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Home » Posts Tagged "Leadership"
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Mar09

9 years in the making

posted by Dean Thomas

Having morning tea this morning, one of the students asked me ‘how was yesterday afternoon?’ I sat there trying to think what could he be talking about? What did I do yesterday afternoon? He noticed the blank look on my face and the vacant stare and proceeded to say ‘you know the old people!’ Ah it all came flooding back… Every Thursday I run a computer group for seniors. A nice bunch of people, friendly, fun, considerate group of people. But to tell you the truth at 38 years of age I did not picture my life being the way it is! I did not imagine I would be running a group full of how can I say…...

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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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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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Nov28

Listen up Sheep: The...

posted by Dean Thomas

by Neil Cole: I found this brilliant passage in an article by the late F.F. Bruce recalling a powerful teaching from E.H. Broadbent. The article by Bruce was addressing the things that went wrong with the Jerusalem church, one of which was legalism. So many of us look to the Jerusalem Church...

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Do You Hear It?
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Sep03

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...

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Sep03

Billy Graham: Techno...

posted by Dean Thomas

TED provides a wealth of information and inspiration, it shows the best and worse of humanity. I was amazed to discover that Billy Graham was once one of the key note speakers, and despite his age, when it was given, the message is still relevant and insightful. Christians should be involved...

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Play of the Day
  • Leadership
Aug27

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 kick, but not to the degree that person thinks I am. I remember as a young kid standing in line on the edge of the soccer field as two of my primary school mates picked the day’s lunch time soccer teams. Without fail, I was the last to be picked for soccer (not so with rugby, but soccer was a sad sad story for me). I never understood the rules,...

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The Art of Being Different
  • Church Planting
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Aug25

The Art of Being Dif...

posted by Dean Thomas

One of these things is doing its own thing; (sing along with me now) one of these things just doesn’t belong… O.K. so you’re not as familiar with the Sesame Street classics as I’d hoped. Doesn’t matter. Does it worry you to be different? I don’t always fit...

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Aug13

Mercenaries and Miss...

posted by Dean Thomas

John Doerr makes a lot of sense and has a pretty impressive track record! Get the Flash Player to see this...

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The ABC of Church Planting
  • Church Planting
May18

The ABC of Church Planting

posted by Dean Thomas

Sometime ago I wrote an article about the 3 “f’s” of my church planting journey fear, finances and failure. Since then nothing much has changed. Those three things are still there but I thought it was time I did a follow-up –  this time about the ABC’s of Church planting from the perspective of someone like me… overworked, overstressed, overweight, underpaid, underachieving, undertheweather! One of the things I remember vividly about church in my younger days was the complete lack of excitement. People just gathered, sang a few songs which were unlike any of the songs I heard on the radio, rehashed the same...

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Honest evangelism
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Sep15

Honest evangelism

posted by Dean Thomas

I was revising my evangelism teaching notes and came across an old article about ‘deconversion’. This article has always struck a cord with me and I thought it was about time I shared it with you. It’s long, but worth it. I can no longer get in contact with the orginal author to get personal permission. But I have noticed it is now scattered throughout the wonderful land of public domain on the net, so I hope it is ok (if it’s yours, please email me). The late fall afternoon is peaceful as I cozy up on the sofa for a few hours of cable television movies. Flipping through the channels, I happen upon a prerecorded...

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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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FIRE2010 Podcast Saturday PM
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Aug07

FIRE2010 Podcast Sat...

posted by Dean Thomas

FIRE2010 Saturday PM session… ‘the other track’ by John...

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FIRE2010 Podcast Saturday AM
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Aug07

FIRE2010 Podcast Sat...

posted by Dean Thomas

FIRE2010 Saturday AM session… ‘power power power’ by Colin...

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FIRE2010 Podcast Friday
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Aug07

FIRE2010 Podcast Fri...

posted by Dean Thomas

FIRE2010 Friday ‘I am ok with that?’ ‘Are you ok with that?’ The question we need to ask… a lot. by Dean...

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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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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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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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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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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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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...

»»
  • Articles
  • Church Planting
  • Evangelism
  • Leadership
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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Oh Barna, you’ve done it again!
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Oct07

Oh Barna, you’ve done it again!

posted by Dean Thomas

My two favorite subjects at College were ‘theology’ and ‘Church history’, because I love to see the outworking of the theology of the time. The Reformation saw the Church being ‘born again’ or ‘saved’ from the dark ages through the restored message of justification by faith, according to scholar Jack Hayford. The doctrine of salvation was rediscovered. Hayford believes the 20th century was the ‘century of the Holy Spirit’, and says this century birthed the reformation of ‘ecclesiology’ the doctrine of the Church. 100 years from now, what will Church history say about the...

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Spirituality and personality – what floats your boat
  • Leadership
Oct07

Spirituality and per...

posted by Dean Thomas

There’s a linkage between the devotional pathways we take and our eagerness to share about Jesus with our friends. I can be physically down but still willing and able to share about Jesus. But if the spiritual side of my life is down, then I feel unbalanced and I’m less confident...

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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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