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Number 82, July 2017 ISSN 1837-8447
Brought to you by the Bible Society
I got close to Jesus on my first day in jail Where love beat racism
The church that was born again
7 weird things about Christians
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NEWS
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JULY 2017
Quotable
Obadiah Slope
KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON: Obadiah obsessively reads the speeches church leaders give when they gather pastors together. Occasionally it pays off. A great example is the news that ministers in the Anglican Diocese (region) of the NT have been told by their Bishop, Greg Anderson, that they don’t have to wear the priestly vestment called a stole, which looks like a scarf, for baptisms and holy communion. “A white shirt, whether polo-style or buttoned, with the diocesan crest permanently affixed to it ... is sufficient as clerical vesture for church services,” he announced. Obadiah is worried that ministers may think that a shirt is sufficient (what about trousers or a skirt?) READ THE AD CAREFULLY: Whoever wrote the job ad for a “Strategic Programme Manager” to lead the “Transforming Mission” team for the Diocese of Truro in the Church of England did not check it, Obadiah hopes. The manager will develop a “resource church” – a church big enough to plant others. But then the ad goes on to say “You do not need to be a practising Christian.” Oh dear.
McCrindle
HEADLINE FEVER: “The long arms of UBS are everywhere.” This headline in The Australian excited Obadiah, keen that the work of United Bible Societies (UBS) be better known. After all, 148 societies around the world from Angola to Zambia is impressive. (Actually, those are pretty close neighbours.) But it turns out to be a Swiss bank. And it only operates in 50 countries.
School Scripture thriving JOHN SANDEMAN Teaching religion in schools is popular with parents in New South Wales and there are good working relationships between schools and volunteer teachers, according to research by the McCrindle group. Special Religious Education providers for different faiths joined together to present the research to the NSW Minister for Education Rob Stokes and opposition spokesman Jihad Dib last month. “When my life and family were cracking apart, the only stable thing in my life was SRE,” said Paul Green of the Christian Democrats who emceed the night. “It held me together during my darkest days.” The compelling research shows that more than 70 per cent of primary and 30 per cent of secondary school students attend SRE in NSW. There are 101 providers representing 29
faith groups, but 86 per cent of the network of providers is Christian. Parent satisfaction is high: • More than 8 of 10 parents are satisfied with SRE. • More than 9 of 10 parents understand their right to withdraw students. • More than 7 of 10 support enrolment continuing from the previous year. The volunteer network is healthy: • Practically all volunteers have Working With Children checks. • 95 per cent have been given authorised materials. • 83 per cent say the complaints process works well. • 96 per cent of principals point to good working relationships with SRE providers. The key messages to the politicians from the multi-faith SRE providers is that SRE is an extensive, popular and effective programme. It builds student wellbeing and tolerance in schools
around diverse communities as well as promoting multiculturalism through joint celebrations of different faith groups. “Ever since 1848, there has been bipartisan recognition of this foundation of religious freedom and inclusion,” the minister reminded the gathering. “To provide instruction in the tenets of faith to young people is very important. Currently there are over 11,000 volunteers who provide this expression of love.” Attending the meeting despite having begun his Ramadan fast, Dib said: “Australia is 24.5 million stories that make our great Australian story, and public education is at the centre. The things that bind us give us our moral compass. There is a place in public education for SRE and Ethics – they all provide nourishment to the soul. “Minister Stokes says this is a bipartisan agreement. And so it is.”
Simon Smart
talks to an African American leader whose dad was shot. “ They didn’t tell me ... because they didn’t want me to grow up hating white people.” Page 13
Michael Jensen
on “thinking clearly about Christian giving.” Page 15
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NEWS
JULY 2017
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Numbers going to church decline much less then census faith figures
News 2-3 In Depth 5-9
RUTH POWELL, MIRIAM PEPPER and SAM STERLAND of NCLS
Charity Feature 12 Opinion 11-16
In brief SALVOES GRAND FINAL: Combining their two territories in Australia into one created a problem for the Salvation Army. Instead of having two HQs they would only need one. And the winner is Melbourne. NEPAL CLIMBS: In 1975 there were 500 Christians in Nepal. In 1990 there were 30,000. But now Dan Pokharel, president and founder of Global Mission Nepal, says there are over a million. Source MNN.
A face for each era: evangelist Billy Graham, Methodist leader Alan Walker, campaigner Fred Nile, worship leader and pastor Darlene Zschech and church planter Guy Mason.
Aussies are getting less religious Nearly 30 per cent of Australians say they have “no religion”, according to the latest Census data, up from nearly 22 per cent in the 2011 Census, and 0.8 per cent in 1966. Only one in two Australians (52.1 per cent) self-identify as Christian, with 22.6 per cent identifying as Catholic, and 13.3 per cent as Anglican. In 2011, 61 per cent of Aussies identified as Christian, and in 1966, it was 88.2 per cent. The growth in people identifying as “no religion” may be because, in 2016, the answers to the “religious affiliation” question were reordered so that “no religion” came first, instead of “Catholic”. April as a taster of the Church Life Pack to come in the coming months. The pack includes a full Church Life Profile showing their unique results plus supporting resources to help churches to build vitality and health in mission
BIG TARGET. John Wilson, Moderator General (national leader) of the Presbyterian Church in Australia, has called for massive church planting. “We have enough wealth within PCA to securely fund 600 first-inducted ministers and then 600 assistants to the ministers and then to fund 600 church plants.” HISTORIC MOMENT: Tim Farron resigned as leader of the UK Liberal Democrats last month declaring the tension between his strong evangelical Christian faith and politics had become too great. Farron said he was resigning to remain “faithful to Christ.” He had been pressed in a interview to say whether homosexual sex was a sin.
TESS HOLGATE
Christian 88.2%
Christian 74%
Christian 52.1%
Other
0.7%
Other
2.6%
Other
8.2%
None
0.8%
None
12.9%
None
30.1%
1966
1991
and ministry, effectiveness and sustainability in leadership, and stronger connections with local communities. The 2016 NCLS results are based on 240,000 adult attender surveys (adult church attenders aged 15+);
2016
10,000 child surveys (church attenders aged 8-14) and 7000 leader surveys. In addition to the usual paper surveys, attender and leader surveys were available online for the first time in 2016.
Source: ABS
A WORLD LEADER The National Church Life Survey is the largest, longest-running survey of its kind in the world and is the largest nationwide survey after the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Census. The survey has been held every five years since 1991, most recently from October to November 2016. About 3000 local churches from more than 20 denominations took part in ten languages. Churches received an online Summary Profile of results in
Bible Society 10
Source: NCLS
It is old news that Australian attendance at religious services has been declining for some time. However, a new study by National Church Life Survey (NCLS) researchers stretching from 1950 to 2016 has found that the decline in monthly attendance at religious services has slowed in recent decades. This is a major finding in a series of studies by the NCLS Research team that tracks trends in church attendance. Religious service attendance in Australia has never been an activity practised by the majority of the population. Some of the highest rates of attendance were recorded in the 1950s after World War II at the time of the baby boom (e.g., 44 per cent in 1950). After a steep decline in religious service attendance, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, the decline has slowed since 1990. For example, in the 40 years from 1950 to 1990, the decline in monthly self-reported attendance was about 22 percentage points compared with about 5 percentage points over the following 25 years from 1990 to 2016. The data used for this study was drawn from sample surveys of the Australian population where people self-report their levels of attendance at religious services of worship. When compiling the 2016 Australian Community Survey, NCLS Research took care to use surveys that were representative of Australians on the electoral roll and where the survey questions were comparable. While the majority of responses in these surveys were about Christian church attendance, a small proportion would have attended services in other faiths.
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WONDERFULLY MADE: Babies in the womb can already recognise faces according to Cosmos, a science magazine. A team from Lancaster University in Britain used “4D ultrasound imaging to track the reactions of 39 third-trimester foetuses when face-like images were projected into the uterus.” PERIL OF CENSORSHIP: Christians have been warned to watch carefully as Google sets up filtering web content for terrorist material. Michael Kellahan, executive director of Freedom for Faith, said: “When you have a bad religion doing terrible things, there is a risk of people doing good religious stuff [being] caught in increasing monitoring of the bad religion.”
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JULY 2017
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“I came back to Jesus on my first day in jail.”
