Graphic Design for churches and Church based organisations

I got sent a link to this new Graphic Design service for Churches and Church based Organisations. Hope they don't mind me putting on my blog!

If you need design work doing, they might be worth a look. Don't know how long they'll be able to keep the "free" service if it gets popular.

Ascent Creative

Keys to church growth

Came across an article from Evangelism Coach International about church growth. It offers three keys:

Key #1: A passionate love for Jesus

Key #2: A praying leadership

Key #3: A confidence in the Holy Spirit’s work

Can't argue with that really, but I wonder if we'd reach for our diaries to see if we'd be available to pray rather than to cross out the meetings in order to make time to pray.

How can we reshape our lives to do the prayer we want to do?

Dangerous Church

Ed Stetzer has posted his notes from a recent talk he did about the Dangerous Church in 2010. you can read them here.

Here are a few headlines to get you thinking:

The Dangerous Church will:

• Be People of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32)
  
• Have Addressed Sexual Brokenness
  
• Have Wrestled with Gender Inclusion
  
• Have Navigated the Post-Seeker Context
  
• Have Regained Confidence in the Gospel
  
• Have Rethought Discipleship
  

The stories we tell ourselves

Reading Brian McLaren’s Everything must change, I was struck by a thought he raises in chapter nine “The stories we tell ourselves”. The unique framing story of you (as he puts it) describes how you have become what you are and how you will progress towards what you will be.

If our framing story is wise, strong, realistic, and constructive, it can send us on a hopeful trajectory. But if our framing story is dysfunctional,weak, false, unrealistic, or destructive, it can send us a downward arc, a dangerous, high-speed joy ride to un-peace, un-health, un-prosperity, and even un-life. (P67)

The question is can we change our framing story? The answer, even from outside of a Christian perspective is surely, “Yes we can!” (with due deference to both Bob the Builder and Barack Obama). We can tell ourselves a different story. I may have grown up inheriting a framing story from my parents, but I do not need to live inside that story forever. I get to choose the framing story of the rest of my life. I may choose the same story, with some variations, or I may choose a different story.

After years of thinking you’re a failure, yo can tell yourself a new story of hope. I’m not sure it will make you successful, just by changing your story, but it should mark a turning point. This is what happens when the gospel, the framing story that Jesus offers us, begins to penetrate our old stories. We change. We are transformed.

If you are still telling yourself the same old story, the same old destructive, useless-me story or even the unstoppable-success-with-no-one-else-to-rely-upon-or-care-about story, then it’s time for a change. It’s time to tell the realistic story that yes you’ve fallen, yes you’ve failed, but in Christ there is healing and forgiveness for the past and great hope for both the present and the future.

Yo may be who you are, but you are not all that you can be. In Christ you can become all that God wants you to become. All those fears you carry around won’t go away overnight but you can find a place to store them other than in the back of your mind.

I changed my framing story one December evening in 1976. I still live with the impact of the framing story of my early life, but I have chosen a different story for my life for a long time now. I am being reshaped by it to become more like Jesus.

We all get tired

The pressures to succeed made him miserable, the church increasingly demanded more time away from his family, and he felt spiritually barren. Furthermore, Alan did not like what he or the church had become. The church was like a spoiled child demanding their needs be met and giving nothing back. Alan drew a large crowd, but felt like he was doing it alone. He was seeing very little life change in an outwardly growing crowd on Sundays. Physically, emotionally and spiritually disillusioned, he had [had] enough.

If you recognise these symptoms in your own life and ministry then read the full article on Ed Stetzer's blog. It might focus on church planters, but it's for all of us who give our lives for the cause of Christ worked out through his church.

When life hurts, what might God be doing?

There is a positive aspect to suffering. We all endure suffering to some degree, but the good news is that through it we can become like Jesus. Are you willing to pay whatever price is necessary in order to become like Christ?

If you become bitter over your hardships, you close some parts of your life from God... Some places in your soul can be reached only through suffering.

Don't resent the suffering God allows into your life. Don't make all your decisions and invest everything you have into avoiding hardship... Learn obedience even when it hurts!

Day-by-Day Jan 27th

If the goal of my life is to become more like Christ, then I must learn to grow through the tough times as well as the easy times. But that never makes it easy. As I read this thought today, I reflected upon how easy it is to become frustrated and cynical over many things. To become almost resentful at the apparent lack of answered prayer. And then of course, just as I think these things, God steps in an answers in an unexpected and thrilling way. But more of that another time.

Red Dwarf Returns

Yes, it's apparently true, at least according to the BBC Entertainment website, Red Dwarf will make a final return to TV.

Return to Earth is a two part series written by Doug Naylor to be broadcast over Easter.

Read about it here.

Perhaps we'll have to watch all previous episodes just to refamiliarise ourselves with the story!

Gaza appeals and the BBC

I've been wondering over the past few days about the issue of the DEC appeal and the BBC. They are of course in a corner now, so I don't expect any changes. But here's my question: Has their reluctance to show the appeal got anything to do with the Iraq affair?

