I'm Back

It's been hard staying away from the blog for so long -nearly 5 months! Over the Christmas break I've found the time to get back into reading blogs on a regular basis and am coming across so many things that I feel I just want to share and comment on that I thought I might give blogging another shot.

Things are also starting to move in the area of "church" in my life. About 3 months ago the leadership here at Binningup made the almighty paradigm shift from attractional thinking to missional/incarnational - it was quite an emotional experience for me, to see the move take place after 3 years (more really) of introducing new ideas and ways of viewing "church" and "ministry". The shift has ended with the leadership, with the exception of Alyssa and I, signing up for a 12 month internship with Forge in the Re-Imagine program.

About 10 weeks ago Lyss and I started a discussion group in Bunbury with the intent of moving towards starting a missional community in the town, based predominantly around the concept of the kingdom gospel and a process of community (lives, environment, culture) transformation. We started off reading McLaren's Secret Message of Jesus. One of the original couples didn't last a week, a few more petered out after a couple of weeks. One week we had more than 20 in attendance. And now we've settled at around 8 or 9 regulars - including a couple of young blokes who have come through the drug program and are searching for meaning in life.

This past Sunday, after a break over Christmas/New Years we decided to move things to the next level and agreed to begin meeting in a central location within the CBD. The space is a community arts centre where numerous and varied community groups meet. Its right next to the town skate park and means mixing it up and sharing space with a number of other groups, including the local Dungeons and Dragons club and a literary group.

The place got bombed by taggers (graffiti artists who spray their nick-name on every flat surface) last week and I offered our services to the manager in cleaning up the place which led to a really interesting conversation and the manager coming back at me with ideas for getting involved with the community engagement stuff they are hoping to do this year. I am really excited by the possibilities this place is going to offer in terms of being missional and a part of the inner city community we want to serve and help transform.

We have embarked on this venture with support from Binningup Beach Christian Fellowship, who are seeing it as a kind of "plant" of their own (which is great and which I have encouraged), from Churches of Christ, and from Forge and Scripture Union.

If you're in Bunbury and want to check us out, we get together at 4pm on Sunday arvos at the Stirling St Art Centre - see you there!

In kicking off my return to the blogosphere I'll leave you with a link to a post I found on the "Gathering in Light" blog on the 4 different arms of the emerging church. I think we probably fit somewhere in number 3 in what we are trying to achieve in Bunbury.