backyardmissionary

While we were away this week the kids had a little bit of money to spend and 5 year old Sam decided to buy himself some ‘sea monkeys‘. I remember sea monkeys from when I was a kid. They used to advertise them in the Archie comics and I was always intriiged as to how [...]

In light of the previous couple of posts I pose a serious challenge.

Can anyone provide a compelling biblical argument for the existence of paid pastoral staff within a local congregation?
In the absence of a ‘biblical’ argument I will accept a pragmatic one (as I feel this is where the majority of our arguments may have [...]

I am taking a break from Viola and reading a biography of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers.
What a crazy coot!!!
If we thought we had the odd bit of biffo over church and mission then we really need to get some 17th C perspective!
Here’s a man who was so convinced of his divergent opinions [...]

I had my worst coffee ever today…
I was speaking at Como Baptist and decided to get there early and have a coffee nearby. I won’t name the venue… but its the closest cafe to the church…
There seemed to be a range of gourmet food on offer so I thought a coffee would be a prett [...]

Ok, so tomorrow morning we are off to Busselton for a week of holidays…
Anyone who lives around here will know that the next 7 days are known as ‘leavers’ or ’schoolies’ week and we have managed to land our holiday smack bang in the middle of it!
Fortunately our accomodation doesn’t allow for any school leavers [...]

Perhaps one of the most pivotal arguments from Frank Viola is that the introduction of the clergy has resulted in a caste system and has been central to the dysfunction of the church. Chapter 8 entitled ‘Re-imagining Leadership’ is worthy of a post on its own because of its incendiary nature.
Viola argues that we have [...]

A few weeks back I was sent a copy of Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church. It has sat in the ‘to do’ pile but lately I have picked it up and have been enjoying reading it. It has been written as a complement to Pagan Christianity - almost as if it were the ‘positive side’ of [...]

I once had a school student who refused to become a Christian because he believed that if he was ‘predestined then he would be saved anyway’… and he would have no say in the matter.
I have been pondering today that theology is quite a balancing act. To reconcile the sovereignty of God with human [...]

Life never goes quite where you expect.
As of last night I have a new ‘job’.
Over the last year or two I have preached occasionally at Quinns Baptist Church, a small community of people just down the road from us.
They are a good bunch and I have enjoyed being with them on those occasions. About 6 [...]

I was cheering for this bloke until I got to the final line of the story.
Jargon aside, it is a story that I imagine could well be true some time some where… He echoes many of the sentiments we struggle with and I hope one day this story will not be a satire…

Due to the stupid amount of spam this blog is generating I have installed a plug-in that close comments on posts more than 14 days old.
I figure most conversations are dead by then anyway - so if you happen to go to an old post and try to comment then you’ll understand now why its [...]

I watched this movie last night and found it quite compelling.
It is the story of a Bengali family living in London and the struggles they face with issues such as arranged marriages and assimilating into a new culture especially as Muslims during the 9/11 period.
The characters are well developed and believable and the story [...]

There are people after Jesus.
They have seen the signs.
Quick, let’s hide Him.
Let’s think; carpenter,
fishermen’s friend,
disturber of religious comfort.
Let’s award Him a degree in theology,
a purple cassock
and a position of respect.
They’ll never think of looking here.
Let’s think;
His dialect may betray Him,
His tongue is of the masses.
Let’s teach Him Latin
and seventeenth century English,
they’ll never think of listening [...]

The Joondalup Anaconda store has a climbing wall and Ellie and me went there today. We hadn’t had a ‘daddy & Ellie’ day for a little while so it was nice to do it again.
Here’s a pic of Ell - who loves to climb - making it to the top.

“He who would seek revenge should dig a grave for two.” Jewish proverb
This week I wrote a letter to the editor of the West Australian newspaper disagreeing with the opinions of another Christian.
His letter basically stated that the death penalty was the only appropriate punishment for the Bali bombers and that this would be ‘God’s [...]

Yesterday there was palpable glee in the Hamilton home as Danelle discovered that one of the City of Wanneroo’s free concerts this year was a Leo Sayer event held right here in Brighton.
I have known of this character flaw for some time now, but have chosen to ignore it.
There are many things I love about [...]

I am about half way thru Larry Crabb’s book Becoming a True Spiritual Community and finding it interesting but also a little puzzling.
It seems Crabb has almost done an about face on the value of counselling and other similar practices and now advocates ’spiritual friendship’ and ’spiritual direction’ in their place. If I read him [...]

Source

Yeeha! Sam has finally developed enough hand eye co-ordination to hit a tennis ball…
That is great news because up until now we spent most of our time chasing the ball behind the stumps and games of cricket got rather tedious.
He was having a blast yesterday morning so hopefully it will be the first of many [...]

When I turned 21 my birthday present from my parents was a top quality leather spalding basketball - the best one you could buy at the time.
I treated that ball like a baby and only ever used it on wooden floors and with the utmost care. Since moving from Lesmurdie, where I retired from veterans [...]