Jon Jolly

Happy New Year!
This time last year I posted my favourite stuff of 2006, and there’s already been a whole slew of bloggers doing the same thing for 2007. So to jump on the bandwagon, here’s my top 3 of everything…
Books
Although I’ve read quite a few books this year, most of them have been around a while and are nothing new, so these 3 are the ones that have influenced me most this year.

1. Contemplative Youth Ministry: I found this a really inspiring and helpful challenge to get back to ‘being with’ young people instead of running programmes.
2. Purpose Driven Youth Ministry: Although quite programme driven, this is an excellent resource for planning and understanding what you do with young people.
3. The Radical Reformission: an excellent call for Christians to be relevant to our culture.

Music

1. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: great songs with deep themes laid over giant, sweeping orchestral sounds.
2. Block Party - A Weekend In The City: I missed Silent Alarm, the original release by Bloc Party, so this album was an eye opener. Strong melody and beats with quirky lyrics.
3. Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back: simply one of the best written and produced modern worship albums.

For more music that I love, visit my Last.fm profile.

Movies

1. This Is England: (released last year but only watched recently) gritty, but beautifully shot in the north of England, it follows one young lad’s friendships and struggles.
2. Ratatouille: a gentle and fun animated movie that follows a slightly different story to the usual Pixar fare.
3. The Bourne Ultimatum: a good ending to the trilogy and much better than the second installment, Bourne finally finds out the truth about his past.

Websites

1. Facebook: the all-conquering social networking website that brings together various elements from around the web under one playful roof.
2. Last.fm: a revolution in music sharing and discovery where you build a profile simply by listening to your favourite music and then share it around the web (including Facebook)!
3. Netvibes: an alternative homepage to iGoogle that has a lot more options and works faster too!

TV

1. Heroes: gripping story of people finding out they have super powers.
2. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares: He’s rude and arrogant, but he makes great TV! You watch it because it’s terrifying!
3. My Name Is Earl: Season 2 really developed the characters and it was funnier than ever!

So what was your best? It’d be good to see some posts from friends who haven’t written anything for a while (Mumf, Kirsty, Ben, Pete).