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Number 90, April 2018 ISSN 1837-8447
Brought to you by the Bible Society
Eloise Wellings
Running for Christ at the Commonwealth Games
81 per cent of the world has Bibles
France remembers the Anzacs
With Jesus in messy, unsafe places
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Beyond Gold
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Obadiah Slope ALBERT MOHLER, A US BAPTIST LEADER, TWEETED: “I suspected at first it was a millennial church plant. It is Australian coffee. Who knew?” The cup says “ministry of coffee.” There are probably confused Aussies too. What is it about church and coffee? SLIPPERY SLOPE: Ministers often have their stipends/wages pegged to average earnings. This year NSW Presbyterians have seen their base wage fall – the average full-time male wage actually fell in their state. By about an expensive cup of coffee a week. ATTACKED FROM THE RIGHT: “If business isn’t careful, it will go the way of Christianity” is how John Roskam, executive director of the Institute For Public Affairs (IPA), begins an opinion piece in The Australian Financial Review. He adds, “the Christian voice in public debate in Australia is now either ignored or non-existent. It is difficult to think of a single policy issue of recent years in which the Christian perspective has prevailed.” The IPA’s stern lecturer goes on to say that the decline in influence is because the churches talked about everything except saving souls. His article is aimed at business, urging them to stick to their knitting – that is, making a profit. On Obadiah’s home patch, the churches are very focused on saving souls.
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Good news: 81 per cent of the world has Scripture
News 2-3 In Depth 5-9
JOHN SANDEMAN
Bible Society 10
Elomwe, Txitopi, Turkmen and Zottung Chin are languages that had their first ever Bible translations completed in 2017. The first two are spoken in Mozambique, and the others in Turkmenistan and Myanmar. Seven languages, spoken by more than 13 million people, received the full Bible in their own language for the first time. Two Australian Aboriginal groups got expanded but not yet complete translations: the Eastern and Central Arrente people (centred on Alice Springs) and the Alyawarr (northeast of Alice). Because languages change over time, revised translations are continually produced. In 2017, 30 new translations in languages spoken by 566 million people were completed. Bible translations stats reveal an encouraging fact – and a challenging one. The encouraging stat is that 5.4 billion of the 7.6 billion people on Earth have the whole Bible in their language, with 631 million more having the New Testament plus 406 million with portions of Scripture (which normally mean the gospels at least). That leaves a gap of 209 million people. The challenging stat is that those 209 million people speak 3773 languages.
Charity Feature 12 Opinion 11-16
Quotable
Launch of the Poqomchí Bible, a language spoken in Guatemala. To look at Bible translation from another angle: Out of the 7097 languages on Earth, 674 have full Bibles, 1515 have New Testaments and 1135 have portions of Scripture. This reflects the fact that the larger language groups have the Bible. But some quite large groups – such as the seven million Turkmen speakers and 1,630,000 Elomwe speakers – received their Bibles only last year. The smaller language groups yet to receive the whole Bible in their language include all the Aboriginal languages of Australia (The
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Kriol Bible of northern Australia, completed in 2007, is in a Creole language – a mix of tongues, sometimes called a pidgin, that has become a full language). The translation task continues. There’s an increasing focus on special groups, and this is reflected in the latest stats. Sign language is a special focus for Bible translators with 26 sign languages actively being translated. Only 10 per cent of the more than 400 unique sign languages have any Scripture. Auslan, our local language for Australia, is one of the best provided for.
June 25 - 28, 2018 | Sydney Showground www.oxygenconference.com A MINISTRY OF KATOOMBA CHRISTIAN CONVENTION
“Paris lay open, until Australian troops recaptured the town and overran German positions in a night attack that cost 1200 Australian lives.” Page 13
Radio: Changing Lives, Bringing Hope in Russia
Alexey Vlasikhin FEBC Australia is hosting Alexey Vlasikhin, Program Manager of FEBC Russia’s Radio TEOS station this May. Learn how Alexey and the FEBC Russia team reach out through radio to display the love of Jesus in their community, including: + Supporting foster care and adoption of abandoned teens
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Barney Zwartz
+ On and off-air counseling to those in need + Outreach into drug rehabilitation centres Hear live from Alexey about how radio in Russia is feeding hearts, engaging communities, bringing hope, changing lives and inspiring people to follow Christ.
Live In Australia
Sydney Central Baptist Church Fellowship Hall 619 George Street, Sydney Saturday 12 May 2018 11.00am
Brisbane Brisbane School of Theology Taylor Room 1 Cross Street Toowong QLD 4066 Saturday 28 April 3pm Keperra Baptist Church 980 Samford Rd, Keperra Sunday 29 April 2018 6.00pm Service
View all Alexey’s speaking events and register at https://febc.org.au/alexey
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders met in March to pray and “reclaim” the site of Captain James Cook’s landing at Kurnell, on the southern shores of Botany Bay – the country of the Gweagal clan of the Dharawal nation. The prayer vigil was held as part of the Grasstree Gathering, an annual non-denominational meeting to celebrate, encourage, equip and inspire an emerging generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders. Organiser Brooke Prentis, a descendant of the Waka Waka people in Queensland, said “this place is a place where, at first contact, Cook’s first reaction was to shoot. This is a tragic story.”
Truth telling about the church KALEY PAYNE A documentary three years in the making that explores the best and worst of Christianity is set to be released this May. For The Love of God: How Christianity Is Better and Worse Than You Ever Imagined is being produced by Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). A cinematic release is expected from May 7, followed by a digital campaign for schools, universities and churches. CPX director Simon Smart told Eternity that while he felt already “painfully aware of the failures of Christians across the centuries,” he
was “horrified anew” at some of the stories told in the documentary. “It’s sometimes beyond belief that people could act in a certain way and equate that with their Christianity. Not in spite of it, but because of it,” he says. “But all the way through history there are also beautiful stories of people who really do ‘play the tune of Jesus’; who live in a very self-sacrificial way, because of their faith. And I get inspired and encouraged by those people. In equal parts, I think this documentary is both challenging and encouraging. Better and worse, right? That’s the title.”
Shooting the documentary took the CPX team to far-flung places, including a historical leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. There, Smart and his team tell the story of Belgian priest Father Damien De Veuster, who travelled to the colony in the 19th century. “It was a dreadful place but also rather spectacular,” Smart says. “Father Damien in the 19th century went in with great compassion and commitment to the people. He restored a sense of community, education, music; he brought dignity to the lives there. He contracted leprosy himself and died from it.”
He says he particularly enjoyed telling the story of Martin Luther King Jr and the fight for human rights, “especially the campaign of non-violent resistance, and the way King’s faith contributed to that. “We need to be honest about the failings. It’s not surprising to Christians who understand the gospel that there are going to be terrible failings. They’ll recognise those failings, but be able to tell the good story in a way that perhaps they weren’t able to before.”
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Reaching people with dementia TESS DELBRIDGE Thelma has had dementia for close to 15 years, but still loves to sing hymns and read the Bible. Thanks to a new suite of resources produced by HammondCare, she still can. “Faith for Life: Biblical resources for people with dementia” is a series of resources designed to help people living with dementia connect with their Christian faith. “People who belong to God have a faith that continues despite terrible sicknesses or accidents, and likewise despite dementia,” says pastoral care worker Lois Haultain. “Although dementia is a disease of the brain, it’s not a disease of the heart and the spirit.” The Faith for Life resources include pictures, a few words of Scripture, a hymn and a prayer to help stimulate connection and conversation. Thelma’s daughter Heather says they are working. They were part of the pilot programme, and worked closely with HammondCare to discuss what kind of product would work for supporting and encouraging Thelma’s faith. There were four other pilot participants. Bible Society Australia was involved in the early stages of the project. faithforlife.com.au
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Cyclists raise $18,000 to refresh gospel workers Early every morning in Sydney, Lycra-clad cyclists emerge from the darkness to get their daily two-wheel fix before the streets fill with traffic. On a Friday in late February, 40 cyclists assembled at a cafe in Hornsby, northern Sydney, for a ride with a difference – to raise money to refresh gospel workers. The two-day, 123km return ride to Katoomba was the initiative of keen cyclist and pastor of 20 years, L-T Hopper. Also part of the Church Partnerships team with Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC), L-T saw this as an opportunity to combine the popularity of cycling with his desire to see as many as possible benefit from the third Oxygen conference to take place in Sydney this June. “The Oxygen conference has not only kept me going as a pastor but also as a Christian. I want others to have the opportunity to have the same experience I have had. Many leaders work in difficult contexts with little support. I wanted to give them an opportunity to make connections with others for life; be encouraged and equipped for their roles, and saw this ride as one way to do this.” Launched in 2011, Oxygen has served over 3700 gospel workers from every state and territory in Australia and from countries as far as Dubai, India, Nigeria and Spain. Oxygen is a unique opportunity to be refreshed by God with brothers and sisters from around the world.
