Category Archives: church in the community
THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO END!
THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO END in 2012! Believe me! The Bible is clear on how the world will end. Have a Happy New Year.
Today I have been on my desk all day thinking, planning, praying and looking at the calendar. From the beginning of last year we declared 2011 the year of ‘Faith at another level’. After 12 months I can honestly say that it was definitely a ‘faith stretching’ year.
God enabled us to do so much. This year I’m open to more faith stretching opportunities. The need to pray is greater. Praying for wisdom and understanding. Praying for God’s favor.
10 Years: 2012 will be our 10th year pastoring LifeChurch. I can’t believe we are still here. Ane and I have learned so much right from day 1 and we are still learning how to lead. Some of the kids that were in our Sunday School back then are now our church leaders. Exciting times and greater things are ahead of us. We are blessed to have a great team of leaders and volunteers at LifeChurch who are so passionate about God and the Vision of the House.
I believe the best days of leading and pastoring are ahead of us.
New Church Building We have bought a place in Manurewa. We will move into our new church home this year. Renovations will commence soon. Our new church home is right next to the town centre next to the red light street of Manurewa. Homeless people sleep on the front steps. A strategic location! We see a church that is open 24/7 not just Sundays.
New Frontiers: This year we will sending missionaries to India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The message of the Gospel must reach the ends of the earth.
International Partnership: Once again we will be hosting and partnering with some international ministries in the Great Commission. More on this later.
Servolution: This year Servolution is spreading to cities and towns outside of Auckland. We were so blessed to work with 48 different churches and denomination right across Auckland in 2011. This year, more churches are coming on aboard to serve and share the love of Christ in our communities through simple acts of kindness. Mark your calendar and get involved 23-25 March. Email: info@servolution.co.nz
Please pray and partner with us to reach Manurewa, South Auckland and the World with the simple message of Hope through Christ.
Inconvenienced Me by Pastor Julia
Yesterday I posted “Think away from the Box Church”.
Here’s my friend Pastor Julia Amosa’s response and excellent comment on practical ways we can all do to reach people.
Inconvenienced Me,
I have make a well calculated choice to start with ME.. Making friends with my neighbours one person at one time, share a brief faith hope love story with the person and invite him/her to church..this is friendship evangelism…then Christ comes easy to them, then all else make sense to them as far as the Kingdom of God is concern. Free of charge…
On my way to town, I stop at the bus stop at the corner, I pick up one person at one time and drop him or her to the train station or bus stop, the same thing, another friendship evangelism.
While shopping at the mall, I stop for a moment to help someone, sometimes I purposedly sit on a seat, someone always sit next to me and talk to me, another opportunity, By the end of the month wow wow wow. I figure out if 100 people in each church do this in a year most likely thousands will come to Christ…
Some have gone and visit churches on their own…
Thinking Away from the Box Church
Last weekend i had the privilege of speaking at the i3 Conference hosted by our friends Pastor Chris and Seira Sola who pastor a fantastic church -The Dream Centre in our city.
I came away thinking more about ways for the church to stay current and be relevant in our communities!
In my presentation I challenged people to ‘think away from the box’ rather than outside the box.
Here are some questions I ponder over and over again and i encourage all church leaders who want to influence their community to consider. Spend sometime to think away from the box and see what solutions you come up with? Hope you can share them.
1. How can the church be effectively relevant to the community it serves?
2. What are we doing as a church that we need to stop doing?
3. What are the problems of my community and how can we the church be the solution?
4. What innovative ideas that the church can use to reach people that are cost effective with high impact?
5. Do people get inspired on Sundays when they come to our church services?
6. How intentional are we as a church in the Great Commission? What’s our strategy?
7. How intentional are we as a church in discipleship? Is there a definite discipleship pathway for new believers?
8. What is the one main thing we believe God has called our church to do?
9. If you were asked to reach your community without any financial resources, what would you do different?
10. Define Boring?
Resurrection Sunday
Today millions of Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Christ from the grave 2000 years ago. The power of the Resurrection is still changing many lives today. 25 years ago it impacted my life that I decided to follow Christ at the age of 17. (its OK ..you can do the Math).
My desire is for others to experience the same power in their lives.
- Party in the House!! Its Resurrection Day! This is the Day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.!!!
- Young people!! You bring are lot of joy and freshness to Sunday Morning worship. Keep working on those moves!!!
- Great to meet so many new faces today at church. I love chatting with new people, especially those who have never been to church before. Love their perspective on church.
- Today at LifeChurch in both morning Services people made decisions to follow Christ. Excited to see first time guests receiving Christ.
- Tears: the language only God understands!!
- The Bread and Clothing ministry are tools to bring people to Christ.
- Prayed for new Christians, prayed for deliverance. Shutting the doors the enemy is using to bring people down!
- Spoke on The Difference Easter makes in our lives. Forgiveness, Power of Resurrection, Eternal Assurance.
- Pastor Julia Amosa spoke briefly. A great encourager who always has a word in season.
- Noticed so many kids today in church! They can’t keep still!!
- Quote of the Day: ‘This Church is not full of hypocrites! There is always room for more”. - Rom 3:10 ‘There is no one righteous’. I want to do a sign for LifeChurch on the road.
Don’t Go to Church this Sunday!
Whether it’s been days or decades since you’ve been to church, you can still come BE the church with us this weekend.
LifeChurch Manurewa is cancelling our regular weekend services in order to go make a difference in our community. We invite you to come serve with us. It won’t be glamorous, in fact it’s probably going to be hard work, but we think this is what church ought to look like. Come be the difference.
We will be serving the Randwick Park Community Manurewa this weekend. Meet at Randwick Park Primary School 8:00am on Sunday. After work FREE lunch will be served. Servolution Concert Kicks off at 1:00pm. Bring the Children.
