Equality of the sexes? where?

Here's a bit of 'holy-discontentedness':
Whats the deal with having an Army that supposedly supports equality of the sexes in Ministry, yet has a stand-alone Women's Ministry Department????
What about the men? Is there no Men's ministries? (don't try to argue the brass band line! Thats no longer acceptable!) Don't we care that men aren't being built up and discipled outside of 'banding' and leadership?

I propose that if we truly believe in equality of the sexes, we have equally-sized (staffed and funded) Men's and Women's Ministries departments (departments at THQ-level and positions at DHQ-level).

OR

We change 'Women's ministries' to 'Family ministries' and get some guys in...
Better yet, put Men's, Women's, Child Sponsorship, Playgroup ministries etc. into the Corps Programme Department (its logical!).
Then give the higher ranked Women Leaders positions that allow them to contribute to the leadership of the territory without a 'shadow' responsibility for Women's ministries.

I'm all fired up! how did we get to this place where the inequality was so blatantly obvious?
It's just not acceptable.

Come on women, step up and address this, and guys - get things happening!

400 DAYS TO GO...

400 days 'till our commissioning Witnesses!!! Today this milestone was marked by a 'fly-by' appearance from 400-man... whadda guy...

The closer we get, the more pumped I am to be 'unleashed' on the world!!! (storm-the-forts-of-darkness-style!) Gods got something huge in store for his Army... I hope I'm out in time to catch the wave!

woohoo! 400 days to go...

Let the weak say "I am Strong!"

Thanks to Pakenham Corps I had the opportunity to attend the Global Leadership Summit over the last weekend. I heard some awesome leadership insights, but I must say its pretty weird sitting in a room full of people clapping for a speaker who is on DVD! (and even funnier when the speaker asks a question and people answer! hehe!).

Aside from having a great time, I learnt some valuable lessons about how to grow as a leader. One of the most dynamic speakers we heard from was Marcus Buckingham (who works with the Gallup Poll people). He spoke about the common misconception people have - that to improve (as people and as leaders), we should work on fixing our areas of weakness.

Marcus' view was that many societies have taken this on, to the point that our children are recieving the message that the things they aren't good at are more important than the things they do really well (their strengths). What kind of people are we setting them up to be? Adults that are guilt-ridden by the fact that they aren't good enough...

How confident can a leader be in their abilities when they are living out of this paradigm???

Instead, Marcus said to build on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses. Just as we would expect Tiger Woods to work on his golf swing, instead of practicing scales on piano.

This also applies to working as a team...

Instead of trying to make every member of a team seperately well-rounded, we should realise that a team is most well-rounded when the members aren't. What this means, is that when each member is working from their strengths, the team is stronger.

Now I think that this is pretty important to us who are working with the body of Christ, in ministry teams... Lets seek to engage people in their areas of strength, use what they do well to serve the Lord! Don't try to do everything well, but work on building a team who are strong in areas where you are weak (don't forget the importance of acknowledgement, thanks and encouragement).

Personally, we each need to find our areas of strength and then get 'buff' for Jesus!

On a completely unrelated note, check out this cool photo I took at the summit...

I call it "Field of Chairs"

Uniform vs. Uniformity?

PETE : AARON : XANDER : JAMES

What an awesome bunch of fired up Salvo guys! I love that all of them are in uniform, but they're all different!
This was taken at the Prayer walk (@614) about a month ago, but I recently spent some time with them at 'Go For Souls!'... an AWESOME time! People were getting saved, we were prophesying over each other, tons of prayer for others and the lost and the Revolution band went nuts for Jesus! The Holy Spirit was really moving (you know what happens when the Holy Spirit moves... oh yeah!), heaps of people were challenged that weekend.

There's nothing like spending time with people who get you fired up for Jesus! ;o)

I officially hate Reviews!

Can't write anything about how I actually feel.
But I came awfully close to throwing myself out a window... is that too much?
College is hard.
ERGH!


P.S. I now have the self-esteem of an ant who's just been squished.

Dear Lord, please do something with me, with college, with the Army - because you know nothing will change without you. Let it be.

GO FOR SOULS - this Friday & Saturday

A local Evangelism-focussed conference - you'll find Passion, Direction, Fire, Equipping, Worship, Teaching, Zeal, Challenge, Empowerment, Vision... all THIS Friday and Saturday at Plenty Valley Salvos (cost - $10), give James a call to find out more - 9436 4681 (ask for James).

God is gonna start something huge...

How good is God!

I have way too much to write in this blog!!!! God has really blessed the socks off me! Last week was some AWESOME ministry with the kids and people out at Rochy, I was in my element and God was doing a good thing through the mission team! We had a great time.

The news today is mind-blowing (a new TP in Dec 2007), what is God up to???

Whatever it is, the Lord is getting things moving and I hope this momentum keeps up. I've had a read of the TC's dream/vision document (check it out here) and it was like fuel on the fire, I just want to get at missioning, visioning, leading and being with the people.

Our ATP Gregory Morgan has a great excerpt in JAC (from his thesis) about re-focussing educational strategy. I've pasted in a couple of my favourite quotes:

"We believe that the best educational theory confirms the fact that people learn best when learning matches the life experience of the learner. The idea that students are blank slates that come to be filled with knowledge is bad theology and even worse educational philosophy. Therefore we try to bring the experience and the learning moment together. (Frost and Hirsch 2003: 221)"

>> No one is a blank slate, everyone has experience, info and opinions to share. When it comes to cadets I think we should find ways to share our gifts and expertise to teach each other, a shared - not imposed - learning experience. For me, I've found sharing in group ministry is one of the most rewarding and richly educational experiences for me to date - experience and education.

"Do we want and need people who are socialised and identify strongly with others trained for ministry? Or do we want and need people who are socialised to society and identify with the community to which they are called in mission and ministry? A Christendom model of church can entertain the luxury of a separate class of people defined by status, however a missional church needs leaders who understand the genuine need for incarnational ministry."

>> I'm hungry for some incarnation, some community contact with the people I'm called to reach!

"[Mr.] Banks and others who share this view want the learning community of theological schools extended beyond the campus gates so that students, faculty, and administrators might experience their ministry in the context of God’s classroom – the world. Access to this world-oriented classroom would occur not after one’s degree is earned, but during the process of one’s education. The spirit behind this missional approach to theological education is found in the text of John 3:16… The context for theological education is not restricted to the classroom, but encourages us to be in the world at the same time. (2002: 54)"

>> Amen - Lord, bring it on

Mission Week 2007 - Rochester

Jo dancing to some Hillsong Kids tracks...

Our Mission Week (campaign) team has been having an awesome and extremely busy time buzzing around Rochester, Kyabram and Echuca getting involved in ministry to country people. We've spent a huge amount of time preparing and running a holiday program in Rochester a drought-affected area. During the 3-day program, we impacted 66 kids! (in Rochy, thats a pretty great turn-out!). Our program was Superhero-themed and we shared about Moses, Esther and Jesus - how they were able to do super things through God. We also helped the kids to realise that this same 'super' God wants to be their friend too! It was great to see the kids blossom over the time we were with them, they were a gorgeous bunch of kids to spend time with! A weekly kids church will begin at Rochester Salvos very soon, we pray that the kids we met will be drawn even closer to God through this awesome initiative! Please pray that the leaders will be given divine energy to keep the fun and God-focus happening!

Praise the Lord for all he's done this week!

God-man & Speed-Demon at it again....