in the lead up to Mr Right…

An advertisement from an American clothing company

Living the Cross Centred Life by C.J. Mahaney

I found this book a real treasure in spelling out what it really means to live with the cross at the centre of your life day in and day out It is a book I return to time and again and am always finding new nuggets of gold in it. The book can be summarised with this extract from page 15.

‘If there’s anything in life we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel…passionate in thinking about the gospel, reflecting upon it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to colour the way we look at the world and all of life.’

It was an issue I found to be really helpful. I know in my head the cross should be central to my life, but I find in busyness I often move away from it or assume/forget it’s message. Mahaney pushes the reader to see that Jesus’ cross was my cross, his atonement was for the guilt of my personal sin, his death for me when I rejected him.

As is typical of all Mahaney books this is easy to read with lots of practical illustrations and he makes what can be difficult theology easy to understand! The book goes through the topics of: defining the cross of Christ, defining what it means to live a cross-centred life and outlining the three main dangers to the cross centred life. It has discussion questions at the end of the chapters which make it perfect for small group discussions and equipping one for pastoral care.

Atheist Delusions, by David Bentley Hart

Every so often you read a book that demands a second and third reading. David  Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and It’s Fashionable  Enemies is one such book.

As the title suggests, this is Hart’s response to the recent crop of neo-atheist writings.  Hart, a Christian whose profound knowledge of the Western tradition includes a profound  respect for the tradition of unbelief within western thought, finds the current crop a  disappointment.

Hart’s purpose in this book is not to rebut their arguments point by point, but rather  to address an important sub-structure of neo-atheism: the story we tell ourselves  about religion and the Enlightenment. The story goes something like this:

There was once a thriving classical culture in the west (Greco-Roman). Christianity  came along and retarded its progress for about 1000 years. Then, about 400 years  ago there was an Enlightenment when we got rid of religion, discovered science

and recovered rationalism, empiricism and progress. This is true, and good.

It is this story that Hart sets out to correct and challenge.

As I say, I’ll be blogging my way through Hart’s 17 chapters over the next few months. I’m happy to do it for my own edification but, of course, if you wanted to go down to your local bookstore, pick up a copy and read along with me, I’d love your company.

Exciting Changes at Unichurch

I’m very excited to announce that the Shiners are expecting again – God has blessed us with twins! This September Susan, Miles, Theodore, Oscar and I are going to be joined by Rupert and Seamus. If these two are as energetic as their three brothers, we’re going to have a lot on our hands!

We look forward to this great blessing, but with a family of five boys to care for, there will be opportunities for several of  the more capable interns to step up into new positions to help share the load. The new roles will be:

Jennie – Senior pastor
Ed & Sally – Preaching pastors
Dave – Women’s pastor
Andrew – UCI pastor
Rory – Technology pastor
Jon – Ministry intern

In my new role I’ll be working on exploring the ministry potential of Twitter, and thinking about how to improve the main St Matthew’s website. You can have a look at my design ideas here.

It’s exciting to see what God is doing at Unichurch this year!

Blessings,

Rory

CAUTION

If you’re a Christian reading this, do you realise the extent of the craziness you’ve got yourself mixed up in? Do you know how revolutionary it is to be a follower of Jesus? Not only is this guy more powerful than anything in the world ( check out ‘The Essential Authority’ sermon) but the way of life he calls us to is nothing short of world-shaking. Coming to grips with the Gospel and His call on us means seeing work, relationships, suffering, money, the past and the future completely differently to the rest of the world. It’s tough because it’s ‘costly’ from one point of view, but truthfully it’s also amazingly liberating to even begin to get what Jesus is going on about.

For those, like me, who have grown up in Christian homes it’s easy for the Bible & prayer to become dulled through repetition. We read the text and say the words, so often think ‘yeah, but it can’t really mean that’. We substitute in a watered-down interpretation. How awesome it is when God mercifully shows us he really means what he says. What an adventure ahead when we are faithfully obedient.

PS. I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s ‘The Cost of Discipleship’

On going to two or more churches…

Here’s a record of some comments I made to the congregation last Sunday. A whole stack of fruitful conversations came out of it, so thanks! You guys rock.

“In the next few weeks I want to talk to you about some exciting plans for future mission and ministry from this congregation. As you can see the venue is nearly full, and it’s exciting to think about what God would have us do next.

But this week I wanted to spend a couple of minutes addressing the issue of going to two churches—namely this church and another church.

What I say is by no means meant to be legalistic, and it may be that I don’t exactly describe your situation. That’s fine. If we can start a conversation, that will be a great outcome.

At St Matthew’s, one of our passions is to see the churches of Perth strengthened, and new churches planted. That’s a passion and a commitment on our part, and that’s the context for what I am about to say:

I know that some of us at Unichurch are involved in or between two different churches (ed: myself included–I go to Unichurch and to Unichurch International). Let me just say three things on that front:

1) For some of you, you come from a great, gospel loving, Christ proclaiming, people loving church, but for various reasons you’ve ended up here.

If that’s you, I’d love you to prayerfully consider whether it would be better for you to be back there contributing to that ministry.

Ask yourself these questions:

- Is being here limiting your capacity to contribute there?
- If there is no evening service there, could you start one? Just in your lounge room or a café or something.
- Could you be using a Sunday night for a Bible study?
- Or for going down to the local pub or whatever and meeting locals?

Perth needs more churches, and if you are from a gospel loving church, I’d love you to talk to God and talk to us about giving all you’ve got to that ministry.

