may ministry movements
As always, I thank and praise God for your partnership in the gospel! Sorry for this late update (June is now almost over but this is still my May letter!)—I’m finally feeling like I can see the end of being sick (praise God!). May was a month where I was able to find some respite while off at conferences, but at the same time meaning I have had less time to do the regular day to day things. It has been a month of challenges, but also comfort in being reminded of how God is at work. As usual, I’ve dropped some highlights of the month and some reflections and prayer points at the end. Please also let me know how you are going and how Bec and I can be praying for you!
Hello from our family as Emme eats her first panini!
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
As of the first week of June our church is now Captivate Ryde Presbyterian Church! And as I approach the last quarter of my apprenticeship, there’s been a lot of fruitful work, but I have to remind myself that the fruitfulness only comes through the sanctifying work of Christ. And in God’s people, the pattern of this fruitfulness actually means sharing in his suffering. Growing in godliness and change in our lives and in the church is not easy, but we can forsake the comfort of this world because the worth of knowing Jesus as our Lord is greater! I will be preaching from Philippians 3 in August, and reading this passage has been a timely message for my soul as I consider what it looks like for me to be serving God in 2027. My prayer is for you also, like Paul, continue to suffer the loss of things of this world for the sake of Christ.
metro
although I was still recovering from my cough, I dragged my weary body out of bed early for three days to enjoy a good time of fellowship with other NSW Presbyterian Church METRO apprentices. I spent time at Christ college and got to get a taste of Old Testament and New testament classes, I also got to drive other apprentices around to Ashfield and Kensington to see what churches in Sydney are like and meet different ministers with different backgrounds and experiences, but with the same gospel convictions to see change happen in their congregations. I was thankful for this time in being able to meet with other apprentices and be encouraged with how God is at work in their lives, as well as the opportunity to think about the distinctives of the Presbyterian church and how that works itself out in a lifetime of ministry.
In the word thinking about what it looks like to minister to people
reach australia
It was hard to be away from home and the family for a few days, but I had a great time at the Reach Australia national conference. This year I really appreciated the opportunity to just have conversations with people—I was able to hear about how different churches are growing and how they work and plan for this growth under God’s sovereignty, and the opportunity to catch up as well as meet new people! From the main talks, I was once again struck by my own weakness and the need for humility in ministry as I persevere in the love of Christ. I also found the workshops particularly helpful, especially in thinking and preparing for preaching and helping others grow in their Christian maturity, and I have been further convinced that as I persevere in ministry, I need to continue to be prayerfully dependent on God for his work to be done.
as with last year, I was in awe at the number of voices as we sang
table for eight
As we were looking ahead to our amalgamation in forming a new church, we wanted to keep flexing our hospitality muscles in welcoming people into our lives! After our 11am service on a Sunday we opened our home for a randomly assigned group of people to come over and share in lunch together. Our family has really appreciated the opportunity to show hospitality to our church family. Even when it demands extra energy from us, we’ve wanted to make every effort to open our home, and we’ve seen the fruit of this in being able to do life together lovingly with our church family. Our church as a whole has been generous in being hospitable, and our prayer is that this would continue to shape their love for new people in a new place.
this was for a fun photo challenge - let me know if you know what we're imitating (is this 2cv?)
goodbye captivate at north ryde
We had our final week at North Ryde! It also coincided with our final week wrapping up Deuteronomy. We were exhorted from the passage to trust God’s word to lead us to life which was a fitting word as we look ahead to moving to a new location—we need not trust our own efforts or what we can achieve as we plan for something new, but we trust God’s word first to lead us to life. I also had the privilege of serving at kids church for our 9am service and we were able to pray with the kids for our prayers for our new church, I was super encouraged by the maturity and intentionality that our kids wanted to bring to our new church!
A prayer from one of our kids, displaying the duality of man
reflections
- - No matter how much I can plan or strategise, I need to continue to be humble and trust in God’s word! Especially as I reflect on being sick for an extended period of time, I realise that I am only a weak and finite person, and I need to continue to trust in God for His ministry.
- - Capacity and being a good steward of my time and energy continues to be something that I am challenged by and wrestle with. I want to continue to be a faithful Husband, Father, and ministry worker, and in this current season that looks like being realistic about my capacity, being able to say no to things, and how things definitely take longer for me when it’s a novel situation that I’m unfamiliar with.
- - I was already, but am even more so now thoroughly convinced through my own personal experience as well as time reflecting with my metro cohort that the distinctives of the Presbyterian church in Australia are Biblical and God honouring, and although filled with broken people, a system which should continue to reform the church and lead people in glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.
- - Being hospitable is costly, but it’s small in light of Christ who shows love to not only strangers, but his enemies. As a ministry family it looks like looking for opportunities to love people and saying yes on short notice when people want to come by.
prayer points
- - Pray that I would continue to recover from my respiratory infection, and that I would continue to take care of my body to do ministry at a sustainable pace that honours my responsibilities.
- - For our church to be loving, hospitable, and gospel focused as we form a new church and move to a new location. For loving those who are new to us, and making the most of every opportunity to love those around our new location and preaching the gospel to the city of ryde.
- - For our welcoming team to love with the love of Christ, and welcome new people driven by the gospel. There’s lots of new things that we’ve planned as part of our move, and lots to entrust to God!
- - The boys at SRE, I’ve found myself really enjoying SRE even though it’s one of the harder bunch to teach, but it reminds me of when I was in high school. I’m reminded of the joy and freedom of receiving the gospel as a teenager, and I can see that same joy slowly grow in these boys as we read the book of Mark together this term. Pray that they would know and trust Jesus for their lives and live for Him!
- - I’m still chipping away at helping our church train teachers of the Bible, pray for me to put energy into this as it deserves. It’s an important task which I’m not feeling the immediate urgency of, and so it’s easy to postpone and work on later, but we’re almost halfway through the year already! Pray that our church culture would really see the need not only to teach the word faithfully, but to train people to do so too.
🙏 Thank you again for your partnership in the gospel! Shoot through a message when you've prayed (even if it's just a "hey!") and let me know how I can be praying for you also!
Emme's first time on a bike!