Water of Life

Oxygen #7 is tonight. It's a cool service looking at what really makes us satisfied in life.

Indeed, the water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

I am pleased to say that our Oxygen team has doubled in size. We've now got eight people involved in putting the services together, which means we can split into two teams. This will result in less of a workload for people and more time to shape services.

We recently did a survey of Oxygenites as well as those at MBC who haven't been to Oxygen. One reasonably common theme was the desire of some people to incorporate more discussion and sharing time into the service. This is an interesting idea, and one that we have talked about before. We are keen to introduce this over the next few months.

However, does it take away from what Oxygen is? Oxygen is a time of reflection, an attempt to create a personal space for people to connect with God. Does corporate sharing encroach on that?

It's something we'll have to think hard about as we look to introduce some sharing elements into some of the services.

Bye Bye Law

One of the many things that puzzled me for a long time about God and the Bible was the Old Testament concept of the 'Law'. The Law features heavily in the Old Testament as a way of getting right with God. To do so, one needed to offer perfect sacrifices or perform some other action to please God and purify themselves.

Then Jesus came. No longer did we need to adhere to a set of rules to be made pure or right in God's eyes. Now, it was done by the heart. Jesus' life made it possible for us to have a very personal and intimate relationship with God, something I think was a rare occurrence for most ordinary Israelites in the Old Testament.

So what then does this really mean for me? Do I still follow 'laws' thinking that I will be seen in a better light by God?

It brings up the question of why we go to church. Has church become like a law; a 'must-do' part of our Christian walk? Why do you really go to church?

We could ask ourselves the same question about anything we do in the name of God. Why do we give money away? Why do we go to a cell group? Why do we help out at the local city mission?

If there is no heart behind our giving money away to the church, does God really want it? I don't think he needs it that much.

Without really wanting in our heart to change the world, we're just peddling our own self-doubt and our misguided sense that we're worshipping a rule following God.

Oxygen #6

Oxygen #6 took place on Friday 17. 21 people came to see what God has created beyond our little dot of a planet.

God measures his universe in the span of his hand. It's far too big for us to do that, so we need to measure it with what we call a light year. This is the difference light travels in one year - 9.4 trillion KM. That means that light travels from the sun to your skin ( a distance of 150,000,000 KM) in just over 8 minutes.

We looked at spectacular images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Telescope and also from Voyager.

Images above: Top: Seven Sisters or Pleiades. Mentioned three times in the Bible (Job 9:9, 38:31; Amos 5:8). Middle: The Whirlpool Galaxy, 23 million light years from Earth. Bottom: an image from Hubble of the very centre of the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Probably the most stunning image of all for me is called the Pale Blue Dot. This is an image sent back from Voyager as it was about to exit our solar system, 6 billion KM's from Earth. The image is looking back to where it had travelled, past all the planets. The coloured rays are light reflecting of Voyager. In one of those rays you can see a pale blue dot. That's Earth from 6 billion Km's away.

Is this what we look like to God? We really are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Our planet is a tiny dot in a universe so big that we've only just scrapped the surface.

God sent his son to that little blue dot to die for us. For you and me.

Friedrich Schiller said this once, “the universe is one of God’s thoughts”. Isn't it fantastic to think that so are you.

Oxygen #5

Oxygen 5 was last night. It was completely different to the others in that most of the night was spent on creative arts.

The theme was Hope, and the service title was: Maybe the Best of Things (a quote from the Shawshank Redemption).

I began with a talk on 1 Peter 1:3-5 (I attach the talk below). It focussed on our 'living hope' which is given to us through the conquering of death by Jesus Christ.

From there we moved to thinking about three questions: What is it that you hope for? What do you think God hopes for you? How does this change the way you live now?

People were free to express their hopes through painting, sculpting or creative writing. 17 people were in attendance.

Talk:

What is it that you hope for? Think about that for a moment. What is it that you hope for in your life?

A new car? Job? House? A baby? More money? Friends?

We are prone to using the word hope synonymously with the word wish. I wish I had more money. I wish I had a better job. I wish I could have a holiday in Europe.

Wish and hope are different. The things we wish for might never happen. The Greek slave Aesop once said "We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified."

But hope is on a different scale. Hope is macro, and wish is micro.

Hope, I’ve heard it said, is the last thing to die. It is the very final thing that we have left. But sometimes, it can seem like even God himself has lost his grip on our circumstances. Sometimes it can seem that we have dropped off God’s radar screen.

Was there a time when you felt that hope was all you had left? Nothing you could do could change your circumstances, and the tunnel appeared to have no end. What was your hope?

What is that hope that exists within us?

