Category Archives: Articles

Articles exploring everything from social issues to current affairs and more

04/20/12

The Lost Generation (where are the 20-somethings in church?)

“If you’re trying to reach un-churched young adults there’s not a worse time than a sunday morning” – Dan Southerland

The other day I finally got around to listening to a CD talk by Dan Southerland on leadership and vision which Tony had leant to me and as I listened the above quote jumped out.

One of my biggest frustrations with the church is that when it comes to people my own age unless you go to a ‘all the hype money can buy’ church they don’t really exist.

Back in October I was involved in organising an event with Lee Kirkby which set out to bring 15-25′s together to talk about how the church needs to change to accommodate more young people. As part of that Lee and myself did a keynote talk as a double act and as I introduced the grim statistics concerning younger people and the church I got to the point in my talk where I said ‘If I’m completely honest if I didn’t work for a church I wouldn’t go’.

At this stage I think it’s important that we distinguish the difference between Christianity and Church. I believe the message that Jesus brings of hope, salvation and forgiveness is more relevant in today’s society than it ever has been…unfortunately so often the church takes that exciting message and makes it the dullest thing in the world!

The talk that Dan Southerland gave was from a leadership conference a few years ago and he talked about the generation gap in the church and also how we ended up where we are in terms of Sunday morning services which can be basically summarised with;

If you want to attract farmers who’ve been out milking their cows to church then 10:30 is the perfect time

Our church service is set at a time which isn’t best for people, the content is often irrelevant and I think congregations are often blissfully unaware of the lack of 20 somethings in their church…for example…

At a recent church meeting the local Archdeacon asked about younger people in our church, to which one retired member of our congregation replied ‘we have lots of young couples get married in church, they come and hear their banns and lots keep on coming’.

As he spoke those words I sat there and thought about young couples in our church and couldn’t think of any because actually Jo and I are the only young couple in the church (and I’m paid to be there)!

Shifting Our Thoughts

Fundamentally if the church is going to attract younger people it needs to take a dramatic shift…it needs to be full of passion and communicate the message of Jesus in a relevant way. On top of that I think church needs to shift aware from Sunday services. Lots of younger people go out on a Saturday night and so is Sunday morning really the right time? (almost certainly not!).

Also in a world where everything for younger people is interactive is a front-led traditional hymn sandwich service appropriate or are relationships key? In a world where people tweet or Facebook on the go…where people comment on TV programmes via twitter in real time is there space for passive church teaching?

Conclusion

To be honest this blog hasn’t really concluded anything beyond the need for the church to change…for more young adults to come to church the whole church needs to get on board because the few younger couples/singles simply can’t do everything.

9 times out of 10 church is irrelevant…I love that our youth group get excited about cafe church because it’s interactive, there’s cake and nice coffee but it also saddens me that this leaves at least 2 out of 4 services branded by people (up to the age of mid-40s in our case) as ‘the boring service’.

I believe there is a place for the church…I think the support, discipleship, growth and challenges Christians receive from other Christians is absolutely essential…the relationship between Jesus and his 12 disciples really strongly backs this up…but that ‘church’ was based on relationships.

It would be interesting to see comments on this both about your experience of church and what we can do!

04/19/12

E-Books

I know I’m probably a bit late to the bandwagon when it comes to e-books but the other night I finished my first ever e-book using the Kindle app.

When I purchased my iPad 2 a couple of months ago I was determined to try and use it for books in one, way shape or form and whilst Apple’s ‘iBooks’ app is very nice amazon has a better reputation for e-reading with Kindles and if I ever ended up with a Kindle any books would work with it. On top of that the Amazon Kindle store is a lot cheaper than the iBooks store.

I’m not going to review the book I read but share my thoughts on the world of e-reading!

Advantages

Chatting to Suzie on Facebook (check out her blog on Kindles here) she talks about how her Kindle takes up a lot less space than lots of books and also is far more portable for travelling and I think I tend to agree. I’m pretty bad at remembering to pack a book but would probably remember my  iPad…on top of that I like that the app syncs which means I could continue where I left off on my iPhone. Having a limitless supply of holiday reading without having stupidly heavy bags could be a big advantage.

