Another Hallelujah?

I can't not link to this. An American worship leader has done a 'christian' version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

And yes, it's bad.

I couldn't listen to it the whole way through. I felt too embarrassed.

fish-oil and weightloss blog trial

It seems there might be a link between fish-oil and weightloss.

My friend has found this to be true. She started taking daily fish-oil supplements a month ago and has lost weight without dieting or exercising.

I'm not normally into supplements but thought it might be fun to give this a go. Fish oil is also meant to help concentration and do other good stuff for our brains.

Would anyone like to join me? Simply go buy some fish-oil supplements, take them each day and report in when I do the next post about it.

Of course this is highly scientific. The rest of you are the control group. You can report back too.

So, are you in?

Peter Bolt on full-time theological study

"How could we possibly hope to get the best kind of ministers of the gospel that we can if we are not prepared to give them ‘time out’—to have the devastating grace of constant ever-present exposure to God's word?"

Amen.

Read the whole thing here.

Micah's Graduation...

...from pre-prep in December.

a commentless blog...

... is like an echo-ey room.

to my reader readers...

I'm sorry for all the spelling mistakes. I write a post, immediately hit 'publish' then actually read it through. Reader people get everything in its unedited form. That last post was dreadful.

I'm not a reader person. I like to actually visit blogs. I like your pretty banners and colour schemes. And I like to make your stats look healthy!

bring back the sun visor!

Anyone else miss this fashion essential? Of course they're not recommended for bald men, but for the rest of us, what could be better? Keeps both the sun and our hair out of our faces. When indoors it can be conveniently stored around the neck. I say bring them back!

work work work

I'm making up now for not working much for the first 8 weeks of term. Suddenly there's loads of teaching work. What happened?

'thorns in the flesh suck'

Said by my skype friend. How true.

A gutful

You can watch my sister on Insight here. She's the surgeon on for the first 7 minutes of part 1.

The economy is getting back on track....

... or mine is anyway.

I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and am now exhausted and maybe a little sick.

It was fun, but I'm not used to so much work after my very lazy start to the year.

I have another 6 days of work booked up before easter. I'm doing one classroom day, then a week as a music teacher.

Music teaching is full-on. If I don't pace myself I'll finish a music teaching day with very little voice left. There's no silent reading time in the music classroom. I can get the kids to do 'silent listening', though, to give my voice a break. How about a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet to accompany Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra? Wonder if the kids would be up to that... I'm going to two different schools. It would probably pay to work up such a thing (I made one 10 years ago, and if I were organised would still have it...). I could probably use it with 9 classes over the week.

'I want' songs

According to my friend, all good musicals need an 'I want' song.

Here's one from the Little Mermaid.

And one from Les Mis.

And one from Joseph.

Can you think of some more 'I want' songs? Give us a link so we can all enjoy them.

What's your favourite 'I want' song?

things I like #1

doctor who

don't try this at home

I just got a demo back of perhaps the worst lyric I've ever written. I mentioned it a few weeks ago. Just like to confirm that 4 and 5 syllable words are terrible.

I can't bring myself to quote entire lines, but here are a few choice words to give you the idea:

definitive
unlimited
infinity
indefinable
undeniable
irresistable.

All of those words and more were packed into a chorus. How could that be good?

The verses are okay and the tune is great so we're not quite ready to dump the song yet. But if I listen to it again I will be.

I love teaching

I had two work calls today. Unfortunately I couldn't take both... Hopefully I won't get a big black mark next to my name for saying 'no'.

I'm teaching today's class again tomorrow. They're not the easiest group of year 2's I've come across but by the end of the day I kind-of liked them. They were impressed with my 'lovely lycra' game so I'm in their good books. I know a few of the parents which makes it interesting.

