session 1: work and you - brent muir leaders n… · web viewcontents. session ‘god’s work’...

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD CONTENTS.

contents

session ‘God’s work’ ‘God’s workers

1 untying knots your unique situation

2 good work our unique situation

3 gruelling work working in a global community

4 redeemed work keeping your balance

5 sent by God working & family and friends

6 political work working & society

7 mission work working & church

8 ends of the earth pleasing God with wealth

9 the simple life working with integrity

10 the simple life practical tips

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 1

i n t r o d u c i n g t h e c o u r s eu n t y i n g t h e k n o t s

Getting started …

Welcome!

The structure of this course: ‘God’s work’: developing a theological framework for understanding work and ministry. ‘God’s workers’: practical issues facing those who work in God’s world. Homework: hands-on ‘homework’ projects to help you put into practice what you learn.

* Introduction.This is designed to get people thinking about work and also examine some of the assumptions and attitudes people have to work. Also just to get on the table some people’s fears and to point out how the course might be helpful in thinking through these issues.

It might be helpful to gather the ideas on a whiteboard.

What is work?

What are you looking forward to next year as you work?

What do you think you will miss most about being at uni?

What do you see as being the challenges of being a “worker”

Point out that this a point of cross roads – what will you do with your lives, what will you invest you life’s energy into.The move to work is one of those pressure points in the Christian life and one when you must grow and mature in your faith as you work out what it means to live as a Christian worker and to continue to submit every aspect of your life to the Lordship of Jesus.

1. God’s workuntying knots (or why this issue is so complex!)2 Dangers as we face the workforce as Christian people. Rationalism and Careerism.

- 2 -

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 1 Rationalism

• 1 life, don’t waste it- so get into Christian ministry. broken leg on the titanic – what is your real problem, and what is the best you can do? building with the foundations blown, hanging for a second therefore if you can do ministry, you must, and if you can’t then support those who can – work is to put food

on the plate at home and money in the plate at church

• great for those who do it, and I have seen the impact in people’s ego sense, when they hook into the idea that they are doing the most important thing there is to do, they are on a mission from God.

• of course bad for those who don’t – their work is almost entirely marginalised, or at least is only of value consequentially, that is in terms of the consequences it can have – ministry at work and supporting the ministry of others. Surprisingly, in my judgment, this results in not much less than a rearing of the ugly head of Roman catholic clericalism, with some people closer to the purposes of God than others.

The Christian life is therefore framed as giving money on Sunday and not stealing the pens from the sationary cupboards but does not see that the work we do can contribute to God’s purpose for the world that he loves.

• it’s really a rationalism, the great enlightenment sin – start with big picture, and then apply to people.

• which is precisely where it makes its biggest and least biblical jump – the ‘therefore you’ jump. The Bible simply never draws this conclusion, and that’s because we don’t make decisions quite like that, I what is called a deductive manner, starting with big picture and then simply fitting into it – we are too individually created for that, the world is too complex a place.

Careerism • so evokes a hard core response – not wanting to get pushed around and told what to do, people start at the

other end, with themselves:

I’m not that interested in ministry as a career What matters is what’s interesting, challenging, fulfilling, rewarding personally and financially

• this is a careerism, which starts with the individual, the particular, my gifts, my desires, my situation/needs/history, and just d what fits best. No framework, no principles, this is a dislocated way of making decisions, and hardly allows the kingdom of God to impinge at all.

• especially since tend to do the thing for which you studied, and studied the thing you did best in at school, which is a lousy place to work out where to invest your life energies.

We will start our ‘God’s work’ section with the homework from this week. Today, however, we are going to take a snapshot of your unique contribution as God’s workers.

- 3 -


2. God’s workersyour unique situation (or why the sausage machine approach so misses the mark)As we begin our strand of ‘God’s workers’ today, we’re going to look at the unique way that God has made each of us, and then see how God’s creativity in each of our lives means that we have a unique contribution to make in God’s world.

On the next page are some descriptions of the 4 segments in the diagram. In pairs, get them to work through it section by section, and think about the unique way God has made us.

- 4 -

to family & friends …

to church …

What do you enjoy more: getting info and understanding,

or making judgements and

choices about that info?

Do you tend to make choices on

the basis of: rational processes, or more based on

the human outcomes?

In general do you get energised by:

being with other people, or by being by yourself?

Do you understand something better by:

getting the big picture, or by getting the details ?

Some massively oversimplified personality ‘test’ which helps open our

imagination to who we are eg. www.keirsey.com

Skills, eg. from

my degree, hobbies,

work experience

etc.

Training

Responsibilities

In the past how have you seen God use you to build his church?

Gift s

Personality

My Unique

Situation Today

to society …


a) Training/ Life Experiences* Each of us has received training in various ways, and have developed various skills from these training experiences* Try and think of four areas that you have developed some degree of skill in* It might be form your hobby you have, work experience and church experience* Have a think and fill in the boxes, then we’ll talk briefly about them

b) Personality* Each of us is different in our personality, and this is also a gift from God.* There are tests which psychologists have created to help people understand a bit better who they are, and these can be helpful to us as we think about the unique way God has made us.* How many of you have done the Myers- Briggs’ personality test?* If you want to do this test properly you can go to www.keirsey.com* Go through the 4 questions

c) Responsibilities:Thirdly where do your responsibilities lie at the moment?* What particular responsibilities do you have to your family, and to friends?* What responsibilities do you have to your church community* What particular responsibilities do you have to society? Maybe here at uni, or to the government, or to a club etc..

d) Gifts:And lastly, this is linked to responsibilities you have to your church, but may be broader than what you’re doing right at the moment.* Have you seen God use you to build his church?* It might be in a particular role leading youth group or serving in the singing during the services, or encouraging someone one to one.

a significant transition point“What contribution am I going to make in God’s world, for God’s glory?”

During this course we want to work out what it means to have our life’s work oriented to God’s purposes.

your unique contributionWe are what we are as stewards.Entrusted with a responsibility to love and care for the people God places in our lives and a responsibility to steward the world that God has created and continues to be involved in

Like stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen”

1 Peter 4: 10-11

- 5 -

http://www.keirsey.com/


As we think about our contribution to God’s work, we want to avoid two dangerous pitfalls:1. Triumphalism: thinking that I am going to change the world and do it single-handedly.There is no place for pride.2. Pessimism: thinking that I have no contributions to make, so I may as well just look after myself.

We want to be Christian and realistic about the world we live in, and the contribution we will make in it.

Does that make sense? Our approach is neither Glory for me! I can’t do much so I’ll just live for myself.

I am made in God’s image, and have a noble calling” God has redeemed us human beings and given you as a gift to the world.

God has redeemed us in Christ, and given us as a gift to his world, that our lives might produce fruit for his glory.

what’s ahead?The aims of the course are that students:

a) understand biblically the nature of work and ministry and their place in God's plans for his world, and hence …

b) be equipped to make decisions about what contributions they will make, as well as …c) be prepared to make those contributions well, in the face of challenges & opportunities for

Christians at work, and in the context of the world in which God is at work.

a prayer as you think about the life ahead of youLord, make me an instrument of your peace.Where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;

- 6 -

I am made in God’s image and have a noble calling in God’s work

God is the world’s owner, Jesus is the hero of the world’s story

Christian Realism

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 1where there is darkness, light;where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled, as to console;not so much to be understood, as to understand;not so much to be love, as to love.For it is in giving that we receive;It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;It is in dying that we awaken to eternal life.

Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

- 7 -


3. homework1. head work

Read the paper ‘Good work’, which begins constructing our theological framework.

2. hearing stories

See if you can speak to someone 2 generations older than you (grandparents or perhaps someone in your church), about their experience of work through the 20th century, and how work opportunities and patterns have changed. 3. future thinking

What conclusions did you draw from doing your massively oversimplified personalised “test”?

What future steps might you take in regards to the use and development of your gifts?

4. fyi

Each week we will provide an obituary, some of famous people, some of obscure, just to stimulate your thinking about how you want to make your contribution to working in God’s world.

One fridge man who never sent a billErnie Ridding, a man who devoted himself to collecting unwanted goods, repairing them and giving them to the poor and needy, has died. He was 74.

Known as the Fridge Man, Ridding lived in Glebe in a condemned building which overflowed with the fridges, computers and electrical goods on which he and a team of volunteers worked.

Ridding refused to make a cent out of anything he repaired and denounced charities which sold goods for money. "If you want to talk money, piss off," announced the hand-painted sign that hung above the rickety stairs leading to his home.

Rather than make a profit, he gave away his recycled items to anyone who asked him for one, especially to students and the needy, said Glen Harrington, a St Vincent de Paul outreach worker.

Ridding taught himself to carry out mechanical repairs. First he dabbled in radios and TVs. Fridges came later, until he almost blew his arm off regassing one, and he switched to computers.

"Ernie felt that waste was a terrible thing and he wanted to change the world, or at least do his little bit," said Harrington.

Ridding received a disability support pension, most of which went to help those less fortunate than himself. A health fanatic, he apparently lived on rice and apples.

He was skinny and wiry, never drank or smoked, and boasted that he was the oldest virgin in Sydney. "He said the problems he'd had as a young man he didn't want to perpetuate on another generation," said Harrington.

In fact, his childhood and much of his adult life were extremely painful. An orphan, Ridding lived for many years in a series of psychiatric institutions, suffering from a form of schizophrenia. "In one of these places, in the space of three years, three psychiatrists committed suicide.

"He felt it was unsafe to be treated by people who were dying like that so he left," said Harrington.

Ridding was very religious without attending church, choosing instead to work seven days a week. He read widely and wrote his memoirs on one of the repaired computers.

- 8 -

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 1"He had friends, people who would drop in on him all the time who would help him out in his quest," said Harrington.

"But he certainly marched to a different drum and I don't know any charitable worker who would put in the time that he did for nothing.

"He liked the idea of old prophets who walked without pockets and gave but never took."

