User:Colin MacLaurin
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About me
 To contact me, please leave a message on my talk page
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Colin MacLaurin (1981—). I have a BMath(Hons) from the Newcastle University, and a Grad. Dip. (Theol) [almost] from Avondale College (see the corny promo by Russell Crowe), both in New South Wales, Australia. In January 2008 I moved to Melbourne to work as a youth pastor at a church in Wantirna. Come along sometime. I am busy and need to cut back on my Wikipedia contributions, which have taken up much of the past 1½ years of my life.
In 2007 I recently spent three months travelling Europe with my brother, which we blogged here. Also, I have been kindly awarded two barnstars.
[edit] Life
I believe in a faith which means living life to the full.
Places visited:
- Home:
(States: 
.svg/50px-Flag_of_Victoria_(Australia).svg.png)
Islands: Lord Howe, Fraser, North Stradbroke) - Overseas:
- December 2005 – January 2006:
(incl. 
) - December 2006 – January 2007:
+ - July – September 2007: (
, 1 night) 
- December 2005 – January 2006:
I've met a few famous people – I've said hi to rugby players Matty and Andrew Johns, and had one-on-one conversations with physicist Paul Davies and theologian N.T. Wright, and briefly a chat with Australian politician John Anderson. However I'm not into idolising celebrities – I'd rather meet a "nobody" out of the spotlight who could become a close friend.
[edit] Beliefs
I am a Christian; a follower of Jesus. I seek genuine spirituality, not formalised religiosity. Yet I also believe that spirituality is best realised in community, and so I am an official member of a church denomination.
[edit] Church of "Don't Drink Coffee-ism"?
I have been a regular attendee of the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 2000, and an official baptised member since 2004. As of 2008 I am a youth pastor at Wantirna Adventist church in Melbourne...
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Spirituality
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Quote: "Oh, so you're an Adventist! ..."
- "Does this mean you don't drink tea or coffee? So you're vegetarian?"
- "Oh, is that the same as the Jehovah's Witnesses or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?"
No; I'm not a JW or Mormon, and I'm not vegetarian. Tea and coffee are minuscule, peripheral issues to me. The core of my faith is Jesus - through him I am saved by faith, am called to love others and share the good news, and am called to be in community. Oh and incidentally, since you asked, I do value a healthy lifestyle and aim to live life to the full, but let's just say God hasn't finished working on me yet!
[edit] Open minded evangelical
I identify roughly as "evangelical" but not in the sense Philip Yancey thought of in his youth:
- "a socially stunted wannabe – a fundamentalist with a better income, a slightly more open mind and a less furrowed brow"!
I support the use of "labels" as simplifying generalisations we use in order to make sense of the world. However I also believe we need to constantly challenge our use of them, and not put all people under any such label into a "box". Hence the label "Seventh-day Adventist" has much meaning for me, but if you have a 'boxed' picture of the group, I would probably not fit into it. More broadly, "evangelical" is another label I appreciate, but I have points of difference with some who hijack that label. More broadly again, "Christian" would accurately describe me, yet what I really mean is a follower of Jesus. For me, this means that I believe in a God who loves us without any conditions at all. If we can even begin to understand this, this love will be shared with other people!
I hold to certain non-majority emphases such as a rejection of eternal hell, an emphasis on human freedom and free will. I would like to learn more about the ideas of the openness of God and the broadness of peoples God speaks to. I set aside a specific time period to break from work, focus on God, rest, serve and build community. My view of biblical inspiration is fairly moderate – I take a faithful and devotional approach to the Bible, but do not throw away my mind. I believe God is as active in the world today as ever. I believe spiritual gifts continue into our day, and am cautiously and critically open to even recent claims of divine inspiration.
Most of the topics above are controversial and hotly debated within evangelicalism. The majority have voted to accept them as orthodox enough to still be called "evangelical", but others oppose membership of such individuals. (Evangelical in its broadest sense means someone who believes the Bible as inspired and authoritative, is Christ-centered and has a personal relationship with God through faith.) To those who would rather establish tight boundaries I think "Whatever!" While I respect their beliefs and faith, I won't beg for acceptance within their narrow definition, and have little desire to be associated with their viewpoint by others. I suppose I then identify with open minded evangelicals with a more "generous orthodoxy" like the Emerging Church. I love the church and it's been the best 7 years of my life so far. Yet I also feel weighed down by the attitude of criticism which sometimes goes on. (Philip Yancey was right)! Fortunately there's also many amazing Christians I have been inspired by! While we need the church community, it is Jesus we focus on in our walk through life.
