Eternity - August 2017 - Issue 83

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Number 83, August 2017 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

Why the pews are female

Why you are good at Check charity out Darlene

What victims of abuse need to hear

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NEWS

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Mrs Proudie IS THIS A RECORD?: Mrs Proudie suspects that not many Bible colleges or seminaries can claim to have educated a national president.

But Christ College, the Presbyterian seminary in Sydney, can about Moses Obed, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian church of Vanuatu.

He has just become President of the Island nation. Readers who follow the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption will notice how carefully we spell his name.

UNBRANDED: First it was Naomi Klein who wrote the antimarketing book No Logo. Now a Christian business has gone down a similar path. Sort of.

AUGUST 2017

Art, yoga, worklife, the Middle East: book of the year shortlist Ten books are shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of the Year prize, which will be announced in August. It is awarded to an original book by an Australian citizen.

The nominees are: Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship, David I. Starling; Our Mob, God’s Story, Louise Sherman and Christobel Mattingley; Taboo or to Do? Is Christianity Complementary with Yoga, Martial Arts, Hallowe’en,

Mindfulness and Other Alternative Practices? Ross Clifford, Philip Johnson; Workship: How to Use Your Work to Worship God, Kara Martin; Changing Lanes, Crossing Cultures: Equipping Christians and Churches for Ministry in a Culturally Diverse Society, Andrew Schachtel, Michael K. Wilson, Choon-Hwa Lim; Faith: Embracing Life in All Its Uncertainty, Tim Costello; Sam: A

Family’s Journey Through a Child’s Chronic Illness, Kath Henry; After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East, Elizabeth Kendal; Big Picture Parents: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life, Harriet Connor; Challenging Islamic Traditions: Searching Questions About the Hadith from a Christian Perspective, Bernie Power.

News 2-3 In Depth 5-8 NCLS Feature 9-12 Bible Society 14 Charity Feature 17 Opinion 15-20

Quotable

Celebrating women online SIMONE RICHARDSON

RIO GRANDE: Sam Walsh is the retired (but not very) CEO of mining giant Rio Tinto. He recently had lunch with the Financial Review. Walsh has joined some boards, as such heavy hitters usually do. In Perth, he is chair of the Anglican Diocesan Trust. “I told a friend I was doing it because I wanted to give back but that the pay was lousy and he said ‘Sam, eternal life is priceless.’ ”

Brisbane mother of four and small business owner Tori Walker has embarked on a new project. “I heard a Christian friend chatting on a podcast,” she explained.

“I loved listening to it and so went searching online for more conversations with Christian Women. I was surprised and a little disappointed when I couldn’t find any, so I had the crazy idea that I’d start one myself.”

Tori’s podcast The Lydia Project, is now in its 14th episode and is gathering a following among Christian women. Listeners have commented that they love it for its raw honesty and the window that it gives into other women’s journeys

of faith. The format is simple: Tori sits down with a Christian woman and asks her about her life. So far she has interviewed women young and old, married and single, who are working, studying, raising kids, teaching the Bible, doing mission work, struggling with long-term illness and living alone. Tori is like a Richard Fiedler or an Andrew Denton and her guests open up and share their lives in these personal and insightful interviews.

“Each episode is around 40 minutes long,” Tori explained.

“Before I interview someone I’ll have a few ideas in mind about where the conversation might go, but I’m often surprised by where we end up. It’s certainly not a polished, studio-produced podcast,

but more like listening in on two friends having a good catch-up.

“I am praying that God would use these conversations to help Christian women stand firm in their faith, encouraged by the joys and struggles of other women in similar and different situations to their own. I’m also hoping that women will be excited to hear about how God has been at work in people’s lives, and give thanks to him. I’m hopeful too that women will be challenged to serve God with joy as they hear about the different ways that other women are serving Jesus in Australia.”

The Lydia Project is hosted by the Gospel Coalition Australia. australia.thegospelcoalition.org/ author/the-lydia-project

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2017

Anne Robinson

Caring for your own family, your own people – that is what other non-Christian traditions would see as normal. Page 20

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Birds and Bees help us talk to primary New kids about gender, sex and porn version TEAGAN RUSSELL

pixabay / ambermb

Increased exposure of children to sexually explicit material and the difficulties which parents and primary carers can have in knowing how to respond has sparked a new book series for primary school students, covering big topics such as pornography, sexuality and gender.

Birds and Bees by the Book is a six-part series by Patricia Weerakoon, a sought-after Australian sexologist, author and speaker. For the past five years, Weerakoon has been speaking with youth groups, parents’ groups, churches and schools about a wide range of sexual matters. Like Melbourne author and mother Emily Olivia who last year published Put a Lid on It – also an illustrated resource of sex education for children – Weerakoon was prompted to write her book series after spotting some concerning trends emerging.

“I have noticed an increasing drift towards younger and younger children being exposed to sexualised material in the form of TV, social media, internet, music videos, comics and advertising,” says Weerakoon, who recently contributed to Eternity’s investigative documentary Pornography: The Elephant in the Church.

A series of books for young children aims to help their sexual education.

Weerakoon points out that she has also experienced increased parental concern about broaching subjects such as pornography and the introduction of gender fluidity conversations at schools.

She says parents are concerned about “how they should discuss the issue of same-sex parenting, transgender and same-sex attraction at primary school age.”

Even though Weerakoon has already published a book for 10 to 14-year-olds, Growing up By the Book, and a book for adolescents over 15, Teen Sex by the Book, she reveals that “parents have

repeatedly asked for a resource for younger kids!”

The six-book series is targeted at ages 7-10 and provides an “age-appropriate, biblical, Christfocused view of the body, brain, identity and sex, for parents and carers to read with children.”

“Research reveals that early sexuality education from parents and primary carers influences children’s values and attitudes to relationships and sex,” explains Weerakoon. “It can reduce the likelihood of sexual risk-taking behaviour, protect against sexual abuse and benefit healthy sexual

development.”

The book series has been designed to be read by children with a parent or carer. “We also provide a web resource for parents with a background to each topic, as well as activities they can do with the children.”

According to Weerakoon, the books can be used in two ways: proactive and reactive sex education.

To be proactive, Weerakoon recommends setting apart time to discuss issues with children and having a “special” place to read with them. “Some parents report that this ‘special’ place becomes the ‘go-to’ place, when their child has something difficult or sensitive to discuss.”

The Birds and Bees books also can be used for reactive sex education, in response to a question or situation. Weerakoon suggests asking children questions such as, “Where did you hear that?” “What do you know about it?” and “What do you think it means?”

Also, like last year’s Put a Lid on It, the Birds and Bees series is sensitively illustrated. “We wanted the books to appeal to a cross section of our readers,” says Weerakoon about the approach she took with illustrator Lisa Flanagan.

“That is why we use children of different ethnicities and differing family backgrounds.”

TESS HOLGATE Two women from remote South Australia grew up watching their parents translate the Bible from English into Pitjantjatjara, a language spoken by several thousand Indigenous Australians in Central Australia.

Makinti Minutjukur and Katrina Tjitayi, both artists and Bible translators in their own right, spoke during the recent Roundtable Exchange, the largest annual United Bible Societies event.

Makinti remembered her mother and father working on a Pitjantjatjara translation of the New Testament, which was completed in 2002. “We saw the strength it gave them and the people that read it,” said Makinti.

The New Testament in Pitjantjatjara is now being recorded as an audio version in Adelaide. At Hillsong Conference last month, it was announced that the megachurch would partner with digital Bible company YouVersion to raise money for the new audio Bible in Pitjantjatjara.

Eternity understands that all the money raised through the partnership between Hillsong Conference and YouVersion would go to Bible Society Australia, as it continues to bring God’s Word to Indigenous Australians in their heart language.

AUGUST 2017

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Reaching refugees with radio Imagine being displaced from your home country, fleeing oppression, corrupt legal systems, economic hopelessness, persecution for your faith, and a culture that leaves you fearful for your future or for the future of your children.

There are over 7000 Persian refugees in Indonesia. Some are Christians who have fled persecution. Yet many more are families who flee their homeland due to poverty, fear and hopelessness. Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention on refugees, so functions as a point of transit until refugees are resettled by the U.N. in a third country. It can take up to ten years waiting in refugee camps before resettlement.

Ministering to refugees in Indonesia.

One refugee is FEBC broadcaster, Javad*. He came to Christ after being given a Farsi Bible in Iran and, after being imprisoned in solitary confinement in a 2x2 metre cell and beaten severely for his Christian faith, fled his home country to Indonesia.

After finding friends to live with in Jakarta, Javad met the National Director of FEBC Indonesia.

He asked: “Would you let me produce my own radio program in the Farsi language? I want to reach out to my people scattered around Indonesia, in the detention centres, prisons and streets.”

It is to these refugees that Javad and the FEBC Indonesia team minster through radio, listener

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FEBC radio reaches refugees in Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Northern Australia.

Radio reaches out with programs sharing love, hope and up-todate information across the world’s growing refugee crisis.”

groups and aid packages of shoes, clothes and toys. Since 2014, FEBC has worked tirelessly to keep its Radio PARS program on-air, broadcasting gospel hope in the refugees’ Farsi heart language.

Silently but effectively, Jesus Christ is doing wonders among refugees.

Many Iranian and Afghan listeners have been baptised in different locations in Indonesia - including in detention centres – in the past six months. Listener groups are growing – many refugees gather together across towns and cities in Indonesia, as well as refugees in Germany, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Northern Australia who tune into the program via digital streaming.

programs, via radio and internet streaming, also reach persecuted Christians in Iran where, in churches, all Farsi speaking services are banned or shut down to prevent the Gospel from spreading. The message of Jesus is spreading throughout Iran. There are more Muslims converting to Christianity today than ever before.

FEBC’s broadcast reach and emergency radio response expertise means refugee populations are quickly informed, educated and supported. Via radio and internet, they hear a voice that speaks their own language, in a way that recognises and speaks to their need. A message showing love and offering hope during a time of hopelessness is heard. *Name changed for security purposes

On-air teams take prayer requests and visit those who are in spiritual need. They teach and encourage listeners to build their relationship with Christ. Via radio promotion, FEBC Indonesia teams collect shoes, clothing, toys, furniture and other donated items to support and fulfil the needs of refugee listeners, working with a network of churches in Jakarta to distribute this palpable expression of Christ’s love of the needy.

By day Javad visits detention centres, prisons, and wherever Farsi people gather. The main route for refugees heading for Australia is right through Indonesia, and while many are Iranian, around 90% of Javad’s audience are Afghans.

On a visit to a detention centre where Javad meets with listeners

and hands out Farsi Bibles, a fundamentalist approached him.

He challenged Javad, “If you love us, bring us the Quran.”

