Church Together 2013 the reluctant review
23 July 2013
There are two reasons if you’re a Christian why you won’t like this post. So I thought before I begin I’d try and address each of them.
Firstly I believe that discernment plays an important part in being a healthy Christian. As I reflected on my experience at Church Together and heard many people heap unqualified praise on the event, I couldn’t help but think there is lack of “biblical” discernment in many church circles. To be fair I think this is for good reason. Generally we don’t like to disagree with other Christians. People don’t like to rock the boat. People don’t like to look “judgmental” and harsh. The message that many Christians are taught about Jesus and the Bible is often an overly positive one which leaves little space for discernment, criticism, hell, and other less palatable doctrines.
The problem is that the Bible speaks of all these very things. Testing things (1 Thessalonians 5) holding on to what is good, encouraging others and refuting those who oppose (Titus 1). In 2 Timothy 4 church leaders are called to correct rebuke and encourage. Rebuking is mentioned in Titus 1 and 2. In 1 Tim 4 we are also encouraged to watch life and doctrine closely. Discernment is commended in Philippians 1:10.
It’s often lost on Christians just how many of Paul’s letters were written to correct false teaching. You can see this in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, Colossians. That’s before we get to the many serious warnings about false teaching that are also peppered through the Old Testament and biographies of Jesus.
It’s in this spirit and context that I want you to hear what I have to say. It’s ok to say a particular doctrine is wrong, it’s ok to disagree with other Christians, it’s ok to say something is false teaching, it’s ok to say something isn’t clear or unhelpful. It’s important to be open, honest and upfront about differences. As I have argued before this is what true tolerance is. I believe this can be done well and in the right spirit, thoughtfully and lovingly. It’s for this reason that I believe that criticism of Church Together is ok*.
The second thing you might not agree with me on, is how a “sermon” is defined. You can substitute the word “message” or “homily”` if you’re old school. I think generally in most church circles this is rarely defined and often an assumed definition. In the circles I move in usually a passage from the Bible is expounded and taught. The emphasis is on teaching people and helping them understand the text and seeing how to apply it to their lives. Locate, explain, illustrate, apply is a helpful summary. In other words the text itself drives the sermon. For brevity's sake I’ll leave the definition at that
The more Pentecostal understanding of a sermon is different. In my experience, focus is not on a particular verse or passage but usually a theme. Often these are themes that come up in the Bible. Almost all Pentecostal sermons I’ve heard don’t really seem to follow a set formula or structure and some are better with their use of the Bible than others. Now my point here is not to define what a sermon is, but for you to understand that what was “preached” at Church Together, would not fit either my, or a Pentecostal definition of a sermon. In fact I wouldn't even call it a good motivational talk but I’ll get to that later.
The Good
My purpose for visiting Church Together wasn’t to write a review. Those who know me personally, will know that I’m passionate about improving the music and the “church gathering” experience for our church on a Sunday. It was in this spirit that I went along, hoping to learn how to run tighter music and have MCing that rocked. Many of the non-Pentecostal churches I have attended are very sloppy with this kind of stuff. Conversely many of the Pentecostal churches I have visited do this very well. And boy, they delivered.
The music was excellent. All the music was live, no room for lip syncing here. I hadn’t heard most of the songs, but the lyrics were more thoughtful, dare I say theological, most unlike the Hillsong music of old. The tunes were catchy and musicians built up tension skillfully, pulling back quietly in other parts. It was very, very well done. The musicians were well dressed and the stage was free of mess and clutter. The musicians were confident and the music was loud, something I think in my circles we could certainly do with more of. There wasn’t too much clapping and jumping around, and the vibe was energetic rather than frenzied. While I’m sure this is not everyone's cup of tea, it was overall, very well done.
The Sermon
Just before 6pm the main speaker Lisa McInnes-Smith bounded on stage. “Shake hands with he person next to you!” she exclaimed. “Are you fun to live with?” “Interactions are important, smile! Treat people well! Smile look someone in the eye!”
Lisa according to the bio on the event site boasts “Lisa is recognised among the top inspirational speakers in the church and in the corporate world.” and been inducted “International Speaker Hall of Fame, the first person living outside of North America to achieve this recognition”. The promise was of a “real and relevant message”.
Glancing over the page and half of typed notes I took, it is very hard to work out what her message actually was. I think the main point of her “sermon” was “words”. “Words have the ability to bring life but also cut people down... I have been a victim of those words my eye was born closed... people called me ugly, people teased me with words... Life's not fair”. “We need to use labels that lift people up... You're smart. I'm smart. Look at the words you speak over your life.” All of these things she spoke clearly and with passion and conviction.