The class had a lot of trouble keeping their bottoms on their seats. I'm thinking of inventing a lockable seatbelt device that would be fitted to the kids chairs to limit movement during work time. The seat locks would be activated by the teacher only. She'd have a little controler on her key ring with a 'class-release/restrict' button and buttons to lock and unlock individual chairs. Super glue would be the alternative. I suggested that to the kids today but they weren't so keen.

Me? A PE teacher?

Today I was a classroom teacher for 3 hours, then a PE teacher for 1.5 hours. I had to teach 5-7 year olds how to swim. I was in the pool with them. Dragging them from side to side. They weren't very good, but no-one drowned. I'm exhausted.

Thankful that I've been helping out with Micah's school swimming. It meant that I kind of knew what to do and could give a semi-convincing performance.

RE

I just taught the stupidest, most pointless and boring RE lesson ever.

It kind of went like this:

"God is like a mother hen. He loves us and looks after us. Um... Do your worksheets now. You have to circle 10 chickens. Okay you've finished? Good. Now we'll... I don't know... Sing another song?"

For the last 2 years I've had the freedom to teach my year 2's 'the bible in 10 easy lessons' (which Nathan's mum and dad wrote). It does the BT thing - creation, fall, abraham, david, solomon, exile, baby Jesus, cross, resurrection, new creation. Works really well - the kids get sucked into the story. Last year, apparently, the school's RE program got audited and it came out that we weren't using an approved curriculum. This year I've been given some stuff written for prep aged kids who can't read or write. My kids are very literate. The material is hopelessly inappropriate, so I took the liberty of asking for some older stuff and doing my own thing in the meantime. Today it became apparent that no new stuff was coming and I really needed to use what I was given. So I did. I've left things hanging with Abraham. How is God going to fix up the problem of sin?

Don't worry about that. God is like a mother hen. Next week, God is like a king. After that, God is like a gardener.

There are no stories to tell. Just these single lines.

I need to get imaginative.

Andrew has left me alone...

... with a mouse in the house.

A funnel-web spider would freak me out less.

I'm feeling as scared as a gruffalo*.

Andrew says I'll be okay because it's a guard mouse and it will look after me.

* 'The Gruffalo said that no gruffalo should ever set foot in the deep dark wood. "Why not? Why not?" Because if you do, the Big Bad Mouse will be after you!'

I'm against child porn...

... but I think that Kevin Rudd's internet filter is a bad bad bad idea.

Nathan and Craig have useful stuff to say. They've convinced me. I've written a letter.

To the Hon. Wayne Swan,
Member for Lilley.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my concern over the government's planned internet filter.

While I applaud your desire to protect our children from sexual abuse, I am convinced that the current plan will do little to achieve this. Furthermore, I see our freedom of speech seriously compromised by such a filter. Can I be certain that the filter will be used only to block illegal material or could religious and political content also be restricted? Surely it is dangerous to give such power to a government!

As a long time Labor voter, I am amazed and disturbed at this initiative.

I would appreciate hearing your views on the subject.

Sincerely,

Simone Richardson
Nundah, QLD.

A Gutful

My sister Nicole will be on SBS's insight tomorrow night. She does gastric surgery on morbidly obese people. The show is featuring a 16 year old boy who she has or will operate on. It may be controversial.

SBS, Tuesday 7.30pm. Have a look and tell me what you think.

Once upon a time

I'm having a go at writing a little musical for Micah's class (prep - 5 year olds). Thought it would be fun if they performed it with their Year 6 buddies.

I've got no idea what will happen in the story yet, but I'd like there to be a bad king who ends up being eaten by a dragon. I've written a fragment of a song celebrating his demise:

Oh no, Old Joe
Eaten by a dragon
What a thing to
Happen to a king

It's not so bad
Nobody is too sad
Next a burp [burp!] and
What is for dessert?

Apart from that I have an opening song called 'Once upon a time', and a closing song called (you guessed it!) 'happily every after'. Neither song actually says anything.

So what should happen in the story? I want it to be narrator-driven, so the kids have very few lines and just have to move around a little bit. I'm thinking 10 minutes should be plenty long enough. Any ideas?