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John Sandeman on the church that was born again
Adam McCormick couldn’t sleep. He was fuming. The then Deputy Mayor of Rockdale City Council, Sydney, had been accused of accepting bribes from developers and, in 2002, was daily being humiliated at a hearing of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption. His denials of wrongdoing were becoming more far-fetched. “It was two in the morning; I was up and I was angry with God. I was saying ‘What have you done to me? Look at what you’ve done! OK, I’ve done wrong, but why are you humiliating me?’ I was fuming with God, so I pick up my Bible and rip it open and it goes to Psalm 35. I start reading it and then I’m going ‘oh my goodness’ and I burst into tears.” In this psalm, written by Old Testament king David, the writer appeals to God to avenge him against his enemies. They are persecuting David, falsely accusing him and gloating over his ruin. McCormick, now a factory chaplain in Sydney’s south, is finally able to reveal how, as a young, ambitious Labor councillor, his pride and arrogance turned him into “an animal” ensnared in the Australian Labor Party machine. Elected to Rockdale Council, on the border of Botany Bay, at the age of 29, McCormick was a Bible-carrying idealist who fought against brothels, corruption and high-rise development. But it wasn’t long before his political ambition led him to obey orders
from his political backers to push through big developments. “I remember one of the biggest buildings now down in Wolli Creek and I opposed it the whole way through and then everyone got a shock when suddenly I came to council one night and voted for it,” he tells Eternity. “A lot of the independents liked me and that’s how I got the Deputy Mayor position because they knew I was anti-high rise, so they were all a bit shocked.” McCormick says he was told by head office that he needed to change his vote because the developers were “making a huge donation to the party.” “I do regret it because you sold out; you had these values but you are part of that bigger machine and you’re quite ambitious.” Despite being “corrupted by the machine,” to the extent of “rorting books and rorting signatures” to get people elected, he still thought of himself as a great guy because he carried a Bible and “it’s for the greater good.” Dreaming of one day becoming a state minister, McCormick started to put God second and political ambition first. He knew he was doing wrong but would say: “do as I say, not as I do. “The arrogance had become that bad I would pull out my Bible in meetings – this is so not glorifying God – I would bring out my Bible in meetings when people were boring me and just read it to show them that ‘I couldn’t care less what you’re saying.’ I thought the other day, ‘That was so disgraceful,
Adam – how are you glorifying God by showing these people that they were worthless? You were so arrogant and out of touch.’ ” When McCormick agreed to support certain developments in Rockdale, in exchange for a $70,000 donation to the ALP, he knew it was risky. He also knew that bringing money into the party was the best way to gain kudos. At the time, he was looking at running for a state seat, but faced opposition from within his own council. But he ignored warnings that his opponents were plotting his downfall. “I was warned a few times – even one of the general managers said, ‘They’re coming after you, Adam.’ Even then I was, like, ‘Look at my position, look what I am, look who I work for – I’m untouchable.’ And that’s honestly what I thought, so it was really a lot of pride.” After ICAC received reports of corruption at Rockdale, McCormick spent seven days in the witness box, denying all allegations and maintaining his innocence because he believed his backers in the party would look after him. He admits now that he did “answer indiscriminately” to the Commission, but only to protect his mates. “I always kept to the same story … and I had nine barristers at one stage smashing me to pieces. In the end, you became a bit of a character because you were making crazy comments because they were getting so frustrated at trying to make you slip up,” he says. “My barrister adjourned one day
“
I was a religious guy and I didn’t understand that God actually really loved me … and that’s what prison taught me, that he loves me unconditionally.” and said to the commissioner, ‘You know, you’re never going to break him – this’ll go on for months if you keep going.’ And then he said to me, ‘My only concern is, Adam, I know you’re protecting people.’ And, yes, I was – there were definitely MPs involved, but I thought they would look after me. “My barrister, who was a former detective, said ‘Mate, they’re not going to look after you, they’re not your mates.’ ... And then he was right – they didn’t in the end.” McCormick felt crushed when his trusted friends dropped him: “You can take it from your enemies when they betray you but when your best mates do it you feel sick.” In 2005, McCormick was tried and convicted in the NSW District Court on two counts of corruptly agreeing to receive a benefit and seven counts of lying to ICAC. He
Wikimedia /Nareign
ANNE LIM
was sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail and served threeand-a-half years. “I always said if they had charged me with third-party corruption I would have pleaded guilty straightaway because there was money involved. It wasn’t coming to me personally; it was going to the Labor Party.” It was during his first day in jail that McCormick experienced the beginnings of a revival. “I never felt so close to Jesus in my life than at that moment when you realise that your friends betrayed you – it was incredible what you go through … That’s when I learnt for the first time in my life what grace meant.” From thinking he was a great guy because he was religious and idealistic, McCormick had come to realise that, like the early Christian leader Paul, “I’m the biggest sinner of everyone.” And yet God still loved him. “I didn’t understand God’s love. I was a religious guy and I didn’t understand that God actually really loved me … and that’s what prison taught me, that he loves me unconditionally,” he says. “So it is a bit of a prodigal son journey because you did leave God and you did live for the riches. You left because you wanted fame, you wanted money, and I did have that – I had status, I had the fame, had the money, I had everything; and it wasn’t until you lost everything that you come running back to your father and go, ‘It’s you who I need; I don’t need all the rest.’ ” McCormick can now see that he continued page 6
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CBM changes image, not focus JOHN SANDEMAN The ads were tiny and featured a tube of eye ointment that looked like one of those travel toothpaste tubes. The name was Christian Blind Mission and it looked and felt like your grandmother’s charity back in the eighties and nineties. Not to deride generous grandmothers, on whom a lot of Christian ministry depends, but the renamed CBM has become one of the liveliest Christian charities going around. You won’t see a picture of medicine but rather a face with CBM. It will be the face of someone with a disability, somewhere in the majority world. CBM’s mission – now seen as wider than it once was – is to transform the lives of that most marginalised group; people living with a disability living in some of the world’s poorest places, often with local partners. “Like many charities, we are being challenged to reach out to the next generation of givers,” says CBM Australia CEO Jane Edge. “We want to continue to enjoy the support of our older long-term supporters, but need to reach others. We are attracting people who are interested in our work around inclusion of people with disabilities and continuing to support blindness prevention. We do those two key streams of work. “I think that’s resonating with supporters and the new donors we are gaining.” According to Edge, CBM is trying new things while keeping going with business as usual. Viewed from the outside, CBM is a good local example of a Christian group pulling off both reinvigorating itself and keeping faith with a well-established support base. CBM Australia is an innovator in the wider chain of CBM around the world. CBM Australia has positioned itself to advise government and “a lot of other big organisations, much bigger than us, ensure that people with disability are included in wider work. That to me is one of the powerful things of CBM.
Jesus in jail From page 5 had carried a grudge against God since losing his father when he was 14. “My whole life I’ve been bitter because I always felt God ripped me off, taking him. He was like my coach, my mentor, my everything. I was always bitter and angry with the world for what had happened to me,” he says. “I love God with all my heart but he changed the course of my life. ‘Why did you take my father? Oh, my goodness. He was my everything, my mentor. I could have achieved anything and you took him.’ ” Ironically, the prison culture was a stark contrast to the betrayal of trust he experienced on the outside, and it was among the most hardened criminals that he found protection and trust. “It was probably three of the best years of my life – I know that’s crazy,” he says. “In prison, I was really protected by all the big guys, hit men and murderers … Benny Puta, who killed three people, was extremely protective of me. Australia’s most wanted, Hakan Ayik, was my
“We have taken the very specific disability programmes in the field, modelled them and been able to make a case to the Australian Government and to other organisations that disability inclusion must be part of our aid programme, if we are going to reach the poorest people. We take our funding and we make it influence hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that other organisations are spending.” Eternity asks Edge how it works out, practically. Edge responds that the high-level work comes down to issues like “How can we get more kids with a disability in schools?” “Like Gerald who I met in the Philippines – he has cerebral palsy and his parents carried him to school every day as a young boy. Now you see him – he’s had vocational training. He has a wheelchair. He earns more income than anyone else in his family.”
Helping women with a disability participate in community life is another focus. “I met a fabulous woman called Premnika in India. I met her in her mid-30s, a couple of years ago. She had polio as a child, and suffered discrimination and a difficult childhood. She had an abusive marriage. “By the time the CBM partner had come into her life, she was talking about ending it; it had been a desperate dark time for her. Through the programme she received counselling, vocational and leadership training, and support to start a small business. When I met her, her smile could have lit up the room. She had a little shop and she was
“
employing three other young women with disability.” CBM still sticks with blindness prevention. “I met a lady called Shanti in Bangladesh in one of the poorest areas outside Dhaka,” says Edge, giving another example. “She’s a grandmother who had gone blind from cataracts and was again despairing. She was feeling that she was a burden on her family. She was having her surgery when I met her, and the patch was coming off the next day. The gratitude and the joy was just unbelievable. “There’s an unsung hero – we often forget to talk about people at the front line – I met Dr Malik who did the surgery for Shanti. He’s worked for the CBM partner for over ten years. He drives five hours a day and performs surgery six days a week. In his time, he’s probably done about 25,000 surgeries.” The back office in
Australia deserves some credit too, for CBM’s reinvigorated brand. CBM’s communication strategy has had major success in partnering with Christian radio stations around Australia, pulling more stations each year into its “Miracles Day.” Their pitch is simple: “On 17 August, join CBM and Christian radio stations around Australia for Miracles Day! For just $32 you can give the miracle of sight-saving surgery to someone living in the poorest parts of our world. To support, head to cbm.org. au/miraclesday or 131 226.” But “Miracles Day” is also a multi-layer strategy. “We also work in shopping centres – we have teams of people who recruit supporters in shopping centres – as well as direct mail,” says Edge. For one of the country’s strongest Christian marketers, there was never going to be just one channel. If you would like more information, visit cbm.org.au/group
The gratitude and the joy was just unbelievable.”
