Much of the time I tend to operate in my own world, too busy to ‘look over the parapet’ and see much of what other denominations are doing. However now and again I get an opportunity to do so. One such opportunity occurred a while ago when I was invited to a meeting on the … Continue reading There Are A Lot of Us ‘In the Box’
The Beast Devouring Mission
One of the aims of the designers of cars, trucks and planes is to make them lighter. This makes them more efficient because less energy, that is fuel, is needed just to propel the vehicle itself and more is available for either more speed, acceleration or a bigger payload. This can serve as an analogy … Continue reading The Beast Devouring Mission
Green Shoots in the Melancholy Sadness
During my recent travels through the United Kingdom I took the opportunity to visit, in some cases revisit, a number of famous cathedrals, abbeys etc. as well as more humble local churches. As I did so I felt an overwhelming sense of melancholic sadness, for here was I in the ‘Valley of Dry Bones’. For … Continue reading Green Shoots in the Melancholy Sadness
A Herd of Elephants-‘Conversations’ We Need to Have
The inspiration for this Unbounded Church site is an idea-the idea that the Australian church, if it is to resurrect its mission, needs to be unbound. That is it needs to be set free from its current rigid, cumbersome and change-averse ‘Christendom’ influenced forms, structures and mission strategies in order to be – ‘A church … Continue reading A Herd of Elephants-‘Conversations’ We Need to Have
Mission and the ‘Einsteinian’ Insanity
Albert Einstein defined ‘Insanity’ as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!” I was reminded of this by the experience of a number of our ministry leaders who took a group of teenagers to a regional youth outreach event. The intention was that church youth would invite non-church friends … Continue reading Mission and the ‘Einsteinian’ Insanity
‘System Failure!’
A recent headline to an article by Paul Kelly of the ‘Australian' newspaper caught my eye. It read- “Broken System Can't Fix the Nations Problems" Of course Kelly was referring to what he calls the "failure in Australia's political system". However I think paraphrasing Kelly’s title a little to “Broken System Can't Fix the Churches … Continue reading ‘System Failure!’
Unbounded Church – A Paradigm Shift
“The significant problems we face can’t be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein The 2013 Session of the Diocese of Sydney Synod received a report entitled “Review of the Diocesan Mission and the Next Phase of Mission”. This report gave a comprehensive overview of the … Continue reading Unbounded Church – A Paradigm Shift
