Nice to know others just follow their nose too!!!!

Tim Smith and Jon Bloom from The Resurgence on Vimeo.

Some thoughts on books I read in 08

'The God who is there' - Francis Schaeffer.. I really enjoyed this book. It challenged me a lot about the importance of understanding the claims of the Christian faith about the historical Jesus - which was a little suprising from a philosopher. A great help and encouragement to consider the validity and importance of an integrated Christian view of life. Although written prior to post-modernism it in real ways sees some of it's problem's before time. The 'cultural refernces' now seem quite quaint, the Christian view of life he commends is anything but quaint. It was my first read of any schaeffer, I will read more, in face at some point I will need to read this again!!


'Leadership on the Front Foot' - Zac Veron (no relation to juan sebastian veron as far as I know!) - A useful read for someone doing ministry, expecially within the Sydney context. To the point - well literally it is 23 points - of practical wisdom. At times it feels a little gung ho about it all, but speaks with a clarity that you like to hear when you are trying to untie the gordian knot that is parish ministry, especially in a multi parish setting. I liked it and it was easy to get the points in practical ways.

'Living with the Underworld' - Peter Bolt. [The blurb reads, 'In Living with the Underworld, Peter Bolt brings his quirky and humorous style to his topic, and makes his book hard to put down because it is so fascinating and engaging.' Well hate to disappoint them, but I found it easy to put down, and in fact gave up on finishing it. I found it a real dissapointment, it was supposed to be a homage to the Sopranos, it was a little more pulp theology. I needed some serious help, this book was not it!)

'Knowledge of God and Service of God' - Karl Barth. (Given as a set of lectures about natural theology (which is funny in itself!) it actually is a good book to get something of the essence of Barth, distilled down into a more manageble read. He is an enigma, so much genius, so many simple things confused!!)

'Suprised by hope' - Tom Wright (not a bad read, he has a good main point about the life after the life after death, but in typical style, his style is more impressive than substantive, which means there are some odd moments of madness for mind!)

Mind Maps and Preaching

Recently I have changed over from a full script when preaching like this one for example , to using mind maps to preach from.

The main reason started when we were doing a series on the Apostle's Creed and I have always found Systematic Theology to be much more engaging and useful as teaching, when it was a conversation rather than a lecture (ie. PFJ 3rd year for those who know those sought of things!).

It turns out I am not alone in this, and a series on the Apostle's Creed which was questioned by people before hand as to why we would bother, turned out to be a series that really engaged people and in the end helped them to see its value and to grow together in our understanding.

We are in a context where the congregation size is usually closer to 50 than 150, and so a more conversational style of preaching is easy to use, and in a lot of ways I believe a more effective way of teaching and engaging with people around God's word.

Mind maps are a much quicker and more effective way (than a full text) of ensuring you cover the essential points in a conversation, without the danger of repeating yourself. It helps you to pick a path for the conversation before hand (ie. is this a good point or an unhelpful sidetrack to be cut off at the pass!), while making it easy to cut/change/modify on the run as you need. It really acts as a safety net so you don't miss talking about the gems you have found during your study.

Dialogue is all very trendy and post-modern, but the reality is within certain size limitations it is a much more effective means of God's people meeting. Not a vacuous wander through the garden dialogue, but a well prepared trip through a topic (like a good tour guide maybe), that helps a teacher/preacher engage with the REAL questions of the congregation.

Anyway I have posted some of the Mind Maps I used for the topic of the Catholic Church below - I use a program called Mindnode pro (Mac), and the outline I gave to the congregations.

Since we have gone back to an expository series I have modified my style of preaching. I have kept the mind maps and made sure the preaching/Teaching consciously uses interactive/conversational elements within it - you can here some attempts at it here.

Anyway that is where I am up to at the moment!!!

Busy?

9 times out of 10 when I ask anyone how they have been, they say, 'busy'. Like somehow not being busy is the cardinal sin today. CJ Mahaney offers the opposite that maybe being busy is the problem. The solution isn't so much doing less - but in being more discerning in what it is we do (that is very funny to write on a blog - the height of futility!!).

I like things that help me to work smarter and not just harder, and even better when they are written from a solid Christian perspective, picking up on the foundational nature of the Christian life, and building out from that, in seeing that life is about relationships and not just tasks.

Biblical and practical without being simplistic - so obviously it appeals to me. Download it here for free and have a read, then have a go!!!

Good Questions when reading theology!

Total Church Questions:

1. In your own words how would you briefly summarize the main point of this chapter? (ie. in one line what are they on about?)

2. Was this a new idea in the book up to this point? (ie. How does this chapter relate to the rest of the book so far?)

3. Was this a new idea for your Christian thinking at this point in time?

4. How does the author back up their main point in this chapter? (ie. how do they develop their argument, what are the minor points they make to support their main point?)

5. What is the authority that their main point is based upon? (Is their main point supported directly from the Bible or is it inferred from the Bible, or is it based upon observations of life, culture, group dynamics, logic or philosophy etc?)

6. Has the author made some assumptions in their argument? And do you think they are good ones?

7. What did you like about what the author had to say? (and Why?)

8. What didn’t you like about what the author had to say? (and why?)

9. Are there things that you think are going well for you/us based on what the author is proposing?

10. Are there things you think you/we should change because of what the author is proposing?