Dynamic growth
1. Focussed on paving new ground
2. Change is quick
3. Results seen in increased reach (eg. numbers with newcomers, deeper repentance)
4. Characterised by innovation, movement, and problem solving

Static growth
1. Focussed on strengthening what exists
2. Change is slow
3. Results seen in increased stability (eg. confidence in belief, regular attendance)
4. Characterised by repetition, stability and procedures

Application number 1:
Both require different kinds of investment. Dynamic involves *stretching* or extending those who will grow, where static involves educating them.

Application number 2:
A formula for describing a churches as whole entities:
Too much dynamic, not enough static => flaky, shallow church.
Too much static, not enough dynamic => stagnant, luke-warm church.
Well-proportioned static and dynamic growth => healthy, thriving church.
Not enough dynamic, not enough static => dying church.

Application number 3:
I reckon true static growth requires dynamic application of procedures and repetition. I think the best dynamic growth will follow a set of norms and patterns common in all entities characterised by dynamic growth. Where is your church?

Postscript: After I wrote this, I saw a great post about how growth interacts with healthy business in particular applying it to the word entrepreneur which is packed to the hilt with the idea I have described as ‘dynamic growth’ above.

Notice how at the beginning of Mark (1:1-13) John prophesies that Jesus will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Isn’t it interesting that immediately Jesus’ own baptism follows and he sees the very same Holy Spirit descending upon him. The voice rings out “This is my beloved Son, with him I am well pleased”.

Could it be that this statement is prophetic for the effect of the indwelling of the Spirit in every believer?

I’m going to venture that it is a foretaste of the achievements of Christ. I wonder if the explanation of the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism is that Jesus’ results in the ability to ‘please’ God… as sons (and daughters)? It kind of fits with the Christian doctrine of adoption, as well as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It also works on to highlight a couple of contrasts at the narrative level:
- the dismay of the crowds over their inability to stand before God because of their sins is contrasted with the pleasure of God in his Son.
- Water baptism, which has no saving effect but only a public personal resolve to please God, is contrasted with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who personally inspires and activates God-pleasing deeds.

When we start out in faith our suffering is highly educative. We ask questions like why did God allow this to happen to me? Why doesn’t God do something about this? We learn many things about God and the world – that God loves the world, but it is broken. God hates evil but allows it to remain. You learn many things about yourself, like it is hard to control my desire to react to my circumstances, it is hard to avoid sinning when pummelled to the ground. I want to lash out at others or myself by self-destructive behaviour. I want to give up, but know I can’t. When these lessons are learnt, what remains? When you know you can’t give up, just because it is hard. When you know others have brought this upon you and it is not your place to retaliate. When you know that self abuse will achieve nothing. When you know you have nowhere to hide from it’s pain.

I’ll tell you: grief remains.

Fearless, pure knowledge of the brokenness and evil in the world.

This works for suffering caused by others. You can have insight into the mind of Christ, how, exactly how, with what intellectual thinking he can turn to his crucifiers and pray for their forgiveness. He sees evil for what it was, and lowers his towering figure, bends down to eyeball it and speaks directly to it, eye to eye. “Forgive them, they don’t understand what they are doing.” Did these people cause him pain? Yes, they were his torturers, and his murderers. But the pain they inflicted did not cause Christ to give up, lash out, retreat…. He simply continued to do what he always did: he showed grace. When suffering has done it’s work on you, I venture that you may eventually know how to do the same.

This works for suffering caused by happenstance. When, by no fault of anyone, evil is unleashed upon hapless victims. You can have insight into the mind of Christ, looking upon the tomb of his friend, his dead friend, and weeping. No one to blame. Just the pure, infinite grief of a broken, fallen world. Weeping for its brokenness. Unadulterated, undistracted emotional pain. Grief remains.

But I tell you grief remains for a little while. For even the Messiah’s grief is replaced by joy.

Christ, after suffering and dying, rises.

Lazarus, after suffering and dying, rises.

This world, after all its suffering and death, will be restored.

I’ve been trying out Twitter for about 4 months now and I think I’ve got the twitter influence thing sussed out. Let me know what you think.

nobodies or n00bies = don’t follow many, not many followers
well-connected nobodies = follow many, many followers (similar numbers)
celebrities = don’t follow many, followers in 10,000s

spammers = follow many, aren’t followed by many

nobody companies = don’t follow many, not many followers
popular/powerful companies = don’t follow many, followers in 10,000s

Presuming you are a nobody, when building your twitter empire, aim to follow well-connected nobodies. They are the only ones who are likely to follow you back. I am a nobody trying to build a twitter empire too, so you can follow me here. (I’ve connected an application designed for aspiring-to-be well-connected nobodies that will automatically follow you back if you follow me.)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 14 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 88 posts. There were 33 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 16mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was May 15th with 187 views. The most popular post that day was George Whitefield vs the porpoise .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, search.aol.com, mpjensen.blogspot.com, google.com, and stjudesrandwick.org.au.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for smile, nerd, cardboard box, hellfire, and diamond rings.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

