Amidst all the confusion and problems of the hurricanes in the US, some Southern Baptists have managed to keep themselves pure. A local beer company donated crates of water for the relief effort, and because it had beer labels, some local Pharisees decided they would not distribute it. Give me a break! What a terrible way to portray the love of God. Now if it had West Coast Eagles labels on it, I could understand it.
NBC Story

Not bad for a Pastor to be named amongst the 25 most influential leaders.
Interesting to read Warren's profile and understand his transperancy and vulnerability. He admits he had not even thought about widows and orphans until recently in his ministry life. Many of us have been concerned with our own little vineyard, and neglected the social aspect of the gospel. Now THE key leader of the evangelical movement of our time is coming out saying the social aspects of the gospel are equally important as the spiritual ones. USA Today Article

Good news today on the Freo front with Cookie being resigned for another 12 months. Having actually shook the great mans hand, and bought him a beer, I can tell you, he is one player that you would not want to be bumped by.
At a scratch match last year, when there was only about 300 people at the ground, I could hear the thump as Cook slammed an opposition Western Bulldongs player to the ground. Normally during a game you cant hear these things. But that whack by Cook was sufficient to guarantee a healthy dab of Epsom on the other shoulders. This from the Dockers website,

Recognised as one of the toughest players in the competition, his ferocious attack on the ball made him an instant fan favourite and valuable team contributor at Fremantle.

Cook has set the defensive standard for Fremantle where he has led the club’s tackling in five of his six seasons including 2005 where he had 87 tackles at 4.35 a game

Alright, so the naming is only by me, and the title is just to stir some emergent types up, but seriously, browse their web site! Hillsong Services

This reinforces the recent 'Australian Story' episode when they talked of how many community activities the Church is involved in.
Having attended their national conference on and off for the past 6 years I have noticed how Hillsong Church is becoming increasingly socially aware, of their responsibilities, and of the needs of Australian Society. In fact if I really wanted to be frank, I would say that in my opinion they are being far more effective at being incarnational, that any other organisation in Australia.
Sure they have their issues, but who doesn't? I know my church and my life is not perfect. But kudo's where they are due I reckon.

Well, its taken me about a week to formulate this in my mind,
but we have seen more first time conversions at Bedford Baptist in the last 12 months that in the whole first 10 years of my ministry.
We have also said some very sad goodbyes to some dear folk who have been at the church for a long time. If you are one of those folk, please don't take offence at this, I have just been wondering aloud what is going on.

I do know this, the quality and creativity being displayed in our morning services and other ministries had gone through the roof. Thanks to the efforts of my Associate, the members of the Ministry Team and the freedom and empowerment being given to the Church by the Leadership team, things are humming along nicely. We reached in a significant way over 250 people at out Spring Fair. In a fortnights time we are having a party for our Sunday morning service. Now some may say every Sunday should be a party, but we are having balloons and streamers and hot dogs at this one! God's Party

On November 20th we are having a Baptismal service with 3 wonderful people getting Baptised. I am so excited and joyful about what God is doing in this small part of His vineyard.

If you are part of our Church Community, jump on the Bedford Bus, its pulling out of the station!!

I've had a stack of people telling me they are reading my blog, thanks!
If you want to make a comment please do, you dont have to be a blogger, just click on the comments button, then choose other, type in your name, the verification code, and your away!

Full on weekend.
Both physically emotionally and spiritually drained, with lots to think about.
On Saturday Melinda and I were getting our house ready to sell, and madly getting ready for the Bedford Baptist Spring fair. What a huge success. Organisationally a massive amount of work, and kudos to the chief organiser, who is pictured on stage here.
Aproximately 250-300 people came around to buy an old toaster, purchase a coffee and cake for $2, have a back massage or watch their child pat a pig. This is a 2nd stage event for us. A way to connect even further those who have been attending our Toddler Jam program to the Church Community. We gave out about 100 show bags with lollies, colouring in and information about the Church Communities activities. An unqualified success.
Sunday morning at Church was good, we served up the left over sausage sizzle to the crowd, and they seemed to enjoy my message on telling the truth in love. We also heard about some inspiring Prison Ministry some people form our Church have been involved in and the kids were led in a song from the Congo, from a refugee who is fellowshipping with us.

