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Mighty Mens Conference Friday Night

What a great night....a few highlights...

hearing 2000 men sing...wow....resonance, bass, power....awesome.

Angus has not changed, challenging, direct, funny, nothing left unsaid...

Multi media went well...no mistakes, had to work quick as worship team made last second changed....they sounded great!

Camera was okay...slight delay annoying, but without a $2000 scaler, what do you do?

A great night...cant wait for tommorow.....

Peter Schiff predicts recession...

This is amazing...wow....I am not much into the whole financial news happening at the moment, but I know enough to know that we should have been listening to this guy a couple of years ago!

Chocolate Pankcakes and Berries with maple syrup...


I think these pictures tell a great story....
chocolate pancakes with berries and maple syrup....oh YUM!

Driscoll and Vintage Church

Want to read this one......
Bible Study Magazine and Mars Hill are giving away 20 copies of Mark Driscoll’s new book, Vintage Church. Not only that, but they are also giving away five subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine and a copy of their Bible Study Library software! Enter to win on the Bible Study Magazine Mark Driscoll page, then take a look at all the cool tools they have to take your Bible study to the next level!
Click here to subscribe to Bible Study Magazine!

http://www.logos.com/

Mighty mens conference...

Very busy at the moment getting ready for Mighty Mens conference.....the registrations hit 1560 make that 1600 ...and still climbing.

I have been responsible for marketing..so we are pretty happy with the result. The website Q developed is very good...and has handled the load well...with most registrations being done online.

Now I have switched my attention to the multi media....and I have worked out how to feed live video feed through my laptop onto the screens....should be an awesome conference!


Lets pray that Angus is inspired...and able to deliver the message from God to the men that come....that they and our state need.

Pastors Blog back

Wayne and myself have re-launched Australian Pastors Blog...check it out.

http://australianpastors.blogspot.com/

Eagles photos on facebook

It seems the eagles photos I posted on facebook are creating a fair bit of interest....
this comment from Dave Fallon was the best....

"hating the weagles is quite a healthy and satisfying pasttime"

Yes....I concur...it is.....

Inglewood Community Church

A reflection on the year, and a look forward to this year....Something I put together for our AGM....

Eagles deserve it....

Someone left this doll on my desk tonight...so it needed to suffer.... :)


This is where their season is headed....



And I am sure they are going to get this......



good day in church....

It was a good day in church today...good crowd in, some visitors....
We took some time out of our communion time to remember the bushfire victims, a minute silence.

We have also been raising money for the appeal, will total it up and let you know how we did it this week.

I shared the story about how Jesus responded to a natural, and a unnatural disaster in His day. He did not explain why it happened, but he did clarify to people that it was not because people were being judged, bad stuff does happen in our world....

Our worship leader reminded us to pray for those who were left behind, they are the ones suffering now, the initial shock is gone,and they are ones who have to go on with living, without the ones they loved and knew with them.

Someone who went through the Cyclone Tracy distaster said something profound to me today as well, "no one compares houses when they are all piled up together at the rubbish tip".

how to attract people to your church...

One of my best mates has this on his church website...presumably to attract people to the service.

"We have air-con!"

That is so funny...so does the local pub mate..and other places!

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

You know who you are!!!

Lent


Doing something different for us as we head into Easter....thanks to a friend who gave me the idea....

Ressurection

Remember Ra'ah? Well Wayne and I are going to ressurect it, in a new format, name etc....and possibly some new posters...stay tuned.

Bit light on....

Very busy at the moment...
getting ready for our church agm....will post a highlights video shortly....
preparing church vision document....meeting with leaders...our church is a very exciting place to be at the moment.

also getting ready for the Angus Buchan conference, should be an awesome time...with close to 1300 men already registered, we are stoked...the worship time with that many guys will just be fantastic....praying that God chooses to reveal things to men, challenge and inspire them...
But with so many blokes coming, the pressure is on to make it good...pray for me, pray for Eliot as he leads the worship time, and pray for Angus and his team, that the Holy Spirit will empower, direct and give him discernment.

