Buses, adverts and humour

On "The Now Show" on BBC Radio 4 recently, one of the comedians had a pop at Christians over the atheist bus ads again. I do get tired of the cheap laughs derived from faith bashing, but it's just part of our culture, and we do give them plenty of fuel.

It also has to be said that we do our fair share of laughing at the humanists and atheists.

So, off the top of my head, here are my ten reasons not to complain about the atheist bus adverts.

1. It's funny.

2. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. If we stop these adverts then we will have to stop Alpha from advertising too.

3. It's focusing on the wrong thing.

4. It makes us look like narrow-minded fools more that it makes us look like anything else.

5. God does not seem that concerned. Is God not more concerned with how to reach people than how to judge them?

6. If it provokes discussion isn't that a good thing?

7. Self-righteousness is not an attractive quality.

8. I'd rather be known as being for grace than against atheism.

9. Why rise to the bait?

10. How can we draw people towards God if we are constantly erecting barriers to keep them out.

Advertising Easter

Do I now need to worry about the commercialisation of Easter as well as Christmas?

Apparently I do, and I have to worry about it from a position of guilt too! According to an advert on a Christian website I visit from time to time, I'm not just to give Easter eggs to the family but chickens to Africa. This is "a real gift" that can enrich diets and save lives. How true. No disputing the nutritional value of chickens on this blog! 

But have we actually reached the point where Easter is a spring version of Christmas? Are we going to start gathering around a large roasted bird, buy Easter cards, Easter wrapping paper, erect and decorate Easter trees? I hope not.

Are we reducing Easter to a time of personal reward for having made it through Lent?

I worry when I see the latest Nintendo DS system being advertised as the ideal Mother's Day gift as if a bunch of flowers, a hand made card and a big thank you is somehow less than meaningful anymore.

Perhaps I'm over-reacting. Perhaps it's a good thing that someone has taken an early step to challenge the potential for reducing Easter to just another opportunity for marketers to grab our attention and drive us to empty our wallets in the pursuit of material gain. Maybe I shouldn't worry until my local supermarket starts to stock Happy Ascension Day, and Merry Pentecost cards. Or worse still, a three for one offer on Trinity Sunday!

At least this truth remains: There is nothing you can do to buy God's love for you. It is a free gift, made at great personal cost, but free nonetheless.

Is it me?

I have, for some time now, held to the view that while we may be able to explain our behaviour, we must never let those explanations become excuses. For example, the failure of my parent's relationship and the impact it had on me as a child, may explain why I struggled to trust others during my teenage years and even why I carried a sense of personal responsibility for what had happened. But that doesn't excuse any ongoing issues with trust. I must deal with the problem, and grow, and learn how to trust.

I am responsible for my actions and responses.

Now, by the grace of God, I have learnt these lessons, although I'm sure there are times when old wounds open and history begins to repeat itself. However, I refuse to give in to those fears. I choose to seek God's way forward, to live in the light of the Gospel that I continually preach as the good news that transforms lives. A message I could not preach unless I too am experiencing the transformation it promises.

The point of all this is to draw your attention to something Chester and Timmis say in their book Total Church.

If we subscribe to a view that makes our 'complex aetiologies' [the root causes of our problems] responsible for our behaviour and attitudes, then we put our lives at the mercy of our genes or our parents or our chemistry or our past. Ultimately we make those multiple factors sovereign over our lives. Of course they can be significant factors, but we have in the precious promises of the gospel all we need to respond to those factors in a way that results in godly behaviour and godly attitudes. such a response may not be easy. It may involve a daily struggle. But it is possible.

Total Church p128

Surely this is what it means to be submitted to Christ, to make him sovereign, to declare him Lord. Anything less denies the power of the gospel to transform.

No, not that programme!

I was looking at a website earlier today and wanted to know if the product I was thinking about buying had the ability to accept data from a similar programme made by Microsoft. I couldn't find anything on the site, so I tried their search facility. 

Entering the programme name, I clicked search.

The first result was:

Fatal error [name of programme].

Was that their comment on having used a Microsoft programme rather than their software I wonder? 

Sorry Microsoft, it just made me laugh.

SMS from the Dashboard

Because I came to Mac after the launch of Leopard, I was never aware of Tiger's useful ability to send SMS messages from Address Book. But when I was told about this, I thought it was worth seeing if anyone had produced a plug-in or widget that would give me that option in OS X.

Of course there was. We are, after all, talking Macs here!

Enter emitSMS. EmitSMS is a dashboard widget that does exactly what I wanted. Either by choosing a contact from your address book or by typing in the number directly, you can send short or long messages via your mobile 'phone using the Bluetooth connection. And the cost of the message is just the standard network cost.

I have a Nokia 6085 and it works fine. Although of  course I had to create the original phone plug-in for iSync which may or may not be relevant. Perhaps, because it's only the Bluetooth connection, it might work with any phone, but there are no promises. It was originally developed for the developers own Nokia mobile.

There is an application available from Novamind called phoneplugins that probably supports more 'phones and offers more options and only costs about €12.

Inspired and thoughtful

I'm a contemporary worship person myself, although I'm not averse to using hymns, they are just darn difficult to play on the guitar. And I'm not so protective of either resource to ignore the fact that there are as many poor excuses for worship songs as there are poor examples of hymns.

But every so often I'm reminded of the thoughtfulness of many of the old hymn writers as they crafted a song to express theological truth and heartfelt worship. I think many of the modern-day worship writers are trying to do the same, and often they succeed only to be thwarted by the way we over sing and under think their songs.

