Eternity - June 2018 - Issue 92

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Brought to you by the Bible Society

Number 92, June 2018 ISSN 1837-8447

Will Graham

Will power Forty years of Koorong

Pastors: how to treat abuse survivors

Inside NRL’s holy huddle

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NEWS

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Obadiah Slope NEW CLOTHES: When a white girl wearing a cheongsam goes viral on Twitter – and she is slammed for cultural appropriation for wearing a Chinese dress – Obadiah naturally wondered when a Christian version of this kerfuffle would happen. Then the Met Gala (an art gallery fund raiser) in New York hit the media, with celebs dressing in “Catholic” gear. Pop star Rihanna wore a short skirt and Pope-like mitre (hat), and Katy Perry put on a pair of angel wings. Cue Christian outrage. Yes, someone predictably said “No other religion would be made fun of in this way” or at least the Daily Mail headline had it in quote marks.

Obadiah seems to recall plenty of mockery of Hare Krishnas, The Orange People (remember them) and Mormons.

COVERED UP: The local archbishop was there because the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition is actually about religious dress. Madonna headlined the event wearing an ankle-length Franciscan habit. So probably some of the outfits would have been the most modest the stars had worn for some time.

MITRE ZERO: Here’s some Christian outrage about church outfits of a different sort. Ian Paul, a UK evangelical, blogged recently on “Why bishops should throw away their mitres.” He says bishops (church leaders) wearing mitres (hats) “confirms for many the impression of a church irrelevant to modern questions, contained in its own bubble of self reference.”

Now that’s a good reason to be outraged about religious dress.

MIDDLE EAST MITRES: Paul reveals one subversive fact about mitres.

They originate in the headgear of the high priest in the Old Testament, who was to wear a “turban” (mitznefet). So that means any white nationalist Christian who is upset at a Middle Eastern man’s headgear should really pick on a bishop as well.

‘Religious right’ gets the numbers in Vic Liberals JOHN SANDEMAN That bump you just heard was the sound of the Liberal Party in Victoria shifting right.

“A takeover by social conservatives of the Victorian Liberal Party on the weekend will eventually lead to many state MPs being replaced, party leaders said,” The Financial Review’s Aaron Patrick reports “A political faction led by a 28-year-old businessman, Marcus Bastiaan, and its allies secured a majority of positions Saturday on the party’s administrative committee, which oversees the party’s week-by-week operations and can force existing parliamentary candidates to face internal challengers.”

Baastian has recruited a familiar face, long-term powerbroker Michael Kroger, the state president, to lead the social conservative charge. Kroger enjoyed a 721-to-448 win over a socially liberal rival.

Eternity understands that a recruitment campaign targeting Christians has been going on for at least two years, with the aim of reviving social conservative values in the Liberal Party.

Two years ago, many members of the Australian Christians (similar to NSW’s Christian Democrats) and Family First came to the conclusion that reforms

Flickr / Dru Bloomfield

Keziah Daum created a Twitter storm with this picture.

JUNE 2018

to the rules for senate elections meant there was not much future for minor parties. Adopting an optional preferential system has meant that parties can no longer do the elaborate preference deals that elected candidates with small primary votes.

Activists in those small parties were targeted by the Baastian group.

But the path for many politically

conservative Christians was not smooth. Eternity has heard stories of pastors being refused membership of the Liberal Party or having their membership revoked, because, being Christians, they were “too far right.” It depended on which branch of the Liberals you were trying to join.

The advent of Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives (AC) party has also recruited activists from the smaller parties, with both Family First and Australian Christian members being invited to join the new party as part of a formal merger.

This has meant that politically active, conservative Christians have ended up in two groups – in the Australian Conservatives and the Libs. (In Victoria there were two other small groups, the DLP and Rise Up Australia. Rise Up led by fiery Pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah is still recruiting.)

Inevitably some members of each group see the other as wasting their time. Some Liberal party members will rate the chances of the AC party getting a senate quota as unlikely. Many of those in the AC will say those in the Libs run the risk of getting swallowed up. Conservative Christians only form part of the Bastiaan alliance in the Libs. On the other hand, conservative MPs in these parties maintain friendly relations, despite some changing brands.

News 2-3 Bible Society 4 In Depth 5-8 Charities Special 9-11 Opinion 12-16

Quotable

Simon Smart “God has placed ‘eternity in our hearts’ and we long for, and deep down believe, that our lives matter in some way...”

Page 13

Marriage debate now in the church JOHN SANDEMAN The same-sex marriage debate moves from civil society into the religious sphere when the Uniting Church’s National Assembly meets in Melbourne’s Box Hill town hall to vote on changing the UCA marriage rite. The Working Group on Doctrine (WGD), tasked by the UCA Assembly (the church’s peak body) to prepare a report on marriage has recorded its view that the church should change its doctrine. “Noting the diverse range of views on this matter throughout the church, and as a result of the study, prayer and consultation behind this Report,

the WGD recommends that the Uniting Church … offer the rites of marriage to opposite-gender and same-gender couples, while allowing ministers and Uniting Church authorised celebrants freedom of conscience to perform marriages or not.”

The WGD was widely expected to suggest a change, given the make-up of the group. It would be fair to say that it has a number of progressive voices on it. UCA insiders are not surprised by the report. The church contains groups both passionately in favour of change and passionately opposed to change. If the Uniting Church changes its marriage doctrine it

will be the first major Australian church grouping to allow same-sex marriage.

In New Zealand, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has voted to allow the blessing of same-sex couples who have previously held a civil marriage. The church has also set up a series of protections to try to keep conservatives in the church. These include any bishop (regional leader) being able to keep gay blessings out of their diocese (region), which effectively protects Nelson, an evangelical region. In other parts of New Zealand conservative churches could band together in “Christian

communities” which could insist that ministers follow their policy on blessings. However some leading conservatives have already said they plan to leave.

In Australia, a secret agreement between the Anglican bishops on same-sex marriage has been leaked. The document shows that the bishops have promised to only make a change if a change in church law passes. This rules out some more liberal parts of the church making changes on their own. The national peak council of the Anglican Church in Australia took a conservative stance on SSM in 2017, reflecting gains by the evangelicals in the church.

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NEWS

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When football is an act of worship

News briefs CHAPLAINS HERE TO STAY: Increased funding for the school chaplaincy programme will be used to extend the reach of chaplains with the aim of stamping out bullying in Australian schools. The Federal Budget papers stated the chaplaincy programme was being extended “on a permanent basis,” providing nearly $250 million over four years, with a focus on antibullying. In 2017, there were 1562 chaplains working in 1929 public schools, according to the National School Chaplaincy Association.

KYLIE BEACH

NRL Photos/ Gregg Porteous

It’s not a beat-up – there really are more stories about Christian NRL players in the news these days.

That’s because behind the scenes of the NRL, there’s a team of players, chaplains, local church pastors and NRL Wellbeing Officers who have faithfully worked together for almost a decade to create a culture where it’s cool to be Christian.

The past few years have given us headlines that have left Christians alternately encouraged (NRL clubs embracing religion on and off the field), amused (Parramatta Eels prop Tim Mannah is a Christian, but it doesn’t mean he is soft), and cringing (NRL: Heaven knows what Hayne is doing).

But with a recent headline that declared “In rugby league, the team that prays together stays together,” it’s clear the rise of Christianity in the NRL has not gone unnoticed.

So, what has changed?

Parramatta Eels Club’s Christian chaplain George Dansey suspects there have always been plenty of Christians in the NRL but their voices have become louder in recent years.

“They are confident in their faith and don’t feel like they have to hide it away now,” he says.

Paul Heptonstall is the man employed by the NRL who’s responsible for a cultural change that respects players’ beliefs and heritage. He’s been the NRL’s Wellbeing and Education Manager for the past ten years – a period during which the number of “Pacifika players” (those from Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia) has doubled to represent 40 per cent of players.

“We want Pacifika players to be comfortable and proud of their culture,” Paul says.

“They’re more collective, more community as a group. Making their family proud and sending money home are often bigger priorities for them.”

Building a culture of acceptance and support has become a vital component of keeping the league strong in the face of the player group’s diverse backgrounds.

That’s where Paul’s team of Wellbeing Officers come in. He oversees a total of 65 Wellbeing Officers – all funded by the NRL – with two allocated to each club.

At each club, one Wellbeing Officer focuses on career development, providing player education and employment support to assist players transitioning to

Wests Tigers players pray with their rivals from Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium after a match earlier this year. work after football, and the other focuses on wellbeing more broadly.

“We recognise that spirituality is important. Every player will reach a point where they reflect on things bigger than themselves,” he says.

Players also have chaplains for support when facing challenges.

George Dansey has been the Parramatta Eels’ club chaplain since 2011 – a job he loves.

“Coaches can only do so much on the field and in training – the welfare officer and the chaplain can help with what’s happening off the field,” he explains.

When a player is doing well, George says, he tends to just monitor them. But when they’re facing a crisis, such as losing their contract, moving on from a club, dealing with a relationship breakdown, facing injury, not being selected, or financial hardship, George is present.

George is sponsored in a sports chaplaincy position by Hillsong Church, where Senior Pastor Brian Houston is an NRL fan, and a passionate Eels supporter.

Brian describes George as “a natural” and says that appointing him was “a great first step” for the church, which has gone on to become a strong supporter of sports chaplaincy. Now, four other Hillsongers also partner with Sports Chaplaincy Australia as

volunteer chaplains for NRL clubs, and others are involved in different sports, including the Australian Commonwealth Games team.

George says church pastors can “massively impact” players by creating a space in a church community where they can “leave their profile at the door.

“I remember one past player who told me that he felt like, at church, he was treated just like any ordinary guy. He said Brian treated him “like a friend, not a fan.” This, George believes, is crucial because “their lives are more important than their profile.”

As Assistant Minister at Emu Plains Anglican Church, Second Grade Assistant Coach at the Penrith Panthers, and a former NRL player, David Simmons also believes players need a local church family where they can gather with other Christians and simply be seen as “a brother in Christ.”

“They need a place where everyone doesn’t talk to them about football all the time and where people don’t treat them as celebrities,” he explains, saying it helps them avoid “thinking they are more special than they are.”

David points to Jason Stevens’ bold stand in 2002 on remaining a virgin until marriage as “a turning point in the game,” describing him as someone who was “unfazed by

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critics” and “faithful to what God had called him to do.

