Leadership Backlash (Continued)

I have "parked" my original post on so-called "leadership backlash", because it was misunderstood. Leadership backlash is something that typically happens after a Church leadership has dealt with a troubling situation and has put it to bed. Then come various reactions, perhaps months down the line. The situation which gives rise to leadership backlash will typically be of a spiritual nature, and spiritual preparedness is required in order to avoid the reactions. Three years ago, I blogged on this under Leadership Backlash.

"I'm Pumped!"

I learnt something from an American mega-Church pastor, Perry Noble. He keeps shouting from the pulpit: "I'm pumped!" He began a recent article: "Yes, as a matter of fact I am excited/pumped/stoked out of my mind…" While I doubt that I'll ever say from the pulpit: "I'm pumped!" I find this a useful reminder that many aspects of the faith are amazing, and deserve more than just matter-of-fact treatment. OBSERVATION: I just hope that Perry Noble doesn't get over-pumped. He might explode, and it'll be hard to find all the pieces again.

Flowers

This one's just a pretty picture -- flowers at a recent memorial service I conducted. The family left this beautiful arrangement in Church for the next day Sunday, and we invited the congregation to help themselves to flowers after the service -- which they did with joy. You may click on the image to enlarge to VGA.

Jail-Bird

One of our congregation attended a Church in the city centre -- and took a lift home with two men in a white Mercedes. He said: “Next thing, we were surrounded everywhere by blue lights! The police had their guns drawn! They were screaming: ‘Get out of the car! Hands up! Hands up!’” He was sentenced to nine months in jail. He said: “For nothing! Nine months of my life wasted!” I said: “A magistrate needs evidence to make a decision. He must have had some.” Our congregant insisted that there wasn’t any, then he 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.”

Keeping The Keepers

An official of the Department of Labour called by, to determine whether I was complying with the regulations as an employer. As it happened, I was. I asked him: "Is your employer complying with the regulations?" He looked distressed. He said: "I wish I could say they were! I'm sorry, you'll understand if I don't answer that one."

Unfortunate Accusation

Most unfortunately, I was accused this week of putting an elderly member in hospital with stress -- or so members have understood the accusation. But my accusers may have made a fundamental mistake. Five days later, there is still no diagnosis -- and if the preliminary diagnosis should be correct, it would appear to have nothing to do with stress. OBSERVATION: But what if it had been related to stress? What would a minister say then? In hospital, our member was very happy to see me: "I was hoping you would come."

Congratulations, Son

Son M. was yesterday accepted for a PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He began his studies with Environmental & Geographical Sciences and Archaeology, and has now migrated to Palaeo-Biology. He claims: "I'm a high-flying socialite now!" Looking at his SMS, he might throw in an introductory course in English.

Ministerial "Warfare"

So you thought your minister was whinging when he/she lamented the trials of ministry. I first read Charles Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students in German, during theological studies in Switzerland more than thirty years ago. I marked only one paragraph in the book, and it was this one. This is Spurgeon's original English. You may click on it to enlarge.

Bank Loan

I accompanied a young woman to a number of banks as she sought a loan to enroll at a Christian college. However, she then decided, after much prayer, that the Lord had unfailingly provided for her in the past, therefore she would not now seek a bank loan. Then she embarked on a long journey, arriving for enrollment without the money -- and needed to be bailed out. OBSERVATION: I find this both admirable and perplexing.

Warm Encouragement

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I have had (so far) only warm encouragement after an awfully difficult meeting on Sunday. Here's a snatch from an e-mail today: "I believe that you acted appropriately ... I am blessed to be a member of a healthy church that is 1. scripturally sound, 2. stable and loving, 3. has Godly, moral leadership, 4. doing our best to exalt Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and 5. remain faithful! If people are unhappy with a church that fits this description, it is very unlikely that the problem is with the church. May God continue to bless you ..." OBSERVATION: We could have prevented problems from becoming ones, maybe. But so much for one post. The photo shows our motley Worship Team on a Sunday morning while a member prepares Holy Communion. Our office secretary took the photo.

Utopian Society?

