Over the past few weeks some of our staff and senior leaders have been giving prayerful consideration to the best way to help support our growing church through refreshing and defining how leadership works in our church.

One of the things we talked about was whether it might be better to call each of us ‘partners’ rather than ‘members?’

Now, they’re both useful names to use to describe each of us who are actively involved in the ministry of our church.

And, as we’ll see in this weekend’s sermon from 1 Corinthians 12, the idea of ‘member’ actually makes sense when you think of each of us being a part (or a ’member’) of a body.

But in our common speak, we sometimes can think of a member as someone who pays their membership fees and seeks to get the benefits of being a member… which feels more of a consumeristic way of thinking.

Yet, that’s not how  our ‘members’ act in our church, for we all participate as partners who work together with servant hearts to sacrificially share our lives and resources with our fellow parishioners as we seek to see each person in our village, valley and region know how to follow Jesus and why it matters.

So, in that sense, the idea of being ‘partners’ is a more an active way of describing us, and perhaps , it better describes the depth and joy of our rich fellowship.

So, what do you think? Should we speak of each other as ‘partners’ of Jamberoo Anglican, or is the name ‘member’ still the more user-friendly way of describing all of us as parts of the body of Christ in Jamberoo?

Either way, the Lord has blessed with a wonderful team of disciples, who love to serve him as he has served us… no matter what we’re called!

JODIE McNEILL

(photo credit: ajusticenetwork via Flickr)

It’s 80 days since Mandy, Barbara and I returned from Africa, and although life has largely returned to normal, there is a sense in which I continue to see things differently since visiting Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania in April.

Like any cross-cultural experience, there’s learning to be gained from both those who visit and those who host, and this was certainly what we experienced in our journey.

Whilst there were many cultural differences, we had a fresh reminder that we worship the same Lord, and we know him by the same Spirit, through the same Bible, even if it’s in a different language.

At the same time, it’s hard to ignore the differences in wealth between our country and those that welcomed us, which challenges us to consider how to partner with our brothers and sisters on the other side of the globe.

Over the coming months I’m looking forward to establishing a partnership between our church and with ministries in Northern Tanzania, especially since three of us from Jamberoo have experienced this life and ministry firsthand.

What’s more, other local Anglicans have also been involved in ministry in this same area of Tanzania, which opens the possibility of creating partnerships with other local churches and organisations in our area.

Jesus has told us that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and we have experienced this ourselves as we have been blessed by the sacrificial ministry of our brothers and sisters in East Africa as they hosted us.

May he lead us to also bless them as we partner together as the one body of Christ, loving and serving to the glory of the God. 

JODIE McNEILL

Over the holidays I’ve been reflecting on the rapid change our world has gone through as we’ve shifted into a state of mind that considers the ‘self’ to be both an authority and an idol.

My thinking partner has been Carl R. Trueman, who has written a fascinating book called ‘Strange New World’, in which he explores how things have changed so much that the phrase, “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body,” has become normal in just one generation.

Trueman begins his analysis by looking at a bunch of old and new philosophers, including Descartes (“I think therefore I am”), Marx (“Religion… is the opium of the people”), Nietzsche (“God is dead”), Freud (“erotism [is] the central point of… life”), and even Oscar Wilde (“A man… may break the law, and yet be fine.”)

These thinkers set the foundation for the radical change that has only fully arrived in our society in the last decade.

But the thing that lit the fuse of this explosive change was technology, including ‘the pill’ that kicked off the sexual revolution, and the internet that normalised pornography and established new communities that have rallied together for support and change.

The result is that our society has closed itself to alternate views, and has developed a habit of silencing speech and cancelling debaters, out of fear of causing harm to a person’s self by injuring their feelings.

In response, Trueman suggests that Christians should make it a priority to invest in Christian community, so that we can show the world that we are Christ’s disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35.)

Furthermore, he encourages us to make our church services special, since, “a large part of the church’s witness to the world is simply being the church in worship.”

So, as we face this strange new world, let’s continue to gather together in love for one another, as we show the world the hope we have in the new creation.

JODIE McNEILL