Another kind of sister

On Friday I was privileged to be given the opportunity to see inside the beautiful Auburn Gallipoli mosque. Afterwards, I was equally privileged to be assigned the task of wandering around Auburn and chatting to Muslim women. Not about anything serious, just connecting with them. We Westerners are so hopeless at this. We're afraid of people from other cultures; afraid of disturbing their private space. To people from cultures all about relationships and community, we come across as cold and uncaring.

So on Friday I smiled at women and passed comments about the weather. And they smiled shyly back and made comments of their own. One lady told me that if I was going to buy a top, I should buy a small or medium because that brand stretches. Normally I'm shy and scared of people around. Now I see that it is possible for me to chat to people in my own community.


H/T Richard

Bad praying, naughty praying!

Christians do all sorts of things imperfectly or just plain wrong. We know that's just the way it is in this messy place and time. We know that we can draw confidently near to God and he will delight to forgive and change us . . . except perhaps for prayer . . . We Christians always seem to be beating ourselves up over how pathetic we are at prayer. The way we act you might think failure in this area is an unforgivable sin.

Let's stop being surprised by the sinfulness we see in our 'prayer-life'. When we do see it, rather than berating ourselves, let's say a simple "sorry" to God. Then let's press on, expecting messy but also wonderful things.

Duh

Here's* a very creative sermon from David Cook. It's this sort of thing that makes me go "Ooh I get it! So this actual real person who actually existed had their little real daughter miraculously come back to life!"


* The sermon is the 23 Sep 2009, on Luke 8:40-56. I have been told how to link just to the individual sermon, but I can't remember how and can't be bothered finding out.

Things to live by

Here's some things that I've been learning and living by over the last few months:


Whatever my talents, I'm an ordinary person.

There are things I'm at a loss to understand, and that's okay.

There are many good things in my life, for which it makes sense to be thankful.

There are also bad things, as there are for everyone.

God is over the good and bad. He has always been there for me and has shown he is worthy of trust.

All about the peeps

If you're struggling with a relationship in your ministry, you're in the right ball park. Ministry is about people, not tasks, and dealing with people is always going to be difficult.

Ministry is unusual in this regard. All other jobs are about achieving some sort of practical task, except perhaps for counselling. This can make us feel like we're doing something wrong if we concentrate on relationships, but it is exactly where our focus should be.


H/T Global Issues class

In it together

Someone suggested the other day that 1:2 discipleship is better than 1:1. If you are only teaching one person they may feel embarrassed when they don't know something. But if two are struggling, well, it's nicer.

Taking over

When you find yourself in a group of people, before you say anything, look around and think about the people who are there. Consider if any of them have positions of authority over you or if they should be shown honour. For example, I think that it is appropriate for me, a youngish, Western female to submit to men and to show honour to older women and perhaps to non-Westerners.

If you do find anyone who fits these bills, keep your mouth shut. Resist the urge to take charge. Sit there silently and look to the man or the older person to take the lead, and if they don't step up, pray that they will.

If we say we believe that it is better for some people to lead, then we need to actually give those people the chance to do it.

Noel Pearson

This post will basically be a potted summary of Noel Pearson's ideas, as outlined in the various talks and essays that make up his new book, Up From the Mission. I'm a massive fan of Noel Pearson (the head of the Cape York Institute and currently working for the Cape York Land Council) and am profoundly impressed by his wise mix of pragmatism, conciliation and standing firm. As someone who thinks that neither the truth nor the wisest course of action is the exclusive domain of either the Left or the Right, Pearson is a welcome figure in Australian public life. I am only just scratching the surface here and would urge all Australians to read what this Aboriginal leader has to say.

Pearson says:

My generation at Hope Vale cannot honestly point to colonisation and dispossession as the immediate causes of our social problems. The generations before us are an example of how the maintenance of true Aboriginal traditions within the context of adaptation to a Christian mission produced a successful community.1

He highlights one key cause of the current disfunction in Aboriginal society:

The right to self-determination is ultimately the right to take responsibility. Our traditional economy was a real economy and demanded responsibility (you don't work, you starve). The whitefella market economy is real (you don't work, you don't get paid).

