Mark your diaries now! CV Conference will be running on the October Long Weekend 2012. Clayton Fopp will be speaking from 1 Peter and Warwick de Jersey from St Matthias, Centennial Park in Sydney will be speaking on Titus.
School Chaplains have been in the news a bit recently because of the ongoing High Court challenge to the Commonwealth’s National School Chaplaincy Program. Around 2000 chaplains (called Christian Pastoral Support Workers in SA) are employed in state schools across the country, with many funded, at least in part, through the Federal scheme. In 2009 a survey conducted across the nation found that 98 per cent of school principals who had a chaplain in their school wanted government funding for school chaplaincy to continue.
While the outcome of the High Court challenge to the constitutionality of the Commonwealth program is still unknown, it seems to me that it would be a great pity for the work of our chaplains, particularly those in our local schools, to be overshadowed by the legal wrangling.
There has been a lot going on in the life of our church in the last little while. I thought it would be good to update you on some of what has been going on.
In July a new ladies Bible Study Group was launched. Ladies, if you're interested in meeitng with other women to study the Bible, you now have a choice of two groups to join, depending on which better suits your circumstances; one group meets Tuesday mornings and the other Tuesday evenings. What has been especially exciting about this new group is that its membership is almost exclusively ladies who have joined our church in the last year or so and we are very thankful to God for bringing them into our community.
For the last 10 years or so, every October Long Weekend, I’ve headed down to Victor Harbor to be part of CV Conference. CV Conference is part of a strategy to see faithful and passionate Christian leaders raised up for the growth of God’s church in Adelaide, Australia and around the world. Since we believe that God raises up leaders for his church, CV aims to provide space and opportunities for everyday Christians to consider whether they should be serving God in full-time or part time vocational gospel ministry in Australia or overseas.
One of the things I love about being at CV Conference is the chance to work as a “Coach” helping people assess their gifts, aptitude and personality in order to help them discern the best ways that they can serve God and his church. Over the years I’ve come to the realisation that one of the reasons that many people who could be serving the church in full-time or part-time leadership aren’t doing it, is simply because we haven’t been intentional about helping people think it through.
In July this year Trinity will be presenting the inaugural Revelation Music and Ministry Conference. The goal of the conference is not primarily to improve the skills of musicians in church, although there will be workshops aimed at developing particular skills. Rather our goal in running the event is to help Christians; musicians, pastors and members of churches grow in their understanding of the role of music within the Christian community and particularly the important part that music plays in our Sunday gatherings.
We are very pleased to have Rev Dr David Peterson giving the keynote talks at the conference. David is an internationally respected theologian, teacher and author, having written and taught extensively on Christian worship and liturgy. David is the author of the seminal work on Christian Worship, Engaging with God.
In a few weeks I'm giving a talk on "Technology, Connectedness and the Christian Life." In preparation, I've been doing some reading on how different people use various aspects of technology to communicate the gospel of Jesus.
On the website of Global Recordings Network, I came across something that I saw first-hand more than 20 years ago and which ever since I've struggled to convince people actually exists!
It's the "Card Talk" cardboard record player, pictured at right. Back around 1989 we discovered one out the back of our school library. Initially we couldn't work out what this strange piece of folded carboard was and why it had a needle attached to one end, but the fact that there was a vinyl record with the cardboard suggested this was in fact a record player!
Sure enough, we placed the record on the eyelet on the cardboard, folded the end of the carboard so that the needle rested on the record and when we spun the record, we could hear the sound! The vibrations of the needle were amplified by the 'baffle' of cardboard and we could clearly understand the spoken word recording.
Revelation Music & Ministry Conference is approaching! Click the banner above to find out the latest. Keynote talks from Rev Dr David Peterson, input & music from Geoff Bullock, Nicky Chiswell and Mark Peterson, plus lots more!
This past week we launched our Trinity Mount Barker Prayer Network. Even as the structure and names were being put together, we had our first request for prayer – and our first answer to prayer! No sooner had I been told that the Prayer Network was up and running that I heard that the first prayer need passed onto the network had been graciously answered by God. We shouldn’t be surprised, though! The Scriptures tell us that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
As we saw in our Foundations teaching series earlier in the year, what matters about prayer, more than anything else, is the God to whom we pray. In Matthew 7 Jesus tells his disciples, that just as they love to give good gifts to their children, despite their own sinfulness, their heavenly Father will give good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:11). All around that particular section, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear what some of those “good things” are; Being salt and light is good. Storing up treasures in heaven is good. Taking hold of eternal life is good. Seeking God’s kingdom above all else is good.
