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At our first Gathering for 2012, we spent some time just catching up, with best wishes for the New Year.

As per the Junction’s usual form, it was a very informal morning. Julia spent time with the kids, talking about being thankful and getting them to share (in exchange for snake lollies), the things they are thankful for. Then Mark carried the theme into communion.

It was then to our three Junction speakers, each sharing on what their plans are for 2012. See if you can find the commonality. :)

Russ started proceedings and told us about his changing work situation.

Steve Swain shared again at our August Gathering - here’s my notes from the morning.

What have your learned/discovered in the past month? Some of the responses Steve got back were:

• Hold on and you’ll get through

• Stronger than you think

• Don’t have all the answers

Christianity is NOT a theory!

People say just believe, makes it sound like a theory. God doesn’t say that, he gave us a brain, like him to be able to think.

Christianity is a practice!

Christianity is not just church. Church is not the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom is infinite.

We celebrated this gathering with a meal, commemorating Easter through the celebration of Passover.

Passover originated in the Jews release from Egypt.

At creation was Adam, in his line was Noah, whose son Shem was the father of Abraham (about 10 generations removed), who lived in around 3000BC. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael and Isaac begat Jacob, who had 12 sons who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Egypt.

The Israelites had moved to Egypt, escaping drought and seeking food. They were there for 400-430 years.

Steve continued his musings, this time focusing more on the ministry.

The New Testament is like the Last Will & Testament of God. The Old Testament was the priesthood - the tribe of Levi were the priests.

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.