CREDO (WHAT I BELIEVE)

WHO AM I?

I am a child of God, through the blood of Christ. I am called to full-time ministry. I am called to be in ministry within the context of the Dutch Reformed Church. I am currently serving as minister of religion in a congregation of the DRC in Brackenfell, Cape Town.


I am passionate about those people who stand on the fringes of the faith, as the church and previous religious systems made them strangers to God, even if it was at their own doing (e.g. some sinfull pattern of behaviour or something of the sort).


I am also a student, searching for the depths of better understanding to play a part in the ongoing renewal of God's church. I am striving to be a part of God's work in the building of his kingdom here on earth.


This is what I believe ...

I BELIEVE ...

I believe that God exists. He is eternal, unestimable, unseeable, unchangeable, unending, almighty, absolutely wise, just and good.

I believe that we get to know God through creation itself as well as through the revelation God gave and is presented in the Bible.

I believe that the 66 books of the Bible were brought forth through the people God used to speak the words that was put in writing - through their testimony and being driven by the Holy Spirit.

I believe that the Bible books are adequate in their ability to be the foundation of our faith, to be the confirmation of our faith, and to build us up in our faith.

I believe that there are other books outside the canon of Holy Scripture, but their testimony are not acceptable as foundational for my faith in God.

I believe that the Bible contains everything pertaining to God's will and what is necessary to receive salvation.

I believe in one God, who chose to reveal Himself in history first as creating Father, then as redeeming Son, and finally as testifying Spirit who continues to dwell in His children and teach them to live in the light of Christ.

I believe God created heaven and earth and that He still is involved in his creation, by continuing his redemptive work through Christ and leading his children in their new life in Christ.

I believe the necessity of receiving God's redemption as I was born a sinner, without God and stumbling in darkness because of my own inability to break with my sinful nature.

I believe that God bestowed his grace on me as I came to faith in Christ, who is God who became human so as to carry the burden of God's rejection in my place by being condemned to die on the cross and raise from the grave, thus removing the only obstacle in any possible relationship between God and myself.

I believe my faith is a gift, presented by the Holy Spirit, leading me to Jesus Christ and enabling me to see God in all His heavenly majesty causing my to kneel before His Kingship and offering my life to Him as sacrifice of gratitude because my transgressions are forgiven and my relationship with God is restored.

I believe I am called to live my life in obedience to God's will and as testimony of his grace not to achieve greater salvation, but to thank God for my salvation. In this I believe I should emulate the example provided by Jesus as He is the only way to God.

I believe I am called to become part of a community of believers, people who like myself received the gift of faith and living in unity before God as visible expression of his love. I believe I cannot grow in my faith through my own individual efforts, but also when I participate in the life of God's new community, the church, and when I testify of the living God to people who do not yet have the gift of faith.

I believe I should submit myself to the leadership of my faith community, as God called leaders to build up the local congregation. As I am called to be one of the leaders of the church, I believe I should hold myself accountable to the other leaders God called to serve along with me - the elders and deacons in my congregation as well as other ministers of God's Word. We are after all, a team serving the same Lord.

I believe in baptism and communion as the only sacraments given by Christ. Both these sacraments show to Christ's death and resurrection and serve to strengthen the church at large in its faith and testimony.

I believe it is my duty to participate in the life of society as all secular authority receives its mandate from God alone, and through my active participation I am working together along with God and other believers towards establishing God's kingdom on earth.

I believe in the return of Christ, a single event where He will call up all his followers for their final redemption and unbelievers for final judgment. I do not believe in the rapture, as God's future judgment and redemption will be a single, simultaneous event.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

My friend DJ Fourie sent this anecdotal email around this morning. I thought it is an appropriate perspective, especially for Christians living in the better comforts of the world as we know it (like myself). I adapted the original message somewhat.

What do you think?

If you have food in the fridge, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of all people on earth.

If you have money in the bank, your wallett and small change in a bottle you are among the 8% richest people on earth.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the millions who will not survive the week.

