Ubuntu Christian edition

I've followed this distribution for a while, and though never installed it, I have added the good stuff which I'm pretty sure is also in the Ubuntu repository's.
There is a new update 5.0 which has had a bit of press from slashdot.

There are some things which again I might grab from the repository as it is based on Ubuntu.

Dans Guardian:: Great for filtering things. This will be on the kids PC's when they old enough
Open Song:: This has got to be the best opensoure projecting software out there. We use it at Ranges all the time for worship stuff.

There are also a number of study guides and bibles. The one which looks like I'd use the most gnomesword.

Jesus Creed

The other Sunday I used the Jesus Creed by Brian Mclaren a bit of liturgy in worship, which was nice:

We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.
He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.
He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit......

You can read the rest over at the resources section on Brian's blog.

Interconectivity of justice

Steve Hamilton, who at times comments over here, made a guest appearance on Ken Wilsons blog, a Vineyard Pastor in the US. His heading was 'Interconectivity of Justice.'
How poverty, injustice, environmental issues are interconnected. I had in the last couple of months been made aware of this through the video and website 'The Story of Stuff".
Steve, has gone a bit further, making the 'Story of Stuff' a bit more personal, reflecting on countrys and people groups.

The primary cause of Haiti’s environmental degradation has been caused by Haitian’s need for energy. With an electricity sector that only covered 10% of Haiti’s population in 2006, chronic energy shortages have contributed to Haitian’s search for alternative sources of energy. Unfortunately for Haiti’s natural environment, wood became and continues to be the principal energy source for most of the populace, accounting for 70 percent of energy consumption in 2006. This has directly impacted the environment with the steady deforestation with an estimated 6,000 hectares of soil lost each year to erosion.

I also liked Steve's prayer at the end:

my soul is in torment
my spirit like the torrent of many waters

raging rapids fomenting within
the recesses seething and undulating

like a storm in my soul

let Your exploit overflow
let my life and my hands be Yours
let my actions flow from Your heart

let it be so, O Lord, let it be so…

NT Wright's spin on Homosexuality

I've been giving N.T. Wright a bit of a big wrap lately on the blog. Interestingly he has written a piece a few days ago on his position on homosexuality, at the Times online.

"Jesus’s own stern denunciation of sexual immorality would certainly have carried, to his hearers, a clear implied rejection of all sexual behavior outside heterosexual monogamy. This isn’t a matter of “private response to Scripture” but of the uniform teaching of the whole Bible, of Jesus himself, and of the entire Christian tradition. "

A few thoughts, on the whole article

• loved his description of the issues as 'a slow moving train crash" for the anglicans.
• This probably isn't an emergent position. I thought that he may have taken a more neutral response.
  
• N.T. appears to have a really wanted the anglican community to stick together.
  

Friends in Neerim District

My good mates Chris and John van der Marel who are with the Vineyard Cataylst Network have put out what they are up to for the next couple of months. So I thought I'd put the word out....

Friends In Neerim District

Will Meet on the following Sundays for this school term

2^nd, 16^th, 30^th August,
13^th September

Generally this is what happens

12:30 – 2:30        BBQ at the Park (YAPP Park) in Neerim South

Then afterwards at the Orana Community Centre

2:30-3:00              Kids games, songs and story

3:30-4:30              Adults - Prayer and Afternoon Tea

4:30-5:00              Discussion on our Mission Action Plan

Other activities; Men and women small groups meet fortnightly and Sunday morning mountain bike rides at 7:00am call John van der  Marel 0400047864 for more details

New Perspectives, resurrection and renewal

This is a sort of follow up on my previous post, 'New Perspectives on Paul' 

Another aspect of the New Perspective is the whole idea of idea of a renewed earth. That what we do on earth does make a difference now. That there is more than going to heaven when we die.

N.T. Wright is again one of the main thinkers behind this view, with his book "Suprised by hope". At this stage I haven't read the book. Though it is in the library. So I wont make much of a comment.

