Being Presbyterian

Why Adam Walker Cleaveland uses Twitter – a Presbyterian perspective.

The basic human act of kindness and compassion, there's an app for that. (from the comments)

Hello, welcome to the July blog! The rainy season continues, the manse is closer than ever to being ready and we have now lived in Grenada for six months. And yes, the debate about living in Grenadian time continues between Ann and me just as it will for the rest of our lives. What a gift!

Being on Oreon's prayer list because of some passing thought I'd shared on a Web site got me thinking about how social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are changing how we do church. Already Facebook has provided a new way to promote a church and keep members of the congregation informed about events. Hundreds of churches, and small groups within churches, have formed Facebook groups or fan pages for that reason. Google "Facebook and church" and you'll even discover plenty of church-marketing experts who will help your church get on Facebook and show you how to use it to advertise your church's programs.

But, if you are a Presbyterian who understands and appreciates the nuances and idiosyncrasies of our Presbyterian system of government, and you don't mind some humor about it in music, then you will probably get a kick out of this collection of seven songs.

The moderator of the 135th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada will be visiting Knox Presbyterian Church, Meaford, on Sunday.

Rev. Harvey Self will be the keynote speaker at the 10 a. m. worship service. The service is a joint event by both Knox Meaford and St. Paul's Thornbury.

Two photos of the sign at my local Presbyterian church…I caught a glimpse going by on the bus, and had to walk back to record this deep and thoughtful cautionary note for the digital age!

After 193 years in the centre of downtown Kingston, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is opening its doors to the community this summer.

In a pilot project, free tours will be running of the historical church from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday for all of July and August.

Apparently one of the largest websites on the planet is no longer going to be supporting Internet Explorer 6.0. For some, this is sad news and for others this couldn’t make them happier.

You could probably argue both sides of the camp here, especially from our perspective, of why we should keep making our websites IE 6.0-compatible, but I’m now leaning more on the side of simply educating one’s visitors the benefits of IE 8.0+, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome.

We should definitely be considerate when educate them and not just block them from using your site (so don’t do something like this) and instead perhaps provide something like this great WordPress plugin, that gives them a little warning.

The ministry led by Rev. Stewart Folster used to hold its services in Circle West Presbyterian Church. On Nov. 1, 2008, the Canada Ministries branch of the national Presbyterian Church purchased a building on the corner of Avenue E South and 20th Street for Native Circle Ministry.

Well for the first time in a couple of weeks there is no General Assembly of a Presbyterian church going on today. (If you know of one I have missed pleeeeeeese let me know — this junkie is going through withdraw. )

Five down:

* Free Church of Scotland – Assembly Updates
* Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) – Assembly Report
* Church of Scotland – Assembly hall updates and audio reports
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church – Daily reports
* Presbyterian Church in Ireland – General Assembly News

I'm writing comments on each of these that I hope to have posted in the next few days. But the break is very brief…

Up next – the 135th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada

What if God had text messaged the 10 Commandments? It might look like this:

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg’s
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok – ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re: bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf’s m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH.

ps. wwjd?

On April 22nd Nancy Sue and I left Johannesburg for Blantyre, Malawi. In the Johannesburg airport I saw Dr. Ron Wallace, the Secretary for International Ministries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I knew he was headed to Blantyre also, but didn't realize we would see him on the plane! That was my one brief encounter with him on the trip. But praise God for another connection.