The art
Issue
Issue 04 October 2011
The Art of irrelevance
p.4
illuminate camp
p.8
Mark Sayers
Lauren Pinches
An Invitation
to Imagine
p.10
A taste of the
transcendent
p.11
Roshan Allpress
Marcy Paynter
Learning to read again
p.14
Cheryl Catford-McCallum
Changing the creative
conversation
p.16
Risk has become a
four letter word
p.17
State youth games
p.18
Cory Maxwell-Coghlan
Brenton Killeen
Nick Waring
Contributors
Mark
Sayers
Lillian
Carland
Lauren
Pinches
Roshan
Allpress
Mark is the Senior Leader
of Red, a Church focusing
on the young adult
demographic [redchurch.
org.au], and co-founder
of Über a young adult
discipleship ministry. Mark
lives in Melbourne, with his
wife Trudi, daughter Grace,
& twin boys Hudson & Billy.
Lillian is a prolific, awarded
and reviewed painter of
over 36 years exhibiting
in major international
galleries with over six
thousand works in
various techniques. She is
currently serving oversees
as an artist sent by her
church. You can see her
work at lilliancarland.com.
Lauren is part of the
Illuminate Camp leadership
team, about to lead on her
5th YV camp. She has been
a Youth Group leader at
Doncaster Church of Christ
for 6 years, directing for 2
of those years. This year
is her first as a primary
school teacher. She is
engaged to a wonderful
man and part of a
wonderful family.
Roshan works for the
Compass Foundation, an
organisation that seeks to
cultivate gospel-centered
living, leadership &
networks. He loves talking
about how the Gospel can
be translated into all areas
of life. Roshan lives in New
Zealand, and is married to
Lottie.
Cory
Maxwell-Coghlan
Cameron
Semmens
Cheryl CatfordMcCallum
Marcy
Paynter
Cory is the creator of The
Project [theproject.org.au],
the author of the Naked
City Guide [nakedcityguide.
com.au] and an incoming
Masters of Theology
student at Harvard
University. He is currently
employed at Australia’s
largest Uniting Church,
Newlife, on the Gold Coast
where he works with youth
& young adults.
Cameron is both a poet
and performer. He
brings his unique brand
of entertainment and
insight to people around
Australia through running
workshops, performing and
selling his books. He lives
in Melbourne with his wife
Sonya, who is also a writer,
and his children Spencer
and Mieka.
Cheryl is the Head of the
School of Theology and
Context at Tabor College
Victoria. She said we
should leave off that she
is Reverend Doctor Cheryl
because it could sound
pretentious - but we’re
including it because,
Cheryl, we think
it’s awesome!
Marcy is Pastor of Creative
Ministries at Gateway
Family Church in Seaford
[gateway.asn.au].
Originally trained as an art
teacher, she has always
been passionate about
the power of the Arts in
worship.
Nick
Waring
Brenton
Killeen
Nick has been part of the
YV team as Director of State
Youth Games since 2007.
He is deeply committed
to young people and their
development, and loves
that SYG can be a catalyst
in that process. Nick lives
in Ballarat with his wife
Renita and son Jobe.
Brenton is Director of
Youth Vision Vic/Tas,
Director of National Youth
Ministry Convention, and
Young Adults pastor of
One Community Church
in Blackburn. He lives with
his wife Jess and daughters
Madison and Tamsin.
Youth Vision is the youth and young adult ministry arm of Mission and
Ministry Inc, a partner department of the Conference of Churches of
Christ in Victoria and Tasmania.
The Youth Vision team consists of Brenton Killeen, Jason Sawyer,
Amy Stephenson & Nick Waring.
A 1st Floor, 582 Heidelburg Rd.
Fairfield VIC 3078
P 03 9488 8800
W vic.youthvision.org.au
E [email protected]
Designed by Oak & Ink Creative www.oakandink.com
The theme of this edition examines the relationship
between two of my great passions, the arts and the
church. These two things can seem like strange
bedfellows, but they should not.
Recommended
If you want to read more
from our contributors or
around similar topics, here
are our recommendations:
WEB
The grain of sand (which stuck in my head) that led to
this edition was something my pastor said about church.
He said the church is very good at answering questions
of lifestyle and apologetics (which are important
questions to answer), but for some people outside the
church these are not the spiritual questions they are
asking. They want to know why it is that when they
look at an exquisite sunset their soul seems to rise up in
response, why when a certain song reaches its crescendo
they feel like crying, why when looking at a piece of great
art it can seem so beautiful that it hurts.
Cameron Semmens
So beautiful it hurts.
www.freshworship.org
Beauty reaches so deep into our humanness because it
speaks of our origins but also of our future. It speaks of
our creator God who knit together the human eye with
such intricacy and uniqueness, but also of our final home
when heaven hits earth and we dwell in a garden city lit
by splendor and intimacy with God. Beauty speaks of both
our brokenness and of our hope. As we express creativity
we both celebrate the original creator, and partner with
him in re-imagining and rebuilding the world.
www.marksayersthinks.com
Western youth and young-adulthood is largely shaped
and defined around relationship with the arts. Young
people delve into music, film, poetry and prose, trying
to express, nourish and understand the deeper aspects
of what it is to live and be human. This is something the
church can ignore, there are plenty of other places young
people will find their stimulation. Or it is something the
church can foster and speak into, a way of revealing to
them more of the depth of their God.
www.webcameron.com
Lillian Carland
www.lilliancarland.com
There goes rhyming Simon
simoncross.wordpress.com
Compass Conversations
www.compass.org.nz/
conversations
Grace: Fresh Vital Worship
Mark Sayers
Vicky Beeching
vickybeeching.com/blog
BOOKS
The Trouble with Paris:
Following Jesus in a world
of plastic promises
­‒ Mark Sayers
The Insect and the Buffalo:
How the story of the Bible
changes everything
‒ Roshan Allpress,
Andrew Shamy
The Vertical Self: How biblical
faith can help us discover who we
are in an age of self obsession
So I hope that this edition inspires some people to
dust off their poetry book or polaroid camera. But even
more so that it challenges everyone who is in ministry
to cultivate the arts within your community; to give
creatives the time and space to influence the fabric of
your church. It has been a privilege to work with each
of these contributors. I have been inspired in a different
way by each one. I hope you are too.
