Mansfields Musings

My punishment for doing classwork at home...

2011-09-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Emily and I'm in Mr Mansfield's English class. I wrote an essay at home, when I was supposed to wait until the next day to write it in class... This is my punishment...

Is living as a Christian in the 21st century easier or harder than ever?

Christianity has been quite a popular and world-renown religion. History suggests that it has been around for centuries and practiced in many countries. Many aspects of life were based upon Christianity and the faith then was strong. However, in the twenty-first century, the religion has been slowly disintegrating in the public aspect of life and isn’t celebrated as much as it was. The media, for example, is full of non-Christian views and activities such as drunkenness and non-marital sex. Christians become peer-pressured into thinking that perhaps their non-Christian friends are making the right decisions or saying ‘normal’ things such as swearing. As a result of this, people have been influenced by these ways and religion has become a not-as-important aspect of life.

The media has become almost the center of households across many countries. However programs such as ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘How I Met Your Mother’ do not support or even mention Christianity. The show promotes non-Christian behavior and sadly, is shown everyday on different channels and is available for people of any age to view. Teenagers see this and non-intentionally start practicing this behavior in later life. Having these shows makes it difficult for young Christians who are still developing their faith to reject the ideas promoted in the shows such as being drunk and having sex out of marriage.

Peer-pressure is a very large factor in a teenager’s life. As they grow up, their non-Christian friends may want to experiment with drugs, alcohol and all-round partying. If a Christian is amongst these types of people and they, for example, are out at a party, they may feel pressured into drinking or taking drugs. A one-time thing can turn into a habit. The Christian may like the sensation of the drugs and may want them again and again until they are addicted. The drugs would make them do things that they wouldn’t normally do and if repeated, become a ‘normal’ part of life, the guilt would dissapear. Peer-pressure is a main aspect of why being a Christian is harder in the twenty-first century, the temptation and the urge to be like others.

As a result of this influence among the media and by non-Christian peers, teenagers become careless when it comes to their own faith. Doing non-Christian actions become so fixed in their minds that they do not think whether actions they may be taking are right or wrong in a Christian perspective. Their parents aren’t there to put them on the right track because they themselves may be displaying the wrong behavior. Children who are growing up in the twenty-first century have less faith than those in previous years because of this all-round bad influence and misguiding help, thus, making it more difficult for someone to be a Christian in this twenty-first century.

Living as a Christian in the twenty-first century is much harder than those in previous years. Not having religious relatives, friends, practices and the media is the reason for this difficulty. Young Christians are brought up in a world full of sinful acts and wrong-doings and they are sadly influenced to do the same, therefore making it far more of a struggle than ever before.

'Put that in ya Piper and smoke it.'

2011-08-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered what it would've been like to sit and listen to the Apostle Paul. I feel like I may have experienced this to a degree while attending the Brisbane Convention Centre - Queensland Theological College presents John Piper. What an amazing, challenging message.

And because I took some frantic notes, and because I don't want to EVER forget the message - here are my notes.

When tragedy occurs, (September 11, Tsunami, Earthquake, etc), we as humans are always astonished at the sadness and loss of life. The thing is, our astonishment should be reversed. God created us and until we learn to be astonished at the fact that we are still... alive, we will never fully grasp the gospel. The only reason we can do what we do, is because we are still breathing, and for this, we should be astonished. We are unworthy of life. Be astonished that we are alive!

Life hangs by a thread of grace. We have no control over our pulse. God wants us to feel dependent on his grace because God owns you! (BTW everybody on earth 'knows' deep down inside that we are far more than just biological chemicals...)

We are often so arrogant that we say things like 'I'm going to Sydney tomorrow, where really we should be thinking, 'If God keeps me alive, and if he wills it, I'm going to Sydney tomorrow.'

Arrogance = I can control my life.

He gave you life. He can take it. So...don't throw your life away. No one cares about your bank balance when you're on your death bed.

'Only one life 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.'

I want my songs to be saved... and to not waste their lives.

One day, when we meet Jesus, scarred hands and all... will we look him in the eyes and say, 'Look Lord, see my shells.' Foolishness. Our country spends millions of dollars enticing seniors to enjoy their retirement by playing bingo and collecting shells. Of what worth is this? None.

What is an un-wasted life?

Joyfully exclaim the supreme value of Christ. Display his worth.

It's a good deal. Give him the glory. We get satisfaction.

We need to magnify God like a telescope. Take something that is big and make it look more like what it is. This is an un-wasted life.

The point of living is to be a telescope. Make God (who looks so small to our fallen world) look more like what he is by magnifying him! Live as though you prefer Christ more than anything else. Use your home/car/computer/food as though you value Christ more... because you DO.

To die is gain. It is far better to be with Christ than to even be with your wife. On your death bed, we should be excited to gain, gain, gain, gain...

Don't waste your life. Live for Christ.

Three thousand people had their gospel and theological understanding cemented... their eyes opened and their butts kicked.

Don Carson next year. I'm there!

Why I'm not an Atheist.

2011-05-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

Ricky Gervais writes an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled 'Why I'm an Atheist.'

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/19/a-holiday-message-from-ricky-gervais-why-im-an-atheist/?fb_ref=article_top&fb_source=home_oneline

Seeing as my wife is out tonight and my kids are asleep I thought that I would write a blog post entitled, 'Why I'm not an Atheist' and see if I can make some sense.

Make sense?

Why I'm not an Atheist by Josh Mansfield

People ask ME all the time why I'm not an Atheist. Not really, I just wanted to start my article in the same manner that Ricky Gervais starts his but it just doesn't have the same ring to it. I've never been asked that question ever, and never will be asked why I'm not an Atheist, because it's just not what one asks someone.

I am a Christian. I know why I'm a Christian, but I've never really thought about why I'm not an Atheist.

Until now.

My first point of reference when thinking about this, is the fact that I often talk about Atheists as being hypocritical (in the sense I suppose that they see Christians as being hypocritical...). I say that people who don't believe in anything, still actually believe in something; they believe in nothing! Atheists reject the concept or notion of owning a belief system and yet, that is there belief. I don't think it's actually possible (unless you're a door frame or other inanimate object) to not believe. But that's a childish argument, and as far as I can tell, I'm no longer a child.

So if we all believe in something, why don't I believe in nothing?

Good question.

Gervais makes the majority of his points by referring to Science. Science is what human beings look to for logical explanations of the world around us. The tree outside my window is green because of the scientific processes that are working in it's roots, chemicals and the colour discrepancies in it's components. (Did that sound scientific, or just plain confusing...?). Science explains the process of everything that we can feel, touch, smell, taste, hear and see. The process...

But when I look beyond the sensual world, I'm not really interested in the process of life. When I consider how I'm supposed to live and act and why I'm supposed to exist, looking at the scientific processes involving my human body is not helpful one iota. I'm trying to find purpose.

Science, is useless at purpose.

So when faced with the question 'How do I exist?' - hand me a Biology textbook (one without too many diagrams please...)

But when faced with the question 'Why do I exist? - hand me a Bible.

The Bible is the most debated, researched, misunderstood and quoted book in the history of the universe. I'm not even going to bother with a google search for the stats on that one; it's just true. It has been stripped apart, split open, turned upside down, shaken, stirred and discussed over the years, but no one has been able to fault it; as in no one has been able to say, 'Hey... wait a minute, this bit says that Jesus' disciples were plumbers and plumbing wasn't invented back then'. If they could find faults in it, it wouldn't be the world's best seller that it is.

The historical evidence of large portions of the Bible exists. Don't 'wikipedia' that, go and find a reputable historian and check and you'll find they agree.

And I could go on... (historians believe that Jesus existed, secular historians like the Jewish teacher Josephus wrote about the amazing miracles of Jesus, even medical information in scripture is... well medically correct etc etc).

Ultimately though I think I know why people are atheistic. There are two main reasons.

