and started to shoot branches that reached over the yard’s fence that now gives shade and fruit to those not within the yard. This was done intentionally through visionary leaders in the church who brought us:

• Living Springs Counselling Centre (Graeme Cann)
• Boys Brigade (currently led by Andrew Sidebottom)
• Food Pantry (currently led by Michelle Gould)
• Playgroup (currently led by Sue Nicholls)

So…an established church gave birth to sub-entities that impact mental health, minors, migrants, and marriages and families doing it tough. As we plant more churches, our counselling centre grows, the playgroup develops and we diversify our services to the city, the movement will grow from infancy to maturity. The need to make sure these “branches” of the “tree” stay rooted in their original intent (to be His Presence in Every Place) become greater as our cultural environment wants to impose a secular worldview on them. It’s the frog in the kettle fable:

A frog has jumped into a pot of water recently placed on a stove. As easily as it jumped in, it is able to jump back out. However, the frog is happy to have found a little water and a moist place to settle. The problem is, that the water is getting warmer, and will soon boil. The story goes that although the frog can jump back out, it stays in the water—in perceived comfort and security—and boils to death.

How do we entrench and solidify our “Christ following, people loving, city serving and community growing” mission in this manifold movement? It starts with our vision…making sure everybody gets on board with where God has called us to.  Focusing our collective mind on our collective vision. This is where that big word comes in: NOMENCLATURE!

We need a name for this collective vision that will in one expression, captivate our “purpose” for existence as well as the “promise” we make to the people of the cities we will find ourselves in. It should work as a preservative for our own (members) and a tonic for our beneficiaries (our community).  This is where you come in…our board of elders has embarked on a journey to prepare a proposal to our people for this “movement”.  We have delivered the proposal, and now the next phase of the work starts. This will lead to the nomenclature that is related to one vision and will galvanise our collective capacity to fulfil the promise of this movement, church, and sub-entities. It is a huge endeavour, which asks for collective insight. We are taking our first steps in this journey and the fruit is already showing! We as your elders want your engagement on this as

• your experience of our vision is unique and valuable
• you are part of a unique relational network in our vision
• you have a unique group of people you want to reach through our vision.

As we move forward, I want to invite you into the dialogue. Let’s use the “open door” culture we have created as the board of elders. For our partners, let’s discuss on a deep level the development of this proposal through our discussion forums (if you’d like to commit to the partnership but need to know more, diarise the Partnership Class on the 24th of July 12:30pm-2:30pm).

Finally, this journey we embark on is to secure that we are an accurate expression of Christ’s intention with us as a church:

'And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.'

Ephesians 1:22-23 NIV

Ps. Imagine what we can do with the land entrusted to us in Centre Road if we expand this charitable vision to fill every nook and cranny of that piece of land!

SYG2022 | This weekend!

State Youth Games 2022 is finally here! Our youth and young adults along with the many volunteers are heading down to Lardner Park for the weekend to compete against each other in sport, eat (lots), make new friends, build community and get together for night rallies, where young people come to Jesus. Pray that the weather holds out and they have a fantastic time away and return safely.

Your Story | Twin Miracles

After 6 years of medical procedures, IVF and endless emotional struggles, God blessed us with pregnancy in December last year. 3 days before Christmas we discovered that it was twins and while I knew that God had blessed us with a double gift, I was terrified and in great shock throughout Christmas and New Years. I wasn't entirely thankful for the blessing and felt annoyed that I had been getting on with my life after so much pain and now everything would change again. I had so many worries and anxieties that I barely glorified God, instead focusing on how hard it would be. I was reading the bible when God drew me to the verses that told of the way He chose the Israelites in the desert. Where he would bless with every skill and knowledge they would need for building the tabernacle. That is when I knew he would give me all that I would need.

We love to hear inspirational stories about how individual lives have been changed! If you would like to share 'Your Story', please email: [email protected] and inspire others!

Fuse Youth | Friday 10th June

This week there is no Fuse Youth Friday night youth program as we are away at Lardner Park for State Youth Games camp! See you next week. Campers meet at church at 4.30pm for a fantastic weekend!

