Easter

The supermarkets have reminded me that Easter is coming upon us… but is it really!?! Come on its not for another 2 months!! & its post-TWBC (Tasmanian Women’s Bible Conference) which is how I am ganging the first half of the year! :)

So I have decided to not eat any easter eggs, or bunnies, or hot cross buns until I am in Bicheno having a very relaxing weekend with my family! Can’t wait for that easter egg hunt! :)

Evangelism

We recently listened to a talk by Tim Keller at our youth group leaders retreat about how the evangelism methods we have been using are no longer effective because of the shifts in society. In fact, Keller called for a complete transformation in the way that we spread the gospel. He did give hints on how to do this in his talk. But it led me to think…

Do evangelism tools such as 6 Steps To Talking About Jesus no longer work?
Do we have to change our whole thinking about how to present the gospel so that we can be effective in spreading the word of Jesus in this postmodern society?
Or has postmodernism not reached Tassie yet!?! :)

Bible Reading

At TLC Andrew Reid reminded me how important reading the Bible regularly really is…

We often tend not to enforce the importance of reading the bible every day to stay away from legalism. We know it’s a good thing to do, but if you can’t find the time we say, “oh that’s ok, cause you don’t want it to be legalistic do you!?!”. It's almost like legalism has become an excuse for the lazy!

Andrew gave the great example of when we are training for something we work hard at it, we create habits to help us fulfill our goals.

So as Christians, who want to get to know more about our great God, why should we not create habits to help us do that? And reading the bible daily is a fantastic habit to help with this, & if it is done with the Holy Spirit & prayer this could not be legalistic, could it?

TLC

Marty and I had the great pleasure of going to the Tasmanian Leadership Conference (TLC) on the weekend. Here are some things I was encouraged & challenged by -

Encouraged:

• We got to lead a group of rather young first-timers who had never written a Bible study before, so to see them really get into the passage & interpret it for themselves & write a study was so encouraging.
  
• To listen to what people are doing around the State in terms of ministry is always really encouraging to hear.

Challenged:

• About our singing – Andrew Reid defined song as putting you in touch with what it means to be Gods people in Gods world. So, it’s making theology our own with our experiences & emotion. Have we concentrated too much on theology & left out emotion?
  
• I was reminded of how important the Bible is to continue reading individually & corporately. Andrew really challenged us to think about whether or not this is done enough corporately these days.
  
• How much I am like the Israelites & try & self-rule instead of let God rule.
  
• As Christians we are to live authentic lives, not putting up a face of ‘goodness’, but truly living out the gospel & there is no better evangelism than that!
  

Once again TLC proved to be a great conference for training people to read & interpret the Bible for themselves! So, be there next year!

I became a true Kingstonite & Australian in 1 day!!

I have been told that you are not a true ‘Kingstonite’ until you have done the big walk above the trees into the sky - the Tahune AirWalk. Well I finally did it! And it was amazing - being above the trees & seeing everything from a bird’s perspective was very cool.

But the coolest thing was actually those swinging bridges (yes there is 2!). You may have been there & not done them as it’s not really talked about or hyped up – both those swinging bridges are a whole lot more scarier, & very possibly cooler, than the platform in the sky. To see the terrifying experience watch the movie….

And I am also now a true Australian as I have seen ‘Australia’. It was also pretty cool - just another movie really!

What is wrong with me?

As I was planning the year – I felt nothing for it, just a bit taken back about how busy it was! There was no excitement for things coming up, even trips to Sydney which I love doing. In fact there was just not really any feeling at all.

What was wrong with me?

I did a lot of thinking about it - I even took a day off to try & figure it out. Finally it was an epiphany that came to me in Gloria Jeans one very warm morning over a skinny cappuccino & a great book - I had momentarily lost my passion for full-time ministry.

So I went back to some inspiring talks & it brought me back to Jesus. This should come as no surprise to you - but it is always God & all that he has done for us that brings us back to reality isn’t it!?! It’s through being totally humbled & realising how crap you are that puts everything back into place.

Being in full-time paid ministry is such a privilege – I am apart of this massive plan of spreading the great news of Christ to the world! This should never be left out of the picture when you are planning your year!!

The 5 P's

Well the second year of my MTS apprenticeship is well underway & so has the planning. It feels strange to spend almost a whole month planning the rest of the year. But as BV shared – ‘Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance’. So let’s hope that comes true!