Eternity - March 2014 - Issue 45

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NUMBER 45, MARCH 2014 CIRCULATION 100,000 ISSN 1837-8447

ON THE JOB Christians at work

Praying for Kids’ Trapped in the Royal puzzle Commission North Korea page

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MARCH 2014

Obadiah Slope A win for the Brits? St Martin’s Anglican Church, in the delightfully named London suburb of Gospel Oak, has become the first UK church to accept the cyber currency, Bitcoin.

Parishioners can scan a QR barcode in the church with a mobile device to make anonymous donations from their Bitcoin account according to the London Evening Standard. Readers should let Eternity know if there’s an Aussie church that has done this.

Obadiah is not sure about the comment from the minister though: “The Rev Chris Brice of St Martin’s in Gospel Oak said the innovation showed that ‘we are people in touch with what’s going on around us’.” There might just be better ways to be in touch.

A puff of foul air: Whatever you may think about global warming, the Church of England has used interesting language to describe it. Announcing a plan to divest funds from some energy companies, the C of E’s Bishop Steven Croft referred to the “great demon” of climate change.

Now Obadiah knows some Christians believe in territorial spirits that can inhabit certain places. But he has never heard of demons in natural phenomena.

On the other hand, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2.

Mea Culpa: From MX newspaper’s “overheard” column—Girl in library: “Excuse me, Jesus, you’re in the way.”

Her friend: “Excuse me? I am the way.”

Quotable: “When I was a parish priest in England, I remember a bishop explaining that priests are paid a stipend as opposed to a salary. The stipend was a sum of money that enabled us not to work; it enabled us to be present to a community as a priest.

This was quite liberating for me. I was not being paid for my performance as a priest but was financially enabled by the diocese to be a priest where I was.”

- Joy Carroll Wallis of the Sojourners community in the US. Hidey hole: There’s an internet support group for just about any sort of human being. One of the strangest (in Obadiah’s biased view) is the Clergy Project. It’s for ministers who no longer believe in God and has 530 members.

About a quarter still work as ministers according to Prospect magazine. “Iain” an Irish minister, has only told his wife he no longer believes in God. According to the Sunday Times, he says he can’t look at her while preaching.

Down the back: “Can you hear me at the back? This is not church, you can come forward.” Bill Shorten at a factory gate meeting, on ABC Insiders. Who knew that Shorten knew so much about church—i.e. that people tend to sit at the back?

OPINION

Latent Racism Bruce Dipple “Our suburb was changing. The signs outside the shops were now in English plus another language. Some shops had their windows covered in ads for phone cards to places all over the world. Some were staying open till very late in the evening, and there were always people in the shops, talking in a foreign language.

“The people moving into our neighbourhood were different as well.

Some were very noisy and always had the stereo up loud.

Others were very quiet and private.

They seemed as if they were frightened of something and wanted to be secretive.

“But church remained the same. It felt good to meet with the same group of people and to do everything the way we had always done them.

“And then the pastor told us about the visitor. It appeared that some of the new people moving in to the area are Christians. And one of them visited the pastor to ask if they could use our building for a worship service on Sundays in their own language.

“The church consented, so long as they only used the small hall on the church property. And only on Sunday afternoon, because there might be a parking problem if they met on Sunday morning when we do. And all breakages must be paid for.

“That’s our church’s first ethnic congregation. I hope they don’t damage the building.”

New cultures. New languages. New ways of doing things. We can find it all so unnerving. We are very excited to have missionaries working amongst people groups far away, but we get nervous when representatives from those same people groups move in to our own suburb. Why do we not respond with the same excitement as we do for the missionaries? What is it that so often bubbles to the surface when the arrival of people of different cultures challenges us to accept new ways of doing things, new ways of relating, new ways of valuing? I call it latent racism.

No, not the racism of those who march in the streets with their provocative banners and slogans against immigration. But a latent racism. Latent because it is, to quote the dictionary, “present, but not visible or apparent”. There are no banners, no slogans. But certain situations provoke a hesitant response, a negative feeling, an ‘us and them’ comment. Why, for example, do we speak of an “ethnic’” congregation when the members come

from a different cultural background?

A group of anglo-celtic Australians have a common ethnicity, so they are also an ethnic congregation. But they would never use that term of themselves. It’s an “us and them” term. And it carries that strong hint of being inferior, of being the lesser.

The apostle Peter struggled with a similar problem. In Acts 10, God made him acknowledge people of a non-Jewish culture. People who were different to him in so many ways. And Peter eventually came to that great conclusion himself: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men and women from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (vv. 34-35). The church leaders in Jerusalem also reviewed their thinking when they said “God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). Yes, “even the Gentiles”, whom before they clearly thought of as lesser people from an inferior culture.

In both cases Peter and the Jerusalem leaders had to bring to the surface their racist attitudes and allow God’s way of thinking to change their way of thinking. The result was that Peter made new friends in Christ and enjoyed their hospitality for several days, even sharing in their food that he had previously rejected.

So what about us in our beautiful multicultural country? What can we be doing to surface and deal with any latent racism in our attitudes? Let me make four suggestions.

First, take some time to think through your own attitudes and responses with regard to people of other cultures; and talk to the Lord about the degree to which you reflect, or fail to reflect, his attitudes.

Second, read slowly Ephesians 2:19-22 and Galatians 3:26-28 in the context of multiculturalism and with regard to the possibility of latent racism in your heart.

Third, read some books on cultural difference, starting with Denis Lane’s little book One World: Two Minds (OMF, 2008). It’s only $5 from OMF, and you can pass it on when you have read it.

Fourth, go out of your way to build a friendship with some folk from another cultural background. Depending on where you live, that might be a family down the street, some international students, or the owners of a local shop.

God has brought the nations to Australia, so we need to respond to their arrival with the same attitude of mind and desire of heart that he has.

Bruce Dipple is a missiologist and author and former director of SIM for Australia and East Asia.

Living in the public eye Tim Costello I have always held the conviction that Christian faith is relevant to all areas of life. Christ has the power to transform everything in our business practices, our leisure and the way we communicate.

One Christian who has made a profound impact on me in this area is Miroslav Volf.

What Volf contends is that while Christian faith is personal, it is never private. We are all called to contribute our gifts for the good of society.

Volf makes clear that the main thing Christian faith brings to the “public square” is a vision of human flourishing and the common good.

What God has done in Jesus is for the love of all of creation.

Therefore to follow Jesus is to show love to everyone and work for the common good of all of humanity. This is what Jesus calls “a full life” (John 10:10).

Living out the Christian faith means imitating Christ. To paraphrase what St Paul says in Philippians 2, Jesus gave away all but love, making himself a servant.

We are called to show the same servant leadership. We can be confident in knowing it is God who is at work in us, enabling us both to will and to work for his good pleasure so that we will shine like stars in our culture (Phil 2:13, 15).

The invitation to live out our faith in the public eye is open to every Christian.

Jesus said to his disciples—who were outcasts in their culture—“You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). He encouraged them to so shine their light that others would see their good works and praise God. And of course, that is exactly what the disciples did, and it shook the Roman Empire to its very foundations.

This is the impact we can have when we display, to quote Martin Luther King, “a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love”.

My prayer is that the Spirit of God will give us the strength and courage to imitate Christ in demonstrating his love to a broken world.

Join Miroslav Volf, Tim Costello and other speakers at the conference Re:thinking—A Public Faith in Sydney on March 18–20.

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MARCH 2014

NEWS

Miroslav Volf visits John Sandeman Yale theologian Miroslav Volf has been thinking about the best way for Christians to contribute to the common good for a lifetime of writing.

Volf, Director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture and a renowned public theologian will speak at Re:Thinking, a public faith, hosted by the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney on March 18-20. The conference will answer the question: “How do we engage a postChristian culture?”

“Miroslav Volf ’s visit to Australia represents a rare opportunity,” says Simon Smart, a director of the Centre for Public Christianity. “He is a big name, a serious public intellectual in America and around the world.”

Volf has described the role of the Christian community as “a combination of moral clarity that does not shy away from calling evil by its proper name and of deep compassion towards evil doers that is willing to sacrifice one’s own life on their behalf ”, saying this was one of the “extraordinary features of early Christianity. It should also be the central characteristic of contemporary Christianity.”

During Re:Thinking, Volf will give a public lecture—the inaugural Richard Johnson lecture—in Sydney on March 18 at the Wesley Centre.

He will also give public lectures at the Hawke Centre at the University of South Australia on March 16 and at the University Melbourne on 13, 14 & 15 March. rethinking.net.au

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BRIEFS

She drew the Bible: Annie Vallotton, illustrator of the iconic images in the Good News Bible, died in France on 28 December 2013 at the age of 98. Publisher Harper Collins has identified Vallotton as the best-selling artist of all time, thanks largely to the success of the Good News Bible, of which more than 225 million copies have been distributed since its release as Good News For Modern Man in 1966.

