Eternity - June 2015 - Issue 59

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Number 59, JUNE 2015 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Storm in a teacup?

Book bans halted, but Scripture in schools still under pressure

Is Australia Learn to a post God love nation? people

who are different from you

Faith belongs on your bucket list

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NEWS

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News page 2-3 In Depth 5-7 Books Liftout

JUNE 2015

Losing our religion writers

Infographic:

Public issues and priorities for churches

A sample of Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church attenders were asked the following question as part of the 2011 NCLS: On which of the following public issues do you think your church denomination should be most active? This is their response.

Bible Society 12 Opinion 13-20

Obadiah Slope

ROAD RULES: There may be other reasons not to ban John Dickson’s A Sneaking Suspicion (one of the trio of books whose banning is discussed elsewhere in this Eternity) but for me the chapter heading “The sex factor: Is sex more like a Porsche than a Datsun?” makes this a book to be read not burned. Note to Millennials: Nissan = Datsun.

FAITH COMES BY READING: Mass media tends not to get praise from Christians, which makes an article “Faith in Fairfax: How a newspaper gets right what atheists get wrong” by the Melbourne branch of the City Bible Forum (CBF) intriguing.

Taking a selection of articles from The Age, that use the word “faith”, from a football coach’s faith in his players to Queensland’s controversial chief justice allegedly undermining “faith” in the justice system, Robert Martin demonstrates that the Australian community’s view of the meaning of faith is close to the Christian one. Faith as “commitment”, “trust”, “dependence” is the usual meaning rather than the atheist Richard Dawkin’s definition of “blind trust, in the absence of evidence”.

And, as CBF notes, the article was originally posted at the “atheist forum” blog.

HE’S RIGHT: Thabo Makgoba, who heads South Africa’s Anglicans might be accused of stating the obvious when he recently said that we should use the internet to communicate. But he actually has a point, that anyone who has been on a heated Facebook discussion for five seconds will agree with.

“We need to embark on a process of evangelisation and transform the social media and the internet from being what they are right now, as a source of conflict, a source of division, and turn them into a source of good and a source of communication.”

(c) NCLS | Public issues and priorities for churches Catalogue number 01.13004

NOT A TAME CAR: Aslan is now a car rather than a lion. That’s according to the rather large billboards (and one or two cars) Obadiah spied on a trip to South Korea. facebook.com

KALEY PAYNE Barney Zwartz has won the Ridley Marketplace Institute and ETHOS annual Faith and Work award.

Zwartz worked at The Age as religion writer and editor for 11 years from 2002-2013 and was the last full-time religion reporter in Australia before he retired to work for the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Primate of Australia Phillip Freier.

Accepting the award, Zwartz lamented the state of religion reporting in Australia, calling it one of the casualties of the media decline. “I fear for the future,” he told his Melbourne audience. “The ABC, the final bastion for specialised coverage of religion in the secular media, is busy dismantling its religion section. Religion will mostly be ignored in the news columns because mostly it can be, and that will accelerate wider society’s dissociation and ignorance. When the stories cannot be avoided, the stories will mostly be written by people with no background and little understanding.”

Before his time as religion reporter and then editor for The Age, Zwartz said the paper covered only three types of stories: priests molesting children, the church in decline and the troglodyte church holding back women and gay people.

And while those stories needed to be told, in his role Zwartz took on the challenge to fill the gaps of religion coverage.

“I was able to cover a huge variety of stories, from social and theological trends to the fastdeveloping field of interfaith, from positive stories to the persecuted church. It just meant the paper taking religion seriously.”

And yet, as the last religion writer standing after The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald moved away from assigning writers to the religion round, Zwartz saw religion

coverage moving back to those three staple topics in his final years with The Age. “The one area of religious reporting that is thriving involves radical Islam, but that would be better described as terror reporting.”

Zwartz was open about the challenges of being a Christian covering the religion round for a secular newspaper, balancing his responsibility as a journalist to present news, rather than advocate for his own faith.

“Many Christians assumed that I would be trying to present the church favourably or even presenting the gospel, but the best way to serve the Lord was by being as good and fair a reporter as possible.

“I do confess, I did delight to get quotations from the Bible into the paper, or present Christian thinking, and it happened more often than you think – but only in context. Anything else would be an abuse of privilege.”

Zwartz got more of an opportunity to present his personal faith on his blog, The Religious Write. And now, in a part-time role with the Centre for Public Christianity he plans to continue arguing the case to keep Christianity in the public square.

He quoted Victorian-era Prime Minister Lord Melbourne who, on hearing an evangelical preacher complained, “Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of the private life.” Zwartz said today we face the opposite complaint.

“Many secularists want to confine religion purely to believers’ private lives. That is unwise and unsafe.”

Zwartz is the 4th recipient of the Faith and Work award. Previous recipients include Graeme Clark, inventor of the bionic ear, John Anderson, former deputy prime minister and Wendy Simpson, entrepreneur and women’s leadership mentor.

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NEWS

JUNE 2015

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North, south, east and west under God’s word KALEY PAYNE Thousands of Australians will attend a Christian conference in 2015. Here’s news from just four, making an impact for Christ.

IN NEW SOUTH WALES Over 700 young people responded to the gospel over three weekends of Christian fellowship in April at KYCK, a conference for high-schoolers hosted by Katoomba Christian Convention. 5,500 teenagers aged from 13-18 travelled to the top of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney for the conference.

KYCK Chairman Steve Wakeford said the response to the evangelistic talks each Saturday night was overwhelming. “On the second weekend at KYCK we had about 2,200 kids there, and for the first time I was sitting up the back on that Saturday night. So I got to see what it looks like when hundreds of kids stand up for Jesus, and start flooding out the back to pray. It was amazing. I started crying.”

IN VICTORIA Meanwhile in Victoria, hundreds of youth came together earlier this year to dig into what it really means to have a saviour, looking at Mark’s Gospel. At VCYC (Victorian Christian Youth Convention), over 350 youth from across Victoria camped out for a weekend of fellowship.

Conference organiser Andrew

Wort said the convention is engaging a lot of youth ministries from different denominations, including Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, independent, Uniting and Church of Christ, which he believes is key to demonstrating unity to youth just starting out in a mature Christian faith. It has required building trust with churches. But the conference is committed to working closely with youth ministries to support them in encouraging their youth to discover the relevance of God’s Word to their lives. “We work hard to clearly communicate the wonder of encountering Jesus and celebrate the joy and privilege of being a child of God.” IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA More than 3,400km away in Perth, Matt Dodd has just helped wrap up the 2nd annual Credo Conference for young adults on the West Coast. Held in May, Credo is run by the non-denominational Christian Conventions of Western Australia (CCOWA). Organisers built on the success of the first conference in 2014, this year welcoming over 300 Christians.

“We’re looking at topical issues like homosexuality. What are people speaking about and how do we live as Christians while engaging in those conversations?” said Matt.

IN NORTHERN TERRITORY From Perth we head north to

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In brief CAKE WARS: A Northern Ireland bakery has been found guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a pro-gay cake. Christian-owned Ashers Bakery in Belfast was asked by a gay activist to bake a cake with the Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie and the slogan “Support gay marriage” to celebrate a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia.

SWAN SONG: Garage Hymnal, a band that has played in churches, and released six albums over the past 10 years, is disbanding. It will play its farewell Sydney concert on June 27 at the Garrison Church in The Rocks in Sydney, while its final shows will be at the Refocus conference in Fremantle, Western Australia, on July 10-11.

Katherine, and the 48th Katherine Christian Convention. Over 1,200 people from across the Top End descended on Katherine at the beginning of May, celebrating “God’s living water”. Church groups from some of Australia’s most remote communities were encouraged to bring worship songs, items and dances from their communities to present at the conference.

For the first time in its history,

“May we be a beacon, a lighthouse, that points to Jesus wherever we are.”

INTERSERVE PARTNER, SE ASIA

KCC had an Aboriginal master of ceremonies, Lisa Mumbin, a leader in the Katherine community and amongst the Jowoyn people. Lisa said it has been a privilege to see an increasing emphasis on sharing the Bible in Aboriginal languages.

“It’s important for our mob to hear and understand the Bible in our own languages. It was a privilege and an honour to listen to people get up on stage and read and sing in their own languages.”

EXPANDING EMPIRE: Hillsong UNITED’s new album Empires was released on May 26, a week after the band was named Top Christian Artist at the US Billboard Music Awards. Promoting the album on Channel Seven’s The Morning Show, they were labelled “Australia’s biggest band you’ve never heard of.”

MARRIAGE PROPOSAL: The Uniting Church task group charged with bringing proposals on marriage and same gender relationships to the UCA National Assembly in July is proposing the church study the issue some more and bring a further report to a national assembly in three year’s time. It’s still likely that Assembly members will bring up other proposals on this subject.

There has never been a better time to deepen your knowledge of God Course Notes Resources Quizzes Feedback

Next month, an engineer and a doctor are going to work with the church in Nepal. Soon after that, three couples with skills in social work, education and community development will go with their children to serve refugees who have fled from Syria and Iraq. In Adelaide, a woman is visiting asylum seekers in detention, and in Thailand, another is training the next generation of Asia’s church leaders. All are part of a missional community called Interserve; taking action to make Jesus known among the peoples of Asia & the Arab world. We are currently seeking new Partners to join us. Could you be one?

Visit INTERSERVE.ORG.AU to find out more.

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Ideas. Passion. People.

ERIN SESSIONS Darrell Jackson, Morling College’s Senior Lecturer in Missiology, is working hard with a team of colleagues to create Global eXchange, an interactive, informative and motivational event which is clearly focused on the global realities of Christian mission and ministry. To be held at Morling College on Friday 9th October, Global eXchange will address the challenges of mission in a globalised world.

