Today at Forge we had a fantastic time.

Geoff Westlake did two presentations on his mission in Banksia Grove and offered some excellent biblical insights into what a Christian community ought to look like. I hadn’t heard Geoff do these presentations previously, and I loved the way he earthed his thinking in the biblical text.

Alan was very passionate and lucid about the need for us to explore other ways of being church. To use one of his favourite Ed De Bono quotes he says ‘if you want to dig a hole over here, you don’t do it by digging the same hole deeper over there’. Application = if you want to reach people who do not currently come to church you don’t do it by schmicking up the attractional gig.

Scotty Vawser,our ‘local hero’ for the day, (a 30 min spot we give to those who are ‘having a go’) told some great stories as he shared his own journey into new ways of thinking about church and misson and the tension of doing that in an established and large church.

I took a session entitled ‘A Good Look in The Mirror’ that looked at both the history of the emerging church using this article and then did a critique both of the established church and the emerging. The question I was seeking to grapple with was ‘if we are going to have a go at a new way are we actually doing any better than the old way?’ We had some great discussion but ran out of time…

Tonight Al is telling the story of his time at South Melbourne… and obviously I am not there! Danelle is there tonight while I stay home with the kids. I have heard the south story about 9 times now so I reckon its better Danelle hears once than me hear it again.

Tomorrow AM Neale Fong is up for sharing a theology of work along the theme of ‘9-5 faith in a dualistic world’. Should be great!