After we became citizens with equal rights and equal pay, we lost our place in the real economy. What is the exception among whitefellas - almost complete dependence on cash handouts from the government - is the rule for us. There is no responsibility and reciprocity built into our present artificial economy, which is based on passive welfare (money for nothing).2

This [welfare] mentality is internalised and perpetuated by recipients, who see themselves as victimised or incapable and in need of assistance without reciprocation. Everyone in a passive welfare economy is susceptible to irrational (mis)appropriation and (mis)expenditure of money, because that is the very nature of the money. Money acquired without priniciple is expended without principle.3

He explains the factors behind the beginning and continuance of a second key cause of disintegration:

Substance abuse originally got a foothold in our communities because many people were bruised by history and likely to break social norms . . . . But when a young person (or an older non-addict) is recruited to the grog and drug coteries today, the decisive factor is the existence of these epidemics themselves, not his or her personal background. And for those who did begin using an addictive substance as an escape from a shattered life and from our history, treating those original causes (if indeed you can do anything about those original causes) will do little. The addiction is in itself a stronger force than any variation in the circumstances of the addict.4 Addiction is a condition in its own right and it is just as difficult to do anything about an addiction if you are a socially and economically strong white professional who became addicted through the careless drinking of exquisite wines, as if you are an unemployed member of a decimated and dispossessed Aboriginal tribe.5

My own view is that the most significant causal chain is this: (i) substance abuse and the chaos it causes lead to (ii) violence and other crimes, which lead to (iii) over-representation in custody and in the criminal justice system. This is as plain as day to anyone who knows life in our communities6

Pearson discusses how Aboriginal people might best respond to their circumstances:

I would urge people to draw a distinction between that trauma which is personal and immediate and which may incapacitate individuals or families, and that trauma which is inherited and more remote, and which renders people susceptible to problems, but does not leave them incapacitated . . . . Personal trauma needs to be recognised and attended to. Inherited trauma needs to be recognised, but it is also imperative that we recognised that economic and social empowerment is ultimately the best - and arguably the only - cure . . . . The danger with ideological fixation on inherited tauma is that we promote a culture of victimhood, rather than a determination to get back on our feet as a people. We must never let the true history of our people be forgotten or obscured, but we must avoid creating an ideology that turns history into a personal disability for able-bodied members of our community.7

Pearson explains why polarised politics fail:

[T]he distance between good and bad policies is most often very fine - they are seldom poles apart. People from both sides of the cultural and political divide usually believe the distance between their own correct policies and their opponents' wrong policies to be substantial. Politics is given to stark caricatures . . . . This polarisation leads to problems: a failure to distinguish between a potentially correct policy (for instance, policing relatively minor misdemeanours to restore order to crime-ridden , disadvantaged neighbourhoods) and an obviously incorrect one (police harassment and violence) . . . . The tensions involved in policy debates about crime in neighbourhoods centre around questions of freedom and social order. Obviously too much social order undermines freedom. Less obviously, too little social order also undermines freedom. People who live in optimally free and ordered communities often fail to appreciate the fact that a hight degree of social order underpins the freedom they enjoy.8

He provides some practical ways forward:

The truth is that, at least in the communities that I know in Cape York Peninula, the real need is for the restoration of social order and the enforcement of law.9

The High Court's ruling in the Mabo case has now recognised Aboriginal laws and customs as part of the legal system applicable to Aboriginal society and Aboriginal lands. This is a fundamentally important step in the right direction.