If you were never part of a war, have never been incarcerated or tortured, or never went hungry - there are 500 million people on earth worse off than you.

If both your parents are still alive and even more still married to each other, in South Africa you are an exception.

If you can lift your head with a smile and be thankful for your blessings, you are indeed lucky as most people are able to do this but choose not to.

If you are able to hold somebody's hand, give a little hug or touch that person's shoulder you are lucky because you are able to provide a healing touch.

If you are able to read this message you received a double blessing, because you are favoured above the two billion people unable to see or read.

So ... enjoy today, count your blessings, smile and share God's grace on your life with somebody else!

Why People leave the Church

David Hayward (The Naked Pastor) jotted down these observations after speaking to church leavers during his recent vacation. It's consistent with the findings of Alan Jamieson, in his book A Churchless Faith. Both David's remarks and Alan's book are worth thinking about.

On my vacation I met with many people who have left the church. They are people I know and love. So from the start I want to say that these are generalizations. I do realize others might have more positive things to say. But what I hear from the people I talk with is pretty consistent. This is not my opinion. I’m not making judgments. This is just what I hear:

1. When they’ve been gone from church for a while and return they are all shocked by the strange lingo that people talk. It is a coded and getto-ized language that no one else understands but insiders.
2. When they go back more than once, suddenly there is a huge feeling of expectation that weighs down on them. They know that if they commit at all, they are going to have to meet certain expectations.
3. Although few admit it, shame is an important and powerful tool used to keep sins, weaknesses, struggles and differences concealed.
4. One quickly learns that although indulgences ended officially many years ago, money is still an effective means to earn rank, privilege and allowances within a community.
5. One discovers almost immediately what the belief system to be embraced is. Critical and inquisitive thinking is generally not welcomed.
6. Although it is rarely ever explicit, competition and the disdain for other religions and even other churches percolates through the attitudes, language and actions of the community.
7. Orientation, condition and status (examples: divorced, single mom, living together, gay, addict, etc.) are the equivalent of brands that are accepted or not.
8. If you come and go, in the end no one really seems to notice or care.
9. You are expected to grow only if it enables conformity.
10. Even though, if you keep going, you feel you are being knitted into the community, there is a strange feeling that there is something conditional about your acceptance and membership.

Beware of gossip

My friend and pastor, Andries Combrinck, wrote the following insightful article on gossiping. What he said, puts my previous post on Cyberbullying into another perspective - as almost all Cyberbullies refuse to engage into meaningful conversations with any of their chosen opponents and choose to speak "behind their backs" about them in stead.

This, however, is a side-remark to the subject. The furore over the sex one of our South African athletes, Caster Semenya, underlines the severity of gossiping and the sophistication with which it can be done. What happened to her is exactly the same as when people ask each other if the new art teacher or colleague on staff is gay because he has feminine hand movements or manner of speaking. I won't be surprised if some of the journalists weren't wondering whether Caster is lesbian as well. This is a radical form of institutional discrimination. Although I absolutely disagree with the political racism on the matter from Julius Malema and his peanut gallery friends, I cannot agree with the way the IAAF has reportedly reacted to an email from some anonymous news reporter and then allowed it to be splashed all over the news. (By the way, Julius, this isn't a race issue, it's a gender issue and although it stays discriminatory, you can't force a square peg into every hole whatever its shape, even if you use inflammatory rhetoric that you think the people want to hear!) I saw a photo of Caster's father and I can only think how absolute the humiliation of this typically South African rural family and their proudness of their daughter's accomplishments must've been.

In my personal opinion, until the IAAF can show any proof that Caster's biology has been tampered with artificially, they need to pay her some form of damage atonement for the public humiliation they brought upon her. And if there isn't any proof, they need to pay her even more because they chose to disregard three previous reported tests on drug use that came out negative. And offer a internaitonal and public apology that will be able to stand in history as report of their own incompetence.

