1.random thoughts of a rambling mind
- the state of ch-eology.
2.the study of laughter - ch-eology
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Sermon of the Mouse
"Thank you for inviting me to come to your church. I thought about it and realised that maybe Disneyland and the Church do have a lot in common. And as i began to organise my thoughts, i saw how ingenious it was to invite me to share. I really believe that if your church were to apply our principles, you could become as successful as Disneyland.
First, make sure your enterprise seems exciting, even dangerous-but be quick to let your people know that there really is no danger involved. Give the illusion of great risk, but make sure everything is perfectly safe.
Second, admit you are in the entertainment business. People won't care what you say as long as they're entertained. Keep your people happy. Don't give them anything negative.And don't make demands on them. Just keep them diverted from the ugly realities of today's world, and they will keep coming back for more.
Third, make everything look religious. Make the religious experience so intricate , so complex that only the professionals can pull it off while all the laypeople stand around watching with their mouth open. Just as people would rather watch a mechanical bird sing on cue, so they would rather watch an elaborate worship than participate in worshipping.
Fourth and finally, pretend that there are no problems. At Disneyland we dress our security guards up as smiling rabbits or friendly bears because we don't want anyone's experience to be ruined by the sight of law enforcement personnel. disguise your problems behind a warm smile and a firm handshake. Leave your troubles at home, and let the church be a happy place of friendly pastors and smiling deacons.
People today want good clean entertainment and they want an environment that is safe for children, family and friends. I am so glad to see that the church is moving in this direction. Thank you."
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport..
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.
They don't need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground
And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?
And the generation prays
like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules.
Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide.
Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mould them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside.
On the outside?
They hardly care.
They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell.
A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God.
My tomorrow is his today.
My distant hope is his 3D.
And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself.
And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed.
You know your a YWAMER when someone asks you when are you going on the mission field next
You know you are a YWAm'er when your english just gets bad'er and bad'er but people still undestand you. :) It's called YWAM english....
You know your a YWAMer when you fail to see what's wrong with having 20 people in a 12 passenger van.
You know friends in just about every country.
You know you're a YWAMer when you come home with SOMEONE ELSE'S accent....eh?
You know you are a YWAMer when you leave your children with someone and you don't even know their last name and aren't worried.
when you go to your own country and hear the accent.
when you finally get to go "home" and it doesn't feel all that great...
You know you're a ywamer when on the next mission trip you go on with non-ywamers you pack everything you need in one small duffle while everyone else brings large suitcases.
you head out your door without any money and your not worried.
your mothers from country x, your dads from country y and you live in country z. You speak 3 different languages in your family.
this is definitely the journey to know God and experience all that he has instore for you.....once a YWAMER will always be a YWAMER
when you said yes and amen to somehow "unknown"... but having peace in trusting, believing and obeying God!
...when you can't remember which spelling/pronunciation/common term is the correct one for your country of origin.
when everytime you hear the word YWAM you feel as if it's your last name
WE ARE NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME ANYMORE!!!
when the other languages are not that foreign to you anymore... ....in fact, you even get this "foreigh accent"(after a few years living in other country) in your own native language.... weird, eh... and everybody bugs you about it... or keep asking you- "where you from?", when your are really @ "home".......
when your roommate is almost 40 and you still sleep in bunk beds
when a picture of "waves of young people crashing on the shores" isn't from some creepy nightmare
you find yourself randomly bursting out in song..in a foreign language..usually a worship and song and you make people uncomfortable because you aren't self conscious anymore bout your faith.
When your traveling and you can spot an international all ages crew of people with a guitar in hand and you know without asking that it is an outreach team!
When you know how to say "Hi" and "Thank you, God" in 25 differend languages.
You know you're a YWAMer when good-bye's aren't such a big deal cuz you know you'll see the person again somewhere else in the world.
you've walked up to a complete stranger and asked if you could pray for them
* when you are spoiled for the ordinary!
* when you organize your address book by country * when you can't go on vacation, alone, ANYWHERE because you know SOMEONE, EVERYWHERE (YWAMer or supporter)!
you know you're a ywamer when you can only contact your friends and family through facebook, myspace, or skype.
You know you're a YWAMer when someone gets married, and the entire wedding looks like you're at a United Nations conference!
...And when you can't talk to half your friends, because they live in other countries. And when you can feel high-maitnence living out of a suitcase. If you've had 15+ roommates at a time. If you greet old DTS buddies in a different language. And if you've eaten weird ethnic food in your school dining hall everyday for months. And finally, if you've been through Dean Sherman's 'Relationships' and Spiritual Warfare' teaching and then met him while thinking "He doesn't look anything like he did in those 1980's videos."
when pretty much all the people around you has read "Is that really you God?" and knows where Luzanne is..
When your bed, couch, and office are all the same thing.
You know you're a YWAMer when you've been working outside of YWAM for over a year but you still consider yourself a YWAMer!
...you dream in languages you don't even know.
...you get random ywam group invites and actually join them. ...all your facebook goups and networks are all ywam related.
You know you are a YWAMer when you make a new friend, get close, then they move to another country.
I know I'm a YWAMer when I've had 36 roomates in 18 months!!!
You know you're a YWAMer when you can laugh at every single thing posted
Hi again, my faithful readers... I went to East Coast today with my cell so i thought i would introduce some of them to you...
There's Samuel and Gregory in front... Joel, Ben, Weiming and Bryan behind
Gregory hasn't cycled in years and it was a fine start for him.. The end wasn't too bad as well...he knew clearly what he wanted...BK!!
ah ha! This was my best moment!! Seeing ben teach bryan to cycle on his own accord... and he was patient..excellent!!
the loud talker and the fast talker...
it was quite deja vu for me actually... the awkwardness of adolescence, the blatant honesty of boyhood, the severe need for attention and affirmation and the overcompensation for lack of esteem.
i was pretty much that awkward teenager... so many situations i dreaded i acted i fumbled
it's interesting cos i remember my mum coming to urge me on to play with my kinder mates in nursery i think.. the kids would be in full flight..zooming around like planes while i hid in the corner dreading
i don't understand why people don't think i can be shy
I'm a Mighty Man! And so are you. the best part is, it's not even about us. We don't belong to ourselves. Just like those back then, they were David's and not their own. Whose are you, mighty one?
