Here’s an article I’ve written for the front page of Jubilee School newsletter.
Have you ever noticed how much colour is associated with Christmas? Take a drive around Pacific Pines and you’ll see the incredible display of Christmas lights decorating home in almost every street. As we start thinking about giving gifts we have at the back of our minds the matter of wrapping paper - which most likely will be colourful.
Fascination for colour is wired into us from the start of our lives. I still remember the vivid colours of my childhood, experienced in birthday candles, balloons, crayons, pastels and paints. And I clearly recall the day we exchanged our black and white television for a colour television. At last we could really appreciate the change from Kansas to Oz in the Wizard of Oz movie!
Have you seen the advertisement for the Sony Bravia television screen with all the coloured balls? 250, 000 balls were released down a street in San Francisco for the ad. It’s the most searched for page on a web site I run called Duncan’s TV Adland. (www.duncans.tv) The ad finishes with the invitation to experience colour like no other.
Experiencing colour like no other is what the Christmas season is about. In this time of Advent, the time leading up to Christmas, we’re invited to attune our eyes to discover in Jesus his invitation to live life in all its fullness. To help us with that invitation, I’ll finish with the words of the song, Colours of Christmas by Australian songwriter, Leigh Newton. (http://www.leighnewton.com/).
Colours of Christmas Lyrics
Yellow is the straw that Jesus lies upon
Silver is the star above the town
Brown the shepherds feet they’ve left the dusty sheep
to feed upon the green where it’s found - o
to feed upon the green where it’s found
Blue is for his eyes to see the world tonight
Purple is for, he is our King
Black is for the night and white is shining bright -
from angels in the paddock where they sing - o
from angels in the paddock where they sing
Pink is for his skin, his soft and tender skin
Gold is brought by those who are game
Orange is the gown of wise men kneeling down
Red is for the reason he came - o
Red is for the reason he came
When the Son of Man Appears
In those days, right after that time of suffering,
“The sun will become dark,
and the moon will no longer shine.
The stars will fall, and the powers in the sky will be shaken.”
Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth.
A Lesson from a Fig Tree
Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.
No One Knows the Day or Time
No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows. So watch out and be ready! You don’t know when the time will come. It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. So be alert! You don’t know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. But if he comes suddenly, don’t let him find you asleep. I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert!
Mark 13:24-37
A few thoughts:
What amazes me is the amount of speculation about the ‘End Times’ that is published and bought, despite these words of Jesus.
I realise that these authors are responding to the parable of the fig tree. “Read the signs”, Jesus says. Maybe it’s good that somewhere in the people of God someone is checking to see if we’re getting signs that the end is nigh.
However it seems to me that Jesus says time and time again that all will be surprised by the end of the age. Jesus appears to be talking about cosmic shaking here - not just tidal waves, global warming and earthquakes.
And what about Jesus’ assertion that people of ‘this generation’ will still be alive when it all happens? Maybe it just goes to show how true his words were, that even he didn’t know the life expectancy of the earth. I’ve seen some authors interpret ‘this generation’ as the generation that is associated with the return of Israel or the tribulation. I don’t think so.
That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
Romans 8:21-29 (The Message)
“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.” Aldous Huxley
Rick starts this section by saying that God allowed our experiences to happen for the purpose of molding us. Once again his Calvinist approach to God’s micromanagement comes through. I’d rather talk about God using the experiences of our lives to bring new purpose and direction.
We’re given a list of experiences to consider as we look at how we serve God:
Family Experiences
Educational Experiences
Vocational Experiences
Spiritual Experiences
Ministry Experiences
Painful Experiences
Again, Rick writes about God intentionally allowing us to go through painful experiences to equip us for ministry to others.
I vividly remember sitting by the coffin of my eighteen month old daughter as a ten year old boy from the church struggled to make sense of her death. “Perhaps God has made this happen so you can support other people who are grieving.” In response my wife and I explained that we didn’t have to find a reason for her tragic death. We were sure that God could have found other ways to help us grow in that ministry of supporting the bereaved. But we were sure that God could bring meaning and purpose out of this time.