The next day Javad returned with ten Qurans and ten Bibles.

The fundamentalist gathered a group to study the holy books and challenge Javad on his radio programs. After some months, Javad heard again from him. He is now following Jesus!

The growth of Christianity among refugees in Indonesia is spectacular. Partner churches report that Persian refugees may be among the fastest growing church population in Indonesia.

FEBC’s Radio Pars program is playing a vital role in sharing the gospel and helping disciple new believers.

FEBC’s Farsi translations and

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CHANGE LIVES

What does it mean to

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FEBC Australia PO Box 183, Caringbah, NSW, 1495 P 1300 720 017 E office@febc.org.au W febc.org.au

It means

A Frequency recurring monthly donation:

+ Using radio and internet programming to inspire people to follow Christ

+ $45 per month - Delivers 12 radios AND funds six hours of programs that reach and change more than 24,000 lives.

+ Raising up ethnic language broadcasters and programmers

+ $75 per month - Delivers four radios, four face-to-face listener visits, and eight hours of programming time that changes more than 30,000 lives.

+ Producing community content in heart languages + Giving so others can hear the Good News

FEBC Frequency Partners access special, live webinars with our field directors. Hear direct from the field in September. SIGN UP TO BE A FEBC FREQUENCY PARTNER TO JOIN IN.

+ $30 per month - Delivers 6 radios AND funds programs that reach and change more than 12,000 lives.

To become a regular giving Frequency Partner call FEBC on 1300 720 017 or visit https://febc.org.au/frequency/

AUGUST 2017

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How PTSD changed my view of God

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Tania Harris on talking to God

The measure of godliness is a finicky beast. For Christians who have accepted the gospel message of redemption through Christ by grace, the rest of our life’s journey is (hopefully) a pursuit of how to live in light of that truth.

But what happens when life smashes us in the mouth and we are no longer able to chew our “spiritual solids?” (Heb 5:14) When forced to return to sucking down spiritual milk through a straw indefinitely, it’s easy for guilt to set in. For many, our underlying standard for measuring godliness begins to rear its ugly head. When we are no longer able to meet that standard, we can feel like an

unholy mess. And if you think you hold no such standards, walk with me a while.

In many Western evangelical churches, the practices of prayer, Bible reading and church fellowship are the three most widely impelled activities for relating with God and growing in the faith. The importance of this holy trinity of spiritual disciplines stems from an excellent desire to pursue godliness seriously (1 Tim 6:11), by delving deeper into the Scriptures (Josh 1:8), praying (Eph 6:18), and having fellowship with one another (Heb 10:24-25). These are godly pursuits and it is well they are encouraged.

Yet, in our efforts to call one another to obedience and

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Several years ago I suff ered from a complete nervous breakdown after giving birth to my stillborn daughter…” spiritually healthy habits, many churches have begun to indoctrinate these disciplines

wikimedia / Jiri Hodan

HANNAH BOLAND

as foundational to faith – that a godly Christian faith cannot exist without them.

By virtue of that conviction, a standard is set for godliness measured against these practices, and most of us have fallen victim to its gauge at some point. For example, how many times have your thoughts followed the path of, “Wow, that person is so godly because they spend hours each day in prayer!” Or, “That person doesn’t seem very godly because they hardly read their Bible.”

In making spiritual discipline the sanctified litmus test of godliness, as well as the churchapproved methods for connecting with God, we set the framework for a theology that will utterly fail us

when we face a crisis of faith (not an inevitable event, but certainly not uncommon).

Several years ago I suffered from a complete nervous breakdown after giving birth to my stillborn daughter – only 18 months after holding my two-day-old son as he died in my arms. Yes, you read that right. Even the most ignorant and sceptical naysayers of mental illness won’t usually begrudge my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis after hearing that. It utterly broke me in every sense of the word, and four years later I am still picking up the pieces. Big ones.

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“

PTSD

From page 5 and showing my face outside of my bedroom door – so my husband and our other children remembered they actually had a wife and mother – were about all I could manage. Prayer, reading my Bible and fellowshipping with others were out of the question, and that made sense to me.

It seemed reasonable that if I physically couldn’t feed myself properly, God probably wasn’t cracking a whip for me to get back to daily devotions.

Many months down the line when I started to recover physically, I wanted to connect with God. I wanted to interact with him in a real and tangible way so I could tell him how broken and disappointed I was. I had no idea who he was any more and I wanted to hear his voice of reassurance and sense his peace.

So I opened my Bible to read and pray. As I began reading the words on the page, a strange tingling sensation started to build from my toes and continued up throughout my entire body. My chest tightened and I found it difficult to breathe.

I fell violently out of my chair onto the floor and began shaking with seizure-like symptoms. I was overwhelmed with the sense that whatever I had just read in my Bible was God speaking to me directly, telling me that he was about to take my life and my days were numbered. It was a reaction that presented itself repeatedly each time I tried to pray or read my Bible in the following weeks.

I had never experienced anything like it before. It wasn’t until months later when I began

How could I connect with God when the three ways of relating with him via prayer, Bible reading and fellowship were ripped from my fingers?”

receiving psychological counselling that I learned these episodes were panic attacks – a symptom of my newly diagnosed PTSD. This knowledge brought relief (God wasn’t, in fact, telling me I was dying) and devastation (learning that my spiritual disciplines were triggers for my PTSD).

Questions abounded. What was I supposed to do? How could I connect with God when the three ways of relating with him via prayer, Bible reading and fellowship were ripped from my fingers? How could I be a good Christian in the eyes of church, and pleasing to God, if I couldn’t do these things? How could I be useful at all in God’s kingdom if I couldn’t do any of it?

As I sat on the sidelines, I was forced to consider my faith very closely. Was God really less present

in my life because I was not able to pray? Did he somehow view me as less righteous or pleasing because I was so sick? Of course not. We are saved by grace alone, and we can neither add nor take away anything from that fact.

It is this same grace that allows us to “know God” by way of prayer, fellowship and his word. What a revelation it was to realise that each one of us has an individual capacity to know and serve him, and we are called to do that faithfully within our capabilities!

Perhaps it really is for freedom we have been set free after all.

As I continue in my own recovery, I can recognise my progress. I almost look and sound like a normal person again.

Unfortunately, the road to recovery with PTSD is lengthy, potentially lifelong. Reading the Bible, prayer

and church attendance are often still difficult for me. And yet because I seem to cope with dayto-day life, it paves the way for my fellow churchgoers and ministry partners to see me as somehow less godly or equipped to share the gospel because of my lack of spiritual discipline.

If I’m really honest, I often have to endure this judgment from myself as well.

I won’t pretend that life with a limited capacity for these disciplines is easy, or that my own spirituality does not suffer because of it. It absolutely does. But God is faithful to this broken pot and somehow still manages to use her for his glory.

If there is one thing I could change about our greater church culture, it would be this – to recognise that the ability to read

God’s word, pray and fellowship are gifts, not benchmarks of godliness. Determining that God meets, grows and fellowships with his children exclusively via these tools puts God in a very small box indeed. When a crisis of faith does come along, believe me – you will want to have a God who works outside of the box!

If you are somebody who is mourning the temporary or permanent loss of capacity, you need to know that your loss does not diminish your godliness or righteousness. Being faithful to the call of godliness means honouring God with what you can offer and letting go of the guilt for what you cannot. Come and join me on the row of shattered pots, and see what collection God can make of us yet.

Hannah Boland is a “clean” comedian and public speaker.

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Hearing the voice of God TESS HOLGATE “I used to argue with God a lot more in the early days,” says Tania Harris, the founder of God Conversations, an Australianbased global ministry that teaches people to recognise and respond to God’s voice.

“I was aware that I could say no, but I didn’t want to, because I felt like if I did I’d lose something of the favour of God. I think there are consequences to our no’s. God doesn’t love us any less, but if he asks us to do something there are really good reasons why. I feel the fear of God when I say no; I never say no. But I might argue about it for a while.”

Tania didn’t grow up hearing the voice of God. In fact, she says she grew up in a church that didn’t believe God could speak anymore.

She was encouraged to read and memorise whole books of the Bible – something that she says helped her recognise the voice of God when she later on began to hear it.

When she was 21 she met a friend who seemed to know God personally, and she started to wonder what the voice of God sounded like, and how she would know that it was really God who was speaking.

A few months later two separate events made her even more curious. First, while praying with some friends, a Bible verse slipped into her mind. She wondered if God had placed it there, and so asked, “’God, if that’s you can you make the pastor talk about that verse in church tomorrow?’

– which is a stupid thing to say, right – anyway, but I just wanted to know.” Second, Tania was driving home and a thought popped into her head that her car was going to get broken into overnight. In the morning as she went to her car to drive to church, the lock was broken and the contents of the glove box all over the floor, and then she got to church and the pastor spoke about that verse.

“That was when I first realised that God’s voice wasn’t necessarily an out loud booming voice, it was a spiritual voice that you hear like a thought in your head. It’s not your thought, it’s Gods thought,” says Tania.

She believes every Christian can learn to hear God’s voice. “It’s about setting your face to know God. It’s a decision you make in your heart to know God and it looks different for every person.

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Faith at work TESS HOLGATE

Does God speak directly today? Christians have many approaches on this topic, but Tania Harris is convinced

Tania Harris created the God Conversations ministry to help people recognise and respond to God’s voice.

She describes it as “putting up your spiritual antennae, and when I did it I was shocked at how clear God could be.”

There’s no special technique or pose that is required – Tania even suggests that it may not be important to take time to quiet your mind if you want to hear from God – but there are a few things that every Christian could learn to enhance their relationship with God. Believe that the speaking capacity of God is for everyone.

Tania says, “this is part of our inheritance. In Acts 2:16-17 we see that this is what was promised.

We need to understand that this is for everybody, and get a little bit dissatisfied when you don’t have it.

Learn to want to know what god is saying to you personally.”

Learn to understand how the Holy Spirit speaks. “You won’t always get it right straight away.

Like the prophet Samuel, who didn’t recognise God’s voice the first time, we learn. It’s a process.

We need to realise we can make mistakes. It takes time. It’s easy for me to hear God’s voice now, but it’s take time.”

Understand the importance of following Jesus. “Everything God says leads you to dying to self, and who wants to do that? The guts of it is about following Jesus,” Tania explains.

But even if you master these three lessons, the enduring question remains ‘how do I know that it is the voice of God, and not

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just my own fanciful imagination?’

“It’s like starting to get to know someone,” Tania says. “If you’re my best friend, if I’ve known you for ten years, then when you call me and say hello I immediately know who you are. And it’s just that I’ve gotten to know you, and I know the intonation of your voice. The voice of the spirit is like that. You start to recognise the kind of things the Spirit says, and they’re not usually the things you would say.

