This is good for me to reflect on….

“Christians, especially ministers, so often think that they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.
Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because Christians are talking where they should be listening. But [the one] who can no longer listen to his brother [or sister] will soon be no longer listening to God either… This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.”

-Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

From the Uk comes this pretty radical teaching/exhorting method.

This guy reminds me of one of the prophets of the OT…he dressed up and stunk up as a street person and entered his parish at their Sunday Service to see what the reaction was….it sounds like it was not too good.

“When Reverend Rigby wanted to teach his congregation a lesson about being kind to others he came up with a rather colourful way of demonstrating his point.
As the 70 churchgoers turned up for their regular Sunday morning service at the Methodist church in Prestatyn, north Wales they found a scruffy tramp sitting in the church porch.
Stinking of beer and dressed in filthy clothes, the disgusted churchgoers did their best to ignore him as they filed past.
This task was made even harder when the unwanted guest joined them on the pews, surrounded with syringes and drinking from a can of lager.”

Story

Hillsong Church is doing something about the worlds poor.
The amount of resources, people and prayer they are putting into poverty is incredible. They are uniquely positioned to do something significant about those who Jesus loves just as much, if not more than, white middle class Christians. One of the major themese of the 2008 conference was justice, and Tim Costello kicked off the conference with an excellent message about extending the Kingdom of God to include those who go without the basics.

The Iheart revolution is something which has been birthed in the youth of the church, and resourced by the whole church. The trailer had me in tears and determined to do what I can to play my part. I cant do it all, I cant even do much, but I can do what I can do. My family supports a Compassion child, and I am determined to mobilise our church even more into this area as we continue to grow and reach out to those not only in need of Christ, but also in need of the basics.

I encourage you to check out the IHeart revolution website.

http://www.theiheartrevolution.com/

Today was our second Sunday as a new church. It was a great day. Eliot has got the worship team combinations right….today was as good as last week.

We launched our Kids programs this week, and we had 55 kids present at our kids party…….55 children!!!!!!!!!!

For a church our size, that is extraordinary. I was really challenged at Hillsong when Paul De Jong talked about how he became a Christian when he was 5 years old, and it was a really impacting time for him. He talked about how insecure he was as a kid, but how knowing God caused him to know he had Gods strength with him. He has always felt insecure about himself, but God wanted him to know it was not through his own power…but Gods.

This challenged me that these 55 kids and more are our mission field. A number of them are from non church families….but that is not the point. Just because a kid is raised in a christian home does not guarantee a thing. God is percolating something in my heart about having a conference for primary school aged kids…not the adults or teachers…but the kids. mmmmm.

This conference seemed to go for longer than usual…not because anything was boring or irrelevant..or too long. It was just I missed my family. Perhaps not travelling with someone compounded that. Anyway, as I sit here in KFC Geelong, awaiting my bus, I have a little time to reflect.

This was a personally challenging and refreshing conference for me. I needed the space, the margin, to think, pray and be spiritually impacted. With so much output, we all need input.

The overall thrust of this conference was Justice. Hillsong have really taken a focus on issues such as poverty and need in the wider world. They have refocused themself and are challenging other churches to do the same.

They use some impacting elements such as drama, spoken word, music and visuals to tell many stories over the past week. I have been quite emotional a number of times as God has spoken to me and challenged me. What an awesome time. I am so thankful to be given the opportunity.

This is the first Hillsong Conference I have come to on my own…and it has some advantages. I miss travelling with my friends, particularly one of my best mates who normally comes with me…but it has given me space to pray and process what I am hearing.

This morning Brian Houston gave a message just for Pastors in the third session. Often when I hear speakers at this conference I am working out how I can utilise some of their teaching in my own…this session was personally challenging for me.

He spoke about how as leaders we need to be bearers of good news. So often the first one to ‘share’ bad news with him is other leaders! He does not want to be the one you hear bad news from first. Of course…bad news needs to be dealt with and confronted. But so often we focus on the negative aspects of a person or their ministry, and are so slow to encourage and bless them, and be positive and joyful about the things God is doing.

This hit me like a rock….I dont want to be a leader who is talking about others….I want to be known as someone who is constantly sharing good news…..

I will post about some of the other things going on as I can…..

Our first service today as Inglewood Community Church. Did not expect that many people! Teething problems with getting enough seats out and with room. Good problems to have.
The young bloke doing the AV was flawless.
The band was a good mix of former members of both churches, and sounded great.

Good fellowship and a real sense of the significance of the day.

In years to come, people will talk about today as the first day of a new and significant work in God’s Kingdom. Lets pray we continue to reach those far from Christ, and in need in a whole raft of ways.

Next week we kick off the childrens ministries with a kids party…woo hoo! Get your kids along.

By the way, my wife makes the best date scones that there have ever been…..