The Simple Pastor
By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer
RT @lukedvd: Hope his resignation from the England manager job will allow @JoelVirgo to focus on his church duties #nomorehairdye 15 hrs ago
Ten minutes later when they’re bored with your gift, the shine may have come off a bit. Still, it’s more blessed right? The thing is, I think the western societies in which we’re raising our children, are the sorts of societies where for most adults receiving is by far the superior alternative. So much so, that receiving or getting is seen as more of a human right really. You only have to think back to the summer riots in London and the many links to consumerism to see that attitude in its grossest expression.
If, generally speaking, those are the sorts of adults we are producing and I want my children to be different from that (less rioting would be good for a start), then I need to start training now. However, the early signs are not encouraging. This year, really for the first time, we are helping our three year old son discover the joy of giving. His initial reaction was grave concern, ‘I’ll still get presents won’t I?’ but even with that fear calmed, he remains unconvinced that giving is anywhere close to as good as getting.
We want giving to be in many ways, it’s own reward, we want the act of giving to radiate joy and fun, and lead to more cheerful giving. We’re going to introduce giving to those poorer than ourselves, and other such things, because giving is a habit that needs early introduction. It seems we have a default setting and it’s not ‘give’.
Any ideas, how have you seen giving best demonstrated, shared and taught to children?
It’s why we at Breathe made this little video. Why not watch it, or better yet watch it with some friends and think through your response. For more resources on the video check out Conspiracy of Freedom.
Burk having briefly outlined his case ends with this,
“Despite the pronouncements of the judge in Texas, parents who love their children will make use of non-abusive physical discipline (Prov. 13:24). This is what the Bible teaches, and we should be vigilant not to let the spirit of the age make us think otherwise.”
We don’t and haven’t smacked our children (although the thought has crossed my mind from time to time). But I have a problem with the way Burk frames his case when he says, ‘Parents who love their children will make use of non-abusive physical discipline.’
Here’s part of my problem. In Sweden smacking your children is against the law and has been since 1979, in fact as a crime it falls under assault. So to smack your children is to physically assault them as if I was punching a stranger in the street. Whatever the rights and wrongs of that approach by Sweden, for the last 30 years it has been illegal to smack your child. So, what use then is Burk’s advice to parents and counsel from Scripture? None at all if you want to stay a family.
Would this be a case of obeying God rather than man and smack regardless (Acts 5:29)? It would be an odd hill to die on I think. Instead it would be a case of seeing these instructions not as essential or necessary for obedience, discipline or love or to put it more clearly it’s not a command. The Bible is not commanding that a parent must smack but must discipline. I doubt those that smack use actual rods or staffs, so they interpret.
So we must find other rods and staffs, more creative means of effective discipline and we’re glad to do so. Smacking my children is not an essential for a Christian parent, discipline on the other hand is and the two are not the same.
According to that post, it ‘takes square aim at these accelerating trends, while offering parents—and children—hopeful alternatives. Esolen shows how imagination is snuffed out at practically every turn:
Which is what we say in this video called Play from Breathe and offer a few questions and suggestions to a better way forward.
We were reading a Bible story and came to David and Goliath (we’re using this book) and we read this line from David.
“‘I shall fight Goliath’ declared David boldly. ‘I dare because God will help me.’”
Noah just started repeating ‘I dare, I dare, I dare’. All very cute. Then Emma reminded him that it was because David knew God would help him. My two year old paused and did some thinking and then said,
“Jesus will help me.”
Soon after that he started blethering rubbish and we gave him some milk to drink. But it struck me that this is faith, this is near the core of my understanding of salvation and life as a disciple of Jesus. I am a sinner but I believe ‘Jesus will help me.’ I dare to pray for healings or miracles because I believe ‘Jesus will help me.’ I speak to people in situations where my wisdom is floundering but I open my mouth because I believe ‘Jesus will help me.’ I struggle, I fall, I fail, I succeed. Jesus will help me.
OK, it may be just me but do they look alike? Poor kids, the midwife said they looked liked me. My church decided that grumpy, wrinkly and purple is not a good look, for them or me!
