Recently I saw a Gospel presentation by a young up and coming evangelist. Very passionate, well presented and genuine. It had a good step by step power point and was very logical. I realised that it is what I would have done a few years ago. If i leave aside the presentation style etc there is one very disturbing aspect of it that many Christians believe and that has a profound affect on so much of what we do. Basically the presentation showed how God must punish sin and we can now avoid this as God has punished Jesus in our place. Part of the logic was "how would you feel if a man who murdered someone you loved was let off by a judge without any punishment? It would leave you feeling mad and wanting justice. Well God is the same. He cannot let it go unpunished". Very logical and VERY WRONG!!!!!!

This belief that punishment must always come before forgiveness is all pervasive. It is also not always true. I know of cases where the victims and their families have forgiven the perpetrator without any punishment. Recently we had a tragic case where two dogs killed a woman. They were out roaming. The family forgave the owner of the dogs. Another family of a boy killed by a dangerous driver met with him and forgave him and asked the court to let him off!!! This is actually more common than we think, particularly among no westernised cultures. Jesus himself did this on an umber of occasions including the woman caught in adultery and Zachaeus the tax collector.

I believe this wrong belief that God must punish before forgiving leads to the Christian rights constant desire to give longer prison sentences, get back whoever gets them....particularly if they are Muslims and a fascination with defining everything as right or wrong....the wrong must be known so it can be punished.

I believe totally in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. I know that it enables me to be safe with Jesus both now and forever. What I don't know, and I don't think anyone can fully, is exactly it happened on the cross. The various views of the cross are never complete and at best are pointers to the type of thing that happened. When we make them a complete understanding of the cross we end up projecting our own desires on the greatest act of love that has ever occurred.... and in doing so dilute it.

He is nothing like us.......lets remember that as we try to be more like Him.

I have announced that I am resigning as National Director of Youth for Christ New Zealand in June. This coincides with a new name for YFC and YFCNZ becoming a mission order amongst young people. I will still be a member of YFC (new name Incedo) but not in the National Leadership Team. This new team will be headed by Julie Heaton and include Karl Dickson and Paul Keane. This team are the next generation, fresher, and have all got a lot of experience in mission. Pasted below is the FAQ I sent out with my personal prayer letter (if you want acopy of this you are welcome just let me know and I will email it) that might explain what we are on about.
My only regret.....it didn't happen sooner!


Frequently Asked Questions (in red...the colour of the revolution!)

All the changes in YFC have meant that we are often asked a number of questions. This insert is to help clarify things.

Q. Why the radical changes in YFC?
A. About 5 years ago we faced some brutal facts about ourselves - there were a lack of younger leaders coming through into senior leadership,- many of those who made a decision to follow Christ were not continuing on as they reached adulthood, - many of the Christians involved were really struggling in their own faith and were not practising what we preached, and, - much of what we were doing was working with an ever decreasing % of the youth population. We knew the only way to address these was for a radical rethink and radical change to who we were and how we operated.

Q. So why did you stop your profile events like CTC and the programmes that received funding?
A. We have always said the question was not whether these programmes were good or bad but whether they were right for us anymore. Many have been planted outside of YFC so they are continuing but not with our name on them. We had to face the fact that the successes of the past actually hindered us in making the radical changes needed to move on. We were not tinkering, coming up with a new strategy, or just re-branding what we did, as we actually had to become, in many ways, something different.

Q. But you are still about the Gospel aren’t you?
A. Absolutely. We are still about bringing young people and Jesus together.

Q. So if you have stopped your funded programmes and the programmes that give you a profile how are you financed?
A. YFC was built on men and women who stepped out in faith to serve Jesus that were supported in prayer and finances by other faithful men and women. Basically we are back to that. In practice it means that some YFC missionaries are fully faith supported or are bi-vocational or tent-making, that is they work part time to support themselves. We needed to get back to praying for God to provide the resources for His work.

Q. In today’s world isn’t this crazy, especially as you are in many ways disappearing off the radar screens of many churches?
A. Yep!

Q. So what are you actually doing now?
A. Listening, experimenting, learning and trying to be authentic. There won’t be the standard programme anymore but a range of endeavours and projects that are trying to connect with youth communities that reflect our values. These include weekly club programmes, facilitating community meetings to look at ways of dealing with the gang and drug problems their teens face, road trips, camps, in school work, using the arts to communicate the Easter story, working with specific migrant groups, running skate and BMX competitions, homework classes, Yone…..the list goes on. The key difference is that if something isn’t working or reflecting our values we can quickly let it go and try something else. The other key difference is that we won’t be branding and marketing everything we do so we stay authentic and local.


Q. What are these values you talk about?
A. Our 6 values are Jesus Centred, People Focused, Priesthood of all Believers, Mission through Service, Creative and Generous. In the past our projects use to define us. We now want to be known as a group of people that reflect the above……in a range of ways.

Q. I hear you are now a mission order…what the heck does that mean?
A. At risk of oversimplifying, a mission order is a group of people that choose to adopt a set of values and practices, often referred to as rules and rhythms of life, in a particular context. For us the context is the youth community in NZ and the values are answered in the previous question. The practices are the common outworking of the values e.g. a Jesus Centred practice is that we meet monthly with a prayer partner to help guide our relationship with Jesus, a Mission through Service practice is that we each serve another community group each year. In 2006 and 2007 this is Amnesty International.

Q. So does everyone in YFC have to be a member of the order to be involved?

A. Definitely not. People will be involved in a range of ways. Some of these may choose to be an associate which means a lower set of practices, and some may choose to be members.

Q. Will all members be full time staff?
A. Again definitely not. Most members will be volunteers but to be full time staff you will have to be a member. The members are the core of the order.

Q. Mmmmmm ...I think I’m getting it. One last question. What about accountability etc.
A. We have actually increased the level of accountability with peer accountability, mentoring, prayer partners, and we still have a Board, who are all members living out the values and practices, who have the Governance role of YFC.

Q. Anything you want to ask me?
A. Yes there is……is there any way we can help you?

We hope this helps clear things up a bit. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time with questions or comments.

God Bless



Darryl and Sue

The tragedy of the School shooting in America raises some major issues for me. Its evil and that cannot be denied. I hear how counselling centres are being set up for everyone involved. Everyone from The President to the head of the UN speak out about the evil of it and offer their sympathies and help if needed. It grabs the world headlines and already people are telling (and selling) their stories and appearing on national TV. The debate rages on about gun control in the US. Christians are seen on TV singing worship to God and thanking him for delivering those that made it. There will soon be speaking tours and movies made.

At the same time in Darfour, Iraq and many other places in the world this is daily occurrence often on a far greater scale. There are extremely traumatised children and adults who survive but know any day this could change. there are no counselling centres, no presidential decrees, no offers of help and sympathy for other nations. Surely if the American situation rouses us to action it should continue for the least of those amongst us......the hurting, unnamed, unknown child in Darfour who at this very moment struggles with the trauma of seeing things that sound like a horror movie, wondering if they will live or die and knowing no one seems to care!

I know Jesus told us that as much as we do it to them we do it to him.