This is everywhere, age segregation in school, gender segregation in bathrooms, I can't be bothered to think of more. Some of these are good things (like public bathrooms) some could be argued either way (like school), however the one I will have a rant about today is clothes.
When one goes shopping for clothes at a large shops like Target or Big W, the clothes are segregated by fat and thin people. If you are size 16 or lower, you may not have realized this but the 18+ clothes are in a section all by themselves. It is like saying to people "Fat people are over here, they need fat people clothes." Now I am aware that this is probably not the intent, but that is how it feels.
When looking around in the "Fat People Section" compared to the "skinny People Section" You notice a definite change in style as well. I am very aware that clothes that look good on skinny people do not look good on fat people, but that is for the person to decide. To be totally honest some clothes don't even look that attractive on thin people.
When one shops in an actual clothes store, the whole shop is either skinny or fat. The clothing options and even underwear options open to you is completely different and further labels you as fat or thin.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Under estimating Gods word
When people talk about growth in a church, we often mean numbers rather than individual maturity. This is the ladder leading to the slippery-dip of disaster.
Youth group is an excellent example if this slippery-dip of disaster. What happens is there are a few teens at a church so somebody begins a youth group in there lounge room. It is a bible study group with questions aimed at a teenage level (which is not all that different from a grown up level if we are honest) Then God blesses the group and it grows in numbers and spiritual maturity in its members. After a few years it is too big for a lounge room and anyway the original youth group leaders had a baby, so we move to the church hall. This opens up to many benefits like room to split age groups for bible study and room to run games attractive to teenage boys, lets face it, most girls. Then the group grows quickly as kids invite friends and they enjoy the games, more leaders are recruited and bible study and games is the thing. Then we realize that about 1/2 the time we have with the kids is game time so we should make the games reinforce the main point of the bible study. Then we notice that yr7 boys don't like sitting down for bible study so we make it easier and quicker with a little 5 minute bible talk at the beginning, but it is ok because of the useful games we are playing. Then we drop bible study all together and just have a short talk and a bible related game and other, more fun games. Then it is hard to think up bible related games so we drop them. All the older kids have left because it is too energetic and young, the group of kids has grown too big and out of control, the talk is a thing to be endured before the real stuff begins and the leaders all lose momentum and purpose and don't want to do it any more.
Did you see where the top of the slippery dip was? It was when we moved to the church hall. Suddenly more mature and less mature kids are separated for the bible study, this means that, like in school, older kids can't teach younger kids, and younger kids can't learn from older kids. Also there is suddenly a possibility for cool games, this is not a bad thing but it is the top of the slide that looks fun till you realize there is a puddle of pig muck at the bottom. Games are not bad until you confuse them with bible/learning and until you confuse numbers growth with spiritual growth.
The best youth group leader I ever learnt from as a leader was working with a group in a school hall. Every week he said bible study and God was why we were here and if the kids didn't respect that, they could leave. We did bible study and then we had food and then a game. God blessed this group and in spite of the best efforts of this leader to get rid of kids, it grew in numbers. He didn't mind that, he just wanted people to be there for the right reason. He didn't confuse growth in numbers with spiritual growth and he didn't confuse learning about God with games. He had bible time and game time separate.
I am sure that had we not had games at all, while the group may not have been as big, it would still have grown because God's word has a power of its own and if it is taught faithfully then God will do the rest.
Youth group is an excellent example if this slippery-dip of disaster. What happens is there are a few teens at a church so somebody begins a youth group in there lounge room. It is a bible study group with questions aimed at a teenage level (which is not all that different from a grown up level if we are honest) Then God blesses the group and it grows in numbers and spiritual maturity in its members. After a few years it is too big for a lounge room and anyway the original youth group leaders had a baby, so we move to the church hall. This opens up to many benefits like room to split age groups for bible study and room to run games attractive to teenage boys, lets face it, most girls. Then the group grows quickly as kids invite friends and they enjoy the games, more leaders are recruited and bible study and games is the thing. Then we realize that about 1/2 the time we have with the kids is game time so we should make the games reinforce the main point of the bible study. Then we notice that yr7 boys don't like sitting down for bible study so we make it easier and quicker with a little 5 minute bible talk at the beginning, but it is ok because of the useful games we are playing. Then we drop bible study all together and just have a short talk and a bible related game and other, more fun games. Then it is hard to think up bible related games so we drop them. All the older kids have left because it is too energetic and young, the group of kids has grown too big and out of control, the talk is a thing to be endured before the real stuff begins and the leaders all lose momentum and purpose and don't want to do it any more.
Did you see where the top of the slippery dip was? It was when we moved to the church hall. Suddenly more mature and less mature kids are separated for the bible study, this means that, like in school, older kids can't teach younger kids, and younger kids can't learn from older kids. Also there is suddenly a possibility for cool games, this is not a bad thing but it is the top of the slide that looks fun till you realize there is a puddle of pig muck at the bottom. Games are not bad until you confuse them with bible/learning and until you confuse numbers growth with spiritual growth.