Sunday night was awesome too. Church Together brought about 18 000 people together for a time of worship and inspiration. Wayne Cordeiro was a humorous and appropriate speaker for the event, especially for the pre-Christians. I might have preferred more of a challenge, but that probably says more about me, than what was appropriate. So well done to all those involved!

On reflection, the most purposeful and best thing I did all weekend was talking to a number of people at the Spring Fair. Intentionally seeking them out and trying to make friends. Being a Pastor is tricky, because many people see you as being representative of the church. You never leave the job. But I loved being there and seeing the community come together, at what was essentially a Church event. Awesome and what the church should be doing.

God sure is big in the good old USA. Some time ago there was a controversy over Starbucks putting new age and pro homosexual slogans on their coffee cups. Now Rick Warren (purpose driven life) has his mug on the mug (lets hope its been supersized!) along with one of his sayings. Now I am a RW devotee, his books are required reading as far as I am concerned. But this article I am giving you a link to talks about such things as John 3.16 being sewed onto garments, and bible verses printed on burger wrappers. in my view its great that RW has had such a influential impact on culture that his sayings can be put on the side of a coffee cup. But I struggle with 'Jesus Junk" or the dumbing down of the Christian message. Mission is our priority, sharing the love of Christ, helping people discover abundant life. Is what some folk doing a good thing, or actually detrimental to the advancement of the Kingdom? Should the drive through attendant ask, "would you like a copy of the 4 spiritual laws with that bacon double cheeseburger?"

After sharing lunch with a few Pastors, who will remain nameless, I have come to the conclusion that Churches can be fairly brutal places. I hate to say it, but we Christians can be pretty awful to each other. Pastors can be awful to their church folk, and Church folk can treat their Pastor pretty shoddily as well. I know I am a Pastor, and therefore have my own perspective on this issue. This obviously colours my thinking. Let me also say that I thank God for my supportive and loving church. Its not always an easy job, and people in my Church are good to me. But my heart aches when I hear stories of how we let interpersonal conflict stall, delay or destroy what God wants to do through us.
What do non church people think when they stand back and watch us fight each other?

Seriously, God only gives most of us about 80 years. Dont waste it in trying to argue or fight your way through life. Instead pour that energy into mission, into reaching people who don't know Jesus yet.

The following story is a sobering reminder of this.

"PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - A church pastor called deputies to remove 16 congregants who refused to stop singing as he tried to begin his sermon, according to a sheriff's report.

Pastor David Noel reported a disturbance at the Bethanie Seventh-day Adventist Church to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office when the group would not allow the Saturday morning service to continue.

All 16 church members were issued trespass warnings and left the property without incident, according to a sheriff's report.

One congregant who received a warning said the group was protesting Noel's leadership and alleged misuse of insurance money for damage to the church caused by Hurricane Charley.

"We received $364,000, but he told us we only got $264,000 because he wanted to give $100,000 to another church in Fort Myers," Monique Robert said Monday. "But this money is for Bethanie. We want all the money for our church."

Another congregant, Edourd A. Pierrelus, alleged that Noel struck his chest and twisted his left earlobe during an Oct. 1 meeting to elect new church board members.

"Many things are wrong in the church," Pierrelus told deputies Saturday. "We don't want him to be the pastor."

Noel declined to comment to reporters Monday.

"I don't have much to tell you, just that we are preaching the word here," he said.

Milton Sterling, ministerial director for the Southeastern Conference governing the region's Adventist congregations, said church officials were investigating the incidents.

Robert said she and the other 15 congregants who received warnings will attend a different church service this Saturday."

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 15.4,5

You gotta love or hate him, but as an avid Eagles disliker, I like the guy.

I was trolling through some pages about Bedford for research purposes and I stumbled across this. It should cheer up all you suffering Eagles fans.
http://www.bedfordbc.com.au/miscellaneous/barry_hall.htm

Recently I was up in Cervantes on a blokes weekend away. A group of us from Church went up to a beach house for the Grand final weekend away. I was the only one in the group of 16 that was going for the Swans (I go for the Dockers and whoever is playing the weagles). The day only got better. While enjoying a meal in the Tavern at night who should be there in that isolated spot than Justin Longmuir and Troy Cook (Dockers players). I had the chance to talk to Justin about his match winning goal after the siren against St Kilda. If you watch the replay carefully, I am right next to him when he jumps into the crowd. As well I got Cook, surely a tough nut player if ever there was one, to sign a shirt for me, and I bought him and Justin a jug.

Ever had a brush with fame? Care to relate the story?

