A year of 9s - 1979

A life of 9s – 1979

Several significant events in my Christian life happened in years that ended in 9. These are 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009 and now 2019. This post recalls the second of those events.

20^th April 1979

This was day of my ordination as a Presbyterian minister. It happened at St John’s Presbyterian Church Hayes St Henty NSW. It was conducted by the Presbytery of Wagga Wagga with my parents present and also Paul Cooper from Finley attending.

Before that day

The previous post told of my awakening to personal faith in 1969. At that time, I had started studying for an economics degree at the University of Sydney on a NSW government scholarship to be a secondary school economics teacher.

That project came to a conclusion at the end of 1970:

(a)   I lost interest in things economic for things divine. I gave much time to my own growth in Christian understanding and quickly became involved in youth group leadership.

(b)   The economics faculty shifted to a quantitative model which meant lectures taught by a new range of lecturers whose accents I struggled to understand and whose approach mystified my non-mathematical mind. So, while doing well in subjects like government (offered entry to the honours programme) and industrial relations, I bombed out in the core economic units.

The outcome was to leave economics and FT study at the end of 1970. After a brief period working as a hospital orderly ,I worked for Robert Bryce and Co (industrial chemical wholesalers) in sales support for two years.

During this period, I married Glenda and rose through the ranks of the local, regional and state level Presbyterian Fellowship of Australia. I also preached my first sermon.

1971-72 were thus formative and prescient with marriage and the start of serious ministry. They were my growing up years.

By this time Glenda and I already had a sense that my future would be in employed ministry. So, when I switched to part time studies for an Arts degree at Sydney Uni, I chose philosophy and history as good background to later theological studies. Combining FT work, PT study, weekend ministry and marriage made life busy.

By mid 1972 the need for choice arose. My employer spoke to me about training as an executive and including study at Harvard. The people that gave me the teacher training scholarship wanted me back in teacher training and Christian friends were suggesting employed ministry. There was really only one choice and I so I applied for, and was accepted as a candidate for Presbyterian ministry.

I returned to university full time in 1973 with a clear sense of purpose. Glenda worked as a school teacher to enable this. As an honours student I had freedom to shape my studies in the direction of reformation era and evangelical church history and chose philosophy options to fit with ministry.

Meantime I preached weekly or twice weekly in long term supply ministries in the southern and western suburbs of Sydney. This built my preaching skills and gave grounded ministry experience.

During 1975 the question arose as to where to do theological studies. The realistic options were Moore Theological College or Sydney University School of Divinity. From our own considerations and the advice of others I opted for the Sydney BD. It was thought good to have some evangelical study there (against a background that saw some regard evangelicals as dim-witted) and it was a good follow on from my BA. So, to the BD it was from 1976-78. The spiritual tone was low, the theological range was very wide and there was no practical ministry component. In fact, I studied none of the things that I later taught as lecturer in ministry and practice at a theological college. Church requirements saw me do one year of field ministry training in a fairly dispiriting location, after which I declared that I would do no more of this and returned to supply preaching. Ironically, I was later to supervise the field education ministry training that I had opted out of.

In late 1978 the question of where I would be posted on graduation arose. The way the system worked is that the student went to a meeting, was given a list of churches, asked to rank three and then a church committee took the decision. Of course, we students had talked and had figured out several of the places on this list. So, I went to the meeting and made my choices (the place I hoped for was not on the list at all). I was rung a few days later and offered one place that I declined and was then told I would go to Henty.

I had never heard of Henty. I could not find it on a map. I then found there was nowhere to stay for a weekend visit. So, the fact that I had not asked to go there and could not find it was potentially unsettling. We consoled ourselves with the thought that God was in charge. Then we went to church the following Sunday at Ashfield (where we lived). An elderly man shuffled up and introduced himself as the retired minister of Culcairn (16k from Henty) and said that he had watched me and had been praying for the last year that we would go to Henty.

Wow! That meant we went to Henty with high purpose.

Henty was a town of just 1,000 people. The church had preaching centres at Cookardinia, Yerong Creek, Woodend and Pleasant Hills and Lockhart was soon added. That meant some long Sundays with much driving. The area was dominated by family farms of about 1000 acres and with mixed cropping and livestock.

