Time for something with meaning.
It has been a while since I posted anything of any real meaning on here. That is largely due to an almost non-stop summer of activity. Here are the quick highlights.
- We finished up at family church in mid December.
- Christmas happened.
- Tyro has been mental. See some of the stuff we have been doing here.
- We went on beach mission. We were the cooks. It was mental. Good mental, but still mental.
- A bit of time was spent getting ready for college starting again.
- Kirsty started a new job.
- I started a new job as a student minister at an Anglican Church in Cammeray.
- Australia dominated in the test series.
Pretty much sums it up. Normal service will now resume.
Saying goodbye
One of the most difficult things about being at bible college is also being a student minister. Ok, not the actual job of being a student minister, that is great. I’m talking about the reality of moving around a couple of different churches over your time at college.
I am planing on being at college for four years, which means, being at roughly three different churches over that time. The breakdown then ends up being, two churches for one year and one church for two years.
Recently Kirsty and I made the difficult decision to finish up were we have been serving for this year, St Ives Family Church. It was a hard decision. But it is one that brings with it lots of excitement as we think about being able to meet with a new church.
We have just done a whole heap of our ‘last things’. A few weeks ago we had our last bible study leaders lunch, we have both had our last bible studies (me with the mens group, and Kirsty with her mixed bible study) and this coming week we are having our last Sunday morning.
One of the highlights of these last things was the opportunity for me to preach my last sermon, which happened last Sunday. I preached on Love from 1 Corinthians 13. I encouraged them to continue to be a church that continues to, a) Love each other and b) Love their community.
Family church has been a church that has shown so much love to Kirsty and I. We love this church. Leaving is hard.
p.s my sermon is below if you want to listen to it. note: my mic dies around the 6 minute mark, but it gets replaced with a much better one after then. I promise.
p.p.s as of the end of January I will be working as a student minister at the Cammeray site of Naremburn Cammeray Anglican Church. We are really looking forward to it!
A video from Unearthed Pictures.
I’m back. Exams are done. First year of college is done. Time to get back to posing. I have a fair bit of stuff to share over the next 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to it.
Firstly, I wanted to share this video with you from Unearthed pictures. It is about Unearthing sexual exploitation of women. Before you watch the video, here are some quotes from The Resurgence blog.
When Unearthed was formed, we had our hearts set on producing a documentary that would expose the mechanics of the global sex trade. For a solid year, we traveled, filmed, raided brothels, rescued victims, and had our hearts crushed by the magnitude of sexual brokenness that surrounded us. You can watch some of that work here.
We all have responsibility to the victims of this injustice, and we’re thrilled that 85% of the money that comes into our doors goes right back out to some of the best organizations in the world that rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate the women & children that live in this hell.
Jacob’s story in the video [below] isn’t an isolated incident. Jesus is continually transforming abusers into protectors; addicts into free men and traffickers into rescuers. Over the next year, we’re creating a film called The Hearts of Men. It’s a raw, unfiltered examination of how sin distorts sex, who’s affected, and how the Gospel changes all of it. We know that to win this war, we need to engage men and right now they aren’t just asleep on the battlefield, they’re fornicating on it. A generation of God’s sons need to be reminded who they are in Christ: chosen, washed, sanctified, and justified.
Now watch the video.
I’ll be on twitter if you need me…
I have exams coming up in the next 3 weeks. I need to study hard. See you in a bit.
Have Faith. An update.
One of the reasons I started this site was to keep our friends updated of how life was going while Kirsty and I go through Bible college. (Kirsty isn’t actually studying at college, but she is still heavily involved. If you catch my drift. Hence, we are both going through college)
I wanted to write an update to tell you how things have been going recently for us. So here goes. Sorry, this post is long and doesn’t have a fancy video.
College has been busy, much busier than I had thought it would be. Managing college work, seeing family, seeing friends, church work, secular holiday work, starting tyro designs and spending time together as a married couple has been a steep learning curve. I don’t pretend to have mastered this yet, but our friends are gracious when we can’t see them, and our families are even more forgiving when we seem absent or exhausted. We are extremely thankful for this.
