dream to go 20 - career opportunity

I'm excited to be able to tell you that Dream has now grown to the size where we are ready to expand our staff portfolio. Please read the following job description carefully. You could just be one of the people we are looking for, so don’t miss this opportunity for a change in career direction!

Job Title
Your position will reflect a encompasses a range of roles. Please choose from any or all of the following titles…
-Pastor
-Minister/Priest
-Missionary
-Full time Christian Worker, living by faith

Responsibilities
As a pastor, you will take pastoral responsibility to care for a group of people around you. This will be challenging, since much of this work is done undercover and most people in your “flock” will not realise that you are their “pastor”. Nevertheless you will take seriously the need to care for them and to seek their spiritual growth and wellbeing.

As a minister and priest*, you will be aware that you have been called by God to serve your flock sacrificially, to pray faithfully for them and to take opportunities to make them aware of God’s presence.

As a missionary, you will seek to understand the culture within which you work. You will look expectantly for signs of God’s work within your mission field. This work is aspirational as you seek see your context transformed by the presence of Jesus. As a missionary you will also cherish the legacy of others who have, and still do, experience intense suffering and even death for the sake of this cause.

As a “full time Christian worker”, you will know that your true employer is God, whether or not you have a official employer. As such, you will embrace the call to “live by faith”, trusting God to lead you and provide for you.

Remuneration and Support.
Dream will not pay any wages, however we will be working in the months ahead to increase opportunities for giving, something which we regard as an outstanding long-term (ie forever) investment opportunity. Successful applicants may expect ongoing support from across the network through prayer, encouragement and resources for personal spiritual development.

Qualifications
This is an equal opportunities appointment that does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, class, sexuality or education. There are however two essential qualities

-A commitment (however fallible) to follow Jesus, seeking to live a life shaped by Him and in obedience to his teaching. (This bit automatically makes you a pastor, priest, minister, etc!)

-A desire to carry out this vocation (that means calling) as part of the Dream network. (This bit qualifies you for our exclusive remuneration and support package)

Application Procedure
None required, though you might like to be brave and add a comment to indicate that you are taking the job!


*please not that “priest” in this context neither requires you to wear strange clothes (though whatever floats your boat), not does it entitle you to claim a pay cheque from the Church of England!

invitation to take part in research

Katharine Moody is a PhD student at Lancaster University. Her research is on the beliefs of individuals involved with "emerging churches" (dream is one those in case you've not heard the term!). She is looking for research participants to fill out a questionnaire, with 8 questions, including:

-In what ways might contemporary culture be useful for Christianity?
-What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “I am the Truth”?
-Why might Christian ways of understanding how the world is (or should be) be better or truer than any other understandings?

If you'd be happy to take part, even if you have never thought about these kinds of questions before, she'd love to hear from you.

To participate in this research, you must:
Be involved in emerging churches (eg dream)
Live in the United Kingdom

If you are interested in completing the questionnaire, please email me at k.moody1@lancaster.ac.uk and she will email or post you a copy. It would be great if you could return the completed questionnaire by June 30th! (edit: extended to 6th July)

Later stages of this project will involve face-to-face confidential interviews with any questionnaire respondents who are interested in exploring these issues further.

More Free Art Tools

Two top quality free digital art tools for you to play with:

1. Vue 6. This is a free version of the software I use to create most of my stuff. It can do pretty much everything the full version does except that I think it adds a watermark to the final render. It specialises in 3D terrains and landscapes though you can do just about anything with it. It's called a Personal Learning Edition and can be downloaded here.



2. Google Sketchup. This is a really addictive program for creating illustrations and diagrams - it's really geared for more technical illustration or for architectural drawings, but again, you can have a lot of fun just doodling with it. Apparently some people use it for art therapy! Download from here.

With its more architectural hat on, one possible use for Sketchup is to plan the use of a worship space - to try to visualise how things will be laid out - could be really useful if you're planning something complex.

Here's a Google Sketchup diagram I drew of the house my parents live in - I managed it after watching 2 video tutorials lasting just 30 mins in total!

It may be at some point in the future worth gathering together anyone who's keen to learn the basics of 3D art ... interested?

by Richard Lyall

dream to go 19 - stop flapping... or maybe start

Choas theory refers to the "butterfly effect". The idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can be the tiny but crucial difference that leads to chain reaction, causing a hurricane on the other side of the world.

What were you doing 5 mins ago?

What will you be doing later today?

It is significant.

Could be more significant that what Bill Gates, George Bush, Bono and the Pope are do at those moments!

And if not, then still significant.

By the way, who says that Gates' job is more 'important' than the house-husband/wife who makes their own home hospitable?

Flap away, lets create a storm!

my celebrity lookalikes - by richard w

Put together Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, a member of Westlife and... er ... the prime minister of Finland, and you get... me! (this software is clearly designed by a genius)

Have a go and see who your lookalikes are! (tell us in the comments)

http://www.myheritage.com

dream to go 18 - you're hired!

You are amazing!
Your uniqueness intrigues us,
Your enthusiasm energises us,
Your conversation engages us,
Your looks please us,
Your honesty scares us - we love it!
Your humour cracks us up,
Your insights enrich us,
Your weaknesses strenghten us,
Your soft heart comforts us,
We like you.
We want you to stay.
To be part of us.
To belong.
Please let us know if you'll take the job.