Anyway, the point is that they (at least I think so) carry the family likeness. The father should be able to look at them and know ‘they’re my kids.’ Simple observation really, but the punch hit home. Am I carrying the father’s likeness? Do I act, think, speak, love like the Father?
Today we give thanks to God for the safe arrival of Anna Grace Whittall. She made her entrance at 9.44am, weighing in at 7lbs 15oz.
It is just amazing to think that God would choose to enter the world this way and begin life so helpless and so weak. Amazing to think that this little girl is made in the image of God and He already knows how many hairs are on her head (quite a few!).
So, here is one more reason I have to give thanks to God.
The highlighted theme of the moment is thankfulness. First I read this story and then I came across this article about struggling with thankfulness in ministry and this comment struck home,
“I think the problem is that I’m not truly thankful when God provides. I may be happy that I got the job I wanted, pleased that I made it into the right program, or relieved that we’ve paid all our bills on time again. But I don’t think I’m thankful for those things, because deep down I believe I pulled them off on my own. There’s no sense being thankful for something you do yourself.”
After that I came across this about being thankful for technology and not ‘break[ing] into fits of rage when we have to wait 2 seconds for page-loads’ and remembering that,
“It’s important that we not put ourselves in the middle of the iUniverse—even though our phones are called iPhone. It’s not about us. It’s about God and His work that he’s doing through Jesus and His church.”
Then I read this post titled, ‘when I read this I never want to complain again’ that opened with,
“Every so often, the sufferings of a fellow human being break through the consumer haze and teach us how to value life in a way that isn’t twee or glib.”
Which reminded me about PJ Smyth, a church leader and young(ish) father of three who has just been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph glands) who writes,
“A fair few tears flow daily in the Smyth home at the moment, especially Ashleigh’s and mine. They can break out at almost anytime prompted by gratitude to the kindness and close presence of Jesus, or thankfulness to the kind words and actions of friends, or at news of the suffering of others that is already seeming to break our hearts in a fresh way, or because of tiredness and fear of the unknown.”
The message is clear, be thankful, be thankful, be thankful. Just after I graduated from teacher training a friend and I travelled round Europe by train one summer. One of the habits we cultivated on the many train journeys was to ‘count our blessings’. It’s a good habit.
Tomorrow my beautiful son turns two and he is a real joy to me. I’m grateful to him though he doesn’t know it and more grateful to Emma for the amazing job she does in raising him, but I’m yet more grateful still to God for both of them. Any day now, I hope to be equally grateful for a second child.
Despite all the challenges, I love the church I lead and being a part of the mission we’re on. Just today 93 people (at least half were guests) shared food, fun and a short service thinking about hope together. Thank you. Today a couple took a step of courageous faith and sacrifice that, I’m sure, will prove to be a blessing to our church. Thank you.
I’m grateful for a thousand other things. Thankfulness should be a mark of the Christian, no place for moaning, grumbling and complaining for the people of God, instead we overflow with thankfulness in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18), always giving thanks to God (2 Tim 1:3) because of who God is (Rev 11:17) and for what He has given us (Jesus) is an inexpressible gift (2 Cor 9:15) that frees us from sin (Rom 6:17-18) which is why when we have given thanks we break the bread that remembers what Christ has done for us (Luke 22:19).
Be thankful, be thankful, be thankful.
Today is a busy day as most days usually are. But today it is snowing. While most of the UK has had decent amounts of the white stuff Shrewsbury has been scratching around in tiny amounts of it. Today it is snowing.
Today Noah gets up shouts ‘SNOWING’ followed by ‘Bosh’ and ‘Tray’. Translated it means ‘I want to go sliding and playing in the snow, daddy’. But today is a busy day.
I don’t always make the right decision in moments like this. Too often I choose the work, today I chose to play. And as Noah is only 18 months old, it wasn’t ever likely to be for very long, so slide down a bank on a, now very dented, tea tray and we boshed snow and fell over and got back up again.
I wonder if at the heart of the Mary and Martha story, Jesus is hoping that Martha would just choose to be with her. Work needs doing, but I wonder if sometimes God wants us to go and play, to enjoy all the bountiful goodness of all that he has made, and not spend anything in doing it.
