Warren's Reflections

Jesus sought and enjoyed table fellowship with everyone. For him, hospitality over food was an intimate expression of God's grace. So, when Jesus wanted to initiate a remembrance of loving sacrifice, he did so as part of a meal. Gatherings of the first disciples and their converts could remember the practical outpouring of grace that Jesus brought to the world when they ate their meals together.  It seems that when this remembrance, which became known as the Eucharist, Lord's Supper or Communion, was separated from regular meals, it, in some quarters at least, became pious, inward, exclusive and other-worldly. In the Baptist Church I grew up in, communion was forbidden to a child, and you really needed to have demonstrated a decision for Jesus before you could participate.  Thus you were under pressure to let the plate and tray go by - grace wasn't for you! Grace only proceeded from commitment ... not preceding it! We know that this doesn't make any theological sense - ...

The world needs deeply spiritual places centred wholly on Jesus and following his example and ethics into reconciliation and social justice. The world needs an unequivocal voice and body that addresses poverty, inequality, racism and violence. This voice and body does not waver with popularity cults that look back, but rather follow the Spirit-led nuances into the recreating future God is seeking. This, as I have recently written in a book, is the church the world needs and the quality of church God requires.  Such a church as this will be completely inclusive, open and welcoming - offering new hope, purpose and fulfilment. Such a church, while deeply fuelled by the power of God, will be earthly focussed - for this is where the mission lies. The people currently within this church have definitively and permanently put aside their egos, personal agendas and theological nit-picking - because they have been overwhelmed by the transformative potential of God's grace. 

As a priority justice issue, we need to be doing everything possible in the cause of reconciliation with our First Peoples. This of course means closing the gap in so many areas and dealing with the outrageous levels of incarceration of our indigenous people, but it also means pursuing treaties and greater truth-telling in establishing firmly in the minds of future generations the proper place of our First Nations in Australia's long history. For the disgraceful way they have been treated, we need to keep saying sorry until reconciliation is complete. This is even more urgent in the face of the devastating 'Voice' referendum result.  So don't let me hear that 'Welcomes to Country' or acknowledgements of country are not needed. Of course they are ... because they are respectful and educational and traditional, and keep the fires of reconciliation burning. How can we sleep while this injustice is unresolved?! We so easily forget we live on unceded land - we take i...

What benefit can we find in prayer when war and violence seem only to get worse and children, despite our seemingly very reasonable prayers, keep dying? I have encountered and experienced very real answers to prayer at times - mine and others, small and big results - but many of my prayers seemed to have remained ineffectual. I believe that God is alive, totally loving and compassionate, and can and does intervene according to the common good ... but to this last point - very obviously not all the time.  This has led me to two very crucial conclusions. Firstly, prayer is largely about aligning ourselves with God, building our sacred relationship with the Divine Trinity, and thereby understanding who God is. Secondly, prayer is about attuning our behaviour and action to God's will or God's kingdom ways - where we become the solution to our own heartfelt desires. We pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is heaven", and then we should get on with it...

I have normally apologised along the journey when, usually in hindsight, I understand that I have neglected someone. This has usually occurred through being, mostly correctly, completely focussed on the bigger picture of the wider community. But what about apologies due to me that are not forthcoming? What do you do with that going forward?  I actually had a couple apologise to me a few years down the track (for potentially being part of destabilising my ministry) when they came to realise that God's mission into the world sometimes needs to have a higher priority than internal church agendas. That they had themselves become so involved in significant mission was gratifying enough for there to be no further tension between us.  Yet I still await an apology from CCVT for the appalling way they handled one ministry situation (having taken on one of their basket-case churches and brought new purpose and relevance) - an apology that will likely never happen. You can forgive and mo...

Good theology needs to aim, rather than remaining rigid and arrogant, at becoming humble, curious and generous (with thanks to the writing of Brian McLaren who has personally moved through his own process of discovery and change). Good theology, to be good, must lead into having a greater redemptive influence on everything that happens around you.  What is the point of pushing people away based on a minor doctrinal point that is probably biblically arguable or dubious anyway? Yet it happens so often. And sometimes this, combined with ego and fundamentalist tendencies, leads to the destruction of quality and effective ministries! Not to mention how church often degenerates into addressing internal agendas and preferences, leaving the broader community high and dry.  Worse still, people can live in a neighbourhood with the appearance of acceptance and friendliness, but then in the pious confines of the church, start applying arbitrary labels in terms of people's spiritual status...