Church News for the week beginning 17th November

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OUR BIBLE TALK

This weekend we continue our series on Acts, ‘Launching the Church’, and are looking through chapter 18 about how Paul in Corinth and Ephesus, through the Scriptures, showed that the Christ was Jesus!

MISSION OF THE MONTH

Our mission of the month is CMS. Donate and buy from the mission table to help support our CMS partners.

VISION GATHERING

Please plan to join us on Saturday 30th November at 8am to 11am for our final Vision Gathering for the year. We’ll be prayerfully planning for our ministries for 2020 and we’d love everyone to join us.

LADIES GUILD

The next Ladies Guild meeting will be on Saturday December 14th at 3pm. All the youth are also invited as it will be a planning meeting for our Christmas Eve service on the lawn.

INTER-CHURCH CAROLS

Be sure to save Tuesday 10th December in your diaries for our famous ‘Carols in the Park’ event in Reid Park at 6.30pm.

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

This year we will be having our first-in-a-long-time Christmas Eve service! Come join us at 6:30pm on our new church lawn for a night of carols and fellowship. Our regular Christmas day service will be at 9am in the church.

GIVING UPDATE

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $5402.00, leaving a gap of $898.00. Olimometer 2.52 Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $81,900. Compared to that total we received $71,624, leaving a gap of $10,276.Olimometer 2.52

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562.

Everyday Miracles

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When we woke on Tuesday morning, we were bracing for a fire disaster in the almost-unprecedented ‘catastrophic’ fire conditions in Jamberoo and our surrounds.

Before I joined my RFS compatriots at our local station to stand by for a fire call, I shared on Facebook a prayer for our troubled country which was written by Archbishop Glenn Davies.

The prayer said, “Father we pray, in your mercy, restrain the forces of nature from creating catastrophic damage; in your mercy protect human life.”

As we patrolled the roads and lanes of our valley in our RFS tanker, scanning the horizons for any sign of smoke, we listened to the weather forecast climb from severe to extreme.

I kept praying, and you know what? Nothing happened.

Even though the trees bent over from the high winds, and the temperature rose to high 30’s, and the humidity fell to single figures, there were no fires, no damage, and most importantly, no loss of life.

God powerfully answered our prayers, and we have so much to rejoice for.

At times like this where we are spared from disaster we can be tempted to think that nothing spectacular happened: after all, it’s just another day without a terrible fire.

But as we asked, God has answered.

Yet, as we give thanks to God for powerfully and mercifully sparing the Illawarra from fire destruction, there are many thousands of people suffering as we speak from the effects of fire in our land.

Knowing how wonderfully God answered prayer on Tuesday in our valley we can confidently pray that God will protect property and lives in the coming days and weeks.

And above all, that whatever happens, we might find comfort in the Lord who is powerful, merciful and gracious.

JODIE McNEILL

Coming up this weekend 16-17 November

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This weekend we continue our series on Acts, ‘Launching the Church’, and are looking through chapter 18 about how Paul in Corinth and Ephesus, through the Scriptures, showed that the Christ was Jesus!

Each week at our services we have a question and answer segment, and this week’s questions are:

  1. How does the devil have the power to tell the future?
  2. Is it unwise or sinful to celebrate Halloween?
  3. Aren’t all unmarried Christians living with the gift of singleness, at least for that period of time?
  4. Is the gift of marriage something to be desired, given it leads to a divided devotion to God?
  5. Why does singleness seem to be rarely encouraged for Christians?
  6. Should we encourage Christians into singleness if they are in a relationship with a non-Christian?
  7. If babies cry through their baptism does that mean that they don’t want to be baptised?

So come along to our Saturday service at 5pm, where we have a kids program and dinner afterwards, followed by a youth group for the teens, or to our more classic Anglican style service on Sunday at 9am, and we can chat over morning tea and espresso after.

Grace and peace,
Jodie

Acts: Launching the Church 13: Paul in Athens – Acts 17:16-34 – 9 and 10 November 2019

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How religious is Australia?

Most Aussies don’t think that ________ matters.

Paul is deeply ________ at their idolatry.

Idolatry should stir you up for _______.

The marketplace is anywhere people ______.

Paul tailored his message to his ________.

The pursuit of ________ is the dominant Aussie religion.