Andrew Stevenson

- 9 -


g o o d w o r ko u r u n i q u e s i t u a t i o n

from last week …hearing storiesHow did your conversation with grandparents/older person go? What did you learn about working life in a former generation?

future thinkingWhat conclusions did you draw from doing your massively oversimplified personality ‘test’?

Any reflections on ways forward in the using of gifts and developing them?

1. God’s workGood work (or why work is so much more than a necessary evil!)Christiana has just finished her economics degree at Sydney University. Christina had a fantastic time at university. She had a great time being part of the EU and has really grown as a Christian during her times at uni. Christina has a real heart for evangelism and has run the FBE (faculty based evangelism) team in economics for the last 2 years. Christina made lots of great friends through the EU and last year at An-Con met this great guy, Pilgrim. They have been going out for a year.

Christina has got a gradute job next year with a big city firm. Everyone, especially her parents, think that she is pretty lucky to get such a good job. However Christina can’t see the point in working surely she is just wasting her time- she would rather be doing evangelism. Maybe she could go on the dole and do “cold turkey” evangelism in the city. Surely that’s what God would want not just spending her time making money for other people.

Pilgrim has just finished his degree in physiotherapy at Sydney University, albeit Cumberland campus. He too had a great time being part of the CU and also he came to a few An-Cons and just found them fantastic. Unlike Christina, Pilgrim is really looking forward to working. He doesn’t really like studing much and instead wants to get out into the real world. He has loved his pracs as a physio and can’t wait to be a real physio. Pilgrim thinks he will be a good physio and he really wants to show people God’s love as he cares for them as they recover and recouperate. Christina tells him that this attitude is not particularly Godly and that he has got caught up in a careerism attitude and that he needs to repent.

In light of the Good work paper, what would you say to Christina and Pilgrim?


2. God’s workersOur unique situation (or how incredible it is that we even have this course)We saw last week that God has given each of us a unique history, unique gifts and talents, unique opportunities and a unique personality. We have the wonderful privilege of employing all that God has given us in his service – not as the heroes of the world’s story, but as people made in the image of God, with a high calling.

This week we will explore the unique situation in which God has placed us as tertiary educated Australians in the year 2001. Work hasn’t always been how it is today!

The exercise on the handout will give us a whirlwind history of work. It is necessarily brief, stereotyped, prejudiced towards European civilisation and massively over-generalised, and yet it will give us at least a sense of our unique situation in the history of work.

Divide into five groups with each group taking one ‘age of work’. Using the information in your column of the table, write in the speech bubble the story of the person or people in your picture. You should: give them an appropriate name and occupation; locate them in the social system of which they are a part and describe their relationships with others in the social system; find ways to express their attitude to work and the nature of their working life. You will need to exercise some historical imagination. Have fun!

0 500 AD 1300 AD

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 2Our Unique SituationA potted history of work 0-2000 AD

The system Roman Empire: The Emperor rules over a system of free citizen masters (landed aristocracy, officers, senators, artisans) and slaves (farm labourers, soldiers, household slaves)

Early Feudalism: Kings provide land to nobility in exchange for military service; Nobles let land to serfs in exchange for labour, produce and loyaltyminimal social mobility

The attitude work as service to the Empire work as a birthright: each should accept her or his lot

The jobs Fighting and Farming Fighting, Farming and Fellowship (monks, priests and bishops)

The tools the steel sword Mach III was a real breakthrough on the battlefield; the invention of the codex or book made study much easier than dealing with cumbersome scrolls

the stirrup revolutionises warfare

The workplace

the household and the battlefield the household and the guild-house

The workers (men and women)

• Free men dominate the public world; free women manage households. • men and women slaves do what they are told

• men dominate church and court• men and women work together in households

The Warring Age of Empires

The Feudal Medieval Age


Work and Life work is seasonal: it depends on wars and harvests

work is seasonal: it depends on wars and harvests

Late Feudalism: King-Noble-serf relationship still dominates; but rise of s new middle class – groups of merchants and artisans in companies or ‘Guilds’ - complicates things

• some social mobility with rise of a merchant middle class

Early Capitalism: national governments oversee industrialisation and urbanisation; capitalists employing workers replaces landed aristocracy ruling serfs

• industrialised nations colonise and dominate non-industrialised nations• increasing social mobility in the west• end of slavery

Late Capitalism: global companies control worldwide production and trade

• technologically advanced areas continue to dominate global trade and production• huge social mobility in the west

work as a calling: service to God in the place God has assigned

work as career: getting ahead and contributing to society

work as one possible means to self-fulfilment

Farming, Fellowship, Finance (the rise of banks) and Fine Art (the rise of artisans and merchants)

Factory work, Finance, the Professions and Politics

• significant increase in specialisation

Technology, Management, The Professions, Politics, Finance and Factory work

• massive increase in

1300 AD

1800 AD

1950 AD

The Modern Industrial Age The Post-Modern

Technological AgeThe Early

Modern Age

2000 AD


specialisation and diversity of work

the printing press enables mass communication

the industrial revolution’s steam engine enables mass production

the technological revolution’s Personal Computer enables everything

the household, the Guild-house and the merchant houses

the factory and the office in front of the laptop

men work increasingly out of the household; women increasingly confined to household

the male breadwinner: men produce; women reproduce

men and women produce and reproduce

work is increasingly regulated work is constant but confined to 40 hours a week

work is flexible

Our Unique Situation – Some Conclusionsa) Be thankful - we live in an age of unprecedented freedom and flexibility .We have remarkable freedom of choice as we seek to serve the Lord Jesus

Christ

b) Be wise - freedom and opportunity brings with it responsibility to use that freedom well. (Luke 12.48)

c) Be creative – that we have such freedom of choice means that we needn’t be locked into any one way of serving God. We can mix and match part-time employment and service at church, voluntary work in the community and further study. We can work from home, work on short-term contracts or work around the world. Your imagination is the only limit to the number of ways to you can find to serve God with all your heart.



Read the paper ‘Gruelling work’, which continues constructing our theological framework.

2. hearing stories

Talk to a white collar worker that you know. What does their job look like? What responsibility do they have in the workplace; both for people and for tasks. What do they see as the challenges of being a Christian worker.

3. future thinking

Be Creative- imagine (and jot down) all the amazing things you could do with your life. Think creatively – what would happen if you ran with this path for your life. Eg. Being a youth group leader at your local church until you are 80. Traveling to Saudi Arabia and being a engineer…

4. fyi

William Carey – the father of modern missions (1761-1834)William Carey was born at Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, England, the son of a parish clerk and schoolmaster. As a young man he trained as a shoemaker, and was converted to Christ through the witness of a fellow apprentice. Carey began to preach locally, and in 1786 became pastor of a Baptist church.

He was deeply influenced by the theology of the American Jonathon Edwards, which supplied an impetus to mission. At the time many Protestants believed that Christ’s commission to ‘preach the gospel to every creature’ only applied to the apostles. In 1792, to combat this view, Carey wrote his famous work An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen. In the same year in a sermon at Nottingham he urged Christians to ‘expect great things from God’ and ‘attempt great things for God’. As a direct consequence in October 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was founded – the grandfather of mission organizations as we know them today.

Carey and his family sailed to India the following year. He was foreman of an Indigo factory in Bengal (1794-99), a post that occupied him for only three months of the year, leaving him free to study oriental languages intensively. In 1799 he was joined at Serampore, near Calcutta, by two fellow-Baptists, Joshua Marshman and William Ward.

For the next 25 years the three men worked together to organise a growing network of mission stations in and beyond Bengal. Carey translated the New Testament into Bengali, and was given a tutorship in languages at Fort William College in 1801. In the years up to 1824, Carey supervised 6 complete and 24 partial translations of the Bible as well as publishing several grammars, dictionaries and translations of ancient Indian literature. Although some of his early translations were hurried and stilted, his work was an immense achievement for a largely self-educated pioneer.

Carey achieved much in various areas. He initiated mission schools, conceived the idea of Serampore College, founded the Agricultural Society of India (1820) to promote agricultural improvements, studied botany and took a leading part in the campaign for the abolition of widow-burning. Carey’s devotion to India, which he never left, and his practical wisdom, are shown in his encouraging Indians to spread the gospel themselves.


g r u e l l i n g w o r kw o r k i n g i n a g l o b a l c o m m u n i t y

from last week …hearing stories

How did your conversation with a white collar worker go? What different areas of responsibility did they mention? What does their job look like?. What do they see as the challenges of being a Christian worker.

future thinkingTips for a good interview.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


1. God’s workGruelling Work: (or why work is so hard!)In light of the “Gruelling Work” paper – What would you say to Pilgrim and Christina?

Christina is now 6 months into her work as an economist with a big firm in the city. .She gets on pretty well with her colleagues who are all fairly new graduates. Her boss can sometimes be a bit bossy but he is generally pretty nice to her. She has found working 9-5 a bit of a step up compared to uni life and there is a fairly big expectation that she will do a lot of overtime. She doesn’t get to see her boyfriend Pilgrim as much as she used to but generally work is great and she loves it. However Christina is a bit concerned she has just read Genesis 3 again and feels that work shouldn’t really be good. Work should be hard and difficult. What’s wrong with her? Is she doing something wrong?

Pilgrim is now 6 months into his work as a physiotherapist at St Eutychus Children’s Hospital. He has found the adjustment to work really hard. There are lots of long hours which are physically demanding. He finds rehabilitating kids after serious accidents really confronting and his job places him in contact with people in very difficult situations. And it is hard to make a real difference Pilgrim feels like he is just putting on band aids their real needs are spiritual. His colleague Cyrus is great fun to work with but he is an atheist and says pretty confronting things to Pilgrim about Christians. The amazing thing about Cyrus is that he is so great with the kids, he is always really patient with them and is always going out of his way to care for them. Pilgrim had hoped to be able to really care for people in his job but he is flat out just getting through the day. Pilgrim knew that God said work would be hard but he didn’t know it would be this hard. And what about Cyrus how come the non- Christian is doing all the good stuff and he’s just keeping his head above water? Was he just naïve to think that he could make any real contribution through his work?


