Santa Claus vs God

Santa Claus knows everyone on the planet
God knows everyone on the planet

Santa Claus has thousands of people pretending to be him

God has thousands of people pretending to be him

Santa Claus has a plan to reach everyone in one night

God has a plan to reach everyone in one night

Santa Claus knows what everyone wants

God knows what everyone wants

Santa Claus understands that not everyone believes in him

God understands that not everyone believes in him

Santa Claus wants everyone to know love and joy at Christmas

God wants everyone to know love and joy at Christmas

Santa Claus loves surprising people 

God loves surprising people

Santa Claus doesn't exist

God exists

That's the real difference.

Being in love

How do you know if you are in love
Sweaty palms, pounding heart rate, heart in your mouth?
Maybe you spend all day thinking about them, planning what you are going to say next time you see them or talk to them, thinking about how lucky you are to have them in your life?
At Christmas you might make an extra effort - extra gifts, a really personal card and setting aside time to spend with that special someone.

One of the things that I was told when I got married was that being in love wasn't as important as loving your wife. That crazy in love feeling can subside as life takes over. The thrill of the initial romance can't last forever. The rollercoaster ride is replaced by a practical car which needs constant refueling. Communication is the key, which includes reading lots of books to understand the other better, and learning about their quirks, likes, dislikes, and spending time together.

For those of you who read this and are not Christian, here is something to think about...
God loves you, plans the gifts, makes time, thinks about you all the time. Not only that, but God will never, ever grow tired of being rejected, avoided or treated like He doesn't even exist.

For those of you who are Christians, here is something to think about...
When was the last time you got sweaty palms or a racing heart just thinking about God?
When was the last time you spent all day thinking about God, talking to God, or writing something special for God?

So maybe you're not in love with God? Maybe you're in a different phase of the relationship. Do you do loving things, even when you are tired, run down, worn out, for God, for others? Are you spending an hour a week with God or is it more? How much is in your tank? How often do you refuel?

Jesus said "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul and strength." He added "Love your neighbour as yourself" with a definition of neighbour so broad as to encompass everyone.

No matter how hard I try to live up to this standard, I never feel like I spend more than 5% of my time getting close to this. It's too hard. I always fall short. This is why I constantly rely on God's grace.

The question is: if you can't achieve perfect love, should you stop trying? Should you accept where you are at with God and make no change? Or is time to suck it up and try knowing that the effort means something to God and will have a positive effect on your relationship with him.

Consider this
1 John 4:7-12
⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4&version=NIV


No matter who you are, God loves you, and you should show love to those are around you.

This is my speech for the year 12s leaving today

Tomato joke

There were three tomatoes walking down the road; A Mummy tomato, a Daddy tomato, and a baby tomato and the baby tomato was lagging behind ...

You guys dont know how much i will miss you

I have so many memories with you - some of them are funny and some of them are sad some of them funny and sad

I remember trying to keep up with kieran in cross country, form class in D2, no-outs soccer games on the junior campus oval, the day we got goals for futsal and my team putting them together, the worst camp ever with the bizare leader in the tree and the hail the size of a fist, being thrown in the pool by all of you and Robertson finally winning an interclan competition.

My fondest memories are from my first year at tsc with you guys in year 5. it is a different experience to have a class all day everyday as miss gilespie and mrs haines shipman will tell you. It makes you all very close (and a little insane)

we did slaves and masters, heaps of timestables and spelling, dissoling plastic, and buddy reading with the preps in mrs walkers class. We went from the squashed prep class to the massive classroom down the stairs.  We got to see wallabies out of the windows and we got trapped in the classroom during the bushfire because of the smoke.

But how much of this actually helped your OP? Id like to think some of things i did with all of you helped, but for me the most important test not one with letter results but your life. I hope that I have not only helped you work out your beliefs and demonstrated my own, but also shown you how important good relationships are.

There is a bible passage that talks about fire and seas (not the beach) and as you head off into the unknown i thought a bible verse might be appropriate. It talks about how no matter what challenges you face in life God is there for you so dont lose hope.

Isaiah 43:1-3 NIV

this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour;

no accident

Kids repeat what you say. Often in public to people who wouldn't understand the context
Kids often look a bit like you and a bit like their mum/dad. Then they pull a face/expression and you just see yourself/relative/your own parents.


Parents tend not to be perfect. Kids tend to grow up and try and improve on what their parents did and often end up repeating a lot of what their parents did.

