Interesting Stuff for the Hawthorn Christian Community

http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2008/03/the_8_marks_of_a_robust_gospel.html

2009-03-23T01:27:00.000+11:00

http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2008/03/the_8_marks_of_a_robust_gospel.html

"The gospel is the story of the work of the triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) to completely restore broken image-bearers (Gen. 1:26–27) in the context of the community of faith (Israel, Kingdom, and Church) through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Pentecostal Spirit, to union with God and communion with others for the good of the world.

The gospel may be bigger than this description, but it is certainly not smaller. And as we declare this robust gospel in the face of our real, robust problems, we will rediscover just how different it is from the small gospel we sometimes have believed and proclaimed."

The Impossible Faith - or "How Not to Start an Ancient Religion"

2009-02-16T11:02:00.003+11:00

http://www.tektonics.org/lp/nowayjose.html

This is a fascinating essay setting out the reasons why Christianity SHOULD have failed at the outset.

"Below I offer a list of 17 factors to be considered -- places where Christianity "did the wrong thing" in order to be a successful religion. It is my contention that the only way Christianity did succeed is because it was a truly revealed faith -- and because it had the irrefutable witness of the resurrection..."

Enjoy :-)

Virtuoso at Rush Hour

2008-12-10T08:29:00.001+11:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

What would happen if America's greatest classical musician played in the local subway at rush hour, dressed as a street performer? Would there be crowds? Riots? Would anyone even notice?

NT Wright talks about the Gospels

2008-06-23T00:07:00.000+10:00

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=4862

"...evangelicalism has simply mirrored a much larger problem: the entire Western church, both Catholic and Protestant, evangelical and liberal, charismatic and social activist, has not actually known what the Gospels are there for."

Christians Wrong About Heaven?

2008-03-05T13:46:00.002+11:00

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html?iref=wer

The Bishop of Durham interviewed in Time Magazine about heaven? What are things coming to? :-)

"At no point do the resurrection narratives in the four Gospels say, "Jesus has been raised, therefore we are all going to heaven." It says that Christ is coming here, to join together the heavens and the Earth in an act of new creation."

Good Marginal Thinking

2008-01-01T18:49:00.000+11:00

http://lists.christianitytoday.com/t/10023548/4778173/142882/0/

Good Marginal Thinking

The heroes of church history began as reflective Christians who doubted what everyone else took for granted by Brian McLaren

Your skin color can make you marginal in some settings. Your level of income or education can do it in others. Your worship style or theological persuasion or political party can put you at or beyond the fringe in still others. Being, thinking, looking, or acting different from the majority can push you to the margins.

I'd like to speak up on behalf of a group of people in our churches who feel different pretty often, and therefore feel marginalized pretty often. Dan Taylor, in The Myth of Certainty (IVP, 2000), calls them "reflective Christians." Less sympathetic people call them doubters.

As nearly all Protestants know, in the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church was excited about issuing indulgences-ways of reducing people's time in purgatory through religious actions, especially giving money to the church.

Despite the church's enthusiasm for it, a number of people couldn't help but question the "indulgence program." They doubted what the institution held with such certainty.

Something about it didn't make sense to these reflective Christians. If they remained silent, they would feel dishonest and frustrated, but if they raised their questions, they would be seen with suspicion-not "team players," you know? Some, like Martin Luther, spoke up (in the form of 95 theses) and found that reflective Christians of his sort didn't have a future in the church at that time.

About a hundred years later, Galileo looked through a telescope one night and saw moons positioned like dancers orbiting Jupiter. He realized the church was wrong in upholding the traditional worldview it had inherited from Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Unfortunately, when he became a doubter of the party line, he discovered what Martin Luther did: reflective Christians weren't welcome in the church at that time.

A similar story could be told about John Wesley, who doubted what everyone "knew": sacred duties (like preaching) needed to occur in sacred spaces (like pulpits).

