Preaching/Communication - not 1 thing but 5 things.

"It is one thing to say something
quite another to have it listened to
a distinct third to have it understood
a different matter again to have it remembered
and a frequently unattainable fifth to have it put into practice"
(Paul Edwards 'The Practical Preacher')

2 useful lists: what the vicar says, and what to say to your vicar

A couple of lovely lists:

Biblical Preaching is offering 50 'preaching tweaks' - small experiments and one-degree shifts in preaching which can make a big difference for anyone aspiring to be an effective preacher. One of the few things I remember clear as day from training college is one lecturer saying she always tried 1 new thing whenever she preached. The 'preaching tweaks' lists reminds me that my preaching is still a work in progress, and there's a lot I can do to improve and stay fresh.

John Martin has posted on the Fulcrum site '10 things a Vicar needs to hear - often'. There's probably a companion piece to be done on 10 things any church member needs to hear often, but it's an excellent list. 'Is everything ok?' 'enjoy your time away' 'how can I help?' are things some of us rarely hear, and I know some clergy who get the message - both spoken and unspoken - that they aren't allowed not to be ok, and that time off is something clergy should always feel guilty about. Andy yes, sometimes we contribute to our own downfall - if you wont accept offers of help, don't be surprised if they dry up.

...and on the topic of lists and vicars, Jeremy Fletchers 'Rules for Reverends', which originally appeared on his blog, (e.g. 103: no, the compilers of the lectionary didn't know what they were doing; 87. Being on the committee of another organisation is a good way of realising that perhaps the PCC isn’t so bad after all. Or recognising that, actually, it is.)  is now published with added Dave Walker cartoons. 

Slaves to the Smartphone

for most people the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the time. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees’ free time. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office. Otherwise-sane people check their smartphones obsessively, even during pre-dinner drinks, and send e-mails first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

This is partly because smartphones are addictive: when Martin Lindstrom, a branding guru, tried to identify the ten sounds that affect people most powerfully, he found that a vibrating phone came third, after the Intel chime and a giggling baby.....

Ofcom, Britain’s telecommunications regulator, says that a startling 60% of teenagers who use smartphones describe themselves as “highly addicted” to their devices. So do 37% of adults.Read the full article here. It paints a grim picture of blurred boundaries between work and leisure, compulsive behaviour and a deluge of junk information.




Partly out of technological laziness, partly through being a tight-wad, I don't have a smartphone, or even a useable mobile. I spend enough time checking messages when I'm at my desk without doing it everywhere else as well. And when I'm in a meeting with someone who's phone is on, there's always the nagging sense that their entire world is in their pocket, jabbering to interrupt you, I'd much rather we were able to give each other our full attention.

How do other people manage their phones, or do the phones manage you?

The Sermon Burp

Excellent post by Steve Tilley on how to avoid indigestion in teaching settings:

A colleague of mine used to say that discussion groups after a talk were a good opportunity for people to 'burp'. He drew the analogy of a baby being fed - after a while the infant needs to be winded and then some more food can be inserted into the gap. Without being winded a small child will feel full before it is.

It said a lot about that teaching style. The speaker has the food and people need feeding; almost force-feeding.

I have always been a great enthusiast for teaching in a dialogue. I am not anti-input. I do have some resources, training and skills which equip me with stuff to pass on. But the assumption about dialogue (Greek: dia logos = through word(s)) is that I will be as helped by the listener as the listener by me.

Worth reading the whole piece. I find it very challenging as a preacher/teacher: there's usually far more material for a sermon/teaching slot than I've actually time to deliver, and it's hard enough sacrificing chunks of a sermon to trim things down to the usual 20 minutes. But maybe we need to be a bit more joined up, and instead of the traditional launch straight into the Nicene Creed, or whatever, to think about the 5-10 minutes after the sermon as processing time. Or even to split it into several chunks throughout the service, all-age style .

Whatever (,) He Said

'its not enough to question authority, you've got to speak with it too'
Ht Michael Hyatt

Please Ignore Everything I Say

"We now have the dubious distinction of being able to communicate more and say less than any civilization in history. We have become, as Clement of Alexandria says, like old shoes - all worn out except for the tongue. And because so many words bombard us from so many media we tend to play little attention to them. Can you or I remember even a single full sentence from the last movie we saw, or the last email we reiceved? (or the last blog we read?)