Reason #1 Particularly in the developed world, we have things too easy. We are in control of our own lives... generally. When we get sick, we go to the doctor. When we get really sick we go to the hospital. When we need food we go to the shops. When we need a new boat we go to the Boat Show and when we need money we go to the in laws. We don't need to hand our lives over to God, because most of us are going to live quite happy and healthy lives and kick the bucket when we're between 70 and 100, which is quite a good innings really...

We're in control. We don't need God. So we don't believe in Him. That's my theory anyway.

Reason #2 It's because what people understand to be religious/Christian is not what is actually religious/Christian.

'Religion' is a set of traditional rituals and rules that people follow in order to appease said god or leader. True Biblical Christianity is neither ritualistic or law-based.

'Christianity', that is to be a Christian is to have a meaningful relationship with God where you live your life in a way that please Him, because you realize just how much He loves and cares for you. That's it.

I'm not an Atheist, because being an Atheist is too difficult.

How can you reconcile in your head and your heart that there is nothing more to life except the cards we are dealt here on earth? How can you truly believe that when you die, whether you are 99 or 9 months old, that's it!?

How can you reconcile in your head and your heart that our existence is a fluke, or that we evolve from monkeys when our bodies are so intricate and our human desires beyond explanation?

How can you reconcile in your head and your heart that you can do whatever you want to whomever you want, whenever you want, because once you die... once they die... it all ends?

How can you see a sunset, or a baby giraffe, or a flowing river, or the smile on a four-year-old's face and not think that there is more to life than a bunch of molecules moving around the planet?

It's too difficult.

So I'm not an Atheist.

So I'm a Christian instead.

Un-de-sensitised...

2010-09-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

I'm worried.

I'm worried about myself and I'm worried about the world.

But at the same time... extraordinarily curious.

You see, I read an article in the newspaper the other day that listed ten inappropriate twitter moments. And I didn't laugh... in fact, I didn't actually think they were inappropriate.

Let me explain.

The article spoke about a guy who tweeted mid-wedding ceremony, 'Just about to kiss my bride. Wedding going well.'

A year ago I would've thought this outrageous. But in 2010, I actually just find it in interesting and surprisingly, un-inappropriate. I don't think it's appropriate, but I don't think it's inappropriate. If someone wants to tweet during their wedding then I think:

a) It's up to them.
b) It's actually quite interesting to read...

Funerals, weddings, hospital visits... they are no longer tweet taboo. It's actually appropriate and reasonable in 2010 to announce to the world that you are having an operation, or are heading to the hospital. It's reasonable to announce, 'Am at x funeral and it is very sad.'

But just to make it perfectly clear... I don't own a twitter or facebook account. The time they consume is unbelievable and they can be dangerous.

But they're here to stay.

At least for the next short period of time...

Someone famous is reading my book...

2010-07-29T15:23:00.001-07:00
Sure. It's been a while since I've blogged. But every now and then I get excited about the world of web logging and get a few seconds to muck around on the net. And so today I decided to share my good news with my thousands of loyal readers.

Someone famous is reading my book.

Well he's not famous famous. But he is well-known. Particularly in Australia.

His name is Mark McCrindle and he is a social analyst, or futurist. He runs McCrindl research which is a company that researches social trends and specialises on Generational research. It was because of his online research (mcrindle.com.au) that got me thinking about generations in the first place.

[Note: If you are reading my blog for the first time (welcome and where have you been?), you'll need to know that the book that I've written is about bridging the Generation gap, and in particular trying to figure out how to engage the current generation of teenagers long enough that we might jam the gospel down their throats.]

I went to a conference (compulsory professional developement - don't call me nerd), and he was the keynote speaker. I met him and he told me that he knew I had been writing some stuff. I picked my chin up off the floor and asked if he'd like to read it. He said yes. I said great. He gave me a copy of his book, 'The ABC or XYZ' (catchy huh.)

And so he now has a copy of my book on his bedside table.

And hopefully he's reading it.

And hopefully he doesn't think that it's rubbish.

And even if he does, at least I can say that someone famous-ish, has read my book.

Peace out.

A Blogging Experiment

2010-03-20T02:13:00.000-07:00
So I blogged and it wasn't that interesting right.

Only a few people read my blog and I got pretty bored and of course, life just go busier so I haven't written on my blog for ages.

Then I thought I'd try an experiment. When you are on a blogspot blog, up the top somewhere on the screen there is a little button that says NEXT BLOG. Once you have finished reading/writing your own blog, if you hit that button then blogspot moves you to a random blog.

I've just spend the last hour reading a whole heap of random blogs and commenting on them. I thought to myself, 'I love it when someone comments on my blog, imagine how these people are going to feel if I comment on theirs.' You know what I mean?

So I read a blog about custard cream puffs, a garden that was hit by a hail storm in Melbourne, a weird Kabbalah practicing dude who wrote about candles and heaps of others. After my comment, I left my blog address; this one.

So now...

... I wait. And see whether anyone will reply. It would be kinda fun if they did.

But just to make this blog post a little bit more interesting here are my top ten things that I just can't stand:

Top Ten Things that I can't Stand

1. Traffic

2. Reality television show contestants who cry so that they will get selected.

3. Clothes that wear out really quickly.

4. ... when I can't sleep at night.

5. Kids who say 'epic' too much.

6. The tellytubbies and any other kids show where they don't use real words.

7. Facebraggers - these are people who are constantly bragging on their facebook status 'Name is... so happy because I just bought a new plasma tv and my 2 month old son is quoting Shakespeare etc.'

8. Shaving. Why can't facial hair be smooth and silky and attractive?

9. Spelling and grammar.

10. The fact that you can hardly find Vanilla Coke anywhere these days...

Ten things I do that I shouldn't do.

2009-10-12T20:31:00.001-07:00

1. Drink Coke.

2. Drive approximately 5 kilometres over the speed limit; almost all the time.

3. Go on Facebook while at work.

4. Say 'crap.'

5. Think I'm better than others.

6. Spend money on useless things.

7. Get annoyed at land-lords who probably mean well, but appear to be arrogant and brash.

8. Pretend I'm asleep so that I don't have to get up to the kids...

9. Get fired up at the referee when watching sport.

10. Do nice things for people for my own benefit ie so that they will do nice things for me.

Do I need to repent of these things? What are ten things you do that you shouldn't do?

Brendon Fevola

2009-10-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a sports fan. Nut. Addict. Take your pick.

And so it embarrasses me, when things like this happen.

The Brisbane Lions is our cities Australian Football League team. They are a respectable bunch of guys; if you ignore the fact that they're predominantly an arrogant, muscular, womanizing group of young men, just like any football team in the world.

*After all, when you don't have to actually work for a living, and when you have muscles the size of Ayers Rock, and in places that don't even exist on a standard male, it's very difficult to walk into a bar that has just offered you free drinks and say, 'No thanks, I'm just a normal guy...'

However, in the main, they seem to be trying hard to be nice guys and do their subsequent community work and smile for the camera etc. The one thing missing from this team over the last few years though is the only thing that seems to count in our secular society; a premiership ring. They got close this year - but everyone knew deep down inside that they weren't going to get the bikkies. They'll get close next year...

And then they go and sign the President of the Drunk and Disorderly Club; Brendan Fevola.

Like any red-blooded fan, my intial reaction was *GASP SHOCK* on the outside and *YEAH BABY* on the inside. Now, we can win the premiership. We have the two best goalscorers in the country, playing on the same team. If they stay fit, we win.

And so I start to justify my thoughts.

Surely he deserves a second chance, I think.

Surely he can't be all that bad, I think.

The media has made a mountain out of a mole hill, I think.

And slowly, but surely I begin to feel better about myself, and about Fev.

But like any self-respecting Bible-reading, Church-attending Christian I have my doubts and the guilt starts to kick in.

And so I start to unjustify my thoughts.

He's a disgrace, I think.

He's a terrible role-model, I think.

We've sacrificed integrity for a premiership, I think.

