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,
Most of us at times have had a bit of fun throwing a stone into a pond and seeing the ripples spreading outwards. It has often seemed to me that this, what we might call the ‘Ripple Effect’, is a very good analogy for Jesus’ instruction to his followers in Acts 1:8 where he says- … Continue reading Gospel Ripples
‘When you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols’ *** Western society is at an historical hinge point; that it is undergoing an unprecedented cultural shift of tectonic proportions; a society that is experiencing rapid and accelerating cultural change in which the only ‘certainty’ is ‘uncertainty’; one which … Continue reading Quantum Mission is Pagan Mission – and it Costs.
Recently, as I was travelling in a foreign land it began to rain. Not ordinary rain, but the heavy, heavy drops of the Monsoon. As I watched the rain fall, I was reminded of this article I wrote many years ago, one that now seems even more relevant in our times- *** We had rain … Continue reading God is Weeping Still
‘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 … Continue reading Once More We See the Stealing of Christmas
Unpalatable though it may be, and much as many seem to wish to ignore or deny it, the current local church paradigm in the West has not been for several decades, is not, nor can be made to be capable of achieving urgently needed trend-reversing missional goals
Recently a colleague in the United Kingdom contacted me because he had heard about my recently published book ‘Quantum Mission’. His name is Ben Taylor someone I have known for several years and worked with on a number of conferences and seminars in the UK. He oversees a disciple-making movement with the name of Mission … Continue reading Quantum Mission – An Interview
Every now and again something happens that can jolt us out of our entrapment in the busy-ness of our lives; lives that are self-focussed on mostly small things and worries many of which generally don’t come to pass. This can happen when some event or incident drags us into the reality of what is actually … Continue reading Hope and the Paradox of the Cross
“Something will turn up” Wilkins Micawber ****** Given the trajectory of the statistics on religious affiliation in Australia for several decades as revealed by the five-yearly ABS national census, it should come as a surprise to no one that the 2021 census results just released reveal yet again another plunge in the number of those … Continue reading How Long O Lord?
It has been said that ‘A pile of wood isn’t a fire if there are no flames’, and a theological expression of this was made by the famous Swiss theologian Emil Brunner who said that- “The Church exists by mission, just as a fire exists by burning.” So it is true, although many would like … Continue reading Piles of Wood or Fires
unbounded church 