The Grove Is On Fire

Youth ministry articles, news and other such things. Find older things. By Mark Walley

Friday, 30 October 2009

Death Risk Alluring, Says Prince

Speaking about young people dying on the Duke Of Edinburgh Award, Prince Edward says that the element of risk to the point of death is attractive to young people. And he's pretty much spot-on in my estimation.

Thursday, 29 October 2009

Review: You Can Change

Tim Chester's "You Can Change" is a book I will now go out and buy on the basis of this review. This is what I was driving at earlier, I need to hear and know the gospel for myself so I can live and change, and then I need to hear and know it so I can teach it.

He shows that, just as our Christian lives started with faith and repentance, through coming to Christ crucified, so it is as they carry on. Becoming more holy is not a work we achieve, but a result of grace.

I've begun studying Colossians recently, and it struck me that right at the heart of the letter is the same message:

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7, NIV.)

Make It Free

Desiring God offers all their content for free, here is their rationale as to why.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

The Gospel and The Bear Trap

There is a danger in youth ministry, that can grab you and sink you work and your passion and all the while let you think you're doing a good job. This pitfall is the biggest, deepest, and most carefully concealed trap you could ever fall into with while teaching young people, and it's so deceptive because it entirely consists of telling them the right thing to do. "Young People, read your bible more" you say, and then waltz headfirst into a trap so big a mammoth could have flooded it and used it for a bath. In my not considerable experience I've seen this happen pretty much constantly and from a wide range of people, at least one of whom has been me.

What this pitfall consists of is you standing up at the front (or sitting down in a circle, or sitting down on a stage, or whatever carefully thought through youth appropriate way you've decided on) and saying "this is how you should live" and leaving it at that. That's wrong, and it's wrong because it doesn't start and end with "this is what Christ has done". If you've ever done that then instead of teaching the gospel, you've taught legalism and if you've done that; congratulations! You've just failed at being a youth minister. The good news is, well, the good news, so you're forgiven, and God will use your failures to glorify His name, because that's how the good news works.

Now, you might be thinking at this stage, "wow, I'm glad I haven't done that" but you have, and to make sure you realise you have here's an example of how you've taught your young people legalism. An example that'll worry you greatly because it sounds so much like something you've done you're not sure I haven't just hacked into your computer and pulled out one of your old session plans and copied and pasted. Let's say you're teaching a bunch of Christian young people about alcohol. Your session plan might look something like this:

You see, you have done that at some point haven't you? And you might think right now, yes, I have, but that's not what you were talking about was it? Yes, it is, read the first paragraph again if you want to check, but an easier way of checking would be to ask this, is there any gospel in that whatsoever? Is that actually good news? Because what that sounds like is bad news. That's teaching a list of things you should obey and do, and humans and obeying go together about as much and as well as outdoor swimming pools and Siberia1.

If you were to teach that session, here's the three responses you'll get from your young people. If they're solid Christian teenagers then hopefully they'll take that and apply the gospel to it, they'll trust that when God's word says it's true then it's true, they'll believe on some level they've died to sin and the law and are slaves to righteousness. They'll follow God by faith. If this is their regular model of teaching though, they soon won't do that. If they're not rooted firmly, they'll respond in one of the other two ways, they'll either feel superior because they feel they can keep the rules that you've given or they'll feel horrendously guilty because they know they can't keep the rules. So you're left with either arrogant hypocrites or guilty slaves and neither of them can be saved because you didn't tell them the gospel.

The way of the gospel is this: Christ died and in doing so did it all for you. You're forgiven, redeemed, saved, and brought out of the slavery and curse of the law. That's how you're saved, and that's how you carry on as a Christian. You don't start with the good news of being saved by grace and then carry on being good by obeying the law and carrying out the rules. Why should you submit again to the slavery of the law? You grow as a Christian, you're sanctified, by the good news of grace and by being free from slavery to the law. And that's what we have to teach as well, if we don't we may as well emasculate ourselves (Gal 5:11-12").

If you taught about alcohol from the gospel, this is how at least an aspect of it would look.

That, is good news, and because it takes us to what Jesus did it actually has the power to change people. Which is hardly any surprise, Jesus and His gospel is far greater and a far better motivator than us telling people to do things. Yet, we forget it time and time again. Which is why the gospel is even better news, because we're permanently forgiven for doing such a terrible thing.

