Author Archives: ian

About ian

TSCF Team Leader Palmerston North

How to fit in at uni

Leave a reply
Puffy jacket

If you’re nervous about fitting in at uni then take Ian’s top 5 tips and you’ll be sorted in no time.

1. You must get a black puffy jacket. It doesn’t matter if you’re a male or a female you must have one. Get down to Kathmandu right now because without it you will be ostracised from the community. Remember it must be black.  Don’t let them try to sell you any other colour, remember black like the Palmy winter skies.  Did I say that it had to be black?

2. Football shorts. You need to buy a pair of NRL football shorts preferably the Melbourne Storm or Brisbane Broncos. If you can’t find them then the two tone Canterbury shorts are fine.  When asked if you like the team you must deny that you even know anything about any form of rugby.

3. Gumboots. Buy the sturdiest gumboots you can find and then wear them everywhere.  Trust me it’s cool.  It’s Saturday night and you’re getting ready to go out.  Don’t put on your Clarke’s or Hush Puppies.  Give your gumboots a wash down, slap them on and your ready for the town.

So we have our clothing all sorted.  How about recreational activities?  Well here is my top tip.

4. Go to one fitness class during the year.  While there get in the way of everyone else.  At the end of the class promise your friends that you all have to come every week and then never turn up again.  Now you can say to everyone that you go to the gym.  A very necessary phrase if you want to fit in.

How about when the weather gets warmer?  I’ve got you covered.

5. Make sure you have your singlet (for guys) and bikini (for girls) ready at all times.  When the temperature rises above 15c in Spring you’re going to want to rip off that puffy jacket and flaunt that pasty skin of yours.  Chuck on your singlet or bikini and walk around pretending that it’s the Gold Coast.  Don’t worry about the goosebumps on your arms they’re cool.  There is also no need to worry when your about to die of hypothermia just chuck that puffy jacket back on and you’ll be right to go again in 10-12 hours.

So there are my 5 top tips for fitting in at uni.  Stay tuned for more to come.

Prayer and News Update – January 2013

Leave a reply
Us

Well that was 2012. What to say about last year? Like every year there was some highs and some lows. There has been some new experiences and some failures (on my part). I know it’s a busy time of the year so here are some brief reflections:

The highlights

The highlights have to be the students that I get to work with. It is a real privilege to be able to input into young people’s lives (that’s something that I hopefully won’t forget). There are lots of students that I’d like to tell you about and lots of things that we did but I won’t. Let me briefly tell you about three outstanding young people that I’ve been working with.

Jan is the president of the Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) and just finished her second year of Vet. Like so many Vets and so many at OCF Jan comes from Malaysia. Since Jan has been here she has seen two of her friends become Christians. She is keen to see more of her friends come to know Jesus. She has done an excellent job in setting the vision for the OCF next year and it will be exciting to see how they try to reach international students with the gospel.

Charles is the president of the Massey Uni Christian Fellowship (MUCF). Charles’ older brother Nick brought him along to say hello at Market Day at the start of the year. Charles was like any first year who has just arrived on campus, sheepish. Through my strong coercion Charles joined a small group, although it was Charles and 5 ladies he hung in there. He came along to our mid-year conference and after that we met up weekly to read through 1 Thessalonians (and then 2 Thessalonians). Part way through the second half of the year I encouraged Charles to think about being president of MUCF. He willingly agreed and was voted in by the other students. It’s encouraging to see young people like Charles want to take the gospel to the campus. He is keen to see his friends come to know Jesus and be grown himself.

Thirdly there is Kerry. Kerry is going to be doing an internship under me next year. Kerry has been heavily involved with MUCF over the last few years and has really grown through it. It is an exciting opportunity to be able to input into a young person’s life in a more formal way. I’m looking forward to it and I’m excited to see Kerry learn and grow. Although I may need to do more of the growing than Kerry.

The low-lights
There have definitely been less low-lights this year compared to last year but still it is good to reflect on things that I haven’t done well or have failed to do. The biggest regret this year has to do with a first year girl. She had only been a Christian for a few weeks and was living in a hall on campus. She was pretty keen to come along to Bible study and check out what else was going on. She came to a few things but then I pushed her a bit too hard and she stopped coming. It was disappointing and a lesson learnt. It’s hard to know when to strongly encourage students to join things and when to relax and allow them come along naturally. Hopefully I won’t make that mistake again but in all likelihood I will.

The family
Our family continues to grow in different ways. The boys upwards, me outwards and Erin more beautiful. The year has been hectic but which year isn’t?

Judah is starting to walk and is saying a few words. He is growing into a little boy and is always so happy except when his brother is sitting on his head (which happens more often than you would think).

