June 30, 2005
Holy-Wood film festival
Bible College NZ Christchurch in association with the Damah International Film Festival (Seattle), St Christophers Avonhead and Opawa Baptist present the first Christchurch Holy-Wood Film Festival.
July 22-24, 2005. 6-8pm, 8-10pm Fri/Sat 3-5pm, 7-9pm Sun. FREE MOVIES Supper and popcorn $5. Mobile food carts on site for those who wish to purchase pizza/coffee etc.
Movies, discussion, film:church, debate: "Is LoTR a Christian Movie?" with students from Bible College of New Zealand.
Venue: Bible College of NZ, 70 Condell Ave, Papanui and other venues. To RSVP or for more info call: 03-3544270 or chchatbcnzdotacdotnz.
June 25, 2005
art at Opawa
this past week i worked on creating an irrigation system for the front part of the church. this was to visually show how the living water (Christ) trickles down to other parts of the world. we placed 7 "mission stations" around this irrigation piping to represent specific places around the world to pray for (with specific missionaries to go along with each of them). we drew water from the fountain (the installation i helped make the week before) and visually showed how each of us (represented by the individual pipes, screws, etc) can work together as a church to pour out the living water to those in need. i was kind of skeptical before i worked on the project because i kind of thought it would either be really cheesy or really bizarre, but now i love it!
opawa is a muti-generational church and uses hands-on, creative art installations like this to generate discussion and get people interacting with eachother. in steve's book, ("Out of Bounds Church") it talks about how in this day and age, what we need now is a church that is more in tune with getting practical, hands-on things - or we may be in danger of losing the generation x'ers.
and as far as where artists enter into this picture, i think we as artists have the amazing task (and privelage) of stepping up to the plate. we live in a world full of images. we also live in a world that doesn't like the idea of traditional church (partly because we don't have the best running reputation and history!) so as artists (people who love to make images), we have a powerful tool in our hands. we have the opportunity to get this generation involved in a church.
Thoughts by Shannon, one of our plus 5 interns, who blogs here.
June 24, 2005
plumbing the past
This week I went exploring. I am working on a dream of a coffee machine in an "L" cove of our church foyer. So I went looking in the cupboard doors under a stair-well. It has a hot water cylinder. Look underneath and there is a "T" join already on the pipe, pointing straight toward the church foyer. Knock on the dividing wall and it echoes. It's wood, not concrete.
40 years ago, in the wisdom of heaven, a church plumber chose to install a "T" join in a straightforward plumbing operation and a church builder chose to build a wooden wall rather than concrete wall. And so today, a coffee machine installation is much more affordable.
I find this profoundly humbling. It is amazing to think how God has been at work in the foundations of Opawa. Praise God for a previous generation. And may God give us, this generation, equal grace and wisdom. May what we do in turn be a blessing in 40 years time!
June 21, 2005
Sermon text questions: 19 June 2005
text questions
A home group has asked me to prepare discussion questions as a follow-on to the Sunday sermon. This could become a regular feature.
1. The sermon used the image of dryness and the example of being dry because we are busy. What other ways does dryness become part of our lives?
2. The sermon used Revelation 22:1-3 to suggest God's best for the world. It particularly focused on the water. What else does Revelation 22:1-3 tell us about God's dreams for us?
3.The sermon used the image of blocked sprinklers, and suggested donor fatigue as one thing that blocks the flow of God. What else could block God in our lives?
4. The sermon suggested doing one small thing (Matthew 10:42) as a way to unblock donor fatigue. Would it help you?
Application
5. What has struck me most tonite?
6. What one thing would I appreciate prayer for?
June 14, 2005
Poetry by Adrian
Context: On Sunday, by way of response to Water4life, I invited people to take a stone and to carry it in their pockets for a week. And to use it to remind them to pray for people feeling dry. Today, Adrian wrote this prayer poem, and I asked him if it could be shared.
I don't want to live on eloquent prayers alone
Or dine on fine spiritual etiquette
Or feast on the knowledge of men
Satisfied with my own pretentious plate of wisdom
Nor do I want to gorge myself with mere information on the Almighty
Or be made plump on the praise of others
Or be spoon-fed a palatable gospel
To avoid any unsavoury indigestion
I don't want to live on eloquent prayers alone
Living out my days
Filled with a kind of contentment
Reserved for the spiritually malnourished
Give me sustenance! Give me Life!
stirring the waters: water4life
Water4life. Needed physically and spiritually. Sunday 12, 19, 26 - We are stirring the waters - 5 minutes to provoke. Followed by Saturday 18 and 15; 4-5:15 pm, a time to debate and question and pray. The first stirring was on Sunday - Christian should boycott bottled water. The notes are as follows ...
Stirring the waters
Bottled water is terrible
Boycott bottled water
Discuss 4-5.15 Saturday, in the foyer.
Three pictures from my head:
1. Kayaking the Abel Tasman
(Before bottled water)
3 days of water boiling, arrive at Tonga Bay,
walk to Awaroa Lodge
flush loos and filtered water
2. Nicaragua
(Again before bottled water)
25 New Zealanders and Australians picking coffee.
Two people each day spending day boiling water.
