Footy Tipping 2020 – NRL Round 14 / AFL Round 12

Gary Ware

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August 13, 2020

It feels almost inconceivable to write that the football seasons are returning to normal this week after the AFL’s everyday game experiment.
Anyway, I think another NRL coach has gone. That makes four so far this season and the worst bet in the NRL would be that no others will go.
The AFL, on the other hand doesn’t seem to have the same degree of turmoil. Its major challenge is the distance from its heartland in Melbourne. That’s an existential crisis that actually rivals the soap-opera theatrics of various NRL clubs.

(Draws count as correct)
NRL (last round 6/8; season tally 74/104)
Easts
Penrith
Paramatta
Cronulla
Souths
Canberra
Newcastle
Wests

(Draws count as correct)
AFL (last rounds 6/7 and 6/8 ; season tally 60/95)
Greater Western Sydney
Port Adelaide
Brisbane
Collingwood
Fremantle
Western Bulldogs
Saint Kilda
West Coast
Richmond

Left-Hander’s Day 2020

Gary Ware

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August 13, 2020

When votes are taken and the moderator says “All those in favour raise your right hand,” I raise my left.
If they don’t distinguish which hand to use, I may choose either.

Creation Song by Josh Garrels

Gary Ware

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August 12, 2020

Creation Song from Josh Garrels’ quarantine recorded album Peace To All Who Enter Here.
It was originally on his album Over Oceans.
We hear the groaning song of creation more audibly than usual of late; but the more acutely we hear it, the more we can discern that it is also a song of hope and anticipation.

We can hear creation groan
It’s crying our for God
Every night when stars come out
I hear creations song
It sings Oh Lord
And we sing Oh Lord
You are light and You are love
You are flesh and You are blood
Peace will come to those who love
Peace will come to those who love
Jehovah
Jehovah

Words and Music: Josh Garrels
Copyright (c) 2006 Josh Garrels Small Voice LLC (ASCAP) (admin. at EssentialMusicPublishing.com). All rights reserved.

The original version.

Courageous Pastoral Leadership That Nurtures Constant Reformation Through Spirit-Induced Preaching (via Will Willimon)

Gary Ware

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August 12, 2020

The notion of being a courageous pastoral leader invokes thoughts of the television show ‘Yes, Minister’ where senior public servant Humphrey Appleby causes government minister Jim Hacker to reconsider his latest intention by commending it as courageous.
There is an uncertain and vulnerable space in being courageous.
Will Willimon contrasts costly courageous leadership with what he terms ‘amicable caregiving,’ a state of operations where comfort and the status quo are maintained at the expense of growth toward health.
A church that wants to stay the same for reasons of comfort has forgotten that it is accountable to God, and has forgotten that healthy life and growth will always bring change.

From Leading With The Sermon:

No faithful church is maintained without constant reformation, and no reformation has ever occurred without Spirit-induced preaching and leadership that inevitably produces discomfort in the people and in their leader.
A courageous pastoral leader, in service to the needs of the church,
* connects the congregation to it pain;
* helps it conceive of its possibilities;
* challenges it to step our of its current attitudes that rob it of a future;
* accompanies the organisation through the resulting chaos; and
* supports the reframing and learning that’s required for the transformation.
Preaching can be an indispensable contributor to each of these leadership tasks.

William H Willimon, Leading With The Sermon, Fortress Press, 2020, pgs 32-33.

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