Welcome

Welcome

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Total Church Workshop

Total Church Workshop 09 is happening Saturday morning 21st February at Church from 9:30am-12:00pm as part of our equipping program. This is an equipping opportunity for serving at our Sunday meetings across our congregations .
We especially want everyone who is rostered to serve this year. The program will be something like this:


9:30am Welcome
Brainstorm: Why serve God's people?
Pray for our congregations
10:15 am Workshop 1
11:00am Morning tea
11:15am Workshop 2
12:00pm Finish

There are four workshop choices:

1. Reading the Bible in Public: Jenny D's
2. How to lead public prayer: Gavin
3. How to Welcome well: Khim Harris
4. How to lead a service: Kanishka

I encourage you to join us for equipping and encouragement even if you are an old hand and especially if you are new on a roster!

See you there
Please RSVP church office office@stmattsshentonpark.org.au
or 93812640

Gavin

Monday, February 2, 2009

Six steps to reading your Bible


I am going to run the six steps to reading your Bible course
Starting Weds, February 18th, 7:45pm (location to be announced).
Instead of regarding the Bible as “more to be desired than gold” and “rejoicing the heart”, like David in the Psalms, somehow, for many of us, regularly reading on God's word ends up in the same category as regular but which is hard to manage amongst everything else, and ends up slipping off the agenda. As the Lord Jesus said of his sleepy disciples: “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”.

Whatever your exercise: a healthy chore we know we should fit in and that we benefit from, current Bible reading habits (or lack of them), and whatever your level of knowledge and confidence, Six Steps to Reading Your Bible will help you make progress in getting into your Bible. The course is especially designed for use in small groups, and utilizes a mix of video instruction, fun skits, Bible study, discussion, practical exercises, prayer and home assignments that will help you on the road to establishing a new and more enjoyable Bible reading habit.
Who can benefit?
Six Steps to Reading Your Bible is an ideal course for three groups of people:
1. People who are new to the Christian faith. It will give them a very valuable introduction to the place of the Bible in the Christian life, and a set of basic tools for getting started in reading it.

2. Those who have been Christians a while, but who have never had much training in simple but important Bible study principles.
3. Experienced Bible readers, who will find Six Steps to Reading Your Bible a valuable ‘refresher’ course, and will gain a healthy new vigour in their personal Bible reading.
Content
Over the six sessions of the course, you will:
become familiar with the basic shape and nature of the Bible
be motivated to read the Bible for yourself
learn how to apply basic reading skills to the Bible
learn how to apply a Bible passage to your life
understand how the whole message of the Bible hangs together and centres on Jesus
benefit from the encouragement and experience of others, as you work together in learning to read the Bible
be well on the way to establishing a new habit of regular Bible reading.
Let me know if you want to sign up!
Gavin Parsons

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Call to Loving Service

At St. Matthew’s Rosalie we have the opportunity to live out, in our church family and the wider community, God’s call to love him with our heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love our neighbours as ourselves. Jesus brings these two commands together as a blueprint for the Christian life of service.

We want to be known as a community of God’s people who show our love for God through the way we love and serve each other, our neighbours in the broader community, and people in our network of relationships. At St Matthew’s want to be known as a community of God’s people who love him and serve him. Paul calls us to ‘shine’ like stars in this way.

Paul pictures the church community as a family (Galatians 4), as a body (1 Corinthians 12), and as a building (1 Corinthians 3). These pictures emphasise our unity in Jesus on one hand, and our diversity in giftedness on the other. Everyone has a part to play in serving in God’s family: from those upfront who lead, preach and teach, and make music; to the important quiet service that goes on behind the scenes in serving and caring; to generosity in material gifts and leading small groups. The opportunities for service are only limited by our creativity!

Get your hands on the "Serving at St. mathtew's Rosalie" Booklet. This booklet outlines some of the practical opportunities we have to serve each other at St. Matthew’s Rosalie. At the end is a sign up sheet for the range of ministries. Serving in a ministry at St Matthew’s is more than just performing a task or being on a roster—it’s about becoming part of the church community and serving one another the way Christ served us.

We are very thankful for the way so many people generously serve the Lord among us and the wider community. Please consider how you might serve among us.

Gavin Parsons

St. Matthew's Rosalie Launch THIS Sunday

Hi TenAM,

This is a reminder that we will launch St. Matthew's Rosalie this Sunday, 2nd February.

Some facts you need to know:

1. We are setting up chairs, stage, & PA on Saturday. We need about six able bodied people at 2:30pm Sat at Rosalie School to set up chairs and staging. email me if you can help gavs@bigpond.net.au or. Once we get the process right we are going to roster able bodied adults into teams of 5 or 6 to be on set up 5 times a year.
2. Creche (0 to Kindergarten) will be in the School Library, at least for the moment.
3. Kids Church (Kindergarten to year 5), Year 6 , and Youth Group (Year 7 Up) will all meet in the church building.
They will cross the road together under Leader supervision, led by Jeremy Chapppel and his team.
4. We will use the staff adult toilets in the school admin block for our nose powdering needs.
5. We are having a sausage sizzle (Gold coin donations) BYO meat, or salad, or drinks if you want more.
6. We will serve tea and coffee outside the art room.
7. Let me encourage you to come at 9:45am so we can enjoy the build up and new location together.
8. Kanishka is kicking off a new series in ACTS 9-17 this Sunday.
9. Look out for the "Serving at St. Matthew's Rosalie" Booklet and the sign up sheet.

Thank you for your prayers and patience
Cheers
Gavin

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

St. Matt's at Rosalie

Here is a thumbnail of our new banner
for St. Matthew's at Rosalie