Or we could talk about reflective Christians like Phineas Bresee (founder of the Nazarenes) who doubted that poor people should be avoided by respectable Christians, or Menno Simons (leader among the Anabaptists) who doubted that Christians should kill other Christians in Christ's name, or Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu who doubted that race should be a factor in fellowship, or Bill Hybels or Rick Warren or maybe you.

The heroes we study in church history began as reflective Christians who doubted what everyone else took for granted, and as a result, were in almost every case marginalized.

When communities habitually marginalize or exclude their most reflective members-who ask tough questions about things that are completely normative for the majority-of course those who are stigmatized are wounded.

But so is the community that excludes, because in so doing, it cuts off resources of growth and renewal. It builds resistance to exactly what it will soon need.

Which raises an urgent question: Who are the reflective Christians in your sphere who may feel they're already on thin ice at the margins, who may be close to being edged out completely?

What would it take to tell them they are wanted, needed, respected-that their differentness isn't a problem to be solved by pressuring them to conform, but that their questioning is a resource?

Here's a suggestion: listen to them. Try to understand their questions, frustrations, and fresh ideas. You don't need to agree with them. Just be attentive, give them space to be who they are, even if they think differently from the majority. At times you may need to stand between them and their most vocal critics, to defend them from the forces of boundary maintenance and exclusion.

These forces can be brutal for reflective Christians, but a kind heart and a listening ear can keep our reflective Christians within the community, even if at the margins, not edged out. If every community eventually needs renewal, and if renewal comes from the margins-as it nearly always appears to do-then by amputating our margins, we do what the chief priests and scribes did when a needed voice showed up at the margins of their community. Are we listening?

source: http://lists.christianitytoday.com/t/10023548/4778173/142882/0/

Parable of the Talents

2007-08-11T14:51:00.000+10:00

http://paulswritings.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/howard-wrong-on-parable-of-the-talents/

Here's a take on the parable of the talents which I've not heard before - and which makes much more sense to me. Certainly more than assuming it as about prosperity, and rather more than about 'doing our best with what God has given us' which never really fit with the 'I know you are a cruel man and reap where you have not sown' view of God...

You DO have to read right to the end to get it, though, in terms of how it comes back on us as Christians. Are _you_ prepared to support and care for the whistle blowers? Read on to find out...

We are not about weekends...

2007-07-28T17:27:00.000+10:00

http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2007/01/we_arent_about_weekends.html

"Church is not supposed to be a Sunday event. It's supposed to be salt and light in the family, in the community, and around the world.

Our church is not about the weekend. I didn't understand this when we started. Many churches, like ours, start out with mass mailers, advertising, "show up on Sunday," we're starting "our thing."

But the best people to reach are those you connect with in your community involvement when you're engaging the culture. They're seeing the church in action, not just in its advertising."

Hillsong = Justice?

2007-07-11T12:27:00.001+10:00

JUSTICE HAS A
FRONT SEAT AT HILLSONG CONFERENCE

July 10, 2007

With themes of unity, courage, justice and freedom, this year's
Hillsong conference held last week in Sydney, which each year is the
largest single gathering of Christians in Australia, had the ring of
a United Nations convention rather than a church gathering. Criticized
in the past for its deemed emphasis on prosperity as a blessing from
God, this years Conference featured at its opening session, Gary
Skinner, leader of the Kampala Pentecostal Church and Founder of
Watoto Child Care Ministries, who told delegates how to spend their
money and exercise their faith tackling poverty and AIDS in Africa.

He said it was not the responsibility of celebrities, pop idols or
governments to mitigate poverty, but that of individual believers and
the church as a whole. "God was not impressed by church doctrine or
the number of times people attended church, but by the way his
followers practised and lived their faith" Mr Skinner went on to
say."The world is on an accumulation binge. God is not a grabber; he
is a giver."

Some 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19
denominations attended the Conference which provided delegates with a
blend of practical workshops on congregation-building, worship,
evangelism, and high-energy preaching, at Acer Arena, an auditorium
built for the Olympics that serves nicely as a modern house of
God.

