Community News Posted by whac | 27th April 2012

RIDE FOR PASTORS

The ‘Ride for Pastors’ event is now so close that it’s a really good time to finalise your involvement. If you want to ride, just let Roy know and take a look at this rider FAQ. If you’d like to contribute financially via credit card, then take a look at this credit card pledge form. It should be a great day, and is a great way to help Indian pastors attend the training that we’ll be running for them this year.

Prayer Breakfast

New ATheism Series

This week I had the pleasure of writing the Rev Writes section for the NAC weekly bulletin. It’s an introduction to our new series beginning next week. Have a read:

“The Global Atheist Convention held recently in Melbourne brought together some of the biggest names in the ‘New Atheism’ movement. The numerous media appearances by the conference speakers such as Richard Dawkins – including his much hyped debate with George Pell on the ABC’s Q&A – has given the claims of the New Atheists unprecedented media attention.

This is a good thing.

So often we can be frustrated by our world’s failure to engage with the big questions about life, the universe, and everything. But right now, in God’s providence, we have an opportunity to engage with our friends and family and give a clear and coherent defense for the hope that we have in Jesus.

But how do we join the conversation?

The current edition of Eternity newspaper contained two articles urging us to avoid a knee jerk response. Rather than immediately dismissing the claims of the New Atheists, they encouraged us to offer a thoughtful response. Against the claim for example that ‘Christianity has been a force for bad’, we must be willing to admit that churches are a human institution, and that at times they do fail us, and that Jesus himself attacked the hypocrisy present in the religion of his day.

Of course at the same time we mustn’t fall into the opposite error, which I have heard one Christian leader label ‘concessionalism’. This is where we too quickly concede a point, which we would dispute if we were better informed. For example, Dawkin’s claim on Q&A that Christians were missing in action in the fight against slavery, is simply wrong, and is not a point that Christians should ever simply concede.

The point is, for us to be able to give a defense for the hope that we have, we need to thoughtfully engage with the claims of the New Atheists. That is why it is my pleasure to introduce our new sermon series beginning next week, focusing on the “The New Atheism”.

The series will be presented by Dr Lewis Jones, who is the director of The Simeon Network, a network of Christians in academia committed to knowing God and making him known at universities around the world. Lewis is based at UNSW, and has a degree in theology and a doctorate in astrophysics. He regularly engages in the debate surrounding the new Atheism, whether as one of the co-creators of doubtingdawkins.com, or through speaking and debating on university campuses.

In the first talk of the series, ‘Can We Be Good without God’, Lewis will articulate how the New Atheists understand morality. He will explore the implications of their view, and will argue that the Biblical witness not only makes better sense of our own personal experience, but also provides a more satisfying and compelling answer.

The second week, ‘Does Science Believe in God?’, will begin by debunking the oft-made claim that science rules out Christianity and requires a commitment to atheism. As a Christian who has worked in the scientific community, Lewis is perfectly positioned to highlight the historical and logical errors lying behind such a claim, and will argue that science and Christianity are anything but enemies.

The last talk, ‘Why Can’t Richard Dawkins Find God?’, will address the claim that belief in God is equivalent to believing in ‘fairies at the end of the garden’, by focusing on the evidence that we have for God in the person of Jesus.

It promises to be a wonderful series, and in God’s hand will help us to engage thoughtfully with our community.”

Parenting Seminar

Upcoming Events and Reminders

2nd May – The Boardroom @ The Winston. 8pm

5th May - NCEA Prayer Breakfast

6th May – New Atheism series – ‘Can We Be Good without God?’

8th May – Parenting Seminar

12th May - Ride for Pastors

13th May - New Atheism series- ‘Does Science Believe in God?’

20th May - New Atheism series – ‘Why Can’t Richard Dawkins Find God?’

20th May - India Style Service @ WHAC

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The Rev Writes Posted by office | 21st April 2012

Welcome to term 2, 2012!

Members of our church are trying ways to build community. For example, there’s a bunch of women from our 9.00am congregation who walk together and talk while they walk. But there’s plenty of other ways in which members are building community.

