Category: life

I made a header for CraigS‘ new site: Gospel Evidences. This type of thing doesn’t take me long. Here are my tools:

• If I don’t use my own pics I get them from yotophoto. I have it set so it only finds images that are legal to use (it’s the yotophoto non-CC plugin for firefox or internet explorer)
• I use Irfanview to resize images, basic colour changes + batch conversions and batch renaming. It’s very quick and easy to use
• I use gimp for more complex stuff. I think it’s a bit like a photoshop – only free (and therefore not quite as capable)

I use all of these regularly in different ministries. Good tools. Easy to use. Free. Effective.

Do you do any of this type of stuff? What do you use?

Andy M has 5 things to say about singing in church. Here’s 1 of them:

OK, the whole “worship” thing. Yes, some churches misemphasise the purpose of church as being to worship God, in a sense which might suggest we are not worshipping God the other 6 days a week, and some have confused what we do in church with Old Testament cultic worship, and that we somehow enter into God’s presence when singing in church i.e. the “praise and worship” time. BUT, we evangelicals have way over-reacted against some of these errors by almost purging the word “worship” from our vocabulary all together, and removing any sense that when we gather together as God’s people we are worshipping God, or that singing can involve worship. I think we can and should acknowledge that singing does involve worshipping God, while recognizing that worship is also much more than singing.

Go read the rest and leave a comment.

Don Carson. Is he or isn’t he? Carson has written oodles of books – but it’s difficult to find what he believes about the Millennium in Revelation. It’s been debated whether he is Premil or Amil. I thought he was Premil, but Reformation Theology is suggesting he’s Amil. Heardy preached a cracker on it last term.

For the record – Revelation has little to say about the Millennium, but much to say about JESUS. It’s all about Jesus. If you’re a fruit loop and think it’s all about the Millennium go and have a read of it! If you have no idea about what I’m talking about go read this and this (no girly skirt on Jesus in this passage – just a tattoo, sword and blood) about Jesus. Rock on…

It’s nuts on the Central Coast! Just saw on smh.com.au that The Premier has declared the area a Natural Disaster. It meant that there were lots of people missing from coast youth REVOLUTION… but it was still a good time. Tim Baldwin preached a cracker on Jesus starting a revolution in your heart. Garage Hymnal played the congregational tunes + a number of items. Good stuff. They also joined us on On the Poddy… good times. Keep praying for the Central Coast.

Have a good looooong weekend.

ps – this post is link city!
pps – currently watching the honourable wally norman – i like aussie humour!

> Praise God for new nephew
> Pray for coast youth REVOLUTION tonight

The dudes over at Marshill are very good at engaging with culture. They are helpful in showing how to discern the messages being preached by culture (this is the whole premise behind film & theology). The main question that they ask is what message is being communicated, and what gospel is being preached (i.e., what is hip hop heaven? What is hip hop hell?)?

Here’s a snippet from a good piece on engaging with Hip-Hop culture:

“…Jesus prays for his followers, asking that the Father would leave them in the world and that He would protect them from the evil one. Jesus desires that we remain a part of culture, that we understand it, and that we seek to communicate the gospel in a meaningful way to those who have yet to receive God’s saving grace.”

and

“…it is our mission to follow Paul’s lead in loving people of other cultures enough to learn how to communicate with them so that we can tell them about the gospel of Christ. This doesn’t mean that we have to roll on dubs, put on thick chains, and wear FUBU. It does, however, mean that we need to know the values of hip hop culture and be able to explain what the Christian response to these is…. Love them enough to learn how to effectively communicate the gospel to them so that they can come to know Jesus and his gospel.”

In response to my posts on Central Coast culture and what it needs – it would be wrong to encourage our youth group members to have nothing to do with their peers who “get sloshed, stoned and sexed” at Erina Fair. But keep thinking through how to understand their friends (while not falling into the same sin) so that they engage their friends with the glorious news of Jesus.

What gospel is your local youth culture proclaiming? (i.e. What is that culture’s heaven? Hell?)

This is a quote from some guy here:

There are idiots who claim to be youth ministry gurus who say it is stupid to run youth group on a Friday night. My guess is that one of the reasons they have small youth groups is because all of their “Christian” family kids are getting sloshed, stoned and sexed with their mates from school on a Friday night and are still too hung over to be able to turn up to church on the Sunday!

Let me clarify a bit. I don’t necessarily have a problem with youth ministries that don’t run on a Friday night. Without knowing their context it would be hard for me to make the call. My problem is when people legislate and say: “You must not run a group on Friday night”. So much has to do with context. Someone from outside my context is not the best placed person to determine the timing of our youth ministry.

Principle vs Form | The key is to talk in principle, rather than form. There may well be principles that are universal – but what form they take may look entirely different depending on the context.

What do you think are the principles in thinking through WHEN to run a youth group?
What form does that take in your context?