The “Church Is” project was an interactive animation that was made as part of a Christian art exhibit in June 2011 (You can read more about the project here).

The project was based on a survey of 31 people. All the participants remained anonymous and gave permission for their answers to be used. The 31 people may or may not be Christian, but I would assume that most of them are as the majority of participants were people in my circle of friends or friends of friends. You can view a selection of the responses in the project itself, but for interests sake I thought I would publish all of the answers given.

These are the answers to the second question, What do you like about Church?

• I like the idea that there are people all over the world who have the same beliefs that I do.
• Preaching that calls me to repent and believe. Godly conversations and praying with bros and sisters in Christ.
• Learning about how to implement what the Bible says into my own life. And the great people.
• Lots. I like the Bible, music, talking with christians, and sharing with them what it’s like to be human with a different purpose.
• people, a community of forgiveness and grace, music
• Being able to participate in Christ’s very sacrifice on Calvary, and experiencing the most intimate union possible with Christ on earth. (the Eucharist)
• Community, worship, service, discipleship, misson
• It reminds me of how awesome God is.
• we aren’t alone

The “Church Is” project was an interactive animation that was made as part of a Christian art exhibit in June 2011 (You can read more about the project here).

The project was based on a survey of 31 people. All the participants remained anonymous and gave permission for their answers to be used. The 31 people may or may not be Christian, but I would assume that most of them are as the majority of participants were people in my circle of friends or friends of friends. You can view a selection of the responses in the project itself, but for interests sake I thought I would publish all of the answers given.

These are the answers to the first question, What is Church?

• The church is a word used to describe followers of Jesus Christ.
• A place where Christians can worship God, be encouraged and equipped. A place where salvation comes to the lost
• The redeemed elect united to Christ and gathered in heaven. We also meet on earth.
• A way to connect with other christians, a house for your spiritual family.
• Church is meeting with christians with aim for fellowship and worship
• The kingdom of Jesus being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit
• The Church is the Pillar and Bulwark of the Truth.
• Gods people gathering together
• A Church is not a building. It is rather a community of people who accept Christ Jesus as their Saviour and are willing to show God’s Grace others. This community gathers together to profess that Jesus is Lord, through worship, prayer and biblical teachings.

I used to run quite a few meetings, and I always wanted to make the meetings I ran better.

I’ve had this post drafted for over a year now, so I think it’s just about time it got published.

These links below are 5 resources that I used to try and make my meetings better. Check them out to help you run your meetings.

• How To Run A Meeting That Doesn’t Suck
• Meetings
• Setting The Tone For Effective Meetings
• Tips For Running The Effective Meeting
• Half The Meetings, Twice The Productivity

Hope you find them useful.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in running meetings, it’s that an agenda is vital in making meetings purposeful.

What’s one thing you’ve learnt about running meetings?

I’m planning on making a piece of art for a Christian exhibition about Church which will be shown at Ancon 2011. I’d love it if you could spend 1 or 2 minutes filling out a survey that I have created.

There are 4 questions, and you can think about them as much or as little ask you would like.

Please follow the link below to complete the survey.

~ “What do you think about Church?” survey ~

Thanks!

My artwork will be made using Hype, and will be about Church. But if you want to see it, you’ll have to come to Ancon (or read this blog after).

UPDATE: See the complete animation here – “Church is”.

Ancon is the annual conference for the Sydney Uni Evangelical Union and it’s only 6 weeks away!

Each year some people choose to help advertise Ancon through Facebook, and just like last year, I thought I would try and help out by creating some stuff that you can use. If you want to use what you see, scroll to the bottom of the post to find the downloads.

Just like last year, I’ve made a square ancon image that will make the most of your thumbnail in the news feed.

I’ve also made a banner that you can use across the top of your Facebook profile.

I’m not the only one who has made these type of things, check out RyAncon’s profile below.

Continue Reading…

In weeks 6, 7 and 8 at Sydney Uni, the Evangelical Union is running a three week series in Public Meetings called “Jesus Hates Religion”.

Over the three weeks, Dave Miers (Tuesdays), Andy Judd (Wednesdays) and Steve Chong (Thursdays) will be speaking. I’m excited.

To get others excited, I made this video and it was shown in Public Meetings last week.

If your at Sydney Uni, come along! More details here http://www.sueu.org.au/activities/public_meetings/.

If your not at Sydney Uni, please pray for us.

Recently there has been a large push from sections of our community in Australia to legalise homosexual marriage. To think about this issue more, our Bible study group had a night to think about this and other issues relating to homosexuality.

To clarify what I think about this, I have decided to write this blog post with ideas from the night, as well as ideas that I have heard from others.

I’ve broken this post up into three main sections. 1. What I believe. 2. Some thoughts about homosexuality. 3. Some thoughts about homosexuality and marriage. I’ve done this so that you know the basis of what I am writing, and hopefully by doing this I won’t wrongly offend people.

Firstly, before we start I think it’s helpful to lay down some ground work so that you all know what I believe. I believe that God created this world, and that we as humans stuffed up this world by not living the way that God made us to live (this is called sin), and we deserve to be punished for this sin. But because God loves us so much, he sent his son into the world to die as a sacrifice to take the punishment that we deserve. Jesus then rose to life as proof of this, and we’re now living in a time when we are waiting for Jesus to return and judge the world. Those who accept Jesus and follow him will be saved from punishment, and those who don’t will be punished for eternity as we all deserve to be. God is delaying Jesus’ return so that as many people as possible can follow Jesus and be saved.

So now that you know what I believe as a Christian, let’s get onto some thoughts about homosexuality.

Continue Reading…

Here are two videos that I made for the start of the University Year.

O-Week

Week 1 Public Meetings

Something that I’ve become increasingly aware of is that it is good to show up to church at least 10 minutes early. And there is something more to this besides just making sure that you’re there on time. It’s because church actually starts before the “official” starting time.

Let me explain. Church isn’t just the building that we (as Christians) meet in. Church isn’t just the time from the moment the leader gets up to the last chorus of the final song.

Church is the gathering together of Christians around God and his Word.

In short, Christians should be at church before the “official” start time, so that we can hang out with people.

So are there any other reasons as to why is it good to show up to church early?

1. It means that you can help out with any last minute things that need to be done.
2. You can welcome people who are coming to church for the first time.
3. You can hang out with the people whom you already know before church, and see how they are.
4. It means that there is a good group of people there from the start of the service, which is generally encouraging for everyone.

So instead of sneaking into church during the first song, make an effort to get there at least 10 minutes before it starts. For most people, it’s not that hard.