Mal's MeanderingsMal's MeanderingsMal Dow thinking aloud in public - about Christian living and ministry, future and emerging church, theology, philosophy, and using the Internet effectively.
Articles:
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Articles
Is the emerging church new?
2007-01-30 11:05:03 We're just back from a relaxing week doing nothing in particular at Phillip Island. It was generally rainy and very windy, so we read a lot of books. Now I have a heap of blogs to catch up on (no wireless in range where we were). Maggi Dawn made an interesting comment in her blog about whether the emerging church is really new. Considering that we've been doing our version of it for 15 years now at Beth Tephillah, I guess it depends on what you mean by new! But as Maggi says, I don't think there has to be an opposition of whether it's new/not new, and neither do I think it matters particularly. I think it does matter that we hold together both the history we've inherited (and the graciousness and humility to acknowledge it) and the freedom to live thoroughly in the present. I don't think Church works unless you hold both those two things together in some lively way. I believe Maggi is right when she says there is no one way of being emergent. After all, most emerging chur... More About: Merging , Emerging Church
The demise of 'evangelical'
2007-01-30 11:05:03 Almost exactly two years ago I wrote an article about the words 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal' having reached their use-by dates. Well, here goes another one, although I believe its demise will hardly be news to many people. In USA Today we read:Who's an evangelical? Until last year the answer seemed clear. Now the word may be losing its moorings, sliding toward the same linguistic demise that "fundamentalist" met decades ago because it has been misunderstood, misappropriated and maligned.In fact, as well as it becoming difficult to now discern just who are the evangelicals in the Church, 'evangelical' now applies to many non-church activities, such as politics and business, though to look at the behaviour of some large denominations, perhaps 'non-church' isn't accurate. It is also increasingly used among a variety of religious groups (I refuse to count Christianity as a religion).Some of the most evangelical people I have encountered are those atheists who are so 'convi... More About: Angel , Evangelical , Evan , The D , Demi
Following our Anazao ministry course in Queensland with Pet
2007-01-15 10:53:01 Following our Anazao ministry course in Queen sland with Peter and Heather Toth I have been wondering how to introduce the subject of drinking alcohol into our fellowship. I haven't yet decided how to do it, but see the need to do so in regard to a more authentic celebration of communion. In the meantime, I greatly appreciated Tall Skinny Kiwi's article We Baptists Do Not Drink ( . . . in front of each other). More About: With , Mini , Ministry , Course
Steve Chalke - Storyteller
2007-01-04 22:45:02 I first encountered Steve Chalk e in Birmingham at the Baptist World Alliance Centenary Congress in July 2005. I remember sitting spellbound as this master storyteller shared his tale about how the church is having a powerful effect in the most hostile and disadvantaged areas in Britain, winning the approval and support of both national and local government, and Islamic and Hindu communities, and all of this without a moment's compromise of the Gospel of Jesus.I remember thinking then that Australian Christians really need to hear this man.So it was with delight that I discovered a couple of Steve's books at Koorong the other day. I bought his Intelligent Church: A Journey Towards Christ-Centred Community.I've only just begun to read it, but what I want to share now is something that Brian Mclaren says in his foreword to Steve's book:... too often our churches have become human warehouses, where people aregathered and stored so that they can be delivered after death to heaven ... More About: Story , Elle , Stor
Moderating Comments
2007-01-04 22:45:02 Unfortunately the anonymous commenter has again been putting derogatory comments about someone on this blog, so in the interest of fairness I have decided, reluctantly, that I will have to moderate all comments for the forseeable future. I did not want to do this, but rest assured, if your comments are reasonable then I will let them through. When this will happen will depend only on my time availablility to check them. Anonymous comments WILL NOT appear under any circumstances. Identified comments will be read and checked, and if they appear legitimate I will post them. Sorry about the need for this as I prefer an open discussion, but I won't allow my websites to be the source of harm to anyone. If someone wants to let me know something without it appearing on the site then feel free to email me direct - but not anonymously. Blessings to you in the New Year. Mal More About: Men , Comments , Comment , Comm
