"But of course the criticism of Bono is that he is an extremely wealthy rock star, and U2 put on incredibly expensive rock concerts.
And you know what I am not here to defend him or portray him as some sort of saint, he is not.
He swears, he drinks, he smokes cigars…and he does not go to church every Sunday….and I am sure he has wasted a lot of money that could go somewhere better.
For me though, my interpretation of that is, that everyone of us lives in this world, where nothing is perfect, and no one is equal…
Compared to some child with nothing coming across the ocean on some rickety boat fleeing from Sri Lanka, I am a wealthy wealthy person, and so are most of us here today.
Bono will have to stand before God for the wealth he has….so will I…
But at this point, to be frank, he has done more for the poor in the world than I ever have, or probably ever will….so I am not judging him, but his faith in Jesus has galvinised him into action…..."

to hear the rest, see you at Inglewood Church this Sunday, or come back here Tuesday and I will have uploaded the audio.....

During the ground breaking U2 concert, broadcast live over Youtube, watched by millions,
Bono is thanking those helping with the Aids Tragedy, and one of those he mentions is Rick Warren, at about the 2:10:40 mark.

Watch

What are you giving your life for?

We all give our life for something...even if its for nothing.

Today I had to drop some stuff in at a church in another area.
Thing is...this church is one of the best located churches in Perth.
It has great facilities, fantastic public exposure, and has in the past run some wonderful...and huge...public events.

It has so much potential, probably more than just about any church I can think of at the moment.
Yet....various pastors have passed through its doors...and not because of conflict or bad leadership (at least from what I can tell on behalf of the church).
But....none of them have stayed.

I was just struck today by how easy I think it would be..compared to some of the hard slog I have been through the past few years, to see this church grow.
But the missing ingredient has been stable long term pastoral leadership.

Important....undervalued.

Here is a video I have made up to show at Mens Groups to Promote Mighty Mens Conference

I spoke on Martin Luther King this Sunday.
It was a really inspiring and thought provoking topic for me.
Here are some notes, and also the link to th audio if you are interested.

" When America was first formed as a nation they wrote the constitution which guaranteed freedom and the right to pursue a happy life to all of its peoples, regardless of their race creed or religion.

However for 300 years after that, the slave trade was alive and well in America where black people where shipped from Africa to be bought, sold, worked and used as cattle…as machines….as slaves. After the civil war the black people of North America were declared free…but well into the 20^th century, people were shunted, segrageted, placed in substandard schools, or no schools, they were denied the right to own property, to marry who they wanted…..while on paper they were declared free…they still where under the bondage of slavery to the point of not even being able to get onto the bus if a white person was there. Coretta scott King who married Martin Luther King, told the story of how as a little girl she watched the local police force and local city council burn down her fathers saw mill….burn down her fathers life work…in front of the family.

Then as she struggled as a young black girl in Alabama to get an education she told how she used to walk to the black only primary school and be covered in dust from the buses of the white children being driven to their school in the early 1940’s.

American citizens of African descent where not allowed to vote, not allowed to eat in restaurants, only allowed to travel on certain buses at certain times…

There are some fascinating photos on this site.
Chernobyl Today in Photos

Inglewood Church was pretty packed on Sunday.
Perhaps more encouraging though was seeing some folks there for the first time who we have been praying for.
Seeing people make the transitions is always encouraging as well. Growing.

Its a great place to be at the moment, with some big challenges facing us over the next few months, some big big decisions.

I love this man! What a preacher. Consider how courageous this truthful and inspirational message was to speak in his time.

This is great!


More here

The sketch on 'Hey Hey Its Saturday' which aired recently to the disgust of Harry Connick Jnr, involved some 'entertainers' painting their faces black in a throwback to a old time sketch. I have no reason to suspect the performers were racist, nor that their intent was to be racist in the sketch.

However I think we should all be offended by it and this is why.

"The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages."

Why is this significant? Because a perfomer called Thomas D Rice performed a racist and derrogatory perfomance utitising 'black face' during the 1800's. The song he sung, which I wont repeat here, was called 'Jump Jim Crow' from which the 'Jim Crow' segregation laws were named after.

It is all about origins. 'Black face' performance was originally a device used by Rice to promote himself through an easy target and stereotype of a group of people. The 'Jim Crow' laws were plain unjust yet sprung in part at least from the perception propogated by Rice and other performers of his ilk. They promoted Negroes as 'buffoonish, lazy, superstitious, cowardly, and lascivious characters, who stole, lied pathologically, and mangled the English language. Early blackface minstrels were all male, so cross-dressing white men also played black women who were often portrayed either as unappealingly and grotesquely mannish; in the matronly, mammy mold; or highly sexually provocative'.

For those seeing the 'black face' performance, its disgusting when you consider the origins of it....It is no joke.
Ref: Jim Crow Laws Thomas Rice

Speaking on the great man this week.
What a preacher.
Watching this for the first time.
Vision, passion, hope....'And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Mmmmmmmm.....
and that is all I have to say about that....
apart from the fact I just saw Brian Taylor from Fox Sports AFL Commentary team walk past....and he looks as much of a dork off the screen as on... :)

Link

Eliot Vlatko, Inglewood's Associate Pastor, Worship Leader and alround talented musician has a blog!

EM Vlatko

Check it out!