“The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” – Philippians 1:18

The BBC website is today reporting a about a company in China whose workers are encouraged to be Christian.

Weng-Jen Wau believes that by encouraging increasing numbers of his staff to convert to Christianity, his business will prosper.

China is not a country that encourages freedom of religion, but that’s not to say that Christianity is completely banned. In Wenzhou, the city where this company is based, the BBC is suggesting that up to 20% of the population claim to be Christian.

It’s an interesting idea, that Christianity is tied to profitability. The Chinese government have recruited some academics to do a research study into the idea. Certain churches would claim a similar thing and preach what’s known as the ‘prosperity gospel’, but personally I’m not buying it, I know plenty of Christians who couldn’t be described as profitable, in fact they are far from it. But, if it provides opportunities for people to hear the about God then who knows where it will lead.

iPhone 4 32GB Black by Yutaka Tsutano http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/4736264846/

Once upon a time I could remember phone numbers. Now I rely on my mobile phone.

There was a time when I took time to check my spelling of words, now I look for a red line to tell me what I need to go back and change.

I used to write letters and always enjoyed going to the post room at University to pick up my mail. Now I open my in box to look for Facebook updates.

Where do you most notice change?

HT Kouya

Chris Wright’s new book, ‘The Mission of God’s People’ is due out this summer. First release is today, on Kindle, then the paperback appears 1st September.

If it’s anywhere near as good as his previous book ‘The Mission of God’ it’s going to be extremely good indeed.

Order it through Amazon

• The Mission of God’s People [Kindle Edition]
  The Mission of God’s People [Paperback - 1st September]

Sunday morning Tany and I were back at Above Bar Church where we first met. It was good to be around old friends and great to see a Sunday morning service so full of kids.

Income Tax - photograph by Alan Cleaver - Available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4105756012/

Paul was preaching on the parable Jesus told about the rich young ruler. The basic premise of the story being that this rich young guy was challenged by Jesus to sell everything to follow Jesus.

Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t often ask us to give up everything, but sometimes he may put us in a position where we have to make some sacrifices. Personally, I have found that it’s easier to give stuff up if you can acknowledge that God is sovereign – in charge of everything – and if you’ve got it he’s given it to you in the first place.

Tany occasionally jokes that our wedding vows should have been something like, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too” – you can decide who the statement belongs to. But, it’s much easier sharing with Tany than it is with other people, mostly because since getting married our possessions are ours, not mine or hers.

Interestingly, I was reading Hamo’s Backyard Missionary blog a few days ago, where he wrote about a guy called Phil who was heading off to Afghanistan with his family. Phil was quoted as saying…

‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him “Come and die” ‘. Thus said Bonhoeffer, and while he meant it in a spiritual sense – that is, the death of one’s private ego and aspirations – I think he also meant it literally. And as it turned out for Bonhoeffer, it was a literal and a spiritual command. I suppose it could turn out that way for us.

We are ok with that. Shouldn’t anyone of faith be ok with that? Jesus, whom I follow, called people – anyone who listened – to abandon security and safety and the protection of their own life. Heck, we are going to die anyway, and who says my life is so tremendously significant that I ought to fiercely protect it? ‘Ahhh’, you say, ‘but you have children now. Fine to go and die for your dreams, but what about them?’ Good point. For what it is worth, the kids are very happy to be going back to Afghanistan. They are looking forward to the TVs on the plane, they tell me. And if I tell them to live lives of committed faith, but fail to do so myself, isn’t that some kind of hypocrisy?

That is not meant to sound trite, or cheap. It is simply that it is easy to turn away from atrocity and hardship: that is in fact the mantra for modern living – ‘take it easy, enjoy, relax, you deserve it.’ This is a particularly powerful message as you get older, when you are supposed to be settling down and end your youthful adventuring. ‘Let someone else go to Afghanistan’, is a message we have heard many times in the last months.

You should read Phil’s blog, Itinerant and Indigent, too.

Consider

• Is there anything you would refuse to give up to ‘inherit eternal life‘?
• Is there anything you need to give to God?

Sometimes Newsnight throws up some real gems. Last week it was Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, talking about the amount of information people now share about themselves. He commented at the start of the interview, “What is the future for humanity if all we do is live externally?”

