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8/31/2007 List of postings: Jun '07 to Aug '07During this period the blog recorded over 8500 page views ... thanks everyone for reading, even though posts have sometimes been a bit irregular! And it's always nice to meet readers.
This quarter featured a series of posts on how to think theologically, that are the fruits of several years of reflection on the process of thinking theologically. They are highly recommended, and you will find them on June 17, 19, 21 and 24. In late June the ABS also released the 2006 census data. And so this quarter there are also a series of posts that mine the census data for its implications for Chinese ministry in Sydney. You will find those posts on June 27, 29, July 01, 03, 05, 07, and 09.
I am on annual leave from 1 to 15 September, and so there probably won't be any updates during this time. So why not look through some past postings? Click on Quarterly index in the Categories box for a full index of blog posts!
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
[ PS: during this period which were your favourite posts? which ones did you feel strongly about? ] 8/30/2007 Becoming an expertYou probably know what it is already. You probably have a strong idea whether it's your greed. Or your lust. Or your pride.
It's not a surprise to us. Because we've probably had enough run-ins with it in the past to know that it's that one big thing that we are constantly struggling with, again and again.
But here's the thing - even though we know what the thing is that most theatens our spiritual life, often we don't equip ourselves to deal with that sin. In fact, we do the very opposite, and keep ourselves particularly ignorant about that sin!
If you were in the army and were fighting an enemy, you would probably want to know as much as possible about their weapons they are aiming at you. You would want to find out about their range, their accuracy, what it can do. And more importantly, you would also want to know how you can best defend yourself against those weapons. That would be the sensible thing to do. And how silly it would be for a soldier to remain steadfastly, willfully ignorant of the things that most threaten him!
So if you know that greed is the one thing that most threatens to compromise your spiritual life, make it your project to find out everything you can about it. Read Christian books on money and greed. Uncover every trick we use to deceive ourselves about our greed. Read up on how to cultivate Christian contentment. Find out everything you can on defending yourself from being undermined by greed. Make yourself the world's expert on dealing with greed - and don't content yourself with anything less!
And likewise if it's lust, or pride, or status - read up about it, prepare yourself as much as possible against that threat to your spiritual life.
Why would we want to remain steadfastly ignorant? Perhaps because we secretly welcome that sin, and like to dally with it. Or we foolishly minimise its danger to our spiritual life. Whatever it is, it doesn't really make sense.
[ PS: what books would you recommend to others who may be struggling with greed? with lust? with pride? ] 8/28/2007 SCCCA dinnerBut while a lot of ABCs are at college, many are afraid of returning to Chinese churches to serve there as pastors.
And we felt that a strategic step would be to get theological students and pastors together. That way theologs could meet pastors on the coalface, and discover that they are in fact very godly people they could easily work with, and who have an exciting vision for their ministry. And that way pastors could meet theologs and discover the kinds of concerns they have about Chinese churches.
About the night:
Here is a breakdown of the turnout for the night:
We were pleased with the turnout, but would have liked there to be more theologs at the night. There are a lot more Asian theologs around! So we hope to at least double that number at next year's dinner.
This next graph shows you the turnout from the different Bible colleges:
Surprisingly, it seems that Moore College is turning out theological students who are more willing to consider Chinese church ministry - while SMBC is not! While 10% of the Morling college student body are Chinese, none of these are ABCs, which explains why none attended the night.
[ PS: did you attend the night? what did you discover? ] 8/23/2007 Expectations of High SchoolersBack then, our Sunday School teacher ran a very serious and heavy Sunday School class. He always questioned our answers, always made sure that we weren't just saying things to make him happy, and made sure we really believed what we said. People were petrified of class - but for many people, that was the turning point in our spiritual lives. It made us own our faith.
And so in year 11 and 12 I wasn't a Christian by name, just because my parents were Christians. No, I myself was a Christian....
And proudly so! I was quite bold at school: I shared the gospel with my classmate in Engineering Science. I told off my other Christian friends for being slack Christians. I debated with my Physics teacher who wasn't a Christian. I even wrote a letter to the headmaster complaining about a book I found in the library that was theologically dodgy.
In high school I wrote my first Bible study, in high school I led my first small group, in high school I led my first friend to Christ. A friend of mine said of me: "his Christianity is muscular."
Today, I think we don't expect a lot from high schoolers at church. We kind of expect that high schoolers will be hedonists, materialists and individualists - and we're thrilled to bits when they do one quiet time one week.
But I don't think that's right. They do have the mental capacity to handle meaty sermons. Moreover, God can use high schoolers to do a great work for himself. In fact they are the ones best suited to reach out to other high schoolers! I believe we should expect more of our high schoolers, and pray that as God works in them, they would excel all our expectations for them.
Think of the young Isralite slave girl in exile (2 Kings 5) who boldly proclaimed to her captors that there was a prophet of the living God in Israel - and so led Naaman the Syrian to see God's power at work.
