1. VIETNAM SERVICE TRIP – APRIL 11-20, 2012  (Trip is going ahead – to confirm your spot book flights and email us – details below)

WHY? To help improve the lives of people living with visual impairment
WHAT? Building and installing toilets and water purifying systems for some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in Vietnam
WHO? 25-40yr olds (or thereabouts) Aussies and Kiwis – 5 places confirmed…8 places left.
WHERE? Hanoi, Vietnam
WHEN? April 11-20, 2012
FACILITATED BY? ADRA Connections/ADRA Vietnam
COST? $850* (incl. food, accomm, transport, visit to Halong Bay etc) + flights (currently on sale:) *TBC
REGISTER? Show your interest by booking flights to Hanoi (arriving by April 11) and send an email to info@submerge.net.au. Spot must be secure by Jan 31.
THEN? We’ll get you to sort some details with ADRA, put down a deposit and set you up with a fundraising page and ventures asap!

2. BIBLE LANDS TRIP- JUNE 23-JULY 22, 2012 (Need registration of interest and $200 refundable deposit by Tuesday, Jan 17 to confirm your spot – details below)

WHY? To visit the places where Jesus and the disciples walked and see if those stories are real
WHAT? A 25 night all inclusive guided adventure
WHO? 25-40yr olds (or thereabouts) Aussies and Kiwis
WHERE? The Middle East – Jordan, Israel, Turkey and Greece (visit Amman, Jerash, Petra, Dead Sea, Masada, Jerusalem, Jericho, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Istanbul, Galipoli, Pergamon, Ephesus, Patmos + Athens)
WHEN? June 23-July 22, 2012
FACILITATED BY? Submerge, Peter Roennfeldt (guide) and Allround Travel
COST? $7150* (incl. flights on Emirates, most food, good 3.5 star hotels, all entrance fees, a/c luxury coaches, local guide, ferry in Greek islands) *price correct as at Jan 13, 2012
REGISTER? Show your interest by depositing $200 (refundable) to Submerge Acc# 715096 BSB# 733050 and send an email to info@submerge.net.au
THEN? Though we’ve been seeking registrations of interest for this trip since mid-2011, this trip won’t go ahead unless 12 people have made a deposit by Tuesday, Jan 17

*defective  means having a defect or fault, while deficient  means inadequate or lacking in amount or degree

I recently spent 4 days at the Adventist Students Association (ASA) Convention at Lennox Head as part of my work (tough I know!). Here’s a few reflections:

• There were about 25 students who stayed for the week of activities (mostly indoors or nearby due to the constant rain – ahh!).
• They were a great bunch of students – friendly, focused and faithful to God. The speaker – Doug Burns – shared simple yet profound messages.
• ASA is struggling to keep track of current uni students and attract connected students to it’s Annual Convention. This is an issue of leadership, marketing, and mentoring.
• Conference/City Uni student clubs like NASA (Newcastle) and SASS (Sydney) have struggled this year to get off the ground and run any gatherings. They have appointed pastoral chaplains, but the challenges of students and ex-students leading and a new, transient generation (that is socially connected via technology but not in person) is taking it’s toll. Some states are doing OK (e.g. QUSDAS in SQLD) but say they are struggling, some population areas have no SDA uni club presence at all.
• I listen to one student at the convention talk about how current youth ministry in her conference – including youth rallies – was aimed at younger teens and therefore irrelevant to her. Interestingly, this is the same sentiment I’ve heard many times from 25-40 yr olds – but this from someone who was about 20.
• I’m concerned that with the lack of support, mentoring and leadership for uni students (Avondale College aside) in Australia, they will look more like my generation and disconnect from church and sadly loose their focus on Jesus. It’s time we engaged with this issue – and with our uni student generation.

The Melbourne Submerge team will see their prayers and hard work culminate in another Submerge gathering this weekend. Contrary to usual Submerge practise, there is an international speaker who’ll realign our focus on Jesus (Sam Leonor from La Sierra Uni in California) – so THANKS to the anonymous sponsor who helped bring Sam over here!