Global eXchange has projects and events for everyone from youth to retirees. The Friday morning program includes a workshop that will partner with the Morling College retirees community, Encore, and Friday night will see youth groups from all over Sydney and New South Wales gather to be inspired about global mission and how they can be involved.

There’ll be a Global Food Fair to tempt your tastebuds, featuring food from around the world and a Music-Fusion Mini-Festival full of ethnic-minority-inspired earworms.

We hope to construct a part of World Vision’s City of Infamy — an immersive shanty town experience — and following on from Baptist World Aid’s widely read Australian Fashion Report 2015, comes their Wall of Shame — an exhibition of IT and fashion brands and their ethical performance. Also included is our Hall of Fame where we

Darrell Jackson, Morling College’s Senior Lecturer in Missiology plan to introduce you to Morling graduates from the last fifty years who have served in cross-cultural ministry situations both here in Australia and overseas: you may be surprised at just how many photos and stories we will be able to tell. The Walk of Prayer will introduce you to a new way of praying for and engaging with the world. This prayer-focused

labyrinth will move you from station to station where personal mp3 players will form and inspire your prayers. We’re planning a globally focused art exhibition and there are going to be plenty of other simulations and activities to keep you informed and engaged in global mission. The focus throughout will be on interaction, participation and transformation.

You’ll also have the opportunity to meet with representatives from agencies such as Baptist World Aid Australia, Global Interaction, Pioneers, Interserve, Operation Mobilisation, Serving in Mission, OMF International, and many others. You’ll be able to ask them any burning questions and hear from their experiences of serving God all over the world.

Talk to your church about coming along to Global eXchange to hear from people passionately committed to mission, social justice and ministry all over the world. For more information and to register for this ground-breaking event, keep an eye on the website: www.morlingcollege.com Erin Sessions, Communications Coordinator at Morling College

INTERESTED IN MISSION? STUDY AT MORLING COLLEGE Morling is proud to introduce COMPASS, its integrated cross-cultural mission program, designed to equip you with the key skills, wisdom and knowledge that you will require to survive and thrive in just about any cross-cultural setting as a disciple of Jesus. Our four-step COMPASS program (Inspire, Inform, Engage, and Transform), provides an exciting and imaginative cross-cultural foundation. Talk to us if you think you might be ready or are sensing God calling you into cross-cultural ministry and mission.

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EQUIPPING THE WHOLE BELIEVER TO TAKE THE WHOLE GOSPEL TO THE WHOLE WORLD

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IN DEPTH

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KIRK PATSTON on loving people who are different

A storm in a teacup?

ANNE LIM The swift overturning of a ban imposed last month on two Christian books used in Special Religious Education raises the question of whether the controversy was much ado about nothing.

When NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli stepped in to revoke his own department’s ban on A Sneaking Suspicion by John Dickson and You: An Introduction

by Michael Jensen, it was the best result Anglican SRE trainer

Youthworks could have wished for.

It was a slap in the face for the Department of Education and Communities and a big defeat for the Victorian lobby group, FIRIS (Fairness in Religion in Schools), which sponsored the research that led the DEC to issue its directive.

And, importantly, it resulted in a vote of confidence by the government in the continuing place of SRE in government schools in the face of ideological attacks.

The only bone of contention remained the book cited by the

minister as “the main publication of concern”, Teen Sex by the Book by Patricia Weerakoon. It had never been part of the Anglican SRE curriculum, and it remains off the approved list.

However, the view from Melbourne demonstrates there are serious lessons to be learned from the outcry about materials that teach a Christian worldview. And churches should be prepared to weather more sustained campaigns against their right to teach public school students the tenets of the

Christian faith. Indeed, NSW Greens MP John Kaye continued his onslaught on the texts he slammed as dangerous to children because they undermined “gender equity and safe sex messages”.

There has been a drastic dropoff in enrolments for SRI (Special Religious Instruction) in Victorian schools this year in the wake of campaigning by FIRIS for the abolition of volunteer-run SRI during school hours.

While SRI avoids some of the ticklish issues raised in NSW

because it is run only in primary schools, the number of Victorian schools offering SRI has fallen from about 800 last year to 300 this year.

Access Ministries is the authorised provider of Christian SRI in Victoria. Their spokesperson Rob Ward blames a new opt-in parental consent form, which left parents and schools confused, even though it was later amended. There was also an exodus of elderly teachers unprepared to undergo a rigorous new accreditation programme.

Continued next page

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“You can’t inflict that kind of damage on a programme and expect to recover in one term,” says Mr Ward, who is the SRI provider’s general manager of communication and development. However, he believes numbers will rise along with the improved quality of teaching and SRI material.

“As Christians, when we’re attacked about something we’re doing, the first thing we’ve got to do is ask ourselves ‘Is there any truth in this? Is there a lesson for us here?’ We certainly acknowledge that our training needed to improve and we were already on this path before FIRIS got active. We also recognise that our material needed to be updated.

“But if you deal with any potential deficits in either the training or the material or the presentation … the only thing left is an ideological objection to the place of faith in society. And that’s where I believe FIRIS are coming from.

Their title is a complete misnomer: they don’t want fairness in religion in schools; they want no religion in schools and for them to protest otherwise is nonsense.”

There are assaults on school scripture in others parts of the country too. In Darwin, lack of parent and school support has led to a dramatic reduction in the time devoted to Religious Education. Glen Simpkins, director of Scripture Union Northern Territory, says only three or four primary schools retain weekly RE classes, whereas about a dozen have moved to three 50-minute classes a term. Mr Simpkins believes students are being steered towards “values education” rather than RE, with no prior consultation, and he

believes it’s time to seek a meeting with the NT Director of Education.

In Tasmania and South Australia, the picture is rather dismal.

Marylou Townsend of Worldview Centre for Intercultural Studies in St Leonards, Tasmania, says CRE coverage has dwindled as a result of a lack of volunteer teachers. There is more CRE in country areas than urban areas, but she believes that no school in Hobart still offers it. “There’s been a big take-up of chaplaincies and that took a lot of energy. It’s not the same as CRE but people felt like there was a Christian presence in schools where there had been no CRE.” School scripture was abolished in South Australia as long ago as 1972, but churches organise a voluntary programme of school seminars by clergy for half a day per term.

However, only a minority of schools offer the full four seminars a year.

The bright spot is Queensland, where the Education Act 2006 allows up to an hour of Religious Instruction a week. CEO of Fan the Flame, Nicky Ross, says uptake of RI is on the increase thanks to a model of training and certification she has developed over the past seven years. Fan the Flame on the Sunshine Coast covers all 47 schools in its area, with an 80 per cent participation rate, and Ms Ross says she can’t meet the demand from schools. Her training model has been taken up by other regions via a website.

In Western Australia, YouthCARE is expanding its CRE programmes to include out-of-class kids clubs as well as classroom lessons. Team leader Robbert

JUNE 2015

Alderden says the team has grown in the past 12 months “and as a result new relationships are being made within the WA public school community, including schools in remote areas.”

For John Dickson, one of the prominent authors involved in the NSW book-banning, the imbroglio presented a good opportunity to practise the ancient Christian art of losing well, of showing grace to those who dislike or misunderstand God’s wisdom – themes he explored in last month’s Eternity.

But for Michael Jensen, it was important to be firm as well as gracious. He believes the retraction issued by Mr Piccoli after his meeting with Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies did not go far enough. After apologising for his department’s lack of

consultation with the Anglican Church, the minister wrote: “The original memorandum was issued by the DEC on advice that there was a potential risk to students in the delivery of the material, if not taught sensitively and in an age appropriate manner.”

Dr Jensen said there needed to be an apology for the suggestion that his book and John Dickson’s contravened the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.

“Unless there is a full, unqualified clarification of that, then it remains on the public record that I am the author of material that at one stage the department felt contravened the Child Protection Act. Given the emotion around the protection of children, that is a very serious thing to have said about someone’s work.”

He felt the right Christian response was to be diligent in the way SRE was presented so that parents could be “completely confident” that the material taught would not put their children in danger. He said it was important that the Christian worldview of important issues such as sex, death and identity could still be taught.

“The question with my material was not so much to do with sex; it was to do with death. And a lot of the heated discussion that comes out is not about the delivery of the material; it’s to do with the fact that people are opposed to the very fact of teaching Christianity or other religions in government schools.

That is an opinion that’s out there, so we’re going to have to work very hard, be clear, to be full of integrity, so that no one can complain about our lack of integrity or lack of due diligence.”

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JUNE 2015

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In praise of other people TESS HOLGATE

Lindsay shaver/Flickr

Our world is divided. Man or woman. Black or white. Old or young. Catholic or Protestant or neither. Able or disabled.

Difference defines us.

Difference has been the stimulus for wave after wave of discrimination: sex difference becomes sexism, race difference transforms into racism, age difference turns into ageism, religious difference descends into denominationalism, differences in ability morph into ableism.

Kirk Patston, lecturer at Sydney Missionary and Bible College has a special interest in otherness as the overarching theological concept encompassing these varied isms.

His work focuses on otherness in the book of Job, and his case studies are centred on disability.

“Difference is a component of otherness,” says Patston, “but I think otherness goes deeper.

Otherness is about how one perceives or constructs difference.”

There are several factors that have led to the categorisation of otherness, says Patston.

Psychologically, when we see someone with a disability, we realise that that could have been us. “That exposes a fear, vulnerability. But that vulnerability makes us feel anxious so we need to defend against that. Fear of our own vulnerability creates existential insecurity.”

Sociologically, “the way we deal

with our existential insecurity is to feel like there’s safety in groups.

And so we try to create tribal ways of thinking in our minds.” This often turns political, and then “power starts to gather around a particular group.”