“As a young Christian and new to the NRL, I was a bit nervous about how I’d fit in. Jason gave me a lot of confidence to not be ashamed of my faith,” he recalls.

David says players who have followed Jason’s lead by being open about their faith have provided “leadership, a rallying point, and a voice as a group.”

He’s talking about players such as Wests Tigers player and Captain of the Fijian World Cup team, Kevin Naiqama. Kevin was one of the group of Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels players who first prayed together on the field following their Easter Monday match in 2016.

The day before the match, Kevin had attended Hillsong’s Hills Campus, sitting with other NRL players. One of them, a Parramatta player, had made a decision to accept Christ as his Saviour at the close of the service. The next day, many of the group met again as opponents on the football field, and spontaneously gathered together to pray at the close of the match.

Although Kevin hopes to encourage other players to be bold in their faith, his real focus is honouring God with his talents.

“Rugby league is part of my worship,” he says succinctly.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR: Last year the puppet ministry Quiz Worx performed 300 Christmas shows to over 50,000 kids. In 2018 they aim to do 400 shows, which use animal puppets and human presenters. They are currently seeking Christmas casuals. “This is a great opportunity to be trained in creative children’s ministry whilst helping share Jesus with tens of thousands of kids,” says Nic Koeck their general manager. “Auditions are now.” nic@quizworx.com.au BURMA WAR: The Burmese military has renewed its ethnic cleansing of the Christian Kachin people, reports Elizabeth Kendal.

The Kachin are under heavy bombardment. On April 29 the UN reported, “More than 5000 people are estimated to be newly displaced since early April in Kachin State.”

More than 15,000 have been displaced since the beginning of the year (acording to the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin).

HE IS IN YOUR HOME: After securing time on four major national TV stations, Leading The Way with Dr Michael Youssef is seeing an overwhelming response across Australia. “By God’s grace, the reach of our ministry is beyond our wildest dreams. We are seeing so many impacted lives across the nation and beyond,” says Leading The Way Australia’s Regional Director, Chris Makin.

STRANGE CHRISTIAN: Esteemed novelist Helen Garner told Sydney Writers’ Festival last month about the time she felt the presence of an angel standing behind her.

She didn’t dare turn around for fear that she would have to kneel before it, but when the benevolent presence went away she was sorry that she had missed the chance to acknowledge “one of the lords of life.” The novelist said the experience meant a lot to her. “I am a Christian – a strange kind of one maybe,” she said.

CULTURE / LIFE / GOD

GOD NEVER CHANGES, BUT CULTURE DOES. GOD DOESN’T CALL CHRISTIANS TO RETREAT FROM THE WORLD; HE CALLS US TO LIVE IN IT, AS HIS PEOPLE. WHAT EXACTLY DOES THAT LOOK LIKE, IN REAL LIFE? ANSWERING THAT QUESTION IS WHAT ONWARD IS ALL ABOUT.

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BIBLE @ WORK

‘Give me a future that means something’ Andrew Boyd

Syrian refugee Hayyan’s eyes speak eloquently of his need to restart his future through education.

ANDREW BOYD Thirteen-year-old Hayyan tuts and rolls his eyes at the very suggestion.

Best football team in the world – Manchester United? He looks horrified.

“Tut! Real Madrid!” he contends.

“And the best footballer in the world is Messi.”

Hayyan has a passion for football. He plays soccer on a computer screen for hours at a time. There’s little else to do here at this refugee camp in northern Lebanon. “I get bored,” Hayyan says. “I walk from here to the playground, and then I walk back.”

Hayyan ought to be in school, but his brother, Mohammed, needs his help to scavenge through the rubbish for anything they can repair or sell.

It’s their only form of income They’re trapped, here in Lebanon.

All that stands between them and their own country, Syria, are the mountains – and seven years of civil war.

They can’t go back. And the lack of education means they can’t go forward. There’s nothing for them here, either.

The Bible Societies of Lebanon and Australia are working together to give children such as Hayyan the

chance of recovering some of their lost years of schooling. They’re drawing up plans to provide literacy training in several refugee camps including this one.

Bible Society in Lebanon aims to teach 6000 young refugees to read and write over the next three years in a biblical literacy programme. It is also bringing storytelling to camps in Lebanon,

distributing Scripture booklets to children, and providing Bibles and practical help to refugees.

Hayyan helps Mohammed tidy their canvas tent. It doesn’t take long. There’s just enough space to stand and lie down and store some pots and pans, as well as a few items salvaged from the garbage.

Even the clothes they wear are someone else’s throw-outs.

Their real home lies in Syria, in ruins, destroyed by a tank. It was during gun battles there that Hayyan’s uncle was killed. “They shot him,” he says, simply. “I was sad to see people dying.” His eyes are more eloquent than his words.

Mercifully, in the five years Hayyan has been in Lebanon, much of that bloodshed has become a blur. “I was a little child

You’ve got to laugh …

ANDREW BOYD Billy Cookie in his yellow clown braces and oversized glasses is doing his exasperated utmost to keep his parrot under control.

But this pesky bird has a mind of its own, and that mind is set on mischief. And the kids love it.

These children are roaring with laughter, shouting and stretching their hands to the puppet, who snaps at their fingers with his soft yellow beak. Everything else is forgotten in a moment of pure joy.

“I know how much they need this kind of show,” says Billy Cookie, aka Wissam Rajha. “They need to laugh and express emotion.”

Need is all around. You can see it in the eyes and feel it in the air.

The older men need to work, and their children need schooling. One in five can neither read nor write.

Bible Society is setting up literacy classes to help them. And Bible Society is meeting an even more basic need felt by every child – the need to laugh and be lifted out of their circumstances, even for a moment.

That’s where Billy Cookie comes in. Children of all ages have poured out of their tents to watch the show. Their laughter is like a thunderclap that breaks the tension and brings a deluge of refreshing rain.

Wissam is a full-time worker at Bible Society of Lebanon, who visits prisons and schools. “I love to make kids laugh,” he grins. “God gave me this talent. I love to talk about God and about the message.

And the kids like this.

“At [non-Christian] camps like this,” he says, “I can’t talk directly about Jesus, but I can talk about the love, peace and joy of God who has created us and will take care of us.”

when it happened,” he says.

What he can remember is that his mother died from a heart attack in Syria. And after his father made it here to this camp, he died too, of cancer.

Hayyan’s elder brother, Mohammed, is now the head of the family. And the weight of responsibility is taking its toll. He chokes back tears of frustration.

He’s skinny, frustrated, and angry.

“There is no help. Just God’s help.”

Refugees are refused work permits, so Mohammed can’t earn.

And he’s been saddled with a load of extra responsibility. No single men are allowed in this camp, so Mohammed had to take a wife.

Now he has to take care of her and a child as well as his two younger brothers.

He needs his brothers’ help.

So he’s had to pull them out of school. He knows that’s robbing them of their future, but what’s the alternative? He wants to work, but no one will let him. And 13-yearold Hayyan has nothing to do, save try to help his brother and lose himself for an hour or two in the pixelated magic of his footballing hero, Lionel Messi.

+ If you would like more details, visit biblesociety.org.au/forwardep

For Syrian teenager Abed, education is on hold in a refugee camp...

But you can move his life forward again, and equip him for the future. Just $48 can help a young refugee learn to read or resume where they’d left off. They’ll also learn about God through Bible-based literacy lessons.

Call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) or visit biblesociety.org.au/forwardep

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Koorong turns 40 page 6 &7

Will Graham, speaking to a daytime rally in Kalgoorlie last month, has a new sense of urgency and boldness for reaching the lost.

What Will learned from being Billy

ANNE LIM Will Graham, the grandson of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, says he is filled with a new sense of urgency and boldness since playing his famous “granddaddy” in an upcoming Hollywood movie.

Graham, 43, loves to tell affectionate anecdotes about the man who passionately preached to millions over a ministry spanning 80 years. But when it came to playing him in upcoming Hollywood movie Unbroken, the fit wasn’t quite right.

“The good thing was that I didn’t have to act – I only had to do what I was naturally doing anyway,” says Graham, who is carrying on the legacy of his grandfather by continuing to bring the gospel to Australia and the world.

The hard part was having to invoke the values and fears of another era while preaching his grandfather’s sermon at the 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

As well as having to memorise Cold War rhetoric that he would never use, the laid-back preacher from North Carolina also struggled to match his grandfather’s hyperenergetic delivery.

“They called him ‘Machine-gun Billy’ because he was so boo-booboo-boo-boom, he just never quit – like, he never took a breath, he just kept going, kept going. I’m a lot more subdued than him.”

Graham showed no signs of jetlag while chatting to Eternity in

Sydney on his way to a weekend of evangelistic rallies in Kalgoorlie in the West Australian Goldfields in late May (see report, below right).

Graham said he was excited about the clear gospel message in Unbroken: Path to Redemption, a sequel to Unbroken (2014) that tells the second half of the story of Louis Zamperini, the Olympian runner and World War II prisoner of war who came to faith when he was an alcoholic suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

As a matter of fact, [Universal Studios] came back to me earlier this year and they said, ‘we actually want to make the gospel a little bit stronger.’ They said ‘we’ve already shot the movie, so we’re going to do some audio, so you’re going to go in and say these words and we’re going to overlay it with some scenes that we’ve already shot because we want to make sure that people hear a clear message of the gospel.’ When have you ever had anyone in Hollywood say, ‘we want it stronger?’ But that’s the Lord doing it, you know – that’s what’s so exciting.”

He says his heart breaks for people like Louis Zamperini, who was “mad at God, feels like God’s mad at him, he feels like God’s robbing him, he’s blaming God for every bad thing in his life – just mad at life.”

Though Graham feels he has lived a blessed life, with few deep sorrows, he finds it easy to empathise with those who feel let

down by life and are at the end of their rope.

“When we were young, Dad took us all over the world – I’ve worked in the Middle East, I’ve worked in Africa … and I’ve been to places

where hurricanes have levelled the whole city, I’ve been where people lost everything in tornadoes and so I’ve been alongside people,” he says.

“I think one of my spiritual gifts is I’m a crier, so I sympathise ...

Even when I watch movies I’m going to cry ... So God’s given me the ability to relate to people’s pain and suffering and happiness … It breaks your heart what people go through.”

