Meeting some of my people

Since Christmas I've been making my way through all the back issues of Manna Gum's quarterly(ish) magazine, Manna Matters.  The other day I was delighted to find this article from December 2012.  In reflecting on the state of the Church and its need for renewal, Jonathan Cornford writes:

Surely, any movement of authentic Christian renewal has to be centred on a rediscovery of Jesus and his message, and the expression of that discovery in people’s lives. I am convinced that one element of this – but by no means sufficient – must be the reclaiming of the Biblical story’s distinctive perspective on our material lives. In a time when the bad news confronting humanity centres on the structure and content of our material lives, the good news of Jesus will only fully become good news when it also finds expression in our material lives.

He then goes on to talk about "seven dimensions of an alternative economic life that would express God’s counter-cultural good news in 21st century Australia":

• Rejection of the idols of "more" and "me";
• Care and nurture;
• Work;
• Responsible consumption;
• Household economy;
• Generosity;
• Economic interdependence.

As I read through his list, I felt I had met some of 'my people'.  All of the things they talked about are things that Martin and I, in company with Sarah, are working towards.  It is encouraging to have found a thoughtful community of people (albeit ones who we'll probably never meet) who are moving in the same counter-cultural direction as us :-)