Central to the recovery and empowerment of Aboriginal society will be the restoration of Aboriginal values and Aboriginal relationships10

First, the strategy must be aimed at creating an environment in which there is no more unconditional support for irresponsible lifestyles. Second, the strategy must include enforced treatment.11

Together with a strong foundation of social norms and investment in capabilities, we need to make sure that people have the right incentives to ascend the staircase . . . . This is why I have been so critical of the passive welfare state. It creates perverse incentives that tell sixteen-year-olds that it is better to go on the dole than to finish school, or that tell parents they will receive money irrespective of their
child's wellbeing and educational participation.12

One of the country's most successful industrialists, Forrest has inititiated an idea without parallel. The extraordinary feature of the Australian Employment Covenant is that Forrest and his private-sector colleagues are setting the goal of guaranteeing 50,000 jobs for Indigenous Australians. It cannot be overstated how fundamentally this opportunity changes the landscape.13

Pearson's desire is to see Indigenous people embrace:

'Everything that enables our younger generations in Cape York Peninsula to achieve their fullest potential, talent and creativity, so that they have the confidence and capacity to orbit between two worlds and enjoy the best of both.'14

1 N Pearson, Up From the Mission (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2009), 27.
2 ibid, 143.
3 ibid, 153.
4 ibid, 174.
5 ibid, 175.
6 ibid, 179.
7 ibid, 162.
8 ibid, 246-47.
9 ibid, 240.
10 ibid, 149.
11 ibid, 177.
12 ibid, 277-78.
13 ibid, 320-21.
14 ibid, 331.

Compensating Indigenous Australians

I attended the John Saunders lecture where the wonderful Peter Adam spoke about the right and wrong of our nation's history and called on non-Aboriginal Australians to compensate Aboriginal Australians for the theft of their land. He's giving the talk again on the 5th October in Melbourne. I found it unsettling and compelling and left convinced . . . until I spoke to some very smart people who pointed out some problems with the whole thing. I have listed these issues below - and my resolution of them.


1. While I agree that both the Old and New Testaments talk about recompense, it is only mentioned sparingly, certainly in the NT. This made me wonder if it is not always applicable. The NT emphasis seems to be much more on forgiveness and unity between, for example, Jew and Gentile. I wondered if the biblical writers push this even in cases where speaking of recompense would have been relevant.

I think that the answer to this may be that, yes, compensation may not be required. But that does not take away from the fact that it may be very good and fitting.


2. I also wondered about the legitimacy of corporate guilt for non-covenantal people. Often when a people is seen as guilty, it is their covenantal unfaithfulness towards God that is in view.

The only exception I could think of to this is in the first chapters of Amos - but I have since had more pointed out to me, so I no longer think that this is a legitimate point.


3. There is a sense in which recompense on a corporate scale becomes ridiculous. Human history consists of layers of wrong done by one people to another. On what grounds should recompense be given to the Australian Aboriginal people and none given to the other peoples that my Anglo-Saxon ancestors conquered?

I think that while this is true, the taking of Aboriginal land is a clear and nationwide wrong done in recent history, and as such, it seems fitting that we should take responsibility for it, even if we forget other historical wrongs.


4. I think that if recompense of Aboriginal people is valid, then it only makes sense to do it on a national scale. I think it will be impossible for just recompense to be given on a local scale, with local churches/communities/councils etc giving recompense to local Aboriginal groups. An attempt to do local-level recompense will fail at a number of points. For example, should the Aboriginal people who are currently living there be recompensed, or should they be recompensed by the people from the place they were born? Should European people who live in an area with lots of Aboriginal people pay higher recompense? Should recent immigrants be excluded? The mix of these questions will be impossible to sort out with any accuracy and justice.

So I think that the best course of action would be for the Prime Minister to give a once-of, costly recompense on behalf of all Australians. I think that more symbolic action is the only thing that has legitimacy at this stage in our nation's history.

Another possible course of action that has been suggested to me is that heads of the various Christian denominations make recompense on behalf of the church. I think this would be a brilliant example of the church taking the lead.


5. On a related note, I think that, as well as a national apology, it would be profoundly beneficial for non-Aboriginal people to receive a national we-forgive-you from Aboriginal people. Otherwise we are left feeling perpetually guilty, which doesn't help our country move forward.