Biblically, in the book of Job, what Job says to his friends brings an illuminating light to our fear and existential insecurity. “Job says to his friends: ‘you see something awful and are afraid.’ He actually articulates that to them,” says Patston. “And when God speaks to Job, he describes a world where people are getting injured and dying. God doesn’t deny the danger I don’t think, but manages to sit with it with a sense of wonder.

“Fear is valid; the question is what we do with it next. Can we turn it into a sense of wonder?” asks Patston. “Can I trust myself to a God who is over and governing a world where there is this person with significant cerebral palsy, when I don’t have significant

cerebral palsy and the fact that someone else does scares me a little? Can I take that fear and hand it to God to hold for me, so that I become free not to be governed by that fear?”

“I think what God says to Job is, ‘inhabit my creation, which is incredibly dangerous and diverse, but inhabit it with wonder and joy, like I do.’ ” When it comes to relating to the “other” before us, Patston says, “because of the grace of God and the fact that I’m safe and hidden in Christ, I have grace to be able to offer toward the other.

“Christians are always in danger of the way we move towards the other denaturing into charity that really is about us feeling validated.

So it’s a very very fine line, because even the behaviours might be exactly the same.”

It is not sinful to fear people who are not like us, according to Patston. Rather he says, “I think it’s human and makes a lot of sense.”

But he is quick to say that writing off a whole group of people based on their otherness “would not reflect the character of God.” Our natural tendency to gather in groups of people who are like us, effectively alienating those who are other to us, is something we will be fighting until we get to heaven.

In light of this, Patston has a five-pronged approach to the “other” that helps us to battle against our tendencies to isolate difference. It should include wonder, playfulness, grace (for no reason, for no cause), recognition and dialogue.

“Recognition,” says Patston, “is being with an other and articulating or being a truth, while simultaneously letting the other articulate or be a truth, and resisting the need for synthesis.”

Referencing Mikhail Bakhtin, Patston says, “Truth is bigger than any one human consciousness can hold. So it could be that reality is so big, and truth so big, that both your

truths need to be recognised and not resolved.

“I often think about this when I’m with my son and having to dress him and shower him.

Sometimes I think, ‘OK, I should be being very therapeutic here. I should be setting goals, following the occupational therapy program of dressing, and so on. So making this about a task, and improvement for the sake of creating you as an autonomous self-reliant individual in the world.’ Therapeutic has it’s place, but it makes you wonder ‘what caused this disability? How do we stop it happening in the future?’”

Or, he says, “Sometimes I can do this with a horrible sense of sadness. Why on earth am I showering my 18-year-old son?

Poor me. Poor him. And just create this whole tragic narrative around his life and my life.

“As a theologian I can also turn that into a sin narrative and start thinking, ‘Jerrah is more fallen.’

“Or, I can just think, ‘this is so funny, that you want to sing Wiggles songs, and that you’re stark naked, and you’re 18 years old and you don’t even know that you’re stark naked, and we’re singing Wiggles songs.’” And it’s great. You know, it’s really funny.

“So I sort of think wonder and playfulness. I’m just giving him his shower – not to achieve an outcome, not to be efficient.

“For me that’s just a much nicer space to be in.”

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JUNE 2015

God saved my life Women are one of the most vulnerable groups on the African Continent today! Many women struggle to support their families and have few skills that will help them earn an income. Through African Enterprise, vulnerable women are receiving the training and life skills they need to lead a life of dignity and hope. Their stories both challenge and inspire us, particularly the story of Joyce, a remarkable 52 year old lady from Lilongwe, Malawi, who showed amazing courage and tenacity.

Joyce’s husband was abusive and unfaithful. Because of her husband’s unfaithfulness, she became infected with HIV. In 2000, Joyce became a Christian, which angered her husband’s family to such an extent that they poisoned her food in an attempt to kill her. Joyce says, “I indeed saw the grace of God in sparing my life.” Once divorced in 2001, Joyce found it very difficult to provide for herself. Having to deal with her HIV and trying to provide for her family became a daily struggle.

In February 2014, a friend told her about AE’s Rehabilitation project which trains women in basic sewing and tailoring skills enabling them to earn a living.Joyce said of the training, “Since joining the school, I have discovered that I am in a good place where there is comfort and hope. The staff members are

believers who rely on God to make a way for their lives. In addition to learning tailoring, I have also learned how to live with people from different cultures and about how to love in spite of differences.

My life has been changed not only because I have new skills, but because I am closer with God and I understand more about loving people. Thank you!”

Isn’t that amazing? Women like Joyce, from all over Malawi and beyond are gaining skills, which are helping them toward a future with hope.

This is just one of the many “Goodwill” projects spearheaded

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Janet Mwendwa, African Enterprise Aid and Development Director encourages us with these words: “…we thank God for touching and transforming many lives for Christ through good deeds. Saving lives spiritually and physically through these deeds remains an encouraging experience and a gateway to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

To read other stories like Joyce, why not visit our website.

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Joyce (right) shares, “... I indeed saw the grace of God in sparing my life.

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Making ethical choices in an unethical world Who is an ethical consumer?

Is it the person who recycles, upcycles and repurposes? How about the coffee connoisseur who only drinks fair trade? Or individuals aside, is it those mega companies who monitor their carbon footprint and pay workers fairly?

The interesting answer is all of them! Big and small, companies and individuals are together, shaping consumption by their choices. Choice determines what is consumed, how much is consumed and the price people are willing to pay. It’s making an active and informed decision about our purchases. Why? Our purchasing decisions reflect our values.

In April 2015, Baptist World Aid’s Ethical Fashion Guide profiled companies that have made significant improvements in addressing issues, such as forced labour, in their supply chain. They identified some of the best performers as Cotton On and H&M, followed by Cue Clothing, Kmart, Levi Strauss, Target and Nike. To view the full report, visit www.behindthebarcode.org.au Fashion, food and daily consumables are easy picks for the ethical consumer debate. But what about the areas we don’t think about on a daily basis but have a far more significant impact long term?

One industry that is changing the way we view this ethical debate is superannuation. Super

investments. Positive Screening.

Investing in companies that adopt best practice ethics procedures and protocols. Impact Investing.

Opportunities are sought to have a positive impact in the lives of people, as well as grow retirement savings for members.

There are companies making it their business model to do good; solving social and environmental issues by investing in areas like clean energy and social infrastructure, while still being profitable.

funds are making a profit with your money, but at what cost?

A number of leading super funds have made the decision to invest their members’ funds ethically. These funds have acknowledged that their decisions around the types of investments they carry in their portfolio are equally important to providing their members with adequate retirement savings.

Ethical investing, also called socially responsible investing or ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, has grown to prominence in the last few decades as investors realise that there are financial benefits from investing ethically/ responsibly. A company’s share price is only in part driven by tangible assets. Intangible assets such as reputation, perceived

management quality; and how a company addresses ethical issues such as forced labour in their supply speaks volumes about its investment quality and future performance.

There is a range of ways ethical investing works. Negative Screening. Industries and companies that do not meet predetermined ethical criteria, or best practice, are excluded from

, SUPER THAT S CHANGING THE WORLD

Traditionally, ethical investors have been defined by their list of ‘Don’ts’, but thanks to an increasing number of innovative investment opportunities, super funds are expanding their list of ‘Do’s’.

This approach is supported with a growing body of research clearly demonstrating that you can invest responsibly and achieve strong financial returns. Ethical, socially responsible, impact investments, community finance and sustainability themed investments have grown in Australia by 51% year on year.* This is great news for people who want to make a difference in the world and for Christians who have a desire to invest inline with their values. * Source: Responsible Investment Association Australia (RIAA) - Responsible Investment Benchmark Report 2014

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E

THE BIG PICTURE

10

JUNE 2015

Look beyond Hollywood MARK HADLEY Foreign films are a daunting prospect to many Australian viewers. Visions of long, inexplicable shots underlined by complex subtitles send shudders down our spines.

But the advent of video on demand means we can now delve into film releases unlikely to make it to the local multiplex. What can follow are some spiritual benefits that Hollywood is unable or unlikely to offer. Let me suggest four …

1. Diversity: It’s hard to obey the Bible’s imperative to “love the foreigner as you would yourself ” if you don’t understand how their life differs from your own. Foreign films take us outside of our culture.

Recent release The Hundred Foot Journey reveals the not-so-subtle oppression a new culture can bring to bear on immigrant families as an Indian family moves to France. And the classic The Kite Runner should be enough to arouse sympathy for Middle Eastern refugees in even the most shuttered heart.

2. Responsibility: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was an Oscar success largely for its subtle acting and engaging cinematography.

However the ending perplexed Westerners, particularly because the heroine decided not to go off with the hero. Foreign films can often be a healthy dose of collective thinking for a Western culture dominated by individualism.

Foreign films like Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises can show us a world outside our own.

French film Two Days, One Night challenges us to think what would be good for society rather than ourselves as a depressed woman pleads for her job, and Japanese release Our Family argues that the needs of those God has deliberately connected us to are supposed to transcend our convenience.

3. Spirituality: The foreign film industry isn’t short of atheistic perspectives. However many cinematic imports contrast with Hollywood by presenting the spiritual as a concrete part of life.

Master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s collected works were released in May, and the unifying feature is a determination to see our spiritual perspective affecting everything

from home life to aircraft design.

And the classic German film Wings of Desire opens our eyes to the angels executing God’s will all around us. There are inevitably spiritual corrections to make, but I’d prefer to be having the conversation than pretending that part of our lives doesn’t exist.

4. Life’s purpose: Two recently released films from the fringes of the British film industry question our mainstream Western life goals: experience, happiness and individual fulfillment.