I also think that in terms of space e-books have a lot going for them. Our house has lots of books…both fiction and non-fiction and lots of them youth work related and actually having a searchable library would be incredibly useful.

The other thing I like about the idea of e-books is the fact that they are instant, you could simply want a book and buy it…on top of that there’s lots of classics which are available for free. The ability to store Kindle books in the cloud too is a massive advantage because you don’t clog up all your space!

Disadvantages

Having owned an iPod for years and listening to most of my music digitally I still buy CDs…the reason? I like the artwork and I like having something physical. With music I enjoy flicking through the artwork, lyrics, thank-you’s and generally being a geek about it…on top of that you feel like there is more to show for your £8 with a CD than a series of files (plus I can easily listen to them in the car without the crackle of the fm transmitter).

However I don’t have that same artwork attachment with books nor will a book fit in my car stereo without the aid of a hammer which remains the ‘what do I have to show for my money’ aspect which again (and I can’t quite explain why) doesn’t bother me with the idea of e-books but I guess could put some people off.

One thing which may be more of a disadvantage with an e-book (although less so if you own a real Kindle and not the app) is that addition of more screens. I’m very aware that for most of my life I’m looking at a screen whether it’s an iPad, iPhone, Computer, TV or whatnot and wonder if this is a good thing or not?

Lending & Selling Books

One big disadvantage over real books is that you can lend and sell them. Most of the books I buy I get off amazon marketplace and so for £3 I can have a book delivered…e-books don’t have that same advantage (although if your e-book retailer controlled the storage of the e-book I’m sure there’s scope for a secondhand ‘e-book’ store) and so I’d have to pay more for books (although if it’s only a little it probably wouldn’t have a massive impact but the loss of that ‘got a bargain’ feeling is a shame).

When it comes to lending, I am told there is a way to do this with kindle although I’m yet to discover it but if they sussed that e-books would be awesome…no need to worry about who has that missing book!

Overview

To summarise what is probably a fairly badly written, disorganised, ‘Mark is too sleepy to be typing’ blog I think that in principal I like the idea of e-books. I currently have a bit of a reading pile of real books but will probably start getting into them after. I don’t think I’ll be replacing the books I have with e-books (i.e. selling a book then buying the same as an e-book) simply because it would work out too expensive and to that extent it’s a shame that books don’t have the same transferrable nature as CDs…you can easily get your CD onto an iPod however without a hell of a lot of patience and several years with a scanner doing that for a library of books is impossible!

It’ll be interesting to see if I get into them a bit more over the coming months…will probably blog again in the future (on e-books and in general!)

Currently Reading: Life without Limts by Nick Vujicic and I, Partridge by Alan Partridge/Steve Coogan

 

03/26/12

UK Acoustic House Tour – Booking

It’s been an exciting few months musically for me. Last week I finally re-released my album ‘Escape This Town’ in fully remastered glory (Free download link | CD link) and over the last few months Rob and myself have been practicing a load of acoustic stuff and after a couple of opportunities in the last year to play odd tracks at various events we thought we’d do a mini-tour!

So here’s the idea…

Rob and I turn up to your house, student flat, church etc.

We play some songs for you…some off ‘Escape This Town’, some covers and some new.

You invite your friends!

…Simple!

So…if you’d like to have a couple of musicians turn up in your living room for an evening of entertainment with you and your mates here’s what you need to do…

1 – Check out the dates below…we may be able to put other dates in at your request but these are definitely blank in our diaries

2 – Contact me using marktiddy [at] me.com (turn that into an e-mail address!) or via Facebook or Twitter

3 – We confirm a date and turn up at your house!

We’re not charging for this however if you fancy giving us some food or somewhere to sleep or something towards travelling costs that would be very nice but not compulsory!

Anyway…here’s the dates

April
13th, 14th or 27th
May
18th, 25th or 26th May
June
1st, 2nd, 8th, 15th, 16th, 22nd or 23rd June
03/19/12

Escape This Town Out Now!

If you’ve been living under a rock (or ignoring me) for the last couple of months then this will be news to you…if not then here’s some news anyway:

Escape This Town is Out Now!