Train a child in the way he should go...

Nathan came with me to vote this morning. He is nine years old and politically aware.

Today he learnt about the minor parties - the greens, the daylight savings parties and family first. I'm pleased to say that he can articulate quite clearly why none of them are a good option for QLD.

He would like to vote for a party that will put money into hospitals and schools and not build any more roads (around us, at least!)

now I've heard it all

Pink Floyd's 'Have a Cigar' has been turned into workout music. It's used as the triceps track on Body Pump #32.

Look it up on iTunes. Have a cigar (workout remix) by T.Sign.

It's pretty bad, but only because it should never have been done.

This is a cool brochure

twist 09

let your light shine

Yesterday I had the privilege (!) of sitting through a Year 4 RE class (I was the classroom teacher.) The RE teacher meant well, but her material was bad bad bad.

The topic of the lesson was 'let your light shine'.

Here's how it went:

10+ minutes talking about the history of lighting - fire sticks, candles, electric lights. The kids were about as interested as I was.

5 minutes talking about how our gifts - the things we're good at - are our light. Each child had to tell everyone what they are good at. Much bragging.

Explanation about how God wants us to 'let our light shine' by using our gifts to help others. Doctors 'let their light shine' by making other people better. If we're good at singing, we should sing to make others happy. Etc. That's what it means to 'let your light shine'.

Worksheets showing people who 'let their light shine'. Firemen etc.

Oh dear.

my day

I start work at 11.30 today. Apart from the fact that I only get paid half as much, I love half days. I'll get in there, work with the kids for an hour and a half, send them off to lunch, work with them for an hour (including 20 minutes of silent reading!) then send them home. Easy peezy.

But what I'm excited about is my morning. The question is, how much can I squeeze into it? I'm thinking...
8.20 - set up pump gear at gym so I don't miss out
8.25 - swim
9.00 - cardio machine (might try a cross trainer and listen to something on my ipod)
9.30 - pump class
10.30 - shower, get ready for work, fruit and vege shopping.
11.15 - arrive at work exhausted for an 11.30 start

What are you doing today?

smacking

I'm reading a parenting book at the moment (a very good one) that's super keen on 'spanking'. Just wondering...

Parents.

1. Do you smack your kids?
2. Would you continue to smack your kids if it became really odious culturally (like legally questionable)

I don't want a big debate. Just want to know what people are thinking.

My answers:
1. Yes
2. No

times and seasons

This is the first year that I've had all the kids at school. It has been a big change for me, possibly the biggest since Nathan was born in Jan 2000. Here are a few things I've noticed:

• I miss having the kids around during the day
• but I enjoy the freedom of having time to myself
• I waste more time now that I have more time
  
• Some things that were impossible, difficult or annoying last year aren't a problem this year - I have time to go to mum's morning teas, help out with school swimming, or drop around to see a friend without feeling like I am using up the few precious minutes I had to myself
• I am more relaxed than I've been for a long time
• I have more energy to be organised. I'm now sending school forms back on time. I feel I'm on top of things and am not such a scatterbrain.
  
• I like having a dog. This is a big change. This time last year I never ever wanted a pet, but we got one for Joel for his birthday. Our dog is always at home and is pleased that I'm there too.
• I have more time and energy for Andrew.
• The school day is so short! By the time you've done 3 gym classes and caught up on the blogs, it's time to do pick up! (I'm joking about the gym classes. Some of them, anyway!)
• I'm not working much this year and don't want to! But money is nice... I'm doing a few half days in the next couple of weeks which are not a big deal.

Anyone else have a newly emptied nest?

Why have we stopped talking about evangelism?

Doesn't seem like evangelism's the thing to talk about anymore. 'Missional' is the hip word now.

Is there any difference between being 'missional' and being 'evangelistic'?

