The English reformation 101
It’s been pretty quiet over here. College/Life has been very busy in 2nd semester.
I have my final exam for 2012 this today. It’s Church history, on the English reformation.
Here are some of my study aids. Thanks to the BBC.
Live Streaming #AMCL 2012
Each year at Moore College there is an event called the Moore College Annual Lectures (AMCL for short, or #AMCL if you are on twitter).
Since I became part of a Student Group, which helps the college promotes itself, we have been looking at ways of making AMCL more accessible for people who either can’t get to Newtown to hear the lectures or those who live outside of Sydney/Australia.
Last night our efforts culminated in the first ever live video broadcast of the college. This year Rev Chris Green from Oak Hill College, London is giving lectures of Preaching. His first lecture from last night is available here.
AMCL commences proper next Monday morning at 10am (Sydney time). Follow us on twitter, or ‘Like’ us on facebook to get all the details.
Its exam time again. [Updated]
Exams are here again.
These photos are about all I can muster at the moment in terms of a blog post.
Please pray for me 
Timelapse of the #eastcoastlow
Yesterday I was sitting in the Moore College library as a massive storm from was about to pass through Sydney.
I thought I would shoot a timelapse of the event. In the process the video got picked up by the ABC. They even said I was clever
Anyway, here it is.
Playing with time-lapse video.
Yesterday I posted some photos from my recent trip up to Guyra for MooreMission 2012.
While we were there we did lots of driving. I decided I would take advantage of this by playing around with some time-lapse video.
Here is my first attempt.
Highlights include the Ebor falls and us changing a tyre on my car because I put a nail though it. Exciting stuff!!
MooreMission 2012
A couple of weeks ago I went on MooreMission 2012. You can learn more here.
I took a few photos during the week.
Here are some of them.
MooreMission 2012 is here
It’s that time of year again. The time of year I am talking about is when all of Moore College put down all of the books about systematic theology, and goes out to do MooreMission.
This year MooreMission is bigger and better than ever. A friend and I have built a website to be the online hub for blogging and tweeting, and Anglican media are getting involved too.
I’m especially looking forward to Mission this year because:
a) Kirsty is coming along
b) We are heading to country NSW (Glen Innes, Guyra & Emmaville)
Tomorrow we are driving north to spend a night with Kirsty’s cousins in Coffs, before continuing on to Guyra on Saturday afternoon.
If you want to keep up to date with what is happening you can:
a) Follow all the action on twitter by looking at #mooremission
b) Head over to the website
How to use twitter if you aren’t John Piper
[Disclaimer: I actually quite like John Piper. I have learnt much of his teaching of the bible. The title of this is a shameless attempt to get you to a) click the link to this post and then to b) read this post]
The other day I wrote a post, about how Christian organisations could use digital and social media. I thought it would be a good idea for me to write something, kind of as a follow up, about how you could use twitter as an individual.
I have been on twitter for 3 years. In that time I have sent over 5000 tweets. I got a twitter account because it was something new, and another way to keep in touch with friends. If you are on twitter, your story might be similar. At first I didn’t really know what twitter was even for. I had facebook, it was 2009, facebook was kind of a big deal.
In those three years I have seen lots of different ways that people use twitter. Firstly, I don’t think there is a set way to use twitter, but there are some different approaches that I think are better, especially in relation for how Christians use twitter.
With that in mind, I think I have seen five main ways that Christians use twitter.
First: Using twitter for broadcast
This approach is often taken by pastors of large churches, mostly from the United States. Im specifically thinking about John Piper & Mark Driscoll among others. This approach often has very limited one-on-one engagement. Most of these people have over 50,000 followers, which can make one-on-one engagement difficult. These people generally use twitter to broadcast their events, publicise the release of their new book or to write daily reflections. Given their influence and follower count this could be a good way to use twitter as one-on-one engagement is hard and very time consuming.
