backyardmissionary

We have just finished building an investment home and are about to sell it.
I have spent some time over the last few days shovelling dirt around the place to get the levels right for brick paving, so I know where every pile of dirt is on that block now! The guy in the house […]

Its sad to say but in recent years it has become quite fashionable to focus on the place of the poor and marginalised in our society - well to talk about it - because the hard cold reality is much different to the romantic notions.
In the last 10 years the ’social gospel’ as […]

It is our dinner time custom to read a short Bible story with the kids.
Last night we read that bizarre little passage about Jesus having to pay temple tax and sending Peter out to go fishing, telling him that he would find a coin in the fish’s mouth. (That’s gotta be one of the […]

Its about time someone drew a line in the sand!

Freo have taken the big step of dropping Antoni Grover, Steven Dodd, Brett Peake, Paul Hasleby, Des Headland and Dean Solomon for missing training or being out on the turps. It is in effect sacrificing any slim opportunity of making the finals because their chances of […]

 
Guest in the backyard: Jarrod McKenna

Can we separate living the gospel from sharing it? Evangelism from the invitation to follow Jesus?
Last night I arrived back from a country tour with ‘Empowering Peacemakers’ (or EPYC) inviting High School students to forsake lives wasteful consumption and dare lose their themselves in lives of compassion on behalf of […]

Last week a friend in our suburb told me that he had earnt $5400.00 in his new job. For most of us that’s a reasonable monthly salary, but he had achieved it in just one week as an unskilled worker. I have to admit I was a little impressed.
However as I dug a little […]

 
 Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi: “May it not be that ‘Go ye unto all the world’ message has been somewhat narrowly interpreted and the spirit of it missed? It will not be denied, I speak from experience, that many of the conversions are only so-called. In some cases, the appeal has gone not to the […]

Phil McCredden and Brad Flynn did a great job last week!
You can listen to their presentations here. For those seeking to express church differently, but operating from within the structure this will give you hope.
I hope…

That’s right fellas - we all knew that anyway didn’t we…
I was pondering yesterday what the ideal size would be for a church.
My raw thoughts:
If there are a couple of thousand of you then you can do some incredible stuff with the resources you have. You can run quality programs, administrate well and deliver services […]

It has been interesting watching a suburb develop and struggle to cope with the growing population and the inevitable social problems that accompany it.
There are 2700 homes in Brighton and around 5000 people, 2 primary schools, (one with 700 kids) and no high schools. The community facilities are currently limited to two small rooms […]

In so many ways…
I don’t know whether I feel sadness, shame, anger or all 3… This is ‘fuel for the fire’ for those who question the ethics of church life and the professionalisation of Christian ministry. Its one of the more bizzare stories I have come across where you wonder ‘is anyone home in there?!’
Via […]

I think the name sums it up quite well.
Facebook was kinda weird and invasive, but now TWIT-er is a site where I can update you on whatever I am doing throughout the day, no matter how inane it may be. Just imagine…
reading the paper…
watching the footy…
doing the dishes…
taking a wizz…
picking up dog turds…
emptying the dishwasher
Does […]

I was having a coffee with Rory a few weeks back and he made an observation that has been really helpful to me in framing up what we believe we are called to do as Upstream Communities and in a broader sense with Forge as we train missionaries for the western world.
He was asking me […]

In today’s West Australian residents of Butler were listed as one of the two suburbs most likely to be suffering from ‘mortgage stress’ with 33.9% of their income being used on simply paying off the housing loan.
Housing affordability in Perth is at critical levels with the average home cost being around $480 000.00, well beyond […]

There is an interesting art exhibition on in Perth at the moment exploring the religious aspects of football in Oz culture. Here is one image from the exhibit.
Its just begging for a comment…

It will be great! More info here

I have discovered that I need to get some business cards and was exploring some online options, one being these guys.
I couldn’t see on their website if they post to Australia, so I thought I’d call. The conversation went like this:
Dan: ‘Hi my name is Dan. What is your first and last name?’
Hamo: Odd way […]

Guest in the backyard: Jarrod McKenna
A big influence on me, Lesslie Newbigin, once commented “trying to criticize ones own culture is like trying to push a bus while you are sitting in it.”
One of the reasons my new coffee coach’s (talking about you Grendel!) comments are often more penetrating than others is that he’s not […]

Well, after losing my youth pastor coaching job I had a few weeks where I just didn’t have enough work.
I actually got a bit bored (I never get bored) and went as far as re-enlisting to teach. The amount of red tape and nonsense you need to go thru to get back on the books […]