‒ Mark Sayers
Amy Stephenson
Blue Like Jazz:
The Beauty of the infinite:
The Aesthetics of Christian Truth
‒ David Bentley Hart
How to Read the Bible
for All Its Worth
‒ Gordon Fee
Douglas Stuart
Nonreligious thoughts
about Christian Spirituality
‒ Donald Miller
The Heart of the Artist
‒ Rory Noland
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
You may have noticed that we look a bit different this
edition, YVQ is an ever evolving beast. That said, our
purpose remains the same: resourcing youth and young
adult leaders as they disciple young people.
p.3
From the
Editor
The art of
irrelevance
Mark Sayers
Yet are these moves really about creativity? I am not so
sure. So much of this movement to make Christians more
creative is wrapped up in the quest to make Church more
relevant. Which is a kind of short hand way of trying to
say that we need to close the cultural gap between the
Church and the wider society. That for the Christian faith in
the West to remain relevant (note that word) we must be
running at the same pace as secular culture when it comes
trends and fashion. If we can achieve this, if our music, our
images, our worship services look and sound like the wider
culture, the doors of the Church will be broken down by the
spiritually hungry.
I believe that we need to return to a biblical
understanding of our God given mandate as humans to
create. We are created in God’s image, God is the creator
of the world, the architect of the Himalayas, the Bird of
Paradise and the Andromeda system. God speaks the world
into being. We are called to be his ambassadors on earth,
to act as he acts; so the ability to create, to imagine things
and then to bring them into being is an essential part of our
humanity. We are not called to simply mimic, God gives us
the ability to create.
When God created humans in the garden he gave us
the role of guardians or stewards of creation. When I hear
steward I think of someone in a fluorescent vest ensuring
that people do not run onto the pitch at sporting events.
The Hebrew word used is Shomer; the english translation
struggles to capture the true breadth of this word. A
Shomer in Jewish thinking is someone who is chosen
to look after and guard
something of worth, and
who is held accountable
for their stewardship by a
rabbinical court. The role
of the Shomer is not simply
to be a passive guard but to
cultivate the item in their
care. Thus as stewards we are called to partner with God
in his great creative project, the redemption of a broken
cosmos. God calls us to be a part of the creative process.
Creativity is not a choice it is part of our mandate.
When we simply mimic the art of wider culture, we become
something like gift shops at the art gallery, the real works are
inside, and all we offer are mass produced prints and imitations.
This view assumes that secularism is not the main
reason that the Church is marginalised in the West, rather
we have gotten our aesthetic wrong. A problem easily
remedied by simply mimicking the style and fashions of the
wider culture. So our services begin to look like Australian
Idol, our Christian indie bands look like secular indie
bands, youth ministry websites look like secular websites
trying to reach the youth market. In the midst of all of this
Christians do get a chance exercise their creativity, through
their musical or design based gifting, but is this the kind of
creative endeavor that we as believers are really called to? Is
this genuine creativity or mimicry?
When we see creativity as simply a tool to aid us in our
quest to become relevant, we hungrily seek out those who
have crossed over the cultural divide and who straddle the
mysterious line between Christian and secular artists. For
the last twenty-five years Christians have enquired about
the faith status of Bono, now young believes ask similar
‘are they or aren’t they’ questions about The Temper Trap,
Mumford and Sons, and Sufjan Stevens. These questions
are rooted in the belief that by association with the social
currency of celebrity the cultural gap can be further closed.
When we simply mimic the art of wider culture, we
become something like gift shops at the art gallery, the real
works are inside, and all we offer are mass produced prints
and imitations. I believe that we have to start again. I believe
that the mission of the Church to the West will not be
On the Cross we discover a vital element of God’s
creative nature. One of the struggles of the artist is to hold
together the awe inspiring and the transcendent elements
of life, those moments which remind us of God’s glory,
with the painful and broken elements of life. Christians
tend to do okay at the first part, Christian bookstores are
filled with prints of glorious mountain ranges, we love the
transcendent apex of the worship song. But we tend to
struggle with the broken elements of life, with integrating
suffering, lament and loss into our creativity. On the Cross,
God intervenes in history with such staggering alacrity
and originality we can only marvel at his creativity. In one
moment, God’s glory is revealed, Jesus takes sin upon
his shoulders and defeats death and evil, yet at the same
time, we are confronted with the image of a dying God,
a man whose painful screams speak of his isolation from
God. The crucifixion is one of those rare moments, where
the transcendent and the immanent, the glorious and the
earthly, the human and the divine are held together. It is
the ultimate template for Christian creatives. Hold those
extremes together and you will produce work that no
longer is mimicry, but which is truly creative.
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
One of the great moves over the last ten to
fifteen years in Christian culture has been an
attempt to close the creativity gap between
the Church and the wider culture. Thus a
great deal of Church websites are now more
pleasing on the eye, our brochures look slicker,
Christian bands look cooler, our worship is more
experiential, and there are conferences aplenty
to serve those wishing to learn more about
creative ministries.
achieved by simply becoming cooler, or by mimicking the
styles and tastes of the wider culture. Instead the church
must understand what it truly means to create rather than
to mimic. We only have to look to the past to see that this is
possible, there is a whole cavalcade of creatives whose faith
inspired them to be at the forefront of cultural creativity.
We only have to listen to Handel, to look at a painting by
Caravaggio, to walk through a building by Gaudi, or read
Dostoyevsky to understand that for these great artists
creativity was not about bridging a gap between the wider
culture and the Church. Rather faith for these people
was the foundation that enabled them to create sublime,
incredible works of creativity which speak to us still today.
p.5
There are very few people who would
disagree with the notion that the
Church needs to embrace creativity.
god’s
masterpiece
Lillian Carland
Lillian Carland is a creative artist who has been sent by her church to serve in the
Balkans. Lillian uses her creative ministry to bless and connect with her community;
through community workshops, medical art clinics, artist in residence exhibitions,
and church based work with children. We chatted with Lillian about the creation of
her work God’s Masterpiece, and her thoughts on art as ministry.
The painting is the result of a partnership in the Crossway Baptist Church sermon series,
also titled God’s Masterpiece. It was painted on stage during the service throughout the
series. The series theme was based on the words in Ephesians 2:10, ‘For we are God’s
masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he
planned for us long ago’. It encouraged every person that they are God’s masterpiece,
and that we are each still being worked on and perfected by God. The painting served as
a visual point of reference for the church congregation, symbolising the gradual nature
of producing something beautiful, and God’s persistent work to bring vibrancy out of
darkness.
I began the piece by painting the entire canvas black, representing darkness and
chaos. The first strokes were painted at the top of the canvas in bright red, symbolic
of God’s blood shed. Then the figure of the fisherman was crafted out of the dark area.
Surrounding the figure are glittering waters, the colours of blood and water suggesting
cleansing and baptism. I finished the piece by painting the net, illustrating that we are
not only called to be cleansed and belonging to God’s kingdom, but actively serving as
fishers of people for God’s glory.
For me, the process was an act of worship; ministering to the church community on stage
allowed me to join in worship in a different way.
I am encouraged and challenged by the passages in Exodus about the skilled craftsmen
being gifted by God to both build and make beautiful the dwelling place of the Lord, and
to teach others their skills. There is a huge responsibility in ministry for the visual artist
to witness to other artists, Churches and communities. The gift of visual arts is a blessing
and must be used in a holy, moral and ethical way in order to be pleasing to God and used
to bring people into relationship with him.
Visual arts also provide a vehicle and platform for outreach in restricted areas. Some
examples of this are the arts programs I am pioneering in the Balkans: a medical art
clinic aiming at connection and discipleship to medical practitioners, art workshops for
mentoring amateur female artists within the community, and public talks utilising and
representing cultural heritage of different territories.
Visual arts used as ministry in this way, in my practice, are used of God to open doors for
people to respond to him.
If you would like to see more of Lillian’s artwork you can go to her website www.lilliancarland.com
Illuminate camp: stepping into the story
Lauren Pinches & Amy Stephenson
I
lluminate Camp invites young people to be a part of something
bigger than just themselves. The camp is an interactive plunge
into God’s grand story of the world. It is our hope that by helping
young people to better grasp the meta-narrative of scripture, that
they will leave the camp with a better understanding of their own
place in God’s story and the vital role they play within its chapters.
Each morning of the camp the young people start by entering into the story, where they are asked to dwell in the story
as if they are hearing it for the first time. Youth then engage in the story with a small group of peers and a leader,
to explore, wonder and connect with the story. Groups then interact in the story through different mediums, like
walking through a space set up with different stations of objects and manipulatives; or through further questioning,
journaling and discussion.
Here is a taste of the journey of Illuminate.
Designed
Into darkness God speaks. Earth is created. God calls into
being sky, light and darkness, sea and land, animals and
plant life. Finally, he creates man and woman to bear
his image and tend to his creation. God is pleased with
what he has created; he calls it ‘very good’. He charges
humanity with the vocation of tending to and populating
the garden planet, to partner with him in completing the
work. The beginning of our story is filled with wonder
and delight, purpose and wholeness.
Broken
Into the perfect earth a serpent
utters a question; a question
which undermines the unity
between God and humanity, a
question which leads humanity
to grasp at that which is not theirs.
Adam and Eve’s choice leads to
their separation from God. And like a
domino effect this separation spreads out
throughoutthe whole world until all of creation groans
under its weight. This separation affects everything, it
reaches deep into each of us and our relationship with
God, one-another, ourselves and our world.
Intervening in this broken world we see God begin to
work through broken people to bring about wholeness.
God hits the reset button through the floods and calls
Noah to start the human role from scratch. God calls
Moses, a crowd-shy refugee guilty of murder, to stand up
against Pharaoh, king and god of the world super-power
– Egypt. God calls David, and when Samuel turns up to
anoint him as the future king of Israel, David isn’t even
initially invited to his own party. David does much good
but his heart turns and he commits adultery and murder.
Yet God calls him ‘friend’ and vows to honor his bloodline
by giving them the throne forever.
Forever? Really? Perhaps this promise is pointing to a
different kind of king. Not the king that people wanted or
expected, but one to rule with love and justice for all of
eternity… Enter Jesus.
He is not the king that Israel was looking for – in fact he is distinctly disappointing
to those who were hoping for an aggressive governmental overthrow. Yet the
beautiful irony is that this humble figure is fulfilling all of the prophets’ anticipations
of the coming king, and it is not until later that people will understand the
significance of Jesus.
Satisfied
In a twist none but the greatest storyteller of all time could orchestrate – Jesus is
crucified. At the hands of those he created to bear his image, to love and to partner
with, almighty God is abused, tormented and violently hung on a torture device to die.
His followers, devastated and confused, scatter. Darkness, disappointment and
death seem to hang in the air; God has died, this story has become a tragedy.
Restoring
Then bursting from the grave comes God’s power of redemption. Jesus has conquered
death once and for all and now we enter a new stage in history. You can hear the
excitement in Jesus voice as he says ‘No, trust me, it’s better if I leave. Wait ‘til you
see who is coming after me!’ The church is established as the new body of Christ on
earth, and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with the people. Once again God amongst his
people, and the job hasn’t changed.
This is the chapter of the book we find ourselves in, commissioned to restore people
to God and to restore God’s creation, partnering with God in the work that he will one
day complete.
