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We actually need a reformation of Christianity so our institutions better reflect the intention that was always meant to define them
As I write I am sitting aboard the Spirit of Tasmania II after a whirlwind visit to Victoria to celebrate my daughter’s 22nd birthday. We came across on Tuesday evening and spent much of Wednesday driving as we visited the Mornington Fusion centre where we had lived for five years before travelling up to Bendigo to be with Maddi. Seeing my little girl now all grown up and returning to Victoria, where I led the Fusion team for five years put me in a reflective mode, particularly in light of what I have been thinking about as I prepare for Sunday. There has been a lot written about the church…
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My role in my kids lives is changing, and that’s not easy, but it is ok.
My son Josh will be waking up in Australia for the first time in four and a half years. That is now two of my children living more than thirteen thousand kilometres away. That reality certainly has had me reflecting. I am realizing that there are two distinct phases of being a parent. In the first phase you are completely responsible for the teaching, care and nurture of your child. In the second phase your only responsibility is as a cheer squad, willing them to win the race of life that lies ahead of them. The problem is that there isn’t really a line you cross to say you have…
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The six sick practises we have developed to avoid conflict, which eat away at the church like cancer.
Yesterday I sat in a room with a bunch of pastors as we tried to work out what it meant to genuinely be in fellowship. For a number of years we had met and been warm and polite, but yesterday something shifted, just a little bit, and we were starting to be more real than we had ever been. Later in the afternoon I sat with another pastor as we reflected on the Christian church, and together we agreed that one of the biggest challenges we faces is that we are generally isolated as individuals. We agreed that this was largely because we avoid the potential for the pain that conflict might…
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Marriage isn’t easy, but true love is so much richer than the anaemic imitation that we see on the silver screen.
I love teaching about love and sexuality, both because it is such a huge issue that is largely avoided in the Christian church and also because l have spent the last 21 on a journey trying to learn what it means to be married. I have written before about how I love Leeanne. Loving someone though doesn’t mean that the relationship will be simple. I haven’t yet met a person married for more than 6 weeks who would say their relationship was simple. Marriage is complicated and marriage is a commitment. One of the big ideas I am always keen to communicate in a discussion about relationships is the difference between what…
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A thought for today
A word from the word Rather than my normal blog today I thought I would simply share a passage of scripture from this morning’s quiet time. I was up to Ephesians chapter 4, and these words have been going round in my head all day. I have my quiet times using the message so these verses are from that version: No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.
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Looking beyond
Openness to others I am continuing to put up excerpts from Jean Vanier’s “Community and Growth” every now and then. I love working with Fusion, and I love the heart of what we are about. In this section though, Vanier explores what it means for communities like Fusion to mature. Vanier looks at the challenge for communities to increasingly become open to the gift of “the other””:
