St. John's Blog

Going, going, gone!

The demolition team are (amazingly) almost finished their work. The old Hall is now practically removed, as are the kitchen, toilets and foyer.

With a little more work to do, removing the concrete footings and remaining rubble, soon the entire site will be cleared and cleaned, ahead of receiving our new buildings which are well advanced.

Meanwhile across the way, other contractors (and St. John's willing workers) have taken great strides forward in preparing our new carpark. New drainage works, a fence, and the gravel fill are all in place.

Let the building works begin!

The Hall, the Kitchen, Toilets and Foyer are emptied and the excavator is here. Exciting times at St. John's!

Looking through the sunlit (roofless) foyer! This is where our new buildings will join onto the existing church auditorium and old church (which remain intact and out of harm's way).

The kitchen has been gutted, including all the valuable underfloor pipes. Farewell useful kitchen!

Prior to demolition, the Hall floor was ripped up and hardwood timber removed for recycling. How wonderfully this Hall has served our church since the 1960's! And how good will it be to have a new and even more functional Hall on this site in a couple of months time.

Here comes the excavator...

A short little video of the excavator at work:

Demolition13March2015 on Vimeo.

Making short work of the old Toilets...

At the end of demolition day one, the old admin office (closest) is entirely gone, as is the area formerly by the windows, and the first half of the toilets. Its now completely open between courtyard and the Roslyn Rd carpark.

More demolition work to follow next week.

Its amazing to think that in three months time, a new building will stand on this site. The wonders of modern construction (more detail about our Building project here). Praise God for all those who've worked hard to make this project happen, and for those who've donated much to make it all possible: Of the final $190,000 to be raised we have just $130,000 to go.

Sundays at Christian College Chapel

Beginning this Sunday, 8th March, we're relocating our regular Sunday services just up the road and around the corner. Christian College are very generously hosting us for the time of our building project (March - May).

For our normal 8am, 10am and 5pm meetings come and find us at Christian College.

Here's a map.

If you prefer a video and some written directions, our Relocations page might be helpful.

Of if you'd prefer our short flyer with the directions and the map, its here.

Hope to see you for church as we looking to continue Building people for God at St. John's Highton.

Share your faith

Which year isn't a good year for a church to be working on sharing our faith in Jesus with those we know and love? The apostle Paul encourages Timothy to be declaring the good news 'in season and out of season' (2 Tim 4:2), in other words its always a good time! But that being said, sometimes the concentration which comes from a particular effort helps to re-set and re-energise.

Accordingly, we're setting ourselves to make a particular effort this year, 2015, in sharing our faith in Christ. Whether you call it mission, evangelism, witness, outreach, or more generically 'sharing our faith', we're aiming to do all that we can to re-energise one another to be all the more equipped, ready, will and actually practising sharing the gospel.

To help, we're embarking this week on a three week teaching series called 'Share your faith'. Over the next three Sundays we'll consider three distinct motivations that spur on our witness. Midweek in our Small Groups, we'll be working through a studies booklet (called by the same name), which contain Bible study questions directing us to think above evangelism according to history, to logic and to us. Following each study are a series of practical exercises (such as a mission action plan) that challenge us to put what we're learning into practice.

May the Lord grow us in our ability and willingness to be ready and able to speak up for Jesus!

Share your faith study booklet.

Watercooler Witness

Posted by St. John's Highton 5th March, 2015

98% of church members spend 95% of their time outside the church: what a massive mission field to explore and to make the most of! But what is the way we will engage in order to commend Christ? This is the key situation and question Ken Barnes brought to us and went on to address in our recent Watercooler Witness night here at church.

Ken, together with Kara Martin (who was a St. John's member some 20 years ago!) are from the Ridley Melbourne Marketplace Institute, and their aim is encourage Christians like us to share the good news of Christ in the many public settings we find ourselves in (workplace, school gate/canteen, probus club, footy team etc).

So what is the way to engage those yet to trust in Christ?

Having outlined different approaches to engaging Christians have taken, and citing Paul's speech in the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34), Ken went on to commend an approach which lovingly seeks both to affirm and to challenge the hearer.

You can hear the talk and consider for yourself how you think you might best commend the good news of Christ Jesus. The links for both are below:

WaterCooler Witness Ken Barnes.mp3 (1 hr and 20 mins duration; file size 76Mb)

WaterCooler Witness handout.pdf

We thank God for Ken and Kara's generosity and willingness to join us for the night. We pray that God might use us to more eagerly engage and share our faith in the Lord Jesus.

Postscript: The paper that Ken wrote, upon which this talk is based, is online and available from the Ridley Melbourne Marketplace Institute. The links for the paper are found in the post, Witness at the Water Cooler.

