I’m not trying to be all existential by asking that question, but rather practical. What is the purpose of your church, of any church for that matter? How we answer that is incredibly important, and there are many different ways to answer it. You could say we exist to give glory to God, and that’s a very good answer. But then I could ask how do we give God glory! You could say we exist to disciple people, which is very Matthew 28, ‘go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Mt 28:19-20)’...

Our motto as a church is ‘Believe, Belong, Beloved.’ As Reformed Christians we all understand what we mean by believe, after all we have pages and pages (whole books) written about what we believe. In fact, the tradition in our churches is people could only be a part of our church if they believe what we believe – you have to believe before you can belong. But if we are going to reach our contemporary culture with the good news about Jesus that may be one of the most important mind shifts we need to make.   In a post-Christian culture...

We invest in what we think is important. When I was dating my now wife, I’d think nothing of getting her flowers, taking her out for dinner, or buying her jewellery. In fact, I still love spoiling her. She is important to me and she’s worth investing in. Maybe you invest in sports, or holidays, or a particular hobby. If it matters to you, you invest in it. The same is true when it comes to the church. If you looked at your church’s budget, which I’m sure many of you are starting to do, what does it say about what...

I remember listening to Wayne Cordeiro at a Global Leadership Summit talking about the moment that changed his life. He shared how he thought his job as a minister was to take God’s truth and give it to God’s people. But after having a mental breakdown he realized that his job as a minister was to take God’s truth, and put it into his own heart, before giving it to God’s people. God wanted to speak into his life as much as the lives of his congregation. That observation changed how I looked at my personal devotional time and my sermon...

The ability to understand the meaning of words is essential for effective communication. That’s not only true in order to understand different languages, it’s also true when speaking to people of different geographical locations, and even different generations. Here in Australia we talk about our car batteries going flat, but if you said that in America they would wonder if you had driven over your battery. In America batteries go dead, even though they were never alive to begin with! In the same way when we talk about God in our post-Christian culture many people will wonder who we’re talking about....

I don’t mind working alone, but I’m glad that I’m not alone in my work. I like to think of my elders as my partners in the ministry. I like to think of my wife as partnering with me in serving God. In fact, I like to think of my whole congregation as joining with me in the work of the Lord. Actually, the Bible talks about how we get to join God in his work. We don’t work alone. Paul begins his letter to the Church in Philippi with thanksgiving. He says, ‘I thank my God in all my remembrance...

Ok, so the title might be a little bit of an over-exaggeration. But, it doesn’t mean this isn’t something worth thinking about. What really is the most missional thing that you and I can do in 2019? By missional I mean how can we get more involved in moving towards others with the good news of Jesus? I often wonder how we, as a church, can best support all the different kinds of people in our community to embrace a missional lifestyle. How can we best equip the university student, the mother of four children, and the full-time accountant to embrace...

  Christmas is a great opportunity to share the gospel. Just about everyone in our society celebrates Christmas, although many don’t really know what it’s all about. At Christmas time we get to share the Good News of God coming into our world in the person of Jesus Christ to save people from their sins (Mt 1:21-23). Every Christmas Westside holds what we call a Christmas Party. It’s based around four simple ideas:  1) Everyone is Invited: We invite our whole community through a letterbox drop (which our members hand deliver), and through signs that we hang up at all the...

I’ve heard it so often, ‘It’s not about church growth, it’s about being faithful!’ Usually, it’s spoken defensively by someone from a church that is struggling. And what they are saying is that God cares most about the faithfulness of his people, and the numerical growth of the church is up to God. And I agree 100%. Paul says ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor 3:6-7)’ Growth is God’s work. We may be able to grow the church...

We have a wii at home, and it has a game where you can jog around an Island. But at the end of the circuit it asks how observant you are. The first question was: What colour was the mushroom? I didn’t even see a mushroom! The second question was: How many dogs did you see? I couldn’t remember seeing any dogs! The third question was: Which character did you see at the finish line? And I remember seeing a character there, but I couldn’t remember which one! My skills of observance were described as ‘dwindling fire!’ The truth is, it’s...

