LightLive

There's something new on LightLive - Mosaic

2010-09-30T15:45:00.000+01:00

If you go down to LightLive today you're in for a big surprise. We've added a new brand called...

MOSAIC

Mosaic gives you the tools you need to deliver fun, Bible-based sessions with your mixed age groups.

Mosaic responds specifically to the needs that many churches express where a small number of children meet together across a broad age range. Drawing on Scripture Union’s expertise and experience, you can trust Mosaic to help grow faith in the children and young people you work with, whatever stage they are at.

Mosaic is part of LightLive, a website supported by donations, offering tailor made group sessions to help children and young people to grow in their faith through the Bible.

and

to help you further, we have an addition to our popular Top Tips range of books. These books offer distilled wisdom that can be worked through in an evening, and the latest book will help you make the most of Mosaic.

Top Tips on working with Mixed Ages

Packed with practical advice and real-life stories, this booklet will help to equip you in your work with small groups with a wide age range.

Top tips full of wisdom and understanding – to help you face the challenges of a mixed age group
Passion for the good news of Jesus – to inspire you in sharing your faith with children, whatever their ages

And, stay tuned because we have another major announcement coming shortly... see you soon.

What is LightLive?

2010-05-11T10:43:00.000+01:00

theGRID this week

2010-01-28T11:35:00.005Z

We have a confession to make... If you use theGRID, you may have noticed that the quiz on this week's lifestyle magazine pages contains some mistakes. Unfortunately, we misprinted some of the multiple choice answers to questions 3, 4 and 10. We've produced a corrected version of page 14 which you can download as a PDF from the link below, and are working to update the sessions on both LightLive and the Light website downloads area.

page 14 from theGRID JM10 (corrected)

We are very sorry for the inconvenience for anyone who usually uses the magazine but hopefully you'll be able to print the PDF out for use with your groups. Do remember that there are also plenty of other activities in session 5 that you could use instead!

If you have any further comments or feedback about Light material, do get in touch with us through the LightLive forums (found under the 'About LightLive' tab). Hope your sessions all go well this week, whether you're using theGRID or Xstream, Splash! or Bubbles - we love to hear how you've got on.

Rachel

Switchfoot and tobyMac gig dates (UK)

2009-11-17T11:29:00.003Z

Switchfoot - The best selling CCM Rock band ever have confirmed dates to play in 2010 at:

The Big Church Day Out (Leicestershire & West Sussex)
29TH MAY 2010 - STANFORD HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE
30TH & 31ST MAY 2010 - WISTON HOUSE, WEST SUSSEX

Fuel 10 Event (Belfast) (Facebook Group)
11th – 13th JUNE 2010

Frenzy Festival 2010 (Edinburgh)
12th JUNE 2010

… and there could be more dates added.

This is the first time the band will have played in the UK since 2007.

tobyMac is also confirmed to play at The Big Church Day Out (Leicestershire & West Sussex).

The Big Church Day Out (Leicestershire & West Sussex)
29TH MAY 2010 - STANFORD HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE
30TH & 31ST MAY 2010 - WISTON HOUSE, WEST SUSSEX

This is the first time Toby will have played in the UK since 2007.

For more information on any of these dates please go to the event websites direct.

Animated Baby Moses

2009-11-16T12:06:00.005Z

Hey, hold on, I missed this. I could claim mitigating circumstances but the bottom line is I forgot to post about it.

'What?' I hear you cry.

Well, we did another Bible Friends animation. This one is all about baby Moses. And you can get to it by following this link, although once again if you're not on broadband you may want to give it a miss.

PS Look out for another animation very soon!

Darren

Apologies, the link is now fixed

Easter in October?

2009-10-07T10:54:00.003+01:00

No, we're not trying to reignite the controversy over the date of Easter. But the majority of the age groups in Light are looking at the Easter story at the moment.

Why?

Well, quite simply, when Easter comes around each year and we meet on Sunday, we jump from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. We miss, or gloss over, some of the most important bits of the gospel message.

