Ok, I'm buzzing a little at the moment. Partly because I've just come home from church, but also because I just had a freak encounter with a guy at Riverview called Ben Fields.
But I'll back up the bus a little before I get there.
I run. I'm a runner. I love running. I began when I was about 13 and since that time, barring ugly injuries (of which there have been a few) I've run pretty much constantly for the last 25 years. Sometimes up to 140-150km a week, these days a more sedentary 40-50km a week. Long distance running's my bag and as you go along, you grab a few heroes along the way.
Locally, I can't go past Herb Elliott (no relation), John Landy, Ron Clarke, Rob De Castella and Steve Monaghetti.
Beyond these shores though, I've got five big heroes: Sebastian Coe, Said Aouita, Haile Gebrselassie, Emil Zatopek and Steve Prefontaine. Each of these runners were renowned as much for the way in which they ran as for their accomplishments. I'm only going to talk of two of them for now...
Emil Zatopek, a Hungarian, won the 5000m and 10000m at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and then decided he'd give the marathon a shot. He'd never run one before so at the 20km mark, when he could stand it no longer, he asked Jim Peters (England) who had been the pre-race favourite whether the pace was 'a bit slow'. When Peters looked at Zatopek as though he had been smoking something strange to be asking such an insane question, he made his own arrangements. He won a third gold medal in the Helsinki Olympics, cleaning up the all the long distance races in process. And he did it looking ugly. That's one reason why people loved him. He ran with a contorted, almost demented head tilt as though ever sinew was stretched and he was about to burst something. But he dominated. Actually he crushed other runners; grinding them into a pulp with withering bursts that were powered by pioneering interval session that are emulated to this day.
Steve Prefontaine never won an Olympic medal. He did run in the 1972 Munich Olympics but finished fourth in a race that he wished he could erase from his memory. At one point, Steve held practically every American distance record from 1500m to 10,000m (that's 1500m, 1mile, 2000m, 2-mile, 3-mile, 5000m and 10000m if you're wondering). The guy was a freak. He reckoned that anyone who sat on the shoulder of another runner to let them do the work before running to victory was a whimp. Steve's philosophy was that every time you get to a start line, you pull out you're very best (he held the same thinking on many of his training runs too!). You run hard. Not surprisingly, Steve was a front-runner. As much as his coaches tried to convince him otherwise, he always led from the front and basically said to everyone else: 'catch me if you can'. If you're good enough, you'll beat me...but you'll have to catch me first. Steve said: 'A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more'. He ran to see who had the most guts.
The crowds loved Pre. They wore 'Go Pre' T-shirts, they chanted 'Go Pre' in the concluding stages of most of his races (which was usually a chant to victory). Adding to the folklore, Steve's coach at the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman, used Steve as a guinea pig for some running shoes he concocted using his wife's jaffle iron. We now now those shoes as Nike... Steve was part of the genesis of all that.
Steve died tragically in a car accident on the evening of May 30, 1975. He'd run in a meet that afternoon and was perhaps a little ticked off. He'd had a few to drink. But what probably killed him was an insatiable love for speed. On foot and behind the wheel.
Steve once said, 'To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift'. He believed that if you're given an extraordinary gift, with it comes the responsibility of stewarding that gift and not wasting it.
He was full of great one-liners (like the one on the poster just here). He once said: 'Some people create with words, or with music, or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say "I've never seen anyone run like that before." It's more than just a race, it's style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative'.
The guys cult-status and legend was phenomenal when he was alive. It has only grown since. As with anyone cut off in their absolute prime there is a sense of loss and frustration about the unanswered questions of what he might have gone on to achieve. Yet all this fuels the legend as well. How he ran, why he ran and his attitude towards running.
If you're still with me, all this is both a homage to a hero and a preamble to why I'm buzzing.
I was singing at Riverview tonight and happened to be wearing one of two 'Pre' t-shirts that I recently purchased.
