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Angus Buchan Mighty Mens Conference 2010



www.mightymensconference.org.au

Looking forward to this one...we are going need a bigger tent in 2010!
Koorong Leaflets coming out in October.

May be a bit light on at this blog for the next two weeks

I am sure you will all cope.... :)

Money and Revelation

Today at communion I spoke on money.
It was tough. TV Evangelists seem to have no problem speaking about it...but I do.
I wish sometimes we just were millionaires and could just focus on ministry and people, but I live in the real world...and our church, with its growth, is in need of finances. This coming months we are hosting the Artisan Markets, Jazz at the Wood, continuing Toddler Jam...and a host of stuff that blesses our community.

Reality is, without staff and resources we could not do what we do....so today I reminded our church about that, it was not easy.

Then I spoke on Revelation, particularly difficult passage being chapter 19. But this felt a lot easier, although the subject matter, Jesus as He is presented, can be confronting....
"As we flip over to Revelation 19 we are going to be confronted by an image, a story of Jesus that may offend our sensibilities…it may confront your image of Jesus, of who you think He is….
Up till this point we have seen Jesus as Creator, we have seen Him reaching out in love and reconcilitiation with Adam and Eve.
We have seen Him at His baptism, proclaimed God as the Spirit comes down upon Him, as the Father declares Him his son….
We have heard about Stephens vision of Jesus in Heaven.
We know Jesus went to the cross and suffered an awful horrific death at the hands of the Roman soliders…truly horrific and violent death.
Yet through it all Jesus has been reaching out to human beings, coming as a servant, coming in love, coming with reconciliation in mind.

Here in revelation 19 we have what is essentially an 'awful' picture of Jesus. That’s the truth…awful in the correct sense of the word. Awe inspiring. Jesus is presented as coming as a judge to the world. There is a time when Jesus says enough! The brutality, the violence, the awfulness of this world, and what people do to each other….must stop."

If you have something to say, make sure people understand you

"Jesus taught profound truth in simple ways.We do the opposite. Many "deep" teachers are actually just muddy!It's arrogance" (Rick Warren)

I follow lots of people on Twitter and Facebook.
Many of them are pastors, teachers, theologions.
Often they post stuff. Seriously, I have been to Theological College, I have been to Bible College, all up I have done about 7 and a half years of study.
Yet when I read some of their comments, its like...what planet are you on?

If you cant explain something in simple language, then you are being dumb.
Seriously, sometimes I think people use large words and concepts because they are lazy!
Its actually harder to make a deep concept simple, than what it is to cloud it in 'impressive' language. I am not impressed by you choice of big words!
Make it so people can understand what you are saying! What you are saying is probably helpful....if people could understand it.

Grand Final

It is almost upon us, the last Saturday in September....
It sure does not feel like it weather wise.

This Saturday the BIL (Brother in Laws) will be gathering at the Edwards house for our customary day of drinking, meat snacks, chips and cheering for the underdog.

This year I think the Saints will be our preference. It is a rare game where we will all be going for the same team. While one BIL has seen the light, the other is still stuck cheering for the West Coast Criminals.

We will have silly bets on who will kick the first goal, who will win the Norm Smith medal...and drag up as many silly cliches as we can for the game. The most favourite being, "the next goal will decide it'.

I don't know what it feels like to have a team in the GF, the closest I got was the Dockers preliminary final in 2006. Our time will come, and when it does, I wont be watching it on TV....thats for sure!

Lean In Video

This is really good.









Mondays

They are a funny old day for a pastor.
Many people don't realise the emotional and spiritual toll that Sunday can take on Pastors.
That is not a whinge, plenty of people have demanding jobs.

But Mondays for me, lately at least, have become a real 'blah' day.
Normally they are my wife and my date day....which is just superb. Two kids at school, most people at work, some precious time together. But Melinda's schedhule with assignments and womens conference has meant that has not happened, so I am left with the day to myself.

