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Are You a Trader…

November 1, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

Unlike the Cretens, who “claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (1:16) the redeemed people of God are to ” in every way …make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” (2:10).

How do we make attractive the gospel? Repeatedly throughout the letter of Titus, Paul tells us that it is by trading in foolish talk and unprofitable activity for doing good:

2:7   by doing what is good.

2:14  eager to do what is good.

3:1    to be ready to do whatever is good,

3:8    be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

3:14   learn to devote themselves to doing what is good,

What does it look like to be eager, be ready, be careful, be devoted to doing what is good?
It will mean sacrificially giving time, energy, money, love, compassion, resources, to those who are in need of physical and spiritual need:

  • Meeting 1:1 to read the bible with a new Christian
  • Turning up to church early and leaving late so to chat to new people and love the body of Christ
  • Staying back for work drinks to build relationships with you non-Christian collegues
  • Helping out on outreach events at church
  • See a gap in the ministry at your church – why not take the initative and start something up
  • Go on a short term mission preaching the gospel
  • Being a helper and diligent worker in your workplace
  • Making a phone call
  • Start up a prayer triplet to pray and care for other at church
  • Being regular to your connect group and church to build up the body of believers and show you value them
  • Building a house with Habitat for Humanity
  • Inviting a neighbour over for dinner
  • …. the list of doing good is endless.

But where does all this fit in your week?

Will this mean adding 10 more things to you working week and home life, and be running around like a chook without its head on?

Learn to live a simple life… the sacrifice might not just be the doing good but also in not doing other things. To enable you and free you up to do good – you might actually have to say no to a promotion and be content with the job you have to maintain flexible hours outside of work or maybe saying no to some of your ‘leisure time’… those social events you have to be seen at!!!

Write a list of the things you do in you average week – are they profitable and excellent for everyone… Cull the things that aren’t and start doing more of the things that are.

The BluefishTV website (see image at top of post) talks about life being a TRADER… I think it is a great way of describing the life of one who is eager and careful to do what is good. People who trade extra hours at work, convenience, vacations and the like  in for doing other things which they see to be profitable and excellent for everyone.

Community, Evangelism, Ideas, Jesus, Social Action

12 Mistakes of Christmas #2 Not being creative

October 15, 2009 by hayleyneal 1 Comment

Picture 7

Pop you Green Thinking Cap when planning Christmas. Creative thinking and letting people run with statements of provocation and investigation, and seeing where a thought may go can often lead to an idea that is just that more a little out of the ordinary. Maybe it is a new Christmas service suiting different demographic or accommodating Families in your services, or thinking up a new way to promote your services or even just shaping new ideas around the gifts and talents and resources and skills they are given to your church family. Some call it the Purple Cow, the WOW principle or the Big Idea.

So let’s ask ourselves, have you been doing the same service/s without much variation every Christmas for the last however many years?

Have you become invisible to your local community because you do the same old, ordinary things?

If they went one year to the Christmas Service would they get the ‘same thing’ if they went the next year? Sure let’s keep the message about Jesus the same but let’s strive for creativity so our churches are seen, people would come and so people would hear the message of Jesus you are preaching.

Church, Ideas, Jesus

Jesus All About Life :: How to Respond to Cheap Shots

September 26, 2009 by hayleyneal 28 Comments

Some people are more interested in paying out Christianity, airing their own opinions, making a mockery of the faith and of you than actually really wanting ot know the answers. The often deflect a healthy discussion about Christianity by offering cheap shots. And we need to be aware of: A fool [who] finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions. (Prov. 18:2)

Sure they may feel passionate about their one-liner but may have nothing to back up the statement they made. Often these statements are sincere but often not. Don’t get me wrong honest questions deserve our best answers. If you don’t know the answers you can always offer to research and get back to them. But more often than not our friends throw us careless one-liner that can high jack the conversation.

Some examples of these one liners that can often derail conversations and make the Christian squirm are:

  • There is no proof of God
  • All Religions are basically the same
  • You shouldn’t force your views on me
  • You can’t trust the bible it is not reliable
  • God can’t really exist because their is so much evil and suffering in the world.