So, because we care deeply about such things, we thought we'd take a deeper look now. It has nothing to do with us getting our calendars mixed up.

Remember, Jesus is for life, not just Easter.

The story of Joseph animated

2009-08-24T15:09:00.004+01:00

Every so often we create a little something that we think you may enjoy.

Due to the limits of blogger, you'll need to follow the link. I don't think you'll be disappointed. (it may take a while to load, it is 4mb)

Joseph animation (broadband recommended)

Darren

This dream is not about sex!

2009-08-17T13:52:00.001+01:00

What If Pharaoh had asked Freud what the seven thin and fat cows meant? I’m sure the answer would have involved Pharaoh’s mother, childhood emotional trauma and sex. It may be over simplistic but Freud had a habit of reducing subconscious thought to those three areas.

Fortunately for Pharaoh, and us, Freud wasn’t around during the events of Genesis 41. This meant that Pharaoh’s dreams were interpreted by Joseph. These particular dreams had national implications. They signalled events that would be felt both locally and further afield. Therefore, Joseph turned to God to interpret the dreams and reveal the meaning.

Joseph trusted God and gave the meaning to Pharaoh.

LightLive is currently in the middle of the Joseph account in Genesis. This week, if you’re following the syllabus, Pharaoh’s dreams are the topic.

Let us pray that God will explain the meaning of these passages to us. Then, that we will pass the meaning on clearly to our groups.

Scheduled downtime

2009-06-11T16:35:00.001+01:00

Our Internet servers are being moved to a new home in Slough. This is part of a planned move by our hosting company, who are migrating away from their present central London sites.

This means LightLive will be unavailable from around 1am to 6am on Sunday 14 June (GMT) while they're moving.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

The team are at CRE

2009-05-13T09:13:00.003+01:00

Just to let you know that the LightLive, SchoolsLive and WordLive team are down at the Christian Resources Exhibition this week. So if you are in the Esher area and want to know a little more, come along and have a chat on the stand.

For more information click here.

Normal service resumed!

2009-05-08T13:23:00.003+01:00

Thanks to our technical team, LightLive is now back up and running!
thank you for your patience!
love from the LightLive team

LightLive is unwell

2009-05-08T10:04:00.003+01:00

We're aware of an issue affecting LightLive at the moment. You can access content but if you try and edit a session you'll be dumped to a login screen. So until further notice you may want to avoid trying to edit any sessions.

We'll update here as soon as the issue is resolved.

Sorry.

Religious think tank welcomes launch of atheist buses

2009-01-07T10:25:00.000Z

Theos, the public theology think tank, has welcomed a new atheist bus campaign, being officially launched in Central London today (Tuesday).

The bendy-buses, with the slogan "There's probably no God", are the idea of the British Humanist Association and have been supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins.

They are now running on the streets of London.Commenting on the launch of the buses, Director of Theos, Paul Woolley, said:

"We think that the campaign is a great way to get people thinking about God. The posters will encourage people to consider the most important question we will ever face in our lives.

"The slogan itself is a great discussion starter. Telling someone "there's probably no God" is a bit like telling them that they've probably remembered to lock their front door. It creates the doubt that they might not have done so.

"A new Theos research study, to be published next month, shows that there are as many people finding God in Britain today as losing it, so this campaign is speaking into a very live debate.

"Mike Elms, a Fellow of The Marketing Society and former Chief Executive of ad agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Tempus/CIA, has said that the campaign could play a role in the revival of Christianity.

Mr Elms said "For too long, the British public has been able to dodge the 'God choice' - is there or isn't there? - by scribbling C of E on their hospital admission form. But now atheists are challenging us to make that choice one way or another. The atheist campaign opens the door toward a very public debate on the existence and nature of God."

www.theosthinktank.co.uk

1 in 3 Britons believe in the Virgin Birth

2008-12-08T09:35:00.001Z

More than a third of Britons believe that the virgin birth really happened, according to new research published today by Theos, the public theology think tank.

