A picture from inside the 'tent' at the Mighty Men of God conference 2008

Here's a picture of one section of the tent on the Mighty Men of God conference. They announced that there are about 52 000 guys here. It is quite an experience.

Technorati tags: Mighty men of God, Angus Buchan, Christian men, incredible blessing

How should one respond to theology that one doesn't agree with?

This week I had two of my closest friends email me with questions about events that have theologies that differ from where we are. Both of these friends are trusted and wise, people whose opinions I value and trust. I have often sought their input and guidance.

One of the queries related to the conference I am at this weekend, the 'Mighty men of God'. I will confess that I only visited the website to complete my registration, and did not take the time to read their statement of faith. However, that would not have been likely to alter my excitement to get here. Of course I have also seen the 'Faith like potatoes' movie and read the book of the same name. I have also been to one or two meetings where he has spoken, and so I was not unaware of what I assumed his theological position to be.

I know that there will be some elements of his theological position that are likely not to resonate with mine. The issues is, in instances like this, one knows most of the men here could care less about theology, they are gathered for a Christian weekend with other guys. They want a bit of challenge and inspiration.

However, the question is, how should one respond to such a theological difference? I can think of a few possible options:

1. You simply stay away. I have done this at certain times where I have previously encountered events that I believe are so out of step with the Gospel that one should not support them.

2. One could simply turn a blind eye (or ear) and go along with what is taking place. Sadly I have made this mistake as well a few times in my Christian walk.

3. The third option, to my mind, is that one could attend with a receptive, yet discerning, heart and see what the Lord may do. This is ,ost likely to be my position on most Church and Christian events. Heck each group seems to have certain blessed strengths and certain blindspots and weaknesses. My own denomination has many! However, God seems capable of working in spite of this!

What do you think? How do you respond to this delicate tension between doctrinal purity and less than perfect experiences of God's grace?

I think I have approached this weekend with the 3rd option in mind. I have already been blessed by the conversations, friendships, and the experience. But of course there are also some persons and perspectives that I have seen, heard, and just smiled at and not agreed with. True diversity requires some measure of acceptable compromise.

Technorati tags: Mighty men of God, Angus Buchan, Christian men, incredible blessing

So, I was thinking.... 5 hours from PMB to Greytown for the 'Mighty man of God Conference'

The flight from Cape Town to PMB was incredible. I jokingly said to the guys on the flight that I had never imagined that I would ever have a chance to fly on a private jet! After all, let us never forget that I was schooled in Boksburg. One of them reminded me that in the Bible there is some evidence that good things can come from the East!

It took about 1hour 50 minutes to get to PMB airport. It was a comfortable flight. Most of our time was spent catching up on the many smaller things we have needed to discuss and plan for, yet have not had a chance to do. On this flight we did not need to switch off our cell phones and computers, so I could send and receive emails (when we were flying over an area that had signal).

We picked up our little hired bus at Avis and hit to road to Greytown (77 km's from PMB). We drove for about 30 minutes when suddenly we saw a stream of lights on the little farm road - there must have been close to a thousand cars on the road! It looked a lot like the N1 south just before Rygel Ave in Pretoria at 7.30am! All in all it took us 5 hours to make our way onto Angus Buchan's farm!

What an amazing sight! We had heard that there were over 50 000 people who had arrived for the conference - I can well believe it! There are tents everywhere, small ones, big ones, people who came in fancy cars, others in clapped out pickup trucks, some who brought camper vans, others who are sleeping in very small tents. We have been blessed to have had some space reserved in a large tent (the kind that is often erected for a company function or Church fete). There are about 50 or so guys sleeping in this tent that could seat about 500 people.

The main arena where the ministry sessions are taking place is about a 10 minute walk from us (not too much fun on crutches!) It has seeting for 30 000 people and it is full to capacity with people standing all around the outside! Amazingly one walks through the corn fields (mielies for the South Africans) to get there! I could hear the praise and worship teams singing praise to God as we arrived.

It is quite amazing to think that so many men would gather to receive inspiration and blessing from the scriptures. Of course a conference such as this can be quite carefuly directed towards the needs and struggles of men. I personally look forward to hearing what is said, and seeing how the lives of many men are changed over the course of the weekend.

