'Imam and pastor unite for message of peace, tolerance'

Imam Muhammed Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye are visiting Melbourne from Nigeria, to share about how they used to be militia leaders who wanted to kill each other, and are now close friends.

Pastor James Wuye lost most of his right forearm to a machete attack, and Imam Muhammed Ashafa lost family and a spiritual adviser before they met and to their surprise discovered common ground and eventually trust.
Their journey sparked the establishment of a body called the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Centre in the religiously divided city of Kaduna in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
However, even the name became contentious, as Pastor Wuye recalls: "Some Christians objected that we had the Muslim name first. I told them the order did not matter."
Eventually the organisation reached out to a growing Nigerian Jewish population, as well as people of traditional animist beliefs, and evolved into the Interfaith Mediation Centre.

Read the Age article here.
(There is a documentary film about Imam Muhammed Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, called The Imam and the Pastor.

The rest of the Sydney trip

Been back from Sydney for just over a week now, but haven't blogged about the rest of the trip. I've been a bit distracted. (Mehrin and I are going out!)
Anthony Venn-Brown (founder of of Youth Alive, now a gay ambassador) came and spoke to us at Hope Street's centre in Darlinghurst (where 35% of people are gay) came and shared his experience of being a gay man in the church. One thing he said that impacted us a lot was that Christians think the GLBT community are conspiring against the church, trying to undermine Christian values and trying to make it harder for Christians to practice their faith in our society. Anthony said that the GLBT community has pretty much the same suspicions about the church, and that both groups need to be in dialogue, so that they can realise they're not out to get each other.
Took these pictures one night when me and Dave went for a walk around the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay:

And these are pieces of a puzzle I found that had been dropped in the street in Glebe:

Closed church and open church

(This is something I'm talking about tomorrow at our Discussion and Discernment Day, and I'm writing it up as a blog post to make sure I know what I'm talking about.)
We often think of the church as a group where it's very clear who belongs and who doesn't belong. There's a clear distinction between those who are God's people and those who aren't.

The people who are in are believed to be marked by particular characteristics and behaviours such as attending church services, speaking politely and believing particular doctrines.
Is there anything wrong with that? I'll tell a story to explain why there might be some problems.
There's a guy who's possessed by demons, and rather than try to help him, his neighbours chain him up. Jesus comes along and frees him from the demons, and the people get upset - as though they would have preferred for the man to stay possessed. Naturally, he wants to leave the place and follow Jesus. But Jesus tells him to stay there and tell his neighbours about what happened. (That story is from here.)
So this guy might believe that anyone who follows Jesus is going to stay in their own town, and that anyone who leaves their town to follow Jesus isn't a true follower. So those who stay home are in; those who go are out.

One day another person turns up in his town, claiming to be a follower of Jesus. However, he says he didn't want to leave his town to follow Jesus (he wanted to stay and look after his family) was told by Jesus that he had to leave his home. (That happens here.) He might think that anyone who stays in their own town couldn't be a follower of Jesus.

So both of these people are going to think that the other is obviously not a follower of Jesus, even though they're both doing what Jesus asked them to do.
What if instead of looking at it as though some people are in and some are out, these two people looked at it as whether they were each moving closer to Jesus? Maybe they're both following Jesus, and growing more like Jesus, but they're doing the opposite thing to each other because they're coming from different directions?

This would explain why it might be good to tell poor people in Los Angeles that God wants them to be prosperous, but it might draw rich Melbournians away from Jesus. Although in a sense they'd be travelling in the same direction, they have different starting points.

In this kind of model, people are considered to be part of Jesus' church if they are moving closer to Jesus (becoming more like him), rather than if they fit various criteria.

No matter how far away from Jesus someone is, if they begin to move closer to him, the boundary extends to include them.

The first model, with its precise boundary, is like a farm that uses a fence to keep stock together. The second model is more like a farm in the desert that uses water to keep stock together. If the stock know that they need water, they'll never go too far from the water. Similarly, if people need Jesus, they will never stray to far from him.
Also, in this model, people who mightn't consider themselves to be Christians (but might still be growing closer to Jesus) might have something to offer Jesus' followers. Similarly, people might grow closer to Christ without choosing to adopt the label 'Christian'.

Sabbath

I saw this ad when I was down in St Kilda this morning, and it made me think about the Jewish and Christian idea of Sabbath:

I've written a bit about it on Advoc8, which you can read here.

Revolution in Jesusland

Just came across a blog called Revolution in Jesusland. It's being done by a guy who's trying to encourage reconciliation between secular progressives and evangelical Christians, and showing what both of these groups can learn from each other.

'The Economy of God'

Cookie (currently in Aotearoa/New Zealand)'s done a post on his blog at The Age about how the Kingdom (or economy) of God differs from our globalised economy:

Whenever church clergy in Australia speak up on issues of politics or economics, the standard response from the likes of Prime Minister John Howard is that religious leaders should stay out of politics and get back into the realm of the spiritual where they belong.
Often the message from politicians is that Christian faith is only relevant to the realm of the personal and is separate from all other aspects of society - leave politics and economics to the "experts" who understand such things.
It's a reflection of a culture that has individualised and commodified spirituality, separating the "sacred" from the "secular" and ignoring the implications of Christian faith for all of human life, particularly economics.

