Keep commenting on the leadership blog, but i thought id share something that God did this morning which was really cool!

Ive started reading a book called, 'Can you hear me?' by Brad Jersak. Its a book about listening prayer, and so far its probably one of the best books on prayer i have ever read! Its really practical and will help open your senses up to realizing the many ways God speaks to us!

Anyway, I woke up this morning and picked up this book while I was still in bed. I heard a voice in my head say 'read the bible first.' I thought to myself, nah, i'll read this book and itll help me read the bible but the voice repeated. I then said, ok, if thats you God, what do u want me to read and why?

'Hebrews 10 and 11. Youll see why.' So i happily picked up my bible and opened to those chapters.

I finished reading and picked up the book. And heres the bit I wanted to get to...

The first bit I read was about the Bible! (funny coz Id just read the Bible...)

And in this section it spoke about how Jesus said in John 5:37-40 that people can read the scriptures all their lives and not hear Gods voice. They would honestly read them thinking they would find life in them, but then they failed to realise Gods living word. They didnt hear because of expectation. (the author says it alot better than this...)

The author continues to say 'how do we avoid this' and says we need to read expecting to hear Gods voice when we read the scriptures...

The next section was about God speaking beyond the Bible, that God still speaks personally to us in other ways. And the first other way the book speaks about was messengers (singers, authors, etc) then coincadinces...

I was like WOW! what a coincadence, or God-incadince that everything added up! The section on the Bible then the section on coincadences! The book directly related to me. So i asked God what does the passage I read have to do with all this?

And He answered as i thought about it, "All these guys (Hebrews 11) had faith in me. They didnt just serve me and or did the things they knew they should do, they had faith in me."

this spoke loudly to me. So often I get caught up in doing, that i forget to take the time to listen to God and have faith that I was going to hear Him speak to me...

anyway, it meant alot to me...

Whats God said to you lately? Hes always speaking, but are you listening?

what makes a leader a good leader?

Think of your favourite leader...

Why are they your favourite? What made them so good?

how come no one comments anymore?

i had 19 comments on one and 26 on the next...

i must be boring... what will i do next to get people commenting?

any suggestions? hmmmm will anyone even read this...

Some more ACC stuff...

Compromise leads to bondage
(How true is that?)

How bad is this next stat?
126 people got saved in Europe through The Salvation Army last year! Hallelujah for those converted but what the heck are they doing?
Does get better though...
126,000 saved in Africa last year and around the same i believe in America! Hallelujah

Has anyone heard of extreme prophetic? Check it out
Power evangelism baby!
Todays people seek mediums, fortune tellers etc, well the chick that started extreme prophetic up said 'all those people are searching for God and finding fakes...lets give them the real thing!' So they use prophecy in evangelism! They just ask people if they would like a free "Spiritual Reading" and then pray to God and ask what God wants to say to them... It is soooo cool! And coz God wants people to be saved He comes with power and it glorifies God! Theyre doing it heaps at the war college now and its gonna revolutionise evangelism! All you need to do is listen to God and be obedient!

INCREASE OUR FAITH LORD! FIRE US UP! GLORIFY YOUR NAME! HALLELUJAH!

heres a couple of quotes from ACC...

These days we deal with salvation first then we deal with the sin... In Booths day it was the other way around, deal with the sin then salvation..

An alcoholic goes to a

• dr and becomes a healthy alcoholic
• psych and becomes a balanced alcoholic
• Alcoholics anonymous and becomes a sobre alcoholic
• Jesus and becomes a new man/woman!

Sin is the enemy of your freedom

Compromise leads to bondage

Every prophets number one job is to smah idols

Theres so many more so i'll keep posting them over the next few days...

I read this this morning and really liked it. I love this holiness stuff! Isnt God AWESSOME that He would love and forgive us then use us!?!? Hallelujah!

PURE HEART

Also I heard a voice of the Lord saying;

"Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"

Then I said, "Here I am! Send me!"

Isaiah 6:8

It takes a pure heart to see God (Matt. 5:8). You can attend church services, read your Bible, and pray; but if sin fills your heart, you will not see God. You know when you have encountered God because your life will no longer be the same.

Isasiah was concerned with the death of King Uzziah, the able King of Judah, but was disorientated to his heavenly King. Then something happened that forever changed Isaiahs life. God, in all His awessome majesty, appeared to him in the temple, surrounded by heavenly creatures. Instantly, God's presence made Isaiah aware of his sinfulness. One of the seraphin came to him with a burning coal and cleansed Isaiah of his sin. Immediately Isaiah began to hear things he had never heard before. Now, he was hearing a converstaion in heaven concerning who might be worthy to be God's messenger to the people. This prompted Isaiahs eager response, 'Here am I! Send me!' Now that God had cleansed Isaiah, he was aware of heavenly concerns and prepared to offer himself in God's service. Whereas Isaiah before had been preoccupied with earthly matters, now his only concern was the activity of God.