“But then there’s the whole thing of ‘Would God say this? How do I know what God would say?’

“The Bible gives us the foundational parameters about the kind of things that God would say, through his Spirit.

“But the voice of the Spirit is consistent with the voice of Jesus because they’re one and the same.

“When I hear from the Spirit I understand it’s the voice of Jesus, it’s the testimony of Jesus. It has to be consistent with Jesus – the character and nature of God that we see in Jesus,” Tania explains.

“Of course you test [what you hear] to see if it’s in line with God’s character in the scriptures. And at the end of the day Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God. He’s the one who gives the clearest picture of what God is like and what God would say.”

But she knows that she is fallible, and that even with these guidelines, she can get it wrong.

“The area I’ve most got it wrong is timing. My wishful thinking and my planning personality has tried

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to speed things up and I think I’ve gotten myself quite disillusioned because I haven’t understood the process.

“I can misread the cues, I hear what I want to hear, I see what I want to see. My mindsets, desires and my experiences all create a filter through which I interpret the world. I need safety in numbers.

“With things that are high risk: careers, jobs, houses, marriages, health and family, you need confirmation in the body [of believers]. “Every time I’ve had any conversation with God that’s taken me out of the bounds of common sense or out of general wisdom – like leave your job when you’ve got nowhere to go, give money away when you’re counting on it, start a ministry that no one’s heard of, or trust God to provide a house even though everyone else goes to websites – there needs to be the Holy Spirit speaking and confirming it through someone else,” Tania says.

Her deep love of the Bible saturates her conversation, and she reiterates that it’s hard to know the voice of God if you don’t know the language of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, as reported in the Bible.

When she reflects on her journey with God Conversations, and all the blogs, talks, workshops and seminars, she says, “I used to know God like you’d know the Queen of England from a magazine. I knew about him.

I feel like now I know God; before I never knew him.”

“It’s my Bible reading and my prayer life that has really sustained me,” says Wendy Simpson OAM. In her early 20s, Simpson won a Rotary Scholarship for Businesswomen to the US. That experience, she says, opened her eyes to the possibility that she could have a career in business, as a global executive. “We don’t know how capable we are until we start to go to new places and look at new things,” says Simpson.

Though she came from “humble beginnings” in northern suburbs of Melbourne, Simpson went on to work for organisations including QBE Insurance, TNT International, Alcatel and Westray Engineering. But despite this extraordinary success she has remained grounded, thanks to her deep commitment to Jesus’s teachings.

“One of the most important principles is that my life isn’t my own and my skills aren’t my own.

“It’s easy to get caught up in first class travel and five star hotels. So I regularly fly economy and check into one or two star hotels.”

One of the surprising things about Simpson is how candidly she speaks about her faith in all kinds of business settings. “When I am in community organisations, I talk about how God has made us, that he has a purpose for us and he intends for us to flourish.”

“In a Christian organisation, I use the word ‘stewardship’ a lot more. We are God’s handiwork and God has prepared works in advance for us to do.“ In 2010, Simpson brought Springboard Enterprises to Australia, an organisation where “entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts meet to build great women-led businesses.”

“I pray for people, for their business situation and some of their personal situations. I’ve never had someone say ‘I don’t want you to pray for me’,” says Simpson.

She wants to see the church get better at thinking about the intersection of entrepreneurialism and faith, particularly moving towards encouraging the right people to step out as entrepreneurs.

Wendy Simpson: “My skills are not my own.”

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Darlene: ‘let the love of God really grab you’ TEAGAN RUSSELL Darlene Zschech is one of the few Australian Christians that most readers will recognise using only her first name.

The former Worship Pastor for Hillsong Church who was part of Hillsong for over 25 years, Darlene is known worldwide for her song, Shout to the Lord and many other worship anthems. She has written more than 100 songs, and has performed on and helped produce one platinum, and 16 gold-selling Hillsong albums.

But Darlene is not only a worship leader and songwriter, she’s also a Senior Pastor. Darlene and husband Mark Zschech became the Senior Pastors at Hope Unlimited Church on the Central Coast of NSW in 2011, affectionately known as HopeUC. So as a Senior Pastor, does that mean Darlene still lead worship?

“Yes I do. I still travel and lead (worship). It’s interesting we’ve got the most amazing team, and many campuses now. The team is growing, worship is strong, it doesn’t need me to be physically doing it which is amazing.”

“I love leading worship, but I also love just serving people. So I really don’t mind what I do. I really don’t.

I love to write songs, and I know that’s a gift etc, but I love ministry. I love the whole thing of ministry. So whatever form that comes in, I’m really enjoying it.

“I always remember when I got saved, there was this insatiable hunger to serve people. As I’ve got older I have understood a bit more about what worship really means.

One of the big words that unpacks the word worship actually means, ‘to serve.’ It doesn’t mean to sing songs, it’s to serve. Singing is one part, and it’s an important part because it gathers who you are, every fibre of your being. Music is probably one of the only things that does that. It helps focus the whole of you heavenward, but it’s so much greater than that.”

In this spirit of serving, HopeUC hosted their first Worship Conference in early August.

Wanting to come alongside larger expressions and offer something a little bit different, this conference was not a traditional large-scale conference. It did not have a VIP room like many traditional conferences would. “I just went, isn’t that all of us? Everyone’s in it together. There’s still a little place where people can get away if they’ve got to prepare to preach,

Darlene Zschech talks to reporter Teagan Russell at Hope UC. Full interview video eternitynews.com.au/darlene

The power of song Darlene has never underestimated the power of a song. “Well, a song’s amazing, because you’re streaming all our crazy thoughts, into a purposed and intentional few lines that you actually get to announce and declare. It’s a song of faith. It’s not just a musical expression. It’s a song of faith every time.

So if you are announcing that God is here with us, and that’s he’s but en masse I just feel like we all need to be in it together.”

Darlene continues to write fresh worship music, and her latest album Here I Am Send Me/Hineni contains songs written during her battle with breast cancer.

“When you’re fighting for your life you’re not thinking, “will I record an album?” It’s just not even on your radar. But the worship of God was very important to me in those times. I guess I’ve learnt a lot, not just about myself, but about God and what I really believe. And I think hard times do that.”

In some of the darkest times during her cancer battle Zschech says, “I remember there were a couple of times when I was really sick that I couldn’t even put on worship music because it undoes me, and I felt like I couldn’t scramble myself back. But there were other times when I needed it.”

Zschech goes on to tell a story

life stories life answers

here in the storm, and in the trial, that is SO incredible, that you get to be part of bringing a concise declaration that helps lift people out of the mud.

You know, we’re all living our lives as an expression of worship.

It’s our everyday “yes”, that is our worship to God. But you can get lost in your own thoughts, and in your own mud. In the Bible, in the

The power of story “I would say to any pastors and leaders, if you don’t surround yourself with story, then it’s going to get too hard. You have to surround yourself with the God story. Every time there’s a testimony, it’s like it’s part of heaven on earth. It’s part of

bringing heaven’s atmosphere.

You’ve got to keep hearing the story.

Keep hearing the work of God because it makes you shake off the hard days and go “it’s ok.” They overcame by the blood of the lamb and power of their testimony.”

about one of her closest girlfriends who came over and put on the song called You Make Me Brave which was a new song at the time, and “she played it over and over getting ready for my last chemo and I just didn’t think I could do it. And she’s like ‘well you’re going to do it! I’m coming in with you and we’re going to listen to this song until you can get up and get in there!’” Darlene fondly recalls.

Darlene had already been in the Senior Pastor role at HopeUC for a couple of years when she received the breast cancer diagnosis in late 2013. Yet her eyes light up as she talks about that time “It’s amazing what gets forged in the fire. This praying church emerged.

We fought, together. If you spend some time in the trenches with someone, you become really close.

That’s HopeUC. Something really

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Psalms, I think it’s over 30 times, just in the Psalms alone, we’re asked to “sing a new song,” to bring a song, to declutter your mind, to lift your spirit man, to get a song of faith out of you that announces ‘greater is he that is living in me than he that is in the world’. That’s the power of a song. So, it’s always powerful, if you have a song at your fingertips.”

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powerful happened in that year.”

Darlene has been completely cancer-free since 2015, and her spiritual disciplines have grown stronger than ever. “I’ve got a personal thing that I just don’t even put my feet on the floor until I’ve opened up my devotional and read it. I just don’t feel like I can afford to. I feel like it’s my food.”

Psalm 91 has been one of her favourite scriptures through the cancer journey. “The last verse in there it says “with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. And so I declare that over my body every day. Take it like medicine. I take my medicine that I’m on for another nine years, I take Psalm 91 and I nourish my body and look after it well. Psalm 91 is really critical to me.”

Her struggle has given her a deeper appreciation that God really is a loving God. “I would say to Christians let the love of God really grab hold of you. It’s really hard to overflow in love when you’re really grappling with the basics.”

She encourages anyone struggling with this to “ask God to reveal himself to you and his love toward you again. Ask him 100 times a day if that’s what it takes.

Because he will. And it will change you. It will change not only the way you think, but it will change your priorities and how you see others.

It’s hard to be judgemental when you’re receiving so much love that you just want to love people. It really changes how you live.

“Because in the end, the Bible said that this world would know us by our love. Not by our works, not by our fancy buildings, or light shows. There’s nothing wrong with all those things, we love them. But actually the world will know us by our love. Our love for each other, and our love for others. And all the unloveables, and all the ones who are marginalised and don’t fit. If you follow the pattern of Jesus you always find him with the people who didn’t fit.

“That’s the journey I’m on. The more I look at the life modelled by Christ, that was his life. He lived a life of love, and not a fluffy love. A very robust, I’m ‘coming after you whether you like it or not’ kind of love. And I think the more we get as a church that whole ‘come as you are’ - you belong, and come as you are to God, I think that’s where we’re going to see the world changed. It’s going to be through us REALLY having a revelation of the love of God.” eternitynews.com.au/darlene

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AUGUST 2017

NCLS FEATURE

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WHO GOES TO CHURCH? A SPECIAL REPORT FROM 2016 NATIONAL CHURCH LIFE SURVEY

RUTH POWELL In the 2016 National Church Life Survey, 60 per cent of church attenders are women. This figure has been constant since 2006, and this gender imbalance continues the pattern found across 25 years of the NCLS. It also is the same pattern as in a wide-ranging study by Pew Research, which found that, globally, women are more devout than men across different religions (by several standard measures of religious commitment).

Specifically, Christian women are more religious than Christian men across the world.

The gender imbalance among Christian church attenders partly can be attributed to the fact that

some churches have an older age profile and women, on average, live longer than men. However, although differing life expectancies do play a part, they are not the only reason for the gender skew. In every denomination, in every age grouping, women outnumber men.