It’s the difference between ultimate sovereignty and absolute sovereignty. I don’t believe that God says ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to every minute detail of my life or anyone else’s. But I do believe that God says ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to the big picture.
Rick refers to Paul’s honesty about his suffering in Asia Minor as expressed in 2 Corinthians 1: 8-10. If Paul had kept quiet about his doubts and depression, millions of people would have missed out his acknowledgement of pain, suffering and failure as part of life.
Christopher C Walker has just published his book, “Living life to the FULL”, an autobiographical exploration of spirituality and theology for today’s baby boomers, published by Open Book, August 2005.
In his introduction Christopher introduces generational differences, focusing on the distinctive features of the baby boomer generation, drawing mostly on Hugh Mackay and Craig Kennet Miller. He then goes on to describe his own experience of growing up as a Baby Boomer. He writes about the experience of turning fifty and turning attention to questions of spiritual capital usually associated with the end of life.
God as Mystery
Chapter 1 is dedicated to an exploration of theology that takes seriously the mystery and enigma of life on earth. Christopher writes on the paradoxes found in a suffering turbulent yet beautiful world. He outlines the impact of Sigmund Freud on the world view of Baby Boomers. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus are used to represent a twentieth century atheistic perspective. Einstein’s theory of relativity, along with ‘uncertainty principle’ of quantum mechanics, is tied together with Baby Boomer relativism. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and Karl Marx’s materialism are presented as foundations for an agnostic approach to religion.
Christopher goes on to present a Christian interpretation of the human condition, outlining the distinctive nature of humanity, in terms of capacity for transcendence as well as sin. He goes on to present a theology in which the nature of God is the mystery of the world.
Jesus as Model of Humanity
Chaper 2 is Christopher’s section on Christology, written in the context of the Baby Boomer interest in fulfilled humanity. He begins with a consideration of Baby Boomer idols and ideals, with a focus on James Bond for men and the intelligent attractive woman who can assert her equality in the workplace and also manage children and family. He presents Jesus as a role model for Boomers in their mid life years - his approach to family, career, his purpose in life, enjoyment of life, relationships, spirituality and how he faced suffering and death.
Spirit of God
Chapter 3 is dedicated to a theology of the Spirit of God - the Activity and Energy of God’s Spirit. In the context of Baby Boomer interest in the paranormal and non-rational Christopher launches into a consideration of Biblical teaching on the Spirit. Having outlined a conventional Evangelical theology of the Spirit he makes it clear that Boomers can only experience the Holy Spirit as they acknowledge that the Spirit was living in Jesus in a way that did not happen with anyone else. In his section on grace Christopher writes about the prevenient work of the Holy Spirit. He explores the process of conversion as a work of the Holy Spirit.
Companions for the Journey
Chapter 4 is Christopher’s thesis on the connection between the Biblical narratives and the Baby Boomer interest in community. Having gone from creation through to the end of the New Testament he turns his attention to the history of the church, covering the development of Christendom and Reformation. He acknowledges the valid reasons that many Boomers have for staying away from the church. He attempts to outline what the church should and could be, as the true expression of the community of Christ. He points to the example of Aberfoyle Uniting Church in Adelaide as an example of a church that effectively reaches Boomers without losing integrity. Christopher goes on to give an autobiographical account of the people with whom he has travelled through life.
A Spirituality to Sustain Us
Chapter 5 is Christopher’s connection between Biblical spirituality and the spiritual quest of stressed Baby Boomers. He takes his readers through the spiritualities of Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Perserverance and spirituality go together, he concludes. He goes on to an exploration of Psalm 16, 19, 51, and 73. Jesus is presented as the model of prayerful resistance to temptation. Paul’s spirituality is described in terms of action, boldness and freedom. Christopher points Boomers to the lessons learned from the spirituality of Antony of Egypt, Saint Brigid of Ireland, (celtic spirituality), John Calvin (mystical union with Christ), the Wesleys, (private and public disciplines). He finishes with a connection between the Myers Briggs personality typology and spirituality, outlining his own personal approach to spiritual disciplines.