There is sometimes the unspoken view in the Church, that a true Church is meant to be a Utopian Society. My "practical" view is that the Church the elect will always be growing in glory by the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18) -- and that gives me hope and optimism in my ministry always. Nothing stops the Lord, who has promised by His grace to create and shape His people. However, there will always be "awkward sheep" who are an ill fit. And then there will be tares among the wheat, or a Judas among the disciples. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others all tempered the notion of a so-called Utopian Society by speaking of wolves, bad leaven, false prophets, and so on -- and of spiritual warfare and demonic attack, which, if one does not absolutely reckon with these, does not lead to happy slumbers.
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NOTE: This post is a general one about a sound perspective on the Church. It was composed before more recent events in the local Church.

Hiking

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My friend E. and I have visited many (easy) hiking trails in and around Cape Town. Here are some that I enjoyed most: the Glen (pictured), Newlands Forest, Llandudno Beach, and the Constantia Greenbelt. The worst: Elsieskraal River. E. graciously called the latter a "blink idee" (a "glittering idea", for which I have to assume sole responsibility). It was scorched in the sun, with a storm ripping through it. It can be nice in winter.

Dealing With Paper Theft

Our attorney took a serious view of the theft of sheets of paper from our AGM yesterday (see an earlier post). She was "very concerned". This is not new to me in ministry -- there have been previous occasions. She wrote to me: "Your first instinct ... was correct. Your method was also correct ..." My instinct was to have this recorded. As for methods, there are two: 1. Lay a charge for theft. However, in South Africa, as our attorney points out, the police may find this hard to understand: "Sheets of paper? They are worth what?" Or 2. Register the theft with an attorney, by means of a memo or an affidavit duly commissioned, along with simple corroboration by witnesses. See also Ransacked.

All Blogs Charts

Good grief, I thought I'd seen it all, but to find myself in first, second, and third places in the South African All Blogs charts today is a bit of a surprise. One might call it a hapless surprise, or a witless surprise -- there could be better reasons for being at the top of the charts.

Writing Practice

One of the incidental purposes of my blog is to practice my writing -- which, therefore, I do hundreds of times a year. I consider that my blog has done much for my writing. An example, I think, is a recent article on leadership, which after two weeks still stands at no. 7 out of 24,874 articles on an Australian website (it was at no. 2). I don't think I could have turned that out in that form without this blog. See also Blog Purpose.

Resignations

Yesterday I chaired an unusually tough Church Meeting (our highest executive) -- the toughest in more than ten years. Unusually, it was packed out. Before the meeting -- I didn't know it -- our Property Steward resigned (in the meeting, I said that he was "held in high honour"). Our Honorary Treasurer also resigned -- unfortunately, after prolonged confrontation. I failed in attempts to resolve issues before the Meeting. OBSERVATION: So far, I received warm encouragement from all who got back to me. An outsider to the Church commented that we have a wealth of good-will among us -- all will be well. At the same time, I see that this may be the beginning of a new era -- something we last saw twelve years ago (I am entering my nineteenth year in the Church).

Pyrex Problem

A. made me a Christmas pudding in a Pyrex bowl, and gave me brandy custard with it. I had some of the pudding, which was delicious -- and took the rest to E.'s family in Kareedouw. In Kareedouw, they decided to share this godsend with E.'s family in George, as follows: they would keep the brandy custard in Kareedouw, and send the pudding to George. At this point, I lost track of the Pyrex bowl -- and yesterday I finally explained to A. what had happened to it. A. very kindly said that she would make a bigger pudding next time, for everyone to share. OBSERVATION: But I made the same dumb mistake since -- with someone's chicken dish. (I gave A. a brand new Pyrex bowl).

Missing Papers

I had a Church Meeting this morning -- and had duplicated a report on blue sheets of paper -- slipping these in amongst other sheets of my own -- titled: "CURRENT SITUATION". The report dealt with some unusually difficult issues. But I decided not to hand out these blue sheets -- rather I deleted, added, and changed things -- and made a verbal presentation. Then, three copies of those blue sheets were taken -- either during a brief distraction after the Meeting, or through someone unlocking the vestry during our morning service.

