Weekend Away

We have started at a new church this year – Drummoyne Presbyterian. It’s a lot closer to home and a different to what we are used to. You are very much looking forward to serving there in whichever way God wishes to use us.

I’ve never really started at a “new” church before. I had been going to Carlo my whole life. I’m not used to being such a new face at church.

This weekend is the mother of all opportunities to make new friends though. We are heading off tonight on the churches annual weekend away.  No doubt it will be a great opportunity to meet some people and make some new friends. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.

Have a cracking weekend.

Baptisms

Four more baptisms at church this morning.

God is doing awesome things in this Iranian ministry.

I love listening to stories of people coming to faith, and all the little incidents that have played a part along the way. One guy today, Amir, was invited to church by an Iranian Christian who walked into the shop he was working in. She was asking for directions, but they soon realised they were both from Iran and got to talking. She invited him along and know he has turned to Christ. How cool is that?

Church Planting Entrepreneurs

As mentioned in my previous post, the MTS Challenge Conference had a session run by Phillip Jensen on “Church Planting Entrepreneurs”. Church planting is a bit of a hot topic since Driscoll has been in town, and Reimer asked me to give a little bit more info.

Below are my summarised notes:

First point – a church planter leads a church – therefore he must be a man and be a biblical leader.

Questions:

1. What is church? A gathering of God’s people to hear the word of God
2. Why church planting? We need more churches and new churches if we are going to fit in all the people we plan to evangelise. New, small churches are the best way forward. We need big churches, but we need MORE churches.
3. What is an entrepreneur? A risk-taker who starts up and runs a new business. Start with yourself, read a bible with a few others, start a bible study, grow to a small church service. Starting with 50 people from another congregation is NOT entrepreneurial church planting. It is stealing other churches members.
4. Where do I get the money from? You work! Make tents! If you are starting small, you don’t need to be full-time at first. Build-up.
5. How do I know if I am an entrepreneur? Do you take initiative? Do you start things? Are you willing to have a go? Are you afraid to fail? Flexible? Risk taker? Are you wealing to sacrifice and scavenge to make it work? If you spend all your time asking, “how do I do this?” or “we don’t have enough resources for this” then chances are you’re not an entrepreneur.
6. Am I allowed to plant a church? Entrepreneurs don’t ask this question! Just do it!
7. A point – Entrepreneurial Church Planters need to be Heightened Evangelistic Tentmakers. We have enough churches for the people who are already Christian! We need to get out in the pagan mission field.
8. Denominated or Independent? Denominated – there are benefits that outweigh the costs. For instance, when you are gone, how do you find the next minister? Who owns any property the church acquires, continuation, etc. Which denomination? Doesn’t matter! Phillip can introduce you to all the relevant people!
9. Are you going to pastor this congregation, or are you going to be a church planter? It’s one or the other. Will you move on in 5 years and start again. An effective church planter could plant a dozen churches in their lifetime.

Start now! Be a missionary in your local area. Tell people the gospel! Do it with MTS and you can make sure you do it properly. Go see Phillip and he will get you started!

What do you think?

Leading church

I had the pleasurable, though somewhat daunting, task of leading the church service on the weekend.

I say daunting because it’s the first time I’ve done it in this new congregation and I feel very immature compared to my fantastic Christian brothers and sisters at 10:45.

But, it went quite well. Geoff Shead preached a ripper on Psalm 4 and we had some good chats with people after the service.

Really enjoying the 10:45 experience.

Big thanks to Hammm for making a special guest appearance!

Top five things to do on a weekend – number 1

Remember when andym used to blog?!?! Seems so long ago now! But he had a great blog concept – each post had 5 points. I liked reading that blog. Good concision. ( I didn’t realise that was a word until I saw it on this blog, also with good concision spotted by CraigS)

I am stealing his idea for the next little while to share the top 5 things I like to do with my weekends.

As a full-time worker, my weekends are precious to me. I need to relax and do things I enjoy, otherwise I won’t have the energy to face the 5-day working week. All to often, weekends get crowded out by things I ‘have’ to do, which can be a bit stressful for my wife and I. But the following are the things I love to do.

1. Go to church

We have just changed congregations from 7:15pm to 10:45am. So far I am loving it.

We didn’t know heaps of people in the congregation, and most of them are a fair bit older than us. But we have already made some friends which is great.

Also, we have been encouraged by the people who have been willing to join us in the new timeslot. The Lovell’s were there from the start, but we’ve been joined by Samantha and Nathan (my sis and bro-in-law), Josh and Lorna (friends) and Tim and Louisa (my bro and his fiancee).

10:45 is not too early on a Sunday that I need towake up early and not too late that we can’t enjoy lunch together afterwards. We are super happy with the change.

and another thing…

… the leap year stuffed up my daily bible reading. For the Love of God by Don Carson
does not have a day set aside for the 29th of Feb.

Adri and I could have read ahead, but then we’d be thrown by the date.

Don should have included a bonus “leap day” reading. Maybe something from one of his other books.

As it is, we read some of 1 Thess, which is what we are covering in church this morning.