Open

You know me. You know that I’m a Christian.
Maybe you know what that means, maybe you don’t.
I’d like you to know what it means because it’s really important to me,
but I don’t want you to think I’m shoving it down your throat.
I’d like you to experience some Christian creatives
being open about what they believe.
Not shoving. Just open.

7pm Saturday 22nd September, then again Sunday 23rd 2007
St Paul’s, 28 Symonds Street
Free parking in Wilson’s Unipark, 6 St Paul Street

Everyone welcome

Posted by spam::ed at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I spend half of my waking hours making advertising, I really like things with
no ads. This segment – which I’ve called The Open Post – was inspired by the largest advertising-free blog on the web, which is called PostSecret. The blog consists of thousands of very personal secrets written on postcards and anonymously sent to a man named Frank. The secrets cover everything from murder to pregnancy, from cheating to generosity, from revenge to utter ridiculousness.

I love the openness and the rawness and the grossness of PostSecret.

It made me wonder what Christians might want to say if they were given the freedom
of anonymity. So I asked a bunch of them to create and send me postcards. And then
I made a few, and then some mates and I picked the best of them, and cut them to some music that another mate made.

You can watch the two clips here. They’ve been adapted slightly for online.

The hardest thing for me about being a Christian, is that I have this incredible secret that I want everyone to know about, but most people are so defensive and cynical about Christianity in Auckland. I hope doing this has helped some people to talk and that it might help some people to listen too.

James

The Open Post [Part I]

The Open Post [Part II]

Posted by spam::ed at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Open?

When I meet a Jew
I think…."how closed you seem, how difficult to get to know. Why do you separate yourself from me? Doesn’t God love us all?"

When I see an Muslim
"I wonder if I can trust him. He looks OK, but…

When I meet a rich man
I think, "How come you have so much? You must be so greedy. How unfair that you have more than me!" And don’t you care about the poor? Hey, I could be successful too, if I wanted, but I choose not to, because I’ve got more important things to do! Plus, one day you might lose it all! I hope you do!

When I see the poor
I think, "why are you like this? You must have brought this on yourself! And anyway, the situation is hopeless and you won’t change. And if I do help you all the others will come expecting help too!"

When I get too close to a physically handicapped person
I want to move away. I don’t know what to say.

When I see a boy racer
I think, why do you waste all you money on a stupid car? And then drive up and down the same road a hundred times? Do you think you look cool?

When meet a gay man
I think, I’m so glad I’m "normal". What you do is weird. Wrong. I don’t understand. I don’t get it. Maybe I don’t want to.

Liberal…
I think, I am so glad that I am not a tree-hugging, diversity-embracing, culture-celebrating, tolerant, politically correct person like you.

Fundamentalist…
How come you are so sure you are absolutely and always correct? Don’t you know there is diversity in the world, many ways of doing things?

Business man…
You just spend all your time making money, you don’t care about anyone else.

Aging hippy…
Tie-dyed, sandal-wearing loser! Stuck in a time warp. Do you think this is still the 60’s? Man, get with the program!

Mexican…
Lazy! Just stay on your side of the border. Fix your own problems.

Immigrant….
You’re not going to take my job! And you will bring in your big, extended family too.

Old person…
You have nothing to say to me. Just sit quietly and eat your tea and bisquits and wait for bed time.

Too young…
You haven’t even experienced life yet! You have nothing to say to me!

But then, when I look at myself, I see…
Someone who, long ago, used to be open to others, open to trying new things, open to talking to people who were different, someone who, along the way, as the years went by, closed up.

Someone who is almost always too fast to judge others. And who gets it wrong almost all the time. (If I had a dollar for every time I mis-judged others I would be rich).

Someone who is really saying is, why can’t everyone else be more like me? But I am just as messed up, opinionated and self righteous and selfish as anyone else in the world.

Someone who finds it easy to talk to people who think like I do, to be friends with people who are like me. But who finds it hard to spend time with people who make me mad, who disagree with me, who yell and get angry, who have other ideas and ways of doing things, who’s English isn’t too good, who stutter, who are too slow.

Someone who wants to learn how to listen to others, to their stories, to discover the beauty of other ways of doing things, other ways of seeing the world, other languages and skin and thoughts.

I want to stay, well…open.

