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 Multiplication Urgency
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
The ‘Cloud’
I’m sitting on the patio of our house, a place I often use for reading the bible, to pray and to work. It is very quiet, the only sounds being those of the nearby creek running full after much rain, some chirping Rainbow Lorikeets and the whisper of a gentle breeze stirring the Gum trees … Continue reading The ‘Cloud’
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
Communication Equals Transmission Plus Reception
‘‘We need to learn to speak in the ‘Vulgar’ tongue to ‘Vulgar’ people’ Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (in his preface to the ‘Great Bible) In these 21st century times the church faces the challenge of doing mission to its own culture, a culture (I have described in another article as ‘Morphtopia’) in which there … Continue reading Communication Equals Transmission Plus Reception
The Morphtopian Odyssey
It was hard to believe but there it was on the news. A new and previously unknown civilization had been found in the depths of the South American jungle. The people who discovered it named it ‘Morphtopia’. On hearing about this new people group mission organisations decided to make it a priority to send missionaries. … Continue reading The Morphtopian Odyssey
‘He is stolen and it is not harmless!’
I entered the large shopping complex and there He was, front, centre and large, enthroned in his palace. There He was, ‘the reason for the season’. The One who is always encouraging the children to come to him, and woe betide anyone who want to stop them. They know (for they have been taught) that … Continue reading ‘He is stolen and it is not harmless!’
