In the middle of the faithless sky there hangs a small, dark world that was once green and blue. Some say it killed itself by stabbing all its lovely lands with deep atomic wounds. Some say it took an overdose of hate.
Calvin Miller
Steve Irwin – 3 lessons he has taught my son
- Be Passionate: Steve was a passionate man. He loved crocs, he love his country and he love his kids. I want my son to live life passionately to commit to something and to see it through in his life.
- Be compassionate: Steve was accussed by some as being an animal molester. I think that at times he was over the top but you couldn’t help but be moved by his compassion for many animals on the endangered list. He showed his compassion not just by what he said but in the way that he spent his money. This was the ultimate test of whether he was fair dinkum or not.
- Not perfect: Steve wasn’t perfect. He was a good bloke with a big mouth. Someone who talks so much was bound to make mistakes. He was enthusiastic this was bound to take him over the top. But, remember the baby Bob episode, Steve was wrong and silly but he is also forgiveable. None of us lives life so perfectly that we never need to ask for forgiveness at some time. I would much rather that my son has a go than sits on his bum all his life and never ventures outside a very narrow safe world. This will mean that he will make mistakes and choose options that I would prefer that he didn’t. I hope I can say good on you and he can know that no matter what he does there is a dad who sees him as loveable no matter what he does.
Thank you Steve for being a part of my son’s life even though you never knew him. He knows you and goes to bed with a croc every night. He wears a rubber snake around his neck during the day and most of all he gets excited about these things. You have taught my son some very valuable lessons.
Struggling Beginnings – Year One
April and I had felt quite clearly for a number of years God calling us to Charters Towers since we had spent a year working in the town as a part of a Cornerstone mission team in 1990. We returned in 1995 when I was offered the job as pastor of the Church of Christ.
I remember very clearly the struggle when beginning our ministry at the Church of Christ in Charters Towers. It was a radical change from the busyness of life leading a Christian community. Although life in Cornerstone was often difficult it was never dull and the community life always had its own energy.
I was promised one year's paid work with the assurance of plenty of unpaid work beyond that. That was the amount of money the church had saved during its Pastorless time. One church leader said the expectation was that I was hired to fix the church. His analogy was If you call a plumber in to fix a broken pipe you expect the pipe to be fixed. Our church was broken because it was low on people, the most important resource of God's community. I wasn't quite as sure about the analogy between the pastor and the plumber [Read more…]
A passionless read – from A Passionate Life
Want to find a book to avoid or at least relegate to the plethora of insipid, uninspired Christian writing. Then this is the book for you. A Passionate Life by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad (no link provided on purpose).
Come on guys give us all a break. We want a journey not a collection of contrived anecdotes that have no one’s names and no context meaning the illustrations lack the reality that we want today. It starts to read like one of those dodgy testimonials that you read in some of the more dodgy women’s magazines that always seem to find their way to a doctor’s surgery. That’w where I read them, honestly. “M” came into my office the other day with this problem.
And please help me I don’t want another series of shapes to mold my life around. This is one of the central themes of the book and the concept of lifeshapes. I don’t need to be a semi-circle, triangle, square etc. to lead a passionate life. I need to find God.
Ultimately “A Passionate Life” is disappointing. It ultimately brings the agenda back to ourselves. I believe the crux of a passionate life discovering something other than ourselves so a book that ends up being about self discovery may inspire some for a moment but it won’t last.
In fact if you want to find something that inspires the book is ‘Finding Flow,’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Although it isn’t written from a Christian perspective it has great insights about being content and finding our place in the world. I need to update my Amazon assoicates and provide some links but put in a search and it will come up straight away.
What am I worth?
Worth a look is Payscale to check out how much you really are worth and who is getting more than yourself. With over 300 000 salaries being added a month it provides and exhaustive world wide database of salaries. It will either make you feel really good or really bad depending on which direction you choose to look. Unless of course you are sitting at the top and there is no way you can look upwards.
Or, you could like me read an unauthorised biography of Steve Jobs and realise the futility of jealousy. Somehow I don’t think that he would be bothered to check his payscale. Interesting read by the way. Compelling central character who is both admirable and flawed. Perhaps in many ways a more genuine hero than the perfection that Hollywood like to present us.