Spiritual Assault

Spiritual assault comes in many forms. A minister told me this story. Someone dropped dead snakes, one by one, in various corners of the Church -- in spite of the Church being a locked compound. It was not long before this had him spooked. One day, he got into bed at the manse / rectory, and there was a dead snake in his bed.

Dominoes [2]

Being at a loss as to what to post this morning (yet not being short of posts)! here is another photo I took of dominoes in rural South Africa. It is played with great passion, and much argumentation -- and, as will be seen, it is a sociable game. The photo may be enlarged to VGA. See Dominoes for a picture of me playing it.

Representing God

In my experience, in an important sense, a minister does represent God. As an example, a minister may speak to a dying person and at his/her word, panic turns to peace -- a situation I experienced last year. Or -- to add some examples -- depression turns to joy, or a sense of condemnation turns to liberty. The power does not of course lie in the minister. Perhaps these are examples of what one calls "the means of grace."

Bible On Microfilm

I forget how I obtained this, but I have the whole Bible on microfilm (pictured) -- just over an inch square. This was a "showcase" for NCR Corporation's PCMI® Microform technique. The text can be read under a microscope at about 100x magnification. Each text character is 8 micrometres high.

"We Have Sinned"

My friend E. and I held devotions together this morning as we do every week (we use the David Wilkerson Devotionals). It was about the righteous Daniel, who had the habit of implicating himself in his people's sin: "We have sinned." I don't believe this means that ministers have no claim to speak because they are sinful -- a mistake that some make. Rather I see that it means that the only reason the minister is still around this place is because of the Spirit's anointing, not because of his/her righteousness. It also means that, while he/she may not be guilty of the sins of the people, he/she may need to confess where confession is due -- to being implicated in the situation.

Ten Years On

.Following on from yesterday's post, this is a photo of our Women's Association about ten years on. I would place this about 1992, but will gladly revise the year if anyone knows. This photo needed "rescuing", as the original was not in a good way. You may click on the photo for 240k.

"Status" Of The Spirit

This one is hard to put into words. The Church is a strange thing, in that, in an important sense, one cannot rest on methods of the past. The Holy Spirit is a present power, not a person of the past. One dare not say: "This worked for us then" or "These are the proven methods" or "This worked for others then or there." While such things do have a place in the Church, there is no substitute for ... call it the present "status" of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Flashback: Women's Association

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This is our Church's Women's Association, thirty years ago. I recognise all of these women but one, although (as best I know) only two are alive today: one being Dorothy (top row, left), now 104, the other being my mother (top row, seventh from the left), who led the group. OBSERVATION: Our women's work has always been a great asset to our Church. You may click on the photo to enlarge to 300k.

Consult, Consult

I consult a very great deal in ministry. If there is anything of any significance on a meeting agenda (for example) people can probably assume that I have consulted someone with experience or expertise. If there is an issue of greater significance, I have probably consulted three people, maybe more. During the past year, I would guess that I have consulted more than twenty professionals in various fields. OBSERVATION: People have been so kind and generous with their counsel, too. Yet this is no substitute for spiritual preparedness, which may be more important than all consultation.

Lovely Support

Ministry may mean hacking one's way through criticism and opposition. Or one may receive lovely messages of support. I received such a message today: "God has blessed you and you have been a wonderful minister despite all the hardships you have faced especially [a past phase]."

Unanticipated Trauma

I walked unexpectedly into what looked like an attempted murder scene tonight. It was too soon for them to have sealed off the area, and I suddenly found myself close up to the victim. He didn't look good. He was shuddering violently, and was bloodied -- a neatly dressed man with his face flat on the ground. I've just about seen it all, but then I steel myself for those things. I'm a softie if it's unanticipated.

Stashes Of Cash

The executrix wanted a single sheet of paper from son M. today. She said that his late mother might have put it somewhere, and it could save him a lot of trouble if he found it. He set about searching for the sheet -- and found (so far) eight stashes of banknotes in the house, in five currencies. These are not insignificant stashes. M. said: "In the most hidden away places!" OBSERVATION: I cannot explain this (yet).

