Today’s Q Weekend magazine, an insert in Brisbane’s Courier Mail, features a story on house churches by Will Storr.
Will introduces readers to the house church movement through the eyes of Sarah Williams at Jahworks in Doveton, Melbourne (ex Salvation Army), Bessie Pereira, Oikos House Church Network, Dave Andrews at Waiters Union, members of Pacific Parks Uniting on the Gold Coast, Pathway in Brisbane, and a group meeting in Cloncurry. There’s a photograph from one of the Coomera Baptist house churches on the Gold Coast.
Will sums up the house church movement with the common hallmarks of being decentralised, self-funded and unadvertised, meeting on a Sunday or Thursday, sitting in a circle, being leaderless, having a prickly dislike of preaching, a loose conversational program of worship usually involving a meal, considering their entire lives to be an act of “church”, and acts of charity and social justice to be an essential element of their Christianity. He says they’re often the subject of persecution from the inhabitants of what they like to call “pointy buildings”.
It’s a risky thing talking to a reporter knowing that only small parts of your conversation will end up in the article, sandwiched by fashion advertisements linked with the new David Jones store in Brisbane. The section of the article that focuses on our house group shows us as a group who focus on conversation, risking hints of heresy and intimate enough to reveal deep hurts and differences. Suggesting that I started the group as part of my Vision for Mission investigation into new forms of worship doesn’t quite do justice to the team with whom Ennis and I are working. For some of us, we are able to express our membership of the Uniting Church in the house church setting. It’s not an either/or situation.
The Waiters Union is described as Dave Andrews’ house church - which again over simplifies a network of people who wouldn’t fit into the house church framework.
‘Houses of the holy’ is a colourful article, with vivid stories, a critique of institutional Christianity since Constantine, showing awareness of the diversity found in the house church movement. Will, a freelance writer from the UK, is known for his book, Will Storr versus The Supernatural, a John Safran-style exploration of the ghost busting industry. Photography is by Russell Shakespeare, on the Gold Coast.
At the Emergent Gathering in Santa Fe last week a group of parents discovered a common interest in exploring alternatives to traditional approaches to ‘Christian parenting’. Following this up Julie Clawson has launched a new blog, Emerging Parents.
Julie explains that she’s had a very hard time finding people to discuss alternative parenting with, much less learn from their experiences. The few she’s found have not been involved in Christianity. She’s interested in a conversation that wrestles with models of spiritual formation of children outside of the assumed model of Sunday School or AWANA. The blog is designed to help men and women explore holistic parenting ideas, discussing how we can follow Christ as parents, integrating our emerging faith and practices in with how we raise our kids.
Steve Drinkall in Brisbane has launched Postcard Radio, a podcast site focusing on emerging missional church in Queensland, sponsored by the Churches of Christ, Queensland Baptists and Uniting Church in Australia.
Postcard Radio is committed to discovering and interviewing those brave souls who are finding innovative new ways to communicate an old message. All of the people interviewed on the site live, serve, work and play in South East Queensland and all have a passion for helping ordinary Australians connect with the person of Jesus.
I’m one of the first three interviewees, along with two Baptists…
Billy Williams is serving and reaching urban aboriginal people in Brisbane’s northern suburbs. As the founders and leaders of Dhiiyaan , Billy and his wife are reinventing what it means to be the church at a park on any Sunday afternoon.
Mick Cross, youth pastor at Reedy Creek Baptist on the Gold Coast, has taken the challenge of multiplication seriously in his youth ministry. He has restructured everyone into “Tribes” and allowed student interests to dominate where they meet, what they do and who will lead them.
Some of the ideas here are small, some are large. Some involve thousands of people, some involve just a handful. Some require lots of resources and some are completely free. We hope that these stories and ideas will create a new movement of innovation in living and sharing the message of Jesus with people in our region. Tune in, switch your brain on and imagine what else we could do…
