Enjoying a weekend in the Sydney area. – NZ time in my body so I am up early. – Troy Bronsink is streaming his “Songs to Pray By” all weekend long. Good stuff. Sounds a bit like Mumford and Sons. – Vatican Leaks: Apparently THE BUTLER did it! – Looking at Wild Goose Festival opening on…
Read MoreAustralia
This weekend I will be in Shellharbour, just south of Sydney. Thanks to Brian Pember and a small network of Baptist churches who are bringing me over for some chat, reflection, discussion etc about the future of the church in Australia and beyond. Should be good. I think they have invited other churches to join…
Read MoreOn holiday. No posts. But plz. watch my video
Finally, I have got my family away for a few days holiday. We are close to the beach at a friends bach (shack) which happens to be much bigger than our yurt and quite nice. We haven’t got away all year, not even for a weekend, which is crazy because summer came and went here…
Read MoreAs much as you need: An invitation to Kirchentag
I am about to accept an invitation to speak at Kirchentag which will happen in Hamburg next year. Every two years, 100,000 Protestants gather in a German city for this festival. In 2011 Kirchentag happened in Dresden and I had the privilege of being on a panel to talk about building and keeping relationships in…
Read More‘Mighty to Save’ and other worship songs that annoy me
Sorry if I sound grumpy today. It might be my age. I am not usually a huge fan of contemporary worship songs. I don’t like extended chorus singing. This is the stuff of nightmares for me. I can pull off a few tunes with everyone else but then my mind wanders. Sometimes I sit down on…
Read MoreGoodbye Sister Donna
Saddened to hear of the passing of Donna Summer. I enjoyed her songs on the disco floors in the 70’s and after that embarrassing period of flared jeans and polyester, I enjoyed hearing of her new life and how her connection with God gave meaning and purpose. Like Whitney Houston and many other singers, she…
Read MoreBlog banter on church leadership and fresh expressions
Up at 4am this morning. Interesting blog banter going on from 3 Brits: 1. Richard Passmore on Fresh Expressions “I think FE may actually hinder change in the longer term because of the gravitational pull of the institution and accompanying orthodoxy. I think we are already seeing dissenting voices being marginalised as FE spreads and…
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 MoreGlobal emerging church gathering in Brazil
Update: I am reposting this because Encontro Global Tribal Generation 2012 happens next month. They had over 4000 in attendance when they did this event 2 years ago. A teaser for this year: Olgalvaro Bastos Jr who is hosting the gathering is the guy who kicked off our “new wineskins for new wine” discussion on the…
Read MoreVideos from Underground Ministries Roundtable
I just uploaded some videos I took at the Global Roundtable of Underground Ministries which we held at Cornerstone Festival in Illinois last year. Sorry it took so long to get the videos up. Hope you enjoy them. Attendance was a little spotty in places because most of us were also involved in Cornerstone Festival…
Read MoreBishop-elect rocks the national paper.
The NZ Herald is the country’s leading newspaper so we were holding our breath to see what this weekend’s spread would say. Not to worry. In the interview with with our fearless leader Justin Duckworth, who is getting promoted to Bishop of Wellington, Catherine Masters of the NZ Herald does a FABULOUS job of capturing…
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 MoreBoomerang: Travels in the New Third World
I just read two books by Michael Lewis. The first was his latest book called Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. Love that title! The book gives some eye-popping background and tragic [and sometimes hliarious] narrative to the financial collapse in Greece, Iceland and Ireland. A great book if you want to understand the current-day woes…
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