Imbuing the ANZAC Soul

Bulletin 2006-07

The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit
400^th Anniversary - 14 May 2006

Four Hundred years ago Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was seeking to take Christ to the inhabitants of the south sea islands when on 14 May 1606 he believed he had discovered "Australia Del Espiritu Santo". In fact he had discovered the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). From there he prophetically claimed the region to the south, including Australasia  and New Zealand, as the Great South Lands of the Holy Spirit:

“Let the heavens, the earth, the waters with all their creatures and all those here present witness that l, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros... in the name of Jesus Christ... hoist this emblem of the Holy Cross on which His (Jesus Christ's) person was crucified and whereon He gave His life for the ransom and remedy of all the human race ...on this Day of Pentecost, l4th May 1606....) I take possession of all this part of the South as far as the pole in the name of Jesus.... Which from now on shall be called the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost... and this always and forever... and to the end that to all natives, in all the said lands, the holy and sacred evangel may be preached zealously and openly¹.”

400 years on...
How are we going in imbuing
the ANZAC culture with the Holy Spirit?

Mandate: Gen 1:28, Psalm 2:8, Matt 13:31-33, Col 1:15-20.

On Anzac day something touches the Aussie and Kiwi soul that arouses an inner identification with what it means to be an Australian or a New Zealander. This innate spirituality draws increasing numbers of young people to Gallipoli each year to engage in a cultural experience that touches their souls. Even some of our corporate world reflects this spirituality, for example the Australian national airline calls itself ‘the spirit of Australia’.

The question that arises from the de Quiros proclamation is this: how can we permeate the ANZAC spirit with the Holy Spirit? (Eph 4:4-6). In seeking to answer this question we will set out to explore certain aspects of the Aussie soul:

The negative side is:

• laconic (laid back, spiritually slack, apathetic until aroused)

• avaricious (acquisitive and materialistic)

• anti-clerical (dismissive of institutional religion)

• anti-establishment (suspicious of authority, condemnatory, cut down the tall poppies).

The positive side is:

• pro the underdog

• strong on mateship

• willing to ‘have a go’.

• wanting to see ‘a fair go’

How did we develop these cultural traits?

Historians such as Stuart Piggin (Spirit of a Nation³) connect certain cultural traits with our convict origins. Historically our convict imprint is very recent. In fact a Scottish friend of mine entering Australia some time ago was asked by customs if he had any criminal convictions… to which he replied: “I didn’t know it was still a requirement!”.

In fact convicts were shipped to Australia as late as 1870. That means that when I was a young boy a friends grandfather could have arrived in Australia as a convict. Culturally this is very recent.

In all around 150,000 convicts were transported to Australia. Most were petty thieves with only around 1800 prisoners being transported for political reasons. This gives us a clue to the laconic, avaricious and anti-establishment attitudes common to white settlement in NSW and Tasmania.

Yet Australia’s Christian heritage was birthed from a highly proactive marketplace mindset in England³. The Clapham sect comprised famous evangelicals such as William Wilberforce and John Newton (ex-slave trader and author of “Amazing Grace”). As we know Wilberforce spent most of his working life opposing slavery in the Westminster parliament. This group were also instrumental in arranging with Prime Minister William Pitt to place Chaplain Richard Johnson on the First Fleet, to propagate the Gospel in Australia and the Pacific. Johnson’s first sermon at Botany Bay was entitled:

“What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me?”²

This remains a great question. For me the answer has been: ‘respond to God with a whole heart’. How about you?  In contrast to this the typical aussie attitude has been:

Anti-clerical

Chaplain Richard Johnson was a good pastor to the convicts². However in early white settlement clerical magistrates were appointed in NSW, as had been the case in England. The second chaplain was Samuel Marsden who became known as “whipping Marsden”. Thus ministers of religion became responsible for imposing punishment on the convicts and Marsden’s imposition of the lash contributed to the convicts holding clerical leadership partly responsible for their wretchedness³. This judicial process has been identified as one cause of anti-clericalism in Australia.

This anti-clerical attitude has not been helped in more recent times by infamous behaviour by certain tele-evangelists and shocking accounts of pedophilia and child abuse in the church. As a result the church has received infamous press from its own specific leadership failures and poor accountability. In the eyes of the wider community trust in Christianity has plummeted.