The word "justice" and the responsibility it infers was a key
message of the conference, said the senior pastor Brian Houston.
Stressing its record of helping the poor, Hillsong is keen to end
criticism that Pentecostal churches are more interested in
entertainment than religion and more worried about personal
enlightenment and spiritual and material abundance than social
justice. "God tells us that standing against injustice and speaking
up for the disenfranchised is the responsibility of every Christian,"
Mr Houston said. Mr Skinner did not go away empty-handed. Hillsong
handed over a cheque for more than $700,000 to build a village in
Gulu, northern Uganda, for rescued child soldiers.

Source: Compiled by APN from various media
reports http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/

Rapture? What rapture?

2007-07-11T12:01:00.000+10:00

http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm

"The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2)."

God at fault? Or us?

2007-06-23T09:43:00.000+10:00

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21861447-7583,00.html?from=public_rss

"...no fanatical movement in the eons of religious history, not even modern Islamofascism or the whole miserable chapter of the Crusades, has wreaked the sort of havoc the Jew and Christian-hating Nazi regime achieved in one brief decade."

The Art of Holiness and Spiritual Progress

2007-06-20T22:30:00.000+10:00

http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2007/01/art-of-holiness-and-spiritual-progress.html

"The current misconceptions regarding how to approach Christianity and a lack of proper language in Christian circles to explain and train one another in the methods of sanctification and spiritual progress is so acute that I find it necessary to go outside of the majority Christian culture in order to develop what I understand to be a disciple making community."

Church or Kingdom

2007-06-20T22:29:00.000+10:00

http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/2007/01/church-or-kingdom.html

"When the mainstream church honestly answer the question, “What can we give to people?”, the answer is that we can offer good programs and clear bible teaching. We may say, “We offer relationship with Jesus Christ”, but if by relationship with Jesus Christ we mean the immediate power and presence of the Holy Spirit then the mainstream church cannot honestly testify that we offer people a life of relationship with Jesus Christ. The daily power of the Holy Spirit has not been my experience of the life of the normal church-goer. No what the church offers is programs and teaching. In other words, the church offers people church."

Church and Innovation = Creativity + Hard Work?

2007-06-11T13:15:00.000+10:00

http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/2007/06/05/guest-blog-scott-rodgers/

"Church is too predictable for me. I’m looking for something remarkable, something memorable; and so are your first time guests. I had a club sandwich at Houston’s the other night and told three people the next day how great it was.

Most people love to have a story to tell; a story about their experience. As a church, we need to give people a story to tell."

Cool story

2007-05-18T10:59:00.000+10:00

I just like this story :-)

Arthur Burns was a Washington power broker who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve, as ambassador to West Germany, and in other prominent positions from the 1960s through the 1980s. He was a counselor and confidant to a number of U.S. presidents during his career. Arthur Burns was also Jewish.

That is why his regular attendance at a weekly Bible study and prayer meeting at the White House in the 1970s was a surprise to many. Although he was warmly welcomed, different members of the group who took turns leading the meetings never called on him to pray.

One week, however, a newcomer leading the group asked Arthur Burns to close in prayer.

The other members shot a glance at one another, wondering how Burns would respond to this awkward situation. Burns never hesitated. Instead, he joined hands with the others in the group, bowed his head, and prayed, "Lord, I pray that you would bring Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring Christians to know Jesus Christ. Amen."

You Can't Keep a Justified Man Down

2007-04-10T02:22:00.000+10:00

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/aprilweb-only/4-14-42.0.html

"Conservative Christian readers often scrunch together two very different things. One is going to heaven after you die, and the other is the resurrection of the body as the final destination. Many conservatives are puzzled when I tell them that there's not very much in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, and that where you do find material in the New Testament about going to heaven when you die, this is a temporary thing. What really matters is resurrection—Life After Life After Death."

The New Intolerance - Atheist Fundamentalism

2007-02-11T09:45:00.000+11:00

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/17.24.html

Richard Dawkin's latest book "The God Delusion" has sparked a controversy that he may not have expected - the "secular", "liberal" - and thinking - critics are not impressed - and are calling him an uneducated bigot (in the realm in which he writes).