A Royal Night Out and A Woman In Gold both see characters devoted to purposes greater than themselves, and responsibilities that rest on convictions above and

beyond those of the characters or the society they inhabit: duty, truth, justice. They open us up to consider the existence of a moral authority higher than our own.

Of course those already converted to this sort of cinema will realise that I’ve been deliberately cautious in my use of the word “foreign” and only just scratched the surface.

But it seems to me that half the struggle of making “disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is to begin reminding ourselves that there are people in a world outside of our suburb or small-town experience, and that they too are part of the world God is calling to himself.

ON SCREEN DAVID SUCHET: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAINT PAUL AND SAINT PETER Even though you might have devoured their exploits or writings in the Bible, the apostles Paul and Peter can remain enigmatic and distant. On the case of getting to know them better is Hercule Poirot. Well, David Suchet, the actor best known for playing the famous Agatha Christie detective on-screen.

Available on DVD, In the Footsteps of Saint Paul and In the Footsteps of Saint Peter are accessible documentaries about biblical history and impact, following committed Christian Suchet as he visits the sites, cities and regions of his subjects.

While information and reflection about two of Christianity’s foremost leaders can be speculative or, worse, misleading, the bulk is well researched and provided by diverse experts.

Suchet’s journeying can tend towards giving Paul and Peter credit where God’s Word states the Holy Spirit’s leadership. However, Suchet is admirably guided by the Bible’s timelines and passages, using them as the backbone of his explorations.

The overall emphasis is upon celebrating the legitimacy and credibility of Christianity, its source, pioneers and central texts.

Suchet’s professional abilities enrich the powerful opportunity he has to point people to Jesus.

+ For the full reviews of these new release films, visit biblesociety.org.au/film-reviews

Transform Your World BIENNIAL PREACHING CONFERENCE

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31 AUGUST TO 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

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smbc.com.au/events /SMBCollege

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No Upfront Fees

Start in July chc.edu.au

Faculty Position Available The Presbyterian Theological College of Victoria, Australia, is seeking a lecturer in New Testament Studies.

The college is a reformed and evangelical institution that has a vital role in developing, disseminating and supporting faithful gospel ministry in Melbourne, regional Victoria and beyond.

The Presbyterian Church of Victoria wishes to appoint a faithful Christian, qualified to at least research Masters (but preferably Doctoral) level, in the disciplines of Greek and New

Testament Studies. The desired candidate will have experience in pastoral ministry and will be able to help students understand the New Testament, and preach it today as God’s Word.

The lecturer in New Testament will be responsible, under the Principal of the PTC, for delivery of lectures in the areas of New Testament Studies and Greek language, teaching principally the Greek and New Testament courses of the Australian College of Theology.

The desired candidate will be a mature Christian leader with significant pastoral experience, prayerful, fully committed to the Bible as God’s word, committed to the confessional position of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, who works well in a team and relates easily to people of diverse cultural backgrounds.

The desired candidate will be a minister in full standing with the Presbyterian Church of Australia or be prepared to be received as such a minister.

Applications for the position should be made by 31st July, 2015 and addressed to the Principal, as below.

Please address the requirements as set down in the Job Description and Terms and Conditions outlined on the college website — www.ptc.vic.edu.au Please send to: (Email) info@ptc.vic.edu.au (Post) PTC Victoria, 684 Elgar Rd, Box Hill North, Victoria 3129, Victoria, Australia

Books

Your special lift out supplied with Eternity JUNE 2015

Saturate The big picture for our mission in the world is exciting.

In his first book, Jeff Vanderstelt invites us to consider this big picture: “Can you imagine every city, every neighbourhood, every street, and every house saturated with Jesus’s presence through his people?”

Saturate is a quick and easy read. It is full of touching stories, funny and awkward stories, alongside lots of practical ideas for church and mission. It is also full of beautiful theological truths about what God has done for us in Christ and who we now are in Christ. It avoids the critical tone and sharp dichotomies of some other missional/gospel community books.

The strong focus on the gospel of grace early in the book provides a rich foundation and an important safeguard against the bold mission Vanderstelt reminds us: “Jesus is better. He’s better than you.

He’s better than your small group. He’s better than your pastor. He’s better than anyone or anything else.”

He makes a strong case for the holistic nature of Christian spirituality, community and mission: We worship God in everyday life; the ministry of God’s people takes place beyond church programmes in the casual ordinary parts of life; evangelistic ministry is “messy, intrusive, uncomfortable”; mission should be on the agenda in every part of our church life and the best training for mission takes place on mission; and, as

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Vanderstelt says of a new convert: “Everyday life was the programme where he had been discipled to Jesus.”

Saturate shows us how to establish a holistic approach to pre-evangelism – something that I think is very much needed to be effective missionaries, especially in postChristian, urban contexts. With a great story about an over-zealous Christian, he demonstrates how ineffective blunt and adversarial models of evangelism can be.

We need to work hard at building church cultures full of outward-focused, self-giving love, and this paves the way for fruitful evangelism. Vanderstelt offers six “rhythms” of life to help us think concretely about this: eat, listen, story, bless, celebrate, re-create. (You’ll have to read the book to find out more!)

Notwithstanding Vanderstelt’s emphasis on grace and warning against having a “missional to-do list” mentality, the examples he gives promote a very intense model of discipleship and mission. Granted that church and ministry should involve all of life, how many hours “count” as all of life? Church and Bible study isn’t enough, apparently. But who decides? I worry that this approach will limit genuine discipleship to a small subset of Christians and actually limit the “saturation” Vanderstelt is after.

Saturate is a simple but inspiring read. It rehearses great truths about our salvation and paints a vivid picture of living for Christ and his kingdom in all our lives. Despite any shortcomings, it is a helpful read for pastors, ministry teams and church members wanting to refocus on seeking first the kingdom.

Saturate

by Jeff Vanderstelt 9781433545993 $24.95

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In The Plum Tree in the Desert Naomi Reed tells stories of difficult situations in the mission field; some of victory, some which left the mission workers feeling they had failed.

But despite the difficulties and perceived failures, each story speaks of the goodness of God and what it means to persevere and trust in him, even when it seems too hard.

These stories give us a new perspective on those perceived failures and remind us that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him”.

At the time of Federation 98 per cent of Australians identified themselves as Christians. Now only 8 per cent say they regularly go to church. What’s changed? How did Australia become a postChristian nation and what part did the churches play in their own decline? Offering a bold roadmap for the Church to change, Williams challenges atheists, agnostics and true believers to a genuinely open debate about the force of faith.

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Why do you feel close to God one minute and so far away the next?

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A true storyteller and a teacher with a heart for ministry, Mark Hall traces the downward spiral caused by spiritual compromise with the world, and then charts the upward road to wholeness and restoration that comes when we embrace our very own Jesus.

You need to discover your own Jesus. The real Jesus. The one who wants you to be honest, committed, and uncompromising. The one who is waiting to have a relationship with you.

Move past imitating a religion to experiencing a relationship that is vibrant, personal, and fulfilling.

Tim Luke serves as executive pastor of Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church. He previously served as editor of In Touch magazine and was a sportswriter in Atlanta.

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While we endeavour to use correct illustrations in this catalogue, final product delivered may have changed design without our notice. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars and include GST.

11

E

Bible baff lers to bust (or blow) your brain!

People Respond to God’s Gift and Share it with Others ADDING IT UP

COUNT THIS

A. How many people responded to Peter’s message in Jerusalem?

Looking at the names of the Books of the New Testament from Acts to Revelation how many times do the following letters appear:

(Acts 2:41) _______

B. Looking at the introductory verses of the New Testament letters, how many did Paul write to encourage and teach people about Jesus? _______ C. How many times does the word 'faith' appear in the 11th chapter of Hebrews (Contemporary English Version)? _______ D. While Paul was in prison for serving Jesus he wrote to Philemon. How many others sent their greetings? (Philemon 1:23-24) _______ E. The New Testament makes reference to many spiritual gifts to help the church grow. How many are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11? _______ cross them off in the g words from this story and sin mis the in fill 9, ts Ac g Readin d Bible pencil.

A = ______ N = ______ U = ______

THE STORY LINES UP

find-a-word.

Follow the lines to find the three things Paul tells Titus that God gave us. (Titus 3:4-7)

found near the Wil (HINT: The words can bemirror to help you to read them) You might need a

ught he was Saul was a _ _ _ . He tho _ _ _s, persecute _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to

. Saul _ _ _ _ _ but he was _ _ _ _ _ them, _ _ _ about Christians and was _ _ er to _ _ _ _ in ord so he went to _ _ _ _ peared _ _ _ _ _ ap arrest them. On the way, from heaven. Saul was to him, from a bright light to go _ . Jesus told him suddenly made _ _ _ _ ____ ere a man named _ _ _ _ _ the city, wh uld see again. Saul was a prayed for him, and he co . on he was known as Paul changed man. From then

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E

12

JUNE 2015

BIBLE @ WORK

Relieving heavy burdens in Vietnam On the mountain: Villages like La Van Sua’s (right) were converted through the radio in the 1960s. To grow, they need to read the Bible for themselves.

KALEY PAYNE At 24 years old, La Van Sua is the most educated person in his village, and the pastor of a church of 80 people. But La Van Sua didn’t finish high school. Conditions in his village were poor, and his family needed him. He comes from a subsistence farming family – they, just like the majority of his village, live off what they can grow.

Education is a luxury here.

His village is in Bac Kan, a forested, mountainous region 200 km due north of Hanoi in Vietnam and just south of the Chinese border. The village is only accessible by foot or motorcycle, perched at the end of a two kilometre, steep and narrow mountain track.

La Van Sua’s people are Hmong, an ethnic group found in the mountains of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. There are just over a million Hmong in Vietnam, from a population of nearly 90 million.

