The Pros Of Counselling

Despite its high emotional demands, counselling has many "positives". 1. It continually takes me back to spiritual basics. 2. Often, I can really see where people have got stuck, where they cannot -- and I am able to be of genuine help. 3. I so often see God at work in counselling -- and that is heartening. I mean the stunning, life-changing insights that He gives to people, the divine interventions that seemed an impossibility, and the critical words that I consider God gives me that I would not have had myself (see yesterday’s post). Not least, 4. I think that one should not underestimate how much counselling fuels a preaching ministry in particular. OBSERVATION: Not that I ever say: “And Mrs. Smith, ya know, was a cautionary tale this week ...”

And World Ranking

And here's a note on this blog's world ranking. According to urbanministry.org, it was the world’s no. 24 urban ministry blog in 2008. However, urbanministry.org has a very wide definition of “urban ministry”. If one takes it to mean "urban CHURCH ministry", urbanministry.org would place it at no. 4. According to amatomu.com, this blog is consistently in South Africa's Christian Top 10. And if word searches were everything, this would at present be the world's no. 1 "urban ministry blog" (Google).

Staggering Statistics ...

There are two sets of statistics about this blog, and they differ very greatly from each other. One shows thousands of visits where the other shows tens of thousands. One shows the greatest interest from North America, the other shows the greatest interest from (a new statistic, a bit of a shock) my home city Cape Town (about two-thirds of hits). I may need to begin my posts in future: "Dearest Friends ..." The pie chart shows the interest from South African cities (blue is Cape Town).

A Ten-Day Trail

I’ve been back from leave now for ten days. For this blog post, I decided briefly to take a look at the “trail” that I’ve left over these days. 21 people asked to see me for “crisis” appointments. I took on 13, and deferred or declined 8. I wrote up 73 pages for the Church (sermons, reports, and so on), and did 4 pages of academic work. I wrote 69 e-mails and 2 letters (among them 17 to Church office-bearers, 17 to colleagues, 10 to consultants, and 8 to academics). I was involved in 5 public meetings/services. And I was 25 times on the telephone (I hate the telephone -- the figure proves it). OBSERVATION: This is just a cursory count, and there are things I haven’t counted, such as visitation, administration, research, and pauses for thought (ministers do that, too).

Beautiful -- And Wet Through

I stopped at this old thatched house in Goedverwacht. I said to the woman of the house: “Your house is beautiful, Missus [“Mevrou”]. May I take a photo?” She said, “The house is wet through. And it's bitterly cold.” Then she disappeared inside. The children stayed for the photo.

Rural Youth

I took this photo of rural youth. They are exhibiting at least two local fashion trends. Notice the young man second from the right, showing off his teeth. It is fashionable to have one's upper front teeth removed. And notice the two young men with peroxided hair.

Doing Nothing

Wife M. just asked me, “So what have you been up to?” I said, “Just about nothing. I have an intensive session, then an intensive session, then an intensive session [counselling and leading meetings / groups] ... and then I just want to sit.” She said, “So then sit! Give yourself the permission!” OBSERVATION: I think one needs to do this in ministry. The intensive sessions require recovery time. It's not the same as "any vocation".

Rendezvous With Redemption

I met with a woman this morning, together with our intern. She was in a situation of grinding poverty, though not indigence. On the face of it, her problem was depression. I sought to obtain the big picture, then asked her, “Why is this happening to you?” She said, “God is punishing me.” At sixteen, she said, she had left her home to come to the city, and (details omitted here) she had become wayward. Our conversation led to her committing her life to Christ -- with eagerness. OBSERVATION: I often seek to establish what a person’s spiritual foundations are. Without them, spiritual counsel is likely to go amiss. My question, above, I take to be God-given. It was the "breakthrough question".

A Service For Patriotism

Ministers have what is sometimes called a Minister’s Manual, or Book of Services. Recently I reached for an American one, published by The Pilgrim Press. A Service for Patriotism caught my eye. Predictably, it began with an invocation celebrating America’s "glorious heritage, great ideals", and so on. But it took a surprise turn: “God of all mercy and might, who resists the proud, have mercy upon us, for all arrogance and self-sufficiency, for our selfish comfort among the wrongs and sorrows of men ...” and so on. OBSERVATION: This service was published in 1922. I wonder whether it is still agreeable to the Church today?

Nose-Wheel Controversy

My friend H. and I have a disagreement. It's about how one should hit bumps with a three-wheeler. H. says one needs to hit them head-on with the nose-wheel and spare the rear wheels -- otherwise the vehicle is destabilised. I say it's murder to hit bumps with the nose-wheel. One has to hit them with one rear wheel, but not two. That way, the bump is converted to half a bump. However, hitting bumps with both rear wheels is worse than hitting them with the nose-wheel. The photo shows me hitting another kind of obstacle in a country town.

Jail-Bird

An adherent ("friend of the Church") asked to see me. He said he had attended a Church in the city centre, and asked two smart men in a white Mercedes for a lift home. He said, “Next thing, it was blue lights everywhere! The police had their guns drawn. They were screaming: ‘Get out of the car! Hands up! Hands up!’ It was a stolen car. I got nine months. For nothing! Nine months of my life wasted!” I said, “A judge makes decisions on the basis of evidence. He must have had some.” Our congregant merely began to repeat the story. I said a prayer for him. He put his head down and wept. I said, “It’s over. You’re free.” He said, “May I come to Church?” I said, “Of course. We’d love to see you.”

Wheelbarrows

This is a standard mode of transport in rural parts of South Africa. Want to take baby for some fresh air? Need a crate of beer? That’s where you haul out the wheelbarrow. Note how roomy it is, and how panoramic the view that baby gets. It's convenient to hose down, too.

Influence And Conflict

“The need to influence” is typical of Church leadership theory in North America -- often represented by diagrams such as that on the right. I researched this for my MTh. On Sunday, our Church saw a (mild) revolt over a proposal from our leadership, about service times (see previous posts). Our leadership, though, had not pressed hard. I asked our intern P. whether he had noticed the dynamic, and how it linked to the promotion of the proposal by the leadership. “Oh. Yeah,” he said. I asked him what would have happened if I or our leadership had pressed for this more purposefully. I said we'd likely have had conflict. OBSERVATION: One might say that proper “process” would avoid such resistance. I don’t think it would have made a difference here. In general, "influence" is to be avoided.

Church Discipline

We had an application for membership recently, but the applicant was cohabiting (living together). I recommended that we put the application on hold and let the elders deal with it first. My reasons? I might expand on this in another post. Anyway, any disciplinary line is potentially explosive in the Church, no matter what the issue -- and there isn’t a middle way (see, for example, A Deacon's Lapse). There’s no refuge for the minister, not on this side or that. It is an unfortunate burden upon the minister to keep a line in such things. I often say, “We need to go back to Scripture here.”

Nieuwoudtville Falls

This is an impressive waterfall near the town of Nieuwoudtville in the Great Karroo. The river is in flood here -- though not “full flood”. OBSERVATION: Not a place for acrophobics! The falls plunge off the western edge of the great Southern African plateau. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Calling To Ministry

A congregant came to see wife M. and me this morning, to discuss a call to the ministry. She had taken the first major steps that set her on that course. She said something that I felt was important. She said, “Moses couldn’t speak, and Jonah didn’t even have the desire, but God gave them what they needed.” If she had said that she felt suited because she had these or those competencies, I would have been concerned.

Seeing The Future

Maybe this is why God doesn’t show us the future. Son M. and I came across this photo yesterday, taken five years ago at a Church function. He said, “Look who’s missing [from the Church, today]!” Well, everyone's missing, of those shown. If I’d known this five years ago, I might have panicked. OBSERVATION: Last time we checked, we had about one-third turnover on our address list every year (which represents a more stable section of the congregation). But we're still going strong. This is a major reason why I hold that the Church is God's creation.

So Much For Morals

Several years ago, we had a Senior Youth Group at the Church that had, say, fifteen members. Our youth leaders made a point of “drilling” these youth, each week, with morals to fit them for a society in distress. The result? Out of those fifteen, one is dead, and one is gravely ill (The Big Sickness, I am told). One is just out of jail. Another is lawless and violent. Five more "shacked up" (a few illegitimate children, too), and one went to work in a gay bar. (And so on). OBSERVATION: The moral of the story? Forget about teaching your Youth Group morals. Rather, they need redemption. Those who were redeemed are OK now. The photo shows one of the youth of that “era”, on a youth camp (I have no news of him).

Spooked Horse

Talk about a brilliant freak accident. Son M. parked his car in the city centre today. A mounted policeman passed by. The horse got spooked, and stamped its foot through the driver window. The window was totally destroyed -- nothing left of it.

Crystal Meth

A young man squeezed in behind me at a café counter. He put a R10 note on the counter, and said, “R10 of tik [crystal meth], please.” The cashier looked offended. She said, “We are a café!” OBSERVATION: Tik (pronounced like “tuck/tick” combined) is a very serious problem here -- as illustrated by this incident. It is so freely available that one assumes one may buy it across the counter at the local café (and maybe one can)!

Funny Finances

This magnificent piece of art shows where our Church’s planned giving stalled at the beginning of this year. It fell nearly R40,000 (nearly 20%) short of the goal. This was not good -- nor could we figure out a solution. The suggestion was that we pray. Yesterday our treasurer reported to the Church that the planned giving was “on budget”, the collections were “above budget”, and overall we had a surplus -- although "nothing had changed". Wife M. stood up, and said that we should remember what we had said about prayer. We should make the link explicit.

Touching Headstone

A minister, of course, gets to see many graveyards. Usually, headstones bear some “correct” inscription such as “Rest in Peace” or “In Loving Memory”. Here's one that caught my eye. My own loose translation: “I grant you the gift of rest, My Love.” The dates on the headstone, and the twin surnames (Louw, Nel), suggest that this was a young wife just turned 20.

Vagaries Of Viewpoint

This is just an interesting musing about Church “politics” (I like to post on things that interested me). We were looking at changing our service times (see two posts ago). I asked our intern to do some homework, to get a feel for sentiments “on the ground”. He sounded out a good many people (I don’t know, maybe two dozen, involving various interest groups). He reported back to our leadership that, basically, a large majority of congregants were OK with this, and no significant misgivings. I was with him for just one of the “interviews”, and I read that particular one a little differently -- we discussed it at the time. The question now is, how did his survey turn out to be so far wide of the vote that was finally taken? I’ll be discussing this with him in our next weekly session. OBSERVATION: While the minister-intern relationship is confidential, this is a more public aspect of that, and doesn’t necessarily reflect on the intern. There could be various influences in this matter. I decided to post.

"Associate" Church

Until recently, our “associate” Church met in our largest hall. It experienced explosive growth. At the beginning of this month, they moved into our sanctuary. Today I joined them for the first time in worship there. OBSERVATION: I didn’t know which of my photos to post! This one shows a team meeting after the service, to discuss a “Sunday transport problem”. I would estimate that 80% of the congregation do not have independent transport.

Changing (Or Not) Service Times

We held a Church Meeting today -- which is the highest executive of the Church. The most conspicuous “event” was a proposed change of our Sunday morning worship time from 10 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. The proposal came from our leadership (which is accountable to the Church Meeting). But the meeting was in (friendly, and noisy) revolt. The vote went two-thirds against a change. OBSERVATION: See Changing Service Times for the run-up to this (ignore the comment at the end about Congregationalists changing things)!

Quiver Tree In 3D

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Kokerbome (quiver trees) are rare. They are even rarer in full bloom. And surely they are never seen in 3-D. I took this photo at Gannabos, in the Northern Bokkeveld. OBSERVATION: Here’s how to “see” the 3-D. Lazily squint your eyes until the two images overlap each other, then focus your eyes without losing that overlap. Most people are able to do this. You can enlarge the image by clicking on it, which will enhance the 3-D effect.

