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Thank you Michael for putting me onto this.

Film and ethics nerdiness

Because of my double nerdiness of ethics and my enjoyment of movies I really liked this site.

There is a more professional and less fun-looking one here.

You HAVE to read this

Thanks for sharing, Sam.

A man's place

As usual, John Zahl is 50% right, and 100% funny. This first half of the post will be familiar to many - "The Good Wife's Guide" from Housekeeping Monthly - beloved of best men and fathers-of-the-bride at weddings searching desperately for a bit of humour for their speeches. Scroll down if you've read it - it's not funny enough to warrant another read, but John's comments are well worth a read and his alternative Good Husband's Guide is highly entertaining but sobering at the same time.

Grow your own MegaChurch™

If you do not click on this link you will be seriously missing out.

(I am quite entertained by the juxtaposition of this post to my previous one.)

Quote of the week

Many thanks to Father Feeologee for this very funny quote which really appealed to me... if you don't get it ask Gaby to explain.

Friend: Hey Alan [Storkey], what's it like to be married to a radical Christian feminist?
Alan: I don't know, you had better ask Elaine.

Books other people should write (1)

This latest mini-series is bound to be about as occasional as all the others but as my readers you are subject to my every whim. Unless of course you stop reading. It is my unfortunate lot in life to frequently come up with ideas for books (mostly Christian/theological) which I have neither the time, ability or inclination to write, so I have decided to at least turn these ideas into something, namely a blog post. They are probably not very good ideas, still less original, but they are still ideas. If you have more time, inclination and ability than me then feel free to steal the ideas, but make sure you include glowing testimonials in the Preface about what an inspiration I was to you, and include my blog address so that thousands of wisdom-hungry souls will flock to my pages. I apologise for all the titles being boring and utterly banal, but at least the books would be like a can of Ronseal (let the reader understand).

Most of these books have probably been written already. In which case, if you know of them please email me and tell me what they are called, because I would like to read them (which is why I want someone else to write them, of course). Also, if you know anyone who you think should write any given book, tell them - or tell me.

• "A Systematic Biblical Spirituality" - an exploration of prayer, worship and the like which proceeds by analysing the biblical conception of the Christian life first in an expository way, e.g. "Encountering God in Genesis" or "Worship in Revelation" and then in an systematic way, e.g. "Worshipping God the Trinity", "Intercessory Prayer", "Biblical Fasting" etc.
• "Biblical Ministry" - instead of bringing our ideas of what ministry is about to the Bible and letting it speak to them, we must let God set the whole agenda for pastoral practice and leadership. What is essential is not the best and latest practical technique but a vision for ministry from God which sets his priorities as central and follows the practices and models of Jesus, Moses, Paul and co (whilst recognising appropriate differences). (It is possible that Ajith Fernando, Jesus Driven Ministry is about this but I haven't read it yet. If anyone has a copy they'd like to lend me please pass it on.)
• An ethical commentary on the New Testament/Bible. Nice, small little ideas I have you know.
• Joy as a moral duty. Sounds contradictory? Yet God commands us to be happy.
• The Communicator: an analysis and exploration of how Jesus taught and communicated his message and trained his followers, and a consideration of its relevance both for general theories of education and for training for Christian ministry in particular. [Stop press: after drafting this post I discovered that something like this has already been written by Sylvia Collinson, entitled Making Disciples - which shows either what good ideas I have or how unoriginal I am.]
• There are lots of little books on "The Christology of the New Testament" yada yada yada which covers each NT author's view of Jesus. Well, how about "The Soteriology of the NT" (including atonement) and "The Eschatology of the NT".

Sorry it's all a bit theology-heavy. I could also entertain you with some of my ideas for novels of detective fiction too, but then you would all email me to tell me that Agatha Christie wrote one like that already.

Highly, highly recommended

Store Wars.

New kid on the blo(g)ck

From the man who brough you Sean and Gaby's wedding invitation, my friend Mark Hawkins now has his blog up-and-running providing his own unique slant on the world. Mark is a comic genius, although his sense of humour will not be to all tastes. Do visit his blog and discover John Wesley picking his nose, the morality of watching TV and for any students at home with nowt to do over the summer, some nice suggestions on avoiding boredom. Inimitable.

Absofreakinglutelyhilarious

Following the success of Dave Walker's edition of the Windsor Report he brings us the following update on the Anglican Consultative Council currently meeting in Nottingham. Excellent light relief. Do have a look round Dave's sites, there's tons of great stuff there.