I have been meditating lately on Jesus’ instruction to his followers "to go and make disciples" “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. Matthew 28:19,20. In particular … Continue reading Discipleship – Beyond Conversion
Winning The War But Losing the Peace
I turn on the radio and tune in to a news channel, then another and another, but all of them, the TV channels too, are covering the same story- ANZAC Day, 25th April. This is the Australian and New Zealand equivalent of what in the United Kingdom is ‘Remembrance Day’ on November the 11th. It … Continue reading Winning The War But Losing the Peace
The Multiplication Urgency
It is important that when we establish any type of new missional community it must be one that can be easily reproducible, in fact as we set it up we must be thinking about the next one.
The Resurrection and the Outbreak of War
I woke up on Easter morning, the day of all days when we celebrate the resurrection of the Christ the Son of God, the greatest event in history. It is the day we rejoice in God’s victory over sin and death, the forgiveness of sins, the removal of our guilt and the promise of eternal … Continue reading The Resurrection and the Outbreak of War
It’s Not Magic
Here I need to make a confession. I confess that I have been guilty as anyone in the past in grabbing hold of the latest ‘Magic Bullet’ for mission. This is the ‘latest thing’, almost always arriving from overseas - the program, technique or missional approach that will rapidly increase our missional fruit, something we … Continue reading It’s Not Magic
Mission In Changing Times
We live in a momentous time in western society, indeed a time such has never before been in human history, a time that can truly be described as unique. The characteristic that marks its uniqueness is rapid and constant ‘Change’. It is a time in which we are seeing the slow motion collapse of western … Continue reading Mission In Changing Times
The Shopping Centre or the Town Centre Shops?
In the process of promoting Unbounded Church type Missional Communities, I get to talk with many church leaders. It is a privilege to share in their struggles in missional endeavour and perhaps to give some encouragement, but often also a great frustration. This is because, despite a common passion to see the lost won for … Continue reading The Shopping Centre or the Town Centre Shops?
‘The Times They Are A Changing’ and Again and Again and Again . . . .
Very near to the place I grew up in there is a hill which has the name of Barr Beacon, which means in Old English ‘a hill used for lighting fires’. Such Beacons existed on a chain of hills across the United Kingdom each in ‘line of sight’ of the ones next in the chain. … Continue reading ‘The Times They Are A Changing’ and Again and Again and Again . . . .
The ‘Great Commission’ Without the ‘Great Permission’
Many churches quite rightly place a high emphasis on what is often called the “Great Commission” as an essential part of their Mission Statement. That is Jesus instruction to his disciples to “Go and make disciples” as we read in Matthew 28:19. This mission component usually results in a significant effort to make disciples by … Continue reading The ‘Great Commission’ Without the ‘Great Permission’
The Kingdom and the Darkness
A year or so ago I visited my great grandmother’s church. A very old stone building set in a stonewalled, grave-filled enclosure in an English hayfield. Weather-faded headstones spoke of centuries of ‘saints’ that had walked this place. But it was on the inside, in the cold, small space of worship that the ‘overwhelming’ happened. … Continue reading The Kingdom and the Darkness
