Comments on: Missional tricks

By: akevin

akevin — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:44:57 +0000

I have no idea what this is about - I am just trying to be the last poster on the threads - leaving my mark for posterity’s sake.

By: Veritas

Veritas — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:40:27 +0000

Good to see and hear from you Hamo. My men’s Bible Study Group did something like upstream a few months ago to a house that cares for high dependency kids. We did a backyard makeover - beautified and safetyfied the place and we had a great time doing it and the kids get the benefit. Keep it up!

By: saint

saint — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:33:14 +0000

I really like your approach there Hamo - not duplicating etc., responding to opportunities to serve in the every day course of life…excellent.

By: backyardmissionary

backyardmissionary — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:17:26 +0000

i think the challenge is developing a project with some degree of continuity but that is able to bend with the ebbs and flows of the community that are there.

we have just begun this project and while it isn’t immense, it is another string to the bow and is another way of doing mission in community

http://upstream.org.au/lendahand.html

By: dan

dan — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:03:51 +0000

Bec, we find the ebb and flow is very much linked to the young adult nature of our congregations - it happened in small groups when we were in ministry at a large traditional church as well. But it is all good.

Matt, interesting thoughts - in some ways we are already talking about “partnering” with an existing project because our church effectively runs a community centre that has heaps of people from the community coming through it all week. We want the missional project to connect in with those contacts and connections rather than standing alone.

Oh, and we have discussed two aspects of this - the first is the mission to - having contact with people unlike us. Secondly is the fact that our sideways mission (in the sense of evangelism to people like us) has been more effective when people have been joining in with our missional teams than in joining with our congregational time.

By: mattmiller

mattmiller — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:42:45 +0000

Rather than “creating” a missional project it might be beneficial to partner with something that already exists. A couple of benefits - less work for you to set up/maintain the project (you’re just participants) and better suited to the fluctuating number of people involved in your group (i.e. the project lives on whether you’ve got 20 people involved or no one from your group is involved).

A few ideas I’m hoping to explore further down the track is joining up with a local environment rehabilitation group (i.e. tree planting to restore native habitats etc), or joining a mentoring programme with local school kids. Neither of these programmes have set Christian missional goals (though they are certainly cohesive with such goals), however it can become a missional experience for us simply by the fact we’re engaging with people outside of our usual networks and making a positive contribution to the wider community at the same time.

By: bec

bec — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:23:23 +0000

Oh…and things which are cheap or free…$$$ is an obstacle to participation which I try to remove.

By: bec

bec — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:21:49 +0000

Dan…I reckon the ebb and flow thing is fairly typical of churches trying something different, partly because you attract people who might be on the way out already anyway. Big issue.

Anyway…missional projects…maybe I’m just preoccupied with stuffing my face, but food is nearly always my starting point.