Jane Edge, CBM CEO, with Shanti Begum, from Bangladesh
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The son of God trusts me to work for him – what an incredible God we have!” cellmate and became one of my closest mates. He was a gentleman. And the Lebanese swarmed on me and protected me. “The one who was also most protective of me was Benny Puta, whose mate was Roger Rogerson; his character also [featured] in the Underbelly series Golden Mile. “He has killed three people … but I got him to do Kairos [prison ministry] and come to church, so the seed was planted, and I’ve met and prayed with him since coming out.” Before McCormick went to jail, he was so bitter and angry that he wanted to die. “I actually put on a lot of weight and was hoping I would die. I don’t believe in suicide but I was hoping I’d have a heart attack and die. I was so depressed.
“My thing with God was ‘I don’t care if I die – you are the one that got me killed.’ That was my attitude. You have got me killed. You knew what I was doing, you let these corrupt guys get immunity. So I was really angry. The injustice was huge, that these guys got immunity and they were filth. I opposed brothels, I was against this, against that, and these guys were outside gloating.” McCormick’s behaviour was so aggressive to other prisoners that some of the hardest men in the prison were concerned he would hurt someone and end up serving another five years. And one of his Christian jail mates told him his behaviour as a Christian did not look good. “In prison, you meet the roughest and toughest guys and they told me ‘You’re absolutely out of control.’ I do believe that was directly from God, putting all these incredible tough men in my way and speaking to me and going, ‘It’s time to change.’ ” So over a couple of years of anger management study and prayer, McCormick did change and, through kindness, brought some prisoners back to God. As chairman of Kairos, he developed
a flourishing prison ministry through Bible studies and church services. Sadly, McCormick became so institutionalised that after his release from jail, he became deeply depressed. He was searching for love and acceptance and found it at Eastcoast Pentecostal Church in Sydney’s south. “I’d never been in such a loving, embracing church and I just think ‘God, you’ve done it again’ … thank God that he brought me to that church because I needed that love and they showed me brotherly love like in prison … These guys didn’t judge, they accepted me and they loved me. And again I was able to flourish.” His challenge today is to let go of his former obsession with getting revenge on the people who let him down. “This is why Psalm 35 has been so important to me because it tells me that it’s God that’s going to seek revenge on your behalf and you need to let it go, so I’ve learnt to let it go, being revengeful,” he says. “In the end it is God who will judge; it is Jesus who comes with the sword in his mouth to judge and I don’t need to worry about that.”
McCormick is now working in factory chaplaincy and teaching English through the Ministry Training Strategy at St Cuthbert’s Anglican Church, South Carlton. He is also studying for a bachelor of theology at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. “The other thing God has done for me is I don’t rely on my self-esteem. Because you’ve been smashed to pieces in the media – the corrupt criminal – all my selfconfidence and self-esteem comes through God. You can say what you want about me because I’m with Jesus. “The other thing I love – the other thing I got strength from when I got out of prison – is that Paul was in prison, Moses was a murderer, David was an adulterer. That gave me confidence in God’s grace that he’s going to use me like he did the others. “Despite the world condemning me, even some Christians, and myself, the one who loves me the most and gave his life for me, Jesus Christ, has given me the opportunity to serve him in ministry, and that truly blows me away. The son of God trusts me to work for him – what an incredible God we have!”
IN DEPTH
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Grieving the death of a son BEN MCEACHEN
Sonja Howard
What every parent fears happened to Sonja and Bill Howard. “I had gone in to wake him up for school,” remembers Sonja about her 10-year-old son Ezekiel (“Zeke”) on a September morning in 2011. “We had this little routine where I would put my face next to his and just stroke his hair because he was very reluctant to get up most mornings. “This time I felt his skin was cold and his body was stiff. I started screaming for Bill. “He knew what he was looking at but I didn’t. “I didn’t understand that he was dead. I had never seen a dead person. I was in profound shock and I was looking at this little boy – this is really embarrassing – but I thought that he was frozen. “I told Bill that he’d been frozen and that he needed to put him in a hot shower and thaw him out. “I mean, who wakes up and finds what looks like a healthy 10-year-old boy dead? Who does that happen to? And it happened to me.” Almost six years later, the Howards have had to deal not only with a heartbreaking personal experience of their son’s death at their home in Colo Heights, New South Wales. They also have had to navigate the public pain of coronial inquests into Zeke’s death, respond to failings in the NSW health system – and come to grips with how the God they love could let this happen. It was not until late last year that the NSW Coroners Court delivered its ruling on the cause of Zeke’s sudden death. Although Zeke displayed symptoms several months before of a possible stroke, and a hole in his heart was discovered after his death, an autopsy was deemed inconclusive. His cause of death was listed as “unascertained natural causes (possibly sudden unexpected death in epilepsy or cardiac arrhythmia).” The Howards were angered and dismayed by this lack of clarity, particularly as the Nepean Hospital that treated Zeke before his death had accidentally deleted two months of heart scans, including Zeke’s. Sonja and Bill can only lament the difference they might have made. “The fact is they deleted records that would have definitively proven what caused the death of
learned that a Sydney pathologist had not measured one of Zeke’s key cardiac areas. Confronted by another “key piece of evidence that was now gone,” Sonja – a high school teacher – fled the Year 12 class she was teaching and “ran down the street, pulling out chunks of my own hair, screaming.” During the past few years, Bill and Sonja first moved out of Colo Heights to regional NSW before settling in Central Queensland. The family’s shift north – with young children Epiphany and Silas – came about because Bill landed his first job as a high school chaplain (at three schools in the Clermont area). Bill began theological study after his intense period of seeking answers in the wake of Zeke’s death. “I went down every other path I could think of,” explains Bill. “I looked at all the other religions. I looked at evolution and naturalistic origins and that sort of stuff. I just found that they all led nowhere and [Christianity] was the one that had the most credibility. And it was the only one that had someone who said they could fix this.” Bill describes himself as a “lukewarm” Christian before Zeke’s death. But, like Sonja, Bill has come to rely upon the claims of Christianity more wholeheartedly. So much so that he became convinced God could use him, as a chaplain, to help others. “I would like to be able to be that light and hope for others because I’ve been through it. I’m qualified in it. I’ve been through such stuff – some of it is just not mentionable; you can’t actually do it in an interview like this,” he admits. “But we have seen some stuff – and most people don’t believe us – but I want to be Christ to other people.” One of the crucial things that has crystallised for the Howards is the potency of forgiveness – a power they continue to lean on. Bill and Sonja are comforted that God knows what happened to Zeke. The God they trust in promises justice and love in an ultimate sense, which enables Sonja and Bill to forgive those who may have contributed to Zeke’s death. “What I know about forgiveness, like all Christians, I suppose, is that we have to forgive for our own wellbeing and because our master forgives us,” Sonja says. “It is hard when it’s the shed blood of your baby. Again, I think, well, Christ has shed his blood for me.”
Ezekiel Howard died of “unascertained natural causes,” a finding that his parents struggle to accept. my son,” says Sonja. “And it also would have safeguarded my living children.” Sonja now finds herself in the “ridiculous” position of asking doctors to safeguard the lives of her other children from an “unascertained” cause. “But I’m leaving [Zeke] in God’s hands. I know he is a God of truth and justice,” she says. “I had a judge several years ago who told us there would never be an inquest into this matter. They didn’t have the resources was his
reasoning. I prayed on the steps of the NSW Coronial Court that night, like a ‘mad woman.’ I cried and wept before the Lord – and then we got an inquest. So I know God works miracles. “The paradox is, of course, that I don’t have my son any more. But I have to hold on to God because there’s nothing else.” The Christian couple make no effort to conceal the struggle it has cost them to get to this point of leaning on God. “I was so angry
with God,” confesses Sonja. “I used every foul word that I had at my disposal to yell at God, and then my husband ... brought me a cup of tea. I said, ‘He’s not real. He’s not real.’ My husband just looked at me sadly and said, ‘Then who are you talking to, sweetheart?’ ” Bill Howard’s response to Zeke’s death had one significant difference: four years ago, Sonja experienced a mental collapse. Bill stoically helped his wife recover from a “catatonic” state after they
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Dear Christians, please stop inviting me to church TEAGAN RUSSELL
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Are you actually interested in who I am as a person? Do you want to have coff ee with me and get to know about my life?”
