Rob Hanks, Australian Youth Worker, U2 & Midnight Oil Fanatic, has launched his second public blog, ChurchNoticeBored.blogspot.com. It’s dedicated to exposing the folly of public church noticeboards. He’s calling for submissions of photographs and stories. Here’s your chance to make your neighbourhood famous!
Rob’s first blog, Pumphouse, is an emporium of ideas and resources for youth ministry, review of popular culture, and of course anything U2 that comes across his desk. His second blog is a more personal update about his family.
Rob’s the Coordinator of the Youth Unit, NSW Synod in the Uniting Church in Australia. In his blogger profile he writes:
“Hey! Working as a Youth Worker with a head full of useless pop culture information the WEBLOG seemed a perfect outlet for:
[a] instant access to my crazy ideas and good stuff stolen from all over the place
[b] a chance to play
[c] a way to receive ideas from others
[d] A vehicle for my creative side. I hope you find useful ideas about youth ministry, mission, change, hope, or craziness.
OR news about my girls
OR contribute or enjoy the embarrassing church noticeboards!!”
If anyone has a good photo of Rob send it in and I’ll publish it here.
After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and told the good news that comes from God. He said, “The time has come! God’s kingdom will soon be here. Turn back to God and believe the good news!”
Jesus Chooses Four Fishermen
As Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen and were casting their nets into the lake. Jesus said to them, “Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish.” Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him. Jesus walked on and soon saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat, mending their nets. At once Jesus asked them to come with him. They left their father in the boat with the hired workers and went with him.
It’s fascinating to read the beginning of the good news according to Mark. What does this account tell us about the gospel that Jesus talked about? How does it compare with the news we tell about Jesus? Who’s telling the story?
Last question first. Tradition has it that Mark’s gospel was written by John Mark in Rome while working with the apostle Peter. That would certainly explain the way this story starts - with the recruitment of four travelling disciples: Peter and his workmates. And what’s the good news about? The kingdom of God - the announcement of a time in which people would be living together the mandate given by God. Jesus was calling people to join up with the new way of living.
So what’s going on here as Jesus recruits his co-workers? He’s clearly expecting them to leave their jobs and join in his itinerant lifestyle. That was the reality wasn’t it. Jesus didn’t have the luxury of staying in one place and commuting to other places. To move around the country he had to make his home the place where he’d just arrived. Problem is that when we read this now we can unconsciously take on the same expectations. The highest calling is for people who follow Jesus by leaving home and going anywhere in the world. The itinerant missionaries. The people who make themselves for pastoral ministry wherever the Church might call them. The people who pack up and go.
What about the people who are called to make the kingdom of God a reality where they live now? People who are called to bring in people, in their neighbourhood and not someone else’s?
I’ve just posted a couple of stories connected with the launch of Apple’s new Intel-chip-driven MacPro computer.
Apple Intel Factory
At Duncan’s TV Adland I’ve written up the story of the TV advertisement featuring the music of Moby, “God Moving Over the Face of the Water”, and a concept straight from Postal Service music video, “Such Great Heights”.
The blogosphere in Mac circles has been buzzing with the thought that once again Apple has used a copied concept for its marketing. As it turns out Josh & Xander, the directors of the Postal Service video are also the directors for the new Apple ad.
Postal Service Such Great Heights
Having seen the music video I thought it was worth writing up at Duncan’s TV Music Videos. The video was shot in a wafer fabrication plant - a factory where data is imprinted into silicon chips and disks.
And linked up with the two stories is the launch of Apple iLife 06 for Mac, and the MacBook Pro.
First task was to change the photographs. I had one of Graham Beattie that had been taken by Osker Lau at work. Osker did some nice work in removing the background. And I did the same for a photo of me wearing a leather jacket at my high school reunion last year. I’m looking disturbingly grey!
Second task was to remove all references to Open Books in Adelaide. They’ve ceased their general online book service and moved to an in-house approach for the Lutherans. So I put on ads for Rainbow Books, Vision Books, Amazon and Alibris.
Third task was to update the recommended reading on congregational health, discipleship, emerging church and leadership, including Amazon links. I’ve got a few leadership links to update. There are new books to add and new authors. I had to do a check for authors who have died since I last updated the site, and authors for whom I now have photographs.
Next job will be moving the site out of Frontpage and upgrading the template. Just need to get Macromedia Fireworks working.
Downstream Magazine is an occasional publication of the NSW Uniting Church Board of Mission for anybody interested in issues facing new forms of church and new mission initiatives in post-Christian Australia. The latest issue was posted at the end of December, during my first week of leave. So this is my first opportunity to write it up.
This issue includes:
1. Why would anybody want to start a new congregation? Aren’t there already enough? A helpful outline of the need for new Uniting Church congregations.
