supportMIKE news
14 March 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters
It’s been a busy year till now. After farewelling Christine in Sydney I came back and began work straight away. I spent a few days up at a Christian Conference for young leaders in Port Sorell. It was great to get back into some small group leading. My group went really well and had great fun.
This was followed by three short sermons that I did as part of a camp for Emmanuel Christian School. They looked at Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Proverbs. They seemed to well with the children and teachers responding positively. This was encouraging as teens are notoriously difficult to engage. I’ll be preaching the same talks for another camp later in the month. It’s great to have the opportunity to preach evangelistically.
The first FOCUS public meeting for the year was at 1pm Tuesday. This was preceded by a good Aussie style BBQ... there were a few hiccups including no matches to light it! There was also Damon's accident on Churchill avenue with all the BBQ tools tumbling all over middle of the road. In spite of these minor setbacks things ran smoothly. There were a number of new people which I found greatly encouraging. I wasn't feeling my 100% Jolly best but managed to master some form of understandable communication with a number of the newcomers.
In the next couple of weeks I’ll be filling my diary with social events and meeting with blokes to catch up, hang out, read the Bible and pray. Another one of my hopes is to try and encourage and build an environment where people can have feedback on the running of FOCUS.
There is a great deal to look forward to this year. I’ll be preaching at FOCUS and later in the year at Crossroads. I still have to choose what to preach on. More thought and prayer for this appreciated. In the middle of the year I’ll be getting married before heading back home in time for FOCUS’ Mid Year Conference.
Some things to pray about in the medium to short term include; that I’ll be accepted by the blokes (and girls) at FOCUS as part of the team. That I’ll continue to be a Godly example to the students. That I’ll learn to be humble in my role as an apprentice. That I’ll be able to raise the necessary funds for the year. I’m approximately half way to the goal of $20,000. Please feel free to contact me if you have any advice, thoughts or questions.
Thanks once again for you prayers and support
Cheers in Christ
tags christian, focus, shameless self promotion, update
Sherrin...
11 March 2007
...is engaged to her boyfriend Dave. But you'll only read about it here bloggers as she's having a blogging sabbath till Easter.
Sherrin deserves the Christians I respect award for the amazing transformation I've seen in her life over the years I have known her. Back at school she was a pretty horrible person whose life was as rebellious as they come... but she came to know Christ and began to change. It's a pity people don't realise just how dramatic has been the change in her life. It has been a great source of personal encouragement to see just how much being a Christian has transformed her.
Praise God Sherrin you are most definately a Christian I greatly respect.
tags christians i respect, friends
Guys (and girls) hangout...
Getting blokes to hang out can be difficult... but not when Jackie Chan is involved. Friday night was Jackie Chan night courtesy of my old flatmate Tim. We invited a bunch of FOCUS guys and girls along.
Chan's Armour of God is famous because he almost lost his life doing one of the stunts. It was great to watch a film where it is ok to laugh out loud at the daggy bits and appreciate old school stunts where actors hadn't heard of occupational health and safety. In any case the highlight was an overturning 4WD sliding down a set of stairs with people running in every direction... how they didn't get hit I don't know. If you like action and Jackie Chan you can't go wrong with this film, (four stars).
Dragon Fist was more the Jackie Chan purist movie with awkward (American) voice over interspersed with some awesome fighting sequences. All in all an entertaining nights viewing and some great fellowship.
People Ministry... tips
08 March 2007
Thursdays are MTS training days. This means I spend an hour or so working with Mike and all the other MTS duders (Keith, Wombat, Fiona, and Damo). Mike always has some helpful and/or useful insight into ministry. I have talked about this sort of stuff before but I thought these took a slightly different spin...
When thinking about people you are discipling;
- Who are they? (eg. their name)
- What can I learn from them? (Learning is not just about the mentor download.. it's a conversation)
- What are you doing with them now? (Reading the Bible, Praying together.. etc)
- Where are they at? (ie. Spiritually)
- Where do you want to get to? (Goals and aims)
- How are you going to get there? (How will you achieve your goals and aims?)
tags christian, focus, ministry tips
FOCUS night at the amphitheater
07 March 2007
Damo
Caleb trombonist, barista... jack of all trades etc
Bowditch of the Chris variety
Nathaniel... looks like he doing a poo... but he's actually playing piano.
Jones of the Pryderi variety. Known for impersonations
Renee posing... as she does
Always smiling Sam
Michelle with Lyndal in background
Chloe
Grr mental blanktags christian, focus, friends, pictures
Email for Dummies...
