Ministers Desk June 10 2012

I have been sharing with you the results of our latest Natural Church Development (NCD) survey.  One of the exciting results from the survey is that it affirms for us the strength we have in the area of service.  One of the foci of our Purpose is to embody our faith in service where every one of us has at least one area of service that stretches and challenges us into a place where we can’t do it alone, but must work in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Many people in our congregation already have embraced this and are feeling the influence of God as their faith is grown. 

The service that we offer is always a response to the grace of God that comes to us first.  Therefore service is about recognising what Jesus has done for us already through his death and resurrection.  Service is primarily a love gift that we give to God, through other people.  As we serve we share with Jesus in showing the new kingdom that he has brought about.  Service therefore isn’t about what we do, but the attitude and motivation with which we do it. 

The service that we give can be connected to the congregation or not.  We encourage people to find their place of service wherever it happens to be.  For some this happens through community groups, local schools, agencies of the church or individual actions in their neighbourhoods.  Since this service takes place away from the gathered church community it often goes unnoticed.  Yet we want to acknowledge and support all of those in our congregation who embody their faith in service.  If you know of others who serve outside the congregation, please take the time to thank them, ask about their service and pray for them.  If your service is outside the church, please let others know.  Not to blow your own horn, but as an encouragement to them and to find a support base for yourself.

Thank you to each of you who serve and show the reality of God’s kingdom.  As you do serve, please continue to find new ways of growing in your faith.

To do this it might be helpful for you to ask yourselves some questions.  First, consider how selfless your service is.  Gauge the extent to which you’re doing it for the sake of God and others.  Second, reflect on the positive impact your service has on your discipleship.  Does it lead you to trust God more?  More fully rely on the power of his Holy Spirit?  Does what you’re doing change the lives of others for the better and enable them to see Jesus more clearly?  Third, identify the connection between what you do and God’s desire to build his church.  The reason for our service can sometimes be lost or confused, particularly if we’ve been serving in the same area for many years.  Identifying this connection unites us all through our different forms of service.  Please take some time to prayerfully consider these questions.  It may be that you don’t have answers for some of them, or that you don’t like the answers that you come up with.  That’s great because it gives you a reason to look again at what you do and align yourself closer with God’s plan and purpose for you in his church.

Ministers Desk 3 June 2012

Our latest Natural Church Development (NCD) survey gives us good news regarding our Explore Group ministry.  According to the survey results this is the strongest and healthiest area of our church life at the moment and it has been the area in which we have seen the most growth since the last survey was conducted three years ago.

Explore groups are an essential part of our purpose of Growing Disciples who Exalt, Explore, Embody, Engage.  As part of this purpose each one of us are encouraged to be part of an Explore group that meets weekly or fortnightly.  Explore groups are the place where we deepen relationships with God, other people and ourselves (by this I mean we understand more about who we are created to be in Jesus Christ).  Through discussion, reading and prayer we learn about the life of faith as it is expressed in the bible.  With the support of the others in our group we then seek to live this out in our lives.  Explore groups are therefore a key discipline through which the Holy Spirit grows us to be more like Jesus Christ.

Almost 100 people in our congregation are part of an Explore group.  The survey tells us that they find these groups highly relevant to the lives that they live and that what takes place in them helps them with the challenges of everyday life.  This is the best thing that I think about Explore groups.  The time we invest in them has a huge impact on everything else we do.  I was recently talking to someone.  They had been struggling with a problem yet when they raised it at their Explore group and allowed the bible to speak into their situation, they found a new pathway and an increased resolve to fix the problem, which they did.

To a lesser extent people in our Explore groups say that they feel comfortable sharing personal problems and having others pray for them.  Praying for each other is one of the most powerful ways that we can offer pastoral care for each other.  Through prayer we unleash the limitless power of the Holy Spirit and we seek the very best of God for those for whom we pray.  Each time we meet in an Explore group we should devote time to prayer where each member (not just the leader) prays for the needs of the others.  This will deepen and enrich your times together and demonstrate the unity of Christ’s body.

I have said before that this congregation is too large for everybody to know or recognise everybody else.  For some people this can lead to a feeling of isolation.  However, in an Explore group we can develop relationships of trust and friendship that help us in our spiritual growth and bless us in our daily lives.

If you are not yet part of an Explore group, please join one.  On the back page of the notice sheet is a list of our current groups, contact a leader and invite yourself to be part.

If you are in an Explore group and you know someone who is not, contact them and invite them to join your group.  The best way that we are going to be able to spread the word about Explore groups is through word of mouth.  It is only once we’ve been part of a group that we know how good they are.  Please tell your friends and share the blessing.

MInisters Desk 27th May 2012

In April this year 30 members of our congregation were invited to take part in a Natural Church Development (NCD) survey on the health of our congregation.  This is the third of these surveys that we have taken.  Previous ones were in 2009 and 2006.  The survey measures the health of our congregation against other churches throughout Australia.