Parents tend to drive their kids crazy but kids tend to be attracted to someone who has some similarities to their parents.

What happens when parents aren't there for their kids?
What happens when parents haven't dealt with their own issues?
What happens when the kids have to work it out for themselves?
What happens when parents feel guilty about doing the right thing?
What happens when parents feel guilty about doing the wrong thing, but don't change what they are doing?

Kids are very resilient but ...
Parents have a huge opportunity so ...

Kids only learn manners, how to say sorry, and how to share if parents encourage and model using manners, saying sorry, and sharing.

There is only one perfect parent. God teaches us to ask for help, ask for forgiveness, and share what we've got. The rest of us are just doing the best we can, with the time that we have, so that our kids will grow up to be happy.

Every child is a blessing from God - especially mine!

Cheers
Macca

So you're new to church part 5... but by this stage you've been a bunch of times

Last stage of integrating a new person into a church

Couple of things to start off with...
First of all I'm not going to say that there is one perfect and get's 'em every single time kind of way to encourage new people to put down roots in a church. People are all different and churches are all different so there is going to be something for everyone. I'm just hoping that whoever is reading this blog realises/understands/agrees with me that it's not as simple as putting on a really good service, or making sure that we give you a name badge and adding you to the mailing list and database. It's a process that needs to capture the hearts and minds of everyone, not just the new people. It is also something that God is in control of, and you could have the best system and people might still leave the church after trying a couple of Sundays, and you could have the worst systems and people might stay...

second of all, it's really important everyone in a church is on board with this. Everyone does play a role - not just the two people who weren't at the meeting and got put on welcoming for a month of Sundays. It's also not up to the priest to be the one to attract and retain. The whole church family can play a positive or negative role. They just need to be empowered to do so...

The last part of welcoming new people to church is empowering them. This goes beyond giving them a job and a little responsibility. The empowerment of people is about giving them a sense that they can contribute to the church, not because I think we need to brainwash people or delude people but because the church needs everybody to contribute. Do I need to give you a bible reference to being one body and many parts? Do I need to make reference to the fact that churches are made of people not of bricks.

A small town priest can probably do the services, visit a few sick people, and do the occasional baptism/funeral/wedding. I'm pretty sure that the church in a small town could exist without the members of the church actually doing anything to contribute to the church. Churches in cities could also survive that way as long as the congregation size was kept small... what keeps them small? A small town mentality...? Is that why I think we should empower people? So that they make the church a better place? No.

It's about the person, not about the church.

I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but our society likes to tell people that they are worthless, so that they will buy something that will make them worth something, which doesn't, so they keep on buying stuff. The fact is that very few people are actually as incapable as they are made to feel. I see it all the time at school, kids believing that they are only capable of a C/pass. Or that they because they are not the sporty cool kid, then there is no hope for them.

We need to empower people to achieve what they are capable of ... for God.

We cannot have people just sitting in pews, because all humans are made in God's image. Humans can do amazing things. If they just sit in pews, for just one hour per week then it's like having a bunch of batteries sitting in the recharger and never putting them into the toy/camera/clock. It's like paying for a solar panel and then not connecting it to your power box. More importantly, each of those humans has been purpose built by God for a reason. They have gifts and they have experiences that God has given them for a reason... and that purpose is for God's kingdom.

Empowering is abut encouraging people to do what God wants them to do in ministry. If they've been trained, equiped and have had enough experience then they should be looking for a niche, a problem, a need and working out a solution so they aren't doing all that training for nothing. It's then up to the person or people in charge to say "Go for it!" ... obviously moulding and shaping the outcome so that it builds the church rather than leads to problems. Making sure that there are proper checks and balances is important. Making sure the person doesn't bite off more than the and end up burning out is also important.

The thing is that God wants us all to be in this. It's not as if he sent his son to die for us so that could just sit there and be grateful for one hour a week.

Now the question is, if you got this far through my extremely long blog - BTW deliberately long - have you been empowered by your church? Are you encouraged to be a part of the building process, or are you just pew warming? Are you given all the training you need to take on something in the church which  makes a difference to the lives?

Am I saying that you need to go and start taking over the church? No. This needs to be done under the authority of whoever is in charge of your church - no matter how terrible they might be.

So, if you are new to a church, go and get empowered. If you are not new but have been hanging out there for a while, find someone who needs to be trained, equipped and empowered.

So there you go. You want people to come to your church and stay in your church for all the right reasons. You want them to use their God given gifts and talents, feel appreciated and make something of their time in the church.

