Jason’s Exodus

Well, we’ve met the crew from Willoughby, where I’ll be going on mission, and a few things are now in place.

1) I already know one of the staff – Steve Morrison, former member of Aroma, former fast bowler in the Tungstens, and the guy who got me to don a helmet and field at bat-pad while he was bowling.
2) Given that we have 2 of the Tuesday chapel band and 3 of the Thursday chapel band, there may be an incredible amount of musical synergy at work …
3) We have perhaps one of the most eclectic group of first years ever.
4) I’ll be preaching. Did you know that it’s been a while since I’ve preached? Also, it’ll be a traditional 8am service. Trying to generate ideas as I type this.
5) With half a day off on Thursday and the daytime of Saturday off, this will probably mean I won’t be going to the Barney’s 6:30 weekend away except if I only go on Friday night, and that would kinda suck.

Well, I’ve played Vs, Yugioh (YGO), World of Warcraft TCG (briefly). Heck, I’ve played Naruto (!!). And now, thanks to Mike L, I’m playing Magic the Gathering (MtG). Go figure.

If things pan out as they are, I will become actively involved in 3 TCG’s (GG’s Burwood is doing Vs drafts on a monthly basis), though I think drafting rather than constructed will be the order of the day for MtG, since I don’t intend on creating an elite constructed deck except to add whatever stuff I can get off drafting. Most of you by now, except Mike, will be wondering, “what’s this drafting business?” Don’t worry about it – think of it as a cheaper, though more skill intensive, way of playing a TCG. Good thing I have experience with drafting Vs.

MtG was one of those things I’d told myself I’d avoid if at all possible. Well, now that that horse has bolted, some would think that all sorts of other possibilities are open to me now. Yes, you would think so. I’m still not going to play WoW until pandarens become playable characters.

So why MtG? To meet non-Christians, and bear witness to the person and work of Christ. Why else?

1) For once, I found myself completely agreeing with (which mostly means, understanding) David Hohne’s approach to eschatology. This is mostly because I’ve picked my doctrine essay topic and the preliminary thoughts I’ve had are in line with what he was saying. It also helped that I read a few essays out of God, history and historians, a collection of essays on the topic of Christian views of history. It helped me to understand what was going on earlier 20th C in terms of this thought.

2) Being at the ethics talks at NTE has paid off already. For those of you in the know, he’s putting his four-point diagram to work. Guess I’ll dig up those NTE notes.

3) It’s probably for the greater good that I was higher up than Dougie alphabetically, otherwise we wouldn’t have kicked off prayer group so soon. It’s also convenient that I happened to know all of the members already

From SMH

Like most churches within the Sydney diocese, St Barneys has an evangelist ethos and hopes to grow its congregation, which numbers about 600 parishioners across three daily services.

(Emphasis mine)

3 daily services? Wow, I didn’t know we were meeting 3 times all the other days of the week!

Also, what’s an “evangelist ethos”? I can understand evangelistic ethos, evangelical ethos, but evangelist ethos? Grammatically, the writer has attached a noun to a noun when it should be an adjective. Also, I’m pretty sure we’re not trying to make 600 John Dickson’s out of the congregation (not that that would be completely bad). To be fair, the phrase can make sense – we do want the congregation to be proclaiming the gospel, be it at work or home to the kids or wherever. It is, nevertheless, an odd phrase.

These holidays, I’ve had the chance to find out more about Oatley, this being the second summer I’ve spent there.
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