The radio was on the other night as we ate dinner. It was classical music. Nothing startling or demanding. Sonic wallpaper if you like. The stuff that you don’t notice…

… until it stops.

Dead air is usually radio’s worst nightmare. In this case though we noticed the silence much more than we had noticed the music.

I wonder if church is like that?

We seem so keen to fill every available space with words, music, prayers…

… perhaps we need some dead air, some silence that people will notice.

From the videos and pictures on Engadget it looks like Microsoft might have cracked the tablet with their Courier digital journal.

If this thing does all this and actually works then the iPad could be dead before it is even born.

Whose expectations are you trying to meet?  And why?

People have expectations of us.  At work our boss, our colleagues, our constituents, congregations or customers all have lots of expectations of us, each one as different as they are.

Who sets these expectations and who decides when and if you have met or exceeded them?

I find that often in my work that people don’t know what to expect of me, or that their expectations of what I will do with them are very different to what I think they need.

That might mean that they are disappointed because they didn’t get what they wanted or expected.

Is that a good thing?

Or should our jobs be about meeting people’s expectations?

What room does that leave for creativity, prophecy and vision?

I read an excellent article in today’s Telegraph by Brian Masters about Jon Venables, one of the two ten year old boys who horrifically murdered James Bulger 17 years ago.

The article explores the reaction to Venables’ return to custody and who has the right to know.  It also, perhaps more interestingly explores the reaction of ‘the public’.

Venables and Thomson were tried and convicted in an adult court.  They were found guilty and sentenced to a custodial sentence.  They were released on parole.  No-one has ever denied that the crime they committed was horrific.  No-one has ever suggested that they shouldn’t be punished.

What Masters’ suggests is that two 10 year old boys may be as much victims as their own victim.  And that seems to be something people don’t want to hear.

When they were convicted a crowd gathered around the police van, banging on the sides.  If the van had stopped and opened it’s doors the boys would have been taken out by the adults and killed.

If you read all of Masters’ article and scroll down to the comments you will see that 17 years later there would seem to be a significant number of people who would still volunteer to pull the switch, administer the lethal injection or pull the rope tight.

I don’t believe that children get to a point where they abduct and torture smaller children without influence (or lack of it) from adults.  I wonder what my children learn when they see a group of adults calling for the execution of children?

I have children.  If one of them was killed I would feel the same way.  I would want revenge.  I would want to kill whoever did it.

And that’s why it’s right that I should play no part in the administration of justice in a scenario like that.

The bigger question for me is why society, or at least a proportion of it, seems to completely dismiss the chance of rehabilitation, restoration and, dare I say it, forgiveness and why we seem to have reached a point where we see children as ‘evil’ and beyond hope?

What does that say about us as a society?  What does it say about forgiveness?

Today I was at a meeting.  This was the view.  I sat with my back to this all day.

It’s Loch Lomond from Ross Priory.

Did you grow up in a Christian home?

How do you know?

Those were two of the questions which were posed by Lucy Moore during Messy Church training on Saturday.

The assembled throng laughed nervously and made jokes about growing up in a bungalow and how they had never asked their house if it had accepted Jesus as its Lord and Saviour before confronting the fact that this is a hard question.

I grew up in a house with two Christian parents.  I went to church every week and Boys’ Brigade.  But that didn’t make it a ‘Christian home’.  Did it?  We prayed each night before bed.  Did that make it a Christian home?  My dad became a minister.  Did that make it a Christian home?

The question and answers led to an interesting discussion asking:

‘How do we model faith at home?’

So, I’m asking you:

Did you grow up in a Christian home?

How do you know?

And as an extra bonus question:

Would your kids (or future kids) give the same answer as you?

UP is a brilliant film.  It’s funny, touching and insightful.

Carl floats off in his house to avoid being sent to live in a nursing home.  He promised his late wife that they would live at Paradise Falls and he tries so hard to make that happen.

What he doesn’t see along the way is that things change.  His responsibilities change.  His context changes.  But his outlook doesn’t.

He made a promise.  He has a goal and he’s going to reach it, no matter what!

There comes a point that Carl realises that he is literally tied to his past and that it is time to let it go.  By letting the house go he isn’t letting go of his love or his memories or his past.  It’s just a house.

It’s not hard to see why Carl wants to keep his house.  It’s full of memories of his wife whom he loved dearly.

It made me think of how much we all have problems with change, especially when it means letting go of the things that remind us most of the people and times that have been so special to us.

But things aren’t the memories.  They aren’t the people or the relationships we cherrished.  They are just things.

Sometimes we can only move on to a new adventure when we let them go.  But that’s hard.

