Thanks to Freosharks at Dockerland for the Pic

City blokes need input as well.
I am pretty heavily involved in the Mighty Mens Conference which is deliberately aimed at a rural bloke. Hence the accommodation is basic, the food is tasty and plentiful and the whole production values, while professional..are low key.

The Real Mens Conference put on by C3 Hepburn Heights is squarely aimed at Urbanites. Which is great.

Friday night was a full on media/tech experience....heaps of excellent values, fireworks off guitars and slick presentations. A good coffee van outside, and blokes encouraged to twitter about the event while it was happening.

I think many secular organizations could learn some clues from how to put on a conference.

Pastor Phil Pringle, who heads up the C3 movement spoke on the Friday Night, the only night I could attend.
One of the highlights for me was when he challenged the men to 'man up' and support the ministry...in every way...and not leave it for other blokes to carry their load.
I heard some excellent comments about Graham Mayburys talk on the Saturday...always insightful, wise and challenging.

This is not a joke, or rumour.
This is from a lady that is involved at our Toddler Jam Ministry at Inglewood Church.
She believes in the power of dreams...as do I.

.....................
13 years ago, my Dad disappeared into the night...I am asking your help to find him. His name is Gregory Holmes.

After having a gun held to his head in his news agency in Mosman Park Western Australia, he disappeared.He is a Vietnam vet, and also suffering post traumatic stress. We have not seen him since 13 April 1998. We found his car (a white Barina) at the Warwick train station a few days later.
On 1st August 1998, my 21st Birthday, we had a phone call....there was no one speaking on the other end, but I know it was my dad. We traced the call to Geraldton WA...that was the last contact we had.

In 2000 my dad was found by police in the eastern states of Australia under an assumed name, he indicated he was not yet ready to return to his former life. Now I think he feels it has just been too long, but it is never too late to make amends, even if we could just get a letter to him...

He is a short man, about 162cm would probably be almost bald by now,he had a black moustache then, and may have a beard, or may be clean shaven...who knows. His build was slim to medium. He also wears glasses. He would be 64 years old now.

I ask you to keep your eyes peeled, or if you have ANY information please contact me ASAP on.... findmydad@y7mail.com

Why now? So long after the event? We have tried so many things to locate my dad, this came to me in a dream....and I believe in the power of people and friendship, and hoping someone, somewhere can help us....my Dad has only met one of his grandchildren and I would really like my kids to grow up knowing their granddad....he has 9 grandchildren.

If you have ANY information....please contact me. findmydad@y7mail.com

Thank you

Kaylene Taylor

Last night I went along to Riverview Church to 'The Bloke' which is a mens event, and to hear Danny Green speak.

It was an excellent night, great event which you could invite anyone along too.
The music, themes, panel, multi-media, videos were all along the theme of "I am Legend" with the question being, who is a legend, what makes a legend.

Danny Green was invited by Hayden Nelson, a friend of mine, and Senior Pastor at Riverview.
He did a great job of interviewing Green.

Danny spoke really well, humorous, appropriate and insightful...a really interesting bloke.
Hayden asked him, and Danny spoke about how he rescued a guy from drowning down at Rabbits Beach, how he loves his family, his time on 'Dancing with the Stars' and some of his fights.

Of course the 'money' questions were the ones about Mundine and Paul Briggs.
Danny shared that he hardly knows Mundine, and that he does actually appreciate some of his values. Green once rang him up when he was on Sydney Talkback, and pretended to just be a normal caller, hassling Mundine for not wanting to fight Green. Then he revealed who he was. Green would love to fight Mundine again.

The explanation of the fight with Briggs was interesting, with Danny stating that Briggs was serious about the fight, to the point of playing mind games, having extra weight (which means more strength and power) and Briggs trying to portray to the Danny Camp that Green was going to get smashed. The end result is being investigated, but from Danny's point of view, the media reported s lot of 'baloney' about the fight.

At the end, Danny wanted to share with the audience about his faith, or lack of faith. In fact it was clear he had come prepared to say something about his own spirituality. It was a very honest and frank assessment that he struggles to believe in God because of the poverty and pain and suffering he see's in the world, particularly children suffering. It was delivered in a fighting manner...and Hayden was obviously comfortable with Danny sharing the truth about his faith...I have to say they handled it really well.

All in all, a very well organised event, something that no matter where you stand with God, you could have received some value from it.

I am speaking at Harvest Time 2010, a mens conference put on by some of the Fourquare Churches. (here)

Really looking forward to it.
God just dropped some thoughts and scriptures into my heart as I was praying about what to speak on....I don't want to talk about that too much...as I will wait till I speak on it...but here is one of the analogies I have written down...

"When you watch football the worst thing that a commentator can say is that a player dogged it. that means he pulled out of the contest because he was afraid of being hurt.
Its the worst thing you can be called because football is a team sport, where every man on the field is meant to do what he can for the team. and when the time comes for that man to take a hit, to put his body on the line...if he pulls out, he is dogging it. How does this apply to todays men in todays church?"

Hasleby Retires

My favourite moments.

Watching him being drafted, his laconic attitude, his desire to be drafted to Fremantle...
His breakout year where he won the Norich Rising Star Awards.
The time he laughingly stomped on an Eagles Jumper during a Ten News story...
and this moment...one of many Derbies he starred in.

* As a pastor I try to not tell people how to vote, nor how I vote. I don't think that is my role, and furthermore....I think each person should vote according to their own conscience. and being a spiritual leader, I might sway people too much...and I don't want to do that.

