Being a disciple is not a nominal status but is instead, an expression of learning—being discipled and discipling others as active disciples of Jesus Christ. Like expressions of freedom, which are exhibited through decisions and commitments by contrast to the contemporary assumption that “keeping my options open” defines freedom, to disciple (infinitive), discipling or being discipled (participles) is dynamic—a verb, not a static noun.

The word “discipleship” may be used to imply a status, a benchmark or a level of attainment that does not actually exist, because “discipleship,” in the absence of being and making disciples, finally only exists as a word on paper. Disciples are disciples as they hear and respond to the imperative word of call that is to be lived intentionally, decisively, with disciplined passion.

Dr. Stephen Curkpatrick

Lecturer in biblical studies & systematic theology at Stirling Theological College

Thanks Stephen great read

Shalom Mark

Branch manager, Irena was the first to get on board when I floated the concept with her in 2009. Her heart and passion for being involved in a community event and raising money and awareness for a good cause has positively infected her staff and customers. In the first year I helped her with some ideas and to set up a 40 hour famine display. This year the Bank SA staff have gone all out and I didn’t have to provide anything except encouragement.

Verity, Daniel & I with Irena and Sarah from Bank SA Blackwood at their 40 hour famine party with a purpose

My wife Verity and I dropped in this morning with our son Daniel to support Bank SA’s morning tea party (which runs all day) I was amazed at the atmosphere Irena and her staff had created. She made sure one staff member was at the door greeting people as they came in and directed them to the 40 hour famine display, the morning tea, offered them a tea or coffee and invited them to sit down, learn about the 40 hour famine and make a donation.

The atmosphere was fantastic with lots of food the staff had made laid out on a table surrounded by couches. Verity and I sat and talked with people but not just about the 40 hour famine. It was a fantastic opportunity for community pastoral care as people shared their stories and struggles. We felt like the community chaplains.

Bank SA had 40 hour famine donation boxes on the table and at the tellers. They had a fantastic display board talking about the global food crisis and how money from the 40 hour famine will help. Next to that board they had set up another display for Verity’s CD ‘Advocate’ that she launched last year. They had a CD player playing her CD in the branch throughout the day because they are songs of justice and awareness. They were even selling her CD!

This is a corporate business who has gone above and beyond the call. Some other corporates I visit in Blackwood shrug me off saying that as a corporation they are already committed to a charity. Bank SA, are also committed to other things, but the Blackwood branch, to their credit, have made room to be part of a community initiative. They have caught the vision that it’s not just about ticking the box and not just about charity, it’s about community and participating in something together.

Other corporate businesses in Blackwood supporting the 40 hour famine are Bendigo Bank, Flight Centre, Raine & Horne &  Commonwealth Bank. Some smaller businesses in Blackwood supporting the 40 hour famine this weekend are Foods from the Edge, Blackwood Fitness Centre, Belair Hotel & Blackwood landscaping. There have also been a number of schools and churches hosting events, running education programs and fundraising initiatives. Our community target is $100,000 and from what I’ve heard so far we are well on the way.

Tune into 891 ABC Radio at 6:50 tomorrow morning to hear me speak more about the famine village concept.

Shalom Mark

P.S. If you click on the link above for Verity Skye’s CD we’ll be donating some money from CD’s sold this weekend to the 40 hour famine

It’s this kind of optimism that caused Adam and I to start the ‘Blackwood famine village’ back in 2009 and then ‘party with a purpose‘ in 2010 to support the 40 hour famine. Our aim was to educate and recruit. Both concepts took off well in their pilot year but this year both are struggling for momentum. We went from raising $63K in 2009 to $78K in 2010 as a community helping to feed hundreds of starving children for an entire year. I worry this year that we won’t get close to our previous targets.

We have some valid concerns in our communities in Australia, so many I can’t count. Yet to put it in perspective we are still incredibly blessed in Australia. We have seen our fair share of tragedies and when we do, we respond. I was a chaplain in the aftermath of the Vic bushfires and I saw how Australia rallied around affected communities. My sister and her family are living in Toowoomba experiencing the same Aussie spirit helping their neighbours recover from floods.

