Perth Children's Ministry Convention

Perth Children's Ministry Convention

28 March 2009 Music with Meaning
Venue: St Mark's Anglican Community School St Marks Drive Hillarys

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Workshop Electives PCMC 2009

Singing for non-musicians: Deborah Chappell & Jeremy Chappell
Singing is a great gift from God, to connect fact and feeling. But what if you can't sing? Or sing on one note? Or are embarrassed to sing? This workshop will use fun exercises to help you overcome some of these inhibitions and to equip you, a non-musician, with ideas on how to lead singing with children.

Writing songs for children : David Hummerston

This workshop will now consist of two sessions: Part A from 1.30-2.30 and Part B from 4.00-5.00. In the first session David Hummerston will share his experience of writing songs for children and then focus on the importance of beginning with the child, using his/her life and language to communicate truth. In the second session participants will work in groups and begin to construct lyrics and music to fit a range of child profiles. It is desirable, but not essential to do the first session if you want to do the second.

Integrating children's music and church music: Sharon Jackson & Ann Bettison

This workshop is designed for church music teams and their leaders. It will give practical examples of how to break down the separation that can exist between congregational music and children's music.

Drama and music to enhance music: John & Ellie Macpherson

Looking for new ways to involve children in songs? There are simple ways to build fantastic drama and movement ideas around the right songs. In this workshop John and Ellie will demonstrate the creative process involved in dramatising a song. Then you will be able to work in groups to begin developing your own ideas around a song. We will be using original songs written for this purpose on the theme of Christmas and Easter. You will go away with a working process and a sample of songs.

Using mainly music in outreach to families with young children: Adrienne Robinson

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to discover the worldwide outreach of mainly music, connecting church and community, reaching caregiver and child at the same time through a fun filled 30 minute session of music, action and rhyme, followed by morning tea and playtime. mainly music enables a team of volunteers of all ages to journey alongside those who attend. It caters for families with children ages 0-5, with 280 groups in Australia and more than 25 in W.A. In this workshop you will have the opportunity to experience an interactive mainly music session. You will also discover: why mainly music? how to set up your own group
how God has used mainly music See http://www.mainlymusic.org.au/ for further information


Technology and music: Jillian Flynn & Oliver Lindsell

Don't know your MP3 from your DVD? Caught between a ROM and a hard drive? In a dilemma over what technology is available to aid music time in your Children's Ministry? Advances in music technology have surged forward in recent years, leaving many of us behind or confused about what is available and how it can be used effectively to enhance music time. This workshop will unravel the mystery that is Music Technology: some of the tools avaiable, the limitations and benefits it offers and its place in helping with music time. By the time you leave, you will be able to decide what technology best suits your ministry with resources available.

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To the ends of the earth: Acts 9-7 study guide

The Acts 9-17 study guide is available

to coincide with our talk series. This is for individuals in personal reading of the Bible, or for small groups to use together

Click here to download PDF Version

enjoy

Gavin

The Fifteen minute challenge after church

As God's people we are called to love our neighbour and love the stranger.

St. Matthew's Rosalie has had a good number of visitors and inquirers among us each Sunday.

Sometimes in our busyness to see the regulars or get the admin jobs done, we can inadvertantly overlook the vistors and the strangers.

I want to encourage you to take the first fifteen minutes after church has finished to deliberately welcome the people you don't know. This way we tighten our net of hospitality to visitors and seekers. Say no admin, say no to chairs, say no to
other jobs...welcome the stranger especially.

People are more important than jobs!

"they will know we are christians by our love"

Gavin

PS Do deal with the chairs though, after you have welcomed the people!

What a catch

Minute for Mission: Paris

Our mission focus this post is on our CMS Link missionary, Libby Leach. Libby continues to work in Paris among students at the Sorbonne University. The Christian students are presently surveying other students to find out the 5 most FAQ relating to religious issues. In mid-March these questions will be answered on three consecutive nights.

