Prayer Update

The new term is fast approaching... and more do I realise this is my last term of MTS which means my last run with many ministries - eek!

Pray that I will run hard to the end... pour myself out for the sake of the gospel but also that I will finish well to the 2 years invested in much that goes on at Matthias.

SWITCH

• Thank God for the 6 young women in my group... the encouagement they are with their godly living and the way they wrestle with God's word!


• Please pray that God would strengthen the great relationships they have with each other, caring and looking out for each other.


• Pray also that they will continue to see meeting with God's people as a top priority... so spur on and serve one another, even in and amongst the crap and chaos of life!

DRAMA

• Both Robyn and I are really drained by this activity... all our creative juice went into writing the plays and I think we have just run out of zest! Pray that God would strengthen and sustain us for this hectic term!


• Praise God for the HAIRSPRAY excusion a few Saturdays ago... for the many families that came along and for the great relationship building with Matthias and non-Matthias families at the BBQ Robyn hosted at her place after.... ABSOLUTLEY BRILLIANT!


• Pray for one girl "G" who is in year 6 and seems to have a keen desire to join in with Matthias events, and wants to go to Scripture @ School... Pray that she might find Youth Group for her next year, when in Year 7, as something she would love to go to.

STAFF

• Thanks for time away on STAFF ATTACK up at Copacabana Beach... for time to bond and time to think hard about the way we REACH the lost & EQUIP the saints....


• This is the flow diagram we came up with while we are away... which will hopefully help us think more strategically about what ministries we do well, whats lacking or missing and where we should best use our time as a staff team.

YOUTH

• My year 12's are facing the HSC very very soon... Please pray for Ellen, Chloe, Suzanna, Caitlin and Verity. Pray that they would find time to rest and relax, time to work hard, keep procrastination a bay, work hard and dilegently, and in everything they do, do it for the Glory of Jesus!
• Pray for wisdom for them as they make decisions for the upcoming year.
• Pray for godliness as they enter the 'post-HSC' party scene!
• PRAISE God for the upcoming JAMES Series at 1151... we did massive creative brainstorm session tonight in a meeting and God was kind to give us some really fun ideas to employ... Hope this will get the blood pumping in the Youth and that they would really want to WALK the WALK not just TALK the TALK in the Christian Life!
• Pray that we can think of creative way to package the series!

TAT

• This last term has been great in TAT going through Matthew.... I have found it the most rewarding time in God's word. Praise God for the time I get to prepare and study His word...
• Thank God for the Beatitudes and Chapter 5... found this particularly helpful in thinking about praying for healing...
  
  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
  Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "
  
  If we do see healing it is a taste of what is to come and if we don't see healing it makes us long for the kingdom to come.

PERSONAL

• Decisions for NEXT YEAR... pray for wisdom and clairty for all that needs deciding upon!
• Thank God that I am looking forward to what may come next year. Especially getting the opportunity to study at Moore.
• Pray for the interview that will be coming up with a panel from Moore, that it will be an encouraging time!
• Thank God for the way he is continuing to shape me through His word and convict me of sin... May I submit more and more to the love of Christ that it would control me in everything I do from serving, working, relationships with family and friends, my speech, decisions, forgiving, loving, use of my time, priorites... you name it pray that the love of Christ is controlling me in it!
• PRAISE God for the many open doors to sharing the gospel with my mates... they are seeming to interact with it more and more which is exciting... Please pray God continues to use me amongst my friends to bring them under the sound of the gospel!

Thanks for your continued partnership in the gospel!

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