Sunday, August 16, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
"Called" to be a guitarist
Went to see Tommy Emmanuel, Australian "leg-end" guitarist, play in concert last night at the Angel Place Recital Hall in Sydney CBD. What a freak! His 50 years of playing the guitar has made him a virtuoso who, incidentally cannot read a bar of music. It must be the muscle memory in his fingers that allows him to play some blisteringly fast (and beautiful slow) tunes - melody, chords and bass together - on one guitar.
At one point in the evening he mentioned that playing the guitar was his "calling", and that got me thinking about the "calling" of the Artist: one who is blessed with the gift of creating art (whether poetry, music, visual art, etc) for the enjoyment of others, and ultimately for God's enjoyment. For a biblical example check out David. His gift of music (expressed in playing the harp) would often placate the angry soul of King Saul and averted many disasters, and the legacy of the Psalms he wrote has been a great blessing to the devotional life of the Church throughout the ages.
God has certainly blessed Tommy Emmanuel with the gift of playing the guitar skillfully. Glory be to Him!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Does God like your job? | Music
A good friend and brother brought this article to my attention from Sydneyanglicans.net. It's great that the issue is out there again and being discussed in Sydney - it would have seemed that we were not interested in pursuing the questions around faith and work, but my heart is encouraged...
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Work/Life Balance
A few months ago our pastor Shane lent me a book to read: "The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness" by Tim Chester of Total Church fame. I was struck by a section exploring 3 types of ethic:
- The Work-centred ethic;
- The Leisure-centred ethic;
- The God-centred ethic.
A popular phrase at the moment is the "work/life balance", which suggests to me that there is "work" and then there is "real life", as though work was not a part of life(!!)
I want to advocate for a "work/rest balance", which I think more accurately captures the biblical idea. 6 days of work and 1 day of rest, a "Sabbath to the Lord your God".
This appropriately gives work and rest its true place.
Comments?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Management
Last week I attended a course on Foundational Management for my employer, which was a great experience. I got to meet many people from the business side of things, and had some interesting conversations about their day-to-day work and their technology needs.
I think all of us were energised by the course and inspired to become better managers.
One of the key ideas around management is that you should be able to get the work done through other people. Thinking about Christ Jesus our Lord/Manager, His strategy is the same: to get His work of bringing souls to Himself done by us; we are His hands and feet. In dependence upon the Holy Spirit, may we seek in every way to please our heavenly Master to this end.
I think all of us were energised by the course and inspired to become better managers.
One of the key ideas around management is that you should be able to get the work done through other people. Thinking about Christ Jesus our Lord/Manager, His strategy is the same: to get His work of bringing souls to Himself done by us; we are His hands and feet. In dependence upon the Holy Spirit, may we seek in every way to please our heavenly Master to this end.
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