Synchronised Blogging on Digimission

Today is designated as a synchronised bloging day on the subject of Digimission but i have seen no evidence of this on any of the blogs i have visited. Digimission is a subject very close to my heart because it was the reason I took up blogging in the first place.

My earliest years in blogging were the happiest because I was in direct touch with so many young people, many of whom had problems that they discussed with me and I answered them from a Christian viewpoint. But my blog then was also a mixture of fun and seriousness, as I posted games and puzzles and trick questions. It really was great fun and I felt that I had a host of young eager blog friends, including a 25 year old who was traumatised after escaping the 9/11 bombings. Then my server Modblog went out of business and i lost my digi-family.

I have not found such a ministry since then, despite my yearnings to find another effective way of digimission. I enjoy blogging still, but it is now much more a sharing of information with like-minded Christian people and there seemms to be no contact with the unchurched people, especially young people, out there in the world. I sem to be fulfilling a purpose for a number of people, but it is certainly not what I felt called to do when i took up blogging. So I shall be very interested to learn what IS being effective NOW in digimission.

I get the feeling that one has to be on facebook and twitter these days to be really in touch with the 'real' world, but i don't feel that these are for me. Twitter is such a shallow means of communication and certainly NOT a channel on whch a young man could pour out his heart, pleading for help. I may be wrong but I shy away from Facebook because it seems to me that I would get such a huge number of followers that I would not have time for all the other things that I do besides blogging. So I have not entered that hiher echelon of blogging - yet.

I was hoping that I would be reading lots of brilliant ideas for digimission today, so I am very disappointed. I hope I haven't disappointed you too much! So all I can do is to refer you to this link:
http://www.eauk.org/slipstream/events/digimission.cfm .

Update - For those who have not yet visited the Slipstream website, I feel that the following details might be helpful and perhaps encourage others to book for this Digimission event.

When: 1st December 2009 10.30am to 3.00pm

Where: St. Paul's Church, Robert Adam Street, London W1

Cost: £12 early bird rate until 16 November
£15 after 16 November, booking deadline 25 November
Booking online only

For other details, visit the Slipstream website.

Bible Study Courses

I was a bit disappointed that no-one commented on my report that our Circuit Disciple group had completed our study of the Disciple 4 course, especially as I believe we are probably the first group in the UK to have done so. This is probably because I mentioned it in my post on our Circuit Farewell Service. It could also be because of the current difficulties being experienced by the Methodist Publishing House that necessitates all study materials having to be ordered direct from Cokesbury in America via the Disciple website http://www.cokesbury.com/disciple.

However, I want to draw attention to the tremendous benefits that come from the study of the Disciple Courses - in discipline, in fellowship and, most of all, in personal transformation as we all walk closer with Jesus. It seems very daunting at first to commit to spending 34 weeks in in-depth Bible study (for the Disciple 1 course means covering most of the Bible in nine months), but all who make this commitment speak enthusiastically of the experience. Personally, I found the Disciple 2 course to have the deepest, most lasting effect on my Christian journey, though each course added to the others.

So I would urge you to seriously consider committing yourselves to a Disciple course this year. When a number of members in the same church commit themselves in this way, the effect on the church is quite extraordinary.

But if you really and truly feel that such a long commitment is not for you, please consider whether your house group could follow one of the six short Disciple courses that are now available, covering 8, 10 or 11 weeks. The titles of these are -

Invitation to Psalms
Invitation to John
Invitation to the New Testament
Invitation to the Old Testament
Invitation to Genesis
Invitation to Romans

Also I was surprised to find that after Disciple 4, they list two further 30-week courses -

Jesus in the Gospels and

Christian Believer

I am excited to read about 'Christian Believer' on the Disciple website because it looks to me as though this study could revitalise a church if enough people could be signed up to discover what it is we Christians really believe!

If you are alone in wanting to take a Disciple course, I have good news for you! I understand that, just as blogging and Facebook can form groups of friends, it is now posible to become part of an on-line Disciple group! So do make enquiries about this, if you think this is the way in for you.

Finally, I heard a whisper that our Connexional Team are about to resurrect the resourcing of Disciple courses in the UK. I do hope and pray that this is more than a rumour because the Disciple courses are such a powerful tool to enable earnest, committed Christians to grow. Over to you!

A Blogging Treat!

If you haven't done so already, please visit the President and Vice-President's blog
President and
Vice-President's blog because from the day of their induction our new President David and Vice-President Richard have been assiduously blogging about all their experiences. It makes exceptionally good reading - but you will need time if you start right at the beginning. We are all going to enjoy their blogging if they keep up this high standard.

