Tag: community

Feb201007

Community Stories, Culture, Society & Mission

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Missional Community Practices?

A couple of years ago, when Mike Frost was in the UK, there was a big trend towards using community practices amongst those who were part of or leading missional communities. A few different communities, including The Lab, tried out a routine of simple weekly practices that were designed to encourage an everyday, intentional mission lifestyle.

I was wondering what your experience with community practices has been? Do you think they are a good idea? And how much is an overload of different things to do in a week?

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Feb201003

Culture, Society & Mission, Groups, Relationships & Learning, Mission and Learning

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Mission isn’t for Communities or Individuals, but for People

Mission and Learning – Part 2

Church programs or individual lives?

Is engaging in mission the job of communities of people together – or is it primarily about individuals living intentional lives of mission?

400182073 eaa1786615 o 430x322 Mission isnt for Communities or Individuals, but for People

Part of the discussion following my last post on Mission and Learning was about whether missional engagement and learning should be understood as a group process or as an individual process. Is it that we each have an individual call of join God’s mission or is mission something which must be worked through in community?

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Jan201024

Current Issues, Links

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Haiti: The Church’s Finest Hour

photo1978 430x115 Haiti: The Churchs Finest Hour

World Relief has been empowering local churches to respond to the disaster in Haiti. From their news update:

Haiti’s local churches are rising to the challenge in their quake-ravaged communities – feeding and providing shelter for thousands of the most vulnerable survivors.

By the weekend, four local churches partnering with World Relief will be feeding 9,500 people hot meals – rice and beans for lunch and porridge for dinner – every day.

A local church in the Carrefour area has opened its doors to those who lost their homes, providing refuge for nearly 6,000 people in the community.  Stepping out in faith, Pastor Jean Bathard Anthony began feeding the people with what few supplies he had.  Now World Relief has come alongside Pastor Jean, assisting with food and water.

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Jan201011

Community Stories, Groups, Relationships & Learning

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IGLOO! – Photos and Reflections on a Snow Day

Last Wednesday was an awesome Snow Day – schools were closed and there were loads of young people out and about to play and hang out with. Here’s some photos and reflections on spending time in the snow – and pictures of our Igloo!

IMG 0162 430x322 IGLOO! Photos and Reflections on a Snow Day

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Jan201009

Community Stories, Links

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Need design-work/web design/film production?

Three friends – Matt, Stef and Tom – have been hard at work launching their design business: The House That Love Built.

tumblr kvxoyx0nuc1qapbeuo1 400 Need design work/web design/film production?

These guys are seriously three of the most talented people that I’ve ever met, each in their own media/design fields. Check out their growing portfolio of work on the THTLB website.

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Jan201007

Biblical Studies, Culture, Society & Mission, Missional Viewpoints

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Missional Viewpoints 3: Mission and Healing

How does the image of mission as healing affect the way we understand the mission of God?

4110421350 99a8925d04 o1 430x287 Missional Viewpoints 3: Mission and Healing

So, after a long sabbatical it’s time to resume our Missional Viewpoints series. I almost let this series go, but I still think it’s something worth continuing so it’s time to revisit it and press on further. Just to jog your memory, here’s what I wrote as the brief for this series last Summer:

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Jan201005

Reflection & Contemplation, Twelve Days of Christmas

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Twelve Drummers Drumming

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

So, we’ve reached the last day of Christmas and the last day of this little series. If you haven’t been following so far, we’ve been studying the underlying religious symbolism behind the song, the Twelve Days of Christmas, looking at the Christian/Catholic folklore surrounding the song. Within this tradition the song can be used as a way to teach the Christian faith, with each day representing a different aspect of faith.

Today, the song culminates with the twelve drummers representing the twelve phrases in the Apostles’ Creed.

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Dec200931

Church & Ecclesiology, Culture, Society & Mission, Links

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Top Blog Posts of 2009 and Plans for 2010

It’s that time of the year to look back over another year of blogging, and begin to form plans and ideas for the next year.

The most viewed blog post in 2009 was actually written in December 2008. Missional engagement and reflective learning was an explanation of some quick observations I made about the link between engaging in mission and the reflective learning cycle.

Here’s a quick quote from the original post (after the jump):

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Dec200929

Reflection & Contemplation, Twelve Days of Christmas

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Five Gold Rings

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five gold rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Continuing our series on the Twelve Days of Christmas, we’re looking at the different Christian symbols applied to the folksong. The idea behind these meanings is that then the song can be taught as a kind of teaching song to help learn and remember some important “pillars” of faith. Today is the five gold rings – which symbolise the first five books of the Bible, also called the Books of Moses, the Pentateuch or the Torah (Jewish scriptures).

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Dec200912

Church & Ecclesiology, Culture, Society & Mission

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An open letter to Fresh Expressions

fe logo An open letter to Fresh Expressions

Dear Fresh Expressions and leaders of Fresh Expressions of church,

Thank you so much for the space you have created within the established church for mission, and growing new forms of church which are new and fresh and cater to a whole wealth of different people. However, I have a problem, and the more I read about other Fresh Expressions (my own community is a registered Fresh Expression) the more I am becoming worried about this movement as a whole, and the intrinsic problem which seems to be built into it.

I hope you’ll humour me a moment to explain my very real problem.

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