One of my jobs in the Forge network is to put together and distribute the national newsletter.

We haven’t had one so far so this will be the first effort. We’re keen to share the stories of missional communities around Oz as well as including articles, book reviews etc.

If you’d like a copy of it then drop me an email and I’ll add you to the list. I’m expecting no.1 to be ready to around early September.

Does anyone know of an email program that can be used for sending (legit) bulk emails, but does not get caught by the spam cops? My ISP now has a limit of 35 recipients per email, which means a loooot of emails to send this list out!

The singing thing has generated some reaction. Dan has a post with her take on it and there are some interesting comments in the previous post.

As I was chatting with Geoff Westlake free batman begins major payne divx (a biannual blogger!) today on the way home from our Forge team meeting I mentioned the singing question and we discussed it a bit.

I told him someone had suggested that “once you meet Jesus you want to sing”. He told me this was setting up a syllogism. I told him I didn’t know what that was… (and probably can’t spell it) Basically it implies that if you want to sing when you meet Jesus then people who don’t sing therefore… yep… can’t have met Jesus. Possibly not the case you reckon?

His Banksia Grove crew have explored 6 or 7 different modes people have of expressing worship, kind of like Hybels 7 pathways of worship. He told me that of their 24 people they had 3 in each category (which of course then means there must be 8 categories they use!)

From memory the 7 ways people may express worship are thru:

1. Creation – being in the natural environment
2. Art – creating
3. Serving – activistic worship
4. Contemplative – reflective practice
5. Relational – thru being with other people
6. Intellectual – thru study
7. Singing

I’m not sure what Geoff’s 8th one would be.

I actually find that with the exception of the artistic element I engage fairly often with all the others. Perhaps the ones that are ‘most me’ are a blend of the intellectual (I feel close to God when I study and learn about him) and creation. I could sit in the ocean for hours and ‘be’ with God and never get bored.

How about you?

As for singing?… I enjoy a good sing every now and then, but if I was mute tomorrow it wouldn’t change my ability to worship much at all.

What are the implications of this for our corporate worship?

The other night at Parkerville I was talking with the group about the Engels scale – a scale that shows where people stand in relation to following Jesus.

– 8 = a long way away – as far as Engels is obviously willing to imagine
+5 = a true disciple – +5 is about stewardship so maybe Engels is saying the discipleship rubber hits the road when you start putting your hand in your pocket!

+5 Stewardship
+4 Communion with God
+3 Conceptual and behavioural growth
+2 Incorporation into Body
+1 Post-decision evaluation
New birth
-1 Repentance and faith in Christ
-2 Decision to act
-3 Personal problem recognition
-4 Positive attitude towards Gospel
-5 Grasp implications of Gospel
-6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel
-7 Initial awareness of Gospel
-8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel

As I was speaking I asked the young people there to try and place their non-christian friends on the scale. For most the scale didn’t go far enough…

Which seems to suggest that a scale conceived in christendom just isn’t going to make the cut in a post-christendom world.

download 666 the beast

Are like no others!

When you are surfing the primary focus is on catching waves or not getting killed by them. The rule is this: No matter what is being spoken about if a decent wave appears on the horizon all conversation ends until one surfer has caught the wave and paddled back out.

Imagine this…

“Hamo my marriage is on the rocks, I’ve lost my job and I’m about to commit suic…

“Hang on mate – watch out”

(5 mins later)

“Go on… what were you saying?”

Sounds absurd but its not far from reality!! The thing is that surfers understand – it sounds rude to other people, but it amazing how long a conversation can take on a good day.

This Sunday I start a short preaching stretch at a couple of churches.

I have a good mate who is seeking to shift his church from an attractional form to an incarnational form, so over the next month we are linking up to speak to his people about that. This Sunday I get to share the story of what we are doing here in Brighton.

Then in April I have three weeks with one church provoking them to thing about mission and church issues. Part of me loves it and part of me is aware that time out of Brighton is time I am unavailable for mission. Its always hard to choose the best from the good!

The fourth in my series on how simple it is to connect with people…

Its summed up here

Its easy to have lame, superficial, fluffy relationships. If we’re going to see things move along then I think it will mean going beyond this to making some real connections.

Picture a young 19 year old who has ventured into his first adult home Bible study group in a very conservative church…

The group is led by a real quality couple and is full of other very nice older people (60’s – 70’s) as well as a few younger ones. But the vibe is connnnnnnservative!

At the start of this discussion on ‘the church’ this brave 19 year old is asked to read the study book out loud to the rest of the group.

He remembers that first sentence so well…

“The church is not an organisation but a huge living orgasm…”

No one laughed – no one breathed a word as the red faced, deeply embarassed 19 year old corrected himself and moved on.

Scarred for life!

If you came here for my ‘blogger idol’ post I’m sorry…

It was too lame and I deleted it!

Its gotta be pretty bad to do that doesn’t it… Its what happens when you’ve been going all day and the brain is in veg mode.

Freedom… not to post…

Recently Darren decided to have some fun and kick off “blogger idol”! As a person who loves writing, I thought I’d have a go at blogging to a set theme. This is no. 1.

I won’t guarantee I’ll still be there at the end of it all – or that I will post on every topic – but here goes anyway…

This is the year I turn 40.

It feels kinda like I’m at ‘half time’ in life.

I reckon ‘the 80’s’ could be getting close to the end of the road for me so I thought I’d use this post to reflect on some of my dreams for when I hit the 80’s.

I dream that I will”

• Still be married to Danelle and that our love will be stronger and deeper for 50 years of marriage. It seems that love changes over time – I feel different love today than I did when we were on our honeymoon – but I dream that the 80’s love will be something special and profound and richer and more fun than it is today. I reckon it’s possible to stay together for 50 years and have nothing more than an appreciation of each other and a healthy housekeeping relationship. No thanks! (I also dream I will still have a sex life”)

• Have left my kids a legacy that encourages them to live life to the full and to find that fullness in connection with God. I dream that they will have seen a passion for Jesus in their old man that inspires them and draws them to him, rather than a dreary religious ethic that leaves them cold and indifferent. I dream that at 80 we will be able to talk openly and regularly about how good God is and the way he keeps transforming our lives.

• On that thought, I dream that in the 80’s I will still be learning and changing and becoming more like Jesus. I dream that I will hear God more clearly and often and that I will trust him more as he leads me. I am so inspired by the 80 year olds I have known who are on the growing edge, who haven’t lost the willingness to change – but I am dismayed by cynical, hardened older people who live out of self centredness and indifference.

• Be the old guy in church who is always encouraging the young ones to have a go at new things! I dream that I will be an advocate for the young 50 year old pastor who can’t seem to ‘move the church’ because people won’t change. I’ve been inspired by those older folks who don’t understand what I’m on about but who can feel my heart and support anyway. I dream I will never morph into a grumpy old bugger who wants things done the way I like them. Ecch!

• That I will have a fertile mind and an adventurous spirit. I don’t want to settle down, play it safe, learn lawn bowls, buy a caravan and trip around Australia. Now there’s nothing wrong with a good holiday and a bit of sport (if you can call lawn bowls sport!), but I dread the idea of retiring from life when (if) I retire. In my 80’s I dream that my capacity for risk taking and faith stretching will have increased rather than shrunk. I dream that God will still trust me with his thoughts and ideas and that I will be looking for the next challenge – not the comfortable chair in the corner away from the action.

As I write this short spiel I sense there is much more that I dream – more than I could or should write here, but perhaps its is best summed up in the quote from Helen Keller that is on the signature of all my emails

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing”