This morning as I read some articles about night services I started to fear that starting a night service might be foolish. One article suggested that attendance at night is plummeting among evangelical churches and that most progressive churches are putting their energies into other things. On top of this, arguably the best known night service in the Bible ends when a young man is overcome by tiredness and falls out of a third story window to his death (later to be miraculously revived). If people fall asleep when the apostle Paul preaches then what hope is there for anyone staying awake to listen to those who preach at Christ Community? Additionally, a night service will put pressure on our Servant Teams who work tirelessly to ensure the service runs smoothly by setting and packing up, providing morning tea, welcome us and doing sound, projector, the offering etc. Moreover we are already struggling for helpers for our bulging children’s ministry. How are we to cope if many helpers decide to go to a night service?

However, when I think about spreading the good news about Jesus I am encouraged about the plans for a night service. It provides new opportunities for all of us to have the privilege of serving our church. There will be times when it is stretching and hard, but I am confident that God will bless us as we serve Him and His people. We are trusting that the Lord will use a night service to grow and mature us as a church as He grows His kingdom right here in Brisbane.  Our desire is that a night service will serve existing members, but we also trust that God will help us reach others through a different service time as we enjoy and declare the wonders of God’s grace in Christ.

Please prayerfully consider whether God would have you be a part of a night service at Christ Community. It is not our desire to have people go to church twice on a Sunday, so there will be a relational cost to both those who stick in the morning and those who move to the night. That being said, we will seek to do many things as a whole church and will continue to be united in Christ and in purpose and values. Whether you go to the morning or at night may the Lord use you to be a part of building up His people and may He use us as a local church to build His kingdom in our city.

Don’t let the title deceive you. I am no expert at discipling children. However, I am extremely passionate about it. The Bible instructs us to teach our children about God. Psalm 145 tells us that one generation is to commend the works of God to the next. Likewise, the words of the Lord are to be taught diligently to our children (Deut 6:7). Jesus sums up what discipling children looks like when he simply, yet profoundly states, ‘let the little children come to me’ (Matt 19:14).

As I said on Sunday our church currently has a challenge with our children’s ministry. For a church our size we have a lot of children. Yet, I would say that this challenge presents an incredible opportunity for us as a church family. While the Bible gives parents a specific role in teaching and instructing their children (Eph 6:4), the entire church family has a part to play in enjoying and declaring the good news about Jesus to our children. Whether you are directly involved in kids ministry or not I do hope that you are praying for God to work in the hearts of our children.

It is hard to describe the joy in my heart when I first heard my daughter singing ‘read your Bible and pray every day’. I don’t think we had ever sung that to her at home. Those precious words were taught to her by members of her church family while she was in crèche. Thank-you to all those who invest in our church children. May God grow the Gospel seeds which have been joyfully planted.

Grace Always,

Peter

It is hard to know how any of us would react in a similar situation. It is impossible to fathom the panic which would go through your mind. However, Jesus is quite clear on what perspective we are to have towards our lives. After telling His disciples that He would die and rise again, He says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mat 16:24-25). In all probability, we will never be faced with a life-or-death situation where we may be called upon to physically lay down our lives for others. However, every day we have the choice of whether to live our lives for ourselves or for Christ. This tragedy has certainly challenged me to consider whether I am really putting Him first.

The other thing to consider in this disaster is what has happened to us men? It is 100 years this year since the sinking of the Titanic. Over 80% of the men on board the Titanic perished. Yet nearly three quarters of women survived. What a difference 100 years has made to the behaviour of men. On Saturday at our breakfast the men of Christ Community were challenged from Romans 12 to be zealous for the Lord. I would encourage you men to read through this passage again. I pray that the men of Christ Community wouldn’t be conformed to this world, but would be transformed to discern what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I was really challenged by Grant’s food analogies for reading the Bible. This is such a helpful and practical list. If I was to add an eleventh to the list, I’d say that when it comes to reading God’s word it is OK to binge!

If you need some direction in what to read, why not start with the reading plan which we are following with the Pursuing Christ series.

As I’ve read through the Pursuing Christ reading plan this week I’ve been challenged to consider my ways. The passages which I have read so far, Isaiah 40:28-31, Haggai 1:1-7 and John 15:1-11 have revealed to me two main reasons why my resolutions often fail. The first one is that I am often guilty of resolving to do things for my own benefit. Like the people in Haggai’s time I often set about doing things for my own sake. Haggai’s words “Consider your ways” have certainly hit my heart. What is the point of resolutions which aren’t motivated by a desire to Pursue Christ? The other problem with a lot of my resolutions is that I seek to do them in my own strength. However, the passages in Isaiah and John both tell me that it is God who gives us strength. This is reassuring, and should also give us boldness when setting goals for the year.

I’m looking forward to the remaining passages this week. I hope that you too are being challenged to consider your ways!

Live by grace and be transformed by Christ as we seek to imitate Him. The Pursuing Christ teaching series in January 2012 covers Pursuing Christ, Personal Worship, Stewardship and Community in a Sermon Series, A Reading Plan and Small Group Teams. Check it out!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isa 9:6-7)

The Christmas narratives in the Bible say that this is an occasion of great joy.  The Angel tells the Shepherds “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”  Likewise the Wise Men react with joy, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.”  The joy that came that first Christmas was a Saviour.  That was something to be joyful about then and it is definitely something to be joyful about now.  If you are like me and sometimes don’t find the Christmas season that jolly then can I encourage you with the words of Psalm 51, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

So I encourage you to think deeply on the joy that we have because of Jesus.  A great place to start is reading about the coming of Jesus in the Bible.  If you haven’t been reading along with the Bible reading plan already then it isn’t too late to start.  The news about Jesus is good news and it is for all people.  We have been given this news of great joy.  Let us enjoy and declare it this Christmas.

Grace always,

Peter Bradbury

But I definitely hope and expect that the old message of Christmas will do exactly that this year – be a source of ever-increasing wonder and joy.

In our morning devotions, Cherie and I are taking our kids once again through the Christmas story. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read or heard the story of Christmas. It’s very familiar. I expect it is to you too. The Christmas story is old news. But every year in some small but profound way the old news of Christ’s birth keeps growing in significance to me. Something new and wonderful strikes me that never did before. And the reality and worth of it all hits home in a new way. It’s the kind of story the birth of Christ is, like a priceless treasure that gets polished up once again to display its dazzling beauty and a new hidden facet. The age of the treasure doesn’t lessen but somehow enhances its worth.

This morning we read the story of the Three Wise Men (though it was once rightly pointed out to me that the Bible doesn’t ever say there were three!). Something in this story grabs me as wonderfully significant. These astronomers saw something in the skies that told them of a king born to the Jews. Something they called ‘His star’. God wrote the message of His Son’s coming in the sky. No one but these magi in a distant land interpreted the message, it seems. These men were so certain, their conviction so strong that they set out, probably from Persia and with train of servants, to cross a sandy desert on a journey of weeks to worship this King and to bring Him kingly gifts.

But they don’t find Jesus where they expect – in the palace in Jerusalem. Amazingly, the rulers of the land know nothing of his coming. The Messiah came unheralded, except by angels to lowly shepherds. On the whole He was hidden and unknown to the world; born not in a palace but in a smelly stable and laid in cattle feed trough. But to those to whom it was revealed, like the shepherds and the wise men, it was stunning news.

It says in Matthew 2:10 that when the wise men saw the star over the place where Jesus was they ‘rejoiced exceedingly with great joy’. Such was their wonder at this light in the sky moving to the place where they would find the King. And such was their desire to meet and worship Him; their anticipation, and their realisation that this event was much more significant than they had ever imagined on their long bumpy journey across the desert on the backs of camels.

It’s that ‘rejoicing exceedingly with great joy’ that I’m asking our Father for this Christmas, for you and for me. May it happen afresh as we look at this old story once again this year. As we study the story not written in the sky but in His Word, so we might meet and worship the King, this Messiah who was born into the world. May we see by God’s revealing power that, like the Wise Men, in meeting and worshiping this King we’re caught up in something more significant, a plan more ancient and enduring, a hope more wonderful than we could ever have imagined.

Richard is an elder at Christ Community Church.