futurePRIMITIVE

Annie Dillard tells of a dream she had one night about how to go about chopping wood; apparently, it’s all a matter of where you focus: 
‘You aim at the chopping block, not at the wood … You cannot do the job cleanly unless you treat the wood as the transparent means to an end, by […]

I want to have a closer look at the church’s missing leaders: the apostolic, the prophetic, and the evangelistic.  There is an intensity with which these people tackle the purpose of the church that can certainly be uncomfortable. I once had the privilege of meeting a South African church leader on an exchange to the UK.  […]

I’ve just got to the reading the part in Hebrews where it says:  
‘Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.’[1]
Best of all then, I have Jesus. Gary Collins writes that: 
‘we need friendships and frequent contact with inspiring people who […]

I guess many of us would love to write a book some day.   Last year I came across what I thought was a great title in a book by business guru, Seth Godin, (by the way, for our purposes, a Purple Cow is an idea or ministry or community that is remarkable – you’d notice […]

I’ve just finished checking through all the sheets generated by eight groups of people who have purposefully looking to the future of their churches and considering: Small groups, Worship, Pastoral care/chaplaincy, Learning and development, Communication, Local Community, Young People, and Shared meals. 
I had the opportunity to “floatâ€? from group to group for around an hour-and-a-half […]

In ‘no use crying …’ I said that ‘my running keeps me hoping’.   The ’98 London Marathon came just before I was to begin a sabbatical.  Just before this, in a small prayer meeting of church leaders I was a part of, one of them wanted to pray for me.  I hadn’t share anything about […]

I eat, drink, and sleep the stuff I’ve been sharing recently.  There are questions being asked by God that reach down into the very centre of my life. These questions about mission and church have been growing in intensity for around nine years now.  Through the questions, God has been taking me on a journey that […]

Alan Hirsch is left wondering how on earth the Chinese church managed to grow, from an estimated 2 million believers when Mao Tse Tung came to power, to an estimated 60 million when the Bamboo Curtain began to lift.   
These believers had no contact with the larger Christian world, had their leaders and theologians killed […]

I’ve just got back from a week’s break. 
For most of the last week we’ve been visiting our children and breaking up concrete, instead of blogging, but now I’m excited to do some more thinking and hoping for a more simpleCHURCH.
Here’s some of the main points from the last few blogs :

For the church to move […]

Yesterday, Christine and I broke our chocolate fast.
We spotted an amazing chocolate house in Edinburgh called Plaisir du Chocolat and decided that would be a good place to go and have our first chocolate.  Suffice it to say, it was.
I’d given chocolate up for Lent because I love it, but I don’t want to love it […]