Multicultural Ministry Matters

Hmmm... One of the teens made a wise & insightful comment in youth group tonight. In the second half of this year, the youth group is hoping to go on a short mission – hopefully running a two-day kid's program for a church in country NSW. I made it clear to the teens that if we did this, they'd have to actually run the ministry events themselves - the kid's talks, craft, games etc. The other leaders and I will train them & help them - but they'll have to actually do it! The teens weren't exactly jumping out of their skin with enthusiasm... but they were all willing to give it a go. Which is pretty brave of them, actually. For most (all?) of them, this'll be their first time in up-front ministry. Which is pretty intense. Then one of them asks "are we doing this for the church we're going to, or for ourselves?" Huh...? He was worried that we'd be going on this mission purely for our own training & experience, and maybe for the kudos o...

I’m doing a sermon series on Romans, beginning in April. I’m trying to dream up some catchy titles for the sermons. There’s multiple purposes for this. Hopefully we’ll post the titles on the noticeboard in front of church. Having provocative titles, that change each week, should signal to the area that this church is alive, active and (hopefully…) interesting. If I can get organised in time, we’ll do a leaflet drop across the neighbourhood. Also, I hope it’ll give church regulars a basis to invite friends to church. “Hey, would you like to visit church this Sunday? We’re gonna be talking about… ”. Here’s what I got so far: Rom 1:1-6, 16-17: How to have meaning & purpose in life Actual main point: To be in the centre of God's purposes for the world, you need to be ruled by Christ, who is the ruler of the world. Rom 1:7-17: How to build strong communities Actual main point: Strong churches (communities) are built around the risen Lord Jesus. They submit to his rule, encourage eac...

One of my responsibilities at St David's church is to run the youth group on Friday nights. It's called SPY - Strathfield Presbyterian Youth. I wonder if we could ourselves "SPY Kids" (as in the movie)...? I've never led youth group before. Thankfully, the former leader, Karen, is sticking around for this month, to give me a hand. If she wasn't there, I really wouldn't know what I'm doing. Well, I still don't really know what I'm doing... it's just less obvious, 'coz she covers for me... So, seeing as I didn't know where the teens were at, and what they'd want to do, I asked them for ideas: (1) what books or themes in the Bible they'd like to study; (2) if they'd wanna do some other ministry activity - like help a missionary or something; and (3) what fun stuff they want to do. They came up with lots of ideas for fun stuff: bowling, laser zone, paintball(!), lawn bowls(!!)... But I had to coax the ministry and Bible stud...

Well whaddya know - I'm living as a guest in someone else's house - again. Strathfield is a nice suburb. It's also expensive. I can't afford to live in Strathfield on my part-time ministry pay. I'd even struggle to afford a unit in the relatively humble adjoining suburbs of Homebush and Flemington. So, even though I'm the assistant minister of Strathfield Presbyterian, I was going to have to live somewhere outside the area. Probably out west, where rent's cheaper. Enter a generous family from the church. George & Lyn have a spare room in their house in Croydon. They're letting me stay there, for free, for at least five months. I've just settled in. The benefits of living here are: 1. Because there's a family living here, there's a nice "homely" feel; 2. I get on really well with George & Lyn already; 3. The room's really big - bigger than my old room at my parent's place, and at least as big as my former room at Moor...

Several of my colleagues from Moore got ordained as Deacons in the Anglican Church last weekend, or commissioned as Lay Workers. See http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/sydneystories/ordination_story . It’s really exciting; after four years of formal training – and who knows how many years of informal training – it’s really happening: we’re in full-time ministry…! Among them were five ministerial dynasties. John Forsyth’s father, Robert, is Bishop of North Sydney. Marty Kemp’s dad Peter was once minister of Parramatta Anglican Church; my parents were under his ministry there. Because of Peter’s courageous reforms twelve years ago, Parramatta Anglican now has a booming multicultural ministry. Matt King’s the son of Brian, the former Bishop of Western Sydney, famous for always having a story about rugby union in his sermons. Marty Telfer’s dad Brian is a retired Anglican minister. And Ed Loane is the grandson of Marcus Loane, a former Archbishop of Sydney. Y’know what I miss most about Moore...

Hey everyone - I have a new mobile no: 0433 800 973. Please update your phonebooks. By the way - it's a Three mobile, so apparently I get free calls to other Three phones.

Many of you will be aware that the international Anglican Church is in crisis. It was brought about by the ordination, five years ago, of Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual, as Bishop of New Hampshire, USA. Within the Anglican denomination, the bishops are the key expression of church unity. The meeting that expresses that unity is the ten-yearly Lambeth Conference, which all the bishops attend. Or should I say attended, past tense…? Several bishops, who hold a conservative, Biblical view of sexuality, have been protesting against Gene Robinson’s ordination for years. The protest has swelled to become a protest against the liberal, politically-correct, culturally-driven views of sexuality promoted by American, Canadian and English Anglican churches. Inevitably, it also became a protest against the fact that these churches marginalise and ignore the Bible – a manoeuvre that must happen before such liberal, politically-correct, culturally-driven views of sexuality can be accepted. Th...

Tomorrow will be my first day in my new role as part-time assistant minister at St David's Presbyterian Church, Strathfield. I'm both nervous and excited. Excited, because for the first time I'll get to play a significant role in guiding a church - preaching, pastoring, strategizing, etc. St David's doesn't have a full-time senior minister - we have an interim moderator, Ian Smith, who keeps an eye on us, but isn't there every week. So I'll get to preach more regularly, interact more closely with the Elders, look after people pastorally, have some input into church plans, and generally pretending to be a minister... though I'm not one… :) But that also makes me nervous. The trade-off for being able to have a go at all this is - I don't have anyone holding my hand. Usually, the point of being an assistant minister is that the senior minister gives you advice, training… etc. (Well, it doesn’t always work that way. Often the senior guy is so stre...

ORRIGHT. With a bit of time, I've thought of everything I wish I'd said about Deuteronomy last weekend at the TLC conference (*slaps forehead*). The main idea of Deuteronomy is: "love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,", and "love your neighbour as yourself". I said this in the first talk, but I didn't work it into the talks enough (*slaps forehead again*). I should have talked more about the interaction between covenant love and affective love. The LORD brought the Isralites into a relationship with himself as a formal transaction. In rescuing them from the Egyptians, he's made them to be his people - in his place, under his rule. In response, he calls them to love him with their whole selves. This is his covenant with them. It's a relationship that is both formal and emotional. Like a marriage. It's a formal transaction; but it's not just formal, it's affectionate as well. In my talks, I should have made...

... almost literally. I was stuck in Melbourne Airport for an hour becuase a thunderstorm had closed Sydney Airport. For a while I thought I'd have to spend the night in Melbourne. But I got back okay. So, here I am again... Sydney. Hmmm. On the drive from the airport, things felt the same... yet different. I suppose it's just the disorientation of being away for five weeks. No time to re-orient - gotta get straight back into it. All day AFES mtgs tomorrow & day after. Let's go, let's go, let's go...!