She also spoke about bad words, that go out of you coming back around to hurt you “like a boomerang”. Someone beside me mentioned that sounded a lot more like Karma than Christianity. In passing she encouraged us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, I think alluding to Romans 12, but didn’t really apply or explain this verse properly. Many of the things she talked about were good and helpful in and of themselves... and while some of her ideas and concepts could be found in the Bible, she only ever really referred to it in passing. Many things she said would have been more at home in a psychology lecture.
Drawing on her background as a sports psychologist she said we ought remove all criticism from our speech. She told us how when she addressed sporting teams they weren’t permitted to be critical for a whole week. We should instead focus on what is good about people. I have some sympathy for this. At times I know I’m too critical (Don’t worry the irony of this critique is not lost on me). The impact and authority of this was then lost as she failed to tie the idea to any Biblical passage.
As she continued, my mind started going haywire trying to find categories to understand what she was talking about. I tried really hard to understand what she was saying and how it related to Jesus. Maybe this was just a motivational speech with words like Jesus, God and the Bible thrown in? Only I didn’t feel motivated. I just felt confused. Maybe she felt it too because she got everyone to their feet then asking them to squat till they felt pain in their thighs. I’m not sure how this fitted with message maybe something about pain and agony. I’m honestly not sure.
It would reactive to label what she said “false teaching”. To the best of my knowledge I don’t think she said anything that was blatantly “false”, but then I couldn’t say she explained the gospel either. It seemed ironic, that for all the talk of “words” she had little regard for clear communication and structure in her "sermon".
After around fifty minutes she stepped down. The MC, iPad in hand, then proceeded to read Romans 8 at length. He spoke of Jesus death and it’s role and function. At this point in the evening it was most welcome. It was the clearest explanation of the Christian message I heard all evening, however I wondered if the MC was tying to make for the lack of exposition and clear articulation of the Christian message in the sermon. The evening finally concluded with the inevitable alter-call to which fifty or so people responded.
Reflecting on the experience, by every measure I can think of her “message” failed. I’ve heard much better messages from other Pentecostal preachers here in Hobart. In fact I couldn’t even describe what I heard as a good motivational speech, I’ve heard better at local footy matches. If the gospel was there in her message, it wasn’t clear, at least not to me and one other person.
There were other minor things that I didn’t like about the evening, but I’ll leave them to one side for now as my original intent wasn’t to critique the event. I can’t help but think, if the preaching had been as clear, and engaging as the singing, my assessment wouldn’t have needed qualification... and my review turn into a critique.
*For the sake of brevity an eloquent and extended argument on why I agree public criticism is over here.
tags christian, review, thinking
5 Movies to see before you die
10 May 2013
Donnie Darko - This is a dark brooding hipster thriller movie. It was made in the days before being a hipster was cool and stars an misunderstood delinquent emo kid. Maybe that’s why I like it. It has elements of horror, surrealism and time travel. I love a film that warps your mind and challenges conventional thinking, and Donnie Darko does this well. I should add finally it has a pretty cool sound track. Watch twice for maximum awesomeness.
American Beauty - I love Kevin Spacey. He’s brilliant in this. The interactions between his and Annette Bening’s character are hilarious. He’s a rebel and he sticks it to the man, something I think we’d all like to do sometimes. The film also deservedly won 5 academy awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Violence and black humour. If you don’t like or understand black humour you’ll hate this film. It’s a very cleverly told story, the acting is good and the protagonists thoughtfully sympathetic. There’s a fair whack of violence but the plot will keep you guessing to the end.
The Matrix - The action in this film for it’s time was amazing. I also really like the philosophical idea that you can be living inside a dream world or a world and not be aware of it. This film also illustrates well a number of Christian themes while not being a “Christian” film.
Seven - One of the harshest films I’ve ever seen. Acting is fantastic and storyline compelling. I particularly like Kevin Spacey’s contribution. He’s one of my favourite actors. There is also great skill with which the film shows that given the right circumstances any of us are capable of extreme misdeeds. I could say more but I don’t want to spoil it.
5 Albums I bought in the last 6 months...
04 April 2013
Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
I’m not really sure of the story here. Maybe I heard her voice on Triple J. I added a playlist of her album on Spotify and listened. Her husky tones bring to mind smoke filled men's clubs and Film Noir made the 30s 40s and 50s. The songs are poppy and catchy.