Dominee Casts A Shadow

I visited a Church which is without a minister. A dominee was preaching. Though it wasn't announced, it seemed to me that he was “preaching with a view”. “Yes,” said the chief elder afterwards, “we need a shepherd here.” I said (in Afrikaans), “He spoke a different language than this congregation. You speak about a wonderful God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. He spoke about self-denial and Christian values.” The chief elder said, “I hear what you are saying. We are treading slowly.” OBSERVATION: Personally, I think the dominee cast a shadow over that Church.

Typical Karroo

Here is a photo that typifies the Great Karroo/Karoo, where I recently took a break: unforested shrubland, isolated farmsteads, and wide open spaces. The Karroo is unusually green here after heavy rains. OBSERVATION: The tree in the foreground is a kokerboom (quiver tree), so named because the Bushmen use its branches to make quivers (very small quivers). You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Playing To High Stakes

I previously reported on an enormous bill that our Church received from our Revenue Services (see Tax Shock). Such taxation would have ruined us in two years. We invested a great deal of energy in trying to solve this problem. Today we received official notification that the bill had been reduced to little more than 10% of the original. And that’s not all. Last week we received news that the Church had been exempted from rates -- which includes a massive amount in back-rates, which we had banked. OBSERVATION: We could have been billed nearly R100,000 this month. Instead we suddenly find ourselves with a financial windfall of more than R40,000. Our prayers have been (much more than) answered. But why should a Church have to play to such high stakes? It’s a roller-coaster, and that’s how it goes here. It is an “unstable civic climate”.

Huge Changes

This is my friend H. – a smoking, drinking, swearing, God-fearing man (he has great respect for “The Big Man”). He has a three-wheel pickup, as I do (behind him in the photo). He told me that we are facing huge changes in South African politics. I said, “What do you mean?” He opened up a writing pad, and began to sketch on it, as follows: 1990. His hometown had one undertaker, and two hearses (one for Blacks, one for Whites). 1998 (the year he left there). The town had thirteen undertakers, and twenty hearses. The original two were still in full demand – as were all the others (here he gave me a description of what the cemeteries looked like over the weekends). He said, “You see what I mean?”

Hard Urbanites

Our area is known for its hard, sometimes vicious people. One often hears Frank Sinatra’s line: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” Recently I mentioned this to a multi-millionaire businessman at a party -- who is a local. He agreed about the hard and vicious people. He asked me, “Why do you think this is?” I said, “So many people are isolated, dislocated. They don’t have families and dogs and vegetable patches to occupy their minds.” OBSERVATION: The locals may also be fabulously rich -- another part of the mix. Shortly after I arrived here, another minister said to me, “They are like sharks. They sniff out your weakness.” I think this is true, and for me (arriving with weakness to sniff out), it was a hard adjustment. I adjusted. I have a similar post at If You Make It Here.

Ghost Town

.As promised, here’s a composite photo I took of the hamlet of Brandkop. This was completely deserted – apart from a farmstead at its edge. One of the houses had notices of the Independent Electoral Commission nailed to the door -- but not a soul around. The trees on the left are kokerbome (quiver trees) -- typical of the Great Karroo. OBSERVATION: Places like this are marked on South African maps as “settlements”. Settlements may turn out to be bustling towns -- or ghost towns -- or mere farmsteads. Collins Maps puts the population of Brandkop at "less than 1,000". Ha ha. It's closer to nil.

Quaint Traditions

Some of the rural Churches in South Africa still exhibit quaint traces of the traditions of a bygone era. I snapped this deaconess in a Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk (Uniting Reformed Church) in the Central Bokkeveld. OBSERVATION: I admire this old deaconess. Coming from a strait-jacketed past, she now gives her blessing to what I described (and showed) two posts ago. That is true spirituality.

"Stuff Them All!"

So what do ministers e-mail each other when they want to be of encouragement? I had received some (relatively minor) criticism, and shared this with the head of a certain denomination over a bottle of stout. He e-mailed me afterwards: "Stuff them all! (knowalls!) And take all the rest in your stride. Know He’s ahead of you. Go very well." OBSERVATION: Now there's sacred solace for you.

