How To Be Good: Part 4 of 4

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches.

If you just joined in, take a moment to read the last few posts.
It's ok, I'll wait for you.

Right. Now we are ready to see how 'doing good' might work out in practice.

I've decided to pick up a specific example of Christians doing good which comes from my own backyard. It goes like this:

About 100m up the road from St James there is a park. (click on the pic to enlarge) It's pretty run down. The grass is dead in the middle, it rarely gets cut and the play equipment is old. Hayley and I take the kids there all the time, cause it's just around the corner. So do lots of other mums and dads too. But as I said, it's only a shadow of a park.

So, I am going to speak to our local member and ask if St James can adopt the park. We'll rehabilitate the grass, cut it and see if we can't raise some money from the community to get a decent jungle gym put in.

The mission is to make the park a place where families can come and play and meet and be safe. Because families matter, and St James cares about the families in our neighbourhood. We might even try a Sunday afternoon picnic a few times a year so people who live so close can get to know each other better. That will go a ways to strengthening the community too.

This could be one way which St James will be seen as a church that cares about those who live around us (rather than just parking them in every Sunday).

Thoughts (especially from you St Jimmians?) Do we have any wingmen or wingwomen out there?

S

How to be Good: Part 3 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches

Paul’s letter to Titus has a lot to say about doing good. In three short chapters, Paul pushes ‘doing good’ no less than eight times! (Ch 1:8, 1:16, 2:3, 2:7, 2:14, 3:1, 3:8, 3:14)

Paul ‘s focus here is not just on sound teaching (good doctrine) but on good living. He tells Titus to set an example to the younger men by ‘doing what is good’, that he must remind people to do what is good (here in 3:1 he is talking about being good citizens in our relationships outside the Christian community), and in 3:14 that we must learn to be good so that we can be productive and not a burden.

But a watershed moment is when you realise the difference between being good and doing good. Being good is a status that none of us can achieve without the death of Jesus to redeem us from sin. Nowhere does Paul ever tell us (in Titus or anywhere else) to ‘be good’. That would be a stab in the back to the gospel of grace. Two of the key verses in Titus (2:14 and 3:8) make that crystal clear.

However, Paul can’t bear to offer his gospel nugget without wrapping it up by saying we must therefore be ‘eager to do what is good’ and ‘to devote ourselves to doing good, for this is excellent and profitable.’

You don’t become a Christian because you are good, but once you’ve become a Christian, we are free to do good born out of grace, and we gobble up opportunities to make that happen.

Next time: How we (at St James) might be able to ‘do good’ in Kenilworth.

PS: I have no idea why Titus appears to missing half a finger btw . . .

How to Be Good: Part 2 of 4

In case you just joined us . . .

I'm trying to figure out where 'being eager to do what is good' fits into our Christian lives, especially in the life of our local churches.

Here are my answers to the questions from the previous post . . .

As a local church, where does doing good for your community fit on your list of priorities?

It's always been there, but perhaps recently it climbed a few steps. Not sure if we have all caught up yet however.

If you try to pursue what is good for your neighbourhood, do you feel a little guilty that you’re not using that time and energy to evangelise them instead?

Yes.

If you were to decide to devote yourself to doing good for your community, where would you start?

Thanks to the vision of that wonderful women I'm married too, we actually have a plan for that now! But more in a post or two . . .

Do you think doing good just needs the church to be a bit ‘nicer’, or would it take a paradigm shift?

Both. Speaking for myself, I certainly need to relax a little and be willing to look outside of my normal sphere of concern. However, I haven't stumbled into this, it hit me like a truck, so I'm also going to put a hand up for 'paradigm shift' as well.

Next post is something which will clarify lots and put some head scratching to rest . . . "What's the difference between being good and doing good?"

How to be Good: Part 1 of 4

I thought this might be a catchy title because a few years ago I read a novel by Nick Hornby (of ‘High Fidelity’ fame) called, ‘How to be good’. It was a great read, if not a little depressing.