And so I turn to that one place anyone might turn when faced with a dilemma as to whether or not I should accept the controversial signing of a big name football player as ugly as a muppet and as foolish as a jester; the Bible.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, I read.

We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us turned to his own way, I read.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not die but have eternal life, I read.

And so I think.

Brendan Fevola is a sinner like me. I am a sinner like he. The difference is, (if you go by the actions of the football champ), I believe in Jesus, and have eternal life. He doesn't, and so therefore, he doesn't.

So the solution.

Dear God - please transform the life of Brendan Fevola. Make him see that his actions are inappropriate, but more importantly, make him see that without you there is no life. Amen.

And so we can still cheer for the Lions.

And if they win or lose, we should keep praying for Fev.

Right?

Thinking about Suffering

2009-06-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

My first book is now being proofread and edited and will hopefully get to a point where I can say that it is now completed. That's cool.

But I'm starting to think about what to write next.

I'm starting to think about suffering.

In the last year I have been privy to a wonderful secret. I have always been a Christian and had a foundational understanding of faith and what it means to be a follower, but in the last year, I feel that God has let me in on a secret.

It's a suffering secret.

I don't know whether I should say it. On one hand, I should of course, because it's a glorious secret that has opened my eyes to the purpose of suffering. On the other hand, if i blurt it out then you will have received the knowledge without having to go through the same process I had to. The process is primary to understanding the secret and allowing it to transform your life.

But I've never been really good at keeping secrets.

The Bible talks a lot about suffering. We all know that right. But here's what I've discovered.

When we are happy and healthy, and our loved ones are happy and healthy, we take God for granted. I feel at my furtherest away from God and my flattest in my relationship with Him, when everything is going swimmingly.

When we are struggling and suffering, and our loved ones are struggling and suffering, we rely on God for help and endurance and. I feel the closest to God and the most complete in Christ, when everything is going terribly.

When Tom was born three months prematurely, I spent three months resting in the shelter of the Almighty's shadow. I journalled, prayed, struggled, battled, read scripture, memorized scripture...

The day he came home from hospital was the day I put away my journal. I was so happy that I thanked God for what he had done for us, and then let me relationship with him drop.

But here is where the penny dropped. I've been counselling a 15-year-old girl (with the help of our FEMALE chaplain) over the past 8 weeks. She was very much a non-Christian girl. She got sick and while she was sick, she started to think about what her purpose in life was and got to a point where she decided to become a Christian. Her wide-eyed wonder of God made me realise that if it wasn't for her suffering she would not be a Christian. The beauty is, that she understands this secret too. She is now non-plussed about her illness because she knows that in heaven there will be no pain and suffering.

What's more important, 60 years of suffering on this planet, or infinity years of glorious worship in heaven? Well duh.

Anyway. This has started me thinking about suffering. Ultimately my question is going to be; 'Should we be praying to God, to give us more suffering?'

Hmmm. I think I might write a book on suffering.

I'll call it, 'The Secret to Suffering'.

But not just yet.

...pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God.

2009-06-08T19:02:00.000-07:00
This blog contains two chapters.

Chapter 4: ... pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God.

Chapter 5: We've taught them individualism.

…pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God

‘One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live and we don’t accept that there are diverse ways of being in the world… and many paths to what you call ‘GOD’.

Oprah Winfrey[1]

I love all-you-can eat restaurants. I have actually developed an all-you-can eat restaurant strategy. Basically it consists of the following three stages.

1. Eat as much food as possible until I’m feeling slightly ill.
2. Visit the men’s room.
3. Eat dessert.

Of course I feel disgusting afterwards, but I figure that I need to get my money’s worth. It’s a terrible habit that I have.

Apparently I’m not the only person who follows this strategy. I remember one particular dining experience at an all-you-can eat restaurant as I was embarking on stage 2, I heard a voice calling for help in the next cubicle. I completed my associated task and followed the sound of the desperate voice. Sure enough, in the cubicle next to me, door wide open, was a young boy of approximately 10 years old, with an enormous puddle of ice cream puke at his feet. I told him that I would try and find his parents. I found a waitress and gave her the honour of locating his parents and being hailed as the hero of the hour.

Buffet meals satisfy our greatest culinary desire; that of being able to eat whatever we want, whenever we want. This is also the formula for the traditional Australian BBQ. Lay out as much burnt meat and salad as we can on the plastic outdoor setting and let the people eat as they feel led. We like to be in control and make our own choices. This desire to be in control of every aspect of our life is being manipulated by advertising agencies and media outlets to sell almost every product and experience under the sun. We have so much choice today; choice as to which mobile phone to buy, which clothes to wear, which music to listen to etc. This smorgasbord of options caters to our sinful desire to be the ruler of our own life.

Unfortunately this desire to be the ruler of our own life also affects the religious choices that people are making all over the world. No longer are people looking for a widely accepted or historically accurate belief system. The emphasis is now on making a religious choice that feels right for you. Ultimately this means that the kids that we want to share the gospel with have been manipulated into thinking that Christianity is just one delicacy on the smorgasbord of spiritual beliefs.

Generally speaking, our kids are a spiritually conscious generation. The combination of postmodernism, a cultural drift away from absolute truth and our ongoing search for purpose, ensures that kids are searching for something beyond the material world that they live in. This is exciting, right?

Culture-watcher Walt Mueller[2] explains the cautious excitement that this situation brings -

‘Perhaps more than any other generation… they’re on a deliberate quest to understand and embrace faith…

While this is good news, it comes with a set of unique issues related to our culture and times…
Teenagers struggle with Christianity’s exclusivity and ultimately reject Christianity because Christians believe they alone have spiritual truth.’[3]

Although this news allows us to be excited, the truth is that 21st century kids and their increasing spiritual awareness does not directly relate to the increase in the number of church-going, Bible-believing Christian kids. The kids want to believe in something, but the exclusivity and ultimate truth that Christianity offers, is not an attractive something.

Let’s look at this idea from a different vantage point.

In 1976, persons aged between 20 and 29 years made up 16.5% of the population in Australia and 14.5% of them acknowledged that they had no religious affiliation. (This is an affiliation with a church or religious organisation.)

In 2001, persons aged between 20 and 29 years made up 14.5% of the population and 23.2% of them acknowledged that they had no religious affiliation. Here we have a drop in percentage population, yet an increase in those who had no religious affiliation.

This makes me think that the kids are slowly becoming less spiritual. However, it’s not that they are becoming less spiritual, but rather that they are noticing and acting on the hypocritical nature of religious organisations.

If we take a different vantage point; in 2001, 82% of 65+ year olds confessed to being a Christian.

During the same survey, 60% of 18-24 year olds admitted that they are Christian. This vantage point does allow us to be quite positive about the spiritual state of our kids though. This is a good result, but it clashes with the previous statistics. The kids are saying that they are Christian, but at the same time saying that they don’t want to go to church. When reading through the New Testament and understanding the importance of church attendance in personal growth of Christians and in developing an understanding of the Bible, we need to take another vantage point.

In 1960, 41% of 18-24 year olds attended church monthly.

By 1980, this had dropped to 25%.

And in 2000, this had dropped again to 20%.

I worry that if this survey was to be taken again the results would be even worse.

So if our kids are becoming more spiritually aware but less likely to attend a Christian church, who or what are they trusting in?

A large proportion of our kids are going to say that they believe in a god. However, the god that they believe in can be defined as ‘moralistic, therapeutic, deism.’[4]

This god is warm and fuzzy, easy to believe in (because he helps you when you’re in trouble), and stays out of your way when things are good. This is a god who, in the context of material possessions and wealth says ‘I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you.’ Jeremiah 29:11.[5] This is a god who would never say, ‘Sell everything you have and give to the poor.’ Matthew 19:21.[6]

Essentially what we are doing is pressing our kids to take a pluralistic approach to God.

