10 Questions with Andy Byers

by Chris Morgan, 6 January 2012

10 Questions with Andy Byers

One of the things we will be doing with this blog is doing a series of posts called “10 Questions with…”, and as we come to Student Houseparty we thought we’d start it with Andy Byers.

Andy is our Guest Speaker at the 2012 Student Houseparty, he will be speaking on “Theomedia” (more on that in another blog post I think), he is from the States, married to Miranda and they have 4 kids. He is based in Durham for a few years whilst he does a PhD.

1) What are you doing right now?

Having a debate about God's justice (or injustice?) with other PhD students in the Conquest of Canaan and trying to figure out how to talk to your kids about divinely-mandated genocide. Another day in the postgraduate student room off the Bailey....

2) What is in your pocket?

Keys, cell phone, pocket knife.

3) What do you do as a “day” job?

I spend the days studying in that same postgraduate student room off the Bailey studying German, Hebrew, Greek and working through Johannine theology.

4) Where do you live?

Just off Whitesmocks Ave.

5) What was the last sermon you preached?

"Behold the Lamb"—it was a sermon at Ushaw Moor Baptist on John the Baptist's ministry of fading away.

6) Favourite book of the Bible?

That's a dangerous question! Favorite verses can tend us to be selective with our Bibles. But to be honest, I suppose I would say Mark, John, Revelation and Exodus.

7) Last album you bought?

My wife buys all our albums, not me. The latest was something from The Civil Wars.

8) Last DVD you watched?

Cars 2. As a father of four, most movies I watch are produced by Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks!

9) Football or Rugby?

I suppose Rugby, if American football is not an option.

10) What are you passionate about?

Studying, teaching and writing on the Bible. Reading fiction is a rarity, but it is one of my favorite hobbies. Also, I love hiking and other adventures with my sweet family. And I just love watching my wife, Miranda, do pretty much anything because she is just so awesome. Yeah, after 14 years of marriage I am as crazy about her than ever.

Studentblog - November 2011

by Chris Morgan, 2 November 2011

Hi there,

For this month’s main entry we’ve just got a few things that are coming up to mention to you guys.

Firstly we’ve got a Guest Service, entitled “What’s in a name”, coming up on the 13th of November at Durham School. Phil Glover, who leads Acorn Community Church in Newcastle, is coming to speak. Flyers for the service are available at Church on Sunday’s or you could grab one by coming to Student Café and picking it up from the Appleby Rooms. Use this as an opportunity to invite your friends to an evangelistic service. Here’s a cheeky little link to a QR code so you can have it saved into your smartphone calendar!

After a couple of weeks in cell groups, pastorates will be back next week. Hill Pastorate will be looking at why we are a Missional Church and how that affects us as students and as a Pastorate. Central Pastorate are going through a short series on the book of Hebrews and next week they will be looking at Hebrews 10 which is about “How Jesus’ sacrifice is a better sacrifice” and they’ll be taking communion in that meeting. Viaduct Pastorate will be continuing their series “People of God” with “People of the Spirit”.

Later in the month we will be launching the 2012 Student Houseparty. Yes that is the truth. Just as a sneak peek, we will be going to the same venue again and we will be having Andy Byers as our speaker. You heard that here first. We will bring out another blog entry specifically about the Student Houseparty (12th – 14th January) so keep your eyes peeled for it!

I’m going to close with a chorus from a famous old hymn, use it as a reflection and meditation for your own time with God.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”

Keep tweeting us (@kcdstudents #kcdstudents) or emailing us.

That’s all for now folks

CM

Welcome to Studentblog

by Chris Morgan, 14 October 2011

Hi there! Welcome to the new King’s Church Durham Studentblog. This is part of a new initiative to build community among students here at Kings. The plan is for myself and Mr. Phil Trainer to update you with what’s going on in Studentdom at Kings on a monthly basis with extra  occasional articles on various things.

There are some exciting things to let you all know about. Firstly, all our Sunday Meetings are up and running – you can check out the sermon series for Morning Worship, Crux and Connecting by following the links. Sunday Supper is still around as well, it’s on at 7pm on Sunday Evenings, in between Crux and Connecting.

Student Café is continuing with its vamped up menu. So on Wednesday and Fridays at 1230 till 4 based in the Appleby Rooms, you can come and grab some lunch, a coffee or one of a various assortment of chocolate biscuits. Do pop in and have a chat with either myself or Phil or one of interns. Today I had a chicken, bacon and sweetcorn roll with a packet of crisps and a can of Coke for just £2! Bargain!

All of our Pastorates had their first meetings this last week. Our three Pastorates are Hill, Viaduct & Central, with the first 2 meeting on Thursdays and Central meeting on a Wednesday. If you haven’t joined a Pastorate yet – get in touch with myself or Phil. The Pastorates meet three or four times a term and then meet in smaller cell groups in the rest of the weeks of term.

Alpha also met for the first time this last week with the Launch Party. It starts going through the material this coming Thursday at 7pm in the Appleby Rooms. If you want to come along yourself or have a friend that would be interested do come along.

Other things that we want to do regularly on this blog is to highlight some key events that are happening over the next few weeks, introduce one of the new songs we’ve done in Kings recently and write articles on interesting topics. If you have any thoughts about things you would like to see in this space do email us or tweet them to @kcdstudents. We are also going to have a series of blogs going up over the term called “10 questions with…” and these will be brief interviews with people who are doing key things at Kings over the coming term.

I’m going to end with the words of the first verse of Bless the Lord (10,000 reasons) – let us keep this as our prayer through each day.

                The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning
                It’s time to sing Your song again
                Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
                Let me be singing when the evening comes.

Amen.

Do contact us with comments via email or twitter (follow @kcdstudents and the hashtag #kcdstudents).