If you have become estranged from God and His activity, you need to experience His cleansing. Sanctification prepares you to hear and see God. It enables you to serve Him. Only God can purify your heart. Allow Him to remove any impurities that hinder yor relationship with Him, and then your sevice to Him will have meaning as you offer Him your consecrated life.

(Henry and Richard Blackaby, Experiencing God Day by Day, September 20)

I havent written a blog for a while so i thought Id do another one. I was really struggling as to what I should write, what should I say? So I thought I would leave the writing to the Bible. Heres a passage of Scripture that I love. People have also prophesied this over my generation of people, that theres an increasing number of people with the Ezekiel calling...


"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for [a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

Ezekiel 3:17-19

I pray that we (and especially me) will all be open to the warnings God gives us...

Hasn’t my last Blog has caused some controversy!

Let me fill some people in… As many of you know I have been stepped down from all my leadership roles at Church. I can’t do anything during the week anymore!

The leadership team got together on Tuesday morning and read my blog. It deeply upset them. They then decided that I should be removed from all leadership.

The leadership team thought that the blog was
1) Divisive
2) Would confuse people
3) Would split the church

They believe the way I have written this blog was too critical of Greensborough.

I was called up and told to come into a meeting the following day.

I did not know what the meeting was about.

In this meeting Mark began by saying they had read my blog. He told me what He thought about it, (the above points) then I tried to say what the blog was about, however he told me even though some points may be true or good, it was too divisive. I disagreed and so I was removed from all leadership I was involved in.

What can I say?

I am deeply hurt. I have fought to stay at Greensborough for the last 3 years. There has been so many times when I have wanted to leave because of both people problems and theological problems. However my calling to Greensborough was sure and I wasn’t leaving until God told me.

I have sacrificed to stay at Greensborough. There are no people my age at Greensborough, so I have struggled to make many close friends. I have been offered jobs all over Australia which I have turned down so I can stay at Greensborough. I have been through times when I have not had a day off for months so I can support myself and minister at Greensborough.

I have made many friends though! I have done a good job as a youth leader and youth intern, the fruit of which we can see in the development of the youth! Ask any of the youth to make sure this isn’t just one of my opinions. (or read my comments to the last blog!)

I love the whole group of youth at Greensborough! They are more than people I got to lead and boss around, but I also got to hang out and muck around with them. I’m so lucky to have been able to share in a lot of great times with them. The whole youth group, I hope you know you are more than ‘youth groupers’ to me, you’re my friends! Thank you for being so loyal for me and sticking up for me even when a lot of people are against me at this point of time.

I am deeply saddened that the corps first response to the blog was stopping all my leadership. The pain my blog caused and could cause was seen as greater than all the work I have done, am doing and could have done. I feel as though I am not appreciated. I feel as though the last 3 years of my life and ministry means nothing in comparison to this blog! If it had meant more I am sure they would have tried to talk this through with me!

I understand that the blog was written in a confrontational way. It was written to stir the pot! (I think I did that point!) I wanted people to talk about it. I was getting some of my feelings off my chest. It was written with a passion for Greensborough.

I want to take this time to apologize to all of those who were hurt by what I said. I had no intention of hurting anyone. I could have commented in a different way, and I would have if I knew what was going to happen.

To all of those that are hurt or confused about my blog, please speak to me instead of talking behind my back about a blog you have not understood and have not attempted to understand by talking to me!

One thing that saddens me is that people are saying that I don’t like Greensborough, that I think it’s bad, that I think we should get rid of the brass band and change to become like Planetshakers. I can’t believe people are saying this. Another thing is that I was bagging The Salvation Army. An organisation I love and want to serve in as long as God lets me!

I think this shows how much people actually don’t know me.

The youth have been great to me. They know what I am talking about in my blog and I think they mostly agree! The blog was written for the people that read it, mostly youth. They did not misunderstand it. And the ones that weren’t sure asked me about it! The youth have shown more maturity in the way they have read this than many others who have quickly jumped to conclusions without looking at all I have done, am doing, and could have done! Thank God for the youth!

I have been a supporter of the band since I got to Greensborough. I have on occasion been out with them to the nursing homes, I’ve been on the band weekends, I have supported them at the shopping centre and value them for what they can do. I reguarly boast to other corps about how proud I am of our band because they actually go out every weekend! How can people say I don’t like the band? It’s because they didn’t understand my blog, and don’t know me.

