C.O.I.P. (Church Over Internet Protocol)

A strange thing happened to me last night, I was just about to stand up and conduct our Sunday evening service when I noticed my Skype flashing at me. This is the conversation, some of it might not make immediate sense, bacuse D was responding to my sermon.

2007-01-14 Graham Doel: 18:24:07 Hay, I got your messages but only as I turned on the computer to conduct the evening service!! Graham Doel: 18:24:38 must go now, I'm stood at the front of church ands it starts in 5 minutes... D: 18:25:36 Cool, Say one for me and S We went to SB Baptists this evening to find nobody at home. Comunications are not our things Graham Doel: 18:26:06 you could listen to this... Graham Doel: 18:26:26 if we do a call, and I turn my sound down!! Graham Doel: 18:26:52 don't know what the quality is like? Graham Doel: 18:26:56 ha ha ha Graham Doel: 18:26:59 I can see you Graham Doel: 18:27:06 you look perplexed. Graham Doel: 18:27:14 smile!!! Graham Doel: 18:27:34 can you hear it? Graham Doel: 18:27:37 the piano? D: 18:28:16 Yes I can hear it sounds good to me, S says Hi Graham Doel: 18:28:19 If I had my cam down here you could see, but I didn't think of that. Graham Doel: 18:28:23 Hi S! Graham Doel: 18:28:35 feel free to disconnect when you have had enough, Graham Doel: 18:28:43 we are doing amos tonight! G: 18:29:06 Immortal invisable, faithful one, and then the lords my shepheard D: 18:29:15 I will listen for a while, in loo of not getting tonight Graham Doel: 18:29:33 right I'mm off to look like a minister... D: 18:29:47 Amen D: 18:44:41 It is a pleasure to be with you tonight. To be able to join in by listening. Sound is not great over the net, but it works i can hear you. Vocals are very clear. Graham Doel: 18:52:09 just collecting the offering! can't do that virtually! D: 18:52:28 Do you take paypal or visa? Graham Doel: 18:59:02 i hope u reading! D: 19:10:15 Amos speaks to afluent, the rich and powerful. He could and is speaking to our society today. We are the fat cows of Bashen, our society and our people will be punished if we do not listen to the message of the prophets. Come to the Lord and live. Hate evil and be just. D: 19:10:59 It is alvie the bible is a work in progress! D: 19:22:18 Punishemtn Graham Doel: 19:22:48 judgement? Graham Doel: 19:23:00 what about justice? D: 19:23:28 Yes that to but they dont jump up to me tonight D: 19:24:13 I like that God runing out of patience D: 19:36:04 Fairtrade Organic and local farm produce Green trading Ask where the teashirts were made D: 19:38:22 Amen Graham Doel: 19:38:50 I'lll call you when I get home (bout 9) D: 19:40:29 I have very much enjoyed bing with you this evening. It has been a real pealsure. SBB was closed for a reason. Bless you D: 19:41:07 I will see if i can listen next week

So in the unlikely event you want to listen to a service via Skype, send me a chat message to my Skype account and I'll include you in a conferance call! (Unless your coming anyway, don't want to give you an excuse to stay away).

Meeting with Richard Kidd, potential research degree supervisor.

Richard described the difference between and MPhil and a Phd: An Mphil will describe something that is happening. The boundaries of the Mphil are looking at and describing what is happening and the ideas that are behind it. Other disciplines that interact with the study are brought in as appropriate. A Phd includes the same things as an Mphil but the area of study is potentially something quite significant that involves pushing the area of the research to the absolute limit. The Phd is proof that you are an expert in a particular area. Richard was also checking my motivation for study. I think he wanted to know if I am motivated enough to see the study through. My motivation spring from the last four years as a full time "professional" minister. After the first couple of years I began to feel like I had used up my resources and I needed to do some more reading, it struck me that the simplest way to get a guide for reading is to get a supervisor. There is a part of me that would like to become a partner in the training of future ministers. Having completed a research degree of some description would prepare me for any opportunities that might come my way in the future. The subject of mission and church planting fascinates me. I began my training as a church planter and am really interested in some of the creative church planting that is happening in the UK at the moment. I am involved in the Incarnate Network, which is a network of people church planting within a roughly Baptist sphere. We talked about my subject area in depth and Richard suggested that my initial proposal was enough for an Mphil but it asked no questions so would be merely a descriptive piece of work that probably could not be developed into a Phd. We talked about the things that might make it more of a significant work. We talked about significant figures influencing church planting and emerging church networks in the uk. Richard suggested that the most significant church planter in English Baptist history would be Spurgeon. I'm not keen to research Spurgeon though. There must be hundereds of people who could claim an intimate knowledge of Spurgeon. I would rather research some one less well known. We talked about the possibility of looking at Dan (Daniel) Taylor, who was a significant force behind the New Connexion of General Baptists who planted many churches mainly in the Midlands. Long Whatton, the church I did my training in was a New Connexion church plant. My former mentor, Frank Rinaldi, researched the New Connexion for his thesis which was called "The Tribe of Dan: From revival to denomination". The New Connexion formed with the Particular Baptists to become what is now The Baptist Union of Great Britain. Richard suggested a question that might inform and guide my research:

"How might revisiting a particular monent in church planting (New Connexion) inform and challenge the reality of church planting withing the Baptist Union of Great Britain 1980-2005"

There are some statisitcs about the late 20th and early 21st century of church planting in an article by Stuart Murray Williams on the Incarnate Network web site:http://incarnate-network.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15 Richard suggested that the building blocks would be:

• Looking at the historic moment.
  10,000 word proposition paper looking at everything that affected that period of church planting including:
  • sociological
  • politics
  • power
  • theological convictions
• Generalised study of church planting. Including the qualitative research.
• Nature of culture.
• Nature of church growth.
• Nature of power and organisation.

Questions I need to ask: What are the New Connections motivations? What is the social backdrop? Are there creative connections between the areas? Ask yourself what are the creative connections. What are you looking for? Put it down on a research proposal defining the two key areas of research and the associated themes. Task: Write a two paragraph history of the New Connexion