Author: Ben Clapton

At work today, which is my “regular” job – Admin/IT work at the Council of Churches of WA. I run the website and e-mail newsletter, as well as whatever other admin work comes my way. At the moment, we’re getting ready for the AGM, so there’s a bit of work involved with checking attendances, getting reports ready etc etc. Today wasn’t too bad – it was constant work but not overly busy.

After I finished – only a half day, finished at 1pm – I headed off to the shops to deposit a cheque and to buy some clothes. Got some cheap towels that I’m going to use as sweat towels. Now I need to get myself back into heading off to the gym.

Bit of gaming in the afternoon – I’m trying to give myself about an hour a day where I can to game. It’s something I enjoy, and often go to LAN’s with mates, and figure that if I’m going to be spending money on these games, I should probably play them inbetween LAN’s. Hey, I might even start getting better!!

This evening entailed a board meeting for Chrysalis, which is a non-denominational christian youth retreat that I’ve been involved in over the past few years. I’ve just taken up a role on the board, and am still finding my feet and what I need to do. Tonight was the first meeting that I’ve managed to get to, and we had some good discussion about various issues we’re facing, and possible solutions. And I’m starting to get an understanding of what my role is. It’ll take some time for me to settle in, but I think i’m going to do alright, I’ve got some interesting and exciting ideas.

And now, I think I’ll turn on the cricket, play Peggle for half an hour, then get some sleep. Work tomorrow morning, with some teaching in the afternoon.

There are many different flavours of Christianity. Called denominations, each flavour is distinct, though with certain similarities, and each has certain function in a persons faith journey. These are just my own thoughts and observations, and as each persons faith is their own, their experience might be different.

To start with, I’m going to look at the evangelical churches. These are the ones like the Assembalies of God, the Hillsong and Planetshakers style churches, and the more modern Churches of Christ.  These churches are great at evangelism – reaching out into the community and bringing Christ into their lives, finding new followers. Hence, these are the ones who have the podcasts, the telecasts on TV of their services, the big name churches that everyone knows.

Then you have the more conservative staples of the faith. Churches like the Anglicans, the Catholics, the more traditional Churches of Christ and to an extent the Uniting Church. Here, their focus is more on nurturing the faith. Not attracting as many new Christians, new members to the Church often come from another Church, or from returning Christians who may have grown up in the Church but then left.

For a long while, this is where I pictured my faith – in the Nurturing area. Having grown up in a traditional Church of Christ, and then moving to an Anglican, it was this nurturing that founded my faith. Through the many sermons, the services, the bible studies I participated in, I explored my faith, discovering the nature of God. And through that exploration, it seems that I have found that this was not the end of the cycle. I have come to understand that while there is still more than I have to learn, there is another aspect of my faith to explore. That of service, of giving back to the Church.

This is not quite the place for me to share right now, but expect more on my new developments of my faith in times to come.