The things you are asked in counselling
2006-12-02 16:23:07 All pastors do a certain amount of counselling, and you never know just how serious the questions just might be. Sometimes it is awe-inspiring the amount of trust people place in you. For example, here's a recent email: "Dear Mal, I've never written to you before, but I really need your advice on what could be a crucial decision. "I've suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me.The usual signs...phone rings, but if I answer, the caller hangs up. My wife has been going out with the girls a lot recently, although when Iask their names she always says, "Just some friends from work, you don't know them." "I sometimes stay awake to look out for her taxi coming home, but she always comes walking up the drive as I hear the sound of a car leaving, around the corner, as if she has gotten out and walked the rest of the way. Why? Maybe she wasn't in a taxi at all? "I once picked up her mobile phone, just to see what time it was. This caused her to go completely ber... More About: Selling , Things , Sell , Thing
Please, Mr Einstein
2006-12-02 16:23:07 It's a lazy Tuesday off and I'm sitting reading - no, enjoying - a delightful book. It's Please , Mr. Einstein by Jean-Claude Carriere.I can't say very much about the content of the book yet - I'm only up to page 18, but the experience is taking me back to the 70s and 80s and books like Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid! That was a postmodern book written before everyone was talking about postmodern books.Do you remember that spine-tingling experience of beginning to read about a favourite subject (in Hofstader's case, physics and artificial intelligence) only to find that rather than it being about physics, it's not even about thinking about physics - it's about thinking about thinking about physics?And to cap it off, all the time I'm reading it I'm simultaneously thinking about how and why the author, here Carrerie, wrote the things he did.For example, take pages 12-13. The girl has just asked Einstein why he chose to see her instead of th... More About: Lease , Ease , Stein
Barbers don't exist - irrefutable proof.
2006-12-02 16:23:07 I just read this story in the Atheism vs Christianity Google Group, and I couldn't resist sharing it here. I don't know who the original author is; if anyone does please let me know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ A Christian went to his favorite barber shop for his weekly hair-cut and beard trimming. In the course of their conversation, they touched upon the subject of God. The barber said: "Look man, I don't think that God exists as you believe." "Why do you think that?" asked the Christian. "Well, it's so easy; you only have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. If God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abused or crippled children? If God existed, there would be no suffering or pain. Would there be murder or even war? I can not imagine a loving God who would permit ANY of these things." The Christian didn't want to enter into an argument and could think of no immediate response to the barber's logic. The barber f... More About: Tabl , Proof , Roof , Table , Exist
The Law and the Prophets
2006-12-02 16:23:07 While preparing to teach from Romans at our Friday night gathering I was reading in Exodus about God calling Moses and the people to the mountain to receive his law. To cut a long story short, the Israelites already knew that to come too close to God would be dangerous. In fact God had warned them not to touch the mountain, and they already knew that no-one could see God's face and live. So, to receive this summons to come nearer and he would speak to them all, and to see the smoke and fire, and to hear the thundering up on the summit, filled them with fear. They misjudged their God's loving heart, instead thinking that he would kill them. So they decided to not even go to the foot of the slope from where Moses and Aaron would ascend to the top. "You go up and talk to him," they said. "We'll wait down here where it's safe until you come back and tell us what he wants." And what was it that God wanted? I believe that he wanted to write his law onto their hearts, as later describ... More About: Prophet , The Prophet , The Law , Prop
Discipleship as Conversion