More precious than gold KARL FAASE Nearly 6000 people heard US evangelist Will Graham preach in Kalgoorlie over the May 18-20 weekend. Over a packed three days in the central Western Australian city, 550 people in the crowd came forward to make a personal response to the message of Jesus.

Many Australians will know of the tensions in the Kalgoorlie region over the death of a young Indigenous man, Elijah Doughty, in 2016. He was run down by a local driving a 4WD trying to retrieve a stolen motorcycle. The case caused riots in Kalgoorlie and simmering tension has continued in the city. Yet, in a successful effort to show unity, a team of leaders from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from Australia, supported by a team from Canada, worked for two years to ensure the Goldfields Celebration occurred and included all of the 17 churches across the community.

The event included a youth programme on Friday night, Kidsfest on Saturday morning, gospel music event on Saturday afternoon, a gospel event on Saturday night, combined church service on Sunday morning and gospel event on Sunday night. All had very strong attendances.

The programme was a mix of international guests and local artists, such as country music and gospel musician Steve Grace and American band the Afters.

The Goldfields Celebration also featured the remarkable talent of Indigenous Christian musicians.

Over the weekend, The Brownley Gospel Singers performed, who included Linden Brownley, a wellknown Kalgoorlie City Councilor.

Also featured was Pastor Ben Hakalitz, drummer for Yothu Yindi who recently performed at the Commonwealth Games – and toured with Midnight Oil – and Pastor Joe Pulea, an associate from Living Light Gospel Church.

A highlight was the combined

worship service on Sunday morning. Nearly 1700 people attended this worship service. It was a surprise to come to central Australia and experience worship with an international flavour.

At each of the events Will Graham presented the gospel and asked people to make a choice to follow Jesus. This was always appropriate, clear and very sensitive to the Australian culture.

Graham has come to Australia many times over the past decade, exclusively to regional areas. His respect for our country and people is evident each time he speaks.

The Goldfields Celebration shows that large-scale events still have a place. The weekend showed that the use of music, technology and clear gospel presentation still has an impact. There is no doubt that the church must use a variety of approaches and styles to be effective in sharing Jesus.

Karl Faase is CEO of Olive Tree Media, Board Chair for BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse Australia

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Koorong’s best-selling book

1978

2018

The Bibles that were on sale when Koorong began

What sells at Koorong today Best-selling Bibles (All published since 1978) New International Version (2011 edition) New Living Translation New King James Version English Standard Version

Best-selling Bibles King James Version Revised Standard Version New American Standard Bible Good News Bible New International Version Study Bibles Thompson Chain Reference Bible Ryrie Study Bible Scofield Study Bible Paraphrases J.B. Phillips NT Amplified Bible The Living Bible JOHN SANDEMAN The world of Christian bookselling has been transformed since the Bootes family started to sell books from their family garage in Koorong Road, Marsfield, deep in Sydney’s then Bible belt. It was 40 years ago this month, when the garage door of a very ordinary suburban brick house was first raised to allow customers to walk in underneath.

From that garage grew a national network of retail stores, many with cafes and children’s playgrounds, that serve as “destination shopping” outlets.

Koorong is the “last man standing” among the competing Christian book chains that once stretched around the country.

Back 40 years ago, a complicated network of distributors fed an array of stores. In my home town of Adelaide the CBD housed branches of chains such as Open

Study Bibles Most translations now have study Bibles, including single authors, for example, David Jeremiah and Charles Swindol.

Paraphrases The Message Passion Translation NT

40 years later, Koorong has 15 stores around Australia. This is the flagship store at West Ryde, Sydney.

Book, Scripture Union, Word and CMS. There were thriving local denominational stores: Epworth for the Methodists, Canterbury for Anglicans, Revival Books for the Pentecostals and Reformation books for the King-James-only crowd. You could spend a day visiting them all. Today only Koorong and the Catholic Pauline Media store remain. (And Eternity is available in both.)

In other cities, similar proud names have disappeared. For example, Keswick Books in Melbourne and the last selfbranded Bible Society bookshop in Sydney.

Koorong’s success was driven by Paul Bootes, the son of the owners of that garage who instigated a new model of book selling. A “publisher direct” model cut out the middleman, the local distributors who arranged delivery from the large overseas publishers but who added a layer of commission: that

meant that Koorong emerged as a keenly priced alternative.

“In the earlier home-based Koorong, with its commitment to supplying locally-unavailable Reformed books sourced directly from their overseas publisher, lay the seeds of Bootes’ relentlessly pursued idea,” David Renshaw, currently the Bible purchaser for Koorong recounted to Eternity.

A Koorong veteran, he describes Bootes as “blunt, entrepreneurial, commercially astute and visionary.”

In many ways, Koorong, with its larger stores and keen pricing, paralleled the “big box” stores that have transformed retail from Target through Bunnings to JB Hi-Fi. The bookshop chain remained a family business until it was purchased by Bible Society three years ago.

Today, instead of a complex web of brick and mortar competitors – although a number of independent

bookstores are still supplied by Koorong – the competition comes from Amazon and other online booksellers.

But a steady 75 per cent of Koorong customers prefer to visit stores rather than use the online Koorong.com – which, using the store network, can offer fast delivery.

Some 300,000 Bibles are sold each year at Koorong, and the number has increased yearly since Bible Society bought the business.

Koorong happened to open just as the New International Version of the Bible was published. In 1978 most Bibles fell into two camps – “essentially literal” translations such as the New American Standard Bible and the Revised Standard Bible, and “dynamic equivalent” versions such as The Good News Bible, which provided much freer phrase-for-phrase rather than word-for word-translations. The NIV was a “mediating” translation

that successfully bridged the difference. Today the NIV accounts for 35 per cent of Koorong’s Bible sales and remains Australia’s bestselling translation.

Other highlights of 40 years of the Bible recalled by Koorong staff include the NIV Study Bible in 1985, the easy-to-read Contemporary English Version (1995) and New Living translation (1996), and the “essentially literal” The English Standard Version (2001).

The emergence of Koorong’s strong network of stores and the retreat of Christian titles from the general book trade has created something of a Steve Bradbury moment for Bible buyers.

Koorong is the main channel for selling Bibles in Australia. It provides a Bible store in every state. Some readers of Eternity may have wondered why Bible Society bought Koorong – that network is a good reason in itself.

Bible Society Australia is seeking a full-time Bequest Relationship Representative to join our dedicated team. This role is key in building relationships with our valued supporters.

Add value to your career and support Bible Society’s mission in this role, based in West Ryde.

The full job details can be found at www.biblesociety.org.au/getinvolved/

IN DEPTH

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‘The day I walked into Koorong’ TAMARYN RICKETTS, CUSTOMER In late August 2017, I walked into Koorong. My hair was dark, my face in lines of despair. I had soul but not life, broken and lost, so blind that I just couldn’t see. It was the first day in forever I had picked up the Bible and read from it.

That was the day I met Nicola, a worker in Koorong, Blackburn, Vic. An avid bookworm, I was asked to go in and pick up a Bible called “The Message” for my partner, who had been in a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre at Nyora in Victoria called Remar Australia for a month. I was heading in for my first visit and church service that Sunday.

Months before, I had a vision of his deceased grandmother, a simple message from her, a godly woman, that I must “lead him back to God.” Now I don’t know about anyone reading this, but to tell an addicted person whom you are separated from and who you had to turn your back on for their own good and for your own health ... that message, it was hard, especially for a non-believer as I was at that time. I didn’t understand how it would be met but I didn’t need to at that point; I was just the person chosen to give the message. And by the love and grace of God, he knew it was time to seek help, and that started what will now be the rest of my walk as a woman of faith as well.

My partner – now with God’s blessing over us and the gift of forgiveness, my fiancé – had suffered greatly with drug abuse, namely ice. A very broken man, and now he is 10 months free of all addictions.

The day I walked into Koorong, I was there for him – a typical story of “I was spiritual, not religious.”

I had a warped vision of what being a Christian was, almost like drinking from a glass and looking through the bottom into what was a clear prism yet created a thick and distorted view.

I walked through the door and a bookstore excites me at the best of times but this had a feeling about it, a blessing. I didn’t have much money, but I knew what I wanted.

I asked Nicola for a hand in finding the Bible and her warm persona and kindness was almost like that big hug I had been waiting for: that warmness is what I would come to find is Christ working IN DEPTH

JUNE 2018

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over my Bible and was led to Psalm 18. That whole passage has fed my hope in such a powerful way.

Thank you Jesus.

Going forward, that day changed my life; I am now the most gracious fruit bearer of a sound mind in God’s loving grace: I quit smoking, I don’t drink alcohol any more and stopped cursing. My heart has been transformed.

I have accepted Jesus into my life; my partner asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve; I was baptised in the ocean at San Remo on the 6 February 2018; I have beared witness to others coming to Christ; he is restoring my family; I have been able to gift Bibles and pay it forward.

Praise God for giving me vision when the darkness blinded me.

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‘The day I walked into Koorong’ TAMARYN RICKETTS, CUSTOMER

over my Bible and was led to Psalm 18. That whole passage has fed my hope in such a powerful way.

Thank you Jesus.

Going forward, that day changed my life; I am now the most gracious fruit bearer of a sound mind in God’s loving grace: I quit smoking, I don’t drink alcohol any more and stopped cursing. My heart has been transformed.

I have accepted Jesus into my life; my partner asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve; I was baptised in the ocean at San Remo on the 6 February 2018; I have beared witness to others coming to Christ; he is restoring my family; I have been able to gift Bibles and pay it forward.

Praise God for giving me vision when the darkness blinded me.

“

“

wikimedia / StAnselm

In late August 2017, I walked into Koorong. My hair was dark, my face in lines of despair. I had soul but not life, broken and lost, so blind that I just couldn’t see. It was the first day in forever I had picked up the Bible and read from it.

That was the day I met Nicola, a worker in Koorong, Blackburn, Vic. An avid bookworm, I was asked to go in and pick up a Bible called “The Message” for my partner, who had been in a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre at Nyora in Victoria called Remar Australia for a month. I was heading in for my first visit and church service that Sunday.