What we must learn, therefore, is discernment. Some words deserve sustained attention, others do not... it is a positive virtue for us to remain ignorant of much of the attention-getting, ego-driven, greed-motivated words that whizz by on the information superhighway. We do so in order to be attentive to words that speak life into our souls. This, too, is a discipline." (Richard Foster, 'Spiritual Classics' p110)

Pros and Cons

Joe Haward sums up a lot of what I was feeling about blogging at the start of Lent, and still feel to a large extent now:

So I'm checking my blog a lot, reading other people's blogs and spending my time like this. I've noticed that it's starting to have an impact on my prayer life and spiritual health, so it is a problem. Therefore I'm going to have a break from all things blog. I need to have a spiritual workout.

It was noticeable how many bloggers were reviewing their blogging around the start of Lent: Doug Chaplin and Maggi Dawn decided to change their patterns, others quit for the season, I left it open about whether to resume or not.

And to be honest I'm torn. In the 'against' column is everything I wrote 7 weeks ago, plus a few observations since then:
- It feels like I have a lot more time than before

- It feels like I have more energy, and am less preoccupied than before

- Resisting the temptation to opine on things was quite a test, but a good one. I don't
suppose anyone noticed the world ceasing to turn.

- I'm getting to bed a bit earlier, and with less on my mind, because there's no longer the wondering of whether anyone's left a comment during the 10 o clock news. On a couple of occasions I've had awful nights after getting a critical comment or two, and spent hours stewing over them. Not good. Nick Baines notes in his Radio Times column this week (well worth a read) that you have to have a bit of a thick skin to do this. I don't have one of those.

But there's a 'for' column too:
- I enjoy it

- Blogging gives me the chance, and the challenge, of interacting with other points of view and processing my thoughts. Writing stuff down helps me to work out what I think.

- It's a way of continuing conversations begun elsewhere, occasionally sparking off comments on Facebook, or people from other local churches chatting about something I've written, or once in a blue moon actually printing it off for their church leadership to look at.

- With 85 Google Reader subscribers, 490 Twitter followers, plus other links in sidebars and on Facebook, there's a reasonable network/audience linked here now. It doesn't mean that that many people read this thing - I'd be concerned at the waste of time involved if they did. But it does mean that the blog, sometimes, can be a useful signpost, or part of a campaign. Perhaps it would do better at that if I got back to the original goal of this thing, which was to be a place for resources and discussions about mission. It seems to have splurged all over the place a bit!

- One or two comments here, and people I've spoken to, have said how much they appreciate this blog.

- The election: though the overload of verbiage which accompanies it probably won't be any the better for me hopping aboard the bandwagon.

It's a tricky one. I remember a saying 'the good is the enemy of the best' - we're tempted by the things which seem good, but sometimes they get in the way of something better. I don't really want to lose the greater peace of mind, sense of time, and easing in skittishness which the blogging fast has given me. The issue is whether I've the self-control to engage in blogging at a lighter level than before. This is my 1500th post. Is that a good place to stop, or just a good place to take stock?

PS if it's an April Fool you're after, the Guardian has a cracker on Labours new election tactics.

More on those much-anticipated sermons

Following the brief flurry in the blogosphere earlier this week, which greeted the news that over 96% of churchgoers looked forward to the sermon, (Times report here), Pete from CODEC (the research body which published the findings) has blogged at greater length about what the survey did and didn't say. He notes, after reading the comments on the Times piece:

There seems little surprise - even to the ridiculously high 96.6% approval rating. Actually the figure is not quite accurate (it should be 96.9%) or as good as this suggests because the actual report says that 63.7% 'frequently' look forward to the sermon, with another 33.2% 'sometimes' looking forward to the sermon. So, if you feel among the 4% (or rather the 3.1%) who don't look forward to your regular sermon slot and that lots of your friends don't either, then it might be that you and your friends identify more with that 33.2% who look forward to the odd highlight or special occasion - 'sometimes' looking forward. Startingly, the other 3.2% (rounding up issues?) 'seldom' look forward with absolutely no one (0.0%) saying that they never looked forward to the sermon.

