chocolate petiton online

for those who would like to they can sign our chocolate petition on line at online petition

If you do decide to print of the petition then please send it to the following address:
60 Minutes
Private Bag 92624
Symonds Street,
Auckland

or you can fax it to:
09 366-5904

on August 23rd, 2007 which is UNESCO day for the remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

If you do not have clue what the petition is about then read this...


"We are doing this because the only guilt we want to feel about our chocolate consumption is that we have eaten far too much...”

tHEOBLOBY: Blood Chocolate

tHEOBLOBY: Blood Chocolate

Blood Chocolate

Here in our Region we are working on a petition that we want to send to the producers of 60 minutes in the hope that we can get them to investigate the source of the coco beans that are used in the manufacture of Chocolate here in NZ.
The reason we are doing this is because we want to do something that will (1) help people focus on the issue of modern slavery (2) we want people to be more ethical and thoughtful in what they consume (3) because we want to eat chocolate with a 'relatively clean' conscience knowing that it is slave free chocolate and the only guilt we feel is knowing we have eaten far too much.

If you're reading this we would love you to join us, and set up and distribute your own petition,
you can download the petition here
And if you want to read more or watch some video's as to why we might want Slave Free Chocolate then follow this link.

Hope you will join us in this, if you would like to post a link to the petition we would love you to do that too, just leave a comment to let us know.

Thanks

Evan Almighty...

Just come across the web site to this new movie Evan Almighty, obviously a sequel to Bruce Almighty, but they are trying to also promote being carbon neutral, apparently the movie itself is the first one made with a zero carbon footprint, what they are also doing is encouraging people to do Random Acts of Kindness. It's the sort of thing you look at and think why isn't the Church doing this... Well it seems that behind it are quite a few Christians, the people Youth Specialties for one . From what i can gather Evan is called by God to build an ark to save people from the coming flood - sound familiar. Should be a great
Check out Ark Almighty too to see how the movie can be used in your church...

Evangelism? 3 B's and formation

Just had an interesting conversation with a few colleagues about what works in evangelism. While we didn't come up with much that works we did a fair bit of discussion around the issues.
For my part I want to say that:

• I think Evangelism has always got to be scene as part of the same continuum as discipleship
• The churches understanding of Good News is often confused as Bad News, the idea that it is only good news because of God's judgment strikes me as stating the obvious. I think the majority of people are aware that there is something wrong - while they may not know what is they do no that they need a way out - Jesus - Good News.
• Programs like Alpha work because they are about discipleship more than evangelism - in the fact that they help people who are fringe understand the faith.
• Programs also work because they help the average Church person focus on others.
• God is the supreme evangelist, too often we can run programs to evangelise and run them as if God does not exist. God is alive and well and at work in this world (hence my church sign, Jesus has left the building).
• Too easily church people generationaly forget why the Church exists, and why we are there. We are the church of Acts and need to remind ourselves of that, We need to remember our story of why we exist and who for.

Another thing that has struck me late was how much our methods of evangelism do not reflect the current paradigm of the 3 B's (Belief, Behave and Belong). If as is suggested the old paradigm put Behave before Belief and Belong. then it stand to reason that we don't need to keep telling people the story of why we exist, why we do what we do in the church, because in taking part in it we will learn to understand it. But since we are living in an age where Belong and Belief will proceed Behave we need to look at ways in which we can help people to belong more, and to do something about this behave barrier since understanding a group is a key part of feeling as though you belong to the group. Of course in the last 15 years or so the Church has been doing that, seekers services being a prime example of making Church more comfortable - and easier place to belong too. But maybe rather than dumbing down we should be forming and shaping people more - a catechumanate type arrangement.

In terms of what we do in Church I think we need to 'educate' new people about why the Church is like it is, why we do what we do. Maybe Alpha needs a few Church culture sessions, that explain why a particular Church worships in this way.

Maybe Churches could offer programs (if we are to do programs) that unpack the mysteries of Church worship. It would have to be done with no strings attached but I suspect people are nosey about what goes on in the Church, I think that is one of the major reasons as to why the DaVinci Code was so popular, as it attempted to unpack the mystery.

A few years back I took a young adults group through a book I was reading "why bother with Church", by Simon Jones, over about 8 weeks we stripped the whole thing back to try and understand why we did, to recapture the Story - for me it was brilliant - i felt as though this was something I could more belong too and I suspect that the young people involved felt that too.

Church Signs....

I have always loved church signs, and wanted to make one. The ususal approach is to put either some arrogant commnets on them, some irrelevant comments on them or soemthing that makes absolutely no sense to the average person on the street, such as the short lived sign that arose on one of our churches "we are biblical and evangelical", to which I wanted to add "and who cares".

Well thanks to the wonders of modern technology I get to make a sign - hope it makes you giggle .

To make your own click on the link

Transgender kids, the church and sexual theology

Last night there was a really interesting doco on Transgender children, It told the story of three kids who all suffer from gender identity disorder. These are kids who believe they were 'born in the wrong body', and who have all gone through a process of dare I use the term being born again, into what they believe is there psychological gender. I have heard of adults who have done this and read the articles in the women's mags (purely for research...and gossip), and scene some of the scary photo's too, but never encountered it with Children. My first instinct then was to dismiss it as parents making the boy into the girl they always wanted, but to see the anguish on the faces of the parents of one six year old boy/girl and the mourning of their lost little boy, who finds themselves wanting and feeling that they are a girl certainly changed my opinion.
Though cases like this are rare they do exist and in Samoan culture they seem to be recognised in people referred to as fafafine. But what about the Church?
If ever there were families that need the love of God, a large dose of his grace and the transforming/accepting power of redemption in Christ it is these families but I suspect that if there peers reject them, then the Church would probably reject them more - I hope not. Why? because we seem to have an obsession with sex, and it's a reflection I think of our society's obsession with sex too. I would suggest that a major reason that this disorder made the doc because of society's sexual obsession, the same obsession labels people like this as outcasts and freaks.

It brings me back to Genesis, and the words of Moses, that when they had eaten of the tree of knowledge of they realised they were naked and were ashamed. I wonder if we could strip back and overcome this shame whether it would alter our understanding of sex and sexual identity, I suspect it won't happen this side of eternity, but in the mean time we need to be praying for kids like this, not that they come right, but rather that they become whole, and that people can whole heartedly accept them for who they are.

As a youth worker who works with kids who are forming and understanding who they are, I cannot be too quick to judge, but need to be able to demonstrate compassion, and stickability, that what ever strange, unsual or even normal behaviour a young person goes through they may or may not decide that is who they are, but in eternity we will be whole, we will be transformed, we will loose our obsession.

Retreat again....

The Diocese staff, of which i am a part are of on retreat again.... this will by my 4th retreat in 6 weeks. I am looking forward to business as usual when this retreat exercise type thing is over....