» 2008 » August

Bob Roberts is contagious. You can’t help but get excited about whatever he’s excited about. Even if it’s kissing a giraffe. (Please don’t tell him I published this photo or he might publish the one of me!)

We caught up earlier this year in Kenya for consultation on church planting movements. Don’t tell him I published [...]

I’m reading Catholicism and modernity: Confrontation or capitulation? by James Hitchcock. Written in the late 1970s in the wake of Vatican II. He writes as an orthodox Catholic facing the growing liberalisation of his faith from within the Church.

There are striking parallels in the story of the Episcopalian demise in the US and Canada and [...]

Caught up with a church planter recently. He’s doing a great job. Growing in skill and character. Taking the church beyond the pioneering phase to health and viability.

At this point too many church planters get the idea that it’s all about the growth of “their” church. But growth is a by-product of health. If it [...]

The second half of my interview with Andrew Evans on the Rise and Rise of the Assemblies of God in Australia.

Pentecostals are known for their dependence on the Holy Spirit. Did all this goal setting undermine that dependence?

We set goals. But to get the churches going there has to be a work of God.

In South [...]

Andrew Evans was born in India to missionary parents. He served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Back in Australia he took a church of 150 people and grew it to thousands—Paradise AOG. For twenty years he led the Assemblies of God (now Australian Christian Churches) in exponential growth of both churches and people.

He [...]

It’s summer in Italy. Everything shuts down for August. The cities empty out, and so do the churches.

So what should the churches do? Why not go to Adriatic coast where the people are and bring a 30 metre inflatable church?

You may think this is a joke, but there is a serious side as the BBC [...]

She saved my life and she saved the church’s life. I wouldn’t be here today unless she had the courage to say, ‘No more’.Pete Scazzero says is was the worst day and the best day of his life when after eight years his wife Geri came to him and said “I quit the church. I’m [...]

Bobby Gupta transformed a Bible College into a church planting movement with over 600 church planters.

In 20 years they have planted 3,163 churches in 21 states of India and in Nepal with a membership of over 150,000 believers.

Church Resource Ministries and Crossway, are hosting a seminar with Bobby Gupta in Melbourne on Sep 22.

Bobby Gupta

I got mad the other day and wrote this piece. Fortunately I had the wisdom to check it with Michelle before publishing. She told me “don’t you dare!”. Too negative. Too many names named.

So it sat here amongst my drafts with instructions to publish it when I die. But I got tired of waiting to [...]

Dynamic movements are very “tight” when it comes to core beliefs but “open” with methods.

The best methods are adaptive, flexible, reproducible, functional and simple enough to be contagious.

Here’s an example from my email traffic.

Hi Brian

How’s it going?

I have an Aussie mate living and working in Europe. He’s reaching out to the other single young adults [...]