"I believe; help my unbelief!" -- Mark 9:24

I’m speaking this Sunday at church on Mark 9:14-29, in which a father in a crowd (whose son has been engulfed by terror), says this to Jesus:

"But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible for one who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"”

I call that a significant moment in the gospels…

I enjoyed this reflection today on 'Doubt' from Frederick Buechner's Wishful Thinking.

“Whether your faith is that there is a God or that this is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith; they keep it awake and moving.

There are two principal kinds of doubt, one of the head and the other of the stomach.
In my head there is almost nothing I can’t doubt when the fit is upon me – the divinity of Christ, the efficacy of the sacraments, the significance of the church, the existence of God. But even when I am at my most skeptical, I go on with my life as thought nothing untoward has happened.

I have never experienced stomach doubt, but I think Jesus did. When he cried out: “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me!” I don’t think he was raising a theological issue any more than he was quoting Psalm 22. I think he had looked into the abyss itself and found there a darkness that spiritually, viscerally, totally engulfed him. I think God allows that kind of darkness to happen only to his saints. The rest of us aren’t up to doubting that way – or maybe believing that way either.

When our faith is strongest, we believe with our hearts as well as with our heads, but only at a few rare moments, I think, do we feel in our stomachs what it must be like to be engulfed by light.”

Love, Justin.

"Love doesn't sustain marriage. Marriage sustains Love"

In May 1943, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a young bride and groom, advising them on the nature of the union they were about to enter:

"Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal — it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."

A further reflection on Bonhoeffer's quote is in this Washington Post Op-Ed piece : “Marriage was a status we graduated into, and it was bigger than we were. It defined us, and not the other way around. Now we seem to be losing the institutional imperatives of marriage, leaving only the private relationship -- and that is increasingly likely to turn on such things as personal satisfaction.” (If its a match between Bonhoeffer and Bruce Willis, I choose Bonhoeffer.)

So, my question is this: Have the following words any power under God to save a marriage?

...to have and to hold
From this day forward,
For better or worse,
For richer or poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish,
Until we are parted by death.
This is my solemn vow and promise.”

Love, Justin.

Message to Martha 2

Dear Martha,

From Marlene – POD – Picture of the Day. Here I am on the playground with The Boy and the Girl.

I've toured the East Village, had breakfast at Gramercy Park, shopped at the Farmer's market at Union Square, walked around the square where Harry met with Sally, went to church with Justin and Laurel, and watched a couple of chick flicks with Laurel. I’ve had NY cuisine every day so far: pretzels from a stand, lox and bagels from a Kosher store and tomorrow… Dunkin’ Donuts, Baby.

As they say… wish you were here.

Love, Marlene.

The new 'Company Talk'

Churches used to talk all the time about removing jargon from our language. This was ‘company talk’, and those looking to join the company didn’t know the lingo. So words had to be explained or avoided.

So we worked hard at not using words like ‘sin’, ‘righteousness’, ‘judgment’ and ‘atonement’. These words needed to be avoided or explained. Interestingly, you could freely use words like ‘love’, ‘peace’ and ‘hope’. I’m not sure whether jargon was the problem, so much as fear of confrontation.

Hmmm.

Anyway, times have moved on. And the company is not quite the same as it was. So, I give you now the new company jargon. I've picked up many of these in this last year.

• Missional
• Worshipful
• Emergent
• Emerging
• Lead Pastor
• Wholeness
• Wellness
• Healthful
• Conversant with...

I don't know what half of these words mean, and I work here.

Love, Justin.

Message to Martha

Dear Martha,

Marlene would like to send to you her POD ... Picture of the Day.

For all my other readers (i.e. Not-Martha), Marlene is Laurel's good buddy from Atlanta days, and also shares a house with Martha in CA. She is here to visit this fair city.

Love, Justin.

11th of September.

When Laurel and I first took up residence at our apartment, we had a 'debate' about whether or not the view from our apartment looked on downtown NYC. I said 'no'. She said 'yes'. Anyway, after I apologised (she was right) we began to speculate whether, on September 11 2001, a previous tenant could have viewed the demise of the Twin Towers from our apartment. Tonight, we found out. These beams of light are confirmation that the Towers were a companion of previous residents. This photo was taken 10 minutes ago from a window in our apartment.

The four of us were downtown by 8:46am. We came up out of the ‘4’ Express Train at Wall St at 8:30am. Laurel remarked that if we were working that day, we would have made it to our desk by 8:46am. A sobering thought. There was not much to see today. There were a lot of people. The value of being there from my perspective was to pray with some gravitas about the world that we live in. I found these thoughts to be helpful for me tonight.

