Minister's Desk 3rd March 2013

The call to follow Jesus is a call to serve others.  On the night of his betrayal Jesus, having washed his disciples said to them, “now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).  This is an invitation to serve, as Jesus served us.  It is an invitation to service that is humble and intimate and puts first the needs of the one served who is served. 

 

Two other statements of Jesus about service also stand out for me.  In Luke 9:23 Jesus says “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  A cross is an instrument of torture and death.  It is heavy and unpleasant.  And yet there is no mistake that Jesus calls us into this type of ministry.  It is a call that takes us beyond our comfort zone and costs us something.  However, Jesus also said “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  This is an invitation to rest and peace.

 

It could be that these verses, in different gospels and spoken at different times, contradict each other.  Are we called to service that pushes us or to service that is restful?  The answer I believe is yes.  Yes we are called to service in which we deny ourselves, that is a sacrifice and that recognises that the life we live belongs to God.  Yes, we are called to find peace in God and the service that we perform in his name.

 

Too often I think that Christ followers miss the joy and challenge that we are meant to experience through serving.  One helpful way of considering the service we give is to consider whether it is Doable Hard or Destructive Hard.

 

Something is Doable Hard if it is hard work, but we find the challenge of the hard work stimulating.  We believe passionately in what we are doing, we are gifted and talented to do it, it’s what God wants from us at that season in our life, we have control over what we’re doing, we have challenges before us that we want to achieve, we can see the results of our efforts, and we have support mechanisms around us. 

 

Something is Destructive Hard if it is hard to the point that it has a negative impact on us.  This could be because we’re not gifted or talented, we’re not supported, we’re not committed, we’re not passionate, it’s too easy for us, there’s no challenge. 

 

Serving in an area that is Doable Hard stretches our faith and deepens our discipleship because it makes us rely further on God’s Holy Spirit.  I hope and pray that you each will find an area of service that is Doable Hard. 

Ministers Desk 24th February 2013

Overseas mission has been a key activity of the Christian church since the time of Jesus Christ.  When we read of Jesus crossing the Lake to the other side (eg Mark 5:1) he’s leaving Jewish Palestine and taking the message of God’s love to the Gentiles.  After the resurrection Jesus commands his disciples to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Act 1:8).  So begins the missionary journeys of the Apostles.  We know of Paul’s journeys that take him as far as Rome and of his unfulfilled intention to travel to Spain.  Other sources indicate that the some of the apostles went to Egypt, Persia, Ethiopia and perhaps even to India.  Much of the exploration of the New World was driven by both evangelistic fervour as the desire to acquire gold and riches. 
 

In the twenty-first century the overseas missions still continue to a key activity of the Christian church.  However, no longer do the missionaries take the good news of Jesus to those who haven’t heard it.  Now, we travel to join with other members of God’s church and together share in deepening our faith and our love for God.  When we are involved in overseas mission it is a blessing to both us and the destination we visit.

 

Last year Barry Jardine, Maureen Witheyman and I visited our partner church in Noro in the Solomon Islands.  It was a great time.  We were welcomed by native warriors brandishing spears and by the Girl’s and Boys’ Brigade companies on parade.  We were shown overwhelming hospitality through their attention to our needs.  We shared in vibrant and life giving worship.  The locals shared their lives with us, telling us their personal stories and giving us a glimpse of the joys and struggles of living in Noro.

 

Our very presence in Noro was a blessing to them.  We honour our friends by visiting them and reducing their isolation.  When we were in Noro we conducted training in computing, bookkeeping and patchwork, training that was eager welcomed.  For the five days of training there were some people who attend training in both the morning and evening and worked their usual full time job and walked 40 minutes each way (4 trips a day). 

 

The relaxed pace of life, the vibrancy of worship, the covering of every activity in prayer, the graciousness of personal interactions and the utter dependence on God all serve to nurture our faith.  Wendy comments that when I come back from the Solomons I am noticeably different, with greater energy, focus and enthusiasm for life and ministry. 

 

I invite you to be part of a life giving trip to Noro in June this year.  We are putting together a team of people to bless our partner church and in return be a blessing.  The primary requirement for the trip is that you are willing to spend time talking and building relationships with others.  We will also offer training.  Possibilities may include computer use (basic operator level), Sunday School and youth group leadership, skills for starting and conducting a small business, meeting procedure and church leadership, sewing and craft. 

 

Please speak to me if you’re interested.

