1. jml talks about the role the different football codes (thugby, Aussie rules and soccer) have play in his life and what they say about your place in a community.


2. Izaac lists 10 tips for hosting a college (or NTE) mission at your church. It’s a good list. And these kinds of missions (so-called) can play a good role in boosting the ‘work force’ in a local church and exposing students to a different ministry setting. I do worry that churches (or even an entire church ecosystem) can become addicted to them in bad way - rather than mobilising their own members. And I am irked by the suggestion that they are actually authentic ‘mission’, where we ‘put into practice what we have learned’.


3. Al Bain shares some quotes from Graham Norton’s interview with Madonna on the question of love and realism:
   

   It’s not that I ever believed in perfect love. It’s just that if you’re a romantic … like me … and every girl I know is .. every girl wants to be swept off her feet by a Knight in Shining Armour. Unfortunately we are raised on those fairy tales. Even if we are sophisticated, educated, intelligent, evolved human beings, we still in the back of our mind think that Mr Right is going to sweep us off our feet and take us into the sunset, and we’re going to live happily ever after…. In the back of our mind we believe that. But in the front of our mind we keep getting reminded that it’s actually not true. But in the back of our mind we keep believing it…. And so we keep getting disappointed. So it’s a paradox. You want that. But on the other hand if you’ve got a half a brain you know that it doesn’t exist.

   
   


4. Continuing the theme of short term mission, here is Challies’ review of a book called Toxic Charity :
   

   He contends that “what Americans avoid facing is that while we are very generous in charitable giving, much of that money is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help. …The compassion industry is almost universally accepted as a virtuous and constructive enterprise. But what is so surprising is that its outcomes are almost entirely unexamined.” It is not the Christian’s motivation he questions as much as the unintended consequences of rightly motivated efforts. “For all our efforts to eliminate poverty—our entitlements, our programs, our charities—we have succeeded only in creating a permanent underclass, dismantling their family structures, and eroding their ethic of work. And our poor continue to become poorer. … Giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy people.”

   
   

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/mirrors-29th-March-2013 (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

1. jml talks about the role the different football codes (thugby, Aussie rules and soccer) have play in his life and what they say about your place in a community.


2. Izaac lists 10 tips for hosting a college (or NTE) mission at your church. It’s a good list. And these kinds of missions (so-called) can play a good role in boosting the ‘work force’ in a local church and exposing students to a different ministry setting. I do worry that churches (or even an entire church ecosystem) can become addicted to them in bad way - rather than mobilising their own members. And I am irked by the suggestion that they are actually authentic ‘mission’, where we ‘put into practice what we have learned’.


3. Al Bain shares some quotes from Graham Norton’s interview with Madonna on the question of love and realism:
   

   It’s not that I ever believed in perfect love. It’s just that if you’re a romantic … like me … and every girl I know is .. every girl wants to be swept off her feet by a Knight in Shining Armour. Unfortunately we are raised on those fairy tales. Even if we are sophisticated, educated, intelligent, evolved human beings, we still in the back of our mind think that Mr Right is going to sweep us off our feet and take us into the sunset, and we’re going to live happily ever after…. In the back of our mind we believe that. But in the front of our mind we keep getting reminded that it’s actually not true. But in the back of our mind we keep believing it…. And so we keep getting disappointed. So it’s a paradox. You want that. But on the other hand if you’ve got a half a brain you know that it doesn’t exist.

   
   


4. Continuing the theme of short term mission, here is Challies’ review of a book called Toxic Charity :
   

   He contends that “what Americans avoid facing is that while we are very generous in charitable giving, much of that money is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help. …The compassion industry is almost universally accepted as a virtuous and constructive enterprise. But what is so surprising is that its outcomes are almost entirely unexamined.” It is not the Christian’s motivation he questions as much as the unintended consequences of rightly motivated efforts. “For all our efforts to eliminate poverty—our entitlements, our programs, our charities—we have succeeded only in creating a permanent underclass, dismantling their family structures, and eroding their ethic of work. And our poor continue to become poorer. … Giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy people.”

   
   

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/mirrors-29th-february-2013 (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

Had a fun conversation with my brother and Dan, the pastor of my church, a few weeks ago. We were all up at the Geneva Coaches Conference actually and we had ducked out to Lakemba for a midnight kebab snack, along with a mate from Sydney.

My brother was sharing his struggles connecting with and mobilising the younger adults in his congregation.

He asked advice of his wife, who works with a lot of young adults in a call centre. She did a lot of reading and thinking about how best to connect with and motivate Generation Y workers. She found that investing in meaningful relationships with her staff was very important - far more than compensation, punishment or duty. If she built strong relationships with them, they were much more motivated to work hard for her as a boss. As a result, she had one of the best performing teams in her workplace.

