God's Word for today

Tuesday 27 July 2010

AMAZING 2010 World Cup witness for Jesus!

My mom sent me this absolutely stunning picture taken at the Royal Bafokeng stadium during the Australia vs Ghana match, which I felt I just HAD to share.

Sunday 25 July 2010

Sermon: "Take up your cross and follow Me" - some thoughts on what Jesus meant

Starting today, I've decided to post my sermon notes in order to invite discussion and critique. This one was preached at Prestbury Methodist Church, Pietermaritzburg, on 25 July 2010 at 09h00.

Sermon: "Take up your cross and follow Me" - some thoughts on what Jesus meant

Scripture readings: Ruth 1: 14-18, Mark 8: 31-38

Text – Mark 8: 34b: “If anyone would come after Me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me”.

Before I begin with my message this morning, I’d like to do a snap survey and find out who among the congregation seated here this morning is dyslexic? I ask this question, not only because my wife is dyslexic, but also that I’ve been spending some time helping our minister, Rev Michael Stone, with some editing on his PhD that he’s been working on whilst on furlough. Michael, as many of you know, is also dyslexic, and it’s interesting to understand how dyslexics think. For instance, Michael explained that if one had to look at the spelling of the word "cat", a non-dyslexic would come up with the one correct spelling thereof in a split second. However, the dyslexic has to process through the 27 incorrect spellings, by process of elimination, to get to the one correct spelling – all within the same time-frame! As a result, as a dyslexic progresses through the school system and the work becomes more complex, they appear slower but in fact are suffering from severe information overload. Try opening ALL of your computer applications at the same time, and you'll get some idea of what the dyslexic's mind goes through.

Yet dyslexia manifests in sheer genius, if properly channelled. For instance, if my wife and I plan an outing, within seconds she has already worked through all the possible scenarios in her mind – what we will be doing, is there a pool there, what if it rains, is there somewhere else we can go if Plan A doesn't work out ... and packs a bag accordingly. When James was a baby, her nappy bag contained apparatus to clean up every possible emission of bodily fluids imaginable. And she's the only lady I know who can pack a caravan perfectly – and I mean PERFECT: balanced, everything there, not too light, not too heavy – all this without any instruction or even having read any books on how a ‘van should be packed.

Now I understand why Belinda regards Michael as the greatest preacher she has ever heard. As fellow dyslexics, they both start off with a single idea and then branch off in a hundred different directions. And the sentences are often incomplete, but that doesn't matter, since in their minds the idea, and its connection to the next idea, has already been formulated in wide screen, high-definition, vivid colour. The rest of us, of course, often don't have a clue where they are going, because we think in linear patterns. The dyslexic is thinking Midlands Meander, while the non-dyslexic thinks N3.

So this morning I’ve decided that my message will not be starting off at Point A and taking you to point B, but rather that I would share some random thoughts on what Jesus means when He says that we must “take up your cross and follow Me”. Think of today’s sermon as a buffet – different things laid out, so that there will hopefully be one nugget of truth that you can latch onto and make your own. Don’t worry if you don’t pick up everything – the sermon is being recorded, and I’ve e-mailed my notes to the church office, so you can get hold of the detail if you want it.

Right … here goes! “Take up your cross, and follow Me”. “If anyone would come after Me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me”. Man – I’ve heard this passage being quoted so glibly by some; so misunderstood by others. And I think that sometimes we oppress ourselves with this passage, because we see it not as a victorious commitment to following Jesus with every fibre of our being, but rather as an oppressive burden that Jesus plonks on our shoulders.