My first thought on reading this that the figures might be down to many of the sample being in the Durham area, and therefore looking forward to the sermon on the off-chance that it might be Tom Wright guest preaching this week. More seriously, the research notes that sermons don't seem to have much impact on those who hear them. Moreover more of the impact seems to be introverted (e.g. sensing the love of God) rather than having an impact in how people live their lives or treat others.

Pete comments:
the survey does give us some questions:
Why aren't sermons changing people's lives?
Why are people happier to reflect internally than to change their behaviour in response to a sermon?
What's the interplay between contemporary events and issues and the pulpit - and whyever has the church not got this right yet?
How come so many people seem to like preaching when the anecdotal evidence says that people find preaching boring?

My thoughts at the moment:
1. What is preaching trying to achieve? The primary task of the church is to make disciples (Matthew 28), but Jesus uses a number of means to do that, not simply teaching. If churches are relying simply on monologues to bring about life change then, short of an Obama or MLK in the pulpit, how much is really going to happen?

2. The revival of stand-up comedy as a popular public form of entertainment is a sign of where the sermon is perhaps going. The likes of Jeremy Hardy and Ricky Gervais can hold the attention of an audience for a couple of hours whilst developing an argument -it's the monologue form, a sermon if you like, but delivered in an entertaining way. The survey finds that Anglicans more than anyone else look to be 'entertained' by a sermon. Maybe we watch too much comedy on TV.....

3. It's a great opportunity for preachers, but easily squandered. You can almost hear the hiss of a deflating congregation when the preacher goes off into the clouds, or starts telling them off, or retreats into cosy phrases. Each sermon is an opportunity. I imagine the figures are also skewed by the fact that people stop going to church. How many people would carry on going to a church where they never looked forward to the sermon?

I've been reading a few books on 'home church' and base communities recently, where the sermon seems to be replaced with something much more interactive and applied. The danger of preaching a prepared text is that it never connects with the real lives of the people who are listening. Having said that, that's what I do most weeks, so I might have questions about the efficacy of preaching but perhaps I don't have the nerve to follow those questions through in practice to their logical conclusion.

Strange but true? 96% of churchgoers 'look forward to the sermon'.

From the Times today

...some ember still seems to burn in Britain’s 3.6 million regular churchgoers, for almost all of them feel a sense of expectation for the Sunday sermon, according to researchers at Durham University.

Fully 96.6 per cent of those surveyed “look forward” to the sermon, with 60 per cent saying it gave them a sense of God’s love.

At a time when churches are agonising about how to move to a “digital” from an “analog” age, the results suggest that there is life in the old forms yet.

The College of Preachers of Durham University admits that the results are “counter-intuitive” — particularly in an age where “sermonising” is seen as a deadly sin. The college plans to carry out a larger study to discover why people like sermons so much.

The most recent survey, carried out by Durham’s Codec research centre to mark the 50th anniversary of the College of Preachers, offers preliminary suggestions.

Nothing obvious on the CODEC site, there's a brief mention of it on the College of Preachers site but no obvious link to the research itself. Without knowing a bit more about the sample size, questions asked etc., I'd be reluctant to draw any firm conclusions...

Update: the Director of Research at CODEC comments below:-
The research was carried out by CODEC at St John's College on behalf of the College of Preachers. You can obtain a copy for only £5 from St John's College - theresa.phillips@durham.ac.uk - sadly we can't publish the complete copy online as research costs money and we need to recoup some of the costs. By the way, its a PILOT survey - small scale .

Where's Woolas?

A number of us have been trying to contact Phil Woolas to ask for the deportation of Elizabeth Kiwunga Rushamba to Uganda (due tomorrow) to be halted. Background here, this weeks events here, here and here.

Given the timescale, sending letters is out of the question, but now emails are getting this automated response:

"Thank you for sending an email to Phil Woolas, Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

Due to the volume of email we are receiving, we can no longer accept casework electronicially. Please write to Phil at: Lord Chambers 11 Church Lane Oldham OL1 3AN

If your query is urgent, please telephone our constituency office on 0161 624 4248.