Had one of the best beers I have ever had today, snuck away from the office (should not have, no time to waste, but a good mate needed to chat...so down to Freo we went)....at the Little Creatures brewery.... a 'bright ale'....straight from the tap...cold....absolutely superb.

Stressed Ministers.....

This from Rowland Croucher....

"Where is the pressure coming from? The survey indicates that it is not the members or the church board. It is the ministers themselves. The pastors show a consistent inability to set reasonable limits on their workload. More than two out of three respondents say that they expect too much of themselves. A little over half say that they love what they do so much that they don't know when to stop.
The typical pastor spends about 14 hours planning and attending meetings or services. Another 13 hours is invested in sermon preparation and teaching. Pastoral care and counseling take some nine hours. Six hours are spent in personal devotions and prayer. All types of administrative and budget tasks, advanced planning and the like absorb 13 hours."

Source

Predictions for the 2009 Season

Okay...the 2009 season is upon us...

After watching an experienced and determined Richmond defeat Freo by 3 points....and my third cup of coffee...I am ready for my 2009 predictions.
I got at least one right last year, Palmer did indeed pick up the Rising Star. Unfortunately most of the others were wrong after the Dockers suffered a pretty dissapointing season.
I was right about Hawthorn....they did well...and I was right about Woosha Wiperblades....he did say nothing, but was fawned over by 6peagle....
Unfortunately neither Freo nor the Saints gave the finals a shake....maybe this year...find our below.

1. Stephen Hill is a gun, better than Rich, and will win the Rising Star
2. Chris Mayne will develop into a more consistent player
3. Tarrant will repay the faith showed in him
4. Pavlich will start to dominate games with his mate Hasleby
5. Hawthorn wont maintain their form, and will dissapoint
6. Geelong will continue to fade
7. Port Adelaide will implode, and Mark Williams might face the sack
8. Richmond will dissapoint their fans, and yet Wallace will be re-signed
9. Port Adelaide will collect the spoon
10. North Melbourne will be the big riser
11. Freo will make the top four, but miss out on the big one
12.West Coast will still suck

Seating.....and atmosphere

I have not met a Senior Pastor yet who is worth his salt that does not get the whole 'seating' thing.
How...where...in what format a room is set up...is important!
We only have to look at God's complicated instructions for His house of worship to know this.

At Inglewood we have been having real issues with seating....too many people, not enough room.
Okay....there is enough room if we are all squished in.
Last week, just as the service finished, I got up and gently encouraged/asked the folk if they could possibly get to church early...and sit down the front, I even said I would put lollies on the front two pews!

This week we moved all the musicians onto the stage, with just the leader and singers down on the level part. I debated whether to put them up high on the stage, but the crowd is still not large enough to have to do this, and I don't like being up high looking over people, I like to look them straight in the eye, be on eye level with people. We may have to change this at some point.

Anyhoo.....I put some Fantails on the front two pews, and they did fill up. Because we had moved everyone foward, we had some space at the back.....at least until everyone came in. Then we were full again. Its amazing. We truly are experiencing sustained growth.

It felt full this morning, but not uncomfortably full.....whew! We needed to make space. I am believing that very soon we will need to make more space....there are new friends coming and staying every week.

Mc Donalds Vs Starbucks and your small church


This is the ad in which Mc Donalds taunts Starbucks over the price of their coffee.

The price is not the problem, Starbucks has not realised that mass produced coffee is rubbish. You can't produce a good product with a manual and a 16-18 year old who is 'able to work weekends'.

You need a Barrista to make good coffee....and you need a fresh, and freshly ground product.

