Go check it out: www.soulies.net. Soulies is the youth ministry @ St Faith’s Narrabeen.
If you’re part of (or interested in) our church and/or youth community:
Archive - March, 2011
Harbour Bridge Construction and other Amazing Sydney Photos for FREE!
The State Library of New South Wales (Australia) has recently released a bucket-load of historic images on Flickr. Yes way. There are some amazing shots, and they’re all free from copyright. So feel free to use them royalty free for design projects. I’ve already used them in a number of places, and have some ideas for future use. Check this beautifully composed shot of Sydney Harbour Bridge construction during 1930. Hotness:
Click here for ol’ skool sweetness. If you have a browse, leave a link to your favourite in the comments. Peaceout.
THINK by John Piper
John Piper writes books quicker than I can read them. But I still try! I thoroughly enjoyed one of his recent books: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. Here’s part of the official blurb from the publisher, Crossway: “We often pit thinking and feeling against each other, especially when it comes to the Christian experience. Glorifying God with our minds and hearts, however, is not either-or, but both-and. Focusing on the life of the mind will help you to know God better, love him more, and care for the world.”
Here’s a promo video for the book:
In Think Piper has two biblical texts that form the main point of the book. 2 Timothy 2:7 – “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (ESV) and Proverbs 2:3-6 – “…if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding…” (ESV)
The G.O.S.P.E.L.
What’s the deal with God? Jesus? Who is he? Why did he come? What does he offer? What is the gospel? What makes it good news? God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life.
Presented by Dare 2 Share and Humble Beast.
Read more here and/or contact me with questions.
Mike McCarthy @ Paradox Cafe
Mike McCarthy will be playing at the opening night of Paradox Cafe on April 6th, 2011. (Check out previous mentions of Mike & his music on this blog). Paradox is hosted by St Faith’s Church. Ben Molyneux will be giving a short talk. If you’re in the area, come along!
Check out the new paradox website.
Dan Au Photography
My friend Dan Au has recently launched a website to promote his photography business. He skilfully wields his camera as a way to support his family while he studies full-time at Bible College. If you want pics taken of your family, wedding, event, pet rabbit, or whatever – Dan might be your man! Check him out www.danauphotography.com.
Dan featured in an old blog series of mine called SNAPSHOT – see his work here.
Do We Really Believe What We’re Saying?
I recently blogged on the controversy surrounding the release of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins and the Harsh Reality of Hell. As yet, I haven’t read Bell’s book, but from reading other reviews and watching his interview and book launch, it seems that Bell has stepped away from an orthodox, historical understanding of hell. See all of Justin Taylor’s recent posts mentioning “hell” and also read Kevin DeYoung’s comprehensive review of the book.
No-one in the Reformed Evangelical camp is particularly rattled by Bell’s denial of historic Christianity. It has been argued that Bell has been on this theological trajectory for some time. That’s what makes the following video from David Platt so useful. In it he argues that while we may be opposed to “intellectual universalism”, in reality we often live as “functional universalists”. We say we believe in the reality of hell yet our lives look no different. See it below (or click here if you can’t see it).
What a challenge!
We don’t have time to play games with our lives
We don’t have time to play games in the church
We have a mission that demands radical urgency
Check out David Platt’s blog and his incredible book Radical.
The death of the iPod
Great article on the life and death of the Apple iPod in the SMH. Some really interesting comments on the iPod as the “first cultural icon of the 21st century”. Here’s a snippet:
Apple has changed the way we think about technology and design, the way we shop, the way we consume media and the way we interact with each other. Via the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad it has opened up doors for other methods of technology to come into our lives. None of that would have happened without the iPod. “It was the first cultural icon of the 21st century,” says Dr Michael Bull, a lecturer in media and film at the University Of Sussex, south-east England, where his studies on the sociology around the MP3 player have earned him the sobriquet “Professor iPod”. “It was the first MP3 player that really worked. With the earlier ones you had to get down on your knees and pray to get a bit of music out of them. And it became symbolic of the way people like to move around in cities. It fitted the desire for a technological freedom, whereby you moved to your own soundscape. Roland Barthes argued that, in medieval society, cathedrals were the iconic form. Then by the 1950s it had become the car – the Citroen DS. I argue that 50 years later it was the iPod, this technology that let you fit your whole world in your pocket. It was representative of a key moment in the social world of the 21st century.”
Read the rest here. Some of the content reminded me of some of Stu Crawshaw’s thoughts from his Youth Ministry as Shock Absorber article.
Do you have an iPod? Do you still use it? Can you name a competitor for other 21st Century icons?
Black is the new Bieber
The pop culture phenomenon of the week is Rebecca Black with her new hit song “Friday”. Black is being likened to teenage super-pop-star Justin Bieber. It went from 2000 hits to 25million hits just this week!! Perhaps Black is the new Bieber? Anyway, you decide:
Sometimes modern pop lyrics are hard to understand. Not in this track. They are simple, yet profound. Her observations on life are quite insightful.
