Simple Church

News from Jakarta

This is an email received regarding the school…

Hi Stuart,

After make the payment and get the keys from the owner of the property, we plan to move right away so by early of September we start the school in that place. After we move, we can fix the floor and the wall in the place we’re using now not too hurry so the result will be good and wouldn’t disturb the children that’s why we need also the money for the furniture because we haven’t any furniture for learning activities except the cubical offices for 6 students and few shelves. Right now we have 15 students so we need 9 cubical offices more and 15 chairs.

I’ve upload some pictures of Safari Blessing Trip in the blog www.xogen.blogspot.com and still uploading some more. I hope by tomorrow it will finish so you can look the program that we made lately. We plan to make this Blessing Trip every month.

We’re really blessed for your support in the school and the students really overwhelm with the joy and the fact that God is answered their prayer miraculously. Do you know, the students have been praying for the new place for the school for 1 year, and ever since they heard God is answered their prayer though they haven’t seen the place yet, they keep giving thanks to God every morning in the assembly.

Thanks again, Stuart!

God bless you

Eddy

Two Great Messages from NT Wright

Take some time for a view of the Kingdom of God that may surprise and encourage you…

Resurrection and the Future World
http://resources.coths.org/sermons2007/20070317_lecture1.mp3

Resurrection and the Task of the Church
http://resources.coths.org/sermons2007/20070317_lecture2.mp3

(Just copy and paste the web address into your browser)

Stuart

pricesatnvc

Hi nvc Partners
We’re now coming up to our fifth Sunday with the church here at Nakasi and over a quarter of our time has already gone.
Campus Crusade have been helping the church to get out into the local community by giving away copies of “The Jesus Video”. Early in July 10 teams (around 24 people) distributed copies into over 160 homes and ten days ago we tried to revisit them and talk about their responses. However we were only able to get back to about 40 homes and 10 of those need to be re- visited again because we only had 10 people on the team. Most of the people visited were very interested to talk more, quite a number asked us to pray for them (mostly for illness in their families), and 15 chose to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s a good strategy, but we feel so overwhelmed by the opportunities. Campus Crusade have now totally handed the follow up to our church and only the surface has been scratched and there are so many people out there waiting for us to return and talk to them as promised. The statement “such a huge harvest of interest, but so few workers” has never seemed so relevent to us.
We are concerned to notice when responding to needy people there is often an assumption that if you trust in the Lord, then he will heal you. We know this happens in some cases, but not always, and sometimes God chooses to answer our requests in ways, or at times, that we don’t necessarily want or expect. So we need wisdom in presenting needs to our God, who wants us to give him the desires of our hearts, and supporting people through the outcomes of that – whatever they may be – with integrity.
There’s been a lot of illness around – mainly flu-like but we are so thankful to have avoided it ourselves so far. This has meant quite a few have been absent from church gatherings so the turn-outs have generally been low on quantity but good on quality. We have had some wondeful times getting alongside and sharing with people.
There’s a good core in the youth group but they seem to have lost focus and motivation – so we are planning to meet for them to have fun and play well together while they learn and grow in their relationship with God and each other. Rob’s well established title of “the creative treasure hunt expert” put them in a situation they have never experienced before. It was so funny watching them, and giving advise, on how to solve these obtuse instructions on how to find the next clue and finally pieces of the treasure map. the exercise was used to teach some helpful lessons about how we journey through life with others. For next meeting we plan to use the movie “Paying It Forward” to encourage them into some world changing thinking.
On Sundays we have been sharing the preaching and working through themes on the purpose of the Church. The services are very different mainly because worship is difficult without good musical leadership. The only musical instrument they have is a set of drums which they are still learning to play and those who lead the singing are not well equipped for it. However the young people in particular are very responsive to learning new instruments and new songs and we are trying to steer them in new directions. We have noticed what we think are some “God-incidents” pointing towards acquiring some more appropriate musical instruments and teaching/training people to use them well.
The women have been in the habit of meeting together on the last Sunday of the month in a small group after church – so when this happened last week, we decided to create small group meetings for the men and the youth also – they responded well with discussion on Loris’ message, some sharing, and praying for one another. Although the church has structured some small group meetings during the week there is still a lot that can be done to build relationships within the church community and with neighbours. There was a women’s group meeting at the church on Tuesday mornings but after two weeks of only one lady and her daughter turning up, Loris suggested meeting in her home instead. That ended up in very significant ministry with that woman’s mother, her mother’s neighbour, another neighbour with that neighbour’s mother and daughter as well. Get that!! Tomorrow that group will move to another home with at least two other church women involved.
Over the last few weeks we have been guiding the church to appoint a new team of church leaders for the Nakasi Church as well as nominating a trustee for the Fiji Community Churches of Christ. That process culminates in some voting next Sunday morning and we are praying that the people will be led by the Lord in the way they vote because these will be the people who will help to shape the future of the Church here in Fiji.
We thank God for our relationship growing with Eliki and Lata nearby in Narere. We not only find them mentoring us well, but offering us good resources for ministry in this area. Their work is based on a strong Sunday School that sees not only large numbers of kids turning up each week, but their parents as well. We are hopeful that they will guide us in the development of Sunday School, Youth and Music ministry at Nakasi.
A highlight of last week was a surprise visit to Vani, our house-girl of 20 years ago, and her grand-daughter Joanna, who was only three when we last saw her. Loris had written to tell her we were coming, but she never got the letter. All she could say when she saw us was: “I could just punch you!” Lots of laughing and old stories and still lots more to tell when we meet up again in a week or so.
We have been very encouraged by the expressions of your support that have come, often at the times when we needed a bit of a lift – and we thank God for that. Would you also join with us in thanking God for:
- The homes we have been welcomed into, and the openness of people living here to know more about Jesus;
- Good health and a refreshing couple of days away a week ago when we escaped for “time-out” down the coast;
- Supportive relationships we are finding to encourage us and steer us in the right direction.
Please also pray with us for:
- The appointment of enthusiastic and godly men and women to lead the church here;
- Relationships within the church to grow really well – strong, healthy and close; including between the four couples pastoring in our churches;
- Persistent illness in the church and in the neighbourhood and how to serve well in this context;
- Loris also needs relief from being viscously targeted by mosquitoes who seem to be attracted to her.
We have also become burdened to make the words of the simple little song – “Let There Be Love Shared Among Us” our prayer for Fiji -”May now Your love sweep this nation, Cause us, O Lord, to arise Give us a fresh understanding Of family love that is real Let there be love shared among us …”
Please join us in praying that the Church of Fiji would have a fresh understanding of what it means to live a life of love that would bring about a change in this nation.
Thankyou for your partnership with us – we also have conversations with God for you.
In His Strength,
Rob & Loris

