someone relayed a story to me about a church in England that got involved in supporting an orphanage, it became a focus of everything they did, as they focused more on it they desired more of God and they grew and grew. Several years later the person came to another church, one that was focused purely on themselves - they talked about evangelism - but did little - focused all their activity on themselves. Needless to say the person is leaving that Church - Why? because there was no community...
when i heard this i noted - why would any one settle for a plain old Church when they have expereinced the Kingdom of God - as the church in England focused itslef on others they expereinced soemthing of that Kingdom, anything else in comparission just doesn't meet it.
I worry about the Church in this land, as we become more and more isolated, entrenched and focus more and more on oursleves and ministry to "me", it scares me.
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth, and salt that has lost it saltiness is only worth ebing thrown on the dung heap."
Friday, October 13, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
10th Bishop of Nelson
New Bishop of Nelson announced
Sunday, 8 October 2006, 12:56 pm
Press Release: Anglican Church in Aotearoa
New Bishop of Nelson announced
Richard Ellena, the Archdeacon of Blenheim, has been elected as the next Anglican Bishop of Nelson.
Richard, who is 55, has been Bishop Derek Eaton’s Vicar General, or deputy, since 2002 – and he has pledged to continue to “hold high the flag of evangelical orthodoxy” during his term as the Diocese of Nelson’s 10th Bishop.
“Nelson,” he says, “is unique. It is, very strongly, an evangelical diocese. We believe in Biblical orthodoxy. I want to honour and affirm that.
“I also want to do that in a way that doesn’t isolate us. I want to be in warm communion with the other Anglican Bishops of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – while saying, at the same time: ‘This is the truth that we hold to in this diocese.’
“Bishop Derek has done this with so much grace, and I hope I can do the same.”
One of the defining characteristics of Derek Eaton’s episcopate has been the way he and his wife Alice have worked as a team in ministry – and it’s clear that this will continue with Richard and Hilary, his wife of 34 years.
Richard Ellena was born and grew up in Christchurch. His father, Vic Ellena, was the Bryndwr butcher until he became Head of Music at Burnside High School. He was also the organist and choirmaster at St Barnabas’, Fendalton, under Canon Bob Lowe.
Those musical genes flow through Richard Ellena. He has a degree in music, majoring in composition, is a multi-instrumentalist and has played in orchestras, bands and brass bands, and he has composed for, and conducted and sung in choirs. His wife shares that musical gift.
On leaving Burnside High, Richard Ellena worked briefly for the Met Service before training as a teacher and studying at the University of Canterbury.
He then taught music in high schools for 10 years – including two at St Bedes in Christchurch, and eight at Rangiora High – before beginning training for the Anglican ministry at St Johns’ College in Auckland in 1983.
Richard Ellena was ordained an Anglican priest in 1985, served his curacy at Highfield-Marchwiel (in Timaru) and was vicar of Kensington-Otipua, in south Timaru, from 1986 to 1991. He had learned Maori at St Johns’ and, at the invitation of Ngai Tahu, he taught te reo at Aoraki Polytech in Timaru.
In 1991, he was asked by Bishop Derek Eaton – who’d also grown up in Christchurch, and, as a teenager, had been a babysitter for young Richard Ellena – to move to the Nelson Diocese, to begin ministry at the Church of the Nativity in Blenheim. He is now the longest-serving minister in Marlborough.
Richard and Hilary Ellena have a particular love of worship, and music in worship, and during their time at the Church of the Nativity, the Sunday congregation there has grown from around 150 to 450.
Richard and Hilary Ellena have also played an active part in the wider Marlborough community – for example, he was music director of a two-week production of Les Miserables in the mid 90s, and Hilary sang one of the lead roles.
They have played in a number of other shows since then, and Richard wrote and arranged the music for The Journey, a musical composed for the new millennium to celebrate the history of Marlborough.
