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

Role playing Romans : a 13 week small group course at NVC

Have you ever wanted to understand the Bible better? To go past the familiar verses and learn the background and context? The Role Playing Romans course is thirteen weeks of stimulating immersion in the book of Romans, which will leave you with a new way of looking at the Bible and a much better understanding of Romans, both in terms of its original meaning and its application to the church today.

It’s brain-stretching and involves some reading, but it’s not dry studying. Instead, you’ll be taking on a character in a first century Roman church and have to discuss each chapter of the letter to the Romans through the eyes of your character. Some of you will be slaves, some Jewish merchants, some radical Gentile converts.

The course uses the book Roman House Churches For Today by Reta Halteman Finger. To do the whole course, you will need to buy a copy of the book ($23; we have some extra copies you can buy from us) but you can come along to the first two weeks first to decide if it’s right for you.

“This book is designed to draw learners into the biblical text and the first-century context. What was life like in Rome? for Jews? for women? for slaves? for the well-to-do? for those free but poor? for Christians in households where the head of the household was not Christian? Through action and reflection, learners become first-century persons in Rome and then step outside that world to reflect in our own time and place. Thus we hear and understand the text in and new powerful ways.”
- Linda Vogel, in the foreword to the book.

Where: Hobbys house, 25 Vincent St Nedlands
When: Starting weekly in late July; 7:30pm-9:30pm on a night to be decided

Please register your interest with Nathan or Nicole as soon as you can – nathanhobby@gmail.com / noli_jae@yahoo.com.au / 0405 097 008

No service Sunday 28/12 or Sunday 4/1

Network Vineyard Church will not be holding a Sunday worship gathering on 28/12/08 or 4/1/09.  We hope you can put the time to good use and have fellowship with people at this time or even visit another church. We look forward to seeing everyone back on Sunday 11/1/09 at 10am as normal.

New roster

If you’re ever in doubt about whether you’re on the roster this week, the online version is always the authoritative one. It trumps everything, so to speak:

http://www.nvc.org.au/currentroster.pdf.

- Neale and Nathan.

Vineyard Internet Radio Broadcast

Vineyard Internet Radio Broadcast (VIRB) is now up and running.  For a selection of old and new Vineyard songs and teaching sessions from the Vineyard around the world and Australia go to http://www.vineyard.org.au/