If your correspondence relates to the Home Office, please forward your correspondence to:
Home Office Direct Communications Unit 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

With all best wishes and many thanks for your understanding in this matter.
Office of Phil Woolas MP Oldham East and Saddleworth"

You'll notice that the Home Office contact is a surface mail address. There is an email ( mailto:public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk) on the Home Office contacts page next to this address, but it also informs you that We aim to answer your enquiry - whether by email or letter - within 20 working days. That's not very helpful, as we're only working in a timescale of 24-48 hours here. Elizabeth was taken by border control officials on Monday.

Ok, we'll phone on that constituency number. Except that
"House of Commons rules mean that Phil can only deal with enquiries from people who live in Oldham East and Saddleworth." (says his website). So if you ring the number to plead Elizabeth's case but don't live in the area, it's against the rules for Phil Woolas to do anything about it.

I can understand that government ministers don't want to be deluged with email just because it's easy to fire one off, and some bods on the internet have put a campaign together. But the net effect of all this is that there's no way for the general public to get in touch with Phil Woolas within the necessary time-frame. In 20 days time Elizabeth could be in a Ugandan jail and her infant children taken from her and put in an orphanage. A sympathetic letter from the Home Office will be worse than useless by then.

Update: Just got this:

Hi folks, Just a plea for everyone to write first class to Phil Woolas today - as you may have already read, they are not accepting emails.

Rt Hon Phil Woolas Home Office Direct Communications Unit 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

So, don't forget to include Elizabeth's HO Ref: 1147269/5

please remind Phil Woolas that Elizabeth was only following his suggestion of the 6th August to gather medical reports and more information but weren't given the time to do it.

you could mention the manner in which Elizabeth and the children were taken and the bullying tactics of the Immigration Officials. They said, in front of the children, 'if you don't come quietly Elizabeth, we'll handcuff you and carry you down the stairs'. They also put E and the children in separate vehicles.

Don't forget to send a copy to Alan Milburn (you can do that by email) Elizabeth's flight is booked for 8pm tomorrow night. In the meantime, we are hopeful that we have found a solicitor.

Jesus and the Nazi, the Muslim Christian, and other links

Please visit this Facebook page, with the details of the shameful treatment and deportation from the UK of a woman who faces torture, imprisonment and separation from her 2 small children in Uganda. There may still be time for Alan Johson to intervene. More details in my previous post today, including contact details for Alan Johnson and Alan Milburn, the local MP.

Journeys with the Messiah is a striking bit of art, putting a 1st century Jesus into a series of modern settings, put together by fashion photographer Michael Belk. Ht Church Mouse, Maggi Dawn.

Matt Wardman reports on the bloggers who uncovered a false story in the Sun (who'd have thought it?), and argues that bloggers might be better at checking their facts than newspapers anxious to print anti-Islam stories.

Sam Norton lists 10 'random beliefs' - interesting collection, might follow his example even if that particular meme doesn't come my way.

Cranmers Curate reports on a creative bit of church planting in Sheffield, whilst the Urban Pastor wonders whether Anglican parish boundaries have had their day.

Missionary Carl Medearis declares 'I am a Muslim': I have friends in the Arab world who are from America and grew up in the Christian faith who would call themselves “Muslims.” They reason that the word simply (and literally) means “one who submits to God.” And they do, so they are. Or…are they? Depends on who’s doing the defining. Ht iGod. Medearis asks the pertinent question 'are you a good communicator or a good talker?' let the blogger understand...

Derren Brown's blog is still offline, as it has been since Friday. But I'm sure he knows what you're thinking anyway.

Your humble blogger sets the 5live agenda.

This morning Simon Mayo used Twitter to ask for questions for the new BBC head of sport, Barbara Slater. I sent in the following:

question for Barbara Slater "will the BBC try to get the Ashes coverage back in time for the next series, and if not why not?"

It was the first up on the programme, and got a 2 1/2 minute answer: the section starts about 1:39:45 in on this link. Mayo himself followed it up with several supplementaries. The answer is going in the right direction, but I wasn't happy with the fact she wouldn't commit herself to securing the Ashes for free TV. Anyway, it set the agenda for the first 6 minutes or so of the interview, so three cheers for Twitter.

She agreed with the point I've made elsewhere that the viewing figures for the ashes were dismal, compared to when it was free to air. But kept couching it in terms of choices between competing sports. I guess that's fair enough, but it's also a choice between sports and other stuff.

