Introduction
The introduction below was written when I first thought "blogging" would be a good idea as I processed my thinking on the nature of my faith (Christian) and my faith community (the church). I have traveled quite some distance since 2007 - in life shape, in location, and in thinking.
I am no longer at that "small Baptist church". In fact, that church no longer exists - at least, not in the form it was in when I first wrote. And that is part of the story that I will begin to tell in this blog (in 2017). I now work in one of the most exciting missional opportunities available in Australia - and so I will be taking a much larger risk whenever I touch on the "heretical" stuff referred to below.
But I still am committed to the notion that "It's always about Jesus". And that will be something I will be constantly exploring in this blog.
I am leaving the original introduction pretty much in tact. It appears that it still pretty much applies, as I will be resuming some work on the practice in the not-too-distant future!
---
While I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who are thinking that the church needs a new reformation (I've read some of the books, the websites and the miscellaneous conference reports and I've engaged in some of the "conversations"), I've discovered that in my small Baptist church in south-western Sydney, Australia, we are thinking some things that are somewhere near the cutting edge.
I also discover that I'm thinking some stuff that might be regarded as heretical by some in relation to the nature of Christianity itself.
There are plenty of theories about "missional church" and the like out there - and I'll be adding some here - but I want this blog to be a place where we can start exploring whether those theories can really be applied in a practical situation, in and through an existing, small, (relatively) conservative evangelical faith community [some reflections on this will follow sometime in 2017].
In the (slightly misquoted, and unintentionally poignantly true) words of Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy: "It's always about Jesus".
Anyway - this introduction will probably be edited dramatically over the next few weeks [well, it took a decade, but hey!], so if you stumble on it prior to February, 2007, you might want to come back and see if I've done a better job at clarifying the intentions.
In the meantime, Happy New Year [actually, happy new everything!!].
I am no longer at that "small Baptist church". In fact, that church no longer exists - at least, not in the form it was in when I first wrote. And that is part of the story that I will begin to tell in this blog (in 2017). I now work in one of the most exciting missional opportunities available in Australia - and so I will be taking a much larger risk whenever I touch on the "heretical" stuff referred to below.
But I still am committed to the notion that "It's always about Jesus". And that will be something I will be constantly exploring in this blog.
I am leaving the original introduction pretty much in tact. It appears that it still pretty much applies, as I will be resuming some work on the practice in the not-too-distant future!
---
While I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who are thinking that the church needs a new reformation (I've read some of the books, the websites and the miscellaneous conference reports and I've engaged in some of the "conversations"), I've discovered that in my small Baptist church in south-western Sydney, Australia, we are thinking some things that are somewhere near the cutting edge.
I also discover that I'm thinking some stuff that might be regarded as heretical by some in relation to the nature of Christianity itself.
There are plenty of theories about "missional church" and the like out there - and I'll be adding some here - but I want this blog to be a place where we can start exploring whether those theories can really be applied in a practical situation, in and through an existing, small, (relatively) conservative evangelical faith community [some reflections on this will follow sometime in 2017].
In the (slightly misquoted, and unintentionally poignantly true) words of Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy: "It's always about Jesus".
Anyway - this introduction will probably be edited dramatically over the next few weeks [well, it took a decade, but hey!], so if you stumble on it prior to February, 2007, you might want to come back and see if I've done a better job at clarifying the intentions.
In the meantime, Happy New Year [actually, happy new everything!!].
Comments
old people have such bad memories :)