Trapped in North Korea Guan Un

An Australian missionary, John Short, has been arrested and detained in North Korea under allegations of possessing religious material. If found guilty, he could face up to 15 years imprisonment.

John, 75, is originally from South Australia, but has worked in missionary service and Christian publishing in Asia for 50 years. He is married to Karen, and has three children.

He was part of a larger tour group, but was detained separately, when he was allegedly found in possession of Christian tracts translated into Korean.

Eternity talked to Merv Knight, who has worked closely with John on the mission field for over twenty years.

When we called, Merv said that he had just got off the phone with Karen, and had received a text message from John the day before his arrest.

Merv told Eternity that he met John in the early 90s, and that John has always had a “burden” for the places that it was the most difficult for the gospel to go—like to China, Burma, Vietnam— which was why he went to North Korea.

“He has a burden for North Korea, which he sees as one of the most difficult countries in the world when it comes to presenting the gospel, and a country that has a terrible human rights record, as came to light just this week.

“He’s one of those people who took

the attitude that if people say you can’t do it, then it needs to be done.”

The possibility of a successful diplomatic resolution is potentially difficult, as Australia has no official diplomatic ties to North Korea. Australian interests in North Korea are currently channeled through the Swedish embassy.

In another ongoing case, US missionary Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012, and is currently serving a 15 year sentence of hard labour, despite his public appeals through US diplomatic channels.

However, Merv said he believed that, while John and Karen would love continuing support in prayer, John would remain resolute in the face of his arrest.

“I have the greatest confidence in John that he will be somebody that will be very hard to intimidate in any way, and he will stand up for what he believes in,” Merv says. “His feeling will be ‘Here I am, so God has put me here, so I have to use this opportunity.’

“He will refuse to deny his faith, no matter what treatment he may face, and use the opportunity wherever he is, and to tell others that, in his view, the answer is to be found in Jesus Christ.”

At time of writing, there had been no further news about John or his whereabouts. Authorities had been unable to make contact with him. Eternity will publish news as it becomes available about John Short at biblesociety.org.au/ eternitynews

“He will refuse to deny his faith, no matter what treatment he may face...”

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Atheist Easter tweets: Australian atheist twitter personality Donovan @MrOzAtheist has taken up City Bible Forum’s challenge to read the Easter story and investigate what it says.

No more small parties: Family Voice Australia (FAVA) has backed the move to have “above the line” preferences at Senate elections. This would allow voters to choose preferences in a simple way and remove the incentive for micro parties to run complicated preference deals.

FAVA’s David Phillips said “The ballot paper would be much smaller, because only a limited number of parties would then want to contest elections.”

Winners in Eternity: Congratulations to Bible Society’s Christmas competition winners.

The winners are: * Colouring competition—Stacey from Wallangra, age 10. * Quiz competition—Jaiden from Roseville, age 8. * Art competition—Matt from Kandos, age 6.

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Moore College Distance Education Investigate God’s Word at your own pace, wherever you are, whenever you want. Enrol in our new PTC correspondence course or ITS online course today!

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MARCH 2014

THE CHRISTIAN

Redeeming Work Gordon Preece

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We need to loudly say Amen to Paul’s “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Don Nicholls

here has been a flurry of new activity on the global and Australian faith–work frontier recently. Among the key players are Lausanne Marketplace Ministry and Workplace Network, BAM (Business as Mission) at www.lausanne.org, the Theology of Work Project which has produced a complete, free commentary on every biblical book and its application to work (www.theologyofwork.org), the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, and Regent College, the pre-eminent theological institution in the work/faith area.

Among the locals are CMA (Christian Ministry Advancement— Brisbane-based), Ethos Business (www.ethos.org), Ridley Marketplace Institute, River of Life, Arrow Executive Leadership (all Melbourne-based) plus City Bible Forum, and Redeemer City to City and its related, soon-to-be launched Faith & Work Centre (all Sydney-based or connected) and others.

Many of these have a national focus.

What’s behind this flurry of activity?

Can work really be redeemed? What are the biblical foundations of this broad movement and how can we get on board?

Over recent decades there has arisen a growing conviction that the role of God’s scattered people on Monday (not just gathered on Sunday) has been neglected, ignoring the connection between God’s redeeming work in Christ and the workaday world of most Christians. Through concerted efforts by the above groups the high percentage of Christians who haven’t heard a sermon on work has been dropping, and recent surveys by UK Evangelical Alliance and the Australian Christian Life Survey indicate rising levels of engagement by churches with work.

There is still plenty to be done, but we’re heading in the right direction: the supertanker of the church is slowly turning towards the workplace as a critical area of everyday worship (Rom 12:1-2), ministry and mission.

However, talk of “redeeming work” may set some heresy bells ringing. Isn’t redemption only Jesus’ job, buying individuals back from the power of sin?

And isn’t it an ‘inside job’, transforming individuals inwardly and spiritually?

It’s true that redemption starts with individuals’ inward transformation (John 3), but it certainly doesn’t stop there. Even in John 3:16 the transforming power of God’s loving

grace is for the whole world/cosmos.

Further, being “born again” (John 3:3) is something as much for the whole creation groaning under hard labour like the Hebrew slaves in Egypt or a mother in childbirth (Rom 8:22-23) as for individuals.

Further, Colossians 1 shows that the redemption and reconciliation Christ brings is because he is the one through whom and for whom all things were created. In Revelation’s terms Christ is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end.

‘All things’ obviously includes work, where we spend most time and can influence most people and society.

It includes not only people but the ‘principalities and powers’, both spiritual and structural, supernatural and natural/cultural that were created

by Christ, have fallen, and will be finally redeemed by him. This includes economics, politics, culture, the whole public domain of life and work, and this is 24/7, not just Sundays.

Instead of giving a postmodern ‘whatever’ shrug at society and

workplace problems, forgetting that they are created and can be redeemed in Christ, we need to loudly say ‘Amen’ to Paul’s “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17). And that clearly includes our work, probably the primary place where we prove the reality of Christ’s limitless lordship everyday.

One way of presenting Colossians’ creation–fall–redemption framework is to set work in a Trinitarian context of three commissions, our work reflecting God’s triune work in the world, the best basis for a balanced view of Christian life and work.

I’ll illustrate this from a recent experience in India with three taxi drivers. The first, picking me up from Asha Christian Development Project in New Delhi told me how much Christians were appreciated in India for their development and welfare work.

This, and other work, is part of the Father’s commission (Gen 1:26-28) for us to rule over creation responsibly as God’s junior partners, through our work (cf. Ps 8).

The second taxi-driver, meeting me at dawn at Varanasi, the Hindu spiritual capital, told me he had to thank Ganesha, the Hindu elephant god pictured on his dashboard, for his first customer of the day. He was a workplace Hindu!

But our role, according to the Great Commission or discipling mandate, is to call people from idols to the true and living God, to follow the crucified and risen Jesus who has authority and dominion over all creation, fulfilling what humanity was meant to do through the creation commission.

When we make disciples of all nations, that includes every sphere of those nations, making disciples who reflect Jesus’ lordship in business, education, leisure, politics and transport.

The third taxi-driver was a Christian taking us to a Christian college in Bangalore. After listening to our conversation, he said he’d become a Christian at a church where he’d seen Jesus’ relevance to his everyday life. He clearly had the gift of the gab, and real pastoral concern.

I told him he could be the pastor and evangelist of this cab as the Holy Spirit had given him these gifts as ways to fulfil the Great Commission.

In all three commissions God works through us in Christ to redeem a creation gone wrong. As Luther says, ‘God carves the crooked wood and makes it straight’.

Gordon Preece is Director of Ethos: EA Centre for Christianity & Society, Theologian for Lausanne Marketplace Ministry, and board member of the Theology of Work Project.

See page 13 for more details of the Redeemer City to City programme.

MARCH 2014

WORK + FAITH

Top Women Sophie Timothy The 2012 Australian Census of Women in Leadership found that two-thirds of ASX 500 companies had no female executives and only 12 had a female CEO. These stats are alarming if you believe female executives have a lot to contribute to the business world.

But what about the Christian world?

Where are the female CEOs and executives in Christian organisations?

Eternity spoke to a number of women of influence sitting on boards or working as executives in Christian organisations to discover how they got there and what helped them stay. One such woman is Michelle Dorey.

Although Dorey has never flown a plane, nor constructed, maintained, or owned one, she is the CEO of Mission Aviation Fellowship Australia.

Appointed in 2012, Michelle was the first woman to head up the mission organisation in Australia.