H/T Sophie, Dan and Jono

A common sense guide to better living

We got a Scientology booklet on our doorstep the other day. It made for entertaining and saddening reading. Saddening because it was all about striving to be a better, more moral, caring person. This makes me sad because it's what I used to do and what I see most people doing, and it's an overwhelming, disheartening task. When I read things like this they ring with naivity:- "Now what do you suppose would happen if one were to try and treat those around him with justness, loyalty, good sportsmanship, fairness, honesty, kindness, consideration [etc] . . . ?It might take a little while but don't you suppose that many others would then begin to try to treat one the same way? . . . . If one is not like that already, it can be made much easier by just picking one virtue a day and specializing in it for that day."1 A kid might buy that, but adults should have learned better.

And the entertainment? Well here's a choice selection:

The way to happiness does not include murdering or your friends, your
family or yourself being murdered.

[E]ven if one were simply to frown when people do things to mess up the
planet, one would be doing something about it.

In some countries, old people, the unemployed do not just sit around
and go to pieces [sic]: they are used to care for the gardens and parks and forests,
to pick up the litter and add some beauty to the world.

There are many things one can do to help take care of the planet. They
begin with the idea that one should. They progress with suggesting to others
they should.

If others do not help safeguard and improve the environment, the way to
happiness could have no roadbed to travel on at all.

Stealing things is really just an admission that one is not capable
enough to make it honestly. Or that one has a streak of insanity. Ask a
thief which one it is: it's either one or the other.

. . . That is the alley to the trash bin of incompetence.

The new model eggbeater or washing machine, the latest year's car, all
demand some study and learning before they can be competently operated. When
people omit it, there are accidents in the kitchen and piles of bleeding
wreckage on the highways.

Movie stuntmen who don't practice first get hurt. So do housewives.

1 LR Hubbard, The Way to Happiness: A Common Sense Guide to Better Living (L. Ron Hubbard Library, 2007)

Connected communities

My Global Issues class headed out to Cabramatta last Friday to meet Pastor David Boyd from Jesus Family Centre. His church has about 400 people from what looked like 20 -30 different nationalities, and they have planted 38 churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America. David had all sorts of interesting and profitable things to say to which I said a hearty amen! but I'll just share one. He believes that the best missionaries are bicultural. He thinks it's foolish (wrong?) to send out, say Anglo missionaries to Latin America. The way they do it is to start with the multicultural people that come to them. They encourage these people to share the gospel with their communities of family and friends back home. And over time, they build up these communities. I'm not sure just how this looks in practice but God is clearly using it. David has written a book about his whole approach and its biblical basis, and I have no doubt that it is worth a read.

Keep it simple eh

Some more wise missionary tips about how to begin and proceed:

• Be a friendly person.
• Have fun with the people around you. Enjoy their company.
• Do things your way and leave the results up to God. Don't put pressure on yourself to be someone you're not.
• If you have a secular job, ask God that you'll love your job. People who are passionate about their work are attractive people.

Speaking the things of God

As I prayed before I recently preached at college, I asked God to stop me from saying "anything dodgy". In one way, that's a perfectly fine thing to request, but it also betrayed my lack of confidence and undermined that of my listeners'. A fellow student later reminded me that my confidence shouldn't be based on my (lack of) ability in translating the Greek, or identifying the 'big idea' of the passage or working out appropriate application. My confidence should ever be in the Holy Spirit who is with me each step of the painful process. With him at my side I may be bold.


H/T Matt

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

This is a series of provocative talks coming up at the Opera House. Titles include, 'Democracy is not for everyone,' 'The old should pay for themselves,' 'Why we enjoy killing'. The impressive and articulate Christopher Hitchens is also speaking about how religion poisons everything. It would be good for Christians to go along to this to have our beliefs challenged, and perhaps to ask questions, if there's a question time.

Kids on Divorce

Last night SBS' Insight program filled the studio with kids whose parents had divorced and asked them about their experience and advice. This is definitely an area in which kids' voices deserve to be heard.

Vanity?

You've got to listen to these talks on Ecclesiastes by Kirk Patston. I want to tell you why, but a rush of words won't capture it. You've got to take my word for it.

YOU LIKE ORANGE!???

