According to a report, when asked by judges to “repent,” Youssef replied: “Repent, What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?” The judges replied: “To the religion of your ancestors – Islam.” To which Youssef replied: “I cannot.”

This dreadful saga has been going on for years. As soon as you receive this email, pray immediately. Forward to your Church so that they may all pray too. Then forward this prayer request to every Christian you know so that they may pray also.

The Bible says “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3) Youssef Nadarkhani (born 1977) is an Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to die in Tehran. Initial reports, including a 2010 brief from the Iranian Supreme court, stated that the sentence was based on the crime of apostasy, renouncing his Islamic faith. Government officials later insisted that the sentence was instead based on alleged violent crimes, specifically rape and extortion. The Iranian government has offered leniency if he will recant his Christianity. He pastors a network of Christian house churches of 400 members. He is a member of the Protestant evangelical Church of Iran. He is married to Fatemeh, and they have two sons, ages 9 and 7.

Nadarkhani was first imprisoned in December 2006, on the charges of apostasy from and evangelism to Muslims. He was released two weeks later, without being charged. In 2009, Nadarkhani discovered a recent change in Iranian educational policy that forced all students, including his children, to read from the Qur’an. After he heard about this change, he went to the school and protested, based on the fact that the Iranian constitution guarantees freedom to practice religion. His protest was reported to the police, who arrested him and placed him before a tribunal on October 12, 2009, on charges of protesting.

On June 18th, 2010 his wife was arrested and charged with apostasy. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, and placed in prison. She was released in October 2010. The charges against Youssef were later changed to apostasy and evangelism, the same charges he was initially arrested under in 2006. In September 2010, he was sentenced to death on the charge of apostasy.

After conviction, Youssef was transferred to a prison for political prisoners, and denied all access to his family and attorney. Iran’s secret police tried to force him to recant Christianity. On November 13, 2010, the verdict indicated that Youssef would be executed by hanging. The sentence was appealed but upheld. In July 2011 Mr. Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mr. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent Iranian human rights defender, received the written verdict of the Supreme Court of Iran, dated 12 June 2011, which upholds the death sentence. The Supreme Court decision asks the court in Rasht, which issued the original death sentence, to re-examine some procedural flaws in the case, but ultimately gives the local judges the power to decide whether to release, execute or retry Mr. Nadarkhani. The recent written verdict includes a provision for annulment should Mr. Nadarkhani recant his faith. He is currently being kept in a security prison.

A number of Western organizations and governments have issued statements in support of his release. On October 29, 2010, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom asked President Barack Obama to press Iran for Nadarkhani’s release.

President Barack Obama’s September 30, 2011 statement read: “The United States condemns the conviction of Pastor Youssef Nadarkhani. Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people. That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations.”

On September, 28, 2011, British Foreign Secretary William Hague issued a statement condemning the imminent execution, stating “I deplore reports that Pastor Youssef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Church leader, could be executed imminently after refusing an order by the Supreme Court of Iran to recant his faith. This demonstrates the Iranian regime’s continued unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to respect religious freedom. I pay tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani who has no case to answer and call on the Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence.”
We all need to pray for our brother and his family in what must be a living hell.

The Government backflip on the compulsory use of E10 fuel by so many motorists is welcomed. Manildra, the only NSW Company making ethanol has aggressively reacted by suspending the expansion of its Nowra plant and threatening the future employment of local workers.

For a number of years I have been deeply concerned with the donations of Manildra to both major political parties (which have received more than $600,000 each) and of Governments who have subsidised the use and manufacture of ethanol. Current projections of the sale of ethanol show it is a $300 million a year business which is based upon Government legislation. Last week the Sydney Morning Herald revealed up to 750,000 motorists would pay more than $150 a year extra as they would be forced to use premium fuel because their cars were incompatible with E10.

When biofuels first started to be manufactured, they were made out of waste from sugar cane (mainly in Brazil) corn stalks (mainly in the USA) and wheat and oil seed waste in Australia. Years ago in Parliament I said, “The recent high price of oil, the security advantages of increased domestic production, the environmental benefits through reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential for economic development have all contributed to a greatly increased interest in biofuels. Biofuels take waste and make an environmentally beneficial product out of it. The purchase of agricultural waste will also greatly support our farmers.

“But recently all these benefits have soured as industry killed the goose that was laying golden eggs. The industry has been fed by Government subsidies and companies have been motivated solely by profit to make ethanol. But biofuel no longer is just made of waste but of good food that should be destined for the plates of the world’s hungry. Food should take precedence over fuel. It is unethical to produce fuel that saves motorists a few cents at the bowsers while it deprives food for the hungry.”

At first when the US government decided to encourage its corn industry to produce more ethanol fuel, one of the unintended side effects was that the price of corn tortillas (a basic food in Mexico) doubled. Fortunately the USA Government has ended its bloated financial support for the ethanol industry which has seen $20 billion paid by tax payers to the ethanol producers.

Critics in Australia and overseas point out that it puts the demand for fuel and the demand for affordable food crops in competition for the limited amount of arable land. ‘’If regular unleaded is phased out, a repeat of the 2002-03 drought, for instance, will lead to 23 per cent of the state’s average grain crop being diverted to ethanol, meaning that the cost of bread, beef, dairy, pork, poultry and eggs will rise,” the president of the Australian Lot Feeders’ Association, Jim Cudmore, said.

During the Second Reading debate Biofuel (Ethanol Content) Amendment Bill, Hansard records that “the Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC highlighted the problem of the expansion of the biofuel industries in industrialised countries to the detriment of poorer nations which has led to the reduction in food supplies as developing countries convert food crops to fuel. While Dr Moyes supported and acknowledged the Government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions, he stated: “It is vital to reduce our reliance on coal, it is critical that we have a more stable source of energy, and it is important that we develop the State’s regional areas; but we have a sense of obligation to our poorer neighbours.”

Dr Moyes continued: “We have seen the G20 leaders discuss the solutions for the Global Economic Crisis. If national governments do not take this issue seriously, we will have a Global Food Crisis and the impacts will be more drastic and severe. And we have already seen it in food riots in Haiti, Egypt, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal, the Philippines and even Italy.”

Dr Moyes said, “A 2008 World Bank research report found that from 2002 to 2008 large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe is the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices. For instance, 34 percent of the world’s largest crop (United States corn) will produce fuel and not food. Such biofuel policies have also increased Australian grain prices because 80 percent of our grain is exported, and United States corn exports represents more than 60 percent of world trade. The Food and Agricultural Organization has seen prices it pays for maize rise by up to 120 percent in the past six months in some countries.”

“The expansion of biofuels is threatening world food production and the lives of 852 million gravely undernourished men, women and children. The prospect of food shortages must be tackled immediately. A concerted effort is needed to address this potential global catastrophe”, Dr Moyes concluded.

Over the years since 2007 when I first debated the issue I have realised that apart from the unethical practice of using food for fuel, ethanol production also robs the motorist by producing less energy than petrol, gives poorer mileage per 100 kilometres, makes very little difference the demand for fossil fuel and its manufacture produces as much carbon and uses as much energy to make as it makes when used in a vehicle. Furthermore, motorists pay for it both at the pump and in their taxes and GST. It is a bad deal.

When you see the NSW Government back flipping on this issue, you will know why, and support the changes even with the unintended consequences of some unemployment.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/surging-food-prices-fuel-ethanol-critics-20110413-1ddjf.html#ixzz1lB5BRqjj

The Sydney Morning Herald (Jan 20th 2012) had an excellent article by journalist Tim Elliott about what he called “The House of Hope”. Tim’s article said in part:

Lisa and Jon Owen are daily at the Bidwill Community Centre, which they help run. In one of Sydney’s toughest suburbs, a remarkable couple have thrown open their doors to whoever needs shelter, food and love.

One woman there said that Heroin has a way of complicating your life, not that Teresa Potts needed much help in that regard. The 33-year-old Potts, who lives in Mount Druitt, was 14 when she left home after fighting with her mother. Shortly afterward, she assaulted a cab driver (“put me hand right through his window”) and was sent to juvenile prison.

At 17 she started heroin. Then she started stealing. Then she got married, and divorced. She’s been in and out of prison almost continually and, in 2007, she overdosed at Westmead railway station. “The ambos gave me five shots of Narcan, and on the fifth one I came to.” Her life has been one long, miserable fog of problems, financial, legal and pharmaceutical, interspersed with lonely nights spent wandering about the streets of western Sydney looking for food.

Then, about five years ago, she met the Owens. “I was in Emu Plains jail, and Lisa [Owen] would come in every Tuesday at 3pm and do arts and craft with us,” Potts says. “You had to put your name on a list because everyone wanted to do it.” One of the first things she did when she got out of prison was look up Lisa, who is now 41, and her husband, Jon, 35, at their Mount Druitt home.

“I had no family left,” Potts says. “My mother had disowned me when I got on heroin, and I don’t associate with me brothers and sisters because they’re straight. To me, Jon and Lisa were it. I came and asked them for help and they gave it to me. They have been a crucial part of my life ever since.”

It’s a fair bet that if Jesus Christ were around today, he’d be doing what the Owens are doing in Mount Druitt. They feed the poor and house the homeless. They lead the lost and counsel the conflicted. They’re experts at unconditional love: alcoholic mums, runaway kids, petty thieves, everyone’s welcome at the Owens’ home, a four-bedroom brick house that for the past five years has been equal parts street kitchen and safe house, as well as a home for their daughters Kshama, 8, and Kiera, 7.

“The most we’ve had here is 13 people,” Jon says, showing me around the cramped, single-storey home, the floors of which are strewn with sheets and sleeping bags. “They crash on the couches, on the floor. It’s busy, but it’s fun, too, especially at dinner time.” To make space, Kiera sleeps in Jon and Lisa’s room. Kshama is in an adjoining space, which is really just her parents’ walk-in wardrobe. Jaz, an 18-year-old girl whom the Owens unofficially adopted last year, recently got her own room, so she could study for the HSC.

There is also a caravan in the backyard, in case they need it. Safety isn’t as much of an issue as you might imagine: the Owens simply installed a door with a lock at the end of the corridor that leads to their bedrooms. “Besides, everything worth stealing has already been stolen,” Jon says. “We had one woman who robbed us blind. Cash, cameras. Someone even took the kids’ piggy bank once. We know who took it all, but we’re still their friends. Who else is going to love them?”

Jon and Lisa Owen belong to a small Christian order, started and funded by some Churches of Christ members called Urban Neighbours of Hope. Formed in Melbourne in 1993, UNOH’s mission is to relieve urban poverty by embedding volunteers in disadvantaged communities. UNOH workers take what amounts to a vow of poverty, surviving on an income from the organisation that is capped at the local poverty line, the idea being that they can better identify with their neighbours’ circumstances. (In Australia, this is the Henderson Poverty Line, which for a family of four means about $650 a week.) I mention that it must be hard – the constant clutter, the lack of privacy, the lack of money! – but Jon just shrugs. “One of the other teams is living in a slum in Bangkok, so we’ve got it good.”