I’ve been thinking about congregational meetings. I was once invited to take the service at another church while the minister was on leave. The service was at 7.45 on Sunday morning. When I started the service there were about 20 people there.

I talked to them about community, the church as community. I pointed out to them that I could tell a lot about their theology of church by where they were sitting. Not one of them was sitting within 2 metres of anyone else.

Our theology, what we believe, determines our behaviour.

But it’s more complicated than that. When I go into a building full of people, at a conference say, I almost always go and sit where no one else is sitting. Even if there are friends of mine there! People are complicated.

But, our theology, what we believe, determines our behaviour. When we think about it. So, let’s think. We believe in community. We want to build community. When you walk into your congregational meeting, where do you sit? Some people act out of habit. We always sit here. Some people sit with their friends. That’s what friends are for. Some sit … well, away from people.

But what if, because we believe in community, when we walked in to our congregational meeting we looked for someone to sit with?

Perhaps someone we don’t know. So we might build community. Perhaps someone who’s sitting alone. So we might build community. Perhaps someone we’ve been struggling with. So we might build community.

We believe in community. And we want our theology to determine how we behave. So we need to think about what we do rather than simply run on auto-pilot (walking in the flesh).

We need to think about what we’re going to do when we walk into our congregational meeting next Sunday. We need to think about it and pray about it beforehand, otherwise the situation and habit will win out.

Think about looking for someone to sit next to. What we believe determines our behaviour. When we think about it.

Our theology determines our behaviour. But we need to develop new behaviour patterns. That takes thought and practice.

Theology, prayer, thought, new behaviour patterns. Worth thinking about.

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Community News Posted by whac | 20th April 2012

Advanced Notice – Upcoming Series: The New Atheism

In the wake of the recent controversy surrounding ‘The New Atheism’, we’re thrilled to announce that Dr Lewis Jones will be joining us for three weeks to guide us through the debate. Here’s a short bio about Lewis:

“Dr Lewis Jones is the director of The Simeon Network, a network of Christians in academia committed to knowing God and making him known at universities around the world.  Lewis is based at UNSW, and has a degree in theology and a doctorate in astrophysics. He regularly engages in the debate surrounding the new Atheism, whether as one of the co-creators of doubtingdawkins.com, or through speaking and debating on university campuses. Originally from America, he met and married Jenny in Australia, and they have three kids Nathan, Heidi, and Macauley.”

It should be a very helpful series for us as we engage with the claims of the New Atheists.

Prayer Breakfast COming Up

Matthew

We kicked off our new series on Matthew last week, as we looked at whether Jesus was a legitimate heir to God’s promises, and what it would mean if he is the long promised descendant of Abraham and David. This week we’re looking at chapter 2, and the controversy surrounding where he grew up. Have a read beforehand if you can!

Upcoming Events and Reminders

April 22nd – Connect Group Leader and Co-leader Training 2-4pm.

May 5th – Northmead Christian Education Association prayer breakfast. St John’s Parramatta. 7:30-9am

May 6th – Beginning of new Series – The New Atheism

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Community News Posted by whac | 13th April 2012

Freedom Events and Matthew

After what has been a hectic few weeks, now is a good time to give thanks for the Freedom Events. They were a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and a good way for us to get our friends and family thinking about Jesus. We can also pray that after these events, people would join us as we start our new series on the gospel of Matthew. It should make for a great term.

Q & A

Many of you will be aware that Richard Dawkins went head to head with George Pell on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night. The show had one of its biggest audiences, but unfortunately George said many things that we wouldn’t agree with. So if you didn’t see it, you might find the following brief article helpful in coming up to speed, and being able to engage with those who did - Sandy Grant

But more broadly, you might be interested in this site launched recently by some friends of mine: Doubting Dawkins

Safe Ministry Training

A Safe Ministry Training refresher course will be running at the NAC hall this Thursday 19th at 7pm. This is a course for you if you want to continue helping with our kids ministries, and if it has been close to three years since you have either done the full or refresher course. All you need to do is to RSVP to Carol at the office, either by phone or email.