Also this article reviews the book itself:

"Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology."

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/18772.htm

Is this about your church? Our church?

2007-02-01T23:29:00.000+11:00

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/18572.htm

A hard article to read - many challenging home truths that apply very welll to the Church in Australia (written to the NZ Church) and to our own churches...

Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple?

2007-02-01T02:23:00.000+11:00

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/was-lazarus-beloved-disciple.html

A longish read but an increasingly interesting one. Why are people so certain that the Gospel of John was written by John the son of Zebedee? Love to hear your thoughts on this; (Ben Witherington is a very well known theologian and unlikely to espouse unorthodox views without very strong support for them.)

The thought that grabbed me - that if Ben is correct - then we have a Gospel written by someone who had actually died and been raised again by Jesus...

If you can start the day without a cigarette...

2006-12-14T00:05:00.000+11:00

If you can start the day without a cigarette,
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics,
Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.

-Author unknown

Christianity's Real Record

2006-12-10T09:15:00.000+11:00

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GregKoukl/
2006/11/21/christianitys_real_record

Ever had the Crusades held up as a reason not to believe? Christians have done a lot of evil in the past, right? Atheists are much more tolerant and peace-loving than religious people...?

Well that's a claim that's taken for granted by many but it needs to be explored...this article does it well.

Wright challenges conservatives, liberals

2006-08-22T20:42:00.000+10:00

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/17941.htm

Bishop N.T. Wright spends a good deal of time explaining to admirers that they misunderstand him.

To those impressed by his rigorous, evangelically-inclined biblical scholarship, he must explain that "conservative" convictions regarding the interpretation of Scripture do not, in his case, translate into support for the foreign policy of President George W. Bush.

"I often meet people in this country who tell me, 'I love your books on Jesus. I really enjoy your work on Paul. But how can you criticize our president because God has raised him up to bring justice to the world?'" says Wright, the prolific author who is also the Bishop of Durham.

In his most recent book, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, Wright is dealing with Christianity at its most elemental.

The Gospel of Superman

2006-07-07T00:06:00.000+10:00

http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=9560

A great article with a succinct summary of the deliberate parallels in the Superman Returns movie with the life and story of Jesus Christ. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT! LOTS OF SPOILERS!!!

Are you responsible?

2006-06-07T01:18:00.000+10:00

Learner Permit Practice Test

As followers of Jesus, it seems pretty reasonable that we should take mature responsibility in all things in life, to do them well and wisely with consideration for others - loving our neighbours as ourselves.

This includes how safely and competently we drive!

So out of love for your neighbours, I challenge you to take this test - and if you don't get more than 20 questions right, book yourself in for some driver training.

For the record, I got 31 out of 32 - the one question I got wrong because I erred on the side of caution :-)

What did you get?

God by the Numbers

2006-06-04T01:37:00.000+10:00

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/003/26.44.html

A succinct overview of some of the compelling mathematical evidence for the existence of God...

"Today, numbers from astronomy, biology, and theoretical mathematics point to a rational mind behind the universe. To be sure, they do not point to the personal God of the Bible as such. Yet they are not inimical to the biblical God, either. The apostle John prepared the way for this conclusion when he used the word for logic, reason, and rationality—logos—to describe Christ at the beginning of his Gospel: "In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God." When we think logically, which is the goal of mathematics, we are led to think of God."

Ex-Atheist Alistair McGrath responds to Richard "faith is a virus" Dawkins

2006-06-04T01:29:00.000+10:00

http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/CIS/mcgrath/lecture.html

Complex but worthwhile read...