In the mid-1960s, the state government bulldozed all of bush of Mount Druitt, building one of the largest concentrations of state housing in NSW. “It was the last of the broad acre public housing estates,” says Richard Amery, the state Labor MP for Mount Druitt. “They got thousands of people from inner-city areas like Redfern, Chippendale and Paddington and moved them out here. But it created lots of problems, because you had this massive number of people with no parks, no entertainment, poor transport links, nothing.”

These days, Mount Druitt, which is comprised of 11 smaller suburbs, has the largest concentration of single-parent families in NSW, and the highest number of Aborigines living in an urban population. In Bidwill, where the Owens live, drug use and domestic violence are common: unemployment here in 2009 was 20.1 per cent, compared to the NSW average of 5.9 per cent. There are no local shops; people buy bread and milk from the pub, which is Bidwill’s only functioning business. Some scary things happen here. “A woman was raped recently in an alley and the guy bit her fingers trying to get her rings off,” Jon says.

The most important part of the Owens’ work, then, is simply being here. “First and foremost, we are neighbours. When all else seems to be leaving, we move in. There is no professional agenda. We are about re-neighbouring a community – which means joining with the life of the neighbourhood to work together for its well-being.”

The Owens are insanely, crazily, constantly busy: they organise barbecues and a drop-in centre, cooking classes and a men’s group. Jon is part of the welfare team at the local high school; Lisa is a chaplain at Emu Plains prison. But it’s the everyday emergencies that take up most of their time. If a 14-year-old boy has dropped out of school because he’s recently become a father and he needs to re-enrol, Jon will make it happen.

If an ex-prisoner wants to discuss his compulsory reporting requirements, Jon will advise him. If a young girl runs into their kitchen fleeing her parents at 11.30pm, the Owens will put her up.

A lot of their lives is spent cooking. “Feeding people is my life’s mission,” Jon says. “We have had to make it stretch sometimes, but then at other times more food has ended up on the plate than what we’ve cooked. I’m not super spiritual but sometimes it’s like, ‘How did everyone get a full meal out of that?’ ”

The Bidwill Community Centre, which the Owens help run, has become a hub, especially for local Aborigines, many of whom don’t own phones. Only one of Lisa’s parents was Christian: her mother believed, but her father, a school principal, was a staunch atheist. “He used to tell Mum, ‘You take the kids to church and I’ll straighten ‘em out when they get back home.’ ”

Jon’s background is more complicated still. Born in Malaysia, his father was half-Sri Lankan, half-Indian; his mum was “full Indian”. Both their families had been either Hindu or Buddhist. But then certain members on both sides converted, and everyone else followed suit. “My extended family has some interesting combinations,” Jon says. “It ranges from Hindu Buddhist Christian to the fundamentalist Christians, who worry me a bit.”

Jon’s father had just become a lawyer when he moved the family to Melbourne in 1977. Jon studied computer science and electrical engineering at Melbourne University, which required him to complete a non-science component. He chose theology. “I grew up in a family where following God was just another part of the Aussie dream, where you have a house in the suburbs, make enough money to relax, mow your lawn and cook your roast on Sunday.” As part of the theology course, however, Jon studied a section of the Bible called The Prophets, with one book, Amos, striking a chord. “At one point God says, ‘Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.’ I remember thinking, ‘That’s all I do; I go to church and sing songs.’ ”

His father had always stressed career and professional success. “But Jesus was not about material wealth,” Jon says. “The guy was all about intentional downward mobility! And I realised that what I really wanted was to do something significant in this world, not just piss around at the edges.”

One Sunday after church he was talking with some people about Melbourne Citymission. They were saying how amazing their work with street kids was. But then someone else said, ‘Oh, that’s nothing, there’s this even crazier group who actually go and live in these marginalised communities.’ ”

That crazy group was UNOH. In December 1997, Jon did a two-week live-in course with UNOH in south-east Melbourne’s low-income suburb of Springvale, home at the time to a large number of East Timorese refugees, many of whom were facing imminent deportation. One little girl stood out: she had long, dark hair with big, brown eyes and a small nose; her father had worked as a truck driver for the East Timorese resistance and had been tortured to death by the Indonesian army. “On the last night I was there I asked everyone what we should pray for, and this little girl said, ‘Can you pray that we are not deported because I’m not ready to die yet?’ She was nine years old. After that, I never left UNOH.”

Jon’s decision was life-changing: for one thing, it meant dropping out of university, having completed four years of a five-year degree. “My dad reacted with shock and horror. Crying, he rang a best mate of mine, saying, ‘I don’t know who Jon has become!’ It was hard for him, because it made him ask questions, too.”

Jon spent 10 years in Springvale, during which time he retrained as a social worker at Monash University. He also met Lisa, at Springvale’s needle-exchange program, where she was working. “We fell in love over a dirty syringe,” Jon says. “So romantic.” (They married in 2001.) Lisa, like Jon, was tertiary educated: she had a PhD in pharmacology, and had worked as a research scientist at Melbourne’s Baker Institute. Both had middle-class backgrounds.

These days, however, they live without all that, without fancy food or flash cars or overseas holidays. They relax by watching TV, by listening to Leonard Cohen – by cooking or going to the park with their kids. (Monday is “family day”, when Kshama and Kiera get their undivided attention. “Monday is sacred,” Jon says. “That and eating together as a family.”) Neither of them drink, because they don’t want to support an industry they believe causes so much damage. And yet they are ridiculously, implausibly happy. “Life’s good,” Jon likes to say.

“We’re driven by our faith,” Lisa explains. “I believe that as I respond to people I’m responding to Jesus, because I believe that Jesus is in all of us.”

It’s the end of the Tuesday community barbecue, and Teresa and Lillian and all the rest are leaving. Many cigarettes have been smoked, many stories told, some advice shared, lots of hugs given. Everybody takes away a container of food: barbecue chicken and salad.

Jon sometimes talks of the “battle between hope and despair” in Mount Druitt. Today, at least, that battle has been won. Bring on tomorrow.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/house-of-hope-20120118-1q62h.html#ixzz1kJu8mRlh

They were all filmed with a full film crew on 200 different sites in Israel, The Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Malta and other islands, and screened on hundreds of television stations in many different languages in countries all over the world. All told the project cost a couple of million dollars funded in total by investors in the film company. No donations were sought and Wesley Mission did not contribute any money.

Then in the mid 1990’s we made another extremely successful series but this time using re-created scenes using actors entitled, “The Man who changed the World”, “The Apostle Who Changed the world” and the “The Church which changed the world.”

You will see this week, publicity in the newspapers and other media, a live event titled, “The Man who changed the World” which will be presented in the Amphitheatre at Olympic Park. Many people think this is another of my productions concerning the life of Jesus.

The media advertisements state: “Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs – He is the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire. A man who spent the nights praying and weeping for the cause of humanity… The perfect example of a world leader, inspirational and loving, a carer of the orphans and needy… the beacon of light and guidance for every seeker of truth… a character so comprehensive, so sweeping… who encompassed the present and the future…the east and the west…and all classes and groups of human beings.”

It sounds like a great presentation on the life of Jesus, “The Man who changed the world.” But do not be fooled. This is a presentation to proclaim Muhammad as the man who ranked as the Most Influential Person In Human History. The program is paid for by the Islamic community.

I can imagine the furore when some fundamentalist Christians read about this. There will be accusations of plagiarism, and being confrontationist and being servants of the Devil.

But I consider this a just a natural outcome of living in a multi-cultural society, where we have fought for the freedom of religion and the ability to proclaim those beliefs without being censored or socially rejected by the majority. If we do not believe this we are no different from some of the most repressive regimes in the world which we may despise.

I believe Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life for all humans. I have confidence in Him and God’s will for the future. I do not have to fear the testimony of others with different (and to my mind) inferior and wrong beliefs. What I must do is trust and obey the One Whom I have believed and to whom I have committed all.

There are two levels of senior responsibility in Wesley Mission. These two levels have a primary accountability to God, the members of our church, our boards, councils and governing bodies, donors, governments, corporate partners, denominational structures, staff, and other stakeholders.

LEADERSHIP.
In previous addresses at these conferences I have discussed the qualities required in our leadership. The few who have the privilege of leadership must have the qualities of a leader. For managers who aspire to be effective leaders and agents of strategic change, there is no magic recipe for success. Particular organisational situations necessitate unique approaches. Nevertheless, certain features of strategic leadership can be taught.

Effective strategic leaders are more often: well informed about their organisation and its environment; good organisational politicians; effective time managers; and communicators and motivators. Even that is not enough. Successful strategic leadership is built on both effective planning and effective action. (Management April 1995). Within Wesley Mission specific Christian maturity, abilities and communication skills are required along with an obvious commitment to Christ and His Church.

Leadership requires vision. In a time of rapidly changing market forces, consumer preferences, government regulations, and industry conditions those who proactively diagnose, anticipate and strategically plan for change prosper. Those who passively react to each change in their environment often develop a patchwork set of activities that ultimately fail in the marketplace or stretch corporate resources beyond capacity.

Chief executive officers and their senior managers have the most significant involvement and influence in the organisation’s strategic management process. They are usually considered responsible and accountable for its introduction and success. In our situation as a Mission, the support and insights of key elected lay people from the church, provides for our leaders stimulus and accountability. The effectiveness of our leaders will be determined by their success in leading strategic change and strategic implementation resulting in achievement of the Mission’s goals. Outstanding leaders need good managers. Leadership is dependent upon management.

MANAGEMENT.
By way of definition I would suggest that management for the Christian worker is getting things done through other people. Basically, management is a set of skills that an ordinary person can acquire and develop. (“Management for the Christian Worker” Olan Hendrix – pp.4/5) Four aspects of management should be highlighted.

First, is the ability to plan ahead. Louis A. Allen, “The Management Profession” defines planning as, “The work a manager performs to determine a course of action.” According to him, the all-encompassing view of planning includes the following:
1.Forecasting: The work a manager performs to estimate the future.
2.Establishing objectives: The work a manager performs to determine the end results to be accomplished with the people involved.
3.Programming: The work a manager performs to establish the sequence and priority of action-steps to be followed in reaching objectives.
4.Scheduling: The work a manager performs to establish a time sequence for program steps.
5.Budgeting: The work a manager performs to allocate resources necessary to accomplish objectives.
6.Procedure: The work a manager performs to develop and apply standardised methods of performing specific work.
7.Policies: The work a manager performs to develop and interpret standing decisions that apply to recurrent questions and problems of significance to the enterprise as a whole.

A manager’s capacity for developing his work lies in direct proportion to how much workers perceive he cares for them as individuals. Caring for others is not just a Christian quality that we should always demonstrate. It is simply correct business practise.

