A Stark Choice – Movement or Not

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

Early Christianity was a Movement that took on and conquered the all-powerful Roman Empire. Roman society was Pagan, largely amoral and pluralistic, everything the Christian world view was not, as well as being actively hostile to Christianity and Christians who were seen as ‘weird and depraved killjoys’. This hostility resulted in persecution, sometimes severe particularly in the reigns of Emperors Nero and Diocletian Nevertheless, by the early 4th century AD, Rome was, at least officially, a Christian Empire. So how did the Roman Empire go from being thoroughly pagan to Christianity becoming the state religion?

Consider The Humble Dandelion

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

As kids growing up, one of the games we used to play was blowing Dandelion seeds from the Dandelion stalk and seeing how the wind took them. Great fun we thought but not Dad who had just dug half a dozen Dandelion weed plants out of his treasured lawn. However, that blowing in the wind game, where we do not know where the wind will take the seed or which will take root and grow, can I think act as a metaphor for how God transmits the gospel.

Western Values and When ‘The Main Thing’ Isn’t

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

There seems to be a general ignorance of, or a deliberate unwillingness to accept, that the lamented loss of ‘Western values’ is the result of the decline of Christianity and the corresponding loss of the biblical moral operating system essential to the control of western democracy. Thus, and here is the key issue, the restoration of a biblically controlled democracy and the values flowing from it, requires the re-evangelization of Australia.

Principles – A Case Study

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

The cultural principle needed for our 21st century mission to local communities can be summed up with this slogan – ‘Their place, Their style, Their language, Their time’

The Road to Heaven is Strewn with Missional Roadblocks

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

The Road to Heaven is Strewn with Missional Roadblocks

The First Elephant – Cultural Intelligence – A Missional Necessity

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

The current missional mindset of most local churches, and particularly of those in leadership, continues to be controlled by the assumption, even if subconsciously, that the goal is to reach a still-Christianised society living on what might be termed a ‘cultural Earth,’ whereas the reality is that most of Western society has changed address to a distant ‘cultural Pluto’. The failure to realise and respond to this is a major factor in the missional malaise

Barriers to Faith

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

While it should be remembered that no-one can be argued into the Kingdom of God, Christians need to be equipped to be able to say something about what is actually a quite limited number of issues that both Christians and non-Christian's wrestle with. ‘Barriers to Faith’ is intended to be some help when Christians need to respond to some of the main questions/challenges they may encounter in conversation with others.

Missional Mathematics and the Pagan Challenge

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

For a quarter of a century at least, survey after survey, data release after data release, census after census, have shouted out the developing crisis in terms of the Church’s dismal missional effectiveness. Yet with a deafness (deliberate or otherwise) to the few voices calling out the nakedness of the missional Emperor, and a blindness to the reality of an ever-rotating kaleidoscope of cultural tribes undergoing tectonic change, we have continued along the same now decades-long road, strewn with ‘Square Wheel’ missional failures.

Mission – Playing the Long Game

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

So how do we think about mission to our local community? Are we still we relying on ‘invitation to special church services’; one off ‘event evangelism’ activities (e.g., men’s breakfasts, women’s dinners etc); infrequent local doorknocking; strategies that have been very low fruit for a long time? Or is it time to establish ‘long game’ strategies,

Outside the Walls

Posted on by Dr. Martin J. Bragger

How have you acted as a Kingdom Agent since we last met? That is engaged in conversations or actions, whether great or small, that might point somebody to God.