For instance, we often meet people who are going through rough times, and when we ask them how they are coping, they give you this deep sigh, and say, “Well, I’m doing okay, I guess – I suppose that this burden is the cross which I have to bear!” Sorry, folks, but when someone says that to me, I just want to slap them so hard! God gives us challenges to overcome, tests to build us up and make us grow – not to wear like sackcloth! In my cycling days I knew a guy like that. I was just a social rider, but this guy was a top cyclist – small, sinewy, tough as nails, and unbelievably fit. So the one day we did this 100km race. I finished in about 3½ hours; he was expected to do it about an hour faster. So when I saw him at spinning class on the Monday morning, I asked him how it went, and he responded, “I had a puncture”. “So?” I responded. “What did that do to your time?” “You don’t understand. I punctured. That’s it. Race over”. “What?” I replied. “Race over? What do you mean? Don’t you licensed riders know how to fix punctures? You QUIT? You wuss! Fix the puncture, get back on the bike, and finish the race! What’s the matter with you?”

Now before you rush outside to slash my tyres, please, I’m NOT making light of illnesses, disabilities, or bad things that happen, but they are NOT the cross you have to bear! I knew a young lady in our church back in Joburg – always smiling, ready to crack a joke, loves Jesus with all her heart, was a youth leader, led our worship team, was president of her Toastmasters club – and she is blind. Now she could have gone and sat in a corner and sulked about her blindness being “the cross I have to bear”, or she could think about taking up her cross in the sense of, “right, Jesus has come into my heart, I have a mission to carry out in response to His love, and so I need to get on with it!”

Let’s have a look in Scripture to see what it means to “take up your cross and follow Jesus”, and the answer is found, not in the Mark 8 passage, but waaaay back in the Old Testament – in the story of Ruth. Wendy read the passage for us this morning from Ruth 1: 14-18, but let’s pick up the story from the beginning so that the stage is set: Ruth was a Moabite who was married to an Israelite, but sadly after 10 years of marriage her husband died. Her mother-in-law Naomi, an Israelite, was also a widow, and because she had lost her husband and both of her sons, she had nothing really to live for in Moab, and wanted to return home to Israel. In fact, Naomi was probably thinking that her state of life at that stage had become “the cross which she had to bear”, and so she just wanted to go home. Ruth was instructed to go home to her people in Moab, but Ruth had other ideas, and so Verse 15 is where we pick up the story.

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Let’s look at a few things and see how this relates to “taking up our cross and following Jesus”:

Firstly, we need to understand that Ruth was not forced to go to Israel with Naomi. In fact, Naomi offered her the easier path. “Go back to Moab. Be with your people. Worship their gods. No-one will think badly of you – in fact, that’s what would be expected of you.”

How often do we as Christians hear this: “Why do you need to do all that religious goody-goody stuff? Go on, have a beer – there’s nothing wrong with it. Everybody enjoys a drink now and then. And that hot woman over there? She wants you, man – go for it. Come on, you’re out of town – no-one’s going to find out. Your wife’s probably doing her own thing, any way. You did what – you entered your actual kilometres travelled on your tax return? And they weren’t enough, and now you have to pay in? Don’t be silly, man – pad them a bit. Those dof guys at SARS will never know any different. Besides, the Government is corrupt – they’re only wasting your tax money anyway.

Not Ruth – she willingly chose to go with Naomi, irrespective of whatever hardships she was likely to face as a widow in a foreign land. Taking up your cross and following Jesus is hard, but it’s not forced on us. It’s a free choice we make.

Secondly, we can view taking up our cross in the same way as a marriage commitment. Look at what Ruth says: “I will go where you go; where you stay, I will stay; your people will be my people; your God will be my God; where you die, there I will be buried”. This is a total, life-long commitment. One of the sad things about marriage today is that it’s too easy to bail out. Marriage is tough – and it’s meant to be. You want to ride bicycles, you have to take the up-hills as well as the down-hills. The punctures will happen – often when you least expect them – or when you try to get clever. I cannot think the number of times I’ve said to fellow cyclists, “Man, these Continental tyres are the best – I haven’t had a puncture in six months…” Pssssst – flubba-flubba-flubba. It’s easy for my wife to love me when I’m showering her with gifts, giving her money to spend, and showing her a good time. It’s a lot more difficult to love me when I do crazy things like give up a lucrative accounting career to go into the ministry, or when I’m lying in bed sick with a cold and being a total pain in the backside like only us guys can be – right, gents? Same with our commitment to Christ – there will be times when the demons flee before us, times when it seems that people are healed as our shadow falls on them, just like Peter – but there will also be times when the storms come, when we are in the desert at the mercy of Satan, and when all we have to hold onto is “It is written…”. Those are the times when we need to “vasbyt” and hold on to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, who loves us and sustains us. Those are the things that build character!