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Christopher Hitchens Talks About Being Proud Of Your Calvinism

From an article promoting his new debate film this is what noted author and athiest Christian Hitchens has to say about being honest about what you believe.

Wilson isn't one of those evasive Christians who mumble apologetically about how some of the Bible stories are really just "metaphors." He is willing to maintain very staunchly that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and that his sacrifice redeems our state of sin, which in turn is the outcome of our rebellion against God. He doesn't waffle when asked why God allows so much evil and suffering--of course he "allows" it since it is the inescapable state of rebellious sinners. I much prefer this sincerity to the vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing. (Incidentally, just when is President Barack Obama going to decide which church he attends?)

Friday, 23 October 2009

A Balanced Response to Zondervan releasing Marko

Also, it's a good view into how he was seen among youth ministers in America.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 came out today on PC, PS-3, and XBOX 360. That is all.

The Beautiful Monotony of the Gospel

Absolutely wonderful

The fear we must put aside in our quest for greater gospel-centrality is that it will not preach week to week. The enemy and our own flesh will test our commitment with the "plausible argument" (Col. 2:4) that the gospel will just sound so one-note. We are tempted to think the repetition will have the unintended effect of boring people or making the gospel appear routine and commonplace.

But the gospel is resilient. It is miraculously versatile. It proves itself every day for those awake to it.

Mark Oestreicher "Released" From Youth Specialities

The American Youth Work Blog-o-sphere is a buzz with the news that Mark Oestreicher, former head of Youth Specialities, has been 'released' from his job by Zondervan, the publishing company that now owns Youth Specialities. No-one seems to know much more than OUTRAGE!!!! at the moment.

Monday, 19 October 2009

A Serious Piece On Understanding The Vetting and Barring System

This Monday saw the launch of the Vetting and Barring scheme, the new way for the Government to make sure that the people working with young people are suitable to do so. Many pixels have been spilt over what exactly the scheme entails, about what launches when, and who has to be vetted, and how exactly the government are going to stick "I'm a paedophile" stickers on anyone not registered. This is an attempt to clarify things some what. If you want to read the full documentation then start with the the guidance notes issued online at the Independent Safeguarding Authority website (pdf). This is essentially a slightly more sensible summary of that document aimed specifically at youth clubs and churches. So, from last Monday (the 12th of October) this is what has changed.

What is vetting?

Vetting is a process that Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) will do to people to make sure they are suitable to work with children (0-19's) or vulnerable adults. As a worker you will register with the ISA and when needs be, an organisation will contact the ISA and they will tell them whether or not you are registered to work with children. The other options are you are not registered to work with children (and therefore you can't do the job till you sign up) or you're barred from working with children (therefore you very much obviously can't do the job). There are two barred lists, one for children, and one for vulnerable adults and you organisations can check against either or both (if the person is working with both).

Who needs to be vetted?

It's not about people who need to be vetted so much as activities that require the people doing them to be vetted. There are two types of activity that need vetting. The first is regulated activity. A regulated activity is any activity that involves working closely with children, young people, and vulnerable adults if you're not a family member or friend and if you do it on frequent or intense basis (that phrase is a technical term which is defined as either once a month for consecutive months or more than three days in a row). It's worth noting it doesn't matter if you're paid to do the work or not. Regulated activities include things like teaching, giving advice, and driving a vehicle for the specific purpose of transporting young people. The guidance specifically includes in this list of things regulated trustees of charities that deal with children or vulnerable adults and people who manage those doing regulated activities. Also, if you're working in certain specified places, such as schools, children's hospitals, or children's centres no matter what you do, it's a regulated activity. There is a list of these specified places, but youth centres and churches don't come under the list.

Then there are controlled activities. These also need vetting, but have different rules as will see. A controlled activity is work done by the arrangement of someone who's in a regulated activity that isn't a regulated activity itself but does provide opportunity for contact with children or vulnerable adults on a frequent or intense basis (Or it provides opportunity for reading through their records on a frequent or intense basis). Like a regulated activity, managing the people in a controlled activity is a controlled activity.

