]]> http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/07/23/kirribilli-kids-art-workshop/feed/ 0 hayleyneal kkartsidea tutors http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/05/17/a-story-to-live-in/ http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/05/17/a-story-to-live-in/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 09:01:53 +0000 hayleyneal http://withoutashepherd.com/?p=1298 ]]> Guest Post | The importance of Stories is undispute

Author | Toby Neal
web: www.middlechildrenofhistory.info |  twitter:  tobiasneal |   facebook: toby.neal1

Alasdair MacIntyre writes, ‘Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words.’ That is if you don’t hear stories as a kid, not only do you not know how to talk, because you are not familiar with language, but you don’t know how to act as a character in their life story. Aristotle said, ‘When the storytelling goes bad in society, the result is decadence.’ Yet one of the essences of postmodernism is that there is no overarching story that rules over all times, cultures, histories, and people. Everything is contingent on culture and perspective. Lyotard defines postmodernism simply as ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives’. In the novel, Fight Club, writer Chuck Palahniuk, through the character Tyler Durden, gives voice to a generation without a Metanarrative:

“We are the middle children of history—no purpose or place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very ****** off.”

Palahniuk shows that notices that a world without a great war or great depression is left to create its own futile story. What the world needs is a story which is not only worth living for, but worth dying for. In 1 Corinthians, there is such a story. A story which has been foretold and revealed by a divine storyteller (2:10), which Paul reminds the young and troubled church in Corinth, to lead them out of decadence. Such a story, if McIntyre is correct, is eminently practical for, ‘I can only answer the question “What am I to do?” if I can answer the prior question “Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?”.’
The Story of the Jesus the most important story you will hear: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, … he was buried, … raised, and … appeared’ (1 Cor 15:3-5). This story is all about Jesus first and foremost, not about us and our salvation. One of my favourite lecturer’s at Moore college used to say, ‘It is Christ‘s story which gives meaning to our lives, not our story which gives meaning to Christ’s life.’ It is no wonder Dietrich Bonhoeffer can expound: ‘I find salvation not in my life story, but only in the story of Jesus Christ.’

And yet, the surprising twist in this story is that the main character notices the minor characters. In fact in a display of love for those characters, Jesus Christ, although being God himself, gives up his privileged position and becomes one of us in order to die for us. In a “Great Exchange” Jesus is punished in our place for our sin of writing God out of our life stories and in exchange we are forgiven and written back into the story of faith, hope and love which God is telling. This story so affected JRR Tolkien that he wrote,

The Gospels contain…a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story has entered history and the primary world…. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath…. This story is supreme; and it is true. God is Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

*Toby and a team of people are excited to tell this story to the world, starting in the inner-city of Sydney. If you would be interested to find out more about the church-plant, please check out his website or get in contact with him via Facebook or Twitter.

On Easter Monday, the Australian Christian Channel (ACC) screened SONrise, J John Live at Hillsong London.

I had the channel flickering on in the background, J John started preaching and I couldn’t look around.I have never heard of the preacher but found him to be so faithful, engaging and hilarious. Lots of  jokes and illustrations and tricks for us to think about using in our preaching.

Check out this 8 minute clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPJwb4ymZoI

Or check out his website PhiloTrust

And if you have Friday 9th free… He happens to be here in Sydney this week.

Why not go see him LIVE (and free) at C3′s Presence Conference at Darling Harbour.

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.

ENTRIES CLOSE: 7th August, 2010.

To Enter and for Conditions of Entry visit: www.iheartkirribilli.com

more photos from 2009 available on the website.

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

Christianity Works has developed this WHOSJESUS  to detail and explain the life of Jesus and his relevance.

It gives the website viewer access to the Jesus All About Life book; video answers to common questions and replys to common objections to the Christian faith.

Its an interactive and modern design for a website and looks a whole lot better than other ‘who is jesus’ websites currently out there. This website is clever in choosing the topics that appeal to our broken and selfish world as well as including stories that are of interest and perhaps relevant: Forgiveness; Shattered Lives; Healing;  Columbine High School – Rachel’s Story; What I really want?; What is Christianity and Who is Jesus?

Practically though, it is a little difficult to navigate and you can easily miss out on the goodness that is locked away. You need to have intuative navagation skills to make the most of this website I think. One thing that becomes quite annoying is that you have to open little windows for each bit you want to explore and to move on from that scree you can’t just click on something else you have to click the X.  I think I would not be alone to find this annoying  – but it isn’t the end of the world, just got to remember to click X before wanting to click something else.

The site is also a little mysterious. We are not introduced to the voices that you are listening to and their isn’t much consistency between the media chosen. Every little section has different voice backing the video, some are more 80s than others and some are just still pictures with audio clips.

Plus, there isn’t much much opportunity to go further or to be followed up. But hopefully  if you were referred to the site by a friend you could ask them further information about how to become a follower of Jesus.

Nevertheless, the guys have built this site to keep sharing the story of Christ Jesus. Its interactive nature means you do spend more time on the website and as such sees you exploring more. I pray God uses this site to win people to him.

Has your church thought about making the most of Easter by doing a letter box drop inviting your parish to church?

Thought about it but don’t know anyone who could do you up a nice little postcard to get printed? Not every church has within its body of believers a gifted graphic desinger. So Praise God he has gifted his wider church with people who are willing to share their gifts in this area.

A website I am frequenting a lot a the moment is CreativeMYK. Its inspiring and has some great graphics I am using for our welcome screen at church and also for my macbooks background. My favourite image is this one at the moment. This site is full of sermon slides images, great scripture graphics, and resources for event brochures, postcards, powerpoint etc.

Some are .jpg, some are .psd which you can edit in Illustrator and customise them to your church needs. Either way this is a valuable resource to any church.

Read more about who Jesus is here