Next meeting!

Where: East Victoria Park again - it's a convenient halfway point for the people involved so far.
When: Thursday 20 September 2007, 6:30pm.
Contact us for more details. (Have a look on the sidebar.)

Meeting report: Decision making

Thursday night we met in East Victoria Park at Tim's house. We were treated to a banquet prepared by Tim with five main dishes. His excellent hospitality made the night feel very special.

(Paradoxically, there's a risk of too much good food in a house church. It does make a house church meeting very special. But you don't want it to become pressure to produce a feast every week. That's when people can feel burnt out by house church. The Christian Centre for Social Action has a weekly meeting - also in East Victoria Park! - which ends in a simple meal of bread, cheese, jam and apples. There's something to be said for this, too.)

Dave then led an excellent discussion on decision making. The group consensus seemed to be a middle ground between the Sydney Anglican line that God speaks only through the Bible, and feelings etc have nothing to do with it, and the Pentecostal search for visions and signs. We all held open the possibility and hope of God speaking directly into our lives, while also affirming that he speaks through others in our Christian community, and indeed through the Scriptures.

The things we're into so far

Our house church hasn’t spent too long navel gazing about what we are, but the things Nathan, Nicole, Tim, Dave and Heather are into so far are:

- being participatory
- being missional - not inward looking like some house churches
- being flexible in the way we meet - trying new things
- eating together
- Jesus centered discipleship, including social justice and environmental stewardship

A simple start

We've finally made a start - a simple one. Last Friday we met with three other people at our house. We ate dinner, watched the Nooma video 'Breathe' and discussed it. Then we shared prayer requests and prayed for each other.

Our next meeting is at Tim James' house in East Victoria Park on Thursday 6 September 2007, starting 6PM.

If you would like to be involved, now's a good time to get on board. Send us an email or give us a call.

Community begins at three and ends at fifteen

Someone once said, "Community begins at three and ends at fifteen." Keeping the group small maintains the feeling of community. Only in the intimacy of a small, closely knit group will people confess their faults one to another in order to be healed (see James 5:16). Open sharing becomes more difficult when the group grows to more than fifteen.

- Joel Comiskey, The Spirit-filled small group: p. 96

The church is a hospital

"The church is a hospital, not a performing arts centre."

- Joel Comiskey, The Spirit-filled small group : p. 79.

I like this quote, because when we remember its a hospital, we don't put up masks - we get more real with each other. (I don't think it's always a hospital - but it should certainly resemble one sometimes!)

Renovare - charismatic and social justice

On Monday, our Renovare group did the charismatic study. This is one of the areas I identified as a weakness in my life. I have always found it easier to relate to God with my head than my heart - and I know I have to get God into all of me.

The homework exercise I chose to do was to pray for an hour for the Holy Spirit to begin working in a new and powerful way in my life. I found it so hard to pray for an hour. I get distracted too easily; I start thinking about other things - especially when I'm listening rather than talking.

I felt God speaking in two ways to my life. I have to stop being like Jonah who didn't want Ninevah to be saved. He wanted to stay the only one who had a special relationship to God. Unconsciously, I think God is telling me that I'm sometimes like this. A book I've been reading talks a lot about having a hunger for the lost, so much that you cry tears over them - and I think this is the direction I have to head.

The second thing he is telling me is to let go of my ambitions - something He's been telling me a long time.

This morning we met again, this time discussing the social justice tradition study. We read the parable of the sheep and goats, and as always I felt cut to the quick. This week, if I get asked for change on the way to work, I'm going to see what the person asking really wants, offer to spend time with them, make sure I look after their needs.