Their intention to help connect me in the church was noble – I can see that. It’s important to help people gel, and small groups are definitely part of that. But if those are the only invitations, it can feel a little shallow. Now, I know this works both ways – I could initiate social catchups and dinners with people at church, and I do. But when you’re trying to find your feet in a new church, I think the onus should
lightstock / Prixel Creative
If you’d told me ten years ago to stop inviting people to church, I’d have quickly argued back at you. Today, as a 29-year-old, I see things a little differently. Recently, I expressed it in a Facebook post: “Dear Christians, I know you mean well. Your intentions are pure. But this common behaviour can be more damaging than you realise. And, hey, I’ll be the first to admit I used to do it too. Can we please not only be interested in token invitations to church or small group? There’s nothing wrong with these things, but there’s more to my life than whether I come to church on Sunday or your small groups during the week. Are you actually interested in who I am as a person? Do you want to have dinner or coffee with me and get to know about my life? I do – I want to get to know you. Attending church is great, but it’s only one part of my life. Can we be better at creating a real, unforced Christian community? Maybe more people would want to come to church if they see how much we genuinely love each other … Love, Teagan”
The thoughts expressed in that Facebook post have been fermenting for the better part of the last 10 years, when I’ve found myself on the “other side of the fence” many more times than I expected. After leaving the church I grew up in at age 20 to venture interstate, I searched high and low for a church that felt like home. The bar was set high because I loved my old church. It was my second home, and the people were like a second family to me. I was the girl involved in everything. If there was a church event, I was there. Prayer meeting – I was there or even leading it. I was a youth leader, I led a connect group and I’d attend multiple services many weekends. Church was life for me. But when as the new girl, I visited new churches to find one that I’d plant myself in, I was discouraged. Too often, it seemed that Christians were more interested in whether I was signing up to their small group than in what was going on in the rest of my life. Leaders would text or call me to invite me to group and remind me to come to church, when all I really wanted was for them to ask me out for a coffee and get to know me.
be on the leaders and regular attendees to reach out and make you feel welcome. When you’re new, it can be scary to suggest social catchups – and yet we need them to build friendships. Worshipping alongside someone at church for 90 minutes and then leaving straight afterwards is not going to give you an understanding of that person’s whole world. I’d love to see us as Christians,
particularly those who have been at a church for a long time, making a genuine effort to “do life” more with our brothers and sisters. We Christians have a tendency to be so focused on outreach that we forget the needs of our own brothers and sisters in the church. They need us, and need our love. I think of the Scripture in Romans 12:9-13: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practise hospitality. We all have different gifts, different capacities and commitments. So perhaps loving the Lord’s people will look different for you from how it does for me. Maybe for you it will be a movie night with a girlfriend, or organising a poker night with the boys. Whatever it is, let’s build Christian relationships that extend beyond the four walls of the church. Let’s really care about each other’s lives. We all crave genuine community and friendships, so let’s build those relationships in organic ways.
Personal identity
2017 NEW COLLEGE LECTURES
12-14 SEPTEMBER DR BRIAN ROSNER
PRINCIPAL, RIDLEY COLLEGE
Tuesday 12 September Opening Event – 6pm | Complimentary canapes will be served. Lecture 1 – 7.30pm Identity Angst: Unstable Foundations
Wednesday 13 September Lecture 2 – 7.30pm The Relational Self: You are a social being
Thursday 14 September Lecture 3 – 7.30pm The Narratival Self: You are your story
ADMISSION FREE Register at newcollege.unsw.edu.au/events MORE INFO P: +61 2 9381 1999 | E: newcollege@unsw.edu.au | VENUE New College, University of New South Wales
IN DEPTH
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The church that was born again JOHN SANDEMAN
PCA services in 2016. But the existence of a strong local, separate but quite similar “Westminster Presbyterian” group in the state needs to be taken into account. In South Australia, Burning or Bushed sets out a tough journey
with congregations that “continue to dwindle in membership and vitality” seeking to share Jesus. But in Tasmania, which also had a tiny continuing PCA,
A view from an old hand BOB THOMAS PCA leader The Presbyterian Church of Australia celebrates its 40th anniversary on 22 June 2017 and, as a continuing Presbyterian, I wish them well as they move forward together, trusting the King and head of the church will bless all branches of the Christian church, including the Uniting and Presbyterian Churches. In the years leading up to the Union, strong convictions led to deep convictions, which in turn became hard convictions, even hurtful convictions. Since 1977, the Presbyterian Church of Australia has found its feet, planted on the bedrock of God’s word, which it upholds as to the truth, authority, relevance and sufficiency of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Overall, some two-thirds of our membership voted to enter the Uniting Church, which meant that about two-thirds of all congregational properties were transferred to the Uniting Church. We were grateful to quite a number of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran and Seventh Day Adventist Churches for allowing us to use their properties outside of their meeting times. Eventually many of these congregations built a new church or purchased property back from the Uniting Church or other denominations. Church planting and re-planting is still going on apace.
In the years since 1977, we have sent out hundreds of missionaries with Australian Presbyterian World Mission and have worked hard at casting “a mantle of (spiritual) safety” throughout the nation, under the auspices of Presbyterian Inland Mission. I’m not a number cruncher, nor even particularly interested in numbers, but anecdotally I would say that the Presbyterian Church of Australia has at least regained the ground lost 40 years ago, if not more. There have been gains and losses during those years, but overall a gigantic recovery in the things that count – spiritual fervour, biblical faith and methodology, zeal in the work of the Lord, confidence in our identity and the Lord’s purposes for us. Bob Thomas is Minister of St Kilda-Balaclava Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, and has served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria and ModeratorGeneral of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. He is Editor of New Life Christian Magazine.
Flickr / Ty
A view from a church planter NATHAN CAMPBELL PCA minister (and blogger) Like all denominations we’re a mixed bag. There is certainly, increasingly, a commitment to gospel ministry that defines us across the board, not simply a rejection of theological liberalism, which has been the hallmark of those who stayed while others left for “union.”
But while we’re committed to gospel proclamation, I fear many of us are noting the pace of cultural change and responding by circling the wagons or rejecting the “liberalism” of our post-Christian, post-truth, postmodern culture rather than re-imagining how we might engage the culture with the gospel in new ways without fear of being compromised. The churches that are
flourishing, I think, are those that are seeing new converts because they’re grappling with this new context. I think lots of us don’t know where to begin addressing some modern issues, though, and might overestimate our “flourishing” or otherwise. Nathan Campbell is Campus Pastor at Creek Road, and blogs at St-Eutychus.com
Mark Tronson
Australia has a church that, like its members, has been born again. The Presbyterian Church of Australia was “born again” 40 years ago when the Uniting Church was formed, and a big section of the Pressies “stayed out” of that newly formed denomination. “Thursday 22nd June marks 40 years of a refocused and refreshed church,” the church’s leader, Moderator-General John Wilson, blogged recently. “The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is almost unrecognisable from what it was in the 1960s.” The term “Presbyterian” comes from the New Testament Greek for “elder,” and reflects the governing structure of this group of churches. Rather than 40 years in the wilderness like Moses, the PCA has had 40 years of rebuilding in which it has transformed into a (nearly) completely evangelical church. The PCA has a couple of alternative birthdays: 1901, which makes it 116 years old, because the church was formed in the year of Federation; or 1617, making it 500 years old, because the church traces its theology back to the European Reformation. In 1977, there was a real mix of people who refused to go into Union, with two distinct flavours – evangelical and people who loved the Scottish heritage – “the bagpipes and haggis brigade.” Looking back, Bob Thomas, one of those who marched out of a 1974 meeting that had voted for Union, and took part in the continuing of the Presbyterian Church, sees two victories: “Ridding the PCA of the dominance of ‘theological’ liberalism by staying out and then prising it away from the grip of the Freemasons (many of whom have come to saving faith in Christ, thus becoming ‘free indeed’).” By removing many of the more liberal ministers from the PCA, the Uniting Church set the stage for today’s conservative Presbyterians. The story of the PCA is the story of a church returning to its roots. Today it is a conservative church, that has become more confident in its conservative evangelical stance – for example, moving to no longer ordain women in 1991. Forty years of the reborn church is examined in Burning or Bushed, a new book by leading Presbyterians launched this month. The messiness of the Presbyterian votes for Union is recalled in an essay by Peter Barnes, editor of Australian Presbyterian. “The figures betray some confusion or ambiguity of thought – 75 per cent wanted to join the Uniting Church but only 61 per cent wanted to actually leave the Presbyterian Church!” A second vote was needed. Barnes recounts that the status of the Bible in the proposal for a Uniting Church in Australia concerned many Presbyterians. He quotes Davis McCaughey, a Presbyterian who led the charge to Union (and later the governor of Victoria) saying the church “must be prepared to live without guarantees, without the guarantee of an infallible book, or infallible creeds, or an infallible church.” Neil MacLeod, a leader who campaigned against Union, is also quoted: “A smaller church fast-anchored on the word of God will prove a far greater blessing to herself and to this land than a larger church uncertain of her foundations.”