So, the service is over and a guy called Ben Fields walks up to the platform and says 'I couldn't help notice your t-shirt, I went to school with Steve'. At this point I just about fell off the stage. Ben went to Marshfield High School with Steve Prefontaine. They ran together in the track team. I told Ben about my other 'Pre' T-Shirt. This one is a replica of a shirt that used to be awarded to guys on the team who racked up 2000miles in a season and has on the front 'Pirate 2000 mile Club'. Ben excitedly told me that he had that t-shirt. The legit version. I asked Ben what his event was. Ben was a mile runner with a PB of 3'59!! Yep, a bloke walked up to me at Riverview knowing I must have been a runner to be wearing a Pre t-shirt and let me know he was a 3'59 mile runner who ran with Steve Prefontaine. Yikes! Ben seemed a bit excited too! I don't blame him!
I could go on, but I'm tired. I hope this isn't the last of our 'You're Tops'. I doubt it will. There are a whole lot of incredible people out there. For very different reasons. Steve's just one of them...
Sunday, February 18, 2007
You're tops: Steve Prefontaine
Friday, February 16, 2007
Healing: What the? (Part One)
Sorry that my inaugral post is a macabre one, but that's life...
Thoughts on healing and why some recieve this baffling gift, with the same prayer said for another and they don't?
Great friend of mine, playing basketball this week, 30 years old has a heart attack and dies...
What's with that?
soon to be explored.
Hello Cacophony
A
Thursday, February 15, 2007
From the Dietrich's mouth...
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community (even if their intentions are ever so earnest), but the person who loves those around them will create community.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together
I seem to have had a bunch of conversations with people over the last fortnight who are frustrated with those proclaiming a 'big vision' that is (seemingly, to them) oblivious to the most basic mandate we have: love one another.
I love big dreams. Big audacious goals that can't be done alone. And yet, amongst all of that, I'm realising that the biggest, hairiest and most audacious goal that we're unable to accomplish on our own is to love one another. To love those closest to us: my wife, my family, my next door neighour. Our 'city' is a little easier...because it's abstract and isn't articulated through the mundane. But a consistent, steady, applied and growing love of those closest to us - our community - that's tough. And it's why we need so much help.
So what do you do?
I dislike this question immensely, for a number of reasons:
- Depending on what I answer, I’m going to be pigeon-holed.
- It reeks of ‘how about that weather?’
- I am obliged to ask them back.
- I don’t exactly know what I do.
‘So what do you do?’ might be a fine question for someone who has a business card on hand to answer, but what about the administrative assistant who works for an obscure company part-time and doesn’t want to explain what they do ever again while watching their listener’s eyes glaze over and head continue to nod. Or the person who wants to be a successful writer but is currently working as a second-rate copywriter for a marketing agency catering to middle-aged clients.
It’s an annoying question because it forces the person to state ‘what they do’ in an attempt to categorise them eg. Phys Ed teacher – sporty not brainy, Engineer – nerd at school, Check-out chick – popular at school. If you don’t agree with me, try answering garbage collector to this question and watch the person carefully compose their face while they say overenthusiastically, ‘Great, great, that sounds terrific’.
My advice is to make whatever you do sound fantastic. If you’re a housepainter, say artist; if you occasionally tell your sister her bum looks big in her jeans, call yourself a fashion consultant. This is only twisting the truth ala my mum’s Christmas letters that get sent out to friends across the globe every December.
They read: Sarah is currently employed as a writer in a corporate communications business, and is studying theology in her spare time. She has plans to start a small business.
The reality: Sarah’s still on anti-depressants and is having a small crisis of faith. She mentioned once, while eating icecream out of the tub with a spoon, that she should start a small business. Even though she’s 26, she still lives at home with her mum.
Fair enough, ‘What do you do?’ is a common question, and one that I’ve asked before, often intended as a launching pad for further, more meaningful conversation topics. Nonetheless, it gives me the craps. Conversations shouldn’t be formulaic, scripted repartees that make you feel as if you could churn out the answer while thinking about the meaning of life at the same time. Life is short; small talk is cheap. Silent reflection is better than meaningless allocution. Unless it’s humorous of course.
Surely there are more creative ways of getting to know someone.
Valentines Cards
Missed out on expressing your generally positive disposition towards someone in your life this Valentines Day?