As for McDonalds.....that is not coffee...that is brown muck served up in a polysterene cup....
This has application for smaller churches....ones under 200 people.
I will go time and time again to a good coffee shop. Nearly all the good ones, the ones that give good service, are those that are not larger, and the owner is often the manager, or is at least hands on at some level. I reckon the same may be true of small churches.
I do think small churches have their limitations. My own church is transitioning into a medium sized church, at least for Australia. If you are too small, it makes it difficult to service your communities needs. We run the following programs which are meeting community needs, and probably 95% of the people who come, do not come to our church. Toddler Jam (67 Kids, 60 adults) Kids Jam (30+ kids, 30 adults) ...95% from the community. The Artisan Markets (maybe 600-1000) people come on average, Pictures in the Park (about 300+), Words works wonders (welfare/craft group 20 people).....and some others as well.
We could not do this if we did not have people who love God, and who want to bless our community. But as we continue to grow, we need to be aware of the 'McChurch" issues, and keep it genuine, and personal.....we care about people above all things.

Are the bush fires God's judgement?

ummmm...lets think about that for half a millisecond.....no.

Bad things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people.
The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Indiscriminate, awful fire, killing innocents...is not how God operates.

Why did it happen? Don't know. Why did Soveriegn God not intervene? Don't know.

It is amazing to see how people are helping, it shows the image of God within us when we reach out in love and mercy to those who are struck down. That is God at work.

Judgement will come, at the right time, in the right way, but the posturing of some, the attempt to claim it as some moral high ground victory seems to me to have much more in common with the pharisees of Jesus day, rather than Jesus Himself. In fact its wicked.

This is why you are fat


What a awesome website.....makes you hungry though!
This is why you are fat

The Victorian fires...a chaplains experience

fascinating, chilling, interesting.....provoke one to prayer...

"We were all human beings united by a tragedy, equal in the face of suffering and walking the path of recovery together...."
(more)

my leftie mac loving revisionist tiger supporting internet mate....

.....has put some good thoughts together on a way to think through the whole 'revisiting' church issue.

"In our rush to reject the consultant paradigm, there is a real danger that we embrace the house of sand approach that the bartender represents. The truth of the matter is that Jesus has a lot to say about how people, and the world is living......"

The consultant and the bartender walked into a church....

I dont respect people who dont proselytise...

Here is an excellent little video from an atheist....you may have seen him on Penn and Teller.

He makes the following points....

How much do you have to hate someone...to not share your faith?
If I believed without a shadow of a doubt that you were about to be hit by a truck...and did not say something to you, what would you say about me?

Ownership versus community centres

Having now become a church that uses temporary locations.....spaces rented off others who own them....I am keenly aware of some of the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Using a community owned and used space has helped us to grow, interact and communicate with the community so much better than what we used to. People know where we are, they see us, the interact with our programs...we are part of the community.

Downside is that we dont own the place! We get told off for this that and the other....even if we have done nothing really wrong. There has been a distinct period of the other people using the place getting used to us....One person in particular......(say no more!)
The person who runs the centre is great! Nothing but helpful, know that we know her and have been there a while.

But not being able to do whatever we want there...is a downside.

Ultimatly moving has been the right move for us. There is certainly pain. We have a lot of stuff to set up each week (3 times a week actually)...and not a lot of space to put it in.....but the upside is....we are starting to feel like a mission organisation, not a club.

New Laptop


Thanks to insurance......yes I can....

I did not have much...if any choice in it....it was a new for old replacement...and had to be an Acer. Fortunately this one does appear to be considerably more robust than my previous one...which had a fragile screen and keyboard (and the internet would confirm that in forum groups!).


It does have a nice screen, 250 gb hdd and 2 gb ram.....and a good quick dual core processor.
Oh....and its better than my co workers....which is probably the most important thing.... :)

Marketing your church

Your church is is people.

You might have magnificent buildings, you may have great coffee....but if you do not have people who are genuinely concerned about their community, you have nothing.


However....you do need to let people know you exist. The message we have to share is the best and most important message in the world! God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives. Jesus Christ is Lord....and making Him Lord of our lives brings about joy and peace!