The gender imbalance among church attenders is a long-standing issue, and many theories have been developed in an attempt to explain it. These theories, which need to be tested against the evidence at different points in time, include the following observations: • Differences in the ways boys and girls are socialised affect their church involvement. This theory suggests that boys are taught independence and selfreliance, while girls are taught

interdependence, obedience and responsibility for others.

Consequently, girls are more predisposed to church involvement which features such behaviour.

• Australian men are more likely to reject authority structures such as the church. They prefer more egalitarian forms of relationship with others, based around the concept of “mateship.”

• Men are more emotionally inhibited than women. This theory would suggest that men are daunted by structures in church life that promote intimacy (for example, small Bible study groups).

• Women are more likely to seek to instil moral values in their children as part of their role as child-rearers. Women not only look to the church to provide religious

flickr.com/alan-light

Highly-educated church attenders on the rise

education for their children but also attend church in order to be good role models.

• Women get social status in church that is denied elsewhere.

Some social theorists argue that men and women without power or status in the community are more likely to turn to religion as a form of compensation.

• Men are more likely to be in full-time work and to get their selfesteem from work. Work provides an alternative sense of purpose, community, identity and interests.

• More controversially, some have theorised that the gender gap in religion is biological in nature, possibly stemming from higher levels of testosterone in men or other physical and genetic differences between the sexes.

In recent years there has been a growing consensus among sociologists that the religious gender gap probably stems from a confluence of multiple factors.

While there is still no agreement about which factors are most important, it has been suggested that social and cultural factors, such as religious traditions and workforce participation, rather than biological factors, play an important role.

Ruth Powell, Director, NCLS Research References: NCLS Research, (1999). Taking Stock. Pew Forum, (2016). The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World. http://www. pewforum.org/2016/03/22/thegender-gap-in-religion-aroundthe-world/

How churches use the NCLS

pexels /Katii Bishop

Why the pews are female

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NCLS FEATURE

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Newcomers, transfers, Church Attenders 68% long term attenders Old & New 3% visitors 6% newcomers (not previously attended elsewhere) 23% switchers/transfers Gender

Church Inflow

60% Female

Ag Att

Male

15

40%

13

2

30%

attenders are new to their current church in the previous five years

16% transferred from a church in the same denomination

7% switched denomination 6% not previously attending anywhere

Churches with Most Newcomers

30

Pentecostal 12% Churches of Christ 7% Anglican 7% Baptist 7%

2

3

13%

50

70

Sources: 2016 NCLS Attender Survey (n=189,751). 2011 NCLS Attender Survey (n=173,658) and 2006 NCLS Attender Survey (n= 300,338), as featured in Local Chu

Highly educated church attenders on the rise Question: is this a win or a loss?

NCLS RESEARCH In the past ten years, there has been a 10 percentage point rise in the proportion of churchgoers with a university degree and a 12 percentage point decline in those with only a school-level education.

The result is a more highly educated churchgoing population.

In 2006, half of church attenders had school as their highest level of formal education. In 2016 this proportion had dropped to 38 per cent. This most likely reflects the passing of older attenders, who are more likely to have completed only a school-level education.

Alongside this, there has been a rise in churchgoers with university

degrees from 27 per cent in 2006, to 33 per cent in 2011 and 37 per cent in 2016. The shift is due to generational changes in education, with more recent generations in Australian society more highly educated than those before them.

Within denominational groupings, Anglican and Baptist churches have more attenders with university degrees than with a school-level education. In contrast, Catholic, Lutheran and Uniting churches have more churchgoers with school-level education than with university degrees.

Pentecostal churches have a more even spread of levels of education among their members.

Overall across Australia’s churches, with about four in ten attenders university qualified and the same number having a schoollevel education, a dichotomy may also exist between the two

groups. The implications for highly educated younger ministry staff is to meaningfully communicate with the full educational spectrum.

Church leaders will still need to remain aware of the needs of less educated attenders as well as the emerging highly educated ones.

In summary: • 37 per cent of all attenders in 2016 have a university degree, up from 33 per cent in 2011 and 27 per cent in 2006: an increase of 10 percentage points in ten years.

• 25 per cent have a trade certificate, diploma or associate diploma: fairly constant since 2006.

• 38 per cent have primary or secondary school education, down from 42 per cent in 2011 and 50 per cent in 2006: a drop of 12 percentage points in ten years.

Sources: 2016, 2011, 2006 NCLS Attender Survey [Data files].

Sydney: NCLS Research.

NCLS is a w 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 the latest survey, in ten languages.

The 2016 NCLS results are based on 240,000 adult attenders surveys (aged 15 and over); 10,000 children surveys (church attenders aged 8-14) and 7000 leaders who completed surveys.

Following completion of the 2016 NCLS, participating churches are in the process of receiving a Church Life Pack of resources, including their unique survey results in a Church Life Profile. The pack includes a full Church Life Profile showing

each church’s unique results plus supporting resources to help them to build vitality and health in mission and ministry.

The Church Life Pack is designed to help churches get the most out of their results, strengthen their vitality and build direction for the future.

A range of Profiles are currently available online, including a Summary Profile, a full Church Life Profile and, in the coming months, a Comprehensive Profile, showing every answer to every survey question.

Church leaders can browse through and download charts, graphs and tables, seeing comparisons to previous surveys (changes over time) and comparison to regional or denominational results.

The 2016 National Church Life Survey incorporated research in five key areas.

1: Leadership and

NCLS FEATURE

AUGUST 2017

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, stayers, switchers Attenders describe Faith Identity 16.1% When asked “Do you identify with any of the following approaches on matters of faith?” a selection of two options could be chosen from the 11 listed.

Pentecostal

17.5%

Evangelical

46.5% Catholic

ge of tenders

3%

Education

5-29 years

Degree

2016 NCLS

Post School

37% 25% Trade Certificate / in 2016

24%

0-49 years

34%

up from

Diploma / Assoc Dip

29%

0+ years

Employment

49%

employed

38% 27% School in 2006

0-69 years

2011 NCLS

36% retired

urches In Australia: Scanning the Landscape.

world beater organisational effectiveness in Australian local churches and denominations Organisational effectiveness is of interest not only to business and non-profit organisations, but also to Christian churches.

2: Mapping the intersection between church and community How do church attenders share beliefs and values? We also assess inflow of newcomers.

3: Spirituality, wellbeing and psychology of religion in church life NCLS will review both attitudes and behaviours of church attenders and local church leaders.

One key focus will be upon sustainable leadership.

4: Who goes to church and tracking trends in church life 5: Cultures and generations in church life Three particular research focuses are: children and youth/generational issues, multicultural ministry, Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations.

More of us are from overseas, born in a non-English-speaking country NCLS RESEARCH There has been a steady increase in the proportion of church attenders born overseas in the past decade, from 28 per cent in 2006 to 36 per cent in 2016, contributing to a greater cultural and linguistic diversity in Australia’s churches.

This increase in overseas-born attenders is due solely to those born in non-English-speaking countries.

Of the 36 per cent of church attenders in 2016 who were born overseas, 27 per cent were born in a non-English-speaking country (up 9 percentage points from 18 per cent in 2006) and 9 per cent in another country where English is the main language.

The percentage of churchgoers born in a non-English-speaking country (27 per cent) is higher than the wider national population (22 per cent) in 2016.

Churches often form a social support network for people who are newly arrived in Australia.

The presence of multicultural ministry in churches, as well as mono-ethnic and multi-ethnic congregations, additionally reflects this diversity, particularly in urban areas. Over a third (35 per cent) of Australian churches in 2011 said they were involved in migrant ministry, with 15 per cent heavily involved, and 20 per cent taking first steps in ministry to migrants.

This was a large increase over ten years (17 per cent involved in “ethnic” ministry in 2001, and 24 per cent in 2006).

Linguistic diversity is also revealed in the 2016 NCLS, in the fact that a quarter of churchgoers speak a language other than English at home.

Some 22 per cent of those people are bilingual or multilingual,

speaking English as well as another language at home.

People who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander made up 1.3 per cent of the Australian church population in the 2016 NCLS. People born in Australia (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) formed 64 per cent of churchgoers in 2016, down from 72 per cent in 2006.

It is important to note that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander churches, as well as new migrant churches, are underrepresented in the National Church Life Survey, so figures for overseasborn and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander churchgoers may be underestimated.

• 36 per cent of attenders were born overseas, up from 32 per cent in 2011 and 28 per cent in 2006.

• 27 per cent of attenders were born in a non-English-speaking country

in 2016, up from 22 per cent in 2011 and 18 per cent in 2006.

• More churchgoers were born in a non-English-speaking country (27 per cent) than the national population (22 per cent).

• 25 per cent of attenders speak a language other than English at home.

• 1.3 per cent of churchgoers are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

• 64 per cent of attenders were born in Australia.

• 35 per cent of Australian churches were involved in migrant ministry (2011).

Sources: 2016, 2011, 2006 NCLS Attender Survey [Data files].

Sydney: NCLS Research.

Duncum et al (2014), NCLS Research Fact Sheet 14009.

2016 Census of Population & Housing, Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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How to use the NCLS at your church A spur to step up ANNE LIM

The Salvation Army Australia

Members of Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Parish in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood recorded a big jump in satisfaction with parish activities for children and youth over the past five years.

After the 2011 National Church Life Survey, the parish employed three ministers to look after its family and children’s ministries.

The results of their good work are clear to see in the 2016 NCLS survey, conducted late last year.

Among children under 12, the satisfaction rate with the activities for their group was 61 per cent, which represented a doubling of the rate five years earlier. Among 12 to 18-year-olds, the equivalent satisfaction rate was 53 per cent, when five years ago it was a little over half of that.

“I attribute that to the people we have employed in ministry since 2011,” says parish priest Father Paul Finucane.

“I know they’re working hard and the activities are increasing and the figures say everybody is happy with what’s happening for children, youth and teenagers.”

The Chatswood Catholic parish, in the Diocese of Broken Bay, held a meeting in April to take a first look at the results of the 2016 NCLS. Father Paul, members of the Pastoral Council and ministry group leaders discussed the eight-page 2016 NCLS Summary Profile, which provided statistical information about key aspects of parish life, such as what people most value and what needs attention.

In July parishes were sent a Church Life Survey Pack, containing a more detailed 28page, colour hard copy of the Church Life Profile, along with a detailed Church Life Survey Workbook. These will guide the response by the parish to increase vitality and effectiveness in mission.

One of the striking results for this Sydney parish was the high percentage – 20 per cent – of people who want to be more involved in the parish.

“The NCLS came at a very opportune time for us because last November we began a growing-infaith programme, so we began with a parish census and as part of that we asked a few leading questions about what people would like to be part of,” says Father Paul.