Cyclists gather together for a briefing before the 123 kilometre ride that lays before them. The ride began with a steep descent and climb through Galston Gorge, before the two groups continued west to Richmond. The early stages of the ride were flat but rough, with five flat tyres and a broken crank recorded before the intensity ramped up in the ascent to Springwood. The ride brought together riders of all abilities, with many admitting the ride was harder than they were expecting. All riders rolled into the KCC Conference Centre safely by lunchtime for an overnight rest with good food, massages
and mountain air. A highlight of the evening was a presentation by fellow rider and special guest Mike Tomalaris – host of SBS Television’s cycling coverage. A big breakfast the following morning fuelled the riders for the much-appreciated downhill return leg. Ride captain Sean “Data” Carroll described the 50km descent to Richmond as “fast, furious and fun”. The riders raised a total of $17,916 – a tremendous effort from 40 riders, many of whom are not Christian but wanted to participate
in the ride and contribute to the cause. These funds will now be used to bring to Oxygen men and women who need refreshment but have limited funds. Executive Director of KCC Jonathan Dykes couldn’t be persuaded to participate in the ride due to the not-inconsiderable danger he represented to other riders, but was there to send them off and expressed his gratitude for what they made possible: “Men and women doing gospel work face a lot of challenges and a lot of potential distractions and
temptations. It isn’t easy, and they need to be looked after spiritually. They need their desire and zeal for God and the work he has called them to, to be enriched and refreshed. That’s why we’re running Oxygen. What the cycling team have done so wonderfully is make it possible for those with extremely limited resources to get to Oxygen and be ministered to.” Oxygen returns to Sydney from June 25-28. Early Bird tickets available until April 30. For more information, visit www.oxygenconference.com
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Eloise Wellings runs for more than gold
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Following Jesus to messy, unsafe places Naomi Reed page 8
Behind the glamour of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games tracks has been a lifetime of training for Eloise Wellings.
When Eloise Wellings runs in the Commonwealth Games this month, she knows it’s not a gold medal that will define her. “Finding your identity in sport is so dangerous and fickle because that’s what sport is. It can be taken away at any moment and you know most athletes will testify to that,” she tells Eternity. Wellings knows this better than most. The middle-distance runner was just 16 years old when she qualified for the Sydney Olympics, only to have her dream cut short by a stress fracture to her hip that prevented her from competing.
She missed the Athens and the Beijing Olympics too, also because of injury. She’s had 11 stress fractures and battled an eating disorder. “All of my disappointing results and disappointing injuries and heartbreak missing three Olympics, there was always this belief and faith that my identity is in Jesus and that’s my foundation,” says Wellings. “When you’ve got that, you can’t be shaken. “Every time I get up to train, I just ask that he be glorified, that he give me the strength to do it, that he help give me the right thoughts to think and not necessarily that I win but that he would be made known to people as I run.”
Now a dual-Olympian, Wellings ran a personal best for the 10,000m race at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and says she’s looking to top that at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. When she sits down with Eternity in her home in Sydney, it’s only a few weeks before the Games begin and Wellings is in the thick of intensive training that she says is “almost sickening.” She’s running more than 140km a week. “I feel like I’m in great shape and training is going really well. Injury free, thank God, and just really excited about the opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd.” As she prepares for the Games, Wellings says she can see God at
Please help Iraqi Christians return home! Across Iraq’s ancient Nineveh Plains, thousands upon thousands of Christians are making their long-awaited return to their beloved towns and villages. ISIS militants had so comprehensively expelled Christians from the region, that barely a year ago it was almost impossible to imagine what we are seeing now - families bundling their belongings into cars and returning home. A miracle is in the making. Within just eight months, more than over than 6,700 families - more than 30,000 people - have already gone back. And yet, there is still so much to do. With so many families returning, it is difficult to keep pace with the demand for vital repairs to homes and churches ransacked and burnt by ISIS. Without their faith, they would not have the courage to return. Help our brothers and sisters today with a heartfelt donation.
The comfort cross, handcrafted in Bethlehem, it is an ideal spiritual companion for easing fears, comforting worAid to the Church in Need is an international charity supporting ries and focusing on prayer. Christians wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in A gift for any offering of $20 and over (Size: 9cm x 4.5cm)
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work in the Australian team. “For probably ten years, I’ve been one of the only openly Christian people on the Australian team. But last year, at the World Championships, two of my friends – one is a high jumper and one is a long jumper – were able to meet up each day and have a little Bible study and pray together.” Wellings said Christians from other countries at the championships came along, too. “Just gathering together in a public space, in our hotel, I think it caused people to ask questions.” Wellings runs for love. She calls her running career an “expensive hobby.” Now an Athletics Australia-funded athlete, Wellings
says she was never in it for the money. “I decided years ago that I would do it as long as I was still enjoying it and still able to do it.” At 36, she’s set her eyes on the marathon for a possible 2020 Olympic bid. “What bigger challenge could there be than the marathon? It seems like this big, mysterious, romantic challenge for me,” she says. Wellings is one for taking up challenges. It’s why she started the Love Mercy Foundation in 2009, which raises funds for impoverished communities in northern Uganda. After suffering another stress continued page 6
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A brutal sport event sparked chaplain Hannah’s passion ANNE LIM Former hockey player Hannah Johnson decided to become a sports chaplain when her sister’s Olympic dream was shattered by injury in 2008 in Beijing. “Two days before the opening ceremony, she did her hamstring and so she was evicted from the village and her Olympic dream was over. Just seeing the brutality of what sport can do sparked my passion,” she says. “The reason I do it is I see the need for our athletes to be seen as people, not just performers, and to know that their value [as an athlete] has nothing to do with their purpose. So if I come alongside them and journey with them – and hopefully do my best to reflect Christ’s love to them – they will come to know that they are more than a performer and that they can go after their dreams but with an understanding of who they actually are in Christ.” Working for Sports Chaplaincy Australia with all Olympic sports since 2012, Hannah is Multi-Faith Manager for Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC), overseeing the entire village for the Games on the Gold Coast. “Every day looks different. Sometimes they may go out to see the athletes compete, sometimes
Hannah Johnson they just stay in the village, connecting here, then we respond to different requests.” This year, because Easter falls just before the Games, several countries have requested Easter services, not only for the athletes but also the officials. “We’ve had a fair few shocked people who haven’t qualified for the Australian team where there was a lot of family expectation on the athletes, where extended family
and friends have all bought tickets and booked flights and then the athlete hasn’t actually qualified. So not only are they disappointed themselves for not getting picked for the team, but then they’ve got the added weight of feeling like they’ve let their family and friends down,” she says. “You’ve got a lot of countries that put a lot of expectation on athletes and if they don’t perform on the day, you add on extra pressure ... for some it’s not easy to try and process that. “Some of them will say, ‘Can you pray for me but not with me?’ Sometimes I don’t necessarily pray with them the first or second time, but when they’re coming back, that allows the opportunity to ask them who is God to them or what does faith mean? And when you get to hear their story then out of that, I can pitch what’s appropriate to who their understanding of God is and how that all works.” Another crisis comes when athletics careers are over. “If you don’t perform well, then you no longer make teams, you no longer have coaches speaking to you, you no longer have sponsors, you no longer have friends. A lot of that world changes whether you make a team or not and it’s no wonder that they have those challenges of getting their identity from their sport.”
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Eloise runs
From page 5 fracture just before the Beijing Olympics, Wellings was invited to Portland in the United States, to use a special treadmill called the “anti-gravity treadmill” to help in her rehabilitation. She stayed in a house that international athletes visited to use the same facilities. It was there she met Julius Achon, a Ugandan Olympian and former child soldier. “I was talking to him about how disappointed I was about being injured again, and how many injuries I had had, and how I wasn’t sure whether running was what I was meant to be doing any more. And he said, ‘If I told you my story and where I’ve come from, your foot problem would become very small.’ ” At 12 years old, Julius was abducted and forced to fight in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, a notoriously cruel rebel group. Julius told ABC News that when he escaped the army and made it back to his family, he was encouraged to run as a way of getting a free education. He competed in the Olympics in 1996 and 2000. When Achon visited his family in Uganda in 2003, he went for a run and discovered 11 orphans sleeping under a bus. They said their parents were dead. He took the children back to his family, who were living in a refugee camp in Lira, in northern Uganda. Achon went back to America and became a professional pacemaker, helping other athletes train. That’s what he was doing when he met Wellings. “He was sending most of
his money back to help his family and to help those kids [his family had taken in],” she said. By the end of her time in Portland, Wellings says she’d made a good friend in Julius. “I didn’t end up making the Olympics, but I just had this feeling that I was [in Portland] for something more. And Julius invited us to his wedding in Uganda a few months later.” Wellings went to Uganda for the first time and saw what she says was the “devastation and struggle that people had been through during the civil war. And we wanted to help Julius with a vision he had to start some community development projects to help people get back on their feet.” That’s how the Love Mercy Foundation was formed. Wellings went back to Australia and began talking about what she’d seen, and about Achon’s story. The foundation has built a health centre and funded more than 10,000 small seed loans to northern Ugandan women. “I couldn’t have told you where Uganda was on a map before I went to Portland [and met Julius],” says Wellings. “It’s such a privilege to be able to use running as a platform to bring light to what we’ve had the opportunity to do in Uganda.” As in her running, Wellings is determined to “give it everything I’ve got” when it comes to her foundation. And, she says, she won’t be able to run forever. “You can’t put your hope in sport ... But when I look back at what God has done in my running career and using it as a platform for Love Mercy, I’m so humbled.”
How the church is BETTER + WORSE than you ever imagined IN CINEMAS NATIONALLY FROM MAY 7 A documentary from the Centre for Public Christianity
Christian history is full of violence, corruption, and oppression. So does religion poison everything? For the Love of God confronts the worst that Christians have done – and traces the origins of Western values like human rights, charity, humility and non-violence back to the influence of Jesus. This is not the history we think we know. Join us as we weigh up the good, the bad, the ugly – and the unexpected – when it comes to the impact Christianity has had on the world we live in.
GO TO BETTERANDWORSE.FILM
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Baptists’ 150 years of growth AARON VEART BAPTIST MINISTRIES This year the Baptist Association of Churches in NSW and ACT celebrates its 150th anniversary. The Baptist Association is a voluntary network of churches that hold a common theological belief framework, purpose, values and vision. These 350 churches work together to further the gospel of Jesus in word, sign and deed. It is this commonality and a passion to see the kingdom of God expand that brought Baptist churches together 150 years ago. They knew that in order to serve Christ, to make him known and to live out the Great Commission in NSW, they had to work together. And for 150 years they have done exactly that. In the early days of the association, prayer was a central focus. The small group of churches fell to their knees and cried out to God to empower them to follow his calling boldly. This prayer bore fruit and the number of churches grew. Church planting was key to the growth in numbers, a vision that continues through to today. The association is currently prayerfully pursuing a goal to become a movement of 1000 healthy Baptist churches in the next generation – primarily through revitalisation, evangelism and church planting. In the early days of the movement, it continued to flourish
as it focused on three key areas of development – transforming discipleship, incarnational missional activity and impacting social engagement. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, these three elements drove significant growth. With this philosophy of ministry permeating the culture of the Baptist movement, significant social justice, mission and aid ministry was birthed from the local church. Baptist World Aid Australia began out of Frenchs Forest Baptist Church, on Sydney’s
north shore, growing into one of Australia’s largest and most dynamic faith-based international aid agencies and significantly impacting communities across the world through advocacy, aid, development and education. BaptistCare, a ministry originally called the NSW Baptist Homes Trust, was established to provide housing for the aged. Through this and various other ministries including HopeStreet it offers support, care and compassion to street workers, the
homeless and survivors of domestic violence as well as numerous partnerships with local churches to provide services to those in the community with significant needs. NSW and ACT Baptists have invested heavily in global mission, especially through the national Baptist mission agency Global Interaction. One of the key areas of cross-cultural mission focus was the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where people were unreached until the middle of the 20th century. In the decades
“ A heavy burden has been lifted from my life and I am grateful that Jesus gave me a new path...” –GERSHON FROM ZAMBIA
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following World War II the gospel was carried into the region and God worked powerfully, to the extent that now this region has an extensive Christian community. The growth of the number of churches in the association led to a need for equipped leaders to pastor churches and disciple new believers. Morling Theological and Bible College began with a goal to raise up, equip and release ministry leaders into churches. The college recently celebrated its 100th year of serving the Baptist movement (and other denominations). It continues to grow and respond to the changing needs of ministry in the 21st century. On May 17-18, Le Montage at Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west will be the venue for a unique gathering to celebrate what God has done in the life of NSW and ACT Baptists over the past 150 years, and to be inspired and equipped towards God’s amazing collective vision that he continues to call the association into. “Over the last 150 years, God has continually strengthened and led us as an association of churches and we are humbled to be part of his continued work in his world into the future,” Rev. Dr Steve Bartlett, Director of Ministries of the Association, reflected. “It is truly an exciting time to be part of such a dynamic and growing family of churches, dedicated to positively impacting the world around us for Christ.”
With a bottle of poison in his hand and on his way to the bush, Gershon saw the end of his hopeless life near. But the power of the Gospel captured his heart through the Jesus film, an African Enterprise outreach that turned his fatal day into his redemption day! Jesus says: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” –Matthew 9:37 Help us reach more people like Gershon with the Gospel of Jesus. To donate to our Evangelistic Mission work in Africa and to read Gershon’s full story visit our website below.
africanenterprise.com.au/Redeem
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‘Is it safe?’ A better question is ‘How ca Missionary writer Naomi Reed on taking risks for Jesus I was in Singapore a few years ago, speaking at the annual Interserve Missions event. It was a lovely evening. We gathered around the Bible, and we drank dandelion tea, and we heard inspiring stories of God at work around Asia and the Arab world. We also heard about the ongoing needs and missional opportunities and challenges in those countries. The work is not done yet! It’s not over! It was an excellent evening. Afterwards, though, I talked to the organiser of the event, and she said that she was occasionally frustrated. She felt that, in Singapore, there were many Christians and churches that were well-resourced, and as a nation they had good political standing with other countries, so they could travel easily … but often the response to the needs of the world was, “Is it safe?” Is it safe? Is it safe to go and serve in Nepal? Is it safe to travel as a Westerner in Tajikistan? Is it safe to visit a church in Egypt? Is it safe to be known as a Christian in Iraq? Is it safe to travel on the roads in Singapore? Is it safe to commute on the M4 each day in Sydney? The event organiser kept
chatting to me. She wondered whether some Singaporean Christians, highly motivated by safety and security as they seemed to be, had actually unwittingly developed a “security gospel” within their church communities, in place of the words and life of Jesus. It was a probing conversation for me. I remember sitting there and wondering whether I had done the same thing back in Australia. Or am I still doing that, today? Safety is a wonderful goal … and an extremely complex issue. As human beings, we’re wired to protect ourselves and the people we love. It’s an excellent wiring, and it’s our genetic code, and it keeps us alive as a human race through the innumerable strategies we’ve developed: risk management policies and building codes and contingency plans and advances in medical technology. Most of us are thankful beneficiaries of a Western focus on safety and security. But what if we all paused and quietly asked ourselves about the role of safety and security in our own lives and churches, as followers of Jesus. Is it possible that we are prioritising safety to the detriment of something else? Is it possible that we will not always feel safe? Is it OK to expect some level of un-safety, on a daily basis? Do we think that Jesus modelled safety or security as his highest priority? Two days before the missions
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As human beings, we’re wired to protect ourselves and the people we love.”
event in Singapore that year (April 2015), there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal. Nine thousand people died and 22,000 people were seriously injured, many of whom were in the towns and villages near where Darren and I lived from 1993 to 1996 and 2003 to 2006. Back in those years, Darren and I served with the International Nepal Fellowship (INF), working as physios and training local physios. Also back then, our decision to live in Nepal had been complicated. For ten of those years, the country had been in the middle of civil war, with bombs, riots and strikes a daily occurrence. Our decision to take our three small boys into that environment was challenging! But we also knew about the needs in Nepal. In 1993, there were only two Nepali physiotherapists serving the entire population of 20 million people. The INF literature stated that its mission was to “empower the most marginalised
Darren Reed, left, in Dhulikhel, Nepal, post-earthquake. and disadvantaged people through health and community development work.” And if any of us agree that that’s a necessary and needed goal, then we also have to consider that some of us will be called to “unsafe” places! So, back
then, the five of us went to live in Nepal for six years … And then in April 2015, Darren and I were glued to our screens in Singapore, watching the impact of the earthquake unfold, while at the same time trying to contact
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Wondering what studying at Bible college is like? Trying to find which college is right for you? Come along to our Open Evening! You’ll learn about the full-time and part-time study options, see the campus and meet our lecturers, registrars and students. Supper will be served. No RSVP required - just come along, we'd love to see you. Bring a friend!
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an we serve you, Lord?’
Naomi Reed
our friends near the epicentre. The next day, Darren decided to change his flights and fly straight to Nepal instead of coming home to Australia. When he arrived, he was able to serve at Dhulikhel Hospital alongside the incredible, tireless
Nepali physio colleagues. He said that it was an amazing privilege to be there during the most devastating natural disaster he had ever seen. During those weeks, the second earthquake occurred and hundreds of the patients were
rushed out of the hospital again, for three days, as another part of the building developed cracks and shifted off its foundations. Nearby, hundreds of thousands of Nepali people lost their homes and their livelihoods, and the recovery and resilience work of INF goes on today. I think it’s a natural question to ask. “Is it safe – to go there or to do this?” But I also think that every time we ask it, we need to try and listen to what’s going on within us, underneath the question. We all want the answer to be, “Yes, it’s safe.” We want someone to assure us that nothing awful will happen to us, or to the ones we love, today, or this year. That would be nice! But we also hold in tension the truth that we live in an unsafe world, where hard things happen every single day. After our time in Singapore, and after Darren’s time in Nepal postearthquake, we all regathered as a family in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and we decided that we needed a short weekend break to recover. So we booked a small house on the south coast of NSW, by the water. It was gorgeous. The view was very calming! I remember I walked in and poured myself a cup of tea and I just sat there, staring at the water. Darren also tried to calm down – he headed out on his bicycle, with one of our sons. Then suddenly, within an hour, they were both back at the front door. Darren had had an
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Lord, how can we serve you, and respond to you, in this unsafe, broken, beautiful world, today?” accident on his bike! He apparently came off over a bump and he now couldn’t move either hand! The next thing we knew, we were both sitting at Nowra Hospital, waiting for X-rays, and suspecting fractures to both his wrists. Three hours later, we were driving home to our quiet house by the water with both of his hands in plasters. It wasn’t as safe as we thought, in that quiet house by the water. It’s not a safe world. I think for me, I’ve realised that I need to take time to remember that. And then I need to get up again and respond to the gospel of Jesus – to live in this unsafe, needy world, in a way that honours him. And that doesn’t mean that I (or any of us) will do foolish things. But it does mean that we will take risks, and our risk-taking will look different each day. Some of us will serve in Nepal with INF, during civil war, or in the earthquake relief and
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recovery work that still goes on today. Others of us may choose to use our financial resources to support missional work in Tajikistan. Still others of us may give up the high opinion of others by our daily choices to advocate for, and serve, the voiceless or vulnerable. And we will continue to do all of this because of Jesus’ words in John 15. On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Love each other as I have loved you.” He didn’t say, “Take care.” Or “Stay safe.” Or, “Rest up by the water.” He said, “Love each other as I have loved you.” Jesus’ costly, “unsafe” love took him to the cross two days later. And it brought about our redemption, and the redemption of the world. So, today as believers in Jesus, wherever we are in the world, we hold tightly to Jesus’ incredible promise (that he spoke, soon after he defeated death forever) – not that we will be safe, but that he will be with us, in this unsafe, messy world. Perhaps the question to ask is less, “Is it safe?” and more, “Lord, how can we serve you, and respond to you, in this unsafe, broken, beautiful world, today?” Naomi Reed is the author of My Seventh Monsoon and eight other books. She now serves as an ambassador for the International Nepal Fellowship (INF). For more information, go to NaomiReed.Info and www.inf.org
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APRIL 2018
BIBLE @ WORK
Giving African women a voice and a future Satu Toukkari, Finnish Bible Society
Bible-based literacy classes will soon start in Malawi, and trial classes are planned in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. ANNE LIM “The life of an illiterate person is pathetic. You’re outside all new technology that has come to our villages. You remain ignorant,” says Maria Makusa, a tomato farmer who never went to school because her family was too poor. Now aged 37, Maria is finally learning to read and write. After working in the fields in the morning, she comes home and studies the alphabet and practises writing letters. Maria was one of a group of women in Yao villages in Malawi who were able to join a pilot programme of the Literacy for Women in Africa project last year. Bible Society Australia is part of this massive collaborative project, extending Bible-based literacy to women from 16 ethnic minorities in Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The aim is
to empower 20,000 women who have been denied basic education by equipping them with functional literacy by 2020. Becoming literate is considered the key to providing women and girls in these communities with a voice, improving their pre- and postnatal health and family’s nutrition, and enhancing their self-esteem. Learning to read in their mother tongue will also make the Scriptures available to them for the first time. All of the 16 languages chosen have either had a New Testament or Bible recently published or one is nearing publication. “After finishing this course, I will share what I have learned with those who are still illiterate,” Maria vows. “I will encourage my children in every way to go to school, so that they will learn to read and write. “My husband is a farmer as well,
but he can read and write. My husband encourages me to come to the literacy classes. He is very happy about my enthusiasm for studying. One day I will be like him – literate.” Joy Adam, a 34-year-old single parent, is another member of the Yao community who is feeling a lot better about herself since joining the literacy class. “When I was illiterate, I felt myself a bad person. Literate people despised me, looked down on me. I feel that their attitude has changed, now that I am studying. Some people ask why I go to the class. I answer that I want to learn to read and write in Yao, my language.” Since her husband left her last year to marry a woman from the neighbouring village, Joy has been living alone with her six children, supporting them by farming in other people’s fields.
Help 20,000 As literacy classes begin women read in Malawi, the Bible in their give $40 or more to start language and see trial classes their worth in Ethiopia, Tanzania and in God’s Kenya. eyes. Visit biblesociety.org.au/buildep
or call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537)
“I don’t have a job all the time. I have never gone to school. My parents were poor and they didn’t have the money to pay for the school, because the school was not free. “Three of my children go to school, but the other three don’t because they don’t have a school uniform. When a child is registered in the school, they have to have a uniform.” Joy says she has already learned different letters and how they are formed into a word. She can also write her own name. “The hardest part is learning to hold a pencil and to write with it, but it’s getting easier and easier with time,” she says. “I don’t know what the future will bring, but I’m happy with the studying. I have a plan that when I have learned to read and write properly, if possible I will start a business and provide for
my family in that way. For my children, I hope they would finish their school. That is what I hope.” Willie Beaton, Literacy Coordinator for the Bible Society of Malawi, says one of the challenges literacy teachers face is dealing with the children who accompany their mothers to class and distract them. Nevertheless, the women in the literacy classes have gained more self-confidence. “I can remember one village chief, who said, ‘Brother, my wife was four years in school, but learned nothing, not even to write her name. Now she’s already 60 years old. In the literacy class she has learned to write her name and even other things after learning for only two and a half months. How much will she learn by the end of the course?’”
