Transforming Lives

The last few weeks have seen the loss of 2 valuable families to the Springvale Team as they head off to continue their UNOH work in Bangkok and Sydney. They will be missed, but they have important work to do in other parts, & God goes with them as they head out to make a difference...

With the loss of 2 couples from UNOH Melbourne, comes the inclusion of 4 new UNOH apprentices, of which Naomi & I are included, we will go through a year of training to become part of the team (before we go through another 2 years of training as novices but thats another story...).

It is an important work that needs to be done here... there are many lonely and hurting people here, it is amazing the divide that we make in society between rich and poor, a place like Noble Park seems to be ignored by most, until something like the Riots happen and then the commentary is on for young and old - well mostly old - as you listen to talk back radio about the the riots, and why they apparently happened... its never our fault (our being the wider community)... that's too hard a thought to deal with...

But transformation is happening here, it seems to be a slow process of 3 steps forward 2 steps back at times, and there are many questions that I have as a newby here that I know will be answered over the next year or so, but the rewards are obvious...

Recently I heard the testimony of a community member who had just been baptised. It was an amazing story... this person has had a very lonely life, particularly over the last however long... he had been looking for a place to belong, getting involved in various church and community groups, but never feeling a sense of belonging until coming to Rainbow. This person is old, and has many health issues and comes across quite ruff and gruff, but he is a person, and when you get along side him, you get to see an amazing man, and occasionally you get a smile out of him. He has an amazing smile, when he gives it, you are given a gift, and you know it really means something...

Anyway, this guy got baptised at rainbow a few weeks back, he has been involved with the wider church quite a bit, and has been baptised as an infant as well as later on in life to become accepted by another church. but this time he was baptised because he wanted to show that he belonged to God, & was involved in a group that was majorly important to his life. Baptism was not something he had to do to gain acceptance, it was something he chose to do to show that he was at home...

The difference in this man's life is obvious, even over the six months that we have lived here (I have know him for quite a bit longer than that but it is only over this time that I have been able to get involved in his life). This is one story that to me shows what UNOH is here for, what transformation is about - it is not about winning souls, or growing rainbow numbers, it is about giving value and purpose to a person who is lonely & often forgotten by the wide community.

To see UNOH reach out into the Mt Druit area in Sydney and grow larger in Bangkok, fills me with hope and a sense of purpose - God is seeing his Kingdom established on Earth, it is a slow hard process, but it is happening....

Noble Park Riots

Some people have been getting a bit worried because they have not heard from us after the riots here in NP... this is just a quick one to let people know that the riots did not affect us or our immediate community in any real way - except that our favourite DVD store is closed down. The riots happened in quite a remote part of NP in relation to the town centre.

Thy Kingdom Come.... What's up with our Eschatology?

I struggle with Eschatology, I struggle with all the different views, I struggle with the word itself (The study of the end times), and I have a feeling that most Christians do. It is so confusing, in my life I have probably been convinced that the end was coming 3 or 4 times, but you may have noticed, it has not happened yet. When I was a kid, the big bad was the USSR, now I think it is Iraq, or possibly North Korea, but most likely the USA... It all gets so confusing.

One thing I have learnt however is that the predominant view on eschatology is not a good thing, and to me it seems to hold elements that are contrary to the gospel and what Jesus called us to do in this world. If you have read any of the Left Behind series, then you already know the basic outline, it goes something like this...

The world is getting worse, it is getting more heathen, but don't worry, the good guys get raptured just before it gets too bad, and then the poo really does hit the fan. Without a Christian influence in the world, it becomes one big hedonistic orgy, of premarital sex, gay marriages, and abortions. And the anti-Christ will rule this world and see everyone damned to hell. Some will become Christians in this time, but they will have to endure the sin in the world, and the persecution they must face as the anti-Christ tries to eradicate them... finally Jesus will return, smite the wicked with his great big smiting stick and all will be good in the world - I think he creates a new earth, or we all go to heaven for a big party or something, I can't really remember.

What is the problem with this outlook? - well I guess to me it seems to encourage us NOT to act in the world for the good of mankind, not to try to stamp out evil, or see evangelism happen or anything, because the world is getting worse and the less we do the worserer it will become, meaning that Jesus will return quicker - YAY!!! This view is what seems to be encouraging Christians to establish their own little Christian compounds where Heathens dare not enter... our friends are all Christians, we send our kids to Christian schools, our charity goes to the church in the form of tithes, so the church can grow and offer us better resources, so we can have Christian cafes, and gyms, and dating services, and theme parks.

This sort of Eschatology has resulted in the Church circling its wagons and becoming defensive, protecting itself & hanging on till the rapture, meanwhile the Western Church is in decline, because we are seen as ineffective, irrelevant and scared. But this is just more evidence that the end is coming right? - well it is a sort of self fulfilling prophecy really, if the salt stays in the shaker or the light under a bowl then of course things are going to get worse...

Where does Jesus' call for us to go into all the world and make disciples come into it? where does His (and hopefully our) prayer that "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" come into effect, if we are not out there being the Kingdom (I often think that the Kingdom has been relegated to a post apocalyptic reality as well). Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is at hand, yet we are too afraid to reach out and grab that Kingdom.