I don't really like that on Mondays, cause part of me wants to go to work, and another part tells me I should take the day off.
I either go to work, or I stay at home or whatever, and end up doing some work at home....

An evangelical theology of 'crap'

Quite frankly, this is one of the best articles I have ever read.

"Conservative evangelical Christians have long been known for shunning all sorts of behavior considered by others to be morally neutral or enjoyable. Whether it’s drinking alcoholic beverages,1 smoking tobacco products,2 playing cards,3 going to movie theatres,4 dancing,5 or even drinking coffee,6 “fundamentalist”7 Christians are often viewed by outsiders as having a God who is not only a white-clad, frowning prude, but also a “Cosmic Killjoy."

"Although many liberal scholars and non-Christians believe the Bible is full of crap,16 there’s actually only one place where the word occurs, though it is often scooped up or covered over by modern English translations."

More

H/t Finkelde

Angus Buchan is coming to Perth!


And here is the poster I have done to prove it!

Why Baptists should not drink alcohol


Don't be alarmed regular Markedly readers.

This title is one of the key search terms readers have used to find my blog.
If you are looking for reasons for the above title, look elswhere, there is nothing to see here!

Advertising needs to be honest, otherwise people get upset

I get lots of emails from different people....stuff I have subscribed for.
Here are two examples from the last couple of days which I think is dumb advertising.

1. A Christian Multi-Media company sends out a mass email, 'Free Loops'. Cool I think, they sometimes do give away free stuff. A company like 'Sermonspice' give a free one away a month, and of course 'Muddy River Media' give away all their stuff for free.
Only problem is that this company (no names no pack drill) is not giving anything away. If you purchase a mpeg pack, for about $45 US (rip off for stuff I could make myself) then you get a loop. That is not free.....that is bad PR

2. 1-Day send out a mass email advertising Nintendo Wi cheap price. Only problem is, I logged on before it was even for sale...waited till it came up, and they were sold out, already. How could that happen? It looks to me like they one for sale, and some lucky joker got that one, and the rest of us missed out. Its just trying to get people to their website...but its dumb advertising because all they do is upset and dissapoint a whole heap of their customers.

Marc Poree Visit

Obama calls it as he sees it



Yes he is....what the Pres said....

Angus Buchan

He is coming again to Perth, 26th - 28th February 2010
We are stepping out in faith this year, more so than we have before.
Stay tuned for further details as I can make them public, but suffice to say, we are planning the conference based on some preliminary information we have about attendance.

Should be awesome!

Hypostatic Union of the Theanthropic man

Yes, Jesus was both God and man. No, I cant explain to you something I don't fully understand myself.
But I do know the Bible is clear on both truths, and you don't have to believe the Bible, but if you do believe it, then you have to believe its clear revelation on this.

"One of the oft-invoked arguments of liberal theologians against the deity of Christ is the claim that he never personally claimed to be divine. Since this flies in the face of all the evidence, as will be shown below, how can such claims be made? Henry notes that "the contention by some New Testament scholars that Jesus never claimed to be the Christ, God's anointed one, invariably flows from critical theories that invalidate in advance the factuality of the Gospels as Gerhardus Vos has definitively shown. [v]
This, in turn, leads to the conclusion that the biblical writers deliberately, although not maliciously, falsified the evidence given in the New Testament records for apologetic purposes. They were recording what the early church chose to or wanted to believe rather than the hard, cold truth. However, "the fact that the apostles wrote from the standpoint of personal belief is evidence not that they fabricated the facts but rather that they professed to tell the truth." [vi] Even those who knew him most intimately called him the Son of God. As Henry again notes, "Peter confesses him to be veritably 'the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Matt. 16:16, KJV), a conviction that Jesus in turn grounds not simply in subjective experience but expressly in divine revelation." Source

But for those of us, who like me, prefer our media in youtube size bunches, Driscoll does a good job of explaining it.

Prayer

Oprah talks about prayer as though it is an end to itself, or something where we tap into karma.

Oprah is full of it.

