2010

Dear friends and supporters,

We celebrate the marriage of Colleen and Dylan who married on January 23rd, a beautiful day. We thank Colleen for the life and love she has brought to the Whitehouse and look forward to the ways Dylan and Colleen will continue to share themselves in our little community.

In running with the theme, we celebrate the engagement of Ben and Carly! 3 weddings thus far, 4 engagements and a baby! Not a bad effort in our short existence as the Whitehouse community!

We welcome Jules into the community who has brought a brilliant energy and honesty into the house as well as Colin, Paula and little Riley. The Loves have always been part of the heart of soul of the Whitehouse and now they have taken the bold step of immersing themselves entirely in the community by living in the house. They inspire us with their willingness to do the things that other people write-off as impractical or unrealistic and bless us with their incredible gifts, passion and humour.

We farewell Pip who has taken up an exciting job in Pt Lincoln, grieving her absence but delighting in the God-given tasks that lay before her.

We miss and pray for Sam and Kelsey who following their wedding have set off for Germany as a part of Sam's studies.

And we thank God for the way He keeps meeting our needs and filling us with a strange hope.

At the moment we're spending some time focusing on the three major themes of our DNA as a house, Community, Mission and Discipleship. It's been heartwarming to see the way people have taken on board such leadership in different areas from overseeing finance and property matters to overseeing mission initiatives. Everyone contributes something essential to the life of the house and it's exciting to reflect on some of the things that are brewing in our midst. If you'd like to come and be a part of things at all, we welcome people along to our Sunday gatherings at the Whitehouse (they run from 11am until we're so hungry that we can't concentrate any more). We're looking at having a monthly structure that looks something like the following:

Week 1 - TEAR group (The TEAR Group represents the Whitehouse Community’s commitment to social justice issues as we partner closely with TEAR.)

Week 2 - Small groups (A week set aside to encourage prayerful nurture and accountability.)

Week 3 - Teaching (A week of teaching to ensure that the life of the house is infused with the depth and meaning encountered in the scriptures.)

Week 4 - Story Sharing and Commissioning (Story sharing and commissioning helps individuals to become known in community, celebrating their gifts and hopes and helps us to remember what God has done in and through us as we look to the future.)

If you're of the praying persuasion:

There's some rumblings and some conversations about the possibility of working towards having a sister community in the Adelaide Hills, hopefully up and running by the end of the year. It'd be great comfort for all of us who hate having to turn people away in need. Pray for vision, people who hear the call to be involved and a suitable property!

Pray for our young people who are transitioning into independent living, that they'd feel equipped and good living options would become available.

Pray for more funding options as we continue to dig deep to pay the rent.

Thank God for the way he's provided above and beyond with people and resources, we've seen such wonderful commitment, daring and imagination placed on the hearts and minds of the people living in the house who continue to make the house what it is, but always spur each other on so that it can become more.

Romero's Prayer

Oscar A Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador, who was assassinated on March 24, 1980, prayed:

It helps now and then to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
It is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete.
Which is another way of saying that the kingdom of God lies beyond us.
No statement says all that should be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability.
We cannot do everything.
And there is a sense of liberation in realising that this enables us to do something.
And to do it very well.
It may be incomplete – but it is a beginning.
A step along the way.
An opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and to do the rest.
We may never see the results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the apprentice.
We are apprentices not master builders.
We are ministers not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.
Holy Spirit come.
Amen

BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY WILL BE SHOWN MERCY

Lord you have wired mercy into our being!
We know intuitively not to harm, whoever we are, wherever we come from.
But even this, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
You ask that we would not only be harmless,
but that we would treat others as we would like to be treated.
As those who love to be blessed we join as one to be a blessing.
As those who love mercy, help us to be merciful to others.
Remind us Lord, that we have life because of your own merciful choice.
May we live out our gratitude, loving others as we have been loved.
Help us to feel what others feel Lord to such an extent that our actions are no longer left "un-checked"
May our judgments be tempered with mercy and empathy.
May we delight in letting people off the hook,
giving people ourselves rather than our animosity.
Because when we come to you your hands are not tightly clenched and ready to strike,
they extend kindness, generosity and support.
Your arms remain open.
Make us like you, more and more.
Amen.

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Lord our appetites leave a lot to be desired.
Create a new hunger within us Jesus, a new thirst,
a taste for seeing the world as it ought to be.
Redeem our desires Lord, shape them with your love.
Help us to love justice,
to long for the deliverance of those exploited,
and liberation for those caught up in cycles of violence.
More than that, help us to love people in such a way that we reach out and embrace.
May just communities that include the powerless and loveless spring up.
May we gather for worthy causes,
may this be our zeal, our obsession.
Ruling over people brings no revolution.
May we come together not for our own strength or benefit,
but to lay down our lives in our commitment to those who are pushed to the margins.
May we join in the plight of others,
May we refuse to remain idle.
Hold us to our prayers Jesus, amen.