Third, is the skill of the manager to be an innovator. The concept of innovation defines the task of the truly excellent manager of a management team. Tom Peters found innovation was a key to excellence. Every manager faces times when decisions that impact upon his or her centre requires fresh thinking, new approaches, unique solutions. Managers who think outside the square for an innovative solution lead their team and centre on to significant development. General Managers have much experience that can help a manager who first discusses the new idea, so that the value of shared thinking allows for a creative response.

Fourth, is the capacity of the manager to set clear lines of responsibility, authority and accountability. We frequently fail to establish accountability and delegation because we are afraid of people. Management involves us eyeball to eyeball with people in direct personal encounter. It takes time. We think we are too busy to perform management work. Yet if we blend these three ingredients in delegation, we can improve the performance of our colleagues tremendously.

The stewardship of our managers has been the theme of this conference. Here, 100 competent managers with high degree of commitment and dedication have been considering the stewardship of our positions and responsibilities. As a leader of this vigorous and rapidly growing church, now with more than 2000 paid staff and 3,500 committed volunteers, I would mention five principles of management that encapsulates what I hoped you would learn in this conference. I would call it the A,E,I,O,& U, of successful management.

1. ATTITUDE.

One of the key ingredients in good management is the positive attitude of the manager. I know of a capable and well-educated person who has been very successful in his chosen field in his personal achievement but who has been totally unsuccessful in management. The major reason is that this person lives with negative and self-centred attitudes. Other workers see that and they do not co-operate.

The navy talks about a ship’s company. In the entertainment world, we talk about a theatrical company. The word “company” is an English form of the French for “companion.” It carries the idea of fellowship, literally of sharing your bread. Managers who forget that they are members of a human “company” risk making all kinds of unnecessary mistakes in relating to people. The right attitude to people and your employer is vital.

To have a positive attitude to your work and to Wesley Mission as your employer transfers to other employees. It is amazing how small and negative attitudes by managers, come to the attention of the executive staff. It may be that staff sees some advantage to themselves in informing about their manager, but on many occasions I have received messages from staff about what they perceive as poor attitudes from their manager. Good management exudes good attitudes. A person’s mental attitude plays a far more important part in success or failure than does mental capacity.

2. EDUCATION.

It is absolutely essential that mangers improve their management education. All General Managers and myself continually undertake management education. We often initiate recommendations to managers to undertake certain courses. I write and invite a dozen or more managers every year to undertake extensive leadership courses through the Australian Institute of Management. We give considerable financial support for managers undertaking courses that will be of help in their work.

In an era when information technology is advancing so rapidly, managers must be armed with contemporary computer skills. Intellectual property is today the most valued asset of organisations including our church. Singapore, which calls itself the Intelligent Island, recognises in its latest plan that the traditional sources of wealth and comparative advantage – land, raw materials, money, technology – can all be bought in, provided one has the people with the intelligence to apply them. Singapore and Hong Kong have exported all their manufacturing activities to cheaper places like Sumatra, the Philippines or Guandong in China, but they retain the managerial control, the design and the distribution – the intelligence quotient. (ref. Charles Handy.)

In January 1992, Microsoft’s market value passed General Motors. The New York Times commented that Microsoft’s only factory asset was the imagination of its workers. Tom Peters proclaimed this was the symbolic end of the Industrial Revolution. Peter Drucker heralded the post-capitalist society.

Organisations, including churches and those in all the serving and healing ministries and individuals everywhere are waking up to the fact that their ultimate security lies more in their brains than in their land or their building. We can buy land and lease buildings, but if we do not have an educated and intelligent workforce, we will achieve little. Rapidly changing market forces, consumer preferences, government regulations, and industry conditions are an ever present phenomenon for all of us involved in caring for the poor, the ill, the disabled and disadvantaged in our community. Those who proactively diagnose, anticipate and strategically plan for change prosper the work. Those who passively react to each change in their environment often develop a patchwork set of activities that ultimately fail to aid our Mission serve our clients. Education is fundamental for good managing.

3. IMAGINATION.

Good management includes a manager’s ability to innovate with new strategies and ideas. Imagination is a key ingredient in good management.

An educated manager with good attitudes needs to be able to constructively and imaginatively approach management issues. This is why sometimes we appoint people from outside the Mission to senior positions. We are looking for someone to think outside the square and to intelligently and creatively deal with old issues in new ways. Lack of creative imagination in this way has been the reason why some people have not been promoted. At Wesley Mission we imaginatively developed the concept of retirement village with a continuum of care in the late 1970’s in a way that no one else was doing.

The result led to a hundred million dollars of building and the provision of wonderful, secure living environments for hundreds of older people. Since then many have copied our efforts. We approached the problem of old and out-of-date city buildings in an imaginative fashion never before tried by any other city church. The result was a new Wesley Centre in a total redevelopment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Imagination is an essential ingredient in good management.

Part of the deal however, is that imaginative ideas must be communicated to others so they can share the vision. This means the manager must be able to communicate the dream both to those within with whom the manager works and with those in the outside community. That is part of the stewardship responsibility that goes with being a manager.

Imagination is required to handle the many paradoxes in the work we do. We are both a church and a charity. We are both caring and professional. We accept people as they are, but we are not satisfied that they remain as they are. We serve in a secular community but with a spiritual motivation. We care for the body and we pray for the soul. It takes imagination to understand that and to design a work performance that can accomplish both.

John Stopford and Charles Baden-Fuller, in their study of rejuvenating businesses, report that the successful ones live with paradox, or what they call dilemmas. They have to be planned and yet be flexible, be differentiated and integrated at the same time. They must be mass-marketeers while catering for many niches. They must insist on new technology but allow their workers to be the masters of their own destiny. They must find ways to get variety, quality and fashion, and all at low-cost. They have, in short, to find a way to reconcile what used to be opposites, instead of choosing between them. That is what a good manager at Wesley Mission must learn. In this era of total change we manage their centres that are no longer what they used to be nor what we have been so used to seeing. That takes imagination!

4. ORGANISATION.
Every manager must organise the task at hand, the people who will accomplish it, the resources that will be required, the budget to fund it, the income to achieve it, and the way change can be accommodated with the best possible outcomes in a caring and spiritual environment. Without that capacity to organise, the manager will leave large numbers of fellow workers, clients and the general public confused and disappointed. To be able to organise well requires is quality management!

The lack of such organisational skills will result in what we are seeing in churches everywhere in The Uniting Church in Australia. This is due to the most recent directive from our Assembly to every parish in Australia. The Assembly has just spent enormous amounts of energy and money in committee meetings, printing booklets and writing to every congregation in Australia to make some changes in the structures of churches. The word “parish” is now politically incorrect. A minister’s “settlement” is now a placement. The Elders Council and the Parish Council are now combined and renamed the Church Council, and so on.

This huge restructure has some good aspects to it and it will benefit Wesley Mission and the congregations that want to cluster with us. But there is little by way of rationale of how this will benefit local church members. There is little or no theological reflection on why what was directed was to be preferred. I personally am not troubled by any of the directives. But this restructure has involved a huge effort and impacts upon the lives of several hundred thousand people.

Yet it will not win one more person into the Kingdom of God. Nor will it involve one more person in the mission of the church. Nor raise one more dollar to serve the needy. Hundreds of thousands are confused in at least part, many are uncertain, but ironically, the people involved in directing the reorganisation will find a great sense of satisfaction.

For by making a restructure, they feel they have done something! It reminds me a Praetonius, a Roman Governor in the first century who wrote: “Every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be re-organised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet every new situation by re-organising and a wonderful method it is for creating the illusion of progress while producing inefficiency and demoralisation.”

Organisational skills are essential for a good manager. It is a salutary fact that there are few, if any, persons in the administration of the Uniting Church at Synod or Assembly level who have any graduate qualifications in Administration, such as we have among many senior executives at Wesley Mission.

Even so, the organisation is still subservient to the purpose and core values of the organisation. Our core values come first. All organisation must be for the sole purpose of achieving those core values and purposes. A changing world requires intelligent organisation. But change for its own sake, or change without an understood rationale, or in the case of the Church or Mission, which is not seen to fit in with core values, will only result in frustrated workers and clients.

5. UNDERSTANDING.
Understanding cannot be implanted where it does not exist. But it can be expanded, sensitised, deepened and Christianised. It is important that a manager at Wesley Mission understands our heritage. That is why we start every Orientation Program for new staff with the video that explains who we are and from whence we have come. Our heritage influences our destiny. Likewise we must understand our core Christian values and those other humanitarian values we espouse.
A good manager will also understand the needs of our clients, consumers, members, and other stake-holders.

The American businessman who built the international “Holiday Inn” chain, William B Walton, writes: “An excellent manager operates on the assumption that even the most gifted people need all the help they can get if they are to reach their maximum capability. A lot of brilliance and talent go to waste in the business world every day because people don’t know how to apply their gifts to what they are assigned to do. If you care about people, you will recognise that channelling their abilities has to be the immediate follow-up to challenging them. Modern business leaders could do a lot worse than to review the instructional approach of that one often referred to as the master teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, as depicted in the New Testament Gospels. Even a quick reading shows that he used such time-tested methods as theory and application, laboratory demonstration, apprenticeship and internship, field testing, and review and evaluation.” Understanding the people with whom we work and for whom we care is a basic ingredient of a good manager. The example of Jesus can help us all.

These five principles can make good mangers of our centres and services even better managers.

And my title of this talk? An old Chinese proverb states “The fish rots from the head.” That is why what our managers are and do is a most significant factor in our continued growth and effective service to God and the community. If the head rots with complacency, immorality, inefficiency, incompetency and so on, it is not long before the whole body is rotten. There are many examples about us, where fine organisations have grown up, served well, and then died. And death always starts at management and executive level.

Our task these past two days has been to make sure the management team of Wesley Mission is fresh and vigorous, full of life and spirit.

Why is it that some Biblical scholars deny the resurrection of Christ, when it is the one critical basis to the uniqueness of Christianity?

Dr Barbara Thiering, in “Jesus The Man” says Jesus was poisoned, did not die upon the cross, but was buried in a tomb which was actually a latrine. It was so cold he recovered with help from Simon Magus and Judas, who also had been crucified, their legs broken, and who were buried with Him. Jesus drank some aloe juice which purged out the poison. The guard was really the latrine attendant. A second latrine attendant removed the stone, helped Simon Magus (who had both his legs broken) carry Jesus out. There Mary Magdalene, who was pregnant to Jesus, did not recognise Jesus standing there until He said “Mary”. He said “Do not touch me” because he was dirty from the diarrhoea which expelled the poison. He and Mary travelled to Rome where he lived for thirty years. (p116-125).

Imagination run riot! Where is the evidence to support these imaginings? There is none. These are speculative imaginings based on a false reading of the New Testament rejected by the vast majority of scholars.

What evidence is there for the resurrection of Jesus? The evidence can be grouped: evidence concerning the empty tomb; the post-death appearances of Jesus, and the reaction of the disciples. I will now deal with the Empty Tomb alone.