At the same time as being busy, this year has been excellent. The stuff I have learnt this year will prove to be valuable into the future, and the friendships we have made at college have been a real encouragement to us both. Our Church this year has been a real highlight of our ministry together. Ministering to the people of St Ives Family Church has been a delight and a privilege, and we have been greatly encouraged by our brothers and sisters there.
One of the most difficult parts of this year has been the status of Kirsty’s job. Kirsty works in the public health system, where she is a Speech Pathologist, helping young kids speak. Kirsty got the job at the end of 2010, and it has been a blessing. Both financially and relationally (She is working as a locum for another speechie on maternity leave). A difficultly presented itself a few months ago when we heard the news that the woman Kirsty was replacing was returning to work. Because of this Kirsty’s job looked like it might be terminated. The prospects of this were scary. We were tentatively making arrangements to move back in with one of our parents.
In the midst of this, there was a slight prospect that her job might be extended for a period of time, but we sat in limbo for weeks. Not knowing what the outcome might be, we did what we have always done in times of uncertainty. We prayed. We prayed, and trusted that God would work the situation out in the way that he wanted. Trusting in and having faith in God is not something that is foreign to us. In faith, Kirsty and I have made all of our plans in the last few years focused on God and based on what we think God would have us do. There have been numerous times that these decisions have caused stress, mostly financial stress, but still stress. This was another period of that. God has always worked things out for us. Wether it has been where we are going to live or work, God has always provided for us.
To cut a really long story, long. Once again God has answered our prayers by once again providing Kirsty with work in the form of an extension. Her contract has been cut from 5 days to 3, but it is still some work. The health sector is a really difficult area to find work in at the moment, so we are thankful for the 3 days she has been given.
I have written this, not to make you think that we are excellent Christian people. Instead I write this so that, if you are a Christian, you might be encouraged by God’s goodness to us in a time where we had faith in him. If you are not a Christian, I would love to encourage you to check out 2 ways to live, in it you will discover that God has done so much more than just provide materially for Kirsty and I. He has done so much more than that for people who have faith in him.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading it.
Love, Tim and Kirsty
1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Edwin Ngubane
Last weekend at church we had the pleasure of having a brother from Africa come and preach. His name is Edwin Ngubane, and he is a bishop in the Anglican Church in South Africa.
He has a truly amazing life story, and an even more amazing story of how he came to believe in Christ. You can learn more about him in this video.
From ancestors to Jesus from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.
He preached the second sermon in our series on prayer from Paul’s first letter to Timothy, the specific section was chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. He was challenging us to think about how, People in the household of God, should act. I found it to be a really helpful sermon, so I thought I would share it.
He also challenged Kirsty and I to think about going to work with him in ministry to students in South Africa. He told me that Moore really should set up an exchange program with GWC. Cheeky.
Video: The Fall, by Dan Stevers
Recently at Church and College we did a series in the book of Genesis. I preached on the city of babel, where God punishes humans for wanting to be independent from him and independent from relying on him for everything that they needed to live.
One of the main events of the book of Genesis is the moment that sin entered the world. This is a brilliant video from Dan Stevers about the events of the fall. Have a look, i thinks it’s pretty cool.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 4
Two weeks ago I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the fourth post in the series.
This fourth and final post will speak about some of the implications for ministering to this sub-culture.
Ministry Implications
For Christian Churches
The main implications that appear for Christian churches in St Ives is the issue that people in the sub-culture have a high level of denominational affiliation, but without the church attendance. Meaning that, a high proportion of people (41.6%) identify somewhat with the Anglican Church, but the church attendance at the Christ Church St Ives and St Ives Family Church do not even come close to this figure. The overall attendance of Christ Church could be identified as being closer to around 1,100 people.
The implication is that, those who are in the sub-culture who are not active Christians simply do not see it as being of much worth to them. Perhaps through their past experience of religious education, they feel affiliated with a particular Christian denomination but they feel that active participation in religion had a time and a place in their lives, and that time was in the past. Regarding this feeling came a few remarks from Richard, who feels like the religious education he received from Barker College taught him really good morals for how he should live his life. But apart from that, he never felt like he actually needed to become a Christian. So a solution for this would be to show the sub-culture the relevance of Christianity for their lives today. It would be effective to show them, it is not a thing of the past that taught them morals for how to live a comfortable and thought out life, but that Jesus is not really concerned with their morals, but more concerned with them accepting him as their Lord and Saviour.
