Paul Long's Ramblings

2012 has flown by pretty quickly and 2013 is already here. 2012 did not end too well .... sick most of the days I was on leave and it followed through into 2013. Pretty miserable and plans to take off for a short summer holiday did not materialize. Anyway, I was sort of (and still am) "holding the fort" - someone needed to be around to lead worship, dispense communion, preach etc during the long Christmas to New Year summer break. But the quieter period even though busy for me personally has also been positive. Had a lot more time for reflection. For example I realized that there was a clear pattern of my physically "crashing" very often on my off days and when I take leave. So while I have been trying to be diligent in taking rest and time off, it has not been working out well. Often too much spills over (in my mind) on Mondays and I end up sorting these things out (and it eats into my off day). Also I suspect that when I try to switch off and enforce rest my adren...

A really timely reminder for me ... as "the decadence of civilization" has of late been getting me down ... “It is too easy to find an excuse for inaction by pleading the decadence of civilization, or even the imminent end of the world. This defeatism, whether it be innate or acquired or a mere affection, seems to me the besetting temptation of our time. Defeatism is invariably unhealthy and impotent; can we also prove that it is unjustified? I think so.” - Teilhard de Chardin ,  from  Building the Earth

Been a long time since I blogged. Just been too distracted and in a way unmotivated ... But anyway .... This first cartoon has been on my desktop for weeks. The church I serve as pastor has as part of its name "Community Church", and the community aspect is very important to me. A couple of random thoughts on the word community that has stuck in my mind over the last few years ... 1. A community leader once made a comment to me when I asked him about whether there were churches in the past involved in a local community trust (which I now belong to) He told me that in the past there were pastors who came on board but did not last long - his off the cuff remark was  "they were more interested in helping their own community." Ouch!  So how do Christians (or better still, should Christians) define the term "community"? Is it to be in terms of "Christians" who become part of a local church community? As in church members?  Then another communit...

Finally bought an iPad a few days ago - on Friday ... I know .... iPad 3 is coming out soon so why not wait and buy the ipad3? One word - budget! And also the worry that suddenly no more ipad2 and iPad 3 way above my budget. Been wanting an ipad for a long time - ever since it came out - not that I am ungrateful fr the iPod touch my mum gave me few years ago ... Just that my eyesight has become progressively poor. *sigh* and it is hard to read and do things on an iPod. Plus ... As a Star Trek fan, an iPad is so Trek-like! (Gene Roddenberry had a wonderful knack of envisioning what future gadgets might look like) Whenthis iPad 2 came out I got excited thinking that I would be able to buy an iPad 1 cheaper thinking the price of the orignal would drop and i can get one cheaper. oops - wrong thinking as when I finally enquired I found that there was no longer an iPad - only iPad 2s ... *sigh* Guess Apple products are not like the windows Pc based products where older models drop...

A helpful piece from Sojourners. I think it is hopeful and I like the way she ends her piece ... "... may we honor the Go-Between God by creating a safe space for all people to join the Great Conversation". An Invitation to The Great Conversation In 1943, in the throes of World War II and one of the most fraught times in contemporary human history, the psychologist Abraham Maslow published a paper explaining, as he understood them, the five basic, motivating needs common to all of humankind. They are: Physiological  (air, food, water, sleep, etc.) Safety Love/Belonging Esteem (confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others) Self-actualization (morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts) While Maslow’s theories are humanistic, they have a connection to religion and spiritual life in what he called “peak experiences,” and what the religious world might call epiphanies — moments of clarit...

I think they speak for themselves :-) These have been on my PC desktop for a long time now, collected over a few months.

Is email really that essential for contemporary church based ministries? Decided to try a personal experiment. Sunday after dinner I decided not to check my emails till Tuesday morning. So pout away my i-touch as well. Usually when at home my it-touch is within easy access so I can just casually check my mail (and FB too) whenever I feel like it. I figured that after Sunday dinner was a reasonable time (as it is after church service, meeting people, a special meeting and caroling practice) and Monday was after all my day off. Quick observations: On my 3 email accounts (all gmail), I had a total of 79 emails meaning some are conversations (emails on the same subject) From one email address (my low priority email) I had 15 are news items (various lists) of which most are pretty easy to choose to delete (all from one mail address). Basically If I have time I may scan or even read ... (news, ministry lists). Takes a couple of minutes ONE email I will have to respond to (but at...

I admit I am tired. I feel stressed out more often. While stress should be expected in any job (or life for that matter) and I do think some stress is actually good to keep me focused ...  but it bothers me a bit that now when there is a lull in activities and pressing deadlines, I still feel stressed out. But what is good is to have a bit more time to think and pray about such matters. Some of the stress is from my personal life (no surprise there) but more seems to be related to things like ... identity, job, calling etc. Last month I rambled a bit on the question of church growth and leadership and what it means (or should mean) to be a pastor. The link is HERE . I think one problem is clearly that I am unconsciously trying to wrongly emulate the apostle Paul! :-) i.e..   2 Corinthians 11:28  ... Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches . It is wonderful to begin reading  Eugene Peterson's  The Pastor...

