It Won't Hurt You To Smile But It Might Hurt You Not To!

I love a church that laughs.

The gospel is good news and Jesus came that we might enjoy life in all its fullness. Some people believe that sobriety and incredible seriousness are marks of spirituality.

Sure enough, there are times to be serious and thoughtful. But the ability to laugh and exhibit true joy in the face of a difficult is just as important. It always makes me wonder when I find people in church who just won't crack a smile ...

I like J. John's thoughts on the subject ...

Did you know that a typical child laughs 400 times a day, while the average adult manages only 15? What happens in life to make adults lose their laughter? Do we stop laughing because we get old, or do we age because we stop laughing?

Laughter is defined in one dictionary as ‘expressing certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds, often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements’. The definition itself makes me want to laugh.

Scientists have a variety of theories about why people laugh. One suggests that laughter is related to surprise. A baby is startled and starts to cry, but instantly realises there is no danger, so the cry turns to a laugh. Another similar theory is that we laugh when something is incongruous. In other words, we are confronted with two things that don’t fit together. That may be what caused Abraham to laugh in Genesis 17, when he was told that he and his wife Sarah would be pensioners with a pushchair!

In the book ‘The Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient’, Norman Cousins writes about being hospitalised with a rare, crippling disease. When his illness was pronounced incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, he reasoned the reverse must also be true, so he prescribed his own treatment. This involved watching Marx Brothers’ films and old Candid Camera reruns. It didn’t take long for Cousins to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain-free sleep. Prior to that, even his potent medications were unable to relieve the pain caused by the severe inflammation of his spine and joints sufficiently for him to get to sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his breakthrough appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, he received more than 3,000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world. Numerous studies have since confirmed the value of laughter in healing.

Isaac Watts’ Christmas carol, ‘Joy to the world’ declares: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.” Joy has come to the world, for the Lord of Joy has come. But if joy is to be truly experienced by individuals who live in the world, then the Church and the Lord’s followers must actually receive their king.

I think many of us have become far too serious. Erma Bornbeck says, “We sing, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord' while our faces reflect the sadness of one who has just buried a rich aunt who left everything to an animal shelter.”

Why don't we rediscover the child within? If we do, we’ll release endorphins which will do us good and also the people around us. It takes 26 muscles to smile and 62 to frown. Why not make it easy on yourself?

As the good book says: “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22)

A Great Townsville Night Out

Saturday night was a first for me - an evening at the bullriding!

Yep, you know you've moved to North Queensland when a great night out is had at the entertainment centre watching cowboys ride angry bulls in between country music performances and t-shirts being shot into the crowd from a cannon in centre ring!

Joseph and Ben loved it. They reckoned every bull was angrier than the previous one and that their dad should definitely NOT try his hand at this new sport.

I love being dad to boys. It's great fun creating memories with them and experiencing life through their eyes.

A Timeless Message Needs A Timely Touch

As Christians we have the most amazing message - life eternal through simple faith in Jesus Christ.

It's such a pity that the greatest story ever told is not the greatest story being told. People aren't tired of the gospel. But they are tired of tired presentations of the gospel. And so many presentations of the gospel are tired and outdated ... using yesterday's music, yesterday's technology and yesterday's langauge in a failed bit to reach today's audience.

Doesn't it tell us something that two of the chief defenders of the faith in the Old Testament and in the New—Moses and Paul—were both well-versed in the language, the thinking, and the philosophy of their cultures? Is it at all accidental that when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, wanted to reshape the thinking of the Jewish exiles, he selected the best of their young men to educate in the language, the literature, and the philosophy of the Babylonians, and then used them to reach their own? He knew what it would take to reach the foreigners in his midst.

I love a church that holds true to the timeless message of faith in Christ, but understands how to present that message in a timely manner.