 

Grace and peace

David Fender

Ministers Desk 17th February

Last Wednesday is known in the Christian calendar as Ash Wednesday.  It marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent.  During the six weeks of Lent Christ followers take the opportunity to prepare themselves for Easter, the most significant event in the Christian year.  Preparation involves prayer, bible reading, worship and self-denial.  In previous years we have been encouraged to fast from something.  Coffee, tea, chocolate, TV, social media and newspapers have been common items that people have abstained from as they enter into the sacrifice of Jesus on the way to the cross.

 

This year I am asking us to give a sacrifice of spare time. 

 

Although we each have the same amount of time available to us, many of us find that spare time is a commodity that is very rare.  To be asked to sacrifice spare time is to deny ourselves the leisure time and personal pursuits that we could otherwise be doing during that that time.  In place of this spare time I am asking us to join with a small group of people and participate in an act of service that reaches out to our community.  By doing this we will be giving our community a gift of God’s love through service.

 

Explore and Engage Groups are asked to work together.  If you’re not in a group, you can get together with others to form a serving team.  Think about inviting your Brian (pre-Christian friend you’re sharing faith with) to be part of your serving team.

 

The tasks is reaching out and serving the community.  You might want to join an existing organisation and work alongside them, you might know of a project that needs to be completed, you might want to offer assistance to a neighbour.  The project needs to be of a limited duration; most groups will be looking at a couple of hours, maybe up to half a day.

 

Last week as we looked at Psalm 23:2 I encouraged you to swap your busyness for God’s peace.  When we become less busy and have a grace filled rhythm to life, we have space and capacity to add something like this into our schedules.  Our life should be such that we always have room to add in an unexpected, manageable project on a once off basis. 

 

I’m excited about this opportunity.  Serving others is exciting, it gives the server the chance to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  It blesses the recipient with an expression of God’s unconditional love.  More information about this can be found on our website or on the information desk.  Please participate in this discipline of self-denial as you prepare yourself to celebrate again the death and resurrection of our saviour. 

 

“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  (Luke 9:23)

Ministers Desk 10th February

It is with regret that I share the news that Wendy Shurey has resigned from our Ministry Team.  Due to personal reasons Wendy has needed to find full time work and has been successful in finding a position at a Child Care Centre.  Wendy will finish in her role as Children’s and Young Families Pastor on Sunday 17 February.

Wendy has served our congregation for the past 3 ½ years and has made significant contributions to our children’s ministries.  I personally thank her for what she has done and as a congregation I know that she has helped lead us to be stronger in what we offer to the children and families of our congregation and community.  Through her involvement in our outreach ministries she has developed stronger connections with the church and our local community.  After the 9:30 service on Sunday 17 February we will have the opportunity to thank Wendy formally.  Please plan to come and share morning tea with us and bring a plate to share.

At its February meeting the Church Council will start making decisions regarding a replacement for Wendy.

 

However, whilst Emmanuel offers many high quality programmes for youth and children, we must remember that these only are designed to support the work of parents in growing faith in their children in their homes.  The family unit is always the primary vehicle through which values, beliefs, lifestyles and attitudes are nurtured, modelled and passed on.  No matter how good a church’s programmes are, they have little effect on children if they do not see an alive and growing faith being demonstrated by their parents.  This means that the primary focus of children’s and families ministry in our congregation must be on resourcing parents and children to live and discover their faith during the week.

 

Our church programmes can introduce children to the bible, prayer and Christian living.  However, if these practices do not become a part of the child’s everyday living the work of the church has little impact.  Think about ways that you can pray with your children, share bible readings with them.  Consider your everyday actions, what do they say about your discipleship, your call to serve others, your generosity and grace.  Are you encouraging your children to worship by preparing them before hand, making it a regular commitment each Sunday and by reflecting on it afterwards?  Are you modelling for your children attitudes of grace and forgiveness?  Proverbs 22:6 says, “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”

 

A key element of growing children and youth in the faith is therefore that their parents are growing in their faith.  Simply put, if the parents do not value their faith and live their discipleship, it is highly unlikely that the children will do so.  Our love for our children and their eternal salvation, is another reason why we should always ensure that we ourselves are growing in our faith in Jesus Christ and seeking to be transformed to his kingdom.

 

Ministers Desk 3 February

As we go through life we can be left pretty beat emotionally at times.  The people and situations that we encounter at work, in our neighbourhoods, dealing with businesses, at church and even in our family can take a toll on our emotional health.  We can avoid some of these emotionally damaging situations.  However, for many of them we have no choice but to endure the circumstances.  For instance, we have heard and read this past week of people still recovering emotionally from the floods of 2011 and having to face a similar situation again this week, and being emotionally brittle.

