Over the next few months, things are going to seem really quiet around here. Rest assured we're still on schedule for the first beta test, which as of this writing should be around the first week of June.
Until that time, we're buckling down and kicking into overdrive to try and work some magic. So far so good, as advancements are being made daily. From now until our first beta testing, we advise the current beta team to sit back and relax.
As of today, pre-registrations for the current beta team are closed. Any pre-registration forms we get from this point on will stay on file for consideration in our secondary phase.
Looking forward to a stellar summer!
William Burns
Andromeda Media Universe
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Compliments
I tend to collect good advice, and spread it around when I can (although whether I listen to my own advice is debatable).
One such piece of advice is "Remember the compliments and forget the insults." Its a good one. Any time you are feeling down, or have been insulted it helps to remember that someone said you were funny, or pretty, or a good dancer.
I managed to get high praise indeed a few weeks ago (see Pandora 2.0. But another compliment, and ego-boost, has come out of that evening. One of the birthday girl's close friends is getting married in a few weeks time, and after meeting me as Pandora for the first time, has invited me to her hen night!
Fortunately its not going to be Ann Summers and strippers, but there will be drinking and dancing, and she might end the night handcuffed to a blow up doll ;-)
I've still got some time to think about it, consider the logistics, and make a definite decision, but I'm really looking forward to it. So much so, I've bought a new top and changed my hairstyle (pics to follow... maybe)
One such piece of advice is "Remember the compliments and forget the insults." Its a good one. Any time you are feeling down, or have been insulted it helps to remember that someone said you were funny, or pretty, or a good dancer.
I managed to get high praise indeed a few weeks ago (see Pandora 2.0. But another compliment, and ego-boost, has come out of that evening. One of the birthday girl's close friends is getting married in a few weeks time, and after meeting me as Pandora for the first time, has invited me to her hen night!
Fortunately its not going to be Ann Summers and strippers, but there will be drinking and dancing, and she might end the night handcuffed to a blow up doll ;-)
I've still got some time to think about it, consider the logistics, and make a definite decision, but I'm really looking forward to it. So much so, I've bought a new top and changed my hairstyle (pics to follow... maybe)
Monday, April 14, 2008
April 2008 Prayer Points
Thankyou for continuing to pray for the Connections project. There is much to rejoice and much for you to uphold in prayer for us.
- Praise God for continuing growth in the life of the congregation. We have had growth in numbers but also a sense of depth. This Sunday in particular was a fantastic celebration of the baptism of little Isabella Grace. There was a sense of God's presence and a real engagement with the truths of the gospel. Please pray for continued growth in depth as well as breadth.
- Praise God for activities and services of Easter. The "Good Friday @ Five with Fish & Chips" was a time for making contact with people. Fusion Australia also ran an Easter community festival in the lead up to Easter which had some very positive outcomes.
- Please continue to pray for our administration and infrastructure. These are the things that can niggle and be stumbling blocks rather than good vehicles. Please pray for the owners of our venue as we consider ongoing terms of hiring, or the possibility of moving to a different venue. Please pray for good financial management etc.
- Please pray for Gill and I as we meet this week with the candidature committee for Bush Church Aid. BCA are kindly providing resources to us to help us kickstart into the current and next season of the church plant.
- We have grown in youth all of sudden - from people joining us, and from children growing into the youth age levels. We are working on proposals and things to invest in a youth ministry, building up through this year to be up and running by 2009. This is early days yet so please pray for things to go smoothly in this regard.
- Please pray as people complete safe ministry accreditation and begin to be released into new positions. Please pray for right spirit and closeness to God and steadfastness in the word for our leaders, wisdom and ability for those who minister and exercise gifts in the church.
- Please pray for new small groups that have started - Saturday night musicians group, Thursday morning daytime group, and Sunday night young adults group.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Experiencing the God of Mission.
What is the primary aim or purpose of the church? What is our point, our reason for being? What is the goal for which we strive? When we are seeking to grow a church community these are fundamental questions of value and purpose that sooner or later have to be answered.
