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A new year brings new life, new ideas and a chance to start fresh. What will you do different, better or with greater purpose and conviction in 2006?

<p>Who will you spend time with? What will you spend your money on? Don&rsquo;t let life speed away from you, decide now what kind of year 2006 will be for you.</p>    <p>I am going to take the time, at the beginning of this year, to listen to God and to those around me to help me discern where I will spend my time and where I will put my energy and focus.</p>  <p>I encourage you to dream what it would mean for you to truly be the hands and feet of Jesus to your friends and family and to the community around you.</p><p>What makes a missional community?</p>  <p>It is our job to help ordinary Aussies find a home in the kingdom of God. I still believe passionately this comes when we journey with people and have walked with them through life.</p><p>Who is God calling you to walk with?</p>     <p>I get asked this a lot and most of the time people are fascinated and intrigued by the<br /> fact that we might meet in a Pub. Let me tell you, what makes us truly missional can have very little to do with where we meet. We can drink beer instead of grape juice, have discussions around a latte instead of sermons and think we are better. There lies my concern, when we think we are better because of some aesthetic changes.</p>     <p>Mission is a commitment to follow the very heartbeat of God and the Gospel into places, spaces and to people who desperately need the light and salt of God people to minister to them. It takes a disciplined, dedicated group of disciples willing to cast off their own needs and wants and fully commit themselves to God and to each other.</p>     <p>As Maria and I come into 2006 we are asking ourselves again, what do we need to do to grow deeper in our love for God and what kind of consistent disciplined life do we need to live. I know it is only in accountable loving community can I truly grow and experience real accountability and mentoring. Whether we go to the Pub is irrelevant if we aren't hearing from God, being obedient to His calling and developing the kind of disciplined lives that have a healthy rhythm of play and pray. I don't want to sit in a pew staring at the back of someone's head, but neither do I want to hang out at a Pub thinking I am better than pew sitters. I want to be Jesus wherever He asks, whether that&rsquo;s a Pub or a Park.</p>   <p>I pray you will join me in helping each other to be disciplined committed disciples who belong to missional communities. That you will live a life of worship, prayer and a life long commitment to mission.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>