On Monday 20th July, the Vatican released a document, an ‘instruction’, about parishes. Firstly, let me say, I have found this document deeply encouraging and a wonderful reminder about where to focus our aspirations on, but I will also concede that there’s also a significant amount of detail about parish structures (which I found much […]
Author: Ruza
Barna Research – The New Sunday Morning
Barna have released some insights into the trends of church attendance during COVID-19. While there is nothing particularly surprising, it is useful to put some statistics against our current observations and experience: https://www.barna.com/research/new-sunday-morning-part-2/ A couple of highlights I would want to draw out – around a third of respondents (32%) had not streamed any church […]
How to Share the Gospel, even during Lockdown!
I came across this short video from Roger Carswell who seems to have endless ideas for sharing the Gospel and the lockdown certainly hasn’t stopped him! Worth watching simply just to share his enthusiasm for sharing the Gospel. His main theme is that we can still write and phone during this time and thank people […]
Making the Case for Tech
It is often the case where one or two individuals can see the benefits of using and investing in technology but struggle to share this vision with others. Many see the significant costs, especially in this time of reduced income, as non-essential or superfluous. While I am not advocating using technology simply ‘because everyone is […]
When we return, what will you focus on?
Many countries are either planning for the reopening of churches or have already done so, and having to put various plans into action to make sure our places of prayer remain safe for people to come to. It’s really easy to forget, among the discussions about hand sanitizer, appropriate distances and revising the churches capacity, […]
What does evangelisation have to do with ‘new media’?
Many times on this site, I have alluding to opportunities to evangelise, despite the focus on this site on digital tools and online media. If you are wondering why this is the case, Fr Mike Schmitz makes a good case for how these things are connected. The main thread that pulls these things together is […]
Pause for Faith – Fr Stephen Wang
There are many priests who vlog (post video blogs) online and I’ve just chose Fr Stephan Wang in the Diocese of Westminster as an example among many. His newly created YouTube channel, only set up since the 21st March, has daily videos that discuss a range of topics in faith. Most of the videos around […]
Gaming and Faith
OK, so there are lots of tried and tested methods in evangelisation, including small groups, street evangelisation, leaflets, websites and more. But what are our young people spending a lot of their time doing? Social Media? Got that covered. Gaming? How do we use that as an opportunity to evangelise? Father Beau has recently started […]
Use all your skills
When you are considering your outreach, and specifically the tools and approach you want to take, it’s really good to consider all the skills you have as a team. For example, you’d be forgiven for thinking that art had no place in online church activities, but a former Director of Sotherby’s has created www.christianart.today which […]
Prayer Support during Lockdown
The Diocese of Portsmouth are offering prayer support, a prayer request line for key workers and spiritual listening for anyone who needs it. For those who want prayer support or spiritual listening, they just complete a short form to say when they are available for a call, and Key Workers are directing to an even […]