Months before, I had a vision of his deceased grandmother, a simple message from her, a godly woman, that I must “lead him back to God.” Now I don’t know about anyone reading this, but to tell an addicted person whom you are separated from and who you had to turn your back on for their own good and for your own health ... that message, it was hard, especially for a non-believer as I was at that time. I didn’t understand how it would be met but I didn’t need to at that point; I was just the person chosen to give the message. And by the love and grace of God, he knew it was time to seek help, and that started what will now be the rest of my walk as a woman of faith as well.

My partner – now with God’s blessing over us and the gift of forgiveness, my fiancé – had suffered greatly with drug abuse, namely ice. A very broken man, and now he is 10 months free of all addictions.

The day I walked into Koorong, I was there for him – a typical story of “I was spiritual, not religious.”

I had a warped vision of what being a Christian was, almost like drinking from a glass and looking through the bottom into what was a clear prism yet created a thick and distorted view.

I walked through the door and a bookstore excites me at the best of times but this had a feeling about it, a blessing. I didn’t have much money, but I knew what I wanted.

I asked Nicola for a hand in finding the Bible and her warm persona and kindness was almost like that big hug I had been waiting for: that warmness is what I would come to find is Christ working

The Koorong store in Blackburn, Victoria.

... I didn’t have much money but I knew what I wanted.”

within us and his spirit shining through us. What an absolute gift.

I was tallying up my money in my head and wondering how I can get myself one also, speaking with Nicola about how I can and saying I will just come back. She went away and came back and said “this is a gift for you.”

I don’t even think I knew what to say. I am pretty sure tears prickled in my eyes, and if they didn’t then they certainly started when I got home. It was the most sincere gift and I knew what having a Bible meant: it meant he wanted me to get to know him.

I asked if she could write in it and the Scripture chosen is now almost a way of living and resting in him as I await restoration and purpose: “The Lord will fight for

you; you need only be still” (Exod 14:14).

What Nicola didn’t know at that point was my testimony. My personal story is one of triumph. I was and in some parts still am an abused woman multiple times over – the cycle I never knew how to break and almost felt like that was all I would ever amount to.

I had suffered a marriage breakdown in 2012, which I am still recovering from. My two daughters from that marriage and I are experiencing a painful separation of our rights that has so far lasted three years and counting – maternal alienation and a form of domestic abuse by proxy.

My home had been burned down by arson in 2015 and I lost all material possessions. I had suffered many mental breakdowns and been in and out of hospitals for mental health and on so many different medications. I found it hard to leave the house and sat on the couch for a year, barely even living. Don’t get me wrong: I pretended I was happy but inside I was in the type of pain that only those that have been in the dark can comprehend. I was broken.

That was the first day I prayed

Psalm 18 ... That whole passage has fed my hope in such a powerful way ... ” COLIN RAWLINS, CUSTOMER SERVICE, ADELAIDE

God’s presence is shown very clearly in the lives of two customers from our Adelaide Store.

The story goes like this: One day a customer came into our store, searching for a suitable Bible which she wanted to buy for her mother to read. After belonging to the Muslim faith for most of her life, this customer had just become a Christian herself. She said that her mother had recently shown an interest in the Christian faith and had asked for a Bible to compare with the Koran.

Her mum was a woman who appreciated the finer things of life and therefore she wanted to buy the best one she could find, and she didn’t care how much it cost – she just wanted her mother to be encouraged to read it.

After much discussion, she chose a leather-bound NIV Bible which was quite expensive. I prayed over the Bible asking for God’s blessing over the choice of the Bible, and that, as her mother read it, God would speak to her heart.

The very next day, an extremely excited daughter returned to the store praising God. Her mother had sat down and immediately read about the good news of our Lord and Saviour – a wonderful miracle had occurred at 3am that night, as God revealed himself to her mother.

A few days later, the mother came into the store to purchase some Christian books. Being accustomed to the Muslim faith, she was an avid reader. At that time, by the way she spoke, one would have thought that she had been a Christian all her life. Soooo ... she went back home with over $800 of Christian books to read!

Another amazing miracle! But wait, there’s more ...

Sometime later, both mother and daughter returned to Koorong relating the story of how God had performed yet another miracle in their lives. The mother was on her way to Glenelg Beach, where she was to be baptised, when her Muslim ex-husband, who had heard of her impending baptism, tried to run her off the road. His attempts were fruitless.

Triumphantly, she proclaimed, “God protected me from an awful fate, and I was baptised despite this traumatic experience!”

And this is only one of many amazing stories from my 20 years working in the Adelaide Store.

RHEBAN BRADLEY, PREVIOUS STORE MANAGER, BLACKBURN

My first day as the manager of the Blackburn store in Melbourne was one I will never forget.

I had a request to come to the front counter as a customer wanted to see me. The customer had a huge amount of stock that, from a distance, I suspected he wanted to return. My assumption was correct but not for the right reason.

I don’t know if I could call him a customer; he was, in fact, a thief.

See, he had stolen $400 worth of stock and the Holy Spirit had convicted him to return the CDs, videos (yes, videos!), books and Bibles, as he had given his life to Jesus.

He admitted the stock was stolen and expected the police would need to be involved. I showed grace as I had been shown grace and forgiveness from Jesus for my sins, and did not involve the police.

He then became a regular paying customer and the Holy Spirit turned his life around.

“

Break out and be seen

on a national Christian platform

Get your ad in front of more than 300,000 people!

Contact Sherina now on: 0414 291 273 or advertising@eternitynews.com

wikimedia / StAnselm

“

The Koorong store in Blackburn, Victoria.

... I didn’t have much money but I knew what I wanted.” within us and his spirit shining through us. What an absolute gift.

I was tallying up my money in my head and wondering how I can get myself one also, speaking with Nicola about how I can and saying I will just come back. She went away and came back and said “this is a gift for you.”

I don’t even think I knew what to say. I am pretty sure tears prickled in my eyes, and if they didn’t then they certainly started when I got home. It was the most sincere gift and I knew what having a Bible meant: it meant he wanted me to get to know him.

I asked if she could write in it and the Scripture chosen is now almost a way of living and resting in him as I await restoration and purpose: “The Lord will fight for

Break out and be seen

on a national Christian platform Get your ad in front of more than 300,000 people!

Contact Sherina now on: 0414 291 273 or advertising@eternitynews.com

you; you need only be still” (Exod 14:14).

What Nicola didn’t know at that point was my testimony. My personal story is one of triumph. I was and in some parts still am an abused woman multiple times over – the cycle I never knew how to break and almost felt like that was all I would ever amount to.

I had suffered a marriage breakdown in 2012, which I am still recovering from. My two daughters from that marriage and I are experiencing a painful separation of our rights that has so far lasted three years and counting – maternal alienation and a form of domestic abuse by proxy.

My home had been burned down by arson in 2015 and I lost all material possessions. I had suffered many mental breakdowns and been in and out of hospitals for mental health and on so many different medications. I found it hard to leave the house and sat on the couch for a year, barely even living. Don’t get me wrong: I pretended I was happy but inside I was in the type of pain that only those that have been in the dark can comprehend. I was broken.

That was the first day I prayed

Psalm 18 ... That whole passage has fed my hope in such a powerful way ... ” COLIN RAWLINS, CUSTOMER SERVICE, ADELAIDE God’s presence is shown very clearly in the lives of two customers from our Adelaide Store.

The story goes like this: One day a customer came into our store, searching for a suitable Bible which she wanted to buy for her mother to read. After belonging to the Muslim faith for most of her life, this customer had just become a Christian herself. She said that her mother had recently shown an interest in the Christian faith and had asked for a Bible to compare with the Koran.

Her mum was a woman who appreciated the finer things of life and therefore she wanted to buy the best one she could find, and she didn’t care how much it cost – she just wanted her mother to be encouraged to read it.

After much discussion, she chose a leather-bound NIV Bible which was quite expensive. I prayed over the Bible asking for God’s blessing over the choice of the Bible, and that, as her mother read it, God would speak to her heart.

The very next day, an extremely excited daughter returned to the store praising God. Her mother had sat down and immediately read about the good news of our Lord and Saviour – a wonderful miracle had occurred at 3am that night, as God revealed himself to her mother.

A few days later, the mother came into the store to purchase some Christian books. Being accustomed to the Muslim faith, she was an avid reader. At that time, by the way she spoke, one would have thought that she had been a Christian all her life. Soooo ... she went back home with over $800 of Christian books to read!

Another amazing miracle! But wait, there’s more ...

Sometime later, both mother and daughter returned to Koorong relating the story of how God had performed yet another miracle in their lives. The mother was on her way to Glenelg Beach, where she was to be baptised, when her Muslim ex-husband, who had heard of her impending baptism, tried to run her off the road. His attempts were fruitless.

Triumphantly, she proclaimed, “God protected me from an awful fate, and I was baptised despite this traumatic experience!”

And this is only one of many amazing stories from my 20 years working in the Adelaide Store.

RHEBAN BRADLEY, PREVIOUS STORE MANAGER, BLACKBURN My first day as the manager of the Blackburn store in Melbourne was one I will never forget.

I had a request to come to the front counter as a customer wanted to see me. The customer had a huge amount of stock that, from a distance, I suspected he wanted to return. My assumption was correct but not for the right reason.

I don’t know if I could call him a customer; he was, in fact, a thief.

See, he had stolen $400 worth of stock and the Holy Spirit had convicted him to return the CDs, videos (yes, videos!), books and Bibles, as he had given his life to Jesus.

He admitted the stock was stolen and expected the police would need to be involved. I showed grace as I had been shown grace and forgiveness from Jesus for my sins, and did not involve the police.

He then became a regular paying customer and the Holy Spirit turned his life around.

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IN DEPTH

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JUNE 2018

Forty years a Bible hero KALEY PAYNE When you meet Paul Eckert, you get the feeling he is a man who has lived his life in the service of others. He is softly spoken and gentle. Perhaps typical of a man who has spent most of his life in the Australian outback, he dons an Akubra most days and is always ready for a “good yarn.”

Eckert has devoted almost 40 years to overseeing the Pitjantjatjara Bible Project, translating the Bible into an Aboriginal language of Central Australia. He arrived in the APY Lands in the remote northwest of South Australia as a school teacher, but followed God’s call into Bible translation. In May, he handed over the reins of the project, as he prepared to retire.