My house is a revolving mess at the moment. We are in the process of getting it ready to sell. Anyone who knows my wife, knows it is a pretty house, and presenting it well is very important to her. What this means is that for the past 5 days I have been moving furniture around the place, to make way for new carpet, floor polishers and carpet cleaners, hence the revolving mess. This on top of my normal pastoral work.
Sometimes my life feels that way too, in a continuous state of flux and mess. Thank Jesus that He has given us a purpose and a goal. Strange thing is we dont always, or even often, know what the exact end of that goal will look like. Maybe if we did know what God had in mind, it would scare us too much and we would not start. I am aware that God has called us to be missionaries in the Bedford/Inglewood/Bayswater/Dianella area. We believe God wants us to be in the area He has called us too. This has not been an instant thing, in fact God has changed me over the 11 years or so I have been pastoring at Bedford. I want to give more to the Community, not less.
If you get a chance, pray that God will find us a house to move into and reveal this to us. It is stressing us both out, and our beautiful kids. We have not found a house yet. Foolish faith? No, we don't think so. Instead we think we are acting on what God has said, and waiting for Him to say a little more.

What do these two terms mean anyway? I have a number of friends and aquaintances who are heavily involved in the Emerging Church movement. I respect greatly what most of them are doing.
However I do have an issue with what it might seem is an "exclusive" style of Philosophy and methodology in what they are doing. I struggle with some who seem to have thrown out the expression of the church as it is now, while still relying on it for support. It has been really encouraging though to see some, who are embarking on such works, also working alongside with and encouraging the work of more 'regular' expressions of Church.

This is why the article Brian Harris has written in the latest Advocate (WA Baptist Newspaper) is so 'on the money', in my opinion. http://www.theadvocate.tv/ADV1005.pdf
Brian advocates a 'lets do both' approach.

At Bedford I would like to think we are both heavily Incarnational and Attractional. We provide wondeful Community services, such as Toddler Jam (childrens ministry), Counselling, Welfare. But this is because we have a solid church base to support them. We also stress the need to be incarnational in our lives, be a Christian where you are.
People need support and encouragement to be incarnational. Christians need an attractive and relevant program to disciple, train, exhort and encourage them and their children.

I wonder if as time goes on what will be most valuable about the EC movement is not the communities it establishes, but the much needed redress it challenges the local church to embark upon.

Great Sunday morning at Church, real sense of God saying something to us all about trust, hope and joy, in the midst of our own confusion. I used the verse from 1 Corinthians 13 about us seeing things only in part. Its not always easy or clear this side of eternity 'what on earth' is going on.
Melinda and I have been reminded of this is our frustrating search for a home closer to our mission field.

Ponting doing well after Gilchrist hit a quick fire 30. I think in Adam we have seen the best one day batsman ever.
Also good to hear the mighty Dockers have cruised to an easy victory over the serial chockers, West Coast, in the London Derby.
"The Dockers took a more inexperienced side into the clash, but dominated the middle stages for their 13.12 (90) to 11.7 (73) victory in front of nearly 19,000 fans at The Oval"
http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=233810

And apparently there were a number of fights and melees, particularly in the third quarter with Chad Fletcher throwing a punch, but like most of West Coasts efforts this year, missing the mark.

"The third quarter was played with a marked increase in intensity, with one huge melee at the 13-minute mark and further spotfires throughout." http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=66423


Its always good to beat West Toast, even if its a meaningless game, played half a world away, with half your team missing.

For those of you who have not heard of Rob Bell, he is probably the best speaker I have ever heard. The way he brings meaning and life to scriptural principles is awesome. In my view, one of the biggest sins a preacher can commit is to bore their audience. How can the great stories found in the Bible be boring? Only if we are slack.

Listen to some of Rob Bell http://www.mhbcmi.org/listen/index.php or go to his 'nooma' site www.nooma.com for some excellent 9-11 minute presentation videos which are just superb, well done, sermon vignettes.

Cervantes, one of my favourite spots to get away. Pulling in some Herring 

Entitled "Vegetable Soup".
After unsuccesfully putting in a offer on a house nearer the Church, and being really dissapointed by the buyers taking it off the market, I felt that I should speak about how even when we dont know what is going on, God does. Sometimes life feels like a vegetable soup, all mixed up and the details are hard to distinguish.
If you want to know how it ends, see you at Church on Sunday :)