For all of you regular SONset-ers who read this (I know who some of you are now- though who the others are I don’t really know, but this is the 2nd most popular site on the Northridge website)…

What do you think of the move into the hall?

And more importantly, what can we do to make it look as good as our sunday night home without having to do heaps of set up and pack up every time?

Let’s get practical.

Yes a new one is up now, esp for those who have a vested interest in the SONset service. check it out here

Also, our little dude took his first bath in a big bath yesterday. very cute. He is growing so fast, and there are still many precious friends who have not even met him yet

(if you look closely you may see his first little dreadie!)

After a session at KCAHS recently I saw a project up on the wall profiling whoever it was in the project. The first category said

gender-man

I read it without a pause, and suddenly a new superhero was born.

The superhero for the new generation: Genderman!
Look out sexist Joker- it’s Genderman!
Wondering whether your friends’ new baby Pat is a boy or a girl- ask Genderman!

I am thinking of making a t-shirt, so if you have designs, send them to me via email. But here’s something you can do without changing pages. Tell me what your slogan would be for Genderman. The best one will hopefully feature on the t-shirt, and you’ll get the first one as your prize.

I went to this simulated experience at the Big Exoday on Saturday- it was about the life of a child sold into prostitution in Asia. A young girl, lied to, sold to a whore house and sleeping with dirty Australian men before she knew what was happening.

I need these wake up calls sometimes, to be shocked out of apathy. But it left me with a clear choice. I can’t look this stuff in the face and do nothing. But what do I do? I honestly don’t know. But sometimes this answer leaves me paralysed rather than creative about what to do.

I read today about Aunty Irene in Kitgum. She went to visit an Internal Displacement camp out off the beaten track. The govenment has closed a lot of the cmaps in visible places and moved them out of the way, no easy water supply, no easy food supply, soldiers with gun at the edges of the camp for those who want to make their own fortunes. Here is what she said:

” I couldn’t stay longer. I couldn’t stand the accusing faces of the adults. As I drove away, I said “God, how can we help them?” He said “Give them water.”

Now that to me seems a big answer to give. Not unlike our God, who said to the disciples when there was a crowd of 5000 and no food supply “you give them something to eat.” But it’s still a biggie.

I think sometimes I fall into the sin of asking God what to do but not being willing to do it. What if I asked him and he said “leave Australia, go to Kitgum, and you get them water.” Leave here! Leave now? This is too much God, give me something smaller to do, I can’t do that.

I don’t know how you want to respond to this, or if there is a response. I know this is a shared blog and so the action is sposed to happen in the comments. Maybe this is just a venting time for me. Maybe I’m crying out loud, wondering if I’m asking God things just to make myself feel less guilty. In order to be real, I’d have to say that if I knowingly am asking with no intention of following the answer, I’m a hypocrite and a fraud.

God hasn’t pointed that finger at me, don’t worry. He’s much more practical and gracious than me, I like that. Here is where I am left then, and would love your thoughts on:

How do I get past the “what can I do?” question when I know it won’t solve the problem. I am one person in God’s plan, not the whole plan. And other people in the picture- corrupt governments, companies, even me at times, hijack my acts of kindness. So how then can I retain faith and hope in there being a change? How do we avoid cynicism and hopelessness, or at least fatalism, towards big issues like human slavery, poverty or war?

Check out your local Hornsby Advocate this Thursday, we are hoping that you will see a photo of the One Youth organising crew down at THS. We did a photo shoot with them last Friday and fortunately didn’t have any props- so you won’t be seeing us with a shovel doing mock landscaping work at the school.

Just as a p.s. too:

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There is a new topic open for discussion at the SONset shared blog
“The feminisation of church”

Would love you to join the conversation, have a read, leave a comment. Not sure even yet what I think but I really want to be part of the conversation.

Check it out here

Sare bought me this today, after searching for it for about 3 months. I mentioned it just after Xave was born, but had forgotten about it. But I love these sculptures, and this one just grabs my heart.

