Category Archive

Ok I’ll admit I was stuck on what I would write this week. That was until I saw a sneak reference in NT scholar Mark Goodacre’s blog about Doctor Who. So nice to see another blogger and academic with the same taste as me. Unfortunately he tells me the new series of Doctor Who has started in the UK and I have no idea how long I’ll have to wait out here before the ABC shows it.

Anyway the good thing about Mark’s blog other than the academic quality of all he does is that he shows that academic blogs can function in multiple ways. This is a great encouragement to me as I see more reading of this blog happening. I am never sure of how to keep my voice and my tone right. Mark shows me I can keep it professional and personal. Mind you he seems to keep these in separate sections which I don’t do yet.

I expect looking around I will need to update my blogroll soon as there are a few changes I should make.

Also I keep intending to do an indepth review of Fink’s, Creating Significant Learning Experiences so if I say this I will then start next Monday.

Enjoy your reading.

p.s. It turns out one of the photos I had linked to previously was under terms more limited than I am used to and the author asked for a cease and desist.  I have done so and will need to be more careful in future.  Ah just when I thought I was getting pretty too :(  No more photos except my own I guess.

Every so often I reflect why am I writing a blog.  People at work recognise it as a discipline of writing daily which works well for me. I came across a link to a blog entry about why academics should blog which has some interesting ideas in it.  Feel free to pick up your own as you read.  I am also aware that many of my readers are now family or students.  I have not had the resounding success like Jon Accuff with Stuff Christians Like.  Jon’s thoughts on the matter can be found here which is a blog probably visited as much as this one.

So why do I keep it up?  I think the discipline answer, the academic droppings answer and the hope for impact on someone’s life.

Related to impact we had a new prayer meeting today at work - we have three a week already and a new corporate one today as we know we need to rely on God.  A smaller group of us were prayed for in the task we all need to complete.  This reminded me of a story I came across while at Fuller, a woman school teacher one day broke down in tears when she was asked something about life and work and church.  She said something like “For twenty years I have been a school teacher and not once has the church prayed for me, I volunteered one weekend to teach Sunday School as if it is something different.”  I felt that sort of impact today that people were praying for me to complete the work God has me here to do.

And ultimately I still blog because I think it is something I should do for God to shape me and mould me, I know it has already.

I don’t consider myself a humble person.  Too many times I know I have suffered from intellectual pride and hurt people by seeming to know it all.

This week I have been asked to take on a new unit for next semester and was told the textbooks involved.  I am happy for both and one of them is by a blogger I read, Steve Taylor.  Now Steve and I have had differences of opinion on occasion.  I am used to working with larger groups than what he addresses but the heart of what he says I fairly much agree with.  Now I have to digest it well.

This is where I am being humbled and views I think I know, I now have to check I really do know.

Wait and see what the outcome is practically, I am sure I will blog more about this but regardless I am reminded that our views can come back to haunt us and to be a little more humble in what we blog, say and do.

It seems odd to realise a week ago I was still posting regularly and now I am in a new state, a new job, sitting at a new(ish) computer working with people who are new to me and it all feels good.  This really means I can start posting again in some measure.

I have lots of work to do and I think I have my head around it now.  Just not how to do it as I  am still getting used to a few things.  But I am getting there.

So I am back for whatever that means.

I had hoped at this point to be back to the regular albeit slightly revised posting schedule:

Mondays for Marking:  Reflecting on Academic books and life

Tuesdays and Thursdays Theological Reflections

Fridays for Fiction, Film and Fun

which always left Wednesday for Whatever.

So today’s thought is less about Wednesdays and whatevers but about blogging.

I keep an eye on my statistics as I would like to know I have an audience.  I saw a blog that obviously had one reader, the author and no other.  I know that is not true here but the numbers vary.  The thing I notice is that the quickest way to get visitors to the site is to accidentally say something controversial or to comment on a good article.  This is not how good scholars are known.  Word of mouth helps but publishing the profound and useful is better.

So now I am back to thinking about how to get something published - seriously and then see if I get more traffic.  Time will tell.

For those who are interested a friend of mine has a blog which I think is far better written than mine but of a totally different nature.  Bec’s blog can be found at becnew.blogspot.com.

It is the Wednesday I go on holidays.  An unintentional slight on Emergent Kiwi’s blog has just been apologised for and I think all is right with the worl well at least the small bit of my little corner of it that I am somehow able to deal with.  If I am realistic even my corner is too big for me especially at Christmas when it is so easy to become manic.

This leads me to reflect on the Advent season we are in thus the reference to Holly in the title.  Holly is of course half the combination of the Holly and the Ivy which while sung at Christmas by Bing Crosby is really an Easter song.  Listen to the words if you don’t believe me.

Holidays of course were originally “Holy Days” when there was a break from routine whereby people could refresh themselves and take stock of their lives.

The family this year is taking a long drive (1700 kms or around 1000 miles)  to visit relatives.  We are looking forward to it though we all need more sleep.  Will this be refreshing?  I hope so.  More so will be the times of reflection when my passengers are asleep and I can stop and think while staring at country Australia,  Last year I felt God impress ideas and goals for the year.  I have achieved those in some measure or other and look forward to thinking about the next year.

I pray you have a great Advent and will hear from me again in the New Year

Scot McKnight has Friday for Friends where he reads a book by a friend and comments on it.

This week is the first week of “break” where we have no students around until 1st Semester next year but we need to get all our marking completed by Friday.

This made me reflect that I will start a thematic approach to the blog over the Summer break:

Monday is for Marking
Tuesday and Thursday for Theology
Friday for Family
Wednesday for Whatever

If you notice an alliteration it is deliberate.

Next Monday I will look at a book Scot recommended  and I like the look of: Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice by Maryellen Weimer

I now have it and will start to reflect on a weekly basis about each of the chapters.

As for tomorrow -  as the Spirit leads …

As some people can guess I read Scot McKnight’s blog regularly.  In a number of posts Scot mentions some advice he had been given/read and gives advice as to how to blog.

One of the insights was whether people blog for marketing or because they have to write.  I’d like to say its because I have to write.  I know what I am finding I will use to help my college’s marketing or lack thereof.

The reality is that I blog to get my thoughts out there and hope people will comment.  I don’t mind what sort of comments I get but I would like to start conversations on a variety of areas.

So what areas that might be relevant interest you?

There is no question in my mind that the centre of our Christian faith is Jesus Christ. In my last post I questioned which Jesus do we imagine and let drive our lives?

The best answer came soon after I was pondering this when I saw Greg Boyd’s blog entry

I liked what I saw and tried to figure out if I can capture the same photo. I can’t nor can I quickly find the original. If you can tell me how to do this I will be grateful.

Anyway the photo has Jesus washing the feet of famous people: German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Tony Blair, England; Kofi A. Annan, UN; George Bush; Osama bin Laden; Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; and Jiang Zemin, former president of China.

Of course I would have like either John Howard or Kevin Rudd there but maybe this points out that Australia is not a big player in world politics.

At the same time there is no question that pictures like this help us rethink who Jesus really is.

Does an image of Jesus like this challenge you?

It seems odd to me who many consider a technophile to find a technical mistake on my own blog.

It seems I did not turn on the commenting feature properly so those people who might have left a comment have not been able to.

So rather than being a post commenting about technology this is a post about the technology of comments.

The answer quite simply is mea culpa, “I got it wrong.

Not a bad way to start a busy Friday.

It is not every day I decide to blog again. Over lunch someone reminded me (thanks Sam) that we need to get our college name out more.

I suggested a blog again. I am not sure if this is a good idea but at least it is an idea.