Recommended Books

Four cool books to recommend this time:

The Children of Hurin - JRR Tolkein
The 'new' Tolkein pieced together by his son and grandson makes a remarkably flowing read- far more readable in style than the likes of the Silmarillion. Be warned, this is a tragedy of epic proportions, but still an enjoyable read and not as long as you think as a third of the book is taken up with supplemental material.


Getting Things Done - Dave Allen
Now I understand why Merlin Mann calls his blog 43Folders. Getting Things Done is an approach to organisation for personal effectiveness - beyond time management and prioritisation. Beware - you may need to un-learn everything you know up to know about workload planning but this system looks like it will work for me and has a massive following especially in the high-tec community


Failure is not an Option - Gene Kranz
The autobiography of Gene Kranz, with a great deal of focus on the Apollo 13 mission - a fantastic read by an amazing man - that reminds me of the time I met him - but more of that later ;-)



Wild at Heart
If gentle Jesus meek and mild is a bit of a turn off for you then this passionate and readable journey to rediscover the masculine heart of God will set your pulse racing and remind you of a side to God that often gets forgotten. If your church is full of serving women and observing men, this book will help you understand why and how to tackle the issue.


(Click through to amazon.co.uk to buy these books and support www.assemblyangels.com)

Everything I need to know in life I learned from Star Trek

One of the truths of the human condition that many people not only fail to recognise but also seem to spend most of their lives in denial about and trying to avoid is this: mankind was designed to work. Idleness may be something we strive for, but it's something that ultimately we find unfulfilling.

A quick history lesson

God created the universe, God created the planet earth and all the living things thereon- including the slimey, creeping ones and the magnificent plumed ones. Then God creates man, in his own image. So man is created with the nature of God: God loves - and so do we, God delights in creating things - so do we. Creation=work. Get the picture?

So, why is it then, that so may churches and charities struggle to find the volunteers that they need? Thinking about churches just for now- why are we not getting involved in helping in the jobs needed to run the church and fulfill the great commission Jesus gave at the end of his earthly ministry. "Go into all the world," he said, "making disciples...."

STAR TREK
When Captain Kirk (or Picard (that reminds me of a funny thing that happened when I was privileged to meet and interview Gene Kranz, who was the NASA flight director for the Apollo 13 mission - but more of that another time!)) lands on a strange new world, or meets new life or new civilisations- he knows how to act because Star Fleet has issued him with the Prime Directive and other standing orders that define rules of behaviour and a framework of responses that can be used to work out the appropriate response to any given situation.

The Church's Prime Directives
So that got me thinking, what are the church's Prime Directives? Well lets start with the BIBLE- that's the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The BIBLE lists a number of requirements and responsibilities for God's people, including:

• Spread the Gospel
• Worship God
• Take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans and of course the aliens!
  

Now God did not lay these responsibilities on a chosen few- they were general command given to us all.

So breaking that down- if we all are charged with spreading the Gospel, then that not only includes the act of evangelism but also all those activities that are needed to make it possible such as designing the poster- handing out the invitations to the revival meeting, inviting pre-christian friends round for a dinner party... get the picture?

And the imperative to worship God, includes all those jobs that need to be done to make it possible such as (thinking about corporate worship) putting out the chairs, sweeping the floors, playing the music, running the projector or OHP, handing out the hymn books, being a steward... get the picture yet?

So why do we have so many Christians sitting in the pews on a Sunday not at all engaged in the work of the Kingdom, because they are waiting for 'the call' when actually God has already given very clear instructions to us all about what he wants to see being done and we just need to get on and do it. Once we start obeying the written instructions already given, then God may decide to give us some more responsibility- but not before!

SO that is how Star Trek taught me everything I need to know in life - obey your prime directives - and be nice to aliens!

Welcome - Faffing explained

Welcome to Faffer's blogspot- what is Faffing I hear you ask? Well faffing is taking time to get round to doing the things that don't matter in order to give priority to the things that do. Of course, there is the opportunity for tension when those around you disagree as to exactly what might fall into one category or the other!

{faff-er: one who Faffs; To Faff - prioritise selectively}

This weeks best of the web links:

A new convert to www.twit.tv (which is This Week in Technology and nothing to do with bird watching or stupid people)

Who says politicians don't have a sense of humour - see this on YouTube - Bush doing Bush at the White House correspondents dinner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq7sRkg_2Ss

And proud husband says check our Mrs Faffer's www.assemblyangels.com which is going to help transform british primary schools by giving kids the life skills they really need.

So how do you work out what are the important things in life? For me its God, Family then other stuff which turns out to be harder to prioritise than I thought... being part of a rapidly growing church (HIC) keeps us all very busy including the two junior faffers in the house.

My life motto and our thought for the week can be found here.