Mals Meanderings

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Keeping Christ Out of the Market Place

2008-11-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I wrote a post about Hiding Christ from new Agers, intended for here. But, because I have too many blogs, as I discuss at MalcolmDow .com, it was posted to A Reasonable Mystic by mistake. I'm interested to see what my readers there make of it. Anyway, here's what should have appeared here:

This morning I was reading "My Prayer Journal" in the Victorian Baptist Witness. Part of the diary for Wednesday and Thursday went as follows:

Something interesting happened today. Saw Greg put 'religion' and 'new age'
books together (in the 'new age' section). He even put the Bibles there! It
really upset me and I was surprised at the intensity of my feelings. ...
...
Well I spoke to Greg and thank you God, he was really cool about it. It
actually opened up some discussion about my faith. And it felt so natural
talking about it. ... he was relieved that I could advise him on what should go
in the 'religion' section and what should go in the 'new age' section (he didn't
mind at all when I said they were very different).

There is so much here that I could comment on - the assumed difference between religion and New Age, for example. But considering that this was an issue of the Witness devoted to exploring being a Christian in a secular workplace, I want to look at where the books should have been placed.

Being married to a librarian myself I can understand the desire to have things in the right place. However, given that New Age would definitely fit the criteria for a religion I expect they wouldn't be far apart. It raises two questionsfor me. Why would we prefer to put Christian books in a place a New Ager might never look? And why put them where a Christian will never encounter the New Age books?

If we are truly interested in ministry in the marketplace, then we must not hide Jesus from those in the market, while at the same time we need to learn how those in the market think if we are to expect to impact their lives.

The depth of the secular/sacred divide for the person writing the diary might be guaged from the intensity of their feelings when the Christian and New Age books were innocently placed side by side. Should we be offended? Can't Jesus take care of himself? Where would he be found - hanging around the church or out in the market?

Lots of questions. I'd like to hear some of your answers.

Gods and men with three sides

2007-12-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

In his opening chapter of Adams Vs. God: The Rematch, Phillip Adams quotes Charles de Montesquieu as saying,

If a triangle made a god, it would give him three sides.

This is true, as evidenced by the many god's that humans, religious and otherwise, have created after their own likeness.

However, if the three-sided God pre-existed the creatures (John 1:1-3), and made creatures in his own image (Genesis 1:26), wouldn't they still have three sides?

Adams vs God - the rematch

2007-12-12T04:20:00.000-08:00

I've long enjoyed listening to Phillip Adams interview interesting people on his Australian ABC's Late Night Live program. Given that Adams is an avowed and somewhat evangelical atheist, this may seem strange. However, it is not, and I challenge any Christian with a truly open mind and a love for human kind to read or listen to him and not find something to enjoy or even love.

Yes, he will call you a 'God botherer', but I've been called far worse and lived! However, unlike his firend Richard Dawkins, he will treat you with respect, especially if you are as equally genuine in your beliefs as he is in his.

I've just read the introduction to his new edition of Adams Vs. God: The Rematch. This is a collection of essays from more than two decades of Adam's jounalism.

From my reading I gain the distinct impression that the sort of religion Adams is so appalled by, any genuine follower of Jesus would also reject, as I do. Let me indulge myself by quoting one passage, from pages xxiv and xxv:

One of the problems with religious upbringing, with childhood indoctrination, is that beliefs are rarely, if ever, tested. To a large extent, most true believers are not entitled to their beliefs because they're entirely unexamined. This is painfully apparent in the letters I receive from Christians. It matters little if they're aggressive or patronising - whether they threaten me with damnation or undertake to pray for me so that I'll be more quickly propelled down the road to Damascus. These correspondents have one thing in common. They know far less about Christianity than the atheist they're writing to. Theirs is a comfortable Sunday school Christianity. They remain in the kindergarten of faith knowing nothing of biblical scholarship, of the history of the Old Testament or the contradictions of the New.

Oddly, their ignorance of their professed faith makes them more confident, or at the very least more complacent. They're true believers in belief, blissfully unaware of the disagreements in the approved gospels let alone the existence of the gospels that were rejected. The essential difference between those who write to admonish and those who write to save is that some believe that every biblical word is holy and beyond challenge whereas others can see that perhaps Noah's ark will not be unearthed on Mount Ararat. But whether they've eaten the three-course meal of Christianity or have chosen to pick at the food, to go on a sort of religious diet and reject the high calories of virgin birth, bodily assumption and eternal damnation, their innocence (a kind word for their ignorance) is astonishing.

I've more sympathy with the unthinking than the half-hearted, whose low-cal version of faith often encroaches upon agnosticism or the turf of the atheist.

Of course, Adams isn't being original here. Jesus got there first in Revelation 3 with his admonition to the church in Laodicea.

Where twenty years ago Adams thought that religion was in its death throes, he now seems content to hope that it will simply become reduced to some sort of historical hobby. I think that even in this he is being wildly optimistic - the real Jesus is not going to go away. Neither are the opposing forces nor the fakes.

Of course, Adams does know more about Christianity than many Christians, but in common with many of them he also 'knows' and believes a lot about it that is erroneous. Having rejected God on logical grounds at the age of six, it is to be expected that he has not put himself in a position to encounter a great deal of the genuine article since then, but has certainly come across a lot of the sort of Christianity that would cause Jesus to roll over in his grave, in the unlikely event of anyone ever finding one that could hold him.

But Adams is a genuine believer in his own worldview, and if you'll excuse my use of an old cliche, this is one which takes a great deal more faith to hold on to than being a follower of a living person that one has actually met and conversed with.

Besides, according to Adams, and I believe him, we have him to thank for the formation of the Family First party, following the challenge he put to a group of Pentecostal leaders that Jesus was not at all conservative.

And even God was apparently impressed enough by him to strike his plane with lightning twice while flying over the Vatican. At least, that's Adam's interpretation of the event (surprising for an atheist, even if tongue in cheek). Personally I'd advocate a far different supernatural and more troublemaking source for those particular atmospheric volts and amps.

Phillip Adams might feel justified if he included me in his list of the patronising, if he bothered to think of me at all, but that is not how I feel towards him. Yes, I believe he is wrong about many things, but I would not try to change his thinking unless he asked me to. What I will do is to continue to enjoy listening to and reading a very erudite man, and recommend that you do also.

Preparing for the Dissociation Seminar

2007-11-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

This Saturday Di and I are running our first day seminar on ministry to people with dissociation. By dissociation we do not just mean Dissociative identity Disorder (DID, or what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder - MPD). Nor do we mean specifically victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), which seems to be a bit of a focus of some Christian counsellors workingin this area.

Rather, we have learned from our training with Anazao Counselling, and from subsequent experience ministering to others, that almost everybody dissociates to some degree. Not just daydreaming or zoning out, which are actually not varieties of dissociation, but protecting themselves from many difficult childhood experiences by creating alternate parts in their minds.

While preparing the lessons and resource sheets for Saturday's seminar we have been going over case notes about sessions with people we have counselled in this way, and I am once again amazed at what Jesus will do with you when you are willing to get out of your comfort zone and ngage with something new and familiar.

Even more inspiring are the testimonies from people who have received ministry. It takes great courage to open up your very inner being and expose your deepest secrets to someone you might not know well. It might be even harder with people you do know well! This is especially true in the case of dissociation. You may not even know those secrets yourself until a dissociative part gains confidence in that Jesus will protect you and allows you to have the memory and feelings of some event about which you have little or no knowledge.

When I have obtained permission I will share some of these testimonies, but I just want to say now that there are some people around who were once in despair and who are nor rejoicing in their new found freedom and love for Jesus.

Prayer Ministry FAQ

2007-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Because of our involvement in the teaching and practice of prayer ministry or prayer counselling, we recieve questions from many people.

For example, prospective clients want to know what prayer ministry is, why we use it, and how it differs from counselling or other forms of ministry. In particular we are often asked whether we are a 'deliverance ministry'.

Other questions relate to specific practices. Some accuse us of using New Age techniques, or claim that prayer ministry is not needed because it was "all done at the Cross".

Yet others are interested enough to want to know how they too might become trained and get involved in prayer ministry.

To help out we have produced some Frequently Asked Questions pages over at the Prayer Ministries Network website. This is a prelude to a more extensive prayer counselling website we are building, which we will post details about when it is complete.

Why not hop over to the PMN site now and have a look?

Casey Stoner Wins MotoGP World Championship[

2007-09-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

Well done Casey on winning the MotoGP World Championship at Motegi, Japan!

Mick Doohan will be proud to see it come back to Australia.

Congratualtions to you and Adriana and the Stoner and Tuchyna families and all of the Ducati team.

Have fun at Philip Island.

Reverend Fun - Ever Wonder if God Ever Had Second Thoughts?

2007-09-09T03:56:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

How many blogging pastors are there?

2007-08-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Darren Rowse, the Problogger, has written an interesting post about how to keep blogging when it feels like nobody is reading your blog. Darren speaks of his time as a pastor learning to preach by speaking to a room full of empty pews.

As a fellow pastor I know that feeling well, and as an aspiring problogger I'm feeling it even more often. However, for me the eye openner came when I started to read the comments to Daren's post. There just seemed to be so many pastors and other church leaders there.

Of course, I know a lot of pastors are now using a blog as part of their ministry, as I do. They post sermons and church news for the benefit of their congregation and others. However, these were not just pastors posting on church themes. No, these were pastors and ex-pastors who now post for many other reasons.

I often attend the ordination services for new pastors in my denomination, and am always interested to discover just how many become pastors out of a professional science background, as I did. Well, here's another interesting question - how many professional bloggers enter the "profession" after a career as a minister or pastor?

Any more want to come out of the closet (or is it vestry)?

Are you in a Christendom political party?

2007-08-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

Sad as it may seem, I believe that most Christians are told by their leaders which part of the theological spectrum they are part of, and generally they don't understand what it means, nor do they often care very much. Theology has been made to appear to them like an obscure, esoteric branch of philosophy that is beyond their reach and not very relevant to their lives anyway. As long as they dutifully subscribe to the party line then all will be well with their world. If they should question it too persistently then the accusations of backsliding will flow quickly and frighten them back into the loyal fold.

This is not unlike voting for a particular political party for the important reasons that your parents always did so, or 'everyone' in your town does, or your favourite TV commentator's disparaging comments about the other parties are the funniest or wittiest.

It also reminds me of the Middle Ages when, as long as the priest said the magic words of the Mass at one end of the parish church, the whole town could, at the same time, engage in the village market at the other end, and all was well, and God's wrath was appeased for another day. No-one actually had to take part in the rituals.

The sadnesses in this scenario are immediately obvious to me:

That leaders who 'understand' theology would so easily use it as a means of control and self-agrandisement.
That the average Christian should think so little of the need to actively engage in the discovery of who is this God they 'worship'.

Why is it that when the most important thing in all of our lives is the development of intimacy with Jesus, do we think it is OK to delegate this to someone else? And whose kingdom are we leaders really building? Are we for Paul, or Apollos, or Calvin, or Arminius, or Luther, or ..., or are we for Jesus?

Yes, theological movements do spring up for often good reasons. However, why are we generally so black and white about them? And why, once born, are such movements so hard to kill again? Was Jesus a Calvinist? Was he a dispensationalist? Was he Reformed? Charismatic? Was he even a Christian? (Now there's an oxymoron for you!)

As a Baptist pastor I am almost expected to be of a Reformed doctrinal persuasion. However, the more I learn about what it means to be an intimate follower of Jesus, and one of those favoutites that I'm told my Father God doesn't have, the more some of the tenets of Calvinism make me extremely uneasy. In particular, their implications for the nature and character of God make me shudder. No, I'm afraid that much I once might have admired about Calvin is long gone the way of many other long cherished doctrines and heroes - into the heresy bucket. If someone said about me some of the things some sincere and well-meaning Reformed theologians say about the nature of their God, I would be very upset - and rightly so!

Of course, bucking the status quo is not without cost. For example, I had been considering becoming an editor for Theopedia. However, when I read the statement of faith I would be expected to sign I could not in all conscience do so. Most of it is fine, but not all. This is rather disappointing, because it is a great project, but I guess I'll live. At least I won't be burnt at the stake or put down a hole and pelted with stones!

Lest you also think I am anti-intellectual, or anti-theology, nothing could be more untrue. I love learning, and have invested a large part of myself into theology. I love to teach, and have engaged fully in a career as an academic and researcher, but I am constained at all times to make sure I am teaching life, not death. There are many things in all of the 'isms' and 'ologies' that cause me disquiet, and even horror at times, so much so that I would rather be known as a follower of Jesus than be mis-recognised as one of what has become known today by the title of 'Christian'.

I'm sure I will write more about this, here and elsewhere.

Reverend Fun - I'm Telecommuting Today

2007-07-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

Recent Beth Tephillah Ministries Seminars

2007-07-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Hearing God's Voice seminar we ran last weekend at Warrnambool was a great time. About 40 turned up for the Friday Night and all day Saturday sessions, where we taught about what it means to hear God's voice, some of the obstacles to hearing and how to overcome them, ways to begin to hear God, dreams and visions, creative imagination, and the nature of prophecy and prophets.

Everyone engaged in the practical exercises, which for some were their first experience at actually recognising that God does speak to them. For others it was reinforcement and the discovery of further ways to hear, and what to do with it when we do.

About half have already indicated their interest in having us return to Warrnambool to do our Intimacy with God seminar later in the year, and we will also repeat Hearing God's Voice for them before their next Restoration course begins in 2008. The material is available online at listening2god.com for anyone to use.

The weekend before this we ran the first Intimacy with God course in Williamstown for about 25 participants, and this was well received. God has been speaking to many across the world about this. It is not new, but seems to have been neglected in our instant, results oriented, modern society. More recent generations of Christians, apart from rejecting that approach to life, are also seeking a more authentic, less control and 'success' dominated way to live as followers of Jesus. They are finding it in some of the older spiritual forms as well as in the fresh revelations that God is giving to his people as time grows short.

The Intimacy with God material will also be put online at intimacywithgod.net when time permits. Watch for it.

Our next seminar at Williamstown will be on the 8th of September and looks at Generational Healing.

Is Richard Dawkins a Level Five Atheist?

2007-07-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Richard Dawkins is at least a level five atheist (see previous post - Level Five Agnostic). This quote from a Fr Frank Brenan SJ's book review of Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion would seem to indicate this:

Dawkins claims that moderation in faith fosters fanaticism: “even mild and
moderate religion helps to provide the climate of faith in which extremism
naturally flourishes”. Dawkins’ “take home message is that we should blame
religion itself, not religious extremism – as though that were some kind of
perversion of real, decent religion”. The same argument would not be put for
scientific inquiry. Imagine a call to ban all scientific inquiry because those
who engage in responsible scientific inquiry may be providing the opportunity
for fanatics to harness science for their own purposes. Dawkins and his ilk
think religious belief of any kind is meaningless, infantile and demeaning, so
nothing is lost by agitating in the most illiberal way for the suppression
of all religion and not just religious extremism which causes harm to others.

Makes sense to me. What do you think? Comments please.

Reverend Fun - Level Five Agnostic

2007-07-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com)

Now let us turn on our phones and browse to John chapter 3

2007-06-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

How many times have you heard a mobile phone ring during a church meeting and wished that people would show a bit more courtesy about turning them off? Well, all of that is about to change.

No, not because someone has invented an effective phone blocker, or that everyone in church has been struck by an attack of consideration for others. No! Now we'll be asked to keep our phones on, because we need them to participate in the service!