No church is perfect, but every single church, even the one's that drive you crazy, belong to God. We owe it to God make sure we don't drive people away. I don't claim to be the absolute expert on this subject, but I hope that wherever you are reading this you have been able to take something away from it and that people in your church will benefit.

Cheers
Macca

Not moving to Springfield

At the beginning of the year, Em and I started looking at the possibility of moving to Springfield. The main attraction was a flat back yard and a larger house for a similar amount of money for what we could sell our house for. It was a family move, a lifestyle change and it had a lot of advantages.

I must point out there was a timeline to this that was all about *the baby*. I worked out exactly how long we had to get a contract if the contract was x many weeks and if I didn't want us moving within x many weeks of the baby so that Em was not stressed or tired by it. I was being practical.

Being faithful Christians we prayed to God about it. Those prayers went something along the lines of "God, do you want us to move to Springfield? If so, show us the house and get us a buyer for our house." I think it would be fair to say that I have often said that God has a plan for everyone and we were trying to work that plan out in a practical way. It was a bit of a career limiting option for me, because I would be further away from other Anglican Colleges that I might one day want to get employed by, but I am convinced that God wants me at Springfield for a fair amount of time (don't know how much) and so this was not a problem - in fact it was a plus! I have to admit that I pretty much expected it to work out.

We eventually found a house and had an offer accepted on the very last day that I had on my timeline to get an offer accepted. It was then down to selling our house. We spent a lot of time and money getting it ready for sale and then even more time getting it ready for Saturday open homes. Then we prayed some more. And some more.

The open homes really had nothing positive for us. Just sticky beakers who were doing research. (Not a problem - been there done that!)

So now, we have passed my date for getting our home sold and we are not moving.

I am both happy and sad about this. There is a part of me which is asking the question "Well why did you put me through this God?" I am happy not to have the stress of moving, but I did really like the house we had an offer on. I got the feeling though that it really wasn't about me and my family, but it was actually about a range of other people who needed us in this position. I pray that somehow that somewhere, someone is now closer to God as a result of all of this. If not, well it's not really a problem - I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing.

I love my life, my wife, my family, my job, my friends. There is nothing that will stop that. I will continue to work in Springfield as long as God wants me there and as long as I am needed there (They go together by the way). I had a conversation tonight that highlighted to me what a great place it was to work. Not that I needed reminding, but that it was a reminder (like a calendar reminder when you are at the event).

To be faithful to God is not always clear, but its always best.

Cheers
Macca

New to your church - Part 4 Challenge

Welcome back to my New to your church series ... except that Part 4 actually should be left until the new person to your church is ready. This could be after 1 year, it could be after a few years.

Challenge

Here's the thing, you get somebody into church and get them happy and then most people think "Job Done!" But if that is all that happens then you actually fail them...

There are lots of ways to challenge a congregation member or family. One of the most common ways of challenging is to give them a job. I remember a priest telling me that he gave people a job as soon as possible so that you kept them. This was great when everybody responded really well to committment, but these days ... Actually I think he had the cart before the horse, and a number of people who really didn't understand that the Gospel was all about grace managed to get into positions where they used and abused power and people left that church as a result. Having said that, a job is a really good challenge if used according to the gifts/time/experience/spiritual needs of a member. Churches need to remember that the jobs needs to be in the interest of the member, not the church. Just because the lawn needs mowing doesn't mean that the next new bloke goes on the roster. Just because the brass needs polishing doesn't mean the next mum gets put on the cleaning roster. The number of bible verses of serving are quite substantial and I don't need to mention any specifically, but the number of bible verses saying nice things about churches that are "self-serving" is quite a lot less. It is a tricky balancing act.

My current church actually spends some time encouraging people to go through their gifts to work out how they can best contribute to the life of the church. The benefit of finding the right job for someone, is that people are more likely to commit, complete and enjoy doing it. When people complete a job they like doing for the glory of God, they end up feeling affirmed, encouraged, uplifted, and more responsible.

The problem is getting the right attitude. If people are cajoled, manipulated or guilt tripped into jobs you just know its going to end badly - jobs not done, or done badly, or done well with a judgmental attitude, or done well with a scowl. It's just not right. You need to develop a specific culture where people are recognized and encouraged to do jobs for the church. You can't have the priest/pastor do everything, but you can't let people do it in a grumpy way.

