Affluenza

Well, its been a year and half since I wrote my last post… how crazy is that!I’ve been doing plenty on Twitter though…

I just wanted to share some exerts from a book I have just picked up: Affluenza by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss:

“Materialistic values of wealth, status and image work against close interpersonal relationships and connection to others, two hallmarks of psychological health and high quality of life.” (pg 14)

“… the more materialistic we are the less free we are. Why? Because we must commit more of our lives to pay for our material desires. And the more acquisitive we are the more our desires and the means of satisfying them are determined by others. Acquisitive people derive their sense of identity and their imagined place in society from the things they own, yet the symbols that confer their self-worth and status are the whim of external forces – of fashion.Materialism thus robs us of autonomy.” (pg 15)

What great insight into the crazy way we choose to live.

 

Leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are…

Signs That Your Church Needs Help!

I saw a great article on the 15 signs that your business might suck. Click HERE to check it out.

It sparked off a few ideas in my head about the church and leadership… so here is me giving it a go.

1. You can’t remember when the last salvation response was made.

Jesus said His mission was to seek and save the lost. He left us with a mandate to win the world by making disciples. Enough said.

2. Your baptismal font is dusty and hasn’t seen water for a long time.

Dito from the above.

3. If you’re not there things fall to pieces in the service.

This is a sign of no or weak delegation. We become leaders by doing. But as we rise in leadership we need to empower others to do the work of ministry. (Eph 4:11-12)

4. Its Kumbaya Town

Its easy for a church to turn inward and become a holy huddle. But we need to be reaching out. A rule of thumb for a growing church is that you need a minimum of 5 guests out of 100 in the service.

5. There is no process.

What is the next step you want people to take. If you haven’t figured this out, how can you expect your people to have it figured out?

6. Your service is… (yawn)… predictable.

Every church ends up with liturgy. Liturgy is not in and of itself a bad thing. The problem arises when the liturgy is so predictable, boring and lifeless!  There should be a sense of life and expectation in your service. Are there ever any unexpected moments? This takes time to prepare (this may sound contradictory)!

7. ‘The church…’ and not ‘My church…’

You can tell people’s ownership in a church by how they speak about it. Do people talk about their church? Listen to people’s language… it’s quite revealing!

Those were a few of my thoughts. I’d love to hear some of yours! Please leave a comment and share yours!

One Liners From The NLT Tour

Last week I had a real treat to go along to our ACTS Churches National Leadership Tour. We had some of the finest leaders that New Zealand has to offer. Here are a few one liners from the 6 sessions:

“When the car’s oil light comes on, it’s no good getting a car-wash. Deal with the heart issues, not with the outside plastic (appearance) stuff.”       Ps Bruce Monk

“When you are in the ‘wilderness’… there is no cellphone reception.”      Ps Bruce Monk

“Every new level in God requires new levels of sacrifice.”      Ps Lyle Penisula

“God doesn’t lead you with a guarantee but with a promise.”       Ps Lyle Penisula

“A costless Christianity is a powerless Christianity.”      Ps Sam Monk

“What your strength won’t budge your consistency will outlast.      Ps Sam Monk

“Our call is never to a position but to a place of service.”      Ps Sam Monk

“There is no church too small for teams.”      Ps Paul Bennett.

Hope you enjoyed that. Even in the one-liners there is so much depth to be explored.

Leave a comment and share some of your favorite one-liners.

I love this VIDEO.

Watch it and then come back and answer these questions:

“What are your daily (usually subconscious) affirmations that you tell yourself?”

“Would your daily affirmations horrify you if your children were to repeat them?”

“How do you need to align your affirmations with what the Word of God says about you?”

I don’t know about you… but I’m challenged!

Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Stuck In A Rut

Are you living in the present… or in the past?

“The man who has no vision for the future will always return to his past.”

If you took stock right now and were really honest… are you repeating your past or are you trying things that you have never done before?

In your marriage… in your relationships… in your work life… in your service at church and in the community… are you rehashing what you’ve always done?

After Jesus crucifixion… and the dashing of the disciples dreams of the future… Peter returned to his past of fishing for fish. (remember Jesus called Peter to become a fisher of men – Matt 4:19)

John 21:1-7

¹Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias.^[a]It happened this way: ²Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.

⁶He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

⁷Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.

Have you gone back to fishing for fish?

Today, will you make a decision to come to Jesus and ask Him to give you a vision for what could be and should be.

