The other day I was sent this meme by one of our partners:

Fear can be a powerful motivator but… if fear is your motivation, you must stay fearful to stay motivated! Living in fear over the long term will leave deep mental, social, and even spiritual scars! It helps to know that the root word for motivation is “motive”. It asks the question “Why?”. Discovering God’s bigger purpose for your life unlocks a motive to live for that will motivate you much deeper and longer than any fear…or any other motive for that matter. One of Satan’s prime strategies is to tempt you towards shallow sources of fulfillment that will leave you disillusioned.

Let’s keep in mind God’s purpose for our lives and focus on becoming the way he wants to use us to be His Presence in Every Place. We are designed to represent God here on earth. This is the biggest purpose mankind can live for! The triune nature of God is revealed to us throughout the Scripture and we are called to express His Presence In Every Place! If we shine – God shines… The church father Irenaeus said (app. 202 AD) “The Glory of God is Living Man”. Another way to say it is:

The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

I love the way this truth is expressed in the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus:

' “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. '

Matthew 5:13-16 NIV

🎤 EVENT | Book by Friday 12 noon for this Sundays special service! Bookings are essential.

We want to be as informed as we can in regards to the overall health of our church from board level to the experience of our newcomers and seekers. What helps us to be informed is through a wonderful tool made available to us from Natural Church Development.

All partners who attend the AGM or formally submit an apology via [email protected] will be sent a link to complete the survey and provide us critical feedback.

We request each individual partner who receives an email to fill in 20022 their own, please do not do one survey for each household, but one for each partner, this will help us get the clearest picture of how our church family experience being involved with us. We appreciate your support in this process as this feedback will help us make better decisions at every level of the church.

Please register on Trybooking. Instructions on receiving your personalized gift will be given as you enter.

This past week as a pastoral team we attended the CCVT Summit, our churches of Christ Victoria and Tasmania conference. Our Senior Pastor presented one of the electives at the Summit. We had some amazing guest speakers and breakout sessions. Dale Stephenson from Crossway Baptist spoke on Evangelism & Discipleship, where he provided great encouragement to our team that we are doing amazing things in this space through lifegroups, Search and GTM.

We also had Melinda Dwight from Alpha and ACC share with us on Evangelism and making connections with people, so as to invite them towards their own personal relationship with God, she was inspiring and practical in her approach to reaching those around us.

Photos courtesy of Churches of Christ

With the impact of Covid restrictions, a decision was made Early November, 2020 to close the Clyde/I belong Church plant. It was a difficult decision but one Ken believed was being led by God based on the scripture from John 12:24, Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Since then, we have been dreaming of a number of possible church plants locally and even some that could involve revitalising Church of Christ (COC) churches that are struggling. The first priority though will be a re-launching of the Clyde Church Plant. Aarti Royan will head up this venture and along with Ken in forming a new core team. The focus for this term is to finalise who is part of the team and to spend time in worship and prayer listening for God’s direction.

Alongside of this we have just begun a Search to Find Evangelism course based in Clyde. First week saw participants aged 16- 24 attend. Please pray for a drawing of others who have also been invited, including past door knocking contacts. If you know of someone distant to God or new to Christianity in the Clyde area, who could be interested in exploring faith, please let Ken know.

It was a cold and wet day on Sunday, 16th May but the home of Stewart & Maria was full of warmth, fellowship and food. We were blessed by their hospitality and so did 30 other newcomers. It was a great opportunity to connect with new people over a delicious meal and inform them of the things that are important to us as a church. That is to Raise followers of Christ, Love people, Serve the city and Grow faith communities.  Perhaps this is a ministry that you would like to be a part of. If so, then let Pastor Michael know at [email protected]. Otherwise, if you are a newcomer and you haven't been to a newcomer's lunch yet, then book a spot on Sunday, 20 June. Nigel and Anna are generously hosting us at their place in Clyde North and spots are limited so book as soon as you can. 

We had a huge challenge choosing from so many beautiful Mother’s Day photos. Congratulations to Ruth Noonan, Indra Doresamy and Lauren Grainger winning the Mother’s Day photo competition. We hope you will enjoy your Habitania gift voucher.

AGM will commence on the 23^rd of May. After the service please grab a quick coffee and come back to the auditorium.  You will need to register using the government QR code and sign against your name on the partnership list.  You will be handed a ballot for the eldership voting and we will all vote together during the meeting.

We would love for all our partners to book in on Trybooking for the event as it will be an on-site AGM again. We would like to remind you that the reports will be sent out two weeks ahead of time for your convenience. An email will soon be sent out to all partners to help them assess their involvement as partners and to help them prepare for the AGM.

Our community of young adults will be coming together for a weekend retreat at the end of May and this is an incredible opportunity for them to gather together, build strong relationships and grow in their relationship with Jesus.

You can help our young adults maximise this opportunity by sponsoring a young person who would not have the resources to attend, but would however benefit greatly from the weekend experience, and the generosity of our church family. The camp cost is $150.

If you are blessed to be in a position to sponsor someone, or even several, please email [email protected] and inform us of your amazing gift.

We have seen such wonderful attendance over the last few months, and we continue to grow in numbers every week, we praise God for this momentum.

At this time it is critical that we maximise our space and we will be adding more chairs to allow for further opportunities to distance ourselves as necessary. Please come early and fill from the front first to allow others to easily find room as they enter.

Managing our bookings has some challenges, and the most helpful way you can support us is to ensure you attend when you book, that you do not book when you can’t come, and you inform us if you’ve booked but for some reason cannot make it, by emailing us at [email protected]. Thank you for help, hope to see you on Sunday.

Kids Church check in is open at 9:45am and kids can go out to Kids Church from 9:50am.  So why not come early, check your kids in and grab a coffee from our Cafe before church starts.

Thank you for being His Presence in Every Place! 

BRAAM BOTHA

Senior Pastor