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Pray for Steve Chong. Now!

Steve Chong (from Kirkplace and RICE) is preaching to 7000 young punks at the Newday youth festival in England. I want to invite you to pray for him this week. Pray that God would be at work by His Spirit as Steve opens the Word and points young punks to Jesus.

It’s an amazing opportunity and it would be good if we could gather as many peeps in Sydney and Australia to partner with Steve by praying for this ministry.

Watch the vid above. And pray now.

His first talk will be roughly 630pm tonight (Tuesday 2 August – Sydney Time).

We can hopefully get another vid from Steve later in the week.

Follow him on Twitter for regular updates.

Share this vid or blog post to get others praying too. Deal?

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Pinch + Punch // August 2011

Hey blog dogs. July has been a lazy blog month. No apologies. I’ve got some fresh content lined up for August. Maybe some apologies? Hey good news about the Thankyou Water in 7-eleven campaign… read about it hear! Hey our soccer team jumped into the top four this last week. Yieeew. Hey I set myself a 6 kilo winter weight loss challenge. I’m half way there.

Above is my fave pic from the August smashing mag desktop designs. And here’s the best of July (according to clicks) and some other stats:

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Clean Water for Uttarakhand, Northern India

Back in December/January friends and readers of DMDC were part of raising $2835 to go toward a clean water project for India. We were aiming for $2000, but well and truly exceeded that target. 12 months before that we raised some cash for clean water in Rwanda. I dig the idea of using blogs and social media to raise money for works of justice.

Thanks again to all those who gave generously. Below are some of the project details from Compassion. If you contributed and you’re keen for a longer PDF, let me know.
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DMDC is proud to partner with Compassion Australia to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Together, we will provide deep tube wells to three child development centres in northern India, ensuring they have a long-term supply of clean water. Through our partnership, more than 600 Compassion assisted children will receive the gift of this most precious resource.

Now, mothers and fathers will not have to walk long distances to fetch water, or queue for hours at the town well. Children will be better protected from waterborne diseases and able to attend school, learn, grow and develop to fulfil their potential.

This water intervention is part of Compassion’s Complementary Interventions program.

Complementary Interventions—Completing Compassion’s programs
Compassion seeks to address all the obstacles that can hinder and impede the healthy development of children. From providing clean water to emergency relief, income-generation training and many others, Compassion’s Complementary Interventions tackle some of these additional concerns and provide solutions that enhance, improve and complement their core programs.

For more info on Compassion’s work visit www.compassion.com.au or call 1300 22 44 53.

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John Stott 1921-2011 // Christ Abolished Death

John Stott, one of the greatest Christian leaders of the last century, has died this week aged 90. I’ve personally been impacted by his ministry and was saddened to hear of his death. Yet so encouraged by his faithful service and thankful that he is now with Jesus, which is better by far! Earlier this year I read his final book The Radical Disciple. Simple, precise, challenging. Throughout the book he actually spoke about it as his final book. He knew he didn’t have many years left in him, so deliberately wrote this as a farewell book.

We’re currently using Stott’s Basic Christianity as the part of the material in our Confirmation Classes at St Faith’s. It’s good stuff!

His book The Cross of Christ has probably had the most profound impact around the world in enabling Christians to see the multi-faceted jewel that is the Death of Jesus.

I’ve enjoyed reading some obituaries and tributes this week on the life and ministry of Stott.

Here’s a few:

Michael Jensen Facebooked this not long after his death, “Please, you evangelicals out there: don’t say ‘RIP’ for John Stott. It’s a prayer for the dead!” I’ve been uneasy with RIP before, but didn’t know it was a prayer for the dead. Another fella in the comments that followed Jensen’s status quoted Stott (2 Timothy commentary). Check this:

“One of the most searching tests to apply to any religion concerns its attitude to death. And measured by this test much so-called Christianity is found wanting in its black clothes, its mournful chants and its requiem masses. Of course dying can be very unpleasant, and bereavement can bring bitter sorrow. But death itself has been overthrown, and ‘blessed are the dead who die in the Lord’ (Rev. 14:13). The proper epitaph to write for a Christian believer is not a dismal and uncertain petition, ‘R.I.P.’ (requiescat in pace, ‘may he rest in peace’), but a joyful and certain affirmation ‘C.A.D.’ (‘Christ abolished death’)”

Brilliant. John Stott 1921-2011 C.A.D.

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What can a Census really tell us about Australia, and about ourselves?

It’s a couple of weeks until the next Census in Australia. Sweet. Can’t wait. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has a nifty flash application at the moment called ‘Spotlight’. Check it out. It has lots of interest stats along the way. Here’s the snapshot it spat out for me.

It might be useful for getting a snapshot on your suburb? Good for knowing and loving people in it? Maybe? Either way the Census is important for understanding our mission field. Do you use ABS data much in gaining a profile on your community? If so, how?

(h/t Tim)

ps – maybe the census doesn’t pick this up, but Ministers of Religion work more than 8 hours a day!

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GOD HAS COME // Soulies Teaching Plan

The latest series at SOULIES is called GOD HAS COME. We will be studying the first 3 chapters of John’s Gospel. I thought it might be useful to share some of the strategy in how we are approaching the teaching at SOULIES this term. (Props to creationswap for art)

  • It’s from a gospel – any book of the bible would have been good! But, I’m keen to give a more evangelistic edge to our Friday night talks. The gospels are easy to do that because Jesus is speaking and when he’s not it’s about him.
  • Manageable chunks – rather than 3 chapters at a time we’re looking at approx 1/2 a chapter per week.
  • Junior and Senior Crew are doing the same series – this may not be the pattern forever, however, I’ve been trying to create an identity larger than just the junior group or senior group by themselves. Even if we’re in two locations, the same series helps us to identify with that larger youth community.
  • Soulies Small Groups are studying the same section – this helps to create continuity between Friday night and our Sunday small groups. While I value the principle of having leaders write their own studies, I’m also aware that that’s a big job! So I hope that having the series written will be a good service and model to small group leaders.
  • We are producing the ‘DAILY BIBLE JOURNAL‘ – this is a small booklet that encourages young punks to spend 5 minutes a day in the Bible. It includes: daily reading notes, sermon notes space and Bible study. It seemed to be received well on Friday and Sunday. I’m praying it will help to develop a hunger for the Word among our community.
  • There’s an Online component – I’m keen to use new media to encourage people to dig into the Bible. So each week, we will have a Sunday (no later than Monday) blog post with a video intro for the week’s readings as well as the daily reading notes and a link to an online Bible. I hope that this helps more people to participate.

See this blog post for a copy of the Daily Bible Journey.

See below for the first Bible intro, as well as our bumper vid

Continue reading “GOD HAS COME // Soulies Teaching Plan”

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Shine Music Conference 2011

‘SHINE’ is an annual, non-denominational music conference designed to equip & encourage Christian singers, musicians and technical volunteers.  Pastors will also find the day most valuable. Each year St Paul’s Castle Hill hosts a guest speaker and professional workshop leaders to help build us up in Christ & to develop the gifts that God has given us.

I really like the work that St Paul’s are doing with their music ministry.

Check out their website for more details and for online rego.