What have I been up to?

Hey guys since I last Blogged it has been CRAZY!!

Last Saturday I met with my team and we discussed the things we need to do before the launch on March 1st. We feel like things are going well with Bible studies starting up next week. I also saw a friend of mine who is a great drummer play at a bar in the afternoon. He was a Christian once, pray that he will realize music is not enough but Jesus is what he really needs.

Sunday I preached three times on Hell at my now old Church Christ Church Mortdale. At the night service a bunch of people just walked in off the streets that don’t usually go to Church. Pray that they will come back and they will learn to love Jesus. I love preaching at Mortdale and will miss these guys greatly. Pray for them as they are looking for a new minister and also pray for the Assistant Brendan McLaughlin. He is a great brother who I love and he would value your prayers as he is effectively running a Church with no senior minister.

Monday was spent doing a heap of reading on Luke because I am preaching through it at church till Easter 2010. It was the first day that I really dug into reading since last year and so it was a very tiring day. At night I met up with a guy named Matt Freeman. We ate together and had a great time being accountable to each other and talking about Mark Devers nine marks. Matt is hoping to go to Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Mark Dever’s Church) as an intern. It would be great for him and I am just a little bit jealous that I never thought of going and doing that. Matt is a great preacher and a loving brother pray for him that he would go over there and that it would make him into the loving pastor that he wants to be.

Tuesday was the day I was dealing the Government so it was off to Centrelink then job futures and then the RTA. It was a depressing day because I was thinking about my mates from college starting their jobs, living in their new homes and getting a paycheck and here I was not sure if anyone will turn up to my Church, in a crappy smelly house and almost broke. Then I went to lunch with Paul Liao, a guy in my Church plant. We had a great Thai meal and were enjoying each others company when I got an encouraging call from the Department of Fair trading saying our latest constitution was rejected and that we couldn’t call the church Foundation. So I sent out a text to almost everyone in my phone that if they come up with the best name for a Church I will shout them dinner in Newtown.

Here were some of them (you can use any of them because we aren’t)
• Foundasian (but we would have to start an Asian Church)
• Themelios (Foundation in Greek)
• Zacchaeus’s house
• Track one
• Revolution

Anyway, we as a Church plant team couldn’t decide on one so we went with the name I came up with when I first started out and so now the Church is called Resolved.
I chose Resolved because iis a strong word which says you have a made a decision and it will remind me to keep preaching the work despite all the hindrances and all that comes my way.
Tuesday night I met with two people, both about starting bands, one a rock band and the other an RnB band. The first one was a girl who I have done some work with before, we talked about the band, what songs we would do and then we switched and chatted about her marriage and how that was going and then my relationship status, whether I drink, have sex, masturbate etc. It was a weird conversation but I talked to her about Jesus and the difference between religion and the Gospel. She didn’t get it because she was always asking so can you do this? What about this? I think it will take a lot of these conversations before the penny drops. It reminded me of Paul’s charge to Timothy to preach the Gospel with great patience and careful instruction. The people I want to reach out to have so many walls up that they will have to hear the Gospel again and again and again before they get it even intellectually. The second conversation was with an ex Australian idol guy who is a great singer. We chatted about songs, who to get in the band etc. I hope these bands get up and get gigs because it would be a great opportunity to play fun music, get paid well and most importantly build relationships and share the Gospel. I then chatted online to three different non Christians who I am meeting up with next week. They are all people who I have reconnected with through Facebook and they all are interested in hearing more about the church. Pray that God spirit will move and these people will come to church and they will turn to love Jesus.

Wednesday my girlfriend came back from Thailand and so I took a day off and spent the day with her and her family.

Thursday I went to Centrelink again and had another meeting that lasted a whole 3 minutes but the waiting in line is really where it is at. I think when you walk into Centrelink someone should punch you in the face and you would be like “Oh, someone punched me in the face. I guess waiting in line is not so bad after all!” I listened to two whole John Macarthur sermons while waiting in line so that is how long I was in line!!!
The rest of the day was spent doing some study for an exam I have got next week and fixing up our constitution and sending it off again. I also started an event on Facebook to invite people our Bible studies, I pray that many people will come. At night two mates fixed my car which was hit last year. It looks like a bomb but it should get me from A to B. I shouted them a nice steak and a few drinks for thanks which was fun.

Today I was looking for a new place to stay, answering emails and chatting on Facebook to some guys who were interested in the Church. I also applied for Job with CMS which is a 4 day a week job which will pay the bills and give me a few days in which to work for the Church. I am going, with my girlfriend, to see Laura Nolan sing at the Excelsior hotel in Glebe which should be fun. Laura is a friend who is coming to the Church after she goes to America in a few days.

As I read over my blog and my diary I am thinking of the amount of non Christian contacts I have. In the last two weeks I have met with 14 non Christians who I am actively praying for. As a church planter it is so easy to get caught up with constitutions, structures and internal issues. These things need to be done but we as church planters need to be the ones who are setting the evangelistic temperature of the church. If we are not out there talking with non Christians and seeking to share the gospel with them why would the people in our church evangelize? Here are some things to think about:

• Take your diary out and notice in the last month how many meetings/dinners/drinks you have had with non Christians.
• How many friends that are non Christians do you have who would happily sit done and eat with you?
• How many non Christians have you invited to church or an evangelistic event in the last year?
• Have you got specific time each day set aside to pray for more non Christian friends, for more opportunities to share the gospel and for your friends to became Christian?
• What aspects of the gospel would your friends most want to hear? For example to my friends who with catholic backgrounds I emphasize Grace, to my friends who have had a bad relationship with their parents I may emphasize the love of the father etc. I always try to talk about the cross but I try to do this in a way which confronts either a need or unbelief in their life.
• Do you support your non Christian friend’s interests? When they invite you to their kids party or a gig they like or a movie screening do you go? If not why would they come to your church? And do you REALLY love them?
• How honest are you with them? Have you shared your life with them? Have you shared what is wrong in your heart with them? Be real and honest with them and they will be real and honest with you.
• Do they know you love them? Do you serve them with your time and money? Because in the end people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do your non Christians friends know you love them? But more importantly do you love them or are they just another potential evangelistic scalp and no more?