The Deliberate Church: Building your ministry on the gospel

I have finished another on churches. This one by Mark Deer and Paul Alexander was part of the pack we got given at The Impact Bible Conference 2006.

It is like most books of this ilk which present a "biblical" position on how churches should be. Strangely they all seem to come out with something close to what the writer's church is doing (but differs slightly from book to book). I have discussed in previous blog entries how I get quite frustrated by writers claiming "the biblical view" on things and not recognising how their take on this view is impacted significantly by the interpretative glasses they are wearing. So I will leave it at that.

That grizzle aside, the book is a good coverage of many of the issues that face churches in how they operate and are structured. There is some very sound advice and whether you with agree with it, the mere discussion about the issues is good for sorting them out.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at this book. It is a useful contribution to the discussions about how to develop and grow a church.

Sneak Preview

So Wellington hospital has some fancy computer attached to their ultra-sound that allows them to construct pictures of babies before they arrive. So let us introduce our daughter to you...





She is due around 14th Dec.

As you can see, we are prepared with a cot and all the other massive amount of stuff that everyone seems to say you need.

Have we gone crazy...

There were two articles in this mornings newspaper that really concern me.

The first relates to statements by the NZ Police that a Christchurch couple whose baby died from shaking are "failing to co-operate". What concerns me is that this even makes it into the papers. Since when has it been a crime to keep your mouth closed? And since when do Police conduct their investigations through the media?

The reality is that 9 times out of 10 in cases like this, it is one of the parents. But coming out into the media and labelling them as failing to co-operate is ridiculous. Next we will have the NZ Police accusing suspects of "failing to admit their guilt".

What is very interesting in this case is that the couple's lawyers have responded saying that this is factually untrue. They point out that in fact they have met with Police and given the obvious demands on their time with grief and funerals etc. they have co-operated fully.

It would be interesting if a judge hearing a case such as this dismissed it on the grounds that there was no way of getting a fair jury. This would provide the Police with the appropriate incentive to behave a bit more dignified in their use of the media than they have in recent times.

Hmmmm.... something to think about.

The second article is about our friendly Minister of all things to do with tenis balls, Benson-Pope!!! Apparently NZers are bad little children with fireworks and he is "not prepared to accept another Guy Fawkes Day like last year's". In fact we are now on our "Final warning" and if we "fail the test" then fireworks will be taken off us.

Yes you heard right... that was the current government treating you like a 2 year old. Feels good!!! Don't you love having Aunty Helen and friends looking after every part of your life??? I mean this is obviously what most NZers want... ???

Grace like Rain

At Jo's wedding there was an awesome song called Grace like Rain sung. It is based on Amazing Grace but has a cool chorus added in. It is by Todd Agnew and I recommend it. Below is a link for a full length, full quality sample.

http://www.crossroadsmusic.org/mp3/Grace%20Like%20Rain.mp3

Absolutely awesome!!!

Jo's Wedding

We have just returned from Jo's wedding. 11.5hours up there and 10 hours back means we have driven over 1600km this weekend. Anyway, photos are in My Photos on the right hand bar. But I thought you would love these two.

Awesome Article from NZ Herald

Smash victim's 'miracle' survival

Thursday October 5, 2006
By Elizabeth Binning

Karen McGregor-Dawson was heading north to spend a couple of weeks with her parents when her path crossed with four young men in a stolen Mercedes.

The result was a high-speed, head-on collision that has left her in hospital with serious injuries that will take up to 18 months to heal.

Close friend Paul Freeman said Ms McGregor-Dawson had been feeling a bit run down and decided to spend time in Paihia with her family.

On Tuesday the inner-city Holiday Shoppe travel consultant packed her bags and climbed into her Toyota RAV4.

As she approached the Dome Valley, about 100km north of Auckland on a straight stretch of State Highway 1, her life was about to change.

Several kilometres ahead of her a patrol car had just passed the Mercedes and was turning around to chase the stolen car.

Before the officer could catch the Mercedes it moved out to overtake a line of traffic and hit Ms McGregor-Dawson's car head on. Witnesses say the impact was so great her RAV4 was shunted backwards and into a car behind before stopping in a mangled heap.

The other car ended up on the other side of the road but the driver was unhurt.

Metres away on the opposite side of the road the Mercedes, which had flown through the air, came to rest on its side. Two of the passengers were dead and a third was injured. The driver escaped unharmed.

Ms McGregor-Dawson was briefly knocked unconscious and when she came to she was trapped in her car, which was leaking petrol. As police tried to comfort the seriously injured woman they feared the RAV4 would catch fire.

"The car was leaking petrol and the motor was wanting to spark back to life," said Sergeant Bede Haughey, one of the first officers at the scene.

"She was badly trapped and we were extremely concerned about how we were going to extract her before firefighters got there with the jaws of life. We figured we'd just pull like hell and hope for the best."

The Fire Service arrived soon after and cut Ms McGregor-Dawson free. She was flown to Auckland City Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter with serious injuries including a badly broken femur, collarbone and wrist.

Mr Haughey said it was amazing she survived. "You wouldn't think that having arrived at the scene you'd have an alive one inside. The damage that was sustained to that car and the G forces that she would have gone through - it's a miracle she survived it."

Ms McGregor-Dawson, a member of the evangelical Pursuit Church in Three Kings, also believes it was a miracle.

The 39-year-old yesterday told friends in hospital that Jesus was in the car with her at the time of impact.

As she had keyhole surgery to insert a rod into her broken leg, Mr Freeman said her friends gathered and prayed for her.

Yesterday their prayers were answered when they heard she was doing well.

"Her mum and dad and boyfriend are there," said Mr Freeman. "Everyone is in pretty good spirits because she is still with us and we know she is going to make a full recovery."

Parachute 07

Parachute have started announcing their line up. You can find this at http://websites.parachutemusic.com/festival/2007/mp3/index.html

So far there is nothing too exciting. Joyce Meyer was announced last year as the key speaker. Unless she is a lot better live than she is on TV, I am going to have to force myself to attend her sessions.

Third Day has been announced. They have a chance to get back to their real strength - core worship.

Hopefully another two or three top notch groups get announced and it would also be really good if some solid speakers were added to the lineup.

Anyway... check out the website and start planning...

Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation

I have recently finished this book by Sarah Cunningham.

To be honest, I would not recommend this book. The first half of the book is basically a groan about the church. Most of the second half is a growing realisation that most of the issues are actually due to her perception of the church. And finally she comes to the conclusion that she likes church.

Unfortunately it is not well written. The concept of writing a book as a series of letters sounds pretty exciting but it flops badly in the execution.

This is a real shame as the topic is a very interesting one. Essentially the twenty-something generation (in reality from about 16-40 years old) is quite disillusioned about what the institution of church has become. This is nothing new. This type of thing happens in every generation. The young people feel the old people are out of date. Eventually the young people become the old people, having made some of the changes they desired to the way we do church. At this stage a new generation looks at them with disillusionment in their eyes and vowels to fix things.

One interesting thing that is happening now days is that the younger generation are becoming quite impatient and are starting their own churches. Many of the institutional hurdles (like being executed for heresy) have gone so this is possible. Unfortunately this can create churches of a single generation and this is not healthy.

Young people need middle aged people to guide them. Middle aged people need older people to guide them. And older people need really old people to guide them. We call this discipleship or mentoring or accountability. Without it things go bad.

Anyway, back to the book... don't bother. ANd if you are interested, wait a few months and it will find its way into the cheap bins because the book shops seem to think it will sell but if other people find it as boring and badly written as I did, then it won't.