“If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be leading MAF I just would’ve laughed. It just came across as such a blokey mission—pilots and engineers and planes. But the season was ripe for MAF Australia, and our board and staff have really embraced me.”

“The pilots and the engineers say they love the fact that I’m not a pilot because I actually care about the people.”

With a background in missions, fundraising and management, Michelle was considered the best person to revitalise MAF and shape it for future generations. The fact that she was a woman didn’t come into it.

However, she admits that unless the board had been ready to appoint a female she would’ve struggled in the role.

“MAF was just ready. They knew where they wanted to go, and I was ready to run with that vision and expand on it.”

With three kids between 7 and 15, one of them with autism, Michelle knew when she took on her first executive position (Director of Mission without Borders, back in 2006) husband Gary would have to do the lion’s share of looking after the kids. A former pastor, Gary now works 25–30 hours a week as an accountant, which enables him to care for his family.

“We’re best friends and we’re partners, and this is how we’re doing our life,” says Michelle.

More and more women are seeking ways to use their leadership gifts in Christian organisations without compromising their family lives.

Eternity spoke to a number of women in executive roles for this story, and the trend among those who were married with a family was clear: they had supportive husbands and supportive employers who gave them flexible hours and conditions. Without these, it seems women with leadership gifts would struggle to find a place in Christian organisations.

It’s a particular concern of Christian businesswoman Wendy Simpson, recently listed in the top 100 Influential women in Australia by the AFR. Involved in the team that helped bring the internet to China, Wendy is no stranger to being a woman in a ‘man’s world’. As Chairperson of Wengeo Group (a private investment group) she negotiates business deals daily, while in her position as Chairperson of Springboard Enterprises she oversees the coaching of hundreds of female entrepreneurs.

It’s been Wendy’s passion to see women succeed in business, but she has a particular desire to see more women in executive roles in Christian organisations.

“In places like the Police Force and the Armed Forces, where people have

TOP to bottom: An evangelist preaches beside a MAF plane, Michelle Dorey, Wendy Simpson, Zosia Ericksson said you can’t possibly stay on the job if you’re a mother, they’ve found ways that you can.

“I think the leaders of Christian organisations might have to just think differently about how they affirm the leadership gifting in a woman, and make it everyone’s responsibility to keep that leadership gift going if she is a mother. And I think that’s a very interesting conversation to have, because of all the groups in the community the Christians value family very highly.”

Someone else with a passion for seeing women in leadership is Melinda Tankard Reist. A self-employed speaker and advocate for women, Melinda is a working mum and a Christian. She says that without the support of her husband and the support of her former employer (Senator Brian Harradine, for whom she was media advisor) it wouldn’t have been possible for her to remain in the workforce while raising a family.

“In a number of ways I feel quite privileged. I’ve had a supportive husband who’s been a significant caregiver to the children, and I worked for Brian Harradine for 15 years and was able to breastfeed in the office.

“We had a cot set up in Brian’s office so they could sleep in there. He was just so pro-family.”

Arrangements like these require negotiation, something many women are afraid to do. Melinda believes it comes down to women actually believing in themselves and the contribution they can make.

“Women just undervalue themselves,” says Melinda. “I see it all the time...It seems to have been embedded in the core of their being from the earliest of ages.”

For Zosia Ericksson, Executive Officer with Gnr8, a school ministry organisation, negotiating a suitable salary and flexible working arrangement was make or break for her taking on the role.

In order to allow Zosia to take the job, husband Will cut down his hours to spend most of his time caring for their two children. Because of the drop in overall income Zosia knew she’d need to negotiate with her employer.

“From the outset I was pretty clear that I had a family, and anything I did needed to work within that.

“In taking this leadership role, the first thing was that I knew that we couldn’t both be working full-time, so one of the things I said to our executive team was the salary I needed to take on the executive role.

“Secondly, I needed the flexibility to work from home. I explained that it would work better being available to my family, particularly during the time when most people are travelling to and from work. So it’s the practical things.”

Another place where women are now being represented in greater numbers is on boards. Wendy Simpson, who also sits on the World Vision board, says that while more women are on boards than

ever before, there is still more work to be done among Christian organisations.

With this in mind, she’s come up with the idea of creating “Deborah’s List”, a list of women who are capable, gifted Christian leaders, and are willing to sit on boards and speak at events.

“When people want to have speakers, run conferences, or put women on boards, they often say, ‘Oh I don’t know where the women are’. And this is so we can say, ‘Right, well here’s a list.’”

It’s a concept Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision, supports. With five women on his board, Tim told Eternity he’s a firm believer in the contribution women make to executive teams.

“Women have specific and powerful contributions to make across all sectors in life, and this is no less true of the Christian sector... no doubt there is much in this which means we miss out if we’re not able to experience it. But men and women also have different life experiences, and such experiences are critical in leadership roles.”

Some might find the idea of a list too akin to setting a quota or a temporary solution which fails to change deeply ingrained attitudes. As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”.

The women Eternity spoke to seem to believe that change is occurring in Christian organisations (horses are drinking), but for those who are resistant to change it’s no good simply parachuting a woman in.

“I think it’s incredibly difficult to have women in leadership if an organisation is not willing and ready,” says Dorey.

“There needs to be a willingness and a readiness. If there’s a nervousness—like you’ve never done this before—that’s fine. But there needs to be a willingness at a board level.

“Organisations just need to sit down and think about the direction they want to head in, and they need to be willing to challenge any existing stereotypes which say women can’t do this. They need to honestly ask what they’re looking for.”

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Why I Write Dr Nick Hawkes on why he’s not ashamed to be a Christian novelist.

Christian fiction has come under fire in recent months: too many books feature simplistic, idealised outcomes that in no way reflect the harsh realities of life. It can give Christians unrealistic expectations of what they feel they have a right to in this life. If you have been hurt by such writing, I’m sorry. It is bad theology and bad writing.

Quite where Western Christianity ever got the idea that we could live faithfully on this planet without suffering is a mystery. It is certainly not an idea found in the New Testament. New Testament Christians believed it a privilege to be persecuted, as they were sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

I’m happy to say, however, that the realities of life’s suffering do not require us to dispense with happy endings in our books or, indeed, apologise for them.

We love happy endings. There is something in the human psyche that delights in good triumphing over the worst expressions of evil. Rather than deny this love, we should celebrate it. I say this because every story with a happy ending is, I believe, a reflection of His story, the gospel story.

J.R.R. Tolkien is to blame for this idea.

He taught C.S. Lewis that all stories told by humankind, from fairy stories to sagas, had the same theme of loss, sacrifice and rescue. He said this was the case because all stories are variants of the one great story, the gospel story, which humankind is both spiritually and psychologically tuned to apprehend.

This idea was picked up by anthropologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

He coined the term “monomyth” to refer to the universal essence of every story.

So, enjoy a happy ending—you might just be reflecting the essence of the gospel by doing so.

This, of course, is no excuse for writing facile, saccharin-overloaded, simplistic nonsense. Proper stories identify fully with the harsh realities of the human condition. They engage with the messiness of life in all its manifestations. They don’t paper over anything, yet the best also manage to bring hope.

The gospel informs both what I write and why I write. I’ve just written three novels for the Stone series. They have been written deliberately for nonChristians. Each novel charts a journey from brokenness to wholeness, dealing with the toughest issues people wrestle with each day: shame, grief, and loss.

And within each story the gospel threads its way in and out like a shy visitor, whispering the possibility of faith.

The gospel also informs how I write.

Our God is behind the drama of a billion galaxies spinning in space, the subtleties of music and the beauty of a sunset. It is tragic to see people going through life without noticing how amazing the world is. Good writers notice things and paint their observations well. And they allow readers to look over their shoulder, smile and say, “Ah, yes. I see it now”.

A book should also be a journey of discovery; compelling the reader to find things out. What was the violent history of the storm-wracked islands of the Hebrides? What secrets are there to be found within a medieval cathedral?

Good writing should delight the mind as well as the heart.

God’s love particularly informs the way I write. Love, we are told, was the motive behind God creating the universe. It is little wonder, then, that love forms the basis of all novels. The task of any novelist is to feature it in a way that explores its richness and its messiness, and to do so honestly.

Christian novels aren’t bad. Only bad Christian novels are bad. The trick is to be discerning. Novels can be good for you. The best of them stay with us for life, and call us to be more than we are.

Bible bafflers to bust (or blow) your brain!

God Always Helps You – God Will Help You to Be Brave Since leaving the perfect place of Eden, people have had to face challenges in life that are often hard to understand and bring about feelings of being afraid.

Gideon had to face a great army with only a few hundred men.

He was quite scared but God

helped him to be brave and complete the task.

