church websites for URC

iChurch is, in my humble opinion, the best idea I’ve seen in ages.

If you are a URC congregation who either wants a website but think it is too hard to set up and run

or

are paying for web hosting, trying to design and update your site and all that

then ichurch is the answer!  For a one off fee of £100 you get your own website with a yourchurch.urc.org.uk address, a site that is already set up and really simple for anyone to update.  It runs from the URC server so no web hosting costs or any of that website hassle.

It’s a brilliant idea and one I think every congregation should take up.

ScribeFire

I’ve been looking for a blogging tool that lets me post without having to visit my blog and all that. I used to use windows Live Writter which is a fantastic application, but only for Windows!

ScribeFire is a Firefox add-in so I can now post from my browser, add youtube, stuff from other sites… Worth a look.

Making a difference

Ramble Alert! OK. I’m not sure where this post is going but stick with me and hopefully it will get somewhere…

I’m working on some aims and objectives for my job. I tell everyone I train to do it so it’s practice what you preach time.

The thing is… I can write down the stuff I do/will do/can do standing on my head OR I can do all that and try to do something that will make a difference. We have been talking a lot in our little Synod Team about ‘Culture Carrying’. That discussion has grown from a feeling that we have to do better than maintaining the church. To do that we need to embody something else. We need to be culture carriers.

So my quandary is twofold:

Does any of the stuff I do make a difference? And if it does, who or what does it make a difference to? And are those the right people?

What culture should I be carrying? I start where I always do. Asking for thoughts and ideas.

Headphonaught suggests I keep being me. I’m not sure I can be anything else, or that I can write that down on my forward plan!

1. Be me.

2. see 1

I think he’s right though. I need to be authentic. And so does the church. If it’s not about life and living it then what’s the point?

Avril asked me what difference the church can make to the lives of people in and out of it? I don’t really know the answer to that question. I’m sure it makes a bigger difference than we might at first think because the ‘organisation’ isn’t the be all and end all of being church thank God. The people live and move in the world, loving, caring, helping and supporting as they go. But then so do lots of others who have no involvement in church.

My thing is children and young people and the adults that work with them. At least that’s what my job is. My problem is that sometimes I have no idea what to do with that. (is that something I should be admitting?) I sometimes wonder if the church as it exists is anyplace for our children and young people? In some cases yes and in some no.

What I have noticed is that the churches that are willing to invest some time, money and most of all themselves are the ones that do well with children and young people. And yet few of our churches are growing significantly. That isn’t because they are not good places full of good people. I would recommend a number of them to anyone.

I wonder if it is because we don’t advertise our existence? Is that a confidence thing? Are we silent because we don’t know who we are or what we are for?

I wrote a chapter in a book called Inside Verdict which I began with the words “This isn’t working anymore.” Well, is it any better now? Of course some of it is. The Together@MCT project I’ve been working with people on perhaps sheds some light. Engaging worship. Discussion with no pressure. Hopefully some community building. But I’m not sure we have gotten our heads around who it is for and how we should move forward yet. We need to keep the bigger picture before us. That will come though.

The pervasive themes of personalisation and participation return to my thinking again and again. The world, my world, seems to value both of these. How does that fit with community? It seems to in the world of facebook and bebo. I can be me. I can have my personal page but I belong to the community and can participate and add and contribute. How does/could/should that work in church?

Media that targets you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.

Clay Shirky

So just a few questions to answer. I’ll get back to my aims and objectives now and see if any or all of those thoughts make it onto the page.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Really. They would.

Byron Report published

Dr Tanya Byron has published her report into safer internet use and gaming. You can read the report HERE. This is the executive summary bullets:

The internet and video games are very popular with children and young people and offer a range of opportunities for fun, learning and development.

But there are concerns over potentially inappropriate material, which range from content (e.g. violence) through to contact and conduct of children in the digital world.

Debates and research in this area can be highly polarised and charged with emotion.

Having considered the evidence I believe we need to move from a discussion about the media ‘causing’ harm to one which focuses on children and young people, what they bring to technology and how we can use our understanding of how they develop to empower them to manage risks and make the digital world safer.

There is a generational digital divide which means that parents do not necessarily feel equipped to help their children in this space – which can lead to fear and a sense of helplessness. This can be compounded by a risk-averse culture where we are inclined to keep our children ‘indoors’ despite their developmental needs to socialise and take risks.

While children are confident with the technology, they are still developing critical evaluation skills and need our help to make wise decisions.

In relation to the internet we need a shared culture of responsibility with families, industry, government and others in the public and third sectors all playing their part to reduce the availability of potentially harmful material, restrict access to it by children and to increase children’s resilience.

I propose that we seek to achieve gains in these three areas by having a national strategy for child internet safety which involves better self-regulation and better provision of information and education for children and families.

In relation to video games, we need to improve on the systems already in place to help parents restrict children’s access to games which are not suitable for their age.

I propose that we seek to do that by reforming the classification system and pooling the efforts of the games industry, retailers, advertisers, console manufacturers and online gaming providers to raise awareness of what is in games and enable better enforcement.

Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe – this isn’t just about a top-down approach. Children will be children – pushing boundaries and taking risks. At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs, have lifeguards and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim.

She was interviewed on the BBC news this morning. You can watch it here:

Headphonaught

I just had a great coffee (he had tea) and chat with Thomas aka headphonaught.  I’ve been reading Thomas’ blog for a while and we almost hooked up for coffee awhile back but it never quite happened.

Well, today was the day.  He’s got some great ideas and it was good to chat with someone who’s looking beyond the here and now.  I think there is much mileage in what we talked about and hope it can become a reality.  Watch this space.

Oh, and I smacked my head off a concrete beam.  It hurt.  A lot.  And it bled.  A bit.

In other news… I got a new bag.  My messenger bag is hurting my shoulder.

more new media

Class was good.  We looked at blogging, bookmarking, rss and tags.  All very useful stuff but I think some of my classmates might need more convincing!

new media

I’m about to have a class on using new media to communicate research findings.  Looking forward to it…

Oh, and I saw Dr Hilary Jones off of GMTV in Buchanan Street!

recording my research

I’ve decided to use the other blog I’ve had lying around doing nothing for a year to record my research and reflect a bit more on my Masters in Research.  I’ve written a little about it here and will still post things that are relevant to my work but I think keeping a separate blog might help me to focus a bit more on the one area, using digital tools to engage in and enhance learning of young people.

Youth Forum

I’m off to URC Scotland Youth Forum.  It’s the first one ever and we’re looking at climate change.

You can follow our adventures at our Youth Forum Blog.

why the online world is important

Any thoughts?