+ If you would like more details, visit biblesociety.org.au/buildep
APRIL 2018
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OPINION
OPINION
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Australia’s history you did not get in school Page 14
How is God renewing the global church today?
Graham Hill on learning from the global church While many statistics show the church in the West is in multigenerational decline, the opposite is true almost everywhere else. Non-Western cultures and churches aren’t the minority any more: they are the majority. The churches of the Majority World (sometimes called the Developing World) have seen extraordinary and sustained growth for decades. Places such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. Oceania and the Caribbean, the Middle East and eastern Europe, First Nations and Indigenous communities. Finally, immigrant Christian communities are also going through a time of growth and revitalisation. Insights from churches in these cultures can help renew the worldwide church. They can invigorate our churches, as we learn from each other. And they have the power to invest Western mission, worship and discipleship strategies with new vibrancy. In 2016, I founded The Global Church Project so that we can listen and learn from non-Western Christian churches and leaders. I travelled the globe to meet and do filmed interviews with many hundreds of non-Western church leaders. The hundreds of filmed interviews and podcasts at TheGlobalChurchProject.com is their voice.
Christians in non-Western and Indigenous settings are redefining 21st century Christianity. Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin America grew from 94 million in 1900, to 1.389 billion in 2010. This number is likely to grow to 2.287 billion by 2050. Let’s take China, for example. Professor Fenggang Yang of Purdue University in Indiana makes an important prediction. If current rates of growth continue, within one generation China will have more Christians than any other nation on earth. US historian Philip Jenkins says, “We are currently living through one of the transforming moments in the history of religion worldwide. Over the last five centuries, the story of Christianity has been inextricably bound up with that of Europe and Europeanderived civilisations overseas, above all in North America. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of Christians have lived in white nations … Over the last century, however, the centre of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably away from Europe, southward, to Africa and Latin America, and eastward, toward Asia. Today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in those regions.” (Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 1).
What can Australian Christians learn from the global church today? Here are 12 key things: Growing churches emphasise mission and evangelism – The majority of Christians are now
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found outside of Europe and North America. This exponential growth is the result of a focus on evangelism, and on the multiplication of disciples, leaders and churches. This includes a deep passion for grassroots mission and multiplying disciples and churches in every area of society. There is no church without mission, and no mission without the church. This involves abundant sowing of the gospel and confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is proclamation, but it is also social engagement, social justice, peacemaking, signs and wonders. Renewed churches emphasise the Holy Spirit and renewal – Mission and Spirit go handin-glove. The rapid growth of Christianity outside the West must make us rethink the place and power of the Spirit in church life (including the impact of the Spirit on the worship, liturgy, mission, multiplication, church planting and ministry of churches). I can’t remember where I first heard this saying, but: “What the West calls Pentecostal, the rest of the world calls Christianity.” This includes a reliance on the power, protection, presence and provision of the Holy Spirit to renew and grow the church. This comes with a passion for prayer. Spiritual churches emphasise prayer and community – Prayer is the pillar for worship, mission, planting and more. Prayer is the greatest resource we bring to our ministry and mission. But prayer isn’t done alone. It’s done in a vibrant community, and it’s done in the neighbourhood. Prayer and spiritually alive Christian communities go hand-in-hand. Multiplying churches emphasise intentional church planting – This includes strategies of deliberate church planting and local church mission. In many cultures, almost every pastor is expected to be a church planter. Every Christian is a missionary
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in their local neighbourhood. Churches don’t just happen – intentional, focused deliberate planting strategies are needed. Confident churches emphasise biblical power and authority – The Bible is believed fully, and is the guiding source for doctrine, church, life and planting. We need a fresh hunger for the Bible and a fresh confidence in its power and authority. Effective churches emphasise local leadership – Forget importing missionaries. Forget focusing on outside talent. The best church movements identify, develop, train and release local and grassroots leaders. Inspiring churches emphasise the “priesthood of all believers” – This includes a fresh focus on the voice and ministry of the laity. People are inspired to use their gifts and get involved in mission and ministry. When the church is growing rapidly, you can’t depend on ordained pastors; you have to get everyone involved in ministry and mission. Every-member mission and ministry are vital. Prophetic churches emphasise justice and human dignity – The churches are often surrounded by injustice and poverty and corruption. So, they seek to address these things with courage and passion. They often integrate and honour the poor – they are movements from the margins. This is a common theme. Expanding churches emphasise simple, cell and house models – There is great diversity of church life in the non-West. But the most common model is cell and house churches. Small and reproducible cell churches of 10 to 30 members meet in homes or storefronts and are leading to an explosive growth in the church. Cell churches often link to a structured network, but not always (for example, the Full Gospel Church in Seoul is most famous example of this, with 50,000 cell groups). House
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churches are usually more autonomous. Reproducing churches emphasise churches planting churches – We need denominational and other groups to resource planting. But wherever churches are multiplying rapidly, it is because churches are planting churches. Reproduction is seen as natural. There’s little reliance on external aids for church planting. This focus on churches planting churches is one of the great keys to the explosive growth of the church in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Healthy churches emphasise rapid reproduction – Church planting movements have this common feature: rapid reproduction. This is the key to their health. Living things reproduce. If your focus is internal, you go stagnant and die. But if your focus is on rapid reproduction, you often discover the health and vitality that come from stepping out in faith and pursuing witness and conversion and the Great Commission. The rapid multiplication of disciples, small groups, leaders and churches in the non-West is almost breathtaking. This isn’t common in the West, but it is in Asia and Africa. And non-Western church planting movements say it’s the key to their success: this is about momentum, passion, urgency and importance. It’s about stepping out in faith and watching God respond. Impacting churches emphasise whole-of-life faith and mission – Mission isn’t just about proclaiming the gospel and planting churches. It’s about every aspect of life. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in holistic (or integral) mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic continued page 12
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Pixabay / Felix_Broennimann
Is your faith too Western?
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CHARITY FEATURE
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APRIL 2018
Mental health is everyone’s issue BEN MCEACHEN Traditionally, foreign aid has flowed in one direction, from wealthier nations to poorer. Julian Eaton is a British psychiatrist who has worked with aid organisations for more than ten years in western Africa. He believes we shouldn’t think in terms of a one-way street. In his field of mental health, Eaton diagnoses the entire world as being in a similar state of needing help. “What is clear – and is an expression that the director of WHO Mental Health Department uses – is that when it comes to mental health, every country is developing. Services are pretty shockingly bad in most countries, even high-income countries.” Eaton is the senior mental health adviser for CBM. He’s also part of many international initiatives and advocacy groups, including the Movement for Global Mental Health. Visiting CBM Australia this year to share wisdom and education, Eaton is glad there has been a shift in the discussion about and treatment of mental health across the globe. “But I would still say it’s fairly early days.” “The one thing about mental health as a development issue is the fact that it affects all of us. It’s not like some of the world’s issues, like starvation for example, which can be a bit distant. One of the things
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Sierra Leone is one African nation with CBM’s mental health programmes. which has surprised me is how similar the stories are of people struggling to find care and support, and understanding neighbours, in an African context compared with [countries like Australia].” Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo to missionary parents, Eaton sees his work as a scientist and clinician as his own service of God. While it doesn’t take the form of direct evangelism, Eaton’s involvement in western Africa (primarily Nigeria) has been heavily shaped by his faith. “I’m serving God through my desire to find effective ways of transforming people’s lives who are often stuck in very difficult
situations,” explains Eaton, who also has had opportunity to observe how African churches and Christians respond to mental health issues in their communities. “The church, alongside general community, is waking up to issues of mental health. Ministers have a particular role in Australia but maybe even more in Africa, where mental health problems are perceived by the population often as a spiritual issue. “In some ways, that is helpful because people go to their minister for support and counselling, and that can be absolutely the right thing because the church can be a very loving, supportive community
during times of distress. But an issue we have had to grapple with is the population doesn’t think of these issues as something you can go to see a professional about, so sometimes people with severe mental illness go to churches, which don’t know what to do.” Eaton is enthusiastic, though, about how African communities are still real communities. He’s noticed how high-income nations have eroded social cohesion and neighbourly support in favour of individualism. “As Christians, we should be challenging that,” he says, while alluding to New Testament imagery of the body of Christ, and Jesus’s teachings about loving neighbours. “We should be reintroducing the idea of community and responsibility for our neighbour ... It’s not OK to wash your hands of responsibility of the person who is clearly distressed next door.” As the entire world continues to improve its approach to mental health, Eaton further calls upon Christians to not diminish mental health issues – or use Bible verses about anxiety or worry, to urge people to “pull yourself together.” “You would never tell someone who has a serious physical illness to pull themselves together. “One should recognise the severity of and how disabling these conditions are.”