DoWn 1. Gideon’s soldiers held the burning torches in their _ _ _ _ hands. (7:20) 2. Gideon and his soldiers blew their _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and smashed the clay jars. (7:19) 4. Gideon asked God not to be _ _ _ _ _ when he asked to be given proof one more time. (6:39) 5. Name of Joash’s son, _ _ _ _ _ _ and hero of this story. (6:11) 6. The people refused to _ _ _ _ _ _ to God (6:10)

AcroSS 2. How many men stayed with Gideon? _ _ _ _ _ hundred (7:8) 3. Gideon was from the tribe of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ which he felt was the weakest one. (6:15) 7.

The Lord did not want Gideon to have an army that was too _ _ _ Complete the cross-word puzzle. so that the people would know it was God winning the battle. (7:2) Read Judges 6-8 (CEV) to help you with the answers.

E P O ’ U C F B G S B J E ’ P S E J T D P V S B H F E . .

X J M M C F U I F S F J

X I

F M Q

F S F W F S

Daniel was brave when he chose not to follow the king’s law to bow down to the statue of the king – instead he chose to pray to God. He did this so others could see that God was the one true God.

Have you ever been ‘at the right place at the right time’? Did you have to ask God for courage to cope? Write or draw about it.

God commanded Joshua to be brave.

Decipher the code to read what was said next.

I

9. Gideon put wool out on the ground so he could get _ _ _ _ _ that God was in charge. (6:36-37) 10. The Lord said, “Gideon, you will be _ _ _ _ _ _ , because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.” (6:14) 11. When the enemy soldiers tried to run away. Gideon’s troops stayed in their positions _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the camp. (7:21)

Timing

crack the code

U P

he was not afraid to speak truth to God – even when it was different to his friends – See Job 42:7.

8. The _ _ _ _ _ appeared and spoke to Gideon. (6:12)

Gideon’s Victory

Esther was in a unique position at a unique time. God helped Esther to be brave, to stand up before the King in order to save the Hebrew people.

We read in the book of Job that

David rose from being a shepherd boy to become a great King. God helped him to be brave to face dangerous animals when with the sheep, to face and kill a giant, to lead an army, and to continue on.

Use the names from these verses to fit across the squares in order to spell a word in the yellow boxes which is another word for ‘CoUrAGEoUS’.

Daniel 1:8 (CEV) Esther 4:5-16 (CEV) Job 1:1 (CEV) Judges 6:15-16 (CEV) 1 Samuel 17:34-35 (CEV)

Every child needs God’s Word.

Z P V Z P V

courageous

Help children in China get a Bible!

H P. .

Write the letter before in the alphabet to crack the code. E.g ST TU RS OP ON GH www.biblesociety.org.au

Make sure you check out

Looking for Bible-based, relevant, engaging lessons for kids aged 4-12 years.

GodSpace is the answer! www.godspace.org.au

www.wildbible.org.au for the answers & more about the Bible!

Find a Word AfRAID ASk boLD bRAVE CHALLENGE CouRAGEouS HELp STRENGTH STRoNG WoRRy

And the word is _ _ _ _ _ G F D F M G Q

T X I r V C D

B S A D U H K

r U r L H A T

A o F o E L H

V E A B L L T

E G Y S P E G

K A N W K N N

J r Z o F G E

B U V r r E r

Bible Society Australia and GodSpace working together. Next Wild Bible issue June 2014

X o L r Z T T

I C E Y I Z S

MARCH 2014

A Prayer for the Royal Commission John Sandeman The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has now been established for over a year. How are Christians to respond to the overwhelming evidence of extensive, long-term failures on the part of churches to guard and care for those about whom Jesus Christ declared, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Matt 19:14)?

“There can be no defence or minimisation,” says the Centre For Public Christianity (CPX). “Words will not suffice. Even an apology will sound hopelessly inadequate given the weight of sorrow the commission is bringing to light.”

But there is one response, a form of words all Christians can use to respond to the Royal Commission and the horrifying stories that have emerged from it—prayer.

“Even if there is nothing the church can plausibly say on this matter to the wider community, Christians remain confident that their Creator and Saviour stands ready to hear their plea. It is the Centre’s hope that individuals, churches and organisations will commit afresh to prayer for this important period in our national story.”

As such, CPX has written this prayer for use by Christians in praying for the Royal Commission, and what has come to light:

Almighty God, Lord of truth and grace Hear our prayers for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Grant the commissioners wisdom and strength, the patience to weigh testimony, insight to pose questions, and success in all their deliberations for the health of our nation.

Above all, most merciful Father, grant to the victims of abuse the courage to tell their stories, strength to endure the pain, and healing for their wounds.

In their sorrow, give them your peace.

And refine your people, Sovereign Lord, by the light of your truth expose in full the darkness in our institutions.

Inspire remorse and establish justice.

Forgive us.

By your Spirit renew us, for the good of all, and the glory of your name: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

“In my own church we have been praying for the Royal Commission, occasionally, for months,” John Dickson, a director of CPX, told Eternity.

“We have been praying for Commissioners and victims, and for the church.

Talking about this at CPX we felt that a prayer was something we could do for Christians around the country—to give them a voice, maybe not to the world but

But there is one response, a form of words all Christians can use... prayer. to God.” “People tend to look to the Centre for Public Christianity for answers, defences against the criticisms of Christianity, but we don’t feel there is any defence.

There is no apologetic that is appropriate in the face of child sexual abuse.

“This is a prayer intended for all Christians in general to offer to God. “Some will need to pray specific prayers of personal repentance. Some will offer prayers dealing with the actions of colleagues. Others will pray as victims. But this is a prayer for all Christians to pray.”

What was the hardest thing to write in the prayer?

“Probably the most important part of it, the third paragraph asking God to be merciful and gracious and to strengthen the victims of abuse. It’s hard for an

outsider who has never experienced this to convey a sense of what that hurt can possibly mean. We were very conscious that we did not want anyone to feel hurt or patronised.”

Asked if all Christians should feel ashamed, Dickson responded: “I think we all do, because we are connected to these institutions, these communities.

I hope individual Christians around Australia will come to the final paragraph [from “And refine your people” to the ending] and feel able to feel the collective—you could say shame, you could say repentance—and ask God to forgive us.

“At CPX we have spent a long time writing this prayer.

“We’d love to think that churches and Christian institutions will use it. We hope this is a helpful guide for people.”

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IN DEPTH

Mark Scott: Religion has never had such a hearing in Australia

Josh Maule Mark Scott’s business card is one of the most impressive in Australia. As the managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he has been described as “one of the most influential people in Australian media, arguably the most influential”. In 2011 he was awarded Officer for the Order of Australia for distinguished media service. But in his own home with his family, he is level-headed.

“You recognise the business card is just the business card and you hold it while you have the job, but it’s not who you are,” he says.

Since his posting at the national broadcaster in 2006, Scott has overseen a major period of change. Most significantly he helped secure funding and the rollout of ABC News 24—a continual TV news channel available on digital television. The scope for online content has also grown rapidly during his tenure, and he names the iView catch-up service, along with News 24, as the developments he is most proud of. “When I started here, I remember saying to people that the only thing I really knew about broadcasting was how to turn on the set,” he says. “The ABC is full of very clever, talented, hardworking people and the real accolades for the achievements of the ABC should not rest with me.”

Of course he is being modest. For more than a decade prior to joining the ABC, he worked as an editorial director at Fairfax, and as their editorin-chief for metropolitan, regional and community newspapers. Even then, in his early 40s, Scott was a respected figure. But it will be his time at the ABC that secures Scott’s place as an

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innovator who has forever changed the topography of our media, and how we access it.

Significantly, during his rise to prominence, Scott has not hidden his Christian commitment from anyone— neither colleagues nor the public. He sees no need to “compartmentalise” the different facets of his life. His faith, he says, is “who I am”.

Scott grew up in a Christian home.

By the time he was in his late teens, friends were making personal decisions for Christ and he decided to do so as well. “You could be around a Christian community, but finally you needed to make a point of decision on your own,” he says. “And that’s what I did, supported and encouraged by others.”

At university, he spent time with people he describes as “interested in faith”. He was part of Bible studies, and spoke with peers about what Christianity should look like in practise. Since then, he says his understanding has changed in certain ways—something he puts down to his ongoing “spiritual journey”.

The Christian responsibility for social concern has grown in Scott’s consciousness since his 20s. It is something he now views as an “important cornerstone of faith”. “In the past,” he says, “people would read verses or passages of Scripture. But if you read a gospel through from beginning to end rather than breaking it up into parts, one of the things that overwhelms you about the life of Jesus is just who he spent his time with.”

He points to the narrative in John chapters 3 and 4 as one he considers emblematic of Jesus’ adaptable pattern of ministry. “There is Jesus robustly and intellectually engaging with Nicodemus.

And there in John chapter 4, he’s

thoughtfully and compassionately engaging with the woman at the well.