Owl City - The Midsummer Station
Total trash. I would never defend Owl City as good music. I bought this album because I have a couple of other Owl City Albums. I first listened to Owl City when Googling around about The Postal Service (another band I really like). From memory a number of critics mentioned that Owl City is similar to The Postal Service. I listened to and I liked it straight away. It’s very definitely pop and it’s great to dance and jump around to. Olivia and Ella like anything with the beat and some lyrics they can shout. They also picked up the tunes pretty easily.
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
I like and own Kanye West’s album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I think he’s a very good producer... but you wouldn’t let your Mum listen to that album. Frank Ocean is Mum friendly. A more palatable, gentle version, abate with a sprinkling of bad words. His style is probably closest to R&B with electronic keyboard, samples and subdued rhythms. I not really sure how I came to hear of him. He’s also pretty relaxing to listen to.
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
I saw the beautiful above video advertising an Octocopter last year (watch the video if you don't know what an Octocopter is). The video uses a remix of the track "Lights". Olivia and Ella really liked the video and the music. Again I added a Spotify playlist of album and began. I managed to also catch a performance she did in London as part of the iTunes music festival. Watched it on my big TV at home. It was very impressive. I enjoyed listening to her youngish girly voice.
Air - Moon Safari
This is a strange one. When I checked I was very surprised I bought it less than six months ago. I had the feeling that bought this album a few years ago. This is possibly because this is the oldest album here (1998). I think this was on high rotation on Triple J back in the early 2000’s when I lived at the Castle with Bernie and Chris. I’ve liked it ever since and finally got round to buying it. I find it dreamy and relaxing to listen to. If you were harsh you might call it chilled, electronic, elevator music.
Slumdog wolf shirts
22 May 2009
Two awesome things happened to me tonight. First, I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire which is, without a doubt the best film of 2008 (sorry Adam it was much better than the Dark Knight). Second Christine tipped me off about the Three Wolf Moon Tee Shirt phenomenon over on Amazon.com. If you don't think the click is worth it here's the review that started it...
"This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women... As I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives...
Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark. (more here)
tags linkage, shameless self promotion
Ten years ago this year...
06 March 2009
This year it’ll be ten years since I became a Christian. My story is pretty ordinary. There were no fireworks, explosions, blinding lights not even a voice in the night. It is the journey of the mind and the heart to an understanding of the graciousness of Jesus.
I was brought up in a Christian home but didn’t really take it too seriously. Late in year twelve one of my friends challenged me about how I lived my life. I knew I needed to fix things up in my life. I treated people around me pretty poorly including my parents and friends. I was a selfish and angry dude but I was also upset and broken. I can remember riding my bike down to the water and bawling my eyes out with frustration at life too often.
As I began to try and clean my life up I spent some time around people who read the Bible and prayed each day. The Bible for them wasn’t just a devotional and inspirational text but a book to be studied, understood and read in context like any textbook. I realise that sounds dry but for me this was revolutionary. It engaged not just my heart but my mind also.
For this reason I left my parents church met some other people who would have a profound influence on helping me to understand the gospel properly. I can still remember doing SUS (a Bible study on the first 5 chapters of Romans) for the first time. It was upstairs in a pub with people who weren't old. One night I remember I was especially struck by the Bible’s claim that all people deserved God’s judgment and condemnation. I knew I wasn't a good person.
As I went home I can remember thinking that Christian’s didn’t go to hell, but I wasn’t sure why. Later that night I read ahead of the study to Romans 3
Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets tell how we become acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins.That night understood grace from God in sending his son Jesus, for the very first time.
tags christian, thinking, update
5 shamefully bad CDs I've bought
22 February 2009
- Celine Dion - Best of
- Maria Carey – Best of
- Spice Girls – Their first Album
- Michael Bolton – Single
- Avril Lavigne - Album
tags blog, shameless self promotion
5 christian friends who have influenced me
02 January 2009
- Mikey – Pastor of Crossroads church. Taught me much about myself and my relationship to ministry and people. Helped me to move more like a ninja when I talk about my faith and showed great belief in me and they gifts I have.
- Seumas – Bible College and language ninja extraordinary. Seumas always thinks outside the square. He’s from Sydney not Hobart and he’s cool but in weird way. Amazing intellect. We chat regularly on Skype.
- Benny – Taught me heaps about ministry and University work. He also taught me humility and how to disciple others, helped shape my mind to become sharp. He also stood by me in some really tough times.
- Sam Green – For preaching and teaching faithfully good solid theology and grounding me in basic understanding of the Bible over my Uni years.
