backyardmissionary

Yesterday I posted ‘the party’s over’ to let you know that things will be scaled down somewhat on this site.
As one who loves writing ‘the party’ is not completely over, as I will always want to slip my two bobs worth in on relevant issues. So its not the end of the road - […]

It seems we are not the only nutbags in the church!
Followng on the heels of the Brits, West Oz Anglicans are also considering some shifts in the way they do church. Here is an abbreviated version of what appeared in the West Australian today.
The newspaper version says they are seeking to create a ‘voluntary’ church […]

From here on in I imagine you will be hearing less from me on this site.
I have enjoyed the experience of sharing my thoughts and reflections for the last 9 months, but now that my various work commitments have increased I expect to have less time to spend waffling on here!
As a person who […]

Freedom… not to post…

Today I met up with the other pigs”
Confused?…
Let me explain - ever heard the analogy of what the pigs and chickens give to the breakfast table?
The chickens give eggs, but the pigs give their bacon. The chicken’s contribution isn’t costly to them much but the pigs are prepared to put their butts on the […]

Tonight I am at Darren’s place just relaxing after having had dinner with some of his church and then visited some other friends who are part of a cafe church. Its always good to meet the people you hear about. Darren and I have hooked up before, but I hadn’t met his wife or any […]

Recently I met with a leading theological college lecturer and I was sharing with him some of what we are doing in Brighton. He listened for a while and then said “it’s not that weird or different really - is it? It’s actually fairly simple and basic”” I completely agreed with him - it is […]

Don’t you love oxymorons?
Today I am off to Melbourne for a few days - one of the Oz cities I really do like - despite its weather!

Last week I was out at the local grocery shop and saw an add on the notice board for a boat that sounded too good to be true. (You may be aware that I bought a small dinghy - The Queen Mary - only 3 months ago)
I am always wary of these types of […]

Tomorrow will be a cruisy day but come Tuesday I head to Melbourne for 3 days to be part of the Forge national gathering - a meeting of the reps from the various states.
Darren will be putting me up - thanks mate! And I’ll be able to hang with his crew at Living room on […]

Today I had the opportunity to speak to the ‘Giraffe’ group, a bunch of young Lutheran Christians who spend a month in an intensive learning / camp situation.
I had just 15 minutes to speak to them about Forge / missional church and emerging ecclesiologies. The deal was that I get the quarter hour and then […]

I have really appreciated the thinking of Justin Baeder over the last few months. He asks some great questions and is willing to have a crack at giving an opinion - something it seems is a bit lacking in the em church scene at times.
This is a challenging post on the question of what makes […]

Yep…
Here
Link from Saint

Mick from across the street came over yesterday and told me he’d seen a ton of crays down at the local beach and that we ought to go grab a few.
Sounded like a good plan…
As we were working on his decking yesterday afternoon we planned it all out. License, catch bag, dive gear, mop heads, […]

Thank God for Sam!
That’s about all I can say otherwise middle earth would still be a shambles and we’d be coming back for part 4.
Frodo you were a bit of a disapointment mate. You get all the way to the end of the road and you can’t toss the ring!
Sam was the hero - […]

A few Forge conferences ago I listened to Mark Sayers provide an excellent overview of how the emerging church has emerged - so far…
It showed the various shifts in thinking that have happened so rapidly already and it helped me see the thought processes we have all been growing thru.
Here’s my summarised adaption of what […]

I’m not sure how accurate this is, but if it tells the truth then Danelle and I are in the top 0.839% of the wealthiest people in the world. That means 99.2% of the world is poorer than us…
That is very scary. Why doesn’t it feel like that? Why is enough never enough?
Link from Si.

Cricket - Australia v India
7 balls to go and we need 3 runs… For the last half hour we have needed more runs than there are balls…we have fallen behind…
Brett Lee is on strike and in the previous over he wasn’t able to even manage a score off three balls.
On that third last ball he […]

In the late 80’s and early 90’s I entered a few amateur triathlons and bought myself a state of the art racing bike… in state of the art colour… ultra flourescent pink with white trim.
We have made a choice to try and be a one car family this year which means I am currently ponderng […]

Yesterday Alan Hirsch sent thru a pdf file of chapter 1 of his book Shaping of Things to Come to be distributed to those who would like to check it out.
If you’d like to read one of the most significant em church books around then email me and I’ll send you a copy of the […]