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Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:8b-11

This passage from Peter came up as our reading on Wednesday morning at our 7.45am prayer gathering and struck me as a message for Burnside City Uniting Church at this time. If the Apostle Peter were asked to preach today I believe his message would be just what was written 2000 years ago.

We do have a church that loves each other deeply. I have been amazed at the ways this love is shown every day. We have people who visit the sick in hospital and care for others by providing a meal or a ride to church. The love that is shown on Sunday morning as we pray for each other and serve in ways to make people feel welcome is a living example of this scripture in action right here right now. Many people in our congregation are indeed using the gifts they have received to serve others.

On my recent Operation Flinders walk I was questioned by the girls about Christianity. They had the perception that they had to be good if they were to be Christians and being good is not very appealing to most teenagers. My response was that being good is just not possible. We all make mistakes. It’s part of being human. But being a Christian means that we are forgiven our mistakes and that brings us into relationship with God. I believe that is what every human being longs for – a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.

The challenge is to get people to connect these two ideas. We have a loving church community of people who enjoy this relationship with the living God and we have a big wide world filled with people who long to know God but are stuck on the being good problem.

We have done an amazing thing by building an exciting, modern, inviting building on the busiest road we could find and this will go a long way toward getting people’s attention.

Now here’s the BUT.

But if they still think they have to be good enough to know God they are just going to keep doing what they have always done and drive right on by.

SO. We must take this love that we have for God and each other into our community so that everyone can see what God does when God is in our lives. Keep using your gifts to serve and to speak and go to your friends, family and neighbours. By doing this you will give God the glory, God’s power will be seen and the world will see that it is not about being good enough that we come to know God. They will see that it is in response to God’s goodness, love and mercy that we are able to be all that God wants us to be. That may be seen as being good, so be sure to tell the good news that it is God in us and with us that makes the difference.

Give God the Glory,

Matthew Bond

This blog is a test only

Rev Rob Williams

The fourth main mission area of our Burnside City congregation is Making Jesus Known.

‘Making Jesus known’ is why the church exists. We will intentionally encourage every worshipper to be engaged in this process by placing ‘faith-sharing’ high in our understanding of what people at Burnside City do. We seek to truly create a ‘faith-sharing culture’. We will be assisted in this through various learning opportunities such as the Just Walk Across the Room series in which many shared recently. Priority will be given to the areas of evangelism and discipleship so that we will all grow in confidence as we ‘make Jesus known’. And so our congregation will GROW – numerically and spiritually.

This ministry area will work actively towards developing strengths and ministries of those who serve as staff, ordained and lay. Developing leaders, discerning gifts and ministries in people to become new leaders as well as providing opportunities for the exercise of leadership will be of key importance. Mentoring programs and ongoing Christian Education will provide necessary support. In addition, people will be encouraged to share their ‘passion’ or ‘heartburst’ for service with others so that new areas of service can begin from within the congregation for the wider community.

Creating Community has two facets – internal and external. Internally we will create community in several way at least: through pastoral care, by creating a welcoming culture including hospitality, through the growth of varied interest small groups which will encourage a sense of fellowship and belonging.  Externally (that is as we seek to create links with the wider community) we will encourage worshippers to train as welcomers, faith sharers and active servants in their community beyond the congregation.  We will also seek ways to engage with neighbouring organisations such as the Burnside Council and Burnside Village so that they see us as a vital part of their perception of community. I’m sure as we develop this area of ministry together, you will discern further ways in which we can be effective in creating community.

It is absolutely essential for us to live out our life together with Jesus at the centre of everything we do – as individuals and as a congregation. This will encompass our prayer life, our worship life, our personal ‘mining’ of the scriptures, as well as encouraging one another to keep growing in our discipleship by practising and developing hospitality, discernment in our life together and giving ourselves to ongoing teaching and learning to better equip us as Christians in a changing world.

We have been encouraged to make Wednesday a day of prayer for our Burnside City congregation by using the specific prayer points that appear in each Sunday’s Weekly Sheet.  However, don’t be limited by these. Your Church Council, ministers and task group leaders need your ongoing prayer support as they continue to work towards the time when we will finally come together with our sisters and brothers from the other constituent churches.  I ask for your continuing prayers, as well as your patience, as this process continues.

Next time, I will focus on the second main ministry activity – creating community.