In the poll of over a thousand adults, undertaken for Theos by ComRes, 34% of people agreed that the statement "Jesus was born to a virgin called Mary" was historically accurate. Only 32% considered it fictional. Women are more likely to believe in the virgin birth (39%) than men (29%).

56% of Britons believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Surprisingly, the research reveals that people are more likely to believe in the virgin birth than angels. Only 28% believe the Bible's account of angels visiting shepherds to announce the birth of Christ actually happened, compared with 32% who think it is fictional. 37% of people believe that Herod ordered the death of infant boys in an attempt to kill Jesus.

In terms of the significance of Christ's birth, 52% agree or strongly agree that the birth of Jesus is significant to them personally. 72% of people think that the birth of Jesus remains significant culturally.

The research may support recent reports that carol services are growing in popularity. 44% of Britons plan to attend a Christmas church service this year. St Paul's Cathedral is holding identical carol services on the two days before Christmas in order to accommodate the number of people wishing to attend.

57% of people will be celebrating Christmas as a religious festival. Significantly more men (48%, compared with 36% of women) do not celebrate Christmas as a religious festival. Scotland ranks as the most religious nation. 66% of Scots celebrate Christmas as a religious festival.

Commenting on the research, the Director of Theos, Paul Woolley said:

"The extent of religious belief will no doubt surprise people, but these
findings are consistent with other research we have undertaken.

The number of people who believe the birth of Christ is significant to them
personally is especially striking. In periods of financial uncertainty, when
there is concern about losing jobs or homes, perhaps people are more open to
thinking about life’s ultimate questions.

Despite all of the hype around the recent success of recent books promoting
atheism, it is clear that, for most people, religious belief cannot be explained
away so easily."

To read the full findings of the poll, click here.

Back from CRE

2008-05-19T09:24:00.001+01:00

The LightLive team took to the road last week and headed off to sunny Sandown. There, they showed off LightLive to the masses who attended the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE). The response was very, very positive and it was great to meet one or two users who had already found the site useful, 'Hello to you!'

Now the team are back at Bletchley HQ, busily looking for ways to make the LightLive experience even better. What we have now is only the beginning, so if there is anything that you would like to see on LightLive then leave us a comment on the blog or use the contact form on LightLive itself. LightLive is there to resource the church, Lightlive is there for you.

It's Live!

2008-05-08T14:47:00.001+01:00

LightLive, the online service that puts Bible-based learning material at the fingertips of children's and youth workers, went live today (Thursday May 8). We'd love you to have a look at it and then pass the news around your networks.

Just to refresh your memories: LightLive gives children's and youth leaders free-of-charge access to a weekly syllabus of downloadable material following Scripture Union's Light programme, for groups aged up to 14. It also gives access to all-age materials.

Pssst...

2008-05-08T12:07:00.001+01:00

... don't tell anyone, but all being well LightLive will go live today... I'll tell you more when I know for sure. Keep praying that all the testing and server moves go according to plan, it is quite important.

Pray for today

2008-04-30T09:39:00.001+01:00

We have a progress meeting this afternoon, so please pray that we will have made some progress :-) and that everything that needs to be done will have been done.

Praying for the LightLive launch

2008-04-25T11:48:00.001+01:00

The change in the go-live date to May 8 gives more time to refine some aspects of LightLive. Pray for wisdom in discerning the priorities and deciding which features are essential to launch and which can be developed later.

Pray, too, that everything essential will be in place by May 8.

Prayer for LightLive

2008-04-24T09:04:00.001+01:00

After Baigent’s work on LightLive yesterday, we’ve received their suggestions. We now have to decide what it’s appropriate to take full steam ahead and make available from launch and what should wait for to add (even greater!) value to the site later!

Pray for real wisdom for those deciding - and for those working on the ‘full steam ahead’ bits!

Pray for LightLive

2008-04-22T10:11:00.001+01:00

Yesterday’s meeting gave lots of good ideas and possibilities which Baigent will be looking at right now to see what can be turned into practical realities (and when!). We’ll be hearing back from them soon.