In the case of East Africa we haven’t seen images of a wave washing cities away or rumble from an earthquake but I have been hearing reports of more than 13 million people displaced. Directly affected countries include Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan. We know how hard the 10 year drought was in Australia, they’re experiencing a 60 year drought! It’s the tsunami we don’t see.

Our friend and mentor for famine village, World Vision CEO Tim Costello, is with World Vision on the border of Kenya and Somalia at the moment. He has witnessed a refugee camp built for 90,000 people currently housing 400,000. He says there is at least 1000 more arriving everyday waiting outside the camp and they still don’t have access to food or clean water. Tim spoke at our party with a purpose launch event in Blackwood a couple of weeks ago and he spoke about Australians becoming inward looking because of the global financial crisis and other global external pressures that cause us to retreat, look inward and only look out for ourselves. He encouraged us that what we are doing in Blackwood is reminding our community that together we can make a difference. Our famine concept not only encourages us to give generously to save lives but we build one another up. Our community issues become a shared load, we rise above our own problems and we gain some perspective and realize that 13 million starving people is an unacceptable number.

What really blows me away is we actually do have the resources in our world to alleviate this crisis significantly. What I struggle with is we don’t all seem to have the will or the same optimism as my friend Adam. We need to transform our doubt into the belief that we can join with Tim and the World Vision team and many other fantastic organizations doing their bit to make a dramatic change. The UN are asking for $2.2 billion to alleviate the crisis. That’s about $2 from every facebook user. We may think the problem is too big but if everyone did their little bit we could send Africa a message about how compassionate the world really is toward their plight.

This year the 40 hour famine in Australia is focusing attention on East Timor being our closest neighbouring country. 1 million children face starvation there. However with the growing crisis in Africa I have just received word that 40 hour famine money will also be directed to places such as the refugee camp on the border of Kenya and Somalia.

Please, please help me raise money for the 40 hour famine and consider sponsoring me at Mark’s 40 hour famine donation page Let’s stop this tsunami!

Please also consider giving to organizations meeting the crisis head on in Africa. There are many so I am just going to name the ones I’ve been following and giving to.

World Vision Aus

Global Mission Partners

Shalom

Mark

I have been part of these conversations actively for around 7 or 8 years as a Christian minister working with Churches of Christ. While I wrestle with all the realities and challenges that face the Church in the 21st century, I’m not convinced that the mainstream churches are coming up with anything radically new to inspire younger leaders for Christ’s mission to a radically different world to the one we constructed our churches for.

I am a minister of a church that has been established for 95 years, I fit into the category of traditional ministry within a traditional church model. I’m not sure that our church would fit into any of the titles I’ve stated above but I live with the belief that the Spirit of God who actively moves among us can create new things from the old, can bring forth new inspirations and stir in the hearts of the faithful people of God. Whether we are ‘emerging churches’ with cool names or traditional congregations established for a long period of time we must live with the belief that through available and faithful people God can create something new and use us to usher His kingdom into the 21st century. All is not lost, the church is not dead or dying, God is refining and reshaping for something new.

I have begun addressing some of these challenges through my Masters studies and my ministry with Blackwood Church of Christ. I have attended numerous conferences and participated in even more conversations and I’ve come up with a theory – although not all conferences I’ve been to support this. The theory is; there is no one solution, there is no big idea, no program, no 10 steps or 12 steps for that matter. There is no one answer to the challenge we face.

Frontier Leadership is this: being available to the pioneering Spirit of God who moves among us and goes before us. We seem to forget that God’s done this before. This is not the first time human beings have come to the point of realizing we don’t have the answer or the map to give us directions into some promised future. Our answer in the past, which worked for a while, is to look to the guru with the answer. That guru leader provides the vision, inspiration and way forward. The risk in looking to this as Frontier Leadership is that we suppress the grassroots movements of the people of God, we neglect the priesthood of all believers and we make idols out of the guru leader listening to the voice of the leader over the stirring of the Spirit.

Yes the old constructs are being deconstructed and maybe for our own good. What I’m seeing beginning to emerge is the imagination of the people of God once again daring to go to the margins and provide leadership in places the church has been absent from. But here’s the critical realization. There is no one big thing! There’s lots of little things each one of us can do and do well. When we engage God’s mission to the world with the conviction of the Holy Spirit we see Christ’s promise come to life, we can achieve immeasurably more than we can imagine.