Anti-Establishment

The ANZAC culture has a built-in anti-authority disposition as an outcome of poor military leadership at critical times in our history. Gallipoli is celebrated today as a triumph of mateship over terrible military leadership. This was followed by the ‘cannon fodder’ of Flanders and the Somme in World War 1 and failures of leadership in North Africa and Singapore during World War 11. It was not until General Montgomery (the son of the Bishop of Tasmania) was put in charge of allied forces in North Africa that Rommel was defeated. As a result we have a much greater affinity with mateship than we do with authority. This was most recently seen in the ‘Great Escape’ in Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

Impacting Australia with the Gospel

From the foregoing we can see that Christian impact in Australia’s future will largely be dependant on the genuineness of Christian relationships with ordinary people in the marketplace. Accordingly we have to learn how to tap into the innate spirituality of our culture… because we can be certain that everyone has a hole in their inner being that only God can fill (Psalm 139:14-15).

No longer can Christians delegate spiritual responsibility for their nation, city, suburb, town or workplace to their pastor or clergy. Today every Christian is in full time ministry in their daily occupation. This is where God has strategically placed you for the extension of his Kingdom… and this is the place where you will most often meet the people for whom Jesus died!

Complementing this everyday mission is the responsibility of local churches to engage with the five fold ministries of Ephesians 4 to equip God’s people for good works, especially in the place where they spend most of their time Monday to Friday.

Take for example the life of James Stephen:

James was the son of the Clapham sect Stephen of the same name, who was a close friend of William Wilberforce. James married the daughter of the rector of Clapham, John Venn. From 1836 to 1847 James was the permanent undersecretary of the colonial office in England and was called ‘one of the greatest civil servants of the nineteenth century’. He opposed short term expediency and sought to evolve wise policies to promote the stability of overseas dependencies. He insisted that the Westminster government should protect the weak and stand against the exploitation of poor settlers and indigenous people. He opposed the introduction of cheap coloured labour to protect the welfare of settlers, rather than the interests of large landowners. He favoured the development of self government. He was a person of integrity and righteousness and built a strong moral basis to the foundational policies that established NSW. His firm policies were intruded into the murky darkness of colonial politics like a light (Matt 5:13-14@work). None doubted the sincerity of his Christian faith⁵.

 So today ask not what your church can do for you,
but what you and your church can do for your city.

Christian Unity in the Marketplace

The history of the church is one of denominational fragmentation, ie: the church has rarely been able to get its act together. Historically denominations in the UK were largely geographically dispersed... with the Catholics in Ireland, the Presbyterians in Scotland and the Anglicans and Wesleyans in England. In nineteenth century Australia these denominations were thrown together in the midst of a small population. This resulted in disunified, competitive and sometimes contentious relationships.

From this we can appreciate that the poor spiritual state of our nation is an outcome of the church being dysfunctional at the critical point of Christian unity. We cannot blame anything else for a disbelieving nation when Jesus told us the world will only believe when we are in unity (John 17:21-23).

Now in the marketplace we have a new opportunity to work together as one body with one head. If a strategic Christian small group comes together in a business, profession or civic organisation the members should not ask what denomination people come from, for that is irrelevant. In the workplace Christians come together to serve Christ and their workmates and to release the Kingdom of God in the place where they spend 70% of their waking time Monday to Friday. This mandate of God is clear in Col 1:18-20.

Accordingly we must commit to Christian unity in the marketplace to avoid continually driving Christianity into mediocrity and irrelevance. If you think otherwise ask yourself this question: ‘do you want to answer to God for willful destruction of his purposes in your workplace’?

Being Ambassadors of the Kingdom in the Marketplace

In 2 Cor 5:20 we are assigned the task of being great ambassadors for Christ in our daily occupations. To do this well it is helpful to understand the culture of our nation in general and our workplaces in particular. That is why we have taken this brief journey through our spiritual background. We are then in a better position to release revival imprints in our daily occupation.

The revival imprints of the Holy Spirit lead to progressive shedding of the negative aspects of our culture and gaining new capacity to release the Kingdom of God in our sphere of influence:

a) Shed negative cultural attributes:

• laconic (laid back, spiritually slack, apathetic until aroused)

• avaricious (acquisitive and materialistic)

• anti-clerical (dismissive of institutional religion)

• anti-establishment (suspicious of authority, condemnatory, judgmental, gossip).

One of the ways people claiming to be Christian have done more damage to the name of Christ than any other is through exhibiting bad work attitudes, shoddy workmanship, being unreliable, expecting things on the cheap, being slow to pay bills and not being credible representatives of the King of Kings. The fact of the matter is that every Christian is a 24/7 witness of Christ. The only question is this: are we a good or bad witness? (Col 3:23).

b) Imbue positive cultural attributes with the Holy Spirit:

• pro the underdog

• strong on mateship

• willing to ‘have a go’

• wanting to see ‘a fair go’.