Anyway today, at a local conference in which I was privileged to take part, we were pointed to a Frances Ridley Havergal song: Take my life. Whilst it can often sound a bit of a dirge when you hear it sung, the words are testimony to the art of thoughtful worship writing. 

We are taken through a series of acts of submission as everything about us is given over to God. Hands, feet, voice, lips, silver, intellect, will and heart are all committed to God's purposes. All these constituent parts are submitted to God wrapped up in the context of "my life, consecrated Lord to thee" and " myself... ever, only, all for thee." 

And if you don't know the words, here they are in full. You might even want to make it your prayer for the weekend.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

The joy of direct mail

Like everybody I know, I don't particularly like junk mail. If every insurance company and utility company could save me the money they say they can, in three years time they should all be paying me to take their product rather than the other way around. Just occasionally though you have to laugh.

Today's post brought the following direct mail-shot from a denominational insurance company:

Introducing our new home insurance policy...

At (company name) we know that everyone's home is different and we don't believe one size fits all when it comes to home insurance.

This is just as well because the person to whom the letter is addressed has never lived in our house! If it's the David Russell I know, he lives in Berkhamsted and has never graced the open fields of Bedfordshire. At least not to my knowledge.

On the other hand, should I be worrying that he's planning to move in? Or worse still, that he's taken to giving out my address in order to avoid dealing with his own post. Just like gravy, the plot thickens.

I suppose it might just be that this particular insurance company is so forward thinking that it allows you to insure your contents in a cheaper postcode just to keep the cost down.

Looking for accounts software for the Mac

Previously I had a look at Money Dance as a replacement for Microsoft Money, the accounts package I was using on my PC. Sadly I found the colour balance in Money Dance difficult, being a chromatically challenged person as I am!

For a long time I gave up the search and just kept using Money on my laptop. But it's inconvenient to have keep getting out the laptop, firing it up, waiting for it to try and search out all possible updates before finally opening Money and doing the accounts. Consequently I've slipped out of the habit of doing it and quite frankly that frustrates me.

So I thought another search was in order and came across two possibilities that I thought I might look at. Liquid Ledger was the first. It looks like the kind of package I'm used to using, although they are all slightly different. Second on the list is Checkbook from Splasm Software, and a third option that popped up as I checked the url's to paste in this post is iBank.

I have no experience of any of these, but might have a look at all three, starting with Liquid Ledger. Downloading the application was easy and installing it as straightforward as you'd expect. They provide you with a licence key for a 60-day trial, which in itself is a generous trial period. You also have the option of importing data via what is euphemistically called the industry standard QIF format. 

The problem is that in my experience, including Liquid Ledger, migrating from one package to another using this file format simply doesn't work. Is it me or is this par for the course? Going from Quicken to Money was just the same. You export the file, import it and voila, a total mess!

Argh, it's so frustrating! Accounts are wrongly named, balances have disappeared and transactions are all over the place. The bottom line is that it looks like I will have to start from scratch, and with 13 different accounts to set up, that takes a long time.

Does anybody have any suggestions, apart from going back to large notepad and pen!

Discipleship

...discipleship is as much about a new relationship with the world as it is about a new relationship with God. 

Here's a really great post from an old college friends, Simon Jones, on discipleship. Well worth a read. I've put on my starred list in Google Reader!

Book Reviews on Guidance

There's a useful and interesting list of reviews on books about guidance at the 9marks blog. Here's the list of books covered:

• Adams, Jay. The Christian's Guide to Guidance
  
• Blackaby, Henry. Experiencing God
  
• Edwards, Brian. How Do We Get Guidance?
  
• Elliff, Jim. Led by the Spirit 
  
• Friesen, Garry. Decision-Making and the Will of God
  
• Jensen, Phillip. Guidance and the Voice of God
  
• MacArthur, John. Found: God's Will
  
• Packer, J.I. Finding God's Will
  
• Sproul, R.C. God's Will and the Christian
  
• Waltke, Bruce. Finding the Will of God
  
• Willard, Dallas. Hearing God
  

If you visit the blog and try to follow the links you may get an error message. Hopefully they will fix the links, but in case they are still not working, click the link and then edit the url replacing typepad.com with 9marks.org and it should work.

All Stand for the grumpy old man please!

Feeling somewhat Victor Meldrew-ish I wish people would use their spell checking facility properly, and by properly I mean use the correct one! It frustrates me enormously that when I receive a news feed from a UK based website it's obvious that they haven't checked the spelling using a "British English" dictionary. So we get pressurized and legalized and other misuses of 'z'. 

Now I'm not the perfect speller of words and my grammar and syntax often leave a lot to be desired, but at least I make the effort to spell according to my received conventions!

So, if you use a computer and you have a spell checker, please make sure it's set to check for British spellings if you're British. All members of the colonies are excused, naturally. After all, we're not a nanny state now are we boys and girls!

And while we're at it, how about we try to remember when it's practice and when it's practise, licence and license, different from and different to (my Dad's favourite linguistic conundrum). And don't get me started on ending sentences with prepositions!

It's "For what am I on earth?" not "What am I on earth for?"

The interesting thing about all of this, well interesting to  me, is that when I'm writing I often find myself backtracking over sentences because I start them in the wrong place and can't make them make grammatical sense until I fix the beginning. I can't think of a good example, but I'm sure to produce one as I prepare my notes for Sunday morning. I might even manage before the end of this post. I think it has to do with over qualifying what I've already written. That and starting with the wrong part of the sentence, as in the example above. 

