Hey Reader. I hope you’re not as dozy reading this as when I wrote it. But then I’m only dozy because I just woke up from an afternoon nap. I’m a big fan of the Spanish Siesta and I figure the only way I can introduce it to Australia is by modelling it. Hopefully by the time I start working at church they’ll all have caught on. Jokes.
Anyway, enough of the silliness, and onto real stuff. I’ve now got an official start date for when I start at church, Wednesday the 27th of January which is very exciting. Almost two weeks have passed since my information night which went very well. My thanks go to everyone who came. The three new interns for next year, myself included, were all interviewed by our trainers about what we’ll be doing next year. It was encouraging to have friends and family there to support me. I’ve also started calling people to ask if they’ll consider financially supporting me next year, and this has also been encouraging to see that people are really willing to support me in this. So you’ll probably get a call as well sometime in the next month.
One of the good things in my life at the moment is the fact that I’m starting to get ready to help lead on the year 9 and 10 team at Summer School. It’s great because we’ll be doing 1 Timothy and it’s been really good to go through that again because it’s so focused on how God wants us to work in churches. Also great has been the preparation for ImpacKt and looking at Revelation. I’m really excited to be on both those camps and just see how the Lord works.
The other exciting thing in the last couple of weeks has been my rediscovery of one of my favourite Bible chapters. I read through the Bible from beginning to end and occasionally come across something that really strikes me. Then I forget the reference after about a month and it turns into Atlantis. But last week I found it again, it’s Ezekial chapter 16, It’s this incredibly powerful portrayal of Israel as this little girl God raises up, who turns into a beautiful woman, who then prostitutes herself out in the worst way, paying others to use her. She is so bad that she makes Sodom look good in comparison. Then at the end of the chapter God says that he will make atonement for Israel’s sin so that he can keep his covenant with her. This picture of Israel really reminds me of how much I turn away from God, but that he still made atonement for me. God is totally amazing.
Prayer Stuff: That I would keep on being in the Word and spending time with God. That I will be humble as I prepare myself for next year. Also prayer for raising money would be great. Praise God that I’ve raised 42 percent for the next couple of years but also pray that I’ll continue to be bold in asking people if they’ll support me.
Have a great week.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
What's been going on...
Hey to the three people who read this! Here’s new blog. A little late admittedly, but that’s because I’ve decided to post every two weeks. This was on the advice of a good friend, who suggested that this would probably improve the quality and save me time and stress. Not sure about the quality (hopefully) but the time and stress should be good. I do promise that I will update roughly every fortnight though, and if I learn anything super helpful I’ll update sooner than that.
Anyway, nothing much exciting happened in the last couple of weeks anyway. I did go to a pool party, but I’m not sure that that’s what this blog is about. Although I do like a good bbq. On a more serious note, I started putting my application for Bible College together, and that should get sent off this week. I realised that I’m getting quite excited about Bible College, especially the fact that it’s going to really open up God’s Word to me. I’m looking forward to learning more about the context, the author’s backgrounds and, even, hopefully come out with an understanding, however vague of Ezekiel.
I’m also looking forward to the Intern support raising night on Wednesday (it’s at 7:45 pm, St. Paul’s Castle Hill), where I’ll get to share about why I feel that ministry is where God is calling me and what I’ll be doing over the next couple of years. One of the things that I’ll be discussing I guess is how you guys can support me. Prayer is definitely important, especially that I really listen and pay attention to what God would have me do. Also, and this is very important, that I would never be too busy doing ministry to be doing ministry. By this, I just mean that I’ll never put off a friend or something important, because I’m working in the church office or because I’m too tired from college. Relationships are really what God uses to bring people to Him, and I just never want to be so busy doing “ministry work” that I fail to see the people around me.
The other way to support is financial. I’ll be looking at raising 20,800 dollars for the next two years, so 200 dollars a week. This should just about keep me in petrol, college books, and camps. It doesn’t sound like much but since my parents are being very generous and allowing me to live at home for another two years, it should work out. If you feel that God is leading you to support me financially that’d be really cool, and I’ll certainly appreciate it. Please, however, pray about giving to me, because while God wants us to support ministry He may have some other ministry that He is really calling you to encourage financially. Yeah, so that’s about the next week for me, and as a final plug if you can please come along on Wednesday night!
As always, questions, comments and any feedback really can be sent to me at timlearningtoserve@gmail.com.
Anyway, nothing much exciting happened in the last couple of weeks anyway. I did go to a pool party, but I’m not sure that that’s what this blog is about. Although I do like a good bbq. On a more serious note, I started putting my application for Bible College together, and that should get sent off this week. I realised that I’m getting quite excited about Bible College, especially the fact that it’s going to really open up God’s Word to me. I’m looking forward to learning more about the context, the author’s backgrounds and, even, hopefully come out with an understanding, however vague of Ezekiel.
I’m also looking forward to the Intern support raising night on Wednesday (it’s at 7:45 pm, St. Paul’s Castle Hill), where I’ll get to share about why I feel that ministry is where God is calling me and what I’ll be doing over the next couple of years. One of the things that I’ll be discussing I guess is how you guys can support me. Prayer is definitely important, especially that I really listen and pay attention to what God would have me do. Also, and this is very important, that I would never be too busy doing ministry to be doing ministry. By this, I just mean that I’ll never put off a friend or something important, because I’m working in the church office or because I’m too tired from college. Relationships are really what God uses to bring people to Him, and I just never want to be so busy doing “ministry work” that I fail to see the people around me.