A simple but challenging article  Link ...  http://christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2011-08/charity-vs-politics CENTURY BLOG Charity vs. politics? Aug 23, 2011  by  Steve Thorngate Marilyn Sewell  raises  a familiar subject: Churches almost always prefer charity to justice. Let's take, for example, the question of hunger. Churches find it easier to open a soup kitchen, rather than lobby politicians or put pressure on government to feed hungry people or help them get jobs. . . . What's wrong with this picture? To effect change, churches must move beyond charity to justice, changing the economic and political systems that keep people impoverished. Along with the fact that charity is simply easier, Sewell names three additional reasons churches often avoid pursuing justice: Charity is less controversial than politics. People fear that political advocacy will threaten a church's tax-exempt status. (It won't, unless they're endorsing candidates.) Pol...

An interesting article (for me at least) from "Out of UR"  July 11, 2011 Pastoral Authority: Earned, Taken, or Granted? It depends who you ask. by David Swanson Pastor . In the eight years since this label first applied to me, it has been fascinating to notice who uses it and who doesn’t. The church that first entrusted the title to me was suburban, predominately white, and largely middle-aged. As a twenty-something associate pastor, I was mostly referred to by my first name. The lack of a title before my name suited me fine. At the time I was coming to grips with being a pastor and, frankly, the idea of regularly being identified as such by people ten to twenty years my senior was frightening. In hindsight I realize there was something more to my timidity about this title. Being identified as a pastor carried with it a level of intimidating responsibility and authority that I felt I didn’t deserve. Surely I needed another ten years or so in the trenches before anyone ...

We had my old friend Geoffrey Woo speak / sing at KCC last Sunday. Hah! He went way over time! :-) But it was a blessed meeting. Many of the older folks gave me good feedback. But it was a special meeting for me for another reason too. New people getting up to serve.  And to help me try to bring an Island feel to the worship (if that makes sense). Audrey on the piano after a lapse of 20 plus years! Was good to have Kimberly singing too (next time with the ukulele too?) And so nice to have my two boys helping with the music - drums, guitar / bass.  And Sia and Kata - our wonderful consistent PI couple. Though their boys got the jitters at the last minute - it was still so cool, especially to have Kata a Samoan teach the Samoan verse of Glory Glory Lord and lead us! And it was "way cool" to have Sia be so totally relaxed and naturally bubble over up front, swaying and clapping while he sung. He helped get me swaying and moving naturally as I played the guitar (and those w...

Catching up on my reading ... of news. Nice to see this happening. What is of side interest to me is the number of campus ministries that exist, many of whom I have never heard of till reading this! ASSIST News Service (ANS) -  PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at:  www.assistnews.net  -- E-mail:  assistnews@aol.com Thursday, February 24, 2011 Seventeen Campus Ministries Sign Agreement By Gordon Govier Special to ASSIST News Service MADISON WI   (ANS)  --  Seventeen Christian ministries that work on U.S. college campuses have established a new standard of cooperation and mutual respect for their work with college students and faculty. Meeting in a Chicago suburb last October, leaders of the ministries agreed to eight basic points of unity in mission aimed at keeping their work on campus cooperative rather than competitive. The meeting was held at the offices of InterVarsity Press in Westmont, Illinois. The "Chi...

Two funny comic strips I can identify with during different periods of my life :-)

Article speaks for itself. Ok - back to work ... it's calling me :-) Guard Your Calling, Frodo Every worthy task can wear you down. John Ortberg  |  posted 1/10/2011  1 of 2  Of course, lots of folks who didn't start in local church ministry will end up there. And we live in a day when job change is a way of life; "40 years and a gold watch" stopped a long time ago. I  ran across a striking statistic recently—90 percent of people who enter vocational ministry will end up in another field. (I wish I could remember the source. I'm pretty sure it was reliable, though I know our subculture is filled with what Christian Smith calls "evangelicals using statistics badly." And 80 percent of all statistics are just made up. You can quote me.) But it got me thinking about the notion of calling. There is something sacred about being called. And a sense of calling needs desperately to be guarded. My daughter and I were re-watching  Lord of the Rings before...

It's back to the office today - though it seems strange as roads are almost deserted! Very quiet indeed. When Kiwis take the summer off, they really do take it seriously :-) A bit disturbing though as most GPs are closed for weeks! And I discovered that my car tyre has a tear and I when I try to inflate it, air comes out. But all the tyre shops are closed! Even the counselling centres are closed for another couple of weeks! Christmas time till mid Jan is definitely not a time to have an emergency! But for me, wow! The list of things to do is pretty long (no pun intended at all!) Just glad that youth meetings and home groups will not resume till next month - some breathing space. So what do I have lined up for the first quarter of 2011? 1. Eight Sunday sermons 2. Youth Bible studies to prepare and help teach (and a major Youth ministry committee meeting next week!) 3. Old Testament survey class to work on and teach - hope to start in Feb and might be a longer term weekly ...

A few days ago I got an email from someone I first met many years ago (when he was a young man). He is older now and married and we were never close or talked that much except when we first met (in a special / exclusive classroom setting). And mainly on the subject matter we were studying. Back then I had a very positive impression of him - very smart yet very humble but most importantly very passionate about God and ministry. But also there was something about him that stood out to me - though I never could pin it down. Later on, a few years later I met his father and mother at a conference (on a totally different subject) and had a better understanding in part of why he gave me such a good impression. His parents were the old fashioned godly and down to earth people who held dear traditional values of hard work, thrift, respect for others etc. His father was a school teacher who was dedicated to his job and the very rare handful that refused to give tuition for money (hence he rema...