I didnt get much of the work done that I wanted to before this Synod Standing Committee meeting (this weekend), but Im pretty excited about it. I have arranged to replace all the non fair trade stuff with Fair Trade options. Im going to have a mini stall and I think it could go well.
I think that I am going to save the big presentation of all this stuff for Synod, and make sure that its done well.
Fiona and Andy were talking about how we can set some stuff up in the Illawarra and then present how it can be done by example. I think that sounds good.
I was also reminded on the weekend that the 10c discount on the milk that Uniting Care use equated to $2 million per year.
In one of my thoughts on this blog recently I wrote something about not needing or wanting Jesus to be God.
One person in particular is having a big problem with that and its all getting ugly. I cant help but respond to personal attacks by finding ways to attack back.
I dont need Jesus to be God because I know God anyway without ‘knowing’ that Jesus is God. Nothing can change that there is a God. So for me it is completely irrelevant how a bunch of people 2000 years ago rationalised or explained their God. Actually, its not completely irrelevant, there are many many parts of the bible that I find useful in understanding God and Gods nature. I think Jesus is a great example of the nature of God and there are things that spark thought or something like that in the new testament.
I dont necessarily want Jesus to be God because of the ‘right-ness’ which that implies. I dont want Jesus to be God because of the apparent limit that places on God. This for me comes back to people of other faiths. Just because I am from a Christian part of the world does not make me any more ‘right’ than anyone else. God called me to church, I dont like the word call, but thats what it was. It was months of God pushing me to go to Church, I went to a Christian one. Mainly because it was what I knew and I already knew some people that went there. If I were in another country I still believe that God would have been calling me into a relationship. I believe that God can communicate and be in relationship with us regardless of all the rest of that stuff. I dont believe that limiting to ‘through Jesus’ is a helpful framework.
My theory is that I am not at a point where I would say Jesus is God. I would never tell someone they are wrong for believing that, and because I am part of the Christian church I would expect people that I speak with and lead and teach etc. to form the view that Jesus is God. I just dont want to use the language that excludes so many people and makes it harder to ‘enter’. I dont find the image of Jesus as God to be helpful, so im not going to use it when talking about God to people. For the most part, it is all the same thing, what I believe and what the church does. I just think that as I have come to this as an adult I dont have to assume that ‘the church’ has all the answers and has it all right.
I think it is important to note at this point that I never think that I will fully understand, I am always changing my thoughts to adjust to new information. I will never consider myself as ‘done’ with theology.
Filed under: Church Politics
Now I understand why the people that are doing their formation at UTC are all so paranoid.
You have a discussion or two with someone and then they tell you that they would actively discourage the church from letting you be a minister.
Its disgraceful.
No wonder the church is fading quickly.
Sometimes I think I need to chose my conversations better.
I am going to start to exercise properly again. I dont really like cycling, but I think that I am going to have to get used to it because I cant run because of my toe. It sounds like a minor matter, but its not. Exercise is essential for me to keep my brain chemicals working the way they are meant to.
TV really is something that I hate. I get addicted to it and I dont like being addicted to anything. My guess would be that no-one likes being addicted to things. I really think that I want to live in a house where there is no TV.
Today I should have been sorting out my application stuff for a job that I want and would be good at. I didnt do it. I still have a couple of days. I also have to write the report for the Church Council on the meeting I ran the other week and then I have to write a proposal about spending $4k on an advertising trial. Tomorrow I have to teach scripture at two different schools, year 6 and year 1. The Year 6 kids think that I am irrelevent already and the year 1 kids just want to do the colouring because its fun.
I dont like the feeling of being too busy and being bored at the same time.
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Since I have been feeling so much better and have had all this extra energy I have been getting quite passionate and excited about things. I was very excited to go to Synod, while I was there I was very passionate about our Fair Trade stall and my speech and proposal about fair trade in the Church.
What I am learning is that to by the type of person who is passionate about things, you also have to be willing to get disappointed, to get mad and upset when things dont work out as planned. I can handle that, I now know that there are going to be things people say and do which upset me or offend me because they are not as excited about something as I am (or because they have to follow a process). That is fine with me.