Then make sure you check out a selection of HR-approved eCards from The Onion. They've created a bunch of cards that comply with the "strongly worded wishes" of their legal department. It's a good way to get your message across in a way that complies with the most stringent of company policies. And with recent findings from The Vault revealing that 47% of people have been involved in an office romance and only 10% of managers willing to ignore them, these cards will help you go under the radar. If you do get fired there are always the Smoove B cards, which are a little more forward.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Cacophony Leadership Series
Spiritual Alignment Checks
The Cacophony Leadership Series is a collection of unconnected leadership grabs about a range of leadership topics. In large, they are excerpts from an unpublished manuscript, Leadership Matters.
Every leader needs a series of spiritual alignment checks that are continually measuring and evaluating actions. Here’s ten to begin with:
1. If no-one knew I was behind this, would I be ok or secretly disappointed?
2. Do my decisions make myself look good or God look good?
3. Do I consider my role/position a right or a privilege?
4. While everyone needs vigorous encouragement (we’ll talk about that later) do I need affirmation and encouragement from others to ‘make this worthwhile’?
5. What matters more: what I’m doing or who I am in Christ?
6. Am I building the Kingdom of God or my own by pursuing this course of action?
7. Is my reaction to a particular issue motivated by what’s going to be good for the Kingdom of God or good for me?
8. Why do I have emotional reactions to particular outcomes and decisions? Does it demonstrate a bad situation or a weakness in my character?
9. Am I pursuing a course of action that’s fuelled by love and grace and concern for the individual, or is that secondary to me?
10. Is my leadership demonstrating the heart of God for His people or am I feathering a nest of my own?
Why is it so easy to make a list like this? Simple: you make observations about your own frailty as a leader and the frailty of other leaders you’ve struggled with over the years. And you consider the areas you battle with and test your integrity by.
The Cacophony Leadership Series
Gettting your culture on.
The Cacophony Leadership Series is a collection of unconnected leadership grabs about a range of leadership matters. In large, they are excerpts from an unpublished manuscript, Leadership Matters.
An organisation’s culture is expressed in myriad ways. Here are twenty-one ways in which the personality of organisation can be expressed:
1. The tone set by the team’s senior leader. Is it clear or unambiguous? Is it visionary and is that vision communicated with passion, clarity and a sense of excitement that energises and invigorates the team?
2. How vigorously vision is implemented—is there a rush to ‘put legs’ on the vision, or does it remain a romantic notion of a future reality?
3. The mission statement of an organisation, particularly if it describes and encapsulates the nature and expression by which an organisation fulfils its core business. For example, the Perth-based John Hughes Automotive Group have established customer service as a complete mandatory. This shapes every expression of the organisation through any service or product provision. It is something that will not be diluted. While other areas may be negotiated, this will not;
4. The degree to which leadership is expressed, developed and respected;
5. The way a team celebrates;
6. The trust and security of the leadership team—the degree to which they have the support of each other and their constituents;
7. The level of innovation and creativity expressed within the organisation and the freedom for it to be expressed and the freedom for it to be expressed;
8. The way an organisation promotes itself;
9. The level of consistency in the way an organisation is promoted—dilute the consistency and you dilute the organisation;
10. The products/programs/service it provides;
11. The degree of unity and understanding of the vision, and the vigour with which it is pursued, and the preparedness to dilute it;
12. The age of the organisation, the age of a team’s leadership, the age of the target market of the organisation. The ways in which these factors express themselves are not necessarily consistent, but they can be significantly determining factors in an organisation’s culture. A group of people with an average age of 55+ will likely have a more traditional and conservative way of communicating and implementing change when compared with a group of people with an average age between 25-40 who may be contemporary, organic, fluid and rapid in their implementation of change. Neither is inappropriate, the question is whether the culture is appropriate for the organisation’s constituents or for the change the organisation is seeking to implement.