Youth Photo

We took this photo at our Youth group last week -- to send to a past leader of our Youth, now in England for a few years. So these are longer-standing members of the Youth. I heard yesterday that we may have a new, long sought after Youth leader. That would be really good news. You may click on the photo to enlarge to 200k.

David And Paul

Many years ago, a Church consultant put me through a two-week programme, which included a sophisticated psychological / spiritual test. Apart from a detailed report-back, the findings were summarised in pictures. The most striking finding was that I was "David on the outside, Paul on the inside". That is, I was affable on the outside, resolute (I'm bashful about the word he actually used) on the inside. This was a good combination, he said -- yet could permit people or invite them to misjudge who they were dealing with -- David or Paul.

Seek The Lord

I went to see a loving couple -- the doctor had just told him that he should expect his wife to exit this life at any moment. She was still in quiet command in conversation -- he was in distress. I said to her: "Tell him what to do, when you are gone." She looked at him and said: "It's simple. He must seek the Lord."

Personal Ministerial Policy

There is such a thing as personal ministerial policy. Sometimes this lies fairly unformulated. Sometimes ministers will begin in ministry being fairly ignorant of it. In general, though, I would think that experienced ministers have much the same policy. It covers such things as how to handle money, how to counsel the opposite sex, when not to meet with people, and so on. OBSERVATION: So sometimes, when ministers do things that have people puzzling, it may be personal ministerial policy.

Cleansing The Call

My late wife Mirjam, before she died, wrote a final article -- a popular / accessible summary of her doctoral dissertation and book. The article was published today by a major Christian website in Australia -- being titled (click here): Cleansing The Call. OBSERVATION: The article is especially interesting if one has read the book, as it casts a kind of hindsight over the book.

NOTE: 24 hours later, this is the (currently) most recommended article on the website, thanks to God.

Prickly Pear

I snapped this ripe prickly pear in the Eastern Cape. The red fruit is edible, yet its skin is covered with miniscule hair-like prickles -- more troublesome than mere thorns. One way of removing them from the fruit is to torch them. You may click on the image to enlarge to 110k.

Youngster With AIDS

This post is not for sensitive readers. I went to see one of our older members tonight, who is nursing her granddaughter C., who has AIDS. She asked me to come and pray. I know young C., as she is (or was) one of our Church Youth. C.'s mother, whom I also knew, died of AIDS last year. C. was feverish, and sleeping. S. said to me: "Her mother breast-fed her. That's how she got AIDS. Now she wakes up, and she can't stand up. She's vomiting all the time."

Dealing With The Seriousness

A minister (more so an urban minister) deals on a continual basis with serious situations: violence, destruction, terminal illness, depression, opposition, and so on (see "What Does A Minister Do?"). One of the ways I cope with this is to scatter happy moments like confetti through all of it: "Ah, this means that I can have a choc sundae on my way home!" "Ah, I can get a great pan shot of the valley for my blog!" and so on. I know one (influential) minister who, in his free time, laughs himself silly over skits on DVD, or plays kid games. OBSERVATION: There is, however, "satisfaction" in the hard assignments, too -- it is a privilege. Also, "happy moments" are no substitute for faith.

Fuller All-Seminary Chapel

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With reference to my last post, I subversively did one of my exclusion assignments on Fuller Theological Seminary's own All-Seminary Chapel. After doing my homework, I noted that their "All-" chapel programme separated out African Americans, Hispanics, Koreans ... OBSERVATION: After my groundbreaking study, things changed. Now they only separate out Hispanics. (Not to speak of the various denominations -- a situation which remains unchanged). The image is from their chapel web page.

Multi-Cultural Church?

I needed to do a number of assignments for Fuller Theological Seminary which detailed exclusion in Churches. For one of these, I selected a well known Church in Cape Town -- for the reason that everything about it said mono-cultural, in the midst of a multi-cultural environment. I sent the assignment to the senior pastor to look over -- but never heard back. Recently, having forgotten my assignment, I happened to walk into the Church. One of their pastors looked at me twice and said: "Thomas Who?" Someone handed me their latest Church brochure. The second paragraph stated (translated): "Our Church is multi-cultural ..." OBSERVATION: However, the third paragraph added an interesting twist: "Afrikaans is our Church's first language. English-speaking persons are also very welcome." (There are more than two languages in the Church's environment).