I was alerted to this revelation (or is that 'revelution'?) by a post on Dean Peters' Heal Your Church Web Site - Pastors preach: turn on & tune in … to your Blackberry. Apparently a pastor informed his congregation:

‘“Please bring your cell phone with you to the service this Sunday. Yes, you
read that right. I, the President of the ‘I hate cell phones going off in church
club,’ am inviting you to bring that blasted thing to church this
Sunday. At the end of the teaching on prayer this weekend I am going to
devote about 7 minutes to answering questions on the topic and the way you will
pass on your questions is by texting them to a number you will receive during
the service. We will of course all have our phones on SILENT won’t we!”’

So now, instead of counting the number of colours in the stained glass windows during a boring sermon, you'll be able to surf the web on your phone, or even play solitaire, and everyone will think you are tuned in to what is going on.

Really though, some are finding it's easier to surf to a Bible gateway than to carry a heavy book around anyway.

Casey Stoner takes pole in Italian MotoGP on his Ducati

2007-06-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulation to young Australian Casey Stoner for his first pole position in the MotoGP Motorcycle World Championship. Casey has qualified first ahead of fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen and Casey's main rival, the Yamaha rider with the home track advantage, Italian Valentino Rossi.

While the fact that Casey's 800cc Ducati Desmosedici is by far the fastest bike on the track, what is really impressive about his performance, which has him leading the World Championship by a healthy margin, is that Casey does so well in heavy rain against much older and more experienced riders. The calmness, coolness and maturity displayed by this young Christian man does all of us, but especially his family and new wife Adriana, proud.

We'll be watching the race with fascination tonight Casey. Well done!

Brian McLaren Trilogy - A Real Bargain

2007-05-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to buy emerging church author Brian McLaren's classic trilogy A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey, The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian, and The Last Word and the Word after That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity, for some time. Apart from it being difficult to get them all in Australia, they are expensive at $32.95 each from Koorong.

Amazon.com have all three books in a boxed set for US$19.75. Check it out here: McLaren Boxed Set (A New Kind of Christian; The Story We Find Ourselves In; The Last Word and the Word After That).

The great thing about this, apart from the US$46.09 saving, is that it ships as one item instead of three, so you save another US$9.98 on postage. With the Aussie dollar over US$0.83 at present this works out pretty reasonable.

Poems of Cameron M. Semmens

2007-05-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

How’s this for a briliant commentary?

a current-er prayer

Our media,
whose art is manipulation
hollow be thy game.
Thy cameras come, it will be done
on Nine as it is on Seven.
Give us this day our daily sensation,
and feed us our fears
as we feed the fear of others.
Lead us on with misinformation
and deliver us from thinking.
For thine is the king-maker
with the power of the story,
forever and ever,
amoral.

If you want to see more of poet and performer Cameron Semmens’ writings, or Cameron himself, then check out his website.

Blogging for God

2007-04-25T22:48:00.001-07:00

In the Decature Daily is an interesting article, Plugged into Culture, about a blogging pastor, Rev. Dave Anderson, alias ‘moviepastor. As pastor of Crosspoint Community Church in Decatur, Alabama, he is passionate about the gospel message impacting the young online culture.

“I think the church should do everything it can to engage people long enough to present the gospel message.”

Melanie Smith, the article’s author says,

“He called himself ‘moviepastor’ because he loves movies and views them as windows into today’s culture. He also figured the name would help drive Web users to his site.
“He said it’s one thing to write a blog, but if it’s not genuine, readers will fast turn critical and stop reading. He said people are looking for authenticity, so he doesn’t shy away from putting his pain and shortcomings in his writing. He regularly uses words like ‘freaking’ and ‘crappy’.”

Anderson has had a number of movies posted to youTube. One about “You Did What to the Easter Bunny?” raised some eyebrows, while another about Anderson auditioning for American Idol has had 11,000 views.

Visit Dave Anderson’s MoviePastor.com: Church, Culture, Christ blog.

It’s great to see more and more pastors and other church leaders beginning to blog.

The Spiritual Armour of Ephesians 6

2007-04-22T01:19:00.001-07:00

Our involvement in healing prayer ministry and intercession has brought us into contact with a number of different ideas about the meaning of Paul’s injunction to put on the full armour of God.

During our early training we were encouraged to go through the daily motions of putting on the armour, while visualising a Roman soldier with all of his equipment. We understood it then as a mnemonic device to help us remember the equipment needed, and each piece was generally explained in terms of its function. However, as with any such approach, it easily degenerates into a ritual, perhaps with magical overtones. The implication is that if the armour is not put on religiously each morning then the person is at risk.

Such a ritualistic approach to life is common in religious people, but is a far cry from the way Jesus and his early followers lived. It betrays a lack of trust in God.

So, what was Paul intending when he outlined each piece of the Christian’s equipment in this fashion? Let’s read the passage:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:10–18 (NIV)

Clearly, Paul has in mind defence against a spiritual enemy here. What is the principle nature of this enemy’s attack? One of the principle ways a demon interacts with a believer is by suggesting fears, doubts and lies into their mind.

How, then, is a person to resist such subversive suggestions? Certainly not by erecting some magic mind barrier called ‘the helmet of salvation’. The defence against such attacks is to have a sure and certain knowledge of your salvation, how that salvation was attained, and what that salvation means for your future.

The intent of such an attack is to either make a believer unsure of either the certainty, or the effectiveness, of their salvation. Can Jesus really keep them safe if they take a risk? Or will he even care whether they fall or not? Are they really saved? Such doubts limit the effectiveness of a believer’s work for the Kingdom of Light. Instead, they will be focussed on their own state, trying to find ways to strengthen their walk, engaging in disciplines, memorising and quoting verses, obsessed with works, going from one conference, crusade or evangelist to another, seeking reassurance. What a waist of time – which is exactly what the devil wants!

To ‘take the helmet of salvation’, then, really means to first make sure you are saved, and once that is settled for ever, get a good grasp of what it means, so that when the doubts come you have a ready answer with which to refute them. What did Jesus say?

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27–30 (NIV)

Did you hear that! You can not be destroyed! This makes it possible for a believer, knowing this, to live in faith, which might be translated as ‘taking a risk’. If you are a believer, then whatever happens, whatever the enemy throws at you, no matter how scary or uncomfortable it gets, you are safe. This knowledge is the ‘helmet of salvation’.

We could make similar examples for each of the pieces of armour. How then should we understand these items?

“with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” == Be truthful in all things and at all times, otherwise the enemy will embarass you when you least expect it.

“with the breastplate of righteousness in place” == Keep short accounts with God and others. Always do right. If you sin, confess and repent. Do not give the enemy a place to stand in your life.

“with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” == Be ready at all times to be able to give an account of your faith. But do it in love, not stirring up arguments but demonstrating a heart that is at peace with God and man.

“take up the shield of faith” == Don’t shrink back from anything the Lord asks you to do. Be faithful to him, and instantly obedient. Otherwise, the enemy will accuse you about your failure.

“take the helmet of salvation” == Be sure of your salvation and what it really means for you: that you cannot be destroyed, nor subverted by the enemy, unless you choose to turn your back on salvation. And even then, Jesus will pursue you!

“and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” == This is the only weapon you possess. Things are brought into being, or destroyed, by words. Being in the image of God, who created with a word, our words too have power. Of course, the word of God includes a sound knowledge of the Bible, however, this verse would be better translated with a capital ‘W’ for ‘Word’. The Word of God is Jesus, and every word that comes out of his mouth. It is speaking under the direction of the Holy Spirit that has true power. Even the devil can quote scripture (see Luke 4), but we can speak the Word of God!

“and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” == I believe this is related to the previous point, giving an example of speaking in the Spirt. It is prayers motivated by the Spirit of Jesus that are the most certainly answered. But do not stop praying. Just as you sleep in your armour, so to does a believer pray without ceasing. Haven’t you ever woken in the morning to find yourself praying in tongues? I have!

One last point. I have heard people say that they put on the armour first thing every morning. My question to them is, why did you take it off the night before? Did you spend the night not being truthful, or righteous, or a peacemaker, or faithful? Weren’t you saved while you were asleep? Don’t you sleep with you sword at your side ready and alert at a moments’ notice to spring into action? The waking up speaking in tongues I referred to above is an example of this. My spirit will be alert to any prompting of the Spirit, even when my mind might be daydreaming, asleep, or even unconscious or in a coma.

It is while we are asleep that our mind is least alert, but our spirit is wide awake. The forces of darkness love these night hours. Why do you have bad dreams? Of course, this is the time when the Holy Spirit is also most able to get past our mental barricades and speak into our heart. He speaks to us in dreams and visions when we are least able to add our mental “But …!”. You need to go to sleep in the assurance of your safety with Jesus, and that he will minister to you while you rest.

If you must have a sleep ritual to reassure you, rather than putting on the armour in the morning, leave it on all the time and go to sleep with the last thing in your thoughts being a prayer of love and thanks to Father God for the adventure of the day, and a request for his presence and angels to guard you as you enter the darkness. Just as Jesus, when he was about to descend into the very darkest realm, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46, NIV), how much more sure we can we be of his holding us while we sleep.

Tags: spiritual+armour, spiritual+armor, Ephesians, spiritual+warfare, Christian+living, Holy+Spirit, spiritual+living, spirituality

Seminars for 2007

2007-04-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

The topics and dates for our 2007 seminars at Beth Tephillah have been set. This year there will be four, with each one held on a Saturday. The first seminar for the year is:

Hearing God’s Voice

Saturday 12th May, 10 am to 4 pm

at

Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre,

55 Park Crescent, Williamstown (Mel 55 J7)

"Hear the Word of the Lord" has been a common instruction to God’s people through the centuries. Jesus, who IS that Word, told us that sheep listen for their shepherd’s voice and follow him because they know his voice, and He expects His sheep to respond to His voice.

This seminar aims to help participants hear, identify, understand and obey the voice of Father God.

Cost: $25.00. There will be practical sessions. Refreshments will be provided. BYO lunch.

Please advise Malcolm or Diana Dow you are coming as places are limited.

Contact Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre, PO Box 138 Williamstown, 3016. Phone: 9397 2430, Fax: 9397 2430, or Email to pastors@bethtephillah.com.

Download a brochure in PDF format: Hearing God's Voice Seminar Brochure.

The 2007 seminar series continues on the following dates:

Saturday 14th July - Intimacy with God

Saturday 8th September - Generational Healing

Saturday 17th November - Becoming the Dear Departed: Dealing with Dissociation

Update on Speaking in Tongues

2007-04-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Prompted by a comment by a friend about my old article on speaking in tongues: Tongues - making it happen, on the Healing Prayer Ministries Network website, I've writen the first of a series on this topic on my Speaking-in-Tongues blog. The new article is called Tongues five years on.

New Blog - Point Cook Community Baptist Church

2007-03-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

One of my Baptist pastor colleagues from just down the road - Warren Hodge of Point Cook Community Baptist Church - now has a church website and a blog. Though, if you want to subscribe to his blog with your reader you'll need to use the BlogSpot version, as the framed version on the website doesn't provide an RSS feed.

Warren has posted some interesting Bible studies and comments.

Testing BlogJet

2007-03-08T00:04:00.001-08:00

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com.

It allows you to edit posts for your blogs while you are offline and publish them later.

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Prayer Ministry - What's in a Name?

2007-03-03T23:59:00.001-08:00

Prayer Ministry - what's in a name? Sometimes a great deal.

Through Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre we come into contact with many people working and ministering in the area described variously as Christian counselling, prayer ministry, healing ministry, Theophostic ministry, prayer counselling, and other terms. Often there is no problem because those involved know what they themselves mean when they use their name for what they do.

However, increasingly, different ministries are intersecting as Jesus breaks down the boundaries that have for so long separated us. This is wonderful. It is an outworking of what Jesus means when he prays, "Father, ... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:21,22)

He goes on to speak more about this glory that is revealed through the oneness of Jesus with the Father and us with them. And what is this glory? Surely a part of it is our doing the work of Jesus on earth - bringing freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, life to the dead, and so on.

Di and I have just spent another week with Peter and Heather Toth, of Anazao, on a course in Geelong on ministry to the dissociated. During our discussion the problem of what to call what we do arose again. Let me give you some history.

When we became involved with Wholeness through Christ Ministries in the early 90s, we were learning to do, and were doing, "Prayer Counselling" This was a mixture of various tools as taught by John and Paula Sandford of Elijah House, Carol Thompson's "Possess the Land" teaching, Denis and Rita Bennett's pioneering work in healing of emotions, and numerous others. It was Christian Counselling, but with a strong emphasis on reliance on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge that it was Jesus who heals, not us. It was Christian Counselling in its true sense - not secular counselling done by Christians, as so often Christian counselling is practiced, even when it has a spiritual element added, but counselling done by the true Counsellor - the Holy Spirit - with us providing the human presence for him to work through.

After some years an uneasiness set in about use of the word "counselling", mainly, I believe, because we were not training counsellors in the accepted sense of the word, who could be held professionally accountable for what they did with a "client". We were really facilitating the interaction of the client with Jesus, plus restoration of what should have been taught in the church in basic discipleship training, but generally wasn't. It was "Christianity 101"! So, because it involved asking God to work, we began calling it "Prayer Ministry" instead of "Prayer Counselling".

Some 10 years ago we began to encounter people who had trained using Ed Smith's "Theophostic" approach to ministry. As we worked with them we discovered that they generally knew nothing of prayer ministry except Theophostic. In fact, they often thought the word "Theophostic" was synonymous with "Prayer Counselling". They would ask "Have you done Theophistic?" and would be mystified when we told them that we or our team members had done "Wholeness through Christ Ministries", "Elijah House", "Vineyard's Equipping the Saints", "VMTC", "Servants in Benloch", "Ellel", "Possess the Land", "Charles Kraft's Deep Healing", "Come out Be Free", "Sonrise Family Ministries", "Beth Tephillah Ministries", "Restoration", "Healing Rooms", or a host of other training and ministry systems.

Our first encounter with Theophostic, which simply means to bring God's light into the situation, was the day after a session in our own Beth Tephillah course, where we had taken a person to a deep seated lie and asked Jesus to reveal the truth to the person, after having disposed of the demons getting in the way. Someone loaned us Ed Smith's basic video course and the following day we began to watch it, to find it was exactly what we had been teaching and doing the previous day, and in fact, for some years.

Theophistic is excellent, especially as a concise systematisation of the steps in this form of ministry. However, the name has caused us some problems, not only because of its unfortunate similarity in sound to the occult science of "Theosophy", but more because of the isolation of many of its practitioners from knowledge of other, and older, streams of healing ministry. Personally, I believe that Ed Smith is largely to blame for this situation because of the very proprietorial stance he has taken on this teaching. However, he is not alone in this approach. For example, we love the teaching of those real pioneers in all things prophetic and healing, the Sandfords. Yet, at least as it is practiced in Australia, there is talk of an "Elijah House Way" that must be followed if someone comes to an EH graduate for ministry. Other ministries have similar restrictions. Our approach at Beth Tephillah is the one originally taught to us by the Sandfords themselves - add everything to your toolbox. Bring it out when needed and put it away again. Each time allow the Holy Spirit to tell you what he wants you to do.

The freedom that comes with this approach is wonderful. There are no formulas to follow - you must depend on Jesus. It also allows you to be adaptable to new teaching. I remember in our early training by Wholeness through Christ Ministries, we were sternly injuncted to "not do deliverance the way Charles Kraft does it - he talks to demons!" There was a certainty that because demons are liars by nature you cannot allow them to give you information. You will be deceived. In 1995 Charles Kraft came to Australia to do some seminars for Tabor College. WTCM took advantage of his presence to arrange a small seminar for our staff, at which Chuck was able to demonstrate, by carrying out deliverance on our staff director, what he actually did. It was so exciting to see his ability and authority to make the demons reveal truth, especially about the lies that they had been telling the person, while all the time forbidding the demons to cause any discomfort or embarrassment to the person, that we all immediately became enthusiastic supporters of this way of doing ministry, and have used and taught it ever since. Chuck, like others such as Peter Wagner and Jack Deare, had their conservativism broken earlier by encounter with John Wimber and his demonstration that supernatural healing really did still happen today. I still remember the excitement of the Vineyard "Equipping the Saints" conferences in Melbourne, and "Doin' the Stuff" as John used to call it.