2) There is a second category of people who come to this church in order to be strengthened for the ministry at your home church.

It might be that you come here to get the teaching or meet the people, in order to find encouragement and keep going with the Sunday School or the Youth Group at home, or you’re planning to start an evening congregation like this one at home, and so on.

Now, as a model that has some costs for us. But they are costs we are willing to bear. And gladly.

If that’s you, can I say:

- Make sure the leadership at your church know what you are doing and why.

- Let us know: both so we don’t follow you up unnecessarily, and so that we can see if there’s more we can do to help you with the ministry back home.

3) And finally, there are those of you who are choosing a church. Maybe you feel that the church you used to go to isn’t a gospel believing, people loving church. That it doesn’t teach God’s word or is misleading people or whatever.

Or you’ve just never settled somewhere—your constantly moving from church to church.

If that’s you in any way, then can I say: Jump on board! Make the decision, have the conversations you need to have, and come stand with us.

Being a Christian is fundamentally a community exercise. It’s not about being a lone ranger, but an active member of a community, a community the Bible calls the Body of Christ.

So, make and decision and jump on board. We’d love to give you what we’ve got to give, and we’d love to receive from you what God wants to give us through you.

In the next few weeks, I want to talk about some plans we have for creating new congregations and expanding the ministry of this congregation.

But for this week: Three questions for people from other churches:

o Do you need to go back?

o Do you need to talk to us about strengthening what you do back home?

o Do you need to take the plunge and get on board?

Catch me, or one of the staff or Hub leaders afterwards. We’d love to talk to you about any of these issues.”

Crazy patterns

Last week I heard a fascinating interview with a statistician. Unbelievable, I know. A great bit was when he explained how computers have changed the way we deal with data.

Imagine you’ve done a study, and now have a massive amount of data – let’s say ten thousand dots on a grid. You need to test whether there’s a pattern in the dots. So you think of a possible pattern, then test it against the data.

Back in the day, this would have taken you hours and days of painfully complicated calculations with pencil and paper. And if it turned out your pattern was wrong, you had to start all over again.

These days, with computers to do all the work for us, you can test hundreds of different patterns in minutes.

Sounds great, but it’s actually a big problem. If you can test as many possible patterns as you like, with almost no work, it won’t be long until you find a pattern that fits the data, even if the data is random.

Back in the day, you would think really hard about what kind of pattern you expect, why you expect it, and what it means. Because if you got it wrong it was days of work down the drain. But now that you can test every crazy pattern, you’ll just take the first pattern that fits, no matter how crazy it is.

This is why the results of 80% of all medical studies don’t work in real life. (But that’s another story.)

Anyway, the point is I think it works the same with the Bible. Back in the day, you couldn’t just pull your Bible off the shelf. You had to go to a big church or library. You had to get permission to pull down the big hand written scroll. You had to pour over it, search through it, think hard. Because you might not get another chance to see it. And that’s if you’re one of the few who are educated enough to know how to read.

These days you can look up a passage, search the Greek words on software, get all sorts of opinion in hundreds of cheap paperbacks or on thousands of blogs. We can hear every crazy idea with almost no work. And pretty soon we’ll find a idea that seems to fit, no matter how crazy it is.

I think we’ve need to be bit more careful. When we’ve got to write a Bible study (or kids’ church or youth talk) it’s really tempting to take the first idea that pops into our head, or the first idea in the commentary, and teach it. Even if it’s crazy. I’ve taught crazy ideas so many times, just because I was too lazy to think hard about the passage.

Here’s a suggestion. Next time you look at the Bible, don’t worry about the notes or commentaries or blogs or software. Just set aside a few hours, make a pot of coffee, and think really hard about what it means. I bet you’re smart enough to work it out.

Aussies & the Afterlife

What percentage of Australians do you think believe in miracles today? 15%? maybe 35%? The answer: 63%

Who do you think is more likely to believe in UFOs? Christians or non-Christians?

Why do the majority of non-believers still like it if the PM is a Christian?

For all this and more, check out David Marr speaking to Greg Clarke about the current state of religion in Australia, based on two recent surveys – one by CPX, one by Neilson for the Sydney Morning Herald.

A atheist on being evangelized

I find this very moving. 5 minutes, but worth it. Penn gets a Bible

Power is everything (part 2)

(part 1)

Jesus is all about power.

He hung around with prostitutes, touched people with leprosy, washed his disciples’ feet. But the first Christians didn’t tell everyone how nice he was. They told everyone how powerful he was. They said he was the ruler.

Paul to the Philippians: “He has been exalted to the highest place, and given the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Ruler).”

It was this message that got the first Christians killed. They were saying Jesus was in charge, not Caesar. And one day he would come back, bring justice, and rule everything. He would reward right, punish wrong, vindicate the oppressed, destroy the oppressors. And it was pretty clear who that was going to be.

And if there’s one person you would want to have power, wouldn’t it be Jesus? Some people have a lot of power: dictators, CEOs, celebrities. Some people have none: the uneducated, the unemployed, the poor. And people without power always get a hard time from the people with.

But not any more. There’s only one person we can trust to care for the poor instead of exploiting them. And now that he has all the power – the power to protect and provide for the vulnerable, the power the punish the oppressors – he’s going to do it.

Love without power is useless; power without love is tyranny. That’s why it’s such great news that Jesus has the power. He’s the only one who’s loving enough to use the power for good, and powerful enough to make the world right.