Dunedin, New Zealand, my city - my people

Monday, August 13, 2012

Me live on TV... and two great lines.

On live TV
I was interviewed on TV tonight. Around lunch time I had the local channel 9 TV phone me and ask if I would come in and be interviewed tonight about the night shelter. I agreed and the reporter sent me a list of questions. I went through the list and worked out an answer for each. He had told me I would be in there for about 20 minutes so I thought maybe a five - ten minute interview. I went in and during an advertisement break in the news I was ushered in to the studio and the chair. The woman told me, "No one word answers but the interview is a max of three minutes so don't talk long on each question. I had been given a list of six questions, some of them double barreled.  Though I speak fluently without notes every Sunday, under pressure I tend to get a bit flustered and not very articulate, saying "um" a lot or "sort of" or "you know". My wife warned me about this. I did quite well I thought but she did throw in about three questions I was not prepared for, so I was more hesitant on these. I have been interviewed for TV before, but it has always been edited after the interview. This time it was being broadcast as we were speaking, it was a very different feel. It was another experience in life's journey. Some months ago I used to visit the Allied Press building as chaplain. It was a strange feel going up the familiar stairway and through the hallways in a different capacity. There was a part of me who wanted to shoot through a couple of doorways and catch up on friendships I made as chaplain. I did not get my carpentry done. Most of the day has been spent stewing on various Night Shelter issues. It lloks like another week with heaps of things to deal to.
A quote
I sometimes get on my computer and just watch You Tube clips on various subjects. I watched clips last night on the emerging Church. One leader said something like this, "The systems of this world are united by the love of power. The Kingdom of God is about the power of love." It is so true. Unfortunately a lot of "Churchianity" and worldly Christianity tends to be about the "love of power" also. Another clip was interviewing Tony Compolo (who seems to have become more "liberal") who said this great line... "The Church is a whore, but she is also my mother!" That I guess is the space that I have lived in during my whole ministry. Disgusted by the Church's unfaithfulness to Jesus, but at the same time valuing the Church as the place I received the story of Jesus, and where that story is looked after and passed on. I get angry at the "whore", but cannot turn my back on my "mother". I loved the line, it describes my experience.

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