My Adventures with God

This series of blogs is only part of the story of my life - but a really important part. It is about where I have done things I believed God was calling me to do and how He backed up that call with the necessary provision.

Chapters

1. Brought up in the Seventh Day Adventist Church I fail Baptism Class. Twice. Then I take the hint and leave. ch.1: How do you fail baptism class?
2.  As a Teenager looking for God by trying to find a church ch.2: Church Hunting
3.  Life as a Lost Sheep. I give up on God but God does not give up on me. Plus an anecdote about authority. ch.3: Life as a Lost Sheep
4. I start going to church again. I think God tells me two things that will happen: They don't. ch 4: Back to Church
5. Winning Sue: The start of a wonderful marriage - also vindication of what I thought God had told me. ch 5: Winning Sue
6. My First brush with the Charismatic Movement : How a church was split, families divided and people's faith diminished  ch 6 The Charismatic Movement
7. From a Uniting Church split by Charismatics we go to an Anglican Church. I learn the value of "meat and three veg." preaching. God gives us mentors in Bishop & Mrs Clive Kerle. God sneaks me into Moore College. ch.7: St Swithun's Anglican Church
8. I start at Sydney's famous Moore Theological College. My initial excitement and confidence soon give way to despair and depression. ch.8: Moore College Pt.1
9. My childhood experiences with bullies and why I get into my first fight with the hierarchy - I call them out for bullying my fellow students. Bishop Kerle saves me from being expelled. ch.9: Bullies
10. God turns up phenomenal mentors. I try to keep out of trouble. But I manage to get the Archbishop to come to a dinner with his student ministers. That makes a powerful enemy. I won't be ordained in Sydney. ch.10: More Friends & a Foe
11. Bishop Delbridge to the Rescue: From "all dressed up and nowhere to go" to ordained by Bishop Delbridge in Gippsland diocese ch.11: Bishop Delbridge to the rescue
12. We start to learn that God's ideas about how money should be used are different to ours: God wins. God is funny about money 
13. A legacy of taped sermons from Bishop Delbridge opens our eyes to the next step in our Christian growth. picture of Jesus as a house owner
14. Lang Lang. A preface to the exciting story of how we (under God) trebled the size of the church in 18 months, had everything collapse, studied what went wrong, then painstakingly rebuilt.introduction to the story of Lang Lang
15. Revival begins - a women's prayer group is given miraculous answers and God sends his first convert in Lang Lang. Plus my comments on the sad state of the churches at present. Revival Begins
16. Religious education in the local state schools. I use "plain" Bible stories because they work! I ask God for (well, more like demand) help with music. He sends our very own song writer of children's songs.Schools and Miracles
17. Bringing young people to faith is easy .... once you have your own motives and priorities right. Children and Church
18. We tries the usual evangelistic methods as well, If you want to have people join your church  beware the sociological role of "gate-keepers" they can enhance or frustratre your efforts. watch the gate-keepers
19. Prayer and Preaching :their importance in church revival and some thoughts on prayer
20. Sunday School but not as you know it  Star Trek coined the phrase "Its life Jim, but not as we know it" We developed a radically different Sunday School - one that fed baby Christians.
21. Ross, or how God can sent in reinforcements you didn't even know were there
22. A Concert Band for our teenagers (and others)
23. Caring Christians solutions for looking after a large number of new converts
24. Breaking into church Breaking out of church Things we did at the height of the revival.
25. the devil strikes back begins the account of the devil's counter attack on the revival we had been experiencing. I start with some theory Christians should all know about spiritual conflict.
26. Year 1983 The Attack starts with Sue's descent into post-natal depression
27. Problems at Bayles Then the congregation at Bayles starts to slide into extreme pentecostal heresy. With my other worries I do not spot the problem early enough or act decisively enough.
28. Rebellion.  " It started with two women. It started at Koo-wee-rup ..."
29. The Wolf : The entire congregation at Bayles is taken by a spiritual wolf
30. An Incredible Gift one of a number of "care packages" God sent to keep us going. The gift of preaching is a less common spiritual gift - but it is great fun!
31. More Gifts from Gods-with-god-ch-30.html We were surviving, just. And that only because God kept on providing for us.
32. Back to the drawing board I use sociology to investigate what went wrong in our revival, and how church revival can be done better.
33. A Prayer Group for Growth I knew much about the spiritual and sociological principles but most of all I had rejected using second hand formulas and trying to force God's hand. Plans had to be freshly home grown and come from God.
34. God Provides ... Yet Again  Examples of how God met our church's needs as we brought them before him in prayer, and how he used the people he provided to guide the direction he wanted our church to go in.
35. On Eagles' Wings Disaster threatens but God has a novel plan, but do I dare? Flying on eagles' wings is exciting, but sometimes you look down and really hope God does not let go of you.
36. The Wager I staked my ministry on God delivering a miracle. This was to prove that God could provide: that the reason he was clearly not donouring the denomination was because they were not honouring him.
37. More Miracles I'm against churches doing fundraising instead of evangelism. But God turned up the money we needed to prove to the diocese that we were right in ways that also built up the church.
38. I Cause a Near Riot in Synod I have the temerity to put a motion to the church's synod suggesting abortion on demand is wrong.  The rage and howls of protest stop me even finishing my speech. It seems very like what happened to Gideon when he pulled down the altar to Baal!
39. A Leap of Faith We believe God is asking me to quit parish and study ethics. In this leap of faith God provides incredibly abundantly.
40. God Changes my Plans After the year off God railroads me back in to parish ministry - for a (career) suicide mission!
41. A Prophecy Fulfilled I do become Vicar of St Like's Vermont
42. Is my story worth telling? True, as a story of persecution of a minister by congregants who do not want to hear God's message it is trivial compared to the trials of many pastors, but as a testament to God's grace and his ability to sustain us through all trials it still has something worth saying.
43. God's love for his people even when they rebel. I did not learn for some years after I went to Vermont that two years before I arrived a prophecy had been read out in church calling on the people to repent of their rebellion against God's purposes for them.