Here are five examples of responses that are questions to help you push your friend to back up their claim and to help you discern whether this is a cheap shot or a genuine question.

  • What do you mean by that?
  • How did you come to that conclusion?
  • Can you give me an example of that?
  • How do you know that?
  • Yeah, wow that is a valid point, can you slow down and tell me how you came to that conclusion?

We should be able require your challenger to back up the claim. Burden of proof should be on the person you makes the claim not on the target of the claim. Get them to back up the claim before you answer. Often they will answer with another general one liner.

Evangelism, Ideas, Tips, Training

Creative Gospel… 36 Parables

September 5, 2009 by hayleyneal 3 Comments

Picture 19

36 Parables… short films for your [youth group] [bible study] [family] [church] [small group]

Great free and accessible resource for you to use for your ministries. I have come across a similar concept Modern Parables and bought the DVD from Koorong. Modern Parables is an expensive resource (1 parable = $24.95 – I think I paid more like $39.95 when I purchased it) and has too much teaching embedded in the film. It would be great if they had just the retelling of the parable that allows your small group to discuss and interpret with our bibles open.

36 Parables is great creative initiative trying to make the gospel more accessible and relevant to our media saturated generation. This resource is in some ways a product I see rectifying “internal churning”... it would be great to perhaps link to videos like these on our church websites and also make sure that organisations like 36 parables have good search keywords tied to its website title and content. They even come with a free downloadable study guide.

Yet again, my challenge still stands to web/film/theologians/evangelists gurus: Jesus is worthy of a good website to explain who he is and the life he has on offer to all. If you have the technical know-how, I’d be happy to consider putting a team together to develop the content…

Let’s be like Jesus go hang where the sinners are: in our generation its on on the web!

Evangelism, Ideas, Resources, Technology

The 12 Mistakes of Christmas… #1 Doing Little

September 4, 2009 by hayleyneal 1 Comment


There are some simple mistakes we make every year at Christmas and withoutashepherd hopes to draw attention to 12 things we could perhaps do better. This is not to critique traditions of ages past, or opportunity to pretend to share all the answers as if I have them all, but a series of posts to promote more thought into how  how our churches and us as individuals can capitalise on all the opportunities that Christmas brings for the gospel.


Picture 6

#1 Doing Little

It’s September… are you plans in motion for Christmas 2009?

You say, what plans… its just the same as last year: A Christmas Day Service.

If that is your response it’s time to rethink the things you do and their effectiveness in capturing the attention of your community at Christmas. Doing little or not making the most of Christmas should be a crime.

Christmas is an easy opportunity for the unchurched to venture to church. Christmas is also one of the easiest times of year to invite unchurched friends and family along to church. Make the most of this festive season!

People will only go to churches they are aware of. If you church is invisible people won’t venture into your church family this Christmas. People will go to a church where they have seen some advertising, heard about it word of mouth, or have a friend, colleague, acquaintance that goes there.

There are some people out there who also are not thinking about going to church this Christmas but are also not opposed to the idea. Do something to gage their interest? To maintain high awareness, a church needs to have a strong community presence during the strategically important Christmas season.

three quick ideas:

  • put on extra services
    carols; candlelight; family; choral; recital; christmas eve; christmas day; OR how about a blue christmas -  a service that seeks to honor the sadness that often comes with the Christmas season as people remember those missed and focus on the hope brought by the news that Christ is with us.
  • door-to-door invites to christmas services
    get some postcards made up and grab a team from your church to personally invite your community along to christmas services. This worship service will seek to honor the sadness that often comes with the Christmas season as we remember those we miss, acknowledge the pain we feel and realize that the darkness will not last–that Christ is with us.
  • host a christmas meal
     put on a FREE christmas lunch and open it up to people in your local community and church family. Its a great way to provide friendship and a tasty meal to those without family or friends to spend christmas with.

  • do publicity
    Start thinking about Church flyers, postcards, posters, signs to promote Christmas. Can you drop bundles of postcards/flyers off at local schools, community centres and get them distributed there? Individuals in your church family can use them to invite friends also.
  • pre-Christmas events
    Christmas Appeal or Toys n Tucker collection within your community… Fair Trade Markets with Christmas flyers ready to hand out; the famous Gingerbread event; as individuals host Christmas Drinks at your home for work collegues, neighbours and friends.
Church, Evangelism, Ideas, Jesus, Tips

LoveSydney

September 2, 2009 by hayleyneal 2 Comments

C3 Church is hosting a free festival celebrating Sydney. There are lots of good things going on Thursday 10th September, providing a fun event for all people from Blue Mountains to Bondi to come together and enjoy good times together. C3 will be investing a lot of time and energy in the wider Sydney area and contributing positively to our city. It looks really exciting to see their efforts to contribute to Reconnect Project Sydney and Jesus All About Life. (and sort of cool or flattering that they included a picture of the I HEART KIRRIBILLI wall).

This large scale event sounds similar to the events RICE puts on annually for youth. These are lots of large scale events out there drawing large crowds. Let’s keep praying in line with what RICE hopes to see:  friends to know the love of God through Jesus and for thousands to hear the good news of Jesus proclaimed!!

Church, Evangelism, Ideas, Jesus

Jesus All About Life

July 23, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

If you turn on your TV this September you will be sure to see an advertisment with a difference… its all about Jesus! During prime time TV there will be a advertising campaign going to air called  “Jesus All About Life” – backed by all the major Christian denominations and the Bible Society. This will be the church’s biggest and sharpest media campaign perhaps since Billy Graham or ever.

How will it work? There will be approximately 40 days on our televisions where professional and high quality advertisements will be screened. Different ads will be aimed at different demographics, but each will promote the person of Jesus, the one who “came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10) and invite people to consider his claims found in Luke’s Gospel.

A Freecall number will be attached to the advertisements, and those who respond will receive a booklet with info about what it means to know Jesus and also be given a Luke’s Gospel. They will also be given details of their nearest church that has registered with ‘Jesus All About Life’.

Are you a ‘Jesus All About Life’ church?
What plans are you making for September?

‘Jesus All About Life’ have lots of resources for churches, but what about resources personally are going to need to make the most of conversational opportunities during the run of the ads?
Are the people at your church ready to have the conversation with the person at work who knows you are Christian?

Don’t ignore the opportunities that lay ahead during this media campaign. We need to be ready to make the most of this incredible opening for the gospel.

IDEAS

Posters out the front of church…

Events

  • Why not make September the time you try getting your church known a little more in the community with some visual activity amongst the community?
  • Put on a Fair Trade Markets this September? or a Spring Fair?
  • Purchase lots of bottled water and stand out the front of your church handing them out for free – everyone loves a free bottle of water… attached your church postcard or advertising flyer to it with an elastic band?

Be Prepared:

  • If your welcoming at church stinks… clean it up! ‘Jesus All About Life’ should act as a incentive to get this vital ministry going at your church. People who have never stepped inside church or are scared or been hurt by church in the past may enter your doors this September – are you ready for them?
  • Got a 2 minute testimony? Sit down and take time to write out your testimony of how God has worked in your life… be ready and prepared to share the hope you have and why Jesus really is all about life.

PRAY…

  • for the TV campaign,
  • those who watch the ads,
  • that God would work powerfully so many would respond,
  • may the Holy Spirit convict people of their sin and grant them repentance and forgiveness.

There are many, many more ideas I am sure… Please feel free to share your ‘Jesus All About Life’ ideas… so together we may better share the good news!

Evangelism, Ideas, Jesus

Art Exhibition & Prize

June 24, 2009 by hayleyneal 1 Comment

Art is often seen to be superfluous and not efficient. It takes time, its production is often done in isolation, it can be very expensive and it demands hard work. Such energy could be better spent elsewhere, right? So why paint landscapes, photograph portraits, write poetry, create shapes, compose or play music?

Art is an on-going conversation. Art is an amazing forum for dialogue within our society. Although it is not the only concern for all artists to make bold statements and assert ideologies about humanity, art provides an arena where truth, identity, origins, beauty and behaviour can be explored and celebrated. We live in a complex world full of beauty and brokenness and we all respond differently to these contradictions, of joys and trials, which we are all faced with in life.      Art has the power to affect and awaken people to this world that we temporally inhabit and open up to people their own emotions. In the words of William Blake, it enables us to see ‘a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.’ Artists and creatives have a unique place in our culture to shape and inform our communities: to tell the stories of its people, to celebrate its achievements, reflect on the anxieties and record the questions of our day. This is reason enough for art.