We spent some time at a playground near the WTC site (Pic of The Girl). We enjoyed spending time with a friend called Heidi. Heidi was there on September 11th. She had only just settled from Germany one week before the attacks. She said that she reminds herself to be thankful to God that these events drew her to Jesus. She needed answers after 9/11, and found them in Christ. I have had lot of conversations with people who were downtown that day and came out with their lives spared.

The Boy doesn't yet get the concept of a minute’s silence. Quite frankly, he doesn't get the concept of silence. The only book that we took with us to ground Zero was the Bible (Thank you to Chris and Emma Jonker). So Laurel read to The Boy the story of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41). How incredibly appropriate. Smart woman, my wife. To paraphrase the disciples: "Who is this, that even terror and evil are docile before his voice?" Guess who the Boy is pointing to?

A day of reflection.

Love, Justin.

5 years...

If you are in an Australian Anglican church, and if you are following a Prayer Book, you'll ask God for something like this: "We pray for Elizabeth our Queen, for the leaders of the nations, and for all in authority." And you'll also pray for "all who hold public office in this land" that "all things may be ordered in wisdom, righteousness and peace, to the honour of your holy name and the good of your church and people". Etc.

A prayer to which I can say “Amen”.

Here in the States, we pray for the three levels of government: The Executive (the President), the Legislative (the Congress) and the Judiciary...

So tonight, we prayed for the President.

And then a few minutes after our service finishes, a few minutes after praying for him, the President actually drives past the front door of the church. [To be fair, I don't think it was him driving.]

W is here for the 9/11 5^th Anniversary tomorrow.

It is my day off tomorrow. I am going to get up early and take the kiddos down to Ground Zero. We’ve made a friend here who recommended watching ‘Flight 93’ on DVD (I am mentioned in the last paragraph of this review). I watched it. And after seeing it, I decided then that I needed to be down at Ground Zero this year. We’ll be there, God willing, at 8:46am.

Wiki tells me that “No one onboard any of the hijacked aircraft survived. The fatalities were in the thousands, with 2,973 people killed, including 246 on the four planes, 2,602 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the fatalities were 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers. An additional 24 people remain listed as missing in the attack on the World Trade Center to this day.”

Pray for Presidents and Prime Ministers indeed.

I do not envy their jobs.

Love, Justin.

PS Anthony Philips is a good mate at Christchurch St Ives. Click on this to read his story - AP describes his experience at the WTC on 911.

A maternal request...

My mum has been asking me for recent pics of The Girl. She [The Girl, that is] is growing up to be a delight. Here you go, Ma:




Any comments you wish to make on The Girl's style, beauty or composure will be much appreciated by her mother and Grandmothers...

We thank God for her.

Love, Justin.

PS Been away two weeks. Hence no Blogging.

Emotional Intelligence (15 second video)

Wife and I are on vacation next week, and we get a few days sans kids in Savannah. Nice. I do want to send you my reasons why New York City is an important investment for the gospel. And I want to tell you about our church. Hopefully I’ll get a chance next week sometime.

This particular post is to satisfy those who keep asking for family pictures. This is a video that displays the new developments in the Boy's emotional intelligence. :)

Which is your favourite emotion?

1. Happy?
2. Sad?
3. Angry?
4. Pensive?

HERE is a profound verse and worthy of consideration.

By the way, do you like the Nicholas Bradford haircut on The Boy? (For comparison, see below)


Points for anyone who can say what show was he in? What was his most horrifying moment? And what personal angst were you going through when that show was being aired?)

Love, Justin.

NYC: Three Last Reasons why New York is a crucial investment

The Pic is Manhattan in 1782 -- before Sydney Town was settled by Europeans...

OK -- It’s been 3 weeks since I have posted.

A couple of reasons for this are:

• My boss has been away, so I've been pastoring this church without the rector. (More work... )
• Family takes precedence over a Blog. (More family...)
• And I have wondered how to process these next three reasons. (More thinking...)

Here are, according to Redeemer, the next 3 reasons why New York is a crucial investment for evangelicals:

2. The pluralism factor
"Most analysts foresee an America in which the European/Anglo population becomes a smaller and less influential factor in the country, while Latinos and Asians and others become greater in numbers and power. History should teach us a lesson. America was a Protestant nation until 1880-1920, when a massive wave of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe came, mainly through NYC. It was mainly Catholic and Jewish. WASPs in New York neither welcomed these newcomers nor sought to win them into new churches. Instead they fled the city. The newcomers eventually took power in the cultural institutions within the city. Now a third wave of immigration is coming, and NYC is again a focal point for it. Will evangelical Protestants fail the challenge again?"