We have had similar experiences with other ministry movements, such as the misnamed "Toronto Blessing", for example. At the founding meeting of what was to become Intercessors for Melbourne, Diana and I encountered this laughing, falling, rolling, shaking phenomenon, exactly one year before it broke out in Torronto and spread to the rest of the world. As happened at other places, the Lord told me he was going to be doing this soon and that we should reassure people when it happened that it was of Him. Once the Lord released it, it rapidly became an opportunity for renewal, deliverance and healing in many centres and churches. Although the initial excitement has dimminished, these opportunities continue. But the fear and criticism of this movement have also continued. Some said it was God, some were adamant that it was of the flesh, others that it was demons. I still don't see why this was such an issue - all were correct, it was God, the flesh, and the devil! Whenever God shows up in power, our fleshly fears and desires become revealed, and any demons around come under pressure and are exposed. It was a wonderful opportunity to deal with them, not to run away because it offended our theological sensibilities. It was meant to upset the applecart of a church that had become dry and stale - that was the point of it!

Why do I mention this example now? Because, this too is now commonly called "Prayer Ministry". It is typically carried out after a conference or church meeting, up the front near the stage. Perhaps, on reflection, this really is prayer ministry, because all it asks of the "minister" is either laying-on or laying-off of hands (as we used to do it to avoid charges of pushing people over), and asking the Holy Spirit to come on the person in power. And he did! I've had the joy of simply looking at people from the stage and they would fall, and of walking around a conference centre and see people fall as I went past. Yes, we encountered flesh, and demons. But we saw a lot more of the Lord. There were times that I was standing behind someone to catch them, and if they resisted they would be leaning back at an impossible angle and not falling, while I would be struggling to stay on my feet in case they did. The flow of the power of God's presence was often so overwhelming that the catchers reached the floor first.

Over the past two years Diana and I and our team have reached another such watershed in ministry. This has been brought about by our encounter with Peter and Heather Toth of Anazao. Their approach to ministry to sufferers of Dissociate Identity Disorder and to victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse is revolutionary. Not that others have not been ministering and teaching in this area before them, but they have found a new model for understanding dissociation that acords much better with reality than that of previous ministries and secular psychiatric thought, and through 1000s of hours of counselling have become effective in freeing people quickly and completely from dissociation and true SRA. We had previously looked at how others handle these situations and found them so unsatisfactory that we decided to leave them alone. Now, using Anazao's model and methods, we are having real success in quickly setting people free, and it is impacting our approach to other areas of ministry.

However, the problem of what to call what we do comes up again. Anazao use Theophostic ministry to deal effectively with demonic interference, because Peter learned to do this from Ed Smith. Of course, Ed Smith does not like Anazao's approach to dissociation and SRA, but that is another matter - Theophostic works in other situations! Yesterday as I discussed with Peter his misgivings about our use of the term "Prayer Ministry" it became clear that he did not use the term the same way as we did. He was thinking more of the "up the front of the church" style of ministry, and his observation of our use of a separate intercession team to feed in encouragement on a sheet after the ministry session seemed to him as if our ministry was asking God to speak through the minister to the client.

I can understand such misgivings. Anazao, as do we, prefers Jesus to deal directly with the client. The ministry team is to facilitate this process, not to be directive. Actually, I think we might even emphasise this more sometimes, because Anazao also does far more of what we would call "counselling" than we do. We try to minimise the giving of advice or instruction as far as possible. This is not a criticism of Anazao, just an outworking of the fact that they are counsellors where we are not, and although counselling is a necessary part of healing ministry, we have generally prefered to separate it from the prayer ministry. In practice, however, I have found myself liable to counsel rather more than many other prayer ministers of my aquaintance, because it reflects my particular spiritual giftings as prophet/teacher and the Holy Spirit's role as "Counsellor". I expect that as we embrace, and are trained to use, more of the revelations that are being given to the ministry today through Anazao and others, we will see the development of a more rounded approach to healing, just as happened in the past through the Sandfords, Wimbers, Krafts, etc.

A few years ago, when there was a change in the structure of the Prayer Ministries Network we changed the name to Healing Prayer Ministries Network, to better reflect that as a network we were welcoming of different expressions of healing ministry apart from what we had mostly come up through. Of course, this only increases the ambiquity, as "Prayer Ministry" or "Healing Prayer Ministry" now even more deliberately includes many different expressions of ministry. This is healthy, because we can learn from and support each other, and refer people with different needs to that which is most appropriate or available to them.

But, it leaves ministries such as Beth Tephillah Ministries, and others, with a problem - What do we call what we do? I throw this out as a challenge for discussion. I would love to hear your ideas on this, either through comments in this blog, or by email through the HPMN network, or directly to me.

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Our Church, Visible and Invisible

2007-03-02T02:46:00.000-08:00

The Reformers distinguished between the visible church: the organized institution as it appeared on earth, from the invisible church: the whole number of the elect known only to God.

In our modern day, with its ‘scientific’ worldview, the visible or tangible seems more ‘real’ than the invisible, which seems ephemeral or mystical.

However, to a postmodern the spiritual and relational has a strong appeal, and anything with a structure which might support a power base is viewed with grave suspicion. The organized chuch is unappealing, while a fellowship with a loose, unorganized, non-institutional appearance stands a chance of attracting, or at least not frightening them. I think Jesus would probably find more of a welcome among such a group as well.

In the world of the organized church, loose ‘home group’ churches become invisible. Beth Tephillah, even though it is more like a home group in its functioning, and is thus often relatively invisible, is still a constituted Baptist Church. Thus it can bridge this postmodern version of the visibility divide.

I just reread David Kosoff’s story, as told by ‘Jethro’, an old Temple worker, of the discovery of the child Jesus by Simeon and Anna. Here, in the midst of the central symbol of organized Jewry, right at the focus of their religious world, God was doing something which was about to change forever the whole of history and the entire universe. And only a handful of people: a disgraced virgin, a kind hearted young man, a bunch of common shepherds, a few astrologers, an old priest, and a widowed prophetess, had any idea that it was happening.

The temple was the most visible expression of Jewish religious life. The Messiah was the great hope for salvation eagerly awaited by all of God’s people. Yet hardly anyone noticed his arrival in that place. As this obviously poor couple brought their baby to be recognized in the Temple and dedicated to God, the world changed forever, but ‘Church’ life continued unchanged!

Is God still doing this today? Is it really in the great church institutions and denominations, and with the powerful and recognized religious leaders that Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom of God?
Or, is it advancing, virtually unnoticed, among those who are considered to be nothing in the world’s and the church’s eyes; those who struggle to fit in to a system that spends so much energy upon itself and so little on those God most cares about - those who give up on the great ideas of man and return again to ask of Jesus what he really wants of them?

Could the ‘church in the cracks’, as I have fondly called it for years, be today a more accurate expression of the small band of nervous risk takers that Jesus gathered around him for a few years, and then sent out to win the world. He sent them out, not with great systems and organizations, but by telling one or two friends the story of Jesus and his salvation, around a fire, or over a meal, or at a roadside stop, or in a prison, or beside a sickbed, or during a break at work, or just over the back fence!

How much evidence do we find in the Bible for the large institution being what Jesus had in mind? I don’t see much. I do see the group of friends, sharing everything they had, suffering persecution together, and fearlessly confronting the fallen world around them with a message of hope:

“The Messiah has come – God is with us! Emmanuel! Hallelujah!”

Like Ripples in a Pond

2007-02-24T22:50:00.000-08:00

During our fellowship gathering we were wondering about what influence any one believer might have in the world, perhaps without knowing it, just by being faithful and available to Jesus. I then came across the following story, written by Dick Innes in Encounter magazine for September/October 2001 (Vol. 32 No. 9/10). I thought it particularly apt in the light of the recent celebrations of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Think, too, of the amazing events of recent years and how they were affected by the action of one person.

For example, ‘19 August 2001 was the tenth anniversary of the final
downfall of international communism in the former Soviet Union. Some of you may
remember that historic event. A group of Russian generals were determined to
turn back the tide of democracy in that declining empire. They placed Mikhail
Gorbachev under house arrest at his dacha outside of Moscow. Meanwhile a tank
rumbled into Red square with the sole purpose of capturing second-in-command,
Boris Yeltsin. But Yeltsin did something quite extraordinary. Instead of
acquiescing to his captors, he leapt atop the tank and welcomed the tank
commander over to the side of democracy.

‘Later the tank commander reported that, up to this point, he had no
intention of joining the forces of democracy, but Yeltsin was so persuasive that
he could not resist. And with that single event, communism lost its final
prospect of a return to power.

‘A reporter interviewed Boris Yeltsin not long after that famous
incident. The reporter asked Yeltsin what gave him the courage to take that
stand. Yeltsin credited reading the story of Lech Walesa, the Gdansk electrician
who led the forces of Solidarity and helped bring democracy to Poland several
years before.

‘Someone asked Walesa what caused him to make the stand that brought
down communism in his land. Walesa said he was inspired to his acts of sacrifice
by reading accounts of the late Dr martin Luther King Jnr and the Civil Rights
marchers in the United States.

‘When Dr King was asked what pivotal event spurred him into action as a
leader of his people, he cited the influence of Rosa Parks, the African-American
woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who refused to sit in the back of the bus when
instructed to do so because of her skin colour. Now here is the question for the
day: is it possible that the fall of communism began with one African-American
woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus? (from King Duncan and the staff at www.sermons.com

)'

I’m sure, if we could ask Rosa Parks who it was that inspired her courage, we could follow the chain back through many often seemingly insignificant acts of courage and self-sacrifice - leading eventually to the event of Jesus hanging on the cross outside of Jerusalem.

Some things I've written recently elsewhere

2007-02-13T03:10:00.000-08:00

In Godly Science I remarked on the cognitive dissonance of those wishing to deny a graduate in paleontology his doctorate because he is a young earth creationist.

Over at a reasonable mystic I take a look at the role of our imagination in hearing God's voice and interacting in the spiritual realm - in Imagine That! - Part 1 and continued in Part 2.

And I welcomed our new blog - Beth Tephillah News - which will carry news and discussion about Williamstown Baptist Church and Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre.

Pen2Print creative writing school

2007-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

My friend Nenia Tavrou is beginning a new business. She is running the Pen2Print online and correspondence creative writing school. Her new website, pen2print.com, is just coming online, so check it out. My business, The Roaring Mouse, is doing the hosting and development.

Nenia is a published poet, has two diplomas in creative writing, has worked as an editor for CCE (Creative Christian Enterprises). She is a member of the Society of Women's Writers (SWW) and the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW).

She is also part of our prayer ministry team at Beth Tephillah. Clients often receive an original poem on their intercession sheet when Nenia is on the team.

Nenia will soon begin a blog as part of her site, and I'm sure many bloggers could profit from her writing tuition.

The Dawkins Delusion

2007-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

It's nice to have agreement in high places. Further to my article on atheism, Science proves God doesn't exist? , John Sexton at Verum Serum has posted the comments of Oxford University theologian and historian, Alister McGrath on Dawkin's The God Delusion. Since I am greatly enjoying McGrath's insights into atheism in The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World, I was greatly interested in John's post, so I will reproduce it here:

The Dawkins Delusion.
That’s the title of a new book by fellow Oxford professor (of theology) Alister McGrath. McGrath is a former atheist who, prior to pursuing theology, received a Phd in molecular biophysics. Here’s what he has to say about Dawkins:

I have known Dawkins for more than 20 years; we are both Oxford professors. I believe if anyone is “immune to argument” it is him. He comes across as a dogmatic, aggressive propagandist.

[snip]

Our paths do cross on the television networks and we even managed to spar briefly across a BBC sofa a few months back. We were also filmed having a debate for Dawkins’s recent Channel 4 programme, The Root Of All Evil? Dawkins outlined his main criticisms of God, and I offered answers to what were clearly exaggerations and misunderstandings. It was hardly rocket science.

[snip]

But when I debated these points with him, Dawkins seemed uncomfortable. I was not surprised to be told that my contribution was to be cut. The Root Of All Evil? was subsequently panned for its blatant unfairness. Where, the critics asked, was a responsible, informed Christian response to Dawkins? The answer: on the cutting-room floor.

That sounds about right. McGrath concludes that Dawkin’s legacy may be a backlash:

Aware of the moral obligation of a critic of religion to deal with this phenomenon at its best and most persuasive, many atheists have been disturbed by Dawkins’s crude stereotypes and seemingly pathological hostility towards religion. In fact, The God Delusion might turn out to be a monumental own goal - persuading people that atheism is just as intolerant as the worst that religion can offer.

I’ve learned (from speaking to atheists) that there are a significant number who do not find Dawkin’s approach at all appealing and who find his seeming compunction for self-aggrandizement even less appealing. In the end, Dawkins may be a jerk, but he’s their jerk. I can appreciate that.

Still, I predicted that celebrity atheism would lead to the same sort of problems and embarrassments associated with Christian televangelists. The first big scandal is probably still a few years away, but it’s coming. Dawkins has a lot more in common with Pat Robertson than he realizes.

Related Articles:
The New Atheists: Arrogant, Rigid and Charmless
Some Atheists Not Thrilled with the New Atheism
Dawkins' Faith in Foam
NY Times Reviews Dawkins' Delusion
Dawkins' Fawlty Idea

John's last paragraph accords with my own conclusion that Dawkins is a prize example of a (non-Christian) fundamentalist. And I agree - we haven't seen the end of the story yet!

A million monkeys .. er penguins ... er, bloggers!

2007-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

You've all heard the story that if a million monkeys typed on a million typewriters long enough they would produce the works of Shakespeare! Well someone is trying it, except they are using penguins instead of monkeys - well, they are really using bloggers.

Penguin UK have a project to let bloggers, working together using a wiki, write and edit a novel. Check it at:

http://www.amillionpenguins.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Now that's a novel idea. Of course, if blogging penguins can come up with the next blockbuster then anyone can do it.

Recently I read a scientific article, the source of which escapes me at the moment, which explored whether by watching the behaviour of a group of apes we can discover the roots of religion. Will the next project be a monkey writen Bible? That's more of a challenge than a novel - even more than the works of Shakespeare.

Science proves God doesn't exist?

2007-01-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

In Eurekalert we find the following description of yet another book in what David van Biema in Time Magazine called an "atheist literary wave":

In God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist, physicist Victor Stenger argues that science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence or nonexistence of the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. He invites readers to put their minds--and the scientific method--to work to test this claim.

After evaluating all the scientific evidence--the studies done by
reputable institutions on the power of prayer; the writings of philosophers who have puzzled over the problem of God and of good and evil; the efforts of biblical scholars to prove the accuracy of holy scriptures; and the work of biologists, geologists, and astronomers looking for clues to a creator on Earth and in the cosmos--Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. He convincingly shows that not only is there no evidence for the existence of God, but scientific observations actually point to his nonexistence.

I haven't read this book yet, so I won't comment on it, except to say that even Richard Dawkins, of The God Delusionfame, says he "learned an emormous amount from this splendid book."

What I will comment on is the "studies done by reputable institutions on the power of prayer". I have read the findings of some of these studies, and looked with wonder at their methodology - things like doing brain scans while a person is praying and trying to see what changes, statistical surveys of prayer results, double blind trials of intercessory prayer for heart surgery patients, etc.

