“Is it not time to stop trying to fix the broken bike and look for another form of transport?” This is a quote from letter to the editor of a Church Newspaper a few years ago that I have used in a number of documents because I think it is a useful analogy for one … Continue reading It’s Buses and Bus Drivers We Need Not Bikes!
In our house I am surrounded by Leggo. This is a result of having a family, now of several generations, who are Leggo fanatics. I reckon you name it and we can make a Leggo model of it! As the family gathered over the most recent Christmas it looked at times like it was the … Continue reading Time For Leggo!
John Stott the famous evangelical preacher used to say that when preparing sermons it is necessary to hold the bible in the one hand and the newspaper in the other. His point was that the Christian message is not to be taught or proclaimed in a cultural vacuum. Rather the receiving culture, while not changing … Continue reading ‘Cultural Intelligence’ – Understanding the Times
I do quite a lot of driving, both in Australia and overseas. Often the journey is to places where I have never been before, and so I am unfamiliar with the route, the types of roads I will be travelling on or what traffic conditions, accidents or roadwork delays I might face. So on these … Continue reading Real Time Guidance on Mission Highway
Rarely but occasionally, one experiences what I call a “My Fair Lady” (MFL) moment. If you have seen the movie, it’s the moment when Rex Harrison, who has been labouring hard to teach ‘proper speak’ to Eliza Doolittle a Cockney flower girl, finally cries out “By George, she’s got it”. It’s the moment a teacher … Continue reading My Fair Lady Moments- A Rarity!
Prayer is, or should be, an everyday practice for Christians. It is our communication channel with God as well as being one of the essential disciplines for spiritual growth and health. The Bible exhorts us to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), but that always raises the question of how does God answer prayer? One … Continue reading Mission Failure and God’s No
Most of us have at some time or other had a problem with a salt shaker. You know the time when at dinner you go to sprinkle some salt on your meal and nothing comes out. This is not because there is no salt in the saltshaker, it could even be full, but because the … Continue reading Unblocking the Salt Shaker
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian population is growing at the rate of 1.5% per year, whereas church attendance is in significant decline. It is true that in some areas (e.g. the Anglican Diocese of Sydney) attendance is so far keeping pace with population growth, however, this is mostly due to what … Continue reading Multiplication is a Many Splendoured Thing
A few years ago, 2008 to be precise, as part of a paper I was writing at the time, I carried out a small survey in regard to the level of passion in congregations in regard to reaching the community with the gospel. The format was that I asked a number of Senior Ministers to … Continue reading The Dead Hand of Apathy
I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who is reputed to have said “I went to church today and for once was not depressed!” My recent experiences have sadly not been so positive! To quote the home page of this site- “Unbounded Church is an idea – The idea that the church needs to be … Continue reading A Great Leap Forwards – Into the Nineties!
unbounded church 