Do pray for Christian students as they survey, and for the work of the Holy Spirit in other students' hearts that they will want to spend time thinking oabout deeper issues of life. It is a major evangelistic thrust and they are calling it Veritas Dialogues. They are encouraged that the university has given permission for two of the nights to be held on the university campus!! With sharp church/state separation in France this is indeed rare. .

Libby herself is enjoying life. Her two ministry trainees, Claire and Jungmin are doing very well studying the Bible with Christian students and encouraging them to share their faith. Libby's own group at the New Sorbonne is keen to grow.

BT

Responding to the Fires

Jean Williams writes in Sola Panel:

Every morning I wake up and it's okay—until, with a dull thud, it comes back to me: image after image of people who died in the fires; rows of army tents with homeless people staying in them; entire communities that have been wiped out; my friend whose parents lost their house; a family known to me who died in their car in their driveway; a 12-year-old girl, badly burned, whose parents and sister died.

How do we respond to a tragedy like this? I've been thinking about this ever since I heard the news. How have you responded? Here's some of the ways I'm trying to respond:

Click here for the full editorial

GP

The Gospel and the Poor

Tim Keller writes:

"The original question I was asked to address was "How does our commitment to the primacy of the gospel tie into our obligation to do good to all, especially those of the household of faith, to serve as salt and light in the world, to do good to the city?" I will divide this question into two parts: (1) If we are committed to the primacy of the gospel, does the gospel itself serve as the basis and motivation for ministry to the poor? (2) If so, how then does that ministry relate to the proclamation of the gospel?..."

Click here for the full Themelios essay from Tim Keller

GP

Victorian Bushfire Appeal

Here is some info for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009 for your consideration

The 2009 Victorian Bushfire Fund to assist individuals and communities affected by devastating bushfires in Victoria has been launched by the Premier John Brumby in partnership with Red Cross and the Federal Government. A number of corporate organisations including NAB, ANZ, CBA and Wesfarmers have also contributed to the fund.

As at 3pm on the 10th February, the Fund had received $25.7 million from over 139,000 website and phone donations, with governments including the Victorian Government and Federal Government and corporates pledging additional sums. Donations are still continuing to flow in.

Click for website details

Gavin

M4M: indigenous ministries

I think I speak for us all when we grieve over the apparently insoluble problems within our indigenous communities. I have been reading Richard Trudgen's book "Why Warriors Lie Down and Die" and it is very sobering. It seems that policy after policy has been designed by we 'whiteys' with little understanding of the cultures for which the policies are designed, and a great deal of ignorance of the languages spoken by our indigenous Australians.

The St Matthew's short term mission trip to Groote Eylandt last July hightlighted a number of ways we could support the indigenous ministries of CMS to the top end. We recently helped publish 50 copies of John's Gospel in the anindilykwan langauage. We hope to do the same with the book of Revelation. There are further opportunities to digitize language tapes presently held at Nungalinya College in Darwin. This work could possibly be done in Perth or perhaps better in Darwin and would only take a week or so. If there is anyone who has the necessary equipment and expertise and a week or so of time, it would mean that valuable material could be put to very good use amongst the indigenous people of Arnhem land.

Nearer to home, it would be good for us to be more aware of what Christian outreach is going on among the indigenous people living in Perth and the south-west. In Langfor, which is near Thornlie, there is the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship Bible College. They have struggled to build new lecture rooms this past year, and still lack the necessary furniture and equipment to make it really functional. The Principal is Rev Clive Hayden and he is also the National Chairman of the Aboriginal Evangelical Church. He asks us to pray for more students to enrol for this year so that the need for more trained pastors can be met. Pastor Greg Kelly and his wife both trained at the AEF Bible College and have been serving the Langford Church for the past six years. He has been greatly encouraged by the pastoral care of Bruce Smoker, an old man now living at Gracewood Retirement Village, who has served as a missionary to our aboriginal people for all of his life.

