Worship

Miroslav Volf:

"Christian worship consists both in obedient service to God and in the joyful praise of God. Both of these elements are brought together in Hebrews 13:15–16, a passage that comes close to giving a definition of Christian worship: ‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.’ The sacrifice of praise and the sacrifice of good works are two fundamental aspects of the Christian way of being-in-the-world. They are at the same time the two constitutive elements of Christian worship: authentic Christian worship takes place in a rhythm of adoration and action.

Why does Christian worship need to branch out into action and adoration? What is the reason for this biformity of worship? In what follows I will try to answer these questions.

First, why cannot worship consist simply in active life in the world? Why does adoration need to take place as a distinct activity beside action? Because God did not create human beings to be merely God’s servants but above all to be God’s children, and friends. As much as they need to do God’s will in the world, they also need to enjoy God’s presence".

Carson, D. (2000, c1993). Worship : Adoration and action. Produced by the Faith and Church Study Unit of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Fellowship. (electronic ed.) (207). Grand Rapids: Published on behalf of World Evangelical Fellowship by Baker Book House.

Me, Myself and Iphone

If you like Jesus, and you like gadgets, read this.

Church Plant Design

On a scale from fun/easy to hard work/soul destroying I'm quite sure church planting can offer experiences on the entire spectrum.

But working on the design for the church plant is definitely down the fun/easy end.

Ok, so you can enjoy and give us your thoughts:

[1] We have a working name for the church plant, "Providence Church". Now before you react you need to keep in mind a few things:

(a) first off, we wanted a name that didn't sound too wacko or off the map, hence having 'church' in the title.

(b) second, we wanted a name that had both Christian significance, but that could also resonate in some way with people who don't have any Christian background. I think "Providence" does that.

[2] Now for the fun designs put together by our gifted design genius Edd. So here they are:

 

Concept 1

 

 

 

Concept 2

 

Concept 3

 

Feedback is welcomed. If you get to show people who aren't church goers that kind of feedback would be even more welcome.

Song of Songs

 

Hi All,

 

Starting a new 4 week series next week on the Old Testament book of the Song of Songs.

I thought you could help me:

What questions do you have about the Song of Songs?

Ever heard a sermon series before? What was good/bad?

 

I look forward to any thoughts. Thanks.

GGF Update - Interserve

Tonight at the 5pm service we continued exploring Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, as Tim Thorburn helped us to grasp what it means to rejoice in our weakness. He reminded us that it is in our weakness that we truly know and experience God's power, and the truth really hits home that His 'grace is sufficient' for us. Let us keep acknowledging our full dependence on God, and modelling the humility and 'weakness' of Paul, and Jesus himself, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross!"

We were also privileged to hear from Tanuja Martin, who has been serving at Tansen Hospital in Nepal with her husband Wayne.

Tanuja shared amazing stories, photographs and insights with us, giving us not only a picture of life as a missionary in Nepal, but also an eye-opening and challenging insight into the daily reality for the Nepalese people, many of whom struggle with poverty, lack of education and infrastructure, social inequality, and the constant threat of riots, guerilla warfare and the kidnapping of boys to be trained (or rather, indoctrinated) as Maoist soldiers.

Tanuja shared with us the heartbreaking story of one of her patients who died very young, only hours after giving birth to her third daughter - a pregnancy she shouldn't have had because of heart failure, but was pressured to in the hope of producing a son - only for that unwanted baby girl to be rejected by her father. However, there was hope in that story, as that baby girl was adopted by a Christian Nepalese family.

Likewise there are other stories of hope as the Nepalese Christian church grows, and more people - including the hard-to-reach high caste Nepalese doctors with whom Wayne and Tanuja work - hear the good news about Jesus Christ. But the poverty, sickness, death, injustice and uncertainty still go on, and it is a difficult and emotionally exhausting work that Wayne and Tanuja have been giving themselves to over the past few years.

As we reflect on what we heard from Tanuja tonight, let's pray that the Martins have a refreshing time in Australia over the next 6 months, before they go back to Tansen in January '09. And let's join with them in praying for the work of God's Kingdom in Nepal; that God would raise up missionaries from within Nepal and elsewhere, to spread His Gospel and be His hands and feet in that needy country - particularly that He would provide a primary school teacher for Alecia and Siobhan and the other missionary children in Tansen. Let's pray that the new Maoist government would not destroy or restrict the religious freedoms that have allowed so much growth in the church over the past years, and that God would bring more growth, in both breadth and depth, and would raise up Nepalese Christian leaders and teachers to train the Body for works of service to the glory of Christ.