Posted by jonathan at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another 3am curtain call for my dreams
There’s nothing lonelier than being awake
When all the world is sleeping

Chamomile tea and just a little TV
The talkback radio show lets me know
I’m not alone

Comfort comes from knowing there’s some company
The darkness doesn’t seem so deep
Even though I’m losing sleep

CHORUS
My Seven Eleven saviour’s
Got an open door policy
When all the world has gone to bed
You are there with me

Open all hours
You never close

The trouble is I can’t get my mind to unwind
Trip the wire and let the world go
Sleeping like a baby

This silly cycle that I’m stuck in
It won’t leave my head so I can go back to bed
I hope I don’t go crazy

But I believe there’s still some hope for me
This won’t shake me to the core coz I have you to lean on

CHORUS
My seven Eleven Saviour
Got an open door policy
When all have left me high and dry
You are there with me

From the graveyard shift to sunrise
You keep me company
You’re always glad to hear my voice
And you know what I need

Open all hours
You never close.

Some count the lines upon the ceiling
Some walk the streets until they’re freezing
Some try all kinds of herbal healing
But I’ll wait for the misty dawn with you

Comfort comes from knowing there’s some company
This won’t shake me to the core coz I have you to lean on

My Seven Eleven Saviour
Got open door policy
When all the world has gone to bed
You are there with me
From the graveyard shift to sunrise
You keep me company
You’re always glad to hear my voice
And you know what I need
My Seven Eleven saviour
Got an open door policy
When all have left me high and dry
You’re still there with me
From the graveyard shift to sunrise
You keep me company
You’re always glad to hear my voice
And you know what I need

Open all hours
Open all hours
Open all hours
You never close

K.Kennedy

Posted by jonathan at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by jonathan at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was 18, I stood by the Monterey Convention Center waiting in line for a George Benson concert. There were two guys there, yelling at the top of their voices that we were all heading straight to Hell. I was thinking, "For what? Jazz?"

In the States, where I grew up, we've had Christian presidential candidates calling for the assassination of foreign leaders. We've had nationally known preachers rail against homosexuality and then later confess to hiring male prostitutes. We've had television evangelist rip off the hard earned money of the elderly to build their Christian theme parks. And here these guys are, yelling at me about Hell.

Christians make it really hard to know what God is like.

A few years after this concert, I did meet some extraordinary people who were following Jesus. Through their simple honesty, their family lives and how they acted at work, they inspired me to reconsider this whole thing. Eventually, I started following Jesus myself and got a look under the hood.

I met a ton of people who would go across the street or across the world, just to help people in need. I started to look at Jesus' life and what an amazing person He was.

The tension for me was the difference between how God was being represented from the guys with the big microphones, and the underground people who were simply loving their neighbours as themselves. The divide was pretty huge and there was a lot of hypocrisy in the church.

It was easy to for me to spot the big hypocrites, but the real question was how I doing in the important areas of expressing my own faith.
For instance, for me, loving my neighbour as myself is a massive problem. I'm basically afraid. I'm afraid of the time it would take to get to know someone. I'm afraid of being known and opening up to others. I'm lazy and I don't want to help if it's inconvenient. 

We had a neighbour, a solo mum, recently move out from a few doors down because she could not keep up with the rent. By the time I found out about it, my wife and I rallied the neighbours into offering to help cover the difference until she could work it out.  By this time though, it was too late, her stuff was already shifted. I missed the 100 opportunities prior to this, to simply get to know her, and find out how I could help.

This is how I make it hard to get to know God. My faith is often invisible.
For our visible sins, Christians are being taken to task. Last year, three feature films raked us over the coals. Jesus Camp, slammed some of our militaristic kids camps, Deliver Us from Evil exposed our sexual abuse of children and God on Our Side exposed the insanity of the Religious Broadcasters Convention in the US. In print, Richard Dawkins calls us deluded and Sam Harris asks us why we are so destructive and down right dangerous.

So yeh, Christians make it really hard to know what God is like, to know who God is.

Personally, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we've made this so confusing. I'm sorry for misrepresenting the true values of God. When Jesus talks about Judgement (which he hardly ever does), He talks about judging "Christians" and in particular, how we've fed the poor or not, how we've dealt with justice or not, how we've helped the sick, or not. In short, how good of a neighbor we are, or not. And this is my confession. I know that God is love, but I am still working on taking that across the street in a meaningful way.

My mother in law Gwendolene is a Christian and loves her neighbours. Her neighbours at Auckland hospital where she worked as a nurse, her neighbours when she was living in India developing hospitals and her neighbours today in Mt. Albert. She picks their weeds, she visits them in hospital and in the old folks homes, she cooks for people who need a meal. This is faith at work and when I really grow up, I wanna be just like her.

