SIMPLY SIMON
CITY, CHURCH & SOUL
ABOUT
I am a Baptist minister, teacher and writer. I serve at the Collins Street Baptist Church in the heart of Melbourne, one of Australia’s most beautiful cities. With a history dating back to 1838, Collins Street is among the nation’s oldest continuing Baptist congregations. More than that, it’s an engaging and courageous community deeply committed to the city and its people.
After a decade of service in church planting and youth ministry, I did postgraduate studies in practical theology at Fuller Seminary in Los Angeles, California. I then spent 15 years teaching in spirituality, ethics and pastoral theology, first at Macquarie Christian Studies Institute in Sydney and then at Melbourne’s Whitley College. My research and writing interests include the ethics of everyday life, the theology of food and hospitality, and the nature of Christian mission in suburbia.
My books include
- God Next Door: Spirituality and Mission in the Neighbourhood (Acorn, 2007),
- Eating Heaven: Spirituality at the Table (Acorn, 2013) and
- Heaven All Around Us: Discovering God in Everyday Life (Cascade, 2018).
I live with my partner in the city and am inspired every day by the neighbourhood of which I’m a part.
I have two blogs, Eating Heaven where I write about all things food, and this one where I wonder about everything else.
Simon Carey Holt
A SPIRITUAL QUEST
Posted on June 8, 2022 by simoncareyholt
I’m a keeper of journals. For as long as I can recall I have written my way through life. In copious notebooks I’ve documented and reflected on what’s been a mostly unremarkable story. Regardless, the earliest of these are drenched with angst. As I scan them now, I cringe. They read like an endless and urgent ‘quest’ for improvement or for reality different to the one I knew.
My religious upbringing did not help. The journey to Christian devotion — a quest of the most noble kind — was fueled by a dim view of the human heart and of the world in which we’re ‘entrapped’. The narrow road out and toward God was paved with words of obligation: repent, give up, let go, deny, quench, resist. It was an urgent business. Honestly, I felt more failure than progress as I trudged along, but the drive to ‘press on’ remained.
With the benefit of age, I wish now I could go back to that ernest young man and others like him. While he sits hunched over his journal I would stand behind him, my hands on his shoulders, and speak words of peace. “Go easy,” I would say, “this world is good and precious, and so are you.”
It is the psalmist who affirms all creation as filled with the beauty and majesty of God and
St Paul who marvels at that all-encompassing love that leaves no peak or crevice of this life untouched.
The Franciscan Richard Rohr describes true religion as “always a deep intuition that we are already participating in something very good, in spite of our best efforts to deny it or avoid it.”
Indeed, this world declared ‘good’ and ‘very good’ in the creation story continues to be so. The great privilege of the Christian faith is not that we are on a journey toward God, but that we are in God and the life of God is in us.
Yes, I am still journaling and still questing. I still seek meaning in what I do. I still aspire to goodness in who I am and justice for those around me.
Yes, I am still journaling and still questing. I still seek meaning in what I do. I still aspire to goodness in who I am and justice for those around me.
But the urgency of it and the self-criticism, they are less.
Rather than being driven by a rejection of the world’s darkness and a desire for improvement in myself, I find myself inspired by the beauty of all that’s around and even within me.
Today there is less drive for personal progress and more longing for the grandeur, kindness and grace that fills this world of ours.
==
RELATED
She’s goneMay 27, 2015In "Personal"
What am I to do?June 20, 2019In "Life at home"
Baptists and same-sex marriageMay 14, 2012In "Sexuality"
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larry.holt@bigpond.com says:
June 9, 2022 at 8:02 am
Love this Simon.
The Godfrey Birtill musical version of this is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HsdHsy4_g
Reply
simoncareyholt says:
June 9, 2022 at 8:20 am
That’s beautiful Lal. Thank you.
Reply
salemfarm says:
June 10, 2022 at 1:45 pm
Yes Simon I was a young zealous Christian living in an Open Brethren environment of piety more than grace. Baptist life was doing doing doing rather than being. PNG reminded me that culture is more than western while as an Industrial Chaplain spirituality was more than church. Whitley College was a light into new thought , doubt and challenge.