Another barrier for this sub-culture could come from how Christianity is portrayed by the media; media that they are constantly consuming and basing their judgments on. An example of this came recently in the form of a tweet from a prominent Christian leader in Australia, Jim Wallace, the leader of the Australian Christian Lobby. His tweet, which was written on Anzac day said “[I] Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for — wasn’t gay marriage and Islamic!”. Even though he deleted the offending tweet and posted a retraction of the statement soon after, it still caused outrage within the Australian community, and was picked up by news agencies in Australia. Homosexuality is an issue that has been identified by younger demographics, but it could also have implications for the demographic covered in the study.
The individuals in this sub-culture are constantly basing their decisions on the things that they see and hear, and this is another area in which the Church needs to be attuned to when engaging with this culture. The Church, and the Christians in them, need to be ready to discuss and speak about these topics with individuals in this sub-culture. A failure to do this effectively could result in the Church being regarded as out of touch and unaware of what is happening in the world.
For Christian People
The implication for Christian people is for them to be making friends with the men in this sub-culture. This will mean going out of the Christian culture, and Christian structures to meet an engage with people. This might be a difficult thing to engage in because of time constraints, but this year the men in my church have been actively joining various, typically, secular organisations in the St Ives area in a hope of becoming genuine friends with men in the sub-culture. Real examples of these are.
- The P&C association of all the local public schools, in particular the school our church meets in, St Ives North Public School.
- The local Lions Club.
- The Local soccer team.
- Running the school féte during government elections.
Though there are plenty of other opportunities that present themselves, these four focus areas that our church has concentrated on have reaped returns for the kingdom. We have had numerous people, not just from this sub-culture, come to Christ through becoming friends with Christians in these groups. This exciting reality brings another implication for Christians. This implication is a pastoral one.
When someone from this sub-culture becomes a Christian, it is not just enough to leave him to be a Christian. These men have already lived large parts of their lives, and will probably have things that they now regret doing. This new guilt is mixed up with the new joy that they now feel because they are now one of God’s people. The more mature Christian person is in a good position to care for the younger Christian.
Another area of pastoral awareness that Christians should be aware of is the family of the man. This is especially relevant if the man has a non-believing partner, and even more complicated if they have children. The man will need support as he develops as a Christian, women in the church will need to get to know, and invest time into becoming friends with the wife, and the kid’s church leaders will need to welcome the children, and also introduce them to the same Jesus that their father has recently come to believe in.
Conclusion
During this study, I have been reminded of the importance of interacting with non-Christian people in this community. There are many ways that my Church is currently interacting quite well with the community around them, but there is always more work to be done. St Ives is a growing suburb, with new units being built all the time. Due to this, the suburb is facing a large culture shift. The hardest job of the Christian church will be to keep diversifying the way that they operate evangelistically in this change.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 3
Two weeks ago I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the third post in the series.
This third post will mostly speak about the education and the influence of religion of 6 men who I had the pleasure of interviewing for this study. Their names have been changed so that they remain anonymous, because of this I wont be able to post the complete interviews.
Education and Learning
The worldview of this sub-culture also highly values education and the pursuit of knowledge. This was observed in the high value that they place on providing a good education and opportunities for their children. Example of this were observed in the sending of their children to private high schools, providing after school tutoring for their children in the area of Mathematics and English, the importance placed on learning other languages and external music lessons with professional musicians. In the interviewees, this emphasis on education came directly out of their own experience of being educated, as 4 out of the 6 interviewees attended a private education institution.
Influence of religion
The influence of religion on this sub-culture is a large one, although there is no concrete information as to why this is the case. The clue comes in the form of identified religious affiliation in the 2006 census data. There are 4 main religious positions that people take in the suburb of St Ives; and unfortunately we have to examine the entire male population as there is no breakdown by age. The influence of Christianity is quite large in proportion to other religious groups in this sub- culture. In St Ives, 57.2% (3,912) of the male population identify themselves as having Christian affiliation. The other main groups are Judaism (14.2%) and no religious affiliation (16.3%).
With this large percentage of individuals indicating that they have Christian affiliation, you need to ask why this is so. Through my experience, there is nowhere near 50% of the male population walking through church doors each week.
