Of greatest encouragement is appreciating the extent to which, while often in less celebrated settings, outside of formal structures and among unlikely people, God is at work. The most compelling picture that came to my mind at the 2017 Think Tank was that of a dilapidated billboard with a beautiful view beyond...

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The story is familiar.  A man of Macedonia called Paul and his companions to come over to Europe and help them. Paul had set off on what should have been a fairly straightforward journey, revisiting small communities of Christians. The purpose was to encourage, teach, establish common structures and, where appropriate, to continue to form new communities across Asia. With no explanation Luke tells his readers that the Spirit (of Jesus) prevented them from carrying out these plans. Nothing worked according their expectations...

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At one time mission meant moving; sending, exile and crossing cultural boundaries inferred physical journeys. The ‘sent out’ were the pioneers. Today, the ‘remainers’ in the inner city beg to differ. My family have lived in the same four streets...

Michael Volland’s reflections[1] on the Bonny Downs story[2] are a helpful framing of important issues we’re all seeking to engage in our current contexts. He rightly teases out the tensions between how we are God’s ‘sent’ people for whom the...

In the narrative of scripture we often hear of God’s people as pilgrims, a body-in-movement and, ultimately, those who are ‘sent’. Of course, being sent is coherent with being a people who remain in a specific geographical location across generations....

This piece is a reflection on  ‘The Light of Christ in Queensland‘, by Dean Phelan, Journal of Missional Practice, Issue no.7, Spring 2016. ‘You have heard it said… but I say unto you…’ Jesus was the master of narrative. More...

‘Stability may be the virtue that 21st-century Christians most ignore–and the virtue we are most called to embrace.’[1] The notion and discipline of remaining in a place is a centuries old tradition within the Christian faith. It has found numerous...

In a video conversation Martin Robinson and Alan Roxburgh discuss Martin’s interview with Maurice Glasman published in the Journal of Missional Practice above. They begin in the same place, with the fragmentation and polarization of our communities and the estrangement...

In his case study, Cultivating Desire as Missional Practice, Stan Wilson has written an insightful, honest, challenging, and inspiring description of some of the important work his church (Northside) has been doing over the last number of years. There is...

We welcome Stan Wilson’s honest case study as a stimulus for discussion, particularly about how churches might form around different imaginations and practices in God’s mission. His account of an attempt to lead people through bodily, active learning and to...