 

How do you deal with your emotional scars?  Some people will ignore them and proceed as if nothing is wrong.  Others will run away from the source of the trouble, forgetting that they take the pain with them.  Others will act out in ways that are in appropriate, hurting others in through their own pain.  What these people all forget is that emotional pains need to be addressed.  Just like a physical illness, damaged emotions need to be treated so that the person can return to wholeness.

 

For Christ followers a key aspect of finding emotional healing is through turning to Christ.  Time after time we read of Jesus performing healing miracles that address physical, emotional and spiritual sickness.  The same power of Christ is available to us today, if we look to him and offer our brokenness and pain.  Over the coming weeks in worship we will be studying Psalm 23 and the promise of God to give us protection, provision and healing as we deal with the troubles of life.  This series will last until Easter.  As I prepare each sermon I will be praying for each of us that we will recognises our hurts and the causes of them and offer them to God and in return receive his healing and renewing.

 

Some people may wish to dig deeper into this area.  Two books that I’d recommend are The Emotionally Health Church and its sequel Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.  Both are written by Peter Scazzero, the Pastor of a church in New York.  In each book he looks at six principles of emotional health – 1 Look beneath the surface, 2 break the power of the past, 3 live in brokenness and vulnerability, 4 receive the gift of limits, 5 embrace grieving and loss, 6 make incarnation you model for loving well.  He discusses how these areas can damage us, relationally (in the first book) and spiritually (in the second).  He also provides ways in which we can receive God’s healing and fresh beginning.

 

I have studied The Emotionally Health Church a couple of times.  It is easy to read, the concepts are very well described and it is grounded scripturally.  Yet it is not an easy book to get through.  The reader is constantly challenged with inner emotions that we’d try to ignore or run away from, but which still hurt and control us.  Ultimately though it is worth it as you come through the other side healthier and stronger.

 

Both books come with study guides that could be used by an Explore Group.  Using it in an Explore group would serve to deeper your relationships with each other as you go through some tough discussions and learning.

 

Ministers Desk 27th January

Welcome to 2013.  I’m excited about a new year of ministry and discipleship that God has before us as his family at Emmanuel.

 

In my devotions this week I read Matthew 13:15 “For this people’s senses have become calloused, and they’ve become hard of hearing, and they’ve shut their eyes so that they won’t see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their minds, and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them.”  Here Jesus quotes from the prophet Isaiah and refers to those who have become so familiar and comfortable with the message of the scriptures that they are immune to hearing anything new from it.

 

This caused me to ask myself what I need to do in 2013 to make sure that my encounter with God through worship, prayer and scripture is constantly fresh and that he is able to breathe new insights into my life.  It’s a good question for each of us to ask ourselves at the beginning of a new year.  What new patterns of discipleship, devotion, service and worship do you need to develop to meet God in fresh ways?  What about your relationship with God and your spiritual practices have become stale and an empty ritual?  How do you freshen these things up?

 

In worship this morning I remind us that the purpose of church is Growing Disciples who Exalt, Explore, Embody, Engage.  This purpose commits us to being people on a journey to love God more deeply, serve him more faithfully and obey him more completely.  We very definitely use the word disciples because this implies someone who learns from their Master and puts that learning into practice.  Recognising that we are disciples of Jesus places us in the footsteps of the first disciples who learnt from Jesus a new way of living and relating to God.

 

Through adopting this purpose we have committed our congregation to be a disciple making community.  A disciple making community is one that places emphasis on those activities that take us deeper into the life of God and brings forth from us a fuller response in all parts of our lives.  A disciple making community asks of itself and all its activities “will this help people to see and respond to the grace of God found in Jesus Christ?”  When the answer to that question is “no” then it doesn’t proceed with that activity.  After all the one thing that the church has to offer the world that can’t be found anywhere else is an introduction to the saving work of God found in Jesus Christ.

 

A book that I have found very helpful in understanding what it means to be a disciple making community is Travelling Together by Jeffrey D Jones (The Alban Institute: Virginia, 2006).  In this book the author assesses the nature of our current society and the challenges that this presents for the church in keeping true to the mission of God.  He then outlines elements of discipleship and what he sees as the practices and qualities of a disciple making community.  I found that this book reinforces the direction that we are already on and provides some additional challenges on what we are yet to do.  I’d encourage you to get a copy and read it yourself.  It’s not an easy read, but very worthwhile.  The appendix contains self-assessment questions to assess the ways disciples are formed in our own lives and our congregation.

