Living Open Source

Which is the best video sharing site? No contest – it is vimeo. And now there is a vimeo channel dedicated to videos that inspire living the Jesus way.

Trying to think through how to present the story of Job in the context of an all-age service, I came across the Brick Testament – an amazing collection of illustrations of Bible stories done with Lego bricks!

An invitation to a wedding is not something you usually ignore or forget. But that is Matthew’s challenge to those who were not recognising what Jesus was about. The parable in Matthew 22:1-14 isn’t as easy as Luke’s version.

Sifting through the meaningless and profound fog that is called YouTube, you’ll find some very cool animated short films. Do Penguins Fly? has been around a while, but having dug it out to show our youth group, I thought I’d share it here. We are thinking about how we know God exists this evening…

To use excerpts from videos in church usually requires you to buy a license, which in my humble opinion is ridiculous. Then there is the whole problem with queuing up the DVD to play and finding you’ve got it in the wrong place and instead of showing the desired clip, you show something highly unsuitable [...]

Well, instead of an image this week, I put together this little animation. Inspired by the word picture in Isaiah 2:1-5 of ploughs being manufactured from reclaimed swords. I’m also working on a longer version using a track from Paul Simon’s Surprise album, called Wartime Prayers You might find this music helpful for Sunday.

They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Advent begins with one of Isaiah’s wonderful pictures of the kind of transformation that this season announces. Swords into garden tools. What might be transformed in our communities? – knives and guns, into shopping trolleys and walking aids? One of the great [...]