Shoutlouder

how things have changed… or tw'anged

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogging, Social Network, Twitter

I wrote this post last August before Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry brought Twitter to the forefront of British social media… (yes by then I’d be tweeting for quite some time!)…  just thought a few of you may appreciate it’s thoughts now more so than back then! Be nice to hear what you think too!

Check it out: Surely I have better things to do than blog!

focusing on a new season

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Self-Development

We’ve had a great Easter in church – exciting to see so many new faces around. One of the best things has been hearing about people who have literally walked in off the street because they have seen the huge billboard / sign that is hung up over the front of our building. One of the benefits of having a front that faces directly onto a busy dual carriageway!

The Big Getaway was fantastic as usual… even more so this year as everything just felt a little bit easier and more familiar at good old Cliff College. It probably also had something to do with the fact that we were sleeping in one of the Conference dorms near to the Conference Centre and I didn’t have to trek up the huge hill 10 times a day to the Main College complex. Not only that but all the memories of spending 2 years of my life in the college… kind of scrambles your brain. So this year I didn’t go anywhere near the College part and it felt like I was somewhere else completely!

But Easter is over for another year and now I’m looking towards the new season in the run up to our summer. There’s plenty to pack in from new Connect groups to relaunching our Friday night Youth at the Megacentre. Plus there’s the bLink Summit coming up, a special tour with Steve Kennedy from Australia and finally as we hit the summer – Summerfest is back!

If you’re not careful you can blink and miss plenty of stuff that is happening – which is why I’m really hoping to take some time this next week to get my head round everything and make sure that I’m fully focused and covering all the bases. That can be hard sometimes in leadership because there is SO much to consider as well as SO much needing to be done – but I guess the key to it all is MAKING the time to think and plan. It can’t just always be do, do, do – work isn’t just about being able to say you sat at the computer all day, or managed to paint the loos (which need doing when I think about it!). Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is actually to stop… and take stock. Make some plans, write some to-do lists, make a few phone calls and get everything clear and in order – and then get on with the do-ing!

What do you need to stop and take careful consideration of today? What’s crying out for some thinking time? Don’t put it off as often these things are the most important things to be considered!

Take time to think! Take time to focus on the new season!

bye bye mac book pro… hello mac book pro

// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

So a really annoying thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago – my mac book pro got nicked! I won’t call it my ‘laptop’ as mac’s are WAY above such a common designation as ‘laptops’ but nonetheless it dissapeared thanks to the coinciding of a passing thief and a moment of opportunity.

Hence the reason I’ve been quiet on the blogging for the last couple of weeks. Plus on top of all that we’ve had Easter, the Big Getaway and plenty of design work to keep me busy as usual.

Thankfully, (as I force myself to write this on the PC) tomorrow (hopefully) a courier will drop a brand new Mac Book Pro off at my house and the journey may continue. It’s at this moment in this post I also have to Praise Almighty God and probably show some appreciation to Steve Jobs as well for Time Machine (the clever Mac backup facility) which has a complete record of my hard drive just waiting to be reinstalled onto the new Mac Book.

So my dear wife is looking forward to seeing her husband dissapear into the office as I endeavour to work out how to reinstall all the rubbish I’d put on the last mac back onto the new one. Which means hopefully I’ll be typing the next post out on something that doesn’t resemble a spare part from the tardis or makes a sound like an aeroplane landing whilst it attempts to keep itself cool.

sunday revisited

// April 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday

So the best thing about Sunday – to be really honest – was the dedication of my little girl Ania. I know… I love church and we saw some people make decisions to follow Christ – which is REALLY REALLY AWESOME – but I have to say my real highlight was the dedication and a chance to place my little girl’s future into the hands of her amazing God.

Some people might think a dedication is just a nice ceremony that people do when they have kids – for some it might be a christening… but I believe EVERYTHING we do in the sight of God is significant. Whether you’re stood in an altar call, reading out marriage vows, going under the water in Baptism and the other many ceremonial practices we have around church… you can either take them as just something you do – or you can see that behind the natural there is a supernatural world at work and what we do and declare over our lives are not just words but powerful statements that resound across eternity! That might sound deep… but it’s the truth….. tha’s what Paul was trying to get across to the Ephesians when he said:

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

We get so lost in the imaginary world of movies and fiction that we forget that there is a very real, SUPERreal world at work around us and what we say, do, believe is a key to seeing the power of God at work in our lives. I fully believe that what took place over Ania’s life on Sunday morning was a powerful declaration of intent and has set her life on a collision course with the plans and purposes God has for.

Exciting stuff…!

feeling impossibly stupid!

// April 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // General

I just did one of the most stupidest things in the world… allowed my laptop to get stolen! Somewhere now wandering round the city of Leeds is a very happy thief who is enjoying being in possession of my beloved Mac Book Pro whilst I’m resigned to rebooting my old tower PC which sounds like Heathrow airport!

It’s also given me a real insight into the threat of Identity Theft with the thought that somewhere someone has access to all my emails etc. Thankfully I’ve been able to change passwords for most things online so that any active cookies etc will be useless but having something stolen still gives you a certain feeling of being violated in someway!

Thankfully it’s only a laptop! They missed the car keys sat next to it and the wallet in my bag as they were too focused on a grab and run… so it could have been worse! But I guess from now on I’ll be a lot more careful. Also thankfully I have a good old Mac Time Machine backup which will restore pretty much everything except for the last couple of days to a new Mac Book Pro which I am hoping the insurance company will be kind enough to supply me with. Till then… it’s the old PC! Blurgh….