 

Sermon - 3 February - worry

Sermon 10 February 2013 - Busyness

Psalm 23; Luke 10:38 – 42

How many of us are busy?  And more important how many of us feel guilty if we’re not busy?

There’s a game that Ministers play, and it’s probably played in many other work situations.  We get asked how we’re going and the automatic response that we give and we’re supposed to give is to say “oh I’m busy.”  And then we rattle off all that we have to do, would like to do and should do.

If you really want to mess with somebody, when they ask you if you’re busy, say no.  And then watch the reaction on their face.  They don’t know how to comprehend that type of response.

Life in the 21^st century is supposed to be busy.  We’re supposed to be stretched beyond what we’re capable of.  If we’re not too busy, then we’re missing out.

We’re missing out on opportunities to be with people, to do something, we’re missing out on work that we should be doing and for parents we think that we’re missing out on providing all the right opportunities for our children.

But guess what?  We’re not made for busyness.  Busyness is one of the biggest causes of stress in our lives today.

God builds into our lives times of rest.  As we continue to travel through the 23^rd Psalm we look at verse 2 today.  “He makes me lie down in green pastures”.

Busyness is destructive.  It distracts us from what is important.  We tend to overlook relationships, our health is overlooked and we allow small details to slip by, that in the long term can be very important.

More importantly, busyness affects our cognitive abilities.  We don’t have time to think things through.  We are less creative.  Our ability to analyse situations is reduced and therefore we are more likely to go with the flow.

But most importantly, our ability to respond to the situation is reduced.  When we are too fixed on the next thing that we have to rush off to, we don’t have time to spend listening to another’s problem, we are less able to respond to particular situations.  We become selfish with our time.  Our capacity to envision and live out a better lifestyle is stifled. 

And for those of us who are parents, we teach this to our children.  When we rush them from school to sports, to music, to groups, to homework, to dinner and bed.  Only to start it all again the next day, we’re teaching them a specific way of living.

Jesus never wanted us to live lives that are so busy, so stretched, so stressed that we never have time for enjoyment, for relaxation, for pleasure.  But at the same time, he never planned for us to live a life that precluded all work or responsibility.

Often when people read the gospel reading from today, they see it as a choice that we need to make between being Mary, spending time with Jesus in prayer, worship, bible study or being Martha and working at the practical things of ministry.

We even make jokes about our need to be Martha’s, when it comes to serving.

But we can’t read part of the gospels without considering the way they are impacted by the rest of the gospels.  Just in chapter 10 alone, we read the story about Jesus at the home of Mary and Martha, alongside the story of the Good Samaritan, together with the sending of the 72 disciples out on mission.

The chapter in totality reminds us that the life of a disciple of Jesus calls us to love God through serving others, participating in God’s mission and having time to renew ourselves.

When Mary is commended for choosing the better thing, this better thing is attention to Jesus and his teaching. 

And this is something that the busyness of Martha precludes her from doing.  How often do we find that in our society?  We live in a society that demands action and activity and causes us to fill our lives with so much each day.

There are the things we have to do, the things we’d like to do and then the things that we can do.  And if we let them, they can crowd the time we need to relax to renew our bodies, our relationships with other people and our relationships with God.

The busyness of our daily lives can rob us of the time we need to give to these three important aspects of our lives.  And so we look to the twenty-third psalm to find God’s antidote to busyness. 

In psalm 23:2 we “he makes me lie down in green pastures”.

See even when King David wrote this psalm he knew then what we know now, it’s hard to find time to rest.  It is God, the shepherd who makes us lie down.

Because for many of us we don’t find it easy to switch off and limit what we do.

It’s a common practice now in many larger businesses and government departments for people to take the time off between Christmas and New Year.  It usually works out that with weekends and public holidays you can take 10 days off in a row but only need to access 3 days of annual leave to make that happen.

Yet when it was introduced there were significant murmurings of displeasure from some workers.  People didn’t like being told to take time off.  Yet I remember one person saying, “nobody has ever forced me to take holidays.” 

He was making the point that we should be wanting to take time off, looking forward to holidays and getting any opportunity we can not to work. 

When I worked in the government there was a rule that you could only accumulate 8 weeks of annual leave.  After that you’d get a letter telling you to take some time off.  My boss took it as a sign of pride every time he got one of these letters.  He’d parade it around the room, bragging about how hard he’d work.  And then he’d go through the agony of having to arrange to take some leave.