That's why in the month of June, we are using some of Hollywood's blockbuster movies to illustrate the truths of God's Word. It'll be the same gospel message, but packaged in a brand new format in the hope that people who aren't atuned to sermons but who are very atuned to movies will hear Jesus message of forgiveness for the first time!

Set The DVD Recorder

MONDAY night on the ABC at 11.35pm - Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.

For Australian blog readers, this is a program you should definitely tape and watch at a better hour.

Dallaire was the Canadian general in charge of the UN peacekeeping forces who failed miserably to stop the Rwandan genocide.

Dallaire returned to Canada, became an alcoholic and took to sleeping on the streets ... such was his guilt over the slaughter of a million people in just 100 days.

Mind you, Dallaire did more than most to avert the disaster. His attempts to broker peace were thwarted at every turn.

This emmy award winning documentary, which I first saw when it was released on DVD (it's incredibly hard to find) takes Dallaire back to the scenes of the massacre as he tries to reconcile what happened with his own life now.

If you enjoy the program, order the book of the same title from amazon.com It's an absoring insider's account of the politics of genocide - from the jungles of Rwanda to the boardrooms of New York.

So You Think Church Is Boring?

Kings Christian Church, of which I was an associate pastor for seven years, began a thing called "Magnificent Seven" which has been copied, in various forms, by churches all over the nation.

It involved giving young people seven minutes during the Sunday night service to preach.

We began a variation of it in Townsville but called it: "So You Think You Can Preach?" - an obvious play on the television show "Show You Think You Can Dance?"

We decided to add judges and introduce internet voting for people's favorite preacher.

I must confess ... both the addition of judges and online voting were a bit of a risk. What if the judges said critical things? And what if someone got upset about not winning the online vote?

We made it clear to our congregation (and the young people) that the judging and online voting was all just a bit of fun ... but that we were very serious about wanting them to bring a five minute word from God to encourage and help the congregation.

The result has been brilliant.

We have used older people in the congregation as judges ... a wonderful way of involving them. And they have been amazing. It's been incredible to hear older people in our church speaking such words of encouragement and championing the younger people from the platform.

And the online voting ... well, it just makes our congregation laugh because it's so random!

In a couple of weeks we are going to take a break from So You Think You Can Preach and introducing a new segment called "Jesus, in Real Life". We're going to take 10 minutes on a Sunday night to interview people about how Jesus shows up in their real life.

We've got a breakfast radio host, a movie star, a recently returned soldier from Afghanistan and the head of Townsville's oncology unit. It will be amazing to hear from people working in such divergent fields about how Jesus shows up in each of their worlds.

I love church!

Young Adults Retreat

This afternoon about 80 young adults from our church go away to Arlie Beach for a weekend retreat.

As well as enjoying great sessions with guest speaker Ben Niatoko from Metro Church in Brisbane, they'll spend most of Saturday snorkling on the reef! Ahhhh ... the benefits of living in North Queensland!

The cool thing about our first young adults retreat is that most of the participants have joined our church in the past three months - the majority from our university outreach.

And of those who have joined the church from university, a high proportion of them (about half) have made first-time commitments to Christ in that time. (The other half were already Christians but had moved to Townsville and were looking for a church).

One of the great thrills for me this year has been watching our unviersity outreach commence and then grow.

We offer free buses to church Sunday nights and give university students a great meal before the service. It's really cool.

Rick Warren on Criticism

Anyone who attempts something invites criticism. It's part of life.

Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in the USA, made the following observations about criticism at his recent Purpose Driven Summit ...

• "If you wrestle with a pig you'll both get dirty."
• "Define yourself or others will."
• "Bless those who curse you."
• "Separate fact from opinion."
• "Hurt people hurt people."
• "Insults are insecurities."

The Primacy of Vision

It's often said that provision is pro vision ... it's for a vision. In other words, it's no use believing and praying for resource unless we are taking steps of faith that require resource. I recently heard a story that demonstrated the point perfectly ...

A pastor friend was telling me that someone had given him a cheque worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for his church.

