16 thousand reasons to read your bible

Last monday night on the Aussie "Who wants to be a millionaire" the $16000 question was,

What is the third book of the Old Testament?
A: Numbers B: Genesis C: Leviticus D: Exodus

Now any one who has ever tried to read the Bible all the way through knows once you get to Leviticus and all the rules etc its pretty hard to keep going. but this poor guy had to take the $8000 because he couldnt answer it . So like I said 16 000 reasons to read your bible.

read the whole story here

http://millionaire.ninemsn.com.au/thisweek/default.aspx

Ordination

I have spent the last 4 months applying for ordination in the Baptist denomination here in South Australia. I have to admit the application process was a bit daunting. It began with a 16 page application form, a police report and three personal references. A panel then interviews three people from my local church, my pastor, my college principal, my field education supervisor and finally my wife and I. Then this panel has to reccomend me to the Executive committee who has to reccomend me to the State Baptist Assembly at which time I will be allowed to study for a further 2 years at then end of which time I can apply for the final step to ordination, which once approved my ordination needs to be finally confirmed by a local church calling me into ministry.

Now I don't want to sound like I am complaining, I am NOT. I welcome the process, by making it this difficult it has made me appreciate the responsability of the process. Let me explain why this is so important. Tonight on one of the tabloid current affairs programs was a story about a guy who was ripping people off by calling himself a Reverend he was ordained by 2 guys who had splintered fromthe anglican church. It srikes me that in a time when the church is going through an image problem because of guys like this and fake ordinations (like http://www.ulc.org/)that we need to make it a tough but worthwhile process. The title doesn't give special powers nor does it give a put me above any one else(exactly the opposite). What it does say is that this person will be held accountable by resposible christians everywhere. So bring it on.

Adelaide My Home Town

New technology

I was cleaning up my office and found my old LP’s. So I connected up my old record player and put a few of them on. Phil Collins “No jacket required”, Springsteen “born in the USA”, Police “Zenyatta Mondatta” and Dire Straits “Brothers in Arms” among many other 80’s hits. What a flood of memories comes back! Not only listening to the old songs but also remembering how to use the old low tech record player moving the arm across etc. Remember how fragile this format was? Or how detailed the covers were. I don’t know why but there is something about the old scratchy LP’s that gives them a sense of authenticity. I immediately remember seeing Australian Crawl play in the Bridgeway hotel, Pubs played music that didn’t come from poker machines. There is something about listening to live music that I love. The fact that you would never hear the song played that way again.

In this day and age of CD’s, MP3’s and streaming etc I find that everything seems so fake, if it isn’t perfect it isn’t any good. I have seen this kind of mentality come through in the Church as well the polished singers at the front of the auditorium hands raised in just the right way wearing the right clothes heads strategically bowed. I begin to long for some authenticity in the church some low-tech scratchy performances that really tell you that you are alive. In a church context this means that the audience is God. Does he want perfection in the Worship that we offer him or authentic live never to be repeated performances for the love of him? How fragile yet compelling does God want us to be?