Nathan Hobby over at Network Vineyard Church, in Western Australia spoke on the subject. You can listen here.

A nice quote he used from N.T. Wright was

You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to fall over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown in the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are – strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself – accomplishing something which will become, in due course, part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings, and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God. God’s recreation of his wonderful world, which has begun with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.

As mentioned in my previous post I think this will play into the theology of the Emergent church. But to be fair I need to read this book to make a fair call.

Churches doing charity?

One of the difficult things for church communities is how to do social justice well. It is something that I have and our church community has continually wrested with. Some of the option are::

1) Start some sort of program such as a dinner, soup kitchen. As one friend put it "Christian charity"

This looks great but has a number of issues ::

• Need to have people who are committed
• need administrative and some policies in place.
  
• need to have a medium to large church to make this happen well.
  
• start up and ongoing cost
• a tendency to do thing "for people", not "with people"
• program orientated
  
• Any scene of Christian formation is devoid in the program, for the leaders as well as participants
  

There are real positives, if done well, real social capital can be achieved.

2) Joining what is already happening. If there are local projects happening, join in with the community working along side what is already happening.

For us at Ranges in many ways this has been the only real option in some ways.

• Others take administrative, policy responsibility
• It can mean greater choice for people to choose, where they feel they are called
  
• chance to rub up along side non-Christians

3) Just doing a one off project. We at Ranges have done this well especially regarding environmental stuff. Clean up Australia as well as National tree planting day.
Unfortunately there is not that much ongoing relationships.


All of these have a number of overlapping issues, for me.

The greatest is the 'For people', instead of 'With people'. People participate in the project because it makes them feel good, they are doing something. Not because they want to journey with someone.
Fundamentally it is about 'Spiritual formation'. Is Spiritual formation included in the project where people, leaders and participants on a journey towards a better knowledge, understanding, relationship with God? I would say yes there is an element of 'Spiritual Formation' in any project but how effective and ongoing is it?


In many ways I think that there has to be some responsibility with education with those leading the project encouraged to look at there own Spiritual formation as well as the participants. This maybe one way of overcoming this issues.


Don't get me wrong I still think social justice, projects are worthwhile, but I think we/others can do a lot better.

dux5cbfwq3

New Perspectives on Paul

I believe that we are in a new era within out understanding of Christendom. One of the more recent public movememts of Christian especially in the Western Church has been the 'Emerging Church'.
Two aspects of theology I believe will define the movement. One which I have found easy to observe as it has been in a close association with the theology of the 'Kingdom of God'. I have blogged about this somewhere on the Ranges blog. In many ways this was easy for me to spot because it has much in common with my own denomination the Vineyard.
The other is in regard to social justice. For a while I have noted a shift towards a greater 'Social Justice', within Australia. Australian movements such as 'Tear' and 'UNOH' have been leading the charge and in many ways becoming stronger. I believe that two main things have aided there strength, with or without there knowledge. (I also might be wrong and God is totally Sovereign) 1) A renewed called for the Church to mission. 2) 'New Perspective on Paul'. Both of these factors have helped bring to helped in strengthening these type of Christian organizations. What I want to discuss is the 'New Perspective on Paul"
I wasn't really aware of 'New Perspectives on Paul' until I read N.T. Wrights book on the subject matter. The good old wikipedia has a pretty good summary of the theology, of New Perspectives on Paul.

The "new perspective" is a deliberate attempt to lift Paul's letters out of this framework and interpret them based on an understanding of first century Judaism, taken on its own terms.

An aspect of the 'New Perspective' is the idea of works and grace, where there has been a tipping of the balance towards works. The wikipedia again sums up the argument.

New perspective scholars tend to place a higher value on the importance of good works than the old perspective does, taking the view that they causally contribute to the salvation of the individual.

I see many implications, no more 'cheap alter calls', emphasis on doing stuff, especially social justice etc etc, lots of implications. Anyway I think that God is recalibrating the church.

There are other aspects of the 'New Perspectives' which I'd like to post about at some stage, from salvation to creation. Stay tuned.