We look towards the day when heaven and earth will collide. As the story began with
creation it ends with re-creation. Death, pain and separation from God are wiped from
the face of the earth and the garden city is established. God dwells with his people
on earth the way he originally intended – it is a picture of unspeakable beauty and
intimacy, of which we long for but can barely imagine.
But we aren’t there yet;
we still have work to do.
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
The climax of this story comes in the person of Jesus. God takes on human form and
walks the streets of Israel, demonstrating to us fully the person of God. As with the
characters we have seen before he is an unlikely hero, from the wrong side of town
and born under scandalous circumstance in a way that could not be less grand. Jesus
is a man whom children and outcasts are drawn to, who infuriates the religious
leaders and challenges those willing to listen.
p.9
Presence
An invitation to imaginE
Roshan Allpress
I
have recently begun to
suspect that the greatest
challenge facing the
contemporary western church
is not an absence of passion, or
a lack of critical thinking, but
the atrophy of our imagination.
Imagination is the human faculty
that allows us to picture and name
the world, not merely as it is, but as it
could be. It is not the only tool in our
creative armory, but it is essential.
Consider how we use the Bible.
The western church is very good
at using the Bible as a source of
doctrine, and throughout the past
two centuries, we have spent
incalculable time and resources
defending truth as presented in the
Bible. This is good. But in doing so,
we have neglected the many other
purposes for which the Bible was
given to the church, including as a
source of our collective imagination.
Two hundred years ago, two
educated individuals in Europe could
have a conversation and assume that
each would understand a certain
range of references to cultural
sources. These were largely drawn
from the classical world, and from
Scripture. They could refer each
other to their Achilles heel or to the
owl of Minerva, and both understand
the references to Greek literature.
Similarly, they could refer to a thorn
in the flesh or to a valley of dry bones,
and conjure in the mind of the other
a whole microcosm of references and
connotations drawn from the internal
imaginative world of the Bible.
For hundreds of years, from the
publication of the King James Version
to the mid-twentieth century, the
Bible formed a central part of the
cultural imagination of the people of
Western Europe, and by extension,
those who spoke, read and wrote in
English. Biblical influence on patterns
of thought, and more importantly,
its assumptions, attitudes and
very atmosphere can be found in
Shakespeare, Goethe, and even those
who would seek to undo Christianity
such as Nietzsche.
Yet today our common cultural
points of reference are not classical
or Biblical. If one were to map the
cultural sources of recent popular
movies, high on the list would be
comic book franchises, the Second
World War, and the fantasy fiction
of Tolkien and Lewis. These are the
worlds of our collective cultural
imagination, and the colour of many
of our conversations.
The result in this shift in
imaginative sources has been that
it has become hard to meaningfully
communicate Gospel truths. Even
more tragically, it has almost crippled
our ability to imagine change in the
world because of Christ.
For example, if I refer to a phrase
like “the blood of the lamb”, anyone
with an acquaintance with Scripture
and Christian culture will immediately
recognise the sacrificial metaphor.
A metaphor that echoes from
Abel’s murder, through the Levitical
priesthood, culminates in Christ, “the
lamb slain before the foundations of
the world,” and has made its way into
contemporary worship music. It is a
rich image, full of poignant meaning.
However, to anyone who hasn’t
been to a worship service recently,
the phrase “blood of the lamb”
might sound like the title of a horror
film, or some sort of north African
cuisine. It is almost impossible to
communicate anything like the full
meaning of the phrase, especially
succinctly, to someone who is not
immersed in the Bible.
Further, for many Christians, “the
blood of the lamb” is not a concept
shaped by the whole of Scripture,
but merely some words that pop up
occasionally in songs at church. Our
own collective imaginative world is
more shaped by popular culture than
it is by the Bible. This fact may explain
the proliferation of sermons where
the core text is a U2 song.
Tragically, this has demoted the
Bible from one of its great functions.
The Bible provides not merely a
doctrinal world to believe, but an
imaginative world from which we
create. It incites us to imagine how
the world could be, not just how it is.
Its stories, central images, metaphors
and motifs are meant to provide the
source material and encouragement
for us to re-imagine the world. This
is what the Bible itself is – the people
of God framing and reframing their
changing world in light of what God
has done and said.
I believe that this reality is
the starting point of the greatest
challenge for the contemporary
church – the re-creation of an
imaginative world rooted in the Bible.
We have plenty of precedent for
this kind of massive creative project.
The millennium between Constantine
and the fall of Constantinople was
characterised in Europe’s culture by
a worldview of the imagination that
functioned in the same way as a
cathedral does – to draw the eye up
towards God. Similarly, the likes of C.S.
Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien spent much
of their lives creating imaginative
worlds imbued with meaning. To
spend time imagining Middle Earth
or Narnia is to encounter worlds that
owe much to Scripture, and therefore
can be part of practicing imagination
in conformity to the Gospel.
The people you meet in church
probably
don’t
need
another
experience. They may not even
need to be convinced of another
truth. But they do need to have their
imaginations ignited by the fullness
of that which God has done in Jesus.
And they need to practice the kind of
creative “chewing over” that comes
from seeing a parable or a piece of the
Old Testament as something more
than a carrier for a proposition, but
an invitation to imagine.
“If
you can’t go to church and at least for
a moment be given transcendence,
if you can’t pass briefly from this life
into the next, then I can’t see why anyone should
go. Just a brief moment of transcendence causes
you to come out of church a changed person.”
- Ken Gire Windows of the Soul
Transcendence, capturing glimpses of it has been my
passion for over 30 years. My God is so big, so beautiful,
so vast, so intimate that I could spend many lifetimes
exploring and reflecting His character.
When the people of God gather, there is no excuse for
boring, unimaginative, same-old same-old worship. We
are created in the image of the Great Creator and we are
operating in His character when we bring creativity into our
worship. It is also a great teaching technique. Some learn
best visually, some need to listen while others learn by
doing. If we can find ways to communicate our message in
all these ways, we will lift the effectiveness of our teaching.