Oprah Winfrey, world renowned chat show host is a pluralist. A pluralist is someone who believes that there are many ways to get to ‘God’. A pluralist is someone who accepts and promotes the idea that no one is right, because everyone is right. Winfrey has such influence however, that millions of American’s watch her shows and simply take on whatever ideas she presents. She has a lot to say about ‘how to get to God’.

During one of her shows, Winfrey shared her view on the idea that anyone can get to God, anyway they like. There’s no need to presume there is only one way.

A conversation occurs on air that goes like this:

Winfrey: There are many paths to, what you call, God… There couldn’t possibly be just one way.

Audience member: What about Jesus?

Oprah: What about Jesus.

Audience Member: There is only one way to get to God and that is through Jesus.

Oprah: There couldn’t possibly be one way.

Audience Member: Why? Because YOU say there isn’t?!

Oprah: There couldn’t possibly be one way!

(Audience applaud Oprah)

Winfrey, using the powerful medium of television, expounds her views in front of live audiences and large numbers of viewers. She is the only person to have been featured in Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People. There is power in her influence and she is using this influence to promote pluralism.

In another episode a viewer skypes[7] Winfrey live on air and says, ‘After reading (the book that Winfrey plugged during her ‘Book Club’ segment) it really opened my eyes to a new way of living… one that doesn’t necessarily align itself with Christianity. So my question is, how do you, Oprah, reconcile these teachings with your Christian beliefs?’

Winfrey responds by saying –

‘I reconciled by being able to open my mind about the absolutely indescribable hugeness of that which we call God. I took God out of the box. I grew up in the Baptist church… there were rules and doctrine… I happened to be sitting in a church and this great minister was preaching about how great God was and then he said, ‘The Lord thy God is a jealous God’. Something struck me and I was thinking, God is all these things and God is jealous? God is jealous of me? And something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love… so that’s when the search for something more than doctrine stirred within me… God isn’t something to believe. God is.’

To a mature Christian this sounds like complete mumbo jumbo. But to a kid, searching for purpose in their life, the emotional words play on their minds and confuse them. Phrases like - ‘open my mind’, ‘took God out of the box’ and ‘didn’t feel right in my spirit’ – are words that talk about feelings. Pluralism is all about feelings. This is its greatest attraction and yet it’s greatest danger.

Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas touches on the idea that spirituality is a personal experience rather than an actual truth when she says –

‘I believe in a soul, and my soul’s in this body. After that I don’t think that this human mind can even fathom where the soul goes. Is it something you see, something you touch? I don’t know; I can’t really picture exactly what that is. When this life is done, that will go on. Hopefully it will be a good place, and hopefully I’ll lead a good life. I am not perfect, but I try to live a good life and to do better all the time. Hopefully that will reflect on my soul.’[8]

Oh right. Yes well that made sense. (Remove tongue from cheek.) This is characteristically a postmodern, pluralistic view of religion. ‘I think that… er… I believe that… I don’t know… Hopefully… er…’

Billy Connelly is one religious observer who has been confused by pluralism; ‘I don’t get religion. I can understand God. I can understand people having a God and believing, cause it’s a nice thing to believe that there’s a big guy up there looking after everything. It’s a kind of consolation that, somebody’s making everything nice and he knows that you’re quite a nice guy but you do awful things … right?’[9]

To me, logic suggests that I would like to follow a God who I know is true. He made the world, he saved the world, he loves the world, he exists and so I’ll follow him. That’s logical right?

Why would we want to follow a god who we’re not quite sure he exists or what his purpose is, or whether that good luck that we received today was luck or some divine intervention?

If you think about it a little bit, pluralism must make God angry. He institutes the great salvation plan of sending his only Son to earth to die an overtly painful and terrible death so that we might be granted direct access to God and heaven, and we throw it back into his face by saying, ‘You know what God, thanks for doing all that, but I’m actually going to ‘get to you’ on a different path.’

We as a society are spitting in God’s face. This is an insult. At any stage, God could’ve bailed from nailing his Son to a cross, but he didn’t so that we can have a relationship with him, and we decide we’re going to take another path.

It’s very simple; we must teach our kids that there is no other path.

Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ John 14:6

He didn’t say ‘I am a way, a truth and a life.’

Again (somewhat conveniently), the idea of pluralism is not new.

After his conversion Paul begins to travel and preach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He reaches Athens in Acts 17 and discovers that the Athenians did nothing but talk and listen to the latest ideas.[10] They were obsessed it seems, with discovering the many and varied religions or routes to ‘God’.

‘Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagas and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship, as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.’ Acts 17:22-23

The Athenians were worshipping any number of gods, covering all bases by even leaving a vacancy free for any god they may have missed. This is essentially pluralism.

What was Paul’s response to their pluralism? It was to simply preach the gospel.

‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else… for in Him we live and move and have our being.’ Acts 17:24-25, 28.

Pluralism is irrational, but the best way to approach the fight for the gospel is to develop an understanding and ability to express biblical apologetics.[11]

Sean McDowell explains it this way, ‘The apostles of Christ ministered in a pluralistic culture. They regularly reasoned with both Jews and pagans, trying to persuade them of the truth of Christianity.’

He goes on to quote Pastor Tim Keller who says, ‘Christians are saying that the rational isn’t part of evangelism. The fact is - people are rational. They do have questions. You have to answer those questions. Don’t get the impression that I think that the rational aspect takes you all the way there. But there’s too much emphasis on just the personal right now.’[12]

It doesn’t matter what you call our world; postmodern, modern or something else, people are still people.

It doesn’t matter how many talk show hosts suggest that there are many ways to reach God, there is still only one truth.

The reason why a pluralistic approach to religion is so popular is because it allows us to eat at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. We can choose what we believe and when we believe it. It connects directly to our sinful desire to be our own ruler.

The pluralists are shouting their message out loud. Christians need to shout louder because we have the truth.

GOT TIME TO READ ANOTHER CHAPTER?

We’ve taught them individualism…

‘You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.’

Dr Seuess

Even blind Freddy can see that our culture is one of individualism.

Next time you’re willing to hand over your hard-earned for a McDonalds feast during lunchtime at peak hour in a busy restaurant, try this experiment.

1. Choose a line to stand in, but leave a little bit of room between you and the person in front of you.
2. Then dawdle your way to the front. Don’t push, don’t shove, just move in your own time.
3. Count the number of people who push in, shove or get frustrated.

The people are hungry and the quicker they can get to the front of the line, the quicker they can fill their guts with processed food that takes a fortnight to digest, the quicker they can get back to their meaningless life.

For some reason, every McDonalds is the same. They have three or four registers open, but there are never three of four straight lines. There is always only one fat[13] line where no one really knows who is supposed to be served next.

When hungry consumers arrive at McDonald’s they stand behind the part of the line that they think is the shortest or the quickest. Inevitably, the person at the front of that line has just ordered lunch for twenty friends, so they very carefully start to manoeuvre their body into a position that cuts them into the line next to you. For some strange reason, the register operator never looks up to the next person in the line when they are ready to serve, but rather calls out, ‘Who’s next?’

This then creates confusion because nobody really knows whether they are calling out for the person who was next in that particular line, or who’s been waiting the longest from any of the lines. And so, the person who gets served is usually the one who has the loudest voice and quickest reflexes, ‘I’m next. Can I please have a…’

Unconfirmed deaths have occurred in McDonald’s restaurants all around the world as people express their individualism viciously throughout the entirety of this desperate dance with fate, known as ‘ordering lunch’.

In the 21st century people have become communities of one. We no longer develop friendships with our neighbours, we haven’t got time to stop and chat with a friendly shop assistant and when we do get a spare moment to ourselves we are so exhausted that all we want to do is sleep. Right after we’ve checked our emails.

Sure we have relationships, but more often they are cyber friends. Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have eliminated the need for us to set aside time in our week to meet with friends at a coffee shop, park or favourite picnic spot. We can catch up with 436 friends at once when we read: ‘What’s on your mind’ at regular intervals throughout the day on our Facebook homepages.

