Easter - Jesus died for YOU! Get to know him!

Whew! What a whirlwind that Easter was! Pete & I had opportunity to share a Good Friday "preview" at Sunrise last Thursday (Chapel). Pete laid the "Jesus died for you" message right out there on the line, answered a bunch of questions the guys had and challenged them to take Jesus as their life-saver... The classic line used to preach the gospel was "God is like KFC, we can't just walk up and take the chicken, there is a person we need to go through to get to the chicken (Jesus as a check-out chick with a difference!). The guys really connected with that one!

That night (Thursday) we went to a Passover meal at Darwin Corps, more than a hundred people rocked up! It was awesome to explore that last meal Jesus had, which he celebrated as a Jew and we can now recognise as a way to celebrate Jesus himself as the promised Messiah! (Messiah=a saving leader the Jews have been expecting for thousands of years, many recognised it was Jesus, others are still waiting to this day!).

Friday saw the kick-off of the NT Youth Easter Camp, we went to church (the Drama was awesome! that couple who were acting... second to none! hehe), then stayed out at Howard Springs at "Camp Beazley" (really a big property where the Beazleys live, they were great hosts). Camping out in tents during the wet season was a huge experience - we had two ridiculous rain storms, one which blew a big marquee tumbling across the yard! Only one person's bed got wet in the storms (guess who! grrr).
I spun-out at the go-karts (going too fast), Pete looked hilarious in his full-face helmet and one of the girls crashed while she was too busy waving! The Beazley's pool was well-used by all, especially the Melbournians! (it was HOT!). During the camp we learnt about prayer, justice and were challenged in our understanding of Jesus death and ressurrection - what did that mean personally?
The Camp Leaders had a rocking prayer meeting where the power of the Holy Spirit fell - everyone was amazed by God as leaders knelt, faces to the floor in prayer for the campers. The last night we sat round a campfire and shared about what camp meant to each of us, talked about Jesus' impact on our lives and how life from now on could be different, we could feel the Holy Spirit was there and active!

Where to from camp? We've invited the kids to our Sunday night Revolution Group, an opportunity to go deeper in learning and experiencing what it means to be a Revolutionary for God.

Monday Pete and I hung out at home, caught up on some sleep and reading, then Tuesday slept in some more and after lunch spent some time praying with one of the Sunrise guys that God is really working on (*please pray for him*). Afterwards we did the afternoon shift at Sunrise Homeless Mens accommodation.

Only a week to go here at Sunrise, then on to Darwin Corps... time is really flying by!

A final thought (as shared at Sunrise devotions today):

We can know OF people, we can know ABOUT people and we can KNOW people.
Do you know OF Jesus? Know ABOUT Jesus? or KNOW Jesus?

Because Jesus KNOWS YOU!!! - see Psalm 139!

So you think you can PREACH?

Macleod last night, 5 preachers "pitted against" a congregation of young people in a battle for Salvation & Holiness....

Preachers drew a preaching topic out at random and had five minutes to prepare before letting loose on the young people. Topics and Preachers were:

Alana - Trinity
Amazing for a first-time preacher! She had a go at a tough topic and ripped through it in record time! Keep an eye out for this young woman, she's got it!

Pete - Salvation
Shared his extreme passion for souls from a passage in Luke 4 - the bit with Jesus reading from Isaiah. Challenged the youth to lay down their sin before God and step into new life with Christ!

Jo - Worship
I brought a notebook with me to scribble notes on, as I opened it, found I'd scratched out some notes & bible verses on worship ages ago! (praise the Lord!). Preached also from Isaiah 58, using an out of tune guitar as an illustration for our worship being out of tune with God's desire for worship!

James - Holiness
Typical of Jamsie to get his favourite topic! This crafty guy organised a 'backing track' with the band, rocking it out with some holiness passion and laying down truth so thick we didn't know what hit us!

Tish - Choices
Man this girl has a seriously quick brain! She chucked in about 15 verses on choices and gave us the low-down on our choice between wisdom and foolishness.

