Joy: The Soundtrack of Christmas

JOY: THE SOUNDTRACK OF CHRISTMAS

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” (Luke 1:46–55)

I wonder if you have a soundtrack for this time of year?

For me, it's “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” on high rotation. I can’t go past the desperate longing-tinged cry of “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.”

For others it’s Mariah or Michael Bublé—or Sufjan Stevens, if you were cooler than me in your 20s.

Our soundtrack for this time of year is often set by tradition or the consumerist calendar that dictates the playlist in shopping malls and grocery stores. But depending on the year you’ve had, the sugary schmaltz of it all can feel discordant. The tinsel-draped soundscape may not fit the grief, pain, uncertainty, disappointment, frustration or exhaustion of the situation you find yourself in – let alone the brokenness and pain of the wider world.

This discordance and lack of fit resonates with Mary’s situation in the opening chapters of Luke.

Mary has been met by an angel bearing a life-up-ending message. She’s unexpectedly pregnant. She’s facing social stigma and uncertainty about whether her betrothal will survive.

Her whole life has been wrenched onto a dramatic new trajectory. And yet Mary is full of joy.

Mysteriously, defiantly, this joy bursts forth in a song of praise as she stands on her cousin Elizabeth’s doorstep.

Such joy doesn’t seem to make sense in her circumstances. Considering her situation in human terms, her joy doesn’t arise naturally and spontaneously. It arises only from the unilateral action and gift of God. It flows from his mindfulness of her “humble state” as she puts it (verse 48), from the honour he bestows by doing something truly great for her (verse 49), and from his gracious intervention in the history of his people, fulfilling his promises to them and their ancestors—from Abraham on.

Could the same defiant joy fill your heart this season, anchored in the faithful and decisive action of God in sending Jesus?

And could it burst forth in songs of far more substance than those that reverberate in elevators and shopping malls?

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Written by Chris Swann
CTCA Director of Church Planting

Discipleship

DISCIPLESHIP IS LIKE RAISING YOUR CHILDREN IN A SUBCULTURE

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Christians do not quite fit in this new world. Even when the world uses terms like love, tolerance, freedom, and justice—these biblical terms have slightly new meanings. To be a Christian in the West now is to be different. We are other, or guests. Or as Peter says we are exiles (1 Peter 1:1), or aliens and strangers (Hebrews 11:13). Or as Khee-Vun says, we are now a subculture.

We raise our children in this world—a world that believes in self, choice, and freedom as the greatest goods. Our children will grow up fluent with these ideals. Consequently, they will, to some extent, believe in these things too. This is dangerous, but not all bad. These ideas are not anti-Christian. Rather they are half Christian. As the saying goes, the most powerful heresies are half-truths pushed too far.

Read the full article here.

Written by David Rietveld

Sausages and the Bread of Life

SAUSAGES AND THE BREAD OF LIFE

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In listening to Chris and Emma Poulsen talk about Walkervale Church, one is struck by the sense that God has put the people of His choosing in the place of His choosing at the time of His choosing to bring about His good purposes. As Chris says, “We didn’t set out to do this, we’ve just seen God working in people’s hearts.” Implied is the fact that they’ve followed God’s lead in the work He is doing, and have responded in faith by leaning in and meeting the people of Walkervale in Bundaberg at their precise point of need with the sure hope of Jesus Christ. 

Chris and Emma moved to Bundaberg, Qld from Brisbane in December of 2019, just before the birth of their fifth child. Chris had finished up his theological studies at Queensland Theological College, and a 10 year pastoral position at Grovely Christian Community Church in Brisbane. Moving to Bundaberg, Chris took on a chaplaincy position at a Christian-run, special assistance school for disadvantaged youth. The family were able to purchase their first home in Walkervale, a suburb of Bundaberg.

Moving into Walkervale provided some initial challenges for the Poulsens, as they faced the harsh realities of realising they were living in an area which experiences large levels of disadvantage. Walkervale is a marginalized community with many challenges, and has higher than average levels of substance abuse, unemployment, crime and policing, housing instability and poverty. Despite challenges, Walkervale finds itself home to a community of resilient, vibrant, and courageous locals, who are hungry to hear more about Jesus!

