Monthly Archives: May 2014

Quick review: Ministry in Disaster Settings

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Ministry in Disaster Settings Lessons from the edgeMinistry in Disaster Settings Lessons from the edge by Stephen Robinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good read for anyone doing Christian ministry (paid or unpaid). The book began with interviews with chaplains involved in very stressful settings: the Granville Train Disaster, Kempsey Bus Crash, Port Arthur Massacre, and Thredbo Landslide.

These stories draw us in from the start of the book, which then goes on to reflect on a number of areas: the nature of ministry in these tough circumstances; theological reflections; tips and lessons.

This is all great stuff. It’s full of important observations. It illustrates the varied types of response people make, as well as varying kinds of support given to chaplains (and others). The appendices alone are a most useful resource. Three appendices I think I will return to address symptoms common in emergency response workers, what it means to defuse, and what it means to debrief.

There are two criticisms I have of the book. Please only read these if I’ve convinced you that it’s a very good book and worth reading!

First, the interviews and reflection are grounded in disasters. That is, exceptional situations of chaos and mayhem. Yet the conclusions are applied equally to general emergency work. As a volunteer ambulance chaplain, I am naturally interested in these conclusions and lessons. But I think there needs to be more effort put into explaining how lessons from ‘big trauma’ are applicable to everyday emergency service work. I suspect there is connection and similarity – along with significant difference. A disaster, I’d guess, is more than a scaled-up everyday emergency.

Secondly, I wish that theological reflection in Christian circles had more depth when speaking of incarnational ministry. This book did as I’ve seen often: ‘Jesus became flesh, that’s a model for us.’ It has become a simplistic ministry cliché, bypassing the theology of Jesus’ two natures, of creator taking on aspects of creation, etc. If we use such a high-powered theology to justify care for neighbour it doesn’t improve our care, but seems to water down the theology. I can feel a hobby-horse coming on, so will stop there …

Overall: a good book, worth reading, and full of reflection on caring for those confronted with trauma.


 

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The gospel in two points

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The Christian announcement – the gospel – centres on Jesus. That’s the simple and joyful reality.

The Christian message also is beautiful and profound, open to expression in a rich variety of ways. After all, there are four New Testament gospels.

The simple complexity of Jesus’ truth means there are many, many great ways to speak truly about Jesus. I love that! And have a quick two point option to throw into the mix.

  1. We all judge Jesus as worthy of death
  2. God invites us to share his own view of Jesus, as Lord

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The events of Jesus’ life were remarkable: teaching, wonders, healing, gaining followers and enemies. Without doubt, Jesus’ impact came to its pinnacle in Easter week.

Jesus’ death at Easter was caused by … everybody.

Disciples abandoned Jesus or became traitor. Religious leaders condemned Jesus. The crowds who followed these leaders easily agreed to call for execution. And the world’s power, exemplified through Roman law, decided death was the only option for Jesus.

But God raised Jesus.

So now Jesus is alive. God’s view of Jesus has been established for all time: Jesus is the ruler of God’s people, and Lord of the world.

Thankfully, we can recant from our mis-judgement of Jesus. We can repent, and trust Jesus’ for forgiveness and new life.

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The biblical material I have in mind for this two point outline is mainly the preaching of Acts. Here are some of the verses from Acts, so you can test and see it this two point gospel is a fair summary.

Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
(2:23-24)

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
(2:36)

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.
(3:13)

let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead– by him this man is standing before you well.
(4:10)

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear
(10:39-40)

And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead
(13:29-30)

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
(17:30-31)

[Testifying] that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.
(26:23)


 

YOLO? YODO!

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I started a sermon talking about YOLO, one of those trendy abbreviations perfectly suited to electronic communication.

YOLO: you only live once. That’s the simple meaning, the set of words that match each letter. But, of course, the saying has more than mere words. YOLO arrives with a feel, an attitude, and an implicit spur to action.

And that spur is towards folly. “I decided to jump, because, you know, #YOLO.” “Yeah, maybe that was dumb, but #YOLO.”