Of this last one, Bishop Tom Wright said on BBC News, "Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine. You can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar. This is like setting an exam for God to see if God will pass it or not."

There is an implication here that God is obliged to cooperate in such experiments, because otherwise he is a completely uncontrolled variable, thus invalidating the results. Unless, as I believe is usually the case, one of the assumptions made before the experiment is that prayer is a purely human activity - some sort of psychic force that has nothing to do with God, or spirit. In this case then, the experiment says nothing about God at all, and can't be used as evidence of his non-existence.

If it is assumed that prayer is an activity of the human spirit in conjunction with the Spirit of God, I wonder how the participants were selected, given that even for many (most?) Christians prayer appears to be a pretty hit-and-miss, "if it be thy will", "please give us what we need and not what we want" sort of thing, rather than a Holy Spirit driven conversation developing out of an intimate and very personal relationship with the person of God? Was any study first carried out to first find out who could really pray, and then select the prayer team from those?

Then there is the implication that the Judeo-Christian God is the same one as the Islamic one, despite their enormously different demonstrated nature and behaviour. And I've come across a few "gods" who would only be too happy to participate in trials like the above if only to perpetuate their deceptive ways.

Forgiveness

2007-01-31T05:16:00.000-08:00

Forgiveness is such a critical component of healing. Knowing the forgiveness of God through the reconciling work of Jesus on the cross is the beginning of peace with God. For many we struggle with unforgiveness - of ourselves, others and God. Much has been written on the need for us to forgive if we are to receive the forgiveness of God.

In the area of forgiving, Joy Dawson has some helpful thoughts in The Fire of God: Discovering Its Many Life Changing Purposes. Shippensberg, PA: Destiny Image, 2005.

On pages 70-71 she speaks of the sin of resentment towards those who have wronged us, and the difficulty of forgiveness where we have wrongly judged people.

"We can only forgive people who have wronged us. However, we must not presume
that because we're feeling hurt, that the person connected with the pain was
necessarily guilty of doing wrong."

Mis-communication, our expectations, misunderstandings and perceptions often lead us to judge others and hold unforgiveness against them wrongly. She gives seven scenarios and the way to
deal with hurt caused by such situations.

"Let's look at some reasons for feeling hurt, where we could be tempted to wrongly judge people:
We were not consulted before a decision was made. Perhaps we were not meant to be involved in that responsibility.
We were not told about something for which we should have been informed. Maybe the breakdown of communication was with someone else who had been delegated to do so and had failed.
We were not given the attention we requested from an individual, or insufficient attention for our liking. It could be, that for a number of reasons our receiving attention was not a legitimate priority for that individual at that time, or their amount of availability was equally limited.
We were not given the recognition for our labors that we thought we deserved. Perhaps God overruled the recognition by withholding it in order to test the motivation of our hearts. Jesus said, "I do not receive praise from men," simply because He gave all the glory to the Father.
We were corrected by someone where we considered the judgment to be unfair. Maybe we were immediately defensive and didn't have the humility to ask God to show us if there was even a small percentage of truth in their overall judgment.
We were seemingly ignored by someone when we were in the presence of others. It's absolutely possible that the person either didn't see us, or never heard us, or for any number of reasons wasn't able to speak or respond to us. For example, it could be because of the pressures of responsibilities on the person,
or their physical condition, or because they were under great stress, to name a few.
We were not included in a group situation where we thought we should have been. It could be that there was an unexplainable oversight, or perhaps the group felt it would be wiser and more beneficial for all concerned, including ourselves, if we were not included.
We need to honestly ask the Holy Spirit to show us where our ego and pride may have been the cause of our pain when we're feeling offended. When we really come to the place of death to that monster called self and want it to be crucified, we enter into real freedom. You can't offend a dead man."

Scott Adams on Irrational Atheists

2007-01-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I like to read is The Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams. Scott is the author of the Dilbert Cartoon, a favourite with most geeks. What many don't realise is that his quirky sense of humour also comes out in his writing. So often his unusual mind is able to see right through the fog and put a subject into refreshing perspective. He reminds me a lot of Michael Leunig, whose free calendar from The Age keeps my head straight every day.

Anyhow, in the light of my earlier post I just had to share Scott's take on the Irrationality of Atheism:

Allow me to summarize every discussion of atheism that has ever occurred on the Internet:

Atheist: “Religion is irrational.”

Believer: “Oh yeah?

Atheism is a religion too, because it’s a cause that’s believed on faith! See Merriam-Webster’s 4th definition of religion.”

Atheist: “Atheism is religion the same way that NOT collecting stamps is a hobby.”

Believer: “You can’t prove the non-existence of God. And belief without proof is faith. Check Merriam-Webster’s second definition of faith. Therefore, atheists are irrational by definition.”

Atheist: “You can NEVER (or almost never) prove a negative.
Besides, some things are so obvious that proof is unnecessary. Do you believe there’s a monster under your bed? You have no proof that it doesn’t exist. Therefore, by your reasoning, it’s only reasonable to believe there MIGHT be a monster under your bed.”

Believer: "Hey, you never know."

And so it is argued by both believers and agnostics that atheists must be either irrational – believing the non-existence of God without proof for that position – or atheists are really just fence-sitting agnostics and don't admit it.

My question is this: If you reckon that the existence of God has less than a 1 in a trillion chance of being true, based on all the available evidence, but not proof, can you call yourself an atheist? And if so, would you still be irrational?

Check out the original article, the comments are becoming interesting!

The demise of 'evangelical'

2007-01-29T03:05:00.000-08:00

Almost exactly two years ago I wrote an article about the words 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal' having reached their use-by dates. Well, here goes another one, although I believe its demise will hardly be news to many people. In USA Today we read:

Who's an evangelical? Until last year the answer seemed clear. Now the word may be losing its moorings, sliding toward the same linguistic demise that "fundamentalist" met decades ago because it has been misunderstood, misappropriated and maligned.

In fact, as well as it becoming difficult to now discern just who are the evangelicals in the Church, 'evangelical' now applies to many non-church activities, such as politics and business, though to look at the behaviour of some large denominations, perhaps 'non-church' isn't accurate. It is also increasingly used among a variety of religious groups (I refuse to count Christianity as a religion).

Some of the most evangelical people I have encountered are those atheists who are so 'convinced' that there can not be a God that they never seem to be able to stop talking about him. In a recent interview on Front Row, as reported by KesterB at The Complex Christ Signs of Emergence, rock musician Brian Eno admits:

... to being an 'evangelical atheist' but that he is 'jealous of the spiritual experiences the religious have access to.' His recent work seeks to provide 'Secular Spiritual places.'

Richard Dawkins is another that immediately comes to mind, with his book The God Delusion. The Publishers Weekly review is interesting:

For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. ... While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." (Publishers Weekly, Oct 18, 2006)

As well as an evangelical atheist, perhaps Dawkins could also be described as a fundamentalist, in the modern misusage of the word.

Is the emerging church new?

2007-01-29T02:27:00.000-08:00

We're just back from a relaxing week doing nothing in particular at Phillip Island. It was generally rainy and very windy, so we read a lot of books. Now I have a heap of blogs to catch up on (no wireless in range where we were).

Maggi Dawn made an interesting comment in her blog about whether the emerging church is really new. Considering that we've been doing our version of it for 15 years now at Beth Tephillah, I guess it depends on what you mean by new!

But as Maggi says,

I don't think there has to be an opposition of whether it's new/not new, and neither do I think it matters particularly. I think it does matter that we hold together both the history we've inherited (and the graciousness and humility to acknowledge it) and the freedom to live thoroughly in the present. I don't think Church works unless you hold both those two things together in some lively way.

I believe Maggi is right when she says there is no one way of being emergent. After all, most emerging churches wouldn't even recognise ours as such. What is important is that all of those years ago God told us he wanted to do a new thing with Williamstown Baptist Church, and we're doing it to the best of our ability.

Baptists Don't Drink?

2007-01-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Following our Anazao ministry course in Queensland with Peter and Heather Toth I have been wondering how to introduce the subject of drinking alcohol into our fellowship. I haven't yet decided how to do it, but see the need to do so in regard to a more authentic celebration of communion.

In the meantime, I greatly appreciated Tall Skinny Kiwi's article We Baptists Do Not Drink ( . . . in front of each other).

Steve Chalke - Storyteller

2007-01-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

I first encountered Steve Chalke in Birmingham at the Baptist World Alliance Centenary Congress in July 2005. I remember sitting spellbound as this master storyteller shared his tale about how the church is having a powerful effect in the most hostile and disadvantaged areas in Britain, winning the approval and support of both national and local government, and Islamic and Hindu communities, and all of this without a moment's compromise of the Gospel of Jesus.

I remember thinking then that Australian Christians really need to hear this man.

So it was with delight that I discovered a couple of Steve's books at Koorong the other day. I bought his Intelligent Church: A Journey Towards Christ-Centred Community.

I've only just begun to read it, but what I want to share now is something that Brian Mclaren says in his foreword to Steve's book:

... too often our churches have become human warehouses, where people are
gathered and stored so that they can be delivered after death to heaven with
minimum loss, spoilage, rust, rot, or breakage. These air-conditioned warehouses
are equiped with every comfort - from padded seats to a kind of religious muzak
- so that those who enter will be happy and never want to leave until they are
shipped to their final destination.

Steve Chalke's message and mission is to get us out into the streets. Often those involved in what is now called emerging church profess this aim, but my experience of it has not been too encouraging so far - the danger of just creating a different warehouse looms large. As Steve says in his introduction to the book:

Much has been said of late about the concept of 'emerging church' - the
phrase itself speaks the language of change and transistion. But the truth is,
of course, that the church has been emerging for two thousand years.

We at Beth Tephillah are certainly conscious of the need to take a fresh look at ourselves through the eyes of Jesus, and not just because we are beginning a new year!

Moderating Comments

2006-12-28T01:46:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately the anonymous commenter has again been putting derogatory comments about someone on this blog, so in the interest of fairness I have decided, reluctantly, that I will have to moderate all comments for the forseeable future.

I did not want to do this, but rest assured, if your comments are reasonable then I will let them through. When this will happen will depend only on my time availablility to check them.

Anonymous comments WILL NOT appear under any circumstances. Identified comments will be read and checked, and if they appear legitimate I will post them.

Sorry about the need for this as I prefer an open discussion, but I won't allow my websites to be the source of harm to anyone.

If someone wants to let me know something without it appearing on the site then feel free to email me direct - but not anonymously.

Blessings to you in the New Year.

Mal

For married men only

2006-11-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I like to keep an eye on is the Dilbert Blog, by Scott Adams. As you might have guessed, Scott is the writter of the insightful Dilbert comic. At least it seems insightful to geeks like me - you might have other ideas! If you wade your way past some of the more political pieces you find gems of irony and understatement, such as yesterday's effort, which is about the kind of decision that must have brought every married man close to tears at some time:

"Delusions of Competence By Scott_Adams on General Nonsense

"Before I got married I did many things correctly. I attribute my excellent performance to the fact that I have astonishingly low standards for just about everything that doesn’t directly affect my health. My plan for happiness was to set the bar low and clear it by a mile. It was a formula that worked so well that I considered turning it into a self-help book. I would have called it The Power of Low Standards. The entire book would have been three pages long and hand-written on paper that would make a beaver hurl.

"Now I’m married, and that means I have to explain myself a lot. I can no longer leave a hot iron on my shirt just to see how long it takes to burn it, then draw more comics and buy another shirt. Suddenly that sort of thing is wrong.

"I went into the marriage fully understanding that the big decisions would be jointly made, and I’m okay with that because it makes perfect sense. Two heads are better than one. The part that caught me by surprise is how often I have to second-guess myself on the little decisions. And life, it turns out, is mostly little decisions.

"This problem came into sharp focus while cleaning up after a holiday get-together with family. I found myself staring at a serving plate of thoroughly picked-over hambone and gristle and wondering if it was okay to throw it out. In my pre-marriage days, this decision would be simple. Not only would I have thrown it out, but I might have literally thrown it out the window just to see how long it took a raccoon to find it. Sometimes I like to do that sort of research. In those days, every problem had an obvious solution.

"But now I am faced with a decision that presents many opportunities to be wrong. I’m thinking that the tray of ham debris MIGHT be garbage. It sure looked like it. But maybe Shelly had plans to make a soup. I had never seen her make a soup from a hambone, but life is full of firsts.

"Or maybe she already promised the bone to my mother-in-law for her dog. Knowing that I might disappoint a human is enough pressure, but now I had to worry about making a dog sad. It was almost too much to bear.

"I started to wonder if the ham debris only looked worthless to me because I’m a vegetarian. Perhaps someone else might peer into the gristle and see an entire week’s worth of delicious sandwiches. I needed to come to terms with the fact that I am not qualified to judge ham sandwich potential. I made a mental note to add it to my growing list of inadequacies.

"Shelly wasn’t nearby at the time of this decision process. I could have waited until she got back, but the plate of used ham parts was seriously impeding my kitchen-cleaning plan. And I knew that if I postponed this decision, I’d only get hung up on a similar question with the guacamole dip. I was paralyzed. I either had to make an executive decision (probably wrong) or risk being seen as an unhelpful spouse. I decided that my best option was to bide my time until Shelly got back. I started to slowly gather up used dishes and put them in the dishwasher. This is something I knew I could do right. And by “right” I mean I generally fill the dishwasher to 100% capacity and then Shelly rearranges things to make room for 90 additional items.

"I managed to drag out the dishwasher-loading process until Shelly got back. This turned out to be good strategy. Had I made the ham decision unilaterally I would have later heard the question 'Why did you put garbage in Tupperware and store it in the refrigerator?' And then I’d have to say, 'I’m keeping the hambone fresh for your Mom’s dog. That’s called thinking about others.' "

Four Weeks in Paradise

2006-11-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

Di and I have just spent a month at a resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast doing a ministry course with Anazao. The course was great, truly life-changing, and I’ll write about it here and elsewhere. But right now I want to ramble about something much more interesting to most people – the weather!

You’ve all seen the ads – Beautiful one day, perfect the next! Well, I’ve thought of a new version – Beautiful one day, Melbourne the next!

Truly, If I had closed my eyes so that I could not see the bats in the palm trees, then I would have thought that I had never left home.

Mind you, The resort where our hosts live is a lovely spot, as you can see from the photo of the view from our balcony. And after all, Elanora is only just in Queensland. But really – apart from a few sunny days typical of a Victorian spring, discounting double the humidity, we had torrential rain, violent thunderstorms, gale-force winds, and hail the size of (very undersized) golf balls!

But did we have a good time? You betcha! Sometimes it helps to come from Melbourne. After all, we’re used to seeing pelicans fly backwards.

Of course, four weeks away in paradise does mean that my blogs have fallen into severe neglect – but I’m BACK!

Check out the posts on my blogs

2006-10-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this post you would probably also be interested in posts in some of my blogs:

a reasonable mystic

Listening 2 God

speak-in-tongues blog

Discipleship as Conversion

2006-10-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

In a recent issue of The Victorian baptist Witness (Sepot 2006, p4) Simon Moyle said, "We see discipleship as conversion, rather than necessarily something that follows conversion".

I like this statement - it expresses a conviction I have had for a long time. I believe the idea may have come from George Eldon Ladd, but the first time I saw it spelled out clearly was by Dave Andrews in Christi-Anarchy. Here he outlined the concept of open and closed sets. The traditional evangelical understanding of conversion was as a closed set. If one was anywhere outside the boundary of the set one was headed for hell, whereas being anywhere inside the boundary led to heaven. There was a well-defined set of formulae by which one could cross the boundary from outside to inside, such as "the four spiritual laws" and the "sinner's prayer", and there was usually no way to make the reverse journey - once saved, always saved! Of course, different groups had a different set of formulae.