2. “That would never happen in private enterprise.” Rob Hanks on ‘Worship Unplugged’ - an approach to worship that encourages people to start new initiatives appropriate for their context.
3. Brian McLaren, Mainline Theological Education and the Emerging Conversation. Darren Wright writes up Brian’s recent lecture at Princeton Theological College.
4. John Thornton writes on planting a new church
5. Conrad writes on how he starts new things.
6. Glen Powell writes a 2 -part article on a ‘new kind of gospel’, with a challenge on the “Frankenstein’ gospel. Definitely worth a read.
7. Glen Powell on starting a movement
10. Darren Wright on lessons from Steve Jobs.
The online zine has some great cartoons from Chris Morgan.
I’m back in the office for first time in a month. First task was to clear the 2000+ pieces of spam email. There’s a lot more room on the server now!
In the snail mail is a brochure from People Aid, an organisation that gathers sponsorship for rickshaws to be given to needy Indian families. The rickshaws are made in a factory in India, complete with a blue shade, a cross and flower emblem, the words in English, “Jesus is Lord”, and an acknowledgement of the sponsor. Here’s a way to provide a debt free incoming-producing business that permamently supports a family.
William Strauss & Neil Howe are probably the best known proponents of generational theory in the United States, if not the world. Their reputation began with the publication of their first book, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069, in 1991, fifteen years ago.
Arthur Scheslinger Jr, a historian and political activist, is credited by Strauss and Howe as pioneering the cycle approach to American History. His work on generational cycles appeared in essays before being published together in the 1986 book, The Cycles of American History, since reprinted in 1999.
Strauss and Howe use the generation theories developed by Jos� Ortega y Gasset and Juli�n Mar�as, Spanish philosophers who wrote on history as a system. Marias died only last month at the age of 91. See Ortega’s book of essays, History as a System. They credit Anthony Esler, author of The Human Venture, with keeping generational theory alive for twenty years.
Age Bracket Fallacy
Strauss and Howe cite Gail Sheehy’s 1976 book, Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, together with Daniel Levinson’s 1978 book, The Seasons of a Man’s Life“, as examples of a cohort-group biography - a ‘persuasive rendering of the collective personality of American men and women now in their fifties’ (read mid sixties in 2005). These authors, as Matilda Riley pointed out in an essay in Graubard’s 1978 book, Generations, were promoting the fallacy of age reification, in which one generation projects its life experience on to another. Gail Sheehy responded in 1996 by publishing New Passages, which took into account the impact of history on young adulthood in the 1990s.
Generations as Trains in Motion
Strauss and Howe attempt to follow each generation as a train in motion rather than as a station. This they do by tracing the development of cohorts from childhood through to death, marking the distinctive events which influence each group. They say that each generation has a different experience of the life cycle. For this reason the authors provide the biography of each generation from the Puritans through to the Millennials.
Social Moments
Strauss and Howe focus on the impact of social moments - critical events which could be secular crises or spiritual awakenings. A social moment is an era, typically lasting about a decade, when people perceive that historic events are radically altering their social environment. Secular crises are when society focuses on reordering the outer world of institutions and public behavior. Spiritual awakenings are when society focuses on changing the inner world of values and private behavior. During social moments dominant generations are entering rising adulthood and elderhood, while recessive generations are entering youth and midlife.
Four Generation Cycle
However, through their research into generations through history, they come to the conclusion that generations come in cycles. “Just as history produces generations, so too do generations produce history.” The authors label the four generational types Idealist, Reactive, Civic and Adaptive, always recurring in a fixed order. Strauss and Howe suggest that the passage of four generations completes a full generational cycle over four 22-year phases of life, roughly ninety years.
1. A dominant, inner-fixated IDEALIST generation grows up as increasingly indulged youths after a secular crisis. It comes of age inspiring a spiritual awakening, fragments into narcissistic rising adults, cultivates principle as moralistic midlifers, and emerges as visionary elders guiding the next secular crisis.
2. A recessive REACTIVE generation grows up as an underprotected and criticized youths during a spiritual awakening, matures into risk-taking alienated rising adults, mellows into pragmatic midlife leaders during a secular crisis, and maintains respect (but less influence) as reclusive elders.
3. A dominant, outer-fixated CIVIC generation grows up as increasingly protected youths after a spiritual awkaening, comes of age overcoming a secular crisis, unites into a heroic and achieving cadre of rising adults, sustains that image while building institutions as powerful midlifers, and emerges as busy elders attacked by the next spiritual awakening.
4. A recessive ADAPTIVE generation grows up as overprotected and suffocated youths during a secular crisis, matures into risk-averse, conformist adults, produces indecisive midlife arbitrator-leaders during a spiritual awakening, and maintains influence (but less respect) as sensitive elders.