With everything there are exceptions. In this case, the exception to this is Ed Stetzer. He has 54,000 followers, and on the most part he is really good at engaging with people who mention him. Ed recently came to Moore College to give a lecture on how churches can engage their members in meaningful ministry. There were lots of tweets going back and forth between Ed and some of the students at Moore College. Some of it was people thanking him for the lecture, some was just humour. Regardless of the content, he responded, either giving thanks for the feedback or joining in with joke that was made. Ed took the time to engage with, and learn from those who had taken the time to engage with him and his content.
Second: Using twitter as facebook.
The second approach is this: people use a feature in either facebook or twitter which automatically cross posts to either platform.
It works like this: If you post something on facebook, facebook will automatically post that status update to twitter. There is also a feature in twitter which can cross post your tweet to facebook. This approach makes using social media a little easier. Just like the first approach, this approach often means that engagement with others is limited. In many ways it is similar to the first approach. People broadcast what they want, but because they are only really using one platform, their engagement with BOTH platforms are limited. If I am already friends with you Facebook, why should I bother following you on twitter? The content will be the same.
Third: Not using your twitter account at all.
The third approach is fairly simple. You set up a twitter account a while ago, you sent some tweets, then you stopped sending tweets. No engagement because you aren’t actually using the account anymore. Fairly simple.
Fourth: Using twitter to engage with other Christians.
The people who take this fourth approach usually like to use twitter, and they have seen the benefits that it has for building friendships and community. They send tweets around the topics of Live sermon tweets, things that are happening in their lives e.g ‘my train is running late today’ & ‘thankful for a great catch up with a good friend today’, posting bible verses from apps like the ESV iPhone app to talking about sport, food and music they like.
These people generally enjoy a high level of engagement with Christian brothers and sisters. Usually around the topics I mentioned above. These people usually follow Christians alone, and are followed by Christians alone.
Fifth: Using twitter to engage with everyone.
This last approach contains almost everything from approach four. The main difference is that there is a much wider scope of the topics that they will tweet about. This is particularly powerful because they enable the Christian voice to be heard in a space in which it might not be heard otherwise. These broader topics might include the current poker machine debate, the legislation to get SRE (Special religious education) out of public schools (in NSW) or they might be able to speak into Gay marriage debates and engage helpfully with people on the issue.
If done correctly this person follows plenty of Non-Christian people, and in-turn, they are followed by lots of non-christian people. They are able to keep up with how people, yes people, are currently thinking about the world. Which will help as this person seeks to practice apologetics. The person using the fifth approach is usually in tune with political temperature of their region, and they engage on a wide range of issues with a wide range of people. Even people they disagree with.
How I use twitter:
I think the fifth approach is the best way for Christian people to be involved on twitter. Personally I actually follow more Non-Christian people than Christian. This is because of a few reasons. I think alot of Christians use twitter for broadcast, plenty of Christians also do the facebook cross post thing and lots of Christians don’t use their twitter accounts at all.
These approaches usually mean that Christians don’t generally engage with anyone in a meaningful way. I’m all about using twitter to engage with people and I think that twitter presents a huge opportunity to engage with real people about real issues. I love having the opportunity to engage with people that I might not of been able to otherwise.
Recently I got to have lunch with someone who I only know through interaction on twitter. This person wasn’t a Christian, and over lunch we got to chat about his family, politics and then Jesus. It was a conversation that would not of happened if I hadn’t of engaged with him like a normal person on twitter first. If I hadn’t of shown interest in him as a person first.
I have heard of lots of examples just like this. Gospel conversations happening through interaction and engagement through twitter.
In Conclusion
The temptation for Christians is to rubbish the possibilities of technology, or to simply ignore the possibilities all together. This could because they don’t even see the possibilities of what this technology could achieve. Technology has a huge possibility for furthering the message of Jesus. Christians need to make sure they are not a barrier to that happening.
So at this point, I want to encourage you to think about how you are going to use twitter. I would like to encourage you to think abut how you can use things like twitter better. To use twitter within your means. To use twitter realistically. If you aren’t John Piper don’t use twitter like John Piper.
Finally
If you are someone who would like to know more about how you can use Digital and Social media, some of us at Moore College are planning on running some Digital Ministry training workshops over the course of the year. If you’re a minister and would like to attend a student-run workshop, we’d love to have you.
