“You Don’t Get to New Places by Following Established Tracks” Carlo Rovelli At talks or seminars given on the ‘Unbounded Church’ concept there are regularly the same questions asked or issues raised. One of these is the issue of ‘Models’. Nearly always someone will say something like “Well give me some models so that I … Continue reading Mission in the Future that Turns Up When You Get There
I get to talk to a lot of Pastors of mainline congregations. Some show interest when I explain the Missional Community (Unbounded church) vision, and a few, a very few, come along to the seminars I run from time to time. Of those that do come, it is depressing to see that while showing interest … Continue reading Time for a Break Not Cherry Picking
In our house I am surrounded by Leggo. This is a result of having a family, now of several generations, who are Leggo fanatics. I reckon you name it and we can make a Leggo model of it! As the family gathered over the most recent Christmas it looked at times like it was the … Continue reading Time For Leggo!
John Stott the famous evangelical preacher used to say that when preparing sermons it is necessary to hold the bible in the one hand and the newspaper in the other. His point was that the Christian message is not to be taught or proclaimed in a cultural vacuum. Rather the receiving culture, while not changing … Continue reading ‘Cultural Intelligence’ – Understanding the Times
In the Bible we are told that at the first Christmas a bunch of Angels cried out- “Peace on earth and good will to all people, On whom his favour rests” A great promise isn’t? I am sure we could all do with a bit more peace, because there doesn’t appear to be a whole … Continue reading A ‘Different Kind of Peace’
As we enter the fading Twilight of 2017, all indicators are that the gospel influence on Australian society similarly fades as a rising tide of godless darkness consumes the erstwhile Christianized landscape. The metrics of this tide are well documented: the now well entrenched missional failure and the consequential decades-long chronic trend of decline in … Continue reading A New Babylonian Captivity
It was after dinner on a Hong Kong evening many years ago now, just before Christmas. I was sitting on the balcony of our apartment in the Mid-Levels of the main island, and looking down over the central business district of Hong Kong below me, known as Central, with the harbour beyond and further beyond … Continue reading The Atheist and the Sledgehammer
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre. The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” W. Yeats ********************** In the University City of Oxford, England on October 16, 1555 the Anglican Bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burned at the stake. Their … Continue reading The Light Flickers Lower, The Foundations Crumble and the Centre Will Not Hold
There is a failure “to in fact go deep enough to examine, much less challenge, deep-rooted ideas about what church is” As almost everyone will know, even if only from a brief glimpse on a news bulletin, that this year is the 500th anniversary of what is known as the Reformation. This was the time … Continue reading The Next Reformation
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This is a quote from Sir Winston Churchill who was paraphrasing a statement by the Italian philosopher and novelist George Santayana. Churchill went on to say- “We must always look forward, but we have to understand our history in order to not repeat … Continue reading The Square Wheel Delusion
