It takes a few plays....but I am really getting into the new U2 album..."no line on the horizon'.
This song in particular is a beauty....


"I was born
I was born to sing for you 

I didn’t have a choice
But to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry
It was a joyful noise
Oh, oh"

Not a lot to say.
Dockers played their first game today against a fast running and skilled Western Bulldogs side.

Dockers kicked a number of wayward points, that should have been goals. It would have been much more interesting if a few of those had snuck in!

Good signs.
Tarrant played well down back, having Brad Johnsons measure
Peake played his best game ever for Freo, he was everywhere, fast, skilled and kicked 3 goals.
Kepler Bradley also played well.

Hill is an awesome player, kicked a goal for his first afl kick.
Nick Suban also played really well

Sandilands also played well...but his excellent work was often 'sharked'.

Had a great day in church today....big crowd in...which is always good....they really sung this morning, got into it! It was good to see some folk back in church and enjoying it. Our worship team seems to be getting bigger and more skilled and interesting to listen to. Good music really helps me to worship at church...there is something about it when Gods people relax and go with it....

I spoke on tha passage where Jesus explains that a seed needs to die in order to bear fruit.
It was recieved well...and I spoke on obedience at the communion time...which tied in with the theme for the day.

The Kids ministries had their 'Supa Sunday' and this went well...by all accounts. A lot of the teachers enjoyed having the music in for the kids, and we also attracted some more parents along, which was awesome.

Afterwards a few of us kicked on down at the Bayswater River picnic area...and Clem swam across the river to this little island he is always bugging me to be allowed to swim too...so today I let him! He loves adventure and exploring, like any boy I suppose.

Read a fascinating article in the State newspaper this week where the author was demoaning the lack of 'space' for young and emerging artists to display, and even create their art. Coupled with the demise of the Rhechabite theatre (community performing arts theatre) in Northbridge, I am even more convinced of the direction our church is heading.

The arts and drama is something the early church was right into. Our God is a Creative Creator....and something that resonates within me.

I see opportunities for us....so much....such a different way of thinking about church and its role in the community, so many opportunities for us to engage with our culture and community, with the synergy being opportunities for young people and community groups....

Lord...we wait upon You for direction and provision.

This made me laugh out loud....

This is pretty sobering stuff....from Chuck Warnock....

"I have visited countries in Asia where whole families live in barns, or chicken coops, or cardboard boxes. I have traveled in Mexico, and visited border towns, and tourist havens. I rode through Mexico City where 26-million people eke out a living amid both splendor and poverty. We expect to see grinding poverty, hunger, and homelessness in the two-thirds world. But, in America? In the most properous country in the world? This is the new America for some."

"This is the sin of a society where executives of a failed global enterprise take home millions in “bonus” earnings, passing the victims of corporate greed and criminality in their BMWs and Mercedes-Benzs. This is America. This cannot, must not, should not continue to be the only America."

Link

Add your own music...it finished with the ressurection....


Download here

It can be really frustrating when you can see with clarity what is the truth...it is so clear, but to help someone else see it can be really frustrating.

Knowing Jesus as my Lord and God....it is such a blessing. It means I am accountable, it means I cant just live how I want...but the rewards are such a blessing.
Sometimes it means persecution, being misunderstood, not being liked, being uncomfortable...but there are moments of utter joy as we rest in Him.
There is not a tension at those moments, there is not a sense of frustration.

Lately I have been reading my pda bible before I even get out of bed. It is really great. I dont have to disturb anyone, and it allows the Spirit to speak and help me, and set my heart right...before my day even starts.

I hope that everyone discovers what knowing Jesus as their Lord and God means...it brings real purpose, fulfilment and joy.
Sorry is this post sounds like a evangelical rave...it is not meant to be..its just how I am feeling at the moment.

In my view, the best ever Western Derby....for a few reasons...
A win in the dying minute.....
My brother in law Scott had come with me, a died in the wool Budgie supporter...had to endure my son and me all the way home...
And...Gossage said so!

Today an old friend sent me these questions for a assignment he is going...I found it an interesting exercise..

One of the assignments asks me to interview a few pastors... I was wondering if you would be able to answer a few questions for me? If you are able, could you email the answers back ASAP. Thanks heaps, if you're able to help.

