In an interview style book, Bono has some pretty frank statements to make about his faith, life and relationship with Jesus Christ. (Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

I have been reading this book on and off for sometime.
Here is one really interesting and challenging quote.

Assayas: That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?
Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched …

Bono later says it all comes down to how we regard Jesus:

Bono: … [I]f only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. …When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s— and everybody else’s. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that’s the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.

LINK

In Australia one of the greatest killers of young Australian males is suicide.
Why?
We have beautiful natural wonders to enjoy, surfing, swimming, climbing.
A young Aussie male can grab a cheap car, drive around our nation and survive and thrive. We truly are a nation of opportunity.
Unemployment is at an all time low, prosperity is everywhere you look. Yet still, you hear stories, new stories, of behaviour birthed in hopelessness leading to despair.
And it does not matter if you are a Christian, and in a great Christian family either. This story about James Dungy is sobering.
From a succesful wealthy, sporting strong Christian home. Yet he took his own life. As a father I look at this story and wonder what went wrong, if anything. Or if indeed there are any answers.
Coach Dungy said this, “God has placed me in this position not for him and his family to suffer but so they can be an example to others, a testimony.”.
“The Lord has a plan. We always think the plans are A, B, C and D, and everything is going to be perfect for us and it may not be that way, but it’s still his plan.” (Tony Dungy)
He’s learned that it’s all too common among young men who seem to “have it all.” Dungy says he has had correspondence with at least a dozen families who are dealing with losing a child to suicide who was not considered “at risk.”
“It’s not the kids who are struggling or that had issues that we would think were issues,” Dungy says. Perhaps Dungy’s only real regret as a father is that he hasn’t been there for his children as much as his late parents were for theirs.
Story

Someone asked me about MUD during the week. For those who came in late….

M Men
U Under
D Duress

There are times when men need to hang around with other men. Something happens when you get married, and then when you have kids the problem is even more exsaperated. You stop having that important ‘mate’ time. In church environments it can be even worse.
Men need time with other men to do men things, like watch sport, drink, eat, make fart jokes and talk about the intricacies of the offside rule, and argue about Holdens and Fords.

MUD is for that purpose. Sorry ladies! I think its important for there to be times for women to mixwith women, men and women to mix and for men to mix with men. In our busy culture there are not many times when men, especially family men can do that. So MUD is to help in that regard.
MUD MUD MUD oi! oi! oi!

Geelong came to play, Freo did not.

There were not many Freo players playing with much intensity in this important game.
Hedland, Josh Carr and even the perennial misser, Medhurst, played with some vigour.

It could have been far different if those easy misses were converted in the third quarter, but they were not. Something to do with football being played in the mind I think.
Someone asked me what I thought of Connolly as a coach the other day. I have continued to defend him. Problem is, that it is his job to get the team ready and willing to play, and play for each other. Some serious man management work needs to be done in the next couple of weeks if we are to even make the finals, let alone have a significant impact in them.

Bad sad news down Freo way with our most improved player, Antoni Grover, out for 6 weeks with a shoulder injury. A rather innocuous bump and one of our key defenders is out.
Robbie Haddril is back in the side. With Johnson in All Australian Form, we should be okay.

We need to win this week, playing Geelong at home. Not because I dont think we will win, I think we will, comfortably. Problem is that there are a number of Geelong supporters at church. If we lose on Saturday, I am going to cop it on Sunday.

When you are reading through blogs, they are often people who are planting churches or starting new type of works. To be involved in transitioning a church is a much harder calling, in my opinion. It is harder because it involves a lot more emotional and relational pain. Planting a church or doing a new work involved other types of pain, I imagine. Like financial pain and having to be bivocational. However I am no expert on planting churches, so I would be interested to hear what sort of pain growing a new church involves.
As to transitioning a church, Rick Warren nails it in this article.

http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/default.asp?id=263&artid=4533&expand=1

He says,
“For a church to turn around it may take many, many minute degrees of change and a long time to make a complete turn around. I personally believe you have to be called to a church like that.
People ask, “Is it easier to start new churches, or is it easier to take existing churches and turn them around?” My answer is this: “It’s always easier to have babies than to raise the dead.” However, God is in the business of raising the dead! He’s a pro at resurrections, but it just might take some time. “

He states that it takes as long to turn a church around, as it has been plateud for. GREAT! That means I am here for about 38 years.
We have seen Bedford turn around in about 11 years, not completely, but we are a whole lot more healthy now than when I first came here, and it has come with a lot of pain.

After the first event being so well appreciated, its on again!
Cant believe I am going out at 11.30pm to watch Soccer!
Great place to have it, in a church, because we will need a few miracles!!