2. God’s workersWorking with integrity in a global communityAs we saw last week, the context we work in is quite different to what it was like 2000 years ago – we have bosses and employees, not slaves and masters. This week we’re going to focus on one unique aspect of our contemporary situation: that today in Australia we live in a global community.

We need to continue to think about how when we walk into our workplace we are first and foremost serving the Lord Christ, and as a result we are to work wholeheartedly, righteously and Christianly.

1.Australia Today-The current state of worki. Decreased unemployment

1971 – 1.2%, 1993 – 12.2%, 2001 – 6.4%, 2005- ?A more confident work place- the ability to change jobs more easily and to return to the workforce.

ii. Increased ‘casualisation’ Higher proportion of workers, especially women are employed on part-time or casual. This gives flexibility, but also less job security and predictability

Implication is that it is easier to arrange your life to suit priorities. You might work part time in order to help out with scripture at the local school. To spend some time at home with kids. Think about the alternatives to full time work.

iii. Increased job mobilityAverage length of employment in any one job has radically decreased. Approximately 5 years? Gone are the days of working one job from leaving school until retirement.

This also allows for greater flexibility. You can move jobs relatively easily. You could take time out to study- do a year at bible college so you can be a better home group leader. You could spend some time overseas. You could work for a couple of years in the Howard Guinness Project. Etc..

iv. Increasing working hours Average per week 1981 - 41.6 hours, 1994 - 44.5 hours

Just the warning this is to the expectation that you will work long hours for the company that you work for and the need to stand against this at time in order to care for your family or your church community.

v. An emphasis on ‘skills’ Skilled workers more often have transferable skills and are therefore more mobile and flexible, while unskilled and less skilled workers are often dependant upon the fortunes of one particular industry

Key for university students to think about transferability of skills and how you can use them to honour God.


vi. The significance of unpaid work Surprising, as an aggregate, Australians spend more time in ‘work’ outside the formal economy than in formal paid employment (380 million hours compared to 272million hours)

The challenge of parenthood for both men and women- the amazing opportunity to care for children at home.

2. The World Today

Globalisation means …We live in a time where it is normal for information and goods and people and money to move across borders. This brings with it both new opportunities to serve the Lord Christ and new challenges to working righteously and Christianly. The contribution you make through your work is not restricted to your suburb or locality. 'You are only two phone calls away from any human being on earth' (Friedman).

i. Global Economya. increased prosperity and disparity: the Global economy after WWII has seen an

increased standard of living on average the world over, but also an increased disparity between developed and developing nations.

b. continued poverty: numerous developing nations still face severe poverty and are subject to oppressive governments, burdened with massive debts they cannot pay, involved in frequent civil war and hindered by natural disasters.

c. power discrepancy: multinational companies and international organisations like the UN and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have enormous influence in both developing and developed nations both for good and for ill.

d. enormous privilege: we in Australia are by every measure in the top 5% of the world's population. We have enormous privilege

ii. Global MissionThe missionary task of the worldwide church has also significantly altered. The following seven statements summarise the new situation

a) Many countries are now closed to traditional missionaries.b) Closed countries will often welcome westerners who wish to contribute their

professional or technical expertise.c) In most countries there is now an indigenous church.d) In countries where there is a sizeable indigenous church, the best people to reach

the unreached people are the local Christians.e) Many countries need people with specialist skills to work in partnership with the

indigenous church.f) New mission fields are opening up.g) Few missionaries go for life any more.

2. Principles from the Bible

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 3The Scriptures give us a number of principles for living righteously and Christianly in this global community.a. Privilege brings Responsibility (Luke 12.48)

• we have been given much, and that brings with it great responsibility. Much will be demanded of us.

b. Doing Good (Galatians 6.7-10)

John Wesley's RuleDo all the good you can,By all the means you can,In the all the ways you can,In all the places you can,At all the times you can,To all the people you can,As long as ever you can.

John Wesley 1703-1791

c. Fair Dealing (Proverbs 22.16, 22)

God hates unjust gain – that is, gain which is at the expense of others. He has a special place in his heart for the poor and needy, to defend and uphold their cause. We must be like him.

d. Global Witness (Acts 1.8)

• wherever we go, we will be witnesses of Jesus Christ, the Lord - to the ends of the earth. This is a constant for the Christian

3. Applying the Principles in the World TodayHow would you advise these Christian friends?

a. John runs a shoe store, and has always stocked Nike shoes. However, he saw a program on the TV which argued that Nike shoes should be boycotted because of the way the company treats their workers in Indonesia while making the American executives billionaires. It is hard to conceive of a western shoe store without Nike, what should John do?

b. On the advice of her financial advisor, Susan has been investing some of her savings in a multinational company which is growing rapidly and her investment is yielding high returns which she has decided to use to support her missionary friends who are serving the Lord in Thailand. Last Wednesday afternoon, reading through the company’s Annual Report she noticed that they also

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 3own a number of smaller companies which produce tobacco as their major industry. Should this affect her investment decisions? And if so, how?

c. Andrew and Sarah have been married for a couple of years and have been saving up for a trip to Europe for about 6 months. They are looking forward to seeing the sights and to visiting Sarah’s grandmother before she dies. Their good friends, James and Amy, who are missionaries in Uganda, write to ask for a one off donation - in addition to their regular support - to meet an urgent need of the church there. The amount requested is exactly what Andrew and Sarah had managed to save. Should they give the money or go to Europe?

d. Jeremy works for a Global Systems, an IT company that is looking to open a branch in Saudi Arabia, a country which is 99.9% Muslim. Jeremy isn’t yet married while most of his friends are and he’s scared he’ll cut off that opportunity if he moves away from Australia. At the same time, it seems like such a good opportunity to be a witness to Christ in a mostly un-evangelised country. What should he do?



Read the paper ‘Redeemed Work’, which continues constructing our theological framework.

2. hearing stories

Talk to a first year out worker. who you know about the whole challenge of achieving balance in their life. What are the different areas of responsibility, and how are they meeting the challenge of balancing those areas?

3. future thinking

Spend some time drawing up a five year plan for your life. Life always has unexpected challenges, however this is a bit of an imagination task so draw up what you would life like to be over the next little while.

4. fyiJune BosanquetJune Bosanquet, Christian author and journalist, has died aged 78 years. Her end was sudden, unexpected but peaceful.

June was born on march 2 1923, to George and Lillian Mills, the first child to survive infancy. She attended Ravenswood School for Girls and then moved to Hornsby High School when the Depression made private school beyond her father’s means. She met Richard, the love of her life, when she was 19 and he was almost 21, just before he headed north to serve with the Australian army in the second World War. In fullness of time they had four children; Marcia, John, Stephen and Pat.

One of her many gifts was public speaking. She mostly spoke without notes and used illustrations which made any talk she gave vibrant with meaning. She grew to be in great demand as a speaker as time went on. As a leader of women she was in her element: she was well organised, decisive, brim full of ideas and a dynamo of energy. She was warm, amazingly hospitable and ’there’ for anyone who needed her.

After the years in the parish of South Kogarah, Dad and mum moved to Narrabeen where we had four glorious years. There she wrote Mary Jones and her Bible, the first of a number of books for the Bible Society.

After the Narrabeen years came the stressful years in which dad worked as founding Headmaster of the Illawarra

Grammar School. Mother was bust writing for the Illawarra Mercury, appearing on channel 4, of the local TV station, speaking at innumerable meetings, organising the women’s auxiliary at the Grammar School, helping to organise the Illawarra branch of Chesalon, singing in the church choir, raising 4 children, and preaching the occasional sermon for the Methodists.

Mum and Dad moved around a lot after they left Wollongong and returned to Sydney. She was editor of the magazine Christian Woman for 10 years, media officer for the 1979 Billy Graham Crusade and later on, publicity officer for CMS.

Dr Marcia Cameron


r e d e e m e d w o r kk e e p i n g y o u r b a l a n c e

from last week …

hearing stories

How did your conversation with a first year out worker. What challenges were they facing in balancing their lives and how were they meeting that challenge?

future thinkingLets look at the 5 year plans. How did you go? Was it hard? What factors made it difficult?

1. God’s workRedeemed Work: (or what on earth God is doing!)In light of the “Redeemed Work” paper – What would you say to Pilgrim and Christina about their conversation?

Pilgrim: Work is so hard … I’m thinking of giving up and going into ministry. After all, St Eutychus’ isn’t going to be around for all eternity.

Christina: I want to please Jesus with every aspect of my life, but is he pleased with the work I’m doing? I guess he probably doesn’t have an opinion; after all he’s only really concerned with my status regarding sin and salvation.

Pilgrim: I’m not so sure about that – I was reading yesterday and it said that Jesus was about reconciling all things to the Father. But, this morning, one of the kids at St Eutychus’ came in after a horrific accident! That doesn’t look like redeemed work to me.


2. God’s workers

Pleasing God with Ordered Lives (or ‘how can I stay sane in the ‘real world’’?)This is perhaps the key challenge of the working life- how do you keep a balanced or ordered life. This balanced lives ensure that we keep the right priorities for our families and for our Christian communities.

While being a challenge for workers it is also a reality for students and if you put in place things now that might help you as you adjust to work.

1. Think Relationally

We need to view reality through these relational glasses – that relationships and community are at the heart of reality, since they are at the heart of God See it in the quote from DB Knox:

“The most ultimate thing that can be said of God is that He is Trinity. He always has been, always will be. Three persons in one God, one God in personal relationship within Himself. He has created man in His own image and likeness. This means that man is fundamentally a being in personal relationship, in relationship with God and with his fellows. Therefore, humanity’s nature is created to facilitate personal relationship to God and to one another. The establishment, maintenance and deepening of personal relationship is the true object for human activity, relationship with God and with fellow men.”

D.B. Knox in The Everlasting God, p133.

Human beings are made in God’s image as relational beings.

God is eternal, perfect relationship Father, Son and Holy Spirit united in the Godhead.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 42. God has placed each of us in multiple communities

In week 1, we saw how each of us has a unique contribution to make to the communities in which God has placed us. The focus of this week is on the importance of wisely balancing your contributions to these various communities.