The "all-in challenge" saw all 5 preachers up the front backed by the band, and being led by the Spirit in challenging some radical response. Tell you what, we saw some serious sanctification happening at the foot of the cross! A massive night for youth, by youth (yay Sarah McIver! love you!), this definitely has to be done again and reproduced across the world!!!!

Songs for the Revolution

Here's my short-list of songs to keep you pumped for the fight...

Casting Crowns - "What if His people prayed"
Casting Crowns - "If we are the Body"
The Inhabited - "Revolution"
Switchfoot - "Dare you to move"
The Lads - "Favourite Time"

"Love is the movement, love is a revolution.
This is redemption, we don't have to slow back down."
Switchfoot - "Love is the movement"

Group 1 Crew - "A lot in common"
David Crowder Band - "Undignified"
Hip Hop Praise - "Liteshine (declaring war)"
Superchick - "One-girl revolution"
Superchick - "Get up"

"Make a move 'cause talk is really cheap.
You'll never start a revolution in your sleep.
Showing love to everyone is what It's all about."
Stellar Kart - "Activate"

Casting Crowns - "Every man"
Casting Crowns - "What this world needs"
Hillsong - "Hosanna"
Hillsong - "None but Jesus"
Hillsong - "Soldier"

There's something about a good song with passionate lyrics that stirs you up inside, gets you excited, uncomfortable, ready for action... Our revolution generation needs more anthems for the fight... got any other awesome songs up your sleeve???

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)

Uniform vs. Uniformity

Yet again the question is raised... can the young salvos of today, especially Generation Y, be committed to wearing Salvation Army uniform? It's a monster question that raises its' head along with the endless cycle of debate around brass bands, timbrels, relevance of methods, social vs ministry etc...

Of course it's not young people who are asking the question (sorry), they aren't asking it because they don't see the relevance. Young people love uniforms, there's no doubt! Young people love to express themselves... uniform was designed partially as a visual expression of the Salvation Army, a way for people to align to a belief 'subculture'. Look at a young person on a night out and you see an expression of their personal style, their tastes, their subculture... have a look at their myspace page to see (& hear) their cultural "evangelizing", promoting their unique tastes and sharing their worldviews.

So open the wardrobe of the loudest and gutsiest young Salvos... in it you'll find red shields, modified uniform jackets, salvo badges (shameless plug).. all screaming "I AM THE SALVATION ARMY". Their everyday clothes carry an expression of their do-or-die faith, an affiliation to their movement and a commitment to a world-winning cause.

Salvos care so much about uniform-wearing because it communicates who we are.... or does it? Are we on about communicating? or is it really about uniformity?
I love wearing salvo uniform... but the 'official' uniform is understated and too 'respectable'... Navy blues look smart and different enough for people to take notice... but lets get practical, down here in AUS where we wear white shirts most of the year, we tend to look more like security guards than anything else!! (due to the white "S" on each shoulder being the most visible logo on the uniform). Slap an inoffensive, unobtrusive logo on a polo shirt, a jacket... does that better communicate The Salvation Army for all to see?....

NO! ...emblazon the red shield on my clothing (full-front, in-yer-face red t-shirt) and I'll be happy! the shield is recognized world-wide, it opens doors... people know you're a salvo from 500m away! Anything I do while wearing my red shirt is burned into the retinas of community members, as THE work of the Salvation Army.

I love wearing my uniform. It's an extension of my burning heart for this movement and the mission it represents... Transforming lives, caring for people, making disciples and reforming society... in the name of Jesus. What an awesome responsibility, to represent God and our movement. I believe we can trust our young people with that... no matter what it looks like.

Church x 5

I went to 5 services last Sunday... FIVE!

That's pretty extreme, even for a Cadet, but you know what? I didn't get bored, didn't get sick of hearing about God, meeting with His people or getting into worship!

But really, what's the point of all this church stuff? As much as I love it all, sometimes I wonder at how much time we actually spend on preparing a service. Whether its worth the effort if our focus is on the wrong things. Could we we better use our time in the community? reaching new people for Christ? Or do we just need a renewed idea of what 'church' is really about?

I haven't formulated any real answers for myself as to what church should look like (believers meeting together) or how I should go about enabling worship. But I find myself very uncomfortable with anything that smacks of 'performance'... instead, yearning for the 'authentic' when meeting with other Christians in church settings.