My step-son David is running his first marathon this April in London.  He’s running in aid of kidney research and it would be brilliant if you could sponsor him.

David has set himself two targets: run the marathon in under 4 hours and raise over £1,500.

You can follow his training on his blog, Dave Online, and sponsor him via the blog too.  Remember to gift aid your donation if you are a UK tax payer!  He’s also on @bigpapi34 on Twitter

Tomorrow he’ll run nearly 18 miles, his longest training run yet.

You can find out more about Kidney Research UK.

Last night I was at an open evening at my kid’s primary school.  Their work was on display and I was finding out what the ‘not much’ and ‘nothing’ they do all day is.

Two things struck me.  The first that there seems to be little room for initiative.  I mean real initiative beyond using a  different colour for something.  Castles, islands, knights, maps… all slightly different but essentially the same.

You get good marks for meeting the set criteria.

Seth Godin talks about this:

Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It’s difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it’s a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.

Schools like teaching compliance. They’re pretty good at it.

On the wall in each class was a chart asking parents the elements they think should be present to make the school a successful learning environment.

It was an interesting list and I wish I had taken a quick photo of it.  Coherent curriculum, rewarding success, respect, justice….

and also creativity, transferring skills, initiative…

I put my stars there.  But I was almost the only one.  Most parents preferred compliance.

I wonder if church is the same?

‘That’s not how we do that’  ‘That’s so-and-so’s job’  ‘We tried that once and it didn’t work’  ‘This is what the parable means’

Are we teaching compliance?  It is easier after all.

Who the Heck Are We? Exploring the Identity of the URC

The United Reformed Church are hosting their 1st Webinars – “Who the Heck Are We? Exploring the Identity of the URC” on:

Wednesday 24th March 2010, 12:30pm – 1:30pm:
This is an invitation to all our ecumenical and external partners who work with the United Reformed Church.

Saturday 27th March 2010:
This is an invitation to EVERY member or visitor of the United Reformed Church.
There are 4 time slots available between 9am – 2.30pm. More details can be found if you click on “Q&A re: The Webinar” below.

What is a Webinar?

A Webinar is a convenient way of hosting a meeting online for up to 1000 people to attend. All you need is connection to the internet to join in and a computer or laptop. For maximum participation, use your computer’s built-in audio (i.e. speakers and microphone or use a headset) to contribute. You can also participate in the meeting by “calling into the webinar” using an ordinary landline at a cost of a local telephone call. You can attend the meeting via your mobile, if your mobile supports internet connection.

But how does it work?

You will be sent an invitation by email and asked to register your details (i.e. your name, address and some questions e.g. which Synod or organisation you belong to etc). Once completed, a confirmation email will be sent to you confirming your place. The email will feature your direct link to the webinar. This link is UNIQUE TO YOU and enables you to securely gain access to the meeting. At the time that you have decided to attend the webinar, you must click on your direct link.

If you don’t have my email address already, how will I be invited?

To attend your exciting online event, please contact Denese Chikwendu, Campaign Co-ordinator at: denese [dot] chikwendu [at] urc [dot] org [dot] uk or call her on 020 7916 2020 or Lawrence Moore at: lawrence [dot] moore [at] urc [dot] org [dot] uk . Please be ready to give us your full name and correct email address. Denese Chikwendu can also send you hard copies of “Save the Date” cards for you to hand out to members, visitors and friends. (They are the size of business cards for convenience).

Help! I’m not convinced – I haven’t done a webinar before…

Don’t worry, we will be hosting test runs so that everyone can try out the application and feel more comfortable with it. We plan to host test runs from w/c 22nd February 2010 to w/c 15th March 2010; so that’s 4 weeks of practice! Each session will last approximately 30 – 45 minutes. There will be:

• 2 sessions per week for all URC members to join an informal webinar where we can discuss church related issues or general current affairs/ news etc. EACH TUESDAY AND THURSDAY between 2pm – 3pm.
• 1 session per week for all of our URC external partners to join an informal webinar. EACH WEDNESDAY between 2pm – 3pm.

More details will shortly be available on the topics below:

1. A full set of Q&A re: The Webinar, including time slots for 27th March 2010
2. Email template/ Invitation – for URC members and friends – invite more people!
3. Email template/Invitation – for URC ecumenical and external partners – invite more people!
4. Save the Date card – A4 notice for your church/ church notice board/ share at the next Church meeting
5. Save the Date card – A4 notice for external partners and colleagues
6. View Webinar Demo – https://www2.gotowebinar.com/en_US/webinar/pre/G2W_Demo.tmpl or https://www2.gotomeeting.com/en_US/pre/quickTour.tmpl

Image on the front page and above is ‘Mouse’ by pure9 , Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en