Mitcham Baptist Church

Our Youth Centre is now open!

3:30 - 6:00pm every Wednesday.

Food, drinks, music, pool, table tennis, soccer, spray painting, friends and lots of fun.

See you there!

It’s been a busy weekend at Mitcham!

Firstly we hosted the BUV Nourish Day on Friday, then the BUV Delegates Dinner on Friday night, followed by the BUV Gathering on Saturday.

Then on Sunday we said farewell to our senior pastor of the last twelve years as he leaves us to become the BUV’s Regional Minister for the Eastern Region of Victoria.

So with the boss gone, our administrator on six weeks holiday in Canada, our High Schools pastor on school camp, the place seems a little bit empty!

Anyway, apologies for not keeping the site up to date as often as it should. All the latest news can be found in the bulletin by clicking the link to the right.

Of note this week is our annual assault on the State Youth Games at Warragal. Contact the office if you need more information about going, but be quick!

And if you’re not going, feel free to join us on Sunday night for a screening of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

See you somewhere, some time over the weekend.

Our leadership heads off to Palotti College in Millgrove to spend some time in discussion and prayer about future directions for the church. Please be praying for them as the weekend progresses. Bert Eadon and Dave Enticott will be our guest speakers in the morning and evening respectively.

All other news is in the bulletin. Click on “Weekly bulletin” on the right hand side of your screen to see it!

Forgiveness is the theme!

In the morning we’ll be looking at the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with her tears and dried him with her hair.

In the evening we will look at the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer that deals with forgiveness from God and of others.

For more details, please see the weekly bulletin link on the right hand side of your screen!

The bulletin for this weekend is now available - click on the ‘weekly bulletin’ link on the right hand side of the screen.

On Sunday we continue our morning series through the Letters of John with Matt and in the evening, Josh is speaking on the next part of the Lord’s prayer.

See you there!

Just a reminder of the times and places for our Easter services this year:

9:30pm Thursday Night
Service of Communion and reflection at Simla Street
This is a time where we gather to be still, pray and prepare
ourselves to remember over the next few days what Jesus did for us.

9:30am Good Friday Morning
A service to give thanks for the sacrifice of Jesus

6:45am Dawn service on Easter Sunday
Join with others at Haliday park to watch the sunrise and reflect on what it means to have new life.

10:00am Easter Sunday Morning
An Easter celebration with our brothers and sisters from the Chin community. This will include communion and an infant dedication.

5:30pm Sunday night.
Meet at the church before heading off an outdoor worship service. The venue is likely to be Pound Bend, but we are still getting permission etc from the ranger. This was to be a baptism service, but our baptism candidates have decided to wait a few more weeks.

See you there!

nl-2008-03-30.pubThis weekends bulletin is now available. Use the link on the right hand side of the page…

The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, was the core of Jesus teaching. When he was walking around 2000 years ago, many of the stories and parables he told started with the words, “The Kingdom of God is like…”.

So it’s probably no surprise that when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he included the words, “Your Kingdom come.”

On Sunday night we looked at a few elements of the Kingdom of God and what they might mean for us to pray them.

Nowhere does Jesus actually define what he Kingdom of God is. It is clear it is not a geographic place, but instead something more like the rule or reign of God. We could even use words like the ‘impact’ or ‘influence’ of God. But we do get little glimpses of some of the characteristics of what this impact is like. We looked at just four of those on Sunday

The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and there’s nothing we can do to stop it (Matt 11:12)

The Kingdom of God is all inclusive, embracing the unclean and the outcast, where everyone is equal (Matt 9:20-22)

The Kingdom of God is counter culture, valuing many things the world does not (Matt 18:1-5)

The Kingdom of God is worth everything we have (Matt 13:44-46)

And most surprisingly, the Kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21)

So for all of these things to become a reality in our world, for God’s Kingdom to have a lasting impact on lives and communities, then it happens through us.

These three words, “Your Kingdom come”, become the most powerful part of the Lord’s prayer because not only do they change us in dramatic ways, but they change the world around us too.

It takes a bold person to pray this prayer. Feeding the hungry is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world, so if we pray “your Kingdom come” we should expect to be eating with the hungry, giving up our own food if necessary. We should expect to be rubbing shoulders with the homeless, the outcast, the addicted and the different because this is all part of the impact God has through his people.

The worst thing we can possibly do, is pray the prayer and not expect to be part of the answer.

Two weeks ago (yes, it’s taken me a while to get these notes up) we looked at the next phrase in the Lord’s Prayer - Hallowed be Your Name.

Hallowed, or holy, is not really a word we use much now apart from describing an extra special place. For instance, the ground of the MCG if sometimes described as ‘hallowed turf’.

The dictionary defines hallowed/holy as something that is extra special, something that is devoted to or used by God. So when we pray this part of the prayer, we are asking that God’s name be set apart and regarded as more special than any other names.

But what is God’s name?

The story of Moses in Exodus chapter three helps understand a little bit about God’s name, as well as how we can understand what holy means.

Moses, at this point in the story, is a shepherd, looking after his sheep on Mount Horeb. There he sees a bush that is on fire, but not being consumed. Out of the fire, god speaks, telling Moses to take off his sandles for where he is standing is holy ground. This place, and this point in time, is special becasue it is the beginning of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and the birth of the Jewish nation. Moses is unsure if the people will respond to what God is asking him to do, so he asks God to reveal his name to convince the jews that his story is legitimate. God responds with I AM WHO I AM.

It might seem a strange name, but it speaks of god presence with us at every point in the past, presence and future. In everything that happens, I AM.

So the Lord’s Prayer is asking that at every point in time, the name of the eternal, ever present God be regarded as special.

There is a danger to think that because we are praying this prayer, somehow God’s name mustn’t be holy already. Of course, the Bible tells us that it is, and there is nothing that will ever change that. However, we’ve also heard that we are the ones that are changed the most when we pray.

In Galatians, Paul describes us as God’s children and heirs. As such, we, as a community, bare God’s name. When people look at us, they form opinions of God.

For God’s name to be kept holy thus means that our words, thoughts, actions and attitudes as individuals and as a community must never take away from the holiness of God’s name. We must never cause people to curse God nor should we simply stand by and let God be ridiculed. It’s a fine line, but one that we need to be conscious of all the time.

We finished the night with a challenge to write I AM WHO I AM on a piece of paper and write it in a prominent place where it would be seen at least once everyday. Every time we saw it, we were to pray the words “Hallowed be your name” and then be open to whatever it is the Spirit might be saying to us through the circumstances of the week.

If you’re reading this for the first time, give the exercise a try and let me know how it goes!

Just a reminder to all that the Church Meeting is being held at 7.30pm tomorrow (WEDNESDAY) evening. Included in the Agenda will be voting for the election of our new Church Council and also for a number of nominations for Church Membership.

See you there.

Dennis