13. The generosity and preparedness of those within the organisation to give to a cause greater than themselves;
14. The way it recognises its people;
15. How enthusiastic the team’s leadership, members and constituents are to be part of the team and the journey of the team;
16. The degree to which leader figures within the organisation are respected and their consequent ability they have to exercise authority and leadership within the organisation;
17. The level of encouragement within an organisation;
18. The degree to which the team is pursuing a common cause or overriding objective;
19. The visibility of its leaders and the degree to which they display the qualities of a team;
20. The method of reporting and governance within an organisation. This effects both the ability of an organisation to implement change and the level of engagement felt by the constituents;
21. The degree of volunteerism within an organisation. This is primarily a determining factor in a not-for-profit organisation. For such organisations, having 20% of the people performing 80% of the work is actually perpetuating a model of administration and growth that is undesirable. Such organisations thrive and grow as people contribute to the cause, not partake in it (and those people grow at the same time). As many leaders within such organisations have said, ‘we’re building a battleship here, not a cruise liner’. In one scenario, you have a ‘ship’ populated by passengers, on the second, you have a ship filled with people actively engaged in improving the ship—fuelling it, refurbishing it, steering it etc.
22. The degree to which diverse expressions or areas of an organisation are linked to a common heart. Culture is easily diluted if it is not well understood. The result is a lack of clarity, confusion and a dilution of culture. Effectively, the right hand no longer knows what the left hand is doing and, if it does, it simply knows that it is doing things very differently.
The lion chaser's manifesto
I've been listening to a few podcasts lately by Mark Batterson, a pastor from Washington DC. He's written a book, 'In a pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day', which I haven't read yet, but Amazon are doing their best to help me with that. Anyway, here's the 'lion chaser's manifesto which I discovered today on his blog. Good gear. Very good gear.Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.
Friday, February 9, 2007
From the lion's mouth
I listened to a podcast on this verse the other day and it reminded me again about leadership being effective stewardship.
The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men.
-Daniel 4:17 (NIV)
Thursday, February 8, 2007
'I didn't get much out of the worship today...'
I discovered this great article today by a friend of a friend. Full of great stuff on one perspective of worship.
Read away. It's good gear.
From the horses mouth...
In this quote, the horse is played by Mark Twain. Thankyou Mark.
"Twenty years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the wind. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Shut Your Snack Hole?
A picture might tell a thousand words, but the one below seems to take the temperature of much of contemporary western culture in a crispy chicken wrap. I'm lovin' it!
I'm a bit unsure of what kind or rant should follow. Perhaps something about:
• the vaccuousness of some corporate advertising?
• the sexualisation of fast food?
• our culture of consumption?
Ahh forget it. All this thinking has made me hungry.
From the horses mouth...
From W.N. Murray from The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951
Until one is committed
there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
there is one elementary truth,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas
and splendid plans:
That the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
that would otherwise never have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner
of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamt
would have come his way.
I have learned a deep respect
for one of Goethe's couplets:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can -- begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Wrestlemania
We have a tendency to unintentionally/intentionally, through messy thinking, create a 'tin god' that fits into our little self-made box.
Most of us pitch our tents into one of two camps.
The first is the 'Buddy Jesus' camp. Here, Jesus is my Homeboy (you can have the t-shirt to prove it), my boyfriend and the guy I shoot hoops with (okay, I don't know basketball, but all the other euphemisms seemed rooted in the 'mother country'). Buddy Jesus is all-forgiving, graceful to the point of naivety, never angry and abounding in love. My 'Buddy Jesus' often speaks out love without any regard for the truth at all. He lets me do whatever I want, whenever I want...and just loves me all the same. He doesn't want me to change a bit. In fact, just like Buddy Billy, he loves me just the way I am. Every thing's sweet as a nut in Buddy Jesus camp - he's just alright with me. And I'm okay with him too.
Somewhere else (on far higher ground no doubt) and only a pendulum swing away, is the 'Angry God' camp. Here, God is as mad as hell and ready to smite with a mighty smite the first inkling of moral wavering. We're always in a bit of a bind in this camp. We know it's culturally uncool to sacrifice a goat, but we should really do it anyway. It's just the right thing. In 'Angry God' camp, people don't talk too much; just enough to let their 'yes' be 'yes' and their 'no' be 'no'. There's a cozy culture in the 'Angry God' settlement- a compassionless moralism that finds joy in staying away from the edge and in creating new legislation that 'helps' people stay on the good side of a wrathful God who, quite frankly, is quite p'd of with you. Beware the stray thunderbolts in 'Angry God' camp - they keep us on our toes and remind us who's in charge and, more enjoyably, who ballsed up.