George Whitefield vs the porpoise July 2009
10 comments

[Phew!]… [as in diamond-ring-level-phew!] October 2009
2 comments

Disappointed by Karl Barth July 2009
14 comments

George Whitefield vs the annihilationist August 2009
2 comments

Why it’s ok to believe in God November 2009
11 comments

On Sunday, Natalie and I had the privilege of listening to Andrew Katay preach what was quite possibly the best Christmas sermon we've ever heard. We'll post a link to it as soon as it becomes available. Andrew warned us against sleeping through Christmas because it's too familiar. And he woke us up to out how God's incarnation as a human changes everything. At one point, we paused to dwell on what 'getting' the incarnation does to our view of ju … Read More

via standing and waiting

Christmas play – Jesus is other

Unfortunately such a large body of work suffers from some serious flaws. The first is that many of his interpretations are superficial readings of the text that may or may not be backed by heavyweight theology. He has a reason for saying everything he says, and this is entirely admirable, however those that have spent the longest amount of time in the text don’t appear to back his interpretations. (Yes, I know I ought to give examples here. No, I can’t be bothered to.) The second is that his expression is quite idiomatic to him and his location. Often in an attempt to sound familiar, Peterson will use expressions that actually sound odd to me. At  one point in James 1 he translates ‘blessing’ as ‘mighty fortunate’. Although fortune is an adequate translation of markarios, I don’t think it is ultimately helpful as it removes the God agency of the blessing. The third fault is that those who most need it are prohibited from using it because it is still relatively difficult English. Peterson still uses large complex sentences and difficult vocabulary at times and this eliminates his text’s usefulness to NESB readers and those with less formal education.

What I would like to do is create a similar resource, an interpretive commentary, that is not my own interpretations but one that follows the interpretations and exegetical decisions of well-reputed Biblical scholars. This way the interpretations carry a great amount of weight, and only require me to read the commentary carefully, then boil down the scholars’ discoveries as best as possible. My very firsrt chapter is James 1. I have followed Douglas Moo’s Pillar commentary for most of the exegetical decisions, but the rendering of the text is entirely my own. Here it is:

I, James am a servant of God and of King Jesus. I send my greetings to the twelve tribes, the new people of God, scattered across the world.
Consider it a joyful blessing whenever you face trials or tests of any kind, because when your faith is tested it ends up becoming stronger and lasting longer. Let these trials strengthen you, because they will make you mature and exactly how God wants you. You won’t lack anything.
If someone lacks wisdom and doesn’t know how to live in any particular situation on earth, ask God. He loves to give wisdom. He will surely help you. But ask with an aim to serve God*, definitely don’t ignore his plans as you ask, it is immature to do so. When you ignore his plans you show you can be easily influenced in any direction, like waves being pushed in different directions by the wind. When you ignore God like this, you shouldn’t expect to get any wisdom at all.
If a Christian is facing the test of poverty, they should be glad that their faith is being strengthened. The same goes for someone else  who faces the test of being rich one moment then poor the next: he should be glad too. Riches can disappear as quickly as a flower dies in a field on a scorching hot day. Rich people can be living an busy, glamourous life when suddenly everything withers away.
God shows favour to anyone who meets a challenge and comes out with a stronger faith as a result. God will reward such people with glorious life. In fact, God promises this reward all people who love him this much.
Never accuse God of tempting you to sin when you meet these challenges. God is never tempted to do evil himself. He would never want anyone to do evil. People are tempted by their own evil cravings that lure them into danger then seize them and drag them away. Embracing such cravings gives them the opportunity to lay eggs in your heart from which sin is spawned. Sin that is left to fester produces death. Friends, don’t be tricked into thinking God tempts people to do evil, because God gives good things.
Every single good gift comes from above, from the Father who gave light to the planets and stars (who is even more glorious than these heavenly bodies because he never changes or darkens). Our unchanging God has fulfilled his age-old plan to rescue his creation. His gift to us of new birth by the gospel message is the first part of his plan to restore the whole universe.

Now, note this carefully: be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. Because human anger does not produce behaviour that is pleasing to God.
Therefore strip off all your dirty morals and keep fighting against the numerous evils that are always attacking you. Concentrate on cultivating the gospel message that is planted in your hearts; be willing to let it change your life. Accepting it like this will save you. So pay careful attention to it and then make changes to your life accordingly. The gospel message  shows you what people are really like, and what they should be like. Just listening to it without letting it change you is like looking at a mirror, then forgetting what you saw as soon as you turn around. However people who look into the new law of Jesus Christ, and keep on doing what it says will be blessed by God.
Anyone who thinks they have a genuine religious experience must keep a tight rein on their tongue. People who don’t bother to control their speech are fooling themselves, their religion is meaningless. Pure, stainless religion will include caring for people from unfortunate circumstances, and avoiding being polluted by all the ways of life that dishonour God.

The first is when he is on the boat in Mark 8:

Mark 8:14   Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.  15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”  16 They said to one another, “It is because we have no bread.”  17 And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?  18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?  19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” They said to him, “Twelve.”  20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.”  21 Then he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Here’s the logic:

Jesus fed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread – with 12 baskets left over. That’s 1 loaf per 1000 people.

Jesus fed 4000 people with 7 loaves of bread – with 7 baskets left over. That’s 1 loaf per 571.428571 people.

There are 12 people on the boat. They have 1 loaf of bread…. Do you think Jesus can manage it?

The numbers have gone down, but the stakes have gone up for the disciples.

The next example I’ve come across for this weekend is when he rebukes the pharisees for grumbling at him (Luke 15) – he was eating with tax collectors and sinners.

100 sheep – Isn’t it reasonable to celebrate when a lost sheep from a fold of 100 is found?

10 coins – Isn’t it reasonable to celebrate with a widow who has found one of her 10 coins?

2 brothers – Isn’t it reasonable for an elder brother to celebrate with his father who has recovered his lost son? … But he doesn’t.

The numbers go down while the stakes rise for the pharisees. In the last parable, it is clear that the resentful elder brother precisely characterizes them. The pharisees refuse to celebrate the return of the tax collectors and sinners to God’s presence.

Bread loaf image from http://indianapublicmedia.org/eartheats/homemade-bread-food-love/

Prodigal son image from http://www.heqigallery.com/shop/Easter_Prints.html