If you are praying, you should want to pray to a Being who is bigger, more powerful and able to do stuff you can't.

Thats the point of prayer, to reach out to something which is beyond your own capabilities.

We Christians believe Jesus hears our prayers. Now hearing does not always mean we will get something we ask for, in fact the Bible warns us against asking for desires which are purely for selfish gain.

However the Psalmist does encourage us to 'pray for the desires of our heart'

I reckon a sensible person knows innately what the difference between a selfish immature desire is, and what something deep within us is.

I often encourage singles, if they desire it, to pray for a partner to live life with. Some might think that is a selfish desire, it aint, its what God wants. God wants us to be happy and fulfilled in this area of our life. He has made us sexual, relational beings....and He wants us to enjoy each other in the marriage context.

If you have never prayed before, or maybe are wondering why things just 'aint happening for you...don't pray because it makes you feel nice, pray because the God who made the heavens and the earth listens, and cares about you.

Churches in China...

This is fascinating.

"And you look around the world - that isn't true. It's true of Western Europe and it's true of Australia, but it's not true of most of the world. Most of the other areas of the world, religion is doing very well, and very much following the American model.

If you want a brilliant example of that, one of Rudd's favourite countries, got to China. It's close to 100 million Christians now, compared to 70 million members of the Communist Party. It's a big change and it's symbolic of what's been happening around the world."
"JOHN MICKLETHWAIT: One reason is the Government has cleverly hit on the one formula to make religion grow. It's something the ancient Romans did to Christianity, and it was a brilliant way inadvertently to cause religion to grow. The Chinese have set a limit on the number of people that can meet in a place, basically 25. Once you reach 25 people meeting in one of these house churches, which take place in somebody's home, once it's at that level the church has to split and start again. Automatically it's almost a formula for amoeba-like growth."
Source

What this means for us....churches grow when they are forming, starting.
We need to find ways to keep our churches changing and growing. I don't think small is the answer, I think change, desire, prayer is.

The place of the denomination in church life

I have been reflecting a bit on this lately for a few reasons.
Firstly, seeing the transition of our own Baptist Union here in WA over the past few years.
Secondly, having recently becoming friends with John Finkelde and seeing what the C3 network does for its pastors.
Thirdly, no names no pack drill, seeing some of the issues other denominations have had, various ones...not one specifically.

1. A denomination should see its Pastors as the primary point of call in churches. They are the ones giving their full time life to the work of the church.
The denomination should exist to champion them, resource them, support them....and discipline them if need be. The relationship between the pastor and the denomination should be constant. The pastor should feel the denominational body is supporting them, and helping them. They should not feel it is some distant body, just after their money or attendance at some boring meeting.
Since Steve Smith worked hard at transitioning our own WA Baptist Union, it has become this for us. Mark Wilson has come in from Whitfords Church and championed and resourced the BU WA....it is a body that pastors in our state can be proud of.
I wonder about other pastors who I hear of around the traps, who see their denominational body as distant or cold. Recently I met with my pastoral peer group, and the differences in attitude towards the various denominational bodies was astounding, and saddening.

2. A denominational body should be a vocal public voice for the community, to know clearly what the denomination stands for. Frankly, this is a hard task for us Baptists because we are so diverse! Our Baptist Church is soooo different to others around us, and thats cool, we all are on the same team! But it makes a denominational voice difficult.

3. A denominational body should provide legal and ethical frameworks in which churches should operate. I suggest our Baptist denomination does an exceptional job of this. The 'working with children' stuff is essential for contemporary church life. Many other churches have let the kingdom down badly in this area, so all of us must be dilligent.

I struggle with churches who do not find themselves as part of a wider body, it may lead to immature or plain foolish decisions, which can hurt the name of Christ. While all for autonomy of the local church, and the local church being responsible for its own propery and finances, there must be a final point of responsibility to someone. Sadly, some of our own Baptist Churches fail to engage with our union. I think this is foolish. Our Union at the moment is trying very hard to support and work with the churches, for kingdom aims. I encourage all WA Baptist Pastors and Churches to get on board!

