As with my other blog, this blog has moved:
A Glimpse Into My Mind
which replaced this one
Christian Life and Work
which is where I went from this blog. Confused?
See you there (hopefully)!
God Bless You!
My thoughts about my spiritual life and the work and life of the church.
From: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
About me: I am a baby-boomer who is now in his second career after spending 10 years in the military. I now work in the computer field, which also happens to be one of my hobbies. I also like to sing, play the guitar to accompany my singing, and play the piano when I practice (which is pretty much never these days)
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The hard road ahead
I mentioned yesterday that our minister had given me a book on Sunday. The book is Community of Kindness by Steve Sjogren & Rob Lewin, and the subtitle is A Refreshing New Approach to Planting and Growing a Church.
I have skimmed parts of it, mostly because of the following quote on the front of the book: "No matter how hard the going gets, remember it's easier to plant a church than it is to resurrect a dying one". That is actually the title of lesson 38 on page 87. I will not quote any more of the book, but the part that really got me thinking was the last paragraph of that lesson (on page 88). I would go ahead and read it if you have a copy of the book.
God Bless You!
I have skimmed parts of it, mostly because of the following quote on the front of the book: "No matter how hard the going gets, remember it's easier to plant a church than it is to resurrect a dying one". That is actually the title of lesson 38 on page 87. I will not quote any more of the book, but the part that really got me thinking was the last paragraph of that lesson (on page 88). I would go ahead and read it if you have a copy of the book.
God Bless You!
Monday, August 21, 2006
Infrequent updates
I know I have not been very good at making daily entries, but I wanted to say that there is a very real possibility that the entries will be even less frequent for the next few days as we get ready to pull up stakes and move to our new home on the weekend.
I did manage to put up the pictures from the work party last Saturday on The Empty Pew. Just click on the Work Party Photos link at the top right of the page. There were quite a few people there from at least three different churches and a lot was accomplished. I will be sure to put some more pictures up when the flooring has been put it so you can see the result of all the work.
Our minister has given me a book to read, knowing fully that it is very unlikely I will have a chance to start reading it before the move is over. The book did look very interesting and I am looking forward to when I will have some time to read it.
God Bless You!
I did manage to put up the pictures from the work party last Saturday on The Empty Pew. Just click on the Work Party Photos link at the top right of the page. There were quite a few people there from at least three different churches and a lot was accomplished. I will be sure to put some more pictures up when the flooring has been put it so you can see the result of all the work.
Our minister has given me a book to read, knowing fully that it is very unlikely I will have a chance to start reading it before the move is over. The book did look very interesting and I am looking forward to when I will have some time to read it.
God Bless You!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
And the theme continues
Next Sunday will be the second in a series of 5 services based on the song Revival by Robin Mark. I thoroughly enjoyed the first service in the series so I am looking forward to next Sunday. While there are no new songs this week there are a couple of songs that might not be as familiar as the others that will be sung: Shine Jesus Shine was sung at least once as I have a record of singing that song during the June 4th singsong, and I Will Celebrate was done during the church service last year as I now remember practicing it with the choir - that probably means that I introduced it in the singsong as well. I had not yet started keeping track on the Pre-service singing site last year so I cannot be sure as the one place where I could check, my office laptop, is at the office.
God Bless You!
God Bless You!
Something wrong here
Am I the only one that finds it more than a little disheartening to see that the only bit of news about the General Council of the United Church that I see from the CBC is one about a potential boycott of bottled water?
God Bless You!
God Bless You!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Am I being too critical?
I have been doing a lot of web surfing lately, particularly in the area of web presence of churches. That is a direct result of a newsletter I receive weekly called WorshipIdeas; some of the topics of the newsletter are now being put on in the WorshipIdeas.com blog. He points to a few church web sites that I had a look at.