God has placed us in 3 general spheres of relationships: family and friends, church and society (which could be further divided into many different areas including workplace, government, neighbourhood, national and international contributions)

Don’t look at the passages this week we will spend time on them over the next couple of week as we look t each category. Just highlight the reality of responsibilities and relationships in our lives.

Our responsibilities to these spheres of relationships are diverse, but are summarised by our responsibility to LOVE: to do good as we have opportunity

Be faithful to the communities God places you in.

Focussing on one sphere of relationships to the exclusion of all others won’t do.multiple communities

= multiple responsibilities

Living for God in our

communities

Church1 Pet. 4:7-11Gal 6:7-10

Eph. 2:17-22, 4:11-16

Family & Friends1 Pet. 3:1-71 Tim. 5:3-8

Eph. 5:21-6:4

Society1 Pet. 2:11-18

1 Thess. 4:9-12Gal 6:7-10

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 43. Tips to balancing our lives It’s not un-Christian to say ‘no’ to people – the principle is not compliance the

principle is love. Boundaries- self care in order to love.

Boundaries- in order to ensure that other people take on their responsibilities and that you do not carry

unnecessary burdens

Loving is demanding and involves sharing in the sufferings of Christ. From time to time painful crises will arise, this should not deter us.

At the same time- the Christian life is not to be marked by self protection but instead by self giving.

However if the answer to ‘how are you?’ is always negative – eg. ‘tired’, ‘stressed’, ‘busy’, ‘struggling’ – this should set off warning bells. A never-ending state of crisis is not a good position from which to love people.

Learn it now. Do you as a student live in a state of crisis? What can you change right now?

Remember week 1: the contribution we will make is real but limited Our job is to be faithful, trusting in God to bless our efforts.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 44. A Helpful Tool: the 4 Quadrants

Urgent Not Urgent

Impo

rtant

I Crises Pressing Problems Deadline-driven projects, meetings,

preparations

II Preparation Prevention Values clarification Planning Relationship building True re-creation Empowerment

Not

Impo

rtan

t III Interruptions, some phone calls Some mail, some reports Some meetings Many proximate, pressing matters Many popular activities

IV Trivia, busywork Junk mail Some phone calls Time wasters “Escape” activities

For more on the 4 quadrants see First Things First. Stephen Covey



Read the paper ‘Sent by God’, which starts to apply our theological framework.

2. hearing stories

Talk to a “homemaker” this week who spends most of their time with the keeping of the home and maybe care for small children. What are the challenges of being a home maker? What are the joys of raising children? What was particularly challenging about the move from the paid workplace to un-paid work in the home?

3. future thinking

Imagine that you are married and have 2 children. What difference would that make to your life? What decisions would you and your spouse have to make to ensure that you honour God as parents? How would you shape your work and home life to prioritise your family life?

4. fyiEd Howard - The visitor who stayed for a lifetimeEdward Davenport Howard, an American who became an Australian citizen and made a significant contribution to the economic and political development of Norfolk Island, has died, aged 76.

He was one of a small band of island people who provided the intellectual fuel, energy, vigour and acumen needed to gain self-government for Norfolk.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ed Howard, as he was known to all, attended Case-Western Reserve University and Harvard, and served in the Army Air Force in World War II.

His father had established himself as one of the first corporate PR men, and Howard inherited his Cleveland firm and its list of substantial clients. But in time Howard grew restless with his lifestyle of American upper-middle-class success and the importance of the right clubs, feeling there was more to life.

At this point, in 1960, he visited Sydney, and it charmed the socks off him. He hurried back to Cleveland to use his persuasive powers on his family - wife Alice, a graphic designer, and their four children - and in May 1962 they all arrived at Mascot, ahead of steamer trunks and a grand piano.

For the next decade he and Alice ran a respected, successful Sydney firm providing

corporate advice to big Australian companies and multinationals, taking occasional breaks on Norfolk at Rainbow's End, a house they bought, built of pine on a beautiful headland.

Within a few years, their children having settled in Sydney, they became permanent Norfolk residents, delighting in a community where keys are left in the ignition, people leave excess tomatoes at a petrol station for all, and a hand of bananas can appear mysteriously on the doorstep.

A voracious, wide-ranging reader, a gifted lateral thinker and a wonderful storyteller, Howard researched deeply into Norfolk's history, but his interests were all-embracing and his wise counsel was soon sought. With Film Australia he travelled to Pitcairn to make a film of Pitcairn and Norfolk, The Bounty Experiment.

From 1975 to 1983 Howard produced a lively and influential monthly newspaper, The Norfolk Island News, and various publications including an entertainingly succinct A-Z Guide to Norfolk (sample entry: "ISLANDER. An Islander is someone who lives, or has lived, on Norfolk who has some Pitcairner blood. Everybody else - all the other billions of people in the world, whether they live here or somewhere else - are mainlanders. A mainlander gets to be an islander in exactly the same way that a dog gets to be a cat.")

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 4Seen as more islander than some, Howard in 1979 was elected to Norfolk's inaugural, nine-member legislative assembly, serving for eight years, several of them as minister for finance. The advent of the assembly halted, at least for the time being, years of determined efforts in Canberra to integrate Norfolk into the Australian electorate.

In that extended battle fought at the Norfolk end by the Society of the Descendants of the Pitcairn Settlers (restricted to descendants), Howard championed the island culture, customs and traditions, firm in his belief that historically and morally Norfolk was the Pitcairners' island, their primary homeland. The island's character had essentially come from Pitcairner occupation over 100 to 150 years and their strength in the community must not be watered down for mindless political uniformity, he argued. Why shouldn't Australia revel in Norfolk's difference?

But he was mindful that self-government meant nothing unless it was made to work, and at his graveside, the eulogies said clearly that without Howard there would have been a real risk that self-government would not have been sustained beyond its first decade.

He helped generate practical policies that made the island economically self-sustaining, that built up its government structure and welfare services and that took the positive steps needed for efficient small government.

But he knew Norfolk's battles might not be over. A few months ago, despite his long, uncomplaining fight against his health problems, he addressed another visiting Federal parliamentary committee suspected of wanting to make changes for changes' sake.

He told them: 'Norfolk Island needs Australia. It does not need a nanny instructing us on how we must behave ourselves day by day.

"It would love to have a relationship in which Australia acts as a wise, experienced, concerned uncle or aunt, who would take an interest in what we are doing, be pleased when we seem to be doing well and be quite willing to give us some salty advice if they think we need it."

Howard leaves his four children, Ed jnr, John, Ann and Daniel, grandchildren and a great-grandson. He was buried next to Alice, who died on Norfolk in 1996, his grave dug by volunteers, with islanders weaving the floral wreaths, the simple coffin provided free by the administration and the Pitcairn anthem sung.

For a mainlander, it was very much an islander funeral.

Ed Howard jnr and Stuart Inder. Ed Howard Jr is Ed's son; Stuart Inder was a friend

.


g o s p e l w o r kw o r k i n g & f a m i l y a n d f r i e n d s

from last week …hearing stories

How did your conversation go with a “homemaker”? What did they see as the challenges of being a home maker? What are the joys of raising children? What was particularly challenging about the move from the paid workplace to un-paid work in the home?

future thinking

How did your imaginings of married life go? What difference would that make to your life? What decisions would you and your spouse have to make to ensure that you honour God as parents? How would you shape your work and home life to prioritise your family life?

1. God’s workSent by GodWhat features of the paper stood out for you?

Check out the following scenario:

Pilgrim has been working for 2 years at St Eutychus Hospital. He enjoys his job and continues to find it challenging. He particularly finds it hard coming face to face with suffering each day but he loves being able to help kids rehabilitate after accidents. Lately Pilgrim has been thinking of taking a year or 2 off to work for his church. His pastor offered him a training position at his church to oversee the Youth Ministry. he chatted to Christina and some friends who all encouraged him to do it. And he has helped out with the youth group for several years and loves it. But he enjoys his job too. What should pilgrim do? Has he been called to do youth ministry or should he stay on at St Eutychus?

Christina has been an economist for a big city from for a couple of years now. She has been offered a promotion - which looks like it would be really challenging and would also increase her salary. But reading her church notice board on Sunday, Christina noticed a marketing job with the Bible Society- the salary is lots less but it looks like it could be a really rewarding job? What should she do? Is she called to the Bible Society job?


2. God’s workers

working & family and friendsRemember from last week we introduced the 3 key areas of relationships – family and friends, society and church. Over the next 3 weeks, we are going to look at the impact of working life on each of these areas.

1. Family responsibilities

What responsibilities to family are outlined in these two passages?

Ephesians 6.1-4 1 Timothy 5.1-8


communities


Eph. 2:17-22, 4:11-16


Eph. 5:21-6:4


1 Thess. 4:9-12Gal 6:7-10

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 52. Some important principles in relating to family and friends as workers

d) Family is a God given institution for the well-being of humanity.

e) There is an ordered relationship between parents and children.

f) Children continue to honour parents while developing their independence.

g) Contributing to your family, especially financially, is a strong Biblical principle .

3. Limits with family

Using the following passages, draw up some limits to our involvement with family.

Matthew 8.18-22 Luke 12.49-53 Luke 14.25-27

4. Tips for our life with families

a) As people of grace make an effort!

b) There is no substitute for time!

c) Share yourself with them - don’t shut them up.

d) Where there are troubles, your responsibilities have a limit (same idea as Rom 12.18).

b) In evangelising non-Christian parent, the best rule of thumb is that talk is inversely proportional to closeness: t=1/c



Read the paper ‘Political Work’, which starts to apply our theological framework.

2. hearing stories & 3. future thinking

Reflect on your relationship with your family and friends – where do you think there are strengths and weaknesses about the way you contribute to those relationships. Ask at least one of your parents/ siblings/friends how they see your Christian faith impacting on your relationship with them.

4. fyiBruce Smith – a philosopher poetWe have lost an extraordinary man. The death of Bruce Smith on Saturday March 2 from leukaemia takes from us one whose 45 year ministry was conducted with passion for the things of God, eloquence of the highest order, a broad erudition and a deep humanity. He was one of the handful of people whose students regularly found him to be a great and inspiring teacher.

