Not a useless little finger

As I mentioned in my Recharge post, I broke my little finger on my right hand last Saturday. Being right-handed this has obviously given me some discomfort and some awkwardness in daily life, but it's also given me some thoughts...

I've had many people show so much sympathy for the pain I've been in, and though I am grateful for that, it is slightly embarrassing for me. I mean it's my little finger!! Usually you would wonder what effect a little finger could have on the entire body. But once you take it out, make it useless, you suddenly realise how much you use it everyday. A small part of the body, but when it's not working, it effects the whole body.

1 Corinthians 12:14-27
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

So I'm wondering if even you feel like the pinkie of your church, then you are still part of the body, and like my broken finger, if you are not doing your job correctly, then the whole body feels the effect.

Recharge 05

Wow what an amazing weekend. Coming off a week in Melbourne, taking in so much about all the churches and ministries I was really ready to get into the Recharge meetings and enjoy spending time with 500 other young adults.

Michael Knight, the speaker, spoke from Psalm 139. He gave us some great ideas on how to become a Christ soaked Christian, and how to steer clear from becoming self aborbed. I must admit I really warmed to Michael's way of communicating, and got so much out of his messages (I wish I'd taken more notes).

The music was fantastic, Andrew Sercombe led. Andrew has recently been in London working with Soul Survivor, but is originally from Brisbane, and I've had the privlidge of playing with him before. He truely has a gift for leading people in worship through music. There's nothing over the top, no emotional hype, but exceptional music skills and real heart felt honestly. I don't know exactly what it was, but the music this year really encouraged me to open up to God, to let him search me, and worship him purely. Leading from that was an openness for me to be honest with myself, and in turn worship God in my whole life... Some of the words to the songs impacted me deeply, and gave me a bit of an idea of what heaven is going to 'sound' like

• Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be your glorious name
• Hallilujah to the king of kings, hallilujah to the Lord of Lords, hallilujah to the one who sets me free
• Great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God, and all the world will see how great, how great is our God.
• Surrouded by your glory, how will my heart feel. Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still. Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall. Will I sing hallilujah- will I be able to speak at all. I can only Imagine.

Won't it be awesome to one day stand and sing those words to our King?

What would Recharge be without a bushdance, the Christian young adults substitute for speed dating. Grab a girl, swing her around and pass her off to the next guy, remembering the one's you'll have to 'catch up with' later... :-P

Saturday night produced some excellent tallent in the cafe. The highlight was definitely the Renegade Mavericks of Death with their signature version of Brittany Spear's Oh Baby Baby. However Saturday afternoon sport was a personal low for the weekend. Playing ultimate frisbee I miss judged a catch and snapped my pinkie on my right hand against another players chest. X-rays on Monday proved I'd broken my finger so I'm living in a bit of pain at the moment.

All things aside though it was an awesome weekend, I got the chance to catch up with a heap of really good friends, and have really good chats with some of the people that were on the Melbourne tour last week.

To top it all off, Sunday night was a WEC Cafe where I heard all about Patty Van Twest's last 2 years in Sri Lanka. I love hearing the stories of missionaries, especially when they are good friends.

ZB Fairlane

Another part of my trip down south was grabbing the chance to see a few family members, and their cars!

Here are a couple of pictures of my cousin's ZB Fairlane

South of the Border

Last week I had the privilege of travelling to Melbourne and joining up with around 40 other Youth Pastors/Youth Works from all over Australia. As a church volunteer it was amazing to spend time with people to whom Youth Ministry is their primary occupation. It raises questions as to how I could better serve God, whether or not continuing in full time employment is my best way to serve God, or maybe needed to find some part time work and commit to Whitehill in a more involved capacity.

The main part of the Melbourne trip was a tour of 10 different churches/organisations so we could learn about their ministries, ideas and visions for youth work.

• Planet Shakers City Church
• St Pauls Anglican in Emerald
• Youth dimension Base
• Telstra Dome and Cameron Butler (Chaplain to the Demons)
• Connection Church of Christ
• Northern Community Church of Christ
• The Living Room - Daren Rouse
• Kardinia Christian Church
• Urban Neigbours of Hope (UNOH)
• Waverly Christian Fellowship/City Life Church

I really enjoyed seeing so many different ways to do ‘church’, actually it really raised the question, “What is Church?” And I’m not sure I have been able to answer it.

Planet Shakers was over the top, loud music and very passionate and in your face types of programs for youth. A few of us actually went to the PS City Church service on Sunday night, which really gave me a feel for the ministry team before we met and conversed with them on Monday morning. In contrast to PS, Connection Church of Christ has an amazing simple and humbling relationship based ministry through both its church and school’s program. Connection have moved away from traditional styled ‘church services’ and meets in a sports club, with the ‘congregation’ in table groups. Their school program was totally servant based. They offer their services to the school, and don’t go in with their own programs.

On a social side to the trip, we all stayed at The Nunnery Backpackers hostel. It was a great environment, with good company. One guy Nigel, from Ireland, was a champ, G’day Mate if you ever come and visit this. Our humble accommodation was opposite the Carlton Gardens in Fitzroy, a 10 minute tram (yes TRAM!!) ride to the city and 3 blocks from Lygon St, so I had pizza for tea 3 times in the week!

The tour of Telstra Dome was really good, just kicking the footy in the players warm up room was a real buzz. We also heard from Cam Butler, Chaplain for the Melbourne Demons. He had some great stuff to share – and it was good to catch up with him as he is the director of SLM (Sports and Leisure Ministries), which is the governing body for the Motorsports chaplaincy I am involved in at Willowbank Raceway.

Overall it was a totally refreshing, challenging, inspiring, thought provoking, and encouraging week. I’m so glad Ben asked me to be part of the Whitehill team.