It’s Cup Day, which means it’s a public holiday here in Victoria. As such, it was a quiet day, with no classes or anything. For us, we took it as an opportunity to do some shopping before our big move down to Tasmania. There’s some furniture that we need to take with us – a new bed for Annabelle, and a new change table, so we headed down to Ikea to get some new furniture. We also got a couple of things for now – a new chair for Annabelle to eat dinner at our little coffee table, and some Christmas decorations to liven up our place for the last month or so.
Well, we’ve finished out placement at Waverley, which means we’re officially into our final countdown to commissioning. Including today, there are 28 days until commissioning. I thought that as a little outlet for me – and as an insight for everyone outside of the college – I would share what’s happening as the disciples of the cross prepare for our commissioning. Continue reading “Commissioning countdown – study and review”→
As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, Release the shackles of sin and praise God!, was given at The Salvation Army Broadford corps on Sunday 18 November, 2012. The Bible reading was Acts 3:1-16.
Ex-leper or lame beggar?
When I think of the miraculous healings in the bible, my mind always gets drawn to the scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, where Brian meets an ex-leper, begging for alms. “Spare a talent for an old ex-leper” Through the scene, we find that this ex-leper spent 16 years behind the bell, before Jesus walked up to him and said “You’re cured” without so much as a “by your leave.” As such, he’s now healed, but doesn’t have anything to do, as all he knew how to do was to beg for alms. So despite being healed, he stays in his old life, begging, and wishing that he was just a bit of a cripple during the week – enough to beg, but not as annoying as full on leprosy.
This is a sermon I gave at Mooney Valley Salvation Army on Sunday 5 August, 2012, on the text from Colossians 3:4.
We’re going to continue looking at Colossians, and today we’re looking at chapter 3:4 which says, “When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” We’ll get onto this in a bit, but first, let me share with you a bit of my story. I’ve been a Christian my whole life. While some may have fantastic stories of their conversion, of a miraculous about-face from the depths of despair to the heights of glory, my story seems bland in comparison. My parents were Church of Christ ministers, I went to Church every Sunday, went to Sunday School, for all intents and purposes, I was a good Christian boy. When my parents switched to the Anglican Church, I went along as well, and continued to grow up in the Church. I made decisions along the way, but to be honest, I’m not certain it made that much effect on my life. As hard as it is to say, sometimes, I was a Sunday Christian – I would be there on a Sunday, but the rest of the week, my life didn’t exactly reflect what I was being taught. There was something missing. Continue reading “Schrödinger’s Faith”→
Yesterday, I experienced something that I haven’t experienced for a long time. Teasing. It came out of the blue. Or actually… the black commodore.
I had arrived back from a buck’s event, and no-one was home and I didn’t have a key. As I was in my sports gear, I decided that I might as well use the time to go for a run. I’m running along Walter Road East, and that’s when it happened. A guy in a black commodore drove past from behind me and yelled out these two words.
“Still Fat!”
My first reaction was that of anger and being offended. I was thinking to myself, “How sad is that guy’s life that he feels the need to tease, to demoralise, someone who he doesn’t even know?” I couldn’t believe it.
As I went along, I quickly moved to prayer. I asked God to bless this guy with the gift of encouragement. So that instead of yelling out obscenities to random people, he would encourage them as he drives past.
Finally, I used it as a piece of encouragement for myself. In stead of focusing on the bad, I chose to focus on the letters, and put my words to them. While yes, I may be “still fat” I am making changes. I can currently run for 5km straight, and by the end of the year I plan to be running 10km. I will reach my goal weight, and no longer be “still fat.” Instead, I will be “still faithful.” Through it all, it is my God who empowers me to do all things. It is God who enables me to fight the good fight, to finish the race and to keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).
Who knows, maybe when I reach my goal weight, I might get “S.F” as a tattoo somewhere to remind me that I am still faithful. But probably not. I’ve never really wanted a tattoo. But the idea is good.
