Places of Inspiration

Where and when do you get inspired with new ideas?

I read some dead American guy who said that nothing good ever came about without someone first sitting quietly in a room all by himself. Or words to that effect.

I find there are really only a couple of places when I'm inspired with new ideas, thoughts or phrases.

1) The morning shower. 

Sarah reckons I lose time in the shower. I do. It's because I'm thinking in a way which rarely happens during the busyness of the day. If I'm late to a morning meeting, this is usually why.

2) The afternoon run. 

The adrenalin and stress burnoff of the late arvo run often mean I get bursts of creative thinking. It's not uncommon to come home with an acronym in my head to try to remember some of the thoughts I want to jot down. I forget most of them. But some of the goodstuff gets through.

What about you?

Where and when do you get inspired with new ideas?

Joshua Bailey's Blog

Many of you have requested a link to Joshua's Blog. He's far more interesting!
Please leave him a comment or two. He'd love to hear from you.

It's here: What the Nuke? Joshua Bailey

PS I'm still trying to work out how to add another author so he can put up his own 'About Me' section to replace his old man.

A clever piece of advertising from the employer to which I devoted the best years of my twenties...

An 'Old Testament Man'?

When I was growing up I once heard a strange phrase from my Dad, when he described someone as 'an Old Testament man'. I had no idea what it meant. Now I know Dad was describing a bloke who was a pretty harsh sort of person and very legalistic. For many of us, the Old Testament can seem this way too. Harsh. Legalistic.

One of the biggest challenges for many of us when considering Christianity is understanding the place of the Old Testament (the first 2/3 of the Bible which makes up all the gear before Jesus). How on earth can it be consistent with the teachings of Jesus, so much about grace and love, in the New Testament?

Here's a great article on this issue from a bloke who's really good at explaining stuff. He's American, but he's still a great guy!

Making sense of the Bible's 'Inconsistency'

Kids who can't sit still?

Do you  know any kids who are really intelligent but can't sit still at school?
We may have a child or two like that.

Here is a great vid on such kids, and especially about their education, which is funny but also very provocative.

By Sir Ken Robinson

Enjoy.

Sir Ken Robinson on revolutionising education for active kids

More David Wells

Well, I'm not enjoying it. This book is driving me nuts. It is a rant.
But amidst the flotsam are some thoughtful provocations.
A few samples:

"The sense of disconnectedness (in our culture today) is of course an irony. Never before have the lines of communication between people been more numerous, more efficient or more used; email, texting and mobile phones are ubiquitous in our culture. We are the Wired Generation living in a mostly electronically mediated world. However, have you noticed that while everyone is speaking, no-one is really listening? We are swamped by voices. So many want our time and attention that for our own protection we shut out most of them. And while we are surfing the internet, emailing, watching TV or playing video games, we are doing it all alone. We are wired, but we are also more lonely and have fewer confidants than ever before. The Putnam thesis of the 1960's is correct: we are in touch with everyone potentially, but we know and are known by almost no-one in particular."

"In 1999, for the very first time, the world became urbanised, meaning that more people live in cities than in rural areas."

"Today we inhabit the world, not just our community, our small town or our corner of the countryside. We are knowledgeabe of all the great shaping and shaking events of life almost as they happen, in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, France, China or Botswana. And this sense of being a citizen of the world is greatly exacerbated by the many forces in life that militate against our belonging to any one place. We are those, for example, who are carried by the economic tides from job to job, from place to place. We are those whose families have been dispersed like confetti in the wind, part blown in this direction, part in that. What is the bottom-line effect of it all? What is the psychological impact? It is loneliness. Loneliness is the modern plague. 

This is the plague of being disconnected, of not being rooted, of not belonging anywhere in particular but to everything in general. It is the affliction of being alone, of being unnoticed, of being carried along by an indifferent universe. Commitment - actual commitment, real bonds, a sense of belonging, not just the idea of commitment - has become a precious stone, rare, much more sought after and, when found, treasured."

Food for thought for Connect Pastors everywhere. (All 3 of us?)

Reviewing David Wells

I'm back. Not sure if anyone will notice, but that's ok. 

I started reading this today - recommended by a mentor a couple of years ago. Not sure I'm enjoying it. 

 

Wells begins by sounding like an old traditionalist church-man. The sort who sits in PCA whinging about 'modernists'. Maybe that's why I'm on the back foot from the start... reminds me of so many criticisms levelled at Creek Road. The more I read on, the more the comments bite. If Wells visited us, would we be in his sights? Should we be? 

Wells is scathing of attempts to be 'relevant'.

"The is always the rub in the experiment: the form greatly modifies the content. The loud music and short services are part of the form, but the form, put together to be pleasing, actually undercuts the seriousness of the faith. The form is in fact the product, and in this market the sale has to be done quickly and as painlessly as possible because the customers all have itchy feet. That greatly militates against the seriousness any church wants to have. And that is why a deep chasm has opened between the church marketers and historic Protestant orthodoxy. It is less that the truths of this orthodoxy are assailed than that they are seen to be irrelevant to the building of the church. They are, it is believed, an impediment to success." 

At Creek Road, we strive to show the relevancy of the Bible in the cultural context God has placed us in. We strive to honour God's Word by communicating it in a way that people in our culture will understand. At least that's what I think we're trying to do. According to Wells, I would think this, but I'm deceiving myself.

Should I be worried? Dunno. I've only finished chapter 1... where at the end he lists off those historic doctrines that true Protestant churches should stick to: the 5 'solas' of the reformation (Salvation by Faith Alone, through Christ Alone, by God's Grace Alone, heard through the authority of Scripture Alone, all to God's Glory Alone.)

We'll see what else Wells has to say. I wonder if he'd approve of the '5 Alones' sermon series we did recently. In short services. With loud music.