“We got a stewardship team together and we planned to run a ministry drive over six months and follow up with a giving drive, but before we did that we offered faith formation because we thought that would lead to a better result in supporting and giving ministry.”

When the church advertised an Alpha programme, 160 people signed up, so it ran three groups - one for retirees, one for workers and one for youth.

“They have just completed and are now forming ‘connect groups’ and all are going quite strongly,” says Father Paul.

“As they were concluding we ran the ministry drive and we had some attractive brochures printed with different options for ministry.

The Salvos are changing, forming into one national body, and NCLS data will inform this significant move.

We had speakers from the parish talk about how they came alive in the parish, after sitting in the back pews – what attracted them to pick up ministry and what it has meant to them.”

As a result, the parish hopes to double the number of people in ministry from 150 to 300 and has more than doubled its planned giving as well. People have put their names down for practically all the church ministries.

Another valuable insight from the NCLS was that 35 per cent of Mass attenders were new arrivals in the last five years and 9 per cent of those who completed a survey were visitors to the parish on the weekend of the survey. As a result, the parish has decided to prioritise an improvement in its strategies for welcoming and hospitality.

“We are a city parish really and we have our doors open from 6.30 in the morning to 9.30 at night.

I can’t close the doors any earlier because there are always people in there praying,” says Father Paul.

“Chatswood is growing fast with new residential, office and retail spaces being built up and up, higher and higher, so lots of people are coming here all the time.

“The façade of the church is very attractive, large and eye-catching.

We’ve just recently rebuilt the forecourt of church, so that it’s spacious, modern, welcoming, safe and attractive, and we’ve made it like a cafe with umbrellas and seats, so it attracts people in.”

Every Sunday morning the church serves refreshments between its Masses and ensures there are welcomers at the front door.

“We have a loyal group of elderly people who are happy to jump in and help with the hospitality when we have a parish barbecue or special function. We have another very strong group of young families who make sure that the welcoming and a cuppa happens on the forecourt every Sunday morning. They’re really bound together; they celebrate children’s liturgies together, go on picnics and outings together and they organise to be there every Sunday morning.”

An agent for change at denominational level ANNE LIM The 2016 National Church Life Survey will help the Salvation Army as it moves to become one national entity, called Australia One, amalgamating its Southern and Eastern Territories from 2019.

“That’s a challenge for us, so some of the NCLS information will help us to get a better national picture,” says Major Graham Roberts, Territorial Mission Resources Secretary and Growing Healthy Corps Director for the Salvation Army Southern Territory.

“We have the organisational information so we can check the statistics. This [NCLS] is actually the response of the people and it’s providing a response to questions that we would not normally ask in the course of our gathering of information, so it gives us a much richer and deeper understanding of the people who are committed to worshipping with and serving as part of the Salvation Army faith community. So that’s got to help us, moving forward.”

Major Roberts was one of the denominational leaders who recently gathered in five capital cities to be briefed by NCLS Research staff on the resources which local churches will receive from the survey in their Church Life Packs in the coming months.

The NCLS seminars drew together a diverse range of consultants, mission planners and denominational staff. The goal was to equip regional leaders on how best to resource and support their churches as they apply the findings of the NCLS in ministry and mission and strengthen collaboration among churches.

“It was helpful to have that sort of face-to-face dialogue,” Major Roberts said.

“There was a strong engagement from the Salvation Army at the last

“

We will have a better understanding of the mind and heart of our people at the local level as well as generally and that will help us connect with the wider community.” briefing I was at because we realise the value and the importance of the information that’s being gathered and its capacity to inform us as a denomination and its capacity to help empower mission at the local level.”

Major Roberts said the Army was looking forward to being able to use the “full suite of information” from the NCLS reports at the national, territorial, regional and local level.

“We will have a better understanding of the mind and heart of our people at the local level as well as generally and that will help us connect with the wider community,” he says.

“It can help us think about and potentially develop resources to help each of our corps in their local action, in the things that will help them strengthen their faith and also be more effectively able to share their faith and live it out in

the community.”

The National Lutheran Church is another denomination that hopes to use the NCLS analysis to assist its ministry and “mission to the people God loves,” said Rev. John O’Keefe, Director of Ministry and Mission, Lutheran Church of Australia Queensland District, “In fact, our National Lutheran Church has such a commitment to this process that it arranged for every congregation across Australia to participate free of charge,” he said.

“When the NCLS Research team were arranging seminars this year in preparation for the dissemination of the 2016 NCLS results, we organised for most of our regional leaders to attend so that they could hear first-hand from [NCLS staff ].”

Next Time Healthy Churches: Clues for church vitality Innovation in Churches: Are churches ready to try something new?

Part of the Local Neighbourhood Fabric: How churches connect with their local communities

IN DEPTH

AUGUST 2017

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Survivor tells: What victims of domestic abuse really need to hear BARBARA ROBERTS

“

A domestic abuse survivor has some ideas for how we can better care for other victims. reasons. I wish she had told me that “God hates divorce” is a saying that has arisen from a mistranslation of Malachi 2:16 but, at that time, very few Bible versions had correctly translated that verse.

These days you can find a correct translation in the ESV, the 2011 NIV, the HSCB and the CSB. I wish she had also pointed out that in the Old Testament there is provision for a woman to be divorced if her husband mistreats her or neglects her basic needs for food, clothing and marital love (see Exod 21:10-11; Deut 21:14).

I wish she had pointed out that God divorced Israel because Israel had repeatedly and hard-heartedly broken the covenant (see Jer 3:6-8).

The Family Court eventually gave me custody of our daughter.

When handing my daughter to my husband for his fortnightly access, I gave him a Bible and briefly told him the gospel. Four years later he “appeared” to become a Christian. I voluntarily reconciled with him.

We lived together for nearly a year. During that time, the woman who had told me I didn’t have grounds for divorce years before did not proactively approach me

to see how I was going. I do not know whether she had told the other church leaders about how I’d reported years before that my husband had abused me.

I wish one of the church leaders had come to me and gently asked questions like this: • Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

• How are things at home? Is your husband respecting you? Is he respecting your views? Is he taking into account your preferences? Is he treating you well?

• You mentioned years ago that your husband had abused you.

Would you like to tell me more about about how he mistreated you? Is he doing anything like that again?

• Do you ever feel like you are walking on eggshells with your husband?

• Are you concerned about your husband’s behaviour?

• Do you think your husband is pulling his weight in the marriage partnership?

• If you express a grievance to your husband, how does he respond?

• Do you ever think your

They didn’t mention the verse which tells husbands to love their wives ...” husband is overly-controlling?

Within 12 months of our reconciliation, my husband assaulted me again but all that time we’d been reconciled, he’d been emotionally abusing me and I didn’t see it.

That is why I’ve suggested the questions I listed off. They are the kind of questions which tell the woman that this person who is inquiring about her wellbeing is actually caring, willing to listen and non-judgmental.

And they are questions which might help a woman come out of the fog of living in abuse – a miasma of lies, half-truths, blame-shifting, psychological

Mattea Photography

Last month, the ABC’s 7:30 Report published and aired a story on domestic abuse in the church. The reactions from Christians have been mixed. Some applauded the ABC for opening up discussion about this issue, while others have broadly condemned the ABC for its “selective”, “inaccurate” and “antiChristian” journalism.

Barbara Roberts appeared on the much-discussed 7.30 Report story, to explain her own story of abuse.

She writes for Eternity about what she wishes she had been told while living with abuse.

What would have been the best thing for someone in ministry to have said to you while you were living in an abusive marriage?

To answer that question, I need to tell a bit of my story.

I wasn’t living as a Christian.

I married a man who appeared to have no vices: he didn’t drink, smoke or gamble. He turned out to be an abuser.

After five years I separated, got a protection order, and started going to an evangelical church. I had been born again years before but had been “travelling in the wilderness” till I got to this church.

Going to church – first a Church of Christ, then a Pentecostal church – brought my nascent faith to life. I began studying the Bible and living like a Christian.

I told a female pastor what had happened in my marriage and asked her whether I had grounds for divorce. She told me that since my husband hadn’t committed adultery and I had left him, he hadn’t left me, I didn’t have grounds for divorce.

I wish she had told me that the Bible allows divorce for domestic abuse, on the basis of 1 Corinthians 7:15 with abuse being a form of desertion. The abuser’s wicked conduct effectively pushes the victim away so she ends up fleeing the marriage.

I wish she had pointed out that God does not condemn all divorce, he only condemns treacherous divorce — divorce done for trivial

undermining, and all the other coercive controlling tactics which abusive men use on their targets.

That fog is intensified by distorted scriptural interpretations which are laid on victims.

After that assault, and after my husband had left for work, I rang one of the church leaders and told him what had happened and that I was going to the court for a protection order.

I also told him that I thought he and the other leaders needed to offer my husband support. He said they would. I wish that church leader had told me, “We won’t offer your husband support. We will hold him accountable.”

That would have given me more clarity. It would have helped me see that my husband needed to be confronted and held accountable, not merely assisted and educated.

Within a few days, the male and female leaders in that Pentecostal church publicly condemned me, at a well-attended church prayer meeting. They announced that Barbara and her husband had separated, Barbara had got a protection order, and 1 Corinthians 6:1 says we mustn’t take a brother to court.

They didn’t mention the verse which tells husbands to love their wives and not be harsh with them (Col 3:19).

Later, I moved to a Presbyterian church where the pastor explained that the church which condemned me had misused “do not take a brother to court” — because Romans 13 says that God has appointed the secular courts to protect the vulnerable, restrain wickedness and punish evildoers.

That was so wonderful for me to hear!

I suggest church leaders go to our site, A Cry For Justice, and look at the page we created especially for pastors who want to learn how better to respond to domestic abuse.

Barbara Roberts is co-leader of A Cry For Justice, a site that aims to inform the public about abuse, its survivors and how they can be supported.

What the church needs to hear about abuse KARA HARTLEY Is domestic violence an issue in our churches?

Of course. Where there are people there is sin. Even as Christians we know we still sin.

Domestic violence is an extreme expression of sin and, sadly, it is present even in our churches. We mustn’t be naïve about this. But at the same time, as we take steps to address this evil in our churches, we need to be careful not to make it The Pastoral Issue.

There is a fine line we walk: the majority issues for marriage and family life will be more everyday struggles and strains, while at the same time there will be particular and more significant crises facing some couples and families, including infidelity, violence, and sickness.

Passages such as Ephesians 5 encourage women to submit to their husbands. Is there a risk these passages can be used to

excuse domestic violence?

Yes, they may be used to justify sinful behaviour like domestic violence. Yet we must be clear, the instruction for women to submit to their husbands does not give license to men to exploit or abuse their wives. In fact, the wife’s submission is voluntary.