The ______ mentality is also an Aussie attitude.

The ancient philosophers couldn’t ____ God.

The ____________ changes everything.

We have a fascination with ___ ideas.

Paul works within their religious _________.

God ___________ everything.

God doesn’t ____ anything from us.

God made all people so we would ____ him.

Even atheists can discover things about ________.

All people must ______ and follow God.

Judgement day is coming ____.

Jesus’ resurrection makes sense of __________.

Aussies would be better off with _____.

Download a copy of the PDF of this outline with drawings to colour in here: Download


Church News for the week beginning 10th November

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OUR BIBLE TALK

This week our Acts series, ‘Launching the Church’, follows Paul in Athens as he proclaims the truth about the Saviour, Jesus Christ, from Acts 17:16-34. We’ll see how Paul talks to a group of deep thinkers about why God is real and how they need to respond. It’s a great example of connecting with people in a relativistic world with lots of gods and idols.

MISSION OF THE MONTH

Our mission of the month is CMS. Donate and buy from the mission table to help support our CMS partners.

MONIQUE DARE-WARD MEMORIAL

A memorial service for Monique Dare-Ward will be held this Sunday 10th November at 2pm at Kiama Anglican Church.

JOHN MALOUF FUNERAL

A funeral service for John Malouf will be held this Monday 11th November at 12pm at Stan Crapp’s in Kiama. Bishop David Mulready will be leading the service.

PARISH COUNCIL

The next Parish Council meeting will be held this Tuesday night 12th November at 7pm.

VISION GATHERING

Please plan to join us on Saturday 30th November at 8am to 11am for our final Vision Gathering for the year. We’ll be prayerfully planning for our ministries for 2020 and we’d love everyone to join us.

INTER-CHURCH CAROLS

Be sure to save Tuesday 10th December in your diaries for our famous ‘Carols in the Park’ event in Reid Park at 6.30pm.

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

This year we will be having our first-in-a-long-time Christmas Eve service! Come join us at 6:30pm on our new church lawn for a night of carols and fellowship. Our regular Christmas day service will be at 9am in the church.

GIVING UPDATE

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $5402.00, leaving a gap of $898.00. Olimometer 2.52 Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $81,900. Compared to that total we received $71,624, leaving a gap of $10,276.Olimometer 2.52

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562.

Praying like a child

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Have you noticed how often Jesus tells people in his kingdom to be like children?

Until recently, I’ve thought that he was only talking about how we are unable to earn our salvation in any way.

But as I’ve read Paul E. Miller’s book, ‘A Praying Life’, I’ve now seen that the childlikeness Jesus refers to should also include the way that we approach him in prayer.

We are tempted to think that we need to present prayers to him that are all ‘grown up’, with everything neat and tidy.

Yet, when a child speaks to a parent, they just speak the first thing that comes into their mind, and they don’t really worry about having a polished presentation.

What’s more, a child is happy to ask over and over again for what they want, showing little restraint with their requests, almost to the point of rudeness.

These child-like behaviours would normally be discouraged in mature, grownups, and yet this is exactly the kind of way that God wants us to approach him in prayer.

So, if you’re feeling distant from God and finding it difficult to pray, then just start talking to God with the first thing that comes into your mind.

It may not be eloquent, and it might end up sounding a bit repetitive and insistent, but that’s exactly the way that kids talk to mum and dad… and the way that Jesus wants us to talk to our Father.

This should come as a great relief if you’re finding it hard to know where to start in your prayers.

You just need to start talking to God like a child talks to his parent, and humbly bring your requests to him.

And we can know with confidence that he will hear us and answer us as is best for us… what a relief!

JODIE McNEILL

Coming up this weekend 9-10 November

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This week our Acts series, ‘Launching the Church’, follows Paul in Athens as he proclaims the truth about the Saviour, Jesus Christ, from Acts 17:16-34. We’ll see how Paul talks to a group of deep thinkers about why God is real and how they need to respond. It’s a great example of connecting with people in a relativistic world with lots of gods and idols.

