backyardmissionary

Last night we went to the 40th birthday of my longest standing mate. Stu is the only person I have known since high school and am still close friends with.
In his card I wrote: ‘we can’t pull the chicks like we used to, we don’t catch big waves any more and your chances of […]

Its not intolerant to have strong beliefs and convictions that you share and advocate. Intolerance is when you refuse to allow another person to hold and advocate strong beliefs that are different from yours.

A few weeks back I made a few comments on ‘apostolic women’ or perhaps more broadly ‘pioneering leadership’ amongst women. They do seem to be a rare breed and part of the question is ‘why’? At the Forge national summit I was presenting a session on apostolic leadership that definitely had a blokey edge to […]

Some people laugh at my preference for old cars - but there is method in the madness
Yesterday while backing my boat into its parking bay, I inadvertently left the drivers door open and it caught on a tree branch, bending it out a little.
It meant that every time I opened it there was a loud […]

Danelle got back yesterday after 5 days up north at her’s grandmother’s funeral.
I have been looing after the kids all week as well as trying to get a reasonable amount of work done. Reality is I didn’t get much work done at all. With a 4 year old and 2 year old there is very […]

After the Forge paper of last week that is currently being re-written Steve has a podcast of an interview with Hirschy, commenting on that issue and the distinctions he sees between the different shape the so called ‘emerging church’ is taking around the world.
Also about to happen is a look at the future of the […]

Tonight a few of us went to see Mother Theresa (the movie) at the Picadilly. Thanks for the heads up Scott
She was one hell of a woman! In a recent post I was reflecting on apostolic women and what shape they take. I reckon she’s a great picture of that kind of woman. Driven by […]

I went back to have a loolk at the website of the bloke I quoted earlier and came across this article containing these words:
So “I call.” Are you discontented with the church today? Do you have complaints a mile long about how things are done wrong? Do you yearn for a new […]

I’m not much for these kinds of things, but I have found that people often ask me where I ‘fit on the enneagram.’ Generally I tend to forget… I have done this quiz a couple of times, but never make a note of it.
So here it is… as much for me as anyone else!
According to […]

Here’s a link to an article a mate sent to me today where the author reflects on baby boomer reluctance to accept the change that may come with an emerging generation or to embrace ‘change or die’ statements.
There are telling lessons in us for those of us re-imagining church and mission to hear at this […]

Tomorrow is going to be fun!
Danelle left today for Halls Creek/Fitzroy Crossing where her grandmother’s funeral will be held. I have the kids all week and tomorrow is their ’special day’. Ellie has been looking forward to this for two weeks now and counting the sleeps.
I love these days where we hang out all day […]

Scott is looking to run a very creative and challenging forum looking at Future Church.
The deal is that 16 people prepare 500 word papers on 8 key questions - for each question there is a person who will come from one angle and a person who will from a very different angle (not necessarily opposing […]

Today we had a great session with Darryn Altclass speaking of his work with Third Place Communities in Hobart.
Like John Jensen, Darryn spoke of the fact that people who are not Christians obviously don’t feel any need or desire to hang out in churches. Therefore we need to rethink the primary question we are […]

I was joking about the dog!
(Actually I was being sarcastic about the response that we sometimes offer to these issues. A few people didn’t pick my humour )

This weekend is our FORGE storyfest.
Last night the maverick John Jenson shared stories of life on the edge, mission amongst marginal groups and the priority of working towards real christian community.
I learnt some valuable stuff off John last night - particularly that people won’t see our love for each other if it always happens in […]

While the paper linked to below was intended to deal with Don Carson’s critique, the comments and emails that have been recieved would indicate a perception that Brian McClaren has been unfairly portrayed.
At least for the short term I have de-linked the paper in its current form and I’d ask that others who […]

This is a question I often get asked.
As we explore new forms of church what will happen to our kids?
What if there is no Sunday School or youth group? This morning I met with Scott who serves as my ministry coach and amongst many valuable things we discussed was this question of how we […]

Watching the news tonight it was encouraging to see the Steve Vizard and Rex Hunt stories.
Vizard gets caught for insider trading, coughs to it and apologises.
Hunt lets slip a racial slur during his commentary on Saturday. He not only apologises but offers to stop announcing.
In a world where people so often refuse to accept responsibility […]

Don Carson has certainly kicked up a bit of dust lately with his book Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church.
He is a significant biblical scholar and as such he adds weight to the number of people who critique the ‘emerging church’ for its approach to mission and church.
But is he on the money?
When you write […]

If Paul was a tent-maker then I wonder when he did it.
I was chatting with a good mate today about this. We concluded he obviously didn’t have a 9-5 job. He was able to flit around the country side getting whipped beaten and stoned while he preached the gospel, so he couldn’t have held […]