Loris Price

Greetings from Fiji

Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge

The talk at NVC today looked at how Jesus, as revealed in the bible (and with the Holy Spirit guiding us) provides reliable, useful moral and spiritual knowledge.  Christians are not expected believe without knowledge.  The talk drew from Dallas Willard’s book of the same title.  The audio and accompanying notes are available by clicking the “Sunday Messages” link above.

Willard’s book is available here and here.

Resurrection and renewal: some further reading

By Nathan Hobby

Those of you who were there on Sunday would know that I spoke on the idea that going to heaven when you die is not the full picture of our Christian hope. Instead, we wait in heaven for our resurrection and life on a renewed earth, where God’s will is done as it is in heaven and the potential of the things we have done on earth is fulfilled. If you missed it, the audio is now up – http://www.nvc.org.au/messages.htm.

For those who wanted to do some more reading on the subject, here’s some resources that discuss these ideas:

• David Lawrence, Heaven : It’s Not the End of the World [123 pages]
  - This book is hard to get hold of; it was published in 1995 by Scripture Union UK. You can order it on Amazon; Koorong might be able to get hold of it, and you can borrow it from Vose Seminary Library in Bentley.
• Tom Wright, Surprised By Hope [338 pages]
  - Koorong should have this one on its shelf (about $30), and again you can borrow it from Vose. It’s a recent book and covers everything in some detail, including a lengthy analysis of popular misconceptions about heaven. It’s a long read, but worthwhile.
• Tom Wright, New Heavens New Earth [24 pages]
  - This is a much better length and briefly discusses the biblical basis for the idea of a new earth. It was published by Grove Books in the UK in 1999. Network Vineyard people should contact me and I should be able to lend it to you.

The resources on the web are not as thorough, but Tom Wright has given a sermon on this topic and Byron Smith has written an impressive series on his blog.

