dream today

Just watched the Open Doors video called The Eastern Bride tonight and not only was I impressed (because of its excellence in production - no small feat for a Christian endeavour!) , but I was also moved and challenged. I have a strong, growing desire to serve the persecuted Church around the world . . I'm not sure just how this is going to pan out yet. Click here for a very short preview of the film. Labels: challenging , getting involved , Open Doors , persecuted Church

About two weeks ago the Church of Ireland Youth Department (for whom I work) hosted a national youth ministry resourcing day for the Republic of Ireland. It was the first of its kind (as far as I'm aware) and by all accounts well worth doing again next year. The day consisted of an opening session on Young People and Youth Culture , time for networking with 12 organisations present including: Open Doors , Scripture Union , CFI Training Centre , Youth Alive, 3Rock Youth , Mothers Union , Summer Madness , Street Reach , Youth for Christ , E xodus Christian Training Centre , Pais Project , ACET and the Church of Ireland Youth Department . There were three others seminars for participants to take part in including Uniting Reverence with Relevance (marrying tradition with innovation) , Hearts and Minds (investing in volunteer leader teams), and Along the Way (discipleship with young people in the 21st century). It was a wonderful day and the event went s

This post is from an email that a friend and colleague of mine (from Dreamers ) Dr. Gary Bradley sent this week. I'd like to hear three things from you readers: 1) Would you add any traits to the list? 2) Would you contest the presence of any trait listed? 3) Which of the traits listed integrate with the nature of a popular Christian understanding of the world (world view) and which are more due to nurture in an individual's experience? Read on . . . Traditionally psychology has always tried to assess what are 'normal' levelsof mental *functioning* and then compare abnormal states to that. (For normal read average). Positive Psychology is a new branch of applied psychological research that posits what is necessary for being realistically more than average - not superhuman - but how to grow,have a full life and realise potential. Martin Seligman (a name that strikes awe and great reverence into most psychologists) has been researching pos

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Labels: Chrsitianity , Franciscan Benediction , prayer , reflection

Futurist Leonard Sweet in one of his podcast series entitled Napkin Scribbles talks about what he believes will be the next five rising trends in the coming ten years. First Leonard says that size does matter - the next big thing is the next small thing - so watch how people are doing 'little large'. The second nascent trend is the 'well' curve replaces the bell curve : opposites happen at the same time so give up the middle and begin looking for those who are bringing the extremes together. Third he shares that 'epic rules' , the importance of turning activities into epic-tivities . . with an emphasis on how culture is able to help the church become more of an epic community (see his most recent book The Gospel According to Starbucks ). Fourthly, Mr. Sweet-ness himself notes that if you digitise you decentralise : the internet is becoming the new skin for planet earth and everything is becoming decentralised with some exceptions which a