danny’s space

It’s the idea that this Sydney Morning Herald article proudly touts. According to a survey conducted by churches, there is a mass exodus by Aussie generation Y-ers away from ‘organised’ religion. Only 48% believe in any god at all, let alone the Christian God. And this number is probably going to decline as materialism, post modernism and the hedonism of society takes their toll on this and future generations.

What could be encouraging is that the article writes that even though the numbers are declining, those that remain with the faith tend to be more ‘genuine’ these days, rather than being forced to go along. Also, apparently 32% of the people surveyed are still unsure, which means that they could be just a few steps away from knowing the truth.

In other news, this Australian Democrats God and Government survey has been floating around the email for the past few weeks. I suggest you take a look at it and fill it out - it only takes 5 minutes tops, unless you’re really indecisive. The people who I’ve gotten these emails from suggest that Christians should take a stand and not let scripture in schools and general Christian thinking be trodden on by governments who increasingly want a separation of church and state. Take a look.

The right turn bay from Broadway into Mountain St was cordoned off this morning, and as the bus drove past there was police tape and fire engines galore. On closer inspection, the main hall of St Barnabas Broadway was burnt down, totally gutted by fire, tin roof collapsed over the historic stone walls. There’s an SMH article about it.

Please pray for the church. Pray that alternative places for services and activities will be found speedily, that the recovery effort will be efficient, that the investigators will have wisdom in determining the causes of the fire, and that the leaders of the church will wholly rely on our Lord for direction. Pray that the whole church community will show grace to one another and the wider community through such tragedy.

Destruction of a church building doesn’t destory the church, who are essentially Christ’s people on earth. Thank God that nothing can destory his church.

It seems spammers have found my blog. And the spam protection of Wordpress isn’t that great. Don’t go for those cheap meds that they advertise in the comments.

In other news, nothing has really happened since my last post 2 months ago. Honours has been pretty tough, experiments failing left right and centre. I’ve started going into uni on Saturdays now so I can hopefully squeeze more work in, to finish everything by the August 25th deadline. I doubt I’ll finish but hey that’s honours for you!

A few interesting things over the last few weeks.

Sara and I went to Makoto (is that how to spell it?) in Chatswood last week, and were greeted with a nice public hair (minus the L) sitting atop a slice of lemon, wedged between two salmon sushi things. We spied it, and left it to travel on its journey around the conveyer belt. Lo and behold, a few minutes later, the hairy dish returned and it got too much - we had to tell someone. So we pointed it out to one of the waitresses, and she took a while to understand what was wrong - perhaps this kind of thing is not uncommon. Extra protein perhaps. The more shocking thing came later, when she presented the dish to one of the chefs standing in the middle area. He took the dish, and good on him for wearing gloves and protecting himself from the hair - he proceeded to remove it from the lemon slice and throw it underneath the bench. But he didn’t change gloves, and after putting the dish aside on the bench, resumed making the other sushi. Needless to say, we didn’t feel like eating there anymore.

In other news, this Da Vinci Code movie coming out seems like it’ll be fun for Christians and non-Christians alike. I’m surprised by how much the media and the public in general actually have to say about religion in general. Secular papers like the SMH have an article or three on religion every week. A few weeks ago, it was a dicussion on “whateverism”, what teens see these days as the religion of choice - “you can believe in one thing and change your mind, whatever” it went. Then a few days later on the front page was the revelation of the Gospel of Judas (I think), which was meant to challenge Christianity at its roots and present the view that Judas was a scapegoat and was actually commanded by Jesus himself to betray him. Interesting stuff.

Today in Stay in Touch, readers presented their thoughts on commandments for a new religion. Funny suggestions galore, at the end of the article was this: “Luke says we should stick with the Bible’s ancient commandments since ’science, the great god of the 21st century, cannot agree with itself for more than a couple of years’.”

And thanks to the Da Vinci Code, the SMH (in its typical antagonistic style) has put out a few articles such as the one talking about churches spending $50,000 on advertising spree to debunk the “offences and historical and theological errors” of Dan Brown’s book. One of the sites these articles refer to, challengingdavinci, is actually quite interesting and presents a realistic view on the issues presented by Brown’s novel. The other site, thedavincichallenge, also seems interesting and intellectually stimulating.

The Catholic church is massively protesting the launch of the movie, and is urging its members to boycott the thing. Other Christian societies say that the Da Vinci Code is a “wonderful opportunity for Christians … to discuss issues raised in the film“. And I think what Rob Forsyth, an ex-EU treasurer and now Bishop, says about the movie is good: “We’ve been surprised and challenged in that The Da Vinci Code has created a lot of interest in Jesus. We are not afraid of the film. We are not seeking to discourage people from seeing it.” I agree with this, in that Christians should not be afraid of the film, and should not discourage others from seeing it. The film may raise doubts, but with sound reasoning and proper intellectual understanding, Dan Brown’s work of fiction should not cause any major rifts. It should probably instead create many opportunities to talk about these issues with friends and family. Such an evangelistic tool, camouflaged though it may be, should not be done away with out of fear. That said, the faith of some Christians might not be able to withstand the battering that the Da Vinci Code presents, and therefore a stumbling block should probably be avoided by such people.

It would be good for Christians to be ready to talk intelligently about the issues the Da Vinci Code presents, and to give an account of the faith they possess. We know what is the truth, and so should not be afraid of things like Dan Brown’s novel.

It’s actually quite a good read. And I normally hate books.

Yesterday started out okay, but my brain died by midday because my supervisor and I were going through some convoluted vector constructions. Then I ducked into the lab to do a quick bit of work, after which was the honours seminars. Then a bit of pizza (supreme from Dominos isn’t that good, the olives are too squishy) and then home for 180FM (youth group as other churches would call it).

I left uni around 5pm, buses took ages to come as per usual. State buses always seem to arrive in clusters of 3. I don’t know why bus drivers do that, or if it’s the fault of traffic lights. You can stand there for 15 minutes waiting for a bus, and suddenly 3 come. Couldn’t they organise it so that 1 bus comes every 5 minutes?

At least the train ride home was okay. Nice air conditioned Tangara that actually went to Gosford. Luckily I wope up just before the train got to Gordon. Train seats are getting awfully squishy. Maybe that’s a result of my pudginess or maybe the general pudginess of society these days.

Then I get home, and get a letter from USYD saying that my enrolment is incomplete, and that I need to complete some red tape about HECS-HELP. What the heck is this? Why did the government have to change such a simple system pre-2005 to some convoluted maze of paperwork and queues? Couldn’t the uni have sent me this letter earlier? Now I have to stand in queue at the blasted Student Centre which is mostly staffed by slow-moving, apathetic people who obviously want to exact their revenge on the next generation of students in queues after being treated that way themselves. Plus next week is the start of semester, which means the queue will move at 0.5 people/hour. Great.

And then I lose track of the time, end up leaving home late for 180. Couldn’t find stuff at the last minute to bring for the introductory game. Plastic bag holding the drinks broke. Hadn’t eaten dinner because mum didn’t plan on me leaving so early, even though she knew. So I got to 180 in a pretty grumpy mood.

But I must say, the day improved from there, which was unexpected because last week’s study ran atrociously, the kids didn’t pay attention and Alex and I both had headaches by the end of the night. This week was a different story though. Although Kent started kicking and punching me during the first couple of songs, the impromptu skit game ran well and so did the interview. We’re alternating interviewing one leader or one kid a week, and getting the interviewee to play a simple Flash game versus the interviewer. Pacman was on the menu this week. The thought of being able to play a computer game on the projector in front of the whole group got all the boys excited and wanting to be interviewed.

The bible study ran well this week, which was refreshing and really encouraging. There were only 6 guys there this week. The chairs had been stacked and moved around for the skit, and so the boys just sat on the row of stacks chairs next to each other. This apparently works better than in a circle, at least for a small group. They sat in a row facing Alex and I, like a panel. We got through the first 4 questions in something like 10 minutes since they ‘know’ all the answers. So Alex suggested doing one-word-a-person answers and trying to form a sentence like that. That worked pretty well, as did answering questions and reading things in accents. This slowed the study down a bit which was good, and the kids got the big idea at the end of Jesus being the model humble servant who washes us clean.

