Sunday Reflections!

What an amazing day at LifeChurch today.

I was blown away with the presence of God in the worship services. Seriously there are times when you just don’t want it to end. This morning I felt the worship time was just too short!

Two most important times for any pastor on Sunday morning. One is seeing people passionately worshipping God and seeing people responding to God’s Word. I saw both on this morning.

Fetu Evile – what an awesome testimony – it received a standing ovation!  A story of Gods faithfulness and fulfilling of his promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. I saw from the front a few men crying while she was telling her story. Personally I was trying very hard to hold back the tears. I believe God is going to use this story to bring lots of people to know Him! Thanks Fetu for your courage and strength and for sharing your story with us!

We had representatives from the Randwick Park Residents Group attended church to thank LifeChurch for the work they do in the community. I thought that was nice and also very special. It’s great when people recognized what the church is doing because the need to be visible I am not just talking about building. We are privileged to be able to have a partnership with the community. Thanks for the morning tea!!!

The sermons over the last few weeks have been a little strange……I am not sure whether it’s a wise thing to blog about since our own church folks will be reading this………………………..let me think about it!!

Our band did an awesome job today. We are so blessed as a church to have such dedicated & passionate young team of worshippers who happens to know how to play an instrument and can hold a tune.

That cake stall: ummm…. Not so sure ……..It didn’t help my waistline!! My weakness…………cakes and sweet stuff!!  I was tempted beyond my strength!!  And I must confess I fell from Grace today!! It was a sweet fall!!!! Thanks SWITCH!

One of our Senior members Salatielu Sagala passed away and in the first service we had some time to reflect and have open sharing / tributes. It was nice. One word the best describes him ‘a servant’.

I spoke on the ‘Name of God’. What an honour to be able to speak on Gods behalf and speak of His name….- The Name that is above all names!! I don’t take it lightly!! I sensed a special unction this morning…….

Sunday Reflections

It’s late Sunday night. I was supposed to be in bed 2 hours ago but I am too excited with all that happened this morning and weekend that I can’t go to sleep. Adrenalin is still keeping me up.
Let me start by telling you what happened today at church:
• I arrived at church this morning and the worship team is already on the roll. I walked into an atmosphere of worship and was expecting God to move.
• I agree with the Psalmist that ‘In his presence there is fullness of joy’. I was moved, blessed and in awe of God this morning. The Bible says ‘where there is the Spirit of God there is freedom’. There was so much freedom in expression of love for God in this mornings worship.
• In the 9am service, I did not preach what I already prepared. God had something else to say to the church this morning. I hate it when that happens, but Its God’s church, just need to obey, spoke about the’ voice of God’.
• Pesio preached an awesome Word ‘Sovereignty of God’ at the 11am service. It was her first time to preach at church but she sounded like she’s been preaching secretly down her house basement. Amazing journey with God over the last 7 years. Great stories!!
• Tasi continues to amaze us all with her creativity. I look forward to her floral arrangements Sunday mornings.
• Saw several young people that I haven’t seen at church for a while coming back!!
• One of our vision statements – ;We see a church of passionate worshippers’ – The worship team did an awesome job…their passion was definitely caught by the crowd. Pam & Jay – awesome work leading!!
• Several people commented today that it was one of the best services we ever had at LifeChurch. That scares me because I keep telling LifeChurch almost every Sunday that the ‘best is yet to come’. Praying now for next Sunday!
• Found myself worshipping God this morning playing air guitar!
• Worship Team had a special lunch today and I was invited. Our Lifekids team also had a special lunch. Nothing special just and excuse to have a big feed and a good laugh (It’s what we do best at Llifechurch – laugh and eat – he!he!…LOL – yum!! yum!!)………..
Lifekids team enticed us so well we ended up in their camp. 3 hours of food and laughter. These people laugh at anything!!! Crazy!! I needed that!!!

Sunday Reflections

• 3 People gave their lives to the Lord for the first time. One of them was first time in church and he was invited by someone who does not come to LifeChurch – How cool is that!! 
• Several others made recommitment to God. 
• Excited with our new series ‘SUPERNATURAL’. Exposing Satans plan. ‘Steal, Kill and Destroy’. We are in a war. 2 Cor 10:3-4 ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but might…….’ Eph 6 10: Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes…….’
• 11am service was packed. Several new faces today at church. 
• The ‘Men in Blue’ showed up. Great to have the cops come to church in their uniform. Our Lifekids ministry have a special relationship with the Manurewa cops. They call it ‘Adopt a Cop’. Each class adopts a cop. They pray for them, write them cards, encourage them….etc….. The cops came to talk to the kids and mingle with them.
• I was drawn to the kids who were in front of me. One particular boy, I think he’s 5, was worshipping with hands lifted, he wasn’t distracted at all with other kids around him. Pleases the heart of God to see his little children come to him!!!
• Flo & Lagani leaving us for Samoa. These guys have faithfully served the House of God and we are gonna miss them. They are good people with servant hearts!!
• I didn’t have much of a voice but was able to preach. (a little bit longer, I was told)   

Mayor Len Brown dance in church”

LifeChurchManurewa

Sunday Reflections

Here are a few thoughts from today …

• Great attendance in both services today. I also noticed that people came a lot earlier today. It must be something to do with the ‘Sermon Series’.
• Love dancing with my 3yr old girl Louise during worship.
• There was a spirit freedom in the house this morning to worship God.
• Thought the message was a little bit ‘in your face’…I don’t ever want us to become “the perfect church for perfect people.” Jesus came to set us free, including bondage from sexual sin!!
• The title of today’s message was “How to stay pure in a dirty world”. I spoke about Sexual Purity’. Purity is old fashion and not the most popular thing in today’s society. But it is still God’s will.
• Never talked to anyone before about my sex life. Today I did in Church. Genesis 1:31
• Prayed this morning that God would allow me to preach today without fear.
• By the way the prayer meeting on Saturday morning was fantastic. I was very encouraged with the number of our leaders at the prayer meeting.
• SWITCH served morning tea and its was great!! Sushi for morning tea!!! Wow!!
• I think Lifekids had a butterfly theme today at church. I saw several LifeKids volunteers with butterfly wings!!!
• Today at the 11am service we practiced what the scriptures says to ‘Shout unto the Lord all the earth”. Yes we did. Worship Leader Sua Sagala made us shout at the count of 3. Such a liberating feeling to do that in church.
• My favourite song today “People of Life Shout and Sing” Our worship team wrote this song when we launched our church almost 2 years now.
• SWITCH and our SWITCH leaders John & Sisi Fale won awards at the ‘Youth Work Leadership Awards’ last Friday. Category “Youth making a positive impact in the community”. Today we honored them. My wife and I were surprised with their honoring gesture in return.
• Haka in church!!
• The evening series with Dave Ramsey was fun and practical. Great small group discussions and I was impressed with the participation of young people. I expected more adults as they are ones who really need the financial advice.
• I really do believe the best is yet to come.
• I love this place! I love what God is doing here. I love the fact that He isn’t finished yet. I love the fact that lives are being changed.
• There is freedom in being real!!!
• Pray for me as I travel to Christchurch on Wednesday

Sunday Reflections

What a day! Seriously, there are Sundays and there are Sundays. There are Sundays as a pastor when you sit back and say, Why exactly do I do this??  Today was NOT one of those days. Four major events happened today at church:

 1. Kick off New Series for August: God Love & Sex

 2. Launch of New Series for Lifekids: Plane Truth

 3. BAF Sunday: Bring a Friend Sunday

 4. Communion

•  Here are some highlights…
• I started my Sunday @ 2:00am. Usually 3:00am but when you are about to preach a sermon on sex in church there’s no way you can have a deep sleep. 3 hours was enough I got up nervous and pumped at the same time. I usually get up have coffee and some biscuits. This morning I didn’t. I forgot! Honestly.
• 8:15 am walked in church. Worship Team, already praying. They put me on a stool with wheels and wheeled me in and told me to shout after a count of three. I did! great exercise to shout kill unnecessary nerves. 
• I struggled a little bit in the first service with my introduction. Preaching in Samoan on sex is not the most comfortable thing to do. It did eventually pick up. The adults were so accommodating!! I had no problems in the second service, except my sermon topic, ‘Satan’s Sex Education’, was SO HOT (literally) that I kept drinking during the sermon. My water had to be refilled!!
• Plenty of food for morning tea. Chicken soup – my favourite.
• Met a whole lot of new faces at church yesterday. It’s exciting when new people come to church. One guy came in to for the 9am service for the first time. He repented and gave his life to Jesus. He gave me a hug after the service and he was crying. He stayed for the second service. He came up for the Altar call. Gave his life to Jesus (twice in one day). After the second service he gave me another hug, this time with more tears.….he said, “I didn’t think church can be this great….I sang, I danced, I ate, laughed, I repented, I knelt, I prayed….. all in one day!!  I am going to bring my wife and kids next Sunday”.
• The worship was incredible!!!. Always great to see kids come to the front to worship. When we sang, “Moving forward” I felt great passion coming from the worshippers!
• The Worship Team did a fantastic job!! I thought the guitaring was exceptional yesterday!
• Altar call was given. We put Romans 12:1 into practice and symbolically. A lot of men came forward to present themselves to God as ‘living and holy sacrifice’: My heart beats faster when I see men respond to the Word. There is something about men admitting to their weaknesses and realizing their potential in God. To see men kneeling before God and crying out to him is POWERFUL!!
• LifeKids: what can I say!!!. The Lifekids Team took Children’s ministry to a whole-notha-level!!! New sound system, new stage, new look, new props, new curriculum. I am grateful to God for the people who give their time to minister to kids! They always miss out on what happens during the main service. BUT I think after seeing what they do……WE, the ones in the main service are Missing Out!! My kids said to me after church on the way home….Dad! Lifekids was great!! I was saying goodbye to some first time kids yesterday and asked them, …how Lifekids was!! The 4 year old said!!! Great and we love it. She then turn to her parents and said,….Dad can we come back to this church next week!!! Poor dad!! Under pressure to say yes in front of me.
• Big lunch!! Invited to Worship Team lunch. Great time with the team!! way to go Liz!! 
• Communion: always an emotional time for me. Can’t help being grateful to God. At Communion service we dedicated baby Salem!, our community clothing team and the bread team shared about what they do and how they are connecting and reaching the community. Great stuff!!
• 2 Singers: First time for the Taito brothers to sing together in church!! Watch these two boys!! Watch them develop and mature in their talent!!  
• 3 Young Preachers: I was so blessed! these young boys age 15 -19 preached with passion and conviction. They were funny and straight to the point. Huge potential. Amazed with their knowledge and ability to articulate. They only had one week to prepare and they did very well!! some proud parents last night. 
• I love this church! I love what God is doing in LifeChurch. I love what God has called us to do and as we say it all the time “The best is yet to come” and I can’t wait to see what He has right around the corner.

Weekend Reflections

Had an amazing weekend…here are a few of the highlights…

•  Friday Night – SWITCH crashed at our place…. editing movies for ‘ENDZONE’ till 6am. These people only slept for about an hour and they were up again for their breakfast briefing 7am. Committed and dedicated bunch of crazy youths. Woke me up 3 times but all good. The end result on was worth it.
•  Saturday met with our Board. Made some huge progress and Faith Decisions!! Announcements to be made later.
•  ENDZONE Saturday night was fantastic! Love hanging out with young people. Personally it helps me not to develop and ‘old spirit’ mentality. Keeps me fresh and intouch with this generation. EndZone climaxed with young people committing their lives to Christ. That’s the Purpose. Salvation! When our youth leaders shared their vision for SWITCH they stressed Salvation!! That’s a GOD vision!!  
•  Laine Sagala spoke a stirring Word Saturday night on “This Generation”. Great to see a lot young men responded to the call to make a stand for Christ and to reach this generation. Its healthy when more men respond to God and take ownership and leadership in their decisions and actions.
•  Spoke last Sunday on the “Presence of God’ (Isaiah 6). Worship yesterday was electric and the presence of God was evident in yesterday’s service. Its amazing when people respond to the Word of God. I think I am starting to believe what my friend Pastor Phil Richardson has been telling ever since he visited our church one Sunday. He said ‘You are the most charismatic non Pentecostal church I have ever seen’.
• New talent coming up!! Chris you have an amzing voice?
•  Sua Sagala preached an awesome Word on Gods faithfulness, God’s Grace and God’s Goodness. I touched on this last week in my sermon. Sua took it to whole nother level. Fantastic!  
•  There is nothing more rewarding to a pastor than to see people encounter God and walk with him passionately. I was encouraged yesterday to see that passion to pursue God in folks who came forward. 
•  CAN’T WAIT for next SWITCH Event………….I think its in September
•  Met yesterday with 3 young men I am mentoring in preaching. Their first assignment is this Sunday. They are excited and nervous at the same time. I see great ponetial in these guys!!
• Great lunch at Anes mums place. haven’t had that type of Samoan toonai (lunch ) for a some time!!
•  LOTS to do this next week… appreciate the prayers!  I will be focusing more on studying this week.

