The Twenty-Piece Shuffle

Book review | The Twenty-Piece Shuffle
Author: Greg Paul | Reviewed by Stephanie Hung

“Because when you’re out in the big bad world and things go terribly wrong, or wonderfully right, you want to go home. To mourn or to celebrate. To not have to be strong or reserved anymore - to give in to the need to tremble with fear, or be giddy with joy. To be able to do all of that without being humiliated or alone.”

The first time I saw the movie Amazing Grace on a flight from LA to Sydney it seemed one of the most boring, drawn out movies I could remember seeing, and so I stopped watching half way through. I must have been dead-tired at the time because when I re-watched it a few weeks ago, it struck me as one of the most amazing stories I’ve seen in a long time.

I’m wondering if this might be the case with Greg Paul’s work. When I read his first book, God in the Alley, I thought it was reasonable, but nothing to rave about (like many were doing). So, when I read his newest book, The Twenty-Piece Shuffle, admittedly I wasn’t expecting very much. I may now have to eat my words and borrow another copy of God in the Alley, because if it’s anything like The Twenty-Piece Shuffle, then it’s definitely worth a second look.

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Give your burdens to the Lord

by Margaret Okubo

When sadness breaks our hearts, and the pain that ensues grows persistent and unrelenting, many of us tend to bow our heads in deep sorrow and hide in the darkest recesses of depression. This is the way many of us try to cope in times of trials. But do such actions really help or hinder us? Often such actions offer only temporary relief from the physical aspect of our suffering, but it does not result in a permanent resolution. Additionally, some of us cry out to God for help; however, when that help is long in coming we either surrender to despair or simply give up.

This morning, I sat with the members of my prayer group and listened to their prayers for help. While watching their tears flow, I started thinking if there is another way to solve our problems and allow us to fill our minds and hearts with inner peace. Every morning this prayer group comes together and pray. The same petitions are offered in prayers each day; however, the same lines of pain remain etched on their faces. It appears as if their situations never change.

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Ordinary radicals | film review

Thoughts on Ordinary Radicals from an ordinary guy who was extraordinarily annoyed by the film.

I watched a film the other night and I’m struggling with how to write about it. I really wanted to like it, but I walked out feeling frustrated and confused and somewhat alienated. It was called The Ordinary Radicals and it examines what the director calls a movement of, “revolutionary Christianity.  One with a quiet disposition that seeks to do small things with great love.” Sounds intriguing, right?

I had read and enjoyed The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, co-founder with Jamie Moffett of the “Simple Way” community in Philadelphia, and who is one of the main characters in the film. I loved the “simple” approach they take to living out their faith and their commitment to making a difference.

Claiborne makes his own clothes and works hard on reducing his environmental footprint, at one point in the book he describes standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of homeless people about to be evicted from an abandoned church they have turned into their home. In short, he lives his life in a radical way on the front lines, in community with like-minded people.

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Pastor takes in child killer

Feedback wanted

W

hat would you do? Would you welcome a killer into your home? What about your kids? Your congregation? The sense of community we’re all called to create?

Read the story here and then sound-off and let us know what you think.

At the gates of hell

SA relief efforts

In the wake of the apocalyptic bushfires that swept Victoria, Australia in February, I was privileged to observe closely the incredible tirelessness of The Salvation Army at work.

Despite saturation media coverage worldwide I don’t think there is any way of understanding the extent of the devastation without actually being there.

 Major David Eldridge encouraging firefighters at Wittlesea

Being there among the grieving hundreds who had lost their loved ones (at least 210 lives lost) and among the 7,000 people left homeless as their houses and possessions vaporised in the intense heat. Being among the officers, chaplains and volunteers who comforted the survivors and the workers with a word, a meal, some cash or clothes.

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Goodbye Generation

Book review | Goodbye Generation
Author: David Sawler | Reviewed by Stephanie Hung

Goodbye Generation is a discussion on the reasons why so many young people seem to be leaving the established church in Canada (for Canadian Salvationists, it is related to the ongoing Young Adult Retention Survey currently in place in the Territory). The author, David Sawler is a former youth pastor now planting churches in Nova Scotia. The book is aimed at those in any kind of ministry in the Western church - primarily Boomers and those in Generation X (born prior to 1982), and concerns the current youth and young adult generation, known as “Millenials”.