Two greater contrasts of personalities and personal histories you couldn’t find.

But there is Jesus actively engaging them in a wonderfully relevant and compelling way.”

As a board member of Wesley Mission in Sydney, Scott has worked closely with its CEO Keith Garner.

He appreciates the Wesleyan ‘word and deed’ emphasis which he says—in addition to Wesley Mission’s wordrelated ministries—provides a vital social service to “those who life may have left along the side of the road”.

Scott is also part of a Sydney church community. On a personal level he says his faith influences his decisions and the kind of person he is. “Hopefully,” he adds.

He believes his colleagues at the ABC are those in the best position to judge if there is a credibility gap between how he aspires to live as a Christian and how he actually lives. As for whether his religious beliefs make his task more difficult, he doesn’t think so.

“It sometimes adds a level of expectation around the kind of person you are and the kind of decisions you make. And some of those expectations come more from other Christians than anyone else,” he says. Scott says he is in the position he is in because he understands news and media adding, “The fact that I’m a Christian is part of the package of who I am I suppose.”

The biggest challenges of his work are relating to people. Relationships form the greatest agonies of his daily task.

“If you find me beating my head slowly against the table, it will nearly always be people issues,” he says. The other challenge he mentions is that of leading

an organisation as large as the ABC through a season of transformation.

During times of risk, Scott has had to weather the criticisms that inevitably emerge. Most recently he has been in the firing-line following the ABC’s decision to jointly-publish along with The Guardian Australia, documents leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The papers revealed Australian intelligence had tried to listen in to the phone of the Indonesian

“If Christianity is only wanting to talk about sexuality and drugs, we run the risk of being caricatured and largely irrelevant ... to modern president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Australia.”

Does Scott have any regrets about publishing the documents? “No. The issues around what information our security agents are getting, who they share that with, how that information once obtained is protected, and who is overseeing the activity of these security agencies—these are all vital matters of national interest and public importance,” he says. The ABC joined a host of reputable media organisations around the world in publishing leaks from Snowden. But it represents the most recent furore Scott has had to stand in the breach for.

When it comes to the kind of information Scott believes the ABC should publish, he says the broadcaster should be a “town hall that excludes no one”. His vision is that it be a meeting place where various views can be heard.

He sees websites such as the Religion and Ethics portal and The Drum, where readers can engage in discussions in a comment feed, as well as shows such as Q&A where a live audience may ask questions of politicians and other thought leaders, as all helping to fulfil this vision.

A specific outcome of so many new platforms is Christian voices have been heard more frequently. “There have never been more forums for debate and discussion around issues of faith,” Scott says.

When it comes to the Christian voice in the public sphere, Scott believes those who speak out need to engage with a wider range of issues. “Some Christian spokespeople, at times, seem to have been easy targets to provide predictable commentary around a very narrow group of moral issues,” he says.

“If Christianity is only wanting to talk about sexuality and drugs, we run the risk of being caricatured and largely irrelevant to so many of the issues that are so important to modern Australia.”

Scott points to the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) as a group doing well at speaking out on a range of topics. In March, he will join a lineup of speakers at the Re:Thinking conference, hosted by CPX and World Vision Australia. When he spoke to Eternity he didn’t yet know what he was going to say.

But he is convinced that more than good commentary is at stake. “If people are going to be attracted to Christianity, and the example of Jesus Christ, they want a sense of his relevance for their lives today across a full range of issues.”

Mark Scott will speak at the Re:Thinking conference, March 18-20.

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MARCH 2014

Is this Reality?

Ben McEachen Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? Noah vs. the Flood ... as an epic action film. Elements of the famous global catastrophe—snappily recorded in four chapters of the Bible—befit big-screen blockbustering. Impending obliteration! Reluctant human hero!

Race against time! Stuff gets smashed!

Noah and the flood is like the original disaster movie. Surfacing at cinemas this month, disaster movie Noah stars Russell Crowe as the lone guy forewarned of what’s coming. One word: annihilation. In 3D. From Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, Noah has mildly stirred the controversy guaranteed any adaptation of a Biblical subject. One question always arises: will the movie be faithful to its source?

We already have the answer.

Aronofsky and Paramount, the studio backing Noah, made no secret that their raiding of a lost ark is loosely based upon Genesis 6-9. Expect Noah’s themes and characters only to have been inspired by true events.

Aronofsky brands Noah “the first eco-warrior”. Trailers suggest Noah combines The Day After Tomorrow, 2014 and 10,000 BC. Amid the raining fire and catastrophic swells, human activity appears to drown out the divine.

During recent months, though, different versions of Noah were previewed for leaders of Bible-related religions. Why? Well, remember a little movie called The Passion of The Christ? How it eclipsed all expectations globally, generating box-office bounty and widespread debate?

The makers of Noah must. As much

Ben McEachen TV networks have opened the ratings season with a fusillade of big-budget reality shows. But their most successful genres point to our personal failures.

The Seven Network currently leads the charge with the return of My Kitchen Rules, which opened the season with 1.67 million viewers, with Nine’s The Block: Fans Vs. Favs in 2nd place. However the biggest loser was … The Biggest Loser. Ten’s super-sized start to the year couldn’t raise more than 560,000 viewers. What was turning viewers off ?

The reality program’s new format draws its contestants from the Victorian township of Ararat, which holds the dubious title of being Australia’s most overweight town. The key difference is that the town is able to contribute to its residents’ success by carrying out largescale exercises on their behalf.

But are we just tired of watching overweight people suffer? We’ve returned to the triumph of decadence.

MKR serves a mix of gourmet cooking spiced with gossip. The Block shows us barren rooms transformed into luxury spaces. All The Biggest Loser can offer is the distressing results of selfindulgence.

In the face of puritanical restraint, it’s no wonder viewers are choosing the promise of unrestrained comfort. People often falsely believe that Christianity too is the end of all enjoyment. How sad, considering Jesus saw himself to be the beginning of real joy: “I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”

Knowing Noah as they are floating their own boat, they know the so-called ‘faith community’ is a crucial target market. Getting traction with them could accelerate success, and attract paying customers through hashtags and hot debate.

Responses to the Noah previews were predictable. Accuracy was challenged, such as Noah being portrayed as a religious maniac, and how contemporary concerns (such as sustainable environment) are emphasised. “You’ll enjoy the film – if you’re not too religious,” summarised Hillsong pastor Brian Houston.

Like Noah, we can’t say we weren’t warned. Whether we board Noah comes down to personal tolerance for Biblical material being remixed. If we do, perhaps we shall discover a great movie. Aronofsky’s version of events may dampen your scriptural spirits, but Noah could be an inventive voyage.

There is a deeper concern, though, for

those aligned with Noah’s literary roots.

Like the rest of the Good Book, if Genesis 6-9 is taken out of context, meaning and importance quickly drain away. Without what came before it, and what happens afterward, Noah and the flood lists as a planetary disaster and little more.

Noah contains this explanation for global punishment: “Man corrupted this world. Filled it with violence...

So we must be destroyed.” The Bible supports such sentiments, but additional information is provided.

To clearly outline why the God who made the world would total it – and restore it. If Noah focuses upon people’s relationship with the planet, what will happen to God’s judgement, mercy, salvation and forgiveness?

Telling the flood from a human perspective might make for a pulsating film, but can only be a shallow reflection upon what that cataclysmic event was really about.

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The PROMISED LAND by Brian A Curtis Ever fallen short trying to understand the scriptures?

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Additional comments in italics are interwoven into the text to enhance the readability and understand ing of both the narrative and the laws.

The Promised Land takes you on a journey, from Abraham to Joshua.

Brian A Curtis was born in Kent, England.

He began his working career in the insurance industry before migrating to Australia in 1974. Six years later, he began studying at Ridley Theological College, Melbourne, and in 1983 was ordained by the Anglican Church of Australia. Since then, he has ministered full-time, part-time, as a locum, and on a casual basis in many churches in Tasmania. In 1990, he took a ten-year break from the ordained ministry and worked with welfare recipients and the long-term unemployed. Brian’s passion is that people should have a good understanding of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, particularly in a world where they are so often misunderstood and misrepresented.

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Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia

Translate the Bible - Transform a Community - Kirk Franklin, Executive Director, Wycliffe Global Alliance

I had the privilege of growing up in the mountains of Papua New Guinea (PNG) amongst the Kewa people. My parents dedicated the early part of their married life to help the Kewa have the New Testament with work continuing on the Old Testament.

This first-hand account enabled me to witness the transforming affects that the Scriptures had on people’s lives, on the local churches, and on the community as a whole.

My childhood encounters in PNG gave me a solid foundation and motivation for various roles I have held in Wycliffe Bible Translators since I joined the organization in 1980, including my current one as Executive Director of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

The Wycliffe Global Alliance as the name reflects is an alliance of 110+ participating organizations from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. These organizations, which include Wycliffe Australia, support, recruit and equip people for Bible translation work around the world.

