backyardmissionary

Grendel who is a regular commenter here and a good mate of mine from Brighton sent me this article today entitled The Challenge of Building Community.
It is a more sociological approach to the dynamics of different sized groups and how humans function, but its got some great stuff to say. Here are a […]

Just watch this and imagine yourself pulling in… if you dare

But this is very funny…
Door to Door Spam

And just for fun Scott has uploaded the .acom promo video to his site.
Its a lot of fun and yes it stars Mr No Gaurantees himself as Pastor Buck puppeteer and script writer extraordinaire.

Ryan Bolger who blogs here and has co-authored Emerging Churches with Eddie Gibbs has particpated in an interview that tries to articulate the landscape for youth ministry in experimental churches. (You may have noticed that lately I have been using ‘experimental churches’ in place of the now overused and muddled term ‘emerging church’)
You can read […]

The last couple of times I have been to a normal church they have had communion. I grew up in the era when kids weren’t allowed to take it because” well” I’m not sure entirely why, but I think it was something to do with the fact that it was ‘important’ and we were just […]

Is it the job of a leader to motivate people?…
That’s a question I am chewing on at the moment and would be interested in your reflections.
If you’d asked me 5 years ago I would have said ‘absolutely’ - that it’s a primary task of leadership to be a driving force and to motivate people […]

I am thinking of starting a blog dedicated to my other love - surfing… It seems there aren’t too many out there, but most of the more obvious domain names have been taken.
So just for fun I have been pondering possible domain names…
Here are some of my options. Let me know what you would choose!
drilledagain.com
ratherbesurfing.com
ratherbesurfin.com
thicklipsdeeppits.com
bignurries.com
thesurfnazi.com
latetakeoff.com
swell-lines.com
greenroomblog.com
6ftoffshorenooneout.com
surfarizone.com
If […]

Phil Bryant from our denomination sent thru an article from yesterday’s Yorkshire Post that questions whether young people are even concerned about the spiritual. Here is the whole article (couldn’t find it online) with some relevant parts highlighted.
What do you reckon?
Is this a fair take on Gen Ys?
[…]

I was chatting with fellow misho Scott this morning about the ‘drop in’.
You know - where rather than calling a friend and asking if you can come by, or waiting for an invite, you just drop in at their home… and hang out. Have coffee - chat - watch the footy etc.
I listened to […]

September 6th should be an interesting day…
Don Carson, author of the now infamous Becoming Conversant with The Emerging Church will be in town and will be speaking in various places.
One of those gigs will be a conversation with myself and my friend/forge co-worker Geoff Westlake about the emerging church. The Baptist College will be […]

This afternoon we got back from 9 days in the south west, catching up with youth pastors and also having something of a break.

Here’s a pic of the slowest moving creature known to mankind. Sam is never in a hurry to get anywhere. He could take 5 minutes to slowly crawl his way into the […]

Last night it was standing room only at the Premier Hotel in Albany for the long awaited stoush between Anthony Mundine and Danny Green.

The Premier was the only place in the whole town showing the fight so it was packed to the gills. Standing in a crowded smoky room, full of drunken, sweaty fight […]

Well, here we are in Albany, one of my favourite places. I have been re-reading the Turning, much of which is set here, so its nice to be in the thick of it. It’s also amazing how much you miss in a novel when you read it just once. I tend to read quickly so […]

Leave him with his mum for an hour and this is what happens…

I dunno… Don’t women know that the world is not your toilet?

Watched American Beauty again last night at the place we are staying.
Love the blend of weird characters! But… are they so weird? Are they actually just the people who live around us? Are they us?…
Lester says “Both my wife and daughter think I’m this gigantic loser, and ? they’re right. I have lost something. I’m […]

At lunch-time today all four of us head off for a work trip to the south of Western Oz.
I will be meeting up with and coaching youth pastors. Danelle and the kids will be relaxing and having a break. We’ll be going to Mandurah, Busselton, Albany and Katanning and saying ‘g’day’ to people as we […]

Our second intensive for the year is approaching fast and we’d love to have you there!
The Forge Mission Training Network is the unique provider of innovative and ground breaking training for those who are seeking to take an incarnational approach to mission in contemporary Australian society.
Forge intensives are times of inspirational story telling, radical […]

There are a few books that really turn a crank in you as you read them they .
For me this is one of them.
Its not rocket science. Its not a weighty theological text or a list of how tos. Its actually a very simple explanation of what church is and why we must keep it […]

This is great for a chuckle!
Hank from King of the Hill goes to a megachurch.

You have to watch it and laugh - even if you are a megachurch pastor!