2006-12-02 16:23:07 In a recent issue of The Victorian baptist Witness (Sepot 2006, p4) Simon Moyle said, "We see discipleship as conversion, rather than necessarily something that follows conversion".I like this statement - it expresses a conviction I have had for a long time. I believe the idea may have come from George Eldon Ladd, but the first time I saw it spelled out clearly was by Dave Andrews in Christi-Anarchy. Here he outlined the concept of open and closed sets. The traditional evangelical understanding of conversion was as a closed set. If one was anywhere outside the boundary of the set one was headed for hell, whereas being anywhere inside the boundary led to heaven. There was a well-defined set of formulae by which one could cross the boundary from outside to inside, such as "the four spiritual laws" and the "sinner's prayer", and there was usually no way to make the reverse journey - once saved, always saved! Of course, different groups had a different set of formulae.The open set idea... More About: Disciple , Sion , Conversion , Ship , Version
Check out the posts on my blogs
2006-12-02 16:23:07 If you are reading this post you would probably also be interested in posts in some of my blogs: a reasonable mystic Praying Hypertext Charismatic Mysticism Defining Christian Mysticism Reason, Mysticism and Christianity - Part 1 Re: Atheism and Experiencing God Atheism and Experiencing God My 'Spiritual' Journey - Episode 2 My 'Spiritual' Journey - Episode 1 Report on Anazao Conferences Welcome to a reasonable mystic Listening 2 God Theology of Lying Prophecy Versus Preaching Purifying the Prophetic - Sanctified Psychic Reading Tell him he's dreaming! Ministry to Children Step Out and Prophesy Welcome to Listening 2 God blog speak-in-tongues blog Allowing Speaking in Tongues Welcome to the Speak in Tongues blog More About: Post , Blogs , Blog , Check , Posts
Four Weeks in Paradise
2006-12-02 16:23:07 Di and I have just spent a month at a resort on Queensland?s Gold Coast doing a ministry course with Anazao. The course was great, truly life-changing, and I?ll write about it here and elsewhere. But right now I want to ramble about something much more interesting to most people ? the weather! You?ve all seen the ads ? Beautiful one day, perfect the next! Well, I?ve thought of a new version ? Beautiful one day, Melbourne the next! Truly, If I had closed my eyes so that I could not see the bats in the palm trees, then I would have thought that I had never left home. Mind you, The resort where our hosts live is a lovely spot, as you can see from the photo of the view from our balcony. And after all, Elanora is only just in Queensland. But really ? apart from a few sunny days typical of a Victorian spring, discounting double the humidity, we had torrential rain, violent thunderstorms, gale-force winds, and hail the size of (very undersized) golf balls! But did we have a good time?... More About: Paradise , Week , Para , Four , Arad
For married men only
2006-12-02 16:23:07 One of the blogs I like to keep an eye on is the Dilbert Blog, by Scott Adams. As you might have guessed, Scott is the writter of the insightful Dilbert comic. At least it seems insightful to geeks like me - you might have other ideas! If you wade your way past some of the more political pieces you find gems of irony and understatement, such as yesterday's effort, which is about the kind of decision that must have brought every married man close to tears at some time: "Delusions of Competence By Scott_Adams on General Nonsense "Before I got married I did many things correctly. I attribute my excellent performance to the fact that I have astonishingly low standards for just about everything that doesn?t directly affect my health. My plan for happiness was to set the bar low and clear it by a mile. It was a formula that worked so well that I considered turning it into a self-help book. I would have called it The Power of Low Standards. The entire book would have been three pages lo... More About: Men , Only , Arri , Married
Is prophecy the same as inspired preaching?
2006-12-02 16:23:07 Many conservative Christians make the above equation - that what was once called prophecy in the early church is today what we describe as inspired preaching, especially if it is of the kind that calls down fire upon those in our societies who oppress the powerless, exploit the diminishing resources of our planet, or deceive the gullible masses. Certainly, these are all things that a prophet might well do. But does that turn their words into prophecy? No, not even if they were uttered by a prophet, let alone a preacher! It is hearing from God and declaring what he says that makes prophecy. According to Ernest Gentile in Your Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy: Prophetic Gifts in Ministry Today, the one upon whom so many preachers try to model themselves, the "Prince of Preachers" himself - C.H. Spurgeon - didn't think so. And he was also a prophet!If you want to know more about this then check out the full story at my Listening 2 God blog. More About: Spire , Prophecy , Reach , Preaching , Same
Purpose-Driven?