Unfortunately Ernie had a different experience with his yr7-8 boys group. This week he felt like what Alex and I felt last week after the study. Ernie was sprawled on the ground groaning. It seems that his oxygen deprivation tactics (of doing the study in the little library room at the back of the church with all doors closed) have started failing, even though they worked perfectly the first time he tried. The kids must have evolved.

So there we have it. Youth ministry is full of its ups and downs, and you don’t see the products for 5-10 years, says Jason and Ernie, both much more experienced and mature people. Just gotta hang in there, teach faithfully, and remember to play to an audience of one.

Interesting article in SMH:Radar about stereotypes at uni. Especially note the comments on the article, in particular the ones relating to Christian groups at uni.

The article writes this stereotype about Christians:

Jesus loves you and he’s stationed these pamphlet-bearing folk outside the library to prove it. But to achieve His aims, the campus Christian often resorts to serpent-like guile - inviting you to “free barbecues” or “movie nights” which quickly turn into happy-clappy, Bible-bashing sessions where everyone babbles in tongues. Profess purity but are secretly sex-mad - that’s why they’re all married by 21.

Judging by the massive amount of comments, it would seem that:

1. Christians have no sense of humoour and are easily offended
2. Lots of people are put off by the ‘tactics’ used by Christian groups like ‘free BBQs’
3. There were lots of comments about the pushiness of CBS
4. Some Christians say pretty nasty stuff and do very in-your-face things when evangelising
5. Anti-Christian sentiment bred at uni stays with people
6. In-your-faceness turns lots of people off
7. EU is an evil empire
8. Posters are effective ways to get the message across

It was good to read a post by James of EU:

As a member of the EU at Sydney Uni, I can tell you for sure that if people at uni really aren’t interested in finding out about Christianity we will leave them alone. The stereotype given here of Christians is quite funny because it’s just so wrong and misunderstood. I doubt any of the people bashing Christian groups in the talkback have ever been to one of the Christian groups’ meetings before - their only experience has been perhaps that they are asked if they want to join a group at O-Week, they have seen a poster on campus advertising a Christian group event, and perhaps they have been asked by a friend if they wanted to come along. Cornering and manipulating? insidious? psychos? I don’t think so.

The fact is that there are people on campus interested in Christianity, and we don’t know who they are, so we have to ask people, just like any other club. If you say no, we don’t go after you, we leave you alone. But we think it’s important that people be allowed to hear what Jesus says, so that’s why we advertise…

Good on you, James.

These comments, however, possibly point to a need for Christians to re-evaluate the ‘tactics’ we use for evangelism. With O-week coming up for USYD (and already happening for UNSW), the criticality of such re-evaluation is high. However, there can only be so much change - fundamentally, as James rightly puts it, Christian groups at uni still need to seek out (no, not like a homing missile) other students on campus who might be interested in the message they have to tell. It’s like knowing a good chinese restaurant and wanting to tell people about it. Plus, in my first year at O-week, I was actually missed by all the white shirt EUers and had to go find the stall - so yes, all those people walking around campus during O-week ’stalking’ first years are needed.

I’m personally not a huge fan of in-your-face evangelism - I think this isn’t a particularly helpful way to do it. But then, the danger is to veer towards the other extreme and be a lax evangelist - and that’s a no-no as well. Striking the right balance is difficult, but it obviously is a good thing to reach, since so many are put off by scary tactics and so many fall through the cracks with no tactics.

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas (I hope I can get this post done before midnight to make it legitimate… stupid WordPress bug making some posts with a particular combination of characters not post properly making me lose everything I had typed…)

What’s the reason for the season? What is Christmas all about? Contrary to popular belief it’s not about Santa or snowmen or reindeer or gifts, just like Easter isn’t about chocolate bunnies. Pastor Andrew has written something on his blog about this which I think is pretty useful. Christmas is all about the dude whose name gets abbreviated to the X in Xmas - that is, Christ. Christmas is about the most thoughtfun, necessary and undeserved gift that was ever given and ever will be given in human history. Christmas is Jesus Christ’s birthday - the day that God sent his only Son down to earth, setting in motion a 33-year course of events that would end in the execution of a Jewish carpenter, the miraculous, historically-documented resurrection of this man, and the salvation of humanity.