It was great to respond to some of the questions you had at the end. If you want to continue dialogue in response to the sermon, please leave a comment, though I’m away from Thursday to Sunday, so may be slow replying.

I just have to reproduce the quote from Tom Wright that I finished the sermon with from page 219 of Surprised By Hope -

You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to fall over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown in the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are – strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself – accomplishing something which will become, in due course, part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings, and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God. God’s recreation of his wonderful world, which has begun with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.

David Lawrence, Heaven : It’s Not the End of the World [123 pages]
Tom Wright, Surprised By Hope [338 pages]
Tom Wright, New Heavens New Earth [24 pages]

Internet
- The full text of this sermon will be available on http://perthanabaptists.wordpress.com.
- http://nothing-new-under-the-sun.blogspot.com/2006/11/heaven-in-rear-view-mirror-links.html

Does “Missional” Fit With “Doin’ The Stuff”?

We talk a fair bit these days about being “missional”.  In fact, being missional explains a lot about the “network” idea at Network Vineyard Church.   But we are also part of the Vineyard movement, and seeing God do powerful things is part of our DNA … ministry done with an expectation that God will do the same sort stuff that Jesus did; ie. “doin’ the stuff”.

This post at Scot McKnight’s blog has a go at aligning “missional” with “doin’ the stuff” and is worth a read.

Are you reconciled? TEAR WA Conference in Sorrento

Do you know about the great work which TEAR does? The letters stand for Transformation Empowerment Advocacy and Relief, and its motto is ‘engaging Christians in Australia in God’s work of justice and compassion.’ Amongst many thing, they support agency work for justice and mercy amongst many poor and disadvantaged people around the world.

Every two years, TEAR WA holds a conference, and the next one is coming up 18-20 September 2009 at the Ern Halliday Conference Centre in Sorrento. The theme is ‘Reconciliation’, and that’s reconciliation in its broadest sense:

2009 is the international year of reconciliation – what does it mean to be reconciled with God, neighbour, self and the land – to experience and work for what the Scriptures describe as Shalom?

These are the issues we will be exploring over the course of the weekend through speakers, workshops, discussion times and various creative mediums.

This year we are pleased to be partnering with Forge WA – an organisation that seeks to equip Christian leaders for mission in our local, Australian context. Their sessions will be running concurrently with TEAR’s on Saturday and conference delegates are welcome to attend either.

One of the organisers is our old friend and former member, Andrew Broadbent. Topics include reconciliation with the environment, with time, with family and with wealth. I (Nathan) will be presenting a paper on Reconciliation and church. I’m going to be focusing on the idea that a diverse church of different races and different classes is actually part of the good news. It is an example to the world and a taste of life in the kingdom, where all nations are brought under one king, Jesus.

You can register online and get more details – http://www.tear.org.au/education/conferences/wa/reconciliation/

- Nathan Hobby

NVC 24 Hour Prayer

NVC 24 Hour Prayer
Saturday 8.00 am to Sunday 8.00 am 8-9th August 2009

Our vision is that God would move in an transforming way in people’s lives as they press into him and for those people they “stand in the gap” for.

At it’s most simple, this is “a way of getting as many people as possible to lock themselves in a room with God for an hour and see what happens” (24-7 prayer movement). We want to encourage the corporate fellowship to seek, worship and dialogue with the Lord. We want to encourage people to grow a passion for God’s presence, encourage greater faith and answers to prayer, enrich the life of the fellowship and the relationships therein.

The prayer and worship can and does take many forms: word, thought, music, song, dance, drawing, painting, Christian meditation,” praying in tongues”, etc. It is as creative as you want and as The Lord leads.

We pray that this event will generate an appetite for this sort of intentional corporate prayer activity and fellowship, and that prayer meetings of all shapes and sizes will become a regular “feature” of our community life. Community prayer life is a strong theme in the book of Acts and in the early church to great effect .

I encourage the fellowship to sign up for a slot(s) (hourly on the hour). Please consider praying with your partners, families, life cells or groups. Of course, please feel free to do more than one slot if that is your heart’s desire.

Matthew 18:19-20: “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

It is our intention to present whatever The Lord has given us over this period to the fellowship during the Sunday morning service on the 9th.

To sign up or futher enquires, contact:

• jerry@nvc.org.au
• Tel: 0447 447 391
• Sign up Sheet at NVC Sunday Worship Service

God Bless All with answers to prayer

Jerry J