Pray that the work they’ll be putting in will result in a LightLive that is even better than we could possibly imagine!

Prayer for today

2008-04-21T10:24:00.001+01:00

This afternoon there’s an important meeting with web partners Baigent to consider and work on the findings from LightLive beta testing.

Pray that the outcomes will take us forward in the right direction – and quickly would be good!

Prayer for LightLive

2008-04-04T09:01:00.000+01:00

By the end of today we anticipate that Baigent will have done their stuff with LightLive and it will be ready for the link to be set to Beta-testers…..

On Saturday…
We’ve been thrilled by the financial support given to the digital project through the latest appeal. Thank God for it –and pray that the ongoing need for financial support will be met. We’ll need people to continuously notice and respond to the ‘support’ button!

On Sunday…
Pray that those leading children’s and youth groups today will know God’s blessing… and a hunger to do their best for their groups. Pray that in God’s goodness we are preparing to scratch where they are actually itching!!

Please pray for

2008-04-03T09:05:00.001+01:00

Pray for marketing manager Kate Beaton as she works with design consultancy firm ‘ie Design’ to take forward the LightLive marketing plan.

All those involved in the launch campaign need to work together superbly well at this critical point!

Prayer for today

2008-04-02T08:56:00.001+01:00

Here’s the feedback from yesterday’s meeting with Baigent:

“Give thanks that LightLive is looking good and is almost there in terms of delivery to the functionality spec, but Baigent still have plenty of work to do!

There are also some changes to the database that Eddie has to make in the next day or two, which are going to put some pressure on him until the end of the week.

But we’re hugely encouraged”

We pray on!

Prayer for today

2008-04-01T08:41:00.000+01:00

The team from Baigent working on technical development is coming in today to show us what LightLive looks like now! The ‘tour’ which will guide users through the site is also being scoped.

We'd love it all to go smoothly.......

In addition to the above, the 'tour' is perhaps the most difficult thing for us to get right at this point. We know what the site will do and we know how to use it, but we need to pass that information on to the users. It is the 'tour' that will do that. LightLive is way more complex than WordLive, so it is vital that we make the 'tour' simple and yet complete.

BTW, we are also quite excited about this!

Prayer for today

2008-03-31T08:57:00.000+01:00

There have been some technical delays which means we have moved the beta testing period back by one week. Please pray that the technical issues will be resolved - and that we will still have enough people available to participate for the revised dates of April 7–17.

In an update to the above prayer the technical issues are primarily about the scale of the work to do and also when the best time to begin beta is. All being well we will be getting access to the site tomorrow, and it is very exciting. But please do pray, the development team are very, very busy.

Prayer for today

2008-03-28T10:21:00.000Z

Thank God for the great team of temporary staff who are coming to the end of their time with us – they’ve helped us to tag and upload a massive amount of Light content.

And in case you won’t be logging on to your computer over the weekend:

On Saturday Pray that once it’s out there, many people who currently aren’t Light users will discover LightLive – and find it invaluable!

And on Sunday let’s remember before God everyone who is using Light printed material today – that the efforts of both users and producers of it will be greatly blessed by God -and many folk of all ages will grow closer to him.

Prayer for today

2008-03-27T08:52:00.001Z

LightLive still needs beta-testers who can give a bit of time between Monday and Friday next week and the week after to help iron out any glitches.

Pray for enough people to be in place for the testing to be done thoroughly!

Gearing up for beta testing

2008-03-14T16:54:00.000Z

Beta testing is only a couple of weeks away for LightLive, the latest digital offering from Scripture Union. We'll let you know all the news here first as we take each step to the full release... coming very soon.

LightLive is coming

2008-02-04T16:19:00.000Z

Imagine a filing cabinet of creative activities and ideas.
Imagine Bible-based activities and ideas.
Imagine ideas for all-ages.
Imagine it all online.

You don't need to imagine for long...