Perhaps I need to read Eats, Shoots and Leaves properly! If you don't know about the book, it is subtitled The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. The title comes from the story of the Panda who went into a restaurant, ordered a meal, ate it, got up, shot the waiter and left the restaurant. When asked why he'd done this, he replied, "I looked up Panda in the dictionary and it said, "Panda: eats, shoots and leaves: so I did."

And I guess if you don't know why that's funny, you may need to read the book too! (The comma is in the wrong place, in case you hadn't noticed-remember I'm in grumpy old man mode for the duration of this post).

Anyway, I guess I ought to check this piece for split infinitives, misplaced punctuation and improper sentence structure, but I won't. There actually are more important things to do and I've had my little rant about the abuse of 'z'. Maybe it's because we don't have that many words to use in everyday conversation that include a 'z' that we want it not to feel left out. Or maybe it really is the pernicious subversion of our language by the almighty Microsoft. It will all end in tears I'm sure. They might even take a nice word like vista and name an operating system after it! 

No, that could never happen, could it?

Sanders says...

I read this latest post from Tim Sanders and as I read I wondered what it has to say to the way we do church in these credit crunching times.

These days, I'm working hard to save my customers and partners money.

I'm not cutting my speaking fees or discounting my consulting, either. I firmly believe that when you focus on price, you start down the slippery slope to the no-profit zone. Instead, I am focused on reducing my costs to customers and partners.

For example, I've trimmed back any luxuries on the customer's dime. No more first or business class, unless it is a bargain. In fact, Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue are looking pretty good these days. No more upgraded hotel rooms, standard works fine for me. Yesterday I drove my car to the airport, because it will save today's customer $100.00 over a taxi or car service. The meal I had last night was under $20.00. Etc.

This sends a signal to my customers that "we are in this together". By cutting my costs to the customer, I'm helping them get by with less during these tough times. That is one of the most socially responsible habits we can develop over time.

For my partners, I'm cutting back on requirements that cost them money too. Gone are overnight packages (ground or regular mail now works fine). I'm happy to receive all communications via email, so very little paper or plastic needs to be bought or shipped. Additionally, I'm NOT asking any of my service providers to cut their prices either. I want them to remember my loyalty during this period for a long time. By looking out for their bottom line, I'm preserving my business eco-system.

I say all of this because we seem to be so focused on OUR bottom line, and as a result we've started to squeeze our partners and customers for every dime we can. If they don't survive, how will we? I truly believe in "The Law Of Interdependence" -- our success depends on the success of others.

How are you helping your customers and partners save it forward? Post your innovations under comments so all of us can continue to innovate in this area and make a difference.

Honestly I don't know what it says, but something struck a chord. Maybe it was the use of words like loyalty and references to looking out for the customer and being in  it together. There's just something about the way do church, particularly in hard financial times but not exclusively that seems to connect. I just don't know where yet.

Does it stir your heart or is it just me?

Introducing Amar Sagoo

I don't actually know Amar Sagoo but I do know Tofu, his ingenious little application that lets you read text in columns. I downloaded it a few days ago and really like it (see my quick post about it.) 

In the comments I noted that Tofu doesn't support Pages documents or Scrivener, two applications I use a lot. There is a solution to this problem because you can copy text and drag it onto the Tofu icon, thus opening it in columns. you can do the same for long blog posts or web pages.

But that's not all Amar has produced. If you visit his website you will find some other interesting little applications. There's Deep Notes ( a simple outliner/note taking application), Cambio (a unit converter for iPhone/ iPod Touch), Licensed ( a place to store all your software licence information), to name three. And they are all free although you can make a donation.

So, not only will it cost you nothing to visit the site, it won't cost you a penny to try out his applications. and if Tofu is anything to go by, I think the others should be rather good too!

I'm rich!!

I've made $10! 

Okay so I've got a long way to go to making my fortune, but Spanning Sync is helping. Since I posted the link on my Blog, two people have bought Spanning Sync. Now at One purchase a month I'll have made my first million by this time in the year...18,668. Oh dear, I think I might need another income stream!

Disciple-making in the local church

Yesterday's seminar posed two key questions:

1. What is spiritual growth?

2. How can it be a key part of church life?

In order to answer these two questions we need to look both at what the Bible has to say about spiritual development and at how that can be done most effectively in the 21st century. Of course we learn from history, but simply looking back at some imagined golden age of strong devotional living won't necessarily help us here and now. And of course if we wanted to go right back to the New Testament Church, we'd have to ditch our Bibles in search of a pattern of discipleship because the New Testament largely didn't exist at the time!

I'm not going to try and blog about answers to these questions just yet, but I do think it's worth the effort to give it some thought. As a place to start I was reminded of something I heard on a podcast. Can't remember when or what the source was, but I did write down the following note.

For spiritual formation to happen we need:

• A theological understanding of what it means to be a disciple
  


• Self-awareness (if you learn a lesson about joy you need to know where you are with joy)
  


• Redemptive relationships (I'm guessing this means things like accountability and positive relationship with other believers).
  

So there you go, a simple starting point to think about what spiritual growth might mean for the 21st century church. 

Tools For Growth

No, not a review of gardening equipment but a one-day seminar about discipleship, mentoring and coaching. 

