Jesus' death killed the consumer
Just occasionally the Resurgence blog comes out with something insightful and thought-provoking. This is one of those:
God’s action in the world never revolves around the immediate satisfaction of wants and needs. His action is focused on reconciliation. The amazing news is the God of the Bible incurred all the cost of reconciliation himself. He paid our debt in full to restore us to his family. And when we see the God of the heavens lay aside his wants and needs to serve us, we can make the much smaller sacrifice of laying aside our own.
Contextualising this into a consumerist culture, you could argue that Jesus allows himself to be consumed on the cross - the price for our consumer debt - in order for us to be free of the dissatisfaction of a life bound by consumerism.
Don Miller (writer of Blue Like Jazz) has also been posting some interesting ideas on Consuming vs. Creating on his blog this week.
For some of my own thoughts on consumerism, see my dissertation from last year: Christian Community in a Consumerist Culture.
Child worker checks to be reduced, say ministers - BBC News
Another update on what is going to happen regarding CRB checks and the Independent Safeguarding Authority which was planned by Labour but put on hold by the Tories.
See crime statistics for your area
I don’t know if you’ve already been made aware, but if you live in the UK, you can now see your local crime statistics for December 2010, as well as local policing information, online at police.uk.
The crime map centred around the main Lab community house in Alway shows 279 crimes reported within a mile of the house:
- 47% Anti-social behaviour (131)
- 12% Burglary (35)
- 8% Vehicle crime (22)
- 4% Violent crime (11)
- 1% Robbery (2)
- 28% Other crime (78)
Carol Service!
For this year carol service at St Paul’s, we assembled a creative team from The Lab to plan the service with a bit of an arty, creative edge. They came up with these amazing video readings which we used in the service, with voice overs from St Paul’s members and video shot around Newport.
Thanks to Stef especially, as well as Dan, who put lots of work into filming, recording and editing them. Check them out as a way of walking through and reflecting on the story of the first Christmas.
Shared Leadership
One of the big things on my mind at the start of a new year for The Lab is the idea of sharing out leadership responsibilities and creating a sense of shared ownership.
I’ve spent three years leading The Lab, and have felt what it’s like to try and do everything - it’s time to give some other people the chance to do some!
This is a great piece by Jonathan Dodson on sharing out leadership responsibilities.
Jonny Baker is jumping out of a plane...
…to raise funds for the Church Missionary Society’s new training initiative for Pioneer Ministry.
Design with Intent Toolkit - 101 Patterns for Influencing Behaviour Through Design
Really like these postcards which present 101 thought-provoking questions about designing functional, people-oriented stuff.
Safeguarding and Every Child Matters are no longer preferred terminology
If you’ve just changed the name of your child protection policy to a “safeguarding policy”, and if your youth work curriculum now references the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes - then go back and press the undo button!
But don’t worry, the LibCon government is committed to Child Protection and Helping Children Achieve More.
CYPNow has announced that, according to an internal memo within the Department of Education, the old ‘preferred’ terms under Labour are out - and good old fashioned family values are in…
Here the list:
LANGUAGE OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT: SOME OF THE CHANGES AS THEY APPEAR IN THE MEMOPre-11 May 2010 England will be the best place in the world for children to grow up
Post-11 May 2010 Make Britain the most family-friendly place in Europe
Pre-11 May 2010 Targeted services
Post-11 May 2010 Fairer services
Pre-11 May 2010 Targets and outcomes
Post-11 May 2010 Results and impact
Pre-11 May 2010 Children’s trusts
Post-11 May 2010 Local areas, better, fairer services
Pre-11 May 2010 One children’s workforce framework/tool
Post-11 May 2010 Local areas self-assessment tool
Pre-11 May 2010 Five outcomes/ECM
Post-11 May 2010 Help children achieve more
Pre-11 May 2010 Narrow the gap
Post-11 May 2010 Close the gap, vulnerable and disadvantaged
Pre-11 May 2010 Integrated working
Post-11 May 2010 People working better to provide better services
Pre-11 May 2010 Safeguarding
Post-11 May 2010 Child protection
Pre-11 May 2010 FIP
Post-11 May 2010 Key workers providing intensive support to families
HT: Ian
