Thursday 23 June 2011
Tuesday 21 June 2011
An unconventional life of dreams...
So I reckon much of my life has been unconventional in many ways, but then again whose isn’t? And what is a conventional life? So often it looks from a distance that everyone else seems to have it all together, they’ve got money, nice house, family, husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend or loved ones. They hold down a good job, they have the freedom to do what they want, free from financial burden and so on. If we look through our ‘glass half empty’ view, others may appear to have more, but do they?
I saw this morning a quote on Twitter from @revrunwisdom he said “Happiness is just being satisfied with the life you lead”. It’s nothing new, there are many quotes that are similar, but so true and so often I see people saddened for what they think they could or should have; yet not valuing what they already do. The truth is we are all individuals and ‘nobody is better at being us than we are’, so why try to be someone else.
But even given that we are all unique, and are living at least some part of our lives that is not conventional, whatever that is, there are times when we do something that not many of our friends or family do and so it sparks interest, well sometimes anyway.
I love the notion that ‘everyone has a book in them’. Not sure how true this really is, but I am sure that more people do than actually write a book. Well I am going along the lines that ‘everyone has a song inside them’, or in my case an album (is that what you call it today?). So I have decided that after all these years of playing in various bands be it on drums, sax or guitar, I am going to put pen to paper for lyrics, pull together a few chords and melody lines and write some songs, in fact the intention is to write enough songs that I can put them in to a collection and record an Album. I really am setting the bar low though, although this is another of my life goals, as I write the intent is to do nothing more than write the songs and record them on my home MAC, collate them in to what would look like an Album and then burn a CD to say “I’ve done it”!
If it turns out OK, I may pull together a small team and go in to a studio, but the goal right now is to simply just get the ideas together. Who knows, it might be a very poor out come, but as the other saying goes, ‘If you don’t try you will never know’. So at best I’ll move in to the studio, at worst, I’ll know!
I’ll blog about progress, equipment I use, and experiences I gain in the process.
Do you have a dream or a life goal? What’s stopping you from achieving it? Do you think I have lost the plot?
Bye for now.
I saw this morning a quote on Twitter from @revrunwisdom he said “Happiness is just being satisfied with the life you lead”. It’s nothing new, there are many quotes that are similar, but so true and so often I see people saddened for what they think they could or should have; yet not valuing what they already do. The truth is we are all individuals and ‘nobody is better at being us than we are’, so why try to be someone else.
But even given that we are all unique, and are living at least some part of our lives that is not conventional, whatever that is, there are times when we do something that not many of our friends or family do and so it sparks interest, well sometimes anyway.
I love the notion that ‘everyone has a book in them’. Not sure how true this really is, but I am sure that more people do than actually write a book. Well I am going along the lines that ‘everyone has a song inside them’, or in my case an album (is that what you call it today?). So I have decided that after all these years of playing in various bands be it on drums, sax or guitar, I am going to put pen to paper for lyrics, pull together a few chords and melody lines and write some songs, in fact the intention is to write enough songs that I can put them in to a collection and record an Album. I really am setting the bar low though, although this is another of my life goals, as I write the intent is to do nothing more than write the songs and record them on my home MAC, collate them in to what would look like an Album and then burn a CD to say “I’ve done it”!
If it turns out OK, I may pull together a small team and go in to a studio, but the goal right now is to simply just get the ideas together. Who knows, it might be a very poor out come, but as the other saying goes, ‘If you don’t try you will never know’. So at best I’ll move in to the studio, at worst, I’ll know!
I’ll blog about progress, equipment I use, and experiences I gain in the process.
Do you have a dream or a life goal? What’s stopping you from achieving it? Do you think I have lost the plot?
Bye for now.
Monday 31 January 2011
Great churches are not built on the gifts and talents of a few, but on the sacrifices of many.
I found the title of this Blog when browsing the many entries on Twitter and as with many items I see on Twitter, it captured my imagination.
We have an interesting scenario playing out at my local church at the moment. Mid way through 2010 it was announced that our Vicar (incumbent) would soon be marrying and as is often the case with a newly married incumbent he would be leaving St. Peters so they could start a new journey as a married couple.