2006-12-02 16:23:07 The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday, ran an article about the experiences of some churches in the USA with attempts to 'transition' their church to 'Purpose Drive n'. I find it hard to relate to this part of American church culture, even though I'm not unfamiliar with church splits. However, the article does reinforce some of my misgivings about churches putting their focus on running 'services' and on filling the pews and meeting the budget. A church service would not be my first choice to take a friend in the hope that they might meet Jesus. I would rather they saw Jesus in me first! Church 'services' must seem rather bizarre to most people these days - where else does anyone engage in mysterious rituals, sing to musical instruments then sit still and listen to a lecture? If the purpose is evangelism then I can certainly see a desperate need to change the format to 'seeker friendly' - but should that really be the purpose?Some churches must have gone far enough down the ... More About: Pose
Noctaphobia
2006-12-02 16:23:07 I was tickled by this bit of dark speech from the August issue of Feeding Together, put out by the Reformed Alliance of the UCA. First Speaker: "What about this one? How many 'progressive' liberals does it take to change a lightbulb?" Second Speaker: "What do you mean 'How many?' That's the wrong question. We're not here to change the lightbulbs, but to affirm their lightedness. "There are many different ways they express their inner light, and if one of them is through darkness who are we to say that's wrong? That's being noctaphobic and intolerant of the wider spectrum. "We need to learn to embrace the darkness and see the light within it, to move with them through it, finding that darkness is a new expression of lightedness that is to be valued and accepted as one of many ..." More About: Phobia
Top Ten Truths That Shape My Teaching
2006-12-02 16:23:07 I was browsing through what could easily become one of my favourite websites when I found the following profound document. It's by Richard J. Vincent, and the site is www.theocentric.com. I share it for your edification. Mal.------------------------------------- ------------------------ Top Ten Truth s That Shape My Teaching Late night comedian, David Lettermen, has made a living off the popularity of Top Ten lists. I offer the following "Top Ten Experiential Truths That Shape My Teaching" in order to highlight a few things I find essential to faithfully following Christ. (By the way, the doctrinal content I find essential is summarized in the Ecumenical Creeds of the Church.) 10. Salvation is a process, and not merely a decision. We are "saved" (Eph. 2:8), "being saved" (1 Cor. 1:18) and "will be saved" (Matt. 24:13; 1 Cor. 3:15). To focus on only the past-tense aspect of salvation is to mistake the door for the mansion, the gate for the way. In reality, salvation actually involv... More About: Hat
Some of my blogs and Google groups are now linked
2006-12-02 16:23:07 In the interests of wider communication I am experimenting with automatic linking between some of my blogs and their associated email discussion groups. This is a test email to all of my blogs to see if the linking works OK. If it works this message will appear as a post on each blog and on its associated group. The blogs and groups involved are: Blog - a reasonable mystic - www.reasonablemystic.com/ Google Group - a reasonable mystic - reasonablemystic@googlegroups.com Blog - Dark Night of the Soul - www.darknightofthesoul.net/blog.html Google Group - Dark Night of the Soul - darknightofthesoul@googlegroups.com Blog - hobsonsbaychurches - www.hobsonsbaychurches.com/blog/blog.html Google Group - Hobsons Bay Churches - hobsonsbaychurches@googlegroups.com Blog - Mal's Meanderings - www.bethtephillah.com/weblog/blog.html Blog - awakeningwestblog - www.awakeningwest.com/weblog/blog.html Blog - speakintongues - www.speak-in-tongues.com/blog.htm... More About: Blogs , Link
What we believe
2006-12-02 16:23:07 I've just put up a page on the church site about what we believe at Williamstown Baptist Church. I'm pretty sure I will get flack, or at least some questions, about some of it. Have a look - it's at http://www.bethtephillah.com/belief.html Mal More About: What , Hat , Believe
Hearing God's Voice Course
2006-12-02 16:23:07 The second session of the Hear ing God 's Voice course went well, again with about 40 participating. Following each teaching session we did exercises of listening to God for others, and hearing prophetic words for each other. When asked about the words given to him by others one pastor's comment was "mind blowing!" The intercession sheets were very encouraging too, with some very accurate and helpful words. Next month we start on the Intercession and Spiritual Warfare module. Enrollments are looking good. More About: Ring , Course
More on Anazao Seminar
