Articles

Steve continued his exploration of emerging questions at our July Gathering.

Acts 2 talks about communication, prayer, the Word and fellowship. The outcome of this was to make disciples.

What is making disciples supposed to do? What does a disciple look like? Could be called a student, trainee, apprentice - you are learning how to be a disciple.

In Acts, believers met together, there was a deep sense of awe. Is there that same sense when we meet? Can you still have it amid the laughter, eating and sharing that is the Junction?

Steve Swain continued on with some of the thoughts from the April Gathering.

At one extreme are the Traditional Answers and the other are Emerging Questions. Crossing them on the other plane are Practice and Theory. The sorts of questions being asked are:

• What is church?

• What is mission?

• What does faith look like in the 21st century?

• What is leadership?

• What is ministry?

• What is the difference between ministry and mission?

Traditional is the living faith of the dead.

It was interesting to discover that on this Good Friday that the leaders of Australia’s main denominational churches had the theme of being alone in the services today.

It got me thinking as I was out with the company of our dog and my own thoughts. I am never truly alone. Even when I am by myself, I always have the presence of God with me. That presence resides in my spirit and was evident during my walk, through the wind in the trees and the flight of a butterfly, which flittered across my path for a time.

But this has only been made possible through the sacrifice that Jesus made.

Wynand de Koch is the Principal of Tabor College and was our guest speaker at the November Gathering.

Growing up, Wynand believed that God was a grumpy old man, with strict rules, who could turn on you quickly, swallow you up for no good reason. It wasn’t a healthy view.

However, after hearing then Bishop Desmond Tutu speak, his whole world was shaken.

I read this on Seth Godin’s blog a while ago and it resonated with me.

A few weeks ago, I was out walking our dog along the back fence line on one edge of our housing estate, when it started raining quite heavily. It was too far to run to find an entrance back into the estate, to find a place where I could find some shelter, so I stuck as close to the fence line as I could.

Doing things is church – regardless of whether you have an official meeting.

A missional community is us as Jesus’s apprentices. We journey together. Its a finite expression of the infinite trinity. Jesus was a genius – we don’t want to follow anyone who’s not smart, not in the know. Jesus was not about other worldly weird stuff, but about coping with the everyday.

Ephesians 5:18-6:18.

Things that happen in your life can teach you the most interesting lessons.

Murray was our much loved tabby black and white cat. At 17 1/2 years old, he went out one day six months ago and didn’t come home. We thought he had gone away to die. Until he turned up in Hallam nearly 2 weeks ago.

If you haven’t read the full story - check out Evan’s wonderful perspective at: Do you have a cat named Murray?

Back now? Anyway, we are still dealing with the implications of his return.

All of you who know me, know how much I have in common with a cyclone - fast-moving and endlessly so. But I had a small lesson last week in stopping and taking the time to appreciate the moment.

I had just finished business at Casey Council and was driving out of their carpark. Opposite the entrance to Council is a small park and lake, just adjacent to Casey ARC. Whilst I was waiting for traffic to clear, I noticed a couple with a young dog - looked like a Red Heeler, walking around the same side of the lake that I was on.

If only these signs were an indication of how much fun church could be!

Check out a lot more at Faster Pastor.