- Paul Chew – Taught me the basics of Romans 1-5 and put up with my annoying questioning of everything in Bible study when I first become a Christian. Thinks outside the square and puts up with my annoying questions still.
tags christian, christians i respect, friends, linkage, ministry
5 New Year Resolutions
31 December 2008
- Get to bed earlier
- Find a job
- Be a good parent
- Keep blogging
- Get a car that goes
tags blog, shameless self promotion, thinking
2008 reviewed blog style
Here's the year in review as seen through the eyes of my blog. Enjoy.
January (9 posts) - Tasmanian Leadership Convention, Yamba Maclean Mission and my bro lost his crappy job. Things were looking like pumping for 2008 FOCUS work.
February (12 posts) - I bought Mark Driscoll's book I still haven't finished reading it. We made the move to Jane, I crashed my bike and still have the scars. Most significantly I probably made the hardest decision in my life so far goodbye FOCUS.
March (5 posts) - Dark Times. I posted very little this month in fact a record low for this blog. Looking back there is very little substance to any of these posts. I was feeling really really crap. On a positive note I revived my ipod.
April (15 posts) - The month started poorly. I blogged about the problem of pornography not once but twice. I followed this topic all year. I began my series of posts on bad fashion now one of the most Googled set of posts on my blog. Christine and I also took a nice holiday up the east coast of Tassie.
May (16 posts) - I bought that car. Laura arrived from the US of A. I blogged about divorce (and offended a anonymous regular reader). I also blogged about porn again. This was the month I preached a fairly average sermon at Tuesday Crossroads and really began the battle to organise the the MTS Tasmania Conference.
June (18 posts) - We did some beer tasting with Laura before she departed. I posted a couple of rants one on hybrid cars (Which I still standby). For some reason I posted stacks of pictures some of them quite good. I should add my good friend Benny got hitched in poo paddock. I also think my friend Adam from Jane began reading my blog. He has become one of the people I hold in my mind as I write. Oh and in a very subtle way we announced we were having a baby.
July (14 posts) - I got sick. It was a bit of a ranty month and I got plenty of comments. The two most commented on posts were Pro Consistency where I argued that Christians should name their children before birth. (With hindsight I would have worded the post differently as it wasn't intended to cause offense. Provoke people, yes but not offend). On the other post I ranted;
I think often Christians already come across as bunch of right wing George Bush loving, Today Tonight watching latte sippers. You can be a Christian, believe in climate change, appreciate art, drink fairtrade coffee and vote left wing too.That post drew one of the harshest comments on my blog to date. Finally for July there was bad fashion number #1.
August (12 posts) - I smashed up my body not once but twice. I Got sick again but completed the mammoth MTS Challenge Conference which rocked even though I didn't go. I also began a new series of rants on how to use email properly.
September (22 posts) - With the completion of the MTS Conference it felt like the fog had lifted and I increased the number of posts to a high for the year. Christine crashed my hard worked on car. No one really read this post. This was contrasted with the 2nd highest read post in the history of my blog about Mark Dricoll and his 18 points in Sydney. Other topics covered included; How annoying Sydney people are, How to run a successful blog, more Driscoll, and still more Driscoll.
October (20 posts) - My email etiquette series continued . Christine voted in an historic election which saw her cop flack (mostly on facebook) for daring to suggest a vote for Obama. It really frustrated me but this made me laugh. Of course in a reoccurring theme for 2008 I got sick with the flu again. I wrote a review of one of the post powerful pieces of TV I've ever seen and in a popular post taught my mates how to clean a shower.
November (19 posts) - I swapped a friends lunch, took a weekend break, won some cash on the Melbourne Cup. Quite a few posts linked to other people's opinions rather than my own.
December (32 posts) - I've been going blog crazy this month. I've had long stretches of duty here at Jane in which to think, reflect and write. This has meant I've posted some of my most personal and juiciest stuff to date. I also posted one of my best bits of writing this year complete with a follow up. I've also written a some longer posts and introduced my 5 things posts an idea I thought of late one night while I was sick (again). December has been a good month.
Total posts for 2008 194 and counting...
tags blog, linkage, review, shameless self promotion, thinking, update
5 Movies I’ve seen and felt like I’d wasted my life
29 December 2008
tags linkage, review, shameless self promotion
5 values for new Crossroads secretaries
27 December 2008
- People over work. The Secretary should be free to tools down and hang out and chat with whoever drops by. Go and grab a coffee anytime.
- Efficiency and accuracy. This involves trying to get things done with maximum accuracy in all things (weekly email, spelling, Church rolls etc).
- Serving others. This includes serving the church members and staff (eg. Dan). The secretary should try and help out with the administrative burden where possible. Serving others also includes being hospitable.
- Technological proficiency. This is probably the most important. Mastery of the various programs we use in the office is essential to be a proficient secretary.