As I said in the sermon, the reality of only one life is a strange excuse for activity likely to end life early.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

So I suggest an alternative, an alternative direct from Jesus’ upside-down invitation into true life. He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” To follow Jesus – which is life itself! – is to accept the invitation to die.

My alternative: YODO, you only die once.

Since we only die once, make it a good death. Make it a real death, death to self. Make it a worthwhile death, from following Jesus not following the crowd.

Will this catch on as the latest hashtag? Of course not! But I’m not worried, because, like, #YODO.

 


 

Warning! Volunteer week

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It’s National Volunteer Week.

I am grateful and comforted by community volunteering. I can call the SES if winds damage my house. Volunteer coaches help my kids at sport. Dedicated locals provide food and a friendly face to those in need. People go into classrooms to assist those troubled in reading. The list of volunteering positions is endless.

It’s great to say thanks to generous volunteers.

Churches are places of some of the most intense volunteering. Paid ministers get ‘seen’, but the hugest effort is voluntary: praying, visiting, feeding, setting up, administering, teaching, singing, encouraging, inviting … Thank you to all faithful volunteers. And thanks to God who equips and strengthens all his servants.

But there’s danger. Christian ministry has to be careful not to adopt all the practices of National Volunteer Week.

In particular, we should be wary of what heaps of volunteers say when pushed in front of a microphone. Again and again people urge us to volunteer because, ‘You will gain so much from the experience.’ The message? Volunteer because you will benefit: fun, friends, skill development, teamwork, contacts, meaning, and purpose. All these will be yours! Who knows where volunteering will take you?

If this were to become a common Christian way of motivating volunteers, then we will have stopped being Christian.

The gospel message is of grace, freely given. God’s gift is not a purchase or transaction for mutual benefit – it’s all of him. Grace is not the same as making a bank deposit – allowing the bank our money for a while so we can gain interest.

Jesus said, ‘It’s more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). Current inspiration to volunteer communicates, ‘If you give a bit you’ll receive heaps.’ There’s a world of difference between these two ways. The first is gospel, for it lives out grace. The second is essentially selfish.

If you are a Christian volunteer, and if you invite others to volunteer, make it gospel-shaped volunteering: give without seeking a return, give love to others freely and abundantly.

 


 

Dead world on the cross

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But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14

In both old and new testaments we’re reminded: Don’t boast. The good of knowing God has nothing to do with our goodness. It’s all of God, all of grace. The anti-boast warning is clear in the verse quoted above, with Paul using himself as the example.

But what about the second part of this verse? How is the world crucified?

The cross of Christ is central to Christianity. Jesus died, in accord with the Father’s will, to free a people from sin. No wonder the cross is Christianity’s prime symbol.

Even from the earliest days, the cross was never only about Jesus. The gospel narratives mention the men crucified with Jesus (Matthew 27:44, Mark 15:32, John 19:32). This crucified with description is also applied to believers (Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:19). So it’s not out of the blue to read of Paul being ‘crucified to the world’.

But I am surprised to notice that the world is crucified to Paul. How could the world be crucified? It’s mutual (both crucified to each other), so I think Paul says that the whole relationship between world and believer is revolutionised.

In relation to a believer, the world is shamed, disgraced, and broken.

The world is shamed because crucifixion is disgusting. A cross was always public humiliation. Though Jesus submitted to the cross, it’s the world that is shamed because of Jesus’ innocence and glory.

‘The world did that to the Son of the promise! What a shameful place.’

The world is disgraced because the cross proves worldly salvation foolish. Galatian Christians were tempted to follow worldly ways of salvation (in 6:15, circumcision laws are lumped in with the crucified world). In other words, followers of Christ were considering following the patterns of the world that hated Christ.

‘The world promises me life by its laws, but this world gave death to my Lord. I’m keeping well away.’

The world is broken by Christ’s cross. Before knowing life, we were enslaved by the world’s principles (Galatians 4:3). The cross sets us free – the world’s power over us is snapped.

‘Every day I lived under the world was oppression. But I love being part of the new creation.’

The practical question this leaves us with is this: where do we yet cling to the world, instead of casting it away as dead?