The fully re-recorded and remastered version of my album ‘Escape This Town is out now on CD (link) and to download (from FREE)

Why download it?

If you’ve heard the last album then please have a listen to the new version. There’s 2 new songs, slightly less songs but it sounds 100 times better…I should have a review from Ben to post in the next couple of weeks too!

If you like the album please tweet, Facebook it etc. and spread the word!

03/16/12

Responses from Cadbury and Sainsburys

As you may or may not have read on this post last week for Fairtrade fortnight’s ‘Take A Step’ campaign I’ve decided to only buy Fairtrade chocolate bars from now on and e-mailed Cadbury, Sainsburys and Mars to tell them and encourage them to introduce more Fairtrade products.

So far both Cadbury and Sainsburys have responded (I feel like there’s more authenticity in the Sainsbury response) but here are the responses:

Sainsburys

Dear Mr Tiddy

Thanks for your email about our Fairtrade products.

We’ve been concerned about socially responsible sourcing for many years, and we’re proud to be the UK’s leading Fairtrade retailer.

In 1998, we became the first UK retailer to develop our own Code of Conduct for Socially Responsible Sourcing.  The Code sets out the labour standards we expect our suppliers to meet, including fair terms of trading, protection of children, worker health and safety, equal opportunities, freedom of association, freedom of employment, hours of work and wages.

Every banana we sell, and all our Red Label tea is Fairtrade.  By the end of 2010 all our own brand tea, roast and ground coffee will be Fairtrade, returning around £2 million to developing countries each year.  Our annual sales of Fairtrade products now amount to £139million

Many producers in the developing world find it difficult to meet Fairtrade standards without some help. Our Fair Development Fund helps more farmers and growers to sell their produce as Fairtrade.  We made an initial commitment of £1million and this should provide a real boost to the livelihoods of producers, especially in Africa.

We continue to support the national Fairtrade Fortnight, which takes place in February and March of each year.

You can find more information on our approach to socially responsible sourcing by visiting our corporate website at www.­j-sainsbury.co.uk.

I’ve also passed your comments about making our chocolate products Fairtrade to our development team.  They’ll discuss it at their next review, and if it’s a possibility I’m sure they’ll do their best to make it happen.

We appreciate you taking the time to get in touch with us, and look forward to seeing you in store again soon.

 Cadbury

Many thanks for contacting us regarding labour conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa.  Like you we condemn child and forced labour and want it to be eradicated.

While we do not own or directly control any farms, we recognize that this is a complex problem and will take all involved – growers, exporters, non-government organisations, national and local governments, and manufacturers – working together to address it.

We see our partnership with Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance one part of the solution to this situation and in addition we have a number of other significant investments and programmes which are outlined below:

Kraft Foods Cocoa Investment

• Since 2001, Kraft Foods has been working with the chocolate and cocoa industry on a multi-year, multi-stakeholder effort to reduce child labour and forced labour in the cocoa sector in West Africa.  This effort has been done in partnership with Senator Tom Harkin, Representative Elliott Engel, and the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.  The industry will have spent more than $75 million on surveys, remediation, and development programs in the sector between 2005-2010.  The Harkin-Engel Protocol has been the overarching structure to support this effort and has become a model of public-private sector cooperation in an agricultural setting.

• In 2002, we helped establish the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), an independent foundation aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labour and forced labour on cocoa farms.  By working community by community, the ICI is raising awareness and seeing a reduction of hazardous child labour in cocoa farming in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

• We’ve been working with the Rainforest Alliance™ since 2003 — started with coffee and expanded into cocoa in 2005.  We chose to partner with Rainforest Alliance because it’s rooted in sound agricultural and social programming — helping ensure farmers and their families get fair wages, decent housing, access to schools, health care, transportation and training.  Our partnership has been growing over several years — in 2009 we were the world’s largest buyer of coffee and cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.

• Since 2008, we’ve been empowering farmer organizations through the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership  where our aim is to create thriving cocoa communities.   In 2009, we achieved Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk in the UK and Ireland. We have expanded this commitment and now Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy is available in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.  Under the Fairtrade system farmers receive a guaranteed minimum price for their product and a Fairtrade social premium.  We’ve quadrupled the volume of cocoa sold under Fairtrade terms in Ghana, helping generate £2.7m in Fairtrade premiums to help improve farming communities’ livelihoods.