The open set idea, espoused by Andrews, and blogged about more recently by Steve Collins, is the one that resonates in my heart. It says that there is no actual boundary to the set, and whether one is "in" or "out" is determined more by whether one is moving towards the centre, where Jesus is, or moving away. The distance from the centre relates more to how one lives, rather than to whether one is saved or not. It is possible for someone on the journey to God to sometimes be moving towards God, and sometime away. In fact, it would be possible for someone close to the centre to reverse their direction by conscious rejection of Jesus, and to head directly away from salvation!

This idea allows for the possibility of people coming to faith in Jesus from any direction, even via another religion or no religion at all. However, only Jesus is at the centre, not Buddha, not Mahommed, not any other spiritual, philosophical or political leader, guru, god, demon, or idea.

I'm not syaing that the Kingdom of God is all "open set" or all "closed set". These are just models which help to illustrate different aspects of the process of salvation. The important point here is that it is a process!

The idea that rather than discipleship following conversion, discipleship is conversion, is much closer to what Jesus did with his disciples. "What must I do to receive eternal life?" he was asked. "Come, follow me!" And in the following life transformation takes place.

In our work in prayer ministry at Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre we see this happening all the time, not just in those who come for ministry, but even more importantly in our staff and students. Of course, they are already followers of Jesus or they wouldn't be staff members - we don't turn just anyone loose on severely wounded people! But they are still being converted!

As they walk in obedience, often right out of their comfort zones and having to trust God to "show up", we see them coming more and more alive. They find that God is trustworthy in areas of their lives that were previously unsubmitted. They find that they can do things with Jesus they would have been afraid to attempt before, or simply unaware of. In short, they constantly become more like Jesus.

This, for me, is the meaning of conversion and discipleship. It is the "have been saved, am being saved, and will be saved" that the early church understood.

For most of our staff, Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre is about bringing healing to the wounded. But for me, it is more about training and releasing people into ministry. While we never like people leaving us, we are most encouraged when we lose some of our staff because they have gone to start another healing centre somewhere else. In this way our seeds are being planted in many places, including Ballarat, Warnambool, Wodonga, Geelong, and through the Healing Prayer Ministries Network, all over Victoria. In fact, through our online teaching, they are spreading across the world!

One of the pioneers of this form of ministry, John Sandford, called it "evangelising the unbelieving hearts of believers". He discusses it in Transforming the Inner Man: God's Powerful Principles for Inner Healing and Lasting Life Change (Transformation), a classic book which every Christian counsellor and minister needs to read.

This is just one of the aspects of being church at Beth Tephillah. While being tiny in the more traditional measures of "church", we are a catalyst for other ministries in the body of Christ - and not just in our own denomination. Our own staff belong to 16 different churches, and each of our "daughter" centres has the same vision for the Kingdom of God and the community, not just the building up of their own church.

If you looked at Beth Tephillah on a Friday night, which is when we gather as Williamstown Baptist Church, you would see something different again. I love what Inspiral and others in the emerging church movement are doing. In his article Simon Moyle describes the people of Inspiral as "a bunch of people who would never darken the door of a traditional church". At Beth Tephillah we have the same, but these aren't the "young, relatively affluent post-moderns" that are the focus of many new initiatives. Ours are largely the older wounded and rejected of society - the alcoholics, schizophrenics, bipolar, downtrodden, depressed, damaged by church and broken families - the "difficult" people.

In fact, a few young, relatively affluent post-moderns would really brighten the place up! They would also instantly find themselves with a ministry on their hands. We'd love to encourage our folk to be more caring of others, but a higher priority for some is to get them caring for themselves!

Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven!

The Law and the Prophets

2006-10-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

While preparing to teach from Romans at our Friday night gathering I was reading in Exodus about God calling Moses and the people to the mountain to receive his law. To cut a long story short, the Israelites already knew that to come too close to God would be dangerous. In fact God had warned them not to touch the mountain, and they already knew that no-one could see God's face and live.

So, to receive this summons to come nearer and he would speak to them all, and to see the smoke and fire, and to hear the thundering up on the summit, filled them with fear. They misjudged their God's loving heart, instead thinking that he would kill them. So they decided to not even go to the foot of the slope from where Moses and Aaron would ascend to the top. "You go up and talk to him," they said. "We'll wait down here where it's safe until you come back and tell us what he wants."

And what was it that God wanted? I believe that he wanted to write his law onto their hearts, as later described by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36) and then quoted in Hebrews 8. Instead he had to write it onto slabs of rock for Moses and Aaron to take back and read to them. And did they wait expectantly at the base of the hill for them to return? No! They made an idol and threw a huge, adulterous party in honor of a metalic calf!

I wonder what would have happened if all of the people had come nearer to their God. Perhaps they would not have needed those slabs of stone which from that day onwards, enshrined as "The Law", have been a milstone around the necks of all who think they can come to God on their own terms, and ignore him when he is no longer convenient.

Another result of that incident was that God's promise to make them a nation of priests was aborted. Instead, Moses became the prophet and Aaron the priest, and a family dynasty came into being. The people were ruled by those who God appointed, and far from fulfilling thier destiny to be a blessing to the nations, they instead used "The Law" to exclude all others from God's presence.

This situation continued until Jesus came to restore once again the possibility of a nation of prophets, priests and kings who would carry not only God's law in their hearts, but his Spirit as well!

Barbers don't exist - irrefutable proof.

2006-10-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

I just read this story in the Atheism vs Christianity Google Group, and I couldn't resist sharing it here. I don't know who the original author is; if anyone does please let me know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Christian went to his favorite barber shop for his weekly hair-cut and beard trimming. In the course of their conversation, they touched upon the subject of God.

The barber said: "Look man, I don't think that God exists as you believe."

"Why do you think that?" asked the Christian.

"Well, it's so easy; you only have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. If God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abused or crippled children? If God existed, there would be no suffering or pain. Would there be murder or even war? I can not imagine a loving God who would permit ANY of these things."

The Christian didn't want to enter into an argument and could think of no immediate response to the barber's logic. The barber finished his job and the Christian fellow left the shop. The moment he stepped out the door he saw a man sitting on the curb whose long hair and beard were in need of a barber's attention (It looked so long, dirty and untidy).

The Christian turned and reentered the barber shop and said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers absolutely do not exist!"

"How can you say that barbers do not exist?" exclaimed the barber. "Well, I'm here and I'm a barber. I just cut your hair!!!"

"No!" the Christian exclaimed. "Barbers do not exist; because if they did exist, there would be no people with long hair and stringy beard like that man out there in the street, sitting on the curb."

"Oh, barbers do indeed exist! What happens is that people first have to come to me. They seek me out and find me!"

"You are exactly right!"- affirmed the Christian. "That's exactly the point. God does exist, what happens is people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Please, Mr Einstein

2006-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's a lazy Tuesday off and I'm sitting reading - no, enjoying - a delightful book. It's Please, Mr Einstein by Jean-Claude Carriere.

I can't say very much about the content of the book yet - I'm only up to page 18, but the experience is taking me back to the 70s and 80s and books like Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid! That was a postmodern book written before everyone was talking about postmodern books.

Do you remember that spine-tingling experience of beginning to read about a favourite subject (in Hofstader's case, physics and artificial intelligence) only to find that rather than it being about physics, it's not even about thinking about physics - it's about thinking about thinking about physics?

And to cap it off, all the time I'm reading it I'm simultaneously thinking about how and why the author, here Carrerie, wrote the things he did.

For example, take pages 12-13. The girl has just asked Einstein why he chose to see her instead of the more likely candidates who were already in the waiting room when she arrived. It seems it was because she is a girl (he likes girls), but also because her presence reassured him that the human race still exists in the 21st century (Einstein has been dead for 50 years). This leads to a question of whether he is afraid that his part in the development of the atomic bomb meant he would be held responsible if the race had been wiped out?

"But responsible to whom?" she asks. "If humanity had disappeared, who would be left to blame you for it?"

"No one, you're right. But all the same ..."

Then ensues a discussion about how the young can't conceive of the concept of nothingness, entirely skipping over the question that immediately occurs to theologians like you and me, that there might still be someone to hold him responsible!

I do hope Carrerie will find his way back to such concerns further into the book, but even if he doesn't, I am enjoying what I am finding.

The things you are asked in counselling

2006-09-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

All pastors do a certain amount of counselling, and you never know just how serious the questions just might be. Sometimes it is awe-inspiring the amount of trust people place in you. For example, here's a recent email:

"Dear Mal, I've never written to you before, but I really need your advice on what could be a crucial decision.

"I've suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me.The usual signs...phone rings, but if I answer, the caller hangs up. My wife has been going out with the girls a lot recently, although when Iask their names she always says, "Just some friends from work, you don't know them."

"I sometimes stay awake to look out for her taxi coming home, but she always comes walking up the drive as I hear the sound of a car leaving, around the corner, as if she has gotten out and walked the rest of the way. Why? Maybe she wasn't in a taxi at all?

"I once picked up her mobile phone, just to see what time it was. This caused her to go completely berserk. She quickly snatched the phone out of my hand and cursed me hysterically, screaming that I should never touch her personal property, then accused me of trying to spy on her.

"Anyway, I have never broached the subject with my wife. I think deep down I just didn't want to know the truth, but last night she went out again and I decided to really check on her. I decided I was going to park my Harley Davidson Lowrider next to the garage and then hide behind it so I could get a good view of the street around the corner when she came home. It was at that moment, crouching behind my motorcycle that I noticed a small amount of motor oil leaking throughthe gasket between the rear head and rocker arm cover.

"So... is this something I can easily repair myself or do you think I should take it back to the dealer as it's still under warranty?"

(With thanks to DJ)

Is prophecy the same as inspired preaching?

2006-09-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

Many conservative Christians make the above equation - that what was once called prophecy in the early church is today what we describe as inspired preaching, especially if it is of the kind that calls down fire upon those in our societies who oppress the powerless, exploit the diminishing resources of our planet, or deceive the gullible masses.

Certainly, these are all things that a prophet might well do. But does that turn their words into prophecy? No, not even if they were uttered by a prophet, let alone a preacher! It is hearing from God and declaring what he says that makes prophecy.

According to Ernest Gentile in Your Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy: Prophetic Gifts in Ministry Today, the one upon whom so many preachers try to model themselves, the "Prince of Preachers" himself - C.H. Spurgeon - didn't think so. And he was also a prophet!

If you want to know more about this then check out the full story at my Listening 2 God blog.

Purpose-Driven?

2006-09-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday, ran an article about the experiences of some churches in the USA with attempts to 'transition' their church to 'Purpose Driven'. I find it hard to relate to this part of American church culture, even though I'm not unfamiliar with church splits. However, the article does reinforce some of my misgivings about churches putting their focus on running 'services' and on filling the pews and meeting the budget. A church service would not be my first choice to take a friend in the hope that they might meet Jesus. I would rather they saw Jesus in me first! Church 'services' must seem rather bizarre to most people these days - where else does anyone engage in mysterious rituals, sing to musical instruments then sit still and listen to a lecture? If the purpose is evangelism then I can certainly see a desperate need to change the format to 'seeker friendly' - but should that really be the purpose?

Some churches must have gone far enough down the Purpose Driven track here in Australia for some valuable experiences to have emerged. Have any of you got stories to tell about it?

And just in case there might be a few readers of this who still don't know what I'm talking about, here's the links to the books that started it all: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?, and The Purpose-Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission. And here's the WSJ article - sorry it's so long:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Across U.S., Members Divide On Making Sermons, Music More 'Purpose-Driven'

No More 'Wrath of God'?

By SUZANNE SATALINESeptember 5, 2006; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115741786888753373.html?mod=hps_us_pageone

IUKA, Miss. -- In April, 150 members of Iuka Baptist Church voted to kick Charles Jones off the deacons' board. The punishment followed weeks of complaints by Mr. Jones and his friends that the pastor was following the teachings of the Rev. Rick Warren, the best-selling author and church-growth guru. After the vote, about 40 other members quit the church to support Mr. Jones.

Mr. Warren, the effusive pastor of stadium-sized Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is best known for his book "The Purpose Driven Life," which has sold 25 million copies and urges people to follow God's plan for them. He has spawned an industry advising churches to become "purpose-driven" by attracting nonbelievers with lively worship services, classes and sermons that discuss Jesus' impact on their lives, and invitations to volunteer.

But the purpose-driven movement is dividing the country's more than 50 million evangelicals. Some evangelicals, like the Iuka castoffs, say it's inappropriate for churches to use growth tactics akin to modern management tools, including concepts such as researching the church "market" and writing mission statements. Others say it encourages simplistic Bible teaching. Anger over the adoption of Mr. Warren's methods has driven off older Christians from their longtime churches. Congregations nationwide have split or expelled members who fought the changes, roiling working-class Baptist congregations and affluent nondenominational churches.

Last summer, the evangelical church of onetime Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers split after adopting Mr. Warren's techniques. That church, Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, wanted to increase membership and had built a huge sanctuary several years ago to accommodate hundreds of people. Church leaders adopted a strategic plan built around Mr. Warren's five "fundamental purposes": worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. One goal was to make sure more than 19% of the church's members were adults in their 20s and 30s, says the pastor, the Rev. Barry McCarty.

The Rev. Ron Key, then the senior minister, says he objected to the church's "Madison Avenue" marketing. "I believe Jesus died for everybody," Mr. Key says, not just people in a "target audience." He says the leaders wanted church that was more "edgy," with a worship service using modern music. Mr. Key was demoted, then fired for being divisive and insubordinate.

About 200 people, many of whom had left the church earlier because they thought it should give more money to mission work, began worshiping in a Doubletree Hotel, and later in a college gym, with Mr. Key as pastor. Ms. Miers, the White House counsel, worships with them when she comes to town, a White House spokeswoman says.

At a time when many churches are struggling with declining or aging congregations, advocates of the purpose-driven movement credit it with energizing congregations, doubling the size of some churches and boosting the number of "megachurches" of more than 2,000 members. Mr. Warren says his church and nonprofit arm have trained 400,000 pastors world-wide. He reaches many more through sales of his sermons, books and lessons on the Web. Mr. Warren says he donates 90% of his money to fund philanthropy and overseas training.

Mr. Warren preaches in sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, and he encourages ministers to banish church traditions such as hymns, choirs and pews. He and his followers use "praise team" singers, backed by rock bands playing contemporary Christian songs. His sermons rarely linger on self-denial and fighting sin, instead focusing on healing modern American angst, such as troubled marriages and stress.

As membership in Protestant churches stagnated in the 1980s, Mr. Warren, a Southern Baptist in Orange County, Calif., learned from surveys that the region's Reagan-era baby boomers said they didn't connect with their parents' churches. He figured they might find God if they could sit in a theater-style auditorium and listen to live pop music and sermons that could help them with ennui and personal problems. Through Mr. Warren's Internet marketing savvy, tens of thousands of subscribing pastors learned about his church, which draws 20,000 people each weekend. In the past decade, many pastors jumped to replicate his methods, creating new churches and transforming existing ones.

Christians have long divided over efforts to adapt and modernize their faith. Some believers worry that purpose-driven techniques are so widespread among Protestant churches that they are permanently altering the way Christians worship. Some traditionalists say Mr. Warren's messages misread Bible passages and undermine traditions. Mr. Warren is "gutting" Christianity, says the Rev. Bob DeWaay, author of a book critical of the approach. "The Bible's theme is about redemption and atonement, not finding meaning and solving problems," the Minneapolis pastor says. A spokesman said Mr. Warren believes the Bible addresses sin and redemption, as well as human problems.