The interview implied that we should expect to live lives that are both public and private. That we can have our public persona but that we should also have a private life that’s protected from public scrutiny.

I don’t really have an issue with the idea of having a private life, although, I would suggest that there is a difference between having a private life and a secret life. Private lives are still shared, where as secret lives usually seem to have something to hide.

Can we maintain a private life and still use all the technology available to us?

You can watch the full Newsnight interview on the BBC website.

I’m a big fan of the internet. I love the speed, the access to all sorts of information, the ability that it gives to me to share news with friends in all parts of the world and the access to people I wouldn’t have otherwise had the chance to connect with (Paul, Mark, Eric, Ruth, Matt, Ann… Stephen and Boris!).

But, despite all the opportunities, there are a couple of things that cause me to stop and think.

The demise of the editor

Once upon a time documents were checked thoroughly for accuracy before they were published. This isn’t the case anymore. People can now publish opinion as fact without having to take responsibility for the consequences. Disclaimers can often be a get-out for people who just want to sound off.

No more borders

Once I could pick my target audience. Magazines and newspapers knew who their readers were, radio stations knew their listeners, everything could be targeted and tailored for the audience. We don’t have that luxury anymore. I need to remember whenever I publish something it could go anywhere. Even writing for a print publication, the final text could end up on a website somewhere and be open to the world to read.

Thoughts

1. Accuracy does matter. Especially if you want to maintain your authority, which is valued in today’s online society.
2. National borders no longer exist for information. Remember what you say could be read/seen anywhere so you should be writing for an international audience.
3. Technology is a wonderful tool, but it’s a tool to aid communication and it’s the quality of the information/message that holds the value.

The church that Tany and I attend in Thame is a couple of years old. Planted by a local Baptist church we’ve seen steady growth over the last year to the point that we are now considering what the future holds and what the church is going to be like 12 months or more from now.

As part of this we have months of meetings ahead to work through the details. However, I can now safely say that we can skip the meeting for planning Sunday morning services thanks to this helpful instructional video…

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Yeah, I am joking… I think.

Thanks to Gregg for reminding me about the video.

MAF News - the old magazine and prayer diary

One of the organisations Wycliffe Bible Translators works most closely with is MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). MAF provide planes and pilots to take people in and out of remote communities, transporting valuable supplies and ensuring that people can reach important medical facilities in times of emergency.

They share the news of what they do through their website and through a quarterly magazine and prayer bulletin.

Now, to be honest, their magazine hasn’t been doing their mission justice (see the top picture). The stories it told were fantastic, but the overall appearance was tired looking and cheap. Plus, there was no way to tell that the prayer booklet belonged to the same organisation as the magazine.

Compare this to the new publication (bottom picture), which looks and feels loads better. Why…

1 – The colour scheme runs through both publications. You can tell, without reading anything, that the magazine and prayer diary have come from the same organisation.

2 – The paper is heavier. It’s amazing how printing on heavier paper can make a real difference in the feeling of quality. OK, it pushes the costs up a bit, but it does convey a message about your organisation. Heavier paper people will associate with quality.

Flying for Life - MAF's new magazine and prayer diary

3 – Loads of white space. MAF have always shared really good photographs of what they do and they’ve never been scared of using half a page for a picture, but in the old publication any space not being used for an image was used for text. The new publication still has the great photography, but doesn’t have so much text, as a result it’s easier to read and is more inviting to the reader. There are still some great stories to read, but maybe in this case less really is more.

What I’d still want to change

The magazine and prayer diary look great, but I’d want to do more to strengthen the MAF brand. Their website could look more like the publications just by changing some of the colours to match what they are putting out in print.

That could be a quick win as changing colours doesn’t take an awful lot of technical know-how.

Of course, if there was money to spend I’d like to see the swoosh on the web too, but that can come later.

Now I’ll just be interested to see them at a future event to find out if this change has made it across all their literature and onto some of their display stands too.

For now I’ll just say, great job guys… keep up the good work and thanks for all the flying.

I like this, but do they honestly expect us to believe that the bar owner is called Greg Fish!

It’s great how the Bible can make such a difference to people who have suffered hurt and pain in their lives. The following interview was recorded with Margaret Hill and John Ommani, two Scripture Use Consultants, who work across Africa helping people to recover from the effects of traumatic experiences.