I recommend this booklet: 'Transforming Preaching'

I just love this little booklet entitled Transforming Preaching by Jonny Baker. I would say that it is a must-read for preachers today. It is in a series on evangelism but it is just as relevent whether you are preaching the gospel or preaching to the church. Jonny Baker looks at how we can fully engage the interest of our listeners. It goes way beyond just having a flashy PowerPoint or the occational visual aid.

Jonny ‘slays the sacred cow’ of the sermon being a long monologue and looks at other ways to engage people in learning about God creatively and interactively. In Jonny’s ‘remix’ of the sermon things look very different. He doesn’t see the preacher as someone who merely spoon feeds information and opinions to the congregation. Instead he sees the preacher as just one voice among many as people are encouraged to take part discussing, interacting and responding in various imaginative ways. Jonny clearly outlines the principles to follow that will get you going in this direction.

This provocative little booklet is now published by Grove Books and can be purchased from them here for £3.50 or from Church House bookshop here. But I’ll let you into a secret: Jonny originally wrote this as a chapter for a book on preaching. When it didn't make the final volume he made his chapter available as a free download from his own site here.

I have seen Jonny Baker at Greenbelt, his blog is one of many that I follow regularly and I have learnt a lot from him. If you have anything to do with preaching then please get hold of this booklet, read it and put it into practice.

Writing a Booklet on Media Psychology

I am currently working on a booklet for college about Media Psychology. This is a new and interesting area that we will be teaching our second years next year.

There are some old chestnuts like whether violence in the media makes us more aggressive. But now we look at computer games and the internet and not just films & TV. But still the evidence is not as conclusive as you might think. There is also evidence for media like computer games actually being good for us.

The booklet also covers how media persuades us and influences our attitudes and a section that looks at why we are so interested in celebrities and how much we worship them.

If we get to publish the booklet somewhere as a PDF I’ll add the link.

I must read the Blue Parakeet

I’ve been doing a lot more reading again since I got my glasses. I just want to mention a book that has just gone on to my must read list. It’s called Blue Parakeet and is about how to study the Bible. You can buy it in paperback from amazon.co.uk here and you can read David Matthew’s recommendation of the book here.

Day Out for the Drop In

Yesterday, our church’s Drop In went on a trip to Stratford. I’m a bit of a nervous driver but I decided to take a risk and offer a few places in my car.

We had a picnic by the river Avon and then half of us went on some boats. There was plenty of time to explore and some of us ended the day hanging out at Starbucks.

I think this was such a treat for the guys especially as a few of them are homeless.



I am glad that I went.

I'm excited about our new home groups

This week as a church we are launching our new home groups. As a church we tend to meet in four groups midweek and all together on Sunday morning in a community centre. We have had several months meeting in life stage groups. It was good to be able to discuss some parenting issues in ours and for singles, young couples and the older ones to talk about their life issues. But now it’s time for something new.

There is a feeling that as we reorganise this is an opportunity to deepen our encouragement of each other as disciples of Jesus. I feel that it’s time to get real with each other and to grow in our understanding. It’s time for us to allow each other to all get on board, take initiatives and to play our part. It’s time for us to do more interesting and creative activities together, to discuss the Bible over meals together, and to break bread together as well as a time to be outward looking.

I’m excited about the new groups. So this week I have been reading Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson. And I've ordered The Rabbit and the Elephant by Tony & Felicity Dale from Amazon. These are two good books about church in the home. Though these books are more about small churches that meet in homes there is a lot that can be applied to our groups.

Our group is meeting for dinner this Sunday.

Web 2.0 declared to be the millionth English word

So says the Global Language Monitor - according to the BBC News. If your're not sure what Web 2.0 means check it out in Wikipedia. In the meantime let us get on with Church 2.0 as we continue to communicate and work together pro-actively.

The Two Halligans

I just got back from a gig by the Two Halligans. A great pairing of two excellent Christian musicians Rob Halligan and Bob Halligan playing guitars and keyboard to twenty or thirty of us squashed into a living room in a house just down the road.

Many thanks to Mike Rimmer for setting this up.