What does creativity in worship look like? Of course
we can use music and the spoken word, but we can also
use dance, film, art, photography, drama. We can create
candlelit reflection spaces or craft experiences that allow
people to feel their worship in the physical.
What can such an experience look like? At a recent
Gateway midweek communion service (with a smaller
congregation of about 100), we wanted to encourage
people to move on from past hurts into the new future that
God has prepared for each of us.
were
then
challenged
to move around several
stations or spaces that we
set up around the room.
cross, we were encouraged
to pray that the physical act
would represent a spiritual
reality.
Station one – We
were encouraged to think
about and write down the
messages about ourselves
that were given to us by
our parents or significant
others, messages that have
hung in our spirits for years.
Finally – we came
together
and
took
communion to help us seal
in prayer what God was
saying to us.
Station two – In a quiet
candlelit corner, we sat
with individual MP3 players
listening
to
Scriptures
being read, scriptures that
expressed God’s opinion
of us and His plans for our
lives. For many people, the
contrast was an awakening
moment.
Station three – We read
Hebrews 11 and imagined
ourselves as heroes of the
faith. As we looked back
on our lives, what lessons
could we see that God had
taught us in hardship which
allowed us to be more
effective disciples?
What does creativity in worship look like? Of course
we can use music and the spoken word, but we can
also use dance, film, art, photography, drama.
We started with excerpts from the film Great
Expectations. Miss Haversham is jilted on her
wedding day and 50 years later is still sitting
in her dusty wedding dress. What a great analogy hanging
on to the hurts of the past! We contrasted this story with
Joseph’s: a man who could have chosen to sit in the
bitterness of his past but allowed God to walk him into his
future, having learnt valuable lessons from his pain. People
Station Four – A pile
of heavy backpacks were
placed at the back of the
room. These represented
past hurts that weighed us
down and as we carried one
to the front of the church
and left it at the foot of the
Let’s get practical. How
do you spark creativity?
First, feed your creative
side. Expose yourself to art,
film, theatre and books.
Soak up the things that
inspire you and fill you
with awe. Gather a team
that is passionate about
creative communication of
the gospel. Give your mind
time and space – my best
ideas come in the shower!
Dream through the service.
What emotions do you want
people to feel throughout
the worship time (e.g.
peace, anger, wonder)?
Can you craft experiences
using video, song, visual
images to help move souls
in the direction of God?
How can you get out of
the way and let God do His
work? Can you encourage
reflection using silence or
instrumental music?
This process takes time,
work and planning, but
wonderful things can be
achieved; for even a brief
moment, the physical world
can melt away and we get a
glimpse of eternity and our
hearts ache with longing
for God’s coming perfect
creation where we will find
our home.
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
Marcy Paynter
p.11
a taste of the transcendent
don’t wipe your tears away
don’t smother them with tissues
let them streak and splash and soak in
wear them like jewels
don’t try to blink your tears away
let them sit in your eyes
let them sit in your eyes
and you will see the ocean
let them spill out naturally
waterfalling down your face
‘til they lap the shores of your lips
lick them
and you will taste the ocean!
but you won’t sink
you won’t drown
these tears will keep you afloat
lie back
lie right back
and let the trickling tears
tickle your ears
This is an excerpt from poet Cameron Semmens’ book
Through The Lover’s Window. An account of one man’s
passage through the end of one relationship and the
beginning of another: the loving, the losing and the
learning. Both raw and refined this universal tale is told
with hope and insight.
learning to read again
Cheryl Catford-McCallum
It appears a lot of people are not
reading their Bibles. Apart from the
‘new-borns’, fired by the Holy Spirit,
devouring the Word at every opportunity, the rest
of us are struggling to find motivation to open
the book let alone regularly and systematically
read it.
We claim we are too busy with our jobs, our family, our
social life, our church, but if we are really honest some
of us just are not interested. Sure we know we should be
reading, but if you have spent a few years in the church
you feel you have heard all the good stories. Reading them
again seems boring and irrelevant to life as we know it.
We need to inject some creativity into our Bible
reading and study. At the same time we want to ensure
that we remain true to the meaning the original authors
intended. Our pride, our circumstances, our desires
and our prejudices can warp the message of the text
and too quickly we reduce the challenge of the Bible to
a confirmation of what we want to hear. If we claim the
Bible to be authoritative we must allow it to challenge our
lives and have authority over us. Much of biblical study
has been reduced to ‘what do you think this says?’, leaving
it open to personal agendas and manipulation.
Here are some thoughts on how we can
reengage with the Bible creatively.
First, approach the Bible as a library rather than the
latest John Grisham novel. When we browse the shelves of
our local library we encounter different authors, different
types of literature and different times of writing. This
diversity allows us to enjoy a book of poetry and then a
fictional novel and then a biography. In the same way we
can add some creativity to our bible reading by choosing
from a variety of books over time instead of trying to
plough from Genesis to Revelation and giving up by the
third chapter of Leviticus. Over the course of a year we
can be walking with Jesus in the gospels, listening to
the Old Testament prophets, grappling with the epistles,
pondering the Proverbs, joining with the psalmist in
soaring poetry or puzzling over the Book of Revelation.
Second, consciously link everything you read in the
Bible to ‘the Big Story’. There is a biblical meta-narrative
that links creation, the fall, the redemptive plan of God
unfolding through the history of Israel and finding its
climax in the Cross, and the restoration of humanity and
creation until the final consummation. In this postmodern
world the idea of an overarching story under which
everything else is linked is dismissed; the only stories are
personal and local and each story is as valid as the other.
Every time we read the Bible we must seek to locate what
we read in the overall narrative. We are then able to move
from the Sunday-school concept of a series of disjointed
‘stories with a moral’ to appreciate the important themes
and movements in the interaction between God and his
creation. This can be an exciting and rewarding adventure
as we look at the Bible from this different perspective.
