inspiral blog

This week we started with a dedication for Ella, officially committing her to the mob, and acknowledging those things that we desire for her. It was great to be able to do it in this bunch of people, who have meant so much to us for a long time now, and who we truly regard as our ‘mob’.

Then to continue the theme of family, mob, home and milestones, we walked over the road to bless Chris and Jane’s new house, which they moved into last Friday. A very exciting time in anyone’s life, and one that was important for us all to mark. I put together a liturgy and we gave gifts that symbolised home for us.

Finally we discussed some future possibilities for us to get involved in, with a Baptcare op shop near us in Brunswick that Greencollect is considering redeveloping. Anthony is involved in researching the possibilities for them, so we discussed what involvement we’d like to have (if any). There’s definitely some promise there.

Julie led this week with ten excuses Christians often make for not being involved in social justice. Asking such questions as, “What about Romans 13 that tells us to respect the authorities?” and “I have too much else on my plate” it provided a whole heap of really useful discussion. We ranged over quite a bit of ground.

We’ve also moved to a 4:30 timeslot (from 3:30) so things need to be a bit tighter, but it seems to be working ok (providing everyone turns up on time!)

Chris led this week, opening up the discussion with a brief Steve Chalke video. Then the discussion revolved around what the Kingdom might look like in concrete terms. Some ideas that were noted down included:

* Neighbourhood House advocacy
* Connected to neighbours
* Nuclear families > more mob
> community living
* Money not the driver of authority
> equality
> working to each others strengths
> build up each others strengths – encouragement
> weaknesses
* ride bikes
* no one in need
* greater blending of communities > old teach young
> young learn from old
* fear would go
* be outside – interact with people – local issues
* community gardens
* no tv
* no begging
* given a place in community – belonging
* unemployment – wealth not an issue
* connecting poor with community

What if God said right now, you start bringing the kingdom?

- study part time – more time to invest in relationships

- interact with others (meals) Forgive grudges. Find out place in community, start with neighbour.

- A sense of self – more

- Global – STT
- Local

Many thanks to Chris and Jane for taking this on this week at short notice, as I wasn’t able to get there until dinner time. Great job.