I had lived in Hay as a child so this was not altogether unfamiliar to me. Glenda had never lived in a rural setting and we entered a learning curve. Two of our children were born there (one was earlier born in Sydney) and so we settled into family life.

The church had recently undergone change as about half the congregation left to join the Uniting Church. Its determination to survive helped created commitment to my ministry and patience as I made the very big transition from academic study and PT city ministry to FT rural ministry. My ministry was shaped by a weekly sermon preached two or three times over, teaching religious education in several local schools and pastoral visitation. I soon also became involved in wider denominational affairs, but that is a story for the next post.

April 20^th 1979.

After I arrived in the church as a licentiate in February 1979, the issue of a Call from the congregation soon arose. I was dutifully called, accepted it and so a date was set for my ordination.

A major hiccup arose when I said I would not wear the then customary clerical robes (I had written on this issue in 1975). My reasons were mainly theological and related to a view that the minister was different from the rest of the church only on functional grounds and that special clerical dress implied an ontological distinction. The local church may not have grasped my reasons but seemed untroubled by the issue. It was different however with my interim-moderator, who was also presbytery moderator who state moderator. And so, there was a period of a few weeks when the ordination seemed in doubt. I was prepared not be ordained and would not budge … and so the ordination happened.

Making sense of it all

The ordination meant little to me. I had been ordained as an elder in 1976 and saw the 1979 event as little more than an extension of that. Further, I had been preaching and effectively caring for churches for several years on a part-time basis and already had a sense of ministerial identity.

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A life of 9s – 1969

A life of 9s – 1969

Several significant events in my Christian life happened in years that ended in 9. These are 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009 and now 2019. This post recalls the first, and most significant of those.

It is March 1969 and I am soon to turn 18. I am seated in a corner of the lounge room of a house at 12 George St Liverpool one evening. It was a planning meeting for a regional church camp at which I had a minor role. Across from me, the speaker was summarising his talks. I vividly recall thinking “this guy really believes this stuff” and a micro-second later thinking “so do I”. And so, I realised that I was a Christian.

Behind that day

It was not always thus. 

My dad was a Presbyterian minister. When I was born, I went home from hospital to a Presbyterian Manse and thence to a childhood and adolescence lived within the church.

I dutifully went to countless church services, said grace at mealtimes, graduated through Sunday School, Pathfinders Club and into the local PFA (youth group). Aged 15 I was appointed to teach a Sunday School class and stumbled through lessons as my first exercise in teaching something to someone. I recall occasional prayer for divine help in some minor duty in the PFA group. Aged around 16 I passed through a confirmation class, took the vows and became a church member without great awareness or conviction.

I would not say that I was a pagan at this time, but rather someone with a second hand faith that was lived through my parents. There was nothing vital about my soul and I was religious rather than Christian. I don’t suppose that my behaviour was worse than many teenagers of my era, but my conscience only troubled me occasionally.

Aged 17 there were some spiritual stirrings. A slightly older man with strong and definite Christian convictions joined the youth group. This encouraged others to show themselves including a particular girl from a non-Christian home. I didn’t know what was going on, but was blindsided and perplexed. I knew they had something that I didn’t and, furthermore resented it. I was the minister’s son and thought I had a monopoly of religious status in the group’s pecking order.

I argued against this man and his ilk with fervour. To worsen my attitude, the girl mentioned above went out with me briefly then dropped me – in part, because she saw through my religious veneer. Bah – my first girlfriend was gone!

In late 1969 I finished secondary schooling and had a few months waiting to see what came next. My hopes to train as a military officer were on hold because of my young age and so I applied for a scholarship to do a uni course that would qualify me as a secondary teacher of economics. While waiting for uni I held short-term jobs in a post office and then a factory.

Christmas 1968: my parents gave me a new RSV Bible (that’s what happens when your dad is a pastor). My menial occupations over that summer left plenty of brain time and so I started reading the thing. And kept reading. And then started asking questions and talking with the  man mentioned above. God was searching me out.

And so I was led to that corner of a lounge room in March 1969.