This was an overview of three techniques that can be used together or discreetly to help promote spiritual growth in the local church. Discipleship, mentoring and coaching were given specific definitions that may not align with how these terms are used generally in church and almost certainly not in other contexts. I say this partly because I've yet to come across a widely accepted definition of mentoring and coaching certainly means different things in different circles. 

The definitions we were provided with were:

Discipleship: An older believer who is committed to following Jesus helps another believer move forward in their growth on Christ.

Mentoring: someone more experienced in the faith imparts specific skills and knowledge of their faith to a less experienced person.

Coaching: someone facilitates another to take the action they require to produce desired growth.

After exploring some myths about spiritual growth we were presented with three vital steps for spiritual growth.

Step one: Develop a vision (a personal vision for one's own growth)

Step two: Decide that you want to change

Step three: Diarise regular spiritual practices

I thought that this really needed a fourth step which I suggested could be Determine measurable outcomes. Whilst I recognise that somethings are difficult to measure, I do feel that there are times when our failure at least to try to measure our growth leaves us assuming we are growing when in fact we might not be growing.

We did some work on a series of scenarios, looking at what approach we might take and how we might do things in a range of situations.

Overall it was a helpful day. The framework was useful as was some of the Biblical context. Reflecting a little on how Jesus did things and hearing the perspectives of others is always valuable.

Next up is a seminar about self-esteem and a leaders event.

Swurl becomes history?

It looks like Swurl is no more:

Hello Swurlers,

We built Swurl as two guys doing something we love in our spare time.
Unfortunately, due to the pressures of our day jobs and other
distractions, we can no longer support or maintain the service at the
level that we think our users deserve.

Building Swurl has been a great experience for us. We want to thank
all of the folks that used Swurl as a way to document their lives
online and share with their friends and families. Thanks a bunch to
those users that gave us lots of valuable feedback and encouragement.

Oh well, it was a really good idea and better than other things I played with. Perhaps someone will take up the idea and it will reappear somewhere.

Tofu

Tofu is a really neat little application that takes documents and allows you to read them in columns.  It's free and worth trying, especially if you find text on a screen difficult or tiring to read.

Love never fails

Here's a link to a preview of a one minute video we used this morning for the set up of our continuing series on 1Corinthians 13.

Link

It was a great little set up for our All-Age worship.

Time to replace the car

I have to confess that I've always liked new cars. It's just one of those things. I know everyone says you lose a lot of money as soon as you drive it away, but there's just something nice about the new car smell and being the first person to drive this particular car.

Anyway, my current car is four years old and in the past I've generally changed after three years. I kept this one an extra year because a friend of mine was interested in buying it last year but he didn't have the money and I couldn't find a deal I liked or a car I particularly wanted.

A year on he has the money so we set a price and now I need to look for a replacement. I need, or rather want, something with the carrying capacity to take Ally's stuff back and forth to university. I also like something that allows me to sit a little more upright. The Grandis, my current car, meets all these needs and has the added advantage of being the nicest people carrier I've driven. The rear row of seat are full size and fold into the floor. No other people carrier does this as far as I know.

So, my current shortlist include the Mazda 5, the Ford S-Max, and Nissan Qashqai+2. The Seat Altea XL is a five seat alternative, and in truth the extra row of seats in the S-Max and Nissan are useless unless you're under 7 years old. I could of course simply replace the Grandis with another Grandis, but I'm not sure I want to do that.

I've driven all but the Mazda so in the end it will probably come down to price and maybe even colour! I could be swayed on colour if the deal is too good on an S-Max I saw earlier! It was silver and I like black or red.

Get inside a camera (2)

Here's a link to the clip from the BBC's "The Genius of Photography" series when they built a camera obscura.

When you see it I wonder if like me, you'll be wondering what it would be like to do this.

Another disappointing day!

As some of you know, I'm a rather passionate follower of Rugby Union especially English Rugby Union. Being an England follower since playing the game at school in the 1970's, there have been times of great excitement and awful disappointment. The high point was of course the 2003 World Cup, but there have been good times outside of that competition. 

At the moment it would be hard to describe English rugby as anything but floundering. Whilst the optimist would say that there are signs of hope, they often hide themselves behind a failure to take opportunities and incredible naivety when it comes to staying focused and doing the right thing at the right time. 

I sit amazed that highly professional players make the kind of mistakes we were not allowed to make at schoolboy level. Simple things like like not playing the man without the ball. Today, as I watched England lose another game they could have won, I was amazed to see people diving over rucks and slapping the ball out of the scrum-half's hands; seasoned professionals going into rucks and mauls from so far off-side you'd have thought they were playing for the opposition, just wearing the wrong shirt.

One day, I sincerely hope, England will again dominate the rugby world, but at the moment I just have to sigh and grin and bear it. At least it was Ireland this week, and for some reason I don't mind that quite as much as I might. As it is, 2009 is going to be another year of damage limitation. with only two matches left, it's a sad reality that they could lose both of them, and that would be a poor season by any measure.

Notes from elsewhere

Apart from the issue of sausages and spelling, Michael Mckinley provides some thoughts worthy of deeper reflection in his notes from Tim Chester's talk. I'm not at the conference, so I value snippets like this that cause me to think.

From his notes, these are the things that most caught my eye:

We need a culture in our churches where you don't need permission to do mission.

Leadership is about creating an ethos of mission.

Leadership is about organising the chaos that results (Acts 11:19-26) and catching up with what God is doing.

Follow the link to read the whole post.

Trilogies in more than three parts!

I saw this on a recent RSS feed and thought of one of my all-time favourite authors, the late Douglas Adams.

