When you come in to the gymnasium this Sunday you'll find a Prayer Focus postcard waiting for you. I think it is fairly self-explanatory! Our hope is that these cards will help all of us make the most of the gospel opportunities that our growing to two Sunday morning gatherings will provide. A new beginning for our church gives new opportunities for new beginnings for the people we care about to become part of our church community and hear about Jesus. Naturally, simply coming along to church doesn’t make somebody a Christian, which is why we want to be praying and asking God to be changing people’s hearts and making himself known to them.
On the front of the card is space to write the names of up to five friends, family, neighbours or colleagues who you can pray for in the lead up to our growing to two on April 29th. These may be people you are already praying for, or you may like to spend some time thinking about whose names you can write there. It doesn’t matter if you can’t come up with five names, you can always start with just one!
Hi TMBers, to help you as you pray for your friends, family and colleagues who don't know Jesus in the lead up to our growing to two services, we've got new Prayer Focus Cards for you, hot off the printing presses!
You'll be able to pick one up on Sunday and write the names of five friends you're praying for. On the reverse are some suggested things to pray for them as we prepare to grow to 9 AM and 11 AM on Sunday April 29.
One of the great advantages of being part of a network of churches is that we can benefit from the gifts and skills of people not only in our own congregation but also those who serve in other churches across Adelaide. The equip training program is a great example of this broader benefit.
Equip runs on Friday evening March 23rd and all day Saturday March 24th and is a training resource that seeks to grow and develop Christian people from all walks of life so they are better equipped to serve and be a witness of the gospel. Equip offers a range of subjects, most of which involve eight 50 minute sessions. There are three pathways which cover the broad areas of Essentials, Ministry and Christian Thought and over the four Equip events in a 2 year cycle, over 30 different subjects are offered.
God has brought many people into our church in the nearly two years that we have been together. This growing community of young and old and in between has been one of the great blessings we’ve received from God’s hand. I’m constantly hearing of people’s excitement at being part of a growing family where God is at work making himself known and drawing people to himself. A growing family also presents challenges! This year our children’s and youth ministry has grown to six separate groups at three different addresses and on Sunday mornings, the kids in our Children’s Ministry have taken over yet another room in the Molly Miels building. And as was especially evident over the holidays when the children stayed in the service, we’re heading steadily towards capacity in the gymnasium.
Since July 2011 the Leadership Team have been considering ways for us to continue to accommodate the growing number of people that God is drawing into our community, and as you will be aware, our plan is to grow to two Sunday morning gatherings, at 9 AM and 11 AM from the 29th of April.
I know I’ve asked before, but I think it’s so important that I’ll keep asking; Are you getting by on little more than one Weet-Bix a week? I trust that you find the Bible teaching here at Trinity encouraging, stimulating and challenging, and there’s no question that the reading and explaining of the Scriptures is a key part of what we do when we gather. But is Sunday morning the only time you spend seriously reading and studying the Bible? If it is, I think you’re getting by on one Weet-Bix a week! Weet-Bix are good for you, nutritious, tasty and all of that, but if you tried to live on only one each week, you wouldn’t be very healthy and you certainly wouldn’t grow. So let’s make sure we’re not trying to live like that when it comes to our spiritual health.
Of course, reading the Bible isn’t limited to what happens in an “official” Bible Study Group. I’d encourage everyone in our community to spend time individually reading God’s Word and praying regularly, even daily, hence the Daily Reading Notes we’ve made available for the Building A Kingdom teaching series. But for almost all of us, I’m sure, reading the Bible with others, meeting regularly for that purpose and talking about what we’re learning is a great way to help us get the most out of our Bible reading, to practice good habits and to develop accountability as we live out lives as people of the Word.
James, the Lord’s brother, urged Christians in the first Century to “not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says” (James 1:22). There are all sorts of traps that can keep us as “merely hearers” as some of the English translations put it; busyness, doubts, selfishness, sin, lack of accountability and so on.
To help us as a community of God’s people work hard at being “doers” of God’s Word and not merely hearers, can I encourage you to join with me in something new?
This coming Sunday, on the Welcome Table, you’ll find copies of a booklet of daily readings to accompany our upcoming Building a Kingdom teaching series from 1 Samuel – 1 Kings. I’d love you to collect a copy of the booklet this morning and, for five days each week, set aside a few minutes to read the passage allocated for the day and reflect on one or two of the accompanying questions. In this teaching series we’ll examine some of the significant moments in the relationship between God and his people Israel around the time of the nation’s first kings and we’ll seek to learn how, even one thousand years before Jesus, God was preparing his people for the king whose kingdom would reign forever. There are some great questions raised in these events about where we place our trust, who we turn to in times of trouble and how we view our relationship to God. And since on Sundays we’re only able to pick up some of the most significant events, reading some of the related passages beforehand will help you make the most of what we learn when we’re together.
