I thought I’d share this. I was voted in as ministry leader for mission / evangelism at the annual general meeting of Pendle Hill Baptist Church earlier today. Unanimously apparently. I have been leading the mission / evangelism task force in an unofficial capacity since its (re)formation a few months ago. Now its official. This deeper local involvement is in line with my slow but sure shift from parachurch ministry to church ministry over the last year or so. Through the mission team we’re working to raise the missional temperature of the entire church and to help every ministry operate more missionally, beginning with the children’s ministry through which we have greatest contact with our community. I’d appreciate prayer for a positive impact moving forward into next year. Actually I’d appreciate it for Christmas too, as how missionally we approach the Christmas celebrations is the current thing we’re looking at.
Great to see your gifts recognised in this way. May God bless and keep you.
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Thanks Sally
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Hey Matt,
Good work brother…I pray it goes well for you and the folks at PHBC.
Jeff
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Blessings, Matt, on this new “official” venture. I will keep this in prayer, and especially for this Christmas season — which is rapidly coming upon us. May “advent” be a doubly appropriate word…. ;^)
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Onya, Matt! Sounds like a venture in which you and your family can be happily involved! You got me really thinking about the Christmas thing… It’s always a time of year that presents a great opportunity to share food – Maybe you could have a “trade fair/fare” (facilitate a project/event that involves PHBC people going out to the community and/or inviting people to come to you – doesn’t have to be a huge production, coz there’s no time really left to organise that this year anyway) … people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds (kids and parents)could be invited to bring some “sweets” native to their ethnic background and trade them for Christmas fare treats from PHBC (kids and parents) and share the recipes and any traditions that come with the food. (eg. English tradition of Christmas puddings with 5c pieces – dunno where that comes from or what that means coz I’m not Anglo, but somebody surely does)… and tie that in with various aspects of the original Christmas story… Maybe even have a live cooking demo of something relatively quick and easy to prepare… This is beginning to sound quite ADVENTurous, now! It’s OK, I had a strong Cappucino yesterday afternoon and the stimulating effects are still with me… come to think of it, you might be able to do some Christmas beverages, too… 🙂
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unanimous, plus one in absentia (being in the US, I don’t count, but I can count)!
well done, fellow Abberian.
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The biggest event for Christmas is carols by candlelight in the local park, which, for our overseas friends, is an Aussie tradition that nominal Christians and non Christians will happily attend. In previous years we’ve had plenty of Hindus and Muslims come along.
We run it as combined churches thing with Pendle Hill Baptist Church, Stepping Stone community (Churches of Christ) and the local Arabic Christian fellowship. Its heavily multicultural and we serve vegetarian and halal sausages on a traditional Aussie BBQ. We’ve actually had Muslims donate food to the event in the past, which shows you what sort of groundwork has already been laid.
But there is plenty of scope to make this even more missional and there are many other things we do which aren’t so missional at all.
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Love the sound of your mulitcultural Candles by Candlelight. The boundaries of “table fellowship” are obviously expanding… but not the waistlines with all that healthy food on offer!
We are probably going to 2 C by C events already this year, but please let us know the date, time, place etc in case we can make it 🙂
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The carols by candlelight will be in Civic Park, Pendle Hill on 21 December 2008. If you’re coming drop me a line and you can meet us at our place before we head down.
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Actually, speaking of trade fairs, this market night was an event one of the other members of the mission team helped organise last month.
http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/c-Events-events-gigs-nightlife-Christmas-Market-Friday-7th-November-Pendle-Hill-W0QQAdIdZ85300355
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