* This was the least inspiring election I can remember. Both major parties attacked the other party relentlessly, rather than give inspiring leadership. Even if I disagree, I am more likely to be attracted to leadership, rather than negative rubbish.

* The result was indicative of this, with the most amount of 'donkey' votes ever.

* We should all thank God that the election took place with peace and order, and without the need for armed guards, fear and jostling...as happens in other countries, as some folk from church explained to me in amazement (at our procedures)

Ramblings....

Shark kills dad
Sad when anyone dies young, sad when it is a father of children....sigh
Love the beach, swimming, diving, body surfing.....don't like the idea of my fearless son out boogie boarding while sharks are out there.

Ben Cousins
Good to see him face up to some of his issues. Wish him nothing but a blessed life. Betcha his is glad he has the father he does.

WA mining boom
Its sort of good we have a mining boom for our economy. Its not good when fathers have to leave their families for two weeks at a time to buy a house.

I think Andrew Demetriou and Adrian Anderson have found the novel '1984' at the back of some Lygon St secondhand bookstore and thought they had stumbled onto a 'policy document' for running a sporting competition.

Seriously.

They have proposed rule changes such as allowing a goal if the ball hits the post and interchange restrictions. These rules don't 'tweak' the game, they change it fundamentally.
All in the name of making the game 'better'.

What the AFL ruling body are forgetting is that they are custodians of the game, they don't own it! The game is healthy, millions support it, it is uniquely Australian. I say that because it is obvious from how well indigenous players go, that AFL finds its soul in our Australian culture. Who cares if no one else gets it or plays it? Its our game....leave it alone!

Andrew and Adrian seem to be following the pattern set by various educational ministers, they feel they must leave their 'stamp' on the game. They have already done that by successfully launching new teams, and helping the AFL to be financially stable.

But the essence of the game is being threatened here. What other game has its rules changed at a administrators whim? On a hunch?

Do we all remember the 'flooding' debate? Coaches adapted, the game adapted, and naturally, teams found a way to beat it.

Leave the game along Adrian, concentrate on what you are good at.

I have always wanted to use the word 'vacuous' in a post.
Hamo beat me to it.

“I am really tired of listening to people complain about their tedious, and sometimes vacuous lives because I believe there is a choice to live for something greater, but it comes at the cost of not living for the temporal and insignificant.”
Here

Having John Kaiser post a comment on my last post reminded me of people I have met along this ministry journey who have shaped me. John was a significant help to me in the formation of my ministry philosophy
I love networks, friendships and learning off others.

Now I am trying to be a hub myself....listening too, gathering information off and sharing information with...other pastors.

In this electronic age, it is far easier...but nothing beats sitting down with someone and having coffee together...and really getting down to what is important.

I am amazed how many pastors don't do this. Lone Rangers...they don't last.

I started at Bedford Baptist Church over 17 years ago now, coming on as Associate Pastor, and then with the leaving of Pastor Joe Westlake, the Senior.
I am the longest serving pastor at this church by a decade.
The longest serving pastor was Pastor Westlake, who was there for about 6-7 years.
Average stay was just 18 months.

Now...the actual church building is being dismantled as we look to our future, building a performing arts theatre...for emerging and young artists.
We are looking for property as the old property is divided up into lots to sell.
Some grief and joy as the property comes down.

Kicked off this series on Sunday...really enjoying looking into the Holy Spirit!
"The proposition I want to talk about and discuss over the next few weeks is that being aware of the Holy Spirit, of Gods presence in our lives will enable us to live a passionate life. because His presence in our lives changes our attitude.
You see the problem with attitude is that it is intangible. It hides behind our weaknesses and and strengths.
So when someones problem really is their attitude they can hide behind excuses. Negativity, whinging, sloppy, mediocre, victim mentality, stingy, sour, arrogant, unteachable, self satisfied people are very quick to point towards circumstances or other people as the problem behind their lack of success or passion. But that is not the problem, the problem is their interpretation of events!"

Couple of years back I bought my HTC Tytn II.
Against a couple of friends advice, who said, buy an IPhone!
Why I thought?
The most important consideration to me was that it synced up with my calender on my PC.
Appointments are important to me. I don't like to miss them, and I know my memory for detail is not great. So I need something which is going to help me.

The Tytn II had GPS, Internet Access and synced up beautifully to my PC. It also had a full suite of Office Applications.
It has been a great device and quality made as well, solid. I have lost count of the times I have dropped it, and it has remained intact.

But......

A little while back I had bought for me my first Apple Product, MacBook Pro.
It has been a learning curve, but an enjoyable one, such an intuitive device.
And the HTC, while it does sync up, it does not do it natively.

My contract is complete, its time for a new phone.
IPhone 4 on the way. Will take a couple of weeks.
Will sync up nicely with my MacBook, and comes with 1 gig of free net access per month.
Will let you know how it goes.

New series at Inglewood Church, A Passionate Life!

"The proposition I want to talk about and discuss over the next few weeks is that being aware of the Holy Spirit, of Gods presence in our lives will enable us to live a passionate life. because His presence in our lives changes our attitude.
You see the problem with attitude is that it is intangible. It hides behind our weaknesses and and strengths.
So when someones problem really is their attitude they can hide behind excuses. Negativity, whinging, sloppy, mediocre, victim mentality, stingy, sour, arrogant, unteachable, self satisfied people are very quick to point towards circumstances or other people as the problem behind their lack of success or passion. But that is not the problem, the problem is their interpretation of events!"

Great Video, with thanks to Dockerland.

See the post two down.