Justice

I have been pondering on concepts of Justice lately. One catalyst for this has been a movie called Black Gold about the injustice we can be part of unkowlingly through the coffee we buy. More about that later. Here are some thoughts from the Bible:

Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right!
Seek justice,encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Caring for the poor, the weak and the marginalized is central to the life of the Scriptures and its prophets.

God loves justice!

Psalms 33:5
The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

Psalms 82:3-4
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy:deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Micah 6:8 8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Jesus was focussed on Justice

Matt 12:18-21
Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.

Jesus also taught on it.

Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

We are charged to be justice-fighters for those who are unable to set things right on their own. Do we believe in these verses, not simply as words but rather a way of life?

Posted by Braden

Catalyst

We had a tremendous time out West Auckland at Catalyst. Pastor Chris Hope from Australia was our great speaker over the weekend. Pastor Chris, from Geelong heads up Unique Reapers International and is a great communicator with a passion to see young people saved. Pastor Chris travels extensively throughout Asia and we were really blessed through his ministry.

Friday and Saturday night saw hundreds of young people from dozens of youth ministries from around Auckland gather together. Our very own New Generation Band played for the first time and was awesome! Pastor Chris shared a great message about our need to step up and stand strong. Also, that we need to ‘take out the trash’. About 21 people responded to the salvation alter call!

Saturday morning was our training. Again Pastor Chris brought some great challenges.
Saturday night went off! Guest band, Empowered Young Disciples from the Tonga Assembles of God were awesome and the praise and worship with the New Generation Band was powerful. Pastor Chris preached about fulfilling the promises of God in our lives. God again moved powerfully.

It was awesome to see almost 300 people from different ethnic backgrounds worshipping. God is doing something significant.

Michael Guggliemucci

By now most of you would have heard about the recent news that Mike Guglielmucci has confessed that his so-called battle with terminal illness was a fraud. This is a mind-boggling turn of events that is sending shock waves throughout the Christian community.

A whole range of emotions emerge when something such as this comes to the surface - from anger to compassion. There are also some personal challenges that I identify:

One is for me to examine everything in the hidden depths of my heart.

The second is to look at my attitudes. At a time like this it is very easy for Christians to 'devour' each other. Hear is a question for you. When you heard about Mike did you run to the the phone to let someone else know, or did you pray for him, his family, and the many people who will be impacted by this event? Why? Hmm....

Also, why is it htat we often look to people for our foundations in faith rather than to God? Yes, people are going to let us down and dissappoint us, but our trust is not in them.

I am uncomfortable with many of the rants on the internet about the matter, so instead, my focus will be to examine myself.

Mal Fletcher has some insightful thoughts on the matter.

Mark Conner shares the following:

More details about the Mike Guglielmucci story continue to unfold. This tragic event may end up being just a minor blip on the radar as far as the media goes but the effects within the church world may continue to build momentum for quite a while yet. After all, he's one us - a follower of Christ.

Having read the myriad of comments on my and other blogs, it is clear that there is a diversity of thoughts and feelings on this issue. I think the challenge for us all at this time is to seek to find a balance of Grace AND Truth, two things that Jesus was filled with (John 1:14).

The danger is when we go to either extreme - Truth only without Grace OR Grace only without reference to Truth. Jesus modeled these two important aspects in perfect balance. His response to the woman caught in adultery was radical Grace - 'neither do I condemn you' - AND radical Truth - 'go and leave your life of sin'.

Posted by Braden Matson

Fijian Ethnic Youth Camp

I had the privilege recently of sharing with the Youth Leaders at the Fijian Ethnic Youth Camp. There are some great young men and women involved in the Fijian Churches who are passionate about God. I am looking forward to seeing what God is going to do in ther lives. Well done to Lolo and her team.

Posted by Braden

Summit

We just had an amazing time at Summit in Rotorua. Pastor Thomas Hansen was incredibly insightful in what he shared. A real highlight for me was the dinner on Friday night on the Lakeland Queen. A whole lot of people shared in a open and vulnerable way about the season they were going through. It stresses the need for our constant support of each other as Youth Pastors and Leaders.

Summit emphasised again the strength that we have as a movement.