So my brother applied the same principles to relating to the young adults in his church. He set aside some more time to get to know them, to invite them around for dinner and to do fun social things.

And lo and behold: they became more engaged, committed and motivated in the life of the church.

Of course the same applies to anyone, of whatever generation. And of course it isn’t a ‘quick fix’ for everyone. Yet it is some advice that is especially pertinent to relating to the the tendencies of youth culture at the moment.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/energising-generation-y (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

Suppose a person freely justified by the grace of God, through faith in the blood of Christ, without respect unto any works, obedience, or righteousness of his own, we do freely grant,

(1.) That God does indispensably require personal obedience of him; which may be called his evangelical righteousness.

(2.) That God does approve of and accept, in Christ, this righteousness so performed.

(3.) That hereby that faith whereby we are justified is evidenced, proved, manifested, in the sight of God and men.

(4.) That this righteousness is pleadable unto an acquitment against any charge from Satan, the world, or our own con- sciences.

(5.) That upon it we shall be declared righteous at the last day, and without it none shall so be.

And if any shall think meet from hence to conclude unto an evangelical justification, or call God’s acceptance of our righteousness by that name, I shall by no means contend with them. And wherever this inquiry is made, — not how a sinner, guilty of death, and obnoxious unto the curse, shall be pardoned, acquitted, and justified, which is by the righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto him — but how a man that professes evangelical faith, or faith in Christ, shall be tried, judged, and whereon, as such, he shall be justified, we grant that it is and must be, by his own personal, sincere obedience.

John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith , Chapter VI

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/in-what-sense-are-we-justified-by-our-works (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

1. Some advice on using social media in new churches - from Tim Cox who works with Redeemer City to City in NYC.


2. Is evangelism central to the ethos of Sydney Anglicanism? Tony Payne reviews Michael Jensens book and provokes a flurry of comments. Some quick thoughts:
   
   
   
   • I am very much looking forward to reading the book. It sounds great and I think Tony conveys its strengths well.
   
   
   • I agree with many of the commenters who say that the particular style of the review that Tony adopted is both confusing and ill-advised.
   
   
   • It’s a shame Tony can’t allow the critique of isolationism to land at all. There is some truth to that as a ‘vibe’ and it feels defensive to not allow it at all.
   
   
   • It’s is also a shame that in the undercurrent of Diocesan politics many seem to be urging no place for motive-reading or wariness or suspicion at all. As if everyone could be, or should at least pretend to be, completely and entirely generous and open-minded. I just don’t think that’s how politics works - even church politics - and it doesn’t need to be a bad thing, simply a reality we seek to navigate with integrity.
   
   
   
   


3. 
   

   Simone has more thoughts on congregational singing. Including:

   
   
   
   
   • It is so much easier to get a congregation to sing heartily if the song is driven by it’s melody rather than by it’s chord progression. For this reason, hymn-like songs just work better for congregational singing than rock songs.
   
   
   • If I (a pianist) had to choose between a violin and a guitar, I’d take the violin. Guitar adds more complexity and, for a newby band, much more risk. I’d want bass and drums long before guitar.
   
   
   
   


4. Dave McDonald review Malphurs and Mancini’s Building Leaders.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/mirrors-22nd-march-2013 (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

I linked to this a while ago in a Mirrors post but it’s worth coming back to as a separate post all its own. Jonathan Leeman form 9 Marks has written a long and positive review of Keller’s Center Church , and raises some great areas for concern.

Center Church is so very well worth reading, but so is a critique like this one.

This made me laugh:

It is tempting to offer a Kelleresque “third way” for viewing Keller, a triangulated Keller for narrowing the space between the Keller critics and enthusiasts. To read Keller, after all, is to be trained in the art of the Aristotelian mean. This is his m.o.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/jonathan-leemans-great-review-of-kellers-center-church (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

In Center Church Keller cites Miroslav Volf’s A Public Faith approvingly:

Miroslav Volf titles a section of his book A Public Faith “Two Notes and One Yes”. This means, first, saying no to what he calls “total transformation” - to a goal of transforming the whole culture we inhabit. What Christians build culturally is not like the modern cities (Brasilia is the best example) that are built from scratch. It is like rehabilitating an existing city while living in it. It means, second, saying no to what he calls “accommodation”. Finally, we say yes to “engagement”, which Volf describes as “expressing the middle between abandoning and dominating the culture… what it might mean to assert one’s difference while remaining within it,” of “leaving without departing”.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/engagement-not-total-transformation (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

This year, because of a class booking, we had to move our Citywide Gathering out of the UTAS School of Art and across the road to the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

It has been a really positive move and I think helped us boost the vibe in lots of ways. We have also happily seen a big boost of numbers. Our highest attendance at a Citywide Gathering previously was 62. This year, our first 2 Citywides have had 80+ and 67 respectively.

