Pastors Letter (Page 19)

Dear friends We think it’s so important that, as a church family, we serve one another as we seek to grow to be more like Jesus. Serving means that we’re able to do the things we love to do and run the programs we’re able to run, but it’s much more than this too. As we serve we express the unity we have in Jesus, participate in his mission to build…

Dear friends The COVID vaccination has been prominent in the press recently, especially the fact that many seem hesitant to take up the Astra-Zeneca vaccination.  Without entering the debate around the mixed messaging of the Federal government, how should we be thinking about this? Is there an ethical issue?  Although the vaccination has been developed using cells…

Dear friends The Psalms are a wonderful gift to us.  They display the whole range of human emotions – from elation to despair, and everything in between.  However. these experiences are always engaged with in the context of relationship with God. This morning I read from Psalm 71: Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,   you who have done great things. Who…

Dear friends This morning I was looking over some notes I made from a great book called Resilient Ministry (note – if you want to be able to care for your Pastors well this book will give valuable insight on how to do that (and, yes, generally I do feel very well cared for)).  I came across this quote: “Pastors often slip into the trap of building their…

Dear friends We have Commitment Sunday coming up on May 23 – a day which I’m sure will be a very special day in the life of our church. We’ll have a number of people at varying ages being baptised and making affirmations of faith. Baptism is a wonderful gift of God. It is a symbolic act only, but a symbolic act which points to spiritual realities. It points to our union…

Dear friends I have been a Christian for a long time, and over that time I can see how I have grown by God’s grace into a (slightly) more mature follower of Jesus Christ.  One way I have grown is in my understanding of God as my Father, Jesus as my elder brother, and my membership of his church as belonging in his family rather than an (impersonal) membership of a merely…

Dear friends It’s weird to me to think that a year ago we were in the middle of our ‘online church’ period. Not seeing each other in person, trying to do growth groups over zoom, looking forward to watching church on the TV every Sunday. Strange times! Around the world there are lots of places where COVID is still having a devastating impact and lots of Christians are…

Dear friends As seems to always happen, the first quarter of the year has flow by! I hope those of you who are able to have some downtime over school holidays are enjoying it so far. After a term in the book of Luke, we’ve got a special treat at church this Sunday with one of our former members, Tim Blagg, returning to preach a one off sermon for us on Ephesians 3. I’m…