Across the Blog world...
16 February 2007
- My wonderful Christine talks about my Valentine's presie...
- Laura talks about Anglicans in US (Episcopalians) who need some sort of revolution form apostasy.
- Sherrin notes that another Crossroadsian (My church) Felicity has started a blog...
- Read about Seumas the vegan Bible College student who lives on Redbull and Weetbix.
- Craig, who always worth a look checks in with The Emerging Church Movment.
- Shiloh the weapon makes an awesome post about necessary verses suffcient.
- Nick and Bron have settled into Sydney... (update with pics)
- Luke and Amy settle into life in Melbourne.
- If you haven't seen Pablo's blog go there now...
- Mikey wants to know what people don't like about Promoting the Gospel.
- And if you aren't offended by strong language... Shiloh also has Sick Cats. (Don't say I didn't warn you.)
- This post Mix it up from last week sometime is also still very much alive...
Gameshow Camp 2007
12 February 2007
This week promises to be another packed one…
Today was spent making further tweaks to my 3 talks for Emmanuel School Gameshow Camp beginning Wednesday. For those who don’t know the Kingston duders (Kingston Reformed Church) are running the games and activities for around 80 kids from grade 7 to 10. My job is do three talks based on Game shows.
I’m pretty happy with the talks and am pleased to report that I reckon they’d be close to the best I’ve written. For those who are interested the talks are on Ecclesiastes (Wheel of Fortune), Proverbs (Millionaire) and Song of Songs (The Bachelor/Bachelorette). The aim is to use the game shows to explore the meaning of life.
Tomorrow will be a maga planning day with Sam which will help get my aims and priorities sorted out for the year. More about that soon including my amazingly organized paperless office.
Things to pray about include that the talks will go well and children will be converted. I'm also missing Christine a lot.
tags christian, ministry, update
TLC Report
I was pretty happy with my small group. I felt the group had a good vibe people got along well. It's been a while since I have done small group leading and I was very pleased with how things went. Sam Green and Carl Mattai spoke particularly well. Carl brought a bunch of his MTS boys down from his church who were a real blast. Enjoy the pics.
Nice bit of cricket
Simon I told you you'd be sorry
Tim and James
My boss Sam
Marty... you'll also be sorry you pulled a face
Cool Carl
Stan the little man
The Wombat... good timestags christian, friends, ministry, pictures
TLC
06 February 2007
I'm off to Tasmanian Leadership Conference (TLC) for the next three days to lead a strand on Bible study. Here is the Bible Study I prepared on John 6:1-15 for you to comment away on in my absence.
(Might I be so bold as to suggest doing it before tearing it to shreds...)
Kicking off
Why is it important to read the Old Testament?
Read John 6:1-15
1. Why have the crowd followed Jesus?
2. a) What problem does this provide Jesus with?
b) How does Jesus solve the problem?
3. Who do the crowds recognise Jesus as? Why? (cf Deut 18:17-22)
4. a) What do the crowd want to do?
b) What is right about their response?
c) What is wrong about their response?
Application
What should be my response to Jesus miracle?
How does Jesus change the way I read the Old Testament?
When was the last time I read right through an Old Testament book? What can I do to change?
Mike and Nikki
A while ago I blogged about being encouraging... "Christians should be encouraging". So here is the first in a series of posts about people who I respect and find tremendously encouraging.
Mike always makes time even though he is busy. Mike is a busy guy... busier than most people I know. He runs our church yet always manages to make time to help me with a Bible study, children's talk or sermon. Nikki also does heaps. I'm a big believer that behind any great preacher lies a wife whose support is essential to their ministry success. Nikki is a marvelous example of this and a number of people have commented as much. Nikki also has an active child to look after.. many times even though pregnant and tired she has made the effort to talk to people, attend meetings and be hospitable. It is very encouraging.
I used to live with Mike and Nikki and their patience with me and my personal faults and willingness to forgive brought me on occasions close to tears. Mike practices what he preaches. Social time and hang out time are important... so Mike and I hang out... he asks me about cars (and is actually interested).
Mike is the broadest thinker I know. The breadth of understanding Mike has for our church and future makes my mind boggle. I don't know how he holds it all together. Weekly plans, monthly aims, yearly goals. Mike always listens carefully and is open to correction. I noticed this happening just last weekend.
Praise God for Mike and Nikki. God has worked wonderfully in their lives.
tags christians i respect, friends
Mix it up...
04 February 2007
This is one of the principles I like when it comes doing church.
I grew up singing hymns my whole childhood singing the same things week after week. They meant nothing to me. I wasn't a Christian and I didn't understand them.
When I became a Christian this suddenly changed, the many hymns with which I was so familiar came alive with wonderful ideas about God and his greatness.
I initially when I joined Crossroads we didn't have any singing. This was because we wanted to be edgy and evangelistic appealing to people who didn't like music, particularly "church" music (people like the old me). Secondly we were (and still) convinced you don't have to have music in a church meeting. Time passed we grew older and realised that this policy probably got more people offside than it attracted. So we introduced regular music a year or so ago.
My point is this we don't have it all the time, every week. It's important to mix things around. Maybe have a sermon series or a week or so without music for the following reasons.
- It helps people to focus on word ministry.
- It would allow people to invite the friends who don't like music.
- It would stops people becoming legalistic about music (you must have music or suffer damnation).
- It would also be a good way to filter out people who come for "inspiring worship" read (music) rather than the teaching of the word.
Engaging with youth...
I need pop culture illustrations to engage with young teens.... suggestions anyone?
Anthony Rochester
I went to see Anthony play last night at a pool hall in town. I've blogged about Anthony and his zanny music before. He plays all the instruments on his album himself (well almost). His brother Jonny and I heckled from the sidelines.
He has a new single out Even your retail prices won't keep me away available for about 5 bucks. It's from a forthcoming album Music for in the Spaceship.... zanny
Anyway it was good fun. Check his new music out here...
*UPDATE* I nearly forgot but I think it was the first ever Anthony Rochester gig where people danced.
Vibe Slogans for Crossroads
03 February 2007
- Our Public Meeting is an expression of day to day life and vice versa.
- We're not a church of Christians in Hobart rather a group of Hobartians who are Christian.
- Great Commandment before great Commission.
- Leadership by example.
- Culture verses Programs.
- Integrity
- Ministry time counts as social time and vice versa.
tags christian, church, ministry
People Ministry
A great way to think about people strategically and holistically.
- Sum up person in one sentance.
- How are they related to you/your ministry activity?
- What to know about them (What do I need to be mindful of)?
- What can I learn from them?
- How can I help them?
I found this helpfully in thinking about people who I don't have a natural tendency toward or perhaps are a little older.
(Still no laptop fixed grumble)
tags christian, church, ministry, ministry tips
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