Both of these camps are built on a lie. A half-truth is ultimately a kernel of truth wrapped in a lie. A shrink-wrapped lie of our own convenience.
There's a tension that lies in the gulf between these two camps and therein lies the problem: we don't like tension much so we tend to lob in to one camp or the other. Sometimes we're gypsies, skipping from one camp to the other as our pendulum swings from one side to the other. Generally though, we lay our foundations pretty deep in one camp or the other.
The bedrock of another camp looks like this: humble grace. God hates sin but he's a merciful lover. It's fair to say the folks in this camp have the story of God and the life of Jesus on their side. When sin abounded, grace abounded even more. Not because sin was okay, but because grace was bigger.
There's plenty of wrestling in these parts though. Not a tormented, pugilistic, anger-driven punch-up, but a strenuous search for what makes sense and is true of Jesus...and what is us just making stuff up because we decided it sounded pretty good (or someone told us to think it). We continually work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Not because we doubt our salvation, or because we're petrified of God, but because we know that if we're not continually pursuing what's true in Him, where we make camp becomes our lie.
God is slow to anger, true, but He does get angry. God gets angry, true, but he's abounding in love. God's compassion abundantly exceeds His retribution but it isn't oblivious to choices and consequences. He is a rewarder of those who go all out to find Him because He wants to be found. And He wants to be found with a childlike faith that says: 'What's next, Papa?', not a faith in intellectual overdrive that has well-constructed box for God that, although disconnected from relationship, can be readily articulated.
I think Paul wrote for us all when He told us to continually wrestle over these things because as we explore, we get a glimpse of things that are not easy to throw in either the 'Buddy Jesus' camp or the 'Angry God' camp. We come with a childlike faith and we're cheered on to grow up, reach maturity, eat some meat and stop slurping all the milk. But in the wrestle, we realise we need a balanced diet so we become neither spiritually fat nor spiritually emaciated.
Strenuous wholeness doesn't come from living a life with the top down, the radio on and the car in cruise control...and yet there's time for simply enjoying God, being still and just 'cruising' in Him. It's not all about wrestling. Wrestling informs the journey but it isn't the journey. Sure it's part of it, but we don't just wrestle, we live too. Wrestling clarifies and deepens our relationship with Jesus, but it doesn't define it. In him we find out who we are and what we are living for. And we find out what He's giving us to do. And we get moving. But not without continuing to wrestle...because the connection between His heart and our stuff is so easy to sever. And the connection of relationship is the deal that informs that stuff. It's the relationship that leads us to repentance, to obedience, to faithfulness, to participation, to servanthood and to truth. Not disconnected from the author, perfecter and finisher. That's why wrestling has to remain one of our regular pursuits.
One last thought: whenever I think of WWF or any of those phony wrestling deals, I just see something totally bogus and dodgy. (Only Ultimate Fighting has a genuine authenticity about it - but that's another post waiting to happen.) Our wrestle isn't meant to play itself out under the glare of the spotlight to the tune of "We will rock you" or "Eye of the Tiger". It's in community and in the silence, but never as a spectacle. I hope I haven't been guilty of that right here. The big deal is the strenuous wholeness that comes from the wrestle...as much as it comes from the basking, the walking and the enjoyment of the light of God.
Where do you live? And how deep are your foundations in the camp? Have you ever shifted camp?
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Top 5: Cheeses
Anyone who has seen 'High Fidelity' will appreciate a good Top 5. List-lovers unite...
You have to start somewhere. Surely cheese is the obvious place.
Top 5 Cheeses:
1. Aged Cheddar
2. Gruyere
3. Camembert
4. White Costello
5. Swiss
--------------
with honorable mentions for:
6. Cheezewhiz (there's not many cheeses you can get crazy with)
7. Baby Cheeses (Hey, we respect the embracing of the nativity by the dairy fraternity)
8. Kraft singles* (academics sweat over possible reasons for our youth literacy problems - there's your answer)
*With an honorable mention to anything else that's wrapped in tight cellophane
Top 5: Single Malt Scotches
My father-in-law thoroughly corrupted me when I was attempting to woo his daughter by introducing me to the world of single-malt scotches. It's an expensive habit, but, in my estimation, one worth a gentle cultivation.
