Our purpose as a church is to be His presence in every place! The implication of this would be that our lives would collectively be an expression of his will. Therefore our ability to follow Christ is of utmost importance to live for this bigger purpose. To be a follower of Christ is much more than mimicking behavior or acknowledging teachings. To be a follower of Christ is not just merely buying into a Christian “culture”. Being a “follower of Christ” presupposes an inward transformation in the very essence of your being. If we reduce Christianity to a culture or mere religion, we rob it of its power. How does this transformation take place?

'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. '

II Corinthians 5:17 NIV

This transformation takes place in Christ! To follow Christ is firstly to be found in Christ. We do not find ourselves in religious laws, or political affiliation, or cultural settings but by believing in Christ we are found in Him! This “new creation” is the born-again human spirit that takes after Christ…and therefore we are referred to as Christ-ians. I’d like to point you to “The Message” paraphrase of this verse:

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 MSG

It may seem obvious…but it is so critical that we invite people to receive a new nature in Christ before we try to address the old culture the carry within them. This is the only foundation on which godly transformation can be built. I’d like to highlight three breakthroughs we’ve had the past week in this regard:

• How wonderful was it on Sunday to celebrate the fact that we baptized Christ-followers? Baptism is an outward act that testifies about an inward experience – your new birth. If you still need to be baptized, please make sure you connect with Pastor Michael in this regard!
• On Sunday morning the majority of our kids responded to a call to follow Christ as they joined the Transformed campaign. What a great job Pastor Andrew and his volunteers are doing!
• We received great feedback on how Fuse Youth engaged on Friday evening with the campaign. I was approached by a teenager who asked if we could “publish” the sermon notes of Friday evening so all can access it…something is happening there!!!

Join the campaign and share in the journey!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
John 3:4 NIV

The Kids Ministry Team is excited to be back at church, and last week we had so much to celebrate! We have a passionate team that has missed seeing the kids in person and are so happy to be serving in Kids' Church again.

Last week we started the Transformed Series and the Preps to Grade 6's watched a gospel presentation by Checkers the Clown. We were blown away when all the Prep-Grade 2's accepted Christ into their hearts and most of the Grade 3-6's accepted Jesus into their hearts as well.

What an amazing privilege we have in kids' ministry to lead children to follow Christ and serve him with all their hearts! We, like the Apostle John, have no greater joy than to hear and see our children walking in the truth.

We are officially back and we have kicked off 2021 with a bang! Launch night saw intentional fellowship, fun and reconnection as we engaged in an ‘all in’ games night! A real win for the ministry came last Friday as we began the Transformed campaign and together journeyed a night of worship and growth. We have seen a real excitement and hunger for God amongst the youth, and look forward in anticipation for what God is going to do in their lives. Please join with me in praying for our young people to experience God’s love and transformational power for themselves. 

The pre-booking process of attending church has been flowing well due to your willingness to adapt to this new reality. We do appreciate your patience and understanding as the process of getting to church now does require a bit more administration than usual. As we have been booked pretty much to capacity the past couple of weeks, we have learnt several ways to improve the process. We have identified two ways we can improve in this matter with immediate effect:

1. Arriving a bit earlier. Should it be within your means to be at the venue 10 minutes earlier it will assist in having all in sooner than in the past. We had people entering up until 20 minutes after the service has begun due congestion the past weekend.
2. Avoiding absence after booking. We do realize that life can cause its fair share of surprises on the way to church. This may even lead to you not being able to attend after booking. As we would like to ensure seats for as much as possible people to attend without having to turn people away, we do ask that you would let us know if you would not be able to take your booked seats. Turning people away due to a lack of available seats is always hard -especially if there are seats available due to unoccupied bookings.

Prayer is available after our services. Please come down the front so you can receive prayer for any need, hear from God, experience salvation, words of encouragement and healing and freedom.

The past week the Prohibition to Conversion Practices Bill has been passed in the Victorian Parliament. We are in the process of drafting a policy document that will guide us in ministering to people in such a manner that our mission can be fulfilled under this new reality of our day. This policy will become part of our volunteer orientation process and we will give training in this regard as soon as the policy is finalized. The policy will aim to empower you to minister while being safe in terms of this new law. It is important that you know the bill will only com into effect in twelve months from now, so we will be well prepared.

On Sunday the ABC recorded our service in order to illustrate Michael Rojales and his family’s recovery as part of a documentary program. We would like to thank everyone for being a part of the service and your interaction during Michael’s sermon.

Book your ticket now for this weekend! 

Thank you for being His Presence in Every Place! 

BRAAM BOTHA

Senior Pastor