Next week’s Gafcon Conference in Kigali, Rwanda is shaping up to be a momentous occasion in the history of global Anglicanism, as we come together to prayerfully chart a renewed course for the church.

The five-day conference will include around 1300 people from over 50 nations, as we come together to prayerfully depend on the Holy Spirit as we gather to hear God’s word.

Each day will have a special time of repentance, as we gather to express our grief and remorse at how many within our church have wandered from God’s way and have departed from the truth of his word.

Some Anglicans leaders have chosen to bless ways of living that God has told us to reject, and this means that many parishioners and pastors have been forced to submit to bishops who have failed to accept the word of God in all its fulness.

That’s why we need to gather to ask forgiveness for our church, and to seek God’s wisdom about the future for Anglicanism, both globally and locally.

Mandy and I are humbled to be representing our church in Jamberoo, as we participate with the Australian contingent, and we pray that the Lord will give us opportunities to serve and encourage many others during the week.

Please pray for great wisdom for all the delegates as we seek to come to a common mind about the best form of the future leadership of the global Anglican church.

But above all, pray that this conference will lead us to glorify God by proclaiming Christ faithfully, so that everyone will hear God’s call to repent and believe in Jesus as Lord.

To find out more about the conference, and to find a link to the livestream, visit www.gafcon23.org 

JODIE McNEILL

We are thrilled to welcome a team of fourteen students and two chaplains from Moore Theological College from this Sunday 26th March to Sunday 2nd April.

The ‘mission week’ is an integral part of the training of all the students as they prepare to be ministers in churches and other contexts locally and across the globe.

The theological training at Moore is world-class, and what makes it even better is the deep commitment to pastoral care that is evidenced in the strong connections with the local churches… especially those in the Diocese of Sydney.

To get a deeper experience of the training at Moore, you’re invited to attend a special ‘Ministry Minded’ evening this Tuesday night the 28th March at 7pm in our church hall.

Lionel Windsor will be delivering a theological and pastoral lecture to help stretch us as we focus on gospel ministry… especially as we consider how all of us are Christ’s ambassadors in the many areas he’s placed us to serve.

Susan An, the Dean of Women, will be helping us understand more about how Moore invests in the growth of the students, and will particularly help us understand the many opportunities for women’s ministry, especially as we embrace ‘complementarianism’ in our teaching and ministry.

We’re also going to hear from a number of the students on our team about their own journey that has brought them to study at Moore, and they’ll have an opportunity to share about how they’re praying the Lord will use them in the future.

This is one of our key events as the team is embedded in our church for just over a week… and we’re excited to learn from them and with them as we seek to have each person in our village, valley and region know how to follow Jesus, and why it matters.

That’s why we always love Moore!

JODIE McNEILL

In her book, ‘The gospel comes with a house key,’ Rosaria Butterfield shares how she became a Christian through the hospitality of an older Christian couple who opened their home, shared their lives, and showed her Jesus. 

She was unchurched and hostile to Christians, but God used that hospitality to lead her to Christ.

Hospitality is so powerful for evangelism, and that’s because God showed us hospitality, first!

He welcomed outsiders when he invited us to belong to his family and become part of his people… all while we were his enemies.

His divine hospitality was seen most clearly through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile us to the Father. 

In her book, Rosaria said that hospitality seeks to make, “strangers neighbours and neighbours family of God.”

That kind of hospitality is deliberate, intentional and relational…. and a little daunting.

But her wise advice was to just, “start somewhere, start today,” and I thought, “I can do that!”

All I need to do is to keep getting to know people… starting small, but starting now.

And I was reminded that evangelism so often happens in the context of personal relationships.

It made me think of my role as a school teacher, and how I invite students to bring questions and doubts, as they learn and inquire.

You’ll have similar opportunities with your work colleagues, family, community contacts, and other connections in life.

It is such a wonderful privilege and an amazing opportunity for us to speak the gospel, and live it out in the lives we share with others.

As we head into Easter, let’s pray that God will help us share the love of Christ with everyone we connect with, and that he will bring many people to know and love Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

MANDY McNEILL

It’s 25 years since I became a father, and it’s 25 years since Colin released his ‘Remember The Lord’ album.

These two events intersected in so many ways, for this album became the soundtrack to the early years of my Christian parenting.

We loved Colin’s energy and fun, but we especially valued the way he could help every member of the family learn Bible memory verses, as well as remember the wonderful and important truths about God, Jesus and the Bible.

For his lyrics reminded us that, “nothing takes God by surprise,” and that we should “remember the Lord, remember that he’s in control, he’s watching his children, he cares!”

Colin knows that the sovereignty of God is a wonderful thing, and a doctrine of great comfort… and his songs have helped us sing about this for decades.

That’s why I’m so excited that Colin will be joining us at Jamberoo Anglican on 31st March at 6pm for a special, open-air concert on the lawn.

The advertising says it’s a ‘kids’ tour’ but I reckon the biggest fans will be those, like me, who bought the CD for our little ones to listen to in the car… although those kids who are now in their 20’s might be the ones rockin’ in the ‘mosh pit!’

I’m praying that this event will be a great night of celebrating the amazing love of God, and that for some people, it might even be a musical event that rekindles a faith in Jesus that may have grown dim over the years.

Above all, I’m praying that all who come to the concert will have a fresh experience of the wonder of Jesus, upon whom, “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all… SING Baa, Baa, Doo, Baa, Baa… Isaiah 53:6… UGH!”

Purchase tickets at this link… but get in quick!

JODIE McNEILL

Two years ago we asked Mothers Union Sydney for a special grant for an all-new position of ‘Mother’s Minister’, and they graciously supplied us with the funds to employ Gemma Bartlett for the part-time role.

At the time, I described the role in this way:

We wish to employ a mature and experienced Christian mother to help strengthen and support new and younger mothers in our church to be godly wives who serve their husbands as they bring up their children in the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. 

They will teach how to develop Christian homes as a place for nurturing children, which will then be a natural environment to invite unbelievers in their networks to witness the outworking of the Word of God in the lives of their families and homes.

This will involve one-to-one discipleship of mothers in our church; the opportunity to train, resource and empower other experienced Christian mothers and grandmothers to share this ministry; and to prayerfully gather all members of our parish to seek to make disciples of all nations, one mother and family at a time. 

We also long to be a parish that learns and then shares from its ministry experience, in order to equip other, similar churches in rural and regional churches with this important, specialised ministry. 

I’m delighted to share that Gemma and all the Bartletts will remain with us as members of our church into the future, and will keep helping mothers and everyone grow in our ministry.

We recognise with great thanks the special contribution Gemma has made to the life of our church whilst serving in this 24-month role, and we thank God for the vision and resources of Mothers Union Sydney in providing us with the grant.

We’re also thankful for how our intergenerational focus has been fanned into flame under her leadership, and for the ongoing impact this has on everyone in our church.

JODIE McNEILL

(image credit: Kurt Stocker via Flickr)