Monthly Archives: July 2006

Reading Group

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For lovers of NT Wright, Justin is starting a reading group.

See below for details and contact Justin if you want to get in on it.

If you would like to participate, please order the book (you can get it

here) and email justin dot baeder at gmail dot com to indicate your participation. We will be blogging and so forth at Urban Monastery.

I will post a reading schedule, and we can figure out ways to share the reading together via blogs, Skype, and face-to-face gatherings.

If you would like to participate but can’t afford the book (US$23 on Amazon), let me know. I can buy two people copies if they have the need and agree to participate fully.

If you’d like to learn more about N.T. Wright, you can read many of his articles and hear some sermons at the fansite (yes, a theologian with a

fansite) ntwrightpage.com.

Via Radical Congruency.

Forge Notes

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If you came here looking for Forge Intensive notes then there has been a change of plans!

Because some of Hirschy’s stuff is part of his new book (to come out in Jan) he’d rather not make it available on the web at this stage. My session from today on mission in suburbia is also some stuff I’ll be writing on soon so I might wait till then to put it out in a wider forum.

But if you were there and would like the notes just email me on hamo at forge dot org dot au and you can have the lot!

Finally

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I’ve been messing around with the Upstream

download creep dvdrip site this week, but I think its finally up to speed.

Constructing a web-site is a great exercise in trying to describe who you are to the whole world in a way that is true and understandable. It really makes you think thru who you are and what you are doing. I’d recommend it to anyone as an exercise in clarity!

I’ve added some links about distinctives, un-distinctives

and core practices.

We have recently begun meeting in small groups of 2-4 to help us get focused on becoming the disciples we would like to be and to encourage each other in our core practices.

Why Jesus couldn’t be a Southern Baptist

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Here watch borat cultural learnings of america for make benefit glorious nation of kazakhstan in divx

I remember this same debate taking place at my church when I was only 18.

The ‘rules’ were that if you wanted to be a church member you weren’t allowed to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. I didn’t do either of those things so I didn’t make any argument.

However a few of my older friends/mentors took it right up to the super-fundy powerbrokers and went head to head on the issue.

Eventually it was removed from the requirements of membership.

I was surprised at the vehemence with which my older friends went after this issue, but with the benefit of a few more years I am now able to see the significance of it.

We all have our denominational idiosyncrasies, but I just wonder what Jesus would say to the Southern Baptist about this decision…

Forging on

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This weekend is our mid year Forge intensive focused on Discipleship, Spirituality and Sustainability in a Mission Context.

I’ll be doing a session entitled Swimming Upstream – Making Disciples in a Consumer Culture. Its one I’ve done a number of times before, but it still evokes a heap of passion from me as it cuts to the nub of what we are about. If we aren’t making disciples then we really are just wasting our time.

I am not the least interested in funky church services or any of the fairy floss that is supposed to be important to a 21st C church, but I am deeply concerned with how we move from a self focused life to a Christ & other focused life.

The more I think about it the more pessimistic I become.

Discipleship as Jesus describes it is both exciting and disturbing. It is the surrender of my life and my will to his in the belief that he will guide me in a way to live that is true to who I am called to be.

And in that there are no promised of happiness, prosperity or good times. There are promises of suffering and persecution… and yet somehow our take on following Jesus rarely includes those fairly significant elements.

As much as I have done this talk several times it still evokes a lot of energy from me because it is at the centre of what we are all about – swimming upstream.

If you’re interested in seeing what’s going down over the weekend then you can download the program here. Or if you want to have a look at my session you can download the pdf notes of the powerpoint here

download dead zone the dvdrip

Do you know me?…

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Ok, on a lighter note, a friend sent me this the other day and I thought it would be fun to see how well people think they know me thru this blog.

So if you’re up for it click the link and then have a go!

You might even discover some stuff you didn’t know…

Don’t worry if you don’t score too well – I actually got number 10 wrong myself!

The correct answer is in the comments…

What’s a Paedophile to do?

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Would you let a paedophile live in your street?

It seems everywhere you go the answer is ‘absolutely not’. They can live wherever they like but not here. You don’t have to be too bright to figure out if everyone says that then there is nowhere left to live…

While these guys may be hanging off the bottom rung of the ladder in terms of social leprosy they are still people and they need to live somewhere. Every time one is released back into society there is uproar, harrassment and attempts to remove them from their place of residence.

I think we need to find a better solution to this problem.

I realise some are unrepentant and some are always going to re-offend, but maybe some need a fair crack at starting over. I can’t see them getting that. In fact Ican see them saying ‘bugger it… what’s to gain by doing the right thing?’

Would I have one in my street?…

We have about 20 kids live in our tiny street so I think it would be plain unwise, but in different circumstances I’d probably be willing to consider it. I’d certainly be keeping a close eye on my own kids and doing some serious instruction, but somewhere someone’s got to give them a fair go, reach out to them and try and help them start over.

Every situation needs to be treated on its own merits, but I am feeling we need to find some answers…