For more information contact our office:
Love to see you there!
Photo: paulwilkinson.wordpress.com
7 Days of Servolution 2011
I’m excited to be part of Servolution 2011. About 50 Churches across Auckland New Zealand from different denominations are coming together with one purpose “To share the love of God through simple acts of Kindness”.
Close to 2000 volunteers are expected to be part of Servolution this year. Its not too late to join the rest of volunteers who believe in giving back to the community. To be part of Servolution in your area click here.
Called to the Ministry?
We are a month away from Servolution and there is a huge buzz right now not only in Auckland but Sydney and Brisbane as well. Thank you to all the pastors and the churches who are partnering together to share the love of Christ through simple acts of kindness.
This morning I was meditating on the fact that we are ALL called to the Ministry. To Serve People and to Share Christ. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment. ‘Ministry’ is not a special career for the clergy. It is a calling for all those who follow Jesus Christ. We are all called to minister not just the paid clergy.
Someone asked me the other day “when did you accept the call to the ministry”. I did say 9 years ago. But thinking about what I said back then, was wrong. I accepted the call to minister the day I gave my heart to Christ, which was the day I decided to follow him, 25 years ago.
‘Minister’ is not title, nor a position. It is a function. (my conviction)
Ministry is what ALL Christ followers do. There should be no ‘professional ministers’ in the Body of Christ. some are called specifically to equip he ministers (Eph 4), that does not make them professionals. If people are not ministering under their equipping ministry then they are not doing the ministry of equipping.
As a pastor I need to be careful not to act, talk and preach in such a way that sends a wrong message that I’m the “Super Pastor”, who is ever present in time of trouble, always counseling, always praying for people, making every decision, etc…….. ( try to do those every now and then).
Jesus trained the 12 to minister and then sent them. He did the same with the 70.
So are you called to the ministry? If you say you are a follower of Christ then know this……YOU ARE CALLED?
No one is going to ordain you to witness and share the love of Christ. You are called to the office, the factory, the school ….etc……where you work!!! you are called to the sports club that you are part of, you are called to the business and the clients you are part of……..
Thank you for obeying the call of Christ, to serve, to feed, to care, to love, clothe, to visit, to pray, to comfort…. ………
In Servolution Language; thank you for washing cars, giving out water bottles, mow lawns, giving out flowers, renovate schools, giving out food parcels, weeding gardens, baking cakes, picking up rubbish, painting out grafitti, etc………..
At LifeChurch, we say, “Every member is a Minister”. My wife and I are the pastors but everyone is a minister.
Stop Being Normal!
…………following from last Sundays Sermon…………………..
You can not be a follower of Jesus and stay normal.
“When anyone is joined to Christ he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come”. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
The dead old, boring, gutless, purposeless, normal you is GONE! You are now a new person, fueled by the power of Christ in you. Someone is going to take notice of the change and say ‘Something has happended to you. You are not the same person you used to be. If your boss at work doesn’t know that you are a Christian you are probably not.
You are new person. You are now radical and willing to do whatever it takes to live for Jesus and follow him, to love God and love people. It takes guts to follow Christ. Jesus said “If you want to follow me take up your cross and come follow me”.
You can’t follow Jesus and still try to live a normal life.
Cefas was a normal, everyday fisherman. But when Jesus called Cephas to leave everything and follow him, he did and he was not the same again. First his name was changed to Simon Peter. He never went to any preaching school but when he spoke on the day of Pentecost 3000 people gave their lives to Christ. Now thats not normal for a fisherman!!
Paul was a normal Pharisee doing what normal Pharisees do. At the time he was killing new converted Christians. But when he encountered God on the Road to Damascus, he wasn’t the same again. He reached the Gentile world with the gospel.
You can’t follow Jesus and continue to live life in a normal way. You can’t love with the same normal love you loved people before you found Jesus. You can not give the same way you used to give. You can not serve the same way you used to.
People who follow Christ Are not Normal. The Bible calls them ‘Perculiar people’ – 1 Petr 2:9, because with Christ they are now people of power, people of promise, more than conquerors but most of Faith in God who can do exceedingly, abundantly and above all……..Ephesian 3:20
Normal people are ‘average’ people who do average work and produce average results. No one is inspired with ‘average’.
Tell me someone who is well known because he/she was average. Show me a monument of an average leader.
Normal people don’t inspire others
Normal people don’t make incredible leaders
Normal People don’t change the world
Normal people don’t take risks
Normal people don’t face fears
Normal people die with a lot of regrets.
Step up another level today and live above normal.
Church Atmosphere
People are attracted to great atmosphere.
Flat white taste the same in almost every café, but I go to Starbucks/Columbus/Esquires and not Gr8KofeCafe (no such place) because of the atmosphere.
Church atmosphere is so important, but is often ignored.
Almost every time I ask new visitors to our church about their first time experience at LifeChurch, most of them talk about the atmosphere of the place. Hardly anyone talks about my preaching. Now that does not help my self-esteem as a preacher but I understand what they are saying.
You walk in to a restaurant and you smell the aroma of brewed Jamaican coffee or the T-Bone steak sizzling in the kitchen, but if the carpet is dirty, chairs are old and worn, girls at reception not paying attention to you, tables not wiped and clean, you wait for 5 minutes for a waiter, he then turns up rude and unprofessional….
I have already made up my mind not to have the ‘T-Bone steak.
As a preacher it is easy to serve a T-Bone steak sermon to diners who are enjoying the atmosphere of the place. They will gladly receive it.
Atmosphere is what people see, feel and sense. Leaders need to work hard in creating and shifting atmosphere. Remember first impression lasts.
What is the atmosphere of your church on a Sunday morning?
