These notes are from a talk by Duncan Forbes at the recent Reaching the Unreached [http://www.reachingtheunreached.org.uk/] conference in Barnsley, in the UK. They are my notes from a talk so they may not accurately represent what Duncan intended. Duncan grew up on an...
I’m posting a few quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together (available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk) which I recently reviewed on my blog (here). Today some quotes on the danger of loving the dream of community, but not real people – a danger to which...
These notes are from a talk by Efrem Buckle at the recent Reaching the Unreached [http://www.reachingtheunreached.org.uk/] conference in Barnsley, England. They are my notes from a talk so they may not accurately represent what Efrem intended. Efrem has a gospel ministry using rap music...
A review of Michael R. Emlet, CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet, New Growth Press, 2009. Available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. Rick tells you his wife is divorcing him after 22 years of marriage. How do you bring the words of Scripture to Rick? How do you counsel him with...
In recent years we have been offered all sorts of options for church: organic church, messy church, simply church, total church. Let me (with tongue in cheek) suggest another: slow church. There is a slow food movement that extols the merits of hand-cooked food made from local ingredients...
A review of Neil Cole, Organic Leadership: Leading Naturally Right Where You Are, Baker, 2009 . Neil Cole is the author of Organic Church and, as the title suggests, in Organic Leadership he takes the approach of Organic Church and applies to leadership and training. Cole begins by...
A review of Timothy Keller, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything DVD and Workbook , Zondervan, 2010. In January I claimed that Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God DVD and workbook was my resource of 2009. I’m pretty confident that his new Gospel In Life DVD and workbook will my...
Some people are quite excited by the idea of ‘missional community’. They have high ideals. They want to recreate something of what was going on the New Testament or at least revive some of the dreams they had when they were young. For others ‘missional community&rsquo...
Recognising our missional context means we can no longer assume the church understands the culture. We need to get to know our neighbourhood, its people, their stories, values, worldview and culture. We also need to recognize that, while many communities are still defined by geography, they may...
Tim Keller identifies the following characteristics of a missional church (in ‘The Missional Church’, June 2001). I’ve found them very helpful in encouraging groups to recognise what it means to engage with their neighbourhoods in a missional way. Keller says: A...