Christianity came to La Van Sua’s village in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War. Thousands of Hmong people fled Vietnam and Laos during the conflict, emigrating to the United States.

Many villages across Vietnam and Laos were given radios during the war, by either US agents operating in the mountains or the Vietnam communist party, as a way of disseminating propaganda.

The radio became one of the only sources of entertainment for those who remained, particularly in remote villages.

At the same time, the Far East Broadcasting Company was broadcasting Christian radio programmes into South East Asia, including some run by Hmong people who had escaped to the US and found Christianity. The programmes used Hmong oral history to weave Bible stories over the airwaves. God’s message of love and hope during a time of bitter conflict spoke directly to La Van Sua’s village. After the war, the village was converted to Christianity.

Now, decades later, La Van Sua feels the weight of responsibility for the Christians in his village. Over 30 per cent cannot read or write.

They rely on him to preach the word so that they might listen.

Support for pastors like La Van Sua is rare, but he was blessed to take part in a series of Bible classes at newly created Hanoi Bible College, to prepare him to lead his congregation. He travelled the distance from Bac Kan to Hanoi many times – nearly four hours each way – for three years to attend.

Vietnam is one of the last remaining communist countries, and while conditions are changing quickly, oppression is still keenly felt. It is a place full of contradictions. While still

communist in ideology, in practice capitalism is everywhere and the gap between rich and poor is drastically increasing. The contradictions extend to how the government treats religious groups.

In 2013, Vietnam’s communist party revised their official religion policy, issuing Decree 92 which placed severe restrictions on the freedom to worship. All religious groups must apply for official recognition to have permission to meet for worship. To be recognised, churches must be free of civil and criminal infractions for 20 years – almost inconceivable for Christians who have been hunted by the Vietnamese government for decades.

Hundreds of house churches – including La Van Sua’s – risked closure as they could not be registered. Yet the government has been inconsistent in this. Churches are denied registration, and some house churches have been closed, while others have been allowed to continue. They are at the mercy of party officials in each district.

“Some years ago there were many arrests in our area,” La Van Sua says. “We had to hold our church service very late at night – we couldn’t do it in daylight. The problem was with permission to hold the church at all. The district’s authorities made it very difficult.

Now, we hope it’s better. We hope.”

La Van Sua’s village hasn’t been

allowed to build a church. Villagers meet in a thatched hut that also serves as living quarters for La Van Sua’s uncle and a storehouse of corn and cabbage harvests. There are about 100 people in the village; 80 of them come to church, though some only rarely. But only about 30 can read and write.

La Van Sua’s biggest prayer is that God would bring many in his village back to practising their faith – those who have stopped attending church regularly because they find it hard to understand.

“I pray that people will come back to listen, that they’ll come back to God. I believe they are Christian and still believe, but they don’t participate in church activities.”

For La Van Sua, one of the biggest issues is trying to grow people in their faith. “Those who can’t read, just come and listen,” he says. “But the problem is, how to help them understand.”

Bible Society in Vietnam is partnering with local churches to begin Bible-based literacy classes in the country. The literacy project is in its first year, based on a successful model used in Cambodia to teach thousands of people to read through church networks. The classes are audio-based so there’s no need to have trained teachers – a scarce skill across northern Vietnam. Instead, participants will be able to listen to the classes and follow along with written materials.

“This is a first for us in Vietnam,” said Arun Sok Nhep, the chief executive of Bible Society in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

But he says it is an essential next step in the growth of the church in Vietnam. “We’re targeting the minorities – particularly in the north of Vietnam – for our classes, because it is they who often don’t have access to education.”

Mr Sok Nhep says there is a lot of work to do to get the project off the ground in Vietnam, but the enthusiasm is great. “Their desire is to read the Bible. This is a big motivation.”

There is a lot of work to be done in supporting pastors and their flocks in remote villages in Vietnam – to ensure they can read the Bible for themselves, that their people have access to a Bible and that those people are able to read it for themselves and for the spread of the gospel.

Back in his village, La Van Sua says he continues to pray to God for help in leading his church. “I just pray that God will give me the ability to learn and lead my group. I pray that God will lead me.”

+ To donate to literacy, Bible distribution and translation work in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, please call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) or visit biblesociety.org.au/seaep

Our neighbours in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos long for the Bible. Will you help?

$55 $100 $564

could put a Bible in the hands of five people

could help them learn to read it

could translate 2 Thessalonians into their language

To donate please call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242537) or visit biblesociety.org.au/seaep

JUNE 2015

E

13

OPINION

In debt to God

E

+

Justine Toh on living a really good life Michael Jensen on a church with seatbelts Michael Dawes

Extract from Roy William’s new book Post God Nation?”

Assessing the place of religion in Australia, now and in the past, is far more than a matter of headcounting. It requires an analysis of the impact of the churches, and of individual believers, upon the course of Australian history and the character of our society. My core argument in Part One is that this impact has been profound.

Before embarking on the research for this book, I did not fully realise just how great that impact has been. I now share the view of Geoffrey Blainey that the Christian churches did “more than any other

institution, public or private, to civilise Australians.”

Even as I write that last sentence I can anticipate the cries of dissent.

What about the Graeco-Romans?

Or the Enlightenment? What about science? Or liberal capitalism – Adam Smith’s benevolent “invisible hand”? Or the ALP? I acknowledge the roles played by all these forces and institutions, but I will stick to my thesis. Almost everything goes back to Judaeo-Christianity.

One theme will, I hope, emerge clearly: the key role played in Australian history by outstanding

individuals of religious faith.

I refer not merely to men and women of the churches (priests, nuns, ministers and so on), but to lay citizens in almost every field of endeavour. Although it is unfashionable to say so, I admit to being attracted by the Great Man (or Great Woman) theory of history. In the words of Thomas Carlyle, the main populariser of this theory in the mid-nineteenth century: “There needs not a great soul to make a hero; there needs a god-created soul which will be true to its origin.”

An astonishing number of distinguished figures in Australian history since 1788 have been people for whom faith was a major motivating force. They have had a sense of mission, and they have acted on it, in such disparate fields as politics, law, exploration, business, science, journalism, trade unionism, the arts, architecture, engineering and education. The point applies equally to Christians and Jews. And – a significant fact – they have come disproportionately from the upper levels of society.

Continued next page

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OPINION

14

Chris Lofqvist

This was also the position in the first century: Christianity was started from the top down. In my researching, I found it remarkable how often a famous lay Australian turned out to have been the son of a clergyman.

Here I should make a confession.

I have said that this book is not one of Christian apologetics. So it is not – except in one incidental respect.

In detailing the achievements of religious believers throughout Australian history, I am employing a variant of one of the lesserknown arguments for the existence of God: the argument e consensu gentium. Broadly, this is the notion that, because religious belief has been so ubiquitous a phenomenon throughout human history, especially among people who changed the world for the better, there must be something in it.

For those interested in knowing more about particular Great Men or Great Women who are mentioned in the text, especially regarding their religious lives, I have included further biographical detail about many of them in Appendix A at the back of the book.

The decline of religious belief in Australia has been partly the churches’ own fault, and partly the result of forces beyond their control. Please do not think that this book will be a glowing, unqualified tribute to the Australian churches. As institutions, they have a lot to answer for. In at least one instance in the late twentieth century – some readers may think this is the elephant in the room – they behaved quite indefensibly. I refer to the dire history of sexual abuse

JUNE 2015

of children by clergymen and the cover-up of their crimes by men in authority. This horror has not been confined to the churches; it happened in secular institutions too. But it has been most prevalent in the Catholic Church, and it has affected many Protestant denominations as well. The scandal is impossible to ignore and hard to explain. It has provided secularists with powerful ammunition, but I will argue that it does not account for secularisation. And while it is relevant to some of the ultimate metaphysical issues (how could a loving God allow such evil?), it is not ultimately determinative of them. (Those questions belong to a field of intellectual discourse called theodicy.)

In this book I look at the major

mistakes and misdeeds of which the churches have been accused down the years – including those identified by Elizabeth Farrelly’s baby-boomer friends (“arrogant, sexist, racist and monomaniacal”).

In certain cases the allegations are unjust or misconceived; Indigenous relations is a striking example. I will try to explain, if not always defend, the churches’ stances down the years on nowunfashionable issues: abortion, temperance, Sabbath keeping, divorce, drug use, and gambling, among others. While these stances have often been unpopular, even in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they were largely well motivated. In several respects, the churches’ worst fears have been realised in ways that most

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Now she was barely existing, sitting by herself in the car for a number of days and living in the hope a friend she had reached out to would be able to help. The chaplain quickly set about arranging more suitable and secure short-term accommodation to help turn her situation around and restore some much needed dignity while she waited on her friend.

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fair-minded Australians today would, or should, be prepared to acknowledge. There was good sense in much of the churches’ social conservatism.

The churches’ most calamitous mistakes, I shall argue, were in the fields of education policy (schools) and foreign policy (war).

They have also, at times, overdone wowserism. But it is necessary to distinguish between mistakes and misdeeds that have been operating causes of secularisation, and those that have had a neutral (or even positive) effect on levels of religious belief. Of course, to some extent these will be value judgments; I do not expect all readers to agree with me. My other argument is that two of the key factors in the decline of religion – the rise of scientism, and

unprecedented material prosperity – cannot be sheeted home to the churches. Nevertheless, they are factors that the churches must find a way of overcoming.

Religion is worth saving, and there are ways that this might be done. It is difficult to imagine an entirely secular Australia. I agree with Tom Frame that “those without religious belief do not have a clearly articulated vision of what a godless world will be like.”

Most of them, I expect, imagine an Australia much as it is now, but without the pesky presence of churches and God-botherers.