Sweet dinner!

Last night a good number of us shared in a sweet dinner, Pancake Tuesday. Picture pancakes piled high, topped with ice cream maple syrup and some token fruit pieces to give the impression of a healthy dinner. Great fun for the kids - with some egg throwing competition making it interesting. Some laughs too for the grownups with a little music trivia, picking the classics from the seventies to the noughties.

You might conclude 'lots of fluff!' But we also enjoyed some substance, with Will opening the Bible for us and reminding us that Jesus comes not to spoil, shrink, or put the handbrake on life but to promote real life. And the way Jesus most promotes real life is by providing it through the laying down his own life. '...Jesus showed his glory and his followers believed in him' (Jn 2:11)

Praise God for fun nights together.

A community celebrating Christ at Christmas

With a bumper crowd at Carols in the Park and many from our local community attending a service, this Christmas at St. John's has seen our community coming together to celebrate Christ. Praise God for Christmas! Read on for some of the sights, sounds and highlights.

On a beautiful summer's night at Carols in the Park we were joined by locals, the MicMacs, Shandelle Cooke and our own St. John's band, for a night of singing of the Saviour.

Our Christmas Eve kids service, Jesus Birthday Party, returned with much warmth, joy, fun and dancing. Its always a treat to welcome a number of families returning to Geelong for Christmas as we were able to do again this year. From the Bible, recalling how the angels always reassure those they speak to, “don't be afraid”, we were reminded that we don't need to be scared to love and follow Jesus. How important for the little ones of our community to know this love of Jesus.

Later in the evening The Big Christmas Gig for high schoolers made its debut appearance. While some were a little nervous with our messy games (including 'put away your pudding'), we all appreciated our fine band - with their own Like-A-Version takes on Jingle Bells, and we took a moment to consider the joy Jesus brings and our response. We're already looking forward to such merriment again in 2015.

Our Midnight Christmas Eve service had us consider that memorable moments of when the waiting was over: like when a loved one finally comes through the airport doors. The relief, joy, and excitement we know and value also apply to birth of Jesus - when God came to us. Accordingly we were treated to hear a four-piece play the Sovereign Grace song, Prepare Him Room, a song worthy of hearing again - below is the Sovereign Grace version:

Speaking of singing, our Christmas Day family service revealed some community talent: during our opportunity to meet, mingle and swap autographs (for one of the segments), we found some talented Christmas singing soloists. As they stood, they sung to us, in true 'carolling' form, the chorus of O Holy Night. What a treat.

Our Christmas message from the Bible this year was from Matthew ch 1: the truth that 'the time has come!' For all the preparation and the many generations waiting, the birth of Jesus saw the moment that God came in human form to save us. The time of God's salvation is now. Hearing this, we also considered how we, like Mary and Joseph, can find ourselves unprepared to receive Jesus. Hence the question for us all: are we willing and ready to receive Christ this Christmas? In the words of the Sovereign grace song,

'Oh, our hearts, as busy as Bethlehem
Hear Him knock, don't say there's no room in the inn
Through the cradle, cross, and grave
See the love of God displayed
Now He's risen and He reigns
Praise the Name above all names!

Prepare Him room
Prepare Him room
Let the King of glory enter in.'
_{(Sov Grace Music)}

May God give you much joy as you look to love and follow Christ.

The Big Christmas Gig

This year we're excited to welcome a new Christmas Eve celebration service - especially for those in high school and those on their way to it. Its called the Big Christmas Gig, and promises to be a upbeat and lively way to bring in Christmas.

We're working towards a bit of friendly Christmas competition, lots of music and singing with a touch of Christmas dressups too: wear a Christmas Mo or a Christmas Hat.

We love the joy of Christmas, and we want to share it around. So grab a flyer (click on the image to the right), share our FB post #TheBigChristmasGig and come along. Christmas Eve Dec 24 7pm - 7:45pm.

Next set of classics now available

This year we're setting ourselves to read through some of the absolute classic pieces of Christian wisdom from the ages.

Our next set of articles are now ready for reading (available here) and include some great Anglicans in history, including Thomas Cranmer's Preface to the Great Bible as well as John Owen's classic on the reason and result of Christ's death. We're also reading the haunting Bonhoeffer poem Who Am I?. And more from George Whitefield, John Chrysostum, and John Dryden.

Read the articles and then join in the discussion over a simple dinner on Tuesday Nov 18th 7pm for dinner (gold coin donation). Find all the articles here. Happy reading!

Making sense of suffering

'The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised'(Job 1:21).