The truth is that as women are called to submit in Ephesians 5, husbands are instructed to love their wives as they love their own bodies, and in Colossians 3:19 Paul forbids them from being harsh with them. There is no place in Scripture for a husband exercising his biblical headship in a dominating, exploitive or selfserving manner. As the husband’s role is modelled on Christ’s loving, sacrificial leadership, so he lives that out for the benefit of his wife.

There is a lot of discussion at the moment suggesting there is a link between biblical teaching on submission and headship, with the prevalence of DV in church.

Some argue the existence of this teaching leads to domestic violence.

I believe this is mistaken for two reasons. Firstly, to create cause and effect at this point suggests that God’s good word to us is wrong or mistaken. Also, taken to its logical conclusion, it would assume that churches that deny this teaching are free from DV which we know is untrue. Secondly, by making this the reason for DV means we fail to fully explore and understand the issue and that, I think, is an injustice to those involved.

Church leaders have a responsibility to teach this doctrine correctly, call out inappropriate and sinful misapplications, and care for those who have suffered at the hands of those who have (wickedly) twisted God’s word to satisfy their own sinful behaviour.

What are some helpful things to do if we think someone is a victim of domestic abuse?

First and foremost: listen and

believe. Then assess whether it is safe for the victim to return to the home. After that, there are several avenues to explore to care and support the abused. It might be that you actually do nothing straight away as the victim might not be ready to leave the situation or report to the police. If the victim asks you not to tell anyone, honour their wishes (as hard as this is) because they must be able to trust you. As a church, have a plan of how you care for people in these circumstances and make sure leaders are aware of it. If the abuse is disclosed by a child, leaders of course have mandatory reporting responsibilities.

What about if we think somebody is a perpetrator – what steps should we take?

It depends on the kind of abuse.

If there is evidence of physical abuse then speaking to police is appropriate. If other kinds of abuse are suspected it is more appropriate to sensitively raise

your concerns with the victim.

They may deny any wrong doing but hopefully this raises the opportunity for them to talk to you at a later date. Confrontation of an abuser is rarely an effective method in dealing with DV. They will probably deny any wrong doing and if they feel threatened may take that out on their spouse at home.

Kara Hartley is Archdeacon for Women of the Sydney Anglican Diocese This is an edited version of an interviw that first appeared in the Australian Church Record.

Eternity addressed the issue of the DV statistics about church attenders used in recent ABC stories on our website eternitynews.com. au

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BIBLE @ WORK Finding hope when cancer strikes

Sharon Téllez was diagnosed with leukemia when she was in year 4 and Bible Society of Nicaragua have been heavily involved with supporting her family.

REBECA ALFARO Born healthy, Sharon enjoyed her childhood in Nicaragua. Last year, Sharon Téllez was studying in fourth grade when she began showing symptoms of sickness.

After medical examinations, doctors informed her parents she had leukemia. Since then, cancer has changed every aspect of her life. She has changed her trip to school with going to the hospital, where she stayed for more than one year for treatment.

During this intense time, Bible Society of Nicaragua met Sharon and her family. Practical and spiritual needs of Sharon’s family were provided by the Bible Society.

Through its “Hope and Smile for Children with Cancer” programme,

financial aid was given to Sharon’s mother Mayerin, to alleviate stress and allow her to provide better care for her daughter. Staff from the Bible Society also read the Bible with Sharon and her family, sharing devotionals and prayers.

“When the doctors told me about my daughter’s diagnosis, I felt as if I lost her,” Mayerin shared.

“She felt weak during the initial treatment cycle, she lost her hair, eyebrows, and body’s defense system. She fell so ill, she was admitted to the intensive care unit.

“Staying in the hospital felt as an ongoing training where I learned to depend more on God and about the ministry of the Bible Society.”

Mayerin is extremely grateful for the “important support” provided through the “Hope and Smile”

Your moment to change someone’s life through the Bible.

programme during Sharon’s treatment. As explained by Bible Society of Nicaragua project manager Rebeca Alfaro, “Hope and Smile for Children with Cancer” aims to do more than hand out Bibles. “Far beyond that, our goal is not only to give them the Bible but to also read the Bible so that they understand the Bible.”

The impact upon Sharon’s family has extended to their reliance upon God, during challenging circumstances. “God prepares and strengthens us every day to move forward alongside with my daughter,” continued Mayerin.

“I look back and remember the difficult moments – at one point, when Sharon almost completed her treatment, the cancer suddenly attacked her body’s defense system

and we almost lost her. Her doctors told us that she would not be able to survive this time, because she acquired a virus that prevented her from standing up.

“It was at that moment I didn’t have words left for my daughter.

However, I decided to make a covenant of faith and service to God; I begged him to heal my child and asked the volunteers to pray for her, and after several days, God healed her.

“I feel grateful to God! It was through the biblical stories and prayers that motivated me to look for and believe in him.”

A year has passed since Sharon was first admitted and doctors have confirmed she is in remission.

“I give glory to God and want to thank the brothers and sisters

in Christ who work in the Bible Society, the donors, my family, and friends. Now that God healed my daughter from cancer, I am ready to fulfill my covenant and to serve God,” Mayerin said.

Nicargua’s “Hope and Smile for Children with Cancer” campaign was only half funded this year, which has affected its ability to impact more families like Sharon’s.

Are you able to give a special gift to help provide the Bible where it’s needed in Nicaragua? Your donation can help to further fund “Hope and Smile,” so that God’s word can make a positive difference in painful situations.

+ 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.

Bible Society colleagues from across the world have just met in Sydney to share expertise and experience, hoping also to secure vital funding. As they continue Bible mission work in their countries, could you encourage them with a special gift to help them reach their goals?

$40 helps us provide the Bible where it’s needed most.

Call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) Or visit biblesociety.org.au/nationsep

AUGUST 2017

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Simone Richardson on how we change our minds

Cover details of the BBC Radio version of Mansfield Park.

In defence of Jane Austen’s least popular heroine

Natasha Moore on priceless Price

With the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death having been on July 18, her popularity shows no signs of abating.

Her fans’ admiration, though, is not evenly distributed. In the 1950s, the critic Lionel Trilling declared, with mild hyperbole: “Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine of Mansfield Park.”

And if little Fanny Price offended the “modern pieties,” as he called them, of the ’50s, how much more unpalatable is she today, in the age of the Strong Female Protagonist?

Fanny is shrinking and modest.

She is afraid of everything. She tires easily, is frail, delicate in health. She is submissive. She considers everybody’s needs before

her own. She is gentleness itself.

Austen-as-narrator refers to Fanny’s “favourite indulgence of being suffered to sit silent and unattended to.”

“Few young ladies,” she tells us, “could be less called on to speak their opinion than Fanny.”

She is told she is unimportant and believes it. Wonder Woman or Lena Dunham, she ain’t. The (highly enjoyable) 1999 film version of Mansfield Park gets around the problem of Fanny’s insipidity by endowing her with Lizzy Bennet’s sense of irony and Austen’s writing habit – by remaking her, in short, in our own image.

Yet Fanny Price is, without a doubt, Austen’s “Christian” heroine. This observation is

usually made disparagingly – and Mansfield Park decried as the revenge that the writer’s conservative, conventional society forced her to take on the vivacity and joy of Pride and Prejudice.

Mary Crawford, who arrives at Mansfield to (almost) supplant Fanny in the dearest wishes of her heart, is Elizabeth Bennet cast in a negative light: elegant, highspirited, independent, witty – but unserious and wanting in principle.

Whatever the case, Austen obviously cared deeply about the fate of Mansfield Park and its Christian heroine. She carefully collected and recorded the opinions of family, friends and acquaintances after the novel was published in 1814 – especially their

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comparisons to her widely beloved Pride and Prejudice (as well as Sense and Sensibility): “Not liked it near so well as P. & P. – Edward admired Fanny – George disliked her – George interested by nobody but Mary Crawford.”

“Mrs Augusta Bramstone – owned that she thought S & S. – and P. & P. downright nonsense, but expected to like M. P. better, & having finished the 1st vol.

– flattered herself she had got through the worst.”

“Mrs Carrick. – ‘A ll who think deeply & feel much will give the preference to Mansfield Park.’”

For readers unfamiliar with what is probably Austen’s least continued page 16

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Jane Austen From page 15 read novel, Fanny Price comes to live with her far more affluent and gentrified cousins, the Bertrams, at the age of ten. She is educated at her uncle Sir Thomas’ expense, but always made to feel the difference in her own status compared with her older cousins – Tom, Edmund (her staunchest friend in the family), Maria and Julia – most particularly by her odious and wonderfully sketched Aunt Norris (for whom the cat of odious Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch is named in Harry Potter). The action proper begins with the arrival at the local parsonage of the lively and beautiful Mary Crawford and her charming brother Henry, come to wreak romantic havoc among the Mansfield inhabitants.

I know that many people find Mansfield Park heavy in mood and moralistic in tone. Perhaps they’re right. But I find it fascinating.

The novel is especially masterful in exposing the gap between people’s real motivations and how they present themselves; between our veneer of politeness and the human heart.

Fanny is surrounded, it seems, by exceptionally selfish beings – or possibly by people just like us, whose desires and intentions don’t usually receive the scrutiny of a moral analyst as skilful or as amusing as Austen. Fanny alone never lies to herself about her own motivations; Fanny alone notices what lies behind other people’s actions. She listens; others confide in her; while having a humility that keeps her from being waspish

or censorious, she is our eyes and ears into the workings of each character’s heart.

Mansfield Park commits the novelistic faux pas of preferring what’s good to what’s entertaining. We can be naively unaware of the gap between what is appealing on-screen or in a novel and what is (or ought to be) appealing in life – put bluntly, between the romantic hero and the guy who’d make a good husband.

This novel contains some of Austen’s most cynical remarks about matrimony: “There is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry. Look where I will, I see that it is so; and I feel that it must be so, when I consider that it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.”

This from the vivacious, worldly Mary Crawford; but the narrator can be equally caustic.

Of the eldest Miss Bertram, Maria, before her marriage to the asinine Mr Rushworth, we are told: “In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquility; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait.”

But Mansfield Park is not cynical about marriage, really. Rather it’s cynical about our tendency to make choices for our real lives based on the surface qualities valued in fiction (or by Hollywood)

– our tendency to prefer style over substance. As a novel, it is gauche enough to value what is of value in real life rather than in (certain) novels.

This crossover with real life is clear in a letter Austen wrote during the composition of Mansfield Park. Her niece Fanny Knight had expressed concerns that a suitor of hers was too serious, too “Evangelical” – and not as much fun (not as cool?) as her own brothers.