After that day

I recall going home that night and knowing something big was different. I sat up quite late reading my Bible, praying and making some notes.

That became my pattern with some intensity. I could not read enough of the Bible and Christian literature and routinely sat up into the small hours. Within a few months I wrote 200 pages of handwritten commentary notes on John’s Gospel. I bought and devoured L Berkhof’s full Systematic Theology and still see it on my study bookshelf as I write this post.

I soon became very active in the youth group and started on a path of ministry and leadership roles that have developed over the years and which will be spoken of more in later posts.

My intellectual interest in Christian things crowded out my studies in economics (God replacing mammon?) and I was to have a time out from economics studies and a shift to a different programme within two years.

Meanwhile, the girl who had dumped me came back into my life with weeks of March 1969 and we agreed to resume our relationship with an expectation of marriage. That happened soon enough, but fortunately this did not wait for the next year of 9s.

I, of course, had much to learn about being a Christian. I recall thinking that now that I believed, I no longer needed Jesus. I soon discovered otherwise as any young man will. I am sure I was an irritating, opinionated precocious prat to my parents and people around me as I opined on matters religious with forceful arguments that brooked no alternates. God yet had much to do, but he had started the journey that continues in 2019.

Making sense of March 1969

I don’t see March 1969 as my conversion from pagan unbelief. However, it certainly was the year of my spiritual awakening.

My parents’ faith became my own.

I moved from second hand faith to first hand.

I moved from being religious to being Christian.

I read my story through that of Jacob in Genesis 28, when a careless son of covenant- keeping parents came home to the Lord of the covenant.

And I say that this was all of God’s doing. I quite expect that ,without his Spirit leading me to the Bible, placing those people around me, I would have drifted along asleep. Doubtless the outward form of religion would have stayed with me as it was so deeply ingrained from childhood. But this was the Age of Aquarius and I expect that in time I would have drifted to one or another of the idols of my day.

So that is my testimony from March 1969. All else about my life since is shaped by that evening 50 years ago this month.

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Where is home?

Where is home?

In the last month I have caught six international flights, crossed time zones seven times, slept in eight different beds and been in four different countries.  Meanwhile my family is scattered across three different parts of Australia and in Vietnam. As I write I am checked in to fly again to a foreign land today. Late next week I fly to yet a different country and have five beds in eight days.

So, where is home? Is it my official residential address, at which I will spend just seven nights out of 49? Or Singapore where I will spend 10 put of the 49? Or the place where my wife is?

From past reflections I have concluded that:

·       Home is every place where I have lived.

·       Home is where I sleep tonight.

·       Home is my official address.

·       Home is where loved ones are.

These multiple senses of home enable me to make sense of my “where” which contributes to my sense of “who”. Both are important for a sense of groundedness.

That earthly sense of home matters because this life matters.

I also have an eternal sense of home that contributes to my where and who. My eternally real home is with God through his grace in Christ. That has an earthly aspect, for one can be “home” with him here. And it has eternal aspect, for I anticipate the dwelling of many rooms where there is one with my nameplate etched for eternity.

Where is home? It is wherever I am with my God.

An ordinary Sunday

An ordinary Sunday

It was a smallish town in the midst of an unusually hot summer, and it was that “dead” space between Christmas and New year. That nation was in its usual summer sleep and gave little interest even to the traditional; MCG cricket test (“great time to invade” is often said).

However, it was a Sunday.

30-40 people gathered in a local church. They were mostly older, and many knew each other over many years. There was no musician, so the singing accompaniment was YouTube. An elder in his 70s was preaching. His offering was faithful to the text and warm in his application – a ‘straight bat’ kind of sermon without flair or fancy tricks. The kids talk (two kids present) was apt to the season and the pastoral prayer had a global focus.

All in it was the kind of gathering hardly worth writing about … a bit like an ordinary meal that creates no memories and generates no lingering ‘wow’.

However, it was a gathering of the bride of Christ. And he was present through his Spirit in the ordinariness of familiar routines. We left, reminded of higher things and called to live in their light as a new year loomed. It was a bit like an ordinary meal that nourishes its diners for the coming days.