"Dawkins writes with erudition and sophistication on issues of evolutionary biology, clearly having mastered the intricacies of his field and its vast research literature. Yet when he comes to deal with anything to do with God, we seem to enter into a different world. Careful evidence-based reasoning seems to be left behind, and be displaced by rather heated, enthusiastic overstatements, spiced up with some striking oversimplifications and more than an occasional misrepresentation (accidental, I can only assume) to make some superficially plausible points. Most fundamentally, Dawkins fails to demonstrate the scientific necessity of atheism. Paradoxically, atheism itself emerges as a faith, possessed of a remarkable degree of conceptual isomorphism to theism."

The Conservative Humanist

2006-06-04T00:18:00.000+10:00

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/004/24.42.html

This article made me think...

"The Incarnation is a heavenly declaration that humanity—both flesh and spirit—matters. Humanity matters because what God creates, becomes, and is seeking to redeem cannot escape our fascination."

"True humanism will vigorously resist the marketing culture that sees people as consumers to be sold to rather than served. A counter sexual revolution will exchange the pursuit of individual satisfaction for the celebration of lifelong, other-focused physical, emotional, and spiritual communion. Children will be conceived not as means to their parents' fulfillment, but as persons who make profound claims upon their parents for love, education, and protection."

NT Wright talks about the Church

2006-06-02T10:26:00.000+10:00

“According to the early Christians, the church doesn’t exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas and develop their own spiritual potential.

Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrive safely at an otherworldly destination.

Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the byproducts of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling us.

The purpose is clearly stated in various places in the New Testament: that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving, and just creator: that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it.”

The Suspension of Disbelief

2006-06-02T09:49:00.000+10:00

An article from 2005 that someone emailed me - caught my eye and thought I'd share it. Thoughts?

The suspension of disbelief

By Barney Zwartz
religion editor 'The Age' Melbourne.
July 2, 2005

The Sea of Atheism

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating . . .

So might Victorian poet Matthew Arnold put it if he were writing Dover Beach today (with less regret, but unhappier scan), if English theologian Alister McGrath is as percipient as he seems to be.

McGrath contends atheism was relevant and important for 200 years, but is now weary, frail and tediously eking out its last days as a significant philosophy, slain by postmodernism and resurgent spirituality. And religion of all sorts is triumphantly advancing everywhere except Western Europe.

"Atheism is in trouble," says McGrath - a former atheist, now professor of historical theology at Oxford University, and author of The Twilight of Atheism (2004) - who was in Melbourne this week to address a conference of Bible colleges.

"Really its golden age is from 1789 and the fall of the Bastille to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin wall," he says.

Once a perfect religion for the Enlightenment and for modernism, he believes it has lost its cutting edge and is losing numbers, despite the efforts of such atheist evangelists as the scientist Richard Dawkins.

Islam has replaced it as the most trenchant critic of Christianity. Young postmodernists think the question of God is too important to be dismissed and are genuinely open to the spiritual. "Atheism seems far too cut and dried, far too certain, in an age which is very conscious of the ambiguity of life," McGrath says.

There have always been atheists, he says, and always will be. But as a movement, it began bright with promise as a key part of the Enlightenment project seeking to give people autonomy from an alleged transcendent divinity. It gained relevance because of the disproportionate power of the church. "So atheism was seen as a liberator, which would set people free from the tyranny of the institutional church."

Did it work? "It certainly did," McGrath says. " If you look at William Wordsworth writing in 1804, just after the French Revolution, he is saying 'to be alive at such an exciting time is great, but to be young is incredible because I'm going to be part of this new era that's opening up'.

Wordsworth wasn't alone. In the writings of that time it's difficult to miss the sense of optimism and excitement."

Atheism's high point was in the 1920s when many people felt that the Soviet Union, the first atheist state, was reforming everything. "It was very plausible," McGrath says. "Now we look back and say they were simplistic and gullible, but at that time it was seen as the way the future was going to be.

"In the 1960s there was a sense that radical change was just ahead and we were looking at a world without religion. John Lennon's song Imagine came out in 1971 and captured the cultural mood that religion was passe, irrelevant, outmoded and wasn't going to be there in the future at all."