Of all the tensions and troubles we have concerning the presence of evil and our experience of suffering, none is greater than the issue of God's justice: How can God really be good when he oversees and permits evil and suffering? How can God really be in control and not accept some of the blame for evil? And even as we attempt to come to terms with God and evil and suffering more broadly, so we also face the daily details of how trouble takes hold of us.

The book of Job tackles some of the most pressing and perplexing issues of all of life, bringing us face to face with the reality of suffering, of life and death. And it does so not merely in some abstract and philosophical way. More importantly, it does so without simply offering glib answers.

The book of Job addresses the mystery of suffering without having to solve it. It both explores the dynamics and protects the limitations on our understanding, ultimately pointing us to “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:11).

Come and join us on Sundays for our Job series through November, and read along with our Daily Bible Reading notes, their questions for consideration and suggestions for prayer. DBR notes available here.

'...be faithful in prayer'

This week marks the beginning of a three week series on Prayer at St. John's and we hope it proves fruitful for you! Great Christian thinker and author John Calvin refers to prayer as "the chief exercise of faith", both characteristic and essential for the Christian in daily life.

As is our current routine this week just past we've held our term startup Parish prayer gathering. This time we were blessed to have Luke & Jane join us, our new partners in the gospel, We heard of their plans and hopes, their intentions and details and we look forward to hearing and seeing God at work through them as they prepare to travel overseas in January. We were also able to pray for our other mission partners as well as ask God concerning our own ministries. Are you eager to keep on praying for these? Please do!

And if its a help, you can find our booklet with some pointers for your prayers on our Prayer page.

This coming Sunday we're looking forward to the first of three sermons on prayer. Will is this week bringing is 'The WHY of prayer' from Mark 9:2-32. Why not read up on this passage beforehand and come ready to be encouraged to pray.

On Sunday we're also receiving a three week set of Bible studies on Prayer to complement the sermon series.

All this as we look to help each other 'exercise our faith' in Christ Jesus.

'Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.' (Romans 12:12).

Spring School is underway

Christians in every age have the privilege and challenge of learning how to speak for Christ in a world that is sometimes unaware sometimes disinterested sometimes positively opposed to the Lord Jesus. Answering objections with love and grace, and speaking persuasively to win a hearing for the gospel.

Talk 1 is now available on the Spring School page here. Come along to to our second night next Tuesday 9th Sept, 7:30pm.l - this is apologetics and this is what we are exploring at Spring School 2014. Three nights aimed at giving you a good grounding as well as positive encouragement to go on speaking with love and grace for Christ.

More than conquerors

This well-known and often-cited phrase comes at the conclusion of one of the grandest chapters of arguably Paul's grandest epistle. And what an astonishing point to reach! “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors.” (Romans 8:37)

For a statement that so many refer to so readily, when you pause to consider it, it can seem difficult to affirm with real conviction. Us, at little old St. John's, with all our issues and our idiosyncrasies, with all our faults and failings,.. “more than conquerors”! Really?

I'm sure that those who know Christ and love the Scriptures will want to concur with the inspired word of God. But take a moment to imagine how others/outsiders would hear such a statement. Do you not suffer set-backs and disappointments in life like the rest of us? Are you impervious to famine, nakedness, danger, the sword? Does your relationship with God through Christ protect you from disease, decay and death? Who do you think you are? And in what sense can you claim to be 'more than conquerors'? (By the same token, I wonder what the people of Paul's day would have made of such a statement on his lips? I don't know that he would have been singled out by many as some great winner in the game of life.)

Certainly, this is not a statement to treat in some glib fashion - as the context demands. When the apostle says, “in all these things” he is referring to the bitterest pains of the curse under which the whole of creation (& not least, we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit) groans (vv.22 & 23). Indeed, immediately prior to this triumphant statement we read this quotation from the Psalms: “For your sake we face death all day long”. How can one jump from such a sober acknowledgement of our dire predicament to such an amazingly exultant declaration of our exceeding conquest?

And the answer lies in the content of our victory - we know the love of God for us in Christ Jesus. To be assured that we are loved by God is life's greatest conquest.

Back in chapter 5, the apostle Paul has already confidently proclaimed our ability to rejoice even in sufferings (compare 8:17) - because, ultimately, “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (5:5). That's why there is such an emphasis upon the ministry of the Spirit in chapter 8 - he helps us in our weakness (v.26). Chapter 8 is clear on our weakness within, and on our threats without, but the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead brings to us life and peace (v.6 & 11), testifies that we are God's children (v.14 & 16), and intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (v.26 & 27).