Uniting Reformed Church

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I twice attended this Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk (Uniting Reformed Church) in the village of Nieuwoudtville. The photo shows their Youth Group performing an item. Some things that stood out for me: 1. they were so pleased to see me, with the elders even inviting me to join them in the konsistorie (vestry), 2. there was a strong emphasis on a wonderful God and the power of the Holy Spirit, 3. the “priesthood of believers” was active in the Church, and 4. the sermons revealed an implicit trust in God. OBSERVATION: I was deeply moved by the services in this Church. If I lived in that village, I might consider making this Church my home.

Dutch Reformed Church

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I twice attended this Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) in the village of Nieuwoudtville. The panoramic shot shows virtually the entire congregation. Some things that stood out for me: 1. the dominee (minister) conducted the whole service himself – no other person spoke a single word (I'd be afraid to do that), 2. he had a strong emphasis on the human response to God, yet little emphasis on God Himself, and 3. in the midst of a multicultural village, the congregation was monocultural. OBSERVATION: I used my hymnbook as a “tripod”, swivelling the camera on the cover to obtain this panoramic shot. Not perfect, but ... not bad.

Spiritual Power

I assessed our Church's intern (my mid-year report on his progress) on various criteria this morning. Most of these criteria were “standard”, such as counselling, preaching, administration, and so on. I also assessed him on the category “spiritual power”. This is, I think, absolutely crucial to ministry. OBSERVATION: Ministry can only go so far on human power, but there needs to be spiritual power, which is rooted in faith, so as a) to have an impact on people’s lives, b) to face situations of spiritual warfare, and c) to sustain ministry where human power is powerless (which I pretty much consider to be 100% of the time).

24 Hours Of Ministry

The last 24 hours seemed typical of urban ministry. I had three appointments at the Church: a memorial service, my Minister’s Bible Study, and a meeting with our intern, to give him a mid-year report. Yet while simply “walking in and out” for the above, eight people turned up, wanting appointments with me. I accommodated most of them on the turn, though not all.

Police Under Siege

This was a rather fun photographic outing. Protesters/rioters had laid siege to the police station in Nieuwoudtville. Needless to say, there were no police to control the riot -- they were all under siege! I weaved my way through burning tyres to get this photo. As for the police, they radioed through to another police station for back-up -- which took a few hours to arrive. I'm not sure which police station they contacted – the closest is 64km (40mi) away. OBSERVATION: They had appointed a new police chief, who is a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), while the village is controlled by the African National Congress (ANC). You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Born Yesterday?

So often people would seem to suggest that a minister was born yesterday. Advice about depression? I’m not going to follow that. Church leadership? Anyone can do that. And so you’ll have an accountant telling a minister how to lead, or a technician telling him/her the dynamics of depression, and so on. In the meantime, said minister may have decades of experience, in many cases postgraduate training, and very often the "inside track" to which others don't have access. OBSERVATION: At the same time, there is some truth in saying that a minister is “just a preacher”. All the experience and training count for little in a field where spiritual warfare is the name of the game.

Bottoming Out / Looking Up

This is V., a young woman who gave the message in a VGK (Uniting Reformed Church) that I attended -- a little tearful at the end of it. She said, “Our community is in serious trouble, everywhere you look. The alcoholism and AIDS, the crime and and the tik [crystal meth]. But there's no reason to despair. Really. God is humbling this town. It's when people hit bottom, and they can't fall any further, that they turn to God. They wouldn't do that if they were rich, with their heads held high.” OBSERVATION: The words behind her say: "Speak, Lord."

