Working Bee on Saturday Sept 1

From 9-12noon we are getting together for a working bee at church to finish off the pigeon spikes, spread a load of mulch, put in the termite baits and trim the hedges. See you there!

Interview with Lachlan Barratt about Safe Ministry

Lachlan has just completed the Safe Ministry training and was really impressed by the unified and thorough approach the church has to dealing with issues of caring for our children. Listen to the brief interview below.

Jen Cooke to teach Music Time

Jennifer Cooke, a student at Sydney Missionary and Bible College with her husband Dan, has joined us as a teacher in our Music Time program. She will be a great asset to this ministry while Vicky Woodhouse has her second child. (Jennifer is the one on the right!)

Pastoring a church in Dubai

Check out this article on pastoring a multi-ethnic international church in Dubai.

The importance of listening

Check out this article on the importance of listening to the exposition of the Bible.

How to go to church

Often we get in the routine of just 'turning up' at church. In Hebrews 10:25 we are told "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Our weekly church meetings are really important for encouraging each others as Christians. Here are some ideas to help us make the most of our time together on Sundays:

1. Deliberate planning - when you do something important you plan for it. It is important to plan when it comes to church. The first thing to do is plan to be there. These days there are so many competing things for your time. I'm sure there is plenty of things to do on Sundays (most people have no difficulty filling up their weekend without church!). As Christians we need to make meeting weekly with our brothers and sisters in Christ a top priority.
   
   The second thing to plan is your arrival time. Being early is great for meeting new people and helping people find a seat without cutting into our time of praise. Don't rush, just plan to have the time you need to get ready.
   
   If you have invited friends or acquaintances then plan to travel with them or meet them so you can help them when they first arrive at church.
   
   
2. Purposeful participation - Church is about meeting together around God's word. Prepare for church by preparing your hearts and minds to hear from God. Listen carefully to the Bible readings and talk. As we are lead in prayer, make it your prayer and say a hearty 'Amen'. As we sing, do it with all your heart (whether you are good at it or not!). During the break in the service you might like to introduce someone new to a friend.
   
   At morning tea you might like to talk about something significant you have learnt. Look for someone you might encourage or just help out with serving morning tea in some way.
   
   
3. Thoughtful application - don't forget what you have been challenged by. Think carefully and deeply about your life and what you have heard from the Bible. Think about what attitudes you need to change, what priorities need shifting, what behaviours need to change. Pray that God would enable you to live the way he wants you to.
   

More words for an old hymn

We were singing some songs at Senior High (Friday nights 8-10pm) and we realised that one of the songs we were singing didn't speak about Jesus very much and was over far too quickly. We tried to write another verse but failed. It's then we found another hymn with similar phrasing and some great lyrics about Jesus and we came up with this:

Oh God beyond all praising,
we worship you today,
and sing the love amazing,
that songs cannot repay.

For we can only wonder,
at every gift you send:
at blessings without number,
and mercies without end.

We lift our hearts before you,
and wait upon your Word.
We honour and adore you,
our great and mighty Lord.

Our sins, our griefs and troubles,
he bore and made his own.
We hid our faces from him,
rejected and alone.

His wounds are for our healing,
our peace is by his pain.
Behold, the Man of Sorrows
The Lamb for sinners slain!

In Christ the past is over,
a new life now begins.
With him we rise to freedom,
who saves us from our sins.

Then hear, oh gracious Saviour,
accept the love we bring.
That we who know your favour,
may serve you as our King.

And whether our tomorrows,
Be filled with good or ill,
we'll triumph through our sorrows,
and rise to bless you still.

We live by faith in Jesus,
To make his glory known.
Behold, the Man of Sorrows,
the Lamb upon his throne!

The new bits are in italics. Play the song below and have a sing along. The news words particularly linked in with our preaching on the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52-53.

Rector's Spot - prayer

The most important things that happen in church life are things that God does: he is the one that grows Christians and enables people to turn to Christ. Since this is the case we call on our heavenly Father to do his spiritual work.

I want to encourage everyone in our church to commit either weekly, fortnightly or monthly to our church prayer meeting. We meet each week from 5.00-5.45pm in the upper meeting room during term time.

Israel in God's Mission

This is the message from church last week. We were looking at the place of Israel in God' s mission to the world. The surprising thing is the way Christians are included into that plan in a profound way. Listen in the player below or download the talk in MP3 here.

SMBC Missions Conference

From a global perspective we live in a world where for Christians to take the message of Jesus to millions of others it will involve crossing some kind of cultural barrier.

Locally, we live in a multicultural area where we need to cross cultural boundaries just to make friends with the people in our street!