Jesus First messagr for September

You will be able to listen to this message tommorow, here is the second paragraph, as I kick off this series for September.

"The picture we are using today is old…ragged…because we are talking about Jesus in the Old testament…and he is there…In fact it is really important to understand and know and believe that he is there because if Christ did not exist prior to His incarnation, before he came in the stable at Bethelehem, then He cannot be God. If He did not exist before the stable…then He is not God…if He did exist as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, then he is God. It is important because the truth about who Jesus is, is the most important truth. Do you know what makes a cult, what makes a heresy, what makes a lie of the Devil? What someone believes about Jesus. Also I want us to have a real appreciation of the unity of the Bible….and a love for those old testament stories where we see Jesus, before He was the baby. .
Christianity by its very name has always had Jesus Christ as its historical and logical center. What you think about Jesus is the most important aspect of your life when it comes to understanding what you think about God. The vast majority of churches who have believed in the Bible have come to understand and know that the bible is really clear, that Jesus was God, He has always been God, and He will always be God…by very definition, God can never stop being God, so even when Jesus was on earth, as a man, he was still God, he could not not be God.
Lets start at the beginning…"

What does a Wombat a Koala and a Chris Judd have in common?

They are all a protected species.
A few years back Judd eye gouged another player, Campbell Brown, that player fibbed, and Judd got off. Later on Brown admitted he had lied to get Judd off.
Saturday night, Judd, Mr Nice Guy...was at it again. Will he get suspended? I doubt it. (Update - Judd offered two weeks suspension for his 'death martial arts grip)

Jesus The Creator

This is a video I have made to kick off our new series.
There is some beautiful video shots here from the Hubble Telescope site, where you can download the videos for free.
I have used my favourite Hillsong song at the moment, 'His glory appears', and some scripture from Colossions 1.

You can download it here.

Growing with Jesus Preincarnate Jesus

This week I am speaking on the 'Pre-incarnate Jesus'. It may sound complicated, it aint.
The appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament before the stable.
Interesting stuff, and really relevant to our spiritual lives.
How Jesus responded and reached out to humans before Bethlehem helps us to reach out and relate to Him, and understand our own spiritual lives, now.
More....

Daniel Rich...and the typical rubbish from WA media

Well done to Rich. A great player, and seems like a decent bloke from a good family. The fact he won, being a West Australian, playing for Brisbane, shows you how good he has been.

Stephen Hill, Freo's first pick (7) in the draft, came 5th. Well done to Freo for thinking long term, but also picking someone who still managed to figure in the award, and come 5th.

So why is Freo getting all this criticism for not picking Rich, when the Eagles choice did not even get nominated for the award? And their earliest pick from last year, who was eligable for this award, despite being nominated, got no votes????

Billie Weir Home at Last

There are some people who come into your life who leave an indelible mark.
Billie Weir was one of those people.
Of everyone I have ever met on this earth, she is the closest to a saint I have ever come.

I shared once, as her frail body was seated in church, that if we could have our eyes opened, and see from a heavenly perspective, we would see her as a Mighty Warrior, knees scarred from hours spent in the Lord's presence, heart strong from the presence of the Spirit, mind keen from a will determined to see the Lord's presence revealed.

She saw it all at Bedford Baptist Church, conflict, gossip, people ripping into each other at members meetings, Pastors being sacked....Billy rose above it all...and in the midst of human indency, saw God at work.

Many times I would sit next to her at her home, pouring out my heart to her...having her pray for and minister to me, with words and strength that boosted my confidence, and gave me fight to continue.
She believed that things would get better, and when they did, she rejoiced that she had lived to see it.

Billie was the type of person that actually made you aware of how far from God you were. Not because she would ever judge, but just because you were in the presence of someone great, someone who you could wish to be like a little more....but someone who always made you feel blessed and special to be with.