All in all an interesting weekend!  And I know that I met several people who will read this rubbish, so 'hello' one and all!

Interesting or useful?  That's a question I'm pondering in relation to my residential at the university.  It was interesting to hear other people's presentations, but was it a useful exercise?  And how might that be measured? 

What I observed was that many people did not fulfil the brief (20-25 mins presentation plus similar for questions), but that no one addressed this, so some people spoke for 55 minutes leaving 5 for questions and comments.  At one level, I guess, that was their loss - they didn't gain valuable experience in handling questions, and they also failed to learn how to deliver the essence of their work in the allotted time. 

So why is it that I am probably more annoyed about it than they are?!  I think maybe because it makes me wonder what the 'learning' element of the exercise was. 

I have tried to reflect on what I gained from my own presentation - apart from treating it as a 'dry run' to reveal to me the holes, lumps and bumps before it goes 'live' in a couple of months.  I think the one thing I could say is that I am starting to feel just a teeny bit more confident and less defensive in handling questions.  This is a field where I am very conscious of my limitations and the fear of being 'found out' is always very real.  This time I felt I could defend my viewpoint better, as in with a bit more confidence, so I guess I am making progress of a sort. 

I think I am conscious that this cohort of students functions very well as a support group - we are all good at being nice to each other, at being encouraging etc - but it is a bit Christian bookshop like - too nice, never challenging, never critiquing, never actually being quite 'real.'  What I also find frustrating is that rather than engaging with the papers, responding to arguments, offering insights or critiques, people just have lovely chats about what they'd do or how this reminds them of something in their own lives.  Is it impossible to be a practical theologian and think in concepts?!!  I had a good time, don't misunderstand me, and for some reason I seem to be seen as a 'safe' person to ask about things that concern people from word counts, to Endnote, to library cards... I am just left wondering to what extent this helps me to grow as a researcher or a theologian.

Interesting and inspiring!  This morning I went with some friends to hear Tim Hyde  preach at St Helens.  Tim preached on 1 Thessalonians 4 in a way that was profound yet accessible, challenging yet not threatening and it was great to hear someone actcually explore the text in a theologically competent way from the pulpit.  The focus was in resurrection in relation to a new creation and emphatically not a rapture model.  Drawing on N T Wright's ideas I am sure it was new stuff for at least some of his congregation.  Having a minister in your congregation is pretty unnerving, so well done Tim for a superb service.

It was great to spend some time with friends, especially as they fed me plenty of chocolate!  Having a place to relax and unwind at the end of a day of study is a real gift.  So thanks muchly one and all.  Hope T & D enjoy the books and E & P the edibles!!

So, back to normal - heaps of mail, email and phone messages and work starts again tomorrrow.  Overall an interesting weekend with lots to ponder.

Off to Manchester tomorrow.  Am I really nearly one third of the way through this research degree?  That's well scary!

So, it is presentations time - published or publishable articles and conference papers to be shared with our peers.  Not feeling overly confident about mine - it has moved around quite a lot in the drafting and still needs a lot of work to be something I'm happy with.  So... an early drive up the road so that I can get some library time in ahead of kickoff... including another foray into the wonder that is BQ,

I'm looking forward to hearing what other people have been doing, to catching up with colleagues and seeing some friends whilst I'm up there.  Plus a rare and precious non-preaching Sunday...

Back all too soon!!

A week on Sunday my congregation has our 'Vision Day Part Deux' or something to that general effect anyway.  So this morning I am trying to put together the outline for the day and becoming all too conscious of the gap between nice 'Church Health' or 'Congregational Studies' theory and how-to books and the reality of trying to do this stuff on the ground with people who don't always get it anyway.  I think this is is a good realisation as I continue the somewhat esoteric process of doctoral research in this general area, because if it isn't ultimately going to be useful then its a waste of everyone's time and energy.  Although maybe you can only determine usefulness retrospectively (discuss!).  In the end what we get will have to be tailored to our needs, our context, our time frame, our reality - and I hope it works effectively.

One of the challenges is the reality check this congregation needs to face and grasp.  We are super duper at creative visioning but also have several honorary doctorates in ostrich impersonations.  One of my challenges is to help people to grasp some very uncomfortable truths and to realise that the answer is not 'the Lord will provide' announced in a pious voice accompanied by a face that says 'begone thou faithless minister thou.' 