Thirdly, let’s look at what Ruth means when she is saying, “I will go where you go”. Are we prepared to live like Jesus has called us to live? I mean, really live as Jesus wants us to live? Let’s look at Verses 36-38 of our Mark passage.
  • Verse 36: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” That was me in 2002 – living for the job: long hours, chasing the buck, kiss-up-and-kick-down. Who’s backside do I need to kiss? Whose head do I need to crush? How much harder can I work? And if I can’t look good, how can I make my colleagues look bad?” Corporate life – if you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about!
  • Verse 37: “Or what can a person give in exchange for their soul?” We bargain with Jesus. If I attend both services each Sunday, serve on every committee in the church, and make myself totally indispensible, then I might … just … make it into heaven. Now God wants us to worship, and He wants us to serve, but we don’t do these things so that we can curry favour with God. We do them because we respond to the love of Christ, and because we want to serve Him.
  • Verse 38: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels”. How many of us are ashamed of the Gospel? Now before you square up in indignation and say, “Not me”, let me ask you how many of your friends or work colleagues know you are a Christian? Does your lifestyle reflect your Christianity? Do your ethics reflect a commitment to Christ? Do you tell people who invite you out that you will be at church on Sunday evening, or do you say that you have a “prior engagement”? And let me not get sanctimonious here. I need to pop out to the shops after church – do I go in dressed like this, or do I go home and get changed first? On this note, a colleague and I went to Midlands Mall on Wednesday on behalf of our fellow seminarians to buy a farewell gift for Neville Richardson, who is about to retire from the Seminary, and we happened to have our collars on. You should see the looks on the faces of the people when they see two penguins walking through a shopping centre! You see, I’m not talking about pounding people to death with a ten-pound Bible, but I’m asking, does the light of Christ shine through us?

Finally, Ruth says to Naomi that “your people will be my people”. Who are “our people”? Like Jesus asked the rich man, when telling the story of the Good Samaritan, “who is your neighbour?” Fellow Christians? Our families? “Nice” people? Who are “God’s people”? In Peter Storey’s book “And Are We Yet Alive”, he writes that when a Christian prays for Jesus to come into their heart, that prayer alone can never be enough. When we pray, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus”, he responds by saying, “Can I bring my friends?” “Hold on, Lord – you don’t understand. My intention is that You come into my heart – be my Lord and my Saviour”. But again Jesus replies, “Can I bring My friends”.

We look at those clustered around Him, and groan. “Oh my God, no – not them, please, not them! They’re all different colours, and their cultures are so different from mine, and they talk languages I don’t understand. They come from places I don’t want to go to, and some of them have done things which I was taught were not very polite and nice. Lord, do you really want me to let them into my heart as well?” And He says, “Yes”. And we say, “What about those we managed to keep under for so many years, because they were black and brown?” and He says, “Close friends of mine”. And we say, “what about those we like to have baking cakes for church meetings but not in leadership positions in the church?” and He says, “Some of my best friends are women.” And we say, “Lord, surely we’re allowed one respectable prejudice? What about gay people? You’ve robbed us of most of our favourite prejudices, but we can surely still hold onto this one? You don’t want them, do you, because you know, Lord, that there are verses in the Bible that allow us to denigrate them?” And Jesus says, “Well, actually, they are also my friends”.

And so we say, “Jesus, is having all these people in my heart the only way I can have You? And Jesus says, “If you love Me, then feed My sheep. To love me, you also need to love My friends”.

