Dear Church,
As a church we are not on our own, we are a part of our much bigger story! Please watch this video from Pastor Dave Taylor wearing his hat as the Director of Emerging Nations. In this 10 minute long video you will hear about all the work God got done across many nations even through COVID!
Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/493200357
From Shinoo:
Hey gang. Just another reminder that this Saturday we’ll be doing walk up in parra and inviting people to this weeks Christmas service.
Date : 19th Saturday
Time : 11am
Location : Doyle Park
Let me know if you’ll be there :) also open to any ideas in handing out invitations with a small gift (like a cookie or candy cane?)
I am so looking forward to our Christmas service this year!
This Sunday 20th December @ Tara, 10am!
For all our members, please come ready to welcome, serve and worship. Richard Song will be leading the events team and may call upon you to help if need be.
As always, it is a great opportunity to invite your friends and family! There will be carols, kids song, a covid-safe picnic, and…JUMPING CASTLE!
You can invite friends via FB here: https://www.facebook.com/events/237478331052962
Hey Church,
Sovereign Grace Churches have put out a mission video featuring…well…you! It was a joy to put the video together and to tell our story.
read the full blog post here:
https://anz.sovereigngrace.com/blog/parramatta-mission-video
and watch the awesome video here:
You can share this video with friends, family, and anyone looking for a new church home, or anyone looking to plant a church with us!
https://player.vimeo.com/video/490477741?fbclid=IwAR0gxqXumgatbVlqZqc7OHgG_mzPpIGgJY4_7KPbBSQHFqjOat2_KUA39q4
Hey Church!
This week we are changing from being outside to being inside (sorry kids) AND we are still allowed to sing! As always we have been following the regulations from our State and Federal Governments. And so let me outline the new guidelines on singing below:
“NSW Health strongly recommends that audience members and congregants older than 12 years old wear face masks if singing or chanting.”
* read more here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/what-you-can-and-cant-do-under-rules/changes#singing-and-music-performances-and-outdoor-activities
This means that mask wearing is strongly recommended to prevent the spread of COVID but is not mandatory. Therefore, we will not be requiring you to wear a mask in order to sing but will instead leave it up to you to decide.
You are free to wear or not wear a mask based on your personal health needs, conscience, and preference. If you are uncomfortable singing inside the hall, we will open up the side/back doors to allow you to participate from the outside.
We will have a small number of masks available for visitors who are caught unawares, but if you are a member, we ask that if you’d like to wear a mask that you’d BYO.
I hope this helps and makes sense. If you have any concerns or issues, please let me know!
Some updated notes for this week:
Our service will be 10am, so please come from 9:30am.
Our service will be at Tara Junior School Hall NOT JBrewers Cafe.
Park ONLY in the bottom car park, the other church needs the other car park that is accessed from the turning circle.
Please check in with the QR Code that will be out the front (it should work this week!)
Please enter the hall on the LEFT hand doors and exit on the RIGHT hand doors, this will help to ensure we avoid congestion.
Please physical distance at all times, that means: in the line for the coffee, whilst talking etc.
Come ready to sing! we have been passive participants since our last service on March 15, so prepare your heart, warm up your vocal chords and fall in line with the Psalmist:
Psa. 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Kids will be outside again. They will be down in the bottom courtyard if the weather is good, if not they will up outside the main hall.
Invite someone! this is true every week but a change is always a good opportunity to invite again!
Can’t wait to see you all!
There are two ways you can get involved in helping spread the word about our upcoming Christmas service:
1) After church on Sunday, join Shinoo as he heads out to letterbox drop a bunch of flyers to advertise our Christmas service. Join this Whatsapp group to get all the deets! Who knows who will receive the flyer and decide to come!
2) He will also be organising a walk up on Saturday 19th Dec. hitting key areas of Parra to meet people and invite them along!
I am so looking forward to our Christmas service this year!
Sunday 20th December @ Tara, 10am!
As always, it is a great opportunity to invite your friends and family! There will be carols, kids song, a covid-safe picnic, and…JUMPING CASTLE!
You can invite friends via FB here: https://www.facebook.com/events/237478331052962
Last Tuesday night Brendan and I had a great discussion looking at the topic of ‘Suffering’ and particularly with an eye to helping someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus understand how a believer might process suffering as a Christian. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/e8-rumYoCDw. You could share it with a friend or watch it for yourself, I believe both would be useful !
This Sunday we had the joy of gathering back at Tara, with almost all of our members - especially those who haven’t been able to come back in person, and we got to sing!
In the sermon, we received from Jesus a masterclass in prayer, teaching us that at the heart of prayer is to seek all of God, for all of life, for all of the world! Jesus shows us that our prayers are to be shaped first by our relationship to God, He is our Father and the King of the World - and we are his children! Next it is to be shaped by our submission and obedience to His will. Then we look to Him to provide for our physical needs (food etc) and our spiritual needs (forgiveness, protection).
A great quote from Paul Miller
“If we think we can do life on our own, we will not take prayer seriously. Our failure to pray will always feel like something else, a lack of discipline or too many obligations…You don’t need self discipline to pray continuously, you just need to be poor in spirit”
“A praying life isn’t simply a morning prayer time it is about SLIPPING into prayer at odd hour of the day, not because we are disciplined but because we are in touch with our own poverty of spirit”
Listen to the sermon here
This Sunday we have the joy of welcoming Dave Taylor, Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Sydney, our sending church. Dave is also on the Leadership Team for Sovereign Grace Churches and is the leader of the Emerging Nations team. More than this, Dave is our friend! He is a wise and loving pastor, a fantastic leader, a great husband and father, and although he doesn’t eat fruit and vegetables, is still a good guy!
He will be continuing on our Matthew series and preaching from Matthew 6:18-24!