New Norwich Methodist minister is a real geek 

New Superintendent Minister of the Norwich Methodist Circuit, Rev Tom Osborne, has an interest in how the Church and Christian faith interacts and overlaps with aspects of modern culture, including music and geekery.

As well as his ministry experience, and his links with the wider institutional church (both within and outside of Methodist), Tom brings with him an interest in how the Church and Christian faith interacts and overlaps with aspects of modern culture. This is particularly lived out through his involvement in the Friday Fix music blog, and the Faith & Geekery online community.
 
The first of these is a curated blog, where each Friday a reflection on a (usually) secular piece of music is published. These reflections, from a range of people, come from a faith perspective, finding God present in songs written released in a non-religious manner. Sometimes the faith-links are obvious and deep, sometimes they’re subtle and light.
 


When asked about the project, Tom said: “My involvement came through a conversation with the curator, talking about my own experiences with using secular music in worship – something I’ve reflected on academically. I was invited to offer some pieces, and since then I’ve offer quite a few, reflecting on music from a broad range of artists, from Johnny Cash to Foo Fighters, and from Massive Attack to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.”
 
Asked about the geekery interest, Tom said: “At its start, Faith & Geekery was simply a streamed podcast about various ‘geeky’ things, such as Role-Playing Games, Lego, fantasy and sci-fi literature, run by Methodist colleagues, which I happened to stumble upon, but it’s grown to be much more than that. The livestreamed podcast continues in an almost weekly format, of which I am one of a cast of hosts. But we’ve also built up a community, especially on Discord, that is ecumenical in terms of both faith and geekiness. One of our hosts gets very geeky about cows, and we’ve had episodes exploring the geekiness of watches, of food, and of household chores (what, for example, is the correct way iron a shirt?) We have great fun, and our inclusive approach has seen growth in this faith-based community over the past 2-3 years.”

Tom says of his own geekiness: “My own geekiness expresses itself most clearly in a love of Lego, the playing of sci-fi and fantasy tabletop games of various kinds, and a love of all things Terry Pratchett. But I also get great joy from hearing and seeing others be passionate about their own geeky passions, and exploring where we can meet God, discover more of God, and share God in and with those passions. Some of our community now work directly with the Methodist Church’s Evangelism & Growth team in order to take Faith & Geekery to events such as 3Generate (the Methodist Church’s national youth event), Greenbelt, and a variety of Comic Cons.”
 
While Tom’s daily ministry is very much focused on, and rooted in, the churches in Norwich, he’s very much looking forward to where online ministry in the context of Faith & Geekery will also lead in the coming months and years.
 
Read our previous article about Tom.

Pictured above is Rev Tom Osborne and his geeky hobby room space.