Today I went to be part of the ‘Pastors’ feast’ at Riverview church and have to say it was a sensational day. I came home extremely grateful for and encouraged by the whole experience.

For the grand sum of $20.00 we had sensational input from Erwin McManus as well as a pretty decent session from Wayne Alcorn. We had some good ‘fillers’ and then to cap it off we had a brilliant feed of roast beef vegies and salad.

Somehow they did it for $20.00… $20.00…

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$20.00… Yes – I am making a point!

My guess is the Riverview crew must have subsidised it in some way because it would have cost way more than that to run I am sure. I can only stand impressed at the generous spirit that made this event happen and that blessed a whole bunch of pastors.

So to the big church critics here’s a place where these guys have excelled in every way – especially in their generosity. And to the skeptics, there was no offering and no request for us to dig deep.

My ‘hat is off’ to the Riverview crew.

McManus talk on Acts 17 was right on the money for those of us who feel our calling is to be missionaries. Firstly he reminded us that this is often thought of as one of Paul’s failures because the ‘conversion rate’ was pretty lame. But then he goes on to point out that this is Paul away from Judaism and in a whole different environment. He was indicating that when we reach those who are within our cultural sphere it is much simpler.

He suggested the church spends too much time gearing up to reach ‘Nathaniels’ (those within easy reach) and not enough out amongst the ‘Dyonisious’ and ‘Damaris” – the people who are far from our churchy culture. He asked the question ‘who will reach out to those who aren’t going to come?…’

In the Q & A session one punter posed the question ‘how do you develop a culture of soul winning in your church?’ McManus answer was harsh but pretty much on the money, ‘Firstly by losing that kind of language!’ He was referring to both the competitive aspect of the phrase as well as the fact that whole people follow Jesus – not just souls.

I believe I heard a fellow missionary speak today and would recommend you get along to any of his stuff as it will encourage you and

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If it was alcohol then I’d probably be a goner if I was put on the breathalyser!

Yesterday morning was Grendel’s magical coffee tour, 90 minutes of drinking, eating and discussing the finer points of coffee tasting. In that time I had 1 regular flat white, 1 large flat white and 2 ristrettos. I have never had that much coffee in such a short space of time and surprisingly I didn’t feel any after effects.

We began at Cafe 54 in Pier Street, the only cafe in the Eastern end of town that does a decent cup and then made our way thru to Tiger Tiger (where we had breakfast) and then to Ristretto, before we finished at Velvet in King St.

Grendel was present at our church last week as we did a backyard blitz for a local woman, so I thought it only fair that I turn up at his ‘church’ this week! Seriously, its not that dissimilar… There is ‘in’ knowledge, ‘in’ language and a sense of community around a common passion – which just happens to be coffee.

Grendel sometimes jokes that he has had more converts than me. I can only agree, but when you’re comparing ‘denying yourself and taking up your cross’ with consuming some of the world’s finest coffee then its probably no surprise…

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There were four of us – Grendel, Terry – owner of T5 in Joondalup and Justin – roaster at Fiori Coffee. Of the four coffees the one that I enjoyed the most was the Tiger Tiger flat white. They use Fiori coffee and this blend (according to Justin who roasted it) is a sweet one. It certainly was pleasant in the mouth. The Cafe 54 blend was good, but more savoury – kinda like a liquid pizza.

* Sidenote – when tasting coffee it seems to be important to describe it with as many whacky adjectives as possible! This is where my vocab becomes all dried up and hopeless. Over the day I heard the following: ‘hints of grapeskin’, ‘traces of ash’, ‘tobacco’, ‘tallow’ (what is ‘tallow’!!!), ‘gooseberry’ and many others that I can’t even remember.

Its moments like these you realise what a philistine you are.

Hamo: “It tastes like… well… coffee”

That seems so lame alongside ‘a beefy, gravy like, consistency with afternotes of oak and cedar’. Is it just me or is coffee language a tad wanky?!!

Anyway it was a fun morning out and it was great to hang wth the guys also. I learnt a lot as I worshipped at the ristretto temple and hopefully we’ll do it again one day!

Oh – and the food wasn’t bad either. I had eggs benedict at Tiger Tiger and they were pretty nice but not in the rave rave category. Seriously if you want brilliant eggs benedict then Cafe Duo in Brighton has them – just don’t ask for a coffee…