No letters after my name. Free to be me.

Hybels v Driscoll

I was shocked to load up Technorati today and see Mark Driscoll at position six for top searches. My initial thoughts were, “what are all the freaks writing about him now.” Driscoll, being human, is not perfect and is subject to error - but has apologised many times when proven wrong. More than often though, it’s those that don’t know him that make the most outlandish rants about him. So it always pays to look things up and these are the events leading to this popular uprising.

According to Driscoll’s website, he was asked to make an 8 minute video for a church planting conference. Last year he attended the conference but chose not to this year due to the logistics involved. So he and his team made the following clip..

Once it aired, Bill Hybels was introduced and the words out of his mouth were along the lines of, “After that video I would like to acknowledge that there are women in this room and they have spiritual gifts.” Apparently a whole bunch of applause and yelling followed. Anyway, the conference organisers chose not to distribute the video clip to the 1500 delegates after the conference in an effort to harmonise things. Driscoll responds by saying:

“The leaders of the event are good guys whom I still consider friends, and I’ve never met Bill Hybels so I won’t speak about him personally.”

It seems as if Driscoll is maturing against the attacks he faces from critics as in the past, he would have lashed out. So why has the blogging world gone crazy about this story? Well there are a number of strange things happening here all rolled up into one. I’ll try to unpack this for you.

Go to the YouTube video and check out the comments from people viewing the video. Here Driscoll gets attacked by non-Christians for being a “dangerous” and “destructive” religious freak using the imagery of war to rally the troops. Some also have an issue that the video was shot at a military cemetery and that Driscoll has dishonoured the fallen by pushing his religious agenda.

Then the Christians also get fired up against the content of the video message. To summarise in three words, it’s, “men, mission, message,” in regards to church planting.

Men
Driscoll firmly believes in the male headship of the Church. He doesn’t hate women, nor is he chauvinistic in his biblical world view. His own Church has many women in leadership roles. It’s simply in the overall leadership of the Church does he push the male eldership role. I personally agree with this model for Church governing. As you can imagine, many don’t. Therefore he cops a lot of crap on this one.

Mission
Driscoll preaches the missional Church. In a nutshell, it’s about every Church member incarnating into culture to present the Gospel in a way relevant to that culture. Here’s where the conservatives freak out cause many Mars Hill Church bible studies occur in bars and tattoo shops in Seattle where Driscoll’s Church is based. The video uses a lot of “in your face” tones and is uncomfortable to watch for those in the “seeker sensitive” movement.

Message
Driscoll has many enemies in this area. One of my favourite lines from him is, “we put the ‘fun’ back into fundamentalism.” Driscoll’s theology is fundamental in nature - take the male eldership for example. It’s in this area that he cops criticism from all the liberals cause he contends for Biblical truth. His catch cry is “Reaching Out Without Selling Out”

So now you can begin to understand the reasons behind Driscoll’s rise in the world of Technorati searches. Everyone is writing about him - whether they like him or hate him. Fundamentalists hate him for his take on culture and mission. Liberals hate him for his take on theology. The secular world hates him cause his Church is gaining momentum and he continues to push boundaries for the Kingdom. In fact, Mars Hill Church after existing for 10 years is now ranked 16th in the top 20 Churches in the US.

What’s my lay opinion about all this?

If I can indulge, I fully agree with Driscoll’s take on Church. This video was about Church planting and I agree with the three basic principles he talks about. Male eldership is biblical and I support Driscoll’s view on this topic. This flies in the face of modern Christianity - as shown by Hybels comments.

It seems that political correctness is crippling the Church these days. I am not against females in leadership roles. I love to learn and be guided by females - we have a bunch at my church which I look up to tremendously. But the ultimate earthly authority goes to the male cause that’s the way God intended it to be. If you have an issue with that, bring it up with God cause He said it to be so. Not Driscoll, not me.

Instead of ruling over females, God’s men are urged to take their positions seriously and will be held accountable for their leadership and attitudes. A man in leadership should be humble for the task at hand instead of having a big head. This is the exact reason why Driscoll’s Acts 29 Network assesses potential Church planters and looks for qualities needed for a successful Church plant.

As the video shows in it’s imagery, too many Church plants end in death - hence the graves. Paul urged Timothy to fight the “good war” against the enemies of Christ - hence the military cemetery. And yet it’s the location and the style of the video which has caused as much of an uproar as the content.