Not long after moving to the area, the Poulsen family decided to start cooking sausages for their dinner, one night a week, at the local park (which is two doors down from their house), taking a few extra sausages each week to share with any local kids or families who might be playing there at the time. The Poulsen kids attend the local state school in Walkervale, and many friends from there would be hanging out in the park. Two years later Chris and Emma still do this every Monday night, it’s called “Sausages” (named by one of the gathered throng, they think), and they regularly have 50 people (sometimes as many as 90) come and share dinner. But that’s not all that has happened, and it’s become about much more than sausages.

“Sausages” at the park

Around eighteen months ago, they gave an Action Bible (a graphic novel style bible) to a friend of one of their children. The child’s mother read it with her, and came to Chris and Emma with several questions about it, wanting to know more. They explained that they read the Bible together as a family every night at 6:30, and invited her and her daughter to join them on a Wednesday. Another family heard about this Bible reading time and asked to join, and then another, and another. Eventually there were a number of families coming to their home on a Wednesday night to read the bible together. Chris and Emma decided it could be worth opening this to all the families from Sausages, for whomever was keen to read the Bible afterwards. Now, each Monday, families trail home with the Poulsens after Sausages, everyone is served a hot Milo (many are spilt!), and they gather to share God’s story together. They have just completed the book of Exodus, and see a regular gathering of up to 50 locals in their lounge room each Monday night.

Monday night gathering at the Poulsens

Apart from the weekly Sausages, Chris and Emma have had innumerable invitations to visit with local people, to pray with local people, and to expound the truth and beauty of Jesus in the scriptures with local people. They are often awestruck at the number and kinds of invitations they receive. Chris describes it:  

“I’m convinced that a lot of people have been praying for this area for a long time. I just think people’s hearts are ready and they’re searching and they’re calling out. There’s a real sense of joy when you hear someone say something really profound, it’s like ‘Wow, you have met with Jesus’ – that sort of stuff. And it is a reminder that God is doing this work.”

For Chris and Emma, it was clear God was doing something, and that He required them to respond in faithful obedience to His mission in the local area. He had been working in their hearts to grow their love for the local, marginalised community, and shaping their hearts for His call to plant a contextually appropriate church in Walkervale aimed at engaging the locals who were facing significant barriers and challenges to traditional church attendance.

With this growing community of local people hungry for God, and finding themselves in a ministry vastly different from anything they’d ever experienced, Chris and Emma began to look for places and people to draw on for guidance and support. Emma describes what they found in City to City Australia: 

“A humble approach to being really contextual was really a drawcard – it was geared to seeking out the best in your community you’re wanting to plant in and learning from them and being contextual with the good news of Jesus.”

Chris adds: 

“This (plant in Walkervale) required a very different approach, and we resonated with City to City’s approach. Looking to where God is working, that’s a big theme, rather than trying to engineer something.” 

They have loved being part of a CTCA Church Planting Cohort for training and coaching, led by Anna Boxwell. Emma reflects:

“The cohort has been helpful, encouraging, productive, and has provided a lot of wisdom and good advice. I’m not looking forward to it ending.” 

Chris added: 

“Being in a cohort with other planters gives a great sense of team, even though you’re working in totally different places and churches. It’s great to be working together even though we’re in completely different situations – that sense of team effort, and kingdom mindedness is so valuable.”

Walkervale Church has joined the Christian Community Churches network. Their Sunday church service has been running for four months now, in the Poulsens’ lounge room, with 30-50 local attendees each week - the majority non-Christians. Chris explains, “We have three main values to Walkervale Church: Jesus, Generosity, and Joining-in, and the whole service is shaped around those things too. Before the sermon, we have a time where everyone can “join in” sharing what God has done in their lives that week, and it’s so exciting to hear what God is doing!”. The formal part of the service is pared back, with Bible teaching targeted to the locals, and they share hot chips for lunch from the local fish and chip shop afterwards. One member of their community has dubbed it “Chip Church”, and it has stuck. Emma describes the church service, “It’s messy! And hectic! But beautiful!”. 

She adds,

“We sometimes feel very out of our comfort zone, doing things so differently, but you know you need to do what engages the local crew, not what feels comfortable!”.