Some pastors learn how to make their churches purpose-driven through training workshops. Speakers at Church Transitions Inc., a Waxhaw, N.C., nonprofit that works closely with Mr. Warren's church, stress that the transition will be rough. At a seminar outside of Austin, Texas, in April, the Revs. Roddy Clyde and Glen Sartain advised 80 audience members to trust very few people with their plans. "All the forces of hell are going to come at you when you wake up that church," said Mr. Sartain, who has taught the material at Mr. Warren's Saddleback Church.

During a session titled "Dealing with Opposition," Mr. Clyde recommended that the pastor speak to critical members, then help them leave if they don't stop objecting. Then when those congregants join a new church, Mr. Clyde instructed, pastors should call their new minister and suggest that the congregants be barred from any leadership role.

"There are moments when you've got to play hardball," said the Rev. Dan Southerland, Church Transitions' president, in an interview. "You cannot transition a church...and placate every whiny Christian along the way."

Mr. Warren acknowledges that splits occur in congregations that adopt his ideas, though he says he opposes efforts to expel church members. "There is no growth without change and there is no change without loss and there is no loss without pain," he says. "Probably 10% of all churches are in conflict at any given point, regardless of what they're doing." That, he contends, "is not just symptomatic of changing to purpose-driven. It would be symptomatic in changing to anything."

Despite successes elsewhere, the exodus at some churches adopting the purpose-driven approach has been dramatic. Since taking the job of senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lakewood in Long Beach, Calif., seven years ago, the Rev. John Dickau has watched attendance slide to 550 from 700. "I've often wondered, where's bottom?" he says.

Mr. Dickau has emulated Mr. Warren by favoring sermons about marital and family issues. He says he has attended several Church Transitions conferences to glean new insights and is personally coached by Mr. Sartain. Still, Mr. Dickau says, he made plenty of missteps, mainly, moving too fast. He proposed that the church drop the word "Baptist" from the name, to reach people who wouldn't identify with a denomination, but the congregation vote failed.

He jettisoned the piano for a guitar. And still people left, he says -- because the music is modern, because the congregation no longer uses hymn books, because the center screen that displays the song lyrics obscures the cross. Having a smaller congregation has meant trimming the $1.7 million budget to be able to afford adding to the sound system and new stage lights, which cost $150,000, Mr. Dickau says.

Still, he says he doesn't regret adopting a purpose-driven approach. "This church won't be here that much longer if we don't make these changes," he says.

The Rev. Bob Felts, pastor of Brookwood Church in Burlington, N.C., says his former congregation seemed enthusiastic about the purpose-driven approach in the 1990s. So he eagerly introduced the concepts to his new church starting in 2001.

Half the members, he said, balked at his decisions to dress casually, restrict choir performances and use electric instruments. Services now may start with a piercing electric-guitar solo, boosted with amplifiers from the $50,000 sound system. Nearly five years into the process, Mr. Felts says he has more young people than in years past: 40% of those who attend are under 22, as opposed to 20% years earlier. But attendance shrank to 275 this summer from 600. (He expects returning students from the area college to swell the rolls by 70.) Mr. Felts says he had to cut tens of thousands of dollars from the annual budget, which is now $600,000. He says some departing members have accused him of "ruining the church."

Mr. Felts says that despite his church's troubles, most churches that follow the purpose-driven way are growing. "It takes time and persistence," he says. "You're talking about a new paradigm."

Mr. Warren's philosophy has become such a lightning rod that some church leaders are reluctant to declare that they are using purpose-driven methods -- and some congregants see hidden agendas in the smallest changes at their churches.

Since Iuka Baptist's founding in 1859, its services had remained much the same. Sunday morning began with hymns such as "How Great Thou Art" and "O Worship the King," followed by prayer and a lengthy sermon. Many of the white working-class families who attend the church have known each other since high school.

But the church was in debt and wasn't growing. After Iuka's pastor moved to another church in 2003, a search committee recruited the Rev. Jim Holcomb, 48. He preached with gusto, liberally salting his sermons with personal stories and jokes. Changes were coming, he told members, and he warned that the church could lose some members because of it.

Mr. Holcomb says he partially read an earlier Warren book called "The Purpose-Driven Church" and read Mr. Warren's essays in the Ladies' Home Journal. He says Mr. Warren's teachings were never part of his agenda. He was promoting "aggressive, evangelistic outreach" to bolster the church. "If that's purpose-driven, then I'm purpose-driven," he says.

Innovations that are hallmarks of many purpose-driven churches soon began rippling through Iuka Baptist. Mr. Holcomb began a second worship service at 8:30 a.m. Sundays with a "praise team" that sang hymns as well as Christian pop songs with lyrics beamed on a screen. In 2005, Iuka Baptist adopted its first mission statement, a tactic that Mr. Warren says helps the church focus on its objectives. One of the school's adult Sunday school teachers bought each of his 12 students a copy of "The Purpose Driven Life." The church's youth minister assigned the book to his 60 middle-school and high-school students.

The church began to grow. Membership this spring was 694 local members, up 170 since Mr. Holcomb became pastor, according to church staff. But the changes dismayed several older members. Charles Jones, 67, had belonged to Iuka Baptist for 59 years and was one of 15 deacons, or lay officers. He and his wife, Nena, were married at the church, as was their daughter.

The Joneses grew disappointed that they rarely heard Mr. Holcomb deliver messages from the pulpit about God's wrath or redemption. "He didn't preach on somebody going to hell," says Mrs. Jones, 61. Mr. Holcomb says he has always preached sound biblical messages.

Mrs. Jones began scouring the Internet to investigate all the changes taking places at Iuka. Her searches led her to Web sites run by critics of Mr. Warren as well as to Mr. Warren's own Web site.

More than a dozen church members, including the Joneses, began meeting privately to complain about changes. Church leaders became angry. "The Rev. Jim Holcomb has been slandered and insulted by some of you," the church's minister for education, the Rev. Kim Leonard, thundered at one service. Mr. Holcomb and Mr. Leonard deny that Iuka Baptist was becoming purpose-driven. Mr. Leonard says it was "coincidence" that the new initiatives resembled strategies advocated by Mr. Warren and his movement.

Then a Web site run by a critic of Mr. Warren posted a letter from Mrs. Jones describing her worries about Iuka Baptist and comparing the congregation's admiration for Mr. Holcomb to the cult followings of Jim Jones and David Koresh. The posting sparked angry emails from church members. A church meeting was soon called. Hundreds of people packed into the pews. After heated arguments, the congregation voted 150-to-41 to throw Mr. Jones off the board. The members also accepted the resignations of two other deacons, friends of Mr. Jones who had been asked to leave the board. In the weeks that followed, 40 church members quit.

With no church to worship in this spring, Mr. Jones led 30 former Iuka members in prayer one May night at a public park. He asked God to bless their former spiritual home and those who had forced them from it.

"Keep your eyes on Iuka Baptist Church, Lord," Mr. Jones said, his head bowed, "that you may open their eyes and their hearts."

Mr. Holcomb, the pastor whose changes at the church started the controversy, has left Iuka for another church. A search committee continues to look for a new pastor. Deacon Kenny Phifer said the committee won't hire a pastor who will make Iuka purpose-driven.

Noctaphobia

2006-09-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

I was tickled by this bit of dark speech from the August issue of Feeding Together, put out by the Reformed Alliance of the UCA.

First Speaker: "What about this one? How many 'progressive' liberals does it take to change a lightbulb?"

Second Speaker: "What do you mean 'How many?' That's the wrong question. We're not here to change the lightbulbs, but to affirm their lightedness.

"There are many different ways they express their inner light, and if one of them is through darkness who are we to say that's wrong? That's being noctaphobic and intolerant of the wider spectrum.

"We need to learn to embrace the darkness and see the light within it, to move with them through it, finding that darkness is a new expression of lightedness that is to be valued and accepted as one of many ..."

Why 'Beth Tephillah'?

2006-08-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

We often have people ask us why we called our ministry centre 'Beth Tephillah'.

When we purchased the property the Lord clearly said it was to be a house of prayer. We did some research and found out that the Hebrew for 'house of prayer' is 'Beth Tephillah' (at least, our English transliteration of it is - the pronunciation seems to be something like a sneeze to me, but to a Hebrew speaker it is probably music).

Out of respect and gratitude to our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world, from whom our Messiah Yeshua came, we decided to use this name.

Of course, now we have to put up with letters addressed to 'Dear Beth'! I also noticed that a significant proportion of our web traffic comes from Tel Aviv. All praise to YHWH, our Father!

Once a professor of Hebrew visiting some neighbours of ours, on driving past our centre, commented to his hosts that it was very strange that someone would call their building 'House of Mourning'! That had us worried for a short while until we checked it out. We still don't know where he got that from.

Doppler Shift

2006-08-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Something that interests me is the clear correlation between God's spiritual laws, the laws controlling human relationships, and the natural laws of physics. I'll write more on this later, but in the September 2006 issue of RadCom, the journal of the Radio Society of Great Britain, I read something which tickled my funny bone.

You've probably heard of Doppler Shift, but if not you have certainly experienced it in the shift of pitch of a sound as it changes speed relative to you. For example, the train whistle that is high pitched as the train approaches and becomes lower as the train passes and moves away from you. Astronomers use it in the form of Red Shift, the shifting of the colour of light towards the red end of the spectrum, to measure the velocity of stars moving away from earth. It is an important consideration in amateur radio because the signal frequency from a satelite or space craft changes relative to the receiver as the satelite orbits the earth.

Well, someone has come up with a new definition:

Doppler Shift - the tendency for daft ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Being Made One

2006-08-07T03:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I had all of my parts removed.

"What!" I can hear you saying. Come on - admit it, you did!

One thing we learned from the Anazao seminar is that everyone has dissociate parts - not just people with Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID) or victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). It reminds me of the time, many years ago, when we discovered that Christians could also have demons. The impact was just as great. That is, until we found that, like being demonised, it's really no big deal.

God built into every person a wonderful protective ability to create new parts of the mind that can carry the memories attached to deep trauma, thus relieving us of the need to have to continue to function in life in the presence of too much pain.

After a few weeks of watching Peter and Heather Toth remove the parts of numerous DID and SRA victims, my wife and I decided to have our parts removed too. Neither of us are DID or SRA, but there have been events in our lives that we have not yet had to face fully, so the time had come to have them out. If we are to teach others how to do this ministry then we must have experienced it for ourselves.

What surprised me were two things. First, at the beginning of the ministry they had a word of knowledge about how many parts there would be. When I could no longer find any more parts in my mind they revealed the number and counted the mapped parts - they were the same. This also happened for Diana.

The second thing was that the specific traumatic event that was used to break my denial about the trauma still locked up inside me was not the one I expected it to be - related to my not wanting to be born. Rather it was the grief I had never expressed at the death of my favourite uncle when I was about 10 years old. I had never thought about his death from then until last week. That particular part had been doing a very good job. I felt quite sad and shed a few unexpected tears as I abreacted through this memory.

Once all of the parts had been mapped - there were 26 - they were resolved by first introducing Jesus to the part that gave instructions to all of the rest. A few low-level demons tried to prevent this part from seeing the true Lord Jesus. These demons were soon dealt with by my resolving the sin issues they attached to. For example, at first I saw Jesus' cross, but it was unclear, and as I watched it changed into a dagger upright in the ground. This was dismissed, then I saw a hooded figure lit from the back. His face was invisible, but the eyes then appeared as spots of light. This also was sent away. Eventually I saw Jesus' face accompanied by a feeling of peace and wellbeing. The "chief" part gave permission for Jesus to visit the other parts, then I watched as Jesus put them all in a bag and took them away. Other people see all sorts of things as Jesus takes the parts away. Every ministry I witnessed was different.

The whole process took two hours. This is where the Anazao ministry differs from many other ministries which believe that each part and the memory it holds must be dealt with, each part accepting Jesus as Lord, and then the parts being "integrated" back into the core person. This model is based on the mistaken idea that the mind fragments to make the parts or alters (hence the disorder originally being called "fragmentation"). This is not true. In fact, the parts are additions, created by the mind for the purpose of handling the overwhelming information to be stored during severe trauma. They are not full personalities, only being mind parts which share the emotions of the host body.

Once the memeories are released to the person the parts no longer have any reason to exist and are simply removed. No repentance or forgiveness is needed by the part, because being without a spirit they can not sin. It is the core person who must take responsibility for any repenting or forgiving that must be done, once the events are examined after the parts are removed.

In fact, in the case of an SRA victim, they are in no way responsible for anything they were forced to do while in dissociative state - they are not guilty.

Clearly, this understanding of the process, cleary explained in Peter Toth's book, "The forgotten factor in healing", is the reason why they can do so well in one or two days what others seem to take years to do only partially. After all, what is the point of removing the alters from an SRA victim one or two at a time if they are still being accessed by the kingdom of darkness and being regularly retraumatised? This is analogous to kicking out a few demons without having the person repent of the sin that gave them legal rights to come in - they immediately "get seven more". In the case of SRA all of the parts must be removed right at the start so they can no longer be accessed.

Of course, now I need to visit some of the other traumas in my life, as Jesus leads me, to make sure the house is clean. I'll share more about my progress as it happens.

More on Anazao Seminar

2006-08-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

The Anazao seminar held in July 2006 as part of our celebrating 10 years of Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre was wonderful. About 85 people were made warmly welcome by Hillview Community Church, Rowville. Peter and Heather Toth taught on how people dissociate, and demonstrated an approach to ministry which brings about Complete Part Removal (CPR) in a short time. It was wonderful to see a dissociate person have all parts removed in the space of a couple of hours. Compare this with the fragmentary results generally achieved by ministries following the conventional wisdom. The times involved are often measured in years, not hours, and the results often less than satisfactory.

I recommend that anyone involved in DID or SRA ministry read Peter Toth's new book "The forgotten factor in healing". Go to their website http://www.anazao.com.au/ for details or to order one. The book explains how the mechanism of dissociation has been widely misunderstood, resulting in ineffective ministry to sufferers. Peter outlines a new new model and a new approach to ministry that is fast, effective, and much more gentle on the client.

Following the seminar the Toths ministered for 4 weeks at Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre. We and some of our staff were able to sit in on sessions and observe the effectiveness and completeness of this ministry. We'll be receiving more training in this, and will add what we learn to our courses in prayer ministry, and to the resources on our websites.

The Anazao approach is still controversial, because old thinking patterns are not easily changed, but I beleive the fruit of this ministry speaks for itself. Diana and I have both received CPR and are now processing the results for us.

More later ...

Update on Anazao Conferences

2005-04-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

Di and I have just spent 5 days with Peter Toth and Heather Scott of Anazao. The level 1 and 2 conference was excellent, despite (or probably because of) it stretching some of our theological assumptions. Their way of ministering to the most broken of people is undoubtedly the most effective - and easiest - that I have experienced.

They effectively and quickly minister to DID and SRA victims without delving into the dungeons and dragons like labyrinth that others seem to think is necessary, bringing rapid integration while preserving the dignity of the person and not giving the kingdom of darkness a stage to act upon.

Their method of carrying out deliverance resonates very strongly with the practice we learned from Dr Charles Kraft.

If there is any way you could get to one of their conferences or schools, whatever the cost, then do it! Details at www.anazao.com.au.

Hearing God's Voice Course

2005-03-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

The second session of the Hearing God's Voice course went well, again with about 40 participating. Following each teaching session we did exercises of listening to God for others, and hearing prophetic words for each other. When asked about the words given to him by others one pastor's comment was "mind blowing!" The intercession sheets were very encouraging too, with some very accurate and helpful words.

Next month we start on the Intercession and Spiritual Warfare module. Enrollments are looking good.

