How exciting that we get to have a SG Parra Church Family Retreat this year!!
Lock it in your calendars: 19th - 21st November 2021
We will be going to Crusaders Conference and Recreation Centre – Galston Gorge.
Stay tuned for more information on registration, pricing and all other plans!
PS: here’s some photos from previous Retreats we have had at Galston :)
This Sunday we were meant to have our ‘Baby Dedication Sunday’, but due to covid we are going to have postpone until further notice.
A couple of Sunday’s ago, we got to hear from Noah about how his studies at the Bridge are going and about his short term mission trip that is coming up in Septmber!
From the 12th of September - 4th of October, Noah and the rest of his cohort at the Bridge are heading to the Northern Territory on mission. They will be going to different Aboriginal Settlements where they’ll get to learn from different missionaries, hear about their work, and preach the gospel to the un-reached people.
Their first week will be in Darwin, where they will be spending time at a Bible college to learn the language of the Aboriginal people. They will then split up into 2 groups and be travelling to different settlements where they’ll be teaching, learning and getting to share the gospel.
Noah would love your support as he prepares to go on this mission trip! He would love your support both financially, but more importantly he would love your support in prayer. Firstly, that the current covid restrictions would ease by September so that they are able to go, as well as prayer that they would be a great light for Christ over in the NT and boldly share the good news of the gospel with those they meet!
We are very excited for Noah and pray that God would bless him as he prepares to go on this missions trip!
If you are able and willing to financially support Noah’s trip, click the link below: https://www.churchstarter.com.au/BRIDGE/cp/support-noah-chavez-at-the-bridge
We are back on Zoom again this week for our worship service!
To log on to Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85405451754
Meeting ID: 854 0545 1754
Or www.sgparra.org.au/zoom - at the bottom of the page are instructions on how to use Zoom.
We will then go into breakout groups afterwards for community hang out time.
See you soon!
Watch the latest awesome installment from last week here!
The new kids song, ‘Totally God, Totally Man’, comes from the awesome SG Music Kids Worship Album: Theology. I highly recommend this album! Fun fact: this song was written by my friend from PC, Jon Althoff!
https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/totally-god-totally-man/
Introducing the new Sovereign Grace Journal. A publication of original theological, practical, and devotional articles written by and for the pastors and members of Sovereign Grace Churches to strengthen your soul. The Sovereign Grace Journal will also include book reviews, resources, and more.
I am very please to write to you and commend this new resource produced by our family of churches, Sovereign Grace. They have resurrected their theological journal to help serve our churches to be theologically informed for loving Christ more in our world today. Click here to read it online.
Below a post from Mark Prater, our Executive Director, introducing it:
“On behalf of the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team, I want to invite you to read the first edition of the “Sovereign Grace Churches Journal.” The journal is not a new idea, for our Founder, C.J. Mahaney led in the publishing of a journal that served our family of churches years ago. We thought this was a good time to resurrect his idea with the aim of fulfilling the same purpose he had, which is to serve the pastors and members of our churches in Sovereign Grace. With that purpose in view, the articles in the journal are written in a way to equip our pastors, strengthen the members of our churches, and to help us celebrate the gospel values that we share. Our hope is that the journal will help us to know Christ more, love Christ more, and fortify the gospel partnership that Christ has given us.
The theme of this first edition is, “Christ Our Treasure.” We chose this theme because we, who were once alienated from God because of our many sins, have now been reconciled to God through the death of Christ on our behalf on the cross. In response to this great salvation, we want to be a people who obey Christ, serve Christ, love Christ and treasure Christ. Our desire is that Christ would be preeminent in all that we do. The articles in this journal, written by Sovereign Grace pastors throughout the world, are intended to help you to do just that, make much of Jesus Christ.
I want to thank each of the pastors who are contributing articles to this first edition of our journal. I also want to thank our Executive Editor, Jeff Purswell, and our General Editor, Jared Mellinger. Jared has done the bulk of the work in assembling this journal, and I thank God for him and his labors on your behalf.
As you read through this journal, my prayer is that every article would help you treasure Jesus Christ with all of your heart, mind and soul.
Treasuring Christ with you.”
Dave Taylor and I, are very excited to launch a new podcast, ‘Grace and the Adventure of Leadership’! This podcast is designed to help cultivate leaders who are fueled and formed by the realities of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so easy to look primarily to the world and not the word for our models, plans, and strategies for leadership. Instead, we believe that the Bible is the best book for understanding how to lead a church and more than that, that at the center of all good leadership is knowing and understanding the gospel!
The title of the podcast comes from a famous sermon by our founder, C.J. Mahaney, which he preached over two decades ago. His sermon can be found here. In it, he looks at how a proper understanding of the grace of God fundamentally changes how you lead your church, taken from 1 Corinthians 1. And we thought it would be a great title to reflect what we are hoping to do.
We hope these episodes will encourage lonely pastors, train lay leaders, and envision church planters to come… Have a listen, everyone is welcome!
If you click this link, you can find the podcast at the various main websites! Or search for it in your favourite app!
Also, a shout out for my old podcast, ‘Following Jesus’, you can head here to listen to that!
It is too early in the week to make a call for this Sunday. Please stay tuned!
On Sunday we had the joy of ‘gathering’ again on Zoom to sing, pray, hang out, and hear the word as a scattered church! Thank you all for joining in so enthusiastically and joyfully. It truly gives me joy as your pastor to see your faces and to see you participate in the service, despite all the weirdness of online!
We looked at Matthew 13:1-23 and saw that the parable of the sower is here to: train us as messengers and test us as hearers.
It’s trains us that as we go forth in mission we are to go forward confidently knowing that God is in control, and that even if we don’t see the fruit we want, to know that the message of the gospel and the messengers of the gospel are not the problem, it’s the hearts of the hearers.
It also tests our hearing of the word. Jesus warns us to beware of the devil, beware of our temporary feelings, beware of the cares of this world, as we hear the word.
So friend, how is your hearing?
A big congratulations to:
Ben Bridges
Georgia Lick
Abella Lick
Mel Khoh
For being the first people to send in their bible memory verse challenge for Revelation 21:1-5!
And…as a special introductory offer…ANYONE who sends it in to me will receive a prize!
Start memorizing Deuteronomy 6:4-5!
Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.