The past 40 years of the PCA have seen the effort to bring that blessing into being. In some parts of the country, it has been a struggle. A chapter on Western Australia reveals that only 600 people were attending
New Life editor Bob Thomas with Eternity editor John Sandeman.
a strong partnership with the university ministry of Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students has seen growth. Six new churches were planted from the 1990s, clustered around St John’s Hobart, which had been the only church left in the city after Union. The three eastern mainland states have PCA branches strong enough to set up substantial theological colleges – Queensland Theological College, Christ College in Sydney and the Presbyterian College in Melbourne. The PCA contains large and growing churches in each of these states, and has left its 40-year-old traumatic rebirth behind. Burning or Bushed has more details on NSW’s successes and struggles. • Between 1980 and 2015, almost 60 new churches were started. Fifteen of those since have been closed and seven are able to continue only because of their connection to stronger congregations. • In 1978, there were three non-Englishspeaking background (NESB) congregations. In 2016, there were 22 NESB “pastoral charges or home mission stations” with seven among the largest ten. • A dip: “Changes in communicant membership … typically indicate a progressive loss of members each year until 1999. By that stage, most churches had lost around 50 per cent of their communicants.” • Followed by a rise: “In most churches the rate of decline slowed in about 1999 and in many it has now been reversed.” • “Fast growth new plants” with strong leaders Bryson Smith at Dubbo, Paul Sheely at Albury, and Steve Cree at Lismore. • But Sydney has problems: “By 2015, for instance, only half of the churches in the Sydney Presbytery were sustainable in terms of their direct, free-will offerings.” However, a number of new church plants have been started recently, including Hornsby Presbyterian Church, Redemption Hill in Green Square and a new beginning for the Pressies’ oldest congregation, Scots Church in the CBD. • Success with multi-ethnic churches but, as Mark Powell from Cornerstone church explains: “There are very, very few churches in Sydney who are effective at reaching Anglos. Where the growth is, is in multicultural areas. Now that’s not all those Anglo churches’ fault; it’s hard ground.”
Burning or Bushed is available from eiderbooks.wordpress.com
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BIBLE @ WORK
Bible leaders f lock to Sydney for global meeting Artist Max Conlon created this painting for the UBS Roundtable 2017. TESS HOLGATE As Eternity goes to press, representatives from the Ivory Coast, Cuba, Syria, Haiti, the Seychelles and Ukraine Bible Societies were joining members of more than 100 other Bible Societies in Sydney for the Roundtable Exchange, to develop ministry initiatives and share fellowship, expertise and experience. The Roundtable Exchange is the largest annual United Bible Societies event, where the UBS community decides which projects they will support in the coming year. At last year’s Roundtable Exchange, Bible Society Australia committed to supporting the Esther Project, a programme run by Bible Society of Cameroon to help single mothers and victims of sexual exploitation heal from their trauma. In Cameroon, UNICEF estimates that about 20 per cent
of girls aged 15-19 are raped or sexually abused, although some other estimates put the figure as high as 40 per cent. The programme includes psychological counselling and training in bead-making, soapmaking and bag-making, along with Bible study and prayer. Leonie*, raped repeatedly by her uncles when she was just a young child, arrived at the project fearing that God couldn’t accept her as she was. “One of the good news I got from there was that God accepts us the way we are,” she says. “And I was assured. I felt relieved and free from bondage, captivity and trauma. The Bible transformed me. The Bible is my life. It’s everything I need for better living – I can’t do any more without it.” The Esther Project in Cameroon is just one of 800 projects the United Bible Societies undertook to support last year. If all of
Your moment to change someone’s life through the Bible
them had gone ahead, more than 500 million people could have been reached with the Bible. Unfortunately, more than 500 of those projects did not go ahead because the money ran out. Of course, when it comes to Bible work, the opportunities to share God’s word far outweigh the resources we have. “Right now, there are people who desperately need the joy, hope and comfort of God’s word,” says Greg Clarke, CEO of Bible Society Australia. “More communities long to hear the life-changing message of Scripture. Each of my colleagues here for the Roundtable Exchange has on their heart a family or community which needs the Bible.” Bible Societies around the world have come to Roundtable to ask for help to bring the word of God to those who desperately need it. In Madagascar, the Bible Society needs help to produce the first
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Right now, there are people who desperately need the joy, hope and comfort of God’s word.” Study Bible in Malagasy – it was meant to launch this month but stalled due to lack of financial support. In Sudan, the Bible Society wants to translate the Bible into Otoro, a language spoken by 500,000 people. In China, they want the resources to share the Bible with what is believed to be the fastest-growing population of believers in the world. Several projects supported by
Bible Society Australia will wrap up this year, meaning there will be more scope to broaden our work in the Middle East and Africa, as well as developing current projects in the Indochina region. Over the years, your generosity has meant that men, women and children worldwide have accessed the Bible for the very first time. Will you help us expand our work so we can put the Bible in someone’s hands, and change their life? • $40 could provide a New Testament to a non-literate woman in Pakistan, and teach her to read it. • $80 can buy paper to print almost 40 subsidised Bibles for Christians in rural China. • $198 could give colourful Scripture materials to refugee children in the Holy Lands.
+ If you would like more details, visit biblesociety.org.au/nationsep
Last year, people like you supported work which could reach 500 million people with God’s word. But 500 projects which could have brought the Bible to millions more didn’t go ahead because of a lack of funds. This month, Bible Society colleagues from across the world meet in Sydney to share expertise and experience, hoping also to secure vital funding. Will you give them an extraordinary Australian welcome – and give a special gift to help provide the Bible where it’s needed most?
$40 helps us provide the Bible where it’s needed most. Call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) Or visit biblesociety.org.au/nationsep
JULY 2017
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OPINION
OPINION
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Preparing our children to be hated + Michael Jensen on investing in Christian giving
Pixabay / faithfinder06
Steven Kryger on being reviled When I was in high school, Christians were known as the people who couldn’t. The people who couldn’t swear, couldn’t have sex before marriage, couldn’t drink alcohol, couldn’t lie, couldn’t watch M-rated movies. As one of the few Christians in my year group at a new school, I became a source of entertainment (I’m being generous) to my friends
who made it their mission to move me from the “he won’t do that” column over to the “he just did it!” column. In Year 7, my friends tried to get me to swear. At a film night in Year 8, my friends pressured me to watch Wild Things and Scream – movies that I felt uncomfortable watching as a Christian. In Year 10 I remember walking out of Girl, Interrupted (much to the shock and annoyance of my friends) because I couldn’t endure the constant stream of blasphemy. These are the memories that have stuck with me of the awkwardness of following Jesus as a teenager in the ’90s. Of course, being a Christian was and is so much more than what we don’t do. Holiness is as much about doing good as it is about avoiding evil. But these moments of not going with the flow were when my faith clashed most with the worldview of my peers. And while it wasn’t fun
being laughed at and excluded, it was the cost of following Jesus at this time and place. And it was the cost that my parents and church needed to guide me through. In the ’90s, discipleship of teenagers meant preparing them to follow Jesus even if they were ridiculed. Today, discipleship of teenagers means preparing them to keep following Jesus even as they are hated. The cost has increased. As Christians we know that being hated is what we signed up for. We are familiar with the warnings Jesus gives that hatred is expected: “Everyone will hate you because of me” (Luke 21:17) and “If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)
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But in reality, most Christians in Australia know little of this hatred. Yes, we know what it is to be the punchline of jokes. To be considered strange and naive. To be mocked as ignorant, narrowminded and anti-intellectual. But being hated is a new experience for most of us. In just 20 years the oven has warmed up, but it has heated so gradually that many of us are only now realising just how warm it has become. The cost of following Jesus is starting to look more like what Jesus said we should expect. At the Multiply conference last month in Sydney, Perth pastor Rory Shiner made a comment that continues to ring in my ears. He said: “I am aware that what I am asking my children to do in following Jesus is something much harder than what I had to do.” It’s a sobering observation and one that must prompt us to ask –
are my children ready? What about my grandchildren? And as parents and as a church, are we preparing them for the days ahead? Scottish pastor David Robertson spoke at the Onward conference in Sydney last month. It was a muchneeded event to equip teens (and adults) to live out their faith with confidence and courage. He said: “I believe that we are operating in this culture at this time against a very dark background. The truth is being suppressed. Now, the darker the background, the more the light will show the contrast.” Light is just what is needed in these dark times. And we should continue to praise God that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Steve Kryger is the founder of Communicate Jesus, and the Event Strategy and Performance Manager at Katoomba Christian Convention.