So in closing, what does it really mean when Jesus tells us to “take up your cross and follow Me?” By God's grace, if we are to be a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, these are the things what we need to do (Source: Steve Camp):

  1. Believe that Jesus is the Christ. 1 John 5:1 – “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well.”
  2. Be an overcomer of the world. 1 John 5:3-4 – “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
  3. Stop practicing sin. 1 John 3:9 – “No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” 1 John 5:18 – “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.”
  4. Practice righteousness. 1 John 2:29 – “If you know that He [Jesus] is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.”
  5. Love others. 1 John 4:7-8 – “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

On the lighter side: Why men should not be forced to go shopping with their wives

Men should not be forced to go shopping with their wives, since they become bored and, as a result, look for ways to amuse themselves. This letter was (apparently) actually sent by Tesco's Head Office to a customer in Oxford:

Dear Mrs. Murray,

Whilst we would like to thank you for your valued custom and use of the Tesco Loyalty Card, the Manager of our store in Banbury is considering banning you and your family from shopping with us, unless your husband stops his antics.

Below is a list of his actions over the past few months, all verified by our surveillance cameras:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's trolleys when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to feminine products aisle.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares... and watched what happened.

5. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

6. September 15: Set up a tent in the outdoor clothing department and told shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring sausages and a Calorgas stove.

7. September 23: When the Deputy Manager asked if she could help him, he began to cry and asked, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'

8. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, picked his nose, and ate it.

9. October 10: While appearing to be choosing kitchen knives in the Housewares aisle, asked an assistant if he knew where the antidepressants were.

10. November 3: Darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.

11.November 6: In the kitchenware aisle, practised the 'Madonna look' using different size funnels.

12. November 18: Hid in a clothing rack, and when people browsed, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

13. November 21: When an announcement came over the loudspeaker, assumed the foetal position and screamed 'NO! NO! It's those voices again.'

And; last, but not least:

14. November 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited a while; then yelled, very loudly, 'There is no toilet paper in here!'

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Words that offend

One thing that one constantly discovers when living in a multicultural environment such as SMMS is how certain words or phrases that seem totally benign to some, cause deep offense to others.

For instance, in our sessions yesterday we were discussing the broad subject of "Finding Joy in the Ministry", and when we got to gender issues, the atmosphere got quite heated.  But the sparks really flew when one of my colleagues made a statement along the lines of males in certain patriarchal congregations holding leadership positions, irrespective of their capability or spirituality, simply because they "have a penis".  Another colleague took deep offense to the word "penis", stating that one should not publicly refer in any way to one's "private areas".

Personally, I can't see what all the fuss was about.  We don't talk about "smelly things" when referring to our noses, since the proper word for this particular appendage is "nose".  In similar vein, it would be considered immature by most people for an adult to speak about a "willy".  However, that the use of the word "penis" should have caused such offense is an interesting observation, and reminds one of the need to constantly be aware of cultural differences.  It always worries me, particularly in a ministry context, that an innocent remark or the use of a particular word can cause unintended but intense offence in others, and so the need for tolerance on both sides is paramount in all interactions.

Sunday 18 July 2010

Communion and the "Prayer of Humble Access"

This morning I had the privilege of conducting the service at the Sunnyside Retirement Village, which is situated a couple of kilometres north of the Prestbury Methodist Church in Pietermaritzburg.  My message, based on Matthew 15: 21-28, focused on the faith and persistence of the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed.

However, the part of this passage that really struck me was when Jesus responded to the woman with the statement that He could "not take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs".  Bible commentators usually take these words to mean that the salvation that the Canaanite woman was seeking from Jesus for her daugher was something that was reserved for Israel.  Since Matthew's Gospel is written for a Jewish audience, portraying Jesus as the Messiah that was long-awaited by the Israelites, much of what Matthew has written focuses on Jesus' plan of redemption for the Jews.

My first thought was that Matthew was therefore putting words in Jesus' mouth, since surely our Lord would not have referred to a woman who not only displayed great faith but also desperate need, as a "dog"?  To be quite honest, if I was faced with that kind of response, I would have probably told Jesus to shove it!