We also have a weekly question time during our services. If you have a question, please fill out a response slip or send an email to us. Here are the questions we’re answering this weekend:

1 Who are the modern-day equivalents of the ancient Bereans?
2 If Lydia never heard Paul’s message would she be in Heaven?
3 If God wants everyone to believe in Him then why does he choose only some people?
4 In Acts 16 how did the slave girl predict the future?
5 Are people still possessed by spirits and demons like the fortune-telling woman?
6 Is it necessary to get baptised?
7 Will everyone in the same household be saved?
8 Does the Apostles Creed include all we need to believe for salvation and thus fellowship?
9 Will traditional Catholics go to heaven?

Please join us for church this Saturday at 5pm, with a kids’ program, followed by dinner and then a youth group for the teens. Or come this Sunday at 9am for a more classic Anglican style service and we can chat over morning tea and hot espresso!

Grace and peace,
Jodie

Acts: Launching the Church 12: Mission in Macedonia Acts 16:6-17:15 Jodie McNeill – 2 and 3 November 2019

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Uncertainty about the future.

God is in control of __________!

Paul wants to _____ the Jerusalem letter.

The Holy Spirit ________ the missionaries.

God ______ in many ways.

The Macedonian man pleads for ____.

They arrive in ________.

Lydia accepted Paul’s ________.

Lydia’s whole household were ________.

A fortune-telling slave makes her master a _______.

The slave master is angry at Paul for the ________.

They have ______ prayer and praise!

The jailer asks how to be _____.

They need to _______.

The whole household is ________.

The believers are __________ by the miracle.

‘Jesus is King’ can be seen as _______.

The Bereans search the __________ every day.

You can know God’s mind by reading the _____.

Get a copy of the full outline with pictures to fill in hereDownload


Church News for the week beginning 3rd November

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OUR BIBLE TALK

As Jodie leads us through the next instalment of our Acts series, ‘Launching the Church’, we will see how Paul proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah, despite a difficult crowd, jealousy and a treacherous journey. God’s strength and provision was shown, and Paul was able to continue to encourage his fellow brothers and help many come to know Christ. It is a great lesson, one that we can apply to our lives today.

MISSION OF THE MONTH

Our mission of the month is CMS. Donate and buy from the mission table to help support our CMS partners.

MONIQUE DARE-WARD MEMORIAL

A memorial service for Monique Dare-Ward will be held on Sunday 10th November at 2pm at Kiama Anglican Church.

PARISH COUNCIL

The next Parish Council meeting will be held on 12th November at 7pm.

LADIES GUILD

The next Ladies Guild meeting will be on November 9th at 3pm in the hall. All women in our church are invited to come, and find out how they can help serve over the Christmas festive season.

INTER-CHURCH CAROLS

Be sure to save Tuesday 10th December in your diaries for our famous ‘Carols in the Park’ event in Reid Park at 6.30pm.

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

This year we will be having our first-in-a-long-time Christmas Eve service! Come join us at 6:30pm on our new church lawn for a night of carols and fellowship. Our regular Christmas day service will be at 9am in the church.

Kanye’s Conversion

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Kanye West is one of the world’s most famous personalities, known not only for his music, fashion and politics, but also for his famous wife, Kim Kardashian.

This week Kanye released an album with the title ‘JESUS IS KING’, where he sings with great honesty and passion about his newfound Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

News of his conversion has caused a stir around the world, with both Christians and non-Christians expressing some scepticism about the authenticity of his new faith.

Yet the more that I’ve heard him speak this week, and the more I’ve listened to this album, the more I’m blown away by his passion for Jesus.

The man who once regarded himself as god has now made an unblushing declaration that Jesus is king, not Kanye.

His radical transformation reminded me of the conversion of the Apostle Paul, who went from being one of the Christianity’s most violent critics, to become its greatest advocate and proclaimer.

When Paul was converted, many of the Christians doubted his faith and feared for their lives.

Yet before long, the believers recognised him as a brother, and they praised God for the remarkable work of the Holy Spirit in bringing such dramatic transformation.

I’ve been praying a lot for Kanye this week.

I’m praying that he doesn’t grow weary of proclaiming Christ, and that he keeps pursuing his new-found passion for Christlike living.

And I’m praying that the slogan ‘JESUS IS KING’ will lead many others down the same pathway to Christ that Kanye now walks.

If you don’t know Jesus as King, then why not read the Bible like Kanye did, and see how Jesus can also turn your life around?

JODIE McNEILL