xxxchurch

One Wednesday night i drove up to Sydney and stayed with some good friends Pascoe adn Carly, and on Thursday morning i drove into Sydney to pick Craig up from the Hotel he was staying at. Can i just say "I HATE SYDNEY TRAFFIC". From there we went straight to the ABC studio in Ultimo and sat down for at chat with Katie O'Toole, and Craig shared a bit about XXXchurch, how it began, a bit about their ministry and a their website and interacted a bit with the "Porn report". The interview was interesting as Katie was trying to draw Craig into a few traps and trying to get an angle that she could use  and then edit to her advantage on "The Hack" her show on JJJ radio.

Funny thing was Craig didn't give her really any sound bites. I downloaded the show cause i didn't get a chance to listen on the radio, but i can't seem to find any airing of the interview, O'Toole mentions xxxchurch at the begining of the show and makes some stupid comment but that is baout it there si nothing else in the rest of the show. you can listen to the  HACK.mp3 and tell me if you find any other mention of it but they seem to make a stupid remark at the start of the show and then nothing else.

After leaving the ABC we got on the freeway out towards the airport pull off just past the airport at Brighton-le-Sandes and then got lost for the next 45 minutes as we tried to get back on the M5 (have i told you how much i hate Sydney traffic and roads?). finally we got back on the right track and we headed down to Canberra. at 4:30 whilst driving i got a phonecall from local ABC wanting to interview me, so i pulled over as they asked me a few questions about the event and tried to tell me how great the porn report is (i am currently working my way through the whole thing, will post my thoughts on it later but at the moment i think it is a "fair bit of shift" just without the "f")

we got to Canberra at 5:30 and grabbed a bite to eat and then went to church where Steve and Anneli had worked their butts off to make the church look amazing
We had 193 people show up which was good but not great, i was hoping for about 300 but porn is a touchy issue and most people aren't that happy to talk about it in church. there were about 20 people not from church backgrounds tand then there were a stack of people from churches around Canberra and from St Matts and Sydney
I suppose the most encouraging things that have come out of the night for us are:

1. People are starting to be real with one another with their struggles and helping each other carry their burdens and allowing others to help them.
2. a couple of people have spoken to me and are working through issues that they have never wanted to face before
3. people are starting to realise that SMAS is a safe place for sinners, which is great becasue we all are and none of us are perfect, and in a process of becoming more like our Saviour.
4. Other churches are wanting to interact with us, and are noticing a distinct environment of Grace
5. I am really excited to see what God will do with SMAS and his people there in teh next year.
6. After much feedback we will continue to confront the Blue Elephant that is in churches and offer people help to get rid of it.

A huge thanks to all you guys and girls who were praying for the event and for the xxxchurch ministry.

we were excited to be able to partner with them in this event and look forward to being able to work with them again in the future especially given the big news that will come in the next couple of months.

If you would like the CD or DVD of the even it will be available through out SMAS website so check it out in the next week or so.

Comments

[Dave B]

XXXChurch was great - we heard Craig speak at Easterfest (sorry - we mised our St Matts event)

Also heard Adrian Rowse - local Oz guy doing some sexuality awareness work with youth. He was on a panel session that I went to with Craig and a two other guys, one from God Squad.

http://www.adrianrowse.com.au/

Keep up the good work Josh. Churches need to be places where our youth can talk comfortably about these and many other issues that are in their faces in today's society.

db