How do I know which one I'm in? Essentially it boils down to this; if you could not do your job without working with a young person, you're in a regulated activity. Also, if your place of work would not exist without the majority of people in it working with young people and the purpose of it being to work with young people, you're in a regulated activity. If your job normally involves contact with young people or sensitive information about them, but could be altered so it doesn't, you're in a controlled activity.

How does this vetting work?

Regardless of what activity the people you employ do, you will need to check with the ISA whether they are barred from working with young people or vulnerable adults. If they're are barred, they can under no circumstances do a regulated post, in fact, they should be shopped for trying to get employment in a regulated post when they know they are barred. They can, however, do a controlled activity even if they are barred if risk assessments are done that will prevent them from having contact with children.

How will this roll out?

April 2010: People going into a controlled activity will need to be CRB checked if they aren't already.

July 26th 2010: If you're moving into a new regulated activity you may register with the ISA if you want.

November 1st 2010: If you're moving into a new regulated activity you must register with the ISA. It will be illegal for you to employ someone or have them volunteer with you in a regulated activity if they are not registered with the ISA.

April 1st 2011. Everyone already in a regulated activity can start registering with the ISA even if they haven't moved into a new post.

January 1st 2014. Everyone already in a controlled activity should start registering with the ISA even if they haven't moved posts (it's not mentioned, but presumably if you move into a new controlled activity before now you should be checked with the ISA).

July 31 20151. Everyone in a controlled or regulated activity must be registered with the ISA (or be in a risk-assessed controlled activity if they're barred with the ISA).

Anything else I need to know?

From the 12th of October you have a legal requirement to inform the ISA if you fire someone, or if you stop them working with children or vulnerable adults because you are concerned about them being a risk to the children or vulnerable adults. In serious cases the police or social services will probably do this, but you should too just to be sure. They will then decide whether that means they're barred. If you do not do this you are committing a crime.

CRBs won't vanish, though there is now more clarity over who needs an enhanced CRB and who needs a standard one. All regulated activities (and reading between the lines controlled ones too) now need enhanced CRBs. These will still be needed when registration roles out as that will just tell you whether someone is registered to work with young people. You will still want to do a CRB to make sure the person is not a criminal in other respects and to make sure they haven't lied to you when they filled in their criminal record self-disclosure.

What don't we know?

Well, we don't quite know how anyone will actually register with the ISA yet, but seeing as no-one can till July, that's fair enough. We also don't know whether or not the current definition of frequent or intense will stand. After some protests the government is going to review it by December to see if it's not too harsh. We also don't know how organisations are going to let the ISA know they should be allowed to check to see if people are vetted, or how they're going to prove they have a right to know this person here is vetted (so could I, at my work for example, ring them up and see if Mike Pilavachi was vetted?). Also, supposedly the ISA will contact organisations if someone registered with the ISA and working for the organisation gets barred, but we don't know how that will work. Also, we don't know how you'll be able to stop an organisation knowing your vetting status (if I work for the Aberdeen Youth Service and then stop, could I ring up the ISA and tell them not to update the Aberdeen Youth Service about me anymore?). Also, got not idea how this will work with foreigners and crimes not committed in the UK.

Also, the onus is on you to register with the ISA, unlike CRBs where the onus was on the organisation to do one for you, but how will that work? If I move jobs will I have to sign up with ISA before I can accept the job? Needless to say, I'm going to be guinea pigging this system on the first person who volunteers with us after July next year, and reporting back the results.

Also, I'm sick of writing the word also.

In a sense, not knowing this is fine though, because we've got 10 months before it really rolls out properly. I'll update this, or write something new in June when we should know lots more.

Can you give me some examples?

You work for a church as their youth worker. You volunteer over next summer for a Christian festival working with their detached team to work face-to-face with young people who aren't engaging with the sessions. You can if you want to, register with the ISA, and that festival could check that you were safe to work via the ISA, but they don't have to.

You work for a church as their youth worker. You volunteer again for the same Christian festival in the same role the year after (2011) (actually, joyfully, you've been promoted to team leader, but don't let that go to your head). You have to register with the ISA if you aren't already registered, and that festival has to check with the ISA that you're registered. They check both lists, the children list and the vulnerable adults list, as you may well be working with vulnerable adults. You're considered safe to work by the ISA. They still do a CRB because they think it's important as a team leader to know about any other convictions as you'll be handling cash, but you're clean on that too. Well done. You've got the role.