The other way to support is financial. I’ll be looking at raising 20,800 dollars for the next two years, so 200 dollars a week. This should just about keep me in petrol, college books, and camps. It doesn’t sound like much but since my parents are being very generous and allowing me to live at home for another two years, it should work out. If you feel that God is leading you to support me financially that’d be really cool, and I’ll certainly appreciate it. Please, however, pray about giving to me, because while God wants us to support ministry He may have some other ministry that He is really calling you to encourage financially. Yeah, so that’s about the next week for me, and as a final plug if you can please come along on Wednesday night!
As always, questions, comments and any feedback really can be sent to me at timlearningtoserve@gmail.com.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Theory...
So today I thought I'd write about what my concept of ministry is, and then halfway through my internship/mts and at the end of the mts come back and see if my ideas about ministry had changed. They may not! Who knows? I guess God would be the answer to that!
First of all I probably need to be clear about what I mean when I say ministry. Because clearly all Christians are called to full time service of Jesus, whether this happens to be in their job as a techie, or as a missionary, or as an economist, or in the army. Jesus never goes, “some of you can serve me full time in the church and some of you can serve me whenever it fits in with your life,” rather he commissions all of us to go and make disciples of all the nations (Mttw 28:19). So ministry is not restricted to people who are paid to work in a church. The model we are presented with is one body, many parts, where everyone is equal in the eyes of God, but not where everyone has an identical role (1 Cor. 12:12-31). Having said all this, however, generally when I refer to ministry in this blog I’m referring to the formal type where someone is paid by a church.
Phew. Now that’s all cleared up…Here’s what I think ministry entails. I see ministers, youth pastors and really anyone who works in a church as an enabler. Their job is not to do all the work but to equip, encourage and teach the body of Christ, the church. The church’s role is then to go out in the community and fulfill the great commission, and also Jesus’ call to feed the poor, look after the sick and visit prisoners. Not that church workers are exempt from doing any or all of those things. Of course not. It’s simply a matter of numbers really. No church leadership team, even big ones, can efficiently reach into their local communities that number many thousands. But a congregation that lives and works in that community can reach their neighbors, friends and colleagues much more effectively than a few pastors can. Which is why I see the leadership team being called to equip the other members of the body.
Too often, at least in my experience, it seems that our churches aren’t functioning this way, that instead of the congregation being equipped to minister to the community, it’s about the congregation equipping the ministers to reach out to community. It’s a backward and top heavy view of the body of Christ. Rather than the body working as a unit, the body just carries the head around so that it can do all the work, and the arms, legs, feet and hands (spleen too!) are neglected. I hope that made sense. So essentially I guess over the next few years I want to learn how to be a youth pastor who enables and equips the people I work with to reach out to their friends and neighbors.
Things to pray for this week:
: that I remember that I’m a clay jar and it’s God in me doing His work.
: that I continuously seek to be a servant of God
: that I raise the money needed for next year
Also apparently there was a problem with commenting, but anyone should be able to now. If you want to ask something (like how to support me!) or just something you don’t want to leave as a comment: timlearningtoserve@gmail.com.
God Bless.
First of all I probably need to be clear about what I mean when I say ministry. Because clearly all Christians are called to full time service of Jesus, whether this happens to be in their job as a techie, or as a missionary, or as an economist, or in the army. Jesus never goes, “some of you can serve me full time in the church and some of you can serve me whenever it fits in with your life,” rather he commissions all of us to go and make disciples of all the nations (Mttw 28:19). So ministry is not restricted to people who are paid to work in a church. The model we are presented with is one body, many parts, where everyone is equal in the eyes of God, but not where everyone has an identical role (1 Cor. 12:12-31). Having said all this, however, generally when I refer to ministry in this blog I’m referring to the formal type where someone is paid by a church.
Phew. Now that’s all cleared up…Here’s what I think ministry entails. I see ministers, youth pastors and really anyone who works in a church as an enabler. Their job is not to do all the work but to equip, encourage and teach the body of Christ, the church. The church’s role is then to go out in the community and fulfill the great commission, and also Jesus’ call to feed the poor, look after the sick and visit prisoners. Not that church workers are exempt from doing any or all of those things. Of course not. It’s simply a matter of numbers really. No church leadership team, even big ones, can efficiently reach into their local communities that number many thousands. But a congregation that lives and works in that community can reach their neighbors, friends and colleagues much more effectively than a few pastors can. Which is why I see the leadership team being called to equip the other members of the body.
Too often, at least in my experience, it seems that our churches aren’t functioning this way, that instead of the congregation being equipped to minister to the community, it’s about the congregation equipping the ministers to reach out to community. It’s a backward and top heavy view of the body of Christ. Rather than the body working as a unit, the body just carries the head around so that it can do all the work, and the arms, legs, feet and hands (spleen too!) are neglected. I hope that made sense. So essentially I guess over the next few years I want to learn how to be a youth pastor who enables and equips the people I work with to reach out to their friends and neighbors.
Things to pray for this week:
: that I remember that I’m a clay jar and it’s God in me doing His work.
: that I continuously seek to be a servant of God
: that I raise the money needed for next year
Also apparently there was a problem with commenting, but anyone should be able to now. If you want to ask something (like how to support me!) or just something you don’t want to leave as a comment: timlearningtoserve@gmail.com.
God Bless.
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