We’re enjoying some holidays in Brisbane. Yes, the weather is better than in Sydney and we’ve had the chance to catch up with my brother and his wife. We’re also going to the Gold Coast to spend some time with friends from college.
Two interesting thoughts about holidays when you’re working in full time ministry.
- Though we’ll be staying with other people, it is a great way for me to relax and to switch off thinking about work. ie when there aren’t others around, in particular other adults, Jo and I can end up talking about church. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s nice to be able to switch off and be less self-interested by focussing our attention on others.
- Another benefit of being on holidays on a Sunday is the privilege of being able to visit another church. I don’t know if there are legitimate reasons to go to another church on a ‘work day’, so it was great tonight to visit somewhere else.
We went to The Village Church, a church plant from Mitchelton Presbyterian Church. It was great to be encouraged by other brothers and sisters from another city and another church, but keen to serve the same God and Father.
I wasn’t at the church planting conference held at Moore College today (and tomorrow). However, I read the exciting news that Al Stewart is going to be heading up Evangelism Ministries from January next year. Last year I was a student minister at Evangelism Ministries and benefited greatly from the experience. I was given opportunity to write talks which explained the good news about Jesus. These were then critiqued before I gave them at various church services or events.
Sure, it helped my preaching skills. Yet, more importantly was the great benefit of being reminded that God is the one who gives the growth. I learned this most valuable lesson after giving the same talk a third time and finding out that someone responded in repentance and faith. Certainly had nothing to do with my delivery of the talk or the content of it. Rather God’s Spirit was at work that particular night in the heart of that particular person.
May God give wisdom to Al and the EM board as they consider how to restructure to further promote evangelism and church planting.
I recently mentioned in a sermon on Psalm 1 that the Bible is an incredibly vivid book. I was encouraging us at Evening Church to read our Bible more than we listen to other people’s sermons. I referred to a video of Ryan Ferguson’s dramatic reading of Hebrews 10-11. Here’s the link if you’re interested.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8919399424910324675
The Bible well read speaks for itself.
After my first six months of full time ministry, I’ve got lots of ideas and thoughts percolating in my head. I hope this blog will be an online diary for me to keep track of ideas, to self-reflect on my experiences and to be publically accountable. Maybe you can come along for the ride as I endeavour to watch my life and doctrine closely, and persevere in doing so. This in order to save myself, and possibly some readers also. (1 Tim 4:16)
And yes, this post is titled ‘Hello, world!’ because I used to work in IT, not because I couldn’t change the pre-installed first post.