See Blodwyn's "Postcard from Nepal" here for more information and prayer points about Nepal.

Note that our Global Gospel Focus program at the 5 is slightly different from what it says on the GGF postcard. Our missions-focused preaching will begin next Sunday, 3rd August, and will go for three weeks.

I encourage you all to try to make it to the 'Taste of Taiwan' event on Saturday 9th August, it promises to be a fun and encouraging evening together.

In Christ,

Deb Karajas

Global Gospel Focus

 

In the coming weeks at church will have the privilege of focusing beyond ourselves and onto what God is doing around his world.

Here's some explanation from the Missions Workgroup:

"Global Missions Month is a time dedicated to informing, challenging and encouraging members of all St Matt's congregations to share in the work of God's Kingdom throughout our world. There are several ways in which we hope to achieve this:

* On each of the four Sundays during Global Missions Month, the sermons will focus on parts of Scripture that will help us to better understand God's mission in our world, and the parts He calls us to play in it. [Ed. Note that at 5pm church our missions preaching goes for 3 weeks beginning 03 August].

* On each of those Sundays, there will also be a time of input from different mission organisations that St Matt's and its members support (TEAR, Interserve, OMF and CMS), helping us to be informed about how those organisations are working to spread the Gospel of Christ and opportunities that exist for us to partner with them.

* On Friday 8th August, a Youth Missions Night will be hosted at St Matt's, with invitations to other affiliated youth groups, and input from Phil and Irene Nicholson.

* On Saturday 9th August there will be a special event hosted by Phil and Irene Nicholson, called 'A Taste of Taiwan', where we will have a unique opportunity to find out about life and missions in Taiwan, and will even have a taste of its cuisine. Phil and Irene are missionaries with OMF, pioneering new ways of doing church with Taiwan's largely unreached working class.

 

Our hope is that the various events and talks throughout Global Missions Month will not merely make us more knowledgable about missions throughout the world, but will

- genuinely inform and motivate us to pray regularly and fervently to "the Lord of the harvest... to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matt 9)

- encourage and equip us to love, serve and pray for our brothers and sisters who are already out in that harvest field, and

- challenge us to to invest some of the abundance with which God has lavished us to further the work of His Kingdom throughout the world.

 

How can we do this??

 

It is our hope and prayer that everyone at St Matt's, whether as individuals, families or small groups, will "adopt a missionary". There are many forms this might take, depending on your passions, gifts and resources, but essentially it means personally partnering with a missionary, or missionaries, in the work they are doing in "the harvest field", and as a bare minimum should involve regular prayer support and communication.

 

The St Matt's Missions Working Group can and will support you in this important commitment through regular prayer updates from St Matt's link missionaries, and if you are stuck for ideas in how to care for and support your adopted missionary then we would happily meet with you or your small group to help you find some achievable and sustainable ways in which you can do that effectively.

 

Please pray with us that Global Missions Month will be the beginning of a deeper, richer, more effective partnership between the people of St Matt's and our link missionaries, and that God would hear our prayers and reap a great harvest from every tribe and tongue and nation."

Why We SHOULDN'T Plant Churches

OBJECTION! OBJECTION!
Originally uploaded by Sailor Lynx

It's been a while since I have posted, but I thought I might turn to the subject of church planting.

To begin with I thought I would get your help. The next Master's Class on Thursday 5th June is on 'Why Plant Churches?'.

But my question for you is what kinds of reasons might you give for why we SHOULDN'T plant churches. Here are some objections I have heaerd:

1. We shouldn't plant churches because we don't need new churches we just need the current churches to be stronger.

2. We shouldn't plant churches because we weaken the church from which the people leave to start the new church.

3. We shouldn't plant churches because we should be trying to build large churches that can influence our society/diocese/suburb for the gospel.

I guess given that I am planning to lead a church plant, I don't agree with all these objections.

But do you have more objections to church planting that you think should be discussed on the 5th June?

Bring them on ...