Towards the end of his life bruce got to know Newtown bookseller and anti-censorship campaigner, Bob Gould. Given the activities of the two men on opposite sides of some of the great debates of the 60s and 70s, this was, perhaps, a strange confluence. For those who knew both of them, however, it was a natural outcome of their many shared human interests. It was also very typical of Bruce’s gift of friendship, which was not enclosed by ecclesiastical bounds.

Bruce was born in 1932, and grew up in the Eastern Suburbs. He attended Sydney Grammar School and attended St Michael’s Vaucluse. He entered Moore College in 1952, eventually graduating Th.L, Th.Schol, Moore College Diploma and BD. He was ordained in 1956 and served curacies in Chatswood, Willoughby and Beecroft.

More significantly, he was one of a group of talented young men recruited for theological education by the then Principal Marcus Loane and others, and who formed the basis of the Faculty in later decades of the century. Apart from a time spent in England (1963-1966), he taught at the College full time and part time from 1955 until his death. In 1999 he was

made a Visiting Fellow of the College in recognition of his services and as a way of inviting his frequent- and cherished- presence. He was equally valued at Sydney Missionary and Bible College where he was likewise a visiting lecturer from 1993.

He taught many subjects over the years but specialised in philosophy and theology. He was at his best introducing students to the great thinkers, Christian or non- Christian. He had a remarkable way of empathising with an historical person, whether Socrates, Schleiermacher or Barth, and enabling his hearers to understand what they were concerned about, and why they spoke as they did. He thus inducted generations of students to a critical appreciation of a diverse range of thinkers. But he also had reading groups studying Milton, Homer and modern literature.

Higher degrees eluded him, although he began doctoral studies at both Oxford and Cambridge. There were a number of reasons for this, but in the end it was a matter of temperament, and a reminder that degrees are a poor test of the things that really matter. He was educated to a point where academic awards are of little consequence. In this respect, although he wrote some articles- and published two books of poetry- we have no major work from him. His genius lay in teaching.

In the period 1966-1973 he was at the forefront of the public witness of Sydney Diocese, as a spokesmen in public media, especially television. His attractive voice, together with his capacity to analyse and put

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 5matters in a persuasively Christian way, were invaluable on the public stage at a time when Australia was becoming more secularised.

The collapse of his marriage to Joan caused immense pain to all involved and was the ultimate reason for his withdrawal from full-time lecturing at Moore in 1975. It was a devastating blow, not just for Bruce, Joan and their three sons, David and Robert and Andrew, but also for the evangelical cause of which he was so effective and eloquent a champion. For then on he was lost to the larger arena of public ministry. But his remarkable work at Sydney Grammar School where he taught Classics, and his frequent speaking ministry in churches, house parties and conventions continued. In later years, after leaving Grammar, he devoted himself to lecturing at Moore and SMBC in particular.

He was an extraordinary man, and there is a mystery in all this: why did God remove him from his public ministry in 1975 at a time when he was so greatly needed? There were

those, at the time, who were quick to point out the flaws in his character which no doubt contributed to the situation- and of which Bruce was very conscious. But the inner story of his struggle to come to terms with the loss of family, job, home and ministry belongs privately to the story of God’s dealings with him as a sinful human being and his transformation into the image of Christ. All we can say is that it helped shape a man of deep and wide sympathy, an understanding of others, a preacher who had poetry forced out of him by pain, and eventually a person whose ministry to others, even from the sick bed, had all the marks of one who had drunk very deeply indeed at the wells of the grace and mercy of God. In the end, his greatest work was no different from any other Christian’s: it was to point away from himself to the Saviour whom he loved so well.

Bruce is survived by his three sons and their families.

Dr Peter Jensen


p o l i t i c a l w o r kw o r k i n g & s o c i e t y

from last week …

Any thoughts from your reflections/conversations with family/friends about the impact of your Christian faith on your relationships with them?

1. God’s workPolitical Work:Pilgrim and Christina run into problems at work.

Christina has just found out that her company has been supplying economic advice to FastCash.com, a company with a reputation for pushing high interest car loans in low socio-economic areas. Her friend from church has just been burnt by FastCash.com and stands to lose quite a lot of money. What is the ethical thing for Christina to do?

The Department of Health has just made a regulation that all male physios should attend female patients only when a female medical professional is present. The physio department at St Eutychus' is up in arms-this is just another inconvenience in an already busy hospital. Pilgrim's boss tells him not to worry about the new regulation. What does he do?


2. God’s workers

working & societyRemember from 2 weeks ago we introduced the 3 key areas of relationships – family and friends, society and church. This week, we are going to look at the impact of working life on our involvement with society.

1. Our God given society

Pick one of the following passages and fill in the table: Romans 13.1–7, 1 Peter 2.11–18.

Societal structures How God uses them Our role as God’s people


communities


Eph. 2:17-22, 4:11-16


Eph. 5:21-6:4


1 Thess. 4:9-12Gal 6:7-10


2. Some important principles in relating to society as workers

a) A working, ordered society is an expression of God’s grace.

b) Christians have a responsibility to co-operate and participate happily in such a society

c) In doing so, we will bring God glory and act as a witness to others.

3. Limits to our involvement with society

What limits are placed on our involvement with society in these passages?

Acts 4.18-20 Luke 20.20-26 Matthew 22.19

4. Work as an involvement in society

Look back over one of the passages in Section 1. What occupations could be included in these passages?

Could you make a contribution to society outside the Public Service?

5. Tips for contributing well

Note the three areas of societal contribution:Obligatory (tax, jury duty)Occupational (teaching. firefighting)Co-curricular (being elected President of the tennis club)

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 6Can you think of two more examples for each category?

On a macro level…Be conscious of and intentional about the level of commitment in each of the three areas.

On a micro level…View you workplace as a micro society with its own relational responsibilities

What might be the obligatory, occupational and co-curricular contributions one could make at work?

It’s your job to be conscious of and intentional about your contribution to workplace life.

And on a micro and macro level…There are no completely pure communities – every community you are involved with is in some measure tainted by sin. You will need to be wise about where contribution slides into compromise.



Read the paper on ‘Mission work’ this week!

2. hearing stories

Interview someone at your church or in your family who is involved in community activities- they might be involved in local council, or in the local tennis club, involved in the P& C at the local school or be a passionate member of grrenpeace.. Ask them about why the got involved in this activitiy and why they believe it is important. Also ask them about some of the challenges that this involvement brings.

3. future

Reflect on your contribution to society – where do you think there are strengths and weaknesses about the way you are involved in the various communities of which you are a part? What involvement do you think you can have in the future.

3. fyi Emilie Shcindler, Unsung saviour of Polish Jews, 1907-2001

The life of Emilie Schindler, who died on October 5 at the age of 93, was overshadowed by that of her industrialist husband, Oskar, who was hailed for having saved more than 1,000 Jews from Nazi death camps. Although her significant role in that campaign was acknowledged in Thomas Keneally's 1982 book, Schindler's Ark, she was sidelined in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film Schindler's List (1993).

In 1993, however, Emilie was awarded Israel's Righteous Among The Nations Award for her virtually single-handed success in stopping the Nazis from sending a trainload of 120 Jewish men, women and children to Auschwitz.

After the film came out, Emilie published a

memoir, Where Light and Shadow Meet, and gave interviews in which she complained that neither Keneally's book nor Spielberg's film had made much of her part in saving the Schindlerjuden. She drew attention to the complexity of her husband's motives, claiming that he had been acting at least partly out of self-interest. Against that, she testified that he had no trace of anti-Semitism, counting his workers among his friends and, indeed, his mistresses.

Born to Catholic farmers in the village of Alt Moletein, Sudetenland, in what is now the Czech Republic, Emilie Pelzl studied at agricultural college and seemed prepared to spend her life farming. But when she was 20, the swarthy, charming Oskar Schindler drove up to the farm on his motorbike and whisked her off her feet. They married on March 6, 1928, in the Czech town of Zwittau and spent their first years together living with Oskar's

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 6parents.

In 1935, Oskar had begun working with German military counterintelligence, the Abwehrdienst, which nearly got him executed by the Czechoslovaks in 1939. But after Hitler invaded Poland, he accepted a Nazi offer to run a Jewish-owned enamelware factory in Krakow, employing cheap labour from the local ghetto.

Emilie joined him in 1941, the year before he bought the factory partly with funds raised in the ghetto. In return, Schindler employed Jewish workers from the nearby Plaschow concentration camp.

Sometimes opportunist, he joined the Nazi party, courted the SS with bribes and used his influential friends to save his workers from the cattle trucks. Emilie played the role of obedient and pretty wife, cutting between entertaining the local SS commandant, Amoth Goeth, to dinner and feeding starving Jews. She became adept at buying fruit and vegetables on the black market.

After the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto and the transportation of its inmates, Schindler composed his famous list, promising Nazi commanders money for each of the 1,300 men, women and children whom he said he would employ in his munitions factory in Brunnlitz, in Czechoslovakia.

Emilie always insisted that it was she - and not her husband - who signed the documents that saved the workers. She went to the

mayor of Brunnlitz, her former swimming teacher, and obtained the permit that was to save their lives. The workers at Brunnlitz never worked and the Schindlers spent much of their time trying to feed them.

Towards the end of the war, Emilie helped save about 120 near-starving and frozen Jews from an Auschwitz-bound train. "The people were far too weak to work," she later recalled. "But I told the guards: 'Yes, we'll take them'."

At the end of the war, the penniless Schindlers moved to Munich and, in 1949, to Buenos Aires, where they attempted to make a living mink-farming. He left her in 1957 with a huge pile of debts and returned to Germany. She never answered his letters and did not attend his funeral in 1974. In the 1950s, the Jewish organisation B'nai B'rith secured her a pension, which was later supplemented by Germany.

In 1993, Emilie became the centre of attention: Spielberg invited her to the premiere of Schindler's List in Washington, and gave her $US50,000. She was repeatedly invited back to Germany.

