Posts

Posted on

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund

So many needs in our world right now. So much devastation. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan is horrible. Keep praying and consider giving some cash to help the relief effort.

Here’s the press release from Anglican Aid:

Anglican Aid has been shocked by the horrific 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that rocked the country Japan on Friday 11th March. We await further and more detailed news with apprehension.

Our hearts and our prayers go out to all who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods, and we offer our prayers to those involved in the relief effort. We also pray for the officials dealing with the damaged nuclear reactor.  Despite the natural disasters that have devastated our world in recent times, we are thankful that as Christians we are able to find comfort in the promises of Jesus Christ.

Tax deductible donations to Anglican Aid will be accepted.  If in the unlikely event that more funds are raised than are needed, these funds will be held for future emergencies as they arise.

From Anglican Aid. Or you could go to dosomethingnow.com or World Vision.

Likewise check out the CMS website for news and prayer points for missionaries in Japan.

Posted on

Cheesy Graduation Photo

I graduated! Woot. Here’s a cheesy photo in the cape and hoodie with my lady:

Shout out to Row, Sam and the rest of my family for supporting me throughout college. Props also to Moore College Faculty, Staff and class mates for the love. And thanks to Christ Church St Ives, Willoughby Anglican and the many other churches/ministries/youth groups I hung out with during college.

Hugs and kisses.

Posted on

Youth Ministry Papers: Small Groups Part 1

I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.

The Aim of Soulies Small Groups

Soulies comes in 3 handy sized packages: Large (Soulies United yr 7-12); Medium (Soulies Junior Crew yr 7-9 + Soulies Senior Crew yr10-12); and Small (Soulies Small Groups). How do we roll at Soulies? Whether we’re small, medium or large, we want to be a community who: Love Jesus; Love Jesus’ People; Love Jesus’ World. Small Groups are an amazing opportunity for young punks to grow in their 3 loves. The medium and large gatherings are great, but so much can be done in smaller intimate groups! Our small groups are: an opportunity to grow in our worship and discipleship of Jesus; a great chance to actively serve and love fellow brothers and sisters; and encourage each other to love Jesus’ world through evangelism and social justice.

Our Small Groups Aren’t “Bible Studies”

…but we do study the Bible! While spending time studying the Bible is at the heart of what we do together, it’s not all that we do. God’s Word is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) – so we want to let God’s Spirit do His work as we study the Bible. But we also want to make sure that our small group time is not just an academic exercise. So there are 3 others things we want to be doing regularly: SHARING, SUPPLICATING, SOCIALISING.

Continue reading “Youth Ministry Papers: Small Groups Part 1”

Posted on

Consolidate Your Online Profile With ABOUT.ME

If you’ve got a growing number of online profiles (facebook, twitter, linkedin, tumblr, posterous, flickr, youtube, vimeo, etc…), you might like to consolidate them into one place. About.me provide a free online app to make it easy. I made one and the set up only took 5 minutes. I didn’t put much thought or energy into it, I just wanted to try it out.

Check out what I came up with: about.me/davemiers (if you click on the links under the profile, they have a good-looking RSS feed of your latest content).

davemiers.com consolidates my online profile. But if you don’t have your own dot com, about.me would be really useful for your email signature or any of your profiles that ask you to list your website.

Have a crack yourself (if you do – leave a link in the comments).

Check out tentblogger if you want to take it a step further.

Posted on

10 Family-Friendly Youth Ministry Ideas

Doug Fields has been a long time champion of creating family-friendly youth ministry. I’ve valued gleaning wisdom from his books. He has just completed a 3 part series with 10 ideas on how to keep your youth ministry friendly for families. Good stuff. Check it out:

  1. Give em dates
  2. End on time
  3. Get em talking
  4. Keep em home
  5. Talk em up
  6. Speak good words
  7. Teach em more
  8. Keep costs down
  9. Watch their calendar
  10. Invite em along

Check out the 3 posts for an explanation of each: one; two; three.

Posted on

Doubt will not have the last word

Andrew Errington has written a really useful post on “doubt”. He says that doubt is spoken about too little. I agree and know that many Christians have doubts at different times. Andrew’s post is helpful if you have doubts or as you minister to those who do.

  1. Doubt is not good.
  2. Yet doubt happens to Christians.
  3. Doubt is not denial
  4. Doubt is spiritual
  5. Doubt is not just spiritual
  6. Doubt is hard
  7. Doubts have a tendency to multiply
  8. Doubt saps our strength for service
  9. Doubt can be used for good
  10. Doubt will not have the last word

Check out his blog post for detail on each point.

Posted on

Youth Ministry Papers: Preparing a Bible Talk

I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.

This week’s paper is basically a summary of John Chapman’s method of preparing a Bible Talk. For a much more comprehensive treatment, check out his brilliant book – Setting Hearts on Fire – from Matthias Media. “Chappo” is one of the most experienced and gifted evangelists in Australia during the last 50 years. The book particularly focuses on preparing an evangelistic message, but I use his structure as the basis for all of my talks.

Preaching matters. According to Romans 10:13-15, if people don’t preach, people won’t hear the good news of Jesus, they won’t believe the good news of Jesus and they won’t call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Preaching is a big deal! Not all preaching is done from behind a pulpit, or black music stand, preaching is much more than delivering a sermon. However this paper will focus on how to prepare a short Bible talk.

What follows are the 10 steps involved in preparing to preach from the Bible.

Continue reading “Youth Ministry Papers: Preparing a Bible Talk”