DISCOVER YOUR
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CHARITY FEATURE
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My father lied to me about Jesus TANYA PINTO
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MWB Summer Camps
Hasan was brought up surrounded by guns, not toys. He did not know what a smile or a caring touch was like from a parent. Hasan’s father lives in Western Europe, while his mother brings up his siblings in a country in the Middle East. Sent to an orphanage in Bulgaria, Hasan has been able to make up for some of the lost time of his troubled childhood. Attending one of the Summer Camps run by children’s charity Mission Without Borders, Hasan discovered a carefree place where the only thing he had to think about each day was having fun and knowing peace and joy. From a war zone and fractured home to the friendship and support of Summer Camp, the changes in Hasan’s life didn’t stop there. Every time he heard about the miracles performed by Jesus, during Bible talks at the MWB camp, he would ask with wide-opened eyes: “Is all that true?” Day after day, Hasan began to open up. He started talking to the other children more and a smile appeared on his face. He loved singing the songs and learning Bible verses by heart. His favourite “hero” was Bartimaeus who, despite blindness, was finally able to see the truth about who Jesus is and the difference he makes for those who follow him. By the end of the camp, Hasan shared in a low voice with one of MWB’s leaders: “My father has lied to me about Jesus. I know that he is alive. I am a Christian.” Every year between May and July during the northern hemisphere’s summer, camps are organised and held in each of the six countries MWB serves in – Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. These valuable camps are primarily for children living in orphanages or who come from poor families. For thousands, it is the only opportunity to take a break from their lives of extreme poverty, to eat well, to play and learn about the abundant love of God. No wonder so many of the children that MWB reaches, such as Hasan, look forward each year to the return of Summer Camp.
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Hasan (centre) and his orphanage friends are having their lives changed at Summer Camps where they have fun and hear about Jesus.
I’ve learned here that Jesus is God’s son and my Saviour.” Although the children come from all sorts of painful backgrounds, Hasan’s experience is common. Igor has been to MWB Summer Camp in Moldova, a site where the sound of children bursting with laughter and joy hits you as soon as you arrive. Looking around at all the activities at the camp, you would not suspect that 35 per cent of the children are orphans and 24 per cent come from single-parent families. Signs of worry, anxiety or tragedy are hardly seen, even from children such as Igor whose father died two years ago after contracting HIV. Igor’s mother sadly leads a destructive lifestyle based on alcohol and drug addiction, and he has three younger siblings – Daniel, 8, Maxim, 7, and Dasha, 5. His younger sister was initially found by local services and the local
church wandering alone near the village garbage dump. Each child in Igor’s family now lives in an orphanage because their mother is not fit to have custody of them. When you ask Igor at Summer Camp how often his mum visits him, he says, “every other day.” But the reality is he has only seen her once in the past year. “Children like Igor often base reality on their hopes, especially when they are young,” Serghei Covalenco, MWB Coordinator, said. “If their parents have said that they will visit them, they tend to believe it regardless of what happens, which is very sad.” Summer Camp has provided an escape for Igor and his siblings from the heartache of his home life. For ten days, they were able to experience the joy of new things such as throwing a Frisbee, rollerblading, skateboarding, climbing, volleyball and football. During the camp they also received great encouragement and support from counsellors to help them to become more resilient and to equip them to overcome setbacks in the years ahead. However, as is most important to MWB and its supporters, children learn about the love and reality of Jesus Christ – often for the first
For thousands, it is the only opportunity to take a break from their lives of extreme poverty.” time in their lives. “I’ve learned here that Jesus is God’s son and my Saviour,” said Igor at the camp. “I liked very much the games we played and the counsellors were very nice and kind. Thank you for this beautiful time.” Another child who has been powerfully affected by Summer Camps is 13-year-old Vlada. Vlada’s childhood, also in Moldova, has been shaped by poverty, but somehow she remains positive about life. She has four younger siblings and struggles with the burden of being the eldest and not being able to provide for them. “At the very first counselling session on camp, I asked the children if any of them had prayed
before – Vlada did not raise her hand,” explains Ira Casu, Vlada’s counsellor. “After several more lessons, she started to ask such questions like What is true love? How can we befriend people around us? What does it mean to believe? and How can we become closer to God?” On the last day of camp when children were asked if they wanted to give their hearts to Jesus, Vlada was one of the brave children who came to the front. Vlada said: “The camp is very beautiful. It was called ‘Joy,’ and that was the reality as we were laughing all the time. I have enjoyed so many games, but the most important thing is that I met a true friend in Jesus and I found out about his love for all people.” About 27 per cent of children who have been to a Summer Camp have never been to a church and 13 per cent have never read the Bible. Poverty and insecurity at home, without the knowledge of God’s love, can deepen the despair for children in the countries MWB serves. That is why our Summer Camp team, during the ten days at camp, placed great emphasis on biblical morals and God’s transformative love. If you would like more information, visit www.mwb.org.au
Each month, Eternity will highlight a charity from the group bringing you this special page. MISSIONWITHOUT WITHOUTBORDERS BORDERS MISSION Overseas relief and development Community care through Sydney churches Christian leadership training Your gift will have a real impact on people in need with at least 80¢ of every dollar donated going directly to projects.
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OPINION
JULY 2017
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Love beat evil in the Deep South
Simon Smart is on a road trip to find good and evil Late last year I was in New Jersey to film an interview with Albert J. Raboteau – an African-American professor of religion at Princeton University. The interview was for the Centre for Public Christianity’s documentary For the Love of God: How the Church Is Better and Worse than You Ever Imagined, part of a segment on Christianinspired non-violent protest in the Civil Rights movement in the United States. I’d interviewed about 40 scholars and writers and experts of various kinds for this project. They were all fascinating people. But none of those conversations stuck in my mind quite like this one. Raboteau is not only an academic expert in the religious experience of AfricanAmericans but his life has been defined by prejudice and racism. It is personal for him. Three months before Raboteau was born, his father was shot and killed by a white man in Mississippi. That man was never even indicted for the killing after he claimed self-defence. Raboteau was raised by his mother and stepfather, who decided not to tell him about the circumstances of his father’s death until he was 17 and ready to go off to college. “They sat me down and for the first time explained to me what had happened,” explains Raboteau. “The reason they didn’t tell me before was they didn’t want me to grow up hating white people.” Raboteau says they were successful in that aim. “There is a deep root … in the AfricanAmerican community that has always appreciated that hate as a way of attacking hate is a no-win
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Simon Smart and Allan Dowthwaite (director of the documentary) outside Martin Luther King Jr’s house. situation,” he said. “Hate and even resentment, as [Martin Luther] King and others taught, leads to the corrosion of the individual person’s own humanity. It just doesn’t attack the other, it attacks and [affects] the individual.” It was deeply moving to listen to this softly spoken professor, a man who radiated kindness and grace. Clearly the approach of Martin Luther King Jr and the leadership of the Civil Rights movement had enormously inspired him. That philosophy of non-violence was not only brilliantly effective as a political tool but remarkable in its counter-intuitive beauty; Raboteau has drawn strength from it. King had become a somewhat reluctant leader of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 where he was serving as a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He was thrust into the limelight as a key spokesman in the Montgomery bus boycott, a successful year-long protest by African-Americans against racial segregation on public transport. Early in the boycott, King received a phone call at his house with the threat that it would be bombed and he and his family killed. This was a pivotal moment for King. In the interview, Raboteau described the moment: He just sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and said a prayer, which basically was,
There is a deep root … in the African-American community that has always appreciated that hate as a way of attacking hate is a no-win situation.”
