Monthly Archives: October 2006

Hirsch Blogs

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In the last day or so Alan Hirsch, Forge National Director has started a website and blog to discuss the thoughts of his latest book The Forgotten Ways. (You can pre-order the book from his home page)

There isn’t much content up at the moment, but just drop him a line and tell him to get a wriggle on and I’m sure he’ll start producing some gems.

I have been able to read the pre-release version of this book and it contains some brilliant stuff. If you interested in what it means to lead or participate in a missionary movement then its a ‘must read’.

Top 50 Books that Have Shaped Evangelicals

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This makes for an interesting read!

Good to see Newbigin there at 38 with The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society although how the Left Behind kid i the dvdrip download series snuck in ahead of him is beyond me!

The highest ranking book that I have read was Mere Christianity at no. 3 by CS Lewis.

Of the 50 listed I have read:

49.Knowledge of the Holy

48.The Hiding Place

46.Out of the Saltshaker and into the World

42.The Purpose-Driven Life

38.The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

34.This Present Darkness

33.The Late Great Planet Earth (hehe!)

32.The Cross and the Switchblade

28.The Act of Marriage

26.Know Why You Believe

25.Boundaries

21.The Master Plan of Evangelism

19.The Cost of Discipleship

18.The Divine Conspiracy

17.What’s So Amazing About Grace?

16.Basic Christianity

13.Evidence That Demands a Verdict

12.Power Evangelism

11.Celebration of Discipline

9.Through Gates of Splendor

7.Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

6.The Living Bible

5.Knowing God

3.Mere Christianity

Forge Talks

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I have just added two new audio sessions to the forgewa website.

On Sunday we had Darryn Altclass the director of Forge Tas and leader of ThirdPlace Communities blow in for a short time and I managed to get him to do a brief 30 minute presentation on their work in the pubs and clubs of Hobart. Its only a short intro but if you’re interested in incarnational mission then Daz is well worth listening to. He describes their work in about 10 minutes and then fields questions. Go to the forgewa site to access the talk.

I have also added my own session on contextualisation and the challenges posed to us here in the suburbia. To me it always feels easier to think like a missionary in a different culture, but here at home its difficult to distinguish what is cultural and what is gospel. Its called ‘Beyond the Horizon – C1-C6 in Suburbia’. The last 10 minutes got chopped off because the recorder was full, but you’ll get the idea if you listen to the first part of it!

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Shared Office Space

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One of the interesting things about using a cafe for an office is you never know who will also be there.

The last two days I have shared it with the mafia. The two biggest names in organised crime around Perth seem to have warmed to my little place.

Maybe I can find a solution to the laptop drama after all…

3 Decent Books!

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I have re/read a few beauties lately. I find reading a good book twice is a valuable practice as you see so much more the second time around.

While on holidays I re-read HughMackay’s Winter Close, the story of a street in Sydney and how the neighbours interact, as told thru the eyes of Tom one of the residents. Mackay is great in that he really pays attention to how relationships form in suburbia and the different ways we see one another. He writes a lot about ‘intimacy’ and the fact that it is a rare commodity in the burbs. If you’re serious about mission in suburbia then this is a book you must read.

After that I got stuck into Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan, an old classic that I was also reading for the second time. (Yes – it is yours Phil and I loved it so much I have ordered my own off Amazon!) Its the true story of a Roman Catholic missionary who went to the Masai people. The book begins with the missionary lamenting the fact that despite many hospitals, schools and community development initiatives they haven’t seen too many folks convert to Christianity.

He decides that maybe it would be easiest if he just goes and tells them about Jesus… (how novel) so he does and the results are often very positive. The real rub of the book comes in the way he goes about entrusting the churches to the new believers and allowing them to indigenize the gospel. For anyone exploring issues of contextualisation this is a great read.

And finally I have just finished Dave Goetz’s Death by Suburb. Its not a hard read at all, but it does contain some gems on how we ought to live in the burbs and remain faithful followers of Jesus. I have recommended that as a team we work thru it in the new year as I believe it will spark a lot of great discussion. Goetz identifies what he calls 8 environmental toxins in the burbs and recommends 8 spiritual practices to overcome these. It is simple and by no means an indepth exploration of suburban discipleship, but its a book that busy suburbanites might actually read!

I think my brain and my laptop are linked

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You may have notice that I have had very little to say these past few weeks.

I seem to ‘think better’ on a laptop.

I also think better in my study than I do in the kid’s playroom. Well I have solved the location issue. Thanks to a monitor from Grendel and a desktop from another Brighton local I now have a computer in my study. But the laptop is yet to arrive…

Digging thru this guy’s feedback it would seem other have had issues with his delivery time, something I didn’t see first up. He is now offering ‘incentives’ not to leave negative feedback, but I’m not sure I should listen to him.

Should I give him a green ‘+’ if he gives me a free battery or extra ram?

Or should I warn others that he has absolutely no sense of organisation and that they should expect to wait a stupidly long time? I believe the laptop is actually coming.

What would you do?…

In the meantime I will tonk along on the aging PIII desktop – that is actually running very nicely!fried green tomatoes divx movie online

forgewa.org.au is finally up!

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I have been an angry man the last two weeks because I developed a website for Forge WA but couldn’t get it online.

For some reason the mob I was hosting with wouldn’t send me a password to login with and no one would respond to emails or support tickets. After two weeks of trying each day I got very VERY pissed with them.

I eventually had to change hosts to get the thing up. I still don’t know what the score is. They have my money and I have bugger all in return so I will kindly suggest to my friends that you do not host with Connected Hosting, unless you have money to flush down the toilet.

However the local Forge Wa site is up and almost ready to go. So yeeha!!

I will be updating it regularly so if you have any news you feel belongs on there then drop me an email.