Pursue it with all your heart… and you’ll be amazed at how fulfilling your life will be!

Leave a comment and share your experiences and thoughts with us.

Senses vs Imagination

Just a thought…

The human body has around 100 000 000 (million) sensory receptors that enable us to see, hear, taste, touch and smell.

The human body has around 100 000 000 000 000 (trillion) synaptic connections that crisscross through our brain.

Mathematically speaking, our imagination is a million times more powerful than our 5 senses put together!

Eph 3:20-21

²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What a challenging thought!

Please leave a comment and share your thoughts with us.

Science Declares God’s Glory!

Happy Easter everyone!

I have been blown away lately as I consider Jesus.

One such pondering has been over Jesus and the over 300 prophecies that were fulfilled during his birth, life, death and resurrection. Professor Stoner looked at the statistical likelihood of a man fulfilling just 8 of the prophecies and found that there is a 1 in 100 000 000 000 000 000 chance! To help you visualize that, picture yourself marking a NZ$2 coin, tossing it into a mixer with 100’s of 1000’s of $2 coins… then mixing it all up and pouring it over NZ’s North and South islands 5 foot deep. Then blindfolding someone, allowing them to walk randomly to a spot and then picking up the marked coin first time.

Yea Right!

To get the full low down click HERE.

Everywhere I look, I see Jesus… and am amazed!

What about you? What has been stiring awe and wonder in your life of late?

Please leave a message and share this with us.

How To Have Better Dinner Conversations

Michael Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing. He has an excellent blog that is well followed and always seems to be one step ahead.

I caught this blog post when listening to a Catalyst podcast where they interviewed Michael. I am about to move to Tokoroa to lead the church there and thought that this post was really well timed for myself… not to mention that it is a key skill to life in general. Hope you enjoy this exert from Michael’s blog:

Over the years, my wife, Gail, and I have developed a set of conversational rules that we use at the dinner table. We have never written these down. They are largely unarticulated. However, over the years we have done our best to maximize these opportunities and to make eating more about the discussion than the food—though we certainly enjoy good food!

Here are eight things we do to create engaging dinner-time conversations. I have found that they work at home, with friends, and even at work.

1. Consciously seek out conducive environments. In order to have meaningful conversations, you must be able to hear one another. We don’t mind background music. In fact, it can help create the right atmosphere. But it cannot be so loud that you find yourself struggling to hear.
2. Have only one conversation at a time. We learned this from Luci Swindoll. We went to her home for dinner one night. As we were sitting down to eat, she graciously said, “I only have one rule, and that is that we have one—and only one—conversation at a time. We can talk about anything you like. I really don’t care. But just one conversation.” This one rule transformed our dinner conversations.
3. Ask open-ended questions. As the hosts, Gail and I have a singular goal: we try to ask interesting questions. We try to make these questions open-ended, so that people must elaborate and give us some insight into them as a person. For example,
   • What is your idea of a perfect vacation?
   • If you could design your ideal job, what would it look like?
   • What is the best book you have read in the last 12 months and why?
   • What is the most important lesson you learned from your father?
   • When is your very favorite thing about your spouse?
   • If you were by yourself, and could listen to any music you want, what it be?
   • If you could spend a day with anyone on the planet, who would it be?
   • What it is like to be your friend? or to be married to you?
   • If you were suddenly the President of the U.S., what would you do first?
   • Looking back over your life, what would you describe as your proudest moment?

Ask a second question. The most interesting conversations come after the initial answer. It takes extraordinary discipline to refrain from answering your own question and, instead. answer a second question. Yet this is where the deepest conversations occur. I like to ask questions like these as follow-up questions:

• How did it feel when that happened?
• Can you elaborate on that?
• Why do you think that is important to you?
• Do you think you would have answered the same way five years ago?
• What emotion do you feel when you describe that?

To get the other 4 tips click HERE.

Do you have any other great tips?

Please leave a comment and share it with us.

Dissatisfied… So Easily?

I have been reading Mark Batterson’s book called Primal… it’s a fantastic read! I wanted to give you an exerpt from the book:

“

Louis Aggassiz was a celebrated 19 centrury palentologist and Harvard proffesor who introduced a teaching method that discouraged textbooks and encouraged firsthand observation. And Agassiz practiced what he preached. According to Harvard legend, Agassiz once returned to the classroom after summer vacation and told his students that he had spent the entire summer travelling and had only made it 1/2 way across his backyard!