How to let people in the community know about your church is a challenge. I dont think paid ads do much. They may help, but they are not the solution. I think we need a multi focused approach. Our churches should organise, run.....lead community events. They should advertise these well....be involved in the community, having community people work alongside us!

We run the Artisan Markets at Inglewood....It is awesome! Here is a story (stories are so much better than ads....SO MUCH better) that ran in this weeks local paper.


Its amazing how we do it to ourselves...


Go back to the same rubbish...

creatures of habit......

part of an unhealthy machine....

when you give in....you just wish you had not....
its cheap, sort of tasty and convenient....

but its rubbish......

Biblical Curse Generator

This is great.
Looking for a biblical justification for cursing that driver that just cut you off, the Barrista who made you a bitter coffee...or even the sales assistant who seems more intent on talking to their boyfriend on the phone rather that serving you?

The problem is that as Christians we are meant to be nice to each other....this curse generator is full of great comebacks for a multitude of situations....

This is one that took my fancy,
"May you go on a diet of crunchy, unsweetened locusts, thou whose name is but dung!"

Biblical Curse Generator

H/T David Wilson

Barich on Hill and Palmer

Well well.....Maybe Barra has been listening to his wife (a keen dockers member)....

Jam Central kicks off in a huuuuuge way

It just seems that everything is coming together at the moment....there is this synergy as God's hand of blessing is over us. We had 67 kids at Jam Central this morning...but about 40% of them were new to the group! How does that happen when you do ABSOLUTLEY NO ADVERTISING. Seriously...none. And 95% of them don't come to church.

We did not even do a massive mail out this year like we have before....and it was at a new location....

Looking over these parents, observing their parenting styles....and their great spiritual needs, we are so blessed.

But it comes with great responsibility and great work.
We need to make time to form relationships and friendships.
We need to share Gods love with them, and a purpose for living.

God is good and His mercies and blessings are abundant, but we cant sit down, there is no time for deciding what we should do....He has shown and told us what to do.

A prayer....God continue to give us the passion, power, discernement and wisdom we need to be about Your business. Protect us from the evil one...who must be hating what You are doing at Inglewood....
And thanks God...what a privilege!

Dockers.....ready to go

Watching a bunch of overpaid wimps running around with oversize pillows on their shoulders to protect their fragile egos made me a little bit excited about the real footy season ahead.

The Fremantle Dockers have a pre season scratch match on tonight, and it will be interesting to see how it goes. Press have been reporting that the Dockers have had a very hard pre-season, with the impetus being the need to redress the last quarter fadeouts that plagued us last year. If we had been able to turn a few of those 10 points or less losses into wins...anything could have happened..... (sigh)


Unusually for the press at this time of year, we are not installed as pre-season favourites along with other much more qualified teams. Maybe thats a good sign.


Tarrant is not injured, Hasleby is back, Pavlich is a superstar, and likely to play a more 'James Hird midfield fix it" type role.


Grover is the leagues most underated defender, and hopefully has put the emotional and personal turmoil of last year behind him. Mr Pharlin is awesome.


With the best ruckman in the AFL (Cox is heavily overated)...and the best first year player of 2008 at his feet, Hasleby picking up the spoils, Hedland fit and firing.....who knows?


I have my new membership card...I am ready....

Big Sunday

Biggest crowd we have had at 'regular' church yesterday.....approaching the size of the crowd we had at our launch.
A lot (lot) of new folk...coming back and staying.
We ran out of communion elements....we had to open up the back doors.....

It does make you feel overwhelmed. I have always been a pastor of a church hovering around the 80-100 mark, and I have known everyone.....well.

I still make it my business to introduce myself to new people, and to shake hands at the door.
But we are actually utilising the systems we have put in place now. Pastoral care leaders etc.
A loss of feeling like I know everyone and what is happening in people's lives.
But as we grow, and continue to grow, this is only going to become more so. Interesting times ahead.