Last July, she fulfilled her wish to return to Germany to die, settling into a retirement home in Bavaria. After a stroke, she spent her final two months in a clinic outside Berlin. To the end, she swayed between admiration and contempt for her husband, whom she had refused to divorce. She said recently: "If I could choose again, I would pick Oskar."

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 6The Schindlers had no children and Emilie is survived by a niece. Kate Connolly, The Guardian


m i s s i o n w o r kw o r k i n g & c h u r c h

from last week …

Any thoughts from your reflections about your contribution to various aspects of society?

What your person involved in community activities have to say about the joys and challenges of serving in the community?

1. God’s workMission Work: (or what on earth God is doing!)In order to review the “Mission Work” paper – What would you say to Pilgrim and Christina about their next conversation?

Pilgrim: That’s it – I have really had it with this go-nowhere job. I’ve only got one life, I’m going to do something significant with it.

Christina: What did you have in mind?

Pilgrim: I’m going to be a missionary – after all, that’s the thing that Jesus really wants from his people – his Great Commission is his last will and testament kind of speech.

Christina: What about the rest of us? What about me?

Pilgrim: Well, this train is leaving the station – you can either get on board or be left behind!

Christina: Thanks for the inviting offer – but really, what’s going on with you?

Pilgrim: I’m just sick of being basically anonymous, another cog in the machine, another brick in the wall. At least in mission work, I’ll be doing something I can be proud of.

Christina: What exactly do you think you will be doing?

Pilgrim: Umm … well … don’t know really!


2. God’s workers

working & churchRemember from 2 weeks ago we introduced the 3 key areas of relationships – family and friends, society and church. This week, we are going to look at the impact of working life on our involvement with church.

1. Church – the pillar and bulwark of the truth

Pick a passage and fill in the table: 1 Pet 2.4–10, Eph 2.17–22, Gal 6.7–10

The nature of the church It’s purpose(s) Our role as God’s people


communities

Church1 Pet. 2.4–10Gal 6:7-10

Eph. 2:17-22, 4:11-16


Eph. 5:21-6:4


1 Thess. 4:9-12Gal 6:7-10

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 72. Some important principles in relating to church as a worker

a) It is very likely that you will have less time and energy!

b) It also very likely that you will have more money!

c) As you grow in your work situation, you will develop specialist skills and abilities.

d) One of the most significant changes you face is entering a ‘whole new world’, consisting of an entirely different plausibility structure, with conflicting values.

e) It is very likely you will meet incredibly impressive non-Christian people.

3. Tips for contributing well at church

a) Do one thing well, and commit to no more than three nights a week!

b) Never don’t attend church for any reason except for geography/sickness.

c) Contribute financially to Christian ministry from the top, not the bottom, of your income. Give at least 10%, with the largest proportion going to your church.

d) Be very intentional about how you make the transition from a student church member to a worker church member.



Read the “Ends of the Earth” on the History of Christian Mission paper.

2. hearing stories

Take a chance this week to e-mail a missionary (maybe one of the link missionaries at your church or Xavier Lukins in France- who we met an An-Con). You could also talk to your pastor or one of your staff workers and ask them why they made choices to do vocational ministry.

3. future

One of the great opportunities that we have is to spend time working and travelling Overseas. What do you think would be the particular challenges for you if you spent an extended period overseas.

4. fyiAssassination in Israel; Yitzhak Rabin, 73, an Israeli Soldier Turned Prime Minister and Peacemaker

By MARILYN BERGER New York Times

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, who was shot dead yesterday at age 73, was a soldier turned statesman who led his country into uncharted territory to make peace with the Palestinians and put an end to the wars, bloodshed and terrorism that had plagued his country since its founding.

It was General Rabin, the Commander in Chief of Israel's armed forces in 1967, who had led the lightning strike that captured broad swaths of Arab territories. Twenty-six years later, on Sept. 13, 1993, it was Prime Minister Rabin who reluctantly extended his hand to Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, to put a symbolic seal of approval on an accord that would lead to the return of much of that territory and to Palestinian self-rule on the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In an extraordinary ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, one that few had ever expected to see, Mr. Rabin came face-to-face with Mr. Arafat -- the man who had been reviled for decades by Israelis as the mastermind behind one attack after another on their people, the man with whom the following year he and his Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, would share the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The time for peace has come," Mr. Rabin declared. "We, the soldiers who have returned from battles stained with blood, we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes, . . . we who have come from a land where parents bury their children, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians -- we say today in a loud and clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough."

Speaking as much to his own people as to the astonished world that was watching, Mr. Rabin explained in mournful tones how painful and how necessary it was for Israel to take this step.

"It's not so easy -- either for myself as a soldier in Israel's war nor for the people of Israel. . . . It is certainly not easy for the families of the victims of the war's violence, terror, whose pain will never heal, for the many thousands who defended our lives and their own and have even sacrificed their lives for our own. For them this ceremony has come too late."

But he said Israel was not seeking revenge. It was seeking peace.

The tragedy was that some of Mr. Rabin's own people were seeking revenge. As Mr. Rabin came closer to achieving his goal of peace, a wide schism opened within the Israeli populace. Much of the bitterness of those opposed to making peace with Israel's historic enemies was directed at Mr. Rabin, and he became the soldier who paid the ultimate price to make peace.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 7He had been unrelenting in his drive to institutionalize that peace. Only a month ago, Mr. Rabin took part in another White House ceremony to mark the beginning of another withdrawal from the West Bank. This time the handshakes with Mr. Arafat were less reluctant and the peace process was well established.

A New Generation Brings a New Vision

Mr. Rabin was the only one of Israel's eight Prime Ministers to have been born in the land of Palestine, a Sabra who had not experienced the long history of attacks on European Jewry and the horror of the Holocaust. With his election, Israel turned over its leadership from the fathers to the sons and he appealed for a new vision. On taking office in 1992 for his second term as Prime Minister, Mr. Rabin said it was time for Israel to jettison its siege mentality.

"No longer is it true that the whole world is against us," he said. He accepted his election as a mandate to make peace. One of his first steps was to put a freeze on all new construction in the occupied territories.

To achieve agreement with the Palestinians, Mr. Rabin followed the lead of Foreign Minister Peres, a Labor Party colleague and longtime political rival. They had fought for decades over the leadership of the party and the country, but they joined forces in the search for peace. To the opposition that branded Mr. Rabin a "traitor," the Prime Minister replied that peace must be made with enemies, not with friends.

Mr. Rabin had been at the center of the major events in his nation's history for five decades. In 1948, he fought in the siege of Jerusalem during Israel's war of independence. In 1967, as Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army for the three years before the June war, he brought to fighting strength the formidable force that rolled over three Arab armies in six days. Later, as Ambassador to the United States he helped assure Israel a steady supply of sophisticated weapons. In his first term as Prime Minister he negotiated the crucial and lasting disengagement of Israeli and Egyptian forces in the Sinai, which paved the way for the Camp David accords. And as Defense Minister, in 1986, he presided over the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon

although he continued to respond with force to terrorist attacks.

Never Charismatic, But a Man to Be Trusted

As a boy growing up in Palestine, Mr. Rabin wanted to be an agronomist, and attended the Kadoorie Agricultural School in Galilee where he won the High Commissioner's Gold Medal as the best student in Palestine. But like many patriotic young people of his time he gave up his childhood ambition and joined the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah underground Jewish army, saw action in World War II, and developed into a brilliant military tactician.

He also developed into a politician. Israelis trusted him for his single-minded devotion to the good of the country and he was repeatedly asked to accept high government positions. But he was the antithesis of the convivial party man. Taciturn, introspective, controlled, intensely private, he had almost no close advisers and reached decisions independently, often announcing them in an authoritarian manner that alienated the party leadership. He spoke in a deep monotone that made his public personality seem colorless, and even in private he was almost devoid of humor.

Mr. Rabin was born in Jerusalem on March 1, 1922. His father, Nehemiah, who came from a poor family in Ukraine, had escaped from Czarist Russia and gone to Palestine by way of Chicago and St. Louis.In Palestine, he became a trade union organizer in the labor movement of David Ben-Gurion. His mother, Rosa Cohen, born to a well-to-do family in Gomel, Russia, was active in politics and became the dominant influence on the young Rabin. Theirs was a home where young Yitzhak was taught that public service was a duty and where, he remembered, "It was a disgrace to speak about money."

He was 7 years old when Arabs began attacking Jewish settlements. Later, during the 1936 Arab riots and general strike, he was at the Khadouri school where he was trained in the use of arms by Yigal Allon, who was later to become his commander and his mentor. Five years later, during World War II, Moshe Dayan, then a young commander in the Haganah, invited Mr. Rabin to join the Palmach. As part of the British invasion of Greater Syria, which was in the hands of the

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 7Axis powers, Mr. Rabin was sent across the border. The youngest in his unit, it was his job to climb up telephone poles to cut the wires so the collaborationist Vichy French forces could not call up reinforcements.

In June 1945, just after the end of the war in Europe, Mr. Rabin commanded a daring raid to liberate about 200 illegal Jewish immigrants held by the British in a camp at Athlit, on the Mediterranean just south of Haifa. The exploit was said to be the prototype for a similar raid in the novel "Exodus," and Mr. Rabin the prototype for Ari Ben Canaan, the hero, played in the movie version by Paul Newman. But the shy Mr. Rabin always insisted that he was not the fictional Ari Ben Canaan.

Mr. Rabin was arrested by the British and imprisoned for six months in a camp in Gaza. Soon after he was released the British turned the problem of Palestine over to the United Nations, which, in 1947, voted for partition into a Jewish and an Arab state.

The Arabs attacked, and as hostilities intensified between the Jews and the Arabs, Mr. Allon, then the commander of the Palmach, appointed Mr. Rabin his deputy. During the 1948 Israeli war of independence, Mr. Rabin commanded the Har-El Brigade, a makeshift unit that failed to take Jerusalem for Israel but kept open the vital supply lines between Jerusalem and the sea. Later, with the rank of colonel, Mr. Rabin served on the southern front against Egyptian forces.