After many years living and working with the Pitjantjatjara people in Pukatja (also known as Ernabella) in the APY Lands, Eckert is fluent in the local language and has formed lasting relationships. He says it was hard to say goodbye. “The Pitjantjatjara people have taught me so much about their language and their culture,” he says.

Eckert was a young man in his early 20s when he first went to the APY Lands in 1973. He spent two years in Amata before he was asked to start a school in Pipalyatjara, then a very small community where most of the local Pitjantjatjara people lived in whirlies (traditional huts) or tin sheds.

“I went out there and started up a school under a gum tree. I had a small caravan, but it was so small that I decided I’d just sleep outside.

I had my swag, made a windbreak with old car bonnets and slept there for two years.”

It was in the APY Lands that Paul experienced an “aha” moment with the Bible.

“I had an experience reading the Scriptures where the truth of what I was reading turned my life around. I believe it was the Holy Spirit revealing to me the truth of the gospel in a way which I hadn’t yet seen,” he says.

From that moment, Paul began looking beyond his teaching duties.

“I started to wonder if God had something more for me.”

Soon afterwards, Paul began a Wycliffe training course to help him understand more about linguistics, which was useful to

“

Paul Eckert (middle) with Pitjantjatjara local Bible translators working together in Ernabella (Pukatja). him as a teacher in a bilingual school. The ten-week course was held in Sydney, and God challenged Paul to consider how he would spend his life.

“I loved the outback. I loved living in the outback and working with Aboriginal people. I didn’t like cities. But while I was in Sydney, the Lord laid it on my heart: ‘Would you be willing to move to Sydney to do whatever I wanted you to do here?’

“Over that ten weeks, I began to see not just the city and all the concrete but the people. All the people who didn’t know Jesus. By the end of those ten weeks, I could truthfully say to God, ‘If you want me to stay here, I will.’”

Paul believes God had to break down Paul’s plans for his life and what he wanted to do, in order for him to truly follow God’s will.

It was also in Sydney, among the hustle and bustle, that Paul felt God’s call on his life to go into Bible translation.

“While I was doing this course, I discovered Bible translation.

Almost all those teaching the course were also Bible translators, and I discovered they came from a great variety of backgrounds.

I realised that even I could be a Bible translator and began to sense

that God was calling me in that direction.”

When he returned to the APY Lands to finish another year of teaching, Paul entered a tradition of school teachers-turnedtranslators. The Pitjantjatjara people in Ernabella were wanting more of the Bible translated. Work had stalled in the 1970s after the publication of the Tjukurpa Palya Jesunya – The Good News of Jesus, containing completed translations of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Ephesians, James and 1 John.

Those translations had taken more than 30 years to complete, since they were started soon after the beginning of the Presbyterian mission at Ernabella in 1937.

In 1977, when Paul was approached by two members of the Ernabella community who were keen to restart the Pitjantjatjara Bible Project, he knew this was God’s call. The initial goal was to complete the New Testament.

“It just struck me how important it was that people have God’s word in their own language … I could see that having the word of God in their own language empowered that church to grow in the way it needed to grow, rather than being always taught by outsiders.

“It was a no-brainer at that

It was a no-brainer at that point. The Lord had called me to Bible translation.”

point. The Lord had called me to Bible translation. And I felt that he had now called me to stay here [in the APY Lands]. It was where I really wanted to be.”

Paul says that while the work is slow, it is led by the Pitjantjatjara people themselves. Most of the local translators juggle their translation work with full-time jobs and the additional pressures of living in a remote community.

Many translators are leaders in their communities, with added obligations

on their time. But Paul says the excitement the translators express whenever he meets them to work on a translation is palpable, and a joy to see.

“For me, it has been a real privilege to be working with these folk whose motivation is so high.

They’re the ones that approached me and wanted my help. And we’ve tried to structure the [Bible translation project] around them and provide them with the support they need to do this job. They love doing it.”

Paul and his wife, Ann, have dedicated their lives to helping the Pitjantjatjara people receive God’s word in their own language.

They have overseen the publication of the full New Testament in Pitjantjatjara, launched in 2002, and witnessed the impact it had on the depth of faith among the Pitjantjatjara people. An audio recording of the Pitjantjatjara New Testament has recently been completed and the Old Testament translation is well under way.

Paul says the best part of the job has always been working alongside the Pitjantjatjara people.

“They bring expertise in their language to the translation desk and my wife and I bring our expertise in being able to access the original text and together we can do a good job. There is great joy in working alongside other people and together growing in our ability to translate and love of God’s word.”

When the translators farewelled Paul and Ann at a special event in Ernabella on Easter Saturday, they gave them gifts, one of which was a boomerang, “because we hope you will come back.”

Pitjantjatjara translator Yanyi Bandicha comments: “Paul has been doing this great work together with us, translating the New Testament and the Old Testament as well. It really is wonderful what Paul has done for us. I’m overjoyed by this great work he has done.”

Paul Eckert

SPECIAL

JUNE 2018

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CHARITIES

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How have you bean?

BEN MCEACHEN

Copy of THEFIRSTHELLO

Capturing the very first hello BEN MCEACHEN We like to document the “firsts” in our lives. When friends and professional photographers River Bennett and Bel Pangburn shared with each other how much they enjoyed photographing a baby being delivered, they knew they had to develop the idea.

“We thought this could be such a gift for people,” explains River, who went on to co-found

The First Hello Project in 2015 with Bel. Taking care to establish relationship with the expectant parents they will be capturing in labour, The First Hello Project’s services were readily taken up.

“The images are what sold it,” Bel simply describes. “Momentum has picked up through the years ... and the power of social media and sharing images [meant] it caught on quite quickly.”

How quickly it caught on

surprised River and Bel but the Hillsong members always wanted to forge more than a “cute” Instagram account. “We understand the weight and honour of being invited into that [birthing] space,” says Bel, before River adds: “Our goal is to always find the beauty, because birth isn’t beautiful, in a lot of ways.”

These friends approach business with their Christianity engaged.

They pray “a lot” and hope all they

do displays whose they are. “We love creating because we are in contact with our Creator,” says River. “Everything we produce, there will always be a sense of servanthood and obedience.” This extends to supporting a maternity ward in northern Uganda, via Love Mercy Foundation, as well as expanding First Hello to also taking shots of kids growing up.

For more details and photos, visit thefirsthelloproject.com

Working out how to work for God BEN MCEACHEN Imagine working for God. Now, imagine working for God in a profession or business that isn’t based within church circles.

Helping to turn those ideas into reality is Seed, a Sydney based organisation created three years ago. John Beckett is founder and CEO of Seed and he explains that its support and development is not in competition with church based ministries. Instead, Seed grew out

of a belief that Christians can bring positive change to society through any work grounding itself in the gospel.

“We think there are two pillars to our personal place in God’s purposes,” says Beckett. “Firstly, there is our identity – who has God made us to be, in a general and particular sense. Secondly, there is context – who or where has God called you to serve and what is God’s intention for that place or that culture.”

Bringing those two pillars together for Christian entrepreneurs and innovators is what Seed is about. Such alignment between God’s will and any individual person can sound a bit conceptual. But Seed isn’t interested in ideas for the sake of ideas. Through six stages of development, an idea in its infancy or an existing business is honed and nurtured to fruition.

“Primarily, we are focused on innovation that shows the

world what Jesus is like,” says Beckett. What that means will look different every time. Seed has had a variety of Christians enter its incubator, from an architect wanting to create cheaper, more sustainable housing, to two women constructing employment pathways for victims of domestic violence. In both examples, Beckett says the transforming power of living for Jesus flows from the business person to the wider world, continued page 10

“ A heavy burden has been lifted from my life and I am grateful that Jesus gave me a new path...”

–GERSHON FROM ZAMBIA

Donate

Roasting coffee beans is very now, like brewing quality beer or growing organic vegetables.

But Ben Cosford is next level. Starting roasting with a popcorn machine in 2009, having freshly returned from Mongolia as a “poor missionary,” Ben founded bean business Soul City Roasters in 2015. The part-time minister in suburban Adelaide sells beans, recently opened the City of Churches’ first community roaster, and intentionally provides work opportunities to refugees.

“There’s this element of taking this green bean and drawing the best flavours possible out of it – to enjoy God’s creation at its best,” explains Ben fondly.

His shift into serious sales was born out of a need to supplement his ministerial wage. But Ben wants his side business to be gospel grounded.

“One of the advantages of owning a business is you can set the tone,” says Ben. Primarily using social media to sell his beans, he seriously considers himself a “pastor to my customers, so I’m conscious in our marketing of not playing on weaknesses. I don’t want to encourage retail therapy or impulse buying.”

Meeting refugees in Adelaide’s northern suburbs caused Ben to commit Soul City to being an employment option for them. “I knew [Soul City Roasters] would lend opportunity to relationships and be able to share Jesus with people from all sorts of nations. Or, if I came across Christians, I could disciple them through the business as well.

“We want to help people physically with work, but the ultimate goal is to help them spiritually with salvation and eternity.”

For more, head to soulcityroasters.com

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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CHARITIES SPECIAL

JUNE 2018

Creating and leaving a legacy

Work for God from page 9

DAVID MARTIN

pixabay / stevepb

We create a legacy as we live our lives. Whether in the highs and lows of life or in the mundane, everyday, we build a legacy. And we do this whether we give it any thought or not. We do it through who we are and what we choose to do as much as how we choose to do it.

At one level, we create a legacy with our family if we marry and have children. At another level, we create a legacy through our career in the things we do and how we interact at work. And still another, in how we choose to use the resources we have earned.

Reflecting on my 58 years of life so far, I have special memories of my family being together and with my grandparents on holiday visits as well as people I have worked with over the years. Our children are now adults: apart from our worldly goods what legacy have we created for them?

The life of faith through our church family, our prayers and volunteering also creates a legacy.

So many Bible Society supporters have been pastoral ministers or field missionaries. Others have faithfully been part of church groups positively influencing their communities and families for many years. What legacy is created in our communities through the quiet and faithful ministry of the many who make up the body of Christ? Much indeed.

Consider the value of small

giving over many years. One of Bible Society’s wonderful supporters has left us a $75,000 bequest.

Looking back at his supporter record, I saw that this gentleman had given regularly through Bible a Month since 1997. He last gave in 2013.

One lady I spoke to about why she was putting BSA in her will,

replied, “I was a missionary once and I know the value of your work.