Boaz is as strong willed as ever. Living in New Zealand means that he spends a lot of time outdoors. He loves going to kindy and has made lots of good friends there. We are really thankful for his teachers and we are praying that God might give us opportunities to share and live out the gospel with the families involved there.

Erin has been working a little, studying a little and training a lot. It has been a much more settled year here for us and we are really feeling much more at home. We have come to appreciate how much we have here and the opportunities it brings. Erin has been leading a woman’s Bible Study at church and has enjoyed working her way through Ephesians.
I’m still moving along as normal. I’ve enjoyed a bit of a break over summer. The intensity of student ministry takes its toll and I needed time to recharge and reflect. I enjoyed my swim across the Auckland harbour and a 5km swim in Lake Taupo. I’m looking forward to training for a few more open water swims.

The year ahead
This year holds lots of uncertainties. Will we be able to gather new students? Will we be able to find new leaders? Will the clouds ever clear? There are lots of things that we could worry about but ultimately they don’t matter. We know that God is bringing about His will on earth as it is in heaven. We serve Him for His glory and not our own.

We hope that you have had a great Christmas and a restful New Year. Thank you for your prayers and support over the last two years (and even longer). We are very thankful for your generosity and thank you for standing with us as we together serve God.

good_news

What is your gospel?

Leave a reply
Good news

Christians go on and on about how ‘gospel’ means good news.  Well it does.  And it’s great that we are on about good news.  Who wants to listen to someone who always has bad news?  For many of us though we know the gospel’s content but struggle to see gospel impact in our lives.  I want to propose that the issue is that we have mixed up the gospel with our gospel.

Everyone has a gospel.  If you are living then you have a gospel.  All of us believe in some form of good news that shapes our lives.  Something that we hold dearly, something that we think if we hold onto it will lead to the good life.  Driscoll calls them functional saviours, Keller calls them idols, I call them gospels.

There is a small diagnostic test to work what your gospel is.  What is it that you spend all your time thinking and talking about?  It could be work, sport, church, theology, relationships, anything.  Whatever it is you talk about that is likely to be your gospel.  That is your good news for the world.  Now I’m not saying that talking about any of those things is somehow evil but when those things are not used in service of the gospel then they become our gospel.  It’s ironic that we can use things that look like they’re holy and use them for ourselves.  Theology is a particular example.  We can tell everyone that one particular theological perspective is right and that they must hold it and for our efforts to never serve the gospel.  It serves ourselves because we think we are ‘right with God’ when we have right theology.  The good news of the gospel is the opposite to this.  It is never about me and how it serves me but it is about someone else and how we can serve him.  It is about Jesus being Lord.  Those other things work, sport, church and theology only become good when they are used in service of the real gospel and don’t become good news in themselves.

I need to keep watching what I spend my time thinking and talking about because I know that I’m constantly slipping into thinking that these other things will bring the good life.  I need to be reminded all the time to spend my time on the gospel, the good news that Jesus is Lord.

A friend of thought

Leave a reply
Mad scientist

Over the last few months I have seen a number of articles on the Friends of Science lobbying universities about them issuing degrees in areas of alternative health. There arguments sound reasonable. Only areas that have a proven and tested basis should be able to award degrees.

When you dig down though this argument has lots of problems. Immediately it raises questions such as: When did universities become the mouthpiece for science and Western rationalism? How will anything ever be tested outside of this scientific model? How about degrees in areas that are not testable?

If this were to go ahead pretty much every degree would have to be dropped including many reputable science degrees. I know they are not asking for universities to stop degrees across other areas of study but their argument extends further than science. I’ve got two degrees one in Commerce and one in Theology. Both of these are two theoretical degrees with no way to firmly test what you study. Accounting (which is my major) is just an accepted system that has been imposed on Western civilizations. If you try to understand a Japanese or a Chinese balance sheet coming from what I learnt then you would think that these accountants were from another planet (although most people think that we are any way).

Universities should be a place where different theories and ideas can be explored. Even if they are wrong and dangerous.  Instead of trying to stop research and thought the scientific community should welcome it.  If their model is right then this would strengthen their theories rather than detract.  I feel that science has become what it hates. They bemoan the Church of the Middle Ages and its so-called suppression of the sciences. Now science has become that church. Will people look back in a few hundred years and be appalled at what they see in our day? That science has tried to close down all arguments by their ultra-rationalistic approach leaving no room for discussion.

I work with universities students and the thing that characterizes universities at the moment is their lack critical thought.  Research is only funded by companies who can get a benefit out of it, students can only afford to study a degree that will get them a job.  What have we ended up with? Commercially motivated universities and students.  We need to break out of this and invest well in universities and allow them to be the places that they should be.  Places of learning and ideas.  Dangerous places where the norms get challenged and the world shaped by these new ideas.

