of living water.’

The final chapter of the Bible continues the water theme with mention of the ‘river of the water of life’ and among the closing verses we find:

‘The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty, “Come.” Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.’

How is your spiritual thirst? There is a song that asks – ‘Is anyone thirsty?’ It’s a good question. When I first sensed the call of God in my life there was a lot about it that was puzzling. Yet there was one thing about it that was certain and that is that I was being called to the thirsty.

Many Christ followers today have lost their thirst for God. There is a lack of desire to go deep and discover the abundant rivers of God that bring healing and restoration. There is a lack of expectation that God is present among his people and in their gathering and scattering might choose to do amazing things!?

We have become used to shallow and with Christmas nearing it will be nice to recall the baby Jesus, the stable, Mary and Joseph, angels, shepherds and wise men. Christmas is much more popular than Easter – Easter is tapping into deep water and generally we prefer Hot Cross buns to nails! There is no lack of depth with Christmas but woe betides the preacher who tries to go there. I know, I’ve tried it!

It is great preaching in a thirsty environment. Some weeks are different to others but I find NorthWest one of those thirst filled places these days. Last Sunday was a great example and probably appropriately so as I was splashing water around for Nathan’s baptism.

I find the greatest thirst is often among people on the edges, sometimes well away from the church. They are desperate for a drink and yearn for someone, or some group to offer it. Naively I still believe that the local church can provide that drink; if they believe in the water enough.

Is anyone thirsty?

Cheers - John

Gathered and Scattered

Having enjoyed being a part of another very successful Melbourne Cup event yesterday has given me cause to reflect even more upon our future. We ‘do’ lots of things but I believe that it is in our BEING that fruit begins to grow. I am not saying that we are doing too much – though we probably are – but rather that perhaps we are not being enough.

I believe that our continued growth in this region is much more about attitude than it is about programs. It is less about what we do and much more about who we are (and whose we are!). Last Sunday evening’s WikiChurch was one of our more meaningful gatherings as we took time to reflect on a couple of DVD clips and then had the opportunity to take time to process our thoughts and feelings. Feedback at the time and afterwards has been extremely positive and affirming of our time together and several people were deeply touched. The time and space provided had little to do with doing and everything to do with being.

I don’t do computer games of any description apart from the occasional game of Solitaire. Yeah, boring, I know! I do recall some Pac-Man type critter that used to dash around gobbling up every darned thing that was in sight. Is he still around?? I think that church can be a little bit like Pac-Man. We are in danger of simply producing consumers who madly gobble up the latest religious experience and then dash off to the next feast.

Jesus doesn’t actually get near these kinds of people. The desire is for a spiritual fix that may involve some short term community networking but never turns into true community. We skip those bits of the Bible where Jesus talks about taking up the cross and following him and instead buy a WWJD (What would Jesus do?) bracelet and call it evangelism!

There has to be more to being followers of Jesus than worship on Sunday and yet the clue to this following is undoubtedly found in our worship time together. I have said it before; but will keep repeating it, you cannot fully get what we are on about during the week until you connect with what we do on Sunday and vice versa.

The gathering for worship is a brave thing. Prioritising worship in our family’s life is the best gift that we can give. It opens us up to mixing with others, some of whom we will disagree with and some of whom we may not even like! Hopefully our gathering exposes us to new thinking and invites us on a journey and as we journey we build trust with people and find a place where we can be vulnerable and transparent with our fellow travellers.

When God’s people gather in the Spirit of Jesus transformation will inevitably take place. You can’t hang around a people of grace and hope without being changed! It’s a sure thing.

The church consists of a people who gather and scatter. The value of our gathering will be seen in our scattering. We gather to worship, love and honour God through Christ and in doing so find restoration, renewal and refreshment. When we scatter that which we received is made available to others.

Scattering without gathering risks our being pointless and powerless, while gathering without scattering makes us foolish and fruitless.

Cheers - John

What does a 'real' one look like?

Having only recently become a ‘real’ minister I have one definite concern about my future ministry. One of the common responses that I get from people that I meet and subsequently discover that I am a church minister, is, ‘Gee, you don’t look like a minister!’ I hope that I never do look like the minister that they have in mind.

Now, firstly, I want to know what a minister looks like. Is it that fumbling fool personified by Rowan Atkinson or perhaps the witty and irreverent Rev Geraldine in the Vicar of Dibley? If I had to choose between the two, Geraldine wins easily.

I have a hunch that we have a growing number of people in our congregation who might get a similar response to the one that I receive from time to time. My bet is that when they mention in company that they enjoy being a part of our church, people will look at them somewhat shocked and say ‘You mean, that you’re a Christian and you enjoy church?’