I now live that “easy” life in solitude using my iPad to wander as I choose. Yesterday Jim Barr at Box Hill Baptist, today Sarah Miles St Gregory of Nyssia in San Francisco.
==
RELATED
She’s goneMay 27, 2015In "Personal"
What am I to do?June 20, 2019In "Life at home"
Baptists and same-sex marriageMay 14, 2012In "Sexuality"
PUBLISHED BY SIMONCAREYHOLT
View all posts by simoncareyholt
POST NAVIGATION
PREVIOUS POSTThe gift of Winter trees
5 THOUGHTS ON “A SPIRITUAL QUEST”
larry.holt@bigpond.com says:
June 9, 2022 at 8:02 am
Love this Simon.
The Godfrey Birtill musical version of this is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HsdHsy4_g
Reply
simoncareyholt says:
June 9, 2022 at 8:20 am
That’s beautiful Lal. Thank you.
Reply
salemfarm says:
June 10, 2022 at 1:45 pm
Yes Simon I was a young zealous Christian living in an Open Brethren environment of piety more than grace. Baptist life was doing doing doing rather than being. PNG reminded me that culture is more than western while as an Industrial Chaplain spirituality was more than church. Whitley College was a light into new thought , doubt and challenge.
I now live that “easy” life in solitude using my iPad to wander as I choose. Yesterday Jim Barr at Box Hill Baptist, today Sarah Miles St Gregory of Nyssia in San Francisco.
Tomorrow I coffee with 10 non Christians whose sense of community is Christian but they just don’t know it.
I will walk home along Spring Creek encountering platypus koala a wallaby.
My prayer is that we will grow community through IT.
Mark Blackwell
Reply
salemfarm says:
June 10, 2022 at 1:54 pm
My guiding prayer is that of Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going/
I do not see the road ahead of me./
I cannot know for certain where it will end./
Nor do I really know myself,/ and the fact that
I think I am following Your will/ does not mean that I am actually doing so./
But I believe that the desire to please You/
does in fact please you./
And I hope I have that desire/ in all that I am doing./
I hope that I will never do anything/ apart from that desire./
And I know that/, if I do this,/You will lead me by the right road,/though I may know nothing about it./
Therefore I will trust You always/ though I may seem to be lost/
and in the shadow of death/
I will not fear,/for You are ever with me /.
and You will never leave me to face my perils alone./
Reply
simoncareyholt says:
June 10, 2022 at 4:04 pm
A beautiful prayer, Mark. So glad you live in a place the sustains your spirit.
Reply
LEAVE A REPLY
I will walk home along Spring Creek encountering platypus koala a wallaby.
My prayer is that we will grow community through IT.
Mark Blackwell
Reply
salemfarm says:
June 10, 2022 at 1:54 pm
My guiding prayer is that of Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going/
I do not see the road ahead of me./
I cannot know for certain where it will end./
Nor do I really know myself,/ and the fact that
I think I am following Your will/ does not mean that I am actually doing so./
But I believe that the desire to please You/
does in fact please you./
And I hope I have that desire/ in all that I am doing./
I hope that I will never do anything/ apart from that desire./
And I know that/, if I do this,/You will lead me by the right road,/though I may know nothing about it./
Therefore I will trust You always/ though I may seem to be lost/
and in the shadow of death/
I will not fear,/for You are ever with me /.
and You will never leave me to face my perils alone./
Reply
simoncareyholt says:
June 10, 2022 at 4:04 pm
A beautiful prayer, Mark. So glad you live in a place the sustains your spirit.
Reply
LEAVE A REPLY
==
Heaven All Around Us: Discovering God in Everyday Life
By Simon Carey Holt
315 pages
9 hours
Included in your membership!
at no additional cost
Description
If living with a deep awareness of God in our lives is important, how do we do it without moving to a monastery?
How do we discern and respond to God amidst the places, routines, and relationships of our everyday lives?