“Lord, I’m down here trying to do good, but I’m losing my courage and I can’t let others see me losing my courage, because then they will lose their will to fight this fight.” He said he heard a voice speaking to him, saying, “Martin Luther King Jr, stand up for what’s right, stand up for justice, and I will never abandon you. I will never leave you. I’ll never leave you alone.” For King, that kitchen table experience became for him the rock-solid basis for his activism even though he knew as his life went on that he was not going to die in bed. King’s resolve was tested just a few days later when his house was fire-bombed with
his wife and baby daughter inside. They survived unhurt but it was a clear sign that the struggle ahead was going to be costly. That night an angry mob of his supporters gathered on the front lawn of his house wanting to avenge the attack. King addressed the crowd – men armed with sticks and guns and shovels – and he pleaded with them to go home. He reminded them of Jesus’ words that “those who live by the sword, die by the sword.” Astonishingly, he called them to love their white brothers no matter what. They must meet hate with love. For King, non-violent resistance was not about passively submitting to an evil power but courageously confronting evil by the power of love. It sought to provoke the perpetrators of injustice in order, ultimately, to seek reconciliation. “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon,” wrote King. “It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” When you consider the appalling injustice King’s people faced, the restraint they showed is truly extraordinary. King viewed all this through the lens of the Christian gospel. For him it was the cross of Christ that is “the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The
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resurrection is the symbol of God’s triumph over all the forces that seek to block community.” Albert Raboteau had his own intensely spiritual moment that enabled him to let go of natural resentment. When he was 50 years old he returned to Mississippi and, after some investigations, located the son of the man who had killed his father. He asked him what his family’s memory of that incident was. The now middle-aged son of the killer explained that he remembered Raboteau’s father as a big, burly man who had fought with his father and in self-defence was shot and killed. Raboteau has a picture of his very slim, tiny-framed father who couldn’t possibly have been the threatening presence in this description. During the conversation Raboteau learned his father’s killer had eventually been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and had shot and killed himself. Raboteau was tempted to ask if the same gun was used as the one that killed his father. But he recognised “that would have been cruel, so I didn’t.” At the point of being able to inflict pain on another, he chose mercy. “After that conversation, I visited my father’s grave. I had been there many times over the years, but for the first time I began to cry. It was as if in my mind’s eye I saw him. I saw him being shot and I saw him falling. It was as if he was falling into my arms and into my life, and it was as if a father and son had finally met.” Raboteau describes that as “a moment of peace … a moment of reconciliation that was deeply gratifying for me. It was as if some proper ending had been made.” Why did this interview so affect me? I think it has to do with the concept of congruence – a life lived in harmony with the ideas we say we believe. In 2006, Professor Raboteau received the MLK Day Journey Award for Lifetime Service. In presenting him with the award, president of Princeton University Shirley M. Tilghman said: “Professor Raboteau is a source of inspiration for all who wish to build the kind of society that Dr King envisioned: a society in which the life of the mind and spirit propel us toward each other rather than apart, where suffering, if it must occur, is redemptive rather than destructive.” Simon Smart is Executive Director of the Centre for Public Christianity. publicchristianity.org
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OPINION
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Eternity man
Tim Costello on our namesake In 1930 in Sydney, an illiterate alcoholic named Arthur Stace heard a sermon that changed his life and, on the footpath outside the church hall, wrote in elegant copperplate the word “Eternity”. It was the start of a remarkable mission. For the next three decades, Stace wandered the streets before dawn chalking his one-word sermon to the world on the pavements. He wrote “Eternity” more than half a million times – sometimes 50 times a day. It intrigued Sydneysiders, who pondered its meaning. It mystified some and fascinated others. Stace, who could barely write his own name, sometimes tried to write other godly messages but could not. The only word he could write legibly – and beautifully – was “Eternity”. He was later to say: “I had no schooling and couldn’t have spelt ‘eternity’ for a hundred quid. But suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write the word. It came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script.” This was faith in action. The faithfulness of Arthur Stace
JULY 2017
Threats to our freedom
echoed magnificently around the world at midnight on New Year’s Day 2000 when an estimated two billion people saw that word “Eternity” in the flawless handwriting during a fireworks display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A secular and cynical public was transfixed by the story of a seemingly hopeless man motivated by faith and a simple personal encounter with Jesus to discover his unique vocation. Arthur Stace knew the forgiveness of God in his own life and wanted others to have the same powerful assurance. That real biblical message of our eternal significance is found most profoundly in such personal encounters and transformation. And how much we need that eternal perspective in a world that seems to be increasingly faithless and shallow! The magnificent sounds of eternity are often drowned out by the sounds of this temporary existence. The thought that we are meant for something better than this often seems too good to be true. So we run scared and seek distractions. Cynicism and fear can freeze us. Faith defrosts us. We were born into this world to find eternal truth and the essence of ourselves and we may as well do it with enthusiasm rather than in fear. As French scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin said, our lives will change when we realise we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience. Bible Society will publish a biography of Arthur Stace later this year, marking 50 years of his leaving us to be with the Lord.
Mark Fowler Mark Fowler was invited to appear at the current Commonwealth Parliamentary Inquiry into the Status of the Human Right of Freedom of Religion or Belief. This is a synopsis of what he considers to be some of the major threats to religious freedom in Australia.
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The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has recently taken a position that a public benevolent institution (PBI) cannot be a main purpose religious charity at law. Given a recent judgment of the Victorian Court of Appeal, the ACNC’s position, if a correct statement of the law, has the effect that faith-based PBIs cannot argue that they satisfy the requirement for exemption granted religious bodies under antidiscrimination law in Victoria. The Court of Appeal decision will be highly influential on other State and Territory courts. This approach to PBIs has meant that in Queensland the St Vincent de Paul Society has been held to not be a religious body. The result was that it was not able to require that a president of a local conference be a Catholic. In effect, the requirements of charity law disentitle such bodies from exemptions under anti-discrimination law. This
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has the practical consequence that such bodies will not be able to require that their governing members or staff (the people who effect their purposes) ascribe to, or act in accordance with, their set of religious beliefs. They thus forgo discretion over the character and voice of their institutions. Ironically, such a position would remove the very foundational convictions grounded in faith that inspired their establishment. The concern is not abstract, nor is it consigned solely to PBIs. 23 out of the top 25 charities in Australia (after pure religious charities are removed) are faith based. Furthermore, this concern in a pluralistic society extends to all faiths. The first clause of the 1215 Magna Carta states, “quod Anglicana ecclesia libera sit” (“the English Church shall be free”). In its historical context, this clause was directed at preserving the Church’s rights to determine appointments to bishoprics, and hence the right to independently determine doctrine. Citing that clause, US Chief Justice Roberts observed in 2012 that these principles are not to be relegated to historical curiosities; the fundamental contribution of church / state separation to societal freedom continues to resonate today. An association’s ability to offer its conception of truth to the wider society is a necessary condition of an open and flourishing democratic society. Any removal of the ability of faith-based charities to determine and espouse their beliefs would be a restriction on these historically hard-won liberties. A further concern is the failure of certain state legislation to acquit Australia’s obligations to
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protect religious freedom under international law. Article 50 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applies the rights contained therein, including religious freedom, to all parts of a federation, “without any limitations or exceptions.” One glaring example is the failure of the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 to accord religious bodies their rights in respect of the protected attributes of marital or relationship status. Let me be clear: leaving aside an unlikely argument that commonwealth law prevails, a church cannot require that its priests refrain from either married or de facto relationships in Tasmania. A similar illustration of the inadequacy of state law is provided by the recent threat by the University of Sydney Union to de-register the Evangelical Union on the basis of its “discriminatory” requirement that new members affirm that “Jesus is Lord.” The concern arises as religious belief is not a protected attribute under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). This concern was also highlighted by social media calls for Macquarie University lecturer Stephen Chavura to be dismissed based on his association with the conservative charity, the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. In the absence of an equivalent protection under commonwealth law, the Evangelical Union and Mr Chavura are left without protection. A commonwealth enactment protecting organisations and individuals from discrimination on the basis of religious belief, drafting for which is provided in my submissions, would address this concern.