The answer might come through the surrounding religious schools that surround the area. Within a 15 minute drive you can easily get to Barker College at Hornsby, Knox Grammar at Warrawee, and Covenant Christian School in Belrose. Not to mention the Catholic run, Brigidine Girls College, a high school, and Corpus Christi, a catholic primary school; both located in St Ives. These five schools are all Christian run, with Barker being Anglican, Knox being Uniting and Covenant being interdenominational, along with the two Catholic run schools.
This method could account for the high number of identifying Christians in St Ives, but where it runs into problems is when you break the numbers down from the large figure of 3,912. The Anglican and Catholic numbers are a lot more that you might anticipate when compared to the Uniting percentage.
The percentage breakdown is as follows.
- Anglican 41.6%
- Catholic 32.2%
- Uniting 9.8%
Suffering, Exams & A Poker Machine
This post has 3 points,
Point 1. This weekend just past we had our Church Weekend Away. It was a brilliant weekend. We had perfect weather, great accommodation (Crusaders, Galston), and brilliant speaker (Steve Covetz) and an even more brilliant topic (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God). Ill post some of my thoughts after the events of point 2 are completed.
Point 2. This week exams have started at college. Today, us first years had greek. Personally I’m glad it is finished. In 4 days ill be on holidays.
Point 3. During exams I find it really easy to get distracted, so here is a video about Poker Machines. Watch it, than get back to work.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 2
Last week I posted the intro of a new series of posts, which is about a study that I had recently done for an assignment at college. This is the second post in the series.
This second post will mostly speak about the worldview and hierarchy of 6 men who I had the pleasure of interviewing for this study. Their names have been changed so that they remain anonymous, because of this I wont be able to post the complete interviews.
Worldview
The worldview of this sub-culture is as diverse as the people who make it up. The range of men that were interviewed made this evident with their different verbal responses. Another strong indicator of worldview, was how they go about living their lives.
In the interviews that were conducted, a theme of work being integral to their identity kept coming up for each of these men. But what was surprising to me was that it wasn’t just the work that they were doing that was important to them. The question of how they went about doing their work was also hugely important.
William and Richard are both from a working class background and therefore have a strong worldview and work ethic of success coming mostly from your own hard physical work. This is contrasted by the worldview of James, Tim and Anthony in which you gain success mostly through good decision-making. Completely different to these two groups is Tobias, who measures success, not by the possessions that he owns, but by the impact he has had on the world around him.
Ultimately, a prevailing worldview for this sub-culture could be described as an “improvement” worldview. This improvement worldview means that they are constantly striving to improve themselves and their achievements. This can be professional improvement or personal improvement, working towards their ideal job, or training for a marathon. Irrespective of area, they do these things with all their energy until it is completed. After completion, they will find something else to “succeed at”, and then work towards its fulfillment.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy in this sub-culture could be easily classified into two different spheres of life. These two spheres could be thought of as being a Professional sphere, and a Social sphere.
In the professional sphere, the hierarchy is easily defined. In each work place there is a set hierarchy in place. This hierarchy is based on both or either, length of employment and the level of qualification attained by the individual. Individuals in this sub-culture like this system, because it gives them a framework for their self improvement worldview. It also gives them set achievements in which they can work towards.
The social sphere is a little more difficult to describe. While the sphere is still concerned with achieving success, there are many different interests and hobbies with each individual involved in the sub-culture. Outside of the professional sphere, individuals prefer to do away with the rigidity of their Monday to Friday work structures. This might be because of their desire to be involved in activities that they find enjoyment from; training for a marathon, attending football games, playing sport or just spending time with their immediate families. Ultimately they wish to have the freedom to enjoy these activities in a less rigid way than they are used to at work.
Reaching men in St Ives, Part 1
It has been a little while. Just over two weeks in fact. I didn’t die, and there isn’t anything wrong. Ive just been super busy with a few things.
Last week I preached at church on Genesis 11:1-9, about the city of babel. Another thing I have been doing has been a project for college titled “Reaching Men, aged 40-54, living in St Ives, with the message of Jesus Christ”. It was 3,300 words of analysis of the sub-culture, and how churches can reach these people with the gospel of Jesus.