• We are also a member of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), which aims to help cocoa-farming families develop and manage effective, sustainable farming practices.  Examples of WCF activities supported by us include The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) and Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions (ECHOES).  STCP focuses on the social and economic well being of cocoa farmers.  ECHOES expands opportunities for youth living in cocoa-growing communities.

• In February 2009, Kraft Foods, along with other companies and organizations, joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a $90 million program to boost the income and productivity of cocoa and cashew farmers in Africa.  The projects aim to strengthen the long-term viability of the West African cocoa and cashew industries through education and market opportunities.

Kraft Foods is the largest purchaser of Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance cocoa and coffee.  Our commitment continues, in 2010 we purchased roughly 19,000 metric tons of Fairtrade cocoa and approximately 11,000 metric tons of Rainforest cocoa. In total we have paid £2.7 million in social premiums to Kuapa Kokoo the Fairtrade co-operative in Ghana.

Thank you for taking the time to let us know how important this matter is to you.  Please be assured that Kraft Foods remains committed to working both with others and independently to improve living and working conditions on farms to help farmers and their families have a better life.

After receiving the response above from Cadbury which was clearly a cut and paste job I bluntly replied with ‘that’s lovely but didn’t really answer my question of if there will be more Fairtrade cadbury products in the pipeline’ (or words to that effect)…the reply was equally as blunt.

Hello,

We are looking into expanding the fair-trade range but at the moment we do not have any more information to give.

Sorry and best wishes

In conclusion I’d say Sainburys are probably putting more effort in than Cadburys or at the very least better at responding to customer queries…let’s keep pasting them!

 

03/10/12

My Step for Fairtrade

As I mentioned on a blog last week the last couple of weeks have been Fairtrade fortnight and the awesome people at the Fairtrade foundation have been encouraging people to ‘Take A Step’ for Fairtrade (one of which has been making Kate Walsh dance on a YouTube video).

This Fairtrade fortnight I’ve run a session with the CU in school (you can download it here) on Fairtrade and encouraged them to think about their own buying habits and why Fairtrade is such a good thing.

In my last post I said that I’d blog last week on what my Fairtrade step was going to be however in the midst of sending e-mails, sorting artwork and ordering physical CD’s for my album (which is out on the 19th March – pre-order details here) I didn’t get around to it so here we go…

My step for Fairtrade 2012 is…

To only buy Fairtrade chocolate bars.

This means that there will be no Creme Eggs for me or Cadbury’s Caramel or Mars bars (my favourite 3) but also means that I have e-mailed both Mars and Cadbury with the following:

Dear Mars,

As you may be aware the Fairtrade foundation have been challenging people to ‘Take A Step’ for fairtrade as part of Fairtrade fortnight. As part of this I have decided that I will no longer be buying any chocolate that isn’t certified Fairtrade.

I know that you are working on introducing Fairtrade to your product line with the introduction of Fairtrade malteasers however I’d like to see you do more as the Mars bar in particular is my favourite chocolate (which I will no longer be eating) and wouldn’t it be fantastic if Celebrations were the first UK selection box to be certified Fairtrade?

I hope you will take on board my comments and work towards a completely fairtrade product range

Thank you

Mark

That’s the Mars letter…here’s the Cadbury one.

Dear Cadbury,
As you may be aware the Fairtrade foundation have been challenging people to ‘Take A Step’ for fairtrade as part of Fairtrade fortnight. As part of this I have decided that I will no longer be buying any chocolate that isn’t certified Fairtrade.
I know that Cadbury is already miles ahead of the leading chocolate brands in offering Fairtrade and it’s been fantastic to see Dairy Milk, Buttons, Bournville Cocoa, Highlights and other products of yours become Fairtrade certified over the last few years however I believe that Cadburys could be doing more. For example the Freddo chocolate bar is Dairy milk yet not Fairtrade and shockingly none of your easter eggs are certified Fairtrade.
This means that I will no longer be buying Creme Eggs, Cadbury Caramel and Heroes until they are Fairtrade certified. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if Heroes were the first selection box to be certified Fairtrade?
I hope you will take on board my comments and work towards a completely fairtrade product range
I look forward to hearing your comments
Thank you
Mark
I have also e-mailed Sainsbury’s who are doing a fantastic job at making their own products Fairtrade to encourage them to make all their own chocolate fairtrade and not just the milk, dark and white.
I’ll be posting updates and replies on this blog too!
03/7/12

Escape This Town – Pre-Orders (including on CD)

I’m incredibly excited to announce that you can now pre-order ‘Escape This Town’ for it’s digital and CD release!

