Swedish Salvation Army Officer, Patrick Olterman has produced a series of blog posts that represent possibly the most comprehensive personal view of The Salvation Army and homosexuality that’s available anywhere at the moment.

It’s a big read –expansive (12 individual blogposts…and counting), in-depth, personal yet highly relevant for the movement in general and possibly with some important resonances for other Churches exploring their relationship with and response to the LGBT community.

The posts have appeared for the first time an English translation, I believe, in two places almost simultaneously.

You can read them at Patrik’s own blog, “Warcry – An Epic Love Story Played Out on a Battlefield”, or alternatively at a niche site for Former Salvation Army Officers that is run by Sven Ljungholm, who is responsible for the translation from the original Swedish into English. By all accounts, people are saying that Sven has done a great job in translating Patrik’s series of posts.

The reason I mention both is that I’ve found it useful to refer to both versions. Patrik’s blog has a clearer, cleaner aesthetic that’s easier on the eye and scans well as you navigate through it.

However, at the time of me writing this post very few people have left any comments at Warcry.

Almost all of the dialog and comment from others is on the FSAO site, where the comments are being used quite robustly, so it’s been good to dip into the posts there too – although if you’re unfamiliar with the site, or indeed The Salvation Army it can be bit of a trawl to find your way around.

Taken as a whole, Patrik’s writing is definitely worth taking some time to read, but if you can’t give it the time, you might want to check out a shorter post on the subject here…

• Follow Patrik on Twitter
• Patrik’s Warcry blog
• A post of my own re The Salvation Army and our response to the LGBT Community

HT to Patrik for the pic

Online buddy, Martin Thompson, who blogs at Missiome and was one of my early points of reference when starting on my own blogging journey is going through a rich vein of form at the moment with a quick succession of really good honest and exploratory posts about faith.

Martin’s thoughts have a lot of resonance for me, so I thought I’d share the posts in order just to give others who may not be familiar with Missiome to discover what he has to say.

• beliefs 1 – God
• beliefs 2 – God continued…
• beliefs 3 – Jesus
• beliefs 4 – the spirit…
• beliefs 5 – belief
• beliefs 6 – church
• beliefs 7 – the bible

HT to Martin for the image, and for articulating stuff that I’ve thought about, but never really put down in any readable fashion and adding so much more to the process

More on Missiome at johnnlaird.net

Another booze ad that made me think

With the Tech City Map and Silicon Roundabout grabbing all the headlines, it’s about time I gave an update to what’s happen with all things digital in my home town of Oxted, as a follow up to last year’s Oxted Digerati post.

More and more local people in Oxted are becoming active in entrepreneurial initiatives and digital story sharing.

From the classic “do one thing and do it well” school comes Giraffe in a Scarf, to continent-crossing tech firms like Natterbox, and local bloggers Diana Stavely and Allister Frost the Oxted Digerati are more active than ever.

Near neighbours in Limpsfield Village Shopping have grasped the nettle in using Social Media to promote their small but perfectly formed high st, and established favourites like Footprint going from strength to strength, while Big Yellow Bag is gearing up nicely.

So, what’s happening where you are?  What are you doing to contribute to your local digital community, and how serious are you being about taking the online…offline?

Feel free to let me know if you’re part of the Oxted Digerati, and I’ll give you a shout out too!

More on Oxted on johnnylaird.net

HT to PhillyClarke for the vid

My Church community – The Salvation Army in Croydon – has been holding a Christmas Concert in the Fairfield Halls in the town for close to fifty years.

It’s a great way to start the Christmas Season with Carols, music from our Bands and Choirs and a traditional Nativity Presentation.

This year is no different, so if you are close to Croydon and would enjoy this traditional family event check out the details on Facebook,  email christmasfairfield@croydoncitadel.org or hook up with the Fairfield box office.

• Celebrate Christmas Show Facebook Event
• Fairfield Box Office
• More on Croydon at johnnylaird.net

Even with a few short weeks to go it’s almost unimaginable that I could drag my carcass around London – only periodically stopping to blow some Christmas Carols through my no-doubt gasping lungs as part of Chapel St’s Carolthon.

Chapel St is an amazing organisation working to improve health and wellbeing in the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods, and that’s enough of a motivation for be to try and take part in this crazy caper.

I’d love your support – as would Chapel St.

So, you can do that at my Just Giving Page, or the main Carolthon Just Giving page – I don’t mind either way.

If there are other ways you’d like to be involved – in on-the-day support, by running or playing yourself that’d be cool.

Finally, a super cheeky request help me to put some Social Media kick behind this by Tweeting, RTing, blogging, throwing out a shout-out on Facebook, Liking etc etc…you know the score!

Thank you so much…

I have some amazing friends – people who really push the boundaries to do something special to help others.

One such is Justin Reeves, one of a tight group of buddies who are as close to me as brothers.

We’ve shared so many life experiences, and although this crew don’t all live as close to each other as we did when we were navigating a bunch of South London flats, hang-outs and bolt holes in a mashed up lifestyle that meant that it was hard to know quite who lived where, who was crashing on the floor, who was just around for the evening or pulling an all-nighter.

Shared happy memories make strong bonds, so I feel really proud of the fact that Jus has safely made it back from the challenge of a lifetime, having trekked to Everest Base Camp.

Well done, mate. I am in awe

If you too are suitably impressed, you can still donate to Justin’s chosen charity here

Not since this post about Salvationist soul singer Samuel Ljungblahd, have I been so knocked out by a performance by one of my tribe’s music groups.

These guys are a Salvation Army choir from Mizoram in North East India

Enjoy, and be blessed!

Some people of the tribes that I run with have taken to regularly quipping that “no-one has just one job these days”, and it’s increasingly true and something that I have resonance with.

Back in the day, I had a job – one job – and that was that.

These days, although I’m very fortunate to have a core and principal job, I also find myself working with a myriad of different initiatives and agencies, so the “What I do” expands even beyond the particular gigs I list on the page.

The shape tools, environment, culture of work for many of us has changed, and continues to do at a dizzying pace.

So, with this in mind, I’ve corralled a few pieces that have grabbed my attention:

First up, I was drawn to a WebWorkerDaily post “Jobs? They’re so last Century” focussed on the prophetic articulator of the zeitgeist and guy who sets the tone for many who live the workshifting lifestyle – Seth Godin .
Seth’s latest book , mentioned in the article is “We Are All Weird”

Then a little vid I came across on the Wall Street Journal that explores the shifting demands of the collective work space.

Working hub spaces are popping up globally to meet the snowballing demand for third spaces that meet the needs of today’s nomadic webworkers.
Finally, the quite excellent resource site for Freelancers, Freelance Switch which is rammed with a whole bunch of useful practical resource stuff for the increasing number of folks who work with a portfolio of projects. On top of that it’s just an entertaining read. Highly recommended…..I particularly like the Freelance Freedom cartoon/comic strip.

If this is not the shape of your working environment now,  it may be in the future.

My good buddies at Kore UK are upping the ante with their new consultancy site – aheadintheclouds

Matt & Juls are two of the most talented people I know, and I’m constantly in awe of their creative and cognitive gifts.

If you need what they offer, you should get in touch with them.

They rock!

Also, you might want to check out their other brilliant sites; the also brand new and cool as… unrelated sources, Worth the Ask and viewfromtheoffice

• HT to Aheadintheclouds for the image
• More on Kore at johnnylaird.net