 

Stickman

Sticking it to the man

Leave a reply
Stickman

Everyone needs a man to fight. I don’t mean a physical person but an idealised enemy that we stand against. It helps create our identity and define us. It is so often the case that we stand united with others until our war is won and then turn against them when it is over because they become the new enemy.

This is never more true than in Christianity. We stand hand-in-hand fighting for the gospel or theological truth and once that is over we turn against each other because of some theological nuance or along denomoninational lines. Such is life.

This being the case it means that every generation that proceeds us will try to fight us. Either they will say that we are wrong all together and reject our faith or they will react against us and head off into some error. It is true that each generation much teach the next (a quote from Kung Fu Panda). If we try to get them to fight our fight we will lose them. It will be irrelevant and pointless to them and we will become the man to fight. What must we teach them then? We must teach them to fight. Their fight will not be our fight but that is what they need to be taught. They need to learn what the important things are that they need to fight for and they need to learn how to fight. I don’t really have any suggestions about how to do this I just see the need to do it.

We must heed this as well. Where we have reacted too strongly against our forefathers we must be reminded that their theological convictions are grounded in a particular context. Even though that may not be our context we still need to be mindful enough to listen to them and not react too strongly against what they have said. Take the good and understand where the overemphasis has happened.

One day I will be old and grizzly and when people look back at me I would hope that they would at least value what I stood for. Our goal is not to be liked but to pass on what we hold to be true in the hope that the next generation will continue to love the Lord Jesus.

ghABC

The beginning of the new gospel

Leave a reply
The new gospel

In my last post I talked about the emerging differences in the evangelical world in the definition of the gospel. Is it solely salvation (Jesus’ death and resurrection) or is it Jesus’ Lordship?

I think New Zealand is a great place for this type of theological discussion to happen. We are small enough so that most people know each other personally but big enough for their to be enough varying views to make the discussion lively. I hope the discussion does proceed and I hope that it is done humbly and that clarity does come from it. My fear is that it will further splinter our churches as we slowly segregate (and dissect) ourselves along doctrinal lines and end up being irrelevant to everyone.

I’m looking forward to reading Scot McKnight’s new book The King Jesus Gospel which addresses this question. What Tom Wright says in the preface is very interesting and insightful.

eschatology-kids

The end and (of) the gospel

Leave a reply
Eschatology

At the church which Erin and I attend there is a poster on one of the walls that says, “The end is important but the journey is more important”.  It has a lovely picture of a big lake with mountains and a lovely wooden canoe.  Oh how I could take that oar and destroy that canoe!  Every time I see that poster I want to rip it down.  Our church hires the facility so I can’t even complain about it to anyone.  I hate that saying.  It’s meaningless and trite.  Journey’s are important but destinations are more important.  The Bible’s vision is always towards an end.  Revelation gives us a vision (actually a few visions) of two ends either the end without ends for those who are to be punished or the life without end for those that are within God’s kingdom.

For a long time I have agreed with the statement ‘Eschatology drives theology’.  Eschatology just means what we think about the end.  This is what Michael Horton puts forward in Covenant and Eschatology and this is what I had also been taught. This seems quite logical.  The end directs the journey.

Lately though I have been wondering if this right. There seems to much debate in the Evangelical world about two particular things at the moment.  They happen to be Eschatology but also defining the gospel.  When theologians talk about eschatology they are, often, not talking about the specifics but of the general shape of the new heavens and earth. For instance asking questions like; Will this earth be reshaped or does it need to be remade?  The answer to such questions become really important when we want to apply the Bible and think about how to live this on this earth.  The answers put different intrinsic values on what is around us and therefore effect how we live.  The answer also influence the way that we think about sin and its effects on the world.

Even though I agree that our eschatology does drive our theology I wonder if it is our definition of the gospel which drives our eschatology.  What do I mean by definition of the gospel?  Traditionally there have been two main ways that Evangelicals have defined the gospel. It has either been that the gospel is the atonement (death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ) or Jesus is Lord (Rom 10.9)

Does the way that we define the gospel shape our view of the end and therefore shape our whole theological system?  How then should I define the gospel? These are important questions and the answers to these will shape Christianity in the coming decade or so.

Web

can you handle the jandal?

Leave a reply
Jandal

Unfortunately Australia lost on Saturday night to Ireland.  Disappointing, yes.  End of the world, no. Although every Kiwi I meet seems to think it was.  But it has been good to see lots of different people from all over the world coming to New Zealand.  Everyone has been welcome, except for us Australians.  But if there are any Aussies left touring around New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup here is a short list of words that you might encounter in Kiwiland with an Australian interpretation:

Jandals = Thongs

Munted = hurt/damaged

Judder Bar = Speed hump

Trundler = Trolley

Chilly Bin = Esky

Eh? = My part of the conversation has finished.  Now it is time for you to continue.

