Malyon Workplace

Vocational discipleship – Roger Walton

“This time tomorrow – when we are in that place that God wants us to be in our employment or our community or our home or our work we’re dispersed but we are still the church.

We’re the church when we gather; we’re the church when we’re dispersed … it gives us a rhythm – we gather and disperse, we gather and disperse.

The people of God come together to praise God and to reflect on God, to hear God’s word and disperse to be part of what God is doing in the world and to meet God in that place. To hear God’s word in their work, and in their family and in their community and the issues of their context …

And then perhaps to gather that and bring it back to the gathered church and say, “Look what I have discovered about God. This in my place is how God is speaking and prompting and leading.” (Revd Dr Roger Walton)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-msZ1Ip_i4&app=desktop

 

Neil Hudson visit April 2016 – recorded talks

IMG_1672This page provides links to the presentations given by Neil Hudson during his visit to Queensland in April 2016. ?

Developing a Whole Life Disciple Making Church Community – a Malyon Intensive with Neil Hudson

Neil Hudson v3Rev. Dr. Neil Hudson from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity is coming to Australia (well, just Queensland actually!) for a series of events from ?April 17-24, 2016.

One of the key events will be a four day Masters Intensive exploring the challenge of “Developing a Whole Life Disciple Making Church Community”?– no doubt a topic close to the heart of every church leader. ?

Full details can be found as follows:

[Read more…] about Developing a Whole Life Disciple Making Church Community – a Malyon Intensive with Neil Hudson

Six Ideas on How to Lead Congregations to Integrate Work and Discipleship

Workplace visit“Most Christians do not have a theological framework that accommodates the integration of faith and vocation. Many are even hostile to the idea. They are more comfortable with a life that is not integrated, compartmentalizing work and discipleship. Any attempts at integration feel like intrusions into their private lives. Worship is viewed as an escape from ?secular? concerns. And let?s face it, if we really pursue integration, we will discover uncomfortable things about our lives.”?

Michael Kruse shares six ideas for pastors who want to help their congregations integrate their faith and their work more effectively – to be whole-life disciples:?

  • Confess your insecurities and be open to learn
  • Get curious – as theological questions
  • Go to work – start with five members of the congregation and join them in their workplaces
  • Preach with awareness – use workplace stories as sermon illustrations
  • Foster a movement – start work/faith conversations in your faith community
  • Institutionalize?? find ways to incorporate work and discipleship into the life of the congregation.? [Read more…] about Six Ideas on How to Lead Congregations to Integrate Work and Discipleship

Everything – Tim Hughes

A great song that to help your congregation focus on whole-life-discipleship.

Lyrics

God in my living?
There in my breathing?
God in my waking?
God in my sleeping?

God in my resting?
There in my working?
God in my thinking God in my speaking?

Be my everything?
Be my everything?
Be my everything?
Be my everything?

God in my hoping?
There in my dreaming?
God in my watching?
God in my waiting?

God in my laughing?
There in my weeping?
God in my hurting?
God in my healing?

Christ in me?
Christ in me?
Christ in me the hope of glory?
You are everything?

You are everything?
You are everything?
You are everything?
You are everything?

Jesus everything?
Jesus everything?
Jesus everything?
Jesus everything

“Thank God it’s Monday” – sermon series report

In August-September 2013, the Toowoomba Community Baptist Church conducted a six week sermon series on the topic, Thank God It?s Monday (TGIM).

Our goal was to attack the sacred-secular divide ? the pervasive belief that there are some segments of life that are really important to God (prayer, church services, church-based activities) while others are not (work, school, university, sports, the arts, music, sleep, hobbies etc.)

Our contention is that this belief undermines the effectiveness of the church in witness and evangelism by ignoring the contexts where Christians spend most of their time; the places where they have most opportunity to be fruitful; but also the places where they often struggle to see the relevance of their faith.

Our desire was to encourage our congregation to see themselves as full-time Christian workers (FTCW) wherever God has placed them.? We called these places frontlines – places where a Christian spends the majority of their time outside the church where they are in contact with non-Christians.? We challenged our people to see themselves afresh as whole-life disciples.

Th e Thanks God It’s Monday TCBC Report?report documents our first tiny steps over a six week period on what we suspect will be an ongoing journey as we think through the implications of what it means not just for individuals but also the church as a whole to have a commitment to being whole-life disciples.

For more information, contact Murray Wright at info@malyonworkplace.org.au

 

 

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None of God’s business?

GJH PIC March12 bThe following?article by Graham Hooper?appeared originally?in the May 2013 edition of Evangelicals Now?and is reposted here by permission.

Can you do a little mental arithmetic? Assuming you live to your early 60s, how many hours will you have spent at work? Now, do a similar exercise. Think about how many hours each week you spend on overtly ?Christian? activities, time at church in worship, at Bible study and in prayer groups, time at leadership meetings, teaching kids, or working with youth.

If you were to work 50 hours each week, then you would have spent about 100,000 hours at work by the end of your working life. If you were to spend (say) an average of ten hours a week in ?Christian ministry?, then, over that same 40-year period, you would have spent 20,000 hours. In summary: 100,000 hours at work; one fifth of that time in so called ?Christian work?.

[Read more…] about None of God’s business?