Holidays such as Christmas and Easter would be abolished or renamed. The churches would be disbanded. All remaining church property would be sold off, and all schools, hospitals and charities currently administered by the churches would be taken over by the government, or privatised.

But beyond that, what? If a rampant free market is not the answer, other historical precedents – the Soviet Union, Communist China – are incomparably worse.

Of course, most secularists are not advocating political dictatorship. But they seem unable to acknowledge that liberal democracy and the rule of law (among many other things) are products of Judaeo-Christianity.

If that historical foundation were taken away, what would be left to underpin our institutions and motivate many of our most idealistic citizens?

Roy Williams is the award winning author of In God They Trust?

To purchase Post God Nation? go to specials.biblesociety.org.au

JUNE 2015

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The not academic, academic, TheCase Case for for SRE: SRE: not but butit itisiseducational educational.

ZAC VERON

ZAC VERON Over the past few months, I’ve watched with bemusement and Over the past few months, I’ve not a little frustration as a small watched with bemusement and Victorian lobby-group (with the not a little frustration as a small assistance of various politicians and other secularlobby-group groups) run (with the Victorian a smearassistance campaign of to various discreditpoliticians Special and Religious Education (SRE)run other secular groups) in NSW. a smear campaign to Their publicly stated goal is discredit Special Religious Education the removal of SRE from public schools,(SRE) and itinisNSW. clear that last month’s decision by the Education Their publicly stated goal Minister to overturn the rash is the removal of SRE ban by the NSW Department from publicand schools, and it is clear of Education Communities that last month’s decision (DEC) on a number of resources won’t bebythe end of the matter. the Education Minister to For those who the have been overturn rash ban by the followingNSW along, you may have Department of Education seen one of their core criticisms of and Communities (DEC) on a SRE: that valuable curriculum time resources won’t be is beingnumber ‘wasted’ofbecause parents thechildren end of the can teach theirmatter. faith at home or in their place of worship.

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Visit caseforsre.com today and protect its place in NSW public schools. people develop into mature, have their children built up in children to soccer practice or • Gives informed answers to enrolled him in high school society-contributing citizens. society-contributing citizens. music lessons if they SRE wish, but the faith of the family at school, SRE, but he immediately falls into this category, possessing • Helps nurture students’ spiritual dynamicspiritual broughtquestions about by trained “He genuinely cared about us protect the rights of parents to SRE falls into this category, no one is decrying the ‘lost moments like this built will up in the noticed that SRE teacher educational value that contributes side and accredited volunteer SRE and what wehis thought.

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OPINION

16

JUNE 2015

Repeating myths about my people

Adrian van Leen

This is a response to an article opposing recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution by Nigel Jackson that appeared in our May edition.

Jackson’s article was in response to a series of pieces supporting constitutional change including a cover story on former Deputy PM John Anderson’s support for constitutional recognition. Nigel Jackson cited a list of conservative writers in his piece. Eternity is pleased to offer a right of reply to a right of reply and an indigenous voice in the debate.

RAY MINNIECON & TOM MAYNE As an Aboriginal pastor, I am again disappointed and frustrated by the depth of ignorance, distrust and animosity that continues to be perpetrated by my so-called Christian family towards me and my people in my own country.

Once again, the author of the May article has made me and my people feel marginalised and unworthy of God’s grace.

If this is the low standard of opinions expressed by contributors to Eternity, a magazine enjoyed by many, then I have grave concerns for those like Jackson. He has produced an article that is, in my view, oblivious to the truth based on the good news of the gospel as

it relates to situations of complex social justice matters that have plagued my people and this nation for more than 200 sad and painful years. My good friend and Christian brother, Tom Mayne, offers his insights into the deep flaws of this opinion piece.

It is not often that one comes across an article so deeply flawed that it demands an urgent response.

It’s difficult to know where to start. Of all the sources Jackson cites, including “iron bark” Wilson Tuckey, none could be deemed to have even a remotely sanguine understanding of Indigenous

aspirations. Take just one example, that of Andrew Bolt. Bolt was taken to court because he implied that Professor Larissa Behrendt couldn’t possibly be Aboriginal because she had a fair complexion and a German name! The Age newspaper of October 2, 2011 raised the question: “Andrew Bolt: Australia’s least accurate columnist?”

Probably the most outrageous citation is that of Geoff McDonald’s 1982 publication Red over Black, which is a conspiratorial Alice in Wonderland. It would be humorous were it not for the fact that it was intended to be taken seriously. It

could be the basis of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. In a few words, McDonald was convinced that the whole Land Rights movement was a plot to turn Indigenous Australia into a communist state. If there is one thing that Indigenous Australians have never shown the slightest interest in, it’s Communism.

Yet it’s ironic that Vincent Lingiari, a baptised Christian who led the strike for equal wages for Aboriginal stockmen in the Northern Territory (captured in the iconic photo of Gough Whitlam pouring dirt into Lingiari’s hands), was supported by Aboriginal Baptist pastor Graham Paulson and communist Frank Hardy. Ironic because most mainstream Christian churches were asleep at the wheel and failed to see the relationship between the gospel and injustice.

Among other classic statements in Red over Black is this one: “Aborigines forever forfeited a major control of this continent when they failed to defend it against Europeans in the past.”

Attempts to discredit Land Rights and Native Title (a preexisting title unlike land rights) are legendary.

Take for example the ABC’s 7.30 Report in 1998 on the eve of former prime minister John Howard’s amendment bill to water down

Native Title legislation. The then PM held up a map of Australia with about 80 per cent shaded in, which was, according to Special Minister of State Nick Minchin, the amount of Australia that could be subject to Native Title claims.

As presenter Kerry O’Brien remarked, “That’s not true, is it?”

Of course it wasn’t, despite Minchin’s attempt to put the best possible spin on it.

Whether there should be a constitutional change is an ongoing conversation. It should not surprise anyone that there are differences of opinion among Indigenous people. Indigenous Australia is not monolithic. Some argue that having an insertion in the Constitution would weaken the case for a treaty.

Others see a constitutional change as a first step in recognition.

Jackson’s use of Scripture seems to be as irrelevant as his assertions.

He might instead refer to Jeremiah 21:11-12, “See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated ... if you don’t, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.”

Ray Minniecon is a pastor with the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship. Tom Mayne is a nonIndigenous member of the Sydney Anglican Indigenous Peoples’ Ministry Committee.

There is not enough Bible in church Denis Plant

wants to hear more preaching

Richard Bromley/flickr

Recently I was asked – What is your passion? What is it that stirs and motivates you so much?

For me the answer is quick and simple – to see men and women of the church embracing the word of God, being taught and sharing truths that change lives and determine our destiny as we dare to embrace the promises of God. I came into the church as a Christian 45 years ago at the tail end of a local revival in the UK. Shortly afterwards, I came to Australia and a few years later settled in a local Pentecostal church in Liverpool (NSW). The pastor took the time and effort to preach the word, teach the word, share the word, believe the word – the whole of his life revolved around the word. He was not a great preacher but he was a solid teacher of God’s word. That church never really grew from about 50 to 60 people and I noticed a disturbing trend then that is still prevalent today: sadly the church that preaches the word tends to stay small.

We need to reach out and grow the church. It is our great commission since the church was birthed, our responsibility before God and to the world. But how we do it matters. The world has always seen the preaching of the word as foolishness – even Paul recognised that much. But today even the church seems to echo that cry as she seeks to offer a more “attractive” gospel to her shame.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18). In my view, over these last few years, so many pastors seem to have abdicated their responsibility

Billy Graham preaching at 27 years old. to preach the word in favour of a programme that simply reaches and attracts a crowd. It is easy to understand why.

The music is popular, loud and has a great beat and rhythm. There should be a time and place for the current generation’s music. I have no issue with the music itself.

Even so, it is often more at home in a theatre or disco and, while it attracts the younger generations, the older are lost.

Many of the “preachers” today, while excellent orators, are little more than motivational speakers.

They make us feel good, no matter how hollow in substance is their message.

Yes, the crowd will grow, but what a terrible price to pay when we answer to God for a crowd of people who become little more than an audience, often unchanged and dissatisfied, and who turn from the church and God at the first hint of disappointment.

I am Pentecostal and I am proud of my heritage – the heritage of baptism in the Holy Spirit; the heritage of the word of God; of the

empowered word that alone can demonstrate the presence of God through the preaching of the word.

Yet in our churches, whether they are Pentecostal, charismatic, Anglican, Evangelical, Catholic or independent, so many seem to have lost sight of the most powerful and efficacious element of our Christian walk. The very element that changed our lives – the preached word of God – that quality alone is authorised to raise and inspire a faith that is demonstrated in the life of the believer and non-believer alike.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

(Rom 10:17) Faith is not only for salvation but we need it to tap into the very heart of God for the healing or the miracle, the word of knowledge or discernment that is required in a given circumstance.

Even as the apostles waited on the word and taught the word, they realised through faith how to deal with a growing church of thousands and resolve the issues of their day.

“It is the word of God that brings

salvation; we are born again by the word” (1 Peter 1:23).

We claim the need to see lives changed, our society enhanced, the blessing of the kingdom of God released into our community.

But our preachers echo the cry of society, of the politically correct, and submit to the fear of offending other interest groups in our society: the Muslims or the gay; lesbian and transgender movement; or someone else with a different point of view to our own.

Well, I have the right to be heard in truth as much as any other. I will not choose to offend anyone but I will not allow another to dictate what I believe – and nor should you.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12) Acceptance and respectability may come by being politically correct and through motivational speaking, but change will never happen by compromising the word. Compromise may mean I am free of giving offence to others, but it is offensive to God; and by compromising we endorse and effectively affirm the status quo and lose the right to be heard.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16) Good, strong music that attracts the young is good, but we do not need to compromise the word.