BLESSED ARE THE MEEK

Lord we act as those completely at the mercy of our passions, our hurts, as if our path is dictated by what happens to us and around us.
We get hurt and then we hurt others.
And we get stuck in this game of who can hurt who the most.
But there is no force, control, or coercion in your nature.
You don't conquer through violence and domination.
You come with an unconquerable love that has the capacity to withstand the greatest degrees of unlove and hostility.
You redefine our ideas of justice.
What is just? What is right?
We learn that cycles of hurt and pain do not make the world a better place.
You challenge us to be angry, but respond in a different way, a higher way, your way.
Teach us forgiveness, help us to show restraint.
Let us in on a strength we barely even understand.
Help us to treat others as we would like them to treat us - especially when they're treating us so poorly.
And may we not stand by when others are being profoundly harmed when we have the capacity to do something about that.
Shape us Lord, Amen.

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN

It would be easy, Lord, to not think about the way things really are.
To live in our little worlds,
Worlds that are safe, protected, affluent.
Surely those who are ignorant are blessed?
Not according to you.
You sound a wake-up call to all those with ears to hear,
Eyes that see,
Hearts that feel.
And your Spirit moves in us, stirring our hearts so that ours might beat in time with yours.
And in the process Lord we feel this discontent, a restlessness.
It's so much harder to accept the present state of affairs.
We become aware of human suffering and we can no longer remain as we are.
As we identify with you we identify with the marginalized, distressed, disabled, and disadvantaged.
Jesus help us to cry out, lament and wail prophetically,
To mourn without being crushed,
And to find hope and see you at work.
Comfort those who have lost much.
Come Lord Jesus, may your Spirit bring life in abundance.
Amen.

BLESSED ARE THE POOR OR POOR IN SPIRIT

Jesus you dare us to imagine.
You invite us to imagine a world in which it is not status or riches that we place our trust in,
A world that doesn't play favourites.
And you challenge us Lord,
You plead that we'd endeavor to see the distance between ourselves and the poor become less and less.
With our hearts exposed by the company we keep and the things we pour our best energy into, you challenge us to a richer way.
You ask us to become poor 'in spirit'.
So may our comfortable existence be tampered with,
Our safe distance trampled on.
Lord grab us by the hand and take us wherever you're going,
To whomever you want us to meet,
Because following you is where we gain real treasure in this world.
And you want to show us where to find life, life to the full.
It might just be in the last place we'd expect to find it.
Teach us humility Lord. Help us to love more.
Amen.

Wilderness Time (Luke 4:1-13)

In a world that puts forward an array of lifeless promises,
A world that values might and power,
And seems to be satisfied with cheap thrills,
You offer another way.
A way that makes sense of who we are as human beings,
Even if everything we hear in society seems to suggest otherwise.
But you show us the way.
You are the way.
Deliver us from the temptation to build a life around things,
Things that take more than they give,
Free us from lives dedicated to futile offerings that have no lasting significance.
Deliver us from the temptation to offer concern without compassion,
Welfare without care,
Aid divorced from love, trust, relationship, sacrifice.
Jesus, deliver us from the temptation to reduce our life of faith to another form of escapism,
A mere reprieve from the ordinary.
May we part company with popularity, prestige and party tricks.
Yours is a way of sacrificial love,
A risky, engaged, passionate and personal way of being human.
Your way is life.
You are life.
Amen.

God's Kingdom is Here (Mark 1:14-20)

Jesus you come with a radical kingdom invitation, a radical welcome.
You don't restrict your invitation to those who have ticked all the right boxes, those who are worthy, the elite - not by the world's standards anyhow.
You redefine and rename. You transform. You add new meaning and life.
You call those with ears to hear, eyes to see, those hungry for a new way of being human.
Those restless and longing for change delight in your kingdom call, people disenfranchised with lives dictated by greed, comfort, security, fear, alienation and so on...
You search for actors willing to audition for parts in the kingdom - God's drama being staged here and now.
A way of righteousness and justice,
A way of peace,
A way of joy.
Lord may we be those who drop our nets immediately - our agendas, our fears, our excuses - and instead pick up your agenda as we follow you wherever you lead us.
May we delight and long for your kingdom.
Give us kingdom eyes and kingdom hopes.
May we in some sense be your kingdom, together offering both a challenge and invitation to all that you love deeply, to all who hear your call.
In Jesus' name, amen.