The thing which fascinated me about the story was that the generous donor went to a church other than the one he had given all the money to.

I couldn't help but ask my friend: "Why would he give that much money to your church rather than his own?"

My friend said: "The guy told me that his own church didn't really have any projects on the go at that time and so he thought he'd give the money to someone who needed it."

Selah!

Pluralism, the Pope and Paintings

It's testimony to the way pluralism, and with it the absolute primacy of tolerence, has gripped modern culture that the Pope needs to reaffirm the church's right to convert unbelievers.

In a world that says "each to their own", the Pope declaring that the church has not only a right but indeed a duty to convert others to the Christian faith actually became news!

Last week I explored the Vatican museum ... a tour that finishes in the Sistine Chapel. To my surprise, the audio guide supplied to visitors finishes with a concise but clear gospel message and personal challenge.

I had been listening to the guide whilst starring up at Michaelangelo's work and thinking: "Man, I would LOVE to use these paintings as preaching illustrations."

I was delighted that the Vatican didn't waste the opportunity.

Reading For a Change

Joyce Meyer interviewed media consultant Phil Cooke recently and asked why it was that so many women who claimed to have read all of her books still had so many problems.

Cooke's response, a short critique of human nature in the 21st Century, is insightful.

The Scriptures warn that "knowledge puffs up". The danger, of course, is that the person who has increasing knowledge without application becomes nothing more than a giant puff.

I like to read but don't like the idea of becoming a well-read puff. So I try to implement a few disciplines when reading ...

1. Read With a Pen

I make numerous notes throughout the books I read. It helps me to stay on high alert for key thoughts. It also enables me to find those key thoughts when I refer to the book at a later date.

2. Talk to Someone About What You Are Reading

I always talk to my wife about what I am reading and what I am learning from it. This stimulates numerous discussions that almost always end up being applied to our present day situation.

3. Decide to Do Three Things Now About What You Are Reading

This is a challenge, but it's so powerful. I try to discipline myself to come up with three practical things I can do right away (this week) to implement things I have learned. Sometimes, if I'm really getting a lot out of the book, I'll implement three things from every chapter.

4. Read Slowly

I read somewhere that Rick Warren reads something like a million books a year (that may be a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea). The temptation is to try to keep up with these speed-reading freaks.

But in the rush to acheive my modest goal of a book a week, I found that I had become more intent on finishing a book (so as to tick it off my list) than I was with actually learning and growing.

Consequently, I've determined to pay less attention to whether or not I am acheiving my reading goal and to concentrate on whether or not what I am reading is changing anything in my life.

This means that on occassion I have stopped reading after only a few pages in order to give myself time to appropriate what I have just read.

5. Reread Books

I usually read a book twice. The second time I read through, usually about a week or two after the first reading, I note the passages I highlighted and the comments I made in the margins. I find this helps to reinforce the key themes in my mind.

Home Sweet Home

It was so great to be back at Calvary preaching Sunday. We have a great church.

We had an amazing time ministering in Europe ... but there's no place like home!

We had people make commitments to Christ in all of our services yesterday and I felt like our worship and creative team has really gone to another level. They introduced some great new songs Sunday including "All The Way" from Equippers Church in Auckland.

The other cool thing happening at the moment is the steady influx of southerners who are moving to Townsville for work, having already decided to make Calvary their home church upon arrival.

After church a whole bunch of us went out for supper and played pool until and watched Shrek 1 and then 2 until the early hours of the morning. Yep ... it's great to be home!

The A - Z of Terrible Team Members

Last week I published my A to Z of great team members. Here's my A to Z of people you DON'T want on your team.

People you don't want tend to be ...

Apathetic – Never employ people who lack energy.

Bored – One of the things I love about our team at Calvary is that they are always buzzing about something or other that they are doing in their department. Bored people are boring people.

Careless – People who don’t think will inevitably cause problems.

Domineering – When a person talks more than he listens and offers opinions more than he asks questions … you know you have a problem.