But I sometimes wonder if Jesus was in fact trying to prove something here by making this statement, just as we are able to say certain things to certain people because they will (a) know where we are coming from and will take it, or (b) see the greater scheme of things and take it, or (c) understand the point we are trying to prove and will take it, or (d) all of the above.  For instance, did our Lord know or suspect that the Samaritan woman would respond in the way she did?  I believe that He did - and, in fact, the "greater scheme of things" was that He was about to blow Israel's whole "chosen nation" notion (for which they had become arrogant) completely apart by revealing His salvation plan for all of humankind - including the Gentiles.

The other interesting thing that stands out is that the woman responded to Jesus' "dogs" comment by stating that "even the dogs are entitled to the scraps from under the table".  Her faith was so strong that she knew that even the tiniest morsel she could get from Jesus would be enough to heal her daughter.  I must confess that I would want what I perceive to be "the best" from Jesus, but for this women, even that which was considered "the least" would be nore than sufficient.  That is why I believe that Jesus commended her faith and granted her request.

But further to this is the woman's certainty that there was something falling from the Lord's Table that even the lowest of the low was entitled to.  Throughout the history of the Israelites, the Law stated that there must always be something left behind during harvest so that the poorest of the poor could glean something, no matter how small.  If the Law was followed, the poor may well have little, but no-one would go without.  This must have been a well-known principle, since even a Samaritan woman knew that even those from the lowest echelons of society would never go away completely empty-handed.  But instead of being forced to grovel under the table for scraps, our Lord, in granting her request, effectively created a place for her at the table as an honoured guest.

Which brings me to the "Prayer of Humble Access" that we use in the standard Communion liturgy.  The one that goes, "Lord, we come to Your Table, trusting in Your mercy, and not in any goodness of our own".  But the part that gets me is where we say that "[w]e are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs from under your table".  If I'm reading the account of the Samaritan woman correctly, being able to gather the crumbs from under the table is the one level of dignity that is granted to all.  The "mercy on which we depend", as mentioned in the next line of the prayer, is the mercy that Jesus grants, not to gather the crumbs, but in fact to be able to join Him at the table, seated, like guests.

While I'm not for one minute suggesting that, when we approach the Lord's Table, we should be arrogant concerning our place at the table.  Such arrogance would without a doubt be an example of an "unworthy manner" that the apostle Paul warns us against in 1 Corinthians 11: 27.  And I have no doubt that our approach to the Lord's Table should be one of humility and thankfulness.  But I'm not sure that the idea of coming to the table on our bellies, unworthy even to partake of the scraps, is a healthy one.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Dropping like flies...

The Seminary returned to the salt mines last Monday, beginning with the "Vocational Intensive" that I referred to in an earlier post.  However, the mining activities have moved to our shiny new campus which, truly, is worl;d class, state of the art, and any other superlative that comes to mind.  Having spent time in study at three of South Africa's most august institutions - University of Johannesburg, University of South Africa, and the university of kwaZulu-Natal, I can say without idle boast that the new SMMS campus must undoubtedly be the finest campus for tertiary education in South Africa.

Unfortunately, one of the many new toys we have to play with is airconditioning in each lecture vanue.  I say "unfortunately", because while this will be an absolute boon in Pietermaritzburg's hot summers where the temperature regularly exceeds 40 degrees during the day, airconditioning is also one of the best devices known to humankind for spreading germs when one or two have a cold or flu.

The result is that quite a few of us have been walking around looking like the "living dead", coughing and spluttering and, in the process, making our own contribution to germ warfare at the Seminary.

Some of our colleagues have already been off ill towards the end of last week and early this week, but Jenny and I have been hanging on gamely despite being as sick as dogs - mainly because Ross, our Seminary President, has also been feeling under the weather but has still managed to drag his sorry self to lectures each day.

But after gamely battling the bug for over a week, Ross decided today that it was time to throw in the towel, and went home at lunchtime.  So having been relieved of the need to keep up the "cowboys don't cry" facade, Jenny and I applied for dispensation and have now retreated to our respective homes in the hope that some rest will prove to be restorative.