Think also of young David in 1 Samuel 17, too young for battle, but he's there at the front lines bringing lunch to his brothers. King Saul says, "you are only a boy"- and yet it is this boy who is outraged at Goliath's blasphemy. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" he asks!
Brothers and sisters pray that our high schoolers would have such boldness, such a white hot jealousy for the glory of God's name, that they humble adults like us by their faith, hope and love.
[ PS: what are your expectations of high schoolers? ] 8/21/2007 The art and science of preachingThe science part of preaching is the exegesis, the translation, the working out of the big idea. All of this is fairly straightforward if you know what you're doing.
This stuff can be scheduled, and takes a fairly predictable amount of time to work out. This part of preaching is left-brained stuff. And this stuff is fairly easy to teach in a classroom situation.
But after you've done the science part of preaching comes the art part...
Once you've worked out what you're going to say, you have to package the thing - and this is art part of preaching. Here you're trying to come up with illustrations to get across your points. You're trying to work out how to say things in a persuasive way. You're searching for words to get those ideas across.
And this part preaching can't be scheduled. Illustrations come to you when they do - they can't be rushed. It takes time to come up with just the right words to get those points across. It takes a while for you to realise, "ah yes, this is how I should structure the talk". And all of this is right-brained stuff. And it's pretty much impossible to teach this in a classroom - you have to catch it, by trying things out yourself, and listening to both good and bad speakers.
A sermon that leans only on the science side will end up with a talk that is full of sound material, but isn't very persuasive. Maybe even dull. And a sermon that leans only on the art side will end up with a talk that is great to listen to, but is shallow and maybe even dangerous. And so you actually want for a preacher to work at both the art, and the science of preaching.
This is why it's a complicated job to write a good sermon: it is both science, and art.
[ PS: what side of preaching is your church stronger in? ] 8/14/2007 2007 Make It CountYou could only get onto the broadcast if you registered beforehand as a church. And besides, my Bible study was meeting at the time, so I didn't get to see it.
However, they have now made the videos of the speeches and question time available on the ACL website here.
First there was a speech from John Howard, followed by a question time with John Howard; then a speech from Kevin Rudd, followed by a question time with Kevin Rudd. There are four videos in .wmv format, ranging in size from 37.3MB to 105.8MB.
The ACL isn't about getting people to vote for Labor, the Coalition, or even Family First. It's set up in order to put forward the Christian view on a range of topics to the various political parties, and to encourage Christians to be thoughtful voters.
As you watch these videos, and listen in on the policies (and slander) in the lead up to the 2007 Federal Election, remember that we as Christians do have an inside view into what really is good for people. Instead of the 'good' being defined by selfishness or popularity, we have been told from outside of our human condition what really is good. God has revealed to us his purpose and design his creatures. And knowing this, we are actually in a good place to judge what is good for a nation full of God's creatures.
Some of us may be cynical of the whole political exercise, and just cast a donkey vote ("who cares?"). Others of us might cast a vote based on greed or selfishness ("who will give me more money?"). But instead, consider that the loving thing to do for a nation of people is to be thoughtful about your vote - and make it count.
[ PS: that's not to say it'll be an easy decision... ] 8/11/2007 What your calendar reveals about youI wonder if you noticed, but that list was very much oriented towards the academic side of things - term dates, exam periods, school holidays!
And that's because, in the Asian culture, the getting of educational qualifications is very important - in fact for some, it is a rival to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Notice also that I say it's the 'getting of educational qualifications' that is the goal - as opposed to the goal of education itself.
And because it's such a big thing in the Asian culture, we are compelled to build our programmes around it. To avoid putting important things on during exam times. To not demand so much of people during school terms. To only start things once school has started.
Because we discover through hard experience that people primarily orient themselves around their educational activities. One example is when people come back from their overseas holidays. Sure, other things may be going on during January (or February) - but they'll only arrive back in time for the start of school (or uni)...
But other cultures have their own peculiarities. A couple of years ago at a training thing, someone was sharing with a few of us how they do their planning for the year. And as an exercise they handed out a sheet of dates for the coming year. But that was an Aussie, and their 'important' dates didn't include school terms at all!
Apart from the public holidays, it was just a list of significant sporting occasions, such as the Soccer World Cup, the AFL grand finals, the NRL grand finals, the One Day Internationals... And they had essentially designed their ministry (and its outreach events) around a whole series of sporting events! Because in the Australian culture, it is sport, and not the attaining of educational qualifications, that is supreme.
Now this is not to say that we completely ignore the preferences of our culture, or indeed work against those preferences - perhaps by forcing people to choose between their studies, or attending a church conference. It may be idolatrous, or it may be innocent - this is something that you'd have to think carefully and honestly about.
But looking at our calendars will provide a pretty revealing insight into what our culture holds to be most important.
[ PS: more dates to come... ]
8/9/2007 Planning dates for 2008Probably not. But at one stage or another, you're going to want to be putting down dates onto a calendar.
I was recently working out some dates, and so had to work our school terms and so forth - and thought everyone else might want to have easy access to these dates as well. So here they are!