3 + 3 = 3 ?

Our suburb is popular among migrants, immigrants, and refugees. While it is expensive, it is safe and "well appointed". Recently, six of our congregation were evicted. They had rented a flat for three: three of them worked day-shift, and three of them night-shift, and by and large there were only three people there. So there were only three people renting, right? The landlord disagreed. Thankfully another landlord agreed, and took them in.

My Friendship With E.

Last week I again made mention of my friendship with E. on this blog. The response to that post revealed that people had been hoping for news. Here then is more. Ours was an arranged relationship -- yet it has grown into love. I have come to know E. as a woman of deep faith, a bright intellect, a lively yet peaceful spirit, and a generous heart. One of her core characteristics is that she is "unaffected". Another minister said of her: "Her spirit is clear." She is a competent woman, too, in a number of respects. She communicates as much through her face as she does with her words. I have said that I have found a soulmate -- and I am thankful to God for her every day. Elsewhere on this blog I have described her Sitz im Leben -- an au pair to international businesspeople, a deaconess, and a seminary student. There are a number of pastors in her closer family. Our cultures are substantially different, as many will know. Therefore she and I have needed to engage with a few things -- however, the culture aspect has opened up a wonderful new world to me. The photo shows my three-wheeler en route to E.'s childhood home.

Vagabonds: Laws Of Decline

I have seen several vagabonds in our area decline to death, and I see several at the moment who would seem to be headed that way. There would seem to be a few laws of certain decline: 1. Keep bad company, and 2. Quit striving. To these one might add: 3. Do not commit to others (not least the Church), and 4. Harden your spirit. Conversely, I think that changing just one of the above would make a world of difference.

Magnetometer

Some time ago, I mentioned on this blog that I was "whipping up" a magnetometer. It is published in this month's EPE magazine, the UK's no. 1 electronics magazine. It detects rate of change in a magnetic field, and will pick up the earth's magnetic field. What this means is that my magnetometer will report when something turns within the earth's magnetic field -- a car/automobile, for example -- or any of a thousand things one might rotate in order to steal them. OBSERVATION: The magazine deleted my suggestion that my circuit might prevent a husband from turning right or left.

Keeping In Touch

Some of our congregation show extraordinary loyalty in keeping in touch over the years. Today I received a call from Patagonia, Argentina, from a former choir-master (centre) and his wife. He served as choir-master of our Church when I was Assistant Minister in 1983-1984. Those are members of our Choir in white -- my late wife M. on the left.

Snack Tarantula Spiders

This one's not for the faint-hearted. Being at a loss as to what to post this morning, here is a photo I took in Cambodia, on the road to Kampong Cham (on the Mekong River). It's a young woman selling roast tarantula spiders -- a delicacy (so they say). You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Progress Within And Without

I called at a local bank. I asked a consultant whether she had made good progress within the bank since she started. "Oh, yes!" she said, pointing: "I used to be in a back room there." I asked her whether she had made good progress outside the bank. She looked shocked. Her eyes opened wide. She broke into a sweat. She said: "Hoooooooo!" and picked up a folder and started fanning herself. After a while, she composed herself, and said: "I passed some exams."

Faith And Sight

There is always a struggle in a Church between faith and sight (2 Cor 5:7). A congregation will always be conflicted between walking by faith and walking by sight -- and there is a radical difference between the two. Sight sees what the eyes see, while faith sees an amazing God. At the moment, I sense that this struggle is particularly pronounced in our Church. OBSERVATION: But I think this is a sign of increased interest by members, or they would just coast along without being conflicted.