Vegi Snags

One of the staples for meals at home is the snags on mash, with a bit of gravey. Especially when I'm stuffed from working at the hospital. (I was very stuffed today.) It's a 20 minute meal, so not much effort. Its got that stoggy English feel to it and would go down well with a pint of beer. Again it is a bit of an oxymoron, sausage, vegitarian.
Our vegi sausage of choice at the moment is Sanitarium sundried tomato and kalamata olive. It's a big step up from Sanitarium basic 'vegi sausage' which tastes and feels like a bit of rubber.

Some Geek thoughts, office online

Interestingly Microsoft has recently announced that office 2010 will have an online component. For those with a microsoft password account it will be for free. What it offers which google docs doesn't is integration with the offline Microsoft Office.


One of my annoyances with Google docs is how you cannot start a document while offline. There are times when you may not be online.


There is a sync between google docs and openoffice, called 0002dg, its never really worked for me on a Mac, I suspect because at the time my Mac osx use an older version of Java.


Anyway I think that that with Microsoft announcement there is certainly a bit of competion in the air. For Goolge I think the easy way is to get the sync integration going  really well with the whole open office suite.

Tofu steak

On Sunday we went past a Japanese restaurant Matsuya, in Fairdield that was closed because of a three year old birthday. We decided that we would go there for tea as it would be kid friendly.
It was a great meal, I couldn't go past the oxymoron of a tofu steak. It was really good, I wonder what it's real Japanese name would be, because obviously it didn't taste like a steak!

Aerogarden update x1

After two weeks all of the herbs have emerged. Another two weeks we will be harvesting! The biggest problem is little people wanting to touch! All that I have done so far is add the organic fertiliser tablets. Easy.

A look into "Mega Church"

One thing I'm quite interested in is the "insiders" look into the 'Mega Church". Neal of at Hand to the Plough", put me onto the "Thinking Theologian" an x-staffers take on the mega church phenomena. The Thinking Theologians was gone for a while and now he is back. Here is the reason::

In early May I was contacted by a Hillsong pastor, with whom I discussed this blog and my motives behind running it.
Whilst it was admitted that Hillsong are unable to close down the blog, I nevertheless voluntarily took down the content; to show willing in maintaining a healthy, constructive dialogue with the Hillsong leadership.
I have since had several conversations with the leadership, in which I voiced my various concerns regarding Hillsong. I remain convinced, however, of the very evident need for frank and open critique of Hillsong’s culture, systems, and world-view.
I have therefore re-posted The Thinking Theologian, and advised the Hillsong leadership of my intention to continue the blog.

So far it doesn't have the bitterness that you couldn't help feeling from Tania Levin People in Glass Houses. Roughly on the same subject.

I might add that I think the mega church is an important part of the Christian landscape. They can make a huge difference. That concerns need to have a place to be aired even if it is public! I think the bigger the church the greater transparency needs to be. Not only by those inside and part of the church, but those outside. Open the books everything!

(Update I've noticed that thinking theolgian has deleted a lot of his posts, you can still read them in google reader if you add the blog address to the reader, good old google and cacheing)

Solace, Sunday @ the Forge 2nd intensive

On Sunday morning instead of been at Ranges we headed to Solace EMC in Fairfield as part of the 2nd Forge intensive. I had heard a lot about Solace so I was pretty happy to attend.

1) We attended the "Solace Sunday Stuff", a bit of a blurb on that from there web site

Sunday Stuff is hosted by Fairfield SPACE (and contributes time and effort into the facilities and connecting to other parts if Fairfield SPACE in return). Sunday Stuff is a gathering of people who pray, worship, learn from the Bible and fellowship together. There are no requirements to conform to a specific set of beliefs, but the gathering is centred on the life and teachings of Jesus.

I really did think this was one of the first times that we really participated as a family at Church. There was a real effort to intergate all ages which I realy appreciated. Kids been Kids was no problem. (Phew) I was also under the impression that Solace was a lot larger. It was about the same or a little smaller than us at Ranges.