Learning to brush my teeth without water
Too much fizzy drink
Hotel shower raw sewage – clean water continuum.
3. Driving Auckland to Ruapehu, now in post-water bottle days
Horrified by the number of water bottles littering the side of the road.
Travellers with no envt conscience.
In fact the bottled water industry produces 1.5 million tons of plastic pa, over 90% of which is in non-renewal plastic – takes 1000yrs to biodegrade.
We have gone a bit mad on this bottled water thing.
78% of tap water in NZ is approved by the Ministry of Health as fine for drinking. The other 22% is prob OK too, but water supplies that service less than 5000 pax don’t get monitored in the same way.
So for most of us,
we have perfectly good water in our taps.
That’s good news.
For us
Also for the water bottling industry.
1999 study
Putaruru in Waikato,
aspires to be the water capital of NZ.
60% of NZs bottled water comes from its Blue Spring.
BUT
Ironically part of the town has substandard water pipes 8 mill to fix
The local council can’t afford it.
Putaruru – water capital has stink water
However Putaruru’s issues are mild
when compared with
More than 1.5 billion pax have no access to safe drinking water
12 mill people killed each year by diseases caused by unsanitary water.
Worldwide bottled water single largest growth area among all beverages. Asia Pacific = fastest growing area.
Est for growth NZ and Oz 14-30% pa
Some of the best drinking water in the world comes from our taps, yet in 2003 NZ paid $27.5 mill to swig 40 mill litres of bottled water.
Bottled water costs 1000x more than from the tap
More than petrol.
Consumerism gone mad.
Join me.
Refill don’t buy.
Boycott bottled water.
June 12, 2005
who cares?
We started 3 weeks of missions focus - theme water for life. Tonight at the evening service, I asked who cares? Who cares if 1.2 billion people don't have clean water and every 8 seconds a child dies of disease related to dirty water? Who cares that the average American uses 200 litres of water a day, while the average Ghanian uses 5 litres. Who cares?
And asked if anyone would like to try living for a day on water from an outside tap. And that perhaps they could be sponsored. I had 5 buckets and all 5 buckets disappeared. 5 people are going to try to live for a day, not from running tap water, but from lugging buckets in to wash and clean dishes and do toilet.
June 02, 2005
more Opawa bloggers
I've been meaning for a few weeks now to note 2 brand new shiny Opawa bloggers, and to add their names to the "Opawa bloggers" roll; Amy Hay and Jo Brown.
June 01, 2005
Opawa Growth coaching in the media
Daystar, a New Zealand monthly, has published a June article on Growth Coaching here at Opawa.
Reaching Goals Through Growth Coaching by Marie Anticich
It is based on an interview with Lynne Taylor, and is reprinted here with their permission ...
A unique community service called Growth Coaching has been launched by Opawa Baptist Church in Christchurch.
"Growth coaching is a Christian partnership concept which recognises that people are designed to develop and change,: said growth coach, Lynne Taylor. "We want to help people reach their full potential."
A researcher and mother of two young daughters, Lynne is married to Dr Steve Taylor, pastor of Opawa Baptist. The idea of growth coaching, which had been 'simmering' in Steve’s head for years, came to fruition this year when team of nine voluntary coaches underwent training with a Christchurch life coach, Norma Marriott.
"Growth coaches are not experts but people who are willing to listen and help clients distil their needs and set achievable goals," commented Lynne. She said growth coaching was more specific and project-based than counselling, mentoring or spiritual direction but might involve referral to any of these and could involve prayer.
"The coach comes alongside a person and helps them grow in one particular area of their life – be it physical, social, spiritual or intellectual," said Lynne. "The coach points the client in the right direction and acts as a resource or support person."
The client might want to focus on a project such as developing a fitness/weight loss programme, changing their career path, or running a marathon, and realise that they would not get there without some accountability.
At the first meeting the coach and client would discuss aims, set down a vision statement and find ways to go forward. With the coach’s help the client might decide to start training for a marathon by preparing for a ten kilometre fun run and setting weekly goals to get from where they were at present to where they wanted to go. They would discuss steps that might be involved along the way.
"When they have reached their goal, the coach and client might decide to continue with a new vision," continued Lynne. "Or the client might come back a few years later for help with parenting issues or to strengthen a relationship." She said the relationships between Paul and Timothy, Barnabas and Mark, Naomi and Ruth and Jesus and his disciples were biblical precedents for growth coaching.
Coaches and clients were matched for suitability and arranged to meet regularly for six months or so. "We require clients to have a genuine to desire to work at what they want to achieve and be honest and open," said Lynne. "We also encourage them to have a friend or 'encourager' to share their journey and its progress and achievements."
Lynne Taylor was born in Christchurch, grew up in the Anglican Church and attended Canterbury University. She married Steve Taylor in 1990 and they have two daughters, Shannon and Kayli Anne, aged eight and five. She works as a researcher in private consultancy and for the Baptist National Resource Centre. For more information on growth coaching contact Jason King, Development Pastor at Opawa Baptist, or visit here.