Its been a busy weekend!

Easter Friday was quite relaxing – I spent some of it watching the Jesus video with Ellie. (It really isn’t a quality movie is it?!) But it was great to sit with her and explain the whole story and describe Jesus to her. I found it very moving to do that with a 4 year old who hasnt been innoculated to the power of the story. It really refreshed it for me too.

Yesterday we headed out to the football & dinner with Mark and Michelle, two of our neighbours, while Mike and Heidi took the kids. I’m not a real big footy fan, but it was a great night out.

Then this morning was our Sunday AM Easter gig. We are trying to make it a bit of a tradition to do brunch at the local park and then do some kind of easter reflection activity.

Today in the middle of some serious humidity we all cooked and ate brunch and then did a ‘stations of the cross’ type of deal. Jenny had a great idea that we use different points in the park to read passages of scripture that tell the Easter story. So that was pretty much it – from gethsemane (garden) to trial (gazebo) to Golgotha (hill) to resurrection (park).

The day finished with helium balloons being let go to remember the new start we have because of Jesus. Everyone could write their own prayer on the balloon and offer it up. It was a simple idea, but it worked well (however when you are asking kids to let their balloons go you need to make sure you also have a few in reserve!!)

As well as the four families from our team there were 10 other local families present to share the day. The icky weather made it very tiring, but it was another great time.

Tonight we go round to Mark and Michelle’s to watch The Passion… again… it was hard enough the first time 🙂

Here are some images Jen took of us eating brekky, doing the easter activity and then letting the (biodegradable) balloons go.

Jesus is risen!

Here is my last post in visual form for those who prefer images. I also like the idea of being in the ‘stream’ rather than separate from.

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It took us a while to arrive at team name, but we have finally done it. As of tonight we have adopted the name ‘Upstream Communities’, (almost feels quite anticlimactic now that I write it…) as the name for our group here in Brighton.

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It was a toss up between ‘seachange’ and ‘upstream’ as the key words and in the end most people weren’t overly concerned where we landed. I didn’t mention it earlier either here or in the team meeting, as I wanted to hear other people’s input, but ‘Upstream’ has resonated very strongly with me as an identifying term.

At the end of last year when we went thru a review process we had to draw some symbols to describe what we felt we were called to. One of the symbols on the ‘team flag’ was a fish swimming upstream – an image that has never left me, and in fact lodged in me very powerfully from the moment I saw it.

Why ‘Upstream’?

Well it all started last year when we were studying the sermon on the mount and seeing what Jesus was calling people to – a complete re-orientation of life and values. I sense that as disciples of Jesus we are called to be people who swim against the current of society. We are to be continually discovering what it means to live counterculturally here in the burbs. Its about discipleship.

It also defines what I believe we are calling people to. We aren’t asking people to come to church or ‘believe in Jesus’. We are asking them to radically redefine who they are and what they are doing on this planet. We are asking people to ‘take up their cross daily and follow Jesus’. We are asking them to join us on a journey of laying down our own ambitions and picking up Jesus’ dreams for our lives.

And if we are going to do that then we sure as hell better be about it ourselves. A name like upstream will hopefully serve to ‘keep us honest’. I know. Danelle has already the used the expression on me in the last few months when I have bucked at some difficult choices… ‘Andrew, what was that you were saying about upstream?…’ I hate it when she does that 🙂

So in one sense that’s a great thing – we now have a name – we are no longer ‘that mob in Brighton’ and yet in another sense it means nothing unless we actually live it.

This blog will continue to be ‘Backyard Missionaries’. (I actually feel that’s the best name I have heard for us, but its not one you can use around the place too easily!)

What happens in three years time if we find it all too hard?

Well… we just change it ‘Downstream’ communities, admit it was all too hard and go with the flow…

As if.

We are at a whole new stage in the journey for our

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team. Shortly we will have our first open gatherings – regular times when others can join with us.

