Oh, in case you didn't know..

..my new blog is out of beta and is alive and kicking. Head on over to http://www.readeral.com

Hello Old Friend

You may have been wondering what I've been up to the past few months,
without a blog in sight. It's been interesting I must say! I know I've
left a few blog series' in the middle of nowhere, but it's not all for
nothing!

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have a new blog up and
running at www.readeral.com. I've been working on it for a few months,
building it myself from the HTML tags upwards, and although it's still
a work in progress, I think it's ready enough to unleash on the world.

So why?
In the middle of this year I had a discussion with Mikey Lynch about
life in general and MTS and I came to the conclusion that next year
(2010) was the go for beginning MTS.
I decided, alongside that, to begin a new blog detailing what I'm up
to and what I need prayer for, what I'm learning, and what I'm
reading. I also wanted to have links to things I liked and support,
and photos videos and audio clips.
My current blog just wasn't going to cut it.

So what about all I began on this blog?
I'll be looking at transferring this blog onto the new one, dropping
out some kindof useless stuff and continuing the series' I have
already begun. So hold onto your hats and scarves and I'll let you
know when the new site is up. I'll be blogging regularly (every two or
three days) from then on!

Hope to see you there,
Alan

I met a friend today

I met one of my friends today.
That may not sound to you unusual, it's fairly common to meet with friends on a day to day basis. But as much as I did meet with them, I also met them for, most likely, the first time. At least, who they are now.

My friend has been suffering for the past few years as a cocaine addict. And over an unplanned coffee, they shared with me their struggles. They told me about the social circles they moved in, the jobs they sought, the life they lived, in order to maintain their fast growing addiction.

Against their better judgement, they took the risk of being rejected by me to share with me where they had failed in life to maintain their own moral convictions at the hands of the ever increasing clutches of cocaine, and how they lied, stole and slept their way to the next high.

They talked about why they stopped their study, how the demand for money meant they couldn't afford to remain at Uni but needed to work. My memory brought up conversations we had had where they were lamenting the fact they were living from house to house as they couldn't afford rent.

My friend also shared how their mother, their partner and their doctor had been working for their recovery over the past weeks, how the mood stabilisers they took for their bipolar symptoms stopped them from finding much to smile about. They talked about their recent engagement, their thoughts for the future, and at the end of it all, they talked about faith.

At no point had my Christian faith been a secret to this person, and on many occasions we had discussed religion, and Christianity, and hope in Christ. They weren't so keen for the 'church' stuff, but were open to discussion of a faith nature.

They identified the bizarreness of our relationship, the fact that we barely had anything in common except for the fact that we both enjoy a good, solid and deep conversation, and after our brief hanging out, I felt a lot of sorrow and compassion for my friend. I had never considered that I would be the friend a drug addict.

My hope and my prayer is that we can continue to hang out, as we intend to do. They said that one of the higher times of the past few years was when we watched a movie together, so that's what we are planning to do. In doing so, I pray God might grant me the opportunity of sharing with them again the hope of the Gospel.

Please pray for my friend. And pray that I might be to them a light.

You need to be there..

A recent blog post by Mikey Lynch got me thinking about church attendance, and how we can better serve new people coming into our churches.
Mikey gives 3 points as to why people stop coming, I won't list them here, but there was one thing that I came to realise after reading his blog, something that is so incredibly obvious, yet I'd never even thought of, that is so important in facilitating a solution to the points he shares.
And it was this:
We need to be attending church in order to recognise who is actually new. This might seem like a no brainer. And it is. Yet, I hadn't thought about it with such intention before.
If we're not actively participating in our church community, we have no hope of recognising new faces, and run the risk of alienating people by assuming they are either not new, or thinking they are newer than they are.
And it goes further into no-brainer land:
We need to be ensuring we are attending every week, so not only can we recognise new people, but serve them.
For example, to a gathering like TBT, a service of Crossroads Church Hobart, this is not only obvious, but one of integral importance. The community is specific and small, so in order for new people attending to have the familiarity that comes from seeing the same faces and further developing new relationships with those people, I would dare to say the members of TBT need to be sure of their responsibility to attend every week.
This is something I think they do really well, and it's very encouraging.
But for larger church services like Wellspring's Resonate, and for parachurch meetings like UFC, the issue is a lot more subtle, and returns more to the points Mikey makes.
Attending church is not just about our attendance as an end in itself, fulfilling our religious obligation, nor is it how we feel about attending or what we are getting from our attendance, as much as it is recognising that whether we like it or not, we are part of a community, and that community thrives and grows with our participation and commitment to serving one another, and serving those new to our community..
The best way we can ensure we're doing that.. is to be there.

