This post was posted at 11:11am on 11/11/11. Awesome Sauce!
Category: Archive
Leederville Coffee
This morning, I went for some coffee in Leederville. I started off at Greens and Co. Greens is a bit of an old faithful – I know that it’s good coffee, in a good place.
Greens is very funky, with concert posters all over the walls. At times, it can be very busy, making it hard to find a place to sit. However, this morning, it was mostly empty, and I could take my choice of couches, or tables. Ended up going with the couch, as I was expecting a few friends to come. I started with a cappuccino, which was very well made. It had a nice consistency of foam, and was a good strength coffee.
A little while after that, I had a short macchiato. This is something that I’ve only just got into, so I’m still getting used to the tastes. However, the coffee was nice, nothing overpowering about it.
The interesting thing for me came just after this. We moved to a new cafe, 50ml, which has opened up next to San Churros, taking over the shop that Gloria Jeans used to have. If Greens is funky, 50ml is wacky. The lights are covered by strainers, there’s an eclectic mix of artwork on the back wall, and the seating and tables seem to have been collected from various op shops from around Perth. For example, the table where we sat was obviously an old school table – you know the ones, wooden with the indentation for your pencil, and a lift up lid for all your books. My chair however was even more weird. The back seemed to be something that seemed more at home in a shower than a coffee shop.
But enough about the shop, the coffee was very interesting. I may not have noticed so readily had I not just had one, but the short macchiato that I had was very different. The coffee was very strong – it was the first thing my friend and I noticed. However, it wasn’t overpowering, and didn’t leave a bad taste in the mouth. It was in fact very nice, however people who aren’t fans of strong coffee may not appreciate it.
So if you’re in Leederville, make sure you check out one of these coffee shops and enjoy the vibe.
It works everywhere else but here
When I was first getting into Youth Ministry, the Anglican Youth Ministries (AYM) was pushing a program for youth ministries by Ken Moser. The whole idea of this was to develop a style of youth ministry that would work in both large and small youth groups, and enable the youth worker to not burn out in their average 18 months.
I went along, I did the training, and it sounded great. So we tried it out at our youth group. It didn’t work so well. The program was almost a church service, and our youth (who had all grown up in the Church) were coming to youth group to get something that wasn’t Church. It may well have been a good program, but it wasn’t a good program for the youth that we had.
Over my time as a youth leader, I have read numerous books of programs purporting to have “THE” program that will work at any church, that will work at any size youth group, and will work with any youth. I eventually grew skeptical of these claims, as while they were all written by youth leaders who had remarkable stories of taking their youth groups from single figures into the hundreds, they had seemed to forget that starting element, and their programs that they promoted just didn’t seem to work in smaller groups.
The other day, I heard someone complaining about a youth group program that was being pushed because “it worked everywhere else” yet the first night they ran it, instead of having a youth group of 30-40 like they have for their activity nights, they had 7 attend for this bible study. I’m not saying that bible study is not a great thing to have as a youth ministry, but it depends on your situation. The kids that were coming to this youth group were mainly kids from the community, who had no knowledge of Christ yet, and were more so interested in the activities than study.
What I’ve now realised that the program that works “everywhere else” or the program that works with “any sized group” should carry a disclaimer – “except in your situation”.
Youth Ministry must be one of the toughest gigs in the church. Many people have said this, so I’m not saying anything new here. You go into youth ministry with certain expectations of what you will be able to achieve. However, you also have to balance up what the minister expects you to achieve, what the parents of “Churched” youth want you to achieve, what the rest of the church community wants you to achieve, and what the community wants you to provide.
Each one of those expectations will be different depending on your community. One church minister may have an expectation that the youth leader will bring in a lot of members from the community. Another minister may prefer his youth leader to be focussing on building up the youth already within the church.
Because of this, no book that claims to have the method for your situation will actually work, because the expectations that they were working under will be totally different to the expectations you are working under.
However, you – as a youth leader – should still be reading these books. A youth leader needs to be constantly coming up with fresh ideas, and the more ideas they have, the longer they can go before repeating those they have already used. (However, be prepared to repeat ones that worked – one youth group I had was very musical, so talent nights, and Spicks and Specks quiz nights worked very well. They however didn’t work so well at the next youth group I worked at which had a very different community).
So before you go and start that “next big thing” or that program that has worked everywhere else, ask this most important question: “Will it work here? Why?”
You’ll save yourself a whole lot of work trying to make a square program fit a round community.
Composing Power
I am enjoying living close to work at the moment. It’s a ten minute walk to my workplace three days a week, and this week, I’ve been walking home in order to get some arranging done.
It’s something that I’ve been embracing more since I am not playing my violin as much any more, so this is something that I can use my musical skills in. I’ve arranged a couple of worship songs so far for the songsters at my church, and I’m working on another arrangement at the moment, this time of the hymn “There’s Power in the blood”.
I pulled this song out at a recent Chrysalis retreat and the guys really got into it. As the weeks went on, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, and it turned from this slightly rock, slightly rockabilly version into this kinda jazzy version that I’m now arranging. I’m working through this arrangement and hope to have it done really soon.
After that, I’m thinking I might have a go at a brass band arrangement. Got a few ideas running around, just need to see what would work well.
The Fruits of the Tenants
This sermon was given at Floreat Salvation Army on October 2 at the 6.00pm meeting. It is based on the passage Matthew 21:33-46.
It is not enough to simply be a tenant of God’s vineyard. He invested in us, and wants us to return a profit.
Let’s take a look at this parable. At times, it seems like a fairly straightforward parable – a pointed message at the Pharisees – however, as we look into it, we can find all sorts of meaning. Continue reading “The Fruits of the Tenants”
10 Things You Should Do BEFORE Your Child Begins Piano Lessons (via Elissa Milne)
Great post. Mainly reblogging this so that I’ve got a memory of this so that I can convert this to a violin post soon. Stay tuned.