Here, then, is the theological perspective on gossip by Andries. He is pastor of the Presbyterian Church in a congregation in Centurion (suburb of Pretoria). Go check his website here.

Beware! Gossip can kill!

The sin of gossip is nowhere better illustrated than in Numbers 12: 1- 15. It warns against its evil power to destroy all kinds of relationships – also in the church of Christ.

The setting for this story is Moses’ marriage to a woman from the land of Cush. Miriam and Aaron disapproved of this wedding because his bride was not an Israelite. But, instead of directly bringing their unease to Moses, they gossiped behind his back about it, attacking Moses’ character as a result of what they considered an inappropriate marriage. The discussion then moved on to assess his leadership and they started to believe that it would be better if they too became leaders in Israel. God’s reaction to this gossip was fierce, swift and violent. He condemned Aaron and Miriam for challenging Moses’ authority and imposed leprosy on Miriam as punishment. Moses intervened and begged God to heal her. Miriam was healed, but only after she was expelled from God’s people for seven days.

What do we learn about gossip from this story?

Firstly, that gossip is a cowardly act. Gossip discusses the victims in their absence, denying them the opportunity to defend themselves. Moses’ marriage to the Cushite was not against the law and Miriam and Aaron never approached him to understand his reasons for it.

Secondly, gossip spreads like decease. Gossip easily develops into a more serious threat to kill relationships. What seemed to be “only Moses’ personal life” ended up in challenging his call by God. Gossip seldom restrains itself but seems to have a life of its own, spreading like mortal cancer against which only God can protect us.

Thirdly, gossip seems to build up the person responsible for the story, by destroying the injured party. Aaron and Miriam wanted to increase their influence by challenging the uniqueness of Moses’ call. Nobody gossips to help the injured party, although it is most of the time fabricated that it is the case. It always has a selfish, evil element to it.

Fourthly, gossip is injury by a perceived friend, relative or spiritual brother or sister! Are you upset when a total stranger insults you? I bet not as much as when someone you love dearly calls you names and question your character and the sincerity of your faith. The same is true of gossip. It is the friendly and trusted person, often close to us, that has the greatest potential to cause hurt, pain and destruction through gossip. It often is the church’s own members that maim and disable her most severely.

Lastly, never forget that God passionately hates gossip. God’s fierce judgment on Aaron and Miriam for their gossip is but one example of how God hates this sin and that it provokes his anger and punishment.

Prov 6:16-19: “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

A congregation is not made up of perfect people. Also not of robots without feelings, but of humans who naturally respond both positively or negatively to the words we utter when we speak to them and when we discuss them behind their backs. Our spouses, friends and colleagues, children and their friends also are mere humans of flesh and blood that easily are hurt and whose lives can be effortlessly destroyed.

A strict word of reprimand cannot do even a small measure of the harm that gossip does. Specifically if it was deserved and really meant to protect against further foolishness or godlessness. If we truly have someone’s best interest at heart, speak directly to him/her, without hypocrisy, while being willing to listen to their side of what occurred and while praying that you act under the guidance of the Spirit and with the love of God!

Selfish, malignant words and gossip have the potential to break people down! Encouragement, education, instruction from God’s word and reassurance can build them up in the Lord!

A NEW BREED OF BULLY: THE CHRISTIAN CYBERBULLY

A new breed of bully developed, thanks to the explosion in the internet. These people call themselves Christian, but in practice they only resemble the vestiges of Pharisaical religion. These Christian Cyberbullies specialize in attacking other Christian leaders, blogwriters and pastors who differ from their theological beliefs. They launch scathing personal insults on these Christian leaders, on blogsites they set up themselves, accusing these other Christians of adhering to a different gospel than themselves. They incessantly comb every word these other Christians utter or write and then quote them very selectively to ensure that their own readers only hear them saying what the Christian Cyberbully wants them to say.