Posted by jonathan at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by jonathan at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi … My Name is Robert Bratton and I really enjoy painting. And among other things I really enjoy painting blobs. These are ‘Abstract’ paintings’. I call them “Blobology”. Each ‘Blob’ is a single painting. All are enamel house-paint on board. I began painting Blobs 2002. I paint about 140–200 individual paintings for any one show. Of those, about 100 are selected to exhibit. Each blob has a personality all of its own. SO I NAME THEM. I name them after people I know. It’s interesting that at a show people will inevitably gravitate towards blobs with their own names. People have a natural affinity to their own name - I find this curious.

Occasionally I will do one of these blobs that – well, for me – is so perfect and well executed that I’m inspired to repeat it, using different colours, or in a larger format. But my resulting efforts are usually less than satisfying. The constant desire to improve on the previous painted blob has become cyclical, almost obsessive, and has compelled these works forward for the last 4 & 1/2 years.

I have to say though that in-spite of all this obsessive-compulsive painting I’m not at all convinced about my art, or my purpose in life, as an artist. But I do know that I am – how can I say - “gifted” - in the same way an athlete or a singer or writer recognises their gift – I can see that I have a gift for painting, whether an abstract, landscape, portrait or nude. (here is a landscape, an abstract – and of course – a nude)

And as hard as it may be to accept this gift I am convinced that this passion for painting is a gift from God. God gives me another gift, a gift far more significant than painting. God gives me His Love. I call it a gift because I need to accept it. Sometimes I struggle to do this. It’s always there, it’s just that sometimes it’s not that easy to decipher. Other times it’s like I’m a child trying to convince dad that I really do need the keys to the V8 Holden Monaro.

But Gods’ Love is not like my fathers’ love. Though I find it predictable that neither God or my father have given me keys to anything close to a V8 Holden.

Just for the record, my father was an ‘ok’ dad - Absent - but ‘ok’ as fathers go. And as with most sons – for a season at least – my father was my hero.

His name is also Robert. He too was an artist. It was my father who first taught me to draw then paint. He’s dead now. I think that he died scared and alone. I hate the thought of that.

What I hate most is the thought that he died without ever experiencing Gods’ love or forgiveness. (You don’t realise how much you love someone until they die).

A most talented and humorous but cynical man. He displayed contempt for God or any conversation that related to God. But I know that God really loved him, because I really loved him, and I’m broken and flawed.

I talked to my father about God maybe three times my whole life.
He subtly mocked these discussions so I never got further than feelings of awkwardness and regret. But then aren’t regretful moments just part of family, and life? Aren’t we supposed to just roll with the punches and carry on? Yea I guess so, but people don’t always carry on. People are inclined to die.

What I regret most is that I stopped talking with Dad about God.
The good thing was that we didn’t bicker and argue so much. The not-so-good thing is that a father never got to connect with his son about something that gave my life meaning.

If I could have connected with my father for just 10 minutes, I would cut to the chase and say, “Dad, GOD loves you”. “GOD loves you just as you are, - warts and all - you old fart”, “GOD forgives you… I forgive you”. I’d say… “DAD, you don’t have to carry on secretly living scared and alone”

This kind of language sounds all a bit intense for me really.
And definitely not the kind of thing I’d feel that comfortable talking to dad about (or talking about it publicly). But I think it’s more about being honest with myself, being open about the things that matter to me… to you.

If I have one regret, it’s not being more open with my father about the greatest gift, the gift of Gods’ love. In spite of this, I thank God for the gift of an ‘ok’ father and the short time that we had together.

I’m grateful for a life full of ‘difficult gifts’ such as family. I’m grateful for a passion for things like painting, But most of all I’m grateful for the gift of life…

A life connected to God.
…Thanks for listening

Posted by jonathan at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey Manda,

So, I have been thinking about some of our conversations and it has stirred a lot of thought for me. This letter is me attempting to get real with you, my little sister, and with myself. I want you to know where I am actually at right now.

I hate being asked what makes me a Christian – cos to be honest with you, I really don’t know how to explain that… and I find myself giving some cliché answer that I actually don’t even get, or believe. Like what kinds of behaviours make someone a Christian, or definitely not a Christian….or maybe just a really dodgy half-hearted one.

You know that feeling where you incessantly want to have arrived??
“If only I had those shoes , then I will be complete. All I need is a husband and some kids, and for my job to be stable and I’ll be living my dream. If only my snowboard pants and jacket went with each other, I would ride wicked”…and my favourite, “once I get through this crap, and have worked it all out, then I will be ready to tell other people.”

