Things on my mind in various stages of thought development.
Our congregation has an “unofficial” policy of vetting the lyrics of songs before admitting them for use in services. In general, we look at almost every song, regardless of source, and assess each on its own merits. I thought it would be useful to share the things I think about when I am […]
For some reason, whenever I talk to people about ministry, the discussion often ventures into “ministry platforms”. I think I have been saying the same thing enough times for me put it down in writing, so that hopefully I don’t have to repeat myself as much.
So, here is a FAQ. Nothing here is […]
Much has been made about gospel partnerships which reach out to a specific group of people. In these gospel partnerships, we have people from many different local churches gather together for a common cause—-to proclaim the gospel to this particular group. This allows them to tailor the way the gospel is delivered to […]
As Andrew Hong noted a few months back, developers of new residential developments in the outer suburbs of major cities don’t have much room for church buildings. There simply isn’t sufficient financial incentive for developers or local planners to put aside large blocks of land for church buildings. While there will probably be generic […]
The title of this article may sound scary, but hopefully it’s not that so.
One of the many discoveries from the field of behavioural economics is the concept of hyperbolic discounting. Hyperbolic discounting occurs when someone chooses a smaller payoff sooner rather than a much larger payoff later, but would reverse that choice if the […]
Recently at the 2007 Biennial Convention of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, there was a fascinating paper presented on the changing nature of the workforce. The paper, titled It’s time to abolish retirement (and here’s how to do it), looks at retirement (for recreation) as being a relatively recent phenomenon. It argues that given […]
If you have been following the news, you probably have heard of various political parties announcing enquiries into petrol prices and grocery prices. While clearly it would be interesting to see what (if anything) transpires out of these enquiries, it is instructive to consider the economics of the situation.
Consider the following observations.
For many industries, […]
TitlePassing the Baton: A Handbook for Ministry Apprenticeship AuthorColin Marshall Pages120 PublisherMatthias Media Year2006 ISBN978 1 921068 79 9 PurchaseMatthias Media or Moore Books
There are times when you are so familiar with something that it almost becomes second nature to you. Then when you try to explain it to someone else you end up being frustrated because it’s so obvious to you, but the […]
This post is related to one of my previous posts, Why PowerPoint is evil.
Firstly, a disclaimer. I am not an expert in giving presentations. I don’t think my words have a lot of authority in relation to this particular subject. There are better places on the Internet (and outside it) for that, […]
At the City Bible Forum the other day, Ian Powell made a very interesting observation while introducing his talk on 1 Kings 16:29-17:24. He noted that men need to know three things in order to function properly.
Who is in charge What are the rules Will the rules be applied fairly
How do these three points affect the […]