Truthfully however, I think that most of the life change will simply come through conversations around the fire, people having a chat in their tent, or waiting in line to have a shower. As I look around me there are old men and young men, black guys and white guys. The one thing we all have in common is that we love our Lord. It is fantastic to see Bibles on the sleeping bags, people reading their daily devotional guides and praying before they go to sleep.

Tomorrow is anogther day!

There is only one MTN tower in this region (and I guess at least one third to half of the guys are on MTN). So, calls out are sporadic, SMS messages take ages to be sent, and getting a data connection is quite a rarity! But I shall persevere and see if I can send out some pictures.

Please do pray for all the guys who have come here seeking renewal. For those who are in tough places and need to find some care, companionship and help. Pray for those who speak, for those who pray, and for those who will lead us in worship.

45 000 feet somewhere above Cape Town

Leather seats, air conditioner, a few snacks and a great view.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

We leave from Cape Town in the next 30 minutes, landing in PMB. The plane was booked for our trip to Kenya, but since we had to postpone that trip we are using the flight time to get our team to the 'Mighty man of God' conference. It seats 8 passengers, has a small boardroom, a loo, and space for 15kg's of luggage each.

Exciting stuff!

An update on the 'broken' leg in question

This morning I went for Xrays and a visit to the orthopedic surgeon. It has been two months since I broke the tibia and fibular on my left leg in a motorbike accident.

I was praying that I could loose the aircast and the crutches, but alas the Doctor says I shall have at least another 6 weeks (possibly 10). He is pleased with the progress and the leg is healing. However, an open (compound) fracture of this nature does take a little longer to heal. When I had the surgery the surgeon said it would take about 18 weeks, but somehow I thought I could get along a bit sooner than that. In this picture you can see the titanium pin with two screws in the ankle and a screw in the knee. The fractures on towards the left of the picture.

I leave for Pietermaritzburg on the Power jet in a little while. It is going to be fun at the mighty men of God conference! I'll send some updates as I can.

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Sent by Dr. Dion Forster from a Nokia phone
http://www.spirituality.org.za

A change of plans, 40 000 guys camping, and religious leaders take a stand in SA!

This weekend I was to fly with the Transformation Africa / Global day of prayer team to Kenya. However, as many would know there are still a few unsettled political matters in that region so we have decided to postpone that trip until we return from Israel in May.

Other news is that we shall be at the Mighty Men of God conference this weekend (organised by Angus Buchan - author of the book 'Faith Like potatoes'. Amazingly there are already 40 000 men signed up to come along for the weekend, camping in tents on Angus' farm! We shall be coming together to learn, grow, and deepen our faith. Can you imagine? 40 000 people traveling to Greytown in KZN to be together for a "men's" Christian weekend!? That is so encouraging! I am certain that it is going to be an experience of a lifetime! It will be an experience for a number of reasons:

1. It is going to be great to be with so many guys who are wanting to learn what it means to be a faithful son, husband, father, as a Christian.
2. It is going to be quite interesting to be camping on crutches!
3. We shall be flying in to PMB in the private jet (a first for me since entering my new post). It seast 8 persons and we'll be flying from a hangar just outside of Cape Town international airport.

I hope to post some pics, reflections, and insights! So, watch this space

Next week I shall be spending two days back in Gauteng at the NIRSA (National Innitiative for the Reformation of South Africa) conference. This conference is an innitiative of a number of prominent Southern African Christian leaders (Moss Nhla, Michael Cassidy, our own Vido Nyobole, and a host of others). They have invited 500 Christian leaders from both the pulpit ministry and marketplace ministries to gather for prayer and conversation about the current state of Southern Africa.

It is wonderful to see the Church taking a collective stand on issues such as HIV AIDS, crime, morality, good governance, and the economy.

If there is cell signal on Mr Buchan's farm I shall naturally post a few pictures and some blog posts from the Mighty men of God conference this weekend.

Picturing God.