Fanny’s aunt advises her: “Do not be frightened from the connection by your Brothers having most wit. Wisdom is better

AUGUST 2017

than Wit, & in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side; & don’t be frightened by the idea of his acting more strictly up to the precepts of the New Testament than others.”

The character and the fate of Fanny Price strongly suggest that qualities like patience, kindness, selfawareness, promise-keeping, self-denial, humility, do more for “domestic happiness” – by which is meant a good marriage, of course, but also our daily life and interactions with others more broadly – than dash and charm.

Nice Guy Edmund (the intermittent hero of the novel) is kind, not courteous; he won’t say something he doesn’t really think in order to be amusing or gallant. He is not witty; he is sincere. Yet Mary finds herself falling in love with him, against all her worldly instincts.

Similarly, her brother Henry (spoiler alert!), who mischievously sets out to make the serious, virtuous Fanny fall in love with him, to everybody’s astonishment (including his own) finds himself enamoured of her gentleness and goodness, which are in such contrast to the objects of his myriad previous flirtations.

Mansfield Park is guilty of the novelistic crime of treating serious things seriously, and rewarding those characters who do the same.

Trilling continues to be right, that it offends our modern pieties in all kinds of ways. Yet in a time that claims to value and long for authenticity above everything

else; in the recently-dawned age of the introvert; in an age of anxiety; might there not be a place for the nervous, sensitive, but determinedly faithful Fanny Price?

A prayer, written by Austen herself, underlines her preoccupation with our failure or success in knowing ourselves, in accurately divining our own motives and character: “May we now, and on each return of night, consider how the past day has been spent by us, what have been our prevailing thoughts, words and actions during it, and how far we can acquit ourselves of evil. Have we thought irreverently of thee, have we disobeyed thy commandments, have we neglected any known duty, or willingly given pain to any human being? Incline us to ask our hearts these questions oh! God, and save us from deceiving ourselves by pride or vanity.”

Mansfield Park is, at the end of the day, a tad moralistic. It does not forgive; the epic redemption of a Dostoyevsky character, the higher realities of transforming grace, are not attempted here. But as an anatomy of “pride and vanity,” and a call to higher self-perception, it’s a sometimes uncomfortable but always compelling read.

The meek shall inherit the earth, according to Austen’s least popular (major) novel. Given the toll taken daily on our news screens and in our everyday relationships, by arrogance and egoism and narcissism and contempt, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing – even in a novel.

Natasha Moore is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. publicchristianity.org

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

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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 P: +61 2 9381 1999 | E: newcollege@unsw.edu.au | VENUE New College, University of New South Wales

CHARITY FEATURE

AUGUST 2017

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Seeing after being in the dark MARISKA MELDRUM I was born with a congenital cataract in my right eye. Since I was a baby, my vision was so bad that I couldn’t see my hand held 5 centimetres in front of my right eye. It was basically like I was seeing the whole world through my left eye.

Having a cataract affects your depth perception. I was called ‘butterfingers’ at school as I struggled to catch a ball. Often I’d drop the ball or get hit in the face, which meant I was always last to be picked for team sports.

I didn’t know what it was like to be able to see out of both eyes.

I hadn’t realised how much it was impacting me until one of my high school friends asked me, ‘Why are you always bumping into doorways?’

I had enough peripheral vision to be able to do a head check and drive, but I couldn’t read or see people’s faces if I covered up my ‘good’ eye. It was a pretty severe cataract and it got worse as I got older.

When I was young my parents were told not to let anyone remove my cataract because there was a risk of losing sight in my good eye - leaving me blind. For 33 years I was told that, until eventually

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Mariska with Raul, a 34-year-old farmer from the Philippines my cataract did what doctors call ‘mature’. It turned white and my eyes weren’t straight anymore.

I became very self-conscious about how I looked so I went to see a specialist. He told me he could do the operation to remove the cataract but because it was so bad, there were risks involved.

My church and my family said to me, ‘We’re going to pray for you that your sight is restored through this operation.’ I said to them,

‘Don’t worry about it... the doctors have told me there is no chance of getting my sight back through the surgery.’

The day after the surgery, my husband drove me to the hospital to have the eye patch taken off. He said, ‘Do you want me to come in with you?’ I said, ‘No, no. They’re just going to take it off. I won’t be able to see, so there’s no point you being there.’ When the surgeon took the patch off, I was blinking

and it felt strange because for the first time I could see out of my right eye. I put my hand over my left eye to double check and said to the surgeon, ‘I can see.’ He said, ‘That’s not possible.’ But he checked – and I could see.

It’s a very strange sensation to go from darkness to being able to see everything around you. When I got home and told my church and my family, my pastor invited me to share that with our church – because they prayed for me.

It was my own miracle.

When I went to the Philippines with CBM in March this year and saw children who had cataracts in both eyes (as well as adults with vision impairment, like 34-yearold Raul), it really opened my eyes to what could have been.

My condition was picked up when I was 4 years old and I was monitored throughout my life. But in countries like the Philippines, children’s eyes aren’t routinely checked and conditions like cataracts can go untreated for a long time. Around 90 percent of people who are visually impaired live in developing countries.

Parents might not realise that the reason their children are struggling is because their vision impairment is so severe.

I met seven-year-old Margil who

had been born with cataracts. It made me sad to hear that she’d struggled to stay in school because of her eyesight. I was excited for her when it was time for her surgery, knowing what a difference it would make to her life.

When Margil had her patches taken off, she squinted and you could tell light was getting into her eyes for the first time. Then she saw her mum and her face just lit up.

To watch a child see their parents clearly for the first time was something I’ll never forget.

I’ve been working with CBM since January, coordinating Miracles Day in partnership with Christian radio stations across Australia. Having had issues with my own eyesight, I really feel that God is using my experience to help those with vision impairment in the world’s poorest countries.

This year, through Miracles Day, CBM aims to give 30,000 people sight-saving surgery. Eighty per cent of all blindness could be avoided or treated. Miracles Day provides an opportunity to give someone the gift of sight, with a 12-minute operation costing $32.

CBM’s Miracles Day happens across Australia on August 17. To find out more or to donate, visit cbm.org.au

Each month, Eternity will highlight a charity from the group bringing you this special page.

MISSIONWITHOUT WITHOUTBORDERS BORDERS MISSION

VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE AND FAMINE IN EAST AFRICA APPEAL Help us provide food, shelter, healthcare and psychological support to famine-affected communities in Kenya and South Sudanese refugees fleeing violence.

All donations are tax deductible.

Just $32 can help restore sight.

Please give today

anglicanaid.org.au | (02) 9284 1406

131 226 | cbm.org.au/sight

Photo taken by Anglican Aid on location in refugee crisis in Uganda.

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AUGUST 2017

How we change our minds Simone Richardson on the dangers of groupthink Jonathan Haidt is one of the most sought-after speakers in the world. A university professor of social psychology, Haidt applies his understanding of “moral foundations” to politics. His analysis of voting, ideology and personality are fascinating.

Haidt’s ideas are built on a dual-process theory of cognition, whereby our brains are understood to have two systems of reasoning: System 1, for fast, unconscious, non-verbal, instinctual respondings; and System 2, for slow, conscious, language-dependent, abstract and effortful thought. Haidt’s understanding of the interplay between these two systems is best seen in his elephant and rider metaphor: A small person is riding a very large elephant. The rider (representing System 2 – our conscious reasoning) may imagine that she is in charge, but it is the elephant (System 1 – our automatic and intuitive processes) which is ultimately making the decisions.

System 2 is so controlled by System 1 that often when we think we are reasoning, we are just moving the reins in the direction the elephant has already decided to travel. For human beings are not primarily rational creatures.

We are social and emotional. Our judgments on how we will act and what is right and wrong are more based on automatic processes – our moral intuitions – than on conscious reasoning.

“

One of the most powerful of our moral intuitions is our need to be part of a group. Over the centuries it has been our capacity to form groups and cooperate within these groups that has ensured our survival. Haidt argues that when confronted with an idea, our System 1 minds quickly assess whether it will affect our membership in a group that’s important to us. We will intuitively The Bush look with favour upon ideas that Church Aid Society invites mission-minded will solidify our group membershipapplicants for the position of and feel bias against ideas which Regional Officer for NSW/ACT will threaten it. System 2 will then comean into play andmission find rational BCA, evangelical agency ministering within the Australian reasonsChurch, to support the decision Anglican seeks a leader with a passion for mission plus gifts in that System 1 has pretty much communication, networking, pastoral care and mobilising volunteers. already made. Our minds will play up the reasonableness Democrats him the as a traitor.

The successful applicant, basedofinany Sydney but travelling regard throughout argument System 1 While Haidt is Diocesan not a Christian region, wouldsupporting be licensedour by the Archbishop of Sydney, other view, and downplay thebe strengths does notinparticularly Bishops in the region and subject to theand Faithfulness Service codeaddress of any opposing arguments. the church, his ideas speak for clergy and church workers.

Moving from our intuitive to the chasms in Australian response to adescription contrary opinion on evangelicalism asNational much as they For a position and application form contact BCA a high-stakes issue is as effortful – do to divided America.

Director: Mark.Short@bushchurchaid.com.au or 02 9262 5017. Over the and generally as successful – as a 25 years, group of Australian Applications close Friday Augustthat 2017 small rider trying to steer a large Christians has warred over stubborn elephant. Changing baptism, the Lord’s supper, church bushchurchaid.com.au/regionalofficer our minds is not impossible, but governance, miracles, biblical relationally costly, so our instincts inerrancy, pacifism, temperance, fight against it. manifestations of the Spirit and Haidt’s research has made him corporate worship. These days, an insightful and moderating the most divisive issues tend to voice in US politics. He has been concern gender roles and sexuality. arguing for humility on both sides, Disagreement isn’t bad in itself. challenging people to fight the Over the centuries it has been the self-justifying irrationality that challenge of differing views that comes from party loyalty. Haidt has caused Christians to search was once an ardent Democrat but the Scriptures and over time, now considers himself a centrist come to find nuance, clarity and in US politics. Accordingly, many consensus on complex issues. The

Pastor

Seeking a 0.8 FTE Pastor who is passionate about Jesus and growing His kingdom.

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Job & Person Descriptions at www.

Rivergate.org.au/vacancies. Call 0468 993 215 for more info. Send applications to RivergateLeadership@gmail.com.

Rivergate is in Athelstone, SA. All staff and volunteers must comply with our child safety policies & procedures.

What we believe is right and wrong are more based on automatic processes – our moral intuitions – than conscious reasoning. ”

Regional Officer for NSW/ACT BCA, an evangelical mission agency ministering within the Australian Anglican Church, seeks a leader with a passion for mission plus gifts in communication, networking, pastoral care and mobilising volunteers.

devastation to unity comes from the tendency Christians can have to gather and form tribes around the subjects of our disagreement.