Thirdly, understand the Bible is not all about you! So
often we approach the Bible almost as a personal ‘magic’
book. We open up at a random page, stab the text with
a finger and assume that what we read is God’s private
communication with us to answer our current situation.
Our primary question is ‘what does this mean to me?’ In
our desire for instantaneous application and relevance
we forget that the Bible was not written simply to offer us
personalised guidance. The Bible was written to reveal God
– his ways, his character, his interactions with his people.
Add to this the fact that we are not the primary audience
of the text. It was the Hebrew people in the wilderness,
the Israelites languishing in exile, the members of the
fledgling New Testament church, who constituted the
original audience of different writings. In order for us to
gain insight into the biblical text we have to understand
what it would have meant for the first hearers and readers
and then what it means to us. The questions to ask are
‘what did it mean to them?’ and ‘what does this tell me
about God?’
Fourthly, use an appropriate translation. No Christian
in Australia could complain that there are no bibles
available – my local bookstore has hundreds to choose
from. However, many people struggle to read their bible
because they are using a translation that is decades, if
not centuries old and is using language that is no longer
contemporary. It is common sense to read regularly from
a variety of translations depending on your purpose for
reading. Literal or more wooden translations are great for
in depth study as they are close to the original languages
but they can be difficult to read in large portions. Dynamic
translations are great for expressing the message of the
text in contemporary language and make excellent gifts
for new Christians. Paraphrase bibles are a fun way to
get another person’s perspective on the meaning of
the text but are not advisable to use for study. A good
exercise to do in a group is to gather a number of different
translations and paraphrase bibles and read the same
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
Fifthly, we need to read the Bible
actively. Active reading requires
us to engage with the text rather
than skim-read or passively allow
the words to wash over us. It also
requires us to be willing to hear the
text afresh and anew, to have our
preconceived notions challenged and
even destroyed. When we have sat
through a few hundred sermons and
small group Bible studies we can find
ourselves switching off from familiar
texts because ‘we know what they
say’. I was astounded to hear a worldrenowned biblical scholar admit
that after forty years of studying the
bible there were still times when
he changed his mind over what he
Lastly, employ creative ways of
studying the Bible. We might be able
to lose weight by just eating bananas
for a month but it’s unlikely we will
be able to endure the monotony to
achieve the desired goal. Likewise,
while I am a great exponent of working
through biblical books systematically
examining consecutive passages,
we need to employ other creative
ways of engaging with the Bible.
Try recreating life in Jerusalem in
the time of Jesus with each person
role-playing a specific group such
as the Pharisees, Roman soldiers
or tax-collectors. You can choose a
geographic place in the Bible such as
the town of Dan and trace it through
Israel’s history. You might examine
the life of a biblical character –
Jacob, Miriam or Dorcas. Compare
leadership styles between David and
Peter, dig into a series of Proverbs
Our pride, our circumstances, our desires and our prejudices
can warp the message of the text and too quickly we reduce the
challenge of the Bible to a confirmation of what we want to hear.
thought simply as a result of humbly
being willing to look and hear it
afresh. Active reading involves seeing
what the text actually says, asking
questions of the text, exploring the
cultural setting, determining the
context in the rest of the book, and
finally carefully and thoughtfully
applying the message of the text to
today. Active reading is hard work,
it requires effort and persistence
but the rewards are stunning – an
excitement and exuberance as the
Word comes alive.
and discuss their application, try and
decipher a group of Levitical laws and
determine what they reveal about
God’s character. The possibilities are
endless.
Passionately committed to the
Bible and the message it brings to our
world, we have the task of creatively
engaging others in a commitment
to read and study God’s word. The
task is neither simple nor clear but,
if we approach it with open hearts,
imaginative minds and careful
practice we will see fruit.
p.15
passage – preferably a familiar psalm
or something similar. You will be
astounded at how the variety brings
the passage to life again.
Changing the creative conversation
Cory Maxwell-Coghlan
“The imitator dooms himself
to hopeless mediocrity. The
inventor did it because it was
natural to him, and so in him
it has a charm. In the imitator,
something else is natural, and
he bereaves himself of his
own beauty, to come short of
another man’s.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is an emerging trend within
evangelical discourse that deplores
creative copycatting and exalts the
ideal of originality. Such rhetoric
rolls nicely off the tongue when it
comes, as it so often does, from the
mega-church pastors with creative
resources at their disposal. But
we can’t forget about the pastors
of smaller flocks with shoestring
budgets and limited resources. These
guys make the charge of creative
plagiarism seem like an unfair
one considering the resource-gap.
Nonetheless, spending more time
researching the latest trends than
actually setting them is admittedly
counterproductive.
What’s missing from this debate
is a clear and precise definition
of creativity and perhaps more
importantly, the expectation of its
agency within the church. Focusing
on the latter, it increasingly appears
that every idea or symbol in popular
culture must be packaged and
made consumable for the masses.
This principle of commodification
has slowly crept its way into the
evangelical mindset, reducing
the complexity of creativity to a
marketable product, or the marketing
tool for a product.
The commodification of creativity
can mask its intrinsic value. But
the truth is, being creative doesn’t
always mean that something needs
to be produced, or that anything
necessarily needs to be consumed.
Sure, you can be innovative without
being original, but that’s assuming
our end goal is effectiveness.
Being creative doesn’t always mean that something
needs to be produced, or that anything necessarily
needs to be consumed.
Creativity is an offering of worship
to God and is within itself an end,
rather than a means to an end. We
mustn’t think too narrowly about
creativity in the church, just in the
same way that we have redefined the
complex and multifaceted nature of
worship within the narrow confines
of music.
True creativity lies not in the
ability to churn out artistic products
to be marketed and consumed, but
rather the ability to imagine and
initiate a church experience that
captures and expresses uniqueness.