My point? The gatherings of God’s people are often like this – embarrassingly ordinary. Our yearning to have ears tickled and senses stimulated by dazzling gatherings of large numbers may blind us to the reassure that is before our eyes. Christ may be as much present and working in the ordinariness of the forgettable Sunday as in the memorable event that resembles Pentecost.

The dummy's guide to church planting

The Dummy’s Guide to church planting

So, you want to plant a church.

Great!

You could work alongside a church planter, read some books, do a course, attend conferences or hook up with a network for some assessment or training.

Or, you can read this post and follow these tips.

LOCATION

Find an area where there are already many church plants that are doing okay. After all, if they could do it there, the ground is fertile, and you may as well join in. Avoid areas where churches are thin on the ground as they are clearly the rocky soil of the parable and your pearls will fall to unappreciative swine.

For a flying start, choose a location with hipster cafes and a craft brewery – that almost guarantees that you will be the next star.

PEOPLE

This one is tricky.

Pastors who say they support you fully, may try to offload their problem people to you. Don’t fall for that and don’t take other’s discards.

Instead, do some advance networking in select churches and cherry pick the best people. That’s the willing workers who will influence others and who can help pay the bills.

While having some diversity looks good in your promo picks, too much diversity can be counterproductive. The best bet is to collect a group of uni students and graduates born not much earlier than 1990. They tend to have lots of energy and are ready to follow the leaders who inspire them without asking too many questions … so long as you are attentive to their needs.

Do have some good filters to encourage certain types of people that another church may be best for them. You know the ones ... they are ‘different’, ask too many questions and have ideas of their own. Proactive greeting is a good way to keep these certain types at bay.

STYLE AND TONE

This is really important, and we suggest your church has a digital stylist. Think logo and slogan; colours; fonts and layouts. Match it to your community. Be aspirational. Have a style that hints at something higher without being too specific about it.

Music is a special part of your style.  The play list doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to match your audience. nothing earlier than 2,000 in composition please (after all, the Bible urges us to sing a new song unto the Lord). Reserve the front of stage posts for the younger and more attractive musicians. Some cute girls and spunky guys is a good look. A drummer is essential.

DIGITAL PRESENCE

We know a church that existed in its digital presence for some time before anything actually happened. We’re not suggesting a purely virtual church, but do observe that a good Facebook, twitter and Instagram feed can cover a multitude of sins.

MESSAGE

Okay, you stand for the age-old message and have nothing to do with that liberal nonsense.

Great!

But you still need to be all things to all people. Discard the dross and focus on the core. What do you really stand for – what is the irreducible minimum message? Once you have that, think how to express it. You don’t want to raise barriers or give needless offense, so take care to make the message short, memorable and positive. If you give it from a trendy perspex stand and with slides that capture the “how did he do that?” feeling, it really doesn’t matter what you say.

READY TO GO

Go for it!

Assemble the launch team; give them plenty of food, sound like you have a vision and go launch. With a bit of luck, you’ll last long enough to write a post like this and be an expert.

On second thoughts, maybe you had best read the books, apprentice yourself to a church planter and hook up to the assessment and support networks.

Just friends?

Just friends?

Many of us have many friendships but we may not think much about them or value them highly. Are we ‘just friends’?

The Christian Bible gives examples of friendships, such as that of David and Jonathon (1 Sam 18:3) and Jesus with Lazarus, Mary and Martha (eg, Jn 11:3). The Bible also speaks about friendship.

Just some of the many sayings are:

·      A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. (Pvb 17:17)

·      … there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Pvb 18:24)

·      Wounds from a friend can be trusted, … (Prvb 27:6)

·      … the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.  (Pvb 27:9)

·      As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Pvb 27:17)

Discussion of friendship needs broader perspective.

God, in Trinity, embodies relationship in which the persons are distinct (eg, Jn 15:26) yet are one (eg, Jn 10:30). Its no surprise that, as creatures made in his likeness, we humans are made not to be alone (Gen 2:18). That latter text leads into a discussion of marriage which, is many ways, is the epitome of not being alone (Gen 2:18-25).