3. The minority factor
"Though smaller, only LA can rival New York as a way for the Christian church to get control of America’s cultural and social future. But the Evangelical church in LA is far stronger than in New York City. While Los Angeles has several major evangelical seminaries, many organizations and institutions, and scores of mega-churches, New York City does not. Also the great majority of NYC evangelicalism is black and Hispanic. These vital churches are this largely cut off from the power and resources (financial, political, and educational) enjoyed by Anglo churches; New York Christianity is fragmented, immature and weak theologically, corporately and spiritually."

4. The spiritual revival factor
"For people who recognize the importance of sound theology for long-term viability and spiritual health, the surprising growth of Redeemer must be seen as a once in a life-time opportunity for spiritual harvesting in NYC. In less than 6 years it grew to roughly 1500 people, and it has the opportunity to grow far larger over the next 20 years. If it does, there is a possibility of planting 30 or 40 daughter churches (churches made up of Redeemer members/attendants) and 50-60 sponsored churches. That would create a permanent, widespread movement that could change the face of the city.

But Redeemer has already unearthed far more opportunities to plant new churches and ministries than it can meet. If it seeks to meet them alone, without help, it will weaken the development of our own leadership resources. That, in turn, could mean fewer new churches in the future. Therefore, we need partners."

--- Redeemer Church Planting Manual

A couple of initial thoughts:

All of this comes out of a paradigm that a lot of Sydney people may not feel the weight of. It comes from a view that God's people ought to engage with culture in a way that effects culture for the common good. The regular question asked is this: "How can followers of Christ be a counterculture for the common good?" It comes out of – amongst other places -- Jeremiah 29:7. It’s Augustine. It’s Bruce Winter’s Seek the welfare of the City. And the things you’ve just read, I believe, has been most immediately influences by James Montgomery Boice’s, Two Cities, Two Loves: Christian Responsibility in a Crumbling Culture.

I’ll be honest: I’m still trying to process the whole approach. I'm looking forward to understanding the position. And I'm in the right place to do that. I certainly do believe in 'seeking the welfare of the city' -- Christians are to be good citizens. Although I'm not sure if this means that our mission is changing the culture. I do get nervous with ideas like finding “a way for the Christian church to get control of America’s cultural and social future.” Hmmm.

I know that they are not, repeat not, advocating moral majority stuff.

Help me to understand...

Re Redeemer partners. Our Church was was initiated by Redeemer. We are proud to be a Redeemer affiliate. In many ways, we are the Redeemer vision. And, with partners, our dream is to be a church planting church here in Manhattan. There is a lot more to say about Redeemer’s place in New York. Redeemer’s leadership has a large vision. My prayer is that the leadership’s vision is shared more and more by its actual members and attendees. That’s surely the only way that 30-40 Churches can be planted!

What do you think?

Love, Justin.

NYC: Four Reasons why New York is a crucial investment [Monday]

I'm reading the Redeemer Presbyterian Church Planter's manual. It cites 5 facts about New York City, which I quoted last week. And then it cites 4 reasons NYC is such a crucial investment for the broader evangelical church.

So, you’ll be offered one reason a day this week. Ponder these and pray for us.

REASON 1. The Cultural Influence Factor

“There is a lot of bemoaning the fact that, while there are millions of born again Christians, they seem to be having no impact on the culture. The reasons given are usually complex and unconvincing. Nobody notices that evangelicals are totally non-urban. Homosexuals, while only 2% of the population, are nonetheless highly influential. Why? One answer is that they live predominantly in the largest urban areas, where they work in places that control social discourse. But evangelicals, who are 15-20% or more of the population, have fled the cities. This is a recipe for complete cultural irrelevance.”

An interesting possibility. To explore more: Read this article from Christianity Today.

I always believed that NYC is an important city in the world. But I hadn’t thought about the idea that Christians moving to the suburbs might possibly impact the influence of the gospel. [I'm wondering if it as true for Australia as it is for the US?] Still, it makes me think again that for a Christian, the only factor in choosing where to live ought not to be simply ‘where I’d like to live’. I reflected on that tension on a previous post HERE.

By the way, have I ever said ‘church shopping’ are two words that should never be placed together? Click here for a video of "Maybe we should try the new Mega church".

Disturbingly funny.

Love, Justin.