One Equals Two

A fact about my ministry that is so obvious that one might miss it is that, for more than a year, I have in a sense been doing the job of two ministers. My late wife Mirjam was as close as it gets to full-time ministry, and complemented my ministry in various ways -- tangible and intangible. When the heat was on, she took over phone calls -- sometimes entire services (she was an ordained minister). She shaped our worship. She headed our women's ministry, and took over various planning meetings in the Church. She kept inter-Church relations humming. She would trouble-shoot a lot, and would everywhere promote my/our vision for the Church. She was a wonderful hostess, both at home and in the Church. And she saved me a lot of energy in the way that she helped me settle ministry issues in my mind, and backed me up within the Church. Before she died, she told me several times not to quit our Church. She said: "With God, you can do it." OBSERVATION: I think so. One can believe that one equals two with God.

Psychedelic Clouds

Lying back in a meadow in Cape Town's Constantia Greenbelt yesterday, it seemed to me that the clouds were psychedelic. The Leica photo proves it -- they were pink and green. The top photo is unaltered -- it's a little dim, as the camera's EV was turned down. The bottom photo has been EV- and colour-adjusted, and seems more like the way I saw it. For another example of the phenomenon, see flickr.com.

Standard Practice: Ministers

This Thursday, a minister of a major denomination (400+ Churches) spoke to our leadership about standard practice in his Churches, with regard to ministers. This might be helpful, so here it is: • Ministers have to retire at 65. After 1 year's absence from ministry, 2-year tenures may be authorised. • Pension is 15¾% of income -- the Church pays all of it. • A minister must have 3 months' furlough every 5 years, in addition to his/her annual leave. He/she must leave off all ministry. • Every Church must make it possible for the minister to buy his/her own house or flat. • Every Church must pay a 13th cheque, "even when the Church is bankrupt". • There are no Church-owned cars/automobiles. And • the denomination generally subsidises a minister's further education, on application. It may pay vital expenses, such as adoption.

Stepping It Up

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E. and I first met with each other once a week. At that time, we were seeking to discern what to do with an instruction we received (from my late wife) to get together. Half a year later, we stepped it up to twice a week. At the end of last year, with some struggle to work it into our lives, we stepped it up to four times a week. This year, we have added the occasional "take a chance on me". Usually, we have a grand outing once a week, and devotions together once a week. That's my camera-shy E. taking a photo on one of our walks, with her Blackberry.

Sheep Without A Shepherd

I have been too hard on our Church leadership. I think that part of the trouble -- though by no means all of it -- is that they are sheep without a shepherd. This is not to be condescending, but to have a greater sympathy for them. I have thirty years of ministry behind me, which includes regional and national roles, and several years of postgraduate studies in Christian leadership. Things that seem second nature to me are not second nature to them -- yet I have expected it to be. There are spiritual leadership perspectives which I consider fundamental which are virtually unknown to them.

40% Dead

A senior minister of a major denomination addressed our Church leadership last night. He said: "We discovered that 40% of our ministers were dropping dead before 65. It was hypertension." Therefore the denomination passed some draconian rules, among them that ministers had to do something completely different during their furlough -- farming, for instance. He said: "The life-span of ministers is going up incredibly."

Wittewater Cottage

Here's another photo of a cottage in the old mission station Wittewater -- about 100 miles north of Cape Town, north of the Berg River. Wittewater was established by Moravian missionaries. See also Wittewater Church. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.

Life's Goal

At my conversion, I received what seemed to be a clear view of my life's ultimate goal. I was 18. The goal was to solve some fundamental problems of philosophy and theology -- in such a way that the solutions were shared (moderated, one might say). At 21, I started in earnest to work towards that goal -- and over the years put in a Herculean effort. I aimed to solve the problems by age 40. I missed that. The solutions settled into place around age 49. Now, at age 51, the first synthesis of my theological thinking has been accepted for publication -- following an intriguing academic tussle over it. It's the first real sign that 30 years of work is bearing fruit. I'll post a link here when it's published.

"She's Got Issues"

Note: This post is in the adult category. A man came to me for counsel. He had bedded a woman-friend. She then sat up on the edge of the bed and cried. He asked her what was wrong. She said she had been raped, and the memories had come flooding back to her. He said to me: "She's got issues! She's more complicated than I thought!"