Do you agree with guys like John Eldredge who say that church has made men become a paler and more feminine version of themselves? He contends that guys in church have been encouraged to be “nice” rather than “wild at heart.”

Is this women’s fault? Has the church become feminised because generally there are more women than men in churches? Or is it unfair for men to blame women when they could have been proactive?

I do have some thoughts of my own, but I don’t want to spill them all here, I’d rather do it in the comments section. But I will share just one idea.

Right at the start of the Bible, Adam has a choice to either actively involve himself in the interaction between the snake and Eve, or passively let it all happen in front of him. He takes the passive option, and afterwards takes the passive option when eating the fruit himself, coz he says that he didn’t choose to eat the fruit, “the woman” made him do it. Even right back there the man was a passive spectator to his own life. I see so many guys who are passively involved in their world, and if it is true that the church has feminised men it is most likely because men have just gone with the flow rather than taken an active part in the world. This annoys me so much. Guys, you can’t opt out of life! Apathy is not a quality trait. Step up.

I’ll stop the rant, but I would love to hear your thoughts? I would also point you to some thoughtful things I have read on it recently:
this blog
Has church been feminised? What has caused it if it has? Is there a way forward?

Saw the movie conversations with God today. Wasn’t sure what I would think of that, maybe it would be wacko stuff, maybe wishy washy, maybe a boring doco. But it ended up being a very beautifully put together movie, with some good food for thought.

I don’t think it’s totally a Jesus thing, but a lot of the ideas can be his. He says that that force or power in our world that we say is love, he calls God. The Bible agrees with him there. I do love the idea that in our heart, in our experiences, in the movies and the world around us, echoes of God are everywhere. It’s like we are wired up to search for him, and find him.

The guy’s life story in the movie is pretty amazing, it really spoke to me about how hard it can be for homeless people to get out of the hole they find themselves in. No one gives them a break, so the cycle just continues or spirals down. I think that’s true sometimes. But I also don’t know any homeless people so anything I say is not based on actual experience, it’s just my thoughts.

I’d give it 3 and a half Hi-Fives out of the possible 5.

We played our last game of soccer yesterday. Up till this point I have not scored all season. And I realised that I have never played a season of soccer where I haven’t scored at all. This was distressing.

But I did score a goal- big woohoo- a set up the other 2 goals. We got whalloped in both games though, Luke’s brother you suck, you are too good a soccer player.

I ended up getting cracked in the ribs early on as well, maybe I have done them some damage. Apparently you can’t do anything except take care of yourself if you’ve broken a rib, so I don’t think I’ll go to the doc unless it really really hurts. So I am sore, but happy I made it through my soccer season without reinjuring my knee.

As I mentioned to those who get the Half Seven Newsletter, my friend Beccles showed me an online game which has grabbed me. It is just throwing a paper aeroplane using your mouse, but oh so fun to try to get it out the window and beat your best score. mine is 43m

Have a go, let me know how you do

? He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 5:8)

This is a very relevant question for me, for at times I feel powerless, and that I am not doing what God is calling his people to do. I am not fighting for the poor, I am not standing up for their rights. I forget about others, but I also forget what God has done through me.

I think at very least the call of the prophets is to stop oppressing people, mainly the poor. By my actions, by my life, am I depriving the poor of rights and life? I need to examine my own choices in this light. I also need to ask whether there is a place for me to call our leaders to account on this issue as well. Do I raise my voice here?

How?

How do I love my neighbour in Hornsby? In Uganda? How do I honour God with my life as well as my words? Maybe the key is in the last part of Micah?s challenge: we are to walk humbly with God. He is the one who challenges, moves us to change and act, and we don?t set an unchallengeable course for our lives. God keep me open to your spirit and your promptings. Help me to love deeply.

Welcome back Andy and Sare- it is so cool whenever we get to hang with you here.

Kato, can we have some photos of the paving project half seven did on the weekend?

Magpies went down on the weekend, twice, and I have a sore sternum.

Just coz I know you care.