Well – I have recently been thinking about all this in relation to God – and how He doesn’t care for the perfect people in the slightest – not because they are any less love-worthy, but because THEY simply DON’T EXIST!! Man, not only is it boring acting all perfect and like you have stuff sorted – its exhausting!! And at the end of the day, you fall into your bed and just think “what WAS half of that stuff I was crapping on about today??

When I think of the things that have compelled me to change, they are never based on seeing someone who has arrived. In fact – people like that sometimes make me wanna throw up (I can be pretty cynical when it comes to success.)

See – I am just as flawed as anyone. Yet for too long I have been determined to project this person who’s got it going on. Has all the answers. Has it figured out.
So I feel compelled to apologise to you, if you have been held at arms length by me, or any other Christians who have attempted to WOW you with their perfection.
I need to say sorry for strutting around like a peacock. For pretending that I have arrived at this place of all knowing, all seeing, all believing. Because sheesh– sometimes I REALLY don’t know, sometimes I just don’t see what is right in front of me, and most days I struggle to believe.

I need to come clean on some things…

I am still trying to work God out. Like, I get Him, but I sooo don’t.
I can’t see him, yet I’m a completely visual learner.
Luckily, God knows I have needed to SEE stuff, and has done a few things to help me believe, but even then, I find myself second-guessing.

I am not sure I love Jesus yet.
Well maybe I do if I choose to, but I’m not in love with Him.
I do think I may be falling in love with him– and this I figure is just through getting to know him by reading and learning about him. I’m finding he is incredibly impressive really – and the more I get to know his character, his leadership, his influence, the more I get to really quite like him.

I avoid eye contact with homeless people a lot so that a) I don’t have to give them money, and b) I don’t have to explain why.

I often judge other peoples’ faults and falls, while hiding my own.

I feel mad with some people who wronged me, and have not yet forgiven a few.

I am completely selfish with money. I am crap with prayer. I rarely read my Bible.

I have spent far too much time trying to work out what kinds of things make people worthy of having the title “Christian”. The ways people behave, and the ways they don’t, the things they do, the friends they have, have become all too important to me – and yet they are often the exact opposite of what is important to God.

You know – there are actually very few things that I am sure of on this whole journey. Apart from just that – I AM on a journey. I don’t know everything. I’m just stumbling around trying to figure it all out.
And I think I have discovered that God will love me no more when I have “arrived” than he does right now.

Posted by jonathan at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alice Tiankaizi Bi - Window
Julian Curran

Brian Platt
Simon Moore

Caren Hastings - Letter to Amanda
Amanda Hastings
Angela Keoghan

James Bowman - Open Post
Alison Titulaer
Kurt Bradley
Sam Stradwick
Steve Thomson

Kathy Kennedy - Open All Hours
Debbie Lawrence
Noel Kennedy
Martin Kennedy
Ryan Kennedy

Kevin Denholm - MC

Patrick Dodson - Confessions

Robert Bratton – Blobology

Tim Houghton – How Open?

Anton Steel - Blessed are they
Directed by Anton Steel
Screen play by Anton Steel, Alison Titulaer, Dave De Latour, Kylie DellaBarca
Produced by Anton Steel
Alison Titulaer
Dave De Latour
Kylie DellaBarca
Director of Photography Dave Garbett
Edited by Kylie DellaBarca

Cast in order of Appearance
Maori Man - Te Paki Cherrington
Business guy - Dave De Latour
Charity guy - Brett O’Gorman
Homeless women - Georgia Duder
Homeless man - Mike Lowe
School girl 1 - Helen Darwin
School girl 2 - Jill Parsons
Laundry guy - Paul Barrett
K’rd chick - Megan Franich
Chris - Steve
Becs - Ali Titulaer
Bouncer - Andrew Stehlin
KimmiKimmi - KimmiKimmi
Eve - Sonia Gray

Post Production Guru - David Tokias
Additional Editing - Julian Curran
Sound Design - Michelle Mascoll
Sound Mixers - Nikora Edwards, Tim Parsons
Makeup Artist - Sam Cairn’s-Morrison, Dominique
Camera Assist- Solomon Tan
PA - Matiu Workman

Background Artists
Street Sweeper - Phillip Austin
Jesus Look a like - Shane Pope
Donaters - Kimberly Eccles, Megan Robinson
Hell Pizza Promo Girl - Kylie DellaBarca
Chris’s Mates - Sam Edmond, JJ Josephson
Bec’s friend - Kahu King
Night Club Patrons - Christian Holden, Sandr Carr, Miles Langley, Bryce Necklen, Caren Hastings, Toni Brandso, Daniel Buchanen, Dave Weston, Anne-Marie Tully

And thanks to Katie Flanngan, Ant Nevison, Hell Pizza, Steadicam NZ, Xytech, Travellers, Laundrette, Paul Eversden, Brani Mead, Dave Tokios - Avid Management, Kevin Denholm and the crew @ Exposure – Jo, Brooke, Sally.

