I have been reading ‘Sweet’, the novel by Tracy Ryan watcher the dvdrip watch bowfinger in divx

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about the relationships between a WA Baptist pastor in the 80′s and 3 female members of his congregation. Essentially it explores the rather subtle issue of codependence and how this develops between a pastor and congregation. I don’t know how wide an appeal this book will have, but for those of us in leadership roles it ought to be read and reflected on.

‘Cody’s’ journey has been of particular interest to me as she is a young Christian in the process of questioning her faith and wondering about its foundation. Her place of certainty is not Jesus or the scriptures, but William her pastor and she is struggling to come to terms with the fact that all is not a cut and dried as he would once have had her believe. Still his power is great…

Here’s an excerpt I found very challenging. After reflecting on Paul, the young man who drew Cody to faith, she goes on to think of William:

But with William it was the other way around, he had not attracted Cody to God. He had simply come to stand in the way of her notion of God. She had got caught up before she knew it, swayed to his way of seeing things somehow, like Patty Hearst, that syndrome where you form a dependence on your captor, your torturer. Was he really her captor? No-one forced her to be there. Doing what she would not do, and not doing what she would do, as it said in the book of Romans.

She thought of Jane Eyre wild wild west dvd download , which she had read at school. The chapter before Jane’s wedding, the wedding that fell apart:

He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not in those days, see God for His creature, of whom I had made an idol.

Is it just me or are those challenging words for those in local church leadership?

It makes me ask where is the line between protecting the sheep and abusing the sheep?

It causes me to wonder how much of my own needs to be needed and admired by those I lead get in the way of doing what’s best for both of us. As I read the novel I think William is (so far) quite oblivious to his controlling ways and personal needs. He doesn’t come across as a tyrant and yet his subtle exertion of control over these women is possibly even more destructive than if it were overt.

As a person who has led a larger church I have experienced the destructive side of the Jane Eyre quote as people have expected me to be someone I simply could never be and as I have used that influence to get things done. It is a strange and sometimes disturbing relationship that takes place between needy pastor and needy congregation member.

If I have learnt anything it is that those of us in leadership must be secure in our own identity if we are to risk leading others. Insecure leaders are the very worst as they make all sorts of demands stemming from their own need to be loved and valued and not from healthy motives.

I am pondering what makes a person secure rather than insecure. I was originally reflecting that it was a function of maturity – that as we get older we need the approval of others less – but that is not universally true…

Perhaps it has something to do with coming to grips with the greyness of the world and our frailty in making sense of it. William continues to see most issues in a strong shade of black or white and it is his undoing. I tend to think that as we get older we should be able to determine what issues are clear cut – and they get fewer as you get older – and which are grey, but maybe not all can do this.

I haven’t finished the book, but I imagine Cody will end up getting disillusioned with this brand of church and will leave. She will be guilt ridden for her ‘betrayal’, but will struggle on for the sake of integrity. She will become one of the ‘churchless faith’ Christians who still want to follow Jesus and who still believe, but who have not found a place to live a more questioning and reflective expression of discipleship.

I am currently reading ‘Sweet’ a novel I discovered on Nathan’s blog download don t look now bedtime stories dvd download

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and finding it very interesting – partly because it is written about a scene I have been so intricately involved with for the last 34 years, but partly because it addresses the ongoing issues of co-dependency that plague both church leader and church member. By that I mean, the people needing a pastor and pastor needing to be needed.

Nathan summarises the story well with these words:

Tracy Ryan’s third novel, Sweet, is the story of three women caught in the thrall of a manipulative pastor of a conservative Baptist church in the outer-suburbs of Perth circa 1986. The Reverend William King is a complex figure, genuinely caring but always controlling.

Cody is seventeen and has just lost her brother in a car accident. In her grief the church offers her a degree of purpose and meaning. Yet she seems to fall into Christianity, rather than converting through conviction. Soon, William is pressuring her to give her testimony in front of the church, the story of her conversion from the darkness of ‘Romanism’. But this story he is trying to impose on her doesn’t ring true; her nominally Roman Catholic background is neutral in her memory.

Kylie is a young mother whose husband Mick is frequently away shearing. Her Baptist neighbours take an interest in her and babysit her children; soon she finds herself sucked into the church. Mick is unimpressed by her heavy involvement and she is torn between the church and him.

Carol has been a Christian much longer and her story is about the disintegration of her externally perfect Baptist family. As problems with her daughter and husband arise, she begins to realise that life isn’t as simple as her faith has taught her.

If you have been part of WA Baptist churches over the last 20 years then the scenery will be very familiar and like me you might even find yourself wondering who the ‘Reverend William King’ is…There is too much insider knowledge for this not to be based somewhat on personal experience.

So far it hasn’t been an overly negative portrayal of either the Baptists of the time or of William King (although there are definite issues with both).

Sometimes our history can look so embarrassing in hindsight, while in the moment it can actually appear to make perfect sense. The ‘separateness’ of the cultures is probably what strikes me most strongly at the moment, possibly because this has been my own significant shift. It was the era when we stayed away from sinners except for purposes of overt evangelism.

