No snow. how disappointing. in a week where the rest of the UK has seemingly ground to a halt over a few flakes of the white stuff, here in Berko we aint had none. Bah. But I wont go on about it.
(I love the cold mornings though. nothing quite like crisp frost over everything. particularly when my walk to work consists of crossing the living room. Hah)
Ok. Watched wales vs Australia in the rugby yesterday on tv. great stuff. don't understand how Australia only lost by 2 points though. we (wales) were all over them, they score a couple of breakaway tries, and suddenly the last 10 minutes were as tense as anything I've experienced over the last 12 months. (yes, i freely admit I have an easy life!)
Today. church this morning. satisfactory, nothing more. We worked on the nativity play for the squigglets. Nothing to write home about. (although ironically it is apparently worth putting into a blog!)
this evening am doing the talk at sunday@5, over at sunnyside chucrh. just finished writing it up. all about not having a Plan B. about trusting in God entirely. about when Peter walked on the water when Jesus called out to him. Challenged myself as I wrote it, just a bit concerned as to whether it might be a bit too meaty for the service. not quite sure of the level to pitch it at. so might have to adapt it as go along. gonna work in some good stories about sea-sickness though (at first you think you're going to die, then you're afraid you wont - cant find who said it originally, but unfortunately it wasn't me!) so that should be fun. all good.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Youthwork - the conference 2005 in Eastbourne
Well, been a week or so since I last put anything on here. And even longer since I wrote anything specifically for this, so here's a post.
Just got back from youthwork conference in Eastbourne this weekend (I say just - I mean, of course, some days ago) (just to satisfy the pedants among you!) and want to say how good it was.
May take me some time to unpack every part of it (metaphorically - I was only away from thursday to sunday afternoon, and theres not a huge maount of stuff you need for a trip that long. The actual unpacking of course took place on sunday evening when I arrived home.) but want to make a start here...
Firstly though, and I appreciate the chances of them ever reading this are small to non-existent, I want to thank all the people at youthwork magazine, spring harvest, YFC, Alove (Salvation Army), and Oasis for putting it on. Special quantities of kudos go out to Andy Flannagan for leading the music over the weekend and the early day section. MAjor repsect to him as a worship leader. Musically and technically - superb. Creatively - outstanding (mash ups of Usher and Stevie Wonder with modern worship songs! Excellent). Spiritually - so astute. Nice one Doc.
Ok. so unpacking then... will have to happen another time. the clock has defeated us my friends. Till next time...
Just got back from youthwork conference in Eastbourne this weekend (I say just - I mean, of course, some days ago) (just to satisfy the pedants among you!) and want to say how good it was.
May take me some time to unpack every part of it (metaphorically - I was only away from thursday to sunday afternoon, and theres not a huge maount of stuff you need for a trip that long. The actual unpacking of course took place on sunday evening when I arrived home.) but want to make a start here...
Firstly though, and I appreciate the chances of them ever reading this are small to non-existent, I want to thank all the people at youthwork magazine, spring harvest, YFC, Alove (Salvation Army), and Oasis for putting it on. Special quantities of kudos go out to Andy Flannagan for leading the music over the weekend and the early day section. MAjor repsect to him as a worship leader. Musically and technically - superb. Creatively - outstanding (mash ups of Usher and Stevie Wonder with modern worship songs! Excellent). Spiritually - so astute. Nice one Doc.
Ok. so unpacking then... will have to happen another time. the clock has defeated us my friends. Till next time...
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Young people are the future of the church... Grrrr
Time for another bit of youthwork writing…
This is the talk some of the young people will be delivering at church tomorrow morning. Ok, so I wrote it, but we’re trying to get the church to take note of all the capable young people and the life they offer to the church as a whole. Young people aren’t the future of the church, they’re the now as well. I’ll let you know how it goes after the weekend!