On August 8th 2005 The Jesus, All About Life marketing campaign was launched in Adelaide. The message that Jesus really is “all about life” was splashed across roadside billboards, and beamed into homes on TV and radio. It was described as the largest promotional campaign ever undertaken by Christians in Australia and has since been repeated in many Australian cities. The theme of the campaign was based on Jesus’ words in the second half of John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The campaign was considered a great success. People from all walks of life across our city were engaging in conversations about Jesus and Christians were encouraged to share the hope that they have in Christ. It was great to be able to publicly identify with the ads and with the picture of Jesus that was being presented to Adelaide. It was a privilege to stand with Christians from churches all across the city and say, “Yes, I believe that Jesus is all about life.”
I wonder though, if our lives agree? Does the way we live suggest we really do believe that Jesus is all about life?
It’s a Christmas of “firsts” at Trinity Mount Barker!
Last night we had a wonderful time at our first ever Carols by Glowstick. It was a great opportunity to sing all our favourite Christmas carols and to share the good news of Christmas with hundreds of people from our community.
There are many, many people to thank for their part in making Carols happen – too many to name! To everyone who helped with the Free Family Fun, the setup and packup, serving on stage and off stage, please let me say a very heart-felt thankyou. Most of all, we should remind each other to give thanks to God to broke into our world in the person of Jesus Christ that very first Christmas, when the light truly did dawn and push back the darkness.
It’s only 6 sleeps until Carols by Glowstick! I wonder if you’re as excited about it as everyone in my household. Not only does Carols by Glowstick mean Christmas is nearly here; Not only is it an opportunity to sing all our favourite Christmas carols; Not only is the Free Family Fun going to be exciting, but at Carols we have the opportunity to share the good news of Christmas to every single person who comes along.
The theme for Carols this year is “A Light Has Dawned” and our hope and prayer is that those who come along will grasp something of the greatness of the light that dawned that very first Christmas. For centuries people had been “walking in darkness” waiting for light to break into their world, and on that one day in Bethlehem, around 2000 years ago, that long-awaited light dawned.
This week I spent some time in Melbourne taking part in a church planting conference. The Geneva Push is an Australia-wide network seeking to see, under God, hundreds of churches evangelised into existence across the country and the National In The Chute conference brings together church leaders and members from all different parts of the country to hear the Bible taught and to learn from each others’ ideas and experiences.
My role in the conference was to speak about our experiences in church planting, what we’ve learned and what we’ve seen God do amongst us in the 21 months since Trinity Mount Barker began. I got to answer lots of great questions about our church and explain the ways we do different things. It was great to see so many churches and Christian people trying to work out how to take the gospel of Jesus forward in their regions.
This Sunday we begin a new teaching series, Waiting for God. Our aim, during the lead up to Christmas, is to explore some of the lead up to the very first Christmas as recorded in the opening pages of Luke’s gospel. This morning we start with the announcement of the news of the approaching birth of the baby who we know as John the Baptist.
John is a somewhat strange figure in his later life, wearing clothes made of camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey. The announcement of his birth, given by an angel to his father, is strikingly parallel to the announcement of the news of Jesus’ birth, given by an angel to Mary. So why is this fairly odd figure so significant that his birth is promised the same way as Jesus’ is?
Thursday night a small group gathered in the church office to pray for Christian brothers and sisters who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus. It seemed highly appropriate, praying for these members with us of the body of Christ in the middle of our teaching series on prayer! Here was a chance to put some of what we’ve been learning from the Scriptures into practice. It wasn’t only us praying. Christians around the world joined together in prayer this past week as part of the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church.
Every day around the world, countless thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters suffer violence, intimidation, loss of employment, imprisonment and death simply because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord. As I mentioned last Sunday, it’s a sad fact that more Christians have died for their faith in Jesus in the last century than in all the previous centuries of the church combined.
This Sunday will be an exciting day in the life of our church as we launch our vision for ministry for 2012 and beyond. This doesn't necessarily mean we’re announcing plans to start anything new and different (although we are!). Rather it means that today is the day when we especially want to pause and give thanks to God for the things that he has done for us in his Son, Jesus, and also for the things that he has done amongst us in the last 12 months.
