Interview with Sheryl Scanlan from the Silver Ferns

The Silver Ferns had a narrow loss to open their series against Australia last night. This is an interview I recorded with Silver Ferns defender Sheryl Scanlan for the afternoon show on NZ’s Rhema.

Healer, Hierarchy and Hype

Evangelical Christians have today been shocked to hear this story. Pastor Michael Guglielmucci, who claimed that he had terminal cancer and wrote the popular worship song ‘Healer’ about his condition, has been exposed as a fraud. It’s not known at this stage whether or not he was mentally unstable and wrote the song believing that he really was unwell, or if it was just plain deception.

Either way, this sad story highlights several bigger issues. Firstly, it reveals just how much pastors of mega-churches are respected, sometimes quite unhealthily so.

There is often little accountability for those in leadership of such churches. Pastors are at the top of a large pyramid with many people looking up to them. When they fall from grace, the damage to those below them is immense. There are real dangers in this system of church structure. In my mind, the traditional model of church governance safeguards against such dangers. Small, local churches where the leader is responsible to someone above them, whether that is a bishop or superintendent, are inherently much safer.

Secondly, this issue highlights the danger of faith being built on emotional experiences. My cell group watched the video of ‘Healer’ a few weeks ago. I’m not about to claim that that I knew it wasn’t legitimate then. However, I was uncomfortable at the time watching just how much people were affected by this man and his song. The camera showed shots of people weeping all around the auditorium, obviously moved by his story and perseverance. I know that God gave us emotions, and that they are not necessarily a bad thing. I do think though that it is very dangerous for people’s faith to be too reliant on such emotional experiences. When these good feelings pass, their faith sadly often comes crashing down.

This is certainly a very sad situation. I pray for those who had been moved by this man’s song. There are many young people who will find this news extremely hard to cope with. I pray that God would be their Healer.

You can stay for fellowship … but it’ll cost you

How appropriate is it for churches to charge people for the coffee they drink after services? The idea of church fellowship being run like a business has made me uncomfortable for some time. Is it really the ‘Christian’ thing to do to sell coffee to those you are trying to welcome? These churches obviously want to encourage people to belong, and that’s great. I can’t help but wonder how many people are put off by the commercial culture of such churches. If people wanted to buy a cup of coffee, they could’ve gone to the Starbucks down the road. Is this an area where churches can be deliberately different from society, I wonder?

I don’t seek to condemn churches that charge for coffee. It’s true that there are more important things to be worried about. I’m not looking to have a go at any particular church. The obvious analogy I could use would be the story of trading in the temple, but I’m not going to. I am, however, suggesting that there could be another way for churches to approach this. Tweaking the budget to provide free food and coffee would surely be a great way for people to feel welcome and comfortable in our places of worship. Churches spend money on a lot of things – surely a coffee machine and some biscuits could be included in the expenditure?

I wonder if charging for coffee unnecessarily excludes some who the church would love to see stay. Are the costs of some coffee beans really worth taking the risk of these people leaving? Sure, it might sound rather alternative to offer people free food. But doesn’t the Bible say that Christians are ‘peculiar people’ anyway? What would Jesus charge for a cappuccino?

Principle vs Practice

Yesterday I heard an evangelical pastor give his testimony as part of a radio interview. He talked about how he had grown up in a traditional church, but lost interest in faith until he became a Christian when he was at university. Since then he has been involved in ministry in a charismatic, evangelical church. That’s great. I’m glad it worked out for him.

It made me wonder though, how much stronger would the Body of Christ be if those who were passionate about their faith stayed within the mainstream church and worked to make it a positive force that changes lives. I often hear from evangelicals that they were raised in a local, traditional church but came to faith elsewhere later on their lives. There is often the implication that smaller, traditional churches are not the place where lives are changed. Sadly, that may often be the case. But it doesn’t have to be.

I admit that much of the mainstream church in New Zealand fails desperately to have any positive impact on society. I think that this is because of what their focus currently is, rather than there being something inherently wrong with them. There is nothing wrong with the principle of such churches; the problem has to do with their practice.

Local, traditional churches have a bond with society that other more modern churches could only dream of. People feel comfortable already attending them for public events or family celebrations. What if we could build on this? What if the young people who currently leave traditional churches to pursue ministry in other churches were to put their energy into those churches that they grew up in? How different would the Body of Christ in New Zealand look? How much more effective could the Christian Church be in transforming society?

World Youth Day and Anglican Arrogance

Roman Catholic World Youth Day is taking place in Sydney this week. The event has drawn thousands of young people from all over the world. World Youth Day is designed to get young people enthusiastic about their Christian faith and putting it into action. This sounds pretty good to me. Not all Christians are that keen on the idea however. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney has launched a campaign to ‘reach out’ to the Catholic pilgrims.

This is bordering on offensive in my mind. The campaign implies that Catholics are not Christians: “Outreach Media staff member Cameron Blair hopes the website will widen that contact Christians can have with Roman Catholic pilgrims”.

Sydney Anglicans are a successful, evangelical diocese. I like a lot of what they do. I’m embarrassed though at this attack on their Christian brothers. I’m sure that they could find something better to put their energy into, with Sydney’s inner-city being what it is. With all the problems the Anglican Church is currently facing, I’m surprised that the Sydney Anglicans can’t recognise Catholics as fellow-conservative Christians, who share many of the same priorities.