This project is something that is close to my heart, and close to the heart of my church. I had a few people express interest in reading what I had come up with. So I thought I would share some of my findings over the next little while, but first I wanted to share some stats with you about this micro culture.
One of the problems that is encountered with using this census data, is that the last census was conducted in 2006. Seeing that there has been no new data collected since, this 2006 data is still the most reliable. The following data is not the only means by which this sub-culture can be analysed, but it also shows us a few important facts that we should be aware of.
- The median age of the suburb is 43.
- The overall population included in this sub-culture is 1,606 people.
- This figure of 1,606 is 23.5% of a total male population of 6,839, and 11% of a total population of 14,210.
- 55.5% of males living in St Ives were born in Australia, with the next two significant places of birth being South Africa at 11.7% and the United Kingdom at 8%.
I hope you will come back in the coming week to see more of my thoughts. And hopefully engage with them.
Speak or Listen?
On Fridays at college we have a practical subject, It’s called Ministry and Mission. It’s the subject that ive been reading The Trellis and the Vine for.
This morning we had a couple of lectures on communication. We have been thinking about how we can communicate the best as ministers. Thinking specifically about communicating while we are doing stuff like preaching, but also while we are doing personal pastoral work.
This pastoral work can take many different forms, just like my crying post from yesterday, ministers can be involved with people who are experiencing Joy over something that has happened to them. Ministers can also encounter people who are heartbroken because of something that has happened to them.
While listening to our lecturer, I was struck by this passage from Proverbs 18:13.
“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”
It speaks about a concept that I think is really simple to understand, before you give your opinion to someone, you should listen to them first.
I can think of many times that I have forgotten this, and launched into voicing my opinion while ignoring how the person actually feels, or thinks.
Ive been reminded this morning about the need for me to listen before I speak. I hope that this might of reminded you too.
Moore Mission: six weeks on
Today we had the privilege of meeting with the senior minister from St George North Anglican. This was the church that I did mission with a little while ago.
It was great time of hearing back about what kind of impact our mission had in St George North. I didn’t know what to think about mission while we were doing it. We were so busy all the time that we just powered on, not really having time to properly debrief. So it was great to be able to hear about all the great things that have been happening because of our week on mission. The last little while has been exciting for the church, and ive written them in point form.
- 21 people are involved in Christianity Explained directly because of mission. An additional 14 are in this course external to our mission, bringing the number up to 35.
- One woman about to finish Christianity explained, and wants to be a Christian.
- One man became a Christian, directly because of a sermon he heard on Luke 24 at Bexley North.
- A new youth group is about to be planted at Bexely North.
- 10 new people coming to church for the first time.
- A new congregation has been planted, with another 15 new people. They are already having the problem of reaching capacity, and might need to find a larger place to meet.
I’m so thankful for the impact that the gospel is having in St George North, and that we were able to be a part of it. Ill keep praying for them.
Reading: The Trellis and the Vine
At college we have a long list of books that we need to read. Ranging from really interesting to not so interesting, they include books on history, Bible commentaries and books to help us think critically about what ministry looks like in practice. We also read the Bible a bit.
Recently I’ve been reading a book called, ‘The Trellis and the Vine‘ by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. I’ve actually owned it for ages, but never read it.
It really is a great book, and I would out it into the ‘really interesting’ category mentioned above. It says a lot about trainer/trainee relationships, and how trainees end up being imitators of their trainers. From this, it has helped me reflect on where I have been so far in my ministry, and why I now do things the way I do (mostly because my trainers taught me to do it that way).
The book speaks a lot about how to train Christian people for a lifetime of serving Jesus, and his people. The book suggests that just running endless courses for people is not enough, but training by your example is much better.
One bit in chapter 6 especially stood out to me.
“… to make real progress in helping the Christians in your congregation become ‘encouragers’, they need more than a six week course. They need the example of seeing it done; and they need the personal instruction and mentoring and prayer that addresses the spiritual issues at the heart of becoming an ‘encourager’. This takes time and personal attention – before, during and after the structured training opportunity.”
I’m still reading it. If you want a copy, Matthias Media sell it.
Do you have the right tools?