Richard and Hilary have two children, and Richard is expected to be consecrated as the 10th Bishop of Nelson in February next year – around the time his predecessor, Derek Eaton, with his wife Alice, resume missionary service in North Africa.
ends
1. Richard Ellena was nominated as the next Bishop of Nelson at an electoral synod held in Nelson on the 15th and 16th of September. Anglican Church rules require that this nomination is then submitted to the Bishops for approval, and then endorsed by the members of the Anglican Church General Synod in a postal ballot. The results of that ballot were officially declared last Friday, and the announcement of the new Bishop-elect was made throughout the 26 parishes of the Nelson Diocese this morning.
2. The Diocese of Nelson covers the South Island north of a line from Kumara (south of Greymouth) on the West Coast to Kaikoura on the east coast.
3. Richard Ellena is only the second Bishop of Nelson to be elected from within the diocese – the first was in 1892.
Sunday, 8 October 2006, 12:56 pm
Press Release: Anglican Church in Aotearoa
New Bishop of Nelson announced
Richard Ellena, the Archdeacon of Blenheim, has been elected as the next Anglican Bishop of Nelson.
Richard, who is 55, has been Bishop Derek Eaton’s Vicar General, or deputy, since 2002 – and he has pledged to continue to “hold high the flag of evangelical orthodoxy” during his term as the Diocese of Nelson’s 10th Bishop.
“Nelson,” he says, “is unique. It is, very strongly, an evangelical diocese. We believe in Biblical orthodoxy. I want to honour and affirm that.
“I also want to do that in a way that doesn’t isolate us. I want to be in warm communion with the other Anglican Bishops of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – while saying, at the same time: ‘This is the truth that we hold to in this diocese.’
“Bishop Derek has done this with so much grace, and I hope I can do the same.”
One of the defining characteristics of Derek Eaton’s episcopate has been the way he and his wife Alice have worked as a team in ministry – and it’s clear that this will continue with Richard and Hilary, his wife of 34 years.
Richard Ellena was born and grew up in Christchurch. His father, Vic Ellena, was the Bryndwr butcher until he became Head of Music at Burnside High School. He was also the organist and choirmaster at St Barnabas’, Fendalton, under Canon Bob Lowe.
Those musical genes flow through Richard Ellena. He has a degree in music, majoring in composition, is a multi-instrumentalist and has played in orchestras, bands and brass bands, and he has composed for, and conducted and sung in choirs. His wife shares that musical gift.
On leaving Burnside High, Richard Ellena worked briefly for the Met Service before training as a teacher and studying at the University of Canterbury.
He then taught music in high schools for 10 years – including two at St Bedes in Christchurch, and eight at Rangiora High – before beginning training for the Anglican ministry at St Johns’ College in Auckland in 1983.
Richard Ellena was ordained an Anglican priest in 1985, served his curacy at Highfield-Marchwiel (in Timaru) and was vicar of Kensington-Otipua, in south Timaru, from 1986 to 1991. He had learned Maori at St Johns’ and, at the invitation of Ngai Tahu, he taught te reo at Aoraki Polytech in Timaru.
In 1991, he was asked by Bishop Derek Eaton – who’d also grown up in Christchurch, and, as a teenager, had been a babysitter for young Richard Ellena – to move to the Nelson Diocese, to begin ministry at the Church of the Nativity in Blenheim. He is now the longest-serving minister in Marlborough.
Richard and Hilary Ellena have a particular love of worship, and music in worship, and during their time at the Church of the Nativity, the Sunday congregation there has grown from around 150 to 450.
Richard and Hilary Ellena have also played an active part in the wider Marlborough community – for example, he was music director of a two-week production of Les Miserables in the mid 90s, and Hilary sang one of the lead roles.
They have played in a number of other shows since then, and Richard wrote and arranged the music for The Journey, a musical composed for the new millennium to celebrate the history of Marlborough.
Richard and Hilary have two children, and Richard is expected to be consecrated as the 10th Bishop of Nelson in February next year – around the time his predecessor, Derek Eaton, with his wife Alice, resume missionary service in North Africa.
ends
1. Richard Ellena was nominated as the next Bishop of Nelson at an electoral synod held in Nelson on the 15th and 16th of September. Anglican Church rules require that this nomination is then submitted to the Bishops for approval, and then endorsed by the members of the Anglican Church General Synod in a postal ballot. The results of that ballot were officially declared last Friday, and the announcement of the new Bishop-elect was made throughout the 26 parishes of the Nelson Diocese this morning.