Walking Group Clyde | Cancelled

Due to bad weather, the walking group has been cancelled. Sorry for the inconvenience. We hope to see you next week! Check iConnect Facebook page for updates.

Kids Church | Sunday 12th June

Join us in person or online 10am this Sunday at Kids Church…

PREP – GRADE 2 | The Apostles are Treated Badly
We can trust God no matter what | Acts 5: 17-42

WONDERKIDS & LITTLE SPARKS | Jesus can help me do everything
Paul & Silas in prison | Acts 16: 16-34

Sunday Service | God Inside 2

How He came and what He brought

We have a special guest speaker, Rob Nyhuis. Rob will be exploring the cultural definition for a moment. Too many people in our culture, the term Pentecostal describes a person from a very religious tradition where women aren’t allowed to wear pants or makeup. Because this tradition also frowns upon women cutting their hair, many of them pile it high on their heads in beehive-like shapes to keep it out of their way. The practice gave rise to an old joke about “the higher the hair, the closer to God.” If you want to reference the Holy Spirit to earthly phenomena, I suggest you refer to wind and fire! Read Acts 2. Two miracles seem to be at work here. First, 120 people suddenly begin speaking in various heavenly languages they’d never before known. Second, thousands of people hear these individuals speaking in their own native languages. In other words, the people from Libya hear them all speaking Libyan. The people from Crete hear the same people speaking Cretan. And the Romans hear the same messages in perfect Latin. Both wind and fire are very powerful elements…both consists of “air in transformation”: wind is the transformation of air through movement; fire is the transformation of air through heat.

If you can’t make it Sunday in person, join us online and watch live stream via YouTube or Facebook at 10am.

Church Leaders & Conflict Book Launch | Thursday 16th June

Whether your head of a household, corporate leader, or business owner you will be feeling the weight of responsibility for the people that are entrusted to you. Your responsibility to lead them well, will definitely trigger the potential for chaos whenever their personal conflicts spill over into communal conflict. When this happens, it does not take much for a constructive environment to flip into an abrasive and destructive one.

• How do you diffuse the communal conflict?
• How do you identify its origin?
• How do you go about bringing restoration?
• How do you handle the individual that instigated conflict?
• How do you bring healing to historic hurts?

Graeme Cann has been an organizational leader for more than 50 years. In his latest book “Confronting Conflict” he distils his more-than-half-a-century worth of experience into a simple and proven plan to recognize the root causes of conflict, create safe places for healing and conflict proof your environment for the future!

Invest in your conflict diffusing capacity as a leader, as we see people engaging again organizationally post the Covid-19 pandemic. You will be able to steer your areas of responsibility away from the antiquated win/lose mentality. You will be able to reposition yourself as a servant leader and set your environment free from the fear of authoritarianism! Join us for this powerful mid-morning time of investment! BOOK NOW.

Baptism Celebration | Sunday 19th June

Baptism is the complete immersion into water of those who have confessed their faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son and their Saviour.
However, it is more than just immersion in water. It has a number of significant meanings.

Complete the expression of interest form if you would like to be contacted about being Baptised.

Discussion Forum | Sunday 19th June

Dear partner,

The past two weeks we had our first rounds of Discussion Forums with our partners. The quality of the engagements and the insight gained from them is something we as board cherish deeply.

We do have the need to give more people access to these forums and have made the decision to change the planned Partners Gathering on Sunday 19 June at 12:30pm to an additional Discussion Forum for our partners. For the sake of the quality of our discussions we accommodate the first 20 partners per forum. More forums may be held in the future if the need is there. This would mean that you would be able to book in for this Discussion Forum via BOOK NOW.

Thank you for being part of this!

Details:

• Date: Sunday 19th June 2022
• Time: 12.30pm – 2.30pm
• Where: 446 Centre Road, Berwick

Seniors Ministry | Wednesday 22nd June

Our Seniors Ministry has our own Roger Barnett visiting us and telling us about the great work Men’s Sheds are doing. The Men’s Shed singing group will also join us. There will be wooden items made by the men, available for purchase.

Details:

• Time: 1.30pm – 4.00pm
• Bring: please bring a plate for everyone to share

Thank you for being His Presence in Every Place! 

BRAAM BOTHA

Senior Pastor