My aim - and it's a pretty impressive one - is to get some concrete actions, some 'SMART' objectives with names, dates and deliverables identified by the end of the day.  We don't have the time - and I don't have the energy - for yet another round of 'someone needs to think about something' whilst we all grow a year older, a lot more tired and our ability, irrespective of our desire, to fulfil our dreams evaporates.

I am, to say the least, apprehensive about the event.  The reality check is not pleasant to face, and the consequences, whichever path we opt for, demanding all round.  Sometimes I understand the appeal of being an ostrich.  At times like this God has an irritating habit of once more pointing out to me the prophetic challenge of ministry... reminding me I don't have to be liked, and may not be heard, but I do have to speak.  It's so much nicer keeping it all theoretical!!!

Last week, one of the books I read used the analogy of a children's dot-to-dot puzzle to describe the process of writing history.   The historian or researcher the 'dots' - in various quantities and of various intensities - and then deduces how they might be joined up to furm a picture.  Unlike most dot-to-dot puzzles, these 'dots' aren't numbered so the historian/researcher has to use some imagination or make some guesses to find a picture from them.  Inevitably, different people may make different connections and end up with different pictures.

In theology and missiology (and no doubt everywhere else) there seems to bne a lot of talk about 'joined-up thinking' but what does that really mean?  Do we assme that there is one right way of joining up thinking, one obvious (if only we could find it!) answer, or is it actually like doing the puzzle when the printer forgot to put on the numbers?  Sometimes I feel as if we think it means there is one answer to be found, when perhaps it offers something a little less concrete and more 'playful' (my word of the moment!) - that there are many fine images to be found if only we are willing to seek them.  This doesn't mean that all are equally valid, just that there isn't always one 'right' answer.

A few years back the in phrase in management speak was 'thinking outside the dots' - that in order to join them up subject to some weird and wonderful set of rules you needed to take your lines past the limits of what you had.  Again, something about using imagination as well as intellect (and I'm not about to get into the which of those comes first debate!).

So what has all this to do with the price of fish?

I have recently been shocked - there is no other word for it - by the inability of people I perceive as reasonably intelligent to make connections between ideas, and specifically to extrapolate general principles from specific examples.  It is almost as if people have become so adept at mechanisatically joining a defined set of numbered dots to make a certain picture that they are totally flummoxed if presented with anything different.

This troubles me greatly, partly in relation to my research work which is predicated on the assumption that people can extrapolate from 'a' to 'b' if only by analogy, that there are general principles that can be read across from century to century.  It worries me more for the health of the church, perhaps especially for those churches that are smaller, older and more set in their ways, but also in general terms.  Maybe I'm am particularly blessed that I find it quite easy to spot connections between ideas from seemingly disparate fields.  Maybe part of my task is to take several steps back and help people to begin to learn to make conections (how?).

In the mean time, just in case you really do have nothing better to do, here's a little dot-to-dot puzzle to amuse you!  What credible designs can you make from it?!  (A little imagination definitely permitted)

O

O                                    O

O                    O

Not only am I mad enough to subscribe to the Baptist Times for years on end, I am also sufficiently silly as to continue to part with large sms of money to engineering professional bodies, which means more magazines to glance through and a ridiculously high rental charge for some letters (though the latter does make my 'professional' name so excessively long that I get letters where it takes two lines on the envelope: almost worth the expense!).  Anyway, in the latest Professional Engineer magazine was a plug for, and a review of, this little book:

The book raises money for children's charities, so that's definitely a good thing.

It aims to raise awareness of the importance of engineering - which is also a good thing.  As the old IMechE bumper sticker used to say 'nothing moves without engineers'  - how true!

Notwithstanding that the book review suggests that the ideas are a tad complex for the target age range, I think it is a good idea 

But....

It promotes and reinforces gender sterotypes. Grrrrrrr! 

I think I'll have to write "My maiden aunt used to be an engineer but now she's a minister' (nice snappy title, eh?!) to counter some of this sterotyping.  What d'you reckon?!!!