My Initial Response
So how does this rate as a resource for Baby Boomers considering spirituality for life?
It’s certainly interesting reading Christopher’s experience of growing up in the Baby Boom era. But the theology is not what I would call engaging.
I think it’s a matter of genre. It’s not clear who Christopher is writing for. If he’s writing for Baby Boomers considering spirituality, he’s gone over their heads. He’s making sweeping generalisations about Baby Boomers rather than appealing to them. For a book designed for the Baby Boomer audience, spirituality appears far too late in the plot. Perhaps it’s a theology textbook, designed to help people connect sociology and theological texts and Biblical narrative.
It seems to me that this book would benefit from a healthy edit. The chapters seem to go on too long without section breaks. The book would be much more interesting with the addition of photographs. Perhaps the book would come alive with the comments of other Baby Boomers engaging with Chris’ theological assertion.
Rob Hanks at Pumphouse, has given us the low down on the up and coming U2 Australian Vertigo tour .
“Eight years after they last played Australia, U2 are taking the Vertigo Tour to Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney in March. The shows are the first to be announced for ‘Vertigo ‘06′ which will kick off in February and also stop in Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
U2.Com can exclusively confirm the Australian dates - tickets will go on general sale on Monday December 5th.
Friday March 17 Auckland Ericsson Stadium
Tuesday March 21 Brisbane Queensland Sports & Athletics Centre
Friday March 24 Melbourne Telstra Dome
Tuesday March 28 Adelaide AAMI Stadium
Friday March 31 Sydney Telstra Stadium
Tickets are priced at $99 for General Admission to the stadium field area, with Reserved Seat tickets to be priced between $99 and $199. Ticket sales outlet information will be released one week prior to the on-sale date of December 5.”
In honour of the impending news, I’ve put two posts on U2’s iPod videos at Duncan’s TV Adland.
The first video clip, Vertigo, was released as a 30 second ad on Apple’s site, promoting the U2 Special Edition iPod and the Photo iPod. The Vertigo ad is also available as a 2-minute clip.
It’s all written up on Sunday November 20.
The most recent video clip, “An Original of the Species”, was featured in the promotion of the Video iPod. I wrote up the promotion on Saturday October 15.
Hopefully I’ll get to see both songs live next year. In the meantime, I’ll have to make do with the DVD of U2 Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago.
This last week I posted a review of the 40 Days of Purpose course at Educating Christians. My church went through a very low key version of the course in early 2004, on the coat tails of Robina Surfers Paradise Uniting. Saddle Back Community Church in Los Angeles have rolled out a highly supported but controlled environment for the course around the world. Churches have to enroll three to four months ahead and must start at the same time as other churches in the campaign. It’s not to do with publicity as in the national Alpha campaigns. It’s to do with the support mailings and the mass distribution of resources. All the same, it strikes me as another example of hegemony. “Do it this way at this time or not at all”.
Having said all that, I think there’s some helpful material in the Purpose Driven course. I’m up to Day 31 in the Driving With Purpose blog. I’ve actually split Day 31 into three posts as Rick covered abilities, personality and experience (APE of SHAPE) in one day. I thought each was worth a post. One of the fascinating aspects of writing this blog is reading the critiques of Warren’s work from the conservative end. Cessationists who have trouble with his focus on spiritual gifts. Purists who associate Warren with psychoheresy because of his reference to personality typologies such as LaHaye’s temperaments and Myers Brigg’s Personality Type Indicators. For these people anything that has anything to do with Jung’s approach to psychology is suspect.
It will be interesting to see how Rick develops his writing in the future in the light of his recently discovered passion for social justice.
High School is out for Year 12s in Queensland. That’s it. No more school ever. And to celebrate there’s a massive collection of parties down the road at Surfers Paradise. Apartments are booked by student syndicates. The City Council put on entertainment on and by the beach. The police are there to keep an eye out for violence, alcohol abuse and sexual assault. The Federal police are there to keep an eye out for terrorists. And a huge number of adult volunteers are there to provide support, including Hotel Chaplains with their red frogs.