I just want to support something that is getting the Bible out into the world.” Looking back at this lady’s support she gives about $80 a year, which is all she can afford as a pensioner who supports other ministries as well.

Folk such as these create a legacy throughout their life – their

generosity in prayer, volunteering, giving; and then they leave a legacy through their generosity in their passing. To them it’s not about having their name in lights.

Rather, it is all about extending the kingdom of God both in their lifetime and in their passing.

David Martin is national bequest officer for Bible Society Australia.

through their enterprise.

Beckett studied at Canada’s Regent College and “focused on whole-of-life discipleship and what it looks like to embody faith beyond the walls of the church.”

He also worked for Christian advocacy group Micah Challenge, calling upon Christians to get behind causes. Seed melds these two facets of Beckett’s background and he believes such a gospelcentred backer of businesses can answer questions churches have found hard to do.

“We struggle a little bit in the church because we spend all our time and energy focused on the answer, which is Jesus. We know the answer really well but it means we don’t spend enough time focused on the questions that people are asking,” says Beckett.

“Some of the initiatives [Seed has supported] have taken seriously the felt needs of people so they can provide something valuable that connects with the Christian story.”

Seed wants to disrupt the way things are done and show how they can be done differently, when done for God through Jesus. Beckett’s vision for the future of Seed is greater collaboration between Christians, across the marketplace, for the greater good of God’s kingdom. “We’d love to see a bunch of Christians at the forefront of positive change in our society and being public about their faith in ways that are appropriate and helpful.”

For more, visit: seed.org.au

CHRISTIAN SERVICES FOR THE BLIND AND HEARING IMPAIRED*

Making a

difference in their world . . .

For the Blind: • Christian audio books via Vision Australia For the Deaf: • Closed-captioning of online and DVD media • Auslan-signed weekly worship service live at New Hope, Sydney, and on FTA TV on GEM, Sunday 7am.

If you could benefit from these FREE services, contact CSFBHI: Phone +61 2 9847 2296 Email CSFBHI@adventistmedia.org.au Web hop.ec/CSFBHI *CSFBHI is a registered charity for the purpose of tax-deductibility.

“Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped . . .” (Isaiah 35:5)

CHARITIES SPECIAL

JUNE 2018

11

Give confidently – give generously STEPHEN KERR AMP. Commonwealth Bank. The Shane Warne Foundation. RSL New South Wales. They’re all examples of poor governance that has led to massive losses of public and donor/customer trust in wellknown organisations.

Steve Kerr, Executive Director of the CMA Standards Council, thanks God every day that there are no Christian charities, churches or schools on that list.

But Christians are not immune from reputational damage – the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse didn’t exactly cover the church with glory, and Christian organisations have suffered from fraud in the past too.

The CMA Standards Council’s mission is to build faith and trust in Christian organisations. It believes organisations that are well governed, transparent and accountable are more effective, better trusted and a witness to the world. “Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God” (1 Peter 2:12). Matthew Maury, CEO of Tear Australia and one of the Council’s Foundation Partners, agrees. He says, “TEAR believes that Christian organisations should strive for excellence in everything they do – as stewards of God’s resources. The CMA Standards Council helps affirm high accountability and encourages all

ministries to strive for excellence”.

The CMA Standards Council was launched in November 2017, and is already gaining traction, with nine accredited Foundation Partners and 12 more applications in progress. The Foundation Partners include a broad range of leading ministries, such as Anglican Aid, FEBC, Scripture Union Queensland, Arrow Leadership and more. All its partners are celebrated in its Partner Directory as organisations that have a commitment to integrity. The Australian Charities

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and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has also endorsed the CMA Standards Council’s principles and standards and has publicly confirmed that any organisation accredited by the council will automatically be deemed to comply with the ACNC’s governance standards.

The Standards Council has counterparts in the USA and Canada that have been operating

successfully for well over 30 years. “Here in the States the culture is now that donors looking at an organisation don’t just check to see if an organisation is accredited – they actively go to an organisation and ask why is it that you are not accredited,” says John van Drunen, Executive Vice-President of ECFA. But accountability groups are not pushovers, he says. “Sadly we have had to expel members from time to time, most recently Gospel for Asia, for not meeting our standards.”

The value of accreditation shows on three levels – internally, with direct and potential stakeholders, and as a powerful message about Christianity to the world.

Internally, an organisation that

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is well governed is more likely to be able to achieve its purpose effectively and efficiently.

The board sets the culture in every organisation, so that a board that actively seeks to act properly will lead to an organisation that actively seeks to act properly.

David Angell, Chair of foundation partner Gateway Baptist Church, says, “the Standards Council provides us with sound standards, an external perspective and constructive assistance in our governance journey.”

This means the stakeholders in the organisation, the donors, potential donors, volunteers and staff can trust that their time, talent and treasure will be used wisely and well, and the users of the organisation’s services can be sure that they will be treated fairly and with love. Further, by acting properly “not only in the eyes of God, but also the eyes of man” (2 Corinthians 8:21), Standards Council partners are honouring God in the faithful administration and advancement of his kingdom, to the greater glory of God. Accreditation is reviewed annually, as an organisation and its reputation never stands still. And at least once every four years the CMA Standards Council carries out an in-depth field review of each of its partners to help them ensure its standards are being met.

So how do you keep your charity or church off the “roll-call of shame” above? Have a look at www.cmasc.net.au and join the accountability movement.

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JUNE 2018

OPINION

‘We’re more damaged when we get out’

The questions we all must face Tim Costello Page 14 Baptist Press / SWBTS

A survivor of an abusive marriage issues a challenge to pastors

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Christian hero or villain: Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson ISABELLA YOUNG Paige Patterson, the 75-yearold president of the influential Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has in the past few weeks wandered into a firestorm many years in the making.

Patterson has been a major leader of the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which numbers around 15 million people.

For centuries the church has provided poor advice and misguided teaching to those suffering from domestic abuse.

Patterson, who is a proud defender of the permanency of marriage, has recently been challenged about comments he made in 2000 after he was asked “What do you recommend for women who are undergoing genuine physical abuse from their husbands and their husbands say they should be submitting?” His answer is worth examining as it typifies the type of advice that has been given to abused spouses in many modernday churches.

Patterson’s response to the women can be summed up as “pray, stay and submit,” with no option to leave unless the marriage was subject to the “most serious” level of “physical or moral danger.”

Patterson stated that he had never counselled divorce and only counselled temporary separation in the most serious of cases. He also stated the details of such cases were so awful he wouldn’t speak about them in public.

Instead, for “less serious” abuse, he counselled prayer, and for the wife to “submit in any way that she is able” and to “elevate” her husband. He placed emphasis on the way the wife should behave to win him for Christ. As an illustration of this, he said:

I had a woman who was in a church that I served, and she was being subject to some abuse, and I told her, I said, “All right, what I want you to do is, every evening I want you to get down by your bed just as he goes to sleep, get down by the bed, and when you think he’s just about asleep, you just pray and ask God to intervene, not out loud, quietly,” but I said, “You just pray there.”

And I said, “Get ready because he may get a little more violent, you know, when he discovers this.” And sure enough, he did. She came to church one morning with both eyes black. And she was angry at me and at God and the world, for that matter. And she said, “I hope you’re happy.” And I said, “Yes ma’am, I am.” And I said, “I’m sorry about that, but I’m very happy.”

He went on to describe how the man came to repentance at church following the assault and how now the man in question was a “great husband.” The couple in question are yet to emerge to support Patterson’s assertion that their marital issues were so neatly resolved.

Patterson’s comments have been critiqued before, but since the #metoo movement began, the church has been under increased levels of scrutiny. A few weeks ago, the public outcry began. Firstly, a blogpost, then a Southern Baptist male leader broke ranks to do the unthinkable, in publicly criticising Patterson. Then the floodgates opened, and the women came out.

It seems Patterson has underestimated the sheer numbers of women who count themselves affected by the domestic abuse issue within Baptist churches. At the time of writing, around 3000 women of the Southern Baptist Convention had signed a petition calling for his resignation from the

seminary, and other male leaders have also called him to account.

From the accounts that I have read, there are many Southern Baptist women who have left their congregations due to secondary abuse by their pastors and churches after revealing domestic violence within their marriages. Most of these women are still “members” and eligible to sign the petition. They have been collectively disempowered and spiritually isolated but have just woken up and made their voice heard.

After much bluster to the contrary, Patterson has partially apologised, but his apology leaves the reader still wondering if he at all understands what he has done wrong. And he still makes no apology for his stance on divorce.

There is not much difference between the experience of Southern Baptist women and that of abused spouses in Australian churches. We have mostly moved past “submit till you bleed” theology, but we still haven’t all got our heads around why divorce might be a highly appropriate recourse for many abused husbands and wives.

I don’t intend to put forth an argument here as to why divorce in such situations is biblically justified; others have provided convincing scholarship on this, the most thorough being David Instone-Brewer’s Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: A Social and Literary Context.

If you do not believe that divorce is justified for abuse, I’d challenge you to read it.

Rather I want to demonstrate just one of the negative effects of making divorce difficult for the abused within churches.

The abused are extremely traumatised people. If you manage

to exit an abusive marriage without Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or major depression you are fortunate. Abuse survivors are unavoidably damaged, psychologically, spiritually and physically. The brains of some abuse survivors more closely reflect those of “shell-shocked” war veterans than they do the general community. Ongoing marital abuse really is that bad.

Healing can only properly commence once the victim is away from the danger and their flight or fight instinct can begin to be calmed down. For some of the abuse victims I know this will take years of therapy, if they can access something that works. And many can’t.

What is one of the most terrifying things to propose to an abuse victim who has reached their limit? That they somehow still belong to their abuser, spiritually, physically, psychologically or legally. And still being required to be married to someone, even if permanently separated from them, fulfils several of those categories.

Abuse victims who have left instinctively know this. In fact, their bodies bristle in rebellion when a pastor tells them, “no you can’t get divorced” or “you’re not eligible to be remarried” (because you still belong to that person). When they recoil in their chair at the mention of their abuser’s name, their bodies are telling them to get away.

This is a self-protective action.

