Pastors Letter (Page 10)

G’day Church, I’ve just got a really brief encouragement for you today. Many of you will have noticed that we’re blessed to have a number of new people joining us at church and various others visiting from week to week. Well, it’d be great if we could do three things to help them out: 1 – please aim to arrive at church no later than 9:45. Most newcomers arrive on…

G’day Church, Next week we kick off term 1 in Mark’s Gospel which I am really looking forward to, but I also hope you’ve enjoyed our Summer of Hope as much as I have. It’s been such an encouraging time in God’s word hearing of the many and various ways our hope in Jesus plays out in the concerns of this life. I’d love to hear if there’s something that has stood out…

G’day Church, What a difference eternity can make! That was the conclusion I came to after finishing one of the least exciting sounding books on my reading list at Bible college: “The Rise of Christianity” by sociologist Rodney Stark. According to the very un-catchy subtitle, Stark set out to explain “how the obscure, marginal Jesus movement became the dominant…

G’day Church. I was down at the beach yesterday morning meeting with someone from church. It was a glorious morning: the sun was out, the sea was sparkling, the sound of happy kids drifted on the gentle breeze. It struck me that this is the kind of place that people long to visit on holidays – and yet it is our own back yard! It’d be so easy to drift into a sense of…

G’day Church. As a new year gets underway I want to encourage you with few outstanding books to read this year. Last Sunday we reflected on Matthew 11:28-29 where Jesus makes his simple yet profound invitation: “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” I…

Happy New Year! They’re three words that we’re likely to hear and say many times in the coming week. Of course we want to wish people well for the coming year, but they are words that can feel so trite in the face of real life. There are all kinds of reasons to be hopeful this year, but for every ray of sunshine there seems to be a decent storm cloud threatening on the…

Hi Everyone, As I write this it’s only two sleeps til Christmas! Our kids are constantly checking the countdown and they’ve got this funny way of trying to make the time as short as it can be. So at 6am today we were informed that there is only one day til Christmas: because today had already started and the two nights don’t count… yes, they’re enjoying the season…

Hi Everyone, For those who were around last Sunday, wasn’t it great to have a few Christmas carols to sing and to celebrate on Sunday night as we approach the end of another year and the celebrations that come with Christmas time? Let me quickly remind you of what we’ve got going on over the next couple of weeks: Gift Giving: Thanks to all who made such wonderful gifts to…