The church is God’s gift to the world in the time between Christ’s ascension and his coming again.  God has entrusted the church with the task of making the good news of Jesus Christ known to all people and in doing this to make the reality of his new creation known in this world and at this time.  Therefore it is essential that the church continues to grow in health so that it may fulfil the plan that God has entrusted to it.  We all know how ineffective we become when we are sick.  Depending on our illness we can be prevented from doing the things that we like to do, want to do and need to do.  Yet when we are in the best of health we have energy, stamina, an inspiring outlook and the capacity to do so much.  The same is true for the church.  So we undertake surveys like this as a check-up to measure our health and identify the factors that are preventing us from being all that God wants and to highlight where we are strong and healthy and can therefore celebrate where we are doing what God has called us to do.  There is much to celebrate in this latest survey. 

The survey indicates that overall health of our congregation has improved substantially.  The atmosphere of our congregation is more optimistic.  We recognise this through a clear belief that God wants our church to grow, through knowing the value of our service in the church, through believing that God will work more powerfully in our church in the future and having a greater shared commitment to the purpose that we are working toward as a church. 

The survey also reflects specific areas in which we are growing.  Many people are experiencing the blessing of being part of an Explore Group.  They are finding relevant discussions, opportunities to share deeply and assistance in integrating their faith into their daily lives.  We need to acknowledge the work of Nathan Robertson in leading our Explore Group ministry, also, the leaders and members of our groups who are developing a firm spiritual foundation for their lives and our church.  Please don’t forget that there is always an opportunity for you to join an Explore Group if you’re not yet in one.

We are also growing in our awareness and compassion for pre-Christians.  More people are praying for people they know, intentionally deepening their relationships and finding new ways to share faith.  Thank you to those who have increased their commitment to Christ’s great commission.

Our new purpose has provided a clearer direction into the future and this is reflected in the survey.  Our purpose puts before us a clear indication that God wants us to be a disciple forming community and that his desire for each of us is to grow as his disciples.  Thank you to Peter Cranna and the members of the Future Directions Group for their contributions in 2011 to develop our purpose.

The health of our church has grown because specific people have committed themselves to leadership in this congregation in specific areas.  My thanks go to the Church Council and Elders who prayerfully and diligently offer leadership in our congregation and to each member of the congregation who responds to God’s leading in their life to grow in their discipleship.  In coming weeks I’ll continue to share with you other results from this survey.

David Fender

Ministers Desk 13 May 2012

During the week I was at a chapel service at my daughter’s school.  The priest leading the service made a point that it doesn’t matter how technically well we do something, if we have not got the philosophy right of why we do it. 

In our current series of the Prodigal God we are looking at Luke 15:11 – 32.  In it we encounter the older son.  In the story we get a picture of someone who works hard, is diligent and can be relied upon.  However, what we saw last week in worship was that his heart was not in the right place.  He worked to protect his inheritance with no thought of the relationship he could have with his father. 

Many of us appreciate the importance of well run activities, of highly organised groups and a church where everything happens efficiently and effortlessly.  I very much appreciate the leadership that is given by so many people in our congregation that allows this to happen.  We can be very grateful for our team leaders on Church Council, the leaders of our engage and explore groups, the people who fulfil important and necessary administrative tasks, those who prepare and lead our worship services and the many people who take their places on our rosters.  Without you our church would not be able to offer the ministry that it does, nor would it function as it does.  Please know that your contributions help realise God’s potential and plan for this congregation.

However, it is very easy for us in our church activities or our own lives to become like the older son.  We can be consumed by what we do and forget the reason that we do it.  Ultimately, the service that we give and the life that we live is a response to gift of grace given to us in Jesus Christ.  So I invite you to reflect on the questions below and ask these about your life and about your service in the church.

1.      Do you prayerfully submit all aspects of your life and service to God, asking him to show you his way and being willing to be taken from your way?

2.      Do you intentionally seek to honour God through your lifestyle, giving him glory rather than seeking it for yourself?

3.      Would other people say that your service and your Christian lifestyle brings you joy? 

4.      Do you gripe and whinge about your service more than you tell good news stories?

5.      Are you constantly thinking of new ways to reflect Christian values through your life and your group?

As you answer these questions, if you find that your service is more about what you do than why you do it, I encourage you to reconnect with the grace and love of God.  See the way that he runs to embrace the lost younger son.  See the way that he pleads with the lost older son to come into the banquet.  Taste the goodness of his love for us as he sits us at the table of eternal life.  Respond to all he has done in your life.

Grace and peace

Ministers Desk 6th May 2012

At our congregational meeting last weekend we adopted a budget for 2012 that provided a $27000 deficit from a total budget of $380 000.  Our Church Council have considered this budget, prayed over it and determined that this represents an accurate financial picture of the ministry of Emmanuel now and into the future. 

As I have prayed about the budget I have been reminded time continually that this is more than just a financial issue.  Our stewardship of money, both as a congregation and individual disciples, is always a spiritual matter.  Last week in our Prodigal God series we considered the sin of the younger son and that he loved the father’s money more than he loved the father.  We were challenged to think what it is that we value, honour and worship before God.  One of the greatest temptations that we face is to worship the god of money, the god of the things our money can buy or the god of being in control of our money.  After all this is what our society teaches us, the primary importance of money.

