Now the blog is up and running, I've been thinking about its contribution to the church and what we're trying to achieve with it. During the process of setting up the blog I was asked to consider Bishop Alan's Living God’s Love plan, launched in January 2011. For those unfamiliar with the plan, here's a summary taken directly from the official Living God's Love website.
"Living God’s Love is an invitation to walk together on a journey, to look with fresh eyes and explore new ways of life and mission and discover new things about God, ourselves and the world.
Living God's Love is a call to journey;
The Blog is a great tool to help in achieving all of these things. It strikes me as a truly fresh approach to discussion about God and the world around us. It could hardly fit that part of the brief better. :)
The blog is also a great chance for us to go deeper into God through our interactions with one another here on this page. By discussing the various posts together, and in trying to apply a prayerful, considerate attitude in our discussions, we can all help one another move deeper into God. I am certainly looking forward to taking part!
Likewise, we have an opportunity to work together and help address our community (and those further afield perhaps) in a whole new way. Setting the blog up has been a group effort born out of a desire to find new ways of reaching out to existing and new members of our church and beyond, spreading the Word.
As the posts start coming in it's my hope we'll attract comments from all kinds of people; members of the congregation or those who are simply curious about St. Michaels and our worship. I hope, too, that visitors' comments can steer the topics of discussion so we can best serve the community by talking about the things people feel are most relevant.
Finally, the blog is clearly a great opportunity to reach out beyond the walls of our church and make contact with the wider community, especially (given the nature of the medium!) younger people curious about the Christian faith. The blog can and should be a place where we apply our beliefs to the events happening around us and discuss them with one another.
I hope people starting out on their journey with God feel able to come here, comment on the posts and see how they can apply Christian principles to their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Please let us know how you think the blog could be used and the kinds of topics you'd like to see discussed.
Thanks for now. :)
For more information about Living God's Love and the Diocese of St Albans see: www.stalbans.anglican.org
"Living God’s Love is an invitation to walk together on a journey, to look with fresh eyes and explore new ways of life and mission and discover new things about God, ourselves and the world.
Living God's Love is a call to journey;
- to go deeper into God,
- to work in partnership to transform communities and
- to walk alongside others on their road into discipleship."
The Blog is a great tool to help in achieving all of these things. It strikes me as a truly fresh approach to discussion about God and the world around us. It could hardly fit that part of the brief better. :)
The blog is also a great chance for us to go deeper into God through our interactions with one another here on this page. By discussing the various posts together, and in trying to apply a prayerful, considerate attitude in our discussions, we can all help one another move deeper into God. I am certainly looking forward to taking part!
Likewise, we have an opportunity to work together and help address our community (and those further afield perhaps) in a whole new way. Setting the blog up has been a group effort born out of a desire to find new ways of reaching out to existing and new members of our church and beyond, spreading the Word.
As the posts start coming in it's my hope we'll attract comments from all kinds of people; members of the congregation or those who are simply curious about St. Michaels and our worship. I hope, too, that visitors' comments can steer the topics of discussion so we can best serve the community by talking about the things people feel are most relevant.
Finally, the blog is clearly a great opportunity to reach out beyond the walls of our church and make contact with the wider community, especially (given the nature of the medium!) younger people curious about the Christian faith. The blog can and should be a place where we apply our beliefs to the events happening around us and discuss them with one another.
I hope people starting out on their journey with God feel able to come here, comment on the posts and see how they can apply Christian principles to their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Please let us know how you think the blog could be used and the kinds of topics you'd like to see discussed.
Thanks for now. :)
For more information about Living God's Love and the Diocese of St Albans see: www.stalbans.anglican.org
Alasdair
ReplyDeleteThanks for this contribution. I agree wholeheartedly with you that this could be a really fresh approach to the whole issue of discussion about God and of sharing our faith with the world outside. One of the main criticisms that I think can often be levelled at us Christians is that we just talk to ourselves - we go into church in a little huddle and say nice things and are polite to each other, but outsiders don't know what goes on in church and/or think it's all irrelevant to their daily lives. Before, if the church wanted to speak to the outside world, we either had to stand on the street corner or knock on people's doors - neither of which are probably very popular or effective ways of communication. Now with the blogs we have a medium where people can see our exchanges and our thoughts and our struggles to understand things, and (I hope) can see that we are ordinary people, doing our best to follow Jesus and to live as God wants us to live in a complex and changing world. For example, I thought Toby's sermon on the question of marriage and the proposals to redefine that (preached on 18th March) was a thought provoking, balanced and helpful contribution to the discussion on that issue.
Anyway, thanks again for the post.
Cheers Roger. Hopefully others will now start picking up on the blog. The next interesting question in that regard is how we make people aware of the blog in the congregation and especially in the wider community.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we can push it at the festival in May? Has to be worth a try.
I too found Toby's sermon gave me a lot to mull over. :)