This entry is part 4 of 3 in the series

For those of you unfamiliar with his work, he was the author The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency.

To be known is to be loved...

Not sure when it was, possibly a couple of years ago, I came across this video. I bought it then, and am going to use it at church for the first time this weekend. The main reason I've waited so long is because I kept losing the DVD copy we made!

We're currently doing a series on love and this video is a powerful expression of the desire to be loved through the eyes of the woman at the well. I bought my copy from Faith Visuals, but I think it might also be available on Sermon Spice.

(Just checked and you can download it from either site, just search for "Woman at the Well")

Of all the numbers he could have called...

So, I'm sitting in the lounge doing nothing in particular when the 'phone rings. So far so normal. But then the conversation starts and I'm caught off guard by what happens next.

James, not his real name, tells me he's a non-practising Christian but wonders if I can answer a question for him. He goes on to tell me that he watched a documentary on TV last night about Africa and Christianity. There was someone tracing his roots and apparently there was some discussion about the church in Ethiopia being older than the church in the West, having a different Bible and a few other things. He told me about the conversation he'd had with a work colleague about it all and how fascinated he was to learn that the church was actually growing across the world rather than declining.

So we talked for a few minutes about how the gospel might have made it's way to Ethiopia through the events of Acts 8 with Philip and the eunuch and about how Eastern and Western Orthodoxy developed differently. I never thought my Church history course would be useful for evangelism!

It was a whirlwind conversation and it ended with James saying that watching the programme really made him think again about his faith.

I don't know what drew him to my 'phone number apart from something God was doing. Maybe I was the only Christian minister in the 'phone book who wasn't busy at the time he wanted to make the call. Who knows.

What I do know is that it's really exciting to suddenly come across evidence that God is at work in all sorts of places and lives about which I am wonderfully unaware until they interrupt my day.

I wonder if James will ever call back, or start going to church. He said he knew lots of non-practising believers. Maybe God will start a new church where he lives through him or for him. Maybe he'll turn up at church sometime. Whatever happens I hope I've left him ready for his next spiritual encounter, that whoever he connects with next is someone who can help nudge him towards faith, and that I'm also ready in case God wants to use me again.

I wonder what my next 'phone call will be?

Get inside a camera

I was watching a programme about photography, something that has been a long time interest of mine, when I saw something I'd love to try. Blacking out the windows of a room, somewhere in Venice I think, a small hole was cut in the plastic sheet used for blackout.

All of a sudden the upside-down image of the outside world is projected onto the wall of the room. It was amazing. 

Strikes me that this would be a great thing to try in a classroom. We're  constantly being told of the need to bring stuff to life in school, if you have a classroom with an interesting view and lots of natural light falling on the image it might be worth trying. Perhaps they might let me try it at my local school if I ask them nicely!

Podcasts are us, or rather me!

I've had a horrible, nasty cold for a couple of days and haven't really felt like doing much at all other than sleep, something that seemed to escape me last night as I coughed my way through the early hours of the morning. 

I'm not given to so-called "man-flu" having had the real thing when I was 17. Believe me, if I can get up and walk around at all, I don't call it flu. My 1975/76 encounter with the flu virus left me weak, 30 pounds lighter, and unable to drink coffee ever again! My Grandmother thought I'd seen my last Christmas, she was a cheery soul!

Anyway, this head-cold made concentrating difficult so I've been playing with Garageband and iWeb just to see how easy or otherwise it is to create podcasts.

The answer is pretty easy. Neither programme is particular difficult to use at what I guess is a really basic level. Once you get the concept of dragging and dropping media files where you want them, it's all pretty straightforward. Actually Garageband even exports the finished podcast to iWeb and it's a few simple editorial changes and a few click to publish it to the web. Having a MobileMe account probably helps, but I guess it's not that much more complicated if you use another server somewhere.

Anyway, I've podcasted three sermons, two from our recent series on 1 Corinthians and one from three years ago just to see how it works. They are live recordings and sometimes the quality is not so good, but that's not an issue with either bits of software.

Here's the link to my podcasts if you want to listen, or in fact even if you don't want to listen! You can of course follow the outlines on the church blog as you listen to see how closely they reflect what is said!

Bed repairs

Our lovely pine bed is showing it's age. It uses these hook and lock fixtures to secure the side rails to the head and foot boards but they are not that substantial and they wear pretty quickly if the truth be told. The problem is that all the mass rests on some fairly thin steel.

After a few years we began to notice that these plates were working loose and it turns out that the two parts were cutting into each other. The place where we bought the bed had closed down,so I couldn't track down any replacements until just recently when I happened to be looking for small hinges and fixings for a toolbox project last year.

An article in a woodworking magazine pointed me to Isaac Lord where I found the needed replacement fittings. Fitting them should be very simple, just a matter of removing the old ones and fixing the new ones. While I'm doing that, I might just look at providing some extra support so that the weight of the rails and all that they support (which includes me of course) isn't solely borne by these thin metal fixings. A simple block might do the trick.

Music to my ears, wherever I go!

So, one of my Premium bonds came up. For those who are not familiar with these things, Premium Bonds were introduced by the UK government in the 1950's as a way to promote savings, although I can't quite see how that worked because yo are only ever guaranteed that your bond will be worth exactly what you paid for it when you bought it.

The thing is that unlike a lottery, where you buy a ticket in the hope of wining but lose your "stake", a Premium Bond can be cashed in any time. But while you have it, there's a monthly draw. A typical prize is £50 and if you have enough bonds you can generate a return similar to that of a Building Society account but without the tax liability. 

