Glocal Christianity

It's not often I feel this emotional...

I was SO blown away this morning. A single mum who we've been helping on and off for 2 years now, along with her 5 kids, who's been quasi-homeless at times, who we've walked with and prayed with through all sort of dramas, well, she rocked up to the service this morning just to tell my wife and I that public housing has come through. She now has a home!

And though it could have been anywhere in Sydney or beyond, as it turns out, its just about 2 minutes drive from us, on the SAME street where she is now. So she doesn't have to disrupt her family any further. I was ... ecstatic. Hell, I'm man enought to admit it, I've been teary. Still am now.

And now she's also looking for some scriptural instruction.

We've had our garage full of most of her worldy possessions for about 18 months now, we've seen her face all sorts of traumatic situations. Why, when she saw us this morning, it was with another 15 year old girl in tow, whom she has taken in because she's got no where else to go. But her prayers, our prayers, have been answered abundantly. This is just so awesome.

So, now my wife and I are talking about how we can free up my time, to enable me to disciple the family in the small one bedroom flat where they are currently staying, which belongs to her boyfriend. They're unchurched. Not dechurched. I mean unchurched, multigenerationally so. Would be eight people all up, of varying ages, and who knows who else may join in. Prayers for this would be appreciated.

Getting Local

I realize I haven’t said much on my local church lately. Hmmm. Could be because most of it is too sensitive or confidential. But maybe it’s because we’ve just been so busy that I need the online headspace. You see, with me leading mission and evangelism – as well as discipling a number of people - and my wife leading the diaconate as Secretary – as well as participating on the transition team – as we search for the next senior pastor … well … let’s just say we’re having to schedule each other in just so we get some time together. Today we reached a milestone though. The church completed stage one of the intentional interim process and we burnt up the past issues – written on pieces of paper - in a bonfire out the front. He, he, I remember when this tactile multi-sensory stuff used to be called alternative worship. Now it passes without comment. Anyway, we then had a lunch in the sun – loving this warm weather – with lots of great conversation. Love our conversations.

Out of Office

Well, I am taking off again this weekend, this time to the Central Coast. The photo you see here was taken from the balcony of our usual haunt at Avoka Beach. Yah, that's right. Observe and weep. But not too much. I'll be back all too soon. Meanwhile I'll leave you some posts.

Chilling Out

Well, today marks the start of my annual leave and I'm just chilling out at the moment. Our new years party finished up around 2.30am and after a blah sort of morning the rest of the family has crashed this afternoon. 

The party itself was pretty relaxed. Mostly friends from church conversing over cheese, wine and beer, but there were some friends from interstate and one of our Hindu neighbours from up the road who dropped in for a bit to share what non-alcoholic drinks we had. The funniest bit however was when our elderly Buddhist neighbour from next door called my wife at 8am this morning to wish her a happy new year. Bleary eyed (from overtiredness not alcohol) my wife stumbled back into bed afterwards, chuckling at her good intentions. 

Now after all that I suppose you think we saw in the new year with some bubbly? Well no, we actually welcomed it in with communion grape juice. Jamie, our pastor, noting the migrants in our community were quite open to this, held an 11pm service which many of us attended. Sure enough, we had a good turn out from the Sri Lankans and Indians. One teenage Indian girl, who i had never seen before, spoke very well when we were invited to give thanks for the year. I had never done this sort of service before but I have to admit it was good to pause in all the partying and give thanks for the year.

Death in the Family

This is just a quick message to explain my slowness in responding to comments over the last week. Apart from starting the week still feeling a bit burnt out, receiving confirmation that my contract is not being renewed in September, going for a job interview, starting college again for this semester, organizing my son's fifth birthday, helping to kick off a mission / evangelism taskforce team ... we also had a death in the family. My wife's uncle Mal was crushed to death in a work accident involving a road roller.  You can read the news report here and some of the comments of his co-workers here. The funeral was attended by about 350 people and the highway was shut down by all the truckers who attended. He left in style, on a bike. He was a good bloke. He'll be missed. He leaves behind our auntie Elle and many friends and family.

PS. You can click the photo to enlarge.

Sometimes I just can't say much

Exhausted tonight. Been busy just walking beside people in trying circumstances. Not the sort of thing I want to say anything more about other than, if you're feeling prayerful, we'd appreciate a few being sent our way for God's wisdom and power to overflow through us. Night, night.

Holiday Mode

I'll be taking a break next week everyone.

In case you haven't gathered I am already well and truly in holiday mode but I'll be stepping up the pace Sunday arvo as we leave for our annual pilgrimage to North Haven on the mid east Australian coast. So, lots of sun, sand, swimming ahead of me. Isn't life tough!

I am being productive behind the scene though. Lots of deep thought which will hopefully begin to spill out again when I get back.

So, that's the story. I hope to get in a few posts before I go but I'll just have to see.

