Olympic Dreams

Watching the Olympics these last few days I’ve been struck by how much our culture idolises athletes and sporting acheivement. I’m as keen on sport as the next guy but I’m wondering if this is one of our cultural blind spots.
Surely issues of justice are raised when we spend millions (maybe billions?) on the [...]

Life and Lives

I’d like to preface this post by saying that I’m not looking for a fight on the abortion issue. I’m not seeking to demonise anyone who is pro abortion or support anyone who is anti abortion. I’m just using this space to reflect and think out loud about my own journey with the issue in [...]

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 [...]

Hospitangelism

We were chatting the other night at Loam about hospitality. Kate ran the night and has also written this great article that is well worth a read. During the discussion we of course covered many topics and as we did my mind kept flicking over to the role of hospitality in evangelism. I was struck [...]

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 [...]

The pain and privilege of making yourself vulnerable

I’ve become convinced that if you want to powerfully show love to someone the way Jesus did then you need make yourself vulnerable. In fact I think there is a direct relationship between how vulnerable you make yourself and the impact of your actions. People notice (sometimes not consciously, but at a deeper level) when [...]

A working faith is a mess

I’ve decide that a working faith is a mess.
I’m a guy who likes things to be organised. I like my ducks to be in a line, but I’ve realised that if I want to follow Jesus then I’m going to have to get over this. The path of following Jesus is messy, but that’s no [...]

Send Cash?

Fantastic post from Sam Metcalf over at UnderTheIceberg. This makes a lot of sense to me, he seems to spell out my experience of many wealthier churches who seek to engage with mission.
Dangling money in front of desparately poor people is very hazardous. it is generally safer and more effective to send loving workers [...]

I don’t want more Christians

I don’t want more Christians - I want more people around like Jesus.
Mission is not about getting more people to sign up to be in our club. It is about recognising the greatness of Jesus, seeking to be like him yourself and encouraging others to do the same. It’s the about of the kingdom of [...]

A leader is …

A whole bunch of quotes from the first chapter of LeadershipNext called Redefining Leadership, not surprisingly these quotes are focussed around defining leaders and leadership. I should point out that they are not quotes directly from the author, they are mostly quotes in the book also.
A Christian leader is a person with a God-given capacity [...]