We haven’t been seeking to ‘exclude’ others from our stuff, but have simply been focused on team development and relationship building in the community over the last year. There have been very few ‘official’ open gatherings.

As we move towards this new gathering it is with some consternation. We actually chose not to have any Sunday gathering for at least 18 months simply because we recognise that it is so easy to stop thinking missionally and start to revert to an old (and familiar) ecclesiology. Dangerous”

I have spent some time this week thinking thru again what we are doing and why we are doing it. If you’re interested my thoughts are below. Its as much to help us safeguard ourselves against unintentionally creating a monster as it is to guide us.

The biggest trap will be to see this meeting as the core function of the team, when nothing could be further from the truth. If it becomes our central focus and if it occupies large slabs of our time each week then we have begun to lose sight of our core purpose.

Time will tell”

If you are interested in the framework of how we will function then keep reading below:

1.      Community gatherings are regular fortnightly gatherings (Sundays 9.30am) where our core team members and friends in the community can gather to support one another, worship together and learn how to follow Jesus together in a range of ways. They are not simple social gatherings (ala a street party) and will have a definite sense of purpose, form and several regular components.

2.      The regular components are to be some form of worship/prayer, some form of teaching/learning and a segment that is specifically for the kids. These components can be expressed in many different ways.

3.      We agree that these weekly gatherings are not our primary focus, but that they exist as part of the fabric of mission life and contribute to it, rather than being the reason for it. Because of this, they should not take a significant amount of organisational skill or a large chunk of time. If they begin to weigh us down then we will need to re-think how we are doing them.

4.      What we do in our first few gatherings will set the tone for future times. It is important that we establish the nature of what we intend to do so that people who are considering being part of the gatherings are aware of their intent.

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5.      The ‘focus’ group for what we will do is people who are at some point in the journey of faith and who are interested in following Jesus with others. It will not be a ‘Christianity for dummies’ group, but neither will it rely on vast amounts of prior knowledge to be able to participate.

6.      The focus of the teaching content will essentially be ‘what does it mean to live as a follower of Jesus?’ If his call to us is to ‘make disciples teaching them to obey all I have commanded you’, then our goal will be simply to move people to obey all that Jesus commanded us.

7.      We will pitch what we do at a middle high school level cognitively and assume people are interested in discipleship. We won’t water down to ‘seeker level’ but will be clear and allow people to engage as they are able.

8.      We will get involved in doing part of the meeting according to our own gifting. We will all also get involved in the simple stuff of being a community – set up, pack up, doing the dishes etc.

9.      Participation in the gathering and the running of segments of the meeting will not be limited to team members but will be open to all who are involved.

10.  We will give people the opportunity each week to give money to a ‘community fund’, money that will be used to serve the wider

Brighton

community. Yes – if its sounds like an offering, its because that’s what it is – people sharing their stuff.

11.  Jenny will oversee the worship/prayer side of things and will ask people to be involved, Danelle will do the same for kids and Hamo for teaching.

Now that the Feb onslaught is finished I can get back to the NUI stuff. You know… the non-urgent important stuff – the stuff that always get neglected because there is too much pressing or because its just plain hard work.

Its the stuff of planning and dreaming and exploring – the stuff that really matters – all things I love, but also things that can easily get swept away in the hustle of life.

Today I have been thinking thru what our ‘core practices’ will be as a team. It is a challenge to ask what will we commit to doing as a team that will help us become the people and the community we really want to be?

You see any time you put things like these in place they require a level of disciple and intentionality that is sometimes beyond what we normally give. They also require a degree of accountability otherwise they are just words on a page and count for nothing.

We have a leadership meeting this coming Tuesday to discuss them and see what others are thinking on this front.

