Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’

Don’t Read This – Read This

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , on 5 September, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Sent the Queen off to her new school this morning. We were all up *very* early. And now all I can think about is drinking some coffee and maybe staggering to put some laundry on. Blogging is a bit beyond me for today. So instead, I’d like to recommend a blog that you might not have come across – One Little Drop – it’s written by a young woman we knew when the Vicar was training at theological college. Ruth’s dad was one of the lecturers and we saw her and her sisters regularly around the campus.

Ruth has just celebrated her first wedding anniversary, but her first year of marriage has not gone as you might expect. Do go and read her stories and be challenged and edified by her hope in God in the face of suffering.

Read Full Post »

On Forgetting How to Blog

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , on 3 September, 2012| 7 Comments »

Ah. Blog. It’s been a while. What with parish life and a bonkers end to the school year and everything I feel I’ve neglected you. So much to say, but such a feeling of inarticulacy. Too many real life things to get on with. A perfectionist streak which insists that there’s not quite enough time to communicate anything worthwhile in the time available. And then there were the Olympics and the holidays and that.

Anyway, sorry Blog. I’m here again. I’m going to try again this term. I love that new term new start thing. My head is full of stuff so I am just going to get on and blog. Even if it’s not brilliant. Even if it’s pretty rubbish. Better something than nothing. Better a few words than none.

Thank you Blog that you’re forgiving and merciful, full of grace and always ready to hear from me, no matter how long it’s been. Or am I getting you mixed up with someone more important?

Read Full Post »

Housework vs The Grand Vision

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 13 June, 2012| 1 Comment »

Just read this in an interview in the Guardian with Jeremy Vine. I’m rather surprised that I agree with Tony Blair! But being faithful to the Lord is hardest in the small, everyday things, not in the grand visions. So I should get off the internet and put the shopping away…

You worked as a Westminster correspondent for a long time. And you were on the Blair battle-bus in 1997, weren’t you?

I interviewed Tony Blair five or six times, but it’s off-air conversations that matter. Once, on the bus, he said: “I like tea” and I said: “I like tea, too” and then he said something like: “I hear you’re a Christian, Jeremy” and I said: “I’m just struggling, you know” and he said: “It’s the most important thing in my life.” And then I said: “Don’t you feel that actually the big stuff like what you’re going to do when you get into power is much less important than the small stuff, which is how you treat your next-door neighbour?” I realised that was a bad analogy because his neighbour was Gordon Brown. But he said: “I completely agree.”

Read Full Post »

Words on the Wall

Posted in Church, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 11 June, 2012| 5 Comments »

Recently came across this great site which has some beautifully designed graphics of bible verses. All you need is a colour printer and you’ve got some gorgeous wall art ready and waiting.

 Here’s one that caught my eye today:


Read Full Post »

Rapping a Catechism

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 23 May, 2012| Leave a Comment »

One of the MTs who will be joining us in September, Radiohead, is, rather surprisingly for someone in their early 20s, a big fan of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. He recently blogged about Cranmer’s Catechism that is contained in the BCP, and sketched out a version in modern English.

The same evening another friend linked me to this excellent rap from Shai Linne, who captures the basics of a catechism in truly modern English and includes a few ‘Big Words that end in -SHUN‘. I’m thinking our kids might enjoy the Shai Linne best at this stage. But who knows, maybe they’ll be Cranmer fans too once  Radiohead moves in…

Read Full Post »

Resourcing Junior Church: Saul and the Donkeys

Posted in Church, Kids, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 1 May, 2012| 2 Comments »

Last week I was on Junior Church duty. As usual, we are using the excellent TNT resource On The Way, and we were beginning a series of four sessions from 1 Samuel on King Saul.

One of the reasons that we like On The Way is that bible stories are taught in full – not just the purple favourite parts. So we’re not just teaching the kids about Samuel anointing Saul, but other parts of the story leading to that point, and beyond it. Last Sunday my teaching was about the people of Israel asking for a king, and then Saul turning up at Samuel’s house whilst he was searching for missing donkeys. We did a lot of thinking about the temptation to want to be like the “nations” around, even when we really know that it’s not good for us.

It seems that the passage I was teaching (1 Samuel 8v1-9v26) is not a favourite one for Sunday school. On The Way has great resources and we used their printout to make little card Sauls and Samuels. But I always like the kids to have a colouring sheet and wordsearch to keep their fingers occupied as I tell the bible story.

And, even though I looked through the WHOLE of the internet (approximately), I couldn’t find a picture of Saul looking for donkeys, nor of the people of Israel whinging at Samuel about wanting a king. So I had to improvise with a simple picture of donkeys. And I made my own wordsearch, which meant I was able to use the exact words from the Good News Bible that we have in Junior Church.

Surprisingly, the kids quite enjoyed colouring two rather boring looking donkeys. And listened very well. Samuel will do the anointing in our next session, so that will be an easier surf for resources.

Read Full Post »

Hallelujah

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 8 April, 2012| 2 Comments »

A new song (to me) for Easter from Emu Music – from the only album of theirs we don’t have in the Vicarage. Yet.

 

Read Full Post »

Excellent Easter Art

Posted in Church, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 2 April, 2012| 2 Comments »

In my search for help on the Passover meal I’m catering for church this Thursday evening (over 40 folk signed up – eeek!), I visited Ann Voscamp’s beautiful blog the other day. Through her I was pointed to Willow of Wonder, another artistic blog where there are free Easter poster downloads available at the moment. I’ve printed one out for our kitchen noticeboard this week – there is a selection of colours available. Willow has an Etsy shop with some great scripture prints for kids which can be shipped to the UK (and some can be downloaded).

I shall be looking at this regularly to help me keep my catering panic in perspective.

Read Full Post »

G.O.S.P.E.L.

Posted in Church, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 29 March, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Caught this great gospel rap link from Propaganda the other day.

His explanation of the gospel comes with a neat mnemonic – a new gospel outline for Easter, perhaps?:

Read Full Post »

Our New Favourite Bible: The Gospel Story Bible

Posted in Church, Faith, Family, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 25 March, 2012| 1 Comment »

We’ve had many favourite kids’ bibles over the years in the Vicarage (and previously in the Curatage, the Ordinandage and the Engineerage). Top reads have included The Jesus Storybook Bible, the Big Picture Story Bible, the Praise Bible (sourced in a secondhand shop) and (when they were very little) The God Loves Me Bible. For a while the Engineer was very keen on the Veggietales Bible Storybook, and whilst I wouldn’t recommend it for teaching kids great doctrine or anything, his enjoyment more than made up for the struggles we had with reading about Dave and the Giant Pickle repeatedly. I think he learnt to read his first words from that book. As I recall, they were ‘God’ (yay!) and ‘Dave’ (not such a yay for that one).

Our kids love variety so we are always hunting for the newest best bible. All our kids can read a ‘proper’ bible now and the Engineer had been using an International Children’s Bible and the excellent XTB bible reading notes. He’d just finished a set of notes when I went on my conference the other week, where there was a hard-to-resist bookstall where they were selling The Gospel Story Bible.

I had a look through and decided that the 7yo Engineer might enjoy reading through this for a change from his bible notes. The way in which the bible stories are told pointing to Christ are so helpful. And each story comes with a few questions to help the child clarify what they’ve read and learnt. And this evening the Engineer skipped into the kitchen just before bedtime and told me he’d read three bible stories all by himself. He was so excited to communicate all that he’d learnt about the plagues and the Passover.

That’s a winner of a bible for me. Which bible do your kids read or have read to them? Do you have a family favourite?

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »