On Sunday the 6th of August, we will be having our biannual Church Family Meeting, which we call “Envision”. This is a chance for Riley and different key leaders to give the church updates on how things have been going (ministries and finances) and to give you a vision for what our year is going to look like.

The details are as follows:

Date: Sunday, 6th of August
Time: After service - 12pm (Lunch provided)
There will be a supervised movie on for the kids downstairs.

Please make this a priority as there will be important updates that won’t be repeated!

The next Men’s Night is fast approaching and we’d love for you to save the date!

Date: Saturday, 19th August
Time: 7:00pm-9:30pm
Location: Church (27 Iron St, North Parramatta)

More details to come soon!

We will be holding a Mission Prayer Hour at the same time as Alpha on Sunday to pray for the course and for missions in general. We would love for anyone and everyone to come along to join us in this endeavour to commit our requests to God, knowing that unless He builds the house, we labour in vain! (Psalm 127:1)

WHAT: Mission Prayer Meeting - Join us to pray for Alpha, Parramatta & the Nations
WHEN: 7-8pm, the next three Sundays
WHERE: SG Parra (17 Iron Street, North Parramatta)

We are praying that Together 2023 is going to be a time of immense teaching from God's Word! Additionally, we are hoping that it would be a time of unrushed fellowship! To help us to be intentional in this time together, please find above an outline of the activities, times and contacts for the retreat.

Have a think through what activities you would like to take part in, have a chat with the family how best to co-ordinate and plan out what additional things you need to pack... whether that is a surfboard, your Air Jordans, your favourite board games (though many will be provided) or bringing a few of your favourite pot noodles to share!

Note that the Saturday afternoon session is structured into two parts such that each parent has an opportunity to spend time in fellowship while their spouse is with the children and vice versa. Note also that phone contacts will be provided during the actual retreat.

Looking forward to this time together!

Life groups will be starting up again soon as the new school term begins!

To help you plan out this next term, please find attached the Term 3 Life Group & Growth Group Schedule below. We hope that this will help you in your planning and organising your calendar/sitting around groups where possible.

As you know, our most recent round of Alpha began last Sunday where we had four guests come along to hear and ask questions about the Gospel. This course will continue each Sunday night (starting this Sunday night!) for the next four weeks, we will be holding a Mission Prayer Hour simultaneously to pray for the course and for missions in general. We would love for anyone and everyone to come along to join us in this endeavour to commit our requests to God, knowing that unless He builds the house, we labour in vain! (Psalm 127:1)

WHAT: Mission Prayer Meeting - Join us to pray for Alpha, Parramatta & the Nations
WHEN: 7-8pm, the next four Sundays
WHERE: SG Parra (17 Iron Street, North Parramatta)

As part of our new sermon series on Lament, we will be learning three new songs to introduce the element of lament into our worship. This Sunday, we’ll be introducing the song, “We Look To You” by Sovereign Grace Music. You can find the links to hear this song ahead of Sunday below.

We Look to You - Sovereign Grace Music

"We Look to You" on SPOTIFY
"We Look to You” on APPLE

Lyrics:

VERSE 1
Deliver us from evil, Lord;
We sojourn in a broken world
Though evil hands give rise to war,
Remind us this is not our home
We look to You, we look to You,
Sovereign King of all the earth
We look to You, we look to You;
In Your strength we will endure
In Your strength we will endure

VERSE 2
Deliver us from evil, Lord;
Our hearts so quickly run astray
Temptation crouching at the door
To turn us from the narrow way
We look to You, we look to You,
Christ the conquering Son of God
We look to You, we look to You;
Lord, complete what You’ve begun
Lord, complete what You’ve begun

VERSE 3
Deliver us from evil, Lord;
The devil’s seeking to devour
With trembling hearts we hear his roar,
But Your strong arm will crush his pow’r
We look to You, we look to You,
Come and end his earthly reign
We look to You, we look to You;
Lord, deliver us, we pray

TAG
We look to You, we look to You
You will come again to reign
We look to You, we look to You
All the earth will bow in praise

Payments & Dietary Forms - Due Friday 7th July

We are FINALLY only a few weeks away from our church retreat!

Unfortunately, registrations have officially closed. If you are still interested in attending, please contact Richard Song directly at richard@sgparra.org.au.

If you have already registered, this is a friendly reminder to please complete your payments and also please fill out the dietary requirements form/s which you would’ve been e-mailed these past couple of weeks. These payments and forms must be completed by this Friday 7th July. Thankyou!
NB: You would have received an e-mail from The Collaroy Centre to the address you registered with, with a dietary requirements form for each registration you made. You must fill out this form for every registration even if they have nil dietary requirements. If you haven’t received this e-mail, please contact Rebs at admin@sgparra.org.au.

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New Speaker

As announced on Sunday, Jeff and Julie Purswell who were originally coming for our retreat will no longer be able to make the trip due to unforeseen personal circumstances. Thankfully, Mark Prater (Executive Director of Sovereign Grace) and his wife Jill will now be coming in Jeff and Julie’s place to serve us at Together’23! We are so grateful for our family of churches and the way they generously serve and share their resources - what a gift to be on the receiving end of this for our retreat this year!

Here’s a short bio of Mark and Jill to give you a sense of who they are.

Mark serves as the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches, ensuring the successful operation of the Leadership Team through leadership, strategic planning, support, evaluation, and communication and leading us in our mission to plant and build churches with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mark has served as an elder at Covenant Fellowship Church since 2002. In 1996, he helped plant a church where he served as senior pastor until 2002.

Mark and his wife, Jill, have three adult daughters and ten grandchildren. They make their home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

But most of all, Mark is a dear friend to us and we are very blessed to have him come out once again to serve our growing family of Churches here in Australia. He is a passionate follower of Christ, a gifted teacher, a powerful preacher, and we couldn’t be more excited for his visit!

Firstly, we just wanted to say THANKYOU to those who have already offered to provide dinner for one of the Alpha nights. We are so grateful for your generosity and willingness to serve!

We are still in need of a volunteer for one remaining evening.

Just a reminder that the role will be to serve in Alpha by providing dinner for the attendees and the volunteers (in total – 7ppl + yourselves) - it can be a home-cooked or a take-out meal.

Additionally, we do hope that if you volunteer to assist that you would also stay for the dinner portion of the night (6.30pm – 7.30pm) so that you can also be part of building friendships and being ‘salt and light’ to those exploring Christianity.

Again, we are looking for one more volunteer for the following night:

·         30 July

If you can assist please reach out to Richie ASAP at richard@sgparra.org.au or 0407 272 034.

Thankyou in advance!

As you know, our most recent round of Alpha began last Sunday where we had four guests come along to hear and ask questions about the Gospel. This course will continue each Sunday night and for the next four weeks, we will be holding a Mission prayer meeting simultaneously to pray for the course and for Missions in general. We would love for anyone and everyone to come along to join us in this endeavour to commit out requests to God, knowing that unless He builds the house, we labour in vain! (Psalm 127:1)

WHAT: Mission Prayer Meeting - Join us to pray for Alpha, Parramatta & the Nations
WHEN: 7-8pm, the next four Sundays
WHERE: SG Parra (17 Iron Street, North Parramatta)