Perhaps a key thing about evangelism for us today is changing people’s assumptions. People have set ideas about church stuff and our role is to change that thinking. We are either seen to be stuffy, judgemental (or perhaps simply mental?), happy clappy or after people’s money. Whatever the assumption, an overriding thought is that we are basically an irrelevant part of today’s society.

One of the cornerstones of our faith group is that we are generally a bunch of people who enjoy a party! When I think of the church and food I think of terrific tomato and / or egg sandwiches. Go to any older well established church and my bet is that at any function you will get these sandwiches on white bread of course. We don’t do tomato sandwiches!! That’s why people were thrilled with afternoon tea at our Ordination Service – no sangers!

Jesus did food quite a bit. We find him at a wedding or a dinner with various people. He did lunch with Zacchaeus once and made a banquet out of a few loaves and fish. When it came time for his death he had dinner with his mates and then left that meal as a memorial for us all.

In Genesis we find that in the middle of the garden was planted the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, it appears that these trees ‘were pleasing to the eye and good for food.’ If we go from the first book of the Bible to the last, we find that in Revelation 2:7 the tree of life is still there providing nourishment for the believer. Food seems to be an important part of God’s plan.

The key to our sharing of food together is all about who else do we share it with? Wherever and whenever possible we must be sure that most of what we do overlaps with the lives of others. If we just party in isolation we may be guilty of perpetuating the myth that the church has nothing to say or do with ‘normal’ people.

You see when people say that they don’t like a minister or a Christian, maybe they have never really seen one before and this is our opportunity to plant a better and more realistic image?

Cheers - John

Ordination

Well, I am just about back in shape after a very hectic ORDINATION weekend. I don’t really know what I expected from the day but I do know that it will live in my memory for a very long time. The singing was great, the numbers attending amazing and the spirit fantastic!!

I do realise that I will be getting on the old band wagon again in focusing on the importance of community but here I go anyway! My ordination was a very important event, made more so by the presence of so many people, both from the past and the present. There were colleagues in ministry that made a special effort to get along – some travelling a great distance – that I have known for varying amounts of time; but wanted to be there. There were friends going back more than twenty five years who have shared the journey with Ronnie and me through thick and thin, and of course, there was a great gathering of our own people who combined to make the day a highlight, not just for me but hopefully for our congregation here in the North West.

It has been interesting to read and hear some of the many greetings on cards, emails, text or via phone that I have received in recent days, offering an apology for not being able to get along and a word of encouragement along the way. An overwhelming thought has been a call not to let ordination and the opportunity to put ‘Rev’ in front of my name change who I am. That has had me thinking over the past 48 hours – just who am I? What do I believe and what is important to me? Why should ordination change me?

Who am I? I watched the movie Amazing Grace on Monday. It reminded me of my identity. To steal from John Newton, I am one who ‘was blind but now I see.’ If there was one verse of Scripture to sum up my ministry it would be from Luke 19:10: ‘For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

Ordination for me is not an opportunity to wear different clothes or speak in a different way or consider myself any better than anyone else. It has been an exciting time where I have felt God’s presence in the process and known the churches affirmation of my ministry. I cannot change because for a long time now I have not been my own!

‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price.’ 1 Corinthians 6:20

I don’t know how it is for others but I actually believe that!? I believe that our faith is less about doing the right thing and much more about life and death! Please don’t jump down my throat here; but so many within the church are keen to show ‘sinful’ people how wrong they are and therefore the way forward is to be shown what is right, which presumably means living as they do? Man, I’ m not sure that I want that responsibility.

I think that Jesus was on about life and death and therefore consider these issues to be the key message of Christian faith. Jesus sat down and partied with Tax Collectors, Publicans and sinners while the religious stood at the doorway pointing fingers and shaking their heads. They were worried about the message getting contaminated while Jesus WAS the message and waded right on in there.

People come and go, blow hot and cold because we have become convinced that it is all about us. It isn’t! Instead of looking inward Jesus calls us to look outward. Instead of holding everything close, Jesus calls us to give it away! Instead of measured gradual progress, Jesus says be as foolishly extravagant as you can be! Instead of loving just a chosen few, Jesus tells us to love everybody!

We are a long way from getting it right but every now and then at NWUC I get a sniff of something close. Sunday was one of those moments. Thanks again for a little glimpse of glory.

So, is there any danger of my changing? I think that is unlikely, but let me know if you see any worrying signs.

Cheers - John