RevWrites - Nov 30

One of the Parish Wardens recently commented that he didn’t realise that our church property was used so often. He was surprised that Thursday morning was the only time each week when there is nothing on at church.

When you think about it, it’s hardly surprising. After all, we all only come to the church when there’s something on that we are involved in.

But what’s on at the church is only part of the picture. I received this email this week:

Dear Neil
We finished ESL today for 2008.

We have had 10 people come over the year with 7 having children/grandchildren at the school.

The 2 students we have the most contact with have grandchildren. Today we gave them a Green tent leaflet, JGs/BoB card along with Christmas leaflets from the Bible Society and Matthias Media. We are hoping that the grandchildren, who speak English, will read them to their grandparents.

It has been a joy to see our Chinese gentleman begin to understand the English language and develop relationships with the other students and with us. Our Romanian lady has asked us to pray for her and her family many times.

The Primary School are happy to have us at the school and we have developed relationships with the office staff.

As a team we have been challenged and encouraged by the way God works in peoples lives. We thank God we have been able to pray with our students.

Now we are praying for next year!

Kind Regards
Denise Carpenter

NAC is involved in many ministries to many people. Sometimes, when announcing the collection at church, the leaders will say it’s for ministry here at NAC. The leader’s right, it is. But it’s also for ministry around the world. It’s used to support the Berthons in Ngukurr, Alison Collis in France, Steve Barnett and Matt Daley in the high schools, the Baikies (even when they’re home), the Santiches in NZ, and CMS generally and Moore College.

Our money is only part of the picture. Much ministry happens here at church and outside of the church. I’m not sure that even I, as Senior Minister, know all the ministry that happens at NAC and I’m sure I don’t know even a small part of the ministry NAC members do as individual Christians.

NAC is having an ever-widening effect for the gospel. Pray that is continues and continues to widen.

Neil Macken (neil @nac.asn.au)

RevWrites - Nov 23

This is the eighth consecutive RevWrites on membership. I hope you have given some thought to the topic. Several people have responded directly to me and there is increasing discussion around the place. Ideas range from there should be no formal membership at all right through to there should be a formal membership agreement that a person must sign before they can be regarded as a member of NAC/WHAC.

So where to now? It would be good for the Parish Leadership to seriously discuss the various ideas that you have brought to us. We could then come back to you early next year with some suggestions about the way ahead.

So let’s talk about “Say G’day Sunday.” (The Big Connect ~ 645). Research tells us exactly what we already know. The biggest problem with church members going to invite their neighbours to Christmas services is fear. A reasonable response, I would have thought.

But let’s look at what we’re being asked to do. A very attractive leaflet is being produced that has details of our Christmas Eve Service and Christmas Day Services. On Christmas Eve we have QuizWorks coming to run the entire service with children in mind. They are great! On Christmas Day both WHAC and NAC have a service.

We’re being asked to knock on our neighbour’s door, say “g’day”, and hand them the leaflet with an invitation to join us at Christmas. Do it your way but we aren’t being asked to engage in lengthy conversation. Just an invitation to join us.

Of course, this is only the first of several visits to our neighbours that we will do over the next year. Already, the youth visit the immediate neighbours of the church building to thank them for their patience with all the inconveniences we cause during the year. The youth give them a small gift so the immediate neighbours are used to being visited. (Of course, most of them are in Thomas Street where I live so it would be good for me to visit them don’t you think?)

We have been praying for our neighbours for many months now. I have been praying for my street and neighbours several times a day. I expect God will answer my prayers. He seems to delight in doing that so I expect he will again this time and go before me when I visit – even if I’m not allocated Thomas Street, which will be allocated to me won’t it Kathy?!?!

Of course, if one of your neighbours responds to your “G’day” with a request to tell him how to become a Christian (It has happened!) then you don’t have to rush away. If you fell like rushing away, you might be in the majority. But if you’re at a loss simply tell him how much you appreciate all that Jesus ahs done for you and invite him to come to our church where he can find out more about Jesus.

Fear needn’t win the day. But if the apostle Paul asked people to pray that God would give him boldness, then it’s surely appropriate for us to ask the same prayer.

Neil Macken (neil@nac.asn.au)

RevWrites - Nov 16

Last week I gave a summary of our discussion so far about church membership. This week I want to suggest another aspect of membership that we don’t often think about. One NACer sent me a membership brochure from another church. In part it read:

The consistent pattern throughout the New Testament is that a plurality of elders is to oversee each local body of believers. The specific duties given to these elders presuppose a clearly defined group of church members who are under their care.

Among other things, these godly men are responsible to shepherd God’s people (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2), to labor diligently among them (1 Thess. 5:12), to have charge over them (1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17), and to keep watch over their souls (Heb. 13:17). Scripture teaches that the elders will give an account to God for the individuals allotted to their charge (Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:3).

Those responsibilities require that there be a distinguishable, mutually understood membership in the local church. Elders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock and who is not.

The elders of a church are not responsible for the spiritual well-being of every individual who visits the church or who attends sporadically. Rather, they are primarily responsible to shepherd those who have submitted themselves to the care and the authority of the elders, and this is done through church membership.

Conversely, Scripture teaches that believers are to submit to their elders. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders, and submit to them.” The question for each believer is, “Who are your leaders?” The one who has refused to join a local church and entrust himself to the care and the authority of the elders has no leaders. For that person, obedience to Hebrews 13:17 is impossible. To put it simply, this verse implies that every believer knows to whom he must submit, which, in turn, assumes clearly defined church membership.

What do you think about the central idea here? The idea that for the leaders of our church to exercise leadership and pastoral care responsibly we need a more clearly defined membership.
Talk about it. Let me know what you think.

Neil Macken (Neil@nac.ans.au)

Can you help Kate Fearn?

Let Kate know on Sunday if you would like to come.
ed

RevWrites - Nov 9

I’ve had one response to my invitation to talk about membership. It was a very stimulating email that even had some ideas on church membership from another church.

So this week, let me stimulate our dialogue. I think we should have a NAC Membership Agreement. I think that before you can say you’re a member of NAC you should agree to certain things. But what would you put on the list of things you agree to?
• Exercising ministry/ies at church
• Caring for other members
• Attending church (how frequently?)
• Connecting with neighbours
• Bible Reading (every day/once a week?)
• Serving those outside the church
• Social Responsibility
• Praying (how often/for how long?)
• Serving on a Diocesan committee of some sort
• Serving on a Mission Society committee of some sort
• Welfare work
• Tithing
• Washing the senior minister’s car
• Evangelism at work

You can see that I might be tempted to put some things on the list that you might not include. But if we don’t talk about it what will go on the list? Should there be a list? What would a membership agreement look like? Can we have stuff on it that isn’t clearly in 1 Corinthians or the Bible?

Or should we just keep going as we always have? I think we should think about this and talk about it. Talk with each other. Talk with your small group leaders. Talk with your congregational leaders. You might even talk to ME!

If you’ve missed reading any of the RevWrites that lead up to this let me know and I’ll make sure you get them. The one response has made me think about how you resign membership. I’ve also had some ideas about membership defining more clearly the relationship between a member and the eldership of the church. Keep thinking. Keep talking.

P.S. Kathy’s just told me she need RevWrites next week by Wednesday. So it would be good to have your responses by Tuesday. I guess that leaves Monday!

Neil Macken (neil@nac.asn.au)