mountain masala

Multimedia in Ministry group

The "Multimedia in Ministry" group on Facebook now has 145 members. It's an open group and you're welcome to join - https://www.facebook.com/groups/197294490370704/

Abide in Me

Having taken a few photos of our autumn grape vines on my iPhone a couple of days ago using Hipstamatic, I thought I'd turn them into Powerpoint slides for this Sunday's lectionary reading. You're welcome to use them for non-commercial purposes. They're 1024 x 768 pixel JPGs, so if your slides are 800 x 600 you'll need to downsize them. I used a "nice" font (Bickley Script) rather than something funky.... Click on each image for the full-size version, then right-click or control-click to download it.

Download Vine Leaves - original photos unedited, no text (4.9 mb zip file)

A New Spirit - Pentecost and Ezekiel

How we have longed at times for a new spirit in the church!
we have looked out across the valley and seen,
not one instance of decay
but a sea of skeletons

We too have felt the seeping away of life in all its fullness
    in solitude, we have acknowledged that our preaching, our teaching
our prayers, our shepherding even our compassion |
– have failed to bring life
a message falling on deaf eyes, blind eyes, dry hearts

Is this how Jesus felt?

How often have we blamed others
for their failure to hear or learn
knowing deep within
that the problem was not theirs alone?

if we are honest
we may find this dryness within ourselves
faith stretched thin
hope in slow decay
limited patience
less generosity of spirit
energy lagging   

Can these bones yet live?
… the bones of a brittle church
… the bones of a crusty congregation?
… the bones of a decaying disciple?

What might these bones represent for you this day?
Bones take time to dry and decay.
How has this lifelessness come about?

Would you seek a quick dressing-up, a respectable skin?
Or the breath of Yahweh?
Restored sinews and muscle.
Hands that grasp and legs that leap.
A pumping heart and eyes that truly see.

May we be a church that is not lifeless in the face of oppression
May we be a church that is not voiceless in the face of injustice
May we be a church which is not cold in the face of indifference
May we be a church of pumping heart, of pulsing veins, a heaving lungs, of vibrant voice, of warming touch

Ezekiel ideas from past years - here, here, and here.

Go to the Worship Downloads section on the right and you can download some of this stuff, along with a guided meditation on Ezekiel that I wrote for the Belonging Kit back in 1997...

God's Future, Our Purpose

Here's a quick and simple video of people from my church as part of our visioning process... In an ideal world I'd gather more views from the margins... pick the key themes.

Every Breath is Yours

Here's a clip I made sometime ago using a song by The Waterboys from the fabulopus album "Universal Hall" (buy it!) and some stock video clips that I purchased for the occasion. I've used it a couple of times recently.

Every Breath is Yours (52mb FLV file).

ATOM

There's some great stuff available in Australia for people who teach media-related stuff (I can't wait to getting back to teach it!).  ATOM = Australian Teachers of Media.  "Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) is an independent, non-profit, professional association promoting the study of media. The membership of ATOM primarily includes teachers and lecturers from across subject disciplines at all levels of education. The membership also includes media industry personnel, a range of media, education and government organisations and, increasingly, the general public interested in the media."

They produce a great magazine (Metro), study guides for films, access to free screenings of new movies for teachers, and more.

Today the announced study guides for iPad, presumably using the new iBook Author app. You can find out which films are available here. And the apps are free!

Worth checking out and joining their email list.

 

 

Why Videos Go Viral

Multimedia in Ministry Group on Facebook

i've been very slack with posts, sorry. Quite a lot going on, actually. I will amend my ways as of this week. Anyway, I'm still hosting the "youthmultimedia" group on Yahoo, but have decided to start a Facebook group called "Multimedia in Ministry" as well. It's here. Feel free to follow.

Easter Worship Resources

I thought I'd collect here some records of a few years of Easter of Holy Week worship. Because I'm not a congregational minister, these are a mixture of other kinds of events - mid-Holy Week chapel at college, an event for Deacons that combined a bunch of other ideas, and more recently  a 'family' event in my local church. All variously on my blog but hard to find....

Interactive Easter 2011 and Stations Outline (PDF)

Holy Week 2010

Holy Week 2009 and here and here

Lenten Worship - National Deacons Conference 2008

Easter 2008 and Holy Week 2008 and Holy Week 2008 Worship Outline (PDF)

Easter 2007 - and Worship Outline (PDF)

Workshop stuff based on a 2005 Emmaus-themed Worship

use at your own peril. and thanks to my main influences, whose words are throughout the above, never officialy quoted - cheryl lawrie and roddy hamilton. they are not responsible in any way for my own  words of mass distraction!

 

new leonard cohen album "old ideas"

go listen over at NPR!