Blah

I am all over the shop at the moment. Discipline eludes me. I was all set to write those  synchroblog posts on Christianity and Paganism on Friday, after already being a week behind, and what do you know, I didn't write a word. At least, not about what I meant to. I did run into some Pagan friends down the street though, so rather than writing about conversations I just engaged in conversation, then wrote about something completely different. I am such a 'perceiver', sheesh. So, still behind schedule, and now I am supposed to be writing another assignment. Sigh. It will come eventually. I suppose this reflects my general mindset at the moment. Feeling rather scatter-brained. Much stuff floating around in liminal juxtaposition, no answers. Not sure where everything is going. Not sure what I am supposed to be doing next. Ever feel like that?

Reflections on death

"Lazarus" by Carol L Douglas

My thoughts turn to death today with the passing of my auntie, Sandy Lewis, earlier this morning.

Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus and is no stranger to feelings of grief; and as with the son so with the father. Jesus reframes our understanding  of God; he is no unmoved mover.

Tagged: About Me meme

Jenny has tagged me to share eight things about me, so here goes.

1. I have no formal theological education. Zip. Nada. Though I am currently studying at Morling Theological College, I am pursuing a counseling stream and am probably set to continue that way. Though I have worked with Ross Clifford (head of the college) and Philip Johnson and John Smulo in the mission field and network with Mike Frost, Alan Hirsch, Glen Powell and other emergent leaders in Sydney, I have not the slightest shred of legitimacy from an institutional point of view. Everything you read here was instead worked through in real life and the only legitimacy I have as a leader is experience based.
2. I have not the slightest interest in cars or team sports. By way of example, when the captain of the Parramatta Eels showed up one evening at a family Christmas gathering in a footy jersey I had no idea who he was. I was going to ask him if he played reserve grade or something but barely avoided the momentous foot-in-mouth experience that would have been when I saw my brother go into "not worthy" mode and decided shutting up and taking my queues from others would be the wiser course. Overseas readers should note this was the Sydney equivalent of having Beckham in your lounge room. In hindsight I realized I had probably came within moments of being excommunicated from the family.
3. Adventure sports are another matter. I have bungee jumped, flown a glider, swum with manta rays, white water rafted in multiple countries, and single handedly fought off a rogue hippo while canoing the Zambezi river in Africa. I wish I had photos to share but unfortunately my camera was destroyed when the hippo bit through the canoe where I was sitting - and to be honest I was more interested in keeping myself and my young female passenger out of the water at the time.
4. I like Crown Lagers. Remember that when visiting :-)
5. One of my most memorable muso experiences of all time was sitting with Joe Satriani in the gutter chatting and listening to him jam for me and a few mates before a concert. He was taking a breather, and we just happened to be there, and one dude just happened to have a guitar in a nearby car, and that guy just can't help playing. And yes, I'm a guitarist in case that's not obvious.
6. I love going on long walks.
7. I take an instant liking to any guy who's personal library extends beyond a hundred books. It's the first thing I look for walking into a house and if you crack a thousand or two you definitely get a dinner invite. 
8. And I love Italian, Thai and Indian food.

I also tag John, Paul, Hamo, Nadia, Len, Michael

Tough News

Tough family news came our way this morning. My auntie Sandy, who has been battling cancer for some time, took a real turn for the worse yesterday. No longer communicating. Not long to go. Please pray for her, her husband and the kids.  One is still in uni, one is working, but they are both still young to be facing something like this. My parents embarked on a twelve hour drive at lunch today, to be with them tomorrow. The kids are still on the way too. My auntie and uncle are stuck interstate. LORD, surround them with your love.

Ritual Easter Unplugging

I am starting an electronic fast tomorrow. Holy Week. No blogging, MP3s, videos, CDs, etc, for seven days. So, see you after the resurrection celebrations on Sunday. Visitors can still submit comments to the conversation threads of course but I won't be responding personally till Monday week.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Slow Down

Sorry folks if I am not responding to your comments and emails fast enough for you at the moment. Been very busy with work and dinners, very sore with the leg, and have been flaking out rather than blogging when I have spare moments. I think I am going to be a bit sporadic till mid January now but I'll respond as I can.

Emergent Kiwi

We had the Emergent Kiwi, Steve Taylor, over for dinner on Wednesday night.

Steve was over in Sydney for a conferance called Faith in a Hyphen, which was aimed at "exploring one of the key issues facing Christian faith and contemporary society, that of how to respond to issues of cultural and religious diversity."

I am hoping that Steve will post his own notes and reflections on the conference when the dust settles.

One issue we discussed over dinner which is very close to my own heart is feminine leadership within the emerging church (or relative lack thereof). This comes at a very crucial time for me with my friend and collegue, Jen Reed, relocating very soon to Melbourne (best wishes for the wedding Jen!). In particular I am seeking to solicit people's ideas on what helps and hinders women from engaging in leadership and ec blogging. With 75% of the people in alternate spiritualies being women I see this as a critical pitfall in our own training networks. We still have so far to go in addressing the imbalances.

Personality Test

Took another one of those personality test thingys.

My Personal Dna Report

Though I don't place much weight in online tests the DNA report seems reasonably on the mark. Not so sure about the bar code though.