The best youth group leader I ever learnt from as a leader was working with a group in a school hall. Every week he said bible study and God was why we were here and if the kids didn't respect that, they could leave. We did bible study and then we had food and then a game. God blessed this group and in spite of the best efforts of this leader to get rid of kids, it grew in numbers. He didn't mind that, he just wanted people to be there for the right reason. He didn't confuse growth in numbers with spiritual growth and he didn't confuse learning about God with games. He had bible time and game time separate.
I am sure that had we not had games at all, while the group may not have been as big, it would still have grown because God's word has a power of its own and if it is taught faithfully then God will do the rest.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Question time
When we planted our church in Maitland, the first and planting pastor used to have question time after every sermon. Occasionally time restraints would prevent this but it was pretty much an expected and accepted thing. There are good and bad bits about question time at church however the good definitely outweighs the bad.
The bad bits can be it makes a long sermon longer (not a problem if it interesting) or worse you can have a second mini sermon from the congregation instead of a question. This was a big problem at this stage of the church and the pastor became pretty skillful at heading it off early. Those are the only two downers that I can see for having questions on a sermon.
The bonuses are big though. Firstly in order to ask a question, one needs to listen to the whole sermon to make sure it is an intelligent question and wasn't answered during the sermon. Secondly it makes the members of the congregation think about the bible themselves instead of taking the pastors word for it. Thirdly it means that the pastor needs to put in a lot of preparation time so he can answer the questions. Fourthly it keeps him honest because there will always be somebody who says "I noticed you skipped over this bit, could you just explain that?" Or "I was a bit confused when you said this, could you explain what you meant about this verse?"
It can be a stressful thing for a preacher to do but I think it is definitely worth it and would encourage all church leaders to take this line, even if it means that it makes church goes past the designated time (perhaps we cab drop a song or just finish a bit late).
The bad bits can be it makes a long sermon longer (not a problem if it interesting) or worse you can have a second mini sermon from the congregation instead of a question. This was a big problem at this stage of the church and the pastor became pretty skillful at heading it off early. Those are the only two downers that I can see for having questions on a sermon.
The bonuses are big though. Firstly in order to ask a question, one needs to listen to the whole sermon to make sure it is an intelligent question and wasn't answered during the sermon. Secondly it makes the members of the congregation think about the bible themselves instead of taking the pastors word for it. Thirdly it means that the pastor needs to put in a lot of preparation time so he can answer the questions. Fourthly it keeps him honest because there will always be somebody who says "I noticed you skipped over this bit, could you just explain that?" Or "I was a bit confused when you said this, could you explain what you meant about this verse?"
It can be a stressful thing for a preacher to do but I think it is definitely worth it and would encourage all church leaders to take this line, even if it means that it makes church goes past the designated time (perhaps we cab drop a song or just finish a bit late).
Yay for home
I have been looking forward to certain things about arriving home. Some of it being seeing people I haven't seen for a long time, but most of it is doing things I haven't done for a long time.
I have lain on mums bed under a fan, I have gone to a 50m pool and swam laps (not many), today I went to the beach with my brother and sister and on Thursday I will go and get a milkshake from the blood bank (you get them for free if you give blood).
The pool is novel, usually where I have lived for the last 2 years the pool is 25m which means that if your kick off is say 8m then you only have like 8 strokes or 10 before you turn and kick off again. That makes a km of swimming easier then in a 50m pool.
The beach, I live right near a beach in WA however, as mentioned in an earlier blog, the waves are not very dramatic. they have been known to wet your ankles. I have seen it so flat there that the only waves were the ripples made by kids splashing around. In contrast the beach today was rough and big and constant. It was worse then I would normally swim in and we had to go quite a long way out to get past the breakers. Once we did though it was worth it. You would go rushing up a wall of water and then fall down the 2m drop on the other side. Sometimes, with a kick or push off the ground it felt like I got air time. I was quite out of practice and there was a certain amount of flapping and floundering after some of the biggest waves.
On Thursday I am going to donate plasma, which is like donating blood but takes longer so take a book. There are a few reasons I do this but the biggest one is the free milk shake we get afterwards. This means that when no milkshake is forthcoming I get a little bit put out.
I would also like to go to the barrington tops, the blue mountains (summer school) and beach mission (without a beach)
I have lain on mums bed under a fan, I have gone to a 50m pool and swam laps (not many), today I went to the beach with my brother and sister and on Thursday I will go and get a milkshake from the blood bank (you get them for free if you give blood).