Remember how the then Government went after the BBC over the Iraq dossier? Whether the report was accurate or not, I do wonder whether we are paying a price for the nearest thing to a witch-hunt we've seen in recent years. At the time, as I listened to the report at the heart of the dossier debacle, I wondered then what the impact of it would become. 

GTD style app for Mac menu bar

If you are a Mac user and are thinking of trying an organiser application to take control of all your tasks and projects in a David Allen GTD style, then this might be of interest. It's called Plutopro and I've not used it, but I cam across it through an RSS feed I get. 

It's free and looks quite good. You can read about at MacUpdate here.

I currently use Omnifocus which is a very full and sometimes complicated system, so a simpler solution might be a better option even for me!

Andrew Mason, over at Did I get Things Done intends to do a review some time in the future, so it might be worth keeping an eye out for that.

Other alternatives I know about include Thinking Rock and iGTD, both of which I've used and both of which have their plus points. 

I can't sleep, but I will sleep

There are times when I blog simply because I need to write. This is one of those times. I don't know what I'm gong to write, but I need to write. 

Actually I need to do something. you see, I can't sleep. I know why I can't sleep, but I can't write about that. At least I can write about, but the Internet is not the place for it. So I'll write about something else instead. 

I've done all the things I usually do when I can't sleep like this. I've prayed. I've prayed quite hard really, but the gnawing feeling hasn't subsided, so I'm sitting at my desk wondering what to do next. Do I simply try and sleep, or do I read or watch a film or do what we're really good at. Worry.

Worry takes such little effort. Just focus on something that makes you anxious and let the worrying begin. Odd really. But there it is. We are a people prone to worry and worry we do.

Of course I can quote Philippians to myself (be anxious about nothing, but in everything...), or Peter (cast all your cares on him because he cares for you). But it is truly easier said than done. 

Perhaps the problem lies in the constant replaying of the worst case scenario in my mind. You know the way it goes. Over and over again you think about how bad it could be and then add a little more darkness to it for good measure. Your mind races. Your brain races. Your pulse races. And here I sit, trying to say nothing about what's worrying me but something to release the worry from me. 

Seems like a good time to pray again:

Lord, I don't expect my worries, my anxieties to disappear just because I've prayed. I know they won't. The things that cause them won't. Over time, these things will be replaced by other things, and in a 1,000 years none of them will be an issue anymore. The truth is that if I didn't worry I probably wouldn't pray.

So walk with please through these troubled thoughts. Calm my heart and my mind. Help me find a heavenly perspective from which to view all that makes me anxious and show me Lord that what worries me most is a concern that you share with me.

Bring to that place of peace that goes beyond my ability to understand but that brings the quiet assurance that you are with me and your love will never fail me.

Missional books

If you are interested in reading about missional church, you may be interested in this "Missional Family Tree" on Alan Hirsch's blog.

You can find it here.

From what he says, it will appear in Leadership Journal at some point, but I don't know when. 

I'm pleased to have read some of the books, but there are one two that I think I'll add to my wish list.

David Allen does GTD

For those of you who know about David Allen's Getting Things Done method for dealing with all the stuff that comes into your life, you might be interested/curious to see what his office looks like and how he does GTD.

If so, there's a video here that takes you into his office!

Headlines

How about these two juxtaposed headlines from the same website today:

One body to worship one God at BigChurchDayOut

Ambitions for church unity ‘unrealistic’, say leaders

Do you think they noticed?

Everything must change

I started to read Everything Must Change a while ago but got side-tracked with a few other things. As it is, I've started again.

The book is built upon two very basic yet often unasked questions. Unasked because maybe we've tended to focus on one particular answer to every question. I'm thinking here of the way we can sometimes be guilty of presuming that Jesus is the answer without every wondering what the initial question might be. 

On a recent episode of The News Quiz (it's a Radio 4 thing for those who don't know) an expert in some field or another was quoted as having said that the answer to most problems was usually a good night's sleep. Sandi Toksvig, the presenter, commented along the lines of, "Not if the problem is how to fix my dishwasher!"

As an evangelical it's easy to be rather reductionist when it comes to questions and answers, problems and solutions. Brian McLaren doesn't settle for such simple answers.

So, I'll let you know what I make of the book as I go. At the moment I'm enjoying the challenging nature of the read. 

And in case you were wondering, the two big questions are:

• What are the biggest problems in the world?
  

• What does Jesus have to say about these global problems?
  

With questions like that you hardly going to expect a comfortable read now are you!

Weapons of war

Driving back from taking my in-laws to the airport I listened to the radio. One of the items was an interview about a particular type of weapon Israel is purported to have used in the recent Gaza conflict. "These weapons," we were told, " were not designed for use in civilian areas." How chilling. 

Does this mean that there are weapons that are designed to be used in civilian areas, just not these weapons? I guess the truth is that however you say it, there is always going to be an implication that some weapons are designed with particular targets in mind. And that is possibly an even more chilling thought.