What we believe

2005-03-09T02:05:00.000-08:00

I've just put up a page on the church site about what we believe at Williamstown Baptist Church. I'm pretty sure I will get flack, or at least some questions, about some of it. Have a look - it's at http://www.bethtephillah.com/belief.html

Mal

Some of my blogs and Google groups are now linked

2005-03-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

In the interests of wider communication I am experimenting with automatic linking between some of my blogs and their associated email discussion groups.

This is a test email to all of my blogs to see if the linking works OK. If it works this message will appear as a post on each blog and on its associated group. The blogs and groups involved are:

Blog - a reasonable mystic - www.reasonablemystic.com/
Google Group - a reasonable mystic - reasonablemystic@googlegroups.com

Blog - Dark Night of the Soul - www.darknightofthesoul.net/blog.html
Google Group - Dark Night of the Soul - darknightofthesoul@googlegroups.com

Blog - hobsonsbaychurches - www.hobsonsbaychurches.com/blog/blog.html
Google Group - Hobsons Bay Churches - hobsonsbaychurches@googlegroups.com

Blog - Mal's Meanderings - www.bethtephillah.com/weblog/blog.html

Blog - awakeningwestblog - www.awakeningwest.com/weblog/blog.html

Blog - speakintongues - www.speak-in-tongues.com/blog.html

Website - Burden Bearer - www.burdenbearer.com
Google Group - Burden Bearer - burdenbearer@googlegroups.com

Website - Listening 2 God - www.listening2god.com
Google Group - listening2god - listening2god@googlegroups.com

Google Group - Prayer Ministries Network - prayerministriesnetwork@googlegroups.com

Mal Dow

Top Ten Truths That Shape My Teaching

2005-03-03T02:02:00.000-08:00

I was browsing through what could easily become one of my favourite websites when I found the following profound document. It's by Richard J. Vincent, and the site is www.theocentric.com. I share it for your edification. Mal.
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Top Ten Truths That Shape My Teaching
Late night comedian, David Lettermen, has made a living off the popularity of Top Ten lists. I offer the following "Top Ten Experiential Truths That Shape My Teaching" in order to highlight a few things I find essential to faithfully following Christ. (By the way, the doctrinal content I find essential is summarized in the Ecumenical Creeds of the Church.)

10. Salvation is a process, and not merely a decision. We are "saved" (Eph. 2:8), "being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18) and "will be saved" (Matt. 24:13; 1 Cor. 3:15). To focus on only the past-tense aspect of salvation is to mistake the door for the mansion, the gate for the way. In reality, salvation actually involves innumerable decisions, made daily. We must not make the mistake of assuming that justification is all there is to salvation!

9. The Christian life is a lengthy pilgrimage. We are aliens and strangers in this world, citizens of another Kingdom. As aliens, we should long for our heavenly home. Until we arrive, we should not get too comfortable here.

8. Perseverance is necessary to reach our goal. Ignoring this leads to presumption, apathy, and laziness. God has promised to always be faithful to us, but that is no guarantee that we will always be faithful to him. The Scripture clearly teaches that "if we deny him, he also will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:12). "Falling away" is a clear possibility for every Christian and not merely a hypothetical oddity in Scripture. Sadly, because this truth is ignored, many Christians see no need to "take heed, lest [they] fall" or to "work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling." Perseverance is necessary, therefore, to keep from falling away. We must never allow our theological systems to blind us to the urgent warnings of Scripture.

7. The work of the Spirit is primarily to comfort us that we are children of God--not primarily to condemn us. The chief work of the Spirit is to arouse our hearts to cry, "Abba Father." God disciplines us as sons, love us as sons, directs us as sons, provides for and protects us as sons. The work of the Spirit is to allow us to know and enjoy this relationship. Our greatest identity is found in the phrase "Teknon Theou"--child of God!

6. Sanctification is the process of becoming authentically human, not odd or weird. We must never forget that original goodness preceded original sin. In redemption, Christ restores and perfects all that Adam ruined in the Fall. In other words, Christ's work returns things to the former state of original goodness (and then some). Thus, in salvation, Christ transforms us into his likeness--the likeness of the perfect Man. To be fully human is our goal.

5. Suffering is not evidence that God is far off or angry with you, nor is suffering evidence that your faith is too small. God's people have always suffered. Indeed, God's most beloved saints are often the ones who suffer most--Job, Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus. The way of the cross is the way of death, suffering, betrayal, rejection, and loss. It is hardly a "road of prosperity"--unless you consider your greatest prosperity to be your possession of God.

4. God is primarily known in the ordinary, not primarily in the ecstatic or miraculous. Most of our lives consist of normal, routine, daily duties. We must find God here, or we won't find him at all. The ecstatic moments, the purpose-filled moments, the climactic moments, the miraculous moments of our lives are few and far-between. It is the common circumstances of our lives that provide the greatest opportunity to know and enjoy God. If we miss God in the ordinary, God will be absent from most of our lives, since most of life is ordinary.

3. The goal of Bible study is personal knowledge of God, not greater knowledge of the Bible. The Scripture teaches that "knowledge puffs up, but love edifies others." We don't read the Scriptures in order to have "the answers," we read Scripture in order to know God--with or without "the answers." Reading Scripture is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. We must never forget that the Devil knows the Bible very well--and it does him no good whatsoever!

2. Mystery pervades all and is to be embraced, not explained away. Every significant doctrine of Christianity is shrouded in mystery. Pastors are called to "be servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1). We do this by proclaiming the mysteries and by preserving the mysteries. Many parishioners want pastors to have all the answers to every question--to explain things to the point that all mystery is removed. But to do this would be to eliminate the vast mystery that surrounds the Christian faith. This reductionism would result, not in a better understanding of Christianity, but in the very loss of the Christian faith. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be experienced. God is not doctrinal statement to understand, but the Mystery of mysteries who has called us to participate in his fullness.

1. Love is the goal of all things--not being "right." According to Jesus, the message of love to God and others is the summary of the Old Testament. According to Paul, one can do many great things, but without love, they amount to nothing in the end. Because of this, I believe it is better to love than to be "right". Your view of God impacts how you treat others. Does God demand that you be right--crossing every "t" and dotting every "i" correctly--before he will bless you? Or does God call us to trust and love him, even when we haven't got things all figured out? And what do you demand of others before you will love them?

© Richard J. Vincent, May 13, 2002

Hearing God's Voice course update

2005-02-12T14:40:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we ran the first part of our first Hearing God's Voice course. Previously it has only been part of a full year prayer ministry course. There were about 40 students and helpers - pretty cozy at Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre. It was great fun, and God really came through for us. They're off now for a month of practicing their listening exercises before we come back together for some deeper stuff.

You might like to visit the associated website www.listening2god.com and/or join the discussion group there.

Mal

Jesus and Walls

2005-02-10T03:05:00.000-08:00

While the Hobsons Bay pastors were praying together on Thursday morning about divisions within the church of Hobsons Bay God reminded me that after Jesus' resurrection he surprised his disciples by appearing through walls. He was no longer bound by them, and neither are we as he has given us his power.

So, we should begin walking through the walls between our churches and community.

And I would expect that we would find that Jesus is there ahead of us.

Mal

A Vision for the Church

2005-02-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday night, while ministering to someone, I had a vision which was partly related to that person's situation, but I also knew that it was also for me and the church at large. So I'll describe it and leave it up to you to judge.

First the man being prayed for saw himself in a boat moving in quite unsettled water, and Jesus said, "Do you know where you are going?". Looking ahead, there was smooth sea to the horizon, and a sense that there was something or somewhere out there towards which one could head, but it could not be seen clearly.

At the same time, as we prayed, and not knowing what he saw, I saw an island, which was almost entirely an errupting volcano. The boat landed on the beach and I climbed to the high rim of the crater. The mountain was full of the fire of God. Looking into that fire I knew I was in was the presence of God, just as I imagine it was like for Moses on Sinai. As I stood on the rim I turned to look out to sea and all around. From every direction, the waves were moving towards the island. The wind blew towards the island from all directions too. The island was the centre of everything - the centre and reason for existence of the whole creation.

There were just a few people in boats and in the water, and they were all heading for the island. I knew some would climb the mountain, including the man we were praying for, because they wanted to be near God. As I stood on the high rim, with the fire of God in the crater behind me, I felt no fear, even with my back to God, as it were. This was the safest and most right place for me to be: with Father God, as he and I called his children home.

A word of explanation - by "calling his children home", I do not mean that final home at death, but to be with him NOW in this life, as Jesus lived on earth in his Father's presence.

As is usually the case in such visions, you are yourself the focus, which can make it sound a bit arrogant. This is not my intention, it is just because it was to me God was showing this. I believe it means it is time for ALL of God's servants and friends to be concentrating on bringing his children into a true, intimate, passionate, clearly-hearing-his-voice relationship. There is no time left for playing around with doctrinal hair-splitting, denominational rivalries, and ego-boosting ambitions. The fire of God is HERE - that all-consuming, purifying fire!

I also find the timing interesting - because on Saturday at Beth Tephillah we begin our first intentional training course for those who want to learn to hear God's voice. I am becoming even more convinced that God is birthing something with this course and am excited to see what comes out of it. Until now we have focussed specifically on prayer ministry training, with its obvious emphasis on listening to God and obeying what is heard, but now it is the listening that is the focus, and it is for all of God's people, not just those called to a specific ministry.

Mal Dow

The perfect pastor

2005-01-16T16:56:00.000-08:00

A recent survey has compiled all the qualities that people expect from the perfect pastor. Here we share some of them with you.

Results of a computerized survey indicated that the perfect pastor preaches exactly 12 minutes.

He frequently condemns sin but never upsets anyone.

He works from 8: a.m. until midnight and is also a janitor.

He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $80 a week to the poor.

He is 28 years of age, and he's been preaching for 30 years.

He is wonderfully gentle and handsome.

He gives of himself completely but never gets too close to anyone lest he be criticized.

He speaks boldly on social issues, but must never become polically involved.

He has a burning desire to work with teenagers; he spends all his time with senior citizens.

He makes 15 calls daily on parish families, visits shut-ins and the hospitalized, spends all his time evangelizing the unchurched, and is always in his office when needed.

If your pastor does not measure up, simply send this letter to six other churches that are tired of their pastor too. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of this list. In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors; at least one of them should be perfect.

Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its old pastor back in less than 30 days.

The words 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal' have passed their use-by dates

2005-01-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Two adjectives which seem to have passed their use-by dates are 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal'.

Where used as a noun, e.g. as part of a church name, 'Pentecostal' has some usefulness in that it describes a historic path through which that church (or family of churches) reached its present state.

However, as descriptors of a form of church life, I seriously doubt whether these two words any longer say very much. There are charismatics and non-charismatics within almost every church fellowship or grouping. It is now more a personality and lifestyle designator than anything theological. Many Baptist, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Churches of Christ, Anglican, etc., Christians freely exercise spiritual gifts and/or speak in tongues.

On the other hand, some Pentecostal churches appear to outsiders to be anything but charismatic (or 'pentecostal' in its original sense)! As is usual with distinct groups of people, eventually the very distinctives which made them different become the means by which the group becomes constrained or even controlled.

So, there has emerged a Pentecostal tradition which can be as rigid as any other historic Christian tradition. (I don't wish to over-generalise here - of course there also exist many fine Pentecostal churches whose people live in great freedom.) Given the freedom and life which should be at the very core of any movement characterised by the Holy Spirit, it seems paradoxical that this tradition so quickly became invested with a strong form of top-down, pastor-to-people control, and a theological hardness which persists even now that ministerial education of Pentecostal pastors is expected rather than discouraged.

The tradition which, at the turn of the 20th Century and on into the 1970s, was used by God to bring fresh life and power into the mainstream Western church, now seems so often to be wary, defensive, and to an increasing degree isolationist. And this at the time when the clear move of the Spirit is towards breaking down of barriers and the revealing of the one-church-in-the-city. In other words, rather than joining with us they have instead become just like us. I find this incredibly sad.

As a charismatic baptist pastor with a church full mainly of wounded people, and who knows the stresses that come with going against the mainstream of one's own tradition (or what that tradition has now become), I too have felt like one of my Pentecostal pastor friends when he said, "I feel like an alien in my own movement!"

May I encourage my Pentecostal brothers and sisters to not give up the battle. The freedom can be regained - that is what it means to be filled with the "wind which blows wherever it pleases" (John 3:8).

Managed Friendship

2005-01-11T17:12:00.000-08:00

Does the following sound like some churches you've known?

Mal Dow

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Welcome to Managed Friendship, a whole new way of thinking about friends and relationships! The Managed Friendship Plan (MFP) combines all the advantages of a traditional friendship network, with important cost-saving features.

Q: How Does It Work?

A: Under the Plan, you choose your friends from a network of pre-screened accredited Friendship Providers (FPs). All your friendship needs are met by members of your Managed Friendship Staff.

Q: What's Wrong with my Current Friends?

A: If you're like most people, you are receiving friendship services from a network of friendship providers haphazardly Patched together from your old neighborhoods, jobs, and schools. The result is often costly duplication, inefficiency, and conflict. Many of your current friends may not meet national standards, responding to your needs with inappropriate, outmoded, or even experimental acts of friendship. Under Managed Friendship, your friendship needs are coordinated by your designated Best Friend, who will ensure the quality and goodness of fit of all your friendly relationships.

Q: How Do I Know That the Plan's Panel of Friends Is Not Made Up of a Bunch of Losers Who Can't Make Friends on Their Own?

A: Many of today's most dedicated and highly trained Friendship Providers are as concerned as we are about delivering Quality Friendship in a cost-effective manner. They have joined our network because they want to focus on acting like a friend rather than doing the paperwork and paying the high bad-friendship premiums that have caused the cost of traditional friendship to skyrocket. Our Friendship Providers have met our rigorous standards of companionship and loyalty.

Q: What If I Need a Special Friend, Say, for Poker or Fishing?

A: Special Friends are responsible for most of the unnecessary and expensive activities that burden already costly relationships. Under the Managed Friendship Plan, your Best Friend is qualified to pre-approve your referral to a Special Friend within the Managed Friendship Network should your needs fall outside of the scope of his/her friendship.

Q. Suppose I Want to See Friends Outside the Managed Friendship Network?

A. You may make friends outside of the Managed Friendship Network only in the event of a Friendship Emergency.

Q: What is a Friendship Emergency?

A: The Managed Friendship Plan covers your friendship needs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even if you need a friend out of town, after regular business hours, or when your Best Friend is with someone else. You might be on a business trip, for instance, and suddenly find that you feel lonely. In such cases, you may make a New Friend, and all approved friendly activities will be covered under the Plan, provided you notify the Managed Friendship Office (or 24-hour Friendship Hotline) within two business days.

Q: What Friendly Activities Are Covered Under the Plan?

A: Friendly Activities that are typically covered include:

Agreeing with you
Appearing sympathetic
Chewing the fat
Dropping by
Feeling your pain
Gossiping
Hanging out
Holding your hand (up to 5 minutes per activity)*
Joshing
Kidding around
Listening to you whine
Partying
Passing the time
Patting your back
Ribbing
Sharing a meal
Shooting the breeze
Slinging the bull
Teasing

*up to 15 minutes under the Premium Gold Friendship Plan

Q: What Friendly Activities Are Not Covered Under the Plan?

A: Activities that would not be pre-approved include (but are not limited to):

Bar hopping
Bending over backwards
Drinking to excess
Giving a hoot
Going the extra mile
Lending money
Real empathy
Sexual favors
Truly caring
Using illicit drugs

Q: How Can I Find Out More About the Managed Friendship Plan?

A: A simple call is all it takes. If you need a friend, just call our toll-free number. Or visit our web site. Sign up for the Managed Friendship Plan and rest easier that all of your appropriate friendship needs will be met.