Shifting Community pt 2 - The challenge of growth

In my previous post I started a series of reflections on my church community, especially with regard to our evening service at Wellspring, called Resonate.

This is my second post in the series.

As a church body gets bigger, certain things are obviously going to change. It gets more difficult, at a leadership level, to enquire and address the needs of the individual churchgoer (be they Christian, or visiting), and at the other end of the spectrum, as that individual, it gets more difficult to get to know the church leaders and other members of the community that you call your local church.
Where your church used all go out and enjoy a meal together, at one or two different locations, instead there are groups that regularly meet and hang out after church together. Where feedback on the music style or choice of songs used to be simpler because everyone knew at least one of the musicians, now it's up to the leaders of music teams to be perceptive and seek out that feedback from the congregation.

The way we experience community shifts as a church grows.

I'm not saying that growth is bad, on the contrary, a growing church community can very often be a reflection of God's blessing during that season and the work that God is doing through those that are being faithful to the word and serving the church. But with that growth comes challenges. Pastoral, stylistic, financial and stewardship, preaching, training and leadership challenges. These and more are all things that Wellspring currently faces.

And we know that in order to function as a church community we need to do more than set out more seats...

Shifting Community pt 1 - Reflections on prior years

Wellspring's evening service, Resonate, has grown a lot since I first turned up at the church. My first experience with Wellspring's young adult service was when we were called BayWest, and the service was called Sunday Night Live, it was a service of about 40-50 regular attendees (can someone refine this? John, Chris?). After the initial 2 weeks, and the hard slog of fitting into a church community as a newly committed Christian, I was finding myself getting to know many of the members, and after summer Camp and joining the praise and worship team, almost everybody.

The service has, over the years, experienced a few changes, and as we migrated into the hall adjoining our church building, we have gradually begun to fill the 200ish seats we have there.

But as the service style has changed, and the numbers have grown, our model of ministry has also changed.
Where there used be a volunteer 'ministry team' whose job it was to ensure they knew who was a part of our service, there has been a shift to a more traditional anglican model of service, but maintaining the style of our previous years.

This has resulted in a massive shift in community - something I'll reflect on over the next few weeks and blog posts.

Ephesians

It seems to be rather a topical book at the moment. We recently looked at it (chapters 3-6) at MYC, and at Wellspring we have just begun it as a series, playing tandem with our current series of 'A book a week' in the old testament.
So, in addition to all these, my Bible study will start a parallel series looking at Ephesians. We'll be playing a bit of catch up as we're already two weeks behind, but hopefully the intermittent books of the old testament will do us well to get back on track.
I'm hoping as an individual to get a lot out of the study as I prepare for a sermon on Eph 4:17-5:2.
Good times.

Tidbits of the week 1

Here are some 'tidbits' from Sermons I have been listening to.

"Devious people don't lie, it's too risky. They deceive with the truth.."

"..In the atmosphere in which we live, this is incredibly prevalent in our day. Some people know they are doing it and others are so conformed to the spirit of the age, they don't even know they are doing it. They don't even know there is such a thing as use of language that has integrity. That's the age we live in.."

"..Language is a game by which we conceal what we don't want known, and reveal what we want known, even if it's false. And we are good at it."

This is from his sermon The Tragic cost of her Cavernous Thirst preached by John Piper this past weekend, and it was once again an illustration founded in the story of the woman at the well. He raises the issue of truth by reflecting on the woman's response to Jesus telling her to get her husband. and the above comments were the crux of his reflections.

Secondly..

"We pray and pray and pray for our city, and we believe that as we pray, though God may not answer quickly, he does answer. That's why I think prayer is so hard, because.. so many times it's hard to see a tangible result is it not, and so it's easier to just go do it yourself, 'cause then you can go 'look what I did'. But if it's based on you, I have to wonder how long it'll really last."

This is from The Village Church, for those who know Matt Chandler, his church. This sermon was by Beau Hughes, entitled Loving Our Neighbours. It convicted me of my attitude toward prayer, and my person struggle of faith for God to provide and to act. And in the greater context of the sermon, convicted me of my lack of prayer in my personal evangelism and 'loving of my neighbour'.

Just some awesome stuff.

Desiring God part 1

well really it is part two. but whatever.

So, reading Desiring God. So far, so good.