Another key way of challenging people is through bible study. Some churches see "young people" (aka under 55s) coming regularly to church and think this means they should be ordained and encourage them to do a Bachelor of Theology. I am all for study, but I'm thinking that maybe some other steps in between might be useful.

Small groups should always be a key aspect of the Church life and regular prayer and bible study should be key features of any small group.

Another way of challenging is through small studies such as Alpha course, Christianity Explained, or Back to Basics. 5-8 weeks is not too much of a commitment and can really help members understand what it is that your Church loves and emphasises... and sometimes what Jesus dying on the cross really means.

Challenging is also a vital step if you want the next part (empower) to be effective. Well-meaning powerful people who don't know why they do what they can be a danger to themselves and everybody. Ephesians 4:12 says that we need to "equip His [Jesus] people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.

If you don't challenge pew warmers with jobs and training, then they will become parasites in the church. We are all called to serve and everyone needs to serve appropriately using their gifts. Challenging people can sound bad, but really, it's in their best interest

Cheers
Macca

What dads say

While I was on my holiday I had to say these things to my boys...

Don't worry, I'm right here.
Just wait!
Could you help me by carrying this?
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Up you get.
Do you want a hug?
Isn't this amazing?
I told you that if you kept on doing it, eventually it would land on the roof.
You've got to do more than say sorry.

There were lots of times when I asked for help to do things I was quite capable of doing myself. I wasn't being lazy, I was giving them small amounts of responsibility with the opportunity for praise and encouragement.

There were times when they asked me questions that I could have given the real answer to, but they just wouldn't have understood, especially the pyroclastic flow, so I just simplified it.
This exactly the same as my relationship with God. These are all things that he has said to me (especially "just wait!"). Does this mean that I am trying to play God? No. I am just being a Dad who loves his kids. This is the relationship that Jesus says we should have with God when he teaches the disciples to pray.
Unfortunately, this also shows me that when God gently nudges me along, he is actually seeing me as a 3-5 year old: not in a patronizing way, but in a gentle, understanding, caring and eternally patient kind of way.

So go through what I said to the boys; God is saying it to me, and God is probably saying that to you too.

Cheers
Macca

New to your church part 3

In Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5, we get this great line from Jesus "healthy people don't need a doctor; only the sick people need a doctor." In each of the three Gospels, this has come off the back of a healing of a paralyzed man in which there is a strong link between a physical healing and spiritual healing also known as forgiveness.

My third blog about new people in church is about Healing. Let me be clear here: its both kinds of healing that need to take place. If you've got a family that comes to the church and the Dad's just been laid off and the mum has a got a terminal disease and the kids have got allergies, then you can't ignore that and just attend to the spiritual needs of the family - that would be unloving, unkind and unchristian. But any family in the position is also going to have intense spiritual needs too (not to mention a few questions about suffering and God).

Maybe the new people who turn up don't actually appear to have that much in the way of physical problems. They're DINKs or they have steady well-paid professions in the prime of their life. They turn up for a few weeks and they start making connections and chatting with people after the service - what then?

Anybody who has been in a church for longer than about 10 seconds is going to have spiritual baggage, and probably emotional baggage that goes along with it. Why? Well why have they come to your church if they didn't have baggage? Why did they leave? Why didn't they stay in their perfect little/big church? New job. Ah well no chance that anything bad happened then... but then you have the differences between this church and that, and in the last church they were [       ] and the theology was more [        ] and this is good because [      ] but they miss [       ]. You can fill in the blanks.

Anyone who has been an active member of another church will probably have a few battle scars, a few strong ideas, and possibly even some beliefs that they don't want to reveal. Since there is so much church shopping and sheep stealing these days as the pool of Christians in a post-church society dwindles and the amount of outreach is reduced, the chances are that a lot of new people to your church have had some experience of church and most of that will just be bad.

The "unchurched" in this post-church society need something more than just religious experience and the label of "token young person" to make it worthwhile for them to give up the time and money and coolness that you sacrifice to commit to a church.

All of this is kind of beside the point... Everyone needs the Great Physician (Even Luke). That means that everyone in your church probably needs love, care, help, warmth, TLC, followup and a good bedside manner. New people need this more than anyone in the church, because it takes ages to become regular people, but an instant to become "gone". If Jesus is the Doctor, then I'm thinking we must be the nurses - and yes, this includes changing bedpans.

That means that every new person needs to have several congregation members who are willing, available, trained, equipped, and aware/appointed to take care of them. I have seen lots of services where the new people (sometimes me) are meant to be ministered to by just the minister, which is bad, or they are completely ignored.

