Call for Entries | 2010
Painting | Photography | Wearable Art | Youth | Drawing/Sketch
Dear Friends,
We are excited to announce the call for entries for I Heart Kirribilli Art Exhibition and Prize, 2010.
Entries are now open!
THEME | This year, artworks will incorporate the theme of ‘stories of Kirribilli‘. Perhaps it’s the overarching narrative of community life, or the tale behind a local identity or interesting character. What story do you find yourself apart of?
CATEGORIES | Painting, Photography, Sketch/Drawing, Wearable Art* and Youth.
*New in 2010
PURPOSE | I Heart Kirribilli is an initiative of Church by the Bridge, Kirribilli, to support artists and unite local community. Launched in 2009, 65 artworks were entered, and more than 1,000 people attended the week-long exhibition. We invite you to share your story.
THE EXHIBITION | Entries will be displayed in a free exhibition at Church by the Bridge from 30 August to 4 September 2010. Members of the public are most welcome to attend and vote in the Peoples Choice Prize. The winners will be announced at an evening presentation with the judges.
Feel free to forward this invite on to friends, family, and/or colleagues who may be interested in participating.
___________________________________________________ for more information please see the website or contact:
Hayley Neal| community pastor
Church by the Bridge
PO BOX 131 Milsons Point 1565
0402 205 330 | hayley.neal@cbtb.org.au | www.cbtb.org.au
On Christian Audio I saw this new book available for audio download.
One Review on the website by Kelly Neill says:
Well-researched, well-structured and well-narrated, “The Church of Facebook” examines the Facebook phenomenon from a wealth of perspectives: from the unprecedented way in which it allows us to connect, to the question of its validity in community-building, to the impact that “hyperconnectivity” has on us as individuals and as a culture, to the relational needs it meets and those it cannot replace, to the adaptive behaviors that have arisen as a result of its popularity.
It is a phenomenon… one in which I myself am caught up in. It was just the other day that I was setting up a new computer and realised how personal your laptop can get. It is as though much of our identity can get caught up in what we store on our computers and how we use them. My computer is a place I meet with friends, its a place I enjoy the sweet tunes of musicians, it is the place I do my work, study, banking and payment of bills, it is a place I catch up on the world news, play games, get inspiration and its a place that I can find knowlegde about God. I often joke that my computer is my personal hard drive. It has all of me that won’t fit in me on it – it is sort of an extension of who I am. Sadly there is more truth in my statement than a joke.
I love facebook and social media. Sure I can spin how it enhances ministry and evangelism (honestly it does do this) but I seriously just love technology and media. I am convinced it is a mark of belonging to genY … However I do see the dangers of the way my generation and myself are heading.
I agree with the review that ‘hyperconnectivity’ has a deep negative impact on our lives. It feeds our insatiable lust for more products and relationships, it increases our awareness of what the Jones’ have and so feeds our greedy habits. Perhaps it is that the more you know about people the more power you feel or the more important, connected and loved you feel? But I personally am seeing the harm of too much Facebook and its addictive charm. Perhaps “hyperconnectivity” gives you the opportunity to know everything about anyone, which perhaps gives you the illusion of feeling connected, well-loved, and popular – even though you are just looking voyeuristically into the lives of ‘friends’ who we hardly know.
Its a false sense of security. And we play into it more than we think. We untag ourselves in photos we think we look fat and ugly in; we screen the photos we put up on Facebook; we judge others by the content they share; we accept any friend request to bump up our tally of popularity; we boast and brag about the latest gadgets we have bought, bands we have seen and holidays we have taken. We love to create an image for ourselves. We hunger to be loved, esteemed and important.
Facebook and social media cannot add to your worth or value. It will give you temporary satisfaction maybe help you build relationships but by no means will it last or truely satisfy the hunger for connection and love. God can though. He loves us lots, esteems us greatly and deems us important. We belong to Him as His special possession, His unique treasure.
I know most churches have good intentions at Christmas time to connect with those who normally don’t go to church… they want to share the message that God loves this world enough to send his Son Jesus Christ as a helpless babe, to grow up living the life that we should have lived and then die the death we actually deserve.
It is great to create opportunities to preach this message and jazz Christmas services up with a few bells and trimmings… (see my series on 12 mistakes of Christmas). I just doubt an imaginary fat man in a red suit is the best medium for the message of the gospel.
Please keep Jesus central to your Christmas message this year and every Christmas following.
We often overlook the opportunity of evangelism in inviting people to church. Christ’s power is present when his people gather together. We are a testimony to his power, mercy and grace. Another reason to invite people to church is that God has designed preaching as a means of salvation.
…you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God… And this word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:23, 25).
When God’s living word, the imperishable seed of the gospel, is preached, it causes people to be born again.
So no matter what the sermon is being preached on the truths being taught apply to all of God’s creation and so will be a word in season even to our unbelieving friends.
For sure there are some passages and topics that are a little harder for the unchurched to pick up and take on board…. so why not look ahead in the sermon series and look up the bible references to see weeks where the gospel might be clearly explained and think about inviting a friend that week.
This is also a challenge to our pastors and preachers. They need to be preaching grace often (if not somewhere in the sermon each week) and preach in a way that is relevant to our everyday lives. How great would it be if we walk out of services saying, “I wish my unchurched friend had been here,” …. the more this happens the more I think we will be ready to invite friends along.
The word of God speaks of his grace and mercy and the people of God are testimony to his grace and mercy – why not invite friends along to taste and see.
Brainstorming and letting ideas fly are great in getting creativity flowing through the veins of your organising team… however you plans need to be reasonable. You need to think carefully about shaping events and ministry around people and not pushing beyond your limits.
Develop the ideal plan, think about the resources: people power, skill, money, equipment, energy & initiative that is available and work out whether the ideal is realisitic and scale back.
i.e This year at our Carols Under the Bridge event, we dreamt that we wanted to get market food stalls (you know the ones at every market… think Turkish gosleme yum!)… So we tried to make it happen. We approached our local neighborhood centre who helps organise our local markets, they couldn’t help out as they will be too busy around Christmas. We could have organised ourselves, but don’t have the man power and financial resouces to do it this year. It is a cheap thing to do as stall owners need to do their own thing, but if we have food we need port-a-loos and bins which cost more money than we have allowed for this year. So instead we are going with hiring a few coffee cart vans and gelato vans that have a fundraisng element to them. We will keep Market Stall Idea for next year and plan for it earlier.
Not all is lost if you can’t do all that you hope to do. Know your limitations and remember it is better to do a few things well than do 1000 things poorly even if they are all brilliant ideas. Keep the brilliant ideas for next year and store them up in an improvement plan for Christmas. What you dont do this year can go towards making next year better, when your ministry, event or avtictivity has grown momentum and support.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
March 23, 2010
I know most churches have good intentions at Christmas time to connect with those who normally don’t go to church… they want to share the message that God loves this world enough to send his Son Jesus Christ as a helpless babe, to grow up living the life that we should have lived and then die the death we actually deserve.