2. The Diocese of Nelson covers the South Island north of a line from Kumara (south of Greymouth) on the West Coast to Kaikoura on the east coast.
3. Richard Ellena is only the second Bishop of Nelson to be elected from within the diocese – the first was in 1892.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Word for today
in my last post about 15 minutes ago i used the word Redemeptionitis - it's pinched from Bob Mayo, here is his take on it...
"My suggestion is that youth workers are adopting some of the worst work habits of church leaders – chief among which is a tendency to overwork. The idea that working long hours is the unavoidable and only way of expressing a Christian commitment leaves youth workers and church leaders feeling tired, stressful and sometimes even resentful. Youth workers are in the dreams business, helping young people to become the person they have inside them to be. This will not happen if what youth workers end up doing and what young people end up hearing is nothing more than a thinly disguised form of duty and obligation. It is bad practice but it also emerges out of muddled doctrine – doctrine shapes behaviour in the same way that ideas affect actions. This spiritualization of busyness comes out of what I am choosing to call, ‘redemptionitis’. "
redemptionitis is what happens when the incarnation of Jesus is focused on to the exclusion of the doctrines of creation and eschatology, which changes Christian faith into activism that ultimately becomes destructive - bad theology = bad practice.
"Christians are subdivided and then reclassified according to their levels of commitment -- there are cultural Christians, believing Christians, born again Christians and then finally committed, believing, born again Christians."
Subsequnetly, the closer I get to the centre the busier I become.
"My suggestion is that youth workers are adopting some of the worst work habits of church leaders – chief among which is a tendency to overwork. The idea that working long hours is the unavoidable and only way of expressing a Christian commitment leaves youth workers and church leaders feeling tired, stressful and sometimes even resentful. Youth workers are in the dreams business, helping young people to become the person they have inside them to be. This will not happen if what youth workers end up doing and what young people end up hearing is nothing more than a thinly disguised form of duty and obligation. It is bad practice but it also emerges out of muddled doctrine – doctrine shapes behaviour in the same way that ideas affect actions. This spiritualization of busyness comes out of what I am choosing to call, ‘redemptionitis’. "
redemptionitis is what happens when the incarnation of Jesus is focused on to the exclusion of the doctrines of creation and eschatology, which changes Christian faith into activism that ultimately becomes destructive - bad theology = bad practice.
"Christians are subdivided and then reclassified according to their levels of commitment -- there are cultural Christians, believing Christians, born again Christians and then finally committed, believing, born again Christians."
Subsequnetly, the closer I get to the centre the busier I become.
Blessing of the pets and Vicarious spirituality
LAst Sunday Nelson Cathedral held their annual blessin of the pets service. My kids wnated to take the cat along but we comprimised with stuffed animals. Anyway the palce was packed - mainly with humans but closely followed by Dogs, and what a noise they made - it was great. all except for the dog sitting behind me that growled all the way through the service.
What was especaily good about it was that this is the one time many people in Nelson set foot in a church, And i want to congratulate the cathedral on creating opportunites for the average punter to do that.
In the UK at the moment the term vicarious religion has been coined to describe the spirituality of the average person, they are not anti God but do not easily or want to associate with a church except on civil or special occasions, so they look to the church to act on their behalf. It strikes me that that phenomenon isn't neccesarily a bad one, and a service like the blessing of the pets is a prime example of that.
The few miuntes silence in memory of pets that have died was particuarly touching, and serves i think as an opportunity for average non church people to encounter God, and find release.
I think one thing that also struck me about the service is that in the midst of it nothing was required of me. I could take part if i wanted to, so much of modern church life is about doing, we have to quote the Making sense of Generation Y report got mixed up in the disease of redemptionitis, focusing on saving the world before we have made connection with the world. I think if the Church is going to insist on using church services as its way of connecting with the world then we need more 'pet services'.
What was especaily good about it was that this is the one time many people in Nelson set foot in a church, And i want to congratulate the cathedral on creating opportunites for the average punter to do that.