It’s only March, but this song is well on its way to ‘song of the year’. Triple thumbs up ;)
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund
So many needs in our world right now. So much devastation. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan is horrible. Keep praying and consider giving some cash to help the relief effort.
Here’s the press release from Anglican Aid:
Anglican Aid has been shocked by the horrific 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that rocked the country Japan on Friday 11th March. We await further and more detailed news with apprehension.
Our hearts and our prayers go out to all who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods, and we offer our prayers to those involved in the relief effort. We also pray for the officials dealing with the damaged nuclear reactor. Despite the natural disasters that have devastated our world in recent times, we are thankful that as Christians we are able to find comfort in the promises of Jesus Christ.
Tax deductible donations to Anglican Aid will be accepted. If in the unlikely event that more funds are raised than are needed, these funds will be held for future emergencies as they arise.
From Anglican Aid. Or you could go to dosomethingnow.com or World Vision.
Likewise check out the CMS website for news and prayer points for missionaries in Japan.
Cheesy Graduation Photo
I graduated! Woot. Here’s a cheesy photo in the cape and hoodie with my lady:
Shout out to Row, Sam and the rest of my family for supporting me throughout college. Props also to Moore College Faculty, Staff and class mates for the love. And thanks to Christ Church St Ives, Willoughby Anglican and the many other churches/ministries/youth groups I hung out with during college.
Hugs and kisses.
Youth Ministry Papers: Small Groups Part 1
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
The Aim of Soulies Small Groups
Soulies comes in 3 handy sized packages: Large (Soulies United yr 7-12); Medium (Soulies Junior Crew yr 7-9 + Soulies Senior Crew yr10-12); and Small (Soulies Small Groups). How do we roll at Soulies? Whether we’re small, medium or large, we want to be a community who: Love Jesus; Love Jesus’ People; Love Jesus’ World. Small Groups are an amazing opportunity for young punks to grow in their 3 loves. The medium and large gatherings are great, but so much can be done in smaller intimate groups! Our small groups are: an opportunity to grow in our worship and discipleship of Jesus; a great chance to actively serve and love fellow brothers and sisters; and encourage each other to love Jesus’ world through evangelism and social justice.
Our Small Groups Aren’t “Bible Studies”
…but we do study the Bible! While spending time studying the Bible is at the heart of what we do together, it’s not all that we do. God’s Word is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) – so we want to let God’s Spirit do His work as we study the Bible. But we also want to make sure that our small group time is not just an academic exercise. So there are 3 others things we want to be doing regularly: SHARING, SUPPLICATING, SOCIALISING.
Consolidate Your Online Profile With ABOUT.ME
If you’ve got a growing number of online profiles (facebook, twitter, linkedin, tumblr, posterous, flickr, youtube, vimeo, etc…), you might like to consolidate them into one place. About.me provide a free online app to make it easy. I made one and the set up only took 5 minutes. I didn’t put much thought or energy into it, I just wanted to try it out.
Check out what I came up with: about.me/davemiers (if you click on the links under the profile, they have a good-looking RSS feed of your latest content).
davemiers.com consolidates my online profile. But if you don’t have your own dot com, about.me would be really useful for your email signature or any of your profiles that ask you to list your website.
Have a crack yourself (if you do – leave a link in the comments).
Check out tentblogger if you want to take it a step further.
10 Family-Friendly Youth Ministry Ideas
Doug Fields has been a long time champion of creating family-friendly youth ministry. I’ve valued gleaning wisdom from his books. He has just completed a 3 part series with 10 ideas on how to keep your youth ministry friendly for families. Good stuff. Check it out:
- Give em dates
- End on time
- Get em talking
- Keep em home
- Talk em up
- Speak good words
- Teach em more
- Keep costs down
- Watch their calendar
- Invite em along
Check out the 3 posts for an explanation of each: one; two; three.
Doubt will not have the last word
Andrew Errington has written a really useful post on “doubt”. He says that doubt is spoken about too little. I agree and know that many Christians have doubts at different times. Andrew’s post is helpful if you have doubts or as you minister to those who do.
- Doubt is not good.
- Yet doubt happens to Christians.
- Doubt is not denial
- Doubt is spiritual
- Doubt is not just spiritual
- Doubt is hard
- Doubts have a tendency to multiply
- Doubt saps our strength for service
- Doubt can be used for good
- Doubt will not have the last word
Check out his blog post for detail on each point.
Youth Ministry Papers: Preparing a Bible Talk
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
This week’s paper is basically a summary of John Chapman’s method of preparing a Bible Talk. For a much more comprehensive treatment, check out his brilliant book – Setting Hearts on Fire – from Matthias Media. “Chappo” is one of the most experienced and gifted evangelists in Australia during the last 50 years. The book particularly focuses on preparing an evangelistic message, but I use his structure as the basis for all of my talks.