Read the whole thing here.

'Families not funds - time to focus on the things that matter'

There's a good article in The Age about what Father Bob reckons Christmas is about.

"Do no harm and do a bit of good," is his plea for Christmas. How do you do that? "By treating others as a facsimile of yourself."
It's stripped-down New Testament material retooled to the language of a blogger, podcaster, TV star and veteran helper of the disadvantaged.
Good can be done at ground-level, he says, by us, without needing help by religious leaders. "It's got to be trickle-up. What worries me about religion and the way she has been merchandised is that you get the impression that everything is trickle-down." Basically, he says, do it yourself. "We better get down and dirty," he says. "If you really want to make a change in the world you have to put in."

Read the whole thing here.

Father Abraham had many sons...

This morning I went to the appeal of the Islamic Council of Victoria versus Catch the Fire Ministries case. (This was the first case based on the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act 2001.) The ICV was saying that Danny Naliah and Danny Scot from Catch the Fire had been saying at a conference in 2002 that the Islamic community is trying to take over the country, that they are in control of immigration, that they are demons and that they make money from illicit drugs. They were also saying that the Q'uran promotes violence and that terrorists are true Muslims. In 2004 the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decided that they had breached the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act. Today the appeal was accepted, so the case is going to be sent back to VCAT.
I think it's really tragic that Christians and Muslims have been unable to resolve this conflict outside of court. I hope that we can find more of the things to unite us rather than divide us.

Media coverage:
'Court orders vilification retrial' - The Age
'Church race case back to tribunal' - Herald Sun

The hordes of street evangelists

I keep getting targeted by street evangelists, trying to get me to convert to their brand of Christianism: Bible-believeing, spirit-filled, faith-healing or New Testament Christianity - the list goes on. The guy this evening was trying to tell me that people aren't saved unless they speak in tongues.
Ahhh, Melbourne!

All Souls Day

Today's All Souls Day, so I've read up on it a bit. Apparently today some people pray for people that have died, to try and make sure they get into Heaven. According to some people this is heretical, and that it has pagan origins. I'm not sure it's heretical (I could be wrong), although I do think the Catholic doctorine relating to Purgatory is reasonably dodgey.
Anyway, one of the reasons I'm not sure that it's heresy is that the scriptures say Jesus 'went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.' (2 Peter 3:19-20) So perhaps prayers for the dead would influence how they respond to Jesus preaching? Anyway, I don't think it's definitely heretical. I also don't know particularly much about it.
As for the pagan origins, I think that perhaps we should better acknowledge that Christianity has had a lot of pagan influences as well as Jewish. Same sort of thing as I was talking about yesterday, about being familiar with our spiritual ancestory.

All Saints

Originally uploaded by shadowplay.

Today a lot of Western Christians observe All Saints (the Eastern Orthodox had it earlier in the year), when they remember the Christians who were around before them, particularly marytrs.
For me this is a reminder that in most Evangelical churches we don't seem to have much connection to our spiritual ancestors, and I think that's a pity. So I'd like to encourage people to find out a bit more about their spiritual ancestors, whoever they happen to be. If you do, please blog about what you find, so I can link to it.

Tomorrow's All Souls Day, so I'll probably post some thoughts about that as well.

Puritans: old, new and reluctant

Tab's posted some stuff she's been learning about the Puritans:

The Puritans are commonly seen as bigoted fundamentals and extremists, which many were, but they begin simply as devoted and radical believers who wanted to see a return to biblical traditions in the church.

Kevan linked this Observer article about the New Puritans:

A generation of young, educated and opinionated people determined to sidestep the consumerist perils of modern life. So if you own a 4x4, spend all your time shopping, or are simply overweight - watch your back. Lucy Siegle meets the moral minority aiming to mend our ways...

And Ditch Monkey (apparently he lives in a ditch) seems to be saying he actually isn't a New Puritan:

Over the past few days I have been accused of being a ‘New Puritan’...
On Thursday afternoon next week I am going to go to the airport (hopefully the right one this time), from there I am going to fly to Barbados, once there I am going to go surfing, get drunk, chase girls, dance like an idiot, eat too much, hire a motorbike...

'I’ve lost it…'

Lexi's written a good post about the mystery and beauty of faith:

Sometimes I wish I were a witch, or a wiccan like my sister so I’d have lovely stories of mystery and beauty of nature - sacred rituals in the small clearing of the wood - describing the underside of a sparrow’s wing - believing in the earth, her cycles, the seasons and the winds.

Read the whole post here.

Northern Lights

(a.k.a. The Golden Compass)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
(Genesis 3:19)

Just finished reading Northern Lights a couple of hours ago. It's set in a parallel universe that has a lot in common with ours. In this world the Christian church is still very powerful, and it doesn't seem like there has been a Reformation.
The book is largely concerned with the discovery of elementary particles called Dust, which are attracted to people. The church believes Dust is the cause of original sin and, ironically, is conduting cruel experiments on children to try and work out how Dust (and sin) might be destroyed.

