New Adventures...

I will be joining the ministry team of Church by the Bridge, as Community Outreach Pastor.

I am so excited by the opportunities that await me as I move into Kirribilli to live and have time to invest in relationships with local residents and with my church family.

As the new Community Outreach Pastor I will be striving:

• To foster a culture of outreach at Church by the Bridge
  
• To build links with local community
• To create opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus with the local community
• To equip and encourage members to share Jesus with those who do not yet know him

Exciting times ahead... also Moore College has agreed to allow me to continue my studies part time. I am very grateful for Moore's generosity in offering me and trialling this mode of study.

"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."
1 Thessalonians 2:8

I adore the simple pleasures...

"I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex".
-Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

opening up a can of worms...

Evangelism, mission and social action are topics that you could ponder and talk about for hours. In acknowledging this, I still have found it frustrating with some of the gaps in content of my notes and readings for college.

Here are just three of my frustrations:

Frustration #1 in Word and Action
TITUS.... ???? Titus is an entire letter that spells out, I think rather clearly, the relationship between word and action - so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior! Should this not have a greater influence in the discourse of word and action?

Frustration #2 in Inter-Faith Dialogue
I find it offensive that one of the reasons given to the benefits of inter-faith dialogue is that if you listen to them, they will listen to you. Does anyone think it is wrong to only listen to someone just so you can be listened to in return? Where is the integrity and genuineness in that?

Frustration #3 in Word and Action
The body and unity of the church... I often find that when the 'great debate' between social action and evangelism takes place we fail to acknowledge the nature of the church and it's diversity of gifts that God has given it.

God gives some to possess word gifts and be pastors, teachers, evangelists... where as others he gives them the gift of helping... and sure we should all be prepared to give reason for our hope but I still think there is far too great an emphasis on priority which leads to a hierarchy instead of a attention given to the unique partnership the great commission and the great commandment have. I think these are two of the most distinguishable expressions of a life transformed by the gospel.

Acts 6:1-6 is often used to promote the priority of word proclamation.... but I wonder if it actually should be used to promote the gifts and functions of the church? We have hands to help those in need and beautiful feet to bring the good news of the gospel to those perishing? Are we saying that our hands are not of importance to the body?

Overflowing generosity and goodness...

As a Christian I want to care about the defenseless and vulnerable in society. I want to speak up against the injustices we see and seek after mercy for those in need. As a Church family I hope we would take the lead in supporting ventures that seek to love and show compassion.

Our Father God has loved us with an everlasting love. He loves us at our worst. He shows us mercy at our worst. No conditions. No strings attached. It should be our prayer to love like he does. To show compassion like he does.

We are having a Christmas Market at Church by the Bridge in a weekends time, where we are selling Fair Trade goods and I have been thinking more and more about why I want to do it. I don't want people to think we run these stalls simply as a bait and switch tactic to get our community to like the gospel. We want to speak up for those who are vulnerable and in this case those who are voiceless in the global market and susceptible to exploitation. We hope to promote Fair Trade and lead our local community to think about our individual purchasing choices and the impact that can have on others.

I hope and pray also that our initiative might open the door to conversations and diaglogue with our local community, as we share with them our motivation to support Fair Trade and other good deeds. (See Titus 2:14, Ephesians 2:10 and Matthew 5…) We should want to adorn the gospel of God with deeds of love and justice that many might see the kindness of God in us and be drawn to a Saviour who can so fully satisfy the hearts of his people that this overflows in generosity and goodness to others. (1 Peter 2:12)


www.tribesandnations.com.au
www.fairtrade.com.au

6,000 reasons to act... each one has a name and story

WORLD AIDS DAY
1 December 2008

Today, like every day, 6,000 children around the world will lose a parent because of AIDS, the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.

This December World Vision, Willow Creek and Fuller Youth Institute are partnering to raise awareness of the epidemic that is AIDS.

Willow Creek have produced some free resources for church leaders: video and info pack!

World Vision offer lots of ways to be involved:

PRAY > LEARN MORE > ADVOCATE > SPONSOR > CARE

World Vision even have a Pastors Toolkit, a Carers Kit and resources for college Students also... The Pastors Toolkit gives you statistics, talking points, videos, bulletin outlines, bible studies, guest speak contacts, PowerPoint presentation and ways to mobilize and equip your congregation.

“look after orphans and widows in their distress”
(James 1:27a).