If you are easily offended by a few pretty graphic sex scenes then its not the book for you, otherwise you will probably find it a good read.

It is well written, easy to follow and yet at the same time has some substance for those of us in churches and ministry. I think it would be an interesting book for those in the ‘pastoral care’ field to use in their training courses as it would shine the spotlight on the complications of being both pastor and church member.

I am just over half way thru and looking forward to the rest!download human traffic divx

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Mark Sayers is back in blogdom and throwing out some juicy thoughts on gospel and culture over here.

Mark is one of those blokes I never tire listening to so if you have an interest in 21st C western culture and how we engage in it as missionaries this blog is essential reading – especially for Aussies.

And while we’re on Mark his first book is now out and there is an official booklaunch in Melbourne to celebrate it.

‘The Trouble With Paris’ Book Launch
Sunday June 15th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
@ the Red East Space: Level 1, 878 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill
Cost $0

You can buy the book at the launch for $15.00 or you can head over to Amazon and get it there

The book gets an eclectic range of endorsements:

“These are great tools for everyone trying to find the Way, the Truth, and the Life in a world of shortcuts, deception, and death. Amid the noise and seductions of our culture, may Mark’s work help us to be both relevant and peculiar to this chaotic world. May we raise up a generation of radical nonconformists with everything that is wrong in the world, a generation that turns the world upside down so that it aligns with the Kingdom of God.”

Shane Claiborne, Author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Mark has something fresh to say about what can kill your soul and who can salvage it.

John Ortberg, Pastor and Author, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

Mark Sayers is something of a spiritual genius who is able to both name and diagnose the angst of an entire generation caught up in the web of consumerism and hyperreality. This book is laced with the kind of wise and prophetic insights that take the reader to the heart of some of the most important issues of our age. Nothing less than a clue to the spiritual healing of a generation lies hidden in the pages of this book.

Alan Hirsch Author of The Forgotten Ways and author (with Michael Frost) of The Shaping of Things To Come. Alan is founding director of Forge Mission Training Network

Mark Sayers’ new book The Trouble with Paris is outstanding. Well informed, insightful, articulate, and down to earth are just a few thoughts that come to mind when describing this tour de force. Sayers has a unique ability to put his finger on the pulse of contemporary culture and Christianity, and he proves to be a capable guide through the thickets of that which is counterfeit and fake. Today we’re submersed in the media driven and publicity shaped hollow promises of hyperreality, which are driving us to embrace the unreal and consequently an impoverished spirituality. Reading this powerful book will help us get back to the real and lead us to a rediscovery of our spiritual bearings for the present and the future.

In working with Swiss L’Abri for over twenty years now, my take on this book
is that it’s exactly what we need to get our priorities aligned with living in God’s reality, instead of trying and failing to make it up as we go along. Hyperreality is deceptively addictive, and if we are to touch a generation of people for the sake of Christ, it is books like Sayers’ The Trouble with Paris that will help pave the way. Highly recommended.

Dr. Gregory J. Laughery, Author of Living Spirituality: Illuminating the Path and teacher with L’Abri Fellowship, Switzerland

Its great to see Mark’s brilliance recognised and now in print. If you haven’t come across him before then I’d encourage you to check out both blog and book!

Danelle bought me this novel for my birthday and I finished it last night.

As anyone who has read this blog for a while would know, I am a Winton fan – possibly even an addict – and love virtually everything he has written. So when I heard this book was coming out I was frothing at the mouth with anticipation. I often feel like Winton writes what I would have written if i were a genuinely good writer. he says things like I wish I could. I feel in tune with his writing and the whole energy of his books.

However right off the bat there were a few things about Breath that knocked me a little. The first was the size of the book. At 213 pages it is hardly an epic and I knew I’d probably feel ripped off by the end. I would have just become engaged with the characters and the whole thing would end. And knowing Danelle paid $42.00 for it I was determined to get every penny worth out of it.

The second was that it was actually about surfing. This might surprise those who know my love of the surf, but what I have loved about Winton is the way the ocean and the West Ozzie landscape has formed the backdrop to his stories and in many ways has framed his writing. To move it to centre stage left me a little anxious. I guess I was wondering if the focus on surfing itself might actually be too obvious. People have often comnpared full scale surf movies to pornos – a dog-lame storyline hung around some exciting visuals. Now Winton is way too good for this, and his descriptions of surfing were as beautiful as any I have read, but I was still concerned.

Sadly it only took two evenings of slow deliberate reading to reach the final chapter. Now we have to wait another 4 years for his next novel.

Perhaps it was a self fulfilling prophecy, but my anxiety about surfing as the centrepiece had some merit. As much as the descriptions of Pikelet and Loonie’s first ventures out into the surf brought back wonderful memories, I just didn’t find the whole surf scene as potent as much of his other writing.

The guts of the story is about two young blokes who love surfing, and who find a ‘mentor’ in Sando who takes them out to surf humungous waves and stretches them to the limit. It traces the relationship between the boys the man and his wife and the twists and turns life takes in it all.