On the 19th March I will be releasing my album ‘Escape This Town’ as a brand new, fully mastered and re-recorded 15 track album.

For the first time I will be releasing it as a physical CD as well as releasing it digitally via iTunes, Amazon etc. and on a ‘pay what you like’ basis from my bandcamp page.

Here are the details…

CD Release

The CD edition of my album is going to be available through my own store and also through Cross Rhythms. You can pre-order yourself a copy of the album from me directly by heading to by store. If you want to hear snippets before buying scroll to the bottom of this page.

The CD release comes in a jewel case with full coloured artwork including a 4 page booklet containing all the lyrics plus some photos of the recording process. The CD and artwork are all being professionally done and if you buy it through my store it will cost you just £5 (plus a small amount for postage).

Digital Release

‘Escape This Town’ will also be released digitally on the 19th March through iTunes, Amazon mp3 etc. (along with streaming on Spotify). However I’m also releasing it on a pay what you want basis from my bandcamp page. This means that on the 19th March you can head to bandcamp and name your price (even 0 if you want!) and download it in whatever format you like.

To pre-order digital (even the free version) just pop your name and e-mail in the form below and upon release you’ll receive a link to download the album in it’s entirety including pdf artwork in whatever format you like!

Digital Pre-order form

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Thank You

Whether you order the CD, download via iTunes, Amazon etc, stream through Spotify or get it for free from bandcamp thank you for taking some interest in my music. Please write about it on your blog, Facebook and twitter and share it with your friends.

Album Sampler

02/28/12

Fairtrade Fortnight 2012

Once again we’re in Fairtrade Fortnight. The 2 weeks of the year when the Fairtrade Foundation make a big push to get people to choose more Fairtrade items and raise awareness.

Fairtrade is an absolutely cracking idea for so many reasons. It pays people properly, invests in communities, treats people fairly, means no child labour and lots more besides.

I urge you to get involved in Fairtrade. Buy Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, chocolate, clothing. Pester your local shops to stock more Fairtrade items. Ask your supermarket to make their own brand stuff Fairtrade (Sainsburys is really leading the way in this!).

Check out the 2012 campaign video below and get involved here. I’ll be posting my step for Fairtrade later this week!

02/24/12

Escape this Town – 19th March 2012

As you may have gathered from previous posts and tweets I’ve been working on a new version of my album ‘Escape this Town’ and it’s finally done…as I type I am uploading the files to digital distributors ready for release on the 19th March under my own label Out of this World Records.

I’ve basically taken the album back to the start and re-recorded guitars, bass, keys and vocals. On top of that I’ve fully re-mixed and fully mastered it. I’m incredibly proud of how different this album is compared to the original release and the addition of the previously unreleased ‘Hopeless Romantic’ and studio version of ‘Secret’ really makes the album for me.

But don’t just take it from me…

On listening to a mostly mastered version Ben tweeted

Today I’ve been sending off press releases (oh yes!) and doing all sorts of publicity type things. I’m really excited about the new album!

Finally here is the new track listing and cover artwork

1 – I Need You
2 – Make You Smile
3 – All Fake & Just So Selfish
4 – Station Girl
5 – It’s Not Right
6 – Summer of 2005
7 – Marry Me
8 – Escape this Town
9 – Something So Unbreakable
10 – Violence Doesn’t Bring Salvation
11 – Trading Your Faith
12 – Pleading Insanity
13 – Hopeless Romantic
14 – Secret
15 – Joanna

02/11/12

Playing Tonight At Beverley Minster

Tonight I’m playing an acoustic cover song with Rob as part of Beverley Minster’s Youth Fundraiser event ‘Minster’s Got Talent’. There’s a whole host of other acts and all money goes towards the Minster’s Youth Ministry.