The myth that if you repeat a lie or a half-truth often enough, it becomes The Truth, is in action here. Mr/Mrs Christian Cyberbully wants everybody to believe that their opponents is teaching a different gospel than the accepted gospel. In the mean time their opposition is mostly theological, as Mr/Mrs Christian Cyberbully normally adheres to a radically fundamentalistic view of Scripture, has no insight in developments in the area of biblical studies and, more specifically, actually relish the thought of destroying another person's integrity. Being a bully, Mr/Mrs Christian Cyberbully hides behind internet anonimity by not disclosing his/her identity, theological agenda or ecclesial loyalties. Sometimes this crops up in their writings about other Christians and then you find out that they most often than not don't form part of an acknowledged church group or congregation, choosing instead to "worship in a home group" or some or another cult or sect-like fringe group, as this is the only place where they can control what is said, believed or taught.

The damage these Christian Cyberbullies inflict, is tremendous. As these things go, they attract a multitude of readers who only want to hear the bad news about people. Their frequent quoting of Scripture hides the fact that they are only busy with slander in the worst possible form - the incessant and unsolicited attack on God-loving Christians who try to reach this generation for Christ. The Christian Cyberbully accuses other Christians of departing from biblical principles, while they negate the second most important command given by God - loving another as you would love yourself. I can easily quote a few other texts from the New Testament that underscores the primacy of this principle, but I won't.

The attacks of these Cyberbullies make them instruments of the devil himself, as they choose to attack Christians' personhood, integrity - which for a Christian leader is rather important - and their ministries. They offer no alternatives because they thrive on their warped ideas only and have no open mind to engage in brotherly/sisterly conversations with the people they differ from. In this, the church is turning against itself, sowing discord and hate, typical things the devil uses to destroy churches, Christians and ministries.

I am deeply saddened by this state of affairs. As Jesus told us in Matthew 5, I continuously choose to love my enemies, these Christian Cyberbullies included. But I have no fear of them, as they will ultimately destroy themselves.

Some more swine flu humour

Please accept my apologies from the outset. The cartoon will most probably gross you out. But as these things go, only somebody knowing how it feels, will appreciate this cartoon. My thanks, again, to WeeJee at Life is a Cheese Curl.

Just for the record: Both my boys have been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus and they're quite bed-ridden. I think it qualifies me somewhat to laugh at my own situation!

Possible uses of Powerpoint by Preachers

The following remarks are made by Max Atkinson, lecturer and writer. He wrote this as part of BBC.com's celebration of 25 years' of Powerpoint. As preacher I am struggling with the best possible use of Powerpoint. He makes excellent remarks, to such an extent I decided to buy his book! You can see the original post here.

If you have worked in an office in the Western world in the past 25 years, you will probably have sat through a PowerPoint presentation. But there's a problem. They're often boring, writes presentation expert Max Atkinson.

In the past 25 years, I've asked hundreds of people how many PowerPoint presentations they've seen that came across as really inspiring and enthusiastic.

Most struggle to come up with a single example, and the most optimistic answer I've heard was "two".

So what are the main problems?

SCREENS ARE MAGNETS FOR EVERYONE'S EYES

Beware of anyone who says that they're "just going to talk to some slides" - because that's exactly what they'll do - without realising that they're spending most of their time with their backs to the audience.

Even Barack Obama needs an autocue on occasion

Yet eye contact plays such a fundamental part in holding an audience's attention that even as brilliant a speaker as Barack Obama depends on an autocue to simulate it.

So remember that the more slides you have and the more there is on each slide, the more distracting it will it be for the audience - whereas the fewer and simpler the slides are, the easier it will be to keep them listening.

READING AND LISTENING DISTRACTS AUDIENCES

If there's nothing but text on the screen, people will try to read and listen at the same time - and won't succeed in doing either very well.

If the print is too small to read, they'll get irritated at being expected to do the impossible. Nor does it help when speakers say "as you can see", or the equally annoying "you probably won't be able to read this".

