a blog by Christ follower Wesley Fryer @pocketshare @wfryer
5th grade students in the Sunday school class I’m co-teaching this semester contributed to this four minute audio podcast on the theme, “Who Is Jesus?” Some of these recordings were made during our Sunday school class last week using Audacity and an external microphone, but most were made by students and teachers from home using their phones and the free Gabcast service.
Our 5th grade Sunday School class is using Group Publishing’s “Grapple” curriculum this fall, which includes an online “walled-garden” social networking environment for students. This is a screenshot of student and teacher postings in the discussion board to date. (We just finished our sixth week.)
If I’m doing my math correctly, we’ve had 34 total posts and replies in the first 3 church-related categories, and 121 posts and replies in the “Let’s Talk” category which is open for students to appropriately discuss whatever they want. We’ve had lots of polls about school, favorite singers, TV shows, and other topics. These formative results show the importance of providing an open forum for students in a distance learning or distributed learning context.
Technorati Tags: christian, christianity, curriculum, grapple, jesus
This podcast is a mid-semester review of the “Grapple” digital curriculum package from Group Publishing which we are using to co-teach 5th grade Sunday School in fall 2007 at my church in Edmond, Oklahoma. In addition to reviewing the elements of Grapple I address different ways I am integrating technology into our weekly Sunday school lessons, and discuss in detail the different elements of the online social networking and discussion board area provided by Group Publishing as part of the Grapple curriculum.
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I heard a great sermon this summer by my brother-in-law who pastors Cedarview Community Church in Newmarket, ON. It was one in a series of messages dealing with New Testament worship.
As someone who has grown up in a charismatic church, I’ve seen a lot when it comes to worship. Some of it very powerful and some of it didn’t seem very authentic. I’ve concluded that in many cases, worship is a matter of personal preference and taste. I realize now that God, while allowing us to be individuals does require us to follow some principles and guidelines. Most Christians sing hymns of praise. Why? Is it tradition? Partly but mostly because the Bible shows us time after time that singing and music are pleasing to God and is one way we can express ourselves to Him. Another practice which I’ve always been comfortable with was raising my hands. Until this message, I didn’t really know why.
As Christians, we see the teachings of the New Testament as the fulfillment of the old. When it comes to how we live, we understand the many ideas of the Old Testament were made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13) Part of how we determine what is and isn’t to be practiced from the Old Testament is checking to see if the ideas or practices are encouraged or reinforced in the new. The lifting of hands is mentioned several times in the New Testament. 1 Tim 2:8.
So here’s why we lift our hands in worship and what it means:
So this isn’t about what church you go to or what style of worship you prefer, it’s something God has asked us to do because he desires worshippers. So the next time you raise your hands in worship, perhaps, if you’re like me, you’ll know better why you do it. If you don’t, why not?
Image:Worship During a Vertical Set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismoncus/281928443/
This past weekend I worked to format and publish about 15 sermons from mid-April through the present from our church in Edmond, Oklahoma, as podcast recordings in a new podcast channel submitted (and now approved) by iTunes. Anyone who is interested can either download sermon podcasts as mp3 files separately, or subscribe to the sermon podcast channel in iTunes.
Many of these sermons are fantastic, and I commend them all to you. David Leard’s treatment of the often challenging verses from Ephesians 6 in his July 22nd message, “Everything in Its Place” was particularly good. (Those are very challenging verses to preach on and about.) I also really enjoyed John Gruel’s message on June 24th titled “Twelfth Man.” (Even though I’m not a big fan of Texas A&M!)
It is WONDERFUL, from a personal standpoint, to now have asynchronous access to audio recordings of these these inspired words from our pastors. This past weekend after I published these and our family was driving back from Lubbock to Edmond, my wife and I were able to listen to two of the sermons she had missed this summer because she had been taking care of children’s ministries needs and missed worship.
We are VERY blessed to have four gifted pastors at our church, and I’m thrilled their weekly messages are now available as a globally accessible podcast channel. Listening to a sermon at church (or somewhere else) is certainly just PART of the experiences and the community into which we are called as Christians to live each week, but it can be an important part– especially if it inspires us to change our thinking and our behavior in positive ways in the week that follows! 🙂
I attended a wonderful Christian men’s conference at Mo-Ranch in south Texas this weekend, and emerged from the weekend with 22 pages of handwritten notes! To begin the work I need to do in processing and reflecting on many of the ideas shared at the conference, I recorded a 30 minute Gcast podcast this evening with my cell phone, which was automatically posted to the web.
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The Sunday School lessons of Dr. Dan Foster, who was our conference keynote speaker, are available online.
Our church is looking at Overload. Last Sunday our Pastor spoke on Financial Overload. Here’s a segment from the video we viewed.
Go ahead and plug your annual income into this website. You are rich.
As someone who claims to be evolving into a global citizen, I am compelled to rethink my attitude toward my wealth and how I use my resources. The following verse comes to mind:
“…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48
Our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at church this evening created our first BLASTcast podcast! Check it out, our first effort is 20 minutes long, with the first half different segments/corners by kids and the last half an “in the field” mission interview.
In the “about” section of the blog site we included a link to our BLASTcast planning guide, which is modeled after Radio WillowWeb.
Some good friends of ours in Lubbock have just had their first baby today, and it was born several months premature. His name is Noah, and he is just over two pounds. Please keep Noah and his parents in your prayers.
A friend sent me a dayspring.com greeting card this evening, and I found this movie about “love” based on Biblical verses when I was visiting the site.
Great reminders of what really matters in life.