When Mr. Rabin disclosed in his 1979 memoir his role in forcing 50,000 Arab civilians to leave their homes at gunpoint during the war of independence, there was a furor in Israel, where officials had long denied that Arab civilians were pushed out of their lands.

In the middle of the war, on Aug. 23, 1948, Mr. Rabin married Leah Schlossberg, who had joined the Palmach and served in his battalion. They had two children, a son, Yuval and a daughter, Dalia, and three grandchildren. They all survive him.

Mr. Rabin's first venture into diplomacy came when he was sent to the island of Rhodes as part of the delegation to the Israeli-Egyptian armistice talks in 1949.

In 1953, having finally committed himself to a career in the army, Mr. Rabin went to England to study at the British Staff College at

Camberley. Back home he went on to hold a series of high posts in the Israeli Army, mainly involving manpower training, and was named chief of staff in 1964.

He became Israel's top expert on military matters. Even as he rose through the ranks, he became known as the man who who knew more than the generals. Eventually, he became a general himself, a lieutenant-general.

The Army that fought the six-day war in 1967 was essentially Mr. Rabin's army. Shab'tai Teveth, professor of history at Tel Aviv University, said, "It was the army he trained, planned, built and armed in his three years as chief of staff." But, he added, "There his glory ends."

His "glory" ended when, on the eve of the fighting, Mr. Rabin suffered a nervous collapse.

The Terrible Burden Of Leadership in War

In 1968, Mr. Rabin was appointed Ambassador to the United States, where he became known as an effective advocate for Israel and a master at procuring sophisticated American weapons. In his five years as Ambassador he developed a close relationship with Henry A. Kissinger, President Richard M. Nixon's national security adviser and later his Secretary of State. Mr. Kissinger called on him for intelligence about troop movements in the Middle East and even consulted him on Vietnam.

Shortly after he returned to Israel in 1973, Mr. Rabin entered national politics for the first time. Then, on Yom Kippur, while the country was in the middle of an election campaign, Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack. The country's leaders -- Prime Minister Golda Meir and her Minister of Defense, Mr. Dayan -- were held responsible for the country's lack of preparedness in that October war, but the Labor Party won enough votes to form a new Government. Mr. Rabin won in his first attempt at election and was given the post of Minister of Labor.

But within a month of forming her Cabinet, Mrs. Meir resigned and the party turned to Mr. Rabin, who had been out of power at the time of the war and was therefore untainted by the heavy casualties.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 7Diplomatic Departures, And a Final Legacy

In 1974, Mr. Rabin became Israel's fifth Prime Minister and, at 52, its youngest. "The time has come," he said, "for the sons of the founders of the state to take over their role."

Mr. Rabin became the first Israeli Prime Minister to make an official visit to West Germany. He also said he met secretly with King Hussein of Jordan six times in an unsuccessful effort to open peace negotiations with him. His Government weathered the Arab oil embargo and the skyrocketing prices of oil, and negotiated a second Sinai disengagement with the Egyptians, but only after incurring the wrath of Mr. Kissinger when it turned down one of his early proposals. The Secretary of State returned to Washington in March 1975 and persuaded President Ford to undertake a "reassessment" of American policy toward Israel, a move seen as a threat to withhold arms shipments. Mr. Rabin had been ready to negotiate what he called "a piece of land for a piece of peace,".

Five months later he accepted what he called a "risk for peace" and signed an Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement.

During his term as Prime Minister, Mr. Rabin faced down terrorists who hijacked an Air France plane en route from Tel Aviv to Paris. At first, he was seen as weak because he waited several days before dispatching an assault group to Entebbe, Uganda, where the plane and almost 100 Israeli citizens were being held hostage. When he finally approved a military operation and, when the daring raid succeeded, he was hailed as a hero.

Sitting in his office at the Defense Ministry one evening in 1987, he looked back at his life with satisfaction tinged with disappointment. His disappointment, he said, was in what he saw as a loss of national spirit, the failure of the creators of the state to pass on their sense of commitment. Of his most satisfying moment he had no doubt -- the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967.

But there was more, a legacy delivered that day in 1993 when he led the country to come to terms with the Palestinians, "to live together on the same soil in the same land."

He acknowledged the risk. But in going to Washington to endorse the agreement, he said, "We have come to try to put an end to the hostilities so that our children, our children's children, will no longer experience the painful cost of war."


g o s p e l w o r kp l e a s i n g G o d w i t h w e a l t h

from last week …

Did you get a chance this week to e-mail a missionary (maybe one of the link missionaries at your church or Xavier Lukins in France- who we met an An-Con). Or to talk to your pastor or one of your staff workers and ask them about why they made choices to do vocational ministry.

What did you think would be some of the challenges with spending an extended time overseas?

1. God’s workAny thoughts or reflections on the History of Christian Missions pasper?


2. God’s workers

Pleasing God with Wealth (or “what do I do next year when I have money?”)

1. Wealth is a blessing from God

The Teacher:“This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot. Likewise all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them, and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil – this is the gift of God.”

Ecclesiastes 5:18-19

Apostle Paul:“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.”

1 Timothy 4:4,5

so …

Be Thankful .

Thankfulness: that’s counter-cultural because …

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 82. Wealth brings opportunity and responsibility to be a blessing to others

Paul:“As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Jesus:“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

Luke 12:48

Jesus:“It is more blessed to give than to receive”

Acts 20:35

so…

Be generous and be wise: God will ask for an account for how we use the wealth he gives us.

Wisdom & Accountability: that’s counter-cultural because …

Generosity: that’s counter-cultural because …

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 83. Wealth shows where your heart is

Jesus:“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Matt 6:24

Paul:“Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

1 Timothy 6:6-10

so …

Be content.

Contentment: that’s counter-cultural because …

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 84. Our unique situation

From the article An Evangelical commitment to simple lifestyle:

“We are shocked by the poverty of millions, and disturbed by the injustices which cause it. One quarter of the world’s population enjoys unparalleled prosperity, while another quarter endures grinding poverty. This gross disparity is an intolerable injustice; we refuse to acquiesce in it.”

Paul to the Corinthians:“I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written, ‘the one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.’”

2 Cor 8:13-15

so …

As members of the 1st world, we have a responsibility to renounce extravagence and give beyond your immediate community .

5. Exercise: Budgeting with Jenny

Now that Jenny has got a job as an economist in the city, she wants to be a good steward of the money that God has entrusted her with. Her annual salary is $35, 000 and she gets paid fortnightly. She lives with a couple of friends from church.

Jenny made a list of all of the things that she spends money on and averaged them out over a year to work out how much she would need to budget per fortnight, on average, to make sure that she had enough money available for each expense. She figured that this would mean that when the big expenses came around (like her Car registration or the Christmas present rush), she would not be left without any money to pay, but would have some money saved up and ready. Here is the budget she worked out:


Gross Fortnightly Income

Tax Net Fortnightly Income

Fortnightly Expenditure

$1346.15 $298.00 $1048.15 TOTAL $1030ITEMISEDSavings account $50Church giving $70Missionary support $20Miscellaneous giving $20EU GRADS FUND $50Sponsor Children $50Debt Repayments $40Rent $110Groceries $45Train/bus $60Petrol $60Medical $20Clothing, shoes etc $25Entertainment, Coffee etc $80Electricity $30Phone $50Gas $10Internet $10Mobile $10Conferences $40Car Registration $50Car Maintenance $15Presents Family/friends $80Holidays $40Miscellaneous $25

1. What proportion of her expenditure goes on:

providing for herself

Churchministry, missions …

Family & Friendsproviding …Society

the poor, paying taxes …


2. What are Jenny’s priorities and preferences as expressed by this pattern of expenditure?

a) living from day to day

b) providing for family and friends

c) providing for society – taxes, giving to the poor etc

d) providing for the church – ministry and missions

3. How would you modify Jenny’s budget given the principles we’ve seen in the Scriptures?P.S. Some things to notice

a) Even before Jenny receives her income a good proportion is taken by the state as tax. Her $35,000 pa. is actually more like $27, 250 pa.

b) The majority of Jenny’s expenditure goes on simply living from day to day.

c) Jenny’s expenditure reflects a lifestyle she has partly chosen and partly received. Both of these things have financial implications (eg. she goes to quite a number of Christian conferences; she has a large family and in her family there is a culture of giving substantial presents).

6. Concluding

be thankful because wealth is a blessing from God. be wise and be generous because wealth brings with it opportunity and responsibility to be a

blessing. be content because wealth shows where your heart is. renounce extravagance and give beyond your immediate communities.

So then, having been freed by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, in obedience to his call, in heartfelt compassion for the poor, in concern for evangelism, development and justice, and in solemn anticipation of the Day of Judgement, we humbly commit ourselves to develop a just and simple lifestyle, to support one another in it and to encourage others to join us in this commitment.We know that we still need time to work out its implications and that the task will not be easy. May Almighty God give us his grace to be faithful! Amen.



Read “An Evangelical Commitment to Simple Lifestyle” – Hear what The World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission’s Unit on Ethics and Society and the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelisation has to say about a simple lifestyle

2. hearing stories

Talk to someone in their first year of work. What have been the challenges for them as they work out how to use their money sensibly and generously?

3. future

Have a go working on your budget. Make up a sensible salary and see how you go.

4. fyi

Pat Dixon (17 Oct 2001)

About the time Pat Dixon was born on the Bellbrook Aboriginal Reserve near Kempsey in 1943, her father lamented that his people were ``losing one world and being barred from the other". Pat spent her life trying to redress this situation. She was an inspiring woman with a contagious humour and wisdom drawn from genuine compassion and understanding of the human condition.

Pat, who died suddenly on September 30, was the first Aboriginal woman elected to local government in Australia, was deputy mayor of the City of Armidale until its amalgamation with Dumaresq, and had just been elected vice-president of the NSW Local Government Association. She was a commissioner of the Local Government Grants Commission, a member of the advisory committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Matters to the Federal Electoral Commission and chief executive officer of the Armidale and District Services Inc (Medical Service), chairwoman of the New England and North Coast State Housing and active in many community organisations.