We need to be equipped to understand and to communicate with the peoples of this culturally diverse world. This conference will help us do that as a church.

The conference is at Sydney Missionary and Bible College on Saturday 22nd Sept from 9am-3:30pm. For more information download the brochure here.

Heresy in the Cathedral

Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the USA, blogs about Bishop Spong and our Sydney Church.

New College Lectures - are we morally awake?

Professor Oliver O'Donovan will present the New College Lectures this year on the topic of ‘Moral Wakefulness’—the mind alert to shape decisions and actions. Professor O'Donovan is one of the foremost scholars in the field of Christian ethics and political theology.

He is currently Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, Scotland and has published major works which have had a significant impact in the world of political theology and ethics.

Hear him speak over three evenings in September: Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th. All the meeting are free. RSVP essential for all lectures by 31st August.

Safe Ministry with Children

In our church we seek to give our children the best care possible. This means:

1. the training and screening of leaders so they have the best possible physical care. All leaders who work with children have to have completed the Safe Ministry Training which is recognised across all the Anglican Churches in Sydney.
   
2. giving the children a secure physical environment in which to play and learn
3. actively identifying risks to the children and dealing with them.
4. having Christian people teach them what it means to follow Jesus
   

For more information about the standards we have check out the Sydney Anglicans website for Safe Ministry. If you have any questions about the safety of children in our church the first person to talk to is Helen Cooper, our Safe Ministry Representative.

Barnabas - Part 1

Barnabas was a great early missionary and co-worker in the gospel. We first hear of him in Acts 4:36-7 where he generously sells a field and brings the money to the apostles:

"Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet."

His real name was Joseph. but was such a great encouragement to others that the apostles gave him the nickname 'Barnabas' which is translated for us as 'Son of Encouragement'. Wouldn't it be great to be so known as such an encourager of others that you get named for it!

In Acts 29 we read about how Saul had to flee Damascus because he was in fear of his life. Now that he had returned to Jerusalem the disciples didn't want anything to do with him - they thought this was just another cunning ploy to expose and persecute the Christians. Barnabas is the one who does not show fear and who knows the truth about

"...he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus."

You might like to pray that God would enable you to encourage others the way Barnabas does.

Jesus...who cares?

Bishop Spong is running around Sydney at the moment questioning everything there is to question about Jesus...and promoting his new book "Jesus for the Non-religious". The problem is our world loves Spong and his speculation about Jesus but nobody seems to care for the facts.

Check out this article by Dr John Dickson in today's Sydney Morning Herald, and this article by Dr Mark Thompson.

Cathedral Spring Convention - Sat 25th Aug

Hugh Palmer, the Rector of All Souls’, Langham Place, will be speaking along with the Dean of the Cathedral, Phillip Jensen on "Teams for Spiritual Renewal". It looks like a great half-day conference. I'm already registered so if you want to join me let me know.

For more information check out the Cathedral website. This was part of their blurb about it all:

"The Cathedral Spring Convention is for the many Christians in churches who are eager to be further equipped and nurtured so that they may expand themselves in ministry – here and abroad. You might be a valued member of a team or leading a team doing ministry in your church – the Spring Convention will help you think about your team what it means to work for Spiritual Renewal."

Chinese Bilingual Bibles at Church

We now have some Chinese/New International Version Bibles that visitors can use at church.

The bibles come from the Bible Society in Singapore.

More ideas for names for our church

I've had some more suggestions for names for our church. Here they are:

Summer Hill Evangelical Congregation
Summer Hill Mission Church
St Andrews Evangelical Church
St Andrews Multi-ethnic Congregation

It is good to share these ideas around and think through what is best for the mission of our church.

Baptism of William Powell

In church on Sunday, William Powell will be baptised. This is a great opportunity for Andrew and Georgia to declare their trust in Jesus and pray for William's Christian upbringing. Cameras are welcome!

Picnic after church this Sunday

After church on Sunday (19th August) we are going to have a picnic altogether in Darrell Jackson Gardens (the big park down near the Summer Hill shops). Bring your own lunch but some nibblies or dessert to share. We will all start lunch together at about 12:15pm.

If you have some sport equipment/games bring them as well. The kids might like to take their bikes.

UPDATE - I had the incorrect date on this. The post did read the 12th August, but it is definitely the 19th (Thanks Josh for picking this up!). Also, if it is raining we will have lunch at my place.

God's Promise to Abraham

This week in church I spoke on the promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12 and how God's mission to the world is then shaped by this huge promise. Read the passage in Genesis 12:1-9 before you listen in the player below or download the talk here.