My hunch is that evangelism is a more a person to person thing, but missional is a how-you-do-church-to-facilitate-large-scale-evangelism thing. Am I right?

In this post below, Phil Nicholson comments

"I think the danger of the church planting buzz is that we all want to be involved and will claim that we are doing it but without actually doing more evangelism than at present."

What do you think?

Nathan's plant rant

Have a read.

For Sale

Apparently my blog is worth US $220. Anyone want to buy it?

-'ve

I've just re-read all my blog posts from the last couple of weeks. They are overwhelmingly negative and critical. Probably because that's how I've been feeling.

Anyway, sorry. I'll try to find something nice to talk about. If critical and nasty is more interesting than good, it's only because I have a poor imagination.

Here are some things I really like:

• this song and this one too
• posts like this
• the tune pp has written for this lyric
  
• song for the mira -wistful and lovely. Sorry about the you-tube.
  
• people who do this kind of educational research
• decor sandwhich boxes. I don't wrap lunches anymore!
• exercise
• ant sand
  

okay okay

Andrew has been trying to distance himself from my church planting whinges. He is more gracious than me and makes lots of good points. He also says some useful things about church revitalisation - which is the not-quite-so-hip game we've been playing for the last 6 years.

goma

Joel and I went to the gallery of modern art this afternoon. Most of our time was spent on the indigenous art floor. Joel particularly likes 'devil pictures' with intricate patterning - like this Alick Tipoti.

I know almost nothing about art. The very little I do know has come from music textbooks. Thinking I should find out something. Any suggestions where to start?

wifely godliness

I listened to Sting without a word of complaint for 2 whole car trips today.

An hour of Sting. And I acted like it wasn't killing me.

Giving myself a big tick.

[Andrew, read this!]

word verification gone

It gets on my nerves on other people's blogs so I got rid of it on mine. Should I brace myself for a run of spam comments?

church-planting frustration

There's lots of church planting stuff around the blogs at the moment.

I'm all for church planting. There are people out their who need to hear the gospel, so let's start more churches. Great.

But I'm frustrated (you may have already picked that up...) with alot of the current church planting talk.

Here's why.

It all seems so glorified. A big conference in a big city in America with big super-star christians. Getting to hang with the big names. Associate yourself with them. Video them. Quote them. And make plans for how we can save the world like them. It's hard to be at a conference like that and not want and imagine yourself to be the next Mark Driscoll. (But would Mark Driscoll have ever attended such a conference? Actually, all the succesful church planters I know don't go to those kinds of conferences. They have their heads down!)

Christian ministry is not about glory. It rarely looks impressive. I'm sure the trainee church planters are being told (fairly constantly) that it's hard work, but I think the glitz of the big names undoes what is said. Your congregation is not going to sit and adoringly listen to you. Many will be Sunday-only Christians. Often they just won't show up. Sometimes your best people will be jump into big-time sin. Each day your little sins (which may actually turn out to be biggies) will nag at you and at those around you. You are not going to be nailing your message every week. Often you will be dull. Your church may never look big or exciting - it may look like the church in Corinth. Will you feel like a failure if it does?

I remember our principal telling us at college that most of us would not lead Philip Jensen type ministries. Most of us would just faithfully teach the bible week by week in average churches. That's just how it is and such ministry is valuable and good.

There are other reasons why I find the current church planting noise frustrating. But that's probably the main one.

Am I being petty and ungenerous? It's likely. Tell me to pull my head in.

UPDATE: Andrew just read this post and told me to pull my head in. He reminded me of some of the fantastic Australians with significant ministry experience who are over there... He's right, of course. Still interested in what you have to say.

off to church camp

No posts till Sunday or Monday.

Stay happy!

xo

pro-discrimination

Great to see Ben taking on the big issues. Keep up the good work!

A stupid christian song from 1912

I'd just like it to be clear that our generation does not have a monopoly on stupid congregational songs. This was top of the pops early last century.

In the Garden

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

C. Aus­tin Miles