This weekend will hopefully see a mix of disconnected, connected and never-connected people coming together to go deeper with Jesus and share faith with friends – just like the participants in Sydney three weekends ago! Stay tuned…

Know someone who’s got a skewed picture of Jesus? Could it be you?!

Has your steady diet of blockbuster movies and pop culture have left you spiritually malnourished/blinded/maladjusted?

Disenchanted with the church but still fascinated with Jesus?

Uncomfortable in your comfortable Christian suburbia (and your discomfort arises not from a cynical judgementalism but from a longing for something more)?

Registration for this gathering in Sydney ends tonight. submerge.net.au

ps. There’s cheap surf lessons on offer too!

For a long time I’ve heard many stories about how the Church has been too strict on rules and doctrines. My own research revealed that people generally leave the Church because of two reasons: lack of acceptance and lack or relevance. It’s been tempting therefore to think that we just need to be more loving and inclusive in order to fix the imbalance and stop people leaving. However from time to time I’ve been thinking that perhaps what we expect of people – according to Jesus as opposed to our own culturalisms – is too watered down. I read a chapter in Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution last week which talks about Jesus’ reaction to the rich young ruler when he tells him to sell everything and give it to the poor. The young guy walks away sadly – and Jesus lets him. He doesn’t run after him and tell him just to sell half of it, or just his surfboard or his laptop; he lets him live with his decision.

Have we compromised the cost of discipleship (i.e. kept the bar too low) these days in order to maintain a crowd or be seen to be doing the right thing? Has our rejection of our parents’ black n white thinking left us swimming in a pool of grey? Has our culture pressured us into being so inclusive and accepting of anyone that our standards have been diluted and thus our picture of Jesus (and his teachings) majorly scewed? Claiborne puts it this way:

We would like to include people….yet over and over in the Scriptures, Jesus warns people of the cost of discipleship, that it will cost them everything they have ever hoped for and believed in – their biological families, their possessions, even their very lives. He warns them to count the cost before putting their hand to the plow. And Jesus allows people to walk away. Shane Claiborne, p.106

If the bar is too low, anyone is included but we run the risk of people leaving (church/Jesus) because life doesn’t look that different to anyone elses (apart from a few sprinkles of Jesus here and there). If the bar is where Jesus sets it – high – we run the risk of loosing people who won’t surrender all they have. We also run the risk of people surrendering, risking, and boldly loving all and thus living the very life Jesus wanted us to live.

Dates confirmed – more details coming soon!

I’m part of a new afternoon church/study group and have been challenged lately with Jesus’ words in his sermon on the mount (Matt 5-7). It’s unique – counter cultural in fact – to hear that I will be better off if I realise my need for God, mourn over my sin and am gentle, humble and lowly. Jesus was and is humble and so too should we be, suggest the Hirsch’s in Untamed.

So many sins of the historical church could have been avoided if we had simply understood this fact. There have been times when the last thing people would have called Christians is humble. We have been highly coercive, often unkind, and repeatedly judgemental. And yet Paul tells us to have the same attitude as Jesus (Phil. 2:5-8), to be like Jesus, who “emptied himself of all but love” (Charles Wesley). p.241

The Hirsch’s suggest that our approach to mission should also be the same as Jesus: steadfast in the truth, accepting of being misunderstood and rejected, and willing to achieve victory through redemptive suffering.

This – and many other things Jesus says in the gospels – are hard to swallow and follow.

