What is the role of Art in our Nazarene Churches in the 21st Century?

What is the role of art in our churches?
I would like to think that we have many talented people in our church across australia. Unfortunately i believe we have not tapped into this talent in ways that could provide greater faith amoung our people.
Sally and i recently visited St Mary Cathedral in Sydney, WOW!
What an amazing church building, what amazing artworks depicting the final hours of Jesus life on earth. Sure, we could easily fall into the temptation of worshiping art, but really i found that the art in St Marys Church evoked/inspired a deeper faith and awe of God.
The artwork in St Marys may be of more of an 'ancient flavour', but i think there can be an immense power in images, sounds, or 'art' that we could use to provde opportunity for thought, dialogue, conversation with others about spiritual things and ultimately Jesus.
We have lost alot from our desire to be seperate from 'catholics' or anything that is not 'evangelical'. Can we recapture the use of art in our ministry, worship, evangelism in expressing things that cannot be communicated with words? Is there any place for 'art' in our Nazarene churches or is it too far removed? Can art seriously help our faith? Can art help us to live the life of holiness?
Your thoughts, ideas, rebuking is valued
Peace

There's no 'I' in team... but there is an 'm' and an 'e'.

So, in a response to one of Caine's posts I mentioned that I believe one way to develop a healthier pastoral ministry (and therefore a healthier church) is to have a team based approach.

I guess in a lot of ways this is a bit of a new idea for majority of our churches here in Australia and its something that I have spent a lot of time thinking about.

In my short time in full time ministry I have been both a sole pastor and worked in a team. I believe that the team approach has made me a better minister, cut down on my stress levels and helped me to narrow the things I work on, allowing me to develop areas for which I have a passion.

My question is, how do we develop this more and more? Has anyone read anything good books or articles about team ministry? Is there a possibility of someone speaking on this topic at our next conference? If this is really a direction that we want to head in as a denomination, then I think we need to devote some time to developing it.

One thing I do know is that simply putting 2 or 3 people together and calling yourselves a 'team ministry' does not necessarily make it so.

What does it mean to be a 'holiness people' in Australia in the 21st Century?

Let me start by stating that i believe 100% in the message of heart holiness and am committed to finding the best ways to communicate it to the 'next generation'.

My problem is this:
Our current models of communicating holiness to our people (at least in my australian experiences) are outdated, often unbiblical, wrapped up in language and old 'jargon' that many theology students struggle to articulate and understand and frankly, focus too much on the 'personal experience' and individual 'discovery' without communicating the social responsibilty(tell us what you really think caine!).

Is Holiness just about me and the Holy Spirit having a supernatural connection that gives me a 'clean' feeling and turn from sin? or does that very experience also require my social justice eyes to open up, my frustration at gossip and slander eyes to open up, my legalistic desires to fall away, my focus on Jesus to narrow and my awareness of the mission of God to broaden?

See, my problem is not with God or Holiness, my problem is we have often (not always) not fully and in my opinion correctly articulated what the Holy life looks like and looks like in a 21st century culture.
It is no longer about whether one has a tattoo or drinks a beer occasionally (i am sure this will fire some of you up!), it is no longer about whether we go to the movies or have fun dancing. It is no longer about these little things (yes i admit for some these could be issues for individuals to work through), because the mission of God is far greater than the 'issues'.

Holiness is not something we deserve or can demand, it is a way of life.
Is it wrapped up in an experience of the past? or a continual experience of what it means to be 'awakened' to the things of God and have his love 'flood us, forgive us, cleanse us'?
Is Holiness just for our own personal enjoyment? Is it the empowerment of our lives so we can serve Jesus and be his hands and feet?

What does it mean for us to be a holiness people in Australia?

We can no longer hide ourselves in our little denmoination called the church of the nazarene anymore. The banter of being the 'cream of the crop' is sinful and frankly an arrogant way of dissmissing the lack of impact into our churches local communities and thus the lack of growth in our churches (tell us what you really think caine!).

In my opinion, to be a holiness people in australia means to be SALT and LIGHT to the world around us, it means to work TOGETHER with other churches in the greater mission, it means releasing our people to DO the work God is calling them too and not judging them cause they have friends and collegues who are not 'Christian' or heaven forbid not 'Nazarene'. It means having these types of discussion on blogs, over coffee, at district assemblies, at meetings anyway we can. We are in this together and have an AMAZING message to communicate!

what are your thoughts? Let's journey together on this or am i ramling alone?
I want to know peoples passions and views about holiness and what it will look like in n21st century OZ.
Let us dream a new dream for what our 'holiness' denomination in Australia will look like in this 21st century society and stop trying to make it what it was and embrace what where God may be leading....

I have gone on enough. :)

The soap box is now free...who wants to step up?