The book really lays itself out in a way I'd describe as a Systematic Theology of Worship. It begins, rightly I believe, making the premise that God is the object of our worship, and glorification of Him is our chief end. It then sets about showing the implications of this in our lives, moving from topic to topic, from Worship through Love and Scripture and Prayer, to chapters on Money, Marriage and Suffering. I'm into chapter 3 at the moment.

Out of the preface and introductions and the 3 chapters I've read so far, two chapters have really struck me. The one I previously posted about which was chapter 1 - The Happiness of God, and chapter 3, that is the chapter on Worship. Piper takes the passage of the woman at the well in John 4 to describe worship in spirit and in truth, worship of the heart and of the head. I won't summarise him here.

So far, I'm enjoying reading. It's liberating in a way, being given permission to enjoy God.

I'll keep you posted. The next chapter is entitled: Love - The Labor of Christian Hedonism.

I must say, I really don't dig that term.

The Sola Panel reviews "Why Johnny can't preach" here, and as an introduction they summarise the first chapter of the book. All in all, sounds an interesting read, but a particular part stuck out at me. I quote Sola Panel:

"So what's wrong with the culture? In a word, society has become ‘aliterate’. That is, people are able to read, but choose not to.

The result of this is that people are not in the habit of reading texts, constructing written arguments, or composing prose with clarity and artfulness. So when a culturally shaped aliterate candidate arrives at seminary to be taught theology, Greek and Biblical studies, he needs to be taught how to read and write as well, for being able to preach in a careful and nourishing way requires an appreciation of literature, argument, style, composition and delivery—all characteristics that fall by the wayside in an aliterate society."

Incidentally, that whole second paragraph is a single sentence - but I digress.

'Aliterate'; I'd heard the word before, but hadn't done enough reading to know what it meant, until now.

And I recognise in myself, and dislike the fact that I have a reduced capacity to be able to engage with literary styles and writing. So I ask the blogsphere - what are some ways to avoid becoming 'aliterate'?

A low view of God's sovereignty

My view of God's sovereignty, all in all has been low - and I've questioned his sovereignty along with something that Piper raises in Desiring God, that is, the eternal happiness of God, and I've feared for my own existance. Will at some point God get bored and destroy all he has created to start over again?

My fears are completely unfounded - the Bible paints God so differently. My fear is not stemming from any real notion of the instability of God - but rather my ignorance and distrust of scripture.

I wonder how often this happens to other people?

Reading

I've been doing some reading lately - a bit intermittent, but I'm getting better at it.

I finished the first book a few weeks back, Don Carson's The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God - I'll post some reflections on that eventually, I've lent it out to nearly everyone I know along with my notes in it! I've just started reading Desiring God by John Piper, and will be posting about that the next few weeks and next I'm getting into The Sovereignty of God by A. W. Pink. So I'll try and keep you posted.. at least as intermittently as my reading is.

Back in the blog seat..

I'm back.

"Surely God's love isn't that difficult?"

Well, Carson gives what he feels are at least 5 reasons for difficulty in understanding the love of God:

1. We no longer have a prevalent Biblical framework with which to understand the love of God

2. Culture won't retain the Biblical framework, it purges any uncomfortable characteristics of God for a sanitised, pop understanding of His love.

3. Postmodernism and it's inherent pluralistic view of the world doesn't allow for an expression of this Biblical framework.

4. We can no longer grapple with how God's love and God's justice are related, and in rejecting the biblical understanding resort to a reductionistic view of the love of God.

5. God's love is often depicted as easy and obvious, by overlooking some of the distinctions the Bible makes in it's own depiction of the love of God.

All of these reasons resonated with me.

Carson only expressed 5, he implied there were more. In the ten years since this publication, I wonder, have any others become obvious?

Reading Carson

For quite some time, I've had intentions to read some of Don's work, and have got part way through his books before study or work or some other thing distracted me from my time for reading.

So I've resolved to start again, and blog about it.

Over the next few weeks I'll be reading:

- The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

- How Long O Lord?

- A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his Prayers

I don't know how the format of this blog will look like. I might just post reflections, or tell you about a chapter I like, or maybe just say something that I thought about that is pretty much abstract from the book's topic. See how we go.

Reflections on Preaching

So, I preached my first sermon last Sunday, and I thought I'd post some dot-point reflections and some things I heard and learnt preparing, and some feedback I've been given so far.

