Rites of Passage part 1

”A rite is the beginning and ending. It marks the closure of an important time while signifying the beginning of another…rites are often bigger than ourselves…a rite brings the "star" into a community experience. This passageway is not to be done solo, but is celebrated together with loved ones, family, and friends….”

                                                                                                                                          David Olshine

Lately I've been thinking a little about rites-of-passage. Christmas is coming, the end of another year is almost upon us and a new year is soon to begin.

A rite of passage can simply be defined as a ritual event that marks a person’s progress from one phase of life to another, for example; the leaving of childhood and the entering of adulthood.

The idea of a rite of passage is certainly not new. It was and still is a key component of the Jewish faith and other traditional cultures.

I’ve been doing some reading on this topic and discovered that Arnold Van Gennep wrote a book in 1902 entitled The Rites of Passage. In this he identifies rites of passage as having 3 distinct phases – separation (from a previous world), transition (threshold between the old and the new), and re-incorporation (into the new world).

As a father of four children (including three sons), all still living at home, I’m wanting to be intentional about developing some relevant rites of passage practices that will serve each individual child and our family community well.

Two years ago, as our eldest son Scott was transitioning from leaving primary school ('old world’) to commencing high school ('new world’) I decided to take him out for some quality father-and-son time. We shared some food and drink and we talked about things such as expectations for the new year and the new school. We also talked about faith, responsibility, physical development and parental support. It wasn’t a particularly lengthy conversation, but I believe it was certainly worthwhile - I'm pleased we could do this together. I also gave Scott a book at the time, written for teenagers by a local Christian author.

Our second son Tim will soon be finishing up at his local Primary School before commencing high school in the new year. I plan to take him out and have a conversation in a similar vein to what I shared with Scott. I'll get a book to give Tim as well – have to say that I’m looking forward to practising this simply family ritual, again.

In my next post I hope to share a few thoughts about rites of passage and youth ministry – stay tuned.

Try the other side!

”Then he [Jesus] said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.”
John 21:6 NLT


The text for this week’s sermon at our local church was John 21:1-14. For much of this year we have been chronologically working our way through John’s Gospel, and here towards the conclusion of the book the narrative introduces some very familiar characters - Peter and a few other disciples, doing what came naturally for them – fishing from a boat.

You may well be familiar with the scenario here – Jesus has been raised from the dead and has already appeared to his closest followers on several occasions. After Peter and Co had spent the night fishing with nothing to show for it Jesus turns up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and engages with them from a distance; still close enough to be heard.

When Jesus hears the disciples had caught nothing all night he encourages them to throw their net off the right side of the boat to see what might happen.

The disciples (surely they were tired and well and truly over their all-night fishing adventure by now?!) decide to do what Jesus suggests and we know the result – there are so many fish in the net that they are unable to haul their miraculous catch into the boat.

Peter, recognising Jesus, leads the group with the catch of fish in tow back to shore where they are treated to a freshly cooked breakfast with Jesus.


God  has been catching my attention through this passage - I’ve been pondering over the emerging insights and expect I will continue to do so for some time.

Here’s what I’ve come to conclude thus far;

There will be times in our own experience when we will find that the combination of our hard work, experience and skills for some unexplainable reason bring us nothing in return; when, despite our best efforts we are unable to achieve the desired outcome we are seeking.

It is on such occasions that we need Jesus to break-in to enable us to break-through to achieve a tangible result. For, unless Jesus turns up to intervene, we have no hope of seeing break-through come about.

Furthermore, I would suggest that we need more than the presence of Jesus to see break-through in our circumstances – we need (as Peter and friends experienced) the voice of Jesus to direct the work of our hands. Jesus told the disciples where to throw their nets. The disciples responded promptly to his directive and saw an undeniably tangible result in their midst.

The disciples, after their night of fishing didn’t have to do a lot of things differently to see a different result. Nor did they have to leave their boat to achieve a better than expected outcome (153 fish seems like a lot of fish – more than enough for a hearty breakfast feed!).

What Jesus asked them to do was to simply attack the problem from a different angle; from the other side of the boat. Peter and friends remained in the same boat, in the same body of water, using the same net. The only thing we’re told was different was that they cast the net from the opposite side of the boat – it was a 180 degree turnaround that immediately netted a different and distinctly measurable outcome.


Perhaps you are presently at that place of feeling tired and over your seemingly unsuccessful pursuits having laboured through-the-night with little or no return…you’ve been working hard, applying your experience and skills to achieve a desired outcome, yet for some unexplainable reason you are not seeing the results you’re hoping and praying for.

For those times when this is our present reality, then I hope we will choose to remain in the boat, in close proximity to our co-workers and our intended objective (eg catching fish); listening for the voice of Jesus, ready and willing to follow His instructions…it might be that all it will take is to simply turn around and cast our net from the other side of the boat.

What does the other side of the boat look like for you?

No turning back!

“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.”

Hebrews 11:13-15 NLT

Today I headed out to a rather unique location for some personal retreat time – a local memorial cemetery! I have cultivated this practice in the past, when living in Perth and Sydney. I’ve found such times to be sobering and helpful, enabling me to take stock of my life and my faith; to gain perspective about what really matters; to be reminded of my own mortality, and to seek God for fresh or timely insights…

Today at the cemetery I was reminded of something that has become a very common theme for me over recent months – the Christian journey of faith and obedience.

I was drawn to consider the life of Abraham and what is written about him in the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews 11:8 says; “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

I’m amazed how Abraham and guys like him seemed fully content to trust God, with literally no earthly place to call home - they could somehow through eyes of faith see beyond the physical realm, glimpsing a better country on the horizon.

Hebrews 11:15 says that if such people had been mindful of their earthly country (ie Ur of the Chaldeans for Abraham), then they might have easily returned.

This begs the question for me; Could Abraham and his family have gone back to the country where they came from? Well, I suppose they could have - but they chose not to.

God had called Abraham and Co to leave what was familiar to them - to pay the price - to move on. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that to return would have been to refuse to do what God wanted (and therefore miss out on the future blessings God had in store for them?).

Surely Abraham’s family would have thought about all they had left behind? They may well have thought about it and they may well have brought a collection of memories with them, but Scripture testifies that they didn’t long to return – it seems that Abraham was somehow able to discipline his mind not to dwell on such thoughts and such geography. He was able to look ahead, leading his family to a new country through trust and obedience – no turning back.

Scripture and experience tells me that there will be times for us as God’s people today when the Lord will capture our attention, we will hear His voice and we will wrestle with His call to move on. And then, if we are serious about obedience this will lead us to enter into a process of re-alignment, which could well result in a geographical relocation (as it has on several occasions for Judy and I and our family), or it might require a relocation of priorities or roles or something similar.

I think that one of the challenges for us when faced with such choices will be to have enough faith and Spirit-led resolve not to long for whatever God may be calling us to leave behind.

I'm thankful that my time at the cemetery today has provided me with a useful reminder that a far better country waits for me beyond my earthly country, beyond the grave.




“I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country…I must make the main objective of my life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” C.S. Lewis