Even as we approach the first anniversary of the launch of our church, there are still new beginnings occurring! This weekend two exciting new ministries are being launched. Friday night will see the commencement of our new youth group for students in school years 6 – 11 with somewhere in the order of 15 teenagers and leaders crammed into the office for “Pizza and Prayer.” Developing our ministry to this age group has been identified as a major priority for us as a church, which is why we asked Andy Buchan to join the staff team as a Minister in Training to invest in the lives of these young members. Youth group will continue every Friday during school term. More information is available here, or you can collect a flyer with dates and other important information from the Welcome Table on Sunday.
Jesus Christ promised to build his church (Matthew 16:18) and we know that God gives leaders to his church, “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:12).
CV Conference is a ministry that under God, seeks to help people consider if they might be equipped by God to serve his people in full-time or part-time vocational gospel ministry. CV runs on the October Long Weekend each year and, since its inception, has helped numerous individuals, couples and families consider the best way that they can serve God and his people, either in Australia or overseas.
Paul Harrington, Senior Minister of the Trinity Network, speaks about ministry challenges at the Trailblazing — Ministry with Purpose Conference in Sydney last week.
At Trinity Mount Barker we're aware of the blessing it is to have people serve us through the production of resources that can be used in the building of people towards maturity in Christ.
We have a great hope that the benefit of resources such as Bible study guides, training materials, videos and music might not be limited to our church, but might be used by God for the building up of other local churches.
Recently, the Trinity Mount Barker Leadership Team approved the implementation of ChildSafe as part of our commitment to creating safe environments for children and young people. We are blessed with a large number of children and youth in our church community – sometimes as many as 40% of Sunday attendees are in Crèche, Minis or Kids’ Church! If we needed a reminder of how significant this ministry is in our church, the National Church Life Survey provides it: over 70% of people who identify themselves as Christians say they became followers of Christ before 20 years of age.
Over the coming weeks the various protocols and processes of ChildSafe will be implemented across our church. Perhaps the first major step for those involved in ministry to children and youth will be the “appointment” of all volunteers to their ministry areas by the Leadership Team. People who are currently serving in these areas have been appointed in a variety of different ways, including many who have been approved for ministry with children under the Anglican system at Trinity Hills or Trinity City. Asking all these volunteers (plus staff, like me!) to go through the ChildSafe application and appointment process means everyone will be “on the same page” in terms of expectations and roles. The new appointment process includes submission of a National Police Certificate and also recommendations from two referees. All appointments of volunteers for youth and children’s ministry will need to be renewed every three years
That’s an answer I seem to be giving more and more often. Perhaps you find yourself answering that way too. Life is busy. If we took a survey in our own church community, we’d find that many individuals and families find themselves constantly pulled in lots of different directions. I remember one parent telling me they had four separate engagements for their two children on one week night!
We have more “time-saving” devices than ever before in human history and yet we feel busier than ever! It seems to me that our busyness is not an efficiency problem but something deeper. What do we make of God’s description of his own work and rest in Genesis 2? By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
You're invited to a special Trinity Mount Barker event.
Making Disciples is the kind of occasion that has the potential to profoundly shape the way our church thinks about Christian life and ministry. I hope you're able to join us.
Rather our goal in running the event is to help Christians; musicians, pastors and members of churches grow in their understanding of the role of music within the Christian community and particularly the important part that music plays in our Sunday gatherings.
Back around 1989 we discovered one out the back of our school library. Initially we couldn't work out what this strange piece of folded carboard was and why it had a needle attached to one end, but the fact that there was a vinyl record with the cardboard suggested this was in fact a record player! 
Recently, the Trinity Mount Barker Leadership Team approved the implementation of ChildSafe as part of our commitment to creating safe environments for children and young people. We are blessed with a large number of children and youth in our church community – sometimes as many as 40% of Sunday attendees are in Crèche, Minis or Kids’ Church! If we needed a reminder of how significant this ministry is in our church, the National Church Life Survey provides it: over 70% of people who identify themselves as Christians say they became followers of Christ before 20 years of age.