In a minute we are going to watch a clip from the cartoon series, The Simpson’s. In this episode Homer, the father of the family, is staying at home while his family are stuck in a cold church. The reasons he stays at home are varied and manifold, but boil down to the fact that its cold outside, he thinks church is boring and his trousers are split…
Video clip from Homer the Heretic, Simpsons series 4, 05:50-08:12mins
In this clip Homer ends up staying at home, and not going to church with his family on a Sunday. The weathers cold, his trousers are too tight, and he would much rather stay in and enjoy himself. It might seem a little controversial to say this in church, but I reckon there probably cant be many people here this morning who have never felt like doing what Homer does…
Maybe on a beautiful sunny day going too church is not too bad, when we’re filled with the joy of spring or summer, and the birds are singing sweetly in the trees, but when its cold and rainy and miserable outside (a little like today maybe!) staying in seems like the better option.
Homer though is of course wrong in this clip. Going to church isn’t about simply doing something to keep God happy once a week. We are not here this morning as part of an unpleasant duty that we MUST do to appease God. True some of us may have some slightly different motivations for being here, some may be here out of a sense of duty, some may be here to accompany a friend or family member – none of these options is a particularly bad thing. A sense of duty is definitely not a bad thing, and coming to accompany someone who otherwise would maybe not come demonstrates great love and affection.
But perhaps the ultimate reason we gather together every Sunday is a point that Homer seems to miss. Namely that we come together to worship God, and to give him praise for what he has done, and continues to do for us. We come to church because God deserves our love and worship, and one of the best ways we can express that is to get together with other people who think the same and do just that.
And it doesn’t matter how old or young you are, what your background or tradition is, we are all part of Gods church. The Sunday school are going to show us some pictures they’ve made later in the service – and this is worship to God. Every week they learn about God, and making these pictures is just one way of expressing that. During communion the young people in the choir are going to sing a Russian children’s prayer, and that is part of our worship too.
The reason that parts of the service this morning is being taken by young people from various groups linked to the church or parish is to make a point – to celebrate that we are all part of Gods church, old and young, lively and less lively, hairy or balding. We are part of the church, not just St Peters and All saints, not just a Berkhamsted church, not just a British church, not just a protestant church, but part of Gods church, which extends across languages, cultures and continents.
We want to celebrate the diversity and life that we have in the church, the life we see here in front of us this morning, the life we experience in all the different ways in which the church reaches out to the people of this town, whether its through the wonderful musical tradition we have here, or through the work with the young people, or maybe the Sunday together lunches, or through the bell ringers, or through the mothers union or the toddlers group, old and young, lively or sedentary, it all is part of our life that we are celebrating this morning.
Christians across this town may express our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father has done for us through him.
Different groups within the church may demonstrate our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father did through him.
Homer may not have understood what church is about, maybe many of the people around us in our jobs, at our schools, our neighbours, do not understand what church is about. But if we continue to demonstrate it, in the way that we are doing here today, with so many different parts of the church involved, then we will surely be able to help them understand. In the end in the Simpson’s episode we saw Homer does begin to understand what church is about. And let us continue in our service this morning reflecting on what our shared faith is, and giving thanks for the many and varied ways that faith is worked out in our community here.
This is the talk some of the young people will be delivering at church tomorrow morning. Ok, so I wrote it, but we’re trying to get the church to take note of all the capable young people and the life they offer to the church as a whole. Young people aren’t the future of the church, they’re the now as well. I’ll let you know how it goes after the weekend!
In a minute we are going to watch a clip from the cartoon series, The Simpson’s. In this episode Homer, the father of the family, is staying at home while his family are stuck in a cold church. The reasons he stays at home are varied and manifold, but boil down to the fact that its cold outside, he thinks church is boring and his trousers are split…
Video clip from Homer the Heretic, Simpsons series 4, 05:50-08:12mins
In this clip Homer ends up staying at home, and not going to church with his family on a Sunday. The weathers cold, his trousers are too tight, and he would much rather stay in and enjoy himself. It might seem a little controversial to say this in church, but I reckon there probably cant be many people here this morning who have never felt like doing what Homer does…
Maybe on a beautiful sunny day going too church is not too bad, when we’re filled with the joy of spring or summer, and the birds are singing sweetly in the trees, but when its cold and rainy and miserable outside (a little like today maybe!) staying in seems like the better option.