Emotional – Great team members can be counted on. But people driven by emotions are unreliable and reactionary.

Forgetful – There’s no excuse for failing to maintain a diary.

Grumpy – People who refuse to take responsibility for their attitude and demeanor can never progress far.

Humorless – The inability to laugh is always symptomatic of deeper problems. Beware the person who can’t laugh at himself.

Indecisive – Life is about decisions. If a person can’t decide whether to order the still water or the sparkling water, how will they ever make decisions on your team?

Juvenile – Great team members love a joke but terrible team members cross into the realm of immaturity. There’s huge difference and you know it when you see it.

Kill-Joys – Beware those who are always putting a wet-blanket on things.

Late – Being on time and sticking to time is a mark of respect for other people. Being late is not a time issue, it’s a respect issue.

Manipulative – Don’t tolerate team members who play games. It’s wise to be aware of the politics but terribly unwise to become political.

Narrow Minded – People who will not open themselves to new ideas, experiences and methods are simply incapable of traveling your leadership journey.

Offended – I need people on our team to have a thick skin because their leader isn't perfect! Sometimes I say things I shouldn't say and do things I'd have been better advised not to do. People easily offended never last long but cause incredible damage in the short time they do hang around.

Pessimistic – People who cast doubt on everything create shadows where leaders are trying to shine a light to show the way forward.

Quitters – Employ people who have a track record of finishing things.

Reactionary – People who react end up having others set the agenda for their lives. I love people who stay on task, refusing to be side-tracked by what’s happening around them.

Super Spiritual – Beware people who spiritualise everything because when they don’t perform they will spiritualise their failure rather than take responsibility.

Tight – People who are tight with their money will be reluctant to give in other areas. The way a person handles their money speaks volumes about every area of life.

Uninspiring – Employ people who have passion. I always ask myself … will people want to follow this person?

Volatile – I want to know how people are going to respond and I hate being surprised by team members. People who fly off the handle or who swing to extremes are incredibly difficult to build with.

Wounded – Be careful employing people carrying wounds from previous experiences. The ability to recover quickly from disappointment and offence is imperative.

Xpensvie – You don’t want team members who cost more than they contribute.

Yesterday People – Whether good or bad, yesterday was yesterday. Team members who are always talking about the past soon find they have a very limited future!

Zombies – I can’t stand the walking dead … people going through the motions but without any zest or zeal. Insist on team members who are full of life and enthusiasm.

The A-Z of Great Team Members

We have an incredible team at Calvary Christian Church. I love them dearly and they are a constant source of blessing to Samantha and I as we lead the church.

Below is my A - Z of great team members. Tomorrow I'll write my A - Z of terrible team members! But this is the GOOD list! Great team members are ...

Adaptable – Things change and so you need team members who can morph and adapt as circumstances require.

Builders – Great team members build a ministry rather than simply run a program.

Communicators – The ability to communicate clearly is essential.

Discerning – I love people who don’t need to be told what is and isn’t appropriate. They just ‘get’ it.

Encouragers – A great team is full of people who cheer one another on.

Focused – Find people who are not easily distracted but stay on task.

Generous – Since leadership is about service, team members should be constantly looking for ways to refresh others.

Humble – There is something incredibly attractive about people not given to self promotion but rather promoting others

Intelligent – Mal Fletcher once said the world doesn’t need any more dumb Christians. He had a point. I want our team to be sharp

Joyful – Life is good and good team members take delight in living it, finding joy easily.

Keen – Great team members are quick to rise to new challenges and are unafraid of taking on new tasks.

Laughing – The ability to laugh and to maintain a good sense of humor is one of the most underrated qualities in leadership.

Multipliers – Every team member must take an entrustment and increase it.

Nice – It doesn’t matter how talented a person is, if they are not nice, they won’t last.

Overcomers – I love working with people who know from experience that life is not fair but have learned how to triumph anyway.

