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when he did so now they were to discover they were to become kingdom people themselves n t wright paul fromont 12 09 2003 11 14 00 am monday december 08 2003 back safely from wellington great time art stanley spencer exhibition with talk by the curator wim wenders and his amazing photographs see link te papa great food french malaysian indian wine movies reading relaxation thanks to those of you who left a note below checked out the cinema which hosted the world premiere of return of the king watched the final installment of the matrix and the uk movie love actually following andrew jones lead unfortunately i didn t think it was better that notting hill but it was a very watchable movie i spent part of the weekend reading the script of mike riddell s play jerusalem jerusalem published bucket press and available from mike riddell what a wonderful play i would have loved to have seen it acted as the script really moved me actually pretty much most of my reading over the weekend and the week prior has been work either by baxter or about baxter there s something in there something connecting with my jesus following journey more on that maybe it s been important especially mike s essay god was his problem available from mike website thanks mike made a couple of book purchases the collage of god by mark oakley and after religion by gordon lynch paul fromont 12 08 2003 12 04 00 am wednesday december 03 2003 wedding anniversary today 10 years ago in the presence of god family and friends i married my best friend and the love of my life kathryn wow those 10 years have sure flown on by we ve learnt alot we ve lived a lot our lives have been truly rich we have so much to be thankful for we re off to wellington middle earth for a long weekend some french champagne fun and relaxation some time out together just to rest to enjoy one another to be 100 present to each other without all that being parents working etc add to the marriage mix i love you my darling happy anniversary may we be blessed nourished and enriched over a lifetime of being husband and wife i m so grateful for you we re a fantastic team paul fromont 12 03 2003 10 26 00 am tuesday december 02 2003 flightless kiwi a sad decision well in the last couple of days i ve had to make a very sad decision i was hoping i wouldn t need to make but i ve had to postpone my trip to kentucky and cincinnati for mayhem the key component was the unavailability of seats other than one seat that was going to cost nz 3 500 internal us flights taxes other issues entered into my reflection and searching for god s wisdom it s been an insightful journey my heartfelt thanks to those who pledged funds towards my airfare i was deeply touched by your generosity nothing like that has ever happened to me before and to think it was expressed through a wonderful group of people who ve never met me i was profoundly excited about moving from virtual friendship to embodied friendship there are so many of you i was looking forward to hanging out with being on alan and kevin s home turf was a wonderful opportunity but one which will now have to wait a little longer god willing i m hopeful a future opportunity will emerge maybe towards the end of 2004 or spring summer in the states one other year paul fromont 12 02 2003 10 30 00 am monday december 01 2003 the shaping of things to come by michael frost alan hirsch some quotes from michael alan s recently published book that made me stop reflect imagine and pray they are from the introduction and chapter 1 evolution or revolution right up front we want to confess our belief that the planting of new culturally diverse missional communities is the best way forward for the church that views itself in a missional context while some established churches can be revitalized success seems to be rare from our experience and perspective we believe that the strategic focus must now shift from revitalization to mission i e from a focus on the insiders to the outsiders and in so doing we believe the church will rediscover its true nature and fulfill its purpose perhaps an established church can plant a missional congregation within its broader church structures others might sponsor and support the planting of new congregations on their doorstep to reach those not interested in the conventional church but it does seem to us that the real hope lies with those courageous leaders who will foster the development of alternative experimental new communities of faith introduction p x we open this book with our impressions of the burning man phenomenon because it and festivals like it around the world seem to be saying something important to the world in general and to the church specifically it s a cry from an emerging postmodern generation for a community of belonging spirituality sensuality empowerment and liberation p 5 there is a desperate yearning that has been unleashed in the western world over the past ten or so years during that time the advent of postmodernism has raised within the west many expectations for an experiential activist form of religious mystical experience p 6 the gospel and our culture network gocn says the missional church represents god in the encounter between god and human culture it exists not because of human goals or desires but as a result of god s creating and saving work in the world it is a visible manifestation of how the good news of jesus christ is present in human life and transforms human culture to reflect more faithfully god s intentions for creation it is a community that visibly and effectively participates in god s activity just as jesus indicated when he referred to it in metaphorical language as salt yeast and light in the world p 7 such a church makes its mission its priority and perpetually asks itself what has god called us to be and do in our current cultural context the issue of cultural context is essential because the missional church shapes itself to fit that context in order to transform it for the sake of the kingdom of god by definition the missional church is always outward looking always changing as culture continues to change and always faithful to the word of god p 7 boxlike thinking simply cannot solve the problems of the box p 7 the missional church is incarnational not attractional in its ecclesiology by incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel rather the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be christ to those who don t yet know him p 12 the missional church adopts an apostolic rather than a hierarchical mode of leadership by apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by paul in ephesians 6 it abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical flat leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism apostleship and prophecy as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts p 12 we believe the missional genius of the church can only be unleashed when there are foundational changes made to the church s very dna and this means addressing core issues like ecclesiology spirituality and leadership p 12 the church is worse off precisely because of christendom s failure to evangelize its own context and establish gospel communities that transform the culture p 14 says john drane no persecutor or foe in two thousand years has wreaked such havoc on the church as has modernity p 14 it is