The point I was trying to make is this:

Why are Salvation Army Corps in Australia and more specifically at Greensborough not growing when churches like Planetshakers are? What do they have that we don’t have? What do they do that we don’t? What needs to be done to change this? What needs to be done for revival?


Am I saying Greensborough is bad or am I saying how can we make it better? I cant believe the leadership team thought I was saying it is bad.

My emphasis is not the music, My emphasis is that we need to be relevant to the target audience and we will grow.

Here’s some examples from within The Salvation Army.

At Reservoir they have a huge school program, they run breakfast clubs, homework clubs and a God and pizza night. This model will not work at Greensborough.

At 614 they have a drop in centre for homeless, ‘street people’. They provide food, accommodation, counselling etc. This will not work at Greensborough.

These places are relevant to the people they are trying to minister to. All my blog was doing was asking are we relevant? What do we need to do for change? All I wanted to do was ask some questions!

I am deeply hurt that people have failed to try to understand what I have said and have instead resorted to standing me down as their first option.

Another problem is that people older than my generation to do not understand a blog. For those in older generations than mine, when something was printed it was a final something, a thesis, a truth statement perhaps. Like a newspaper. Thought has been put in. It had been prepared. However, that is not what a blog is! A blog is rambling honest thoughts. When you look at a blog you look at all the things that have been written over time and you see what this person was thinking and feeling. A blog is not the climax of thought and opinion like a newspaper or an article. A blog is a journey, and the leadership team have decided not to join me on my journey.

I love Greensborough. I have loved having the opportunity to work here. Many times have been hard. I am passionate about seeing revival come to Greensborough.

I pray that God will work through this, comfort those who need it, guide those who need, encourage, convict and challenge us.

A prophet is never accepted in his home town

I fell asleep yesterday afternoon and missed our '4oclock thing' and my brother wanted to hear reggie dabbs speak so I went to planetshakers church last night! I really enjoyed it! I loved it! They did a few things different to other churches Ive been to, heres a couple that stood out...

1) They had a time for declaring Jesus' name! (reminded me of old testament stuff...)
2) When welcoming the new people the people of the church stood up instead of the visitors!

A couple of other things they said was that they are rapidly growing. The youth pastor said that they had 56 converts at their last youth group. He went on to say that they teach all their people they dont need to change the world, just one life at a time! They have just started having two services on a sunday so they can fit everyone in and keep growing!

This got me thinking, what do these guys have that we, generally speaking the salvos and more specifically at greensy salvos, dont have?

Heres what I think: They are culturally relevant with their music (none of this brass band or 1980's music), they are evangelical (they actually want to see the world changed by people coming to know Jesus), everyone is in a small group/bible study, they are outwardly passionate in all they do, they are real (their faith is real), they rely on the Holy Spirit (dont just talk about it) and theres more.

We in the salvos are in the dark ages walking around with dinosaurs.

We are sooo far behind its not funny. Our churches are diminishing. Our pastors (very generally speaking) have no idea whats going on and if they do they are too gutless or dont have the right gifts to do something about it. (there are a few that are doing ok though...)

People love to bag these churches. Saying theyre all hype, not enough social justice, no community, bad theology. People that say these things are normally liberal minded thinkers and disagree with a church that is so full on for Jesus, or old people who think their way is best and are blind to the good things happening in these churches.

These churches have better communities than my church, they are more passionate and they rely on the Holy Spirit more. They reguarly see people healed of diseases, people speak in tongues and people prophesy.

I dont see this at my church. People in my church water down these gifts because they dont understand why they dont have them. 'The gift of healing is seen in emotional healing' yes i agree but if it was the gift of healing why arent people physically healed? Where is the Holy Spirit?

These churches have something that my church doesnt and im beginning to wonder if that is their surrender to God. Why are we so far behind? Why are thousands flocking to these other churches and we struggle for a hundred at my church?

Is the salvation army way too focussed on ourselves, and what we do for ourselves that we loose sight of what we're suppose to be doing? William Booth would be ashamed of the salvation army at my church. We look at ourselves way too much and not enough at the people who need Jesus. This is seen in the way we are so ir-relevant! (this point is proved by the fact most of our youth also go to a pentecostal type church to meet their needs)

I want to see revival at my church but what is it going to take for it to happen?

Do we bulldoze our church and start again? Do we wait for all the older people to die off then start again? Can these peoples minds be changed so that they try for this change? Will any one care enough to try? And will we ever get a pastor/officer who isnt blind to our mediocrity and irrelevancy that will have the guts to take a risk and do something?