If someone was to come to your church with blood coming out of their leg, you'd probably rush over with a bandage and try and patch them up. Why is it that when we see people come into the church we just assume they are okay or we don't need to care for them? Why is it that when we see people come into the church we just assume that the power of the service/sermon/warm handshake/cup of tea afterwards will take care of all their spiritual ailments? I don't know a single person on this planet who does not need at least the question to be asked "Are you okay?" and then the answer that comes afterwards to be pretty much disbelieved, or for someone to look for the opportunity to say "you look like you're having a rough day."

The worst thing is, that we have churches that are full of people who go through the "welcome" and "connect" phases, but then get stuck at "healing". Some of these people were welcomed when they were months old and have been coming ever since. Sure, they keep coming to church. Sure some of their spiritual hurts and ailments are fixed. But then life happens and they just stay in the neediness, or they stick hard and fast to their stoic "I'm okay."

You could take the approach that Jesus is the Doctor, so he should be healing them. Maybe the priest is Jesus' rep on earth and so the priest should do the lion's share of work. What do you end up with? A church full of people who never get properly well, and who mainly focus on their own needs, rather than reaching out, serving, volunteering, evangelizing, or discipling. You can get congregations where everybody knows a lot about the bible, and each one has a deep personal faith, but unless they are involved in the healing process and people get more than just a bandaid, its like anti-cholesterol medication instead of a heart transplant - it will keep you going but you wont get to do star jumps.

The healing comes from Jesus. He achieves this in many different ways, but mostly he is just keen for Christians to realise "Hey Jesus healed me, and now its time for me to give something back." I like the idea of serving as a nurse because the responsibility is God's and I know that he doesn't need me. But I also know that God wants to use us for our own good and for his own glory.

If you agree with this idea that people need to be healed and you are already a part of helping that happen in your church, then you need to find those who have been in the church for a while and encourage them to stop being so self-centered and start looking after the others in the congregation. Everybody needs to grow through the problems that require healing so that they can become effective members of the body of Christ - the sooner the better.

I want all churches to be growing; not because of sheep stealing, or because their version is so flashy so it attracts all the church shoppers, but because people get something out of it, and then invest something back into it.

Cheers
Macca

New to your church part 2

So my recipe went like this ...

Welcome
Connect
Heal
Challenge
Empower

Part 2 is connect

I think this is the area that people think is difficult and therefore leave to the expert with the theology degree, rely on the" quality" of the service or blame the new people for not connecting ("well if they had grown up in the church they would understand...").

Certainly the priest / pastor and the service should connect. A well developed positive message should be preached not just at the sermon but also in the songs and prayers. Its also worth thinking about how the people up the front interact with each other and the people in the congregation. If people up the front get cross with each other for liturgical mistakes and then turn around and talk about forgiveness, how does that look to the new person? That positive message invites the new person to think to themselves "I could see myself coming here..."


It's actually worth thinking about how businesses connect with their customers/clients/demographic/target audience. That doesn't mean that we have to adopt a business attitude, just that we can learn from people who make a living off doing this stuff really well - what's that you say? Priests have to live off the collection plate? Oh, and God's grace and mercy. Well I guess that's an advantage... Anyway, getting off track.

I'm going to look at the big three - Maccas, Bunnings and Coles. They all sell stuff, but they all want your loyalty too which is different from an Ebay store or Harvey Norman which just promise you cheap stuff and get you back even though they have no customer service.

Maccas - their key is consistency. You can go to a Maccas anywhere and know what you'll get, and what you get may not be appetising if you think to hard about it, but it will come with a clean, safe toilet, a playground and it will be really convenient. I don't know how many times using drive through has been an option because I've had boys in the car and its much less hassle to stay in the car and so drive through Maccas becomes the choice. If you've ever been to a petrol station toilet or park with a metal toilet then you'll know how important it is to be able to go to the toilet without being worried about what could happen inside or what could be lacking. Every Maccas has a playground of fairly high, if not very high standard and even though KFC and Hungry Jacks also do this, they don't do it as well as Maccas.

Bunnings - they cover everything. You've got to paint, plant or repair something then you could go to a normal hardware store or you could go to Bunnings and you'll find a couple of other things along the way that you didn't think you needed but it was so cheap ... My local Bunnings has a real Child-friendly push with a brand new massive playground, free balloons, lollipops and stamps and I know I could actually just walk in have the kids play and be able to walk out again without having bought anything, but I probably wouldn't because there is always something to buy. They also offer training courses...