Apparently some Christian groups have been upset by this book and the rest of the trilogy. I think it's still pretty under the radar though. There'll probably be more of a fuss when the film comes out.
It seems to me more that Philip Pullman's bothered by the church's stumblings into dogmatism and hypocracy than by the Christ himself. I'll see what I think once I've finished the trilogy.

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism

Noticed this at BoingBoing a little while back. Noticed it again just before at Signposts.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
(Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster)

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (or Pastafarianism) is a religious parody created by people as a protest against having intelligent design taught in American schools.
When will we Christians learn that forcing our beliefs on other people just makes them angry? WWFSMD?

'too much magic not enough art?'

DJ Haggis from wee beautiful pict has written a response to Darren Wright's podcasting whinge. Both are worth a read.
Haggis says:

Where the tiny few who bought the performing/copyrights to christianity and church - are we now drowning in an ocean of crap music, digital art, blogs, podcasts, videoblogs... amazing gifts given by Christ to a world he adores- end up becoming thin attenuated ghosts of what they could be - too much magic not enough art? too much greed for power not enough thirst for real relationship?

Exodus

The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him [King Rehoboam]. The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD. And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, walking in the ways of David and Solomon during this time. (2 Chronicles 11:13-17)

Reminds me of Christian Exodus:

ChristianExodus.org offers the opportunity to try a strategy not yet employed by Bible-believing Christians. Rather than spend resources in continued efforts to redirect the entire nation, we will redeem States one at a time. Millions of Christian conservatives are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. Therefore, we must concentrate our numbers in a geographical region with a sovereign government we can influence through the electoral process.

How cool is this?

...the Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, had a slightly different attitude towards Christians. He let the visiting Christians of Najran hold their Christian service at the mosque.

-Umm Yasmin, 'How Far from the Prophet Can an Islamic State Get?', Dervish

Our UG

One thing we've changed this year at Universe in Ballarat is that we're only having big meetings evey three weeks, and concerntrating more on smaller groups, which are (for the moment) called Universe Groups or UGs. (There's more stuff about UGs here.)

I'm glad to say I'm leading the smallest of the UGs. I met with the three other guys (all first-years) this afternoon, and we went and sat on the grass under one of the oak trees outside the Library. Since we don't all know each other that well, we've just started off talking about what we're reading in scriptures at the moment, and what God's been showing us through it. We also talked about realism, acorns, farms and how Christianity became the unofficial official religion of the Roman Empire. A girl from Nackers' (he's in my UG) course came over and joined us for a while. She'd read the Bible a little bit before (her grandma used to make her go to church) and likes Buddhism, so we talked about Buddhism a bit too.

Valuing every decision

Tonight I'm going down to Montrose, in outer-eastern Melbourne, for the Warrnambool Mission core leaders' weekend. Trav's asked me if I could talk about valuing every decision a person make that brings them closer to God. So here is some of the stuff I'll be talking about.

A farm with a fence
A lot of the time we look at God's Kingdom in terms of who's in and who's out. We work out whether someone's in or out by whether or not they display certain traits that we consider to be Christian. This is kind of like your generic farm, where the farmer keeps the animals together by putting a fence around them.


This point of view has a significant effect on the way to we do mission. It means that we focus almost entirely on getting people who aren't Christians to pray the sinner's prayer (which isn't actually in the Bible).

A farm with a well
Out in the desert, the farms are so big that there isn't much point in having fences. Instead, to keep the animals wandering off, the farmer digs a deep well. The animals will stay near the well, so that they don’t die of thirst.
We can also look at God's Kingdom like this. Rather than looking at each person as being inside or outside the boundaries, we could look at how close each person is to the centre (God), and whether they're moving closer or further away from him. If take this point of view, everyone is potentially part of God's Kingdom, and nobody is excluded.


Every decision is important
Instead of focusing on just getting a person to pray the sinner's prayer we should be concerned with each decision that brings a person closer to God.
The scale below shows some of the stages leading up to a person becoming a Christian. But the journey towards God doesn't stop with the person being reborn.


This scale is also helpful. It shows that a person needs to have more than just knowledge of the gospel to be converted. They also need to have a positive attitude about it.

The person in the bottom left section has little knowledge of the gospel, but still has a negative attitude toward it. The person in the bottom right section thinks the gospel is good, but doesn't know very much about it. The person in the top left section knows heaps about the gospel, and doesn't like it. The person in the top right corner is well-informed about the gospel, and thinks it's good.

So, for effective mission, we don't just need to get the story across, but to make it look attractive. If we do or say something that doesn't make the story much clearer, but makes it seem good, that is still evangelism.

If we can work out roughly where someone is on these scales, then maybe we can work out what is needed to get them to the next stage. We have to take into account what knowledge they already have of Christianity, and what attitudes they have towards it. It might not be appropriate at this stage to try and get them to commit to Christianity. First they need to make a heap of other decisions, and they'll have to keep making important decisions after they become a Christian.

Sources:
'Gray's the color of life', Gospelcom
The Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, pp 47-48
Some stuff Naomi Swindon talked to us about at core leaders' weekend last year