Sense and Sensibility-ness-ing-ly

http://www.gardencity.org.au/

The notice may not be there by the time you click on the link, however a lttle sidebar on the front page of Garden City Christian Church's website annouces the result:

"Extraordinary General Meeting - Sunday 26th April, 2009

It was decided at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the registered church members of Garden City Christian Church, today Sunday 26th April 2009, that Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston be invited to accept the position of Senior Pastors of the church. The vote was carried with an overwhelming majority."

Oh no.

This looks to be the worst case of 'franchised church' that I've ever seen in my life. Some may suggest that this is simply an extension of the pentecostal ACC denomination - however if that were the case, why do they need senior pastors based in Sydney? If you've got the same leadership, then this is simply a branch of the same organisation. Ouch.

There's been a lot of gnashing of teeth over this, and lots of suggestion that the whole move was done quite subversively (see The Thinking Theologian and some of the comments on articles and the forum for details). I agree with one commenter who has asked how often are they gonna see the Senior Leadership (and I'll add who is going to pay for the flights so that you DO see them)??!! How long before coming to Church at Garden City has you sitting down to see the service streamed live from Hillsong in Sydney, with little or no local/live interaction for ministry?

Surely, this cannot be a good thing for anyone except those who stand to profit from it in the long run - the Hillsong Executive team. I'll offer in 6 months you won't recognise the Garden City compared to what it was last week. In 18 months on that, it'll just be a cookie cutter replica of Hillsong Sydney. Bleh.

Other ACC churches in Australia - BE WARNED! If Hillsong can do it to one of the largest churches in Brisbane, how long before they do it to you/yours?

"I'll have my faith to go, with a serve of pente-music, and... some low-cal-theology, thanks."
"Would you like some accountability with that?"
"No thanks, it'd spoil my meal..."

Just watch this...

This ad won the Golden Lion award for best advertising spot at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes this year. It is clear to see why.

This ad captured me from the get go. The awkwardness of the central character. What the hell is he doing?!? His french accent across the voice over. The ill-fitting skivvy and bowler hat. Everything. A great story exceedingly well told.

I felt so much empathy for him. I wanted to reach out and give him a hug. Then they revealed who he was, and what the ad was for. I had to watch it again IMMEDIATELY afterwards just to make it all sink in - kind of like the montage at the end of The Usual Suspects once the cop doing the interrogation realises who Kaiser Soze really is.

It also made me think about the kind of person being represented in the ad. The awkward person. The person who doesn't have too many friends. The person who isn't cool. the person who doesn't wear the latest brands or even clothes that fit. The person who we all see on a daily basis and probably try and avoid having too much to do with because they are like they are.

I'm guilty of avoiding people like that sometimes. My wife tells me I am a magnet for people like that - but can I help it? Should I help it? Aren't we supposed to embrace, love and care for these people just as Christ did, does and will? How are we extending God's grace to these people? How are we meeting them where they are and encouraging to meet with God?

I dunno. It's tough. All I know is that the best thing about Christianity is that you can NOT make it cool. That's awesome - because it totally means any attempt we make to "make" it cool almost contradicts what the Gospel is about. This means that all of us nerds, dweebs, geeks, rejects, uncool people should hang out together and get on with the business of Jesus - making disciples.

I'll start by offering this truth - I get entirely frustrated by not being able to write more music than I have to date. I really want to write more... I just need to sit down with my guitar more.

The three songs offered here all (naturally) have their own story. All of them speak of my road so far, even though I never wrote a word. All of them speak of some layer of my faith. I am immensely proud of all of them, and know they would never sound as spectacular as they do without Andy's involvement (thanks mate). Such as they are, here they are... 

ANYWAY GOD
I had recently broken up with my wife, and was lost. Very lost. Two people and two things held me together at that time - Andy Sorenson and Kathy Johnston, music and watching the mighty Bombers fly up. I'm sure I overstayed my welcome more than once at Sos & KJ's place during that time, but they were always loving, gracious and caring beyond that and let me hang out with them anyway.

