PASH 'N ROOT PT.II

The second night of Parachute. Rebecca St James currently playing on Mainstage. 26,000 odd in attendance. Very hot, good vibe about the place, the Soul Purpose promo I'm here for is going well.



So after this year of criticism and mud-slinging at Parachute it seems God has done everything in his power to show me the absolute opposite in all the people I meet here. This morning I got the opportunity to meet a fantastic band called 'Falling Up'. They've just been signed to Tooth & Nail Records in the States and have a small yet growing following around the world. The amazing thing, they're all aged 17-24! With worldwide exposure and a combined age of less than a hundred you'd expect these guys to be cocks. Quite the opposite is true. I got the chance to grill these boys a little about the state of the American Christian Music Industry and where they see their place in it. I was amazed to hear their response. The guys were very open about how hard it is, about how they're always in this constant battle between business and ministry. They went as far as to tell me that this is the hardest part of what they do, and that they're always keep themselves (and their attitudes) in check.



It got me thinking. The enemy always comes to pervert and distort our areas of strength. Where our giftings are is often a challenge to use them the right way, and to remain humble about having them. So what does this mean for my views on Parachute Festival?...



There is a lot of stuff I can pull apart in the philosophy and administration of Parachute Records. I can't stand the way artists are raised up here, I'm sickened by the way Parachute records switch between charity and business ethics depending on their needs, and I especially hate the fact that the Manna Store is currently selling a dance-mat game with Christian pop songs called 'Get Your Praise On!'



But today, as I watched over a thousand kids raise their hands in worship to Jesus - I start to wonder... Is their praise any less beautiful to God?

Is it tainted by the potentially incorrect doctrines at the centre of the organisation facilitating it?

Does Jesus turn away in disgust as his people come together to praise him?

Does God hate the fact that New Zealand is a place where 25,000 people can come together to fellowship?

Is he repulsed by the goal to see atleast 1,000 World Vision children sponsored in 4 days?



I'll probably get a lot of flack for this, but I can't see any reason to pull Parachute apart. Like Zeal (the youth ministry I work for), we do and say a lot of stupid things. If you only looked at our errors you'd probably say God has departed from us entirely. Amongst all our shit, beneath all the times we make the wrong move or say the wrong thing, God is moving. He is bigger than commercialism, bigger than a lighting show. If Jesus wants to meet with his people he sure as hell will, and bad business ethics wont hold back the heart of a young person who calls out to him desperately.



I'm gonna get a lot of shit for this. It seems it's not cool to support anything with over 500 in attendance these days. Screw it! I'm here to see what is beautiful, what is of God. If you're about writing things off based on their errors then you should probably write me off too.

PASH 'N ROOT '07

Well call me a hypocrite but here I am sitting in the Media lounge at Parachute Festival. This weekend 25,000 young people will come together to spend their money, their energy, and hopefully a little time with God too.

On arrival I was immediately convicted on my anti-chute rants from the past year. There's a whole lot I don't agree with about the way things happen here, but how awesome it is to see so many young people coming with an expectancy to meet Jesus. Even more awesome, there are a whole lotta kids here who don't know Jesus, and will come to meet him for the first time this weekend.

So for a glorious 4 days Parachute gets a break.

You wont hear any disgruntled rants, verbal abuse, or intolerant slaggings of shit bands. This weekend I'm praying for God to break my cynicism and show me how he's working in the hearts of people here.

Positive Positive!

Scottie

p.s. The P.A on mainstage is too quiet, hehehe

Packing Myself...

Giving the sermon tonight and I'm freaking out.
I always freak out but for some reason it doesn't seem to get any easier each time.
Unfortunate how the delivery of a message always seems to coincide with the unearthing of all my insecurities.
Right now pretty darn convinced I'm just not cut out for this.
Thinking I might have to call on Jesus to deliver this one for me. Probably not a bad idea...

Social Justice: Walks 'n Talks

I've come to a conclusion...I am spending far too much time in the company of Sam Harvey. This young rudugger (while older than me) has officially destroyed my enjoyment of scripture, and to a certain extent...life. Where I was once able to open my bible and read some nice passage that brought a tear to my eye, or gave me a warm Jesus moment, now instead all I see is issues relating to social justice.

How often do we talk about Social Justice? How often do we rant about a need for things to change? About how we are the generation to make it happen? The thing that seems to evade most conversation on this topic is the sacrifice required to make it happen.