1. THE HISTORICAL FACT OF THE EMPTY TOMB.

But someone will say “In the field of scholarship do not most accept that Jesus died upon a cross and was buried in a tomb?” Scholars accept these accounts as reliable. The credibility and authenticity of the accounts of the empty tomb are also reliable. Here are ten reasons to support the empty tomb account as true according to the Scriptures.

1. To prove the empty tomb was a lie, all the Jews or Romans had to do was to present the body of Jesus to prove he did not rise from the dead. True. But they could not do that. The tomb was empty.

2. If the apostles had stolen the body they would not have each gone to agonising deaths for what they knew was a lie. True. Those fearful men hiding behind locked doors changed character overnight into courageous men who openly defied the authorities and preached the Risen Christ. They were imprisoned, whipped, stoned, exiled, boiled in oil, burnt at the stake, crucified and everyone proclaimed he was a witness of the resurrected Christ. Men do not die like that knowing it is a myth.

3. If the Apostles had fabricated the story they would never have implicated Joseph of Arimathea who gave Jesus his own tomb. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin which “voted to kill Jesus” (Mk 14:55,64;1¬5:1). He could deny the empty tomb easily.

4. If the Apostles had fabricated the story they would never have said women were the first wit-nesses at the empty tomb. A woman’s testimony was worthless in first century Palestine. If they were fabricating the story of the empty tomb you would expect the leaders of the disciples to be the first witnesses. Unless women actually were there! Only true events would have put the women there.

5. Believers never venerated the tomb of Jesus. Tombs of martyrs are always venerated. But not the tomb of Jesus. Because it was empty. There was needed no shrine when people knew the Risen Lord.

6. The disciples would never have overcome the Roman guard ordered by Pilate. Each Roman Guard consisted of 16 men, rotating shifts, a fighting machine. To suggest the disciples defeated the Roman guard, stole the body away without the Roman authorities ever taking action, is absurd.

7. No conflicting stories or traditions exist to explain what happened. There are no alternate stories for the empty tomb. There is only the one testimony that Jesus was raised from the dead.

8. If the disciples made up the story, they would have used the Jewish belief in the resurrection. The Jews believed that the resurrection would occur universally to all saints, never with one individual, at the end of the world, not while they were alive. The Gospel record is completely contrary to what the Jews believed. So something different must have occurred to change their beliefs.

9. If the disciples made up the story, they would have gone somewhere else to tell it. The disciples preached the empty tomb in the very city where Jesus was executed and buried. So many people there were eyewitnesses and therefore could have contradicted the story if they thought otherwise. But they could not. The tomb was empty!

10. The early date of Paul’s account in 1 Cor. 15:3-8 makes the theory of a legend a lie. Because, writing only twenty years after the resurrection, when most eyewitnesses were still alive, Paul says he “received” these facts. They pre-dated his writing. There was no time for legend and myth to develop.

2. ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF THE EMPTY TOMB. If there were no other views existing in the early church about the Empty Tomb, what about alternate theories since then? There are four theories.

A. The Conspiracy Theory. That is, the disciples stole the body. I know of no New Testament scholar today who believes this theory. It would have been impossible to steal the body of Jesus with the Roman guard there. It is psychologically implausible because it does not take into account the effect that the crucifixion had on the disciples. They were sad, depressed, and cowardly after the crucifixion. Why would they suddenly become bold if they knew Jesus was really dead? The disciples were clearly sincere seekers of the truth. To turn them into frauds and liars overnight is to make them contrary to their character.

B. The Swoon Theory. This theory states that Jesus was not completely dead when they took Him down from the cross. When He was in the tomb, He gained His strength, unwrapped Himself, moved the two-ton stone from the tomb, and escaped the guards without them ever knowing. This is ludicrous. This is the theory Barbara Thiering embellishes.

C. The Wrong Tomb Theory. This theory says the women eye witnesses went to another tomb with no body in it. So they thought Jesus had been raised. But this means Peter and John also went to the wrong tomb. And the Jews went to the wrong tomb. And the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Romans also went to the wrong tomb, and the guard went to the wrong tomb, as did Joseph of Arimathea who had purchased and owned the tomb. By any probability, not likely!

D. The Hallucination Theory. This theory says everyone hallucinated an image of Christ. But the nature of a hallucination does not present twelve people or 500 people seeing the same thing. Neither were they all people susceptible to hallucinations. Neither does it take into account the 15 different appearances of Jesus to hundreds of people over seven weeks. It was not a one time event. Hallucinations don’t happen like that.

No alternate theory is credible. What happened to the body if Jesus did not rise from the dead? How do you explain the empty tomb attested by friends as well as enemies, by believers and sceptics, by those who wanted Jesus alive, and those who wanted Him dead? They all agreed: the body was gone! The tomb was empty. To this day, no-one has given a more rational answer than that of the scriptures: God has raised Him up from the dead!

Only such a powerful fact could have made Christianity arise out of a culture that was so antagonistic towards it. Only such a fact would cause so many Jews to give up their Sabbath, sacrificial system, the Law, and to believe in the very thing they thought was blasphemous: that Jesus was God’s son.

Something happened 2000 years ago, that changed the course of history from B.C. (Be¬fore Christ) to A.D. (Anno Domini: the year of our Lord). The only reasonable explanation is that Jesus Christ really lived, died, was buried, and rose again to which there was an empty tomb as evidence. This certainly makes for a reasonable faith. That something was an empty tomb and the historical record of the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. No other answer is satisfactory. If you believe the scriptures as God’s Word, then you have no trouble believing God raised Jesus from the dead!

AS presented by REV DR GORDON MOYES, A.M. the then Superintendent in 1996. His predictions on how the church should react during the next two decades have been remarkable accurate. Many churches would be helped by discussing these issues and solutions.

Then role of a leader is to provide vision and direction for the future for an organisation. As we approach the third millennium, some megatrends are becoming obvious. We are fortunate in having a number of people help us with the global picture. From that we must identify Wesley Mission’s Millennium Megatrends.

The challenge of the future means internal changes to meet the coming social needs. Dr Keith Suter in “Global Change” and “Global Agenda” has outlined brilliantly, the international changes that the world is experiencing. He expands on such issues as removing the nuclear threat, the population crisis, the degradation of the earth’s environment, bridging the gap between the industrial and third worlds, the growth of transnationals, the breakdown in public and private morality, the AIDS epidemic and drug problem, and the rate of change itself creating tension.

Naisbitt’s “Megatrends 2000” predicted the global economic boom of the 1990s, a renaissance in the arts, the emergence of freemarket socialism, global lifestyles and cultural nationalism, the privatisation of the welfare state and the rise of the Pacific-Rim. He proclaimed the 1990s as the decade of women in leadership. He believed we would see a religious renewal in the Third Millennium.

The Earth is one but the world is not. We all depend on one biosphere for sustaining our lives. Yet each community, each country, strives for survival and prosperity with little regard for its impact on others. Some consume the Earth’s resources at a rate that would leave little for future generations. Others, many more in number, consume far too little and live with the prospect of hunger, squalor, disease, and early death. (“Our Common Future” World Commission on Envi¬ronment and Development (New York: OUP 1987, p27).

Behind that bleak portrait lie some sordid statistics. More hungry people suffer in the world today than ever before in human history. One-fifth of the persons in Two-Thirds World nations are under-nourished; one-fifth in major industrial nations are overweight or obese. An hour’s worth of the military expenditures of all nations would immunise 3.5 million children who are destined to die from preventable infectious diseases. 25% of the world’s population use some 79% of the available drugs and vaccines. In Australia, social researcher Hugh Mackay in “Reinventing Australia” has shown the social consequences of the changing patterns of life in our cities and rural communities.

We are seeing some NATIONAL MEGA-TRENDS with the consequential social elements of change. For example:

1. The ageing of the babyboom generation and the flow on of the babybusters will fundamentally change the age of our work-force, and the demands upon pension and superannua¬tion funds.

2. An increased demand for products and services for the post-family formation stage of life including health care, professional services, leisure programs, insurance and retirement services and villages.

3. Family and quality of Life issues will become more dominant influences on social choices.

4. More women will enter the workforce earlier, for longer periods of time and for greater numbers of hours per week directing pressure towards investment in child care, 24 hour support services, leisure facilities, flexible working conditions and equality of outcomes in employment. Women will emerge as integrative, situational leaders and have much more effective power in community decisions.

5. Increasing levels of school retention and concerns over the quality of education, interest in gaining specific skills and demand for greater creativity, innovation and productivity from all forms of service providers.

6. The young will increasingly link into global forms of communication. Instead of surfing the waves, an increasing proportion will surf the ‘net. Ironically, with more forms of communication greater isolation will occur with people spending time at the keyboard and in virtual reality amusements. This will increase the generation gap.

7. There will be a declining proportion of people in each household who are engaged in full time employment outside the household, leading to a greater mobility of household members and a significant pressure on family ties and close friendships generated in the non-family environment.

8. There will be a continuing internationalisation of fashion, food preferences and leisure pursuits. Basketball replaces cricket. Tourism becomes our biggest industry. Transnational corporations force a greater diversity of products and services and a shift from domestic trading patterns to transnational franchise retail provision. The McDonaldisation of the world continues!

9. The demand for better and quicker information access to supply insights based upon global, integrated, relevant, reliable and timely sources of comprehensible data will frame a total shift in the use of intellectual property. Cable TV will tell you first.

10.The Asia-Pacific growth rate will determine the core preferences in trade, travel and tourism flows.

How do these international and national trends change the ministry of Wesley Mission? Every aspect effects our work, but we will choose what changes we will undertake and what basic emphases will remain. Here are some adapted trends that will determine the four years before the Third Millennium.

Wesley MissionS MILLENNIAL MEGATRENDS.

In the final years of the twentieth century, Wesley Mission, Sydney, will need to change some of its emphases and expand some of our traditional ones. These I believe are Wesley MissionS MILLENNIAL MEGATRENDS.

1. WORSHIP IS CENTRAL TO ALL WE DO.

Our worship is multi-faceted, multi-cultural, multi-denominational and inter-active. People will expect more from worship. Amid all of our intellectual developments people want to feel right with God. Worship is no longer the leadership of people up the front, but responsive involvement is the key. We teach the scriptures for they provide the basis of our values. That is why Wesley Mission works on the basis of Christian values. That is why we expect our staff to be committed Christians. Because in a world where values blow from one trend to another, we operate from a basis of fixed belief. Our values are clear and expressed in the Scriptures.

People who live in the heart of a great city need the elevating experience of worship. A city can have a dehumanising influence through large city developments, crowded factory areas, impersonal streets and towering blocks of tenement buildings. When you live in an environment where concrete replaces lawn, where light poles replace trees, where factories shut off the sunset, and where the noise of traffic is the contemporary substitute for the song of the birds, it is hard to worship God. City people need to worship. God desires us to worship Him.

