My often overly enthusiastic son bowled up to me the other day.

“Dad did you know girls have nippers?!”

“Nope…” (Where is this going… I wondered.)

“Yeah! On the ends of their boobs!”

“Uh-huh…”

He’ll learn soon enough…

On Not Blogging

Well its been over 6 months since my last post”so I thought I’d just chip in at this point with some thoughts on life as a non-blogger and to update anyone who is interested on what’s been going on in ‘backyard missionary land’.

To be honest I wasn’t sure how I would fare simply pulling up stumps and going ‘cold turkey’ after nearly 4 years of regular blogging. Surprisingly it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as I thought it might be.

Lurking in the back of my mind was the nagging concern that I might be addicted to blogging or I might be ‘finding my identity’ in blogging, but if the absence of any ‘withdrawal’ symptoms is any indicator then it seems neither of these are significant enough to be a problem.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed blogging for a couple of weeks, and I have to admit that I am aware of my slide down the technorati rankings also as my so called friends de-linked me” (just kidding) Somehow in the bigger scheme of things this just doesn’t seem that much of a deal”

However I do miss having a place to dump my thoughts and interact with others. I began a private blog to try and keep writing, but because there was no commenting I soon lost interest. I have never been a good journaller and my private blog only served to remind me of that. Boring as hell if I’m honest. The online debate that this blog ignites really helps me to clarify what I am thinking, but its pretty hard when there’s only yourself to argue with…

Having made the decision to also pull right back on preaching and teaching this year I have at times really missed forums to discuss ideas and places to share what I am learning and thinking. My original intent was to take a 2 year break, but having observed where I am at and shared the journey with friends I am not so sure that its necessary. I probably could come back to blogging now, but I think I will see the year out as a personal discipline.

Random Theological Ruminations

I have done a lot of this over the last 6 months.

Some of the more significant questions I have been chewing on are:

– Who is ‘saved’? While on holidays I read a great book entitled 4 Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World.

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It wasn’t exactly holiday reading, but it certainly raised plenty of great questions! It essentially addressed the question of how people can be saved and whether Christ is the only way – and if he is what that means. Clark Pinnock’s view (that Christ is present in all world religions in a ‘common grace’ type of way ) is quite different to the more traditional particularlist / exclusivist view. I am still chewing on this one.

– How do we do ‘communion’ or whatever your tradition chooses to call it? I have come back to some foundational questions like who can take it and how should we do it? What did Jesus expect us to do and what did he not care about? I have tried to look at it thru a more sacramental lens in recent years, but I’m afraid my upbringing is too strong and I am very much of the ordinance mindset. That said I am still chewing thru how we do it as a community.

– The challenge of being an evangelical. I audited a unit at the Baptist Theol College here in Perth earlier in the year and found it fascinating to think thru how we have arrived at where we are today as ‘evangelicals’. The four distinctives of evangelicals are:

1. Crucicentrism – a focus on the cross as central

2. Biblicism – we are people of the book

3. Activism – we like to do things and work hard

4. Conversionism – we emphasise the moment of conversion strongly and measure our effectiveness by this.

While much of this is good, every strength has its shadow side and perhaps the one that I pondered the most was the emphasis on conversionism and how this led to at times quite extreme pragmatism – a ‘whatever gets them over the line’ type of mentality. We discussed the pros and cons of Impact World Tour (I have expressed my opinions here) and how pragmatism had fuelled some pretty dodgy practices in the name of getting people ‘saved’. (I’ll stop there because I don’t want to open that wound up again!)

Life Shifts

Some of you would know that last year I picked up the role of National Forge Director with Al Hirsch heading off to the US. That hasn’t been earth shattering, but has simply been a case of picking up where Al left off. I am a huge believer in calling people to think more creatively about how we connect with people who have no interest in church, so I am still sold out on what we as Forge are on about.

I also finish my role of coaching youth pastors at the end of this month. We have a new Director Ministry in the Baptist Churches and we have seen some changes. I am one of those changes and my contract was not renewed. At this stage I don’t think I will pursue any new work, but instead will just give more time to Forge WA and Upstream. (If you’d like to see a bit of what we are doing with Upstream then you can see a vid clip here made by American, Patrick Cone. Patrick came to Oz to make a doco on different missional adventures and we were one of the ones that made it into his final product. It gives a great insight into who we are.

After much agony I eventually sold the old blue 1981 4 Speed Landcruiser and upgraded” to a 1985 Landcruiser. No one can accuse me of wasting money on cars! I set out to buy a car that had done less than 200 000Kms, was under $10K, with no rust and on LPG. This one fitted the bill and I got the guy to drop from $7500.00 to $5K so it was a great buy. I tell you what, if its possible to fall in love with a car then I think I am doing it now! Even better was that Mike Russell from our Upstream team gave me $1500 for the old beast so its like she’s still in the family!

