Coming Up at LifeChurch

This weekend we are celebrating two years since we launched LifeChurch in Manurewa. There is no birthday party. Instead we will be involved in a whole lot of reaching & connecting programmes

Starting this week:

Thursday & Friday

9:00am CHAMPIONS: We are taking our children’s ministry to the community. Lifekids will be running a two day school holiday programme filled with action, fun and the gospel. We will be at Randwick Park Primary School. This is a FREE event.

Saturday Morning

9:00am:  Mini Conference for ‘Church Volunteers’. A time to empower and encourage all the volunteers, people in ministry teams and leaders who serve in the house. If you are planning to come please register by calling our office 09 262 2754 or email info@lifechruch.net.nz.  Guest Speaker: Pastor Iliafi Esera.   This is a FREE event

Saturday Evening

6:30pm: The RESCUE: This is a SWITCH Event – our youth ministries.  Guest Speaker: Pastor Iliafi Esera.     This a FREE event

Sunday

9:00am: Samoan Service:  Guest Speaker: Pastor Iliafi Esera.

11:00am  English Service – Celebration Service:  Guest Speaker: Pastor Iliafi Esera.

12:30pm  Water Baptism in the Courtyard.

1:00pm   BBQ Picnic Lunch – Courtyard

2:00pm  Sports activities for the young. Our Seniors will go on a bus trip around town, trying out our new bus we just bought.

Monday – Friday

9:00am    U GOT GAME – School Holiday Programme by SWITCH in association with Manukau City Council

Global Day of Prayer this SUNDAY

What do you pray for?

Do you find yourself praying almost the same prayers over and over again?

Here are some of the things I find myself praying for almost everyday:

I pray for wisdom, vision, courage, faith, and passion.

I pray for my wife and children. (Habit: I lay hands on them while they are asleep).

I pray for our church family that each person will grow in God, find joy in serving Him, purpose in life and success in what they do and recently – Protection.

I pray for our City and particulalrly Manurewa. I pray for transformation and Salvation.

I pray for the Body of Christ and other pastors ( Habit: I pray God blessing on every church I go pass, especially in Manurewa)

I pray a lot of ‘blessing’ type prayers. (I guess it’s what most pastors are asked to do)

2 Timothy 1:3  -  I pray for you every day, and many times during the long nights I beg my God to bless you richly.

How many churches do we need?

I facilitate the ministers fraternal in our community of Manurewa and I have been talking to a lot of pastors over the last 15 months, trying to connect and build relationships and see what we can do together as the Body of Christ in Manurewa. Its been a very interesting task. Some have welcomed me and the idea of networking with open arms some are not quite keen at all. Some sat on the fence for a while and now finally decided to join us. Praise God!! Acccording to my last count there are 71 Christian Churches in our community. Next year there will be 3 more new church plants in Manurewa. Talking to one of the ministers this year he commented ‘great to have you here in Manurewa, the more the merrier’. I remember saying yes to him but now I am asking myself do we really need 71 churches in Manurewa. Is it really true theat ‘the more the merrier’. 

Some ministers may not like this but I am starting to think that if we have a lot of  churches in an area and the physical, emotional, social and spiritual condition of the community is not changed then I don’t think ‘the more the merrier’ is the right attitude. 

The church, the body of the Christ and the hands and feet of God in this world must engage in redeeming and restoring people, the community. We are saved to do Good Works. Ephesians 2:8-10.

I am excited with the relationships already established with other churches in the area, we are able to connect, pray, share ideas and support each other. Now I think we need to move to another level of engagement!! Thy Kingdom come!!!

(Image by executableoutline.com)

My Bible Reading

Judges

2:3 Disobedience has consequences. Delayed obedience is disobedience. I think procrastination is a form of disobedience. They were supposed to conquer the land and drive out the Canaanites. Because of their disobedience God said the Canaanites will be a thorn on their side and their god will be a snare to them.

2:10 Again Israel’s disobedience. The older generation failed to instruct their children in the ways of the Lord, “another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel”.

2:11 As a result, total disobedience and rebellion toward God. They did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and forsook the Lord of their fathers. We see this in today’s generation. We have a generation which is known as a ‘fatherless generation’. A generation without godly authority, role model, love, discipline, instructions, and examples at home. A very rebellious generation. A generation without God serving Baals.

2:12: They forsook God, they followed other Gods, they bowed down to them, they provoked the Lord to anger, they serve Baal and Ashtoreths. Baal was a fertility god of the Canaanites. Ashtoreths were female fertility goddess.

2:14 Should have obeyed in the first place. Everything is now in chaos and they are in big trouble because God is no longer on their side.