You can register your interest on the form below:
Just warning you, this post is about twitter.
Recently, I inadvertently started a passionate discussion around the topic of tweeting during sermons with this tweet.
This morning John Woodhouse is continuing his series in 1 Timothy. You can follow tweets at #MTCchapel – esv.to/1Tim6.11-16. ~ @stevenst
If you want to, you can read all about it here.
In this post I wanted to outline some of the back story and strategy around how my college uses social and digital avenues to further the gospel and the appearance of our college. I don’t write this so you will think we are doing digital and social really well. As you will see further down, we are just having some fun and trying new things. I write this so that you might feel encouraged to try some new things at your church or organization.
On a personal note. If you are serving as a pastor or minister in a Church, I believe you need to have a plan about how you will engage and approach the areas of social and digital media. If you church doesn’t have a plan, it can lead to un-welcomed and un-engaged people. I have found this, this and this to be very helpful as i have done some thinking about these topics. The plan at your church might be to not engage in these ways. I think that is actually fine, I’m thankful that you have given it thought.
Anyway, back on topic. I go to Moore College. Our twitter handle is @moorecollege if you want to follow us. The twitter account is run by a team of students and faculty. Our team is made up of @thebiblebasher, @const500, @delantyj, @timmyclemens, @WatchmanJames, @katiebolton and myself (@stevenst). The account was started on the 21st of April 2009 by ‘all around nice guy’ Dave (@davemiers).
First the back story.
Each year Moore College participates in an event which we call Moore Mission. Simply put, groups of students and faculty are sent out to various parts of Australia (and occasionally the world) to partner with churches in running local missions that proclaim Jesus.
In the past (up until 2011) there had been fairly good engagement individually on social networks about mission. The social networks that were implemented were the student run mission blog and individual peoples use of twitter. The topics of the tweets included things like prayer requests, encouraging stories of people learning about Jesus and some included personal tweets about things that individual students were learning from their experiences. While this engagement was good, it had no real traction in the wider college community. This lack of traction was partly due to the college not utilising its social networks to raise the profile of the exciting things that were happening during the mission and therefore the profile of the college.
It left some of us (students and faculty) asking the questions like, ‘Why we didn’t utilise these networks better?’, ‘Why were there no re-tweets from the college account’. These questions continued which lead some of us to another question, ‘How can we do things differently moving forward?’
Second, The strategy.
What happened after was the identification of several students who had professional backgrounds in digital and social media. This group were given the ok to try some new things on the web with the hope of a) increasing the online presence of the college and its activities, b) give a glimpse of the day-to-day college experience and the great things God has blessed students with; as well as the work He is doing through Moore College, and c) explore new ways of using digital and social media with a view to educating others about these things by example and formal training sessions.
While these aims may broaden in the future, this is what we are currently trying to do and we’re having fun asking ‘How can we use technology for the glory of God and the building-up of His Kingdom?’.
The article I linked to at the beginning of this post related to something we tried to do 2 weeks ago. It was related to the use of twitter to write notes and reflections from sermons and other activities where teaching is involved. While there has been some passionate discussion around this topic, I see it as a positive that people in Sydney are starting to think about how social and digital media can be used by churches. I say Sydney, because, for some reason, we seem to be a little behind the rest of the world on this stuff. If you are a pastor or a ministry leader, can I encourage you to think about the areas of social and digital media? Even if you decide that you wont use it. A non existent twitter account is better than one that is never used.
If you feel like you need some help in these areas, we are planning on running some Digital Ministry training workshops over the course of the year. If you’re a minister and would like to attend a student-run workshop, we’d love to have you.
You can register your interest on the form below:
Time for something with meaning.
It has been a while since I posted anything of any real meaning on here. That is largely due to an almost non-stop summer of activity. Here are the quick highlights.
- We finished up at family church in mid December.
- Christmas happened.
- Tyro has been mental. See some of the stuff we have been doing here.
- We went on beach mission. We were the cooks. It was mental. Good mental, but still mental.
- A bit of time was spent getting ready for college starting again.
- Kirsty started a new job.
