Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 9 May, 2012
In the Trinity Mount Barker office we try to be careful with grammar and punctuation! It seems good to us that the material we distribute reflects the care and effort taken to prepare it. Unsurprisingly, one of the points of discussion at different times is the apostrophe; when should it be used? Where in the word does it belong? I’m sure that some of you find yourselves having these discussion in your workplaces and as parents, many of you will be trying to teach your children about this.
About this time every year, I find myself in discussions about where the apostrophe belongs in Mother’s Day, or should that be Mothers’ Day?!
While the European tradition of “Mothering Sunday,” a day for domestic servants to visit their “mother church” with their own families, stretches back to the 16th Century, what we celebrate as the modern Mother’s Day began in the 19th Century. A lady named Ann Jarvis and her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, inaugurated a small commemoration at the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. It should come as no surprise to us that Mother’s Day started in a Christian church. God commands us to honour our mothers. It’s in Exodus 20:12. There among the other 10 Commandments, like, “I am the LORD your God … you shall have no other gods before me,” God says, “honour your father and your mother." In an ancient patriarchal culture, the inclusion of “your mother” is unexpected, even surprising, yet this is God’s command to his covenant people Israel, and it’s repeated by Jesus and the Apostle Paul. There’s no getting around it! Of course how we honour our mothers will look different for different ones of us, varying for example according to whether we’re a child still living at home, whether we live near our mothers or not, etc. But no matter what our age or stage, Mother’s Day is a good occasion to spend some time reflecting on how we can honour our mothers and how we might do it better.
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 2 December, 2011
This week I spent some time in Melbourne taking part in a church planting conference. The Geneva Push is an Australia-wide network seeking to see, under God, hundreds of churches evangelised into existence across the country and the National In The Chute conference brings together church leaders and members from all different parts of the country to hear the Bible taught and to learn from each others’ ideas and experiences.
My role in the conference was to speak about our experiences in church planting, what we’ve learned and what we’ve seen God do amongst us in the 21 months since Trinity Mount Barker began. I got to answer lots of great questions about our church and explain the ways we do different things. It was great to see so many churches and Christian people trying to work out how to take the gospel of Jesus forward in their regions.
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 2 September, 2011
This week I attended the Oxygen Conference in Sydney, along with other members of the Trinity staff team and 2500 others! Oxygen is a conference for pastors and Christian leaders and included keynote talks from John Piper, the well-known author and pastor, and John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
I thought I would share with you a few personal highlights that I hope and pray will shape my approach to life and ministry:
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 30 July, 2010
Lilydale chickens are apparently running a new marketing campaign, but sadly not in Adelaide, so we won't get to see these billboards:
I think it's just such an interesting concept! OK, so I realise that the reason lots of people don't say grace is not because their food's no good, but I still like the ad!
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 26 July, 2010
Over at the SMH there are some great comments on sex in our culture from two great observers of our culture.
Dr Pat Weerakoon and Melinda Tankard Reist were addressing a conference in Melbourne. Dr Pat's message, as quoted by the Herald, was that "non-religious people expected the church to be fearful, ignorant, defensive, repressed and hypocritical with only one message about sex: don't do it ... while a biblical understanding of sex was deeply positive: 'do it - God made us for it.'"
Melinda Tankard Reist's comments focussed on the "pornified" world that young girls live in. She encouraged parents to take action when they see, for example, overtly sexual and offensive T-shirts for sale in shops, intended to turn young girls into sex objects.
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 24 July, 2010
In the few weeks that we’ve spent in Genesis so far, there have been a few dominant themes. One of these has been the focus on God himself at every turn in the creation story. Chapter 1 with its beautifully scripted account of the order and pattern of creation drives our focus not to the creation itself, but to the Creator. From the very beginning when there is nothing but God, to the repeated refrain “And God said…”, to the creation of humans as image-bearers of God, we’re constantly having our eyes turned to this personal, loving, creative sovereign God.
When we come to chapter 2 and the origins of marriage, we find again, that marriage has God’s fingerprints all over it – if I may be permitted such an anthropomorphism! Marriage is God’s idea. It comes into being at his initiative. The verbs (the “doing words”) of this section show God is bringing is purposes and intentions about: The Lord God said… (v 18), the Lord God had formed…, He brought… (v19), the Lord God caused…, he took…, closed up… (v 21), the Lord God made…, he brought… (v 22). As the commentators and scholars like to point out, when God brings the newly-created woman to the man, it is as if God is the father of the bride, bringing her to her new husband. Divine initiative!
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 11 June, 2010
In 1942, Austrian doctor Viktor Frankl was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. Although the lone survivor of his family from the Holocaust, Frankl emerged from his time in various concentration camps with a strong view on the importance of meaning in life.
He went on to found what is called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy, which operates on the assumption that the major psychological problem experienced by people today is the feeling of the loss of ultimate meaning to one’s existence. Frankl called this the Existential Vacuum; people feel an absence of anything that would make life worthwhile.
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 5 May, 2010
In recent weeks I have been following a discussion between some Christian friends about whether we should commemorate “secular” or “civic” occasions in our Sunday gatherings. The debate hinges on the challenge of acknowledging occasions such as Anzac Day, Australia Day or Mother’s Day in a way that doesn’t seem trite but also reflects our commitment to keeping Jesus at the centre of our gatherings.
Regardless of the debate (which I suspect will rage ad infinitum!) if you're at Trinity Mount Barker this Sunday you’ll notice from the prayer of thanksgiving (amongst other places!) that we’re celebrating Mother’s Day!
The traditions associated with Mother’s Day started late in the 19th Century with Ann Jarvis, her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis and a small ceremony at the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. It should come as no surprise to us that Mother’s Day started in a Christian church. God commands us to honour our mothers. It’s in Exodus 20:12. There among the other 10 Commandments, like, “I am the LORD your God … you shall have no other gods before me,” God says, “honour your father and your mother."
Posted by: Clayton Fopp
on 26 January, 2010
I stumbled upon Melinda Tankard Reist's blog this week as I looking at the website for the new Eternity newspaper. (Both are worth bookmarking)
Melinda's latest post But Wait There's More: Why Does Supre Treat Little Girls This Way? would have been almost unbelievable were it not for the photos of the 
overtly sexual "pussy power" artwork emblazoned on one of the company's T-shirts.
Perhaps, I thought, this isn't a case of the sexualisation of young girls, who Melinda says are Supre's main customers. It might not be a case of turning young girls into fodder for an overly sexualised culture what treats young girls as miniture women. Maybe it's just what I would have to say is an appalling poor choice of shirt aimed at (older) women. So I checked the Supre website, looking for some statement of the primary market segment the brand targets. The very first comment I found outlined the company's summer fashions for "young trendy girls."
