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Jim Henderson

Jim Henderson pays people to go to church. In fact, he made national news when he "rented" a soul for $504 on E-Bay after its owner offered an "open mind" to the highest bidder. In Jim & Casper Go to Church, Hendrson hires another atheist--Matt Casper--to visit ten leading churches with him and give the "first impression" perspective of a non-believer. What follows is a startling dialogue between an atheist and a believer seeing church anew through the eyes of a skeptic, and the development of an amazing relationship between two men with diametrically opposing views of the world who agree to respect each others' space. Foreword by George Barna. FEATURES: * Unique perspective of both Christian and atheist on the church & Christians in the USA * Intelligent and respectful, seeking dialogue between key characters * Helps the Christian understand the change in attitudes and actions required when shifting from defending the faith to defending "sacred space"--from talking to listening, from strength to weakness, from debate to dialogue, from manipulation to intentionality. Buy at Amazon.

This week Steve and Randy begin a new series looking at the basics of what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus.  This introduction covers 3 spiritual journeys that each of us need to get a handle on as we attempt to live for Jesus.   {enclose mcaintro.mp3}

Rob Bell

God never changes, nor do the central truths of Christianity. But our understanding of those truths is in constant flux. Christians will always be exploring and discovering what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. Now in softcover, Velvet Elvis offers original and refreshingly personal perspectives on what Christianity is really about. Buy at Amazon.

As the year draws to an end I'm sure your thoughts are drawn to 2012. Do you make New Year's resolutions?

When you think about your goals for 2012 can I offer the words of Marianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Pete Mc

On Christmas Eve we attended a traditional Mass service with my wife's family. I was struck by the number of people who, like me, were unfamiliar with the format of the service, i.e. what to say and when to stand, etc. We sat outside because of the North Queensland heat and although it was cooler there was no sound. It was all quite odd and I wondered what on earth we were doing there. Occasionally we heard snatches of what the priest was saying but on the whole we were oblivious. I was particularly saddened that my non-believing brother-in-law had that as his experience of church. Is that really what Jesus and the early church was on about? 

I think John Jensen articulates it well in this piece.

Pete Mc

I was chatting with a friend at work who's a fellow believer. She was considering going into Chaplaincy because she believes she will be in a better place to talk with people about Jesus. However, there are some tricky hurdles in her way, including the likelihood that she'll have to change to a denomination which is under-represented in chaplaincy (such as Anglicans and Presbyterians - Roman Catholicism is not an option for her!) She works in a customer service area and I mentioned that she's probably in an ideal place right now to live out the values of a follower of Jesus. Her immediate response:

"But I can't tell them about Jesus!" Them refers to people who aren't followers of Jesus.

My response was that doesn't really matter, that she should focus on showing love; making the world a better place by being a person of peace, generosity, integrity, kindness, patience, goodness, self-control, gentleness and joy (I didn't actually mention all of those but that's what I meant). I believe that it's when we do those things that we "earn the right" to tell people about Jesus, and that happens when people like what they experience and want to know more. I think we need to expect God to be working on everyone's heart and trusting in him to provide opportunities to show his love. The challenge for us is stepping up and loving, especially when we are faced with someone who is not very lovable. But that's another story.

I used to car pool with a friend who didn't believe in God but was fascinated that I did. Many of our conversations on the 40 min drive were about my faith. I recall one trip when he told me about a conversation with his son.

Every night after dinner they would wash up the dishes together. My friend refused to buy a dish-washer because he valued those conversations so much. One night his son related what had happened that day at school during RE. The usual RE teacher was absent and a substitute had come in. She pushed the creationism doctrine hard and apparently not in a manner that convinced high-schoolers. The students were  bemused so asked some questions, including: “so what happened to the dinosaurs?".
Her response was along the lines: "the dinosaurs were killed by God because they had sinned".

Jesus said that he came so that we can have life to the full.

He didn't come so that we wait around being very careful that we don't do the wrong thing until we either die or he returns. No, on the contrary, we are to live our lives to the full. There's plenty of parables and other teachings from Jesus on this subject, and indeed the Lord's Prayer includes God's kingdom being realised here on Earth, but I love the way it's portrayed by this local Brisbane band, Ball Park Music.

(Warning: this song contains some rude words)

"Religion is lived by people who are scared of Hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell."

I don’t know if the statement above is true or not but I know there’s a depth to faith (and life for that matter) that seems to emerge through the way of suffering. Books like The Wounded Healer (Nouwen) and Disappointment with God (Yancey) wouldn’t have made any sense to me with the black and white theology I had as a young adult. These days though, it’s a different story.

No-one's laughing at God...

I have heard a few people express recently that, "Adults with imaginary friends are stupid".  This is of course a reference to their belief that mature people should outgrow their childish belief that there is a personal God out there somewhere.   It got me thinking about how clever and confident these people sound whilst their life is fine but how quickly they become at least agnostic when their own security is seriously threatened.  It would seem that all of humanity has a primal instinct to reach out and hope that something or someone more powerful than themselves is there. Some call it 'the force', some call it 'mother nature' and some call him 'God' but either way, we seem to reach for something.  Life has a funny way of running us down, and sooner or later everyone of us realizes that we don't have enough resources to handle everything on our own.  In those times, it might not be so stupid and childish to beg for support... 

Regina Spektor nails my sentiments in this great clip...