We spend more time taking photos so that we can post them online then we actually do making memories that will stick in our minds. And when we find out that one of our 436 friends has invited someone else out for coffee all we need to do is delete them from our friend list and they won’t even know.

I remember taking a study lesson during exam block one term. The class was a bit fidgety for the first ten minutes before one brave soul put her hand up and asked, ‘Can we study with our iPods on please?’

I nodded and over 20 students stopped what they were doing and pulled out the music devices. I was gobsmacked. Luckily they didn’t notice that my chin had dropped to the floor in amazement. These devices cost up to $600, and almost the entire class had one of them in their pocket.

I replaced my chin and continued working.

After the first study session I sent the students out for a drink. Two girls remained in the classroom, sharing a set of headphones. I wandered over to them to ask what music they were listening to. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What music are you listening to girls?

Girl 1: We’re not listening to music.

Me: What are you doing?

Girl 2: Watching a movie.

Me: Fthudfph (that’s the sound of my chin hitting the ground, again).

Two of the most intelligent and diligent students in that class had just spent fifty minutes of a study session watching a movie on a device that fitted easily into a pocket.

Now I’m not completely ignorant about the technology that kids are using these days, but I was absolutely taken back by this development.

I’ll speak more about technology in chapter 8. It’s the individualism aspect of technology that I want to consider here.

When the kids get a spare moment, like a flash of lightning, their listening and viewing devices are in their ears. And as each week goes on, the percentage of students owning these devices multiplies.

Now I’m not the smartest bloke around but I have made a couple of significant observations.

1. You cannot build a relationship with someone when you can’t hear what they are saying because you have headphones in.
2. You cannot build a relationship with someone when you are more attracted to listening to music or watching movies.

How did I go? Pretty intelligent observations right?

No. They are blinking obvious. I don’t understand how come our kids don’t realize that the reason they don’t have any friends is because they are too busy making love to their musical devices. This fact alone should be causing us concern. If our kids grow up as individuals who have been taught to look after people in the following order…

1. Me
2. Myself
3. I
4. Hmmm…
5. I suppose I’d better look after others too

… then we are stuffed.

As Christians we must be fighting the battle against our kids’ individual inclinations. We must find ways to encourage, and even insist, that they learn to look out for others.

Biblically, this command came straight out of Jesus’ mouth. Mark 12:29-31 reads, ‘The most important [command],’ Jesus answered, ‘is this: …Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second one is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

Here is Jesus’ command to be the opposite of individualistic. The context of these verses is important. The teachers of the law were trying to trick Jesus by asking, ‘Which of the commandments is most important?’ (12:28) They wanted an Old Testament answer, but Jesus gave them a New Testament one instead. The entire Jewish law book was re-written in just a few verses. Jesus wants us to live our lives firstly in relationship with him, and secondly in a way that puts other people first.

There are so many logical reasons as to why putting other people first is so important. In the 21st century, an age of mass media and materialism, there are two enormous reasons why which I’ll outline here.

Married to Their Jobs

If we’re not careful, then our kids are going to grow up requiring more dollars than ever to pay for their individualistic lives. This is going to require that they work harder than ever. Only a small percentage of them will get jobs that pay well for reasonable labour time. The high majority will need to hold down two or three jobs, or work long hours to gain promotions and bonuses, thus becoming married to their jobs.

‘In the twentieth century men and women sloughed off many traditional social and religious values as their belief in human temporal power grew. The world changed from one ordered for us by others to one we can manage and shape. Today many people in the West have high expectations about their rights to be happy and fulfilled and to invent themselves.’[14]

When we become married to our jobs we lose perspective on things like; child-raising, rest, purpose in life and spirituality. This is extremely dangerous and will spiral even further out of control as the next generation follows in the footsteps of their Generation Z parents.

This is not following Jesus’ command in Mark 12. We must be willing to teach Generation Z that by putting themselves last they are able to make far more responsible decisions regarding finances and future. When you put others first, and place less emphasis on your financial gains and material possessions, you become more satisfied with your life. We must be showing this by example, and via creative and relational teaching.

The Pornography Industry

The pornography industry is an industry that thrives on individualism. I dare not search for statistics online; however you can be sure that the monetary value of the pornography industry would be high enough to feed the entire third world for a substantial period of time.

The pornography industry wants nothing more than for our kids to start thinking; ‘I deserve pleasure. I deserve to be happy. And I can take whatever measures I like to ensure that I get what I want.’

Pornography is an activity that predominantly takes place on our own as we justify the means for the gain.

From teenagers who want to experiment on their own sexually, through to married men (or women…) who are unsatisfied with their sexual experiences, pornography becomes easily justified when individualism is promoted.

In our ‘sex sells’ world, the pornography industry is licking its lips as our kids are becoming less able to think for themselves and more able to hack through internet filters.

But the main issue behind the market of pornography is individualism. If we were to think; ‘I’ll put my future wife/husband, current girlfriend/boyfriend etc first, and ditch the porn…’ we’d be a much healthier society.

But we’re not. And we are teaching out kids to think that ‘I can do whatever I want whenever I want.’

Individualism is promoted in our postmodern world. Our kids are manipulated into thinking it is ok to look after number 1.

We’ve got to teach against this. And we’ve got to do this with urgency.

[1] Episode of Oprah on March 17, 2008
[2] From the Centre for Parent/Youth Understanding (www.cpyu.org)
[3] In Youth Culture 101 p 58
[4] Christian Smith with Melinda Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual lives on American Teenagers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p41 In Youth Culture 101.
[5] In case you missed the point here, this verse has been taken out of context. Jeremiah 29:11 has NOTHING to do with scoring a new iPod. It needs to be read in context to gain true understanding.
[6] Again; a verse out of context! The ‘Christianity’ that our kids are attracted to is one that keeps the warm and fuzzy bits of the Bible, but ditches the difficult ones!
[7] …or talks to Winfrey via the internet.
[8] www.thunderstuck.org/viewed 4/6/06

[9] Billy Connelly in Enough rope with Andrew Denton, ABC TV, 20/2/06
[10] Acts 17:21
[11] Apologetics = being able to give a rationale for believing in God; defending the gospel.
[12] Susan Wunderlink, ‘Tim Keller Reasons with America,’ Christianity Today, June 2008, 39.
[13] I’m talking about the size of the line, not the size of the people in the line…
[14] Helen Trinca an dcatherine Fox, Better then sex – how a whole generation got hooked on work, Random House (Sydney, 2004) p 43.

The kids are living in a postmodern world

2009-06-02T19:21:00.000-07:00
‘We can’t just be satisfied with resolving to give clear, biblical answers to the questions people have; we also have to be showing people the questions they ought to be asking.’
Gavin Perkins[1]

The sun is hot. Giraffes look weird. Babies cry too much. Reading is important. If you drive your car into another car you should pay for it. Right?

Wrong. Truth is truth, only if you decide that it is. This is the world we live in. It’s called postmodernism.

Theorists and psychologists and thinkers have written volumes of journals and articles considering the implications of post modernity. The kids however, probably don’t even know what you’re talking about - ‘Post-mo-what!?’

That’s ok. The kids don’t need to know what they’re talking about. But one thing is for sure, they will certainly be affected by it.

The globalisation of the world, advanced by the development of the internet and modern communications, has ensured that all across the world the idea of postmodernism is picking up pace.

Here’s a quick history lesson. The world our grandparents grew up in was steeped in modernism; this is a worldview that began in the 18th century, the time of the scientific revolution.

The basic gist of modernity was that the disciplines of science and reason could lead humanity to truth. There was truth out there, and logical experimentation would reveal it. Ultimately modernists believed that all the problems of the world (war, famine, pollution, disease etc) could be solved through science and reason. Although modernists were quicker to put their faith in human intelligence and reason than they were to put their faith in God, at least there was a general understanding that objective truth and morality could be found.