Many are responsible for leading Bible translation programs in their own countries.

“The Holy Spirit is always actively at work around God’s world, whether we realize this, whether we see it or not.”

In my role I am grateful for the privilege of witnessing many things that God is doing around the world: young people gathering

THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF BIBLE TRANSLATION KIRK FRANKLIN in Oslo, Norway to fervently pray for missions; indigenous Christian leaders in the Andes Mountains of South America who are assisting their people climb out of poverty through Bible translation and literacy; Singaporean business women using their financial resources to extend God’s kingdom in poor communities in Southeast Asia; Indian Bible translators who have given up comfortable lifestyles in south India to live amongst Dalit communities in northern India; village people in remote areas of Papua New Guinea turning their backs on the worship of evil spirits and turning to the living God. The Holy Spirit is always actively at work around God’s world, whether we realize this, whether we see it or not.

We are now well into an era in which the Church is truly global and is increasingly attuned to both proclamation and practice of the Gospel. Wycliffe’s concern is not just to get Bible translation projects started, but to see the Church engaged so that minority language communities can thrive.

This means caring about the whole person and trusting God to bring wholeness to individuals, families and communities.

Therefore, in addition to Bible translation and the use of the Scriptures, we are also concerned about poverty alleviation, aid and development including literacy, medical ministry including HIV/ AIDS, and micro-enterprises because these deal with many of the urgent crises facing the poorest of the poor – the same people who still need God’s Word in their language.

Thank you, Australia!

We praise God for your faithful support over the past 60 years.

Since 1954 Australian Churches and Christians have supported 740 Australians serving in Bible translation and support roles in 126 languages, worldwide.

Today almost 180 million people in 1,919 language groups still require Bible translation to begin, but praise God that work is already underway in a further 692 languages for which there is no known Scripture. Workers from the Wycliffe Global Alliance are active in the majority of these programs.

To support Australian members or projects please visit www.wycliffe.org.au.

To celebrate Wycliffe Australia’s 60th Anniversary in your Church or small group please visit www.wycliffe.org.au/60th-anniversary/. wycliffe.org.au

Vision: To see people from every language group living as disciples of Jesus Christ through the power of God’s Word in their Heart Language Member of Wycliffe Global Alliance Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia

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MARCH 2014

The Bible According to Gen Z

New type of prison sentence Suzanne Schokman

Adrian Blenkinsop

An estimated 50% of those in PNG prisons are ... illiterate

Hundreds of lives have been turned around. Some inmates have ... taken Bible College studies in prison Taking their new skill back to their communities is another great outcome of the prison literacy project. Equipped with renewed confidence, the former inmates eagerly teach others how to read and write, how to generate

income and how to take a more positive approach to life. Bible Society’s Rose Patrick says that several women she taught have kept in touch with her after release. “They ask me all the time for more help, to teach the people of their communities.” Eleven PNG communities are known to have been impacted in this way.

“The Bible-based literacy project is a great success, running five and a half years now,” says Milton McMahon of Bible Society PNG. “Hundreds of lives have been turned around. Some inmates have gone on to take Bible College studies while still in the prison, wanting to become pastors later.”

Bible Society Australia, working with Bible Society PNG, other Christian partners and the PNG Corrective Services aims to reach 18 prisons in the near future. The programme is expected to affect the lives of 2,000 prisoners and, through them, 15 communities in PNG. “It’s hard to express how we feel about the training,” says Paul Simon. “We promise and assure Bible Society ... that your time and money spent will not (go to) waste. It will make a big difference and help change some souls, within and outside.”

To help bring about this change, please call 1300 BIBLES (1300 242 537) or visit biblesociety.org.au/ eternityappeal to donate. Donations are tax-deductible.

This research must focus our attention on the transformative goal of Bible engagement. Reading the Bible in a year can be a productive discipline, but just reading this book will not save anyone!

Graham Stanton. Former Head of Youthworks College The challenges presented in this report would insinuate that something is quite askew. If we can in fact be working so hard to engage young people in the faith, yet see minimal evidence of transformative bible engagement, one is forced to ask ‘why is this the case?’ and ‘what are we doing wrong?’ Brenton Killeen. NYMC These findings make me more determined to continue to be more intentional in discipling our young people with an even greater emphasis on the Word of God. It is our challenge to work together to achieve this. Cameron Bennett. Youth Alive I am hopeful in that these findings give leaders practical insights as to the barriers and difficulties youth face with the Bible and some practical ways to overcome those barriers.

Kylie Butler. Milk to Meat Bible Society Australia is a not-for-profit interdenominational organisation. It is a member of the United Bible Societies, a fellowship of 145 organisations working in more than 200 countries.

Our mission is to achieve the widest possible, effective and meaningful distribution of the Bible, to help people interact with it, and to lighten hearts with the Bible’s message of unconditional love in Jesus Christ.

Bible Society Essays is an occasional series of booklets responding to a contemporary topic. Series Editor: Dr Greg Clarke, CEO, BIble Society Australia www.biblesociety.org.au phone 1300 Bibles email bibles@biblesociety. org.au mail GPO Box 9874 In Your Capital City

BIBLE SOCIETY ESSAYS

says as he waits out his sentence and for what God has in store for him next.

Another school dropout, 58 year-old Jackson, was sentenced to 37 years in jail for killing someone over a land dispute. When the literacy project started in his prison, he was one of the first to sign up. At first he found it hard to even hold a pencil, and really struggled to learn. But encouraged by his trainer, he persevered and today he can proudly read and write. He was in tears when he received his Bible and certificate together with others in the first graduating class at Bihute jail.

With remission, Jackson has nine more years to serve and says he wants to share his knowledge back in his village.

THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO GEN Z

Coping with spelling and construction is punishing, but inmates in five Papua New Guinea jails are not complaining.

Since 2008, hundreds of prisoners have learned to read and write for the first time, thanks to a Bible-based literacy project.

“They’d cry after writing something, as it was something new they’d learned to do,” says Rose Patrick, Bible Society PNG’s Prison Literacy Project Officer. For many, the first stroke of a pencil overcomes a lifetime’s sense of inadequacy. An estimated 50% of those in PNG prisons are wholly or functionally illiterate, challenged by the simple task of reading a sign or filling in a form.

But learning to read gives them a sense of worth and hope for a better future when they leave prison. Reading from Scripture-based materials, inmates also learn about coping with anger, how to interact with others and how to work towards a pattern of good behavior. They’re taught basic life skills related to employment, to help them get work and be self-sufficient. Another interesting feature of the programme is that it trains prisoners with some literacy skills to train others, often in groups of ten. This fosters cooperation and a sense of pulling together, in an environment usually rife with withdrawal.

That’s why many prisoners are keen to sign up for classes in the five big prisons which currently work with Bible Society PNG. A lack of funding is the key thing that keeps the programme from being extended to more jails. Paul Simon, a trainer at Bihute Prison is grateful for the project, but appeals for more materials: “It’s been our cry and prayer for three years, as the prisoners and remandees are without proper teachers’ training and materials.”

Shortage of funds seems to be a common theme. Another trainerinmate shares how they’d first started teaching others to read using whatever they had, including “fish and meat labels used as paper for students to write on. We used what we had in our heads only, thinking of how best to teach others.” Yet the class grew in size, from nine to more than 70.

School dropout Elvin, 18, is serving time in Bihute Prison for armed robbery. In 2011 he enrolled and excelled in a literacy class, graduating with a certificate and a Tok Pisin Bible.

He says reading the word is a comfort to him. “God has a purpose in my life,” he

Once upon a time in a large church hall, located in a small country town, I failed a Bible study.

I failed it mainly because it involved either memorising Bible verses, or reading chunks of scripture then answering questions about that passage.

Those Bible study experiences in my early teenage years shaped a view of the Bible as being old, hard to understand and impossible to engage with at any level. Especially for a young guy who loved being active and hated anything resembling study!

What many of us have long suspected is true: Young people (and often those who lead them) that identify themselves as Christians are saying that the Bible is not on their radar. For many of them, their view of the Bible is the same as mine was all those years ago.

It’s fair to say that this is a crisis.

As with any issue as important as this, you can only run around waving your arms in the air crying ‘it’s a crisis!’ for so long until you need to stop and begin to address the issue.

Enter The Bible According to Gen Z. This resource is the result of in-depth, current research of over 1,000 young people and their Bible engagement.

There are stories from ministry leaders across Australia who are working in diverse contexts and ACCORDING TO cultures, and stories that explore their challenges, and ‘wins’ SEE WHAT’S THE LATEST SUCCESS: WORKING RESEARCH CASE STUDIES around engaging Help your young people enjoy life with the Bible their young people with the Bible.