So here they are folks, Letterman style:
5. Oban, 14yo: It's a great beginners brew - a west highland malt without the set of nuggets on the Islay malts. Even so, it's by no means light.
4. Glenlivet, 12yo: Oh hello to our Speyside posse here. Look... there are some sherry notes in there, which gives it a butterscotch undertone. Still I wouldn't feed it to a 4-year-old.
3. Highland Park, 12yo: Hailing from the Orkneys, this is rich whiskey with a bit o' smoke but not much peat. It's made in the Northernmost distillery in Scotland. That has to be good...
2. Laphroaig, 10yo: Some peeps reckon this is the most richly flavoured of all the single malts and that's a mistake many beginners make. Peaty? Yes. Warm? You betcha. Sweet? Darn tootin'. Heck it's even a bit peppery. More shiraz than merlot, more sandpaper than tissue...
1. Lagavulin, 16yo: It's an Islay malt and it's one bad mutha. Serving suggestions include seatbelts because it's peaty, smoky and mediciney. Very naughty.
The ‘M’ Word
About a year after starting full-time work, I started wondering if things might be getting a little out of hand in terms of my shopping habits. I’m not talking about the occasional splurge on an unnecessary hat or a pair of really cute shoes that didn’t quite fit. It was when I started bursting into stores wielding my credit card like a weapon and yelling ‘WHO WANTS TO SELL ME SOMETHING?’ that I thought I may have become … well, materialistic. If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you may need to seek help. Especially if you’re a guy that bought a bikini for yourself. Am I putting forward a solution? I’ve gone the cold turkey route — no clothes for six months. I’m on month four and haven’t bought a single item of clothing since November but I’ve found plenty of loopholes. In the last four months I’ve bought a hell of a lot of shoes, two bags, a watch, earrings and developed a keen interest in haberdashery. Obviously I’m not getting to the heart of the problem and I suspect that even a strict budget isn’t going to solve this for me — yeah, it’s going to be a wiser use of my money, but it’s not going to change the fact that I really like stuff. Stuff makes me feel good.
As they say in AA circles, admitting you’ve got a problem is the first step, so I’m just getting this off my chest, yo. But if you’d like to identify whether you have a similar problem, I have written up a short questionnaire:
Have you shelved your copy of ‘The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Financial Security’ and taken up a subscription to ‘Shop Till You Drop’?’
Things that I know to be true that counteract the statement ‘stuff makes me feel good’:
Jesus said not to store up treasures on earth.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Label me Elmo
So... a portion of the creative genius that comprises The Cacophony Ensemble have colluded to define some broad creative parameters for the labels/categories/genres that combine to form the writings you'll find from the ensemble. Believe us, they're plenty broad.
Above all, the intention is to shed some light (however filtered, misguided or well-informed) on the noises that surround us. Sometimes as amused onlookers and reporters, sometimes as curious participants, sometimes as participants, sometimes as frustrated folk and sometimes as people with a thought for a way out of the noise.
So, the labels/categories are thus:
JESUS_is more than alright with us
RUNNING_the simplest and most efficient form of physical exercise
LEADERSHIP_without followers is merely taking a walk
REVIEWS_movies, music and literature
THE CHURCH_gentle observations and thoughts about Christ's bride.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS_random gear and curious fun
SPIRITUALITY + THEOLOGY_God in the cacophony
CULTURE_the cacophony that surrounds us
YOU'RE TOPS_there's been some fine people who've walked this earth. We pay homage.
STUFF'N'THINGS_have you seen the iPhone yet?
CULTURAL ICONS_Chuck Norris et. al.
STRENUOUS WHOLENESS_getting tidy at being a well-formed human
VENT YOUR SPLEEN_step on to the soapbox and let rip
TOP5+_FOr lovers of lists, order and clarity
PHILOSOPHY_a bunch of words to confuse, bewilder or illuminate
All of us have our different inclinations and passions. That'll be pretty obvious as we get going.
It's what we're thinking. Thoughts?