2) I could see that they have identified similar issues as us. It would appear that Solace EMC Vineyard Cataylst Network, have a bit of an overlap. The ideas of being a "network" as well as "self directed groups" spring to mind.

3) Connection with the Anglican Church. Olivia was asked a few times about the formal relationship with the Anglican church (Not by myself). I felt that the answers were rather complicated in nature and that most probably there were a few difficulties. What was made quite clearly was that Solace EMC was incorporated independently of the Anglican Church.

4) Interested that they put the EMC on there name. Emergent Missional Church. A lot of pastors are thinking through this stuff but, not actually claiming it. Especially the "Emergent" side of the conversation.

5) Money, I'm not sure how many people are on "staff", but even if they employed one person full time I don't think that this congregation would able to support them. I wonder if some funding comes in from the Anglicans or the OP Shop?

I couldn't talk up Solace enough. Overall you feel that it is a safe place where people are encouraged to find where they fit with Spirituallity, and there is no rush. That the compartmentalness of large churches is just not part of there thinking. It would certainly be an option for us if we didn't have Ranges.

Forge intensive, 2009, @ Northern Church of Christ

Just a few thoughts...

*I didn't meet anyone from the pioneering stream. Once upon a time there was only the pioneering stream.

*Most of the people who I met were getting accredited from bible colleges or just decided to do a one off intensive.

*It would appear that most people are in mainstream churches, that some are exploring the idea of transitioning.

*It was good to hear Alan Hirsch speak. I have this nagging question. Is Alan still a pioneering practitioner. Or has he turned his hand at helping churches mainly large, in transitioning. I suspect the latter. 

*It was good to hang out with people who are exploring mission and missional theory to an Australian context.

*Christina spoke well on sustainability, lots of positive feedback.

Art Deco

Art Deco architecture is probably one of my favourite types. I love the geometry and angles. I spotted this McDonalds at Clifton Hill, Melbourne. Great that they didn't or weren't allowed to knock it down.
.

Mick and Ruby Dunan, Forge intensive

Just a few points regarding Mick and Ruby Duncan, from New Zealand, speaking at Forge's 2nd intensive.

I went to the first session and Christina went to the second.

Mick adn Ruby spoke on 'companion' theory. Which they named 'Alongsiders' and modified the content.
Alongsiders is not necessarily 'friendship', Friendship being an organic relationship.

Being an 'alongsiders' is getting alongside a person who is socially isolated, who would normally be disliked.

That the relationship is genuine in nature.

Not progamatic in nature

Has 5 stages

Contemplation
Initiation
Growth and maintenence
Decline deterioration
Renegotiation

To be effective it needs to be 18 months plus.

The content presented was brilliant stuff. I think as Christians we often think we have to be friends with everyone. Mick revealed that with integrity you can still walk along side a person authentically.

I'll be getting the mp3s which I missed.
-- Post From My iPhone

Frank Viola Re-imagining Church, Chapter 4

This chapter is basically about house Church. Anything other than a house church for the New Testament Christians ‘ would have been looked upon as being out of the ordinary.’ Viola supports this argument pretty well. I’m not sure that this could disputed biblically, other than to say that some evangelism, debate occurred in the Jewish synagogue. That certainly for the messianic Jews part of the culture of Judaism certainly involved regular attendance to the synagogue.

A point to consider which I don’t think Viola addressed is- Just because some modern Churches have turned something large 50+ into megadom does this make it wrong? I don’t think so, so long as the elements that you get in a ‘house church’ are addressed. I’ve had one discussion from a person who went to a ‘large church’ yet described his home group as ‘his church’ and the Sunday gather as an adjunct to that. I liked that.

An evening with Deb and Alan Hirsch

Tonight myself and the girls went to an evening with Deb and Alan Hirsch. This post is done on the iPhone so sorry about the quality. I've just jotted down the main points.

Deb's reflections.

US

Sevice based. Can do. We can do ideas.

