Its no secret that I ‘hit the wall’ a few months back, and so put in place the need for an extended break from ministry. Fortunately I have my long service leave due, so will be handing responsibility for leading Inglewood Community Church to my associate for 3 months.

Strange as this is, now…I feel invigorated. I think its because I know the holiday is coming. I have not had a day off in 3 weeks, even Mondays have been busy with meetings. Because there is so much going on at Church, with property and development issues, and because I am going on break, I have needed to push through.
Which is not to say I have not been planning my holiday/sabbatical….I have.

I have asked some good friends to give me a book that they have read which has really impacted them, or that they think I should read. I asked the lads from my peer group for this…and a couple of them have come through.

While I am away, there is a lot going on at Inglewood Community Church. I even have my friend and mentor coming to preach one Sunday! (November 20th).

Suffice to say, there will be some posts on this blog over the next few months, but I have not yet decided what I will post…whether it will be about the break, or other things. Stay tuned.

There is a lot swirling around in my mind.

This month at Inglewood Community Church we are doing a series entitled “coming home”.

I had no intention of going down the line I have with this series, but God had other ideas. For whatever reason, every message has had a spiritual battle flavour to it. This was not planned. But it is being led by the Spirit, in my humble opinion.

This week we are dealing with ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. I encourage you to read it in the context of thinking about how it applies to the family home. “Your kingdom come’. How do we see the Kingdom of God being advanced in the Christian home? In your home? When God’s Kingdom is being advanced, the evil ones kingdom is being threatened. So your home suddenly becomes a spiritual battlefield. You can’t take that lightly, or be ignorant of it.

If you think about evil, it is insidious, and it creeps into our family home, in a contemporary home, in ways it never used to be able to. I am not advocating having your home as a fortress, but it should be a sanctuary. Quite different.

This is because if the kingdom is to be advanced in your home, your home also needs to be a mission field. And a fortress is not a welcoming place, it is designed to keep the world out. In fact our homes should be welcoming, inviting places. Places we have parties, dinners, friends over…no matter what spirituality they have. It can’t be a fortress.

So the important aspect of our faith that perhaps we may have overlooked is prayer. Targeted prayer for your home, house and family.

What is the difference?
I normally make pancakes from scratch, often on a Saturday morning.
Its a beautiful day in Perth so I go scrounging for some eggs, flour and bicarb.
But in the cupboard there is a packet of pre-mix pikelet mix.

So I used that to make some pancakes for the kids.
Not a lot of difference, perhaps a little sweeter, and the mixture did not seem to be as thick or able to make as big a pancake.

But once they were smothered in melted butter, fresh lemon and brown sugar…no one seem to care.

How much faith do we need to exercise?
How big is a mustard seed?

Is faith able to be categorised into ‘desert faith’ and ‘promised land’ faith?

No matter what we think of the present state of the church, ambivalence, anger or love…we all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
Somewhere in our faith journey, someone has shared Christ with us.
Somewhere in our faith and ministry journey, someone has supported us.

Most, if not all, para-church ministries, and alternate Churches…owe their heritage, story and perhaps even finance and resource…to those who have gone before.

Just a thought.

Probably my favourite band of all time, (yes they edge out U2), ‘Delirious’ wrote this song.
Jesus Culture do this version of it, not too bad either….

(Songs like this help me to bring my mind back to the holy…)