Church by the Bridge is excited to hold I❤Kirribilli Art Exhibition and Prize, part of its 9-day anniversary celebrations.  This year marks 125 years since the foundation of the church in the Kirribilli community and not only do we want to celebrate our birthday but also the local community we are a part of.  Church by the Bridge loves its many neighbours, its vibrant and beautiful surrounds and its unique history. We are thankful for 125 years here with you.

What better way to celebrate the things we love about our community here in Kirribilli, than through the powerful and evocative means available to us in art?

Arts, Community, Ideas

Cakes ‘n Treats…

June 5, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

Slide1

We already have a free lunch ministry that we run at Church by the Bridge. This happens once a month at church. To continue to build this ministry we decided to do a mid-week afternoon tea at a local housing commission unit block to reach some people who may not normally make the effort to walk up to the church.

This is a low fuss way to get to know some locals and have a presence in the community. Those who came along to the afternoon tea really valued the company and time we spent chatting with them. The more you spend time with them the more you find out their needs, wants, desires and hopes. Slowly we are building some friendships that I pray God will use to speak his gospel into their lives.

We took with us some cakes and treats from the local bakery, milk, coffee (yes, in my faviourite new appliance – the airpot), soft drink bottles and few people from church and most of the staff team.

We asked people from church who have afternoons free to come along to help out and enjoy conversations with the locals. We also asked some of the residents we know there to make an effort to come along and bring their friends.

Community, Evangelism, Ideas

Fair Trade Markets

June 5, 2009 by hayleyneal 0 Comments

CHECK PHOTOS OUT HERE

We run Fair Trade Markets reasobly regularly but they acted as the launch for our 125 year Anniversary Celebration week @ Church by the Bridge with a whole lot of other activity that normally doesn’t happen at these markets. This post and a few following will detail what events we ran to outreach to our community, how we did it, few handy hits, resources & rationale etc.

Fairtrade Markets

Fairtrade Markets we run out the front of the church building, with doors to church open wide for peopel to wander through. (People love looking a churches and curiosity gets the better of them – so let them in)

Before the day:

  1. Design a flyer to stick in the noticeboard out the front of church.
  2. Order products from Tribes & Nations.
  3. Once order has come in, write prices on little sticky labels and place on products.
  4. Order some groovy paper bags to put purchased items in. (google ‘paper bags’ heaps of shops come up – ring and get a good price)
  5. Get some espresso coffee cups from a catering store, milk, stirrers, and sugars.
  6. Ask people at church to bake cupcakes & to be dropped off on the morning of the markets day.

On the day:

  1. Set up market umbrellas, tables with black table cloth (stretch jersey knit fabric – cheap from spotlight, works really well).
  2. Display products out on the table, neatly.
  3. Play some music through CD player.
  4. Put church flyers in the paper bags, so people get the advertising when they make a purchase.
  5. Get coffee ready. (Airpots work a treat, keep coffee hot and look proffessional – get them from catering supplies stores like Reward Distrubution).
  6. Get people to hand out free coffee & cupcakes. “Want to try a sample of fair trade coffee?” “would you like a free cupcake?”

To pump this up for 125 Celebrations we also added a BBQ, had the  I Heart Kirribilli exhibition on in the hall, I heart Kirribilli Tshirts for sale, live music in the courtyard, free helium balloons, kids facepainting & showbags. Lots of activity and buzz that doesn’t require insane amounts of effort.

Little Effort?

Ask one person to head up each thing.

I asked Suzie to head up Fairtrade.
Chris to do BBQ.
Kids church to look after Kids fun.
Laura to get a friend to play music.
Alex to look after t-shirts.
Nicolie to work out the exhibition.

Hand resposibillity over to them, help them out, give them guidence where needed, and farm out to them people from church who have volunteered to help. This saves you from doing all the hard yards, empowers and equips the church to serve and ensures things get done – plus it creates opportunity for everyone to serve, at different capactities.

Community, Ideas, Tips
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