I have just got back from spending Saturday with the NCCC church plant team, sharing some of our learning from the first twelve months in

Brighton

and hearing the journey they have been on. It was a great to meet the guys who will be the missional team in

South Morang

and to be part of their first ever team meeting. We have a lot in common as missionaries to middle Australian suburbia so it will be really good to learn from each other as we go.

At the end of the day Nigel, (the team leader) started his own blog and you can tune into their story a bit more over here. They are a fantastic bunch of people so drop over and tune into their story.

Then today I was with the Forge National team sharing learning from the last 6 months, praying, discussing and dreaming our way into the future. There was a great sense of synergy and the holy spirit at work as we met. It seems that all of us have been arriving at the conclusion somewhat independently that the primary objective of Forge is simply to train first world missionaries who will take seriously the task of creating genuine disciples of Jesus Christs.

We are not primarily a church planting organisation, rather we are a mission training network, seeking to develop people who will be fit for the task of mission in this environment. Of course because we believe church flows out of mission we will be training people in sound biblical ecclesiology so that they are able to develop indigenous communities that are both true to scripture and true to culture.

At the end of the day we had a bloggers meet up for dinner at an Indian restaurant in Northcote before heading out to the airport. Present were Phil & Dan, Darren, LT, Paul, Luke and myself. Again it was great to put faces to the names and stories that I have been engaged with for quite a while.

However as with most short trips I make east I tried to keep my body on

Perth

time, which (with daylight saving) means the equivalent of 4.30am starts each day. So today I am hammered” The Greek family next door to Nigel’s place  decided to party last night and partied loud and hard” They finished around 5.00am. I think I slept a short while in there.

In a perfect world I’d take tomorrow off and relax.

It’s not a perfect world though – its frantic February – so I’ll be rolling along like a mad dog for a few weeks yet.