Pastor Andrew gave us a good sermon today about Christmas. Santa apparently knows if kids have been bad or good, and the good kids receive the presents. I reckon God also knows about this, but the difference between Santa and God (apart from the red costume) is that God gives presents to the bad kids. By this I mean that even though people are fundamentally godless and sometimes downright ‘bad’ (come on, admit it, you’ve known this all along), God loves us so much that he looks past our rejection of him, and sends his Son to deliver us from evil and to bring us back to him. It’s like Ground Force doing a garden makeover on a terrorist’s backyard. The undeserving (i.e. humanity) get the free gift (i.e. Christ). Do you know the reason for the season?

In other news, I’ve eaten way too much over the last few days. Chris’ Christmas party was, as usual with anything he hosts, full of tasty food and I basically had two servings (there was more than enough to go around). The food was great, the fellowship was fantastic, and I was beaten at effectively every game we played like poker, ping pong and SingStar.

And then last night Sara’s family got together with a few family friends from church (the Wu’s, Lai’s, Chu’s) to have a nice Christmas eve dinner at her place. I was invited as well which was nice of them. We had great food (again), which I can’t describe because my culinary vocabulary is severely lacking. Apart from the tasty sausages, the seaweed, oysters (which I normally don’t like but the ones they had were okay), sashimi, squid, etc, the best part of the night was undoubtedly the people. I never realised how great these family friend get-togethers really were. Even though I was the odd one out (being the only representative from my family), the vibe of the night was fantastic - parents chatting together over food, wine and some pool, and the kids hanging out playing foosball, mahjong, chatting and watching an interesting honkie romantic comedy about a sadistic girl. I re-learnt how to play mahjong, which must have been a frustrating experience for my tutor, Sara. But the whole night was great, such a good feel to it - I wonder if everyone being Christian had anything to do with it. It just felt like we were all one big family - and I guess we are. Thanks be to God for providing us with so much.

Today (Sunday) after church we wanted to go to Macquarie to watch a movie. But being Christmas, and being Sunday, we should have figured that everything was closed. Literally everything. Most of the entries/exits at Macquarie were securely sealed, including ramps to/from the carparks. This made for interesting driving because we went down the exit ramp to Waterloo Rd only to find out that it was shut, and had to reverse all the way back up, and drive into a few no-entry areas to get out again, passing a metal gate that looked like it had been rammed open. We ended up eating at Eastwood (which was alive with Asians, surprise surprise) and then bumming at Sara’s place. Another fun day.

Tomorrow need to do some preparation for biology olympiad teaching. I need to re-learn basic biology like what covalent bonds and cells are. Proves to be interesting. Looking forward to a day of ‘bludging’ at home though.

So to all, season’s greetings! Hope you’ve all had a safe, enjoyable and meaningful Christmas.

After an encouraging and highly stimulating NTE and mission, and meeting so many people with such varied gifts and such great knowledge of God’s word and such passion to serve, I’ve been challenged to further develop my own knowledge and understanding. I seem to always do things in hindsight, like installing an alarm system after your house is broken in to.

I want to learn gospel Mandarin. At least some basic words which I can use to explain the gospel and to challenge people to investigate Christianity. That would have been useful in Ashfield.

I want to read more. Talking with Catholics through the mission, I don’t think I have a solid enough foundation to meet them where they’re at and to discuss things with them with appropriate historical and biblical arguments to support the Evangelical view. Katay suggested a book called ‘Evangelicals and Catholics’ which I want to go and buy.

I want to find out about other religions. Ashfield was a greatly multicultural and spiritually diverse place, and being able to understand other religions will definitely help me in talking to others about their faith and my faith.