They heard the music and the song; now let the word of God resonate its melody in the heart and life of the younger generation; let the young know the power and majesty of the word in them; let their anthem of praise be strengthened by the word and we will see an army of young people rising up to

take this nation for Jesus.

I appreciate that dealing with these issues in our churches today is difficult. We have a command to reach out to the community, to be attractive to those who do not know the gospel. There is a need to reflect the contemporary lifestyle, music and worship, while not abandoning established norms of worship, else we become divisive or lose sectors of the community.

But honest, sound, passionate preaching of the word from the pulpit must not be abandoned for a fashionable or political statement.

When we embrace the word of God from our pulpits it will change lives, be treasured in our hearts, become the mainstay and centrepiece of family life and the principles of the word can once again become the motivation behind family life, business and enterprise, sport and entertainment. Every factor of human endeavour can be affected positively by the word of God. Preach the word: it is the power of God for salvation.

Teach the word: it develops the faith that drives changes in lives and hearts of men and women and will yet revive our community.

Live the word: let others see and be inspired to know that what the word of God says is true.

Know the word: to know the word is to know Jesus; to know him is to understand his will for you and is the source of peace in even the most trying times.

Understand the word: let its rich wisdom and knowledge guide us to the fulfilment of life in Christ.

Study the word: be a workman who is not ashamed of it. We easily give our time, money and opportunity to learn for our career or hobby; how much more should we study to prove ourselves in the word of God and make a difference for Christ and his kingdom?

Denis Plant is CEO and Principal of Vision Colleges.

OPINION

JUNE 2015

17

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Fasten your seatbelts

“All churches,” says the WelshAmerican pastor and blogger Kim Fabricius, “should come equipped with seatbelts.”

When we come to church, we come to do many things. We meet with other Christians. We sing. We pray. We drink weak coffee from Styrofoam cups.

But one of the things we do most of is listen.

There’s quite a lot of sitting in a church service, whatever denomination you attend (or none).

It is hard to imagine a church building, or a church meeting, without chairs, isn’t it? There might be portable plastic chairs in a school hall that have to be put out each week, or bench-like old pews that cut off the circulation to your legs. But chairs there are, and sitting there will be. (Greek Orthodox churches are built with no chairs, and only some props on the sides for the old people to lean on. And their services can go for three hours! Now that’s toughness right there …)

And there’ll be sitting, because Christians gather in order to listen to the Scriptures being read, and to the gospel being proclaimed.

This is not an accident, or simply laziness. It is a quite deliberate illustration about the Christian life, which is in essence the life of faith. And faith comes, says Paul, by hearing (Romans 10:16). The Christian is the one who has heard the word of God addressed to him or her, and who has responded by believing it.

This is the shape of biblical faith. We encounter there a God who speaks, to whom the response must always first be: listen to him.

Ballun

Michael Jensen on why church should shock and offend at least sometimes In the Old Testament, Israel were the people who were called, and who followed the voice of Yahweh out of Egypt. The preaching of the book of Deuteronomy marks them out as a hearing nation. The famous Shema, the recitation of God’s uniqueness that Israel would repeat to one another, was a call to listen: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

In Psalm 23, Yahweh would be addressed as the Shepherd.

To follow his guidance meant survival and sustenance for Israel, the sheep. In John 10:1-21, Jesus picks up the ancient and messianic image of the sheep and shepherd.

The sheep recognise the voice of the shepherd who calls them by name. As Jesus taught in parables, it was the disciples who craved to hear and understand him.

And what did those disciples in turn do? They preached the gospel, so that the message of the forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ would be heard.

That extraordinary miracle that attended the first sermon that Peter delivered at Pentecost was a sign that this good news was not to be confined to one nation and one language, but was to be communicated in the hearing – and the understanding – of all people.

And this is what we see in the book of Acts, and in the other parts of the New Testament. People hear the proclamation of the gospel, and respond. Paul reminds us of this in the beginning of Ephesians: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”

As the great Reformer Martin Luther puts it: “For if you ask a Christian what the work is by which he becomes worthy of the name ‘Christian’, he will be able to give absolutely no other answer than that it is the hearing of the Word of God, that is, faith. Therefore, the ears alone are the organ of a Christian, for he is justified and declared to be a Christian, not by the works of any member, but because of faith.”

The ears! A surprising part of the body to nominate, we may think. But it shows exactly how the Christian life begins, and how it endures. We are sheep listening to the shepherd. We are people of faith whose faith is sustained by hearing again and anew the promises of the great and merciful God who speaks to us.

To say that, however, may give entirely the wrong impression. It may sound like the chief activity of church-going is an entirely passive one. And if we are to be honest, there’s an awful lot of passivity in church out there. We come to listen, but we find the Bible badly read by ill-prepared readers, or find the sound system inaudible; and then the minister delivers a passionless and self-indulgent rant about something obscure.

And so we find ourselves expertly counting the bricks in the wall behind the preacher, or reading Eternity magazine, or jotting down some plans to renovate the patio, or reminding ourselves to get the cat vaccinated. Perhaps the humanity of the preacher, with all his or her foibles and quirks and inadequacies, seems

Steps of Paul cruise holidays

like it obscures the fact that he is standing as an emissary of the Lord God himself.

But often enough it is we listeners who are unprepared and inattentive. Part of our task as the people of God is to be active in our listening to the voice of God. If God’s word is going to be spoken in your hearing this morning, and it really is the word of the creator and judge of all things, then are you ready to hear it? Would it be so ridiculous a thing to have read the Scripture passage through during the week and meditated upon it, or discussed it with your family and friends?

And anticipate that when God speaks, powerful stuff actually happens. You will need a seatbelt, because the word of God is powerful enough to make worlds out of nothing and to give life to the dead.

It is powerful enough to make a bunch of slaves into a nation and to unite Jews, Greeks and Calathumpians and who knows who else into one people. It declares forgiveness to the prostitute and liberty to the alcoholic, and humbles the philanthropist and the celebrity.

So expect that when God speaks, even using the mouth of one of his weaker and less-skilled servants, transformations will occur. Worlds will be rocked. The impossible will become possible.

Hope will miraculously appear in the hopeless. Joy will come to the grief-stricken. Acts of love between enemies will take place. Stingy people will reach for their wallets to give generously to those in need.

Now, that doesn’t mean that any sermon on any given Sunday from any given pulpit will be the occasion for God speaking. It still may be the case that what you may hear from the front, declared to you as the word of God, may be nothing of the kind. It may be deceptive and smooth-talking.

It may be simply in error, or mistaken. The task of the faithful listener is to exercise faithful discernment: to weigh up what is being said, like the Bereans of old; to check against the norm of Scripture, that this is indeed what God would say.

And that may mean that a listening Christian decides that what he or she is hearing each week is so far from the gospel, is so far removed from what Scripture teaches, that the voice of God has been put on silent in this church community. In which case, the church that meets each week to listen to a word other than the word of God that created it is not really being itself at all. It has lost the plot. And I would not hesitate to leave such a church, for a church that refuses to listen, or delights in listening to some other word than God’s, is fast becoming a false church.

And that leads me to another important observation about our listening. The word of God is of course good news. More than that, it is sweet news. It is delightful!

But that does not mean that the word of God is only ever there to please us. The word of God is, as the prophets and the apostles knew first hand, a word that gives offence to many who hear it. It delights us because it first speaks a word to us that is a hard word about how we really are. It punctures the bubbles of our pride. It challenges what we have come to accept as normal.

And so, if you aren’t at least sometimes shocked or offended by what you hear from the pulpit, or from the reading desk, something is wrong. If, when the reader says “This is the word of the Lord” you have to say “Thanks be to God” through gritted teeth sometimes, then hallelujah! If you leave church one morning red-faced with wrath, or deeply disturbed, or weeping with sorrow, then praise God! It just might be that God spoke profoundly to you today.

Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican church in Darling Point, Sydney and the author of several books.

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OPINION

18

Tim Costello Why a soup kitchen gave to Nepal Last month I was in Nepal with World Vision, following the devastating earthquake that hit the country on April 25. Australians have responded with characteristic generosity and compassion, and many of our church partners, including Bible Society, have been in the forefront.

In one church on Melbourne’s suburban outskirts, there’s a weekly soup kitchen where a few hundred people gather each Monday. These are people who have faced huge challenges – poverty, addiction, family violence, mental health issues, and more. When the church pastor spoke about Nepal, people decided to act. Despite their very limited resources, they put together several hundred dollars, much of it in coins, for World Vision’s appeal.

Some might say the burden of helping shouldn’t fall on people who are themselves struggling.

But empathy and compassion are no less strong among people who have little. Indeed, those who have

known hardship themselves often become more generous and open in their response to others. As Jesus taught about the widow’s mite, the giving of the poor can be an even greater and more meaningful sacrifice, and deserves respect.

Compassion moves ordinary people to respond both emotionally and practically to a clear need.

But as well as our immediate, compassionate response, we need to ask questions about justice.

When disaster strikes, we need to ask whether destruction and suffering are exacerbated by the poverty and injustice that frame the lives of poor communities.

Many parts of the world are vulnerable to disaster because of climate or geology. Yet the impact can be immeasurably greater for poor people. After a disaster, poor people usually find themselves without reserves of food, money or tradeable goods. Low building standards create immediate danger as well as long-term homelessness and dislocation. Subsistence farmers can’t survive if they lose even one crop, apart from losing tools and seeds, or the damage and contamination of their land.

Poor countries like Nepal lack the infrastructure to enable relief, let alone recovery and rebuilding.