I shared at the congregational meeting last week that our financial situation will only resolve when we see address it spiritually.  In his annual report our Treasurer makes a similar comment, I encourage you to read/reread his report.

I would like to challenge each of us to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit through engaging in a discipline of prayer and fasting.  Combining prayer and fasting has been a spiritual discipline that God’s people have used throughout the ages. We see examples of it in the Old and New Testament and in the history of the church. Through this discipline our desire is to grow closer to God and to more fully participate in his mission and stand in his will. It is not about proving how good we are to God (or others) nor is it about earning God’s favour.

Each Monday during the month of May I ask you to abstain from eating between breakfast and dinner and commit to fervent prayer seeking God’s leading regarding our finances.  As we fast and pray we will have a heightened awareness of God’s presence generally and deliberately replace times of eating with times of prayer.

Please be very aware that not everyone can do this.  Especially consider your health needs, the medication you take and your need to eat to give you energy for strenuous work.  If you believe this is not beneficial to your health please either see your doctor, or commit only to praying without fasting.   

I firmly believe that God will provide the resources that we need to fulfil the mission he has entrusted to us.

Please feel free to speak to me about this more.

Ministers Desk 29 April

In our congregational meeting today we receive the annual reports for our church’s activities in 2011.  These reports highlight the activity that many people have been involved in, through Emmanuel Uniting Church in the past year.  But this has not just been the case of a lot of people doing a lot of things.  We have been participating in the work of God. 

Through our worship we have gathered together with all creation on heaven and earth, throughout time and space and have acknowledged the greatness and worth of our creator, redeemer God.  Those involved in worship leadership have involved us in the timeless response that all creation makes to God.

We have people who faithfully lead groups for children, youth and adults.  These groups provide friendship and build healthy relationships amongst the group members.  Our explore groups provide a perfect setting for spiritual growth to occur.  We can never underestimate the commitment that is required by the leaders of these groups.  Many require significant weekly preparation that involves much prayer, thought and attention to detail.  The leaders of these groups need to cultivate teams and take into account the needs of different members.   

Many of our groups are devoted to reaching out to people from our community who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.  Through friendships and interesting activities these groups are living out the great commission of witnessing to the life of Jesus Christ through their own lives. 

Our annual reports give us the opportunity to reflect on these activities and recommit ourselves to the work of God into the coming year.  The church exists to be the ongoing presence of Jesus on earth.  It is the task of the church to make Christ known to all people, those who know him and don’t yet know him.  As you recommit to the work of God through our church, resolve to see Christ in all you do and grow in your relationship with him through your service.

Our annual reports also give us an opportunity to appreciate the people who serve diligently and faithfully in the church.  Sometimes these people are very high profile, many fulfil equally necessary task, but are not so prominent.  I want to express my thanks to each person in our congregation who serves where God has called them.  I appreciate and value the time you commit, the energy and prayer you devote and your availability to God.  You may want to express your thanks to someone in our congregation for the service they give in worship, in leadership of the congregation, in maintaining the building, in your group or in a group that your child participates in. 

In all of this though, remember that we are instruments of God.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain” (Ps 127:1).

Ministers Desk 22 April 2012

One of the four pillars of our purpose is that we will grow as disciples as we embody our faith by each having at least one area of service that stretches us to a God only spot where we must rely upon the Holy Spirit and the gifts that he gives us.

The idea of service in the kingdom of God is one that people often misunderstand.  Some will work because they think that it is required to earn salvation, appease God or demonstrate a worthiness to receive what has been given.  When we act like this we become like the older son in the parable of the prodigal God.  Others find an outlet for their abilities, interests and skills through serving in the church in a similar way to serving in a community group or paid employment.  Others again see it as an optional extra if they have time or the inclination.

As disciples of Christ however, we are called to the privilege of serving so that God’s work of salvation may become seen throughout the world.  Service is therefore a sharing in the work of Jesus Christ.  In Galatians 2:15 - 16 Paul writes about his conversion.  “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.”  Paul sees a direct connection between him receiving the gift of salvation and being called to service as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Each of us have a part to play in the work of God’s kingdom.  What is yours?  Do you see how you have the privilege of making Christ known, of helping others experience the love and grace of Jesus, of working to bring about God’s justice and provision?  When we can see our service from the perspective of God’s kingdom then the concerns and reservations that we may have about being overloaded or incapable fade away and we become excited and compelled to respond to what God is already doing in this world.

When we serve in the power of the Holy Spirit we do not need to be concerned about our limitations.  God knows those and works through us with them and despite them.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that when he is weak that he finds the strength of God.  God looks for our availability.  He takes what we offer and can make something beautiful out of that, honouring our limitations and our deepest desires. 

If you don’t have an area of service in the kingdom of God, whether in this congregation or outside, I encourage you to surrender yourself to the purpose and will of God.  As you do be amazed at how you will grow in your discipleship and see the ways that God meets and sustains you and reveals his salvation of creation in and through you.