mountain masala

Alive@5 March

Alive@5 - February 2014

Alive@5 last month was an invitation for people at the start of a new year to take the time to stop and wonder at God's Creation, to slow down and smell the flowers, to appreciate the beauty and gift of humanity made in the image of God.

Here's what we did:

Love Your Enemies

I led worship today  at my local church for a combined morning service (we usually have two) ahead of our annual AGM. It was wonderful to have musician Tony Williams and mime artist/actor Dennis Clare with us.

Here  is some of the liturgy. It probably only makes sense if you know the context. For the Prayers of the People, I handed out photos of refugee situations and afterwards invited people to take them home for prayer during the week.

The liturgy was based on the Lectionary texts for the day.

Invocation

I Corinthians 3 asks the question
“Do you now know that you are God’s temple
and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
We are God’s people:
God’s Spirit pulsing in us.
God’s temple is holy,
and you are that temple.
We are God’s people,
God’s Spirit renewing us.
The wisdom of the world
Is foolishness with God.
We are God’s people
God’s Spirit enlightening us.
Here in this time and this place
Let us be open to the One
who is our foundation and our hope
who names us and claims us
who lives within us and among us
We are God’s people
open to being touched by grace
open to seeing the world in God’s light.

REFUJESUS

I made some new t-shirts at Redbubble. Proceeds to legal aid for asylum seekers. Also black ink version.

Holy Cow!

Here's some footage from the Carpe Idiotus show "Holy Cow!" at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. 

Get along and see the show. It's a lot of fun. Tickets here or at the door.

Teaching Weekend

An event in my local congregation in May. 

Download Teaching Weekend Brochure  (233 kb PDF)

Code of Ethics Training

Today I participated in Day 3 of our Synod's Code of Ethics training for ministry workers, mainly to conduct assessment. (A prior booking from my old job but fitting in well with my new one in terms of assisting synods with systems).

As with our previous courses, everyone present reported that they thought the course would be tedious or like waving the rule book at them. Instead they actually felt encouraged, supported and even inspired by the notion that pastoral ministry has theological, spiritual and ethical underpinnings that can be life-giving and ordering in the best sense.

I wrote three case studies last night, all of which seemed to work well. Sadly, we didn't get to play the "Speed Ethics" game due to lack of time. Congrats to Sean Gilbert and Beatrice Panne for putting together three excellent days.

What's more, people recognised the wisdom and spiritual depth evident in the Code of Ethics.  I was reminded how enjoyable that it is to run a good educational setting with a group. I look forward to more opportunity to do that in my new role.

Interactive Christmas 2013

Here's an overdue post on what we did last December - our third annual Interactive Christmas event. Our theme was "Hope, Joy, Peace, Love".

1. Arrival Activity - "Starry Christmas"
Decorate a star with all kinds of stuff. We used the Natural Mesh Star for this and had some racks where they could be hung to dry and collected later. We also gave out bags for people to collect their stuff in during the evening,

This activity is designed as a welcome and holding space for people before they enter the plenary session which runs for about 15 mins.

2. Joyful Christmas
Our plenary session featured music from the MiniM Choir of young adults who sang three pieces, including the fabulous version of "Joyful Joyful" from the movie Sister Act. A segment of video from the start of the Gospel of John Visual Bible DVD set the scene for the narrative (large screen projection with a short throw lens so it served as a backdrop). Monologues from Mary and Joseph characters about finding joy in unexpected news. 

Download Plenary Script

Download Mary and Joseph Script

Holy Cow! Adelaide Fringe 2014

I'm working with two Adelaide city churches on three shows for the 2014 Adelaide Fringe Festival which start in a couple of weeks. This will be a brilliant comedy show. I've known Dennis Clare for over 25 years, and he is a remakable mime artist and visul comic (and he says wise and funny things too!). I've seen Tony Williams perform at NCYC 89 as 1/2  of Glass Canoe and then had he and Dennies perform in Brisbane in the late 80s as well. Tony is an exceptionally talented singer/songrwiter. 

The aim is to combine arts and spirituality, in this case through humour, one of the best ways to open up to God's Spirit.

The show is on for 10 nights. So book a ticket, tell your friends and help us sell 400 tickets.

Download A4 Poster

Two new blogs...

I've started a cooking blog so as not to annoy those who are tired of me posting about food and also make my focus on other stuff here. It's a work in progress but i aim to migrate food stuff from here as well as posting new stuff. It's mobile compliant which is neat so check it out on your phone.

Craig Cooks

I've also started a new work blog since I have a national church role and need to separate my posting about food, what the kids did on the weekend, and other odd things from my work profile. It's also a work in progress but it's up.

Growing Disciples

So what will be on this blog? Well, the rest of me I guess...