Bignorm.net » Blurb

House in a Box

bignorm — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:19:53 +0000

Just when I though i was going to blog again…

Due to moving home, I will be taking a short break from blogging. Next time I’m on it will be from my new location in Dublin – Skerries.

Thanks for droppin by.

Busy; Brave; Funny; Sad

bignorm — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:04:27 +0000

After finishing all my essays for college this month, and preparing for three major speaking engagements (after an approx 12 month rest), I’m packing up my house ready to move to a new home. Normally, this would be easy with Emily around, but since she is ready to ‘pop’ with our new baby, things are slightly more complicated. Wish me luck.

Hence, blogging has not been priority, and may not be over the coming weeks, but I’ll see what I can do.

In the Spirit of bgnmdtnt, I leave you with a video especially geared for all of you involved with a church. Emily and found great humour, stark truth, and sadly, a contemporary reality in this because we’ve both worked at a church. And like Dorothy in Oz, we’ve seen the man behind the curtain.

Does the church that you go employ clever coercion (technical, programming etc.) to create a spiritual atmosphere more than they should?

The Wise Road of Uncertainty

bignorm — Sun, 09 May 2010 20:51:53 +0000

Another lazy blog during my prolonged season of healthy chaos. This image from Nakedpastor captures my journey perfectly right now.

Derry Sasquatch Sighting

bignorm — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:32:41 +0000

Im struggling to get time to blog at the minute. Essays are climaxing, we’re getting ready to move to Skerries, and I’m speaking this May a lot. Its really all go.

Check out the Google Maps image of my old house in Derry (below). I zoomed in and guess who is going into the garage after cutting the lawns?

A Parable of Bad Service

bignorm — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:38:38 +0000

As I approached the grim yawning customer service assistant in Tesco this morning, I was quickly reminded of Ireland’s ZERO customer service policy (I could write a book). Being married to an American has given me the pleasure of visiting a country who – fake or not – realise and understand what good service is. The Irish just don’t get it.

These parallels of service standards permeate the Church in Ireland to. If I was honest, I’d say that the Irish church has (broadly) low standards and expectations when trying to run services and church related events. Some may jump on me here and accuse me of me being a victim of a ‘consumer church’ mentality, but the truth is that churches in Ireland do run services and do run events – they just don’t do them well. I think the difference here is that (again broadly speaking) that they not only run things on a shoe-string budget, but a shoe-string, ‘cheese-o-rama’ mindset. Is it any wonder the church is not taken seriously?

I pray for more spiritually/culturally/socially astute leaders who have the humility to take Paul’s exhortation seriously, and start living more like athletes training, living, and planning to win the race.

Irish Prepare For Rob Bell

bignorm — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:56:47 +0000

In preparation for Rob Bell’s visit to Ireland this month, Scripture Union have decided (for some reason) to display Rob’s book in the kids section of their Talbot Street window display.

Welcome to Ireland Robert.

Irony For The Irish

bignorm — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:26:05 +0000

Osservatore Romano’s photograph in today’s Irish Times seems slightly ironic considering Vatican secretary Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that “humilty” is the key to true renewal within the Irish Church.

Maybe my cynicism lets me see something different in this photo. Hmmm.

Biblical Infography

bignorm — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:41:06 +0000

Check out Yingyan Huang’s incredible infography. Yingyan has connected Jesus’ 250 events to the 66 books of the Bible.

Pomegranate Phone

bignorm — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:54:36 +0000

Finally a phone that does everything, yes, EVERYTHING. Forget the iphone or even the new Palm Pre, the Pomegranate IS the ticket.

Check it out: www.pomegranatephone.com

You Are What You Search

bignorm — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:58:42 +0000

What does the church have to say about its over-sexualised teens and kids?

THIS article suggests that Kids – not just hormonal teens – are searching for explicit sexual terms. As I read the statistics out loud to Emily this morning, she was gobsmacked at first, but not overly shocked having worked with youth for over 8 years.

Our Google searches say a lot about us. A bit like Dr. Gillian McKeefe’s “You are what you eat” strap-line, “You are what you search“. For everyone’s sake, I trust that the nasty rumour that Google saves everything you have ever searched for at your IP address on their servers, is not true.

Stay pure,