Driscoll, you have my vote. You must be doing something right to have all the spectrum’s of criticism against you. It will be interesting to see how this whole thing pans out.

mark driscoll, bill hybels, driscoll, hybels, driscoll video, youtube, emergent, fundamentalist, missional, emerging church

Melbourne’s Teenage Suicides

Below is my brother’s writings on the recent teenage suicides in Melbourne, Australia. As a practicing Psychologist, I find his insight into the situation sobering and a source of practical help to anyone caring for a potential suicidal person…

The news of two missing 16 year old school girls raised concerns for me as I watched the morning news before work. My mind quickly jumped to eventually hearing of their bodies being found due to foul play being the cause of death. The news that their bodies were found was terrible; that suicide was the cause of death was shocking.

This week’s Saturday Age published an article about the secret world of teenagers, describing the culture blamed for these girls’ deaths - emo. Short for emotional, adherents to the emo culture ascribe to a histrionic personality type and music style that is generally introspective, lonely, misunderstood and depressed.

The newspaper article noted that students from the school that these girls attended varied in their opinion about whether the emo culture could be blamed for their suicide. Other relevant issues were also discussed including parental supervision of the Internet.

As a practicing psychologist involved in assessments of self-harm, suicidality and mental illness, I am only too familiar with how common these issues have become in our time. The Saturday Age notes that 2100 Australians suicide each year. Many more self-harm with no deliberate intent to suicide. The number who think about suicide are unable to be counted. What is clear, however, is that what we see and hear about is only the tip of the iceberg.

The tragedy of these girl’s suicide inevitably raises concerns, especially amongst parents, about identifying signs that may suggest that their son or daughter is at risk of suicide, or may be engaging in self-harming behaviour. Unfortunately, teenage behaviour is difficult to understand and therefore predict. There is a fine line between overreacting to normal teenager behaviour, and missing signs of pain, loneliness and the risk of self-harm and suicide.

The warning signs of self-harm and suicide can include, but are not limited to, the following changes which are uncharacteristic of the person:

- signs of scratches or razor marks on the body (especially wrists)

- preferring to wear long sleeves to cover marks

- appearing sad, depressed or miserable for weeks at a time

- lacking pleasure in previously enjoyable activities

- withdrawal and isolation

- talking about morbid themes including death, dying, the afterlife, and the meaning of life

- talking about life being hopeless, that there is no point in living, or not wanting to live

- talking about suicide, wanting to die to kill themselves

Anyone, however especially teenagers, who are found to exhibit such signs may be at risk. The addition of drug and/or alcohol use increases their risk significantly.

So what do you do?

1. Many teenagers live in a very secret world, often misunderstood by adults and even peers. A bridge needs to be built in order to reach them. Leave aside any bitterness about previous problem behaviours which can create unnecessary friction. In order for them to feel safe enough to divulge their problems, teenagers need to be able to trust that the other person has their best interests in mind.

2. Ask about whether they have been experiencing problems. Listen, listen and listen. Be slow to speak, listen until you can begin understand why they feel the way they do and empathize with their circumstances. Validate problems. Although these may seem trivial or minor to adults, teenagers are greatly impacted by issues related to identity and acceptance, so issues about friendships, perceptions by peers and involvement in groups are important.

3. Ask directly about suicide. It is a myth that saying the “s” word puts the thought into people’s minds. If one feels so dejected even of life itself, they would have already conjured up the thoughts of suicide before anyone else has mentioned it. Simply asking the question in a non-judgment way often helps the person feel relieved that they can share their burden.

4. Ask about reasons for why they would not want to suicide, i.e. their reasons for living. Identifying these “protective factors” can help in creating ambivalence and reaching for goals in their lives which can take their focus from problems to a more positive future.

5. If they have thoughts about suicide, gently aim to elicit details which give you an idea about how serious the situation has become. Ask whether they feel able to control such thoughts, about whether they have thought how they would do it, have they made preparations or given a time frame, do they have access to means etc. The more thought and preparation one has put into their plan, the more serious the situation is.

6. Based on the information obtained above, a decision needs to be made about urgency of help. This can vary from a verbal agreement with the person at risk that

they will not harm themselves and attend a helper, to contacting emergency services for immediate assistance. Of course, having the teenager agree to get help would be ideal and can be achieved by providing a supportive, non-judgmental and caring environment. However when the risk is high and one becomes antagonistic and uncooperative, calling emergency services can be the only option.