Anyway, one of my bonds came up and it was a nice surprise when the the envelope landed on the mat this morning. 

I decide to invest my winnings in an Airport Express for the lounge. This wonderful little gadget extends the range of my wireless network and allows me to plug my stereo (yes I still have one of those) into my iTunes library.

After a few minutes setting up, we now have a random selection of music playing in the lounge straight from the iMac on my desk. Brilliant!

It was always my intention eventually to put all my music on a hard drive and then to do this Express manoeuvre. What's more I can use another Express to boost the wireless network upstairs, and even to add the printer/copier in the dining room (there's nowhere else for it to sit).

It has to be said, Apple have some really neat solutions to problems you never thought you had until you saw the solution!

And not forgetting the book about...

So, I just started to read Total Church towards the end of last week and what happens? Amazon deliver my pre-ordered copy of Organic Leadership by Neil Cole. 

So many books, so little time!

Love assumes the best

Love has no limits. Love never says, "You've gone too far. I can't love you now." "All things" means everything is included. Christlike love leaves no doubt in the mind of another that you will continue to love steadfastly. Do those close to you know that they can fail and do foolish things, yet you will not falter in your love for them? Are others assured that, even when they hurt you, you still love them, holding nothing against them?

Love assumes the best about others. If someone inadvertently offends you, you choose to believe the offense was unintentional. If someone seeks to harm you, you "bear all things", forgiving unconditionally. If a positive light can be shed on a difficult encounter, you grasp it. If someone continually provokes you, you "endure all things". You never lose hope in the ones you love. You practice the same unconditional love towards others that Christ gives you.

Paul said that he was nothing if he had faith to move mountains, the tongue of an angel, and the gift of prophecy to understand all mysteries, yet did not have God's love. It is unacceptable to say, "Well, I just can't love people that way!" When God loves people through you, this is the only kind of love he has! Read 1 Corinthians 13 with gratitude that God has already expressed this complete and selfless love to you. Pray and ask Him to express it through you now, to others.

Day-by-day Feb. 13th

seems rather apt given that we're studying 1 Corinthians on Sunday mornings.

How hard do you find the middle paragraph?

Curio

I came across this software via an rss feed. Having had a quick look at the website, it looks like quite a powerful tool. Mind maps, notes, sketches, all sorts of tools are available.

I currently have two mind mapping tools, Freemind and Xmind and I have Notebook. Curio looks like an application that would do everything that these other do, but in one package.

Anyway, if you're looking for a Mac application that does notes and project planning, Curio might be worth a look.

And if you are looking for a mindmapping tool for the iPhone or ipod touch, then there's a review of an application called ithoughts here.

Dipping wary toes in the water of Applescript

Actually, this has turned out to be slightly less scary than I thought. Here's the project.

I like my paper diary, but it doesn't have alarms, so if I'm not careful about looking in my diary at regular intervals during the day, I'm likely to forget or a miss an appointment. I've long since given up on trying to carry all the data around in my head, so a diary is essential. 

The problems of alarms is solved by making sure my Mac diary is up-to-date with my paper diary and then synchronised to my 'phone. I have a Nokia 6085 that I've made compatible with iSync. So far so good. The only thing is that I have to remember to perform the sync regularly.

So I got to thinking. It's a Bluetooth 'phone and there must be a way of automating the process. My daughter Ally has shown me how to use Automator to do things like this, but I also thought it should be possible to use the Bluetooth connectivity to trigger the event. A quick search found a little utility called Proximity.

Proximity detects Bluetooth devices when they come into range of your computer and will run scripts when it does so. It can also run scripts when they go out of range too, so you could use your Bluetooth 'phone to lock your Mac when you leave the office my running an appropriate script.

Next I needed some help with the script. Knowing nothing about Applescript I searched for some help. I found exactly what I wanted here. And used the following bit of script to fire up iSync:

tell application "iSync"
if last sync is less than ((current date) - 900) then
synchronize
end if
end tell

Essentially this performs a sync every 15 minutes, which I think I'll change to an hour, and I need to modify it to do two things if possible. First I want it to quit iSync when it's finished. I'm sure that's just the addition of a simple line of code,. I just need to find the code!

 Secondly, I'd like, if possible, to figure out how to sync my Palm PDA  automatically (I use that as a diary and address book backup device) without having to press the button or just to ignore the PDA and do that manually as and when.

So there's work to be done, but it seems to be functioning okay at the moment. I'll be going out soon, so we'll see what happens when I come back in range!

Books, books, books

In common with many ministers and church leaders, I have a growing reading list. Among the top picks to read from by overfilled shelves are:

Visioneering by Andy Stanley. I've had this around for some time, but only dipped into it.

Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, which arrived from the lovely folk at Amazon recently.

The Mind Map Book by Tony and Barry Buzan. I've become a fan of mind mapping over recent years. Although I don't follow the rules as laid down by Buzan, I think it would be good to read his thoughts and reasons for mapping the way he does. I use a version of mind mapping to prepare sermons and series of sermons, to map out church structures, to explore questions and vision. It is so much more versatile than the kind of linear way we were all taught to think in the 60's and 70's.

The Buzan Study Skills Handbook by Tony Buzan. I bought this for my daughter to help her with her university studies. When she's finished with it I'd like to read it. You're never to old to discover new things about how to learn effectively and study efficiently.

