The Committee of Management (CoM) for 2024 kicked off last Wednesday night. It was a real joy to welcome two new, humble and hungry [1] members to the team. They posed refreshing questions and asked questions of clarification. I even heard they are willing to come back again (so we didn’t scare them off)!

I am loving the culture of our CoM. We have now shared some really challenging seasons together through the pandemic and flood. I sense the level of trust has grown through these trials and that is the commodity desperately needed to forge teams together and help to achieve goals in partnership with each other. Christian adult educationalists Karen and Rod Morris [2] suggest a group often experiences a ‘forming, norming, storming, performing’ pathway – I really sense we are now performing together.

Don’t get me wrong there are real challenges ahead, but with the commitment and cohesion of our CoM team and their competence, I believe we can reach the goals and challenges before us.

Stay tuned for the CoM Term 1 ministry reflection (which will be sent at the start of Term 2) as I’ll aim to outline some of the goals and challenges before us.

To finish, can I encourage you to scan the final chapter of Romans (Romans 16) to see how many fellow workers [3] the apostle Paul thanks the Lord for. I thank the Lord for our CoM and their eagerness, loyalty, hard work, and joy-driven service. Let me sign off with the closing verses of Romans 16…
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith – 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

SP

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[1] Craig Hamilton uses this language in recruiting to teams, from his book from Matthias Media called Wisdom in Leadership.
[2] They have an excellent resource through Sydney Anglican Youthworks publisher called Leading Better Bible Studies.
[3] From a quick count, I counted 27 people that the apostle named!

We find ourselves faced with another venue change [1] for our Sunday gatherings. So, what will that
mean as we look forward?

But firstly let me pause and look back…

I wish to apologise to the Ritchie family for any grief I may have caused to them through my comment on Sunday in the Bible talk. It is true that Ritchie has taken six weeks of leave after a harrowing season of health challenges for his extended family. He wants to be proximate to them at this perplexing time. There are other issues at play as well which have meant his capacity has been affected. However, if you have questions about his leave, please send an email to Leadership Team (rather than directly to Ritchie or the family.)

Regarding our future meeting space, it is a difficult area to speak into. At this point we have no concrete information from LHS regarding the length of time required for repairs to the main hall. Obviously, it was as unexpected for the school it was for us. The executive staff at the school have been courteous and thoughtful as our SCPC staff team also tried to pivot towards a solution for last Sunday’s gatherings. Please can I encourage us towards the fruit the spirit during this unsettling time – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. [2] Our executive staff team, along with LHS executive, will aim to keep you informed as further information becomes available. Nonetheless, I imagine we could have a lengthy absence from the hall.

Finally, I firmly believe our Father God in his extravagant grace has “got this!” [3] Sure, it would not be my pick to do our popular Easter services in the MPU! However, please pray that God is somehow preparing something through the coming weekend, and that through the Spirit’s ministry of conviction some human hearts would be deeply moved and that they might find hope in the midst of chaos!!!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 1 Peter 1:3-4

SP

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[1] As Southern Cross between Goonellabah and East Lismore we have become a nomadic people, using 5-10 different meeting spaces for our Sunday gatherings since March 2020!
[2] Galatians 5:22-23
[3] I remember the ute commercial that made this claim!

Last weekend was the Northern Rivers Youth Convention [1] at Lennox Head. It was a little lighter on than expected, but still, big things happened! (What an exciting age and stage to have godly Christian leaders investing in the Next Generation of our district).

A very cool story from the weekend was a young teenage girl from Byron Shire who has been on the edges of the life of a local church family. Yet, as the weekend progressed, her year leader posed a question to the group about where they were: ‘10 out of 10’ in with Jesus OR way back at ‘1 out of 10’. She scored super high! This simple little task revealed that this young woman’s heart is being drawn to Jesus. Her local leader was shocked and didn’t realise she was sooooo keen. Please commit this young life to prayer.

Again, SCPC has had a massive role in the weekend. Cam was absolutely the engine room, ably supported by Sarah, Luka, Henk and some of our other great youth leaders. We also had cameos from our music team helping out over the weekend, along with Susan and I operating as Camp Mentors, [2] where we were aspiring to create a ‘non-anxious presence’ [3] without, cramping the style of our youth from SCPC!!

Weekends like this remind me and other regional leaders of the impact SCPC has not only had in Lismore, but across our region. It is likely 70% of the event was fuelled by SCPC. If this makes your heart skip a beat like it does mine, can I encourage you to keep giving generously to our general account. Your generosity feeds into initiatives like this, as all our ministry efforts come from the same giving. Giving to our general account keeps our heartbeat strong in next generation ministries. We have had a very slow start to the year financially in a pressured financial season. Yet, we want to be strong in this area to position ourselves to employ a next generation pastor on the 1st of January 2025.

Finally, plans for YC25 have already begun, with serious thought being given to a possible location move to enable the convention to keep growing, particularly with community youth who don’t know the hope of Christ. So please pray for wisdom in this space. How cool would it be if 13-18 year olds across the Northern Rivers came to see how brilliant Christ is!

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8

SP

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[1] Presbyterian Youth NSW is the administrative backer of this conference.
[2] Interestingly, I created this role and others at YC ten years ago, after adopting them from my three years of student ministry with Presbyterian Youth NSW in 2007-2009.
[3] This language is borrowed from family systems theory, that encourages leaders to stay calm even when faced with complex pastoral or physical crises.

What does it mean to grow followers of Jesus?

Good question… I remember teaching in a NSW department school where students chatted to me at lunchtime and were asking me questions about my faith. I said, “I’m a follower of Jesus” and a student piped up and said, “What does that even mean!?”

That’s where our core values help to fill out our vision statement from above so we will be drilling into them over the next three weeks in our preaching series and through our Gospel Communities in DNA.

However, a quick way to intro our core values is to think of a fountain! Yes, that’s right, a fountain! A fountain was a way that many puritan Christian leaders used to consider God’s love to the world.  God, in his abundant love, sent his son to the world. This love then spills into our hearts and so fills us that we can’t help but see that love flow into the lives of those around us.

Interestingly, this is very Johannine (a nerdy word for the theological reflections of John, one of Jesus’s
disciples.)  Do you know the passage from 1 John 4 in explaining Gods love – not that we loved God, but he loved us (you can read it more closely in 1 John 4:8-12). Then, famously in John 13, as Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, he makes the profound statement that by followers’ of Jesus love for each other, the world will know that we are his disciples.

Finally, even more famously, in John 3:16 it reveals God’s great love for the world, by giving the world his son, so they might come and find life. This fountain feeds our core values. We experience the deep love of God in our life (Growing in love for God: Worship). This love fills our lives, as we love our Christian brothers and sisters (Growing love for each other Community). Then finally we invite an unbelieving world to see this love in action through our community (Growing in love for the world Mission).

Now I could imagine you might think what if other people, different to the disciple John, saw things differently? Ah, that’s the beauty of the tapestry of the Bible! So many beautiful strands weaving through God’s word, expressing the same story. You will see that in the amount of passages that are included in the Core Values DNA studies for the series – there are lots! Even, this weekend as we begin the series in Growing love for God: Worship, we will not be in John’s gospel (or any of his letters). In fact, we will start in the whole book of Colossians as Ritchie kick starts the series.

We are super excited about this series and hope to see our church family get on board, as we seek to grow followers of Jesus by growing in our love for God (worship), growing in our love for each
other (community) and growing in our love for he world (mission).

To finish I will leave you with that amazing account of the blossoming church in Acts 2:42-47 to see if you can spot worship, community and mission. See how you go!

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47

SP