The American trauma psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk in The Body Keeps the Score, argues that one of the major factors in determining whether traumatic experience develops into PTSD is whether the victim is able by their own efforts to get themselves away from the danger. For people on the ground in New York who were

able to physically run away from the collapsing World Trade Center, their ability to flee was a major protective factor in reducing their chances of developing PTSD. For those pinned in a vehicle after a crash, wondering whether it is about to blow up, the fact that they are immobile and helpless adds to the traumatic effects of the physical crash.

Unfortunately, Christian domestic abuse survivors have more than one thing “pinning them down” making them immobile.

They have the words of the abuser themselves and their loyalty to their abuser. They have their wedding vows. And many have the misguided teachings of the church on separation and divorce and sometimes overt pressure to remain with their abuser. These pressures are why domestic abuse within the church, I would argue, can have a greater impact than that in secular relationships. Our barriers to exit are higher and consequently we’re more damaged when we get out.

And even when we do get out, we’re often told we’re still “tied” in the bonds of marriage, never truly able to get away from them. This delays our healing and does not allow the righteous anger at such an experience to dissipate. Which is why I think the strength of the anger directed at Paige Patterson is not just coming from those who believe him a misogynist. Rather, it has been significantly increased by those within Baptist congregations who have been burnt by pastors to whom he has taught his version of permanency of marriage.

These people have a right to be angr;, it’s just a shame that it has taken so long for their anger to begin to be heard.

Isabella Young is a pseudonym for an activist against abuse.

OPINION

JUNE 2018

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How to find meaning and identity

“

Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

SIMON SMART on what the world needs now

our parts no less than did our ancestors. But we barely remember the name of the drama, much less its meaning or purpose. The playwright is apparently dead and cannot be consulted as to his original intention. Cultural memory still holds gingerly a tattered script, but many of its pages are missing and the guidance it provides us is barely audible and, even then, delivered in what appears to us to be a foreign tongue. Armed with newfangled, electronically delivered images and phrases, we are never at a loss for words. But we are at a loss for meaning.

Twentieth-century atheist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre understood this loss, writing that “Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon

“

... all our busyness and dreams and hopes, if there is no God, are ultimately meaningless.”

either within or outside himself.” It was Sartre’s view that once we have lost God as the infinite reference point, we have nothing eternal to measure our journey by, and it thus becomes hard to know if we are doing anything meaningful at all.

Sartre would find something in common with the writer of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, which begins and ends with a

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Social researcher Hugh Mackay’s latest book, Australia Reimagined, paints a picture of a country the author loves but has grave concerns for. We are a sick society, writes Mackay: “overanxious, overweight, overmedicated and financially overstretched.”

The stats are not pretty. Onethird of us are likely to be affected by mental illness in our lives. In any one year, two million will experience an anxiety disorder and one million will battle depression.

An astonishing 65–70,000 Australians will attempt suicide each year. We are also more selfabsorbed, more competitive and more socially fragmented than ever, according to Mackay.

How did we get here? There are, of course, multiple factors that Mackay identifies, as well as a number of potential solutions.

One of these solutions is the power of faith. While Mackay doesn’t necessarily lament the loss of religious faith, he does highlight the power of religion to establish a sense of meaning in our lives— enlarging our perspective and giving us “a kind of borrowed strength.”

It may well be that such a firm foundation is what is missing for so many people today, leading to a loss of meaning. The philosopher Leon Kass believes that modern life is characterised by such a lack, and alludes to the loss of God as central to the dilemma: As the curtain begins to descend on the twentieth century, we who find ourselves still on the stage are, truth to tell, more than a little befuddled about how to act and what to think. To be sure, we seem to speak our lines and play

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summary of the human condition, “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

That might not sound very encouraging but stay with me.

The word “meaningless” here is the Hebrew word, hebel, meaning vapour or breath, something that’s insubstantial and temporary. It’s used 38 times in Ecclesiastes. It’s a big theme. Everything is transitory, nothing lasts. It’s here and then it’s gone. And so are we.

“What does a man gain from all his labour at which he toils under the sun?” writes Solomon.

The phrase “under the sun” is a key refrain (used 27 times) in Ecclesiastes, and leans towards the idea that “under the sun” all our activity, all our busyness and dreams and hopes, if there is no God, are ultimately meaningless.

But only if there is no God.

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In chapter 3 we read, “I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race, he has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” The mysteries of human existence remain at some level unfathomable, and yet, it is universally true that people do live as if life has meaning. God has placed “eternity in our hearts” and we long for, and deep down believe, that our lives matter in some way beyond just the arranging of particles and firing of neurons.

As a society, we are good at distracting ourselves from these fundamental questions but they inevitably reassert themselves.

And when they do, that is when the Christian faith speaks loudest.

Jesus declared the kingdom of God had arrived in him. According to this claim, there is a mysterious sense in which this kingdom is both present now, and yet remains a future hope. That might explain how our unfulfilled longings jostle alongside our stubborn conviction that life ought to mean something.

It also means that there is eternal significance in all that we do. That includes grand projects we might embark upon just as much as it does the small and mundane.

Such a perspective may well be the missing piece in the puzzle of our faltering modern efforts to find enduring meaning and the higher purpose that Hugh Mackay, among others, recognises as essential to our wellbeing.

Simon Smart is a Director of Centre for Public Christianity.

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OPINION

14

JUNE 2018

The questions we all must face

Tim Costello on gospel champions The good, bad and sometimes ugly faces of Christianity are examined in a refreshingly honest documentary film with the intriguing title For the Love of God: How the church is better and worse than you ever imagined.

It boldly charts the Church’s darkest failings – the witch hunts, oppression and corruption

– and also the Christian origins of human rights, justice and sacrificial charity.

It is both a challenging and encouraging film that I hope many non-Christians will see. But I believe it contains an even bigger message for Christians. The heroes of this documentary who would most impress non-Christians were all social justice prophets such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. We seem to prefer our dead Christian heroes. They can irritate us when alive when they remind us of the plight of the disadvantaged – as William Carey and Mother Teresa did by working with India’s Untouchables, and others such as Father Damien, who fought for the rights of lepers.

Many would prefer spiritual leaders to have nothing to say about economics, politics, refugees, the state’s dependency on gambling

revenue or the poor, but that’s a misunderstanding of the primacy of evangelism linked with the social gospel.

The only ones singing in tune with Jesus in the film were the social justice champions who were largely opposed during their time by the mainstream churches.

How can theology exclude justice as central to the gospel? Justice is not a replacement of the gospel we love but the missing part we have not preached enough, and this film shows it. Working for justice is both transformational and missional.

My life has been bookended by two wonderful Bible texts – the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations outlined in Matthew 28, and how we must lovingly commit to care for the poor and disadvantaged as stated in Matthew 25.

If we are going to sing a

redemption song, we better live between both bookends and resist saying we prefer one to the other.

The spiritual and the social questions of eternal life and loving our neighbour are two sides of the one coin. They belong together.

We have separated these two great questions. We’ve pulled them apart and their power is that they belong together The questions we will all face on Judgment Day will not be theological. Instead, we will be asked: “I was hungry. Did you feed me? I was naked. Did you clothe me? I was an alien. Did you make room for me in your country?’’

We will know we are saved by grace alone but find that if we haven’t lived out justice and compassion we never really understood God’s grace and saving faith.

For screenings of For The Love of God, visit betterandworse.film

Choosing our enemies wisely

How Lucy Gichuhi chooses the best paths and policies wikimedia/MichaelPhilip

The demise of King Saul is an unfortunate story of how insecurities, disobedience and unchecked jealousy can overshadow our decisions and blind us to truth.

King Saul’s enemies should have been the Philistines, but he made David’s successes over Philistine armies the point of hostility.

King Saul’s personal dislike and negative emotions towards David dominated the remainder of his life and reign. Here is how it happened.

King Saul created an imaginary enemy in David, spending his time and resources attacking him, instead of focusing on the real enemy, the Philistines. He also neglected his responsibilities as

Lyre and liar: David and Saul by Ernst Josephson king and leader of Israel.

When the tables were turned and David had the opportunity to kill Saul, he chose to honour him and his authority as king, every single time. King Saul is a reminder that when we try to bring others down, the only one that falls is us. When we choose the wrong enemies, we bear the consequences and fail to benefit from the strengths and talents the other person possesses.

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David was an incredible warrior, able to defeat the Philistines in battle. However, King Saul’s jealousy prevented him from maximising on David’s gifting for the betterment of the whole community.

Failing to properly recognise who our true enemies are occurs too often in society and in our families. We misinterpret our colleagues, spouses, children and

relatives as the enemy and we put others in the position of divided loyalties. Prince Jonathan had the terrible task of choosing between his best friend and his father, Saul. If we are not careful we can find ourselves on the same selfdestructive path as King Saul. So let’s pause for a moment and think: Who are our real enemies?

In my short political life as a Liberal senator, I would say the real enemies are policies that don’t acknowledge we are created in the image of God, policies that create victims, destroy initiative and fetter freedom of thought, conscience and religion. These are our true enemies.

As leaders in our private and public capacity, we must recognise and appreciate the talents of those in our lives and those on our side.

We must create room for our colleagues, spouses, children and relatives to shine, without letting animosity and contempt take root.

We must honour those who have been loyal to us, whether in private or political life.

I believe that our nation is at a critical crossroad in its development. We can still take the path of love, faith and hope, but we must choose our enemies wisely on the way.

Lucy Gichuhi is a Liberal senator for South Australia.

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Where the poor in spirit cry out “Jesus is rarely found in the centre of cities, or in the church or government that worships power, but he is commonly found in the hidden, fringe places, where the poor in spirit cry out for God. These are the places I long to be, but the hardest call is to be in the dry centre.” - David Bennett on Twitter The Christian social critic Os Guinness recently told Eternity that the answer to the advance of the secular left is not for Christians to retreat but to be socially engaged – to be Christians in whatever part of the society, in the workforce or without we may be.

This writer has served Jesus in places like the newsrooms of Fairfax, and before that as the only nonMarxist elected official in the national Student Union.

I have always been on the fringe, but not always as poor in spirit as I should have been. But the worship of power remains a temptation.

We tell ourselves that having power or influence is something we could use for Jesus. And there are some souls who will make that journey. A Wilberforce, or as Os Guinness reminded me, Countess Selina of Huntingdon. (An aristocratic church planter!) But most of us won’t be called into those places. We won’t be Queen Esther. But we still are called into our time and place “for such a time as this.” May we be faithful, true Christians wherever we are. Obscure perhaps, but not hidden from heaven.

