Putting Christ back in the News

While recovering from some surgery I have been digitising some more of my tape collection.

Some time, ago in the 1980's, I enrolled in a correspondence course in Christian Writing.

It came with a set of 10 lessons on tape produced by Ken Packer in association with New Creation Ministries.

This was an Adelaide based course.

I wasn't able at the time to continue with the course but learnt a lot from the tapes which were produced during the "live" version of the course. 

It was in the days well before the internet and blogs etc when newspapers and magazines and radio and TV ruled the news gathering world.

Notwithstanding that, there is still much to be gained by listening to the tapes and in someways I think they  influenced me in starting this blog.

Ken produced a book called "Putting Christ Back in the News  The local church's role in public relations and Christian journalism"

I have it on order at the present.

You can still access Ken's writings at the link below.

http://www.timeforworship.com/ken-packers-column/

"Ken Packer.  In 1980 Ken began a monthly Christian column in his local suburban newspaper. In 1985 he began (and still writes) a weekly Christian column for country newspapers.  In 1986 he published his book “Putting Christ back in the news” to explain a local church’s role in public relations and Christian journalism. Click here for Ken’s articles "

I have found there is also a similar free course online at the link below by Fiona Veitch Smith.

http://christian-writing-course.thecraftywriter.com/ 

I would love to hear  from anyone who did the course and what they did as a result of completing it.

One of my neighbours, Rob Ferguson also did the course back then.

His "tree of life ministry" is featured on this blog.

Tree of Life and Christianity Explained

This last weekend saw the completion of my production of a training video series in collaboration with my good friend Rob Ferguson of Tree of Life Ministries.They are on their way to Africa for use of indigenous African Lay People to use in Christian Outreach.
It was a very exciting project to be working on and I have learnt a lot about video production and editing as we went. See my earlier post about this.

http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/tree-of-life-ministries-adelaide-south.html


http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/tree-of-life-training-videos.html



Below is part of the series where Rob is explaining the structure of the Christianity Explained Course.

Tree of Life Training Videos

I have enjoyed another great day today with Rob Ferguson and Tien as we continue to produce training material for use in Africa(Burundi).
We value prayers of Christians who have a heart for mission.
See my earlier post on Tree of Life Ministries in Adelaide South Australia.
We will finish filming the series soon and then into editing etc.
Below are some pics I took today.

Tree of Life Ministries-Adelaide South Australia

 Tree of Life Ministries(TOL)is  based in Adelaide South Australia.
It's founder is Robert Ferguson who is also a neighbour in our street and a former Pastor of the Church we currently attend.
Rob was a Pastor in Churches for several years but some 15 years ago embarked on a calling he saw as from God to to do missionary work in struggling overseas countries.
He started off with some involvement in South East Asia(Burma and Thailand) but now is concentrating on several African Countries.
Rob has identified  African Lay Christians with a gift for teaching and evangelism and has developed  teaching materials for them to use as they visit different locations and run programmes in a variety of Churches and venues.
The Christianity Explained book is an integral tool being used to equip lay people in Africa.
He has also created his own through the Bible training seminar and we are working on a support video series to enable key people in Africa to share the Gospel.

It is amazing what one person can do with vision and God's enabling.

To finance the enterprise Rob continues to work as a Bus Driver and  people are welcome to make donations.