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, each chapter examines a different reason why youth decide to leave the church. These reasons are not prioritised, but general discussion and a biblical response is suggested for each. Some youth are rejecting the church due to reasons that can be attributed to misconceptions and popular theory, e.g. questions/issues in the bible, ‘life being better without the guilt’, or ‘false advertising’ done by Christians.

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Music review: Bruce Peninsula

A Mountain is a Mouth

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ately , I find myself shying away from the swarm of new music that is increasingly readily available. The energy required to sift through the constant stream of new artists and next-best-things is beyond my capabilities or available time. Maybe it’s just easier for working dads like myself to stick with the artists we already like or already know.  As musical tastes shift so quickly and constantly, maybe it’s simply easier to focus more on those who have been making music over the long haul. These are the kinds of songwriters you can grow old with, whose music and artistic merit goes deeper than hyped-up marketing or incessant cross-promotions.

It is for all these reasons that the Ontario-based band, Bruce Peninsula came to my attention as a pleasant surprise. Their first full length album, A Mountain is a Mouth was released on February 3rd to a small fan base and through the band’s own record label. With only minimal publicity, and no formal distribution, the album that these musicians put together runs little risk of being swept under the “well-known” or “who’s next?” line of new artists. Yet, it is an album worth getting one’s hands on.

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From match factory to sausage factory

An argumentatively invalid and
opinionated commentary on my
entry into training college | Sean Attard

A

few years ago my parents and I watched a ‘current affairs’ program which was running an expose on the extremely inappropriate hazing routines the Australian navy put its new recruits through. One member of my family thought the whole thing was quite funny, that it was a choice means of welcoming newcomers and served to toughen up any overly delicate newcomers (”personal delicacy” was how it was described). Personally, I could not understand why anybody would intentionally put a person through such a humiliating and demoralizing process. I have recently been reminded of that program.

Last week I became a cadet, training to be an officer in The Salvation Army Training college in Melbourne, Australia. The college staff here are gracious, my session mates are keen, and I am happy to be here and very eager to get trained up. I have heard the training of cadets referred to as “a rich Salvation Army tradition”, and I have heard it said many times that we are in dire need of officers to replenish our ranks. I have heard quite a bit of talk about further improving the training system and about raising the standards for officership. Our Training Principal talks a lot about providing cadets a “field for exploits” on which we can hone our skills for battle. I say bring it on!

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Feeling human

Graham Cummins | notes from my Tanzania diary

“T

hat lady, she tried to tell me there is no God. She does not know what she is saying. We are alive and we have food to eat, but many people are hurting and struggling to live. You see, there must be a God, for if there is not, what else is there for those people? Please pray for that lady.”

Far too many Tanzanians can tell similar stories to this one - told to me by a man named Tilia - in which people from developed nations tell them that there is no God and that the concept of God is a means of controlling developing nations and keeping their people down. Though I heard many such stories, I didn’t meet a single Tanzanian who considered, even for a second, the possibility of the non-existence of God. It’s a given that God is real to them.

This is just one of the many lessons I brought back with me from my time in Tanzania last summer. It was a time originally intended for me to live out my dream of tending a flock of sheep. One thing led to another, however and quickly those grassy hills turned into fields of banana trees and a would-be shepherd into a shoemaker.

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Who’s afraid?

… of the big bad wolf, asks Heather Power

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s a little girl I would sit for hours and hours listening to my record of The 3 Little Pigs (that’s right I said record!). The part of the story where the three pigs would start singing, “Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf…the big, bad wolf…the big bad wolf…, who’s afraid of…” (well you get the point) - whenever the pigs would ask that lyrical question I would answer “I AM”. And I was - terrified! Possibly this had something to do with the fact that a few of my babysitters (and even my own father, if I remember correctly) had told me that “Wolfie” lived under my bed, in an attempt to keep me there at night!

Looking back over this years, this seems like a funny story now, but in reality I spent many years being terrified. Not of “Wolfie”, I got over that one fairly quickly - but of many, many other things. I was afraid of being alone, afraid of what people thought of me, afraid of spiders (okay I’m STILL afraid of spiders), afraid of being rejected, afraid of failure…to name just a few.

The point is, I was always rather afraid of something. I would forget that God is bigger than all that and instead of sharing my fears with him I simply tried to deal with them on my own. Instead of asking for God’s help I was fighting on my own. And it seemed so easy to allow my fears to get the better of me and to end up controlling my life.

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