Youth Ministry

Lets know what activities or youth events are happening in your area?

It’s that time of year again and plans for the next SEP are well under way.

The WEC Camp & Conference Centre in Morisset, NSW will once again be the home of this years camp and will run from Monday December 31st to Friday January 11th. I invite you to come along and be part of a fun-filled, friendship deepeening and faith building 11 days.

Some of this years activites will include leather craft, canoeing, high ropes, discussions, dance, dorm challenges, puppetry, a brand new adventure race, and much, much more.

Applications for SEP08 are now avaiable
More details about this years camp will be coming in the weeks ahead so please visit this site for updates. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our camp program, please feel free to contact Kwan Borden and he will be happy to provide you the assistance you require.

We hope to see you at SEP 08!

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 “God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!” The Message

1Corinthians 14:1-3 “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.” The Message

I love how Paul handles this whole question of spiritual gifts. Rather than remaining in the narrow confines of the initial inquiry and taking one gift and giving it inflated importance, Paul chooses to start by broadening the scope of God’s desire to be involved in our lives. God’s love for us is so great that a full knowledge of him could not be limited solely to the spiritual gifts he gives to those who believe in him (and certainly not to a single spiritual gift, as seems to be the issue being addressed in 1 Corinthians) – nope, not even close.

Paul states that God is evidenced in spiritual gifts and in all of the ministries he establishes, and in any number of seen or unseen workings or acts that go into the mutual benefiting of the one body of Christ, the church – his church. And these ministries and gifts and acts are given out to those God the Father loves – everyone receiving from God something different and equally required for the body to function - while he works in complete unity with our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, as they themselves work to benefit the one body, the church.

Everything we are given from our Father is an expression of him and the only way to obtain a fuller knowledge of him is to participate in and observe how God, our
Lord and the Holy Spirit work together as one. When we all humbly offer the little expressions of God that we have been given – gifts, ministries, and a multitude of acts - for the mutual benefiting of the body, God is known more fully to all of us and our church becomes a powerful witness to this world.

God has designed the church so that each and every one of us has something of value to offer to the community. Some offerings are seen and others are not, but this is simply a matter of functionality and design and is not meant to imply superiority or inferiority. As Paul goes on to argue, love is the greatest gift and any ministry, or gift, sharing, or activity undertaken that is not motivated by love is empty, fraudulent, creates disunity and does not reflect who God is.

And just when you might be tempted to say, “Well yeah, that sounds nice enough, but I really don’t think I have too much to offer”, Paul goes and boils things down – real rubber meets the road stuff – and states to his readers: “But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.” The NIV puts it this way: “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.”

When we practice putting to use all we have been given by God “S.E.C.” will result in others (no the title was not one of my usual typosJ) – Strengthening, Encouragement and Comfort. All of us can do this!

Oftentimes it’s the simple things, surprise visits or phone calls to see how a member is going. A planned visit or outing that allows you to touch base with someone. A simple card in the mail telling someone you are praying for them (and then you actually do) while they are dealing with one of life’s many challenges. Showing up early and setting up chairs, sound, worship music, tea and coffee for the rest of the church members. The list gets really long here and I’m a slow typer but you catch my drift – no one of us can say “I can’t …”. If all of these activities are motivated by love God is in it, and more of his nature is revealed to all who care to pause and look.

So … I’m done.

Have a great day and go do something nice for someone in our fellowship. Surprise them, get creative and have fun. Let that person know that he or she is loved by you and you’re happy they are part of the fellowship; maybe thank them for what they do and how they have added to your personal walk of faith. And most importantly remind that person that he or she is loved by God – they’ll be “strengthened, encouraged and comforted” and you will be too!

Living and Sharing the Gospel with Children, Teens, and Young Adults through real relationships that connects, supports, equips and encourages them to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Guess Writer: Kerry W Gubb

Two minutes ago I Google-searched the expression. 3.6 seconds later: 805,000 hits!

This is clearly a popular expression. In case you’re not aware, it’s an acronym for “What would Jesus do?” Situations often arise in a Christian’s life where he or she might (indeed, should) ask what, is after all, a valid question for people professing to follow this Master in all things. If He is truly our Lord, then we seek to:

· emulate Him

· please Him

· live in permanent gratitude to Him for the salvation He brings and

· be accountable to Him

Given all of this, “What would Jesus do?” is a natural, valuable benchmark for the serious Christian. The question is: how serious are we? Really? Be honest!

One reason for the question: the same search on eBay yielded a merchandise mountain consisting of “WWJD” charms, neon lights, wristbands, T-Shirts, crocheted bookmarks, towbar cover-plugs, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, key chains, cheque book covers, pocket diapers (yes, you read it correctly!), rings, swap cards, sew-on patches, fridge-magnet construction kits …

So wonderful, isn’t it (he remarks with irony) – the number of ways we can be reminded to ask ourselves what Jesus would do. And ironic (he remarks with regret) that so few people have the foggiest idea what Jesus would do in a given situation because they have no idea what He did do during His life. So many of us simply don’t know Him because we’ve not seriously committed ourselves to a lifetime study of His life and teachings with a view to:

· emulating Him

· pleasing Him

· living in permanent gratitude to Him for the salvation He brings and

· being accountable to Him for every move we make

The main problem is that we in the developed world are awash in “things”. Renowned author Eugene Peterson wrote[i]:

Our culture has failed precisely because it is a secular culture. A secular culture is a culture reduced to thing and function. Typically at the outset, people are delighted to find themselves living in such a culture. It is wonderful to have all these things coming our way without having to worry about their nature or purpose. And it is wonderful to have this incredible freedom to do so much, without bothering about relationships or meaning. But after a few years of this, our delight diminishes as we find ourselves lonely among the things and bored with our freedom.

Our first response is to get more of what brought us delight in the first place: acquire more things, generate more activity. Get more. Do more. After a few years of this, we are genuinely puzzled that we are not any better…

We’re all affected by this. And with so many distractions and sensory impressions bombarding us, perhaps we do need reminding at every turn. However, without intending disrespect to WWJD merchandisers, it’s a pity that our culture so readily reduces the profound to the profane: the weighty to the trivial.

Whether you wear the wristband, stick on the fridge-magnet or carry the pocket diaper is not really the point, is it?

Not every situation in our 21st century culture has a precise biblical precedent for reference. Like it or not, there will be circumstances in which we’re going to have to work out “WWJD” for ourselves. The best reference point for that is to become completely familiar with what He did do – what His relationship was, is and continues to be with “Our Father, which art in heaven”. We need to get to know Him better by walking with Him, by yielding to His sovereignty in our lives.

If we want to declare our affinity with Him with a bracelet or a pendant, no problem!

The most valid demonstration, however, that Jesus Christ is much more to us than a fridge-magnet slogan or talisman is to live lives grounded completely in Him as the prime reference-point. If we’re serious pilgrims walking with God, Jesus Christ is our functional Lord and Master all day, every day. What He says goes. What He said still goes. That means committing to a lifetime of familiarising ourselves with His life and teachings and having them show up in every decision we make – in a manner which reframes our thinking into alignment with His.

When that process is truly under way we’ll find that on more occasions that not, we’ll be able to make decisions based on what Jesus would do without consulting the door of the fridge.

Living and Sharing the Gospel with Children, Teens, and Young Adults through real relationships that connects, supports, equips and encourages them to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.