Aussie

Rather cynical, what you see is what you get. Authentic but a little bit rude.

A lot more competition with Australian Churches.
A negative spirit in the church, within Australia.

Alan thoughts

Warning against missional liberalism. (would have liked to have seen this unpacked a bit)

A synergy happening with larger churches and new missional thinking.

US will be where western church is turned around.

There were a lot more points, but these got me pondering.

Stretched

One of my favorite reads is 'Backyard missionary', I've got a lot of respect for Hammo as one who has gone before me. His las post "Stretch" a reflection of his community in Perth has had me thinking a little bit.

The line-

I have said a number of times that on a scale of 1-10, if normal established church life is ‘1′ then we probably ‘jumped’ out to around an ‘8′, to a place of unfamiliarity and to an environment that made most Christians uncomfortable. (Its ok for overseas missionaries to jump to ‘8′ but not local ones!)

For me, after we did Forge and the stagnancy of Ranges at the time I would have done the same as Hamo, gone to 8 straight away. I supose Ranges would have been about a 2 on Hammos scale. We didn't do the plunge for a few good reasons. We were a new church plant 3 years old and the people that we had with us already had gone through enough joining our team. We decided that the external would look the same but the underpinning would change.

So it has been a slow movement up the scale at Ranges we would now be about a 3-4. Although the Vineyard Catalyst Network which we set up, the communities would be 5-8.

Hammo also mentioned some of the difficulties meeting others expectations

• Children's Ministry
• feed
• worship

I think these problems happen for every church, large and small communities. Yet they have their own set of issues. Eg a large church you start having great worship, then... 'excellence, elitism' sneaks in the music team, which no one can crack. (Yep I've been in and tried to get into these types of teams, very clicky).

I think it would be easier just to start at hammos ranking of 8 without a Christian team. Or if people wanted to join, you lay your cards on the tables. The 'feed', 'worship', 'Children's Ministry' expectations are made pretty clear. I really think next time this is how we will do things.

Google Chrome OS

Google is going to produce its own operating system. This news is enough to warm a geeks heart! From what I gathered at the Google blog the OS Kernel will be Linux while Google will come up with its own window manager. This is a bit like Apple using BSD for it Kernel and Aqua for its window manager.

I thought that this line was interesting and sums up Googles intent.

For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies.

Google has nothing to loose. While Windows I think will not immediately see its market share erode rather over times its revenue streams. Google will be pushing developers to develop apps which will be more and more web based so the OS really doesn't matter. What convinced me of this was seeing Photoshop elements working on a web based system.

What they are doing is lowering the cost of computing so more people will be on the net, thus be exposed to Google.

For basic computing I think a Chrome system will suffice, but for games, mmmm.

Because of my tinkering with Linux I wonder if it really will be built from the ground up. Or will it be based on a debian .deb or even Red Had .rpm. Will it be able to run Open office. I'm sure the source code will reveal all when it is out.

"Donalds Dad?"

Yesterday as we were traveling past the golden arches, Jemima let out "Donalds Dad". As she asked so nicely and it had a play ground I couldn't say no.

McDonalds do a lot of things right especially for familiys.

*kids are welcome

*The kids like the food and there is a little "suprise" toy at the end

*clean

McDondalds also have some points to improve and have slipped in some area...

*Nothing really for vegetarians. They used to have a vegetarian burger but it has gone. The only thing I can eat is salad, chips and the fish burger.

*Kids menus, used to have pasta, which the girls loved, now gone. When I asked for the apple piece there were non in the store.

*Coffee improved but... I was on the way to Bendigo stopped at the Macdonalds near Sunbury and got a coffee. I heard the person say "What is the difference between a flat white and a latte." Why are people who ask this type of question even close to an espresso machine?

I also have to ask myself why don't they use "fair trade, certified" coffee, whats this "coffee alliance" thing. I can't help thinking that there is something corporately suspicious when they have to invent there own certification....

Frank Viola, Re-imagining Church, chapter 3

I’ve been side tracked with other books, so this review has suffered….

