Gathering in Prague

We have just finished a round of informal meetings and meals and chats in Prague, Czech Republic. It lasted over a week and a half and we had people fly in from everywhere.

Some days everyone came out to our campsite for a bbq and other days we met in restaurants or hotels around Prague. Its a spectacular city to do this in and the weather was great.

Quite a different way of doing a conference. It was more of a non-conference, and it didn’t have a name, but we managed to make some important and strategic decisions and forge some new partnerships. Some of these you will hear about soon.

One of the interesting observations was that many of the ministry leaders who were involved with the church planting movement a decade ago were now involved in wider, more holistic ministry that included social enterprise, micro-business, and some kind of monastery or old building they were rebuilding to create an intentional missional community. Even the Asians.

If the Lutheran Reformation 500 years ago was impacted by the Reformers being given empty church buildings, this new reformation is taking shape by young people being given empty monasteries and figuring out what to do with them. Monasteries have a great history of holistic mission and the repurposing of these structures is shaping the way mission is done today.

In fact, the land we were staying on, and hosting our parties, used to be a Premonstate monastery in the middle ages and is now being rebuilt for a new season of missional social enterprise and training by evangelical Christians.

Thanks to Mathias and the staff at Mosaic House, Miss Sophies, and Sir Tobys for their great hospitality. Definitely the best hotels and hostels to stay in Prague. Miss Sophies seemed to be the favourite. The management have told me that the discount code for all these hotels will be available to Tallskinnykiwi readers for an extended time. The code is “tallskinnykiwi”.