My son has joined forces with a few friends to provide an alternative schoolies event, based in family homes, providing their own entertainment. As I was dropping off food at Venue 2 the family had a bit of fun with the name, “Schoolies”.
Down on the Surfers Strip there are:
Schoolies (Year 12s from Queensland and New South Wales)
Toolies (older guys hoping to prey on Schoolie girls)
Foolies (younger students mixing in for the party)
Here’s a few alternatives:
Catholic graduates: Dooleys
Graduate ghosts: Ghoulies
Irish graduates: Hooleys
Irish Catholic graduates: Hooley Dooleys
Law and Order Staff: Poolice
Ground Staff: Moulies
First off the rank is Dwight Friesen in a frank interview on planting small. He talks about starting off with a vision of becoming a ‘mega’ church but coming to embrace a vision of growing a community of 30 to 40 people.
Dwight has a web site with connections to ‘Christ-commons’, connecting, orthoparadoxy, relationality, and some very use44/241/200/dwight-friesen.jpgful writings. He and his wife Lynette founded quest - a Christ-commons in metro Seattle in 1996. He’s recently taken on the role of Assistant Professor in Theology at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. He’s currently teaching “Introduction to the Hermeneutical Task - Art of Reading Beyond the Page” & “Life Together I - Ancient-Future Focus for Church & Worship”. I appreciate his wisdom and humility.
Here’s a sample of the interview from Seed Stories.
Seed Stories: What has been the most challenging aspect of this for you? (Feel free to go wherever with this: psychologically, emotionally, occupationally, theologically, philosophically, physically, etc.)
Dwight: On a personal level one of the great challenges continues to be to die to my dreams of a successful ministry. I have had to embrace church planting failure as my m.o. I always wanted to be respected and have people be interested in what I do - for God’s glory of course - but choosing to be in relationship with the people God brings my way and intentionally limiting the size and scope of one’s ministry doesn’t earn the respect of the modern church. One of the things I haven’t been able to get used to yet is watching as a friend in our community begins cutting themselves off from community and put up increasing blocks to the attempts of others to get close. When I see that it is often just a matter of time before I lose them from my life. When I know that a person is unconnected and is making choices which isolate them from community I grieve, for pain they are experiencing for the loss of their presence in my/our life and for loss to our community where every participant shapes us. I love seeing someone fall in love with Christ through his church, especially when a person’s prior experience of the church has been very negative. I love to see a person marvel at the grace of God in a church community.
SS: What have you found to be the most freeing aspect of what you are doing?
DF: I have a life that I like for the most part. I like who I am becoming and who my family is becoming. I have friends and we love each other and we love God together. We enjoy the freedom to create a schedule that works for us. We have a sense of openness, no topic is off limits, no person can’t be related with. Allocation of time is big - we spend almost no time planning and organizing events. We don’t spend a lot of time looking for needs or trying to fill the gaps in our programming. We don’t market ourselves. We try to just be.
This last week the Generations in Conversation course took a look at Tony Jones’ book, Postmodern Youth Ministry, published by Youth Specialties and Zondervan, 2001.
Exploring cultural shift, cultivating authentic community and creating holistic connections. The first thing we noticed about the book was the layout. There’s more white space than most books - which gives the reader more scope for engaging with the text that’s there. We found ourselves engaging with bites, quotes and vignettes rather than attempting to read the chapter from start to end. There’s an element of randomness to the selection and placement of graphics. There’s a strong connection with the feel achieved by Douglas Coupland in his first edition of the novel, Generation X.
The second thing we noticed was the interactive nature of the book. Tony gave his manuscript to colleagues and included their responses in the end product.
So what’s Tony saying about postmodernity and postmodernism? He says that Gen-Xers are the cusp generation in relation to postmodern values. The Millennials however are studying in an environment with ‘full-blown, no-holds-barred postmodern thought”. He points to the postmodern ethos being displayed in the work of song writers, television and movie producers and advertising executives. That made a lot of sense when we considered the nature of the television advertising we’d been looking at. The Three “We Like Music” ads and the XBox 360 “Jump In” ads seemed to flow from a postmodern approach to narrative rather than linear product obsession.
