Comments on: Messy church, messy mission…

By: Brenden

Brenden — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 08:38:23 +0000

Loved that Sunday service Brian.
Great message
thanks for these posts.

By: Brian Harris

Brian Harris — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 06:32:31 +0000

In reply to Ellis Taylor. Yes, handling the tension of size and the need to do things well can be real. And I think you are right - we have to keep running that back against the grid of why we are doing this in the first place. The tail can quickly wag the dog.

By: Brian Harris

Brian Harris — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:54:10 +0000

In reply to Penny Reimers. Thanks Penny. So good to be in touch again after too many years.

By: Penny Reimers

Penny Reimers — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:42:03 +0000

Brilliant post Brian, so real and so much truth contained in it!
Thank you!

By: Ellis Taylor

Ellis Taylor — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 01:34:23 +0000

Great post Brian, and it strikes a chord with some of the questions I’ve had recently about the apparent corporatisation of churches. It seems sometimes the push for growth, excellence and productivity (coincidentally, very Western, capitalist values) within churches can impact our missionality. Not that those things are bad in themselves, but I wonder if it leads to us actually losing sight of the mission of making disciples and growing people to love Jesus more. As a case in point, recently I was at a church where there was a bit of a last-minute failure of the visuals system, and the pastor got quite angry that he wasn’t told about it earlier, and that as a result things would run late. I was quite taken aback by this reaction, and to be fair, a lot of that was about ongoing technical issues that hadn’t been adequately resolved, and he also later apologised. But it did make me wonder if, to an outsider, that would not have communicated the gospel of Jesus well. After all, I think a lot of what the Mals of this world are craving is churches that are a place of authenticity, where we can drop the pretense of having everything all tied up and perfect. Of course, in any big organisation there does need to be some order, but I think we always need to be vigilant that those structures etc don’t become the focus, when really it is about connecting people who are messed up and far from God with the God who craves to have relationship with them, even in spite of their ‘messed-up-ness’.

By: Bruce & Elizabeth jenner

Bruce & Elizabeth jenner — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 01:27:55 +0000

We enjoyed our recent visit with you and were impressed with t he Carey and Harrisdale schools. God. Bless you in your busy life. Great to read your blogs each week. Thank you.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 01:13:27 +0000

Thank you, Brian.

It’s a message we need more often in all our churches.

This is church wrestling with realities only the church over all the earth can help with.

Thank you for leading this charge; for empowering pastors to commit to the wrestling.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 00:31:56 +0000

In reply to Steve. Thanks Steve. You've helped me understand the Mal's of the world much better.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 00:30:22 +0000

In reply to Lynn. Thanks Lynn.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 23:36:01 +0000

Hi Brian.
Really resonate with Mal.
Thanks for the ways you put words and thoughts around my often mixed up thoughts.
I’m so thankful your at Carey.
Steve