It's next June. You employ a new care-taker who'll be in the building while young people are. He also has all the keys to everything and can access data for the youths. He's in a controlled activity so you make him do a CRB before he starts. It turns out he once beat up a small child because he didn't like their face. You judge him not safe to work with children so you risk-assess his job and work out a way that he'll never be in the building with young people, and if he has to be he'll be accompanied. The safe with the young people's data in is given a new key which he can't access.

You do anything at all, even slightly, for more than a week in a school. It's a regulated activity, you need to be registered with the ISA.

It's December 2010. A volunteer comes to you to work with the elderly. He wants to visit them one to one. You check him the with ISA and it turns out he's stolen from old people before. You report him to the police, whereupon he is arrested and heavily fined.

It's May 2010. A volunteer who's been working with you for five years repeatedly threatens to throw a small child off a building and you're not sure they aren't joking. You ask him to stop volunteering. You then legally have to tell the ISA that you asked him to stop volunteering for those reasons. The ISA then decide that that's enough to bar him for working with small children. He hates you forever, but you've done your job, so suck it up.

Every spring you get a bunch of Americans over for spring break to volunteer with your charity and do some work with the young people. They'll be doing two weeks solid of work. This counts as frequent work, and therefore they are in a regulated activity. They need to be registered with the ISA before they can work. If they are not, you are breaking the law. (This may change when they possibly alter the definition of frequent work, but we won't know that till November. Also we're not sure how we register foreigners yet, or how quick the process will be).

Comments are on to ask questions I don't know the answers to.

Update

As pointed out in the comments, I was wrong about standard CRB's disappearing. I've changed this entry to reflect that. Also, some of the questions I asked have their answers in the official FAQ on the guidance. I shall endeavour to write them up here at some point.

1 2015! I'll definitely have my jet-pack by then.

5 Comments

Saturday, 17 October 2009

How To Make Casserole

I've just made casserole for church lunch tomorrow. If you would like to make casserole along at home with you, here's how in the simplest possible way.

Get a large casserole dish, this is a Le Creuset casserole dish. It's made of iron, pretty much indestructible, and costs almost £100. My mum has one longer than she's had me, and so I reckon about now it's costing her 10p every time she uses it. That's good value for money. Also, girls'll think you're house trained if you have one, no matter the state of your bathroom. Also, you're mum'll think you're house trained if you have one, no matter the state of your toilet.

Chop up a bunch of onions and fry them in some oil in your casserole dish till they go soft, then throw in some garlic. Add salt. Then, throw in some meat1 and cook it till it's turned brown on all sides. Add salt. Take out of the pan the onions and the meat2, trying to leave the juices in the pan. Pour in some alcohol you have lying around3 and as it bubbles up scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to get all the black stuff of the bottom. When you've done this, add a couple of carrots and parsnips and tomatoes chopped into large chunks, stir this around, put the meat and onions back in, then pour in enough stock4 to not quite cover everything. Add salt. Put in a Bouqet Garni5 When it all starts to bubble again leave it for about five minutes (or a bit longer if you don't mind stirring and you want to the sauce to shrink down). Then put the lid on the pan then put it in the oven at about 150 degrees Celsius. Leave it for a few hours, taking it out every now and again to taste it and see if the meat is falling apart and to see if you need to add more salt. When the meat is falling apart, it's done.

You now have two options. If you made the casserole yesterday, well done, let it cool down, then put it somewhere coldish over night (a fridge will do, but better yet your balcony at this time of year if you've got one). Reheat it the next day in the oven till it's bubbling. This'll give it a chance to absorb all the flavour. If you made it today, then just eat it now with lots of mashed potatoes6.

You can, of course, use other vegetables and other ingredients, most root vegetables will work, as will things like mushrooms and peppers. You can apparently make an entire casserole out of just vegetables, which probably tastes as heinous as it sounds. You can also add bacon to the casserole to make it taste even better, but that should go without saying. Your casserole will keep for a while in the fridge, longer if you freeze it, but you should probably just invite people around your house to finish it off if you've made too much. These people I guess could be young people, and you could use the casserole as a metaphor for the church, and you could make them all play an icebreaker before they ate it. But you could just make casserole for the joy of it.