Now I just have to learn how to respond to those situations when I am upset or offended in a useful way. Causing problems and taking it personally doesnt really help, it can be hard sometimes to see that at the time though.
I dont think that it can be saved.
Too much has to be changed and people are too scared to change to let it happen.
It wont die instantly, there will be a small group of dedicated people that do what they can until they are overwhelmed or die.
Its just not sustainable in the long run. This upsets me, but I dont know how to fix it.
I’ve had another exciting day of laying around watching DVD’s all day. How fun.
All this time to think could be bad for me, but I am just using it to make more crazy plans about my future. I looked up more info on the UK visas today.
Im only 25. If I can spend a few years living in the UK and travelling through Europe I dont see where that is a bad idea.
I dont mind my life here now in Wollongong, but all the things I want to do are not enough to keep me here. I really want to be involved in the development of the Uniting Church. I want to help turn it into something even better. That is going to take years and probably be disappointing. The thing that keeps running through my head is that no one ever regrets travelling, but heaps of people regret not getting around to it.
I feel like the main things I am giving up are my current church community, the thoughts and plans I had to grow the church (the broader church) and the idea of owning property and being financially stable early in life.
When it comes down to it, the church I have now will change anyway. Wanting to be involved in the church is not something that I have to do right now and maybe I can bring back some good ideas from the UK. The money thing, well I think that I will land on my feet in that regard. I dont need a house yet and I think that I have a decent earning potential. Money isnt everything anyway.
So what does all this mean? Basically, Im thinking of moving in December. Just depends on one main thing.
I have just got home from my first Council of Synod meeting. I find Church politics interesting, so being at these meetings is interesting. I did get a bit frustrated a few times, but I manages to not say anything and cause trouble.
Some thoughts now:
There were two presentations that were extremely interesting to me. The Youth Unit and the Board of Mission. Not surprisingly, they were talking about the same thing “How do we keep the Church alive?”
They approached it in slightly different ways, but both made it clear that things need to change to make the Church relevant to current society. There were a few times when they talked about ’success’ and I cant help but think, how do you define success?
They are talking about saving the future of the Uniting Church. I wonder Why?
Why is the Church what we need to save? Why aren’t our goals more important that the organisation?
They are talking about things changing and ‘church’ being expressed differently (which I think is a great idea) but what is Church becomes so different that it is not recognisable for what it was? What if people find ways of expressing faith and spirituality that does not require an organised body? Does that count as success?
I don’t understand why people think its so bad to be impatient.
I could be patient and people could be patient with me and we could all achieve nothing and no-one would care.
There are just too many things to do to be able to sit around and wait on people. I know I am not in the corporate world any more where time is money, but that does not mean that time looses all its value.
For me time is opportunity, and every day I waste on something I don’t care about is a missed opportunity.
People always tend to take it upon themselves to ‘teach’ people to be patient. Im not thinking of anything specific that has happened to me recently, but I can see that in some stage over the next couple of months I am going to be getting frustrated and someone will tell me that I need to learn to be patient. I don’t walk around telling people to be more efficient, so I don’t think they should tell me to be more patient.
My life moves fast and I just want to keep up.
I should be finishing work at the end on March. Thats not looking all that likely, too much to do and not enough time.
Im also worried about not having enough to do. I cant be just a student, its not enough for me. Not just in terms of money, but I need to have enough things to do every day. I want to work for the Church, but things take a little while in the church.
So I am probably going to keep working 3 days a week into April. I should be able to stop flying to Mornington for work every week soon. I thought is was going to stop next week, but I still need to be here Thursday and Friday. The worst part is that I can’t stop myself from caring about the work, im not all that interested and it really does not matter in the bigger picture of my life, but I still want to get things done and get them done well.
Today I didnt do much work at all. I really hate unproductive days, but I did remember to send some emails about Easter Camp and started looking into hiring a bus. Hopefully I will get more done tomorrow.
Things are just that bit too busy at the moment, its the flying to Victoria that is the finishing touch.
Well, I guess the only thing to do is keep going, try to find the time and energy to do the things that I want to do.
