If you are considering a call to the priesthood, if you are considering another ‘calling’ in terms of church life, or if you are just wondering what you ought to do with your life, this is one of the best things I have heard for a very long time.
If you’re running a Cafe Church or have a church where you can use video easily, then this can certainly be used in a discussion of vocation. It can also be used in talking about God’s will, about ‘when bad things happen’ and the good things that can come from failure or difficult times.
To quote Steve from 8:10 into the video:
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
and from 12:32 into the video:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
I also didn’t know he had learnt a love of typography and seen its importance for computers right back from the earliest days; a theme I pick up in my little book about projection and worship (plug, plug).
This year on Good Friday and continuing my tradition, a piece of graffiti artwork to delight the eyes and challenge the heart. Although I don’t know who produced the artwork, the photo was taken in Brighton, England, by Aaron Phelps.
I love this image. To quote St John of Damascus (quoted often in my recent dissertation/book):
‘Visible things are corporeal models which provide a vague understanding of intangible things. Holy Scripture describes God and the angels as having More…
I was interested to see the news cycle today includes the story of Rev Andrew Alden who is, apparently, Britain’s first ‘Twitter Vicar’ – according to Sky.
I find this story interesting on two levels.
The press’ fascination with quirky Vicars
It seems that, every now and again, you can pretty much guarantee that the press will fall over themselves when clergy adopt new technology. More…
I am very pleased to announce that I have self-published my first book ‘Hands-free worship’.
What is it about? Well, the snappy sub-title gives you a clue: the ‘pastoral, theological and missiological dimensions of digital projection and computer technology in worship’.
In essence, I started researching and writing because, while I was aware of various books out there that look at the practical dimensions of what happens when churches use projection technology to worship, I felt that no-one was writing about what happens pastorally and theologically when projection is utilized. Furthermore, I felt it was influencing mission and I wanted to think about and address those issues.
I am a fan of projection, but I’ve also seen it used badly and in the book I try to More…
Last Friday morning, as increasingly I tend to do, I opened the news apps on my iPad rather than buying a daily paper and groaned.
The top ‘trending’ topic was that Archbishop Rowan Williams had announced his intention to step down at the end of this year. There had been rumbles for a while within church circles but I guess I was ignoring the rumours in the hope that the rumbles were wrong.
Already, various reviews and ‘obituaries’ of his ten years as Archbishop are starting to emerge both in print and online and, inevitably, they all make enormous play of More…
A kind friend decides to give me a Christmas present: a fifteen pound voucher for iTunes.
I purchase Ed Sheeran‘s +
I visit Israel in January, my first real chance to listen to the whole album in one go.
I listen to it again and again.
In fact I spend the entire trip listening to it.
The song that stays with me most of all is ‘small bump’.
My wife goes away for a few days and I wake up each morning surrounded by my kids.
After day one, the alarm on my phone becomes ‘small bump’.
I remember the child we lost in the summer of 2007.
My kids start to hear some of the lyrics and understand some of it.
‘You can wrap your fingers round my thumb’ (as my youngest son does just that)
I remember families in this parish whose pain is as real now as ours was then.
My kids jump on me again and I am thankful for their laughter.
I reflect on the fragility of human life
and that the eternal Word would take the risk and become a helpless infant.
I remember a snippet from Ecclesiastes ‘they have never seen the sun or known anything, yet they find rest’.
“You were just a small bump unborn for four months then torn from life.
Maybe you were needed up there but we’re still unaware as why.”
Tonight I had to really think. As a priest, is it okay to swear on my own blog? Do I have a rule against swearing? Have I ever sworn before on this blog?
I have no idea, to be honest, to any of those questions but I find myself sorely tempted to start swearing this evening after reading a big pile of garbage being served up like cold school dinner over on the Guardian website today.
Apparently, they say, church schools shun the poorest pupils. No doubt, there will be more weeping and gnashing of teeth by secularists (or perhaps just triumphal cries) while the middle classes tut knowingly. But before you absorb too much of this headline, let’s drill down a bit into the article.
First off, there is the fact that the journalists seem not to know the difference between a ‘faith school’ (set-up to educate kids and propagate that particular faith) and a ‘church school’. Clearly, these journalists hadn’t read (or had forgotten) More…
With Sunday’s lectionary readings still fairly fresh in my mind and my Masters dissertation on projection and the use of new media in worship freshly handed in, this is a beautiful re-imagining of Jesus’ walk out into the Judaean desert all those years ago.
If you have been following this blog, you will know that (for what seems like an eternity), I’ve been trying to finish a Masters degree in Pastoral Theology by writing a dissertation about the implications of using digital projection in worship. Because of ill-health at college and then the demands of ministry (particularly covering an Interregnum) it just never got done.
Well, at long last, it got done.
The dissertation is handed in, finito, complete and over.
Furthermore, various people have expressed interest along the way in the subject matter and so it has long been in my mind to re-hash the content into a book form and self-publish with Print-on-Demand.
At the present time, I am in negotiations with the university to make sure that I am free to do this without any problems and so I can’t promise at this stage if it will see the light of day soon (if at all), but I hope to tell you more in due course including (if you’re interested) where you can get hold of a copy.
I couldn’t resist showing you the mocked-up jacket though! I know it’s vanity publishing in one sense but its done with a purpose since the material has intrigued a good few friends in discussion and I’d like to share my research and ideas with others if they are interested to read the work. There’s far too much poor use of projection in church to sit on this and not share it, I think.
What’s it about? Well, my basic premise is that using digital projection in church worship changes more than just the practical dynamics. Subtly, I think it shifts aspects of pastoral care, theology (both in terms of how we speak of God and think about human beings) and also how we do mission. I am a supporter of projection but I advocate judicious and wise use and sometimes being willing to switch it off and not use projection when its not appropriate to do so. Ultimately, what I try to promote is a ‘harder way’ that asks leaders and computer operators to think a bit more carefully in pursuit of use of the technology that seeks God’s glory and the encouragement of the faith community.
I was interested to see the news cycle today includes 
Last Friday morning, as increasingly I tend to do, I opened the news apps on my iPad rather than buying a daily paper and groaned.
Tonight I had to really think. As a priest, is it okay to swear on my own blog? Do I have a rule against swearing? Have I ever sworn before on this blog?
Hands-free worship explores the influence of projection technology on worship. We shape our technology but is it shaping us?