Watch this space because I want to start telling the stories that are emerging in and around my ministry context. Stories of grassroots movements, the small yet meaningful ways people are engaging God’s mission to the world; the stories of what I think are modelling frontier leadership.

Shalom, Mark

My first impression when I pulled into the car park was surprise at the amount of cars there. It was hard to get a park. I found out the reason why. There are so many staff and volunteers working in the Centre to meet needs its phenomenal.

I enjoyed my walk through, it certainly doesn’t look or feel like a Detention Centre. There’s no razor wire or high walls, it’s like a small suburb with housing spread along a street like any other suburb. The difference is, the ‘suburb’ is surrounded by a neighbourly fence and there is a check point in a little portable building at the entrance gate. I thought the Centre had a good feel about it. I am unable to go into detail but know my impression is positive and conditions are very good.

I am disappointed that the media did a big beat up of the Centre before it opened but there has been very little reported about the positive way in which the Centre is being run and the needs of the people are being met. I was fortunate to meet with the community program and activities team for a short time. It was exhausting just listening to the conversation. They are so busy not only organizing onsite activities for entertainment, learning and development but off site excursions to all kinds of cool sites and activities around Adelaide.

The main reason for my visit was to meet with detainees who nominated they were ‘Protestant – Christian’. I met Sister Meredith who co-ordinates religious programming. I admire her ecumenical and multi-faith approach. I found out that she had been running a Catholic mass on a Sunday afternoon but the Protestants wanted a Protestant minister to meet with them. This is understandable particularly when you are in a context where everything has changed and maybe being taken away from you, they search for something familiar to hang onto.

Our meeting was enlightening. It was only a small group and I was mainly there to listen to spiritual needs. I discovered that among the small group was a Muslim couple who were keen on getting involved with the Christian conversation and wanted a Christian bible. Sister Meredith shared with me that she would often get not only the small group of Christians (Catholic and Protestant) to catholic mass but a large group on Muslims and Hindus. The Muslims and Hindus participate in the worship and read prayers and readings, then when the Catholics come forward for the Eucharist the Muslims and Hindus come forward for a blessing. She thought this was unusual given there are worship meetings for Hindus and others for the large group of Muslims on site. But what they experience at the Christian meetings is unconditional acceptance. What a testimony, I wonder if that is why the Muslim couple are interested in more Christian meetings.

Talking with a group about spiritual matters through an interpreter was a challenge. I recognize that not only was there a language barrier but given the interpreter was not Christian there was a cultural barrier on top of the other cultural barrier given that we are from different countries and experience different expressions of the Christian faith. But given I have worked with Christian asylum seekers before  we were able to communicate and appreciate some of the difference. I was able to pray with the Christians and the Muslims in the room together through the interpreter which was a challenge and an absolute privilege.

The request by the end of the meeting was for the Protestants to have a separate Christian gathering to the Catholics. Sister Meredith and I were able to work in some subtle ecumenical desires into the conversations such as explaining how in Australia Christians do a lot together. We appreciate the difference in worship style but encouraged unity (last week was Pentecost Sunday after all) We agreed that we will have 2 services on a Sunday afternoon. An open Christian service run by me and other protestant ministers I can gather at 3:30pm followed by a Christian (Catholic) service at 5pm. This way we would still be able to get Christians of different expressions talking with each other. This divide is not unique to Christians, the Muslims are experiencing the same denominational divides. Sister Meredith and I are doing our best to communicate the spirit of Australian culture, tolerance and unity in the short time we have with them in the Centre.

I now have a team of pastors joining me to run  a Christian communion service working in partnership with Sister Meredith.

Shalom Mark

I think what lies closer to the heart of radical discipleship is radical faithfulness. I’m not exactly sure how many other themes will resonate with me around the heart of discipleship and i don’t have a plan to blog about it daily or weekly. but just musing out loud whenever God lays something on my heart and if this sparks conversation then i am happy to engage with it. however I’m not looking for solutions or answers or the next 10 steps program. I’m looking for people willing to engage the conversations that lie at the heart of our faith communities. What ought to shape us as the people of God and what does that look like?