Mothers Day 2009

Join us this Sunday @ LifeChurch for a Special Mothers Day Service

Bring mum and the whole family!!

Sunday Reflections

• Great to back. I love Church. I love what God is doing at LifeChurch. It may not mean much to you but to me God is up to something that I believe its way beyond me. I just need to be faithful in what he has called me to do and do it well with all humility, blood and sweat and total dependence on the Power of the Holy Spirit 
• Everone is talking about my wife’s preaching last Sunday. I saw parts of the message on video. Man she was the bomb! She can make a crowd go wild. Ok hon! I think you need to preach again this weekend!!  
• I have several goals this year. One of them is to fill every seat on Sunday mornings. There is someone out there that needs to hear the message of Hope in Jesus Christ and His power to change lives. That person must be in that empty seat on Sunday morning. Jesus said “Go into the highways and the byways and invite people so that my house may be filled” Luke 14
• Madly involve with God.
• Seeing young people worshipping God with passion puts gas in my engine. I am determined to see more young people fall in love with Jesus than with drugs and alcohol. 
• Worship was great. Junior read one of my favourite Psalms – 103 “Bless the Lord o my soul and forget not all he benefits”. Yes still on the benefit. I am a long time reciepient of Gods dole 
• I preached my heart out. Title of my message  ’Your Amazing Future’. In the midst of Economic Crises, Swine flu, and everyhting else that is happening in the world, there is a sense of uncertainty and insecurity I felt the need to remind people that their future in Jesus Christ is ASSURED and SECURED. Bottom line it was a gospel message. Resulted in repentance, souls saved & recommitments. 
• We had communion in the evening. Spoke about significance of passover OT / Lords supper  NT. 
• We sang a song that caught my attention with these words, ‘take my hands teach them to serve….’. 
• Left church yesterday with a renewed faith in God and a radical desire to reach out.

Being Real 1 – Accountability

Being Real with yourself and with God.

This is the list from my message on Sunday. Our church folks have been working through this list in their lifegroups this week.

Take the challenge and rate yourself and see how authentic you are in these disciplines.

These areas are vitally important in our spiritual growth. After rating yourself, make a list of all the 1’s and the 2’s and start tackling them one by one. Find an accountability partner and ask him/her to help you, move from 1 or 2 to 3.  Its called discipleship. An accountability partner will add fuel to the process. Do it together.  You can be his or her accountability partner too. Admission is the first step to freedom in God. Don’t let that 1 or 2 hold you back from reaching your potential in God.

Rate yourself   1 – Need a lot of work,  2 – average   3 – Good

•1)      Money:

Are you a good steward of what God has given you?

Are you in debt? How bad?

Are you giving to God through tithes and offerings?

Are you giving to others in need?

 

•2)      Moral:

Are you morally pure?

Are you having sex outside of marriage?

Are you in an adulterous relationship?

Are you messing with pornography?

Websites you visit?

Email & Text messages. ?

 

•3)      Prayer

When was the last time you prayed?

Do you pray only when you are desperate or do you pray regularly?

Do you pray for other people?

 

•4)      Word of God

Do you read the Bible every day?

Do you study the scriptures?

Is it the final authority?

Do you practice its contents?

 

•5)      Devotional Time

How often do you have devotional time?

Is it a 1 minute, 5 minutes or longer?

 

•6)      Witnessing

How often do you talk to people about God?

Have you shared your testimony of how you came to the Lord with someone?

Have you led someone to the Lord recently?

 

•7)      Fellowship

How often do you fellowship with other christians?

How often do you attend life group?

 

•8)      Worship

How regular is your attendance on Sunday services?

Do you consider yourself a passionate or a passive worshipper?

 

•9)      Serve

Are you using your gifts and talents for the good of others?

How much of your time is dedicated to voluntary work?

 

•10)   Family

How much time is set aside for spouse and children?

Are you a Violent and Abusive person at home?

Do you model the love of Christ at home?

Do you teach one thing and practice the opposite?

Do you practice hospitality often?