One of her major contributions over the last

decade was in opening doors into all three spheres of government for Aboriginal people, enabling them to represent their interests, especially as elected members. Pat was proud to be a member of the Dainggatti people, whose traditional country is the mountains and rolling hills between the coast and tableland around the Macleay River. She was the fourth in a family of 12 children born to John and Minnie Quinlan, who spent most of their lives on Bellbrook Reserve. The Quinlans fought for better conditions at Bellbrook and no doubt laid a foundation in activism for their talented daughter.

In a speech to a NAIDOC Week function in Sydney a few years ago, Pat recalled that her childhood years were happy and free. Although she attended the Bellbrook school, her formal education was limited. Her carefree time with her brothers and sisters came to an abrupt end when, at the age of 14, she was taken away from Bellbrook by the Aboriginal Protection Welfare Board and apprenticed as a domestic help to a white family in Sydney. In Sydney she became aware that Aboriginal people were different and were subject to discrimination and injustice.

In Sydney she also met her lifelong partner

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 8and husband, Doug. In the early 1970s they and their two sons, Douglas and Graham, returned to Armidale, where Pat became interested in community concerns and began studying to improve her literacy skills. With the encouragement of friends, in 1983 she stood for and was elected to Armidale City Council. She was re-elected for a second term in 1987.

In 1991, Pat left Armidale to take up the position of Aboriginal policy officer with the Department of Local Government and Corporate Services in Sydney and from there she moved to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) in Canberra. At ALGA she helped bring local government into the reconciliation process, persuading the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, to fund a grants scheme for local councils to undertake local reconciliation projects.

This local action paved the way for the National General Assembly of Local Government in subsequent years recognising native title, issuing an apology to the stolen generations and committing local government to help overcome indigenous disadvantage.

In 1994 Pat rallied indigenous councillors from around Australia to attend the first National General Assembly of Australian Local Government. She instigated advance briefings for indigenous delegates to help the building of networks, to give an insight into the processes of the assembly and to ensure an Aboriginal input into the whole local government agenda. Since then, the personal involvement of Aboriginal people from all parts of Australia has profoundly changed local government attitudes and its relationship with indigenous peoples.

As she told the International Union of Local Authorities Congress, in Toronto, Canada, in the same year: ``Local government is the place where change can happen. It is the place where big issues at the national level

have their base. Local communities are where Aboriginal people meet white people it is the place where we talk, play sport, shop, have a laugh and a cry.

``What is important is that Aboriginal people get to the starting line, as candidates and electors, so they can be judged and make judgments on their merit."

Pat also built strong networks among women in all spheres of government and across cultures. Her philosophy was perhaps best encapsulated in her speech to the Australian Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne in 1997: ``The sort of leadership local government can show is a commitment to working co-operatively with Aboriginal people. We see harmony where councils consult effectively with their indigenous residents, listen to us, respect our opinions, involve us in committees of council, demonstrate support for our endeavours and respect our culture. This helps us respond with the generosity of our people.

``Local government can set a good example. It can educate. It can help remove bias from the media. It can create forums where indigenous people and other citizens come together to learn from each other and to develop working partnerships. Local government can provide employment, infrastructure and services that enhance the lives of indigenous people."

On her return to Armidale early in 1995 Pat not only regained her place on council, but was elected deputy mayor only the second Aborigine to fill such a position in NSW. She served on a host of local committees, including the Bicentennial Committee, which supported the establishment of the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, and the committee which established the Galloway Children's Centre. At the time of her death Pat was the endorsed ALP candidate for New England for the pending federal election.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 8Pat's friends across Australia knew of her devotion to the man she called Dougy and of her love for her children and grandchildren and respect for her extended family. She was a courageous and intensely human person

with a powerful sense of justice and the guts to do something about it. Although she touched the lives of many thousands of Australians, her lasting legacy will be the active involvement of Aboriginal people


T h e s i m p l e l i f ew o r k i n g w i t h i n t e g r i t y

from last week …

How did your budgeting go? What things came as a surprise, and what were you pleased about?

What did your worker friend say was challenging about budgeting as workers?

1. God’s work

Simple Lifestyle:What stood out for you as you read the challenge to live a simple lifestyle?

What did you find personally challenging?

What would it look like for your to be a faithful steward?


2. God’s workersWorking with integrity (or serving the Lord Christ when no one else is)1. Principles

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

Colossians 3.22-4.1

… in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame…

1 Peter 3.15-17

We serve The LORD:

And this means Working wholeheartedly–

Working righteously–

Working christianly–

2. Issues - How would you advise these Christian friends?

a. Simon is a nurse at a major suburban hospital. The law states that morphine can only be administered by a doctor, but old Mrs Green is in real pain and the doctors are not scheduled to do their rounds for another hour. Other nurses quite regularly administer morphine without the permission of a doctor. Can Simon justify breaking the law? Is there another way forward?

b. Andrea works for a law firm in the city and is responsible to one of the partners in the company. Standard practice in the firm is to bill clients for a few hours work over what was actually done. The

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD SESSION 9reasoning is that most of the clients are multibillion dollar companies anyway and don’t really miss the money. After working at the firm for a few months Andrea decides that she can’t go along with this practice and is soon called to see her Partner because her billing is noticeably below average. You see her at church on Sunday night and the meeting is 9am tomorrow… what can you say?

c. James is a Maths teacher at Bloggsville High school. The Principal is incompetent and the school has real discipline problems which aren’t helped by the Principal who fails to support discipline decisions made by teachers. There is a groundswell of feeling against the Principal amongst the staff. In James’ Maths staffroom they have a number of favourite derogatory nicknames for him and often make decisions aimed at undermining his acceptance by the students. Should James just keep quiet, speak out, talk to the principal, or what?

d. Louise is a Civil Engineer working for Hardhat & Sons Pty Ltd. She is part of a team supervising the construction of the A7 motorway and feels she is being targeted for persecution by Bill, one of the other Engineers on the team with a few years more experience. As far as she knows she hasn’t done anything to offend him, but he has taken to making jokes at her expense around the other members of the team and in a recent peer appraisal gave her low scores while all other members of the team scored her highly. What should Louise do?

e. Jeremy is out on Friday night for a round of drinks with the lads from his accounting firm. Someone suggests that after a few drinks they head off to a local strip club and enjoy a fun night. Jeremy says that he’d rather not join them but the others want to know why: he’s a young single guys, its Friday night, why wouldn’t he come? Is he gay or something? … What can Jeremy say?

3. Five Tips about being a Christian worker

a) Be honest and reliable - be up front in relating to superiors and work colleagues and keep your word.

b) Be loving – find ways to connect with work colleagues, and do good for them at every opportunity. Value the people you work with as well as the tasks you are working on together.

c) Be bold and patient in sharing Christ - let others know you are a Christian early on and be ready to explain the gospel respectfully when God gives you opportunities, but be patient in evangelism since it takes time for relationships to develop and there are often less opportunities to speak of Christ at work.

d) Know your boundaries – work hard within the commitments you have made, but not beyond them.

Our advice for …


e) Maintain an active involvement in the Christian community – moving from Uni to work is a major life change. You will need support and encouragement to keep moving forward in Christ.

3. homework1. head workRe-Read the paper ‘The Evangelical Commitment to a Simple Lifestyle”..

2. hearing storiesTune into SBS one weekday in the coming week at 6pm for an episode of Global Village. Each episode focuses on a different community somewhere around the world. You can check the program to see what community will be shown on which day at www.sbs.com.au/globalvillage/global_set.html

Here are some questions to think about as you watch:

Economy: What kinds of work do you see people doing in this community? What tools do you see them using in their work? Do they trade with other communities?

Standard of living: What are their houses like? How do they get their water? What health risks do they face?

Religion What religions are talked about during the program? How does religion play a part in their life? Are there Christians among these people?

Entertainment Do the people seem to have much or little leisure time? What do kids do for entertainment? What do adults do for entertainment?

3. future.

Write your own obituary. What do you want to be said of you at the end of your life.


t h e s i m p l e l i f ep r a c t i c a l t i p s f o r w o r k i n g

from last week …

Did you watch Global Village? What things were similar to our way of life? What was different? Could you live in such a situation?

Would anyone like to read out their obituary?

1. God’s workWhat next for us?What are each of us doing next year?

Spend some time praying for each other.

2. God’s workersA. Some practical tips in making decisions in this climate

In Christ we have freedom – there are many valuable contributions you can make to God’s work in God’s world. In so far as you choose a work that is not sinful, you cannot make a wrong decision.

Small decisions can lead to big outcomes – when you dream big dreams they sometimes seem a long way away. But remember, you can get there! Just start down the track towards your goal, taking small steps along the way.

Know yourself – both your limitations and your potential. Make it your goal to think of yourself with ‘sober judgement’ (Romans 12). This is partly a matter of time and experience, partly a matter of reflection on your strengths and weaknesses and passions and dislikes, and partly a matter of seeking honest feedback and guidance from others. Don’t over-estimate the contribution you can make … but don’t underestimate it either!Marriage and children make a drastic difference - to the work you can do and might want to do. This is especially the case for women.


Think in terms of ‘Life Chapters’ – you are not trapped by where you have been. Career change is normal and making a drastic change to another field of work or another suburb, city, or country is a genuine possibility, especially in the current situation. You will periodically close one chapter and open another. This is daunting, but also exciting – and normal.

Seek contentment – as you think about changes and moves, do not let yourself be deceived by the lie that a new job or a new situation will solve all your problems and bring you satisfaction. The grass is not always greener on the other side, even though it may often seem that way.

Have holy ambitions – make it your hearts desire and greatest joy to contribute to the growth of God’s kingdom as much as you possibly can. Value the things God values. Desire the things God desires. Hate the things God hates. Love the things God loves. And make your decisions with Holy Ambition.

Think about job interviews as your chance to interview them – are they worthy of your labour and energy and commitment? Will you be able to serve God will all your heart in this work-place? Be bold.

WORKING IN GOD’S WORLD A Simple Life

session 1: work and you - brent muir leaders n… · web viewcontents. session ‘god’s work’...

Documents