Please pray for our respective families, for hell hath no fury like hyperactive people derived of their work "fix" due to illness.  Pray especially for my wife Belinda, since - as everyone knows - men are big babies when they aren't feeling well.

Dyslexia rules, KO?

I spent some time with Michael Stone a couple of nights ago, looking at the work he has done thus far towards his PhD, with a view to assisting him with the editing thereof.  There are two reasons why he has asked me to do this - firstly, because I write for MoneywebTax and should (hopefully) know something about expressing ideas and thoughts in words, ans secondly, because he is dyslexic.

It's an interesting phenomenon, dyslexia - particularly so since my wife Belinda is also dyslexic.  And it's interesting because dyslexics think differently to the rest of us.  For instance, Michael explained that if one had to look at the spelling of the word "cat", a non-dyslexic would come up with the one correct spelling thereof in a split second.  However, the dyslexic has to process through the 3 to the power of 3 incorrect spellings, by process of elimination, to get to the one correct spelling - all within the same time-frame!

As a result, as a dyslexic progresses through the school system and the work becomes more complex, they appear slower but in fact are suffering from severe information overload.  Try opening ALL of your computer applications at the same time, and you'll get some idea of what the dyslexic's mind goes through.

Yet dyslexia manifests in sheer genius, if properly channelled.  For instance, if my wife and I plan an outing, within seconds she has already worked through all the possible scenarios in her mind - what we will be doing, is there a pool there, what if it rains, is there somewhere else we can go if Plan A doesn't work out ... and packs a bag accordingly.  When James was a baby, her nappy bag contained apparatus for every possible emission of bodily fluids imaginable.  And she's the only lady I know who can pack a caravan perfectly - and I mean PERFECT: balanced, everything there, not too light, not too heavy - all this without any instruction or even having read any books on how a van should be packed.

Michael demonstrated her ability in an amazing way at seminary yesterday.  Because we are moving onto a new campus, everything is still being installed, and we saw an empty box for an LCD computer monitor.  Now I have seen this particular monitor before, but up to this point Belinda has not - she only saw the box.  However, based on the dimensions of the box and with a few questions from Michael as to size, dimensions - even colour and number of buttone - she was able to accurately describe the monitor in the minutest detail, even though she has never seen it.

Now I understand why Belinda regards Michael as the greatest preacher she has ever heard.  As fellow dyslexics, they both start off with a single idea and then branch off in a hundred different directions.  And the sentences are often incomplete, but that doesn't matter, since in their minds the idea, and its connection to the next idea, has already been formulated in wide screen, high-definition, vivid colour.  The rest of us, of course, don't have a clue where they are going, because we think in linear patterns.  The dyslexic is thinking Midlands Meander, while the non-dyslexic thinks N3.

However, when you live with a dyslexic, you develop a sixth sense after a while.  For instance, when my wife and I arrived at a home cell meeting the one day, as we were about to sit down she told my that I'd left my "goodie" in the "whatsername".  My immediate response was that I did not leave my Bible in the car, as I was using my pocket NIV that night.  The others thought she was speaking in tongues, and that I had the gift of interpretation!

As you can imaging by now, the dyslexic thought pattern is playing havoc on Michael's PhD.  While his insights are deep, profound, and well-researched - better than I could do in a million years - his thoughts appear to be random, just like the Midlands Meander.  And his professor is, of course, an N3 man who wants to get on the highway at the beginning and, barring the odd pit-stop, will not leave the dual carriageway until it ends.  So hopefully I can use my professional writing background, my logical thought process, and my 19 years of being married to a dyslexic to help Michael arrange his Meander thesis in a way that N3 minds can understand it.

Dyslexia is far more common than people realise, and there are many famous dyslexics.  Dyslexic actors include Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg; athletes include arguably the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, and three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart; on the business front we have Henry Ford and Virgin's Sir Richard Branson; music - John Lennon and Cher; politics - Sir Winston Churchill; Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams; animation genius Walt Disney - and of course, Methodist minister Rev Michael Stone, and (last but by no means least) the love of my life, Belinda.