In the talk I mention a list of stressors in life which you can find here. A great book to read about God's unfolding plan of salvation in the Bible is Graeme Goldsworthy's, 'According to Plan'. You can purchase this from Moore Books.

Translation feature added to blog

I've added a translation feature to this blog. It is able to translate into Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. I'm no good at any of these languages so let me know what kind of job it is doing if you have an expertise in these languages.

The message of Jesus in Japanese

During the week I needed this booklet! I don't have much Japanese (read none!) and I needed a helping hand. This version of Two Ways to Live is great for people who have Japanese as their primary language. For those of us who only speak English there is the English version.

Sin - the context and reason for God's mission

God's mission to our world happens in the context of our rebellion against him. Last week's talk in church is all about sin and the consequences of sin. Sin is not confined to one culture but is the reality for people from every background.

Download the MP3 here or listen in the player below.

This Sunday we will be looking at a huge figure in the Bible - not because he was great, but because God made huge promises to him. Who is it? Abraham.

Kids Craft Club goes great

We had a great afternoon with our team of leaders looking after 44 kids for our Kids Craft Club. We played games, sang songs, heard a kids version of Pilgrim's Progress and built some very cool craft.

A special thank you to the parents who helped out as well. We don't post photos of the kids but this is a picture of some of the leaders who helped out (before the kids arrived!)

Lay people make the best missionaries

One of the things about the apostle Paul was that his tent-making business allowed him to move from place to place to preach the gospel. Full-time paid gospel workers don't have the ability to go anywhere - they have to go where the jobs are and often have to live very close to where the work is. You might want to work in mission in Bankstown, but if Dural is where the work is then Dural bound you are.

Lay people, on the other hand, often don't have the restriction of having to live near where they work and can choose to live and minister in areas where there are not the resources to pay for a full-time gospel minister. My theory is that the lay people in our churches need to see themselves as the pioneers in Christian mission. The full-time paid workers only follow the hard work of the lay people (and their financial giving for gospel growth).

As we labour in the Lord's field we need to see that we are not playing games but have a serious task to perform - each and every one of us.

TWIST - Music Ministry Conference

I have just registered for the TWIST conference (music ministry conference). Sign up here if you want to join me! I'm not very musical but it should be a great time of thinking through the place of music in our church life.

Kids Craft Club Registration Form

Kids Craft Club is coming up this week. Check out this post for more information. To speed things up, please complete this Registration Form and bring it along for each child.

Just for fun

Q: Where do you find a dog with no legs?
A: Right where you left him.

Protestants and Roman Catholics - what's the difference?

Ray Galea from Multicultural Bible Ministries has written a great little book on the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant beliefs. Check it out here or download the first chapter.

Kids@Church

Over the last week we've put some information together about having children at church. This is meant to help all of us care for each other and particularly our little children. Download the pdf from the church website.

We are also trying to work out how to care for fifty children for one hour after church with minimal adult supervision. Do you have any bright ideas?

Working Bee

We got lots done on the working bee. Thanks to Doug for coordinating the effort on the pigron spikes! Check out the photos.

This week's sermon - SIN

So often in life we think we are really good. If only we could see the reality of the situation from God's point of view. We are so used to sin in our own lives and the lives of others that we are blind to its devastating effects - and this doesn't even include the fact that we fall under God's own judgement as a result.

In church this Sunday we are going to be looking at sin and it's consequences. In preparation, read this article by John MacArthur Junior, or get stuck into one of the homilies which was written right at the founding of the Anglican Church.

Why men hate going to church.

Check out a great review of this book here.

New website for Summer Hill Scripture

Check out the new website I made up for Summer Hill Protestant Scripture. It would be great if more parents chose Protestant Scripture for their children. Any feedback on the site would be appreciated.(www.summerhillprotestantscripture.asn.au)

Kids Craft Club

David Young, from Children For Christ, and I visited Summer Hill Public School today and handed out 800 leaflets about the Kids Craft Club coming up next week.

Download the registration form to save time on the day.

A Call for Christian Risk

Proclaiming Christ to our world and following Jesus is about the most risky thing you can do in life. For the apostle Paul it meant jail, beatings and numerous dangers in trials (2 Corinthians 11:23-30).

For Christians our eternal security means we can take risks now for Jesus. Check out this article on risk taking by Pastor John Piper. The 2006 Synod Presidential Speech by our Archbishop has some great thoughts on taking risks as we proclaim Christ. You can listen it below (sit back it is over an hour long - some highlights: 11:30; 21:37; 51:17; 1:08:48)