Intelligent Church by Steve Chalke. Well he's a baptist and the premise of the book looks right up my street!

Jesus through Middle Eastern eyes by Kenneth Bailey. A big and most probably a very thoughtful book. This could be my summer holiday read, or maybe sooner if I get inspired to take on its 400 pages.

So there you have it, my current growing list of books I want to read. There's a whole lot more on my Amazon wish list. And if your list is as long as mine, or even longer then remember the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. (12:12). And not to forget the words of Festus to Paul, "Your great learning is driving you insane." 

Oh dear, I fear I may already be well on the way!

Everything must change

From The view from here

Where do I begin to review this book? 

There are many who will not agree with some of McLaren's theology as hinted at in this book. But then again that goes without saying given the way some conservative evangelicals view him and the emerging church circles from which he comes. However, even if you don't agree with his theology, you might well be advised to put this book on your reading list because of the questions it raises and the challenge to engage with ideas about solutions it offers.

The two central questions are simply these:

What are the biggest problems the world is facing?

What does the message of Jesus have to say to these problems?

If the gospel really is good news, is it only good news about future heaven or does it have good news for present earth, might be another way of putting the question.

Some of the statistics presented are alarming to say the least. But the value of the book lies in the author's attempt to more closely connect the core message of Jesus, the kingdom of God, with solutions to our current, impending big issues. Instead of telling us that the earth stands condemned, is passing away, and is therefore of no real concern to us as Christians, he takes seriously the idea that we can make a difference now. More than that, that we should make a difference now because our message calls us to do just that.

For those who want to begin to think about how faith and issues come together, this is as good a place to start as there is. You may not like the conclusions, but I think there is real merit in the analysis.

Music maestro please!

I neve thought I'd ever see the day when a mobile 'phone became a musical instrument!

Off to Twickenham

Well tomorrow is a big day as I get to go to Twickenham for England's opening fixture in this year's RBS Six Nations. Long gone is any expectation of England actually winning the competition, and I'm even somewhat nervous about their ability to win tomorrow, but they should be okay.

It's an odd thing, sport. I guess had I not gone to a Grammar School in the 70's I would probably be less interested in rugby that I would be in football. But rugby is the winter game I played and so rugby is the game I enjoy most. 

Anyway, I'll be one amongst eighty thousand watching to see if there are signs that last year's appointment of Martin Johnson is going to make the difference. The autumn internationals suggest that little changed in the early days of his ascension to the throne. 

I worry that those who make such appointments have fallen into the search for a messiah for English rugby rather than taking a long hard look at what has gone wrong since 2003. I wonder, has anyone looked at the successful years and compared the structure, the management, the training etc. of that era to this? I certainly don't envy Johnson his task and I certainly wish him well and let's hope they can compete. We will have something of an idea at 4:00pm tomorrow!

Twitter vanishes

Twitter seems to have disappeared from Swurl. No tweets have appeared since Saturday. It usually sorts itself out but it's quite frustrating.

Never mind. The world is unlikely to stop turning or collapse just because my Twitter updates don't appear on Swurl. Life will go on.

The curious case of Sherlock Holmes and Caller ID

"Ah Watson, the wonder of technology," said Holmes. "How so," asked Watson...

So it was the telephone rang this morning and I found myself talking to a very nice person who claimed to have missed a number of calls from the very telephone I was using. Not recognising their name, I wondered how this could be. Has the network been playing games? Was there a new scam whereby people faked the calling number? Had I been making 'phone calls in my sleep? Had the cats been trying to place an order for food from Tescos home delivery service?

"Who are you with?" the voice on the other end of the line enquired. "I'm with myself, " I said, "all alone in the snow. Where are you?" "The call came through to BP in London," she replied.

All of a sudden things became clear. The mystery was unfolding before my very ears. 

Anne works for BP. Anne had been working from home on Monday and Tuesday. Anne had been making the calls.

"Ah. that would be my wife making the calls, she works for BP." "Oh, I know Anne, she'll laugh when I tell her this story."

I guess she will.

So another exciting mystery solved. Of course without Caller ID it would never have been a mystery in the first. But it was fun. Time to put the kettle on.

Quote of the day

"...despair is boring and uncreative, and to succumb to it is to empower it." 

Brian McLaren Everything must change

Now there's a thought worth pondering.

I'm really enjoying the book, although some things are more disturbing than enjoyable. Take for example the statistic that 10% of the US military budget reinvested in aid would care for the world's poor. 

Shades of Learning

Walk this Way, the one day conference organised by Spring Harvest that I attended recently, focused on being better followers of Jesus Christ. The main thrust of the day was how we learn and by extension I guess, how we are taught. It was also a book launch!

There wasn't much information that was actually new to me, but this is probably because I've had some connection with the ideas about individual learning styles through my role as a governor at a local school. But it was still fascinating to listen to well informed speakers reflect on learning and how it relates to the church and its disciple-making ministry.

In a nutshell we were introduced the the concept of shallow, deep and profound learning. Shallow learning is focused on information. It's the gathering of facts and data in order to be able to regurgitate them at the right time (think University Challenge). I guess you could say that at this stage you know stuff but you probably haven't learnt anything yet!

Take learning to play an instrument. you might, at the shallow stage, know where the notes are on the instrument but you can't be said to be playing it yet. Deep learning occurs when the information becomes knowledge and to keep to our music theme, this is when you can play something accurately and recognisably. Profound learning is that point where when you play someone is moved by what they hear.

