Highlights of 2006

Inspired by Ben Myers at Faith and Theology, here's a list of highlights from 2006 :

• Best album (tied): Nina Simone -- Remixed and Reimagined; Tom Waits -- Orphans
  
• Best article (published): Kevin Rudd -- 'Howard's Brutopia' in The Monthly, November.
  
• Best article (online): Kim Fabricus -- 'Ten Thoughts on the Literal and the Literary' on Faith and Theology.
  
• Best book (novel): Sadly I didn't read any 2006 novels, but highly enjoyed Philip Roth's The Human Stain. However, Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster will become my favourite book published in 2006 when I finally get around to reading it I'm sure.
  
• Best book (ministry): Pete Rollins -- How (Not) to Speak of God
• Best book (theological): James KA Smith Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?
• Best cafe: Sassafras fine Foods, Paddington
  
• Best coffee: Hawaiian Kona from Merlo
• Best film: Superman Returns
  
• Best location: camping at Cowan Point, Moreton Is. NP
  
• Best restaurant: Cinco Bistro, Camp Hill
  
• Best wine (red): Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon
  
• Best wine (white): Nautilus Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
  

Brisbane Jazz

Recently I saw Brisbane jazz trio Misinterprotato live at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts. To say that I was impressed would be a serious understatement. I'm in for a treat this weekend too: the Powerhouse Jazz Festival and the Conrad Treasury Groove and Grape Festival are on this weekend. While a friend has tickets for the at the Powerhouse, I'm hoping to see Megan Washington, and the for free at the Groove and Grape.

iChurch

iChurch is the cover story of the latest issue of Leadership. It discusses the church shopping and argues against a consumerist approach to Christianity. I'm surprised -- but heartened that a pastor would pen this article. Though my guess is that as dissappointed as they are with members shopping for churches, as long as pastors market their churches (especially in an environment of competition rather than competition) they'll continue to produce consumers rather than make disciples.

New Music

Recent additions to my iPod have resulted in severla nights of long hard essay writing. An iTMS voucher disappeared in seconds, mostly spent on melancholy accoustic music by Aussie artists (Heart's a Mess by Gotye is a stand out example). I've also been really impressed by Jewish reggae artist Matisyahu and can't stop playing his current single King Without a Crown. Here are just some of the lyrics:

A King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin' down
You really want to live but can't get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin' room for his love and a fire gone blaze.

Quotes of the day

"The impatient, who are concerned only about results or practical application, should leave their hands off exegesis.  They are of no value for it, nor, when rightly done, is exegesis of any value for them." -- Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans, translated and edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1980), iii.  Quoted in N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (London: SPCK, 1992), 13 n15.

"In a world of fugitives the person taking the opposite direction will appear to run away." -- T.S. Eliot.  Quoted in Philip Yancey 'The Risks of Relevance' in I Was Just Wondering (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1989) 128 - 134.

Yancey contrasts the enduring value of Eliot's poetry with the ephemeral nature of his social commentary, arguing for the contribution that art makes to life, even if its immediate relevance is not readily apparent.

I thank God for the many Christian pastors and leaders who tend to peoples' immediate needs, but I pray for more Christian artists and thinkers who can leave a deeper and more lasting impression.

Back

After a significant break to allow me to focus on the worst of end of semester assesment, I'm back. Unfortunately there's conspicuously little material from my study that would good posts. I plan soon to update my current reading, and am toying with a name change for the blog. More to follow...

Postmodern Islam?

I only recently updated my "My Current Reading" Sidebar with a book that I'm actually almost haflway through: Desparately Seeking Paradise by Ziauddin Sardar. I've enjoyed his reading since I happenned across an article of his in a post-9/11 issue of the new writing magazine, Granta.

Born in Pakistan, raised in Britain, trained as an information scientist, Sardar is a thoughtful writer, highly observant and has a quick, dry wit. That someone could write so plaufully, yet incisively about their religion -- and that this would be appealing to non-Muslims, too -- is a pleasant surprise for me.

Fat Politicians and Pastors

Would you vote for an overweight politician? What about a disorganised one?

Okay, now what about spiritual leaders - is it any more acceptable for them to not be able to control their weight (not something I have trouble with), or their diaries (something I do have significant trouble with)? I'm not suggesting that Christians should be superficial, just pointing out that a failure to manage one part of my life greatly affects my effectiveness in ministry.

Maybe this is just me venting: I know how important it is for me to manage my time well, and how much effort that takes. I know too that it can be hard to manage one's health and fitness, but isn't it worth the effort. Whether it leads to increased ministry effectiveness or not, isn't there it imperative that Christians (especially Christian leaders) are wise stewards of all of God's good gifts - including their time and their bodies?

