It started with one person, having water poured all over them. It was because of a disease, 3 letters sum up the disease. That person challenges other people, calls them by name. If and when that person responds, they get water poured all over them too, then they challenge their friends and family and people and people they work with maybe. And it’s like, ‘What are you going to do about this?’
Michael Frost at New Thing Gathering #exponential Only one Australian has ever won the Nobel prize for literature; Patrick White A brutal, critical hater of the church in his biography he wrote about how he was with his gay partner of 40 years when he went out on the farm to feed his dogs, He fell on his backside, covered in mud and dogfood he heard a voice say ‘who the hell do you think you are?’ He thought God was speaking to him. So he went to church next week with his partner He went to the Anglican Church and sat at the back, where the Rector was telling people off for entering the jelly bean counting contest and being gamblers. ‘I realised whatever faith I had needed to be a private matter’ And too many churches are putting people like that off or telling them off Rather than being with them. Being their friends I And saying ‘that God who was taking to you, he’s my friend and he wants to be yours too.’ Canada – Another […]
The journey of faith is not me inviting God into my story. It’s me looking outward beyond myself. And saying ‘I want to play in your story.’
You get no credit for looking in the mirror and knowing you’re a mess. What will you DO? You can memorise 12 great principles of successful marriage and still be instant messaging behind her back to that young girl in the office. It’s the same with money, parenting, or business. The blessing doesn’t come because I know. Or don’t.
What My Daughter Learned From Five Years In Prison
(This is from last Sunday night’s talk at the Ivy AGM – Awesome Gratitude Meeting) One of my favourite author/ speakers died last year – his name was Brennan Manning. If you have ever read ‘Ragamuffin Gospel’ you’ll never forget it. I have read lots of what he’s written and listened to many of his talks, but it was only this week I heard the amazing story about how he got the name “Brennan.” Because his real name was Richard Xavier Francis Manning – a good Irish catholic name, to be sure. While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: went to school together, bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated, and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together in the Korean War. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the trench. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, […]
(Snippet from tomorrow’s talk. Will be on podcast next week) Noah was told to build a rescue boat. And that’s what the church is meant to be by the way. This week the CofE put out a report highlighting how good it was that some churches were growing. The headlines on twitter simply declared,‘Good news! Many churches are growing!’ I was really excited, but then I looked at the actual figures in the middle and in fact since 2010 – 18% of their churches are growing, great. But 55% are plateauing and 27% declined. Later on we read that nearly half of churches have less than 5 under 16s. That’s not good news. Reporting it as such is disingenuous. Surely these figures highlight a problem? If it was a business you’d say ‘It’s change or die time.’ You have to face the bad news, before you can be good news. I’m passionate about this because I’m still convinced that the local church is the hope of the world! We have to recognize the seriousness of our time and build churches and […]
One of the things I have often been challenged about by God, and it draws close to me every day in terms of what I worry about or get concerned about, is the issue of WHO IS MY PROVIDER going to be? Who do I see as responsible for providing for what I need? Your answer to that will have you living in one of three ways. You’ll be a BEGGAR, A DIGGER, OR A GIVER. Jesus told a parable, a story with meaning, in Luke 16:1-13. It’s a bit of a weird one about a man who suddenly finds himself in financial difficulty. The major point, which it’s always safest to go with in parables, is that he thought he’d always have enough, but now the future’s closing him down fast. And the internal dialogue the guy has with himself there leads me to these three ways to live. Have a read yourself. He says ‘I’m too proud to beg, and I’m not strong enough to dig,’ so he ends up getting very creative in the area of generosity […]
Do you ever wonder, “What’s the least I can give, and it still be okay with God?” Be honest.
Listen to this great story of courage and faith