Without this convicting, confirming ministry of God's Spirit, we could not know and appreciate God's love for us. We could not help but doubt it, when we struggle and sin, when we suffer, when the world seems all arrayed against us, when we face the reality of death.

The remarkable victory that Romans 8 proclaims is that even in the face of our own sinful nature and weakness, as well as a creation that has itself been subjected to frustration where various threats and dangers plague us - still by the presence and power of God's Spirit we can know that we are genuinely, deeply loved by God. Hallelujah!

That's why the statement reads: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us”.

That's why as the apostle continues to explain and elaborate what he means he says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It's why the last of the five unanswerable questions he poses in vv.31-36 (which occasions our statement) is: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ” (v.35)?

We are more than conquerors - in all things - because God has brought us to know his ardent love for us in Christ Jesus.

His love for us transcends us and our problems: it cannot be undone, not by our weakness, not by our circumstances, not by our enemies. And his love transforms us: it enables us to face up to our weakness, our circumstances, and even our enemies. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The ultimate experience of hyper-success in all of life is to know that we are loved by God our Father - to know that nothing in all the world can undo this, and to face all of life (and even death!) knowing this.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Will

Next set of classics now available

This year we're setting ourselves to read through some of the absolute classic pieces of Christian wisdom from the ages.

Our next set of articles are now ready for reading (available here) and include foundational writings on why Jesus had to become man to save us, as well as some poetry (T.S.Eliot and George Herbert) and a milestone sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards.

Read the articles and then join in the discussion over a simple dinner on Wed Aug 27th. Find all the articles here. Happy reading!

Photos from Kids Club

What an awesome week we had together at Kids Club in the recent holidays. It truly was Circus Berserkus! Magic men pulling rabbits out of hats, humble acrobats putting in star performances, and most of all 83 enthusiastically active kids all taking part in singing, games, activities, craft, and learning together.

Praise God for each child, and for our wonderful team of leaders. We've now got a sample of some of sights and sounds of Kids Club online.

Head to our Kids Club page here.

Christian D.N.A Workshop: The place of Tradition

As part of our ONE goals this year (ONE in like-mindedness, ONE in Community, ONE in Witness), we as a church began a series of workshops called 'Christian DNA' aimed to provide a forum for learning and discussing our core convictions - what it means to hold to a reformed, evangelical, protestant faith. Last week on the 10th June I was fortunate enough to attend the latest forum which was on the place of tradition in forming our pedagogy of Christian faith.

As my wife and I took our seats Will delved right into the meat of things as we explored by what sources do we get our information and evidence that then allow us to come to a theological conviction. These convictions range from what type of music we play during services (or any music at all), what clothes we ought to wear, the role of women in ministry and anything else you could imagine! Will helped us narrow down these sources of our evidence to 4 places. These places are from Scripture, from tradition, from reason and from experience.

I am a historical romantic. I can easily daydream myself side by side with Luther as he nailed his 95 thesis to the Wittenberg door, triumphantly calling out 'Sola Scriptura' as we challenged the might of the Roman Catholic church together. I can see myself working hand in hand with Calvin defending the new protestant faith in Geneva from those who would give authority to reason over scripture. After all, these champions (and many more) of the protestant faith set the groundwork of my own evangelical, reformed protestant theology. Of course in my dreams I successfully pursuaded Luther to take a more reformed stance and saved Cranmer from a martyrs death. With these great hero's of faith I can proudly say that Scripture is the source of all my theological convictions. But is it?

It was extremely challenging to look within myself and question by which authority I attest my faith convictions and practices by. I am forced to admit that tradition, logic and experience play important roles in my theology and I need to educate myself on my sources of beliefs unless I mistakingly hold to a faith practice based on tradition to the exclusion of Scripture. While tradition is not necessarily a bad place to draw authority from, Scripture is so much better. After this particualr DNA workshop I found myself honestly contemplating my thoughts on Women in Ministry, Marriage and the role of the church, and whether my opinions and beliefs have its basis on Scripture first, or whether my stance is a reflection on modern cultural morality and experiences.

I am encouraged greatly to be involved in a church that is committed to placing the authority of scripture as its foundation. We are a church that cherishes its Anglican faith, we respect and honour the traditions that allow us to love and serve God to the best of our abilities. Yet we are also prepared to challenge those traditions, when their meaning might get diluted, or when tradition may be tempted to replace scripture. I am encouraged to see us as a church family commit ourselves to like-mindedness on the thing that matters the most, the word of God, which was made flesh in his son, Jesus Christ.

If you missed this DNA, or the 3 before it, there is no need to be upset! you can find a recording the workshops right here.

Jono Whitfield

Kids Club places filling fast