* * * * * * * * * *

James Bowman – Promotions
Claire Annan
Jae Frew
Jordan Dodson
Karen Alplanalp
Kathy Kennedy
Kevin Robinson
Kurt Bradley
Malcolm Dunn
Megan Robinson
Melissa Bulkeley
Nikki Denholm
Pip Sinclair
Tom Roberton

And big thanks to all the crew who worked behind the scenes to make Open happen: Adrian Fitzgerald, Bex Wharton, Brooke Benton, Campbell Jensen, Claire Annan, Daniel Taylor, David Tokios, God, The Legendary Ian Pearson, Jasmine Pearson, Jeanette Bremner, Jordan Dodson, Jo Harwood, Kevin Denholm, Megan Robinson, Mike Norris, Nathan Taylor, Nicci Doak, Sally Turier and Tracey Trinder.

Special thanks to our generous SPAM patrons – if it wasn’t for you this would not be possible.

Posted by spam::ed at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photographs by Jordan Dodson.

Posted by spam::ed at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The church is Open

SPAM event Open was a chance to invite friends and family to come along to church to experience some Christian creatives being open about what they believe.
Kevin Denholm MCd the two night event held on Saturday 22 and again on Sunday 23 September 2007 where over 600 attended, with a capacity crowd on the Sunday night.
Singer-songwriter Brian Platt accompanied by guitarist Simon Moore opened the event with a performance of music from his album.
James Bowman presented The Open Post, a montage of postcards which were sent anonymously, saying messages they would tell a non-Christian if they could say anything.
Blessed are they was a screen play by, and produced by Anton Steel, Alison Titulaer, Dave De Latour, and Kylie DellaBarca, following a day in people’s lives on K’Road. In her original song Open all hours, Kathy Kennedy took a humorous look at insomnia, accompanied by photos of all night shops.
In Caren Hastings’ Letter to my sister, Caren’s sister Mandy listened to her heart-felt letter on stage. Robert Bratton with Blobology showed us his blob paintings, and how he deals with issues of sharing his love for God and God’s love for us with his late father.
Alice Tiankiasi-Bi made an animated film called Window about a little girl lost and then sent to a strange land who met Friend King and learned about all the lonely people in windows, that she could reach out to.
Tim Houghton’s How open? piece honestly queried how he related to those different to himself, whether they were immigrants, gays, youth, Jews, boy racers etc.
Patrick Dodson’s Confessions said sorry for not loving his neighbour as himself. Patrick shared how he wanted to be more like his mother-in-law, Gwendolyn – a genuine neighbour to others – when he grows up.
Lastly, Kevin Denholm introduced the segment, What would it take? where he invited people to write on Post-it notes with their anonymous messages of what it would take for God to be real to them.

Open forum

We’ve had amazing comments come back about the event. Here is some of the feedback from Open:

“Open was just fabulous. I took a friend who doesn’t go to church and she really enjoyed it. She wants to come along to a normal service and check it out.”

“Open was just great, I really enjoyed it. It gave me more clarity on where I'm at with my faith and beliefs. It was quite reassuring to hear other people's questions and struggles.”

“Open was most entertaining thank you, some valuable thought provoking concepts came across. The Stir café is a real credit to the organizers.”

“I am looking forward to the Life course and I thought the evening on Sunday night was very impressive and well organized. Everyone I spoke with was nice too which is great because it makes one feel so much more at ease.”

“If every church was like that, my Sundays would be booked forever.”

“It was so refreshing to hear people share what's on their minds without cramming an agenda or idea down our throats. I was inspired and impressed that something so cool and relevant is happening in a church.”

“Last night was excellent and I enjoyed it immensely. I brought along my sister-in-law who is not a Christian and she was so impressed by it. I think she went home with a lot to think about. I am really proud of St Paul’s putting on such a classy event which was done so brilliantly. So thank you to all who organized that.”

By Megan Robinson

Posted by spam::ed at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)