(...and if it wasn't for Iplayer, I wouldn't know any of this, having missed the programme! )

It sets me wondering about using Twitter though: it'd be an interesting way to organise our preaching. More people listen to phone-ins and live interviews than straight lectures, so if our teaching/reflection was more this style, would more people engage with (and contribute to) it?

Meanwhile Lets have the next Ashes on free TV!

Disorganised religion

"Religion and the contemporary understanding of the word 'organised' have nothing in common whatsoever. The media have wised up to the fact that whatever a bishop says, there's more than likely going to be another bishop that disagrees. There is no party line.

While this is incredibly liberating on an individual basis, it is suicide in a media culture that thrives on dissent, disagreement and sensation. We are never going to be able to manage it (by which I think he means 'manage the media'); that would actually be a defeat of what we say we believe in.

We have to try to explain why we are prone to disagreeing with each other, why we are subject to the same ridiculous weaknesses as everybody else, why God has chosen in his wisdom to make fools out of us and flood every single newspaper, radio and television station with stories about our own essential weakness."

from Peter Owen Jones Small Boat Big Sea. Written 9 years ago, I was going to say 'and still relevant', but that's pretty revealing in itself. In what other period of history (major wars and coups excepted) would something written 9 years before not be relevant?

The Preachers New Clothes

Jonny Baker 's provocative thoughts on preaching, "Throwing a hand grenade in the fruitbowl", has just been published as a Grove booklet. The pdf has been up for a while, but I've only just got round to reading it! Here's a snippet from the first page:

Since I was asked to write this chapter on preaching I have been asking a lot of people when the last sermon was that really inspired or challenged or changed them. The responses have been interesting. A lot of the people have pulled a face and laughed as if to say 'are you serious?' - it's as though they can't even imagine the possibility of being inspired or hearing a brilliant sermon. Others have remembered a transforming preach but a typical answer has been that it was one or two years ago....

Something has got to change. Maybe it’s time to think the unthinkable. For too long we have behaved like the 'well adjusted' courtiers in the famous story of the Emperor's New Clothes saying nothing, propping up the status quo, smiling politely with our vested interests in tact (whether as preachers or as listeners), or simply too embarrassed to say anything.

Allow me to be the antisocial brat (as Marshall Mcluhan puts it in his retelling of the story) - the Emperor 'ain't got nothin' on!'i. Preaching is invariably dull. It is boring. People are sick of three point sermons beginning with P. People aren't listening. People don't want to be preached at. They don’t want to be told what to think. Like so many other areas of church life we're stuck in a time warp. It isn't working. Maybe it's time for a rethink.

Comments
- We have confused means and ends. Baker is right: we need to go back to what we're trying to achieve by preaching, and then ask whether a) that's what we want to achieve and b) whether traditional preaching is the best way to achieve it.

- I think the last paragraph above overstates things. There is still a place for public speaking - look at Obamas speeches, or the ever-increasing popularity of standup comedians. However, it's important to be clear about what these examples are trying to achieve, and in neither case is it purely teaching/education.

- What did Jesus do? There was a mixture of teaching and practice, because he was interested in disciples, rather than students. The church leans heavily towards 'students' - catechism, a verbal statement of faith (creeds) which is basically doctrinal and cerebral, lecture/theatre-style buildlings and presentation, and a rhythm of life centred around a weekly event where people gather, watch/listen, drink coffee, and then disperse again.

- It's hard to challenge preaching because many of us leaders have so much invested in it. If you've been preparing and delivering sermons for 10, 20, 30 years, the last thing you want to hear is that there is a better way of doing it. But we have to lay our egos down long enough to ask the question and listen to the answers.

There's a lot here to get people thinking. Might print the whole thing out for all our preachers to discuss over a pint (or equivalent).

Twit Wisdom

"Calling someone a coward via the internet isn't courage"

Discuss.

(context: a debate over whether MP's who spoke up for Brown to leave at Mondays meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party were 'courageous').

Best Mission Resources from 43 Diocesan Websites.

The last post (cue trumpet) in this diocesan website survey series, here's a list of

a) The best mission resources I could find on diocesan websites
b) Material that could be held by any diocesan website, with minimal local tweaking.

Any diocese renewing its website at any stage could simply cut and paste these things as useful mission resources for their own readers.

