Year: 2010

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Lecrae – Far Away (Haiti Relief)

The following is a moving rap from Lecrae in response to the recent earth quake in Haiti. Its theme is similar to the theme of Habakkuk. In chapter 1, Habakkuk is crying out to God for answers to the injustice he sees around him. In chapter 2, God says to wait and see that he will bring justice. Finally in chapter 3, Habakkuk, though he doesn’t fully understand, continues to trust and rejoice in God his Saviour.

Help raise awareness and money for relief work in Haiti. Buy this single on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/a1sxJg or buy the video here: http://bit.ly/bjymoY

Donations go to helping rebuild the church in Haiti through Churches Helping Churches.

Produced by Desiring God in partnership with ReachLife, Lampmode, and Reach Records.

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Are you involved in Church design, tech, web or other media?

If you answered “yes”, you must go and check out the new 8Bit Network. I’ve been a long time fan of John Saddington and his site ChurchCrunch. ChurchCrunch has now been massively beefed up into a whole network of sites aiming to “resource the church with timely, relevant, practical, and exceptionally valuable content.” It includes ChurchCrunch, ChurchIT, ChurchCreate and ChurchDrop. See below for deets…

  • ChurchCrunch focuses its coverage on web apps/services/technology, blogging, strategy, business/entrepreneurship, and community development.
  • ChurchIT focuses its coverage on all types of geekery, like software, hardware, networking, and other assorted technologies.
  • ChurchCreate focuses its coverage on art/design, environment production and development, video/audio engineering, and assorted technologies.
  • ChurchDrop focuses its coverage on mobile devices, software, web apps, services, and technology.

Go hook up with this posse now!

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Tribes of Sydney 2010 – Youth Subculture

Don’t tell anyone, but I’m a closet anthropologist. Dave, you don’t even know what that big word means!?! I do. I think. It’s got something to do with studying people. I find it fascinating to study people, cultures, subcultures and generational distinctives. Anthropologists and sociologists often make generalisations, that’s okay. Understanding people enables a greater ability to minister to people in different contexts.

SMH had an interesting article in January on the youth subcultures of Sydney. Are you involved in ministry to youth and young adults? Go read it. It might give you some insights into the people you work with.

The author wrote a similar article in 1998 and this update compares then with now. “For the young, tribalism is rife, thanks to a complicated network of groups defined by clothes, music, slang and outlook. This network, it turns out, has become more complicated than ever.” He suggests 8 key youth subcultures/tribes found in Sydney (these are in the order of the line up in the above picture) –

  • The Emo
  • The Supergeek
  • The Jock Dolly
  • The Gangsta
  • The Punk Lite
  • The Glamazon
  • The Hipster
  • The Techno Boho and Techno Bobo

Read the article for an explanation on each

What do you think? Has he got it right? Which do you most identify with? Do you think there are others that deserve to be on the list? Will these observations better help you to reach young crew with the good news of Jesus?

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Adieu à Willoughby Eglise

Vous allez nous manquer! Last night we finished at Willoughby Anglican church. It really was a good year! I enjoyed leading a youth group bible study, playing guitar regularly and preaching. The highlight was the warm fellowship and encouragement of many people. We hope we were likewise an encouragement. As well as relationships, we’ll also fondly remember our time in Willoughby as the time when our first child was born.

Here’s some plans for 2010

  • We’re part of the 1030 congregation at EV Church and Rowena is in a growth group – the plan is to continue there for the time being.
  • I’ll have a bit more time for guest speaking at youth groups, camps, conferences, churches etc (this includes being available on Sunday nights). Let me know if you need a speaker.
  • This is my final year at Moore College – so we’re hoping to work out the plan for 2011 within the next couple of months!
  • I’ll continue to work as a casual youth worker with Gosford Council
  • Here are specific resolutions for 2010 I wrote on January 1.

ps – if you were wondering why the title of this post is in French, there are at least two reasons: 1) I like using google translate 2) French is sexy.

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“I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”

“That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

“We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form.”

“And now, what was the purpose of it all? What did He come to do? Well, to teach, of course; but as soon as you look into the New Testament or any other Christian writing you will find they are constantly talking about something different-about His death and His coming to life again. It is obvious that Christians think the chief point of the story lies here. They think the main thing He came to earth to do was to suffer and be killed.”

~Quote from C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

What do you reckon? Lord? Liar? Lunatic?

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The West Wing = Brilliant. What next?

We’ve just finished watching the 7th (and final) season of The West Wing. Such a good television series. Brilliant! I loved the script, character development, story, drama, acting and cinematography. I didn’t always love the politics. I feel smarterer from watching.

Over the past year, I’ve tweeted/facebooked that we were watching it a number of times, and it consistently generates favourable discussion and ‘likes’.

What should we consider watching next??? My guess is you won’t be able to name a better series. Give it a shot anyway – would love to hear it in the comments…