Upcoming EventS and Reminders

April 18th – Pancakes at the Rocks 8pm.

April 19th – Safe Ministry Refresher Training Course 7pm.

April 22nd – Connect Group Leader and Co-leader Training 2-4pm.

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The Rev Writes Posted by office | 29th March 2012

Christ-centred lives have God’s mission at heart. I wrote last week, “For your family, that will at the very least mean hospitality. Our mission budget must set aside funds for hospitality.”

The budget I was referring to was our personal, family budget.

Hospitality is a great vehicle for mission. Hospitality is a deeply biblical idea. Israel was responsible for the traveller and the foreigner in their land. The early Christians most probably had a meal together every time they churched. In the early centuries Christians provided accommodation for travellers – the first motels! The monks served minestrone soup (from the word ‘minister’ or service.)

Most ministers of the gospel are hospitable. We knew hospitality was important to us because of our children when they were quite small. People would come up to us after church and ask if it was OK for them to come to lunch because one of our children had just invited them.

Hospitality provides opportunity to serve others by saving them the effort of preparing a meal and saves them the cost of a meal. It also gives you time together to relate over a meal. It is no accident that heaven is often pictured as a meal. God is the host, providing hospitality to his people.

Many of our neighbours don’t experience hospitality all that often. Perhaps they are not well-liked neighbours so don’t get invited. Perhaps they are not friendly neighbours because they don’t get invited!

Hospitality and mission go hand in hand. So we need to practise hospitality. So what does it look like?

Well, that depends on you and your family. If you’re living in a retirement village, hospitality might be morning tea. But be prepared for it to stretch into a sandwich for lunch. People like hospitable people.

If you’re retired but living at home, you have wonderful opportunities to explore hospitality.

If you’re living with children, there are more limits but other wonderful opportunities because your children have friends with parents to invite.

If you’re single, then taking people out for coffee or a meal are great opportunities.

But all these cost. They cost time. They cost effort. They cost money. But most of all they cost planning. Planning for hospitality can be frustrating. Lining up others in our busy worlds is not always without difficulties.

So, as always, we need to pray. So often I have found that when I ask the Lord to prepare the way for me and get someone ready for an invitation, they are actually positive.

That’s hardly surprising. It’s God’s mission after all. We are his fellow-workers. He has invited us to share in his work in his world. Asking for his help sounds like a good idea.

Easter is next weekend. Pray, then invite! Even to church and then back to your place.

 

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Community News Posted by whac | 23rd March 2012

Freedom in the Groove – This Sunday – 3:30pm

Please join us for what will be a wonderful afternoon. You’ll enjoy some great food, great Jazz and hear a great talk. Plus you’ll get to see the Winston Heights Public School hall like never before. There will be a full kids program, including separate programs being run by our midweek BOB, JGs and The Cage groups. If at all possible please register beforehand, just follow this link.

Freedom from the Grind – This Tuesday – 7:30pm

Our coffee appreciation night is also coming up. It’ll be a fantastic time to get to know a whole lot more about coffee, and what that’s got to do with Jesus. Once again it’ll be at the Winston Heights Public School hall, and registering beforehand would be appreciated.

The Authentic Jesus

We’re thrilled to be running a course over five weeks exploring the Authentic Jesus. It’ll be a great way to come to grips with who Jesus claims to be, and you’ll be able to express interest at any of our upcoming Freedom Events.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND REMINDERS

March 25th - Freedom in the Groove (featuring Con Campbell). See www.nac.asn.au/freedom for info and to register.

March 27th - Freedom from the Grind (featuring Neil Atwood). See www.nac.asn.au/freedom for info and to register.

April 3rd - Freedom in the Family (featuring Roger Stonehouse). See www.nac.asn.au/freedom for info and to register.

Good Friday - Freedom from Death. See www.nac.asn.au/freedom for info.

Easter Sunday - Freedom for Life. See www.nac.asn.au/freedom for info.

May 19th - Equip Women’s Conference.

 

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