SLIDES SHOULDN'T JUST BE NOTES

Few speakers are willing to open their mouths until they have their first slide safely in place. But all too often the slides are verbal crutches for the speaker, not visual aids for the audience.

Some presentations prove somewhat less than gripping

Projecting one slide after another might make it look as though you've prepared the presentation. But if you haven't planned exactly what you're going to say, you'll have to ad lib and, if you start rambling, the audience will switch off.

To avoid this requires careful planning. Do this before thinking about slides and you won't need as many of them - and the ones that you do decide to use are more likely to help to clarify things for the audience, rather than just remind you of what to say next.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

You think bullet points make information more digestible? Think again. A dozen slides with five bullet points on each assumes that people are mentally capable of taking in a list of 60 points. If it's a 30-minute presentation, that's a rate of two-per-minute.

This looks a fairly interesting visual aid

This highlights the biggest problem with slide-based presentations, which is that speakers mistakenly think that they can get far more information across than is actually possible in a presentation. At the heart of this is a widespread failure to appreciate that speaking and listening are fundamentally different from writing and reading.

In fact, the invention of writing was arguably the most important landmark in the history of information technology. Before writing, the amount of information that could be passed on to others was severely limited by what could be communicated in purely oral form (ie not much). But the ability to write meant that vast amounts of knowledge could be communicated at previously unimagined levels of detail.

The trouble is that PowerPoint makes it so easy to put detailed written and numerical information on slides that it leads presenters into the mistaken belief that all the detail will be successfully transmitted through the air into the brains of the audience.

THE BULLET POINT PROBLEM

A Microsoft executive recently said that one of the best PowerPoint presentations he'd ever heard had no slides with bullet points on them. This didn't surprise me at all, because we've known for years that audiences don't much like wordy slides and don't find them as helpful as pictorial visual aids.

What does surprise me is that so many of the program's standard templates invite users to produce lists of bullet points, when the program's main benefits lie in the creation of images. If more presenters took advantage of that, inspiring PowerPoint presentations might become the norm, rather than the exception.

Max Atkinson is the author of Speech-making & Presentation Made Easy.

SOME MORE SWINE FLU HUMOUR

This cartoon comes with the compliments of ASBO Jesus.

H1N1 Update

Well, my son had a very high fever today. We spent a considerable amount of time at the emergency unit of one of our hospitals.

He received antibiotics as well as the medicine to combat H1N1, as a precautionary measure. As the blood tests take seven days before results - due to the high incidence of the virus in our province - most doctors default to precaution.

So I'll never know whether he has the swine flu, but he is home-bound for a whole week just in case - doctor's orders.

H1N1 Swine Flu

With the current hysteria surrounding the H1N1 virus everybody in South Africa is edgy. To be clear: it is very serious and I personally know at least four people who has contracted the virus in recent weeks. As I write, I am also monitoring my son's health as his flu symptoms seem suspiciously close to that of H1N1. Hopefully I'm just paranoid.

My skewed sense of humour, however, agrees with the following ...

LUNCH BAR ADVERTISMENTS - PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN #2

As I am in the process of completing my thesis, I am slightly incapacitated in the area of blogging.

My friend, Ronel Fourie, enjoyed these two advertisements and I agree with her evaluation. I'm therefore posting it here to show how very original Sotuh Africans can be! This is the second one.

LUNCH BAR ADVERTISMENTS - PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN

As I am in the process of completing my thesis, I am slightly incapacitated in the area of blogging.

My friend, Ronel Fourie, enjoyed these two advertisements and I agree with her evaluation. I'm therefore posting it here to show how very original Sotuh Africans can be! This is the first one.

Video Clip :Truth will set you free -- Norae in Common

This is sung by Kelly Knight and Herman Steyn. It's a beautiful song, combining rap and classical genres. It turns out to be quite inspirational!

THE PARABLE OF THE MOUSE

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning : "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap ... alone ...

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- the sound Of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did no t see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap. The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued.

Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. But, alas, the farmer's wife did not get well ... She died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.


And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.