Andy was keen to do some writing with me (heaven knows why), and so we would occasionally pull out my acoustic and he'd grab his dodgy keyboard and his tape recorder ('the great equaliser') and we'd sit down and stuff around a bit. The main riff in 'Anyway God' I had been messing around with for a while, and didn't know what to do with and in a session with Sos it just sort of morphed into the makings of a song. This was circa 1999, and it took nearly 7 years for it to go from dodgy acoustic/keys/drum track demo that I heard from Sos not long after to this masterpiece he released on his latest album SUPERNATURE. Do yourself a favour... if you like the sound of this...

NOT FORGET THE BOY
Written about the same time as 'Anyway God', but this song came entirely out of a writing jam with Sos. The thing that always amazes me about doing anything musically with Andy is that he can and will turn your musical sow's ear into a spectacular silk purse, with spangly bling and everything. As with all the songs on this list, all I offered was the music bit, Sos did the arranging and wrote the lyrics. I really, really like the atmospheric feel of this coupled with the strong lyric and imagery. Every time I hear this I am 'down among the bracken fern, in the canopy of tree debris...' and I know I am not forgotten.

WALK BESIDE ME
Time to get all lovey-dovey. After getting engaged to Michelle (my now wife - yes, she's my second, but that's a whole other almost series of posts), she'd very gently and then very bluntly (as is her way) suggested that I could/should write a song for her. I tried really hard, and didn't come up with much. Then, one day sitting at her place the main riff of this came out just as Michelle walked in the room. She claimed it as hers, and so it became. In a partial surprise to her, I sent the guitar track to Andy who arranged it a treat, and got so involved in it that he wrote lyrics too (I was just expecting an instrumental).

On a visit to the Central Coast for a friend's wedding I was able to record the acoustic guitar track, and Sos did the rest. It appeared on CD one day at home about a month before our wedding - just in time for Michelle to love it even more, and for us to work it into our service in a couple of ways... one: for Michelle and her parents to walk down the aisle to; and two: as the soundtrack to a very edited version of our wedding service used at my work Christmas party (held the night of our wedding over 600km away - but more on that another time...). This song, without question, is for Michelle...

 There is another song - 'Sunrise At Avoca' - that a friend (Dave Earp) and I wrote and I recorded with Andy for Dave's wife Deanna to walk down the aisle to at their wedding. If I can find/score a copy of the MP3 of that, I'll shove it up too. That, and the wedding video that 'Walk Beside Me' is the soundtrack too. It looks great (considering it was done immediately after the service... anyway...).

Enjoy. Would love to know what you think... no, in fact (as Markk did), I demand your opinion. Now. Hurry up - what are you still doing reading this? Comment already!

I dunno what happened to my last entry - I think our ISP has to restore from a backup and it missed my rant about who the hell is Mark Nicholas and why is he hosting the Channel 9 cricket coverage?!?!? Anyway, enough of that...

Just been having one of those weeks, where I seem really disconnected. Not sure what or why, but I am getting over it. Must remember not to say "crap" at church, too.

Ever noticed how sometimes people can be picky at what you say - they hear only one thing, or the first bit, and then miss or ignore the rest. It's interesting how people then expect you to take on their criticism because they are wanting to discuss it with you, but it is totally out of context as they've missed/forgotten the other bit.

For example, I was leading worship at church the other night, and I said "crap". I knew I shouldn't have, as the Worship Director had said something before, and I get it. However, having said that, I also shared how encouraged I was that as a church, we are looking to attract all kinds of people into a personal faith with Jesus. This will be uncomfortable - people will smell, people may look different, people will say things that we consider inappropriate (even when leading worship, or even preaching). So, I don't get how if we are going to be a dangerous church that saomeone saying "crap" is such a big deal. Perhaps it is a comfort zone thing - and if so, then a lot of people are going to be stretched to say the least if this is to happen.

It should be noted that I appreciate the sensitivities of leading worship - there are things that are not appropriate when trying to lead people in worship of the living God. It just puzzles me a little sometimes why people get hung up on the finicky things. Surely that one word didn't stop them from worshipping God.

Final note - this is my first faith-based post - not sure why it took me so long, and I doubt it will be my last...