The Aboriginal Evangelical Church in Balga has been led for many years by Rev Harley Hayward. When we went there we were impressed with the love for Jesus so freely displayed and the sense of community that was evident. These men are working with people who are suffering a great sense of alienation and their work is not easy. They deserve our prayers. Let us pray for the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship Bible College and the aboriginal churches in our State.

B T

Minute for Mission: African enterprises

This M4M focuses on the work of African Enterprise. It was founded by Michael Cassidy in 1962 with the aim of evangelising the cities of Africa through word and deed in partnership with the Church. It aims to do this through evangelism, social action, reconciliation and leadership development. It is evangelical, team-based and seeks to reach all stratas of society to bring peace to the fractured communities. It has now spread across four continents. The group "Foxfire" who visited us last year are part of their ministry and Stephen Lungu is the International Team Leader.

He actually has preached here at St Matthews. His story is truly rivetting and enriched my summer as I read his story in "Out of the Black Shadows". From abandoned childhood and years of homelessness hunger and illiteracy, his life was transformed by the Gospel and the love and care of Christians. He now is their international team leader. His story epitomises the work of African Enterprise and deserves our support and our prayers.

BT

Short term mission update

Peter and Doreen Chia's son Paul is oon a short term mission trip, He Writes:

In February 2009, I will be travelling in a group of 4 young Christian people to India, to experience firsthand the work for God’s Kingdom of gospel agencies in these places to reach people who have not heard the gospel. Why go to India, even despite the front-page headlines of Mumbai recently? Because we have been gripped by the need to plant churches amongst the most unreached people groups and the fulfilment of Matthew 24:14, and have become aware of these partners committed to doing this. We go so that we can see the work of these agencies that we support - how our prayers and money are being harnessed**, and help raise partnering of these mission/church-planting/Bible-distributing agencies by commending them to people back home.

Nearly 3 billion people are still UNREACHED with the gospel of Jesus Christ. HALF the world has yet to hear. If the doors are shut, how will these unreached multitudes ever hear the Gospel? After WWII, many countries gained independence. Most of the nations in Asia, where 97% of the world’s unreached people live, severely restrict or are closed to foreign missionaries. **Some of the figures quoted by agencies like Gospel For Asia are hard to believe!!

GFA’s vision is to send out 100,000 native missionaries into the most unevangelised areas of the 10/40 Window. Today, by God’s grace, more than 16,500 are already on the field in ten Asian countries—preaching the Gospel full-time and winning people to Christ. 98% of all GFA’s native missionaries are working in unevangelised areas.That’s why GFA has established 67 Bible colleges on the Indian subcontinent, where nearly 10,000 students currently prepare for pioneer ministry. All ministry work done by the native missionaries contributes toward the goal of planting local churches. GFA’s native missionaries have so far established more than 30,000 + churches and fellowships. Currently our missionaries are establishing an average of 11 fellowships each day. God uses prayer to align people with His purposes, and to bring about His Kingdom - Your Kingdom come! Therefore, people praying for this Kingdom work may well stir them to be more and more Kingdom minded.And people pray for people they know/connected to, more than for faceless organisations. This is a significant reason for us going rather than just talking about some agencies without actually going. And this is why the significance of our pastor Rory of Unichurch, praying with the Unichurch congregation for me going on this trip, is not lost on the Unichurch people. People would also be more encouraged to pray, the more personal the request - so people of Claremont Baptist could be moved to pray for me as they know me and also because they know my girlfriend Yun, and people of the 10am St Matthew's congregation might be stirred to pray for me as they know my parents. If it is possible for me to say a few words about the trip to the congregations before leaving for India on 6 February, to stir up prayer, do you think this would be worthwhile? We will certainly be brought to our knees in earnest prayer on our trip, and we greatly appreciate the prayers of our sending churches and brothers and sisters back home! We have no doubt that we will depend greatly on the prayers, as God moves people to pray, in pastoral prayers by the church ministry team
congregational prayers in Sunday services and in small groups,

Your brother, for His Kingdom!