It has not been enough for us to identify ourselves as being in Christ, belonging to him and his church. We’ve also needed to be of all sorts of other things. We align ourselves with those who share our views and our personal identity and acceptance becomes wrapped up in that group. Those who hold group opinions most strongly rise in status. Those who question them are seen as weak, suspicious or even dangerous. At this point, changing our opinions – or even seeing any good in opposing views – becomes difficult. Our System 1 minds recognise the importance of our group membership, and so stop us from seriously considering other ideas. We might appear to be studying Scripture, but our work will be self-justifying.

What then, is the answer? Does the work of Haidt prove that our logic is fatally flawed and truth is unknowable? Not at all. On a natural level we can take heart from the research which shows that awareness can be powerful.

When we understand how our minds work, reinforcing some opinions and blocking out others, we are in a position to challenge our instincts and force System 2 to wake up. The rider can grow and the elephant can shrink. It will take effort, but the great beast that is our emotions and their need for group acceptance can be tamed

Opportunity to be Involved in Mission / Ministry to Women and Children in Need in Victoria.

We require a couple (semi-retired) and a woman for staff worker roles for Christian ministry which includes cooking, cleaning, maintenance and interacting with guests.

The successful applicant, based in Sydney but travelling throughout the region, would be licensed by the Archbishop of Sydney, other Diocesan Bishops in the region and be subject to the Faithfulness in Service code for clergy and church workers.

Personnel need to be relationally and spiritually mature, non-judgmental, compassionate and willing to be trained.

This is an opportunity to work with other volunteers full time in a home mission field.

For a position description and application form contact BCA National Director: Mark.Short@bushchurchaid.com.au or 02 9262 5017.

Applications close Friday 25 August 2017

References required.

bushchurchaid.com.au/regionalofficer

For More Information contact Dawn on 03 5967 1021 or 0409 596 462 www.benwerren.com.au

ETERNITY NEWSPAPER Print Co-ordination and Distribution by

– but generally not while we are tightly bound in groups.

A Facebook friend and I disagree on a host of issues. On some of these we have never been able to have a productive debate.

But on baptism, we’ve been able to have reasonable discussions. He’s shown me the scriptural evidence for his view. I’ve accepted that he has some good arguments. I’ve shown him passages that support my view. He’s listened. I haven’t convinced him yet, and he hasn’t convinced me, but we’ve gone away calm, friendly and sharper.

I suspect that in generations past, my friend and I could not have done that. Back then, the issue of baptism was a team identifier. These days, while we have firm opinions, we don’t have an allegiance to one side. On other issues, however, we are members of warring tribes. In order to have productive discussions on divisive issues, we need to step outside of, or at least loosen our ties with our groups. Haidt is pessimistic about the chances of this often happening, but as Christians, we have reason not to be.

Many of us have vivid stories of how God took us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of light. We can tell how God changed our allegiances and made us desire Jesus above everything else. God enabled us to separate ourselves from our worldly identities, step into his church and call ourselves Christians. And God can continue to work such miracles today.

He can cause us to step out of our Christian factions and find our identity in him alone. Before we read the Bible we can pray that God will give us understanding.

We can ask that the safety and security and status that we find in him will overpower that which we find in our groups. God can give us the humility, commitment and courage to set aside group loyalties and really read his word.

Simone Richardson is a songwriter and Christian commentator.

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OPINION

AUGUST 2017

A new vision

Claire Rogers on global problems

I can now. I thank God that when these little ones arrive, they are greeted by our experienced workers and taken to our Child Friendly Spaces, where they are fed, clothed and provided with compassionate care.

Closer to home, I held in my arms a little girl from the Kimberley who attends a playgroup funded by World Vision’s Australia Program.

This dear little child called Arnie was very affectionate. She wouldn’t let me go. Later I discovered that Arnie suffers from foetal alcohol syndrome; a devastating effect of dispossession and marginalisation.

It broke my heart. It made me angry. I am learning that anger can fuel action and transformation. It is a call to contribute to something greater than ourselves.

At World Vision I have been deeply inspired and humbled by crisis and development programs that are transforming communities. As a Christian, I have looked to Christ – one of the world’s greatest humanitarians – as never before. I have a greater understanding of the words of Bob Pierce, World Vision’s founder – “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God”.

Global problems – terrorism, pandemics, refugees and displacement, climate change and poverty – require lasting global solutions. We all have a role to play in creating a fairer and more peaceful world. The power for change – real change – is in all of our hands.

During the past nine months as CEO of World Vision I have been confronted by a world in need that I previously knew of only second hand. I have come face to face with crippling poverty as never before and it has forced me to re-examine my personal commitment to social justice. Witnessing the work of World Vision amongst the most vulnerable people on the planet has been, at times, confronting, heartbreaking and inspiring.

I recently visited Bidi Bidi, the world’s largest refugee camp in Uganda, where I worked alongside World Vision staff providing hot meals and fresh water to the hundreds of thousands fleeing famine and a brutal civil war in South Sudan. Many of the refugees are unaccompanied children.

Can you imagine what fear lies in the heart of a six-year-old child – alone and hungry – who may have seen her parents shot dead? Or have been shot at herself?

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When less is more Katherine Thompson on decluttering Minimalism has become a new social movement, reacting against excessive consumerism and the lie that owning more stuff can make us happy. This movement is apparent in social-media-led campaigns to declutter wardrobes, or books written about how to declutter our homes. Alongside this is a growing awareness that a life cluttered with information and things divides our attention.

People keep discovering that owning things and accumulating more does not make us happy; it exaggerates our emptiness.

The Netflix documentary, Minimalism, follows the journey of two friends who had bought into the dream of climbing the ladder of career and purchasing the possessions that go with success, only to find this dream was illusive and unfulfilling. Their radical response was to reject what US society told them, quit their jobs,

The “Minimalists,” Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus and free themselves of possessions.

Everything they owned was kept only if it served a function and made their lives better.

After living this way for five years, the two friends wrote a book, and spent 10 months touring the US to promote their radical ideology of minimalism. The premise of their doctrine is that things cannot fill our emotional void. Their take-home message is that we should love people and use things, because it doesn’t work when you do the reverse.

The journey of these Minimalists shares parallels with Jesus’ teaching. Yet why are Christians quick to buy into our society’s need to find fulfilment by consuming stuff ? Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear, but to seek his kingdom

first. He also tells us that life does not consist in possessions. Jesus was the first true Minimalist, because he knew money, success or material possessions cannot satisfy. Only Jesus can satisfy.

He also teaches that the most important thing in life is to love God and the people around us.

For the Minimalists, it all boils down to one thing. Are we loving people and using things, or using people and loving things? For followers of Christ, we have a different question. Are we loving God and using things, or using God and loving things?

Dr Katherine Thompson is a Mental Health Social Worker and a Senior Research Fellow at Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, in Melbourne.

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OPINION

20

AUGUST 2017

Be doers of the word, not hearers only

It is not a novel observation that the vast preponderance of charitable activities and institutions which have served all-comers over recorded history have been motivated by and founded upon Christian belief. We in Australia think this notion of helping people in need regardless of where they come from is normal; it isn’t. Caring for your own family, your own people – that is what other non-Christian traditions would see as normal.

This is clear from the first recorded cross-border international aid and development in the first century after Christ, when the apostle Paul, in response to a famine that ravaged Palestine in AD 46-48, conducted his

Why does this matter? Because this is a story not of theoretical ethics, but of life-transforming action; not only of motivation, but of deep identity.

Even some prominent charities such as Red Cross and the Benevolent Society began with overt and intentional Christian purposes, only to discard them later, with equal intentionality.

The founding of the Red Cross by devout Geneva Christian Jean Henri Dunant resulted from his personal experiences of assisting the wounded soldiers at the Battle of Solferino in 1859, a battle that didn’t even involve his own countrymen. This led to his advocacy for, and establishment of, the five-person International Committee of the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions that followed – deliberately choosing the Christian symbol of the Red Cross. Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The first charity to be formally established in NSW was the NSW Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and Benevolence in these Territories and the Neighbouring Islands.

The Benevolent Society, as it became known, was officially set up in 1813 by men who had mainly served with the London Missionary Society. Significantly

influenced by William Wilberforce (the serial philanthropist who was influential in the abolition of slavery in England and its colonies, the establishment of the RSPCA, and the promotion of prison reform), it ceased operations by 1815. In 1817 the Bible Society was established under the patronage of Governor Lachlan Macquarie – thus becoming the oldest continuous charity in Australia – and the same people kick-started the Benevolent Society back into action in 1818, to focus on benevolence rather than evangelism.

So what? What if organisations that were once founded by Christians, are not identifiably Christian anymore. Surely they are doing good works!

Well, it matters because the Who and the Why – the identity and purpose of an organisation – informs the What and the How. It informs what an organisation will do – and what it won’t do. At the heart of our Christian identity is a desire, nay a command, to proclaim the Good News of

christianheritagefellowship.com

Anne Robinson on the Christian core of charity

own decade-long international aid program earmarked for poverty-stricken Palestinians.

Wherever he went, he asked the Gentile churches to contribute whatever they could to the poor in Jerusalem.1 The notion of providing assistance for foreigners somewhere else in the world, and not only your own people, was new.

In 2006 a feature story in BRW aimed to focus upon the role of the charity sector in the Australian economy. The story was a kind of take on the Richest 200 List that we have come to know, but listing the Richest 200 charities. As my day-job involved providing legal services for much of this same sector, this piqued my interest! So we put together a Top 25 charities list. The standout feature of it was that, if we excluded2 educational institutions (universities and nongovernment schools), 19 of the 25 in Australia were Christian. One of the others, YMCA, started life as a Christian movement, but had since lost this part of its identity.3 A decade later, our analysis shows the impact of Christian charitable endeavours in Australia is still marked. Of the largest 25 charities by revenue in 2015,4 16 are Christian, in name and practice.5 Size is not important, but it provides an interesting marker, not only of scale but also longevity.

Jesus and show God’s love to his creation. And that means maintaining with great vigilance the Christian motivation of our charitable services.

Anne Robinson is the Deputy Chair of Bible Society Australia 1. John Dickson quoted in Driven by Purpose: Charities that Make the Difference. Judd Robinson and Errington, HammondPress 2012.

2. We included all charities as commonly understood – that is, not churches, schools or universities.

3. Young Men’s Christian Association.

4. Based on ACNC data from 2015 Annual Information Statements, excluding churches and religious bodies themselves; education (schools and universities); government entities, and foundations that fund other charitable organisations rather than doing the work themselves.

5. Likewise, of the largest 50 charities by revenue

Bible Stat 98 per cent of people with Scriptures in their heart language by 2035 is achievable, Bible Societies were told in Sydney last month.