I’m sure you’ve all the saying ‘He’s a glass half-empty kind of guy,’ or ‘She’s a glass half-full kind of girl.’ It describes how we tend to see the world, either in a negative light, or a positive light. Some people tend to see the problems in life, while other people see opportunities. And the truth is that some of us see our spiritual lives in the same fashion. We see how our country is turning its back on Christianity and biblical principles and it gets us down. We see how our young people are leaving our church and it upsets...

Jesus has risen from the dead! Jesus had conquered death and sin and Satan. Jesus had provided a way for sinners to be reconciled with God Almighty. God’s promises to send the Messiah to redeem his people have been fulfilled. Surely, the whole world needs to hear the good news! And yet Jesus tells them to wait. Jesus ‘ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. (Act 1:4)’ They couldn’t proclaim the Good News, they couldn’t evangelize, because they didn’t yet have the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells his disciples, ‘you will receive power...

This week I was challenged to think about Matthew 5:16 in terms of my home. Jesus says, ‘let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 5:16)’ Of course Jesus is talking about our lives as individuals i.e. how is my life shining before others? But he’s also talking about our church life i.e. how are we shining as a Christian community in this dark world (see Phil 2:15)? But the question was asked: How is my home a light that shines in my community?...

Being a parent is hard work! There’s sleepless nights, messy rooms, chaotic meals, tears and arguments, and if your home is anything like mine outright defiance. Why would you keep doing it? Of course, it’s not always like that (allow me some dramatic license), but the reason we keep at it, is because we love our kids. Evangelism must have the same motivation. Without love evangelism becomes a duty. The Apostle Paul says that without love our words and our efforts are meaningless (1 Cor 13:1-3). In fact, God reached out to us because he was motivated by love. Jesus said,...

In his book, God Space, Doug Pollock starts with a story of Paul and Lisa, a newly married couple who had just become Christians. They were so excited about their faith in Jesus and how it had changed their lives that they longed to share the gospel with their unsaved families. After much prayer they decided that the Christmas family reunion would be the perfect time. After casually chatting and catching up Karen, Lisa’s younger sister, shared how she was on a spiritual high after an angel had appeared to her in a dream. This was there chance. Before Karen could...

One of the biggest reasons people don’t want to share their faith is the belief that only people with the spiritual gift of evangelism are called to do that. I’ve heard it many times, “I don’t have the gift of evangelism!” Or “Do you really expect everyone in your church to be willing and able to share their faith?” And the answer is “Yes!” So why do I believe everyone who follows Jesus should be able to explain why? Firstly, while the vast majority of Christians don’t have the spiritual gift of evangelism they are all called to let their lights...

One day, while diving for crayfish off the east coast of Tasmania as a young man, I was invited on-board a professional cray boat. It was a big boat, designed to spend weeks off-shore setting and checking cray pots. I found it fascinating. It had narrow stairs that descended below decks that were so step they were almost ladders. It had a huge hold filled with sea water that had room for thousands of crayfish. The bridge was filled with levers and dials and buttons. It certainly wasn’t a pretty boat, it was weather beaten, it was utilitarian, it was built...

You can tell a plant is healthy because it grows. You plant a seed in the ground, and it sends forth a shoot, and the shoot produces leaves, it gets bigger and stronger, and in time it produces fruit and reproduces itself. Jesus talks about this sort of growth in terms of people’s spiritual journey. He says, ‘As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. (Mt 13:23 ESV)’ Healthy Christians produce fruit....

In response to Classis Western Australia’s overture to appoint a Church Outreach Taskforce (Overture 3), Synod instead decided to appoint a person to the GROW workgroup to advance local church outreach, and to adopt the following mandate for that person: In understanding Task 2 of the Four Fold Task ‘To grow healthy churches which nurture and equip their members and, by God’s grace, expand numerically, become the mother-churches of as many fellowships and congregations as possible, and take further initiatives to penetrate structures of society with the gospel,’ and in the awareness that evangelism and outreach are core responsibilities of the...