It wasn’t until around the 1960’s that this worldview morphed into what we now call postmodernism. Postmodern was, first and foremost, an art fad. Artists were encouraged, and encouraging others to bend the rules and push the boundaries to create art that challenged the popular idea of truth. Jazz music for example, is essentially built on a musician’s ability to create music that defied standard technique and elements. The ‘arts’ opened the door to postmodernism and many other aspects of life followed closely behind. All of a sudden, people were bending the rules and pushing the boundaries in ethics, religion, communication and morality.

The postmodern way of thinking allowed people to discover and invent their own truth. Gene Veith states in his book, Postmodern Times, ‘The only wrong idea is to believe in truth; the only sin is to believe in sin’.[2]

Modernity was a time where artwork was what it was. A yellow and black giraffe painted onto a canvas was exactly that; a yellow and black giraffe. Towards the business end of the 20th century though, artists decided that they could put anything they wanted onto any artistic medium they like and call it what they want, all in the name of art. And people embraced it…

Now don’t get me wrong; postmodernism has reinvented the ‘arts’ in a positive way; more than anyone will really realise. It’s not the ‘art’ that I’m concerned about. Rather, it’s the notion that bending the truth in ‘art’ encourages us to bend the truth in ‘life’.

This idea that something is only something if you say it’s something has caught on in other areas of life.

Laws only need to be followed when it suits us and when we believe it’s appropriate, we say.

Domestic violence is only violence when someone lodges a complaint, we say.

Murder is murder, unless it’s self-defence, we say.

The institution of marriage is to be upheld when and where it is reasonable to our situation, we say.

Essentially what postmodernism does is skew every single thought process we’ve ever had. It questions every single thing we thought was right, and gives us a possible outlet to do whatever we want, whenever we want, as long as we’ve thought through the consequences and justified our actions to a degree that we’re satisfied with.

This is the world that our kids are now living in.

Ironically though, postmodernists still follow ‘truths’ all the time. They eat healthy food because they know that the truth is that they’ll die of a heart attack if they eat junk food all the time. They shower daily because they know that the truth is that they’ll stink if they don’t. ‘Postmodernism’ can be a way of life and a philosophical world view if you choose it to be. Or it can simply be a word that defines that way that a number of people choose to live – lives devoid of morality and centred on self.

One person who doesn’t accept that truth is in the eye of the beholder is Dr Phil. Dr Phil, born Phil McGraw, has the second most watched show in the United States of America and earns a reported $38 million a year, telling people the truth.[3]

Dr Phil began his career on Oprah, but moved on to his own show, called Dr Phil. He now makes a living telling people the blatantly obvious.

‘We live in a world of spin,’ he says. ‘The media spin things. Politicians. Our leaders in all categories of life. But I’m a strong believer that people know truth when they hear it. So I tell the people the truth as I see it. I’ve grown up in a very reality-based world…’[4]

Dr Phil has shown millions of people around the world, that problems can be solved when someone has the guts to point out the facts and tell the truth.[5]

We can either choose to accept that things are the way they are, and nothing we can do will help our kids from being sucked into the innocuous vacuum of postmodernism truthlessness, or we can contend[6] for the truth.

Mark Driscoll, a popular missiologists says this about contending for the truth in our postmodern world, ‘Not only must God’s people personally believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they also must publicly contend for it. This is because the gospel is under continual attack by Satan, the ‘father of lies,’ and a seemingly endless army of false teachers…’[7]

The apostle Paul and his verbal sparring partner Peter rarely minced words as they contended for the gospel throughout Acts and the letters of the New Testament. Almost all the apostolic letters in the New Testament contain words that plead with the readers to beware false teachers, or ‘truth-benders’.

Driscoll puts Paul and Peter’s warnings about false teachers this way [8] -

‘The false teachers of Biblical times are called, dogs and evildoers[9], products of a shipwrecked faith[10], demonic liars with seared consciences[11], peddlers of silly myths[12], the spiritual equivalent of gangrene[13], chatty deceivers[14], destructive blasphemers[15] and antichrists[16]’.

Paul and Peter are not holding back. They were not willing to sit back while false teachers infiltrated the churches they had invested so much time and love into. They were not happy to just sit back and watch what was going on, rather they were knee deep in truth-contending. The way that Peter and Paul describe the false teachers of the New Testament would seem narrow-minded and intolerant in their culture, but they knew for certain that truth was truth and it was worth fighting for.

Nothing’s changed. We cannot let our kids go without a fight. We must seek to understand more about our culture and the strategies that it uses in seeking to steal our kids away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must then fight for it like our life depends on it.

[1] Gavin Perkins in The Briefing May 2009. Issue 368. Matthias Media.
[2] Gene Edward Veith Jr., Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 196.
[3] The Sunday Mail, ‘The doctor will see you now’, May 24, p 62.
[4] See footnote 9.
[5] Although I often disagree with Dr Phil, at least he has the guts to stand up and call a spade a spade, or domestic violence, domestic violence (if you know what I mean…).
[6] Or ‘fight’ for the truth.
[7] In The Supremacy of Christ, p133
[8] In the Supremacy of Christ p133
[9] Phil 3:2
[10] 1 Tim 1:19
[11] 1 Tim 4:1-2
[12] 1 Tim 4:7
[13] 2 Tim 2:14-18
[14] Titus 1:10-14
[15] 2 Peter 2:1-3
[16] 1 John 2:18

My First Chapter or Two...

2009-05-10T19:28:00.000-07:00
I'm writing a 'book' called:

Reaching the Kids
Shoving the Gospel down Gen Z's Throats.

Here's my first draft of my first two chapters. (And so you know where the 'book' is heading, I've also included the CONTENTS page immediately below.)

Tell me what you think!

CONTENTS PAGE:

What’s in this book?

1. My story.
2. Times haven’t changed!
3. The kids are living in a postmodern world…
4. …pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God.
5. We’ve taught them individualism…
6. … and manipulated youth culture for our own gain.
7. We have created a materialistic generation…
8. …who have too much time and too much technology.
9. These commercially brainwashed kids…
10. …are encouraged to pursue hyper reality.
11. I CANT UNDRSTND THEM…
12. …but I can still engage them; right?

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the singular most powerful and amazing event that has occurred at any stage in the history of mankind beside the initial creation of the world. In fact without it, there is no purpose and no truth to life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to our greatest problem; our individual yet universal rejection of God. Yet for some reason, the culture that we are currently working overtime to create is turning into something resembling a first year Psychology tutorial class. Everyone is searching for truth and almost everybody has an opinion on what it is.

The problem is of course, that opinions are like bellybuttons. Everyone has one and their pretty much useless.

Throw into this calamitous casserole the amount of technology that our kids are using on a daily basis and we have a recipe for disaster. The kids are disengaged. The fact that they’re disengaged from school is no big problem. The size of your brain has never been a prerequisite for any religious afterlife proposal.

The problem is however, that when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the kids are either completely confused or just not interested.

Here is why. And here’s what we can do about it.

CHAPTER 1.

My Story

‘After two years, I began to think.’
Josh Mansfield

I hated university, so it makes sense that I was excited when I received my first real job. I had spent four years at university being given explicit teaching on how to do just that; teach. I was now a teacher. And not only that, but I was a teacher of kids who were now officially known as Generation Z[1]. I had always thought that, even though I was anti-rebellious growing up, I was hip enough to engage kids in almost any topic I was asked to teach. And so I was even more excited when I was told that I would be teaching Biblical Studies to 13 and 14 year olds in a reputable Christian college. I was officially in full-time ministry and getting paid a decent wage.

I still remember my first lesson. I walked into a class of 28 fourteen year olds and asked them to freeze frame a favourite moment in time from their recent school holidays. Not the world’s greatest and most creative lesson, but I was young and hip and surely this was going to be enough to engage these kids so that I might be able to teach them a glorious truth about the wonderful news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I was wrong. The activity was a disaster. They thought that because I was ‘hip’ that they didn’t actually have to do what I asked. I had no backup plan and so inevitably, I stumbled through not just this particular lesson, but each and every lesson for the remainder of the year.

