I’ve put this together as notes for Ivy CR Grow Groups from Debra Green’s talk this morning in our new series. Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 Compare the passage in various translations, including the Message. Ecclesiastes is the Questers journal on life. Its good to do that if it helps you. Discuss in the group- who among you keeps a journal? Is it helpful? What experiences do you have of journalling? These seem like strange sayings don’t they? The words are meant to disillusion of our illusions: life is more significant than what can be measured by short term gains can give. Rather than pursue various things (list them as a group), pursue God! Does your life at the moment reflect that you are pursuing God first & foremost? How might someone objectively viewing your life judge that? Consider the phrase ‘under the sun.’ it means ‘all I can see, touch, hear & feel here.’ We need to look at what’s above the Sun. How much of what the media, government, science etc loses any heavenly or eternal perspective and encourages us to […]
New Wine and Old Wineskins
If we look through the history of the church, God has continually been creating new wineskin after new wineskin so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when he does it in our lifetimes.
BILL HYBELS Leaders Q & A – afternoon session
Draw a line of a bell curve in with your mind, I’ve not got time!
BILL HYBELS at Stafford. Leadership Q & A
My notes from the morning session with this amazing leadership hero! Where are you? Dangerously Over-challenged Appropriately challenged Under Challenged You’re BEST, just North of appropriately challenged. Just beginning to be over-challenged. People who are sharp, leadership oriented – you’ll LOSE unless you over-challenge them. You have some people who are RETAIN & DEVELOP at ANY COST people. Distinguished from good staff & great staff. These are people who it would rip the heart of the organisation if they went. They are rewarded differently and TOLD them who they are. ‘You have character, competence, fit our culture. We want you to be here serving till the Lord returns.” Identify these people! Exercise: Here are all the people in your dept. If there was a 50% reduction – who would you lose? If someone HAD to go – who’s your end of the line person. Why is this person always at the end of your line? When/Why someone has to go… It probably didn’t start as a dismissal issue. It starts with a problem. What do you call ‘the problem with […]
Last night’s Prezi – at a fantastic baptism service
Wow what a day yesterday was!
Prezi from yesterday morning’s talk: ‘Clearing out my closet’ in the RECOVERY series
Blown away by Prezi!
Alan Taylor at Ivy MCR – how God can change me
We can become complacent. If I’m going to heaven anyway, why bother changing now? Jesus invites us into the Kingdom NOW. He wants us to enter into what has already been won for us 2000 years ago. We’ve all picked up habits. We all have hurts & hang ups. We are powerless without his power. He has to save us His power has to change us I believe in victory. We mustn’t shy away from overcoming. That’s for us! To live extraordinary lives! We believe in miracles But sometimes they come as process not climactic events. I must earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, & that he has the power to help me recover. Heb 11:6 1. Acknowledge God’s Existence Psalm 14:1- The fool says in his heart there is no God Rom 1:20 – God’s power & nature – clearly seen. All the universe speaks of him. The stars are a sermon!! We need to know the historical nature & apologetics of our faith. Don’t be lazy. 2. Understand Gods Nature Our parents might not […]
2010 in review- 31 Jumbos read my blog!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s. In 2010, there were 68 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 183 posts. There were 61 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 10mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week. The busiest day of the year was October 7th with 185 views. The most popular post that day was John Ortberg on Spiritual Formation at Catalyst 2010. Where did they come from? The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, cvmen.org.uk, ivycottage.org, and ivymanchester.org. Some visitors came searching, mostly for anthony delaney, fishing net, melvin banks, ivy manchester, and anthony delaney blog. Attractions in 2010 These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010. 1 John Ortberg on Spiritual Formation at Catalyst 2010 October 2010 […]
The power of goal setting
My daughter Emma just read a line from mine before I got to look at it – ‘I will write a book for men this year.’
DONE!
St Patricks Breastplate – Get it on!
This morning when we woke, Zoe said she had felt strongly in the night to pray for protection over a family member who’s travelling (it’s origins are apparently from a dangerous journey). As I was waking the still small voice whispered to me, “St Patricks Breastplate.” I usually publicly pray this prayer at the start of the New Year, declaratively over the church – and will do so again in 2011, but we prayed it just now, and maybe you could too, for your own journey as well as another’s? I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation. I arise today through the strength of Christ with His Baptism, through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension, through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom. I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim in obedience of Angels, in the service of the Archangels, in hope […]