(For a site-by-site summary, and a summary of how widely Fresh Expressions is found on Diocesan sites, use the link above.)

I've tried to categorise the resources, sources in brackets.

Children/Schools
1. a 13 page resource booklet on how churches and schools can work together, packed with good ideas on mission and engagement. (Bath & Wells)

2. resource papers for childrens work, with 1-2 sides of A4 on everything from after school clubs to Easter drama (Chelmsford)

3. website devoted to youth ministry, with sections for young people, and for youth leaders. (Gloucester)

4. tips for welcoming children (Southwell)

Communication
1. Communications section, with a ‘communications health check for parishes’ and downloadable fliers on copyright, media relations, noticeboards, how to make your story ‘news’ etc. (Chester)

2. Liverpool also has a good communications section, with concise and good advice on publicity, leaflets, noticeboards, photographs, magazines, new media etc.

3. Manchester has a superb communications home page, which helpfully sets out all the main local media in the Diocese, and which area they cover, as well as what communications the Diocese is sending out and who to.

Enquirers
1. Several examples of pages aimed at people asking questions. E.g. Exploring Faith which covers what a Christian is, testimonies, FAQ’s, how to find out more, books to read etc. (Birmingham)

2. Several dioceses also have pages for those enquiring about baptism, (London) and links to the excellent yourchurchwedding site.

3. a link to egodparents

Mission
1. A ‘local projects’ section which lists the community/mission projects run by local churches, with a contact name (Birmingham) - would need local tweaking, and ongoing maintenance to keep it up to date.

2. Church Planting Policy (Bristol) - every diocese should have one, though obviously it needs praying through first, not just copying from Bristol!!

3. Youtube videos on local fresh expressions (Bristol) - and if you don't have your own, simply link to those dioceses which do, it's still a great way to see something in action, even if it's not within your county.

4. A Back to Church Sunday section with tips on being welcoming, publicity etc. (Bristol). Another diocese has a BTCS resource page with case studies of parishes which did it, and a timeline of what to do when (Oxford).

5. survey of resources of what's on the market for discipleship courses, children and young people's discipleship, small groups, faith sharing, enquirers courses. (Chester, but several other dioceses have versions of this). Oxfords survey of Nurture Courses focuses on the four most popular (START, Alpha, Emmaus, Essence), with a full review of each, and several stories from people who have used them.

6. Mission Fund: have the criteria for mission fund applications, downloadable application forms, and lists of who's recieved grants and what for. (several dioceses)

7. Mission planning statistics - neighbourhood census and demographic stats organised parish by parish, to help parishes understnad their mission context. There is a pack for each parish with maps and key local stats. (Manchester - would need some time and resources putting into it)

8. Experience Easter, ideas about how to make the most of Easter as an outreach opportunity (Manchester)

9. Handy gospel illustrations (Portsmouth).

Parish Development.

1. There are lots of good Mission Action Plan resources, if you're really interested in these, many of them are linked from the ChurchMaps website.

2. a ‘resources directory’ listing resource people/networks around the Diocese in a variety of areas (Blackburn) - needs local tweaking and keeping up to date, but it's a way of sharing expertise without everything going through the Diocese. Blackburn has I.T., Men, interfaith etc.

3. Along similar lines, X-Change section, for online sharing of ideas and resources. Covers things like worship, buildings, stewardship, debt, tourism, children, publicity etc. Each of these has subsections – e.g. Children has Holiday Clubs, Godly Play, Schools links etc. (Carlisle). Similar idea in Chelmsfords Making ConneXions section (covers marriage prep, harvest fun day, deanery curate, fundraising, you name it)

4. a 1-page worship audit questionnaire (Chelmsford)

5. Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts questionnaire (Exeter)

6. a 'Christians at Work' section with a free, downloadable 4-session small group course on the issue. (Hereford)

7. resources from ACTS : (joint TEARfund/Liverpool) which takes parishes step by step through embarking on a new project for the benefit of the community, from building a community centre to running a fun day. Great resource for action planning.

8. liturgical resources section. Not just section, entire website. (Southwell).

9. Some of the Peterborough leaflets, most notably Providing a Welcome, and ministry with the elderly.


There. I hope that saves a lot of people a lot of work. I'm staggered by how much duplication there is out there, when a bit of resource sharing would increase the quality of resources and advice available to everyone. Ideally this should be owned and brokered by the national CofE website.