In our historical context the answer to the question of purpose would revolve around a sense of "chaplaincy" - the church exists to meet needs, provide comfort in times of trial, and a place that is stable and secure so that legacies and memories have somewhere to reside. This is the "traditional" emphasis.
A more recent development, surrounding and built on the charismatic renewal of the 1970's and 80's, pick up an emphasis on transcending experiences. This is particularly related to music and an emphasis on the more "supernatural" manifestations of the Holy Spirit which are valued together with touchy-feely values of fellowship and being "God's family."
Alongside this however, has been another emphasis - often placed at odds against charismatic values. This emphasis was rooted in post-war apologetics and evangelicalism and in recent times has been manifested through emphases on direct evangelism of the gospel - usually as shaped by reformed theology - and the catchcry of "mission" and of growing the Kingdom of God through the preaching/proclamation of the word to produce converts.
I don't want to malign these emphases. I respect the traditional view, and I identify greatly with both the other views - which I'm going to call the "experience emphasis" and the "mission emphasis." What I want us to consider is how we can look at both "experience" and "mission" - and seek the best from them to drive our vision and our plans for Connections.
So let us begin with a critique and firstly consider the "experience emphasis." This emphasis can of course be an overemphasis. But it has considerable strengths. This view, in particular, puts a great emphasis on personal and corporate spiritual growth. The view of God is that he is desirable and that relationship with him is necessary for full spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical health. The catchcry towards God is "I'm lost without you." The experience of times of "worship" (in the sense of "adoration") - including through music - is an expression of intimacy in that relationship with God. It incorporates a prayerful exhortation that God would touch the deepest parts of a persons being and walk them through the valleys of brokenness and sin so that each one of God's people may witness by their very lives and experiences the greatness of God and the reality of the Spirit of Christ at work in the world. This holy desire is found in Scripture, for instance:
And this is why the mission emphasis is also needed. Godly mission is about being active and about doing God's will and applying God's purposes for the world and not just for the self. It's about preaching the gospel, speaking out the call and commands of God and seeking the response of faith. It's about going and doing and getting on with the job. The catchcry scriptures for this emphasis are ones like:
But the point is this: the mission-emphasis helps balance the experience-emphasis - but the reverse is also true. The danger, for instance, with Bolt's book is that, taken simplistically, it turns the purpose of church into a "convert machine" - put non-Christians in one end, and if you do the right things and have the right sequence of public awareness, pre-evangelistic, evangelistic, nurturing and training activities, you will have evangelists coming out the other end. This is the danger that the mission of the church moves from glorifying God to glorifying the mission.
Perhaps the first part of Hebrews 12 gives us the balance:
At Connections our vision is to be "a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended" and so we try to encapsulate this framework. It makes for a dynamic experience. Sometimes we need to emphasise the doing - responding to needs, seizing opportunities, living and speaking out the gospel, putting into place activities, events and programs.
At other times, (such as the present season it seems), there is an appropriate emphasis on being. We can load ourselves up with programs - new and old - and run the risk of showing ourselves to be the stressed, burned out and scatterbrained people of God. Rather the programs that we start or change this year (and that will happen, we do have stuff to do) need to founded on a growing depth - a beating heart, a spiritual awareness, a renewed passion, a wholehearted abandonment of self that comes from faith, a true calling, a move of the Holy Spirit, a experienced sense of the love of God for us and for the world.
At the moment, that seems to be an appropriate emphasis for us. We need to use the current time to seek God and find in Him the answer to things that entangle us, individually and corporately. It is a blessed season - a season to look to God.
Sometimes our call is not to build up too quick, but to dig down - building strong foundations for the work ahead. In that lies both experiencing God for who he is, and being caught up in his mission and purpose. In that framework when both the experience of God, and the carrying out of his commands, together become the essence of what the church is really about: worshipping the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and body.
Worship is founded on an experience of God. Worship is active and declarative.
We are a people who worship.
In our historical context the answer to the question of purpose would revolve around a sense of "chaplaincy" - the church exists to meet needs, provide comfort in times of trial, and a place that is stable and secure so that legacies and memories have somewhere to reside. This is the "traditional" emphasis.
