august, steady service, being stretched
I thank God as always, and thank you for your partnership in the gospel! I can’t believe we’re in spring already and pretty much with only a quarter of the year left to go! August was another month with plenty of fruitful ministry, and battling sickness again, but overall a month where I’ve been thankful for how God continues to grow me in ministry and his people in serving them. 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 us on welcoming at church!
And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We looked at this passage at youth while we were considering kings in the Bible, and looking to how Jesus is the king of a kingdom not of this world, a king who came to serve and give his life as a ransom. As I continue serving in ministry and consider what it looks like ahead, God has continued to reveal to me what it looks like to serve his people faithfully. My prayer is that we all would be able to look to Christ and the work he has done on the cross, and persevere in being servants of God and His gospel for His glory!
staff retreat
On an unusually sunny week of August we spent three days together as a staff team, reviewing the year past and planning the year ahead. Last year I couldn’t make it for the whole staff retreat, so I’m thankful that I got to spend this time with the staff team in prayer, reflection, and planning together. Despite being a retreat, we didn’t do much relaxing. Instead I’ve been continually challenged and stretched by what it looks like to be intentional in caring for so many different people lovingly and strategically, and also feeling the pinch of not being able to do enough. There was lots of prayerful and fruitful planning for what the next year looks like for each of us in personal growth, godliness, and ministry areas, as well as what it looks like to keep growing our church in being more like Christ, to be captivated by God’s glory and compelled to live with him for many years to come!
Big posters and big post-its clearly mean big planning
preaching from Philippians
I’m thankful to God (and the congregation) for the opportunity to keep growing in pastoring people in teaching, especially through preaching. I had the opportunity to preach from Philippians 3:1-11 (you can listen to the sermon here), and my big idea was that we can consider everything else worth nothing before Christ who is worth everything. As always, as I’ve been able to spend time going deep in to a passage, I’m struck by God’s wisdom, how he speaks into our lives, how little I know, and how much I need Jesus. This passage in particular, reminded me of how I need to continue to grow in my humility, grow in my love for Jesus, grow in letting him shape how I make decisions in my life, small and big ones, and grow in being joyful in suffering for the gospel. Praise God that every opportunity I get to teach to a wider audience he continues to grow me in being a better communicator, in being sharper with my content and also being more confident and clear in my speaking!
My first time preaching at captivate Ryde, the larger lectern and better acoustics made for an easier preaching experience
persevering in leadership
As the end of the year looms ahead I’ve started thinking about what it looks like to finish up well with the teams that I’m leading. As I’ve been doing this, I’ve had to evaluate my role and impact on each of these teams, and it has revealed to me that leading teams takes up a lot of my energy! It’s not what I gravitate to, and sometimes I’ve relied a lot on solid team leaders for things to happen, which have been fruitful, but in doing so I think I haven’t been able to love, care, and encourage them as much as I’d like to. With the breadth of tasks I’ve also fallen short of things that I had planned to do with some teams, and these together have reminded me to first persevere and grow in loving people, and to continue to think intentionally about how to lead teams well for fruitful ministry.
Not sure what a picture of leadership looks like, but here’s some thinking + planning in progress
youth
Youth continues to be a great time! This month one of our youth invited a school friend who doesn’t regularly go to church. He has since been back every week and seems pretty comfortable hanging with the youth. He currently goes to a Catholic school and so has some knowledge about God and the Bible, and was even able to tell our discussion group that all people have sinned! We’re still going through our Biblical theology series, looking at God’s big plan throughout the Bible, which has been helpful for our boys to see (see again, for some of them) how God has been faithful throughout the whole Bible, and it has been good for raising bigger questions about life and what God has made us for.
Wonderful graphics from one of our leaders covering our nine weeks, with God’s people, place, and blessing as part of our framework to see how God has always been faithful to his people through his promises.
reflections
- - God continues to work faithfully through his people, and I’ve continued to see how I can’t do any ministry at all without God.
- - I need to continue to reflect on what gives me energy in ministry, and devote adequate time and energy to what doesn’t (instead of ignoring or letting them go to last minute). Things like writing a prayer letter or thinking strategically about leading a team
- - I still have a lot to learn when it comes to ministering to people through different life stages and growing people to lead and to teach others.
- - No matter how much you plan, God is always in control! I've been pleasantly surprised with the number of newcomers that have been coming on Sundays as well as pleasantly surprised with a newcomer at youth. I need to continue to pray expectantly for God to be at work and for him to prepare my heart for anything that God puts before us.
prayer points
- - Pray for our youth group as we prepare to go to KYCK at the end of September, for fruitful fellowship and for them to respond to the gospel of grace from the book of Jonah
- - Pray that I’d be diligent, loving, helpful, and encouraging in preparation and planning for the teams that I’m on for the year ahead!
- - Pray for our church to continue to persevere in loving different people as we continue to see new people walk in to church.
- - For wisdom as I look at the book of Zechariah, I’m next preaching from Zechariah 8 on October the 11th at our 11am service
- - Pray for upcoming sessions equipping people to teach the Bible called teach the word. I'm leading two groups through this, one in September and another in November, and we've already had 17 people sign up. Pray that we'd all be equipped in teaching God's word faithfully and convicted of how good it is to learn and teach God's word!
🙏 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!
At the new local cafe near church with Emme's first babycino