The two brothers from The Holy Transfiguration Monastery just left us. Its been a great three days. This morning we had our final breakfast and chat with them and we all shared what we learned. As for me, I was impressed with their perspective on time, their patience to wait for God’s timing, their reluctance to…
Read MoreBaptist Monasteries. NOT an oxymoron.
Graeme and Oz just arrived from the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Victoria, Australia to hang with us here at Ngatiawa Contemporary Monastery. They are Baptists and they are monks. They even wear habits. We had a chat about Baptist monastic movements. Some of the noteworthy and historic Baptist monasteries that have made their radar include…
Read MoreBaptist monks and couch-surfing apostles: 10 Signs that the future church is here already.
10 years ago today I published an article on Soularize that suggested the church still had a long way to go before it was hitting its target but that there were early signs that prove hopeful and promising. Reading the article [Postmodern Church: Are We There Yet?] again today, it seems a lot of those…
Read MoreNO we are NOT living in a secluded commune!
How embarrassing! After all the news coverage we got last week, my friends and family now think I live in a COMMUNE! Yes, a flipping’ “commune”! When I was a kid in school at Orewa, one of our teachers was a bushy-bearded hippie who lived in a Puhoi commune. We thought that was weird. It…
Read MoreWhat if church could be more like summer camp?
Camps are cool. My youngest kids went to Christian camps last week. TJ (9) went to El Rancho and Hannah (14) went to Lakeview Bible Camp with some Gospel Chapel people from Foxton. They had a great time. They came home with huge smiles and heads full of memories. I also have very fond memories of New Zealand…
Read MoreMinistry Real Estate: Buy or rent?
Real estate investment for churches and ministries can be a curse or a blessing. It’s one area you can’t afford to get wrong. Learn from the new church movements around the world that are RENTING URBAN and BUYING RURAL. RENT URBAN: Urban real estate is expensive. And if you buy too early, your ministry gets…
Read MoreAgainst the Tide, Towards the Kingdom
“We changed our language from a “simple lifestyle” to a “generous lifestyle.” We went with less in order that others could have more.” Jenny and Justin, Against the Tide New book that I highly recommend and just mentioned on my “Choosing to be homeless and poor” post. The book is called Against the Tide, Towards the…
Read MoreGathering 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.…
Read MoreWhat would you do with the Crystal Cathedral?
The Crystal Cathedral is up for sale and I just heard that someone bought it for $46 million. Dang! Maybe some emerging church out there should have bought the 40 acre campus and recycled it into something useful. Although if Randall Balmer is correct in saying that passing on a huge unsustainable megachurch is a…
Read MorePraxis: Training for an Emerging Postmodern Paradigm of Mission
We came to Ngatiawa Contemplative Monastery, here near Waikanae, New Zealand, for PassionFest and liked the people so much that we stayed. Its been a week now and we are having a great time. Justin and Jenny Duckworth are the main conspirators. They let me putter around in the kitchen and hassle the heaps of…
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