The basic premise in this chapter is that the Lord’s supper was actually taken as a meal. That the church has in many ways has taken many of the meanings and metaphors away from the Lords supper when it is not been taken and eaten in a more literal sense.

I suppose what I reflected upon was that the meal was intimate between believers. Most churches which I have been involved with, there communion has been based around an intamicy between God and the participants, but not neccessarily with other communicants. In actually sharing a meal this has a greater scope for happening. Through sharing and dialogue, there is greater chance of understanding and interacting in the Lords supper.

The question then arises especially for larger church is it actually possible to have an intimate communion where in the process everyone is able to express some of the amazingness of the Lords supper and through this worship God? I think it probably could happen, but it would for many almost seem contrived. Thus I think for the larger church the dynamics which Viola talked about would probably work best in the ’small group’

Some good stuff for reflection in the chapter, I pretty much agreed with it.

Frank Viola Re-imagining Church chapter 2

Basically a chapter regarding how Violas understands how the Church meetings took place in the New Testament. These came in four types-

Apostolic Meetings

Evangelistic meetings

Decision-Makeing Meetings 

A point that is made a number of times is that Leadership is flattened

The regular meeting of the church envisioned in scripture allowed for every member to participate in the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. E:16. There was no “up-front” Leadership. No one took center stage.

An interesting aspect was on worship. 

…early Christians worshipped God through song, they didn’t confine their singing to the leadership of a group of professional musicians. Instead, the meeting allowed for “each one” to lead a song. Or in the words of Paul, ‘each of you has a psalm’ in the gathering (1 Cor. 14:26 NKJV). Even the song themselves were marked element of mutuality…

This worship scenario has been something that in some ways we have been forced into at Ranges. There just aren’t that many musicians at Ranges, it has made us to look at what worship is and then encourage people to explore and share what it means. In the process I would say worshiping.

I think that Violoa is heading in the right direction. I can only really image what he describes in a home, small group context. The question arises does this totally exclude medium to mega size churches? I don’t think you can do that. 

So onward to the next chapter….

Dialogue

Tim who I spoke to at Ranges this morning was discussing the idea of good dialogue with people. In the process he handed me a page on 'What is Dialogue' from the center of dialogue at La Trobe University'. The Centre for Dialogue follows six pilosophical and practical touchstones they are::

::the key to dialogue is not merely to recognize diversity, but to engage with the other in a common journey

::in dialogue must be approached with humility — no one has a monopoly on wisdom or truth;

::in dialogue we place equal emphasis on speaking and listening;

::in dialogue, participants hold up their own cultures and traditions to critical scrutiny;

::the dialogical method nurtures and is nurtured by empathy and compassion through telling and listening to each other's stories

::in dialogue we discover ourselves through discovering the other.

What interests me is the how as Christians we often come to discussion without adhering to any of the above. I think if we really took evangelism and mission seriously these points would make a huge difference.

Frank Viola, Re-Imagining Church chapter 1

This is a repost from the Ranges Blog, which I will be continuing here

So this book from what I’ve read is welcomed and more positive than Franks previous toxic book ‘Pagan Christianity’. I’ve tackled the first chapter and thought it was good, so I’m going to attempt to summaries each chapter….

Pursuing the dream of organic Christianity, Frank Viola

1) Reimagining the Church as an Organism

I was really pleased that the books main assumptions are based on the Trinity. That the Church is built in the image of the Triune God. That in that relationship is the dance between the Father Son and Holy Spirit. That relationship is one of the key elements for the Church. I was pretty impressed that Frank quoted Kevin Giles for a lot of this section. Kevin is an Australian theologian. (I think we have a book of his on subordination within the Trinity). Viola argues that the Spirit of mutual relationship within the Trinity has been usurped in the modern Church.

Command -style relationships, hierarchy, passives spectatorship, one upmanship, religious programs, etc were created by fallen humans. And they run contrary to the DNA of the triuene God as well as the DNA of the Church…’

Viola then looks at four Paradigms for Church restoration.