Tony gives an ‘incomplete in-progress’ list of values of emerging postmodern culture versus the values of the modern/Enlightenment era:
1. Experiential rather than Rational
2. Spiritual rather than Scientific
3. Pluralistic rather than Unanimity
4. Relative rather than Exclusive
5. Altruistic rather than Egocentric
6. Communal rather than Individualistic
7. Creative rather than Functional
8. Environmental rather than Industrial
9. Global rather than Local
10. Holistic rather than Comparmentalized/Dichotomized
11. Authentic rather than Relevant
In response we wondered how much we were seeing a ‘versus factor’. It seemed to us that there was more a shift of focus and emphasis. For all the focus on ‘communal’ we were seeing as much individualism as ever in the ways that people made decisions about their futures. We could see evidence of global and local going alongside each other. Perhaps we needed to factor in the approach taken by Leonard Sweet in which he combined global and local to make glocal. What would the other ten look like if we did the same?
We liked Kara Powell’s thought:
“It would indeed be terrifying to worship a God we could figure out. The enigmas, mysteries, and antinomies of God are what make him God. Without these, he would be just a very cool guy.”
Hmm. We had to find a decent dictionary (online) to find out what antinomies meant. It refers to several laws or constants that are held together even though they may seem to contradict each other.
However we noted that many young people we were dealing with did not fit into the fascination with mysticism, acceptance of ambiguity and comfort with diversity associated with postmodernism. One workshop participant talked about the hunger for concrete approaches to God, life and everything. In another post I’ll explore the connection we made between James Fowler’s stages of faith work and the emergence of postmodern values.
Tony finishes by saying that ‘Relational’ remains as a constant. He writes that “there is new room in our faith for experience, for mysticism, and for mystery. We can recover the story as the great conveyer of truth, and we can use it to great effect just as Jesus did. We can welcome people into a journey instead of getting them to assent to an oversimplified version of the gospel and recite a three-sentence prayer.”
It’s been a busy week at Duncan’s TV Ad Land. Since November 13 I’ve posted on the following television commercials.
XBox Champagne - a baby shoots through a window, ageing into an old man as he flies over the countryside, eventually landing in a grave. “Life is short, play hard”.
Truth Campaign - anti smoking adverts inviting young people to join a movement that challenges powerful companies
XBox 360 Jump In - a water balloon fight to the sounds of Teddy Bear Picnic and a community jump rope exhibition to the sounds of Din Daa Daa.
Unicef Anti-War campaign bombs the Smurfs Village, killing adults and leaving baby smurfs orphaned.
Dirt is Good - the Omo/Persil campaign promoting healthy earthy play
Glue Store Customs - the ad that goes close to the bone on having boogie board bags checked in Indonesian customs.
Nike Squirrel - an ad that encourages people to reincarnate in this life.
Mitsubishi Ultimate - the one where the people move the roads around to provide a challenging twisty course for the powerful but agile 380.
Bud Light Fridge - a Canadian film directed by an Australian - flatmates burrow through the wall into the neighbours’ fridge to pilfer their six pack of Bud Light.
Lynx Jet Fantasy - the one where the guys dream themselves on a flight where women fall over them constantly.
Coming up… advertisements preparing for the White Ribbon Day - challenging violence against women.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Christopher is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. He has ministered in congregations in New South Wales, served as an evangelism consultant for the 
(Discipleship Resources, 1988), Jesus Christ More Than a Man, and Seeking Relevant Churches for the 21st Century.
Dwight has a 
The first thing we noticed about the book was the layout. There’s more white space than most books - which gives the reader more scope for engaging with the text that’s there. We found ourselves engaging with bites, quotes and vignettes rather than attempting to read the chapter from start to end. There’s an element of randomness to the selection and placement of graphics. There’s a strong connection with the feel achieved by Douglas Coupland in his first edition of the novel, Generation X.
Tony’s blogging over at 