2006-12-02 16:23:07 The Anazao seminar held in July 2006 as part of our celebrating 10 years of Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre was wonderful. About 85 people were made warmly welcome by Hillview Community Church, Rowville. Peter and Heather Toth taught on how people dissociate, and demonstrated an approach to ministry which brings about Complete Part Removal (CPR) in a short time. It was wonderful to see a dissociate person have all parts removed in the space of a couple of hours. Compare this with the fragmentary results generally achieved by ministries following the conventional wisdom. The times involved are often measured in years, not hours, and the results often less than satisfactory. I recommend that anyone involved in DID or SRA ministry read Peter Toth's new book "The forgotten factor in healing". Go to their website http://www.anazao.com.au/ for details or to order one. The book explains how the mechanism of dissociation has been widely misunderstood, resulting in ineffective ministry to s... More About: Seminar , More , Semi , Semin , Mina
Being Made One
2006-12-02 16:23:07 Last week I had all of my parts removed. "What!" I can hear you saying. Come on - admit it, you did! One thing we learned from the Anazao seminar is that everyone has dissociate parts - not just people with Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID) or victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). It reminds me of the time, many years ago, when we discovered that Christians could also have demons. The impact was just as great. That is, until we found that, like being demonised, it's really no big deal. God built into every person a wonderful protective ability to create new parts of the mind that can carry the memories attached to deep trauma, thus relieving us of the need to have to continue to function in life in the presence of too much pain. After a few weeks of watching Peter and Heather Toth remove the parts of numerous DID and SRA victims, my wife and I decided to have our parts removed too. Neither of us are DID or SRA, but there have been events in our lives that we have not yet had to ... More About: Made , Bein , Being
Doppler Shift
2006-12-02 16:23:07 Something that interests me is the clear correlation between God's spiritual laws, the laws controlling human relationships, and the natural laws of physics. I'll write more on this later, but in the September 2006 issue of RadCom, the journal of the Radio Society of Great Britain, I read something which tickled my funny bone. You've probably heard of Doppler Shift , but if not you have certainly experienced it in the shift of pitch of a sound as it changes speed relative to you. For example, the train whistle that is high pitched as the train approaches and becomes lower as the train passes and moves away from you. Astronomers use it in the form of Red Shift, the shifting of the colour of light towards the red end of the spectrum, to measure the velocity of stars moving away from earth. It is an important consideration in amateur radio because the signal frequency from a satelite or space craft changes relative to the receiver as the satelite orbits the earth. Well, someone has ...
Why 'Beth Tephillah'?
2006-12-02 16:23:07 We often have people ask us why we called our ministry centre 'Beth Tephillah'. When we purchased the property the Lord clearly said it was to be a house of prayer. We did some research and found out that the Hebrew for 'house of prayer' is 'Beth Tephillah' (at least, our English transliteration of it is - the pronunciation seems to be something like a sneeze to me, but to a Hebrew speaker it is probably music). Out of respect and gratitude to our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world, from whom our Messiah Yeshua came, we decided to use this name. Of course, now we have to put up with letters addressed to 'Dear Beth'! I also noticed that a significant proportion of our web traffic comes from Tel Aviv. All praise to YHWH, our Father! Once a professor of Hebrew visiting some neighbours of ours, on driving past our centre, commented to his hosts that it was very strange that someone would call their building 'House of Mourning'! That had us worried for a short while ... More About: Phil , Hill
Update on Anazao Conferences
More articles from this author:2006-09-12 10:30:02 Di and I have just spent 5 days with Peter Toth and Heather Scott of Anazao. The level 1 and 2 conference was excellent, despite (or probably because of) it stretching some of our theological assumptions. Their way of ministering to the most broken of people is undoubtedly the most effective - and easiest - that I have experienced. They effectively and quickly minister to DID and SRA victims without delving into the dungeons and dragons like labyrinth that others seem to think is necessary, bringing rapid integration while preserving the dignity of the person and not giving the kingdom of darkness a stage to act upon. Their method of carrying out deliverance resonates very strongly with the practice we learned from Dr Charles Kraft. If there is any way you could get to one of their conferences or schools, whatever the cost, then do it! Details at www.anazao.com.au. More About: Conferences , Update , Ferenc , Conference 1, 2 |
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