In this book, we go in search of God's presence in homes and neighborhoods, supermarkets and sporting arenas, workplaces and weekends.
Along the way we look for practices that can lead us more deeply into the way of Jesus: activities like cooking and laundry, walking and sleeping, shopping and conversation with friends. Throughout, we want to better understand how to make God a central part of our lives, and to hear Jesus' call to "follow me" more clearly in the world around us.
Christianity
All categories
Christianity
All categories
===
Heaven All Around Us: Discovering God in Everyday Life
Kindle Edition
기준 Simon Carey Holt (Author) 형식: Kindle Edition
Kindle
US$9.99부터
If living with a deep awareness of God in our lives is important, how do we do it without moving to a monastery?
How do we discern and respond to God amidst the places, routines, and relationships of our everyday lives?
In this book, we go in search of God's presence in homes and neighborhoods, supermarkets and sporting arenas, workplaces and weekends. Along the way we look for practices that can lead us more deeply into the way of Jesus: activities like cooking and laundry, walking and sleeping, shopping and conversation with friends. Throughout, we want to better understand how to make God a central part of our lives, and to hear Jesus' call to "follow me" more clearly in the world around us.
"Simon Carey Holt hallows the everyday, revealing God's presence in our homes and neighborhoods, in pubs and offices and sports stadiums, and supplying us with wisdom and practices for sensing God when we wake, when we sleep, when we eat, when we play, and when we work."
--Michael Frost, Morling College, Sydney
"For every person seeking to move beyond a Sunday faith, for every busy worker and parent for whom spirituality feels out-of-reach, Simon Carey Holt is an invaluable guide. Drawing from Christian tradition and personal story, he points to God's presence in the smallest routines, and explores how we might honor the sacred in ordinary things."
--Alison Sampson, Baptist Pastor and Columnist
"Heaven All Around Us will bust your ideas of spirituality wide open. It is a must read for everyone who has ever thought, 'I'm just not that spiritual.' Holt will make you think again as he peels back the surface of ordinary things to expose the thrill of God's presence everywhere. This is a book that will enlarge your soul."
--Allan Demond, Senior Pastor of NewHope Baptist Church, Melbourne, Australia
"At the same time as our dislocated and dispirited society is looking to find connection in the near and the neighborhood, so this book invites us to find God in the 'local' of our lives. The author enticingly encourages us to experiment with seeing matters as routine as the laundry, the making of a meal, sports, and everyday conversation as ways to nurture our spirituality. It will be freeing and stretching for many who want to grow in love and goodness."
--Anne Wilkinson-Hayes, Head of Mission, Baptist Union of Victoria
"Simon Carey Holt has been at this for a very long time. From the start, his eyes have been shaped by the local and his life has been lived in the everyday. In this scurrying around for new fixes for the churches I urge you to sit quietly in your own place of living and absorb the practices Simon is proposing."
--Al Roxburgh, Writer and Consultant, The Missional Network
Simon Carey Holt is pastor of Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne, and adjunct lecturer in practical theology at Whitley College, University of Divinity. He is author of the award winning God Next Door: Spirituality and Mission in the Neighborhood (2007), and Eating Heaven: Spirituality at the Table (2013).
===
Heaven all around us: Discovering God in everyday life
by Simon Carey Holt
4.13 · Rating details · 8 ratings · 3 reviews
If living with a deep awareness of God in our lives is important, how do we do it without moving to a monastery? How do we discern and respond to God amidst the places, routines, and relationships of our everyday lives? In this book, we go in search of God's presence in homes and neighborhoods, supermarkets and sporting arenas, workplaces and weekends. Along the way we loo ...more
Alan Marr
Dec 20, 2018Alan Marr rated it it was amazing
This is a book i wish I had written. It is clear, comforting and challenging. The final chapter should be required reading for every pastor. Thanks Simon.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
Campbell J. Brice
Jul 31, 2021Campbell J. Brice rated it liked it
Shelves: 00-my-library, 02-theological-collection
3.5 stars
flagLike · comment · see review
David Mitchell
Oct 12, 2019David Mitchell rated it it was ok
The last chapter - written to pastors - is good. It is written sympathetically to calls of the reformers that identified with 1 Peter 2:9. In this regard, I had not read Elton Trueblood The Company Of The Committed
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9
Other chapters so-so.
