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Jan27

What feels worse tha...

posted by Dean Thomas

My wife and I worked at the same job for 11 years. We were fortunate in that it was more than just a job. It was something we both considered called to do. It wasn’t just a job, rather a cause we felt honored to help be a part of in fulfilling. The cause you might ask was to enhance,...

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Empowerment
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Jun16

Empowerment

posted by Dean Thomas

My favourite T-shirt has this picture on it with the following phrase on it “thanks for the legs suckers!” The photo is of Sir Douglas Badder. If you have never heard of him before. I can highly recommend you grab a copy of his book “Reach for the Sky” Thanks for the...

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May19

The 2nd 3 F’s ...

posted by Dean Thomas

It has been a long time since I felt like writing. And I came across an article I wrote some time ago called “The 3 f’s of church planting” the entire article left me very ‘flat’… you see what I did there? Yeah I know not very ‘funny’…...

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re-inventing the Church in Australia
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Aug24

re-inventing the Chu...

posted by Dean Thomas

Some people love the Church, some are suspicious of the Church and still others hate it with a vengeance!But which Church do they love or hate? Is it the greying, largely traditional Church; the aggressive, contemporary mega or regional Church; or the almost hidden (no buildings) emerging...

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Perspective Change or Just a Bad Day?
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Aug24

Perspective Change o...

posted by Dean Thomas

Since my parents moved interstate I don’t see them much. I was afraid that with the move into a small country town they would somehow just give up on following Jesus. But it seems the reverse has happened. So when Dad asked me to take him to a large Christian Bookstore during his recent...

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Needs Met by Religion: Belonging
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Aug24

Needs Met by Religio...

posted by Dean Thomas

I was going through my notes the other day and came across this article that I have collected along the way other the years. Sadly I have lost the cover sheet for it, so I can’t give credit to the original owner. If you should know, please let me know so I can give the author the...

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Nov04

Close enough to make...

posted by Dean Thomas

In Australia there is a growing phenomenon I like to call own-little-world-itis that is hazardous to evangelism and disciple-making. One of the symptoms of said phenomenon is the trend to activate your remote controlled garage door on the final approach to your house, and hit it again while...

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I’m observing something about the Kingdom of God in the earth
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Aug31

I’m observing someth...

posted by Dean Thomas

It all began when I read Acts again towards the end of last year – actually I’ve read it at least once a year for a long time, but it was last year I began to notice something which, to me anyway, was significant. Most of you who are leaders will have read widely enough to have heard of...

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Go … the ironic path of a reluctant church planter
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Aug19

Go … the ironic path of a reluctant church planter...

posted by Dean Thomas

When I think back about why I chose to learn at The Pines, it really wasn’t to learn how to plant churches. (Sorry). I had felt for quite a while that Australian churches weren’t really impacting Australia, like we could or should.. like what happened in the Bible. I couldn’t see the blokes at high school coming along to youth group (though ironically some of the tougher guys did 🙂 And I was frustrated with the lack of progress I was experiencing with the guys at work. There was no way that the blokes there would come along to church or home-group! In fact, I wasn’t even interested in getting them to church. Most of the blokes I...

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Ecclesiology: a dangerous lens
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Aug03

Ecclesiology: a dang...

posted by Dean Thomas

I don’t always verbalise it – but I watch what’s going on around me so I can learn from it. I think the right way to say it is that I “wonder” about things a lot. Anyway, I’d like to share one of these “wonderings” with you as it relates to the Kingdom of God. I believe there...

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Exponential Decay – Scientometrics – Atrophy and the Church
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Jul26

Exponential Decay – ...

posted by Dean Thomas

I came across an article the other day from the ‘Boston Globe’ talking about the increasing difficulty of making new discoveries. I discovered (no pun intended) that until recently no one has really tried to measure the increasing difficulty of discovery. The name given to this new type of...

