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Looking Back At My Christian Goals For 2020

crop office employee taking notes in notebook at table

Alright, so I’ve just stumbled on a list of Christian goals I wrote for 2020. As they were posted up here, I’m fairly certain they were goals that were not meant to be taken seriously, I wanted to take a moment to look at how they had all gone.

Warning. If you want to read a tale of achievement, look away now. (Actually this probably isn’t the blog for you anyway)

Here is how I did with my planned goals for 2020. (Or at least some of them – I wrote quite a few goals down…)

“Go to church once or twice.” Well the good news is I succeeded here. I did indeed go to church once or twice. Doesn’t feel like much more in person…

“Learn Ancient Greek” So I went from having super low expectations to either having super high expectations… I hope I was just joking. (Ancient Greek readers – Please don’t hate me)… most of these comments could also apply to when I wrote “read the bible”. (Put the burning pitchforks down people – I think I meant reading all of it)

“Pray every now and then”.

Praying “God. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?” counts right?

“Enjoy Gods Not Dead 3.” It hasn’t seemed to make it to Netflix… So I guess that one remains on my “watch list”.

“Enjoy Church Squash” I guess one disadvantage to lockdown is that I’m confined to drinking my own squash?

“Read any book” I’ve just finished reading “Checkpoint” – Basically a look at how video games help our mental health. Totally recommended. Get it here, and I might get a few pence because of it.

“Write that ebook I joked about once”

I actually forgot about this one. I think the idea was to take the argument “its not in the Bible”, and take everything that we assume is ok, or “biblical”, and try and work out where it came from.

Perhaps this is the year for it?

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What Would A Christian New Years Resolution Look Like?

Christian New Years Resolutions (1)

Well with it being New Years and all, there is the obvious chatter about what New Years Resolutions people are making.

I pondered something about trying to get fitter.

But then I saw some fantastic comments on Twitter that made me realise that getting fit wasn’t spiritual enough.

Therefore I looked,

I listened.

And I figured that the above were the only right New Years Resolutions that a Christian could make*.

Are you making any New Years Resolutions, if so what are you aiming for, and do you have any plans to make it happen?

*I could be being a little flippant with all of this.

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Should Christians Celebrate New Years?

Join us and “The World To Come” as we explore “Should Christians Celebrate New Year’s?”

Scroll past the video for a “spoiler“..

Spoiler…

Basically the answer is no. Because you will get drunk and confused.
And the Bible doesn’t say to celebrate the New Year.

I wonder what else we do that isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Bible…

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2016: A Look At Its Highlights…

As we are approaching the end of the year, blogs all around the internet are looking at 2016, and summing up the highlights from what has been an interesting year. Well the Church Sofa is no stranger to jumping on bandwagons, and as such here is the Sofas attempt to look at highlighting the good news from 2016.

Here is The Church Sofa list of top moments from 2016. Lets have a look at some of the good things that have come out of this year…

  1. …
  2. Well…
  3. Err…
  4. Emm….
  5.  2016 could have been worse…
  6. …
  7. Mmmmm….
  8. I….
  9. Rogue One was released, and managed to sum up 2016 in the space of two hours?
  10. Thats it?

Help me out here internet. 

What are the top moments from 2016?

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The Crowd, Mistakes, and I #digidisciple

When I was younger, I came across a pastime known as “people watching”. Every now and then, a friend and I would find ourselves in the front of a coffee shop, and the two of us watched the outside world. We’d sit there, comment, and take it all in.

As I’ve grown up. I’ve realised that was stupid. Coffee shops are not where the action is found. For real people watching, go to a train station! Preferably a nice big train station. You get to see people who lost, confused, and sometimes saying good bye. But you also get to see people having laugh, relaxing, and being reunited with loved ones. Even if its just their luggage. This is where you really get to see people at their most emotional… People watching at its best…

The other Monday, I found myself upgrading from “People Watching” to “Manic Christmas Crowd Watching”. You see, I made two mistakes on that day:

  1. I thought that Christmas shopping on a week day would be easy.
  2. As I work in technical support, I looked for shelter from the Manic Christmas Crowd in a local computer store. I figured it would be quieter, that I could gaze at gadgets I couldn’t afford, as well as possibly get an idea of what some of our customers may be calling in about after Christmas.

I thought it would be a space to build my nerves up to take on the Christmas crowd again. As I burst into a space to breath, I became aware that I wasn’t in a quiet breathing space, but I was surrounded by yet another Manic Christmas Crowd.This crowd seemed different to the normal type.

This lot weren’t storming from one place to another. They looked a little slower, some looked a little lost, some fairly stressed. I heard people mutter about prices, how fast it goes, and if it was ADSL compatible. Yes I was in that section of the shop.

Various emotions and various needs, but be it on with new iPhone, router, or printer, the members of this particular manic crowd were all looking for new ways to connect with people. Part of me wonders if we’re all part of this crowd at times.

Looking back over the sight of that confused rugby scrum, part of me wonders:

  • Where does the Church fit in a world of people, looking for new and faster ways of connecting?
  • Do we concentrate so much on individual meetings, that we forget about connecting with people during their lives?
  • What do you think?

Above originally appeared on The Big Bible)