An Eagle 3-D vision - amazing photo, with such clarity, surely worthy of an Attenborough documentary.


You can see the fierce determination in the eagle's eye as it swoops down upon it's prey.

Moved into our new offices at 6th Avenue.....New might be pushing it a little! The building was actually built over 80 years ago. But the office has had a repaint, and some good desks put in.
Its nice...and very welcoming.
Set up broadband after the horrors we had with AAPT, glad to go with Amnet. Adsl2 connection....yes!

Spent some time yesterday doing some pastoral counselling...that takes it out of you.
Today I am back home looking after two kids, both of whom are vomitting....and trying to get my sermon done.

Sometimes being at work is a lot easier than being at home/work!!

Wirrapanda did not do anything wrong....but Shaun did everything right.

And they dont wear teal!!!

Great win today, without Pavlich! Jonathon Brown said that Pavlich would beat Port.....well Brownie....Freo beat Port...fair and square, with 16 individual goal scorers...a club record.
Crowley played a leaders game, Peake is back to his best. In fact Peake kicked a 65 metre goal! Thats extraordinary.

Farmer was typically unselfish and seems to have found some new life on the wing. Tarrant played as a team player. I was also impressed with Mark Johnson. One particular 'bullocking' goal where he bashed through 4 of the teal warriors and slammed it through typified Freo's insistence that they were going to win today. Loved it......

Btw....I am sounding like a broken record, but Freo has the best group of young players coming through. Palmer, Ibbotson, Mayne and Warnock.

It really does feel like a new church. One of the reasons is that we are getting lots of visitors who are coming back. This is creating issues! But they are good issues. We might have to rethink our stage...we certainly have to work on seating issues. Today...when all the kids went out...the place was still pretty full.....

In a couple of weekends we are doing a 'guess whose coming to dinner'. The last two weekends we have invited two new couples....if the trend continues we are going to need to get a bigger table...and another chicken.

I enjoyed speaking today.....God is good.
Eliot and the band kicked out an awesome rendition of U2's "One". sounded great, and was a great lead into the message.

Here is a link to a site which you can download free countdowns from.
Free is good....so are these countdowns.

Free Countdowns

STOP PRESS
I just had a bit more of a look around this site and they have free chroma key backgrounds!!!!This is orrrsome!!!!!

http://www.freecountdowns.net/chroma.html

This is the countdown I have made up for this week. The last minute is great......

that the Dockers win and Weegirls lose....is a great weekend.
The weagles seriously look disinterested at the moment. Leigh Matthews may be right when he stated that following a big high, the players just dont have the motivation anymore.

As for the Dockers, despite the mistruths the media come up with, they continue to unearth some good young talent. Brock O'Brien was great, Chris Mayne and Ibbotson continue to impress...and even Schammer suprised. Lets hope Warnock does stay, and we have the basis for a time of rebuilding.

Third Sunday in....and it feels great.
Good crowd in....childrens ministry was smoother...and we had some visitors as well.

The sum of both churches merged is actually greater than what could have been expected. What I mean is that we have attracted a number of people who previously came to the church. This is something we did not expect...and means we have had to rethink seating and stage set up. But I think this week we did better.

As we look to the official launch in September, and the pre service marketing, we are going to have to be on the ball even more.

But this week just gone...I really am glad to sense that I felt, at least, that my preaching hit the spot as God revealed some deep truths....at least I hope it did. It certainly felt that way.

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.....

I am pretty blessed. Our church has an excellent producer of web sites......crisp, clean, contemporary...

here is what the front page will look somewhat like...it also links to the splash page which lets you know about the new church.

http://www.bedfordbaptist.org.au/

(The url will not be Bedford Baptist...that church has goneski...but it links there at the moment for those who have not yet caught the news!)

It does not matter what style of church you inhabit, how we organise the environment says so much about us.
Be that from the spectatular job Hillsong do of organising their stage, to the rooms Andrew Jones organises for his emerging groups.....how a place makes us feel, what is either aids or hinders us in our worship of God is something we think of .
Of course there is no one better at this than God...from beautiful mountain tops looking over the ocean, to the detailed instructions He gives to Moses and Solomon regarding the temple.....

Here are some thoughts I have as we prepare to meet for the first time in our temporary facilities...

For us, we need to create anticipation and a positive group climate from day one.

1. We will use countdowns (pre service) and encourage people to be at church early
2. We will always have music playing pre service of some description as people walk into the room. Whether this is the worship team playing or cd music or a Christian music video as people walk in.
3. the way we present the stage is important. What I am thinking is that we will eventually have a stage with props, thematic devices....everything pointing people to Jesus, and our theme for the month.


A lot of Seths suggestions are spot on, and things we should be thinking about as we grow.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/how-to-organize.html

I am so looking forward to this Sunday!!

Dont know what it is at the moment, but I seemed to have gotten the last few coffees just right....Nice nutty taste, smooth good aerated milk, right temperature...mmmmm
Brownes Full Cream Milk, Five Senses 24/7 blend.

Aaaaah..its an old art, and one worth learning. Most Wednesdays I cook for the family, and it is normally a roast. No roast worth its salt, particularly one served on a cold wet Perth night, is complete without Yorkshire Puddings. An old favourite, well worth the extra effort.
Cooking Tip: In order to get them just right, make sure mixture is left to stand for a few minutes

in the bowl. Then, oil your muffin tray (generously) and put it into a hot oven to pre-heat it. Then pour the mixture in......mmmmmm....

This is the other major video I made up for our last service at Bedford....
It basically tells some of the story from our last 60 years or so...
Who knows the song I used?

For those who live under a rock....

www.sermonspice.com is probably the most well known Christian multi media site.
A lot of their videos are pretty pricey when compared to others around, and also I find a number of them quite 'US' Centric. But there are some gems worth looking for, particularly because they have the biggest range.

This is a video I made up for our last service at Bedford. It includes a blessing and interview with two ladies who can no longer come to church, but wanted to share the time with the church, Billy Weir and Sandra Hart.