2:15 “………they were greatly distressed”. May be that’s the reason why we feel distressed at times. We need to check whether we are in the middle of God’s will. Obeying him. Is your marriage in distress? Is your family in distress? Is your church in distress? Your business? How about our communities? Our Government?

Obeying God and following his ways is the key to being successful and living peacefully. Have a distress Free day!

Baptism Winter Style!

Yes its spa pool time again. What a joy it is to witness obedience and desire to follow God. This time it was special. I baptised a couple together and a father and his two teenage kids as well as my own nephew. As a pastor, I feel close to Jesus during baptism services, knowing that I am right in the midst of His will and obeying his commands to go into the whole world and preach the gospel and baptise them. (Matt 28).   

A Prayer for Manurewa

This weekend LifeChurch will be on the streets of manurewa praying and distribute this prayer. If you live in South Auckland and would like to distribute this prayer in your area, please let me know and I can send you the files and printing details. You can insert at the back your church name or your own contact details.

How long o Lord!!

No doubt you have heard of all the violent crimes in Manurewa and South Auckland recently. 3 Murders in 10 Days. Early this morning there was a helicopter hovering over our house. While I am writing this (12:30pm), about 8 police cars are patrolling our neighborhood right now looking for someone. Last night an Asian lady was killed in Manukau in the car park. Last week another Asian elderly lady died after a violent burglary and of course the murder of the Liquor salesman who got most of the media’s attention last week. There were also several other armed & knifepoint robberies, brutal beatings and holdups that didn’t make it to the media.

This is a very sad time in our community. My heart is troubled, yet determined to see a community transformed by the power of God. I have been praying Habakkuk style prayers in the last few days, begging God to do something.

Habakkuk 1:2-4
2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

I still believe in the power of prayer and the God of the Impossible. He will redeem Manurewa and South Auckland. He will answer our cry.

 

A Day in Manurewa

I started today praying for the activities of the day and for Manurewa. This is how it went.

10:00am    Manurewa Ministers Network. Had a great time with the ministers discussing things of the Kingdom. We were challeneged to be true to our calling as shepherds and ministers. There was a genuine concern for the state of the Manurewa community and desire to pray and work together. Great to see new churches come on board.

12:30pm    Caught up with Pastor Chris Sola of Hosanna World Harvest Church. Recently they planted 4 churches in Auckland and run 3 Big Annual Events in Manukau: STOMP, JUNIOR STOMP AND VOICE – Choir Fest. These are huge events and God is using this small church in a big way to reach out to young people. Pastor Chris is a consultant to the Baptist church.

1:30pm      Went to see Pastor Ropati Amosa at his place in Manurewa. A great man of God fighting cancer. He is very fragile but still able to minister to my soul. I asked him about lessons from his time as full time pastor of a succesful thriving church. He told me ’evaluate your mistakes’. Thats great wisdom. Don’t just make them but evaluate and learn from them. Please pray for Gods healing hand upon him.

Also met with TJ from Wellington. A very gifted musician who is capable of making it Big in the music industry.

3:15pm Still in Manurewa I went back to the shopping Centre. I saw police cars all over the place, police officers walking around, not sure what was going on. I got very suspicious. No flashing lights no siren just lots of police officers talking to people and stopping cars.

3:40 A police helicopter hovering over Manurewa.

3:50  I stopped at a cake shop in Manurewa to buy a cake and right infront of me in the middle of the road a white car stopped a young couple got into a fist fight in the car. Unbelievable!

4:05pm I dropped the cake in the car and head for the toliets in the car park. I entered and someone was standing there next to the urinal, I spoke to this person and never talked back just smiled.. Did my business and on my way out I look at this person again to my shock, a female. In the mens toilet. What in the world…….. !!!!!

5:50pm went back to Manurewa. LifeChurch received an award from the Manukau City Council, recognising its volunteer services in the Manurewa Community – Praise God!!. I was with my son. It was a great evening celebrating community spirit of wanting to make a difference. (mainly senior citizens).  

9:25pm    On the way back, I saw a lot of people and security guards infront of the new Topless Bar in the Mall. I prayed God please shut that place down.

9:30pm We saw on Great St Rd. Manurewa an angry man smashing a post with an iron bar. There was no one there but himself. On drugs !! perhaps!! He was violent. Oh Lord!!

God stirred my faith again to be “SALT and LIGHT” in a different level. Shining in a brightier level. Salting in a stronger level. I hope I am making sense but thats how I feel. A community that needs Jesus so desperately and the power of the Gospel to transform lives.