On Saturday 26 May, the Greater Western Sydney Giants played their first match at their home ground, Skoda Stadium. A small boutique stadium, it’s capacity is 25,000. Estimates for the first game crowd ranged from 15,000 to 18,000. Instead, the first match was witnessed by a midget 11,887 people. The poor attendance drew criticism as to whether the expansion to Western Sydney was the right move for the AFL. I however say that only time will tell, as history will show us.
One of the first expansion clubs, the West Coast Eagles, on its first home game, attracted a crowd of 23,897 at Subiaco Oval, a ground that holds 43,000. This is from a state where football was strong and established – the stadium record attendance for Subiaco Oval is from 1979 when 52,781 people watched the WAFL grand final. Capacity wise, the Brisbane Bears did better with 17,795 fans witnessing their first match at Carrara Oval, which held 22,000, however their average attendance for the season was 8,965. The Eagle’s average attendance for home games in their first season was 24,434.
From 1987 to 2011, the West Coast Eagles, in an AFL friendly state, averaged growth of just over 2%/year in Home game attendance average. Brisbane, in a non-AFL friendly state, averaged growth of over 6%/year. Likewise, Fremantle has experienced almost 3% growth in average home game attendance since 1995, Sydney, over 3% growth in a non-AFL friendly state. In fact, the only two non-Victorian clubs to experience negative growth since entry into the AFL are the two South Australian sides, Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power. It should be noted that South Australia and Western Australia are considered AFL-friendly states, while New South Wales and Queensland are considered non-Friendly due to the dominance of Rugby League. Yet, the average growth in these states exceeds that of the AFL friendly states.
In contrast, home game attendances since 1987 for Victorian clubs have all risen, by an average across the clubs of 4.5%.
As you can see, where attendance has been low in a club’s first match, it is not cause for alarm. Almost every club in the league has experienced growth since 1987, and the clubs in the non-AFL Friendly states have done better than those in the AFL-Friendly states. GWS and Gold Coast will both experience club growth with time. To take the words from a famous ad, It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
In class the other day, we were talking about how our language – and more specifically our accent – can sometimes form a barrier that can prevent people from fully engaging in worship. Two of the main points was that Australian’s have an accent, we just don’t acknowledge it and as such we don’t make the appropriate adjustments to ensure that we are heard clearly; and that we often use language that people don’t understand.
I’ve been in orientation this week for my course, and one of the lectures has been on time management. I’m really wanting to make sure I get organised and ensure that I make good use of my time (especially as there is often limited time), so I’m wanting to make full use of the resources available to me.
I’ve been using Google Calendar for a while now, which is especially awesome as it now sync’s with my phone. However, with everything looking the same, I longed for the ability to look at my week and quickly glance what was class time, what was study time, when assignments were due, and – importantly – when my “personal” time was – the time where I could go and practice my violin, play a game on my computer, or squeeze in a round of golf. Continue reading “Brighten (and organise) your Google Calendar!”→
I’ve practically finished my first week of orientation at the Training College. We’ve had a lot of different orientations – to uniform, to education, to prayer and more. Yesterday, we had a session called “Coping with Change”. We have all had to go through a big change in order to come to the Training College. At a very basic level, the shift from Perth to Melbourne was a big change. We were discussing yesterday the differences in language that we share – from Milk Bars and Delis, to Stobie Poles and Power Poles and even the way we pronounce Lego.
One thing we did was to create a well-being plan that focussed on some goals in four areas – Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual. By setting goals in these four areas, we can help take control of certain areas of our life so that we can deal with the change better, but also be in a better mental state. Part of the exercise was to write down some names that we would share the plan with so that we can be accountable with it. So I’m going to share my goals with you, and post regularly on how I’m going. Continue reading “Well, I better have a Well-Being Plan”→
Yesterday, I experienced something that I haven’t experienced for a long time. Teasing. It came out of the blue. Or actually… the black commodore.
Ben Clapton 