The Future is a ‘Fuzzy Collection of Probabilities’ ****** It’s a long time since I was at High School and a great deal about my time there I have forgotten. One thing, or rather person, I do remember however is one of my science teachers in years 11 and 12. He was a Welshman, … Continue reading Mission in a Future that Turns Up When You Get There
As the standard Sunday-Centric churches emerge from Covid 19 lockdown(s) and consider future directions, it may be a good time to engage in some health checks. Such exercises, to be really useful, must involve asking some tough, rigorous, and even ‘Inconvenient’ questions. One such ‘Inconvenient’ question I have written about previously (See here) is- ‘How … Continue reading Another Inconvenient Question – How Much to win a Soul
Often in recent years there have been reports of parents objecting to various supermarkets putting ‘Scary’ Halloween displays in their stores. These displays take various forms ranging from gravestone and skull decorations to ghoulish figures hanging from store ceilings. One parent is quoted as saying that they avoid taking their kids to stores in October … Continue reading Halloween-The Unholy Trinity and the New Paganism
“The current trajectory of our church is a huge mistake” George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury ****** Every now and then little ‘Chinks of Light’ appear in the generally gloomy Australian missional landscape in which, now for decades, successful ventures are a rarity. However, I started to get that ‘every now and … Continue reading Chinks of Light – Maybe
‘Janus - the Roman ‘god’ of beginnings . . transitions . . . and endings’ ****** Sadly, Covid-driven Lockdowns have now become familiar to most of us, and those who live on Australia’s eastern seabord are currently experiencing the ‘joy’ of them yet again. What has also become familiar is the corresponding shutdowns of normal … Continue reading Janus Tide – A Season of Opportunity
The Marquis De Sade in a conversation about God with the French Emperor Napoleon is reputed to have said ‘I have no need of that Hypothesis’. No doubt he would feel very much at home in our society in which most now live their lives, and certainly how the community organizes itself, with a similar … Continue reading Dysfunction- A Tale from God’s Casebook
The central thesis of the Unbounded Church missional strategy is that in order to reach the Lost in Australian society, Christians must abandon the standard decades old, low and declining fruit, Sunday-Centric, In-Drag, resource-consuming missional platform and go into the community and set up small Christian fellowships where the Lost regularly meet already. The slogan … Continue reading ‘Because We Were There’ – John’s Story
On a recent road trip from Sydney to Melbourne we pulled off the motorway to have a break on what is a very long drive. The place we stopped at was a small, quite undistinguished village with a number of houses, a community centre and a café. There was however one more significant building. This … Continue reading Has God Left the Building? An Hypothesis
‘It’s not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change’ Charles Darwin ****** This is the fifth in a series of posts on the topic of what I call the ‘Biggest Elephant’ in the ‘Mission Operations Room’, namely Church Leadership. In this series I have mentioned … Continue reading The Biggest Elephant 5 – Formulaic or Flexative
‘As much we may be convinced that a particular new form of structure will remedy existing deficiencies, there can be no guarantee that it will still be appropriate for the further changes in society yet to come. And such changes, no doubt beyond the range of present thinking, will most certainly occur.’ ****** There is … Continue reading When the Answer is Not a Square