The sum of a creative church is
not its well designed website and
impressive videos, although these
are all admirable things. It is how
every facet of ministry celebrates
the unique gifting and make-up of
a congregation who God himself
crafted in His abundant creativity.
As Emerson so eloquently states,
to invent is to do what is natural, and
so it has a charm, but the imitator
bereaves himself of his own beauty,
to come short of another man’s. The
beauty is the creativity itself, not
what creativity can do. Resourced or
not, each church has the ability to
create a unique environment based
not on conformity and imitation, but
on the celebration of authenticity
and individuality.
Originality, innovation, and even
effectiveness become inevitable
by-products of creative imagination.
Whether you’re a mega-church or
a tiny home church, your apparent
lack of resources becomes a moot
point. Creativity in these terms
becomes accessible and creates
a level playing field. It transcends
budgets or resources, and it changes
the conversation. Instead of trying
True creativity lies not in the ability to churn out artistic
products to be marketed and consumed, but rather the
ability to imagine and initiate a church experience that
captures and expresses uniqueness.
Copycatting begets conformity,
and conformity must be avoided
like the plague. There’s no need to
peek over the fence at the church
down the road; leave them to their
own devices. Their successes will
be as unique and natural as the
journey they walked to achieve
them, and as such will bear a charm.
There is no formula to appropriate,
and no ‘how-to’ guide to follow.
Imitation just leaves us with the
tragedy of unrealised potential, like
if Beethoven decided to stick to the
safety of Mozart and never compose
a work of his own.
to keep up with the church of the
Joneses, we must dare to dream,
imagine, create, invent and inspire.
It is with this pioneering spirit that
we can begin to create an authentic
story whose likeness is nothing but
our own and of whose beauty we are
not bereaved.
“An invasion of armies can
be resisted, but not the idea
whose time has come”
— Victor Hugo
incredible risks people were prepared
to take in response to the Creator
and his new work through Jesus and
those who would be brave enough to
follow him.
When was the last time you did
something different in your ministry?
I mean truly different? I’m not talking
about a tweak on the status quo or
a slight adjustment on a preexisting
thing, I mean a brand new idea that
you dreamed up and then committed
time to implement.
I wonder if our image conscious
age has affected our ability to
take innovate and creative risks?
Undoubtedly it would seem that
risk has become a four-letter word!
It could be argued that we have
replaced our creative yearning with
market research, popular opinion, and
If we are looking for perfection in
our creativity (by the world’s standards)
we are missing the point. Creativity is
meant to be experienced first hand as
much as it is observed. We are meant to
create because within this process we
can discover that which is truly original,
that which reflects the beauty and
imagination of The Creator. This unique
expression of the true self is in essence
innovative. No one has done it before, it
is inspired and it cannot be replicated as
it is first experienced.
Creativity is meant to be experienced first hand as much as it is observed.
I often ask youth leaders and teams
that exact question, and you might
be surprised to know that most of
the time the answer to that question
is ‘never’. Even more interesting is
that many don’t actually see this as
a problem. I hear leaders regularly
tout the words of Solomon ‘there
is nothing new under the sun…’ as
if to find some kind of comfort or
solace in the realisation they are void
of the responsibility to dream the
impossible, or to initiate a unique and
alternative response to the myriad
of issues young people face today.
It would appear that our culture’s
‘cookie cutter’ approach to living has
informed the way we do ministry with
youth and young adults, that we have
forgotten the place of innovation and
creativity in ministry. Personally, I find
this really disconcerting.
It leaves me pondering ‘what
happened?’ When I consider the
early church and the creativity and
innovation that they employed for the
sake of the gospel and the survival of
the church, I can only wonder why we
are so reticent to do the same. There
are countless stories in scripture
of people pursuing the impossible,
displaying incredible innovation
and creativity, and seeing God work
as a result. As I read through the
gospels and the Acts of the Apostles
I am constantly confronted with the
projections of estimated outcomes.
Innovation is deemed too risky if this
holy trinity of marketing is not in
alignment, willing us to continue.
Perhaps another problem is our
incessant pursuit of ‘perfection’.
The truly innovative is sometimes
distorted as perfection is pursued
with vigor. Creativity and innovation
are usually far from perfect. It
can be a messy and sometimes
immeasurable process. As a result
the average person finds it very
difficult to put themselves out-there
and attempt something that might
come off as less than perfect. And
who can blame them? After all we
are bombarded daily by high quality
creativity (music, art, fashion,
movies, technology). We have
come to believe that something
with humble beginnings or less
than perfect is not worth pursuing.
Ironically any form of art that makes
it to screen, airwaves or stage has
been rehearsed, tested, tried and
refined to the point of perfection;
very rarely does anything new begin
perfectly. I wonder if the influence
of the must-fit-in culture of our age
demands we take on a persona that
is tried, tested and current. It appears
this is as much an epidemic in
ministry as it is in popular culture.
The ministry we are entrusted with
invites us to enter the creative mind
of God and partner with him to see
his kingdom come. It is important to
learn to think this way because your
ministry will be faced with future
challenges that current forms of
thinking are simply inadequate to
address. The core values and ministry
priorities may not change, but the
method will change in response to
context, which changes rapidly in
our developing culture. Indeed one
cannot solve a problem with the
same mode of thinking that helped to
create the problem in the first place!
It will require a new set of eyes, a
new way of thinking, and a different
approach altogether.
To ignite a spark into a flame
one needs an environment that will
allow the elements to work together.
One of the best ways to begin the
process of creative expression is to
spend time with fellow imagineers.
Those who will dream with you and
encourage you to take risks for his
sake. Maybe it is time you for you to
put aside time and energy to explore
some new possibilities?
Brenton Killeen is Director of
National Youth Ministers Convention
a great place to connect with other youth
ministers and hear from people who are
creative and innovative in their practice.
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
Brenton Killeen
p.17
RISK HAS BECOME A FOUR LETTER WORD
State youth games
Nick Waring - SYG Director
State Youth Games 2011 was one to
remember! For one sunny weekend in June
3000 young people swamped Larder Park
in Warragul for the 21st annual SYG.
