Raring to go

I have a visa now!

It seems all so close to when I have to go to the Airport.

Time has really flown this year.

World Mission, the indigenous church and global geopolitics

From GAFCON, a quote linked to a seminar attended by Tony Payne

Christianity rejects the idea of an exclusive or superior language or culture, or for that matter a taboo or unclean culture. No culture or language can claim exclusive access; and none is so marginal or remote that it can be excluded. None is indispensable; none is unworthy. Here is an implicit Christian anthropology of culture. The claims of the gospel deny normative exclusiveness to any culture, and can be communicated in any linguistic or cultural context.

This, he explained, is what happened in the extraordinary growth of Christianity in Africa over the past 50 years. As the colonial era drew to an end, it was thought that Christianity would die in Africa along with it. The opposite happened. Colonialism in fact turned out to have been an obstacle, and its removal sparked the extraordinary explosion of Christianity in the Global South.

This has always been the missionary way, he argued. In India, in Korea, in China, in place after place—when the message reached the vernacular, it burst forth in growth. The genius of Christianity and its missionaries, is that they did for Africa and other parts of the world what Tyndale and others had once done for England—they dared to translate and communicate the gospel in the common tongue, often at great personal cost, and under the charge of political subversion.

The church will grow the way it always does

Sometimes we can get too obsessive about structures.  I am formally connected to you, and you are formally part of me.

But in the end, the gospel will grow, and the church will grow, not because of structures (though sometimes they can get in the way), but as the word of God is allowed to change lives. 

Passion to teach the word, to read the word and to live the word is what grows the church.  The rest is just ornamental.  

The beauty of GAFCON is that the organising body understand this and have spent much time seeking to encourage people into serving in their local church context.

Wisdom sometimes needs to be visible to be appreciated.  For me, this is a great example of this.

Peter is going to Mongolia

I guess this is well and truly public knowledge, but I had an info night about it tonight.

It was enjoyable to spend some time with people I know and who want to find out more about what it is I am doing, and why I am going.

Thanks guys who came.  I appreciated your prayers, and will continue to be praying for you all too.

Less than five weeks to go now, it is now slightly scary.

Why we don't want to be Canada

All through my law degree, the example of Canada was held high as a place where we should aspire to look for our legal framework.

Now even the state that elects pretty much only Conservative Party members to the National Parliament has gone nuts.

Unfortunately I can't be bothered reading the whole story here, but it has also been picked up by the ACL.

the Alberta Human Rights Commission ordered Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to desist from expressing his views on homosexuality in any sort of public forum. He was also commanded to pay damages equivalent to $7,000 as a result of the tribunal’s November decision to side with complainant and homosexual activist Dr. Darren Lund. The tribunal has also called for Boissoin to personally apologize to Lund

And people wonder why I didn't like those feel-good "moderates" from the Liberal Party who had no major qualms promoting this sort of social agenda in Australia.

But once again, the solution is to preach the gospel, and at the appropriate time to sometimes say I will listen to God not men.

Vaccination Fun

I had my second round of shots for my expedition. 

Tonight it felt like I'd been given a new set of instructions.  Hopefully I won't get ill from any major diseases. 

It is strange to think that many long term missionaries had nowhere near the precautions I take medically for such a short trip.

Anyway, thank God for the way things are all slowly falling into place.

Service of the kingdom

Part of the following passage is reflected in Anglican and other wedding rites.  But perhaps the last paragraph is the most interesting from my perspective.  

In ancient cultures, some of the most precious jobs were given to those who had been physically incapacitated.  These jobs included looking after the king's harem.  

But here it just seems a bit out of place... the disciples say "if marriage is hard to get out of, don't get married" then Jesus says well some people are Eunuchs for the kingdom... 

Here it seems that Jesus points out the sharp edge of the bible's teaching on human sexuality.  Married for life, or not at all.  No easy way out here.  But some people, including some of the disciples who for the service of Christ have to travel far and wide unencumbered by a wife, it would seem the Eunuchs who have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven are doing a good thing for all involved.

I guess here there are two key bits here... they make themselves Eunuchs... and they do it for the kingdom.

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.  And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?" He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."  They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry."  But he said to them, "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it."

(Matthew 19:1-12 English Standard Version)

Oh and by the way, it is also bookended by a quote picked up in the Anglican Infant Baptism liturgy about young children.