So dyslexia rules, KO?

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Corporate governance and the Church - uneasy bedfellows, or part of our Christian witness?

Today is Day 2 of the new semester at SMMS, and my mind and body is slowly getting back into work mode after my recent break.

So it was with a burst of energy that I decided to finish that King III document I promised Anthony Tibbit (chief financial officer of the MCSA) about six months ago.  My initial deadline was two weeks, but that was before the first semester hit me like a ton of bricks and did not let up until the last exam was written on the 15th of June.

But it's now in - e-mailed about 10 minutes ago.  Admittedly, it is a draft document that needs to be fleshed out considerably, but at least I've had a solid go at outlining all the compliance requirements within the nine main areas, as well as their potential applicablility to the MCSA.

My biggest push is for us to consider establishing a formalised internal audit function within the MCSA, under the oversight of a properly-established audit committee.  Corporates have had this for years, but to my knowledge no church has ever looked at anything like this on a significant scale.  However, this proposal comes with a number of challenges:
  1. It's an idea that is sitting in my head.  I've done no cost/benefit analysis or anything concrete like that.  And some may argue that I'm trying to impose my former profession onto the ministry.  But there's just this nagging feeling that this is something we as a church need to look at.
  2. Audit committees and teams are not exactly "spiritual" functions, which may make garnering support difficult. 
  3. Also, doing it properly costs money.  And while I believe that there are benefits in terms of being good stewards of God's church and its resources, coupled with the confidence that it is likely to build amongst our members and the community at large, such benefits are difficult to quantify.
  4. It will tread on toes.  No-one likes having a team of nosey bean-counters poking around their patch (even bean-counters that wear dog collars) - especially if there are things the tenderers of said patch would rather not have anyone else find out about.
Still, despite the challenges, I believe that it's something we need to do.  While the Methodist Church of Southern Africa has one of the best reputations in the religious sector when it comes to governance and accountability, according to the Financial Mail's article published in December 2007, in the same article Ross Olivier (MCSA general secretary at the time, now SMMS president) admitted that there are "administrative callenges" inherent in a church of the MCSA's size and complexity.

And while instances of "flagrant disrespect" and "complete disregard for our Laws and Discipline" still occur (Ross' words, not mine, although I fully concur with his sentiment), the more we can do to keep the honest guys honest and root out the "bad eggs", the better it will be for our Christian witness.  I believe that frameworks such as King III give us the perfect opportunity to achieve such an ideal.

Sunday 4 July 2010

Back in the saddle

After just over two weeks of holiday in Joburg and at Sun City, I arrived back in the "Last Outpost" late yesterday afternoon feeling refreshed and ready for the challenges that lie ahead in my second semester at seminary.

But this time "forewarned is forearmed" as the saying goes, since I have a far better idea of what to expect.  I now know that the dual requirements of being formed for both graduation and ordination will mean another hectic few months trying to grapple with seven or eight subjects.  And that's okay, since despite my doubts to the contrary (accompanied by a great deal of whingeing - sorry, Ross!), I actually DID survive with my nerves and marriage intact, managing to pass all of my subjects in the process.  This time around it won't all come as a huge shock to me, and so I'll be able to hit the ground running (as compared to six months ago when I hit the ground rolling).

It also means that, as far as my BTh is concerned, I am now officially in my final year of study, and it's exciting to be on the "home stretch".  Of course, the "red mist" has descended once again as I prepare to commence with a PhD in economics and theology.  While I have been given the go-ahead to start working (unofficially) on the propsal, the legal prohibition on simultaneous registration with more than one tertiary institution prevents me from formally registering as a PhD cnadidate until the BTh has been completed.  The result is double excitement over the next 12 months - the completion of one qualification, and the beginning of a whole new academic adventure.

Returning to the present, tomorrow kicks off with our first "vocational intensive".  At this stage I don't really know what it will be about, except that it will have something to do with my vocation, and no doubt it will be quite intense!  (Talk about me being a mine of useless information.)  All part of growing up...