1 As long as you can name what sort of meat it is, it doesn't really matter what, just don't use proper steak or breast. The beauty of steak is that it's amazingly tasty and cooks in seconds, this'll be sitting in your oven for ours. Buy braising beef instead. Currently Sainsbury's basic beef chunks is braising beef. It takes about three hours to cook, but that's a good thing. It's also much cheaper. Don't use chicken breast because leg and breast is cheaper and the bones while add flavour to it and stop it drying out so much. Also, if you're using skinned meat at this stage (like chicken) you can pull the skin off and put the meat in a freezer bag with some flour and salt and pepper and shake it till it's covered. It'll stop it burning and make it taste nicer.

2 If you're cooking lots, you might need to take out the onions to have room to brown the meat, and you might need to brown the meat in batches. Whatever though.

3 This is called deglazing, it's how you make real gravy. You can use any tasty alcohol really and the sauce will take on the flavour of it. Certain things work better with others but you're generally safe with white wine and light ale. If you don't have any alcohol in your house you can go out and buy some. Or you can use water or stock.

4 Real cooks make their own stock from dead baby cows. However, if you just use vegetable Oxo cubes for everything you'll be fine. You also don't need 3 stock cubes per pint like they tell you. Also don't buy Sainsbury's basic stock. It's wrong.

5 They look like teabags. They aren't. You can buy them in the section of the supermarket which has one of those spring loaded spice racks that stops you from putting the jars back in after you take them out to have a look at what they are.

6 Making mashed potatoes, that's real cooking that is. That's not a blog entry, that's entire website.

Friday, 16 October 2009

Vetting and Barring Scheme Cheat Sheet

From the relevant guidance notes, slightly adapted for the internet.

Vetting and Barring Scheme Cheat Sheet

(Some time today I will seriously summarise what the scheme means, no really.)

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

5 Books Every Youth Minister Should Read

I can't fault anything in this list from The Resurgence of 5 books every youth minister should read other than most of these books would be great for any minister to read. Any book list that correctly identifies the big issue that youth ministers face is teaching the gospel as opposed to moralism is alright with me.

Monday, 12 October 2009

Notes From The Independent Safeguarding Authority Keynote.

Here are my roughly typed up notes from the Independent Safeguarding Authority Keynote earlier today:

Okay, so found the conference centre hall and have been waived through security with a quick routine check, this is my first time using blogger credentials to get into something like this, my badge reads "Media B". Not sure if that's for blogger or for "not a real journalist". Seats are comfy but no wifi and iPhone signal is tetchy at best. The guy next to me can't even get onto Twitter, may not be live blogging this after all. They've been playing a couple of songs over the PA, including the obligatory Michael Jackson number. Now the lights are dimmed and a member of the ISA is on stage. He's introduced himself, but I didn't get his name, welcoming everyone for being here, asks if we've all been CRB'ed which gets a chuckle. Before we begin he has a special guest for us, introduces on stage, Dizzee Rascal. We're treated to Dirty Cash and Bonkers, which gets the crowd going, although most of us would probably rather just get on with the keynote.

Dizzee Rascal's off stage, and now we're into the real presentation, and we've got another faceless presenter on stage to talk us through the launch of the vetting and barring service. Nothing much new here for those of us who've been working with CRB's before. It's interesting to here the language "barred from working with children or vulnerable adults" though, much stronger than previous language about "not safe to work".

The first real announcement is the merger of the previous lists of barred people into two svelte stand alone lists, one for those barred from working with children, one for those barred from working with vulnerable adults. Nothing surprising there, but good to here anyway. Next up though, we're told that the scope of this scheme has been expanded further, increasing to cover things like people working in prisons and hospitals. That means that adults nurses will probably have to be registered even if they weren't covered in the past. Again, not surprising given the rumours, but will please a lot of those groups.

The man on stage is talking us through how this will all work together in one unified ecosystem, and says he has an exciting method of delivery to tell us about. Coming soon, a new single ISA referral form for recognised organisations to refer people to the ISA when there is harm to a child or vulnerable adults. Theoretically then an organisation could send in information that could get people barred from working, but there are some safeguards in place. Part of these exciting developments we're being told is the obligation placed upon users to refer to the ISA cases of harm against a child, though for most people this'll probably going through the child protection team for social services.