When there is little beauty in the world about us except what we seek in the streets glistening after rain, or in the early light on roof tops, the church has a very special responsibility to provide a place for city people where their spirits can sing, and where their hearts are elevated in worship. Wesley Mission operates out of the environment of worship. Worship must be central to all we do. We were born in praise to God and today we find resources and strength for our total ministry through the worship experience of our people. If our people did not gather for worship, to hear the Word of God and to proclaim the Gospel, all point and purpose to all the good deeds of service we undertake, would be lost. That is why every person employed by Wesley Mission must be a committed Christian and a member of a worshipping congregation.

This is where Wesley Mission will be increasingly different from the other great social welfare agencies operated by denominational boards of churches, government welfare services, or those other agencies for the community’s good which, while born in a Christian environment, have now lost their Christian witness in corporate worship or in the proclaimed Word.

Wesley Church is the home for a number of our congrega¬tions. Every Sunday this church has been the centre of the worship of God for people who live in the inner city, for those who come and uphold this centre of worship for the benefit of others, for tourists and visitors, for folk down in the city from their normal country home, and for international visitors who find in a strange land a place where they can worship God and feel at home. Services must also be held in Wesley Church every day of the week, not just on Sundays, for the benefit of those who work and live in the city. Each of those daily services must provide a different emphasis and attract a different congregation. Sing and Praise, celebrating the goodness of God in music and song needs revitalising. The Healing Service is a of word and laying on of hands with prayer for those who are ill. A Wednesday Lunchtime Inspiration is a much needed service. Chapel in the City is a service of preaching the positive power of God to lift a person’s life. Mid city Communion is a quiet and reflective communion service aimed at encouraging our personal devotion.

In Wesley Church, communion is shared, baptisms are held, weddings are celebrated, funerals are conducted and special services designed to minister to the office worker and shop attendant.

Celebrations, our largest services, combining all our congregations for a special occasion, are held at Easter and at Christmas when up to 50,000 attend our Christmas Service and pageant. There is room for improvement, especially in our Easter outreach. During nine days of Holy Week, the whole city needs to be presented with an evangelistic program which is conducted in the city streets, in Hyde Park, through special functions, a breakfast and a luncheon for business persons and community leaders, services conducted before work, during the day and at evening, special musical, drama, film and concerts, specially prepared spots on radio and television programs seen across the nations, a live hour long telecast from the Sydney Opera House, and the use of all of the facilities of Wesley Centre, including Wesley Theatre and Wesley Chapel.

The aim of this special week is to present as many people as possible with the true story of the meaning of Easter. Each year, the Easter Sunrise Service, is seen in most capital cities of Australia and the larger regional centres. But our Pastoral staff and laity need to own Easter Mission and contribute their own expertise to the combined effort. The church is the only centre in society that brings people together for worship, to encourage them to capture the feeling of transcendence in life, and to help them find resources to equip them for living.

2. EVANGELISM IS OUR PRIMARY PURPOSE.

Australia is a mission country. Evangelism is the heartbeat of Wesley Mission. The strategy of the early church was to disciple the nations by winning people in the centre of the cities. Paul had a very impressive strategy which took him to the most famous cities of the ancient world: Corinth, Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Jerusalem, and Rome. It was his strategy to win the empire by winning the great cities in it.

Paul saw the cities as the decision making centres, and their life the civilising force for the rest of the empire. His strategy was to win the empire by winning the cities. Over the centuries the church built great cathedrals dominating city squares, and church bells peeled across the city streets. In another era, the preaching from the pulpit of city churches had tremendous influence over the attitudes of people in the cities.

Today the church does not have any protected place in the life of the city. But it still has its charge to win men and women to Jesus Christ, and in a country like Australia where 86% of our people live in seven cities, to be effective in our evangelism of this country requires us to be effective in our evangelism of her cities, particularly Sydney. Greater Sydney, between Newcastle and Wollongong houses one out of every three persons in Australia. The Lord Jesus Christ has given us the church to proclaim His gospel to people in this community. Wesley Mission has been faithful to its ministry of evangelism. There have been some Christian missions, both in Australia and overseas, that have changed from evangelism to welfare, and then from the provision of welfare to the seeking of justice. We are not critical of their evolution of concepts, but we believe that evangelism is still primary in our tasks, and that all other emphases are in association with it.

Wesley Mission has lived by evangelism. We believe the church is only the church when it is the church in mission. Every Sunday in Wesley Theatre, the message is a gospel proclamation encouraging people to consider the claim of Jesus on their lives. In the beautiful phrase of John Wesley, we `offer Christ’. It is always a matter of rejoicing when we see people stepping forward as an outward sign of their inward commitment to Jesus Christ. Wesley Theatre is the scene of the main evangelistic services of Wesley Mission. It is strange to many that we did not build one large, beautiful church to seat everybody at one sitting. Our understanding goes against that common trend. We have multiple facilities for worship, each with a differing ethos and feel about them. Many services have different theological emphasis and other differing styles of worship. We offer a smorgasbord of worship experiences. But all should be on the cutting edge of evangelism.

For 90 years Wesley Mission has used a theatre to proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ every Sunday night through wars, depressions and times of affluence. Its congregations have been varied. Hundreds of people from the widest variety of social, economic, educational, ethnic and vocational back¬grounds, joined together in one purpose to worship God and to proclaim the gospel of grace. There have been times when the Methodist denomination felt somewhat ashamed that its major city place of worship should be a theatre, and at times the liturgical structure of the service was designed to make it more into a cathedral than a theatre.

However, we must use lighting, sound and the screen every week to effect. During the preaching and the reading of the Scriptures the verses are shown on the screen for people to follow. Videos must be well used. Evangelistic outreach must be conducted by members of the pastoral staff in other churches. As several members of the pastoral staff have evangelistic gifts, there is a call upon them by other churches to use their gifts in missions and crusades, taking with them gifted members to use their skills in music, counselling or personal testimony. Students from Wesley Institute should use their musical gifts in supporting these ministries. One staff member has been effectively conducting city wide crusades in India, Sri Lanka, and Eastern Europe.

Staff performing chaplaincy duties has shown little evidence that they have seen their ministries as evangelistic endeavours. But retirement villages, hostels, disabled persons centres, child care centres and the like are great fields for evangelistic endeavour.

The cutting edge of evangelism must be present in any effective city ministry, and Wesley Mission has demonstrated over the past century that it is not enough for a church to just worship or serve, but that there must be the gospel of hope presented to those in the city streets. Consequently, the evangelistic program of Wesley Mission is that its services of outreach are designed primarily for the person who is not a Christian. Special effort is made to reach these people with the good news of the gospel. These services are so arranged that those people who are not Christians can understand what is happening and feel at home during them. Conversions are recorded. Lives are changed. The Mission has been true to the command of the Master to disciple people in His name. Every Sunday for the past century lives have been changed, challenged and converted through the power of the gospel presented by Wesley Mission ministers in services and through television and radio.

3. WORD, DEED AND SIGN BELONG TOGETHER.

Peter, who knew Jesus so closely described His ministry as: (Acts 10:37) “John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazar¬eth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Jesus embodied a balanced ministry! He taught with great intellectual insight that has never been surpassed; He cared for the poor, the hungry and the diseased so that His compassion has been an example ever since; and He worked miracles that healed the sick and challenged the entrenched powers of evil. His ministry was of word, deed and sign. His church ever since has moved from one of these aspects to the other, but rarely has any church in history strived to hold a balanced ministry of word, deed and signs. We believe that words and deeds, signs and wonders belong together in a balanced ministry.

The basis of all ministry is commitment to the Word of God. That is the basis of all our ministry and service. Those who ignore the scriptures condemn themselves to capture by every ideological change and social trend. Evangelicals stand upon a strong Biblical base of commitment to the scriptures as the Word of God and a personal encounter with God through Christ as the basis for our Christian faith and salvation. Evangelicals love to preach and distribute the Word of God. Yet Evangelical churches often have an emasculated gospel, being concerned with the needs of the soul and overlooking the needs of the body, both of individuals and society. Personal piety can never be achieved at the expense of social concern. Evangelical churches may be self-righteous because they are scripturally based. Wesley Mission shares this Evangelical tradition through a large ministry staff and lay-preachers who share the preaching ministry. We employ staff from many denominations but the oversight, impetus and direction of all of our work lies in the mid-city worshipping congregations.

Where missions neglect the worshipping heart their ministry fails. Most of the once great missions in Australia are only shadows of their former selves, not because the need has lessened or because they could not employ good staff, but because they let their evangelical heart die! Without congregations of strength at the centre of the work, it soon becomes merely a social welfare program and loses direction. Neglect the preaching of the Word of God and commitment to Jesus Christ, and the church dies! We hold in balance the proclamation of words of truth and the practise of deeds of love. Some Christians are all talk, but we believe these must be balanced by acts of benevolence and social justice. The liberal main-stream Church which consists of the older denominations, is committed to social justice, God’s own passion is for justice for His people.

The gospel has implications beyond personal salvation. Yet these denominations have largely lost the Gospel of salvation, rarely preach for commitments to Christ, and fail to recognise spiritual gifts. We will not overcome the kingdom of Satan or social injustice simply by using human ingenuity, education or organisation. Sin is at the root of social injustice and you can not overcome sin solely by human effort. This results in tired, worn-out people, overwhelmed by human need and a defeated church. Deeds of love belong in an evangelical, spirit filled context.

The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches emphasise the experience of the empowering, gifting and leading of the Holy Spirit as the dynamic source of their spiritual life and Christian activity.

For them, Christian faith moves away from a solely intellectual and rational appeal and deeds of charity to touch the deepest regions of a person’s heart and emotions. They have seen people healed, experienced the miraculous, sensed the vibrancy and the expectancy of faith. They possess a deep experience of God and His gifts. Dynamic music, worship and praise attracts young people, producing an outpouring of love to God. Yet many Charismatic churches make extravagant claims. Some charismatic ministers have used manipulation and guilt-producing techniques. Prosperity teaching promises wealth and success. The yuppie era and greed of the ‘80’s saw the explosion of Charismatic churches and a subsequent decline.

Wesley Mission has balanced evangelical preaching of the Word and personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Saviour, with the need for filling by the Holy Spirit with dynamic and joyful worship services of praise. Wesley integrates these three major emphases. Onto our heritage as a conservative evangelical church we have built the strengths of the social justice and the strengths of the Charismatic stream of the Church. For the Evangelical the Gospel is most powerfully proclaimed by words; for the Liberal the good news is most meaningfully ex¬pressed in deeds; for the Charismatic the declaration is most clearly emphasised in signs. Words announce the truth of God. Deeds express the love of God. Signs demonstrate the power of God.

