Aidan’s Wild Goose Chase

12/12/2017

Me and Magnificat Mary -

11/18/2017

The St Aidan’s Wild Goose Chasers Will be gathered this morning…pray for us

10/30/2017

Most people know in their hearts that the Bible affirms that church is not a building but a community. When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” we are sure he didn’t have a construction program in mind. Buildings are merely tools, and it is always appropriate to remind ourselves of that fact. Christianity was at its most effective and most true to its nature as the people of God when it did not own any buildings. It was Christendom that gave us beautiful buildings and cathedrals and steeples and pews; all these have shaped us and imprisoned us and kept us from discovering real community for so long that it must be called a tragedy. Let us be clear here—buildings are useful. They are tools, sometimes vital tools, but they are only tools nonetheless . And when the use of a tool blunts our ability to fulfill our mission and purpose in the world, it must be questioned and dealt with appropriately. ~ Frost/Hirsch

10/27/2017

PLEASE DISCUSS....

genuine religiosity has nothing in common with the fancies of romantic hearts, or with the self-pleasure of indulgent souls, or with the clever mental exercises of a practiced intellectuality. Genuine religiosity is doing. It seeks to carve the unconditioned out of the matter of this world. The face of God rests, invisible, in an earthen block; it must be wrought, carved, out of it. To engage in this work means to be religious— nothing else.[

~MARTIN BUBER.

10/26/2017

Mark Batterson writes ~

I think it is only fair that I give a Wild Goose warning at the outset: nothing is more unnerving or disorienting than passionately pursuing God. And the sooner we come to terms with that spiritual reality, the more we will enjoy the journey. I cannot, in good conscience, promise safety or certainty. But I can promise that chasing the Wild Goose will be anything but boring!

Why not join us on this exciting chase....

10/26/2017

Said Bernard of Clairvaux (1090– 1153):

There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; That is curiosity.
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; That is vanity.
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; That is love.

As we chase The Wild Goose may we always seek to know Her direction for our service....

10/26/2017

The Come-To-Us stance developed over the Christendom period is unbiblical. It’s not found in the Gospels or the Epistles. Jesus, Paul, the disciples, the early church leaders all had a Go-To-Them mentality.

Frost, Michael; Hirsch, Alan. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church (pp. 35-36). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

10/26/2017

Chasing The Wild Goose requires us to let go of Church centered agendas. Consider these words from Alan Roxburgh. Offer your response in the comments.

We are witnessing a great transformation. At the core of this change is the deep conviction that God is the primary actor who is out ahead of us in the neighborhood. The huge challenge for the Euro-tribal churches is how we come to release our techniques, management, and desire to fix the church, and instead believe it is God who is acting out ahead of us, particularly in our neighborhoods.

At first glance the notion of joining with the God who is ahead of us in the neighborhood seems straightforward. In fact, there is some genuine reorientation involved. It means life with Jesus isn’t primarily a private affair or even primarily a church-centered affair. It means we are committed to actively transforming our communities. It calls us away from ecclesiocentrism and church questions, and toward a whole set of disruptive questions about what God is up to and how we can join. It calls us into the risky space of discerning where God is at work rather than depending on our own assessments of needs, which conveniently leave us in control of agendas and relationships.

Perhaps most painfully, a commitment to God’s agency requires us to lay down our need to know ahead of time what this will mean for church forms and structures. If anything, churches will have to be willing to lay down control and go with Jesus into the local before they can faithfully discern what remaking the church will involve today. Participating in the mission of God has to come prior to knowing what the church will be.

Roxburgh, Alan J.. Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time (Kindle Locations 957-968). Morehouse Publishing. Kindle Edition.

What sort of Disruptive Questions should we be asking as we chase The Wild Goose?

10/25/2017

WHY THE WILD GOOSE?

Because apart from the Wild Goose there is no life.

The Wild Goose was a term that the ancient Celts had for the Holy Spirit.

There is a wildness to the Holy Spirit. The dominant images of the Holy Spirit are a meek dove or a flickering flame of a candle, both of which are in one way accurate. But the Holy Spirit is more than that. God’s Spirit is power and blows not merely like a gentle breeze but at times like a raging wind. Sometimes, this power makes us nervous. We like the idea of the Holy Spirit as a flame on a candle but a raging fire often causes anxiety. Our first instinct is to get it under control. It’s hard to control a wild goose....!

~ Fr Dave Pivonka, TOR

10/25/2017

Susan Warner
and Anne Patricia Jaikaran Were unable to make our first gathering of The Wild Goose Chase. Was very pleased to meet with them today to catch up on what we discussed last week. I am very excited about the gifts and tools that they both bring to our sojourn - on with the Wild Goose Chase

10/25/2017

These were our whiteboard notes from our first meeting

10/25/2017