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Are Australians Resistant or Receptive to the Gospel?
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Jul09

Are Australians Resistant or Receptive to the Gosp...

posted by Dean Thomas

David Garrison has alerted the world to the amazing phenomenon of Church multiplication movements.  I get excited when I hear about Churches multiplying themselves through a society via the rapid spread of the Gospel through relational webs. Most of the success is due to Church people (not pastors) taking the initiative to share the “Good News” with friends and family.  According to Garrison, most of this growth is occurring in Latin America, Africa and Asia. There is no evidence to date of this phenomenon occurring in the West. As an Australian I am envious. Why can’t this happen in my land? Garrison and Ed Stetzer write that two...

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Why I don’t follow Rick Warren
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Jul07

Why I don’t follow Rick Warren

posted by Dean Thomas

Thank you to the original author of this article Julia Kate Swodeck for giving us permission to use her post. First off, I love and appreciate Rick Warren.  I have been to his church on several occasions, read The Purpose Driven Life, and even defended his choice of Hawaiian shirts & khakis, but when it comes to Twitter I just can’t bring myself to click the Follow button.  He is just one of the many christian influencers of our time that consistently unsocialize the social media.  “How’s that?” you say.  It’s quite simple actually… according to Twitter, Twitter may be used for any number of...

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Where are the leaders?
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Jul06

Where are the leader...

posted by Dean Thomas

About six years ago the German football team was at a crossroads. They were playing what many people thought was a boring brand of the beautiful game. They were a defensive team and while they could sometimes win on the counter when it came to winning a game with their own strategy they really...

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What kind of churches multiply?
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Jul05

What kind of churche...

posted by Dean Thomas

Recently on the “Church Planting Village” website, Tom Cheyney posted an article outlining the traits of churches that multiply. He called these churches “sending” churches and gave a simple outline that might be a useful leadership discussion. Check the site...

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The Phases that lead to Multiplication
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Jun28

The Phases that lead...

posted by Dean Thomas

(the first of three conversation starters outlining the key features in the process of beginning new faith communities that lead to multiplication).  The phases of church planting have been discussed before and I am not introducing anything new to you in these articles. But for the past few...

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Hard Heart or just not Gullible?
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Jun28

Hard Heart or just n...

posted by Dean Thomas

I was having lunch the other day and the topic of my recent illness (cancer) came up. A colleague who was there said they had no idea it was so serious, due to the way Christine and I had continued on as though nothing was seriously wrong.  This got me thinking. (I know, I need to stop...

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God is not fair
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Jun23

God is not fair

posted by Dean Thomas

Today has been an emotional day and it’s only 9.15 in the morning. I’ve just finished reading an article written by my wife regarding the terrible start in life our son Zeke had. I’ve also been keeping up with the saga of someone who’s been ripped off in an online transaction (read about it here, but be warned, there is some bad language). I recognise millions of people have so much more to contend with than I do and lately just about any story of powerlessness or injustice makes me think of  ‘fairness’ or more importantly the lack of fairness in the world today. I can’t even watch a simple...

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the skit guys
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Jun17

The Skit Guys

posted by Dean Thomas

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Oasis of beauty in desert of suffering
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Jun17

Oasis of beauty in desert of suffering

posted by Dean Thomas

The animated movie “How to train your dragon” is the story of the interaction between some ferocious flying dragons and a Viking village led by a hulking, weathered chief called Stoick who has a very un-Viking like son, Hiccup. The dragons are the nemeses of the villagers, attacking their houses and stealing their sheep. All village teenagers go through a dragon training program teaching them how to fight and kill the winged fire-breathers. Hiccup is an anomaly in his village – a hopeful, sensitive Viking lad who is looked down upon by the villagers, his father included. One night during a dragon raid Hiccup brings down a feared...

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Jun09

7 Life Changing Less...

posted by Dean Thomas

7 Life Changing Lessons Learned From Walt Disney – by Dumb Little Man. Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was a film producer, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, international icon, and philanthropist. Walt is well-known for his influence...

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Make a difference? Or make the world different?
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Jun01

Make a difference? O...

posted by Dean Thomas

Is Our Vision Too Small? I read an article on the internet recently in which the writer made a critical assessment of world mission efforts during the last 100 years.  He said we had invested our energies in either Gospel outreach or social action and the results in many countries have been...