Welcome to new Methoblogger

Allow me to introduce you to my friend and Minister, Dermot Thornberry, who is now blogging at www.truffler-tberry.blogspot.com - all about bridges to date! Why not pop over and give him a welcome?

Lost Followers!

Grannie Annie recently reported that she had lost one of her followers and was anxious to contact whoever that follower was. To lose one follower is upsetting, but this morning I find that I have suddenly lost five followers in one day! i hope I am not being boycotted for some strange reason? Or has my blog become too boring? Whatever the reason, it is disappointing. Of course i am aware that lots of bloggers are spending more time on Facebook these days and so some of my followers may have found that they have had to cut down on the number of blogs that they follow. Whatever the reason, I am grateful for those who are still with me and I will try to post some interesting blogs in the future - when time allows.

New Year Musings

It has been so good over the last few days to have been able to give and receive so many Happy New Year greetings and to read of fellow bloggers' hopes and dreams for 2009, as well as their summing up of their journey through 2008. This is one of the joys of blogging - to be able to share with each other, especially the past triumphs or disappointments and the future expectations, as well as to pray for those who are suffering (as Paul (turbulent cleric)is at present) or who have been bereaved.

It is like belonging to a big family and I have great pleasure in letting everyone know that one blogging friend who has been missed for some time has now signalled her return to the Methoblogosphere.
MICKY YOUNGSON is now blogging again but has had to change from the old name of Singing Colours to the new name of sacredwells.blogspot.com, so please visit her blog and welcome her back.

But for all the 'Happy New Year's we have shared with each other, we are all aware that for many others (like John on the Zeray Gazette, families in Gaza and other places at war) the beginning of the year does not signify happiness nor an expectation of it. So I want to share a prayer with you all today -

Persisting God:
the passing years do not dim your memory,
nor stop your ears, nor dim your eyes.

In your mercy, call to mind the prayers we offered
in the year that has passed.
We offer you again the pain,thepity, the horror,
the grief and the daily necessity
which filled our hearts and minds.

Draw together the gathering of prayers
which we have offered throughout the year,
and tenderly bless, dear Lord.

We pray this day for those who find excitement
and renewal in seasons of change;
- whisper in their hearts the things which endure.
We pray also for those who find beginnings and endings hard;
- assure them of your contining companionship.

In the darkness which is ahead, be our guide;
In the pain which awaits us, be our balm;
In the sorrow which will fill us, be our secret smile;
In the sickness which will afflict us, be our inner health;
In the laughter which will be part of us, be our lasting joy.

We offer you this bundle of prayers
as we begin this year.
Draw them close together in your hands
and hold them to your heart,
and tenderly bless, dear Lord.

Giving up at 80???

What a shock it has been in these last few weeks to find that my blogging has become the subject of publicity, first in the local newspaper, the Henley Standard, and then in the United Methodist Reporter! When the Henley Standard reporter phoned to ask if he come to interview me and I asked 'What for?', he said 'My colleague says that you're 87 and that you do blogging.' I tried to wriggle out of it, but he had me in a corner because he is the best reporter for publishing anything I send out in my job as Media Publicity Director for my church. So I have to keep him sweet! Then he went and repaid me by publishing a large photo under a huge headline that read 'Olive the Blogger - at 87!' Fortunately, its readers are mainly in Henley with a growing number in Caversham and Sonning Common, but it doesn't yet sell too many copies in Reading or the rest of the Circuit, so I can still pretend to be younger in some places!

The managing editor of the UM Reporter asks why it should be assumed that activities such as blogging would not be undertaken by people over 80 and I was so glad to read that comment. Most of my contemporaries give up everything when they reach the age of 80, saying that they have done their stint and it's up to the younger ones to do everything now. Well, they don't give up altogether, but confine themselves to coffee mornings and gentle support of whatever is going on. (Actually, there are many much younger people who are afraid to try the computer, believing that it will be beyond their capabilities - but how do they know if they never try it?)

While it is wrong for elderly people to keep doing work that younger folk are eager to do just because they have gained expertise in that direction, there is plenty of work (and a great variety of work) that can and should be done by older people to help bring in the Kingdom. The healthiest and most vibrant churches are surely the ones where everyone plays their part, with a good mix of all age groups working together and encouraging each other.

Some weeks ago, one of my blogging friends asked if I'd given any thought about what to call my blog when it was no longer appropriate! I hadn't thought of it at all, but I opened it up for suggestions and someone suggested that I should call it 'Olive Branches'. That's a good name and I was drawn to it. In fact, I considered changing it there and then, but now i am of the opinion that it would be best to leave it as it is until 2010 or 2011 (if God grants me that long) so that it might just possibly encourage other octogenarians to become bloggers.