time to move on and find a new mode of understanding and engagement with surrounding contexts we can no longer afford our historical sentimentality even addiction to the past christendom is not the biblical mode of the church it was is merely one way in which the church has conceived of itself in enshrining it as the sole form of the church we have made it into an idol that has captivated our imaginations and enslaved us to a historical cultural expression of the church we have not answered the challenges of our time precisely because we refuse to let go of the idol p 15 it will require that we adopt something that looks far more like the early church in terms of its conception of the church ecclesiology and its core task in the world missiology p 15 what is happening now in the cultural milieu is entirely outside of any discernible christian influence p 15 we propose that what will emerge from the chaos of the current social historical shift to the postmodern is likely to be a second reformation as the church rediscovers itself as an apostolic movement in fact we suggest that if the church in the west does not embrace such a radical recalibration it will find itself increasingly imperiled pp 15 16 the church should abandon its role as a static institution and embrace its initial calling to be a missionary movement whereas christendom has unraveled because of its seduction by western culture the emerging missional church must see itself as being able to interact meaningfully with culture without ever being beguiled by it this is the classic task of the cross cultural missionary to engage culture without compromising the gospel p 16 forging apostolic movements requires a different kind of thinking that innovates new modes of doing and being church and recasts its notions of leadership structure and mission p 16 christology determines missiology and missiology determines ecclesiology it is christ who determines our purpose and mission in the world discipleship and then it is our mission that must drive our search for modes of being in the world p 16 this is not a time for evolution as if another desperate reworking of the old model is going to fix our problems and start a revival it is time for a revolution in the way we do and are church p 16 paul fromont 12 01 2003 10 39 00 pm sunday november 30 2003 the ooze have been kind enough to publish an essay i wrote in the third quarter of this year a bit rough in places and the first section has been subsequently prior to me knowing the ooze were going to do anything with it re worked in the next wave essay kama sutra the body art of emerging church paul fromont 11 30 2003 10 03 00 pm this quote from the shaping of things to come by mike frost and alan hirsch follow the link pdf contents page sample chapter and introduction was something i tried to communicate in yesterdays sermon i feel encouraged i m not on another planet to contextualize is to understand the language longings lifestyle patterns and worldview of the host community and to adjust our practices accordingly without compromising the gospel many churches change the style of their sunday services without any research into the host community we often change things because we want the change not because of a heart for cross cultural mission in our own context p 85 the shaping of things to come posted as comment by darryl on darren s blog paul fromont 11 30 2003 11 50 00 am incubators of the emerging we watched an interesting television programme last night about business incubators a business incubator is a facility designed to assist businesses to become established and profitable during their start up phase they do this by providing shared premises business advice business services networking mentoring a full time manager the incubation period for an individual business is normally one to three years us statistics show that business incubators increase the success rate of start ups from 20 to 87 so do we need to have church incubators networks that intensively work to nurture nourish and fund creativity that resource new and emerging expressions of church that fund and resource spirituality i m grateful to have a good friends down here that incubate my spirituality my sense of church and mission mark and steve andrew and mike an invisible distant friend these people often remain at the distance unaware of any connection with us these are the people living and dead that inspire teach and encourage through the example of their lives their writing their art their music or their teaching who fund me encourage me and enable me to better incarnate and earth my jesus following life in this land paul fromont 11 30 2003 11 24 00 am today 1st dec is the world premiere of the return of the king 6 hours drive south from where i am now in wellington the capital city of aotearoa new zealand i ll be down there next weekend 10 wedding anniversary but am really disappointed that the movie doesn t publically open for another 2 weeks so we won t be able to go and see the movie in the cinema that it premiered in paul fromont 11 30 2003 11 02 00 am friday november 28 2003 are we the problem part 1 our god is a god of beginnings there is in him no redundancy or circularity thus if his church wants to be faithful to his revelation it will be completely mobile fluid renascent bubbling creative inventive adventurous and imaginative jacques ellul we can tell a lot about our theology of god by the ways we do and are church i can tell a lot about the unspoken theology of my church by sitting back and listening by watching by asking questions by listening to conversations over lunch by listening to conversation at small group gatherings by listening to questions being asked by watching for what is being read by listening to sources and people of influence in people journey s by listening for the music that people are listening too by looking for the ways they distance themselves from the world within which they are called to serve and with which they are called to engage for the sake of the gospel given yesterdays post alan jamieson s research if church people and churches are shallow in their format and approach poor listeneners conservative to the point of actually squeezing out life too inward looking boring superficial dull numbing narrow a hindrance to connecting more deeply with god and a hindrance to fully and creatively expressing a relationship with god does it follow that we re all these things as individuals because we are church if we are why are we what does it say about our spirituality and what are we going to do about it paul fromont 11 28 2003 10 07 00 am thursday november 27 2003 why people leave churches a section from my sermon notes for sunday broadening our reflection on acts 15 1 35 people leave churches people have damaging church experiences for all kinds of reasons this is a reality in drawing attention to the struggles that people have what i m trying to do is to encourage the kind of communal reflection that really listens to the life quenching experiences that many people are having in churches listens in order to better love change and serve the needs of people who want to grow in and deepen their relationship with god revealed in jesus who want to become more fully human after the likeness of jesus who want to nurture the diverse work of the spirit in their everyday lives who want to more authenti...