- I started a new job as a student minister at an Anglican Church in Cammeray.
- Australia dominated in the test series.
Pretty much sums it up. Normal service will now resume.
Saying goodbye
One of the most difficult things about being at bible college is also being a student minister. Ok, not the actual job of being a student minister, that is great. I’m talking about the reality of moving around a couple of different churches over your time at college.
I am planing on being at college for four years, which means, being at roughly three different churches over that time. The breakdown then ends up being, two churches for one year and one church for two years.
Recently Kirsty and I made the difficult decision to finish up were we have been serving for this year, St Ives Family Church. It was a hard decision. But it is one that brings with it lots of excitement as we think about being able to meet with a new church.
We have just done a whole heap of our ‘last things’. A few weeks ago we had our last bible study leaders lunch, we have both had our last bible studies (me with the mens group, and Kirsty with her mixed bible study) and this coming week we are having our last Sunday morning.
One of the highlights of these last things was the opportunity for me to preach my last sermon, which happened last Sunday. I preached on Love from 1 Corinthians 13. I encouraged them to continue to be a church that continues to, a) Love each other and b) Love their community.
Family church has been a church that has shown so much love to Kirsty and I. We love this church. Leaving is hard.
p.s my sermon is below if you want to listen to it. note: my mic dies around the 6 minute mark, but it gets replaced with a much better one after then. I promise.
p.p.s as of the end of January I will be working as a student minister at the Cammeray site of Naremburn Cammeray Anglican Church. We are really looking forward to it!
A video from Unearthed Pictures.
I’m back. Exams are done. First year of college is done. Time to get back to posing. I have a fair bit of stuff to share over the next 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to it.
Firstly, I wanted to share this video with you from Unearthed pictures. It is about Unearthing sexual exploitation of women. Before you watch the video, here are some quotes from The Resurgence blog.
When Unearthed was formed, we had our hearts set on producing a documentary that would expose the mechanics of the global sex trade. For a solid year, we traveled, filmed, raided brothels, rescued victims, and had our hearts crushed by the magnitude of sexual brokenness that surrounded us. You can watch some of that work here.
We all have responsibility to the victims of this injustice, and we’re thrilled that 85% of the money that comes into our doors goes right back out to some of the best organizations in the world that rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate the women & children that live in this hell.
Jacob’s story in the video [below] isn’t an isolated incident. Jesus is continually transforming abusers into protectors; addicts into free men and traffickers into rescuers. Over the next year, we’re creating a film called The Hearts of Men. It’s a raw, unfiltered examination of how sin distorts sex, who’s affected, and how the Gospel changes all of it. We know that to win this war, we need to engage men and right now they aren’t just asleep on the battlefield, they’re fornicating on it. A generation of God’s sons need to be reminded who they are in Christ: chosen, washed, sanctified, and justified.
Now watch the video.
I’ll be on twitter if you need me…
I have exams coming up in the next 3 weeks. I need to study hard. See you in a bit.
Have Faith. An update.
One of the reasons I started this site was to keep our friends updated of how life was going while Kirsty and I go through Bible college. (Kirsty isn’t actually studying at college, but she is still heavily involved. If you catch my drift. Hence, we are both going through college)
I wanted to write an update to tell you how things have been going recently for us. So here goes. Sorry, this post is long and doesn’t have a fancy video.
College has been busy, much busier than I had thought it would be. Managing college work, seeing family, seeing friends, church work, secular holiday work, starting tyro designs and spending time together as a married couple has been a steep learning curve. I don’t pretend to have mastered this yet, but our friends are gracious when we can’t see them, and our families are even more forgiving when we seem absent or exhausted. We are extremely thankful for this.
At the same time as being busy, this year has been excellent. The stuff I have learnt this year will prove to be valuable into the future, and the friendships we have made at college have been a real encouragement to us both. Our Church this year has been a real highlight of our ministry together. Ministering to the people of St Ives Family Church has been a delight and a privilege, and we have been greatly encouraged by our brothers and sisters there.