Some people seem able to go straight to the deep or profound stages, but most of us have to start shallow and progress towards profound. The problem is that we don't always progress. Fixated too often on getting the right answer, we are more concerned with amassing information and that means we're stuck at the shallow end of learning. But shallow learning does not transform.

To become a wholehearted follower of Jesus Christ requires, no demands, that our learning is deep and ultimately profound because profound leads to change and change is the goal.

So the question becomes: How do we promote profound learning in our churches? I don't have a full answer for that yet, but I do think it has a lot to do with changing the culture of the church. We need to move away from testing knowledge and approving people on the basis of what they know. In the past this type of approach has produced the users that John Ortberg speaks about. Secondly we have to take more responsibility for our own development instead of looking constantly to experts to guide us. In other words we need to get some self-discipline into our lives and take responsibility for our own discipleship. Third we have to learn in community as well as in isolation. In other words, what you do in private to grow as a follower needs to be tested and challenged and accountable to a community. That community maybe two other people, ie a group of three along the lines of Todd Hunter's Three is Enough model.

I'm sure there's much more to explore and develop in this, and I'm going to continue to reflect on it all, but that will do for now.

Any thoughts?

Say hello

It was really interesting to spend the day last Saturday at the Walk this Way conference. As a person there on my own I was acutely aware of how isolating it can be to be a "one" amongst a crowd of "manys". I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person in that position, and I'm okay with it. I go to a lot of seminars and conferences on my own.

What intrigues me is that I've yet to come across a church that considers itself anything less than friendly, and yet, as on Saturday, we still have to be told to say hello to someone we don't know. 

For some reason, let's be spiritual and suggest that God prompted me, I was thinking about this as we began the day in the chapel at King's College. My solution was to take the initiative and speak to someone I didn't know rather than wait for someone to speak to me. Turning around I introduced myself to Colin who, it turned out, was studying missional church for his dissertation and we had a quite wonderful conversation at the end of the morning as we went in search of lunch. Had it not been that I didn't want a sit-down lunch, I suspect our conversation would have developed further but we went separate ways for our meals.

In the book Just Walk Across the Room, Bill Hybels discusses just such a simple approach to outreach. But here's the rub, if we are not open enough and observant enough to be able to reach out a hand of welcome in a gathering of Christians, how likely are we to do it in another context? If we don't live inclusively within the church, how are we going to live inclusively beyond it?

Well, I would work at my desk but...

So I'm just dealing with a 'phone call when Pip wanders onto my desk and flops down preventing access to just about every square inch of work surface.

Oh well, I was going to do a bit of reading anyway!

Is Preaching Dead?

Having spent the day on Saturday listening to a series of speakers stand at the front of a large group of people and say, "This is not the best way to learn," you'd have thought that the obvious answer would be that preaching should be scrapped and a more interactive, group focused style adopted. 

But that rather assumes that the primary role of preaching is to teach, and I'd want to question that assumption. It seems to be that we've actually reduced preaching to teaching rather than allowing it to be something rather more inspirational. Maybe aspirational is a better word, given that we tend to think of inspirational as leaving us with a good feeling and a pumped up level of expectation. 

By aspirational I mean that preaching is not necessarily about presenting new information but sometimes about presenting old information in a way that encourages us to aspire to become better followers of Jesus Christ. Yes, there are times when the information will be new, but I've too often heard the phrase that we need more teaching in church if we are going to produce more commitment and deeper devotional lives. 

But how well taught do we need to be to do that? Do we not have more resources available to us now than ever before, but our devotional lives are possibly more shallow on a general scale than they were decades or centuries ago? It's not teaching we need, it's practice!

I found Saturday's conference really challenging and, dare I say, inspirational when it comes to thinking about how we learn and how we do that in church. These unconnected ramblings are my emerging thoughts about all of this. So much of my early Christian life was focused on getting the right answers to the questions. Even when I was baptised I felt that it was more important to the church at the time that I understood the theology and practice of baptism than that I had a deepening and growing relationship with God. But being a follower of Jesus is not about preparing for a Bible Quiz. forgive me, but I don't think God is going to check to see if I know all the books of the Bible in order before allowing me access to heaven.

And as for preaching? Well I will continue to preach and my goal will remain what it has always been: to challenge and inspire us all to better connect with God and to walk in his ways. It's not about trying to impress people with a wide range of theological vocabulary or an extensive reading list. There will always be a teaching element, but teaching is not the only goal.

Anyway. I'm rambling a bit again and there are snowmen and women to be built!

Water filters, Dyson filters, flea treatment and noticeboards

Whilst getting breakfast this morning, I decided it was high time I changed the filter cartridge in our water jug. Two things struck me. 

First, how come I never think of changing the filter more often? I checked in the cupboard and we have a good 18 months supply of filters! I keep buying them but forgetting to use them. Oh well, another item for the kitchen notice board.

Secondly, it's a bit worrying, if you want to worry about such things, that you have to discard the first two jugs of water filtered before its "Okay" to use. Now for something that's meant to take impurities out of the water, how does that work?!

Anyway, the job is done while eating toast, and I now have a reminder on my noticeboard to change the filter in a month's time. Actually we have a short list of regular things to do on our noticeboard as well as an area for shopping items. We find it helps us get the things we need when we shop rather than the things we think we need. It's everyone's job to write down items on the list and it's a wipe clean board so we can erase those items as they are replaced.

And much to their horror, there's even a reminder to give the cats their flea treatment! Oh the deep joy of some semblance of organisation!

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!