- The Boss. The secretary is the boss of the office. They have the right to boss people around even Mikey and Dan. Get angry and be bossy. People need to be a little bit scared of you not the other way round.
tags christian, ministry tips, shameless self promotion
Vision and 5 values for the Crossroads Office
26 December 2008
Vision: Luke H is impressed. Luke is our standard. When he wants to hang in the Crossroads office we have achieved our goal. We are still a long way off this.
- Neat and tidy. I managed this pretty consistently all year. I bought a vacuum cleaner and emptied the bins weekly. I cleaned and dusted.
- No accumulated rubbish and crap - For some reason the Crossroads office ended up as a dumping ground for crap. I took a whole trailer load of it to the tip late in the year. Churches and offices have to get better at throwing out donated crap.
- Thankful - We don’t pay rent and our landlords are awesome if a little Christian crazy.
- Hospitality - I didn’t quite nail this one this year but simple things such as making sure the tea and coffee are well stocked up and fresh. Maybe some icy cold cans.
- Not Belkirk - We want our office to be progressive with money allocated each year for small improvements. Maybe a nicely painted feature wall and no junk see point two.
tags christian, friends, linkage, ministry tips
5 actors you probably like... but I hate
24 December 2008
I should note that I don't hate every movie these guys have been in just most of them.
tags linkage, review, shameless self promotion
5 things you probably didn't know about me.
23 December 2008
- I have a cyst on the back of my head. Nothing bad.
- I went to Kip McGrath in High School for remedial work on my reading and spelling.
- I suffer with depression which comes and goes.
- I've worked for both the ABC and WIN Television.
- My pillow has a name.
tags blog, shameless self promotion, thinking
5 things you should know before you read my blog
- I'm a pretty sensitive person. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
- I have some sort of mild dyslexia. So please bear with all my mistakes.
- I'm often deliberately provocative. It's blog. It's my opinion. It would be boring otherwise.
- If I offend you it's possibly because I haven't been clear in what I've said. In which case you should email me.
- I try to make sure I'm the same person here as I am in real life. There should be no disconnect.
tags blog, shameless self promotion, thinking
Email Etiquette #5
29 October 2008
Be really clear
Email requests should always be polite but you must be clear what exactly you are asking. If you are sending a file to someone for their information then make sure they understand this. Please.
If you are asking someone to do something for you, make sure that it’s clear what you are asking for. I also strongly suggest giving a deadline for tasks otherwise people usually put a task off until it seems urgent or worse (or more commonly) forget about it.
I usually look over all my emails before I send them and ask myself the questions like “What am I asking this person?” “Have I asked the person for something specific?” and “have I been polite and courteous?”
All Email Etiquette posts here
tags shameless self promotion, thinking
Lessons Learned
14 September 2008
As many of my readers will be aware I'm a bit of a fan of Mark Driscoll. Reading his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev reminded me of when a bunch of us started a new church nearly 10 years ago. We were a bunch of young hot 18 to 20 year old headed punks who only half knew what we were doing.
In those early years we (I) made truckloads of mistakes, however we did learn some important lessons. Mikey has been documenting them and they are well worth a read especially if you're young and thinking of starting a church.
You can read all 5 parts on Mikey's blog here. *edit* fixed link
tags christian, linkage, ministry tips
Bad fashion #1
11 July 2008
The worst fashion crime of them all. Jeans with runners/trainers/joggers (whatever you call them).
Explorer socks with runners a really bad look. Especially the clash in colour
Even worse with long trousers
So very bad...
...and yet so very common.
Please refrain from now on.Here are links to the rest of the top 5
Number #5 White Socks with Black Shoes
Number #4 The Mobile Phone on Belt
Number #3 The Tucked in Shirt
Number #2 That Top button
tags pictures, stupid award
Hold your horses!
30 May 2008
If you are hankering for bad fashion #1 please be patient as I gather evidence.
Number #5 White Socks with Black Shoes
Number #4 The Mobile Phone on Belt
Number #3 The Tucked in Shirt
Number #2 That Top button
tags shameless self promotion, stupid award
Sex and all that
23 May 2008
Sexual temptation is the downfall of many a good man (and woman). One of my mates posted a up a link to John Piper who posted 26 tips on how to fight sexual sin. They look pretty good. Check em out here. Here's the first 5 to get you interested;
- Recognize that sexuality is a good gift from God.
- Recognize that Biblical prohibitions are intended to protect something precious not deny something pleasant.
- Believe God is for you.
- Ponder the eternal danger of lust.
- Think often that God has given you even now many good things.
tags christian, linkage, ministry tips
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