Persistent – Great team members are not given to quitting. They are stayers.

Quick – A good team is full of people who are quick-off the mark. If something is to be done, they are onto it

Readers – Reading is proof positive that people are aiming to expand their knowledge and understanding.

Spiritual – We are spiritual people. We are characterized by a genuine love for Jesus that is clearly evident in our speech, conduct and focus. All the talent in the world does not substitute for a dynamic spiritual life.

Tactful – Give me people who know what to say, how much to say, who to say it to and when to say it

Uncomplicated – Great team members don’t have ‘issues’. What you see with them is what you get. You don’t need to ‘read between the lines’.

Visionary – I want people who are not simply maintaining but rather, creatively thinking about how they can expand our enterprise and more particularly their area of responsibility.

Workers – People with a strong work ethic are essential.

X-Factor – Great teams are characterized by the x-factor. Call it charisma or energy … whatever it is; people want to be around the team members; they stand out.

Yes Men – They are ‘can-do’ people who think up ways to make the vision happen rather than reasons why it can’t.

Zealous – Great team members don’t clock on and off. They love what we are doing and some would even say they are obsessive.

Taking the Fun Out of Flying ...

The fun police strke again!

First they banned people from taking liquids or gells on board international flights. And just when you thought security couldn't get any tougher ... I found this sign at Prauge airport during the week.

Apparently now you're not even allowed to have grenades in your carry on luggage!

Many Happy Returns

Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel.

You'd think 60 years of success would surely have silenced the critics. But the voices calling for Israel's disolution seem to grow stronger.

Newspaper columnist Mark Steyn makes some fascinating observations here.

The Sweetest Form of Revenge ...

They say success is the sweetest form of revenge ...

Two hundred years ago, the skeptic Voltaire proclaimed: “In 100 years, the Bible will be a forgotten book.” He had no idea that after his death, one of his homes would be used as a warehouse for the French Bible Society.

And now, in another ironic twist, Nanjing in the communist nation of China is set to become the Bible printing capital of the world.

According to the Christian Post, a new State approved Christian printing facility is being set up that will have the capacity to print 12 million Bibles a year, or 23 every minute.

Printing the Bible in China was banned 30 years ago, but demand has always been huge. In the past 20 years Amity Press have published more than 50 million copies. That's not bad in an officially atheist nation!

Official statistics published by the Chinese government show a 50 percent increase in the number of Christians – from 14 million to 21 million – in the past 10 years. During this period, Protestants increased from 10 million to 16 million, or by 60 percent, while Catholics increased from 4 million to 5 million, or by 25 percent.

Of course, these are just the official figures. It is impossible to know how high the true figure is when those who choose to worship outside the State controlled churches are factored in.

The Power of Perception

I am convinced that what we think is happening to us is more powerful than what is actually happening to us ... and this short clip is proof positive. I will definitely use it to illustrate the point in a message sometime soon. (Thanks to Clive Smith, youth pastor at Eastside Apostolic Church in Hamilton, NZ, for alerting me to this clip)

Presenting Like Jobs

Apple's Steve Jobs is a brilliant presenter.

Here Carmine Gallo looks at lessons speakers can learn from the Apple boss.

Cathedrals, Envy and Murder in Krakow

We spent this week in the beautiful Polish city of Krakow and learned a fascinating story of church building, envy and murder ...

Two brothers set out to build a church to the glory of God. But one ended up murdering the other after they quarreled about whose work was the best. And to this day, the differently sized towers of St Mary’s Cathedral in Krakow, pictured, bear testimony to the bizarre story.

In the thirteenth century the citizens of Krakow decided to build a church named after St. Mary and situate it in the very centre of the city. This idea became very popular and funds were quickly collected.

Two brothers who were both architects and famous for their work on churches in other countries, arrived in Krakow and were commissioned to build the new cathedral. It was determined that St Mary’s would be larger than all other existing Polish churches, Gothic in style with two slim sky-piercing towers to direct people's eyes towards God.

