The bible on MP3, from ppodbible.com
October 26, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Church
Things brewing in my mind
October 26, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Church
- Mission and Culture
I have been thinking for a long time now about how the culture around us and the culture that is in the church are so vastly different. I have been reading about it and beginning to develop some new approaches to church life. I am thinking about starting on a research degree to see if I can ground my practice in rigorous thought. The church agreed to one day a week personal study when I started, though I have never made use of it yet, so in principal I have the time available. - Using the Internet to make local connections and make discussion about faith issues easier and less threatening.
I have blogged about this on the emerging evangelism website. I would like to progress this a little further and suspect that over the next few months I will get something together. See: http://www.emergingevangelism.com/ 2005-05-11-anonymity-and-local-connections - Creative Cafe
I have met quite a few people with an artistic streak recently. Some of them come to church, but most do not. I was wondering if there was a need for people who are artistic and creative to express worship in a way that is different to the ordinary "Sunday service" style. Imagine a room set round small tables, there is coffee and low background music available. Some one leads a reflection on a bible passage. The people gathered round the tables discuss how they could represent those thoughts and then set to work on the walls (which have been prepared with large sheets of paper), or on clay modelling, or something. It sounds like a creative idea to me, but in general churches don't have an excess of people with arty temperaments. Would it work? Who would come? I don't know. - Stress
We live in a world that manufactures stress on a daily basis. The usual Christian response is to invite people to church and then add to the stress by inviting them to join committees and add more to their burden. I wonder if it would be good to offer some kind of stress management from a Christian perspective. Jesus said some helpful things about life perhaps we could apply them (in a non church setting). Imagine going to a familiar place. The environment is relaxing and comfortable with some soft music playing in the background. There are several people there, someone helps you to relax, put your stresses in perspective with techniques like "thought stopping" or "worry work". The evening closes and those there are handed a little card that shows simply how what happened relates to the bible. No pressure, but a useful application of biblical principles for those people who wouldn't normally go to church.
- Small Groups
There are three types of small groups that run in the church now. The good thing is that they run without my intervention. There are- Regular small groups that meet to discuss life faith and the bible.
- Irregular small groups that meet to discuss the life of Jesus and the impact he had, a new one starts on Thursday.
- Membership and Baptism groups, that meet to talk about the implications of Membership and Baptism, they last for four weeks and we are in the middle of one at the moment.
- Developing leadership
It is the job of every church leader to look for the next generation of leadership and help those people to develop move on in their church leadership. This happens in several different ways, the most obvious of which is when someone from within the congregation starts taking an up front lead. I mentioned the preaching experiment yesterday which is one way to see that leadership up and coming. I am also involving more people in leading the all age services.
Life in the fast lane.
October 25, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under General
- Alice had her fourth birthday.
I suspect I'll wake up soon and realise I'm in my 40's (not that there is anything wrong with being in your forties) with a house full of teenagers. Isn't it funny how time passes so quickly. - Libby (16 months) pulled my laptop off a chair.
There is a couple of big cracks in the case and the network socket doesn't work. I access wirelessly via church at the moment. My wireless access port at home is broken and being fixed or replaced. Other than that it is still working fine, amazing considering this is it's second brush with death. Last time I had to take it to pieces and glue the power socket back together. Some keys still don't work after I spilled coffee on the keyboard. Have you ever wondered why I don't use question marks. Like I say, it is quite an amazing machine, surviving abuse by the first and second generation! - The house has subsidence.
It could be worse, at least we are insured for that! More on another day. - I am really enjoying my work.
Working for churches is not without its problems, but then no job is. The preaching experiment seems to be going well. If your interested you can read about it on my religious blog. http://bible.graham.doel.org/2005/10/20/ reflections_on_preaching_and_current_experiment - The network at church is finally up and running.
After several lunch time meetings with Matt we have a functioning network with an old PC working as a a firewall and a content filter. The content filter can be a bit verocious for example if I told you that it blocked p* o*rn it would block this post. Our main aim is to offer confidence to the youth leaders. They can let the kids use the copmputers without the fear of the computers being flooded with photos of pop stars in compromising attire! We have used smoothwall and dans gaurdian for the project.
Alicisms: Huge
October 10, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Family
Fame at last!
October 6, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Family
Some time ago our friends Andy and Alison Boston, with Lydia and Dominic visited us to help us with some youth work at church. While they were up we visited Leighton Moss nature reserve.
During the visit, someone accosted us with a camera and made us look at a tree while they took photos. We appear to have made it into a guide about South Lakeland attractions under the guise of a "guided walk". I have looked for a PDF of the guide but can't find one. Click on the photo and you can see the whole page.
Thanks to Andy and his mate for pointing it out!
Morecambe Bay Cockling Deaths Trial
October 3, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Cockle Picking Disaster
I have been following the Morecambe Bay cockling deaths trial in the news. There are the headlines from the BBC:
A survivor of the Morecambe Bay cockle picking disaster has told Preston Crown Court she was left so traumatised she cannot stand hearing the sea.
Evidence from Zhang Ping who escaped by leaving early.
Chinese cocklers ignored attempts by fishermen to warn them of the dangers posed by the incoming tide, Preston Crown Court heard.
Evidence from Trevor Fleming, a local fisherman.
The sandbanks where 21 Chinese people drowned in rising tides should never have been open to cockle pickers, a Morecambe Bay expert told a jury.
Evidence from Cedric Robinson, Queen's guide to Morecambe Bay.
The jury in the trial of five people charged over the deaths of 21 Chinese cockle pickers has visited Morecambe Bay where the deaths occurred in 2004.
Five people are accused of various charges and all have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Template Update
October 2, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under blog
I think it is time I gave the blog a face lift. I have done a sketch of what I am thinking about with the following in mind.
- I sketch most of my ideas on a peice of A4 stolen from the printer tray. I would like to give it that kind of "I'm working on this" feel.
- I want the navigation and style to be simple.
- I want to make it a WP theme, with the idea of porting it to "Brave or Foolish".
Target date: 31st Jan 2006
Sickness, Wet Beds and Sleepless Nights
October 2, 2005 by Graham Doel
Filed under Family
Alice and Louise recovered from being sick on Thursday very quickly. Isaac started on Friday, and was still being sick yesterday, it is probably over now. Dibby and I have survived so far.
Last night was the worst night with Isaac coming down several times. Tonight Alice woke me up, but only because she couldn't find any clean pajamas (we have taken the buld out of her room because she gets up in the middle of the night to play).
The result is that at 4:30 am, I am wide awake (again).