7. Aim to get linked in with appropriate telephone or direct supports in your local area. The following are relevant services for residents of Melton and surrounding suburbs. Call anytime, any day.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Suicide Helpline: 1300 651 251

Local Area Mental Health Service: 1300 859 764

Djerriwarrh Health Services Counseling: 8746 1100

Melton Medical Centre Counseling: 9743 5600

Scott Street Medical Centre Counseling: 9743 1970

Melton Council Youth Outreach Service: 9747 7200

Staughton College Counseling: 9743 4622

Kurunjang College Counseling: 9743 9211

Victoria University Melton Campus Student Services: 9919 2399

Private counselors and psychologists can be found under their relevant headings in the Yellow Pages.

Emergency 000
suicide, advice

21 Grams

My full time job is in the Medical Industry. We sell all sorts of equipment to various health organisations all around the country. My previous role was selling all kinds of pharmaceuticals to various doctors and specialists.

The Health Industry in Australia is worth billions of dollars every year - and growing at an alarming rate. Oddly enough, the Australian Medical Industry makes up only 1% of the entire global spend on the Medical Industry.

We are blessed that in our culture, the human body is worth a lot. I know some people have it tough but when you compare our existence to the existence in places like Sudan, we have it pretty good here. The value of a human body is quite high.

Many of us exercise and keep in shape to optimise the functioning of our bodies - and rightly so. But what about the real you and me? Our soul and spirit. Our body without the soul and spirit would be meta-physically challenged - dead. I have heard of many reports that some people actually weigh a person while they are dying and at the moment of death, they weigh them again and they lose 21 grams.

This 21 grams is far more important then any human body could possibly be. The 21 grams of a persons soul and spirit enter a human carcass, much the same way as a pair of hands enter the gloves of an incubator and there is life in the incubator. Take the hands out of the gloves and out of the incubator, and the rubber flops. Take the 21 grams out of a human - and it dies.

So if we go into so much effort to maintain our physical bodies, what steps can we take to maintain our 21 grams? Lucky for you and me, we have the ultimate guru in these matters - Jesus. One day, He was having one of His lively discussions with the “Religious Freaks.” These “teachers” freaked out at the disciples cause they didn’t wash up before they ate.

Mind you, this was just a custom the high and lofty did because it was the thing the high and lofty do. Looking down at the disciples from their lofty mental domain, they accused them of wrong doing. Jesus in His typically, non-politically correct, in your face method of public speaking verbally trashed them out and accused them of breaking the law in order to simply follow tradition.

He then nails the point with His thoughts on what was a very important them back then - unclean foods:

“Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”

His disciples were a few sandwiches short of a picnic by what He meant about this so Jesus had to given them a Bible study about it. Another translation says it like this:

“Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)

He went on:

“It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”

I’ll paraphrase it for our context. You don’t become a better or worse person, by what you eat. Rather it’s what you say and think that could make your 21 grams sick. Think of it for a second. Look at the list of rubbish that comes out from us - from our 21 grams - and look how they all originate in the mind, soul and spirit.

“It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”

We may have a few kilos extra - we feel bad about, we train our butts off and hopefully we get rid of them. We get sick. We go to the doctor, get a script and we get better. We have a headache, pop some Panadol and we get better. But these are all for our physical selves.

What about our 21 grams? All the negativity we have. All the greed harboring inside us. All the malice. The desire for gossip. The slander. This is pollution inside our 21 grams. And instead of dealing with it, we indulge in our appetite for more. The equivalent would be to lick up the green phlegm from a chesty cough! Yuck I hear you say. But we all do it.

The net effect of this is that our 21 grams gets sick and remains sick. This blocks us of from enjoying all that our generous God would have us enjoy. Jesus says that He has come to give us life - abundantly! How many of us want that so badly? I know I do. The key then is to watch what we say and think and put it all into context that it’s for those 21 grams that God became a man and died a horrific death. That He was buried and then was resurrected to show everyone that He is God.

His resurrection is a historic fact recorded by Christian, Jewish and secular historians. This is fact. He did this so that one day your 21 grams will be put into a body so glorious that it will be eternal. We’ll all get a new body. But it’s in this life that your 21 grams are being tested, shaped and molded. It’s now that we all need to understand that the things we say and the things we do have an enormous effect on our hearts, minds, souls and spirit.