I began to do some thinking. I started to wonder how many of the kids that I was teaching in Biblical Studies in a Christian school were actually Christian. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways I began to find out. My conclusions went something like this.

In a typical class of 30, nearly all of the students, when pressed, would say that they were Christian, but only a handful would actually know what it is to be a Christian and were living in a real relationship with God.

(Ok; so my research doesn’t compare to ABS[2] or other fancy pants organisations, but at least it was cheap.)

The kids that I taught over the next two and a half years were proactively destroying my Bible lessons and ensuring that nobody heard, let alone understood, the gospel. It was disheartening.
After two years I decided to do some more thinking. It didn’t make sense. Why was I having so much trouble teaching the gospel? I was as creative as possible. I put in nearly as much effort as I should’ve. I bargained with the students. I pleaded with the kids. I worked hard on building a relationship with them.

Then I realised, the reason that I was having so much trouble was that I was teaching them like I wanted to be taught. We were two different generations (still are come to think of it…), and I was attempting to engage them in ways that I was able to be engaged.

I talked a lot. I gave lectures. I handed out worksheets. I put them in seating plans. My general rule of thumb was ‘Don’t stop talking, because then they’ll start talking.’ I wanted to be in complete control, because that’s how I liked my teachers.

I had forgotten that these kids are different to me. And then, as I read a little bit further and thought a little bit harder, I realised just how different they are.

These kids are living in a postmodern world and are pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God. We’ve taught them individualism and manipulated youth culture for our own gain. We have created a materialistic generation who have too much time and too much technology. These commercially brainwashed kids are encouraged to pursue hyper reality. And we can’t understand their language.[3]

But I can still engage them right?

We can still engage them right?

Yes we can.

CHAPTER 2.
Times Haven’t Changed

‘If history has taught us anything, it’s that every generation’s favourite topic is themselves.’
Shaun Micallef

I was sitting next to a 9-year-old student one Friday afternoon. He was frantically texting on his mobile phone. I watched him for a moment and then we had an incredible conversation that went something like this.

Me: How come you need a mobile phone mate?

Kid: In case my parents need to contact me.

Me: Oh. But the school has plenty of phones. Don’t they know the school’s phone number?

Kid: Yeah. But it’s… ah… in case I need to call them.

Me: Aren’t students allowed to use the school phones?

Kid: Yeah. But it’s… ah…

Sure it wasn’t a scintillating conversation but nonetheless, it got me thinking, again.
Apart from the fact that they have arms and legs like me, the kids these days are almost unrecognisable. They know more about computers than they do about their family. They speak in a completely different language. FYI ROFL CU L8R apparently makes sense bro. They have more money than I do, and they just can’t sit still.

The times are changing, and with this change comes confusion. Society’s adults are trying to raise society’s kids, but at times it feels like we’re not even on the same planet. Unless you know who Flo Rida is, twitter regularly, wear skinny’s and flat hats and watch Chop Socky Chooks, you’re in trouble.

What they wear and what they watch, while important, is not as important as who they are listening to and what they believe. Their eternal destiny is at stake while on this planet and during this lifetime. False teachers abound and hollow and deceptive philosophy is on every billboard. Surely, we have hit a spiritual crisis like no other in the history of mankind. At no other point in history has the search for truth been such a battle, right?

Speaking of truth; we couldn’t be further from it. The battle for truth coincides with our entire chronological history. All throughout history generations have been influencing the popular culture view of spirituality, and the gospel. From the Greek philosophers who decided to do more thinking and less living, to the Reformation where Luther risked his own life by nailing his theses to the door of the very institution that was creating an anti-Christ culture; throughout our history books there are examples of eras where the search for truth was difficult.

This is a reflection of our sinful nature. Sin is first a foremost the rebellion against and rejection of God. Or in other words, a rebellion against and rejection of truth. Just because we say that God doesn’t exist, or that there are other ways to achieve happiness, doesn’t make God any less real.[4] You see, this is the false doctrine that is bandied across university Psychology courses and is filtering down to our kids through all sorts of mediums (both old and new). We are saying that truth is only truth if I want it to be.[5] Truth is only truth if I, in my selfish and sinful nature, say that it is. This is a load of horse manure.

Conveniently for us, this societal rejection of the truth of the gospel even goes back as far as the Bible.

Our apostolic hero Paul writes to the church in Colosse in the book we know as Colossians. He sits them down, and with tears in his eyes he recalls how much he loves them (1:3-14), reminds them of the supremacy of Christ (1:15-23) and then chastises them lovingly for being taken ‘captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy’ (2:8).

Have another look at the way Paul goes about this. Paul reminds them of the fact that he has earned their relationship (1:3-14); therefore he has earned the right to speak to them about the things they are struggling with. He reminds them of the ultimate truth (1:15-23) and then he tells them to steer away from deceptive philosophy (2:8).

Ultimately, the gospel stays the same. God, his supremacy, his story and his sacrifice will never change. Because this is the case Paul continues, it’s time to lift our eyes. Stop looking into the philosophies of the culture in question and start looking at God’s priorities.

Colossians 3:1, ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’[6]

The issue of falling captive to false teaching occurs over and over in the New Testament. Paul encourages the Corinthians by saying, ‘For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think that I am in the least inferior to those ‘super apostles.’ I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.’ (2 Corinthians 11:4-6)

The church in Galatia is in similar strife: ‘Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.’ (Galatians 1:7)

The biggest issue that Paul seems to face is that of his constituents deciding that the gospel of Jesus Christ wasn’t good enough. That it needed editing. It needed a touch of sugar and a dash of salt. The early church was listening to false teachers as they preached a different gospel to the one Paul preached. A gospel that looked and tasted good, but that doesn’t lead to Christ.
At no stage does Paul freak out and give up. He simply and patiently refers his beloved churches back to the supremacy of God and the truth of the gospel.

‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities; all things were created by him and for him…

… Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…

… This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.’ (Colossians 1:15-16, 21-22, 23)

Perhaps the only difference in the 21st century is that our gospel modification is subtler. A billboard suggesting that a brand new house is ‘The only dream you’ll ever need’, may seem harmless enough, but it challenges our view of happiness and modifies our view of life purpose. A celebrity calling for tolerance of all religions de-sensitizes our Christian worldview and offends the core event of the gospel; the death and resurrection. It’s dangerous. And it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The gospel is a timeless truth. Crossing cultures and breaking barriers, the one thing that you can know for sure is that the Creator of the world wants a personal relationship with all his creation.

[1] wikipedia.com suggest that ‘Generation Z is the generation of people living in Western or First World cultures that follows Generation Y. Experts differ on when the earliest members of Generation Z were born, ranging from 1990 to 2001.’
[2] The Australian Beaurau of Statistics is an organisation that collects and reports on data. You really should’ve known that…
[3] Pretty cool paragraph hey…
[4] Just because someone says that the tree over there doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Truth is truth is truth…
[5] More on this in chapter 3… So as they say; read on!
[6] Emphasis mine

Teaching Memory Verses

2009-04-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

Teaching memory verses is something that I think is important.

One of the most interesting tests to set yourself is to find a friend and have a memory verse-off with them. You say a memory verse then they say one and so on...

I've been teaching memory verses to full grown adults this week and apart from being fun it's allowed myself, and others to brainstorm great ways to teach memory verses.

There are three rules to follow when teaching memory verses.

1. The teaching must be engaging and preferably be fun!
2. You must repeat the memory verse at least six times.
3. You must explain the memory verse; don't just leave it hanging. No point knowing something without knowing what it means!

Here are some of the best that we've come up with.

1. Memory Verse on my Washing

Pull out six or seven items of clothing that have 'magically' appeared out of the washing machine with part of the memory verse written on them. Put them in order and 'hey presto' you have a memory verse.