Strauss and Howe name the four generations reading their book in 1991 as:
GI - elders, born 1901 - 1924 (now age 81-104)
SILENT - midlifers, born 1925-1942 (now age 63-80)
BOOMER - rising adults, born 1943 - 1960 (now age 45-62)
13ER - youths, born 1961 - 1981 (now age 24 - 44)
They mark the passing of the previous generations:
MISSIONARY - born 1860 - 1882
LOST - born 1883 - 1900
They anticipate the emergence of a new generation:
MILLENNIALS - children, born 1982 - 2003 (now 3-23)
Strauss and Howe Online
These web sites provide a chance to engage with the authors.
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.” Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”
John 1: 43-51 (Contemporary English Version)
I wonder what Jesus saw under the fig tree. Who would break out into an acknowledgement of leadership just because he’d been seen before. This has the hallmark of someone’s actions being seen with insight into the most inner thoughts. Jesus must have seen something that showed integrity and cunning.
Israel, or Jacob, was known for being deceitful. He’s the guy who tricked his older twin brother out of his inheritance by impersonating him in front of his blind father. He’s the one who built up his flocks at the cost of his father-in-law by organising the livestock gene pool. So if Israel was deceitful, what was Jesus referring to by saying that Nathaniel was a ‘true descendant of Israel, without deceit.’ My hunch is that Jesus was referring to the knack Jacob/Israel had for doing business. The same business sense for which Jewish people seem to have acquired a reputation around the world through history.
Some time soon we’ll be hearing about the cinema release of Highlander: The Source, the first in a new trilogy of films featuring Duncan Macleod, the immortal Highlander, and his friends as they search for the holy grail of their world.
Here’s the promo from the official movie site:
The world is falling into chaos. As he roams a crumbling city, Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander, remembers happier times before the love of his life left…
Hopeless and alone, MacLeod finds his way to a band of immortal companions, including his mysterious friend Methos, and a mortal, Watcher Joe Dawson. Together this small group sets out on a quest to find the origin of the first Immortal and The Source of their immortality.
Shooting for the film begain in Lithuania in October and finished in December. Director is Brett Leonard, with Adrian Paul starring as Duncan MacLeod as well as producing. Brett pioneered the creation of digital visual effects in filmmaking with 1992’s Lawnmower Man. He also directed 1995’s Virtuosity, and most recently completed Marvel’s Man-Thing.
Davis-Panzer Productions is busy further immortalizing the Clan MacLeod during the series’ twentieth year with an anime feature film in partnership with Imagi of Hong Kong and Madhouse of Japan and a video game with SCI Games Ltd. of London. David Abramowitz, writer from the TV series, is writing the script.
[eminimall products="Highlander Duncan Macleod"]
Adrian Paul’s Diary - straight from The Source - has details on the shooting of the movie. Highlander Worldwide, the official Highlander fan club, has photographs from the shoot.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci is paddling the uncharted waters of postmodernity and an emerging church faith at www.emergentvoyageurs.blog.com.
Right now he’s working through a series of posts on “What is the Gospel?”, starting from Genesis rather than Romans. The Gospel is the glory of the Triune God made manifest in His work to reconcile every person to union with Himself, communion with others, to fullness of life, and to harmony with Creation, in the context of community for the good of all.
Kim and Jamie Arpin-Ricci are co-executive directors of Youth With A Mission Urban Ministries in Winnipeg, Canada. Jamie started blogging his way through the foundational values of Youth With A Mission last year. What he’s done so far looks very useful. Hopefully we’ll see the rest of the values explored.
Kim (Flint) grew up in Canberra, Australia and moved to Canada to complete her Discipleship Training School with YWAM. Kim’s blog is called “I’m Not Sure About This“.
Jamie started blogging at Blogspot with “For What It’s Worth“, in August 2004. He moved to Blog.com with “Just Curious” in July 2005 but has put posts there on hold as he develops the Emergent Voyageur blog.
He published his book on Christian Leadership, “Looking Forward”, in April 2005 and started an associated blog, Looking Forward, in November 2005. The book is a compilation of work by authors such as Tony Campolo, Bruce Marchiano, Tre Shephard and Joy Dawson, complete with study guide for individuals and groups. Jamie’s set up a static web site for the book at www.lookingforward.ca.
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.
At 
William Strauss & Neil Howe are probably the best known proponents of generational theory in the United States, if not the world. Their reputation began with the publication of their first book, 
in 1989 with Peter Peterson.
Shooting for the film begain in Lithuania in October and finished in December. Director is Brett Leonard, with Adrian Paul starring as Duncan MacLeod as well as producing. Brett pioneered the creation of digital visual effects in filmmaking with 1992’s 
Right now he’s working through a series of posts on “What is the Gospel?”, starting from Genesis rather than Romans. The Gospel is the glory of the Triune God made manifest in His work to reconcile every person to union with Himself, communion with others, to fullness of life, and to harmony with Creation, in the context of community for the good of all.
