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Midweek News
This Sunday
AM: “Many people, writers, newspapers, have made comment on the current state of the world. Wars in the middle east, natural disasters, they all seem to point to the fact that something is not right. One of the things that the Bible tells us about such events, is that they serve as a reminder that Jesus Christ is coming back, and we as churches and individuals must be vigilant in being prepared for that event. When Paul writes to the Thessalonian church, he writes to a church that were experiencing persecution, another sign of the coming of Christ. But he speaks very positively about them and holds them up as a model for others to imitate. So this Sunday AM, we being a series in this book, looking at what a church in the last days should look like. Read ahead in 2 Thessalonians 1.”
PM: Profession of Faith. We’ll celebrate with Dave Mooney, Theresa Moormann, Sasha Garner, Lauren Woods, Erin Groenenboom and James Augustakis as they declare their love for the Jesus and their desire to follow him. For the trivia buffs: try and work out who the first missionary was in the NT, and check out that person’s qualifications…
Discovery Service last week…
We’ve been quite encouraged with the feedback that has come from last Sunday morning’s service. For those who might not be too sure of what a discovery service is, it’s a special service concentrating on evangelistic themes, and one which is specifically intended for you to bring friends and family who may not know Jesus. Specifically, last Sunday’s service has a number of positive outcomes, including a couple of people originally from Burma, who came along because 1) they had seen the car wash sign the week before, 2) they had decided to ask someone about this, and dropped into the church on Tuesday to see if there was someone there who knew something about Burma… 3) Guess who was in the office? Eddie Bos! [God's timing, eh!]. Many people commented on how well the program flowed together and concluded with a strong testimony to the compassion of God as seen in Jesus’ cross and resurrection.
There are some other Discovery Services planned for the remainder of the year. Perhaps you can mark your diary now, and make plans to invite friends and family along:
• Sep 17: “What if…” What if Christians are wrong? What if there is no God? Is that really the sort of world anyone would want? This would be a great event for people who may think that Christianity is irrelevant today.
• Nov 12: “Would Jesus go to Schoolies?” We fear for young people during schoolies week – what might Jesus have done? Would he hit the coast? How can parents and their schoolie children deal with this stuff?
We’ll have promotional material ready well before the event. Let’s pray that God will use these times for maximum impact in people’s lives. Please also add these events to your prayer diary.
Would you like to be involved in the next services?
We’ll need
• Drama people
• Extra greeters
• All sorts of things – send us an email and tell us what you’d like to do dave@redlandscrc.org.au
Study Tour commences this week
Next week Dave, Frank & Chris Hemelaar, Todd & Wendy Hammond will travel to the US. They will be away for two weeks. While they are gone they hope to visit
• Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York city. Redeemer is world renowned for its Center for Church Planting. Over the years Redeemer have developed a total church planting ethos, and have planted numerous churches in New York and beyond. We have arranged appointments with their Church Planting associate director, representatives of the fantastic urban mission, (Hope For New York), and leaders of their mums ministries (Wendy will meet with them). You can find out about Redeemer at www.redeemer.com – check out the inspirational online video about Hope for New York, and you’ll see why we are excited about Redeemer
• Willow Creek Leaders Summit: designed to extend leaders and broaden vision for responsible leader development at the local level. The team will be met in Chicago by Cor & Ingeborg de Ruysscher, and Eddie & Melissa Bos for the duration of the Summit
• Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, where John Ortberg is teaching pastor. You can download great sermons from this site: www.mppcfamily.org
• City Church San Francisco – another church with a strong church planting emphasis. We will meet with their Senior Pastor, hoping to learn some lessons (from City Church and Redeemer NY in particular) about the type of church planting ethos we intend to develop here. www.citychurchsf.org
• Kevin Adams from Granite Springs CRC in California. Kevin has helped raise the profile of church planting in the CRC in the US, and some may remember his encouraging month of devotions in a recent “Today” booklet. These meetings can’t be confirmed until the last minute, as Dr Adams is on Sabbatical until about the day before we leave. Hopefully it can all happen.
Please keep the team in your prayers, asking especially that what we learn can be a great encouragement to the work and mission of Redlands CRC.
Chill Out Progressive Dinner - Can you help?
On August 11th (Friday Night) the Senior Youth are hoping to hold a progressive dinner.
We are seeking 2 homes/families to open their hearts to provide dinner for the youth. (Or 4 if interest is high, split the group in two).There would be one course per house (entree or main - dessert is at church), and 10-15 youth eating at a time (2 'shifts' perhaps).Food costs will be reimbursed, servant-hearted pre-preparation is available on request.The youth will be driven to each destination, houses in the Cleveland-Birkdale area are preferrable.
If you can help in any way (by volunteering as a servant-hearted pre-preparation helper or opening your house) please let Bonnie know as soon as possible on 0401 526 442 or email her at funky_foreva@hotmail.com
God Bless :)