Anyone looking for a house?

Our house is currently on the market:

Look out for posts with further updates on the whys and wheres of the move…

I came across an interesting article about how some churches have become fixated on the _”one size fits all”_ approach…

One of the great lies of modern society is “one size fits all.� With the disparity in people’s sizes increasing (read: many of us are getting bigger and bigger), “one size fits all� is becoming less and less true.

The same holds true for the church.

For years, in addition to buying the specious “bigger is better,â€? we have been addicted to a one-size-fits-all mentality in the church. It’s called “programs.â€? The problem is, people aren’t “one size fits all”… and that’s why programs are so awful. They assume just that.

Here’s the way to enter our community. Here’s the way to work into leadership and grow in your relationship with God here.

Whether I am a young suburban/middle class, well-educated female, or a Vietnam vet from inner city Detroit, most churches tend to assume that my spiritual needs and progress will be strikingly similar.

Taken from: The problem with programs (or Bigger is No Longer Better)

The article goes on to present some very thought provoking arguments, as well as some very sad but witty quotes…

I have to say this article resonates a lot with me. I have in the last 2-3 years become increasingly concerned with the move within churches to running programmes for people instead of engaging them where they are. A prime and very popular example of this would be the all famous Alpha Course. Alpha itself is not a bad idea, nor is it a badly designed programme. However what it does have a tendency to do is make churches all run the same course with the same content in the same style.

How does this cater for everyones different needs?

Are churches using the prewritten Alpha course as a starting point and then adapting it to their individual members needs? Or are they working through each of the sessions as written or even worse using the pre-prepared videos?

At present British churches don’t seem to be as focused on programmes but there definatley seems to be a move in that direction…

Do you think churches have become too programme orientated? Taking a “one size fits all” apporach?
Do you think churches are getting to be to really ‘shepherd their flocks’?

Or do you think programmes are the future of the Church?

I came across this Problem Bank website a few months back but noticed that it has recently moved and also undergone a UI update.

CountOn Project.

The Problem Bank is unsurprisingly a bank of problems! But what makes the site extremely useful is the fact that all the problems have been sorted in Year Groups, Stand (Number, Algebra, SSM and Data Handling), and high/low ability. This means you can easily find an appropriate puzzle for whatever group you are teaching. What makes the site even more useful is the fact that on the new website, all the puzzles are now available as Word Files to download.

Try it out and if you find any really interesting puzzles come back and share them here!

Here is one for starters that I did with my top-set Year 9′s – Circle Crescent

An interesting puzzle, especially because the solution doesn’t involve \pi