Here are some of the little nice things about meeting in a hotel function room:

1. All the chairs and tables match.


2. They provide lights and stage and set up the chairs.


3. Water bubblers.


4. All their tables come with lovely black table cloths.


5. There’s optional catering on site: people can meet before or after at the lobby cafe/bar.


6. Our room is on the mezzanine floor, and the foyer outside is a great milling space with couches etc.


7. Stealing hotel pens and stationery.


8. They put us on their TV screen ‘wallflower’ billboards around the venue.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/fun-things-about-using-a-hotel-function-room (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

DropBox? GoogleDrive? Email to each other? Church server? Church admin and/or team leaders curate the master copies? Share with uploads on church website? A wiki? All of the above a bit?

In Vision 100, we have been using Subversion since 2005, something that programmers use to manager code and updating to the latest version. It has been a very powerful and effective way to share access to the latest version of all the church’s documents - procedures, branding, calendars, spreadsheets - while managing different permissions.

The problem with Subversion is that the programs that make it work (TortoiseSVN and svnX for Mac) are not very user-friendly. And set-up with Windows, from about Vista onwards, has all sorts of hurdles.

On one level it is good to not making something like this TOO user-friendly. Having seen various communal Drop Boxes from time-to-time it is a horrific. The illusion of user-friendliness tricks us into thinking that basic disciplines are not needed. So duplicate files, bad naming conventions… and probably plenty of dodgy permissions so people accidentally have access to private information is rife.

But we really do need a more user-friendly interface. A lower bar for entry.

What does your church use? And how do you overcome the data-storage cap?

You see, Drop Box is great, but once you are managing church dropbox, parachurch dropbox, personal dropbox… you cap out the free storage pretty quickly. Does the church then budget to pay for subscriptions?

Love to hear what youse all do.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/what-do-you-use-for-ministry-document-sharing (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

1. It’s well worth taking the time to read this interview with Bono about his religious beliefs.


2. Google is retiring Google Reader. I’m bummed about that. I suppose it’ll be a helpful opportunity to clear house and decide which blogs I want to follow. It’s a bit annoying to have to research a new RSS Reader (suggestions?). This article tells us to learn the lesson of Google Reader:
   

   That’s why we should all consider Reader’s death a wake-up call—a reminder that any time you choose to get involved with a new app, you should think about the long haul. It’s not a good idea to hook up with every great app that comes along, even if it’s terrifically innovative and mind-bogglingly cheap or even free. Indeed, you should be especially wary if something seems too cheap. That’s because software is expensive. To build and maintain the best software requires engineering and design talent that will only stick around when a company has an obvious way to make money. If you want to use programs that last, it’s not enough to consider how well they work. You’ve also got to be sure that there’s a solid business model attached to the code.

   
   And this made me laugh:
   

   But Google’s efforts to deeply integrate its products into Google+ shows that it is heavily invested in making it work. So if you’re that one guy using Google+, don’t fret.

   
   Also this article puts it in these words:
   

   We are all participants in a user driven Internet, but we are still just the users, nothing more.

   
   


3. Jean Williams helpful microviews and summarises 3 books on marriage in a catchy way: Piper’s book (marriage looks upwards), Keller’s book (marriage looks inward) and Ash’s book (marriage looks outward). I agree with her mild critical assessment of Ash’s book:
   

   At points I found his arguments a little reductionistic—is marriage really not part of God’s provision to meet our needs? —but his book is a helpful corrective to relationally-obsessed, self-centred views of marriage.

   
   


4. A great post from Dave McDonald on dealing with fatigue.


5. A post about Michael Jordan turning 50 from Matt Smethurst:
   

   Thompson’s piece pulsates with the sense that Jordan isn’t happy. “I would give up everything now to go back and play the game of basketball,” the Hall of Famer confesses. When asked how he replaces it, Jordan simply states, “You don’t. You learn to live with it.”

   
   

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/mirrors-15th-march-2013 (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

Ugh. The videos.

Anyways today I’ve done the basic settings stuff:

1. I found their Systems Settings Workbook was all I needed to do the basic set up.


2. I have questions now about exactly how to set up our various groups - and how to relate them to user information. I’m assuming that lots of our people WON’T log in and use drop down menus etc. So the key thing will be to set up stuff simply for staff and leaders.


3. I have created a series of groups, for leadership teams, and faculty clusters, for our current students, our graduates, our supporters and our contact churches. I haven’t populated these yet.


4. I have also created two custom People Fields: 1. Residence (choice of the residential colleges and private residence) 2. Faculties/Schools


5. I have put the various UTAS campuses around Hobart under ‘Area of Town’ settings.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/church-community-builder-implementation-journal-part-2 (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

From Tim Keller’s Center Church:

1. The Two Kingdoms model gives more weight and credit to the function of common grace than the Bible does.


2. Much of the social good that Two Kingdoms people attribute to natural revelation is really the fruit of the introduction of Christian teaching - of special revelation if you like - into world cultures.