Coles - they focus on quality. I don't always buy it, but they are always going on about quality, and they do a pretty good job of promoting themselves *everywhere*. Is Masterchef about cooking or is it about promoting Coles? I'm not quite sure. I think they've given up on trying to win the "cheapest supermaket" prize since Aldi came on the scene, so they focus on really red shiny apples and fruit and veg areas that make it look like you are at the markets in Melbourne, and shelves full of as few cans as possible.

You generally get a friendly, happy, staff member at these places, and Bunnings has even tried to provide some customer service over the last couple of years. You pretty much know what to expect and there are very strategic locations, advertising, and methods for moving you from choosing to purchasing to staying a bit longer. The most important thing about all of the successful businesses is that they know who they are trying to reach and they have a strategy for getting them and, more importantly, keeping them. Sometimes it is very subtle, but you always know when you have walked out of one of these stores that you have been in the store and that the buying of items was more than just looking at the cheapest prices.

So how about church?
Is your church strategic? or is it desperate to get anyone who walks through the doors?
Does your church have some way of encouraging people to stay longer?
Does your church attract a specific demographic (possibly over 70s) or does it cover all demographics?
What is your church doing to attract new people and what is it doing to keep existing members?
Where is the energy of the programs being focused on - getting in new or keeping old? and how effective is it at either?
What strategies are in place to cater for people once they move from one demographic group to the next (ie young singles to newly marrieds. Marrieds to families. Families to retirees.)?
When a new person comes along to your church, do they leave with a sense of being deliberately acknowledged, affirmed and valued, or that there was a standard that they needed to measure up to?
What key strategies do you have for connecting with kids?
What facilities do you have to connect with kids?
How well do you advertise your church's existence? programs? facilities? ministry?
How well do you advertise the Christian message of love and forgiveness through Jesus, as opposed to religiousness and experience?
What are you doing that creates a disconnect for new people to the church?
Do you ask new people to give money?
Do new people have enough information? Too much information?
Is your service consistent so that people know what they will get? (and are the toilets easily accessible or in the really old block that is about 10m away from the church and you need a key?)
Does your service cover everything and everyone? (Do you get the Gospel message plus theological insight plus opportunities for ministry or just intellectual rigor? Does your service engage high church, low church, people who can't read, people who like singing new songs, people who like to sing old songs? Careful with this as you cannot be all things to all people...)
Who is doing the work of connecting to new people? (Is it people at the door, the priest, Fred who has a very outgoing personality, people with name tags on, or just God?)
Do you pray for new people to come to your church?
Do you pray that people will connect when they come to your church?
Do the existing members want any new people to come to church? Why? Why not? What kind of new people?

I think I will do an extra blog later on with my tips for talking to new people. I should just add that churches in general are hopeless at advertising themselves. No-one reads the local free newspaper anymore, and letterbox drops are time-consuming and about 5% effective. Hillsong has the best advertising of any church in Australia, but at times you could interpret their blatant advertising as some sort of selling of the soul (that's probably a little harsh). The best advertising is always word of mouth, followed by strategic visuals and branding in the right places... its not rocket science, and churches shouldn't just say "If we pray for them they will come?" You can't just wait for your Christmas carols or Easter service - it has to be regular and prominent in your community.

My concluding comments on this topic are
1. Be strategic
2. Know who you can cater for and how you can cater for them
3. Change what you do, rather than who you are
4. Make sure that you take advice from God and the Holy Spirit - this is the difference between church and business.

Next blog is on healing, which doesn't mean I think new people should get a miracle healing, but is going to be about brokeness, sinfulness, dealing with the past and restoration/redeeming.

I'm a kindy Dad

Because of the overlap between TSAC holidays and Owen's holidays, I got to go to Kindy today.

I love Owen's Kindy because it is so well run, the teachers are fantastic and the kids are nice. I've never seen other Kindies so I have nothing to compare it to, but I bet if I did, I wouldn't be as impressed.

Now obviously there were other things I could have done today - fix the fence, paint some walls, play CODmw2 or continuously pick toys after Harry played with them for about a second - but this is what I really wanted to do. It's not the first time I've been able to do it; last year and this year I have spent a few hours there and even played my violin for the kids.

This time it really struck me how keen most of the kids were to spend time with me. I honestly don't know if their Dad's don't get to spend much time with them so they are starved for attention, or if they are used to getting attention from adults, I was an adult and I attended. But I was the centre of attention for most of the day. (I actually think the teachers didn't mind a bit of a break.)

