Tonight will be an interesting experience - a goodbye party for some of my closest friends of 2005 - the form team. They're off to Anaheim Vineyard next weekend to spend a fortnight helping out with their compassion ministries before returning to their respective countries (at least within 36 hours of returning to the UK).

I hate goodbyes. Is it the Purpose Driven Life that talks about us being created for eternity, hence why it is odd living with a series of close but short-term relationships? I guess it's only been in the last 200 years that people would relocate so easily. Before that we were pretty content with a life of friendships in a community of relatively modest size.

I see planting a church as a long term, if not permanent commitment to a particular place (ala Peterson). The question is: is it possible to minister effectively to a society in which your way of life is so different to those around you? Are we called to model healthy, long term community, or to simply buy into the continent hopping lifestyles of our peers?

Ok, that was two questions...