The work was begun with great excitement. No-one imagined it would end in murder.

The brothers divided their work in such a way that each of them was to build one tower. In order to help them spur one another on, they made a light-hearted bet as to who would complete his tower first. To start with the plan seemed to work splendidly and every day the towers of St. Mary's were growing taller and taller, and the hearts of the dwellers of Krakow were growing happier and happier. However, soon the competition made the two architects hostile towards each other. There was finally so much mutual envy between them that they forgot completely about the holy end they should have had in mind. When one of them added one new storey after another to his tower, the other one bit his lip and tried to keep up with the other brother's pace. Finally the older brother completed his task and, to add to its magnificence, he adorned the spire with a golden crown.

The older brother invited his sibling to celebrate his success at a local inn. But relations were not good and the meeting soon degenerated into a shouting match. At first both of the architects boasted about their own skills and then they started to point to each other's mistakes and failures. The older brother ridiculed the younger one for his slow work. The younger one, eager to repay the insult, claimed that his brother's tower had a weak construction

In the middle of the argument, and to the shock of those gathered, the older brother took hold of a knife lying on the table and thrust it through his brother's heart. The younger brother died almost instantly.

The knife-wielding brother tried to run from the scene but was grabbed by witnesses. Because it was late at night and the court was closed, the citizens decided to lock the brother in one of the chapels of the newly built cathedral. On the following day he was hurriedly tried, sentenced to death and executed.

As to the unfinished tower with the stigma of blood and death looming over it, no architect wanted to complete it, so the City Council decided it would only be covered with a simple metal dome. And so St Mary's church, with its two uneven towers, became an architectural curiosity in Krakow that survives to this day.

Emphasising a Positive Gospel

I am absolutely passionate about ensuring church is a positive experience and that the message we preach is as it was intended to be ... "good news".

This is actually easier said than done. The temptation to be correct but negative is ever present. It's easier to preach law than grace; to preach what people should not do rather than who people can become; to preach people down than to preach people up; to curse the darkness rather than to light a candle.

I have observed that new preachers often get stuck into the crowd for "losing your first love" or for "not being on-fire enough". I think it is because it is actually easier to preach the negative. We live, afterall, in a negative world and so negativity can come fairly naturally.

Of course, a negative gospel is also appealing because it costs us far less to proclaim. In his sermon "The Weight of Glory," C.S. Lewis took note of a subtle shift in the language of his day, which he felt was the first detour in a road leading far away from Christ.

Writes Lewis, "If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philosophical importance."

Lewis goes on to explain the mindsets that develop out of subtle shifts of language. The positive answer requires a perspective that looks outward at others - those who are the recipients of the virtue or else the one from whom this virtue arises in the first place - whereas the negative virtue shows that our concern is primarily with ourselves - our own self-denial - and hence the appearance of good virtue.

Lewis points out that The New Testament does have a lot to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. The Bible certainly points out what is wrong in the world. But it doesn't stop there. It boldly proclaims God's power to change the world.

I remember some young people coming to me hugely concerned that a witch had moved in next door. They wondered whether we should hold prayer meetings to bind the demonic forces at work on the neighboring property. They were very eager to commence their "spiritual warfare".

I told them I wasn't interested in praying against the spirits but I would gladly help them to mow the witch's lawn. Afterall, if we were to help the woman find the love of God ... would it be more profitable to yell abuse at Satan or to serve the woman?

I found they were far less enthusiastic about mowing the lady's lawn than binding the spirits of darkness. Mowing a stranger's lawn was much harder work and didn't carry quite the same sense of self-righteousness as their planned spiritual warfare gathering. Bottom line: it was easier to be negative and reactive than to be positive and proactive.

I pray every day for God to help me to lead a proactive church. It's easier to bunker down and simply point out the problems. Infact, there's a certain gratification that comes from showing you are right by pointing out who is wrong.