In his musings on this notion of justic Richard Kauffman says that 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere'. For me, this is a hugely convicting statement. I start to wonder if the $40 that leaves my account each month for a kid in Kenya is actually for his benefit or for mine. The injustice here is that I use this to feel okay about myself while I'm only doing what God requires of me as a Christian anyway. There is a healthy distance in my donation, I can feel like I'm making a stand for world poverty while not having to face any reality but the smiling child in the photo on my mantlepiece.

I'm definitely not leading the charge to stop payments to aid organisations. This money is without a doubt changing lives. It is the motive that worries me. I feel sometimes like we talk about Social Justice till we're blue in the face, but we're only addressing the product and not the problem. Like sexual sin, Masturbation and pornography aren't the problem - the problem starts with insecurities in my heart. If I only address the outcome I simply hide and don't allow God to bring about REAL change.

If, like Kauffman says, 'that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere', then the injust heart at the core of us is surely the biggest hinderance to seeing justice brought about today. I cringe when I look at this verse in Isaiah 5:18-19 when God rebukes the leaders of Jerusalem.

"You are in for trouble! The lies you tell are like ropes by which you drag along sin and evil. And you say, "Let the holy God of Israel hurry up and do what he has promised, so we can see if for ourselves!"

This sounds a bit too much like me sometimes. I rant about a desire for 'the miraculous' or 'real change', but I haven't asked God to change the state of my heart. I lie in the way I walk and talk about these issues, in the hope of creating a smoke-screen over the apathy that's rife at the core of me.

I've heard it said that hope and frustration often go hand in hand. I think that's where this post is coming from. The small part of me that desires freedom and justice, and this other part of me that can't stand the fact I don't see it already. Back in Isaiah 5v16 it says that 'God shows who he is by bringing Justice.' In light of this verse, I am desperate to see God's people showing who he is in the same way.

A simple rant to kick things off...

1.14am on Christmas morning and I'm hunched over my parents PC in the suburban paradise of Tawa. Meanwhile, they sit downstairs engrossed in a broadcast of last year's Christmas pageant from the Crystal Cathedral's 'Hour of Power'. Opinions on this broadcast are most welcome.

This year Christmas has arrived as something of a non-event. There is not tree in my flat, no presents, no dash to get a few prayers in before the end of the year to raise my quota for 2006, no friends for that matter. I've been all by my lonesome round the flat for the last few days. Today, in an act of desperation, I even watched Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman star in the romantic comedy, 'While You Were Sleeping'.

However, while my opening paragraph suggests a very desperate and depressed emotional state, I must say God is doing some great stuff. Looking back over 2006 I can't believe how blessed I've been. Since becoming a Christian in 2000 (4th form), It has been on my heart to work in youth ministry. Amazingly at only 20 God has even found a way for me to be paid doing this! I'm seriously waiting for it all to fall apart. Fingers crossed it doesn't...

A particularly cool thing Jesus has been up to in my heart this year is growing a passion for a.) his people, and b.) his word. I've had a few amazing experiences this year where God has taken my mere opinion and shown me how his word backs it up. It's always exciting to find your discernment isn't as piss-poor as you thought it was. A passage I was particularly into recently comes from 1Corinthians 2.

This chapter essentially involves Paul telling the Corinthians how best to reach people with the gospel. Much of my experience with trying to reach people at Zeal this year has been feeling around in the dark hoping for Jesus to do something, so the title of this passage ('Telling about Christ and the Cross') screamed out to me from the page. As I read through the passage, hoping for some kind of check-list or golden-rule I came accross an amazing verse. In 1Cor2v3 Paul says (with reference to his first attempts to tell the Corinthians about Jesus), "At first, I was weak and trembling with fear".

I was blown away. Paul...The dude who gets his ass handed to him by God himself on the road to Damascus, The guy who starts church as we know it, The man who endured a bizarre number of lashing, shipwrecks and stonings - THIS DUDE!...was 'weak and trembling with fear' on account of having to simply share Jesus with some foreign dudes!

What an encouragment to me! I remember being at high-school and being too afraid to go to Zeal because I'd heard all the rumours about drugs, alcohol, and people having sex in the toilets (rough, i know). As irony would have it, this was to become my workplace for 2006. What can I say? I started 'weak and trembling with fear', but it's amazing how God has given me strength to share his love, mercy, and compassion with hundreds of young people during the course of this year.

There is so much more I could rant on from the chapter, but my eyelids are drifting into stand-by mode. To tell you the truth, I tremble with fear a little at the extremely intellectual company this blog falls among - please be gentle ;)

Scottie Reeve