It was a story about Katie Carr who thought she was a good person, but had to come to terms with the fact that she had just committed adultery. She had done this because her husband was not a good person, but quickly undergoes a transformation which makes him nauseatingly good. Katie’s moral compass starts to spin and what it means to be good is up for grabs. As I said, an interesting read.

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how we feel as local churches about doing good.

Doing good with no strings attached, not as an icebreaker to evangelism, not as a lay ministry training opportunity.

Just doing good because we value the neighbourhoods we live in and we think that they could be better, and that we as a church are in a unique position to help.

We know where evangelism should be taking us.

We know where edification punches it’s weight.

But, like Katie Carr, have we lost our bearings on doing good? Have we forgotten what it’s there for and what we’re meant to use it for?

My guess is that this will either hit home, or bounce off you like bullets off superman.

So I’ll leave you with some questions to ponder:

As a local church, where does doing good for your community fit on your list of priorities?

If you try to pursue what is good for your neighbourhood, do you feel a little guilty that you’re not using that time and energy to evangelise them instead?

If you were to decide to devote yourself to doing good for your community, where would you start?

Do you think doing good just needs the church to be a bit ‘nicer’, or would it take a paradigm shift?

Tomorrow (Sydney time), I’ll give you my honest answers to these questions.

Welcome Back!

According to Scott has undergone a face lift. New template, a nice pic of our holiday beach up top there, and a few changes down the side. But we stopped short of botox.

The reincarnation is to keep me on my toes during sabbatical. Yes, I know it's half way done already. So there might be a little catching up to do. But the trouble with having space to think is that if the thoughts aren't committed, then they just float off.

So this is to keep some speculation . . . well, honest.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have a new post up, 'How to be Good'; Reflections on the local church, community and Titus.

Till then

Australia Day

In the spirit of Australia Day (yesterday) here is my blog-tribute to the things that make you proud to belong to the biggest island in the world.

(And in good Aussie fashion, I got this from my Mum)

1. You think it is normal to have a Prime Minister called Kevin

2. You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas'

3. You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'

4. You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them

5. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language

6. You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, while 'scuse me' is alway polite

7. You understand that 'you' has a plural and that it's 'youse'

8. You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours

9. When working at a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer

Sydney Holiday Post #1

I did something a little out of the ordinary for a Saturday night – I went to church.

My brother leads the 5:30pm Saturday night service at Church by the Bridge (www.cbtb.org.au) in Kirribilli (for the South African readers, the name is no misnomer, this is literally right under the Harbour Bridge. It’s pretty freak’n awesome!)

The talk was on the Armour of God from Eph Ch 6 – I had visited this passage many times during ’08 and as I was sitting there smugly thinking, ‘I know this stuff’, I discovered something new.

“Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God . . . “

I was made to consider for the first time why Paul calls it the sword of the SPIRIT. I would have called it the sword of GOD, or at least the sword of CHRIST. But the sword of the Spirit draws our attention to something altogether different.

God’s word is the way that the Spirit works in us to such an extent, that Paul can call the Word the Spirit’s sword. The Spirit illuminates it to us, He writes it on our hearts. He convicts us to the truth of it. As I was sitting there under the bridge, with the Word before me, the Spirit was rushing amongst us and within us doing a supernatural work.

Sometimes the evangelical circles I move in almost seem to deserve the criticism that we neglect the Spirit. (For the record, I don’t think we do, but I can see where the misunderstanding comes from.) But last night I realised that for God’s Spirit to wield God’s word is an intense spiritual activity from another realm, invisibly breaking into our own time and space. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that it is the very nature of God to reveal himself in this way, it would be down right spooky.

Not a bad thought for a Saturday night, me thinks.

(Epilogue: After church was done, Hayley, my brother and I hooked up with some old friends, got some pizza and red, and sat on the grass under the bridge watching the sun go down and the lights come up. I’m on holiday! But the CBTB people get to do this every week??!)

(Epilogue part 2: And for the South African readers, guess who we met at church on Saturday night? Kenny and Rose Lloyd (with little Jenna)! How cool is that?!)

Ahhhh . . . so busted.