Organise or agonise

You do not  "organize" the kingdom of God; you "agonize" the kingdom of God.

Day-by-Day Jan 22nd

I remember Jim Collins saying the church should not be run like a business. His reason was that most businesses are mediocre and why would you want that for your church! Well, my thoughts are a little different. Although he had a lot to say that was pertinent and worth thinking about–his principles of greatness and focus are really interesting for example–it's not the whole story.

When you treat the kingdom as something to be organised, it becomes a project. But it's not a project. The kingdom of God is about transformation. When it's a project, if something goes wrong, you look for a way to fix it. 

It's all rather mechanical. But the kingdom of God is more like a garden than a machine. It needs to be nurtured, to be planted, watered and weeded. 

That of course is not the whole point of the difference between organise and agonise. Sometimes the lack of organisation gives rise to the agony of failure and mishaps. But as Paul might say, "If I have the gift of organisation and can plan all things to finest of detail and have not love, I can never feel the agony of the kingdom as God's heart searches for the lost and missing. 

Well he might have done!

Shoes, ripples and compassion

Tim Sanders, once of Yahoo, shares a powerful story about compassion.

He ends with two powerful questions: If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Cornelius and the passion of God

One of the things I like about the story of Cornelius in Acts 10 is the sense of God's passion for people. Here's this Roman soldier who, by our standards, would be judged a nominal believer because he lacks the personal relationship with God through Christ that is so central to our evangelical mindset. Yet God, by contrast, doesn't judge him, he seeks him out. God's passion for Cornelius is such that he sets a whole scheme of things in motion in order to reach him. 

There's the elaborate vision that he uses to set Peter up for his task. A task God, in his enthusiasm for Cornelius, side-steps in the end. 

Who'd have thought that the God of all the universe would have the time to notice the prayers and generosity of one man. Not only notice them but be so moved by them that he would devise an amazing plan to bring him into contact with someone who could tell him what he needed to hear.

I know some people like Cornelius. Good people. People who pray and give. People who need to hear. People we sometimes find hard to reach because they are so close but so far. People for whom God may even yet be devising a plan.

So, let the passion of God for lost and missing people never cease to inspire those already found to be available for the opportunities he makes for us. And if you only get half way through your presentation, so be it. Better half way through than no way through, or even all the way through and no response!

iTunes and the disappearing music library

I was just wondering if anyone else has been experiencing problems with iTunes like the problems I've had recently. It's not exactly earth shattering, but the only solution I found (as yet not fully tested) was quite drastic.

Anyway, I'm running iTunes 8 on my iMac and all my music is on an external hard drive. A week or maybe two ago, I noticed that one or two songs had become lost to iTunes. The files were still there, but iTunes couldn't locate them. I've been using the new genius system for selecting music, and one or two songs were not playing.

Yesterday I plugged my ipod in to recharge it and sync it and realised that it wasn't one or two songs, but whole albums were "missing". Over 100 songs could not be located and that was just from the list I have on my ipod.

The once simply task of relocating the file had now grown to a major project. In the end, the only solution that seems to have worked is to delete the iTunes library and then open iTunes and add all the stored music back into a new library. All the playlists are lost of course and I haven't tried synchronising my ipod yet.

I couldn't see any reason why iTunes would do this. I haven't moved any files around. 

Anyway, if anyone has had the same problem I was just wondering if you'd found a more elegant solution. I had a look around a few of the usual help sites, but couldn't find a similar iTunes 8 problem.

Love is...

Two Sundays ago we began our Spring series on 1 Corinthians 13. After two weeks I hope it's going well, but it's always hard to tell. Yesterday we took "Love is crucial" as our theme and I found myself deeply moved as I talked about the way of love in the light of grace. I read an account of Tony Campolo's birthday party for a prostitute in Honolulu. Church as it should be.

Perhaps the Beatles were right after all, love is all you need.

I decided that we would spend the time between the New Year and Easter looking at love. We could have done just 4 or 6 sermons, but something drew me to taking an extended stay in Paul's wonderful declaration about love. We're also doing something unusual in that we're reading the passage every week. That's right, 13 weeks of hearing Paul on love. I know there are plenty of other passages we could have read, but I so wanted to soak myself, let alone the congregation, in this passage. It will be different voices and different versions, but the same message. Over and over again we'll hear "Love is..." 

The question is: Can we remain unchanged? If we believe that the word of God is alive and powerful, that it cuts between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, exposing our innermost thoughts (Heb. 4:12), how can we not be changed by exposure to it?

RT Kendall speaks about a man who read this chapter every day for a whole year, once a week for a quarter should be possible for us!

And my goal? Well apart from soaking in the description of love, being changed by, being motivated to live it out and understanding how important it is for us to be people of love and grace above everything else, I guess I hope that by the time we get to Easter we'll be so much more aware of how much we are loved. More than we've ever realised before, more than we can hold in by an act of our will. 

Let grace abound. Let love be lived. Let God be honoured.