The Wife's Favourite

This is wife M.'s favourite photo of my recent travels. I took hundreds of photos -- then showed her a selection of favourites. She chose this one as the favourite favourite. I took it on the south bank of the Berg River, on Kuifkopvisvanger farm. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Memorial For A Suicide

There are various approaches to conducting a service for a suicide victim. Some ministers run through the standard order of service, and that’s it. It’s the safe way. Others condemn the suicide and the person who did it. I am confident that the man for whom I conducted the service today knew the Lord. So I took it to be "an occasion of grace". We are not saved by works, and we are not lost by works. At the same time, I am convinced that God would have worked extraordinary blessing in this man's life, through extraordinary suffering. I said I wished that he could have reaped that blessing. OBSERVATION: Some came to me afterwards and said that I had hit just the right note with the service. However, not everyone felt that way. As an example, I said that the deceased's suicide represented “a sudden collapse”. One of his sons disagreed. He said that it was “an act of bravery”. I took this photo before the service, through a crack in the vestry door.

Acting On Advice

I attended a Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk (Uniting Reformed Church) on Sunday, in Laaiplek. It is the same Church where (elsewhere on this blog) the worship leader complained to me that he couldn't fire up the Youth on a Sunday. I saw that for myself. I shared with him what we do in our own Church. He said it couldn't work. I said yes it could, if you did it like this ... This week, I walked into the same Church, and to my surprise, they had put it into practice! The photo shows the worship leader (on the right) with four of the Youth at the microphones.

Suicide

While I was on leave, a well known congregant and well known burgher, a man I had been counselling pastorally, shot himself. I cried about that. Then there's the question: does this warrant abandoning one's leave? Wife M. traced me to a farm in the Great Karoo (she only had the name of the farm: Groenrivier). I said that I'd be back in a week, and to work around that. I met with the family tonight, in preparation for a service tomorrow. More in a future post on how I approach such an event.

Stormy Start

The journey was not uneventful (see my previous post). My hosts in the Great Karroo tried to call me, to warn me that a great storm had struck the area – but I had already set off. Shortly after that, they said, their communications went down in the storm. OBSERVATION: It took me a week to recover from the exhaustion of battling that storm in my microcar – hour after long hour. The photo shows one of the results of the storm -- flooded roads. I made it through this particular obstacle, after getting out of my cab to figure out a firm way across.

Made It

For those familiar with the natural history of Sub-Saharan Africa, this proves that I made it to the Great Karroo. Especially, I wish to bring this photo to the attention of my mentor, Pastor K., who made some unkind suggestions about my vehicle's prospects of ever getting there. OBSERVATION: The photo was taken at Gannabos, close to the ghost-town Brandkop (a photo of which is to come). To the right on this photo is a kokerboom (quiver tree). It is in full bloom, which is a rare sight. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Twice-Weekly Photo [8]

This photo represents one of those special moments that a minister has the privilege to share. This was the birth of a baby boy, who is being held here by his eldest brother (the boy dressed in red). The mother, as you see, is a cell-phone junkie! Their young au pair -- a refugee -- is on the left.

Twice-Weekly Photo [7]

This was a young unmarried couple in our Church. Their lives were in a place of great uncertainty and instability. They didn’t fit into the usual slots in the Church -- yet together with their wider family, we succeeded, I think, in doing the right things, and in laying a secure foundation for their lives. So this photo gives me pleasure when I look at it, because the story behind it is a good one. They are a lovely couple.

Twice-Weekly Photo [6]

This is a photo of a deaconess in our Church. In fact, she is a life deaconess, which is a special honour. This photo is a favourite of mine because it so well captures her character: a cheeky, cheerful, feisty, compassionate, energetic, no-nonsense woman. She is a highly qualified nursing sister.

Twice-Weekly Photo [5]

Once in a while I take a “photo break”. This was a protest march at a critical point in our city’s politics. Our then mayor (dressed in orange, towards the left) was very nearly unseated. As will be seen from the photo, I slipped in with the press corps. Nobody seemed to notice. This photo had a fortuitous slant to it, and caught the colour and tumult well. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Twice-Weekly Photo [4]

This is a photo of one of our Church youth. I like it. The Communist emblem, the defiant stance, his muscular physique. And yet he is such a gentle, courteous, soft-spoken young man who honours God. You may click on this photo to enlarge.