This time last year, as a church, we decided to take advantage of two new opportunities; taking Andy Buchan on as a Minister in Training with a focus on youth and renting office space in Mount Barker. In God’s kindness, through both these steps we’ve seen exactly the kind of fruit that we hoped and prayed for, but probably even beyond what we expected! Our youth ministry has grown from a combined youth and young adults group to two separate groups with a need to start another group and to find a larger hall to meet in. Our office has become a great ministry support place and is used for a Bible study or youth group five nights each week. We are really thankful to God for the generosity of his people here at Trinity, which has enabled us to take these steps in ministry together.
On the last Sunday in October, Christians around the world remember the Reformation in the church in the 16th Century, in which the gospel of Jesus was restored to the heart of western Christianity. It was October 31 1517, when Martin Luther, a priest and scholar in the church, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in the German town of Wittenburg.
Luther’s goal had been to reform the church from within, but in fact he was unsuccessful in this endeavour. What followed was a sharp divide between Roman Catholicism and what came to be known as the Protestant Church. The Protestants, led by men like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli in Europe and Cranmer and Tyndale in England, sought to return the church to the Bible’s message that salvation from sin and rebellion against God is not earned by doing good works, but can only be received as a free gift. In God’s grace, his undeserved favour, we can be saved from the penalty of sin and rebellion by faith in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
When you come in to the gymnasium this Sunday you'll find a Prayer Focus postcard waiting for you. I think it is fairly self-explanatory! Our hope is that these cards will help all of us make the most of the gospel opportunities that our growing to two Sunday morning gatherings will provide. A new beginning for our church gives new opportunities for new beginnings for the people we care about to become part of our church community and hear about Jesus. Naturally, simply coming along to church doesn’t make somebody a Christian, which is why we want to be praying and asking God to be changing people’s hearts and making himself known to them.
Don't forget our Hour of Prayer on Monday 13th February as we pray for our church as we grow to two morning gatherings in April this year.
One of the great advantages of being part of a network of churches is that we can benefit from the gifts and skills of people not only in our own congregation but also those who serve in other churches across Adelaide. The equip training program is a great example of this broader benefit. 
This growing community of young and old and in between has been one of the great blessings we’ve received from God’s hand. I’m constantly hearing of people’s excitement at being part of a growing family where God is at work making himself known and drawing people to himself. A growing family also presents challenges! This year our children’s and youth ministry has grown to six separate groups at three different addresses and on Sunday mornings, the kids in our Children’s Ministry have taken over yet another room in the Molly Miels building. And as was especially evident over the holidays when the children stayed in the service, we’re heading steadily towards capacity in the gymnasium.
But is Sunday morning the only time you spend seriously reading and studying the Bible? If it is, I think you’re getting by on one Weet-Bix a week! Weet-Bix are good for you, nutritious, tasty and all of that, but if you tried to live on only one each week, you wouldn’t be very healthy and you certainly wouldn’t grow. So let’s make sure we’re not trying to live like that when it comes to our spiritual health.
There are many, many people to thank for their part in making Carols happen – too many to name! To everyone who helped with the Free Family Fun, the setup and packup, serving on stage and off stage, please let me say a very heart-felt thankyou. Most of all, we should remind each other to give thanks to God to broke into our world in the person of Jesus Christ that very first Christmas, when the light truly did dawn and push back the darkness.
It’s only 6 sleeps until Carols by Glowstick! I wonder if you’re as excited about it as everyone in my household. Not only does Carols by Glowstick mean Christmas is nearly here; Not only is it an opportunity to sing all our favourite Christmas carols; Not only is the Free Family Fun going to be exciting, but at Carols we have the opportunity to share the good news of Christmas to every single person who comes along. 
This week I spent some time in Melbourne taking part in a church planting conference. The Geneva Push is an Australia-wide network seeking to see, under God, hundreds of churches evangelised into existence across the country and the National In The Chute conference brings together church leaders and members from all different parts of the country to hear the Bible taught and to learn from each others’ ideas and experiences.
This Sunday we begin a new teaching series, Waiting for God. Our aim, during the lead up to Christmas, is to explore some of the lead up to the very first Christmas as recorded in the opening pages of Luke’s gospel. This morning we start with the announcement of the news of the approaching birth of the baby who we know as John the Baptist.
Thursday night a small group gathered in the church office to pray for Christian brothers and sisters who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus. It seemed highly appropriate, praying for these members with us of the body of Christ in the middle of our teaching series on prayer! Here was a chance to put some of what we’ve been learning from the Scriptures into practice. It wasn’t only us praying. Christians around the world joined together in prayer this past week as part of the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church.
On the last Sunday in October, Christians around the world remember the Reformation in the church in the 16th Century, in which the gospel of Jesus was restored to the heart of western Christianity. It was October 31 1517, when Martin Luther, a priest and scholar in the church, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in the German town of Wittenburg.