From page 11 consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. Micah Global put it this way: If we ignore the world, we betray the word of God, which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task.
How can we learn more from the global church today? All the videos, podcasts, and small group resources at TheGlobalChurchProject.com are free. Our resources help Christian leaders and churches thrive and grow as they learn from the global church. We help you and your church become more innovative, missional and multicultural. Very soon, TheGlobalChurchProject. com will be offered in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and other languages. These global resources are being used by a global church. It’s time we Australian Christians learned to follow Jesus locally and globally. Graham Hill, Provost, Morling College, and Founding Director, TheGlobalChurchProject.com
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www.anglicanaid.org.au (02) 9284 1406 Photo taken by Anglican Aid on location in Zimbabwe at our project partner, Honey World.
OPINION
APRIL 2018
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France remembers the Anzacs
Barney Zwartz The centenary of an Anzac sacrifice
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Town hall in Villers-Bretonneux, France with French and Australian flags flanked by kangaroos. Europe, and a dozen brass and percussion players, led by French conductor Jean-Louis Forestier, took the train from Paris to Amiens, changing to a local train to VB (as they called VillersBretonneux) to play at the War Memorial and honour the soldiers. I was blessed to be part of that group, and it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. On a misty, grey day that shrouded the trees in a way eerily reminiscent of World War I photographs, the musicians performed for the schoolchildren at the Ecole Victoria – built with donations from Victorian schoolchildren in the 1920s – and again at the lovely memorial, which is formally Australian ground. The orchestra’s principal trumpet, Geoff Payne, lost two great-uncles at VB while the grandfather of trumpeter Dave Farrands, Nelson Ferguson, was blinded in a gas attack. Ferguson was a stretcher bearer and played the cornet. Payne played Ferguson’s restored 1905 cornet at the school and the
memorial where he played The Last Post and laid a wreath. At the school, children held sheet music for the orchestra members, then enthusiastically joined in to sing Waltzing Matilda – in English, but with a decided French accent. As I reported in The Age in January 2007, Payne feared he would be overcome by emotion, but he said his focus was strengthened when he saw how the occasion moved the director of the FrancoAustralian museum, Jean-Pierre Thierry, who was holding his music. “When I saw my weeping, walking, shaking music stand, I realised they were affected as much as we were,” he said. The day had more to bring for Payne. At the museum, he unexpectedly came across a picture of the grave of his greatuncle. Other musicians found the photograph first and a whispered buzz went through the group, but no one alerted Payne. Then he saw it: the picture of French girls tending a grave in 1919, with the headstone E.A. Payne. Despite being blinded in 1918,
Reaching Indigenous Australia for Christ Hear from The Revd Neville Naden, Bush Church Aid’s Indigenous Ministry Officer
War draws out the cruellest and worst aspects of humankind; it also produces the noblest, such as courage, selfsacrifice, mercy and kindness.”
Nelson Ferguson came home to Ballarat and founded a stained glass window company. He recovered his sight 50 years later thanks to a corneal graft in 1968, and died in 1976. His story is wonderfully told by Melbourne playwright Hannie Rayson in The Glass Soldier, performed by the Melbourne Theatre Company
Barney Zwartz
In Australian military annals, few battles stand out for gallantry and success like the second battle of Villers-Bretonneux, where Australian troops reversed a German advance, saved Amiens and Paris, and possibly changed the course of World War I. The Germans, reinforced by men from the Eastern Front after the collapse of Russia, captured the small Flanders town during their last great offensive of the war. Paris lay open until Australian troops recaptured the town and overran German positions in a night attack that cost 1200 Australian lives. The centenary of that famous fight is on April 24 and 25 – a second Anzac Day – and leads us to think again about war, and to give thanks that relatively few Australians now alive have had to fight in one. The battle also has the distinction of being the first tank engagement: three British Mark IVs opposed three German A7Vs. The people of the little Flanders town – a small corner of France that is forever Australia – vowed never to forget Australia, and they never have. “N’oublions jamais l’Australie” (Let us never forget Australia) is inscribed on the walls of the local school, accompanied by Australian flags and posters, and in English by the courtyard, while the children begin each day by singing Waltzing Matilda. At the town hall, the flags are flanked by two kangaroos, and the Australian flag flies as high as France’s tricolour. The local restaurant is the Kangarou. In 2007, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra toured
in 2007. Leading Australian composer Nigel Westlake wrote a beautiful suite of the same name, later recorded by the MSO. Former ABC broadcaster Derek Guille, the other journalist present at VB on that January 2007 day, wrote a children’s book, The Promise: The Town That Never Forgets, in 2013, describing Australia’s connection with the town, and the musicians’ visit. Last year barrister Don Farrands, another of Ferguson’s grandsons, published a meticulously researched and moving account of Ferguson’s life, also called The Glass Soldier. He notes that Ferguson’s Bible accompanied him throughout the war in a pocket of his trench coat. The ongoing centenaries of World War I highlight again the conundrum of war. How are we to understand God’s will in such extreme circumstances? Often we can’t determine the grand narrative, only the personal challenges of here and now. I have considerable sympathy for British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who noted that war does not determine who is right, only who is left. Plato was also right in saying that only the dead have seen the last of war. Stalin famously dismissed the power of faith by asking how many battalions the Pope has. He might have felt differently were he still alive in 1989 to witness the collapse of the Berlin Wall, not least because of the influence of faithful Christians behind the Iron Curtain. I don’t know what God thinks when humans are at war. Australian, English, French and German troops would have been praying equally fervently before and during those great battles at Villers-Bretonneux. I do know that the Lord God of Hosts, the unfolder and master of history, produces moments of mercy and grace in even the vilest and most terrifying circumstances. I also know that just as war draws out the cruellest and worst aspects of humankind, it also produces the noblest, such as courage, self-sacrifice, mercy and kindness. It can focus us powerfully on what is really important – on the eternal. But that is merely peripheral comfort in a great sadness. Barney Zwartz is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity.