I have also started footy tipping and as I write this am currently leading the SUWA footy tipping competition with a score of 56 after round 10. For a bloke who knows absolutely nothing about football I reckon it’s a hoot. My good friend Kent Morgan reckons he’s going to sneak up on me and knock me off, but I wouldn’t be so sure Morgs! The funny thing is that I am now interested in football and even watch the footy show each Thursday night. (It has got to be one of the most wacky debauched, blokefests I have ever come across – just my thing”)

Anyway…

Well that’s it for now. I’ll shuffle off back into retirement for another 6 months and then re-launch backyardmissionary again in 2008.

(I’m very curious to see if anyone actually reads this!)

I don’t normally do these things, but just thought I’d give it a shot as I am living on my own this week with Danelle and kids in Moore River until Friday and I have lots of spare time. (It reminds me of what it is like to be single again!) It was Bek who ‘tagged me. If you haven’t been to her site then you ought to check it out. She has some great stuff to say.

1. What’s the most fun work you’ve ever done, and why?

Selling shoes at Myers Karrinyup on a Thursday night as a 17 year old. It was so boring that I used to approach customers with different accents – sometimes Irish, sometimes Yorkshire, sometimes American etc. It was a hoot until someone would come back for a second look and the ‘Irish’ guy they spoke to 15 mins ago was now an ‘American’… Ah… the things we used to do to stay sane in casual retail!…

2) Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did?

Running – I used to run a lot – which is the reason I can’t run now! Tendonitis of the ilio-tibial tract means I can walk 2 or 3 kms before the knee buggers up…

3A) What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why?

Writing – I think I could make a go of writing, but I am a bit unsure of the processes involved in going from idea to entire book.

How to fix things – I am much better at this, but usually if something breaks I tend to call a professional and spend my time doing stuff I enjoy!

3B) If you could take a class/workshop/apprenticeship from anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn?

Roland Allen – I would like to pick this man’s brains on missionary movements.

4A) What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?

Focused, determined, passionate

4B) Now list two more words you wish described you.

compassionate, thoughtful

5) What are your top three passions? (Can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes)

Leaving out the God factor it would be, my family, the ocean, learning new things

6) Write-and answer-one more question that YOU would ask someone.

What wacky idea have you been playing with lately?

Ok – I would love to sell the house and use the $500 000.00 or so to buy a huge boat that we could live on. We could pen it up, live on it and be on the ocean any time we liked. Half a mil would buy a very very nice boat and I just reckon it’d be a bit of fun to live in a marina! If I were single again…

This came thru from Grendel today…

Hey, if this blog is worth $85000.00 then its for sale as of now!

I’ll take the money and run.

Any takers?…

Anybody?…

Hmm…

They say you can sell anything on E-bay.

Well this guy tried

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…

I couldn’t resist emailing and asking him if pick-up was available!

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…

Take My Quiz – on – QuizYourFriends.com!

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

The correct answer is in the comments…

I am 41.

That is not young, and by today’s standards I should have at least around 40 decent years left.

I am also a bit obsessive about fitness (I would say ‘health’ but my diet betrays me on that one!) however over the last few years my body has been falling apart.

As a result of some bad practice in my youth (running on hard surfaces) I have developed tendonitis of the ilio-tibial tract – the band that runs down the outside of the thigh and joins up at the lower leg.

I went from being able to run 12kms easily to 6kms to 4… to the point where last year I was no longer able to actually run that distance without pain and inflammation. I can walk for an hour, but it just doesn’t feel like real exercise. I want to exercise in such a way that I really expend some effort!

I have tried cycling and quite enjoy it, but it also inflames the tendon… So – looks like its swimming or maybe hopping!…

After several years of visiting Drs and medical advice I am about to have 3 cortisone shots and then its surgery as a last resort.

Swimming is an option but I just find it so borrrring…

Any thoughts on alternative medicines?

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I’m not much for these kinds of things, but I have found that people often ask me where I ‘fit on the enneagram.’ Generally I tend to forget… I have done this quiz download harriet the spy online a couple of times, but never make a note of it.

So here it is… as much for me as anyone else!

According to the Rheti sampler I am predominantly a ‘1’

and secondarily an ‘8’.

You can read about them here and here

In a pst life I think I was more of a ‘4’, but something has shifted there. I think it may have been having kids!

So there you have it… For anyone who cares…

Just a big teddy bear really…