1. What is your position in the church?
2. What denomination is your church? (also state/country)
3. How long have you been in pastoral ministry?
4. How long have you been in your current church?
5. What are the key character qualities needed as a pastor?
6. What are the key skills needed as a pastor?
7. What are the key tasks of a pastor?
8. Roughly, how much time do you spend on these key tasks?
9. What gives you the most satisaction in your ministry?
10. What gives you the most frustration in your ministry?

My answers....
1. Senior Pastor
2. Baptist WA
3. 15 years
4. 15 years
5. perserverance, confidence, good sense of humour
6. leadership, ability to change
7. Leadership, insipiring, visionary
8. 25 hours per week
9. seeing people become Christians
10. whinging Pharasiaical, selfish Christians who should know better :)

I was not happy with the previous effort, it is okay. But I reckon this is better.


You can download it here

"It is not difficult to get your message out, its difficult to get people to care"
Seth Godin

Wise words.

How are churches getting the words out in a way that people care?

Seems like a moment ago I was getting some Christmas media stuff ready!
Here is something I have put together for Easter Sunday....Our theme for the season is, 'the rebel Jesus'...


You can download it here,
let me know if it is useful.

A thought I had while preparing some media for Easter...
While alive, Jesus refused to conform to others expectations of Him, He was not about to start when they killed Him!

Wayne and I have relaunched 'Australian Pastors'. To celebrate, Wayne has negotiated with Dr John Jackson to provide a very special offer to all readers of 'Australian Pastors'.

"To celebrate the Australian release of Pastorpreneur we have negotiated an exclusive deal with Koorong Books and the author. As our way of saying "thank you" for reading the Australian Pastor's blog we would like to give you a complimentary copy of Pastorpreneur to......" (Read More)

Worst footy journalists that is....
Sheahan has come out with his top 50 best players, and Pav is the only Freo player to crack a mention.

The All Australian Ruckman, Sandilands...does not crack a mention, neither does the Rising Star, Palmer........instead we find Rioli...now Rioli is a great player, but Palmer certainly deserves a gurnsey before him.
Cox is there, despite leading his team to a 15 finish, and being injured for much of the year.

List

Good Sunday in Church today.
Andrew from Tear Fund came and shared how the $3000 we raised at Christmas will help two villages, about 200 families, will get water...thus enabling girls to go to school, dysentry and vomiting to decrease, and infant mortality drop by 50%...thats pretty awesome actually, that together, we could do that.

Jim Mc Kinnon (older guy at church) led out Community Choir, Soul Jam, in a rendition of 'God's Radar' which brought the house down, it was funny, moving...great!

I spoke on Jesus' passion for His Fathers House, and what it drove Him to....get mad. I enjoyed the story, and explaining some of it. Got a heap of feedback, which was great. A few visitors commented that they liked that I spoke about 25 minutes, to the point, good content etc. I am always amazed that some preachers speak for 45 plus minutes. Unless you are at a conference, that is...in my view...too long, and that is normally the feedback given. To bore people is a sin..I reckon. I also think, on a typical Sunday morning, the skill is in condensing the message, or maybe distilling it is a better word. Either way, its not about what I have to say, but God's. I reckon if you are waffling...its about you!

I am making a very bold prediction here....
the most unlikely Brownlow Medal winner.....it may just happen!

and on a much more realistic note...a lot of players are going to see the back of this guy....and he might just be winning us our second Rising Star in a row...

The kids asked me an interesting question today...or rather they made a statement.
"If there are aliens, God made them"
That...along with Google launching Google Mars (Link) has me pondering the question, how would the discovery of aliens affect my faith?
I remember back to the 80's when church people were talking about this and one famous evangelist said, "well if there are aliens, they will need to hear the gospel, so we had better make sure there is a Christian on the spacecraft".

Aliens could take any form...why would they need to be the same size (roughly) as us? There could be millions of them on the tip of a pin...trying desperatly to communicate with us right now (Think 'Horton hears a who')

But back to the question, what if we do discover some form of life on Mars...even if it is just a group of cells? Does that affect my faith? Probably not, no more so that the incredible discoveries we are still finding in the depths of the oceans.

God is inherently creative, diverse in His work...amazing Creator. The depth and beauty of the universe tells us that.

Leave the Dockers at your peril...

