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Recently a mate said that I seemed angry while I was preaching. A lot does make me angry but I also know how shallow I am. Angry and Shallow sums me up in a lot of ways. So as an angry and shallow man I will be making weekly (or maybe more often) comments on things I think we need to face and that I want to say. I also want to hear what you think about them.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I had an amazing experience in Sydney last Sunday. In the morning I attended and spoke at the opening of the Café at 182 Campbell St in Surrey Hills. This is all part of the 2010 project and the highlight was the Street Choir. This is made up of about 15 ‘street people’ and they were fantastic. In the evening I went to one of the big name churches. There were over 800 people there and the music, lighting etc was very professional. Of course the key question is which was more honouring to God? Both were worship, both were in a church and both focused on God! This is actually a hard question to answer without my own bias coming through. There were a few key differences though that I think point to an answer. The 2010 project was made up of people who were all at various stages of brokenness (including me) and we all knew it. We celebrated that we could meet and be honest. The strength was not in the professionalism of the service but in the real people and organic nature of the time together. We looked different from each other and everyone was free to participate.

The large church was all about winning, triumph and overcoming. The only people on the stage all looked the same (all slim, good looking, smiling people with a lot to offer). The rest of us were able to participate by giving money (I won’t go into that here but what a load of mumbo jumbo) and singing along with the experts on stage….which I have to admit the vast majority seemed to love.

I’m still thinking about it!

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Currently one of the big issues in New Zealand is the government campaign to ban smacking of children by parents. Christian groups have chosen this as the issue to fight in the name of the family.......'lets stop this anti smacking campaign' go the adds and public statements. I think that yet again we have chosen the wrong issue to be known for.....the right to smack kids! If we (I say 'we' as I am lumbered in with them by the fact that they say they speak for christians and family focused people....which they don't) win we will be known for the that we won the right to smack! Aaaaaagh!!! Even if this is your view dont you think it is not the priority at the moment in NZ. Why aren't we known as the ones who won the right for womens refuges to be better funded (which thye desperatley need), or for the rights of refugees in NZ to have their families reunited with them over here (which we are very slow at), or for the rights of Maori to have their day in court over the seabed and foreshore (the Government passed legislation to override this right recently). Surely these issues are more family focused and will give us as ambassadors of Jesus a bit more credibility..........credibility that we are losing by the day.

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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

There has been a story in our local media about a marquee company that sent a person getting married a rude email when they pulled out of using them for their wedding. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3865605a11275,00.html Part of the company’s email said “Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters”. While this is amazingly bad taste the response has been amazing. To prove that their wedding was not tacky they and local media showed how much was being spent, what ‘flash’ stuff they were having at it etc. This comes at the same time that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting married in a multi million dollar exercise in Italy….all on the pages of all our newspapers!

So what is ‘cheap, nasty and tacky?’ Surely this is totally personal taste. If you want plastic flowers, cheap wine and meat pies I say go for it…and enjoy it to the max if it’s your choice. We cannot let $ decide what is tacky and not tacky. The company was way out of line….but to prove them wrong by showing what money is spent etc is just as dumb.

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Friday, November 17, 2006

I have to talk about Ted Haggard even though everyone else has already. One of the things that concerns me is that he was involved with christian groups that say they hear from, and speak for God on 'family issues', 'move in the spirit etc' and they missed his struggles! There was obviously no room to share your struggles and failings even though this should be the mark of Jesus followers! Ted must have been in inner torment for years and yet unable to share his struggles….this is not a sign of a Jesus community. There is a lot I could say on this issue but Dan at signposts and Gordon MacDonald probably say it better than me.

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