And a big thankyou to the people who've compiled all the above resources and made them available, I hope I've done you justice.

Genesis rewritten in PR Jargon

From Liberal Democrat Voice, ht the Britblog Roundup at Philobiblion.

1. At the outset, God’s agenda was to basically focus on his core deliverables, namely two leading-edge products, (a) heaven and (b) earth.

2. However, the earth lacked an overall concept, and had a low profile in terms of its key audiences. Obviously the Spirit of God had to step back and benchmark the existing waters before his game plan could get the green light.

3. And God’s key message was that light was a strategic objective, and it was covered-off.

4. And God’s perception of the light was that it was fit for purpose. However, his desired goal was that light and darkness should be differentiated in the marketplace.

5. So God branded the light ‘Day’, and the darkness he branded ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Light’. And the evening session and morning session made up Day One.

6. Then God set out with the object of factoring-in a firmament to interface with the existing generic waters, to bring to the party two segmented brands.

7. So God tasked himself with the job of rolling-out a firmament, to supply a proactive vehicle for launching his two distinct waters products, and it was up and running.

8. And God branded the firmament ‘heaven’. And at close of play, the prioritised actions for Day Two were ticked off.

I'm surprised that religious jargon gets off lightly in the rest of the post, I've listened to Christians saying stuff that makes even less sense than this. Don't get me started on those bus ads....

Update: there's also a Facebook version of Genesis, ht Faith Central. Warning: it's a bit fruity.

Wisdom of the Pub Landlord

It was time to rub your eyes. A Christian campaigner for cleaning up the media, being interviewed by a mainstream 'alternative' comedian (if that's not a contradiction in terms!), without being portrayed as a complete wacko.

In 'Have I Got Bad Language for You', Frank Skinner's Panorama programme last night on language on TV, MediaWatch seemed to be completely in tune with the majority of viewers: that there was too much swearing on TV, that it had got worse, and that TV companies didn't pay enough attention to viewers opinions.

Other surprises too: Michael Grade and ITV as the vanguard for taste and decency (lets not get on to TV violence just yet...), and the overall tone of the programme was that things have got a bit out of hand.

Main worry: that Ofcom have no objective standards when it comes to language on TV. Everything they said seemed to start with 'it depends' - on 'context', which channel you're on (if an f-word falls on channel 5, does anybody hear?), what issue you're covering etc. That seemed very limp to me. Their only standard seemed to be public opinion, which changes all the time.

Stand out standup: Al Murray, the Pub Landlord, who made a point I've never heard from anyone before. If you're on TV, you are a guest in someone's home, and you should behave like a guest. You watch your language, and behavior, because if you just turn up in someone's house and swear your head off then you're not showing them respect. If everyone on TV just remembered that, we'd get somewhere.

whilst we're on the subject
Dave Walker asks if Gordon Ramsay is a Christian role model
yesterdays post on bad language and whether it's ok for Christians to swear.
Jonathan Ross is in trouble again.

update: A few more folks who saw Frank Skinner
the Bournemouth Echo.
Inspire magazine has some of the polling details, and quotes from last night. That was quick off the mark.
And Another Thing "In real life swearing is, by its very nature, hard to justify" (though he goes on to quote swearwords freely in the blog post!!)

Swearing on the Bible

No, this is not a Barack Obama post. 'Have I Got Bad Language For You' airs on the Beeb tonight, following on from the Brandon Ross affair, with comedian Frank Skinner looking at the place of bad language on TV. Skinner has himself toned down his live act, trying to do without swearwords, and since the infamous phone call the BBC has dusted down it's bleeper and got to work on Have I Got New For You, QI etc.

There's no question that the line has moved: language which used to be censored, or simply not used, is now commonplace. Films which use the F word can now pass with a 12 certificate, when they used to be 15s. Bad language in music is much more commonplace: the Parental Advisory sticker is almost a badge of honour in some genres.

So how bothered should we be? Someone on 5 Live this morning (go to 2hrs 26m in) was protesting that there's no such thing as 'bad' language, just some that's stronger than others. He should have been at our local tip the other day, as one punter let fly a string of foul language at a council worker, right in front of my small children. Thankfully they didn't repeat any of it later, but no civilised person would think its ok for a 3 year old to hear, let alone use, that kind of language.