"Carlton made application to the AFL today to transfer Rob Warnock from the primary list to the long term injury list. Warnock has had a set back in his recovery from a foot stress fracture and it was decided to place him on the long term injury list to ensure he has time to fully recover from the injury."
Link

and Jay Clark, one of the Sunday Times worst (and that is saying something) and most biased reporters....wrote this on Sunday....
"WARNOCK STEPS UP Carlton ruckman Robert Warnock is on track to play Round 1 in the VFL as his recovery from a foot injury gathers momentum. He has increased his training load after a series of shoulder, ankle and foot problems wiped out his summer. His eventual return is hoped to give the Blues an extra edge to an already impressive onball department. The 206cm ruckman played 21 games in three seasons at Fremantle"
Link 2

Why I do what I do....for Him...all glory....meditate on this...Selah....

Will be a good year to see these players develop...if nothing else.


(Thanks to Freo 1995 for uploading these)

and I have just thought of a ripper theme and graphics for it all.....
more to come!

For those long suffering readers of this blog you will know I recently got a new laptop, Acer Aspire 5735Z..... What you may not realise is that I have been trying to render the Mighty Mens Conference video on it...and on my PC....to try and get this laborious and time consuming job done.
The Laptop had 2 gig ram...you would think that would be enough, apparently not. The thing was running like a dog..... I have now installed 2 more gig ram, bringing it up to 4 gig, along with its dual core processor.....lets see if that helps.

The last few weeks have been nothing short of frantic...but this week just gone, it has slowed down considerably.

One new aspect of my life is Monday mornings with my wife. We both have the morning off from any structured responsibility, so after dropping the kids off at their respective schools, we have about 3 or 4 hours to ourself. It is so nice!
This morning we headed off to look at a piece of furniture Melinda was interested in and then headed to Mnt Hawthorn for a coffee and a wander....
It is really nice there along Scarborough Beach Road, lots of interesting shops....
We stopped in at the New Norcia Bakery, which I have wanted to visit for a while. It did not live up to the hype! The coffee, while it came out of Synesso Machine, and was Five Senses, was too hot, and lacked body....the crossaint came well after Melindas food, and was burnt and dry....sigh.

Not too worry though, it was so nice to just have some time together. Next week we are probably going to visit 'Lush' which is across the road.....

Kim Hagdorn in his typical style nailed his colours to the mast...yet again. In todays Sunday Times he had to come up with a reason why his precious Eagles lost to the Dockers again.
This times excuse? The umpires were to blame.

Look up the dictionary under "Dockers Bunnies" Kim, there will be a photo of the West Coast Eagles....Thats why the lost...that and the superb efforts of Sandilands and Crowley, surely one of the most underated players in the AFL.....does everyone realise that he kicked the winning goals while playing on the Eagles best player, Kerr?

It is just so bias.....sigh....but then, who am I to talk? :)

Spent this morning at Jam Central, and then this afternoon rendering videos for the Mighty Mens Conference. Watching the videos is flooding back memories to my heart and mind.
There is one scene which occured on Saturday night where the crowd screamed for more....2000 men chanting and letting the worship team know that they were not ready to stop yet. The sound quality is shocking, but because I was there...and I can hear the clapping...in time....in unison...with the clear message...it brings back the sense I had when I was there.

I was chatting with my brother in law this afternoon and he was telling me how different men from different parts of his life were also full of expression about this time.

But, as much as I am happily rendering these dvd's and blokes who were there will 'get it'....its pretty hard to bottle. If you were not there...you missed out.
Its a bit like the miracles of Jesus. There were plenty of people in Jesus' day who did not get healed. They were not in the right place at the right time....or they did not want it badly enough.
I am sorry if you were not there.....dont miss it next year, if it happens. I can't guarantee it will be the same, but if you do not place yourself in the position, if God does bless us again with such a tangible sense of His presence, you wont want to miss it.

You may not believe me, you may be cynical, fair enough. But don't forget how much faith it took for the man's friends to take him to the house, bust open the roof, and lower him in. Maybe a much better option would be to take the little mustard seed you have....and be there next year, God willing.

"An idea without implementation isn’t creation.
It’s imagination.

By definition, being creative requires that you create something.
True creative people don’t just dream it-they do it…or oversee the strategy to get it done.
True creativity results in a product. Not just an idea."
(Source)

Woh.....well said Steven.

