Dear Friends

I actually am wanting to use one of the songs on the new Casting
Crowns album as this week's thort. When I heard the album for the
first time, this song jumped out at me as the 'If we are the body'
kind of equivalent in terms of punchy message and gut-grabbing
lyrics... not so much as a written song, but when you link it to the
truth behind it and how many people live lives that are portrayed in
the song, then it really hits home and strikes me deeply.

In Matthew 23 Jesus 'goes off' at the Pharisees in a comprehesive
list of seven woes that is not complimentary to say the least. He
launches an attack on them for various things but the running theme
seems to be hypocracy - appearing to be one thing on the outside and
yet being totally different on the inside.

It is quite a violent and brutal vocal attack and really seems to be
spurred on with great anger, but at the end of it all there is this
verse:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children
together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were
not willing."

It seems almost as if Jesus has done an about take and as angry as
He is about the hypocracy and double standards and burdens that the
Pharisees have placed upon the people, His true heart comes through.
His heart of compassion. Even worse to Him than the fact that people
are not being real, is the consequence of that. He is unable to help
them.

I think, as the song below suggests, that this kind of mentality is
seriously prevalent in the church today. And not in the prideful,
oppressive way of the Pharisees so much (altho sadly, that does
exist as well in various leaders in the church suffering from
insecurity, pride amongst other things) but just in hurting people
feeling like they are not allowed to show it.

And I believe it hurts God. It definitely hurts those people who are
doing it. And those of us wanting to be there for those doing it:

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Dear Friends

I have just returned from a really amazing weekend at a youth
conference in Johannesburg called the Change Agents conference -
focusing on working with young people who are involved in the
process of being Agents of Change in their communities and schools
and churches. It was a really enjoyable weekend - I emcee'd the
event (Argus Cycle Tour pink tights and all) and presented a
workshop and so really got a chance to meet a lot of the people
there which was great.

There was a huge multi-cultural mix of people attending the
conference and the worship times where people just really expressed
their passion for God in a way I have not been around for a while
was really refreshing. I really felt connected to God and just felt
the freedom of being able to worship God both in a 'going off' and
in a 'reflective/quieter awareness of Him' way and it was amazing!
There are talks in progress lookng at seeing a regional Change
Agents conference happening in Cape Town next year so that is quite
exciting.

I got a lot out of the talks and the workshop that I attended (which
was on mentoring) and I'm sure some of that stuff will be expressed
thru TFTW over the next little while and I hope it will challenge
and encourage you. This week's thort is very similiar to some of the
stuff from last week, but it was some of the key stuff that I was
again challenged about at this conference and so just may be
something God is wanting to stress.

Trust you are doing well and growing in your relationship with God,
whether it is feeling good or bad at the moment. He is there and He
knows!

May God continue to bless you as you are Faithful In Serving Him
love brett FISH anderson and No_bob

"Instead of a bicycle built for two, what about no kinds of bicycles
at all for anybody, anymore? There, are you happy now?"

[Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy - to view more of these inspirational
quotes check out the Jack Handy Link on www.brettfish.com]

Hi again

Been a while i know but still settling down here in Stellies so hopefully one day I'll get more organised with this and more regular, but for now just titbits every now and then...

This last Sunday evening at the Stellenbosch Vineyard we tried something a little different - was the night we were going to be promoting our home groups (slash cell groups slash fellowship slash life groups - whatever you call them!) and so we gave the service a bit of a small group feel - asked 7 or 8 of the students to make sure they bring their Bibles and then when the service started we firstly got everyone into a huge circle (not the hugest church service - maybe 40 to 60 people of which the majority but not all are students) and then did announcements and explained proceedings then - then got the various people leading the small groups to share a little bit about their group and what they do and when they meet and who it's for and stuff so everyone got to see them - then we passed around clipboards for people who wanted to be involved in a group and if they'd seen something specifically they liked they could indicate that otherwise we phone them during the week and help get them into a group that will suit them.

Then I gave each of the students that I'd asked some sheets of paper and got everyone else to break into groups around one of them and we divided into smaller circles of 6 to 9 people - each group was given a different Psalm (made a few copies per group) and some guiding questions and the idea was to read through the Psalm once or twice and then look for things like:

[*] What is the Psalm saying about God?

[*] What does it say about the relationship between God and man?

[*] What promises does it contain?

Then when they had finished that, each group had to pick one aspect from their Psalm (theme, characteristic of God) and meditate/pray/reflect on that and see what God was saying to them as a group about that aspect.

Then we got back into big group formation - as in loosely in rows facing the front as per normal and one person from each group shared their aspect and something about it and then we went into a time of worship and prayer which was really just compounded/enriched by the fact of us looking at different aspects of God's character beforehand.

Worked very, very well... more experimentation to follow... I think it was largely successful because we were introducing the small groups and used small groups during the service so that everyone could at least get a taste of some aspect of small group interaction - also hopefully gave people a chance to meet new people and get introduced to a handful of people in the church - and then the worship singing time at the end became a lot more focused cos it was based on and led from everything we'd been looking at.

And my friend Mandy and her mom took me out for a steak afterwards so it can't have been TOO bad...

More later
God bless you
love brett FISH anderson

www.brettfish.com

I have just moved to Stellenbosch and am employed at the Stellenbosch Vineyard church with a job description that has something to do with youth and students and one of the things that has been given to me is the Sunday evening church services.

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