The Church today must integrate these three dimensions: to link evangelism to social concern with the power of the Spirit flowing through, bringing them together in a biblically holistic Gospel. Each Christian should worship God the Father and give Him praise; we should commit ourselves to God the Son as Saviour and Lord; and we should seek the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit to equip and empower us. Worship the Father, commit yourself to the Son and seek the filling of the Holy Spirit!

4. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND INDIVIDUAL SALVATION BELONG TOGETHER.

Evangelism, justice and service belong together. The Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, gives in one sentence three values we at Wesley Mission have held over the past one hundred and eighty years, which still guide us in the future. The report says: “Evangelism, the witness to God’s mercy; justice-seeking, the witness to God’s righteousness; and service, the witness to God’s compassion, are three necessary forms of witness to the Gospel.”

Of special concern for us is justice for indigenous Australians and for women within both the church and the community at large. Wesley Missions commitment to support of Aboriginal concerns is laudable but limited. Australia has enacted tough anti-discrimina¬tion laws and programs to enhance to role of women, and community based groups like the Uniting Church have promoted womens causes. There remain alarming statistics of sexual harassment, rape, and failure of men to change attit¬ude.

Yet the rate of change is slowing every¬where. Australian women are worried about the direction of feminism and the failure to achieve further equality. The glass ceiling is still in place. Women can see places of authority and position above them but cannot reach them. Women compose only 3% of company directors and most of these are in the public sector where Public Service rules ensure them of representa¬tion.

Wesley Mission has restructured, cutting out a layer of middle management, and in doing so empowered about twenty women managers by giving them greater responsibility and accountability. Those managers will now report directly to the Wesley Board. In one move we have enhanced the position and consequently the rewards for a large number of women managers. Wesley Mission for more than one hundred years has had women members of the pastoral staff proclaiming the Gospel. The Uniting Church has been in the forefront of ordaining women ministers. The rapid increase of women in leadership in the Uniting Church has not been accompanied by an increase in membership, but in fact a decline in the percentage of men attending church. The average percentage of men attending Uniting Church congregations is only 36%, possibly an all-time low. Wesley Mission stands alone as a large church, where the majority of people attending services weekly are men.

Yet women have been the main bearers of the gospel in cross cultural missions, and in the mission field today outnumber the men five to one. (Arthur Glasser “Missiology” Oct 78). Women have a continuing role in the proclamation of the Gospel.

John Wesley never renounced his social, cultural, and academic standing; in that sense, he remained a child of his era and class. Yet he sought to transcend himself and his situation by becoming a liberator for those in bondage to sin, social injustice and human depravation. Wesley focused on practical measures for aiding the poor, such as providing needed food for the hungry, clothing, fuel, and medicine. He instituted interest-free loans and a system for finding employment. He sought to create new jobs and even learned to practice medicine himself. But his most important contribution was the manner in which he changed the social conscience of England.

John Wesley and later Methodists have provided a rich heritage of advocacy on behalf of the poor and all those treated as nonpersons. “Preferential option for the poor” is language from liberation theology, but John Wesley practised its meaning and would have understood its intent. As theologian Karl Barth noted: “The Church is witness of the fact that the Son of God came to seek and to save the lost. And this implies that the Church must concentrate first on the lower and lowest levels of human society. The poor, the socially and economically weak and threatened, will always be the object of its primary and particular concern, and it will always insist on the state’s responsibility for those weaker members of society.” (Karl Barth, “Against the Stream” SCM 1934, p37).

With the Methodists, evangelism, justice and service were together as a witness to the Gospel. They were the values that gave birth to our church in Australia in 1812 and which have guided our work ever since.

Jesus associated with the poorest, broke the established etiquette of His day to eat with those who were ostracised by society, and created a new life of the spirit characterised by compassion. So Wesley Mission holds as key values the desire to win people to Christ, to seek justice for all, and to serve in love.

Today the dominant values of contemporary Sydney are affluence, achievement, appearance, power, competition, consumption, individualism, status and so on. Jesus calls the church to be an alternative culture in our time. Our values have to do with winning people for Jesus Christ, seeking justice for all who are hurting, and serving in love all who are in need. That is why we must suggest policies, procedures, and programs that value persons, why we seek to be catalysts for change. Christians are not responsible for developing perfect or utopian social and economic systems, but we are responsible for caring for the planet and all life, especially the poorest and weakest.

5. WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD, OUR MEMBERS AND DONORS, THE PUBLIC, OUR STAFF AND OUR CLIENTS.

The community at large is growing more sceptical of religious bodies and they are coming under great scrutiny from the media and individuals than ever in history. Rightly so. The church has been guilty of malpractice some times, and sloppy practise at others. We must become more accountable to all our stakeholders.

Wesley expects all senior staff to complete advanced management courses. The Superintendent and General Managers have all completed recently advanced training programs. Over 900 staff in 1995 completed some training program. Staff expertise is in demand by other organisations and we willing give of our time and expertise in a consultancy role. We can be assisting others more through using our skills by contracting our staff and resources.

Accountability to donors, corporations and Governments is vital. Annual reporting, major donors dinners, boardroom luncheons, specific reports, financial audited returns, printed and videoed reports and public functions are all part of the accountability process. Donors are our life-blood, be it gifts of money, goods and services or the many hours of labour donated freely by our volunteers. Corporate Support is at an all-time high. Corporate Donors now number 250 leading companies who supply us with financial support, supplies of equipment, facilities and national sponsorships. These include some of the best known companies in Australia: including: BHP, St George Bank, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Coco Cola Amatil, IBM, Pitney Bowes, Qantas, Kodak, Telecom Australia, Brambles, FAI, Brashs, Kawai Australia, Polaroid, AVCO Finance, Sydney Hilton, Mercantile Mutual Insurance, Natural Gas, Sydney Credit Union, Harbour Radio 2GB, TNT Harbour Link, 3M, Darling Harbour Authority, Mitsubishi Electric AWA, etc. The magazine “Frontlines” is a direction means of communicating with all stake-holders reporting quarterly on our stewardship of resources.

Deferred Giving & Estate Planning has resulted in underwriting the expansion of future caring services with major donations. Over twenty million dollars has been promised for our work in building a better Australia. Governments have been very generous to Wesley Mission over this past year and State and Federal Governments have provided more money than ever before for some of our programs.

But more than this, many experts have supported us in the development of new initiatives and concepts. Wesley Mission believes the partner¬ship of provider of resources and committed grass-roots carers is a good one and we look forward to continuing relationships. Parish stewardship is being reviewed, but the Parish must develop more innovation in increasing its income for ministry.

6. THE MEDIA IS OUR INFORMATION HIGHWAY.

Two centuries ago, the founders of our church found that the most effective way to reach people with the gospel of Jesus was to proclaim it loudly on the city streets. Today the most effective way is to proclaim it softly through television.

The Mission has accepted this task of evangelism through the media with serious resolve. Wesley Mission has the largest media ministry of any church in Australia, and the significant fact is that although the media is used to inspire and educate, to propagate Christian truth and to encourage believers, in all of the major television programs, both `specials’ throughout the year and in the regular half hour weekly program seen nationally, there is opportunity for people to make commitments to Jesus Christ and to respond by ringing tele counsellors who are at a central telephone point.

These tele counsellors have been trained to use the Scriptures and to counsel people according to their needs, helping them to make commitments to Jesus Christ. Then literature sent to them, and local churches are contacted so that they might be followed up and encouraged to come into membership with a local congregation. This is the only program of its kind in Australia, and the only program like it on a weekly basis anywhere in the world. Approximately 1,000 people per year are counselled in making a commitment to Jesus Christ through television and radio pro¬grams. This counselling role by parish members needs to be recognised as a valuable contribution to the kingdom.

Media outreach takes the message of the Gospel across the nation. The Apostle Paul was quick to utilise the highways of the ancient Roman world to take the gospel into all the known parts of the empire. In the 20th Century those high¬ways are magazines and news¬papers, and the airways of radio and television. Every week we present “Turn ‘Round Australia”, a half hour Christian magazine program aired nationally on sixty stations across the country. The weekly teenage evangelistic program “SWORDFISH” is produced and screened both nationally and internationally. At Easter and Christmas, special programs are also taken by a much wider network of television stations.

Every Sunday night, the Mission presents “Sunday Night Live”, on Sydney station 2GB Newstalk 873. This four hour program presents the best in Christian comment and interviews and over its ten years on air is the most listened to Christian program in Australia. We produce `Impact’, a colour magazine covering news of Mission activities and featuring personal stories of conversion. Each issue also challenges the reader to consider the claims of Jesus.

A cassette ministry provides multiple cassette duplication of every Wesley Theatre service, and the immediacy of this service is seen as people leaving the service each Sunday night are able to buy cassette recordings of the very service in which they have just participated. The potential of audio and video cassettes must be realised over the next decade.

Wesley Mission was the first Australian church to set up a forum on the ‘On Australia network, the new on-line computer service, set up by Telstra and Microsoft.

“On Australia” is the latest entry into the rapidly expanding information superhighway which incorporated the Internet and the World Wide Web. “On Australia” can be accessed from anywhere in the world and is part of the world-wide Microsoft Network. Wesley Missions forum contains over sixty Word Talks, written by the Superintendent, on-line copies of Impact magazine, information about the history and work of the Mission, World Christian News and Keith Suter’s weekly com¬ments. Although still in its infancy, “On Australia” and the Microsoft Network is fast becoming the leading supplier of on-line services around the world. Wesley Mission is receiving income from those who access our information.

Electronic mail can be sent to the Mission at .
Our Internet access is http¬://www.wesleymission.org.au
Our forum can be accessed using the GO word “Wesley”, or by finding us in the religion category under people and communities on “On Australia”.

7. VOLUNTEERS ARE VITAL AND THEIR WORK MUST BE MEANINGFUL.

More than 3,500 volunteers serve Wesley Mission. The 400 Life¬line/Youthline/CreditLine/-StreetSmart volunteers not only give significantly of their time, 24 hours of every day, they also undergo extensive training for which they pay and offer a profes¬sional and highly respected service.

The individual greed of the 70’s and 80’s has given way to the group sense of responsibility to give “something back to society”. More groups are now volunteering for community service for the Mission. There has continued to be the faithful, long serving Mission volunteers, without whom, the Missions’ programs would be severely restricted. But as the need for both partners in a household to seek work continues to grow, the traditional source of volunteers (one partner per household being free to volunteer during working hours) is diminishing.

Whereas long term volunteering was the norm, more and more short term volunteers are becoming available. Those seeking work are finding volunteering as a means not only for work experience but also as a means of meeting their own needs of social interaction and self-esteem. More men are now volunteering than before and the average age of volunteers is decreasing. Some of the activities that have been a part of the Missions’ life are still strongly supported. Bus drivers, caring roles in aged hostels and villages and for the developmentally delayed, lifestyle class helpers, School for Seniors tutors, telephone counsellors, accounting, admin-secretarial, gardeners, handy persons, musicians, caterers and kitchen hands, fete stall fund raisers, children’s camp counsellors to name but a few make a great contribution. Our future is dependent on worthwhile work and good staff-volunteer relationships.