The pool is novel, usually where I have lived for the last 2 years the pool is 25m which means that if your kick off is say 8m then you only have like 8 strokes or 10 before you turn and kick off again. That makes a km of swimming easier then in a 50m pool.
The beach, I live right near a beach in WA however, as mentioned in an earlier blog, the waves are not very dramatic. they have been known to wet your ankles. I have seen it so flat there that the only waves were the ripples made by kids splashing around. In contrast the beach today was rough and big and constant. It was worse then I would normally swim in and we had to go quite a long way out to get past the breakers. Once we did though it was worth it. You would go rushing up a wall of water and then fall down the 2m drop on the other side. Sometimes, with a kick or push off the ground it felt like I got air time. I was quite out of practice and there was a certain amount of flapping and floundering after some of the biggest waves.
On Thursday I am going to donate plasma, which is like donating blood but takes longer so take a book. There are a few reasons I do this but the biggest one is the free milk shake we get afterwards. This means that when no milkshake is forthcoming I get a little bit put out.
I would also like to go to the barrington tops, the blue mountains (summer school) and beach mission (without a beach)
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Bluey the car is BACK
Bluey, as I may have mentioned, is not named for his colour, he is named after a particularly slow starting horse. This last term I became reacquainted with Bluey and his interesting differences. One additional interesting difference to other cars I have driven is the screeching when going round roundabouts. This is the "speeding round corners too fast and doing donuts" kind of screech. Before you get excited, no I am not going abnormally fast all of a sudden. I was suspecting that maybe it was the fault of old tyre or tyres.
Today my freind told me that my car had a flat tyre, I went to investigate and I think this has explained the squeaking problem. The tyre now known as Mr Squeaky has lived its last legs and, having served the car faithfully for many years, will go on to better things... probably in the local creek with all the others.
Today my freind told me that my car had a flat tyre, I went to investigate and I think this has explained the squeaking problem. The tyre now known as Mr Squeaky has lived its last legs and, having served the car faithfully for many years, will go on to better things... probably in the local creek with all the others.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Puppies... again
It seems my lot in life to end up with families who think it is a fantastic idea to get a puppy. Interestingly the reasons they are employing me is because they are busy... Anyway the last 2 years both families have acquired a puppy. Last year I was excited and looking forward to a puppy, being inexperienced in the area of raising a puppy. She was hilarious and I got to train her because I was home alone most. I taught her to my commands and she would do things for me and the kids if I told them what to say. She was a chocolate labrador and there are plenty of posts about her during 2011.
This year, the prospect of getting a puppy was far less attractive to me. I can't say no though because it is not my dog, my house or my family. Also I don't mind having a dog it is just that I could clearly remember the whining, weeing, chewing stealing speedy creative and naughty beast we had last year. Also puppies are interesting for the first week or two and then there is 2 or more years of annoying, energetic dog that the novelty has worn off. Already the puppy is being ignored and finding creative things to do to entertain herself, digging, chewing, all the other stuff that they do.
Today we took her to the BMX track with the kids and bikes. She learnt things like Puddles can be Deep, and Running Into Bikes is Not a Good Idea. She slipped off a rock and landed head first in a puddle, she ran about like a lunatic (not chasing, just running), and she practiced coming when called.
I have now moved out to another place so I am not a live in nanny any more. I now get to go to work and come home. My lovely flatmate has also apparently been thinking of getting not one but TWO puppies next year. I am coming back here next year so here it is, my lot in life to live with people who acquire puppies. I am going home for the summer so I say to my flatmate "the 20th of December would be the ideal time to get puppies, that way they can be toilet trained before I get back." She reckons the end of January, just before I get back would be better so I can help train them.
So stay tuned for more puppy related posts :)
This year, the prospect of getting a puppy was far less attractive to me. I can't say no though because it is not my dog, my house or my family. Also I don't mind having a dog it is just that I could clearly remember the whining, weeing, chewing stealing speedy creative and naughty beast we had last year. Also puppies are interesting for the first week or two and then there is 2 or more years of annoying, energetic dog that the novelty has worn off. Already the puppy is being ignored and finding creative things to do to entertain herself, digging, chewing, all the other stuff that they do.
Today we took her to the BMX track with the kids and bikes. She learnt things like Puddles can be Deep, and Running Into Bikes is Not a Good Idea. She slipped off a rock and landed head first in a puddle, she ran about like a lunatic (not chasing, just running), and she practiced coming when called.
I have now moved out to another place so I am not a live in nanny any more. I now get to go to work and come home. My lovely flatmate has also apparently been thinking of getting not one but TWO puppies next year. I am coming back here next year so here it is, my lot in life to live with people who acquire puppies. I am going home for the summer so I say to my flatmate "the 20th of December would be the ideal time to get puppies, that way they can be toilet trained before I get back." She reckons the end of January, just before I get back would be better so I can help train them.
So stay tuned for more puppy related posts :)
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