KYCK '07

Our youth group went away to KYCK 07 - Katoomba convention for Highschoolers...

I really enjoyed myself and hopefully so did my year 12 girls.

I had command of Warwick's tarago, with Chloe, Ellen, Emily & Emily as my passengers!

Great talks, great people, great food (thanks Verity P & team), great fun, great MUSIC....

Great talks by Steven Jefferies & Eugene Hor- theme: "FOLLOW" from Luke's Gospel. I personally loved the prodigal son talk on the Saturday night - it chokes me up every time I hear it taught as I feel like it is the story of my conversion and highlights the glorious mercy and generosity of my Father in heaven, that he would welcome me a sinner. Praise God for the cross of Christ!

I was also really built up by the repeated phrase by Steven : that we are to display the supreme value of Christ in our lives! AMEN to that!

Only feedback I have about the talks that is negative was the fact that both speakers used very boy focused illustrations. Not one of the illustrations about people of the faith were women, so no role models for all the girls there as such. And most of the other images given were blood and gusty, car, national park, computer games etc... thought that these creative things could have been a little more creative in targeting the different age groups and genders.

We had good times at THE GRANGE... where our junior youth: Jam Camp were staying as well. We had compulsory fun on Saturday arvo which included a few active games and then a trip to the cafe in Blackheath!

One of the highlights ;) for me was driving Warwick's tarago.... now tarago's scare me as they give a sense of soccer/ballet-mum-ness, which the girls in my car were more than happy to tease me about! On the way up though we had a plank of wood fly into the windscreen from the ute in front... no major damage - just shock from the noise and the e-tag falling off from the impact.


ALL UP A FUN-FILLED WEEKEND - only took me all week to recover!!

Staff Attack...

Warwick, Dave, Robyn, Caro, Jono, Marty, Deb and Myself all traveled up to Copacabana Beach for our bi-annual Staff Attack.

RADICAL REFORMISSION by Mark Driscoll was our pre-reading material and we discussed and learnt more about Church Planting as there is the idea floating around for new meetings next year - perhaps a 5pm and 7pm.

Mark Driscoll is a champ... he is a passionate gospel driven bloke who is also crazy about meeting our culture where it is at with the truths of the gospel. Answering our culture's questions with the gospel. To meet our "breakneck, isolated, selfish, debt ridden, confused and lonely world" (pg165) with the good news of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has a great equation to help you think about how just to do that...

GOSPEL (Jesus) + CULTURE (Neighbours) + CHURCH (Brothers)
= Radical Reformission

If you lack one of these in your equation then you can end up with a Parachurch(-church) or Liberalism (-gospel) or Fundamentalism (-culture). I found this really helpful in identifying weakness and dangers for ministries I am involved in.

Dricoll has some poignant comments to make about Church Culture and our World's Culture:

"the longer someone is a Christian, the greater the propensity to diminish the Jesus of the Bible until he bevomes a predictable little God who ceases to surprise them" - pg 27

At Matthias and all Christians need to take heed of this warning and to keep reading/teaching/preaching from the Gospel accounts of Jesus. We need to keep meeting Jesus on the pages of these accounts - the radical redeemer that dined with sinners... we need to see how he lived and pray for it to penetrate our hearts and transform our lives.

I personally found the warning of finding the balance of NOSTALGIA vs INNOVATION. My tendency I think would lean towards having an ignorance toward church history and lessons from it in pursuit of innovation...

I need to be careful that I don't get caught up in the "fast paced & ever changing culture of insanity" (pg 52-53). I must pray that God would keep me focused and heading toward the goal of Jesus and all things in him, through him, to him and by him...

I also found great comfort in Driscoll's image of himself and his hard work in ministry, I think it is an image that many pastors and those in ministry can easily relate to:

"I don't really know what I'm doing so I read every book I can find & cling to the Bible like a kid who can't swim but somehow found a life preserver in the middle fo the ocean" - pg 183

But the continued comfort to that is that it by the power and strength of our almighty and it's God who uses us in our weakness and nothing will change his glorious plan:

"God will continue to seek worshipers, and Jesus will continue to save people from Satan, sin and death in miraculous ways" pg200

This was a helpful leap board & background into thinking about church planting. We looked also at the Great Commission and 1 Corinthians 1 - which are also very useful and helpful background texts!

We discussed things like Why, When, How, What... A quote comes to mind from another article we read by Stephen Timmis on Church Planting: Key Principles

"the single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches"- Peter C Wagner

I don't know if I agree with it being the 'single most' but I was convinced it is a very effective tool. And it looks like the next few months shall be exciting and busy time thinking through the logistics of it all.

Pray that the staff would remain faithful to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as we think through this more and show our dependence on God by being devoted to prayer. Pray that many in our congregations would be excited by the ideas of furthering the gospel in Sydney's East.

Other than that we had a tops time bonding as staff team. Tuesday night we went out for Thai in Terigal and then came back to enjoy the night full of tired people being silly - Dave was making us funny funny limericks (Something about a Fartyn Martyn), eye spy and 20 questions: why oh why did they find my people so hard to guess - Pippi Longstocking and David Bowie. EASY!!!

_____________________________________________
MARK DRISCOLL
www.marshillchurch.org/
www.theresurgence.com/md_blog

Holidays...

Just spent a week away up in Port Macqaurie... the weather was great - so much sun and not humid! woo hoo!

I went with my parents to support and cheer on my brothers, Todd & Toby and friends Paul & Mike in the Ironman (this one was 3.8km Swim, 190km bike and 42km run).

They did really well... Todd came in at 10 hours and Toby in at 13 hours. Can you believe it continuous exercise for that long? These boys are freaks! The winner did it in 8hrs... crazy!

It was a great time away camping and spending it with family. I really enjoyed hanging out with Liz - Toby's wife. We get along really well and this weekend was great to spend with her and on the side lines cheering the boys on together.

It also is very exciting as she is about 7months pregnant. So in June I will be AUNTY Hayley. The baby is called 'Aniko' for now... and if Toby got his way that is what she will be called but I think Liz has other ideas. Pray for continued health for Liz and Aniko!!!

other highlights:

• I got to spend time reading and relaxing on the beach every day... A+++
  
• Discovering some new cheers instead of "Go Toby" I included some of these I heard from other spectators "Looking Good", "Keep Smiling", "Can I have your autograph"
• Did some shopping... Bought some jeans, tops/jumpers and a orange teapot A+++
  
• Got to try out my new tent I bough off eBay... A+++
  
• Drank Campos coffee from cafe next to caravan park... A+++
  
• Free wireless internet at the caravan park, sit in tent and waste time surfing net... A+++
  
• Got stuck into really good bible reading and prayer pattern, that is lasting so far into reality (only been two days back but still...) pray this continues.

Praise God, for the time of rest and relaxation.
Praise God that my brothers were kept safe from injury in the race.
Praise God for holidays and family!!!




_______________PSALM 147_______________

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man;

11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Posters you find in fish n chip shops...

________Psalm 51________

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.