Contextualize, contextualize, contextualize. I hear this word a lot. I hear it from the emerging Church movement. I hear it from the evangelical pragmatics, (that’s what Robert Webber calls them in his book ‘Young Evangelicals’). I hear it from training colleges… What...

An amazing parable but sadly the truth does indeed hurt! “ship wrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown”… watch the video and say the those words out loud. Get the Flash Player to see this video.

The noise is getting louder each day! The boisterous opponents of the Church are becoming increasingly vocal: ‘All the Church wants is money!’ ‘Fanatics like them cause wars!’ ‘Bunch of hypocrites!’ ‘They don’t know how to have fun! ‘The...

It all began when I read Acts again towards the end of last year – actually I’ve read it at least once a year for a long time, but it was last year I began to notice something which, to me anyway, was significant. Most of you who are leaders will have read widely enough to have heard of the...

FIRE2010 Saturday PM session… ‘the other track’ by John Tanner

FIRE2010 Saturday AM session… ‘power power power’ by Colin Stoodley

FIRE2010 Friday ‘I am ok with that?’ ‘Are you ok with that?’ The question we need to ask… a lot. by Dean Thomas

I came across an article the other day from the ‘Boston Globe’ talking about the increasing difficulty of making new discoveries. I discovered (no pun intended) that until recently no one has really tried to measure the increasing difficulty of discovery. The name given to this new type of...

About six years ago the German football team was at a crossroads. They were playing what many people thought was a boring brand of the beautiful game. They were a defensive team and while they could sometimes win on the counter when it came to winning a game with their own strategy they...

Recently on the “Church Planting Village” website, Tom Cheyney posted an article outlining the traits of churches that multiply. He called these churches “sending” churches and gave a simple outline that might be a useful leadership discussion. Check the site...

Is Our Vision Too Small? I read an article on the internet recently in which the writer made a critical assessment of world mission efforts during the last 100 years.  He said we had invested our energies in either Gospel outreach or social action and the results in many countries have been...

At 3pm one day a few years ago my son, who was 5 at the time, sat down with me to watch the world superbike championship. He was quite pleased and truthfully so was I because I had been longing to watch it, longing to watch Aussie Troy Bayliss beat the best the rest of the world could offer!...

I was asked the other day to speak about my ‘church planting’ experience… you know the usual questions… Why should we church plant? Who should church plant? How did I start? What have I done? What would I do different next time? But before I get to that I want to tell...

In September 2009 four Pines’ Graduates went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to encourage and minister alongside four other Pines’ Graduates – Peung, Relle, Terry and Robyn. The ensuing two weeks were filled with challenges, salvations, swine flu, tree removal, good food and new cultural...

Why are missionaries allowed to get away with so much when it comes to communicating the Gospel in the context of those they serve? What would happen in our communities if we lived out their missional strategies here at home? How would that impact how we talk? How we dress? How we serve? How...

I don’t believe anyone deliberately chooses less in life. We may unwittingly choose it because we feel unworthy of anything more, but never because we actually prefer less. No. There is, in fact, a long journey through badly handled decisions and deep disappointment before we reach less. The...

Contextualize, contextualize, contextualize. I hear this word a lot. I hear it from the emerging Church movement. I hear it from the evangelical pragmatics, (that’s what Robert Webber calls them in his book ‘Young Evangelicals’). I hear it from training colleges… What...

Have you ever read a non-fiction book which is un-put-downable? If a quick survey of my close circle of Christian friends is anything to go by, books like James Rutz’s MegaShift are few and far between. The preface includes the challenge, ‘If you read it with an open heart, I...

I chat online with men and women involved in house churches, church planters and other pioneers creating new ministries. And I speak in the old-fashioned way to peers involved in ‘normal’ pastorates. Whenever the subject of emerging church or emerging ministries arises, we...

From science we recognize that there are capacities and limitations to our own perceptions. From the early 20th century two guys named Donald Broadbent and Thomas Kuhn did separate studies and discovered we have filtering processes that both allow and prevent information from coming in to our...

Some people love the Church, some are suspicious of the Church and still others hate it with a vengeance!But which Church do they love or hate? Is it the greying, largely traditional Church; the aggressive, contemporary mega or regional Church; or the almost hidden (no buildings) emerging...