I am keen to ‘set the bar high’ but not so high that none of us can jump it. It is actually quite a challenge trying to articulate practices that maybe ought to flow from the heart but we know all too well we struggle to do. I don’t think it will be an easy task to implement these – in fact there are times when I reckon it could get very messy…

But, I am also sick of lame, ‘near enough is good enough’ discipleship so I’d like to try and travel with a bunch of people to some different experience of following Christ.

Flying home on the plane last night I was praying about the stuff I needed to share with the team tonight. I had things to say but they didn’t feel quite right.

I sensed God saying we should be talking about how a Christian would vote at the coming state election.

To be honest this has not been a strong area for me. I have been something of an ‘impulse’ voter, rarely making an informed or well considered decision, but voting for the person I think is the least offensive.

I sense God challenging me to pull my head out of my bum in this regard and take some responsibility for what happens here in WA. Some of you have known this for ages… I have been lazy

Enough is enough…

Tonight as a team we will be pondering the question of ‘how does a Christian vote?’ Not with the objective of telling people what to do, but rather developing a theological and ethical framework for making intelligent decisions in this regard.

Should be a fun discussion!

This blog was started originally as a way for people to keep in touch with what we are doing here in Brighton. It assumed people would be interested and may actually take the time to read. I’m not sure too many of the ‘intended audience’ have but there you go…

Over the last two years it has become a place for me to think out loud and occasionally have a rant about stuff that I get passionate about. In the absence of a weekly preach I have a daily blog!

Anyway this post is getting back to the real reason for this blog – to tell some of our story online. Obviously you don’t know all of what has happened with us because some stuff is private and doesn’t belong in the public domain. I am also very wary of making us sound either ‘doing better’ than we really are or struggling more than we really are. We are doing good – enjoying some stuff and working thru other stuff – sound normal?

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Anyway here is an update on where we are at:

After a year of meeting primarily as a closed mission team and seeking to connect in the local community we are feeling the need to develop some open gatherings where our neighbours and friends can experience Christian community with us. (See here for more the plan we are working off)

We have decided to meet fortnightly on a Sunday AM for a brunchy type of gathering that will include some activity for kids, some worship (don’t read that simply as singing), some learning and some prayer. Maybe not all elements will be present each week, but we are conscious of the need to move from simply good relationships, barbecues and parties to the development of Christian community.

Some will think we have ‘sold out’ by meeting on a Sunday AM – that we have just defaulted to the norm. Quite frankly I couldn’t give a toss. Sunday happens to be the day when most of the people we know will be most available, which is kinda the point… It isn’t a ‘default ‘as much as conscious choice to do what is most sensible and effective having understood our mission.

We will keep our team meetings on Monday nights on the alternate fortnight and these will remain as closed meetings.

There are now four families in our core team as Andrew & Bec Logan are moving back closer to the city. That’s a bummer on many levels, not the least of which that we have been friends for over 8 years now, but the decision seems like a right one for them. We will miss them heaps.

Connections in the community continue to grow and we are loving being here. How good is it to love what you are called to do?!

Last night at our team meeting we were discussing a possible ‘name’ for our missional community.

After a year of being ‘that mob in Brighton’ we felt it was about time we cemented some sense of identity.

The criteria for a team name were:

…·         Describes us accurately in terms of identity and mission

…·         Resonates and captures us well – we can own it

…·         Calls us to something that inspires us

…·         Not tacky, cheesey, easily misconstrued

…·         Longevity – not faddish

…·         Will give us a talking point with people

We developed a short list which we will be praying about until we feel ok with one of them, or until something better emerges.

Here they are. I’d be interested in hearing some outside thoughts as we chew this one thru. What resonates with you? What jars with you? What sounds like us?

Option A: Branches / The Branch or some permutation of the branch idea/image. It is an organic image, that depicts us as just one branch on the tree of the church. It has links to the trunk… It allows for multiplication…

Option B: Upstream This image ties into the notion that our calling is to live counter culturally as disciples and to call others to swim upstream with us. The notion of upstream is also about returning to the source.

