my first month as an apprentice
Happy new year! I hope you've enjoyed the holiday season and you've had a great January. Thank you for your prayer and partnership in the gospel, I am thankful to God for you and his church in supporting me in pursuing full time gospel ministry for the kingdom. Here's some highlights from this month, and I've dropped some reflections and prayer points at the bottom.
my first day in the office with my trainer Jireh
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
I've been reading through Psalms this month, and I've reflected on how they all speak to who Jesus is. Praise God for our Lord and Saviour, and my prayer for you and me this year is that we would imitate him: to delight and meditate in God's law that we might yield fruit for his kingdom.
kicking off the year
Leading up to my start in January I was excited to be working at church but also a little nervous knowing I'd have to endure the initial settling in period - I've definitely felt the busy-ness this month. Adjusting to new work has been tiring, but it has been rewarding in knowing that it ultimately has eternal value. When I reflect on my previous job, I'm reminded of times when I was not sure what value was being provided in the work which we were doing. But as I've been working with a great team at church, everything we do has purpose and aligns with God's mission to see the lost saved, and it's so encouraging to see everyone at church be a part of God's work.
I was commissioned on the first Sunday of the year at both services!
MTS G8 conference
Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) is an organisation which grows gospel workers through ministry apprenticeships - and they have an annual conference for trainees to kick off the year! (note: I'm not doing the formal MTS program, but feel free to ask me why!) I was encouraged to see over 100 apprentices from across Australia who are on for the gospel meet together to share in fellowship with one another. It was a great time to meet and pray for one another, and receive God's word together as we considered how convictions shape our character and ministry. I really appreciated meeting people from all different walks of life, including a trainer from Zimbabwe, and also catching up with older friends who I hadn't seen in a long time!
My network group at G8 with other apprentices, we cover from Melbourne to Brisbane and a few churches inbetween!
kid's ministry
Over the holidays the kid's ministry team is taking a well deserved break, so while our church has been going through the book of Jude we've also been bringing Jude to the kids through a skit! With the help of Rad (the 2nd year apprentice at Captivate) we wrote the script for two of the four weeks - It's a story of how Earth sends one of their travellers to a distant planet called Candytron (where everything is made of Candy), and they come under attack from another planet called Sodius Chloridus, their ruler threatening to turn the whole planet into salt. Each week our main character encourages us from the book of Jude to defend the planet, and in turn defend and contend for the faith which we have in Jesus. Having only briefly done kid's ministry (and not having done it for a long while) I found it challenging but rewarding to write the scripts. To distill the message of the passage into something which could be digested through a narrative of fantasy was hard for me, but it was great to see children engage with the Bible!
I enjoyed being able to act one week, here I'm a false prophet encouraging the people of Candytron to accept salt with their sugar 😱
reflections
- - It's been great to be deep in reading the Bible, it has felt weird at first because it was something I'd do outside of my work hours, but now I get to do this for work! I'm still getting over the feeling of "I'm not working" when I read the Bible, and I've felt incredibly priveleged to be able to do this every day now.
- - I need to continue to be prayerfully dependent on God for work to happen. Believing in a sovereign God means it's all up to God and the work doesn't happen without him, he also ordains the means by which work happens, so I've been more and more prayerful each day as I depend on God for his ministry to happen in my life and in his church.
- - Gospel work is tiring, but worth it. There was a lot on at church this month and I feel like it's been go go go, but it has been good to stop and reflect and write, and good to give thanks and see the work that God is doing at church.
- - An important part of ministry and growing God's kingdom is training people to train others. I haven't been able to do this much in the past, but I'm excited for more opportunities and to see how God can use me and use his people to reach more and more people.
- - Writing doesn't come super naturally to me - this took a while to write and it wasn't very concise on first draft. If you have any tips please send them through! But I've been reminded of how clear communication is important and valuable in ministry, and even though it's difficult I've enjoyed writing this. Further ahead I'm looking forward to writing more updates and also writing sermons!
prayer points
- - Praise God for his faithful people: I've felt really encouraged by everyone (including you!) who have been praying for both me and Bec, and supporting us in setting me aside to do full time gospel work. It wouldn't be possible without God's provision through his church and his people. I'm really thankful for how God has worked in a great number of faithful people around us who have been continually encouraging us in our walk with God. This month as I've seen how convicted of the gospel the leaders at Captivate have been, I've felt really encouraged in the great gospel opportunities I've been given
- - Discipline and energy as I balance responsibilities at home and at church, I've found myself with less time at home (no longer do I have the privelege of working from home 5 days a week) so it's been easy to neglect chores or leave things last minute. Pray for God to sustain me and for me to put aside my own selfish wants and to put my family and his church first when it comes to how I spend my time.
- - Kids and youth of Captivate: I've had meetings with leaders from both teams and I'm excited to be serving with them. Pray for God to be at work in growing and maturing the young people pf Captivatee in His wisdom, and pray for me to teach the Bible faithfully not only in word but also in action, with grace, patience, and humility. Pray also for my time in God's word as I put together a teaching plan for Acts in term 2 for the youth!
- - Captivate leaders retreat happening tomorrow! Pray that all the leaders at church would be spiritually sustained for another great season of ministry as we look ahead to what ministry looks like this year, and for our 2030/2035 vision.
🙏 Shoot through a message when you've prayed and let me know how I can be praying for you also!
Finances
Thanks firstly for reading, and your partnership with me in prayer. If you aren't supporting me financially already, would you consider being generous in giving? I am currently just past 80% of my $50 000 fundraising target, the $10 000/year remaining to raise roughly equates to about 15 people giving $50 a month, if you could be 1 of those 15 that would be awesome! You can pledge your financial partnership via the form below. And of course, if you have any questions about this feel free to shoot me a message!
Partnership form
Thank you again for your partnership in the gospel.
In Christ,
Jay