A more recent development, surrounding and built on the charismatic renewal of the 1970's and 80's, pick up an emphasis on transcending experiences. This is particularly related to music and an emphasis on the more "supernatural" manifestations of the Holy Spirit which are valued together with touchy-feely values of fellowship and being "God's family."
Alongside this however, has been another emphasis - often placed at odds against charismatic values. This emphasis was rooted in post-war apologetics and evangelicalism and in recent times has been manifested through emphases on direct evangelism of the gospel - usually as shaped by reformed theology - and the catchcry of "mission" and of growing the Kingdom of God through the preaching/proclamation of the word to produce converts.I don't want to malign these emphases. I respect the traditional view, and I identify greatly with both the other views - which I'm going to call the "experience emphasis" and the "mission emphasis." What I want us to consider is how we can look at both "experience" and "mission" - and seek the best from them to drive our vision and our plans for Connections.
So let us begin with a critique and firstly consider the "experience emphasis." This emphasis can of course be an overemphasis. But it has considerable strengths. This view, in particular, puts a great emphasis on personal and corporate spiritual growth. The view of God is that he is desirable and that relationship with him is necessary for full spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical health. The catchcry towards God is "I'm lost without you." The experience of times of "worship" (in the sense of "adoration") - including through music - is an expression of intimacy in that relationship with God. It incorporates a prayerful exhortation that God would touch the deepest parts of a persons being and walk them through the valleys of brokenness and sin so that each one of God's people may witness by their very lives and experiences the greatness of God and the reality of the Spirit of Christ at work in the world. This holy desire is found in Scripture, for instance:
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" - Psalm 42:1-2Of course, the experiential emphasis taken to its extreme becomes unbalanced. The quest to experience God personally can lead to a focus on self - and the experience itself becomes more important than what is being experienced - "I heard" becomes more important - even more authoritative - than "God said." It can also lead to people becoming too passive - as long as I'm happy with my experiences, I need not do anything - as long at the music is good at church in doesn't matter what goes on outside of those four walls.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." - Romans 12:1
Jesus prays for his disciples and those who would believe through their message - "... that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." - John 17:21
And this is why the mission emphasis is also needed. Godly mission is about being active and about doing God's will and applying God's purposes for the world and not just for the self. It's about preaching the gospel, speaking out the call and commands of God and seeking the response of faith. It's about going and doing and getting on with the job. The catchcry scriptures for this emphasis are ones like:
"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." - Matt 28:18-20We see this emphasis played out in books such as Peter Bolt's Mission-Minded - a very useful book for helping get things done in church in a manner that aligns with the evangelistic purposes of the Kingdom of God.
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine... But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." - 2 Tim 4:2,3a,5
But the point is this: the mission-emphasis helps balance the experience-emphasis - but the reverse is also true. The danger, for instance, with Bolt's book is that, taken simplistically, it turns the purpose of church into a "convert machine" - put non-Christians in one end, and if you do the right things and have the right sequence of public awareness, pre-evangelistic, evangelistic, nurturing and training activities, you will have evangelists coming out the other end. This is the danger that the mission of the church moves from glorifying God to glorifying the mission.
Perhaps the first part of Hebrews 12 gives us the balance:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2Here we see that while we have a race to run (our mission) we do so setting our eyes on Jesus and experiencing him in the casting off of sin and entanglements and allowing him to author and perfect us. There is a dual emphasis on being and doing in this framework for God's people.
At Connections our vision is to be "a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended" and so we try to encapsulate this framework. It makes for a dynamic experience. Sometimes we need to emphasise the doing - responding to needs, seizing opportunities, living and speaking out the gospel, putting into place activities, events and programs.
At other times, (such as the present season it seems), there is an appropriate emphasis on being. We can load ourselves up with programs - new and old - and run the risk of showing ourselves to be the stressed, burned out and scatterbrained people of God. Rather the programs that we start or change this year (and that will happen, we do have stuff to do) need to founded on a growing depth - a beating heart, a spiritual awareness, a renewed passion, a wholehearted abandonment of self that comes from faith, a true calling, a move of the Holy Spirit, a experienced sense of the love of God for us and for the world.
