'A wing and a prayer' has taken on new meaning through the GospelAir mission and the Wheatbelt Fellowship in Western Australia(WA). This idiom originated in the days of WWII when combat fighter pilots often had to rely on 'a wing and a prayer' just to get back their base after their warplanes were damaged. But today Rev. Geoff van Schie literally goes on 'a wing and a prayer' as he boards his single engine airplane and flies out into the remote areas of WA to share the gospel with school children, their families, and community leaders. In the attached report you will read how God has answered many prayers by blessing this ministry in astonishing ways. You will also read how Geoff would have the children make feathers (see illustration) which would be gathered together into a large artwork of wings to focus on Scripture and inspire their worship space. Read More: Gospel Taking Wings
Close to twenty CRCA leaders -- pastors and wives -- attended the Multiply16 conference put on by The Geneva Push church planting network. The theme this year was: The Invisible War. The Christian lives aware that he or she has a foot in two worlds - the physical creation we wake up in every day, and the spiritual world that undergirds and surrounds it. Church leaders, including church planters, must likewise be aware that the people they are seeking to win for Christ are the denizens of an enemy kingdom and Satan will not be slow in defending his possessions. Andrew Heard and others unpacked the spiritual conflict in which we find ourselves and how this applies to breaking new ground for God.
The main talks have been uploaded here.
To listen to all the talks visit the Geneva Push website.
The theme was 'URGENT' - establishing a gospel priority for your church. Over 25 CRCA pastors, church members, and leaders gathered at the Geneva Push Multiply conference in Melbourne 14-16 May. The main speakers were Greg Lee, lead pastor at Hunter Bible Church, and Sam Chan from the City Bible Forum Sydney. There were people from over 100 churches in Australia, including many CRCA churches.
As a denomination we recognise the urgency of evangelism and outreach. This urgency is rooted in our vision to be 'a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ.' With over 21 million people in Australia who never attend church, this urgency cannot be overstated. In one of the final talks at Multiply we were all challenged to do five things: Pray for it. Normalize it. Help everyone do it. Spend money on it. Talk about the city, not the room.
Reflect on these five things for a moment. As the CRCA we know that our number one task is prayer. We need to pray for the lost, for an ourpouring of God's Spirit on our land, for revival to happen in our day. This is first.
But evangelism needs to become part of our everyday life. We need to normalize it. In our lives, in our families, and in our churches. Outreach is not something we do. It is not a program. It is not something additional. Evangelism is something we do naturally and something we do intentionally. It is part of every aspect of church life and our individual lives. For this to become a reality ...
We need to help everyone do it. Evangelism is not reserved for the clergy or the professionals. The church needs to equip people to do evangelism -- and to do it naturally, organically. For this reason we have been encouraging churches to engage in 'Organic Outreach'. Organic Outreach is not a program on evangelism but a strategy to change the operating system of the church so that everybody in the church engages in evangelism.
Churches need to spend money on evangelism. You can quickly tell if a church sees the urgency of evangelism. You just need to look at their budget. How much money has been designated to reach the lost for Christ? Is there a gospel priority reflected in the annual financial records? And finally ...
As Christians we need to talk about the city and not just the church. So much of our focus can be on the people inside the four walls of the church. If evangelism is going to be a priority among us we need to focus on the city around us. Once we leave the 'sanctuary' we enter the mission field.
Check out The Geneva Push for all the talks from the Multiply18 event and all previous events.
At a time when the very nature of marriage is being debated, it is important for all voices to be heard. Proposals have been made to re-define marriage to include same-sex partners. The CRCA has provided a public statement on marriage which you can access here.
Here is a link to the denominational letter which has been sent out to all the churches. Letter to the Churches
We praise and thank the Lord that we have got off to a very good start to the year both in our Wongan Hills work and the Gospelair mission. In Wongan Hills we continue to have a regular 8-12 people attend services fortnightly the first and third Sundays of the month. When all are there at one time we have seventeen. We have a couple of new attendees whose attendance is sporadic due to work commitments (both are social workers who do Saturday night sittings with needy clients). We have been blessed with the occasional visitor looking us up when passing through town who have expressed delight in being able to worship with us. (The full report can be downloaded below)