3. The Two Kingdoms model implies or teaches that it is possible for human life to be conducted on a religiously neutral basis.


4. The Two Kingdoms model produces a form of ‘social quietism’.


5. The Two Kingdoms view contributes to too great a hierarchy between clergy and lay-people.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/the-problems-with-the-two-kingdoms-model-of-cultural-engagement (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

You can hear my Ecclesiastes sermons here here.

Or subscribe to the podcast here.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/my-ecclesiastes-sermons-now-online (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

This concluding section in Hume’s famous Treatise on Human Reason is an interesting analogy to the ‘enjoy life’ sections of Ecclesiastes:

But before I launch out into those immense depths of philosophy, which lie before me, I find myself inclined to stop a moment in my present station, and to ponder that voyage, which I have undertaken, and which undoubtedly requires the utmost art and industry to be brought to a happy conclusion. Methinks I am like a man, who having struck on many shoals, and having narrowly escaped shipwreck in passing a small frith, has yet the temerity to put out to sea in the same leaky weather-beaten vessel, and even carries his ambition so far as to think of compassing the globe under these disadvantageous circumstances. My memory of past errors and perplexities, makes me diffident for the future. The wretched condition, weakness, and disorder of the faculties, I must employ in my enquiries, encrease my apprehensions. And the impossibility of amending or correcting these faculties, reduces me almost to despair, and makes me resolve to perish on the barren rock, on which I am at present, rather than venture myself upon that boundless ocean, which runs out into immensity. This sudden view of my danger strikes me with melancholy; and as it is usual for that passion, above all others, to indulge itself; I cannot forbear feeding my despair, with all those desponding reflections, which the present subject furnishes me with in such abundance.

I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am placed in my philosophy, and fancy myself some strange uncouth monster, who not being able to mingle and unite in society, has been expelled all human commerce, and left utterly abandoned and disconsolate. Fain would I run into the crowd for shelter and warmth; but cannot prevail with myself to mix with such deformity. I call upon others to join me, in order to make a company apart; but no one will hearken to me. Every one keeps at a distance, and dreads that storm, which beats upon me from every side. I have exposed myself to the enmity of all metaphysicians, logicians, mathematicians, and even theologians; and can I wonder at the insults I must suffer? I have declared my disapprobation of their systems; and can I be surprized, if they should express a hatred of mine and of my person? When I look abroad, I foresee on every side, dispute, contradiction, anger, calumny and detraction. When I turn my eye inward, I find nothing but doubt and ignorance. All the world conspires to oppose and contradict me; though such is my weakness, that I feel all my opinions loosen and fall of themselves, when unsupported by the approbation of others. Every step I take is with hesitation, and every new reflection makes me dread an error and absurdity in my reasoning.

Most fortunately it happens, that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation, and lively impression of my senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends; and when after three or four hours’ amusement, I would return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strained, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any farther

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/david-hume-on-daily-living-with-radical-philosophy (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

In preparation for Societies Day, I was thinking through how to weigh down our slanted poster signs and flier holders - to stop them getting blown over by Tassie weather. I needed something small enough not to be noticed, but heavy enough to work.

Everything I could think of (weights from barbels or kitchen scales or rolls of coins) seemed like they’d cost a lot or be hard to find. I’m hopeless at DIY solution things. It makes me annoyed. Isn’t there someone I can pay to make this problem go away?

So I asked my friend Jake: Mssionary Kid who grew up climbing trees in the jungles of Indonesia and the Philippines. He’s good at this kind of problem solving. He’s the Wolf. Jake’s suggestion was cheap, easy and effective: snaplock bags filled with sand:

Also handy for throwing at monkeys or bird-eating spiders or missionary pilots if they come too close.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/how-to-weigh-down-signs-and-flier-holders-in-outdoor-settings (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)

Have you noticed I’ve been doing a bit of TED lately? TED talks always annoyed me because I always got links to videos and could never be bothered watching them. I’m not a visual learner, so the whole video thing irritates me.

But I knew there was good content there waiting for me. So I finally got around to subscribing to the TED podcast. Much better.

Anyways, this was fun:

I like how Robin Chase defines the important mix for these kinds of organic/viral corporations: you give power and freedom to the consumer, like in boutique contexts; yet you provide all the efficiencies of scale that a corporation can give.

And later on she acknowledges that creating the right platform for collaboration is a massive thing.

Often the mistake of those infatuated with user-driven technologies is that if the technology is easy to use, it will solve all the normal problems of having to organise (‘If we just have a Dropbox we won’t need filing conventions’, ‘if we just have a project management software we won’t need to oversee people’). By no means! creating, managing and leveraging technology requires skill, just like anything else.

via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/peers-incorporated-model-for-organic-corporations (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)