Quote of the Week

"So we also, holding Art in our hands, confidently deem ourselves its masters; we boldly give it direction, bring it up to date, reform it, proclaim it, sell it for money, use it to please the powerful, divert it for amusement... or else adapt it... toward transient political or limited social needs.  But art remains undefiled by our endeavourss and the stamp of its origin remains unaffected: each time and in every usage it bestows upon us a portion of its mysterious inner light." -- Aleksandr Solzhenisten in Robert K. Johnston, Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Grand Rapidss, Mi.: Baker, 2000) p. 90.

Geza Vermes Podcast

After discussing Hong Xiuquan, a 19th century Chinese revolutionary who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus, Rachel Kohn announced that "one of the greatest living Biblical scholars" will be on The Ark next week speaking about the six most interesting contemporaries of Jesus.

You can get more information from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/ark/default.htm

Church and Mission

Anita and I just had dinner with three amazing people: a Uniting Church minister, a photojournalism student and an accountant who together minister to Brisbane's homeless. We talked about the differences between a soul-less institution and a spiritual movement, Dave Andrews' book Not Religion, But Love, and compassion as 'with-suffering'.

Towards the end of the evening, I realised that I couldn't nthink of any problem that Christians face that doesn't fit either one of these two categories:

• Church-less mission: without a church (a community shaped by baptism, euscharist and word-ministry), proclamation, service and other missionary acts lack any basis or focus.
  
• Mission-less church:without a mission (presence, proclamation, persuasion, power and propogation) a group claiming to be a church lacks any meaning or purpose.

Can all of the problems of the Christian life be reduced to lack of church or lack of misison?

Three great blogs, three great posts

I just wanted to highligh three fantastic posts from blogs I frequent:

• Mike Bird at Euangelion posts on the Together for the Gospel conference. It's a long post, but goes to the heart of the gospel and is well articulated. He raises important questions the sex, togetherness and the gospel.
• Andy Rowell at Out of Ur posts on image, depth and transparency. His reminder that image isn't everything is well put, and well intentioned even if he's preaching to the choir.
• Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed posts on emerging (missional) evangelism. He gives an almost comprehensive list of what is wrong with the worst of evangelism, and prompting new approaches.

I salute Mike's bravery and prayerfullness in particular. I'm also keen to see how the discussion at Jesus Creed develops.

Australian Gospel Music Festival

I'm sure this won't be my only post on AGMF 06, as the three-day festival gave me a lot of food for thought. I think I'll do three more posts, around the following themes:

• the event itself. I was so impressed with the length of the queue for the loo (or rather, lack of length).
• the music. M is for Music. While I enjoyed much of what I saw, I was only really blown away by one band in particular.
• going as a group. Our little group of 9 (six adults and three young people from the youth group) had mixed reactions to doing things together.

But now, I'm still fuming after hearing the 'gospel' presentation last night. There were so many ways that the combined churches service was amazing, that I almost feel petty taking issue with one aspect of it. But it is kinda important to get the gospel right, so I'll vent a little bit.

• When we die and our soul leaves our body it can only go to one of two places (heaven or hell). Does the Bible really say that when a person dies, that their soul leaves their body? Assuming it did, someone mught ask why it could go only to one of two places. Why not a third (purgatory), why not many heavens, one for each dismbodied soul?
  Rather, doesn't the Bible say that those who are in Christ experience the same kind of resurrection that Jesus did? Surely Jesus' resurrection wasn't just the appearance of his disembodied soul in a less than physical way?
  
• God cannot simply forgive everyone's sin because this would not be just; this wouls be like a judge simply acquitting murderer. And that had it been my friend who was murdered, I would want justice. Fair enough (especially if you are able to keep from confusing justice, punishment, and vengeance). Except that he goes on to say that being a Christian means that "we do the crime, Jesus does the time". How is this justice? In his scenario, a murderer walks free and an innocent man is punished for a crime he didn't commit. This only includes greater injustice. Not only that, the murderer is free to kill again and again, and the his punishment will only be added to the innocent man's sentance.

There are far more than two things I really enjoyed about the rest of the service. But here are my top two in the interest of balance:

• The pastor who gave the offering talk simply intorduced himself as "a pastor at one of the churches in Toowoomba". I liked that. As someone who is part of movment that wants to be 'Christians only' I thoroughly enjoyed the lack of denominatial brands and logos, and marketing of a particular congregation.
• The worship leader would often stop siging into the microphone so that the thousands gathered could hear their own voices. In effect these little pauses communicated that those not on stage were not simply passively watching a show, but were expected to be actively involved. I often worry about pursuing 'excellence' at the expense of participation: there must be a difference beween being physically present at a worship service, and simply watching the latest worship DVD at home.

Now I'm really starting to think about the next three posts. But I hope that this rant is food enough for thought.

Blogging without the internet (at home)

As I don't have an internet connection at home, I tried writing my posts in a word processor and saving them to add later, when at church or college or hotspot. But now I can't find the post I wrote straight after seeing Fiddler on the Roof. Oh well. I will eventually. Anyway, that was a week ago and much has happenned since then. As you shall soon see...