Faithful discipleship, the more I think about it and attempt to practice it, is actually quite radical and counter cultural.

Tonight I was prepared to run a service we call Sacred Space. We started this in October last year out of a need within our community to have a worship space that wasn’t busy but reflective and prayerful. There are lots of spaces to listen for God and space to be. Each Wednesday evening at 8pm  6 or 7 people (sometimes more, sometimes less) would enter the space for half an hour. We would pray, listen, hear scripture read out loud, light candles and share communion. It was healing and life-giving. We had a break over Christmas and recommenced this month.

At our first service for the year one person showed up. So I went through the motions of the service, sharing readings and prayers and sharing communion together. The next week (last week) 3 people showed up. Tonight, no-one showed up. So what did I do? I ran the service. i read out loud the welcome and the prayers, the scripture readings and then my own unscripted reflections about communion and relationship with God through Christ, all out loud. Am I crazy talking to myself? No actually it didn’t feel like that at all.

Maybe the old me would have packed up and gone home disappointed that no-one showed up. By the conviction God has laid on my heart is faithfulness. i think faithful discipleship is responding to a call even if no-one shows up, even if no-one recognizes you, even if all seems lost. Radical discipleship is about being faithful.

The them of tonight’s sacred space was radical enough from the Gospel reading Matthew 5:38-48. The prayers and reflection, the space and communion were all based on the theme of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute you. But God did a work in me because I was available and faithful. The space was essential for me, i needed to be there even if no-one else was. And so I was grateful to be there in the half hour space hearing the words of scripture out loud and communing with God out loud. And if anyone were to walk in late they could still join the space .

So what does it mean to be faithful and how counter cultural is it really? What sorts of things are we faithful to? What demands our attention and where do we give it? Does God deserve our faithfulness?

Shalom

Mark

Towards health and vitality

I am part of a team with Churches of Christ in SA called the Mission Resource Team. We have set up a blog to help churches engage in conversation about what it means to be healthy and vital expressions of Christ in their community. We share resources, blog posts, discussions, encourage dialouge and help build relationships. Join our facebook community network and visit our blog for ideas and resources to assit your conversations.

The open table

I have written and submitted an article for this blog (if it’s not there it will be up shortly). It’s a little provocative but in my opinion an expression of radical discipleship around an institution that is most sacred and central to the movement of Churches of Christ. The blog is an opportunity to remember our heritage, acknowledge our present and imagine our future as we look towards the celebration of Churches of Christ Communion Sunday on October 3rd 2010. ‘The open table’ is about tolerance, grace, understanding and transformation.

Enjoy the read until I come back for another post. I hope these provide a great resource for you.

Shalom

Mark

We had a full house at Blackwood Church of Christ, even though so many of our friends gave apologies and couldn’t be there. Around 250 people turned out to support Verity. What they didn’t expect is the well rehearsed professional performance Verity had worked so hard to put together. This wasn’t just a lone singer on a static stage. Verity choreographed her own moves, with a co-ordinated light show with smoke machine. Everyone was blown away but the opening song ‘Fools for a Revolution’ as she entered from back stage through a cloud of smoke.

I was the MC for the night which proved a challenge because I was also co-orinating the light sequences. Mike Haynes from Etype Jazz was going to play bass but had a Fringe gig that night so Brett Taylor (producer from Pilgrim Arts) covered bass and guitar. Our tech team was brilliant so I want to thank Dave Boxall, Grant Slade, Adam Riessen, Gary Adams and Andrew Knight for all their behind the scenes work with lighting, sound, smoke, powerpoints and video clips, to help us pull this off.

About halfway through the night I got up to introduce a song from Verity’s next album which won’t be released for at least another 20 months yet. It was tough because the song was a personal song from a recent journey in our lives. Verity had written a song about our first pregnancy. When we first found out we were going to be parents we were so excited. We had a scan at 7 weeks and saw the heart beat and the fetus taking form. At 8 weeks we had lost the baby along with the hope of becoming parents. We are very grateful that we are now expecting our first child to be born in June, but the night of the CD launch was 2 days after the due date of the baby we lost.