The Kingdom of God has been instrumental in being salt to the world for hundreds of years, we have seen the eradication of slavery in many nations, education offered to many not just the wealthy, the abolition of child labour... etc, etc, what happened to the salt... Why has the Make Poverty History campaign (that had it's origins in a Christian initiative) been picked up by the secular world, while we sit around with egg on our face playing catch up or worse still denying it's importance...

I heard that this interpretation of the end times has only been around for less than 200 years and has been growing in popularity ever since, could it be partly to blame? Could an eschatology that calls us to protect ourselves rather than risk all for the sake of the Kingdom be responsible for the worsening of the world, rather than the anti-Christ?

Anyway, I don't have any real answers here, this is only a bit of an embryonic thought, I can't get into an argument about what view of eschatology I hold, because I just don't know, I just have my misgivings about this one, it seems to stand in opposition to so much of what the gospel teaches us...

what are your thoughts?

Judging books by their covers....

The Truth Behind - LEFT BEHIND.

Retails at $9.95 - that is one expensive note book....

Note book - get it? - its got blank pages.... Ha, Ha, Ha .... I am so funny!!!! ;p

Half a body....

Hello, we have just got back from 2 weeks holidays on the Mornington Peninsula. We had a great time of beaches, craft markets, and big breakfasts!! - ah well, off to Dietsville we go....

While we were on holidays, I decided to visit a local pentecostal church that I had heard about. I have a pentecostal background, though it has been about 4 years since I last stepped in one, so it was a bit of a flash back for me. I don't mind the Pentecostal Church, in fact, a lot of my theology and belief systems stem out of there in some form or fashion. Having said that, there is a lot of ugliness in the Pentecostal Church, just like there is in every other denominational stream... every church has its own errors or idols and this blog is not about bagging the Pente' tradition, these observations probably span across every denomination out there...

I went to the Church with a sense of optimism and openness, I have a tendency towards cynicism, a tendency that I am slowly learning to curb, but this day I was not feeling cynical at all. The church service formula was to be expected, the choice of choruses, stemming from Hillsong and other similar places was no surprise, the pastors attempt to stir up the congregation into spiritual fervor was something that I had not experienced for years, but again no surprises here, it was a Pentecostal church after all... The thing that struck me, time and time again, no matter how much I tried to shake it, was what could almost be described as a vision, especially if I wanted to get all Pentecostal on you all...

What I saw at this church was quite a graphic sight, it was the sight of half a body, a human body really cut right down the middle, one leg, one arm, half a head, one eye, one ear, half a nose... you get the idea...

It was a church that was really only interested in peoples souls, it was all about being saved, being born again to be more specific, this was the ultimate goal, and in many ways nothing else mattered. Prayer was also important, there were a number of prayer requests;

"This ladies grand daughter who is not born again is suicidal, lets pray for her..."
"This young man has been diagnosed bipolar, lets pray..."
"This young family are in financial trouble, lets us pray..."

Living in a community that cares so much for one another, that tries to meet the needs of anyone in need, at a physical level as well as a spiritual level, I saw this half body ignoring the fact that it was incomplete, that it was only half there, and as a result probably dead*. It was busy dressing itself up & applying makeup to its malformed, incomplete body. The pastor boasted about how they had seen over 100 souls come to the Lord, a boast that when looking around the congregation did not seem to add up. Obviously it was simply the decision that mattered, not ongoing growth and discipleship.

My heart ached, as I sat there, listening to the pastor all but predicting the rapture and return of Christ for 2007, I wondered about that suicidal girl, the bipolar man and the struggling family... would anyone come along side these people, would they help them out in the here and now???? or would they simply offer up a prayer and go on living their own lives.

I wondered about the 100 souls, where were the bodies attached to these souls, most of them were not in the church (not that church building attendance is at all what it is about - but certainly for these guys it was). How were these 100 souls traveling, were they being discipled, supported and loved, or had they simply been immunised against Christianity.

I sometimes worry that I have become too liberal in my social action based theology that I now live by, but I realise now that I have not, I still care for souls and want to see them enter the Kingdom, but I realise that these souls also have a body, and that the needs of the body need to be met also, without it, it is only half a gospel, a deformed gospel, a dead gospel, that leads inevitably to a half church, a half body deformed and dead.

There is a saying here at UNOH, that goes something along the lines of "the soul is not the price of our friendship" meaning that we do not only get into friendships with people to see a convert, but that we build a friendship because we see a need. Sure we care about these peoples souls and would like nothing more than to see them enter the Kingdom, but we are not only in their lives for that purpose, nor do we simply let them flounder around on their own if they do make the decision, going onto a new unsaved project... Jesus certainly demonstrated a concern for a persons physical and spiritual health, at times he only focused on the physical, just like at times he focused on the spiritual, but one thing can truly be said - he met the person at their need, he was not concerned with the sinners prayer, altar calls or baptism in the Spirit, and he called us to "Go and do likewise" Have we gone to far, have we taken Paul's teaching on the sinfulness of the flesh too far and fallen into some sort of gnosticism??


*I don't want to go that far, I don't know if is superstition in me that keeps me from being too harsh towards the church or if it is the Spirit, whichever it is, this church is not beyond fixing its problems and becoming whole, so I am not condemning it in calling it dead, it is simply the impression that I got.