We also asked a number of youth influencers from across Australia, including Graham Stanton and Kylie Butler, to respond to the research findings, and outline their suggested responses to this issue. Their answers capture the variety and depth of their experience and thought about engaging young people in the Word.

Also included are three different case studies of Bible engagement methods that are tried and true in engaging young people.

For anyone involved in ministry to young people, this is a must-have, lest more young people fail Bible study!

For more information, visit biblesociety.org.au/GenZ

THE BIBLE

GEN Z

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13

MARCH 2014

Meeting Dr Keller

New urban planting movement

John Sandeman Tim Keller, an American minister best known for reaching urban professions from Redeemer Church, planted in the centre of New York City, has been mentoring Steve Chong, a young minister from Sydney, who leads Kirkplace Church, Kogarah in Sydney’s inner south.

Keller will be in Australia in March for a series of events including the City to City conference (see sidebar).

The first thing you notice about Steve Chong is how energetic he is. But he says that Tim Keller has helped him slow down.

“In terms of how I do things differently, I find that (and this is certainly a generalisation) Tim’s advice to me often lends itself towards slowing down,” says Chong. “His advice often reminds me that I do not need to achieve everything at once and I find this matured perspective on ministry compelling. I believe that in taking his advice, the last couple of years have been a little slower and little more healthy for me with my work.”

Two years ago, one of Dr Keller’s advisors, Jay Kyle, recommended Chong as “an important young leader” to approach for mentoring and they began regular Skype sessions.

After two years of mentoring, Chong says Keller has impacted his ministry.

“Meeting with Tim every couple of months has had significant impact on my work as a pastor because I find myself so quickly buried by the endless amount of tasks that require my attention every day.

“Meeting with Tim is a moment in my diary where I stop ‘ministering’ and feel ‘ministered to’.

“Without fail, he asks me important questions about how I am going with God, with my wife Naomi, and as a dad. Eventually, we talk church life and strategy.”

Tim Keller answered some questions from Eternity about mentoring Steve Chong.

How do we win secularists to Christ?

What do Steve and other ministers with churches with secular surroundings need to change?

I think the principles are the same for winning anyone to Christ.

First there’s the ‘negative.’ On our part, we need to learn the person’s existing beliefs extremely well.

(Secularists, of course, have lots of strong beliefs, they make many leaps of faith). Then you should show them the weaknesses, contradictions, impracticeableness in those beliefs.

Second, there’s the positive. You must narrate the gospel and story of Christ in a way that shows how Christ provides answers (to their own intuitions and

Sophie Timothy

aspirations and problems) that their own beliefs can’t.

Third, there’s just praying and asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to open blind eyes and soften hard hearts.

Now that’s what you would do with a Muslim, a Hindu, or a secularist. Each approach is different because each set of beliefs is different.

Steve’s church, Kirkplace, is in its early stage as a new Presbyterian church venture. Years ago, you had a similar challenge ahead of you as a younger minister. What advice do you give Steve and other young church planters as they start out?

You all need a much stronger prayer life than you think.

The RICE movement of which Steve is the founding leader is one of the most significant Asian-based youth movements in the country. How important do you think Asian-based ministry is in multicultural cities like New York and in particular Sydney?

It is extremely important. Asian peoples are a huge percentage of the human race—and in God’s providence it appears to me that they are being opened by the Holy Spirit to the gospel worldwide.

Virtually every city in the world has a significant population of young Asians who are making great strides to take places of influence and service in their urban centres. Hard to imagine reaching any of those cities without also reaching Asians. I should mention also that, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, Chinese people are particularly open to the gospel in their college years.

Christianity often stands outside the mainstream culture of society. Would you advise Steve in your mentoring of him to ‘make friends’ with culture?

Balance. Don’t try too hard to be culturally ‘with it’ or you will be seen (rightly) trying too hard to be hip and sophisticated. All kinds of people—not just Christians—try hard to be in the Perf

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‘inner ring’ of the culture and it looks shoddy.

Instead, just live in the world where your people and neighbours live. Read, watch, go to what they read, watch, listen to and go to. And then reflect on it with the Word and Gospel.

There’s so many ways you could serve the church worldwide yet you’ve chosen to put regular time into mentoring Steve Chong. So why pick mentoring?

I’m at the time in my life and ministry where I should be doing more mentoring and training. This is a conviction I’ve had and many around me in my church in NYC agree and are supportive. And my wife agrees too.

That settles it!

There are two needs mentoring meets, at least: 1) the more objective.

The mentor brings expertise, experience, and know-how. 2) the more subjective. The mentor encourages and affirms. Even when the mentor does critique, there is an affirming going on, because the very relationship communicates the importance of the leader’s ministry and life.

I believe you spent some time in one of your Skype sessions joined by your wife Kathy and Steve’s wife Naomi.

Often pastors attract mentoring but how important is it for the pastors wife to be similarly cared for?

It is very important. I might add especially in church planting situations where the pastor is the founding pastor.

I think this is a very heavy burden to bear and much of it falls on the whole family.

When a pastor takes a job at an existing church the burden of ‘keeping it all moving’ is simply not as heavy.

Existing churches have more of their own institutional structures that move things along even when there is no senior pastor. So in a situation like Steve’s, Naomi is unavoidably heavily involved in the ministry. So yes, she needs support and nurture too—as a ministry partner and spouse.

Redeemer City to City, a church planting group, has established a local branch in Australia which will launch the Australian Centre for Faith and Work later in the year.

Independent of any denomination, City to City Australia was incorporated in December. It’s headed up by CEO Andrew Katay (Anglican Minister from Sydney’s inner-west), CS Tang (a Presbyterian Minister also from the inner west) and Justin Moffatt (Anglican Minister based in Sydney’s CBD). A board of directors has also been appointed.

The City to City model of church planting aims to be rapid and sustainable. Katay says new churches which have been supported by the network will help fund other new churches once they reach viability, which will go onto support others. He says the distinctives of City to City will be “doing the hard work of contextualising the proclamation of the gospel”, having a “grace dynamic of personal and community transformation”, and an “integrative ministry” approach which is designed to break down the public/private and faith/work divide.

As part of its presence in Australia, City to City will be launching the Centre for Faith and Work later in the year.

“It will offer the Gotham Fellowship,” says Katay, “an intensive one year church-based discipleship program centred on personal renewal, and the development of a Biblical vision for each participant’s vocation. The Centre will also invest in senior business and community leaders, through programs and conferences.”

City to City Australia is bringing out the global director of New York-based Redeemer City to City, Tim Keller this month for a series of events for church planters and leaders, youth and women. Coming with him is his wife, Kathy Keller, as well as Katherine Leary Alsdorf, who founded the Center for Faith and Work in New York.

Katherine will be speaking at the City to City women’s event in Sydney as well as the Redeeming Work conference to be held in Melbourne in March, hosted

by Ridley Melbourne. www.citytocityconference.com

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MARCH 2014

OPINION

Abundant life now?

Michael Jensen The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)

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Is the Christian life really a better bet than the alternatives?

My sense is that even though we want to believe it is true, we have a hard time articulating how it is so in our experience.

Jesus promises that as the Good Shepherd who looks after the sheep, and the gate by which the sheep are secured and protected, he will bring to his sheep life, and ‘to the full’, or ‘in abundance’.

Using the word ‘life’ as John’s gospel uses it, this means not just long life or eternal life, but a quality of life – life that has a richness about it.

Now this is a powerfully reassuring thing for Jesus to say, since those of us who are his sheep may well be afflicted

by FOMO (as one of my students at Moore College once pointed out) – Fear of Missing Out. FOMO is a particular condition of the post-modern soul whose longings are hardwired into the constantly bleeping machines in our pockets telling us that something is going on somewhere else. Life is being lived, richly: and we haven’t got it. Somewhere in the world people are having the time of their lives, hanging out with friends, bungee jumping, eating sublime food and having sex with angels.

And we aren’t.

Jesus’ critique of this is pretty strong.

‘Don’t be anxious’ he says. ‘The pagans run after these things.’ It doesn’t add to their lives, actually. It is all ephemeral.

Chasing ‘the full life’ is like chasing the wind.

But Jesus says: follow me, and you get it all. My disciples get the lot. They are the women and men who can have it all.

Now. What can this mean, though? This is where Christians tend to lose a bit of nerve in my experience. There are three badly mistaken answers to this that do the rounds.

The first is that this is a promise for prosperity and wellness. ‘Abundant life’ means what it means for the secular person, and you’ll get what they most want: the house, the car, the boy/girl of your dreams.

Even though this seems to me to be obviously not what Jesus could mean – Christians still experience poverty, illness

and death. It is a view that wreaks havoc amongst evangelical Christians across the world, sad to say. We should be less gullible about such preaching, and less forgiving of it when we see it.

