I’ve been asked to organise a series on Ecclesiastes to run over the summer. The best known bit of Ecclesiastes, made famous by The Byrds and their ‘to everything turn, turn, turn’ and by funerals, is the bit where it talks about a time to be born and a time to die, a time to cast away stones and to gather them together (Eccl. 3:1-8).
Archive for June, 2009
Ecclesiastes Series
Published June 23, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Ecclesiastes, Preaching
Reflections on the Church Planting Week at Summer School
Published June 19, 2009 Uncategorized 5 CommentsTags: Acts 29, Church Planting, Contextualisation, Crowded House, Culture, David Fairchild, Gospel, Kaleo, Mission, Steve Timmis, WEST
Steve Timmis and David Fairchild enthusiastically taking questions
“Every church is planted into a particular culture and generation and is only designed for that particular culture and generation. In other words, every church has a shelf life.” So began the church planting week of the summer school at WEST. Steve Timmis (of the Crowded House, Porterbrook Network and recently Acts 29) kicked us off with that statement that he called the live grenade in the room with its pin still in. Joining him was David Fairchild (of Kaleo Church and Acts 29).
What follows are some fairly disjointed and unorganised reflections from the week.
Continue reading ‘Reflections on the Church Planting Week at Summer School’
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Published June 16, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Book Review, Saints
By Saint Benedict of Nursia
I don’t know how I came across this book, probably a free give away from WEST whilst I was there! I’ve got a 1909 translation with introduction by Abbot Gasquet! You can also read an online 1949 version translated by Rev. Boniface Verheyen, here. It was originally written sometime shortly after 429 AD and has been the most influential Rule and order of monks in the West ever since. The idea of the Rule is that it is basically a rule book for how monks of the Benedectine order were and are to live.
Well, at the closing ceremony for WEST, during my interview I was asked what I had lined up in terms of ministry. I jokingly said that I had nothing and would probably end up on Job Seeker’s Allowance. It turns out I can’t claim JSA since my wife is on a well enough paid job and because we’re savers not spenders!
SAINT BASIL THE ELDER
Dying around 341 AD, we know more about his offspring than we do about Basil himself.