People threw themselves in to the 30 different
sports on offer utilising virtually every sports
venue in a 30km radius. Over 70 churches from
many different traditions came together to
participate in the event, some traveling up to 6
hours to be part of it.
The event kicked off on Friday night with an
exceptionally creative opening ceremony with the
theme and message ‘get off the bench!’, this issued a
challenge and built up everyone’s anticipation for the
weekend, many hailed it the best SYG opening ceremony
ever. Bucking the trend of other years, throughout the
weekend Lardner Park was covered in beautiful warm
sunshine which made for an incredibly enjoyable and
relaxing weekend in the great outdoors.
Each night the troops gathered across two evening
sessions to engage in worship with the YV band and
hear from the incredible Mike Pilavachi. Mike’s message
proved to be an incredible challenge and encouragement
with many making a public declaration of their decision
to follow Jesus. It was a huge blessing to us all to have
Mike share with us and to know the huge difference his
messages made in so many young lives.
As always, the spirit of the event was incredible
with many stories of sportsmanship and unity shared
throughout the weekend. Often this generous spirit
showed up in the simplest ways – opposing teams letting
the younger team win, strangers showing others the rules,
people forfeiting games to assist those who had been
injured. Whilst we’ve all been guilty of getting a little too
competitive at SYG, it is exciting to see so many groups
seeing SYG as an opportunity to teach their young people
what it looks like to be like Jesus in every situation.
One great story, among many that I heard, was from
Footscray Church of Christ. They brought 8 kids who were
connected with their youth group but had never made any
commitment to Jesus. On the second night, when Mike
Pilavachi asked if anyone wanted to step into relationship
with Jesus, 7 of those 8 kids went down the front. When
their youth pastor asked the 8th kid if she wanted to go
down the front to make that same commitment with her
friends, she replied that she didn’t need to as she had
already made that commitment that weekend.
Those are the stories that make SYG worthwhile.
The local media took particular interest in this year’s
world record attempt – the largest air guitar performance.
Unfortunately, we fell just short of the numbers required
to make the record, but for a first attempt it was a great
effort and pretty darn funny too. Plans are already in
motion to have another crack at a record next year.
A big congratulations goes to the groups who made
the most of the year’s event and experienced success –
for some this was on the sporting field, but for most it
was around relationships that were formed and new hope
discovered. This kind of change doesn’t just happen. It
happens because of the dedication, hard work and love
of amazing volunteers, incredible pastors and committed
youth leaders who have prayed for, served and simply
been there for their young people over the years.
Congratulations to all who were a part of SYG 2011.
RUSSELL CROXFORD AWARD
RankChurchPointsPpL Playing Sport
Average
1st
Hartwell Church of Christ
80
6
13.33
2nd
Balwyn Church of Christ
79
6
13.17
3rd
St Pauls Anglican Church
237
21
11.29
4th
Montmorency Community Church
361
34
10.62
5th
Box Hill Salvation Army
289
29
9.97
6th
Canterbury Gardens Community Church
300
32
9.38
7th
Doncaster Church of Christ
509
55
9.25
8th
Rope Factory Church
185
20
9.25
9th
Croydon Hills Baptist Church
180
20
9.00
10th
Syndal Baptist Church
762
92
8.28
1st
Syndal Baptist Church
762
2nd
Ringwood Church of Christ
619
3rd
Community Church Warragul
561
4th
Doncaster Church of Christ
509
5th
FUSE Youth 498
6th
One Community Church 456
7th
Diamond Valley Baptist Church 428
8th
Truth and Liberation Concern 405
9th
Montmorency Community Church 361
10th
York St Church of Christ 339
Medium churcheS
RankChurchPoints
1st
Montmorency Community Church
361
2nd
C’bury Gardens Community Church
300
3rd
Box Hill Salvation Army
289
4th
NewHope Baptist Church
257
5th
St Pauls Anglican Church
237
6th
Warragul Church of Christ
236
7th
Gateway Youth
234
8th
one2one Gillies St Church of Christ
226
9th
Young and the Res
214
10th
Chinese Christian Church of Victoria
194
SMALL churcheS
RankChurchPoints
1st
Rope Factory Church
185
2nd
Croydon Hills Baptist Church
180
3rd
Moreland City Salvation Army
165
4th
Werribee Church of Christ
117
5th
Liberty Christian Life Centre
100
6th
Evangelical Chinese Church
99
7th
Shepparton Baptist Church
96
8th
Hartwell Church of Christ
80
9th
Balwyn Church of Christ
79
10th
Odyssey Youth Group
77
Quarterly Issue 04 October 2011
RankChurchPoints
p.19
OVERALL RESULTS
what’s on?
A 1st Floor, 582 Heidelburg Rd.
Fairfield VIC 3078
P 03 9488 8800
Illuminate camp
A camp for young people to experience the
grandeur of the meta-narrative of the Bible.
September 26-30
Adanac CYC, Yarra Junction
$260
Register at vic.youthvision.org.au
Contact YV office: 94888800,
[email protected]
National Youth Ministry Convention
Our 2011 theme is ‘developing a youth ministry’ with
a very exciting range of speakers: Mike Pilavachi (UK),
Tony Campolo (USA), Daniel Strickland (CAN), and Billy
Williams (AUS)
October 5-8
The Twin Towers Resort, Gold Coast
more details www.nymc.org.au
Contact YV office: 94888800,
[email protected]
Victorian Youth Ministry Network Gathering
At our final VYMN for the year we will be sharing stories
about what has been happening in youth ministry across
Victoria in 2011.
October 27, Thursday, 1-4pm
Location: TBA
$10 for lunch (from 12:30pm)
RSVP for catering essential
Contact Jono Green - Youth Alpha Australia,
98998050, [email protected]
W vic.youthvision.org.au
E [email protected]