One of the most difficult parts of this year has been the status of Kirsty’s job. Kirsty works in the public health system, where she is a Speech Pathologist, helping young kids speak. Kirsty got the job at the end of 2010, and it has been a blessing. Both financially and relationally (She is working as a locum for another speechie on maternity leave). A difficultly presented itself a few months ago when we heard the news that the woman Kirsty was replacing was returning to work. Because of this Kirsty’s job looked like it might be terminated. The prospects of this were scary. We were tentatively making arrangements to move back in with one of our parents.
In the midst of this, there was a slight prospect that her job might be extended for a period of time, but we sat in limbo for weeks. Not knowing what the outcome might be, we did what we have always done in times of uncertainty. We prayed. We prayed, and trusted that God would work the situation out in the way that he wanted. Trusting in and having faith in God is not something that is foreign to us. In faith, Kirsty and I have made all of our plans in the last few years focused on God and based on what we think God would have us do. There have been numerous times that these decisions have caused stress, mostly financial stress, but still stress. This was another period of that. God has always worked things out for us. Wether it has been where we are going to live or work, God has always provided for us.
To cut a really long story, long. Once again God has answered our prayers by once again providing Kirsty with work in the form of an extension. Her contract has been cut from 5 days to 3, but it is still some work. The health sector is a really difficult area to find work in at the moment, so we are thankful for the 3 days she has been given.
I have written this, not to make you think that we are excellent Christian people. Instead I write this so that, if you are a Christian, you might be encouraged by God’s goodness to us in a time where we had faith in him. If you are not a Christian, I would love to encourage you to check out 2 ways to live, in it you will discover that God has done so much more than just provide materially for Kirsty and I. He has done so much more than that for people who have faith in him.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading it.
Love, Tim and Kirsty
1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Edwin Ngubane
Last weekend at church we had the pleasure of having a brother from Africa come and preach. His name is Edwin Ngubane, and he is a bishop in the Anglican Church in South Africa.
He has a truly amazing life story, and an even more amazing story of how he came to believe in Christ. You can learn more about him in this video.
From ancestors to Jesus from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.
He preached the second sermon in our series on prayer from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, the specific section was chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. He was challenging us to think about how, People in the household of God, should act. I found it to be a really helpful sermon, so I thought I would share it.
He also challenged Kirsty and I to think about going to work with him in ministry to students in South Africa. He told me that Moore really should set up an exchange program with GWC. Cheeky.
Video: The Fall, by Dan Stevers
Recently at Church and College we did a series in the book of Genesis. I preached on the city of babel, where God punishes humans for wanting to be independent from him and independent from relying on him for everything that they needed to live.
One of the main events of the book of Genesis is the moment that sin entered the world. This is a brilliant video from Dan Stevers about the events of the fall. Have a look, i thinks it’s pretty cool.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 4
Two weeks ago I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the fourth post in the series.
This fourth and final post will speak about some of the implications for ministering to this sub-culture.
Ministry Implications
For Christian Churches
The main implications that appear for Christian churches in St Ives is the issue that people in the sub-culture have a high level of denominational affiliation, but without the church attendance. Meaning that, a high proportion of people (41.6%) identify somewhat with the Anglican Church, but the church attendance at the Christ Church St Ives and St Ives Family Church do not even come close to this figure. The overall attendance of Christ Church could be identified as being closer to around 1,100 people.
The implication is that, those who are in the sub-culture who are not active Christians simply do not see it as being of much worth to them. Perhaps through their past experience of religious education, they feel affiliated with a particular Christian denomination but they feel that active participation in religion had a time and a place in their lives, and that time was in the past. Regarding this feeling came a few remarks from Richard, who feels like the religious education he received from Barker College taught him really good morals for how he should live his life. But apart from that, he never felt like he actually needed to become a Christian. So a solution for this would be to show the sub-culture the relevance of Christianity for their lives today. It would be effective to show them, it is not a thing of the past that taught them morals for how to live a comfortable and thought out life, but that Jesus is not really concerned with their morals, but more concerned with them accepting him as their Lord and Saviour.
