Target Audience

I'm delighted to see that my paper on Women in Leadership is reaching its target audience.
HT Polly and SFLITFCOL

Fantasy BU Council League (5-a-side rules)

You manage your own team selected from the current list of members of Baptist Union Council. Points are earned during Council on the basis of how well your team performs up-front.

Squad Selection

• You have a starting kitty of 30 pieces of silver
• You may purchase up to five team members for your squad, drawn from the current list of BU Council members.
• Different members have a different value (see below).
• You may also purchase one ‘wild card’ player who is not currently on the BU Council list of members.
• You must nominate one of your team to be captain. This player will score double the number of points they would otherwise have achieved.

Player values (in pieces of silver)

• 15 Moderator of Council
• 12 Moderator of Trustees
• 10 Chaplain to Council
• 10 General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain
• 10 Baptist Union President
• 10 Head of department (e.g. Faith and Unity, Mission etc)
• 10 Treasurer of the Baptist Union
• 10 Regional Ministers
• 8 General Manager of the Baptist Union
• 7 Wildcard Player (not from list of current BU Council Members)
• 5 All other Council Members

Scoring

• Points are awarded for ‘up-front’ performance.
• The more someone makes their presence felt, the more points they score.
• Points are awarded proportionate to the size of the gathering. e.g. speaking in morning prayers earns less points than contributing to main plenary debate.
• Players can lose points as well as scoring them. Points will be deducted should any player use the following words: ‘Baptistic’, ‘missionary God’, ‘missional’, ‘crossing places’, ‘community’, ‘just’, ‘really’, ‘wanna’, ‘alternative’, ‘cross-cultural’, ‘buzz-groups’, ‘ecclesial’, ‘that would be an ecumenical matter’.
• A red card will be awarded to any player who sits on the back row with their laptop open for more than two consecutive sessions.
  
• Players score double for ‘inspired utterances’ including unsolicited extempore prayer, praying in tongues, and delivering words of knowledge / prophecy.
• Points are awarded for style: The more unexpected / spectacular a player’s contribution, the more points they will be awarded.
• Points can also be earned for ‘community contributions’ including the supply of malt-based beverages, cake, blue cheese, fermented grape juice, and Pringles.

Radio 2 again

Here's today's 'Pause for Thought' from the Lynn Parsons show:

Pause For Thought - Radio 2

I'm on Pause for Thought on Radio 2 again this weekend.
Here's this morning's 'thought' from the Zoe Ball show.
More tomorrow...

The Great Disappointment

In this clip from QI, the panellists analyse 'The Great Disappointment' of the Millerite sect in the ninteenth century, when the expected return of Jesus to the earth in 1844 failed to materialise. They go on to talk about the rapture....

Terry Pratchett the Theologian

Terry Pratchett is best known as the author of the fabulous Discworld novels. More recently, his diagnosis with Alzheimer's has brought him into the spotlight as both a fundraiser for Alzheimer's research and a participant in the debate over assisted suicide. His recent Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death is available on iPlayer.

So, in his honour, I thought I'd post a couple of interesting quotes.

The first is from the lesser-known Discworld book Eric, a parody of Faust. When my grandfather died, many years ago, we discovered that he had typed this quote out and put it in his writing box.

• The gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is so important to shoot missionaries on sight.

The next quote is from Pratchett's latest book Unseen Academicals.

• The Patrician took a sip of his beer. 'I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect I never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of coruse it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior. p. 229

And this makes me think that those of us who dare to lay claim to a belief in God must, simply must, take account of the words of those who do not share our fundamental beliefs. For us to assume any kind of superiority is an act of arrogance unworthy of the very faith we claim to hold.

Postcards from the wall #13

Here's another Christmas postcard from my study wall...

Another Review of My Book

This review appeared in this week's Baptist Times (29th Jan 2010)

(Click the image to enlarge)

God Bless You Barack Obama?

Just in case you missed it, you can catch Robert Beckford's exploration of Obama's spirituality on iPlayer here:



As the blurb says: 'America's religious Right had claimed God for them. Beckford reveals how Obama adopted the precepts of black liberation theology and turned them into a winning manifesto that reached out to all Americans.'

Dara O'Briain on the Bible Creationism

In this clip, comedian Dara O'Briain offers his insights into the world of biblical literalism and creationism.

A few quotes:

For God’s sake stop taking it literally – it’s only the Bible, it’s not Gospel.

Three arguments against God making us exactly as we are:

1. Have a look at yourself… This is the same guy who apparently made mountaintops and sunsets. What kind of off-day exactly was he having when he threw you together?
2. If we were truly created by God, why do we still occasionally bite the insides of our own mouths?
3. The appendix. Why would he put it in you when it does nothing except randomly kill you?

HT Polly