This is a random deviation from our normal course in the shared blog, but who said it needed to be serious all the time, or deep?

Harvs, someone who has been in the SONset community pretty much since the beginning, has asked if I would forward this question for your suggestions. He also mentioned it would be worth something to you if you could come up with the right name or him.

He’s looking for a business name, in the field of web design/new media/IT support.

Have you got ideas or suggestions?

p.s. obviously it has to be a name that is not registered by anyone else.

Just did this random name game on the internet to find out how popular my name has been over the past 100 years. My name only came up as a shortened version of tyrone, which means

“land of Owen, young soldier”

Never really knew that. What does your name mean? If you don’t know, goto this site

As much as I would like to let the first conversation continue, coz I really did like the points you guys all raised, I do want to keep the ball rolling. Remember, this is your forum, your place to share ideas, have some debates, learn some new things. It is our online arm of community.

I want to quote Erwin McManus, the pastor at Mosaic church in LA. He has rapidly become one of my unmet heroes, though I was part of Q&A with him last year. In that time I asked him about when is the time to gather and when is the time to go out. As part of his answer, he said that to be a good witness, to evangelise the world, all Christians need to be is
1.Nice
2. Available

He said most of us are nice, but not most of us are available. We are very busy with our busy-ness. It rings true for me, but what are your thoughts. Is that all we need? Do you want to flesh some of it out a bit more? And how does what he say fit with the Word of God on it.

Well, why not start at the start?
One of the main themes this year at SONset has been community: what it is, how to get there, all that. If you look at the world at the moment, it’s fair to say that our sense of community is not strong. There are communities out there, and many of us are part of different tribes or communities. Some of them are global, some local or in-between. But there is not a real sense that the people directly around us have any connection to our world.

At one of the houses I lived in, I once went over to say hi to our next-door neighbours. These guys were a fairly busy working couple with no kids but one annoying dog. I went to drop their mail in and say hi and the guy, very politely, told me that they didn’t have much free time, and when they had it they spent it with each other or their friends, and that they had no real desire to make more friends with their neighbours. It took me a while to reason when he said “neighbours” I could insert the word “you.” Basically to this guy I was not in his community even though I lived next door.

We have automatic doors on our garage so we don’t see our neighbours as we get out of our car. We get coffee machines and we don’t need to go out for coffee anymore. We get home entertainment systems and we don’t need to go to the movies with anyone we don’t know. We have bigger houses and bigger fences. All of this, whether it’s deliberate or not, doesn’t help us feel as sense of connection to those around us.

But all this is really a backdrop to what I’m wanting to open up. I think Jesus calls us into something better. I think he asks us to join together as a body, so that as we believe in him we are drawn together both as his people, and towards those he loves but who don’t know him yet. I think we have bought into a gospel which can become very consumerist, very “me” centred. But God is about building the kingdom, not just forgiving people so they feel clean.

So that’s one part I’d love to hear thoughts on.

The other is: how do we do community without it becoming
a) a cult (thanks Nic)
b) a friendship group- that is to say, people who are all the same and just call their friendship community.

Ok, let’s have some fun on this one.

Welcome to the SONset shared blog. Just to let you know the way this page will work for the moment.

Actually, a step back. We have started this page to try to include an online aspect to the SONset community. God has totally placed it on some of our hearts to stop living individualistic lives and to start to work out what it means to walk together. We’re not there yet, but are trying to move forwards, and taking good small steps. This is one of them.

Each week or so there will be a discussion topic, often based around what our current conversation at SONset is. There will only be the one post, coz the action will happen (I hope) in the comments box. You can add comments, respond to others comments, suggest practical ideas about the topic, whatever.

I’m sure soon enough we’ll work out what works and what doesn’t. I am going to be one of the topic generators, and the author, but you can send me an email with a discussion topic, and if it fits I’m really happy to make yours the topic for the week.

So there’s the way it looks, let’s start journeying.

A big p.s. by the way: you don’t have to be coming to the SONset service to comment, it’s not a closed blog. If you have thoughts and ideas, share them!

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