‘Tis the season…

1) Ten Things Our Kids Don’t Need for Christmas This Year – The likes of Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest make the myth of the Perfect Christmas all the more believable. So at a time of year when we’re all feeling the pressure to make special moments & memories, this gutsy article gives a bit of perspective.

2) Top 16 Christian Books of 2016 – It’s that time of year where the internet goes list-crazy. Tony Reinke’s a man well worth a listen, so have a gander at his favourite Christian books of 2016.

3) Advent – the opposite of hygge – for the night is dark and full of terrors – Hygge is very 2016, so I was interested to read this piece suggesting that perhaps it’s all a bit of a cover-up. Instead, the season of Advent is all about engaging with the dark realities of our world, and yet finding there is still hope…

4) Christmas and the ‘Customer’ – Of course, your church advertising can be slick and out there, but if the welcome people receive when they arrive is pants, then that’s probably worse than if folk hadn’t turned up in the first place. Martin Salter gives much to reflect and act upon.

5) Five Steps to Advertising Your Christmas Events on Facebook – Really helpful and practical guide to using Facebook for advertising from the Good Book Company. Maybe there’s a whole heap of ethical questions that haven’t crossed my mind, but if you want new faces to come through the door of your church, then I’m not sure why you’d choose not to advertise on Facebook.

6) How Advent Teaches Us to Wait Well – So many of us are still waiting for something – or else we have been disappointed and given up. Helpful piece from Betsy Childs Howard: “The waiting that comes with Advent is fun because it’s finite. We know what’s coming at the end of our wait will be good, and we know exactly how many days we have left to wait for it. But much of the waiting that occupies us is open ended…”

7) Best Christmas Albums of 2016 – Ah, Christmas music. So, did I mention it’s my birthday this week?!

By the way, if you’re waiting for the traditional round-up of Christmas videos post, the elves will be delivering it by Tuesday! In the mean time, here’s last years…

13 Excellent Christmas & Advent Videos for 2015

Like an online advent calendar, only before December and with no chocolate…

1) What If We Could Live Forever? – Interview with Jeremy Marshall – A remarkable video interview with the former CEO of Charles Hoare private bank, on cancer and facing up to death and mortality as a Christian.

2) This I Know – A stirring reflection on not always knowing the answers to life’s difficult questions, especially when sad things happen.

3) Planet Earth: God’s Canvas – If you’ve been watching the breath-taking Planet Earth II on BBC, then you’ll probably appreciate this first of two PEII inspired bite-size videos from Go Chatter, encouraging us to look beyond the extravagant creation to the extravagant Creator. Great for sharing.

4) It’s your tragedy too: men and miscarriage – First of five reflections on a very real topic that you don’t often find men talking about.

5) What’s Wrong with Today’s Preaching – A Poem – Glen Scrivener spins some lyrical miracles as he reflects on the state of preaching today. Clever, witty, and he makes a fair point!

6) Dying to Self in the Age of Self-love – I appreciated this post: “Dear friend who is struggling with a weight on your shoulders, one that may seem lighter to bear if you walk away from God’s instructions – don’t buy that lie…”

7) OK Go – The One Moment – OK Go have built up a reputation for incredibly creative music videos for their songs, but their latest is just stunning. The bulk of the video is recorded in only 4.2 seconds, featuring exploding watermelons, flipbooks and a whole load of paint, but it’s then been slowed down to span four minutes. The results are fascinating and show just how amazingly orchestrated those 4.2 seconds are. As the band says, “we constructed a moment of total chaos and confusion, and then unraveled that moment, discovering the beauty, wonder, and structure within.” (More geeky facts here).

On the blog this week:

Why Asking about Ministry Trajectories beats Reasoning Your ‘Season’

Ok, so a whistle-stop visit to London and my little girl’s third birthday meant the Refill got stuck in the draft folder a bit longer than anticipated!

1) How Gypsies have moved from fortune-telling to fervent Christianity – Fascinating news-piece from the BBC, and credit to the BBC for giving it prominence on their site.

2) Growing churches are conservative churches – Tim Chester reflects on a new report from Canada suggesting those churches which are not in decline are more likely to hold to a more orthodox theology. Bishop Rod Thomas also adds his commentary. Interestingly, some recently-released date from reformed Anglican churches points to a similar conclusion.

3) The Shift from Authority to Preference—And Its Consequences for the Church – Interesting piece from Os Guinness observing a subtle change in how we operate.

4) What story does your church service tell? 7 elements to consider – If you’re responsible for leading & planning church services, this will give you something to mull on.

5) Why Preach in a post-truth world? – After the announcement this week that ‘post-truth’ is Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year, Jennie Pollock offers some thoughts on ministry in a post-truth culture.

6) Evangelicals Across the Spectrum Are Clarifying Marriage as a Core Belief – Ed Stetzer, who recently spoke at the FIEC national Leaders’ Conference, observes that, despite what some parts of the media would have us believe, there is growing trend across evangelicalism to clarify marriage as a core belief, rather than as a secondary issue. Although Stetzer is mainly writing from an American perspective, this trend seems to be mirrored in the Church of England, as seen from the theological breadth of those signing this Open Letter to the College of Bishops.

7) Tig to Tag? Ok, so this blew my mind and simultaneously made so much sense. And to think that Mrs H thought that my custom of calling it ‘tick’ was simply the result of mishearing my school-friends on the Wirral all those years ago!?

On the blog last week:

God’s Calling Card: Weakness Is The Way – Why we must never forget that ministry will seem weak…