However, marriage is not for all, for many will be single by circumstances, calling or choice (eg, Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:32-38). Nor does marriage exhaust the possibilities of Gen 2:18 and our need of complementary companionship. In a day when (in the west, anyway) relationships seem in flux, are constructed in many different ways and when many people are never married or no longer married, there is a place to rediscover Christian friendship.

Friendship is not just a topic for singles. The primary human relationship of a married person is their spouse. There needs to be an iron gate around the marriage, for it is a private space that belongs to the partners alone. But is it a reasonable expectation that marriage meets all needs of its partners and excludes friendships? That may be too heavy a load for most marriage to bear. The happily married and their marriages can benefit from friendships by the partners, whether individually or together. And even those who do marry will spend much of their lives as singles, both before marriage and after marriage ends.

The bottom line is that none of us are made to be alone and friendship is one way of addressing that social need. We all need and gain from friends.

The verses quoted above give some picture of what a Biblically-shaped friendship looks like.

·      Christian friendship is close (Pvb 18:24)

·      Christian friendship is loving (Pvb 17:17)

·      Christian friendship is truthful, even when it hurts (Pvb 27:6&9)

·      Christian friendship builds both parties up (Pvb 27:17)

This is quite different to friendships shaped by fallen humanity which may be characterised by superficiality, double dealing, falsehoods and which may cover up misdeeds. Christ-shaped friendship brings truth and love together for mutual good and in ways that serve God and others.

Friendships are crafted one by one. Each has its own shape that may change with time and circumstances. Each will have its challenges and friendship can be damaging and even sinful (for they are made between fallen people).

Friendships cannot satisfy our longing for the divine and should not be idolised.  However, friendship is part of the way that God address a deep creational need for companionship and ultimately points to the friendship with God which is our deepest need and greatest satisfaction.

It’s never “just friends”.

Escaping the (phone) cell

Escaping the (phone) cell

A friend recently asked what was the most life-changing innovation of the last 20-25 years. Several answered ‘the cell phone”.

It’s an amazing device. My cell phone cost 1/20^th of the cost of my first computer but has immeasurably more capability (and fits in my pocket). With a push of my finger on the fingerprint pad, I’m ‘in’. Another click or two and the world is my oyster as I access websites, download boarding passes and movie tickets, correspond with global friends, access anything on my computer and more.

However, it’s amazing nature conceals a dark side. It’s addictive! I’ve never tried crack, but figure that a cell phone can hook you in just as effectively. Are you sitting in a dull meeting – then use your phone to check into the world. Is the church service going too long – under the cover of accessing a phone Bible, have a look at Facebook or next week’s diary. And so it goes. As someone says, with a cell phone you can be present everywhere but where you are and with everyone but the person next to you.

There’s another dark side. A cell phone can change our internal wiring. The immediacy of smartphone multi-tasking breeds a fidgety spirit in which we become incapable of focussing on one task at a time and for an extended time even if we are nowhere near our phone.

What to do? One solution is to ditch the cell phone and go back to an old analogue phone. Or lock your cell phone in another place at times. Or turn it off. Or throw it in a bucket of water.

Here’s a few more practical thoughts on overcoming the addiction:

• Put the phone to silent or aeroplane mode when driving, talking with someone, at a meeting and especially when you go to bed (how many us see the phone screen last thing when we sleep and first thing when we wake?)
• Go on a phone-fast, just as you may fast from other permissible things in order to foster self-discipline or to make space for other things. Start small, say half an hour, then build it up.

What about the fidgety distractedness that makes us restless even when our phone is not at hand?

Here we can turn the cell phone back on itself. Choose a task (just one) that you want to focus on for a set period of time. Turn your phone to silent (or plane mode) and set the phone timer to your chosen period. Don’t get up and wander about; or pick up something else, or do anything else but the chosen task until the timer beeps. Then give yourself a break to walk about, check what needs to be checked and then repeat. and repeat and repeat until undistracted focus on a single task becomes a skill recovered. This can be realy hard at first and then become liberating!

Little steps like this can stop the cell phone becoming an entrapping cell and instead be the amazing device that it really is.

Must go … my timer beeps!