Mistake Of Circumspection

I provisionally removed two posts from my blog (which happened to shoot into one or two "hot lists") -- including the original of this post. These two posts detailed appreciable frustrations I faced behind the scenes of our Church leadership -- and the crossing of rules of the Church. Yet over the months, I did not reveal these things to our full, assembled leadership. I just walked on. The result was that we had a leadership most of whom thought that things were humming, while the reality for me was significantly different. It was a big mistake on my part, for three reasons. It led to our leadership and me occupying different realities, it led to a burden I should not have been carrying, and it failed to bring troubling trends to a halt. I may repost those posts at some time.

2 Hours ≠ 2 Hours

The title of this post means: Two hours does not equal two hours. It refers to the fact that in ministry, it is dangerous to think that 2 hours' work = 2 hours' work. 2 hours may be 8 hours, due to the unusual demands of ministry. This is easily proved by the massive burnout and dropout in ministry. Ministers need to know this rule, be sensitive to it, and live accordingly. See also Burnout And Faith.

Picture Bible

Lately, my bedtime reading has been The Picture Bible, by Chariot Books (see the images). I find that it makes inspiring reading, in spite of its dubious credentials. In fact, when one sees things in a picture, one may see things one didn't see in the text. You may click on the images to enlarge.

Sine Qua Non

Whenever there were distractions in my ministry, particularly troubles I could have done without, I used to say to my late wife Mirjam: "This is a waste of time!" Without fail, she would say: "No it's not!" She seemed to think it was the sine qua non (without which not) of ministry. I wish she had explained it to me, but I think I have an idea.

Rev. Myambo

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Rev. Timothy Myambo preached in our Church this morning (pictured, centre). He said that Christianity is drawing crowds all over Africa -- but who do they say Christ is? I have been seeking to recruit Rev. Myambo for the journal of which I am Contributing Editor. So this morning I asked his wife Violet (left) to extract an article from him. Let's see how that works. OBSERVATION: Among other things, Rev. Myambo has done research on avenging spirits (ngozi). That's one of our elders on the right.

Turbulent Meeting

I called for a Special Meeting of our leadership today. I said there was a spirit of control, people had exceeded their bounds, and the minister was treated with disregard. One of our leadership walked out. Our leadership were distressed, and said one after the other that they only wanted to love and serve God. I made several proposals, of which one was defeated.

Church And Ministry

In a sense, Church and ministry are worlds apart -- and usually the two will never meet. It is not usual for the Church to be aware of ministry. In fact, a common refrain of new deacons is: "I never knew that this is what it is like." Even then, they typically do not enter the heart of ministry. This is something that disquiets me about this blog. It was and is not intended as a Church blog. Yet the Church has been reading the blog, more and more. What does this do to the centuries-old "separation" of Church and ministry? What happens when one pierces the veil? What happens when one mixes -- perhaps confuses -- the two? OBSERVATION: The purpose of my blog appears in the left-hand column of this page. Among other things, it is aimed at ministry. See, as an example, The Purpose Of This Blog.

Restless Suburb

Here's another photo of our neighbouring suburb Bantry Bay. Notice all the construction cranes (click on the image to enlarge to 110k). It's a restless society. Someone said that one would never see this in Europe -- always tearing down, always building. For a panoramic shot, see Bantry Bay.

Malema And Ministry

Julius Malema was the leader of the ANC Youth League -- expelled from membership of the ANC today. I have followed the the saga with interest, not least because he could have written the book on oppositional behaviour in the Church. Study Malema (and the surrounding circumstances), and you will see what you will likely have to deal with as a minister. OBSERVATION: What remains interesting, although it may not be clearly discerned, is what kinds of effects this might have on the ANC leadership in the future. In ministry, for example, so-called leadership backlash would be something that might be anticipated. Also a more steely leadership.

I'll Post It Not

. . . . .
. . . . . I'll post it
. . . . . I'll post it not
. . . . . . . I'll post about the lover's knot
. . . . . . . No, about the local parking lot
. . . . . I'll post it
. . . . . I'll post it not
. . . . . . . Could this get me shot?
. . . . . . . Or will it be complete forgot?
. . . . . I'll post it
. . . . . I'll post it not

(Today this has me deep in thot).