A church video I made up based on the idea that we need to ‘be still and know that I am God’ in a busy world. You can download a wmv version by by right clicking HERE. Just let me know how and if you use it.
Life is
All posts by Mark Edwards
Proposed letter to BU
Hi all……
If you are a Baptist Pastor in Australia, and have not recieved the letter I have just sent, and would like to put your name on this letter….please let me know. Dissenting views are also okay!
I feel passionately about this. Its time we said something better about ourselves…because we are doing a great job as churches…..I intend to send this letter to our own BU WA council…and to the national union.
The Baptist Union Logo
Time for Change
According to the Baptist Union Website, “Australian Baptists today are a diverse community. During this twentieth century they have witnessed considerable growth, partly through immigration but also through vigorous evangelistic endeavours. Since the 1970s the impact of the charismatic renewal movement has led to changes in worship and leadership styles”
The Baptist Union is one of the few church denominations experiencing real growth in Australia. We have much to thank God for.
We have steadily grown into a contemporary and relevant movement, and it is time our logo represented us as we are today.
According to the Baptist Union Website our present logo is described thus.
“The circle represents the all-encompassing love of God and the world for which Christ died; the empty cross pointing to our resurrected Saviour and the significance of his death and resurrection for our life; and the open Bible to indicate that we are people of the Word. “
This logo has served us well for a number of decades, and yet it is time for it to more accurately present the vibrant and contemporary nature of our organization.
The following Baptist Pastors believe it is time we had a logo which sends the right message to a secular society, one that depicts us as we are, a relevant, contemporary, and vibrant Australian organization. We respectfully ask that a marketing company is commissioned to design a logo reflecting this which will replace the old one.
Baptist Union Logo
Okay….I have got a bee in my bonnett….
is this the lamest logo you have ever seen?
What does it say to you?
To me…it says we don’t care about the non churched….because it communicates nothing to them.
We don’t care about peoples perception of us as a organisation, because it says we are traditional, old fashioned…and too lazy to do anything about it.
Baptists are notoriously slow to change. Its time to change this. And not in a half hearted way, it needs to be changed completely….and done properly…but a marketing company.
Lets redo the whole logo, lete reframe the image we are presenting of ourselves.
We need to send the following messages.
We are contemporary, we have life, we are relevant, we are not some two bit organisation.
All the above statements are true…at least of WA Baptists….its time our logo reflected that, and reflected who we are, and who we are becoming.
boring to the other side of the globe
My son often asks me if we can go to China….goodness knows why, it may have something to do with the fact all his DS games come from there. I said to him once, start digging, thats about the only way we are going to get there. Seems I have to rethink that. If I start digging, we are going to get wet, thats all.
To see what I mean, go to the map tunnelling tool. It shows you were you would end up if you could dig yourself to the other side of the globe.
Church on Sunday
Tired……looking forward to Eliot and Colin being back!
Great great day today. Great crowd of people in, and in Colin Battersby’s word, “a great spirit in this place”
I agree. There is something special about being together and worshipping together. Colin does a great ministry, sensitive, passionate and humble. He lifts the people around him, and works great with anyone.
We continued our series and I spoke on the beattitudes. A number of people commented on how passionate I was this morning…thats true. I finished the sermon with the thought, “who is the light of the world?”
I read the appropriate verse from Matthew five, and even then people gave the wrong answer!
Which hopefully made my point.
We are the light of the world, the Church is salt and light….we reflect His glory and his values and attributes through becoming a truly “blessed’ people…a people who are poor in spirit etc etc.
Spring in the Valley…or Mark is getting old…
Headed out to the Swan Valley for ‘spring in the valley’ today.
In years gone by we have sampled some good wine, cheese and meats…enjoyed the time touring a beautiful part of our city.
no more…..Spring in the Valley has been transformed into a massive attempt to get as many 20 year old lads and laddetts plastered as quickly as possible, with a wide varieties of wine and beer…….
Various bus companies are cashing in on the phenomenon transporting thousands of barely dressed young people to the mulitude of accepting places. I dont know if your daughter was one of the girls there….but I hope not!
Dont get me wrong, I am no wowser….but it really is not great if your looking for a nice day out with your family.
None the less, we had a great day, and sharing it with some new friends from another country made it even better. The Margaret River Chocolate Factory was great, we had a nice picnic near the river, and Edgecombe Brothers was a good change from the overflowing lines of people and crowded wineries. .
We actually had a great day, and ended up finishing up at the Rose and Crown for a bite and a drink. Suprisingly the R & C was not letting bus loads of yobs in, so we got a good table in the beautiful weather.
Mark Sayers on communication
This is one of the best and concise encouragements to contemporary preaching I have read for a while.
To all you preachers out there, please read this.
It will either confirm you are on the right track, encourage you to do better…or annoy the heck out of you. If it annoys you, good…you need to change! 🙂
Here is the first and best point for all you slack bums.
If your message is infectious, you won‟t be just talking to the people sitting in front of you, you will be talking to their friends, family and contacts. Think beyond the room. How can you communicate your message in a way that will „live on‟ beyond that moment? Shape your message so that they will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will tell their friends etc. Are you preparing this weeks sermon, or are you crafting a message that has potential for exponential growth?
The rest