About time I got another post up here, process some more…

Andrew lead a conversation on dangerous living as it impacts new communities. We looked at Luke 10:1-10, specifically paying close attention to the verbs. The verb I noticed most was ‘eat‘ – that in this context it’s not us giving away food, but becoming a beggar and accepting someone else’s food.
Andrew talked about how ministry is shaped by whose house it happens in. In Luke 10, the party is held in Matthews house, not some church building or whatever. Matthew already has the relationships with the tax collectors, so its the most logical place to hold the party. We often find this style difficult as we aren’t in control then – if we are in control, we can determine what it looks like, but sometimes (usually!) it’s wiser to let the kingdom stuff happen among the people where it is already stirring, rather than trying to force it happen on our terms.
This also ties in with the progression in Luke 10… As people become more comfortable, needs become obvious, which provides opportunities to share / explain the Gospel.

Loved Brodie’s comment:
“What we need is not a bigger flat, but a bigger mind”

In the afternoon I was in Mark’s conversation on the emerging church and the poor… quite a difficult conversation due to the size of the group! I know it put me off expressing opinions somewhat. Someone talked about how we often would rather do that which is glamorous than that which is necessary. Do we really want to help the poor, or do we just want to be able to say we help the poor? Good question.
Pete talked about this kind of “parallex view” – we can see the hurt and pain on CNN but we look out the window and everything looks fine. We know what’s happening in our heads, but how do we reconcile these things?

“Would Jesus want us to be more nice or more angry?”

Brodie was in both the conversations I was too, you can check out his thoughts on them here.

We shared communion together before enjoying a intimate concert by Aaron Espe and Juliet Turner (who was also with us for the weekend).

Sunday entailed an early-morning walk along the White Rocks beach with Jim, who used nature to remind us of God’s heart for the broken, for us. Andrew posted a short video of it here, and Chris blogged on it here.