But the gospel is good news. The gosepl is dynamic. And it is the gospel of faith, hope and love that will see our communities changed. Lets resist the temptation to go negative and stay positively focused on lifting people up.

An Incredible Opportunity

I spent Tuesday exploring the wonderful city of Krakow in Poland and am blogging from an internet cafe just off the largest village square in Europe.

Krakow is a city of a million people, of whom I am told 200,000 are university students. So it's a young and dynamic city.

Krakow, I'm told, has just two Pentecostal churches, the largest of which is about 150 people. If you add together all of the evangelical churches, there is just one church for every 90,000 people in Krakow.

We are talking with friends Zibi and Magda Marzec about planting helping them to plant a church here in 2009. It seems to me like an incredibly exciting and urgent opportunity.

Goodbye Radicals

Radicals Conference finished Sunday morning with sessions from Matt Fielder of Planetshakers fame and conference host Zibi Marzec.

When you consider that Poland's equivalent to the AOG has just 22,000 adherents in a country of almost 40 million people ... it becomes obvious why a conference to mobilise the young people is so vital and so strategic.

The difference in the young people from the opening night on Friday to the close on Sunday was stark. By the end of conference, the worship was intense and passionate. We left conference with a great sense that something lasting had been deposited in the hearts of these awesome teenagers.

The Banality of Evil - Impressions of Auschwitz

Radicals conference is now over and today we take our team to visit Auschwitz. I visited Auschwitz for the first time last year and blogged the following ...

The Nazi death camp at Auschwitz was not at all as I had envisaged it.

For a start, it was bathed in sunshine. I had expected Auschwitz, the concentration camp in which more than a million people were ruthlessly exterminated, to be covered in dark clouds, drenched in rain and buffeted by a bitterly cold wind. But no. The weather was near perfect.

I had expected Auschwitz to be grotesque and ugly. In reality, it was almost pretty. The death camp's streets were lined with lovely trees, the grass was green and I'd have thought the buildings, had I been ignorant of their evil use, to be rather quiant.

As I walked the streets in which so many were slaughtered, I was reminded of the phrase Hannah Arendt used to describe Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. She coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe his averageness.

She was shocked, when confronted by the Nazi war criminal, that he had neither horns protruding from his head nor a tail from his rear or pitch fork in his hand. Eichmann was a monster to be sure, but a very ordinary one. He was very much like any other man.

And this was the most confronting thing about Auschwitz. This place, where such evil was done, was not the edge of hell. Infact, it was just a short drive from the beautiful city of Krakow. I was standing where some of the worst deeds in human history were perpetrated, and yet I could very well have been standing anywhere. The dirt, the stones, the grass, the trees, the sun overhead ... they were all shockingly familar.

Sure enough, there was horror to be seen. The nearly 2 tonnes of human hair that had been collected from those marked for death; the mountains of shoes, bags, brushes and personal affects that had been taken from people who were told they were to be showered only to be gassed; The rows and rows of 'mug shots' - men and women, all of them with heads shaved - hanging along the corridors of the buildings. Someone's mother, father, daughter, son ... their fearful eyes, surely knowing death was imminent, following you as you walked the hallways. But it wasn't the horror that shocked me; it was the ordinariness of it all.

Better if Auschwitz was on the edge of hell, then we could climb into our cars and tour buses (there were a lot of them) and drive far, far away. We could dismiss Auschwitz as a blip, something that happens on the edge of hades, but thankfully not in the real world.

And so I cursed the sun that shone where it ought not, making my day a pleasant one. And I cursed the leafy trees that made me admire them, even when everything within me wanted to despise everything around me. What happened at Auschwitz was horrible, but I can't say Auschwitz was a horrible place. It wasn't some 'Bermuda Triangle' of evil that we could just determine to avoid from now on.

Alexander Solzenitsyn wrote in his classic work Gulag Archipelago: "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor even political parties - but right through every human heart and through all human hearts."

Pogo put it more succinctly - "We have just met the enemy, and he is us."

