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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Friday, April 08, 2005Are YOU a Pioneer?  I found this old Frontiers leaflet today in my office. It asked "Are YOU a pioneer?" - do you have courage and boldness to break into new regions, where there are no role models to follow? Scarily and excitingly, that is what we are about as a church community. the vision of Frontiers is to plant churches in muslim contexts. but it struck me that that kind of pioneering spirit is what is required to plant new churches in any part of the world, including northampton. Steve Chalke has described church as "a dynamic network of social and spiritual relationships centred on Christ" - it is kind of a 'minimalist' view on church in some ways, not in order that it should stay minimalist, maybe, but that the detail can be worked out in these new ways that are not 'well-trodden'. It is hard to imagine what it is like in a jungle to not walk on a well-trodden trail - you need machetes and stuff!! The issue with pioneering is not the initial excitement - the energy is all there at that point, the issue is pressing through, readjusting, rethinking, when it gets harder. As you know, it is my opinion that it is the way of thinking that is possibly more important in terms of pioneering in these changing days than it is the way of doing. Changed thinking [or 'paradigms'] opens great vistas of new opportunities that where closed off by the old ways of thinking, whereas a new of doing sends you down one singular narrow path. Are you able to be a pioneering new thinker able to think off the well-trodden paths? On a lighter note, we are pretty excited about our alpha course, i reckon we will have at least 4 people really keen to be there! What a HUGELY exciting time for us! A time when the rubber really hits the road! Please pray! Frontiers passion is to glorify God by planting churches that lead to movements among all Muslim peoples through apostolic teams in partnership with others who share this vision. Posted by: Mark | 8:59 am |
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