FRIDAY APRIL 7TH BRISBANE CROSSLINK LEADERSHIP CLUSTER MEETING DAY TWO

Derek Brown had phoned me wanting to meet up. Derek was in Canberra for a number of years and moved to the Sunshine Coast some time ago. We agreed to meet for breakfast at the Mall at North Lakes so Graeme was able to borrow a car from Mark for the day and we drove up together to meet him at 8:00 am. Derek has been developing a E-Newsletter publishing business and has been preaching stuff about the kingdom of God lately. He has always had a heart to reach unreached Aussies and used to publish a magazine called “The Alternative.” He is now going to publish it on the internet. He was keen to hear about the “Building Church Where You Are” stuff and also Rob’s work with market place people. All of that consumed a bunch of bacon, eggs and coffee and a bit more than an hour and a half. We finished up in time for the session with Crosslink leaders.

Today’s session was much more focused and had a great deal more momentum about it than yesterday. I can’t exactly say why, but we talked about the relationship between apostles and prophets and Rob did his great presentation on the Biblical models in both Testaments. We talked about the fact that if the church is built on the foundational ministry provided by apostles and prophets, then every expression of the church needs to have those ministries functioning at a level appropriate to the individual expression. For example: there must be an expression that belongs to a local congregation. There also needs to be leadership given to the church in a city. I also realized that if Crosslink Network was an expression of the body of Christ, then it also needed leadership from apostles and prophets. We began to talk with the leaders of the six churches represented there about their own congregations, their cities and then began to figure out how this kind of leadership might work in a network like ours. We also agreed that it needed to be a matter of exercising faith for this and making room for it. I am amazed at how some of these things have crystallized for me during these meetings. There was a lot of practical and helpful interaction going on here that was “scratching” in the right place. We finished up with a great time of prayer and worship.

After the meetings we went back to Mark and Kerrie’s place and talked some more, did some internet stuff and had tea together. Mark had been able to arrange accommodation for us with some of the folks in his church. I am staying with a great couple of people: the Taylors. Geoff is a retired ANZ bank manager and they are both extremely hospitable and we’ve had some great conversations together. Mark brought me over at about 8:30. I watched the footy for half an hour with Geoff before heading for the bedroom. I thought I was tired, but when I got unpacked I began to do some work on material Ian Shelton asked me to do on “The Church in the City.” I began to throw some dots and dashes together on my computer before I realized that it was after midnight. And amazingly cool for a place with the reputation Brisbane has for being sticky and warm. I heard that there has been snow around Canberra. Wow!

Today is Ben’s birthday (second son). He turned twenty five, and I gave him a ring in the morning while he was at work, and then again tonight as he was at our place with the rest of the family having a birthday party. I am really missing being there with them all and it makes me a little more eager to look for the plane flight on Monday morning to Canberra.

Tomorrow is ministry at a church in the West End of Brisbane with Wayne and Jenny Spivey. Rob will be coming but Graeme is meeting up with some of his in-laws and will be joining us on Sunday morning at Peace Christian Church here in Redcliffe.