Railway Tracks

I got an email this morning which was apparently excerpts of an interview with Rick Warren (author of the Purpose Driven Life franchise)

I must be honest - I'm not a big fan of the Purpose Driven Life. I am also a little suspicious of these 'interviews' when their source is not clear. I find they often spring up like urban myths. ‘Rick warren said . . . ‘ becomes a bit like ‘I knew this guy who got maggots growing out of his tongue because he licked an infected envelope . . . ‘

But for what it's worth here is a clip from the clip . . .

Rick on His Wife’s Cancer
“This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

I add it here because it makes sense to me.

My life is certainly more railway tracks than hills and valleys.

And yours?

Scott

Lost for Words

There are always some parts of the bible that we find tricky.

Perhaps it's because the language is hard, or it's culturally removed, or we just don't want to do what it says.

But how about this scenario.

Imagine you are involved with a church running a ministry for deaf people. Each Sunday morning you sign the service, songs and sermon to those in the congregation who are hearing impaired. It's a great ministry and you have had a great start to the year. Until now.

Because this Sunday you had to sign the bible reading and the sermon - which both revolve around Galatians Ch 5:11-12

11Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

If the beginning of v11 was tricky, the end of v12 is a shocker!

This happened yesterday to my good friend Lisa Harvey, who is doing what I just described, having launched the ministry for the hearing impaired called 'Talking Hands'.

It would be a great work to pray for as the year continues.
I've got some prayer points for Talking Hands available on request.

But apart from that, you gotta love the story :)

Scott

You will get in that car now or so help me . . . .!

Here is a discussion that is doing the rounds in my backyard at the moment.

Should you force your kids to come to church (a.k.a Sunday school / youth group)?

The unsaid that brings you to this question could be something like:
'We don't want to mess our kids up'
We don't want our kids to hate us'
'It's tough because we don't know how to do it'
'We value Christian things and aren't sure how to help our kids to do the same'

I've heard views expressed across the spectrum.

And I have been quite surprised / upset by some of them as well.

For what it's worth - here are some of my thoughts:

Faith and churching should start in the home.
So if you don't go to church or bible study as a parent, your dead in the water.

It would seem odd to me however, if you do read the bible and pray with your kids to then say, 'This is as far as it has to go. Corporate fellowship outside of this family is optional.'
Communicating to your kids that their faith can be a personal and secret thing seems a strange counterpoint to trying to get them to engage with God in the first place (not to mention the messed up theology of church you would be teaching them)

One objection I heard was that faith is a choice of each individual and we can't make demands on someone else's conscience.
But that misses the point doesn't it?

You are not forcing them to become a Christian, but just insisting that they attend church once or twice a week. Big difference. Unless you think that they are one in the same, in which case may I suggest there are bigger issues here than just the question at the top of the page.

It's also worth noting that little kids and early teens do not yet have fully developed cognitive pathways for processing abstract and complex choice scenarios. Which is why as parents we make decisions for them all the time (You will hold my hand as we cross the road / You will brush your teeth / sharing is caring). It is grossly unfair to expect a kid to reason like an adult - to tease out all possible good and bad consequences from this choice and be mature enough to weigh these up. And on this issue the stakes are too high to not intervene.

Perhaps an unspoken anxiety is that I don't want my kids to hate me for making them do something they don't want to.
At which point I would ask you to consider what is your angle when it comes to drugs, sex and rock and roll (actually, when it comes to RnR, I ope you encourage it! But I digress . . . .)

We are willing to have our kids think we are 'old school' for the sake of their safety and well being in restricting them from dangerous substance and dangerous people. How about being willing to cop a bit of flak for getting them to say yes to something which is much more important. (Do you believe that it is more important?)

Hand in hand with this is that you don't want to turn them off Christian things
I get this one - and it is a good concern to have, obviously.

But will the approval of complete non engagement in Christian things be of any real difference at the end of the day from the worse case scenario of making them attend and having them not enjoy it?

And do we believe in the Spirit of God convicting their hearts? And the power of the Spirit working through his word? And the prayers of believing parents? And the commitment, giftedness and prayer of the sunday school teacher / youth leader?

Now sure, there are situational considerations to keep in mind.
'Is their reluctance to go because they are getting bullied?'
'Are they too young to be able to handle to group'
(EG: an infant overstimulated at a noisy sunday school)
But there are solutions to this - perhaps become a sunday school helper yourself to ensure the environment is a good one!

And rather than making this another classic parent kid tug of war - isn't it an opportunity to teach and train?

To insist that you will discharge your parental responsibilities as best you know how, but to also explain (perhaps at a different time) why church is important, especially for believers. Why your happiness is not the most important thing.
Why turning up and putting a bum on a seat to fill a room can be a great encouragement to the kid who feels he is all alone in this 'Christian thing.'

Anyway, enough from me.

That was part post, part vent.

Did I miss anything?
Am I way off base?
Your thoughts?

Scott

How to make the good, great

A new year, a new look.

I'm not a big fan of new years resultions and the like, but I do like fresh starts.
I like new routines and the 'pause' and 'delete' button of life.

So I'll be using both those things to make the next few weeks groudbreaking.

Part of my excitement comes from the fact that I now have a youth minstry team!
Byron and Steph take a bow (photos to come)

They are both gifted, fresh and ready. They are ex GWC students (not expelled, just finished) who are putting the icing on their ministry cakes by spending the first 2 years out of college with me and the gang at St James. They are no strangers to the place, but I think their presence will blow our youth groups wide open. (In the good sense, not the Hiroshima sense).

I am now a 'boss' / overseerer / manager / trainer . . . of sorts.

So here is my question:

Who was the best person you ever worked under / for / with?

What made that experience so totally excellent?
(Or if you have a horror story, how could it have been different?)

Please comment - Byron and steph beg of you :)

Scott

Three Weeks is, like over, man!

We have waited all year for this three week window when Craig would arrive and ignite our holidays. Well, he came, he saw, and contrary to his recent blog post - he conquered.

He now has the 28 hr flight home.

It was very very good for us to have him here - however it also underlines how profoundly sucky it is that we have to plod on through the next 11 months without a face to face. And the house feels quite empty and incomplete. On the upside - we will save on tomato sauce.

But we prayed together last night that the memories will become fuel to drive us forward with great anticipation, not just till Christmas '08 but also to that great feast that will overshadow al of this.

But for me, tomorrow, it's back to work.

Uncle Craig - music teacher (aka School of rock)

Uncle and Jem

Flying high

Up the back as usual