Q: Who Decides What's Appropriate for Me?

A: We do. Isn't that what friends are for?

Author Unknown

Crossing Over - a word from Rick Joyner

2005-01-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

I found this word from Rick Joyner, about the significance of the tsunami disaster, a challenge. What do you think? - Mal.

Crossing Over
by Rick Joyner
January 10, 2005

The recent earthquake and tsunamis that struck so many countries in the Indian Ocean are taxing the whole world’s relief efforts. In human life lost, it will go down as one of the worst natural disasters in human history. It does have important prophetic significance that we need to understand, which is highlighted in Joshua 3:3-4,14-17:

"When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."

So it came about when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), that the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

In Scripture, the Jordan River often represents death, which is why both Jesus and John the Baptist were baptized there. The Jordan River also empties into the Dead Sea. There was a reason why the Lord commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be carried across the Jordan “about” 2,000 cubits ahead of the rest of the people. The Ark represents Jesus and the cubits represent years. This was a prophetic statement that the Lord would pass through death to His Promised Land “about” 2,000 years before the rest of His people.

The Lord said that “...the harvest is the end of the age...” (Matthew 13:39), and we read in Joshua 3:15 that “...the Jordan River overflows all its banks all of the days of harvest.…” This speaks of how death will be overflowing all of its banks all of the days of the harvest, which is the end of the age. Because of this, we can expect natural and human disasters to increase during the coming times.

As all of the Lord Jesus’ own prophecies concerning these times make very clear, we are coming to the greatest times of trouble the world has ever known. However, the good news is, if we have built our lives on the kingdom which cannot be shaken, we will not only survive what is coming, but we will prevail and prosper. This is actually the time when the church is going to cross over and begin to possess its Promised Land.

At the same time, we must understand that at the very time that such great troubles are going to be coming upon the world that “the Jordan River overflows all of its banks.” Christians who are walking in the ways of the Lord are going to prosper more than they ever have before. The present world systems may be shaking, but if we are abiding in the Lord we are on a Rock that simply cannot be shaken. However, our prosperity is not so that we can live luxuriously, but so that we can help the desperate.

In Joshua 3:16,we are told that the waters of the Jordan “…which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam.” This could have been translated that the waters of the Jordan “were rolled back all the way to Adam.”It was no accident that this little town was named “Adam,” just as there are no accidents anywhere in Scripture. When God’s people begin to pass through this baptism in the Jordan, entering into a life which truly takes up the cross every day, dying to ourselves so we can be alive to Him, we will begin possessing the promises of God that we are called to inherit. Death will then be rolled back all the way to Adam! All of the death that was the consequence of the Fall will be turned back.

There is much to be said about this, but for this week we must understand that death will be overflowing “all of its banks” during the time of the harvest. We must prepare ourselves for increasingly great natural and manmade disasters, as we get closer to the end of this age. We will need to learn to cope with death all around us and keep on functioning. Just as no general is likely to be successful if he is overly concerned about casualties, we too will have to learn to cope with death all around us, not being overly given to grieving or mourning the dead, in order to save the living from an even greater, eternal disaster.

The prophecies of these times are fearful for those who are not abiding in the Prince of Peace. Even so, we are entering the times that even the prophets of old desired to see. We must understand that problems are coming, and to avoid looking for them because they make us uncomfortable or fearful is to live in deception. Those who have built their lives on the kingdom have nothing to fear. Those who have not will have much to fear, and it is better for them to fear than to go on in their delusions and be in the terrible jeopardy those delusions keep them in. Therefore, we want to see these things for what they are, and be prepared not to just survive, but to save many others.

Israel’s inheritance was the land, and they dispossessed the people who were on it. Our inheritance, which is also the Lord’s, is the people. Even though the Jordan will be overflowing its banks, and death will be all around us, the power of His indestructible life will be flowing through us to reap the greatest harvest that the world has ever known. We must not sleep or be distracted while the treasure of the earth is ripe for reaping.

History of Medicine

2005-01-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

I found this while researching material for one of my websites

I have an earache:

* 2000 B.C. -Here, eat this root.
* 1000 A.D. -That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
* 1850 A.D. -That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
* 1940 A.D. -That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
* 1985 A.D. -That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
* 2000 A.D. -That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

- Author Unknown

Regards

Mal Dow

Testing emailing to my blog

2004-12-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

This is a test to see if I can email a post to my blog.

If you are reading this, then it works!

2004-12-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

Wow! Has it really been 2 years since I visited here?

So much has happened - it will take a few posts to catch up. But first, some news about our new courses at Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre.

Have you ever wanted to learn to REALLY hear God's voice? Would you like to be a more effective intercessor, or be more confident in spiritual warfare? Or, do you want to be able to work with Jesus to help troubled people?

If so, then check out our new courses at http://www.bethtephillah.com/prayermincourse.html .

But be quick, the first course - Hearing God's Voice - starts 12th February 2005.

Blessings

Mal

Open Theism Website

2002-09-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

I've just discovered a great website on open theism: www.opentheism.org. It's a very good site because it states clearly the case for open theism, it states the opposing views, it allows for input from others, and it answers readers questions. But best of all, the questions are answered by the scholars that are prominent in the debate, not just by one relatively unknown person's opinion. Regardless of your personal position on this debate, I believe this site sets a standard for internet use that would be worth others following, and it is certainly what I aspire to for the Awakening West and Beth Tephillah sites.

Lately a number of people, usually in a friendly manner (I hope) have called me an anarchist, or a radical, when it comes to theology and church life. I have not objected to this since I agree with them. In fact I take it as a compliment. It puts me in good company - that of most of the reformers, dissenters, the Anabaptists, many of the pioneers in renewal, and Jesus in particular.

If being an anarchist means not feeling any need to bow to a traditional view even when it appears to contradict what the Bible or the Spirit is saying, then I most certainly am an anarchist! I'm not an arnarchist or a radical simply because I want to be different, nor because I have that kind of personality. In fact, those who know me best and longest will say that by nature I am shy and retiring. No, this is something I have learned to be, and the closer I get to God's heart the more radical I seem to become. Should we be surprised at this? I want to live by truth, not convention. Don't you?

Having just listened to Clark Pinnock describe his own 'conversion' or pilgrimage from fundamentalist to open theist, and seen the sometimes vehement attacks mounted upon him and his collegues, I have to admire him. Christi-anarchy (to borrow a great word from Dave Andrews - another radical) has a long tradition (so tradition is not ALL bad), and a high cost (Luke 9:23-26), but a GREAT FUTURE! (Matthew 5:10-12)

Clark Pinnock and Open Theism

2002-09-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

I am greatly enjoying the stimulating lecture series this week at Whitley College by theologian Clark Pinnock. Clark has just completed his new book, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God's Openness (The Didsbury Lectures). He is one of the evangelical tradition's most creative theologians and the author of several previous books, including A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality Of Jesus Christ In A World Of Religions. He is an advocate of a theological movement called an 'open-view of God', which he describes briefly as:

"The open view of God takes seriously the fact that God is personal. God is not a metaphysical iceberg but a loving God who interacts with us in a dynamic fashion."

There is considerable controversy surrounding this view, and when asked what aspect of open theism causes the biggest problems to evangelicals and other traditional theists, he says:

"Traditional evangelical theists go ballistic mostly over the view that aspects of the future, being unsettled, are not wholly known even to God. It does not mean that God is ignorant of something he ought to know, but that many things in the future are only possible and not yet actual. Therefore, he knows them correctly as possible and not actual."

He believes God's 'omniscience' can be better understood as God knowing everything that can be known, but that some things are not yet knowable. Calvinists hate this idea, thinking that it diminishes God. In fact Calvinism diminishes God by making him a prisoner of his own foreknowledge. If something is determined 'before the foundation of the world' then even God cannot change it. But the open-view allows God to be free to limit himself by choice when he chose to create people who have freedom to choose. God's glory and power is so great that he is able to take this risk of humans upsetting his plans. And, as Pinnock says, "If at some future date God chooses to act like a Calvinist, he can even do that!"

On what effect it has on the way we should structure, lead and do church, he says:

"A lot of people are drawn to the open view of God precisely because of its practical implications. Augustinian and Thomistic traditionalists face a future which is wholly settled and whatever will be will be. The open view on the other hand has God asking us as partners to shape the future with him in our prayers and actions. Vital Christians believe this and operate on the basis of the open model, even if they don't admit to holding it. How else can you live?"

When asked what he will do next he said:

"I am talking to God about it. Neither of us knows yet – certainly I don't. Seriously, I will look for other areas of evangelical thought which are pathological and try to do some reforming work."

While I have really just scratched the surface of what Pinnock teaches here, I believe these ideas should be taken very seriously, and will help to guide us towards a more authentic evangelical Christianity which will not alienate a postmodern generation, any more than the church has already alienated them, that is! I think we'll hear more of this. On Friday he is teaching from his book on the Holy Spirit, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit.

Clark Pinnock's journey from fundamentalism through to renewal and open-view theology is similar to my own theological pilgrimage, which encourages me greatly. I'm not the only one who is thought to be wierd and glad to be so.

Mals Meanderings

2002-08-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering how this blog came to be called Mal's Meanderings, then the following will provide the answer. It is the first issue of a spot I am writing in our church newsletter. I quote:

Arthur has suggested that I begin to write a section in The Messenger as a note from the Pastor. The first topic was to have been my thoughts on our weekend at the Ears to Hear conference at Marysville. This is a good suggestion, but unfortunately it came a little late for me to do it justice this month. Let me say, however, that the weekend away together was a pivotal one in the life of this church, and I will share more about it later.

Instead, for this month I would like to talk about the very idea itself of this pastor's section in the paper. Why have I called it Mal's Meanderings? The inspiration for this came from Michael Leunig, the famous satirical cartoonist. Some months ago I spent the morning at a Rev-Up with Michael. He was to speak on the relationship between humour and theology, which he did, brilliantly, but not in the way we expected.

Michael began his talk by describing how he begins a new cartoon. He sits and stares, pencil in hand, at an empty piece of paper, often for some considerable time, with his mind also empty (metaphorically speaking), waiting for something to happen. This sounds just like many of us at the start of a school examination. And this is exactly how he began his lecture. He came completely unprepared, and quite unapologetic about it, and invited us to take a meander through his mind to see what would happen! Well, lots happened. The talk was hilariously funny, deeply moving, and richly inspiring. I came home knowing that something very special had happened between Michael and we who had been listening. We were all left with something of Michael himself in our hearts. Interestingly enough, although I now remember little detail of what he said, I still laugh when I think about being there!

The idea of being able to communicate one's very being in this way has captured me, which is one reason I have started a blog (weblog, for those of us who don't yet keep mice on our desks) on the church's website, called Mal's Meanderings. It's address is www.bethtephillah.com/weblog/blog.html It's simply me thinking aloud in public. So, I thought it would be appropriate for this monthly spot to be a small serving of the same cake.

Of course, nothing in the workings of God is disconnected completely from everything else. Tonight we begin our investigation of hearing God's voice through journalling, and I think you will find that this is an example of exactly what I have just been writing about. David did it in the Psalms, Isaiah did it in his prophetic book, John did it in Revelation,…. I'm sure we can do it too!

Love Mal

Well, there it is.

The Unnecessary Pastor

2002-08-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

This morning I felt like taking a short break from my exploration of being the church in a postmodern society (a postmodern can do this - just switch worlds for a while), and begin reading a book I've wanted to read but hadn't got around to. This is Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson's "The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call" (Eerdmans 2000).

It took as far as the first two pages of the introduction to the first chapter to meet the first challenge. Let me read it to you - it's a bit long so get comfortable:

"We begin with the obvious: the gospel of Jesus Christ is profoundly countercultural. 'I came to cast fire upon the earth,' said Jesus; 'and would that it were already kindled!' (Luke 12:49).

"There are powerful cultural forces determined to turn Jesus into a kindly, wandering peasant sage, teaching us how to live well, dispensing homespun wisdom, arousing our desire for God, whetting our appetite for higher truths - all of which are good things. These same forces are similarly determined to turn us, the church's pastors and leaders, into kindly religious figures, men and women who provide guidance through difficult times, who dole out inspiration and good cheer on a weekly schedule, who provide smiling reassurance that 'God's in his heaven . . .,' and keep our congregations busy at tasks that bolster their self-esteem - also good things.

"And if they don't turn us into merely nice people, they turn us into replicas of our cultural leaders, seeking after power and influence and prestige. These insistent voices drum away at us, telling us pastors to go out and compete against the successful executives and entertainers who have made it to the top, so that we can put our churches on the map and make it big in the world.

"In such a culture, it is continuously difficult to cultivate an everyday identity that derives from the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. No matter how many crosses we hang around our necks, paste on our bumpers, and place on our churches, the radical life of repentance and baptism is mighty hard to sustain.

"But the Christian is a witness to a new reality that is entirely counter to the culture. The Christian faith is a proclamation that God's kingdom has arrived in Jesus, a proclamation that puts the world at risk. What Jesus himself proclaimed and we bear witness to is the truth that the sin-soaked, self-centered world is doomed.

"Pastors are in charge of keeping the distinction between the world's lies and the gospel's truth clear. Not only pastors, of course - every baptized Christian is part of this - but pastors are placed in a strategic, countercultural position. Our place in society is, in some ways, unique: no one else occupies this exact niche that looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. We are committed to keeping the proclamation alive and to looking after souls in a soul-denying, soul-trivializing age.

"But it isn't easy. Powerful forces, both subtle and obvious, attempt to either domesticate pastors to serve the culture as it is or to seduce us into using our position to become powerful and important on the world's terms. And so we need all the help we can get to maintain our gospel identity."

Well - there it is. I wonder if it challenged you at all, and if so in what way? What are the forces that most push you around? In my case, certainly my denomination (Baptist) doesn't seem to really understand what we are doing at Beth Tephillah. Oh, they don't actually resist us, but neither do we feel kosher in some hard to define way. And, of course, society at large generally dismisses us, but that ceased troubling me long ago.

No, in my case it is the expectations of the congregation (in general - no one in particular, and certainly not everyone) which most affect me. I WANT to do what I truly believe Jesus intends for the church in this time, and I TRY, but people are hesitant to go with me. Don't you get tired of simply meeting people's needs, keeping them comfortable and happy, trying to "take away the pain", when all along you know, because it's how Jesus has dealt with you, that if they would only stick it out a bit longer, and take their eyes off themselves and focus on him and the life he offers, they could probably take the "pain" away themselves, and most likely someone else's as well. Or the "pain" would no longer seem the most important thing in their lives.

Jesus didn't come to make us comfortable, but to stir up a hornet's nest. Perhaps, to light a fire under us, would be a better metaphore. Or, better still, to light a fire within us! Luke 12:49 begins to take on some meaning. And perhaps my writing this will stir up a hornet's nest in my church which will make ME uncomfortable!

Writing for God

2002-08-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

"If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men - you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead."
Excerpted from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton (I'm indebted to Jordan Cooper for this one).

Welcome to Mal's Meanderings

2002-08-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

In this blog I plan to talk about many things, but to get the ball rolling I want to begin a series about books that have changed my life.

I don't know how legitimate it is to define one's life in terms of a sequence of significant events. It sound more modern than postmodern, but hey, if it works for me! Now, that's more postmodern. There probably won't be a chronological order to these events, more a meander through what comes to mind at any particular time when I feel the need to blog. Often it will be the book I'm reading at the time, other times the result of something the Lord has brought back to my mind for me to deal with - something from the past. I might even dream about books that haven't yet been written and perhaps should be!

As we go along, and the blog's literary, intellectual and emotional structure begins to emerge, I will probably then feel inspired to do something about its unattractive physical appearance. Here's hoping. Back soon. Mal.