NYC: Five Facts, Five Reasons (Friday)

FACT 5. The Spiritual Need of NYC
“With the exception of Boston, NYC is perhaps the least protestant in the country. Of its 7.5 million people, just 1 to 1.5 million identify themselves as protestant, and a mid-80s survey of New Yorkers indicates that no more than 500,000 people (roughly 7% of the city) are actual Protestant churchgoers. The great majority of these are African-American. The leading Protestant Church of the city is generally considered the Episcopal church, yet it now has a combined Sunday attendance of fewer than 25,000 people, out of a city of 7.5 million (0.3%). No wonder, to the average Manhattanite, Protestant religion is invisible!”

re Anglican: 25,000 people in this huge city? 0.3%? Laurel and I are here in Manhattan, working with Christ Church NYC because we do not just perceive the need. We know it.

Next week: From my 'Church Planting in NYC' manual: 5 Reasons why NYC is such a crucial investment for the broader evangelical and orthodox Church…And the week after that, I’ll begin telling you a bit about our church and its vision and mission and our experience of both.

Love, Justin.

PS The pic of the First REC Church, where our church meets in the evenings.

NYC: Five Facts, Five Reasons (Thursday)

FACT 4. Influence of NYC:
“It competes with Los Angeles as media capital, with Paris as fashion and art capital, with London as theater and literature capital, with Tokyo as financial and corporate capital, and with Washington DC as power capital. It is second only to Boston in number of College students. But no other city excels in all of these areas. (The Pope once greeted Cardinal O’Conner as “The Archbishop of the capital of the world”!) It is certainly the communications center of the globe. Millions of the next wave of US immigration -- Latino and Asian -- are coming to New York for a generation before assimilating out into mainstream society, as did their predecessors, the Jews and Italian. In summary, New York is the single most formative influence on US culture and society.”

When I read something like this, I always think of the Apostle Paul, and how he was eager to preach in Rome.

If you have been to NYC, take a go at describing it briefly in the comments!

Love, Justin.

PS Photo by a good friend at my church. And, in the spirit of Bryon (see HERE and HERE), can you pick the building? Pick it, then descibe your experience on the city.

NYC: Five Facts, Five Reasons (Wednesday)

FACT 3. Diversity of NYC
New York City is really an interlocking network of major cites. In it lies a Dominican City of 500,000 in Upper Manhattan, a West Indian City of 800,000 in Brooklyn, a Haitian city of 200,000, a Columbian city of 200,000 in Queens, two Chinatowns of over 100,000 each in lower Manhattan and Flushing, and centers of 80,000 Greeks in Astoria, 50,000 Russians in Brighton Beach, 40,000 Hindus in Eastern Queens, 150,000 Arabs and Middle Easterners in northern Brooklyn. While some US cities are filled with Hispanics (LA, Houston), others West Indians (Miami) and others Asian (SF, LA), New York is home to masses of each. It is more diverse than any other US City.

David Miles, an old friend and mentor, used to call Byron Bay (in NSW, Australia), a ‘global corridor’. New York City is a global superhighway. Imagine where the gospel could travel.

Love, Justin.

NYC: Five Facts, Five Reasons (Tuesday)

5 facts about New York City. And then 5 reasons NYC is such a crucial investment for the broader evangelical church.

FACT 2. Density of NYC:
“A comparison: While newer cities (Atlanta, Dallas, Denver) have 3,000-6,000 residents per square mile, and older (Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago) have 12,000-13,000 per square mile, Manhattan has 60000 residents per square mile (1.5 million people), and it is estimated that this number quadruples to over 200,000 (7 million people) on weekdays thorough commuters. Midtown Manhattan is the most densely populated place on earth during a typical workday."

For the record: We live on Manhattan. 7 million people? (Which I believe is a conservative estimate-- Take a look HERE.) Can you imagine the infrastructural headache that this can be??

Love, Justin.

PS Pic is me walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Kiddoes. (Taken by James Woodhams from St Ives. Good man.)

NYC: Five Facts, Five Reasons (Monday)

I'm reading a Church Planter's manual for New York City. It cites 5 facts about New York City. And then it cites 5 reasons NYC is such a crucial investment for the broader evangelical church. So, my Blog is covered for 2 weeks.

You’ll be fed one fact a day this week. And one reason each day next week.

Ponder these. Compare them to your own city. Pray for us.