Spiritual Formation and Strengths
I was priveleged a few years ago to talk to Richard Hagstrom who allowed me to use his Green Light Profile. During this time I have conducted profiles and become more and more familiar with the process. So I have now conducted around 50 profiles and added some other bits and pieces that help to connect values with a person’s Green Light areas.
In a couple of weeks time I am conducting profiles with a number of spiritual formation students from ACOM (the churches of Christ College in NSW and Qld). I am looking forward to the intereaction and connecting this type of profile to spiritual formation.
Why it can be nice to be hated
A couple of nights ago when I was at the beach having a meal with some of the homeless people that we feed on Sunday nights when a surfer came up to me. At first I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Some people are resentful of the fact that homeless people use the beach area.
He introduced himself to me and then asked if we were Christians. I said, “Yes we were.”
He replied, “I really hate God but I love what you guys are doing.”
The conversation continued with him confessing that at one point he had a faith but had decided not to follow it further. But, he recognised that there is an innate goodness in looking after those in society who are less well off than ourselves. I know that the people we feed are not perfect and that handouts are never the real answer. Yet we need to start somewhere. At least over a meal you can begin a conversation. Sermons don’t work for these people.
Even though I know that many people don’t like what I do it was a nice to be validated by someone who had their conscience pricked.
Homeless Lessons
Tonight I did my usual Sunday evening routine of feeding the homeless at a popular beach near our place. I have been doing for a few months now and am getting to know some of the people quite well. It is a good reminder when talking with these people to realise that life is capable of giving us all some hard knocks.
As I have listened to the stories of these people I have realised that wherever we live and whatever we look like life can deal some very unfair hands. Who am I to say that I would react any differently if I were placed in the same situation.
What I have also sought to do is to listen to their stories and value these people’s lives. I have learned the value of community and that we all have a need to connect to each other’s story. For example tonight one of the guys told me that he was battling bone cancer. For a year and a half the doctors had treated him as less than human and failed to diagnose and treat his cancer properly in its early stages. Because of this the cancer has spread and has become far more serious. In the midst of this the homeless community has cared for him and shown a genuine concern. What a shame his life wasn’t valued higher at an earlier stage of his cancer.
I have learned that life is about caring and giving. If my faith is just about myself and my knowledge of God then it is sadly lacking. In this situation where I thought that it was up to me to give I have realised that I have also received. But this has not been the case in this work, I have also received greatly through being able to give.
What do little boys take to bed?
I put Toby to bed tonite. Before he hopped between the sheets he had to set it up right.
He took with him the following:-
- an incredible (not sure which one)
- the little creature that accompanies buzz lightyear
- Buzz Lightyear (to infinity and beyond)
- various toy soldiers
- a dead cricket (his favourite pet at the moment and it is in a container)
You have to love the sense of organisation of a child.
ABC’s of being a Father – L
Love – And lots of it. What a big word that is so maligned by so many people. Yet this is so neccessary for our kids to see demonstrated.
Firstly they need to see me love their mother. I am very committed to my kids seeing this happen. It was demonstrated by my Father to my mother and I think he set a great foundation for me to continue that on.
Secondly the kids need to see me love them. For example while trying to write I have been interrupted a hundred times (well at least 5) and that is ok. Because love means showing that they are more important than me writing about being a loving Father.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always "me first,"
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. (from Paul)
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Creativity in the Church
This is so true of many movements. I am not sure that these things are all bad. For example a lack of accountability can be a bad thing. We only need to look at the failed TV evangelists of the 80’s and 90’s and I am sure that some are still failing to realise this. But then on the other hand the opportunity to run ahead and be creative can happen in institutions. In fact it is often the institutions that allow the freedom for that occur.
When I look at so many of the voices of the Emergent church movement I see that most of them are safely locked behind the doors of institutions. Very often the institutions that they are spending so much time emerging from. I think that many of them would not be able to do the things they do like blog for example without this protection.
Don’t get me wrong I get as frustrated as the next person with the church. But I still love it and its people. I have found that in many cases it has fostered a climate of innovation and encouraged new things to occur. The church is in fact the ideal place for a ‘mucker’ because it can be so forgiving of failure or at least it should be.
I continue to be amazed at how movements can ossify and institutionalize. Organizational gravity inevitably pulls toward institutionalization. The justifications used by the bean counters, policy makers, and those who must have rules and regulation are legion: ..accountability..stewardship…excellence…can all be admirable labels for clubs that are used to beat innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit out of an organizational culture.