In the UK at the moment the term vicarious religion has been coined to describe the spirituality of the average person, they are not anti God but do not easily or want to associate with a church except on civil or special occasions, so they look to the church to act on their behalf. It strikes me that that phenomenon isn't neccesarily a bad one, and a service like the blessing of the pets is a prime example of that.
The few miuntes silence in memory of pets that have died was particuarly touching, and serves i think as an opportunity for average non church people to encounter God, and find release.
I think one thing that also struck me about the service is that in the midst of it nothing was required of me. I could take part if i wanted to, so much of modern church life is about doing, we have to quote the Making sense of Generation Y report got mixed up in the disease of redemptionitis, focusing on saving the world before we have made connection with the world. I think if the Church is going to insist on using church services as its way of connecting with the world then we need more 'pet services'.
Monday, October 02, 2006
The kingdom of God is like....
I had a very posh dinner last night with my family and 16 almost complete strangers, several of them were from New Zealand but most of them were American. It was fascinating, eating can be such a private affair even in a group - we all have our individual plates individual meal, but our American hosts insisted on sharing starters and deserts. After 3 hours talking eating and enjoying the fascinating difference that we all have - my son licking the bowl, and my daughter demonstrating her burping was great, we all went our separate ways but the enjoyment and sharing I think was fore taste of the kingdom.
After a souls searching week it was a perfect dose of reality/spirituality.
On the previous post a comment was left by Willie t (I think it may be my brother in disguise as a rapper);
"seems like the question is do you follow Gods heart, or do you follow your own Michael."
And that is the point exactly, in regards to the whole church ministry/pastoring type deal I do need to follow God closely, and I think and feel that it may be time for me to return to a different type of ministry - the work force.
Not that I don't think I am cut out for pastoring, but I think I need to re find something of my self- re develop and re discover a relationship with God that is about receiving his grace and not merely helping people.
I am a proud person who always wants to do the best, I talk a lot about God's grace and in all honesty have seen God's grace at work, not only in my own life but in others. But I don't think I have drank fully enough, fully experienced it for myself enough to carry out what I think God is calling me too.
At the weekend I was reading Don Millers book - Blue like Jazz, he talks about God's grace as being like food coupons - not something we have here in NZ or England, but I know about poverty. But what he was getting at was the shame that can come with using government hand outs especially in a nation where to overcome to become someone is a national rite. That spoke to me, in God's kingdom I need to survive on food coupons, in fact we all do, no matter how self made, how good at something we are. But for me I think I am too Irish - stubborn and proud to ask for others help, others prayer, others support - I need to drink deeper of God's grace, and not the thing that we often mistake for it - self loathing. In doing that we understand more what the world needs, what I need and realize our complete in ability to provide it, but there is one who is able - Jesus.
After a souls searching week it was a perfect dose of reality/spirituality.
On the previous post a comment was left by Willie t (I think it may be my brother in disguise as a rapper);
"seems like the question is do you follow Gods heart, or do you follow your own Michael."
And that is the point exactly, in regards to the whole church ministry/pastoring type deal I do need to follow God closely, and I think and feel that it may be time for me to return to a different type of ministry - the work force.
Not that I don't think I am cut out for pastoring, but I think I need to re find something of my self- re develop and re discover a relationship with God that is about receiving his grace and not merely helping people.
I am a proud person who always wants to do the best, I talk a lot about God's grace and in all honesty have seen God's grace at work, not only in my own life but in others. But I don't think I have drank fully enough, fully experienced it for myself enough to carry out what I think God is calling me too.
At the weekend I was reading Don Millers book - Blue like Jazz, he talks about God's grace as being like food coupons - not something we have here in NZ or England, but I know about poverty. But what he was getting at was the shame that can come with using government hand outs especially in a nation where to overcome to become someone is a national rite. That spoke to me, in God's kingdom I need to survive on food coupons, in fact we all do, no matter how self made, how good at something we are. But for me I think I am too Irish - stubborn and proud to ask for others help, others prayer, others support - I need to drink deeper of God's grace, and not the thing that we often mistake for it - self loathing. In doing that we understand more what the world needs, what I need and realize our complete in ability to provide it, but there is one who is able - Jesus.
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