The apostle Peter describes this hope in 1 Peter 1:3-5. It says;

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” TNIV

What is our ‘living hope’?

The basis of our hope does not lie in our own perfection or righteousness. It lies in God’s great mercy, a living mercy that never dies. That mercy allows us to appear blameless before God despite our failings, or our circumstances.

Our living hope is our inheritance, which can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is guaranteed, held aside for you, kept by God for you.

This inheritance is promised to you: “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” Galatians 3:18

He gives it to you through a promise, not because of your efforts.

In your worst circumstance, what could be worse than death? What is the most extreme place we could be taken to, before we may lose all hope? Near death?

But our living hope is in Jesus Christ, who has conquered death. He has conquered the most unconquerable of circumstances. And through that, we are shielded by God’s power, because we have faith in him. Shielded by God’s power.

So what situation have you been in that wore you down to one final hope? What was that hope?

"The Problem with Preaching" - Don't Shoot the Messenger

I was on my way back from getting some quick groceries tonight when I walked past a bus stop. There I saw about twenty kids and adults of mixed race waiting for their bus. As the cigarette smoke drifted up my nostrils, I was saddened suddenly by the thought that most of these people have no idea that there is far more to life than what they know.

This morning I opened the Baptist to find numerous articles and letters regarding an article published previously in the magazine called The Problem with Preaching, by David Allis (read it on Paul Windsor's blog). I dug the article out to see what the fuss was about. After a long read (many millions of words), I was struck by it, obviously as many others have been.

Allis effectively advocates that churches, or ministers, should stop preaching, as it is ineffective. He makes some very valid points, but also some uninformed assumptions.

I agree that preaching does not teach someone how to personally learn from the Bible (point 5). Preaching is not used to demonstrate how one should read the Bible and apply it to their own lives. This causes what Allis describes a dependency on being 'fed' each week. I believe this to be true, that most Christians come to church not to learn, but to feel as though they have reconnected with their spiritual side for at least another seven days. It's kind of like a validation process.

He goes onto explain how expensive preaching is. He calculates that preaching (at a total cost to the nation of about $1 million per week) is a waste of money. Allis wants to redirect that money to the poor of the world. While I feel that preaching may be less effective than most preachers or academics believe, it serves as 'training' for Christians who regularly have to refix their training wheels. I think Allis forgets that there are two goals of a church; one to empower, encourage and equip Christians to; two; go and make disciples. Without the first part, the second would be pretty thin. How can the church save the poor if we're all relying on our own interpretations and theology instead of that of the Bible?

Allis makes one huge assumption that has been proven to be incorrect. He assumes that Christians read their Bibles (regularly). They do not. Only 21% of Christians in New Zealand read the Bible everyday. Just because it is available doesn't mean people read it. He rightly says that study material is cheap and widely available, but wrongly assumes people actually use them.

Much of what he is writing about is evident in today's society because of the shift between modernism and post-modernism. Some of us are modern, some post-modern and some are in between. So, no one thing is going to please all.

However, having said all this (and this is hopefully the longest post I'll ever write!), I commend Mr. Allis for what he's done. He's stirred the pot, shaken the stick and opened the can. The worms that have popped out need to pop out. We can't bury our heads and do the same thing over and over because that's how it's always been done.

I am sad for those bus stoppers. They're not interested in preaching, or church, even if they became Christian. The church of today doesn't stand much of a chance with them. They need something totally different. Maybe some of them need something like Oxygen? Maybe others something else.

My final word is this; I think he wrote this article to get a reaction. He did it to provoke. He did it because change is happening and this is part of moving everyone along. Don't shoot the messenger.

Blue Ocean Faith cont.

Thinking about Oxygen as a reinvention of church; I am not sure it is. It's still church, in the same confines of traditional Sunday morning church. If you boil it down, we're just unplugging some elements and plugging in some new ones.

The traditional model of church is based around two main elements, worship (singing) and the sermon. Interspersed around these are notices, promotions, offerings and prayer. I think it's more or less the same no matter which church you go to. These elements may appear in a different order, but they're all the same.

Oxygen has gotten rid of most of these; no singing as worship, no notices or promotions, the offering is not mentioned aside from in the welcome PowerPoint and there are no other 'sales pitches'.

We purposefully moved from Sunday to Friday and out of the main church building into the back hall to get away from any common perceptions that people (non-Christians) may have of church that may prevent them from coming. And we've shortened it, only because I think people want church to be shorter.

But does that constitute a reinvention? Is that Blue Ocean (see post below)?

I am finding this a really good question and a good way to qualify what we're doing. I would love to say we've reinvented church, but is that really possible?