I want to know the Bible better and be able to pull verses out of my head on the spot. My strand group leader raised the interesting idea of reading 5 chapters a day to get through the whole Bible in one year, and repeating this for 5 years - apparently your wholistic understanding and ability to apply the Bible can be significanty improved. I aim to at least try to do this, maybe starting with the New Testament.

Of course, I can’t do this by myself. I’ll be relying on God’s power to help me through. And of course, ultimately when it comes to evangelism, it is God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:7). I want to spend time learning so that I can be better equipped to serve his purposes for me.

For his glory.

Sunday was a pretty short day, sadly concluding our stint with St John’s Ashfield.

We awoke early to make it to the ‘classic’ or ‘traditional’ 8am service, which was run using AAPB (An Australian Prayer Book). It was vastly different to the church services at ND that I’m used to, especially the way communion was run. Communion was taken at the front of the hall, and bread was distributed by Katay to parishoners kneeling on a bench. Thankfully there were cushions. The ‘wine’ of communion was actual real red wine, so I pretended to drink it when it was passed around. Yes, one cup was shared amongst everyone (well, two to be precise to make the whole deal more efficient), with the ministers wiping the mouth of the cup after every sip. Not my cup of tea. I wonder what P-plate drivers do, if they need to drive away afterwards? Old hymns were sung from the hymn book accompanied by moving organ music, and Dan gave his testimony. A musically-talented bunch from our team sand In Christ Alone during communion and escaped the shared cup. I met a lady called Joyce who turned out to be one of the exam supervisors at USyd, and she recounted a few interesting stories from her time invigilating exams.

Katay gave a talk about Christmas, that it was better to receive than to give. Basically, Christ came to serve and not to be served (Mark 10:45), and so instead of trying to serve God to get his favour, Christ has already done the ultimate service for us so that we can get to God. We just need to accept and receive this.

(Read on …)

Saturday was a less full-on day. We had community markets set up on the church grounds through the day, and a stall outside Ashfield mall selling girly things. A few of the team manned each place from 9-3.

I was at the markets in the morning. By the time I got there, Larissa was deeply involved in a conversation with a dude questioning Christianity. Face painting and balloon sculpting was going. I joined in the festivities, and the kids activities were used to invite kids and parents to the Narnia kids club that was still going on in the afternoon. The kids loved the face painting and balloon animals, although one cried when the swan made for her popped. I made another one but that fell on the ground and was popped by the blades of grass as well. Plenty of kids were lining up for the face painting and balloons, confounded by the fact that every kid wanted at least 2 balloons.

(Read on …)

This morning, a bunch of us again went to Ashfield train station in the morning to hand out those Christmas quizzes. I had thankfully rested enough to go this time, and it was an interesting experience indeed. The public were generally more receptive to leaflets than the typical university student who tends to avoid any piece of paper pointed at them within a 10m radius. We tooted expressions like “Test your Christmas knowledge” and “Would you like a Christmas quiz?”. The words ‘Christmas quiz’ will never have the same meaning again - and they’re actually quite a mouthful, especially if there’s a whole crowd of people walking towards the station entrance trying to get to work on time.

A couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses were there as well handing out copies of their Watchtower booklet things in Chinese. They moved around a bit but hopefully we got to more people than they did - unfortunately their material was in Chinese which worked better for the ethnicitiy of Ashfield.

Early in the morning of leafletting, this couple walked up and did the quiz on the spot. The guy got 9/10, and it turned out that he was a devout Catholic. We ended up having an extended semi-heated discussion on the Catholic belief that works and faith together were necessary to be saved, and that the only true church was the Catholic church. Of course as an Evangelical, I argued that the Bible said that only faith was necessary to be right with God, and that we didn’t follow the spooky bells and smells sacraments that Catholics follow. Unfortunately it was a pretty one-sided debate as I wasn’t quick enough on my Bible application to be able to rebutt his arguments, and both of us were quite unmovable from our own beliefs. If only I pulled out Ephesians 2:8-9, which Rachel reminded me of afterwards. It was encouraging though to hear that Sabrina was praying for the conversation as it was happening. This event also spurred me to want to read more on Catholics vs Evangelicals to be able to argue more effectively for the Evangelical beliefs.

(Read on …)