An idea or a thought posted on a blog does not make a revolution, changed lives do that, people having their worldview changed through the power of God...thats a revolution.

He does a great job of responding to the questions....and challenging the interviewer to consider Jesus.....

"“The world for which we were trained no longer exists.”
Pete Briscoe

Aint that the truth. The theological training I recieved had some merit. There were things there that I really appreciated. It gave me sound good theological basis for ministry.

But to say to prepared me for ministry would be grossly overstating it.
Conflict resolution, leadership, missional development of leaders, organisation skills, leading a board, leading a meeting, inspiring, vision casting....

uh...no.

Those were things I desperatly sought once I was in the ministry, and quickly realised how inadequetly prepared I was.

Angus Buchan said something on the weekend which resonated with me....he said that "he might be accused of emotionalism.....but what is wrong with being emotional?"

Who gave us emotions, and who tells us not to use them?

Certainly not the bible, nor the Judeo roots of our faith. Have you read the scriptures? Do you not read about the celebrations, the feasts, the passionate emotion charged worship of the priests, kings and prophets?

Think about those who tell us off for being too emotional, are they the sort of people we should emulate?

Consider these contrasts....

David.....Michal....

Jesus....Pharisees....

One issue though is that of let down, or as musicians might say, "monday morning blues'. But even this is recognised in the scriptures. We cannot be on a continual high, we need to have times of rest, solitude, silence, contemplation. But those are times to celebrate as well....celebrate the quietness...just as we celebrate the noise.

The noise of 2000 plus men chanting for more worship songs is something that resonates within me even today, three days after the event, as I sit in the quiet of my study.

Watching Rove tonight, the band 'The Living End' came on and sung this song.
Extraordinary lyrics....


Lyrics to Raise The Alarm :
Wo-oh! [x8]

I do not believe in God
That doesn't mean I'm a lesser person
I still have a heart
And I know what it feels like to be broken

I may not believe in Jesus
But I do believe in sacrifice
Life does not always stand reason
No one ever gets a chance
'Til they're out of time

I'd rather risk my fate
Then lose my faith
The lovin', the hatin'
The consenceapating
The chaos that comes
Raise The Alarm

We mean it
We'll die
Consence Denied
The Chaos that comes
Raise The Alarm

I may not believe in regrets
But I believe in self assurance
Some things I'd rather forget
We see what we choose and
We choose what we see to believe

In the name of the father,
the son,
and the holy ghost
I'm not concerned with religion
After all that whats inside
That is Smoke
(etc...)

However I must note this incogruity on their website when they say this in relation to the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal,
"our thoughts and prayers.... etc"
(Link)

(note to self, control yourself when posting this...so many comments....)

I was speaking to Phil Baker recently and he told me that John Worsfold is the guest speaker at this weeks "Bloke"....it is a great event put on by Riverview Church.

The title of this months 'Bloke"?....mmmmmmm well it is entitled, "when leadership goes wrong".....BIG MMMMMMM....and another note to self....stop typing before you get all those Eagles fans upset!!!!

But...if you are a bloke, this event is great.

The Bloke

So said Angus....in his bellowing South African Accent....
There were so many highlights...here are the key points for me.

1. Hearing 2000 plus men sing....I mean farmers, electricians, tradies, and all the city blokes....Saturday night....you had to be there to know it. I have NEVER at any conference, including Hillsong, whatever....heard a crowd demand to sing more worship songs. unbelievable And the people doing this were blokes. All the nay sayers out there who reckon Aussie blokes wont sing...know squat. Yes it may go against our culture, but it is not against God's culture. These blokes were men, tough strong blokes....and it was probably the most inspiring worship I have ever experienced.

2. Being involved. I worked my butt off for this conference, but with responsibility and work also comes privileges....it was fantastic to see hard work pay off as the blokes were crying, laughing, repenting...and many came to know Jesus for the first time.

3. Angus led a session just for Pastors. This was just incredible. What he said to me was perplexing, and I am still working through it...but it was quite different to what he said to others. After he had anointed me with oil and prayed for me, I sat down and just listed to what he said prophetically to other blokes, he has the supernatural gift of discernment and prophecy. Prophecy done as it should be, with real love and concern.

4. Cathing up with old mates, and some I have not seen for a while, and some new ones. Great!