This past term has also seen a Ladies’ Bible Study group start up, with 12-15 local women joining in each week to discover more of God’s Word. Chris said, “We’ve had a few local women become Christians over the past few months, and it’s been really exciting! They face a lot of challenges, but have a genuine, simple faith, and you can really see God growing it. It’s such a privilege to be a part of that!”.

Emma observes: 

“People here are time-rich, so we’ve just made the opportunity to hang out, because relationally seems to be how transfer of the gospel happens here.” 

Chris reflects,

“We are not trying to do anything amazing. It’s not hype. It’s just everyday stuff, alongside people.” 

 The Poulsen family continues to follow God’s lead as they endeavour to faithfully step out further in obedience to Him. Chris has reduced his chaplaincy work hours to give more time to the plant. As they continue to grow and seek God’s provision, the need for a bigger space for church gatherings, and the need for external financial support are also growing. They are moving towards a faithful presence in a local building in the coming weeks, and would appreciate prayer that God will make this possible. 

Emma says,

“It’s a hard community, and there often feels like a lot of reasons to give up on a church plant in a low socio-economic area. But we know God cares about the least, He cares for those who are marginalised and forgotten, and He cares about the lost. We really believe God wants churches established in areas like Walkervale! They might be hard, and need to look different, but it’s a real blessing to journey together in faith with the folk of Walkervale”.

Let’s pray with and for the Poulsens as they continue to join in with what God is doing in Walkervale, though it stretches and challenges them, that many more people would come to find the Bread of life Himself.

The Poulsens

Written by Jane Duff

Church and Illness

I heard a striking comment this week. Dr Peter Steinke, in his book Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach, says that church health and illness are not opposites – they are compliments.

Just let that sink in. We live in a time where we believe we have a right to avoid negativity. We parent by intentionally exposing our children to positive messages, and shield them from negative ones. We imagine health and sickness are opposites, and believe we can have the good without the bad.

Not so, says Steinke. “Health and Illness are compliments. We need to be ill in order to be healthy.”  A vaccine exposes your body to a small weak amount of a negative virus – it creates a mini-illness. But this illness awakens your system to create T and B cells that will combat this foreign agent in the future. Churches function like this, according to Steinke. Mini illnesses create resilience and the resources to combat future and greater undesirable influences.

If he is right, this is a telling observation. According to Andrew Root in The Pastor in a Secular Age, our historical context has created an expectation where congregation members imagine, and some churches even promise, that the church’s role is to add value to your life by adding Jesus. The consumerist worldview makes the pastor and church something of a provider of religious goods and services which will improve your life. If this church is not a net blessing to your life, then parishioners may vote with their feet and attend elsewhere, or attend less and less, and after a while perhaps not at all.

Root tells us congregation members come less if church does not look and make us feel healthier, and Steinke tells that in order to be healthy, a church will in some seasons experience illness. 

What rung true about Steinke’s comment was its balance. Steinke ‘diagonalises’ health and illness. Some preach the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’, emphasising the blessing and riches of the kingdom of God. Others regularly find another refrain – that Jesus invites us to take up our cross, to serve and sacrifice. Tim Keller labels this the stoic gospel. Neither alone represents a balanced view of life inside the church or the kingdom of God. As Paul puts it, “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

Let’s take this insight – that wellness and illness are complimentary, and apply it to a bigger canvas. Rodney Stark, a sociologist of religion, observes that at a macro level, when the church loses its sense of prophetic otherworldliness, this illness creates a fertile environment for new church plants and movements. Church plants sprout in and around decaying and dying churches. Mini-illness can breed resilience and health, and major illness can breed new birth and life.

There is a growing sense of unease, that illness in the church is on the rise – that we are in a crisis! Statistics are cited that map decline in church attendance, and this is paired with a decline in influence. Is decline in influence and attendance the crisis, or is it a symptom of the crisis? For Taylor, in A Secular Age, the crisis is that our immanent world has ruled out talk of a transcendent God who acts in this world. For Barth, it is in crises that God acts as God in this world in ways that break through our scale covered eyes. 

The next time your church experiences illness, or you hear of attendance decline in the Western church, I invite you to reframe it. Might God be allowing a mini-illness that will awaken the church to resilience and greater health in the future? Might God be using death to bring life? No, to bring a new Yes? Do you trust Jesus is building His church in such a way that gates of Hades will not overcome it? (c.f. Matthew 16:18)

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Written by David Rietveld