Help Reveal the Invisible Book
at the BCA Victoria AGM and Dinner
Friday 27 April 2018
6.15pm drinks for 6.45pm St Paul’s Boronia, 273 Dorset Road, Boronia ample onsite parking available
Annual General Meeting will be followed by a Spit Roast Dinner Only $35 per person Childminding available (please advise)
RSVP by 21 April 2018 on 03 9457 7556 or
victoria@bushchurchaid.com.au Reaching Australia for Christ since 1919
A brilliant Land of the Bible tour, organised by our competition partner Christian Fellowship Tours. Sign up today at theinvisiblebook.com.au
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OPINION
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Going positive
Tim Costello Let’s be known by what we want I’m tired of Christians being known for what they’re against. Social media seems awash with messages from Christians upset about the rise of secularism and atheism, the loss of family values and, especially, gay marriage – the recent divisive issue. These are legitimate concerns but are often seen by the secular world as obsessive and narrowly moralistic. I am proud of the clear biblical teaching on fidelity in sexual matters. In the Greco-Roman world, Christian statements on sex were profoundly linked to slavery. Masters owned the bodies of slaves and dealt with consequences by infanticide and abortion. The Christian messages of sexual fidelity – and in Christ there is neither slave nor free, man nor woman – were liberating for slaves and protection for women and the unborn. But too often, religion is sadly equated by the secularists with closed-mindedness. Too often, religion is seen as a set of rules promoted by the “self-righteous.” Amid the public confusion about what Christianity represents, we are too often reduced to
unattractive caricatures. The church brand in Australia has developed severe negative connotations, undermining our prophetic witness and relevance in the public square. We are seen to be energetically promoting the vague concept of “family values” while our vital message of justice for all, regardless of race, religion or sexual preference, is being lost. I want to see the church in Australia synonymous with justice, mercy and humility – bringing glory to God for the sake of his kingdom and the making of disciples. I want to see churches and Christians equipped to live Micah 6.8 as effective agents of change. I know Christians and churches are, in general, generous and caring and volunteer in greater numbers than secular groups, but perhaps feel branded in narrow moralistic categories. They are doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly, but that narrative is buried by a dominant defensive narrative. We can refresh the brand of Christian faith with a proactive not defensive narrative – a message centred on Jesus, who calls us to proclaim justice, mercy and humility to walk with God, which is the content of the kingdom of God. Perhaps church leaders could have a moratorium on proclaiming publicly about sex – and particularly homosexuality – at least until we are clearly known as a reflection of Jesus’ love, words and deeds. Christianity was always meant to be about love not fear, encouragement not condemnation, and justice not just moralistic rules. That’s the message we need to get across in the public square.
APRIL 2018
St Petersburg calling JOHN SANDEMAN Alexey Vlasikhin was just 11 when he began to long for God. The old state church was ritualistic and that did not satisfy him at all. And everything else was effectively banned. His dad was a KGB officer, so there was no help from home. Then the thaw came. Perestroika, they called it. His native land was Russia, and dramatic events in faraway Moscow sent ripples deep into the provinces where young Alexey lived. Those events allowed missionaries, Swedish ones, into his town. “I was 15 when I was invited to evangelistic meetings which were led by the missionaries. When I was 16, I came to church, and they were praying for someone else, and suddenly I understood ‘he is here for me and he loves me personally.’ “I understand that as my starting point in consciously following Jesus.” After studying political science in Nizhny Novgorod – the ancient city once called Gorky – in western Russia, Vlasikhin went to the evangelical seminary in St Petersburg. “Even before I came to the church I had a strange dream to be a church minister,” he recalls. Except he had dreamt as a boy of wearing robes instead of the streetwear of a Russian Protestant. “But when I was invited to the seminary, it fulfilled that dream.” It was when he became a teacher at the seminary that a student invited him to take part in a radio programme on the local FEBC station called Radio TEOS. “I am a bit ashamed to say it, but I am a shy person. I don’t like big crowds,” Vlasikhin confesses. It
turned out that a radio studio – a medium that works if you speak as if it is a one-to-one conversation – worked for him. Alexey Vlasikhin is now programme manager of FEBC’s Radio TEOS in St Petersburg. But there was a more important reason, besides Vlasikhin’s personality, for radio to be his future. To be a Christian in Russia is to be part of a very small minority and, although post-Communist Russia has an official state church, Vlasikhin explains there’s really low church attendance and the evangelical/Pentecostal numbers are very low too. “There are very few people who are conscious Christians here in Russia. In Russia, to be a Russian is to be Orthodox; it is part of our national identity. But, in reality, very few of the Russian people go to church and can explain what it means to be Christian. According to statistics, it is less than 2 per cent of the population.” This means that Radio TEOS has really only one goal – to reach non-Christians. “So how do you get Russians to listen to a Christian radio station?” Eternity asks. “You have to come to people as they are – on their terms,” Vlasikhin A shy person Alexey Vlasikhin.
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responds. “We found that they are on social media.” And Vlasikhin tells Eternity a hard-luck story that wasn’t – the sort of story that some readers will have heard before about Christian radio, of tensions with governments over licences. “Maybe you have heard that we had trouble here with our radio licences. We used to a be traditional AM radio station.” As Vlasikhin suggested, in taking TEOS online over the past couple of years they have gone where the audience really was. FEBC Russia now has a million listeners a month and 30,000 interactions with listeners. A recent programme that offered “after-programme counselling” saw 160 come to Christ. “The sort of person who really listens to the good news are those who are somehow wounded by life,” says Vlasikhin. “For example, in Russia, there is a huge problem of drug addition. Or alcohol addiction, or orphans. There are excellent rehab centres and this has been an effective ministry for Russian evangelicals. And we make programmes that connect people to them, using testimonies. We invite those who have sons and other relatives in trouble to go to the Christian rehab centres. They get real results.” Alexey Vlasikhin will be in Australia later this month for FEBC and will speak at the Christian Media and Arts Conference in May. febc.org.au
Expressions of interest are invited for the position of Host at a Retreat/ Healing Home on Phillip Island, to commence approximately May 2018. Applicants should be Christian, with experience in, and commitment to the healing ministry and pastoral care. Job description and application available from The Order of St Luke the Physician, 112/100 Harold St. Wantirna Vic 3152. Ph. (03) 9837 5097
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For advertising enquiries contact Sherina on 0414 291 273 or advertising@eternitynews.com A national newspaper for Australian Christians, Eternity is sent free to any church upon request. Eternity is published by Bible Society Australia (ACN 148 058 306). Edited by John Sandeman.
OPINION
APRIL 2018
15
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We live in anxious times Michael Jensen says we live in a time of worry
“
Christians in Australia have formed themselves into a highly anxious system.”
