What a joy it was to spend a weekend with the Young Adults from SCPC recently at the Young Adults Weekend Away! All the ‘secret herbs and spices’ were in place – excellent Bible teaching from Jon Brown (from Charlestown Presbyterian), beautiful location at Brooms Head and finally a great, godly bunch of
young people from our church family.

This weekend away was the brainchild of our former senior pastor Pete Thompson – he knew how precious these young adults are and he wanted them resourced to be able to grow deep, healthy gospel- centred lives that bore fruit for the kingdom of God. This intensive weekend dislocated us from the many distractions that can engulf us and provides scope for God’s word to impact. Personally, I loved having time to be with our young adults without having to watch the clock to move to my next appointment. I am thankful they were willing to engage me and invite me into their movements (even if my approach to ‘social’ volleyball mirrored ‘Maverick and Goose’ from the first Top Gun movie from 1986)! They even put up with my alter ego ‘Magnus Du Plessis’ and my two recipes on how to ‘spice up’ Gospel Community life!

At Southern Cross, I’m desperate for us (like Pete before me) to invest in this crucial demography. I love the reflection of one of our Vision Coordinators who said “Southern Cross weekend ministries just about fell in a heap when our Young Adults were away!” so key are they to our kids and youth ministries over the weekend. What a precious jewel we have in our young adults! Have a listen to the speaker Jon reflect on his time with our Young Adults at Brooms Head:

“Although I only had the weekend to get to know the young adults at SCPC, I was very impressed. Putting aside their taste in country music, the word I’d use to describe them is ‘real’. Real faith in the Lord Jesus and a hunger for His word. A real sense of community and care for one another. And real potential when it comes to future leaders of the church. I left the camp encouraged that God is raising up a new generation of disciples to serve Him in Lismore City and beyond!“

Part of my role make up from 2023 is to provide oversight to our ministry of young adults. Something I am eager to continue to be creatively [1] involved with. However, in 2024 James and Amelia are considering a part-time MTS ministry apprenticeship. [2] If it goes ahead, part of their possible role could be to lead our Young Adults Leadership Group, under my supervision. What a privilege it is to be part of a church family that has mature, warm, gospel-centred young adults and also a church that has had a culture of raising of ministry apprentices from among their number. [3]

Would you join me in thanking our Father God for these beautiful young people in our lives? Why not invite a young adult from your Gospel Community around for dinner, feed them well, encourage them and let them inspire you from the book of Ruth and her journey from empty to full.

May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take
refuge. Ruth 2:12

SP

[1] Due to my role as chairperson of Leadership Team, Committee of Management, and staff I find I cannot perform many hands-on roles.
[2] James/Amelia and Steve T are drafting applications for MTS Australia. Applications close October 2023.
[3] Over the last 25 years around 25% of the MTS apprentices in the Presbyterian Church of NSW have come from SCPC! Please continue to pray we would continue to have a harvest (Matthew 9:35-38)!

Each year as a church we hold two Equip nights. 

These events are designed specifically for our church family. They’re intended to help establish and feed robust faith in us as individuals and in us as a community. From my perspective, ‘robust faith’ is the sort of faith that’s able to withstand the challenges that come from living in a secular world and being a fallen person, as well as being a type of faith that’s prepared to thoughtfully reach those around us with the gospel. 

The main way that we grow together in this sort of faith is through our Gospel Communities and Sunday gatherings, yet Equip nights enable us to drill down on a particular topic of relevance for us as a church family. 

In Term 1, Danny Ford visited from Sydney to speak on missional living. This term I will be speaking on the topic of doubt. It’s something we don’t talk about much, but doubt is a real challenge for many Christians (if not all of us at some point in our Christian journey).

How should we respond when we doubt? How can we help one another with this? Come along on August 22nd, 7:30pm, at Park Avenue to explore this topic more. 

Seasons come and seasons go.

It has not been an easy season over the last three and a half years has it!? The world was turned upside down with a pandemic and our city was struck to its very heart with a crippling natural disaster.

It has been somewhat of a relief to find some stability in 2023. With this restored stability, Leadership Team (LT) is interested in once again providing the opportunity to individuals, couples or families to consider a new GC home in 2024.

Historically, LT was interested in making this provision around every three years. But with all the flux of the last three years, we thought we all needed stability. 

Now, however if you or your family have found you have moved into a new stage of life, or physically moved your residence or your rhythms of daily life have changed somewhat. You may find opportunities for gospel extension could happen in a new area.  Even the combining of SCG in 2024 may see a little movement. 

If this is something you may wish to explore, reach out to your vision coordinator. From there, LT has created a flow diagram to help us interact with both gospel communities that may be affected. We are open to this movement, but we want to champion positive, direct and open communication between all parties involved. 

If there is consensus between the individual, the Vision Coordinators and LT we would aim to make allocations by Vision Sunday, Nov 26, 2023. Over the summer, parties that may be moving GC home will liaise with the new gospel community and remaining gospel community about wise ways to interact over the summer period. Then the full transition would be complete by GO Sunday Feb 4, 2024. New members would now interact with the new GC and fully participate in DNAs etc.

If you have questions about this process talk to your Vision Coordinator (they will receive updated information today) or the member of LT who oversees your Gospel Community.

² Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6

SP 

On behalf of LT 

We are super thrilled to have Peter Moore with us this weekend at Southern Cross!

Peter is what they call the ‘scholar pastor’. Not easy to find! He is scholarly (which means he thinks very deeply), he is reflective and has gone on to complete a doctorate in theology. Yes, lots and lots of words about God!

But he isn’t cold, or absent or aloof, distanced or detached from reality (too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly good). No, he is present, warm, interested and he listens.

It’s these beautiful and tremendous qualities that lead us to invite him to invest in our Vision Coordinators and apprentices this week. The role of a Vision Coordinator is not exactly scholarly but it is theological, by that I mean we want those who lead our Gospel Communities to be deeply attuned to the gospel, to understand why we need the gospel, why the gospel is the Bible’s grand hope and why we must, must must, share the gospel with our city. Yet, leading a Gospel Community is also thoroughly pastoral. Vision Coordinators serve as under-shepherds of our chief shepherd, Christ. To lead a Gospel Community is a weighty pastoral calling. Therefore, we desperately want to resource our Vision Coordinators. That’s why this training we do annually is so incredibly vital. 

Peter is a national leader in this space. He has previously been employed by Reach Australia to coach their coaches who support Australia pastors. Not to mention that, at any one time, Peter has been known to mentor over 30 pastors! It’s mind blowing. Peter is one of the most hard-working gospel leaders I know. 

Bringing a leader like Peter to Southern Cross means we should consider sharing him!

Therefore, I will chair a training afternoon for the Northern Rivers Presbytery this Saturday to help local leaders understand the life stage of their church family and what it means, under God, to grow their local church with positive, rich and biblical principles to strengthen the kingdom’s reach in the Northern Rivers. If you get a chance on Saturday afternoon, please do pray for the local churches represented at this training. 

Finally, join us on Sunday as Peter opens up God’s word for us at 9am (SCG), and 9:45am and 6pm at LHS. You too can get to see a pastor scholar in action. Peter is certainly wise and worth listening to, for in spite of his significant learning he is humble, generous and a servant who is desperate to serve his Shepherd King.

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not Lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2‭-‬3

SP