Maintenance or Mission?

I am someone who naturally falls into fairly stable rhythms of activity - most of us do that. Not that my life becomes predictable or boring - far from it. Yet I am not someone who actively pursues new dreams.

Part of what's happening for us at the moment is the fact that we believe God has called us to conclude our ministry here in Narembeen at the end of 2009. It's been a pretty big decision to grapple with, and we've only just told the church over the last week. We don't have much of an idea of where God is calling us to go to, but that's not something we need to focus on just yet.

There's lots of reasons why we believe that this is what God is leading us toward, but that doesn't make the decision any easier. We genuinely care about the people in the church and the region. We will miss the people and the place when the time comes to leave. We also genuinely believe in the future of the church here - we don't believe that it is just going down the same track of so many churches in rural areas. There is a huge challenge ahead of us, but God has opened up lot's of wonderful opportunities.

One thing that this deadline has done for me is to help me be much more mission-minded in how I approach my role. This is not a new thing, we've actually been pretty creative and committed to the whole concept of the mission of the church. We've worked on connecting with the community in various different ways, of presenting the message of the gospel in lots of different forums and investing in projects further afield in order to build up the Church.

But I've also allowed certain things to just drift along. I've carried too many responsibilities that should have been delegated to others, but I am not someone who naturally pushes people to get things done. I've also allowed some regular activities to dwindle in effectiveness as they cruised along in a comfortable routine. I've operated within boundaries that needed to be challenged more.

Something I have been excited about over recent weeks is to see how some people are responding to the challenge to step up and do something different because of what they believe. As we do that together it builds a sense of optimism and unity. It also brings a sense of freedom as people are energised to dream new dreams, and are supported in making those dreams a reality. When I talk about dreams I'm talking about the inspiration that comes from the Holy Spirit bringing the Bible to life in our thinking. They are the answers to the question "What will it mean for us to live this out today?"

We have a long way to go. It's going to be a very interesting 18 months or so. I believe though that the church here is entering into a new phase of life and mission. The only ones who can prevent this are ourselves!

Sermon - The Trap of Offence

Mark 14:1-11

14 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. ^2 “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

^3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

^4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ^5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. (The gospel of John names Judas as one who voiced an objection to Jesus)

^6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ^7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ^8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ^9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

^10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ^11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

I didn't write a full manuscript for this sermon, but click here if you would like to listen to the audio - choose the sermon titled "The Trap of Offence" from the list of available messages.

The basic idea is that to take offence with one another is to fall into a dangerous trap that damages both our own lives and the Church. We get locked into a pattern of thinking, feeling and acting toward one another which stifles love, unity and partnership in mission. Offence gives us an excuse for failing to love and support one another. On the contrary it causes us to betray and hate one another.

John Bevere's book on the subject is titled "The Bait of Satan", and that is exactly what offence is. As demonstrated in Mark 14, Satan was powerless against Jesus and His followers. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of Hades will not overcome His Church. Yet we hand Satan that power when, like Judas did with Jesus, we betray one another because we have stumbled into the trap of offence.

There's a strong challenge for each of us to examine our own hearts toward one another, to see if we have allowed ourselves to fall into this trap. If so, we need to deal with that offence before it does further damage. There is also a huge amount of practical application of Scripture required to teach us how to think, feel and act toward one another so that offence has no room to operate. Learning to appreciate and utilise each other's strengths instead of being offended by each other's weaknesses is a good place to start.

Photo Gallery Updated

Last night I updated our photo gallery with pics of some of the things we've done around the outside of our home over the last few years. There's also pics of my PNG trip and family pics if you'd like to take a look. Go to http://www.birchfamily.org to have a look! Under the Media Gallery button on the left hand side choose "log in" if you have a username and password, or "browse" if you don't!