No letters after my name. Free to be me.

Hillsong Conference 2008 Highlights

Check out this cool video summarising the Hillsong 2008 Conference.  So wish I was there.

Being Salty & Not Wealthy

Starting to really resonate with Piper more and more these days. Just watched another one of his video’s on the “prosperity gospel” and how it contradicts the call for us to be “salty” instead.

Have a watch and let me know what you think…

Church Pirates

I really enjoyed the perspective Ed Young puts forward in the following video “Church Planting.” In my opinion, I think he nails the issue when he says that some churches are not church plants but church “transplants” instead. This happens when people join churches with suspect motives - they want to build their “own kingdom” and siphon and leverage people and resources from that church in order to build their own as they “obey the calling of God” in their own lives.

This is different from legitimate church plants - where a group moves on to start a new venture. This pretty much happened with my church. But church pirates are a different bunch and Ed discusses this below.

Very Cool Drum Duet

I live in Melbourne Australia. One of the coolest and urban focussed churches in my city is Planetshakers. Be sure to check out this cool “duet” of drumming:

3 Responses

With all the talk these days about Emergent/Missional and Seeker Sensitive Churches plus the discussion around liberal or fundamental Churches and whatever else, I ground myself in Scripture as to what to expect as a reaction to the Gospel being taught.

As Christians, lets not kid ourselves about the message we deliver. We preach Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the reasons for it. This is the Gospel and this is the message we are asked to spread across the whole earth.

All the different streams of Christianity mentioned above attempt to get this message across in a meaningful way in the hope that people respond to it. But what gets in the way is when we deliver it in a way to maximize acceptance rather then focus on the substance of what we teach.

More and more I am shifting my opinion to focusing on the message instead of focusing on the acceptance of it. And in doing so, scripture says that we will always encounter 3 responses to what we believe:

1. Disbelief and mockery
2. Interest and further discussion
3. Belief and commitment

As anyone following this blog would know, I am a fan of Mark Driscoll and the Church he pastors - Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill gets its name from an interesting passage of scriptures found in Acts 17 when Paul visits Athens. The entire story can be read here.

In a nutshell, Paul visits Athens and is moved by the idolatry found there. Being the center of civilised society, Athens is alive with culture, education and arts. But because of the idols found in the town, Paul is moved to reason with the Jews, devout people, anyone in the market place and philosophers about the Gospel.

Read the passage this way: Paul speaks to everybody and anybody about the Gospel. And in doing so, he comes across Epicurean & Stoic philosophers. The “epics” taught that the pursuit of pleasure, not knowledge, is the meaning of life. The “stoics” taught that wisdom is found in being free from intense emotion, unmoved by joy or grief and a belief that everything in nature is God - aka pantheism.

In many ways, what the “epics” and “stoics” stood for is what we in modern society also hold dear to our hearts.  So perceived as a “babbler,” Paul is asked to address Mars Hill - where all these goonies get together and try to “out-philosophise” each other. There, Paul tells the Gospel in a relevant and missional way - a way their mindset is able to digest.

The result of this?

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst.  But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:32-34

Here are our 3 responses:

1. Some mocked
2. Some wanted to know more
3. Some believed

What Paul did was address Mars Hill in a relevant, and yet confrontational way - not shying away from controversial issues and then he hit the topic of resurrection. And this is when “the *@!# hit the fan” at Mars Hill.  Anything in regards to resurrection was a major issue at Mars Hill given their philosophical beliefs - and this is probably why Paul didn’t get to finish his spiel and get to his favorite topic - the resurrection of his Messiah.  And Paul simply left Athens leaving a few members of Mars Hill as believers, some wanted to know more and probably most chasing him out of Athens in mockery.

Fast forward 2000 years and we find ourselves in the ridiculous cycle of which “conversation” or approach is better in getting people to accept the Gospel of Jesus.  I hear and get every perspective:

• To the fundamentals, I get your desire to hold onto truth and prevent the twisting of scripture in order to make the Gospel more “palatable” to the masses.
• To the emergents, I get your desire to present the Gospel in a relevant, new and fresh way - to keep up with the times.

Church Multimedia Resources

If you don”t visit churchrelevance.com, you should. Kent Shaffer runs a great blog on “training people to reach other more effectively.” I link my posts to his site more than any other blog and today he has provided another great post.

Many medium to large churches can afford or have the talent pool to create custom made graphics and video resources. For the rest of us, we need to rely on the God given talent of others and the generosity placed in their hearts to share what they have.

Church Relevance has a great post here, outlining free Christian and non-christian sites as well as linking to some Christian sites where you need to pay for resources.

Here’s my rant though, why would these large churches charge for their content when they are raking in the money? Call me cynical but when I see much smaller churches and ministries given stuff out for free, it makes these large & charging churches look like parasites. Anyway, I have told myself not to be so critical so I’ll go and scream in a room with egg carton insulation.

My favorites listed at churchrelevance.com include:

creativemyk.com is a new and growing site offering a image related resources. Be sure to check it out and visit often as new stuff is being added all the time.

LifeChurch.tv This is a Church I really like in regards to it’s philosophy of sharing materials. They have a tonne of material ready to go for you to use in your church or small group setting.

But my new discovery via churchrelevance.com is a ministry called Muddy River Media. This website rocks and, after registering, provides a bunch of material available for free download. They host their previews on YouTube and here is a taste of what’s available:

Medical Science: I couldn’t resist this one as I make a living flogging products for bleeding disorders:

Vine & Branches: One of my favourite topics in the Bible.

Worship Background: Those of us in the media ministry know how hard it is to spice things up. Well have a look at what this site does to spice up things for free!

I really enjoy the growing move within Christianity to share resources. After all, we are one body. When’s the last time your heart said to your leg, “Hi dude. I’m gonna charge you $2.00/liter of blood I supply to you!”

C’mon Christians! Spread the love and talent around!