megachurch

Regularly I am asked what I think about megachurches. As such from time to time I like to read and discourse about church in all her forms. Annually the Hartford Institute for Religion Research publishes a US national survey of megachurch attendance. Here are some prominent finding of the 2009 survey:

• Young and single adults are more likely to be in megachurches than in smaller churches.
• Nearly two-thirds of attenders have been at these churches 5 years or less.
• Many attenders come from other churches, but nearly a quarter haven’t been in any church for a long time before coming to a megachurch.
• Attenders report a considerable increase in their involvement in church, in their spiritual growth, and in their needs being met.
• Forty-five percent of megachurch attenders never volunteer at the church.
• New people almost always come to the megachurch because family, friends or co-workers invited them.
• What first attracted attenders were the worship style, the senior pastor and the church’s reputation.
• These same factors also influenced long-term attendance, as did the music/arts, social and community outreach and adult-oriented programs.
• Attenders can craft unique, customized spiritual experiences through the multitude of ministry choices and diverse avenues for involvement that megachurches offer.

You can download the survey here.

So what do you think about megachurch?

Food

It is hunting season in South Africa. I will be catering for a variety of hunting parties. As a result my blogging efforts will become sporadic.

That said, here’s a sneak peek at this weekends menu:

Thursday Supper:

• Sundried tomato and mascarpone cheese soup served with Moroccan harissa dusted capsicums and fire baked yoghurt bread
• Blesbok babotie served on yellow Basmati Rice with sambals and Mrs Balls™ homemade chutney
• Pears in vanilla infused red wine stuffed with mascarpone cheese and walnuts

Friday Supper:

Butternut soup served with biltong, cremazola and fire baked beer bread

• Pan fried kudu steak marinated in marula jelly and green Madagascan peppercorns
• Baked potato served with biltong crème fraiche
• Green Pumpkin stuffed with ‘tellichery’ pepper mince, croutons and fresh cream
• Fire roasted beer bananas peppered with walnuts smothered in thick cinnamon cream and maple syrup

Any takers?

Blog available as Facebook notes

Just to let you all know that I finally got my act together and that you can now view this blog as notes via my Facebook profile.

belong, believe behave…

Reflection on Jesus Christ’s philosophy of ministry, no matter how brief,  seems to reveal a discernable pattern. Jesus sought first to create a safe place where marginalised people people felt secure. Security breeds a sense of belonging. More often than not the people that spent time with Jesus slowly began to believe his remarkable claims. Those who progressed from belonging to belief increasingly began to act in accordance with their sense of identity and beliefs.

This philosophy of ministry remains attractive. As the saying goes ‘people don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care’.  Sadly, I suspect that for many their church experience reflects quite a different philosophy. (Church here being defined as an extension of Christ’s ministry to usher in the Kingdom of God).

Allow me to caricaturise my suspicions… Behave! Believe! (like me) then on those grounds you may belong… Just as long as you keep behaving and believing.

Encouragingly and increasingly, Christian ministries are once again embracing the philosophy of Jesus. The following article by John Burke illustrates this well.

only a matter of time

In light of the calls for the decriminalisation of prostitution ahead of the 2010 World Cup it seemed to me inevitable that a similar call would be made for the decriminalisation of marijuana. Find it here.

Interestingly Thuli Madonsela commentator on this blog is one of the legal consultants.

Surving SkyNet

The year is 2018... Judgement day has come and gone, and yet the machines' relentless and murderous quest to see the extermination of the human race continues....


John Connor (Christian Bale) is the fated leader of the human resistance against SkyNet and its army of terminators. Seen by most as the prophetic leader of the resistance Connor has learned to trust no one. It is this that makes the entrance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) part human, part machine so difficult. As the film unfolds we see Connor deciding to 'follow his heart' as he joins Wright (bent on redemption) on an search and rescue (later destroy) mission into the heart of SkyNet's operation centre.

McG's Terminator Salvation made a tidy US$ 105 495 000.00 at the box office. Despite what seems to be a financial success (certainly true in South African terms) the film has met with mostly critical if not scathing review. I suspect the film targets an audience of a lower age than any of the film's prequels (the lack of theatre blood is noticeable.) However, my own critique lies not in the film making per se (the make-up, CGI and special effects are fantastic!), but is rather, levelled at its' robotic storyline. The film just lacks heart...

Ours is a world defined by the heartfelt narrative keys of relational storytelling. One can't be blamed for thinking that, in the mind of the scriptwriters, the heart of good film making is blowing stuff up. The film falls short by doing special effects at the expense of narrative.

The fact that Marcus Wright is part human part machine postures the film for a thoughtful exploration of theme of technologically modified humanity, cyborgs and the like (c.f. the ongoing work of Kevin Warwick of Redding University). Disappointingly, here too it fails any prospect of thoughtful dialogue is in the words of a fellow reviewer '...smothered in quasi-religious symbolism and primary-school philosophising'.

Hopefully this is last, and the terminator will not be back...