Practical suggestions
How to release revival imprints in your workplace

• Start your daily work with prayer to turn your work into worship:
  www.marketplaceconnections.com/archive/PDF/BeforeYouStartWorkToday.pdf

• Excel in professional competency and take up training opportunities to improve your skills.

• Ask God to fill you with Holy Spirit anointing for your work: Ex 31:1-11.

• In so far as it depends on you…
  - look after God’s creation in the way you do business: Gen 1:28
  - implement Biblical principles in the way you work: Matt 6:10

• Take the Fruit and the Gifts of the Spirit to work, eg: the fruit of self control and the gifts of love, wisdom etc: Gal 5:22 and 1 Cor 12.

• Develop mateship with your work colleagues: take John 13:34 to work.

• Do something relational with not-yet-Christian work colleagues one lunch time a week.

• Pray for those you connect with on a daily basis:
  www.marketplaceconnections.com/resources/andrew.htm

• Be prepared to give an answer for the hope within you: 1 Peter 3:15

• Base your witness on grace, integrity and humility rather than perfectionism: 1 Peter 5:6

• Read some key books to help you develop your ministry in your marketplace:
  www.marketplaceconnections.com/Shop/books.htm

• Take spiritual 'duty of care' for your workplace by starting a strategic small group in your workplace one lunch time per week to support each other and pray for your company staff and management: Matt 18:19-20 and: www.marketplaceconnections.com/resources/newgroup.htm

• Invite a friend of colleague to subscribe to OnWatch:
  marketplaceconnections.com/subscribe.php

Finally here is a prayer to help us as engage as stake holders in de Quiros prophetic proclamation over the future of our nation:

Dear Lord, you have asked us to ask you for our nation.⁶ In our latest national census 67% of the Australian population identified with a Christian denomination⁷. As co-heirs with Christ⁸ we offer ourselves to you to live out de Quiros prophecy of Australia becoming the great South Land of the Holy Spirit. We ask for a gift of humility and repentance to be pervasive across our nation so that such a vast majority may come to honour Jesus Christ as Lord. May your kingdom come, your will be done in Australia as in heaven⁹. 

This we ask in accordance with your prophetic word. Amen.

Today let us take up the baton of the de Quiros proclamation¹, lift our hopes high and contribute whole-heartedly to impacting our nation for Christ.

If 5% of the Australian population are followers of Jesus and each one discipled one other person to Christ in a year… we would have 1 million new believers in our nation in one year - at no cost. Is that too much to ask? Is there anyone else out there who can believe with us for such a great outcome?

We have what we believe is a God given strategy to further this great Kingdom objective:

“To see every Australian have at least one opportunity in their lifetime
 to work alongside someone who is a living letter of Jesus Christ to them”¹⁰.

Will you join with us by implementing the above practical suggestions in your daily occupation? You can start straight away by inviting a friend or colleague to subscribe to OnWatch.

Blessings to you in Jesus name,

Peter

Peter Kentley
Australian Marketplace Connections
info2@marketplaceconnections.com

References

1. For text of the full Proclamation by Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros as well as details of this event see: www.chr.org.au/vol2/chp5.htm. A laminated poster of the Proclamation by Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros is available from Koorong, see: www.koorong.com/gifts.

2. Text of first known sermon on Australian soil by Richard Johnson, Naval Chaplain of the First Fleet, on Sunday 3^rd February 1788, taken from Psalm 116:12. See:
   www.sydneyanglicans.net/mission/missionthinking/johnson_prayed_for_the_mission_ray_smith

3. Christian heritage links:
   http://christianhistoryresearchaustralia.com/earlyaustralianhistory
   www.anchist.mq.edu.au/CTE
   http://nacl.com.au/nacl
   www.chr.org.au

4. Stuart Piggin, Spirit of a Nation, Strand Publishing, 2004, page 13

5. Stuart Piggin, Spirit of a Nation, Strand Publishing, 2004, page 28

6. Psalm 2:8, 2:27-28, Isa 9:6-7, Matt 28:19, Rom 16:26, Rev 2:26

7. 2001 Australian National Census

8. Rom 8:17

9. Matthew 4:17, 6:10

10. 2 Cor 3:3, 5:20, John 15:5, 17:18-23, Matt 5:13-14, 6:10, 13:31-33, Psalm 2:8, Col 1:15-20.