So God makes us lie down, he makes us rest.  How do we do that?  What is God’s key for us to make sure that we don’t become too busy?  It’s found in an acrostic on the word relax.

The R stands for realise your worth. Our busyness can come from a simple confusion, where we confuse our work for our worth.  Our society tends to define us by the things we do, our jobs, but what we own, by what type of car we drive, what type of clothes we wear, or how we have achieved in some way. 

All things that are external to us.  And all things that mean that we need to work harder to achieve more to find our worth in the eyes of others through these things.

But God doesn’t do that.  He values us and loves each of us equally.  In psalm 8 we are told that God created us a little lower than the angels.  We are valuable and loved by God, just as we are.  We are loved by God so much that he’d die for us, whilst we were his enemies.

In realising our worth, we need to ask, do we want our worth to be determined by this world or by God?  If it’s by God then what’s the point in working ourselves to distraction, he already values us just as we are.

The E in relax refers to enjoy life as it happens.  How often do we find that we’re too busy preparing for what is going to happen that we fail to simply sit back and enjoy what we’re going through.

Often I think that some people live life like the TV series, The Amazing Race.  This is a game show where teams of people race around the world to complete tasks and be the first ones finished win a million dollars.  On the way they go to some amazing and beautiful places.  In the current season they’ve been to Mongolia, Vietnam, Beijing, India and others.  Occasionally, you’ll hear some of them say, “oh isn’t this beautiful, I’d love to come back and spend some time here.” 

They’re too busy racing to the next thing to enjoy what they’ve got at the moment.  Martha was too busy getting ready for the meal to enjoy the company of Jesus.

Enjoy life.

The L in relax stands for Limit your Labour.  This is about making a conscious decision to make time for things other than work.  And then decide how much time are you going to have for your God, your family, yourself and for your friends.

This is a simple biblical principle that goes back to creation and is embodied in the 10 commandments.  In Exodus 20:8, 9 God instructs us to remember the Sabbath.  “Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord.”

To be healthy and relaxed we need to build into our lives a rhythm of practices that replenish our energies.  This means making sure we have time each week to do those things that provide rest.  We also need longer periods of time regularly, weekends away, every couple of months.  And annual holidays. 

Storing up all our time off for just one break a year is not enough. 

The principle of a Sabbath is to rest our bodies.  Its leisure time, party time, time to engage in a hobby or a sport or going out for a meal or watching a movie.  Doing something that is pleasurable and provides space in our busyness.

The Sabbath is also a time to renew your relationship with God.  We can’t live as God’s people without spending time in worship, prayer and bible study.  If you are living your life without these things.  If you get to Sunday and say that you’ve been flat out all week and you feel like resting on Sunday morning and not going to church, then you have your priorities and your way of life wrong.

Nurturing your time with God is essential to leading an un-busy life. 

The A in relax refers to adjust or align your values. 

Do you need to adjust your values to what is important in life?  Do you hunger for temporary possessions, for the attention and recognition of others, for things that are limited to this world? 

If so, then you need to consider how you adjust your values to the things that matter, to things that endure.  Consider how you can build into your family and live on in your children.  How you can make a difference to the society we live in. 

Consider the importance of eternal life for yourself and others and what you need to be doing now to ensure you and the ones you love and care about spend eternity in heaven.

Or do you already hold these values, but find it difficult to reflect them in your daily living.  Does the immediate and urgent crowd out the important?  Then you need to realign your living to your values.

Make sure you have time for family and God.  Make sure you have time for the things that are important to you and substitute the other less important things.

In Mark 8:36 Jesus asks the questions, "What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"  Is your busyness worth it in the long run?  When you stand before God on judgement day, are the priorities of your life going to be the priorities of God?

Finally, the x in relax is for exchange.  I know I cheated.  Exchange your busyness for God’s peace.  The deepest and best way of shedding our busyness and freeing our stress is by entering into the peace of God.

Like Mary, learn from him.  Learn to lie down in pastures that will refresh you, learn the rhythm of life.  Allow him to teach you a pace that allows you to balance the many competing demands on your life. 

This is found in a relationship with Jesus where you exchange his peace for your pressure.  When you live for God, it's not only the right way, it's the healthy way, the whole way, the balanced way, and the most relaxing way.

Listen to what Jesus says to us:

Are you tired?  Are you worn out?  Are you burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you'll recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me.  Watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. (Matthew 11:28 – 29 The Message)