Welcome to The Pastors’ Pen – an update for life at Southern Cross…
Vision Sunday is on this weekend! Only a few more sleeps! Vision Sunday is a deliberate moment to stop in the flurry of life and refocus our commitment to our heartbeat in the city of Lovemore which is…
Growing followers of Jesus! By growing love for God, each other and the world!!!
Due to our preliminary information meeting this Sunday your Vision Sunday might look a little different. In the past I know our Gospel Community has enjoyed lunch together at someone’s place (preferably by the pool!) to spend a bit of downtime reflecting on the vision put before us earlier that day. So it is somewhat reluctantly that we do our information session this Sunday to prepare us for next week’s congregational meeting on December 4.
We are very excited about the prospect of calling James, and as noted last year at Vision Sunday our plan would have been to have achieved this process a little earlier in Term 4. However, and completely understandably, the Term 3 pre-planning goals of LT and CoM towards the induction of James were not able to be achieved as a three-year financial budget stalled (this budget was to be drawn up ready for Northern Rivers Presbytery [NRP] and Ministry and Mission NSW to endorse it). But praise be to our Father God for the incredible, even miraculous, turn-around for our finances at SCPC across Term 3, 2022! You should ask our treasurers this Sunday for the actual figures. They are remarkable!
Therefore, it is with confidence that we go into the congregational meeting on December 4, now being in a position to present Ministry and Mission with a three-year financial budget that they, along with the commission of the NRP, can comfortability sign off on. It is worth noting, our CoM will continue to work through 2023 ensuring our giving trends remain in line with the recruitment of a Pastor from Jan 1st 2024.
Vision Sunday is a considered time in the life of our church family, and the fruit of hours and hours of carefully weighed reflections from our Leadership Team. We pray that as you come away from another Sunday at SCPC this weekend, you will he be heartily encouraged to serve the Lord Jesus and not lose heart.
Let me finish with a teaser from Vision Sunday’s passage:
Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Corinthians 4:1
Stew on behalf of LT
P.S. Again here are the motions for Dec 4:
- A motion to insert the Rev James Ritchie into the vacancy at SCPC.
- A second motion to endorse the financials for Cameron Bryant’s ministry Apprenticeship in 2023-2024.