Another barrier for this sub-culture could come from how Christianity is portrayed by the media; media that they are constantly consuming and basing their judgments on. An example of this came recently in the form of a tweet from a prominent Christian leader in Australia, Jim Wallace, the leader of the Australian Christian Lobby. His tweet, which was written on Anzac day said “[I] Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for — wasn’t gay marriage and Islamic!”. Even though he deleted the offending tweet and posted a retraction of the statement soon after, it still caused outrage within the Australian community, and was picked up by news agencies in Australia. Homosexuality is an issue that has been identified by younger demographics, but it could also have implications for the demographic covered in the study.
The individuals in this sub-culture are constantly basing their decisions on the things that they see and hear, and this is another area in which the Church needs to be attuned to when engaging with this culture. The Church, and the Christians in them, need to be ready to discuss and speak about these topics with individuals in this sub-culture. A failure to do this effectively could result in the Church being regarded as out of touch and unaware of what is happening in the world.
For Christian People
The implication for Christian people is for them to be making friends with the men in this sub-culture. This will mean going out of the Christian culture, and Christian structures to meet an engage with people. This might be a difficult thing to engage in because of time constraints, but this year the men in my church have been actively joining various, typically, secular organisations in the St Ives area in a hope of becoming genuine friends with men in the sub-culture. Real examples of these are.
- The P&C association of all the local public schools, in particular the school our church meets in, St Ives North Public School.
- The local Lions Club.
- The Local soccer team.
- Running the school féte during government elections.
Though there are plenty of other opportunities that present themselves, these four focus areas that our church has concentrated on have reaped returns for the kingdom. We have had numerous people, not just from this sub-culture, come to Christ through becoming friends with Christians in these groups. This exciting reality brings another implication for Christians. This implication is a pastoral one.
When someone from this sub-culture becomes a Christian, it is not just enough to leave him to be a Christian. These men have already lived large parts of their lives, and will probably have things that they now regret doing. This new guilt is mixed up with the new joy that they now feel because they are now one of God’s people. The more mature Christian person is in a good position to care for the younger Christian.
Another area of pastoral awareness that Christians should be aware of is the family of the man. This is especially relevant if the man has a non-believing partner, and even more complicated if they have children. The man will need support as he develops as a Christian, women in the church will need to get to know, and invest time into becoming friends with the wife, and the kid’s church leaders will need to welcome the children, and also introduce them to the same Jesus that their father has recently come to believe in.
Conclusion
During this study, I have been reminded of the importance of interacting with non-Christian people in this community. There are many ways that my Church is currently interacting quite well with the community around them, but there is always more work to be done. St Ives is a growing suburb, with new units being built all the time. Due to this, the suburb is facing a large culture shift. The hardest job of the Christian church will be to keep diversifying the way that they operate evangelistically in this change.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 3
Two weeks ago I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the third post in the series.
This third post will mostly speak about the education and the influence of religion of 6 men who I had the pleasure of interviewing for this study. Their names have been changed so that they remain anonymous, because of this I wont be able to post the complete interviews.
Education and Learning
The worldview of this sub-culture also highly values education and the pursuit of knowledge. This was observed in the high value that they place on providing a good education and opportunities for their children. Example of this were observed in the sending of their children to private high schools, providing after school tutoring for their children in the area of Mathematics and English, the importance placed on learning other languages and external music lessons with professional musicians. In the interviewees, this emphasis on education came directly out of their own experience of being educated, as 4 out of the 6 interviewees attended a private education institution.
Influence of religion
The influence of religion on this sub-culture is a large one, although there is no concrete information as to why this is the case. The clue comes in the form of identified religious affiliation in the 2006 census data. There are 4 main religious positions that people take in the suburb of St Ives; and unfortunately we have to examine the entire male population as there is no breakdown by age. The influence of Christianity is quite large in proportion to other religious groups in this sub- culture. In St Ives, 57.2% (3,912) of the male population identify themselves as having Christian affiliation. The other main groups are Judaism (14.2%) and no religious affiliation (16.3%).
With this large percentage of individuals indicating that they have Christian affiliation, you need to ask why this is so. Through my experience, there is nowhere near 50% of the male population walking through church doors each week.