The song Verity wrote  and performed on the night is called ‘Little one’. Her dad plays the keyboard as the backing track. It’s a song Verity dedicates to anyone who has lost a child, the lyrics first speak of the joy and the anticipation, then the loss, empty arms and shattering of the hope that was. The lyrics take you through each step of what the journey was for us, even the ritual at the end.

Then Verity went back to songs from Advocate. Matt Anderson from World Vision spoke on the John 1 reading of the light that came into the darkness, and even though the darkness tried to over come it, the light could not be extinguished. It was a great encouragement to Verity’s CD which continues to shine the light on the hard issues and the dark places most of us would rather forget, or think are too hard to address. So this Cd launch was a celebration of the light that continues to shine in the darkness, God’s light that shines through Verity and her songs, provoking and encouraging each of us as listeners to be participators and be those lights that shine in the dark places.

Some of the night was filmed so we hope to break up the video into song tracks and pop them on YouTube so those who missed out can see what they missed. Here’s the list in order as performed on the night (8 songs from Advocate – 1 song from the up coming CD in 2011)

Fools for a Revolution
Collide
Tissue Man
Cinderella Face
Little One
Epiphany
What’s your Name
Umbrellas in the Rain
Profitable Crimes

We sold a lot of CD’s and while we made a commitment to give half the proceeds to TEAR World Vision, UNOH and CKS we decided to give a further $2 from each CD sold to GMP Haiti relief fund. So many charities benefited.

We’re off to Melbourne on Wednesday where Verity will perform at the UNOH HQ on Thursday night followed by 2 performances at Surrender Conference.

This week Light FM in Melbourne are broadcasting a pre recorded interview with Verity as well as playing some of her songs from the CD. Tomorrow the Hills & Valley Messenger will come out with Verity’s picture on the front cover and a full write up about the CD.

All the comments we have received about the night and the CD so far have been amazing. People can’t believe how professional everything has been and how great it sounds. We put in so much work to get it to that level creating our own company and recording label to make it happen. We hope you continue to enjoy Verity’s talent and be confronted by the message. If you want to see more about what people are saying about the CD check Verity’s Facebook page

See you in Melbourne in a couple of days. Verity will perform songs not performed in Adelaide with guest musicians Etienne Dinanga from Vox Congo and Keith Clarke from Acoustic Mantra who were both contributing musicians to the CD. Verity and Etienne will sing a duet together ‘Be my eyes’ which is about Etienne and his son and being separated for 10 years due to civil war and upheaval. So don’t miss Thursday night at the UNOH HQ. Hope to see you there.

Mark

But I do know this for a fact, there is a lot more going on with the people who gather for worship than meets the eye. They’re not all zombies (although some may look it), the faithful show up week after week because they give something to the worshipping community and the take something back out to the world that contributes to the kingdom of God.

But I want to focus a little on the opening line of Verity Skye’s song ‘More than Sundays’. “You stand and sing those songs but the words just don’t make sense, and while you think you’re alive, spiritually your dead. Coz when you walk through those doors the passion disappears. your eyes go blind, you cannot see. What is it that you fear? More than Sundays…”

The song not only invokes my opening reflections but it goes much deeper to the core of what the faith journey is all about. Does your passion, commitment, enthusiasm…whatever, extend past those doors on Sunday? What i see Verity suggesting in the song is that if it doesn’t then you’re spiritually dead, even though you know how to tick all the boxes to look like a Christian on Sunday morning.

So how prepared are you to engage the world through the lens of the kingdom of God 7 days a week? Verity suggests that fear prevents us from seeing how we must authentically live out our faith in the world. Fear of the other, fear of the stranger, fear of letting God lead, fear of letting things go, fear of losing something, fear of failure. Well Jesus did ask his disciples to take up their cross and follow him, not ‘go to church on Sunday’s’ and live how you like the rest of the week.

“How do you take what you’ve learnt and live it on the streets? How do you start to walk and dirt precious feet? How do you love with passion and fight for what is wrong? To your faith throughout each day, keep singing loud your song – more than Sundays” Maybe fear has something to do with the answers to those questions Verity asks. But here’s my favourite verse:

“No more empty rituals like zombies on a quest. No more being perfect prince its fine to be a mess. Unleash those chains of Sunday’s shows, let the heart of the Spirit flow, living your lives inside out, that’s what I’m talking about”

What do you think?