The ordinariness of Auschwitz is what makes it a reminder, not just of what did happen, but more frighteningly, of what can happen.

Ordinary evil is indeed the most frightening evil of all.

A Building Especially For Us ...

Pictured above is the venue for Radicals Conference, Poland. Last year the conference was held in a school hall. This year the organisers took a huge step of faith and booked the town hall. What is normally the venue for plays and rock concerts is, this week, the venue of Eastern Europe's largest Christian Youth Conference.

Townsville has a 5000 seat convention centre. I've spent all day today dreaming about how we in Townsville could take a venue that normally hosts sporting events and fill it full of people lifting up the name of Jesus.

Breakfast Talk in Poland ...

Had breakfast thismorning with Matt Fielder, one of the executive pastors of Planetshakers Church in Melbourne.

Matt was one of 50 evangelists from around the world to recently be invited to spend two days with German preacher Reinhardt Bonnke. It was fascinating to hear, even second hand, about the things Bonnke discussed at the two-day intensive.

I particularly liked this quote ...

Bonnke told the gathering: "Marx used to say that religion was the opiate of the masses. Well if it is, then I deal out the purest kind!"

On Restaurants ...

One of the things I love about Townsville are the restaurants. There are five or six that we just love. The food is beautiful and the service is always first rate. Or at least it usually is.

Last week we ate at one of our favorite haunts but, for whatever reason, the meal seemed to take an eternity. It reminded me of a story ...

Isaac was sitting at a table in his favorite restaurant when he called over his waiter.

"Yes?" asked the busy waiter.

"Are you sure you're the waiter I ordered from?" asked Isaac.

"Yes, why do you ask?" replied the waiter. "Why do you ask?"

"Well it's just that I was expecting a much older man by now," replied Isaac.

Opening Night of Radicals

Last night was the opening night of Radicals Youth Conference in Poland, a conference of hundreds of young people from Poland as well as the UK, Ukraine, Germany and Czech Republic.

I preached the opening session and then one of my mates, Artie Shepherd from Kings, preached the second session. It was a great night with heaps of young people making commitments to follow Christ in both sessions.

Preaching with an interpreter is always a great experience and not one I find particularly difficult ... mainly owing to our interpreter (Magda) who is brilliant and the fact that once you settle into a rhythm, it's relatively easy.

I preached on living the life of a Radical from Acts 2v14 where it says: "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice ..."

1. "But Peter" ... Radicals realise they have been Caused To Be Seperate (They have a sense of purpose)

2. "Standing Up" ... Radicals realise they have been Called To Stand (They have a love for people)

3. "With the Eleven" ... Radicals realise they have been Connected To Somebody (They have a desire for partnership)

4. "Raised His Voice" ... Radicals realise they are Compelled To Speak (They have a message to proclaim)

Insights Into Polish Culture ...

A local pastor was telling me that when Communism collapsed in the late 80s, Poland was revolutionised.

Before democracy, he said, Poland was "grey and sad". Now it's a thriving nation with a strong economy and industrious people enjoying the fruits of their labor, not to mention the freedom to behave and speak that we in the West take for granted.

But not everything improved with the fall of communism. Some things, such as law and order for instance, got worse.

Less government control gave people the freedom to do well, but it also gave people greater freedom to commit evil. Some older people, he told me, actually lament the "good old days" when the communists ruled. The crime rate was not as bad in those days.

Of course, freedom is never free. There is always a price to pay. As Christians we understand this better than anyone. God created mankind with free will, fully understanding the gift of freedom would not be without great cost; a cost that He Himself would ultimately bear.

My Polish friend commented that it was now imperative that his countrymen used their freedom to better the country and create a future for their children. "Freedom has not come without cost or without difficulty," he said. "And so now we are very aware we must steward our freedom well."

Selah

Insights Into Polish Culture ...

The locals tell me that whenever two Polish people get together ... you'll end up with three opinions!