Babycino

I made my first babycino this morning for Adrian's son Nicholas when they came over for brekky and to borrow some movies for Rowena who's hurt her neck - get better soon Row! I wasn't really sure how to make one so had to ask Adrian. I over frothed some milk and scooped the thicker foam with a bit of milk into a small espresso cup and sprinkled some chocolate powder over the top. After first shaking his head at the proffered cup and spoon which I placed in front of the little guy we soon heard the clinking of metal on ceramic - I must have got it right :)

Any tips for my future Babycino attempts? Do you put some coffee in or is that a no no? How much chocolate? What should the foam to milk ratio be? What size cup do you use? Maybe I should do a Barista course ;)

Jonah & The Fear of God

I'm leading church on Sunday night. It's been a while since I've led. Any hot tips?

We're starting a new series on Jonah. It's been a while since I've read Jonah. I keep thinking about boats, fish (really big ones), a plant that melts and sackcloth. I think I'll have a read before Sunday ;)

Jonah Chapter 1 (HCSB)
Jonah tries to run away from God and his mission to Nineveh.
He fails & along the way leans to fear God.

The photo is of our fish (not really big) called 'Fishy'. Dad and Celia gave him to Kate for Christmas.

Soft Launch

'North Rocks [at Night]' started this evening with our soft launch.

We go live in two weeks!

It was great to meet our new family (33 of them at least). There were a few kinks but it was exciting all the same. We had a BBQ after church which I was organising so I missed the last 5 mins of the Bible talk which made praying in response to the sermon tricky - so I asked for suggestions from up the front on what we could pray for. I got a couple of blank looks, one of abject horror and someone put up their hand but then people caught on and started speaking up - ahhh (sigh of relief). I thought it had the added bonus of getting people to think through what they'd just heard and in a way respond immediately. Also prayed for the Wilsons in Italy and prayed in confession (I think this is a good thing to do regularly).

This is our promo postcard. The back reads:
"We'd like to invite you to church"
Hopefully have a website for you to check out soon. Keep praying for us.

Blokes

I'm a bloke and I was just reading an insightful and thought provoking post by Dan (as recommended by Dave) about music and men. We're doing some thinking about how to do music at North Rocks @ Night. One of the things I'm thinking about is singing up the front. Here's some of what Dan wrote:

Another factor is who you stick up the front. If all your music leaders are girls then why are all the backing singers girls? At nitechurch we have 3 guy band leaders and a couple of guy backing vocalists. I’m always trying to encourage our guys to take up the mic. It gives example to guys in the congregation.

What songs are you singing? Are you always singing about Jesus being beautiful or lovely or ‘darling’. These are fine to sing at times but what is your diet? So many christian songs are girly. Don’t buy into it wholesale. Sing about Christ’s victory, his strength, our mission, His leadership. Guys get that stuff. We get the other stuff too and I’m being stereotypical but I’m just saying be careful.

Read the rest here. Well worth it.

Something else blokey is this - the new Indiana Jones teaser!

I love the quote "You're a teacher?" "Part time"

Big Decisions...

... have been made lately!

- Kevin Rudd for PM (hope we made the right call)
- the chick won Idol (poor Matt)
- UTS accepted me for postgrad next year (what are they and I thinking?!?)

and

- We're changing churches next year. We will be part of the 'North Rocks Night Church' plant from St Paul's Carlo. It is a big decision that has involved a lot of prayer and discussion (thanks to those who have talked and prayed with us). We're excited to be part of another church plant after we had such a good experience at MarsHill at Mac Uni. Please keep praying for us as we leave our church family at 5 o'clock at Carlo and for the new church that God would use it to grow his kingdom and for his glory.

Gordo's Thoughts on Music

Thoughtful post from Gordo about the music at ENGAGE and what it might mean for our churches. Read here.

Church Yesterday

Church last night was particularly great.

Gordo spoke in Isaiah 1 after doing a overview of the whole book last week. I was challenged to 1. cease evil, care for the weak, seek justice from 1:16-17 and 2. remember that we have the smae offer of fogiveness and cleansing through Jesus from 1:19.

We stayed late afterwards talking. A few of topics I covered were: HP & TDH, Facebook, Mobiles, Bible Study and Edward Norton movies (some of my fav movies incl. Fight Club and 25th Hour & The Score).

The music was awesome. Some great songs and funky band.