One hit wonders

A while ago now somebody asked me what was my one sermon? I can’t remember where he got the quote from but he was saying that somebody had once said most preachers have one main sermon, not that they always preach the same or the same type of thing but if you look at their preaching there is often a common theme that can be spotted. This got me thinking is this true and if so what is my common theme? I came to the conclusion that for me I probably speak more often about the fact that as Christians if we are following God and the calling he has placed on our lives, He can use us to make a significant difference in this world, we might not be Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa but that doesn’t mean that our impact is not great or not as important , we can all make a difference. What's your one sermon?

Good Cop, Bad Cop

I was at a meeting earlier today and there was talk about visiting, it was suggested that one person should make an initial visit then two should go for subsequent visits. I don’t know why but this brought to mind the whole kind of good cop, bad cop type idea and maybe this would be a good technique for evangelism? Bare with me on this, it’s only a crazy idea but it would be interesting to see what you think. There is a statistic that says church attendance started to decline when preachers stopped preaching hell, fire and eternal damnation and I think most of us would agree that to stand in the street and tell random people that they should ‘turn or burn’ for instance is perhaps not the most effective let alone the nicest form of evangelism . But have we gone to far the other way, we preach a God of love and Grace for that is the God we worship, but He is also a God of Justice, and it s not only the old testament where we see Gods anger destroy people, Ananias and Sapphira, so is there a need to perhaps bring back an element of the wrath of God in our preaching to bring a balance with the grace we perhaps focus on too much?

Dinner time...

Did you see Jamie’s School Dinners last night? An interesting programme pointing out some of the bad things that are happening in education. The school he was in produced each 2 course lunch for an average of 37p on ingredients, one lad when asked said his usual lunch was a plate of chips and a bowl of Custard. Another girl said it was the same stuff got at home. I think one of the most interesting points was when he got some of the food analysed, the kitchen was not allowed to add salt but yet all the pre prepared food came full of it, it was also lacking in vitamins and iron both of which had an impact on the education, the iron apparently helps concentration and vitamins keep the immune system working, therefore a lack of both means the students don’t concentrate as well and are off sick more often. I think this is perhaps another area of education where the government is failing, but what about us as parents and youth workers? I know as a parent if I want my children to eat a good amount nuggets and chips will always go down well (we do give them some peas and sweetcorn as well which also go) but if we try and give them something more balanced sometimes it will be eaten, sometimes it will decorate our floor! What can we as the church, or even should we be doing to try and improve the diet of young people both inside and outside school, if we believe we are a part of Gods creation it is our responsibility to look after our bodies and help others to do the same, can we do that for 37p a head?

Snow!!!

This morning I awoke, or more to the point was awakened by Zac so excited about the snow. upon finally pulling myself up I looked out and sure enough there was a small covering at last, unfortunately I had to explain that there was not yet enough to build a snow man, neither will he be getting his first taste of sledging (or bin bagging as is more likely!)unless it builds up a bit.

I do have some picture of the garden but my main computer is currently down so cant get them uploaded at the mo!

Cool as snow

Take a look at youthblog for an interesting little chat about being a cool Christian, is it possible and if so how do you do it? This is an issue affecting young people in our churches and even more so those on the fringe, it can be a stumbling bloc if you are worried about loosing your cool because you take a step of faith.

Spread a little happiness

I have just added a link on the bottom of the right hand column for Firefox, I don't know if you know much about it, but basically if you are still using Internet Explorer, even the latest version, Firefox is better, faster, safer it's well worth a look!

Wear your colours

Ian has an interesting article in response to one he found earlier about different coloured wrist bands and what they mean, take a look.

Frosty the snow man

There has been some of talk about snow on youthblog, deep thought & dotdashdashdot so I thought I would mention that we have just had some here in Faringdon!
Admittedly it only settled on the roof outside my window and most of it has melted during the time it has taken to write about it but at least we've had some!

The church of tomorow

Yesterday I was talking with my group about how when we look back 100 - 200 years ago the church seemed to be at the forefront of our society, it was a leader and certainly things like the musical trends would have been influenced or at least reflected in the church. How different the church seems to be today! In many parts the church now has not moved on much since those times and we are now considered an outdated establishment with nothing relevant to say to the world around us. Where have we gone wrong? And how do we start to turn things back around, the Bible I read speaks of a Jesus who was always relevant to the people he spoke to, often challenging but always relevant. We went on to talk about how things like the Make Poverty History Campaign are perhaps slowly beginning to awaken the church again, but we have a long way to go and we need to make it last, what a challenge lays before us!

The good, the bad and the blog.

Having now been in blogger land for three days there are a couple of things that have struck me. Firstly the good, this is a fantastic way of communicating/sharing/getting feedback on ideas and from having spent a little time looking at the discussions going on I can really see the benefit of some of these discussions, I nearly even joined one but felt a bit too shy! Secondly the bad, I can see that there could be a need for a 'bloggers anonymous' type group, maybe its because I'm a newbie but I can really see that you could get addicted to this and while that might help you to think through all kinds of different issues it wouldn't necessarily help you much in the real world, I think that that with a little self discipline the good probably out ways the bad.

The Bus

I thought as I was likely to be writing about the bus occasionally I should include a picture to enable you to see the bus I am talking about, it's not a bad bus really, just a bit old and getting tiered I think , but a great tool for our work. Later I may add some pictures of the inside but just to fill you in on a few details, basically this bus has been converted into a mobile youth club that we take around to the villages in the Vale of the White horse, providing computer games, tuck shop, videos and an opportunity to chat. We have a few ideas for future things to happen as well but all in good time!

In need of maintenance

I spoke to the Garage that are looking after our bus yesterday to find out how things are going to find out they are still awaiting a new fuel tank and at this stage they don't even have a date for it's arrival. Then last night I went to visit a friend to get new brakes fitted to my car, it just struck me how so often things need maintenance, whether it be a motor vehicle, a computer, the house or whatever. Last week I was at the Matrix conference, this was a wonderful opportunity for me to get some maintenance, for those of us involved in ministry we seem to spend so much time giving out, I can't remember the last time I went to church for me to commune with God rather than to work (or look after my own children). Matrix was great and as Ever Tony Campolo as a speaker was superb and very challenging, but more than that was the value in the time spent with others, whether spent getting to know colleges or talking about some of the challenges and inspirations of the conference the time was of great value and I thank all of those I spent time with, friend both old and new.

I suppose the main difference between myself and the bus (that’s a strange way to start a sentence but bare with me) is the bus is awaiting a new fuel tank because it leaked, for me, I suppose my prayer is that some of the fuel that I have received will leak out and can passed on to others who also need some routine maintenance.

Isn't it ironic!

Here I am about to write my first real blog under the name of onmebus, why the name? Well part of what I do for a living is run a bus project, we have a rather old double decker that has been converted into a mobile youth club. The irony however comes from the fact that as I have named and started this blog my bus is currently off the road and has been for the past couple of months. Maybe I should have called it offmebus, although that perhaps doesn't sound quite so welcoming. But still as I embark on this journey that I hope you will join me on we do not need a real bus although mention of it is bound to come up every now and then.

For now, welcome aboard.