In my experience the only way to keep an edge and a step ahead of the maintainers is to recruit and empower a steady stream of what Edison called ‘muckers.’ They are the trailblazers who simply need running room and someone to believe in them. (http://www.undertheiceberg.com/)
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Working Hard
I have spent the last couple of days working for a friend who is a builder. He was desperate for someone because all the people he was relying on couldn’t help. So I volunteered
My muscles are reminding me of how long it is since I have done hard physical labour. I need to get a bit fitter if I am going to last in my new position next year. After many years of behind the desk jobs my body is going to get a much harder workout.
But I tell you I feel very much alive. I feel good. I get tired when I am shifting bricks and climbing up and down ladders and shifting bits of timber. But, it is a much better than that dead tired feeling that you get when you have done nothing but just feel tired. I don’t know if that makes sense but I am saying that the physical work is a good thing.
Anyway back behind my desk. This has been one of my slackest ever years for physical exercise. We are just too busy with work and the kids and everything else. But I am determined not to neglect my physical wellbeing so much in the future.
What do I plan to do:
- Make time to regularly exercise
- Make sure I do regular aerobic exercise
- Make sure I do strength building exercise
- Eat healthily – bad habit are so tasty
- Lose some weight
I will try to hold myself accountable here..
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On the weekend
Two Grandfinals over the weekend. I spent nearly 5 hours in the hospital emergency room with Yasmin who thought she may have swallowed a part of a meccano set.
All we needed was an x-ray but they were very busy and we weren’t really that much of an emergency. Spending 5 hours solid in a waiting room is very tiring after a while. Especially because she is such a chatterbox. Yasmin can talk and talk and talk and talk. And that is what she did for the nearly the entire time.
Thankfully she was ok. We have had to do this a number of times because of foreign objects being in the wrong place in our kids bodies. Beads were popular for a while. Toby and Sophia stuck them up their noses. Toby’s required some help from the doctor to remove it.
I guess it is all a part of growing up and being a Father.
Uncertain future
I often wonder why I do this to myself. That is forsake certainty for uncertainty. I am just about to change career directions and I sometimes I wonder why I do these sorts of things to myself. I guess it is because I still have a sense of adventure about life.
I do feel sorry for my wife April at times. She is a great mother, my best friend and my most loyal supporter. But, I think that she would like a little more certainty especially because we have a young family and there is a strong nesting instinct.
In the midst of all that is God. I think that my faith in him gives me the freedom to take on new challenges. Ultimately I do have complete trust in him that he will see us through all of this.This doesn’t mean that there won’t be hard and stretching times in the near future.
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ABC’s of being a Father – J,K
Joy – I know that there is so much to worry about when raising kids but I think that we also need to claim the joy that comes from knowing these people in a way that no one else will never have the privelege of doing. Count you blessings your child will only ever have you as their Dad that makes you unique. Enjoy it.
Kindy – As much as I love my kids Kindy is a sanity stop. You drop them off and someone else looks after them for a day. In an era where there is so much pressure on the nuclear family and where families are so distant the and extended family is not always available to care for the kids. If they are able to help you out then you are fortunate, for the rest of us there is kindy.
Jesus and Sophia
This was done by my eldest daughter Sophia recently. I thought it expressed in a lovely way her perception of her relationship with God.
A Review of 5 Views of Church Growth
Sophia’s lost tooth
Yes the first top tooth is gone
What do boys take to bed
I put Toby to bed tonite. Before he hopped between the sheets he had to set it up right.
He took with him the following:-
– an incredible (not sure which one)
– the little creature that accompanies buzz lightyear
– Buzz Lightyear (to infinity and beyond)
– various toy soldiers
– a dead cricket (his favourite pet at the moment and it is in a container)
You have to love the sense of organisation of a child.
Principles of High Performing Teams
The seven principles of high performing teams are these, according to Thompson and Goode:
- Clear and public accountability
- Trusted competency
- Give & take
- Transparency
- Meaningful mission value
- Outcome optimism
One of the most interesting discoveries in Ken’s work has been that high performing teams do not need to have an enemy to strive against. You don’t have to be involved in a struggle against evil, or your closest competitor, to be motivated to do good work.
It is always easy to find a group who will unite against a common enemy but far more constructive to build something together.
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