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Multiplying Churches without adequate prayer is about as effective as trying to sell melted ice-creams
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Jun01

Multiplying Churches...

posted by Dean Thomas

Multiplying Churches without adequate prayer is about as effective as trying to sell melted ice-creams. I love ice-cream. It’s my favourite food! Sometimes I help my wife with the grocery shopping and we often buy a tub of ice-cream to bring home. None of those generic brands –...

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Internet Evangelism – home of the wild west
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May31

Internet Evangelism – home of the wild west

posted by Dean Thomas

Almost every week I get an email from some Christian organisation asking me to sign a petition regarding something ‘bad’ on the internet. Every second day I see another news headline talking about the dangers of facebook. A recent news headline in Australia has been about defacement of a young schoolboy’s tribute page with disgusting porn images. Last week I saw another story about a teenage girl being lured by two men to her death through her facebook page. All this talk about facebook and yet not much about myspace. (By the way, myspace isn’t exactly a field of daisies either. “Lowlights” include video...

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May27

The Unexplainable Co...

posted by Dean Thomas

At 3pm one day a few years ago my son, who was 5 at the time, sat down with me to watch the world superbike championship. He was quite pleased and truthfully so was I because I had been longing to watch it, longing to watch Aussie Troy Bayliss beat the best the rest of the world could offer!...

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The 3 “F”s of Church Planting
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May12

The 3 “F”...

posted by Dean Thomas

I was asked the other day to speak about my ‘church planting’ experience… you know the usual questions… Why should we church plant? Who should church plant? How did I start? What have I done? What would I do different next time? But before I get to that I want to tell...

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May05

The Cost of the ‘Tun...

posted by Dean Thomas

I blame people like Barna for ruining my life… I have tuned in and dropped out. I have been in the ‘ministry’ now for some time and as I reflect on those years, I wonder how could I have been so wrong on so many things? In all of those years I experienced a degree of...

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Learn about and hopefully experience Revival
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Apr08

Learn about and hopefully experience Revival

posted by Dean Thomas

Revival ~ 7 days in May & June @ The Pines Training Centre Learn about the dynamics of revival the purpose of revival how to prepare for revival and how to maintain revival. Ian Malins is the trainer, and he will be joined by experienced practitioners in revival including Roy Funu, John Tanner, Graham Sercombe and Clyde Soai [who is coming from the Solomon Islands]. These men will speak and pass on a passion and mantle for revival in Australia. Venue: The Pines Training Centre, 102 Buderim Pines Drv, Buderim Q 4556 Dates: 25-27 May and 31 May-3 June 2010 Cost: $25 enrolment fee and either – $40 per day per person [total $280] to...

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How to forget fear – Times Online
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Mar17

How to forget fear –...

posted by Dean Thomas

direct reprint from How to forget fear – Times Online. Imagine if you could rewrite your mind as quickly as a document on your computer. No more painful memories, no phobias or ingrained fears, just a blank slate where the scars that mark each human life used to be. This may sound like...

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Salvations, swine flu and a giant banana tree
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Dec16

Salvations, swine fl...

posted by Dean Thomas

In September 2009 four Pines’ Graduates went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to encourage and minister alongside four other Pines’ Graduates – Peung, Relle, Terry and Robyn. The ensuing two weeks were filled with challenges, salvations, swine flu, tree removal, good food and new cultural...

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Worship for red-blooded males! Part2
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Oct07

Worship for red-bloo...

posted by Dean Thomas

In the first article I discussed some of the background to the issue. Here, I will explore some of the details in the expression of worship that may enable men to more easily access worship. Males and females are obviously different. This is not going to be an extract from a biology textbook...

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The missionaries are allowed to – why can’t I?
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Sep07

The missionaries are...

posted by Dean Thomas

Why are missionaries allowed to get away with so much when it comes to communicating the Gospel in the context of those they serve? What would happen in our communities if we lived out their missional strategies here at home? How would that impact how we talk? How we dress? How we serve? How...