I had to skip the chapter "God at the Supermarket" as I could not cope with the notion of God among an aisle of sugary cereal. This chapter could perhaps been framed as "God as providore".
I won this book in a competition. It had been shortlisted as 2019 Australian Christian Book of the Year. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
===
God Next Door
기준 Simon Carey Holt (Author) 형식: Kindle Edition
별 5개 중 5.0 2개의 평가
모든 형식 및 에디션 보기
Kindle
US$17.99부터
What if God lived next door? Would you recognise him? Would you talk to him at the fence or avoid catching his eye? Would you love him as you love yourself? Simon Carey Holt has listened to the experiences of numerous men and women of faith living in a variety of urban and suburban neighbourhoods, and uncovered the spiritual possibilities of our neighbourhoods. His inspiring stories open up exciting new possibilities for 21st-century mission.
인쇄 길이
183 페이지
2007
고객 리뷰
별 5개 중 5.0
미국의 상위 리뷰
John Gibbs
별 5개 중 5.0 Everyone is called to be a good neighbour
미국에서 2011년 5월 5일에 검토됨
We are called to seek, live and breathe the redemptive peace and presence of God in the neighbourhoods that are immediately before us, according to Simon Carey Holt in this book.
The book, which was the winner of the Australian Christian Book of the Year award for 2008, describes a spirituality of neighbourliness in which:
* Love of God and love of neighbour are a package: our neighbourliness is directly connected to our relationship with God;
* To love the neighbour is to act justly, compassionately and selflessly: love of neighbour is embodied in action;
* Real neighbourliness is inclusive and offered without prejudice: God's neighbourly love extends to all regardless of race, class or moral standing;
* The neighbourhood is a place of God's presence: neighbourly relationships play host to the presence of God;
* The neighbourhood is an important place of ministry: neighbourhoods are primary places of mission;
* Neighbourliness and neighbourhood continue to have an important connection: our call to global mission does not negate the primacy of our immediate environments.
Part one of the book describes modern neighbourhoods including rural communities, urban communities and suburban communities.
Part two describes the call of God with respect to neighbourhoods, including the Biblical mandate, the example of Jesus and the relationship between neighbourhood and church.
Part three describes mission in neighbourhoods including disciplines of engagement which the author calls "naming", "celebrating", "nurturing" and "inviting".
Most churches in the Western world are not very effective in engaging with their local neighbourhoods. Larger churches often cater more for members who live some distance away than for neighbours who live nearby. Smaller churches are often too inwardly focused. The author does not say that churches should be of any particular size or style; he merely says that they should have a strong missional focus on local neighbourhoods.
Many readers - perhaps most - will find the book uncomfortable to read.
The pressures of modern life and the strong preference most city-dwellers have for privacy make local neighbourliness and neighbourhood mission very difficult to do effectively. But the author refuses to excuse anyone; we might be called to serve people far away or in the workplace or within the walls of the church, but we are also called to mission in our local neighbourhood.
I was surprised by how much of the author's advice is simple and non-threatening. I highly recommend the book to church leaders and to any Christians who are seeking practical and achievable ways of engaging with their neighbours.
간단히 표시
10명이 유용하다고 평가했습니다
--
Bradley J. Brisco
VINE VOICE
별 5개 중 5.0 Love this book.
미국에서 2014년 6월 17일에 검토됨
검증된 구매
I can not recommend more highly this book by Simon Carey Holt. Not only does the book provide great handles for living a relationally connected life in the neighborhood, but Holt provides one of the best theological/biblical reflection on how the incarnation of Jesus is our model for living in context.
If you are serious about understanding what it means to life with, and for the sake of others in your neighborhood, then do yourself a favor and read this book.
3명이 유용하다고 평가했습니다
--
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