Amos took a whole lot of photos for us so as soon as I get them I will put them up.

Posted by Braden

Youth Of The Nation V

We had another fantastic youth conference in Wanganui a few weeks back. Youth ministries from Palmerston North, Marton, Hamilton, Porirua, Wainuiomata, Hawera, Levin, Napier, New Plymouth and every denomination you can name almost converged on Wanganui for Youth Of The Nation V.
YOTN V was held at Wanganui's Central Baptist Church from Wednesday 16th - Saturday 19th July 2008. This event is put on by the Wanganui Christian Youth Workers, a collective of youth workers from different denominations with the common goal of encouraging and empowering their young people to pursue Jesus Christ with a zeal that will impact their generation. It is exciting to see ministers from different church and denominational backgrounds come together and put on event, each bring different perspectives and flavours as they minister.

YOTNV brought to region a line up of great speakers. Ps Ben Houston accompanied by worship director Dean Ussher of Hillsong Northern Beaches were our international guests this year. Ps Ben communicated the amazing life that we live when we honour God with our lives. Joining him this year were Dave Wells, lecturer at BCNZ and director of Zeal Youth Centre in Auckland. Dave presented the scriptures as the whole story of Christ, very insightful. Ps Sam Bayly (The Meadows Church, Paraparaumu) spoke about decision's we make as young people and presented the gospel simply with fantastic results.

Left to Right: Dave Wiggins, Dean Ussher, Ps Braden Matson, Ps Sam Bayly,
Ps Ben Hoyle, Dave Wells, Ps Daniel Paikea & Ps Ben Houston

Among the other speakers were Ps Braden Matson (New Generation NZ Director), Ps Daniel Paikea (Teen Challenge NZ Director), Beki Hayward (Soul Survivor NZ, Wellington), Dave Wiggins (Clean Comedy Comedian, Auckland), Ps Ben Hoyle (YOTN Director), Ps Iliesa Tamaniyaga, Ps Andrew Stanbrook-Mason, Lorne Campbell, Ps Rob Thompson & Ps Neville Bartley (Speaker at YOTN IV).

YOTN V was a great success. 64 known commitments to Christ, electives on 12 various areas of equiping young people to live fruitful lives & a great time had by all.

Other guests included Tauranga rockers Outta Exile, Gisbourne rappers Zero-T and Palmerston North DJ Tom Watts. Something for everyone, with the highlight for many being Dave Wiggins' stand up comedy performance.

Dave Wiggins

YOTN Worship Leader Caleb Kingi with Dean Ussher

There's a stack more info and photos on the website www.yotn.net.nz
Information will be released on next years dates for YOTN6 very soon.

Posted by Ben Hoyle

The Butterfly Effect

The butterfly effect is a the theory that small variations of the initial condition of a system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of that system. For example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.

The term "butterfly effect" was coined by Edward Lorenz who refferred to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.

In arguably the earliest illustration of the butterfly effect in a story on film, an angel in 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946) shows George Bailey how rewriting history so that George was never born would detrimentally affect the lives of everyone in his hometown. In a subtle butterfly effect, snow is falling in one version of reality but not the other.

The 1998 British movie 'Sliding Doors' runs two parallel stories of the same woman, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow). In one universe, Helen manages to catch a London Underground train home on time, and in the other she misses it. This small event influenced her life dramatically. In many cases, minor and seemingly inconsequential actions in the past are extrapolated over time and can have radical effects on the present time of the main characters.

The second episode in the "Back to the Future" trilogy also vividly illustrates the cascading and broad effects of what seemed a minor change in the course of events: because the loathsome Biff Tannen accidentally gets his hands on a record book from 2015, he is able to grow rich and corrupt Marty Mcfly's home town. When McFly returns to 1985, he finds it utterly degraded from what had used to be.

The lesson for us from the butterfly effect is that small events can trigger significant consequences. A small act can disturb the status quo and bring significant change.

If we make minor adjustments to our everday living, there can be signifcant effects further down the track. What can you do today to that could have a major effect later on?

It's our daily decisions that determines our destiny, and potentially the destiny of others as well.

Posted by Braden Matson