[edit] Adventists vary widely
Youth churches in my area of Australia generally play contemporary Christian music and have a relevant talk. People dress in smart casuals and tend to chat small-talk rather than detailed theology. People often hang out together for the rest of the day. Visitors are very welcome.
The Seventh-day Adventist community is highly nuanced. I quickly learned after joining a church community that just because someone may know Jesus and be a very loving person, but still have some weird ideas! Perfection of character and beliefs must not be the criteria for authentic faith. Some Adventists to me resemble Christian fundamentalists; the majority (I hope) are evangelical-esque; whereas liberals are rare. Even what is "mainstream" in the Adventist church varies a lot. I hold to certain "progressive" emphases yet am moderate in doing so: in particular I have a strong inclusive focus towards others and reject exclusive attitudes. For theology I identify best with the more intellectual Adventists, as I find many of them to be progressive and open minded. Yet on the most important themes – of love, warmth, prayer, service, relationships, humour, faith, selflessness, joy and so on, I've met individuals of all persuasions whom I respect. I interact with and befriend a wide variety of people and read from widely differing points of view.
The sense in which I am moderate is that I respect church leadership. Now before my politically left-wing friends become concerned, I am not talking about blind obedience, but about assuming good faith in others, tempered with a good dose of personal critical thinking. I have formed this attitude particularly in reaction to the minority of ultra-conservatives in the church who are highly critical of church leadership, some to the point of being conspiracy-minded.
[edit] Respect
- Jesus. Also the on fire Brother Yun, quirky ascetic pacifist Mahatma Ghandi.
- Authors and theologians:
- Adventist: the conversational Alden Thompson, open Richard Rice, progressive Julius Nam, apocalyptic Jon Paulien, inspiring Ellen White, historian Arthur Patrick, and my lecturers at Avondale College.
- Other Christians: Soul Survivor of the church Philip Yancey, rebellious Canadian Clark Pinnock, masculine John Eldredge, kick the sacred law cow N. T. Wright, the "pope" of evangelicals John Stott, also Rob Bell, and I would like to learn more about Brian McLaren and others
- Anyone who believes in sharing the love and tries to make a difference in the world.
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Wikipedia
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[edit] Communities
I have attended many major community festivals and events in Australia, including the blues music festival in Byron Bay, Katoomba Christian Convention Easter Camp, NNSW Big Camp, Hillsong Conference 2006 and 2007, 6 StormCo service trips to Walgett, and the first meetup of Newcastle Wikipedians. I also loved visiting the Taizé Community in France.
[edit] Contributions
My major drive is to improve the detail and neutrality of Christian theology articles, particularly those relating to WikiProject Seventh-day Adventist Church. I believe that popular and historical views have generally been overrepresented, at the expense of current scholarly views.
[edit] Culture
![For your contributions to articles relating to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and for having had your name in some way on almost all the articles related to the church that I can remember, I believe that this small token of recogition is more than deserved. John Carter 15:52, 1 October 2007 (UTC)[1]](../../../../images/shared/3/31/REstar.png)
I believe that to love God and love people are the most important guidelines for life. I believe friendships are one of best parts of life, and enjoy listening to people's stories of life, and understanding, experiencing and respecting different cultures and points of view.
I love Lost because of its mystery, fantasy, and insights into the characters' lives and personalities. Recently I have been enjoying the U.S. The Colbert Report, which is an amusing parody of right-wing American politics and religion. (I am still developing my own political opinions, so this is a purely humour-endorsement only). I appreciated the John Safran vs God series. Safran is sometimes blasphemous but he is funny, interesting and fair: he pays out his own left-wing friends for example, as well as having a go at many religions equally. I also thought he genuinely respected some of the people he met, like the Italian priest. I enjoyed the last few episodes of Solitary because it is about competition, challenge, overcoming pain, and also for its intense scrutiny of the reactions of the contestants.
I love hanging out with friends, God time, meeting new people, reading and learning new things. I enjoy playing sport, particularly soccer and basketball. I enjoy science, particularly topics such as cosmology (the very large) and quantum mechanics (the very small). I believe that faith and science can be friends! I am currently listening to Josh Groban and U2. Over the last few years I have acquired a deep fascination with other cultures, and a love for travelling. I hope to learn a second language, such as Mandarin "Chinese" and perhaps others.
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The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| I would like to award you this barnstar for you tireless effort on work related to The Seventh-day Adventist Church. Almost every article i look at relating to something from the church was contributed by you. Thanks for your effort to help the Seventh-day Adventist Church have better articles on Wikipedia. Hatmatbbat10 (talk) 21:40, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[2] |