Homer though is of course wrong in this clip. Going to church isn’t about simply doing something to keep God happy once a week. We are not here this morning as part of an unpleasant duty that we MUST do to appease God. True some of us may have some slightly different motivations for being here, some may be here out of a sense of duty, some may be here to accompany a friend or family member – none of these options is a particularly bad thing. A sense of duty is definitely not a bad thing, and coming to accompany someone who otherwise would maybe not come demonstrates great love and affection.
But perhaps the ultimate reason we gather together every Sunday is a point that Homer seems to miss. Namely that we come together to worship God, and to give him praise for what he has done, and continues to do for us. We come to church because God deserves our love and worship, and one of the best ways we can express that is to get together with other people who think the same and do just that.
And it doesn’t matter how old or young you are, what your background or tradition is, we are all part of Gods church. The Sunday school are going to show us some pictures they’ve made later in the service – and this is worship to God. Every week they learn about God, and making these pictures is just one way of expressing that. During communion the young people in the choir are going to sing a Russian children’s prayer, and that is part of our worship too.
The reason that parts of the service this morning is being taken by young people from various groups linked to the church or parish is to make a point – to celebrate that we are all part of Gods church, old and young, lively and less lively, hairy or balding. We are part of the church, not just St Peters and All saints, not just a Berkhamsted church, not just a British church, not just a protestant church, but part of Gods church, which extends across languages, cultures and continents.
We want to celebrate the diversity and life that we have in the church, the life we see here in front of us this morning, the life we experience in all the different ways in which the church reaches out to the people of this town, whether its through the wonderful musical tradition we have here, or through the work with the young people, or maybe the Sunday together lunches, or through the bell ringers, or through the mothers union or the toddlers group, old and young, lively or sedentary, it all is part of our life that we are celebrating this morning.
Christians across this town may express our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father has done for us through him.
Different groups within the church may demonstrate our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father did through him.
Homer may not have understood what church is about, maybe many of the people around us in our jobs, at our schools, our neighbours, do not understand what church is about. But if we continue to demonstrate it, in the way that we are doing here today, with so many different parts of the church involved, then we will surely be able to help them understand. In the end in the Simpson’s episode we saw Homer does begin to understand what church is about. And let us continue in our service this morning reflecting on what our shared faith is, and giving thanks for the many and varied ways that faith is worked out in our community here.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
I do youthwork as well...
Realised I haven’t put enough stuff about youthwork into this blog, so thought I’d add this little presentation that I prepared for my new boss (more on that as well eventually!) to show the kind of stuff we do round my way…
Jimmy is responsible for a number of regular and ad hoc activities in Berkhamsted and Northchurch. These are as follows.
Regular Youth groups
Schools work
Regular Assemblies at
Trips away
Sundays
First Sunday of month - ST Peters
Second “ “ “ - St Mary’s
Third “ “ “ - All Saints’
Fourth “ “ “ - St Mary’s
Fifth “ “ “ - Usually St Mary’s, but open to offers…
Other activities including co-ordinating town-wide occasional youth services (aWAKENING), as well as doing a weekly “Footy Alpha” with some of the yr10 and yr11 lads from Ashlyns School also are a regular part of the youthwork that Jimmy is involved in. The basis for all of this work is relational youthwork - building up steady and stable relationships with the young people involved in the different activities, and through that encouraging them in developing and growing faith. The model for this is illustrated below:
Using a model of concentric circles of ever increasing commitment and faith, we seek to draw the young people through and on into ever deeper faith.
Jimmy is responsible for a number of regular and ad hoc activities in Berkhamsted and Northchurch. These are as follows.
Regular Youth groups
- Wednesday Pathfinders Games Club
- T.E’s youth club
- (Friday Niters youth club)
- (Cell:Plus)
Schools work
Regular Assemblies at
- Victoria First School
- Thomas Coram Middle School
- Ashlyns Secondary School
- St Mary’s First School
- Westfield First School
- Greenway First School
- Berkhamsted Collegiate School
- Egerton Rothesay School
- Bridgewater Middle School
- St Mary’s First school Bible club
- Thomas Coram Rock Solid group
- Ashlyns CU
Trips away
- Firm Foundations Festival
- Soul Survivor Festival
- Annual Pathfinders Tour
- Chellington trip (provisionally regular! Only one so far!!)