2008 NSW public holidays
2008 Government school terms
2008 Sydney Uni dates
2008 UNSW dates
[ PS: when doing your planning don't forget you can make use of the Mission Minded resource! ] 8/6/2007 The real crutchThe implication being that it's only weak people who need to use a crutch like religion to prop up their self esteem and confidence when things go badly. Christians are people who need to cling on to fairy tales to stand the rigors of modern life.
The further implication is that normal people don't need a crutch to get on with life - they have a healthy self-image, and a robust scientific worldview. They have the life-resources that do away with the need for psychological crutches like religion. If you need religion, fine - but they pity you for it. To them, you're like a baby who needs their security blanket.
And you've probably met people at uni or in the workplace who think such things about you and your faith. Perhaps you've been on the receiving end of their knowing sneers, or condescending looks.
But did you know: it's actually the other way around. They are in fact the ones who are relying on crutches - not us. They rely on crutches with names like 'good physical health', or 'lots of money', or 'successful career'. These are the things that they're relying on - and while they may seem very confident and secure at the moment, it only takes a minor disaster in their life for their crutches to be shaken.
Perhaps they might discover they have some disease. Or the stock market might wipe out thousands of dollars. Or they may find themselves retrenched and at the wrong end of the job market. When these sorts of things happen, it's obvious that their confidence was actually built on some flimsy stuff after all.
And it's in these cases that Christians can really have a strong testimony. When our health, our wealth and our career is taken away, how will we respond? will it devastate us? Or will it be obvious to everyone that our 'crutch' is in fact much more substantial than anything else around? When these things happen, non Christians do notice how we react - and when they discover that we aren't so worried to about having a long life, or that we're not so tied to our money, or that we are happy to take up a job others think is beneath us - that is a real advertisment for the gospel.
[ PS: can you think of other crutches non-Christians rely on? ] 8/3/2007 Stock market correctionWhen the stock market is going strong, we are led to put our confidence in the permanence of wealth. It appears completely reliable and dependable - and we start to put our hope more and more in wealth.
But things like this are timely reminders that this is only an illusion. In 1 Timothy 6 Paul writes to Timothy saying:
Wealth is uncertain - and every once in a while we are given reminders that this really is the case. The problem is that we are bad learners. And as soon as the market starts creeping up again, we again start to put our confidence in wealth. But this small scare can be a useful entry point to a gospel conversation.
How did people around you react to the downturn? How did you react? When things like our wealth is suddenly taken away from us, we reveal to ourselves and the people around us where our hope really is found. Your confidence in the face of financial loss can be a great witness to the people around you.
But even if you were disappointed with how you reacted, it can still be a good talking point with your friends: "You know, I was a bit disappointed with myself last week." "Yeah? How?" "Well I realised I was putting a lot more confidence in wealth than I wanted to." "What do you mean?" "Well you know how I'm a Christian..."
[ PS: it's times like this that we discover that wealth is the real crutch! ] 8/1/2007 Things you can do in the carSydney's that kind of city, really, If you're not headiing into the CBD, public transport's a nightmare. And Sydney's not a condensed area like some other cities - it's spread out over quite a large area. And so the best way to get around really is to drive.
But you know, there are some things you can do to make the most of those 20 or 40 minutes you're stuck in the car, driving along on autopilot. Here are two of them.
1. Listen to talks on CD
You can now get a lot of talks in mp3 format for free on the internet. A lot of them are mediocre, but there are some great ones around. Burn 'em onto an audio CD, and pop it into your car's sound system. If your car audio can play mp3s, even better - you can pile a whole bunch of talks onto one CD.
Check out your church's library for CDs, or ask your friends if they've got CDs from conferences they can lend you - they probably aren't listening to all of them all at once. In earlier years I learnt a lot of theology from listening to conference talks over and over again, until I could almost lip-sync them!
And so instead of stepping out of your car exhausted and cranky, this can mean you step out refreshed, and fired up for gospel ministry.
A variation: I also have a NT Greek vocab CD set - it's essentially someone reading out a list of Greek words and their meanings. And if you're trying to learn NT Greek, this is something you'll want to hear again and again, until that vocab becomes second nature.
2. Pray out loud
Sometimes when you pray, you can lose track of what you're praying about as your mind wanders. This is especially the case if you are praying silently. However, if you pray out loud, this is much less likely to happen. Praying out loud, it's much more like a conversation - and you'll be surprised at how long, and how genuinely you can pray.
But when you're in a car by yourself, this is the perfect opportunity to pray out loud. Obviously, you would keep your eyes open as you pray and drive: you don't want to be creating car accidents all around you!
This works especially well at night, when people in the car next to you can't stare at you. But even in daytime, I suppose people will just think that you're talking on your handsfree. If you're on your P's and get pulled over by a traffic cop because he thinks you're using a handsfree, it might be a great witness to him or her! So next time you're in the car, give one of those two things a go!
[ PS: know of any good sites for getting good talks in mp3 format? ] |
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