So why not place careful attention to these matters and allow God to work wonders with your 21 grams.

sime’s blog, body, mind, soul, spiritual, jesus, heart

Agloco For Me?

Making money online will either excite you or repel you. If it repels you, you’re probably sick of all the scams and promises of that part of the Internet which promises heaps and delivers jack didly squat!

And I hear you. And that’s why Agloco might be a light shining in a dark place - to take a line from the Good Book. Everyone knows how Google paid nearly 2 billion (AU) bucks for YouTube. Thing is, why can’t all of us jump onto this band wagon and share in this kind of money?

One thing I love about post modernism is that conventional boundaries are consistently being challenged. Look at the programming world. Open Source Software is freaking the big organisations out. Why? Cause it’s free! People are getting tired of the few, controlling the masses.

With the growth of people being online, more and more advertisers are realising that to reach a growing audience, thy need to re-think where they spend their dollars. Just today, I took a survey at Technorati and the theme was where I spend most of my spare time and which sources of information I rely on.

These days, if I have some spare time, I would most likely be online - not in front of the television as did the last generation. In the last generation, advertising companies would have poured their dollars into television, newspapers and magazines. Now, they are looking at the Internet and we will see a massive change as a result of this.

But don’t take my word for it. There are heaps of studies and articles that outline this paradigm shift. Click here for an example. Question is, in this post modern era where we reject authority and a few ruling the masses, what is available for us to to take advantage of this new phenomenon? How can I tap in?

A simple word is Agloco. Joining is free and using it is free. Bottom line is this:

• Get paid to surf the Internet the way you do.
• An average Internet surfer (which most bloggers are not) is likely to make about $5- $15 per month.
• This figure is greatly increased if you refer people to Agloco.
• You surf with the Agloco toolbar - very similar to the Yahoo or Google toolbars - this shows adds based on your surfing patterns. There are no requirements to view adds or purchase anything
• Grow your network, grow your income.

Post modernism at it’s best! And the best thing is that as of today, Friday 20th April, the toolbar is in beta mode and hasn’t been released yet. This means you have a chance to join the Agloco buzz before it happens and be there at the beginning of a phenomenon many people are starting to sit up and take notice. Build your network ASAP and get ready for the launch!

And then just do what you normally do and watch what happens. Interested? Then sign up by clicking on the logo below.

Have Fun With World Headlines

If you’re anything like me and get excited over numbers, I have a site for you. It’s called Trendio. It works like this…

It’s like a stock market situation. However instead of buying shares in companies, you buy shares in news headlines around the world. If a breaking story occurs and that particular headline is published all over the place, the share price of that headline increases. The more people have bought into that headline, the higher the stock price.

For example, the Bollywood bombshell and recent winner of Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, Shilpa Shetty is in the news. At an AIDS Awareness Event, a smitten Richard Gere hugged and kissed Shilpa on stage.

Well this has caused a huge controversy in India - one of the worlds biggest countries. So headlines in India and around the world are full of Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere.

At Trendio, I bought a bunch of shares on Shilpa’s name and let it sit and…BANG! It went through the roof! Now of course this money is worth nothing in real life but it’s a buzz to play. Lot’s of strategies to learn and if anything, hey at least it keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the world. I didn’t even know who Shilpa was! Maybe I should have put money on Richard Gere also…

To try it all out and have some fun, here is the link.

shilpa shetty, richard gere, trendio, india

Search The Top 20 Churches In The US

Ever wondered what the biggest and most successful and influential churches do every week? Ever wanted a one stop shop to be able to search the content of these Church websites and their Pastors websites? Sick of visiting various Church websites in your pursuit to check out content?

Well I’ve got a tool for you. Thanks to Google, I’ve been able to build a customised search engine. In a previous post, I listed the Top 20 Churches in the US based on innovation, influence and growth. You can check the listing of the churches here.

Whether or not you agree with the theology or style of these churches is besides the point. If you agree with them, use this search engine. If you want to dig up dirt, use this search engine.

In my lay experience, I strongly urge you to check out what these churches are doing and see what you can learn and implement in your own. Remember what’s good in one church might not be good in another. It boils down to the culture in which your church is planted.

Without further ado, here is the search engine. Feel free to add it to Google and if you would the code for it to plonk it into your site, let me know.

US Top 20 Google Search

church websites, christianity, pastors websites, layguy