In Northern Europe, where I grew up, in autumn it is often possible to see wild geese flying south to winter in warmer climes. Recently I was reminded of this when I came across a talk I had given a few years previously in which I used the southward flight of the wild geese as … Continue reading It’s Time for the Geese to Fly Again
Many years ago I was working overseas as an engineer. It was in a country with a very different culture from the western one I grew up in and was educated in. I found that the locally trained engineers were very intelligent, more than myself mostly and very competent. This was true except in one … Continue reading The First Principle is ‘Use First Principles’
A few days ago I was privileged to visit the Colosseum in Rome. Standing and looking at those ancient but still magnificent ruins, the architecture of towering and imposing walls brought many thoughts to mind. “I am – a Christian. I suffer what I’m suffering now, but then there will be another in me, who … Continue reading Down the Ages Distant Voices Still Speak
One of the contributing factors to the general lack of missional fruitfulness by the traditional western church is the mindset that confuses the evangelistic ‘Activities’ designed to produce missional fruit with the desired missional ‘Outcomes’ themselves. This is what might be called the ‘Activity Trap’ We know that Jesus constantly indicated that he was looking … Continue reading The Activity Trap
So I finally get to the “Fire and Brimstone” bit! This is because I got into a conversation with a woman recently about what happened after death and that got me thinking. She was not a Christian but seemed to have some belief that there was a life after death, and her view was that … Continue reading Hell Needs to Make a Come Back
I don’t like re-posting previous blogs, however while this is not a repeat of the original post, despair drives me to return to the subject of one, because it is an issue that plagues our missional efforts and it is showing very little sign of going away. Indeed, it is symptomatic of the now anachronistic … Continue reading The Square Wheel Obsession–A Heartfelt Plea for Sanity
Writing in the late 1990s in his book “From Dawn to Decadence”, a survey of the last 500 years of Western cultural life, a society which he saw as sliding towards decadence, Jacques Barzun wrote – “It takes only a look at the numbers to see that the 20th century is coming to an … Continue reading An Easter Reflection to the Sound of Angels Weeping
I recently came across an article in ‘Quadrant’ magazine that in part described a bygone world- a nowadays strange world even quaint to many. It was a description of the decline of the suburban church post WW2, specifically in the major city of Melbourne, however the description could have been of any city in the … Continue reading There Was a Kindness There
“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