The answer might come through the surrounding religious schools that surround the area. Within a 15 minute drive you can easily get to Barker College at Hornsby, Knox Grammar at Warrawee, and Covenant Christian School in Belrose. Not to mention the Catholic run, Brigidine Girls College, a high school, and Corpus Christi, a catholic primary school; both located in St Ives. These five schools are all Christian run, with Barker being Anglican, Knox being Uniting and Covenant being interdenominational, along with the two Catholic run schools.
This method could account for the high number of identifying Christians in St Ives, but where it runs into problems is when you break the numbers down from the large figure of 3,912. The Anglican and Catholic numbers are a lot more that you might anticipate when compared to the Uniting percentage.
The percentage breakdown is as follows.
- Anglican 41.6%
- Catholic 32.2%
- Uniting 9.8%
Suffering, Exams & A Poker Machine
This post has 3 points,
Point 1. This weekend just past we had our Church Weekend Away. It was a brilliant weekend. We had perfect weather, great accommodation (Crusaders, Galston), and brilliant speaker (Steve Covetz) and an even more brilliant topic (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God). Ill post some of my thoughts after the events of point 2 are completed.
Point 2. This week exams have started at college. Today, us first years had greek. Personally I’m glad it is finished. In 4 days ill be on holidays.
Point 3. During exams I find it really easy to get distracted, so here is a video about Poker Machines. Watch it, than get back to work.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 2
Last week I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the second post in the series.
This second post will mostly speak about the worldview and hierarchy of 6 men who I had the pleasure of interviewing for this study. Their names have been changed so that they remain anonymous, because of this I wont be able to post the complete interviews.
Worldview
The worldview of this sub-culture is as diverse as the people who make it up. The range of men that were interviewed made this evident with their different verbal responses. Another strong indicator of worldview, was how they go about living their lives.
In the interviews that were conducted, a theme of work being integral to their identity kept coming up for each of these men. But what was surprising to me was that it wasn’t just the work that they were doing that was important to them. The question of how they went about doing their work was also hugely important.
William and Richard are both from a working class background and therefore have a strong worldview and work ethic of success coming mostly from your own hard physical work. This is contrasted by the worldview of James, Tim and Anthony in which you gain success mostly through good decision-making. Completely different to these two groups is Tobias, who measures success, not by the possessions that he owns, but by the impact he has had on the world around him.
Ultimately, a prevailing worldview for this sub-culture could be described as an “improvement” worldview. This improvement worldview means that they are constantly striving to improve themselves and their achievements. This can be professional improvement or personal improvement, working towards their ideal job, or training for a marathon. Irrespective of area, they do these things with all their energy until it is completed. After completion, they will find something else to “succeed at”, and then work towards its fulfillment.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy in this sub-culture could be easily classified into two different spheres of life. These two spheres could be thought of as being a Professional sphere, and a Social sphere.
In the professional sphere, the hierarchy is easily defined. In each work place there is a set hierarchy in place. This hierarchy is based on both or either, length of employment and the level of qualification attained by the individual. Individuals in this sub-culture like this system, because it gives them a framework for their self improvement worldview. It also gives them set achievements in which they can work towards.
The social sphere is a little more difficult to describe. While the sphere is still concerned with achieving success, there are many different interests and hobbies with each individual involved in the sub-culture. Outside of the professional sphere, individuals prefer to do away with the rigidity of their Monday to Friday work structures. This might be because of their desire to be involved in activities that they find enjoyment from; training for a marathon, attending football games, playing sport or just spending time with their immediate families. Ultimately they wish to have the freedom to enjoy these activities in a less rigid way than they are used to at work.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 1
It has been a little while. Just over two weeks in fact. I didn’t die, and there isn’t anything wrong. Ive just been super busy with a few things.
Last week I preached at church on Genesis 11:1-9, about the city of babel. Another thing I have been doing has been a project for college titled “Reaching Men, aged 40-54, living in St Ives, with the message of Jesus Christ”. It was 3,300 words of analysis of the sub-culture, and how churches can reach these people with the gospel of Jesus.