Tips to make your emailing life happier.... *
- Before you choose a bulk email list ask yourself, "Who's this really for?". If it's only relevant for several individuals on the list it's better to ask them for their addresses personally rather than put an extra email in everyone's inbox.
- Emails ain't for everything. Ask yourself if a phone call or face-to-face would be a better way.
- Avoid relying on emails to communicate. Email is unreliable for (at least) three reasons: people change addresses regularly; people don't check their mail frequently; people are less likely to act on something that they've only heard about via email.
- Beware of sending emails when you're feeling particularly angry, hurt, etc. It's always best to wait until you're calm and have a bit more objectivity before you click 'send'. (Honestly, wait a couple of days!)
- The subject should be meaningful: make it descriptive of the purpose of the email.
- Short paragraphs and short emails are more likely to be read.
- Consider 'filtering' your email so that your inbox doesn't become buried in emails. Most email systems offer 'filtering' a way of sorting bulk emails directly to a given folder – check your help files if you're not sure how to do it.
*(as stolen from recent Crossroads email)
tags church, ministry tips
Advertising
05 March 2007
God will save people with or without good advertising. Having said that...
If something is worth doing it's worth doing well. This applies to advertising and tracts. There are to many bad daggy Christian adds and fliers going around. I personally think that many tracts are a waste of time if they aren't written and presented well as people will simply bin them before even reading past the first paragraph.
Christians notice when you have bad daggy fliers. Maybe you don't personally but be assured there are others who do. It doesn't take much to think through how to put together a good flier that is simple yet effective. This helps build pride and credibility in the thing that you are advertising.
Non Christians notice when you have daggy fliers. Maybe you don't personally but be assured there are others who do. This can be a turn off for a reader... before they have even engaged with what you have written.
Better to keep it simple than go overboard with things like word art, clip art and multicolours in text headings. Much can be done with just using black and white and using a single font (Not Comic Sans). Again don't use to many different fonts otherwise it will just look bitsy.
Too many fliers have a judgmental tone or look about them. Fliers on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and politics need to be especially careful of this. Here is a quote from Amanda Lowery (who isn't a Christian) in the Quarterly Essay's - Voting for Jesus,
"The cover of this booklet had a large grey iron nail pointing down into a lurid splatter of blood... [insert name of tract] immediately the teacher in me wanted to remonstrate with them over their ambiguous phrasing".For clarification I'm not a fan of getting a marketing company to organise advertising for you. Folking over truckloads of money is not my cup of tea etc. God has wonderfully gifted the people in his church who should be encouraged and happy to help out free of charge.
tags ministry tips
Christian Campus Movement... Alpha
There is a new campus Christian group @ Uni. They have been marketing the Alpha course all this week (Complete with Grim reaper costume). I've never been a big fan of the Alpha course but I thought I do some research.
I came across this interesting article on Alpha on Wikipedia*. I was surprised particularly at the the extent of Charismatic slant in the course...
"the most controversial element of the Alpha Course is its charismatic slant. Heavy emphasis is given to the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and being filled with the Spirit; speaking in tongues and Faith healing, healing via prayer are introduced as practical gifts from God. Conversion stories in the book of Acts are seen as normative."I was also disturbed by this ...
The Bible is described as "divinely breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), although whether this view of scripture implies strict inerrancy is not made clear. While certain moral injunctions are deemed relevant and binding today, other controversial aspects of the Bible message are not subjected to a literalist interpretation.Most unhelpful was the brushing over of differences between Catholics and Protestants. It's a pity the courses with widest appeal are often the ones with the unhelpful, vague and foggy theology.
*Yes I am aware of the limitations of Wikipedia articles.
tags christian, focus, linkage, ministry
Church Camp
04 March 2007
Quiz night
Gwyd...With the smaller church the emphasis moves away from the individual home groups and Bible Study to the gathering of the church on a Sunday. In effect the Sunday meeting is "church" this is where people meet and "do community". Therefore it is vitally important to get the whole church away and "hanging out" working together as a family (especially on a camp).*
The preacher pumps out the tunes with our band
fellas at lunch
...and again
The fellas get set for an eating challenge... Gwyd explains the finer details.*In the past our church camps have involved vast seminars and Biblical surveys making your head spin and leave you needing a week to recover. Now while I believe these style of camps are beneficial they don't always achieve the purpose of "doing community" rather they serve to train and equip.
tags christian, church, ministry, ministry tips
You should have heard about...
01 March 2007
This Book... coming to a bookshelf near you.
A Christian's response (see here and download here )
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