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Worship for red-blooded males! Part 1
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Sep07

Worship for red-bloo...

posted by Dean Thomas

Recently I sat around a table talking about a variety of subjects of interest and there was a moment when we talked about worship. One contributor leaned back, put his hands behind his head and said, “Blah, blah, blah!” The essence of his response was, as I understand it, most males...

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Perspective Change or Just a Bad Day?
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Sep01

Perspective Change o...

posted by Dean Thomas

Since my parents moved interstate I don’t see them much. I was afraid that with the move into a small country town they would somehow just give up on following Jesus. But it seems the reverse has happened. So when Dad asked me to take him to a large Christian Bookstore during his recent...

»»
Planting in the Brother View Region of NSW
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Jul16

Planting in the Brot...

posted by Dean Thomas

I began to offer as a consultancy on behalf of The Pines Training Centre, some elements of the Journey programme we offer, to The Salvation Army in NSW, ACT & Queensland. So far I have done intensives in Sydney (twice), Port Macquarie, Townsville and I will be offering another intensive in...

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Posture Evangelism?
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Jun26

Posture Evangelism?

posted by Dean Thomas

When I am riding my motorbike and going fast I posture my body differently. For example if I am breaking for a right hand corner I would for a brief moment transfer my weight on the left hand foot peg, move my entire body over to the right so I am no longer sitting on the seat, I will then point my right knee into the direction I want to turn, the weight is then shifted back now to the right foot peg. The way my body is postured determines the direction in which I travel. The more weight I transfer to the inside of the bike, that is the right hand side of the bike going around a right hand corner, the less the bike will have to lean over. My...

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Jun17

The slide into less!

posted by Dean Thomas

I don’t believe anyone deliberately chooses less in life. We may unwittingly choose it because we feel unworthy of anything more, but never because we actually prefer less. No. There is, in fact, a long journey through badly handled decisions and deep disappointment before we reach less. The...

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Apr14

The Great Divide in ...

posted by Dean Thomas

For those of you who know me personally you would know that I really struggled through my bible college years… and I mean struggle. Every year a new intake of students would enter in the college and every year the students who have been around the longest would have to help integrate the...

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India – one man’s remarkable story
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Apr14

India – one man’s remarkable story

posted by Dean Thomas

The movement of God in India – one man’s remarkable story One day, he was a professional young chemist living in an upper-middle class family in India; the next he was called by God to a life of servant hood and found himself living on the streets with no income and only some Bible tracts and a backpack to his name. That was 35 years ago. Today, Pastor R. Abraham is a spiritual father to many in India and has an influential relationship with Government leaders. He heads up the church planting movement of the New India Church of God, and is leading them towards the vision of planting 3000 churches in India and Nepal by 2010. So far, 2150...

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Mar12

One step closer or o...

posted by Dean Thomas

Today I’m re-assessing [deep breath]. I talk so much about the need for revolution. The need to stop perpetuating an institutional commitment apart from its cultural context, and to start living out the Gospel in the culture in which many are lost and facing a Christless eternity. I have...

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Nov04

Contextualize, conte...

posted by Dean Thomas

Contextualize, contextualize, contextualize. I hear this word a lot. I hear it from the emerging Church movement. I hear it from the evangelical pragmatics, (that’s what Robert Webber calls them in his book ‘Young Evangelicals’). I hear it from training colleges… What...

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Oct30

International Leader...

posted by Dean Thomas

Leaders from Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal the Solomons and Australia met last week on the Sunshine Coast to learn about how God was working in their countries. Participants heard about whole villages coming to know Christ in Nepal; Buddhist people becoming open to the Gospel in Myanmar after the...

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Oct12

play of the day…

posted by Dean Thomas

So many of us are under-estimated in life! Have you ever felt that people just can’t see what you know is inside you?… or at least what you hope is there? I had this experience this week, someone I spend time with thinks I’m a drop kick. Now I know at times I act like a drop...