This project is something that is close to my heart, and close to the heart of my church. I had a few people express interest in reading what I had come up with. So I thought I would share some of my findings over the next little while, but first I wanted to share some stats with you about this micro culture.
One of the problems that is encountered with using this census data, is that the last census was conducted in 2006. Seeing that there has been no new data collected since, this 2006 data is still the most reliable. The following data is not the only means by which this sub-culture can be analysed, but it also shows us a few important facts that we should be aware of.
- The median age of the suburb is 43.
- The overall population included in this sub-culture is 1,606 people.
- This figure of 1,606 is 23.5% of a total male population of 6,839, and 11% of a total population of 14,210.
- 55.5% of males living in St Ives were born in Australia, with the next two significant places of birth being South Africa at 11.7% and the United Kingdom at 8%.
I hope you will come back in the coming week to see more of my thoughts. And hopefully engage with them.
Speak or Listen?
On Fridays at college we have a practical subject, It’s called Ministry and Mission. It’s the subject that ive been reading The Trellis and the Vine for.
This morning we had a couple of lectures on communication. We have been thinking about how we can communicate the best as ministers. Thinking specifically about communicating while we are doing stuff like preaching, but also while we are doing personal pastoral work.
This pastoral work can take many different forms, just like my crying post from yesterday, ministers can be involved with people who are experiencing Joy over something that has happened to them. Ministers can also encounter people who are heartbroken because of something that has happened to them.
While listening to our lecturer, I was struck by this passage from Proverbs 18:13.
“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”
It speaks about a concept that I think is really simple to understand, before you give your opinion to someone, you should listen to them first.
I can think of many times that I have forgotten this, and launched into voicing my opinion while ignoring how the person actually feels, or thinks.
Ive been reminded this morning about the need for me to listen before I speak. I hope that this might of reminded you too.
Moore Mission: six weeks on
Today we had the privilege of meeting with the senior minister from St George North Anglican. This was the church that I did mission with a little while ago.
It was great time of hearing back about what kind of impact our mission had in St George North. I didn’t know what to think about mission while we were doing it. We were so busy all the time that we just powered on, not really having time to properly debrief. So it was great to be able to hear about all the great things that have been happening because of our week on mission. The last little while has been exciting for the church, and ive written them in point form.
- 21 people are involved in Christianity Explained directly because of mission. An additional 14 are in this course external to our mission, bringing the number up to 35.
- One woman about to finish Christianity explained, and wants to be a Christian.
- One man became a Christian, directly because of a sermon he heard on Luke 24 at Bexley North.
- A new youth group is about to be planted at Bexely North.
- 10 new people coming to church for the first time.
- A new congregation has been planted, with another 15 new people. They are already having the problem of reaching capacity, and might need to find a larger place to meet.
I’m so thankful for the impact that the gospel is having in St George North, and that we were able to be a part of it. Ill keep praying for them.
Reading: The Trellis and the Vine
At college we have a long list of books that we need to read. Ranging from really interesting to not so interesting, they include books on history, Bible commentaries and books to help us think critically about what ministry looks like in practice. We also read the Bible a bit.
Recently I’ve been reading a book called, ‘The Trellis and the Vine‘ by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. I’ve actually owned it for ages, but never read it.
It really is a great book, and I would out it into the ‘really interesting’ category mentioned above. It says a lot about trainer/trainee relationships, and how trainees end up being imitators of their trainers. From this, it has helped me reflect on where I have been so far in my ministry, and why I now do things the way I do (mostly because my trainers taught me to do it that way).
The book speaks a lot about how to train Christian people for a lifetime of serving Jesus, and his people. The book suggests that just running endless courses for people is not enough, but training by your example is much better.
One bit in chapter 6 especially stood out to me.
“… to make real progress in helping the Christians in your congregation become ‘encouragers’, they need more than a six week course. They need the example of seeing it done; and they need the personal instruction and mentoring and prayer that addresses the spiritual issues at the heart of becoming an ‘encourager’. This takes time and personal attention – before, during and after the structured training opportunity.”
I’m still reading it. If you want a copy, Matthias Media sell it.