While the story itself revolves around surfing and the associated relationships and adventure, (kind of like a quality version of ‘Surfs Up’), the deeper theme of the book is powerful and worth a bit more reflection.

In essence it revolves around the desire for a life that is extraordinary in the middle of the mundaneness and blandness that forms most of our experience. The novel starts with Pikelet in his 40′s and now a paramedic attending a teenage death. While considered by some to be a suicide (hanging), Pikelet knows that it was actually accidental death by asphyxiation in search of a sexual rush. he knows because he has been there before…

Enter the idea of ‘breath’.

Much of life really is as mundane and ordinary as breathing in and out, which propels us to seek out climactic experiences – ways of encountering something more – or as Winto puts it “rebelling against the monotony of drawing breath’ . In many ways this is what the boys do as they surf bigger and bigger waves and as they seek new experiences, hyperventilating their way to longer and longer times under the ocean’s surface. Without wanting to spoil it, the story explores this theme of what ‘extraordinary’ looks like in a world where most of us need to live in the ‘ordinary’.

Loonie keeps chasing the extraordinary while Pikelet lives with his ongoing frustration with his own ordinariness. Somehow in the midst of the tumult that is Piklet’s life he learns to live with his own ‘insignificance’ while Loonie dies as a crazy feral always on the run and never content. Its probably no surprise that Pikelet finds some joy in this life as a paramedic where peak adrenalin experiences may remind him of his days in the ocean.

The metaphor of breath as that which gives life, is played out in the extremes of the sexual asphyxiation scenes and the mega hold downs in surfing and these are contrasted with the rhythmic, predictable, everydayness of simple inhaling and exhaling.

The messiness of life is contrasted with the sheer beauty of surfing. As Winton writes: “‘how strange it was to see men do something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant, though nobody saw or cared.”

I think Winton actually commends the more ‘ordinary’ Pikelet who gets left behind by Sando and Loonie in their mutual pursuit of bigger adrenalin rushes. Pikelet lives where most of us live. He refuses to surf the terrifying ‘Nautilus’ with Loonie and Sando and is considered something of a coward, by them and himself. He struggles with his failure and his own demons of insecurity. he isn’t the ‘hellman’ he wishes he were.

Welcome to the world… But the fact that does he struggle is possibly his redeeming feature. He is honest and real, fragile and broken.

Loonie and Sando appear as superheros but in reality their adventures only serve to mask their own brokenness and struggle.

If anything the book is a testimony to the importance of being content with living an ordinary life. At least an honest divx sidewalks of new york ordinary life.

Maybe not my favourite Winton, but still a very good read, if you’re not easily disturbed.

This little clip is from the promo website and is very good, if only for its depictions of the south west Oz coastline.

Tim Winton reads from ‘Breath’ from Virginia on Vimeo.

While we were away over Easter I read my copy of The New Conspirators, the latest book by Tom Sine (who will be speaking at the Forge Festival in 2 weekends time and then in Perth after that for a few days)

I don’t have time at the moment for an indepth review, but I will highly recommend this book to anyone exploring discipleship and mission in a changing world.

He surveys what is going on around the world in missional incarnational ventures and then offers some insights into where he thinks we are headed in the coming years. I didn’t warm to the book immediately, as it begins with a fairly generic overview of the fact that the world is changing. However the more I read the better it got.

Right at the start Sine asks what if we got some aspects of our faith wrong over the years?…

- Did we get eschatology wrong?
- Did we get what it means to be a disciple wrong?
- Did we get what it means to be a steward wrong?
- Did we get what it means to be the church wrong?
- Did we get what it means to do mission wrong?

As you might guess his conclusion is… ‘yeah… maybe we did…’

Because Tom is an older guy, (yes – its all relative), has been around a while and his previous books have been widely read he is pretty hard to dismiss. This is not a young punk on a dummy spit, but a thoughtful practitioner asking serious questions. (And yes – they are big questions!)

The New Conspirators is readable without being shallow and has solid depth without being scholarly.

I reckon you should add it to your pile of must reads for 2008.

I never read this book in its first incarnation, so I thought it’d be well worth a look this time around.

I am about half way thru and finding it a decent read, even if it does caricature the established church somewhat. I find this practice somewhat tiring and attimes have considered just putting it back on the shelf.

However the points Viola and Barna make are substantial enough to warrant some serious consideration. The tone is a tad polemic for my liking, but if you are in an established church and willing to be confronted with some pretty challenging stuff about the origins of our much loved rituals and practices then I’d encourage you to read it.

An email from the PC crew today reported that the book has generated a lot of heat to the point of some maybe even holding book burnings. The email then goes on to ask people to buy up big and create support for the book and its message. This email left me cold.

If the book has currency then it will stand on its own two feet. If it doesn’t then it ought to fall. In my observation any time someone sets out to malign and persecute a minority group they only succeed in drawing attention to them and advancing their cause. Chill out PC crew. Let your work be its own advocate.