Option C: Crossfire This idea picks up on images of adventure/danger but also the centrality of the cross in our concept of Christ and the fire/passion we have for him.

There wasn’t a strong sense of one being the preferred option last night. I’m not actually sure we will find a word that fits perfectly or that feels just right. Every word has a variety of connotations and people’s experience will determine their response.

I’d like to know what others feel as they hear those words and see the associated images

Which one?

Or maybe none of the above?…

Maybe Brighton Baptist Church?… (Inc)

Yesterday we had our first ‘leadership team’ meeting since coming to Brighton. Basically it was one member from each family that came together to discuss the questions I mentioned in my previous post. Up to now the team hasn’t felt the need for a dedicated team of leaders, however in recent times it became apparent that to function healthily it was going to be a neccessity.

It was a really good time and we seemed to get some direction on the key questions we were hitting.

A significant issue was that of ‘how do we include people in what we are doing while still keeping the discipleship bar high?’ How do we avoid becoming simply another product of our consumeristic culture and producing weak, lame, self occupied disciples (if there can be such a disciple)?

We agreed that we need to both very inclusive and very exclusive. We need to do both at the same time…Up to now we didn’t really have a handle on how to do this well – it has always felt like a bit of an either/or. However I think we may have found an approach that may work.

It consists of seeing ourselves as:

a) a missionary team – completely exclusive – only those who have moved thru an integation/formation process and are willing to subscribe to the team covenant can join. I guess you could say it will be a low level mission order.

b) a christian community – completely inclusive – anyone can participate in these activities as there is no ‘membership’ demand whatsoever. People will still be discipled in these forums and they will not be intended to be funky whiz bang gatherings, but they may not see themselves as part of the mission in Brighton at this stage.

This shape came to me last week while I was flying to Melbourne and I drew it like this.

Basically our team is set in the context of the community which is also set in the broader context of the local neighbourhood.

You might look and say ‘hmmm… no rocket science there’ and there’s not! But sometimes just having words and expressions to describe the form you take is enough to enable the next step.

At this point we are working to develop a new community rythym that will embrace this schema. It seems we may  meet fortnightly as a team and then on the other fortnight as a bigger community. Over time this will morph and shift as we give different expression to who we are.

Perhaps a key is that the shape we take serves what we are called to do. When the form becomes the main thing then we start to have ‘tail wagging dog’ syndrome and we lose our way. This is what has happened so often in our churches.

We can’t accomplish ‘a’ because we just can’t change ‘b’. ‘B’ then determines how ‘a’ will look and how effective it will be.

On the other questions of finance and identity we have agreed to start a bank account and possibly locate ourselves under SU in WA as a SUNO project. SUNO are a branch of SU that specialise in supporting and resourcing mission projects. We also agreed to explore finding a name for ourselves.

All in all it was a great meeting with a sense of having made some positive decsions and taken some good steps forward.

Tomorrow is our first ‘end of year’ review that we will have as a team. We have asked someone to come in from outside who knows what we are about to help us reflect on the year that has been, both as a team and as individual families.

I am hopeful that we will have a decent review every 6 months – that way we don’t lose our way or get hung up on stuff that doesn’t matter. It also means we all have to check where we are at in relation to our involvement in the mission here in Brighton. Its all too easy to just ‘come to church’ and we desire much more than that.

The day starts with our first leadership team meeting from 9-12 and then our team review from 1-4pm.

The key issues for discussion are:

– how we structure ourselves for growth and inclusion while keeping on as a focused mission team – this is a huge challenge!

– developing sustainable community rhythms – avoiding meeting mania yet meeting often enough to build community and get things done

– identity – do we need a name and a greater sense of identity…

– finance – how we manage money

These are all questions that a group faces when they realise that just hanging out together doesn’t take care of the finer details. We are entering a new phase of development and I think it is a healthy situation.

I’ll let you know what we come up with as we talk tomorrow.