ZEAL KIDS

That last post got horribly serious all of a sudden. Here's a great youtube of some of the Zeal kids hanging at a party a few weeks back. Makes me wanna be back at high school...

hehehe...

CHURCH HOPPING Pt.I

By way of admitting I don't have all the answers, I have recently taken to visiting other faith communities in Wellington whose style and/or beliefs differ vastly from my own. All as part of an effort to understand what parts of my faith are Jesus, and what parts are simply personal preference or tradition. It has been an interesting journey so far. Last weekend while away on Soul Purpose writers' retreat I got into a great discussion with another writer, Ben Kendrew, who also happens to be a key worship leader at Arise Church in Wellington. We sat up till 3am while I ranted about what made me so uncomfortable about churches like his, and he very respectfully rebutted and debated where he felt I'd missed the point. Ben is a great guy, I would highly recommend anyone with an anti-pentecostal buzz to have a chat to him. Arise still makes me as uncomfortable as hell, but I think I understand where they're coming from. But now, onward to last night's visit to Destiny Church Wellington.

Destiny have got a horrible rep through the media over the last couple of years so Mish and myself were keen to go along and see what was true and what was just media sensationalism. I think I was hoping for a lot more trouble than we got. Dressed suitably 'emo' in tight jeans and black sweatshirts I thought we'd be made to feel quite unwelcome. The absolute opposite was true. Their ushers (all dressed in matching black suits/skirts with orange ties) seemed genuinely interested in making sure our first time at Destiny was as comfortable as possible.

After taking our seats right down the back of the hall at Wellington High School, we were visited by no less than four members of the church at different times to make sure we felt welcome and didn't stay unnoticed in the back rows. Despite our desire to remain incognito, it was refreshing to meet such down to earth and humble people. Realising we weren't keen to chat, they calmly left us to our business and didn't fight to maintain a conversation. Thanks guys, very real, very genuine.

Just before the service I took a brief walk down to their book stall by the stage. I figured the reading material on offer from Destiny leadership would be a good indication of what I was in for. Few suprises here - T D Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Brian Tamaki and more prosperity doctrine than you could shake a TBN set at. Strangely amongst all the crap they were also selling some work by Bill Hybels. One of these things is not like the other one.

The music worship was a mile from my preference, but it was a great representation of the diverse cultural make-up of the church. The worship leader could have placed well in a James Brown impersonation contest.  I'm a firm believer that we should be free to worship God from our individual identity, and I feel Destiny is one of the few places in our country where Maori and Pacific Island people can express their love of God through something relevant to who they are and where they've come from.

Here's where it gets nasty. The teaching was absolute horse shit. Exactly what I expected. 45 minutes about how you should hear no opinion but that of your head pastor and his wife. I hope that none of the congregation members actually buy the crap this guy was shovelling up by the truckload. If they do, he could tell them to jump off a cliff and they very well could. In the end I got so frustrated and dissapointed I simply walked out. By that stage their 'teacher' had got so far from the word he had resorted to mocking other local churches for being 'small' and 'boring'.

This is such a difficult critique to write. I really believe that Destiny will have a lasting impact on Maori and Pacific Island people in New Zealand. Cycles of abuse and violence are being broken as these cultures finally find a home where they can express their identity in Christ. While Brian Tamaki sees Destiny's future being in Politics, I think they will have more impact on our country's social policy from the vantage point they already hold. They have the chance to be part of the healing and restoration of ethnic groups who have been humiliated by the injustice of colonisation. I wouldn't want Destiny to close for anything. Their role as part of the Church in our nation is essential. Now if they could only get a little less militant and a little more loving I'd even consider joining....

CREED

In case I haven't boasted about this yet. For a few months now I've been hosting a discussion group on Wednesday nights with ten guys from Zeal (the youth ministry I work for). It has been an amazing time. The idea of the forum was a free discussion where they feel they can chat things over as brutally and uncensored as they want. Here comes the boasting...

These kids are amazing! Often I walk in with some self-righteous agenda to 'impart wisdom to the youths' and instead often find my own views challenged and altered by how well thought out and articulate these guys are.

As part of last week's discussion we talk about creeds. I showed them the Nicene Creed and the American Creed and explained to them that these were the fundamental core beliefs of their people. From there the ten of us spent an hour and a half over dinner trying to form a creed we could all agree on. The transcript of the conversation is incredible to look through. What started as a shallow discussion about homophobia and defication soon led to an incredibly deep exploration of what was most important to each of them, what price they'd sell their beliefs for, and what they're willing to die for.

Incredibly, out of the ten (three of which are Christian) every person agreed that there is a soul, and that that soul goes somewhere after you die. One particularly brave participant even went as far as to say "I'm not a Christian, but I can't deny God is there, I know it." It was awesome.

Anyway, here's what we could agree on. The 'Zeal Kids Creed' if you will...

We believe our creed to be the things we will not back down on.
Not fear of death, nor instinct to survive, will change this core understanding of who we are.

Spiritually, we believe every being to have a Soul.
That our earthly life is not all we have
We believe the Soul to be the only gift that can never be taken
In spite of physical impairment or infirmity, your Soul is still your own.
In Love, you may end up sharing your Soul with others.

We believe that every perspective is to be respected.
With this in mind, we hope to be treated by others with the values of forgiveness, loyalty, and sincerity. We desire to be treated as we would treat others.

We hold family, both biological and inherited, of key importance

We are not patriotic or bound by borders
We are part of the human race of Earth, not anything defined by geographical lines
Our homeland is not worth dying for

We believe in personal absolute truth

This experience has been a huge wake-up call to me. I think young people in New Zealand are much more spiritually open and aware than we often give them credit for. I'd love one day to do this exercise with fifty or sixty groups to form a cross-section of New Zealand young people. Without a doubt, this has opened my mind and will impact hugely on the way I work at Zeal in future.

Maybe it's something you could try...

THIS WEEK IN SHORT...

Just a few little updates of some cool goings ons this week. Traffic on this blog has been crazy, no doubt thanks to the couple of links Sam Harvey gave me over the last few posts. I tell you, it's not easy riding the fame wave of a minor Christian celebrity like Mr Harvey. Watch this space, samharvey.com coming soon I'm sure!

After an insanely busy time working at Fuse last weekend I took a day off. Some of the flatmates and I ventured out to Lyall Bay and went to an awesome cafe in the old Surf Lifesaving Club called 'Maranui'. Apparently this is the local haunt of none other than 'Fat Freddy's Drop'. It's an awesome place with some really friendly staff and quality coffee. Get down there if you get the chance.

After this short sabbatical I boarded a plane to Auckland with a few of the Zeal/Blueprint crew for the official handover of 'Zeal Waitakere'. Mayor Bob Harvey and the councillors made us incredibly welcome. For many of us this marks the end of the monthly trips to Auckland we've had for the last few months. It's nice to hand over the project. The new youth worker, Stacey Hitchcock, has been hanging with us in Wellington for the past six months and will no doubt do an amazing job in Waitakere. If she was staying in Welly I'd probably have reason to fear for my job so it's great to see her take charge in Auckland. What I found most amazing about the trip is the amazing calibre of people involved accross the Blueprint/Zeal/Global Tribe ministry. A few of the crew are pictured here.

I spent today out in Tawa helping friend Dave Alve with his film project. Afterwards I took a brief reminiscent walk through Linden past our old youth group stomping ground. The local Dairy owner even remembered me from Friday Nights a few years back when we used to go down and buy $1 lolly bags and chocolate milk beforehand. Probably a great time to pay respect to Chris and Heather Darnell who tolerated me and even led me into loving Jesus. Nice one! Chris' Blog can be read here.


Finally, Mason the Author is finally kicking into high gear. The first part of 'The Adventures of Farmer Goatbeard' is up and ready for reading. Get amongst it and give this up and coming children's writer/illustrator the support he deserves.

A CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE?

At college I was lazy. I've always been quite academic and could get by with at least a B in most subjects without breaking a sweat. When it came time for school reports at the end of term one my concern was never with how high my grades were, it was with how my grades compared to others. I think this was the case for many. At the bottom of the page were five little tick boxes (poor, below average, average, very good, excellent). This was all I really looked at. My biggest concern was that I was 'above average', then at least I knew I was good enough to stand out from the rest.

In recent times there has been a huge growth in 'excellence-driven' ministries in New Zealand. I have been fascinated by this, particularly with the recent 'Pursuit of Excellence' conference held in Auckland a couple of weeks ago. What exactly are we pursuing, why, and for what purpose? Where in the scriptures are we advised to pursue excellence, and furthermore, at what point does a ministry become excellent?

Perhaps one of the greatest models of excellence-driven ministry at the moment is Hillsong Sydney. Everything appears to run seemlessly, they are recognised in their local community, and they have a worldwide following for their worship releases. But what if every other church in Australia began to do the same thing? What if they all had slick production and a worldwide following, would they be excellent too?

I would argue that excellence is a comparative term. When we call something excellent, we infer something else is not. Excellence-driven ministries should perhaps ask this question of themselves.

If they knew no way of doing church, if they had seen no other form of church than their own, how would their approach to excellence differ? With what we know of the character of God in the Bible, what would excellence look outside our ability to compare ourselves with other ministries?

At school I had another friend. He worked hard the whole time, he wanted the best grades he could get. His concern was never with how well others had done, but instead with whether he had achieved as well as he knew he could. It was not about whether he was excellent, but instead about whether he had reached his potential.

I would challenge each faith community to ask themselves what their God-given potential is. We don't need another dozen Hillsongs, we need another thousand vibrant, different, and dynamic faith communities built to reach their own local society. Faith groups must not all strive to 'pursue' replication of the latest big thing in Christian culture, but instead begin to forge their own outworking of faith and intimacy with Jesus.

In his book, 'The Forgotten Ways', Allan Hirsch suggests that 95% of faith communities are reaching only 12% of the world's population. Hence why nearly every youth group in New Zealand looks and feels the same. I would argue that our pursuit should be for nothing more than holiness. For radical, diverse, and different expressions of holiness that infect our local community and begin to change them from the inside out.

Interested to hear the thoughts of others on this...

MASON THE AUTHOR

After some work I am proud to announce that 'Mason the Author', the blogspot of children's author Mason Ward, is now live. I'm looking after the technical stuff, while Soul Purpose champion Elliot Taylor is editing.

The first release comes out this Thursday, but take the time to familiarise yourself with the space and get ready for the roller-coaster that is the word of Mason Ward.

http://masontheauthor.blogspot.com

MUSINGS ON FUSING...

No doubt you'll see a few posts about this around the place over the next couple of days. I've just spent the past weekend working at 'Fuse', Global Tribe's replacement for the former YFC Capital Teen Convention (or CTC). It seems this rebrand was exactly what was needed to breathe fresh life and energy into the event - it was an amazing time. Here are some great links to check out who were instrumental in making it happen.

Global Tribe
The key sponsor of the event. Global Tribe set out with the goal of raising $5k during the weekend to build a new home for an impoverished Mexican family. As far as I know they achieved it. Good stuff!

Soul Purpose
A New Zealand Christian Youth Magazine who went way beyond the call of duty constructing an entire village of stalls and shops to support the cause. By selling Pinatas and running a coin trail they raised almost a thousand dollars of additional funding.

Blueprint
This was one of the highlights of the weekend for me, seeing so many of my home church give their time to bless young people through serving at the event. Out of a core membership of about 50, over 30 community members volunteered throughout the weekend. I was incredibly proud to call myself a Blueprinter this weekend :0)

That's it for the moment. I'm sure Sam will post something more substantial soon so refer to his blog for more details on the event. Otherwise keep an eye on the Fuse website.