John Sandeman

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www.biblesociety.org.au A national newspaper for Australian Christians, Eternity is sent free to any church, school or Christian businesses. eternity@biblesociety.org.au Individual subscriptions are also available. Eternity is published by Bible Society Australia (ACN 148 058 306).

Edited by John Sandeman.

OPINION

JUNE 2018

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Is the Age of Apologetics over?

Apologetics is the word given to the art of defending the Christian faith from its critics. Apologists have been at hard at it since the 2nd century AD, when a bloke called Justin Martyr wrote his First Apology – a work addressed to the Emperor in Rome. Justin wanted to explain that Christians were not fanatical evildoers deserving of persecution but loyal and reasonable citizens.

Apologists have usually cited Peter’s words in 1 Peter 3:15-16 in defence of apologetics: Always be prepared to give an answer (“apologia” in Greek) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Apologetics is an activity which explains the Christian hope and defends Christian behaviour. It has a particular content – the Christian hope – and it has a very definite mode – “gentleness and respect.” The goal is not simply evangelisation, though the prayer is that people will turn and glorify God of course. The practice of explaining the Christian faith – and living it out – is cast by Peter as simply the right thing to do in the face of all-out attack.

But the practice of apologetics has come under attack recently. In my denominational sub-culture, I often hear church leaders saying “just preach the gospel,” with the subtext being “don’t bother with all this mealy-mouthed apologetics.”

Western Australian blogger and pastor Steve McAlpine recently put this point of view very forcefully in a piece entitled “The Age of Apologetics is Over.”

Professor John Lennox is a well-known Christian apologist. perspective: “can you do better?”

I would like to hear more from McAlpine on what he actually has in mind. But as one who has endeavoured to do public square apologetics, his piece certainly made me think. Is it worth doing?

Has my approach been too nice?

I once asked John Dickson for his advice about going on Q&A, and he said “try not to be mean or dumb.”

I don’t think McAlpine is saying we should be dumb, but should we be a bit more mean – or at least, a bit more pugilistic?

After all, it became clear in the same-sex marriage ballot last year that there’s no point trying to convince some people that you are not homophobic if you oppose it.

They simply moved the definition of homophobic to include “anyone who opposes same-sex marriage.”

I might as well wear a badge which says “homophobe” and be done with, right?

I do think there is a case for Christians being happier to accept that we are culturally passé. One of the best moments in recent public Christianity was when the British journalist Peter Hitchens went on Q&A to talk about “radical ideas” and said that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the most radical idea ever. It was terrifically clarifying, and what’s more, true.

But at the same time, I have deep misgivings about McAlpine’s piece.

Yes, there are Christians who are

pathetically pandering to cultural hipness, and it simply won’t work, because post-Christian culture will not compromise with them. The compromise will only go one way.

But there are two aspects to the Biblical approach to dealing with outsiders and in particular the surrounding culture that aren’t sufficiently catered for in McAlpine’s analysis. The first of these is the tone of Christian speech.

Notice that Peter speaks of gentleness and respect, and of winning a good reputation with outsiders. Paul tells us that our lives must win the respect of outsiders in 1 Thess 4:12. It is true that Jesus and Paul sometimes had some very confrontational things to say. But nearly all of the time this was to people inside the circle of faith – to the people of Israel, and then to the churches.

Is speaking with gentleness and respect effective as an evangelistic strategy? Perhaps not in the short term. Perhaps they’ll persecute us anyhow, no matter how nice we are. But it doesn’t matter – it isn’t a matter of effectiveness at this point. It’s just the right thing to do. We could be more zesty, more thoughtful, more funny, and more direct. We could be less interested in relevance and more interested in telling it how it is. But never without the gentleness and respect, and never without an eye to our

wikimedia / Christliches Medienmagazin pro

Michael Jensen says we need to play a very long game

McAlpine’s take on the current state of Christianity is always worth reading, and this article is no exception.

McAlpine argues that, while apologetics is still useful to encourage Christians, it is simply not effective in commending the faith in the public square any more.

He says: “Robust proclamation is the future. Artful persuasion is the past.”

McAlpine describes Christian apologists as making an appeal to a shared vision of the good life that no longer exists. What has in fact occurred is that Christians and secularists now fundamentally disagree about what human flourishing looks like. By sounding like we are interested in the same vision of social justice as our friends (for example), we are just stringing them along. We are masking the deep difference.

That difference is most apparent when it comes to sexual ethics. We may agree with our progressive neighbours on refugees and the environment, but when they finally ask us about sexuality, the jig will be up: we’ll be exposed as the religious nutjobs we actually are.

The Israel Folau incident is, for McAlpine, highly instructive. In his unsophisticated way, Folau has just cut to the chase and tweeted what orthodox Christians all actually think. As uncool as it is, we believe in hell. We may drink a tumeric latte with almond milk every day, but we still believe things that bewilder and appal many of our neighbours. So why hide it? The appeal to common ground is, as McAlpine reads it, nearly deceitful. Far better to just state it up front and be done with, instead of trying to delay the confrontation.

The delay tactic, he says, isn’t working. As McAlpine writes: The secular frame hostile to the Christian belief wades through all of the facades, swats away the niceties and the attempts to unite around a vision of the good life, and demands a sign up to our vision of the good life – and now!

We should instead pursue the approach that McAlpine calls “kategoria.” He characterises this as “robust proclamation.” Though he doesn’t go into much detail, he seems to be calling for Christians to eschew cultural and intellectual respectability, and instead say what we really think in bold terms – and to offer this as a challenge to those who do not share our

reputation with outsiders.

To take an example from the opponents of Christianity: I know many atheist and agnostics who are repelled by Richard Dawkins’ proclamation of his “faith.” His blunt speech is a great favour to belief in God. Would we want to mirror that?

I would also question whether apologetics are as ineffective as McAlpine suggests. I have had multiple second conversations with people who were surprised that the reality of the Christian voice in person was nothing like the Christian voice they had pictured.

I’ve had people join our church and come to Christ through this kind of conversation.

The second aspect is that seeking human flourishing and the common good are not subjective matters. It really is the case that the world is made and ordered by a good God, and that his goodness, beauty and truth shine through the creation. Secularist ideologues seek to promote a new version of human flourishing that is at odds with the way the world actually is. This isn’t just a matter of opinion. They are wrong, and their version of the good life won’t work. And people will see that it won’t work.

This is where we have to play a long game. We should “seek the welfare of the city,” not because it works evangelistically but because it is the right thing to do.

And because, while in the short term people may be blind to the good of which we speak, and we may be hated for it, in the long run following God’s word will be vindicated.

There is still a massive place for defending the faith – not by being hip or relevant and progressive, but just by speaking the truth, pursuing the good and pointing to the beautiful. If we feel defeated in the apologetic task, it is because we haven’t really tried to kick back against the critics of the gospel. We’ve too easily conceded that you can’t prove God, or that the evidence for Jesus is dubious at best, or that the church is unremittingly evil. We’ve not politely challenged those who have promoted different views.

Are we now to resort to shouting the gospel at them? I think this would be ineffective, and also disobedient.

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

JUNE 2018

Life on other planets, according to the Scriptures

Many of us enjoyed the ABC’s series Stargazing at the end of May, featuring Professor Brian Cox and a shuttles-worth of celebrities and colourful local identities (Space Gandalf!). We are endlessly awestruck by the heavens, the distant stars, the mysterious planets and especially the idea that someone might be out there.

The concept of life on other planets has been returning to the public fascination, with NASA announcing that it could well be found within the next two decades.

Apparently, there are now over 3500 known planets that “might support life”.

Missions to Mars by Rovers

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God is the creator of everything, all the things we can see and all that we can’t ... and that includes all the planets and stars and space microbes out there.”

Universe, Brian Cox posits that microbial life probably is broadly distributed throughout the universe, but this doesn’t mean we’ll find another Earth and another equivalent of human beings. “A living galaxy, yes, but a galaxy filled with intelligence? …

I’m not so sure.”

Would it be at all significant for the Christian view of the universe if there is life on other planets?

ANU / Photo by James Grubel

Greg Clarke goes all starry eyed

have added a cute Wall-E kind of intrigue with the amazing images and videos these intrepid vehicles are beaming back to us earthlings.

And Elon Musk has given hope to Star Trek fans everywhere, with his ambitions to relocate humanity to Mars before World War III takes out planet Earth. Could we find more sympathetic souls in some distant world?

What kind of life might we expect to find as we astound ourselves by exploring the vast expanses of the universe?

In science fiction, the proposal is usually that a more intelligent life-form than our own exists somewhere out there that we haven’t noticed yet, and all the issues of anthropology, ethics and theology are about to get turned upside down, Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-style.

More likely, at least in our lifetime, is the idea that the delightfully named microlithopanspermia might occur. That is, that the tiniest microbes might, just might, be able to migrate between planets. That’s probably not what we all have in mind, but it would nevertheless still be astonishing.

In his 2015 book, Human

Stargazers in Canberra set up for looking at the heavens.

I’m guessing — but it’s a slightly educated guess — that the answer is “not much”.

I certainly don’t think the Bible has a lot to tell us about life on other planets. Since the Bible is not written as either a biology or cosmology textbook, it isn’t trying to answer that question.

Nor is its teaching disturbed by such a discovery. How can I be sure? Because of one simple, clear doctrine that can be found everywhere from Genesis to Revelation: God is the creator and sustainer of everything.

The only sane statement a Christian can make about these sorts of things is that God is the creator of everything, all the things we can see and all that we can’t.

All the things on earth and in

the heavens, and that includes all the planets and stars and space microbes out there.

This great, one and only God, created it all not initially by some laws of science procedure, but by his Word. The beginning of all creation was the Word of God. By his Word, he brought things into existence; to put it poetically as the Psalmist does, he gave names to the stars (Ps 147:4). If there’s life out there, God made it, sustains it, and it is his.

That is something too profound and significant for us ever fully to grasp. But it is the first thing a Christian can say about life on other planets: it won’t belong to us.

And it will be beloved by God. Greg Clarke is CEO of Bible Society Australia.

Bible Stat 176 million Bibles have been printed by Amity press in Nanjing, China, since 1987.

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