8. WE ARE PROUD OF OUR PAST BUT FLEXIBLE TO THE FUTURE.

We have to tell and re-tell our history. It is important that every church member and every member of staff knows why we are different from other Christian activities and charities. Our future is dependent upon people knowing our uniqueness. But that does not mean that nothing changes.

On the contrary, a close examination of the life and work and philosophy of Wesley Mission shows that we underwent more profound changes in the six years from 1985-1991 than at any time in our history. Furthermore, our recent restructure of management has freed up our work and given responsibility to more people than ever before. The Parish needs to likewise be flexible and has shown signs of significant change – the development of overseas missionary support being one example. We face the future researching better ways to accomplish our unchanging goals.

9. WE ARE PRO-ACTIVE ON GLOBAL ISSUES.

We have been tackling the great issues of the environment, gender, racism, peace, poverty, imprisonment and slavery. During 1995 over 200 social justice and other global issues were discussed, debated or presented. The prophetic ministry is Biblical, but misunderstood by most congregations. The most controversial aspect of the ministry of Wesley Mission over the years has been its bold proclamation on matters of social justice. A city church is in a unique position to see the injustices of society and to have the ear of the public. Social action has been the result of the strong presentation of the prophetic word to the country. Just as the prophets of old spoke out the word of the Lord according to the social evils of their day, Wesley Mission has spoken a word of rebuke, of guidance and of witness to the Christian message.

Earlier Superintendents did not exercise the prophetic ministry with as much controversy or strength as did Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker who gained a reputation for his controversial and hard hitting stands. Sometimes the Mission lost support because of his prophetic utterances, and other times gained. Under his leadership the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon became The Lyceum Platform where, for a number of years, social concerns were debated and examined by speakers from the Christian point of view. The message of this crusading platform was carried by radio to the people of Sydney.

In recent years radio and television have become populated with current affairs programs and people making utterances on the social concerns of the day, and the voice of the church is one of many competing voices. The Mission decided to continue its social concerns presentation with a changed format. Instead of fighting from the Lyceum Platform, the Mission chose to raise issues on television and radio where Wesley Mission has direct access to a much larger audience, and instead of criticising what the government had done, provided more materials for the government by way of submissions during the decision making process rather than after it. Submissions are made to Federal and State governments on a wide range of social and moral issues, and in one Senate Select Report a large amount of the Mission’s submission was accepted as the Federal Government’s report.

Dr Keith Suter has used his remarkable intellectual skills and deep Christian commitment to formulate new submissions on government policy. However, public protests are still held when matters of importance are raised, and the new Wesley Theatre is still open to the church at large to be used for significant Christian protest. However the great issues of social justice are still presented as in no other church in the nation. Each week the Superintendent and Dr Keith Suter discuss three significant issues on radio; Dr Suter also presents twice weekly a social comment on the affairs of the nation; this commentary is also printed and distributed with the weekly “Mission Talk” to all who attend Wesley Mission services.

A further social commentary by prominent lawyer Dr Clive O’Connor is also printed weekly in “Mission Talk”. “Impact” magazine carries articles on social justice matters each week, and does “Frontlines”. Every Sunday evening sermon by the Super¬intendent carries social comment on some contemporary issue. Social concerns are presented widely and reflect good research on the social issues involved. One important aspect of the prophetic ministry is at the individual level. The church must speak on behalf of those whom society ignores or tramples. The poor, the confused, the hopeless, the homeless, the unemployed, the socially neglected, the physically ill are part of the constituency that is represented by Wesley Mission. These people have little voice in the community and against the bureaucracies, and although their need is real it is seldom heard. Someone needs to stand alongside them, and with strength speak on behalf of the powerless.

Wesley Mission sees itself as the voice of the voiceless. Understanding, compassion, backed by specialist social research, provide the basis for Christian social action on behalf of those people in the community who have no muscle of their own. To represent the powerless in the community requires a city church ministry with muscle. A powerless church is an ineffective voice. The weight and size and strategic strength of Wesley Mission have been effective in helping people in their battle against State and Federal government bureaucracies, and on behalf of ordinary people caught up in legislative changes and political decisions, the Mission speaks to enable justice to be done.

Personal political lobbying at the highest level by senior staff, close personal contact with politicians and public service bureaucrats mean that ordinary people’s needs can be helped by a simple telephone call to the right person. Regular luncheons are held in the Mission Boardroom, chaired by the Superintendent, with a cross section of society meeting for discussion with political leaders of all parties. Extensive policy papers have been presented to each Opposition Party at the time of re-formulation of party policy. In a non-threatening environment, the Mission has the ear of the Governments.

10. WE MUST BE INCREASINGLY EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE IN OUR WORK.

It is not enough to do our best. Our best must be measured against other churches, charities, Government departments, and private enterprise. We have already established reporting and contrasting programs, including outcome measurements, benchmarking, technological improvement, staff and membership training. Leadership training is also required of Church members. Christians need to discover their spiritual gifts and then learn how and where they are to use them. God grants to each of us capacities and gifts, and each Christian has the responsibility to discover his or her gifts and allow them to be used for the benefit of others. Churches grow when each individual gift is recognised, encouraged and developed, and then applied in the work of Jesus Christ.

At Wesley Mission members of the church are encouraged to exercise their spiritual gifts. Many are trained in forms of leadership. Over the years the Mission has been engaged in leadership training but there is still much to be done in training elders for leadership in the local congregation, the training of lay preachers, staff orientation programs and the training of volunteers.

Wesley Institute For Ministry and the Arts is a tertiary level Christian college in the arts and Christian leadership. The schools of dance, drama, music, counselling, theology, missions, youth leadership and visual arts could be making a dramatic difference to the Australian church. Students are trained by professionals in their special field, but all do core subjects from a Christian perspective. In 1996 we will exceed 300 enrolments. The potential of this college is enormous, especially as students from the Third World discover its standing and capabilities. Christian ministry is much wider than the pulpit ministry, and these Christians are trained to minister through the arts.

Governments in future will pay the client not the service provider and the client will have the right to “shop around” for the best service money can buy. Various forms of value vouchers will alter the face of welfare, demanding from agencies competitive tenders for service provision, the acquiring of facilities in faith that sufficient clients will choose to attend them, and very complex funding and accounting procedures. It will require technological competency and sophisticated computerisation to be able to effectively and efficiently provide traditional services.

The international and national trends outlined at the start will change the ministry of Wesley Mission. But we can choose the changes we will undertake and what basic emphases will remain. Our Strategic Planning Unit has these issues in mind when it is planning all of Wesley’s developments. Our last two Vision Valley planning conferences attended by a hundred of our key elders and managers has heard from experts from Governments, the Australian Council of Social Services, the Churches and from two of the authors named in this paper, and our Corporate Plan reflects this thinking and details our national trends. Now we want you to consider these millen¬nium mega-trends. They deserve your close attention. They are presented to significant people within Wesley Mission to promote discussion and as a guide for elders and managers in their planning process.

REV DR GORDON MOYES, AM.

I am not an agreeable counsellor. I have taught counselling skills for more than 25 years to well over 2,000 people. I have done the courses and attended lectures in psychology. I have counselled hundreds of people every year for forty years, but I am not an agreeable counsellor.

An agreeable counsellor listens and believes whatever you say without allowing his personal feelings to intrude, without judging and understands without his own personal prejudices showing through. I am not an agreeable counsellor. I want to be directive. I want to confront people on certain issues where they have deeply hurt others.

I want to tell people how they can overcome their problems which a counsellor should not do. And I find there are many people I dislike and I will probably will tell them so. I am not good at counselling a man who batters his wife, who regularly punches her in the face and demands she be servile. I find it hard to counsel that inadequate, cowardly man who is so violent. I want to challenge him to take a swing at me. I am not agreeable at counselling the woman who is blatantly racist. I end up telling her how unchristian and stupid she is.

I was not agreeable counselling a man who came to me recently to ask if I would speak about his good character in court. Without my testimony he would go to jail. He was a paedophile. He told me he had sexually assaulted 20 children. He said it was all in good fun and everyone had a good time. I was prejudiced and judgemental. I told him I hoped he would go to jail and stay there for many years. I would never give him a character reference in court. I know the damage such people cause in innocent, powerless children. He was hurt. He wondered how I could call myself a Christian if I refused to love him and help him. I told him I would direct my concern and compassion towards the children he had abused and I would support his wife and children while he was in jail. I did arrange for him to have some basic legal support because even the guilty deserve to be advised on their legal position.

The solicitor I arranged to support his court case came to me with the prosecution’s evidence: the man abused more than 170 children. He penetrated little girls with a ballpoint pen and other implements. He is a monster! He deserves imprisonment. Yet I remember someone rebuking of me: “You call yourself a minister and you do not like these people?” “Yes, I am a minister and I do not like these people them. I find it difficult to counsel them. I do not like what they have done. Because I am a Christian I have deep concern for them and the people they have hurt, but I don’t like them. Just because Christians love others, does not mean we like them.

Many people have wrong ideas about loving and liking.

1. LOVE IS FUNDAMENTAL TO CHRISTIANITY.

To love others lies at the heart of the teaching of Jesus and His apostles. MT 22:37-8 Jesus said: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbour as your-self.’” Ever since the world has been taught the significance of love. For love is fundamental to Christian belief and behaviour. Christian love makes sense of living. Christian love is therapeutic and makes for balanced living. “Love is the medicine for the sickness of the world,” said Dr Karl Menninger.
He tells his staff that the most important thing they can offer a patient is love. For when people learn to give and receive love, they can recover from most illness, whether physical or emotional. Dr. Menninger likes to repeat: “Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.” This is the secret behind the amazing success of the Menninger Clinic in Kansas, USA.

Other psychologists and psychiatrists agree with Dr Menninger. Dr Erich Fromm believes loneliness and the inability to love are underlying causes of emotional disorders. Dr Paul Tournier talks of the need to remove our masks and to discover and be discovered by others. For love can bring healing. Dr Hobart Mowrer, professor of psychology at the University of Illinios believes emotional illness results from a barrier between the conscious self and other people. It is our inability to love and be loved, that makes us ill.

Honesty and sharing aids healing. Dr Carl Rogers, founder of the nondirective school of counselling, says he can
quickly train psychotherapists who come to his University who have what he calls “love”. He says there is no other word to describe the quality that makes a good counsellor. Without “love” no amount of training can make a person effective. The evidence mounts in medicine and psychology regarding the therapeutic need for love to be given and received. From every hand the evidence is that love is essential.