neutralisers of anxiety. Leadership that regulates and moderates emotion, rather than amplifies it, is what will help an anxious system of relationships regain its balance. This is true in the home, in the workplace, and in the nation. I’ve been thinking about how this diagnosis applies to the Christian community in our country. The Christian community also exhibits its own forms of anxiety. In fact, true to our cultural surrounds, Christians in Australia have formed themselves into a highly anxious system. We are facing numerical decline, relevance deprivation and media disapproval. We face the aftermath of the child abuse epidemic, in which the churches have been so deeply implicated. It is harder to work as a minister now than ever
gratisography
You don’t have to be a sociologist to figure that out. The politics of the West over the past five years have revealed that there’s a deep-seated anxiety at the base of our societies. The rise of Donald Trump is only a symptom of this deep worry, a feeling of insecurity coupled to feelings of loss. A simpler, safer world is passing away (or so we think). The only constant is change. Globalisation has produced many advantages, but it has also made us hyper-aware that our personal financial security is part of a deeply interconnected and interdependent system – so finely balanced that the egregious behaviour of some banks in middle America affected financial outcomes in far away Australia. The only constant is change, and change we are powerless to stop. There are a number of cultural flashpoints in which this anxiety can be seen. One is over the issue of gender and sexuality. Another has to do with national identity. Another is the environment. Perhaps parenting is the most anxious point of all. My generation of parents are beset with worry, unwilling to let our children outdoors lest they be whisked away by the child molesters who must surely be camped outside our doors, or lest they scrape their knees and we need to amputate their legs. The sad irony is that the dangerous and scary world is being beamed into their bedrooms through the Wi-Fi. And we’ve lost touch with the children we’ve wrapped in cotton wool. Our political parties in Australia have chopped and changed their leaders in an effort to find a stable point amid the chaos. But this chopping and changing magnifies the feeling of uncertainty. We trust our parties less and less to generate people of real calibre who can lead
us in the way that, say, Hawke, Howard, Keating and Menzies did in times gone by. It is in the media’s interests to inflame this anxiety, too. Headlines trade on our fears, because they know that will get us reading. We are almost addicted to it. No headline ever said “Nothing to worry about – everything OK in world,” or “Less violence, fewer fears.” How do we tend to respond to this anxiety? Edwin H. Friedman, author of the book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, argues that our characteristic responses to anxious conditions tend to make things worse. We want to fix them. We look for heroic individuals, with super-talents (so we think), who can ride forth and defeat our foes. We imagine that knowing more information will open up a solution, so we accumulate data obsessively and uselessly. Rather, we should instead look to leaders who do not answer anxiety with more anxiety but operate as
before, and we are seeing a spate of ministry burnouts. Of course, our responses have been to try and find a quick fix to the anxiety. Read this life-changing book, elect the right leader, change theological education so that pastors can do what it is we think will save them, be more missionary or more missional, plant more churches. Be more relevant, more traditional, more feminine, more masculine. But these quick fixes don’t change the deeper problem, which is an emotional one. All our exhaustive efforts seem to peter out. There are two very bad responses that I see to this malaise. The first of these is anxiety about doctrinal purity. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am very much interested in correct Christian doctrine. I am not impressed by waffle and vagueness when it comes to Christian truth. I think it is important – no, vital – that denominations and churches watch their life and doctrine closely. But the concern for doctrinal purity can become almost paranoid. It can result in cloakand-dagger tactics, whereby a wayward individual is dealt with by winks and nods and whispers rather than by honest and open disagreement. It exhibits itself in the way relatively trivial points
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of Christian teaching become shibboleths for certain groups. Every error must be corrected. It sees society’s disapproval as almost a sure sign of the rightness of the cause. The second response is the mirror of the first. There’s a felt anxiety about society’s disapproval, much like the first group. And so there’s a desperate attempt to recapture society’s approval, by showing how the Christian faith matches with what our society feels is right and wrong. We are nice, really! What is traded away here is, at least potentially, everything that is distinctive about the Christian faith. Jesus starts to look less like Jesus and more like Richard Di Natale. If you don’t believe me about this anxiety, you need to engage in Facebook discussions among Christians more! The two responses to anxiety show a mutual incomprehension – and a mutual dismay at the response of the other side. This came out during last year’s same-sex marriage debate. Some of the rhetoric coming from the No campaign was apocalyptic. The advice from the campaign strategists was, no doubt, that you need to play upon people’s fears to succeed. And that’s what occurred. It sounded anxious and fearful. But there was also a group of Christians who advocated Yes because of their equal and opposite fear that to say No, even though this is often what they themselves believed, would lead to our ostracism from the community entirely. This response was saying “we have to look compassionate or they won’t like us.” Was there not a third way? Is there not a third way for the Christian community in our nation to take? I very much believe that there is. What we need is to become a non-anxious presence in our chronically anxious world. Christians of all people have reason to be non-anxious. We believe that God is sovereign, the mighty Rock who is a stronghold against every threat. We believe we have even our sins dealt with, so that we need not worry about them any more. We have the resources in our faith to be an island of peace in a world that seems to be constantly in turmoil. What a witness to the power of
the risen Christ this would be! So how are Christians going to become this non-anxious group? I think it’s largely about the ability to non-anxiously disagree – with seriousness and passion where necessary but without radiating paranoia throughout the system. This is calming – and unifying. It is amazingly powerful when this safe disagreement is demonstrated because our world has lost the ability to do it well. We take the truth with the utmost seriousness, but patiently listen to others who have a different take. This takes courage and kindness. It takes time. And we need to recognise leaders who are able to subdue the wild emotions that flame out from these anxieties, rather than amplify them. Two leaders who embodied this non-anxious presence in the 20th century were John Stott and Billy Graham. Both of them were able to transcend denominational boundaries for the sake of the gospel because they were so still and centred. They were utterly grounded in the goodness and strength of God. They had a great sense of what mattered, and what didn’t. They had the courage to disagree. They had their critics within the churches, but they did not hide what they thought. You could never accuse them of wavering on doctrinal convictions! And yet, when Billy Graham arrived in Australia, the Protestant churches united behind him, and the gospel of Jesus was preached to our nation as never before or since. John Stott gave his life to encourage Christians who were not just Anglicans in London but charismatics in Macedonia and Presbyterians in America and Baptists in Uganda. He is remembered everywhere as “Uncle John” for his quiet and humble service of Jesus. I pray for a renewal of a sense of mission among Australian Christians – and for a sense that we do not have to reflect the deep anxiety of our host culture, but rather have the blessing in the gospel of Jesus Christ of a deep reassurance and a complete security. Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Darling Point, Sydney, and the author of several books.
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OPINION
16
APRIL 2018
Keeping my naming rights Greg Clarke on the problem of being Greg Clarke In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m the Chairman of the FA Cup. I’m the former CEO of Lend Lease. And the Creative Director of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I also moonlight as a banjo player, a great comic illustrator and was for a while the tour manager for rock band Rose Tattoo. This makes googling myself a fairly pointless exercise. Having a common name means I’ll never be just “Greg”, like “Cher” or “Beyonce”. And pursuing “Clarke” on Ancestry.com is like writing the Domesday Book. You might get the impression this bothers me, but you would be wrong – although it does have some impact on how I present myself. I never expect my name
to distinguish me, as you might if you were Barack Obama or Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. I have to be “Greg Clarke, you know that guy who…” or I simply don’t have enough name recognition to get a hearing. The name “Christian” has a Greg Clarke problem. It’s commonplace, and on its own doesn’t really give the person attached to it much definition any more. It needs a “you know…” added. Perhaps it used to have more meaning, but now it has been either stretched out of shape or evacuated of content so that it
means as much as saying “the guy with the hair”. People don’t know what a Christian is. What they believe. Their worldview. How they understand the world, the future, right and wrong. It’s a word that needs more talk around it. But if we weird it up too much, we tend to throw its definition offpiste. “I’m a right-wing Christian,” someone says. What does that mean? Anti-this, pro-that, and somehow Christian, too. And is left-wing still Christian, in your view? Or “I’m a progressive Christian”. But progressive about
what, and how far do you want to progress, and in which direction? Away from Jesus or towards him? You see the problem. It still doesn’t get to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. “Christian” is used in all manner of situations – political positioning, the names of schools and hospitals, organisations (YMCA), television channels (ACC), lobby groups (ACL), or simply as a very flexible adjective. It’s common and, now more than ever, vaguely defined. It does work when we add theological or historical qualifiers: Anglican Christian, evangelical Christian, Catholic Christian, born-again Christian, Post-tribulation Pre-millennial Presbyterian Christian. But these terms only make sense within the Church community, and even then only to a few inner-circle types (especially that last one). For Christianity to have clear meaning in the word at large, something needs to shift. I have for quite a while tried to think of a better word. But I can’t. I kind of liked the “Jesus People” of the ’70s, but that’s too hippy to work now. “Classical Christian” has a ring to it but doesn’t really help at all. And I hate to sideline C.S. Lewis, but I don’t think “mere Christian” adds anything either, these days. “Followers
Bible Stat Seven million people got the Bible in their languages in 2017.
of Jesus” sounds really strange. “Gospellers”? “Trinitarians”? Nah. I have a different solution. We need to be happy with “Christian”. What we need to add is other words, and lots of them. And they need to circle around our beliefs about Jesus. We need long, meaningful discussions about what we know about him. We need a decent hearing, which is why Twitter and Facebook are less and less valuable avenues to do Christian talking. We can’t get a hearing there; they’re too shrill, too fleeting and no one’s really listening. We are better off having actual conversations with people in cafes, school halls, pubs and, yes, churches. Long emails rather than short tweets. We are better off participating in long-form radio shows than short-form media, long-term discussion groups, multi-week classes and years-long friendships. And Jesus-focused. Let’s accept that there are today no short cuts if people are to grasp what it actually means to follow Christ. No shorthand for getting to the kernel of it all. We Christians have a lot of explaining to do if people are going to understand the name we give ourselves. But that is our name: Christians. Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.