Today I am up in Butler, north of Perth, about to have lunch with Backyard Missionary blogger Andrew Hamilton and his wife Danelle. His blog is legendary – an emerging church kind of blog with varied thoughts on life ranging from Rob Bell to surfing.
Why backyard? Because Andrew is a reticulation engineer and spends a lot of his time in people's backyards, digging trenches and setting up sprinklers as part of his business. But I suspect its also because the best moments of ministry happen not so much in churches, and Andrew is also pastor at Quinns Baptist so he is not opposed to that, but those life-changing moments and conversations happen even more in the backyards of ordinary people who share life together over a bbq, a cold drink, and an informal chat.
Andrew's blog post on whether our mission structures are attractional or incarnational is probably the best one out there and I have pointed to it before.
He is also well remembered on the blogs, as well as being National Director of Forge Australia, for his good natured chat with Don Carson regarding the emerging church at the Baptist Seminary, along with mate Geoff Westlake – who I had dinner with a few nights ago. The links to that audio no longer work but Andrew has some good reflections on that conversation which added so much to the whole conversation.
He's a good bloke and its a priviledge being his friend for these 30 years or so.
Wow you have eaten, meet with and spoken to every one of my friends !!
maybe one day we will reconnect, I have tried 🙂
kim hammond
i look forward to it
I agree with the best moments being in very untraditional settings.
http:/jasontcormier.com
I think we miss so many good opportunities to touch people’s lives in a real way because we so often separate church from our “real lives”. If we would see what we do on a regular basis as a chance to witness and minister to people we would be much more effective in what God has called us to do.
Thanks for sharing this thought. It is a good reminder.