Cyberspace Seniors, enjoying the benefits of being online

Quite out of the blue, I recently received an email asking me if I would be prepared to answer a few questions about my blogging for an article being written for the United Methodist Recorder, which I imagine to be the American equivalent of our Methodist Recorder. I was also asked if I had a photograph for the article.

Today I have had a message saying "The story is now posted on the Reporter's website: http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=4375 " Not only do I find myself to be quite prominent in the article, which even begins with my name, but my photo is embarrassingly large, too. It is not as if my blog is as intresting as it was in its Modblog days when its comments were filled with the vibrance of youth, with its laughter and tears. I am still missing all those young bloggers who took me to their hearts and turned my blogging into a real ministry. It was a real privilege to be a part of their hopes and dreams and fears - something that I shall treasure always.

With my current blogging, I have made many (mainly Methodist) friends and even met some of them at a bloggers' day or conference, but there is something lacking! We are predominantly people of similar interests and faith and there are few visitors from out there in Cyberspace who have never even heard of Jesus and His church! I want to be in touch with the real cyberspace again where there are people like the 26 year old that a minister doing our disciple course with us last night told us came to her house to do some electrical work and he was completely ignorant of anything to do with the church. He had no idea of what a minister is or what goes on in church. So, I keep asking myself, why don't I switch to Facebook or Beebo? I wish I could define my aversion to these very popular social networks, but it is something intangible. Is it because they seem too public? or too, sort of, commercialised? I don't know yet. I do know that Facebook would take up too much of my time, however interesting and however involved I might get.

I find that I need to discipline myself in my use of time, and especially in blogging and using the Internet, and prioritise in order to achieve all that I feel called or am asked to do. Going online can eat up your time quicker than anything else I know! (For that reason, I recommend it to those who are lonely or live alone, especially in these dark winter evenings.) I keep promising myself to smarten up my blog - with photos, etc, - but so far I have not been able to devote enough time to my blogging. That's interesting! Having written that, I am conscious that if I had still had my young bloggers visiting, I would have MADE the time to do what was necessary to keep their interest! H'mmm.

GOING DIGITAL

May I draw your attention to the following post copied, as requested, from Tony Miles' blog Maybe2day concerning 'searching for values in the New Media environment'.
Tony is on the planning committee for the Churches' Media Conference. He writes:-


"The digital revolution has arrived. IPTV, social networking, blogging, gaming and mobile technology are changing all the rules. New platforms create new possibilities. Fresh expectations from audiences demand new ways of working from producers and communicators.

"This year’s Churches’ Media Conference will equip you to find your way through the digital jungle. There will be keynote sessions on convergence, media ethics, social networking, new initiatives in faith broadcasting.

"We will also have challenging questions to face; who is setting the values agenda for tomorrow’s media? Does Public Service Broadcasting mean anything in the new media environment? Is Religious Broadcasting coming to an end - or is it ripe for transformation?
Thankfully we have an outstanding range of contributors to help us. They include senior programme-makers like former Newsnight editor Tim Gardam, technology experts like the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, and leading thinkers like David Wilkinson, James Hanvey, Julian Baggini and Bishop Nick Baines.

"We’ve also created even better opportunities to meet and work with colleagues from your particular media sector.

"Of course there will also be time to network and relax. I’m delighted that BBC Radio 4’s Milton Jones will with us. I truly believe he may be the funniest man in Britain.

"The conference will take place from Monday 9th - Wednesday 11th June 2008 at the Hayes Conference Centre, Derbyshire. For more information about the conference and to book your place please click here www.churchesmediacouncil.org.uk/conference

"If you don’t have a password just register on the site.

"The Churches’ Media Conference 2008 provides a unique opportunity for media professionals and faith leaders to engage in a lively debate about the challenges of the digital future. Please would you help us get the word out by forwarding this email to anyone you know who may be interested in joining us."

Oldest blogger?

On my recent return to regular blogging I was pleased to find a comment from http://octogenarian.blogspot.com/ who thought he was the only octogenarian blogger. Then the other night I was listening to an interview on the World Service with 'the oldest known blogger, 107 year old Olive from Australia'! The next morning - not knowing about this interview - my daughter in Vietnam emailed me to say that she had been amused to notice a website called http://allaboutolive.com.au/ (this one under the title 'The Life of Riley'), so in my mind I linked the two and was curious to read about my Aussie namesake. However, the website is not a normal blog but a conversation with Olive and, if you read it, you will find that she has a laugh at the time when she faked being a blogger and fooled the two journalists who came to see her. You can hear her saying, "I was sitting at the 'oojah-thing' (here she is prompted, 'the computer' ) 'and they said 'You play it real well.' So I laughed and said I've never played it in my life! I don't know a thing about it." Well, she may not be a real blogger, not even doing the typing, but she's a remarkable character and one worth celebrating.