Thursday, February 1, 2007
The Cacophony Ensemble
The Cacophony Ensemble is a writers' collective exploring the space and song within the noise. While we don't seek to be prescriptive in content, our glue is a desire to explore spaciousness, restoration, redemption, divinity...and levity across all the stuff that, together, is life.
We seek to grow in our ability to write well and, in doing so, communicate and decipher the culture of our day through the timeless lens of the gospel of Jesus.
We believe that there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live, yet we've noticed that discovering his melody in a broken world isn't usually realised through incidental or easy listening. While we don't seek to promote ourselves as answer-givers we do seek to wrestle well. To reveal or move towards truth through what we see, what we write and how we unpack what's going on with God's creation. We seek to explore love, grace, justice, humility and mercy in all the random and decisive moments of life.
We are not a mono-culture, but come from a diversity of faith traditions. We're united in our belief that Jesus' bride, the Church, is both beautiful and broken, yet it remains God's holy intent that the church be the means by which people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Crazy, but that's the deal.
9 regular contributors comprise the Ensemble with a burgeoning array of occasional contributors.
Simon Elliott
Simon liked the idea of being a journalist but discovered other ways to write. For 14 years he's been a copywriter and designer for The Globe and also, more lately, a pastor at Riverview Church and a MDiv student at Regent College. He lives with his wife, Fiona, his baby girl, Molly Grace Shakespeare, and Fella (an athletic kelpie). He loves Jesus, Fiona, running, rain, coffee, building the church, leading worship, growing stuff you can eat, leadership—heck, even a spot of writing. He has a weakness for song lyrics, meaningless statistics and rudimentary meteorology.
Coffee preference: short mac Favourite number: 12
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Brad Birt
Brad Birt has lived in 27 houses in 4 countries. These days juggles writing with a role in marketing and MBA studies. He likes to watch Ultimate Fighting with a good single malt scotch and finds an obtuse pleasure in their convergence. He’s 26 and lives in Perth with his wife and baby girl, Bijou Amri, and one day would like to learn to weld something. Anything.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Sarah Green
Sarah is 26 and works as a copywriter at a marketing company during the day, which leaves her nights free to play online Boggle. Her appearance could be described as bookish, which means most times she visits a library someone asks for her help in checking out a book.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Karyn Ash
Karyn is three fifths of an architect, one twelfth of a crazy cat lady and two ninths of a lawyer. The rest of her is pecan pie; about 10%.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Amanda Powell
Loves: coffee, friends, creativity, candles, airplane food, Jamie Oliver, lip gloss & old suitcases.
Loathes: animals, bad smells, mismatched towels, spam, end times hysteria & gardening
Ambivalent about: waiting in queues, song writers, film reviews, purple, horoscopes & passport control
Intrigued by: shadows, comets, babies feet, blue bottomed monkeys, Thailand & history
Passionate about: God
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Garrick Field
As a consulting hydrogeologist Garrick spends far too much time in steel capped boots and a hard hat in un-pronouncable places looking at rocks, and then writing really scientific things about them and how wet they are.
Born in NZ, married to Simone from Perth, living in Lima, Peru. Loves the Lord, guitars (especially fenders), wife, wine, coffee, food, and dreams of crossing numerous foreign borders on a motorcycle.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Clare O'Neil
Clare O'Neil is a twenty-one year old female. She is currently studying for her BA and planning to go on to study for a MA in the United States. She still retains a slight phobia of children under the age of two. Her accent only becomes obscenely 'Aussie' when she is tired. Last year she created a budget and one of her many boasts is that she is sticking to it. Clare will argue that her cassette walkman is better than an ipod. Any day. Clare has been described as geeky, weird, a terrible flirt, comical and as having a thousand faces. Of course, post-mortem she will be recognised as a genius, a revolutionary and a lover. But only if she gets offline, breathes the air outside and actually, truly lives.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
O T H E R C O N T R I B U T O R S
Gavin Eva International traveler and man of many mysteries. Now lives in Perth.
Michael Dunjey Climber of consequential mountains.
Douglas Smythe Exegeting the ski fields of Switzerland - one snowflake at a time.
Pastoral Gear #1:
Discerning 'weird' spiritual experiences
What do you do when you come across someone who claims they have been having weird spiritual experiences but you're just not sure? Here are some general thoughts about the theological and practical considerations involved.