2. Tennis Ball Game

Two teams of three. (Boys V Girls works nicely.) Two people get a tennis ball and one person is the 'hoop' from each team. The players throw the ball into the hoop and if it goes in, they get a piece of the memory verse. Put them in order and 'Bob's your Uncle', you have a memory verse.

3. Toilet Paper Memory Verse

Write the memory verse on a roll of toilet paper. Roll it back up and unroll it in front of your audience. Just be careful that it doesn't rip! You'll need to put it on powerpoint or a poster to practice it afterwards.

4. Lick it Up!

Write the memory verse on paper plates. Cover the plates in Nutella and have the players lick until the find the words. Put them all together and 'hey hey' you have a memory verse. (Note: Can't do this with contestants who have nut allergies.)

5. Email it

(Will only work in some contexts) Email your 'class or subjects' a word that they must print out and bring to the lesson. Put the words in order and 'voila' you have a memory verse.

6. Order it

Put the memory verse on one side of card, and a picture of something else on the back that can be ordered (like numbers, months etc) Put the cards in order. Then turn the cards around and 'ba-da-bing, ba-da-boong' you have a memory verse.

7. Sing it

Put the memory verse to the tune of a really silly song (I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts etc).

8. Ice Magic

Write the memory verse of laminated card. Freeze it in a bucket of water. Then the 'kids' have to back the ice off the memory verse and hold it up. Put them together and 'whatdoyaknow' it's a memory verse.

9. Silly Actions

Take a simple memory verse and put silly actions to it so that not only does everything feel 'goofy', but they learn a valuable verse.

10. Balloon Man

Put the memory verse into balloons. Take the six or seven balloons and safety pin them to a shirt. Then the shirt is put into the contestants (two or more) and the contestants need to roll around on the floor trying to pop the balloons and take the memory verse pieces out. Put them together and 'drumroll' you have a memory verse.

(11. Hangman

This is the standard memory verse learner which is quick, easy, but potentially boring and dull. However, if you do it with energy you can pull it off. Put the memory verse in standard hangman format and go your hardest.)

There you go; now blog away and add to these ideas. I think these ones are really great and cover a lot of contexts, but I'm convinced we can think of more. When we come up with some goodies, I'll type them up and post them out (either online or unonline).

(BTW: The credit for the above list must go to Serena, Jocelyn, Matt T, and John. )

Josh

The Wandering Trolley

2009-04-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough today to park next to a trolley return bay at the shops. Subsequently I returned my trolley and actually felt quite good about it; not arrogant, or snobbish, but warm and fuzzy. It got me thinking... (See what having your own blog makes you do!)

I very rarely hand my trolley back into the trolley return bay. Why? Because I don't feel that I have to. Let's take a closer look at this process. There are three sections to this process; borrowing a trolley, returning the trolley, and complications. Let me explain.

1. Borrowing a trolley

When you shop in a major shopping chain, you are usually presented with the privilege of borrowing a trolley in which you can place the items you wish to purchase. This is usually a privilege that goes un-thanked. Have you ever thanked the check out operator for letting you use one of the trolleys that supermarket chain has purchased? No of course you haven't. (Although, this could be a fun thing to do next shopping trip.)

If you didn't have a trolley, you wouldn't be able to shop in relative comfort and in fact you would be faced with the very real dilemma of not being able to purchase everything that you want. This is a negative reality for both the company and the consumer.

a) Company - if you cannot fill a trolley, you cannot purchase a trolley's worth of stuff. The trolley well and truly pays for itself in a very short period of time.

b) Consumer - if you can only purchase what you can fit in your arms or in a self-purchased trolley you will either have less money in your pocket, or less time in your day (have to visit the shops more regularly).

So the company cannot say, 'It's the consumer who demands the trolley,' and the consumer cannot say, 'The company is responsible for providing trolleys'.

2. Returning the trolley

When you arrive back at your car and empty the contents of your trolley you are then faced with the decision of returning your trolley... 'To return, or not to return.'

As far as I'm concerned you have a responsibility to return your trolley if you:

a) are parked next to a trolley bay;
b) don't have kids and are parked a short distance to a trolley bay (20 metres);
c) cannot place the trolley anywhere where it won't run into another car.

3. Complications

The major complication in this morality-buster is that of the trolley boys. Obviously the major shopping centres have realized that people were not doing the 'right thing' and putting their trolley in the returning stations and have hired people to do just this. They obviously have money to spare and feel that this is a service they can provide to the consumer to keep them coming back.

Therefore if we leave our trolleys in our car space (or nearby); knowing with comfort that it's keeping the trolley boys in business (and fit), and fulfilling the management's desire to keep you returning, then technically you are doing the right thing.

But then I remember that Jesus tells us to go the extra mile.

Whether that includes those extra metres to drop the trolley in the trolley bay... well I suppose it does.

Josh

My Blog-osophy

2009-04-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

So it appears that although each blogger is their own entity and follows their own set of rationalised blogging etiquette, there is some blogging etiquette that appears universal. However, this exact etiquette is harder to pin down than a decent Australian spin bowler; I believe it is more of a blog philosophy. A 'blogosophy' if you like.

PC Advisor lays it's blogosophy out ten-commandment-like here - http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9550

bloggingtips.com says, 'Unless you have permission, it’s never OK to post someone else’s words on your own blog. '

So of course; I had to post their words here.

... and I'm sure that the fact that GOOGLE is a larger world than the one that exists between Venus and Mars, means that you could probably find a gazillion blogosophies, none of which, and yet, all of which are helpful.

So I decided to create my own blogosophy. Or perhaps, it created itself regardless of a decision on my part. Either way.

Blog, short for web log, is individualistic. This means, that you can do whatever the heck you want to do on your blog. If you are a post-modern twat, and believe in the notion that something is right as long as you believe it's right, then you can write and post whatever the heck you want on your blog and if anyone finds it offensive at least you can justify yourself to yourself...

However, if you have a set of values and morals that coincide with the general cultural idea, then you have a responsibility to make sure that 'whatever the heck' you post, coincides with this.

I think however that there's more to it than that.

Living as a Christian means being in the world, yet not of the world. Therefore blogging is a great ministry tool. People are more and more turning to internet-onal communication and being able to entice a group of followers to participate in your blog, may just be one part of the process of leading someone to Christ.

In that sense; a blogosophy becomes crucial. As I blog, and as I read, I'm sure I'll come up with aspects of my blogosophy that are different to that of Joe Normal, and when I do...

I'll be sure to let you know.

I've just got to figure out how to entice a group of followers...

Josh.

My Blog Experiment

2009-04-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

I've always thought I was intelligent.

That is until I got to thinking about it. Then I changed my mind.

Here are the reasons why -

Firstly, I constantly find myself second guessing myself. Secondly, I taught high school Mathematics for two years and still don't understand ratios and fractions (let alone algebra - though who understands algebra!). And thirdly, why is it that when someone wants to know the reason for the hope that I have, I stumble around like an old lady in a dark attic?

And then, just when I was about to accept that fact that I was indeed, unintelligent; I realized that there is still some hope. A light, whether by destiny or coincidence, is still shining at the end of the intelligence tunnel.

You see, I recalled the fact that I now teach high school English. Now, I'm not saying that because I am an 'English teacher' that this makes me smart. No. I'm saying that the fact that I'm still an English teacher, even though I'm not exactly sure what an adjectival clause is, (even though I may or may not have just used it), makes me smart. Does that make sense?

Because if it doesn't, then I'm back to square one.

But regardless of the fact that I'm not sure whether I'm intelligent or not; I realized that a blog is a great way for me to test my intelligence theory. It's simple; I write some stuff, and anyone who bothers reading it, can tell me whether I'm right, wrong or just plain stupid.

And anyway, even if nobody ever reads anything I write, at least no one will be able to tell me that I am, after all, as slow as dial-up internet.

Enjoy my blog experiment.

Josh