True, true = I hear what your saying, but I don’t care

Yeh, nah , maybe = It is unlikely that I’m going to do what your asking me to do

Aussie = Australia (n.b. this does not mean Australian)

Across the dutch = You’re from Aussie (see above)

Brought = bought

So let’s put some of those together into a sentence:

“I fully munted my jandals on the trundler when I went over that judder bar, eh?”

“True, true.”

250px-Shield-Trinity-Scutum-Fidei-English

the trinitarian shield

Leave a reply

I was able to prepare a seminar on heresies for the TSCF Mid-Year conference.  The conference was on the incarnation.  It was a great week of thinking about the importance of the incarnation and how it applies to how we live.  I was particularly encouraged by Andy Shuddall’s talks and how powerfully he explained the importance of God becoming man.  I was also encouraged by Iain Provan from Regent College and his talk on Why matter matters.  This is a topic close to my heart.  He really pin-pointed how Christian culture has taken on a Gnostic gospel in denying the goodness of creation in the hope of leaving this world for something better.

I was able to contribute with a short seminar on some heresies around the incarnation.  We looked at the Nicene Creed and then looked at four heresies that this creed speaks against.  It was great to hear that students found this exercise encouraging and stretching.  I love church history and being reminded of what I take for granted.

Something that I was particularly reminded of in my preparation was the Trinitarian Shield.  It’s a drawing of how the trinity is described in the Athanasian Creed (which probably wasn’t written by Athansius).  But I love how this simple drawing portrays something so complex.  Obviously it’s not everything that there is to be said about the trinity but it is such a helpful starting point.  I was able to share this with the Massey students and a few said that it was a really helpful way for them to think visually about the trinity.

NZ2001OneLaneBridgeTrain

Kiwis and Aussies – take 2

Leave a reply
One lane train

So there wasn’t much uproar about my other comments on how Kiwis and Aussies are different so I thought I’d continue.  Here are some more:

1. Road use

Firstly what’s up with the weird turn left law, if you haven’t experienced it then you haven’t been treated to cars coming at you from all different directions for no apparent reason.

But the weirdest thing about New Zealand roads is the potential for danger.  You’re driving along with the family, la di da, and the wife turns to you and says please be careful there’s a large drop down there.  You look over and there is a 200m drop outside her window, but it’s okay there’s a white picket fence to stop you.  Why bother with the fence?  Honestly?  And then the one lane bridges on highways!  And then the one lane bridges that you have to share with a train!  Please give way to the trains.  Really, I was going to play chicken with it.

2. The Treaty

The Treaty of Waitangi is very important to Kiwis and their cultural identity.  It is having a huge part in shaping New Zealand and helping people form their cultural identity.  Australia doesn’t have such a document and to our detriment find it hard to see how Aboriginals fit into our cultural identity.  We would rather that they become white than let them shape what Australia should look like.

I think the treaty stands as the biggest difference between the two countries.  I also think with the growing acceptance and importance of the treaty as an important document for New Zealand’s identity that our nations are on fundamentally different paths in who we want to be.

3. Possums and hedgehogs

New Zealand is the only country that you could run over a possum and a hedgehog in the same night and get a pat on the back as a hero.  I will admit that possums are a real pest.  I read that there are 70,000,000 possums in New Zealand.  That’s a lot.  There are a few dead in our street (not that I would ever run over such an animal).

If an Australian hit a possum they would call WIRES (Wildlife Rescue) and make sure that it was alright.  In New Zealand if you hit a possum you would back over it to make sure it was dead (it is the humane thing to do after all).

4. Grammar and spelling

Now this was pointed out to me by someone that has migrated to New Zealand and English is not their first language.  The quality of the grammar and spelling in publications is reasonably terrible.  Often I find myself re-reading newspaper articles to try to understand the meaning of what is being said.  Usually the problem is a missing word or a grammatical error.  My overseas friend even showed me how this had crept into an official government document.

And let’s not mention trade me (New Zealand’s eBay).  I don’t think I have seen the word bought spelled correctly!  The most common used is brought.  Why God? Why?

I don’t even care that much about grammar but it can be quite annoying.  Surely there are people out there dying a thousand deaths every time they open a newspaper.

5. Biblical Illiteracy

Now this another that is not my own but pointed out by a chaplain at Massey Uni in Palmy.  The level of biblical knowledge and reading on the whole is not very good.  People don’t really read their Bibles very often.  This is something that TSCF is trying to rectify as we get people studying the Bible and encouraging students to read and explore it thoroughly.

Hopefully this post was more offensive and don’t be to (sic) hard on my for any grammatical or spelling errors.