I have been raised as a Roman Catholic, and have joined the Anglican Church as an adult. I’m quite aware that there are differences between the two churches. I’m not sure that those differences are important enough to warrant an expensive, time-consuming campaign to evangelise those from the other side.

GAFCON: Divided we fall

I doubt that the internet has ever been as interested in church politics as it is now. When I opened my RSS reader yesterday afternoon, in the previous 24 hours over 100 new items had arrived related to the current situation in the Anglican Church. There is a phenomenal amount of interest in the problems the Anglican Communion is facing.

The situation has of course erupted with the formation of GAFCON, a conservative group who claim to represent half of the world’s Anglicans. GAFCON has declared war on liberal interpretations of scripture, and have signalled their intention to offer an alternative form of leadership to those within the church who feel sidelined by the actions of liberal clergy. GAFCON have issued a statement of belief, in which they claim that those who are not in favour of them are guilty of preaching a false gospel.

I identify myself as an evangelical, conservative Anglican. I understand where GAFCON is coming from. Change needs to take place in the Anglican Church. The question is though: how should this change be brought about? Is GAFCON’s proposed method of setting up “a church within a church” the most productive way forward for those who are not happy with the actions of some within the Communion?

While I have some sympathy for GAFCON, I can’t help but think that their strategy is wrong. For a start, they are divided amongst themselves over whether their delegates should attend the world-wide Lambeth Conference. About two-thirds of GAFCON bishops are staying away from Lambeth, in an act of protest at how the American Church has acted. The other third of GAFCON bishops are attending Lambeth; presumably they believe that they have a greater chance of being influential if they are actually present when these issues are discussed. This second way of thinking seems more sensible to me. The real problem is that they are divided on this – to be effective they need to either all boycott Lambeth, or all attend.

There is division not only between those who attended GAFCON, but also within the evangelical branch of the Anglican Church. If there was one person who the conservatives needed to be on their side, it was surely Tom Wright. Wright, as Bishop of Durham and a leading Biblical Scholar, is one of the most influential evangelical Anglicans in the world. You know that something is wrong when Wright labels the actions of GAFCONS as “bullying” and “deeply offensive”. (You can hear Bishop Wright’s thoughts here.)

So what is the way forward for evangelical Anglicans? How will they effect change if they are divided? How will the Anglican Church work through the problems it is currently facing – will it ever be the same again? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions. I wish I did. What I do know though is that the real result of all these arguments is likely to be more hurt people. As theologians and church leaders battle out the issues on the world stage, local parishes will further decline. Ordinary people do not like controversy – it will be easier for them to simply stay away.

Rhema Broadcasting Group

It’s been a goal of mine for some time to be involved in the media. I have also been a fan of Life fm for several years, and enjoy Christian radio and music generally. Last November I went along to a careers open day at Rhema Broadcasting Group, and subsequently applied for an internship with the broadcaster. I have recently been offered an internship, which according to the contract I have been sent, will be in Radio Department initially. I will be working 20 hours a week, which will allow me to continue studying theology at Auckland University on a half-time basis next semester. I’m starting at RBG on 8 July, and am really looking forward to it!

Prostitution Law Review: Radio Live interview

My brother Alex was recently interviewed by Bill Ralston on Radio Live regarding the Prostitution Law Review Committee’s report. Alex is the Research and Policy Manager for Maxim Institute. The interview can be heard here. Maxim’s website is here.

Prince Caspian

Over the weekend I saw the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. I hadn’t remembered the book as being particularly exciting, so I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this film was. Both the plot and cinematography were fantastic. It was quite different to its predecessor, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was darker; more meaningful. In terms of Christian allegory, while the first film was big metaphors, Prince Caspian was more subtle – but every bit as meaningful for those who were looking for it. The theology was excellent. It was inspiring. Go and see it!

Ian Wishart

This morning I heard Ian Wishart speak at Titirangi Baptist Church. Wishart is the editor of Investigate Magazine, and the author of several books. His most recent release is the controversial Absolute Power.

Wishart is unlike most other journalists in NZ. He is proud of his Christian faith, and is certainly not afraid to speak his mind. While this can provide a nice change from what one is often exposed to in the mainstream media, I wonder about the effectiveness of such an approach. Do you perhaps lose credibility by always being extreme? Or by being more balanced and willing to compromise are people more likely to take you seriously?

Wishart is obviously an intelligent man. He is a very skilled investigative journalist who goes to great lengths to expose what he sees as corruption. Wishart was perhaps guilty of preaching to the converted on this occasion – it would be interesting to have seen the reaction from a crowd who was less inclined towards his worldview. Wishart spoke for some time about what he sees as a watering down of theology in church and society. He talked about the need to accept the Bible as ‘true’, before dismissing the theory of evolution as unfounded. Here he perhaps needed to acknowledge the different types of literary genres that make up the scriptures, and that ‘truth’ wasn’t always limited to a literal reading of a Biblical text.

Early in his talk, Wishart told of how he had been brought up in the Anglican Church. As a teenager he rebelled against his religious upbringing, before finding his way back to faith as an adult. He told of how the Anglican Church had at that time started to ‘not believe in God anymore’, and joked that obviously not much had changed. It was all reasonably light-hearted, even if it did annoy me a bit to hear Baptists having a laugh at the expense of Anglicans. I was pleased therefore, to hear that the church his wife came to faith in, was an Anglican one. Perhaps we Anglicans are not so bad after all.