The situation of having no incumbent is not an unusual one for St. Peters in Yateley as the last incumbent moved on a few years previously leaving St. Peters with the task of managing on its own during the recruitment process. An incumbent moving on is not uncommon for any church, but for the purposes of this article, it is the space in between that I am interested in. How does a church keep going when there is no incumbent in place?
I joined the Church relatively recently, beginning my journey at the end of 2007 on the Alpha course. Prior to this I had humbly believed that everything in a Church revolved around the incumbent and the only volunteers were the occasional flower arranger, those who served coffee and the annual jumble sale. Having been a member for a few years I now realize this of course could not be further from the truth, perhaps I’d be better to have used the term naïve rather than humble!
So much voluntary work happens in a church that is often not visible from the outside, what’s more surprising is much is not visible from the inside either. That is not to say there is a bad job of promoting activities, but these activities are very targeted to certain groups. And as we are in the current situation of not having a regular incumbent the opportunities to volunteer are even greater.
We currently have six regular services, for each of these services we will have a Rota for leading, reading, preaching, praying, serving coffee, welcoming, preparing announcements, sound and organising musical worship. On top of this we have extra services, youth clubs for each of the various age groups, women’s ministry, men’s ministry including weekends away. We have the youth church, youth bands, adult bands, many home groups and all this without mentioning buildings to manage and a Vicar to recruit. Even in this exhaustive list, which is only the tip of the iceberg there are multiple areas within each of these areas that offer opportunity for many to volunteer, get involved and grow in their faith.
I am proud to be a part of St. Peters, like any family, it’s not always a bed of roses, sometimes we don’t always agree and sometimes we don’t see some people for months on end as they deal with just they’re part of ministry. I am not sure there is such a thing as the perfect Church but if great churches are indeed built on the sacrifice of many and not the gifts of a few then I do believe we at St. Peters are building that great church and have a lot to be proud of.
We still however, look forward to seeing a new Vicar in place and all that he or she will bring to the community. What's more, they've got some flowers to arrange and a jumble sale to organise.
We have an interesting scenario playing out at my local church at the moment. Mid way through 2010 it was announced that our Vicar (incumbent) would soon be marrying and as is often the case with a newly married incumbent he would be leaving St. Peters so they could start a new journey as a married couple.
The situation of having no incumbent is not an unusual one for St. Peters in Yateley as the last incumbent moved on a few years previously leaving St. Peters with the task of managing on its own during the recruitment process. An incumbent moving on is not uncommon for any church, but for the purposes of this article, it is the space in between that I am interested in. How does a church keep going when there is no incumbent in place?
I joined the Church relatively recently, beginning my journey at the end of 2007 on the Alpha course. Prior to this I had humbly believed that everything in a Church revolved around the incumbent and the only volunteers were the occasional flower arranger, those who served coffee and the annual jumble sale. Having been a member for a few years I now realize this of course could not be further from the truth, perhaps I’d be better to have used the term naïve rather than humble!
So much voluntary work happens in a church that is often not visible from the outside, what’s more surprising is much is not visible from the inside either. That is not to say there is a bad job of promoting activities, but these activities are very targeted to certain groups. And as we are in the current situation of not having a regular incumbent the opportunities to volunteer are even greater.
We currently have six regular services, for each of these services we will have a Rota for leading, reading, preaching, praying, serving coffee, welcoming, preparing announcements, sound and organising musical worship. On top of this we have extra services, youth clubs for each of the various age groups, women’s ministry, men’s ministry including weekends away. We have the youth church, youth bands, adult bands, many home groups and all this without mentioning buildings to manage and a Vicar to recruit. Even in this exhaustive list, which is only the tip of the iceberg there are multiple areas within each of these areas that offer opportunity for many to volunteer, get involved and grow in their faith.
I am proud to be a part of St. Peters, like any family, it’s not always a bed of roses, sometimes we don’t always agree and sometimes we don’t see some people for months on end as they deal with just they’re part of ministry. I am not sure there is such a thing as the perfect Church but if great churches are indeed built on the sacrifice of many and not the gifts of a few then I do believe we at St. Peters are building that great church and have a lot to be proud of.
We still however, look forward to seeing a new Vicar in place and all that he or she will bring to the community. What's more, they've got some flowers to arrange and a jumble sale to organise.
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