And then that's it, we're introduced to JLS who perform the latest hit and then the lights go up and we're filing out the doors.

What's really interesting from today's keynote is what wasn't there. No real mention, of registering to work with children and light on some of the details of the process of vetting and barring. Pie in the sky dreams of organising the entire population according to whether or not they can work with children and moving those who can't to Wales once again prove false, but there's no evidence they'll ever come true. On the ground the average person won't see much of a difference, but that hides the major changes made below the service. What's been announced today will have real changes that'll take a while to understand. The general conclusion is expect major changes come next year, but don't hold your breath on this update maybe.

What Everyone Else Is Saying

As per normal Youthblog has some brief but wise commentary.

The Church Mouse has some fairly good moaning about the whole thing, while pointing to CCPAS.

The official guidance about the new vetting and barring scheme. is up online here.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Eight Myths About The Vetting And Barring Scheme

It's only five days to go until the role out of the new and shiny vetting and barring scheme, and as always thegroveisonfire.com will be there to liveblog it's launch. We've already seen early draft prototypes received through anonymous tip off sources, and we've got ready four willing volunteers to apply for the system to test it to the hilt; two innocent people, one person who was once reported to the police for telling a bunch of teenagers to "stop kicking a ball against my wall or I'll have you shot" and another person who regularly eats babies. But before it launches, we thought we'd tell you about eight myths about the Vetting and Baring Scheme that Madeleine Moon (Labour MP for Bridgend) has handily BUSTED on her website. (via)

CY Filming

CY Filming - 12

I work with someone called Nate, who moonlights for an organisation called Christianity Explored, leading up their youth edition cunningly called CY, which in is definitely the best youth evangelism course I've ever used1. Currently, they're filming a set of talks that can be shown on DVD if for whatever reason the group leader doesn't want to give the talks. And being the friendly youth edition that it is, they occasionally need young people to be filmed standing around and kicking a ball, because nothing says young people like a football being kicked around. So that's why on Monday night I found myself watching some of my young people playing football on some awfully sloped bramble covered ground, near breaking their necks every few minutes. And playing UNO Extreme while waiting for them to change the lights and camera around. It was fun, the youth enjoyed it, and they're excited to be on the DVD, where for one talk they'll be a fairly integral illustration as one of them kicks the ball over the wall they're playing by. Which leads me on to the exciting giveaway I've just decided to have. If you want a copy of some stuff I've stolen from Nate (possibly even CY on DVD when it comes out, possibly just some Wolverine comics from the pile in his bathroom) guess what the point of the illustration that involves young people kicking a ball around at night is. I'll give you a clue, if you can work out where they are, you'll find the illustration much easier. Answers on a self-addressed envelope or send an e-mail to mark [at] iamsparticus [dot] com.

1 Youth Alpha, you're number two. Try harder.

Coming Out In Middle School

I don't even know what to say about this article in the New York Times about 11 to 13 year olds deciding they're gay other than I'm so glad we're finding more ways of sexualizing our youth.

Austin didn't know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring. It was bad enough that the gangly 13-year-old from Sand Springs, Okla., had to go without his boyfriend at the time, a 14-year-old star athlete at another middle school, but there were also laundry issues. "I don't have any clean clothes!" he complained to me by text message, his favored method of communication.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Where To Advertise Your Job

I was asked the other day where the best place to advertise for youth and children's work jobs was, and so I thought the best thing to do was put together a moderately comprehensive list of where you can advertise. Before you use any of these things though, you should consider seeing if there is anyone who already works or volunteers with you who could do the job. If you've got some really gifted and talented volunteers you should probably try to think of reasons why you shouldn't employ them. Training people up inside is always the most brilliant approach. That said, legally, supposedly if you don't advertise your job at least slightly and only let the person know you want to give the job to people could complain that the process was rigged for the person you've tapped up. I say supposedly because I've no idea the actual law there, nor how head-hunting could work if that was the case, but there we go. On with the list:

1 Insert "the Methodists have news?" joke here.

Friday, 2 October 2009

The Gospel: The Key to Parenting

Here is an interview about gospel centered parenting, but it's worth reading just as an interview about keeping the gospel first in everything.

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The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof - Psalm 24:1