At the moment, that seems to be an appropriate emphasis for us. We need to use the current time to seek God and find in Him the answer to things that entangle us, individually and corporately. It is a blessed season - a season to look to God.
Sometimes our call is not to build up too quick, but to dig down - building strong foundations for the work ahead. In that lies both experiencing God for who he is, and being caught up in his mission and purpose. In that framework when both the experience of God, and the carrying out of his commands, together become the essence of what the church is really about: worshipping the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and body.
Worship is founded on an experience of God. Worship is active and declarative.
We are a people who worship.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Great Googly Moogly!
You may have noticed a few minor changes here at Andromeda Media Universe. Well, ok, a lot of changes actually. RSS feeds, the ability to have our updates sent directly to your email, DHTML tooltips, some screenshots of the Jooce Desktop, an a complete rewrite of some of the pages on the site complete with new visuals.
Needless to say we've been busy over here.
We even reworked the blog archive to better fit with the website theme, as well as added some amusing tooltips to the header titles - go ahead, mouse over the words "Developer Blog", we'll wait.
Nearly every picture on this site now has a helpful (or amusing) tooltip to give you an extra bit of information. The RSS Subscription dropdown menu has (count'em) a total of 11 different ways you can keep up to date with this site (not including the actual blog archive address).
The blog archive dates back to 2006, back to the days of our earlier research leading up to Andromeda Media Universe and even before VR5 Online was discontinued in order to put full effort into this project and join up with Queller Technology Group. So take some time and re-read some of the history and research leading up to what you see today. Some of it is inspiring, while some of it is actually quite funny or off topic.
In Other News ---
We spent a majority of last night working on the login window for the browser. After resolving a Vista issue we moved on to more important things, such as what things you should be able to do when you log in. To date, the username field is a conditional dropdown menu, and when the system sees multiple profiles saved, will give you the option of choosing one. The password field is to be expected, just normal stuff. And then here is the Location dropdown menu...
We're not entirely certain why this wasn't thought of before (aside from the interesting but nearly useless version in Second Life). The Start Location drop down has three options:
Speaking of Bookmarks, the bookmark system will have two views. The compact view is the automatic default and shows just the names of the locations (which are named by default via the zone names but can be easily renamed manually). When you hover your mouse over a Bookmark name for a few seconds it will show extended information such as a thumbnail image of the location, location information, planet and owner of the location.
Everything considered, we've been really busy.
Until next time -
William Burns (Project Leader)
Andromeda Media Universe
http://darianknight.110mb.com
Needless to say we've been busy over here.
We even reworked the blog archive to better fit with the website theme, as well as added some amusing tooltips to the header titles - go ahead, mouse over the words "Developer Blog", we'll wait.
Nearly every picture on this site now has a helpful (or amusing) tooltip to give you an extra bit of information. The RSS Subscription dropdown menu has (count'em) a total of 11 different ways you can keep up to date with this site (not including the actual blog archive address).
The blog archive dates back to 2006, back to the days of our earlier research leading up to Andromeda Media Universe and even before VR5 Online was discontinued in order to put full effort into this project and join up with Queller Technology Group. So take some time and re-read some of the history and research leading up to what you see today. Some of it is inspiring, while some of it is actually quite funny or off topic.
In Other News ---
We spent a majority of last night working on the login window for the browser. After resolving a Vista issue we moved on to more important things, such as what things you should be able to do when you log in. To date, the username field is a conditional dropdown menu, and when the system sees multiple profiles saved, will give you the option of choosing one. The password field is to be expected, just normal stuff. And then here is the Location dropdown menu...
We're not entirely certain why this wasn't thought of before (aside from the interesting but nearly useless version in Second Life). The Start Location drop down has three options:
- Home: This is the Home location that you have chosen, not some predefined gateway.
- Last Location: Where you were when you logged out.
- From Bookmark: By far our favorite addition. As a user, you obviously have a list of favorite locations saved for easy teleport. So why not be able to choose one of them as your starting location?