Because I’m training to be a Christian minister, I feel the need to have good tools to help me do my job. It sounds simple, a carpenter needs good tools that work. If it is not a good hammer (nail gun), his work might be compromised. This is the same for Christians, you need to have a good bible. A bible that you can trust in.
This year ive been trying to work out what I should do about bible software on my computer. Traditionally there have been two main programs that have served the Mac, Logos and Accordance. From what I have heard, they are both good pieces of software. Really helpful tools for studying the bible,and sharing it’s contents with others. Recently both programs unveiled versions for the iPhone and iPad, meaning that you can have all your tools available to you even when you don’t have your computer handy.
The problem sometimes lies in the price of these programs. The middle package from Logos is priced at $629.95, and the accordance pricing is so confusing that I ran out of patience.
This is where Glo Bible comes in. Glo Bible is a program that has been on the PC for the past year and a bit, and just quietly, I was a bit excited when I found out that they had released a version for Mac, iPad and soon to be iPhone. The interface is really easy to use, and the content is amazing. On a really simple level, it is a bible. And the aim of it, is to get you to read the bible. But it also offers timelines, photos, an atlas and heaps HD video content. And it only cost $50 US, because they are having a launch discount.
Ill probably end up getting Logos, because that has lots of stuff that I think ill need in the future years. But at the moment I couldn’t justify the $629 price tag, so the $50 Glo Bible got my vote. It’s a great tool, and ive already found it extremely helpful in my bible study.
Lets start at the very beginning…
The last couple of weeks at church we have kicked off a series in Genesis. Also at College, my Old Testament lectures have been on the book of Genesis. It has been great to have a rare opportunity to study this book in both contexts.
Often at college, subjects take an academic flavour. Simply a downloading of information, in the ambition that we will be able to synthesise what he have learnt and heard, into an essay or an exam. This isn’t what normally what happens, but it does sometimes. This can be frustrating, but it isn’t really a problem, College is a University after all.
But it has been great learning this book in two very different contexts. Mostly because is has allowed me to use this knowledge from College to help love and teach the people at church. I’m preaching again in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to being able to continue to do this to a fuller extent.
I thought I would share some of the things that I have learnt from the first 2 chapters.
- God creates with his word, or his speech.
- Creating is not a by-product of some other event, it was created in it’s own right.
- God created Man under himself, but above the animals.
- God created Woman out of the side of man. (Implying that they are not above or below each other, but side-by-side)
- Everything that God made was good.
Moore Mission in Photographs
My time last week down in St George North was a blast. St George North Anglican is a church that I suspect is going to go on to achieve great things in and around St George North. They have a great staff team working there for Jesus. That being said, I don’t think I have ever packed so much into one week for a long time.
This week everyone is back at college, and the assignments are starting to pour in again. I thought I would lighten things up with some random photos I took last week. Enjoy.
p.s you can check out St George North Anglican Church, here.
Moore Mission, Day 3
Yesterday was a really good day here in the south. The day kicked of at 7am, with the whole team stationed at various train stations inviting people to come to Church on Sunday and the Easter services of St George Anglican. The ladies of our team then kicked on, and ran a training event for the Christian women of the church on “Spreading Jesus Through Friendships”. By all accounts it went really well, with lots of women realising that they were already doing everything that was spoken about. Which was encouraging for the ladies on our team.
The day then rounded out with 2 hours of door knocking. Lots of stories came from this also. Lots of conversations were had with people from all different backgrounds. Please pray for all the people we shared the gospel with. We can’t go into specifics about the people we met. Mainly because we don’t want people to be afraid to speak to us because of fear that we will then go and blog about them.
Moore Mission, Day 2
Last night we had the 7pm service here at St George North. It was a great night spending time with a truly great group of Christians. After the morning services, a team meeting and some walk up evangelism/flier drop most of us were pretty tired, so the smiling faces at Church in the Bank were really encouraging for us as a team. The stories this morning of conversations had last night were a testament to this encouragement.
Today was a much quieter day. Today we spent most of the day planning for this coming week, along with a tour of St George North. Because nothing much happened today, I thought I would let you know of some stats.
St George North is a vastly multicultural area. Looking at Census data from 2006 for the suburb of Kogarah the population sits at 11,715 people with a pretty 5,810/5,905 Male/Female split.