How could Anders Behring Breivik – a 32yr old Christian – kill 76 people almost a week ago in a 90 minute calculated shooting rampage? His defense lawyer is calling him insane, but others are suggesting that whilst Anders has a twisted mind, he is ‘total evil’. I can only make some sense of the cause of this tragedy thanks to my recent reading of Roger Morneau’s Beware of Angels. In it Morneau details the journey of Sharon Halstead, a fourth-generation SDA who joined a bible study group in Oregon that had a keen interest in the supernatural. The group became fascinated with angels and ultimately ignored Bible truths, with Sharon becoming so deceived by Satan that she murdered 2 people and seriously injured 2 others – all because she thought they were demon possessed.

Before Morneau converted to Christianity he was involved in spiritualism. His satanist priest gave many insights into Satan’s cunning ways of deceiving us – noting that demonic spirits use charismatic individuals to manipulate other people and that supernatural beings find their best subjects in the religious world. Morneau warns his readers (particularly Adventists) to be aware of Satan’s tactics, to constantly judge all things by the truth of the Bible, and to remember that error is never harmless.

“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many” (Matt 24:4,5).

I wonder how much we’ve been deceived – not perhaps to murder people – but to leave our spouses and seek divorce; to work long hours and neglect our kids; to ignore the good and focus on the bad in our church experiences; to be too busy consuming to stop and praise our Creator.

“You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I’ve been working at the SPD (a.k.a. ‘the divvy’) for 6 months now. It’s been a valuable time of learning and exposure to the workings of the church and the many friendly and dedicated people who sacrifice to further God’s mission. There’s a lot of rumours, stereotypes and generalisations which float around this place (most from outside but some from inside) and straightening them out can be a tricky & tiresome process (no one really gets paid to do this)! One thing that was clear however was the intent of GC pres Ted Wilson, who visited a few months ago to speak with the staff. His message stressed the need for revival and reformation, particularly through more bible study and fervent prayer. This we were told would bring about Jesus’ second coming.

I got a little annoyed when I heard his message. For most of my church life I’ve heard the same call – and it seems like the right thing to say and keeps the concerned saints happy – but I’m not sure it makes a difference in people’s lives. In fact, a recent article by Eddie Johnson titled Revival! Revival! Revival! showed how the OT prophets’ emphasis was different to our church’s regular calls for revival in that modern calls for revival (for the sake of readiness to meet the Lord) is subtly self-centred in nature.

I realise that bible study and prayer are good things and should lead to a deeper walk with God. But tell me, Ted Wilson, what bible study method works for you? Tell me, fellow Adventist, what God has said to you through your time with Him today? Show me, student of Jesus, how I can pray in different ways by praying with me. Allow me, fervent social justice seekers, to work for the poor by not just speaking about poverty or asking for money but giving me the opportunity work with the poor.

One more thought. A work colleague (David Tasker) shared this week about the giving of the ten commandments by God to the Israelites through Moses. The reason given for Sabbath observance was different the second time the commandments were shared (Deut 5). The first reason (given to those who were slaves in Egypt) was because of the Creator God who rested on the seventh day. The second reason (given to a new generation) was because their descendants were once slaves in Egypt and God delivered them with might and power. We need new reasons for beliefs given to emerging generations. Old reasons don’t cut it and are irrelevant.

If I don’t have reasons to believe then I have reason to leave.

I’ve let the busyness of life to cloud out my blog sharing of late but wanted to share a few articles that I think are worth reading, chewing on and sharing. For starters, this one caught my eye.

N. T. Wright, Rob Bell, Jamie Oliver: A Disappointment for Adventism?

and part 2

N. T. Wright, Rob Bell, Jamie Oliver II: A Hope for Adventism?

Whilst I relate to the author’s perspective I think that because the church hasn’t had high profile citizen’s or celebrities to trumpet it’s beliefs (apart from perhaps the Chamberlains or Ben Carson) we can use the perspectives of Wright, Bell and Oliver to our advantage and refer to them when talking with colleagues who are interested in our history and teachings. Revisiting our beliefs and understanding/practising them in light of the gospel will also give us the courage and joy to share what we have. Anything handed down without being ‘owned’ by the recipient won’t have a long and joyous tenure.