Verity’s Cd launch is just 2 days away and the preparations are looking awesome. The CD’s have arrived and everything is falling into place. Get a sneak peak at pre-recording songs on her Myspace.

People in Adelaide, a full wrote up about verity Skye and her Cd will be printed in the Hills & Valley Messenger next week so keep an eye out and see what the mainstream community verdict is. Melbourne people, Verity will be on 89.9 Light FM next week prior to the Melbourne launch so tune in, there’s a couple of CD giveaways as well.

Shalom Mark

Verity and I have many friends who have faced such situations. One particularly close friend has become like family to us. He sought asylum in Australia from a war torn African country, but one of the great tragedies of his story is being suddenly separated from his wife and children, not knowing if he’ll ever see them again.

There are many blog posts on this blog about the issues asylum seekers face and particularly about our journey’s with our fiends. Check the category links if you’re interested.

This song was written out of an experience we had in an attempt to reunite a family, in a way, a family scattered across the globe. I thought I had told this story on my blog before but as I search through the posts I can’t believe I didn’t as it was such a significant and profound moment in our lives.

In short, our friend was seeking asylum here in Australia, his son had been send to France for schooling (now living in Paris) before things got bad and his wife and other children were now in a far off country in west Africa. Verity and I went to Europe in 2008 and planned to visit Paris. Our friend asked us to track down and visit his son for him. He asked us to be his eyes, to be his arms and embrace his son on his behalf. He gave us gifts to bring to his son and an obscure address in a block of apartments in south Paris.

Verity and I flew from Rome to Neice and hired a car for our journey. 8 days later before settling in Paris for our 3 day stay which ended our time in France, we found ourselves navigating the southern suburbs of Paris looking for this apartment block. We found what we thought was it but we didn’t know the apartment number. Our friend was supposed to answer his phone back in Australia to hook us up, but he wasn’t answering. Luckily Verity speaks French so we started asking passers by who were entering the building if they knew the person we were looking for. Just as we had given up we encountered a man of the same country of origin, better still he spoke English. He took us through an adventure of knocking on apartment doors trying to narrow down the options because we had promised to be the eyes and hands of a father on the other side of the world who had not seen his son for 10 years.

A teenager answered the door eventually and we discovered it was him. We had found him! Although he and the family he was staying with did not understand English. The man who helped us had to go so we relied heavily on whatever French Verity could remember. We managed to communicate the message we were there to communicate. I shook his hand and Verity hugged him. He was a typical teenage boy of very few words and a bit ‘too cool’ but he eventually expressed his gratitude to these 2 strangers who had travelled from the other side of the planet to represent his dad who sought asylum in a strange land, stuck without freedom to embrace his son himself. We took pictures, and recorded a video message we could take back with us. We gave him the gift from his dad, then after a while we left.

Our friends name is Etienne. He is the lead singer of the band Vox Congo and has just 2 months ago won the fight for freedom and received his residency in Australia. His dream is to visit his son this year in Paris, but first he wants to visit the people who helped make this happen and supported his plea for asylum, then he will go.

Verity wrote this song for them. It is a heart wrenching song about the tragedy that tears a family apart, displaces communities and leaves them physically distant from one another for long periods of time. Etienne added his own verse to the song and so Verity and Etienne sing a duet on the CD, it’s amazing and will bring a tear to your eye.

The song is a reminder that asylum seekers, ‘boat people’, refugees, however you may term displaced people – have a story. Each one of them has a story about a family member or close friend they have been separated from. Through death or distance they struggle on in communities they struggle to integrate into. They bear the pain and trauma of homesickness. Our officials process them like numbers and maybe our media desensitize us to their plight. They are people like you and me who once had a life and home, the difference is through whatever circumstance, they have been forced to leave.

What are you doing to know who the displaced people are in your community? Every Australian city has people who have come to our country for a new start. Do you see them? What are you willing to do to help them feel human, to calm their fear, to be their friend? Would be a great conversation to have as the numbers of displaced people around the world grow.

9 days until Verity Skye’s CD launch. Get a peak at her music here.

Shalom Mark