Isaac discovers e.mail.

Isaac has just discovered e.mail. This morning he has spent half an hour composing a small e.mail to his cousin. Being aware that a red line underneath means a word is spelt wrong he has comes down to the kitchen to ask how to spell something. At first I thought this was good, because he was learning spelling, and I was glad that he didn’t know how to use the spell checker (which robs you of your ability to think).

However, after four visits, half an hour, and only one sentence, I just taught him the wonders of the right mouse button.

Sunday Evenings Choices

Every now and again the Sunday evening service get to choose what they are going to read and discuss. Two of the choices coming up are:

How can I be sure?

Malachi and a mirror

Imagine you are your favourite action hero. Not sure what is round the corner she edges towards the corner of the corridor she clutches the butt of her pistol, ready herself and pounces round the corner ready to blast the living daylights out of anything that exists. Not being sure of something changes the way we act. During a time of major change in the way people lived their lives Malachi looks on and can see them asking how can I be sure?

This five week series will give us the opportunity to hold Malachi up like a mirror. As we ask our Questions Malachi reflects them back through 2500 years of history:

1. Can I be sure if God exists he loves me? Aren’t all vicars are pedophiles?
2. Why do the good die young and evil people last forever?
3. Jesus was a good bloke, do I have to believe he was God’s messenger or son?
4. Does any good come out of giving your life to God?
5. I enjoyed watching “War of the Worlds” but I don’t believe it. Why should I believe in Christian Apocalypse?

Daniel and the Lion (with eagles wings)

Why did my Sunday School Teacher never tell me about chapters seven to twelve?

We all know the story of Daniel in the lions Den. We have probably heard of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking through a firey furness. Why is it that our teachers never told us about the Lion with eagles wings and a beast with four heads and four wings? The book of Daniel is the stuff that nightmares are made out of, so its probably a good thing no-one ever told you about it when you were five. However now you are a bit more able to cope with such graphic images, perhaps now is the time to take a closer look at what the Sunday School stories are preparing the way for later in the book.

This longer series will refresh our memories and inspire us with tales of God who is active in history.

1. Dogmatic belief in the midst of belief in anything
2. Dedicated belief in the face of opposition
3. A Ram and a Goat fight it out
4. Gabriel flies in with a message
5. Daniel is lost for words (so he listens instead)
6. A Time, Two times and half a time.

How do you describe it?

The church I am part of is quite diverse. If you want young and energetic then our church has some of those elements in it. If you want traditional and quiet, we have that too. I was talking with someone the other day and I needed to describe it. They were people who would go to church infrequently so they had some expectation of what church would be like, but I didn’t know what to emphasise. I had loads of thoughts running though my mind as I did my best to paint a picture.

I started with the music:

“We have an organ, of course“.

Of course we have an organ, everyone knows churches have organs,

“but we also have a Drummer, a squeeze box, a clarinet, a cornet, a bass guitar and an ordinary guitar. Have I missed anything? Oh yes, a piano“.

It’s not until you say it out loud that you realise exactly how many instruments we do have. I watched their eyebrows raise.

Then, as they had children, I thought I would talk about them:

“There’s quite a few children, it varies a little each week, depending on who is away or there. We have a couple of little areas near the front with a few toys in for the younger ones“.

Is this normal? I don’t know I’ve been part of it so long that conducting the church service in the middle of a crèche is quite normal to me, but would you expect it if you were visiting?

“I know what its like to have children in church, so we do our best to help them stay happy“.

God willing, I’ll never forget what it is like having a two year old in a church, there have been days when I have felt like every eye in the building has been watching me try and stop a two year old have a paddy.

“The younger children often dance in a corner at the front during the songs“.

Now, what would you expect to wear if you were going to church for the odd service (but they are not that odd surely)?

“I suppose if you were looking for a dress code, smart casual would sum it up“.

But would it? Some people wear more formal clothes and some people don’t, goodness whatever you wear no one would look twice at you. Well… perhaps that’s not quite true. Why did I raise this issue?

“Not many people wear ties, and I don’t wear one that often“.

Do they know that Baptists don’t wear dog collars? Perhaps now is not the time for that discussion!

Preparing

Because life is complicated enough, I have decided to move all my academic notes, over to this site. I will post them all under this category. To celebrate, I have created a new theme for my site, if you are fortunate enough to read this in a feed reader, you will have no idea what my new theme is like, so why don’t you pop over and have a look!