FACT 1. Size of NYC:
“19 Million People (SMSA) and 7.5 million within the city limits. New York City will be the only US city to remain one of the world’s ten largest by mid-21st century. It is currently the third largest city in the world, behind Mexico City and Tokyo. (But, as we will see tomorrow that measures sprawl rather than density). You could comfortably fit into NYC’s metro area all of metro Atlanta, Washington DC, Miami, Orlando, Nashville, Richmond, New Orleans, and still have plenty of room left over.”

The continent of Australia has about the same population as New York City!

Tomorrow: Density.

Love, Justin.

PS You get a family pic a day for interest.

Photographers of the world: Help me.

Heavy post, that last one. Lots of comments. Thanks for letting me fly a kite.

OK. Photography. I'm no good at it. I'm the guy who thinks its 'creative' to simply tilt the camera when taking a portrait. But that is as creative as I get.

But all you budding, amateur and even professional photographers: What would I need to do to make these photos better?

Love, Justin.

PS If you click on the picture, you get a full pic.

Acts 2 community: There is no going back.

Let me run an idea up the Flagpole ... Please feel free to shoot it down.

I’ve been pondering the widely-held belief that the “Acts 2 Community” is the ideal Christian community: the one to which we should aspire. Here is what that community was like:

• They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching; fellowship; to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
• Everyone was filled with awe.
• Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
• All the believers were together and had everything in common, and they gave to anyone as he had need. etc.

George Barna in his latest [odd] book Revolution basically uses Acts 2 by which to measure all other churches, past and present, saying: "Who wouldn't want to be a part of this?"

And the challenge, of course is that if the Church could get herself back to that, we’d be better off: we’d be more God honouring; less institutional etc. We need real community. And the 'Acts 2 community' is real community we need.

There is no doubt that the text here is describing a situation that is wonderful. That is clear. It’s also clear in Acts 4:32-35. The truth is -- I do want this kind of community. And I think that Acts 2 functions as a wake up call for our often lazy-consumer-driven church experiences.

But I'm not sure that God wants us to go back to this.

I am wondering whether the 'Acts 2 community' is an adequate model for us. It’s not enough. Here are my three reasons why we need to go beyond the Acts 2 Community.

1. They have yet to include a single non-Jewish person.

The Gentile question doesn’t get hammered out properly until Acts 15. God has to give Peter a bizarre dream to get him to move beyond racial boundaries. The Acts 2 community is a racially Jewish community only. It is yet to be inclusive.

Don’t we want the Jew-Gentile community that gets hammered out after Act 15? With all the difficulties that come with reaching out beyond racial comfort zones? I'm glad, as a Gentile, that the community did not remain the way they were.

2. They have yet to be tested under the fire of persecution.

That doesn’t happen until Acts 4 [a 'nibble'], Acts 5 [a flogging], Acts 6 [Stephen arrested], Acts 7 [Stephen murdered], Acts 8 [A full-scale persecution breaks out]. Up until that point, everyone loves ’em.

Don’t we want a Church refined by the fire? One where ‘convenient faith’ is shown for what it really is? Isn’t the persecution and the testing [post Acts 2] one of the most powerful aspects of Acts?

3. They have yet to feel - and work through - disillusionment.

The first ‘problem’ with the community doesn’t happen until Acts 5:1-11. And a major shock to the system it was.

Don’t we want a community that can deal with disappointment in a gospel way? The Acts 2 community had yet to experience the disappointment. Don't we want to be able to cope, without replacing the gospel with inappropriate idealism? I want a Church that reflects Bonhoeffer’s words:

• "Thus, the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably productive, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by the one Word and Deed which really binds us together--the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship."

I think that I’d prefer the Acts 2 community together with what God does in that community after the ideal is described. God had more blessing for them. And we are the inheritors of that blessing.

There is no going back. Only forward.

Fire away.

Love, Justin.

At 2, he don't quite know what’s going on.

We haven't had any family news for a while. So for your viewing pleasure, I post pictures of the Boy's second birthday party. It wasn't a fanfare affair [Can those two words be placed together?]. Laurel had been down in Atlanta visiting her parents. I flew from NYC to Atlanta on Saturday morning. We had a little, but lovely, birthday party [maybe the words 'Birthday Moment' is a better description.] Then we all flewback to NYC in the evening.

We know that from the 3rd birthday on, it’s gotta have more Oomph to it. At 2, he don't quite know what’s going on.

But -- for the record -- he adores his Thomas the Tank Engine gift. Playing with it as I type.

Why do some kid's stories and books and toys become universally liked by every child?

Love, Justin.

Making me nervous

Hey. Great to see an Australian win. No longer holding my breath.

But this pic above makes me nervous. :)

Love, Justin.

PS Lunch on Guus