backyardmissionary

Today did not go as planned.
It was intended to be a solitude / prayer / reflection kind of day - the kind of day that would have made a Thomas Merton proud.
Danelle and I do these together (in fact we would like to do it with other couples if any are up for it) […]

This year Danelle and I have set aside 5 days as ‘prayer retreats’, days when we simply leave the kids with mum and dad and head off to spend a day in prayer and reflection.
A luxury?
So some have said to me.
I prefer to think of it as a necessity - a part of my ‘job’ […]

We had a great team retreat on the weekend just gone.
One of the highlights was staying at the Lancelin backpackers with all the travellers and tourists. On sunday night one of the long term travellers - an italian pizza cook - put on an all you can eat pizza night for a mere $7.00 a […]

Today I had time to read the discussion taking place at Phil Baker’s blog on the issue of tithing.
Allan Meyer has argued his case in favour of tithing over the last few days and others have responded both agreeing and disagreeing.
You might like to check it out. Its a long read and the arguments get […]

I have got the test version of our Upstream website up and running.
It is not intended to be highly interactive, but more of an info base for those wishing to know more.
I’d value any comments from you guys.
Does it make sense?
Does it sound like us?
What works?
What doesn’t?
Thanks…

We are in a process of re-orientation (yet again) with our Upstream community.
The great thing about constant shifts in direction is that no-one can complain that we ‘change’ too often - change is a way of being for us and a ‘given’. To ‘change’ would be to stay in one place / do the […]

After getting back from a couple of very full days in Melbourne I looked in my diary only to see I had for some reason booked in 6 meetings for Thursday…
Very dumb.
Fortunately my first appointment failed to show (I have discovered that I need to build in a 1/5 ‘no show/forget’ rate in coaching) and […]

Well…
3 days at a pastor’s retreat last week, three days in Melbourne this week and a mission team retreat this long weekend all makes for a fairly unsettled patch of life.
Add to that relatives coming to stay over the next two weeks (10 at various different points) - and the possibilities of change don’t look […]

A group of us did a boatsmart course today, so now I (technically) know how to operate a boat…
It was a beautiful day out on the river cruising between Nedlands and Fremantle. I almost fell asleep while Steve was driving, but that could have been the fumes from the 2 stroke motor!
With all the sun, […]

Tomorrow I go to Melbourne for our Forge National Team meetings.
In light of the AFL grand final about to happen this weekend, between Sydney and West Coast, I wonder what I could get for my ticket?…
Any bids

I know…
Its not like me to have 4 days with nothing to say!
But I have actually been working on some other projects and been less focused here. I have been developing a website for Upstream and tinkering with design. I am a fussy bugger when it comes to design so I tend to tinker and […]

Tomorrow I am off for three days to a pastor’s conference where we (Baptist pastors) will join with the Church of Christ guys for a few days.
Danelle was coming, but last week we decided it might be better if she opted out as it’d mean more time away from the kids.
So all will be […]

Last Sunday it was father’s day so we went to my parent’s church where they were having communion.
I began thinking that as Ellie has told us many times she loves Jesus, it seems like the right thing to do to let her take it with us. Obviously Danelle was thinking the same because as they […]

I was talking to a friend the other day when I said ‘I reckon a good metaphor for what I was doing in the established church is that of spinning plates - getting things going and then continually going back to keep the plates spinning.’
The metaphor that came to mind for the emerging missional scene […]

A few weeks ago Dean from Whitford Church rang to let us know that they would no longer be running the bread distribution service from Quinns Rock and offered us the opportunity to do it out of Brighton.

Peter & Jenny Robins grabbed the initiative and tonight was the first evening that bread was given out […]

There are some interesting posts over at Signposts where Geoff Bullock has had some re-writes of some of his most popular songs posted by Phil & Dan.
The songs look almost the same but have some significant differences in flavour. Its amazing what a few knocks can do for your image of God. Geoff is engaged […]

Its pretty hard to find a white face amongst the images of ‘refugees’ in New Orleans.
I’m wondering what that says.