Paul Chia

The 10,000th visit to this Blog

Congratulations to Kevin Kendell
for being the 10,000th clicker to the TenAM Blog.
(and I thought only my mum looked at this site...)
Kevin is entitled to a self funded night out with

the St. Matthew's staff member of his choice.
Choose wisely Big Kev!
Keep clicking
Gavin

Serving at St.Matthew's Rosalie

In case you missed the paper version at church
here is a copy of our Serving at st Matthew's Rosalie Booklet
It describes the specific ways you can serve in our church
and gives you a way to sign up.
serving_at_st_matts_rosalie_booklet_final_2 105.07 Kb
serving_at_st_matts_rosalie_insert_v2 41.57 Kb

Click here for Serving Booklet

Let me know if you have any questions
Gavin

All congregations prayer meeting

Just a reminder in case you missed the notices.

On Tuesday 10th February, 2009 7:45pm till 9:00ish we are having our all congregation prayer meeting.

It is a chance for us to begin the year in prayer for the life of our church and the various initives undertaken. your small group might make it an excursion.

please come and join us in prayer, you don't need to pray out loud but add your amen to ours.

Cheers

Gavin

Minute for mission from Arnhem Land

Hi Friends,
I've been in Gove for almost two weeks now and already I feel like I've been here forever!
Gove is an amazing place on the edge of Arnhem Land, over-looking the Arafura Sea. This time of year is 'The Wet' which means it's hot, humid and monsoonal downpours occur most afternoons. Parts of the country resemble rainforests and the ocean is warm and filled with coral reefs and islands. Most of the 3000 people in the actual town are miners working at the Rio Tinto Alcan bauxite mine and refinery. The Yolngu People are the lands traditional owners and reside both in town and in countless communities throughout Arnhem Land. The Gove District Hospital where I work is largely an Indigenous health care service and 90% of our admissions are Indigenous people. It's a general hospital which means there are facilities for obstetrics, surgery, paediatrics and general medicine. The hospital also provides doctors for aeromedical evacuations and visits to remote communities for GP style consultations.

Besides working, which is fairly time consuming, I'm getting the opportunity to get out into the community and coastline. Over the Australia day long weekend I visited Turtle beach with some Aboriginal people and watched them hunt for turtle eggs! Fortunately (for the baby turtles!) we didn't find any and had to make do with a catch of fish (spanish flag). The water was amazingly warm and we escaped being attacked by any crocs, box or irukanji jellyfish. The people I was with speak a Yolngu Martha dialect and I had to work hard to make conversation in English. I'm keen to learn some of the local language and have enrolled in a language course that begins in March.
The numerous billabongs and creeks have been some of my favourite places to hangout. I visited one last weekend with a family I met at the local Uniting church. Water buffalo also like to use the water holes and can be quite dangerous, but I've not been lucky enough to see one yet.

Socially I've been playing social AFL footy every week and hope to join the league once it kicks off in a couple of months. It's a good chance to meet the locals and I went with a few of the players to a local band on playing on Sunday night. It was good night and I don't think there will be a shortage of things to on the weekends in Gove. I also went for a fun-run with some keen runners on Australia day and am looking forward to my bike arriving so I can start riding with some cyclists I met.

I live in the 'Town flats' which are on 'Town beach' so i'm pretty much only 100m walk away from shops or the beach. I seem to have inherited a wild sulfur crested cockatoo which flys to my balcony everyday looking for food. I can see the Ocean from my balcony and feel like I'll settle in quickly to my new home.

Overall I feel like I'm enjoying Gove and am glad I signed up for a year. It will be nice to stay in one place for a bit longer than did in South Africa and Broome. I feel like a lot has changed in the last year and remember writing a letter on Australia Day last year from South Africa. While a lot has changed I feel grateful for the opportunities I've had to have unique experiences and am relishing the chance to get into this new community. I'll send some photos once my camera gear arrives in a few weeks.
Cheers
Daniel Claughton

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

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

9381 2640 gavs@bigpond.net.au

Even the Creche changed...

St. Matthew's Rosalie: The Launch