backyardmissionary

When I got back from holidays recently over half of my email was spam. Frustrating…
For the last two weeks I have been experimenting with different spam programs trying to find a suitable solution. None of them have grabbed me enough to spend my hard earned cash on.
Then I had an idea…
I have a g-mail account […]

Grendel, Ian and I had planned to go to the river today, but as the breeze was quite moderate this morning we figured we’ve save the drive time and hit the ocean.
Funnily enough as we left the marina it kicked up again and got nice and choppy!
Anyway, we anchored inside the first reef out […]

Ok… here they are folks my top 5 reads for 2005… My favourite ‘most read’ blogs:
At No.1 No Guarantees - Scott Vawser - fellow coach to youth pastors and also my own ministry/life coach. I like Scott as a bloke so naturally I enjoy reading his stuff. He is also on a very similar trajectory […]

Matt, a Baptist youth pastor in Victoria and fellow Forge fellow asks this question on his blog. Some interesting debate here.

I am a bit over the ‘incarnational / attractional debate’ and find myself yawning most days when it is raised, however this article highlights the dangers of simply doing whatever it takes to pull a crowd. If the aim of the game is to get more punters in the house on Sunday then why not […]

I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Its the holiday you have when you’re not on holidays!
So few people are at work that its pointless trying to function as normal, so this week has been a ‘hanging with friends week’.
We spent Monday in the park with local Brighton friends, Tuesday out on the […]

Today we went to the zoo and then on the way home I had Danelle drop me around 20 kms from home so I could cycle the rest.
I was pretty buggered from walking round the zoo all day, but the beauty of the ride home was that the wind was at my back the whole […]

As a migrant from the northern hemisphere the hot Aussie Christmas has always felt a bit incongruous!

This year we haven’t that problem much though. Today’s 27 C is about the hottest its been in the last month.
Wherever you are thanks for taking the time to stop by and read and may you enjoy the […]

This was what I wrote as a ‘Christmas thought’ for our local Brighton newspaper:
Last Christmas I sat and watched my kids while they unwrapped their presents. As they opened each gift in turn it seemed their focus was simply on getting that one out of the way so they could see what was in the […]

It was great to catch up with Glen and Lara Goss and family yesterday.
These guys are coming back to Oz in two years time to plant a church somewhere in the burbs, but for now are working and living in Atlanta. They are mates of Justin’s after being involved with their community recently - small […]

I am looking very seriously at ditching the landline in favour of a VOIP service. With cable internet we are not at all bound to Telstra so $9.95 / mth sounds a hell of a lot nicer than $100.00.
My concern is for line quality but I reckon its an experiment worth trying!
This mob look […]

Thanks to Scott for this great quote from a great man!

“…These missionary experiments have until recently left untouched the position of the local congregation as the definitive form of the church, the place where the word is preached, the sacraments dispensed, and Godly discipline administered. These other activities have been seen as rather unecclesiastical or […]

Mark Wilson sent me a text today letting me know the local Whitford Church have had a fairly significant write up in Australian newspaper.

A very positive article indeed.
The Australian has been giving Christianity a bit of airtime lately. Last week’s ‘Cool to be Christian’ article was interesting (even if the idea did make […]

Dog sleeping at Indijup carpark!

Where would you like to be today?…

Tonight at our Upstream meeting we each have to share something of significance to us , in regard to the Christmas story. Today I was spending some time reading and reflecting on Mary - just an ordinary girl who God chose as the mother of his son. What was it like for Mary?…
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That’s all I have to say about that…

In between distractions (see photo!) I have spent much of today developing a short 5 minute talk to give at our local carols evening this Saturday night. As I browsed back over my carol’s talks from my church days I realised how unsuitable much of that stuff is for this context.

When you put on […]

Its that post-holiday feeling.
So many things to do… so little motivation.

Holiday world is great but sooner or later you have to come back to real life.
I am hitting the ground slowly.
The time away consisted of 5 days of holiday followed by 6 days of work and then another 5 of holiday. It was nice, but if you live in WA you’d know its been one […]