Global Gospel Focus

Global Gospel Focus is a time dedicated to informing, challenging and encouraging members of all St Matt's congregations to share in the work of God's Kingdom throughout our world. There are several ways in which we hope to achieve this:

* On each of the four Sundays during our Global Gospel Focus, the sermons will focus on parts of Scripture that will help us to better understand God's mission in our world, and the parts He calls us to play in it.
* On each of those Sundays, there will also be a time of input from different mission organisations that St Matt's and its members support (TEAR, Interserve, OMF and CMS), helping us to be informed about how those organisations are working to spread the Gospel of Christ and opportunities that exist for us to partner with them.
* On Friday 8th August, "Totally Taiwan" - a youth get-together with a missions focus - will be hosted at St Matt's, with invitations to other affiliated youth groups, and input from Phil and Irene Nicholson.
* On Saturday 9th August there will be a special event hosted by Phil and Irene Nicholson, called "A Taste of Taiwan", where we will have a unique opportunity to find out about life and missions in Taiwan, and will even have a taste of its cuisine. Phil and Irene are missionaries with OMF, pioneering new ways of doing church with Taiwan's largely unreached working class.
Our hope is that the various events and talks throughout our Global Gospel Focus will not merely make us more knowledgeable about missions throughout the world, but will
- genuinely inform and motivate us to pray regularly and fervently to "the Lord of the harvest... to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matt 9)
- encourage and equip us to love, serve and pray for our brothers and sisters who are already out in that harvest field, and
- challenge us to to invest some of the abundance with which God has lavished us to further the work of His Kingdom throughout the world.

How can we do this?

It is our hope and prayer that everyone at St Matt's, whether as individuals, families or small groups, will "adopt a missionary". There are many forms this might take, depending on your passions, gifts and resources, but essentially it means personally partnering with a missionary, or missionaries, in the work they are doing in "the harvest field", and as a bare minimum should involve regular prayer support and communication.
The St Matt's Missions Working Group can and will support you in this important commitment through regular prayer updates from St Matt's link missionaries, and if you are stuck for ideas in how to care for and support your adopted missionary then we would happily meet with you or your small group to help you find some achievable and sustainable ways in which you can do that effectively.
Please pray with us that the Global Gospel Focus will be the beginning of a deeper, richer, more effective partnership between the people of St Matt's and our link missionaries, and that God would hear our prayers and reap a great harvest from every tribe and tongue and nation.

KH