Vaughan Park and 1 Californians

We had a staff team day away this week to refocus us at the beginning of the year. We spent the day at Vaughan Park in Long Bay and prayed for the church this year (that’s you not the building☺).

As a team we are going through the book of 1 Corinthians to see what we can learn there. It is incredibly relevant for church life today and its contemporary ring has led some to call it 1 Californians (the Californian culture of sex, drugs and rock n roll not being dissimilar to Corinthian culture or Auckland culture for that matter).

Paul was excited for the church at Corinth because of God’s provision for the church and His unwavering faithfulness. In each other, God has richly resourced St Paul’s and we are looking forward to all we can do as we continue to seek to be a blessing to the city of Auckland this year. I am going to speak more about this in February.

What is God leading you in to this year?

Our day finished with an impromptu game of soccer on the beach before heading back. Mary and Bex scored some great goals. (Bex received a great cross in to the box from Andy and then smacked a shot in. Mary a curler from fifty yards. It was sickening:)).

HAPPY NEW YEAR / HAPPY NEW WINE

Well Bex and I are so glad to be back! We had a great summer holiday and managed to evade most of the rain. We headed for Foxton Beach. “FOXTON?!!!”  I hear you cry. Yes, it is miles away. And yes we had the normal family holiday long car journey trauma: not enough space, spilled drinks, arguments, fighting, tantrums… and that was just Bex.

But we have an awesome time in Foxton. My only regret is that we did not try any of the Fizz.
We then spent a week with mates in Ohakune camping in the bush, hunting deer (as you do) which was really fun.

Then we headed of to New Wine Matamata the Christian holiday camp where Bex and I were speaking. It was wonderful. Andy and some of the St Paul’s worship crew led some of the worship (Ben, Michael, Lucy, Chris and Zach). They were absolutely amazing...

The boys loved it and now we are back on deck feeling refreshed and more excited than ever…

We cant wait to see you all and catch up on your news.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A BIG THANK YOU!

What a brilliant year for the church. Thank you for all that you have done. Bex and I and the boys want to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. May the sun shine long and brightly over the holidays and our barbeques cook for hours on end. We are here for Christmas Day and then we head off on holiday to Foxton Beach and Ohakune which we are really excited about. We are then speaking at a New Wine conference in Matamata in mid January which will be really fun. We are looking forward to catching up in the New Year.  Have a wonderful break. We will miss you all xxx

GLOWTASTIC!!!

Well done to all those who made Glow so utterly brilliant. I loved the whole thing.
To all the musicians, choirs, technical crew, production crew and creatives, what you produced was amazing! Well done church for inviting your friends in such large numbers. Already we have numerous stories of people who would not normally go to church being blown away by the event. So be encouraged. I am looking forward to seeing you on Sunday, the final Sunday service of the year….
Where has the year gone?!!!

Louise Rocked

Well I hope your Monday has been good and that you had a good weekend. We had a lovely picnic in the Domain with the boys on Friday night in the sunshine which was fun and then a great friend celebrated his fortieth on Saturday night which was awesome.

I hope my talk on death did not depress you too much on Sunday morning. But if you did not hear Louise Grant’s talk in the evening on singleness you missed a treat. It was actually relevant to all of us  as she spoke about insecurity and identity and following God. I would have a listen on line if I were you. Dave Atkinson’s talk the week before in the evening service was also wonderful.

I am really looking forward to the “Thank You To Our Troops” cinema night tonight in which we are thanking all of our volunteer team members who have made the church tick this year. You are all amazing! We are watching “Frist Grader” at Sylvia Park which looks great. Have a great week.

New Wine Leadership Retreat/ Well done Life Questions Team

Newt, Paul, Dino, Richard and I have been at a leadership retreat for the early part of this week. It was a fantastic couple of days with other church leaders from around New Zealand. I learnt masses: Newt has a lemon coloured suitcase, Richard’s mum is lovely, Paul snores and Dino packed more than all of us put together and dragged around with him the largest suitcase I have ever seen. What was in it Dino? Hair product? We also learnt masses from John and Annie Coles who are church leaders from the UK who have recently retired after 34 years of ministry.  They are fun and very godly people. We also made some great new friends with other leaders. Well done to New Wine and well done to Lydia Read who organized the whole thing.
Well done as well to all who invited friends to Life Questions last night. What a night! I can’t wait to see how the next few weeks go.
I am looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday when I am going to be speaking about death. Agony last week, death this week….thankfully this is the last one in the series☺

Life Questions, Glowbulous etc.

Don’t forget that Life Questions is starting next week with the banquet. This is the time to be thinking about who you can pull in to this great evening. I saw the team last night at our house at a training session that Bex was running and this is going to be awesome.

I am also absolutely delighted that Glow is a runner for this year again. How amazing! The final money came in at 5.20pm on the last deadline day. Maybe there is a lesson in here or certainly at least a question. Why is God never later or early? Anyway do put December 11th in your diaries now and get inviting all of your mates to come for the annual carol sing song by glow stick.
Also a big thanks and congratulations to the Glow team, not least James, Jo, Ren, Paul, Andy and Peter for your efforts. And a big thank you to all who have contributed.

I am looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday. I am speaking on the agony of life in the morning. Mmmmm it does not sound that tempting does it; but it is going to be great.