Biblical Blueprintism, Cultural Adaptability, Postchurch Christianity and then finally Organic Expression. The Last Organic Expression is what Viola hangs this book on.

Writing Novels for the Kingdom

Fellow blogger Nathan Hobby has given a paper on 'Writing Novels for the Kingdom'. He starts with a quote from N.T Wright-

It might be much more appropriate to go off and write a novel (and not a ‘Christian’ novel where half the characters are Christians and all the other half become Christians on the last page) but a novel which grips people with the structure of Christian thought, and with Christian motivation set deep into the heart and structure of the narrative, so that people would read that and resonate with it and realize that that story can be my story.

- N.T. Wright, “How can the Bible be authoritative?”

Nathan is an author so it is interesting his thoughts on how to seriously write a Christian novel. It is something that I probably will never grapple with. Yet it is interesting that the bulk of the paper was closely aligned with N.T. Wrights thoughts.

Been a Tim Winton fan I enjoyed some of the papers reference to him. I'm totally fascinated with Tim Winton, so any insight is good. I would have to agree that there is a 'mystical and implicate' Christian reference to the characters to the books. There are strange redemptive qualities to the characters, which I think draws me to the books. A redemption which we as readers may not like.

A good contrast was the Christian Novel. I couldn't help agree in with his view of Brian Mclarens novels.

Some theologians have used the novel form to get their message across, and we do at least get better theology from them. Brian McLaren wrote A New Kind of Christian and its two sequels; the theology is good, or at least I generally like it, but as a novel it’s appalling. It is dominated by slabs of dialogue which put ideas in characters’ mouths; the descriptive interruptions feel like filler. The plot, characterisation and prose are all uncompelling.

I could also think of a few other Christian authors which fit into the same category. Eg the 'Shack'

Ranges Coffee

Ok, maybe not the greatest photo, but it was one of the best coffees that I've made on the Rancilio. The espresso pours have been constantly pretty good now that we have got the hang of things.

One thing which we have changed is the coffee. We have found a little coffee wholesaler about 2km from us. (Yes we can walk) Ranges Coffee. Here is the blurb about the coffee which we have been purchasing.

The Best Fairtrade organic decaf. A blend of Bolivian, Guatemalan, and unwashed Sumatran grade 1 Arabica, decaffeinated at SWISS WATER in Vancouver Canada - and the flavour is sensational!

Yep got to agree with that.

I think one of the reason it tastes pretty good is because there is a fairly large turnover. Most places that sell decaf coffee the product has probably been sitting on the shelfs for ages.

Ranges Coffee sells to a few cafe's around the hills and I'm lead to believe the pig and whistle. Though good coffee is only half the story. You get a fool making a flat white with the best beans in the world, you might as well drink international roast. Thus I don't drink coffee at the pig!

Naked Pastor attends the Frank Viola conference

I was interested to read on Naked Pastor's blog, his thoughts on the Frank Viola conference which he attended. I was especially interested in his thoughts regarding the parallels to the Vineyard Movement.

Viola says that he has been outside of the institutional church for over 20 years. But the problems that he admits so beset the house-church movement sound remarkably similar to what, say, my denomination, the Vineyard movement, presently struggles with. The issues of theology, purity, passion, mission, power and authority, money, commitment, isolation versus networking and clustering, are identical. We are all talking about the same old solutions to the same old problems.

Im glad that the Vineyard movement has moved on from this stuff a bit. That for us in the Vineyard Catalyst network there is the ability to do House church stuff, that Frank Viola talks about.

I'll be continuing my look at Frank Viola's book Reimagining Church on this blog and I'll drag some of my previous posts of the ranges blog across as well.

Blogger

Well I've been stuck inside today, still sick. So I've had a bit of time to work on one of my long term projects putting up my own blog on blogger. I chose blogger mainly because I think I'm pretty proficient at wordpress. So my impressions so far: Wordpress wins, no doubt about it.