- The 25 to 54 age group is the highest represented with 5,703 people.
- 2,697 people were born in Asia, with 1,325 of them being born in China.
- Because of this, Mandarin and Cantonese speaking homes are high in proportion with a combined 16.6%
So with a quick look at these stats, it is evident that St George North is a very multicultural area. Sadly this is not the case within the Church here. But it is something that they are spending time and energy trying to change. We have been really thankful that there are a few people on our Mission team, who can speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. Meaning that we are able to make vital contact with these groups in Kogarah.
Moore Mission, Day 1
This morning the St George North mission kicked off with 3 services in 3 different buildings in Bexley, Bexley North and Carlton. St George North Anglican Church is a multi site church, with a total of 4 services over 4 different sites in and around Bexley.
This morning our mission team was split between these 3 different services with 3 people from the team preaching. Tonight we will all combine for a 7pm service in a bank in Kogarah.
If you are the kind if person that likes to pray, we would love it if you would pray for the beginning of our mission here in St George North. Pray for the churches we will be working with over the next week, and that this mission will only be the beginnings of a wider and longer lasting mission here in St George.
Week 5 is over.
I thought it was about time to write something about how college is going.
One thing about college that has genuinely surprised me has been how busy the place is. I’ve been at college for 7 weeks now, and is feels like it has been about 2. I mostly have classes in the morning, which I can manage with a good coffee. But along with other various meetings and groups, the day ends up rounding out with some revision, some readings and then an assignment or two. Along with church responsibilities and other things, by week seems to be over just when it is beginning.
Another aspect of college that has surprised me has been the friendliness of the staff here at college. The experience is like nothing I have ever experienced at an educational institution before. This week I was encouraged by their genuine care for their students. I’ve had many random conversations with faculty where this care has been demonstrated.
Along with this care, college has still be quite challenging. Mostly because I have not studied formally in 5 years.
So far college has been brilliant, I have learnt heaps and I’m looking forward to what the next 4 years will bring.
Moore Mission 2011
This last couple of weeks have been exciting. But first a short story.
A couple of years ago Kirsty and I stopped leading on Kiama Beach Mission. Kirsty led on it for two years, and I led for eight. Finishing up mission was both a sad and happy time. Sad to be finishing up in a ministry we had loved, with people we loved and sad at the prospect of not being able to keep in touch with the churches in Kiama. But also happy because we were getting married, and felt that the leadership had passed on to new people with fresh ideas. KBM was in safe hands.
Why would I share this story? Next week Moore College mission for 2011 begins. It has been great being able to be part of plans for a new mission. Even if there will be considerably less beach involved. The whole college is splitting up for the week to tell people from all over Sydney about Jesus. With a few other groups heading to places like Hong Kong and Port Macquarie. Personally I will be heading to St George North, around Carlton, which is near Sydney airport.
If you want too read about what is happening during the week. Ill be contributing to a combined blog over the course of the week. My posts will be the ones with less text and more fun stuff like photos, and possibly a video or two.
But if you are reading this, then I want to invite you to be part of our Moore Mission street team. We need people to spread the word that Moore College is having a mission. There are 4 basic things that you can do.
1) if you have a blog – get the word out! let people know about mooremission.wordpress.com
2) if you’re on twitter – tweet about us. if you have mission related tweets, use the hashtag #MooreMission
3) if you’re on facebook – share the love.
4) if you have family, friends, churches that would be interested in following Moore Mission 2011 – let ‘em know!
This just got real…
This week has been an especially busy one, College started for real this week, and the busyness also started for real. I generally have different subjects on each day of the week, which is good for consolidation of learning.
My week is generally made up of Chapel a couple of times a week, Lectures and a couple of study groups. I’m studying full time, so I’m doing 6 different subjects. New Testament, Old Testament, Greek, Communication in Ministry, Ministry and Mission and Biblical Theology are the subjects.
I also have a whole bunch of readings to get done each week, and I got my first assignment on Monday morning. A 1000 word comparison between a historical document and a biblical document of some dudes in the book of Mark.
It was nice having a few subjects in English this week. I’m really thankful for all of my lecturers at college, all Godly and Humble christian people. I have also made some awesome friends.
