An Obadiah Slope column
Two Obadiahs: Obadiah found himself listening to Obadiah singing. Let Obadiah explain that he was in the Opera House at a massive choir performance of Elijah, an oratorio (another word for a big choral production) by Mendelssohn.
It just happens that Obadiah, a minor figure in the Bible accounts of 1 and 2 Kings, is given several key highlights in Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
So this Obadiah had the pleasure of hearing an accomplished tenor sing the Biblical-ish Obadiah.
“‘If with all your hearts ye truly seek Me, ye shall ever surely find Me.’ Thus saith our God. Oh! that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come before His presence!” (Deuteronomy 4:29; Job 23:3; Jeremiah 29:13)
After the prophets of Baal were vanquished, the musical Obadiah urges Elijah to break the drought: “O man of God, help thy people! Among the idols of the Gentiles, are there any that can command the rain or cause the heavens to give their showers! The Lord our God alone can do these things.”
And this is what this Obadiah urges ministers: yes, please break the drought of faith in our land. Knowing “The Lord our God alone can do these things.”
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Wall Street journaling: What do you get when the Wall Street Journal runs a story on church planting? Lots of dollar figures – the Journal’s report “God Inc.—Church Startups Spread Franchise Model Across U.S.”, written for a business readership, emphasises or claims that church planting is like setting up a business. Whether that is the paper making the story accessible to its bizoid readership or reflecting the reality of how Acts 29 and ARC (Association of Related Churches) go about things in the US, Obadiah could not decide. Maybe it is a bit of both.
Here are a couple of interesting pars from the story talking about an ARC training session for church planters: “A couple discussed search-engine optimization, learning to push the name of their new church to the top of Google searches. They suggested buying Google ads and paying for certain keywords and phrases, such as ‘church for young adults near me.’
‘In a training session about worship services, a speaker advised pastors to use plain language and provide principles people can use in their daily lives. Keep sermons tightly written, the speaker said: ‘TikTok has shortened the attention span of the world.’”
Shorter sermons – any takers?
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Persecution: Morning Star News reports: An ad for sanitation workers targeting Christians in Pakistan has prompted objections that it signals only Christians should work such low-paying jobs.
The ad soliciting candidates for sweepers at health facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province states, “Christian community will be preferred.” It was posted by Trans-Continental Pharma, a hospital management service contractor with the provincial government, on May 18.
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Curious Snail: The Courier Mail headline on a story about the Anglican Diocese of Southern Queensland objecting to the XXXX brewery expanding next to their St. Francis theological Seminary:”brewer locked in Biblic-ale skirmish”