Preaching matters. According to Romans 10:13-15, if people don’t preach, people won’t hear the good news of Jesus, they won’t believe the good news of Jesus and they won’t call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Preaching is a big deal! Not all preaching is done from behind a pulpit, or black music stand, preaching is much more than delivering a sermon. However this paper will focus on how to prepare a short Bible talk.
What follows are the 10 steps involved in preparing to preach from the Bible.
Moore College Graduation 2011
So I’m graduating next Thursday night (17 March). You’re more than welcome to come.
Moore Theological College is a fine institution. Lots of study options – check them out.
The Harsh Reality of Hell
The past week has seen a lot of discussion about hell on Christian blogs. Rob Bell, of the Nooma video fame, has a book coming out at the end of March called Love Wins. Justin Taylor, in response to the blurb from the publisher and the promo video from Bell, asks whether this book will show Bell to be a universalist. Universalism is the belief that in the end all people will be saved and – if there is a hell – it will be empty. Critics of Taylor say that he can’t make a call on the book before it has even been released! Yet I think that Kevin DeYoung makes a good case for Taylor’s initial response. // Read more from Tim Challies.
I don’t know what Rob Bell believes about hell. I pray that he isn’t a universalist.
This week I’ve been thinking about the harsh reality of hell. I believe that hell exists because I trust what Jesus says is true. We’re currently studying Matthew 8-12 at church. It’s shocking to see how often Jesus mentions hell in Matthew’s Gospel.
This weekend I preached on Matthew 10:24-42. Check out this verse:
JC and the Cool Gang
The Weekend Australian Magazine featured an article on the relationship between Christianity and “cool” in Australia. Basically it’s about a variety of Gen Y peeps that don’t fit the Ned Flanders (or any other traditional understanding) template of a Christian. These guys and girls are cool and yet unashamed to be into Jesus.
It includes some interesting comments on the decline in mainline denominations.
The highlight for me were the quotes from Mark Sayers on the danger of crafting a “cool” Jesus and the drift towards man-centred theology:
“When, in their quest to remain relevant to young people, churches begin to turn him into a cool Australian, latte-loving guy who hangs out with his surfboard and is cool with everything we do… kids will come [to church] because they are attracted to that. But then they discover they’re not going to be turned into a superstar and they read the Bible and they discover Jesus dies at the end.”
Along with a consumerist ideology in which ‘cool’ is the motivating force, Sayers says another dominant culture factor troubling the church is the triumph of the self-help movement, which preaches a message that life should be about self-fulfilment, not suffering.
“So the quest for salvation has been replaced by the quest for wellbeing. And the danger is Christianity will end up looking like the empire of Oprah, in which God is a sort of cosmic butler who delivers things for us… We need to return to a biblical world view that grapples with suffering, rather than avoids or denies it, and that recognises that man is not the focus. God is. And that God is not going to transform you into this buff entrepreneur with a beautiful wife. There is a much deeper reality than that.”
Go read the article and let me know what you think.
One of the things I love about Christianity is that you don’t have to be cool to follow Jesus. I love seeing awkward, uncool people (me?? you?? haha) that don’t fit in anywhere else, accepted and included into the people of God.
We’ve got to keep calling all people (cool or otherwise!) to make counter-cultural commitments in response to the gospel of Jesus – we don’t just fit Jesus around the cool stuff in our lives, but Jesus is to shape all of life!
(h/t Mark Sayers for the heads-up on the article)
Time for some nuance between the gay and the god-fearing
John Dickson has written a great article for ABC Unleashed arguing for a more nuanced discussion about homosexuality. It’s reasonable, intelligent and well-argued.
I think this is an important issue to be discussing and appreciate Dickson’s input. Christians have to work hard at not being jerks in how we speak.
Here’s another recent article from Michael Jensen on the issue.
EDIT: Here’s a great quote from Dickson:
There is a failure of ethical imagination here, an inability to utilise two mental muscles at the same time: the muscle of strong conviction and the muscle of compassion for all. Jesus was the master of this ethical exploit. Open the Gospel of Luke at chapter 13 and you’ll hear him condemning certain behaviour and warning of coming judgment. Continue through to chapter 15 and you’ll find him wining and dining with ‘sinners’ – those you might have thought were first in line for judgment – and illustrating the point with a parable about a father’s love for his prodigal son. Keep reading to the end of the story and the point is made with disturbing clarity: so seriously did Jesus take sin that he thought he had to die for it; so seriously did he love sinners, a category in which he placed us all, that he thought he had to die for them. He was able to be morally exacting and deeply compassionate toward the same people at the same time – though it is a sad and undeniable fact that many in the church since have had difficulty emulating the feat.
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