So my Brazilian friend Angela and I were busy studying Spanish, when another friend came and asked us what she should wear to a Latin American themed party. I felt very in touch when my answer was the same as Angela's. So here's the Latin American female fashion aesthetic. Jeans. High, high heels. A tight, bright top. Big, shiny earrings. And you cannot have a balanced, nuanced colour palate. Ditch the palate - it's all about embracing a single colour. Angela told our friend to go to her wardrobe, imagine she's feeling the happiest she's ever felt and then pick her clothes. That's latina fashion. It's much the same for men except you've gotta work the machismo. Whatever you do, do not be subtle.

I love it. It cracks me up and makes me happy at the same time. And in case my description was at all unclear, the photo above should provide all the clarification needed.

How to support single women

Here's some ideas about how churches with lots of families can be sensitive to and supportive of single women. Some of it may also apply to women who infertile and to single men. It's written for husbands, but it can be for anyone.

• Be aware that single women may feel unconfident and lonely, and perhaps despairing and bitter. They may feel they are second-class women, not properly feminine. All these feelings will be heightened if there are lots of pregnant women and families around. Single women may also feel a lot of pain at not having kids. It may be heartbreaking for them to be around pregnant women or little kids. I don't know what can help with this. Maybe it's enough for people to be aware of it, and for Mums not to be offended if single women avoid them and don't help with the kids, and for single women to know they're not doing anything wrong if they feel like this.

• Show single women great respect and affection. Remember that the less honourable parts deserve greater honour (and I know this can apply to Mums too!).

• Encourage all the women, whether single or married, confident or unconfident, to reach out to each other and show interest in and respect for each other. You do not want only Mums chatting with Mums and single women chatting with single women, though of course a bit of this is natural and fine.

• Encourage the Mums to not only talk about their kids or their marriage or their new life when single women are part of the conversation. A bit of this is great and interesting and makes single women feel included, but too much is painfully marginalising.

• Value the role single women can play in the life of your family. You may want to seek their opinions about how you should parent your kids because even though they don't have kids, they do have life experience and know biblical truths. Include them in the life of your family, and really treasure them being Aunties for your kids and let them know that you do.

• Families are a bigger 'entity' than single people. They are much more 'present' and 'in your face'. I think this means they capture peoples' attention more. This can mean that people like church leaders spend more time chatting to or socialising with Mums and Dads. This is a tricky one because families are more complex and do, in a way, require more attention. But be careful not to gloss over single women because you haven't noticed them. This will probably be even more likely to happen if these women are feeling unconfident or unworthy, and so are themselves retreating into the background.

• Remember that single women don't have a man around (unless they're close friends with a guy or have a great relationship with their brother or Dad). This means they don't have someone to protect or provide for them. So, don't do things like leave them to catch a bus in the dark (unless of course they're totally fine with it). Show them the same graciousness you would like another man to show your wife if you weren't there.

• Single women haven't been through any life events in which it is culturally appropriate for people to look after them or celebrate them. Because they've never had a wedding, their family and friends have never bought them expensive homewares. Because they've never had a baby, they've never had dinners brought round. It's unreasonable, yet easy, for single women to feel neglected and get bitter about these things. It would be so lovely for people to do things for them or give them things, even when there was no 'occasion'.

• It's good to have Bible study groups that are demographically mixed. It makes it possible for single women to put their situation in perspective and to care for the other group members, whatever their situation, just as they are cared for in return.
  

• Preaching the Bible gives single women hope and comfort, rebuke and perspective, and teaches them how to live in a God pleasing way.

Brothers or sisters

I wonder if people who grew up with sisters are better at relating to women, and people who grew up with brothers better at relating to men? As a lady (I am one) I obviously understand women, but, as someone with a brother only, I sometimes feel like I have better learned how to relate to men.*

Nb This is the last of my catch-up posts. You're all now the lucky recipients of the last 2-3 years' worth of emails to my pastor. The pace is going to be a lot slower from hereon in.


*Gosh, what happened with the wording here. I wouldn't get a good mark if I was one of my students.