I can only think of two real positives of blogger over wordpress

1. adsense. No I don't think any money is to be made, but it is worth looking at. You can get this going on wordpress, but it is more fiddly. You can't if you use wordpress.com as host.
2. Google analytics, this works straight away on blogger. You can get it going on wordpress but not on wordpress.com

One of the areas which I found really annoying was just putting the header image. Wordpress does the cropping. Blogger well you have to find a program to do this. Most of the recommendations online were "Photoshop". I luckily discovered a "photoshop express" online version. This is a real big bonus especially if you don't want to depart with your money. It did a bit more than wordpress as you would obviously expect.

The other thing thanks to Christina was the discovery of Creative Commons on Flickr. I found the photo "fear of rurality" , by a character called "Mugley" which had the lisence that anyone share or remix.

I'm pretty happy so far how things are looking.

There are way to many positives of wordpress, but I'll keep pushing on with blogger and give things a fair go before I go back over....

Psalm 23

Rob Barber who goes to our church put up a pretty nice photo on his flickr account. You can check out the full size picture there as well as leave a comment. There have been a lot of comments so far...

Psalm 23
[Re-worded by Rob Barber]

God, you are my shepherd.
I don’t need to worry about anything.
It’s you that satisfies the deepest longings of my heart,
And gives me times of wonderful refreshment.
You show me how best to live my life.

Even when I am in serious danger
I am not overcome with fear.
For I am reminded that you are always with me,
The signs of your presence reassure me.

And when the pressures of the day have worn me down,
Leaving me feeling tired and discouraged,
Your word and the kindness of your people revive me.
Once again I have energy and enthusiasm for a new day.

I am struck by the beautiful and awesome things you do,
And I hold with amazement the assurance of your love for me.
You have placed in me an unshakable confidence,
I know that I will be with you forever.

Pluralism

I'm currently reading a book by Eugene Peterson 'Christ plays in 1000 places'. I have in the process noticed a shift in myself.

Peterson makes a number of references of how the bible is the place of objectivity in all things; this is not an exact quote. Whenever I hear this type of reference in the Bible there is something deep down which makes me cringe. I'm not sure what it is that makes me cringe but I do know that there has been deep shifts. The Bible is very important to me, it is something that I aspire to read most days. The meta themes through out the Bible are those which I try to see in life. Beauty, Love, Justice, Mercy, Redemption, Grace. The narratives, poetry and other genres make for everlasting reading.
Yet I find it hard to not look around at creation and other cultures and not see these meta themes mentioned. I'm totally convinced of the person of Jesus and what happened upon the cross. Yet when it comes to other cultures where his named is shunned, I still believe he has an influence. That the meta themes could and are played out; even though perhaps in ignorance. Still ultimately through the work of Jesus. (Romans 8:34 ³⁴ Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.)
So what about the book 'Christ Plays in 10000 places', and Petersons reference to the ultimate authority of the bible. Well I'm not sure, I know that I'm uneasy with that type of language these days...

Welcome

Welcome to my first post of nurse, pastor, father, husband. Its a strange title but it is one which in many ways give me the greatest definition to who I am. There are obviously a lot more, such as a son, A slight computer geek, avid reader, etc. There are a few things which I would like to do, or do better this includes gardener, career for the environment, looking out for the poor and needy.
Anyway I could write about this a lot more at some other stage.

I have also put my posts from Ranges Community Church, it was my main output for blogging for a long time. But been attached to a Church site does have its limitations (not that there were any placed on me), There was often the thought should I post, or maybe I shouldn't post.

Anyway welcome on the journey....

Aerogarden

I walked into one of my patients room the other day and got totally suckered in by one of the "infomercials". It was the aerogarden.

Anyway I'm someone who often aspires to be a gardener with terrible returns. So this looks a bit easier. Only making sure that the water level is ok and two nutrient tablets every two weeks. Should be easy. Especially as there is no weeding!

I'm looking forward to fresh basil, parsley, thyme, mint and dill. Should make cooking a bit more creative.