Sundays
First Sunday of month - ST Peters
Second “ “ “ - St Mary’s
Third “ “ “ - All Saints’
Fourth “ “ “ - St Mary’s
Fifth “ “ “ - Usually St Mary’s, but open to offers…
Other activities including co-ordinating town-wide occasional youth services (aWAKENING), as well as doing a weekly “Footy Alpha” with some of the yr10 and yr11 lads from Ashlyns School also are a regular part of the youthwork that Jimmy is involved in. The basis for all of this work is relational youthwork - building up steady and stable relationships with the young people involved in the different activities, and through that encouraging them in developing and growing faith. The model for this is illustrated below:
Using a model of concentric circles of ever increasing commitment and faith, we seek to draw the young people through and on into ever deeper faith.
Super-size me
Well just to prove that I'm uptodate and in no way at all lagging behind "popular" culture, I finally got round to watching "Super-Size Me" this week. (Thanks to the joy of Sky+, I recorded it about 2 weeks ago, and have only just got round to finishing it. I will extol the wonders of Sky+ some more on another occasion!)
Man, I'm never eating fast-food again. It's a quality piece of film for those of you who are even less with it than me and also have yet to see it. I thoroughly recommend it, although not while you're sitting down eating junk food. You'll feel so disgusted with yourself that you won't be able to finish your food. Or the film, depending on whether you're really determined to munch your way through the grease and additve laden stodge that you've purchased.
My favourite bit of the film (without this sounding like a 10 year olds book review; "I liked this book, and I would give it 8/10. My best bit was...") was the section where Morgan Spurlock (the film maker and "star") had his first super-sized meal from McDonalds, and took 20-odd minutes to finish eating it, immediately followed by his stomach deciding that its contents were too mcuh for it, and expelling the aforementioned, offending, over-sized meal. Apparantly McD's removed the Super-size option from their menus a short while after the film was released, but I was still amazed at the difference in size between American McDonalds meals, and European McDonalds meals (or British at least). It's like the difference between a 2 litre bottle of coke, and a can!!! Unbelievable. No wonder there is so much obesity in America - if all their food outlets think that such gargantuan portions are normal I'm amazed that there are any people over there who aren't over-weight!!
BTW, it feels wrong referring to the McDonalds "menu", I always figure resturants as having menus, and to my mind I never included McD's in that category. Menus are for posh places, McDonalds has a choices board!
Ok. So it's all been said before, and a long time ago, when the film first came out (2003?), but this is my blog, and I'll put what I like in here. Hah. World domination starts here!
Man, I'm never eating fast-food again. It's a quality piece of film for those of you who are even less with it than me and also have yet to see it. I thoroughly recommend it, although not while you're sitting down eating junk food. You'll feel so disgusted with yourself that you won't be able to finish your food. Or the film, depending on whether you're really determined to munch your way through the grease and additve laden stodge that you've purchased.
My favourite bit of the film (without this sounding like a 10 year olds book review; "I liked this book, and I would give it 8/10. My best bit was...") was the section where Morgan Spurlock (the film maker and "star") had his first super-sized meal from McDonalds, and took 20-odd minutes to finish eating it, immediately followed by his stomach deciding that its contents were too mcuh for it, and expelling the aforementioned, offending, over-sized meal. Apparantly McD's removed the Super-size option from their menus a short while after the film was released, but I was still amazed at the difference in size between American McDonalds meals, and European McDonalds meals (or British at least). It's like the difference between a 2 litre bottle of coke, and a can!!! Unbelievable. No wonder there is so much obesity in America - if all their food outlets think that such gargantuan portions are normal I'm amazed that there are any people over there who aren't over-weight!!
BTW, it feels wrong referring to the McDonalds "menu", I always figure resturants as having menus, and to my mind I never included McD's in that category. Menus are for posh places, McDonalds has a choices board!
Ok. So it's all been said before, and a long time ago, when the film first came out (2003?), but this is my blog, and I'll put what I like in here. Hah. World domination starts here!
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