Through thick and thin

I was thinking that it would be so heartless and cruel if Christians were to tell Mums not to abort their babies, but then fail to support them when they had the courage to continue their pregnancies. So here's some ideas about how churches can proactively support Mums.

1. Be churches that Mums would like to return to. Churches that:

• are honest about and forgiving of sin;
• respect members whose lives are overtly messy/sinful and provide them with practical and emotional support;
• give financial assistance to those who need it, or help people access the government’s financial assistance;
• provide friendship and company for lonely people;
• provide practical support for families, especially for families in need of extra help;
• ask parents already attending church about their experience;
• help parents parent;
  
• take the time to get to know and befriend kids;
• give special honour to kids who have disabilities;
• respect, value and celebrate the role of Mums;
• celebrate pregnancy and treat the unborn baby as a baby;
• make single Mums (and their kids) feel welcome and valued.

2. Get out there and:

• give money to organisations that support pregnant women, fathers or families;
• encourage people to do voluntary/paid work for such organisations;
• run church events that are attractive to Mums.

Telling all the world

Enjoy answering questions people from other countries have about Christianity, but don't want to travel to them? Well you can sign up to answer questions sent into various Christian websites. The sites are aimed at different people (eg Muslims, Chinese, teenage girls). They get good traffic because they pay to have their sites appear in the right hand column of Google. Each site has a gospel presentation, multimedia stuff, someone's testimony . . . and a chance to ask questions. They get 1000s of enquiries from all around the world every day or week or something.

I think it's a great ministry for writers. The websites are pretty crusty and I find the right hand column thing a bit sleazy but I guess there's nothing wrong with it. If you're interested, this is the homepage.

New eyes

In the 'Doctrine of God/Person and Work of Christ' theology intensive I did in the holidays we were assigned a cool homework task. What you have to do is go to your church (or Bible study or whatever) and think to yourself "If I was a non/new Christian and I came along, what would I learn about who God is [substitute any other doctrine you care to]?".


H/T Max

I heart Chaplains

Chaplains play an awesome role. They get to rub shoulders with, develop friendships with, provide counsel and comfort to, and answer the questions of a whole bunch of people who may not otherwise have anything to do with the church. There are chaplains in schools, hospitals, unis, rugby clubs, shipping ports and some friends of mine at college are thinking of performing this sort of role with the traveling Grand Prix community! We should totally urge and encourage people to be chaplains. I should even pray for them . . .

At a distance

I get a bit intimidated at the thought of ringing people, and have realised that if I head off to Latin America it'll be increasingly hard to keep up relationships, especially as the makeup of my home church changes over the years. I think the big answer is that if I'm to sincerely believe in and value the body of Christ, then I'll put the work into these relationships.

I've heard of a church that deals with this issue by allocating one missionary to each small/Bible study group (8-12 people). The missionaries get their basic financial support from the church as a whole, but it's the small group's responsibility to give them top-up money, fundraise on their behalf when they need a big chunk of money for something, write them letters, pray for them and look after them when they're back in town.

This seems like a good solution - ongoing, meaningful contact and support with only 8-12 people sounds do-able (even if you haven't yet met them in person). I guess it works best for a big church though, where they have the finances to support a number of missionaries.


H/T Tally

Little Ideas

Sometimes I wonder if determining the Big Idea in a Bible passage does violence to the passage. I mean, we somewhat arbitrarily pick the passage length and then expect to find a thread running through it . . . What makes us so sure that the Bible writer intended there to be a main emphasis going through that bit?

And what makes us so sure that there is a main emphasis anyway? Maybe the writer wanted to emphasize a number of points equally.

And what about the the legitimacy of this approach for the less logical genres?

I get that it's probably a useful teaching device more than anything - because people can only take in one thing*. But I just feel a bit uncomfortable with it . . . When I'm preparing a sermon I can usually see a million themes and ideas and my brain explodes trying to find the main one. It ends up feeling like a bit of guesswork.


* And as Mikey pointed out, it's also a good thinking device, particularly for the beginning preacher, forcing us to think clear, simple and orderly thoughts.