Of the five services I went to, I still found myself drawn to the younger, informalish, "authenticity-chasing"-type service, where people don't take themselves too seriously, but seriously worship the Lord and seriously seek to make their faith real in the everday.

But.... praise the Lord for variety in the Body of Christ!!!!

Dreams and Visions

The night before last night I had a dream, one of those dreams that wake you up because they're so different to reality that you just know it can't be real (which is sad in this case!).

Anyway, I was dreaming about normal stuff, I was the leader of a youth event and the kids wanted to grab some food from the supermarket. They were all lined up with their goodies at the register when I ran in to tell everyone to get moving, because Jesus was coming and we had to get to a specific place (not sure where). I ran back outside and the entire sky was glowing, mostly bright reddy-pink like a sunset, but also half-covered with rainbow upon rainbow, upon rainbow.... It seems kinda weird, but I had this new 'gift' where I could run super-fast and I ran all over the place letting people know they had to come to the place where Jesus was going to be. Then I woke up... it was one of those dreams you want to 'get back into'...

Now this is completely unscriptural as far as dreams go... perhaps I had had one too many conversations about "the end of the world" or seen one too many movies about superpowers, BUT...

Last night at Waverley Salvos Youth service ('Fusion' @ 8pm).... I was blown away...

It was a great service, with a great message - "is Jesus the MOST important?"

Heaps of kids were responding with prayer while "None but Jesus" was playing on CD, when BOOM! the dream smacked me in the head. I suddenly understood part of what it meant...

I still have a huge heart to see young people saved.... to see them run after Jesus.... and to see God do the miraculous in our world. My job? run around everywhere as fast as I can to tell everyone to get ready, to get "in the right place" for when Jesus returns.

Whoa, what a challenge.

Are you ready? he won't be long...

"When the last days come, I will give my Spirit to everyone. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams. In those days I will give my Spirit to my servants, both men and women, and they will prophesy. I will work miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will turn dark, and the moon will be as red as blood before the great and wonderful day of the Lord appears. Then the Lord will save everyone who asks for his help."

ACTS 1:17-21

This Easter...

I'm an "easter person" - I love that Jesus died for my sins and was risen from death - bringing an opportunity for everyone to experience his saving love! Our TC ('Jimmy' Knaggs), spoke tonight about being 'easter people' and living not for dead things, but for the real life found only in Jesus. Today is Easter Sunday and we celebrate Jesus' being risen from death, its the most awesome day of the year for Christians to celebrate the joy and the hope we have for the future, Jesus is alive and working in our lives today!!!! (Yipee, Hooray!)

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!"
Luke 24:5-6 (Angels speaking to the women at the tomb)

It wasn't really part of the sermon, but while I was listening to TC Jim, I began to think about how I'm always on about the Salvation Army becoming a powerfully passionate movement once again, its a pretty awesome thing to think about, because we need to challenge the status quo when the Holy Spirit prompts a change...
BUT... life's all about JESUS! If I become engrossed in the systems and politics of the Salvos as an organisation, I'm kinda of missing God's calling for me! God wants me to bring focus and glory to him, not to people. The Salvation Army is great in the vision it provides, but without Jesus, it is also a dead thing, because life is found in Christ alone.

In the mish-mash of Easter events I went to this year (Rosebud corps, MCD Easter Camp, Divisional Youth celebration @ Waverley), I've been blown away by something I've seen and heard...

Jesus is alive (YAY!) and at work in the Salvation Army!!!
Young adults, youth and children have a vital part to play in the next 'chapter' of Jesus' mission to the world. I'm seeing more young people, more fired up, more passionate, more equipped than ever before... they are being handed the tools for the work openly and being truly trusted with the responsibility of bringing the gospel to the streets (Hallelujah! thanks Jim!). The people of the world see our young people actively loving the community and they LOVE it!!!! What an opportunity for us to bring the gospel back to where it belongs, out in the open, free for all!!!!

A 'force' of young people is rising up for Jesus.... I say its a REVOLUTION!!!!!!!

Thank you Jesus!