I read this wonderful quote in my devotions this morning:

Picturing God must precede any speaking about God, for our pictures accompany all our words and they continue long after we fall silent before God. Images - the language of the psyche - are the coin of life; they touch our emotions as well as our thoughts; they read down into our bodies as well as toward our ideas. They arrive unbidden, startling, after our many years of effort to craft them. From 'Picturing God' by Ann Belford Ulanov.

The challenge is to see God before we attempt to talk about God.

A fantastic sunset on a paradigm shifting weekend.

This has been an absolutely fantastic weekend! It has been a long time since I've felt as inspired, engaged and challenged! The International Transformation Network conference was a real paradigm shift for me to realise just how important it is to equip 'marketplace' people to impact change in their workplace.

Since the team from Argentina, Canada and the USA were here we made the most of our time together. So, on Sunday and Monday evenings we had two 'marathon' meetings. They were marathons in the sense that there was great enthusiasm, excitement, and hard work as we met. However, they were also marathon meetings since we worked until midnight on Sunday evening, and just before 1am on Monday evening (Tuesday morning).

Tonight, however, my 'Half Time' meeting and conference call ended at 5pm, so Megie, Courts, Liam and I bought Steers burgers and went to the beach to watch the sunset.

I haven't felt this good in a very long time - hard work, worthwhile endeavour, and great rewards!

Redeeming the 'Broederbond' in Wellington

Today I am out at a Christian camp site, called 'Bergkroon', it is a gem! An incredible modern, spacious, well equiped camp site just outside Wellington - it's no surprise that it is beautiful, it used to be the headquarters of the 'Broederbond' (the Afrikaner version of a secret society, like the Free Masons). The Boederbond built this facility in the 1970's (I guess from the style of the architecture).

It has now been bought by a Christian group who have prayed throughout the premises, prepared it and got it all set up for Christian groups to use for their camps and weekends. In some senses one could suggest that what was intended for evil has been redeemed for good!

Just take a look at this setting. Isn't it incredible?

A great day in Parliament

It was a great honour and joy to be in the South African parliament today. There were many business and government leaders who shared the common vision of working together to create ways to bring about God's healing and transformation by creating strategic alliances for minstry in Churches and the 'marketplace'.

I am encouraged that there are people from various political parties, church groupings, and businesses who have the courage to work together to address the needs of our community, as God would have us do it.

For many years I have been so caught up in the 'work of the Church', forgetting that the Church is in fact present through its members throughout society - that is where (and how) ministry takes place.

Anyway, here's a picture of me in the 'old' chambers of parliament. We weren't allowed to take photos in the new parliamentary chamber.

Off to parliament today

This has been a fruitful, yet busy, weekend. We started with the ITN Confernce on Friday morning. It was a truly inspiriational event. I have given some reflection on the challenge to 'make the most of every opportunity' (note every, NOT just every religious, or ever Church, opportunity) as Paul writes in Eph 5:15-17 in this Wednesday's program The ministry and me that will be broadcast at 9am (CAT) on Radio Pulpit (you can listen to it via streaming audio at http://www.radiopulpit.co.za ).

Over the course of the weekend I could sense a shift in the hearts and minds of the delegates, most of whom were from 'the marketplace' i.e., from workplaces, large corporations, high office in government and other political parties, and education. There was a growing sense of recognition that God desires that we utilize every opportunity at ouir disposal, 'living wise, and not foolish lives', to establish God Kingdom of grace. The alliance between pulpit pastors and people who see their presence in the marketplace as an opportunity for ministry, is powerful! Of course the aim is to achieve the will of God through such strategic ministry, and in so doing not only to bring personal salvation, but also to work against systemic sin (such as poverty, greed, human rights abuses, corruption etc.)

The clinching thought for me was when one person asked 'If Bill Gates were converted in your Church, would you put him in charge of your Church's finance committee, or would you equip and train him to go back into the marketplace to impact the global economy with God's will and grace?' A real challenge!

So, today we shall be in parliament with some key leaders to seek to influence the climate of our nation by speaking peace, sharing grace, but also bringing challenge and truth. We met with some key South African and international leaders until just after 11pm last night to prepare for this critical meeting today.

I hope to be able to send a few pictures through, and some reflections. Please do keep this event in your prayers.