ONE REFLECTION FROM ORIGINS '09

In the last address that Erwin McManus gave, we heard him talking about the "three places" Christ followers go, or can go. Telling us his basis for his address about places, Erwin read from the book of Acts chapter 9 about Paul's experience of relating to other Jewish and non-Jewish people in the city of Corinth.

The first place Paul was in was the Syngagogue (related today to the gathering place of Christ followers, namely the Church). His second place was the Market Square, the public space where people met and ideas were exchanged. Today it might be a pub, the beach or the coffee shop. His third place was when he was invited "led by the hand" to the meeting place of the philosophers so that they could hear more about Paul's strange teaching. Today this third place is the party, the dinner celebration or club where you need an "invite" to go.

In our 'Church without walls' ministry that we are starting, we have no first place in contrast to most Christians who only serve in the Church (the first place). Our second place is Centrepoint and other places like the Choir, Hiking group or Film/Interest group we start/join in. We spend most of our ministry in this second place.

We have been privileged to be invited to third places on a fairly regular basis. Often we are two among several invitees. We are not necessarily the Paul as shown in Acts 9, but we have some opportunity to share more deeply with people.

Where do you "hang out" in your ministry? All Christ followers are in ministry/service? Where do you have most of your in-depth conversations? Are they with fellow followers of Christ, or with those who are not yet followers of Christ?

We would love to hear your responses to this! Please leave a comment.

In the cause of Christ,
Roger

UPDATE ON MOSAIC ORIGINS CONFERENCE - GERMANY 2009

Mosaic Origins 2009 met at Eimeldingen, Germany with Erwin McManus and many of his team coming to encourage Christians who gathered together from all over Europe for this conference. The conference was in English with German and French translation. Approximately 300 people attended the conference.

It began at 9.30am on Thurs. 8 January and concluded at 5pm Saturday.
Erwin's first talk was entitled "Momentum" (Mosaic story).
Second session was Ethos - 5 Core Values (see below)
Synergy
Narrative - Apostolic Ethos

The 2 other speakers were Naeem Fazal on "Essentials of Transformational Growth"
Eric Bryant "Organizing for Innovation"

There were 6 Breakout sessions held during the conference. They were:

1. Wind - Commission
Mission is why the Church exists. "People matter most"

2. Water - Community
Love is the context of all mission "Love permeates everything"

3. Wood - Connection
Structure must always submit to Spirit "Passion fuels action"

4. Fire - Communion
Relevance to culture is not optional "Relevance communicates truth"

5. Earth - Character
Creativity is the natural result of spirituality "Character creates change"

As you can imagine, the conference was fairly full on with much to take in, process, learn. It was great to catch up with so many like minded people and we found this a great encouragement.

I've given the 'bones' of the conference and hopefully tomorrow Roger will write more in detail about what we got out of the conference.

The Bloors

Geoff, Ann and Claire Bloor arrived on Sunday 11 January and have been staying in Loerrach. They are visiting in this area for 2 weeks. It has been great to share our time with them over meals, showing them around Basel, doing a prayer walk together as we look for a location/meeting place in Basel; travelling into France, playing cards on a cold, wet Sunday afternoon. We've had lots of chatting together and they have been a great encouragement to us in our ministry here.

They also came to our German Church FeG Loerrach. Our Youth Pastor David Gut, who is currently only Pastor at the Church, gave the sermon. I think this was a great experience for them.

The Bloors will be in our area until they fly out of Basel on Sunday. Although we have a busier week this week, we plan to catch up for a few meals together and also to take them back into Centrepoint on Friday morning for coffee.

Visitors

We love having visitors from Australia here in our home. It helps us to stay connected and to work on our accent!!

It was wonderful to have Dudley Tann from Adelaide stay with us overnight back at the end of November. We had 24 hours of good chatting!! Dudley brought with him a signed copy of "The Shack" by W Paul Young which we have both enjoyed reading. Dudley was en route to visiting his new grandson in Nice.

Tim and Amy arrived in Schopfheim to a heavy snowfall on 17 December. Amy was very excited to make a snowman (and I can't believe I didn't get a photo!!). It was lots of fun. Amy named him "Crusty" and there is still a little bit of him left in our front garden! We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with Tim and Amy and then on Sat. 27 December we caught the train with them to Colmar in France where they were catching up with Amy's family. We had a special 1 day catch up again in Luzern on 3 January.

Late on Sunday night 11 January Roger's niece Anna arrived by train with her friend Hannah. They were touring around Europe with huge backpacks (oh to be young again - but I still don't think I'd like it!). They stayed a couple of nights and enjoyed a Roast Dinner with us!