Shaped by our communities

I was reading a post called Ecclesial Dreamer on the Money over at Backyard Missionary earlier today and they are having a great discussion about issues such as what makes a ‘good’ church and why churches should be counter cultural, but what really caught my eye was a comment about how our communities shape us.
Hamo [...]

Whose standards do we seek to hold each other to?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that people are at different points in their journey towards Jesus. Even people I have similar values to will make different decisions to me at times. But I have noticed a tendency for us to be frustrated when people don’t meet the standards we have for ourselves.
I [...]

Australian’s losing their religion? No kidding.

Rodney Olsen has been posting about Australian’s leaving church.
Losing my religion
Australians are walking out of churches and getting on with life without God.
Figures from last year’s census have been released today and accroding to this article from News.com.au Aussies are losing their religion.
    The figures, released today, revealed that 3,706,557 Australians - or 19 [...]

Missional Jesus 3

Continuing the Missional Jesus series from Jesus Creed.
Missional Jesus 3
With Mary and John Baptist now watching from the sideline (as it were), Jesus becomes the center stage as we work our way through the themes connected to Missional Jesus.
No better place to begin that Luke 4:16-30.
1. Missional Jesus publicly announces the centrality of himself to [...]

The order of missiology and ecclesiology

One of the key changes in my thinking over the past few years has been how I have understood missiology and ecclesiology, particularly in regards to how they should relate to each other. Of course I didn’t begin to think about them in those terms, earlier on the issue was more simply described as ‘what [...]

‘House’ and ‘church’

Kate over at Born to Kneel has written this great post about a recent night at our community here in Preston.
When we arrive at ‘church’ in a Preston lounge room on Wednesday night, the minister greets us with a kiss, passes us a hymn book and Bible, and we settle quietly in the pews to [...]

The People Formerly Known As …

There’s been a series of posts developing since late March that I’ve been trying to follow. They represent a range of perspectives and views on the growing sense of discontent with the established/traditional/institutional/christendom model of church. I’ve posted them and some highlights I found interesting below because I found these posts to be a helpful [...]

Are Australians really searching for meaning in our churches?

I’ve just been reading this article online while I watch the cricket and I have to say that it’s disturbing me.
Australians searching for meaning: churches
    * April 08, 2007
A NEW search for meaning in the modern world has been the catalyst for bumper attendances at Easter church services in Melbourne, church leaders said today.
More [...]

Mission Shaped vs Mission Flavoured

Found this article by a guy called Ken Morgan a while ago. I’ve been meaning to post it for ages.
I like this article because it helpfully pushes us to think about what mission shaped churches are really about. As with any idea that increases in popularity there will be lots of people who jump on [...]

Church Definition from Webber

While working on yet another essay last night I read this great quote in ‘the Younger Evangelicals’ by Robert Webber. Thought I’d share it with you.
The church is where the Spirit of God is forming a people who are the expression of God’s redeeming work in the world. They are the people in whom the [...]