Jesus then and now

Where I am heading tomorrow with the rest of the eXcel leaders:

Space Academy - Preparing For Launch

We are very grateful to God for an excellent Space Academy. Perhaps you have seen the video? 

This post is just in case anything we have done can be useful to anyone else. I might be able to post a bit more in time ... but this is a starter. Please ask for more in a comment if you are interested. I'd be very happy to help in anyway I can.

Logos:

Outline of the Space Academy Material (40+pages pdf)

Timetable

Day 1 Script / Day 2 Script / Day 3 Script

Space Jokes / Space Academy Song (words)

Down to Earth Service / Certificate

Space Academy - to eternity and beyond

We are all back to earth safely having had a great time! 
Check out the video:

Down to Earth Service

We have had a superb week at the Space Academy. It's been out of this world. 

And it is not over yet.

We re-enter the earth's atmosphere on Sunday! 10.30 am. 

Join us to witness the Space Cadets become fully fledged Space Academy Astronauts, to hear the Space Academy Song, to find out which team is heading for the stars and to explore all we've been learning all about God's Planet Plan.

everybody can

Everybody wants to be an astronaut. 

If you are at Infant or Junior School and in or around Tipton ... here's your chance! 

Is there Space for you?

Space Academy

We are LAUNCHING this today at our morning service  

I hope those 'Space Cadets' who sign up will enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed planning it. 

Booking will open in the New Year

a backbone not a wishbone

Thanks to Ros Clarke for this via FB. And for her comment: 'society has mostly stopped raising children to be adults, so we're ending up with whole generations of children.'

theology so good you can watch it!

I am very excited about this next term in our 14-18 year old youth group (motiv8). 

We will be adapting the study material produced for this DVD:

notes from the tiltawhirl is an awesome DVD. 

Theology that you can 'watch', again and again! 

Paul Tripp says this of it:  "Combining stunning visuals with an entertaining and engaging text, Wilson yanks you out the numbing sameness of your frenetic pursuit of what quickly passes and leads you to care about and inquire into things that are transcendent. Don't watch it once. Watch it over and over again. It's just that powerful and important."

 

 

Say no more! 

Or open your mouth to declare His praise! 

Where's your head at?

In the sand? 

In the clouds?

Screwed on? 

Keeping it while all around are losing theirs?

To get the context read this article in The Briefing.

Caution: Mature Content of an Adult Nature

There is a popular school of thought (or, more strictly, of feeling) which violently resents the operation of Time upon the human spirit. It looks upon age as something between a crime and an insult. Its prophets have banished from their savage vocabulary all such words as 'adult', 'mature', 'experienced', 'venerable'; they know only snarling and sneering epithets, like 'middle-aged', 'elderly', 'stuffy', 'senile', and 'decrepit'. With those they flagellate that which they themselves are, or must shortly become , as though abuse were an incantation to exorcise the inexorable. (Dorothy Sayers Creed or Chaos? p14)

An Easter Primary School Assembly

I am putting this up partly to experiment with the technology! But if, even in its rough form, it is useful in anyway to anyone, great! 

An Easter Assembly for a Primary School

active minds, noisy joy, prayerful hearts (since 1997!)

I don't know if 'The Praise Factory' resources have been online for ages and I I have just been half asleep, or what, but I am thrilled to have found it this morning at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church site. I now look forward to some time to explore it all. As it says on the tin it is a: 

resource for affordable, flexible, quality Christian curriculum for pre-school and elementary age children.

And it invites us to browse the site (here) for curriculum, music and helpful articles for teachers and families.

I can't wait to do that. It all looks very promising from it's glorious tag line to a skim of the content available.  

the Next Generation

These look to be three fantastically relevant talks from Children Desiring God's recent conference 'Holding Fast to the Word of Truth'.

At the Seaside

I've been 'off line' for a bit and one of the reasons has been our half-term holiday club 'Seaside Rock' which went really well and for which we thank God!

You can taste the salt air here: 

You can find out more here. 

If you are someone who works with children or are considering doing a Holiday Club then you might be interested in this (password: followthesun). We have put together some of the resources we used for the Club in the hope that they might be of help to others. This might be especially useful to those looking to do a three day club.

The Tide is Rising

Preparations are speeding up for this half-term's Seaside Rock! 

3 mornings of seaside fun (in Tipton!). 

3 mornings of seaing (sea what I've done there?) who Jesus is through the eyes of Peter. 

Sea-riously good news. 

Sea you there?

Seaside Rock from Grace Community Church on Vimeo.

Newly available

Our 11-14's youthgroup, eXcel, now has a blog like page that is public and starting to function. If you are nosey and inclined to you are very welcome to drop by any time! 

Can teenage rebellion ever be right?

I have just ordered this - something I should have done for a while now - and expect I will be convinced that in this sense teenage rebellion is not only right, but it is necessary for godliness!

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations

This is the website that connects with the book: the rebelution

Dating: Problem # 1

I am not sure if Harris' order is significant. Anyway, this is the one he highlights first. 

Dating tends to skip the friendship stage of a relationship

CS Lewis describes friendship as two people walking side by side towards a common goal. Harris suggests that dating, due to its focus on physical attraction, on the fact that you are now (in some sense) 'an item' or 'a couple',  can so easily lead to superficiality and to a stifling of the growth of the friendship. There is not that freeing aspect of being able to be yourself and do things together because you enjoy them because you are focusing too much on looks, the 'feelings' you have for each other etc.  (I Kissed Dating Goodbye, p38-39)

Dating: Problem # 2

Dating often mistakes a physical relationship for love. 
'many people believe that going out with someone means physical involvement' (you 'mark out' that you are 'dating' as opposed to being 'just friends' through things like kissing, cuddling, holding hands at least!) 
This physical involvement can make two people feel close and feel in love. But this doesn't equate to love. 
( I Kissed Dating Goodbye, p40)

After all: what does it mean to be 'in love'? 'Love' can, as a result, become a pretty weak idea, if you think about it .... downgraded to mean something like ... 'I feel sexually excited  and emotionally satisfied by you at this current moment in time'. If we were honest and said this rather than 'I love you' would our 'dating' last long do you think?