Professor Alfred Adler, the great psychiatrist, said “all human failures are the result of a lack of love”. People unable to sustain a love relationship are ten times more likely to be chronically ill and five times more likely to be psychiatrically ill. The command of Jesus that we love one another seems to be a human imperative rather than an option. Unmarried people are more likely to be lonely, hence more likely to fall ill. Loneliness takes its toll of their health. Studies of mental illness show that the single, widowed and divorced have higher rates of mental illness than the married. We need love to stay alive. Premature death comes more frequently to those who have not married, or those whose marriages have broken down. Unmarried men are more likely to die of tuberculosis, cirrhosis of the liver, pneumonia, syphilis, accidental fire or explosion, murder, accidental falls, suicide or car accidents. These sorts of deaths are particularly likely among divorced men, next to the widowed. Good health needs love. Good marriages do marvels for most human beings, far more than most of us married people ever give credit to our spouses. The right kind of love conquers all.

2. THE RIGHT KIND OF LOVE IS A MATTER OF WILL.

I made an important discovery about the right kind of love. That discovery was liberating. It is that we are called to love people, but not necessarily to like them. I thought you had to like people to love them. But C.S.Lewis in one of his books opened my eyes. There are many people that we may not like because they are evil, vicious or cruel. We do not like a violent man. Nor a racist woman. Nor an abusive man. We do not like that behaviour or like those people. And Jesus never asked us to like them. He asked us to love them. Love means to have a deep care and concern for their welfare and future. That is not a matter of feeling but of will.

We have debased the Christian concept of love and turned it into an emotional feeling, instead of a spiritual concern. I can care about people I do not like. General Idi Amin murdered thousands of people in Uganda. He tortured, raped and plundered. No one could like him. But his secretary, a Christian woman, told me on my radio program: “I love Idi Amin.” His secretary did not mean she loved him in an emotional, romantic or sexual way. But as a committed Christian she deeply cared for his soul.

3. PAUL WAS THE APOSTLE OF CARING LOVE.

Jesus taught this deep concern for people and their welfare, even for the people with whom He became so very angry. His great Apostle Paul, described that deep concern we should have for others. In tennis love means nothing, but in Christianity it means everything.

Paul emphasises three main points:

1. LOVE ALONE COUNTS. It is the ultimate quality. Not eloquence, though for the Greeks correct speech and rhetoric were regarded highly. But Paul says 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Many speak about the problems of our world, but deep concern does something.

Neither does education count. The Greeks valued education, but Paul says: 13:2 “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

Neither do endowments count. Acts of public generosity counted in Greek culture, but Paul says v3 “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Even dying a martyr is not enough if you are not motivated by deep concern.

2. LOVE ALONE TRIUMPHS. Love is the deep caring for another’s good, and ultimately this attitude towards others wins! Lest you not understand, Paul describes this deep Christian caring in fifteen ways. This love has both negative and positive aspects. Paul describes 8 negatives and 7 positive aspects. The negatives simply distinguish deep Christian concern from other kinds of behaviour. The Christian’s deep concern: v4-6 “does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” This distinguishes deep Christian concern from friendship, from family commitment, from sexual lust – all other words Paul rejected. Christian love triumphs.

3. LOVE ALONE ENDURES. That is the message of the seven positives. Paul writes: v4 “Love is patient, love is kind. v7-8 “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” Our deep concern persists over everything else.

A Christian’s deep concern is complete, permanent and supreme. Everything else is transient, partial, limited. Deep Christian concern alone endures. Paul ends, 13 “now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” This deep, abiding concern Christians show in dealing with other people is the basis of our relationships. This is an attitude we must take with us into the twenty-first century. Only that kind of attitude will enable this world to recover from the wars and divisions we saw in the twentieth century. Only this kind of attitude will hold families strong amid all the forces that would divide us.

There will still be a need for faith and hope as these are essentials to please an eternal God. But love is the greatest of these three graces because through faith love unites the Christian personally to God 1John 4:10, 19 and through God’s love Rom 5:5 we are enabled to love one another. John 13:34, 35 Love communicates grace and identifies us as children of God. John 13:34, 35; 1 John 4:8. The love of God, seen in the death of Jesus upon the Cross is powerful medicine for the sickness of the world. It is the only remedy for the terminal disease in each heart!

That deep concern is the most practical way to relate with people, even people you do not like. Even bad people! Even enemies! It was God’s deep concern or you, that led Him to heal your deepest need, forgive your worst sin and enable your reconciliation with Himself. That deep, abiding, Christian, Godly concern is what we must take into the twenty-first century, to enable us to relate to others.

Brett and Kathy are a Sydney couple well known to me. I remember their wedding some years ago. We were all saddened when after three years their marriage ended. They had stopped talking to each other. They spoke at each other. Many had prayed for them and wanted to help.

But they did not become one of the 39% who end in divorce. They went to marriage counselling, learnt to listen to each other. As their listening skills improved so did their marriage.

Then on the Nine Network’s “A Current Affair” they appeared speaking on how their marriage was saved. Brett said: “After ten years of marriage, I am more in love with Kath than ever.” Kathy said “I am more in love with Brett than ever.” They committed to beginning again.

The Australian family is under enormous stress. The Federal Government Report “TO HAVE AND TO HOLD” estimated the cost of families divorcing today is over $3 billion a year in sole-parent benefits, child-care and associated costs.

The fracturing of the family is still a deep concern for all. The fragile nature of so many families means that Christian people and those concerned for the family, must work to rebuild the fractured family. The family is God’s method for continuing the generations and of passing down values and beliefs to a new generation. By God’s grace, even fractured families can be re-built. It takes a right spirit, and having spiritual foundations in place for a better future.

How can we rebuild the fractured family?

1. ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR FAILURE.

By accepting responsibility for failure, we open ourselves to a second chance. 39% of marriages fail and the partners and children separate. What is amazing is how many of them have been married and divorced previously. In 1996, 52,466 divorces were granted but 22,560 of them involved people who had been divorced previously. Among people who have been married only once, the divorce rate is lower today than in the 1970’s and has actually continued to fall over the past decade.

This decline has been from 125 per 1000 marriages to 115 per 1000 marriages. The divorce rate is significantly increased by the number of people who are being divorced for the second or more times.

There are some chronically dysfunctional people whose repeated marriage breakdowns influence the statistics. It is the story of people who refuse to accept responsibility for failure, and who take that same attitude into the second and third marriage. One out of every three marriages involves remarriage for one or both parties, and the chances of that remarriage working is depressingly slim. The cycle of marriage breakdown will only be broken when both partners recognise their own contribution to the failure of their first marriage.

2. BELIEVE IN POSSIBILITIES.

It is easier to win territory in war than to govern the territory in peace. It is easier to buy a car than to keep the car in good running condition. It is easier to get married than to keep the marriage healthy after the wedding. In every area of life, it is easier to obtain than to maintain.

If you know that, and believe in possibilities you will be prepared to rebuild the fragile family. Only 17% prepare for marriage by attending pre-marital classes. Fewer still attend classes designed to improve their marriage after they have been married.

Marriage is the most sophisticated form of human relationship and it requires work to achieve the possibilities. Since the introduction of no-fault divorce in the Family Law Act 1975, Australians have thought of the possibility of no-fault divorce instead of the possibility of a successful marriage. To think positively of marriage requires more than easier divorce. This is now in law of Louisiana, USA., in what is called COVENANT MARRIAGES. A number of marriage counsellors have suggested we have this alternative marriage.

COVENANT MARRIAGES were introduced by Louisiana in 1997 as a means of strengthening marriage and family life. It is entirely voluntary. It acknowledges marriage as a life-long commitment. For those who chose, this marriage law requires couples to undertake pre-marital counselling. They then agree to have counselling prior to any divorce. The couple agree to give up their right to no-fault divorce, and agree to a two year wait before divorce can be granted to allow for counselling. On the other hand, if there is fault: abuse, abandonment, adultery, the other partner can be granted immediate divorce which is not given even in a non-fault divorce. This gives abused women more protection with immediate financial support during separation. Abandoned children gain immediate financial support. For the couple, the emphasis is upon helping them make the marriage work. When the law recognises that marriage is a life-long commitment, it encourages partners to work at it.

In Australia many divorced people regret the action. One survey quotes 37% of people regret their divorce five years later, and 40% believe that it could have been avoided with some counselling. Covenant Marriage provides the space for this to occur. One other thing. 20% of people going to pre-marital counselling, decide not to marry each other. That is not a bad decision for them. If they could not foresee a good marriage, they at least avoided a bad one. Covenant Marriage forces careful preparation for marriage and proper counselling within marriage during difficulties. It avoids the knee-jerk reactive divorce which is later regretted and says to all that this couple choose to think marriage, not divorce, and to rebuild their fractured family.

3. COMMIT YOURSELF TO BEGINNING AGAIN.

Many people refuse to give their fractured family a second go. If the daughter walks out of the house many say: “Don’t come back here again.” If a wife leaves a husband, many say “That’s it. She made her choice so she will have to live with it.” They say these things because they do not want the responsibility of a second failure. But the essence of Christianity is beginning again. That is the way of forgiveness and faith: forgiveness for what has happened in the past and faith for a new beginning.

4. DECIDE TO TACKLE YOUR PROBLEMS.

Every family can go through times of great stress and conflict. We are human beings each with human failings. But marital conflict need not be terminal. There may be times of conflict, misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and where each other’s needs are overlooked or ignored.

That does not mean the couple are incompatible and the family must necessarily fracture. But the partners must decide to tackle their problems. Every problem in family life can be overcome. But usually, you will need to enlist professional help.

5. ENLIST PROFESSIONAL HELP.

Our philosophy is that mostly the interests of the child and society are best served by keeping families intact and by rebuilding fractured families. Some children will need to be placed in care. But, with temporary professional support services, people solve problems every day. We expect people to change.

The community is best served by developing the independence, strength and self-reliance of families. We help families apply their existing resources, develop new resources, and solve their problems. This raises family self-esteem as the family members realise they can do some things well. This produces hope and lasting change.

Christians believe God’s design for family relationships. Society believes in self-fulfilment, maintaining relationships only so long as they are personally rewarding. Christians believe the ideal of lifelong commitment. Against the popular ideal of sexual liberation Christians believe sexual fidelity within a permanent union.

Christians believe parenting skills can be learnt in seminars and in one on one training. Christians believe in the biblical model of community to encourage people to support fractured families.

When a family needs reinforcing, counsellors may meet with all the family, identifying patterns of interaction and assisting family members to develop positive ways of relating to one another. Churches want to show that single people, never married people, and people not now in a family also belong to the family of the church and have an important part to play in helping rebuild fractured families.

When Jesus healed the man at Gadara, the man was appreciative and wanted to follow Jesus. Mk 5:18-20 But 18 “as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”

The aim of Christian ministry with families is seen in this passage: an individual is healed, calmed and brought to his or her senses. Then he or she is restored to the family. The fractured family is encouraged to see how much the Lord has done and how God has had mercy upon them. As a result the members of the family and the community will join in praise to God.

We rebuild the fractured family best when we help each individual come to his or her senses and be restored into a family, and the family be helped to glorify God. The fractured family is healed when you come into line with God’s plan for your life.