One of his students, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, wrote in his autobiography about one of Agassiz’s assignments. Agassiz pulled out a specimen in a jar and said, “Take this fish and look at it; when I think you’re done I’ll question you.”After an hour or so, Shaler thought that he had observed eveythingthere was to observe, but Agassiz didn’t question Shaler that day. He didn’t question him the next day. In fact, it was a week later that Agassiz said, “Tell me what you have seen.” During that time, Shaler, who thought he’d seen everything there was to see, began to notice new things about the fish: the symetry of the scales, the number of teeth, the position of the gills, the paired organs. Shaler shared his observations, but Agassiz still wasn’t satisfied that Shaler had seen everything there was to see. He spent another week of 10-hour days looking at the fish from every angle imaginable. Shaler wrote in his autobiography that by the end of the 2 weeks, he had made observations that astonished himself and satisfied Agassiz.

We are too easily satisfied in our study of Scripture. Or should I say, we are too easily dissatisfied? Maybe that is why we are so infrequently astonished.

“

How challenging!

In another place Mark writes:

“

According to Rabbinic tradition, every word of sacred Scripture 70 faces and 600 000 meanings.

“

May you once again allow yourself to be caught up in awe and wonder over God’s Word.

Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

The ‘Miracle’ Perspective

“There are only 2 ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.”

Albert Einstein

I just love the above quote from Einstein! Isn’t it amazing that 2 people can be in the exact same circumstance and from it gain 2 different experiences? Policeman encounter this regularly as they hear witness give accounts of car accidents.

It shouldn’t surprise us then that when 2 people are encountering a single circumstance that there are different responses. One person believes that science disproves God… the other is caught up in wonder of God as he explores science.

Let me leave you with a great read I got off the net at Creation Science (click HERE to see the origional artical):

The eye is constructed exactly like a camera except that it is infinitely more complex and sophisticated. Like some modern cameras, it has autofocus and automatic adjustment of the iris diaphragm. In the case of the eye, the lens actually changes it’s shape or correction to focus at different distances. The lens is made of living cells that are marvelously transparent as is the cornea, the window like skin that covers the eye.

The most amazing component of the camera eye is it’s “film” or retina. This light sensitive layer, which lines the back of the eye ball, is thinner than a sheet of Saran-Wrap and is vastly more sensitive to a wider range of light than any man made film. The best man-made film can handle a range of 1,000-to-one. By comparison, the human retina can handle a dynamic range of light of 10 billion-to-one and can sense as little as a single photon of light in the dark! In bright daylight, the retina bleaches out and turns it’s “volume control” way down so as not to overload.

The light sensitive cells of the retina are like an extremely complex high gain amplifier. There are over 10 million such cells in the retina and they are packed together with a density of 200,000/mm{2} in the highly sensitive fovea. These photoreceptor cells have a very high rate of metabolism and must completely replace themselves about every 7 days! If you look at a very bright light such as the sun, they immediately burn out but are rapidly replaced in most cases. Because the retina is thinner than the wave length of visible light it is totally transparent. Each of these minute photoreceptor cells is vastly more complex than the most sophisticated man-made computer.

It has been estimated that 10 billion calculations occur every second in the retina before the light image even gets to the brain! It is sobering to compare this performance to the most powerful man-made computer. In an article published in the computer magazine _Byte_ (April 1985) Dr. John Stevens said:

“To simulate 10 milliseconds of the complete processing of even a single nerve cell from the retina would require the solution of about 500 simultaneous non-linear differential equations one hundred times and would take at least several minnutes of processing time on a Cray supercomputer. Keeping in mind that there are 10 million or more such cels interacting with each other in complex ways it would take a minimum of a hundred years of Cray time to simulate what takes place in your eye many times every second.”

What makes this comparison even more incredible is the fact that nerve cells such as the photo cells of the retina conduct electrical signals approximately a million times slower than the circuit traces or “wires” in a man made supercomputer. Dr. Stevens said that if it were possible to build a single silicon chip that could simulate the retina using currently available technology it would have to weigh about 100 pounds where as the retina weighs less than a gram. The “super chip” would occupy 10,000 cubic inches of space whereas the retina occupies 0.0003 inches of space. The power consumption of the man-made superchip would be about 300 watts, whereas the retina consumes only 0.0001 watts of power!

Psalm 19: 1-3

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

³ There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Please do leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!