1. Preaching a whole book of a Bible is hard.

2. Yet, preaching the Psalms is a joy in the future I will always look forward to.

3. Mannerisms are welcome.. My friend Nick told me he was scared to hear the 'Preacher Alan' so when it turned out 'Preacher Alan' didn't exist, he was glad.

4. Mannerisms are not welcome.. when it is putting your hand in your pocket.

5. Preaching with Mic in hand is not ideal for me. If I don't have both hands, I can't communicate with them very well at all. Hence the hand in pocket.

6. Mikey says that newbies either tend to be over-prepared.. or under-prepared. I learned I'm one of those under-prepared sort.

7. Preparation - "Spend more time in the text!" - Thanks bro ;-)

8. Memorising, heading out for a day/half day, and meditating on the scripture you are preaching is invaluable. God taught me much when I was trying less to be intellectual and more prayerful.

9. Visuals (Powerpoint and Video) are not necessary for a sermon. Well it seemed that way.

10. "Once you've got up there you'll love it, you'll be hooked."

11. Preaching to your pastor and two of his kids in their living room seems like it could prepare you for any mid-sermon situation. (This is but a theory, I'm yet to have it tested on me)

12. Full script does in fact work for me. Eventually I suspect it will be a hybrid of full-script and dot points, but there is something real cool about expressing something with full intention.

If you're interested, the sermon can be found here - I would love any feedback (all forms of constructive feedback), you can share in the comments, or drop me an email.

If you're wondering about the 'sans-baby' comment - a mum at the church was speaking prior to me beginning, and her bub was particularly drawn to the black toy mummy seemed to be trying to eat, and wanted a try too. ;-)

Doing this first sermon was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life! It is certainly something God willing I would like to do more of, and really desire to improve at, and grow in. I was blessed to have this opportunity, thank you God, Wellspring and the Resonate team. :-)

Not everyone can plant the trendy church..

Australia needs more churches.

Australia has an ageing population (eg. no. of old people > no. of young people).

So, who's planting the churches in the retirement villages?

Only a little sin

The strength of accountability..

..and the lie of the little sin.

No sin is too small to seek support from a brother/sister in Christ, as no sin is too small not to, in some way, affect the body of Christ.

Hearing a brother say to me today "I heard nothing from you about that, so I stopped praying after time" was quite profound. We need always be sharing with one another, so we can be encouraging and praying for one another.

readeral took the plunge less than 5 seconds ago..

..from web

So I jumped to my death from the internet.

or not.

but I might as well have done.

I just joined twitter.

Some thoughts on engaging my generation.

My generation is highly visual.
1. We use our eyes as our dominant sense, as our ears tend to be full of iPod.
2. For the same reason, our eyes are all the more important for communication, be it with Internet chat, or seeing a friend or acquaintance in the street.

My generation is also over stimulated.
1. Video games and Cinema experience are designed to engage many senses, and technology is growing in this area.
2. I read somewhere recently that young people tend to watch TV and use the internet at the same time. This is now the norm.
3. In order to catch our full attention, much entertainment or information must have that Cinema experience.
4. Making the effort to sit down and read a book has become much more difficult in my life time, as the internet has grown. This, I would argue, is because the internet provides the opportunity for a 'deeper' engagement through video/audio and graphical/text based information all at once.

Some questions:
1. What does this mean for the preacher? Does he adapt these growing mediums? Or does he provide an alternative to the trend?
2. What does this mean for the worker charged with Pastoral care? Must something change to allow proper relationships to develop?
3. What does this mean for leaders of praise and worship in our church? (recognising that this is broader than music, I in fact am intending to ask this more as a focus on singing praises to God)
4. What does this mean for the evangelist? What mediums should they be using to spread the good news?
5. How can we encourage our young people* to spend the time in the Bible, with full attention?
6. How can we encourage our young people* to spend time in prayer, with a proper focus on God?

*yes, I am 'young people', and I struggle with these.

A lesson in patience.

A year ago, when I started this blog, it was with the hope of recording my thoughts and gaining support for a trip to Cambodia, as part of my home church's desire to serve our brothers and sisters in another country, and to voice some things related to faith, and blog my thoughts before commencing an apprenticeship in Ministry.

In the year just passed, much has changed, and I have spent a lot of that time in uncertainty.
The major effect of all of this is that 4 months ago, I decided to put my trip to Cambodia on hold. I felt that God was no longer directing me down that path, at least not in the interim.
This was backed up by the fact that I left my job in September and was not finding work to raise the money.