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Oct09

A warfare issue

posted by Dean Thomas

This morning I became aware of something as I was praying. I had been reflecting on what strategy was needed for an Intercessors prayer meeting tomorrow and the Lord opened something to my heart. So, while it is fresh, I submit this to you all and ask you to weigh it. We are all aware of the...

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Oct08

Do you hear it?

posted by Dean Thomas

The noise is getting louder each day! The boisterous opponents of the Church are becoming increasingly vocal: ‘All the Church wants is money!’ ‘Fanatics like them cause wars!’ ‘Bunch of hypocrites!’ ‘They don’t know how to have fun! ‘The Church has no place in politics/schools/the media’ Every day the opportunity for Aussies to hear about belonging to a community of God becomes more remote. Every day Mr/Ms Average Australia sees less need to go to Church. And more often than not, the wider Church body has one response: Silence. Do you hear it? In many Churches it’s...

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Oct08

Do I like God?

posted by Dean Thomas

Can I tell you two stories, both of which occurred to me last week. I was driving home with my 4 year old daughter and my 3 year old son, when they both unexpectedly started singing this song; ‘You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when clouds are grey’. I...

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Oct07

sandpaper, stalkers and a hope that does not disap...

posted by Dean Thomas

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The often misquoted opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens actually refers to the French revolution, but it came up in a discussion about suffering between three friends as we traveled the Bruce Highway from Caboolture to Kawana. A lady we’d just met was in the midst of a life and death trial. And as we chased the broken white line, we shared our own trials and spoke of the sweetness that can be found hiding beneath the suffering. When I was first married, I experienced my own annus horribilis, to quote a royal someone considerably more famous than I. I was...

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Oct07

MegaShift-the best n...

posted by Dean Thomas

Have you ever read a non-fiction book which is un-put-downable? If a quick survey of my close circle of Christian friends is anything to go by, books like James Rutz’s MegaShift are few and far between. The preface includes the challenge, ‘If you read it with an open heart, I...

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Oct07

emergent: froth or s...

posted by Dean Thomas

I chat online with men and women involved in house churches, church planters and other pioneers creating new ministries. And I speak in the old-fashioned way to peers involved in ‘normal’ pastorates. Whenever the subject of emerging church or emerging ministries arises, we...

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Oct06

Bob Roberts & W...

posted by Dean Thomas

“Having met Bob Roberts; seen him pace up and down speaking at an enormous rate of words per minute; having had to get past the awful Hawaiian shirts he wears; but also having great regard for his ability to get things done, I don’t have any difficulty with the sincerity of...

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why didn’t my Church plant a new Church?
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Oct02

why didn’t my Church plant a new Church?

posted by Dean Thomas

Ed: Colin Stoodley is the Assoc Training Director of The Pines Training Centre. He has planted two Churches, pastored a thriving suburban congregation and now trains Church planters and those who would be. We asked him why successful Churches aren’t successfully reproducing in Australia. Here’s part one of his reflection: Before I tackle this question, I want to make something clear. I have come to the view that all Churches (like all disciples) should be reproducing they should be life giving. I know a few people will take issue with this, but I really believe I am right on this question. And I also want you to know that sharing...

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Oct02

Your Kingdom Come… w...

posted by Dean Thomas

From science we recognize that there are capacities and limitations to our own perceptions. From the early 20th century two guys named Donald Broadbent and Thomas Kuhn did separate studies and discovered we have filtering processes that both allow and prevent information from coming in to our...

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Oct01

freedom! (no blue fa...

posted by Dean Thomas

Growing up I feared with a passion school report card day. To this day my father has not seen all of my report cards. Last week my four year old son brought his first report card home from kindergarten. How is that possible? How do you prepare a report on a four year old who can’t read...

»»
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Oct01

re-inventing the Chu...

posted by Dean Thomas

Some people love the Church, some are suspicious of the Church and still others hate it with a vengeance!But which Church do they love or hate? Is it the greying, largely traditional Church; the aggressive, contemporary mega or regional Church; or the almost hidden (no buildings) emerging...

»»

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