Stephen's weblog

Very excited. When we were in Vanuatu in January, David and Dylan and I had a few days to kill, so went down to Tanna Island to visit Yassur Volcano, that I’d seen on Survivor Vanuatu. It was amazing enough that we got there in the first place, turning up to the airport to take the last 3 seats, me sitting next to a guy staying exactly where we wanted to go, hitching a ride with him from one side of the Island to the other and joining his tour of the volcano. It was a spectacular site, with amazing pyrotechnics that went for hours - incredibly beautiful.

While we were there, some people were there taking photos for an extreme post office that was going to be launched there. They said that we might end up on stamps or a postcard, but we didn’t take them too seriously. A few days ago I thought I’d check. I went to and saw a link to volcano post . I saw a stamp that looked a bit exciting, so I clicked on the stamps link and up came . That was even cooler, so I clicked on the top right stamp and up came - the contents of which are here.

How cool is that?

// posted by Stephen @ 4:20 pm

The Early Church

In our small group, we've been trying to explore what happened when the early Church gathered. It turns out that you can read vast swathes of Scripture without seeing any good answers here, but eventually we came up witha fair few things that seemed to have happened. Here are my thoughts....

Although the early Church was imperfect, what they did when they gathered together can provide a good example for us. Although they lived in a particular historical and cultural situation, their positive habits then can hopefully be used today in a culturally relevant way. In imitating them, we hope to share their passion, commitment, high regard in the community and influence on the world.

The early Church gathered together frequently (Heb 10:25, Acts 2:46, 5:12)
They prayed regularly, passionately and with amazing results (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 4:22-25)
They ate together and celebrated communion with one another Acts 2:42, 46)
They shared their possessions with each other (Acts 2:44-45, 4:32-35)
They were committed to teaching, with an emphasis on each person teaching everyone else, through the spoken word and singing (Col, 3:16, 1 Cor 14:26, Eph 5:19, 1 Tim 4:13, Acts 2:42)
They were committed to lovingly admonishing and correcting each other where needed (Col 3:16 cf 1 Cor 5, Matt 18:15-20, Gal 6:1, 2 Thes 3:14-15, Titus 3:10-11)
They were surrounded by miraculous signs performed by the apostles (Acts 2:43, 5:12-16)
They encouraged each other, and saw this as a key reason to gather (Heb 3:13, 10:25)
They worshipped God reverently and with awe. (Heb 12:28-29, Acts 2:43)
They read the Scriptures publicly (1 Tim 4:13)
They were open to God speaking to them (1 Cor 14, esp v 26)

If we are to follow the early Church’s example, we will aim to gather frequently to encourage, pray, eat, teach and lovingly correct one another. We will share our possessions, read Holy Scripture and be open to God’s voice and miracles. We will worship God reverentially and with awe.

State Youth Games has been and gone for another year, and the process of feedback and assessment is just about over as well. Overall it seems that the event was successful. The overall atmosphere was better than any other year, team spirit seemed great wherever we looked and there were less hassles than any other years.

As usual, I was absolutely destroyed for the few days afterwards, but probably not as badly as in other years. Hopefully that means I’m taking less of a role and letting others do more.

As with most years, we received criticism about Springwood dominance. Only a few people make the criticism, but it is consistent. I hate it, but can’t do much about it. The fact that I’m from Springwood makes it all so annoying that they dominate the referees, officials and many of the events.

The officials I won’t apologise for – we need people I can trust and can train and can work well together, and they’re role is completely team-neutral. Referees are a much sorer point. I was hoping to have paid refs in almost all sports, but once again we drew a big blank there. The Gatton region isn’t providing the volume of referees and umpires that I hoped it would, so at the last minute we needed to call on volunteer refs in many sports. As usual, it was Springwood people who volunteered (or who were made to do it), as very few others would. So although we try as hard as possible to stop it from happening, we had situations where Springwood refs were reffing games with Springwood teams involved. I hate it, but there is little that we could do about it. We might have to start mandating that teams provide a certain number of officials for refs, officials, setup etc. I must admit that it bugs me that we are looked down on because our Church is so generous and self-sacrificial, when our refs would rather be resting and not getting exhausted for our own games!

The sporting dominance is frustrating also. We’re always tweaking the points system to stop us from winning too easily, but without too much luck. For Springwood the event has lost a bit of its passion because it is expected that we will win every year, and we know that we are a target for others. Someone asked me how we have so many good sportsmen in our Church each year. It got me thinking. We’ve never tried to recruit the best athletes from outside. We invite our friends, but not just if they excel at sport. Also, the team photo we took this year bears very little resemblance to the one we took after the inaugural year, so it hasn’t been the one group of exceptional athletes that have won each year. My guess is that because SYG is a big deal to us it has meant that sportier people have been more likely to stay in the Church and that we have then organised more sporty events in our calendar to please those same people. So the cycle continues and we keep either attracting or improving people who are good at sport. Who knows how it works. All I know is that I can’t wait until we lose so the passion can be back the next year!

Checkout whe website www.stateyouthgames.com