“Nestlé is on a mission to ‘improve their products to ensure they can be enjoyed as part of a balanced, healthy lifestyle’. They’re re-launching Kit Kat – their best selling biscuit – now free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives. Despite this, the recipe is still tainted by an ingredient much nastier than an E number – child slave labour.Thousands of children are trafficked within West Africa and forced to work on cocoa farms against their will, for long hours and in dangerous conditions. Nestlé is aware of the problem and said they would guarantee the end of trafficked labour in the cocoa industry by 2005. This hasn’t happened.
Being a powerful company, Nestlé could very well determine the conditions beans are bought in. Please badger Nestlé to make the Kit Kat recipe child-friendly, remove all traces of trafficking and go Fairtrade.”
This is their response,
“Thank you very much for your email. At Nestlé, as stated in our publicly-available business principles, practices and supplier agreements, we are against all forms of exploitation of children and any form of forced or compulsory labour. As a signatory to the Global Harkin Engel Protocol, Nestlé is committed to working with cocoa communities, Governments, NGOs and others to end child slavery, trafficking or other unacceptable labour practices on cocoa farms. We source the majority of our cocoa from the Ivory Coast and have been working to improve the lives of cocoa farmers there for many years by encouraging better farming practices, providing agricultural assistance, and working to improve labour practices and traceability in the supply chain. We are also a founding participant in the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an independent foundation set up in 2002 that is dedicated to ending child and forced labour in cocoa growing, and eliminating child trafficking and abusive labour practices. The ICI, a unique partnership between civil society and the cocoa industry, works to ensure that children are not exposed to unsafe tasks, helps children that are exploited and improves their access to education. Nestlé works with a number of certification organisations, including Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, on several coffee brands and projects. For cocoa we are currently funding a pilot scheme with UTZ working with three co operatives in the Ivory Coast and are committed to buying UTZ CERTIFIED beans from these co operatives in 2010. Thank you again for taking the trouble to contact us. We are grateful for the interest you have shown in our company.”
So they’re signed up to the right things then….
Very strange this need to imitate the spiritual while removing all the substance. It can’t be good for a society to live in the shallow end of existence all the time.
So right now we have moved my wife’s desk from the back hall into my office, plus some of our bedroom furniture so we have a little space in the bedroom for a cot. It’s very easy to grumble at times like this, when life isn’t ‘convenient’ or straight forward. But our blessings are without number and if our child arrives (hopefully in good health) our blessings will increase. We have been given so much that we lack for nothing on the baby front, and although we might improve things we actually lack for nothing materially in any other way either. Therefore despite the ‘inconvenience’ we are content.
I wasn’t going to blog on this, but instead ask the question, which books are absolutely critical for preaching and leading? It will be interesting to see as I strip away all the vast number of books, whether it means I actually spend more time in the Bible and more time before God seeking the right way of communicating the message. This ‘inconvenience’ could turn into another blessing…
So what can we do to be a part of something that liberates creation from its bondage to decay? Small things like this idea for book addicts like me. I’ve been mulling over what we could do as a household to change our lifestyle habits to better respond to the challenges creation faces. Aiming for zero landfill waste, might be the thing. Which with child number one on the way will be a challenge.
Recent changes include signing up to a new energy tariff – Betterplan from SSE, that rewards customers for consuming less. I now have an energy monitor that shows changes in energy consumption. It’s both cool and disturbing to see how much energy the kettle requires…and how much it costs. We’re composting, recycling more than ever and we’re about to begin growing some of our own veg.
If I remember I’ll write something on parenting, because it strikes me that if I don’t learn how to live more sustainably then my children won’t either and what I’ll do is raise more people who consume at levels the planet can’t afford. So perhaps the most profound thing I can do is to raise environmentally aware kids!
I am exhausted after another amazing day! We began with worship led by Gareth LeLong-McKean, where again we really sensed God’s presence with us. Plus teaching from myself and Terry Hotchkiss on how God could use even a single conversation to change someone’s destiny. Stirring stuff.
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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