McGrath can't identify what changed but says the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolised the oppression of state atheism. "You watch the delight of people as they broke it down and you realise that they felt liberated. So what's gone wrong, that a movement that was a liberator in 1789 is an oppressor in 1989?"

First, he suggests, it became tedious. When it was new it was exciting, but ideas can pass their sell-by date. People thought this had happened to Christianity, but it has rediscovered old ways of faith and invented new ways.

Christianity has had a new injection of energy, McGrath contends. In Africa, Asia and Latin America it is booming, both in old forms (Catholics) and in new ones (Pentecostals).

Pentecostalism thrives in areas where Marxism flourished because it combines the spiritual and social. "You see this in the Philippines, in the big cities of Latin America. In London, Pentecostal churches are establishing themselves among immigrant communities but are beginning to draw in traditional British people as well."

Religion also offers a sense of belonging that atheism can't. Atheists create organisations but not communities, unlike the church, McGrath says. "In recent years people have tended to belong first, then come to believe, inverting the traditional order. It's a very significant measure of the fragmentation of the culture. They see a community, the church, and they decide to get involved because they want to belong somewhere, and as they join this community they begin to absorb its ideas and values."

Atheism also turned out to have as many frauds, psychopaths and careerists as traditional religions. This suggests such people are endemic to humanity rather than the preserve of religion. The likes of Stalin and American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair ("the Billy Graham of atheists", but with considerably less probity) helped reduce its appeal.

One of history's ironies is that Russia, the great hope of atheists, became the triumph for Christians. Seven decades of persecution could not destroy the church, and now it is resurgent. "Russia points to the intrinsic resilience of religion. You've got to be very careful about suggesting it's going to die out." Unlike atheism.

Sojourners Magazine

2006-05-17T19:22:00.000+10:00

http://www.sojo.net/

Recommended by Justin: "It is a Christian mag with a strong emphasis on politics, social justice and environmental issues (the tag line on their website is Sojouners - faith, politics, culture). A major contributor is Jim Wallis, who was out here a couple of weeks ago promoting a book he has written God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It."

Comparing churches?

2006-05-15T23:36:00.000+10:00

7 Ways to Rate Your Church

This article takes a look at some aspects of churches that affect how people experience them. What do you think this means for us in Hawthorn? Some things we could learn here? Or completely irrelevant?

Surviving Abundance

2006-05-15T00:24:00.000+10:00

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/002/18.59.html

This was a challenging article for me to read...does this ring true with you? How has living in a situation of extreme financial wealth compared with most of the planet affected the way you live your life?

Creating Sustainability

2006-05-15T00:16:00.000+10:00

What is Australia's global footprint? Actually, we come out quite well - we're not needing more landmass than we have, unlike say, ooh, the USA - easy target :) But it brings an interesting question - what are YOU actively doing to reduce your level of devastation on God's creation?

The Jesus Creed

2006-05-15T00:03:00.000+10:00

Pinched from Signposts.org.au

What do you think of this? We don't have a formal consitution at HWBC - does that mean we can't have a creed either?

The Jesus Creed

This creed was originally shared at the Emergent Convention, Nashville, May 2004.

By Brian McLaren

We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.”

NT Wright and The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-14T23:58:00.000+10:00

The Da Vinci Code

"Brown’s achievement, in fact, is so spectacular that it is hard to begrudge him his newfound millions. He has taken a set of ideas and speculative historical reconstructions, each of which is highly implausible in itself, and by weaving them together has not only created an exciting if ultra-fanciful plot, despite his wooden and stereotyped characterizations, but has also made the several implausible elements appear for a moment as though they just might be true..."

Mystery Worshipping...

2006-05-14T23:56:00.000+10:00

Mystery Worshippers Visit Australian and NZ Churches

This site tells you as much about the worshippers as the churches. An interesting read to get some angles on Christian life you may not have come across before...like people more concerned about the angle of an altar cloth than anything else in the church...

Bono's Remarks to the Washington National Prayer Breakfast

2006-05-14T23:48:00.000+10:00

"Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests…"