Speaking of Bookmarks, the bookmark system will have two views. The compact view is the automatic default and shows just the names of the locations (which are named by default via the zone names but can be easily renamed manually). When you hover your mouse over a Bookmark name for a few seconds it will show extended information such as a thumbnail image of the location, location information, planet and owner of the location.
Everything considered, we've been really busy.
Until next time -
William Burns (Project Leader)
Andromeda Media Universe
http://darianknight.110mb.com
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Coming Soon: Superfast Internet
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor
Times Online
The internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.
At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.
The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.
David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.
The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.
Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high.
This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.
This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.
By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.
Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”
That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.
One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.
Times Online
The internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.
At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.
The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.
David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.
The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.
Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high.
This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.
This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.
By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.
Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”
That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.
One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Andromeda Gets Jooce'd
For the Beta Team who attended the Town Hall event last Monday, the announcement is out.
Stefan Surzycki (CEO of Jooce.com) has given us the greenlight to officially integrate their network into Andromeda Media Universe. So what does this mean for you, the users? Well this announcement means that on launch, the web desktop view of Andromeda will officially be "Powered by Jooce".
We'll be doing what we can to sync up our development roadmaps, and you better believe the Andromeda Beta Team has already been putting Jooce Beta to the test. If you do not know what Jooce is already, feel free to hop on over to http://www.jooce.com for a free account.
Sincerely,
Andromeda Media Universe
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Calling Theory
I've been reading Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit recently. It's not a book I would class as particularly religious or spiritual, but I'm a firm believer in general revelation - and that we can learn truth and wisdom from the "secular" world.And there is indeed a bit of wisdom in Covey that relates to our vision at Connections to be a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended. At the core of that vision is an impetus to help people to grasp their "calling" in life.
Before I get on to Covey, let me say that the word "calling" is a word that some people have strong views about. Some people say that God does not "call" people to anything except salvation - that asserting that you are "called by God" to something is simply a way of manipulating or, at the least, putting your own goals and framework ahead of the ordinary day-to-day commands of Holy Scripture. Some people, at the other end of the spectrum, spend so much time trying to find their "call" and asking the question "what does God want me to do" that they fail to do anything.
I use "calling" in terms of understanding of how God, a follower of God, and God's purposes applied in the real world, interact. God very certainly does call us to salvation, and part of that salvation (or at least an integral outworking of it) is the "good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10b).
Covey talks about "the fire within" or "discovering one's voice" or "unique, personal significance." And the gem he has to offer us is this analysis:
Covey sees the whole person as an interaction of body, mind, heart and spirit relating to four human needs - "to live, to learn, to love, to leave a legacy" - and four aspects of "voice" - "need, talent, passion, conscience." I'll let him explain it:
...I suggested that voice... lies at the nexus of talent (your natural gifts and strengths), passion (those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you), need (including what the world needs enough to pay you for), and conscience (that still, small voice that assures you of what is right and that prompts you to actually do it). I also said that when you engage in work (professional, community, family) that taps your talent and fuels your passion - that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet - therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul's code." Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit (Free Press, New York: 2004), pp84-85There is much to like in what Covey says. At Connections we often talk about doing things from one's calling - because it's when you are a square peg in a round hole that you get burned out and disillusioned. But we need to do more than make simplistic statements.
Covey helps us to see that to help people find their calling means to help them bring together their talents and passions with a need that they can see, motivated by a deep spirit of conviction about how that aligns with God's purposes.
In our context I think we often get hung up on the "need" aspect - we see the need and get frustrated that we can't meet it - as church or as individuals. This is exacerbated by emerging church rhetoric about considering "target groups" and the like - it's need focussed and so sometimes leads to imbalance and disillusionment in the real world where things are holistic and where we, the ones who are called to achieve that target, have to live.
The need needs to be considered, but in line with other questions - What is my/our passion? What talents do we/I have or want to get? What is God driving us/me toward or has placed in front of me/us? and To what need has God called us/me to be a part of the solution?
This matches with my theology of the spiritual (charismatic) gifts. I'll blog about that some other time - but the gist is this: God's grace is administered through the gifts of his people to a situation he wishes to touch. God aligns us with his purpose, raising our passions, engaging our talents, to achieve what he wishes to achieve.
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