I remember as a 17 year old, my folks packed me off to see Uncle Frank. I was starting to have ideas about being a vicar, so they probably thought that a couple of days in Dudley in the Black Country would give me a reality check. Frank, God rest his soul, was an amazing man, but not averse to the odd swear word, which shocked me. Christians weren't supposed to swear. It was one of the first things I'd tried to deal with as a new Christian, having been a fairly foul-mouthed teenager before that point. The Bible was quite clear "out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers this shoudld not be: can both fresh and salt water flow from the same spring?" (James 3:10-11)

That in turn was fuzzied up by some of the strong language used in the Bible - Paul himself refers to his old life as something stronger than 'dung'. Reformer Martin Luther was pretty earthy too, breaking wind to send the devil packing. But is that just looking for excuses? As a vicar the occasional mild swearword can 'humanise' me (oh, he really is a normal person after all), but at the same time it can also send the message that there really isn't much different about Christianity, it's just what everyone else does but with church added on.

The more bad language we listen to, the more we're desensitised to it. I always feel uncomfortable when people use the names of God and Jesus as casual swearwords in conversation, but less uncomfortable than I used to feel. It's frustrating that, tuning in to most decent drama and comedy after 9pm means that you're going to have to put up with a lot of bad language. And bad language itself shows that the users have failed. If we need to swear to make your point, then we clearly aren't making it well enough with the other words at our disposal.

On the radio this morning someone made the point that swearing in live comedy is good for cheap laughs, but it's lazy, and it's poor comedy. Barack Obama (drat, I wasn't going to mention him) doesn't need to swear, and he had a bigger live audience for his stand-up last week than a thousand Frank Skinners. It'll be interesting to see which way Panorama goes. With the BBC generally pushing back boundaries of taste (Jerry Springer, the Opera) and moral boundaries (has it ever done a programme which wasn't sympathetic to euthanasia?), it will be a major surprise to see a Beeb programme which argues the other way.

Review Questions 4: Preachers special

Shamelessly reposted from Unashamed Workmen, some questions for Christian preachers to ask as they look back, and look forward. If you don't agree with the list, because you approach preaching in a different way, then the challenge is to come up with a better question!!

1) Did I grow in my own walk with God through my preaching and preparation? Was I personally impacted by what I preached? Am I therefore a more godly man entering 2009 than 2008 because of the texts I exposited? In what specific ways? If I have not grown: what sins have hindered my progress and require confession?

2) Did I provide my congregation with a balanced diet and at least some measure of ‘the whole counsel of God?’ Did I cover something from both Testaments? Were believers comforted and unbelievers challenged? Were the weak and strong, the immature and mature, given their share of milk and solid food? Was justification taught and sanctification?

3) Did I take the glory or give God the glory? Did I seek the limelight in any way this year? If so, in what specific ways did a desire to glorify ‘Self’ rear its ugly head during this year’s sermons? How can I best repent of this?

4) Did I preach the text, only the text, and nothing but the text? How often did I preach in general Scriptural terms yet not in terms of the specific Scripture I was expositing? Even if I preached numerous topical sermons, were these exposing the meanings of particular texts. Did I impose my agenda, rather than expose the meaning of God’s Word?

5) Did I constantly preach Christ and him crucified? Did I persistently preach the gospel, or lapse into talking in terms of religous self-effort and moralism? No matter what my passage, did I highlight its redemptive components? Even if the passage was wholly negative, did I trace the redemption of its sin and the bearing of its judgement to the Redeemer and Propitiator, Jesus Christ?

6) Humanly speaking, what one aspect of my sermons in general was the weakest component? Are my introductions invariably weak, my applications typically fuzzy or my conclusions often an anticlimax? How will I work on improving this area in 2009 for the glory of God and the good of His people?

7) Did I pray enough and depend on God for the results?

Looking forward to 2009…
Will I grow in my own walk with God through my preaching?
Will I provide my congregation with a balanced diet?’
Will I take the glory or give God the glory?
Will I preach the text, only the text, and nothing but the text?
Will I constantly preach Christ and him crucified?
Will I prayerfully depend on God during every stage of my preaching?