My beautiful wife taped me the interview with the bespectled one and I have just watched it.
As with many American interviews, it was a bit of a fluff piece, no real indepth stuff.

Would be fantastic if Denton could get him on.

Would love to have some indepth questions about his faith asked.

None the less, I enjoyed it.

Love their music. Funny, I never used to. But researching the spiritual angle has really changed my perception of it. Its great rock and roll too. If ever they come to Perth, I’m there.

After working for about three hours yesterday afternoon on my presentation for this Sunday mornings service, the brand new computer at church decided that it did not want to work properly.

We got through the service, but I could not show the video for the message, nor the slides for “It’s a beautiful day” and even the songs during the worship time got messed up.

Somehow I know God spoke, and it is a good reminder that He is not dependent on slickness or well presented and interesting images.

But it sure is frustrating.

The up down keys were both making the slides advance, mmmm, lovely. And powerpoint kept freezing up.
Funny, it worked perfectly before church.
For those who were there and would have liked to have seen some of the images accompanying the service, sorry, they are on my thumb drive.
But here is the opening slide from our men’s service that we will be doing in a few months. Just for anyone who barracks for St Kilda.

Okay, did anyone who recieved my E-News guess correctly that Eliot and Jason were going to sing “It’s a Beautiful Day”? A fairly big clue is the fact I have posted the words on this website.

What a fascinating story this is. Another one for the “Pastor fallen from grace” file.

“The Blacks said Rev. Newman decided to resign after telling church leaders he had sexual relations with his new wife prior to their being married and after the church leaders advised he needed to either resign or face a church trial.” News Article

Dennis Newman was a popular minister of a large church in Chattanogga.
He resigned rather than face a Church Trial which is methodist speach for a disciplenary process.

A group of people have formed a breakaway group and their support for Dennis if strong.
One interesting comment is this one,

“…someone told me that Christ United Methodist will get a new pastor and everything will go back to normal.Well, not for me it won’t. I don’t go there to socialize and drink coffee and then listen to a talking-headbecause I am supposed to. That church is just a building without Dennis Newman. I’ve attended dozens of churches in the past 59 years and have never had someone touch me, teach me, and open my heart until meeting Dennis eight years ago. I will follow him wherever he goes to preach. I worship God and not the man, but my God choseDennis Newman to deliver his message to me.”

The rest of the comments are similar. Over at Backyard Missionary Hamo has a discussion on the cult of personality. This may be a story which supports his claims.

A sober reminder that your marriage is precious, and not to be taken for granted, especially as a Pastor.

My small group is starting a study of Judges tonight.

“They did not drive them out of the land completly”

Woh, theres a lot in that verse, a lot of application.
It reminds me of this verse, “be Holy, as I am Holy”.

Sometimes in ministry you are privileged to pastor someone who teaches you far more than what you could ever teach them, yet still allows you to minister to them.

Mick Gander was such a bloke.

He stumbled into church one Sunday, having been unable to find the church he was looking for.
He shared with me that he was not going to stay, but he had because of what I had preached on.
That Sunday was the first time in my ministry at Bedford that I had really got personal, got blunt, direct, pointed, really let go with my sermon. One of the lines from my message was, “we are meant to come here to worship the Almighty God, but many of you were worried about where your normal seat is”

It was the Sunday after a Saturday wedding, and the pews were rearranged. I never did put them back in their ‘proper’ place, and that was five years ago.

But I digress. Mick stayed around.
He shared with me that his old pastor had told him, ‘you cant sing’. Eliot and myself told him otherwise. When he sang, everyone loved it, and his message resonated with most people in the congregation. The senior ladies loved him, I think he had a blue rinse fan club.

I was a big fan and remember clearly the first time he got up to sing, at a Cafe Church night.
After an initial nervous stumble, he brought the house down.

The curse some stupid blind ignorant JERK had put on him was gone. God is Gracious.

I miss our Tuesday morning coffee and chat about church, I miss seeing Indi, his dog, I miss seeing the white Feroza pulling up in carpark, I miss sharing Thai food with him and John Rodgers.

But most of all I miss having him up the front, taking us to Jesus.

http://www.mickgander.com/

Craig Turley – Heaven and Hell
After reaching the pinnacle of the AFL as a premiership player, former West Coast Eagles’ star, Craig Turley’s life has been a struggle and a journey towards identity, belief and inner peace. Featuring on ABCTV’s Compass program at 10pm this Sunday this story also includes input from Church of Christ Chaplain to the Eagles, Neil Fong

I’ve always felt different. I’ve never quite felt that I’ve fitted in wherever
it is that I’ve been, as much as I’ve been accepted there. Whether that was in
school, in the Police Force or in my football career,”