Moved Mountains

Banner - Mt Trio, Stirling Range National Park, Western Australia - (c) 2007

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Eclectic

I've been enjoying Snow Patrol's new CD - A Hundred Million Suns - over the last few weeks. My taste in music is varied. I like hard rock - was once in a pub band that played hard rock, and I still enjoy AC-DC, P.O.D., Creed and other heavier bands. But I also enjoy other stuff. The John Butler Trio is good, I'm a Crowded House fan from way back (was really upset by Paul Hester's untimely death). I enjoy blues and get into a bit of BB King and John Lee Hooker and recently have been listening to a new, young UK artist called Newton Faulkner with the album Hand Built by Robots.

But there is definitely something about Snow Patrol that keeps me coming back for more. The first album I bought was Chasing Cars. The palpable yearning that exuded from the lyrics hooked me. I don't know any of their earlier music, but their latest album, while very different to Chasing Cars, has grabbed me in a similar way. Lightbody's lyrics are poetry. He captures something of the human condition in a way that is rare.

A great new collective of EMC church types has hit the netwaves in the form of Missional Tribe. This place has an amazing collection of blogs from many of the well known, and not-so-well known missional practitioners and commentators. It's fantastic to have such a rich resource so readily available and I fully recommend checking it out and, signing up and setting up your blog.

Within a day of joining I had Frank Viola send me a "friend request"!

Lastly, you should check out Hamo's latest post. It is a quote from Eugene Petersen on the mistake of falling into the trap of believing the mission of God is immediate in its effect.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Finshing up in paid church work

Tomorrow will mark the last time I speak at Binningup Beach Christian Fellowship in my paid role as the churches "pastoral worker". I accepted an offer to work with the City of Bunbury as their youth development officer earlier in the week.

I had already resigned from the church but was not due to finish up until April, so this has brought the finish forward a bit. The new position is full time and involves the development in implementation of youth focussed programs and projects for the City. I'm excited about starting, and also a little nervous.

I'm also a bit nervous about finishing up with the church. I've been working for the church for 4 years now -3 in a paid capacity. I feel like I have invested a lot of emotion and time into this community of Christians and while in some ways its difficult to let go and move on, I am also looking forward to a change of scenery, away from some of the restrictions and difficulties of church work.

Alternate[Or] Community continues to be a focus for Alyssa and I. We both envisage this taking over as our primary "church" from now on. Although we will still maintain ties with Binningup and will be holding a house meeting here around once a month which we hope, one day, might turn into something more regular in the town.