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OPINION
JULY 2017
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The great gift of giving Michael Jensen on generosity
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The gospel makes a difference: a group of HIV-affected people worship together in Malawi. to excess for us. We are blessed in abundance in Christ. In Jesus Christ we receive what we need and more. We have become rich. Now, that’s not literally rich in material terms necessarily, but there’s something about the Christian mentality that is governed by this feeling of having been richly blessed. We are those who operate from a philosophy of abundance rather than scarcity. We see our earthly possessions in the context of our abundance in Christ. That’s why Paul says “God loves a cheerful giver.” Cheerful, and not reluctant, giving comes from the feeling of having been richly blessed by God in every way. This is why it is simply wrong for churches to demand that their members give a certain amount. Whatever we do in churches to encourage the giving of our members, we should be emphasising the freedom that Christians have to give. Thinking that I’ve met my obligations by contributing a dollar amount or a percentage of my income is contrary to the gospel of free grace. How then do I figure out how much to give? Christian giving is actually a spiritual exercise. We need first to reflect on how much we’ve been given in Christ, in material and non-material ways. How blessed we are! How much I give
is a reflection then of how much I have received. I think it is a useful practice to be deliberate in thinking about how your material needs have been met each year, and then to adjust your giving on that basis. Electronic giving allows you to be considered about your giving and also means that you are not restricted to the cash you feel comfortable carrying. It saves you a trip to the ATM! It also enables your church or para-church organisation to plan its budget more accurately; and when you are away from church, you still give. Also, when you receive a windfall from an inheritance or from the sale of a property, why not consider part of the windfall an opportunity to bless others with a windfall? It’s then a matter of considering the need and the vision that I have opportunity to support. There’s a difference between the blessings that I have in Christ and the needs of the lost and fractured world. What I do with my giving is to address that gap. And here’s a crucial consideration for Christian givers: when we consider the needs of the world, we need to consider the spiritual need as a priority over the physical need. Let me put it this way: what people really, most deeply need is not bread alone but the word of God. And, what is more: the gospel of Jesus Christ will transform
We are not giving to tangible physical outcomes ... but towards the invisible but eternal reality of the kingdom of God.” communities and societies so that their material needs are met. There’s a great article by the atheist journalist Matthew Parris from several years ago entitled As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Parris could see what was really making a difference, in Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth. It wasn’t aid. It was the gospel of Jesus Christ. Converted people are nation builders. They are interested in rooting out corruption and in serving their communities. They have a vision of hope and are realistic about the human tendency to sin. If you want to change the world, give to the ministry of the gospel – the ministry that changes hearts by the proclamation of the
Scottish Bible Society
What is a distinctively Christian approach to giving? How should we give, and to what should we give? You will be reading this piece in July’s Eternity magazine, just after the close of the “financial year,” so-called. In days of yore, in more agricultural societies, they had the harvest festival in autumn to signal an opportunity to give thanks to God for his material blessings. In Australia, this festival has never taken on because the seasons are topsy-turvy, and our “harvest” season is at about Easter time, when the calendar is already quite crowded. And in any case, we are a highly urban society and we’ve managed to engineer nature to provide us with its produce all year round, pretty much. So the EOFY is the opportunity presented to us by our bureaucratic, computerised civilisation for thinking about the goodness of God to us and about our own generosity. Now, of course, the not-forprofit sector knows this and has no doubt been bombarding you with its materials in the month of June. Not a day goes past without another letter or email from another worthy cause. And it’s no wonder, because the notfor-profit dollar is big business: Australians gave $12.5 billion to charities in 2015-16. But with all that increasingly aggressive and persuasive targeting of the charitable dollar that might be lurking in your wallet or purse, it becomes very difficult to think clearly and positively about specifically Christian giving. What’s more, in the NFP sector, they know how much we like our generosity to be acknowledged. We wear the red nose/coloured ribbon/ gimmick to signal to others that we are virtuous. Corporations sponsor charities and causes not simply because they want to support those charities and causes but because they get the credit in the public eye for doing so. I am not being cynical about these regimes of giving, but it is interesting to compare them with how Christians are to give as is outlined in the New Testament. Christians learn how to give from the God who gives. And how does God give? He gives sacrificially. He gives freely and not from compulsion. And he gives cheerfully. The cross of Jesus Christ is where we see this demonstrated for us. Paul makes this point in his great piece on giving in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a wage that God pays to those who have earnt it. It flows from him with rich and free generosity. In Christ, God pays
word of God. We also have a responsibility as members of local churches to pay for the ministry we receive. Paul makes that clear in a number of passages – even as he sometimes refused to accept financial support and worked to support himself. Of course, ministers are not to be “in it for the money.” Rather, their stipends are there to make sure they can focus on the job they have to do. Some churches think it is a virtue to pay their ministers almost nothing. Others think it is fantastic to have a super-salaried pastor. Neither of these approaches reflects the biblical principle. Christian givers are more likely than others to give to all kinds of charities and causes, and who could complain about that? But Christians are those who see a particular need that others don’t see – the need for people to hear the saving and healing words of the gospel of free grace. This is why our priority for giving should be to build our local churches, as this is the way in which God changes communities and societies, and to send the gospel around the globe. This is an act of faith because we are not giving to the tangible physical outcomes of buildings or social programmes but towards the invisible but eternal reality of the kingdom of God. But, as Christians, we believe that this heavenly reality is more lasting even than the solid stones of church buildings. We should not, of course, neglect the poor and the destitute – and actually, Christians punch above their weight in looking after the community’s poor. But the New Testament tells us that we have a responsibility for the Christian poor. If those in our midst are not cared for, then how truly loving are we? If someone in our community – or a Christian further afield – is crying out for material help and we do not share what we have with them, how is the love of God in us? I have no doubt, although I don’t have statistics to hand, that the fastest-growing and most missionhearted and effective churches in Australia are supported by extremely generous financial donations. That’s not to say that an increase in giving automatically means a more dynamic church. There’s a cycle between the vision that a church has for being a transformed community and the excitement that generates, and the fact that people want to contribute to a ministry that is achieving things, under God. If you are part of a church that has a vision to be used by God for growing authentic disciples of Jesus and reaching the lost, then you tend to give to it joyfully. Australia could be won again for Christ. The churches of our nation need to be excited about the possibility of what God may do, commit to prayer, and then materially support that vision. This is not an onerous burden for us or an impossible task but a marvellous opportunity to share in the grace of God himself. What are we waiting for? Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Darling Point, Sydney, and the author of several books. If you would like to receive a daily devotional from Michael Jensen, email him at michael. jensen@stmarksdp.org twitter: @mpjensen
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OPINION
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JULY 2017
Seven real weird things Christians believe (you won’t believe no. 6!)
One person’s weird is another person’s normal, I know. And these days, thanks to the internet, people tend not to get surprised much by weirdness. But Christians still come out on top for being weird, particularly when one uses the word properly. The earliest deployment of the word “weird” was as a noun to describe supernatural creatures that shape our destiny (such as the Three Fates in classical myths, or the “Weirds” in Macbeth, referring to the three witches). By the 19th century, it had turned into an adjective used to describe something inexplicable –
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human beings. Sometimes it was through strange (“weird”!) activities such as a voice from the heavens or even a speaking donkey (stick with me here). Today and since the 1st century this has been clearly seen through the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ (as found in the Bible). We’re not surprised by this, because we think it is a loving act of God to reach out to us. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth was fully human but also fully divine. He’s the full bottle of God. Those who encountered him in the 30s AD were in touch with the divine. That’s why we place incredible importance on his words (as recorded in the Bible) and the words of his followers; we are listening to God speak. As humans who aspire to be more divine, we seek to follow the way of Jesus. That’s our calling. We believe that those who lived after the time of Jesus can still encounter God through his Spirit. Jesus taught that when he left the world to return to God in heaven, his Spirit remained – the spirit of God in Christ. God is active in the world right up to today because his Spirit is here. I know it sounds weird and, yes, it is. Real weird. We believe that when Jesus was crucified (a common fate for
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Flickr / Ian Burt
Greg Clarke on being very diff erent
something spiritual, unseen, from the beyond. Weird didn’t mean bizarre but otherworldly. It didn’t mean strange but supernatural. On this account, Christianity is weird par excellence. To demonstrate, permit me to list some of the Christian beliefs about the supernatural. These are things that are not in dispute among Christians, and have been part of our view of the world since Jesus was a boy. If people don’t believe these things, it may be unfair to call them “Christians.” We believe that the best explanation for the universe’s existence and qualities is a divine mind that we call God. We can’t see this but we are confident in it, from the depths of our philosophy to the heights of our experience. We believe in the existence of non-human beings in another plane of reality but capable of being experienced in space and time. We call them angels, demons, heavenly creatures, Satan. We expect them to be active, even if we are not often aware of it. Aquinas, Descartes, C.S. Lewis, Richard Swinburne, Pope Francis, probably your neighbour – all are believers in such beings. We believe that in different ways at different points in history, God has communicated with
C.S. Lewis called it a “deep magic.” non-conformists in the age of the Romans), his death was no mere physical matter. It was, in fact, a spiritual means of reconciling a corrupted world, and all of its inhabitants, with divine perfection. It was a dramatic act with theological power. It resolved what C.S. Lewis called a “deep magic” by which justice and mercy could be extended together. It’s why Easter is our big event. It’s at the core of our weirdness. We believe that eternity is real, space and time are limited, and the distance between the two is as small as the distance between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We believe Jesus returned to life after his burial and in doing so showed us what the future is like – death is not the end, its power is limited and the world will reach that limit one of these days. We think God has
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eternal plans for us and the world, and the resurrection of Jesus is our big hint. So that’s a short list of what is normal for us weirdos. This set of supernatural beliefs has been quite normal for about a third of the world’s population for many centuries now. But today, in Australia at least, our beliefs about the supernatural can make us outsiders. But are we more in touch with reality than the naysayers think? We Christians embrace the weird. Because we believe that only the weird can explain the supposedly normal. Without the supernatural, we are ignoring what’s real. We intend to stay weird, and keep talking about it with anyone who is happy to listen. Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.
Bible Stat As Bible Societies come to Sydney to discuss their future projects, 300 languages are active Bible translations targets.