I couldn't understand what on earth God was doing - my finances were in a quandary, my personal relationships were changing, everything I was excited for was falling out from under me, and my passion for sharing the Gospel was proving difficult to maintain. Somehow I felt I had lost all direction and drive for anything. Applying for jobs was anything but encouraging, and as the papers reported more and more job losses and worsening financial conditions, I found myself almost giving up.

But God's grace was still evident to me.

I was given the opportunity to pay off debt through volunteer work over the summer. At a very crucial point a brother and sister in Christ, with the purpose of using what they had for God's glory, generously shared with me and supported me financially. People were letting me know daily that they were praying for me. There was no way God was going to let me forget that He was exercising His will in my life.

Eventually, I came to the realisation that God was teaching me patience, and joy in patience. I found myself one afternoon, reading Matthew 6 and 7, and really resonating with what Christ was speaking of, and fighting off suggestions of doing this TAFE course, or that school-cleaner job, I stuck to what I firmly believed, that God was going to provide the job that he had for me.

God provided a job opening through my brother.
3 weeks before the ad was put out, I got a heads up about 5 positions being made available in a department at AAMI. I spent a day praying, preparing my documents, and hand delivering them.
I waited.
and waited.
I heard that the job applications were above 200 people. I waited. I got a phone interview, and felt encouraged.
Then I heard 350 people had applied. I had resigned to the fact that if it was not what God had intended for me, then I would return back to University, intending not to be idle for the year.
The day after I went in to speak to the education faculty, nearly 6 weeks after my application went in, I got a phone call and was invited in for a face to face interview.
The interview was fantastic, and encouraging.
I heard the day before uni started that I had the job. I was ecstatic.

Through those months, I had learned a few things:
- I realised that God had a season for me of unemployment and that it was a gift that I could rejoice in.
- I learned much about humility, and accepting gifts from others.
- I learned that patience doesn't mean stopping, but in accepting the delay, continuing to seek and pursue God's will.

I know there will be seasons like this in the future, and this was just the first of many.
There is much more to the story which I will happily share over a coffee, but this post is already beyond a Tim Challies post, and getting through it has probably been a test of patience for you too.
But may God be glorified. I know that His promises are true, and my trust in Him is growing daily.

New Years Resolution

Be bold, go for it and try follow a plan to read the bible in a year.
That's what I'm gonna do.
Find some plans Here

They have a web link that updates every day, you can get the readings in RSS feeds, via email, it can give you an iCal upload, Mobile phone (presumably only in the US) and you can print them out.
A few different plans to go for, check it out.

EDIT: What's more, for those using iCal, it starts the plan on the day you upload the iCal files.. so no catching up to do, and no unmotivation to start just because you're starting halfway though a plan.. neato!

Somehow I deleted this post.. It's back now :-)

Nothing beats a 12 bar blues..

.. ..so nothing beats the credit music to Boston Legal. You didn't know it was one did you?

Enter box set of seasons 1, 2 and 3.

Aside from being a show that contains 'Moderate themes', 'Moderate violence', and kindly labelled to have 'Moderate sexual references' (enough, take note, that the characters themselves get fed up).. ..I've found it to be a show that makes constant references to God.

As an American legal drama/comedy it confronts many MANY ethical questions, and often finds itself alluding to, or directly referencing the existence of the God of Christianity. Criminals explain their new found commitment to God. Creationism, intelligent design, is held up as important in a court of law. Lawyers question their own faith, and purpose for living. And it is brilliantly juxtaposed against a worldly view of justice and success, which, even if only for the purpose of entertainment, is portrayed as less than desirable.

I dislike television, I don't watch it probably for the purpose of avoiding much of what Boston Legal itself includes, but it's good to know that God's truth prevails even in the thickest of it all. And if it's being able to find God in the gaps, knowing that God reveals himself in the darkest corners of the world, and to be able to discuss the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people from the instigation of a TV show, then I might swallow my pride and at least mildly engage again with the world of television..

..and anyway, I've only seen season one.

It is right to fear the Lord

Psalm 2 was in my reading list today and it has this to say in v12:

"Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in
the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled
Blessed are all who take refuge in him."
(ESV)

The IVP New Bible Commentary has this to say about it, quoting Derek Kidner:

"There is no refuge from him: only in him."

Proper fear of the Lord leads us to seek our safety in Him, because we have no need to run from Him. His word says that we are blessed when we take refuge in Him.
We should become humble; "Kiss the Son", in the NRSV it says "kiss his feet". A big act of humility, and a reminder of the reverent fear that God is due.

It is right to fear the Lord.