Humans are spiritual beings having a physical experience. That doesn't mean we ignore our physical reality, rather that physical reality is affirmed by Jesus who became flesh and lived among us, who died and who rose again in bodily resurrection. The physical and material matters, but our eternal nature is spiritual––it's the part of us that continues after we experience bodily death.
We shouldn't be surprised, then, that humans have spiritual experiences in the shape of dreams, prophecies, intuitions, discernment, and visually seeing spiritual beings in the physical realm. The spiritual dimension of the human experience is very real: we're spiritual beings have a physical experience.
When we do come across these spiritual experiences––that for us in a Western world seem so "otherwordly"––we don't need to worry so much with the question of whether or not they're plausible, we need to focus on the quality of those experiences: are they "good" or "bad", from God or from the devil. The important thing in these situations is knowledge of the Scriptures, discernment, wisdom and spiritual maturity.
For pretty much every Christian spiritual experience the devil can twist, mock, counterfeit and replicate. So just because someone has a "prophecy" about something––even if it comes true––is no guarantee of its source. The devil doesn't just come to hunt people down and kill them (although that is also true), rather the approach is probably more along the lines of seduction and curiosity... The proof of any spiritual experience is in the fruit it produces.
Take, for example, someone who has a dream, a premonition, about some future calamity. How do you think someone who is a faithful follower of Jesus would respond to that dream? How do you think someone who isn't a solid believer would respond? I'd suggest that the response to that dream will pretty much indicate their spiritual temperature.
I believe someone who is close to Jesus would be in prayer for the people associated with that calamity, that in the process of praying their own heart would be changed to become more like Jesus' and they'd be compelled towards the activities that are associated with a thriving growing faith: prayer, scripture, mission, faith. In these ways the fruit shows that they are in a good place - regardless of the origin of the dream. Further, these practices would give Jesus opportunity to guide, teach, rebuke, convict the person as well.
I'd suggest that someone who isn't strong in their faith would get sidetracked––they may became enamoured with "their" ability, they might try to "open" themselves up to further prophecies, they may get distracted from prayer / scripture / faith / mission because of what they're experiencing, and they will undoubtedly come across fruitloops and weirdos who will be used to "affirm" they giftedness, to distract them from a right relationship with Jesus and to distort and maybe quench the person's willingness to be open to Jesus' Holy Spirit. An immature person will be easily seduced and taken away, cultivating an unhealthy interest in the "paranormal" and opening themselves up to other "energies" or "possibilities".
Ephesians tells us not to be ignorant about these spiritual realities. But it also tells us not to focus directly on these things (ie. get distracted, piss fart around with things that seem "sexy" but are counterfeit and twisted). Rather, it says, focus on what God has finished in Christ Jesus and to continue in prayer, scripture and real community so that Jesus' mission is continued through families, marriages, places of employment and vocation and beyond. It might be that in doing this gear––which is what Jesus is on about––God may grant visions, prophecies and all that jazz, and the person who receives them has to be mature about discerning their meaning and their personal responsibility with/to those things.
In these scenarios I've described I am putting the responsibility back on the person. In some respects I am ignoring the question "Is it from God?" I believe that a mature believer who is studying scripture, praying like a banshee and who lives in vulnerable community with people who both encourage and rebuke will be able to discern that question.
How do you respond to someone in that situation? Here's a stab at some general principles for a pastoral response:
• You pray and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, insight, guidance and discernment.
• You ask Jesus to use you to encourage and build the person up in their journey––that they might see Jesus clearly, may seek to glorify Him with their life and they'd follow him in truth.
• You listen to their story and you pay attention to how they talk about the situation (what do they emphasize, what seems significant to them, what do they ignore or minimise etc.)
• You ask them how they know it's Jesus. You ask them what they think Jesus wants them to do with it? You ask them how they think it lines up with scripture?
• You keep the focus on Jesus, prayer with Jesus, scripture that reveals Jesus and the community of faith that follows Jesus.
• You offer to study the scriptures with the person over a period of time (once a wk for 6wks) in a focused way.
• You offer to pray with them knowing that God can reveal what's going on and that discernment often happens in community.