I promise I’ll get back into blogging soon. Really I will. When it gets less busy. Like October. Or maybe next year. Or the year after… surely there must be some free time by the end of the decade….
via Elissa Milne
A Trustworthy Life
“This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things.”
Luke 24:46a-48
Jesus tells his disciples to be witnesses to the truth of what has happened. While nothing we say can confirm or detract from the Word of God, we do bear witness to its trustworthiness.
The challenge in this is to live our lives in a manner that allows others to see us as trustworthy so that what we share about Jesus is also trustworthy. Difficult? Yes. Challenging? Yes. Worth the effort? Absolutely.
Worship Songs I’m loving
At the moment, I’m getting my head around being music director for an upcoming Chrysalis retreat. I did this last year, so a lot of my song choices have been able to be transferred, but it does mean that I can spend more time looking for other songs that might fit even better.
At my church, we’ve also started having the youth band on twice a month now, which means that I’m now choosing twice as many songs, so I can be choosing more songs. So I’m constantly on the look out for more songs that can be used. Here’s a selection of worship songs that I’m loving right now.
First off, a couple of songs from Hillsong Chapel, Saviour King, and Hosanna
I love the space in this version of Saviour King, that the instruments just get out of the way and you can just focus on the words. The chorus for me is incredibly powerful, and I think I’ll be able to use this (in some form) at Chrysalis.
As for Hosanna, I’m considering an “acoustic” set for the next Youth Meeting, and love the arrangement of this version.
Now for something a bit more uptempo – and a bit older too.
This song has been in my head for a while now, and I’m not sure where I’m going to use it, but I think that there will be something coming up that it will be just perfect for. I think I especially love the brass lines here, really makes it pop!
This is a new song by Aaron Keyes (co written by others such as Ben Smith and Graham Kendrick). It’s wonderful lyrics are backed up by a great easy to sing Hymn-esque tune. This is a wonderful praise song, and I can’t wait to use it somewhere.
So that’s what I’m listening to at the moment and what’s going through my head. What songs are getting you passionate for Christ at the moment?
A Busy month ahead
I’ve just been thinking about how much I’ve got on over the next month, and it’s incredibly busy. I’ll be at Church for only two of the Sunday Morning meetings, and possibly only one of the Sunday night meetings.
I’ve got the Chrysalis retreat on between the 8th and 11th of September, which should be a wonderful weekend of spiritual blessings for the guys and girls that will go on there.
The weekend after that is the Uniting Church Synod weekend, which unfortunately is also my 1st wedding anniversary on the Sunday. However, I will be working all weekend – Friday afternoon with a training session, Friday night with the installation of the new moderator, Saturday all day (probably until about 9pm) and then Sunday afternoon – how nice, I get to have breakfast with my wife on our anniversary.
And it’s not like I can take the Monday off after that, because not only is work in the middle of Revive – our bi-monthly magazine – production, but there’s also a fortnightly newsletter that goes out to churches, which will be my responsibility to put together.
So the weekend after, Liesl and I are having a weekend off. Some time to relax, to catch up with each other and stuff. I’m really looking forward to that weekend.
So that’s a busy month ahead, and hopefully I’ll still be alive on the other side.
Some logic to your argument please
I’m straying into difficult territory here, but I need to share my thoughts on this issue, and hopefully my thoughts will make some sort of sense. Especially as I’m talking about using logic in an argument, I hope that my thoughts are logical as well.
I read yesterday an article from the Sydney Morning Herald titled “Gay marriage ridicule ‘damages youths'”. In it, I read this quote from Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce told the rally his four daughters would be affected if same-sex marriage was allowed.
“We know that the best protection for those girls is that they get themselves into a secure relationship with a loving husband, and I want that to happen for them.
“I don’t want any legislator to take that right away from me.”
Wait, what?
According to Mr Joyce, by allowing Same-sex couples to marry each other, his daughters (who I’m assuming are unmarried heterosexuals with a loving set of heterosexual parents) would be affected. I’m sorry Barnaby, but I’m not quite following your logic here.
I’m not certain that there are many girls out there in the apparent situation that Barnaby’s daughters are apparently in. The only way that I can see that his daughters would be affected by this proposition is if they had told their father “I’m homosexual, but I know I need to be married. As I can’t marry a woman, I’ll marry a man instead.” I’m not sure how common a situation that would be.
I’ve been married almost a year now, and I absolutely still believe that marriage is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I also believe that marriage is something that should be treated with respect, and should not be entered into lightly.
Marriage is a sacred bond between two people. That’s it. For me and my wife, it is between me and her, and God. The only people who can affect our marriage and the sacredness of this bond are those who are involved in it – God, Liesl and myself. Britney Spears had a 55 hour marriage. Does that make my marriage any less special? No – because she is not involved in my marriage. Two homosexual men want to get married, does it affect my marriage? No, because they are not involved in it. Even if a rock wanted to marry a tree, it would not affect my marriage one iota, as the rock and tree are not involved in the sacred bond I made with my wife.
The only people who are affected by allowing homosexual people to marry are homosexual people. Mr Joyce claiming that his (presumably Heterosexual) daughters would be affected defies all logic.
I read an article on same-sex marriage recently. It didn’t take a stand either way. Instead, it called for those in power (White, Male, living in a first world country, those who are never discriminated against, except at “one of those “women-only” gyms”) to take a step back, to be quiet, and listen to others. Just “Shut up and listen.”
I think Mr Joyce should take this advice, and shut up and listen.
Ben Clapton 