Resolutions Booklet (its unofficially leaked)

If you want to find some of the resolutions that will be before the assembly here are 2 links:

http://nazareneresolutions2009.wordpress.com/

and....

http://www.gacorlando.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=8

I know, i know, not everybodies cup of tea, but hey, if some of these resolutions get put forward and pass we will be joining the fudamentalist view on the innereancy of scripture! Now that would make for some interesting discussion across the globe.
Peace people

A New Manual for the Church...

Hi People,

I know some of you may be aware of this so for those who are not....

http://nazareneresolutions2009.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/international-church-committee1.pdf

There has been much discussion around the church developing a 'New Manual' for the next century (lets hope it continues to change during this next 100 years). This report is from the international church committee.

Its not a bad read, some good changes have been suggested, what are your thoughts?

No voyeurs allowed! Exposing the Blog Roll...

How was that for a title? Did that get you interested? ...hahaha.
Anyway....
In the interest of transparency and honesty i am listing the people who i have invited to contribute to this Blog:

Ian Davidson
Michael Schmidt
Trevor Thomas
Doug Carolisian
Satish Manmothe
Daniel Woodyatt
Lydia Woodyatt
David Harris
Kenn Lowis
Andrew Copland
Glen Stanley
Tim Burton
Steve Kasambalis
Paul Spanos
Marion Kent
Richard Giesken
Shane Faatape
Cameron Batkin
Jim Good
Caine Pennell

Not everyone has responded to that invitation.

The reason i am listing who i have invited is so everyone is aware of who may be viewing the posts even though they have not commented or officially 'followed' the Blog.

The last thing i want is for people not to be honest because there is a sense that people are 'watching me'. If we cannot have open, honest, differing opinions on what it means to be 'Nazarene' in Australia without fear of labels and being 'blacklisted', what a very sad state we are in as a church and in my personal opinion, bordering on cultish/secret society behaviour.

My hope is that this Blog is a genuine place to talk, disagree, encourage, support, work through the issues, not simply make a 'secret' space for some to talk for fear of judgement.
Does that make sense? I hope so.....if you want an example of how christian nazarenes can have an opinion and create open dialogue without fear, go and visit NazNet.com.....
Peace, let's get talking!

Radical Reformission - Reaching out without selling out

This book has some really great points to make and i recommend it to get us thinking missionally. Yeah, we don't have to agree with everything it says, but hey, i am sure many people do not agree with what the GS sometimes says either, so we take it, look at it, examine it, reflect on it and then take what we can from it.
Pick up yourself a copy and give it a read. If you want to read some reviews that will do a better job than me rambling on.....go to this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Reformission-Reaching-without-Selling/dp/0310256593

and scroll down to the reviews.
Peace out people. If you have read this book already let us know what you think.....

Where will the Australian Church of the Nazarene be in 10 years?

This question has been bouncing around my mind for quite a while now.
Where will we be? and more importantly how will we end up there?
The choices we make as an Australian church TODAY will make a difference as to where we are in 10 years time.
some issues to think about:
1. how many pastors (who are not retired) will we have in 10 years at the current rate of 'recruitment'?
2. how many active churches (ones with actual people attending) will we have in 10 years at the current rate of church planting?
3. what will be the Australian Nazarene church's demographics be?

what are your thoughts?

So what is the point of another BLOG?

Well,

The whole reason i have decided to set up 'another' blog is so we can begin to seriously and openly engage the 'Ooze' (as i like to call it) of what it means to be a Nazarene in Australia in the 21st Century.

We have some MAJOR challeneges/issues that are facing us as a church and i believe that we need to have more open, honest and meaningful discussions in order to tackle/address and work through some of the cultural, theological and social issues facing as as a denomination in Australia.

I do not invision everything that is going to be said on this blog will be agreeable with some of the 'norms' we have set up as a 'holiness people' in Australia. However, i hope as we begin to engage the message of holiness, engage the tough issues we have been 'sweeping under the carpet', engage some of the current 'practices' of our churches, engage our communities both in and more importantly outside of our church, we will find greater support for one another as leaders, a deeper resolve to 'make disciples of the nations' and an embracing wonder of what it means to be an engaging 'Jesus people' in our communities wherever they may be.

So,
Please feel free to express your thoughts, ideas and even some helpful resources/Links on this site.
Let us be fearless in our conversation, but let us be mindful that we are all in this together, despite our personal views, despite our past history with others, the Gospel is a powerful redeeming force. In other words let us remain 'respectful' as fellwo pilgrims on the journey.

This BLOG will only be as helpful and as liberating as we make it....so post your thoughts on ANY issues that we may need to face or are currently facing. Post helpful links, post, post, post......

remember that we cannot see peoples faces or hear the 'tone' in their writing so please be mindful of that when reading. Oh....and go easy on those of us who are 'grammatically' challenged :o)

anyway....hope this gets you thinking....

Lets Begin this journey together and Engage the Ooze.......