Set up as a network to encourage and grow younger Christian leaders, the podcasts were part of a communication strategy trying to link experienced leaders with those just starting out on the road to Christian leadership.

The quality of the podcasts were always good and the interviews provided some really useful information, so why are they stopping after almost two years.

David Couchman who presented the podcasts wrote the following on his blog…

In the future, the main way the Slipstream resources will be delivered will be through the e-letter. Users identified email as their preferred way to receive information. This will be more frequent, shorter, and will not have a regular schedule, but will be sent out when there is something specific to say – a new resource, an upcoming event etc.

Read the full post here

A few thoughts

1. We can often get caught up in schedules and loose the plot of what we are trying to do. If you plan to release something once a month you have to produce something once a month, regardless of whether you have good quality content or not. I don’t think this was a problem for Slipstream, they had lots of good stories – including interviews that I recorded with Andrew Hamilton and Eric Bryant that never made the cut.
2. You have to use appropriate media for what you are trying to share. It’s far quicker for me to read an e-mail than it is for me to listen to a podcast. Much of what was shared through Slipstream could have been conveyed faster in writing than by listening to the audio.
3. Finally, does the technology limit the audience? I reckon more people can be reached by e-mail than by podcast. I listen to podcasts because I have an iPod and use iTunes on my home computer. If it wasn’t for my attachment to the Mac I probably wouldn’t bother. In other words, a podcast may be convenient for me but not necessarily for everyone. I reckon the e-mail route will give access to a wider audience.

What do you think?

This isn’t a political blog post, although, you don’t have to think too hard to come up with some items for prayer that centre around national or international politics. Some days you have to wonder why we ‘humanity’ seem to insist on believing that we have all the answers ourselves. Instead, this is about one of the busiest weeks in the life of Wycliffe Bible Translators in the UK.

This is the first week of the From Eden to Eternity Tour. It all kicks off tomorrow in Exeter and then runs for another 26 days around England and Wales. Please continue to pray for the cast and crew who will be travelling thousands of miles by road and sleeping in a new bed almost every night of the tour.

Tomorrow is also the start of the International Christian Resources Exhibition. I’m running the Wycliffe stand for the week, with support from different colleagues for each day. It’s also the week where the Biblefresh book will be launched.

Finally, tomorrow colleagues from the European Training Programme are involved in the final stages of approval for a new Masters degree. Months of hard work and planning rest on the outcomes of tomorrow’s meetings.

As you can probably guess, this is a very important, stressful and challenging time for a number of people. Please remember them all in your prayers.

Recent surveys suggest that many people no longer have confidence in the Scriptures. But not only have we lost confidence, we’ve also lost appetite. We have more Bibles than ever before, but seem to be reading them less and less.

So why Biblefresh?

Biblefresh exists because of lack of confidence and lack of appetite, with the desire is for the whole church to re-engage with the Bible in 2011. 2011 is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. Things will be happening in the wider culture, and it would be great if churches could cash in on the interest that will be generated.

More information can be found at the Biblefresh website (biblefresh.com), which went live this week.

Tomorrow lunchtime Eddie and I are flying off to Burkina Faso in West Africa for 10 days. We’re doing some research, trying to identify Bible translation projects which could be supported through the Biblefresh initiative in 2011.

On so many levels this is going to be a very interesting trip. I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting an African country before, so the experience is going to be very new.

I’m being very careful to tell people that I’m going to Burkina Faso, not to Africa. Why? Well, it’s stupid if you think about it. Africa is a huge continent. In the north there are countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisa and Egypt – in the south there’s South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia; all of which are completely different.

Also, I am almost completely ignorant about the country. Everything I know I learnt last night reading the country’s Wikipedia entry. So I can tell you that BF is about the same size as the UK (different shape but similar land area) but where the population of the UK is around 61 million, BF is around 15 million. While financially poor, even by African standards, the country is recognised to be one of the friendliest.

Hopefully there will be some time to blog while I’m away, but most updates will appear through Twitter where you can follow both Eddie and myself.

2011 is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and Bible Fresh is celebrating this by bringing together over 40 agencies, festivals, colleges and denominations to spend the year focussing on the Bible. Bible reading is a major element of Bible Fresh, but so is education and training, Bible translation (which is where Wycliffe fits in) and experience.

If you want to know more it would be a good idea to head along to one of the launch events taking place around the country. More information can be obtained from the attached Bible Fresh flyer.