There are too many preachers with Leer Jets, I am afraid. And it is doing incredible damage to the gospel of Christ in Africa and India.

The second is similar: it is when we say ‘Hey, you can be a Christian and be cool. In fact, Christianity is awesomely cool!’ Hipster beards and tattoos for all.

Nothing is wrong with this at one level. Christians are not unearthly, they are normal. Sometimes that normal includes being cool.

But the trouble with this way of doing it is that it accepts the terms of the world for coolness. It tries to make Christianity appear cool/hip/groovy/funky/rad/ awesome in the way that the world defines these things. ‘See, he’s cool, and he’s a Christian! Wow!’ Notice which comes first here.

And what’s more, sometimes being a Christian is not cool. It can get you bullied, and sometimes killed. There are plenty of daggy Christians and daggy churches, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with that. (Someone’s got to speak up for the dags!)

The third mistaken response is… well, no response. It is to fail to really think about what this might mean at all.

Which means that we end up failing to believe Jesus when he says it.

A couple of thoughts might unlock this conundrum for us. First, we tend to prioritise something experiential and subjective in our search for the abundant, full life. Whatever Jesus is talking about, we assume, must lie in our feelings about living in the world.

How else can I know about living the abundant life except in the realm of my experience? Now, while I don’t think this is entirely wrong, it is certainly the wrong place to begin.

The context of the passage, John 10:1—18, actually helps us here (surprise, surprise!). Jesus is depicting himself as the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep by name, and who – strangest of all – ‘lays down his life for the sheep’!

That’s why he has come. His mission is not simply to be a life delivery system, but to bring full life to the sheep by his act of extraordinary sacrifice. He protects them from ‘the thief’ who threatens to steal, kill and destroy – and he does so by standing in the way to the point of death.

The sheep live – he dies. And abundant life flows from him to them in this.

What was the nature of this death? It was a death that won forgiveness of sins for the sheep in Jesus’ pen. It brought them into connection with the source of life himself by cleansing them from the shame and guilt of sin – thereby

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Sometimes being a Christian is not cool.

It can get you bullied and sometimes killed.

shielding them from the attacks of the evil one, the accuser.

So ‘abundant life’ springs from the forgiveness of sin, and a life lived, as a consequence, in the sound of Jesus’ voice.

Now: forgiveness of sins by the sacrifice of the Good Shepherd is something that happened as an objective thing in the world. The sheep live abundantly whether they know it or not because of the death of the shepherd.

But it is something that we can apprehend. It is a reality that ought to permeate our consciousness and give us an awareness of the fullness of the life we have. The experience of forgiveness and the hope of new and eternal life is the key to full life. It changes everything.

And how does this work? It works because it is the thing that is really worth having above all things. And it relativises the other things – possessions, prosperity, cool. It makes those things seem petty, as they really are. If you hear the Shepherd’s voice, you will find that ‘the things of this world grow strangely dim’. You will be awakened to the life of hope, which fills you with joy even as you suffer all kinds of trials (James 1).

The experience of grace in the present and the hope of a future with God in Jesus makes it possible to have a life now that aptly can be described as ‘full’ or ‘abundant’ – because it really is.

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MARCH 2014

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Shipshape memories

Over the summer break the McCrindle research company was kept busy by the Bible Society researching Eternity. There were focus groups, online surveys and a survey conducted by our own sales team.

The results were very positive.

At less than five years old Eternity is described in the McCrindle summary as a “well-loved institution”. It will only encourage us to do better.

We’ll start right now by responding to a couple of things that readers have persistently asked for.

Some of you are keen to have your very own print copy delivered to your home. We deliver free to churches and Christian groups (like nursing homes and Bible studies). We can now offer home delivery for $52. It’s simple, just go to biblesociety.org. au/geteternity. Churches ask ‘can we donate towards the cost of sending us Eternity’? That’s also simple. Just go to biblesociety.org.au/eternitydonate. Thank you.

John Sandeman

I know this is probably a bit late to be commenting on an article published 14 months ago, but I saw it for the first time in Feb 2014. It brought back unpleasant memories of my time in the R.A.N. 1958 to 1970.

If you stayed on the base or ship on a Sunday and didn’t attend the church service one ended up on punishment parade for a week. There would not be too many Officers or Senior NCOs in the church, but we junior ranks were made to go under threat of punishment.

One of the C of E ministers appeared not to care whether we were there or not. He never once looked at the forced congregation but many blokes were of the opinion that he knew how many nails held the wooden ceiling to the rafters. He was one of the most foulmouthed men I have come across.

Many a sailor had no time for the Sin Bosun as they were called, I know that I rejected anything to do with these hypocrites for many years.

January 1983 was a time of change in my life when I accepted Jesus Christ as my ‘LORD and Saviour’ and at times it is still a struggle. However with a little quiet time, prayer and a forgiving Christ things become easier.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Jesus loves us and there is nothing we can do about it. I am so pleased to read that our servicemen are turning to Him because they want to and not being forced to.

Colin Baker, Kalbarri, WA.

2 Chron 7:14

Calls for prayer and fasting for greater holiness for Christians, conversion of

unbelievers and a nation more in tune with God’s ways, are always welcome.

At the same time, it is important that we are careful in our use of Scripture.

One reference which I find hard to reconcile with God’s blessing on Australia is the oft-quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14. That verse contains a promise to God’s people who at that time were identified as a nation occupying a particular land which God had set aside for them. Since Jesus Christ died and rose, the promised land is a future one which we will not occupy in this life.

The verse is often taken to imply that God is not making Australia a wonderful place to live in because we are not humbling themselves and praying. Can we then say that Christians who live in lands where Christianity freedom is greatly limited, and where corruption abounds, are not acting in godly ways? There are plenty of other Bible passages which extol the individual and group benefits of living according to God’s ways. They are the ones we should emphasise.

David Morrison, Springwood, NSW.

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Sleep well

I agree with Sophia Russell’s article on insomnia but let’s not forget that caffeine and MSG can play a huge part in disturbed sleep. We are often consuming them without even realising it! I have also recently discovered that my husband’s snoring and sleep apnea (another cause of sleep disturbance) have improved dramatically by him using a herbal toothpaste now. Sleep well.

Dorothy Lee, Northmead, NSW.

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WWJD? HJWI! How Jesus would invest There’s a certain kind of book that I tend to purchase at airports. It’s one that I think I could finish during the flight (and if I don’t like it, abandon it somewhere to lighten my luggage), and one that will also deliver to me something ‘nuggetty’ and useful, a piece of insight or information that I might not pause long enough to notice during a less airborne day.

These ambitions mean it’s the only time I’m likely to grab something from the ‘personal development’ shelf. The psychoanalysts can tell me what that means (I’m told it’s something to do with ‘in between spaces’).

On a recent city hop, I picked up The Change Book, by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler, a compact hardback full of pithy two-page chapters on how humans cope with change, in particular the different decision-making models we use. Among intriguing chapters (“When Something Starts to Be Uncool”, “Why Parents Are Unimportant”, “Who Rules the World”) I stumbled across an unexpected subject: “How Jesus Would Invest”.

This little chapter contrasts Western capitalism with Islamic banking, drawing on the work of Paul Mills, an economist at the University of Cambridge.

Greg Clarke In summary, Islamic banking provides a banking sector based on religious laws: no speculation; no products related to alcohol, prostitution or pork; no charging interest. This last prohibition makes for a profoundly different relationship between investors and banks. But it is the ethical framework that drew the attention of the authors.

They ask the question whether the West could ever establish a banking sector based on ethical principles and, prompted by Mills, suggest that the answer is yes, using Christian ones. Here is where the shock sets in for anyone involved in the finance sector today. The biblical principles Mills draws on are these four: know what you are investing in, don’t reap what you didn’t sow, risk being lavish for good purposes, and don’t insure yourself too heavily as if you can control things like God. But are these principles pipe-dreams

in today’s financial world? How can an individual investor in a fund really know what is happening with their money? Isn’t speculating all about reaping what you didn’t sow? Is risk-taking really Christian? And isn’t insurance ‘good stewardship’?

Instead of nuggets, this chapter gave me gallstones. How is a humble arts graduate supposed to disentangle himself from the web of financial ethics in a world as complicated as ours? I’ll have to read some books that can’t be finished during a Melbourne-Sydney flight to find out.

But most importantly, my heart was warmed when I realised I had one more question: why did the authors ask what Jesus would do? It seems they were acknowledging the profoundly important and deep-rooted Christian background to our culture, and our need to keep testing ourselves against the wisdom of the Servant King.

Is risk-taking really Christian?

And isn’t insurance ‘good stewardship’?