First thing that I realised is that I did not even have a link to the web site of my own church in the list of links! That was easily rectified. Then, after having looked at those other web sites, I went back and had a critical look at our web site. And this is where the title of this entry comes in as I did not think that our site fared very well compared to those others. It basically comes down to this: just being on the web is no longer enough, you now have to realise that your web site is probably the first impression we will make on many of the new generation of seekers. I do not know (okay I do not think) that our current site would appeal to those people. Yet another thing we will need to work on (my opinion).
I was glad to see that our Mission and Core values were easily reachable. It took me a while to figure out where the Vision was however. Apparently telling people that Summertime is slow is more important than telling them what we are about. I'm obviously biased since I spend a year's time in a committee to come up with the Vision, but I think it should be something that stands out when people visit the site.
Okay, enough criticizing for one day...
God Bless You!
PS: I have moved my blog to the beta version, and I understand that it has broken the comment system if those people wanting to comment have not also joined the beta system. Sorry about that!
Update: I have found a way around the comment problem. Just post your comments anonymously.
First thing that I realised is that I did not even have a link to the web site of my own church in the list of links! That was easily rectified. Then, after having looked at those other web sites, I went back and had a critical look at our web site. And this is where the title of this entry comes in as I did not think that our site fared very well compared to those others. It basically comes down to this: just being on the web is no longer enough, you now have to realise that your web site is probably the first impression we will make on many of the new generation of seekers. I do not know (okay I do not think) that our current site would appeal to those people. Yet another thing we will need to work on (my opinion).
I was glad to see that our Mission and Core values were easily reachable. It took me a while to figure out where the Vision was however. Apparently telling people that Summertime is slow is more important than telling them what we are about. I'm obviously biased since I spend a year's time in a committee to come up with the Vision, but I think it should be something that stands out when people visit the site.
Okay, enough criticizing for one day...
God Bless You!
PS: I have moved my blog to the beta version, and I understand that it has broken the comment system if those people wanting to comment have not also joined the beta system. Sorry about that!
Update: I have found a way around the comment problem. Just post your comments anonymously.
Monday, August 14, 2006
And it is official
The discussion and decision that had been put off to give everyone a chance to familiarize themselves with the information (which I touched on in this entry) about make the change from the Official Board to a Unified Board model took place tonight. As everyone was familiar with the issues this time around, the discussion and decision was done fairly quickly. The one year trial of the Steering Committee starts with its introduction meeting on September 11 at 1830.
There is no update and/or new photos at The Empty Pew this week as work has slowed down due in part to the fact that our minister is allergic to paint fumes. There will be more updates coming as the flooring is scheduled to be installed around the end of the month and there is a work party scheduled for Saturday August 19th (0930 - 1300) to get the area ready.
God Bless You!
There is no update and/or new photos at The Empty Pew this week as work has slowed down due in part to the fact that our minister is allergic to paint fumes. There will be more updates coming as the flooring is scheduled to be installed around the end of the month and there is a work party scheduled for Saturday August 19th (0930 - 1300) to get the area ready.
God Bless You!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
A successful beginning
As I mentioned before, today was the beginning of the 5 week period where the theme will be based on the song Revival by Robin Mark. I really enjoyed the service today, and I am sure it was due to the fact that our minister was back. Of course, the fact that we sang some of my favourite Christian music did not hurt either: Cry of my Heart, Open the Eyes of my Heart, and Lord I Lift Your Name on High. Brooke, our music director, also let loose on a couple of those songs and it was great.
Our minister has given me some more new music to have look at - I had forgotten about it until I started writing this blog. Tsk, tsk, tsk. There really was no chance of me not remembering as I put the music with my laptop.
Oh right! For those of you reading my blog to find out when and where the next Official board meeting is, hopefully you are reading this before Monday August 14th at 7:15pm since that is when the meeting is in the new Family room at church.
God Bless You!
Our minister has given me some more new music to have look at - I had forgotten about it until I started writing this blog. Tsk, tsk, tsk. There really was no chance of me not remembering as I put the music with my laptop.
Oh right! For those of you reading my blog to find out when and where the next Official board meeting is, hopefully you are reading this before Monday August 14th at 7:15pm since that is when the meeting is in the new Family room at church.
God Bless You!