The event starts at 7:30pm and tickets are £5

Come along and have a listen to our cover song!

In other news…

I spent the tail end of this week writing press releases for ‘Escape this Town’ which is pretty much finished and will be released on the 19th March. Watch this space.

01/2/12

Top 5 Albums of 2011

Since 2007 I’ve written a ‘top albums of the year’ style post to share my personal favourite releases from the past year and whilst I realise I’m a few days later than I’d usually be here are my top 5 albums of 2011 (in no particular order)

Blink 182 – Neighborhoods (Deluxe)

The album I entered into 2011 looking the most forward to was the new Blink 182 album. I’ve been a huge Blink 182 fan for years and when they announced that they were getting back together a few years back I was really excited and have spent the last few years waiting to see what the new Blink 182 would be like.

The deluxe edition of Neighborhoods contains 14 tracks and shows more maturity than Blink 182′s previous stuff and really shows Mark taking aspects of Plus 44 and Tom aspects of Angels & Airwaves back to Blink.

It’s a fantastic album and my personal highlights include Kaleidoscope, Heart’s All Gone, Fighting the Gravity and Ghost on the Dance Floor.

You can read my full blog review of the album here

Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby

I’ve been an Avril Lavigne fan since she first released ‘Let Go’ when I was a teenager and all of her albums feature in the ‘guilt pleasures’ section in my music collection however her follow-up albums since ‘Let Go’ have been a bit hit and miss. In typical pop-fasion they’ve included a handful of good tracks and then some fillers.

Thanks to Spotify I was able to give ‘Goodbye Lullaby’ a proper listen before deciding to buy it and it’s turned out to be one of my favourite albums of the year.

The album has a more mature feel to it and still follows Avril’s ‘pop-rock’ style but she seems to be more comfortable in her own genre rather than occasionally trying to be something else. The album is pretty much all good and my favourite tracks include ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Darlin’.

Kristopher Roe (The Ataris) – Hang Your Head In Hope

One of the bands I’ve got into the most over the last few years has been ‘The Ataris’. In the midst of all the synths and over production of newer pop-punk I’ve found the more simple yet effective side of their music refreshing.

On top of that they’ve been in the process of recording a new album for the last few years and without a record label they’ve been doing it pretty much on their own.

In order to support their new recording process Kris Roe (lead singer/guitarist) released a ‘pay what you like’ acoustic album called ‘Hang Your Head In Hope’. The album is pretty much him and a guitar playing the best of ‘The Ataris’ songs and I love it!

For me Kris Roe’s slightly edgy voice and aggressive guitar style makes this album fantastic. The whole thing is worth downloading and you can get it here for whatever you want.

Owl City – All Things Bright & Beautiful

Owl City have been one of my favourites for a couple of years now and since their success with ‘Fireflies’ the follow-up has always going to have been interesting as artists tend to either dramatically change after a hit or stay the same…often there isn’t anything in the middle.

All Things Bright & Beautiful breaks this rule. The follow-up to Ocean Eyes is the beautiful pop that Adam Young has always produced but seems to have a bit more edge…the drums in particular on this album seem to have more kick. If you like Owl City’s previous stuff you’ll love this…some of the best tracks include ‘Deer in the Headlights’, ‘Galaxies’ and ‘The Real World’.

 

Yellowcard – When You’re Through With Thinking, Say Yes

Yellowcard’s first album ‘Ocean Avenue’ is one of my favourite pop-punk albums ever. The bands unique blend of pop-punk with a violin makes them always a refreshing listen however despite trying to get into them on Spotify their follow-up albums have never quite cut it.

Their new album ‘When You’re through with thinking, say yes’ however changes this and returns to the style that they had originally. The album is energetic and a fantastic listen. Some of my favourite tracks include ‘The Sound of You and Me’, ‘Be The Young’ and especially ‘With You Around’ (because it references a song off Ocean Avenue).

So there you have it…my top 5 albums of 2011. In 2012 I’m really anticipating the release of Luke Leighfield’s new album ‘New Season’ and getting to listen to plenty of other new stuff.