I made a basic website for our new Christianity course earlier this week: onelifecourse.com .org is an atheist course from the UK… I’m hoping we get some of their visitors! I made it using a great wordpress theme from Woothemes (affiliate link).
Here’s a promo vid featured on the site:
Our next course starts on May 22nd.
Not a Christian? You’re welcome to join us. Or check out this site for more info about Jesus or this site for other similar courses around the world.
This is a beautiful story. Read John Piper’s intro and Larissa’s article. The vid:
Some talented friends have just had a kids book released with Youthworks. Fiz the Flying Fox is authored by Skye Parry-Jones and illustrated by Nicole Maloney.
Here’s a blurb:
Fiz is a young flying fox who loves adventure! One day, flying fast through the treetops of the rainforest, Fiz finds himself far from home, scared and alone. But is he truly alone? Through this delightful story, we learn that while we sometimes wander far from God, our loving heavenly Father is always watching over us.
Enjoy the first 13 pages (and buy copies) on the product page.
EQUIP Women’s Conference is on again this month. It’s a conference for women of all ages held at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. This year they are finishing off their series in 2 Peter. It’s on Saturday May 19. Check out the website.
Are you a woman? It’s a great conference… register now! Are you a man? Get your wife, girlfriend, sister, daughter, mum, friend etc registered!
Massive congrats to the crew from Youthworks and all the peeps that help to keep FERVR.NET online. They’ve just won a webby. I think that’s a big deal!!
If you haven’t checked them out before, go. They claim to be the “Number 1 Christian Youth Website” – now they can officially claim the number 1 Religious and Spirituality website on all the interwebs! Well done.
Involved in youth ministry? Get your crew on there…
My mate Calum Henderson has just created his first iPhone App. It’s a really well designed and functional app showcasing over 100 group games. I really like the different ways you are able to sort through the catalogue. A great resource for anyone involved in Youth Ministry.
Calum has given me 2 codes for free downloads of the app. Do you want them? Leave a comment below. The first two win. Simple.
If you don’t win? He has an introductory price of only $0.99 anyway, so it probably won’t break the bank. Download it now.
Had a play with it? What did you think? What’s your favourite youth group game?
Soulies Youth Community had a killer time at KYCK this past weekend! We camped onsite, it didn’t rain! Andy, Nat, Bel, Michelle + Nick from St Faith’s Night Church served us by cooking up some sweeeeet food. St Paul’s Castle Hill band CITY SURRENDER were tight, energetic and encouraging as they lead 2200+ young punks in song. Finally, Malcolm Gill and Sam Chan gave, in my opinion, the best series of talks I’ve heard at KYCK. Solid, intertwined, bold, biblical and engaging.
See below for more pics, and tweet summaries of each talk:
Continue Reading…
In John 20 when Jesus appears to his disciples, for some reason, Thomas wasn’t there. When they tell Thomas that they’ve seen Jesus alive, he responds by demanding proof. Jesus gives it to him!
Have a listen to my sermon on John 20:24-31 to find out how Thomas responded. Likewise, consider how you ought to respond 2000 years later.
See part 2 below:
Continue Reading…
We’re doing it again this year. Read about last year’s one. Watch last year’s one.
Read a bit about this year’s one here or on souliesunderground.com
We will also be attempting to live stream it from 7pm (Sydney time) Thursday 5th April.
Over the past 2 days I preached 7 times at Trinity Grammar (in Sydney’s Inner-West) for their Easter Mission. Tiring but worth it. I spoke on the Rich Ruler from Luke 18:18-30, it was impossible for him to do anything to inherit eternal life. How is it possible for anyone to inherit eternal life? Through trusting in what Jesus has done to make the impossible possible, Luke 18:31-34. Peeps were challenged and heard the truth of Jesus.
I was really impressed with the chaplains at the school and the way in which staff in general supported the mission. It was compulsory for all high school students to attend the program. But we also had a good number of new students come along voluntarily to the lunch time Christian group. I spoke on Luke 18:9-14 and urged people to respond to Jesus by saying “have mercy on me, a sinner”. There are some solid Christian students in the school, and I’m praying that they will keep reaching out to their often hard-hearted peers with the good news of Jesus.
Here is the runsheet:
Student leader welcomes
Chasing Light played 2 songs
Speaker interview
Spoken Word vid: Why I hate religion, but love Jesus
Student bible reader
Talk
Film Clip: ‘My Prayer’ by Chasing Light
Chasing Light played 3 songs
Student leader outro and invitation to lunch group
Chasing Light were loud, energetic, engaging and good at pointing young crew to Jesus. It was great to work with them. Their film clip ‘My Prayer’ (above) tied in really well off the back of the talk.
See below for another song of theirs and the Jeff Bethke ‘Jesus>Religion’ vid.
Continue Reading…
ONE.LIFE. is a new Christianity course that we have just begun at St Faith’s Narrabeen. It is a combination of Christianity Explored (weeks 1, 3, 4, 5) and some of John Dickson’s work on the reliability of the bible (week 2). Mark’s gospel is the main focus.
WEEK 1 // WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
WEEK 2 // CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE?
WEEK 3 // WHY DID JESUS COME?
WEEK 4 // WHY DID JESUS DIE + RISE?
WEEK 5 // WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?
We’ve just completed the final week of the course. We’ll be running it again in May and October, with the possibility of course during the day in July. The format: arrive, dinner at tables, talk, dessert discussion at tables, Q+A from the front. The content was good, but could be tighter, particularly week 2.
I think that there are too many Bible investigation questions in the official CE material. I’m all for encouraging people to dig into the bible for themselves, but think that lots of the interpretation and bible digging is lead by the speaker. So the discussion question over dinner was fairly open ended and non-threatening. The dessert discussion question was also fairly non-threatening. There were lots of good questions.
If you’re a Christian – can you take 30 seconds to pray and ask that God would use ONE.LIFE. to reach many Northern Beaches peeps with the good news of Jesus? Thanks :)
If you’re not a Christian. I love you. Thanks for reading. Check out this website. Contact me if you want to chat further about Jesus.
There was some massive lottery draw that happened this week in the USA. John Piper has written 7 reasons that Christians shouldn’t gamble their money in this way. I think his reasons are applicable more generally for any gambling. Read the article.
Here are the 7 reasons:
1. It is spiritually suicidal.
2. It is a kind of embezzlement.
3. It’s a fool’s errand.
4. The system is built on the necessity of most people losing.
5. It preys on the poor.
6. There is a better alternative.
7. For the sake of quick money, government is undermining the virtue without which it cannot survive.
27 Million is part of the A21 Campaign. Find out more about it here.