All I was doing was playing with my son and anyone else who cared to join in, which was up to a dozen kids at a time. It wasn't intellectual, it wasn't academic, it wasn't psychologically analytical - it was just a bit of fun... and it felt great!

More importantly, Owen felt affirmed in his relationship with me. He knows I love him. But does it really hurt to emphasise the point "I LOVE YOU!" No, of course not. So I did everything I could to make that happen. The sad part from me is that I suspect that there are many kids out there who believe intellectually that their parents love them, but just don't get the affirmation that leads to the emotional belief that their parents love them. Too much work, not enough time is not a solution for any relationship and I think that sometimes our kids are so forgiving of our failings that we don't see how much they miss us and just want to be with us and be like us.

I strongly believe that our earthly relationships mimic our heavenly relationships. God taught us to call him "daddy" (not "that guy with the smite key and a long flowing beard) and wants to be with us all the time. The trouble is, most of the time we act like kids who have learnt their Dad is not available except at certain times, and who goes away on long trips overseas.

What did I learn from Kindy today?
sit down and turn your listening ears on
wash your hands
have a drink when your teacher tells you
have a guess
use friendly hands
create something
Your teacher is watching over you while during nap time
Kids love to copy so set a good example and follow a good example
Encourage everyone
When someone is sad, sometimes just sitting with them helps them feel better
Don't use toilet words
When kids know that a Dad is okay, they flock to him

Who would have thought I could learn so much in one day?

New to your church

This is my recipe for the process that people (should) go through so that when they church shop and find a church they like they keep on coming back and become a part of the community. Like all recipes it will probably need tweaking to taste and there will be times when you have to substitute an ingredient depending on what is in your pantry. I say recipe, but everyone knows that a simple formula just wont get the job done - it takes a lot of work, a lot of heart, and the work of the Holy Spirit. I would be very interested in feedback so feel free to comment.

Ingredients
Welcome
Connect
Heal
Challenge
Empower

Welcome
This is not just having someone at the entrance to the church with a friendly smile. This means making sure that anyone new can find everything and know everything they need to. Sometimes the information needs to be conveyed through well positioned signs, sometimes it is given by the welcomer at the front, sometimes it comes from people who sit around the new person, sometimes it comes from the person leading the service or their assistants. This includes knowing things like which page to turn to, which book to use, where the toilets are, what information in the pew bulletin might interest them or be helpful (bible readings that are used in the service or a sermon intro or what events are coming up that might suit them) or just giving them some way in which they can ask for help during the service.

Welcoming children and parents takes a specific skill because they don't necessarily fit into the normal church. What options have you got for children and for which specific age ranges? Do you have a feeding room with change facilities? Do you have a time in the service when the kids come up to the front? Do you have a time when the kids leave the service for an alternative program like Sunday School? Are all the helpers with children blue carded and trained for whatever roles they take and do the new parents know? How is all this information conveyed? What do you do when you don't cover every single age range and someone turns up with kids in the range you cover and kids in the range you don't cover?

The key to all of this is that you don't want the newcomer to feel embaressed by the fact that they are new and don't know anything. All of this information does not need to be conveyed as soon as someone new comes through the door because that would give them information overload. What does need to happen is that the whole congregation needs to consider how they respond when someone new turns up. It must be a very clear strategy that everyone knows about, even if they don't have to do anything.

In ages past, when people were brought up in the church, and church services varied little, a warm smile from other congregation members was enough to welcome newcomers because the information was "obvious". Things like when to sit and stand, which page to turn to and send you kid out just before the sermon were pieces of information that could be worked out using the wealth of knowledge from years of church attendance. In a largely unchurched population, the few that do turn up in the pews don't necessarily have the information to decode the *obvious* and we lose a lot of opportunities when people randomly turn up because it is too scary, too intellectual and literate, too embaressing, too obvious that you are new, and much easier just to stay at home. It cannot be covered by the priest/pastor/leader if there are any more than about 10 people - there is just too much which can put people off.

Finally, a warm smile can be encouraging, but staring at someone's tattoos, thongs-singlet combo and turning your nose away because the newcomer didn't have a shower this week can be devestating. People who don't understand the dresscode probably already feel uncomfortable enough as it is, without the bodylanguage, percieved whispers about them, and *blanking* which makes them feel judged, whether its from the priest or anyone in the congregation. If the welcome isn't good enough, it won't necessarily put off the seriously committed Christian, but unchurched non-christians who are responding to the call of God, or the guilt of Grandma will probably run out the door - never to be seen again because they have been innoculated (a small bad dose protects against a full-blown version taking hold) against the Church and against Christ.