Poor countries are usually profoundly unequal societies, with wealth concentrated in very few hands. Our short-term priority is to save lives and bring healing to the injured, the bereaved and the dispossessed. But let’s also keep an eye on the urgency of building resilience by reducing the poverty and injustice that make disasters like Nepal’s earthquake so much more devastating.

JUNE 2015

Letters God overcomes homosexuality As I read the article in the April edition of Eternity (“Wesley Hill, gay and Christian”) I was deeply troubled. In effect, it denies the saving grace of God in being able to redeem and sanctify people from sin. While Hill uses Scripture to bolster his position, he fails to observe that, in fact, God’s people are not to fuse a sin identity with their salvation.

“Gay and Christian?” Christians are empowered by the Spirit to kill sinful desires (Col 3:5, 1 Pet 2:11) and resist sin (Titus 2:1114). Simply because Hill hasn’t experienced this in his own life does not mean that others can be denied God’s work. God has been very much at work in my life to overcome homosexuality, and that has come about through walking intimately with him. If Hill can call himself “gay and Christian”, can someone else call themselves “alcoholic and Christian”? Christ has come to redeem us from sin, not to keep us entangled in it.

Haydn Sennitt, Panania, NSW.

Day of worship

With reference to Pr Phil Littlejohn’s letter, “Sabbath Covenant”, Eternity, No 57, I found Pr Littlejohn’s letter on the Sabbath interesting. From my reading of the Bible, the Sabbath was established at creation (Gen 2:2-3). There was no nation of Israel then, and if sin had not entered God’s perfect world, I

“Coming to a book burning is great. There’s some really good stuff here.” presume there would never have been a nation of Israel necessary, to be a “light to the Gentiles”.

Ex 20:8 reads, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy ...” This implies that it had been forgotten during the 430 years of slavery in Egypt. I believe that God’s law, written twice on stone by him at Sinai, is binding on mankind forever, as a code for life, but never as a means of salvation, which is clearly by grace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. The nation of Israel did not understand this. They immediately said, “All that the Lord has said, we will do.” They did not realise the sinfulness of their own hearts, and the impossibility of their being able to be saved by keeping the law.

In Jesus we saw the law lived in a life, and he says to us in John 14:15, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

God’s law is “holy, just and good” (Rom 7:12). It keeps us safe and provides a hedge around us in our daily lives. Only as we try to be saved by keeping it (legalism), does it become a problem for us.

Jesus worshipped on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), “as was his custom”.

In Matthew 24:20, Jesus said, “Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.”

This was pointing forward to 70AD, when the temple was destroyed by Titus.

So Sabbath was still the day of worship then. The apostles and the early church worshipped on the Sabbath (Acts 13:42-44; 16:13; 17:12; 18:4, 11).

It was only in 476AD that people were encouraged to worship on Sunday, rather than on the Sabbath, when Constantine became “Christianised”.

Brenda H. Kinkead, Cherrybrook, NSW

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OPINION

JUNE 2015

19

E

The moral adventure of faith y Dependenc

Conscience Energising love

Self-defeat

Justine Toh on living in ways that cause others to see truth

Vocation

Andreas Winter

If Australians were already captivated by the dramatic turnaround in the lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran while on death row, news that the condemned men were singing hymns in the face of the firing squad is further cause for wonder.

The burning question: what difference could faith actually make in someone’s life that they could show such fortitude in the face of their death?

Few of us Christians will ever get the chance to testify to our faith and the difference it makes in such a public way. But that doesn’t mean that we lack opportunity to demonstrate the work of God in our lives.

Just consider a recent column by New York Times columnist David Brooks, “The Moral Bucket List” (April 12, 2015). In this widely shared and commented-upon op-ed, Brooks sings the praises of people, found in any walk of life, who “radiate an inner light”, who “seem deeply good”, who lavish their attention on others.

Such people possess, in his terms,

Humility

David Brooks hopes “moral adventures” will save his soul, and yours too if you ever embark upon them. “eulogy virtues” – the kindness, bravery and faithfulness often extolled at funerals – in a world that’s often more interested in our “resumé virtues” – skills for getting ahead in the workplace.

Brooks frankly admits that such “incandescent souls” illuminate his own failings: “It occurs to me that I’ve achieved a decent level of career success … [but] I have not achieved that generosity of spirit, or that depth of character.”

Accordingly, he lists what he calls “moral adventures” – experiences of humility, self-defeat, dependency, conscience, energising love, and vocation – that he hopes

will save his soul, and yours too if you ever embark upon them.

Here’s the thing, though – and it probably explains why Christians have been doing a lot of the sharing of this column on Facebook.

These “moral adventures” resonate profoundly with hallmarks of Christian character. While Brooks seems more of the “spiritual but not religious” variety, his descriptions of these qualities can’t help but recall Christian truths: that we are all fallible creatures; that we are fundamentally people in community, not isolated agents; and that other-directed love lies at the heart of the universe.

Brooks writes that the truly humble have identified their “core sin” and are profoundly honest about their weaknesses.

People with character know they cannot do everything on their own but understand that “we all need redemptive assistance from outside.” Love that energises is that which “decentres the self [and] reminds you that your true riches are in another.”

Our culture of the “Big Me” primes us to ask what we want from life. Vocation, or a sense of calling, “quiets the self” since it flips the question: “What is life asking of me? How can I match

my intrinsic talent with one of the world’s deep needs?” Even Brooks’ description of the pattern of the lives of these luminous ones – “defeat, recognition, redemption” – hits similar beats to the Christian’s own conversion story: the agonising acknowledgement of our own darkness followed by the glories of resurrection.

There’s no reason, then, that Christians can’t be the kind of “moral adventurers” Brooks praises – although it is worth clarifying that, for the Christian at least, the goodness found in such lives is less an autonomous achievement and more likely the result of God’s grace. Ordinary life is often pegged as dull and routine, but from this perspective it is an appropriate setting for faithfulness over the long haul. Such dedication and persistence may rarely be noticed, much less celebrated, but Brooks’ candid confession of his admiration of such people shows that they leave their mark in the lives of others nonetheless.

Theologian N.T. Wright once said that, even in today’s flattened world that has dispensed with the gods, the sacred is still dancing at the edges of experience. It’s found in the gaze of parents lost in wonder at the tiny baby just born, a Gothic cathedral that provokes awe in even the most ardent atheist, the astonishment that doomed men would spend their final breaths singing songs of praise. That sacred sensibility, however, is equally detectable in the ordinary acts of believers just going about their business being the people of God. Dr Justine Toh is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. For more print, video and audio material go to www.publicchristianity.org

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OPINION

20

JUNE 2015

Things really do change, big things Greg Clarke on breathtaking milestones In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released and, again on TV, I witnessed the beginning of the end of apartheid. Watching Mandela walk to freedom was like a dream.

How could such a world view, with all of its political implications, be dismantled? Big change had happened.

Then in 2004, a ban was placed on smoking in Australian pubs.

Again, unthinkable!

During this period, my theology was catching up with my fresh observations of the world around me. I started to understand the Bible’s teaching on “the kingdom of God” a little better. I started to realise that the kingdom was advancing, which meant God was already at work changing things, preparing things, and we were part of that. Like second-timeround John the Baptists, we are

flickr.com/photos/mompl

When I was a boy, I found it hard to imagine that anything much would change. Big things, I mean.

It seemed that life carried on, one week to the next, with most elements remaining as they were.

The cricket always returned in the summer; the footy in the winter. As it was, so it ever shall be. I wasn’t fatalistic; I just felt that not much would change.

In part, this came from good Sunday Schooling. I had been taught well from the Bible that this world was passing, that the things that endure are invisible now, and Christian living is about waiting on the Lord’s return. This world would continue on its godless journey, and eventually, eventually, God would renew all things. Then things would change.

But I only had half the story – perhaps even less than half of the biblical story.

In my teens and early twenties, I start to notice big changes happening. In 1983, an Australian boat won the America’s Cup yacht race – unthinkable! But rather more significant changes were afoot. In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. I had stood at the wall in 1985 and couldn’t imagine how such a division might be overcome.

But it was. My TV showed me images of hammers being taken to the wall. And, later, parts of it being sold on eBay.

In 2014, thousands of illuminated balloons lit up the 15km where the Berlin Wall once stood, celebrating 25 years since its fall. preparing the way for the Lord’s return. I started to say the Lord’s Prayer differently, noticing that we prayed for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Our prayer is that heaven would be brought to earth – and what a huge change that will make. And can make. And is making.

When I took up my post with the Bible Society in 2010, I saw more of these big things that

God is doing. In my first week, someone said to me that they could imagine the Great Commission being fulfilled in their lifetime.

In my cynicism, I took this as hyperbole, a way of encouraging me to think big and get on with things. But my encourager was just stating facts: he could really see how every tribe and every nation would receive the good news.

Technology was making it happen

faster, leaping over political and geographical boundaries. Global Bible agencies were overcoming their small internal concerns and working together to see God’s word spread. The way Wycliffe Bible Translators state it is that by 2025 every language will have a Bible translation under way. That’s breathtaking, and world changing.

And another big change impressed itself upon me. While the West agonises over scripture in public schools and the Ten Commandments on the walls of courts of law, the two-thirds world embraces the Scriptures and eagerly demands its input in all walks of life. In Africa, Asia and South America, enormous numbers of people are turning to Christ. Churches are exploding.

Governments are affected. The Asian century might also be a Christian century.

It’s not for me to be prescriptive about how the kingdom of God is advancing except to say that, from my limited vantage point, I can see it in several areas. You can probably see more from where you stand.

But it has changed my mind to believe that big things change.

Nations rise and fall; hearts are transformed; injustices can be overturned; the Spirit of the Lord blows where he will. And now is the time of that change – not just as we look for the Day, but today.

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