Spring Hill at Dusk

Anita and I have a really amazing digital camera that we are so fortunate to have. Ditto the unit in Spring Hill. This evening we went for a wander to try and demonstrate our appreciation for both by not taking them for granted. The first two were taken by me and the third one by Anita:

Good news for choc-a-holics

Dr Karl must be almost favourite doctor. While confirming the myth "chocolate can kill dogs" (as little as 140g of cooking/compound chocolate), he also provided some other very useful information:

• the process of producing chocolate: picking, burying and fermenting, roasting, conching, adding sugar, milk etc;
• outline history of chocolate from Maya to Spain as a drink to England where J.S. Fry and Sons became the first producers of solid chocolate in 1847;
• in small doses chocolate can be good for you: it contributes to dilation and elasticity of blood vessels and destroys tooth-decay-causing bacteria -- though the added sugar in milk chocolate feed the same bacteria. Better stick to dark chocolate;
  
• that theobromine (literally "food of gods" C 7 H 8 N 4 O 2, the key ingredient to chocolate, and what makes it toxic to dogs) and caffeine (literally "food of Cam" C 8 H 10 N 4 O 2) are both methylxanthines.
  

Now if Dr Karl would only do for coffee what he did for chocolate, beginning with describing the many ways that its good for you...

Evangelicalism: It'll make you laugh -- and cry

While catching up on the latest news from The Onion, I saw an ad for A Field Guide to Evangelicals and their Habitat. I just had to find out more! This is from the publisher:

• What Evangelicals Believe -- Plus a Master List of Who Is Going to Hell
• How to Party Like an Evangelical -- Ambrosia, Li'l Smokies, and Potluck Fever
• The Diversity of Evangelical Politics -- From Right-Wing to Wacko
• Evangelical Mating Habits -- The Shocking Truth

While it's been out in the US for three weeks, it's only been out in Oz for one. Not at any of the Christian bookstores I frequent. Again, according the publisher the author, Joel Kilpatrick, as well as being creator of the Onion-esque Lark News, has written for Christianity Today and "attends church regularly for personal fulfillment and new material".

What really got me thinking though is that Amazon records "Customers who bought this book also bought... [books by] Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and Donald Miller." Evangelicals. (Critics would do well to keep this in mind.) In his Evangelical Truth, John Stott boldly claims that "the supreme quality which the evangelical faith engenders (or should do) is humility" (122). To my way of thinking humility and humour go hand-in-hand. More of both may mean that I won't have to give up on self-identifying as an evangelical afterall - perhaps the term (and the movement itself) can be rehabilitated.

At last...

It feels like ages since I've posted. -- It has been ages since I posted! To be honest, it's probably because I didn't know why I was even bothering with this blog thing. Well, I'm not sure that that's been adequately addressed. I merely feel a compulsion to articulate a little of the massive amounts of information I'm being forced to process lately.
So, here's a quick update:

Friday 31st March & Saturday 1st April - attended the NT Wright seminar organised by the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese's Faith and Life Vicariate. Wright spoke on Jesus' mission (Friday) and Christian mission in the postmodern world (Saturday). Benjamin Myers reports on it well on his blog.
Sunday 2nd April - Just a normal lazy Sunday: church in the morning and study in the afternoon.
Monday 3rd April - Study. Oh, and I finally, got back to the gym!
Tuesday 4th April - Study.
Wednesday 5th April - I had coffee with Rev Tim Hodgson, minister to the inner city with Wesley Mission Brisbane (Uniting Church). Wow, it wasn't long until we were talking about some of my favourite things: the relation between church and mission, and chaplaincy as mission in the Australian Defence Force, with a bit of social ustice thrown in for good measure. I also had my usual New Testament (Romans and Pauline theology) lecture at Malyon College with Dr David Parker. This week was a real treat: Romans 3.19 - 31 & justification by faith! Here I was all swotted up on Wright & Dunn's arguments, and various dictionary articles on justification, faith, works of the law etc, but with only about 40 minutes of class time allocated. To be fair, we later discuss the centrum paulinum, and I expect the discussion to be more involving then. I also got to the gym again - what a day!
Thursday 6th April - Study. No Old Testament (Pentateuch) lecture today at the Reformed College (located on-campus at the University of Queensland in Emmanual College) because the Presbyterian church is having its mission week. I must remeber to keep praying for the students as they travel and minister. So instead I introduced on of my friends involved with a church plant to the senior pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle two blocks up the road from where he works (and three from where I live). They discussed the possibility of a small but significant co-operation to encourage Christians who work in the city to minister there also. More to pray about. Excitingly, there was also the first of our young adults' small group studies on Erwin McManus' The Barbarian Way. What an exciting thing. Erwin is on of my heroes and I will read everything he writes, so it was great to discuss a chapter with some of the other youth leaders from Westside.

That brings me to the present. Tomorrow I have such a big day planned, but I'll write about that later, once it's actually happenned. And yes, I do hope to post thematically rather than chronologically once I'm a bit more on top of things.