Next - Connect: Not an evangelical sermon series or bible college course, but an attitude.

Cheers
Macca

The end is nigh

I just cannot wait for tomorrow afternoon!
I have had a pretty big term and I just need a proper sleep... (I know - never going to happen when I've got two small boys)
I noticed that the further we went on, the grouchier, crankier, and more irritated people got. If (and this is a big if) we have 100% tolerance at the beginning of a term, by the end most people must be just about out of it.

So how do you avoid flaming all your friends when we get tired?

My answer is simple, by having people around you to keep it in perspective. In my office we all work together to make it a nice place to work. When things get tiring and crazy, we are always there for each other with reassuring words.

So the question is ... Who is around you that helps you keep things in perspective? I guess another important question is ... Who are around your friends and loved ones when things get tough?

Another glorious holiday awaits - going to take my family to a farm where there will be much animal feeding and cuteness!

Cheers
Macca

Friends forever(?)

This week I talked to a class about the importance of forgiveness when grieving. I said that you need to forgive others so that you don't become bitter. You need to forgive yourself and be realistic about your responsibility.
Also this week several friendship issues came up that definitely needed forgiveness on both sides, but both sides are very strong willed. Add to this exam pressure and you've got a recipe for pain and heartache.
I challenge you to think about your own relationships. Is there somone you need to not just say sorry to, but humbly ask for forgiveness? Is there a relationship where its not going how you want it to?
If you keep holding onto it and bottling it up it will only hurt you.
Forgiveness is one of the hardest things for humans, but it also the secret to long-lasting enduring fulfilling relationships.
The youtube clip is important for understanding what forgiveness is not. Mark Driscoll is a fave preacher of mine... He knows what he's talking about
Cheers
Macca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB0OhnhJe-M

Oprah's last show(s)

I've found it interesting to watch Oprah develop over the last couple of decades. There is no doubt that she has used her influence for good.
But I couldn't watch her last shows. Star after star all proclaiming how good she was. It was too much for me. I couldn't work out if they were there to praise her or pump their own careers. I couldn't work out if they were praising her or fawning all over her like a bunch of sychophants.
Oprah is leaving at the very top of her game, just like a footy star who retires after winning man of the match in the grand final. I'm sure thousands of fans want to be just like her.
My problem is her whole world seems to revolve around how great she is. My experience has always been that no matter how good we try to be we are never that great, unless by accident. I worry that she will one day wake up and realise that once she steps off the stage the world can actually be very lonely in comparison. Im sure she will land on her feet, but are all those famous people going to be there for her or out working.

What good will it do to have all the power in the world but to lose your soul? This whole question comes up at the end of spiderman 3. Check out this bible verse to see what Jesus says about it... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%208:36-37&version=CEV

The greatest good is done by those who focus on what lies beyond them.

Friday

Chapel rock band played for the first time this year. Having sung shout to the lord times than I would have liked to this year, take it all, mighty save and everyday were a great change. I loved hearing the kids humming to themselves later in the day.

But what makes crb special is not what they play, or how polished their performance is, but the fact that they encourage the College to enjoy Chapel, participate in chapel, look forward to chapel and sing in chapel.

I hope that everyone who leaves tsac finds a church where they are encouraged and supported. Its a tough world out there and there aren't too many places that will support as much as tsac.

Hope everyone has had a good week
Cheers
Macca

Alumni Cocktail Night

Had a really great night on Wednesday
It was great seeing some familiar faces again and reminiscing about the past a bit
What was really encouraging was how much people wanted to contribute even though there was really no benefit to them (other than a warm fuzzy feeling)

Hopefully it will be the start of something really big and long term.

Cheers
Macca

Nice Quote

"A beautiful heart sees beyond someone's personal junk and accepts God's magnificent creation." - Mark Brown

First Blog

First blog... well I'd better make it a good one...
Well this is another test page. Hopefully after all the fun of the Facebook page this will get further... though I don't see how to post this easily to Facebook so we'll see.

If you like this blog and it doesn't get anywhere then you have my sincerest apologies

I must mention of course Nick Sharples who has been kind enough to help me out with my experiments. Thanks Nick - you're a legend!
Cheers
Macca